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The Pre-History of Frank R. Pierson
August 2, 2012
Let us begin with the inevitable New York Times correction, since the "paper of record" rarely manages to get the early television facts right in its obituaries. I hate to pick on the Times, since it followed up its coverage of the gifted screenwriter-director Frank Pierson's unexpected death last week with a nice round-up of tributes from his colleagues. But William Yardley's original obit refers to Have Gun – Will Travel as a "1962 television series," a date that is incorrect in any sense: the classic western debuted in 1957, and Pierson worked on it from 1959 through early 1962, departing late in its fifth season. (The Times's error has been predictably amplified elsewhere, as in this piece which claims that Pierson entered television in 1962, as Have Gun's "story editor" – perhaps an accurate description, but never his actual title.)
We'll come back to Have Gun, but first let's examine another tidbit from the Times obit, which claims that Pierson (at the time, and already in his mid-thirties, a reporter for Time and Life magazines; here's a sample, from 1953) sold his first teleplay to the Alcoa Theater/Goodyear Playhouse in 1958. That's probably accurate, although the finished episode – a Pierson credit you won't find anywhere on the interwebs, until now – did not air until November 23, 1959. "Point of Impact," starring Peter Lawford and concerning an Air Force plane crash that kills American civilians, and judged as "labored" by Daily Variety, had over the course of a year passed through the hands of two other writers, Martin M. Goldsmith and Richard DeRoy, leaving Pierson with only a story credit. (The episode was directed by Arthur Hiller, who like Pierson would one day serve as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.) By the time the Alcoa aired, Pierson was on staff at Have Gun and his first effort for that series, a rewrite of "Shot by Request," had slid onto the air on October 10, beating out the Alcoa as his official television debut by six weeks.
Alcoa/Goodyear is an important show, perhaps the only filmed, Los Angeles-based anthology that came close to emulating its gritty, live-telecast New York counterparts. It remains unheralded, probably because it's so hard to see: I have an incomplete set, telecast decades ago on A&E and butchered to about 21 minutes per. Pierson's episode is one of the few that's missing, so I cannot assess its quality. From 1958 until 1960, Alcoa/Goodyear was executive produced by William Sackheim, an important shepherd of new talent who gathered an impressive roster of young writers (Stirling Silliphant, Howard Rodman, Adrian Spies, Leonard Freeman) and directors (Robert Ellis Miller, Walter Grauman, Elliot Silverstein). Many of those names would crisscross with Pierson's again during his early television years.
Have Gun – Will Travel was one of the first television shows to be wholly hijacked by its star. It was already an offbeat western, its hero a black-clad dandy as well as a scary tough-guy, and Richard Boone, beneath his rugged looks, aspired to serious art. He ran an acting workshop on the side and cast most of his protégés in the show. Have Gun's success lent Boone the clout to influence its story material in directions that a network usually would not approve, toward comedy and bitter existentialism and allegory. Pierson, hired as an associate producer, found himself elevated to the producer's chair within a few months when the show's creator, Sam Rolfe, ended his tenure on Have Gun in a fistfight with Boone. Boone and Pierson were a good match, at least at first; Boone liked to encourage new talent, and Pierson shared his literary pretensions.
"I was reading a lot of French philosophers at the time and heavy into French cinema as well," Pierson said in Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn's The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion. "I felt there was a sardonic attitude that I tended to bring to the show . . . . We were always trying to do new things [and] the danger was that the audience who was tuning in every night was expecting to have a Have Gun – Will Travel experience. The danger was we were taking them outside that experience." Pierson cultivated his own set of young writers (including Jack Curtis, Robert E. Thompson, and Rodman, who would cross paths with Pierson a number of times, falling out with him bitterly over a rewrite of the 1971 telefilm The Neon Ceiling). He also penned some good episodes himself, including "The Campaign of Billy Banjo" (which brought politics to the Old West) and "Out at the Old Ballpark" (which brought, yes, baseball to the Old West).
Eventually the egos clashed – what Boone and his producer had there, you might say, was a failure to communicate – and Pierson exited Have Gun amicably, moving over to Screen Gems to produce an unusual show for the man who discovered him, Bill Sackheim. Empire was a modern western, an Edna Ferber-esque family melodrama and a proto-Dallas, shot in vivid color and on location in Santa Fe. Pierson and his associate producer, Anthony Wilson (another Alcoa veteran), alternated episodes with the team of Hal Hudson (late of Zane Grey Theater) and Andy White (soon to produce The Loner for Rod Serling). Empire had the ingredients of a meaty, meaningful epic, but the network botched it, eliminating the female characters (played by Anne Seymour and Terry Moore) and adding two-fisted ranchhand Charles Bronson to vie for screen time with the original leads, Richard Egan and Ryan O'Neal.
Still, Pierson did some of his best early work on Empire, becoming a triple-threat (producer, writer, director) for the first time on "The Four Thumbs Story," an elegy for a Native American war veteran (Ray Danton) whose propensity for violence makes him unfit for human companionship. The forward-looking episode, an adaptation of a chapter from William Eastlake's Go in Beauty (Sydney Pollack, who worked for Pierson on Have Gun, would film the Eastlake novel Castle Keep), anticipates the interest Hollywood would take in Native American affairs a half-decade later, and in particular Abraham Polonsky's comeback film Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.
Empire – still undervalued, and like Alcoa/Goodyear a casualty of anemic distribution, last glimpsed on the Family Channel almost thirty years ago – morphed into a shortened form, retitled Redigo, and died after half a season, evidently without Pierson's involvement. Pierson then aligned with Naked City and Route 66, writing two scripts for the former ("The S.S. American Dream" was nominated for a WGA Award) and one for the latter. A generational saga, not altogether coherent (especially the ending) and wildly miscast (Pat Hingle and William Shatner as father-and-son Maine lobstermen, named Thayer and Menemsha!), "Build Your Houses With Their Backs to the Sea" begins with the line: "If it's not too late, Papa, I want to apologize for my behavior during childhood, adolescence, and early manhood." Watching it today, one can only marvel that something so opaque could find its way onto network television.
Alvin Sargent, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Julia and Ordinary People, also worked on Empire, Route 66, and Naked City during this time. Sargent told me yesterday that
we both worked for Billy Sackheim and Bert Leonard and we both admired and enjoyed them. I was only beginning a career and had the good fortune to have an agent who got me jobs with these shows. These men were my teachers, taking time to work with me in a way that felt as if I was in the hands and hearts of people who believed I could always make a script better. Small offices, small meetings. The scripts written fast, and quickly on a screen. A writer could see their work a number of times a year. I could learn from that. I could make an adjustment in my mind about dialogue and behavior that could be written better. Something of a screen test for a writer.
Frank Pierson's screen test didn't last long. In 1965 he rewrote the parody western Cat Ballou, which won Lee Marvin an Academy Award, and moved on to a series of important features, including Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon (for which Pierson won his own Oscar). Pierson also directed three films – The Looking Glass War, A Star Is Born, and King of the Gypsies – all of which are confident, complex, and underrated.
In between, he continued to dabble in television, notably creating and producing Nichols, the James Garner flop that retains a bit of a cult following. Although this, too, was a comic western, it was less an extension of Cat Ballou (or Maverick) than an attempt to bring the much darker, bolder genre revisionism of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or even The Wild Bunch to television. Like The Wild Bunch, Pierson's brilliant, devilishly funny pilot was set at the very end of the West, where the reluctant lawman (Garner, of course) rides a motorcycle and flirts with a local girl (Margot Kidder) who appears very, very stoned, and everyone seems dangerously confused and surly about the rapid social and technological changes surrounding them. Unfortunately – and just as Pierson's erstwhile friend Howard Rodman would do a few years later in his melancholy deconstruction of the private eye genre, Harry O – Pierson wrote in such a distinctive voice that nobody else could emulate it, and Nichols devolved into an uneasy and somewhat cartoonish updating of Garner's old schtick from Maverick.
As many of his obituarists have noted, Pierson outwitted a relentlessly ageist industry and remained productive right up to the end, directing some terrific made-for-television movies (especially 2001's Conspiracy) and recently spending two non-consecutive years on the staff of Mad Men, with a season of The Good Wife in between. The danger with Mad Men, of course, is that Pierson might have been installed as a gray-bearded eminence, an oracle whom the youngsters could ask "what was it really like back then"; but Matthew Weiner seems to have genuinely valued him as a peer. "Signal 30," the episode that Pierson co-wrote this year, was seen as perhaps the season's high point. I wonder whether anyone has noticed that the accomplishment of writing episodic television over a fifty-year span – and not just any episodic television, but some of the most acclaimed dramatic series of 1962 and of 2012 – is likely a unique and unrepeatable record.
4 Responses to "The Pre-History of Frank R. Pierson"
August 3, 2012 at 10:27 am
Very nice piece, Stephen.
Regarding your final comment ("I wonder whether anyone has noticed that the accomplishment of writing episodic television over a fifty-year span — and not just any episodic television, but some of the most acclaimed dramatic series of 1962 and 2012 — is likely a unique and unrepeatable record"), I'd like to toss in a plug here for my friend Larry Cohen, who began his television career in 1958 with a couple of "Kraft Theatre" pieces and went on to write for such shows as "The Defenders" and "The Fugitive" (in addition to creating "The Invaders," "Branded," "Coronet Blue," and "Blue Light") in the sixties, "Columbo" in the seventies, and "NYPD Blue," a couple of "87th Precinct" TV movies, and one of Showtime's rebooted "Defenders" movies in the nineties. Maybe not quite a match for Pierson, but impressive nonetheless.
August 4, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Indeed, Empire, for me, had the potential of being a great series, at least from the 22 episodes I have seen (that are available in collector circles). Its my favorite 'one season only' TV series from the early sixties, at least among the ones I've seen. It was great seeing it mentioned here alongside Route 66 and Naked City, two other series I love.


