#been listening to readymade a lot. so this happened

[xulips]

🎈 🌟 X レディメイド (READYMADE)

[wodexuexiao]

@gwndlnstudies tagged me in this game. Thanks sweetheart!

If you wrote a book, what would it be about?

I’ve long wanted to write a book about an 18th Century Rake, using it as a space in which to explore gender, sexuality, and religion. I’ll probably never write it, but I did an absolute boat load of research back when I was 18 hahaha

Do you find the most comfort in the forest or by the sea?

I love both, but the forest feels more comforting to me. It provides cover, and there are so many things to see! Insects and animals and lots of plants. The sea is exhilerating, but the fact that it is so open means I never feel like I can just let go and enjoy it, as I fear I am being watched.

Name at least one lovely thing about yourself or that happened to you in the past few days

I’m afraid that the past few days have been rather nothing-y for me, so I’ll have to go for something I appreciate about myself. I like to think that I’m a rather kind person, and I enjoy helping others feel accomplished.

Are you a hopeless romantic or a realist?

A realist, I reckon. But being a realist doesn’t mean I’m not entirely romantic. For example: I don’t believe in soul mates, but I believe that you can love someone enough to put in the effort to make your relationship similar to soul mates.

What do you do to take care of yourself and feel at peace?

I’m actually AWFUL at doing things to take care of myself. Every now and then (read: once a year or less) I’ll buy a face mask, but that’s really it. If I’m really ill I’ll curl up and watch a film from my childhood. If I’m feeling jittery, I’ll drink some good quality tea. Otherwise, I’m known for not really looking after myself very well (as my doctors will attest).

Does the weather have a strong effect on your emotions?

Horrifically so! My mother is the same. On a sunny day I have boundless enthusiasm and happiness, it’s really hard to get me down. On cloudy days (or worse, rainy) I get really really down to the point of sometimes struggling to get out of bed. I have big fluctuations with the season, too. Winter is the hardest time of year for me, and late Spring to mid Summer is the easiest.

Describe a cute date idea (either as a date with yourself or with someone else)

Oh! Okay, so a trip to London, definitely. In the morning go to The Wallace Collection. At lunch find a cafe. In the afternoon go for a walk around Hyde Park. In the evening, eat Pho. I really miss living in London hahaha. Alternatively: go to Oxford, go through museums, take a walk along the Thames in the afternoon, swim in it in the evening, say hello to the cows.

Where is it that you would most like to be right now?

London. Honestly I don’t really know? I think with the whole world at a standstill at the moment (or moving when it really, really shouldn’t be) I’m quite content to be at home. If it weren’t for COVID-19, though, I’d want to be returning to Shenzhen. I miss living in China and I miss working as a teacher hahaha.

What is your definition of art?

Allow me to don my art historian hat for a moment. I used to be very much in the “Art is something very specific” school, but after my studies I’ve become one of those very annoying people who honestly enjoys contemporary art and will go on for an age about the validity of the “readymade”. Art is anything one ascribes artistic significance to. Through the act of looking at something and contemplating it, it becomes art. If you put your glasses on the floor in an art gallery and “pretend” it’s art - congratulations, you just made art! The banana on the wall was art.

What is your definition of beauty?

This is a tough one. I think beauty is a malleable, fluid concept and that it changes based on circumstance, experience, and opinion. Personally, some of what I sometimes find beautiful can be found in the following, non-exhaustive list: bird song, cherry blossoms, the smell of a farmer’s market, crowds of people singing together, tiny little mice running along the tracks in the tube, the colour green, disgustingly over the top furniture from the baroque and rococo ages, humanity’s desire to communitcate with one another, crows, cows, well-planned public transport systems.

My questions for the following five people: @i-hope-its-raining, @jingxixuexiblr, @whorumadh, @studiousghost, @studylikeara

What is one place you’ve always wanted to visit (and why)?

What is one thing that never fails to cheer you up?

Do you prefer hot weather or cold weather?

What is one thing you think everyone should be taught at school?

Would you rather be unable to taste things that are sweet, or unable to taste things that are salty?

What is one good memory you like to revisit?

If you had to pick your greatest achievement, the thing you were most proud of, what would it be?

