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At city nail shops, guarding workers against a toxic mix

Email|Print| Text size + By Stephen Smith
Globe Staff / November 19, 2007

Back when she began sanding fingernails and lacquering toenails for a living - back when she was younger - Tammy Ly didn't worry so much about the throbbing headaches, teary eyes, and cramping hands.

"Years passed and I had more headaches, my vision became worse, my hands hurt," said Ly, who has spent 14 years waxing, polishing, and buffing customers, most recently as proprietor of Tammy's Nails in Codman Square, where spindly plants from her native Vietnam fill the windowsill, put there to cleanse the air.

"My workers have headaches and sore eyes, too. If someone could help us, that would be good," she said.

In Boston and across the United States, emigres from developing nations occupy jobs - and, often, own businesses - that expose them to toxins and tasks linked to wheezing lungs, foggy brains, and sore limbs. Three years ago, Boston health authorities embarked on a novel campaign to protect the health of workers in auto-repair garages, a field frequently occupied by immigrant men.

Now, the Boston Public Health Commission is expanding its Safe Shops initiative to the hundreds of nail salons that dot the city, businesses overwhelmingly staffed by women from Southeast Asia. They are shops where the tart perfume of nail polish and other chemical-laden beauty products hangs heavy in the air.

Starting in January, health agency representatives will venture into salons, stressing the importance of proper ventilation, demonstrating the correct use of gloves and masks, and urging owners to switch to safer products that have emerged in the past year.

The campaign, underwritten by a $300,000 federal grant, is an official acknowledgement of what has long been known by small business owners and their workers: Service industry employment is often the modern-day version of what Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair once described: jobs with long hours, cramped conditions, and only nominal government oversight.

"These women are being exposed all day long to solvents and similar chemicals in the products they're using that can have a variety of effects. It's a smorgasbord of chemicals," said Paul Shoemaker, an environmental health specialist who will run the city's nail salon campaign.

A study of Boston area nail salon workers, released last month on the website of the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, found that 31 of 71 workers reported respiratory symptoms, including troubled breathing, persistent coughing, and sinus woes. Those symptoms occur at higher rates than in the general population.

Especially telling: More than two-thirds of the nail technicians with respiratory trouble said they felt better after leaving the shop, according to the study, led by Cora R. Roelofs, an occupational health researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Similarly, 31 workers reported that they suffered headaches that improve only after their shift ends. Earlier studies found that salon workers have an elevated risk of respiratory, skin, and neurological ailments.

"They talk a lot about the headaches," said Hiep Chu, executive director of Viet-AID, a community alliance that collaborated on the study. "Some of the individuals have constant headaches. Some of them want to commit suicide, it's so bad."

Companies that make nail polishes and glues argue that their products are safe when used correctly, in salons that have appropriate ventilation and storage. But activists counter that what workers face is a toxic mix of long workdays, poor on-the-job conditions, and a stew of chemicals adding up to danger.

"These folks work in the salon 10 to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week," said Lynn Rose, a social justice activist in Western Massachusetts who works as a consultant to the US Environmental Protection Agency on issues regarding nail salons. "Unless you have a good ventilation system or a good way to manage the products to eliminate the emissions, you're creating an ongoing exposure throughout the day to a whole range of chemicals."

A top cosmetics industry executive, Eric Schwartz, said that chemicals such as toluene and dibutyl phthalate - once ubiquitous in nail polishes - are safe in small amounts. Still, his company, OPI, recently removed those agents from its products.

"We're not saying our industry is perfect," said Schwartz, cochairman of the health and safety committee of the Nail Manufacturers Council, a trade group. But "a lot of the problems come back to good work practices and ventilation. The real issues in our industry are allergies and respiratory irritation, people not wearing masks when they're filing, and not wearing protective clothing or being sloppy with the ingredients they're using, because they spill stuff on their skin."

Nail shops operate with scant regulatory oversight, and many federal standards about acceptable levels of chemical exposure were established more than three decades ago. While state inspectors visit salons roughly once every two years, they focus chiefly on whether shops are clean and licenses are posted.

As Boston's health department presses to improve working conditions in nail salons, officials realize they must contend with a swirl of economic and cultural forces.

Nail shops are a powerful economic engine in the Vietnamese community; national studies estimate that four of every 10 nail technicians are Vietnamese. And owners already feel besieged by price wars ignited by a proliferation of shops.

"You can't just come in and shut them down or scare away their customers, because this is their livelihood," said Roelofs, who is working as an adviser to the city.

At Tammy's Nails, as dusk fell one recent afternoon, Susie Stewart-Branch sat with her hands dangling on a table. Mai Vo, a technician, took a whirring, handheld sander to the customer's nails, a cloud of filings rising.

Stewart-Branch came to have her eyebrows waxed and her fingernails and toenails coated in a subtle pink called Cotton Candy. Total cost: $60.

Funny you should ask about the safety of salon workers, Stewart-Branch said, "because I was just thinking about it. They've been here all day. We just come in for a few minutes, maybe half an hour. So we're not that affected."

What she likes, Stewart-Branch said, is that the owner of the shop tries to keep a door open for fresh air. And workers plop cotton balls and other cosmetic-laden waste into plastic jugs, to prevent chemical odors from lingering.

Ly smiles broadly as customers gaze approvingly at their fingers and toes. Her own nails, cut short, bear no trace of polish.

"I take care of my customers' nails," Ly said, her voice tired. "No time for mine."

Stephen Smith can be reached at

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Land baron

Harvard's holdings extend presence across the region

By Mark Arsenault
Globe Correspondent / April 9, 2009
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It's hard to divorce Harvard University from iconic images of ancient brick buildings around manicured greens in Cambridge, near where solitary rowers pull single sculls along the Charles River.

But less known is that the university is a sprawling enterprise with land holdings and facilities across the region. The school owns more than 4,000 acres in the Boston suburbs and Central Massachusetts, much of it woodlands, used for research and teaching in the sciences, medicine, and American history. From the homestead of a Revolutionary War general in Shrewsbury to toppled old-growth trees in southern New Hampshire still yielding information about the Hurricane of 1938, Harvard's reach extends far from Cambridge.

University researchers study animals for tips to make better robots, trees for help designing models of the world's climate, and everyday objects from the 18th century to learn what daily life was like around the birth of the nation.