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Dezi Hughes' story about escaping her abductor
Twelve-year-old Dezi Hughes spoke with KCCI about escaping her abductor -- the same man who allegedly kidnapped and killed her friend.
"Just went to walk home and (he) asked us if we wanted to mow lawns to make money," Dezi said. "And we said we had to go ask our parents. He told us he would give us a ride, and then told us we could call, and we went from there."
Video: Dezi Hughes discusses escape
Video: Dezi Hughes is a reluctant hero
Dezi and her friend Kathlynn Shepard, 15, were trapped in a red pickup truck driven by sex offender Michael Klunder. He was taking them to a hog confinement where he worked.
"I just kept thinking it wasn't right," Dezi said.
Klunder got Kathlynn out of his truck and Dezi took a chance and escaped.
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"I actually was kind of afraid because I thought we were near his house," Dezi said. "So I thought it was going to be his relatives or something, so I really didn't know what to do. But I had to take a chance and find out."
The move paid off and a stranger took her in.
"I actually thought when she called me that I misunderstood her," said Dezi's mother, Jeanette Andrews. "I thought she was over-reacting for no reason. When I got there, I realized she was serious, and that was about when it hit me -- when I saw her when I first got there."
Her friend Kathlynn has been laid to rest.
Dezi wears a "K" around her neck and stood alone under an evergreen in Dayton Monday. The tree is covered in purple. People mourn for Kathlynn and know Dezi's continued existence is a miracle.
"I tell her every day I am so glad she is here," Andrews said. "She is sick of hearing it, and I don't care. I told her today I am glad she is here."
Thoughts of that day fill nearly every moment of her day and haunt her at night.
"I don't sleep until like 3 in the morning," Dezi said. "I can't sleep, and when I do sleep, it's pretty crappy."
Dezi and her family are seeking counseling, but know that life will never be the same.
"You try to forget, but you can't," she said. "It's going to scar you for life. What can you do about it?"
Dezi and her family wanted to do the interview with KCCI in order to thank those who have helped them. They said the support has been tremendous and are grateful.

subset: commoncrawl


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President Barack Obama announces his appointment of former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and Tom Donilon to the the newly-created Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. Having previously served as President Obama's National Security Advisor, Donilon with chair the commission and Palmisano will be his deputy
NEW: Pres. Obama to go to Cuba within the next month, sources tell @ABC News. https://t.co/umf1j0mhFb—
Good Morning America (@GMA) February 18, 2016
President Barack Obama talks to reporters with (L-R) Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, former White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson


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The ideal destination
|Company Name
|Capsis Bristol Boutique Hotel
|+30 2310 506 500
|2 Oplopiou & Katouni Str., 54625
|Electra Palace Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 294000
|9 Aristotelous Sq., 54623
|Grand Hotel Palace-The Luxury Hotels
|+30 2310 549249
|305 Monastiriou Str., 54628
|Holiday Inn Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 563100
|8 Monastiriou Str., 54629
|Hotel Nikopolis
|+30 2310 401000
|16-18 Asklipiou Str., Pylea, 57001, Thermi
|Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 401234
|13th km Thessaloniki-Perea, 57001
|Lazart Hotel
|+30 2310 647400
|16 Kolokotroni St., 56430
|Makedonia Palace Hotel
|+30 2310 897197
|2 Meg.Alexandrou, 54640
|Mediterranean Palace – The Luxury Hotels
|+30 231 1240406
|3 Salaminos & Karatassou Str., 54626
|Porto Palace Hotel Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 504504
|65 26th Octovriou Ave., 54628
|The Excelsior Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 021020
|10 Komninon St. & 23, Mitropoleos Str., 54624
|The Met Hotel
|+30 2310 017000
|26th October Str. 48, 54627
|Capsis Hotel Thessaloniki
|+30 2310 596800
|Monastiriou 16, 54629
|Domotel Olympia
|+30 2310 276 133
|65 Olympou Str., 54631
Visit Thessaloniki, the second largest city of Greece, the cultural capital of the country, a destination packed with life, worth being included on every traveller's itinerary, with rich cultural life, numerous museums and archaeological sites, amazing churches and vibrant nightlife.
With a long history dating back over 2.000 years, being concurred by Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans, hosting communities from Minor Asia, Black Sea, Istanbul while being one of the most important Jewish cities in Europe, to finally suffer the Great Fire of 1917 that destroyed a large part of the city, Thessaloniki is the absolute crossroad between east and west.
Nowadays the city is a major commercial centre for the Balkan Peninsula with great luxury hotels, a golf course and a casino, along with its conference and events facilities including its renowned Convention Centre to host numerous events and exhibitions annually. The hip nightlife, the chic restaurants with exquisite local cuisine and a great dose of culture in concerts and art shows are all part of Thessaloniki's atmosphere, one's of a modern European city, to make up the picture of the so called Nymph of the Thermaic Gulf.
Getting There
Thessaloniki as the second largest city of Greece and the leading city of Macedonia is a major hub in the Balkan area can be easily accessed by air as it connects directly with Athens and some European cities with low fare as well as regular flights daily, especially during the summer period. Once reaching the airport, it is easy for the visitor to get to the city centre of Athens by regular bus services, or taxi.
Rail services link Thessaloniki with, Athens and some towns of Macedonia and Thrace, while there are additional lines through Fyrom, Bulgaria and Istanbul, to connect the city with Western, Eastern Europe as well as Turkey. There a faster or slower train you can choose between, but the wonderful scenery of untouched nature at Greek countryside is a well worth reward for every traveler. Local coach services also connect the city with Athens and peripheral towns while car rental is also an option, passing through the newly constructed national road, around the legendary Mount Olympus with many opportunities for a stop over for a swim. Finally the port of Thessaloniki also connects with Piraeus as well as northern Aegean Islands that during the summer expand their routs to reach Cyclades and finally Crete.
Popular Destinations
The very heart of the cosmic city of Thessaloniki is Aristotelous Square, constructed after the Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917, to give the city its old glory. Although more humbly constructed due to budget restrictions, this large square is surrounded by wonderful buildings, with busy and cosmopolitan Aristotelous Street funneling into it. The numerous luxury hotels, restaurants cafes and shopping centers are the best place to sit and observe Thessaloniki's urban hustle.
Miraculously missed by the fire, Ano Poli (Upper Town) is the historical part of the original city. The winding peaceful alleyways full of cafés and restaurants and taverns housed on pretty traditional small settlements make this enchanting neighborhood a must visit spot. A walk around the area surprises its visitors when meeting historic attractions such as the Church of Saint David with its gorgeous mosaic in its apse, the 11th-century red brick arches at the Panagia Chalkeon. At Dikasterion Square, visitors come across the archaeological site of the Ancient Greek Agora, which was later expanded to become a Roman forum as the heart of the ancient city. The best-preserved component of the forum is the large theatre, which is still used for occasional summer concerts. Another interesting sight is the 8th century church of Agia Sofia, modelled on the magnificent church of Agia Sofia in Istanbul, containing superb mosaics and wall paintings including a wonderful mosaic of The Ascension. With a bit of trekking or by using a regular bus, the Acropolis of the city is not far fetched and ideal for romantic walks. With its elevated section still surviving, the 2.000 year old Acropolis is worth the visit offering one of the greatest views of the city and especially the sight of the legendary Mount Olympus.
Sightseeing & Monuments
Though a long walk at Thessaloniki's harbor, one cannot miss the greatest landmark of the city, the White Tower. Built by the Ottomans along with many others to surround the medieval city, to follow their destruction under the threat of piracy in 1866, this remaining former prison, place for executions and fortress is the place where the whole history of the city passed through. Nowadays the White Tower houses the awarded Museum of Byzantine Culture elegantly designed to offer a brief overview of the town's history. The museum exhibits the finest collection of Byzantine art in Greece, including regional artifacts, everyday objects and artwork, priceless icons, frescoes, sculpted reliefs, mosaics, jewellery, manuscripts, and pottery that reflect the social, religious and political aspects of this period, reflecting the important role of the city. A climb at the top of the tower is well rewarding as of offers a panoramic view of the city and the harbor from its rooftop café.
To gain a further insight on Thessaloniki's history, a visit at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, is a must. Tracing the old history of the city as well as ancient Macedonia, from prehistoric to modern times, the museum, regarded as one of the finest museums in Europe, is a true house of treasures. Classical and Hellenistic sculptures, spectacular artifacts and mosaics, some exquisite delicate Hellenistic glass, ancient tombs and relics, impressive craftsmanship in gold and precious metals, are featuring the incredible findings of the museum. A 3rd century BC Derveni papyrus, the only intact ancient papyrus found in Greece, along with treasures of the tomb of Alexander the Great's father, Phillip of Macedon, discovered at Vergina, are only some of the most important historical exhibits to be found.
Great reminders of the city's proud and ancient past are the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda, built by the Emperor Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus to celebrate his victory over the Persians, depicting battle scenes sequences on the pillars of the archway. The Rotunda, initially built as the mausoleum of Galerius, became the first Christian church of the area at the times of Constantine the Great. However, through the centuries, as the city weathered different religions and empires, the rotunda has been transformed from Roman political hub to polytheistic temple, to Christian church to Islamic mosque and back to Christian church. Currently the Arch of Galerius is a perfect spot for a walk and coffee at one of the many cafés to surround the area, while the rotunda houses Christian art and occasionally holds art exhibitions and concerts.
Originally built on the ruins of a Roman bath, the massive church of Agios Dimitrios is honouring the patron saint of Thessaloniki, right on the spot where he was murdered in the 5th century. At the crypt of the martyr today lays a small but impressive collection of artifacts as remains of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman occupants of the city. The beauty of the church however lies above ground with gorgeous mosaics on both sides of the altar and a beautiful façade.
Things To Do
Thessaloniki is widely known for being a historical and cultural centre and a lively 24 hour city. However the amusement seekers will not be disappointed in this vibrant city. The man-made forest of Seih-Sou, also known as the forest of a thousand trees, is a home to the largest zoo in the Mediterranean area. Thessaloniki's Zoo pays off any visitor, not only by hosting a large variety of animals coming from the Greek wildlife such as bears to wolves, various species of birds and goats, but also with its wonderful panoramic view of the city. Waterland is another fun destination to offer a great day especially for families. This large complex with 150 acres of water pools with sun beds, water slides, basketball, volley ball and tennis courts, as well as gardens with rabbits and peacocks roaming around the duck pond whilst deer, goats and emus are safely tucked into their pens at the animal farm. Another family and teen destination is the Magic Park, thriving in life during evenings to offer fun and amusement.
On the other hand, for those wishing to escape from the city, Halkidiki is not a far fetched destination to offer crystal clear blue waters in peaceful or busy shores with numerous well-organised athletic installations for summer sports, luxurious hotels, expertly organised marinas, tennis courts etc. Nature enthusiasts, willing to visit the outskirts of the city can find lakes and livers as the habitat of rare species, ideal for horse riding and springs baths.
A visit at Thessaloniki is closely related to good food and wine. The city's restaurants that cater primarily to local customers as the tourism industry is not the core one here, can assure unique gastronomic experiences. The distinctive gastronomic identity of Macedonian cuisine, other than its Mediterranean nature, has been influenced by the refugees from the Asia Minor, Constantinople and Black Sea since early 20the century. Extensive production of fresh fruits and vegetables around the area along with unique meat and diary products make a gastronomic experience turn to an absolute delight. First and foremost, Thessaloniki is a maritime city with long fishing tradition, therefore fresh fish and seafood is always available at the seafront taverns and restaurants. Once visiting the city of Thessaloniki, visitors cannot miss tasting the traditional bougatsa, an individual pie with various sweet or salted fillings, the one with cheese or custard being the most famous. Finally, a delicious meal is always accompanied with good wine, usually locally produced. Numerous vineyards continue the long tradition of wine production, having some of the finest varieties across the country, globally awarded. In general, as Thessaloniki is a city to make its living off tourism.
Useful Telephone Numbers
Macedonia Airport: +30 2310 473212
Port Authority of Thessaloniki: +30 2310 531645
Thessaloniki Bus Services: +30 2310 500111
Thessaloniki Railway Services: +30 2310 598120
Thessaloniki Police: +30 2310 388000
Thessaloniki Tourist police: +30 2310 554871
Thessaloniki Hospital: +30 2310 993111


