#I’ve studied so productiveness quota has been met

[toster-da-bred]

You know that one post about switching between the same three apps. I am relating to that so hard right now.

[vertical-elevation]

This Fix Could Dramatically Improve Your Startup — and Potentially Save You Millions

You’re two years into your tech startup journey. You’ve got a new client meeting at 9 a.m. At 10 a.m., you’re sitting in on a product development call. At 11 a.m., you’re meeting with a marketing expert to discuss outreach. By noon, you’ll be exhausted; you’re tired from working the past seven days, but you feel too guilty to take a break since you need to keep your startup afloat.

Running an organization comes with so many responsibilities, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks aimed at generating revenue. You feel compelled to think from a financial point of view, putting everything else second. The bottom line comes first, right?

Wrong. If you take a step back, you’ll realize that by focusing on finances, you’ve put your talent on the back burner.

When was the last time you had a one-on-one meeting with a nonexecutive at your company to discuss career goals? How long has it been since you’ve considered your company culture — not the one described on your website, but the one clearly present in your company interactions? When was the last time you thought of your employees rather than your products?

The cost of putting talent second is greater than you think.

By putting your customers, service, or products first, you’re encouraging employee disengagement. Put yourself in your people’s shoes: If employees don’t feel connected to your vision and their needs aren’t considered, they won’t be interested in your business; they’ll just be interested in their wages.

According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace, only 32% of employees are engaged at work. The remaining disengaged workers? They’re costing organizations $450–$550 billion per year, according to one study on workplace engagement. This monetary loss isn’t solely from a lack of productivity; it oftentimes is from losing employees altogether.

Take this example: Let’s assume you have a high-performing salesperson who met their $2 million sales quota in year one. Out of the blue, they leave. Because you didn’t have a talent strategy in place to retain and develop this person, you don’t know their reason for leaving. During their exit interview, they may not have been honest or told you.

The task of replacing this person may fall to an internal recruiter, or you might hire any number of recruiting agencies to find your next sales superstar. Either way, you’re expending time and resources on replacing someone who, by all accounts, should still be on your team.

Recruiting for sales is trickier than ever. While it takes an average of two months to fill a role, I’ve spoken with countless founders and executives who haven’t found quality sales candidates three to four months into their search! Add another nine months for a new employee to get up to speed, and the opportunity cost of not having your superstar salesperson in that seat is well over $2 million.

To determine the total loss, consider training expenses and non-recoverable draws paid to your former salesperson. But you’re not done yet. What about harder-to-measure costs, like low morale rippling through your teams from this person’s departure? Or the increased risk of burnout among those who have to pick up the slack? Or the opportunity costs that occur while the position is left unfilled? It adds up, and not always in visible or easily calculable ways.

This is bad enough if your organization happens to have mastered the art and science of recruiting. But if you’re among the 74% of organizations with an unoptimized recruiting approach, you risk hiring someone who doesn’t have the right skills for the role.

What’s the solution? Rather than focusing solely on making money, you need to refocus your attention on your talent.

Taking a talent-first approach

Engaging your employees starts with shifting your company from being customer-, product-, or service-centric to being talent-centric. Of course, your products and customers are important, but no matter what, your people must be priority number one.

Where should you begin?

Align your executive team.

To be a talent-centric startup, your leadership team must be on the same page. Why would employees want to work with leaders who each want to accomplish different things? (They wouldn’t.)

Get everyone together and ask: What’s the company’s vision? What’s our strategy to get there? Which department contributes most to our success? Hiring a consultant with the right knowledge and experience to come in and ask questions like these will allow for honest answers and a path forward to full alignment.

Revisit your recruiting strategy.

Once your leaders are leading their respective employees in the same direction, you can create or revise your recruiting strategy. Becoming talent-centric is about finding people who are truly a great fit for your company. But who will find them? Who will handle recruiting? Are you primarily relying on a “post and pray” strategy, randomly posting job listings and praying the right person finds them? This method is hardly effective.

As a leader and founder, you must be involved in the recruiting process. After all, who knows your company’s ins and outs and vision better than you? Hire and work closely with a search firm or train internal recruiters to find and attract the people you want.

Give your people opportunities to grow.

Hiring a new employee doesn’t guarantee they’ll want to stay with you for the long haul. You’ve got to pay attention to them, ask about their needs, and invest in their growth. If not, someone else will.

Schedule one-on-one meetings with workers to see how you can help them meet their individual goals. Maybe your newly hired manager dreams of becoming an executive. Perhaps your lead developer wants to learn new AI skills. The extra attention you give employees will translate into a better company.

Create an honest company culture.

When was the last time you heard from a lower-level employee? Honest employees are engaged employees. Not to mention, hearing their opinions will improve your company.

There’s only one way to foster this culture: You must “be” the culture. It starts with you and your leadership team. Call an in-person, all-hands-on-deck meeting and let everyone know you’re committed to creating a culture of feedback — where anyone at any level can approach colleagues or higher-ups and be listened to without fear of repercussions.

This is a slow process that, when built over time, will keep you abreast of issues you may have never known before. Ultimately, it’s a key factor in an employee’s decision to stay or go.

Talent first, talent first, talent first!

Every day, I work with business leaders who know things aren’t working as they should, but they aren’t sure why. Some are hemorrhaging talent, others are grappling with disengaged teams, and some have no insight into their employees’ issues and opinions.

It all comes back to one thing: You must take a talent-centric approach to your business.

[rosethornewrites]

Why does the Cuban Embargo exist?

I’ve seen people asking this question due to the amazing vaccine Cuba managed to produce despite it, and there’s a lot that goes into the reasons for the Cuban embargo.

The story basically starts with colonialism and imperialism. The poet and warrior Jose Marti is a Cuban hero for fighting against Spain to win Cuban independence. Unfortunately, that didn’t end the scourge of colonialism in Cuba. You see, Spain had given huuuuge tracts of land as plantations to certain rich loyal subjects. And so the poverty of the general populace continued largely as it had under colonialism.

The United States helped Cuba win independence, but it was low-key a land grab. Walt Whitman, famous American poet, dreamt that Cuba would become a US state. But Cuba didn’t want to become a state, which is where imperialism comes in.

Ultimately, Cuba became a playground for the rich and famous and the American mafia. Resources were owned by American corporations. Land was still owned by colonizers. The “president” was a man who lost an election and then came in from Florida and orchestrated a coup, and he upheld American interests because hm, I wonder why. *eyeroll* It was a military dictatorship, one installed by the US, basically a puppet.

And this environment gave birth to Fidel Castro, who famously failed at his attempt to overthrow the government the first time and was exiled. He met Che Guevara (The Motorcycle Diaries is a fab movie if you want deets there), an Argentinian doctor who may have grown up wealthy but despised the poverty in Central and South America. They had similar ideals. Notably, those ideals were specifically anti-imperialist.

As you might imagine, this didn’t make them popular with the imperialist United States.

But they won. They took the nation, starting in Santiago de Cuba and driving the imperialist forces from the island.

Folks expected that it would just be business as usual. That Fidel and his cohort would just adhere to colonialism/imperialism and be excited to get money.

Nope.

They started nationalizing industries. Kicking out the imperialists. Then they passed an agrarian act, which finally took the land from the old colonizer families that still held it, with the goal of having that land be for the people.

The US, obviously, was not happy with this. How could Cuba be a playground for organized crime and the rich and famous if the status quo wasn’t maintained? How dare!

It turned into a tit-for-tat. The US retaliated against Cuban reforms via trade, and Cuba responded by kicking out more imperialists and taking back their oil production lol. 