About 70 miles west of the main campus in Cambridge lies the bulk of the 102-year-old Harvard Forest, which comprises some 3,000 acres in several parcels in Petersham, Phillipston, and Royalston, as well as a 99-acre parcel in Hamilton. Environmentalists became alarmed in late 2007 when reports surfaced that Harvard wanted to sell the Hamilton property; Harvard, however, dismissed the reports as overblown. The university also owns a small tract of woods in Winchester, N.H., said John O'Keefe, forest museum coordinator in Petersham, near the Quabbin Reservoir.

Most Harvard Forest land remains wild. "It's woods with varying levels of instrumentation and research paraphernalia," said O'Keefe.

One of the long-term experiments in Harvard Forest is to measure how much carbon dioxide the forest is taking from the atmosphere. "We do that with a pretty complex instrumentation setup that samples the air above the forest canopy and within the canopy, that looks at instantaneous changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide to oxygen and water vapor," said O'Keefe.

These tests have been ongoing since the early 1990s, he said. "So we have a long-term record of how much carbon this forest is actually storing, which of course is a major component to developing global climate models."

Harvard researchers have been sur prised that, as the average age of trees in the forest approaches 100 years, the amount of carbon taken up has increased. "We're still not sure what's driving that, but it was a surprise and indicated why you need to be doing a lot of these studies over a really long time frame," said O'Keefe.

At the small parcel in New Hampshire, Harvard researchers are still watching the forest recover from the Hurricane of 1938. Rough topography makes the Winchester parcel hard to reach, so the trees knocked down by the hurricane were never salvaged and the area has been practically undisturbed by people for 70 years, O'Keefe said.

The land originally had "a magnificent pine-hemlock stand" when the university acquired it in the 1920s as a place to study old-growth forest, he said. "It was basically flattened in the hurricane. But if you go up and walk around today, those big pines blown over in '38 are only just beginning to decompose."

About 35 miles to the east, in Shrewsbury, university students and the public rummage through objects gathered over two centuries by the family of Artemas Ward, first commander-in-chief of the American Revolution. Several members of the Ward family, including the general, were Harvard graduates, and early last century his great-grandson left the Ward homestead to the university to be preserved as a museum.

Paula Lupton, curator of the General Artemas Ward House Museum, said Harvard maintains the site for education and historical research. "But when I say research, I don't mean that people come and sit here hour after hour," she said. "It tends to act as an inspiration. Students come in, find an object that speaks to them, and then go off and do research on it."

The house was built around 1727, and members of the Ward family lived at the homestead for some 200 years. "The house reflects an 18th-century home, a 19th-century farm, and the beginnings and makings of a 20th-century museum," Lupton said. "The collection represents everyday objects spanning those 200 years. They sort of tell you what the family was involved in at the time."

For example, a student once became interested in a patchwork quilt. "It turned out it was made by General Ward's granddaughter," said Lupton. "It opened up this whole door of research into the transient life for a young widow in the late 19th century and her connections to her extended family network."

Another student examining a toolbox found a decorated bone that proved to be from a bison. "It had been used by Native Americans as a handle for a riding whip. What was it doing in the Ward House in Shrewsbury? It opened up the whole family connection to the development of Ohio and their travel around the Midwest in the 1800s."

The museum is open to the public on limited hours, April to November. The last family member to live in the house died in 1909, the year electric service first came to Shrewsbury, said Lupton. "So most of the museum has no electricity. If you come in on a dark rainy day, it's dark."

At Harvard's Concord Field Station, researchers are studying animals to develop better robots. The research center is headquartered on a 79-acre parcel in Bedford, and includes more than 600 acres of the Estabrook Woods in Concord, which the university holds in a joint conservation trust with the town, said Andrew Biewener, the Concord Field Station's director.

Researchers at the facility have animals, such as goats, dogs, and guinea fowl, a bird native to Africa, run on treadmills to study how they move, he said.

"What we learn from these studies we share with engineering colleagues trying to design more robust and effective legged robots - robots that move with legs," he said. "Evolution has resulted in pretty sophisticated designs on performance. Animals are well adapted to move and run over rough terrain and to be stable when they do so, and that's terrain you couldn't take a wheeled vehicle through.

"I think this research will also lead to the development of smart prostheses," Biewener said, such as "an ankle joint and foot that better mimic the actual properties of a human foot."

Researchers at the field station have also used high-speed cameras in a wind tunnel to learn how birds are both maneuverable and stable in flight, he said.

The university also owns about 37 acres in the town of Harvard, the site of an observatory run by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The Harvard University Library has a climate-controlled storage facility in Southborough. And there's also the New England Primate Research Center in Marlborough, a campus of Harvard Medical School, where areas of study include treating AIDS, cancer, drug addiction, and Parkinson's disease.

In Weston, the university has a pending deal to sell the Case Estates property to the town. Local officials are reviewing Harvard's plans to clean up arsenic-tainted soil on the land as part of a 2006 agreement to buy the 62 acres for $22.5 million.

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Liebl named BC girls cage coach

May 13, 2014

Brookfield Central athletic and activities director Todd Sobrilsky didn't have to look far to replace Dan Wandrey as girls basketball coach.

Sobrilsky announced May 13 that Mallory Liebl, the assistant varsity basketball coach and head junior varsity coach at Divine Savior Holy Angels will now take over the Lancers girls program.

She had an overall .879 winning percentage (58-8) and a .929 (39-3) mark in the Greater Metro Conference as the JV head coach.

"She is one of the bright young coaches in the area," Sobrilsky said. "She understands the challenge of sustaining our girls basketball program's historical level of success, and we look forward to the opportunity that her leadership will provide to the program's future successes.

"Through the search process it became evident that she possesses a passion for working with and inspiring young people to excel both on and off the court."

It has been the Lancers' success under Wandrey, who is now the boys coach, that attracted her to the position.

"With the great success they've had in the past, it's an exciting opportunity to go there," Liebl said. "It's a great conference. Plus growing up in Brookfield, it was intriguing. I've always admired what they did and the success that they've had."

Former DSHA coach Scott Witt, who is now an assistant with the New Berlin Eisenhower boys varsity, thinks it was a great hire for the Lancers.

"She'll do great. She is a rising superstar," he said. "Her track record — the way her kids play — they play hard. That's her signature."

Liebl, a shooting guard at Pius XI and a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh grad, coached the DSHA JV Summer League team (2009-10) and worked at several summer basketball camps, including the Dasher Basketball Summer Camps (2011-13).

She has coached the Oshkosh West Basketball Club's eighth-grade team (2008-09) and was a Pius XI Basketball Camp coach. She still coaches the Wisconsin Impact Basketball Club.

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UM Logo_Founding Campus The Campus Life Weekly

Week of February 27, 2012 | Volume 2 Number 21

Student Experiences from Guyana
School of Medicine - 2nd Year Auction
Building Leadership from the Community Up
Natural Hair Demonstration
A Process of Sowing, Growing and Reaping
Balancing Marriage in Graduate School
3 v 3 Basketball Tournament
Saving the Bay
A Flower Grows Through Concrete
Stay in Touch

January 2012 - May 2012

Follow the Wellness Hub
Find us on FacebookFollow us on Twitter

More events are coming.  Please check back next week.

Healthy Relationships: Managing Relationships with Family, Friends, and Partners.

February 23

Managing Stress and Anxiety

March 8

February 27
March 9
Please join us as we celebrate Black History Month with these events:

Afro-Caribbean Dance

Natural Hair Demonstration

February 29, 2012 - 5:30

Women's History Month begins in March.  Click here to view our events listing.

For more information on these events visit our website. To find out how to get involved, contact Courtney J. Jones via email or at 410-706-7438.

Click on these links to learn more about upcoming URecFit Programs.

Indoor Soccer Tournament

Monday nights beginning February 27. Intramural sports soccer tournament. 8 team maximum. 4 week regular season, top 4 teams to playoffs.

Follow URecFit

Find us on FacebookFollow us on Twitter

The Campus Life Weekly is a weekly publication produced and distributed by the Office of Academic and Student Affairs.  It was launched in the Fall of 2010 to serve as a vehicle to aid students in advertising and learning about events and activities that were open to the entire student population -- thus encouraging interdisciplinary interaction.

  • Submissions to the Campus Life Weekly must pertain directly to the entire student body of UM
  • Only events that are open to the entire student community, not just those in a particular school, will be printed
  • Space is limited so the event description is limited to 300 characters
  • The grammar and accuracy of the submission is the responsibility of the individual submitting the entry
  • As a result of the high volume of submissions, some entries will only run the week of the advertised event
  • Newsletters are published weekly on Thursday evenings during the Fall & Spring semesters
  • All entries must be submitted by 5:00 pm the Tuesday prior to the publication date

To submit to CLW, please click here

Join Our Mailing List

UMB Campus Helicopter View Top Panel Photo
Annual Black History Month Celebration
The United Students of African Descent

Friday, February 24

5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Ballroom A

Free for UM students with student ID

$3 for non-UM students

Join USAD in celebrating oral traditions from Africa and the African diaspora through folklore, songs and stories. Featuring a member of the Griot Circle of Maryland.

Food and drinks will be served.

For more information please contact  Ihuoma Nwachukwu.

Cosponsored by USGA.

Global Medical Brigades, Panama
June 2012

Global Medical Brigades

Brigade: June 3-10

Last day to apply is February 24

Click here to apply.

We're a student-led multidisciplinary organization dedicated to providing healthcare and education to Central American residents who have limited access to healthcare.

We are looking for students from ALL campuses, please apply by clicking the link above. For questions/information, contact Dennis Lin at dhlin@umaryland.edu.

Indoor Soccer Tournament

Soccer Ball

Mondays, starting February 27

Myers Soccer Pavilion

Registration deadline is Wednesday, February 22.

Intramural sports soccer tournament. 8 team maximum. 4 week regular season, top 4 teams to playoffs.

Click here to sign up.

Student Experiences from Guyana

Nurses for Global Health

Monday, February 27

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Room 223

Attendees will learn about chronic diseases faced by those living in Guyana. In addition, attendees will gain a broader understanding of the Guyanese people's access to health care. Come share in the experiences of students and teachers in their global health trip to Guyana (through the UM School of Nursing). Those attending  will share pictures and stories from field trips in to the Rain Forest.

Free lunch provided.

School of Medicine - 2nd Year Auction

Second AuctionSchool of Medicine

Tuesday, February 28

5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Ballrooms

Wanna get away to Orlando? Ever sat 10 rows behind home plate at an O's game? How cool would it be to have lunch with President Perman? Then come to the UMSOM Second Year Auction! The event will feature live and silent auctions, raffle prizes, light hors- d'oeuvres, beer and wine, and live music!

Everyone Leads
Building Leadership from the Community Up

Public Allies

Public Allies

Tuesday, February 28

8:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. -- Book signing follows
School of Social Work, Auditorium

Paul Schmitz, CEO of Public Allies, will present concepts from his new book, Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up, and offer a set of practices that will help leaders be more effective at bringing diverse people and groups together to solve problems.

Click here for more information.

Natural Hair Demonstration

Diversity Celebrations: Black History Month

Wednesday, February 29

5:30 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, 351

Join natural hair stylist, Jennifer Lord, for a brief history on natural hair, advice on how to transition from processed hair, sample styles for professional settings and a live demonstration.

Click here to RSVP.

Refreshments will be served.

Inter-professional Education:
A Process of Sowing, Growing and Reaping

Komen Maryland Affiliate Nursing Partnership

Thursday, March 1

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

School of Nursing Auditorium

655 West Lombard Street Baltimore, MD 21201

This panel presentation discusses how schools collaborated to develop a unique multi-year, interprofessional education initiative on breast cancer.

Balancing Marriage in Graduate School
Grads on Track Webinar Series

Wellness Hub

Friday, March 2

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Virtual Event

Being married and in graduate school,  can pose challenges  that can really make your relationship stronger - you just need to find a way to cope with them and support each other through them without overwhelming or injuring the other.  Please join Coach Susan for strategies for effective communication for finances, support, stress and intimacy.

School of Pharmacy Class of 2014 Auction

School of Pharmacy AuctionSchool of Pharmacy

Friday, March 2

6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Pharmacy Hall, 20 North Pine Street

Come one, come all to the exciting live auction at Pharmacy Hall benefiting the Class of 2014 pharmacy students! The items up for bid include a Chinese Banquet with the Dean of Pharmacy School, and much, much more! The students will also be showing off their kooky, crazy talents, so don't miss out!

For more information contact Stephanie Walters at swalters@umaryland.edu.

3v3 Basketball Supreme Court Tournament

EASL & URecFit

Saturday, March 3

9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, 4th Floor

The cost is $20 per player (includes a jersey for play and late lunch).

EASL presents the 3rd Annual 3v3 Basketball Supreme Court Tournament. Prize for Champions! Register your team or register as a free agent by emailing 3v3umb@gmail.com by Friday, March 2 at 3pm.

Money Driven Medicine:
Movie Showing

Money Driven MedicineStudents United for Policy Education and Research (SUPER)

Tuesday, March 6

4:00 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Ballroom B

Click here for more information.

Please join Students United for Policy Education & Research (SUPER) as we view the award winning documentary Money-Driven Medicine, which offers a behind the scenes look at American healthcare and explores the economics underlying the healthcare system. Refreshments will be served!

Co-sponsored by USGA.

Saving the Bay:
Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Wellness Hub

Saving the Bay

Tuesday, March 6

12:30 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Green Room

Every Marylander envisions a clean Chesapeake Bay, which is broadly recognized as a national treasure. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries continue to suffer from toxic contaminants, overfishing, or extinction of plant and aqua species. Join us and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to discuss the history of the organization and the future of the Chesapeake Bay.

Managing Stress and Anxiety

Wellness Hub & Student Counseling Center

Managing Anxiety

Thursday, March 8

12:15 p.m.- 1:15 p.m.

SMC Campus Center, Room 351

*This event is open to students only

Why worry? Academic, interpersonal, and job pressures can take their toll if you let them. Learn effective techniques to manage the stress and anxiety of daily life.

History of Medicine Lecture Series

MozartAlpha Omega Alpha

Friday, March 9

12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m.

School of Medicine, Davidge Hall

Lunch will be provided.

"Surely the Greatest Tragedy in the History of Music" Mozart's Fatal Anasarca presented by: Philip Mackowiak M.D. This lecture series has been a popular one in the past and we encourage all those interested to attend.

For more information email Sarah Sasor at ssasor@gmail.com.

Compassion Knit

Every Thursday at 5:15 p.m. (or come out into the community with us on Saturdays at 12)
SMC Campus Center, Room 203

Like to knit or crochet? Want to learn how? Want to make a difference in the community?

Join CompassionKnit! Contact jltownsend@umaryland.edu.

A Flower Grows Through Concrete:
The Concept of Poverty as a Culture and its Impact on Health

Dr. Ken Thompson

Thursday, March 22

8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

SMC Campus Center

Grand Rounds at Noon Featuring
Kenneth S. Thompson, MD,
Associate Professor
Psychiatry and Public Health
University of Pittsburgh

We will examine the concept of poverty as a culture and its impact on healthcare outcomes with a focus on Baltimore City. Attendees will learn how inter-generational poverty influences individuals' behavior and how this knowledge informs healthcare delivery by providers.

For more information email Veronika Stock at vstock@psych.umaryland.edu.

Health and Wellness Conference

Center for Integrative Health

Center for Integrative Medicine

Saturday, April 14

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Baltimore Hilton

401 West Pratt Street

Conference features wellness guru Andrew Weil, M.D. and some of the country's leading wellness authorities. The conference includes 25 sessions on such topics as holistic pain relief, food as information, stress management, and movement-based therapies.

The Global Burden of Chronic Disease
5th Annual Conference

Global RN

Nurses for Global Health

Friday, April 20

10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Registration starts at 9:15 a.m.

SMC Campus Center, Ballrooms A & B

Free for all students. $10 for guests who register online. $15 at the door

Come learn about the burden chronic disease has on global health. Chronic diseases, not infectious diseases, are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

Free lunch included. For more info contact: globalRN@umaryland.edu.

Stay in Touch with Social Media

GlobeKeeping up to date on the many events, activities and announcements is even easier when you are connected to these social media sites.

 Click to become a fan.

Find us on Facebook Wellness Hub                                             Find us on Facebook URecFit
Find us on Facebook UM                                                            Find us on Facebook Activities & Learning
Find us on Facebook Writing Center                                              Find us on Facebook UM Bookstore


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Jon Stewart's clever, but even he doesn't claim to be a real news anchor

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A Time Magazine "poll" says Jon Stewart is the most-trusted TV news anchor, a reference to last week's passing of Walter Cronkite, who once held that title. »Read Full Article

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Of course, if the upgraded partition is a guested lpar then it's quite
easy to just copy the storage spaces on the host lpar before the upgrade.
Rename them back and you're restored. Plays hell with individual object
restore though.

Rob Berendt

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oreilly.comSafari Books Online.Conferences.

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  X11 and OpenOffice on Mac OS X
Subject:   Fonts and printing in OpenOffice.org
Date:   2003-04-29 13:17:49
From:   dynamic88
I just took the plunge and installed OpenOffice.org on my G4 PowerMac. It's my first successful attempt at getting an app to run under X11. The instructions in the article above were invaluable. Anyways, I'm glad to finally have it on my Mac, after becoming addicted to OpenOffice.org on my Windoze box at work. Still, there are a couple of MINOR glitches to be solved:

1. Limited fonts--The only fonts that appear in the fonts menu appear to be those that installed with OpenOffice.org. The OpenOffice.org Website states that other fonts can be "manually installed". How do I go about this?

2. Printing--The only print driver the OpenOffice.org seems able to access is a generic driver, which will not communicate with my Canon S400 printer. How do I get OpenOffice.org to recognize this el cheapo non-postscript ink jet printer? This is by far the most serious of the three issues. Don't ask me why I listed it second.

3. "Launch OpenOffice.org" icon--I double-clicked this icon in the OpenOffice.org folder and got a dialog box asking "Darwin". I cancelled out of it and later went back into it when I figured out I needed to point it to X11. Only problem is, now when I double-click this icon, the "OpenOffice.org" name appears on the menu bar at the top of the screen, but I can't get the dialog box to come up. How do I get it back? Is there a preference file somewhere I need to throw away?

Any assistance you can render in this area would be greatly appreciated. Please bear in mind that I'm a Unix novice.

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Diary of a Nudist

Movies Preview

Diary of a Nudist

Published 1961
Topics Romance,

The Film follows a reporter (Davee Decker) as she infiltrates a nudist colony in the hopes of exposing its immoral ways.
However, once there, she finds herself enjoying it a little bit more than she anticipated.

This Film was extremely controversial in 1961 today, films like this are considered to be curiosity pieces.

Run time 72 min.
Producer Doris Wishman
Production Company Dawn Productions
Audio/Visual sound, color
Contact Information

Reviewer: Spy Smasher - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - August 17, 2016
Subject: Classic Film! Overlooked by the Academy Awards
Film stars Vicky Miles as Bunny Downe ... who's boss at the newspaper where she worked sends her out to get the "Truth" about a local nudist camp ... intending to expose a far more Scandalous operation and to expose the members of the club as a bunch of sex-crazed weirdos ...Lots of pretty girls showing a Lot of T&A for the 50's. The editor of the newspaper goes out to the club to find Bunny when she never comes back to the office ... in the end both join the Nudist club and find true Happiness and total relaxation. Fin
Reviewer: NapoleonsHeir - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - October 13, 2014
Subject: Interesting
It's interesting to see the 60's from the point of a shock video. Beautiful cars and women with some strange hairdos. Not bad quality either.
Reviewer: skybandit - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - May 20, 2014
Subject: Apeism is the shit!
There seems to be no renewal for this film at the US Copyright Office. Enjoy the boobies, and ignore the whining of religious nuts. Five stars just to offset the previous poster.
Reviewer: Apeism is Stupid - favorite - May 20, 2014
Subject: Still garbage...
Reviewer: loninappleton - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - August 24, 2013
Subject: The lost Doris Wishman films
Does anyone really know which of the DW films have copyright or not?

The color, the cars and the beatnik jazz flute music are tooo much!

I think they are great.

Something Weird Video has a complete collection of Wishman Films curiously all uniformly priced which means to me that their vault collection should be free like She has an entry at wikipedia as well.

Cudos to for this release.
Reviewer: CyborgSam - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - February 18, 2013
Subject: I loved it, not what I expected.
I don't consider this cheesecake, to me it wasn't intended to be titillating. Since it was made at the beginning of the sexploitation era, it shows a lot of breasts but no crotch shots.

I loved how the first two nudists introduced were Frank and Annette, I assumed they were making fun of the beach movies.

And those hairdos, women wouldn't go in the water because they didn't want to ruin their plastic sprayed do.

About the time this came out me & some friends found some Swedish nudist magazines someone had thrown out in a park. As a kid we thought it was an accident, but as an adult I wonder why the were left there... Those magazines only showed the nudist lifestyle, no sex. They weren't as titillating to the 10yo me as they were eye-opneing that people lived a completely different life style from what I saw on TV. I thought they were real...
Reviewer: PlasticExploding - - June 4, 2011
Subject: OMG! Wishman on Internet Archive!
This is a movie I have not seen yet and am looking forward to. I am a fan of sexploitation films, which by definition were films that showed cheesecake while pretending to be about something else. I am familiar with some of her mid-to-late sixties films and the famous Chesty Morgan films of the seventies, starring a woman whose breasts were as oversized as her fashion sense was dowdy. Doris Wishman freely admitted in interviews that she went into filmmaking without previous production experience and next to no knowledge of what she was doing. She was also mechanically inept to boot and left the camera operation and the editing to the people on her staff. This led to a style unlike just about any other director who ever made a film: a real original. Interested persons should check out Bad Girls Go To Hell, My Brother's Wife, and Indecent Desires for strange stories, made strangely, and with some really nice looking sixties sex starlets like Gigi Darlene, June Roberts, and Darlene Bennett. Sorry for the off-topic.
Reviewer: Earle Bruce - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - February 2, 2011
Subject: great fun
Dull but interesting.
Reviewer: sillyfann - favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - February 2, 2011
Subject: "This Is Outrageous!"
I found the point of view here to be more than a little ambiguous. The film seems to be advocating the nudist lifestyle, but the music and models are pure cheesecake! Only tits and butts are shown (though most of those are quite nice), so may be a bit disappointing for female or gay voyeurs. As in all bad movies, there are stretches of boredom in between the fun parts, but on the whole very enjoyable as a time capsule. C'mon, Zelda, get your clothes off!
Reviewer: flickfdude - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - November 15, 2010
Subject: There was life before implants
The aspect is wrong. Set it at 4x3 on your vlc or other player.
It is a nice 1961 movie.
Unfortunately I lost all my memories of the summer of 1960 due to circumstances of my life that removed portions of my memory, something like that genius scientist on the Fringe TV show. I wonder where they got the idea for that show?
Anyway, I guess my appreciation of this time machine back to the 60’s may exceed others approval for that reason.
I also have a healthy fascination for the naked female form.
There are quite a few sexy young nude females to watch in prolonged bare skin scenes and it has a bit of a story too.
I gave it a high rating so people looking for top rated movies wouldn't miss this one.
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Lords of Dogtown

Also: Mondovino, Rock School, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Lords of Dogtown

Opens Fri., June 3, at Metro and others

Director Catherine (Thirteen)Hardwicke's movie about how some impoverished teenage boys from Southern California turned skateboarding into big money is scruffy, sun-drenched monotony punctuated with bursts of ragged energy. That's probably exactly how it was for a bunch of bored kids in the drowsy summer days of 1975, but it doesn't make for the most mesmerizing cinematic experience. You sit there wondering why you shouldn't instead just rent Dogtown and Z-Boys, the 2001 documentary that Stacy Peralta made on the same subject. It would spare you Peralta's uninspired screenplay here, which includes such earnest clichés as skater Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch) telling his haggard hippie mom (Rebecca De Mornay), "You know, I'm gonna make some cash and get you out of this place."

Anyone already sold on skateboard culture won't be entirely disappointed by Hollywood's version of its vitality. The film has an authentic feel for the fertile, frustrated energies of mop-headed punks with nothing better to do than escape their oppressive home lives on the waves of pre-gentrified Venice Beach, aka Dogtown. With the not-completely-unselfish encouragement of Zephyr surf-shop guru Skip Engblom (Heath Ledger), a restless Adams, Peralta (John Robinson), and Tony Alva (Raising Victor Vargas'Victor Rasuk) turn their surfing fantasies into a literally concrete reality. Hardwicke captures their reckless excitement at the limitless oceans of opportunity that a summer drought provides in newly drained swimming pools. Soon they're stars—and, inevitably, bitter rivals—in a burgeoning sport.

Anyone who doesn't give a damn about skateboarding won't be caught up in the invention of urethane wheels in the way that, say, a non–boxing buff can get swept away by Rocky. Hardwicke's fresh cast is casually yet convincingly going for broke, on their boards and off, but these aren't the most ingratiating kids in the world. (Robinson's Peralta, perhaps not coincidentally, is gentle of heart; Ledger's whacked-out turn as the imperiously stoned Engblom, meanwhile, is a worrisome few quirks away from the Val Kilmer Method of Character Acting.) By the time Johnny Knoxville arrives in full pimp regalia as a swingin' impresario and corporate seducer, there are finally too many dudes saying "bro" for us to be concerned about whether the purity of skateboarding will forever be compromised. (PG-13) STEVE WIECKING

Runs Fri., June 3–Wed., June 15, at Northwest Film Forum

Once upon a time, the word "documentary" meant a film portraying some aspect of life running its course. It was never really that simple, of course: Robert Flaherty routinely "faked" portions of his famous records of tropical and Arctic primitives; and even as beady-eyed and impassive an observer as Frederic Wiseman couldn't (and presumably didn't want to) keep his own sensibility out of his films. But is there any limit to just how far documentarians can go when injecting their own ideas into what claims, however disingenuously, to be reportage? None yet reached, because now we have Jonathan Nossiter's Mondovino, which makes Michael Moore's recent work look like models of fair and balanced.

Mondovino is about the way marketing and multinationalization are affecting the making and distribution of wine. It's not hard to distinguish the bad guys from the good guys. The good guys are mostly old and gnarled; they walk, somewhat lamely, nearly always with an old dog at their side. Bad guys wear suits, talk on cell phones, and ride in limos and call lame old men with dogs "fools," "peasants," and "hicks."

The good guys in Nossiter's film are legion; the bad guys are basically one guy, a jet-setting winemaking consultant named Michel Rolland, who counsels winemakers all over the world on how to make wine that will move in the international market. Rolland is loud, vulgar, jolly, and great fun to watch; he may be, as Nossiter pounds home for 135 minutes, the worst thing to happen to world wine since the phylloxera louse, but he at least seems to think wine is something people should enjoy rather than bow down to and worship. My mind, tastes, and emotions are all on the side of the smallholders who have resisted the march of world wine toward mediocre sameness. But if I were going to spend an hour with anyone portrayed in this film over a bottle of red and some good bread and sausage, I'm afraid I know who that person would be. (PG-13) ROGER DOWNEY

Rock School

Opens Fri., June 3, at Varsity and others

One of the principal ideas behind Don Argott's debut documentary, Rock School, is summed up in its first five minutes by an adorable, adenoidal little boy. Wearing an Angus Young–style shirt and tie, 9-year-old drummer Asa explains that "AC/DC's really easy, all you do is . . . , " then bangs out a beat that every AC/DC fan will immediately recognize. Rock music isn't rocket science, and the point is well-made by the students of Paul Green's irreverent Philadelphia-based music school. But Argott's film would be pretty one-note if all it did was show that elementary-school kids can play elementary riffs.

Fortunately, Rock School is really about relationships—primarily the ones between Green and his students (ages 9 to 17). And it's about how those relationships push young musicians past 4/4 rock rhythms, all the way to a Frank Zappa festival in Germany.

Anyone who has played in bands will recognize Green as that guy who always took it a tad too seriously. He confesses to having failed at the rock and roll dream of making it big, although he also says he'd only want to make it big if he could make it big in 1972. Still, it's clear that he's living out some vicarious fantasies through his students, but that would only be a problem if they weren't also having a genuinely good time and benefiting from his outside-the-box pedagogy.

Green's star pupils are C.J., a preternaturally talented preteen guitar player whom Argott paints as a mini Carlos Santana, and Madi, a high-school-aged Sheryl Crow–ish singer/songwriter who moonlights with the Friendly Gangsters, a Quaker rap group. Dry-ice clouds surround confident C.J. wherever he goes, while Madi needs—or does she?—cajoling, editing, and lots of direction from Green. Perhaps reminiscent of Jack Black in School of Rock, Green tells us he utilizes the kids' aptitude for learning without actually treating them like kids. You do get the sense that Green would scream and carry on with his shtick even with his mother.

Argott gets some narrative shape for his documentary as it culminates with the kids' big performance at the Zappa fest. Music fans will recognize that these particular students are beyond AC/DC; Zappa was a complex composer, and the students have expertly mastered his music. Even if you're not a Zappa fan, it's hard not to be thrilled by C.J.'s deft solo and Madi's slightly hesitant but bright smile when her band nails the toughest song of the festival.

You do worry about these kids, however—about their stars burning too bright too soon. Will they burn out or fade away while juggling their chores and homework? We'll have to wait for Rock School 2 to see. (R) LAURA CASSIDY

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Opens Wed., June 1, at Metro and others

Let me get this off my chest: I cried during this movie. Not just a single tear, but the cheek-puffing, nose-leaking, heartbreaking kind of a crying that I haven't experienced since the last dance at my senior prom. For someone so skeptical of each new chick flick, I was hardly excited to see a bunch of 16-year-old girls prance around in a pair of magical pants. After all, the movie was adapted from a book beloved by preteens and mother-daughter reading groups.

Sisterhood follows the enduring friendship of four best friends, chronicling their adventures all over the world. Each girl is challenged by tragedy, yet all overcome it through the power of friendship. The dynamic ensemble is played by America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn, and Blake Lively, with plenty of chemistry among them. Best is Bledel, who finally gets away from her Rory Gilmore wit and confidence, here exuding a shy, modest beauty.

Maybe I fell for the Pants because I was reminded of my very own dear sisterhood, notwithstanding my initial reservations. Among the book's devoted readers, you can be sure that tears will roll and mascara will run. (PG) NICHOLE BOLAND

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Spain's bailed-out banks to slash size by 60 percent

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Madrid • European Union authorities have approved the payment of $47.96 billion in bailout loans to four of Spain's struggling banks — provided each of them cut their loans and investments by 60 percent.

The plan cleared Wednesday by the EU Commission in Brussels will see Bankia getting $23 billion, Catalunya Caixa $11.6 billion, Novagalicia $7 billion and Valencia Bank $5.8 billion.

The $47.96 billion is part of a $129 billion credit line approved by the other 16 EU countries that use the euro to shore up banks hit by the country's 2008 property market collapse.

Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia said the aim was to restore the viability of the banks.

Under the plan, the four banks must exit from lending to real estate development, limit their presence in wholesale business and concentrate on retail loans and those to small and medium-sized companies in their base regions.

They will have to reduce their branch number by 50 percent. Catalunya Caixa and Novagalicia will have to be sold by 2017 or liquidated.

The banks are also expected to move $58 billion of their assets to Spain's recently set up bad bank, SAREB, a fund that aims to buy and turn around soured investments.

In a press conference in Madrid, Bankia president Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said the restructuring plan would involve shedding some 6,000 employees before 2015 and closing some 1,100 branches.

Bankia, once one of Spain's top banks, said it expected to end the year with losses of $24.5 billion and return to profits in 2013.

Spain, whose economy in the middle of its second recession in three years and struggling with 25 percent unemployment, has been battling to avoid seeking a bailout for its government finances. Public finances have been hurt by the costs of rescuing banks as well as the costs of the economic turmoil in the form of lower tax revenues and higher costs to support the jobless.

In September, an independent audit commissioned by Spain estimated that the country's troubled banks would need $77 billion to survive a serious economic downturn. The government said the figure would ultimately be closer to $52 billion.

Another four banks not deemed fully capable of surviving a serious economic downturn are to present restructuring plans before Dec. 20 in order to receive rescue funds. They are Mare Nostrum, Banco Caja 3, Liberbank and Ceiss.

Most of the Spanish lenders that have needed financial help are regional savings banks that overexposed themselves to unsafe real estate business.


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Prep boys' basketball: Miller torches Copper Hills in Brighton win

Prep boys' basketball • Miller hit 10 3-pointers in the Bengals' victory.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Brighton senior Brandon Miller scored 30 points in a game last week. The senior pumped in 30 again — in one half against Copper Hills on Tuesday.

The University of Utah commit's shooting exhibition resulted in 39 points as Brighton cruised by the visiting Grizzlies 80-46.

Miller, who left the Region 3 contest with 2 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the third quarter, scorched Copper Hills from the perimeter from the outset. His first two 3-pointers were the result of designed plays to get him open looks against the Grizzlies' zone.

But in a first half where he hit his first eight shots, Miller also created his own treys twice with the dribble. And in another instance, the senior swished a long shot immediately after getting a pass from teammate Tremaine Nisson while guarded tightly.

"Honestly, it just felt good," Miller said. "When somebody's in a rhythm like that, a good shot kind of changes. If you're feeling it, a lot of different shots become good shots. I told coach I didn't want to come out I was feeling so good."

Miller outscored Copper Hills (7-8) by a 30-17 count by halftime. When Brighton senior Travis Debrashayee put back a miss with 2:40 remaining before intermission, it marked the first occasion in the game when Miller, who has scored 25 points at that point, was errant with a shot from the floor.

With a 45-17 lead heading into the third quarter, the host Bengals (13-4) opened that period with another trey by Miller that kicked off a 19-4 run. Brighton senior Bryce Callahan got into the long-range shooting act by making three 3-pointers during that stretch.

"They're playing really well, and we just want to focus on getting better every day," said Brighton coach Jeff Gardner, whose team finished with 15 makes beyond the arc, including 10 by Miller. "Our kids re competitors, and we're looking forward to the last stretch run of the year."

Copper Hills coach Andrew Blanchard joked about his defensive strategy next time his team faces Miller.

"Next time we'll probably just say our prayers a little bit more that he misses," Blanchard said. "We're 2-2 right now [in region play]and kind of where we wanted to be in order to make a run and hopefully get into the [state] tournament." —


text:
Fundamentalists: We're Mormon, too

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 12:40 PM- A coalition that represents fundamentalist Mormons has issued a statement objecting to the LDS Church's attempts to deny their claim to a shared Mormon heritage.

The Principle Voices Coalition, based in Salt Lake City, said that members "strenuously object to any efforts to deprive us and others of the freedom to name and describe ourselves by terms of our own choosing."

Two weeks ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched a media campaign aimed at distinguishing itself from the breakaway sects.

The church said its effort was primarily aimed at clarifying the difference between the LDS Church and the FLDS sect, necessary because of widespread coverage of Texas authorities' raid on the sect's west Texas ranch.

The LDS Church said a poll showed more than a third of those surveyed thought the sect was part of the Mormon Church based in Salt Lake City.

"It's obvious we need to do more to help people understand the enormous differences that exist between our Church, which is a global faith, and these small polygamous groups," said Quentin L. Cook, an LDS Church elder, in a statement issued June 26.

He also said that "Mormons have nothing whatsoever to do with this polygamous sect in Texas," reiterating comments made several years ago by former LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley that there is no such thing as fundamentalist Mormons.

But the coalition objects to any attempts to limit use of the term.

"Fundamentalist Mormons have been referred to by that name since the 1930s, often by the Church itself," the coalition said in its statement. "We are proud of our Mormon heritage. Plural marriage is only one of the tenets of our religion, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through Joseph Smith."

The LDS Church has asked that media refer to those who follow the original beliefs set down by Joseph Smith as "polygamous sects," the group said, but "most of us are not (and do not refer to ourselves as) polygamists."

The coalition said the statement had been authorized by the Apostolic United Brethren, the Davis County Cooperative Society, The Work of Jesus Christ and numerous independent fundamentalist Mormons.

The statement was not signed by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days or several smaller groups.

The coalition said the LDS Church has experienced a similar problem with refusals of some Christian denominations to recognize Latter-day Saints as Christians.

"In many ways, we consider ourselves to be adherents to Mormonism (and Christianity) no less than were Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor," the coalition's statement said. "What distinguishes us from the modern, mainstream Church is that we have endeavored to observe the original, fundamental precepts of the restored Gospel, while the Church itself has, since the early 1900s, repudiated several of them.


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Home  -  Back Issues  -  The Team  -  Contact Us
     Volume 10 |Issue 24 | June 24, 2011 |

 Cover Story
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 Writing the Wrong
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Of Genres and Generations

Jennifer Ashraf Kashmi and Nameera Ahmed

Hip-hop in itself is a blend of various cultural issues. It originates as an odd mix of DJ-ing, rapping and beat boxing. Yet Hip-hop is so much more than just that. It is a bayonet for warriors who have only words, who cannot find a way to stand up against the powers that be and yet refuse to step down. Take the aptly titled song 'Bidrohi – the rebel'; one of Shree Sen, a young passionate artiste's, most well-known tracks, Bidrohi talks about society in its darkest hours and blatant disgust at the usual trend of turning a blind eye to it. Sen describes himself as – a one-man army and perhaps quite rightly so. Having started his halting career initially with the forceful struggle of introducing Bangla rap and hip-hop in the Indian music circuit, Sen is now one of the most well-known artistes of his genre and a great inspiration to the younger hopefuls as well.

When in conversation Sen, spoke freely about how despite having a career in market research, this was where his true passion lies. He was unhesitatingly eloquent about how from his perspective, the younger generations speak out against and speak up about social issues. As Sen puts it – “It's about presenting the social issues in such a way that the people will listen; will understand and act.” It is perhaps such an understanding of how these artistes believe that hip-hop will serve to help promote the idealism of youthful generations and eradicate the corruption of, social forms, cultural boundaries and state politics, that has led Sen and many other like-minded artistes to volunteer for Hip Hop Jaati-2, a promotional concert targeted mainly at forming a platform for young artistes.

Shafayet, lead singer, from TOR (Theology of Rap) and organiser of the concert speaks about how they are attempting to promote Hip Hop in the Bangladeshi music culture. He speaks about how they initially brought out a Hip-hop Jaati debut album in 2010. “When we brought out this album, the response was huge. We did it in pure Bangla to get the Bangladesh market. Our plan was to bring out the album and judging from the response it received, we would arrange a show.” With their main aim being the promotion of the Hip-hop genre, Shafayet says, “When we were Underground we never got paid; now we don't take money. We are basically doing Hip-Hop Jaati to promote it in Bangladesh; we want to take it to the highest level possible. We are the sponsors of all our shows; a lot of concerts are mainly done for business purposes but we're not trying to do any form of business here.” When asked about whether they were doing it as a career move, he says, “No we're not. I, myself, am in business and I will be finished with my studies next year. I'm currently studying at London South Bank University, and I'm here in Bangladesh now for my summer vacation”. TOR, a five-member band, is still surviving and existing as a band, but currently the members are a little scattered. “When we first formed there were only three bands – Deshi MC, StoickBliss and Uptown Lokolz.”

Compared to the size of the concert hall, however, the turnout was not as impressive. Shafayet says: “Yes, not so much this year, but we had a really big audience last year at the first concert. With our first concert we let everyone have completely free entry.” However, at this year's concert, not all of the bands seemed up to par. Speaking about how they were chosen to perform in the line-up, Shafayet states, “In our Facebook event page we invited bands to start sending in their demos, and they started doing so. We screened all the demos and made out decision impartially.” Shafayet himself has been in the Hip-hop scene for quite some time, and he has seen a lot of bands and 'crews' assemble and disband equally quickly over the years. In relation to whether this has affected him personally Shafayet says, “Hip-hop, for me, is a hobby. For all my band members as well, it's something we do for fun and we do it because we enjoy it.” So for how many bands in today's generation is hip-hop the core of their ambitions, the heart and soul of their dreams? "Hardly any," says Shafayet, "To be honest many of the performing bands today are doing it for fun. Plus they are quite young”.

Shafayet stresses on how, despite the fact that he may be leaving this industry next year, is trying to popularise hip-hop in the correct way in Bangladesh. What seems to be lacking in the hip-hop industry is commitment. “Crew are forming today, and they are breaking up tomorrow. That is why what we are attempting to create here is a platform for the future artists. Many of the bands here are caught up in trying to copy the American hip-hop style. They say things like 'I'm from the hood'. What we're trying to do is to promote it in our Bangladeshi culture. There is no 'hood' in Bangladesh. Jaati projects 'unity' amongst people. Our focus should be that we are all one generation, one country.” He also says that even though they may not be able to bring acceptance of hip-hip to the majority of the Bangladeshi population, they are happy with the fact that they can at least create a platform for the future generation.

Perhaps a major achievement for the Bangladesh hip-hop culture as a whole is the recent signing of the band “Rajotto” with RightTrack Distribution and Records, who are strategic partners of Universal Music. The three members of the band (Towfique, Faisal and Gareth) were recording their first album 'Rajotto' in a London studio, when they were discovered by Nicholas Americanos. “It was more than a dream come true for us. He liked our music and wanted to find out who we were. After that he wanted us to promote our songs in Bengali on an international level. However, we wanted to appeal to the mass international market by doing our tracks in English.” They have done two of their famous tracks in English – Bidrohi and Nagordola – which will be initially released as singles, to be followed by their album afterwards. The name of their band, which will be promoted internationally, has been changed to 'Bong Rulerz' from 'Rajotto'.

Now that Rajotto have attained this recognition, the natural question which arises is that they may be facing certain societal constraints and expectations from the younger generation who will be looking up to them as role models. “Music is our passion really' says Towfique. "We don't really feel as if there is pressure on us and we're not worried about what people really think and whether they are putting us up as their role models. We know that people will automatically get the inspiration from our music and therefore of course we have a responsibility to uphold our morals through our music. To be honest, I think in Bangladesh we have good rappers and good musicians of all kinds.” He further adds, “We're keeping our music clean. There will be only one version and it would be for everybody. There will be no explicit versions, or no special versions for our songs. The first song we have done is about world peace, it's about democracy and human rights which is the English version of the song 'Bidrohi'.”

So the question really is, does hip-hop have a future in Bangladesh, and will it even survive as a genre in itself. All the artistes interviewed have expressed a firm belief that it indeed would, as Uptown Lokolz band member Spade says, “Maybe not today but in another five to six years, we'll get there.”

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2011