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Fox: Passion, Disagreements With New 'Idol' Team
"We're professionals. Have you ever had an argument with someone you've worked with?" Minaj said after repeated questions Tuesday about her reported feud with new fellow judge Carey.
"This was sort of one-sided," interjected Carey, wearing a queenly smile.
"No, it wasn't," snapped back Minaj.
Fox network executive Mike Darnell was asked by reporters with the Television Critics Association if the clash was authentic. He said there was a lot of musical passion within the group, which also includes country star Keith Urban and returning judge Randy Jackson, and that triggered disagreements.
"The fighting is what it is," Carey said at one point. "This is 'American Idol.' It's bigger than all that. It's bigger than some stupid trumped-up thing."
Reports that the two divas were at odds surfaced last fall. On "The View," Barbara Walters recounted a phone conversation with Carey in which the pop star said that Minaj threatened to shoot her after a taping. The rapper quickly responded with dismissive tweets.
Trumped up or not, she and Minaj appeared on the panel with Urban carefully placed between them and indulged in their briefly testy "one-sided" exchange. But they also responded to a request to say something nice about each other.
Minaj called Carey one of her favorite all-time artists who has shaped a generation of singers. In return, Carey fondly recalled working with Minaj on a single titled – "ironically," as Carey noted – "Up Out My Face."
"I knew she was going to go far, and still is," Carey said.
"American Idol" begins its 12th season Wednesday facing questions once again about its ability to endure as a top-rated show, especially given the increasingly crowded talent show landscape that includes NBC's hit "The Voice." All the shows are down in the ratings, Darnell noted.
Veteran executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is used to hearing the query. Famous judges have the pre-debut spotlight and media attention but the contestants ultimately are what keep viewers watching, he said after the panel.
That's not to say the panel isn't key, said Trish Kinane, another executive producer.
"We wanted judges who were experts and had a right to be here, and we also wanted honesty," she said. "We very much took that into consideration. I think we've got it. They're not shrinking violets, they say what they think, and we encourage that."
Minaj displayed that Tuesday, saying firmly that "Idol" is not the show for rap, her own genre.
"If you're looking for people to believe you and feed you as a rapper, I wouldn't do it," said Minaj, adding that viewers love "American Idol" as an "honest singing competition, and I'm not here to change that."


