Running technique

My brother in-law gave me a book about running technique. I Googled "Malcolm Balk" - one of the authors - and came across this video of Balk running on ice.Does his running style remind you of anyone?The video reminds me of Mikell Platt...except for the sliding on the ice part.Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

Dietary slip-up: cold pizza

So, the pizza was hanging out on the counter, waiting for Dad to pop it in the oven because Mom only will eat hot pizza...what a principessa!

I don't mind cold pizza. In fact, it was delicious.

Herein I detail my dietary slip-ups of the past month and hope that they haven't affected inordinately my restricted ingredient diet.

To wit:
1 rawhide bone, found on the street, in almost perfect condition. Not only nutritional, but you can play with it, too!

2 slices pizza with carmelized onions and fresh mozzarella (served cold)

1 or 2 milkbones scammed from my neighbor Hank (he loves me)

1 or 2 unidentified bones, also scammed, this time from the mail carrier (he's new and hasn't yet found my insistent charm to be annoying. The previous mail carrier, after I extracted my first bone payment, took to either 1) ignoring me or 2) avoiding me by turning down any available street just as I trotted by.)

Talented EFL Students

Hi, there! On unit 11 for level 4, students were supposed to show their talents... they have many we all know... but they shared with us the one they thought it was fun... Of course cupcakes were definetely fun... These are the photos to prove it. Enjoy.

Keep on shining Love and Peace... and cupcakes and mandocas... giggles..

Vote. Do it now.

Vote for the Orienteering Achievement of 2009.I think it is pretty hard to decide who to vote for. You can read about each nominee on the link above and make up you're own mind.Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

Have Fun

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Have Fun

View more presentations from Kamal Thakur.

Final project - Guidelines Sep-Dec09

Hi, there!. Here there are the guidelines and a model for your final presentation for next week...

Final Project Sep-Dec09

See more presentations by doris3m | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by doris3m

Also, you're supposed to take a survey...Evaluacion del curso Sep-Dec 09


Click Here to take survey

New mapping project

Mary and I spent a bit of time working on a new mapping project. It isn't an orienteering map. Instead, the club is mapping trails in local parks for the Parks Department. It isn't a difficult mapping project and we won't use the maps for orienteering. But it is a good thing to do for the community.Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

Take Me Out dan Take Him Out : Pencarian pasangan melalui Dating Show

Menurut peribahasa : Jodoh itu ditangan Tuhan.

Namun untuk mencari jodoh perlu adanya usaha dari diri sendiri karena jodoh tidak datang begitu saja dari langit. Salah satu upaya untuk mencari jodoh adalah melalui biro jodoh, namun sayang, kadang orang malu mengakui bahwa ia ikut biro jodoh. Katanya gengsi.

Namun tentunya punya gengsi lain kalo mereka ikutan acara pencarian jodoh yang lagi ngetop saat ini Take Me Out. Eits, jangan berpikir negative dulu terhadap usaha pencarian pasangan melalui Dating Show ini. Bahwa mereka yang ikut hanyalah mencari popularitas, atau hanya main-main, karena yang ikut nota bene adalah wanita-wanita cantik dan sexy serta pria yang cukup mapan dan tampan.

Masa sih secantik dan seganteng itu kesulitan banget nyari pasangan sampai harus ikutan acara Take Me Out?

Kita tak pernah tahu isi hati seseorang, dan kita tak pernah tahu kesulitan orang. So, nikmati saja acara

Dating show di Indosiar tiap hari Jum’at jam 21.30 wib ini. Dengan durasi 2,5 jam ternyata acara yang dipandu oleh Choky Sitohang dan Yuanita ini sanggup mengalahkan Sinetron dan Infotainment lainnya yang sampai saat ini sangat mendominasi acara Televisi dengan dengan rating minggu lalu 5.3 dan share 41.6

Take Me Out sendiri sebenarnya adalah sebuah program televisi yang lisensinya dipegang FremantleMedia. Saat ini Take Me Out telah ditayangkan di 3 negara Eropa (Spanyol, Netherland, Denmark), menyusul UK.





Setelah Indosiar sukses dengan acara Take Me Out, buat para lajang muda, menyusul kemudian acara Take Him Out yang merupakan versi lain dari Take Me Out Indonesia. Tayang perdana 2 Agustus 2009, dan secara regular tayang setiap Minggu pukul 19.30 wib.

Hampir sama dengan Take Me Out, program ini dikemas dalam sebuah paket 2,5 jam yang menghibur, lucu dan sangat attractive.

Yang berbeda dari Take Me Out Indonesia adalah, di Take Him Out Indonesia, wanita-wanita cantik ini berhak membuat keputusan. Mereka boleh tidak memilih, meski harus pulang tanpa mendapatkan pasangan.





Berminat mencari pasangan dengan ikut Take Me Out atau Take Him? Inilah syarat-syaratnya :

1. Warga Negara Indonesia
2. Male dan female usia 20 – 40 th
3. Tidak sedang terikat hubungan pernikahan
4. Ekspresif


How To Play

1. 30 kontestan wanita/pria berdiri di depan 30 podium dengan lampu menyala. Mereka akan memilih 1 orang pria/wanita berdasarkan penampilan, kepribadian, dan latar belakang hidupnya.

