divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/30491?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+In+this+recession%2C+we+want+comfort+culture+to+go+with+our+comfort+foodch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=Recession+%28UK%29%2CEconomic+growth+and+recession+US%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CTesco+%28Business%29%2CSupermarkets+%28business%29%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CFilm%2CStage%2CCulture+section%2CBusinessc5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CTheatrec6=Jonathan+Freedlandc7=2008_12_03c8=1127725c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpMan cannot live by bread alone - he also needs some shepherd's pie and a dollop of rice pudding. That, at least, is the word from Tesco, reporting an extraordinary surge in sales of comfort food. As we feel the first chill of the recession, and as American economists declare that the downturn in the United States began a full year ago, making the current slump already longer than the average recession since the second world war, the supermarket chain has noticed a run on its cosiest products./ppSales of lamb hotpot are up 615% on this time last year, while beef casserole and dumplings have leapt by 279%. Deep-filled pies are selling at more than double the usual rate, as is cheesecake. Hot cakes are selling like hot cakes. /ppCould that be down to the wintry weather rather than the frozen economy? No. Tesco saw the boom in reassuring ready meals and cosy grub during the period from May to October. This isn't about staying warm, says the store, along with other retailers who've noticed a similar pattern on their shelves. It's about Britons cheering themselves up, padding their tummies as they tighten their belts. And notice the dishes in demand: traditional British fare, as if we're fleeing scary global economic forces, seeking refuge in the familiar smells of mum's kitchen and school dinners./ppSo much for what we're putting into our stomachs as the economy plunges downward, with most forecasters expecting the thud to come once the fleeting lift of Christmas is over. What will happen to our other appetites, those located not in our mouths but between our ears? What is the brainfood we'll be seeking out as times get tougher? Put simply, what's likely to be the culture of this recession?/ppNot so different from the food, as it happens. While Waitrose reports an 80% increase in sales of loaf cakes, ITV is cheering a rise in the television equivalent: viewing figures for I'm A Celebrity are up on last year. The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing are doing a roaring trade too. And what has just become Britain's fastest-ever selling DVD? Mamma Mia!./ppThink of it as comfort culture to accompany the comfort food. We want to be eased through the freeze, and Ant and Dec can be relied on to do that just as effectively as a slice of steak and kidney pie./ppOf course, this habit has a long history. Cinema audiences developed the desire to be transported into mindless escapism, watching Busby Berkeley's synchronised swimmers make pretty shapes in the depths of the Great Depression. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made their top-hatted and ballgowned debut in 1933, the same year unemployment in the US hit 25%. If today's audiences are blocking out all thoughts of the credit crunch in favour of watching Meryl Streep play the Dancing Queen on a sun-kissed Greek island where the skies are permanently blue, they are doing no more than honouring a tradition started by their grandparents. /ppBut it's not all mindless. Brucie and Cheryl Cole are far from the only cultural providers experiencing a boom during the bust. In a declining newspaper market, the Financial Times and the Guardian both saw their sales rise as the financial crisis hit. (The number crunchers on the Guardian's website have seen big increases - led by serious news, with massive leaps in interest in business stories.) Richard Reeves, director of the thinktank Demos, says he has spotted three different people reading JK Galbraith's The Great Crash on his morning train to work. "People want more entertainment," he says, "but they also want more enlightenment."/ppIt seems we either want to escape the current turmoil or understand it. The latter might not always mean digesting dense economic tracts. Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National Theatre, has noticed the spectacular response the musical Billy Elliot has just received on Broadway. A tale of declining industry, hardship and the threat of joblessness, "It acknowledges pain, individual achievement in overcoming that pain and collective solidarity in the face of it," Hytner told me yesterday, suggesting that Billy Elliot had come at just the right moment for New York theatregoers. He has no plans to stage either a feelgood musical at the National - there will be no "sugar rush of escapism" - or an instant play about the recession. That kind of second-guessing of the audience never works, he says./ppStill, artworks that offer neither escapism nor explanation might struggle in the great freeze. There will surely be a diminished appetite for miserable stories that don't even offer the consolation of enhanced understanding of the upheaval. I'm told there were an unusually high number of empty seats at the Oxford Playhouse when the touring production of Liberty, set in the France of 1793, arrived this autumn. Apparently people weren't in the mood to spend an evening contemplating Robespierre's Terror. (Users of guardian.co.uk were similarly reluctant to wallow in the details of the Baby P case.)