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The first in a new series of articles penned by those in the know about the industry issues of the day. Meet The Insider...
What links Electric Six, Audio Bullys, The Bravery, Gemma Fox, The Dead 60s, Marcos Hernandez and Air Traffic? All have been included in the top ten of the BBC Sound Of... poll for the most promising new artists of their respective year. Since it started in 2003, the poll has been a veritable mash up of those destined to actually work and those that fell at various hurdles along the course. Last year, interestingly, the entire Top Ten had some level of success with the likes of Duffy and Adele leading the charge so we could perhaps infer that the 150 or so 'industry experts' whose votes make up this list of the great and potentially good are getting better at judging what will sell in Tesco. History, however, as Messrs Bush and Blair are keen to point out, is the only real judge and, let's face it, some of the names above had big hits before they were consigned to the bargain bucket. Whether MGMT, The Ting Tings and Black Kids are one album wonders is very much a matter of debate amongst those in the music biz and, in short, this highlights the major problem of such polls if we are to look at them as anything more than annual diversions and the source of pub conversations.
Thankfully, the BBC Sound Of... poll in addition to endless column inches of broadsheet and (increasingly) tabloid opinion on what will 'rock 2009' has about as much to do with art as Gordon Brown's policies have in common with his oft-mentioned friend prudence. This is without even considering NME's identikit genre-based sweeping of anything that has more than half a tune as potentially this year's Arctic Monkeys / Duffy. The truth is that, like so much within the industry, the New Bands Of 2009 features are a combination of commerce, laziness and lack of imagination. Given that combination, it is little surprise that the results are so random. What is terrifying is that these results can, and do, have a huge effect on the start that a new act gets from a (usually major) record label.
The theory goes that to launch an artist in the world of declining sales (whether physical or digital) you need an increasingly greater level of 'profile'. This used to be the achieved through the standard limited single for the uber cool 'tastemakers' followed by a first 'radio' single (to garner evening play and a bit of daytime 'action'). Then you up the ante to get on that gold standard, the Radio One playlist with the 'breakthrough' track. All pretty cynical but, then again, record companies do exist to sell stuff so let's not get too clever here and people like me need to be paid by those companies so they need to sell stuff.
Video: Little Boots 'Meddle' (Live on Jools Holland)
This system still exists, see Little Boots limited 7" last year alongside mentions - but nothing more - in the right places and White Lies' 'start up' single in 2008 with selected festival appearances etc all geared to whet tastemakers opinion to put them high in this list for 2009. White Lies played their first show in February 2008. It's no coincidence that they didn't tour frantically and throw out music from that point or just keep playing. From the moment they signed to Fiction, the whole thing was stage managed to hit key marketing moments. Breakthrough single in January for radio with the Sound Of... poll and a fistful of press and magazine covers, album straight after to capitalise on the hype, slow track pre-festivals for singing along on BBC red button etc etc... you've seen it all before. To be balanced, The Insider struggles to see anything real in White Lies so may be being unduly harsh to them in particular so pick your particular least fave from the list and apply the above, the likelihood is that they didn't just land on the list by chance and talent, someone in the camp is scheduling to make this happen.
So, what's the problem? I've already acknowledged that record companies need to sell stuff and that marketing has always been part of the game so why object to this? Well, think about it for just one second. Why would art follow a calendar? No artist makes their art according to a time scale (well, none worth talking about), and you don't form a band in February with the aim of producing your first great track in May to allow the industry to salivate into November putting you in a perfect position to head up lists in January. The biggest act that The Insider currently works with got zero notice in these polls and went on to do very nicely thank you and yet, every September / October, talk with any new band turns to how they can be manipulated into these spurious lists to allow the dreaded marketing department to engage their dark arts as the clock turns over to a new year.
This tells you more about marketing departments' view of music (units and collateral against them defaulting on that big mortgage if you want to be cynical which, let's face it, with marketing people you always should be) than it does necessarily about the music itself. It also leaves critics and the public in a position where a glut of artists drops on them and they are pressure sold into hype bands every year. And that is bad because you keep selling people turkeys and sooner or later they'll stop listening, the baby goes out with the bathwater and we are all up the creek. It sets a trend for marketing leading art when the relationship has to be the other way round. For all the talk of bands releasing tracks when they are ready and breaking away from the old cycles of promotion, unless you are Radiohead the cycle is actually getting worse. Marketing tell you when the album comes out. A&R is a dying art.
Video: White Lies 'Death'
So, with The Brits coming in February (and now the NME Awards as well) to cheer up pretty rotten post-Christmas sales figures, an entire summer of seemingly BBC sponsored festivals taking up June to August to tie in with summer sales promotions and the last gaps in October / November now crammed with the Mercurys / Q / Mojo Awards (obviously grumpy old men buy more music in the darkening autumn months), the New Bands / New Year tie in is just part of a never ending cycle of promotion cooked up by the labels, the retailers and the media to try and remove any possible doubt from the process of selling music which also removes any excitement or scope for revelation.
Given the choice between allowing the public to discover new artists and ramming them down their throats replete with endless quotes from the Jo Whiley / Gennaro Castaldo (you know him, that HMV guy always quoted on any act winning any award as to how the album has gone up 14 billion per cent 'in store') axis of evil and actually allowing the fools that make up the potential 'sales base' (that's you by the way) come to their own conclusion, for any marketing department there's only one winner. It ain't you, just in case you were wondering. And, in the case of Jo Whiley (or any Radio One and, increasingly, 6 Music DJ), double wins as you get to do the fawning TV ad voiceover about the 'Breakthrough Album of this year' when the marketing department 'push the button' on platinum to reach the 'middle market' in the gap between Peep Show and something else smug and middle class but 'edgy' on Channel 4. Then we all forget about the band on album two (The Bravery) or three (Kaisers / Razorlight) and move on to the next victims.
In an early interview, White Lies said, "We don't want smash hits, we want to make albums, lots of them, over time. We want 15-year-olds to go away thinking we're their favourite new band." This is what we expect and want to hear from any new band and makes The Insider actually like them for a very short space of time until that bloody single comes on the radio for the Nth time today accompanied by the reminder that they were "Number #2 in the BBC Sound of 2009 poll". The music industry does not share their (and the many others like them's) ambition. Perhaps the New Bands strategy would be best explained by the following bastardisation of the quote:
"We want smash hits, albums that recoup and spawn tracks for iPod ads, lots of them, really close together. We want to part eight-year-olds from their cash as quickly as possible across all platforms and then drop the artist before the shine fades and do it all again with another set the year following".
- Believe the hype? Don't believe the hype? Leave your thoughts below.


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October 29th, 2010
Human Factor: Rich Roll's 'experiment' in fitness
In the Human Factor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces you to a survivor who has overcome tremendous odds. Confronting a life obstacle – injury, illness or other hardship – they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn't know they possessed. Be inspired by their successes, as we have been.
Very late on the eve of my 40th birthday just four years ago, I was blessed with a precious moment of clarity. Face to face with an unforgiving mirror after a losing battle with a simple flight of stairs that left me buckled over and seeing stars, I was shocked out of a long-held denial and forced to confront an uncomfortable truth more painful than my heaving lungs - that I was woefully overweight, terribly unfit, and facing a certain future of heart disease – a trending topic in my genealogy.
It was time for a change. A line-in-the-sand, life altering kind of change. Seizing the moment, I awoke the next day to formulate a plan and put it into action.
A plan I like to call The Experiment - a journey in nutrition, fitness and wellness that has drastically and forever altered the trajectory of my life. A journey that over time has divorced me from everything I previously held true about food, age, fitness and health. A journey that starts with an average overweight middle-aged guy and culminates with feats of athletic endurance I had no idea I was capable of.
It all began when I decided to adopt a 100 percent plant-based whole food diet. A discipline that involved removing all animal products (and most processed foods) from my diet. No chicken. No fish. No dairy. Nada.
At the time, my expectations were limited and my goals modest – lose a little weight; maybe feel a little better. That was it. In fact, I secretly harbored hope that The Experiment would fail so I could resume my predilection for pizza and nachos - free of guilt and knowing I had tried everything.
But to my surprise, I was amazed at just how fantastic I felt after only 10 days on this regimen. My energy skyrocketed, fueling a return to a modest exercise routine. Gradually, I started to shed the pounds. Slowly, the fitness returned. And my energy levels continued to improve. Then came the desire to pursue an athletic challenge. Nothing was overnight, but a mere few years later I found myself almost 50 pounds lighter with a 10-minute lead and Day 1 stage victory in the 3-day double-ironman distance triathlon known as the Ultraman Hawaii World Championships.
How was this possible? I am not overstating the case to say that everything I have accomplished as an endurance athlete over the last few years, including two Ultraman World Championships and EPIC5 – an endurance odyssey in which I completed 5 ironman distance triathlons on 5 separate Hawaiian Islands in under a week – begins and ends with my plant-based whole food diet.
But what about protein? Aren't you anemic? How can you stand all that bland food? You're harming your body!
I field questions like these on a daily basis from all types of naysayers, including doctors, trainers and nutritionists. But I have answered them all. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I am fully fortified on a surprisingly delicious routine of very nutrient dense plant-based foods and recipes that have enhanced not just my overall health, but my athletic ability as well. In the last four years, I've had nary a sniffle. And at 44 years of age, I am the most vital and physically fit I have ever been in my life. It's not an inconvenience. And its not an impediment – it's my secret weapon.
We live in the most prosperous nation on Earth, and yet we have never been more unhealthy as a society. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and a vast array of very preventable diseases plague us unnecessarily. Rather than redress the underlying causes of these diseases, we place too much focus on the treatment of symptoms with pharmaceuticals, thus prolonging and exacerbating very solvable problems. Just watch television for an hour, count how many ads you see for extraneous prescription medications, and you get the picture.
If we want to heal, truly heal, then we must keenly redirect the national health debate on one thing – preventive medicine. Simply put, and backed by balanced scientific studies, a plant-based whole food diet has been shown to prevent and actually reverse heart disease (America's #1 killer) and impede or even arrest the development of a litany of other maladies, including the growth of cancer cells. And overall, it is the easiest, most cost effective (as well as environmentally conscious) means to vastly improve the health and environment of not just America, but the world at large.
I am not alone in this belief. In fact, plant-based nutrition has now entered the zeitgeist as a legitimate mainstream phenomenon. From successful professional athletes to high profile cultural influencers, more and more are opening up to the advantages of living "plantstrong." Even former President Bill Clinton recently joined the fray, a bold move that created a media frenzy and will, I hope, catalyze profound, long-term positive effects on our national health dialog.
We all know fad diets don't work. But greater lasting health always remains within one's grasp, regardless of age or condition. Everyone has the power to change. It just takes a decision.
They say that the enemy of wisdom is contempt prior to investigation. Don't take my word for it; do your own research. Still not convinced? That's fine; just do me one simple favor – eat more plants.
But if you decide you want to feel as good as I do, then join me – I dare you.
How to Connect with Rich
RICH ROLL WEBSITE & BLOG: http://www.richroll.com
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/richroll
In addition, Rich and his wife Julie Piatt recently released their first plant-based e-cookbook titled JAI SEED. For more information and to purchase for simple download, visit:
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About this blog
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.