Which song do you think everyone should listen to at least once?

If you could choose one language to be able to speak fluenty without studying, which would it be and why?

If you could somehow befriend and keep the companionship of any animal in the world, what sort of animal would it be?

Of course, no pressure to play! Thank you again @gwndlnstudies for the tag, this was actually really fun!

[impressivepress]

Félicia Atkinson: A Closer Listen interview

Do you have a favorite piece of gear you’d care to talk about?  With this series, I try to not fetishize equipment the way that often happens but rather to try to demystify the creative process.

Some people have all this expensive stuff and produce nothing of interest, others use literal garbage or broken old things and produce beautiful soundworlds.  So, not necessarily from a technical standpoint, but as a piece of equipment that you’ve developed a kind of relationship with.

I like to collect stones from my travels, especially the ones I find on empty beaches or desert. I put them in my pockets, forgetting where they come from, and then use them during my show with micro contacts. Sometimes I just hold them during shows, they don’t make any sounds but they give me energy or at least the courage sometimes to stay silent or not add anymore sound to what’s already in the air. It’s difficult sometimes not to add more, you have break yourself somehow in order to keep the focus and sharpness.

I am fascinated by this image of you deriving inspiration from these stones, even when they are not making a sound. Do you have any early memories of sound, as listener or recorder, that stand out to you, that you draw inspiration from as you do with your found stones?

I think the first sounds I enjoyed were birds in the evening and trains passing. Especially just before nightfall. I am still always moved when I hear them. I leave not far from the station in Rennes and there are birds in my garden, and every day I feel still deeply touched by those sounds.

I seem to recall you’ve spent some time in the American southwest, a residency perhaps? Were you at Taliesin West? Can you talk a bit about your interest in the region?  Quite a contrast to Brittany, no?

We went to Arizona, California’s Mojave and Nevada, and also New Mexico quiet often. Each year since 2014 we do the LA Art Book Fair with Shelter Press and we manage to add some wandering time before or after, a kind of research time where I can record, see, draw,s  listen, write, paint…

We actually went to Taliesin West, and the Biosphere, and Arcosanti, but also to the Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest. Arizona is Crazy! In New Mexico we visited Georgia O Keefe’s ranch and Agnes Martin’s room in Taos. It’s very inspiring.

There are so many contrast and different energies and people out there.

My relationship to those places is very intimate and I don’t know how to speak about it rationally; but let’s say my records Hand in Hand andCoyotes are my way of explaining and sharing my relationship to those environments.

But speaking of stones, you know Brittany is very rich in dolmens, monoliths and megaliths, that are sacred stones…

May I ask about your musical formation?  Did you study an instrument as a child, or play in more traditional bands in your youth?  How did your current practice develop? Can you describe what led your interest in making music? What is your musical background, both in terms of playing instruments and musical “scenes” which you were shaped by?

I studied harp and piano as a kid, listening to classical music mostly, but was very bored with « solfège » and music theory.

I remember learning « Methode Martenot » [an unconventional form of music pedagogy] that was more intuitive and based on rhythm and really enjoying it.

Also, some people came to my public elementary school to present to us the Structures Baschet by the Baschet Brothers and I was fascinated by them.

I grew up in Paris and my parents were listening to music all the time. My dad, who was working as a psychiatric nurse, was listening to Robert Ashley, Stockhausen and Pierre Henryand my mom, who was working as a librarian at the National Library to world music such as Yiddish songs, Cape Verdian music, Polish music…

I stopped playing music at the age of 14 when I discovered grunge music, Brit pop, indie rock and trip hop. I decided to keep on studying theatre instead. I even wrote a few plays.  I wanted to be a writer at that time and was writing all the time; poetry, novels… I destroyed everything I was really living in my imagination.

In those years (14-18), I was listing to music all the time and reading the NME, The Face Magazine, Les Inrockuptibles… I was a music fan, collecting images, reviews, of the bands I was adoring!

I was doing a lot of baby sittings all my teenage years to buy records and go to shows. (There is no age restriction in shows in France.)

