#/but/ that this does not place the excesses of the adapted versions beyond criticism

[anghraine]

A more coherent part of the adaptation+Darcy post I was threatening to release from drafts purgatory:

While I think all adaptations' versions of Darcy are pretty bad at representing Austen's character, though sometimes compelling in their own right, I think the various choices made are all ways of addressing the same problem with the character as written.

It's not a problem in the novel—indeed, I'd say it's a remarkable achievement there—but I think we don't always realize how extremely ambiguous the presentation of Darcy is through the first half of the novel. It's easy to read him as basically hostile because he was when he first appeared and because Elizabeth, our smart, likable POV character, gets stuck in that perception of him for half the book. So it's only on re-reading that most audiences realize Elizabeth drastically misread his real feelings and the original interpretation of his manner is thrown into question, at the very least.

But as I said in the other post, Austen plays fair: it is entirely possible to realize that Elizabeth is mistaken about some things (esp about how he feels towards her), it is possible to realize that particularly observant characters find his expressions and behavior difficult to interpret, it's possible to notice that we are rarely told how he's speaking or smiling, and scenes typically cut off before we can be told. And it's possible to notice the many issues with Wickham's account of him.

But it's also entirely possible to read everything he says and does as Elizabeth does, and the narrative gently encourages us to do so without often committing to actual description that would guide us in those ambiguous scenes. Austen might have, for instance, described his smiles in the Netherfield scenes as contemptuous, polite, or pleasant. But she just repeats that he's smiling while drawing very little attention to the fact and rarely committing to an indication of what his smiles or presentation of dialogue are like. So it's mostly up to us to decide, with the occasional (dubious in some respects) interpretation from Elizabeth.

And we're likely to reach different conclusions on re-reading—the earlier presentation of Darcy rewards re-reading a lot, because a lot of the time, we don't even realize how much we're not being told until the letter or even the Pemberley scenes, where Elizabeth identifies the smile we saw in his earlier scenes as the same one in the painting done during his beloved father's lifetime—making, say, the "contemptuous" reading very unlikely.

Now, getting away with that level of ambiguity and obscuring that the ambiguity is happening in the first place, as Austen manages to do in the novel, is both impressive and a hell of a lot harder in visual form. Not impossible! But if we see and hear him ourselves we're less likely to form judgments shaped by Austen's tricks of narration and Elizabeth's POV, and this typically involves commitment to a particular aspect of his presentation in the novel.

And if you think about it, the four major adaptations of Darcy are essentially committing to some part of his depiction.

Laurence Olivier's Darcy is smiling, witty, and charismatic—which are a part of his personality, but skewed so far out of proportion that he's virtually unrecognizable. And there's no attempt to obscure his place in the narrative as the actual love interest (I assume because duh, it's Laurence Olivier—but it was a pretty unrewarding role for him as written).

David Rintoul's Darcy is (in)famously "robotic"—the 1980 version of him leans into the withdrawn, inexpressive, difficult to read but clearly uncomfortable version of Darcy. The smiles in the earlier part tend to be tight, a matter of form, and/or unconvincing, by contrast to the later Darcy's comportment towards the Gardiners and Elizabeth, esp after the second proposal.

Colin Firth's Darcy is, well—okay, I'm biased because of my intense dislike for the 1995 production, but I do think it's also struggling with the same issue, but responds in the opposite way as the 1980. Where the 1980 tried to replicate the ambiguity in a way that retained Darcy's tendency towards a certain severity and dignity and mostly ended up at expressionless, the 1995 transforms it into visibly intense, sexualized brooding. This is coupled with Elizabeth's perception of Darcy's hostility being much more validated than in the novel; he snaps at her, most of his textual smiles are removed, even his letter is rearranged with an eye to half-dressed angst rather than the subtle charity of the omitted "God bless you", and generally his angst and passion!!! are played up rather than down ("I shall conquer this!!" / the melodramatic pond dive and shift in focus from Elizabeth's shame to Darcy being barely dressed / Darcy being grim in London, etc).

If the 1995 version of Darcy commits to Darcy's behavior being largely how Elizabeth sees it, the 2005 drastically reverses that. Matthew Macfadyen's Darcy is also struggling with passion, but tbh he seems like he's kind of struggling with everything. He's visibly consumed with anxiety, he's obviously shy where Darcy has to explain his discomfort or experience it as a POV character in the novel, he seems sweet despite occasional classism, and at times his arc seems more about learning to relax than anything else. That is, instead of representing Darcy as more or less accurately seen by Elizabeth, it leans into emphasizing the extent of her misunderstanding, with Darcy's behavior both more sympathetic than she sees it and clearly comprehensible if she weren't so biased against him (fwiw, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries also emphasizes Elizabeth's misjudgment to a considerable extent and deals with the ambiguity by keeping him literally offstage).

The point of all this is that there is a core issue of adaptation here—the difficulty of representing subtle novelistic ambiguity while making Darcy emotionally compelling at the same time. Adapted Darcys are often given extra scenes, altered dialogue, or (where described in the novel) altered mannerisms/emotions to try and achieve this. And all lean so hard into the aspect they choose to emphasize that they tend to sacrifice most of the rest of his personality to the interpretation they're committing to, and his feelings for Elizabeth tend to be incredibly obvious to the point that it sometimes strains belief that she wouldn't see them, even with all her investment in not seeing them.

I guess the thing is that I think just stopping with "this is an issue of the different media and can't be represented on film" is boring and underestimates the potential of film as a medium. There are plenty of performances that can only be fully appreciated on re-watching or re-listening to something with a fuller knowledge of what is revealed later. And to some degree, the adapters do have to choose how much they want to incorporate Elizabeth's perception of Darcy vs the bare narrative and what they're willing to give away about him to preserve what seems most important.

These are all active choices with actual significance, IMO. They imply priorities about the production and their production's take on Darcy that are intriguing in a way that gets lost by just giving them a free pass by way of the challenge of the medium.

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews - June/July 2020

I didn't read as many comics that I felt the need to write about these past couple of months, but the ones that I did I generally had a lot of thoughts on.

Hawkworld 

Back in 1989, DC attempted to revamp Hawkman, notoriously the most confusing character in a stable comprised of confusing characters, with Timothy Truman's Hawkworld, a dark, modern take on the sci-fi version of the character. The result is flawed in the most frustrating ways, just good enough that parts of it feel like they could be coming from a hidden classic of DC's back catalog, but never living up to its potential. The story entirely is set on Thanagar, casting Katar Hol (Hawkman) as a privileged heir who has thrown his lot in with the police force and pines for Thanagar's lost golden age, when men were men and heroes walked the Earth. The first couple of issues do some genuinely excellent work depicting Thanagar as a corrupt and crumbling empire which bears more than a little resemblance to the USA and casting Hol as a well-meaning but ultimately deluded dupe whose role as a cop makes him at best complicit in his culture's worst excesses. 