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By Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) - Suzan Shown Harjo remembers when she walked into a store with her grandfather in El Reno, Oklahoma. She wanted to get something cool to drink on a summer day. It was the early 1950s and the storekeepers told the 6-year-old she had to leave.
"No black redskins in here," they said.
At that moment, Harjo felt small, unsafe, afraid. Because she was a dark-skinned Native American - Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee - she was being identified by just her coloring. She wasn't even a whole human being. Not even her grandpa, whom she saw as all-powerful, could do anything to protect her.
Later in her life, that incident made her angry. Angry enough for Harjo to launch a lifelong mission to protect her people.
Part of her work took aim at sporting teams that use Native Americans as mascots. With the start of the baseball season this week, some of those teams have been front and center. The Cleveland Indians, for instance, feature a smiling Indian dubbed Chief Wahoo, criticized by Native Americans as a racist caricature.
The most offensive example of a mascot, says Harjo, is the one used by Washington's football team. She has been fighting for years to get the Redskins to change their name.
The R-word - she can't even bring herself to say it - is the same as the N-word, says Harjo, president of Morning Star Institute, a national Native American rights organization.
She finds it unbelievable that more than half a century after she was told to get out of that El Reno store, after decades of civil rights struggles and progress on race relations, Americans have no problem with rooting for a team called the Redskins.
Fans say the name is an honorific. But the Merriam-Webster dictionary says this: "The word redskin is very offensive and should be avoided." And to many Native Americans, nothing could be more derogatory than the use of that word.
"The Washington team - it's the king of the mountain," Harjo says. "When this one goes, others will."
The controversy over Native American names in sports is longstanding and surfaces in headlines now and then, as it did in December when the Atlanta Braves baseball team was reportedly considering bringing back a dated "screaming Indian" logo for batting practice caps.
Or when Amanda Blackhorse, a 31-year-old Navajo social worker, went to Washington last month to attend a hearing of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She has petitioned to cancel the Redskins trademark on grounds that the name is racist. Harjo filed a similar petition in 1992 and won, but she later lost in the appeals process.
Harjo was defeated in the courts, but public opinion has been shifting steadily on the matter.
In March, several lawmakers introduced a bill in Congress that would amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to ban the term "redskin" in a mark because it is disparaging of native people. Among the sponsors of the bill is civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia.
Harjo says she hopes the legislation will accomplish what litigation has failed to do so far.
If passed, the bill would force the Washington football team to discard its trademarked name and ban the use of any offensive term in any future trademarks.
Proponents believe that Native American mascots pay homage to the people and help promote a better understanding of those who dominated America before Europeans landed.
But opponents say the mascots perpetuate stereotypes that are void of context and history. They argue that even if the mascots themselves are not racially insensitive, they portray native people as one-dimensional.
"A good many Americans don't know any Indians," says Kevin Gover, who heads the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.
"The Indian you see most often in Washington, D.C., is at a football game - at the expense of real Indians, real history, real culture. The petty stereotype has become expected."
In February, the Smithsonian museum hosted a symposium on racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation in American sports. The idea was to make people think about how these stereotypes can be damaging to Indians.
"Kids grow up and think it's OK," Gover says. "It's not OK."
There used to be more than 3,000 teams with Native American names and mascots. That's down to about 900 now - but that's still 900 too many for Gover.
He grew up, also in Oklahoma, and recalled how the University of Oklahoma became the first collegiate team to drop its unofficial mascot, Little Red, a student who dressed as an Indian chief and danced on the sidelines during football games.
Protests on campus forced the demise of Little Red. In 2005, Oklahoma adopted two costumed horses, Boomer and Sooner, as mascots who represented the real horses that pulled the Sooner Schooner. But many students didn't take to them.
One of them was Royce Young, who wrote about the university's "mascot crisis" in an online forum in 2007:
"But why can't OU bring back Little Red? Oklahoma prides itself on being 'Native America.' American Indian heritage is something that is more prevalent in this state than any other in the nation. Would it be so wrong to have Native American imagery representing 'Native America?' "
Young, 27, and a writer for CBS Sports, said he now believes he would have written a more educated post after having discussed the mascot issue with Native Americans.
"I wouldn't say I regret writing it," he said. "But I'd be much more sensitive of understanding why Little Red was insensitive to some instead of saying, 'What's the big deal?' "
Royce said he saw nothing wrong with Oklahoma honoring its native people, but not with a tasteless mascot.
Several college teams followed Oklahoma's footsteps and dropped Native American mascots - Stanford and Syracuse among them.
The movement to do away with Indian mascots gained momentum after the American Psychological Association in 2005 called for the immediate retirement of the mascots based on studies that showed the harmful effects of inaccurate racial portrayals.
The following year, the NCAA, the governing body of collegiate sports, adopted a policy banning teams with "hostile or abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery" from competition. The ban affected high-powered football schools such as Florida State University with Chief Osceola and the University of Illinois, whose official symbol was Chief Illiniwek.
Some states have put the morality of the Indian mascots up for a vote.
Last year, voters dumped the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux mascot. And Oregon prohibited public schools from the use of Native American names, symbols or images. The names on the banned list include: Redskins, Savages, Indians, Indianettes, Chiefs and Braves.
At Florida State University, a white man dresses up as Chief Osceola, smears war paint on his face and rides an appaloosa called Renegade to the middle of Doak Campbell Stadium. He plants a burning spear on the field before every home game. The marching band plays Indian-themed music, and the crowd goes wild doing the "tomahawk chop," a move picked up by the Atlanta Braves.
FSU student Lincoln Golike, who played Osceola in 2002, told the Florida State Times back then that it was tremendous honor to have so many admiring fans.
The Seminole tribe in Florida made an agreement with FSU to allow the use of its name that allows the university to continue competing in the NCAA. The university says its relationship with the Seminole tribe is one of mutual respect.
However, the Seminole nation in Oklahoma, comprised of the descendants of a majority of the Seminoles forced from their lands by the Indian Removal Act, has voiced its opposition to FSU's mascot.
The real Chief Osceola fought U.S. soldiers in the Seminole Wars. He was captured in 1837 under a flag of truce and died in prison. Before his burial, the soldiers chopped off the head of the Indian warrior to keep as a trophy. That Osceola serves as a mascot at FSU doesn't sit well with the Seminoles in Oklahoma and many other Native Americans.
"Native Americans feel offended, they feel hurt. They feel their identity is being trivialized," says Carol Spindel, who wrote "Dancing at Halftime," a book that explored native mascots.
"This is such an ingrained part of American culture that it's very hard to get people to question it," says Spindel, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the official symbol used to be Chief Illiniwek. He was the subject of debate for decades and made his last appearance in 2007 under the threat of NCAA sanctions.
But five years later, there are still some who want Illiniwek back. A nonbinding student referendum held just weeks ago strongly favored making him the official mascot again.
Spindel concluded in her book that mascots such as Chief Illiniwek were a reflection not of native people but of those who invented them.
"If we do a census of the population in our collective imagination, imaginary Indians are one of the largest demographic groups," Spindel writes in her book.
"They dance, they drum, they go on the warpath; they are always young men who wear trailing feather bonnets. Symbolic servants, they serve as mascots and metaphors. We rely on these images to anchor us to the land and verify our account of our own past. But as these Indians exist only in our own imaginations, they provide a solipsistic connection and leave us, ultimately, untethered and rootless."
At 67, Harjo believes she has made strides in her struggle to do away with racial stereotypes but says Native Americans have a long way to go.
"Because we as Indians, we don't have the numbers," she says, referring to the dwindling population. The latest census listed 2.9 million people as American Indian and Alaska Native.
"So we don't pose a threat," she says. "If we organized a march, the numbers would be so small. We've done it school by school. State by state."
Harjo knows if the powerful Washington football team is forced to discard its name, then everyone else will follow. But for now, she takes pride in small victories.
Just a few weeks ago, a high school in Cooperstown, New York, decided to retire its R-word mascot.
C.J. Hebert, superintendent for the Cooperstown Central School District, said students approached him regarding their discomfort with the mascot that had been around for decades.
"I do think that times change and perspectives change, and certainly it's historically a time for us to reconsider what the name is," Hebert said.
That's a statement that makes Harjo feel her campaign has been worthwhile.
Tell us what you think about Native American names and mascots below.
It isn't just Native Americans who are misrepresented by mascots. The Minnesota Vikings mascot appeara as a caricature of the true Vikings. True Vikings never wore those stupid helmets. The Irish do not look like Leprechauns and fight all day. If Americans, do not understand their own hisyory how can they appreciate anyone else's?
I think it depends on the context. My elementary school team name is the Indians. Our town, however, has a Pierpole parade celebrating a well known (to our area) Native-American and the motto for the combined high school/elementary school was "Mussul Unsquit" (which was the Native American word for our river). Historic ties and no disrespect.
If I was never allowed to use the "r" word around my paternal grandmother, a woman born on what's now the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, formerly the St. Regis reservation, I can't understand how the NFL allows this to be used. Oh, that's right, the NFL is a multi billion dollar gambling entity afforded anti-trust protection from Congress, and basically can do whatever they want.
So the people who have no problem with this would not object to a team called The Pagans who had an upsidedown crucified Jesus as their logo?
Why would Pagans want to Crucify Mr. Christ? He's kind of a Hippy Dude who had a healthy disrespect for totalitarian authority, be it civil or religious. Frankly, I think he'd be welcome as one of us.
Change the mame already and we can get one step closer to ridding this nation completely of any memory of these indigenous simpletons that can't hold their firewater.
Stupid to name a team after a bunch of losers!
Wait a minute! Could it be that the name was chosen out of respect for the courage and valor of these indigenous warriors?
Nah! Give'm some cheap cigs and throw in some rot gut. Now that's the Redskins all us insensitive white folks think about.
Here's a good compromise: we change the team's name to the "Washington Marauders" (remove the Native American element entirely) and change the logo to an assault rifle. You liberals ok with that?
that would definitly be more apt and attuned to what washington is anyway!! Good idea !!!
I feel native americans on this... in the age where being PC is king its inconcievable why these obviously socially/politically/morally incorrect racial slurs. We must NEVER forget that these people's lives are STILL affected by the wholesale slaughter their people went threw so WE can have the privilige to dance around in face paint and do tomahawks. Point blank, its offensive, they find it offensive so honor it. If it were the gay/lesbian/transgender community in an uproar about the ""Fairmount fairies"" or the "boston butt bangers" there would quick and decisive action, media scrutiny, nancy, anderson, oreilly, etc... Political intervention.... But because of the shame (hopefully) of the atrocities commited against Native Americans the current sentiment is "get over it, we gave you some casino's so suck it up"... More than likely though the sentiment is "we won, you lost take it or get out!)... SMH... Tragic
Despite vocal and legal action from Native American groups and scholars, the majority of people surveyed on the subject do not find the name offensive. Following the 1992 Super Bowl protests, the Washington Post posted a survey in which "89 percent of those surveyed said that the name should stay."
In a study performed by the National Annenberg Survey, Native Americans from the 48 continental U.S. states were asked "The professional football team in Washington calls itself the Washington Redskins. As a Native American, do you find that name offensive or does it not bother you?" In response, ninety percent replied that the name is acceptable, while nine percent said that it was offensive, and one percent would not answer.
Don't they have the Fighting Irish? Are the Irish mad at that?
Why don't people complain about Spartans, Trojans, Celtics, Irish, Patriots, Giants, Pirates, etc. All of them could be seen as disparaging some Greeks or Turks or Irish or American or Tall People or People who sail in ships. What about animal names – Jaguars have been so bad the past couple of years so doesn't that insult large cats? The Royals – what's up with that, 240 years after getting rid of a king and they still rub it on our faces? Angels? Not fair to Christians. Twins – multi-birth-child-phobic. Don't even get me started on "Browns." Why don't Cowboys boycott the Dallas team?
Depictions of cowboys in cinema make white people look bad. This name must also be removed. It is offensive.
Our local team is call the Indian, they ARE NA and if she gets her way the team will have to drop the name.
But will it do ANY good at all, probably not, notice a lot of activist don't take on the really tough issues, they take on the easy feel good ones. Even if she managed to ban all Indian mascots will it make a difference, not really. Unemployment, drug use, alcohol use child abuse, rape, murder will still be the same. She's spending time and money on this and it doesn't matter.
The people working on the hard issue almost never get press, they are making a difference, but it's hard work and the rewards are few and far between. Enough with the feel good activist and lets really solve the problems facing NA. And yes I'm NA.


