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Impressionism is the movement most closely identified with the emergence of the modern era. Its sparking scenes of everyday life – of Paris boulevards & smartly dressed bourgeoisie, of the new leisure class boating on the river or relaxing on the beach – have become part of the visual landscape for the late 19th century. However, Impressionism was also revolutionary; breaking with the established conventions of European painting, it proposed bold new approaches in colour, composition, technique & subject matter, changing painting forever.
Paris in the late 19th century was a modern city that embraced technological innovation, such as gas & then electric lighting, which dazzled its many visitors. (Juan) Luna, writing to a friend, said, ‘this is a century of light, of electric light’. Arts & culture also thrived in Paris, & artists from around the world flocked there to seek recognition & to learn the latest developments in art.
A Century of Light | In Between Worlds
Exhibition by National Gallery Singapore
“hold the page out like a work of art, see for yourself, comb through it twice, three times, look for your likeness in the lines but find someone else…”
At the Singapore Writers Festival a couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity of attending Armitage’s poetry panel with Rae Armantrout on the role of poetry in society. I had been a big fan since I first encountered his work in The English Bookshop, back when I was studying in Sweden & was a stranger to its curious language with all its sharp turns & confusing vowel system. The English Bookshop in Uppsala was & still is an institution, an oasis for foreign students hungry for Norton Anthologies or English poetry translations.
Along with Mark Doty’s Atlantis, I picked up Simon Armitage’s Book of Matches without much of a thought. I’ve loved both poets ever since, but am drawn to the natural rhythms & jolting descriptions of the latter. Book of Matches consists primarily of short, untitled sonnets, each meant to be read in 20 seconds – the time it takes for a match to burn out completely from the time it is lit. Here’s one:
My party piece:
I strike, then from the moment when the matchstick
conjures up its light, to when the brightness moves
beyond its means, and dies, I say the story
of my life –
dates and places, torches I carried,
a cast of names and faces, those
who showed me love, or came close,
the changes I made, the lessons I learnt –
then somehow still find time to stall and blush
before I’m bitten by the flame, and burnt.
A warning, though, to anyone nursing
an ounce of sadness, anyone alone:
don’t try this on your own; it’s dangerous,
I like vivid, true-to-life love scenes
in a movie. No, that’s a lie,
that’s when I like love least;
it’s the turn of the head or a pale blue eye
that moves me.
Keep love in the mind
and out of the blood, beds
are for sleep, for dreams, for good.
I can see what it takes
to keep a friendship in the heart,
the chest. That’s
when I like love best – not locked away
but left unsung, unsaid.
And then the rest.
And another one, that is perhaps my favourite.
Mother, any distance greater than a single span
requires a second pair of hands.
You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,
the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.
You at the zero end, me with the spool of tape, recording
length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving
up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling
years between us. Anchor. Kite.
I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb
the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something
has to give;
two floors below your fingertips still pinch
the last one-hundredth of an inch . . . I reach
towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky
to fall or fly.
What is it? What is it about these poems that makes Armitage both a popular & critically-acclaimed poet? It’s all because of style, a quality sorely lacking in this digital age, which Armitage emphasises time & time again is the essence of poetry. I have never read or written a poem which contained content that I couldn’t Google, he said, and I have to agree, which is why I am not surprised at the fact that Instagram poets like Rupi Kaur are receiving so much backlash lately. Unfortunately, social media has given confessional poetry a bad name – a genre once carried by the likes of Plath and Lowell, who valued language craftsmanship & prosody at the highest level – building it around a cult personality rather than the art form.
There is no point to be flummoxed by Kaur, or even angry at her. She is famous in her own right & is at the very least lucrative, if not talented. But like Armitage & Armantrout addressed at that panel, the good that poetry does is found in the form it serves, not in the subject matter. While topics can & should be compelling, poetry is not composed of statements or personal opinions broken up on a page, but of form, & sound, & syntax. Style is integral for poetry as plot is to prose, or setting is to plays.
Is this thinking old-fashioned? I don’t know. I just know that like Armitage & Armantrout, a poet like Rupi Kaur cannot give me what I want from poetry. A poem can be simple but it cannot be simplistic. One cannot simplify what is meant to be complex. In 14 lines, selected words in the right order translates into an effervescent feeling. In 14 lines, a creature becomes a world unto itself.
It is why I love Armitage so much, because he upholds the integrity of the art form without being unreachable by the masses. His poems exist at the fringe of popular culture, dipping toes, dialoguing, touching on socio-political & even environmental issues without losing its characteristic style. In the poem In Praise of Air, the good in poetry manifests itself a very tangible way.
“In May 2014 the University of Sheffield unveiled the world’s first catalytic poem. 20 metres in height, the poem is mounted on the wall of the Alfred Denny building on Western Bank. It is an original work by Sheffield University’s Professor of Poetry, Simon Armitage, and the result of a collaboration with Pro-Vice Chancellor for Science, Professor Tony Ryan. The giant banner on which the poem is printed has been manufactured using revolutionary nano-technology. It is coated with a photocatalyst which eats pollution, enabling the poem to clean the air around it as it sits in place, overlooking the busy A57.”
In Praise of Air was the first poem that Armitage read that afternoon. In a small chamber room at The Arts House, we listened as he read the 16-line poem in his slight, Yorkshire accent, enraptured at the way the words washed over all of us, knowing perfectly well what needed to be said & was said, & at the same time, being delightfully surprised by the warm, half-familiar feeling it gave anyway.
In Praise of Air
I write in praise of air. I was six or five
when a conjurer opened my knotted fist
and I held in my palm the whole of the sky.
I’ve carried it with me ever since.
Let air be a major god, its being
and touch, its breast-milk always tilted
to the lips. Both dragonfly and Boeing
dangle in its see-through nothingness…
Among the jumbled bric-a-brac I keep
a padlocked treasure-chest of empty space,
and on days when thoughts are fuddled with smog
or civilization crosses the street
with a white handkerchief over its mouth
and cars blow kisses to our lips from theirs
I turn the key, throw back the lid, breathe deep.
My first word, everyone’s first word, was air.
In 2014, I was browsing through Cereal magazine when I stumbled upon this article about a “Town of Books”. The feature was brief but evocative, & in characteristic Cereal Magazine aesthetic, generously layered with moody, rain-washed images – a spindly chair at the back of a bookstore in dusky light, clothbound volumes stacked against each other, the humble yet majestic Welsh plains. I devoured the pictures as I did the words, & remember being drawn to this particular line: The books of Hay-on-Wye outnumber its human inhabitants by an estimated 6800 to one.
It was a figure that did not make sense, perhaps because all my life I had felt that there was no real limit of how much one could read if he or she was willing. But there it was, the impossible number as stark as day – 6800. If a resident of Hay-on-Wye were to read a book every week, it would take 130.77 years to finish the volumes allotted to him or her, book swaps aside. It was unreachable, astounding, daunting.
According to the feature, Hay-on-Wye (commonly abbreviated to just “Hay”) lies just on the border between Wales & England, far away from the capital cities of each country. Up till the 1960s, Hay was nothing more than a floundering market town until Richard Booth – a wiry, 20-something graduate who had gone off to study at Oxford University – returned home & became frustrated at how all his friends were leaving for cities like Cardiff & London for greater prospects. He decided to save the dwindling economy of his rural home the only way he knew how – through books. In 1962, he shipped hundreds of them in containers from the soon-to-be derelict libraries of America & scoured the counties for the forgotten collections of English aristocrats & opened a secondhand bookstore in Hay’s abandoned fire station.
It worked. Tourists started coming, followed by quizzical literati in the years after (it was after all the famed playwright Arthur Miller, who upon being asked to attend the town’s annual literary festival, asked: Hay-on-Wye? What is that, some kind of sandwich?). The sleepy town was finally & thankfully drawn out of slumber, saved from the fate of going out like a whisper like so many others. Since then, many have followed Booth’s example in setting up their own book enclaves, peppered all around town. Fifty-odd years later, Hay is home to two dozen bookstores & something like two million books. It is also hosts the annual Hay festival. Every year in May to June, writers, poets, artists, philosophers & bibliophiles, the likes of which include Alain De Botton & Joseph Heller, descend to the little town for this very reason.
What a story, what a place. I wanted to be there. For 22 years, I had sat on the floor of my tiny “library” & inhabited pages of novels & their fantastic tales. Books had been my world. How would it be like then, to live in a world of books?
“Books are the cumulative livelihood, directly or indirectly, of hundreds living in this town, and the draw for the many hundreds of thousands more who come to visit. They contain every imaginable world within their covers, our sum knowledge, every hope and every fear, in scores of languages by countless hands.”
– Richard Aslan, for Cereal Magazine.
For a long time, the natural rhythms of life intervened. Final year thesis, relationships, fixations with other cities, first job, tragedy. As each year passed, my life became a little messier & confusing & I read a little less until I read nothing at all. The mystical town of Hay faded into the background like a forgotten poet. But then like a miracle, three years later, I found myself in Swansea, Wales under the most unlikely of circumstances & remembered the book town that existed in between the folds of the Welsh countryside. Hay-on-Wye. A whimsical, three-note melody that beckoned me to thee. & so I booked my bus tickets, packed a night bag, & went.
Here’s the story of my 36 hours in the magical kingdom.