2. Kontestan wanita/pria akan mematikan lampu yang ada di podiumnya jika ia tidak tertarik pada si pria/wanita. Namun jika terarik, ia akan tetap membiarkan lampunya tetap menyala.

3. Usai melalui 4 tahap perkenalan diri kontestan pria/wanita (penampilan, VT profil, performance, testimoni), maka giliran kontestan pria/waniat yang akan memilih kontestan wanita/pria yang tersisa.

4. Setelah didapat 1 pasangan, maka pasangan itu akan diberi kesempatan untuk berkenalan lebih mendalam di sebuah ruangan yang sudah disiapkan. Di situ mereka bisa ngobrol, nonton DVD, atau hal-hal lain sesuai dengan hobi masing-masing.

5. Sementara mereka mendalami satu sama lain, pasangan itu akan dikomentari mengenai kecocokan mereka.

6. Setelah didapatkan 3 pasangan, selanjutnya pasangan-pasangan ini akan ditantang dalam chemistry challange. Di sini setiap pasangan akan diuji seberapa cocok mereka sebagai pasangan. Tantangan berupa games-games, atau bisa juga berupa pertanyaan-pertanyaan psikologis yang menyangkut hubungan sepasang kekasih.

7. Seratus juri (para cupid) akan menentukan siapakah dari ketiga pasangan tersebut yang akan menjadi pasangan terbaik di episode tersebut.

Siapa tahu melalui acara Take Me Out atau Take Him Out anda menemukan pasangan sejati yang sesuai dengan kriteria anda

Unselfish effort

I could probably come up with some way to relate this short Bill Self interview to orienteering. But, I am having trouble coming up with a quick way to do that.Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

Global Warming Alarmist: Evil and Wrong

A current movie-video by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney gives Al Gore and his alarmist associates the benefit of the doubt about their intentions and integrity by naming their movie “Not Evil Just Wrong”.
The recent release of thousands of emails from the inner circle of Consensus-Alarmists now makes it clear that they are both Evil and Wrong!
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Would you buy a used car from two PHD’s that explain their fraudulent work as follows:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html
In a 1999 e-mail exchange about charts showing climate patterns over the last two millenniums, Phil Jones, a longtime climate researcher at the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, said he had used a “trick” employed by another scientist, Michael Mann, to “hide the decline” in temperatures.
Dr. Mann, a professor at Penn State, confirmed in an interview that the e-mail message was real. He said the choice of words by his colleague was poor but noted that scientists often used the word “trick” to refer to a good way to solve a problem, “and not something secret.”
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The US Congress and other governments are using the data from these Consensus-Alarmists to impose energy rationing and massive taxes and spending upon the American people. Congress should immediately call hearings into the content of these Emails and demand formal release of all documentation by all the groups upon which our national energy policy is being redirected.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/24/taking_liberties/entry5761180.shtml
Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, said on Monday the leaked correspondence suggested researchers "cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not,"
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Instead of going to Copenhagen to participate in the Global Warming Alarmist Convention, Obama should be calling a summit to bring ALL the scientists together to review the real and valid data that clearly belies the Gore-Hypothesis that humans have caused our 250 years of natural global warming that began in 1750, at the end of the little ice age.
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One degree warming in the last 100 years and no warming in the past 10 years does not represent a global warming crisis that is clearly not man-made.
Our energy dependence on our enemies is the crisis and our government has not implemented plans for any change to that dependence.
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A summary of valid global warming facts and references may be found at:
http://www.roanokeslant.org/GlobalWarmingThoughts/
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/12/wheels-coming-off-global-warming-wagon.html
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Homemade Thanksgiving Hair-Wear

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I decided to sit down and create some festive hair accessories! This is what I came up with.....

I made leaves out of felt and used thread to create the details.

Buttons found at a thrift store looked fantastic grouped together and attached to a headband.

I attached lots of small feathers to a piece of felt (isn't felt the best?)

and sewed on a button at the bottom to finish it off.

Now go forth and create you own festive Thanksgiving hair-wear!! Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Thanksgiving Hair-Wear

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I decided to sit down and create some festive hair accessories! This is what I came up with.....

I made leaves out of felt and used thread to create the details.

Buttons found at a thrift store looked fantastic grouped together and attached to a headband.

I attached lots of small feathers to a piece of felt (isn't felt the best?)

and sewed on a button at the bottom to finish it off.

Now go forth and create you own festive Thanksgiving hair-wear!! Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!

Najwa Shihab : Peristiwa Dalam Pandangan MATA NAJWA

Pada tanggal 25 November kemarin, adalah tayangan perdana MATA NAJWA di Metro TV. Acara yang bertajuk mengambil nama dari Anchor Newsnya ini membahas tentang masalah yang sedang popular di saat ini dengan lensa mata dari seorang Najwa Shihab.

Najwa Shihab yang akrab dipanggil Nana (lahir di Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, 16 September 1977; adalah pembawa acara berita Metro TV. Antara lain menjadi anchor program berita prime time Metro Hari Ini dan program talk show Today's Dialogue. Najwa adalah puteri kedua Quraisy Shihab, Menteri Agama era Kabinet Pembangunan VII.