/ppTwo big movies were released last week: Four Christmases, a light comedy with Reese Witherspoon, went straight to number one. Trailing behind it was The Changeling, Angelina Jolie's grim tale of a mother's search for a missing child. Similarly, it will be fascinating to see if the publishing subgenre known as "misery lit" continues to enjoy its past dominance of the bestsellers list. Right now, the hardback non-fiction top 10 is entirely made up of the comfort food of celebrity biography, topped by Dawn French's Dear Fatty - surely the literary equivalent of a sticky toffee pudding./ppThere are other clues to the cultural future besides the twin paths marked escape or understand. Price is one. Just as local pizzerias are holding up while posh restaurants expect to struggle, so culture that comes cheap has better prospects for survival. Sky subscriptions and DVD sales are so far weathering the recession. When you're counting the pennies, a ready meal and a film on the telly suddenly looks like a good bet./ppParadoxically, that could tilt the landscape towards high culture. If government subsidies get cut, many in the arts predict it will be smaller, grassroots projects that feel the knife: they're easier to slice than the heavy-hitting opera companies and art galleries. And while commercial theatre might take a pounding, the major subsidised institutions will still be left standing. /ppBut what if things get really severe? Reading could make a comeback, predicts John Carey, former Merton Professor of English at Oxford. In the 1930s, he says, some of the poorest turned to books for diversion. "Reading is astoundingly cheap," he says. "Libraries must be the cheapest form of entertainment possible." Classics were especially popular: they were inexpensive and available. "Social histories of the time are full of references to Dickens," says Carey./ppStill, the biggest cultural impact of the recession may be unseen for decades to come. Hytner notes that the great plays of the depression era - by Arthur Miller or Clifford Odets - came years later. It is the children of the slump, those witnessing their parents losing their jobs or businesses, who we should be watching. The seed of their future work is being planted right now. /ppa href="mailto:freedland@guardian.co.uk"br /freedland@guardian.co.uk/a/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomicgrowth"US economic growth and recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/tesco"Tesco/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/supermarkets"Supermarkets/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YJLdrZRupLEbqAyvMC8RCxJtgGk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YJLdrZRupLEbqAyvMC8RCxJtgGk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Google, dont on ne présente plus, vient de sortir une nouvelle arme de sa poche : a href="http://www.google.com/movies"One Box Cinéma/a.br / br / h3Allociné va faire la tête/h3br / br / div class="flot_droite"img src="http://www.siteduzero.com/uploads/fr/files/147001_148000/147216.gif" alt="Image utilisateur"//divJusqu'à présent, LA référence en matière de cinéma sur la toile, que ce soit pour découvrir les dernières sorties, visionner une bande-annonce, trouver les horaires des salles ou lire les critiques des internautes, c'était Allociné. br / br / Créé en 1993, Allociné est aujourd'hui le premier résultat lors d'une recherche google sur le nom d'un film. Fort d'une communauté d'un million d'utilisateurs inscrits, avec 70% de l'audience cinéma en France et quelques 5 millions et demi de visiteurs uniques sur son site par mois (en septembre), le site n'avait jusqu'à présent pas trop de souci à se faire en ce qui concerne la concurrence.br / br / Seulement voilà : Google, qui lui fournit l'essentiel de ses visiteurs via les recherches des utilisateurs (le mot "allociné" apparaît même statistiquement plus souvent que le mot "cinéma" dans les recherches Google), change aujourd'hui la donne avec un nouveau service.br / br / Baptisé a href="http://www.google.com/movies"One Box Cinéma/a, il fournit les mêmes services que celui qui est désormais son concurrent.br / br / Petit avantage pour Google : il peut se placer tout seul en tête des recherches de films ! Et il ne s'en prive pas : désormais, lorsque vous taperez "films", "ciné" ou encore "cinéma", voire même le nom d'un film, google se fera un plaisir de vous proposer aussitôt les noms des salles, leurs adresses (avec le plan Google Maps), leurs horaires et les critiques qui vont avec.br / br / h3Vers toujours plus de Google/h3br / br / Sérieux coup dur pour Allociné, qui décide cependant de garder son calme. En effet, le site s'attendait à cette nouvelle, d'autant plus que Google a déjà fait le coup aux sites américains en sortant la version de son site pour les États-Unis. Ces derniers semblent d'ailleurs s'en tirer plutôt bien, et ne souffrent pas trop de la concurrence. Il faut dire que de toute façon, en matière de critiques de films, Google ne crée pas son propre contenu mais se contente, fidèle à sa tradition, de mettre des liens vers les sites spécialisés qui en parlent mieux que lui. Pas trop de stress à avoir pour Allociné donc, qui pourrait finalement être un bon complément à Google.br / br / Néanmoins cette annonce, passée quasiment sous silence en France, révèle un peu la capacité à s'accaparer rapidement et durablement des secteurs entiers de l'information sur Internet. Après Google News, Google Maps, Google Blog, Google image, on se demande où s'arrêtera la folie du groupe. img src="http://www.siteduzero.com/Templates/images/smilies/langue.png" alt=":p" class="smilies"/br / br / div class="droite"span class="tpetit"Merci à a href="http://www.siteduzero.com/membres-294-15440.html"Nelty/a pour avoir proposé une news sur ce sujet./span/divimg width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/853/f/10952/s/27c8731/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2_fr.html?title=Intéressez-vous au cinéma avec Google Movieslink=http://www.siteduzero.com/news-62-30719-interessez-vous-au-cinema-avec-google-movies.html" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/partagez.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark_fr.cfm?title=Intéressez-vous au cinéma avec Google Movieslink=http://www.siteduzero.com/news-62-30719-interessez-vous-au-cinema-avec-google-movies.html" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853497151/u/89/f/10952/c/853/s/41715505/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853497151/u/89/f/10952/c/853/s/41715505/a2.img" border="0"//a

In the great tradition of the long-winded politician, Mayor Gavin Newsome's annual address exceeds seven hours of online video.

Pierre Perret défend le patrimoine paillard - Annecy - Pierre Perret est devenu un classique..Il ne faut cependant pas oublier que le compositeur de chansons enfantines, comiques et légères a sorti un album de chansons paillardes intitulé "Le Plaisir des Dieux"; qu'il a toujours défendu la grivoiserie des vieux chansonniers au dépend de l'insulte qui occupe trop souvent ce terrain; et qu'il a tenté par là de remettre au gout du jour cette tradition coquine en France. (Pour obtenir les droits d’exploitation commerciale de cette vidéo, veuillez contacter contact@wizdeo.com)

Auteur : tv8montblanc-wizdeo
Tags : grivois pierre perret concert guitare tube chanson histoire française paillarde patrimoine humour
Envoyé : 02 décembre 2008
Note :0.0
Votes :0

pThe covers of the last two a href="http://www.itsmorrisseysworld.com/" target="_blank"strongMorrissey/strong/a albums, a href="/article/record_review/20042-you-are-the-quarry" target="_blank"strongemYou Are the Quarry/em/strong/a and ema href="/article/record_review/20044-morrissey-ringleader-of-the-tormentors" target="_blank"strongRingleader of the Tormentors/strong/a/em, have featured the former Smiths frontman cradling a gun and a violin, respectively./p pThe cradling tradition continues with the cover for his forthcoming album emYears of Refusal/em, as according to the Morrissey fan site a href="http://www.morrissey-solo.com/" target="_blank"strongMorrissey-solo/strong/a, it features Moz cradling...a baby. And sporting some sort of growth that vaguely resembles a href="/node/147851/" target="_blank"strongBeyonceacute;'s robot finger prosthetic/strong/a. We're sure there's some sort of symbolic meaning behind all of this...perhaps something religious?/p pimg src="/sites/default/files/yearsofrefusal525.jpg" border="0" /br / br / a href="/article/news/51016-morrissey-names-new-album-preps-southpaw-reissue" target="_blank"strongAs previously reported/strong/a, emYears of Refusal/em was produced by the late Jerry Finn, and is due out on a href="http://www.polydor.co.uk/" target="_blank"strongPolydor/strong/a. Morrissey-solo reports that it will be released February 16 in the UK, with lead single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" out February 9. It was originally supposed to be released this fall, but various delays-- including Morrissey's split with his management-- have a href="/article/news/142845-morrisseys-years-bumped-to-next-year" target="_blank"strongpushed it back/strong/a.br / br / None of this has been confirmed yet, so stay tuned. But even if it turns out that that isn't the emYears of Refusal /emcover artwork, it brings comfort to know that such an image exists in this world./p pThanks to Jon Yslas for the tip!/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/M1JWdpnIERGPOxomF2LtB75DncY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/M1JWdpnIERGPOxomF2LtB75DncY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pitchfork/today/~4/vC_3UT9uUQQ" height="1" width="1"/

Deuxième épisode de la trilogie "Zenithia" et cinquième volet dans la chronologie Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest : Hand of the Heavenly Bride sur DS est confirmé en Europe au printemps prochain. Tous ceux qui ont apprécié L'épopée des Elus pourront découvrir un RPG toujours ancré dans la tradition, et c...

quot;L'union fait la forcequot;,c'est le slogan qui colle à la peau de The Rescues. Ces trois musiciens de talents, récemment rejoints d'un quatrième membre se sont fait en nom en jouant aux côtés d' Alanis Morissette, Sting et The Rolling Stones pour ne citer qu'eux.Crazy Ever After est un album dans la tradition pop rock de Los Angeles initiée par The Eagles et leur Hotel California aux multiples reprises. En un mot : enjoy !

Parti à la ville pour y poursuivre ses études, Mariano s'était éloigné de toutes les façons possibles de son île natale, Luar-do-Chão, et de sa famille. Mais juste avant de mourir, son grand-père a exprimé le souhait que son petit-fils préféré, à qui il avait donné son propre prénom, soit le maître de cérémonie lors de ses obsèques, l'obligeant ainsi à revenir dans l'île pour un retour qui prendra très vite des allures de parcours initiatique.



Retrouvant sa grand-mère, son père, ses oncles et sa tante, Mariano se voit aussi confronté à des traditions qu'il avait complètement oubliées au cours des années passées dans la modernité de la ville, et à une longue suite d'événements mystérieux dont les moindres ne sont certes pas les lettres que lui fait parvenir son défunt grand-père, dans ce qui semble une ultime tentative pour réconcilier le passé et l'avenir de leur famille et de leur île: "C'est pour cela que tu vas prendre connaissance de ces lettres et trouver non pas la feuille écrite mais un vide que tu vas remplir toi-même, avec tes calligraphies. Tu connais le dicton: les blessures de la bouche se soignent avec sa propre salive. C'est la tâche que nous allons accomplir ici, toi et moi, d'un côté et de l'autre des mots. Je fournis les voix, tu fournis l'écriture. Pour que nous sauvions Luar-do-Chão, l'endroit où nous allons naître à nouveau. Et sauvions notre famille, qui est l'endroit où nous sommes éternels." (p. 68)



Et à travers l'histoire de la famille de Mariano, c'est toute l'histoire du Mozambique qu'il nous est aussi donné de (re)lire, les blessures familiales se faisant les métaphores des fractures de la décolonisation et de ses combats dont le père de Mariano ne s'est d'ailleurs jamais vraiment remis, lui qui "Jeune, (...) s'était senti étranger dans son pays. Il avait cru que la raison de cette souffrance était une et exclusive: le colonialisme. Mais ensuite l'Indépendance avait eu lieu et il avait conservé une bonne part de sa lucidité. Et aujourd'hui il faisait ce constat: ce n'était pas d'un pays qu'il était exclu. Il était étranger au sein non pas d'une nation, mais du monde." (p. 76) Au fil des retrouvailles entre trois générations d'une famille, tradition et modernité se croisent, se frôlent, se heurtent mais se rencontrent aussi, heureusement. L'écriture étonnament inventive de Mia Couto se mettant ici au service d'un récit tout à la fois âpre, rugueux et par moments d'une miraculeuse tendresse, comme lors de cet instant de complicité entre Mariano et sa grand-mère aux doigs rongés par le jus corrosif des noix de cajou qu'elle devait décortiquer pendant des journées entières, au temps de sa jeunesse: "La grand-mère suspend ses évocations et me caresse le visage. Mais aussitôt elle se reprend comme si elle prenait conscience de la répugnance que peuvent me causer ses mains léprosées.

- Excuse-moi, mon petit-fils. Ce que j'ai là ce ne sont pas des doigts...

Ils ne m'impressionnent déjà plus ces doigts abîmés, tant son geste est plein de tendresse. Je lui prends la main et l'amène de retour sur mon visage. Je baise ses doigts. Elle se sent embrassée à l'âme." (pp. 48-49)



C'est là une belle découverte...

Titre : Un fleuve appelé temps, une maison appelé terre | Auteur : Mia Couto | Editeur : Albin Michel | Thème : Littérature africaine

Among composers whose fortunes were foreshortened by war, few have a more tragic tale to tell than that of German composer Hugo Distler. Born in Nuremburg but based in Lübeck, Distler was steeped in the North German, Lutheran tradition of Johann Sebastian Bach, yet became absorbed in the music of older traditions and those of his time –- in early Distler pieces one can hear traces of Stravinsky, Ravel, and Busoni. He reached musical maturity early and arrived at a heady combination sometimes referred to as “neo-Baroque,” as opposed to neo-classical, which drew upon the clean and balanced music of the late 18th century as model. A dedicated church musician and teacher, most of Distler’s music is either for chorus or for organ; another instrument to which he was devoted was the harpsichord, which had few adherents in the 1930s, and his Harpsichord Concerto was the only large scale instrumental work Distler produced that he also heard.

In much of Hugo Distler’s music, one can hear in his seeming obsession with repetitive figures and painstaking development of small ideas a tendency towards high holy minimalism in a specific sense and European postmodernism in a general one; neither style would emerge until more than 30 years after he died. Among his detractors were Germany’s National Socialists, who labeled Distler a degenerate artist based on the premiere of his Harpsichord Concerto and blocked the publication of its third movement. Like most Germans in the 1930s, Distler had joined the Nazi party in 1933; he had won his publishing contract with Bärenreiter in 1935 owing to successes at that year’s Kassel Music Days. However, within one year both Distler and Bärenreiter were already feeling the heat from above. Over time, the Nazi hierarchy began to view Distler less as a key cultural component within the Third Reich and more as an able-bodied Party member who ought to be able to take up arms and join the Wermacht, an option that the gentle and deeply religious composer couldn’t stomach. By 1941, Distler was composing his last known music, teaching in Berlin and while still under contract, his works were no longer being published. On November 1, 1942, the 34-year-old Distler took his own life rather than to answer his inevitable conscription, not wanting to follow in the footsteps of an elder brother already fallen in the cause.

Given his sorry circumstances and brave stand against forces that would have made him a faceless agent of the Nazi regime one might expect lionization of Distler’s work in the immediate post-war period, but this was not to be. Bärenreiter took on a limited republication of some compositions in the 1950s and garnered a small amount of interest, but Distler’s chromatically altered, poly-pandiatonic music landed like a thud in an era when most European art music was caught up in a kind of analogy to quantum mechanics. While over time, Distler’s music gained some ground among sacred musicians, he did not join the canon of Western music as a whole. The year 2008 brought the observance of Distler’s centenary and witnessed the premiere recordings of his works for piano and the Schauspielmusik zu “Ritter Blaubart,” orchestral music for a puppet play long thought lost, but discovered in a locked cabinet in 1999; it had never been performed. Most recordings of Distler are fostered in some way by his publisher; they seldom feature sympathetic and dedicated performers and are usually done on the cheap. While the obstacle of his adherence to tonality has been bridged, there are other objections to Distler being raised from second-tier to first-tier status; the idea that his music is technically accomplished but impenetrable, like Max Reger, or the notion, common in Germany, that Distler is only celebrated as he was so badly treated, and that any recognition of his work ties into “German guilt” about the Second World War. Distler’s music is the best refutation for either charge, and those able to connect with good recordings of it will discover his intoxicating mixture is unique, blending old and new into a texture that is unquestionably modern and forward-looking for its time, never mundane and always to some degree challenging -– much as the best 21st century music has been thus far.

Bernd Stegmann, Berliner Vokalensemble -
Distler: Führwahr, er trug unsere Krankheit Op. 12/9 (1941)
Anne Galovitch, harpsichord; Jos van Immerseel, Anima Eterna - Harpsichord Concerto, Op. 14 (1936)


Stefan Malzew, Neubrandenberger Philharmonie -
Distler: Schauspielmusik zu “Ritter Blaubart” (1940)
Arturo Sachetti - Distler: Chorale Partita on “Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland, Op. 8/1 (1932)

Sortie : 28 septembre 2007 Xyanide Resurrection renoue avec la grande tradition des shootand#039;em up à land#039;ancienne, tout en optant pour un habillage entièrement en 3D. Le titre propose 10 stages à embranchements multiples et quatre niveaux de difficulté.

Échos Espaces et trajectoires de la résonance Journées d'études organisées par Olivier Class et Stéphane Roth EA 3402 — « Approches contemporaines de la création et de la réflexion artistiques » Université de Strasbourg Octobre 2009 Quelle est la place de l'écho en musique ? Est-il présent dans toute tradition musicale ? S'agit-il d'un motif archétypique ? Comment le phénomène s'inscrit-il dans l'histoire de la musique occidentale ? Et dans d'autres cultures ? Que signifie l'écho pour la pratique et la théorie musicales, pour l'acoustique, pour l'esthétique ? En somme, quelle échographie pour la musique ? Telles seraient les questions que nous nous proposons d'aborder lors des journées d'études « Échos : espaces et trajectoires de la résonance ». Ces journées seront l'occasion d'aborder un thème qui, aussi paradoxal que cela puisse paraître, n'a suscité que peu d'intérêt dans le champ de la musicologie. Aussi souhaiterions-nous envisager la petite histoire du phénomène de manière interdisciplinaire, en conjuguant les savoirs des musiciens, acousticiens, architectes, littéraires, psychologues et philosophes. Tout type de proposition sera pris en compte. À titre suggestif, voici quelques pistes de réflexion : 1. Nous pourrions considérer la place de l'écho dans l'histoire de la musique. Le motif est récurrent, et a fortiori symptomatique. Dans les madrigaux du xvie [...]