From where I am in Swansea, it takes 25 pounds, four hours & three buses to get to Hay, all to visit a town that you can walk across in ten minutes. The morning I leave, the temperature drops to a frigid four degrees & I miss the first bus out & have to wait forty minutes for the next one to arrive. Waiting at the interchange, it’s so cold that I can hardly feel my face. I finally clamber onto the regional bus at 7am. It is just me & an old couple sitting two seats ahead. The radiator is on full blast. I fall asleep almost immediately, unable to witness Swansea City fading behind me.
I wake up a half hour later & all I see is green. This is not the green that I am used to – that gaudy shade caught in jarring, tropical sunlight – but green touched by hues of brown & unbridled rock, an expansive landscape that forms the backdrop of books by Dylan Thomas & Bruce Chatwin. I realise that we are in the heart of Brecon Beacons National Park. There seems to be no horizon to this rolling greenery & a strange feeling rises in the pit of my stomach, swelling like a bubble, a feeling that I’ve only felt a few times before when I found myself in the middle of infinities… what was it? Peace? Bliss? Awe?
I wish I could ask someone about this. The old man turns around & gestures to the top window above his head. He’s asking me if it’s alright to open it. I nod, & he cracks the glass panel wide open & the bus is filled with fresh, vale air. I listen to James Vincent McMorrow & Sam Amidon & Lucy Rose. For more than an hour, we watch the hills twist slowly into roads, the old couple & I; we pass by clusters of thatched cottages, clusters of sheep, all the things in clusters against the sheet of green.
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
(Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953)
I get off at Brecon & catch bus 39 as per instructions from Chrissy, my Airbnb host. From the looks of her online profile, she is fifty or sixty-something, has a doughy, not unpleasant face & wears purple glasses. She says that she will meet me outside Hay Castle at exactly noon. I’m nervous because my phone has run out of battery & I have stupidly not written her phone number or address down.
We pass by a few stone mansions, a few road signs, a few people. Suddenly, Hay-on-Wye bursts into view. I can’t believe it, I’ve arrived. It’s down season here – the literary festival isn’t for a few more months – so the streets are mostly clear with the odd couple or lone traveller milling about at a pleasant pace. The bus stops right outside Hay Castle & seconds after I step down, I meet Chrissy. She is exactly like how I imagined – chatty, kind, warm. Immediately she launches into questions about where I came from, what I was doing in here in Hay, if I’ve had any lunch, etc. Her little apartment sits on the edge of town & when we reach, we trudge up two flights of steps & step into a warm little abode.
She shows me my room – spacious, comfy, big windows with a view of Hay Castle – & tells me where the amenities are. The tour takes two minutes because besides my bedroom, the only things to see are the bathroom (which we both share), a tiny sitting room & an even tinier kitchen. We don’t talk very much because she knows that I have come all this way & am itching to explore the town & its many bookstores. Chrissy leaves me with some food recommendations & retreats into her own room. I take only what I need, including two empty book bags & step out.
I don’t really know where to go so I stop everywhere. I go into The Fudge Shop & get a piece of chocolate fudge to nibble at as I let the streets take me where they may. To get to Castle Road, which is the main vein where most of the bookshops are clustered on, I make a turn into “Back Fold”, an unsuspecting lane, in itself a self-contained world of record shops & knick-knack boutiques & hidden tea salons. Back Fold narrows steadily until one has to squeeze oneself through the opening at the end. As I slide through the two building walls, I think to myself, this is what Alice in Wonderland must have felt like, falling through the rabbit hole.
Castle Street. The store signs are studded with old-fashioned names – apothecary, antiques, antiquarian – spelt out in fading gold letter & winding curlicues. I duck into Hay-on-Wye Booksellers first & lose myself in the first of many shelves of books. I marvel at the first editions locked behind glass boxes in the antiquarian section & talk briefly to the woman behind the counter, who has a shock of white blond hair & is meticulously cataloguing new arrivals, only stopping to make a sale or answer queries.
The next stop is Hay Castle, the crumbling monument that is the heart of Hay-on-Wye. I enter the castle via a small staircase & am surprised to find a dozen shelves groaning under the weight of hundreds of books, abandoned to the raw elements on this cold day.
The Honesty Bookshop is a peculiar feature of Hay-on-Wye, the only one in town that has no till nor owner. It gets its supply from a variety of sources & works like this – 50p for paperbacks, £1 for hardbacks, take all the time you need & leave the money in the little box at the stairs after you’re done. All proceeds go to the restoration & upkeep of the castle. The castle grounds & the sweet, spring air are yours alone to take in.
Hay Castle isn’t much when you compare it to the other massive stone castles scattered across England, but it is here where Richard Booth, the unofficial founding father of Hay, laid down the cornerstone for the first national book town in the world & all the eccentric booksellers to come. Similar to the eponymous, hapless hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ Spanish classic Don Quixote, Booth is a queer enigma with ridiculous dreams. Quixote dubs himself a knight-errant & Booth proclaims Hay-on-Wye an independent kingdom under his self-declared kingship, taking Hay Castle as his throne room; Quixote recruits an unsuspecting farmer to be his squire & Booth establishes a House of Lords made out of ordinary citizens & names his horse his prime minister. They are both driven by the same, unrealistic desire, or in Cervantes’ words: to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, bring justice to the world… & if not the world, at least this little corner of the once mighty Welsh kingdom.
What fools. What kings.
Next is Addyman Annexe, complete with a book passage & thousands of penguin paperbacks. Then Rose’s Books, all pretty in pink, a children’s books specialty store stocked with hundreds of out-of-print Tin Tin magazines & Grimm compendiums & beautifully illustrated fables. Then Francis Edwards, whose name sounds familiar until I remember that this is the “same” bookshop that I stumbled into four years ago in London’s west end when I was wet & cold & beginning to feel the first pangs of loneliness in that big, English city. As I stepped into this sister bookshop, I felt a rush of familiarity & recalled that moment from years ago tenderly. Francis Edwards welcomed me then & it was welcoming me now.
Quinto Bookshop & Francis Edwards
The sheet tacked on the front door reads Open till late for midnight browsers so I enter just after eleven
& even when the stinging spring chill blows
through the narrow shop space
nobody lifts their head to look, nobody notices
In a second everything is stock-still.
The first thing I see is an old man in a corner
apart from the rest, tenderly touching the book spines
& I want to cry from the beauty of it
from the realization that this city
is not of love or light or sin
but of little moments & things;
the shelves like billowing arms
& I can’t help it, I let myself fall
You’ve felt like this before, haven’t you?
Battened. held. safe.
(how well you know it
though you’ve never been before)
like maybe you could settle your words down into the dust
like maybe it would keep your secret for you
The rest of the afternoon passes in a salubrious haze. Lunch at Oscars – a ham pie & coffee with cream unspooling slowly in its warm centre. Broad Street Book Centre. A sundae at Shepherd’s Ice Cream Parlour, listening to Willie Nelson. I finally arrive at Richard Booth’s Bookstore, the grandest one in town by a mile with two massive storeys, a cafe & a cinema. One can spot it from far away with its red lacquered front & huge glass windows.
Here, I take my time. I order a beer & an English muffin from the cafe & read some poetry; I melt into one of the plush chairs on the second floor, light streaming in from the open ceiling as I navigate worlds of botany, sailing, history, & philosophy. I’m beginning to taste the edges of that feeling of being battened, held, safe, the feeling of finally settling into the skin that I was always meant to be in, like a fitting book jacket. Ah.
That night, after a quick dinner at one of the two open pubs in town, I go back to Richard Booth’s 47-seat cinema, where I’ve purchased a ticket for that night’s showing of “Jackie”. Here, going for a film feels like you’re going to the opera, & rightfully so, in a town where the weekly film is the only form of entertainment besides the local pub or watching TV at home. At the foyer, there is a man in a trim vest & bow tie that serves wine, ice cream & candy from big, glass jars. I get gummy bears & a glass of red, feeling a little sheepish.
At 730pm sharp, me & 46 other people troop into the theatre & nestle into the plush red seats. We watch Natalie Portman on the big screen in all of her lithe beauty, watch her go into a catatonic state of shock & nearly mad with grief as Mr Kennedy is assassinated. We marvel at her polished, mid-Atlantic accent & her expressive brown eyes. We see her go from devastation to gracefulness in seconds & then back again, feeling our own hearts skip a beat at the tumult of raw emotion.
When the credits roll, everybody claps. It is a very good film. I sit in my corner seat for a little while longer while people get up to leave. I realise that I’m tearing up. From what? It has been months since I’ve watched a movie & enjoyed it, but it goes beyond that. Something about community, or home. I can’t be too sure.
The next morning I get up early to spend a few more daylight hours in Booth’s kingdom, but before I venture out, Chrissy prepares breakfast for me – three kinds of cereal, fresh fruit juice, & a really delicious toast that has all kinds of nuts & fruit in it. She brews me a cup of strong, Welsh tea & while I devour my bowl of sweet oats on a foldable table in her tiny living room, we talk about life & people & books. Like me, Chrissy isn’t a native of Hay-on-Wye. She’s not even Welsh. She is a welcome stranger in the land, who left a bad marriage, stumbled upon Hay after traversing the English countryside for days & then decided to stay.
“I came across this little town, & I know this sounds strange but when I arrived at Hay, I just felt it sort of… embrace me, you know? There was such an air of love in this place & somehow I knew that I would fit right in.”
Strange, I felt it too.