Unfortunately, the second half of the series never manages to live up to the first half, skipping forward in time by about ten years and ditching the systemic critique of its first half. Instead, the corrupt police commander who had previously appeared as a symptom of Thanagar's ills is turned into a literal monster, a strawman for the newly christened Hawkman to soundly thump over the head in place of addressing larger issues. The systemic concerns of the series' first half are never meaningfully addressed in the later issues and Hawkworld ends up falling back into being a simple tale of good cops versus bad cops, despite the first half of the series having been largely unambiguous about cops' nature as agents of state violence and imperialism. It's a shocking and deeply confusing disconnected that I can't tell if it's because I'm bringing modern politics and assumptions to the book or that someone at DC completely lost their nerve halfway through. This is what makes Hawkworld so frustrating to read, on the one hand its insightful and anti-colonial and surprisingly relevant to 2020, but on the other it never commits to those ideas because doing so would be too radical, the end result is a book which is very good right up until the point that it completely wimps out and shuffles back into mediocrity.

She-Hulk

After a long interval of living, unread, in my Comixology files, I finally read She-Hulk by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido. The quality of the series almost goes unsaid; it's one of the best of its era and niche, a part of the a whole constellation of early to mid 2010's "street level" Marvel superhero books which started, more or less with Daredevil and Hawkeye, ran through She-Hulk and Spider-Woman, extended into Hellcat and debatably Squirrel Girl, and then fizzled out several years ago. I try to fight nostalgia back most of the time, but it can't be overstated how good that whole wave of titles was, almost universally fun and approachable, grounded and empathetic, and with top-notch art across the board. Anyway, She-Hulk by Soule and Pulido is fantastic. It keeps to a relatively straightforward procedural style, makes the courtroom antics feel real thanks to Soule's actual background as a lawyer, and connects with the Marvel Universe in ways which set it among the others without ever feeling too overwhelming. The whole deal with The Blue File, the series' overarching mystery is well handled and does something really interesting with Nightwatch, an absolutely nothing character, who I'm a little disappointed we haven't seen turn up again since this reinvention. Reading She-Hulk made me nostalgic for this whole era, of which this series was one of the best.

The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal

Petals to the Metal is the arc where the McElroy family's The Adventure Zone podcast found its footing and really began to blossom into the series that it would become, so there were a lot of expectations riding on this entry in the graphic novel adaptations of the series. Generally speaking, it continues to nail most of what made the series work and polish the story into something a little more refined and coherent. The narrative trimming and changes done are smooth, the jokes still work, and its able to foreshadow events in a way that the podcast, given its nature as an emergent narrative, could never really do. Carey Pietsch's cartooning remains fabulous, and what makes this story work as a graphic novel must certainly be credited to her. This series remains the defining work of her young career and while I greatly enjoy what she's doing, I do wonder if she's really going to stick around do all seven potential books, especially if they keep ballooning in size. The only criticisms of Petals to the Metal as a comic are much the same as could be made about Petals to the Metal as a podcast and the big one is the main characters are kind of incidental to the story and don't feel like they have an important role in the emotional climax. Such is the nature of trying to tell a story in a DnD campaign, and its something that TAZ would get better at subsequently, but in graphic novel form hard not to think about. Without as clear of a distinction between "player characters" and "non-player characters" it's not quite as strange to see the main trio take a back seat, but without the charisma and speed of the podcast form it's much easier to sit back and say "wait, the main character's aren't even doing anything here". This volume is also noticeably thicker than the first two volumes of The Adventure Zone, and I hope that this series isn't going to swell, Harry Potter-like, with each entry, if only for the sake of Pietsch not keeling over from the effort.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth

Supposedly the capper to the Batman stories Snyder and Capullo's started telling all the way back in 2011 with the New 52 reboot of the character, though that's a little hard to swallow when they are still very much doing a bunch of Batman stuff in their current Death Metal event series. It's Batman playing in a post-apocalyptic DC universe, bombastic and unhinged, upending the toy box and smashing things like there's no tomorrow. It's fun, beautifully drawn, and incredibly over the top, but it's not going to be for everyone. For one thing, it's a tour of a ruined DC universe, so it's not exactly kind of most characters; there's a lot of death and mutilation and grotesqueness abounds. It's also deeply, deeply, misanthropic. I've got an essay talking about the politics of this book at greater length ready to go up at some point, but the short version is that this is a comic which starts off with an incredibly unsubtle allegory for the 2016 election and then ends with a big, cheesy hope shot that means absolutely nothing.

Even beyond my political reading of it, not everything about the story works. Snyder and Capullo's Batman work has had a ton of Joker in it and his role here is obnoxious and contains a bafflingly unearned redemption arc. More importantly, the book is built on misanthropy and the evil that ordinary people do but is completely unable to actually confront this thematically or narratively. It's a major thematic shortcoming.

I'm reminded of the ending of Grant Morrison's Batman Inc, a similar endpoint to an era of Batman which was fundamentally informed by the rejection of Morrison's vision by the rest of DC Comics. It's a bitter, angry book, but still beautiful and engaging, and fun to talk about.

Batman Universe

The complete other end of the spectrum from Last Knight on Earth, Batman Universe is a glorious romp through the DC universe, exploring the setting and characters and having fun in this day-glo fantasia. Nick Derrington knocks the art out of the park, and the constraints of shorter chapters mean that Brian Bendis' writing is more succinct and energetic than I've ever seen it before. I've idly wondered for years now why there's no current Batman animated series, and Batman Universe seems very much designed as the equivalent of one: the ties to current continuity are nearly nonexistent, the art is distinct and skews away from pseudo-realism in favor of pop aesthetics, and the approach in general is lighthearted.

It's not the deepest book, at least on an initial read, it's pointedly light fare, but it's still incredibly good. It is an unabashed, all-caps SUPERHERO STORY that doesn't feel retro or dated.

[alittlelessdemocracy]

