#that is UNHEARD OF here during may/early june

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

OH YEAH GOOD NEWS GUYS IT FINALLY RAINED

[gebtoons]

my contribution to the bapo timeline discourse bc i’m just gonna propose a timeline and will not be taking criticism <3 (under the cut bc this is gonna be a long post probably) 

ok disclaimer I am quite stupid, however I’m gonna use my knowledge from my own 12 years in american public high school and what little info I have about american boarding schools/catholic schools that I have from my friends lol. so. idk. 

i’m also gonna date songs/major events and i’m gonna be taking some “just trust me bro” liberties bc y’all are right it does NOT make that much sense. 

January 6: Epiphany; this is like an actual holiday lol. like its always on the sixth. idk its good that this is the starting point bc its an actual date yknow? For the purposes of this timeline were going with that its early in the week, so lets go with Monday idk

January 6-13: You and I, Role of a Lifetime; so we’re all kinda in agreement that this timeline (at least the beginning) only really makes sense if you and i/role of a lifetime aren’t like. a singular moment and are instead multiple days. so yeah, of this first week, this is like. monday-next sunday ish yknow. 

January 14: Auditions, Plain Jane Fatass; ok so having auditions for a spring musical right after kids get back from break actually makes perfect sense to me, like i can see it being like “ok take break to prepare so as soon as you come back we can have auditions so we can jump right into rehersals” yknow? and since the rave is clearly on a friday (”we’ll meet in tanya’s room on friday night”) so i’m going with the monday before.  

as for pjf, i know it doesn’t make a ton of sense for them to get a two week late birthday package their first few weeks back from school, but hear me out it makes sense. the implication throughout this entire show is that the twins have decently shitty parents. from bits of dialogue (in this song in particular lol) i’m kinda inferring their the “only concerned with how their kids make them look to others” kind of neglectful. so I don’t think it’s too outside the realm of possibility that they went away for the holidays, didn’t bring the twins, and instead mailed them a birthday package and having it show up two weeks late. realistically the timing of this isnt that important and the explicit “two week” time frame could’ve been an exaggeration on nadia’s part to mock her shit parents (idk its in her character) basically ppl are a little two fixated on this imo but anyway. moving on. 

January 18: Wonderland, A Quiet Night At Home, Rolling, Best Kept Secret; a very agreed upon point in the timeline. its the friday following the auditions. moving on. 

January 21: Confession; also very agreed upon. the monday following the rave. moving on again 

January 23: Portrait of a Girl; the date here is kinda arbitrary, but bc sister chantelle says “ok lets try to put yesterday’s rehearsal behind us” and i for the life of me cannot think of a scene she could be referring to (there’s none in the script either) that implies it wasn’t the same monday as confession (bc even in a boarding school i think holding extracurriculars that aren’t sports over the weekend (especially when they are no where near crunch time lol) is weird and not common) so i just picked a random day during the week

January 25: Birthday Bitch!, One Kiss, Are You There?; from matt’s line in wonderland, ivy’s birthday is a week after the rave. in my timeline that’s january 25th (an aquarius queen). 

btw given all grown up’s “17, how will i manage?” ivy is 16 during 17 at her party, which is strange given shes a high school senior and seniors are typically 17 during 18. so either a) she skipped a grade, not an unheard of thing. or b) shes not a senior, shes just a junior who hangs out with a bunch of seniors, which is also pretty common. and looking through the script i can’t find any mention that she is also a senior, other than yknow she graduates with them, but she isn’t mentioned during the class ranking scene? so idk not that it really matters just a fun detail 

February 3 (at night): 911 Emergency!; ok controversial. i know i like the joke about how its funny that peter having a weird dream when he was high prompted him to want to come out and really ruined his relationship with jason. BUT. i think the dream (despite it’s weirdness) would have a lot more meaning if it wasn’t the result of being really high, but if it was a dream he had like a week later as a result of a building sense of guilt/anxiety bc he told matt. also it fits better given later timeline things. (this timeline literally only exists if there are weird jumps in time that don’t make a ton of sense) (EDIT: I forgot one line about Jason crashing at ivys but fuck it forget that bitchass line this makes for more drama its staying this way)

February 4: Reputation Stain’d, Ever After; the next day following peter’s dream, idk what else to say, moving on. 

February 25-28: Spring; another jump! i’m sorry but the only way for this to make sense logistically is for there to be quite a few time jumps! however, i also think this one works bc i think it gives time for everything from around ivy’s party and peter and jason’s break up to stew emotionally. like obviously a musical only has so much time to tell a story so the audience cannot see every realistic beat, but honestly i think it makes the whole thing a little more dramatic™ if there’s space for everything to settle, and for ivy to come and apologize and such. also, the reason it’s multiple days is bc in the script, ivy is trying to study (presumably for some sort of midterm) while nadia is playing, so that probably takes place a few days before they move out, so before finals. but in the script, jason and peter are packing and peter is leaving, so that part of the song/staging takes place on the 28th. yes, that’s weird, but we are clearly thinking more about the logistics of this school than the writers were so. 

March 1: One; assuming st. cecilia’s works kinda like boarding schools here, they probably do staggered move out/move in, just bc that would be a lot to have people coming and going at once so it makes sense that peter left the day before, while jason and ivy are leaving the next day. also, given that peter is trying to call jason while he and ivy are banging, it’s probably been a hot minute since the actual break up, since peter was clearly very hurt by the whole thing, it would make sense (at least to me) that peter would reach out a month ish later, rather than like a few days later (you have to make so many assumptions to make this timeline work granted they aren’t super out there assumptions but still this is annoying) 

March 1-25: Spring Break. the coworkers I have who are in boarding school work over their school breaks, which are longer than the public school breaks (which are only a week) so i put their spring break at 3 weeks. it makes sense, and it makes the later part of the timeline make sense. 

I know i’m already halfway through this, but to me it makes sense for their to be quite a few time jumps in the story bc its a musical. they cannot show every day. there are a lot of other shows (particularly shows set in high schools) that are set over a whole school year, but if you just look at the events of the story that doesn’t make sense, so you have to imply that obviously they are not showing every little detail. moving on. 

March 25: Wedding Bells, In The Hallway, Touch My Soul; peter wakes up from his nightmare in the church, so im assuming he fell asleep in church (like he almost did during epiphany). also it makes sense that class ranks are announced in late march-early april, I know my school announced ours in like, the first week or so of april? so yeah. moving on.

(from this point on i was giving myself a headache trying to make it make sense so its all weird from here!!)

April 4: See Me, Warning; the date doesn’t really matter here, I picked a random day in early april. the script said peter is calling from him and jason’s old dorm room, as he was picking up the last of his things, so he clearly made the roommate switch after school started (makes sense to me). 

April 15-20 (approximately): Ivy finds out she’s pregnant. look google tells me on average people find out they are pregnant around 5-7 weeks after conception. i went with around 7 just so this timeline makes a tiny bit more sense given the later stuff, so yeah here we go. 

May 4: Pilgrim’s Hands, God Don’t Make No Trash, All Grown Up, Promise, Once Upon A Time, Cross; a rough night for our heroes. so given sister chantelle saying “again? wonderful.” and nadia saying “i can’t believe you missed rehearsal again”, clearly ivy has been missing quite a few rehearsals, so for dramas sake maybe from when she found out she was pregnant? also i know i’ve been saying they wouldn’t have rehearsals on weekends, and given my weird timeline this would be a saturday, but its tech week so i’ll allow it. 

May 5: Two Households, Bare, Queen Mab, A Glooming Peace; pretty self explanatory, and it makes sense to have the spring play in early may. rip jason. 

May 11: Absolution; the day before graduation peter goes to confront the priest. gives him a small amount of time to start processing, and it makes sense it would be the night before, at least to me. 

May 12: No Voice; i fucking hate this. “peter, we graduate next sunday” i hate that stupid fucking line. do you know that this timeline literally would be fine if it weren’t for that stupid fucking line? bc then, the school play would be in early may and graduation could be in late may-early june (when most high schools hold graduation) but no. keeping with continuity, they have to graduate the sunday following the school play. “peter we graduate in a month, are you really never gonna talk to me again?” would have been fine. but no, now we have beef. literally everything else about the end of this timeline being kinda weird would work itself out, except for the fucking graduation. god damn. anyway, may 12th, the graduate on may 12th which is really fucking weird bc of that one fucking line. whatever. i didn’t write the damn thing bc if i did i wouldn’t have written that fucking line. (i’ve been at this for over an hour and a half, so i’m a tad annoyed, can you tell?) 

anyway, that’s it. that’s my long as hell proposed bare timeline. if there’s anything glaringly wrong with it i don’t care bc this timeline literally cannot make sense. but honestly, now that i think about the Popular Tween High Schooler Musicals (heathers, bmc, deh) the timelines of those (especially heathers and bmc) don’t make tons of sense either. that’s just the way it is, that’s the way its gonna be. and we have to live with it. 

this post is so long it is actually slowing down my laptop as i type it

[mokkoriness]

ROCK AND READ BAND 003 A9 Interview

Something will awaken in these "beautiful beasts"?! Let's take another look at A9's origins before their 15th year anniversary!

There will be an "important announcement" 10 days after this magazine is released, on August 10 at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. As we look forward to the live show, let's take a look at their 15-year history. The members were frank and open about everything, such as unknown backstories that some members learned about for the first time from before the band formed, discord during the period they were classified as neo Visual-kei, and setbacks at their International Forum Hall A show, which became a turning point for them. That they can be so honest here is surely because they are in a better place now.

A9, who are celebrating their 15th year anniversary this year, first released the 15TH ANNIVERSARY BEST ALBUMS "Kachou no Chou" and "Fuugetsu no Shi", re-recordings of songs chosen by the members, on April 24th. This was something that was kind of expected. The issue is then what came after that.

Show: Yes (laughs). Many things.

Yes. On the first day on the tour on May 4th, you made some very interesting announcements. The tour that you are currently on now (interview took place in mid-June) in conjunction with those albums, "BEST OF A9 TOUR ALIVERSARY" had "A9 LAST ONE MAN TOUR" added to the tour title. Also, the tour final, which will take place on August 10th at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall, "BEST OF A9 TOUR ALIVERSARY FINAL A9 15TH ANNIVERSARY" also had "A9 LAST ONEMAN" added to the title. On this day, the band will make an "important announcement". On top of that, the live at Hibiya will be your last one man live, but it was announced that at the A9 festival live, "Beautiful Beast Fest.", to take place afterwards on August 24th, for some reason, even though it's A9's festival live, they will be the opening act. Although you are welcoming your 15th year anniversary, we don't know if A9 is in a celebratory mood or not (laughs). Today, while asking about a general outline of these last 15 years, I would also like to ask about the true meaning of these interesting announcements.

All: Sure.

In what aspects do you feel that this is your 15th anniversary year?

Nao: That my stiff shoulders won't go away. I'm joking (laughs). It would be that just looking at the number of songs we have, we have over 100 songs! Personally, it doesn't feel like we have that many songs. But we already have over 100 songs. That's amazing.

Show: We have about 120 songs.

Nao: The fact that the number of songs we have are in the triple digits actually makes it feel like we have been doing this for 15 years. Though saying we have been doing this for 15 years, we have always been doing this, so I don't actually feel the gravity of that. But taking the time to think about it, 15 years is quite some time. It's very long.

It's the length of time it would take for a newborn baby to reach third year in middle school. 15 years.

Nao: That's right. When fans tell me "I first started listening to you when I was in elementary school", it makes me think "Are you serious?!". When I think that those fans who were elementary school students back then are now adults and are full-fledged members of society, it really is a long period of time. It makes me actually feel just how long 15 years is.

Saga: I don't really get that feeling if you tell me a newborn baby would be in third year in middle school, but if I were to compare that length of time to a prison sentence, I do think "That's real long" (laughs).

It was just an example, but still (laughs).

Saga: Mine was a bad example, but putting it in terms of prison sentences makes it feel long.

Tora: That's true!

Saga: Just try imagining "A9 in prison for 15 years". It would make you think that we weren't able to be out in the free world for quite a long time.

Tora: Gahahaha.

On the other side of the fence.

Saga: Right. Don't bands have an element that is detached from the real world, by nature? Although I do think we have to match our feeling to society, when you've been in a band this long, this feeling starts to disalign with that of society, and become different. Lately I've been getting this feeling that when you're not in the free world and on the other side of the fence for 15 years, "Even if we were to go out into the free world now, it would be impossible to live a normal life". I feel that I can no longer live a normal life. In our 15th year anniversary, I get this kind of feeling that even from now on, I'll be living like a lifetime gambler.

Tora: I might not even feel that we are in our 15th year at all. Because our band has had more events than I thought it would.

What do you mean by events?

Tora: We left our management company, and there were many other troubles and accidents (laughs).

And in actuality, you yourself had a big accident (emergency operation due to myocardial infarction) last year.

Tora: Since there were many things that happened, I feel like we were able to do this for 15 years without getting bored.

Hiroto: For me, I feel it at those moments when I get dejavu. Actually having experienced the moment in the past, recently, there's been plenty of times where I was like "I've felt this feeling in this situation before". I get that feeling when I'm with the members, and I've been getting it quite a lot at lives too. Right now, we're on tour for the best of album, and there have been many times where I felt "I don't quite remember it clearly since it was such a long time ago, but I've felt this feeling before". That is where I actually feel that we are in our 15th year.

Show: You might feel that quite a lot recently since we were on tour for "Kachou no Chou", the best of album that covers our early years. Now, we've started touring for "Fuugetsu no Shi", the best of album that covers our years as "Alice Nine". For each tour, we travelled across half of Japan. As for the way we built the setlist for the tours, we say that this particular block is for "Alpha1", and this block is for "VANDALIZE2", and we play 3 - 4 songs from the albums without any talk breaks in between. What I think when we do that kind of tour is...... Hehehe, the ladies in front of us go back to being "young girls". That is what I feel, looking out from the stage. "VANDALIZE" is the last album we released under KING RECORDS, and that was already 10 years ago. When we play songs from "VANDALIZE", those 25-year old ladies go back to being 15 years old. Although we probably can't compare ourselves to the "magic" that happens with bands such as BUCK-TICK, even for bands with a history such as ours, that kind of magic happens too. I really do feel that music transcends time.

In that way, it was a really good thing to have made these best of albums.

Show: That's right. The best of album itself was a project which started without any motivations like "If we released this, then our old fans will come back".

If I remember correctly, the best of albums were made with the goal of the current version of yourselves facing your older songs and drawing out the good qualities of the songs to complete them.

Show: That's right. But when we did that, many fans who we've not seen in a while came to see our live shows. I think that as a project, it was a good that we did that. Re-arranging over 20 songs at once, half-way through it seemed like Saga was going to work himself to death, and I did wonder if he would be okay. Honestly, I was worried about whether or not we would produce the results that corresponded to the efforts put into it, but we are currently on tour feeling that it was a good that we did this, so I'm relieved. Looking at the fans' faces during the live show and thinking that music really does transcend time, through the setlist that is packed with several albums of songs, I feel twice the weight of 15 years.

So, could you please tell us once again the details of how A9 was formed 15 years ago?

Show: If we were to give a proper explanation--

Saga: It's a band formed with members with really bad reputations.

Nao: (Looking at Saga) You didn't have a bad reputation, though?

Saga: Yeah, I didn't.

Nao: Neither did I.

Show & Saga: You did, you did!

Nao: What?! I'm sure I didn't~ (laughs).

Show: To be completely honest, Hiroto, Nao, and myself were invited to be in another band. When I asked Nao "So, are we gonna be in this band?", he was like "Nope, not me".

Nao: Gahahahaha. You're making me out to be the bad guy (laughs).

Show: Before that, Saga and Nao--

Nao: That was at Rokumeikan3, right?

Saga: Right.

Nao: I barged into the place and suddenly said to Saga "Be in my band", and exchanged contact info with him.

Saga: Even though I was still in another band.

Nao: At the time, I thought my life was in a dangerous spot, so I had no time to care about others around me.

Since your band had already disbanded at the time, you were desperate.

Nao: Yes. It was just at the time where the internet was getting more widespread, and after looking at many bands on the internet, I thought "Him. He's good".

Saga: So I was chosen in the same way people choose prostitutes from a webpage (laughs). By Nao.

Show: That's an awful analogy (laughs).

Nao: So when I saw him play live at Rokumeikan, he was exactly as I thought he would be like, so I spared no time to go and convince him to start a band with me.

Show & Hiroto & Tora: Ahh~.

Show: Even though we've been together for 15 years, it's my first time hearing about it in such detail.

Nao: I was in a really dangerous spot back then.

Saga: It was unheard of. He tried to headhunt me even though the other band members were standing right in front of us.

Nao: Hahaha. That is crazy.

Saga: It was that bravery of Nao, who had tried to headhunt me in that situation, that won me over.

Show: Amazing!!

Hiroto: That is amazing.

Saga: It left a strong impression on me.

Show: That's a nice story. It really is my first time hearing that he charged into Rokumeikan.

Hiroto: I've only heard the story from the point in time when these two (Nao and Saga) were together and other other two (Show and Tora) were together. So this is my first time hearing this.

Despite it being your 15th year, you finally discovered the truth!

Hiroto: That's right.

Saga: But I had my own circumstances, and it had only been about half a year since I joined that band. So when Nao came upon me at that time, I said "It's definitely too early to quit". On top of that, I had been added to the band after they formed, so I kept thinking over it quite a lot. I mean, what kind of person would it make me, to quit at that time? But under the pressure of Nao's energy, I thought about joining his band.

Nao: Umm, you might have forgotten, but at that time, Saga had said to me, "I'm in the process of joining another band, and we already have the members finalized".

Saga: Huh? Really? I was invited to join quite a lot of bands.

Nao: That's right.

You were really popular.

Saga: Yes. I was at peak popularity. As a bassist, I'm just right.

Show: Ever since back then, Saga was a bassist that could make a band not doing so well have a "big break", simply because "the bassist is good-looking".

Amazing!!

Hiroto: What do you mean "just right"? You stood out like no one's business. When you looked at the flyers, all you could look at was him. And that "him" was Saga.

Saga: It certainly is true that I was popular among band members. Even though I'm not that social.

You received invitations from everywhere to join their band.

Saga: Right. But even among all that, Nao had left an especially strong impression on me, like "This guy is crazy".

Nao: So with the band Saga was invited to join, the members actually were in the middle of joining a management company.

Saga: That's right.

Show: Were you at the stage where they would treat you to BBQ meat from Jojoen4?

Saga: Right, that's right! I ate BBQ meat and they treated me well. At that time, I had already pulled Nao into this new band.

Nao: And so I was also treated to BBQ meat from Jojoen.

Hiroto: How cunning of him (laughs).

Nao: Yeah! Gahahaha!

Saga: At that time, Show & Tora had contacted Nao about starting a new band.

Show: That's right. I called Nao at about 10 in the morning. What I remember Nao saying to me at the time was just this one phrase: "I'm strict, you know?".

Nao: Puhahahahaha!

Show: His enthusiasm was at another level. Even at that time, Nao said "We're already old men compared to the young kids, so we can't keep starting new bands. My next band will be my last band". It really felt like he was on the edge of a cliff.

Saga: Right. Hearing that about Nao, I also got infected with that feeling, and even I started to get this "Oh crap" feeling. There was no other way about it, and we thought we better make a decision. So we spoke openly to the management company that treated us to BBQ meat, right? If I remember correctly, Nao contacted them.

Nao: Right. When I told them, "To be honest, it's impossible to go in the same direction with these members and be serious about this, so we quit", they were really kind and listened to us, and said "It is what it is". Because of that, Saga and I were able to form a band with Show and Tora.

Hiroto: By the way, I received an invitation to join the band of the president of that company.

Show & Tora: Oh?

Hiroto: But this was after I had met the other four, so I was also honest and said, "There's another band that I want to be in", and they understood, and said to me "Do your best".

Show: Wow. So after myself, Tora, Nao, and Saga got together, the four of us made an assault on the disbandment live of Hiroto's band.

Saga: We sure did.

Hiroto: I think the live the four of you came to was before the disbandment live? Because the band that these two (Nao and Saga) were in also played at the disbandment live.

Nao: Really?

Hiroto: "Really?", he says (laughs).

Show: Even his own memories are getting fuzzy.

Nao: I don't remember.

Saga: Right! It was the band in the management company that treated us to BBQ meat. We were serious about the band, so we played live shows and put in the effort. But Nao was pissed off all the time. To the point I felt sorry for the other members.

Nao: Even though I joined the band later, I had the most complaints. It was after putting in the effort that I had spoke to the company about it being impossible to continue working with these members.

I see. Hearing these stories, it feels like it was Nao's passion and seriousness that led the way to the formation of A9.

Saga: I think it is correct to say that Nao's passion formed the band.

Show: When we joined PS Company, I had even said to the manager at the time "I don't want to stand out, so can you write on Wikipedia that the "Nao formed the band"?".

Really?

Show: Yes. I'm serious. The manager had said to me that being a vocalist is a huge mental strain, so I shouldn't be the leader. So I discussed it with Nao, and ever since joining the company, Nao had taken on the role of leader.

Hiroto & Saga: Oh~.

Nao: All I remember is that the company president said to me "NaoNao, you be the leader".

But to think that it was for the sake of reducing the mental strain on Show.

Nao: What about the mental strain on me (laughs)?

Well, now that you mention it (laughs).

Show: So until the band formed, Nao had been pressing forward and had a lot of enthusiasm, but right after we formed the band, Nao had kind of deflated.

Nao: Nahahahahaha.

Show: He wouldn't show up to rehearsals or would show up late. He did a complete 180 from his serious self.

Saga: There were even times when he didn't show up for interviews.

I can't even imagine it, seeing how he is today.

Show: I know, right? But he went through such times.

Tora: I even answered some interview questions for Nao.

Show: Yeah, you did.

Tora: I randomly wrote answers, like "Q: What is your ideal type of girl? A: Yumi Adachi".

Nao: Ahahahahahahaha!

Show: On top of that, when we were deciding on our band name, only Nao had already gone home. So we had no choice but to decide between the four of us at the restaurant.

Hiroto: It was at a fast-food restaurant. We wrote down band name ideas on the napkins and folded them so you couldn't see the name. Then we opened them one by one, and one of the names was "アリス九5".

Oh. By the way, what were the other potential band names?

Show: "ROSSO", "KORN", and "Ms. Anita".

Tora: Gahahahaha! I remember that.

Show: There were already bands called "ROSSO" and "KORN", and "Ms. Anita" was the name of a foreigner who was in the news headlines at the time, so the only band name that we could use was "アリス九".

Is that so? To go back a little bit, when the five of you got together, for you, Nao, did you get the feeling that this was something you could pour your soul into, as your last band?

Nao: I thought that with these members, we could do something, and I could bet my life on this. I thought it was something I could get serious about.

So what was the reason behind you wanting to join PS Company?