She tells me about her life, the whole unfiltered version of it too, all without asking, & I listen. She talks about how tough it is to make ends meet, but how she knits little hats & scarves to sell at the main square on Market day & rents out the second room & gets by. She says she’s happier then she’s ever been. I don’t know how to respond to the stark openness, but I buy a red knit cap from her & promise I will take some photos of her apartment with my DSLR camera so that she can put them up on the site.
Oh that would be so nice! I’ll need to clean up the place first though…
I decide to leave her to it, & so I thank her for the wonderful breakfast & go out. It’s another morning of the same – Hay Cinema Bookshop, Clocktower Books, Hancock & Monks Music. I do a little shopping in The Old Electric Shop, a space flooded with natural light & odds & ends.
I love this, the quiet tinkering. Two feet away from me, there is a couple sitting in silence on a couch, just holding hands & bathing in the glow of early morning. A few more people scattered around, reading or writing. I don’t know what it is that draws writers to cafes, to coffee & wine, but I love it – you know you are with the like-minded. Here, the gentle whir of the espresso machine will keep you company; here, the muffled conversations will inspire you. You will inhale, sigh with relief, & perhaps if you are lucky, the word will start flowing.
One rarely has days like these in Singapore. I treasure the effervescent moment.
It’s eleven – time to go.
After half an hour of walking around, I finally find The Poetry Bookshop, a quiet space in a back alley run by Chris & his wife, where I have a lovely conversation with him & find a rare, first edition poetry collection by Elizabeth Smart aptly titled “A Bonus”. Smart, like most other poets, was unknown & unappreciated in her time & only achieved relative fame years after she died with the prose-poetry volume titled “By Grand Central Station I Set Down & Wept”, a pivotal piece of work for me in my late teens, writing that joined two worlds that I never knew could touch. Her poetry though, is very different, but lovely all the same, & true.
How I used to long
For silence and solitude.
Because in a day or two
Out of the blue
Angels descended then
Connecting me with heaven
In a constant consummation
Independent of men
and things and events
All day and night
A long long amen.
Is This Pain Justified – Elizabeth Smart, from “The Bonus”
In my reverie, I realise that I’m blocking someone from making an actual query. I make way for a man in a beautiful navy blue coat who asks Chris a question about an author I’ve never heard of before & Chris says that while he does not have any copies, Richard Booth’s might have some. He writes down a few things on a scrap of paper & the man leaves happy, hopeful, his leather satchel bouncing behind him as he exits the bookshop & makes his way to the bookseller down the street.
Booksellers. I realise that this is the company that I am in – booksellers – people who have made it their life’s work to hunt down gems of the written word, who have driven for hours or days in search for their favourite author’s work. Next to them, I pale in comparison when it comes to a singular love for books. I can only peer through the looking glass, my fingers grazing the cold illuminated surface, in wonderment of these bookshops & their inhabitants.
Two o’ clock. My time in Hay has come to an end. I pick up my things, say goodbye to Chrissy, & catch the 39 out of Herefordshire. I settle into the seat, thinking about the hours that have passed in a tranquil fury. It was everything hoped for & more. It has been a rough year & I feel like maybe these 36 hours in Hay-on-Wye have done a healing work, that maybe something that I’ve been holding within me has broken like a dam. Lo, the Magical Kingdom.
Hay is a town that is full of dreamers, & not the kind of dreamers that sit around all day doing nothing. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylvia Beach, George Whitman & his daughter, Richard Booth… these booksellers are men & women of greatness because they know & believe in the magic of storytelling, of print, of curation. Booth just decided to do something, & a bunch of people then did the same.
In his memoir, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, the poet Lewis Buzbee says this: I am fatally attracted to all bookstores, & I identify with this gravitational pull well because in this day & age where we see the world through pixels & screens, there is a certain comfort & romance to reading with unadulterated eyes. By reading, you partake not only in your past, but someone else’s, or maybe even a whole civilisation’s. It is a necessity & a privilege.
So go ahead. Open the door, dip your finger into the jar, let your eye linger on the page. It’s all waiting for you.
Follow this rotating playlist of new releases & old classics here.
In the eighties, they used to make mixtapes with cassettes.
To make one, you would stick the original cassette with the song you wanted into one side of the stereo & a blank one into the other & press the “play” & “record” buttons simultaneously. That song from the original would then be recorded on the blank as it played. Three, four, five minutes would pass. You would hit the “pause” button exactly when the song ended, change the original cassette, repeat twenty times over, & out of the hundreds of rewinds & tape hisses would emerge a cobbled-together tapestry of songs.
This is why mixtapes are such a labour of love – because they had to be made in real time. It’s hard to imagine an age where one was unable to assemble a playlist in a matter of seconds like how you would on Spotify but yes, there was. Before iTunes & digital streaming, it wasn’t uncommon to spend hours ruminating on the perfect sequence of songs and compiling them for a certain mood, a certain season, a certain someone. Why do you think there have been so many movies made & books written about mixtapes? They are soundtracks to the beat of love unraveling, stitched together by fictional characters.
In the film High Fidelity, the main character Rob (played by John Cusack) summed up my feelings about a good mixtape when he said this: The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all, you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.
Rob was right – it is a delicate thing, especially when they’re made as gifts. The best mixtapes were the ones embedded with coded messages, not unlike song titles. A good mix didn’t just say: Here, This is For You, but also Hey, I Love You, or This Is Who I Really Am, or This Was How I Felt That One Hot Summer Night When I Was Thinking of You but You Didn’t Have a Clue.
The word “mixtape” was foreign to me for a long time because I was born in a time of discmans & their accompanying CDs – yes, those long-gone, shiny circles of music. When I was eight or nine, the first iPod had not been invented yet & I spent most of my school allowances at HMV, picking up whatever looked interesting & rushing home to stick it into my CD player & listen to the delicious morsels of music under the sheets (as detailed in this long spiel about my love for Fleet Foxes).
The first time I ever heard the word “mixtape” was when I was at a sleepover with my friend Liz (who loved The Dresden Dolls & The Academy Is & who was always introducing me to interesting music) & we were falling asleep in the attic after a night of eating too much pizza & watching bad chick flicks. After hours of dancing to Cobra Starship (!), we finally collapsed, exhausted, our bodies splayed out on the floor. She put on this CD at a low volume & this amazing, piano-driven rock started to play, & as we drifted to sleep, I asked her what it was & she whispered drowsily, The Mixed Tape…
Where are you now? As I rearrange the songs again This mix could burn a hole in anyone But it was you I was thinking of
Since hearing that line in Jack’s Mannequin’s record Everything in Transit, I don’t think I’ve stopped making mixtapes, whatever form they may take. When I was thirteen & broke during Christmas, I bought blank CDs by the dozen & make a “mixtape” for each of my friends. I’m sure most of them went unlistened to, but I loved making them all the same, loved the gentle whirring of the disc in my dad’s laptop, designing album covers with magic markers while I waited for it to burn, the click of the CD tray as it delivered its gift to me twenty minutes later, warm & complete.
Where are you now?
As I’m swimming through the stereo
I’m writing you a symphony of sound As I’m cutting through you track by track I swear to God this mix could sink the sun But it was you I was thinking of
When I was eighteen, a good friend moved to Australia for college. We had grown up together & shared common tastes in television shows & music & when she told me she was really leaving, I was happy for her but also quite morose. I was in that stage in my life where all my friends were making major life decisions, some of which scattered them across continents. Anyway, in December that year, she called to wish me happy birthday & we ended up speaking for a bit. I had missed her terribly & knew she had missed me too.
Finally, as we reluctantly said goodbye over the static of international airwaves, I thought I heard her say “I made a mistake!” before the line went dead & for the rest of the week, I wondered what mistake she had made… Was it her decision to leave Singapore? Did she want to come back? It wasn’t until I received a square package postmarked Australia a few days later that I realised that what she had really meant to say was this: I made a mixtape (for you).
“Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostagic and hopeful all at the same time.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
& then finally, there was that time when I took a music composition module in university which turned out to be an “experimental” soundscaping class. The professor was a hippie who wore long, white linen shirts and whose eyes lit up when he talked about John Cage or Steve Reich. He was also a terrible teacher & had the tendency to drone on or get lost in the middle of his sentence, never to find his way back again. It’s a true miracle I managed to pass the class since I was asleep most of the time.
Once though, he told us about how composers would create “incredible masterpieces” by locating sounds they liked in certain tapes & painstakingly splicing the portions by hand – literally cutting & pasting sounds together to create an auditory landscape. This avant-garde work had to be precise & sometimes took months, all to create pieces of “music” that sounded like noise to me. In that moment, I remember feeling crestfallen because it seemed like those new pieces, like the hundreds of mixtapes I had made over the years, were not new per se & were just combinations of things that already existed. You’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing…
The question of whether I would ever create something original haunted me all the way till I started to write in earnest. All the same, many poems & songs later, I arrived at the inevitable conclusion that everyone comes to when they set out to create something original – that we can’t, not really. But it’s quite alright, isn’t it? Artistic expression is but a combination of observation & imitation & influence. & we too, are undeniably made out of a thousand, indelible impressions from our pasts, & music is just a tiny slice of this inconceivable miracle that defines our humanity.
& where are you now?
& this is my mixed tape for her
It’s like I wrote every note
With my own fingers
Console yourself with this, dear reader: that we are more than the sum of our parts.