The Parapolitics of Art

Lately I've been working from the hypothesis, adapted from my early adoption of Danto's end of art thesis as a student, combined with my own weird take on the differences between early modern painters like Picasso and Matisse, and mid-century modernist critics like Greenberg and his followers, as well as more utopian/progressive modernist projects like the Bauhaus, which I lump in with them as regards their mutual rejection of individual expression, that artists perform a compensatory function in the west, or for global capitalism. I think artists take on the excess perspective, affect, attention, attachment, and ennui that do not find utilitarian applications within capitalism and its surrounds, or rather they are the product of that excess, since I think picturing any of us as being in a position to adopt a perspective rather than discover one doesn't get our own agency quite right (even though rejecting the possibility of choice of perspective also falsely ignores our responsibility for how we choose to play from our perceived position.) Roughly speaking the artist is as much a symptom of the inadequacies of the system as the addict. I think the difference has to do with the public aspect of making art. To be an artist is to demand to participate in public life in some form while largely refusing to participate in the available democratic terms of engagement, utilizing instead socially neglected aptitudes and sensitivities (like imagination and perceptual awareness of the visual world) and drawing upon faculties constituted by alternative traditions and alternative takes on those traditions nurtured on the margins of public life...aka "the arts" or our version of shamanic traditions (“shamanism” itself being a fantasmatic projection of Western anthropologists to begin with anyway.) What's especially confusing for artists about the politics of this moment is that the margins that artists have historically constituted, and the margins who supported them were generally ones of privilege, not abuse. So to the extent that one identifies as/with the artist as a role or orientation, one loses the oppression Olympics. Even to die penniless in the proverbial garret is a privilege. I think being an artist (or choosing the ceaseless path of “becoming an artist,” to borrow my own language from a few years ago) also has recognizable affinities with what some have called the warrior ethos. In other words, I reject the category of "art worker” or “creative” as an attempt to recoup the artist for the left as a “responsible” citizen. The system is fucked, but at least artists get to fuck with it...not so much from a position of radicallity, as so much of our own PR would have it, but from an ironically embedded position of deep identification with tradition in opposition to the institutions that the tradition upholds and depends on. Irony is only possible within the relative safe space of stable institutions, which ironically protect this privilege to object, even as they attempt to stamp it out completely as a possibility. As I also wrote some time ago: “to be an artist is to experience dislocation as a virtue,” and anyone can join (or recognize themselves as belonging to) this pirate tradition, and to the extent they opt into this alternative worldview, they are (becoming) artists. Artists turn their status as misfits and outsiders into a counterfeit passport, and traditionally have always looked to members of the elite to provide them with the space and resources necessary to facilitate their "travels." As artists, we actually have a deep psychosocial connection to the elite which goes far beyond our own dependence on their money: we aspire to be as outside of the village as they are. I think in a lot of ways, our patrons understand and accept this fact more than artists, who generally think of themselves as being on the side of “the people,” and the revolution, believing that revolution is about making everyone an artist, rather than what it actually comes down to, which is closing the loopholes in the system so that no one would still desire to escape it. Until then, some artists need a lot of resources to make their journey, and some need less, but all of them are resident aliens in one way or another, looking for places to get away with something that exceeds the demands and roles available within the "straight" world. It’s interesting that the iconography of elitism (the illuminated eye on the pyramid, the skull and crossbones) is such that it could also represent the artist. So the question of painting (or making art) like a native (which is an interesting term because it's one constituted from the outside looking in - and here I'm thinking of the colonial context) is apropos. Disregarding the problems with the native/non-native distinction, and provisionally assuming the existence of the native for purposes of discussion, I think the difference the distinction is intended to mark is also close to the heart of the distinction that artist/non-artist is intended to make salient. We (westerners at least) constitute these distinctions because we do not feel at home in our own culture (the concept of culture itself, in the anthropological rather than elite sense is also a symptom of this internal disunity.) These roles (anthropologist, artist) emerge in the context of the modern world mostly (attempts to locate ancient artists, or non-western artists, are always provisional distortions, even though, like the idea of the artist as leftist, they come from a place of “good” intention.) Nevertheless, it's also complicated by the fact that there's been a lot more global culture a lot earlier than this picture accounts for. Enlightenment Europeans drew on their understanding of Chinese and Indian thought and statecraft when coming up with their plans to reorder society in a way that erased "superstition" and the authority of tradition. On top of this I'm not so much of a postmodernist that I would say that we can't actually talk meaningfully about non-western art or philosphy (which would sort of be the implication if I was - which ultimately leads to Quine's radical translation argument, and Foucault's relativism of force, or really to the belief that we can't actually talk meaningfully to anyone, even ourselves.) I'm enough of a structuralist in my leanings to think that maybe it (the emergence of art) has more to do with what we used to call "civilization"...as something like a gradient from nomadic hunter gatherers to tribal settlements and agriculture, to towns, to cities, institutions, architecture, politics, etc...so - to get to my point - if art meets certain needs within the context of "civilization," those needs, to the extent that they are universal, are met in different ways in different civilizations, and in even more different ways in less "civilized" contexts. Again - the language is problematic, but listing the differences between what we used to call prehistoric or "primitive" groups and more "advanced" settings would expand an already overlong explanation to the point of losing whatever coherence continues to cling to it. Or to put it more simply - civilization produces native non-natives, and/or non-native natives, but within civilization, and further in within any pocket of civilization, the same thing occurs on a smaller scale. Within the worlds of contemporary art, their appear to be distinctions between those who appear to one group as natives (again looking from the apparent outside in) and those who feel themselves like non-natives. In the company of fellow artist/aliens, I vacillate in my feeling at home and my feeling excluded, and compensate for these feelings by imagining that some other participants feel more at home with the privileges of being an artist, and around the privileges that those who support us enjoy and gain by their association with us. By imagining that some other artists are more native to the situation than I am, I constitute myself as more free than them, more "awake" than them, and more of an "artist" than them. So again - I can't help seeing art as some kind of compensatory outlet for pent up aggression, or under-employed imagination, or unsatisfied appetite for creative expression or initiatory annihilation of existing limits, which we all know are temporary from the perspective of eternity - which is the perspective that all art really is coming from (this too shall pass.)

The problem with art that seeks to be democratic or representative or communicative - i.e. “accessible” -  is that insofar as it succeeds, it does not really meet the deeply antisocial desires that we look to art to fulfill. It attempts to resolve the external contradictions that its continuing existence - even in such a diminished form - proves have not been resolved.

[crohnsdigest]

Explained: How Your Immune System Fights Off Coronavirus (and Other Germs)

Our immune systems are very finely tuned, experts say. But yes, there are steps you can take to make sure yours is working at its best. With coronavirus concerns spreading quickly across the globe, claims of what might help individuals avoid catching it are also on the rise. Beyond precautions like hand-washing and avoiding people who are ill, what can you do to make sure your immune system is ready to fight off COVID-19 and other viruses that you may be exposed to?

First of All, How Does Our Immune System Work?

