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Fall Arts Preview: The Collaborative Way
There's a running joke in Portland that, instead of six degrees of separation, our art scene has a mere one and a half. Bands collaborate with dance companies whose video installations are made by visual artists who design album art for other bands—until the city resembles some creative primordial soup in which inspiration is swapped like snippets of DNA. It's little surprise then that many of this fall's arts events involve dynamic partnerships. Here are six notable collaborative pairs, along with our top picks for the season, to guide you in your fall arts adventures.
DAN O'BRIEN | The PLAYWRIGHT
The Body of an American
Portland Center Stage
Oct 2–Nov 11
Gerding Theater
In the electric heat of violence, photographing a decisive millisecond demands journalistic courage. But to circle back for another try because the first shots didn't work requires a particularly thick rebar in the spine. Canadian photojournalist Paul Watson mustered such will in 1993 when he realized the pictures he had just taken of a dead US soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu showed the man's genitals—something no American newspaper would publish.
His second shot won a Pulitzer Prize, unleashed a public backlash that pushed the Clinton administration to pull out of Somalia, and sent Watson into post-traumatic stress, addiction, breakdown, and, finally, redemption with the book Where War Lives.
Playwright Dan O'Brien heard Watson speak on NPR and was so moved by the conversation that he e-mailed the photographer. For the next two years the men corresponded earnestly, finally meeting face-to-face at Watson's new journalistic post: the Arctic. Now the story of their transcontinental dialogue, in the form of a play, will have its world premiere at Portland Center Stage under the direction of Bill Rauch, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The play has already won the prestigious Weissberger Award from the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
More than just a portrait of a troubled war correspondent, O'Brien explains, his play is "about two people who feel pretty haunted, making a connection."
For Watson, the dialogue became another release. "I truly believe," he writes from his home near Vancouver, BC, "that poets and playwrights can get at the crucial truths that obsess me with much more visceral clarity than I can as a journalist."
The two-act play weaves together the men's lives, with the second act turning to the first 10 days they spent together in the Arctic—the bleak, incongruous landscape of which, O'Brien says, proved to be the perfect setting for a play.
"Paul's book is the book of a reporter: very externally focused on events," O'Brien says. "I'm almost too internal."
"We are all waging our own internal wars," Watson adds, "and much of the noise of organized religion, the news, entertainment, social networks, and other things that consume most people's time in the 21st century are efforts to avoid confronting what frightens us most: ourselves." —Randy Gragg
Shows to Know: THEATER
And so it goes
Sept 4–Oct 7 With this world premiere adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House, Aaron Posner is again serving as both playwright and director à la his recent adaptation of Sometimes a Great Notion at PCS. This time he leads a local star-studded cast through three intertwining stories embedded in a mythological 1962 small-town New England, channeling Vonnegut's quirky style into a lyrical case study of raw human love. —John Murray $25–50. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St. 503-241-1278. artistsrep.org
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sept 18–Oct 21 It seems sacrilegious that PCS got through a quarter century without a single Sondheim play. To make amends, the theater is kicking off its 25th season with the musical maestro's murderous masterpiece. This story of an olde English barber's quest for revenge—aided by his neighbor's grisly pie business—reached a whole new generation thanks to Tim Burton's adaptation starring Johnny Depp, but that version lacked a certain pizzazz. We hope PCS can restore it. Have a little priest? —AS $39–70. Gerding Theater at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave. 503-445-3700. pcs.org
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
Oct 11–Nov 11 Portland Playhouse's first musical is an emo rock coming-of-age tale for both the first populist president and his nation. If you always thought that colonial America needed fewer pantaloons and more skinny jeans, then be prepared to see your wildest eyeliner dreams brought to the stage in what the New York Times called "... the most entertaining and most perceptive political theater of the season." —JM $12–35. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St. 503-488-5822. portlandplayhouse.org
Oct 12–Nov 4 Northwest Classical Theatre Company may have pulled the theater coup of the season by coaxing Bill Alexander to our little theater hamlet. Perhaps best known for directing the iconic 1984 Antony Sher "bottled spider" version of Richard III, Alexander brings a titanic Shakespearean résumé, including an Olivier Award, 10 years as associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and another 10 as artistic director of famed Birmingham Rep. But his lengthy credits include only three jobs in the States—all at major theaters—making this trip not only a historic one for NWCTC, but for the entire Pacific Northwest. —JM $18–20. Shoebox Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave. 971-244-3740. nwctc.org
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CHRISTOPHER STOWELL | The CHOREOGRAPHER
JOHN GRADE | THE Sculptor
Body Beautiful
Oregon Ballet Theatre
Oct 13–20
Keller Auditorium
When Christopher Stowell, the director of Oregon Ballet Theatre, heard that Greek and Roman statues would fill the Portland Art Museum under the title The Body Beautiful, he instantly saw synergy. OBT already had two pieces based on Greek myths in the repertoire: Apollo
by George Balanchine and Orpheus by Stowell's father, Kent. A dance by the popular contemporary choreographer William Forsythe, whose highly athletic pieces call for superhuman feats by the dancers, seemed an easy third. But Stowell wanted more: a centerpiece collaboration with a visual artist. PAM's chief curator, Bruce Guenther, gave him a list of names, but he didn't have to look beyond the first one: sculptor John Grade.
"It was the simplicity of it," says Stowell of his first glimpse of the Seattle artist's massive, organic installation sculptures, which won Grade PAM's Arlene Schnitzer Prize last year. "He takes one good idea and develops it, and that's something I try to embody myself."
Coincidentally, Grade had just finished designing a pair of sculptures that an Atlanta choreographer then created a dance around. Collaborating from the ground up was the natural next step. "It's not as though I'm designing something for Christopher, or he's designing something for me," says Grade. "The most significant part of it is that Christopher and I are beginning this thing together."
The two settled on the myth of Echo and Narcissus to explore the themes of reflection and transformation. Grade designed an floating forest of giant paper-lantern-like tree trunks that will hang from the ceiling, rising and falling with the dance. He is making the components out of Tyvek in Seattle and will bring them to Portland in September to be assembled by several hundred volunteers. Meanwhile, Stowell is busy choreographing how the dancers' interaction with the sculptures—between them, inside them, and manipulating them like bendy straws—and giving Grade feedback on design.
"I like to take a material I'm very familiar with and another I don't have experience with," Grade says. "In this case, I'm working with Tyvek, but the other material is the body, and that's completely unknown to me. Christopher is the conduit."
—Aaron Scott
SHOWS TO KNOW: Dance
LA Dance Project
Sept 26 Building off worldwide acclaim as the choreographer of the Oscar-winning film Black Swan, former New York City Ballet principal dancer Benjamin Millepied founded LA Dance Project. Thanks to White Bird's pull, Portland will be the company's first stop after its world premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program includes Merce Cunningham's controversial "Winterbranch," William Forsythe's "Quintett," and a premiere by Millepied himself, set to a new score by the wunderkind composer Nico Muhly.
—Laura Lundberg $26–64. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 503-245-1600. whitebird.org
New Now Wow!
Oct 4–6 Northwest Dance Project kicks off its season with world premieres from three award-winning contemporary choreographers. Patrons will remember Ihsan Rustem from his 2010 NWDP premiere, State of Matter, which won the 2011 Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest and was performed by NWDP at London's Cultural Olympiad. Alex Soares, who moonlights as a musician and filmmaker, won NWDP's 2012 Pretty Creatives Residency Award. And Gregory Dolbashian has won numerous choreographic competitions, including Ballet Austin's New American Talent/Dance Competition. —JM $25–39. Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave. 503-828-8285. nwdanceproject.org
Gather: A Dance about Convergence
Oct 25–Nov 3 Conduit Dance is on a collaboration roll. First there was its Dance+ performance series in July, where dancers paired with musicians, visual artists, and writers. Now Conduit backbone Tere Mathern is teaming up with local jack-of-all-sounds Tim DuRoche and the far-out jazz of Battle Hymns & Gardens to bring together six dancers and five musicians in a project inspired by ideas of convergence, interdependence, and synchronicity. —AS $14–17. 918 SW Yamhill St, Ste 401. 503-221-5857. conduit-pdx.org
Nov 9–11 Innovative local choreographer Tahni Holt's press materials for Sunshine begin: "Cardboard boxes: architecture, little cities, modern abstract sculpture...homeless camps, forts." And the list goes on. If her work-in-progress performance at On the Boards in June was any indication, the stage will be a landscape of cardboard that is danced with, lived in, destroyed, and otherwise manipulated by dancers Lucy Yim and Robert Tyree in this postmodern pop exploration. —AS $12–16. Bodyvox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave. tahniholt.com
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Kara Walker
Sept 4–Nov 18
Cooley Gallery
When Stephanie Snyder hung Kara Walker's paper cutout The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins at the Cooley Gallery in 2008, she recalls getting "an earful" about the artist's send-ups of antebellum black-white relations, not from students, faculty, or the public, but from one of the other artists in the show: Faith Ringgold.
One of the grandmothers of black feminist art, Ringgold is hardly the only African American artist of her generation to find Walker's work, which has hung in solo exhibitions at major museums around the world, discomfiting. Artist Betye Saar bluntly called it "revolting" in the hundreds of letters she sent to institutions nationwide in an attempt to stop the showing of Walker's art.
Undeterred, Snyder is now presenting an entire show of Walker's prints, maquettes, and a new film, Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi's Blue Tale. But no less surprising than Ringgold's ire last time is the enthusiasm for the art in this show from the local collector lending most of it: Jordan Schnitzer.
"[Walker] takes this elementary form," Schnitzer says, recalling the similar cutouts he made as a child, "and puts the most intense images in our face. There's nowhere to go from her work: she makes us deal with this history."
Snyder plans to steer clear of the most notorious of Walker's images, in which she brutally and exuberantly sexualizes (and often recasts) the power dynamics between slave and master. Instead, the show will focus, Snyder says, on "the more intimate dialogue her work has with history"—the prints riffing on Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War and the film on 19th-century dioramas and vaudeville. She knew nothing of Schnitzer's interest until Walker's New York gallery told her about the "Portland collector who owns not only editions of all of Walker's prints, but the only two series of steel cutouts she has made"—precisely the work Snyder wanted to accompany the film. "I've never heard Jordan speak so richly about an artist's work before," she recalls of her first meeting with him about the show.
Walker will lecture on October 2, and Snyder is working with Reed's new VP for institutional diversity, the poet Crystal Williams, to develop programming for both a campus and a city that have had uneasy race relations.
"We want to be careful and circumspect about the show's contents," Snyder says. "We also hope to have serious conversation." —RG
Happy Birthday: A Celebration of Chance and Listening
Sept 6–Nov 17 In prominent conceptual artist Paul Kos's installation The Sound of Ice Melting, microphones surround two giant ice blocks to capture the elusive, entropic tones of ice turning to water. It's but one of the pieces that sets the tone for this cross-media, 100th birthday tribute to John Cage, a giant of post-war art and music. Other highlights include a striking piece from Alison Knowles, whose award-winning work in the Fluxus movement drew on the radical techniques she picked up as an early student of Cage, and Portland-based artist Stephanie Simek's solar- and plant-powered musical window-box experiment. —Kit Mauldin Free. Feldman Gallery + Project Space, PNCA, 1241 NW Johnson St. pnca.edu
The Body Beautiful
Oct 6–Jan 6 Landing on American soil for the first time here in Portland, The Body Beautiful explores the human form through priceless Greek and Roman works drawn from the British Museum's collection, including the iconic discus-throwing Discobolus. To mark the occasion, PAM will partner with Nike and OHSU for a series of talks and programs looking at the body—classical, contemporary, and futuristic.
—JM $20. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave. 503-226-2811. portlandartmuseum.org
MK Guth
Oct 7–Dec 9 When nothing else subsists, smell and taste remain is both a backward glance and a forward look for this homegrown art star. A book published by the Art Gym caps Guth's interactive projects. Then the show itself initiates a new direction exploring the act of gathering to share food. It will include serving objects and recipe books that provide guidance and utensils for a series of dinners inspired by art, places, relationships, and milestones, such as Dinner for John Cage (based on the composer's Mushrooms et Variationes) and Dinner for the Woods. There will also be weekly discussions about food, including one about German drinking songs, because Dinner for Crying involves crying in your beer. —AS Free. The Art Gym, Marylhurst University, 17600 Pacific Hwy, Marylhurst. 503-636-8141. marylhurst.edu
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Turbulence (a dance about the economy)
Sept 11–14
Imago Theatre
It may be a cliché to call a performance art "dangerous" and "uncomfortable," but Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's new artistic director, Angela Mattox, has long embraced those very traits in her collaboration with Bay Area dancer Keith Hennessy.
Seated in PICA's office, Mattox ticks off Hennessy's stomach-curdling acts under her tenure at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: directing a group of at-risk youth as they nailed one of their own into a plywood box; climbing into the rafters for unplanned aerial stunts; digressing into a candid, onstage discussion about how much the center was paying him. But the pinnacle of queasiness took place during a show called Auf den Tisch! Out of nowhere, Hennessy produced a two-by-four that he used as a balance beam between a table onstage and the shoulders of several audience members, including an elderly woman. "There's no shutting down the show," Mattox says. "He can make me uncomfortable, but that's honestly what I look for as a curator. Otherwise, I'm not supporting art that's potent or questioning enough."
Traditionally, the curator/artist relationship is a one-dimensional one: the curator has the power. But when Mattox first moved to San Francisco in 2003 to head Yerba Buena, she reached out to Hennessy, not as an artist, but as a guest curator. "His viewpoint was incredible in terms of understanding the community and culture," she says. "He really pushed us to access an experimental group of artists."
After six years of beaming visiting curators in from afar, PICA hired Mattox last year as its first resident artistic director since founder Kristy Edmunds departed in 2005. Mattox's charge was to expand year-round programming and interactive artist residencies. Hennessy was at the top of her list. She brought him to town for a weeklong symposium in June to develop his interactive ensemble premiere for the Time-Based Art Festival. Called Turbulence (a dance about the economy), it explores the financial collapse and economic injustice with Hennessy's activist flair (picture a human pyramid of dancers wearing gold-sequined hoods—the Federal Reserve meets Abu Ghraib).
"My base is hyper-local and politically engaged," Hennessy writes from an artist's retreat in France. "With Turbulence, Angela dares me to take my work more seriously, to consider its influence on local, national, and international art ecologies." —AS
Big Art Group
Sept 6–8 This New York performance collective has made an international name for itself as masters of multimedia, using acting and live video feeds to creatively warp space and perspective. For The People—Portland, they spent a week in May interviewing a range of locals about justice, community, war, and democracy. Using the interviews as a "chorus" of sorts, they'll loosely retell the Greek tragedy The Oresteia by projecting the interviews onto the walls of Washington High School. —AS $15–20. Washington High School, 531 SE 14th Ave
Sam Green & Yo La Tengo
Sept 12 What do you get when you cross an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, a critically acclaimed indie band, and one of the most innovative thinkers of the 20th century? A mind-bending "live documentary" titled The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller. Drawing on footage of Fuller, documentary filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) will narrate the film live while the mercurial but prolific band Yo La Tengo provides the soundtrack. It'll be like a TEDtalk with a beat that, knowing Fuller's vast imagination, will completely blow your view of the world. —AS $20–25. Washington High School, 531 SE 14th Ave
Faustin Linyekula
Sept 13–15 Standing out in this year's unprecedented global range of artists, Linyekula is a leading choreographer from the Democratic Republic of Congo whose "work in Africa constitutes a crucial link to the rest of the world," according to director Peter Sellars. In the US premiere of his first solo work, Le Cargo, Linyekula translates memories of the brutal history of his war-torn homeland into hypnotic, fluid movements, mapping decades of pain and terror onto his own body. —AS $20–25. Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway
Laurie Anderson
Sept 16 Closing out the 10th anniversary fest is the artistic polyglot Laurie Anderson—a fitting finale not only because she's one of the mothers of contemporary performance art, but because her show, Dirtday!, is the third in a trilogy of solo works that she's performed over the past decade in Portland. While Happiness, in 2002, tackled the search for contentment, and The End of the Moon, in 2006, explored space and her inaugural artistic residency at NASA, Dirtday! turns to the fear still present a decade after 9/11, and the Occupy movement's response. —AS $15–75. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway
For info regarding all shows, call 503-224-7422 or visit pica.org.
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DANNY SEIM | the Multi-instrumentalist
JUSTIN HARRIS | the Multi-instrumentalist
Sept 7
Pioneer Courthouse Square
On a hot July afternoon, the two remaining members of Menomena, Justin Harris and Danny Seim, are setting up for their first rehearsal since last September inside the former pipe organ house that serves as both the band's rehearsal space and Harris's home. Seim assembles a drum set that looks child-size beside his six-foot-seven frame, and Harris plays a riff on his baritone saxophone before handing it to their newest touring bandmate, singer-songwriter Holcombe Waller.
"Doesn't it start on a G?" Waller asks.
"Could be," Harris answers, "it's been so long since I've played it." Which isn't that unusual; Menomena has historically taken long breaks to record new albums, and this September marks the release of their fifth, Moms. The band's last two critically lauded efforts established it as Portland's homegrown answer to Radiohead. But that only sets the stakes higher for Moms: it marks the first record Menomena has crafted as a duo after the departure of the third founding member, Brent Knopf, in a breakup that was watched like a soap opera by local and national press.
Much has been made of the band's unusually democratic, sometimes dysfunctional creative process, in which each member separately pens an equal number of songs. Journalists initially gave a software program Knopf created almost super-musical powers, describing an Oz-like matrix that would cut up rhythms and reassemble them into perfectly polished songs. (It was mainly just a recording tool they no longer use.) Then, during the troubled creation of their last album, Mines, the press reported that the band's songwriting was done purely via e-mail. Neither process quite hits the mark, particularly now.
"It seems like no matter how hard we try to sit in a room together and write like traditional bands do, we can't do it well," Harris admits. Instead, he and Seim come together for some initial jamming; then they take those recordings home and refine them before passing them on to the other person for further embellishment—each handoff layering on lush complexities and musical turns more akin to plays with scenes than traditional verse/chorus construction.
"We're adding stuff that the other person wouldn't normally think of on his own," Harris says, pointing to the first track, "Plumage," which he initially envisioned with only hand claps—until Seim added driving drumbeats. In the past, this process resulted in a lot of strained compromise among three members pushing separate agendas. Now, with only the two, who've been playing together since high school, the process flows surprisingly smoothly.
"It's less important these days to get our way, and more important to feel good about what we're doing," says Seim, shortly before breaking into the hand claps that begin "Plumage." "In that regard, I'm more excited about this record than I've been in a while." —AS
MusicFest NW
Sept 5–9 For one magical long weekend, over 165 bands fan out across 17 venues, lighting up the entire city like a sonic firecracker. Highlights this year include big-name indie darlings Passion Pit and Beirut, mash-up god Girl Talk, local groups with much-anticipated new albums like Helio Sequence, alt-rock throwbacks like Dinosaur Jr. and Portland's long-defunct Hazel, and the launch of a tech conference component (to follow further in SXSW's footsteps) called Portland Digital eXperience (PDX). —AS For ticket info, showtimes, and venue info, visit musicfestnw.com.
Crosby, Stills, & Nash
Sept 12 It's been over 40 years since CSN invited us into their house. These three cats might've aged, but they're still very, very fine in their vocal harmonies and overlapping guitars. They've even managed to survive long enough to see pop music rediscover the style they made famous (we're talking about you, Fleet Foxes). —AS $48.50–90.50. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. pcpa.com
Sept 27 This New Zealander stole our collective hearts while stealing the show as Gotye's cameo lover on last year's ubiquitous "Sombody That I Used to Know." Did it come as any surprise then that the virtuosic vocalist would go on to bigger and better things? With an ear for both experimentation and melody, profusely live-looping and layering both vox and beats, Kimbra's on a fast track to becoming our new favorite pop icon. —KM $17.50–20. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. 503-284-8686. wonderballroom.com
David Byrne/St. Vincent
Oct 18 Inspired by a benefit concert by Björk and the Dirty Projectors, the dreamteam of Byrne and St. Vincent embarked on an intense collaborative songwriting process. So far their partnership has resulted in the album Love This Giant—12 songs blending the best traits of both artists and backed almost exclusively with bespoke brass arrangements. —KM $43–53.50. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. pcpa.com
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catherine van der salm | THE SOLOIST
MONICA HUGGETT | The CONDUCTOR
Choral Glory
Portland Baroque Orchestra with Cappella Romana
Oct 12–14
First Baptist Church & Kaul Auditorium
There was a moment during soprano Catherine van der Salm's early 2011 performance of Bach's The St. John Passion that was so beautiful, she started to choke up. The performance was a two-pronged collaborative experiment between Portland Baroque Orchestra and Cappella Romana, the internationally renowned vocal ensemble with which van der Salm sings. First, the two groups wanted to learn if there was an audience for vocal/orchestral efforts beyond the holiday tradition of Handel's Messiah. (There was.) Second, they wanted to record a complete major work that would garner international attention. (It did: the prestigious French magazine Diapason called it "a major reinterpretation of the work.")
But for van der Salm, the tear-jerking moment was triggered by the expressive dance of bow on string
during the penultimate movement, "Ruht wohl," by PBO artistic director and world-renowned violinist Monica Huggett. "She's so impassioned," van der Salm says, "and in that movement, I was so full of emotion that it almost overwhelmed me."
Van der Salm will have the opportunity to work even more closely with Huggett this fall when she performs as a soloist in the next collaboration, a concert of choral masterworks from the three giants of Baroque music: Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi (including Vivaldi's blockbuster, Gloria).
Baroque music might not seem the richest soil for collaboration. The composers are long dead, the conductors call the shots, and the performers simply play their parts, right? Not when Portland's most skilled period ensembles come together.
"I'm not the big maestro who sweeps in," says Huggett of her rehearsals with the choir. At 16 players each, the two groups are small, and given the almost question-and-answer style of many Baroque compositions—where melodies echo between groups with improvised ornamentations—each performer
affects the whole.
"Every choice that Monica makes, for example," says van der Salm, "from the way she plays a given melody to the notes she emphasizes, informs the way I sing a vocal line. We're creating a greater whole together." —AS
Views from cascadia
Sept 27 Leading contemporary composer and Alaskan resident John Luther Adams named this concert-length composition with a line from an Inuit poem: Earth and the Great Weather. In this performance, Third Angle Ensemble will bring together its skilled base of musicians, four singers, and spoken recordings from native Alaskans and translators to take us on what Luther describes as "a journey through the physical, cultural, and spiritual landscapes of the Arctic, in music, language, and sound." —LL $5–35. Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lewis & Clark College, 615 SW Palatine Hill Rd. 503-331-0301. thirdangle.org
Gerhardt Plays Tchaikovsky
Oct 27 & 29 German cellist Alban Gerhardt has performed with orchestras worldwide to spectacular reviews, but he's also known for playing in unusual venues. During a tour of Germany during which people called into radio stations to propose sites for free concerts, he performed in a train station, a commune, strangers' living rooms, and a maternity ward. As the Oregon Symphony's first artist-in-residence, he'll bring the big, emotive fullness of his playing to Tchaikovsky at the Schnitz, but he'll also take suggestions for other venues. So think twice before passing a guy with a cello at the streetcar stop. —Riley Stevenson $26–95. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 503-228-1353. orsymphony.org
Don Giovanni
Nov 2–10 How do you go about casting the world's most famous rakish lover in one of the world's greatest operas? You can start with the voice, but to really sell his anti-hero charm, it doesn't hurt to also think of the body. Operachic.com called Canadian bass baritone Daniel Okulitch "a swaggering rock star" after his New York City Opera debut as Don Giovanni, but he's likely best known for his full monty showing in Howard Shore's opera The Fly, directed by David Cronenberg at the Los Angeles Opera. —AS $20 & up. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St. 503-241-1802. portlandopera.org
Shanghai Quartet
Dec 3 & 4 One of the world's foremost chamber ensembles, the Shanghai Quartet is famous for its mix of Eastern and Western music, classical and contemporary. The New York Times is especially taken with the fab four, declaring: "If there is a string quartet currently in circulation that produces a more beautiful sound than the Shanghai Quartet, the name doesn't immediately come to mind." For its Portland performances, the quartet will perform material by composers ranging from Beethoven to Dvo?ák to the quartet's own Yi-Wen Jiang.—JM $27 & up. Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave. 503-224-9842. focm.org


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Architects: David Baker + Partners
- Area : 65 ft²
- Year : 2011
Photographs :Bruce Damonte
Manufacturers : 3M, Sika, Solarlux, Dow Building Solutions, DuPont, Sherwin-Williams, Signify, Acuity Brands, Arcadia Inc., Armstrong Ceilings, B-K Lighting, BASF, Baltix Sustainable Furniture, Bigelow, Birchwood Lighting, ClarkDietrich, Concreteworks, Cooper Lighting, Corian® Design, Corian® Exteriors, +17
- Clients : Mercy Housing California
- Site Area : 18.906 sq ft
- Architect : David Baker Architects
- Team : David Baker, Peter MacKenzie, Amit C. Price Patel, Brit Epperson, Amanda Loper, Sara Mae Martens, Angela Thomason, John Thompson
- City : San Francisco
- Country : United States
Text description provided by the architects. David Baker + Partners worked with Community Housing Partnership and Mercy Housing California to develop the Drs. Julian & Raye Richardson Apartments, which will provide permanent supportive housing for a very-low-income, formerly homeless population.
The building is named in honor of Drs. Julian and Raye Richardson, local activists and founders of Marcus Books, the oldest black bookstore in the country, founded in 1960. Richardson Apartments includes 120 permanent, supportive residential studio units for adult residents coming out of or at risk for homelessness. Each unit is approximately 300sf and is provided with basic furnishings, a full kitchenette, an accessible or adaptable bathroom, and a secure telephone line to the front desk.
The residents' entrance on Fulton Street features a spacious, secure lobby with a custom reception station. Beyond the lobby, the south-facing courtyard frames an expansive existing mural—a paint-and-glass mosaic of dancers adorning the side of the adjacent Performing Arts garage. Connected by an open-air stair, four levels of fully equipped studio apartments sit atop neighborhood-serving retail and surround the private landscaped courtyard. Other supportive uses include an on-site medical and counseling center, a residents' lounge, and a prominent flexible-use community room.
The rooftop deck includes a living roof, allotment garden plots, solar arrays, and City Hall views. The corner retail space is slated for BakeWorks, a bakery featuring a work-training program for residents, and other ground-level retail spaces maintain an active street edge and connect the building to the busy Hayes Street retail corridor. Construction began in February 2010, with substantial completion in August 2011, and the building opened its doors to tenants in September 2011.