And then the US cut its sugar quota. You see, once upon a time, most of our sugar came from Cuba. This was a fuckton of sugar. And that could break an economy.

Except the USSR stepped in and picked up the sugar quota. And so Cuba became a pawn in the Cold War.

Mind, we also didn’t like that they fought against apartheid in South Africa, sending aid to the struggle, and fought against imperialism across South and Central America. Famously, Che Guevara was executed and his body desecrated in Bolivia. They eventually sent his hands back to Cuba, and the CIA has his belongings on display like trophies.

The tit-for-tat ended with the Embargo, but the US didn’t stop there.

In 1996, the US passed the Helms-Burton Act, which strengthened the embargo and claimed that (at that point nearly 40 years later) the colonizer-descended families still owned the land that had been redistributed by the Cuban agrarian reforms. Furthermore, if any company in the world was discovered to be using land or resources claimed in Cuba under this act, "trafficking" in property supposedly owned by US citizens (because Cuba is a commodity, not a nation, you see), they would be penalized. This also covers property owned by Cubans who left and became US citizens.

The Helms-Burton Act is still in place, in 2021.

I’m admittedly biased. I’m a US citizen born and raised, but I am anti-imperialist and lean strongly toward socialism. I was able to study abroad in Cuba during a brief window in 2004 when educational programs were permitted to travel to Cuba (directly from Miami, even!).

We traveled the reverse path of the Revolution (Havana to Santiago de Cuba), and studied at the Agrarian University of Havana. At that university, while speaking to students, we noticed one of the buildings was unfinished and had been left to molder. We asked why, and learned that the USSR had been building it, but then the USSR fell and Cuba entered the Special Period, wherein they had to learn how to survive without subsidies from the USSR, with the embargo still in place.

The Special Period was the period of boat people, where people across Cuba were literally starving to death. And the US saw it as just in the name of imperialism, while also trying to gaslight Cuba. Of course, the US picked up the boat people, and there’s even a law that gives any Cuban who steps on US land citizenship. It’s all part of the abuse.

Despite this, Cuba has discovered many life-saving drugs it tends to refuse to patent, preferring to make them available to the world. Cuba has renowned programs to train doctors, and sends doctors world-wide.

TLDR; Cuba is anti-imperialist and the embargo is a 70-ish year-long punishment.

[norabrice1701]

An Offer Received - Part I

A Jaguar Villain Tom Hiddleston Character (Thomas Conrad) fanfic 

Pairing:Thomas Conrad x Fem!reader 

Summary: You were just doing your job. It wasn’t your fault you did it so well that your boss, Thomas Conrad, wanted to recruit you in his plan for world domination. And what Mr. Conrad wants, well…

Rating: Part I - an F-bomb or two (later parts heat up, but gotta start somewhere) 

A/N: This is rather the hopeless result of watching "High-Rise", "Crimson Peak", the British Villain Jaguar commercial series, and "The Night Manager" over the last few weeks...so, here goes nothing! Planned to be 5 or 6 parts when all’s said and done. 

GIF credit to the original poster via the Tumblr search! 

Part I - 5 Minutes 

You dropped to your office chair with a sigh, plugging in your laptop. Today’s department head meeting had passed uneventfully for once. Robert Stark, Head of R&D, and Chris Rogers, Head of Operations, constantly jockeyed for more allocation of your production resources. It was challenging, you’d admit – finding the balance act between supply and demand while planning for the future. But you were the youngest Head of Production for the largest tech giant in the world, Lok Industries – better known by the LOKI brand splashed on phones, watches, tablets, computers – for a reason.

While youngest as your particular department head, you were hardly the youngest on the senior staff. And that was to say nothing of the CEO himself. The youngest man in corporate history at the helm – an engineer with the aptitude for business strategy and the political savvy to chart a meteoric rise to the top. In fact, Thomas J. Conrad’s nomination for CEO five years ago passed unanimously in record time.  

You’d never met him, never even seen him around the office despite your department head position. Plenty of others had, though, with stories to tell and scars to prove it. You tried to stay above the office gossip – especially when it concerned your senior boss – but it was intriguing. For all the press release photos and official portraits you’d seen – Mr. Conrad looked pleasant enough. Intelligent, sky-blue eyes; well-coiffed, gold-brown hair that betrayed just a hint of natural curl; a dashing smile. But that’s all it was, according to the hearsay – just a well-crafted facade. No one should be fooled by those eyes that could cut men in half; by that clever mind operating with ruthless intent; or, by that sharp, cold tongue that knew no mercy.

It sounded like such a cliché. The handsome, suave boss who was secretly-not-so-secretly a heartless bastard. A vicious predator in a bespoke suit. Albeit, a gorgeous one.

That’s why you didn’t care for the gossip. It’d be far better to meet the man and form your own opinions – but you’d been sufficiently warned that you’d only be brought before Mr. Conrad when you royally fucked up. “Not if you royally fuck up,” Scarlett Romanov had helpfully clarified with a coy smile, “but when you royally fuck up.”

Well, four years in and it hadn’t happened yet. And today was no time to start.

Turning to your laptop, you tended to the business at hand – reviewing production data, answering emails, assigning resource allocation. All in a day’s work. At one point you glanced at the clock, realizing there was just an hour left in your day. Perfect.

Perhaps tonight, you’d break the stalemate with Sebastian Barnes, Head of IT, and text him. He was quite handsome in his own right, easy to converse with, and even easier to fall into bed with. Even morning coffee at his apartment had been pleasant. But work got in the way for both of you – between server upgrades and production outages, there always seemed to be some excuse recently.

The desk phone beeped twice, flashing red, followed by another set of two beeps. An internal caller. You glanced at the ID on the screen, brow furrowing as you hit the speaker button.“Afternoon, Mrs. Brunhilde.”

“Good afternoon.” The pleasant voice of Mrs. Willamina Brunhilde – a relic of the former CEO and still glorified secretary of the CEO’s office – suffused your name with warmth and professional detachment. “Mr. Conrad would like to see you. He has an opening for the next hour, and I’ve just reserved the time on your calendar. Are you in a position to come to his office in 5-10 minutes?”

You knew the question was largely a polite formality. When Mrs. Brunhilde called and Mr. Conrad wanted a meeting, there was no excuse to say no. Your heart rate accelerated as you swallowed. “Of course. I’ll be right there.”

With a few more perfunctory pleasantries, the call ended. You exhaled deep, fighting to reign in the sudden nervous energy that pooled in your gut. This was no different than any other meeting you’d attended – you were smart, you were capable. You were the Head of Production, and you didn’t get this job for being a pretty face. Brushing your slacks, adjusting your blazer, and smoothing your bangs, you exited your office for the trek across the sprawling building.

Mr. Conrad’s office suite overlooking the city harbor matched much of the building aesthetic – sharp lines, glass and chrome, a study in clean whites and crisp greys with hints of the company’s bold green signature color. Mrs. Brunhilde greeted you with a smile, ushering you forward to the dark, partially cracked double-doors. You rapped on the wood, exhaling deep.

“Enter.” His velvety, British drawl had always been appealing. 

You opened the door further, stepping inside. He glanced up from the slim folder in hand as he sat in the white, leather chair at his desk – the picture of perfection with straight posture, a black tie knotted tight at his throat, and the crisp white sleeves of his dress shirt on display.

He inclined his head ever so faintly, face devoid of a smile. “Thank you for coming.” Your name rolled off his tongue in the most pleasing way.

You tipped your head in return. “Of course. Thank you, sir, for taking the time.”

He reached to his laptop, pressing a button on the keyboard before looking back to the folder as audio started to play.

Your stomach sank to your feet as you recognized it.