Show: From around our third live show, we suddenly got more people coming to see us. Nao was already a famous bandman, Saga was already famous and more people will show up with just him being in the band, and myself and Tora were also famous, in many ways (laughs). So in the 2 - 3 months after starting the band, one of Hiroto's acquaintances was handling all the calls. For tickets and such. But they said they couldn't sleep because their phone wouldn't stop ringing. So we were at the limit of doing things on our own.

Nao: There were also some livehouses you couldn't rent out if you weren't a corporation. We thought that we couldn't go beyond this, so we started talking about joining a management company.

Hiroto: So we thought if we were going to join a company now, it would be PS Company.

Show: With Nao's connections, we got ourselves a black and white page in SHOXX6 that introduced our band. the GazettE's manager at the time saw it and apparently talked about it in PS Company, like "These kids are going to make it big". So we handed a proposal that outlined the band and a demo tape to the underling of that manager.

So you kind of made presentation material for the band?

Show: That's right. About a month after that, the company president listened to it and contacted us. They apparently decided that if we came late, they wouldn't let us join. At the time, the president told us that because we showed up on time, we were able to join the company.

Hiroto: We went to go meet them at around 11 at night. All of us.

Show: The meeting ended at around 5 in the morning, and after that, we went to one of the member’s houses...... Now that we've come this far, we have to tell the truth (laughs). If we don't, it will be inconsistent.

Saga: To give the true story, we had actually played at a PS Company event once before meeting them. At the time, we were kind of dropping hints to them that we wanted to join the company. If I remember correctly, we also handed them some presentation material directly. At the time, they had told us "Now is not a good time".

Hiroto: Oh yeah! For about a month after that, we really didn't hear anything from them.

Saga: Just when we were about to give up, they contacted us.

Was that around the time when the GazettE had joined PS Company and they were going full steam ahead?

Hiroto: They were. It was also right after MIYAVI and Kagrra, made their major debut.

Saga: People have always said that we were a band that PS Company made. People around us often said to us things like "You're a band that PS Company made just by bringing together good-looking people, right?".

People did say that (laughs).

Saga: That's not the case at all.

Show: It's just as you have read in this interview.

Saga: It's a band that Nao had formed.

So where did the band concept of "blending of Japanese and Western style", which アリス九號. had at the time, come from?

Show: The management company had said to us "Come up with a catchphrase about what your band is about", so it's only just something that was added on.

Hiroto: At the time we joined PS Company, all the bands had a catchphrase that was kind of like a subtitle for them.

Show: It was a phrase added to our name because of the company rule.

Saga: Did we have that subtitle attached to our name?

Hiroto: No. We refused to have it. Right from the beginning, we never did what we were told.

Even though in PS Company, you look most like the honour students, but you actually weren't.

Hiroto: Yeah. We didn't add anything ourselves, because we were like "We can only come up with lame phrases!".

You refused to add a subtitle, but you listened to the company when they told you to put a period at the end of the band name.

Show: That was instructions given to us after the fengshui of the band's name was examined.

Hiroto: As we joined PS Company, they said to us "The number of strokes in your band name isn't good. There's one stroke missing, so change your band name".

Show: So I said "Then I'll just add a dot on the end", and we became "アリス九號.".

At first, your name was "アリス九", right?

Show: Yes. When I was writing down our band's name at Takadanobaba AREA7, the staff there said, "Oh, it's like Sakamoto Kyu (坂本九)". I also thought that "アリス九" didn't have much of an impact, so I just added a "號" to the end. Because it seemed like a strong word. Even I was quite proud of myself, to know such an old word like "號".

Now that you think about it, in 2004, when the band had formed, you had already changed your name twice, from "アリス九" to "アリス九號" to "アリス九號.".

All: Oh!

So in your 5th year, you changed your name from "アリス九號." to "Alice Nine". What were your activities like in the time since joining the company and changing your band name to an English stylisation?

Nao: The feeling was different from what it is now. At the time, just by being able to film music videos and being able to record in a proper studio made me think "Wow, we're like pros. It really feels like we're doing music". I was glad.

Were there any dramatic changes since joining the company?

Tora: At the time, there were lots of magazines, and we pretty much appeared in all of them and more.

"All of them and more"? It was that many?

Hiroto: We even appeared in extra editions of magazines.

Show: We appeared in loads of magazines.

Hiroto: Around our third year, whenever we released an album or single, we would be in all the magazines in the music magazine section at bookstores. On top of that, we were also in idol magazines that other bands weren't in.

You were!

Tora: So the toughest thing was that for about 20 days of the month, we would be doing photoshoots for magazines. Since we also had to go on tour with that kind of schedule, the toughest thing was not having the time for band practice, the most important thing. The band was still not a cohesive one, and from such an early stage, where it wasn't as though we had a song that was killing the charts, we were already rushing forward into that kind of thing. So at any rate, we did photoshoots, to the point where I didn't know if we were a band or models.

Show: Just around our third year, the term "Neo Visual-kei" was coined. The NHK music show "MUSIC JAPAN" held a "Neo Visual-kei Midsummer Party", and that was suddenly the trend at the time. We thought that we had to secure a spot there. It was that kind of time. I think that is also why we were appearing a lot in media. So the phrase "Neo Visual-kei" was coined, and when people wondered "So which bands are Neo Visual-kei?", it was our seniors Plastic Tree and MUCC. But don't you get the feeling that if kids like us were to actually go in there to compete with them, we would get roasted? So that was the trend at the time, and for better or for worse, we were there at around the same time. In the world of entertainment, there are limitations to the things that someone can make by themselves. HYDE had once said to me "The world needs trends too". I think that truly amazing people can read the trends of the time and get on board with that. But for us, we went ahead recklessly, and before we knew it, we found ourselves in that trend.

Without you even knowing it.

Show: Right. To begin with, when we started our band, it was at the time where "Visual-kei" was losing its popularity. So I didn't even imagine that we would be appearing on TV or playing at Nippon Budokan8. It's just that at that time, this was the trend.

Along with the birth of the phrase "Neo Visual-kei", things were stirring up in the world and in the music scene.

Show: Yes. BAROQUE was an early adapter, and bands such as ourselves, SID, the GazettE, and NIGHTMARE were being labelled as "Neo Visual-kei". That era ended fantastically with Golden Bomber. I think they were able to bring a close to the era because they are the real deal, and not just copying our seniors.

I see. Even among the "Neo Visual-kei" bands, was it the company that thought to set you apart from the rest by really putting it out there that in terms of looks, you were like an "idol band" or "princes"?

Show: There was not even a single time where the company could properly control us.

Saga: We had good looks. Compared to other bands. So even if we didn't put it out there, it just appeared that we did. That's all it was. Maybe the company or record label wanted to put our looks at the forefront, but it's not as though we purposely did that kind of thing. So that it appeared that way was only natural.

Show: So from then on, we just owned it, like "Yeah, that's right". For example, it had taken us 14 years to be able to use the "prince" thing of our own volition.

Until at your 14th anniversary live, "ALICE IN CASTLE -Princes from the Stars and the Castle of the Moon", where the five of you played the part of princes.

Show: Yes, that's right.

Nao: But for me, back then, hearing people calling us a good-looking band made me think "Oh, so I'm good-looking too?". It made me so happy I was smirking all the time.

Show: Even back then, Nao was famous for being the good-looking drummer of Fatima. Apart from YOSHIKI, who is in a whole other dimension, there weren't really any other star drummers.

Even if you didn't voluntarily use it to your advantage, between yourselves, were you at least a little bit aware from the beginning that the band was full of good-looking people?

Show: Isn't that something we all instinctively felt? In Saga's previous band, he was so much more cooler than the other members. Even with Tora, when I first saw him, there were only fans on the stage left side, where Tora was. At the time, he was working up the crowd by hopping from side to side though. I was confused by that.

Even though he was cool, you didn't understand the point of doing that.

Tora: Nahahahaha.

Show: But I thought "Wow" (laughs). Hiroto being Hiroto, he was a guitarist that stood even further in front of the vocalist and stood out.

Saga: Even though the vocalist was singing, he would be shouting in an excessively loud voice "Let's go!", and be making gestures.

Wahahaha. So what did you think when you first saw Show?

Tora: He was cool. I remember him singing from a really low position. He was pretty much singing from the ground. I thought "What's with that guy?".

Nao: Really?

Show: I've never talked about this before, but I liked FANATIC♢CRISIS' RYUJI The most. He would spread out his legs really far and play from a low position. So I sang with that kind of style in mind.

Saga: I want to see that. Him singing from really close to the ground.

Tora: But when it's like that, it's Visual-kei but also not Visual-kei. I felt something with Show that I had never felt before, and I thought he was really cool.

Saga: The first impression I got from Show was "his face doesn't match his voice". From his face, I thought he was the cute type, but when I heard his voice, he wasn't like that at all. Since his voice was deep and dark, I thought it was interesting.

Show: I think what Saga and Tora saw was when I was in my very first band. Up until then, I had never been in a Visual-kei band before, let alone seen one play before. I had look at the "looking for members" section in "Rockin f (technical music magazine)", and applied to be in a SlipKnot copyband. That was a band where they said to me "All you have to do is go nuts. Don't worry about the singing"...... Are we even going to be able to talk about our 15th year at this pace?

Tora: That's because you just took us back in time again (laughs).

I do want to ask about those times again. When the five of you came together, what ideas did you have about the kind of musical direction you would take?

Saga: I get the feeling that we didn't do what everyone else at the time was doing. That's why from the very beginning, we had a lot of songs that emphasized the singing.

Tora: I might have even talked about it.

Hiroto: So he took the lead and went to go sell his 7-string guitar. And instead, he went and bought a Clapton model guitar and said "We should play the kind of music you can play with this guitar".

Nao: Wow.

Tora: I thought that this wasn't the kind of band that needed a 7-string guitar.

When did you think that?

Tora: When it was time to stand on stage, everyone was shining brightly. It was at that time. At first, I thought it would be better for me to watch things from the back, so when we formed the band, I used to stand where Saga stands now. My personality is not the type to want to put myself out there, so my approach was "I'll just stand back here, and all of you can go to the front". So when I watched the band from that position, I thought that we didn't need a 7-string guitar. It would be better for us to do upbeat songs.

Is that so? So let's move on from when the band formed. During the band's 5th year, why did you change the band stylization from "アリス九號." to the English stylization "Alice Nine"?

Show: We had intended to change the band stylization to "Alice Nine" in 2005, but at the time, the company was against it. So in 2009, we were finally about to get our way. That's all.

What were activities like after you changed the stylization to "Alice Nine"? You also played at Nippon Budokan for the very first time in 2011.

Show: To be honest, we were not able to play at Budokan when the band was at peak popularity. Our peak popularity was around our 4th year. After that, when we left KING RECORDS, which we had been signed to since the beginning, we took a break and lost many fans. I want to let everyone know that you shouldn't take a break, if possible (laughs). Since 2007, having been dragged to the center stage as a Neo Visual-kei band, we were led by the nose by the adults and changed record labels twice. We even reached the decision to leave our management company, and we suffered quite a lot of hardships.

In terms of public image, it doesn't seem like you are a band that had quite a lot of hardships, though.

Nao: That's certainly true. That's how people tend to think of us. Although I do think it's because when we debuted, we rushed straight ahead without any struggles.

Show: Maybe so. For me, even though I'm a vocalist, I was actually better at things other than singing. Although I think the members accepted me because of the way I carried myself on stage, to be completely honest, I was at the level where I needed to become a professional singer. I was a strategist and a designer, but as a musician, when you looked underneath the surface, I had no self-confidence whatsoever. I had lost the power to express things. Also as a band, the adults had started saying things to us like "Write that kind of song" or "Write this kind of song", or "Get a composer to write you a hit". At the time, Saga had said "No, we'll write it ourselves", and the songs he wrote while giving a big "fuck you" to the adults was "JEWELS" and "RAINBOWS". It was from then that this feeling was born that we're not just pretty faces, and that to a certain extent, we had a kind of spirit as a rock band. But still, singing was very difficult for me. Unless you're a person that has liked singing from a young age, and keeps listening to your own voice, critiquing yourself saying "If I did this, I'll be able to sing better", and do it for a long time, you shouldn't become a professional singer. Because singing really is difficult.

But that said, since quitting the company, you've made leaps and bounds as a vocalist.

Show: Now I know how to practice, but back then, I didn't even know how to practice, and I think my singing was plain awful (awkward smile). But what's amazing about the members is that they never once said to me "It's because of your awful signing that we never made it big".

Wow. That's a nice story. I get the feeling that's another reason why the band was able to keep on doing this for 15 years.

Nao: I don't really compliment people, but I think that Show's voice is one of a kind, and the best. I thought that from the beginning.

Hiroto: I thought the same when the band had formed. Even if there are things like technique and pitch, you cannot change the voice itself.

You must be happy to hear that, Show.

Show: All of the members are wonderful people. I think that that's another reason why the band was able to continue. However, one thing I will mention is that after our first time playing at International Forum Hall A, all Nao had said to me was "Show, let's do our best, okay?" (laughs).

Nao: I didn't mean it like that~! I didn't mean just you, but as a band, we should do our best.

Nao was crying backstage after the show was over. What was behind those tears?

Nao: Up until then, we were doing things without any reservation, and I thought that we were perhaps too flippant about it. Those were tears of me reflecting on ourselves, that we should have put more effort into it.

Show: Forum Hall A painfully lays it bare. The upper floors were pitch black. At the time, only about 2700 people had come to see us (the hall fits 5000 people). Seeing that would want to make anyone want to cry.

Nao: It was simply frustrating.

Tora: I have poor eyesight, so I didn't realize it at all.

Nao: Gahahaha!

Hiroto: I thought that the scene in front of us was reality, and accepted that reality. I thought that this was the result of everything we had done up until then.

Saga: From the beginning, I thought there was no way we would fill up the hall. Despite that, truth be told, we were about to play there for two consecutive days. Looking at it objectively, I thought the people around us were acting strange. I thought "Is filling up the hall such an easy feat?". In time, the two consecutive shows was changed to just one show. It was then that things had stopped for me. The vigour we had since forming the band stopped and we came back to reality. It was there that I felt the sense of danger, that we were in a bad spot.

I see. So how did the band recover from that?

Saga: I thought that all we could do is write proper songs, that we had to draw out the charm of our band more. I saw the reality that we could not get any more fans just by having pretty faces. Even with practice, it's not quite what Show was talking about, but without knowing if what we were doing was right or wrong, we kept practicing. The lesson we took from Forum Hall A was that with practice, it was something that had to be done seriously. That's why I wasn't sad that we didn't fill out the entire hall. It was more like "Well, of course not". It was around here. I was the one to wake up from that dream first. My eyes were wide open.

So that was the fork in the road where Alice Nine awoke as a rock band.

Saga: That's right.

Nao: Because of that exprience, from then on, I practiced like crazy. I was in the studio so often to the point you wondered if I lived in the studio. So I think that empty Forum Hall provided the band with good motivation.

After that, when the band was welcoming its 10th year anniversary, you graduated from your management company and started to do things on your own.

Saga: We were indebted to the company, but when we considered our life from that point onwards, we were no longer able to leave everything to them. When looking at our future, we thought that we had to do this ourselves.

Show: Because we thought that humans don't grow and don't have a future if they don't take on risks. That company had taken good care of us, as if we were family. After leaving, it made me think once again that they are a good company, but at the time, we chose to take on the risks. That we can do activities like this now is the socially correct thing, I think.

After graduating from the company, you changed the band name from "Alice Nine" to "A9", and restarted activities. What do you think about that now?

Show: We didn't want to fight with our previous company, so we proceeded logically and changed our name to "A9". Even now, I think that we made the right choice.

Where did the name "A9" come from?

Saga: The phrase "A9" was already there before we even became A9. I don't remember who said it though.

Hiroto: At first, that's what our Chinese fans called us.

Nao: Oh.

Hiroto: So when it came to changing our band name, we didn't want to change it to something that was competely unrelated, so we settled on "A9".

Even after becoming A9 and going independent, you were faced with many difficulties.

Show: If we were to go into detail about that, it would take another 3 hours (laughs). We had a lot of hardships, but now we are at our best. I also feel very grateful that the media will still cover us, like right now. Because this is a chance for us to present ourselves to the people who watch us from a distance, like "A9 is Alice Nine, right? They're still around?". Since going independent, we had met L'Arc~en~Ciel's Ken, and regarding what we could contribute to society, we started to think again about what our strengths were. From the dilemma that we felt about being called "princes" or an "idol band" when we debuted, we accepted the fact, and we started to think about how we could use this to make people happy, and what we could offer to add flair to the audience's experience. Those are the kind of activities we are doing now.

Among those activities, you showed us many surprising performances, such as going back to your roots of a blending of Eastern and Western styles, setting aside your instruments on stage to dance, and even trying out acting. I get the feeling that through this, it has revitalized the image of the band amongst fans.

Show: There was that. Also, we want to play at event lives, but I think that we became a band where it was difficult for others to invite us to play with them. Since we know what our strengths are and we are using it. That is why we decided to host an event ourselves for our 15th year anniversary. If you are reading this and want to see what we are like, I ask that you do come see us.

The A9 that knows what its strengths are now, and is using it.

Show: Yes, because as a Visual-kei band that was around in the 2000s, we can now do our activities properly considering how we can make the audience happy. Be it at Hibiya or Studio Coast9, I would like for them to come see us.

I think that wanting to make the audience happy is connected to that slogan the band had since the beginning, of "the customer is king". Where did this complete approach of "fans first" come from?

Show: It's not as though we want to flatter them (the fans). I think the true essence of Visual-kei is "entertainment". In a different format to the Visual-kei that YOSHIKI had invented, if our generation were to reinterpret Visual-kei and give it a definition, it would be for us to get to the venue much earlier than normal rock bands to do our makeup and to create and wear non-normal outfits to express a world view for the sake of the audience. By doing so, I think that the attitude of entertaining the audience as a part of show business is an element of Visual-kei that allows it to also compete on the world stage. I think that is perhaps the conclusion we reached after these 15 years.

Finally, let me ask about what is on our minds the most. You added the interesting title of "A9 LAST ONEMAN" to the tour that leads to your show at Hibiya. What is the meaning behind that?

Show: I think that you can pretty much guess what that means from the mood of this interview, where there isn't a single indication that we're going to disband (laughs).

1 Album released in November 2007 under the band name アリス九號. 2 Album released in January 2009 under the band name アリス九號. 3 A livehouse in Meguro, Tokyo. It is known as one of the "holy places" for Visual-kei bands. 4 A relatively expensive bbq meat franchise. 5 Literally translates to "Alice Nine", but stylistically different to the actual band name "アリス九號." 6 A Japanese Visual-kei magazine (no longer in publication). 7 A livehouse in Takadanobaba, Tokyo. It is another "holy place" for Visual-kei bands, and being able to play here is like a milestone for bands. 8 A large indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo. 9 A large concert venue in Shinkiba, Tokyo.

[lvmiieres]

´   ･   .   ✶   ⧼    maddison   jaizani,   demiwoman,   she   &   they   /   s.l.u.t.   by   bea   miller,   clothes   strewn   around   an   otherwise   tidy   room,   worn   pointe   shoes   placed   with   care   upon   the   nearest   soft   surface.   dark   hair   pulled   back   into   messy   ponytail   with   a   pink   scrunchie,   lacy   bralettes   worn   beneath   warm   wool   jumpers   in   pastel   colors.   the   soft,   crackling   sound   of   etta   james   coming   through   on   a   floral   patterned   record   player.    ⧽   ━━   don't   look   now,   but   that's   the   coquette,   also   known   as   MARIE-RENOIR   NOÉMIE   LUMIÉRE.   i   heard   their   father   is   LUMIÉRE,   the   casanova   of   all   candelabras.   the   TWENTY   ONE   year   old   is   a   junior   at   auradon   university   and   is   majoring   in   EDUCATION.   they've   always   been   CONGENIAL   &   SAGACIOUS   &   AUDACIOUS   ;   but   i've   heard   they   can   be   pretty   PERTINACIOUS   &   INSCRUTABLE   &   ACERBIC,   too.   you   can   check   out   their   stat   page   HERE   and   their   pinterest   board   HERE.

there   was   something   SOFT   &   MOIST   about   her,                                a   dare,   a   rage,   an   intolerable   tenderness.

SECTION ONE OF THREE : BIOGRAPHY

she is the bridge between two cultures. the connecting sinew of two different worlds. marie-renoir noémie lumiére is born in the midst of her parents honeymoon period on a dewy winter morning. her father is committed to monogamy, until he isn’t. her mother is content, until she is not. they are HAPPY, until they aren’t. looking back, the fault lies on no one’s shoulders in particular. the problem lay not with them as individuals, but them as a partnership - a lesson, in it’s own way, that good friends should try to avoid that leap into romance that they thought would take them all the way. by the time that she is celebrating a year of LIFE, her mother and father have amicably split ; no hard feelings, just endless respect. custody is verbally agreed, not bitterly battled. her father can ensure the finest education, the finest things in life - summers will be spent with her mother, while the rest of the year she will call her father’s abode her home. they grow up with two languages flowing fluently from their tongue, with an appreciation for each half of THEMSELVES that few people possess in full.

the time spent with her mother is spent soaking up the sun and being the child that they are. summers are freedom, in their books, from all the expectations of the rest of the year. burdens that certainly feel like so, though they try to act as if they don’t. at home with their father, they are privately educated and expected to excel. this is fine. they can take that pressure on their shoulders with grace, they think, so long as they are always able to dance. it’s an unexpected talent. in day to day, they are clumsy - even as a child, they bumped their head and scratched their knees in an all manner of avoidable accidents. they will never be one to wear heels in fear of toppling, and so, the insistence to be enrolled with a local company after watching a performance of swan lake makes her father chuckle. he expects her to quit when she realizes that she isn’t capable of such delicate movements and graceful twirls, but six months later when he sits in the audience and witnesses her perform in don quixote, he is not able to hide the TEARS that spring to his eyes. so begins a lifetime of ballet lessons four times weekly, recitals every other month. they swiftly become one of the company’s most prized students, a prima ballerina in all ways but title. they are known to be clumsy, and they laugh along with others who poke harmless fun - but when they tie their pointe shoes on and step onto a stage, they are something different. something beautiful. something world ending.

their mother remarries. their father does not. they love their stepfather and later on, their little half siblings with all of their might - they tolerate half of their fathers conquests, though some leave truly lasting impressions. still, there is no ill will, and every christmas they gather as one to celebrate. it is strange, she thinks. this set up that they have. as they grow older, as they share details with their friends, they are told and they realize that people don’t think that it’s exactly normal. she asks her mother, one day, why she smiles so widely at the new partner on her fathers arm each year. why she isn’t hurt by his actions. why she didn’t stay. she’s genuinely CURIOUS, and her mother doesn’t treat the subject as taboo - she fixes a soft expression in place that is reserved just for her, and the words she says form a key part of noémie’s character : your father’s heart is simply too big for just one person, and mine is not. i’ll always love him. he’ll always love me. it’s no ones fault that the way we love wasn’t compatible.

they think, later, that they relate a little bit to that sentiment. that aside from natural confidence, they might just have inherited that too big heart from their FATHER, too. they’re electric. growing close to people isn’t hard when you’re a magnetic force, and noémie is never without company. she values deep connection, the most. she doesn’t think that she could ever fall for someone who didn’t know her blind. but she learns, as she grows, that she enjoys fleeting romance. even if she knows that she won’t allow it last, it is still nice to be entwined with another’s life, for a time.