Even as I make playlists on Spotify today, some of them two hundred songs long, I try to think of what it was like for the original makers of mixtapes, how slow & torturous, but also how rewarding it must have been to find oneself in the immersive process. Sometimes the magic of music is lost on us because it has become so easy. But I won’t forget – no, I won’t.
I am from a time past, I fade onto squares of film, I am a mixtape…
I saw Paris first through lenses, like everyone else.
The first lens was that of literature. In my little library at home, I have arranged my books in the following sections: Contemporary Fiction, Classic Works, Food & Cookery, Music & Movies, Poetry & Plays, & finally… “Books about Paris”. There, you will find Wilde’s Down & Out in Paris & London, Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, Sartre’s L’âge de raison, Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, Stein’s Paris, France, Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil & perhaps the most definitive novel in my education on Paris, Adam Gopnik’s From Paris to the Moon (sublime, alluring, swelling with fervour & acute observations on the quotidian… but more on that later). That Paris as a subject should merit an entire shelf by itself may be astonishing, but wait – let me explain this peculiar obsession.
I read about Paris first in the children’s classic When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr which chronicled the growth of Anna, a young Jewish girl living in Berlin during the Second World War. The story follows her journey across several countries with the rest of her family – Papa, Mama & her older brother Max – as they leave Germany for Switzerland & then France to escape the Nazis. In the book, Papa is a francophile & loves Paris with all his heart, & after the first few days of being in their new home country, he takes everyone out to explore the city & they somehow end up at the top of the Arc de Triomphe. There is a moment where Anna is rendered speechless at the sight before her – the roads glittering with lights, the dim shapes of domes & spires & the twinkling Eiffel tower in the distance – & she turns to Papa in wonderment, who can only stare off in a daze & say breathlessly: Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it a beautiful city?
I saw Paris through the eyes of a child, heard the sounds of Anna playing with her friends in the école communale, smelt the whiffs of freshly made coffee from the market boulangerie. The words of the book painted scenes that seemed so distant & strange for a young girl who had grown up in a tropical island her whole life, whose experience with coffee was limited to her father’s daily “kopi-c” – hot & sprung up, held, in a little plastic bag. Like Anna, herself so foreign & yet so immediately enamoured by the French capital, I could feel my mind expanding, dreaming, pushing against the boundaries of that stretched plastic to taste a faraway place where children drank espresso in the mornings & sipped wine diluted with sparkling water at night, where they sampled snails & onion soup for supper on the fourteenth of July & danced with their parents by the left bank till dawn. This was my introduction to the city, as were most other things – through literature.
Then I saw Paris through my second lens – that of film. As a young teenager, I was (still am) besotted by Audrey Hepburn, & besides wanting to be Holly Golightly walking down Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, in her little black dress with a flaky pastry in hand, I watched her in Charade, How to Steal A Million & Funny Face with Cary Grant, Peter O’Toole & Fred Astaire respectively, hand-in-hand with her leading men & clad in Givenchy, finally in a city that seemed worthy of her beauty, something New York City never quite managed to be. I watched Moulin Rouge & Amelie, saw their characters bring colour to an already flamboyant Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement full of night time light & sin. Paris, I believe, is the city most fondly remembered & distinctly portrayed in old cinema, matched only by its equally romantic sister city Rome (Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris, the famous saying goes).
& then there was the last lens, a collection of the more secondary images of the eternal city – the photographs, the stories from first-hand travellers, the music of Edith Piaf & Pink Martini. There is a picture taken by the famous photographer Robert Doisneau that is seared into my memory forever though I can’t recall where I saw it first. It was something that I unconsciously held to my chest as representative of the atmosphere of Paris until the day I finally went.
In this photograph, one can make out the famous Hôtel de Ville in the background, faint but magnificent, which means that this picture was taken right on Rue de Rivoli from a café during rush hour. Everybody in the picture is well-dressed – pea coats & trilbies & silk scarves – on their way to wherever they are going, & right in the thick of it, there is a pair of lovers kissing tenderly yet intensely, the lady beautiful in her fitting sweater & her head thrown back, & the gentleman (which has come to represent all French men for me, unfair as that may be) with his thick waves of hair askew, his arm forming a perfect nook for the lady to lean into. This struck me immensely, that Paris seemed to be a city where one could be right in the middle of this sprawling metropolis, the premier city of the old world, but still be completely abandoned to passion & romance whenever the situation presented itself. Could I one day have that too: structure & spontaneity?
You can imagine how these three lenses made my idea of Paris swell to disproportionate sizes. My Paris before I knew Paris was pink & pretty & artistic. I always let sentiment get the better of me (the forlorn poems & endless daydreams speak for themselves) & this is often to my detriment especially when I travel. In From Paris to the Moon, Gopnik encapsulates it perfectly in these sentences:
“There are two kinds of travelers. There is the kind who goes to see what there is to see & sees it, & the kind who has an image in his head & goes out to accomplish it. The first visitor has an easier time, but I think the second visitor sees more. He is constantly comparing what he sees to what he wants, so he sees with his mind, & maybe even with his heart, or tries to.”
I knew before I went to Paris that it would be difficult because I was the said second visitor, rich in expectation, laden with the lenses & the distorted views that they had produced all my life. So when I came to the city for the first time in 2011, I was full of trepidation. It was then when I would be confronted with the truth, see for myself if I would truly love Paris now that I was right there, or if I had only loved the idea of it. I was only eighteen then & my friends & I were backpacking around Europe & had just finished our stint in Rome. As we finally rode into Paris on the ten o’ clock Orlybus, I knew that I couldn’t be wrong about my assumptions because there was a distinct click between the images in my mind & what I saw before my eyes. I felt like I was dreaming for something like five consecutive days. It is a city that inspires words, poems, songs; it flows out of you, like the waters of the Seine.
Days like these
when things don’t matter
when you don’t matter
I only want the smell of rain
of cities & streets
& eyes dreary with sleep
indelible & sublime
swallowed dappled light &
leapt in air, soared
& curled up in love & silk scarves
This is where I belong
in liquid sound
I am going heady with grey
douse me in flowers & sweet tea
I returned to Paris two years after that, & again in March this year. Paris was the same, no matter how much it had changed. It still elicits the same emotions, perhaps only more intensely each time. In between all these sojourns, I have learnt what it means to truly love a city for all that it is, all the pretty parts but all the ugly, raggedy bits too. Images & nostalgia are all well & good, but you cannot say that you love Paris if you do not know its pain keenly, if you have not seen the gypsies who inhabit the street corners, wearing everything they own, their eyes hungry & searching, or the dark-skinned immigrants selling their wares outside the Louvre with a sense of intimidating urgency, who have come from very far away because they, just like you, believed that Paris was a city of magic, of hope. You must love every dirty cobblestone, every dinghy backstreet, every overcrowded café you dine at, rubbing shoulders with a stranger, your nose itching from the unceasing cigarette smoke. You must not complain at the offhanded Parisien service at the brasserie or at the rising prices of croissants because after all, this is the Paris you fell in love with, & love means to accept something completely.
Time is relentless
it casts long, tremulous shadows
& we, we are always in transit
fleeting & flitting
between light & dark & translucence
always whisked away by loftiness
by that crumbling feeling
or the lift away.
We don’t study the minute details
but we take in beauty in spoonfuls, gallons…
What ephemeral creatures we are.
We must tread lightly on this earth.
So there it is, my elaborate answer to the question, Why Paris? – because I love it wholly, the same, through the lenses & without. Nowadays, whenever I read a novel, I can’t help but think of the legion of lost generation writers (Hemingway, Joyce, Stein, Eliot, Fitzgerald) who graced the grounds of Les Deux Magots & Café de Flore in 1920s Paris,who did not know yet that they were one day going to write books about the eternal city – they simply lived. Nowadays, I never stand in the middle of a museum & not see the marble arcs and gold-glided ceilings of the Louvre at the corner of my eye (I still expect the Winged Victory of Samothrace to appear right before me, her pose dauntless & her well-chiselled shoulders carrying the weight of centuries). I see the Tuileries in every garden, the Seine in every river, Shakespeare & Company in every bookshop.
I cannot help it. Because of these innumerable, tiny pinpricks on my psyche, I sometimes dream a million dreams in a span of a day. Edith Piaf knew what she was talking about when she sang that famous tune, seeing life coloured in a rose tint, full of spirit & song. Quand il me prend dans ses bras / Il me parle tout bas / Je vois la vie en rose… Six years on, like that black & white photograph, so do I, or so I would like to believe. Because of Paris, I now see the world through a different lens – Paris itself.
Aunt Lisa, or “Ah Yi”, as I call her, has invited me out to lunch.
The more accurate term would be summoned, a word that almost always induces a sense of foreboding & fear. Once every few months, & more often since I’ve been freelancing, I get a phone call from Aunt Lisa telling me that it is time we meet for lunch. Each phone call never lasts more than twenty seconds. The last time I saw her, I had been similarly summoned to her law office at Circular Road & I had walked in on her yelling at one of her two secretaries & throwing down files on the floor… so, you can understand the foreboding feeling a little.
We agree to meet at Wakanui at noon, an upscale steakhouse which is our usual lunch place. Nothing but white tablecloths & an extensive wine list for Aunt Lisa. Once I tried to buy her lunch at a nice Italian cafe & she scoffed before booking a table at Fairmont Hotel’s Prego. A cafe, really…? She says the word “cafe” like one would say “baby vomit”.