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The Homer High School Mariner Co-op Hockey Team would like to thank the community of Homer for coming out to support them in the End of the Road Shootout held Nov. 21-23 at the Kevin Bell Arena. It was a great to have so many fans cheering for the Mariners.
We also would like to thank our supporters who have sponsored the team this year: the Kachemak Bay Ferry, Northwind Aviation, The Center, Spenard Builders Supply, Southwest Alaska Pilots Association, South Peninsula Hospital — Homer Medical Center, Compass Rose Properties, Halibut Cove Live, Renewable Resources Coalition, Alaska Trophy Fishing Safaris, Story Real Estate, F/V Surrender, Kepler Park, Patricia Green, Boss Hoggz, Homer Electric Association, Preventive Dental Services, P.C., and Magic Fish Company. Because of these encouraging sponsors, the Mariners were able to host a fantastic three-day tournament and they are looking forward to the upcoming games against the valley teams Dec. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 7 at 12:30 p.m. Come and cheer on the Mariners.
Brad Roberts, Rich Sonnen and Tracey Tillion
Mariner Hockey Managers


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The Council for Higher Education (COHE) is the recognized bargaining agent for all full-time and regular part-time instructional-research faculty who are not supervisors in colleges and universities in the state of South Dakota, the Agricultural Experiment Station, Cooperative Extension Service, Auxiliary Services, the South Dakota School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the South Dakota School for the Deaf. We have proudly defended faculty rights for more than three decades.
COHE exists to continually improve the quality and integrity of higher education through vigorous advocacy on behalf of the bargaining unit. COHE believes that educational quality and integrity can only be assured by faculty who are allowed to practice their chosen field(s) in a work environment that protects academic freedom, clearly defines faculty rights and responsibilities, and provides competitive compensation.
Benefits of membership include:
» Communication about higher education issues in South Dakota
» Professional liability insurance
» Assistance with disciplinary procedures and grievance issues
» Legal representation
» Social/collegial activities
» Substantial discounts on home & auto insurance (for some members, these savings total more than their dues)