I even went to Bristol when I was 16 with a friend to see where Massive Attack and Tricky where coming from, but we were so broke and young the only thing we could afford was to hang out in parks. But we really enjoyed it, Ahha!

Then in my twenties I was a fan of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Smog, and Low and the voice of Kim Gordon showed me you can speak in songs. I still enjoy the mood those musicians were putting me in, the importance of the lyrics and the feeling of being very close and intimate to the singer. The energy, the experience.

Then I started writing a bit in French magazines such as Octopus and Mouvement about music, read The Wire Magazine, and thinking about it in a more theoretical way.

At the same time, I discovered in my late twenties improvised music, avant-garde music, going to see shows at Instants Chavires, Fondation Cartier, Centre Pompidou…. I studied at Les Beaux Arts de Paris and did a workshop with Christian Wolff that was very influential to me. I started listening to Luc Ferrari, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, but also Jim O’Rourke, David Grubbs, Fennesz, etc… I started playing music, in different projects such as Strechandrelax with dancer Elise Ladoué and a spoken word project with Sylvain Chauveau.

Then, when, and then around 28 years old, under my own name and the moniker Je Suis Le petit Chevalier. With Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier I made a lot of tapes and CD-R on great DIY labels that really encouraged me to be prolific and use recordings as a kind of sound diary. I feel it was a very liberating time because there was no pressure. I was doing live shows that were very short, very loud and noise, I felt since at that time I was playing in talking audiences I had to be louder than the audience. It was like an exorcism. I really enjoyed that psych / synth DIY scene with labels such as Not Not Fun, Stunned, Digitalis, Ruralfaune, Kaugummi…

And then, in 2011 we created Shelter Press with Bartolomé Sanson and it changed a lot for me, knowing I had my own home to release my music and trying to shape things with more specificity and control.

I had a very important discussion when we were living in the Alps with Bartolomé with our friend Pete Swanson. I think he asked me something very basic, like «  what kind of music do you want to record » and it made me rethink the whole thing. I discovered also new composers, such Ruth White, or Moniek Darge and came back to Pierre Henry, Ferrari and Robert Ashley, and then I released A readymade ceremony, which is for me the volume 1 of a kind of new moment in my music, that I am still following now.

I’d like to ask about Shelter Press.  You’ve brought together quite a roster of artists, with some incredible aesthetic variety.  Shelter Press also publishes books and artist’s books. This feels very right to me, and isn’t something that is as common as one might think, as there is so much overlap between artists who produce work in small editions, whether it be music or books, but I’d imagine that the second decade of the 21st century has been a challenging time for such an endeavor.  Please, tell us more about Shelter Press, how you go about business, how you tie these various threads together.

Well, Shelter Press is 90 per cent run by my partner, Bartolomé Sanson, he is the captain,  holding the vessel on an everyday basis, thinking things ahead and making it possible; even though we take all the decisions together. I am more like the passenger, watching the GPS, looking at the window and tuning the radio accordingly to the drive…and making sandwiches!

It’s a lot of work to publish in the same time books and records, especially since he is handling creative direction, design, editorial, sales and shipping on his own

I think in many ways we often feel overwhelmed by work!

I can imagine!

But we are very happy and proud of what we put out: for example lately from the Ocean Scores of the artist David Horvitz to the latest Eli Keszler record, Stadium,  passing by a compilation of essays about utopian pedagogy (In The Canyon Revise the Cannon), the first record in ten years by Tomoko Sauvage, or the first album by CV & JAB in collaboration with artist Zin Taylor, etc…

We try to draw a kind of circle that links a kind of sparse but connected family.

We try to always meet people in real life before working with them, this is why we do not accept demos, we are not a dating app of some kind, a record doesn’t happen in one sec, it’s a slow process of exchange, not a fast delivery.

Metaphorically, we invite people to eat our table, and in that order, we like to know them first and then take our time to eat different courses and have a good conversation.

Shelter has just released Spectres, in collaboration with INA-GRM, in which you have a text. I’m looking forward to reading this, it looks fantastic.  Can I ask about how you understand the relationship between theory and practice in this context, between ‘research’ and the production of artistic works? You mentioned that in preparation of producing new works you have a period of absorbing various inspirations (books, films, landscapes, etc). Does the intellectualization of the process, as with this essay, come as part of the process or is it more removed (before, after)?

I just believe things are never isolated. Sometimes my ways of rehearsing is making a salad. I am very inspired by John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Ana Halprin, or Alison Knowles in the way they embrace(d) the world as a whole. A walk in the forest could be a research.

More and more time passes more and more i believe there is not in one hand theory and in another practice, everything in embedded.

Right now I have a small child, we spend most of the day in the park under the trees, and observing an Atlas Cedar for an hour is for me a way of deep listening.

I understand more time since I started to do soft boil eggs, for example. They handle a very good duration I feel.

And music is about duration.

It’s an important stage. The thinking part is the moment where you allow yourself to stop producing, and look back and forward. What have I done? What am I gonna do?

What is around me? What is missing? What is too obvious? Who / what should I call? Where should I go? To whom am I connecting, referring,  in order to say/ show/ make what I feel /want?

I feel full of questions. I need to share those questions sometimes, and take the risk to make some hypothesis. It’s part of the game. Share your ideas and the risk to be wrong or boring.

Right now, for example, I have a small baby at home. My creative time is very limited, my hands being full all day with this little and wonderful person. Well, it allows me time to think and observe.

I go to the park with my baby, I go close to the Sequoias and Cedars of the park with him, I am not playing music, but I feel it is something that prepares me as much as a rehearsal to play shows or record later.

It’s about being alive. I don’t separate life and theory and creation. Each one is one hour of a whole day.

I feel close to John Cage again in that way. Picking up mushroom is also making music. Or making music is just a part of a bigger process.

I’ve only been able to read the first page of your essay in Spectres so far, but it concerns the voice. It seems to me that your work often foregrounds the voice (and the body, as in Hand in Hand). Can you tell me more about the role that your voice and language plays in your music?

I bring my voice with me. I record it and then, a double exists, and people are listening to the double, to this strange stamp called recording. I find it fascinating.

Language is an obstacle to fascination. It brings doubt and subjectivity. I use language to break the image and I use the voice to play with its plasticity and its ghost-like ability to be multiple, pitched, distorted, doubled or vanished. Voice is a wind that penetrates the ear and leave again and come back, it’s also a feminist embodiment of a flexible force.

I believe also in the power of hushing versus screaming. Getting closer to the ear where the shout push you outside. I believe in energies and flux through the voice and its recording.

The voice for me is interesting because it’s always with you. It’s also for me something that travels; from inside to outside, passing walls, staying recorded and filling a room while your body has always disappeared.

The voice is the metaphor of the spirit in that way. It can talk but in the same time stay difficult to understand. It brings images but also confusion. It’s like a stream or cloud. You can see in it or not, it can appear and vanish.

I am very fond of Robert Ashley or John Cage’s voices. Even if they passed away they are still speaking to me.

Sometimes I feel inspired by that, I want to talk to some listeners who are not born yet; at least to people I will never meet. Recording my voice is a way to travel in time and space.

One of the tensions Sound Propositions is concerned with is the difference between working as an artist in the studio (producing records and compositions in “fixed,” recorded form) and in performances.  Do you approach to a live situation in terms of improvisation as opposed to how you work in the studio?

Aha, I would say it is almost the opposite: I improvise way more in the studio than live

Most of the outtakes on my records are first takes with a lot of improvisation in it, whereas live I construct more the performance with diffusion and scheduled sounds.

I feel that the fact that the record is « fixed » allows many strata of improvisation, because you can pile up time on it, the record has to be played several time, and is recorded in that goal of fighting with age and time;  whereas a live event is meant to disappear and therefore has , in my opinion , to be anticipated ahead, so it’s strong enough to face such a rapid and short amount of time and existence; like fire works!

Perhaps working as a writer brings with it a similar tension?

Almost all the texts that are not borrowed from literature or cut ups from magazines are improvised, they “happen” to me when I record and then I convoke them again live.

Animals, or Twenties are Gone, the two books of poetry I made were written within the same process, very condensed and fast.

How does this vary between working solo and working (live or in the studio) in collaboration with others?

I don’t do that many collabs, but for example with Jefre Cantu Ledesmathe process was like a mail  correspondence : I send you this, you answer, I react, etc… we never recorded on the same room / continent!

We would conceptualize very little ahead but rather exchange links of records and books we like to read / hear. The connection and language was a very special way of listening that, I think, we have in common.

How do you approach or conceive of the process of musical composition?  Is it a studio-based practice for you?

It’s a slow process, very similar to the way I do art. First I read books, watch films, listen to music, walk in landscapes. Then some ideas and desires appear out of this contemplation. Therefore I start producing various materials: field recordings, melodies, modular patterns, voice…. and then I listen to everything and assemble, like making a bouquet of wild flowers, according and tuning sounds into this first hunch I had at the beginning. This « feeling » or « idea » that will be the shape makers of those drafts, that will give sense and cohesion.

I think of composition as way to create form in space, with layers, blanks, densities, perspectives and light.

Would you be willing to choose a recent or upcoming track and break it down, talk about its development, equipment used, etc?

This is impossible for me to answer, I never follow recipes, neither in the kitchen, nor in the studio.

I can explain what inspires me, the environment of a composition but  I’ve always been a bit skeptical about technique demonstrations. I find it often obviously masculine and even sometimes even shallow; like ooh look how much gear I’ve got.

I feel creation, wherever it’s music, literature or painting can be analyzed as an objet, of course,  but what the artist does can only be explained in terms of intention and context, that’s it. It’s always completely relative, because at the end, the listener might catch something very different, because he/she is a different person than the artist, at a different time, in a different place, and that’s the beauty of the artefact. To be able to travel, to be able to remain a mystery and in the same time, to be able to be explained and analyzed in many different ways. Like a diamond with different facets.

In fact, I feel rather the same. I don’t mean to imply that the particulars (of the studio or a particular track’s creation) should have some universal importance, or be instilled into some kind of hierarchy, such that readers might think, oh “this piece of gear or software would make my work better.” I absolutely do not subscribe to this idea, and I’m very much moved by work that comes from making do with what is available. (Arte povera artists, or the sculptures of Louise Nevelson for instance, or the artists I’ve profiled in the series).  So, yes, I absolutely agree (about cooking as well!), improvisation is key, and formulas are generally to be resisted. Art is not a recipe to be followed.  I also concur regarding the masculinist tendency of gear shots and demonstrations of skills, flexing in the studio and all that.  (I for one dislike FACT Mag’s On the Clock series in part for this reason.)

So perhaps the question is more pedagogical: what advice would you give to someone starting out to make music or art in whatever form?  

Take your time. Believe in small forms.

Be curious and imaginative. Don’t forget to have some humour and distance around you . it’s only music. It’ s just music.  and to paraphrase JL Godard what is «  une image juste / juste image »?

You evoke Godard, and I think there’s something pedagogical in all we absorb. So, I always like to ask about an artist’s favorite work outside of sound art or music. What books, visual art, plays, films, etc you are inspired by, or find common cause with? Are their artists working in other media (past or present) that you feel an aesthetic kinship with?

So many of them of course. I wish i could have seen the Anni Albers retrospective in London and the Hilma Af Kint retrospective in NYC. Both of those wonderful women are very inspiring for me. They are both masters of colors and shapes, and I could watch their work all day. Same with many other artists such as Ruth Asawa, Agnes Martin, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Sonia Delaunay… Painting is source of every day joy for me.

I was lucky enough to catch the Af Klint at the Guggenheim while I was home for the holidays. What a revelation, when viewed all together in a space such as that. She knew her work would be misunderstood, so she imposed this long restriction on public exhibitions of her work. To think it’s taken this long for her work to be appreciated. Imagine what else is out there, still hidden.

What is on the horizon for you? What future projects can you tell us about?

Horizon is a line in the sky I am always contemplating and questioning. We never know.

I am currently composing a piece inspired by the work and persona of the painter Helen Frankenthaler for Atonal in Berlin this summer and another piece called Hedra Helix for Musica Sanae in Sokolowsko in Poland in August. [Episode 6 of the podcast includes an excerpt from her live performance at Musica Sanae in Napoli in May of 2019.]