So Wakanui it is. She has a permanent reservation on a back table there, & more importantly, the staff simultaneously fears her & understands her. By the time I reach, I see that she has already started on a bottle of white wine. She is wearing a little black dress & with her gamine features & slight build (I am a whole head taller than her), she reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, walking down Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, regarding Tiffany gems with a rarified air on a quiet morning. She is smoking long, slim cigarettes out of the gilded case I’ve seen her carry since I was a child, going through them like candy, the blue smoke rising around her like curling wings. She sees me & her expression loosens into a smile. She reaches her hands out to hug me & tenderly asks:
How are you, dear?
Like always, I order the steak & she orders the fish. When Mario the head waiter has left, the quick-fire questions begin. As all conversations with lawyers go, she doesn’t bother with small talk & immediately starts asking me questions of both a professional & personal nature at bullet speed: How was Europe? Isn’t Wales a bloody hole? Haven’t you gotten a job yet? What trouble are your sisters in nowadays? Thank God I’ve come prepared & shoot back at her like an old pro (or a defence attorney for that matter): Europe was great. Wales isn’t a bloody hole but you wouldn’t have liked it. Yes I have. Well, there’s been some trouble, but nothing for you to worry about. Kapow!
We then talk about movies, music, food. Aunt Lisa eats like a bird but loves food all the same. She is the only person I know in the world who appreciates food like an art form & who isn’t bored to death when I obsess over culinary trends or fine dining. When I tell her that I was considering going to Alain Passard’s three-star Michelin star restaurant L’Arpège for dinner when I was in Paris, she scoffs & insists that it is “bullshit” (just because you sprinkle black truffles on everything doesn’t mean it’s good food, she says). She likes dining at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry, Alex Atala’s D.O.M & Gunther Hubrechsen’s Gunther, but detests Scandinavian cooking because she thinks that it’s all smoked fish & potatoes. I tell her about the things that Sweden’s Magnus Nilsson is doing in Fäviken & Denmark’s René Redzepi in Noma but the jury is still out on that… her jury anyway.
This is the part of lunches with Aunt Lisa I love most, when we simply talk about the things we like, when she is out of her “lawyer” mode & we slip into something resembling pleasant conversation. Aunt Lisa is from another time, old-fashioned & classy. She uses the most archaic expressions. Like a character out of a Miller or Lawrence novel, her eyes light up when she talks about a jazz band she saw a few weeks ago: This place was really something, quarried away on Club Street & when we went in, it was perfect – not too crowded but just right, you know? The band was absolutely ripping, & everyone was loving it & responding to them in just the right way… Uncle Richard & I loved it, so fantastic, so bohemian…
I love it when she talks like that.
Aunt Lisa is my mother’s older sister & the eldest amongst the four children. Growing up, my mother was the cheery one who was well-liked among all the relatives because of her sweet tongue & amiable character, while Aunt Lisa disliked noise & had a bad temper & preferred to spend her afternoons holed up somewhere, reading a book. Family is a fickle thing, isn’t it? The way we turn out different from our siblings.
Anyway, it was no doubt that Aunt Lisa was massively intelligent & driven. She breezed through junior college, went to law school & cut her teeth at a top-tier law firm for a few years before setting up her own in the early ’90s. Till today, Lisa Chong & Partners remains a successful, largely one-woman show because – & this is verbatim – she doesn’t like answering to any assholes & likes going where she likes, when she likes. That was a huge feat in the late 1980s, back when female lawyers weren’t common & her male peers weren’t too fond of a woman telling them what to do. Now of course, things are different. People in the law circuit know who she is – that Lisa Chong, she’s a badass.
She then moved out of the family home, met & married Uncle Richard (a good-natured, American oil engineer from southern California who claims to have moved to Asia because he loved noodles & stuck around because he met Aunt Lisa. He is an amazing jazz drummer who introduced me to artistes like Dave Weckl & Buddy Rich & The Yellowjackets, but that’s another story for another day.). She turns 55 this year & even though that’s seven years to official retirement, she is by no means letting her age slow her down.
I didn’t always like her. I used to find her mean & condescending & prideful. As a sensitive child, I watched her carefully from a young age, despising it whenever she used cutting words to speak to her siblings or her own mother. She always lost her temper with service staff, was curt with her peers, & impatient with children. I would never have gotten close if we did not share a mutual love: books.
Aunt Lisa had an impressive library, a proper one – wall-to-wall oak shelves, thousands of books & that rolling wooden ladder that helped you reach the ones stacked on top – in her old house & whenever she hosted our weekly Sunday night family meal, I would run to the reading nook straight after dinner & spend two hours rifling through her collection while my two sisters spent their time in her walk-in wardrobe, trying on her clothes & pieces of costume jewelry. I was such a different child back then from my sisters, so quiet & timid & always sick & crying but I remember how those books would make me feel as hours passed in that magical place. In the sweet solitude of the library, I went on adventures with writers like Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne & Alexander McCall Smith who had travelled to faraway places like Africa & India & ate exotic foods with the locals & danced with them till the night dwindled away. I read true crime stories like In Cold Blood & had nightmares for weeks afterward. I delved into the landscape of the American south when I read To Kill A Mockingbird & I was Scout, the brazen tomboy who unwittingly saved Tom Robinson’s life, who loved Calpurnia’s crackling bread & who managed to encapsulate all I felt about books as a young child when she said: Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
Often, Aunt Lisa would join me & take out a hefty, square book on Greek Mythology & tell me all about the ancient gods – Chaos, Gaia, Uranus, Cronos, Zeus, Heracles, the whole lot of them – & their stories. She named one of her seven cats Calypso, after the nymph who kept Odysseus captive on her own island for several years until Athena & Zeus intervened, always wishing that the Homeric Hero would one day love her the same way she loved him. Aunt Lisa loved that story. From there, she would slip into this state of dreaminess, talking about her travels to Greece & South America & Italy with Uncle Richard, visiting everything from ancient ruins to elephant jungles, touching the worn stones of history & walking on the hearths of our ancestors, where there was once eating & drinking & sleeping & breathing… & I, I so young & inexperienced, with nothing but the waxy pages & their glorious illustrations laid out before me, all those Gods with bodies cut from white marble, fiery chariots, & of course the mere mortals themselves, often so beautiful that they could sometimes bewitch those whom they were supposed to worship. I breathed in whole worlds like that on that library floor. When I think about it now, it was a gift, all that time amongst books & my Aunt Lisa, pure & unappreciated.
My reverie is broken when Aunt Lisa calls over Mario & snaps at him for more ice. That’s her for you, able to switch between complete cordiality to a cantankerous, Anna Wintour-ish nightmare in a matter of seconds. It’s something I’ve gotten used to & I let it slide. She decides that we’ll be taking dessert & the rest of the wine outside so she can have a good smoke. Mario materialises like a ghost & whispers, yes, madame, & soon we are seated outside with fresh glasses & our chocolate soufflés.
Stories shift into ideas. We talk about philosophy, faith, religion. I know this is when things can go either way. She doesn’t deny that there is a God but she doesn’t like the Christians that she has met (she is quick to tell me that this group excludes me & that this faith I have seems to have served me well, unlike many others). I don’t know what it is – the thumping pace of the conversation we seem to be having, or the three glasses of wine I’ve had so far – but then somehow in a burst of courage, I ask her for the very first time in my life, what then, do you believe in?
She gets very quiet. Two long puffs of her slim cigarette. She doesn’t answer immediately, but then when she finally speaks, she tells me something she’s never told anyone before.
Fifteen over years ago, when she shifted her office to a little street in Boat Quay, she started a ritual of buying her daily newspaper every morning from a little old man from across the road. The old man had sat behind a desk with glossy tabloids & copies of The Straits Times fanned out before him – one of those old-fashioned vendors you don’t see anymore. They didn’t talk very much for a long time but one day after purchasing the paper, Aunty Lisa noticed that the old man had a bloody patch on his head. She asked him what had happened in Cantonese & he told her that he had fallen & his leg was all swollen up as well. Where are your kids? Who takes care of you? It became clear after a few exchanges that there was no one. Immediately, Aunt Lisa took him to the hospital.
At the emergency room, she then finds out that not only does the old man have no money or insurance, but that he has no form of identification. He had come from China to make a living in Singapore a long time ago, has no family & didn’t even know his own birthday. Thus, even though he had a fractured hip & several other injuries, the system prevented him from receiving any form of government help. The bill came up to several thousand dollars & Aunt Lisa paid it off without a second glance. She then started the excruciatingly long process of helping this old man get registered & recognised by the state, putting together papers & going to government offices to yell at poor administrative assistants & their terrified bosses. She succeeded, of course. The old man started to receive medical subsidies & monthly welfare from the government.
After his leg was properly healed, he went back to selling his papers every morning & Aunt Lisa went back to buying them, except that things were a little different. One evening, she went out for dinner with her bunch of rich girlfriends & announced that she was taking up a collection for this old man that none of them even knew. Come on, I know how much you’re spending on these salads & martinis in just one meal. Cough up! & they all did, whether it was from shock or fear or reverence. For many months, she used that little fund as a type of allowance for the old man, giving him fifty dollars every week to make sure he had money to get food, to get medicine. When that fund dried up, she started to give him money out of her own pocket. A hundred dollars a week. Two hundred sometimes. She gave him her name card so he could get in touch with her if he was in any trouble, & gave instructions to her assistant to continue giving him the usual weekly amount whenever she was on vacation. That cheeky bastard, Aunt Lisa says at this point. He was so happy, he sat behind his little stand like a big towkay ever since I started to give him money, as if saying to all of his friends, see I have a benefactor!