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By noon, the temperature had risen to the high 80s in eastern Arkansas, and the mosquitoes were swarming clouds in the humid, fetid air. As church services at Ellis Chapel concluded, Dixon Platt, the pastor of the United Methodist community in the town of Wynne, wondered why 80-year-old Lillian Wilson, one of the most devoted of his flock, hadn't shown up to worship that morning. It was all the more curious because he had agreed to have lunch with her.
Platt tried to track her down, but no one knew her whereabouts. Eventually, he made his way over to the Central United Methodist Church, where the group sometimes met on Sundays, and where Wilson had been working earlier that week, putting together disaster buckets for folks in need. He opened up the doors of the church, and there, underneath a pew, a few feet from the entrance was a body, a female, with blood on her pants.
Wilson had been murdered, and it didn't take much for the police to figure out what had happened.
In the trial of Rene Patrick Bourassa Jr., the defendant and his attorneys made no effort to deny he had killed Wilson. Bourassa even walked the authorities through the murder, re-enacting it for them. He had been sleeping at the church that week, first outside, and then in the chapel, presumably to escape the heat and mosquitoes. When Wilson walked into the church that morning, Bourassa picked up a brass cross from the Communion table, beat her to death, and stole her car.
The crime could have been set in 1930 or 1970; most of the details seemed familiar, almost old-fashioned. But what was decidedly modern was the question of moral culpability that arose during the trial: The lawyers didn't argue over whether Bourassa had committed the crime; they argued over whether his brain made him do it.
The criminal justice system is based on responsibility: For someone to be convicted of a crime, it has to be shown they were consciously aware of what they did, when they did it. The problem, according to Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, is that almost all 50 states still define consciousness based on what's in the Model Penal Code - a document published by the American Law Institute (ALI) in 1962, and derived almost entirely from Freudian texts.
The Freudian view - at least as interpreted by the ALI in its formulation of the mens rea, or "guilty mind" - is that science and the law can clearly demarcate between someone who chooses their actions, and who did not. It's the basis for the insanity defense, which argues that a person charged with a crime is so far gone they are essentially unconscious actors, and the reason why the law has developed a spectrum of murder charges ranging from first degree (willful and premeditated) to voluntary manslaughter (unplanned, but intentional, the result of circumstances which could have generated a "reasonable" fit of anger).
But as the fields of genetics and neurosciences have advanced, so has our understanding of human behavior: It is now thought that, instead of there being a clear line between conscious and unconscious processes, a fluid interplay exists between the two sides. "People don't have the degree of control over their behavior that we thought," Denno tells Newsweek. "That doesn't mean to suggest that there's no control over their behavior - but that some of us have higher hurdles than others."
This is intriguing in the abstract, but in the practical world of the legal system, it forces a troubling question: If a person is predisposed to a certain type of behavior, is it his fault for acting as he did? From one vantage point, Bourassa's choice to kill was never made; the illusion of free will masks the reality that he followed the plans laid out by a small anomaly, buried deep in his genes, that drove him to violence.
The field of behavioral genetics is the branch of science that seeks to answer the complex and often politicized question of nature vs. nurture, by looking at the interplay between genetic markers and human action. It's also a field that has developed an outsized influence on forensic science, particularly since the moment in the late 1970s when a group of women in the Netherlands came to the University Hospital in Nijmegen seeking help. The men in their family were very aggressive; so much so that acts of violence - including arson and attempted rape and murder - were all over the family tree. Geneticist Hans Brunner decided to investigate. It took about 15 years, but eventually, Brunner isolated a gene, shared by all the men, causing the violent behavior: a mutated variant of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene. Or, as it has come to be known in popular media, the warrior gene.
Every human has an MAOA gene - so-called because it encodes the enzyme monoamine oxidase A, which in turn breaks down key neurotransmitters in the brain, like dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. The MAOA gene is located on the X chromosome, which means that while women have two copies, men only have one - so any problems with the gene are much more likely to affect men. There are a few variants of the gene, one of which - MAOA-3R, present in about 30 percent of men - has been shown over and over again, in both controlled animal studies in labs and in real-world testing scenarios, to be correlated to increased aggressive behavior. (Brunner's patients had an extreme mutation in the gene that went way beyond the common "violent" variant.)
Bourassa had the MAOA-3R variant, so, as the science goes, was from birth more likely to hurt others.
Of course, as every genetic researcher is quick to point out, there is no such thing as nature or nurture; they are inextricably entwined. "The expression of genes is fundamentally dependent on environmental inputs - they work in concert, hand in glove," says Rose McDermott, a professor of political science at Brown University, who has extensively studied the MAOA gene. A recent meta-analysis that looked at 27 different MAOA studies confirmed that maltreatment as a child was a key influence in way that the MAOA gene was ultimately expressed.
In extensive psychiatric interviews with Bourassa, psychiatrist James Walker discovered that he had been sexually molested at the age of 4 by a friend of his father; in the fifth grade, he was repeatedly raped by an older boy; and at age 21, he was brutally beaten in a mugging. As the science goes, Bourassa was from adolescence more likely to hurt others.
Though Bourassa's actions in that Arkansas church were undoubtedly brutal, if you read the science closely, you might surmise that he had no control over what he did, because the deck was so blatantly stacked against him. And a jury of his peers agreed. Bourassa was found guilty of capital murder, but was not sentenced to death; he got life in prison without parole. The relatively lenient verdict in Bourassa's trial was the result of a criminal defense argument that has, in recent years, become de rigueur in capital cases nationwide: shifting the blame for behavior, just ever so slightly, away from the individual defendant, and toward uncontrollable biological factors.
An extremely high-profile example of how genetics enter the fray can be found in the case Jared Lee Loughner, who was charged with 19 counts of murder and attempted murder, including the shooting of then U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords. At the time of his arrest, Loughner was visibly unhinged; for months, one of the primary questions of the case was whether or not he was competent to stand trial. Loughner's defense team, led by stalwart capital punishment opponent Judy Clarke, filed subpoenas for the public health records of his relatives, going as far back as 1893. When, during the plea bargain, Loughner's team revealed that a number of his maternal relatives suffered from "extreme bouts of mental illness," their strategy became clear.
Even if a person is considered insane, proving that person acted without consciousness at any given time - in Loughner's case, at the time of the shooting - is essentially impossible, and can be tough to sell in the courtroom. On the other hand, if there is something in the person's genetic history that might indicate a tendency toward violent or otherwise crazy behavior, it makes a strong case that the person should not be held fully responsible for his actions. Loughner ultimately avoided the death penalty; he was sentenced to life without parole as part of a guilty plea bargain. Clarke will also be defending Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing.
To date, behavioral genetics have been applied mostly to capital cases, but, according to Stephen Biskar, who has served as a California public defender for more than 30 years, the only reason this type of defense isn't used in all criminal trials is a lack of resources. Public defenders can't "spend the time and money on a case in which the sentence will ultimately be shorter than the investigation," he tells Newsweek. Loughner's trial, for example, spanned 11 months and involved a raft of legal and forensic experts flown in from all corners of the country.
Given the reliability of this type of evidence (identifying the existence of the MAOA-3R variant is eminently replicable), it's no surprise it has become a staple in the courtroom. Critics, however, contend that biological explanations for illegal and violent behavior work too well. A 2012 study, for example, made waves after claiming to have found that if judges were given evidence of a "biomechanical cause of the convict's psychopathy" during the sentencing phase of a trial, they would pass a more lenient sentence. Though the study's authors didn't make the argument explicitly, they implied that courts were to some extent blinded by the light of science.
On one level, the argument makes sense. After all, law school curriculums do not require any training in the sciences, and, despite their prominence in cases ranging from paternity suits to shaken baby investigations, the bar does not test knowledge in these areas. There is no science or technology training required as part of the minimum continuing medical education for lawyers or judges across the country. Classes in science are offered - but judges need to seek them out. (One major source of scientific training for judges, the Advanced Science & Technology Adjudication Resource Center, has been shuttered due to lack of funds since 2011.)
But then again, judges in the past were never expected to undertake studies in courses of psychoanalysis or moral philosophy. And now, in 2014, instead of just listening to psychiatrists hold court, judges and juries are seeing brain scans and genetic sequences - concrete, visible evidence. "It's changing the landscape of the criminal justice system," argues Denno. "It's making it much more transparent and keeping experts honest."
Eventually, behavioral genetics might lead to a profound change in our penal system. "I predict it might undermine the death penalty," says Dr. William Bernet, a forensic psychiatrist from Vanderbilt University, who did the genetic testing on Bourassa and testified at his trial. Bernet argues that the whole concept of premeditation might come under greater scrutiny as science uncovers more about what drives behavior.
Despite how popular media makes it seem, insanity pleas (and other claims to "unconscious" action) are quite rare; in the history of the American legal system, the majority of defendants have been deemed to be conscious actors, 100 percent scientifically and morally responsible for their behavior. Common sense would question these outcomes; it's not a stretch to suggest that nearly everybody that commits a murder is, in some way, neurologically damaged, whether from nature or nurture.
But a new model of behavior and volition is emerging, a framework that relies more on hard science than ever before. At the same time, it may be raising more questions of moral responsibility than it answers. Though researchers have sequenced the entire human genome, they still know the meaning of only a tiny fraction of the massive chain, and there may yet be dozens, or even hundreds, of MAOA-like genes as yet uncovered. Bernet, for one, predicts that genetic markers for sado-sexual violence will emerge, and become a key influence in forecasting repeat offenders. This may complicate the picture even further, as lawmakers will have to make tough decisions about whether or not to identify a class of people who are responsible for their actions, and another whose genetic and environmental background makes them, essentially, unconscious actors in the eyes of the law.
Already, science has begun to see an individual like Bourassa as the sum total of all that came before, all the events and actors in both his life and the lives of his parents, and so on. In this model, he is just the final cog in an infinitely complex machine. But if that really is the case, who in the end is actually responsible for his actions?
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Wynne was in Georgia. It is in Arkansas.