SECTION TWO OF THREE : OVERVIEW

born marie-renoir noémie lumiére on february 20th, 1998, to eustache lumiére & fontaine la croix. her mother and father - good friends for years - married in the summer of ‘97 due to a medical condition known as ‘pregnancy’. they amicably split six months after noémie’s birth.

their custody arrangement involved emmy living with lumiére from september to late may, as his job and social standing assured the greatest upbringing for her. her mother took her from june through august.

no real drama, parents wise. her mother remarried and had twin daughters a few years later, and lumiére remained a player. the two continued to get along like a house on fire for noémie’s entire life, and joined one another for multiple holiday’s during the year. 

suffered from bacterial meningitis as a child, resulting in a loss of hearing in her right ear. 

expectations were rampant, but lumiére meant well. he wanted a good life for her, so he pushed her to excel. this was all well and good, given that she certainly had the capacity for it, but it has left her with a perfectionist complex in adult life.

found her first love in ballet, and has yet to really find a second. she’s one of her company’s most prized jewels, and holds the honor of being the student with the most starring roles under her tutu. her dance talent shocks EVERYBODY who knows her due to her undeniable clumsiness in day to day life, but that doesn’t really matter.

they were an early bloomer, so to speak, and this has been a blessing and curse. they’ve always been comfortable with who they are. other people have not. 

SECTION THREE OF THREE : HEADCANONS

noémie loves love, but perhaps is not as built for it as she would like. she gets a certain thrill from flirtation and she enjoys being with people. it isn’t a crime, she thinks, to date often and never truly commit. there have, of course, been those who have treated it as such. she’s not a stranger to slurs, and she knows that there are certain rumors ( some of which there’s truth to ) spread of her, routinely. but no one raised primarily by the casanova that lumiére is has much SHAME attached to who they are.

she has gone by noémie for so long, sometimes even she forgets that it isn’t her GIVEN name. she can thank her paternal grandmother for the clunky first name that she has never quite enjoyed ; she died the same week that she was BORN, missing her grandchild’s arrival into the world by little more than a day. it was meant to be an honor, she’s told, but if it was… then why did it weigh her down so much? perhaps it offended her father, in a way, but at least noémie was hers.

she had just turned four when she was struck down with bacterial meningitis. her mother thought that it was nothing but a summer flu, but when her fever began to reach unheard of heights, the PANIC set in. the doctor who saw to her insisted she be brought to the nearest emergency room immediately, and she didn’t see the outside of that hospital again until two weeks had passed. she survived UNSCATHED, at least - in a sense. single sided deafness in her right ear, specifically. her parents were told that she was incredibly lucky that she was even alive, and that they should be grateful for such a small price. they didn’t feel the way they were told they should, but they certainly passed on the sentiment to their little girl when she grew and wondered why she was not quite the same to the other kids she knew. her mother learned bsl and her father learned lsf, and she learned enough in both to make her life that little bit easier. it was by no means easy - the learning or the life that followed - but she was young and adaptable, and it served as a harsh reminder that sometimes, the world will take. in her mid teens, she underwent the surgery to implant a transcranial cros - a bone anchored hearing aid, to you and i, that provided a MARKED improvement.

she’s never actually had a relationship, completely by design. she’s never DATED. noémie enjoys flings, she enjoys flirtation, she loves sex - but she won’t put herself in a position to disappoint someone when she can’t be what they want her to be. she’s open with anyone she finds herself involved with. no strings attached, non exclusive, it’s never going to go anywhere. anyone who doesn’t listen, anyone who ends up hurt because they believe she’ll change her mind.... that’s on them.

she can be quite... vain, to put it mildly. you have to keep in mind that noémie is someone who has been set up from a young age as... a real beauty. her looks have been valued, even if she has not been. she’s aware that she’s conventionally attractive, and she’s aware that it makes her life easier in a lot of ways. it does not, however, help her to be taken more seriously in life. 

her grade point average is in the top tenth percentile, a standing she’s maintained for years. not only is she BEAUTY, but she’s also quite literally brains. 

she’s all shorts and bralettes beneath soft knit sweaters. she smells of lavender and cedar, exclusively. she’s ONLY comfortable when she’s wearing her pointe shoes. 

[scotianostra]

On March 17th 1473 the future King James IV was born at Stirling Castle.

James IV was the eldest son of James III and Margaret of Denmark and is said to have been brought up, mainly by his mother, a strong woman who was more popular than her husband. Queen Margaret died when James was just 12, there isn't much written about his next two years until things came to a head for James III when nobles rebelled against him, his son was the figurehead for the rebellion, at just 14 year his father died in unexplained circumstances after The Battle of Sauchieburn, leaving him King. In penance each Lent, for the rest of his life, he wore a heavy iron chain cilice around his waist, next to the skin. He added extra ounces every year.

Whatever the guilt he may have felt, James put his new found power to good use. He increased Crown revenues to an unheard of level, extended the reach and effectiveness of Royal justice, incorporated the Highlands and Islands into the Kingdom of Scotland for the first time and balanced the power of the competing nobles.

He built a great navy, founding a harbour at Newhaven in May 1504, his ship The Great Michael was the largest in Europe, twice the size of the now, more famous Mary Rose. James took a keen interest in the administration of justice in Scotland he didn't have it all his own way and like his father had his enemies, a year after Sauchieburn he effectively crushed a rebellion in 1489.

His ambition throughout was to have Scotland recognised by all of Europe as an independent state and to throw off any vestige of a hint that Scotland's King might be a vassal of England's, a posture that Scottish kings had to resist, often indulging in low level incursions across the Border that were designed to annoy, whilst not provoking their larger neighbour into outright war.

And England took notice, the Treaty of Perpetual Peace was signed by James IV of Scotland and Henry VII of England in 1502. It agreed to end the intermittent warfare between Scotland and England which had been waged over the previous two hundred years, part of it, as in the Treaty of Edinburgh in the earlier post, meant a marriage, this time Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII, and sister of arguably the more famous, or infamous Henry VIII and our Scottish King.

With a strong Navy, his borders extended and safe Scotland had a period of relative peace, this gave James the time to busy himself with architectural projects, such as the building of the Great Hall at Stirling Castle and the transformation of Falkland and Linlithgow into Renaissance palaces.

He liked to travel and see his Kingdom and a fun fact about him is that he practiced dentistry! Yes he liked pulling peoples teeth, often paying his patients for the privilege of doing so!

Although his marriage to Margaret is said to have been a happy one, he did have his mistresses, come on he was a Stewart t is in their DNA. Among his numerous unnamed lovers and four mistresses by whom he had a number of illegitimate children. There was no shame held by the women in his trysts, in fact they were often used to the families advantage to curry favour in the court of the King. The children of these mistresses, as I think I have written about before, were pawns, put into positions of power that enhanced the income to the King, one child, Alexander Stewart, was became a sub-deacon, and at the early age of eleven was nominated as Archbishop of St Andrews. This meant the Stewarts could syphon money from taxes raised by the church, you can see why, by the time James came to the throne, the country would undergo the Reformation, ending this. One of his other children, to a different mistress had a son, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, half sibling to Mary Queen of Scots, “ the Guid Regent."

Things changed with England with the accession of Queen Margaret's brother as Henry VIII. Henry VIII was more aggressive than his father. Although the Treaty of Perpetual Peace was renewed in 1509, it soon became evident that Henry was not interested in maintaining good relations with his sister's husband. In a range of matters he failed to give the redress required by the treaty. He also withheld a legacy left to Queen Margaret. Most worrying of all, he encouraged insulting statements in the English Parliament about James being his vassal.

In June 1513, Henry VIII set out to invade France and James was in a cleft stick as he had an alliance with both countries. King Louis XII pressed James to attack England, sending 50,000 French Crowns to fund an invasion. Despite the misgivings of some of his nobles and according to later stories, Queen Margaret begging him to desist, James invaded England in support of his obligations to France.

James headed over the border at the head of his army, said to number some 42,000 men, the largest ever raised in Scotland. Norham Castle fell in 6 days, followed by Wark, Etal and Ford. ames' opponent on the final battlefield was the Earl of Surrey. In a combination of skilled generalship by Surrey and James' determination to press his early victory home, rather than quitting whilst ahead, the enormous Scots army, well equipped and with the odds strongly in its favour, was decimated. James and many of his leading nobles were slaughtered on the field.

The battle is immortalised in a famous lament, often played at Scottish funerals to this day......Floo’ers o’ the Forest.

Dool for the order sent our lads to the Border, the English for ance by guile wan the day. The flowers of the forest, that fought aye the foremost, The prime of our land lie cauld in the clay.

.We'll hae nae mair liltin', at the ewe milkin', Women and bairns are dowie and wae. Sighin' and moanin' on ilka green loanin', The floo'ers of the forest are all wede away.

King James body has always been the subject of speculation, rumours persisted that James had survived and had gone into exile, or that his body was buried in Scotland. Two castles in the Scottish Borders are claimed as his resting place. The legend ran that, before the Scots charge at Flodden, James had ripped off his royal surcoat to show his nobles that he was prepared to fight as an ordinary man at arms. What was reputed to be James IV's body recovered by the English did not have the iron chain round its waist. (Some historians claimed he removed his chain while "dallying" in Lady Heron's bedroom.)

Border legend claimed that during the Battle of Flodden four Home horsemen or supernatural riders swept across the field snatching up the King's body, or that the King left the field alive and was killed soon afterwards. In the 18th century when the medieval well of Hume Castle was being cleared, the skeleton of a man with a chain round his waist was discovered in a side cave; but this skeleton has since disappeared. Another version of this tale has the skeleton discovered at Hume a few years after the battle, and re-interred at Holyrood Abbey. The same story was told for Roxburgh Castle, with the skeleton there discovered in the 17th century. Yet another tradition is the discovery of the royal body at Berry Moss, near Kelso. Fuelling these legends, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, writing in the 1570s, claimed that a convicted criminal offered to show Regent Albany the King's grave ten years after the battle, but Albany refused.

Of course there are many other stories, one was dug up, pardon the pun, after the body of Richard III was discovered, you can read about that version here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23993363

[fumpkins]

Pollen and heat: A looming challenge for global agriculture

This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Last June, Aaron Flansburg felt the temperature spike and knew what that meant for his canola crop. A fifth-generation grower in Washington state, Flansburg times his canola planting to bloom in the cool weeks of early summer. But last year, his fields were hit with 108-degree Fahrenheit heat just as flowers opened. “That is virtually unheard of for our area to have a temperature like that in June,” he says.

Yellow blooms sweltered, reproduction stalled, and many seeds that would have been pressed for canola oil never formed. Flansburg yielded about 600 to 800 pounds per acre. The previous year, under ideal weather conditions, he had reached as high as 2,700.

Many factors likely contributed to this poor harvest — heat and drought persisted throughout the growing season. But one point is becoming alarmingly clear to scientists: heat is a pollen killer. Even with adequate water, heat can damage pollen and prevent fertilization in canola and many other crops, including corn, peanuts, and rice.

For this reason, many growers aim for crops to bloom before the temperature rises. But as climate change increases the number of days over 90 degrees Fahrenheit in regions across the globe, and multi-day stretches of extreme heat become more common, getting that timing right could become challenging, if not impossible.

Faced with a warmer future, researchers are searching for ways to help pollen beat the heat. They’re uncovering genes that could lead to more heat-tolerant varieties and breeding cultivars that can survive winter and flower before heat strikes. They’re probing pollen’s precise limits and even harvesting pollen at large scales to spray directly onto crops when weather improves.

At stake is much of our diet. Every seed, grain, and fruit that we eat is a direct product of pollination, explains biochemist Gloria Muday of North Carolina’s Wake Forest University. “The critical parameter is the maximum temperature during reproduction,” she says.

The creation of seeds begins when a pollen grain leaves the anther of a plant’s male reproductive organ, the stamen, lands on the sticky stigma of a female reproductive organ, the pistil, and sets about growing a tube. This tube is formed by a single cell that grows through the stigma and down a stalk called the style until it ultimately reaches the ovary, where it delivers the pollen grain’s genetic material. Pollen tube growth is one of the fastest examples of cellular growth in all of the plant world, says Mark Westgate, an emeritus professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. “It grows up to one centimeter an hour, which is incredibly fast,” he says.

Growing at such a clip requires energy. But at temperatures starting around 90 degrees F for many crops, the proteins that power a pollen grain’s metabolism start to break down, Westgate says.

In fact, heat hinders not only tube growth but other stages of pollen development as well. The result: a pollen grain may never form, or may burst, fail to produce a tube, or produce a tube that explodes.

Not all cultivars are equally susceptible to heat. Indeed, researchers are still working out the molecular mechanisms that allow pollen from some crop cultivars to survive while pollen from others dies off.

For example, fertilization is notoriously heat-sensitive in many cultivars of tomato — a crop that in 2021 covered 274,000 acres of open fields in the United States alone. If the weather gets too hot, says Randall Patterson, president of the North Carolina Tomato Growers Association, “the pollen will burn up.” Patterson times his tomato plantings to flower during the longest stretch of nights below 70 degrees F and days below 90. Typically, he has a three-to-five-week window in which the weather cooperates for each of his two annual growing seasons. “If it does get hotter, and if we do have more nights over 70 degrees F, ” he says, “that’s going to close our window.”

Muday studies pollen from a mutant tomato plant that may carry clues for keeping that window open. In 2018, her team reported that antioxidants known as flavonols play an important role in suppressing molecules, called ROS, that would otherwise increase to destructive levels at high temperatures.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Muday is now part of a multi-university team aiming to uncover the molecular mechanisms and underlying genes that could help tomato pollen weather a heat spell. The hope is that breeders could then incorporate these genes into new, more resilient tomatoes.

Insights from her initial study have already helped Muday develop a tomato that produces especially high levels of flavonols. “They appear to be extra good at dealing with high temperature stress,” she says. Ultimately, Muday expects they’ll find that the path from heat to pollen death involves many players beyond flavonols and ROS, and so potentially many targets for fixes.

Meanwhile, breeders of tomatoes and other crops are already working to develop cultivars that can better handle heat. “If farmers in the Pacific Northwest or in the Mountain States or in the High Plains are going to grow peas, and the climate is going to be warmer, then we have to have peas with more heat tolerance,” says pulse crop breeder and plant geneticist Rebecca McGee of the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Pullman, Washington.

Pulse crops — so named for the Latin “puls” meaning thick soup — include dried beans, peas, lentils, and chickpeas. These plants don’t require a lot of moisture. But if temperatures get too hot, the pollen aborts, says Todd Scholz, vice president of research for the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. The same heat wave that pummeled Flansburg’s crop last year decimated pulse plants. Lentil and dry pea harvests fell to about half of the average production, while chickpeas fell by more than 60 percent.

McGee is breeding some of her peas and lentils to be more resilient to high temperatures. But with other projects, she’s taking a different and somewhat counterintuitive approach: breeding crops that can withstand cold.

In the northern United States, growers typically plant pulse crops in the spring. McGee is breeding peas, lentils, and chickpeas that are instead sown in autumn. The idea is that these cultivars will survive the winter and then get a jump-start on flowering early in the summer — giving them a fighting chance to pollinate successfully before a heat wave.

A blue orchard bee visits a blueberry flower. Jenna Walters via Yale Environment 360

Last year, McGee released to seed producers a limited amount of the first three autumn-sown, food-quality pea cultivars for her region. She says they flower about two weeks earlier than most spring-sown peas — and with double the yield. Of course, these crops aren’t guaranteed to flower before high heat arrives, McGee says, “but you don’t have to worry as much.”

At Michigan State University, Jenna Walters is studying how temperature affects pollen — and pollinators — in a fruit crop. On Memorial Day weekend of 2018, the temperature in southwestern Michigan lingered at 95 degrees F while bees buzzed between clusters of delicate white blossoms on blueberry bushes. Come harvest, many fruits were smaller than usual or had failed to form altogether. In a state that averages around 100 million pounds of blueberries a year, growers harvested just 66 million.

Walters — a PhD candidate earning a dual degree in entomology and ecology, evolution, and behavior — is investigating what exactly went wrong. She began by pinpointing a blueberry pollen grain’s heat limit — exposing pollen in petri dishes to a range of temperatures and monitoring the pollen for 24 hours. Her results, not yet published, suggest that at temperatures above 95 degrees F, pollen tubes fail to grow.

Walters also simulated an acute heat wave by exposing pollen grains to 99.5-degree heat for four hours and then lowering the temperature to 77 degrees F for another 20 hours. “There is basically no return,” Walters says. “[Heat] exposure for just four hours is enough to lead to permanent damage.”

She is now confirming these results in actual blueberry bushes in growth chambers set to different temperatures. If the findings hold, she says, 95 degrees F could trigger growers to periodically flip on their misting systems to cool fields. But growers would have to consider tradeoffs. “A lot of pathogens are spread via high humidity or water, especially during that flower-opening period,” she says. And when misting machines are on, most pollinators aren’t likely to visit.

It’s possible that overheated blueberry bushes might also lead to fewer blueberry pollinators over time, Walters says. She and her colleagues are comparing the nutritional content of heat-stressed and unstressed pollen, searching for differences in proteins, carbohydrates, and other factors that could be critical to a bee’s health.

This year, she will fill eight 6-by-12-foot mesh-walled cages with more than two dozen potted blueberry bushes each, as well as a few female blue orchard bees — one of the many bee species that pollinates blueberry flowers. For four hours a day, over the course of four or five weeks, she’ll sit inside her cages and watch the bees lay eggs and forage for pollen on bushes that, in half of the cages, had been exposed to heat stress early in their bloom.

The concern, says Walters, is that if heat is destroying pollen, nutritional stress will cause females to make more male eggs, which require less pollen to produce. But male blue orchard bees are less useful to a blueberry grower, since only the females pollinate and lay eggs to start the next generation. To compensate for pollen loss, Walters says, growers might consider planting strips of wildflowers that are more heat tolerant and could provide pollinators with additional nutrients.

And then there are the technofixes. Mark Westgate, of Iowa State, is the chief science officer at PowerPollen, an Iowa-based ag tech company focused on improving pollination for producers of hybrid corn seed — a crop in which pollen fails at temperatures above 104 degrees F.

Using a tassel-shaking collection device attached to a tractor, the company gathers large quantities of ripe pollen in fields, then stores those living pollen grains in a controlled environment. PowerPollen returns to apply that pollen when weather conditions favor fertilization — typically no later than five days after collection. The window sounds small, but it could enable farmers to dodge an especially hot day. The company is working on extending this time frame and on applying its technology to other crops.

For some, a simpler solution may be switching crops altogether. “There are pulses that grow in tropical climates, so it may be that you pick a different cultivar,” says Scholz, of the Dry Pea and Lentil Council. But some pulses that stand up to heat, he notes, such as fava beans and black-eyed peas, require more moisture than dryland farmers of the Pacific Northwest can supply.

Flansburg, in Washington, doesn’t want to switch. He remains hopeful that breeding efforts will help him continue to grow the canola and other crops his family has cultivated for generations. Still, he worries about the future. “There’s an overall picture of a changing climate that we’re going to have to address and deal with if we’re going to be able to continue to feed people,” he says. “There’s just a limit to how much heat a plant can take.”

This story was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, a nonprofit investigative news organization.

This story was originally published by Livescience.Tech with the headline Pollen and heat: A looming challenge for global agriculture on Jun 25, 2022.

New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2022/06/27/pollen-and-heat-a-looming-challenge-for-global-agriculture/

[rightsinexile]

Opinion/Editorial: “We can’t go home” - What does peace mean for Eritrea’s refugees?

For Eritrea’s refugees, the declaration of peace with Ethiopia has so far brought more uncertainty and fear than hope, say Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole in an opinion piece appearing in African Arguments. It is reprinted here with permission.

Sitting outside a corrugated metal office in the Mai Aini refugee camp, Biniam gazes at the passing trucks and busses as he reflects on the political changes unfolding dramatically in the region around him.

Sheltering in the shade, he notes that in just a matter of weeks, the relationship between Asmara – about 150 km north of here – and Addis Ababa – nearly 600 km south – has completely reversed. In barely any time at all, the open hostility that had shaped this region for two decades has made way for unreserved declarations of harmony and brotherliness.

“Peace is good for the mothers,” says Biniam, raising his voice above the noise of the traffic. “Every family has lost someone in the border conflict.”

Like many in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Biniam expresses hope at the two countries’ sudden return to peace after the deadly 1998-2000 border war. But he is also deeply anxious.

Biniam fled from Eritrea eight years ago and has lived in this refugee camp, just tens of kilometres from his homeland, ever since. The site sprawls along a busy road, which – when the border reopens after two decades – will be one of the main routes between Addis Ababa and Asmara. Biniam is afraid for his safety when this happens.

“The border is not the problem for refugees; the regime is,” he says. “How will Ethiopia protect camps with an open border?  [The Eritrean government] will never let us live peacefully here.”

Many of the 160,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia are nervous about what the rapprochement means for them. Several fled after being labelled political dissidents or have joined opposition groups and fear reprisals from Asmara. One young refugee revealed that he has not called home since phone lines resumed as he fears it could expose his location.

When the peace process began in June, Ethiopia asked Eritrean opposition groups to cease their activities, but assured them that can remain safely in the country. Many, however, believe that covert Eritrean intelligence agents could now penetrate their camps and capture them. This has been the case in Sudan where Eritrea’s refugees have been vulnerable to being seized and returned by the Eritrean military.

Eritrea’s refugees await

In 2001, President Isaias Afwerki banned Eritrea’s independent media and jailed high-level politicians and journalists without trial. Since then, political protest has been virtually unheard of, while national service has been compulsory and indefinite. Thousands of young Eritreans flee the country every month despite the very real risks of shot or imprisoned.

President Isaias has often used the pretext of Ethiopian hostility to justify his policies, but since the declaration of peace there have been relatively few indications of tangible change. The conditions that led so many to flee the country are still in place and trust in the regime is in short supply.

“Real peace will come when we have a change of government,” says Kahsay, a refugee at the Hitsats camp. The conditions here are desolate, rife with malaria and short of water, but despite this, he insists: “Until we have real peace, we can’t go home.”

In meantime, however, many refugees are concerned about what their government’s change of policy will mean for their ability to apply for resettlement and asylum abroad. Ethiopia, for example, grants Eritreans prima faciarefugee status, but it is unclear if this policy will last. In Europe, Eritreans are one of the largest groups of asylums seekers; some governments have tried to argue that they are economic migrants rather than political refugees and could be emboldened by the regional developments.  Meanwhile, Israel has already suggested it will deport Eritreans if Asmara ends indefinite national service. Unless Eritrea gives amnesty to those who have fled illegally, this could place asylum seekers in grave danger.

Many refugees currently in Ethiopia also wonder what the presence of an Eritrean embassy in Addis Ababa will mean for them. Eritrean refugees needing passports to reunify with family members have previously had to travel to embassies in Uganda or Kenya. In exchange for consular services, the Eritrean government requires them to sign a letter apologising for leaving the country, admitting that they left for economic rather than political reasons, accepting punishment upon their return, and agreeing to pay a 2% annual income tax.

Some refugees in Ethiopia are hopeful they will now be able to obtain a passport more easily, but others fear the proximity of the Eritrean government. In the wake of the peace agreement, rumours circulated on social media that all refugees in Ethiopia were required to sign apology letters and return to Eritrea. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) quickly refuted those false reports, but even though unfounded, news like this could lead to mass refugee flight out of Ethiopia and towards Europe.

Despite Ethiopia and Eritrea’s mutual hostility, Eritrean refugees were previously welcomed in Ethiopia. But now, those like Biniam don’t know whether they will be seen as enemy aliens or guests. While others on both sides of the border may be celebrating, for them, the promise of peace has so far brought more doubt than hope.

“The political situation is very tense and when it is tense, we feel worried,” says Biniam. “We don’t know what will happen.”

How to fix the crisis caused by Central American asylum seekers — humanely, reflects David A. Martin in an opinion piece appearing in Vox

Surprised by vehement public reaction, President Donald Trump has decreed an end to the policy of separating arriving asylum seekers from their children. But what now? Not what will Trump do — his latest pronouncements simply up the ante on mean-spiritedness, with little clarity on a specific policy direction. But what asylum reforms should progressives push for to build a humane, workable, and sustainable program?

The policy problem is real. The flow of asylum seekers from Central America has not noticeably abated even during the administration’s imposition of cruelties. The current adjudication system has been overwhelmed — both the asylum officers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the immigration judges in the Department of Justice (DOJ). Claims in both venues, from all nationalities, have seen sharp rises over the past five years, and backlogs have mushroomed.

DHS, which was keeping up with asylum claims as recently as 2011, now has more than 300,000 pending cases. Immigration judges, whose ranks number roughly 350 at present, have an astounding backlog of 700,000 cases. The resulting picture of dysfunction provides continual fodder for anti-immigration demagogues.

Progressives need to pay close attention to that last observation, because we are in danger of overplaying the righteous reaction to the horrors of child separation. Our nation needs to remain firmly committed to the institution of political asylum. But opportunistic or abusive claims are unfortunately numerous in the current caseload, particularly among people who seek asylum after having been in the United States for a while.

And any realistic migration management regime will have to keep in its toolbox the selective detention of asylum seekers, especially in times of high influx. We need to figure out what form our detention and release system will take.

So, yes, we need to call attention to the cruelty of the Trump administration’s policies. But we also need to bring the system back under control. Control is a precondition for regaining durable public support for the institution of political asylum in a world characterized by unprecedented migration pressures. Extreme-right politicians are exaggerating the scale of illegal immigration and unwarranted asylum seeking, and not just in the US. Getting this right will help take away from the authoritarians one of their most potent rhetorical weapons: immigration alarmism.

A precedent for a solution

Fortunately, we do have a solid model for how to repair our system: Today’s overload is surprisingly similar to an administrative meltdown faced in the early 1990s. Regulatory and operational reforms in 1995 brought that asylum situation under control, while preserving due process and avoiding widespread detention. The result was 15 years of reasonably efficient operation and blessedly few hot political controversies over asylum. We can rebuild that system; doing so won’t resolve all the problems we face, but it is an indispensable ingredient.

We still face some tough questions — notably about how far our asylum system can go in protecting against private violence in Central America, including from gangs and abusive family members. As a polity with a proud history of providing refuge, we face some hard choices. But however those choices are resolved, we can and should immediately expand aid designed to reduce violence in the source countries. That would go some way toward reducing refugee flows.

How our two-track asylum system works

To understand the history of reform successes and failures, we need first a map of the rather complex structure of agencies involved in asylum processing, and of the two primary pipelines by which applications are received. Bear with me, because the differences, though technical, are important as we think about reforms.

A person already in the United States, legally or illegally, who fears persecution back in the home country, can file for asylum directly with the Department of Homeland Security. These “affirmative claims,” so-called because the person takes the initiative to file without any enforcement action pending, are initially heard in an office interview conducted by expert asylum officers, housed in eight regional offices.

Based on the completed application and a non adversarial office interview, asylum officers can grant or deny asylum, but when asylum is denied, they have no authority to issue a removal order.

That step requires an immigration judge — a specially selected DOJ attorney, appointed by the attorney general, who conducts removal proceedings. Until 1995, there was no routine for putting unsuccessful affirmative applicants into immigration court. It was up to the district field office of the immigration agency to file charges; many offices didn’t see these cases as a priority, at a time when the enforcement system had far lower funding than today. If the district office did serve a charging document, the person could renew the asylum claim in immigration court, and the judge would decide it afresh.

Now for the second main pipeline. People who are already in removal proceedings when they first seek asylum — people apprehended after crossing the border, for instance, or picked up by DHS after a local arrest for disorderly conduct — cannot file with the asylum office. Instead, they present their applications directly to the immigration court. A successful claim there constitutes a defense to removal; hence these applications are known as “defensive claims.”

For both defensive claimants and those affirmative claimants who have renewed their claims in court, the immigration judge considers the case through a formal courtroom procedure. He or she can grant asylum, but if asylum is denied, the judge normally issues a removal order — the kind of document needed for DHS to put the applicant on a bus or plane home (though appeal opportunities exist).

Border cases, as mentioned, are almost all heard as defensive claims, assuming applicants pass an initial, speedy “credible fear” screening done by an asylum officer, which is meant to weed out clearly meritless cases. (Over the past eight years, between 15 and 30 percent have been screened out this way.)

In the 1990s the system was also overwhelmed. We brought it back under control.

Back to the dysfunction I mentioned in the early 1990s. The expert corps of asylum officers, which had been created only in 1990, was overwhelmed by an accelerating volume of asylum claims, many of them containing near-identical boilerplate stories about threats, mostly crafted by high-volume “immigration consultants.” At the time, the regulations provided that nearly all asylum applicants received authorization to work in the US shortly after filing.

That created an incentive to file a false asylum claim — as did the slim chance, during that period, that an applicant would end up in immigration court. The system’s obvious disorder and vulnerability to escalating fraud worried refugee assistance organizations, who rightly feared that Congress, then beginning to consider tough immigration enforcement bills (ultimately enacted in 1996), would impose draconian limitations on asylum unless the administration brought the situation under control.

Government agencies worked closely with NGOs to analyze the situation and draw up a balanced solution. (I worked on the design and implementation of the reforms as a consultant to the Justice Department and later as general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a.k.a. INS.) Two key changes in asylum regulations were the result. The first made it virtually automatic that affirmative asylum claimants whose claims were rejected by the asylum officer would be placed into removal proceedings.

Under the 1995 regs, when applicants return to the asylum office a few weeks after their interview to get the result, nearly all receive either an asylum grant or a fully effective charging document placing them in removal proceedings, normally with a specific date to appear in immigration court.

Second, the reform decoupled the act of filing for asylum from work authorization. The applicant would get that benefit from the asylum officer only if granted asylum. Those applicants who failed and were referred on to immigration court would similarly have to prove their asylum claim on the merits to gain permission to work.

But as a mechanism to minimize hardship and induce timely decisions, applicants would also receive work authorization if the immigration judge did not resolve the case within six months of the initial filing. (Applicants could also request delays, for example to gather more evidence, but such a request would suspend the running of the “asylum clock” and thus extend the six-month deadline for the issuance of work authorization).

To meet that processing deadline, the Clinton administration secured funding to double the number of immigration judges, from roughly 100 to 200, and also built up the asylum officer corps. New target timetables were established, and the new system met them with few exceptions: An asylum officer decision within 60 days, and an immigration judge decision within six months from initial filing (the latter also applies to purely defensive claims).

Finally, to maximize the immediate impact, the asylum offices and immigration courts adopted a last-in, first-out scheduling policy for judging claims. That sent the signal that new bogus claims would not slip through and get work authorization under the six-month rule, simply because of case backlogs. The older filers, already carrying a work authorization card, would take lower priority.

These reforms dramatically changed the calculus of potential affirmative applicants. Weak or opportunistic filings would no longer lead to work authorization; additionally, they would mean a quick trip to immigration court and a likely removal order. People responded to the new incentives. Asylum filings with the immigration authorities declined from more than 140,000 in 1993 to a level between 27,000 and 50,000 for virtually every year from 1998 through 2013. That annual filing rate was a manageable level, logistically and politically.

Congress had been poised to crack down on asylum in 1996 as part of a general tightening of immigration laws but, impressed by the already visible reductions, rejected most of the restrictive asylum proposals and instead made the administrative changes permanent by enacting them into law.

The seeds of the current crisis were planted around 2012, in a period of budgetary contraction. Neither Congress nor the executive branch appreciated how crucial it was to reach decisions in immigration court within six months and thereby prevent work authorization to unqualified asylum applicants. That had been the system’s main (and highly effective) deterrent to opportunistic, weak, or bogus claims. Hiring slowed even as caseloads and duties expanded, including the beginnings of the Central American surge. As more and more applicants began to receive work authorization without an asylum grant on the merits, affirmative applications poured in.

With the added filings, immigration court docketing fell further behind, reaching four-year delays in some locations. Much as in 1993, it was a vicious circle. Unscrupulous “consultants” could once again guarantee work authorization to their clients based just on filing, albeit after six months, with no immigration judge hearing expected for years. In 2017, affirmative filings with the asylum office climbed back above 140,000.

A 1995-style fix today would help us mainly to deter weak affirmative asylum claims. But it would still be quite relevant to the Central American applicants reaching our borders, even though they will normally file defensively. This is because so much of the paralyzing immigration court backlog stems from the massive increase in affirmative applicant numbers over the past five years. Reducing overall intake is central to getting both tracks of the asylum process under control.

Concrete steps to fix the problems

Undocumented immigrants released in El Paso, Texas pending an asylum hearing, June 24. All had been separated from their children. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

There are four primary components in a realistic strategy to restore our asylum machinery to health. We should:

1) Rebuild the capacity for prompt asylum decisions by strategically deploying existing staff and urgently adding more. It is obvious that the system needs a major influx of new asylum officers and immigration judges. Hiring is underway and budgets are growing significantly, though not fast enough. The administration still feels a need for more dramatic immediate deterrents, apparently believing that a full catch-up to the existing caseload will take years.

But a here-and-now impact can be had by following the last-in, first-out rule that served the US so well in 1995. Rejection of new filers is more important as a deterrent than processing old cases. In fact, DHS’s asylum office returned to last-in, first-out scheduling five months ago, and affirmative claims have already dropped by 30 percent.

This excellent change will not have the needed impact until the immigration courts complete comparable revisions to their scheduling system and thus assure the six-month decision timetable. We also need to be systematic about removing unsuccessful asylum seekers with a final order.

This would return us to a system where prompt denial on the merits after a fair hearing, not cruelty to applicants, serves as the main deterrent to weak or abusive claims.

2) Make smart use of detention, including family detention as needed, plus alternative measures to avoid flight. Some critics hope that the public revulsion against child separation will lead to ending virtually all detention of asylum seekers. Others theorize that Trump’s planners adopted the separation strategy just to get courts to end constraints they now impose on family detention — because family detention would look so much kinder than separation.

Detention, however, is an inescapable part of the immigration enforcement process, at least when people first arrive at the border and claim asylum. (It’s also essential later, to facilitate or carry out removals of those with a final order.) The judicious use of detention can help reassure skittish publics in times of truly high flow of asylum seekers.

In such times, centralized facilities housing asylum seekers also hold other potential benefits, as was recognized in a 1981 report by a blue-ribbon commission on immigration reform, chaired by Father Theodore Hesburgh from the University of Notre Dame. (The Hesburgh commission issued its report a year after the Mariel boatlift from Cuba brought 125,000 asylum seekers to US shores within a few months.)

Such facilities provide a centralized location for prompt asylum interviews and court hearings. Run properly, which requires constant and committed monitoring, they also can facilitate regular and efficient ongoing access to counsel — particularly when, as is typical in a high-influx situation, most representation comes from organized pro-bono efforts.

The Trump administration has sent unclear and confusing signals about its overall plans while now trying to persuade courts to allow more room for family detention. As a matter of policy, we need to keep family detention available in the toolbox but we should not see it as an early or primary option — especially since the administration has not exhausted other methods, and the Central American flow is not as massive as officials paint it.

Critics today often argue that detention is unnecessary, pointing to high attendance rates by asylum seekers at court hearings. That observation is true, but incomplete. A well-functioning system needs released respondents to show up not just for hearings where a good thing might happen, but also for removal if they lose their asylum cases.

Good data are not available, but intermittent government snapshot reports tend to find that fewer than a sixth of the non detained are actually removed after the issuance of a final removal order. Policymakers and advocates who want to reduce the use of detention need to attend to that latter statistic, and improve it.

To be sure, detention should not be used routinely. Alternatives to detention — such as intensive release supervision or ankle-bracelet monitoring — are generally more cost-effective. When actual detention is employed, conditions of confinement must be humane and must fully accommodate access to counsel. The Obama administration made headway toward those ends, including creating better family facilities.

3) Think hard about the realistic range of refugee protection, and be more rigorous about “internal protection alternatives.” Advocates for asylum claimants from Central America today have been working to expand the conceptual boundaries of protected refugee classes. Few of those applicants are claiming classic forms of persecution — by an oppressive government, based on the target’s race or religion or political opinion.

A great many claims today are based on domestic violence or risks from murderous criminal gangs, in the context of ineffectual government. Our whole system faces a challenge to determine whether and how such claims fit within the refugee laws and treaties.

The asylum seekers’ cases are highly sympathetic, but they also prompt concerns about figuring out workable boundary lines on any such protection commitment. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a highly restrictive ruling in June. It held that private crimes, including gang retribution and domestic violence, can rarely serve as the basis for a valid asylum claim. Expect a wide variety of reactions from reviewing courts over coming months and years.

But while that interpretive struggle proceeds, an immediate practical step can be taken to alleviate the dilemma. Adjudicators need to pay more systematic attention to the availability of what are known as “internal protection alternatives.” Asylum applicants who can find reasonable safety within the home country, even at the cost of moving to a new city or region — for example, because that region has a good network of domestic violence shelters — should be required to return to those regions, rather than relocate to the US.

Though this “internal protection alternatives” concept is already part of US and international law, it is understandable why many people balk at taking a firm line on it. The applicant would almost surely face lower risks in the United States than back in the home country, and real hardships can be incurred by moving to a new city where the person may not know anyone.

But that objection has to be kept in perspective. We are talking about protection in another part of one’s homeland, for someone who has already shown the resourcefulness to venture thousands of miles to a distant country, with an unfamiliar culture and language. Asylum should not be thought of as a prize for a person who has endured harm or threats, no matter how much sympathy or admiration he or she may deserve for weathering that past. Asylum is a forward-looking last-resort type of measure to shelter those who cannot find adequate protection other ways.

US Vice-President Mike Pence (L) and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales at a joint press conference in Guatemala City on June 28 — a stop on the vice president’s recent Central American trip. The asylum crisis was high on the agenda. Orlando Estrada/AFP/Getty Images

4) Work with other countries to address root causes and expand potential refuge elsewhere. This brings us directly to the fourth primary measure, of particular relevance to the Central American crisis. The United States should greatly expand assistance, through bilateral aid, multilateral efforts, or the funding of NGO initiatives, toward reducing the violence that sends people in search of protection.

It’s easier in theory to address root causes when the threat is private violence, since the US can expect support rather than resistance from the government. But real effectiveness on the ground demands ongoing diplomacy, implementation skill, vigilance against corruption, and, above all, consistent funding year to year.

In Central America, past US assistance has had some visible impact in helping to reduce gang violence and murder rates. The Central American Regional Security Initiative has provided more than $1.4 billion to this effort since its start in 2008. The Trump administration, with typical short-sightedness, is moving to cut this funding. And Vice President Mike Pence’s meeting with heads of state in Guatemala City last week was a giant missed opportunity. According to press accounts, he basically just badgered those governments to stop sending people.

That message would have been so much more effective toward changing conditions on the ground if it had been joined with significantly increased aid for the security initiative. We should also expand funding to enhance police responsiveness to domestic violence in Central America and to support shelter networks.

These steps are obviously worthy in their own right, helping potential victims of all sorts, not just potential migrants. But they also can reduce the felt need to migrate and generate a more extensive menu of “internal protection alternatives” to be considered by adjudicators ruling on asylum claims.

The Obama administration also had some success in working with Mexico to discourage dangerous unauthorized travel, through information campaigns and interdiction — and to open up a modest possibility that Central Americans could find refuge in Mexico itself. President Trump’s unending insults directed at our southern neighbor have torpedoed such cooperation, but a future administration should revive it.

Revulsion at the current administration’s border practices is fully deserved. And the current administration exaggerates the crisis. But in an era where tolerance for asylum protection has become a politically scarce resource, we still need realistic and determined asylum reform measures in order to restore public confidence that migration is subject to control.

Our country’s 1995 experience shows such a change is possible, while retaining a firm commitment to refugee protection. Repeating that success will require well-targeted funding and tough-minded administrative resourcefulness to succeed.

[patriotsnet]

How Many Americans Are Registered Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-americans-are-registered-republicans/

How Many Americans Are Registered Republicans

California Voter And Party Profiles

In Battleground States, Newly Registered Democrats Are Outnumbering Newly Registered Republicans

NOTES: Likely voters are registered voters meeting criteria on interest in politics, attention to issues, voting behavior, and intention to vote. For a full description of these criteria and regional definitions, visit www.ppic.org/wp-content/uploads/SurveyMethodology.pdf. For race and ethnicity, results are presented for Latinos, non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic Asian Americans, non-Hispanic African Americans, and non-Hispanic other race and multiracial adults.

Sources: Seven PPIC Statewide Surveys from September 2019 to July 2020, including 11,725 adults and 7,243 likely voters. California Secretary of State, Report of Registration, August 2020. US Census Bureau, 20142018 American Community Survey.

Related Content

With Partisanship Rising Three

Over the last decade, the number of young Americans who see politics as partisan, and politicians as selfish, has risen sharply. Seventy-six percent of youth agreed with the statement, We need more open-mindedness in politics, only 4% disagreed.

68% agreed with the statement, Elected officials seem to be motivated by selfish reasons. This marks a 14-point increase since 2010.;

56% ;agreed with the statement, Politics has become too partisan — a 10-point ;increase since 2010.;

% Of Republicans View Trump As True Us President

A combination picture shows U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaking during the first 2020 presidential campaign debate, held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., September 29, 2020. Picture taken September 29, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

WASHINGTON, May 24 – A majority of Republicans still believe Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and blame his loss to Joe Biden on illegal voting, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

The May 17-19 national poll found that 53% of Republicans believe Trump, their party’s nominee, is the true president now, compared to 3% of Democrats and 25% of all Americans.

About one-quarter of adults believe the Nov. 3 election was tainted by illegal voting, including 56% of Republicans, according to the poll. The figures were roughly the same in a poll that ran from Nov. 13-17 which found that 28% of all Americans and 59% of Republicans felt that way.

A Democrat, Biden won by more than seven million votes. Dozens of courts rejected Trumps challenges to the results, but Trump and his supporters have persisted in pushing baseless conspiracy theories on conservative news outlets.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 61% of Republicans believe the election was “stolen” from Trump. Only about 29% of Republicans believe he should share some of the blame for his supporters’ Jan. 6 deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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With The Population Diversifying Non

The voter population for presidential elections continues to change in its demographic makeup. This relates both to turnout and to the changing shifts in the nations overall population. Because of the rising growth rates of nonwhite race and ethnic groups nationally and the increased educational attainment of younger voters, the share of all voters identifying as non-college white continues to shrink. Thus, for the first time in a presidential election, white voters without college degrees comprised less than two-fifths of the voter population.

These changes look quite different from 2004, when non-college white voters comprised more than half of the voter population and nonwhite minorities comprised only one-fifth. Since then, the formers share dropped to 39.7%; the share of white college-educated voters increased modestly, from 27.7% to 31.3%.; and the share of nonwhite voters rose to 29%, almost equaling that of white college graduates.

The shift in the race-ethnic makeup of the populationespecially the younger populationis evident when looking at voters in the past five presidential elections. During this period, younger generations of voting-age citizens have become more racially diverse. In 2020, for the first time, at least 10% of the total voter population identified as Latino or Hispanic, as did 15% of voters below age 40. The white share of the under-age-40 voter population declined by 10 points from 2004 to 2020, to 64% .

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Map 1 And Table : Party Registration Totals By State July 2018

Democrats no longer control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or for that matter most of the governorships or state legislatures. But they still maintain a toehold in the political process with their edge in the realm of voter registration. At least that is the case in the 31 states and the District of Columbia that register voters by political party. As of this month, 13 of these states boast a Democratic plurality in registered voters, compared to eight states where there is a Republican plurality. In the other 10 states, there are more registered independents than either Democrats or Republicans, with Democrats out-registering the Republicans in six of these states and the GOP with more voters than the Democrats in the other four. They are indicated in the chart as I or I. Nationally, four out of every 10 registered voters in party registration states are Democrats, with slightly less than three out of every 10 registered as Republicans or independents. Overall, the current Democratic advantage over Republicans in the party registration states approaches 12 million.

Recent party registration numbers used here are from state election websites and are based on totals compiled in early July 2018. Registration data are as of the following months: October 2016 ; February 2017 ; November 2017 ; January 2018 ; March 2018 ; April 2018 ; May 2018 ; June 2018 ; and July 2018 .

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Key Point From This Article

Altogether, there are 31 states with party registration; in the others, such as Virginia, voters register without reference to party. In 19 states and the District, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 12 states, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats. In aggregate, 40% of all voters in party registration states are Democrats, 29% are Republicans, and 28% are independents. Nationally, the Democratic advantage in the party registration states approaches 12 million.

Tens Of Thousands Of Voters Drop Republican Affiliation After Capitol Riot

More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after a mob of pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol an issue that led the House to impeach the former president for inciting the violence.

The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus that could spell trouble for a party that is trying to find its way after losing the presidential race and the Senate majority.

It could also represent the tip of a much larger iceberg: The 30,000 who have left the Republican Party reside in just a few states that report voter registration data, and information about voters switching between parties, on a weekly basis.

Voters switching parties is not unheard of, but the data show that in the first weeks of the year, far more Republicans have changed their voter registrations than Democrats. Many voters are changing their affiliation in key swing states that were at the heart of the battle for the White House and control of Congress.

Nearly 10,000 Pennsylvania voters dropped out of the Republican Party in the first 25 days of the year, according to the secretary of states office. About a third of them, 3,476, have registered as Democrats; the remaining two-thirds opted to register with another party or without any party affiliation.

In all of those areas, the number of Democrats who left their party is a fraction of the number of Republican defectors.

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Voter Turnout In 2020 And Beyond

The new census data makes plain that the 2020 election was record-breaking in terms of the magnitude of its voter turnout. Yet there are two aspects of this turnout which need to be emphasized. One is the sharp rise in the turnout among white non-college votersa group that has strongly favored Republicans. The other is the accentuated turnout among young people and people of colorrepresenting the increasing influence of voters who heavily lean toward Democratic presidential candidates.

Both of these groups exerted countervailing forces on the results of the 2020 election, leading to close popular vote totals in a handful of states. However, the underlying demographics of the nations voter population show that Democratic-leaning voter populations are on the rise in both fast-growing and slow-growing parts of the country.

This raises the question as to whether even greater turnout among white non-college voter groupsor Republican efforts to alter voting requirements in their favorwill be enough to counter the influence of young voters and voters of color in future presidential elections.

For The First Time There Are Fewer Registered Republicans Than Independents

Gravitas: US Election 2020 | How Republicans & Democrats are wooing Indian Americans

For the first time in history, there are more registered independents in the United States than there are registered Republicans.

It may not be for the reason you think, though.

New data from Ballot Access News, which tracks registrations in the 31 states that require voters to register by party, shows that independents account for 29.09 percent of voters in them, compared with 28.87 percent for Republicans. As recently as 2004, Republicans outpaced independents by nearly 10 percentage points.

There are still way more registered Democrats; 39.66 percent of voters are registered with that party.

This marks the first time since party registration began in the early 1900s that the number of registered independents in the United States has surpassed members of either major political party, according to Ballot Access News.

Heres the data going back to 2004:

But before anybody chalks this up as having to do with the current occupant of the White House, its worth parsing the trends.

While independents have surpassed Republicans, there actually hasnt been a huge drop in GOP party registration since President Trump took office. Since October 2016, GOP registration has dropped by half a percentage point. The number of registered Democrats declined by nearly a full point over the same span. Independents have benefited from both drops.

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A Plurality Believe History Will Judge Trump As A The Worst President Ever; Less Than A Quarter Of Young Americans Want Trump To Play A Key Role In The Future Of Republican Politics; Young Republicans Are Divided

Thirty percent of young Americans believe that history will judge Donald Trump as the worst president ever. Overall, 26% give the 45th president positive marks , while 54% give Trump negative marks ; 11% believe he will go down as an average president.

Twenty-two percent of young Americans surveyed agree with the statement, I want Donald Trump to play a key role in the future of Republican politics, 58% disagreed, and 19% neither agreed nor disagreed. Among young Republicans, 56% agreed while 22% disagreed, and 21% were neutral. Only 61% of those who voted for Trump in the 2020 general indicated their desire for him to remain active in the GOP.

If they had to choose, 42% of young Republicans consider themselves supporters of the Republican party, and not Donald Trump. A quarter indicated they are Trump supporters first, 24% said they support both.

Despite The State Of Our Politics Hope For America Is Rising And So Is Youths Faith In Their Fellow Americans

In the fall of 2017, only 31% of young Americans said they were hopeful about the future of America; 67% were fearful. Nearly four years later, we find that 56% have hope. While the hopefulness of young whites has increased 11 points, from 35% to 46% — the changes in attitudes among young people of color are striking. Whereas only 18% of young Blacks had hope in 2017, today 72% are hopeful . In 2017, 29% of Hispanics called themselves hopeful, today that number is 69% .

By a margin of nearly three-to-one, we found that youth agreed with the sentiment, Americans with different political views from me still want whats best for the country — in total, 50% agreed, 18% disagreed, and 31% were recorded as neutral. In a hopeful sign, no significant difference was recorded between Democrats and Republicans .

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Record 22 Million Californians Registered To Vote Heading Into General Election

SACRAMENTO, CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla released the final statewide Report of Registration ahead of the;November 3, 2020, General Election. As of October 19, 2020, a record 22,047,448 Californians were registered to vote. This represents an increase of 2,635,677 registered voters since the last Report of Registration at a similar point in a presidential election cycle .

87.87% of eligible Californians are registered to vote.;This is the highest percentage of eligible citizens registered to vote heading into a General Election in the past;80 years.

For the first time, California;now;has more than 22 million registered voters, said;Secretary of State Alex Padilla. There are more voters registered in California than the number of people in the state of Florida!;Record;registration and a historic election points towards a big;voter turnout, which could also;mean longer lines and wait times on Election Day. If you havent voted yet, I;highly recommend that;you;consider voting early.

If you missed the voter registration deadline, you still have to opportunity to vote using Same Day Registration. 2020 marks the first year that voters can complete the Same Day voter registration process and cast their ballot at any in-person voting location in the county;or the county elections office, Padilla added.

Trends in Statewide Voter Registration 1996 2020

22,047,448

Registration Comparison October 19, 2020 Report vs. October 24, 2016 Report

Political Party

The Swing State Voting Patterns That Decided The Election

Given the importance of the state outcomes in the Electoral College, it is useful to study turnout patterns in swing or near-swing states from the 2020 presidential election .

Three such states in the rapidly growth South and West regions are Georgia, Arizona, and Texas. The former two gave Biden a razor-thin win over Donald Trump; the latter, which Trump won, showed a smaller Republican margin than in recent elections.

In all three states, turnout was highest for white college graduates, and lowest for nonwhite voters. Yet in each case, 2016-to-2020 turnout increases were greater for non-college white voters than for white college graduates. Each state also exhibited sizeable gains in their nonwhite turnout rates, which countered the Republican-leaning impact of the non-college white turnout increase. This was especially the case for the large Latino or Hispanic populations in Arizona and Texas, and modestly for the Black population in Georgia.

It is the case that the white non-college bloc voted somewhat less Republican in each of these states in 2020 than in 2016. However, it appears that the rise in white non-college turnout helped to make the races in Georgia and Arizona close, and in Texas, kept the Republican margins from shrinking further.

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Read Also: How Did Republicans Gain Control Of Southern Governments

A Wide And Growing Generational Divide In Partisanship

The generational gap in partisanship is now more pronounced than in the past, and this echoes the widening generational gaps seen in many political values and preferences.

Millennial voters have had a Democratic tilt since they first entered adulthood; this advantage has only grown as they have aged.

Democrats enjoy a 27-percentage-point advantage among Millennial voters . In 2014, 53% of Millennial voters were Democrats or leaned Democratic, 37% tilted toward the GOP.

Millennials remain more likely than those in older generations to call themselves independents ; still, the roughly two-to-one Democratic advantage among Millennials is apparent both in straight and leaned partisan affiliation.

Generation X voters are more divided in their partisan attachments, but also tilt toward the Democratic Party . The balance of leaned partisan identification among Gen X voters has been relatively consistent over the past several years. Baby Boomer voters are nearly evenly divided .

The Silent Generation is the only generational group that has more GOP leaners and identifying voters than Democratic-oriented voters. About half of Silent Generation voters identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, a larger share than a decade ago; 43% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party.

Gender gaps in other generations are more modest. For instance, 57% of Silent Generation men identify with or lean toward the GOP, compared with 48% of Silent women.

Unvaccinated Americans Whiter More Republican Than Vaccinated

Americans who say they will definitely not get vaccinated against COVID-19 are overwhelmingly white and Republican, according to polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation.;Meanwhile, the group that plans to wait and watch for problems is disproportionately Black and Hispanic. ;;The United States is falling just short of President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of Americans receive at least one dose of vaccine by July 4. ;;While about one-third of Americans have not been immunized against COVID-19, their reasons and intentions break down largely along racial and political lines. ;;

Hard no;Only 14% of Americans say they will definitely not get vaccinated. But this group is 69% white, compared with 7% Black and 12% Hispanic. Republicans make up 58% of this group, while Democrats account for 18%.;”From the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen political divides in attitudes towards COVID itself, not just the vaccines,” said Liz Hamel, director of KFF’s Public Opinion and Survey Research program. ;;For example, she said, “believing that the media has exaggerated the seriousness of the pandemic that’s something that we heard President Trump saying when he was in office. It’s something that Republicans are more likely to agree with than Democrats. And people who believe that the pandemic has been exaggerated are much less likely to say they want to get the vaccine.”;More than half of those who said they would not get vaccinated said they did not need it.;

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[seriousbusinessforhumans]

(Update: CHAZ is now CHOP. Capitol Hill Occupied Protest)

(Selected segments of the article)

Jun 11

Since a lot of the narratives swirling around about Seattle right now are less-than-insightful, I’m sharing a few points to help contextualize the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in the bigger picture of the dizzying terrain that is Seattle history.

1. Seattle = American settler capitalism on steroids

Since its 19th century gold rush beginnings, Seattle has attracted prospectors of all sorts. Their economic prosperity has always come at a price for somone else: on February 7, 1865, the Seattle Board of Trustees passed an ordinance that banned “indians” from living within city limits, with the exception of those who were employed and housed by white settlers. To this day, the Duwamish—the original inhabitants of what is now Seattle — do not have federal recognition from the US government. Meanwhile, the city of Seattle is named for a Duwamish Chief, whose face is also used as a city logo.

Subsequent boom-and-bust periods followed, largely driven by rapid growth in high-tech industries. Within a year of the founding of the Boeing company in 1916, the US had entered World War I, and Boeing was fulfilling military contracts. The company’s founder, William Boeing, saw to it that his personal racism would have a lasting impact on the city’s widening economic inequality by authoring bylaws that restricted the sale of real estate in his neighborhood to anyone who wasn’t white. The legacy of racially-restrictive housing covenants in Seattle is a staggering wealth gap: In 2019, the median net worth of a white household in the region was $456,000. For Black households, it was $23,000.

Seattle’s most recent growth cycle, of course, is dominated by Amazon, which surpassed Microsoft in 2019 as the region’s #1 employer, with more than 53,500 local employees, most of which were added over the last decade. While Seattle became the hottest housing market in the country, many African American households were displaced from the Central District, the only neighborhood where they were allowed to own homes for decades. (Read what groups like Africatown and Wa Na Wari are doing to respond to gentrification here and here.)

Meanwhile, Seattle’s homeless rate grew to the third in the nation................

2. Durkan is a pro-corporate, anti-activist mayor

Amazon’s influence over local politics cannot be overstated. In 2019, Amazon poured millions of dollars into “Seattle’s Most Expensive Election Ever” in an attempt to buy candidates who will not try to tax them. In 2017, they gave $350,000 —their largest-ever political contribution at the time—to a group supporting Jenny Durkan for mayor.

If I had to describe Seattle’s mayor in one sentence, it would be this: Before Durkan was mayor, she was a US Attorney who conspired with the SPD and FBI to pay a convicted child molester $90,000 to infiltrate activist circles. In 2013, she explained her rationale: “It’s not the saints who can bring us the sinners.”.....

3. Seattle’s distrust of the police runs deep

Since 2012, the Seattle Department has been under a federal consent decree for excessive use of force. Here’s how King5 described the circumstances leading up to that ruling:

The Department of Justice began investigating SPD in 2011 after community leaders said police were using excessive force particularly on minorities.

One of those instances cited in the decree was the death of John T. Williams, when an officer was caught shouting they would “beat the f — — — — Mexican piss” out of a Latino man in custody. Another was an incident where a Seattle police officer punched a 17-year-old black girl in the face.

As US attorney, Jenny Durkan personally investigated the SPD’s uses of force that led to the consent decree, and for this reason, having the consent decree perceived as successful has been one of the cornerstones of her tenure as mayor. Back in May, the city asked a federal judge to terminate the consent decree—a motion that has been withdrawn in light of recent events. Durkan’s recent behavior, however, seems to suggest that she believes the consent decree was successful—at a press conference on June 7, she responded to a question about rebuilding the SPD by claiming that a restructuring had already taken place under the consent decree.

And yet, even under the consent decree, the violent and biased behavior has continued. In 2016, Seattle police shot and killed Che Taylor. The officers responsible got off without charges, and later sued Kshama Sawant for describing the killing as “murder.” (Taylor’s brother, Andrè Taylor, was recently interviewed about current events in the New Yorker.) In 2017, Seattle police shot and killed a pregnant mother of four named Charleena Lyles in her home, in front of her children. This incident sparked a new wave of protests and pushback, bringing new attention and energy to defunding and abolitionist movements that were already going on. (During a march for justice for Charleena Lyles, I personally witnessed Seattle Police shooting tear gas and blastballs into a crowd that included babies and elders.)..........................

4. Distrust of police has recently intensified

Just a sampling of the events that have weakened trust in the past two weeks:

Continuing to use tear gas — a dangerous and potentially deadly chemical weapon banned in international warfare — days after falsely promising that tear gas would no longer be used.

The arrest of Evan Hreha, who had posted a viral video days earlier of a young child who had just been pepper sprayed by Seattle police.

The excessively violent arrest (livestreamed by many residents at the time) of another protester, who was accused of allegedly tapping a police officer with her bicycle.

The situation involving Nikolas Fernandez, who barreled down the street in a car on a collision course with protesters, shot a protester, and ran to the police. (It was later revealed that his brother worked at the East Precinct.) Fernandez’s last Instagram post before the incident was a meme minimizing the value of race-based civil rights struggles; while he was in police custody, his Instagram was scrubbed clean.

Multiple falsehoods that have been asserted by the Seattle police have been credulously and unquestioningly amplified by local networks (such as the Sinclair-owned KOMO). This includes the accusation of protesters throwing “improvised explosives”—(the image they shared was clearly of a broken prayer candle).

More recently, the accusation was made during a press conference that “armed guards are requiring IDs for people to walk through the area of the East Precinct and requiring business owners in the area to pay a “fee” to enter”—a false claim that has been debunked by area businesses. The Seattle Times later traced the claim to a comment on a post made by instigators on a right-wing blog. Meanwhile, FOX News and other national outlets have continued to push this blatant falsehood.

On the night of June 8, after the police retreated from the East Precinct, police could be heard over their scanner warning about “20 to 30 Proud Boys” making their way to the area, perhaps in an attempt to scare away protesters. It is doubtful whether these Proud Boys existed. (A widely circulated image of a protester with a gun was taken that night, when protesters had reason to believe that they needed to protect themselves from roving street gangs.)

SPD Chief Carmen Best called the department’s retreat from the intersection an exercise in “trust and de-escalation.” But the erosion of the city’s trust in its police have only been exacerbated by the department’s handling of recent events. As Lola E. Peters wrote,

Had [Mayor Durkan] and Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best taken early, decisive steps — including immediately announcing the name of the officer who, on May 30, allegedly pepper sprayed a child and firing him or her on the spot — without using the amoral language of politispeak to shield themselves, they would have gained a measure of respect. Instead we hear about the importance of protecting those who are fully armored from those wearing T-shirts and sneakers.

5. Nikkita Oliver is the true mayor of our hearts

In 2017, attorney, poet, and activist Nikkita Oliver launched a bid to become mayor of Seattle. While her campaign, running on an anti-gentrification and social justice platform, was ultimately defeated in a crowded primary, her People’s Party captured national attention and helped set the tone of an agenda that continues to shine through in the best aspirations of the events of the past weeks. Oliver is a good person to follow for information about current events. (Another Seattleite to follow is Omari Salisbury, a citizen journalist whose coverage over the past two weeks has been nothing short of heroic.).................An excellent interview with Nikkita Oliver about current events was just published by Vanity Fair.

6. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is, by and large, a supremely peaceful endeavor

I do not say this to delegitimize more confrontational tactics — Martin Luther King, Jr. called riots the “language of the unheard.” But the organizers who have the most at stake have made clear that they wanted to handle the retreat of the police from the area peacefully, and protesters have overwhelmingly respected their wishes. In his interview with the New Yorker, Andrè Taylor, whose brother was killed by Seattle police in 2016, said that despite the photogenic images that came out of the first night of rioting, he wanted to keep the focus on the unidirectionality of the violence inflicted on private citizens by the heavily armed, heavily funded police department.

A shrine honoring George Floyd and other victims of police violence has been constructed on the site. A makeshift outdoor theater, screening documentaries like Ava DuVernay’s 13th, now occupies the corner that was a battlefield for a week. Local activists are sharing food, playing music, and talking about ways to construct a more equitable future. The only thing to fear here is the threat posed by the people coming together for a common cause.

One valid question I have seen come up has to do with the extent to which the CHAZ experiment will center BIPOC voices. Unfortunately it is not uncommon for white activists to co-opt movements started by Black and brown organizers, and the avoidance of this dynamic will no doubt pose a continuous challenge. As of this moment, none of the demands of organizers have been met by the city, though the move to defund the police is now on the table in a way that would not have been possible without these protests.

“It’s one thing to take a space, it’s another thing to turn a space into something functional that actually serves the community,” Nikkita Oliver told Vanity Fair. “You know, Seattle is the second city to have a Black Panther Party, and one of the hallmarks of the Black Panther Party was that they met the needs of the community.”

Whatever happens in the coming days, It is my sincere hope that the guiding principle will be the one that brought Seattle to this inflection point:

BLACK LIVES MATTER 🖤

[tamboradventure]

My 6 Favorite Hostels in Boston

Posted: 1/18/2020 | January 18th, 2020

With its historic colonial buildings, die-hard sports fans, and lively nightlife, Boston is one of my favorite cities in the US (and I’m not just saying that because it’s where I grew up!).

Boston has been a commercial hub since the 17th century and holds an important place in American history. After the Boston Tea Party in 1773, it became a pivotal bastion of support for the US War of Independence. Even today, the city is brimming with history and has lots to offer. It’s a must-visit destination for anyone looking to understand the roots of modern America.

Since it isn’t the most affordable destination, budget-conscious travelers and backpackers are probably going to want to save money however they can. That means finding budget-friendly accommodation.

Like most US cities, Boston doesn’t have many hostels. But the ones it does have are modern, clean, safe, and social for the most part.

To help you save money during your visit, here are the best hostels in Boston:  

1. HI Boston

HI Boston is the best hostel in town. It offers both same-sex and mixed dorms, and each bed comes equipped with a shelf, outlets, and a locker. The private rooms are modern and have more of a hotel feel to them; they also come with TVs and a bathtub (which is largely unheard of in a hostel).

The hostel also has a free continental breakfast, a kitchen to cook your own meals in, and a common room complete with TV, pool table, and a piano. They also organize free city tours and host dinners, among other activities. It’s a very social hostel.

HI Boston is located close to the Freedom Trail, the Boston Common, and Chinatown. More attractions, like the campuses of Harvard and MIT, are a only few T (subway) stops away.

Beds from $25 USD, private rooms from $101 USD a night.

—> Book your stay at HI Boston!  

2. Boston Fenway Inn

The Boston Fenway Inn is the cheapest hostel in town. But you get what you pay for, so expect basic accommodations. The rooms here can get cold in the winter, and the windows let in a lot of sound from nearby restaurants and bars. Bathrooms aren’t plentiful, and sometimes there are lines. And if you’re not one of the first to shower, you may miss out on hot water.

Breakfast is included but is quite basic (toast and coffee) unless you wake up early and grab pastries before they’re gone. It also doesn’t have a full kitchen, and the common room is set up with tables and chairs, so it’s not super comfy.

However, the hostel is located in a prime spot near the affluent Back Bay neighborhood, a picturesque and historic neighborhood with designer boutiques, indie shops, and some of the best spots in town to eat and drink. The hostel is close to Fenway Park, the stunning Boston Public Library, the Museum of Fine arts, and the Mapparium.

Beds from $19 USD, private rooms from $54 USD a night.

—> Book your stay at Boston Fenway Inn!  

3. FOUND Hotel Boston Common

FOUND Hotel Boston Common is one of the oldest hotels in the city. Renovated in 2018, it has much more of a hotel feel to it. There isn’t a common room or kitchen, so it’s not easy to meet other travelers here, and the rooms here are small (some of the private rooms have hardly enough space for the bed).

But it’s a short walk to Boston Common and the Public Garden and has plenty of restaurants, bars, and clubs nearby. It’s also just over one block from the subway, so it’s easy to get to other attractions in town.

If you want a place that’s quiet, tidy, comfortable, and not particularly social, then book your stay here.

Beds from $36 USD, private rooms from $82 USD a night.

—> Book your stay at FOUND Hotel Boston Common!  

4. Boston Homestel

Located in an old house a few miles outside of the city center (but close to the JFK Library), Boston Homestel offers simple rooms and dorms. The rooms here are clean and bright but don’t have much to them. The beds aren’t the most comfortable, but the quiet location makes it easier to fall asleep than in other hostels in the heart of the city.

The hostel has a common room and a small kitchen, but not much more. It’s a quiet hostel, so don’t come to Boston Homestel expecting a party.

Beds from $37 USD, private rooms from $87 USD a night.

—> Book your stay at Boston Homestel!  

5. Backpackers Hostel & Pub

Backpackers Hostel & Pub is a social hostel located in Everett, just outside the city. It’s not fancy by any means, but it has a lively atmosphere and free breakfast (which is a big plus for budget-savvy travelers). The dorms are large and not particularly fancy or comfortable (most are 8-10 beds), but the drinks are cheap, and it’s just a 10-minute drive from downtown by car (25 minutes by public transportation).

The staff are super friendly and helpful, and they also offer a free shuttle pickup service from the nearest T (subway) station (which is a 30-min walk away). They have a kitchen too, so you can easily cook your own meals here to save even more money. It’s a busy, social hostel.

Beds from $40 USD a night (private rooms not available).

—> Book your stay at Backpackers Hostel and Pub!  

6. Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships

Available from June through September, this is easily the coolest place to stay in town: a functional sailing vessel, the Liberty Clipper. It’s a wooden three-mast ship with cozy cabins for rent. While the rooms are small, the experience is unlike anything else Boston has to offer.

Towels and linens are included, and the hot water is plentiful. There is no Wi-Fi, however, and you need to leave the ship during the day. But if you’re looking for a unique experience, this is hard to beat. It’s also a great choice for couples.

Cabins from $60 USD a night.

Book your stay at Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships!

***

Whether you’re looking to stay in the heart of town or in more quiet accommodations further afield, Boston will have something for you. While the rock-bottom budget options are limited, the facilities at the better hostels will not leave you wanting.

Even with the prevalence of Airbnb here, hostels are still the cheapest accommodation option. Just be sure to book early and you’ll be able to find a bed, meet new travelers, and save some money in the process!

Book Your Trip to Boston: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel — and I think they will help you too!

Looking for more information on visiting Boston? Check out my in-depth destination guide to Boston with more tips on what to see and do, costs, ways to save, and much, much more!

Photo credit: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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[fukigennachou]

Some Kyushu weather/climate tips

BG: I lived in the Fukuoka prefecture for 10 months in 2011-2012 and get unfair weather updates from friends and host family when I complain about the weather here in Finland.

Snowfall only happens a couple times a year, usually in January - February when it’s also the coldest. For instance, this year my host sister sent me a video of the first snowfall of the winter on Feb 11th. I managed in a T-shirt in October (our school switched to winter uniforms in mid-October and my northern ass was about to die by way of toasting), and only started using a coat in early January. The kind of April snowfall as depicted in episode 1 is highly irregular. Even though the outside temperatures stay relatively mild, the houses in Kyushu, especially more traditional ones, aren’t that well insulated so kotatsu and warm clothes were very commonly used.

Spring temps start to rise in early March. The first notable flowers to bloom are the Plum, or Ume flowers. This year the earliest to bloom in Fukuoka prefecture were the Tobiume in Dazaifu city, the first of which were recorded to have bloomed as early as December 31st, and continued to bloom until February 8th. The Ume in Tenmangu, Fukuoka City first bloomed on Feb 10th and lasted until around March 10th. This year the blooming lasted longer than usual because of higher-than-normal temperatures in the early winter (Dec-Jan), and a sudden plummeting of temperatures during the blooming season (late Jan- early Feb) Source

As for Sakura, this map shows the dates of the first blossoms throughout Japan. This years blooming seems to hava happened just in time for April. As for April temperatures, when Finland was suffering from later-than-usual snowfalls, Kyushu was enjoying(?) unexpectedly high temperatures. They got up to +29℃ in mid-April which is a bit hot that early in the year even for their tastes, according to a friend.

In May the temperatures tend to be above +20℃, and the weather is usually very nice. Pretty much summer, at least for me. The rainy season begins in June, and during June and July typhoons aren’t unheard of. Also the thunderstorms are really cool. And it rains a lot.

After the rainy season the whole environment gets plunged into hell. Not really but it gets so very hot. Even the locals consider the heat excruciating, since even if there is wind it doesn’t help to open windows when the air outside is just as hot as the air inside. Temperatures rarely drop below +20℃ even at night, and usually rise above +30℃ during the day. This lasts from mid-July to sometime around end of August - early September. But yeah, the climate is pretty tropical. My school had like these tall palm trees sitting right beside regular old firs. It was sort of surreal to someone whose home country is too cold for palm trees.

Yeah those are a few things that came to mind, feel free to correct me if I got something wrong, and add your own experiences and stuff.

[joementa]

Week Of May 1, 2017.

This week was the kick-off of what I have deemed Emo Fest 2K17, consisting of four consecutive (for me) Ryan Adams/DRA shows.  I won’t complain about that.  Although after four DRA shows in a row, my emotions might be doing some complaining. Night 1 of Emo Fest 2K17 was at the Beacon Theatre in NYC.  Alex Edelman, a stand-up comic, opened the show.  I really enjoyed it.  I’ve always felt a connection with stand-up comics.  Not because of humor (I like to say that I TRY to be funny.  I don’t necessarily think that I AM funny), but because I think stand-up comics face one of the loneliest and most naked positions you could ever be in.  And a part of me has felt that way my entire life.  DRA’s show was fantastic, of course.  He was in a great mood, and was very funny, too.  The songs sounded great.  They ROCKED. The crowd was really great, too. They were locked into it, and everyone stood for the entire show.  That was nice, because as I said, this was a rock show.  

If you go to a lot of shows, you know that NYC always brings a great crowd.  And that’s emphasized more when a musician or band has a connection to the great city, which DRA does.  He played “New York, New York” solo acoustic, right up at the front of the stage, and you could hear a pin drop during that performance.  I was really happy that he played “Kim”.  It’s one of my favorite songs of his, from his great self-titled album.  “When The Stars Go Blue” was of course absurdly beautiful.  He also included a cover of “Wonderwall”, solo on electric guitar. What a performance.

Emo Fest 2K17 Night 2 was back at the Beacon, another sold out show.  One thing that was different from the previous night – I had a FRONT ROW ticket.  Pretty tough to beat that!  The show of course was great – both the band and the crowd rocked.  There’s nothing like an NYC crowd.  This show had TWO solo acoustic performances, and they were truly acoustic – no plugging in at all.  It was just DRA with an unplugged acoustic guitar, singing into the microphone.  Unlike the previous night, “New York, New York” was played full-band.  This may have been even more powerful than the night before.  There’s something very moving hearing DRA sing that great song in that great city.  I’ll never get tired of seeing shows in this city.  

After the show, two people approached me and told me that I was fun to watch.  They said it looked like I was having a lot of fun.  I actually have had many people over the years tell me this after shows, and my response is always, “Thank you.  And, if it looked like I was having fun, well that’s because I was!”  I can’t help but express myself when I’m at a show.  Often to a fault, music is my main form of communicating.  A feeling comes over me at a show, ESPECIALLY at a rock show, that is almost out of my body and mind.  I am singing and dancing and clapping and doing my signature finger pumping (those who have been with me at a show before know what this is).  I am completely lost in a higher place. That’s why I go to the shows.

Night 3 of Emo Fest 2K17 was at the Tower Theatre, outside of Philly.  I’m a big fan of that venue and have seen a bunch of great shows there over the years.  DRA’s show this year was a little weird.  The band, of course, was awesome.  DRA probably interacted with the crowd even more than in NYC.  He told a funny story about how a vending machine took his money in high school, so he shook it to get his candy and it fell on him, breaking his pinky.  He topped it off by saying that a high school friend said he was a member of Rage Against The Vending Machine.  That’s so cheesy that it’s hilarious.  

Although the story was funny, I come to these shows to feel it from the band and the crowd.  Like Bruce says, “in the crowd I feel at home.” I did not feel at home in this crowd. All of DRA’s main set was played with an electric guitar, and as I’ve said before, this was a true ROCK show.  At most rock shows, I am on an emotional journey, both internally and externally.  And you would think that a Saturday night crowd in Philly would have some sort of external reaction in a rock show.  Guess again.  Almost nobody stood up during this show, and for the few of us who did, we were verbally attacked by the crowd for doing it.  To top it off, DRA closed the show with “Come Pick Me Up” in the encore, which he traditionally plays.  This version was solo acoustic.  Guess what the crowd did.  If you guessed that they sat in their seat like they did for all of the rock songs, you would be wrong.  They stood and sang during the entire song.  Then the show was over.  Oh well. I still enjoyed the show.  I just had to enjoy it internally.

There were a bunch of new albums that came out this week that I need to check out, but because of Emo Fest 2K17, I’ve only had a chance to check out a couple of them.  In particular, I love the new Afghan Whigs album In Spades.  This should not be a surprise to anyone who knows me, because I love that band.  Their lead singer, Greg Dulli, is one of my favorite singers.  He does a fantastic job of combining a variety of genres and emotions in his voice.  I saw him live once, but unfortunately have not yet seen The Afghan Whigs live.  That will change this year, as they just announced a fall tour in the US, which I will not be missing.  The tour dates are right here.  I cannot give their show my own stamp of approval since I’ve never seen them, but I can’t imagine that they would put on a bad show.  I’m really looking forward to those shows later this year.

There are a lot of reissues coming up, and I think all of these are worth being excited for.  

A bunch of Iron Maiden vinyl reissues are slated for this summer.  Below is the schedule.

May 19

Fear Of The Dark

No Prayer For The Dying

The X Factor

Virtual

June 23

A Matter Of Life And Death

Brave New World

Dance Of Death

Rock In Rio

July 21

Death On The Road

En Vivo!

Flight 666

The Final Frontier

Purple Rain is being reissued on June 23, and there is a lot to be excited about here. There are a variety of options, but the Deluxe – Expanded Edition is the way to go, in my opinion.  Disc one is the original album (obviously), the second disc is 11 songs from the vault including 6 never before heard songs, and a third disc all of the singles and B-sides from the Purple Rain era.  Plus it comes with a DVD of Prince and The Revolution live on March 30, 1985.  No word yet on whether or not this is coming out on vinyl, but count me in either way!

One of my favorite albums ever is Exodus by Bob Marley.  It turns 40 years old this year, and not surprisingly, they are doing a massive reissue to celebrate.  There are a few different versions that will be released, which you can read about right here. I’m particularly excited about the super deluxe reissue version.  It includes FOUR vinyl LPs (including the original album, a “restatement” version that includes previously unused and unheard vocals, a live show), plus a bonus 7” with a previously unreleased version of “Waiting In Vain”.  Apparently the “restatement” version of “Turn Your Lights Down Low” is really good, and has an R&B vibe.  I’m excited to hear that one.  “Turn Your Lights Down Low” is my favorite Bob Marley song.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 50 years ago this year, and they are celebrating it in a big way.  One again, there are a variety of options.  The double vinyl release includes a new stereo mix of the album for disc one, and a full disc of complete early takes from the Sgt. Pepper’s sessions in the same sequence as the album proper.  More music from The Beatles that has never been heard before. I will not complain about that. This comes out May 26.

Warpaint by the Black Crowes is being reissued on June 16

Here is a list of some of the music I’ve been listening to the past week.  Format: musician – album title, or musician – “song title” (album title).  As you can see by the list below, I listened to a lot of Bruce this week.  I’m still riding high from his storytellers discussion in NYC last week, and to keep it going, I had to listen to a lot of his music.  I usually do that when I see one of my favorite musicians.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of DRA on this list next week.

The Counting Crows – “A Long December” (Recovering The Satellites)

The Gaslight Anthem – “Mae” (Handwritten)

Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey

Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle

Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Bruce Springsteen – The River

Bruce Springsteen – Born In The U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen – “Save My Love” b/w “Because The Night”

Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band – Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO 8/23/08

Karen Elson – Double Roses

Iron & Wine – Archive Series Volume 3

Lady Gaga – “The Cure”

Prince – Prince

Prince – “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” (Sign O’ The Times)

The Afghan Whigs – In Spades

Chris Stapleton – From A Room, Volume 1

The Afghan Whigs – Black Love

The Afghan Whigs – “Faded” (Black Love)

Maren Morris – Hero

Ed Sheeran – Divide

Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark

D’Angelo – Brown Sugar

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/understanding-donald-trump-russian-connections/

Understanding all those Donald Trump Russian connections

No matter how much distraction President Donald Trump throws out, there's always a new connection to Russia and Vladimir Putin that arises every week with his associates. This is something that won't go away no matter how many bombs he sets off, the FBI has cranked up the time and resources they are spending on this investigation. Despite Russia’s harmful national interests against the U.S., and its human rights violations around the world, President Trump and his team are directly and indirectly tied to Russia. Throughout the 2016 presidential election, President Trump not only refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, but was even friendly and accommodating in his remarks. In his own words, President Trump called President Putin “highly respected." More recently, President Trump put the U.S. on equal moral footing with Russia when responding to Bill O’Reilly’s question about Putin being a "killer," saying "We've got a lot of killers... you think our country's so innocent?" This is absolutely false moral equivalence, and unheard of for the President of the United States to insult and demean the country he leads. President Trump has harshly criticized NATO, and exclaimed that only the NATO allies that paid equally to the alliance deserved protection from the United States. Though these remarks were softened by British Prime Minister Theresa May, who claims that President Trump fully supports the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it's still unclear how supportive he will be of NATO allies like the Baltic states in light of his relationship with Russia. President Trump has also surrounded himself with people who do business with and are sympathetic to Russia. The New York Times reported that members of Trump’s 2016 campaign and other Trump associates had frequent contact with senior Russian intelligence officials throughout the campaign. In addition to these questionable communications, here are a few other associates with ties to Moscow: Donald Trump: Not only does his past and current team have ties to Russia, but the President himself also does. He has traveled to Russia extensively, done business there often, and has ties to Russian interests. For example, in 2008 he made a real estate sale to Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Trump bought a Palm Beach mansion in 2004 during a bankruptcy sale for $41 million, and less than four years later, without ever having moved in, Trump sold the mansion to Rybolovlev for $95 million. Michael Flynn: Flynn, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, was asked to resign just weeks after he was sworn in. His resignation came after it leaked that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russian officials, specifically Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, before President Trump’s inauguration. In these communications, Flynn discussed sanctions imposed by the Obama administration on Russia – while President Obama was still in office. Earlier last year, he stated that the U.S. needs to respect that “Russia has its own national security strategy, and we have to try to figure out: How do we combine the United States’ national security strategy along with Russia’s national security strategy,” raising troubling questions. In 2015, Flynn delivered remarks at a Moscow gala honoring RT, Russia’s propaganda arm, where he was seated next to Putin. Flynn accepted $33,750 for this speech by RT, and did not correctly report the payment, thus concealing payment from a foreign government, and possibly violating the law in the meantime. Flynn continued to appear on RT as a foreign policy analyst. Altogether, Flynn was paid more than $67,000 by Russian companies before the 2016 presidential election. Jeff Sessions: Sessions, President Trump’s Attorney General, had two conversations with Ambassador Kislyak during the 2016 presidential election. However, during later confirmation hearings, he claimed that he “did not have communications with the Russians” when prompted by Senator Al Franken. Once reports of his meetings with Kislyak surfaced, Sessions recused himself from any investigation into Russia’s interference in our 2016 presidential election. Many officials are continuing to call for his resignation. Rex Tillerson: Tillerson, President Trump’s Secretary of State, worked on energy projects in Russia for two decades during his career at Exxon. He has publicly described his “very close relationship” with President Putin and was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship in 2013, the highest state honor possible for a foreigner. Jared Kushner: Kushner is President Trump's son-in-law and current Senior Advisor. Along with Michael Flynn, Kushner met with Ambassador Kislyak during the Presidential transition. The White House later acknowledged that following that meeting, Ambassador Kislyak requested a second meeting, which Kushner had a deputy attend. However, at Kislyak's request, Kushner did later meet with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Russia's state-owned development bank, who has close ties to President Putin. The U.S. placed this bank on its sanctions list following Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to question Kushner about his meetings with Russian officials. The New York Times recently reported that Kusher failed to disclose dozens of contacts with foreign leaders on his application for top-secret security clearance -- one of those contacts being Ambassador Kislyak. Donald Trump, Jr.: Trump, Jr., President Trump’s son, met with Fabien Baussart, a leader of a Syrian opposition group backed by the Russian government, and others about how the U.S. could work with Russia on the Syrian conflict weeks before Donald Trump was elected President. He has also been quoted saying that his father’s businesses “see a lot of money pouring in from Russia”, and that he had visited Russia on business over a half dozen times. Paul Manafort: Manafort, who has business connections to Russia and Ukraine, was hired as Trump’s campaign manager in March 2016. He then resigned in August of the same year, after reports surfaced that suggested he had received $12.7 million from Victor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s pro-Russia former president. It was recently revealed by AP that Manafort proposed in a strategy plan from as early as June 2005 that he would work to influence politics, business deals, and media inside the U.S. and Europe to benefit Putin. This plan was pitched to Oleg Deripaska, a "Russian aluminum magnate" with close ties to Putin. Manafort eventually signed a $10 million contract with Deripaska in early 2006. The Trump Administration and Manafort have both said that Manafort never worked for Russian interests. Since the FBI confirmed in a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on March 20 that investigators are examining whether the Trump campaign and its associates coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, the White House has made attempts to distance itself from Manafort, claiming that he played "a very limited role" in the campaign, despite his clear leadership role as campaign chairman leading up to the Republican National Convention. Carter Page: Page, hired as a foreign policy advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign, was known to have deep ties to Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company. In July 2016, a month after Russia's DNC meddling was reveled in the press, Page traveled to Moscow to make a speech. The Trump campaign approved this trip, saying he would not be traveling as an official representative of the campaign. In the speech he delivered in Moscow, he criticized American foreign policy as being hypocritical – remarks which ultimately led to his resignation from Trump’s campaign. Before joining the campaign, he was a businessman “of no particular renown” working in the Moscow branch of Merrill Lynch before creating his own consulting agency. Previously, Trump identified Page as one of a small group of advisors helping to craft his foreign policy platform during the campaign. However, President Trump’s staff now claims that “Carter Page is an individual who the [then] president-elect does not know.” Page met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in 2016. Buzzfeed recently reported that Page had met with a Russian intelligence agent named Victor Podobnyy in 2013, who was reportedly trying to recruit Page. Podobnyy was later charged by the U.S. for acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. Tevfik Arif: Arif, who founded Bayrock, a real estate group known to have many deals with Trump, had a 17-year career in the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade. Roger Stone: Stone, a former advisor to Trump, had back channel conversations with Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, which is the organization that published the DNC leaks and Podesta emails during the 2016 elections. He also had exchanges with Guccifer 2.0 -- a hacker believed to be linked to Russia involved in the 2016 hacking of Democratic National Committee emails -- in August 2016. Also in August, he tweeted "it will soon [be] Podesta's time in the barrell." About two months later, Wikileaks began posting John Podesta's emails. Felix Sater: Sater, formerly a senior advisor to the Trump Organization, is a Russian-born Bayrock associate with extensive involvement in organized crime. Alex Shnaider: Born in Russia, Shnaider co-financed a real estate project with Trump. Shnaider’s father-in-law, Boris J. Birshtein, was a close business associate of Sergei Mikhaylov, the head of one of the largest branches of the Russian mob. JD Gordon: Gordon, a national security advisor for the Trump campaign met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, who he told he would like to improve US - Russia relations. He advocated for a change to the GOP national platform to make their policies more pro-Russian and less pro-Ukraine, a change which Gordon said was directly supported by then-candidate Donald Trump. Wilbur Ross: Ross, President Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, was the top shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus, an institution with deep Russian ties and investors who made fortunes under Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to McClatchy, the banking system in Cyprus, because of its dependence on Russian investors, is money-laundering concern for the US State Department. Ross served as the vice chairman of the board of directors for the Bank of Cyprus. The second largest investor in the Bank of Cyprus was Viktor Vekselberg, who once served on the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft, which is under partial sanction by the US Treasury Department. Vekselberg is known to have a close relationship with Vladimir Putin. In February, six senators sent a letter to Ross inquiring about his relationship to Vekselberg. The senators also inquired about Ross’s relationship with Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, who is also linked to the Bank of Cyprus, was a former KGB agent, and is believed to be a Putin associate. Erik Prince: Prince, who had no formal role with the Trump campaign or transition team, had a secret meeting with a Russian close to President Putin, arranged by the United Arab Emirates, the Washington Post recently reported. The meeting reportedly took place around January 11, 2017 on the Seychelles islands, and was allegedly part of an effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Russia and then President-elect Trump. The UAE agreed to facilitate the meeting in order to explore Russia's willingness to curtail its relationship with Iran. Prince was a supporter of Trump, and has ties to Steve Bannon and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is his sister. He was also seen in Trump transition offices in December. In addition to these ties, it appears that Trump and his team are conscious of their guilt. In late February 2017, CNN reported that “the FBI rejected a recent White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump's associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign.” This request may be a violation of procedures that limits communications between the White House and FBI on pending investigations. Why is America’s leader and his team so close to Russia? This is either due to poor judgement or a deeper personal, financial, or political link between President Trump and Russia. It is not normal for the leader of our country to be so extensively tied to a foreign government that has sought to undermine democracies across the globe, and connections like these should be concerning to American citizens everywhere.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[blackkudos]

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (/ɡᵻˈlɛspi/; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer.

AllMusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated [...] Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.

In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman.

Biography

Early life and career

Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children of James and Lottie Gillespie. James was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four. Gillespie's father died when he was only ten years old. Gillespie taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, play on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. He received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina which he attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia.

Gillespie's first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of Edgar Hayes and Teddy Hill, essentially replacing Roy Eldridge as first trumpet in 1937. Teddy Hill's band was where Gillespie made his first recording, "King Porter Stomp". In August 1937 while gigging with Hayes in Washington D.C., Gillespie met a young dancer named Lorraine Willis who worked a Baltimore–Philadelphia–New York City circuit which included the Apollo Theater. Willis was not immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two finally married on May 9, 1940. They remained married until his death in 1993.

Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill's band for a year, then left and free-lanced with numerous other bands. In 1939, Gillespie joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental "Pickin' the Cabbage", in 1940. (Originally released on Paradiddle, a 78rpm backed with a co-composition with Cozy Cole, Calloway's drummer at the time, on the Vocalion label, No. 5467).

After a notorious altercation between the two men, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941. The incident is recounted by Gillespie, along with fellow Calloway band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones, in Jean Bach's 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway did not approve of Gillespie's mischievous humor, nor of his adventuresome approach to soloing; according to Jones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". Finally, their grudge for each other erupted over a thrown spitball. Calloway never thought highly of Dizzy, because he didn't view Dizzy as a good musician. Once during a rehearsal, a member of the band threw a spitball. Already in a foul mood, Calloway decided to blame this on Dizzy. In order to clear his name, Dizzy didn’t take the blame and the problem quickly escalated into a fist fight, then a knife fight. Calloway had minor cuts on the thigh and wrist. After the two men were separated, Calloway fired Dizzy. A few days later, Dizzy tried to apologize to Calloway, but he was dismissed.

During his time in Calloway's band, Gillespie started writing big band music for bandleaders like Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He then freelanced with a few bands – most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra, composed of members of the late Chick Webb's band, in 1942.

Gillespie avoided serving in World War II. In his Selective Service interview, he told the local board, "in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" He was thereafter classed as 4-F. In 1943, Gillespie joined the Earl Hines band. Composer Gunther Schuller said:

... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.

Gillespie said of the Hines band, "People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit".

Then, Gillespie joined the big band of Hines' long-time collaborator Billy Eckstine, and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Charlie Parker, a fellow member. In 1945, Gillespie left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.

Rise of bebop

Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in the bebop era like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases was created. With Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House. Parker's system also held methods of adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within the improvised lines.

Gillespie compositions like "Groovin' High", "Woody 'n' You" and "Salt Peanuts" sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the swing music popular at the time. "A Night in Tunisia", written in 1942, while Gillespie was playing with Earl Hines' band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music, a non-walking bass line. The song also displays Afro-Cuban rhythms. One of their first small-group performances together was only issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Gillespie taught many of the young musicians on 52nd Street, including Miles Davis and Max Roach, about the new style of jazz. After a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, which left most of the audience ambivalent or hostile towards the new music, the band broke up. Unlike Parker, who was content to play in small groups and be an occasional featured soloist in big bands, Gillespie aimed to lead a big band himself; his first, unsuccessful, attempt to do this was in 1945.

After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, and Yusef Lateef) and finally put together his first successful big band. Gillespie and his band tried to popularize bop and make Gillespie a symbol of the new music. He also appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. He also headlined the 1946 independently produced musical revue film Jivin' in Be-Bop.

In 1948 Gillespie was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured, and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000, in view of his high earnings up to that point.

On January 6, 1953 Gillespie threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's in Manhattan, where his trumpet's bell got bent upward in an accident, but he liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45 degree raised bell, becoming his trademark.