Najwa Shihab sendiri adalah seorang Anchor News di Metro TV yang telah bergabung dengan Metro TV sejak tahun 2004. Sebelum memulai karirnya di Metro TV, Najwa Shihab adalah seorang penyiar di RCTI. Di Metro TV sehari-hari, Najwa menjadi Anchor News di Metro hari ini, yang menjadi Prime Time Evenening News di Metro.



Pada Tahun 2005,Shihab mendapat julukan "Best TV Anchor/Reporter" oleh Indonesia journalists association atas hasil karyanya meliput kejadian Tsunami tahun 2004 di Aceh dan Gempa bumi di Nias.

Tahun 2006 ia terpilih sebagai Jurnalis Terbaik Metro TV, dan masuk nominasi Pembaca Berita Terbaik Panasonic Awards.

Pada tahun yang sama, bersama sejumlah wartawan dari berbagai negara, Najwa terpilih menjadi peserta Senior Journalist Seminar yang berlangsung di sejumlah kota di AS, dan menjadi pembicara pada Konvensi Asian American Journalist Association.



Tahun 2007, pengakuan terhadap profesionalisme Najwa tidak hanya datang dari dalam negeri, tapi juga manca negara. Terbukti, selain kembali masuk nominasi Pembaca Berita Terbaik Panasonic Awards, ia juga masuk nominasi (5 besar) ajang yang lebih bergengsi di tingkat Asia, yaitu Asian Television Awards untuk kategori Best Current Affairs/Talkshow presenter.
Pengumuman pemenang dilangsungkan bulan November 2007 di Singapura.



Jika pada Panasonic Awards pemenang dipilih dari jumlah sms terbanyak, maka penentuan pemenang pada Asian TV Awards dilakukan oleh panel juri yang beranggotakan TV broadcaster senior dari berbagai negara di Asia.



Dan atas prestasinya itu, maka Najwa Shihab di percaya membidani acara baru yang menggunakan namanya sebagai judul program acara tersebut. Bagaimana kelanjutan acara MATA NAJWA? Kita tunggu saja dengan pandangan mata kita

Obama: et tu Matthews

At long last the major media is starting to have ObamaRemorse!
The major media hand picked Obama and refused to acknowledge any negative aspects of his character, accomplishments, associates or proposals.
They didn’t need facts – their minds were made up!
-
Now, after just 10 months in office Obama has yet to book any significant accomplishment:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/11/virginia-election-validating-obama.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-our-nobel-prize-winner.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-commander-of-unilateral.html
-
-
His approval ratings are now below 50%:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/11/gallup-obama-approval-rating-d.html?wprss=44
-
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56% of the American people now reject the ObamaCare plan.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/11/obamacare-part-2.html
-
-
But the major new news is that those who supported Obama through the 2008 campaign and his first 9 months in office are now starting to have ObamaRemorse and apparently are starting to see what Republicans and Conservatives have known all along!
-
SEE MR. HARDBALL’S (CHRIS MATTHEWS) COMMENTARY ON YOUTUBE:
-
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=xlmQgW_uvNQ&feature=popular
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What took Matthews so long and when will the rest of the liberal and left-wing media wake up and smell the coffee?
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-abc-and-new-pravda.html
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It's easy to set the Thanksgiving table... Rachel Aswell shows us how with a video via Target. Don't forget to also raid your own cupboards for forgotten treasures to welcome guests to a table that is truly your own.



Hugs,
Mary

It's easy to set the Thanksgiving table... Rachel Aswell shows us how with a video via Target. Don't forget to also raid your own cupboards for forgotten treasures to welcome guests to a table that is truly your own.



Hugs,
Mary

Prototype of Kansas orienteering terrain

Here is a map from yesterday's local race. In many ways this is a perfect example of Kansas orienteering. The area is largely old farm fields with wooded fields. The forest is a bit thick, a bit unpleasant. But you don't have to spend much time in the forest. The trail system largely reflects se by mountain bikers and horse back riders. The yellow includes some areas of deep grass. Deep

ObamaCare Part 2

Roanoke Times, 11-21-09, Pg 1 & 18: GOP: Health test recommendations could affect care.
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ObamaCare Part 0: Take a Pain Pill
There is the Presidents direct statement at a recorded public meeting to a lady that her mother should have a pain pill instead of a heart defibrillator because senior care is taking up to much of the Medicare budget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWJrlFnM5jo
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/08/perriello-defends-pelosi-read-obamacare.html
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ObamaCare Part 1: Total malfeasance of responsibilities for H1N1 vaccine.
Over 1000 Americans including 100 children have died from H1N1.The government now HOPES to have 50 million does of vaccine by mid-November(A FRACTION OF THE REQUIRED AND PROMISED AMOUNT).
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/10/obamacare-part-1-obama-in-charge-while.html
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ObamaCare Part 2: Delay Mammograms and Pap smears to “later” (perhaps too late!)
The white house denies that their medical panels will determine covered and paid procedures. More white house and democrat lies. The legislation specifically states that medical coverage will be determined by just exactly such panels.
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I personally asked Congressman Pierriello at his Rocky Mount, Va town meeting:Where is the list of Medicare service reductions and eliminations that will result from the $500 Billion reduction in the Medicare budget at the very time millions of baby-boomers are entering the system.His answer: “That will not be published until after the law is passed and determined by medical panels.”What a gross and obscene process and procedure and insult to all Americans!
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The personal-best democrat obscene comment on the government health panels:
“Insurance companies may use this new recommendation as yet another reason to deny women coverage for mammograms” Democrat Sen Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
Hello! It’s a federal government panel!
They are setting the service standard for the United States of America!
This is not being done by insurance companies!
And by the way, health insurance company’s profits are at the 2% level!
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Coming Attractions in the ObamaCare, PelosiCare, ReidCare Bills
Massive new government spending and debt
Massive new personal spending on premiums and co-pay and bills
Major reductions and elimination of medical service
Coverage of over 12 million illegal immigrants
Tax paid elective abortions
Prohibition for individuals to purchase medical services with their own assets.
(That's why Canadian snow-birds have major health care procedures done using their own money while they are in Florida)
Fines and penalties for businesses and individual deemed not to be in-compliance.
This is progress? This is the hope and change we voted for?
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/09/stop-obamacare-mess-and-start-fresh.html
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The Oprah Show akankah berakhir ?

Buat para penggemar The Oprah Winfrey Show, bersiap-siaplah untuk mengucapkan selamat tinggal pada Talk Show paling popular di dunia ini. Karena tahun 2011 atau pada musim ke 25nya Talk Show yang disiarkan oleh berbagai Stasiun Televisi di berbagai belahan dunia bakalan berhenti masa tayangnya.

Hal ini di sampaikan sendiri oleh Oprah Winfrey pada hari Jum’at tanggal 20 November 2009 kemarin dalam sebuah pengumuman yang divideokan dengan berlinangan airmata. The Oprah Winfrey Show di Indonesia ditayangkang oleh Metro TV setiap hari pukul 11.00 wib. Talk Show itu telah menginspirasi banyak orang di belahan bumi.

Mengubah perpesepsi dan gaya talkshow yang membosankan menjadi tontonan yang nikmat, mengharukan, kadang membuat orang tersenyum simpul, bahkan menangis.



"The Oprah Winfrey Show", yang pertama kali mengudara pada 1985 dan saat ini terhubung ke 145 negara dan mendapat pujian karena mengubah cara orang berbicara satu sama lain, setelah mempopulerkan gaya wawancara pengakuan yang telah membuat banyak orang membongkar rahasia, mengungkapkan dan seringkali membuat para tamu berlinang air mata.


Oprah Winfrey, yang dilahirkan dalam kemiskinan di Mississippi, sekarang diperkirakan memiliki kekayaan 2,7 miliar dolar AS dan secara rutin dimasukkan ke dalam daftar perempuan, pesohor dan orang yang paling berpengaruh di dunia.

Winfrey, yang telah berjuang menghadapi masalah berat badan dan pelecehan seksual pada masa kanak-kanak, juga telah menjadi tokoh spiritual, dan mendesak pemirsa agar menemukan jatidiri mereka yang sejati, mengikuti kata hati mereka dan menemukan kebahagiaan serta kedamaian di dalam diri mereka.

Ia adalah seorang pembuat rasa yang unik dan berpengaruh, yang sarannya di dalam buku atau produk memiliki dampak yang sangat besar. Ia adalah seorang pembuat rasa yang unik dan berpengaruh, yang sarannya di dalam buku atau produk memiliki dampak yang sangat besar.




Namun, para penggemar tak perlu menunggu lebih lama lagi untuk kelanjutan rencana winfrey selanjutnya, karena setelah tayangan terakhir Winfrey akan mengudara pada 9 September 2011, yaitu tepat pada sembilan bulan setelah peluncuran saluran televisi kabel baru yang sedang dikembangkan oleh Winfrey bersama Discovery Communications, Winfrey berencana tampil dan ikut di dalam program bagi bagi OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, jaringan televisi kabel 24 jam yang mencerminkan keinginan, nilai dan visinya.

Kita tunggu saja tayangan yang menginspirasi ini di tayangkan di Indonesia.

New Bridal Shower to Plan!

My brother just got engaged and I am in the process of planning a bridal shower with my mom. Jenny (the bride) is not super duper girly, but she has said that she wants something elegant for her wedding with a little bit of "beach chic" so that is what I am thinking for the shower too. However I was thinking instead of the usual "beach" ideas, I might just allow myself to be inspired by the idea of sunshine. I'm thinking of a sunny, whimsical celebration!Here are some things that are inspiring me so far for this party.

Ideas for the menu so far include:

-mini smoothies (like the ones pictured above)

-yogurt parfaits

-spiked lemonade

I would also like to find some more foods that would be good to serve at a venue, we want to make the food ourselves but we want the foods to be fairly self sustaining for the afternoon since we aren't sure if we will have access to ovens or fridges. If you have any ideas for me then please share!

I also think that presentation is very important in making the foods you are serving appealing. Even if you are serving cheap, simple foods , you can present them in a way that makes people feel different about eating them. The food becomes a part of the party experience. I love the idea in the photo above, this simple glass of lemonade becomes so much more with the addition of the adorable ribbon adorned skewers!

As far as colors for this event...I am thinking that oranges, yellows, and pinks are the way I am going to go. Obviously the colors represent "sunshine" , and Jenny loves these bright and happy colors! 

I'll keep you posted as this party develops! 

New Bridal Shower to Plan!

My brother just got engaged and I am in the process of planning a bridal shower with my mom. Jenny (the bride) is not super duper girly, but she has said that she wants something elegant for her wedding with a little bit of "beach chic" so that is what I am thinking for the shower too. However I was thinking instead of the usual "beach" ideas, I might just allow myself to be inspired by the idea of sunshine. I'm thinking of a sunny, whimsical celebration!Here are some things that are inspiring me so far for this party.

Ideas for the menu so far include:

-mini smoothies (like the ones pictured above)

-yogurt parfaits

-spiked lemonade

I would also like to find some more foods that would be good to serve at a venue, we want to make the food ourselves but we want the foods to be fairly self sustaining for the afternoon since we aren't sure if we will have access to ovens or fridges. If you have any ideas for me then please share!

I also think that presentation is very important in making the foods you are serving appealing. Even if you are serving cheap, simple foods , you can present them in a way that makes people feel different about eating them. The food becomes a part of the party experience. I love the idea in the photo above, this simple glass of lemonade becomes so much more with the addition of the adorable ribbon adorned skewers!

As far as colors for this event...I am thinking that oranges, yellows, and pinks are the way I am going to go. Obviously the colors represent "sunshine" , and Jenny loves these bright and happy colors! 

I'll keep you posted as this party develops! 

Crispin Hellion Glover @ Charles Theater

Crispin shows what it is and how it is done

This was a busy week for a reclusive suburban shut-in like me, but when opportunity knocks, ya gotta answer the call - especially when it's two pioneering artists like Devo and Crispin Hellion Glover that are knockin.' On Sunday night I spent (factoring in the requisite Ticketron "service" charges) roughly $55 to see Devo play their first album Q: Are We Not Men, A: We are Devo! and two encore songs over the course of roughly one hour. (And since we're talking D.C., factor in another $20 for parking.) Three days later I paid $20 plus a mere $2 parking to see Crispin Hellion Glover present over four hours of entertainment and crowd interaction, including "Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show" (a one-hour reading from all eight of his altered/authored books), his latest film It is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE!(this 2007 film, co-directed with David Brothers, is the second part of Glover's "It" trilogy that began with 2005's What Is It? - which he screened the trailer for afterwards), an exhaustive post-screening audience Q&, and an even more exhaustive post-Q&A book-signing with fans. My girlfriend Amy and I were starving, but we feasted on entertainment value; as Amy said later, with her signature omnivoristic perspective: "I loved Devo but this was the better value meal!"

The gathered masses apparently agreed. The event was sold-out and as I nodded to and greeted a sea of familiar faces in the Charles lobby, I commented to Amy: "I think every Baltimore hipster, artist, and scenemaker is here tonight. If a terrorist or right-wing Christian wacko [since The Charles Theater was screening Lars Von Trier's Antichrist there] blew up the Charles Theater tonight, they'd wipe out Baltimore cultural arts community in one fell swoop."


Local luminaries lobbied in the Charles
Theater lobby for the CHG Live Experience

To be sure, as I looked around it was a Who's Who of local notables, including John Waters; his pals "Orpheum" George Figgs and former Atomic Books/Atomic TV honcho Scott Huffines; Reptilian Records mogul Chris X; Merkin Records founder Joe Goldsborough; Sondheim Award-winning artist Laure Drougoul; beautiful MICA film animator/teacher Laurence Arcadias; artist-about-town Dan Van Allen; Normal Books & Records' impresario Rupert Wondolowski; dynamic arts duo Lynne Parks & Chris Siron; former Meatjack maestro Brian Danilowski; Rock Star frontman Todd Stachowski; erstwhile Katatonix musico and eternal "Living Legend" Adolf Kowalski; grub critic Richard Gorelick; comedian/Crystal Palace FC USA-booster Kevin Hall; filmmakers Karen Yasinsky, Stephanie Barber, Ann Everton, Billy McConnell, and Craig Smith (Psychedelic Glue-Sniffing Hillbillies); and on and on and on...ad infinitum.


Roll call at The Charles

"I wish I had my Hipster Bingo cards on me tonight," I mumbled to Amy. "I'd have shouted 'Bingo!' by now." I'd already spotted the requisite Hot Asian Girl with digital camcorder and stylish zippered jeans (they seem to be everywhere these days!), the Weezer Guy with the nerdy glasses, the cool styled-sideburns kid, the Bettie Page and Louise Brooks fashionista femme fatales, and all the tatted and pierced wannabees in their fedoras, pea coats, skinny jeans, and spotless red or black Chuck Taylor kicks.

"The Big Slide Show" ran about an hour and was very amusing, though it could easily be trimmed down to, say four or five books. I think I enjoyed Concrete Inspector and Rat Catching the best, both of which are still available for purchase on CHG's website: www.crispinglover.com.

Glover is very protective of intellectual property rights (don't count on finding YouTube clips or screeners for any of his works!), but he has sanctioned this reading of What It Is and How It Is Done - because it's on his website! Better yet, it was taken from an episode of Atomic TV and even has our logo on it!:



Next up was It Is Fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE!, which ran 74 minutes.


It Is Fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE!

The film is of a type that whose format you either accept within the first 5 minutes - or bail on while there's still time to opt out...the kind of motion picture of which All About Eve's Bette Davis would advise: "Fasten your seatbelts; you're in for a bumpy ride!" In short, it was written by and stars Steven C. Stewart (pictured below), a man born with cerebral palsy who spent the formative years of his life in a nursing home where he was disdained as an "M.R." (Mental Retard).


The Tao of Steve: babes find cerebral palsy studs irresistible

The frustration of that kind of backstory helps explain why he wrote the screenplay as a sort of 1980s made-for-TV crime thriller in which he plays a cerebral palsy guy named "Paul" irresistible to women (and fetishistically attracted to their long hair!), whom he kills when they threaten to leave him - or cut their hair! The biggest stretch of the imagination is that he believes people can easily understand him, even though he speaks at best like Monty Python's Gumbies. As I whispered to Amy, "The only thing worse than trying to understand what a person with cerebral palsy is saying is trying to understand a Scotsman with cerebral palsy...that's a double whammy no-win situation!" Glover gets around it by having the actresses and other characters move the narrative along with their dialogue (e.g., "Why yes Paul, I'd like to have you meet my kids.")

To pass his time, Paul fantasizes about the man he should be despite his twisted body and four possible relationships he could have and their (always dire) outcomes. In the film's most graphic moment, he receives fellatio from another handicapped patient. I loved the post-screening Q & A when Patti Vucci asked the question I had been wondering, too, when she said, "I know this isn't an art school question but more like a junior high type question, but was he really fucking that chick at the end?" (Answer: Yes! And the fellatio was not simulated. Shocking as it may be, it's not that hard to find struggling actresses in Southern California who will do sex scenes if a good role comes up.) (Equally shocking: these sex scenes are...very un-erotic! If you get off on them, you have more problems than Steven C. Stewart!) (Then again, one man's prime rib is another's Hamburger Helper: I can still recall creepy library patrons who got off watching glimpses of flesh in our potty training and breast cancer videos!)

The decision to not use subtitles and to let the star speak in his indecipherable natural voice was as much a testament to the filmmakers' sincerity (as Edith Massey sang in her cover of "Big Girls Don't Cry": "Sincerity counts when you're talking to me!") as it was to testing an audience's endurance. (But as the Merry Prankster himself, Ken Kesey, once delineated: "You're either on the bus or off the bus."

Or as Chris Gore commented:

“Glover and Brothers force you to see this crippled person as a suave leading man. To say the film is weird would be cliché, it's way beyond that the film drew laughs and gasps from the audience. The odd thing about it all - it works. It's actually refreshing to see someone who actually has cerebral palsy in a film rather than some actor playing someone with cerebral palsy…"

Though a friend (legitimately, understandably) groaned afterwards that, "That was painful!," I enjoyed the movie and was impressed by the technical aspects of Glover's and Brothers' filmmaking, from the look (it was shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm), to the lighting and wonderfully anachronistic set designs. In short, it was a Midnight Movie made 30 years past its heyday. Back to the Future, indeed. The rich, color-saturated photography made me think of Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, while the sparse, East German-kitsch sets with their technicolor shag carpets made me think of early John Waters and David Lynch movies - not to mention Chuck Statler-era Devo music videos.

PAPER Magazine's Dennis Dermody nailed it when he wrote:

“Glover's co-director- David Brothers' art direction create streets and apartment interiors of hallucinatory luridness. That, mixed with the thunderous soundtrack of Beethoven, Smetana and Tchaikovsky give the movie a relentless nightmare quality. What Diane Arbus was to photography, Crispin Hellion Glover is swiftly achieving as a filmmaker. Training his sardonic eyes on the strange and afflicted he achieves a mad dark poetry on celluloid.”

And, yes, the all-classical library soundtrack was pitch perfect - and again reminded me of early Kenneth Anger soundtracks, before he started using pop music.

In a major casting coup, the film also features Fassbinder regular Margit Cartensen (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Fear of Fear) as "Linda Barnes" (though at first I thought she was a man - her look here is very David Bowie circa Hunky Dory), not to mention Crispin's old man Bruce Glover, who is currently working on a documentary about the making of It Is Fine, and former Playboy January 1997 "Playmate of the Month" (and ex-Glover girlfriend) Jami Ferrell (she's on Facebook!) as the drunk blonde who is flattered she can "give a cripple a hard-on."


Margit Carstensen, back in the day...


Margit Cartsensen, more recently


Daddy-O Glover: Bruce Glover as Bond villain
Mr. Wint in "Diamonds Are Forever"

Following is a trailer for It is Fine:


It Is Fine trailer

It became clear from the Q & A afterwards that Crispin Hellion Glover is a passionate idealist who truly really believes in what he believes in. And not as crazy as the roles he portrays or the David Letterman moments make him appear. Basically, he's a throwback to the non-conformist, anti-Hollywood indie filmmakers of the "Midnight Movies" era of the late '60s, the '70s, and early '80s, in the pre-VCR days when the John Waters, Alejandro Jodorowskys, and David Lynchs of the world were making fare like Divine Trash, El Topo, and Eraserhead. (And speaking of El Topo, George Figgs correctly pointed out in the post-screening Q & A that Jodorowsky's ground-breaking Midnight special featured midgets and other Fellini-esque human oddities way before Glover was accused of exploiting differently-enabled people). And, as in the pre-VCR/pre-Video-On-Demand days of yore, Glover is a theatrical purist who believes films should be seen in a communal setting in theatres (yet another reason why he won't release his films on DVDs or send out screeners to festivals).

The gist of Glover's Q&A was a re-statement of the points he made on the Tom Green show (see video clip below):


Crispin Hellion Glover on Tom Green

Basically, he's anti-"Corporate Hollywood" filmmaking, though he has learned "What it is and how it is done" enough to take the money for mainstream fare in order to finance making the kind of movies he wants to make, and he wants to harken back to the days of thought-provoking and boundary-pushing films that challenge the viewer to ask questions like: "Is this right?" "Is this wrong?" "Should I be watching this?" "What does this mean?" That is, it's unlikely he'll be renting formulaic Sandra Bullock movies or going to the Cineplex to see CGI-laden blockbusters like 2012.

He apparently made a lot of money from his non-talking role as the "Thin Man" in Charlie's Angels, a classic example of "corporate Hollywood" crapola that Roger Ebert once described as "eye candy for the blind." But the filthy lucre received for his Charlie's Angels performance financed the cost of shooting It Is Fine on film.

But perhaps the most interesting factoid gleaned from the Q&A was the answer to a question about the nursing home depicted in the film. Ironically, the only place the filmmakers could find to film in was same institution Steven C. Stewart had been locked in for 10 years during his Twenties. As Glover said, "You can see that was not a fun place to be living."

Afterwards, it was out to the Charles Theater lobby, where CHG patiently signed any and everything handed to him and posed for photo ops with a long line of adoring fans.


Rupert Wondowlowski takes an iPhone pic
of his gal pal posing with Crispin Glover
(I like how CHG is under a poster for "A Serious Man")

If I could find my The Big Problem does not equal the solution. The Solution equals Let It Be LP (featuring the classic ditty "Clowny Clown Clown"), I might have been tempted to stay, but Amy and her friend Donna Diode were tired, so we called it a night and headed back home in the rain.

In closing, kudos to Charles Theater revival series programmer John Standiford for booking the event. It was yet another good call!

Now if only I can find that dang copy of my (long-misfiled) Crispin Hellion Glover LP The Big Problem...


"The Big Problem..." LP

Related Crispin Hellion Glover links:
www.crispinglover.com (official web site)
Essential CHG Videos
It Is Fine trailer 2
"Clowny Clown Clown" music video
Crispin Hellion Glover interview in Filmmaker magazine
It Is Fine cast bios

Pom pom love!

Who loves pom poms?? Oh! I do! I do!! This Christmas season as I think about how to decorate my tree, and adorn my gifts one thought keeps springing to my mind....pom poms!I want to put them on everything! I would love to add them gifts as embellishments, wear them in my hair, add them to the bottom of my scarves....I want pom poms EVERYWHERE! So, you know what to expect to see form me in the future......yes indeed I have found a new muse ;)

How cute would it be to give someone a pom pom bouquet for their birthday?

I just love the oversized pom poms against the plain brown paper!

Go forth and craft!

Pom pom love!

Who loves pom poms?? Oh! I do! I do!! This Christmas season as I think about how to decorate my tree, and adorn my gifts one thought keeps springing to my mind....pom poms!I want to put them on everything! I would love to add them gifts as embellishments, wear them in my hair, add them to the bottom of my scarves....I want pom poms EVERYWHERE! So, you know what to expect to see form me in the future......yes indeed I have found a new muse ;)

How cute would it be to give someone a pom pom bouquet for their birthday?

I just love the oversized pom poms against the plain brown paper!

Go forth and craft!

Another indoor orienteering course

An indoor orienteering course from omaps.worldofo.com.I need to figure out a place to set up an indoor orienteering course in Lawrence. The obvious places are all on the KU Campus. I'm guessing I couldn't navigate the university bureaucracy to get permission. Maybe there is another location?Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

Don't smoke , please.....

In Honor of our VIRGEN de CHIQUINQUIRA: Chinita we love you

Another lousy report card

“Another lousy report card.”

That’s what Mom said last week when Dad arrived home. He thought she was talking about my sister. No such luck; she’s too good a student. C’est moi, again.

Sigh.

Each week my pal Kelly writes up some notes on our time together, with her deft, often humorous touch. But lately the reports have become gloomier and gloomier. Mom no longer brags to her colleagues about the depth and perspicacity of these missives, as she did when they were brighter and filled with laudatory adjectives.

Here, in confession, are some excerpts. Most of my transgressions have to do with my famed obdurate streak.

“Do you have any suggestions for when his stubbornness gets that out of control? More and more he has been trying to be the one in charge.”

“I literally had to drag him up the hill…but we finally made it back home with the help of a few milkbones…Right now he is out back, napping in his dirt pile. Hopefully I can convince him to come back in.”

“I dumped out all my milkbones and was pulling pretty  hard, but he was not budging for anything or anyone…Basically I dragged him around for a half hour…at least he used up a lot of energy pulling in the opposite direction.”

“He is giving me that look of ‘I’ve had a successful day so far and would like you to give me that bag of milkbones because I am awesome and in charge.’”

“Thank goodness it didn’t rain today! (That was the first thing I thought about this morning—whether or not I would be able to get Tucker to go outside!) Alas, it didn’t go much better today than it went last week…I had to stand at the bottom of the stairs and open and close the cream cheese container a few times before he considered coming down…We only made it one house down the road. I used milkbones to convince him to go about 50 yards further, but that was the best I could do. He refused to budge.”

My report this week actually was decent. Now that I’m on triple secret probation, Mom says it’s time to turn things around. She’s almost as stubborn as I am, so it's going to be quite a battle.

DEVO on SNL

October 14, 1978
Set: "Satisfaction," "Jocko Homo"

After seeing DEVO play their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! live at the 9:30 Club in D.C Sunday night, I thought back to the first time I saw the Spudboys. I know my college pal and erstwhile Katatonix bandmate Tom Lehr turned me onto DEVO's music sometime during our late '70s school daze at Towson State University, but I don't recall seeing them before 1978, when I saw them with Tom at Georgetown University in D.C. and later at Painter's Mills in Owings Mills, MD with the fledgling Katatonix lineup of Katie Katatonic and Adolf Kowalski (a gig I vividly recall because when Mark Mothersbaugh came into the audience - which was pretty cool in and of itself, as wireless mics and guitars were a new thang - Adolf tore off a patch of Mark's yellow jumpsuit and gave it to me - I later had it laminated and carried it around in my wallet as a memento!).

But I'm pretty sure the first time I saw them was on the historic Fred Willard-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, October 14, 1978. And when they played their robotic cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfation" it was both a visual revelation and a sonic epiphany. I got chills and the kind of nervous excitement kids get when all riled up and without their Ritalin...and I recalled where I was and who I was with just as vividly as I recalled JFK's assasination (yup, I'm old enough have seen that on black-and-white TV as well!), or initially seeing Blade Runner at the Timonium Theater, hearing about Pee-Wee Herman's sex scandal, or seeing the breaking news report about former Maryland Terps star Len Bias' coke-overdose death - for some reason these were and are the momentous, life-changing touchstones of my life to date. Each one filled me either with eye-opening awe or an unbelievable sense of great loss.

I was at party with a bunch of Deadheads and pot-head pixies. When Devo came on, it blew everyone's minds. They had no frame of reference to prepare them for this, for there are only two timelines in the course of human history: B.C. (Before the Coming) and A.D. (After Devo). Devo's performance gave the past the slip and plunged pop culture consciousness into its rightful role of Duty Now for the Future. Thanks Spudboys!

(Apparently, the SNL appearance was just as momentous for Devo as it was for the SNL cast and the rest of America. Mark Mothersbaugh started dating Laraine Newman and Gerry Casale later claimed that John Belushi "snorted the entire contents of the first gram of coke I ever purchased." And Dan Akroyd became a fan, later getting Devo to write the theme song to his movie Doctor Detroit.)

Unfortunately, I can't post a video clip of Devo's historic performance, as NBC-Universal has pulled all copies off the Internet.

*** But wait - this just in! ***

Thanks to Scott Huffines for finding me the "Satisfaction" video on Videosift!


via videosift.com

Film 2012 : Penuh Kontroversi namun Sayang Untuk dilewatkan

Semua pasti sudah pada tahu dong Film yang membuat heboh akhir-akhir ini? Film 2012, film yang menceritakan bagaimana dahsyatnya bila hari Kiamat akan tiba. Film ini menyuguhkan dahsyatnya kiamat yang disebut-sebut akan tiba pada tanggal 12 Desember 2012.

Yang lebih unik lagi, Film 2012 ini diputar serentak tanggal 13 November 2009 di bioskop seluruh kota besar berbagai belahan dunia. Dan menurut info, dalam sehari film ini diputar bisa sampai 10 kali dengan tiket yang ludes terjual sebelum film tersebut mulai diputar.
Sebenernya seperti apa sih, film yang menghebohkan itu?

Ide ceritanya sebenarnya sederhana. Yaitu tentang dikisahkannya, warga dunia panik saat ramalan suku Indian Maya Inca Peru tentang kiamat menjadi kenyataan. Patung Kristus Sang Penebus yang berdiri kokoh di Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, hancur berkeping-keping. Hujan meteor berbola api disusul gempa mengguncang hebat. Yang tak kalah menggetarkan, basilika Gereja Santo Petrus di Vatikan, runtuh.





Penonton pun akan terpana menyaksikan kapal perang USS John F Kennedy tak berdaya diamuk badai dan akhirnya karam.

Menonton film ini membuat hati berdebar-debar karena special effect yang sangat canggih membuat kejadian hari kiamat itu seolah-olah tampak nyata.

Film yang beranggaran US$ 200 juta ini, disutradarai oleh : Roland Emmerich dengan memasang sejumlah nama yang tak asing lagi di dunia sinema. Seperti John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt, dan Woody Harelson.




Terlepas dari masalah kontroversi Film 2012 ini menentang takdir, dosa atau bagaimana, sebagai karya seni anak manusia ini sungguh sangat spektakuler. Skenario, special effect, jalan cerita maupun aktornya mampu mengekspresikan suatu karya yang super dahsyat.

Masyarakat sekarang juga lebih cerdas dalam menilai segala hal, termasuk karya seni Sinematografi sebagai suatu karya yang patut dihargai ketimbang menilai hal tersebut sebagai menilainya sebagai sesuatu yang tidak patut untuk dinikmati.

Bagi yang belum menonton Filmnya, bisa melihat trailernya di whowillsurvive2012.com