Auteur : Stockshot-One
Tags : foire cochon lard martiny porc identite tradition France
Envoyé : 02 décembre 2008
Note :0.0
Votes :0

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/26248?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+A+late+calling+to+accountch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=Banking+sector+%28Business%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CEconomics+%28Business%29%2CMortgages+%28Money%29%2CBorrowing+and+debt%2CMoney%2CBusinessc5=Personal+Finance%2CInvestments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Ratesc6=Will+Huttonc7=2008_12_02c8=1127135c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free" width="1" height="1" //divpA rare silver lining in this recession is that a veil of mystery is being lifted from the longstanding lending practices of British banks. Suddenly they are understood as not necessarily always in the best national economic interest./ppMortgage and business borrowers alike are newly empowered by the pound;37bn bank bail-out, and change is afoot. Yesterday the Royal Bank of Scotland, now 58% owned by the taxpayer, promised it would give distressed homeowners six months' grace before it moved to repossess their property. Last week it said it would guarantee the level and price of its overdraft commitments to small business until the end of 2009 - providing, it qualified, the risks of their situation did not substantially change./ppThese are concessions of the sort that have not been made in any postwar recession. They make it impossible for Lloyds-TSB/HBOS not to follow suit. HSBC will not want to be outdone. Only Barclays, suffering the burden of the bail-out terms from its sovereign wealth fund investors, is likely to cling to the banking tradition of being providers of umbrellas except when it is raining. It will no longer be politically acceptable./ppBankers, in fairness, are the custodians of other people's money. They have to provide cash to their depositors whenever they want it, even as they tie it up in loans to homebuyers and business. This confidence trick requires careful managing. British banks' approach has been to keep their lending as short-term as possible, to have it collateralised against bricks and mortar, to keep tight control at headquarters and to recall loans at the first sign of trouble./ppIt works, but it is brutal. It does not favour long-term investment. It biases lending towards property rather than business innovation. It does not favour manufacturing industry that needs most support in downturns. It makes home ownership high risk for working-class families. And it exacerbates recessions./ppThere is another approach, more widely used in mainland Europe and Japan. It is best illustrated by a story from yesterday's Financial Times about the Reading-based Magal Group. Owner Gamil Magal wants a pound;1.5m loan from RBS to tide over his engineering firm during the recession, collateralised against pound;12m of assets. The company is solid but now losing money; properly supported it might survive. In Europe and Japan, banks tend to be supportive of their Magals, with whom they have long-term relationships. They certainly demand restructuring and redundancy, but they shepherd the scaled-back firms to recovery, offering not just finance but advice and business knowledge./ppIn Britain banks do not support such relationships. But they do know British financial protocols. RBS, says Magal, responded to his request by sending him an insolvency expert. When RBS was privately owned, he would not have dared complain and tempt such awesome power of life and death. In today's climate, he feels he can go public./ppIf the banks together support all the firms in the manufacturing value chain then each individual firm is more likely to pull through. Magal needs supporting, but so do his customers. RBS cannot have an open chequebook, but unless it and other banks are more collectively accommodating to firms' requests, they create the very risks RBS is alert to./ppUK banks have never been properly accountable for their actions, hiding behind the myth that, as their decisions are taken in markets, they are necessarily efficient. They are not. If more businessmen speak out, and the government has some guts, the next 18 months could see a transformation in British finance. It is long overdue./pp· Will Hutton is executive vice-chair of the Work Foundation a href="mailto:will.hutton@observer.co.uk"will.hutton@observer.co.uk/a/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics"Economics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/mortgages"Mortgages/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/debt"Borrowing debt/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/n9llmbmU7O2cqsuftgw_d1pg-Qw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/n9llmbmU7O2cqsuftgw_d1pg-Qw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Elle et lui, deux jeunes Français dorigine marocaine. Ils veulent vivre ensemble sous le même toit. Mais ils ne veulent pas dune vie de galère. Ils nont pas le courage de vivre « dans le péché ». Les parents, lentourage, la cité : impossible déchapper à toute cette pression. Vivre à Paris aurait pu faciliter les choses : vivons loin, vivons heureux. Mais elle et lui nont pas assez de ressources pour quitter la banlieue. Et puis, leur union, ça aurait fini par se savoir. Ils décident donc de faire un mariage religieux « hallal ». br /br /br /br /br /br /

You may have seen “Wondrous” on ALA TechSource.

Tad Beckwith wrote about it to me: He said:

Although this is not “in library” or “virtual library” tech it is “near library” tech that is inspiring visitors to check out a brand new library in Marana, Arizona.  When I was reading your About Page I felt appreciative when I read your comments about making a library welcoming in a variety of ways because I too want to bring back more commons spaces.  I think this sculpture is an example of one library investing in visually welcoming art that seems to inspire and beckon to visitors.  So I guess I’m telling you all this because I appreciated what you wrote and I wanted to share our work with your readers and was wondering if you would post something about it for them?

It is called…Wondrous

It is a galvanized metal, accordion shaped sculpture of words that is backlit by state-of-the-art, powerful colored LED lights at night which then cast cool word shadows onto the library.   We would love to help contribute to the visual beauty and welcoming appeal of more libraries and help entice new visitors to their local libraries.  

This is a great example of a library encouraging the heart, something I think we can do very well. I emailed Tad and asked him a bit about this. He graciously answered.

MS: You describe yourself as a lifelong library lover in email to me, what has created that feeling for you? What have YOUR libraries done to encourage your heart?

TB: My first warm memory was enjoying story-time as a pre-school child and now smiling at the fact that I can still go back to that library in McMinnville, Oregon and the librarian who read to us, Dee, is still at the reference desk helping folks.  My family and one other family, for some good reason I was oblivious to at the time, started a “library night” tradition.  Every other wednesday night we would go out to eat and then to the library for an hour.  I still can remember where I sat on the floor and poured over newfound books, where the nearly forbidden, tip-toe only zones were, and where the stuffed animals I could read to were waiting for me.

Lots between these two memories, but…  More recently, as an adult, I remember the overwhelm of coming to a brand-new city of Tucson, AZ and then feeling a sense of personal support from the librarians who would search as persistently as I was, for leads or clues, as I was looking for a new job.  I didn’t have an internet connection at the time, didn’t know my way around the town, and yet the library was a safe place to venture out from, a good launch pad to return to again and again, with many new projects.

The main Tucson library is located on about half of a central block with the other half being open for community events, many co-sponsored by the library.  The staff would help project family friendly halloween  movies on one outside wall of the library or support farmers’ market booths organized near the entrance to the library each wednesday.  I have observed in many “customer service moments” that the librarians at that library believe in building a stronger community and work to serve everyone who walks in the door, even if there only for the shade, some water, and a quiet place to read the day’s paper.

MS: How do you think art can encourage the hearts of library users?

One library I know is right next to a playground park for kids another has a huge, red, swirling metal sculpture in front of it.  Both situations seem to create an atmosphere of play, discovery, and a curiosity for what might be next, just inside the library.  When I see kids explore art, they do it with their whole bodies.  They may trace the silhouette of a word they recognize  or give a corner piece a “thunk” with their fist to see if it makes a funny sound.  Adults are given an excuse to pause for a moment mentally and have a momentary, exploratory detour, maybe following an unpredictable line to its end out of the corner of their eye.  When art like this is next  to a library or thematically connected to the library I see visitors get a chance to practice moments of discovery, looking at something complex and noticing something new each time.  This same skill of noticing and exploring and then noticing something new seems to be in the DNA of most library lovers I know but I really think it is in the DNA of all of us and just needs a little artful coaxing from time to time.

Thanks to Tad for sharing and kudos to Pima County Public Library for encouraging the heart through artwork.

Watch for more “Encouraging the Heart” Stories here at TTW.

In a November 30 Washington Times article on the December 2 Georgia Senate run-off, reporter S.A. Miller uncritically reported Sen. Saxby Chambliss' (R) suggestion that he would support filibustering judicial nominees if they are, in Chambliss' words, "liberal activist[s]." Miller did not note that Chambliss previously said that the filibuster of judicial nominations, resulting in a denial of an up-or-down vote, is unconstitutional, or that he supported the "nuclear option" to change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster as a procedural option for a minority of senators to block judicial nominations.

Miller quoted Chambliss saying: "[W]e have the opportunity to make sure that we are that firewall, that 41st vote to make sure that we don't have our taxes raised, to make sure that we have the right kind of judges going to the bench, not liberal activist judges." Senate rules require a supermajority of 60 votes to invoke cloture, or end debate, on most matters -- including judicial nominations. Thus, 41 votes against cloture would defeat it.

However, Miller did not note that in a Senate floor statement on April 13, 2005, Chambliss asserted that "never before in the history of the Senate has a minority of 41 Senators held up confirmation of a judicial nominee where a majority of Senators has expressed their support for that nominee." He added: "It is for this reason, if given the opportunity, I will vote in favor of changing our rules to allow confirmation of a judicial nominee by a simple majority because under the Constitution of the United States, the Senate is required to give its advice and consent to the President on his judicial nominees." Chambliss continued:

The Senate can say no in regard to any particular nominee, but to do so we need an up-or-down vote to decide what advice we give the President. Failing to answer the question is shirking our constitutional role in the separation of powers scheme. The Constitution spells out in certain areas, such as passage of constitutional amendments and ratification of treaties, where more than a simple majority of Senators is required. Confirmation of judges is not one of these areas.

Moreover, Chambliss and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) wrote in a May 24, 2005, op-ed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that "the Constitution require[s] an up-or-down vote" and expressed support for restoring what they said was "a 214-year Senate tradition whereby judicial nominees are confirmed by a simple majority."

Additionally, Miller reported in the article that "Republican Party and conservative groups such as Freedom's Watch" have criticized Democrat Jim Martin for being "soft on crime," without noting that the Martin campaign responded to a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) ad attacking Martin's votes on crime bills with an ad of its own, in which Martin notes that his daughter was kidnapped when she was 8 years old and states, "That's why I fought so hard to crack down on violent crime and lock up violent criminals."

Moreover, Miller did not note that while the NRSC ad claimed Martin was "one of three to vote against making it a felony to solicit a child for prostitution," according to a November 25 FactCheck.org article, the Martin campaign asserted that he did not support a version of the bill that included "language that would have allowed willing teenagers to be prosecuted as felons for engaging in oral sex." The FactCheck.org article also reported that Martin did support a bill identical to the one that the ad cites except that it made clear that those prosecutions would occur only in instances in which money was being offered.

From Chambliss' April 13, 2005, Senate floor statement:

I will start by noting again that never before in the history of the Senate has a minority of 41 Senators held up confirmation of a judicial nominee where a majority of Senators has expressed their support for that nominee. It is for this reason, if given the opportunity, I will vote in favor of changing our rules to allow confirmation of a judicial nominee by a simple majority because under the Constitution of the United States, the Senate is required to give its advice and consent to the President on his judicial nominees.

The Senate can say no in regard to any particular nominee, but to do so we need an up-or-down vote to decide what advice we give the President. Failing to answer the question is shirking our constitutional role in the separation of powers scheme. The Constitution spells out in certain areas, such as passage of constitutional amendments and ratification of treaties, where more than a simple majority of Senators is required. Confirmation of judges is not one of these areas.

The Senate rules have changed on several occasions over the years as to whether and in what circumstances a filibuster is allowed, but we have, unfortunately, come to a point in time where the filibuster is being abused to hold up judicial nominees on which we are required to act; that is, to say yes or no. I believe it is in violation of the Constitution.

I want to take a point in fact relative to the circuit in which I practiced for a number of years, and that is what is happening today with regard to the judicial nominee to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The Democrats have held up confirmation of the only nominee President Bush has made to the Eleventh Circuit Court which handles Federal appeals in my home State of Georgia as well as Alabama and Florida.

From Chambliss and Isakson's op-ed:

Article II of the Constitution clearly states that, as members of the U.S. Senate, it is our responsibility to give "advice and consent" to presidential judicial nominees. It is what this president and every president deserves. It is what the American people want. And most importantly, it is what the U.S. Constitution requires.

Yet for the past two years, the Senate has failed to carry out this duty because the minority party has filibustered several of President Bush's judicial nominees. The minority has blocked the majority from having an up-or-down vote. Not only does the Constitution require an up-or-down vote, denial of an up-or-down vote goes against basic principles of fairness; it also is unprecedented in Senate history.

We believe it is time to end this obstructionism and fulfill our constitutional duty. That's why we are supporting Majority Leader Bill Frist in his effort to restore a 214-year Senate tradition whereby judicial nominees are confirmed by a simple majority.

The Constitution specifies those few times when the Senate must have a two-thirds vote, such as to ratify treaties or override a presidential veto. But when it comes to confirming the president's judicial nominees, the Constitution does not require a two-thirds vote for confirmation. The Constitution clearly states it is the Senate's responsibility to give advice and consent.

We both wholeheartedly support discussion and debate regarding judicial nominees. It is important for each judicial nominee to have his or her qualifications examined, undergo thorough background checks and be asked tough questions. But it is also important that after a time of extensive debate, there must also be a time for a decision.

From the FactCheck.org article:

An NRSC ad claims Martin was "one of three to vote against making it a felony to solicit a child for prostitution." Actually, Martin eventually supported the child prostitution bill after it was rewritten. He objected to language that would have allowed willing teenagers to be prosecuted as felons for engaging in oral sex.

Martin's campaign notes that he voted in favor of the bill 16 days later, after a slight wording change.

Martin voted against House legislation on Feb. 1, 1988, and was one of only three representatives to do so. Martin's campaign tells FactCheck.org that the original bill contained a constitutional problem. It defined solicitation of sodomy (which can be either oral or anal sex under Georgia law) from a person under age 17 as a felony -- whether or not it is done for money. "That's why he voted against it," says Patrick Suter, Martin's research director. Suter said the bill as worded would have made it illegal for two willing teenagers to have sex.

The Georgia Senate then offered a substitute bill, and when it came to the House for a vote on Feb. 17, 1988, Martin voted for it. We looked at the votes and language of both versions of the bill published in the Georgia House Journal. The Senate version stipulated that a solicitation of sodomy must be "for money" to be a felony. Other than those two words, the House and Senate versions were identical. The Senate version passed the House unanimously.

From the November 30 Washington Times article:

Ads by Mr. Chambliss, the Republican Party and conservative gr