Your voice carried clear. “Our control limits are holding – 23 defects per 1,000,000 units. Our department has set an improvement goal to drop that number from 23 to 5 in the next four years –.”

Robert’s voice interrupted. “Oh goody, but perhaps, more importantly, you can tell me when Lane 5 will be restored?”

“The investigation into Lane 5 is still ongoing,” you said, voice even, “the code has been scrubbed, and we’re looking at retooling options.”

“Retooling options?” Robert scoffed. “Need I remind you that it’s been 33 hours since you canned my primary production line? That’s 33 hours of lost time, to the tune of – oh, say a 9% drop of market share come holiday season if we don’t finish the dev on these new marine products.”

You didn’t miss a beat. “As opposed to a 21% loss in market share if we let our control limits slip and start producing a higher percentage of defective products? Consumers know the LOKI brand is reliable – the highest reliability of any of our competition – and reliability makes or breaks on the production floor. Sacrifice quality control limits and you might as well kiss your cushy retirement goodbye.”

“Then, scale back – temporarily – on Rogers’ orders. He’s meeting quota, check the box for market supply. And if it does get tight, well, a little more demand for less supply usually helps -”

“Robert,” you cut him off, voice tight, “this is my call. I’ve looked at the same numbers you have – with Lane 5 out of commission until we can bring it up to spec, it’s a hit to our bottom line. It’s my job to minimize that hit. While never desirable, we can weather a 9% loss without permanent damage to the brand. Even Mr. Conrad would agree to that. But, if you don’t like that answer – then, by all means, let’s do discuss with Mr. Conrad.” 

The room fell dead quiet, broken only by the faint squeak of a shifting chair.

“Well,” Robert started softly, “I don’t know that we need to go there just yet. What’s your projection on the investigation conclusion?”

“Retooling should complete in the next 21 hours, then we’ll move through start-up.”

Conrad’s hand floated back to his keyboard, pressing a button to cut off the recording. You didn’t dare speak as silence fell. If he was displeased, you would know soon enough. And if he was pleased, well…no one ever said they were called to Mr. Conrad’s office because he was pleased.

Your heart raced as he drew out the moment, but you wouldn’t let him see you sweat. You wouldn’t let him unnerve you.

Cold, crystalline eyes darted up to yours, pinning you in place. “You have absolutely no authority to speak for me. Making baseless statements about my assumed inclinations is not part of your job. Your job does include resolving those inter-department squabbles without leveraging my involvement as a threat. Now, if you’re incapable of standing behind your own decisions, incapable of defending the trajectory that you have set for your department and this corporation by extension – then, tell me now and spare me further disappointment.”

You responded on instinct, hiding the sting of his words.“No, sir. I’ve watched the company’s production numbers for almost four years now. Every metric is higher across the board than when I assumed the position -”

“Yes, including budget. Your department’s costs have increased, not exactly commensurate with your outputs. Diminishing returns often plague the pursuit for perfection as one approaches the pinnacle.” He glanced down idly to the file in his hand. “Your department walks that razor’s edge now. It would be well within my interest, perhaps, to cap you there.”

“Sir, the quality of our production is unparalleled –.”

“But you wanted to bring the discussion to Mr. Conrad, did you not? Well, here you are.” He closed the folder, tossing it idly to his desk before rising. Despite the late hour, he looked as pressed and polished as if the day had just started. He crossed around to the front of his desk, bracing against it as he rested his hands inside his trouser pockets. “There’s only one solution in this case.”

You debated asking but thought against it. Asking would be redundant. He wouldn’t have brought you here without a purpose, without something to gain.

He gestured at the nearest leather armchair opposite his desk. “Do have a seat.”

You paused, hesitating in consideration of his words. Sitting as he indicated would place you in a physically submissive position to his tall, lithe figure. Not that you were short in your heels – standing just over 5’9” – but you weren’t exactly keen to meet your senior boss on unequal footing.

His gaze hardened, mouth pinching with irritation. “If you’re stalling for time, my patience is not inexhaustible. And when I make an offer, I expect it to be received.”

Steeling yourself, moistening your lips, you crossed around to sit as indicated. You squared your shoulders and held your head high, refusing to fully angle back to look up at him as he spoke.

“Mrs. Brunhilde’s time at LOKI has come to an end. As you know, she was installed to her post by my predecessor who tailored the position to suit his needs. Needs that no longer align with my own or the corporation. The position is now evolving to meet the ever-evolving environment in which it must function.”

You nearly whiplashed from the change in conversation. Hadn’t he just questioned your ability to successfully do your job…?

He continued to speak softly yet there was no mistaking the hard, commanding edge. “The new terms for the CEO Administrative Executor now require someone with a working knowledge of the business and its trajectory; a willingness to stand in defense of that trajectory while keeping a clear head for the larger vision,” he pitched slightly forward, voice dropping with the barest hint of a tease, “and, of course, leveraging the power of one’s boss with explicit authority.”

It sure sounded like a tease, but you couldn’t be sure. You were too busy reeling from the implications. “Forgive me, sir,” you looked up at him, “but…it sounds like you’re suggesting….” You didn’t finish. Couldn’t finish. The thought of being removed as Head of Production and reassigned as his personal secretary, office administrative whatever repulsed you. Had he already judged you incapable? Was this punishment for one fucking meeting?

“I’m more than just suggesting.” He reached behind him for a loose sheet of paper. “Take the rest of this week as transition, and start in earnest on Monday.”

“The rest of this week?” You couldn’t stop the outburst. “I couldn’t possibly – you’re giving me just three days to transition out as Head of Production, and into the role of your office executor? Who’s my replacement? I need time to prepare the turnover, oversee the transition – and, surely, I should be involved in determining my replacement.”

A wolfish smile ghosted his face. “Welcome to your first objective in your new role. In addition to learning the expectations of this office and implementing goals for your redefined position, of course.” He held out the paper in your direction and you stared at it, wishing it would burst into flames.

The official notice of transfer with authority granted by the one and only Thomas J. Conrad.

Well, you wouldn’t be texting Sebastian tonight, after all. Not when your workload just quadrupled. You reached out for the paper, gripping it tight as you sighed.

“You needn’t look so glum about it,” he scolded lightly. “Consider it a promotion. If you hadn’t caught my eye – or ear, more accurately – you wouldn’t be here now. At least, you’ll find I’m rather adept at managing my own schedule; my valet manages my personal affairs; and, the café staff is well aware of my expectations for coffee and tea service.”

You quirked a brow. “Isn’t coffee delivery standard to every assistant position?”

He leveled you with a stern look in return. “If you ever bring me a cup of steaming liquid, you’ll find your pay docked by 60%. You’re in this position to be eyes, ears, and perspective on this company. Someone adept at managing the razor’s edge and surviving.” He straightened from his desk, extending a hand. “Are we understood on your priorities?”

Another challenge. Another opportunity. And if it didn’t pan out…well, how many others could say they worked directly for Thomas J. Conrad on their resume?

You rose, taking his hand. “Understood, sir.”

His answering smile, predatory and self-satisfied, sent shivers down your spine.

Up Next: Part II - 5 Weeks 

[the-master-cylinder]

Russell was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Constance (née Lerner) and Richard Lion Russell, a stock analyst. Three of her four grandparents were Jewish. Her maternal grandfather was journalist and educator Max Lerner. Russell wanted to be an actress since the age of eight and started acting in school plays. She appeared in a Pepsi commercial that was taped locally while in high school. After graduating from Mission Bay High School in 1981, she moved to Los Angeles and began taking acting classes before landing her first role. She did a masters program in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica and is a certified hypnotist and life coach, also from the University of Santa Monica.

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The day after graduating high school, with limited commercial and modeling experience. Russell set out for Los Angeles with a UCLA-bound girlfriend. She located a roommate, actress Diane Brody, via the campus bulletin board. Brody helped Russell line up acting classes and waitressing jobs. Accompanying an acting classmate to an audition, Russell walked away with representation. She was subsequently cast in an unapologetic PORKY’S clone titled Private School (1983)

Private School (1983) Chris from a girls’ boarding school loves Jim from a nearby boys’ boarding school. Jordan also wants Jim and plays dirty. Jim and 2 friends visit the girls’ school posing as girls.

Russell played Jordan Leigh-Jensen, “a spoiled rich girl willing to do anything to get her way.” As her romantic rival, the top-billed Phoebe Cates waged war for the affections of Matthew Modine. Critics excoriated the film’s leering sexism, but Russell’s recollections are pleasant. “It was like walking on air,” she recalled. “Phoebe Cates was my idol at the time, and she was so nice to me. We grew very close, and she was fun to work with.”

Phobe Cates, in fact, coached the novice actress who was nervous about her nude scene: “Phoebe said, ‘Oh, this is nothing-in Paradise (1982) I had nude scenes. To make matters more stressful, old acquaintances showed up on the day Russell was shooting her topless “Lady Godiva” scene. “I hadn’t seen these people in years,” laughed Russell. “They turned up on the set, outdoors in the middle of nowhere. The director made them leave. It was hysterical. I learned that day not to take it all too seriously.”

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She insists that reviews, citing herself as the film’s sole asset, caused no friction with leading lady Cates. Phoebe is very secure with herself, stated Russell “She should be. Look at her now! We didn’t pay any attention to critics.”

Offers promptly rolled in. One of the networks offered Russell a spot on any series she wanted Numerous agents called, Playboy asked her to pose for a pictorial on struggling actresses in Hollywood. Although she does not regret turning down Playboy, Russell admits that she, and her management, did not make the best choice of opportunities. Though she auditioned for smaller parts in higher profile filmy, she inevitably landed leads in B-movies.

Out of Control (1985) Teens (Martin Hewitt, Betsy Russell, Sherilyn Fenn) crash-land on an island, find vodka, play strip spin-the-bottle and run into drug smugglers

In Out of Control (1985), Martin Hewitt and Russell were cast as a prom king and queen who invite six of their classmates on a “grad night” chartered flight. The plane crashes and the kids acclimate themselves to survival on a deserted island. Most critics panned the film, but the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly gave it good reviews.

“We filmed in Yugoslavia,” explained Russell. “It was fun. There were a lot of us around the same age… Martin Hewitt, Sherilyn Fenn. Russell remembered that Fenn, who debuted in the film, “was the youngest of us all and very sweet. We both liked Martin. I liked him for about two minutes the first day, and she ended up breaking his heart. The producer, Fred Weintraub, said, ‘Sherilyn is going to be huge-she’s going to break a lot of hearts. He was right. She’s worked very hard and she deserves her success.”

Russell played the title role in her third film, Tomboy (1985), Her character, Tommy Boyd, was a curvaceous auto mechanic with car racing ambitions. The movie was dogged by controversy: despite it’s claims of feminist affirmation, TOMBOY was peppered with the usual B-quota of sex and nudity.

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 Tomboy (1985)  A strong-willed female stock car driver challenges her chauvinistic crush to a race to win his respect- and get him into bed.

“It turned out all right, said Russell. “Actually, that movie surprised me. I’ve heard a lot of people really loved that movie. At first, I thought it was going to be kind of dumb but I’ve gotten great response. I saw it about a year ago and thought it wasn’t so bad.”

Avenging Angel (1985) was more of a challenge for Russell. The film served as a sequel to 1983’s ANGEL, about a high school student’s double life as a hooker. “That was a rough experience, because I didn’t understand the character,” recalled Russell. “I felt kind of unsure I was still very young and this had all come very fast, and I hadn’t really studied that much. I didn’t totally relate to the character. Angel wasn’t an everyday girl. It was something new to me, and I didn’t have time to do any research.”

Avenging Angel (1985) Molly, former prostitute, has managed to leave her street life with help from Lt. Andrews. She studies law and leads a normal life. When Andrews is killed by a brutal gang, she returns to the streets as Angel to find his killers.

Although ANGEL had been released only two years previously, the sequel’s storyline picks up five years after the conclusion of its predecessor, Producer Keith Rubenstein and director Robert Vincent O’Neil felt that Donna Wilkes, who played the title role as the first ANGEL, wasn’t credible as a college graduate. The sequel’s investors, however, insisted that Wilkes reprise her familiar role. But it was Wilkes, pricing herself out of the market, who finally broke the stalemate. Cast as a streetwise heroine, Russell drew unflattering reviews from critics.

“Queen of Schlock Wants to Abdicate,” announced the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. After AVENGING ANGEL, it appeared Russell was fed up with her movie career. “I’ve done four B movies and now I’m just gonna stop,” she told a reporter. “I’ve paid my dues, and four is enough.” Russell also related that a meaty role in PRIVATE SCHOOL blinded her to its exploitation elements. She was critical of her involvement in B-films, and pledged to stop making them.

During the next two years, Russell turned to television, performing guest stints on T.J. HOOKER MURDER, SHE WROTE, FAMILY TIES, and THE A-TEAM, “I had down time, she noted. “I didn’t really want to do more nudity. I didn’t want to do B-movies and be taking my clothes off.” A lack of good scripts also prompted Russell to decelerate her movie output.

Cheerleader Camp (1988) A group of cheerleaders become the targets of an unknown killer at a remote summer camp.

Russell wasn’t obligated to disrobe in her next film, Cheerleader Camp (1988) which was initially promoted as BLOODY POM POMS. The plot: cheerleaders, including centerfolds Teri Weigel and Rebecca Ferratti, are sliced and diced while attending a wilderness retreat. The slasher epic hardly adhered to Russell’s speculations about a future in A-movies. “CHEERLEADER CAMP came along, and I liked the character, the actress explained. “She was kind of cute. She was getting driven crazy, and I could keep all my clothes on because the Playmates around me took all their clothes off. It was fun, too, working in Sequoia National Forest. I’ve always made friends with every film I’ve done.”

Following the film, she renewed a past friendship with actor Vince Van Patten. “I met him at the Playboy mansion when I first moved to L.A., Russell recounted. “We dated a few times, and then I never heard from him again. He was involved with the tennis circuit. We both really liked each other, but at the time he wasn’t right. I broke up with my boyfriend five years ago, ran into Vince at the Hard Rock Cafe and the rest is history. The timing was perfect.”

Trapper County War (1989) Two city boys (Estes, Blake) get in trouble with a backwoods North Carolina family (Swayze, Armstrong, Hunky, and Evans) when they try to help an abused step-daughter (Russell). Bo Hopkins and Ernie Hudson are the good locals who attempt to help the boys.

Russell’s last turn as a teenage ingenue was Trapper County War (1989), an updated, sanitized version of DELIVERANCE. Playing the 17-year-old adopted daughter of a backwoods family, Russell served as the city slicker’s love interest.

In Delta Heat (1992), a film noir thriller shot two years ago in New Orleans, Russell was cast as a deceased drug kingpin’s daughter. Academy Entertainment recently released the film on video. “New Line wanted it.” smiled Russell, but the investors had already made a deal with Academy. I think it should have come out in theatres. It’s pretty good.”

Delta Heat (1992) An L.A. cop investigates the death of his partner in the swamps of Louisiana. Enlisting the help of an ex-cop who lost his hand to an alligator many years before.

In Amore! (1993), “It’s Jack Scalia and Kathy Ireland and me, but you wouldn’t know it because of my billing,” laughed Russell. “I’m definitely in the movie. In fact, it’s only me and Scalia in the first half of the movie, and we get divorced and Kathy Ireland comes in. It was my first real comedy.” As the film started to roll, Russell had something else in production. I was three months pregnant at start time, and kept getting bigger!,” she revealed. “I finished the movie when I was four and a half months, and the filmmakers never knew I was pregnant.”

Her husband, who has retired from tennis, is producing a movie adapted from his own script. Rewritten by Dan Jenkins (Semi-Tough), The Break (1995)is a family affair for the Van Pattens. “It’s my first small part in a really good movie,” beams Russell “It’s like ROCKY or BULL DURHAM with tennis. Vince plays the veteran coach, with this rookie kid that he has to coach for the summer. I play the love interest to the kid. I’m the older woman.” She laughs, reflecting upon her ten-year development from PRIVATE SCHOOL starlet to more mature character actress.

When addressed with questions regarding nudity, Russell replied, “If BASIC INSTINCT came my way. I’m sure I wouldn’t have turned it down. It depends on who’s in the movie, what kind of part it is, what the movie’s about. But, you know, I’m not getting those types of offers or scripts anymore, so I’m not worried about it.

“I hope to do good work, to do entertaining, enjoyable projects,” Russell continued. Then, with a glimmer in her eye not at all reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger, she smiled and vowed, “I’ll be back…”

Interview with Betsy Russell

What is the difference between the filmmakers you were working with in your early career versus the filmmakers of today? Betsy Russell: That’s an interesting question because I was just reading a little blurb online about a director on a movie I did called ‘Out of Control’ [1985, directed by Allan Holzman], and he went on to do award winning things, documentaries and other films. The directors I work with now are amazing, talented and insightful, but I’ve also worked with directors before who have gone on to do incredible things. For example, the dialogue coach from Private School [Jerry Zaks] went on to a Broadway career. All the people I worked with were fine. I don’t like to compare one to the other, they are all different.

When you made “Private School” back in the early 1980s, the videotape revolution had just begun. What do you think of how your images from that film proliferated from VHS to DVD to the internet? What do you think of the ability to download virtually anything from the internet, including those pictures of your younger days? Betsy Russell: When I said I would do the topless scene, because it wasn’t in the original script for Private School. I remember thinking I’m 19 years old, my body is great and for the rest of my life I’m going to have something on film that the people will say, ‘yeah, she’s topless but that is my Mom, that was my Grandmother, that was my Great-Grandmother’s first film.’

I remember thinking this is kind of cool, why not? Just to have it out there now in the ‘anything goes’ era, with Playmates becoming TV stars and the like, I am proud of it, I’m proud of my body and I’m proud of the sort of free feeling that my character had in that movie, not inhibited whatsoever. It’s more of a European-type feeling, that the body can be a beautiful thing. There is reason to hide it.

You were beautiful then, you are beautiful now, nothing to worry about. Do you remember the name of the famous horse on which you rode to 1980s movie glory? Betsy Russell: No, because he almost killed me. I didn’t know how to ride very well and I got on it just to get to know the horse. We didn’t have a very big budget so that the stunt guys had gotten some kind of wild horse. The minute I got on the horse it took off with me. Of course, everybody was at lunch except for the stunt guys, the horse wranglers and me. I thought I was going to die, because it started to run out of the stable area. Somebody finally stopped it. So I don’t remember the name, but it ended up being a quiet, passive horse after that incident.

You were fairly busy in the 1980s with your career. Was there anything that you auditioned for or didn’t do that you think might have led to a different career track? Betsy Russell: Yeah, I was a favorite of a casting director name Wally Nicita, and she eventually became a producer. She was a big fan of mine after Private School, and there was a film coming up called ‘Silverado.’ I was shooting ‘Avenging Angel at the time and I had an audition. It was a night shoot, I was very tired and I didn’t really understand the ins and outs of the business, I relied more on my manager to take care of that, and he was learning to as we went along.

So they called for me at the audition for Silverado, and I didn’t pay attention to who had been cast in it. I just looked at it as an ensemble piece, and the other movie I was auditioning for was a ski movie, in which I would star. I just said let’s go for the bigger part. As luck would have it, the audition was in the same building as Wally Nicita’s office, and she kept saying how much the directors and producers of Silverado would love to see me. I told her no, I was here for the other audition. She looked at me like I was the stupidest person on the planet, and never contacted me for anything again. Everything happens for a reason. I always believe my career would have been different had I done that part. I can’t say if it would have been better or worse. I’ve had a good run.

Tomboy had your character as a mechanic. How did this occupation change your character from a typical character? Betsy Russell: It defined her. I was playing a girl who loves auto mechanics. My oldest sister was a mechanic growing up. She did all the lube jobs on the car – she was that type of person. It wasn’t far out for me to imagine myself as that type of character. That’s what she did. She was a tomboy who liked riding motorcycles and playing basketball.

What are your thoughts on the trailer for Tomboy showing you as a strong female, but then cutting to you in the shower? Betsy Russell: I’ve never really paid attention to that. I don’t know that I’ve seen it. I guess strong females still have to take showers. They still like to feel sexy, so I don’t think there’s one thing that should stop someone from feeling sexy and showing their body if that’s what they choose to do. I don’t think it makes any difference in the world.

Tomboy is arguably feminist. Was this a draw for you? Betsy Russell: Yes, I like playing strong characters. I thought it would be fun. I was probably twenty-one years old, so the idea of playing this type of character was great. I didn’t think that hard about it. I said, “Ok, this is another role, this is what she does, and I’m going to get into it.” I started working with the assistant basketball coach at UCLA, trying to learn a little bit of basketball. At that point in my life I wasn’t thinking that long or hard about which role to take. I did have a couple of offers with Tomboy; I had another offer for another movie. I picked this one. I’m sure that was a draw for me.

What do you think makes it a feminist role? Betsy Russell: She has a career that isn’t the norm for women. Usually women rely on men to do all the mechanical things. It’s kind of unusual for a woman to be a mechanic. I think it’s silly to be unusual, but I guess it is.

In the same vein, what role does feminism play in Avenging Angel? Betsy Russell: I barely remember that movie, but I know Angel carries a gun. She’s a tough chick. I saw that movie maybe one time. I don’t remember it well, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

There were a couple of stronger roles you did early on. Did you find yourself drawn to the stronger roles? Betsy Russell: Typically the leads in movies are stronger women. Nobody wants to watch a wimp for two hours. I played more of a leading lady than the sidekick. I don’t think I’ve ever played the sidekick. If given the chance, I would have. I did what I thought was good.

How did you get your role in Avenging Angel? Betsy Russell: I auditioned first, but then the director fought for me. The producer wanted the girl from the first movie. The director said he wouldn’t do the movie without me. That was nice.

Do you remember having a favorite line from Avenging Angel? Betsy Russell: No, but a lot of people tell me their favorite line from it, and I don’t remember anything.

What were your thoughts on Cheerleader Camp (1988) and Camp Fear (1991) and how have these thoughts evolved over time? Betsy Russell: Camp Fear was somebody called me and said, “Would you and your husband, Vince, like to do this little movie? You’re going to make a lot of money for three weeks shoot, and it’s going to go right to video.” I said, “Great, I want to make a lot of money. If nobody sees it, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’ll be fun to work with my husband.” We did it. Who knew that YouTube would happen. I’ve never seen the movie, so I have no idea. I’m sure I was terrible in it. It would be hard to be anything but terrible in it. I’ve always seen bits and pieces on YouTube. My voice is really high in it. We had fun. My brother-in-law is in that movie. I remember the actor playing the Indian could never remember his lines; we laughed so hard we almost fell off a cliff. That guy who played the Indian asked Vince to be his best man at his wedding. We barely knew him so that was funny. That happened back when they would say, “No one’s ever going to see it.” You’d do it. As an actor, if you’re not working, you want to just work. It doesn’t matter all of the time if it’s best project if you haven’t worked in a while. You have to put some money in the bank. That’s why I did that. Cheerleader Camp, I hadn’t offered this role called Bloody Pom Pom’s at the time. I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, I don’t have to take any clothes off.” At that time, coming from Private School, Tomboy, and Out of Control (1985), I was tired of taking my clothes off. I wore those big nightgowns, and I just wanted to be taken seriously. That’s why I did that movie. I had a lot of fun filming it. As for Cheerleader Camp, we didn’t know we were making kind of a farce. Honestly, it was a little bit funny, but I took my character very seriously. We were rewriting scenes on the set five minutes before.

What are your views on nudity in film? Betsy Russell: I don’t have any negative views on it at all. In my twenties, I would say, “If it’s intrinsic to the character then I think it’s great.” I learned that word, intrinsic, just to say that. I really don’t have any problem with it. If it’s just thrown in there because it’s a low-budget movie and they’re trying to sell it, it’s really obvious. It takes you out, which isn’t always great. Sometimes it’s just right for what’s going on. It’s great that the actor or actress isn’t embarrassed to show it. If it looks good then it’s great. If it’s a person who looks terrible I would rather they keep their clothes on. If it’s important to the role and that type of film then it’s fine.

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Femme Fatales v02n02 0038 Bad Ass Women of Cinema: A Collection of Interviews Chris Watson hollywoodchicago

Betsy Russell: 80’s B Film Princess Russell was born in San Diego, California, the daughter of Constance (née Lerner) and Richard Lion Russell, a stock analyst.

[cool-danielramos]

5 Tips to Create a Good Product Review

I've study a lot of product critiques within the years. I also offer product critiques for the merchandise we provide, in addition to utilize them on blogs and articles to greatly help people who have buying choices. It did arise if you ask me that occasionally people may be skewed towards buying or perhaps not buying anything because of the way the product evaluation is written. When I lay down to look at some factors that I take for given, Best Underwater LED Boat Lights I was compelled to place this information together. I hope you will find it helpful. It's slanted towards the woodworking business, especially modems and router tables. I believe you may find that the mind-set or concept works for almost any product.

When examining an evaluation right off the bat I consider these major areas of the person that is making the review. They're the key places by which we will discuss.

Transport

Expectations

Experience/Inexperience

Customer Company

Sentiment

Assembly

Use time

Manufacture or Supplier Attitude

Transport

Here is the first issue that always gets a lot of remarks on. I'd like to start with this specific statement. "I must say i realize the delivery method" I been employed by in that business at once and I have experienced all facets from a package finding from place A to place B. If there is a very important factor that is a constant in the galaxy it is that, delivery businesses damage boxes. There's no way about it, and ultimately it can happen to you. Suppliers design their presentation about the truth that it is rough world whenever your offer gets found and onto your destination. You have to think about the sort center and just how things get handled. Rate is the greatest concept and shippers go by just how many plans they straighten out each night. Being careful is just a aim but not at all times the fantastic rule. So when an item comes broken, many suppliers jump through hoops to assist you change them or resolve the problem. It is just a headache, and if they can design a field to alleviate that headache, they many will certainly because it reduces their replacement costs. So any remarks on delivery damage really have to be taken with a feed of salt.

Experience/Inexperience

This can be a sensitive and painful place, since it is carefully associated with emotion. I'll try to tread carefully, but I is going to be dull in some places in order for the audience to get the absolute most out of this content. As it pertains to energy instruments, many people only do have no experience and some have intensive experience. It's difficult to determine who's who if you are examining a review. To tell the truth, many people don't have any business running a energy tool, however each goes to good programs in making some scathing reviews. The others have a perfectionist kind of see that may offer you some great information concerning the product. Some are Manufacture forms that may get into good aspect and provide design improvements that they think would make the product better. So how will you approach this dilemma? I believe the best way to judge it is by knowing the truth that you can find various levels of experience available and everyone is called with their opinion. You just never truly know who you're speaking too when examining an evaluation or finding guidance from someone, you have to use your stomach feeling.

Expectations

Some evaluations are published in sense of an hope of the solution that's often been achieved or not. If you estimated an item to be of a particular design or quality and it is perhaps not, your expectations haven't been met. A lot of people draw using this and utilize it within their review. Still another avenue of the believed is that folks reveal their experience centered on utilising the piece right away. Possibly the tool achieved their hope straight away but chances are they rapidly grew from it or moved on within their skill level. The media also has huge influence on what our expectations are for products. The majority of the time that is based on mass charm and it's designed to do a very important factor and a very important factor just and that is to market you the product. Because someone says they're a specialist does not indicate it is true.

Customer Company

Customer service is usually said on but it's some keeping in some instances. As an example if you are speaking directly to the production themselves, then customer support may be influential. If you are talking with a vendor of an item, then how they handle your company condition is around them and just shows on their organization, website or business, certainly not the product. This can skew some reviews. Of course excellent customer support may always be described as a good component, it is really the product you're researching perhaps not your buying experience. Somebody should make a company about that!

Sentiment

I choose to incorporate that part since I have experienced overtones of the that flow into reviews. Sentiment is powerful and sometimes it is difficult to move a pre conceived concept. That concept is from the old "send obtain" times when the industry was brand new. Many "send obtain" businesses bought crap and it was all about transformation ratios and quotas. Nowadays many businesses and suppliers understand that Web revenue really are a large portion of the business and a great way to reach out to clients from all over the world. So here is a concept that I and many excellent businesses embrace. The earlier clients and most people determine it out the better. (This may be the dull portion I was speaking about)

Companies need and need to look after their clients for an excellent reason. If you become an individual after, there is a great opportunity that you will buy from people again. If you purchase from people again, you reduce the expense of buying a brand new customer and that improves the quantity of money an organization makes. Main point here: if you are my customer, I would like you to get from me around and around again. This is the way we keep alive.

I don't have any fascination with making you crazy, or providing a poor solution, that could be silly and go against the business enterprise plan. If you are pleased, then my entire life is easy. If you are crazy, my day sucks. I prefer pressure free times, therefore it is within my best fascination with performing a excellent job so you come back.

[millenniumplus12]

Finding Confidence

Finding Confidence

By Alaina K

Self confidence is a funny thing. On one hand, it’s a natural part of life. If you accomplish something, the normal thing to do is congratulate yourself! Pat yourself on the back! Hip, hip, hurray, you did it! Now onto the next goal!

But for the self-doubters and the over-thinkers, it’s often hard to give credit where credit is due.

Self doubt is tough to identify at first. It’s a little voice that seeps into your mind in an attempt to reverse the good that has been done. “I got an A- on my assignment!” “Yeah, but you didn’t get an A+.” “But I did pretty well!” You argue. No, not good enough.

Your self doubt refuses to give you that kind of credit. It’s like a poison, an infectious disease- it spreads like wildfire, and all of the sudden, you’re part of an undeniable blaze. And if unacknowledged, you’ll burn.

I think the root of self doubt comes from living life: It’s a combination of success and failure.

Some people are resilient. They’ll get told “no” a million times, and still go for it.

For example, Meryl Streep, who is considered the “best actress of her generation,” knows what it’s like for somebody to give a low blow. On the Graham Norton Show, Streep described a traumatic experience. When she auditioned for the role of Dwan in “King Kong,” the Director said: “Che Brutta,” which means “Why did you bring me this ugly thing?” Streep spoke Italian, so with grace, she fired back: “I’m sorry that you think I’m too ugly for this role.”

This was way back in 1976, and Meryl Streep has sure made a name for herself since the rejection. She holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations by any actor, a total of 21 times. I personally love her as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. She never gave up, and now she’s the boss.

Can we all be Meryl’s- and Miranda’s? I sure hope so! If we can, watch out! The world will never know what we can do.

I worked for a short time in sales. I didn’t even KNOW it was a sales job when I applied for it- (I guess sales-based companies do that sometimes, which is probably why they are so successful.) I thought I would simply be working in “marketing.” Turns out, I had to sell teeth whitening to strangers at 100% commission. It was terrifying. Every morning, we would have our group huddle, and get sent off to different locations to meet our “quotas.”

We had to approach EVERYONE. At malls, at grocery stores, you name it. Looking back, I know I could have sold more. But I was different from my super-aggressive counterparts. I liked to hang back and observe. While they had no qualms about approaching a mother who had her hands full with two kids and groceries, I didn’t feel that it was right. I remember the girl who I studied under telling me: “Why are you skipping people?!? You’re losing out on all of these sales! Stop being afraid and just sell, sell, sell!”

Needless to say, I’ve moved on since then. However, that job taught me a lot. It’s really difficult to go up to complete strangers and try to convince them to buy something. It’s even MORE difficult when I was doubting myself, and didn’t want to do it in the first place. Can you imagine interrupting someone while they’re working, convince them to sign a form, take down their credit card information , and then skip out into the sunset, given that you met your quota for the day?

It was hands down the hardest job I’ve ever done. The company’s philosophy was “We don’t care who they are, talk to 100 people a day, and you’ll sign up at least 10.” But for me, I was much more cautious. I spoke with maybe 40 people, so my odds weren’t as good.

I just wanted to be respectful. Let me tell you, though- those people who are working at those kiosks in the mall trying to get your attention- man, they have it tough! I used to get nightmares about starting the day all over again. And it wasn’t because I truly doubted myself and my abilities- it was because I wasn’t a hardcore salesperson. I didn’t WANT to get told “no” 90 times and “yes” 10 times. The no’s were all that mattered to me. And that’s okay!

Here’s what I know now. Working in hardcore sales is not for me.

In sales, we were taught that a “no” is just a jumping off point for negotiations. In my mind, a no means no. And even if I was able to convince someone otherwise, I wouldn’t feel right about it. What working in sales DID teach me is that confident energy goes a long way. Have you ever approached a complete stranger trying to sell something, when you weren’t confident in your product?! It’s TOUGH. When someone told me “no,” I’d say “OK!” And I’d be on my way.

For others, they expected the “no.” The early Meryl Streep’s of the world. Perhaps the most successful salespeople in my former company.

Maybe for a time, by saying no, the potential customers took some of my confidence from me. But now, I believe that for me, I just wasn’t selling the right thing. Today, I want to use my voice for animal rights. For anti-bullying. Acts of kindness. The end of school shootings. For prayer. For all of the good that I envision in the world. For a world that I hope to someday see.

Self confidence is a funny thing. For me, it used to be saying “yes” to everything. I said “yes” to a marketing job that I didn’t know the details of. I told myself “yes,” I could be successful in sales- what other choice did I have?!

But in life, as it turns out, we have plenty of options. Say yes, say no, but always stand for something, or you’ll fall for everything. Stand up for what you know is right. Always follow your heart. And if you don’t want to work in sales, quit selling... your true calling is only a self reflection away.

[occultationrecordings]

Full text of the Granite Shore “Suspended Second” insert, on the thinking and raw emotion that drove the writing of the album:

So, what’s a “suspended second” when it’s at home? Well, it’s a kind of chord I use a lot, as do Prince, Joni Mitchell and Bryan Maclean, amongst others, but the title was chosen for offering a variety of connotations. To a large extent what any record is about is up to the listener; indeed received wisdom has always been that artists should never attempt explication, though I’m not convinced that still holds true. The protagonist of the first song on this album claims, perhaps disingenuously, “all I ever did was write words to sing”, although personally I like to think I put a little more effort into my lyrics than that… Then again, if I were ever to write an autobiography I probably wouldn’t choose the medium of song.

I began writing the record during that prelapsarian golden age, the spring of 2016. How innocent we were…. More to the point how complacent. In my innocence, I planned to write about anxiety, a subject then gaining a degree of media traction and which, in my mind, had become entwined with reactions to the deaths of certain celebrities. The British have not historically been a nation much given to public displays of emotion so I found this odd. I’m a huge admirer of Prince’s work, and he was a mere four years my senior, yet the shock and sadness I felt at his passing that April was in a John Donne “Any man's death diminishes me […] therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” vein; my relationship was with his work and that will outlive me.

Then overnight - the night of 23rd-24th June - there really was something to worry about. It was as though the whole country had succumbed to a national anxiety episode involving colossal self-harm. I don’t want to make this about me, but suffice to say this was an assault on every aspect of my personal and professional life. I was deeply shocked because I’d always assumed that, for all our many faults, not to mention a sizeable quota of arseholes in the population, we British were fundamentally a fairly decent bunch and had learned history’s lessons on the perils of isolationism. Indeed, before last June it’d felt as though we might’ve started to become more tolerant and outward-looking… I even wondered whether those expressions of grief meant that, as a nation, we’d finally got in touch with our feelings. All of which goes to show how wrong - and, as I say, how complacent - you can be.

It felt as though the country had split into two factions and the twain appeared never to have met, still less understand one another. Geographically there were huge majorities for Leave in some areas, Remain in others. None of my friends voted Leave as, by definition, anyone who did is against the community to which I belong, our lives built on outward-facing foundations, with freedom of movement a cornerstone; many of us have lived, studied, worked and/or fallen in love in other countries and/or have children with enriched cultural backgrounds. So who in the name of blue blazes were these people who’d voted for the destruction of everything we are and why did they hate us so much that they were prepared to wreck the country? We didn’t even know them! This was how it felt in the immediate aftermath, though hindsight hints at how simplistic this was, how little we’d grasped the nettle that stung us to the core.

The anxiety episode analogy holds up remarkably well. The sense of disconnection from reality, acute focus on insignificant details, time running in dizzying, disorienting circles and the world weighing upon you. Your head fills with a cacophony of voices, chattering and shrieking their disparate agendas, leaving you vulnerable to believing the loudest of them. Worse, you know that all these voices are your own, paralysing all sense of self. You want to cry but cannot. If only tears would come surely the dam would burst and time be regained? Once the attack passes - as it does, after an incalculable, irredeemable time - you’re left with burning shame and equally hot anger. You want to lash out, only there’s nobody there but your own cowering self. Still you cannot cry.

With the immediate onslaught over, shame and anger burned first white-hot, then ice-cold: “a new kind of rage”. All of a sudden everything I’d always thought I knew about who we were was in doubt - not an agreeable sensation past the midway point along life’s path. There was only one avenue open to me. I wrote some pop songs.

I already had a few sketches but began redrafting them. The one exception was So it begins, as I felt that would set the scene and place the remainder of the record within the anxiety framework. At least two other songs ("Someone else" and "I suppose so") are also built on earlier anxiety-related lyrics that lent themselves to expansion into the despicable new world in which we suddenly found ourselves. The easiest to write was "The Performance of a Lifetime". I’d been listening to a BBC radio production of "Hamlet" and, during the long climatic scene (Act 5, Scene ii), I found myself immersed in a 400-year-old present as the Danish Prince accepted he would not live to hear the news from England. Our other Prince too seemed aware something was both rotten and forever broken.

I finished the songs and quickly recorded rough frameworks to give to the band. We had two and a half days in the studio in early September 2016 then I spent what time I could find over the following months shaping the record. Early this year I began to suspect it needed something written not in the heat of the bitter momentum but with some degree of hindsight. "Commodities" is based on the end of another of Shakespeare’s plays, "King John" and, once again, it came easily, in spite of the way the melody drifts over a slightly unorthodox time signature.

Although Occultation has always identified as an English label, I hope we’ve never been parochial. As well as English, I speak French, Catalan and Spanish fluently and my Italian’s not too bad. I’ve always read widely in all of those languages plus others in translation. I listen to a lot of music from Europe and elsewhere. More than this, like so many people of my own and subsequent generations, my whole life has been built upon freedom of movement. Immigration is not something to be curbed, it is our life’s blood; even the most cursory look at the history of this country reveals that it is what our strength has always been built upon. Its effect upon my own life has been entirely positive as, without it, I wouldn’t have what’s most precious in all the world to me. Occultation has always set out to be a kind of family and we have members from across the world.

Let’s give the final word to Dr Donne, writing at the dawn of what was to become the United Kingdom: “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”

Nick Halliwell, August 2017

[deniscollins]

Quiet Epidemic of Suicide Claims France’s Farmers

The most recent statistics, made public in 2016 by France’s public health institute, show that 985 farmers killed themselves from 2007 to 2011 — a suicide rate 22 percent higher than that of the general population -- often men ages 45 to 54, working in animal husbandry. If you were a government official overseeing the farming industry, what actions, if any, would you pursue: (1) nothing, (2) establish a hotline and support groups for counseling troubled farmers, (3) something else (if so, what?)? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?  

A dairy farmer, Jean-Pierre Le Guelvout, once kept 66 cows at a thriving estate in southern Brittany. But falling milk prices, accumulating debts, depression and worries about his health in middle age became too much to bear.

Just 46, Mr. Le Guelvout shot himself in the heart in a grove behind his house one cold December day last year. “It was a place that he loved, near the fields that he loved,” explained his sister Marie, who said she was “very close” to him but did not see his suicide coming.

The death of Ms. Le Guelvout’s brother was part of a quiet epidemic of suicide among French farmers with which stoical rural families, the authorities, public health officials and researchers are trying to grapple.

Farmers are particularly at risk, they all say, because of the nature of their work, which can be isolating, financially precarious and physically demanding.

For farmers who do not have children to help with the work and eventually take over, the burden is that much greater. Falling prices for milk and meat have also added to debts and stress in recent years.

Researchers and farming organizations agree that the problem has persisted for years, but while they have stepped up efforts to help farmers, the effectiveness of such measures and the toll from suicides remain difficult to quantify.

The most recent statistics, made public in 2016 by France’s public health institute, show that 985 farmers killed themselves from 2007 to 2011 — a suicide rate 22 percent higher than that of the general population.

Even that number of suicides, which increased over time, may be underestimated, say researchers, who add that they fear the problem is not going away, though they are still analyzing more recent data.

“The doctor establishing the death certificate can avoid mentioning suicide,” said Dr. Véronique Maeght-Lenormand, an occupational physician who runs the national suicide prevention plan for the Mutualité Sociale Agricole, a farmers’ association.

The reason? “Some insurance companies won’t allow compensations for spouses after a suicide,” she said. “There’s also the weight of our Judeo-Christian culture.”

Mr. Le Guelvout’s case came to light because he had previously achieved some fame as a participant in a popular television program, “L’Amour Est Dans le Pré” (“Love Is in the Field”), a sort of French version of “The Bachelor” that aimed to help farmers find companionship.

“He was very naïve,” Ms. Le Guelvout said. “He wanted a wife who worked outside the farm, and to become a father.”

But in some ways, he was representative of the farmers who are most likely to kill themselves, according to public health statistics. They are often men ages 45 to 54, working in animal husbandry.

“It is a time when you start having small health issues, when you think about the transfer of your farm,” Dr. Maeght-Lenormand said. “Farmers can start wondering why they’re doing all of this if no one is here to inherit it.”

But that is not the only force that pushes many to despair.

“There’s this financial pressure, this loan pressure,” said Nicolas Deffontaines, a researcher for Cesaer, a center that studies the economy and sociology of rural areas.

The debts, Mr. Deffontaines said, can lead farmers to deepen their investments, both personal and financial, as they immerse themselves in their work and take more loans to pay off previous ones. In doing so, they fuel their isolation and deepen the financial hole they are in, he said.

In recent years, those financial pressures have grown only more onerous. In 2015, the European Union ended quotas for dairy farmers that had been intended to avoid overproduction.

Since then, there has been a glut of some products. Prices for milk have dropped below what farm associations say is needed to run and sustain a farm, let alone to make a profit.

The move to end quotas came on top of the bloc’s imposition of sanctions on Russia in response to its land grab in Ukraine, cutting off a once-robust export market for European dairy farmers in 2014.

Because many milk farms have shut, more cows have been sent for slaughter, in turn leading to lower prices for meat, even as the Frenchlowered their consumption of meat products by 27 percent from 1998 to 2013, by some measures.

Seven years ago, the French government began addressing the rising suicide rate among farmers, and the agriculture minister at the time, Bruno Le Maire, elevated the issue to a national cause.

Since then, multiple steps have been taken in coordination with the Mutualité Sociale Agricole, the farm organization.

In 2014, a hotline called Agri’écoute (Listening to Farmers) was introduced to lend troubled farmers an ear. Multidisciplinary groups were created to help farmers sort out financial, medical, legal or family issues. In 2016, those units followed 1,352 cases across France.

Much of the focus was placed on farmers who were single or widowed, but building trust was not easy, said Dr. Maeght-Lenormand of the farmers’ association.

“For the farmers who pay regular social contributions to us, we’re still seen as the ones claiming money from them,” she said.

But farmers’ organizations, like Solidarité Paysans (Farmers’ Solidarity), have also stepped in.

In 2015, Véronique Louazel, who works for the national bureau of the solidarity association, met with 27 struggling farmers for a study on the crisis the profession faces.

Farmers are often reluctant to talk about their difficulties, and it is hard for them to imagine doing anything else. “They have a strong culture of labor and effort, and they’re not used to complaining,” Ms. Louazel said.

But things are slowly changing, as more farmers speak up.

Cyril Belliard, 52, is among them. One recent day, he told his story to a small support group that had gathered in his tiny house in Vendée, a farming region in western France.

Mr. Belliard had been a farmer since 1996, he told them. But recently, he watched his goats dying day after day of a mysterious illness that neither he nor his veterinarian could figure out. Debts were piling up. Legal procedures began.

“I was living in a mobile home to avoid paying rent,” he recalled. “I moved into this small space of 35 square meters, where the whole family, my wife and children, would live, eat and sleep,” he added, referring to an area of about 375 square feet.

The father of three children, Mr. Belliard depended on charities for food and Solidarité Paysans for support. Finally, in March, he decided to sell his farm to a young farmer.

“I held on thanks to sports, which I’ve been practicing since I was 18,” he said, “and thanks to my kids, who were always my priority.”

Now, he is considering a career change. But leaving farm life is not easy and not always an option.

Since Mr. Le Guelvout’s suicide, his brother André, 52, has taken over the farm in Brittany, and his sister Marie worries about how he will handle all of the work that was previously shared. The family recently decided to stop milk production and to sell part of its livestock.

“André has been a farmer his whole life,” Ms. Le Guelvout said. “All that I want right now is for André to live peacefully on his farm, until he retires.”