A few years ago, Aunt Lisa got a call from a policeman out of the blue. The old man had passed away in his one-room flat & the officer had found her name card on his person. Does he have family, he asked. No, Aunt Lisa replied. Just me. She didn’t feel like explaining their complicated relationship to the officer, so she just asked what he wanted her to do & he told her that if no one claimed the body within thirty days, the state would “take care of it”. So she did, of course she did; paid for his cremation & all. & that was the end of a very long, bizarre, sad, beautiful relationship between the unlikeliest of parties.
So what do I believe in? I’m not sure. But I do believe in universal goodness. We encounter situations in life & well… it’s up to you what you choose to do with them. & if you choose right, you choose goodness. It’s the weirdest thing isn’t it… Life.
She trails off, looks away, takes a long drag of her cigarette. It is a long story & I’m filled with a confluence of emotions. The strange thing is that I know this about my aunt; that beyond the prickly demeanour & no-nonsense attitude, she is someone who secretly gives & loves generously but who hates talking about it. This is one of the rare instances that she does & I am astounded by how simple the decision was for her, to help a man she barely knew for so many years. I ask her what his name was, & she says it immediately without thinking. The two syllables, the two Chinese characters carry so much weight & it sits between us on the table, like an unsaid prayer.
After an extended silence, I tell Aunt Lisa that she reminds me of Audrey Hepburn. She breaks out in laughter & says, what the fuck, I’m trying to tell you an important story here & all you can think about is a New York prostitute. I correct her – I didn’t say Holly Golightly, but Audrey Hepburn. I tell her that what I admire most about Hepburn isn’t her repertoire of wonderful movies & the memorial characters she played, or her beauty & timeless fashion sense, but her unabashed grace & her love for humanity. Audrey Hepburn wasn’t religious, but she was kinder than most religious people. & that’s kind of like who you are, Ah Yi, I whisper.
She shakes her head & then smiles, & then does a little shrug. She pushes her cigarette stub into the nearly-full ashtray & stands up abruptly, breaking the spell. Mario comes over & she pays the bill & we walk out onto the street, squinting in the jarring, midday sun. It’s nearly four in the afternoon & that’s how the lunch meeting ends, as sharply as it began. She holds her palm to my cheek as a goodbye like she always does & quite suddenly, I realise that I love my Aunt Lisa very much.
I tell her that the next time she “summons” me for lunch, I will have read The Man Who Ate Everything & I will bring her Jonathan Safran Foer’s latest novel & that I will be paying the bill & treating her instead. She rolls her eyes, slaps me on the arm & waves me off.
…O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.
I think I grow tensions
in a wood where
Each wound is perfect,
encloses itself in a tiny
Pain is a flower like that one,
like this one,
like that one,
like this one.
yes is a pleasant country
yes is a pleasant country
let’s open the year
both is the very weather
when violets appear
love is a deeper season
my sweet one
(and April’s where we’re)
Most days I am in love with the world. The sharp syrupiness of strawberry jam, the bitter kick of my morning espresso. Walking down the little lane that cuts through fields of wild grass, drifting through the mist that rises from it like steam. The red doors I see on the way to town —
one, two, three, four, five, six
I collect them & before the afternoon is over, I have half a dozen or so sitting in my mind’s eye. They are so out of place in the quotidian — so stark is the scream of colour that it lifts me out of daydream. I love it all, I am basking in the pleasure of being present; I am treading lightly on this beautiful earth. On days like these, there is always a quickening of heart, a deep appreciation for the little things, an unspeakable gratitude.
Most days I am love with the world, but then some days, I’m not. They are unsuspecting & they come like a suffocating wave, those sunken mornings & heavy nights. On days like these, I pray for strength, strength to remember all of it: the strawberries, the grass fields, the six little red doors, all of these bright beacons of hope in bleakness… I rub the memory on my chest like soothing balm. I breathe in, say again & again:
I’m still here
I’m still here
…till I remember the rhythm. Till I remember it well. How could I forget it? It is sweetness; it is hope. It is within. It is there, has always been, will remain until the very end of age.
Selah my soul, selah.
Bits of poetry I’ve been collecting & enjoying lately. Red Doors originally appeared in a recent SELAH article. Our stories are art forms & at best, testimonies, & the good people at SELAH are just doing a brilliant job curating each & every one of them that comes their way. I’m terribly grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such a wonderful online publication that is doing heaps for the Christian community.
In other news, work has started & it’s like the cogs in my head need a good oiling. How did I wake up at 545am every weekday to go to school in the recent past? & do math & PE & go for band practice & all that? Where did all that energy come from?! It boggles my mind. Anyway, no complaining – just gratefulness, for the new season that is to come.


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domain: hobby


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Christopher Clark (T, back), Cortrelle Anderson (RB, ankle), Cody Latimer (WR, concussion), Jacob Tamme (TE, ribs), Demaryius Thomas (WR, ankle), Julius Thomas (TE, ankle), Will Montgomery (C, knee).
Paul Cornick (T, toe), Brandon Marshall (LB, foot).
Brandon Tate (WR, illness), Jermaine Gresham (TE, toe), Margus Hunt (DE, ankle), Terence Newman (CB, ankle), Mike Pollak (G, knee), Carlos Dunlap (DE, calf), D'Andre Kirkpatrick (CB, Achillies).
QB A.J. McCarron (illness)
Emmanuel Lamur (LB, hamstring), James Wright (WR, knee).
After Green's visit to a foot specialist last week in Cincinnati, the hope was that the third-year star wideout would be back after this week. But the possibility exists his return could take a little longer.
Asked Friday about a more defined timetable for Green's return from a big toe injury that kept him out of last week's game and will do the same this Sunday, Lewis simply said "the time is up in the air."
Friday, October 17, 2014, 6:20pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe, doubtful) missed practice all week and is doubtful for Week 7. We’re not expecting Green to play in a big game against the Colts. Mohamed Sanu is a strong WR2, while Brandon Tate is a Sneaky Start with Green out of the lineup. The Colts are not a favorable matchup for wide receivers.
Thursday, October 16, 2014, 6:18pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe) missed practice again Thursday. We’re not expecting Green to play in a big game against the Colts. Mohamed Sanu is a strong WR2, while Brandon Tate is a Sneaky Start with Green out of the lineup.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014, 6:35pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe) did not practice Wednesday. We’re not expecting Green to play in a big game against the Colts. Mohamed Sanu is a strong WR2, while Brandon Tate is a Sneaky Start with Green out of the lineup.
Green will see a doctor again on Friday according to the Tweet, so we likely won't know more about Green until then. However, it sounds like owners need to prepare to be without him in Week 7. Mohamed Sanu had a monster game with a 10-120-1 line in Week 6. Andy Dalton spread the ball around as Dane Sanzenbacher and Brandon Tate were involved with four catches each and Jermaine Gresham even had six catches and 68 yards. Cincy does have an early afternoon game at Indy Week 7 and it's possible Marvin Jones returns.
Friday, October 10, 2014, 6:13pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe, questionable) missed practice again Friday and is questionable for Week 6. Ian Rapoport reports that Green is not expected to play in Week 6 after meeting with his doctors, though the good news is that HC Marvin Lewis indicated that Green avoided a long-term injury. Mohamed Sanu will be a solid WR3-type play in Green's absence. Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher will also see increased snaps. It's a downgrade for Andy Dalton, who will be without his primary weapon in the passing game. Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill should see a bump as the Bengals focus on the run game.
Thursday, October 9, 2014, 6:46pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe) missed practice Thursday after taking limited reps Wednesday. Ian Rapoport reports that Green is not expected to play in Week 6 after meeting with his doctors. Mohamed Sanu will be a solid WR3-type play in Green's absence. Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher will also see increased snaps. It's a downgrade for Andy Dalton, who will be without his primary weapon in the passing game. Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill should see a bump as the Bengals focus on the run game.
Mohamed Sanu will be a solid WR3-type play in Green's absence. Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher will also see increased snaps. It's a downgrade for Andy Dalton, who will be without his primary weapon in the passing game. Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill should see a bump as the Bengals focus on the run game.
Bengals OC Hue Jackson marched out to the week’s first practice Wednesday with his game plan tucked into his belt and before the first snap the team’s best player was being driven off the Paul Brown Stadium field with his re-aggravated big toe that could potentially take him out of multiple games.
Wednesday’s MRI is going to send him to another consultation with one of the nation’s leading foot specialists when he meets with Cincinnati doctor James Amis on Thursday. Since a visit with another foot specialist is also planned, it’s hard to see him being ready for Sunday, but he did play seven days after leaving the Atlanta game early.
It’s believed the MRI again showed no tears or breaks, but he’s obviously still having discomfort in the ligament under the sesamoid bone in the ball of the foot underneath the big or great toe.
At this point it’s all speculation because his foot is in the hands of doctors. So anything is on the table pending what they prescribe for treatment, ranging to more treatments while playing, to shutting him down for a few weeks, or maybe longer.
The article also mentions that Marvin Jones wasn't even on the sideline rehabbing his foot, so it's looking unlikely that he'll be able to make it back to face the Panthers either. It's looking like Mohamed Sanu, Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher will be the top three wideouts for the Bengals in Week 6. Sanu would be a good start, though he may not thrive without Green there to be the focus of the defense. Tate would be a desperation start.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 6:37pm
Bengals WR A.J. Green (toe) took limited practice reps Wednesday. We'll have to wait and see the severity of Green’s injury — he has an MRI scheduled for Wednesday — but we'd have to expect that there's a real chance that Green will miss Week 6. Mohamed Sanu becomes a very Sneaky Start, and if Marvin Jones' ankle can heal quickly, he could be thrust into a big role right away. If not, Brandon Tate would likely start in Green’s place.
He left the game early, and did not return.
An update later in the day said Green is now believed to have a sprained ligament in his foot.
It's also considered turf toe, and the Sunday night reports say Green could be back by Week 5, according to the Bengals Web site. Mohamed Sanu had a big day in Green's absence and Brandon Tate and Dane Sanzenbacher are next up on the depth chart. With Marvin Jones already out, it's a hit to QB Andy Dalton's value as well. The Bengals may end up leaning a little more on RB Giovani Bernard in the passing game with RB Jeremy Hill getting more carries. Both stood out vs. Atlanta in Week 2. Sanu appears to be poised for a busy Week 3 and makes for a sneaky pickup and start. If you pick up Sanu, keep in mind both Jones and Green are now on track to be back Week 5.
Bengals OC Hue Jackson discussed the team's receiving corps...
"I want (A.J. Green) to take it to a whole different level. I want A.J. and (Marvin Jones) and that receiver group to play uncommon football like you’ve never seem. That’s just my vision after coaching the position. Coach (James) Urban does a great job. A.J.’s has had one of the most historic first three years this league has ever seen. And he is that player. He is everything I thought he was and more. But I think there’s more in there. I think there’s a lot more in there. My challenge to him is, why not be the best? Why not be the best this league has ever seen? Because he has the ability to be that. And when they talk about A.J. Green, I want people to be talking about one of the greatest ever. Because he is and he has that. He’s got to set out every day to prove that because I think he’s that kind of player.
"Marvin Jones came on like gangbusters and he’s got to go chase A.J. Why not knock A.J. off the pedestal? When you have the friendly competition among your teammates, that’s when things get really, really good, in my opinion. (Mohamed Sanu) and (Brandon Tate) and (Dane Sanzenbacher), those guys at receiver, everybody has to raise their level of play. I think when that happens and we get five percent better, three percent better, whatever that is, I think the whole offensive unit gets better."
The key takeaway here is that Jackson mentioned Marvin Jones in the same breath as Green, so while the team is expected to make a concerted effort to run the ball more, Jones should see more snaps as the clear starter opposite Green. Jones played on an average of 43 percent of his teams snaps in his first 13 games of the season. Over his final four games, including a Wild Card playoff loss to the Chargers, he played on an average of 68 percent of snaps. As his snaps increased, so did his targets. He averaged 4.4 targets through 13 games compared to 8.8 targets in the final four games of the season, including 12 targets against the Chargers in the playoffs. After a season of frustrating usage, it appears that the Cincinnati coaching staff has finally recognized that Jones deserves to play more. He finished as the #21 WR in 2013 despite the limited snaps.
Friday, November 29, 2013, 5:59pm
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domain: news


- JOIN US THIS SATURDAY! We Are Nearing Completion of Rio Fernando Park Master Plan!!
- Whats the Buzzzzzzz on the Bees? Find out Sunday August 5, 2018 at Rio Fernando Park!
- Wildlife Cameras in the Rio Fernando Park
- Volunteers Needed! Conservation Easement Monitoring August to October 2018
- Taos Land Trust Committed to Equity Diversity and Inclusion in Conservation
- JOIN US THIS SUNDAY – Master Plan Options Review and Pop Up Nature Playground with Twirl!
- Birding in Taos, New Mexico – the Rio Fernando Wetlands
- Youth Crew Tours the Middle Rio Fernando Watershed


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By Karolyn Gephart
Two public hearings were held at the Friendswood City Council meeting Monday, Sept. 9 at City Hall in Friendswood.
The first public hearing was held to input regarding the Proposed Fiscal Year 2019-2020 General Operating Budget for the City of Friendswood.
City staff presented an overview of the budget development process, significant challenges and highlights of the proposed budget for fiscal year 2019-2020. Also discussed were changes to the proposed budget since delivered on July 31, 2019.
Information included the following:
Total Revenues ~ $79.5M
Total Expenditures ~ $79.3M
General Fund Revenue ~ $30.1M
General Fund Expenses ~ $30.1M
Water & Sewer Fund Revenue -$19.7M
Water & Sewer Expenditures -$19.7M
The Proposed Budget was first delivered on July 31, 2019 with a budget work session that followed on August 5, 2019. Following the Proposed Budget Public Hearing on Sept. 9, a Public Hearing on Tax Rate will take place Sept. 23 and a Public Hearing on Tax Rate will be held Sept. 30.
Council authorized Special City Council meetings on Sept. 23 and 30 to discuss items related to the budget.
Budget & Tax Rate Adoption will be Oct. 7.
A second public hearing was held Sept. 9 for the following: Zone classification change request for a 4.2507 acre tract of land, Sun Meadow Subdivision, located at 2407 W. Parkwood Ave., Suite 108 (1,425 square feet), Friendswood, Galveston County, Texas, to change from Community Shopping Center (CSC) to Community Shopping Center/ Specific Use Permit (CSC/SUP) to allow NAICS Use #8131 Religious Organizations.
During the Council meeting that followed the public hearings, a special presentation was made of the 16th Consecutive Government Finance Officers Association’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award by Roger Roeck-er, former City Manager and Past President of the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas (GFOAT) and GFOAT Representa-tive to the Government Finance Officers Assoc.
The Distinguished Budget Presentation Award represents a significant achievement reflecting the commitment of the governing body and staff to meet the highest principles of governmental budgeting. This was presented to Katina Hampton, Rhonda Bloskas, Jennifer Walker and Emily Peltier.

domain: economics


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The Telecom Industry Strikes Back Against Robocalls
May 13, 2020 • Forbes
There is an effort underway, spearheaded by the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom), a nonprofit organization representing U.S.-based telecommunication-related companies, to stop the billions of illegitimate robocalls being made, or to at least put a significant dent in those numbers.
Together, USTelecom and its members have formed the Industry Traceback Group (ITG), which comprises communications companies providing wired, wireless, VoIP, and cable services. Operating under section 222(d)(2) of the Communications Act, which permits “carriers to disclose and/or permit access to customer proprietary network information if suspected fraud, abuse or unlawful use of services exists,” the ITG is a platform for communications companies to “trace and identify the source of illegal robocalls.”
The traceback process begins with a terminating service provider that possesses information about suspicious phone traffic. The call is then traced back through the various communication provider networks until it reaches a nonresponsive communications provider or the originator of the call. This information is shared with federal and state law enforcement agencies.
According to the 2019 USTelecom Progress Report, approximately 110 tracebacks were conducted per month, which translates to robocall campaigns responsible for “tens of millions of calls.”
USTelecom also collaborates with YouMail, which identifies the most prolific robocall campaigns, enabling the ITG to focus its traceback efforts to locate the source.
The effort appears to be working. Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, directed me to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal reporting that on March 13 YouMail picked up a surge of calls that mentioned novel coronavirus testing kits.
On March 17 U.S. communications companies traced the calls to a Philippines VoIP provider. ITG notified the provider, which responded within 24 hours that it had cut off services to the customer responsible for the calls.
Moreover, YouMail reports that between March 17 and March 18 the volume of robocalls pitching the testing kits had dropped 75%, and after March 20 they had almost disappeared…


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Positions in this job family are involved in handling, preparing, cooking and serving food for regular, modified and special diets at a state hospital, school, facility or institution. This includes maintaining clean and sanitary work, preparation and serving areas.
The Food Service Specialist job family has four levels which are distinguished by the complexity of assignments, the level of expertise required to perform the duties assigned, and the responsibility assigned for providing leadership to others.
This is the basic level of this job family where employees are assigned simple and routine duties of handling, preparing and serving food. In this role they will perform tasks such as preparing toast, tea, and coffee, and maintaining the cleanliness of the food service area.
Education and Experience: None required.
Please read instructions carefully and include all required documents when you submit your application.
No additional information will be accepted after the application has been submitted.
Scores based on: Non-competitive
State Of Oklahoma

domain: food


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domain: design


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Finally, Patapaa has broken silence on why he dumped his girlfriend, Queen Peezy for a white woman in Germany. In an interview with SVTV from Germany, Patapaa finally spoke about Queen Peezy.
On why he dumped her girlfriend whom he has shown to the whole world these past few months, Patapaa explained that it’s a very complicated situation and he will explain it very well when he gets back to Ghana.
He called on his fans not to be disappointed in him but to just wait and keep supporting, he will explain very when he gets back.
A video of Patapaa chilling and smooching with a new white girlfriend in bed popped up on social media a few days ago.
When Patapaa’s girlfriend saw the video, she could not withstand the pain and collapsed from the heartbreak. She was rushed to the hospital at Swedru.


|Country music legend Mickey Gilley.
Branson, Missouri, called by some, “The live music show capital of the world,” is celebrating 50 years of live music shows this year. For the last 20 of them, one of its mainstay superstar performers has been Mickey Gilley performing a two hour music and comedy show featuring some of his 39 hit songs, of which 17 went to number one on the country charts.