subset: commoncrawl


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That's Nelson above. That's Nelson partying. That's Nelson with his girlfriend. All those pictures were taken with an iPhone he stole. Pictures that were sent back to the phone's original owner, Katy McCaffrey, through Photostream. McCaffrey posted a hilarious Facebook photo album detailing Nelson's various adventures with her stolen phone.
According to McCaffrey, her iPhone was stolen while she was on a Disney Cruise. The perp who stole her phone wasn't a passenger though, it was Nelson, a Disney Cruise employee who works on the ship. He used the stolen phone to document his life—but, unbeknownst to him, those pictures were automatically sent to the owner's computer at home through iCloud, giving her the evidence she needed to get the phone back. I guess Nelson was clever enough to steal a phone but not wise enough to wipe it.
McCaffrey cleverly created a Facebook album with captions about Nelson's life that was both parts hilarious and useful. She contacted the Disney Wonder cruise ship and showed them the gallery and Disney has recovered the phone and put Nelson on administrative leave while they further investigate the case of the stolen iPhone. Who knew Photostream could be just as (or maybe more) effective in getting an iPhone back? Take a look at the hilarious gallery yourself here. [Facebook Album via NY Mag]


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The signs of fall are here but I admit it kind of snuck up on me. Really, October waits for no one. Among restoration of our event galleries, we also had a good helping of new events to add to our calendar. Within that mix, there were more than just a couple events geared towards Halloween folly…
- October 14th: Pumpkin Patch Fursuit Photoshoot (Santa Barbara County)
More than a couple suiters showed up for last weekend's event and Blue Hasia is ready to do it all over again. Brush up your suit, pack the car and get ready to frolic in the corn maze!
- October 28th: OC Fur Meet (Orange County)
The monthly meet for Orange County encourages a Halloween spirit. Come frolic with the OC Furs and make costumed mischief in the park!
- October 28th: Riverside Ghost Walk (Riverside County)
Follow the bouncy tail of a lion, and he will lead you on a night of frolicing in Downtown Riverside. People come to the nearby Mission Inn for the ghost tour and there will be nightlife to terrorize with cute fluffiness.
- October 31st: Halloween Spooktacular Festival Fur Walk (Los Angeles County)
Family friendly trick or treating event in the Montrose Shopping Park. Fursuits are encouraged (but please keep props and costumes to PG13 rating) to come out trick-or-treating. Free to attend (but you will get hungry). Make sure to bring water for braving the crowds.


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2 shot at Walmart in Tallahassee
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE — Investigators believe a disagreement over a parking space led to two people being shot and wounded outside a Tallahassee Walmart.
Police say officers responded to the shooting shortly after noon on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. A man and a woman — discovered at the store's outdoor garden center — were taken to a nearby hospital with wounds that were not considered life-threatening. They were expected to make a full recovery.
No arrests were immediately made, but police were searching for dark green Toyota Camry in connection with the case.


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Most people notice a distinctive smell in the air after it rains. It's frequently linked with spring, as the smell of fresh-cut grass is associated with summer. You'll find it in a lot of poetry and also on many inspirational lists of things to be happy about. The scientific name for it is petrichor, and it was first named by two Australian researchers in the 1960s, the BBC reported. It actually comes from the moistening of the earth. But what causes the scent?
As it turns out, the smells people associate with rainstorms can be caused by a number of things. One of the more pleasant rain smells, the one we often notice in the woods, is caused by bacteria. Actinomycetes, a type of filamentous bacteria, grow in soil when conditions are damp and warm. When the soil dries out, the bacteria produce spores in the soil. The wetness and force of rainfall kick these tiny spores up into the air where the moisture after a rain acts as an aerosol (just like an aerosol air freshener). The moist air easily carries the spores to us so we breathe them in. These spores have a distinctive, earthy smell we often associate with rainfall.
The "rain smell" is caused by a chemical in the bacteria called geosin, which is released by the bacteria as they die. Geosin is a type of alcohol molecule and has a very strong scent. The bacteria are extremely common and can be found in areas all over the world, which accounts for the universality of this sweet "after-the-rain" smell. Since the bacteria thrive in moist soil but release the spores once the soil dries out, the smell is most acute after a rain that follows a dry spell, although you'll notice it to some degree after most rainstorms.
Other 'Rain Smells'
Another sort of smell is caused by the acidity of rain. Because of chemicals in the atmosphere, rainwater tends to be somewhat acidic, especially in urban environments. When it comes in contact with organic debris or chemicals on the ground, it can cause some particularly aromatic reactions. It breaks apart soil and releases minerals trapped inside, which react with chemicals, such as gasoline, giving them a stronger smell. These reactions generally produce more unpleasant smells than bacteria spores, which is why the after-the-rain smell isn't always a good one. Like the smell caused by the bacteria spores, the smell of chemical reactions is most noticeable when it rains following a dry spell. This is because once the chemicals on the ground have been diluted by one downpour, they don't have the same reaction with the rainwater.
Another after-the-rain smell comes from volatile oils that plants and trees release. The oil then collects on surfaces such as rocks. The rain reacts with the oil on the rocks and carries it as a gas through the air. This scent is like bacteria spores in that most people consider it a pleasant, fresh smell. It has even been bottled and sold for its aromatic qualities!
These are a few common rain smells, but there are also all sorts of other scents after it rains. There are lots of aromatic materials that the moisture and impact of rain can stir up, and the moist atmosphere following a downpour is particularly good at carrying these particles through the air. So, when you talk about the after-the-rain smell with a friend, you may mean one thing while your friend is thinking of something else. You'll both agree, however, that the air has a much stronger aroma to it after a good rain.
Originally Published: Sep 29, 2000


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(CNN) – Invoking the heated racial controversy triggered by basketball's Donald Sterling, the U.S. Senate has stepped up pressure on the NFL to force the Washington Redskins to change their name.
Fifty senators, all Democrats, have signed a letter released on Thursday by Majority Leader Harry Reid that urges pro football's commissioner, Roger Goodell, to take action over concerns that continued use of the Redskins brand is offensive to Native Americans.
[twitter-follow screen_name='politicalticker'][twitter-follow screen_name='danadavidsenCNN']
They want Goodell to follow the lead of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who this month took tough measures against Sterling after the longtime owner of the league's Los Angeles Clippers was recorded making comments offensive to African Americans.
Donald Sterling in CNN exclusive: I'm not a racist, I'm a giver
"Today, we urge you and the National Football League to send the same clear message as the NBA did: that racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports," the letter said.
"The despicable comments made by Mr. Sterling have opened up a national conversation about race relations. We believe this conversation is an opportunity for the NFL to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises," the letter said.
The letter was signed by all but five of the chamber's Democrats. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both of Virginia, where the team trains and maintains its corporate offices, did not sign the letter. Its home stadium is in Maryland.
Reid has previously said the NFL should demand Redskins owner Daniel Snyder "remove this degrading term from the league."
Snyder opposes a name change, vowing to keep it against both public and congressional pushback.
He contends the name, which the team's had for 80 years, is part of a tradition important to fans.
Responding Friday to the senators' letter, Redskins President Bruce Allen invited Reid to a game to "witness first-hand that the Washington Redskins are a positive, unifying force for our community in a city and region that is divided on so many levels."
Responding to the Senate letter, the NFL said it has "long demonstrated a commitment to progressive leadership" on diversity.
"The intent of the team's name has always been to present a strong, positive and respectful image. The name is not used by the team or the NFL in any other context, though we respect those that view it differently," the league statement said.
CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
The latest: Report: NBA says Donald Sterling asked V. Stiviano to lie
REDSKINS! REDSKINS! REDSKINS! that means they would have to change the color of thier uniforms, helmets, logos,......as a business man – when you spend so much time and $$ branding your business – this just seems like the DEMS now aiming thier war on the rich towards team owners........why don't they pass a bill that says all people can use the "N" word not just a select population? Better yet, why don't the DEMS insist the the president do something! they talk about a do nothing congress – yet the president is a do nothing president – and when asked to address something – his excuse is " i did not know this was going on"......:-/
boy cant wait for next big earth changing problem the senate democrats take on....changing professional sports teams name...are kidding me....ugh harry what joke you have made of the senate
People call black people blacks and most of the players are black, and most of Washington DC is black so he should rename the team the Washington Blacks. It makes perfect sense.
There is no guarantee that you will not ever be offended. We seem to think that if something ,anything, offends someone then it should not exist.
This is the part of the left I don't care for, but will never vote Republican
Perhaps after they cave, they can rename the team the Washington Kowtows. Oh, but then that's racist too, isn't it, because of the word's Chinese origin.
Kowtow: to act in an obsequious manner; show servile deference.
REDSKINS! REDSKINS! REDSKINS! that means they would have to change the color of thier uniforms, helmets, logos,......as a business man – when you spend so much time and $$ branding your busines
Oh, I don't know about that. Both St John's University and Syracuse University managed to change their names and logos with too much trouble. In fact, they did it without having to change team colors, I might add. In fact, as businessman I'm sure that you would appreciate the boom in paraphernalia sales the schools experienced as the old stuff was sold out, and the new stuff was introduced.
I'm surprised that a savvy businessman like yourself was unaware of any of this. Shocking that you didn't see the business potential to make a quick profit.
This is t the business of Congress. Try cleaning up our financial mess you got us into before you try to tell someone else what THEY need to do.
Apparently they don't have anything better to do but wasting taxpayers' money.
I know. Let's call them the Washington Generals, and introduce a some new, trick plays.
I am offended that want to change their name forgot it's the Senate Democrats they just want to control everything we do.
Yes, please take Washington out of the name
First, I totally think the name should be changed, but I don't know if 50 senators need to show up for this. Second, I'd like to see an outside consultant analyze the possible new jersey sells (if needed) from a new team name. I don't think they actually have to change the logo, but the name as I understand is offensive. Any way, I'm glad this mess may finally be over.
I so agree... the name The Washington Redskins is just WRONG! Let's call them The Redskins and drop the Washington part!
Lizzie – " Yes, please take Washington out of the name "
Good One!
These days, association with Washington is much more offensive than the word 'Redskins'.
Why are they not also attacking and forcing the CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS to change their name? Oh yeah, Obama's home town. And there are those racist CHICAGO WHITE SOX as well. Democrats better be consistent in their outrage and demands to change names.
They stink so bad they should just move to The Phillipines and be called The Manilla Folders.
OK, we will agree to change the name if we can rename the team the DC Democrat Dingleberrys..


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Washington (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush is landing a stinging jab at his former longtime aide and press secretary, Scott McClellan, saying the man who served as the public face of his administration for three years was irrelevant.
In an interview with CSPAN scheduled to air this weekend, Bush says he deliberately didn't include McClellan – who held the high profile post longer than anyone else during the administration – in his memoir, "Decision Points."
"He was not a part of a major decision. This is a book about decisions," Bush told CSPAN. "This isn't a book about, you know, personalities or gossip or settling scores."
"I didn't think he was relevant," added Bush.
McClellan had been by Bush's side since his days as Texas governor and, in his role as press secretary from 2003-2006, spent the bulk of his time vigorously defending the decision to wage war in Iraq.
But two years after departing the White House, McClellan authored his own memoir, "What Happened," that constituted a scathing criticism of how the Bush administration was run.
In one of its most critical passages, McClellan stops just short of suggesting the administration deliberately deceived the American public in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, writing, "his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war."
So which McClellan are we to believe? The one who accepted Caesar's coins and happily did Caesar's bidding – "...in his role as press secretary from 2003-2006, spent the bulk of his time vigorously defending the decision to wage war in Iraq"...
or the one who defends himself with "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your wallet..."
btw...so much for a new civility in political discourse...
Is W sure he knows what irrelevant means?


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Mon Jul 12 1999 08:12: I just saw an albino pigeon.
I was going to skip class today and go to work, but I couldn't get out of bed.
I have to read Walden. Such dense prose, so hard to read after Franklin's Autobiography. I read it in high school without any trouble. I think if you're going to read Walden you should read it in high school.
I have begun to really dig The X-Files. It's my generation's The Twilight Zone.


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MAI Featured on Bloomberg TV
Conditions Ripe for Stock Picking to Beat Passive Again in 2021, Strategist Grisanti Says
By clicking on the above link, you will leave MAI's site and will be directed to a third-party site which MAI does not endorse and is not affiliated. Some third-party sites require registration or subscription to view content. Please see MAI's disclosure page for more information.
Investment Advisory and Financial Planning Services are offered through MAI Capital Management ("MAI"), an SEC Registered Investment Adviser. No offer is made to buy or sell any security or investment product. This is not a solicitation to invest in any investment product of MAI. MAI does not provide legal advice. Consult with your attorney regarding specific situations. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as investment advice or to predict future performance. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. No investment can guarantee a profit or protect against loss in periods of declining value. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Opinions and projections are as of the date of their first inclusion herein and are subject to change without notice to the reader. As with any analysis of economic and market data, it is important to remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results.


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I hope you don't mind if I use my column to plug a friend's book, Michael Ankerich's new Mae Murray biography, The Girl With the Bee Stung Lips (OK, so he did dedicate it to me. But you needn't dedicate a book to me to get me to plug it, I also accept flat-out bribes).
Michael is both an excellent writer and an excellent researcher, a combination which is essential for a good biographer, but which is so often lacking on one side or the other. And the book is not biased, neither a "perfect, wonderful Mae!" fan-mag piece nor a "bad Mae!" hatchet job. He obviously admires and likes Mae Murray, but he does not cut her any breaks: her bad performances and bad behavior get fully covered. He also—I am torn between admiration and jealousy!—interviewed her nephew and son, neither of whom has ever talked to the press before.
Poor Mae, as you probably know, was a real-life Norma Desmond and Baby Jane Hudson rolled into one. A cabaret dancer and Follies Girl, she was whisked off to Hollywood in 1916 and became one of the more eccentric stars of the late 1910s and early '20s. As an actress . . . well, she was one of those people who was capable of giving a brilliant performance if a stern director really put his foot down and made her stop posing and making faces and Mae Murraying all over the place. Erich von Stroheim got good work from her in The Merry Widow (1925), as did her old pal Lowell Sherman in her last two films, Bachelor Apartment and High Stakes (both 1931). In that last film—which TCM showed once, and never since!—she spends the first few reels acting so twee and bizarre you think she has lost her mind; then a plot twist in the last reel reveals what she has been up to and you go, "Ah! Now that was brave."
But after High Stakes, it was all downhill for poor Mae, who lived in a little pink bubble and was helpless to defend herself when times got rough. Poverty and dementia led to a Grand Guignol finale for her, bless her little cotton socks.
I leave you with several YouTube clips of Mae: with her lifelong pal Rudolph Valentino in The Delicious Little Devil, 1919 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx5DmonZVw); some clips of her in The Merry Widow with John Gilbert—say, isn't someone doing a book about him, too? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEUrMTLlidA); a clip of Mae struggling with the mike in her first talkie, 1930's Peacock Alley (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfQzkhEZnAA); and a 1922 Kodachrome test of Mae and three other actresses (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RTnd3Smy8). Mae comes in at 1:51, Mae Murraying all over the place in a gorgeous red cloak (the first lady shown is Hope Hampton, who basically ruined John Gilbert's directing career—but that is a story for another day).


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Survey debunks (and confirms) workplace myths on millennials
|Home Credit's HR survey reveals interesting data about tweens—and thirtysomethings, too
Much has been said about millennials, the segment of the population that typically falls in the 18-29 age range. Every aspect of their behavior, from their TV viewing habits and shopping preferences to home and workplace behavior, is constantly being scrutinized.
With many applicants and new hires coming from this segment, companies are eager to know what makes millennials tick, what motivates them, and perhaps most important of all, what would make them stay with the company. To do this, we need to separate the facts from the myths, the conclusions from the assumptions, and confirm or debunk them as needed.
This is exactly what Prague-based fintech company Home Credit—itself an employer to more than 4,800 millennials, or 82% of the Home Credit PH workforce—did, as it recently surveyed close to 600 applicants about their career and workplace preferences.
With close to 80% of the respondents falling under the 18-29 range, it gave plenty of interesting insights about millennials, while shedding some light on the other/older respondents, too—allowing us to determine whether the following are simply myths, or solid facts:
Myth or fact: work location is everything
It is almost universally agreed by all Filipino workers, young and old, that traffic is no fun—and no good. But some say that millennials don't mind a few hours of commute daily if it means working at a fast-paced business district, where all the action is (and where the top companies are).
According to the Home Credit survey results, millennials are virtually split between preferring to work close to home (48%), or work in a top business district (52%). A similar split is seen in the 30-something segment, with 49% wanting their office to be near home.
Myth or fact: it's all about the money
It's no surprise that salary is a top consideration for employees, especially young ones, while older workers—many of which might have families to support—also want good benefits for their loved ones. In fact, 67% of Home Credit's 30 years old and above respondents chose having good benefits for their families over simply having a high basic salary.
But what might be surprising is that an even higher percentage of millennials—73%-- chose good benefits for loved ones over high basic pay, possibly an indicator of Filipinos' strong family-oriented culture, even among modern millennials.
Myth or fact: work is life
There are those who say that millennials are hooked on long work hours, especially those in creative-driven industries, while some say that young professionals are actually averse to overtime work, and want to have some "me" time after 6.
But it seems that workaholics comprise a very small minority, as an overwhelming 76% of surveyed millennials put a premium on work-life balance, almost equal to the 77% preference rate of the 30-and-above group.
Myth or fact: size (and name) matters
Another seemingly obvious 'fact' is that employees care about the name or image of the company they work for. A big-name company is good, while a small, obscure company is not-so-good. Right?
Not quite—while 54% of young respondents did say that they'd rather word for a big company than a start-up, 46% said that they prefer helping a start-up grow. The discrepancy is even smaller for thirtysomethings, with 48% preferring to work at a big company and 52% wanting to offer their services to a start-up.
Myth or fact: millennials = job hopping + quick promotion
The last (and perhaps one of the most popular) myth/fact: millennials are prone to moving from one job or company to another. And while this is not uncommon, 86% of Home Credit's millennial respondents said that they prefer to grow their careers in the same company—with the 30-and-above group having the exact same rate.
Moreover, 84% of millennials said that they prefer to become specialists or experts in their field before moving up the ladder, while only 16% indicated that they prefer quick promotions.
So what do you think, millennials? Do you agree with the results? Share your thoughts in the comments section!


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5368.0.55.020 - Information Paper: Proposed Implementation of the New International Standard for International Merchandise Trade Statistics, 2013
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 06/08/2013
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4.1 The key conceptual changes recommended by IMTS 2010 are explained in Chapter 3 (Key conceptual changes which have statistical implications for Australia). This chapter describes the other new recommendations and important clarifications which:
4.2 As these recommendations already apply to Australia's international merchandise trade statistics no changes are necessary.
4.3 IMTS 2010 provides clarity on the definition and treatment of goods for processing. It describes a range of circumstances where goods for processing occurs and specifically distinguishes these from goods for repair and maintenance, or temporary admission, which are excluded from international merchandise trade. The recommendation says that all goods for processing and goods resulting from processing are included in international merchandise trade at their full transaction value. IMTS 2010 also encourages compilers to identify goods for processing and goods resulting from processing which do not involve a change of ownership and to provide details of these transactions to balance of payments compilers. Australia's treatment of goods for processing is in line with these recommendations.
4.4 The treatment of satellites and their launchers was not mentioned in IMTS Rev.2. The treatment of satellites which involve a change of ownership is described in Chapter 3 (Key conceptual changes which have statistical implications for Australia). IMTS 2010 also specifically excludes these goods when there is no change of ownership. Satellites which do not cross the customs frontier are not included in the customs information passed to the ABS and are not included in Australia's international merchandise trade statistics.
4.5 The treatment of media that is used to carry customised software, software written for a specific client or originals is updated to say that the exclusion of these goods should be based on the definitions in BPM6 and determined in cooperation with balance of payments compilers. These recommendations are applied to Australia's international merchandise trade statistics.
4.6 These are goods which physically cross customs borders but are purchased electronically e.g. over the internet. These goods are included in Australia's international merchandise trade statistics when the value of the transaction exceeds the customs declaration threshold.
4.7 This category refers to material which is downloaded, emailed or streamed from one country to another e.g. music, books, films, games etc. These goods are excluded from Australia's international merchandise trade as recommended by IMTS 2010 but included in trade in services in Australia's balance of payments.
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.8 That countries make clear the elements of their statistical territory (IMTS 2010, paragraph 2.3). The territorial elements include: islands, territorial waters; continental shelf; offshore installations and territorial enclaves.
Australia's treatment
4.9 Australia, like many countries uses customs data as the main data source for compiling international merchandise trade statistics, so this currently defines Australia's statistical territory. The elements of Australia's statistical territory are clearly described in documentation including International Merchandise Trade Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods (cat. no. 5489.0).
4.10 The jurisdiction of Australia's Customs and Border Protection does not extend to goods exported and imported by Norfolk Island, Heard Island, McDonald Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Australian Antarctic Territory, the JPDA or Australia's territorial enclaves abroad. As a result these areas are excluded from the statistical territory covered by Australia's international merchandise trade statistics. For full details of the elements of Australia's statistical territory, see Box 3.1 in Chapter 3 (Key conceptual changes which have statistical implications for Australia).
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.11 Include and separately identify re–imports and re–exports (IMTS 2010, paragraphs 2.16 and 2.18).
Australia's treatment
4.12 Re–imports are included in international merchandise import statistics. Re–imports are goods originally exported which are imported in either the same condition in which they were exported or after undergoing minor operations (e.g. blending, packaging, bottling, cleaning and sorting) which leave them essentially unchanged.
4.13 Re–exports are included in international merchandise export statistics. Re–exports are goods originally imported into Australia which are exported in either the same condition in which they were imported, or after undergoing some minor operations (e.g. blending, packaging, bottling, cleaning and sorting) which leave them essentially unchanged.
4.14 Re–imports and re–exports are separately identified. In Australia's international merchandise trade statistics, re–imports are published in a separate category in the country of origin classification. Re–imports are identified in ABS statistics as country of origin Australia, for example, see Table 2 of International Merchandise Imports, Australia (cat. no. 5439.0). Because re–exports refer to goods produced or manufactured in a foreign country they are identified as state of origin = Foreign in international merchandise trade statistics, including in Table 15a of International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0).
IMTS 2010 recommendations
4.15 IMTS 2010 recommends close cooperation between customs and statistical agencies to ensure that transactions are correctly included in, or excluded from, international merchandise trade (IMTS 2010, paragraph 8.4). The standards further recommend that information about the customs procedures applied to the transactions be included in the dataset provided by customs to the statistical agency (IMTS 2010, paragraph 2.19). Customs procedures may include information which aids in the identification of re–imports, re–exports, goods for processing, goods on consignment etc.
Australia's treatment
4.16 The relationship between the ABS and Customs and Border Protection is defined in a signed agreement between the two agencies. Meetings between the deputies of both agencies are held annually and regular discussions occur at the operational level. Together these arrangements ensure that both agencies understand the requirements of the other agency and ensure that the relationship remains strong.
4.17 The ABS receives a range of information about the customs procedures applied to transactions. This includes fields which identify re–imports and re–exports, the line nature type, duty fields and GST fields. The information supplied by Customs and Border Protection can be used to ensure the correct treatment of transactions in international merchandise trade statistics.
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.18 Use SITC for the dissemination and analysis of trade statistics (IMTS 2010, paragraph 3.19).
Australia's treatment
4.19 SITC is the primary classification used for the publication and dissemination of broad level commodity information in Australia's international merchandise trade statistics, The latest version of SITC (SITC revision 4) is used.
4.20 An example of the hierarchical structure of the SITC (Rev. 4) is included below:
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.21 When calculating trade balances IMTS 2010 recommends that countries use imports by country of origin and exports by country of last known destination (IMTS 2010, paragraph 6.27).
Australia's treatment
4.22 Australia's international merchandise trade statistics are classified by country of origin for imports and country of final destination (this is the same concept as country of last known destination) for exports. Some country trade balances, which are consistent with the IMTS 2010 recommendation are published in the PDF version of Table 14 in International Trade in Goods and Services, Australia (cat. no. 5368.0). The Table 14 time series spreadsheets do not include country trade balances but these can be easily calculated by subtracting Australia's imports from a country (using Table 14b) from Australia's exports to that country (using Table 14a).
4.23 That countries compile and disseminate international merchandise trade statistics by mode of transport at the most detailed commodity level. The mode of transport that should be recorded is the means of transport used when goods enter or leave the economic territory of a country (IMTS 2010, paragraph 7.1). The mode of transport categories and contents should be clearly defined (IMTS 2010, paragraph 7.3).
4.24 Mode of transport is included on exports and imports declarations. Customs and Border Protection accept air, sea, post and other as valid forms of mode of transport. When mode of transport air or sea is specified, an airline code or a vessel name and vessel id must also be provided. Mode of transport post is only valid for imports; exports by post are identified through the goods type field. Mode of transport other applies to imports which are hand carried by a passenger but the ABS re–classifies these to air or sea as shown below. The mode of transport is also used by the ABS to verify other information about the transaction e.g. the overseas port information. Mode of transport is aggregated and available for release at the most detailed (ten–digit imports and eight–digit exports) commodity level.
4.25 The mode of transport categories and their contents are clearly defined. See Table 4.1 below.
4.26 IMTS 2010 recommends:
4.27 Customs and Border Protection records are the main source used to compile Australia's international merchandise trade statistics. For exports, the ABS receives declarations lodged by exporters (or their agents) and cargo manifests supplied by shipping and airline businesses. For imports, the ABS receives declarations which includes information about the goods as well as their transport details.
4.28 In only a small number of instances are non–customs sources used in the compilation of international merchandise trade statistics. For example, exchange rates supplied by the Reserve Bank are used to compile exports on a departure date basis and occasionally information may be verified using data from other ABS surveys. These data are integrated to minimise reporting burden and ensure the quality of the data.
4.29 The ABS is the national agency responsible for the compilation and dissemination of international merchandise trade statistics. The ABS and Customs and Border Protection have a well established relationship that provides a solid foundation for high quality and timely trade statistics. While the relationship has existed for over 100 years it was formalised in 2008 by the signing of an agreement between the agency heads.
4.30 Data on international merchandise trade statistics are the end product of a complex process comprising many stages, from the collection and processing of basic records to the compilation and dissemination of official statistics. IMTS 2010 includes a number of new recommendations on how to approach the issue of data quality in a systematic and comprehensive way. These recommendations are summarised in the following points:
4.31 Although IMTS 2010 includes these as new recommendations, they are not new practices in Australia. The ABS has well developed standards and good practices covering data processing and quality assurance. The ABS Data Quality Framework (ABS DQF) provides the standards for assessing and reporting on the quality of statistical information. The ABS DQF comprises seven quality dimensions, reflecting a broad and inclusive approach to quality definition and assessment. The seven dimensions align with the IMTS 2010 recommendations for quality measurement and reporting. The ABS DQF is explained in the ABS Data Quality Framework, May 2009 (cat. no. 1520.0).
4.32 At the collection level, quality declarations are supplied with each publication. A quality declaration is a statement about the quality of statistical products using the seven dimensions of the ABS DQF.
4.33 The ABS also publishes a range of material that provide users with sufficient information to judge whether the data are adequate for their intended use. These include:
4.34 The ABS has implemented best practice input and output processing systems, processes and procedures to ensure the quality of international merchandise trade statistics. These include:
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.35 Use passive confidentiality in the compilation of international merchandise trade statistics (IMTS 2010, paragraph 10.3).
Australia's treatment
4.36 Australia's international merchandise trade statistics are subject to passive confidentiality i.e. statistics are able to be released without explicit regard to confidentiality, unless and until an individual or organisation demonstrates that such disclosure would be likely to enable the identification of that person or organisation, (see Information Paper: Request to Confidentialise International Trade Data, 2001 (cat. no. 5497.0.55.001).
IMTS 2010 recommendation
4.37 Treat all statistical users equally and disseminate data without preference (IMTS 2010, paragraph 10.13).
Australia's treatment
4.38 The ABS adheres to this recommendation by ensuring that equal opportunity of access to statistics is enjoyed by all users. The ABS achieves this by making all publications and standard products available free from the ABS website. The release dates and times are also announced in advance and products are released to all users at the same time.
4.39 This policy applies to all ABS data including international merchandise trade statistics.
4.40 Users are invited to comment:
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Naberezhnye Chelny
Naberezhnye Chelny nəbĭryĕzh´ēə chĭlnē´ [key], city (1989 pop. 501,000), in NE European Russia. Once a small town named Chelny, it became Naberezhnye Chelny in 1930. From 1982 to 1988 the city was named Brezhnev, after Leonid Brezhnev. It is the site of the Kamaz factory, one of the largest heavy-duty truck plants in the world and one of Russia's largest industrial companies and the first large enterprise in Russia to privatize (1990). Power is supplied by the lower Kama River hydroelectrical plant.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: CIS and Baltic Political Geography


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Cannes Film Festival Couples Through the Years
L'Amour! The Hottest Cannes Couples Past and Present
It's hard to think of a more glamorous place for a romantic rendezvous than Cannes, France. Over the years, the annual Cannes Film Festival has attracted famous Hollywood couples to the South of France, with stars showing sweet PDA on the red carpet. With this year's festival underway, we're spreading the love with a look at past and present twosomes who made the guest list. Natalie Portman stole the Cannes spotlight when she stepped out last year with her husband, Benjamin Millepied, and who could forget when Angelina Jolie showed off her baby bump alongside Brad Pitt, or Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds's flawless appearance in 2014? Keep reading to see cute Cannes couples past and present, then see all the glamorous stars at this year's festival!


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Obama will first attend a fundraising dinner at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Atherton home of philanthropists Lisa and Doug Goldman. Tickets for the event cost $35,800 per person.
The president will then attend a large rally at Redwood City's Fox Theatre at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Premium seating for the event starts at $1,000 per person.
Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre said the president's visit has generated much enthusiasm in her city.
"We're really excited that he's coming," Aguirre said. "It really elevates Redwood City and puts it on the map."
Aguirre said she has been contacted by people from various communities within the city who are interested in attending the event.
"No matter what side you're on in your beliefs and politics, it's always a special treat to have the president visit your city," she said.
The rally is expected to attract protesters from Occupy Redwood City, who plan to assemble outside the theater to protest what they say are civil liberties abuses abroad and collusion with corporate interests at home.
The last of Obama's three fundraising events in the Bay Area is a campaign roundtable with the Asian-American/Pacific Islander community scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday at the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto. Tickets for that event also cost $35,800 per person.
Obama last visited the Bay Area in February, when he attended a small fundraising dinner and a larger rally, both in San Francisco.


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|Stanford Men's Golf Team
|2007 NCAA National Champions
History of Stanford Golf
Stanford's remarkable history has left its mark on the golf world.
Stanford Greats
The names are legendary: Little, Seaver, Rosburg, Watson & Woods and others.
Numberous All-Americans played at Stanford over the years.
National Champions
8 national championships have been won, including in 2007.
|Men's Golf Members of the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame + Grant Spaeth
|Malcolm McNaughton '31
|Charles Seaver '34
|Lawson Little '34
|Don Edwards '36
|Art Doering '40
|Warren Berl '42
|Bud Brownell '42
|Sandy Tatum '42
|Bob Cardinal '47
|Eddie Twiggs '32-47
|Bob Rosburg '49
|Dick McElyea '52
|Steve Smith '61
|Tom Watson '71
|Bud Finger '48-76
|Christian Cevaer '92
|Notay Begay '95
|Casey Martin '95
|Tiger Woods '96
|Joel Kribel '99
|Wally Goodwin '00
|Grant Spaeth '54'
"... one of those rare leaders is ... Don Edwards" - American Bar Association
William Donlon Edwards was an accomplished amateur golfer who achieved his greatest fame from his long and distinguished career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Edwards was born in San Jose, California on January 6, 1915. He attended public school in San Jose, graduating from the San Jose High Academy before entering Stanford in 1932. He was a golf letter winner in 1933 and 1934, playing in those years with Lawson Little and Charlie Seaver. Edwards won the medal play for freshman at the California Intercollegiate Golf Championship sponsored by the Del Monte Lodge in 1933, when Lawson Little won the overall match play championship. In addition, he was a leader of the freshman team that defeated the Cal freshmen 25 to 2.
Edwards was a finalist in the California State Amateur championship in 1934. He lost 1-up to Stuart Hawley, [a member of the 1931 Stanford team]. Edwards won the Santa Clara County Championship in 1935 and 1936 (a title later held by Art Doering, class of '40). During the 1935-36 season, Edwards also took first at the Blossom Festival Medal Tournament and the San Jose Country Club Championship. The 1936 Quad described Edwards as proving, "during his four years of play, [to be] one of Stanford's finest players." Edwards also won the Northern California Golf Association Amateur title in 1937 at Lake Merced Country Club.
After his undergraduate years at Stanford, Edwards attended Stanford Law School. After being admitted to the bar in 1940. he worked for the FBI as a special agent in 1940-41. Later, he served in the Navy during the Second World War as a naval intelligence officer. In 1950 he won the AT & T/Crosby as the amateur partner of a pro.
From 1951 until 1975, Edwards was president of Valley Title Company, a title insurance company based in Santa Clara County. In 1962, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and he served in Congress from 1963 until 1995. He served on the House Judiciary Committee and was the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights for 23 years. In announcing Edwards as the recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award for 2002, the American Bar Association's Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section noted that it is rare and heroic to find ... "the public leader who, following conscience and principle, actually leads in a direction contrary to prevailing winds. One of those rare leaders is ..." Don Edwards.
Village Voice article, "The Soldier of the Constitution". A national wildlife refuge is named in honor of Don Edwards, the Don Edwards San Francisco National Wildlife Refuge.
Written by Rich Peers, Nov 2007.


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The first day back from Spring Break went off pretty well all things considered!
Last night I expressed some concern about a Cognitive Psychology exam that would be greeting me after a week of lazing around.
My feelings were mixed about it. On the one hand I gave the material zero attention over the break because I was busy hanging out with friends and doing internship stuff, so I couldn't help but imagine walking into a nightmare. On the other hand the class's first exam was very easy, so I didn't feel the need to spend a lot of time studying.
Luckily the lazy side of my intuition won out.
The test was rather easy, and even though I haven't seen the official grades come out (we took it at 1:00 p.m. today), I did my own basic calculations off of what I didn't know and figure I'll get a 92 percent at the lowest.
Unless I'm wrong about what I don't know, of course. But my intuition is usually solid.
The thing that got me about the exam was how haphazardly our professor seemed to handle things. Firstly, she decided to announce that she added extra free response questions to our docket only five minutes before passing out the exam.
Would've been nice to get some advanced notice over Spring Break… But then again, she promised to post the kind of scantron we would need and didn't get around to that either.
So who knows. Teachers need a week to relax too.
There was also a stretch of seven questions at the beginning of the test where every answer was "C," which made me second-guess my choices despite knowing they were correct.
I don't have proof that it was on purpose… But that kind of trickery always felt like a joke on behalf of professors to stress us students out.
After finishing up the exam, everything else was smooth sailing clear to nightfall.
I managed to secure my Commencement tickets, another topic I touched on last night. Even made a fun little Tweet out of it:
It was a legitimately weird process.
Spent a little bit of time in the Honors Center after that, finding out some more about another event I'm taking part in this Friday and working on my novel.
Felt good when I sent the next chunk of the story to my mentor tonight, even if Spring Break wasn't as lucrative for the writing process as I wanted it to be. At least I've done something, and the more I write the better I'll look come my presentation in May!
I also watched/listened to some cool things I suppose. The latest Mostly Nitpicking podcast on X-Men: Apocolypse. The most recent KingK video on The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.
Lots of nice things.
That's really all I've got to say for the night, though. It's been another lukewarm kind of day with a lot of work and not much else.
Tomorrow I'll be able to break things up with a Fire Emblem Heroes post (as exciting as I'm sure that is for you all), and Friday I should hopefully have something to write about my next Honors event.
But until then, I'll just be here keeping up the 'mundane day-to-day' posts train that the end of the semester has brought out of its station.


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Animal species instinctively behave in ways that help further the survival of their species. Inevitably, this means spending much of their time eating and reproducing. Recently I had the opportunity to observe such behavior in Pearl Crescent butterflies.
Pearl Crescents are named for the crescent shaped marking near the center of the submargin of their hind wing. They can often be seen together in groups, nectaring on a variety of flowers, feeding on minerals, and flirting.
In the photo below, a male Pearl Crescent is doing some serious courting of a female. Ignoring him, she sips nectar from Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) flowers, a species of Dogbane, and an important nectar source in June and early July.
Still in search of food, the female Pearl Crescent flew off to find more nectar, stopping on another Indian Hemp plant. The male followed closely behind. Still drinking, she turned to let him make his case.
A few seconds later she flew off again, finally turning toward him with fluttering wings; a sign of rejection, at least for now.
Later, I spotted a female Pearl Crescent with her wings open. She appeared to be basking. Then I noticed the two other butterflies with her.
She was mating with one male, while another, undeterred, continued to lobby for her favors. She remained steadfast.
The rejected male flew off, remaining close by in case the female changed her mind.
But she elected to stay with her original choice.
When they are finished, the female Pearl Crescent will seek out the select aster species that her offspring caterpillars will be able to digest. Among the acceptable species are Heath or Awl Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum), Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), Panicled Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum), and Smooth Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve).
These bright little butterflies are active from April through November in the northern parts of their range, producing multiple broods. In the south, they are active year-round.
Pearl Crescents can be found in most of the eastern two-thirds of the US; they are very common in the east. Their range extends into Canada from southeastern Alberta to southern Ontario, and to the south in northeastern Mexico. Look for them in a meadow or garden near you!
Related Posts
Romance in the Meadow – Baltimore Checkerspots
Butterflies and Moths of North America
Cech, Rick; Tudor, Guy. Butterflies of the East Coast. 2005.


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We hope you have been spending time getting all the benefits out of your Compex unit. In an effort to provide you with some specific strength training benefits, we have developed the following. As always, adjust as necessary to meet your fitness level and time constraints.
The following is a program of building strength during your off-season. The design is to build pure strength with expected muscle mass and weight gain. If you are concerned about gaining weight, I recommend the use of Resistance and Endurance only for building strength without significant muscle mass gains. Runners fit in this category.
This protocol will yield the best results if, as a minimum, you place the pads as shown in the pad placement book for your primary muscle group. Secondary groups can be combined with pad placement I describe in the Compex Tips article. For example, for cycling, I use the pads as shown for Quads. I combine glutes and hamstrings with the large pad combination and I have had great results this way. Just be advised that your best muscle fiber recruitment comes with the combination of 2 small pads and 1 large pad as the pad placement guide illustrates.
I suggest you finish this schedule about 4 weeks prior to your first important race of the season. You will have your maximum strength to efficiency ratio about a month after finishing this pyramid.
You can adjust the program as necessary. For instance, if you don't sprint in your competitions, you might skip the Explosive Strength cycle and just continue the Strength program for an additional 4 weeks. Whenever possible, I highly recommend you run the Active Recovery immediately following each session. I often stop the cool down about 5 minutes into it and select the Active Recovery while the pads are still in place.
This pyramid will consist of:
Resistance - 4 weeks - This is a muscle adaptation phase
Strength - 8 weeks - For building pure strength and muscle mass
Explosive Strength - 4 weeks - To develop sprint strength
Resistance - 4 weeks - As a taper into your racing season
BLUE = Increases in Intensity (mA)
RED = Increases in Level


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I felt the urge to write this post because life has a tendency of complicating and when it does, we tend to feel alone in the process. This is a reminder to others like me that.. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. It puts me at ease to hear/read others' stories and strategies to deal with their responsibilities without leaving aside the important aspects of life. As I have disclosed on some of my previous posts, I am a young single mother and I strive every day to be the best version of myself, for 1. myself and 2. my son. However; reality is not always as romantic as it sounds and some days I struggle to keep that goal in mind.
Finding balance between education and motherhood can be tricky, especially if the person is a highly dedicated student (here you have an overachiever) and a highly dedicated mother. To make things more interesting and fun, let's add work and paying the bills to the equation, plus being an international student coming from a country with a severe socioeconomic crisis. These past few months I have had to deal with constant blows in the face and, even though I love life, I am exhausted ! I follow the principle that life moves on and you must move along with it, thus I focus on the present and keep on going, trying to juggle every ball thrown at me to keep the flow and excitement of the act.
After leaving an amazing talk from two ex-convicts about empowerment and giving meaning to life, I am incredibly inspired and would like to share with you some things that I have learned along the way and tips to keep life interesting when the clock is winning the race and you have not had a chance to take a shower !!! Parents out there, I know that you are guilty…
-Always be grateful.
I know that this sounds cliche, but I have found so much peace when I have allowed myself to take a couple of seconds to breathe and thank the Universe for the life that I have.
-Give yourself a chance to be outdoors.
There is nothing more healing for me than getting a breath of fresh air, actual fresh air! I am at peace whenever I am outdoors and even though I don't always have the opportunity to fully engage with it, I make sure to at least go to my backyard and breath because.. The birds are talking and we must listen.
There was once a stage of my life where the only utility that I gave to exercising was to get in shape and have a smokin' body. I never contemplated the act as an actual form of therapy and pure enjoyment and now that I have reached that point, I am never letting go… Which is utter bs because we all know that it takes a village to maintain that form of discipline; however, whenever I am very stressed out or feeling blue, I force myself to run for at least 30 minutes. I try to take as much advantage as I can of the resources that I have to break a sweat and release some endorphins. Trust me, as long as you don't dehydrate in the process, you'll feel better.
-Make time for the ones you love.
This is my favorite part and the saddest thing is that it is the one that I do the least. I am not proud of this aspect and I am trying to gain as much awareness of it as possible. It is so easy to get caught up in the routine and external responsibilities that without realizing it, you neglect what is most valuable to you. A couple of weeks ago I started noticing a change in my son's behavior. He later complained to me that I was always working or studying and didn't spend as much time with him as I used to. After that occasion, I make sure to take a weekly walk together and to be more present for him.
-Hug your loved ones…Or a tree.
There is nothing more soothing than a warm embrace… Trees are great too !
-Ditch the phone.
After having my son I decided to get rid of social media because I was more focused on it than actually taking care of him ! I decided to detox myself from all of it and have not been more pleased, I now know how to balance between life and social media and control the urge of opening Instagram, etc . Give it a try, you will have withdrawals, but it is worth it !
Writing this has been therapeutical and I would love, love, love to hear your stories and recommendations ! How do you juggle ?


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Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack is real good at having his county crews go by the county owned Early Vote locations in his precinct and clean up all the candidate signs at the end of Early Voting. They are usually all gone by noon the day after the end of Early Voting. His crews did a less than stellar job Saturday morning. All the Vote Yes METRO signs are still up – interesting. I also noticed that Vote Yes METRO signs are all over right-of-way in many part of the City and County – also interesting.
When was the last season that the team wore the blue and orange and I'm not talking about throwback gear games?
On the front page of yesterday's Chron, Ericka Mellon dusted up HISD Trustee Larry Marshall pretty good. It was a real stinger. The good news for HISD bond supporters is that maybe 60% of folks had already voted before the article hit the stands.
Check out Ericka's article here.
FYI: Commentary is working for the HISD bonds.
Locally everyone is talking about the 700,216 that voted early in person here in Harris County surpassing the 678,312 in 2008. How much gas is left in the tank? How many more folks will vote tomorrow?
The new leader in turnout for Early Voting Locations goes to Champion Forest Baptist Church out on Strack Road way up in North Harris County. They had 38,329. West Gray was knocked off the top and fell to numero 3 with 35,639 – down from 35,987 in 2008. What does this all mean? I'll let you know later this week!
I'm not going to give any election predictions even though I did on my Roundtable ballot.
Maybe I'm getting into a touchy subject here but here goes. Commentary was watching SNL a couple of days ago and I laughed at the skit where the sign interpreters were used. This morning deaf actress Marlee Matlin slammed SNL for poking fun at sign interpreters. Isn't that what SNL is supposed to do? Oh well!
1993 of course was the last season the 'Stros wore the blue and orange.
The 'Stros GM is interested in talking to The Big Puma about coming back to wear the blue and orange and maybe playing DH – interesting.
I'm OK with the old new look or the new old look or the blue and orange or the orange and blue but I'll still wear the brick red on occasion – got it!


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(CNN) - Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is no longer being treated at the Mayo Clinic for what he described last month as "several serious health issues," clinic spokesman Nick Hanson said Tuesday.
The Illinois congressman had returned to the center in September for what Hanson described as a "follow-up evaluation to ensure he is on the path to properly manage his health." He won his bid for a tenth term in the U.S. House last week despite making no public campaign appearances and having been out of the public eye since May.
- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
Jackson, 47, checked out of the Mayo Clinic for the first time in early September, his office said, and the clinic had acknowledged Jackson was a patient in an August statement.
He is the subject of several investigations, including by the FBI and House Ethics Committee. His House colleagues are looking into allegations that, in 2008, he or one of his associates offered to raise money for then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for Jackson being appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.
In an October recorded automated call made to constituents in October, Jackson said, "the good news is my health is improving, but my doctors tell me the road to recovery is a long one."
"Like many human beings, a series of events came together in my life at the same time and they've been difficult to sort through," he said in the call, which his office provided to CNN. "I am human, I am doing my best, and I am trying to sort through them all."
Rev. Jesse Jackson, his father and a well-known civil rights leader, made no comment when contacted by CNN.
- CNN's Miriam Falco, Sean Nottingham, Deirdre Walsh, and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report
Since he is a Democrat if there is any other issues he needs to be checked so he can do absolutely nothing on the government dime feel free. We used to this in the private sector and it was called a non-paying sabbatical (usually for non-profit work). If he needs mental health care he needs to step down and let the next union owned democrat take his place.
Congratulations! He won his seat. Tell him we all have to learn to control our minds for the benefit of our health.
I read Jackson is looking to cut a deal with the FBI, he resigns his position and doesn't face jail time. I think the Mayo clinic illness is more like buying time trying to figure out what to do.
I'm a democrat but in my opinion Congressman Jackson needs to resign. If he is unstable, he can't really serve the people in his district properly. Time to "Man Up".


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You don't need to go searching for a Commodore 64 on Ebay to relive the vintage PC's glory days.
Avid gamer Petri Wilhelmsen is providing a way to write and run C64 programs on Windows PCs for tech-savvy gamers who want to go old-school.
Wilhelmsen has put up a primer on Github for coding Commodore 64 applications for Windows PCs. Wilhelmsen holds a day job as a senior program manager for gaming at Microsoft.
The guide provides basic instructions on how to put a game together by writing applications, creating graphics and compiling music.
Writing Commodore 64 applications means writing code in assembly language for the 8-bit MOS Technology 6502 processor, which powered the computer at the time.
The Commodore 64 first went on sale in 1982 for US$599, and the price came down to $199 over time, said Jack Tramiel, former chairman of Commodore International, during a panel discussion in late 2007.Â
The Commodore 64, which was retired in 1992, remains one of the largest-selling PCs of all time, surpassing more than 10 million units. Raspberry Pi has already sold more than 10 million units and is on pace to overtake the Commodore 64.
Wilhelmsen's guide is a step back into how game programming started. A big milestone for PC gaming was the introduction of OpenGL in 1991, which has now been replaced by Vulkan. The addition of DirectX to Windows 95 in 1995 kickstarted Windows PC gaming.
If you don't want to go through the hassle of programming Commodore 64 applications, there are companies that will build Commodore 64 replicas for modern hardware. The C64.com enthusiast website hosts many popular C64 games, which can be downloaded and run via emulators.
It's also possible to emulate Commodore 64 on Raspberry Pi via a program called Retro-Pie. Instructions to set that up are available on Github.