I am gonna play at Le Poisson Rouge in New York in September and I’m working on the score of a dance piece by the choreographer Rebecca Chantinell in Stockholm.

Thank you so much.

~

by thenewobjective · July 5, 2019

[hwinfotech-blog]

99designs clone | HWINFOTECH

99designs clone - Can you tell the difference between a well-designed, user-friendly, and visually appealing website and a "clone" of an existing design? Does the title say a lot about what your website is all about? The term "clone" has become a buzzword in the internet world; however, 99designs clone-ability tests show that most companies choose a web designer who has a strong understanding of their market, and not a designer who has no business in their industry.

No matter what your company's goal is, there is a designer to make it happen. A majority of companies hire the cheapest, cheapest-quality designers in the area. However, cheap web designers are also responsible for some of the most poorly designed websites available.

There is no need to have to buy into a designer's personal preference when they offer you a deal that is more than you bargained for. The term "comfortable" is not the best way to select the right web designer. A designer should have a distinct understanding of how you will use their services, and this includes the style and color scheme of your website. If you find yourself selecting the wrong website designer because you feel comfortable with their color scheme, then it might be time to look for a new website designer.

So what are the qualities of a great designer that a designer can not be without? Designers must understand who their target audience is and how they fit into that audience. They must be able to come up with a style and color scheme that fit within your target audience's frame of reference. A designer's style and color scheme should not be a huge distraction.

A designer must have their priorities straight: it does not matter what type of website they are creating, as long as it meets your needs. There is nothing worse than hiring a designer who is ill-prepared to meet your needs. Remember, these people are working for you and the quality of your brand. 

They must be able to understand your company's goals, and they must be able to listen to you. Any good designer will take your suggestions and work to provide the best web design solution possible.

After a certain point, the differences between a "clone" and a "clone-worthy" website, boils down to two things: the designer and the web design solution. If you do not believe that a designer who has been working in this field for over two years has the right knowledge and skills to produce the best website design solution possible, then you need to find another designer. 99designs clone-ability tests show that ninety-five percent of companies hire designers who are well-prepared to provide the best solution.

Most businesses run into technical issues, and it is widespread for them to go out of business. Designers, after working for a while, are usually experts at solving the technical problems that can come up. In the same way, if you feel that a designer lacks the knowledge to create a suitable website design solution, then you may want to consider another designer. It is not worth paying a designer twice for the same service.

There are a few things that you should look for in a designer: the knowledge, experience, and interest in your industry. Even if you don't agree with every design, some designers have worked with a variety of websites. Clones should look different from the originals, but they should still be professional.

The best designers have developed through their experience and have learned various techniques. Their website should be user-friendly and should look like the original design. Also, keep in mind that the best designers have made many clients happy by creating sites that exceed their clients' expectations.

Usually, web design companies have done "clones" of specific designs before, and the examples of these websites are provided with the portfolio of the website. These websites do not necessarily mean that they have poor design skills. It just says that the designer was aware of their purpose and made the website to match their vision.

Website design has changed a lot in the last decade, and several companies offer top-notch service for a fraction of the price of a designer who does it on their own. If you want to change your business's web strategy, you should select a designer who has the right background and experience. Skill-set to help you.

99designs clone - https://www.hwinfotech.com/product/99designs-clone-script/ Buy Readymade Clone Script - https://www.hwinfotech.com/shop/

[gethealthy18-blog]

Rachael Ray’s Weight Loss Secrets – How Did The Celeb Chef Lose 40 Pounds?

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/rachael-rays-weight-loss-secrets-how-did-the-celeb-chef-lose-40-pounds/

Rachael Ray’s Weight Loss Secrets – How Did The Celeb Chef Lose 40 Pounds?

Charushila Biswas February 5, 2019

How to make 50 look like 30? Ask Rachael Ray. The charming celebrity chef and businesswoman, who also has a dazzling smile, dropped 40 lbs! And my oh my! That has done more than just make her age backward. How did the two-time Emmy winner win against time? And how can you get back in shape? Keep reading to find out!