In 1956 Gillespie organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East which was extremely well received internationally and earned him the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano.

Afro-Cuban music

In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music, bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa. Afro-Cuban jazz is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. Gillespie was introduced to Chano Pozo in 1947 by Mario Bauza, a Latin jazz trumpet player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Gillespie also worked with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd Street and several famous dance clubs such as Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They played together in the Chick Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became lifelong friends. Gillespie helped develop and mature the Afro-Cuban jazz style.

Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and it always attracted people to dance to its unique rhythms. Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are the compositions "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured the great but ill-fated Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie discovered Arturo Sandoval while researching music during a tour of Cuba.

Later years

His biographer Alyn Shipton quotes Don Waterhouse approvingly that Gillespie in the fifties "had begun to mellow into an amalgam of his entire jazz experience to form the basis of new classicism". Another opinion is that, unlike his contemporary Miles Davis, Gillespie essentially remained true to the bebop style for the rest of his career.

In 1960, he was inducted into the Down Beat magazine's Jazz Hall of Fame.

During the 1964 United States presidential campaign the artist, with tongue in cheek, put himself forward as an independent write-in candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed the Blues House, and he would have a cabinet composed of Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), Max Roach (Secretary of Defense), Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace), Ray Charles (Librarian of Congress), Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture), Mary Lou Williams (Ambassador to the Vatican), Thelonious Monk (Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney General). He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller. Campaign buttons had been manufactured years before by Gillespie's booking agency "for publicity, as a gag", but now proceeds from them went to benefit the Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971 Gillespie announced he would run again but withdrew before the election for reasons connected to the Bahá'í Faith.

Dizzy Gillespie, a Bahá'í since 1968, was one of the most famous adherents of the Bahá'í Faith. It brought him to see himself as one of a series of musical messengers, part of a succession of trumpeters somewhat analogous to the series of prophets who bring God's message in religion. The universalist emphasis of his religion prodded him to see himself more as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding on his already-growing interest in his African heritage. His increasing spirituality brought out a generosity in him, and what author Nat Hentoff called an inner strength, discipline and "soul force". Gillespie's conversion was most affected by Bill Sears' bookThief in the Night. Gillespie spoke about the Bahá'í Faith frequently on his trips abroad. He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bahá'í Center in the memorial auditorium.

Gillespie published his autobiography, To Be or Not to Bop, in 1979.

Gillespie was a vocal fixture in many of John Hubley and Faith Hubley's animated films, such as The Hole, The Hat, and Voyage to Next.

In the 1980s, Gillespie led the United Nation Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra and she credits Gillespie with evolving her understanding of jazz after being in the field for over two decades. David Sánchez also toured with the group and was also greatly influenced by Gillespie. Both artists later were nominated for Grammy awards. Gillespie also had a guest appearance on The Cosby Show as well as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

In 1982, Gillespie had a cameo appearance on Stevie Wonder's hit "Do I Do". Gillespie's tone gradually faded in the last years in life, and his performances often focused more on his proteges such as Arturo Sandoval and Jon Faddis; his good-humoured comedic routines became more and more a part of his live act.

In 1988, Gillespie had worked with Canadian flautist and saxophonist Moe Koffman on their prestigious album Oo Pop a Da. He did fast scat vocals on the title track and a couple of the other tracks were played only on trumpet.

In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31 states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He was also crowned a traditional chief in Nigeria, received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; France's most prestigious cultural award. He was named Regent Professor by the University of California, and received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, this one from the Berklee College of Music. In addition, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Duke Ellington Award for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader. In 1993 he received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden.

November 26, 1992 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, following the Second Bahá'í World Congress was Gillespie's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included: Jon Faddis, Marvin "Doc" Holladay, James Moody, Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from cancer of the pancreas. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz." In 2002, Gillespie was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame for his contributions to Afro-Cuban music.

Gillespie also starred in a film called The Winter in Lisbon released in 2004. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood section of the City of Los Angeles. He is honored by the December 31, 2006 – A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Death and legacy

A longtime resident of Englewood, New Jersey he died of pancreatic cancer January 6, 1993, aged 75, and was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York City. Mike Longo delivered a eulogy at his funeral. He was also with Gillespie on the night he died, along with Jon Faddis and a select few others.

At the time of his death, Gillespie was survived by his widow, Lorraine Willis Gillespie (d. 2004); a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson; and a grandson, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett. Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bahá'í funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City open to the public.

As a tribute to him, DJ Qualls' character in the 2002 American teen comedy film The New Guy was named Dizzy Gillespie Harrison.

The Marvel Comics current Hawkeye comic written by Matt Fraction features Gillespie's music in a section of the editorials called the "Hawkguy Playlist".

Also, Dwight Morrow High School, the public high school of Englewood, New Jersey, renamed their auditorium the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium, in memory of him.

In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Style

Gillespie has been described as the "Sound of Surprise". The Rough Guide to Jazz describes his musical style:

"The whole essence of a Gillespie solo was cliff-hanging suspense: the phrases and the angle of the approach were perpetually varied, breakneck runs were followed by pauses, by huge interval leaps, by long, immensely high notes, by slurs and smears and bluesy phrases; he always took listeners by surprise, always shocking them with a new thought. His lightning reflexes and superb ear meant his instrumental execution matched his thoughts in its power and speed. And he was concerned at all times with swing—even taking the most daring liberties with pulse or beat, his phrases never failed to swing. Gillespies’s magnificent sense of time and emotional intensity of his playing came from childhood roots. His parents were Methodists, but as a boy he used to sneak off every Sunday to the uninhibited Sanctified Church. He said later, ‘The Sanctified Church had deep significance for me musically. I first learned the significance of rhythm there and all about how music can transport people spiritually.'"

In Gillespie's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style:

"In the naturally effervescent Mr. Gillespie, opposites existed. His playing—and he performed constantly until nearly the end of his life—was meteoric, full of virtuosic invention and deadly serious. But with his endlessly funny asides, his huge variety of facial expressions and his natural comic gifts, he was as much a pure entertainer as an accomplished artist."

Wynton Marsalis summed up Gillespie as a player and teacher:

"His playing showcases the importance of intelligence. His rhythmic sophistication was unequaled. He was a master of harmony—and fascinated with studying it. He took in all the music of his youth—from Roy Eldridge to Duke Ellington—and developed a unique style built on complex rhythm and harmony balanced by wit. Gillespie was so quick-minded, he could create an endless flow of ideas at unusually fast tempo. Nobody had ever even considered playing a trumpet that way, let alone had actually tried. All the musicians respected him because, in addition to outplaying everyone, he knew so much and was so generous with that knowledge..."

Bent trumpet

Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional design. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers Stump and Stumpy falling onto the instrument while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at Snookie's in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife Lorraine. The constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. He had the trumpet straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the tone. Gillespie sent a request to Martin to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch produced by Lorraine, and from that time forward played a trumpet with an upturned bell.

Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie probably got the idea for a bent trumpet when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England, while on tour with the Teddy Hill Orchestra. According to this account (from British journalist Pat Brand) Gillespie was able to try out the horn and the experience led him, much later, to commission a similar horn for himself.

Whatever the origins of Gillespie's upswept trumpet, by June 1954 he was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a visual trademark for him for the rest of his life. Such trumpets were made for him by Martin (from 1954), King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and Renold Schilke (from 1982, a gift from Jon Faddis). Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece. In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christie's in New York City, along with instruments used by other famous musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. An image of Gillespie's trumpet was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument was sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians suffering from cancer.

Wikipedia

[douglasacogan]

Puzzling though crime data, practically and politically, in the crazy year that is 2020

This new New York Times piece discusses the latest crime data as we head into the back half of 2020.  The piece's full headline captures its themes: "It’s Been ‘Such a Weird Year.’ That’s Also Reflected in Crime Statistics: In large cities across America, murders are up sharply, while other violent crimes have decreased."  Here are excerpts:

The national numbers for murder and other types of violent crime rarely move in opposite directions. But this is no ordinary year.

Overall crime is down 5.3 percent in 25 large American cities relative to the same period in 2019, with violent crime down 2 percent.

But murder in these 25 cities is up 16.1 percent in relation to last year. It’s not just a handful of cities driving this change, either. Property crime is down in 18 of the 25 sampled cities, and violent crime is down in 11 of them, but murder is up in 20 of the cities....

Homicides usually rise in the summer, which coincided this year with many people emerging from pandemic lockdown. In one recent weekend in Chicago, 14 people were killed and at least 106 people were shot, the most in eight years. And as The New York Times reported recently: “It has been nearly a quarter century since New York City experienced as much gun violence in the month of June as it has seen this year.” (On Sunday night, the city reportedly had nine killings in the previous 24 hours.)

An additional 17 cities provide year-to-date murder data. Murder is up 21.8 percent in all 36 cities with 2020 data through at least May, with 29 of those cities seeing an increase this year relative to last year.

How often do murder and other types of violent crime move in opposite directions? There have been only four years since 1960 (1993, 2000, 2002 and 2003) when murder increased but overall violent crime decreased nationally, and the increase in murder was small in each of those years. The average absolute difference between the national change in murder and violent crime since 1990 has been just 2.2 percent, so a big increase in murder nationally while violent crime falls is almost unheard-of.

But this year has been distinct in many ways, because of the pandemic and because of the protests and civil unrest after the death of George Floyd in police custody. Jerry Ratcliffe, a professor of criminal justice at Temple University and host of the Reducing Crime podcast, has cautioned against comparing crime figures in one year with the previous year. This year’s upheaval may be even more reason to be cautious.

Identifying the trend in murder statistics is relatively easy. Understanding why it is happening and what can be done about it is much harder. Phillip Atiba Goff, co-founder and C.E.O. of the Center for Policing Equity, points to increased domestic violence as one possible cause of the increase in murder. “The first explanation that I have is that this comes from people being locked inside (during quarantines) and a lack of social services,” he said. “All those things are things that we would expect to lead to higher rates of violence. That’s speculation, though. I have no evidence that that’s the right thing other than the rise in calls for domestic violence.”

Mr. Ratcliffe agrees that increased domestic violence may be playing a role. He also hypothesizes that “Covid-19 could have reduced the market and opportunities for recreational drug use/dealing, which puts stress on the drug markets and increases violence.”

“If that is one of the causes, then we might see those tensions ease as lockdowns are relieved,” he said.

Jennifer Doleac, associate professor of economics and director of the Justice Tech Lab at Texas A&M, said: “People are worried about increasing domestic violence, and that could certainly lead to increases in homicide. Any kind of crime where most of it is between strangers or requires people being out and about would be down, and homicide is usually between people who know each other, so it might be affected differently.”

It’s plausible that the increase in murder this year might reflect a trend that began before the pandemic got underway. A review of the percent change in murder in 10 cities before coronavirus struck (generally defined as through February or March) and those cities’ most recent June update for the year so far shows a worse year-to-date percent change in eight of them, suggesting that the trend may have accelerated over the last few months....

Some research suggests that a loss of trust in law enforcement can cause citizens to be reluctant to contact the police, and people may be more likely to take justice into their own hands to resolve disputes.

It’s important to keep the rise in historical perspective. Murder in New York was up 25 percent compared with last year as of June 14, but that total was the same one the city had in 2015. Murder is up 22 percent in Chicago, but it’s down 6 percent from where it was at this time in 2017. Murder is up 42 percent in New Orleans, but a year ago murder was its lowest point there in almost half a century.

“These numbers do not tell a story that supports any ideological side of the debate around policing,” Mr. Goff said. “What it supports at most is a need for rigorous curiosity about a vital issue.” Ms. Doleac also says it is too early to draw any firm conclusions: “This is such a weird year in so many dimensions, and it’s going to take us a while to figure out what caused any of these differences in crime. It is perfectly reasonable to think the first half of this year may not tell us what the rest of the year will look like.”...

“The reality is that we just don’t know” what’s driving the change in murder, Mr. Goff said, “and it’s not a straightforward process to figure it out.”

Notably, Prez Trump already has released a campaign ad seeking to tie police reform efforts to increased crime. If homicide numbers keep going up and up in big cities like New York and Chicago, I would expect the Trump campaign to continue to try to stoke up fear of crime and continue to claim that he is the only "law and order" candidate.  That political playbook worked pretty well for Richard Nixon in 1968 and for George H.W. Bush in 1988, and the next few months will show if it can work for Donald Trump.

One final macabre observation: as I reflect on crime data circa July 2020, I am finding that the COVID pandemic skews my perspective on some of the numbers.  These crime data on New York City reports 176 murders in roughly the first six months of 2020 compared to 143 murders during the same period in 2019.  While that is a troubling 23% increase in NYC murders for the first half of the year, it is still well less than half of the 500+ daily deaths from COVID that NYC experienced in early April. Though there are lots of problems with comparing data on homicides and COVID deaths, I am finding that the grim COVID death data that we are all still processing make even elevated homicide numbers look not quite as frightening.  Of course, a global pandemic should not make us complacent about crime, but I am still struck by how the reality and reactions to crime is always going to be contextual and contingent.

Prior related posts:

Rounding up some tales of crime amidst COVID lockdowns 

What can and should we really learn from crime data in the midst of a pandemic and lockdowns? 

With data showing significant "overall decline in crime," headline still blares "Some Crimes Are Spiking"

Reviewing some more national and local accounts of (mostly declining) crime rates during a pandemic 

Another window on the mixed realities of US crime in our new COVID era

With reopenings, might coming months bring big crime spike (and will modest jail and prison releases be blamed)? 

"COVID-19 and Homicide: Final Report to Arnold Ventures" 

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247011 https://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2020/07/puzzling-though-crime-data-practically-and-politically-in-the-crazy-year-that-is-2020.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 17/1/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Friday January 17th, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

FORMER MINISTER FOUND CULPABLE IN MONEY LAUNDERING CASE – Donville Inniss who 20 months ago was a senior Government minister in Barbados, today had a conviction for money laundering marked against his record in a Brooklyn, New York court. And in another month, the former politician who served for as the Member of Parliament for St James South will know his punishment for accepting just over $70,000 in bribes while being a Minister of the Crown, money that the jury agreed, he illegally filtered through a New York dental business into his own account. Today, Inniss sat emotionless as District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto read the three guilty verdicts to him at 3:45 p.m. in the Eastern District Federal Court in New York where he endured a three-day trial on the money laundering charges. Following one hour and 52 minutes of deliberations by the 12-member jury, Inniss, the former Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, was found guilty of laundering $16,536.73 on April 17, 2015 and $20,000 on April 18, 2016, through a US company Crystal Dental Lab, along with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Once the verdict was read, a tense-looking Inniss looked to his right where his older brother, wife Gail and close friend Adriel Brathwaite had sat for the duration of the trial which began on Monday. One woman who sat amongst them began to cry. Inniss’ attorney Anthony Ricco then told the court he would provide written submissions to the court by January 30. Lead prosecutor Sylvia Shweder told Judge Matsumoto she would require two weeks to reply to those submissions and agreed to a February 13 date. Ricco then said if necessary, he would need another week to respond to the prosecutor. Inniss will remain on bail during this period and his conditions will apply. However, speaking to reporters immediately after the verdict was handed down, Ricco revealed he would be appealing the decision on the ground that there was insufficient evidence. The lawyer said it was “interesting” how the US Government chose to go after Inniss, a former Barbadian public official. The well-respected lawyer said this was the first time in history anyone had been convicted under the Anti-Bribery Law: Prevention of Corruption Act of Barbados. “I’ve been in this business for over 39 years and I accept the verdicts of the jury. But when I look at it, we have a case where an American jury is judging a Barbadian official from the mindset of an American. “Can you imagine what would have happened if an American official had been arrested in Barbados and tried in Barbados? It’s unheard of,” Ricco said. “I plan to appeal and challenge the decision based on the insufficiency of the evidence. The trial is just step one of what could be many. The other day a guy was convicted and he appealed and 25 of his counts were thrown out. We don’t have 25 counts, but justice is a long road and we’re built for it.” Ricco revealed that Inniss was also not in favour of the decision handed down. But when asked if there had been discussions with the prosecution surrounding guidelines for sentencing, Ricco said it was an “open range”. While he admitted that the over US$36,000 which Inniss had been found guilty of money laundering was “not a lot of money”, he said there might be a move by the prosecution to make an example out of Inniss. “It isn’t a lot of money, it’s only $36,000, because in a lot of money laundering cases the figure is much more, but then we have to look at the deterrent effect. The US may want to get the message across to people that if you’re not doing it the right way, don’t put your money in our banks, so that may be an issue at sentencing. The US may determine that they have to do what is needed to deter this kind of behaviour. “As it stands now, Inniss had an exemplary record prior to being convicted and that’s where our focus will be [at sentencing],” Ricco said. (BT)

PROSECUTORS DETAIL HOW INNISS ABUSED HIS POWER – Prosecutors Sylvia Shweder and David Gopstein this morning convinced a 12-member jury that Donville Inniss had accepted two bribes from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) and that he had conspired to commit money laundering. Their submissions led to Inniss being convicted of two counts of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Eastern District Federal Court in New York. Gopstein, who led off the closing arguments, told the jury during his hour-long presentation that Inniss had “abused his power” as Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, by taking bribes and laundering them through his friend Roger Clarke’s dental company in the US, Crystal Dental Lab. He maintained that the evidence presented by the prosecution including documents, witness testimonies, emails and text messages, was “overwhelming evidence of Inniss’ guilt”. Gopstein told the jurors that the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the former minister was guilty of the charges. He explained that not much of the evidence which had been presented was in dispute. “It can’t be disputed that ICBL sent $36 000 to Crystal Dental Lab for consultation services which were never provided. It can’t be disputed that the money was for Inniss and it cannot be disputed that ICBL sent the money to secure Government contracts. “That alone should be enough evidence,” Gopstein insisted. However, he further pointed to the figure of $16 536.73 that was sent to Inniss in 2015, saying it was exactly five per cent of ICBL’s contract covering the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) that year. “You don’t randomly end up at the number $16 536.73,” he told the jury. Gopstein noted that when discussions by the BIDC board of management commenced regarding the issuing of insurance contracts, it was recommended that similar to 2014, ICBL should receive 50 per cent of the contract, Consumer Guarantee Insurance (CGI) 30 per cent and Trident Insurance 20 per cent. He said on June 11, 2015, that recommendation was made again by the BIDC board. But on June 22, 2015, a decision was made to award ICBL 70 per cent of the contract and CGI 30 per cent. Gopstein said this was made after several text messages and emails between Inniss and ICBL’s former senior vice-president Alex Tasker via their personal emails. He made note of a subsequent email from Tasker where he enquired about the percentage of ICBL’s contract. Gopstein said this was done to calculate the amount which Inniss would be paid. The prosecutor said Inniss then sent an email detailing Crystal Dental Lab’s banking details. He said this was despite the fact that the company had been dissolved since 2004. He said two days after the money was sent to the dental company it was deposited onto Inniss’ account. “He would have sent the money to his account, but he didn’t do that. He sent it to his friend’s business account,” Gopstein said, noting that Inniss had several bank accounts in the US. He argued that the $20 000 payment made in 2016, was not an exact five per cent, but had simply “been rounded off” to escape suspicion. Gopstein said Inniss’ plan “fell apart” after ICBL’s former chairman John Wight became aware of the transactions and began to investigate. In his closing arguments, Ricco said the US had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Inniss had accepted a bribe. He admitted that while there was evidence of money being sent to Inniss, it had not been proved the money was because of bribes. He argued that the flurry of emails between Inniss and the BIDC’s board had shown that there had been a vetting of insurance companies before ICBL was eventually awarded the contract. Ricco said Inniss had not interfered with that vetting process. He pointed to the testimony of former ICBL deputy chief executive officer Goulburn Alleyne, who spoke of the rigorous checks which were made. “The BIDC board decided on the 70/30 split after they expressed concerns about the conditions of the other insurance companies which were not transparent and their ability to handle the portfolio,” Ricco said. He said ICBL was the only ‘A’ listed insurance company which had the capacity to insure 100 per cent of the BIDC’s properties valued at over $100 million and were rightfully chosen. “What did Inniss ask the board to do or not to do? It went through the vetting process and they followed procedure. ICBL ended up with the better share as they should have,” Ricco said. He also maintained that the emails exchanged between Inniss and Tasker had nothing to do with accepting bribes. But in her rebuttal, lead attorney Shweder pointed to the fact that Ricco had not touched on the subject of Crystal Dental Lab, the $16 536.73 or Roger Clarke. She said this was because “he had no explanation”. Shweder told the jurors Inniss had operated in secrecy because he did not want to be caught. “It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he took bribes. He did it in secret because it is illegal. The testimonies and the bank records show it and he hid the payments because he knew it was wrong,” she  contended. “If this money was a political contribution it would have been sent to his bank account in Barbados, not to the US.” (BT)

DLP HEAD: CONVICTION A ‘CAUTIONARY TALE’ – In early reaction to the conviction of Democratic Labour Party stalwart Donville Inniss on bribery-related money laundering and conspiracy charges, president Verla De Peiza tonight said the verdict should serve as a warning for public officials. She told Barbados TODAY: “It is also a cautionary tale for all politicians, persons in public life, and corporate entities. “We all now need to learn the lesson of this bleak day and ensure that it never ever happens again.” De Peiza said today’s outcome of the case against the disgraced former government minister and rising star in the DLP was a “sad day for the country”. But she added the outcome of the case?? Inniss is to remain on bail pending sentencing next month. A 12-member jury came to the unanimous verdict after just under two hours of deliberation at the Eastern District Court of New York. Inniss was convicted of two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He took $72,000 (US$36,000) in bribes from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited in 2015 and 2016. His attorney Anthony Ricco is planning to appeal the verdict on the grounds of insufficient evidence.  (BT)

GUNNED DOWN – Screams and cries of students of St Alban’s Primary School pierced the air yesterday around 8:10 a.m. Those were not of children playing in the schoolyard, but of terrified infants hollering as they fled from the sounds of gunshots which claimed the life of Marlon Holder, who had just arrived at the Weston, St James school to drop off his six-year-old son. marlon-holder According to eyewitnesses, a gunman was waiting near to a vendor stationed metres away from the gate, as Holder, 37, performed his daily routine. Two other people were in the vehicle – a woman and her daughter. (WN)