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What people are saying about Janice Harayda's One-Minute Book Reviews and her comic novels The Accidental Bride and Manhattan on the Rocks …
From the April 2011 issue of New Jersey Monthly: One-Minute Book Reviews is one of New Jersey's "best blogs": "Harayda's review blog has made her a star in the literary world."
From the blog for Powell's Books: "Arguably the second-best online literary award after the TOB's Rooster [co-sponsored by Powell's] is the 2008 Delete Key Awards for 'the year's worst writing in books,' awarded by the One-Minute Book Reviews blog."
From Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle: "I stumbled on One Minute Book Reviews, a fun new book blog by former NBCC board member Janice Harayda. Among other things, she has this fascinating post where she uncovers the fact that Mitch Albom actually writes at a third grade level …" From a Nov. 22 post by Rebecca Skloot on Critical Mass, the blog for the National Book Critics Circle, on Nov. 22, 2006. http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com
From Miss Snark, the literary agent: "I actually loved Janice Harayda's The Accidental Bride. I forgot how funny she was until I found her blog." From a Nov. 26 post by Miss Snark on Miss Snark, a pseudonymous literary agent who answers questions from writers and others on her blog. www.missnark.blogspot.com
From BookInfo.net: "… I recently came across an absolutely fantastic post from "One Minute Book Reviews" (thanks to Critical Mass for pointing me to this excellent site). The blog's author, Janice Harayda, was prompted by the inane prose of Mitch Albom's For One More Day to run a selection through Microsoft Word's Readability Statistics, an optional part of the spelling and grammar check. With a false-start selection that judged Mr. Albom's prose at a grade level of 2.8, she eventually determined that he writes at a third-grade level—3.4, to be precise. Her curiosity led her to check a comparable section from different authors, yeilding the following results:
Nora Ephron I Feel Bad About My Neck Grade 12.0
Alex Kuczynski Beauty Junkies Grade 10.3
James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson Grade 8.6
Stephen King Lisey's Story Grade 8.3
Danielle Steel Toxic Bachelors Grade 4.8
Emily Arnold McCully An Outlaw Thanksgiving, a picture book for 4-to-8 year olds by a Caldecott Medalist Grade 4.3
Mitch Albom For One More Day Grade 3.4
I will leave you to peruse Harayda's blog article yourself for her smart questions about these results, and also for an additional pay-off which I will hint at only by giving you the post's title: "Does Mitch Albom Think He's Jesus?"
From BookInfo.Net, Nov. 28, 2006 www.bookinfo.net
From Out.com: "The folks at MediaBistro.com's Galleycat Daily Feed recently ran a song parody contest. One of our favorite entries, a salute to former Luv Guv Jim McGreevey, came from Janice Harayda, who writes the One-Minute Book Reviews blog. Here, with apologies to Cole Porter, are some choice bits: "You're the top!/You're a Turnpike rest stop./You're the top!/You're an NJ state cop./You're the platinum in a recording by Bon Jovi./You're a Springsteen CD/A Rutgers QB. You're a Princeton c.v./You're the Nets./You're the Pulaski Skyway/You're a sunset on Cape May./I'm a washed-up pol, a complete mess, a flop,/But if, honey, I'm the bottom you're the top!" From Out.com, Jan. 19, 2006. www.out.com/gossip.asp?id=2214
From Gawker.com: "Doing their utmost, as usual, to defy the stereotype that book publishing types are cape-wearing drama nerds, Galleycat solicited Ben Greenman-style show-tune parodies of works of literature. Today, the results are in, and while some of them are as sad and clunky as the filler numbers in Dreamgirls, there are some high points. We especially liked this Cole Porter by way of One Minute Book Reviewer Janice Harayda take on our favorite Gay American: 'You're the top! You're a Turnpike rest stop …' Ha, man, if Cole Porter could only know that someone was imputing a dirty gay meaning into those innocent words." From Gawker.com, Jan. 19, 2006
From the Daysitter blog for Conde Nast's Cookie magazine, March 12, 2007, www.cookie.com: "I know, I know. If you're a parent, you sometimes don't have time to read more than the ingredients listed on a breakfast cereal box. But let's just say you have a whole minute. How do you make those seconds really count?
The answer is this nifty new site, One-Minute Book Reviews, brainchild of writer, critic and voracious reader Janice Harayda … One-Minute Book Reviews explores just about every kind of book, a something-for-everyone cornucopia of delights. Yes, says Harayda, you can read the reviews in a minute or less. The site features new releases but also goes back to the classics, and embraces titles other books sections ignore like self-help and poetry.
"Harayda not only aims help you find pleasing reading matter, but also to guide you away from the clunkers, with 'Books I Didn't Finish.' Here, Harayda tells readers where she stopped reading a particular book and why, listing the best and worst lines, and giving readers suggestions for a better book to read … Witty, smart, and blisteringly honest, One-Minute Book Reviews can give you hours of reading pleasure."
One-Minute Book Reviews was named one of the "Top 50 Book Review Blogs" by the Guide to Online Schools in February 2011.
One-Minute Book Reviews was one of the top 10 Blogs of the Day in the category of "growing blogs" on WordPress.com for Nov. 23 and 26 and on other days in 2006. A link to its first ranking in the top 10:
One-Minute Book Reviews was one of the top ten book review sites in the world on Google as of Nov. 2, 2008: www.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Reviews_and_Criticism/.
One-Minute Book Reviews has on multiple occasions had one of the 100 posts of the day WordPress, most recently on Feb. 12, 2009, botd.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/top-posts-1021/.
Best of the Web ranks One-Minute Book Reviews among the best book review sites on the Web blogs.botw.org/Arts/Literature/Book_Reviews/.
Janice Harayda was named one of "25 Women Bloggers to Watch in 2008" by the site Virtual Woman's Day virtualwomansday.blogspot.com/2008/01/women-bloggers-to-watch-in-2008.html.
From Valkay on Stumble Upon: "This is one of the best book review sites out there. Janice maintains strict, old-school-journalism impartiality: she does not accept free reviewer copies, and reads whatever she wants. So she has no conflicts of interest with anyone and can review with bracing honesty. She updates the site constantly with new reviews of mostly literary and contemporary fiction and nonfiction and children's books (not so much emphasis on genre fiction). She includes amusing and creative features like the Delete Key Awards for her picks of the year's worst books, and Backscratching in Our Time, which blows the whistle on famous authors who exchange glowing blurbs with each other. She also keeps you up on happenings in the book world from coverage of major awards like the Pulitzer to more minor awards like the Bad Sex Scene writing awards given in the U.K. The title and premise of her blog is that you get a succinct review or article that you can read in one-minute."
From My Life Scoop, produced by Six Apart and Federated Media: mylifescoop.com/featured-blogs/2009/11/one-minute-book-reviews.html "As book review sections vanish from newspapers, it can be tough to decide what to read next (especially if you don't feel like relying on Amazon customer recommendations). One-Minute Book Reviews, 'for people who like to read but dislike hype and review inflation,' is written by former Glamour book columnist and Cleveland Plain Dealer book critic Janice Harayda.
Praise for Janice Harayda's comic novels
The Accidental Bride and Manhattan on the Rocks:


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Course Title: Human Movement Honours (Part A)
Part A: Course Overview
Course ID: 006292
Course Title: Human Movement Honours (Part A)
Credit Points: 48
Course Code
Learning Mode
Teaching Period(s)
Bundoora Campus
160H Medical Sciences
Sem 1 2006,
Sem 1 2007
Course Coordinator: Dr Ian A Darby
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7624
Course Coordinator Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Course Coordinator Location: 223.2.12
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
A degree in biological or biomedical sciences (Human Movement) with a major study in subjects which are appropriate to the research project chosen. An overall credit average in the undergraduate degree.
Course Description
The aim of this course is to:
• Prepare students for research and higher-level employment in biomedical science, by developing further their knowledge of these fields, capacity for independent work and scientific communication skills, in an environment where the students' further development is guided by experienced staff.
• Provide appropriate training in scientific method, laboratory skills and communication skills, to prepare students for higher degree programs in these areas.
• Enhance the academic and scientific skills of students, in order to enhance the opportunities of such graduates to obtain employment in a competitive environment.
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
This course is particularly important in the graduate capabilities of:
• Ability to engage personally with a body of knowledge through an independent supervised original research project.
• Ability to engage in problem solving and research, including both critical and lateral thinking in the context of the research project.
• Ability to work and learn independently and collaboratively as part of a team.
• Ability to locate, evaluate, manage and use a range of information in the context of the research project and associated activities.
• Ability to communicate in written, visual and oral formats.
At the end of the course, the student should have:
a. Specialist laboratory skills in an area of biomedical science;
b. An appreciation of scientific method;
c. Enhanced ability to think critically and logically;
d. Independent decision-making skills, relevant to scientific research;
e. Communication skills relevant to the dissemination of experimental findings; and
f. A greater depth and breadth of knowledge in their major study discipline.
Overview of Learning Activities
Students attend a formal program of lectures, tutorials and workshops, but most teaching takes place from supervisors, who are members of the department academic staff, during the conduct of a research project in a research team in an active research area in biomedical science. Flexible learning is provided in the assignments to be completed and in the location of the projects.
Students have the responsibility of attending scheduled formal sessions, completing formal items of assessment, performing the research project and its reporting requirements diligently and intelligently and undertaking these with care and attention to the legal and moral requirements of a professional scientist.
Students will undertake a supervised research project, will present seminars on their project, attend workshops, write an assignment and they will write a thesis on their research project.
Overview of Learning Resources
Various reference manuals from regulatory authorities and original articles on scientific research will be consulted as well as the textbooks below, and computer help functions.
The DLS Blackboard pages have copies of documents handed out during scheduled classes, including the lecture notes and the assignments.
Prescribed Text
Lindsay, D. (Current Edition). A Guide to Scientific Writing. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.
Anderson, J., and Poole, M. (1994). Thesis and Assignment Writing, 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane.
Day, R.A. (1988). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Pechenik, J.A. (1993). A Short Guide to Writing about Biology, 2nd edn. Harper Collins College Publishers, New York, USA. (rather basic)
Commonwealth of Australia (1994). Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 5th edn. AGPS, Canberra.
RMIT (1994). Manual on Scientific Writing. RMIT TAFE Publications, Melbourne.
Australian Institute of Medical Scientists. (1995). Instructions to Authors. Australian Journal of Medical Science.
Phillips, E.M., and Pugh, D.S. (1994). How to Get a Ph.D., 2nd edn. Open University, Buckingham, U.K.
Also see instructions to authors by your preferred journal.
For literature reviews and project work, students work mostly from recent literature in journals and reference books, rather than from textbooks.
Overview of Assessment
In order to graduate from the Honours program a student must complete parts A and B.
The assessment items are:
• Research Methods
• Project Proposal
• Literature Review
• Research Project
• Participation


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Cant wait for tomorrow! Its gonna be CraZy!
i'm pretty good. just studying. waiting for hc3. i'm diggin the site.
haha ya i get that...nm just chillin...welcome to the site...how are u?
hey. whats up? just joined this site cuz i'm sick of myspace and i wanna meet real people.
LOL I was looking through my profile messages and saw the chick w/ pot leaf nipples and was like "Holy hell! Who is that?!" xD nice.
Hey cutie!! ^_^
Good just working a usual.. sometime i think i work too much, but thats all part of being mexican i guess.. Yeah north Austin welcom to the club you'll have to come by and hang when you ever get a chance
Whats up kid? How goes it?
The Mexican Formerly Know as Lightsounds
El Gigante
Come on. It will be very.
Check my tunes @ myspace.com/DjDickClark
Dj Duct Tape
MIA Texas
The guy your mom warned you about.


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I've posted twice already about the Lowe's fiasco. Here's an addendum:
While this satire perpetuates the "they're just like ordinary Americans" trope, what I like about it is that it's designed to upset stereotypes. It reminds me of the "Ordinary Muslim Man" meme, which similarly sets up a stereotype and then tries to undermine it: