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Tim Scott, Marco Rubio and the GOP’s diversity primary

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If Florida senator Marco Rubio is tapped for president or vice-president in 2016, Republicans will credit his charisma and perhaps his role in convincing fellow Republicans to back an immigration deal, if that eventually passes. But in reality, Rubio was already in the driver’s seat before he ever spoke a word.

Immediately after Election Day, when Republicans for the second straight time lost the presidency in part because minority voters turned against them in droves, GOP elites launched series of tactical shifts that acknowledged the party’s diversity problem. Fox News host Sean Hannity and other conservative voices indicated they would back a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, hoping to blunt the Democrats’ advantage with Latinos. The Republican National Committee convened a group to study how the party could better reach minority voters. Politicians like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal condemned Mitt Romney’s suggestion that minority voters backed Obama because he offered them “gifts” and said the GOP would not allow such rhetoric in the future.

But a more quiet shift is also taking place: The party that officially opposes affirmative action is heavily promoting its diverse faces. When Jim Demint decided to step down as South Carolina’s senator, Republican elites quickly coalesced around the idea of replacing him with Tim Scott, the only African-American Republican House member who had won reelection in 2010. Jindal, virtually ignored as a potential presidential candidate in the 2012 cycle after a dreadfully-delivered speech 2009 when he gave the official GOP response to Obama’s State of the Union address, has seen a revival among conservatives touting him as a White House hopeful. Nearly everyone in politics knew Rubio would give the GOP response to Obama’s State of the Union address if he wanted. There has even been speculation in GOP circles about the potential candidacy of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is Canadian-born and therefore probably ineligible to run for president. (Cruz has argued his mother was a U.S. citizen, so he could run for national office).

In this context, Rubio and 11 others have a decided advantage as the party looks to its future: They are not white males in a party desperate to show voters its diversity. Republicans are almost certain not to run a ticket of two white males again in 2016 and risk being cast as out of step with an increasingly diverse country, even if the party also shifts to more palatable views for minorities on issues like immigration. Most party nominees for president and vice-president are either U.S. senators or governors. In short, one of the six non-white/male Republican governors (meaning they are female, minority or both) and the six non-white/male Republican U.S. senators will almost certainly be on the 2016 Republican ticket, either winning the primary or being selected as the running mate.

They are effectively in a “Diversity Primary” against one another for a spot on the 2016 ticket.

This diversity imperative, and a resulting winnowing of the field, is not completely unusual in politics. In 1981, male candidates did not really need to apply when the first Supreme Court vacancy occurred under President Reagan, who ran a campaign in which he committed to appoint the first female Supreme Court justice and then selected Sandra Day O’Connor. In 2009, it was broadly known President Obama wanted to tap the first Latino Supreme Court justice, so Sonia Sotomayor’s name was on nearly every short list, and she was eventually nominated.

And it does not suggest any lack of qualifications. Sotomayor had the same pedigree of Ivy League degrees and top clerkships as other Supreme Court justices. Rubio, if on the ticket in 2016, would have a similar level of political experience to Obama when he ran. Jindal, having served in the House, as a top official in the Bush administration’s department of Health and Human Services and two terms as governor, would have a more diverse and complete set of government experiences than most modern presidents.

“I would say that Jindal, Ayotte, and Rubio are all in good positions because of their capabilities more than their gender, ethnic backgrounds,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist, noting New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is also considered a potential GOP contender for president or vice-president.

Feehery, like other GOP strategists I spoke with, did not want to cast his parties’ leading figures in terms of identity. His argument is both right and wrong. Rubio is no doubt a talented politician. But even Barack Obama had delivered one of the best political speeches in recent memory when he was being touted as presidential candidate in 2007.

Rubio, as even some his allies acknowledge, has done virtually nothing on the national stage, but the former senator is in a stronger position to be on the national ticket in 2016 than any other person in American politics except for Hillary Clinton. The Republicans have a diversity problem, but in practice it’s really a Latino problem. Blacks have backed Democrats for generations and are not likely to defect to the GOP in large numbers, Asians remain a very small part of the American electorate, and Mitt Romney actually won the majority of white women voters and white voters under 30. If Romney could have matched the 40 percent of Latinos George W. Bush did in 2004, instead of getting just 27 percent, he would have had a very strong chance of winning the election.


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White Bean, Spinach and Tomato Risotto

 This is such a fabulous recipe.  I often recommend it to my clients as as a dinner, and again for lunch left-overs the next day! If you’re simply just looking for a side dish–this recipe can easily be paired with a protein source such as Tofu, Tempeh, Fish, Chicken and Turkey for a well-rounded, healthy meal!

  • 1 cup cooked risotto
  • 4 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 cups fresh baby spinach
  • 1 can white beans, rinsed
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 Tbsp. rosemary
  • 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  • Dash of Nu-Salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup vegetable broth
  • Galaxy vegan parmesan cheese
  • Dash of oregano

  • Cook risotto (per directions on package). Set aside and cover to keep warm.
  • Heat oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat.  Add garlic; stir for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and beans. Mix well.
  • Add spinach, Nu-Salt, pepper, rosemary, balsamic vinegar.  Continue to stir until mixture is completely cooked and warm.
  • Remove from heat and serve warm atop a bed of warm risotto.
  • Top with vegan Parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle with oregano.
  • Enjoy!
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  1. Lynne
    Lynne says:

    I had trouble finding plain risotto. I found a box of mixed parmesian risotto but nothing plain. I ended up putting it over rice pasta instead which was delicious. But would love to try it the original way. Help please!

    • Amie
      Amie says:

      I simply make my own risotto. I make rice, then put it into a large wok or skillet with one of the following: Chicken Broth, Vegetable Broth, Mushroom Broth, Beef Broth), cover and let simmer for 45 minutes, stirring often. This will create an amazingly creamy homemade risotto. Hope this helps. Have a great day and thank you for your comment!

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Rob Lowe: Newt Gingrich on set of 'Parks & Rec'

Gingrich will only be the latest high-profile political star dropping by "Parks and Rec" this season. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) appeared in the premiere, and Vice President Biden filmed a scene that aired earlier this month.

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Worker Is Killed At Drilling Operation

July 10, 2013
The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

JACKSONBURG - A subcontractor performing work on a road leading to a Stone Energy natural gas drilling pad in Wetzel County died following an accident involving a bulldozer, Stone Vice President Flo Ziegler confirmed Tuesday.

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Ask Marilyn: Is Marilyn Left-Handed? Was She Ever?

Tomasz Suchta of Szczecin, Poland, writes:

Marilyn: Are you right- or left-handed? Has your handedness ever changed?

Marilyn responds:

I've always been right-handed, but I like to do certain things with my left hand. For example, I work with two computers and three monitors on my desk. (I keep one computer offline for security purposes.) With one of the computers, I use a left-handed mouse; with the other one, I use a right-handed mouse. This feels perfectly normal to me. In general, though, I am not ambidextrous.

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Race denied by council

April 8, 2013

Buckhannon City Council unanimously denied a request to have a 5k race at nighttime at the Riverwalk near West Virginia Wesleyan College for safety reason....

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Grant County commissioner seeks re-election

April 11, 2012

Editor's note: Candidates for local 2012 races are welcome to email their candidate announcements to

James C. "Jim" Cole has announced his candidacy for re-election to the Grant County Commission.

Cole is a lifelong Republican and has a track record of proven leadership, balancing budgets, and keeping taxes low.

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He has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration/economics from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a master's degree from West Virginia University in educational administration. He also has an accounting degree from Akron University and has 47 years of experience in business, education and public service.

"I understand budgets and finances, which are critical in these tough economic times if we are to balance the budget and keep taxes low," he said.

Cole has been married to the former Phyllis Friddle for 47 years. They have two daughters, Holly and Jennifer, and four grandsons.

Cole is a member of the National Rifle Association, and he said he strongly believes in the right to bear arms. Also, he believes the country should the right to have prayer in schools and post the Ten Commandments.

"Since I was elected, the Grant County Commission is financially stronger as are various civic organizations, churches, businesses and the Grant County Board of Education in which I have had financial responsibility," he added.

He said he has been a full-time county commissioner. He goes the Courthouse every day unless he is am out of town.

He said he does not charge the county for any county-related travel expenses.

"As a member of the Grant County Hospital Board, I led the charge to move the hospital to critical access and directed the hospital to begin working to streamline admitting, billing and collection procedures which greatly improves their financial position," Cole said.

He also opened the side door at the courthouse by personally paying for a new door with a window, thus allowing citizens (especially seniors) easy access to the sheriff's office to pay their taxes and vote.

Cole said he also created jobs with Appalachian Rail Service.

Also, by privatizing quick-response emergency services for the entire county, it saved Grant Memorial Hospital more than $300,000 annually without increasing taxes.

Cole also supported and assisted the creation of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has increased tourism.

He negotiated with Eastern Community & Technical College to move its Technical Center into the Grant County Industrial Park (former sewing factory building), which now serves more than 50 students.

He helped combine the position of county administrator and IDA director, saving the county $50,000 per year.

Cole noted that plans are being made to break ground this spring for a new Senior Center for the Mt. Top.

Noting his experience and proven record, Cole asked for support from voters.

"This year's election is critical as to the direction we take locally and nationally in keeping spending and taxes under control," he said. "I thank you for your past support and would greatly appreciate your vote."

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A3 Achievement Solution

Focusing on assessing teachers, the A3 Achievement Solution from iAssessment (www.iassessment.com) provides comprehensive diagnostic assessments for preK-12 teachers, differentiated online training, and automated management to offer personalized professional development. The solution is Web-based and can therefore be integrated with a school’s or district’s current technology infrastructure with no additional hardware or software support. Three components make up the A3 Achievement Solution: diagnostic assessments, which focus directly on the teacher to help them discover what they don’t know; knowledge assessments, which gauge teacher knowledge and understanding of instructional concepts and strategies; and environmental assessments, which examine systemic factors such as infrastructure, and internal and external influences.

This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2004 issue of THE Journal.

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Ed Tech Trends | Q&A

1-to-1 Computing: Turning Around School Technology

Early in the last decade, Piedmont City School District, a small three-school district in Eastern Alabama between Birmingham and Atlanta, laid claim to the worst computer-to-student ratio in the state. Since then, the Piedmont district, where 65 percent of students qualify for reduced or free lunch, has successfully shaken off that title after embarking on a number of ambitious technology-driven projects, including a 1-to-1 take-home laptop initiative--called Mpower--a remote-learning partnership with Stanford University, and a wide-scale E-rate-funded project that will eventually bring high-speed Internet access to every student's home.

"About four years ago the last big employer in our city left, so our school system is the biggest thing going on in our community," explained Piedmont Superintendent Matt Akin. "Looking at the future, we felt like we needed to do something to give our community hope again."

THE Journal recently spoke with Akin for a two-part interview about his district's approach to technology. Here he shares how the Mpower program got started, his approach to student safety, and the one thing he would have done differently.

Stephen Noonoo: What would you say makes your 1-to-1 initiative different from other similar ones?

Superintendent Matt Akin: One is the high level of community involvement. We knew that to be successful we needed the whole community, not just parents and kids. We made it a point to involve our businesses in town, our city council, our senior citizens, churches, and just bring everyone in.

Noonoo: Why did you specifically choose laptops, and why MacBooks over tablets like iPads?

Akin: When we started, iPads were just out, and, instead of looking at something that is just content delivery, we felt that MacBooks gave students the opportunity to create things. I know iPads are expanding, and I'm not anti-iPad, but we just felt that, for students, having a laptop in their hands gave them more than just a digital textbook. Although you could do digital textbooks on the MacBooks, you also give student the opportunity to collaborate.

Noonoo: How did you manage funding for the 1-to-1 program?

Akin: Originally, we had a federal Enhancing Education Through Technology grant, so we started with just a pilot at the high school with a 2-to-1 initiative. We visited some other school systems--Morrisville, NC, was one of the main ones that kind of served as a mentor to us. That got it going as we started looking at the budget. The teachers that were involved said that if every kid had their own computer, we could do amazing things. And when your teachers have that attitude and philosophy, the superintendent and board members feel like they have an obligation to try to figure out how to do it.

When we looked at our overall budget and where we were spending money, we found that if we wanted to do this it was going to be about 4 percent of our budget per year. Four percent is not a lot of money when you're passionate about it and believe, like we did, in the opportunity, that it could change kids' lives.

It started with some federal seed money, but then it was really funded locally. Since it was put in place, we've gotten quite a bit of money through grants. Whether it's a foundation or state grant agencies, we are more likely to see grant money when they see that Piedmont has made an investment of $1 million in hardware. We have something invested in it and that's what's helping us expand our after-school and summer activities.

Noonoo: Your students take the laptops home with them. How do you handle safety issues and protect the assets?

Akin: As far as safety is concerned, we have kind of a quasi-governmental agency called the Alabama Supercomputer Authority. They receive E-rate funding, and they provide Internet access for all of our schools. There's a filter that's on the laptops. The Supercomputer helped us set up our filter so that no matter where the laptop goes, or who is providing Internet access, the filter is always there. If my son takes his laptop to California and gets Internet access in a hotel, it's still going to push them back through this filter.

We do a lot of training as far as teachers go. It's also working with kids on online safety, and with parents, too. Whether you're filtered or not, there are still things you need to be aware of, whether it's Facebook or chat rooms. As far as taking care of that, we're a little different in that, while a lot of school systems have AUPs (acceptable use policies), we have what's known as a Required Use Policy. Our students pay a $50 insurance fee. If they're low income and they can't afford the fee, we feel strongly that everyone should have something invested, so a student may pay $2 a month. We have face-to-face conversations with every parent or guardian. And as long as they're following that policy and something happens to that computer, then it's on us. We pay for the charges. If they're not following the policy--drinking a soft drink around the laptop and they spill it--we don't charge them for labor, but we do charge them for parts.

Noonoo: Have you had many issues with the laptops?

Akin: No, not too bad. You've got to understand, a lot of our kids go home to parents that are working at night. We've had a fair amount of broken screens--that seems to be the biggest thing. It's not a lot--less than 1 percent--but anytime you've got to replace a screen, it's a pain. At the end of the day, we knew what we were doing and what we were getting into. We knew there would be some computers that got broken. The risk is worth the reward.

One of the other things we did is partner with Jacksonville State University (AL). Some of their computer science students come down and man the help desk. A lot of that is just software issues. We also have our own employees, like instructional aids, that may have been in computer labs. We don't have computer labs anymore, so they might man the help desk a couple periods a day. It's really about reorganizing the whole school system.

Noonoo: What happens to the laptops when students graduate from high school?

Akin: We're in year two, so those senior computers rolled back down and became fourth-grade computers. We're on a four-year lease, so after three years, typically what you see is school systems would trade them in or renew a lease. We'd like to make them available to our seniors when they leave, but it's very pricey to do that.

Noonoo: Would you consider letting them buy them?

Akin: It would be hard for us to do that in years one and two. But one of the things we would like to do as we come to the end of our lease is to make them available to students that are leaving.

Noonoo: Eventually, the MacBooks will have to be replaced. Will you do that in installments?

Akin: We'll probably do a total refresh of grades 4 through 12. The question becomes, will we do that at the end of next year or the year after? Hopefully, it will be after next year. Then the question becomes, what will we do then? Will it be iPads or MacBook Airs? It will be interesting to see where things stand from a technology point of view in a couple of years.

Noonoo: What are your thoughts about the new iPad initiatives in other districts?

Akin: It's impressive from an education point of view. I've read excerpts of Steve Jobs's book, and I hope that the textbook industry gets revived--just like what has happened to the music industry.

If a digital textbook is going to turn around and cost us the same as a regular textbook, that's not going to change the world of education. But if it comes to where outside people are making textbooks and creating a lot of free stuff, or where you can buy a chapter for a dollar, like has happened to the music industry, I think you're going to see iPads or some other tablet all over the place. I think that reform of the textbook industry is important. I would really like to see that take place. I know that the textbook companies deserve to be paid for their product, but I think this is one way you could really change the world.

Noonoo: Do you have any anchored computers left in your schools?

Akin: We don't have any computer labs. In K-3, we're doing laptops on carts, so it just seems it's really working to take the learning to the classroom instead of everybody going to a computer lab. I think if you can figure out a way to get laptops in every kid's hands at least every other day, you can really change the approach to teaching and learning.

Noonoo: What are some of the other cutting-edge things you're doing? What is your district's long-term vision?

Akin: Our high school is small, so last year our Spanish teacher got married and left, and we were looking for someone who could teach Spanish four periods a day. Well, those people aren't just walking around. At the high school we started doing true online foreign language classes, so every student at Piedmont has the opportunity of taking French, German, or Chinese, instead of just taking Spanish. And if they want to get ahead, they can take two years in one.

It's the same thing with computer science--you just don't see a lot of folks who are trained to teach computer science coming into high school. I have a background where I'm trained to teach AP computer science, but we just didn't have enough qualified teachers, so we're teaching it through Stanford University and iTunes U.

Noonoo: How does the partnership with Stanford University work?

Akin: We're using all their lectures. I contacted the professor at Stanford because I think the videos are probably three or four years old and said, "It sure would be nice if we could have your stuff." He sent us all his PowerPoints, his coding requirements, and solutions. Although it's a real informal partnership, it's neat for a school district in northeast Alabama to be working with a professor at Stanford to teach a computer science course.

Noonoo: Anything else that you have in the pipeline?

Akin: If you look at research, one of the worst things for at-risk kids is for them to go home in the summer and not have any learning take place. We're looking at a way, through our extended learning academy, to let at-risk kids keep their computers in the summer if they are enrolled in a remediation program. We'll give a benchmark test, so when they leave in the seventh grade, we will know where they stand. If they're not where they should be as a seventh grader, they can work with computer instruction aligned with coming into school part of the day during the summer, and they will keep their computers so they can keep learning.

On the other hand, whether they're at risk or not, we've got some things in place to offer some enrichment programs, too. We've talked about bumping foreign language down to fourth or fifth grade and letting them take a foreign language in the summer. It's not only extending learning 24/7, but truly 24/7 through the summer, which is really where I think we need to steer.

Noonoo: Have there been any missteps regarding your implementation of digital initiatives so far?

Akin: There's always room for improvement. I think it's one of those things where, if you asked our teachers, they would say, "You went too fast--slow down a little bit." We did some professional development going in, but we did a lot of just-in-time professional development where, when issues came up, we did training during planning periods through video instruction. Probably the more professional development opportunities you can offer your teachers the better.

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Share Your Tips For Raising Kind Kids

Recently, I asked all you kind mamas to share your stories about vegan pregnancy and natural childbirth. For part three of my kind mama Q&A, I’m asking you to share your kind parenting tips. Feel free to answer some or all of the questions. I may select some of your answers to appear in my forthcoming book, The Kind Mama!

1.  Did you hesitate to raise your baby vegan?
2.  How do you deal with naysayers?
3.  How do you talk to your kids about being vegan?
4.  What was your breastfeeding experience like?
5.  How did breastfeeding help you bond with your baby and learn about yourself as a mom?

You can answer in the comments below, by contacting me directly (by clicking the “contact Alicia” box to the right), or you can post your answers in this forum thread.

Thank you, kind lifers!!!

Photo Sources: Anekoho via, Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot via

  • Crystal

    1. Did you hesitate to raise your baby vegan?
    I always dreamed i would turn vegan before i was pregnant however things didn’t turn out like that. I actually didn’t manage veganism until my child was three. I had no hestition to raise my child vegetarian but i did worry if i could give him a balance diet as a vegan. I would say even now he’s about 80% vegan but i’m working on the other 20% as he is thrieving, i’m also learning more and more about what works. My worry more down to not being overly knowledgeable on nurition.

    2. How do you deal with naysayers?
    I listen to what they have to say but i still do my own thing.
    I see the benefits so why doubt what is going well.

    3. How do you talk to your kids about being vegan?
    My child is still quite young so i started making connections between food and animals. Like with eggs that I say are little homes for baby birds (actually a birds period) and when we are in the supermarket we on rare occasions go down the meat sections. I point out the animals that have died (what they were) and how much happier they would be if we didn’t eat them. Now some people say i shouldn’t do this but i don’t want my son to think meat is normal to have sitting on the shelves. He has no issue investigating what the cat brings back so i think going bah bah to the dead sheep in a shop no different. Death is part of life, no point hiding from it. I also get books and dvds about aniamls, we talk about the live animals and whether we want to eat them. Ofcourse sometimes it back fires and he goes “yum yum” haha.

    4. What was your breastfeeding experience like?
    Because i was the first breastfeeder i ever knew it wasn’t an easy start as I didn’t know what i was doing, and the professionals though helpful weren’t on call to me all the time. So it was a lot of trial and error. Lots of breastfeeding is about just getting on with it, pushing through because it gets easier. Unless you experience what feels like glass chewing on your nipples, then don’t push through as sounds like your attachment nears work. I have loved breastfeeding, once i got past the beginner stage it was natural and normal to me. It is wonderful. I love the bond and the fact i don’t have to prepare my milk as always there with me.

    5. How did breastfeeding help you bond with your baby and learn about yourself as a mom?
    Breastfeeding helped the bond with our relationship because we were able to get such close one on one time, and the look for pure joy on my child’s face is so addictive. I learnt that breastfeeding techniques do not come naturally but once you get your head around what you are doing then its the most natural thing in the world. It taught me that i have most of what i need to raise my child in me. In the words of Heman “I have the power!” *smiles*

  • Ute

    1. Did you hesitate to raise your baby vegan?
    Yes. I still do :( My daughter is 2.5 years old now and at her creche, she gets vegetarian food. At home, for practical reasons, most of what she eats is vegan because I cooked it. And since she has started asking questions such as “What is this?” when eating, I’ve started introducing the words “vegan” and “plantbased”, “tofu”, “soy beans” and stuff like that. Quite difficult. I don’t want to work with saying “you mustn’t eat meat” but more like “we don’t eat that for several reasons”. As with almost everything concerning my daughter, I try learning by doing. But I have to make so many compromises on the way :(

    2. How do you deal with naysayers?
    I tell them that I don’t think it’s ok to eat other creatures and that, basically, I don’t want my child to eat something dead.

    3. How do you talk to your kids about being vegan? See above

    4. What was your breastfeeding experience like? Horrible. My daughter didn’t drink properly and in the hospital, no one really took the time to work with us on this issue :( I tried a milk pump (is that the correct term in English? not sure) but it took what felt like hours to produce a tiny amount of colostrum which my daughter drank up from a bottle within seconds… it had me on the verge of tears all the time and my nipples were raw and bloody and she was crying so much because she was so hungry but didn’t drink properly. Until I started bottlefeeding her.. things went much more smoothly after that decision. Today, I still feel guilty about that decision and that I didn’t give it more time and insist on help :( but the whole time I had to spend at the hospital was horrible, including the birth itself (I had an emergency C-section during the night but had initially planned a birth with midwives only and no doctors around).

    5. How did breastfeeding help you bond with your baby and learn about yourself as a mom?
    Well. Since that didn’t work out, I tried to cuddle as much as possible with my daughter when I fed her. Sometimes I wondered if the fact that I didn’t breastfeed her was the reason for her pushing me away at times (when she was ca 16 months old) but that has changed completely now. Which makes me glow everytime she hugs or kisses me or wants to cuddle or hold my hand… she is such a sweet child and I adore her.

  • Morgan Rian Pfeffer Lance

    I was a 24 year old vegetarian of 5 years, who dabbled into the idea of becoming vegan. March 2013 dairy began making sick and eggs made me feel nauseated. I thought, “what better time to become vegan?!”. A month later I found out that I was 5 weeks pregnant. My growing baby gave me the push I needed. I got a lot of criticism for eating a vegan diet while pregnant. However, my blood work was checked and my iron was never even close to low, (without supplements). As a nurse I knew how to ensure proper nutrition with a somewhat restrictive diet. People were shocked to find out that I planned to raise my daughter vegan. For me and my vegan husband, it was never an option not to. The pediatrician had called me reckless, so I searched for a new one who understood my beliefs. So far so good! My daughter Hazel Rose is almost 5 months and I just started adding whole grain organic rice cereal to breast milk twice a day. I made the decision because she is off the charts in height and weight. She always lunges toward my food and drools and smacks her lips when I eat in front of her! Plus she has 3 teeth already! I genuinely think each child is different when it comes to when they are ready to add solids, wean, and such. I just hope I have at least another year before she decides she is done nursing.
    My parents are generally supportive. However, for some reason the idea of never giving Hazel real ice cream bothers my dad! Kind of funny! I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there 😉


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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Simpliest Things in Life, Weekly Edition

Sometimes the stress of life takes over our lives and we forget to enjoy the many wonderful things that it brings to us. On August 30 I posted about "The Simplest Things in Life". That weekend my mom, three sisters and I emailed each other and shared the "simple things" happening to us over the weekend. I really felt connected to them and I enjoyed focusing more on the little things that were happening around me and decided this might be a great thing for me to do every week

~This stinkin' squirrel was tainting me. Last fall while I was at work, Steve and the kids went shopping and bought me an outdoor swing as a surprise. I love it! However, over the winter, those stinkin' squirrels tore a hole in the cushion in order to make a nest for themselves. (Gosh, do they only think about themselves? Don't they know how special the swing is to me?) This week I spotted this stinkin' squirrel at it again and ran outside to scare her away. She ran up the tree with my cushion stuffing and squeaked naughty things at me for what seemed like ten minutes, knowing there was no possible way I was going to reach her. I was so mad at her, yet the kids and I couldn't stop laughing.

~On Wednesday morning I had an NST appointment. My NST practitioner said that I do not need to return for any more appointments unless I feel a flareup coming on or one to two times a year for "tune-ups" since I am doing so well. Yippeee!!! I am so proud of myself. This is a great victory for me.

~Izzy laying on the floor next to me whether I am in the kitchen, bedroom, laundry room or on the computer. I love having my little "shadow" around. Sophia's not too bad to have laying around either.

~I found a new blogger friend this week. Jill also has RA and is trying to control it with alternative medicine. I have never actually met anyone else with RA who was attempting this without medication. It is awesome to share stories with her. When I was first diagnosed, I read everything I could online and totally freaked myself out with the horror stories people shared. I finally stopped reading anything on RA because I knew it would defeat my journey to healing. I am so glad to have met this very positive person and all of the other new RA blogger friends I have met this week. I look forward to learning more from all of you!

~Our unschooling group spent the day at the Arboretum. It was a perfect sunny day to hang out with like-minded friends. See photos of the day here:

~Alexander has a couple of new dog sitting jobs. Astro was a little sad that his owners are out of town and wanted to do nothing other than lick Alexander's face. Alexander was completely fine with that.

~Since Wednesday is our unschooling playgroup day, I look forward to Wednesday evening when my family enjoys Chipotle's rice bowls, wine and/or sparkling mineral water and the previous evenings showing of Eureka.

~My nephew Leo has been battling tics and seizures for the last two years. My sister Stacey has tried everything she can get her hands on. This week his allergy test came back positive for egg and wheat. This gives her something to work with. I truly admire Stacey for all her hard work.

~I absolutely LOVE blogging. I don't even care if I am the only one that reads it. It is just something I really look forward to doing.

~Sophia and I finished another American Girl book this week. We are really enjoying learning about The Great Depression. We found out in this book that parents would start hiding old toys months before Christmas and repaint them or change them in some way and give them as new at Christmas. We thought that was pretty smart.

~I went to lunch with my good friend Darcy and her cousin on Tuesday. It was such a delight to be a part of their day. We met at Starbucks, lunched at Bancock Village and then as they headed off to shop, I headed off to pick Sophia up from a birthday party at the mall.

~I am having so much fun participating in Sherry's blogiversary. She comes up with the most creative ideas.

~Sophia went to the mall for the first time without us. She met friends for a birthday party. I was really nervous about this but when I dropped her off, it was so fun to see all the girls in their purses and giggling. I am glad she has these experiences with other girl friends.

~Watching Steve take off for work in the morning on his bicycle. Steve recently took a new job that is about 3.5 miles from our house. It is amazing how relaxed he is now. Rather than an almost three hour a day commute by car, feet, train, and feet again, he now rides 15 minutes from our house to work. My husband now works local!

~Reading a poem by Sophia about me.
Your eyes light my path,
Your voice calms me,
Your shoulder gives me a pillow when there is no pillow,
Your hugs help me feel better when I am sick,
Your heart is filled with care and love,
You are my true mom and the best mom!

~I have received so many wonderful emails from friends and family this week congratulating me on my RA success. I will keep them and reread them on days that are not so easy. Thanks for all of your love and support. It motivates me more than anything!

~Talking with my dad on the phone. He told me how special he thought it was that Steve spends every Sunday morning with Alexander alone doing "boy" things. I like when my dad is touched by things my family does. What he said is true, "Alexander will always remember these times". Every Sunday they get up early and do something fun together: play Chess at Starbucks, play video games, go skeet shooting, bike riding, etc. They just really like haning out together.

. Our dog trainer and friend emailed this week that she found out she has breast cancer at 32 years old. I admire that she could ask all of her family and friends to send good thoughts to her. I tend to go into a little hole and hide when I should be asking for help. I also admire that she is seeing the positives to this situation. I thought she was an amazing person before but only admire her more now. Please send any healthy, healing thoughts you can her way.

  1. I love your simplest things in life and I actually was just thinking about it yesterday. I was watching the kids do something and I thought I haven't emailed you guys anything all week. I am glad that you started it because it makes me realize how much the small simple things mean.

  2. Thanks for sharing the simple things! I loved reading your list and look forward to more every week! :)


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Editor: Elise Thompson

MonkeythumbnailBorn and raised in the great city of Los Angeles, Elise joined her dad as he took Canadian relatives on endless tours of Olvera Street, The San Antonio Winery and The Griffith Observatory. This food, culture and music-loving punk rock Angeleno wants to turn you on to all that is funky, delicious and weird in the city. While Elise holds down the fort, her adventurous alter ego Kiki Maraschino is known to roam the country in search of catfish.

Music Editor: Bob Lee

Bob Lee started interviewing bands while working in college radio and later contributed to various publications including early issues of Ben is Dead. As a drummer and singer, he has toured and recorded with bands such as Claw Hammer, Jon Wahl & The Amadans, Mike Watt and the Black Gang, Backbiter, Crawlspace, Hot Damn and Fearless Leader. He is the quiet, sneaky one of the band. When writing, Bob’s credo is, “All we have is the truth.”

Entertainment Editor: Simone Snaith

simoneSimone Snaith is a young adult author and a singer-songwriter who goes by Turning Violet. She dyes her hair rainbow colors and enjoys reviewing live shows, books and movies. You can read about her own music and books here.

Beauty Editor: Donna Lethal

DonnaLethalDonna Lethal is the author of “Milk of Amnesia” and writes for her own blog (Lethal Dose), Hair Hall of Fame, Dowager Quarterly, Celluloid Slammer, Find A Death, & she wrote the Valhalla Cemetery chapter in “Weird Hollywood.” A native Bostonian, she’s lived in NY and London before settling here. When not writing, she’s doing yoga or fleeing to the hot springs in a vintage Celica Supra.  Send your product samples!

Art/Photo Editor: Paula Lauren Gibson/AfroPix

When my father gave me a Kodak Brownie as a child, I fell in love with photography. I have been shooting pictures ever since. I am also an avid genealogist and can trace one of my family lines back to 1620! Check out my photography at!

Editor of the Offbeat: Nikki Kreuzer

nikkiNikki Kreuzer has been a Los Angeles resident for more than half of her life. When not working insane hours in the film & TV industry, she spends her time over many obsessions, mainly music, art and exploring the oddities of the city she calls home. A published author, she also is a mosaic artist, actor, photographer and Instagram addict (username Lunabeat, she says to follow her!). She is currently working on her first novel.

Theater Editor: Jennifer Hugus

jenniferJennifer K. Hugus was born at a very young age. At an even earlier age, she just knew she would one day write for the LA Beat! Having grown up in Massachusetts, France, and Denmark, she is a noted fan of Asian Cuisine. She studied ballet at the Royal Danish Ballet Theatre and acting at U.S.C. in their prestigious BFA drama program. She also makes her own jewelry out of paints and canvas when she isn’t working on writing absurdist plays and comparatively mainstream screenplays. Jennifer would like to be a KID when she grows up!

Cocktail Editor: Ed Simon

630edI’m a native of Los Angeles who loves food and food culture. Whether looking for the best ceviche in Colombia, the best poke in Hawaii or the best Taiwanese Beef Roll in LA, it’s all good food! I also love a good drink. I’ve had Mai Tais in Hawaii, Bourbon in Kentucky, tequila in Mexico and rum in Jamaica. My wine escapades have taken me to Napa, Sonoma, the Willamette Valley and the Santa Ynez Valley. And I’ve had beer all over the world!

Lifestyle Editor: Billy Bennight

BillyBennight-52Billy Bennight is a writer, photographer and wardrobe stylist with expertise and years of experience in these disciplines. His musical youth started as a Punk Rocker and has expanded in exploring many genres of music, with a keen interest in art, fashion, photography and writing. He’s very engaged in life.

Piera Peruvian

Piera’s life mimics that of Paddington Bear. Born in the deepest darkest Peru, she soon found herself a stowaway, landing in London sometime thereafter. She now resides in Los Angeles where she likes attending gigs, photographing casually, and wandering about the country when time and finances permit. She also enjoys writing short self-bios- in third person of course.

Brian Michaels

BrianMichaels (Custom)Brian Michaels grew up in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles in the glory days of the late 1960s and 70s. Only a stone’s throw from the Sunset Strip, Michaels had an early education in rock music. Michaels attended his first punk rock show at the age of 14 at the Whiskey a Go Go and has been going strong ever since. Brian is a defense attorney by profession but adds photography and writing to a list of his many passions outside of the his job. Brian can be found on the web at

Mike Watt

awattOn bass

Michael is the editor and main contributor to South Bay Foodies.  where he scouts out and documents good eats around LA.  (Besides writing and photography, Michael is also an administrator for The LA Beat and has played an integral part behind the scenes to get the site happening and keep it up and running -Ed).

Dave Soyars

Dave Soyars is a freelance dilettante who is willing to try almost anything once. He knows a lot about very little but at least a little about almost everything.

Darlene is the curator of the Candy Wrapper Museum, which is comprised of her personal collection which she began as a teenager in the 70s. The CWM has been featured in numerous TV shows, magazines, newspapers and blogs, and made its art gallery debut in 2010 at the Scion Space’s “Palate” show.

Paul Gaita

PaulPaul Gaita lives in Sherman Oaks, California with his lovely wife and daughter. He has written for The Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, iTunes and The Fix, among many other publications, and was a home video reviewer for from 1998 to 2014. He has interviewed countless entertainment figures from both the A and Z lists, but his favorites remain Elmore Leonard, Ray Bradbury and George Newall, who created both Schoolhouse Rock and the Hai Karate aftershave commercials. He once shared a Thanksgiving dinner with celebrity astrologer Joyce Jillson, and regrettably, still owes the late character actor Charles Napier a dollar.

Carolyn Soyars

carolynCarolyn Soyars is a freelance journalist and musician, who performs under the name Carolyn Edwards. She has played in the critically-acclaimed bands 3D Picnic and The Negro Problem, as well as performing traditional folk music with her husband, Dave Soyars. For more info check out her website and read her blog.

Tequila Mockingbird

tequilaTequila Mockingbird has been a longtime fixture on the LA music scene. Her first band was “Trouble for Nora” with Mitch Mitchell of “The Jimi Hendrix Experience.” She sings with Jeff Goldblum, and you can catch her Saturday nights at Canter’s. She is also a promoter, actress, writer and inventor. Her company, Do Monkey Productions, booked the historical punk rock TV show, “New Wave Theater.” She has been published in Buzzbin Magazine and has a regular column in Rock City News. Recently she has created Tequila Tattoo Cream and opened The Punk Rock Museum to bring old friends together for art, music , and culture. It is located at KGB studios and curates special events all over Los Angeles including Pershing Square. She hopes to curate more events for the city that she loves.

Brian Walsby – Cartoonist

brianwalsbybychrisshary (Mobile)Brian Walsby is a forty eight year old single father to an adorable three year old girl. He is a cartoonist/illustrator as well as a drummer. He has done too much stuff over the years to get into but he makes and sells things like books and t-shirts and likes to stay busy, and stuff like that. There are a lot of goodies to be found on his website. (Illustration by Chris Shary)

Dukey Flyswatter

oldphoto5Dukey Flyswatter, (AKA Michael), is a native Angeleno with strong roots in the underground scene since the 70’s. He is a screenwriter (Blood Diner, Star Slammer), actor(Surf Nazis Must Die, Betty Page:Dark Angel, etc.), freelance writer. He is best known for his Horror Metal rock group, Haunted Garage, which he founded in the 80’s and has now reformed, with him taking his usual role as lyricist and singer.

Judy Ornelas Sisneros

Judy%20Ornelas%20Sisneros-80I am a native Californian, born and raised in Bakersfield and eventually escaping to San Jose, then to San Francisco, where I spent every free moment in punk culture spaces before heading to LA permanently in 1989.  I have also spent major time as an AIDS and queer street activist, which today, along with my passion for punk/alternative music still informs my personal and social life. I love photography, film and playing the bass badly.   My posts are usually about events and social activities I attend, I’m really too lazy to take assignments.

Genesia Ting

Genesia%20Ting-71Genesia Ting is currently a student, photographer, and graphic designer. Genesia found a strong passion for concerts and photography, and decided to pursue her interest in concert photography for the Los Angeles Beat. She enjoys discovering new eateries in the Los Angeles area, finding interesting events, and exploring different parts of LA. You can check out some of her photos on Flickr.

Victoria Thomas

Victoria%20Thomas-60Brooklyn-born Victoria Thomas loves writing about flora and fauna, although she chooses to do so in an urban setting. If she had it all to do over again, she might have become a forensic entomologist. She lives in Los Angeles.

Shirley Pena

Shirley%20Pena-40A native of Southern California, Shirley Pena began her career as a music journalist over a decade ago, writing for her websites “Stars In My Eyes: The Girlhowdy Website” and “La Raza Rock!” She progressed to creating and managing various fan sites on Yahoo, including arranging interviews. As a music journalist, Shirley Pena has contributed to magazines including “Goldmine,” “The Blacklisted Journalist,” and UK-based “Keyboard Player.” A self-confessed “fanatic” of 1960s “British Invasion” bands, Classic Rock and nostalgic “Old Hollywood, ” she also keeps her finger on the pulse of current trends in music, with a keen eye for up and coming artists of special merit. Shirley Pena loves Los Angeles, and is thrilled to be a member of the writing staff of The Los Angeles Beat!

Ivor Levene

Ivor basscropIvor Levene is a writer/photographer with a definite love of music, music history, and architecture. Combining his love of live music and photography was the perfect marriage. His past work is a who’s who of classic rock and can be seen at Living in Toronto, NY and finally L.A., Ivor is an avid sailor, bassist, and burgeoning writer. He can be found playing in any number of blues clubs in L.A.

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Vision Wallet
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Vision Wallet

The principles from the original "Buma Clipboard" have been adapted to this wallet - plus added some features. A normal wallet is now a terrific weapon for instant mindreading and psychic effects. This wallet delivers instant information (names, numbers, simple questions) to the performer under the eyes of the spectator. This can be used for stage work, but really is a "carry on yourself" effect. The wallet has a total of 10 pockets.
Bonus Effect: Wallet is "gaffed" for the classic signed card in the wallet. Quick and easy reset.
Fine, leather work. Passport-style wallet fits in jacket pocket.

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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Tuesday’s ‘almost’ revolution

Nothing changed after Tuesday’s primary, but it was closer than it has been in a decade. Call it an “almost” revolution.

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MSNBC Gains Ground on Fox News

First, it seemed like we were heading into a new news and political era when CNN, the network that pioneered 24/7 cable news and rigorously stuck to traditional, stand-back anchoring and news casts fell far behind Fox News – a network that wedded talk radio and overt partisanship to news. And now here’s a new twist: left-leaning MSNBC is quickly gaining round on Fox News.

Are we heading into another new era?

When President Obama won Virginia and most of the other battleground states on Tuesday night, ensuring himself a second term as president, some at MSNBC felt as if they had won as well.

During Mr. Obama’s first term, MSNBC underwent a metamorphosis from a CNN also-ran to the anti-Fox, and handily beat CNN in the ratings along the way. Now that it is known, at least to those who cannot get enough politics, as the nation’s liberal television network, the challenge in the next four years will be to capitalize on that identity.

MSNBC, a unit of NBCUniversal, has a long way to go to overtake the Fox News Channel, a unit of News Corporation: on most nights this year, Fox had two million more viewers than MSNBC.

But the two channels, which skew toward an audience that is 55 or older, are on average separated by fewer than 300,000 viewers in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers desire. On three nights in a row after the election last week, MSNBC — whose hosts reveled in Mr. Obama’s victory — had more viewers than Fox in that demographic.

“We’re closer to Fox than we’ve ever been,” said Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, who has been trying to overtake Fox for years. “All of this is great for 2013, 2014 to keep building.”

Fox News should presumably facing its greatest era ever: Obama is re-elected so many Americans who are anti-Obama will be thirsting for a credible news and opinion source. The problem: Fox News credibility — even among many conservatives.

Meanwhile, CNN as the “moderate” news source, finds itself in a position as moderates in do in both major political parties: facing incoming missiles from the left and right, trying to find the right game plan to thrive — and survive.

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  • kimberly_bruman

    That’s why I still watch CNN. They may get something incorrect from time to time, but their competition is nothing but entertainment for either the far left or far right.

  • slamfu

    I always took it as a positive that the media whoring and constant bias and acting as merely a speaking tool for a party didn’t do as well on the left as it does on the right. I took this to mean that there are more thinkers on the left. The day that lefty versions of Rush and Hannity have as many listeners as Rush and Hannity, is the day this country is really being run by nothing more than ideology instead of facts.

  • bluebelle

    I am not a FNC viewer, but if I was I would be angry as heck for being led down the garden path on the ’12 election results. Really, they blew it bigtime and after Karl Rove’s big meltdown on the air should be losing some credibility. Some of their audience went on Intrade and plunked down real cash based on Fox’s false premise!

    OK, I admit I DO watch MSNBC, but I think if you compare the truthfulness of Rachel Maddow to that of Sean Hannity there is no question that Maddow would eclipse him. Yes, they are biased. Yes, they are uncritical. But they don’t create an alternate universe where Benghazi is the most significant attack that we’ve ever had in all these years of fignting terrorism in the ME. Did things go badly wrong over there? Obviously. Was there a massive screw-up as far as communications goes between the CIA and the State Dept and the WH?? Definitely looks like it. But every administration has gone through something like this. I highly doubt that Fox is interested in the attack so that it can be a learning experience for next time.


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Chair Exercises and Facial Exercises for Seniors

Senior Resource Center
81 Elmwood way
Suzanne Hendrix
Feb 26, 2013
3:15 PM - 4:15 PM

Seniors joining this group will be using the Go4Life exercises issued by The National Institute on Aging. The DVD shows easy and basic exercises for all seniors and persons with disabilities. No reservation needed.


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Steve Jobs has been lauded for making the smartphone truly accessible for everyone, incorporating subtle features that help the visually impaired or those with disabilies operate Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod devices.

Last weekend, Stevie Wonder made a special appearance at a nightclub in Los Angeles, ad-libbing to his songs, playing some other tracks but also taking some time to stop the music to give a speech on helping others with disabilities.

At around the 4:38 mark in the video embedded above, Stevie Wonder takes time to thank Steve Jobs and Apple for how they made technology accessible for everyone – the following quote says it all:

There is nothing that you can do on the iPhone or iPad that I can’t do.

Thanks to @AnilDash for the tip.


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The Pittsburgh Penguins and Puck Possession

Puck possession is important in hockey. Few people will disagree with that. Where the arguments start is when you try to determine which statistics to look at in order to determine puck possession. Since the NHL decided to stop recording/publishing "time on attack" stats, most people have taken to using Corsi and Fenwick in order to track puck possession.

These stats are reliable metrics for possession-logically, the more shots a team is able to direct towards the net, the longer they have the puck. The term "direct" is important here, since a team could be +30 in Corsi collectively, but because of bad luck, be behind in the shot count. Plus, there's the ever present scorer bias in NHL arenas-home teams generally get more shots recorded.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some charts:

What does that chart show? Those are all Penguins forwards who have played at least 16 games this season.  The circle size represents average ice time. The color represents a player's five-on-five Corsi for percentage. More blue is better, more red is worse.

It shows us what we pretty much already know: The Penguins' bottom two lines aren't very effective at possessing or shooting the puck. (By the way, all of the chart images in this post were generated from Extra Skater on Monday night, March 10, 2014, before the Pens/Caps game ended.)

How does the Pens' chart compare to other top teams? Take a look at the same charts for some other top teams:

The Boston Bruins:

The St. Louis Blues:

The Anaheim Ducks:

The Chicago Blackhawks:

The Bruins and Blues look pretty strong, the Ducks are kind of all over the place and the Blackhawks are dominant.

Want another interesting chart? Take a look at the Penguins from 2011-2012, the last year of Cooke-Staal-Kennedy on the third line:

What a difference.

So what does this tell us? Well, first of all, remember that the Pens are at the top of their division. They're among the top five in wins in the league. This post isn't trying to show that they're not one of the most successful teams in the NHL. They are. What this chart shows is that they're successful primarily based on the strength of their top two lines. The good news is that those top two lines are very, very good, so the Pens can win despite having poor position numbers in their bottom lines. The bad news is that a team like Chicago, that has strength up and down the line-up, would be much more likely to possess the puck more often and therefore to win a seven game series if the two teams met.

Of course, these particular charts only look at forwards. Defensemen and goaltenders are also important, of course, but we'll look at those another day.

Possession stats don't tell you everything. No one stat tells you everything. But these stats certainly tell you something.

For some more possession information, take a look at the top ranked teams when it comes to five-on-five Fenwick when the score is close:

That chart is interesting because of this graphic from Habs Eyes on the Prize. Deadspin provides a good explanation of that Habs Eyes on the Prize graphic:

Zero teams with the lowest Fenwick close have made the playoffs in the last five years. Every team with the highest Fenwick close has played into May, with three of the eight reaching the Cup finals. Even discarding those outliers, there's an enormous correlation with being on the plus side of .500.

An interesting fact from Habs Eyes on the Prize?

The 2009 Penguins are the only team to buck the odds as a non +.500 fenwick team, but their .499 was .549 under Dan Bylsma and has been no lower than .531 since.


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Food as enemy

By CAROLINE KNAPP  |  August 8, 2010

Which is part of what the behavior was all about: food itself became a terrible, powerful symbol — of how much I wanted on the one hand, and how terrified I was that I'd never get enough on the other. Controlling food became a way of both expressing that conflict and denying it. At the time, I was furious at the important people in my life — at the boyfriend I felt had abandoned me; at my parents, whom I saw as passive and remote; at my sister who had moved away — but I couldn't express the anger so I wore it instead: see what you've turned me into, see how desperate and unhappy I am? I was terrified of people, of being disappointed; on a deeper level, I was terrified of appetites in general — emotional and sexual, as well as physical. So I resolved to suppress them instead, squelch them, will them away. If you don't have any needs, they can't go unmet.

* * *

One night I came home and found my roommates in the kitchen with a friend. They were sitting at the table drinking beer, sending out for Chinese food, and they were all laughing. I felt incredibly wistful for a second, watching them there. It was such a relaxed, normal picture, and I was so far removed from it.

But it didn't matter. The rule was not to give in, not to give in, not to give in. It was the way I organized my life, the way I defined myself. So I went out running instead.

I remember how it felt, to run. My whole body ached. I felt all drawn tight, as if my ribs and the bones in my knees were literally pressing against my skin. I was also exhausted. At one point I tripped and just caught myself from falling on the pavement. I still have an image of how that looked and felt — three great, awkward, loping steps; arms outstretched and groping for balance; eyes wild. I panicked, and for a second I saw myself as wildly out of control, flailing in the dark, alone. I pulled myself together and kept running, but in that one moment, I realized how much I wanted to be there in the kitchen, eating Chinese food and drinking beer with my friends.

But I didn't join them. I came back, pretended I had stomach cramps (sometimes it was a headache), and disappeared into my room. On a ledge outside my window, for just that kind of situation, I kept a baggie with the cube of cheese and the apple in it. That way, I could retrieve and eat my food in secret.

Times like that I knew how lonely I was, and how fucked up my life was, but I couldn't do anything about it.

* * *

About once every two or three weeks, something would come up — a party at work, someone's birthday, a family visit — and I would eat. I planned for those times with a vengeance, cutting out the cube of cheese at night for days beforehand, calculating calories, imagining what would be served and how much I'd let myself eat. I often cooked, too, making something I'd fantasized about from my recipe file.

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Essay: The Fading Levers of Commerce

Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

The Fading Levers of Commerce

Hello, friends. I’m writing a new book, so it’s hard to find time to continue my essay series, but the article referenced in this one so got my goat that I simply couldn’t stand it. Last week, Fortune published a missive critical of Apple for encouraging ad blocking on the Web by building new mechanisms into iOS9 that allow for easier ad blocking software by developers. Why is it critical? Because it’ll do exactly what its promising, and that is intolerable to the ad industry. Sheesh. Give me a friggin’ break! Look in the mirror, ad people. You’ve brought this on yourselves.

Revisit “The Evolving User Paradigm”

I published this essay 5-years ago, and it remains one of the most important things I’ve ever written. I re-read it earlier today, because I continue to witness evidence of its truth. And so I re-present to you today, The Evolving User Paradigm.

Free Range Content Consumption

flytvsmHere is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

Free Range Content

Facebook’s wish to put media content inside its own application is potentially self-destructive to those providing the content. Moreover, for Facebook, it smacks of the days of AOL. All of this would be irrelevant, if media could bring itself to release its content into the wild of the Net, but that appears more and more to be an impossible task.

To media companies, their competition is and always has been other media, which is an absurd proposition online. When a TV station, for example, behaves online only as it does in the linear world, it has already lost in the battle for relevance.

It’s Time To Revisit Our Mobile Strategy

Here is the latest in my series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

Time to Revisit Our Mobile Strategy

While local media companies focus their attention on the creation of apps, the way most people are accessing their content is through the open Web. We simply must pay attention to how we are being viewed and apply creative efforts to monetize that. Most TV stations use content management systems (CMS) that serve complex web pages to users who click on links they like on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or any other of the major mobile apps people use. This is a self-destructive strategy, for not only do our monetization efforts go unnoticed; it puts unnecessary hurdles in user paths before they can read or watch the links.

Confidently Facing Chaos

Here’s the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

One of the most difficult challenges I hear for local media companies is overcoming the appearance of chaos in the reinvention process. More than anything else, this prevents people from navigating the really disruptive waters and choosing instead to stay with what they know. This despite considerable evidence that mass media’s business model is going the way of the video rental store.

To the ordered mind, anything smacking of serious change is chaotic, but it can be foolish to try anything that attempts to go above, around or beneath it. We need the skill and ability to move THROUGH chaos to find our way to lasting prosperity in the new era. That’s what this essay is all about.

Meanwhile, the headline of Brian Stelter’s New York Times report on the 2013 version of the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s “State of the News Media” report says it all: Local TV News Is Following Print’s Path, Study Says.

Those who follow my work will find none of this to be “new.” However, I’m saddened by this year’s report, because I’m afraid we’re getting to the point where even deliberate attempts to steer a different course will only have limited success.

The report illuminates a few important trends:

  • Audiences of local TV news continue to shrink — There is nothing on the horizon, no new concept in local TV news that will bring back those who’ve left. None. So unless there is a major blue sky (and blank slate) reinvention project ahead, local TV — despite an occasional good report, such as advertisers still preferring TV — there is no future.
  • Where programs have changed since 2005, they’ve gone for more weather, traffic, and sports. Live reports have replaced stories, and audiences are beginning to notice. This is accelerating the flight from local TV news.
  • People increasingly get news from their friends and then proceed to learn more.

I strongly encourage you to read the entire PEW report. It’s a terrific benchmark of where we’re at from both revenue and audience perspectives.

Redefining Community

Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

Redefining Community

I’m officially back to working for myself, with a gig that, I hope, will help advance my thought. I tell everybody today that I’m not a business consultant, a news consultant, or a sales consultant. I’m a reinvention specialist, and not just for media anymore. As Mary Meeker wrote in her Internet report last year, we need to reimagine everything, and that’s what I’m all about. I’m redesigning The Pomo Blog and also building two new websites that will further explain what I’m doing. Out with the old; in with the new. Of course, I’m going to keep writing and advancing the concepts that I’ve been exploring with you for the past 10 years.

As my thinking shifts and expands to encompass the wider reinvention field, I’m starting with a deeper discussion of what our life in “the network” means for doing business the old-fashioned way. The equilibrium of the industrial age is morphing into what feels like chaos in the postmodern age, post-industrial age, or whatever you’d like to call it. Those who fear change miss the remarkable opportunities that are before us, including changing definitions of what we thought were permanent. Consider the word “community,” for example, and how connected people are able to experience life outside the bonds of geography. This impacts media, of course, but it also impacts everybody else.

Enjoy, and welcome to 2013.


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The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

The Month's Electronic Music: Frayed Nerves & Fried Circuits
Rory Gibb , February 14th, 2013 08:28

In this month's electronic music column, Rory Gibb delves into fathomless darkness, paranoid sub-bass and circuitry gone haywire, from Cold War techno and alien mandibles to abstract grime and new forms of dark UK sound system music

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Welcome to the first Hyperspecific of 2013! Once again, rather than being anything close to a comprehensive round-up of each month's best dance releases - there's simply too much worth mentioning to attempt to construct a readable-length column around - this column offers a purely personal perspective on recent developments in electronic music, via some of the artists that have been dominating my listening as of late.

Bandshell - Caustic View
(Liberation Technologies)
A Made Up Sound - 'Ahead'/'Endgame'

If Carsten Nicolai made grime, it might sound something like Caustic View. Like the Raster-Noton boss' music, here Bandshell sharpens everything to razor precision: stabbing snares, sword-fight percussive swishes, sub-bass that plunges into the gut. It's less techno-ish than his previous work for Hessle Audio and notably less murky - both 'Winton' and 'Nice Mullet' possess an ear for space that you'd normally associate with acts like Autechre, for example, but put to the service of beats that clatter and pound with the frankness and simplicity of 8-bar grime or some of Wiley's darker early instrumentals. Matching the EP's title, everything is rather more corrosive than those forebears - the former's melodies, fuzzy plinks that sound tapped out on one of Konono No. 1's electrified likembe thumb pianos, burn through their surroundings like quicklime.

As a result, none of this is exactly what you'd call 'club-friendly', but it's easy enough to tell that Bandshell is well-versed in the mechanics of dance music: 'Landfill' would likely fling dancers headlong into one another on a club floor, and the pulsating bioluminescence and muffled beats of 'Perc' - the most quiet and pretty thing here - recall the crumbling techno and UK funky of Werk Discs heads Actress and Lukid. An impressive salvo from an intriguing producer, and it's great to see that Mute - via their recently established Liberation Technologies sublabel - are supporting such strange and uncompromising electronic music.

Dave Huismans' new club cluster-bomb as A Made Up Sound has a similarly disconcerting effect upon those doomed souls attempting to dance to it. What makes Huismans (pictured, top) such a remarkable hand with rhythm - and what makes his work immediately discernable in the mix - is that the gaps and silences in his tracks are even more highly charged than the (comparatively little) sonic matter that they contain. There's so much space in 'Ahead', such yawning distances between individual hits of percussion and silvery synth, that the entire construction ought to simply fall apart. Like the rest of his work though, its awkwardness is carefully counterbalanced by a mean and predatory sense of swing that causes beats to bear down upon the listener, like birds of prey swooping to pluck their unsuspecting victims from the ground. It feels primed to stop a dancefloor in its tracks: an opening of clipped vocal phrases explodes as if a bomb's gone off, leaving a chasmic moment of silence in its wake. The track's core rhythm, such as it is, then self-assembles from the fragments of debris left drifting through the air, tracing an itchy groove that's all angles, negative space and treacherous sharp edges. It's terrifying, bizarre and utterly brilliant. 'Endgame', on the flip, is only marginally more straightforward. Its fat, squelching bassline recalls - of all things - the overdriven fuzz of Mr. Oizo and similar French contemporaries, but it's torn to shreds, moving in jittery fits and starts.

Metasplice - 'Decant'/'Churn'
V. Hold - Antagions

Lately Rabih Beaini's Morphine label seems to have been swept away in dreams of deep space. Hot on the heels of the demolition-ball funk of Hieroglyphic Being's The Lost Transmission 12" comes a second transmission from Philadelphia's Metasplice, who trade in a scrambled and paranoid strain of cosmic techno, as grainy as irradiated photographic film and speckled with the kind of pings and blips you'd associate with Cold War-era NASA technology. The duo - consisting of enigmatically-named operators Kenneth Lay and V. Hold - have roots in the US noise underground, and their approach relies heavily on improvisation, finding them constructing dance-flecked tracks on the fly using an array of hardware and effects units.

Last year's Topographical Interference EP, their first for Morphine, had a pleasingly raw and chaotic air - techno's rhythmic structures were present, but seemed to have emerged more as a result of spontaneous interactions between the various instruments in the duo's hardware network, rather than anything intentionally constructed by human volition. In that sense the duo's approach is aligned with UK noise artists like Helm, Hacker Farm and Ekoplekz - and indeed their live set at Unsound last year seemed intent on exploring as nerve-shredding a dynamic range as possible: treble-boosted squeals, beats that sparked like exposed electrical cables and floury low-end fuzz. Unlike the latter three, though, their tracks also hit hard in a club setting - Morphosis in particular has been using them to great effect in his DJ sets. (You can download a great hour of him mixing only Metasplice music here.)