Due to an injury suffered in a fall on July 5 and surgery on July 7, Gilley will not be performing his show pending his full recovery. A press release on the fall was released dated Jul 10, 2009 stating:
“On Sunday July 5, 2009, Mickey Gilley suffered a fall in Branson, MO. As a result of the fall, Mickey Gilley suffered a back injury that required surgery on Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Gilley came through surgery successfully, and is expected to make a full recovery. Gilley will soon be transferred to a Houston, TX medical facility for further treatment. Gilley’s scheduled performances have been canceled pending his full recovery."
Paul Miller, General Manger, Branson Tourism Center, wished Gilley a speedy recovery. He went on to say, “Mickey Gilley is a true country music legend and his show is one of our [Branson Tourism Center’s] most popular shows.”
The July 7 back surgery is the second major surgery for Gilley within a year. According to published reports, Dr. Charles Mace of the Springfield Neurological & Spine Institute in Springfield, MO, successfully performed brain surgery on Gilley to correct problems relating to the early stages of dementia on July 8, 2008.
Although a full recovery is expected, at this time, the precise date of Gilley’s return to the Branson stage is indeterminate. On July 10, a local radio station reported “A spokesman from his theater in Branson said Thursday that Gilley plans to return for his scheduled performance August 1st.” A phone call to the Mickey Gilley Theatre Box office on the afternoon of July 12 resulted in a “shooting for September 1” response.


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Rothenberg Sawasy Architects, a Los Angeles-based interior design studio, promoted Stacy Nochenson to associate. Nochenson was previously a member of the interior design staff.
First Bank hired Caroline Lee as regional vice president in the Alhambra office and Jenny Yu as regional vice president in the Rowland Heights office. Lee was previously a commercial lender at Manufacturers Bank in Los Angeles and Yu was branch manager at Bank of the West in Alhambra.
Mullin Consulting Inc., a firm specializing in benefit plans, promoted Susan Adam to vice president in its Los Angeles office. Adam was previously a senior managing associate.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. in Los Angeles hired Rick Sands as chief operating officer. Sands was previously president and chief operating officer at Glendale-based DreamWorks SKG.
California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez appointed Nitasha Sawhney and Diane Ujiiye to the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. Sawhney is an associate at Burke Williams & Sorensen LLP in Los Angeles and Ujiiye is director of the Asian and Pacific Islanders California Action Network.
California State Controller Steve Westly hired Ed Sanders as director of public affairs for Southern California. Sanders was previously chief of staff to Los Angeles City Council member Martin Ludlow.
City of Hope Cancer Center, a research and treatment center in Duarte, hired Steven Hartranft as vice president of quality improvement and patient safety. Hartranft was previously senior clinical quality analyst at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The Cedars-Sinai Medical Group board promoted Howard Wynne to medical director. Wynne retains his position as a physician in internal medicine.
Cirrus Health, a healthcare development and management company specializing in ambulatory surgery centers and short-stay hospitals, hired Nicole A. Gutierrez as director of nursing/administrator over the Linden Crest Surgery Center in Beverly Hills. Gutierrez was previously director of nursing at Solutions Multispecialty Surgical Center in Beverly Hills.
Hilton Hotels Corp. promoted Robert M. La Forgia to executive vice president and chief financial officer. La Forgia was senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Marsh Risk & Insurance Services in Los Angeles promoted Jim McCluskey as sales leader. McCluskey was previously managing director and client service leader in Marsh's European and Middle Eastern operations in the United Kingdom.
GNW-Evergreen Insurance Services LLC in Los Angeles hired Andrew Forchelli as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Forchelli was previously assistant vice president/regional underwriting manager at the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. in Los Angeles.
The Pasadena Pops Orchestra hired John Hancock as executive director. Hancock was previously vice president and chief operating officer at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic-Los Angeles elected Corrinne L. Notkin to the board. Notkin is vice president, labor relations counsel, at Burbank-based Walt Disney Pictures and Television.
The Optimist Youth Homes and Family Services, a Los Angeles center for the education and treatment of at-risk youth, hired Stuart J. Rogoff as director of development. Rogoff was previously director of development at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago.
The Rand Corp., a Santa Monica-based non-profit research organization, hired Elizabeth Stacey as executive director of development. Stacey was previously chief consultant at Philanthropic Solutions in Simi Valley.
Pelican Products, a Torrance-based flashlight manufacturer, hired John Chesen as director of international sales in East and South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Chesen was previously senior director of the northeast Asia office at PanAmSat in Tokyo.
Agromin, a Camarillo-based manufacturer of soil amendments, hired Jim Colborn as outside sales representative. Colborn was previously a sales representative at Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes.
Conductor, a Los Angeles-based entertainment and brand marketing company blending traditional advertising and storytelling, hired Ron David Walter as executive creative director. Walter was previously a partner and creative director at San Francisco-based Banjo.
Formula, a national boutique agency, promoted Katie Casey to account executive and hired Allison Mayer as an account coordinator at its L.A. office. Casey was previously an assistant account executive and Mayer was at Weber Shandwick's London-based consumer division.
Fleishman-Hillard in Los Angeles promoted Debra Hotaling to director of the corporate communications practice group. The firm also hired Melissa Robinson as a senior vice president in the consumer brand and entertainment practice group, Brad Chase as an account executive in the corporate communications practice group, Michael Ritchey as senior vice president of the health-care practice group, Jim Hughes as a vice president of the technology practice group, and Manuel Rivera as an assistant account executive in the FH Hispania group. Hotaling was previously senior vice president, Robinson was creative director for the Nintendo of North America team at GolinHarris in Los Angeles, Chase was press secretary for the Steve Young for Congress campaign in Orange County, Ritchey was senior vice president at LehmanMillet in Newport Beach, Hughes was an independent consultant in Los Angeles and Rivera was a congressional staffer for U.S. Representative Grace Napolitanoa in Santa Fe Springs.
Granite Peak Partners, a real estate investment firm in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, hired Priscilla J. Ferguson as property manager for Victoria Business Park and Spring Air Partners California in the City of Industry. Ferguson was previously property manager for Realtech Construction in Los Angeles.
Lowe Enterprises Inc., a national investment, management and development firm, promoted David Sonderegger to senior vice president of the company's real estate group. Sonderegger was previously vice president.
Keller Williams Realty in Thousand Oaks promoted Emily Link to team leader. Link was previously an agent.
Macerich Co., a Santa Monica-based real estate investment trust focused on regional malls, hired Olivia Bartel Leigh as vice president, risk management. Leigh was previously director of risk management at San Francisco-based Catellus Development Corp.
Guess? Inc. in Los Angeles promoted Harriet Sustarsic to senior vice president, general merchandise manager, retail division and Wendy Klarik to senior vice president, general merchandise manager, factory division. Stephen Pearson was hired as executive vice president, chief supply chain officer. Sustaric was previously vice president, merchandising; Klarik was vice president, retail, factory division. Pearson was executive vice president, merchandising, design, development and supply chain for the J. Jill Group in Boston.
AIG Retirement Services Inc. in Century City promoted Randy W. Epright to chief operations officer, Howard M. Heitner to chief operating officer of the investment unit, and Kathleen M. McCutcheon and John E. Pluhowski to senior vice president. Epright will retain his positions as senior vice president and chief information officer, Heitner will retain his position as executive vice president, McCutcheon was previously vice president, human resources, and Pluhowski was vice president, corporate communications.
Enova Systems, a Torrance-based developer and manufacturer of electric, hybrid and fuel cell systems, hired John Dexter as director of planning and operations. Dexter was previously at Booz Allen Hamilton in Las Vegas.
Bakers Man, a technology company centered on web creation and design and digital asset management, hired Bill Buckley as chief marketing officer. Buckley was previously founder of Buckley Consulting.
Tryarc LLC, a Los Angeles information technology company, hired Cameron Ackbury as senior director of sales and Pat Gantos as the practice director for professional services. Ackbury was previously manager of Asia Pacific at San Mateo-based NetSuite and Gantos was a senior manager at Deloitte and Touche.
Phone On-Hold Marketing Systems, a Newbury Park-based company specializing in audio productions for telecommunication and Internet applications, promoted Jeff Arnaz as director of production. Arnaz was previously production engineer.
Meggitt Aerospace Equipment, an aerospace, defense and electronics group based in Simi Valley, hired Robert Meyer to group vice president, sales and marketing and Eric Ovlen to group vice president, human resources. Meyer was previously president and general manager of Endevco, a business unit within the Meggitt PLC Electronics Division, and Ovlen was vice president, organizational effectiveness at Meggitt Electronics.
The Computer Access Center presented the Heart of Technology Award to Carl R. Terzian, a West Los Angeles public relations consultant. Terzian was honored for his leadership, mentorship and life-long commitment to community service. The center also presented Los Angeles World Airports the Access to the World Award for its commitment to customers with disabilities.
Tennis News and Daily Tennis named Steve Bellamy, its 2005 Person of the Year. Bellamy is the president and founder of Santa Monica-based Tennis Channel.
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, CLICK HERE.


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I'm working on several new furniture pieces for the upcoming Christmas Craft & Gift show,
and this numbered chest is one of them.
I have nicknamed it the COOKIES & CREAM CHEST because of the colors used.
The dark top and trim is a rich chocolate color.
and the hardware is painted to match.
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