Let’s start at the beginning: The immune system is the network of cells throughout our body (in the skin, the blood, and elsewhere) that work together to prevent or limit infection from potentially harmful pathogens (like bacteria and viruses) and to prevent damage from noninfectious agents (like sunburn and cancer), according to a definition from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Scientists categorize the various immune cells in two groups: innate immune cells and adaptive ones, explains Michael N. Starnbach, PhD, a professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Innate immune cells are the first line of defense. They identify microbes and other potential threats, triggering a response to get rid of them. Adaptive immune cells are involved in the second part of an immune response. “These are special cells that respond to ‘mop up’ the remainder of the organisms left after the innate immune response,” Dr. Starnbach says. Here comes the interesting part: The adaptive immune system has what’s known as “immune memory,” meaning that when those cells see a pathogen that has previously entered the body, not only do they help get rid of the invader, they also make more copies of themselves to continue to build a stronger defense in the future so the body is better prepared to fight off the pathogen if and when it reappears, says Starnbach. In the case of new viruses, such as the novel coronavirus, however, no one has a heightened response to it, because no one’s immune memory has encountered it. No one has been exposed and therefore no one has developed immunity, leaving more of us susceptible, Starnbach explains.  We also don’t have vaccines against the new virus like we have for known viruses. RELATED: Scientists Fast-Track Research for Coronavirus Treatment and Vaccine Vaccines work precisely because of immune memory, Starnbach says. When you get a vaccine, such as for flu, you’re exposing your immune system to a version of the virus that causes the body to enhance the number of immune cells that can respond to and fight off the virus if you get exposed to the real thing. Vaccines are a kind of boost to our immune systems that actually does work, Starnbach says. But it’s worth noting that a vaccine isn’t a boost to our whole immune system. A flu shot doesn’t make you more resistant to colds and other illness; it boosts your immune response to the specific strains of the flu that the vaccine was designed to protect you from. “A vaccine is very specific and designed to fight off a particular pathogen such as chicken pox, polio, or the flu,” Starnbach says. The idea of boosting your immune system globally to make you more resistant to everything or anything that might be out there is really flawed, Starnbach says. “Our immune systems are very finely tuned,” he explains. The different immune cells are geared to recognize things in our bodies that are potentially harmful and to clear out those things. “If they weren’t, we either wouldn’t be able to respond to the organism that might invade us. Or if our immune systems were too active they would attack our own tissues.” The immune system attacking our own tissue is what happens in the case of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease. “And we don’t want to globally tune up the immune system to that point,” Starnbach notes. Some research has investigated whether supplements with specific vitamins and nutrients may help protect against specific colds and viruses, but the data would seem to suggest that if supplements are helpful they may do more in the way of reducing severity of an infection or illness once you catch it rather than fighting it off in the first place. What’s really important to remember about the novel coronavirus is that scientists hadn't studied it before the outbreak at the end of 2019 and don’t yet have answers about whether or not certain remedies may or may not help, says Yufang Lin, MD, an internal medicine doctor at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Lyndhurst Campus of the Cleveland Clinic Health System in Ohio. Vaccines have not yet been developed or tested; there is no data to say that a supplement that may have lessened severity, for instance, of a cold has the same effect when it comes to COVID-19.

What We Do Know: There Are a Lot of Factors That Can Weaken Immune Health

You’ve likely been hearing that people with weakened immune systems should take extra precautions when it comes to avoiding COVID-19 risk. What makes one person’s immune system “weaker” than someone else’s? There are several known factors that make it harder for our bodies’ immune systems to work at their best and fight off potentially harmful pathogens (like the new coronavirus). They include: Smoking Smoking suppresses your immune systems and weakens your lungs, so people who smoke are more susceptible to having pneumonia or a viral infection, Lin says. Medications Some drugs can keep your immune system from functioning in the way that a healthy person’s would, says Lin. “Immunomodulators, steroids, or medications for autoimmune conditions can suppress your immune system,” she says. Age Young children can be more susceptible to catching viruses because their immune systems are still developing; it’s part of the maturation process, Lin says. As they grow older, children’s immune systems are exposed to different viruses, they become accustomed to being exposed to more viruses, and they become much more able to fight those off. “But when they are very young, every time see a new pathogen their body is mounting a significant response,” Lin says. It appears as though children are not at a higher risk for catching the new coronavirus, however, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Older people, too, tend to have weaker immune systems than other groups. Older people can have multiple chronic medical problems, says Lin. If the body is constantly dealing with a variety of medical conditions that can make it harder to fight off a virus. “Along with that, as we get older our immune system gets a little bit weaker, and it can take longer for our bodies to mount a significant immune response when we get sick. That gives the virus or infection more time to grow or to replicate, which could lead to more severe symptoms,” says Lin. Underlying medical conditions Preexisting chronic medical conditions, like asthma, diabetes, and heart disease, can affect the immune system and make people with these conditions at higher risk of infections. People with these conditions also do appear to be at a higher risk of becoming severely ill with the new coronavirus than others, according to information from the World Health Organization. Additionally, the CDC advises that older adults are also at heightened risk of COVID-19 (though does not specify an age group). Pregnancy Pregnant women experience changes in their immune system and body that may place them at higher risk for catching viral infections, including COVID-19, according to the CDC. Just by being pregnant your immune system is somewhat stretched, because it is taking care of two rather than just one, says Lin. “This may put pregnant women at risk for developing a more severe infection,” she explains. Malnutrition People who are malnourished are more susceptible to viruses and certain diseases, Starnbach says. Deficiency of certain vitamins and minerals in the body keeps the immune system from functioning at its best. Replenishing those missing nutrients with supplements in those cases can help the immune system function in a healthy way and better ward off diseases and infections. (But whether or not supplements help improve immune response generally or in specific ways in people who are not deficient in vitamins and nutrients to begin with is less clear.)

The Bottom Line: What You Can Do Right Now to Keep Your Immune System Healthy

So what can you do to protect yourself against the new coronavirus and other germs? First of all, focus on preventing exposure to and spread of pathogens, Lin says. Wash your hands, and if you cough or sneeze, do so into a tissue and throw that tissue away. (The CDC has published additional guidelines on how to prevent exposure to and spread of the new coronavirus.) RELATED: Flu Season Tips for Washing Your Hands The other part of the equation is practicing the health-promoting behaviors that keep your own immune system functioning at top capacity (and that help prevent underlying chronic health problems that ultimately do make you more susceptible to infections), according to Lin and Starnbach. More specifically: Get enough sleep. Healthy sleep supports the immune system in a lot of really critical ways, Lin says. Research finds that there are actually very important parts of the immune response that occur during the different stages of sleep and are regulated by our bodies’ circadian systems.Eat healthy foods, including lots of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables. The vitamins and minerals in our food are the lifelines all the systems in our body rely on to function well (including the immune system); the better you feed the body with the nutrients you need, the better it runs and can avoid chronic and acute disease, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (Also avoid consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, which can interfere with immune functioning, according to an Alcohol Research review paper from 2015.) Stay active. Researchers haven’t yet pinpointed the mechanism through which staying active keeps the immune system functioning best, but they do know exercise helps keep other systems in the body functioning properly, so they suspect there’s a link, according to NIH. (There’s even evidence that older adults who exercise regularly can keep their immune systems functioning similarly to people decades younger, according to a study published in April 2018 in Aging Cell.) Note: There is evidence you can overdo it. High-intensity or extreme training can actually harm immune functioning. For optimal immune functioning, stick with moderate activity levels.Manage your stress. Stress can actually suppress the immune system, keeping it from working at 100 percent. “Try to take time to relax and do something fun,” Lin says. “Make sure you take care of yourself.” click here to read more on crohnsdigestnews click here to get supplements click here to buy udos choice Read the full article

[popcartoonkabala]

Power and the Princess problem

(Old speculations: https://carilynn27.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/indiana-jones-he-man-she-ra-and-biblical-symbolism/)

Happy holidays folks: the moment the winter really comes in is one of the few summits between the Solar and the Lunar in the Hebrew calendar. Dec. 4th is the day the rainprayer comes in earnest and so: the New season equinox. This is one of the great opportunities for bridging and healing hearth and internal process, so in that spirit-- She-Ra and The Princesses of Power tries to resolve an epic mythic moral quandary: the responsibility of the privileged.   She is classically, the first of the “woke” heroines, alerted to being a villain and switching sides to join the noble rebels, irony of ironies in light of the absurdity of a toy line just being marketed speaking to virtue or progressive righteousness. But this is part of the pop covenant: toys cannot e sold unless the buyer can feel good about them, rather than compromised or idolatrous. We began this Tumblr feed with the question of how a viciously anti-iconic religious fundamentalist narrative and tradition could make space for the place of heroes and characters with divine powers on All Our Kids Things. The simplest answer, traditionally going back to the prioritizing of “Teraphim” amongst the house of Rachel throughout the bible, even into the original Kingdom of Saul, whose daughter, Michal, the most humiliated of Biblical Princesses (as opposed to Queens, who suffer even worse humilations and indignities alas.) Recall: in order to legally be allowed to construct a children’s cartoon during prime kid watching hours, the original He-man cartoon had to have The Best Morals, eloquently and unmissably isolated and pointed to at the end of every episode... ... and thus had the full privilege of depicting beautiful muscular and hulking people in various states of archaic undress fighting an ongoing guerillla war against each other. Monsters equally erotic. covered in body hair and drooling, cackling, tho oft veiled and masked for added terror and confusion, the heroes are magnificent, affectionate, appreciative, and experienced as wholehearted stand ins for the children also experiencing themselves as whole hearted, wholey expressed bold moral-yet-playful adventurers, making the world safe for their lifeplay. Where the first series allowed to be this way. He-man, a synecretic Conan/Lovecraft by way of Star Wars and funneled through the holiest King Jack Kirby z”l was based in a World/universe/reality where the King was Good and ruled over a good Kingdom, in the aspect of Arthur or Dhul Karnayim, as well as Franz Josef in some modernity narratives, and even Rudolf II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor In this universe, the monarchy was good and the rebels in the swamps and forest were straight up evil monsters, Skull face Litches and insect hungered,  animal savage or terrifyingly accented, these were easy villains to fear and resent, and feel good in the triumph against. And then school preschool games would turn violent, and a kid would feel self-righteous as He-man, standing up for the good order-- parents began to complain. The valorization of violent He-man, who’s actually the prince of the Kingdom and the spoiled son of the King Randor, who secretly was initiated into ancient cosmic mysteries, specifically of and in a Sword (lol). His twin sister has the second half of the sword, and it’s a little different in her universe, specifically a tikkun on the excesses and criticisms of He-man’s ostensible ethos: Here, the great Empire, The Evil Horde, is the ruling power and their drone army ruins everything nice and steals money from all villagers. SHE IS PART OF THIS ARMY, for sublime cosmic inversionary reasons, stolen by the Empire but soon/eventually to realize her true responsibility and identity as the protector of the good-- here is the beginning of the princess problem! Being trapped. In the good or in the bad, the main thing resented by the princess is the cage of privileged, especially when made aware of the horrors that her comfort depends on. This comes in great question and challenge in the most recent and enduring of Disney re-clarifications in Frozen: the unchecked princess, letting it go. Being all destructive and not worrying about consequence because she really doesn’t have to until her heart is melted by her sister, and not any other human consideration imposed. This idea of the Will of the Princess transcending morality or accountability has long been recognized as a theological/kabbalistic principle about the mystery of What Reality Is, where G-d is hidden, and what faith demands. I’ll try to explain briefly: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov gave up theology and began teaching only in the context of fairy tales he would tell (Tales of Ancient days). The first and last and middle most of these stories is about the Princess problem. That is, again: feeling trapped. By anything. The good or the bad. R’ Nachman’s cosmic supernal princess narrative as metaphor for the order of creation, and nature of The Problem Forever Until: Once upon a time there was a King                                                                       The Original and Fundamental He had six sons and one Daughter. He loved her so much but one day he got angry at her about something or another and he shouted “may the Evil One take you away” and in the morning she was gone and he was so sad The King had a Viceroy/Hero who volunteered to go and find her and eventually he will And a whole story goes from there, of effort, hope and occasional revelation followed by profound personal disappointment but the never ending will and hope to find her, that does lead to her being found, someday. The Princess has long been identified in kabbalistic metaphor as the True Purpose and the only revelable, experiential face of G-d. Wagner similarly enthrones Votan’s eldest daughter leader over the Valkyrie and both knower and expressor of the Original god’s true inexpressible will, tho he comes into full conflict with her (and thus, himself) over this issue. Malkhut, in Western Thelema, has a bit of a bad reputation, like the Vedic/Eastern “Maya”, reality as illusion for the mystic adept who would see beyond it. This has been the bias of western “sword” religion: the feminine intuitive/bias emotional discredited as untrustworthy since Gilgamesh and into all the legalistic, patristic monotheiae. The reclamation of the “Sword” by the feminine has been the core empowerment narrative since antiquity, Athena’s logic, strategy and clarity expressed even in the pragmatic biblical heroines like Judith and Jael, as well as Serach bat Asher, Tzipporah (emergency smashing glass to construct a blade to circumcise her son to rescue her husband Moses from “the snake”).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b6/Giaele_e_Sisara.JPG/1024px-Giaele_e_Sisara.JPG Here, and for children watching a show, the transformation ritual is central to the gifting to children the Power window of actively expressed will. The commercials are hoping the children will express that will to invest into the company and concept by buying The Things with the Icons engraved, or miniatures of the Icons themselves. Contemplative iconography saved the life of King David, because his wife Princess Michal keeps them around the house, and uses one to distract guards from the escape of her beloved, in a sort of Biblical Ferris Bueller moment. The lifesized statue in the corner, of god-only-knows who (Tammuz?) https://popcartoonkabala.tumblr.com/search/tammuz This modern She-ra inverts this all. There is no image but for the Castle, and suddenly all the human impact of the terrible empire becomes clear, and a moment for self reflection, acknowledgement of priviledge, and a look at the larger, older traditions that True Freedom and Righteous Princessing depend on. Because signifigant in this version, heavily influenced by Adventure Time’s adaptation and update of the Princess concept. As Science explorers or decadent priviledged candy people, Adventure Time radically recovered the Fantasy Cartoon tropes into Post-modern accessibility. Princesses of Power does this too, agressively critiquing the alienation of The Princesses while sympathizing with their terror at a world of violence and Unstopable Empire. Check it out. More to say soon. But first, check this most profound of R Nachman’s Princess Narratives, and see what you can make of it: Page 35 is The Pirate Princess, followed by commentary: https://books.google.co.il/books?id=TiRjDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Palace+of+pearls&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-_ubUz43fAhXP2qQKHeC-DGEQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[atticusblog2016-blog]

New Post has been published on Atticusblog

New Post has been published on https://atticusblog.com/the-best-language-learning-apps/

The best language learning apps

Technology has been a piece of a double-edged sword for language getting to know. On the only hand, tech advances, the net, and mastering apps have meant it’s never been less difficult to learn a language. On the opposite hand, it’s also never been simpler to escape with traveling without ever hassle mastering one, way to apps like Google Translate as a way to do all of the difficult work for you. Still, whether or not you want to learn about the tour, for paintings, because you’re moving abroad, or only for the private satisfaction, there’s a daunting array of options. We’ve sorted thru all the apps, software program, and services we should get our fingers on to parent out the fine ways to research a language on-line. And when you have a large journey coming up, you may also want to check out a number of our favorite travel gadgets and travel apps, to assist with some of the vacation complications past the language barrier.

Finding the Best Loan for Your Needs

Reputation is Everything

The great unsecured non-public loans come from creditors who are doing their first-class to help people. They have been uninterested in seeing tough operating customers fall among the cracks due to the fact they didn’t have an excessive sufficient credit score rating. Not everybody with bad credit became capable of preventing it from going on. Some had been the end result of the financial system and others because of fitness problems.

Best buy electronics store

Yet the typical lender would not study any of those situations. Instead, they examine your credit score, your debts, and your earnings. Find a lender presenting the exceptional unsecured personal loans with none credit take a look at and with none tough paperwork system.

Requirements

Find a provider who has very few necessities a good way to get the money. They typically will need income verification and an image ID. Some want plenty greater so that you need to think about what they want and what you’ve got. Don’t observe with a lender who can’t get you permitted due to your scenario and profile.

Application

You should be capable of fill out the files for the excellent unsecured non-public loans in a matter of mins. You only need to offer some basic details. The utility may be carried out in man or woman or it may be done online. Make positive the lender can provide you the dollar amount you need so you don’t get part of the cash but not it all. Don’t get into the habit of borrowing from more than one.

Find one lender who can help you get your desires met. The utility must have a place for you to enter the quantity of money you want. Once your application is reviewed you will be given an offer. Make positive you review the hobby price, any expenses, and your compensation installment amounts. Don’t accept it unless the whole thing seems best and you could come up with the money for it.

Saying Hola in the Right Language

Spain is one of the most fitting locations to reflect on International economic trends, given its magnificent include of the worldwide financial system over the past few a long time and its amazing political transformation-allowing it to expect its rightful place some of the main democratic international locations.” When Eduardo Aninat, Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund said those powerful words in 2001, Spain became being illuminated below an international highlight with a brand new power.

After many a long time of isolation and exchange constraints, Spain changed into eventually unleashing the power of integration and interdependence among many countries. Like Anat underlined: a choice with the aid of humans to take benefit of the opportunities supplied (whether or not via exchange, migration, funding, and acquisition of know-how); the reducing of limitations to worldwide exchange and capital flows: all this contributed remarkably to a New Spain that we recognize today.

But like Aninat additionally did no longer miss to factor out, all of this was now not feasible without the competencies of societies and political systems to evolve. To adapt; this is indeed the toughest part of any transformation. As the forces of globalization took the keep and as EU traversed new opportunities and challenges, this ability to adapt became a clincher of kinds for many countries and organizations. Translation of English to Spanish and vice-versa became a necessary tool for outreach and expansion.

Today, with a multi-speed EU or even a put up-Brexit international, the implications of adapting

speedy and better have grown multi-fold. For groups and change partners that want to combine with the rest of the arena, the restrictions of cultural and language boundaries do not maintain a great excuse anymore.

Technology and human capital have exploded past all restricting elements and today lots of expertise, revel in and area makes it possible to pass the invisible obstacles that continue to be internally and externally for markets as prolific as Spanish-speaking ones.

Whether one is venturing into Spain or a place inside Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela; it’s miles crucial to attend to knowledge round translators for English to Spanish beforehand.

Computer rentals Los Angeles

These markets are characterized by means of precise and sturdy linguistic variations and frequently this versatility trickles into cultural undertones as properly. No self-respecting logo or International enterprise would be neglectful of the needs that translation of English to Spanish warrants in any such dynamic and exclusive marketplace.

Globalization, in spite of everything, is set interconnectedness, integration, and interdependence and that displays vastly in each the language as well as the social fabric of any state. Having a great information for translation of English to Spanish might be just the lever that International brands need to propel themselves in these markets.

With elevated Internationalization of production, enlargement inside the alternate of services, dominance over banking enterprise and big corporations; Spain has been searching at groups and investments with a protracted-time period radar for decades now. But reducing alternate barriers isn’t any guarantee of penetrating a brand new and awesome marketplace like Spain. Plus, having manipulated over language gaps could additionally make sure that Spanish-speak markets beyond Spain could also be approached and conquered with confidence and stability.

Enhance Your Mobile App User Experience by Following These Tips

The success of your mobile app isn’t always contingent but depends on a variety of-of factors. The most important elements are the person revel in (UX). The user enjoy is the best difference between a hit apps and those that fail badly.

In order to deliver the best person stories on your users, it essential for you to investigate person conduct styles even as they use your app. Unless you recognize those psychological underpinnings, you may not be able to build a product that especially caters to the desires of your clients and meets their expectations. To start with, you can accumulate consumer data and build hypothetical consumer personas. Today’s modern-day cell app call for plenty greater from cell apps to hold their interest and urge them to come back returned.

Here are a few guidelines to assist decorate your mobile app user experience:

Error free capability

Perfecting your app earlier than launch is the key. Many app builders fail to thoroughly check the app and regrettably end up launching a defective product. Statistics display that ninety% of the customers stop using an app due to bad performance and 86% of the person absolutely deleted the app if it has a wrong functionality. If your app does now not work, first of all, all different first-rate UX functions might not rely upon up with out. The capability of your app have to help users accomplish their obliwithoutan excessive amount of attempt – that is the motivation for downloading your app in the first location! So, prioritize your middle capabilities and categorize the others as ‘first-class-to-have’.

Efficient On-boarding

The on boarding method is essential with regards to ensuring the success of your app. The point is, if the consumer has the problem with the first few monitors of your app, they’ll likely drop off – with a bit hesitation. Hence, presenting users with a superb on boarding experience is the inspiration for attracting and maintaining customers. The aim is to expose the value of your app for your customers via demonstrating how they could reap what they want thru your app – quick and correctly. If your app has a complex workflow or hidden functionalities, it is critical which you use modern on boarding. This reduces the abandonment quotes.Pc software free download full version.

Usability

Usability includes the layout of facts, design, content and all the other factors that permit users to perform their tasks within your app. The idea is to make factors that can be clicked, tapped or swiped – prominent. It’s important that you stay constant with gestures in the course of the app to optimize its usability.

Reduce effort

You want to help customers discover their way speedy whilst they browse your app. Integrate seek techniques within your app. Provide the user with search alternatives and filters to manual them.

[realitycrazy2017-blog]

Why Is My Macintosh OS X Crashing? Pointers to advertising Diagnosing Signs of Problem

New Post has been published on https://realitycrazy.com/why-is-my-macintosh-os-x-crashing-pointers-to-diagnosing-signs-of-problem/

Why Is My Macintosh OS X Crashing? Pointers to advertising Diagnosing Signs of Problem

If you have an obligation for hundreds of clients’ free advertising and marketing, free advertising and marketing, public family members, photograph design and internet site documents within your machine, PC crashes risking possible facts loss can be the main motive to panic! What to do?

I have been in the free advertising and marketing enterprise for more than thirty-5 years. I have energetic customers whose paintings I need to cope with often. I also have inactive clients who unpredictably floor every so often who additionally need immediate interest.

No matter who asks, I want to be equipped, inclined and able to perform what is wanted on a second’s notice. This indicates I have to hold a complete archive of work carried out which I can get admission to always to revise, update, reference or in any other case adapt to new packages as asked.

This library of labor includes large excessive-resolution Photoshop documents which might also have had hours, days or weeks of labor committed to them to enhance original pics in a few way; big Quark files of very last text, photos and paintings composed with state-of-the-art and meticulous design, which additionally absolutely required many, many hours of setup, now not to mention customer reviews and very last revisions; extremely complex Dreamweaver internet site documents; equally concerned Flash files for astonishing internet site animations; immaculately produced vector documents of artwork created in Adobe Illustrator; a large number of numerous drop-down menus for internet site use created in Fireworks; masses of PDF documents created with Adobe Acrobat Distiller for excessive quality output; and a potpourri of different work utilizing track, movies, movies and other miscellaneous documents.

In view that thirty-5 years is a totally long time, and has spanned several technological (and now not-so-technological) eras in the method, this painting is in a ramification of formats, along with scans of older work, in addition to actual virtual files from local applications, a number of that are now obsolete or no longer produced. Having found out years in the past that looking at each keep files and work on them at the identical hard disk with constrained space can result in issues, I have resorted to always having an external difficult drive or two as extensions from my laptop gadget so I usually have plenty of open disk area for digital “percolation,” for loss of a higher time period.

My external difficult drives have covered each firewire and USB data transfer systems, the firewire being the faster and extra pricey version. And, as might be expected, whenever I have wanted a new outside drive, the capacities have extended dramatically, while mockingly the charges have not.

Over the years, I have had many different mac os official computer systems, commonly the maximum high priced, quickest and most glorified versions available. However, I presently work on an extra conservatively priced iMac the use of OS X 10.four.11, with 2.16 GHz Intel Center 2 Duo, 1 GB of RAM (memory) and an internal tough drive with 232.89 GB of storage ability. I bought this machine several years in the past, have used it almost eighteen hours or greater each day and have loved every minute of it, specifically its fantastic display. I completely intend to improve my whole device in all likelihood later this 12 months whilst the new OS X working gadget is released. I say this with complete information that such an improve would require that I additionally upgrade all the previously mentioned software packages I exploit, in order to upload as much as a pleasing, hefty, But vital, funding.

Until just about two weeks ago, I had two external tough drives connected to this device: a Firewire filled to potential which I finished using on an everyday basis as it became making a humorous noise and that I idea I ought to maintain what’s left of it; and a Western digital “My E-book,” which has approximately the same storage potential as my inner difficult power (approx. 232 GB). After some years, I have only used approximately 1/2 of its to be had space. So, while my device started to crash again and again one recent afternoon, I was deeply troubled because I did not realize what was responsible for the hassle.

I was immediately suspicious about the “My Ebook” as it had exhibited a few unsettling Symptoms over the past six months which I usually turned into capable of push aside or deny. Those included taking a long time to mount, or failure to mount in any respect on the laptop, without apparent provocation. However, with computer restarts, the pressure would mount and I chose now not to live on the incident.

In discussing the crashing occurrences with my husband, who is a retired specialized IBM technician and engineering advisor, he at once requested me what I have been doing just previous to the crash. I said I was trying to keep my work in any one of some of the programs which covered Quark, Photoshop, and others. He too felt the MyBook become the perpetrator because that turned into the target of my saved records. I stated I hadn’t even gotten to the point in which I had informed it where to keep the records so I nevertheless had my doubts that changed into the trouble.

I decided to do a little test so one can get rid of some possibilities. I conducted a Disk Application diagnostic take a look at on the internal and MyBook tough drives and each had been suggested as hassle-free, something I significantly doubted. Then I copied some of my maxima often needed documents onto my nearly empty internal tough drive and restarted my machine without turning on the MyBook. I used to be able to work and store files with none crashes. That regarded to verify to me that the MyBook turned into at fault. But why?

I shopped on-line for a brand new external tough drive and in reading and getting to know the problem, I learned that outside hard drives don’t want to be placed to sleep after which rudely awakened to unexpectedly perform a few instantaneous feature. Given that I tend to be an impatient person driven through not enough time in the day and an excessive amount of to do within the time I’ve to be had, I realized that this situation turned into a common phenomenon in my work life. In checking my machine alternatives below Electricity Saver, I noticed that my system became set to nod off if idle for more than 15 minutes (the default setup) which occurs quite regularly when the telephone earrings or I arise to attend to some other activity periodically for the duration of the day. in all likelihood as the MyBook has gotten older and slower (as all of us do as we age), it just cannot keep up with the paces I attempt to put it through. Possibly also a function of ways plenty information is at the pressure, it simply desires more time to do everything, in particular, awaken and carry out.

additionally, I examine that it can be asking a PC gadget an excessive amount of to multitask with many programs open at one time all of which might be drawing at the to be had RAM, albeit a generous quantity of it. My husband chimed in with the concept that maybe I hadn’t allotted my reminiscence well. That rang a distant bell in my thoughts…a very remote bell. I remembered the days of allocating reminiscence for every of my packages, dividing up my available RAM in line with what made experience: more for Photoshop, much less for Quark, as an instance. I realized I hadn’t finished that assignment in many years. But in gaining knowledge of the concern on Google, I fast observed that those days had been lengthy over with the appearance of OS X which mechanically allocates RAM as wished. No surprise!

So, I decided to restart my gadget with the My E-book related and attempt to limit my program utilization to separately and adjust the sleep mode to “never” permitting it to doze off. That regarded to be the magic bullet. But, with the expertise that the MyBook was growing old and possibly overwhelmed with facts, I determined to invest in a brand new outside difficult force with the goal of putting all of my most critical files on it as an additional backup.

At mac os official Mall, I found a totally affordable Fantom GreenDrive 1TB outside eSATA/USB 2.zero difficult drive with the assist of a customer service rep which turned into well suited with Home windows and OS X 10.4 or later, for approx. $50 after rebates and loose shipping, which I could not face up to. Complying with the instructions, I hooked up it into my USB hub and formatted the new hard pressure for use with OS X.

simply as with the MyBook, it recommends continually starting the hard power earlier than turning on the computer and constantly dismounting earlier than turning off the PC to avoid any harm or loss of facts. What no person seems to ever point out is that after the strength is going off because it does every time the wind blows the wrong manner wherein I stay, the PC abruptly turns off and no tough drives ever get dismounted well in the procedure. Thus far, the brand new Fantom pressure seems to disregard such events and mounts properly away without any obvious repercussions.

However, from beyond experience, I know the MyBook does not react favorably to such incidents and I recently discovered that the satisfactory manner to deal with any terrible consequences is to completely unplug the MyBook from its supply of electricity and allow it clear itself for about a 5-minute respite earlier than plugging it again in while the computer is off. I additionally locate that if I restart my laptop machine as soon as and shut it down in between starts of evolved with the external hard drives connected, as a comparable “clearing out” interlude after such an electrical outage or any crash incidents of any kind, the whole system works better ultimately.

just the use of not unusual sense has helped me to sort thru this trouble, find a solution and work on rectifying my state of affairs with the equipment I ought to work with. I’ve began up my device with the MyBook and Fantom each connected, set the sleep mode to “in no way,” waited the long term for the MyBook to mount and then judiciously dragged a lot of my documents from the old hard pressure to copy onto the new difficult force at the same time as I sleep at night so I do not annoy the gadget with multitasking demands. even as the MyBook has continued to misbehave periodically while requested to dismount after an extended consultation, once more crashing the whole system, I have been able to circulate all of my crucial files over to the brand new force and now do not need to even switch on the MyBook at all anymore. I will now work correctly on the Fantom or on my inner difficult force with more than one programs open simultaneously without any fear approximately crashes so long as I preserve my sleep mode set to “in no way.” Once I plan to be far from the computer for an extended length, I dismount the Fantom and flip it off, restore the default sleep settings and go away understanding my device might be capable of wake up After I go back without fear approximately crashing and loss of records. What a comfort!

Of route, the motivating element which eventually got me to consciousness in this hassle – the whole loss of a entire MyBook folder of a few extraordinarily essential records I have been operating on whilst my try and save a simple report brought on the latest system crash – has been a treasured lesson in confronting what is crucial when you run an enterprise: you can never have enough dependable returned-up systems!

Marilyn Bontempo, president of Mid-Hudson free advertising In view that 1975, has substantial revel in guiding business leaders, administrators, and professionals with a hit strategies for a business increase and sustenance. lengthy-time period relationships were set up with law corporations, clinical practices, pharmaceutical organizations, real property executives, and a variety of different trade, corporate and commercial specialists. Her professional writing, modifying, photographic, design and aesthetic specialties offer customers with proven methods of attaining successful branding and public image. Mid-Hudson free advertising and marketing is a top The big apple advertising on mac os official OS, marketing, internet site and photo design firm positioned in Dutchess County’s Poughkeepsie location specializing for greater than 35 years inside the creation and management of high great branding for business achievement.

[londontheatre]

Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour. Dawn Sievewright (Fionnula), Isis Hainsworth (Orla), Caroline Deyga (Chell), Frances Mayli McCann (Kylah), Kirsty MacLaren (Manda). Photo credit Manuel Harlan

The Sopranos, the book on which Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is based, has more characters than the stage show, and occasionally the reader encounters two characters of the same name, differentiated, perhaps inevitably by nicknames. This stage production simplifies that and many other aspects of the novel, but somehow, all of the salient points are there. Given that the play is able to run without an interval, adapting a 300+ page book into a 105-minute show without leaving me feeling short-changed is quite an achievement.

I’ve moaned about precocious swearing before in the theatre, though here it seems commensurate with this set of schoolgirls, rebelling against a strict Catholic school regime. There is plenty of what can only be deemed schoolgirl humour, crude with a capital C. It’s really not for everyone, and the more unshockable those who go to this show are, the better. It’s not so much what is seen (unless you are shocked by sparks and theatrical fog) but what is described. And I’m glad so much is described rather than acted out.

For the most part, it is all very silly, but highly enjoyable, even if it did take a while to grow on me. It goes at a brisker pace than the novel, thank goodness, but without feeling rushed. Although I wasn’t offended by anything, not all the punchlines were funny. Some in the press night audience were stony-faced throughout, others crying with laughter. Few laughed in moderation. There’s Manda (Kirsty MacLaren), who thinks she bathes like Cleopatra did because she puts two scoops of powdered milk in the hot tub. There’s Chell (Caroline Deyga), whose sister is (by way of lengthy, and credible, explanation) also her auntie. There’s Orla (Isis Hainsworth), a cancer survivor whose story about getting frisky with a fellow patient while she was in hospital is frankly comical. The on-stage band, also all-female, are also worthy of mention: Amy Shackcloth (musical director/keyboards), Lilly Howard (assistant MD/keyboards), Becky Brass (percussion) and Emily Linden (guitars/bass/mandolin).

It becomes clear that these are teenagers finding their way in life, and dare I say it, they are on a journey of sorts, not just to the knockout stages of a regional school choir competition, but looking to the future in the big bad world, beyond the gated perimeter of their school. Much of the music that features in this play is not the sort of thing I would ordinarily listen to, being far removed from the usual show tune fare to be found in a number of other West End shows. Relying heavily on the back catalogue of the Electric Light Orchestra, sprinkled with traditional church pieces and the Brookside theme tune (don’t ask), all of these songs are performed with verve and perfect harmony. The odd note is out of place, but only for comic effect.

Could there have been a little more staging? A relatively sparse set allows for almost instant scene changes, which keeps the show’s momentum going. But I’ve not been transported to non-specific every-place since Once the Musical hit the West End four years ago. More to the point, I wonder if there was enough in the script to distinguish between different characters. Debatably the most distinct, Kay (Karen Fishwick), starts off as a version of Hermione Grainger, studious and conscientious, but predictably turns out to be the most daring or most indecorous, depending on your point of view of lewd behaviour. But I hope I’m right in judging this play to be one that deliberately asserts that people are not all that different from one another.

The stage show stays faithful to the novel’s setting, before the era of mobile phones – these young ladies had to agree beforehand where to meet later, which took me back more than a few years. As with the profanity, slow-motion scenes are usually a bugbear of mine, but in this show, it’s used sparingly, just the once, and for excellent dramatic effect, hilarious and harrowing in equal measure. It does have the whiff of a student production about it, with young performers playing minor characters who are considerably older. But as one character says to another at one point, “It’s not that bad, it’s just a lot of fun.”

In the last few months, more than one producer has questioned me directly about whether a certain show praised by critics and audiences in a smaller London theatre would succeed if a West End transfer were considered. Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour proves there is an audience for the quirky, unconventional production. The blunt honesty of these characters is so refreshing and their energy is extraordinary. This isn’t so much a coming of age story as a rite of passage tale. A surprisingly captivating and compelling show.

Review by Chris Omaweng

Following sold out seasons at the National Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK Tour, the smash hit, award-winning new play Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour transfers to the West End for a strictly-limited season.

From the creator of Billy Elliot (Lee Hall) comes the uplifting and moving story of six Catholic choir girls from Oban, let loose in Edinburgh for one day only. Funny, heartbreaking and raucously rude, Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour is adapted from Alan Warner’s brilliant novel, and directed by Vicky Featherstone.

Featuring the songs of ELO, Our Ladies is a glorious anthem to friendship, youth and growing up disgracefully.

Age recommendation 16+ Prepare thyself for: really rude language, flashing lights, pyrotechnics, lots of sexual references, excessive drinking, and extensive use of the smoke machine.

OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR Booking Period: 9 May 2017 – 2 September 2017 Running Time: 1 hour 45 mins – NO INTERVAL Age Recommendation: 16+

Duke of York’s Theatre 45 St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4BG Book Tickets for Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour

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