Morphine's newly released follow-up to Topographical Interference is markedly less jarring than its predecessor, but similarly psychoactive. A hallucinatory aurora of high-pitched tones shimmers across 'Decant's surface, seeming to resolve into any number of different shapes during its opening minutes. The beat that emerges halfway through drags the track into an escalating upward trajectory, to the point that the whole assembly sounds ready to blast off into orbit, while jets of static spurt like high-pressure steam in all directions. 'Churn' opens like a full-scale instrument malfunction in a spacecraft cockpit, before its deafening cacophony of whirrs and alarm bleeps slowly assembles into a marching rhythmic formation.

There's much more going on here than the relatively reductive 'techno/noise' tag that's frequently assigned to Metasplice and their contemporaries might suggest. The Decant/Churn EP rarely coalesces into anything you'd consider to be conventional dancefloor fodder, but equally there's a definite sense of swing to the way its rhythms crunch roughly in and out of sync with one another. V. Hold's solo cassette from late last year, Antagions - which along with a recent moonraker 12" (another Philly duo featuring Kenneth Lay that ramps up the techno quotient - confused yet?) has kept my Metasplice appetite sated between Morphine hits - further explores that dichotomy. It's the most alien of the music to have emerged from the Metasplice diaspora to date: on the sinister 'Oxygen Loan', percussion slurps and clicks like arthropod mandibles, suggesting a colony of H.R. Giger xenomorphs pouring outward from their nest to wreak havoc upon an unsuspecting planet's surface. You couldn't dance to it, really - it'd likely pin a horrified club crowd in place - but you could flail wildly to 'Auto Internal', whose flickering bleep motif and pummeling forward drive suggests Jeff Mills' brutal early club tracks distorting horribly as they're sucked into a black hole. A few cassette copies are still kicking around, though don't expect them to last too long; in any case you can listen to the whole thing at the Further Records Bandcamp page.

Levon Vincent - NS08
(Novel Sound)

There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-'em property to Levon Vincent's releases - a pair of 12"s through his Novel Sound label arrived within quick succession of one another on either side of the new year, and both sold out within a matter of hours. Which speaks to both his reputation and the broadness of their appeal: Vincent's output since 2008 has been consistently excellent, but over that time period it's become more sharply defined, its melodic aspects picked out in brighter relief, its deepest and darkest chasms even more fathomless. It's the interplay between these two extremes that lends his music its unique character, where sternness overlaps with - and is often heightened by - an unabashed sense of romance and naivete. So on NS08's '???', an otherwise fluid and playful funk bassline is cast in hard and brittle tones, as if the track's entire low-end has been hewn from a block of graphite.

Like 2011's wonderful 'Pivotal Moments In Life', NS08 highlight 'Rainstorm II' draws deep from Kraftwerk and 80s synth-pop: across its surface skate yearning melodies picked out in translucent notes, which trigger equal sensations of nostalgia and hope for the future. In essence it's among the simplest things he's released to date - little but a straightforward four-to-the-floor house chug - but he's an understated master with echo, applying it to individual percussive elements in doses that range from miniscule to massive, turning the track into a disorienting and continually reshuffling hall of mirrors. The EP's other new track (it's rounded off with an inclusion of 2009's stormy 'Double Jointed Sex Freak Part II') finds him on harsher form: 'People' crunches, clangs and drangs itself into a dank and polluted stew reminiscent in tone of 80s NY no wave.

Kassem Mosse - 'Broken Patterns'

It might not be a particularly sporting thing to say, given that it's obviously a good thing that 'Broken Patterns' is out in the public domain at all, but I must admit to being a tad put out Kassem Mosse's new track appears on a 12" alongside a Boddika VIP version of Boddika & Joy Orbison's 'Mercy', meaning that you're essentially paying full whack for a single brand new track on wax. I mean, 'Mercy' is fine and everything, but the original has been, ahem, mercilessly caned over the last year or so, and this new version doesn't do a great deal different, save tweaking the knob marked 'aggro' up several notches. 'Broken Patterns', though, is a marvelous piece of work. Mosse is incredibly skilful at balancing tracks in a way that makes them feel teasingly unstable, as if they're constantly on the verge of collapsing into dust. Here, in typical form, 'Broken Patterns' appears to unravel of its own accord over six minutes: a waterfall-like cascade of notes pouring down across a bassline that shrugs back and forth like gravel shaken in a shallow tray. It's unusually fast-paced for Mosse, too, especially by comparison to his more recent work - everything runs along at a brisk clip reminiscent of older tracks like '578' or 'Tears Run Rings'.

E.m.m.a - Rainbow Dust EP
(Wavey Tones)

And finally, a bit of a curveball to end this month's edition: a dig back to something released in the early part of 2012 that I completely missed at the time, but which has come to my attention only recently and which I've become rather enamoured with: the Rainbow Dust Part II 12", by London-based producer Emma.

As yet I haven't decided whether or not this segment will end up being a regular fixture in Hyperspecific, though I rather like the idea. Because of the brief shelf-life of club tracks and the sheer frequency of new 12"s released in whatever niche you choose to follow, there's a tendency for dance music heads to remain strongly focused on what's coming out right now, in any given week/month. Equally, there's serious DJ currency to be had by unearthing overlooked old records for dancefloor secret weapons - something that's become more popular recently, with a wholescale shift towards house tempos across the breadth of UK club music - but by its very nature that approach tends to favour tracks upwards of five years old. As a result it's fairly rare to find DJs or writers taking stock of - still fairly new - releases that have come out within the past year or two, and it's all too easy for great music to slip by near-unnoticed, especially if it inhabits a genre-space not currently in the limelight.

So it is with Rainbow Dust Part II, whose Lego-block chiptune melodies and sparse steppers' bounce channel the swooping strings of Ruff Sqwad or Ikonika's rawer early material, albeit pared back further still to leave the least material required to make bodies shuffle. The title track's melody closely resembles Peverelist's heavy-lidded 'Roll With The Punches', but with the weed haze blown away, casting its contours in sharper relief. Like Darkstar's pre-song material, there's something deliciously sticky and sour about 'Dream Phone'; its synth melodies are like Refreshers, orange Panda Pop, Irn-Bru bars or any of those other ridiculously unhealthy childhood sweets - entirely synthetic and perfectly comfortable with that fact. Its kick-snare syncopations swagger like UK funky, but are arranged in 3/4, lending the whole arrangement a lopsided, runaway-fairground-ride feel that's both queasy and exhilarating.

I came across Emma's music during the Christmas special edition of Dusk & Blackdown's (pictured) Keysound radio show on Rinse FM, when she mixed a full 20 minutes of her own new tracks. Dusk & Blackdown's interests are rooted in garage, dubstep and grime, with the early releases on their Keysound label tending to explore that sort of area. More recently, however, they've been turning their attention more specifically to currently-neglected zones of the post-grime and post-funky spectrum of London-centric club music. The aesthetic - epitomised last year by people like Beneath and Visionist - is anchored at that tantalisingly (frustratingly) brief moment in around 2008 when dubstep, grime and funky were blurring together into moody, broken hybrids that kept the essence of all three parent genres intact. Dusk & Blackdown aren't bothering themselves too much with attempting to categorise quite where this music actually fits into the continuum it's derived from, aside from a shared tempo of around 130bpm or thereabouts.

Their Rinse Christmas special - click here to download - was a particularly strong distillation of that zone of operation, and is well worth a good listen (I've had it on repeat for the last month). Five affiliated producers - Logos, Gerv from LV, Visionist, Emma and Wen - each took to the decks for 20 minutes or so, largely to play their own productions. The overall effect was similar to Hyperdub's formidable showcase for Mary Anne Hobbs back in 2008 (you can still listen to that here, and it hasn't dulled with age), which showcased the then-nascent likes of Zomby, Darkstar and Ikonika in an impressively focused way, highlighting both their differences and shared traits.

Similarly, this Keysound session reveals the similarities between all five producers - a love of grime, a rooting in sound system culture, and a knack for swung rhythms that touch on techno, garage and dubstep without quite landing in any camp - while highlighting each one's idiosyncrasies. Expect to hear far more from this camp in coming months: there's already a great debut 12" from Wen on the horizon (the Commotion EP on Keysound) and Beneath has just released a punchy and paranoid salvo on Tectonic ('Duty'/'Texers'). Keysound have also just announced a compilation - This Is How We Roll - featuring tracks from all the above producers plus a few more, including Gremino and LHF's Double Helix, that includes some of the best tracks from the Rinse showcase (including Mumdance & Logos' static-addled 'In Reverse'). Watch this space for more to come.

ron Marinick
Feb 15, 2013 11:31pm

Wicked stuff, Thanks. Hi Mike.

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