BRADSHAW CONDEMNS SHOOTING NEAR SCHOOL – Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw condemned a fatal shooting which occurred this morning, a stone’s throw away from St Alban’s Primary School, Weston, St James, in the presence of children and staff. Marlon Holder, 37 years, of Maynards Housing Area, St Peter, and formerly of Hill View Road, Marley Vale, St Phillip, was shot and killed just as he was dropping off his son at the school. Bradshaw, who was speaking to the media after meeting with staff, said students would have been on their way to school, some were already on the compound, and staff – both teachers and ancillary – were also present. The latter had to deal with the screaming and crying students after the incident. “For someone to be able to take this step, to come so close to the proximity of a school without regard for the lives of the students, and in particular the staff at this institution, is something that none of us in this society must tolerate,” Bradshaw said. She urged members of the public who may have information to come forward and assist police with their investigations. While no classes will be held tomorrow, the school will be open for counseling services to those affected. Principal Wendine Prince said their task would be to get children “back to a sense of normalcy in short order” and would monitor the students going forward. Police say they responded to a report of a shooting incident at Taylors Gap, Weston, around 8:10 a.m. and saw a private car with bullet holes. Holder’s body was also lying on the compound of a nearby residence.  Members of the public who may have any knowledge or information about this incident are asked to contact Holetown Police Station at 419-1700, Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers 1-800-8477 (TIPS) or any police station. (PR/SAT)

ST ALBANS MURDER: OF COUNSELLORS AND COPING – For the second time in three months, grief counsellors are headed to a school to help children and teachers cope with the trauma of a brazen slaying. But Principal of the St. Albans Primary School, Wendine Prince, said her pupils have had to deal with the loss of loved one at least twice before in the last year. She said: “We have been thrown into mourning more than one  time. “We had two students who died in succession so the school is known for this but we are strong and resilient and we will fight through this.” Prince was referring to Azaria Worrell who lost her battle with cancer back in December 2018 and Najae Haynes who passed away late last year after a bout of illness. But today, some of the nation’s youngest citizens were brought face to face with a rising tide of gun-fuelled violence when Marlon Holder was gunned down in front of them outside the Weston, St. James primary school. Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw described the murder as an “assault on the education system of Barbados”. She said: “For someone to take this step to come so close to a school without regard for students and the staff is something that none of us in the society must tolerate. “The impact and the need to now pick up the pieces are unfair to these staff and students. “People need to appreciate that when they carry out these acts in our society, it impacts not only the victim, but we are seeing that these senseless acts are impacting entire communities, entire families and entire households.” But children, teachers, an education minister and her officials found themselves revisiting a grim lesson in bloodletting from a St James school, merely three months after a student at the Frederick Smith Secondary School at Trents fatally stabbed 16-year-old Temario Holder. Said St Alban’s Principal Prince: “All students, teachers and ancillary staff will be given counselling and we will also take the time to talk to the children one on one and we will always be there to assist them in any way. “We have chats that we will communicate with their parents if there is anything we observe we will communicate with them immediately.” The Education Minister added: “We have already deployed the staff into the school that will continue into this afternoon and we are proposing tomorrow to continue counselling for all of our students, teachers and ancillary staff who have been impacted. “We understand it’s going to be more difficult for some of them and we have asked them to work with each other. “We know that some may have a harder time being able to reintegrate tomorrow to be able to help pull weight as well.” Flanked by senior education officials, the minister revealed that a hotline had been set up at the Ministry of Education for those who may prefer to call-in for counselling instead of attending school tomorrow. She stressed that the latest tragedy would not result in a knee-jerk reaction to an “isolated” incident. Three months ago, after the Trents slaying, the first on school premises in over 30 years, the minister announced a raft of tight security measures, including the introduction of metal detectors and student searches at Frederick Smith. (BT)

AG: ‘LAWFUL’ CRACKDOWN ON KILLERS, EXTRA HELP TO COPS – Extra resources are to be poured into the Royal Barbados Police Force to apprehend “lawless villains” who continue to wreak havoc on the society, said Attorney General Dale Marshall as the 51st murder in 13 months brought the tidal wave of bloodshed close to a primary school. He also pledged a “heavy-handed” but “lawful” response in an emergency press briefing in the aftermath of a fatal shooting outside the St Albans Primary School in St James while students and staff watched in horror. “The Royal Barbados Police Force has sought additional resources and those requests are being looked upon favourably. “This morning’s events proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that we all stand to be affected by the actions of these criminals and we must all stand together to stamp their interests out,” he told reporters. The National Security Council is to be convened after Cabinet’s weekly meeting on Thursday where the rising tide in violent crime is to be discussed further, the justice minister said. He then suggested the response by law enforcement officials would become more heavy-handed and warned criminals that they would not be allowed to wreak havoc on the 166-square mile island. “We will not allow you to destroy our society,” Marshall declared. “The handful of you will not be allowed to wreak havoc unchecked in Barbados. “We are intent on bringing Barbados to a state of relative peace and we will do what we must. “No lawful action will be considered to be out of the reach of the Royal Barbados Police Force and I am charging them with bringing these lawless people to swift justice. Barbados must become a very uncomfortable place for these villains.” The day before, area MP and Home Affairs Minister Edmund Hinkson was at St Alban’s presenting Class Three pupils with tablets alongside a rich Canadian benefactor who has made Barbados his family’s home. The Attorney General did not specify what resources the force would receive, but declared that the callous nature of the country’s second murder for 2020 had strengthened his resolve. Marshall promised that no “lawful” action would be spared in the crime fight. He declared: “Today’s homicide more than perhaps any other demonstrates the absolute callousness of the criminal element in Barbados. “To carry out any execution is wrong but in the precincts of a primary school, which is supposed to be a place of safety for our young and fragile minds is an act of sheer evil.” Marshall urged Barbadians not to hide information they may have about criminals and crime “even if it involves your brother or sister”. He said: “Anybody engaged in this type of evil activity has to be brought to justice and it can only happen with right-thinking Barbadians coming forward to support the efforts of the Royal Barbados Police Force.“We are in this together and when one side falls, the entire country falls.” (BT)

POLICEMAN RECALLS ACCUSED’S STATEMENTS REGARDING SHOOTING – Inspector Peter Dawson testified today that accused Tevin Ramon Skeete said he “beat a shot” while at St Elmo’s Mini Mart in St Lucy on January 14, 2011. The evidence was given this afternoon in the No. 3 Supreme Court when the trial against the Crab Hill, St Lucy resident began. Skeete has pleaded not guilty to unlawfully and maliciously engaging in conduct namely shooting at police officer Erwin Norville, which placed him in danger of death or serious bodily harm. He is further accused of using a firearm on that same date. Inspector Dawson, who was one of seven Crown witnesses to give evidence today, told the nine-member jury hearing the case presided over by Justice Carlisle Greaves, he held the rank of station sergeant and was attached to Criminal Investigation Division Northern Division at the time. He said when he questioned Skeete on the evening of February 9, 2011 about the matter which took place around 11:55 p.m. outside the mini mart at Half Moon Fort, the accused replied: “I did not shoot at Norville. I did not have a gun.” He said Skeete was then asked whether he wished to give a written statement on the matter but he declined saying: “Not now but tomorrow when I speak to . . . my lawyer.” The questions stopped at that time but resumed the following morning and again Skeete reportedly said: “That is not true. I did not discharge no firearm. I did not have a firearm at all. I did not shoot at Mr Norville. He was shooting at me and my friends.” Through a series of questions Skeete, the officer said, revealed that he was at the establishment with three friends when “Rico Depezia walked in and hit Benson with a beer bottle. I told Rafe let we go outside. We end up going outside. “I see a scuffle. After a good while and it done get clear up I realize it was Benson on the ground getting beat . . . . In about five minutes after the commotion I saw Norville walking in our direction, then I hear Norville say ‘move, move from there’ then I hear three shots. Me, Rafe and Mario run.” Inspector Dawson said the accused went on to tell him that “Bomb, only Bomb” had a firearm that night. He identified Bomb as “Norville, an officer”. However later that day around 1:04 p.m. when the interview continued the investigator told Skeete that he did not believe he was telling the truth about what had happened. Skeete reportedly said: “That night I went outside I see Benson on the ground and I took out the firearm and beat it in the air . . . the whole promotion stop. Then I see Norville coming with a firearm and he fire shots at me and we ran off.” Asked what he did with the gun, the officer said Skeete replied: “I have it hide in the bushes near my house.” Inspector Norville will continue giving his evidence tomorrow. Before he took the stand, three civilian witnesses also gave evidence as well as three other officers. The trial is being prosecuted by Senior Crown Counsel Olivia Davis and Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett. Attorneys-at-law Arthur Holder and Shadia Simpson are representing Skeete. (BT)

DIFFERENT OUTCOME FOR TWO ACCUSED – A couple facing charges of criminal deception appeared in a Bridgetown court yesterday but while one was released on bail, the other was not so fortunate. Noel Lionel Taylor, 42, of Galloway Lane, Waterford, St Michael was remanded until February 12 while his 19-year-old girlfriend Tishana Talicia Tia Barker, of the same address – who is also the mother of his one-year-old child – was granted $5,000 bail to reappear before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on the same date. The couple is jointly charged with dishonestly obtaining a $9,800 loan from the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union Limited in Barker’s name, with intent to criminally deprive the financial institution by falsely representing that she was then employed as a janitor at Butcher’s Waste Cleaning Service earning $450 weekly and that she was also a subscriber to the Flow network. The two are also charged with engaging in money laundering, in that they disposed of $9,800 being the proceeds of crime. They were not required to plead to the indictable charges. Prosecutor Krishna Graham objected to bail for Taylor but had no objections to Barker’s release. Attorney-at-law Angela Mitchell-Gittens is representing the accused while Magistrate Douglas Frederick is presiding over the case. (BT)

ST. JOSEPH MAN ADMITS TO DRUG CHARGES – It took a St Joseph man over a decade to accept responsibility for a number of drug offences after he was caught with the illicit substance within Barbados’ territorial waters. Shurland Nathaniel Holder, alias Mickey from Bathsheba, threw in the towel when he appeared in the No. 2 Supreme Court before Justice Christopher Birch this morning. He pleaded guilty to importation, trafficking and possession of 75 kilogrammes of cannabis on October 11, 2004. He also admitted to possession and trafficking of 392.5 kilogrammes of cannabis on May 21, 2008. On the 2004 charges Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale said Coast Guard and other officials were on patrol when they discovered a vessel off Payne’s Bay. On seeing the law enforcement officials the vessel fled but eventually stopped. Five polythene bags were found. Holder identified himself as the captain of the vessel and he was  arrested and taken into custody. Giving the facts on the 2008 charges, Seale revealed that lawmen were conducting operations when they ventured to Glenburnie, St John. They observed a number of bags on the shore and saw a group of men who quickly ran away on seeing the police. A boat in the area went out to sea. Investigations took officers to Tent Bay where they carried out surveillance and observed Holder near the water. He tried to flee but was arrested. He told police that the two parcels he was carrying was his payment and that he was also the one who manoeuvred the vessel back to sea from Glenburnie. In a written statement Holder told police he met with another man who he calls Fire who told him that he had some marijuana in St Vincent. He said the man asked him to go to the neighbouring island and “bring it up and I tell he alright.” Holder told lawmen Fire gave him the keys to his boat and “I push off” about 5:30 a.m. on May 20, 2008. “I had a Bajan man with me that I don’t know he name and a Vincy man and I went down to St Vincent.” According to the statement read by Seale the convicted man said he left the Vincy in his country. “The boat get load up wid the marijuana and me and the Bajan start for home.” During the voyage he called Fire who told him to take the drugs to Glenburnie, St John. When they got there he saw Fire and a number of men. Subsequently he heard “explosions” and said to himself ‘the police must be around’. “So I move with the boat and bring it at Tent Bay,” he said in the statement. “I waited there in the sea until I thought everything was quiet . . . then I swim to shore with a package that I had for myself. When I did shifting from the area the police hold me . . . with the package of marijuana”. Following those facts the matters against the fisherman, who is in his late 50s, were adjourned until January 31. (BT)

ARTHUR’S MEDICINE FOR CARRIER’S REVIVAL - Owen Arthur has warned his former counterpart in the Caribbean that the beleaguered regional carrier LIAT won’t survive their imposition of hefty airport taxes. The newly appointed chairman of LIAT – who, when Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, himself raised a raft of travel taxes and fees to pay for the expansion of the Grantley Adams International Airport – was giving early assessment of what is required to rescue the airline. He told the Voice of Barbados on radio call-in programme, Down to Brass Tacks, of his conclusion that the rising airport fees continue to be the obstacle to the dream of affordable regional travel and the viability of LIAT, currently owned by Barbados and three other Eastern Caribbean governments. Arthur revealed that he plans to meet with the CARICOM heads in order to discuss LIAT’s rescue plan, noting that the changes needed rest in the hands of his former colleagues. His former deputy – Prime Minister Mia Mottley – assumed the chairmanship of the regional bloc as the year began and is preparing to host fellow leaders for CARICOM’s mid-term summit, known as the Intersessional. Arthur said: “There are a number of matters relating to LIAT that only the governments can help with. “I am not going to put all of the responsibility on the governments, but it is a fact there are some problems that can only be resolved by the governments. “It is a fact that a dramatic proportion of a cost of an airline ticket on LIAT is government taxes and these are things which must be addressed.” Arthur noted that departure taxes have risen by as much as 700 per cent in some territories within the last two decades. He said: “This explains why the cost of a ticket is as high as it is to the travelling public and it is important if LIAT is going to be put on a more viable footing where more of its liability comes from increase seating rather than governments’ taxation. “We need to come together to determine what is in the best interest of LIAT.” The LIAT chairman pointed out that LIAT was not the only airline to have serious problems, but while other carriers can simply shut shop with repercussions only to investors, LIAT service goes beyond a profit-making exercise. He argued that so far, the airline’s workers are the ones who have borne the brunt of its efforts to stay in the air and that this was simply an untenable situation. He declared that while the airline may never turn over huge profits due to the social component, it certainly can get to the stage where it functions efficiently. Arthur told the VOB programme:  “LIAT has not been without a number of studies and what we are seeing now is very clear that action is needed by the shareholder board to put it right. “This region needs an inter-regional carrier and it is going to be very difficult to make this type of service highly profitable, we can make it efficient and make it provide a public good at a reasonable price. “We want to start that process because the fares are simply too high.” (BT)

RUM MAKERS REPORT RISING SALES – One of Barbados’ main rum producers is reporting a major turn around in its export business, which climbed over 80 per cent in the last three years. Officials of the Barbados West Indies Rum Distillery Ltd reported on Thursday that export for that company was expected to almost double this year, contributing significantly to the overall rum exports from the country. At the same time, they said they saw room for Barbados and the rest of the region to “up de rum ting” and earn more foreign exchange and employ more people. This comes almost a decade after the Barbados West Indies Rum Distillery Ltd and the wider local and regional rum industry was plunged into uncertainty as they suffered at the hands of increased competition from US-based rum producers when that country’s government heavily subsidized its own rum producers. Barbados exports roughly $80 million in rum annually. Chairman of the Barbados West Indies Rum Distillery Alexandre Gabriel said he believed with hard work the country could earn seven times more in the next decade. “Call me crazy, but I think if we work hard we can. We should be able to do this,” Gariel told reporters, following a tour of the Brighton, St Michael facility. “Thanks to the great work of the team here our exports have been growing tremendously. The distillery was doing BDS$24 million three years ago. This year will be in excess of BD$45 million in terms of export. So I am proud to say in the name of the whole team that working together we are able to turn this around and double in the course of two-and-a half years,” he said. He attributed a lot of the increase in export to a shift in focus from “price sensitive entry level rum” to more “super-premium rum”. “In the old days it was a focus, but now not at all. So we are not as dependent on this. In fact, our sales to the US have increased tremendously . . . So for us [the US] market has been growing and Europe has been growing,” he said. The Plantation Rum brand is currently available in more than 70 countries. Gabriel gave the assurance that West Indies Rum Distillery, which was bought by French cognac maker Maison Ferrand three years ago, was in Barbados for the long run. He said since the buyout, the company had decided to invest some $20 million over a five-year period. While some investment has been made so far in plant upgrade and equipment, Gabriel said the next phase would include an expansion of the warehouse, which has already started; and the installation of photovoltaic panels so the company could get at least 50 per cent of its energy from renewable sources in the next year. “In another year or year-and-a-half after that it will be 100 per cent. That is our goal, all of the electricity we use will be renewable,” he said. The company is to also be retrofitted in order to accommodate regular tours in another two years. Managing Director Andrew Hassell said he believed Barbados and the rest of the region could do more to increase rum exports. “Not only does Barbados’ rum have to up de ting, Jamaica rum has to up de ting. There is a huge opportunity for us as Caribbean people to up de ting,” said Hassel, adding that Jamaica was only exporting approximately US$43 million in rum per year despite its size. He said while the Barbados Rum Distillery has been more profitable over the past three years it has also been able to increase direct employment by about 35 per cent. “The goal is to sustainably produce the best quality premium rum, increase foreign exchange earnings and create meaningful jobs,” said Hassell, while pointing out that during the five-year investment period there would be a total of 30 projects. The rum producers said they also believed the rum industry was a part of the solution for the dying sugarcane industry, suggesting that more by-products such as molasses and cane juice could be produced locally to make rum. While molasses is produced locally and used to make some of the rum, the country also imports tonnes of the thick sweet liquid to help in the rum producing process. “Actually more and more materials can come from Barbados. Of course this is something we have to grow into and we look at it and I think this is something that could be a solution to the sugarcane farming, where it is going to complement and be an output so we would distill in that case from local products,” Gabriel explained. (BT)

DEPEIZA: GET SERIOUS ABOUT PRESERVING BARROW’S HOME – With just five days to go before Barbados celebrates the centennial of the Father of Independence, the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, the leader of the party he founded has renewed calls for his St Lucy birthplace to be restored. But Democratic Labour Party president Verla De Peiza acknowledged that while restoration is the ideal outcome for the house, “Nessfield” which lies in ruins at The Garden, St Lucy, it was certainly a complicated process as it is privately owned. Noting that during the DLP’s decade in office, Government tried and fail to restore the building, De Peiza called for a private-public partnership to preserve a cornerstone of Barbadian history. In an interview with Barbados TODAY De Peiza said: “This is a perennial query that is raised regardless of who is in government. “There is a difference of opinion as to who ought to be responsible, whether it is family or the country. “I personally hold the view that this responsibility can be shared. “While we already have monuments in his honour, it is standard form that the birth home ought to be recognized.” Five years ago, then opposition Barbados Labour Party caretaker for St Lucy, Peter Phillips, led a petition to have the national hero’s home restored as a heritage site. He said then: “This has gone past a partisan issue. We believe – from a national perspective – Errol Barrow was a National Hero and therefore should be respected. “We in St Lucy have the lone place that has a structure which housed the first Prime Minister, so we should have pride to see that the area is maintained for tourism. “I am of the firm view it should be rebuilt and used as an attraction and a museum. “You cannot have the birthplace of the first Prime Minister and National Hero who led us to Independence looking like that.” Phillips would go on to unseat DLP incumbent MP Dennis Kellman in the May 2018 general election and go on to become co-minister of transport. Since coming to power, the BLP announced plans to place a plaque at the property, but there has been no word about a possible restoration effort. De Peiza told Barbados TODAY that with the centennial milestone being celebrated next Tuesday, the time had come to do more than just talk about the Barrow home. She said several properties of historical significance have been erased from the Barbadian landscape, including the home of C. Van Roland Edwards, who wrote the music of the national anthem. De Peiza said: “We appreciate that there would be a laying of a plaque on the day as part of celebrations, but in terms of the state of the property that is a matter that would be hotly debated. “I am thinking about all of the conversation that took place around the birth home of Roland Edwards and the ultimate demise of that. “I am thinking as well in relation to the conversation that happened around  [DLP co-founder Sir James Cameron Tudor’s] property and the ultimate demise of that property. “So again, I believe that the responsibility is one that can be shared so that this remaining piece of Barbadian heritage would not suffer the same fate.” (BT)

PM: TOUGH TASK TO UP BARBADOS GAME – Barbados has to “up its game” as a competitor on the world stage, the Prime Minister asserted today while pledging to engage in dialogue at all levels and accept inputs from all citizens. But in giving Barbadians an assurance that her 20-month-old administration was dedicated to improvements at the latest event in the year-long We Gatherin’ initiative, she said the task ahead would not be easy. Mottley told a gathering in St Lucy on Wednesday night: “As Bajans would tell you, ‘for my one part’, I believe that we have to up our game. “And we have to up our game and I say so not in a disrespectful way, but we have to recall there are others doing much of what we do and people have choices. “We have to up our game first for ourselves and then for those who want to do business or who want to interact with us at different levels.” She was speaking at the St Lucy Parish Rectory during the first in a series of ideas fora, which forms part of the We Gatherin’ 2020 celebrations. The forum is designed to give Barbadians an opportunity to share their ideas with the Prime Minister on how to transform the island. Recalling that her administration’s first meeting after coming to office in May 2018 was with the Social Partnership, Mottley said it was by talking with each other that authorities were able to “build a consensus for movement”. While giving the assurance that she was listening to comments made by individuals “in terms of how to position and where to position what we have to do in this nation”, Mottley insisted that the task ahead was a relay and not a sprint. She declared that having saved the Barbados dollar from devaluation, the next mission was to determine “how do we become world-class, how do we up our game”. She told the rectory’s audience: “This country must pause and begin to understand that we coasted for too long in the last two decades and that we have to dig deep down now to put in the early work for the next 50 years. “And at the very least, we must be prepared to stay the course if we are going to change the reality and experiences of these persons.” Stating that the time for dialogue was never over, Mottley said people should not only listen to what they wanted to hear, like or are familiar with, but take into account that there were people with different views and practices. Mottley insisted that once dialogue has taken place “then we can define the mission of where we want to go”. She said: “Why this conversation? Because we have to open the windows to the nation and air the house of Barbados, and we will do so not just by hearing the traditional voices of leadership of this country in the Parliament, the church, private sector and the unions, but allowing all voices to start to contend.” The Barbados Labour Party leader said while she was aware of the positives that were taking place in the country, she was not oblivious to the gaps that needed to be bridged “in the house, the school or church”, adding that there were still many people who were not aware of “a time and place for things”. Pointing out that the media also had a role to play, Mottley said her administration would be introducing two public education courses this year, teaching people about “time and place” and “how to”. She explained: “It may well teach people how to get a mortgage; how to play and be a deejay, how to take care of my responsibilities as a mother with children that may be disadvantaged; how to do so many different things that people may not necessarily know on their own, but which the country needs to share the knowledge in order to empower people “ Financial literacy clinics were also promised to help people to learn informally about how best to invest and manage their finances. She also expressed her wish for the reintroduction of a “stronger” Barbados Cricket League (BCL) – the long-time rural crucible of the game – saying it was an opportunity for young people to interact with and learn from the older generation. During the ideas forum, Captain of the West Indies cricket team Jason Holder, called for unity, pointing out that there would be hardship while turning things around for the country, but it would require perseverance. He also recommended that authorities get full buy-in from the population for programmes and projects. “With the interaction and buy-in we can have that common consensus and we can generally move forward as a country,” said Holder, adding that in some instances Government may be required to make a “tough call” without full consensus. Other residents including popular deejay Andre Puffy Parris, shared their views, calling for improvements in several areas including culinary experiences, sports opportunities, counselling, food production, education and scientific research. (BT)

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