Rachael Ray’s Weight Gain – Where It All Began

Rachael Ray’s career as a chef kick-started before she could even let her new job sink in. She started making 30-minute meal recipes to encourage people to cook at home and have delicious food. When she was about 40, she started gaining weight. It could be due to stress or the fact that her life revolved around food. But then, this happened…

Throat Surgery

Shutterstock

While business was booming and Rachael Ray was perhaps on 10 different cookbooks, shows, and magazines, her throat was taking a hit. She would talk non-stop for 12-16 hours a day – and that triggered a cyst in her throat.

She underwent throat surgery and was asked by her doctors to give three weeks’ rest to her throat. This meant she could not speak for three weeks! Imagine her plight. Someone who is so used to talking every day has to be completely silent for about a month! However, she took this opportunity and started releasing her frustration at the gym.

At the gym, she started training with her husband and began to lose weight. Here’s her workout routine.

Rachael Ray’s Workout Routine

Source: youtube

Rachael Ray does a mix of cardio and strength training. She said, “I started running 3 ½ miles every morning after throat surgery to remove a cyst last year. The gym used to be my adversary. But that has all changed. Now, I look forward to it every morning.”

In an interview with Women’s Health Magazine, she said, “I do strength work on the machines: biceps, triceps, the twisty one (I call it the twist and shout) where you hold on to the handles, the thing that looks like a chair without a seat that you hold yourself up on, and my personal favorite, the crunch machine. I really dig the machines—they’re like the monkey bars at the playground. Then I do what I call my bendy-stretchy and go home. That hour at the gym is my recess from being Rachael Ray. Between my daytime show, the Food Network shows, my magazine, and my books, I’m always go, go, go! But working out is my time. That’s why I don’t use a trainer. I’d feel like it was about making the trainer happy, not making me happy. Plus, trainers want you to listen to them. I like listening to my music.”

Rachael also pointed out one of the best benefits of working out regularly. She said that exercising regularly has helped her mentally. She said, “It really makes me feel mentally so much more on point, so much more even. I don’t lose my temper. I don’t get lost in the middle of the day, I just have a much cleaner, clearer vision every day and I can get so much more accomplished mentally by moving physically every day.”

Apart from working out, Rachael Ray also followed a balanced diet to whittle the extra inches. Here’s all you need to know about her diet.

Rachael Ray’s Diet

Rachael Ray follows a Mediterranean diet. She consumes a lot of veggies, extra virgin olive oil, and salads. She also makes sure to keep herself hydrated by drinking at least 8 ounces of water per day.

When asked about diet, Rachael said, “I don’t categorize food as bad or a guilty pleasure.” She loves food and enjoys eating toss-salad and a good dinner. Here’s her diet plan.

Meals What She Eats Breakfast Coffee Lunch Vegetable toss-salad Snack Acai berries or canned tuna or veggies with Greek yogurt dip Dinner Steak or pasta with a glass of wine

Rachael also emphasizes the importance of following a healthy lifestyle. Check out what she has got to say about it.

Lifestyle

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“I care about my general health,” she said and added, “we’d stay up late having an extra bit of wine and deal with stuff at work. Now we go to bed at 10:30 or 11. We sleep better and psychologically feel like we can deal with our days better.”

And this is true! Sleeping early will help you get up early. You will have time in the morning to fix yourself breakfast, the first meal of the day. That, in turn, will set the tone of your day. Your brain will work better, and you will not feel fatigued and drowsy all day long.

You must also work out regularly – just like Rachael does. Working out will help improve cell function, blood circulation, brain activity, and reduce stress, depression, and anxiety.

Eat smaller portions frequently to keep your metabolism active.

Stay hydrated.

Add dietary fiber to your diet to increase satiety levels.

Consume a plant-based or animal source of protein to improve muscle mass and allow muscle recovery.

Add healthy fats like avocado, nuts, nut butter, olive oil, rice bran oil, flax seeds, melon seeds, and sunflower seeds to your diet to reduce inflammation in the body.

Avoid late night snacking.

Avoid sugary and salty foods.

Avoid fried, canned, packaged, and ready-to-eat foods.

Cook your meals at home most of the times.

Avoid consuming mayonnaise dressing and other readymade salad dressings.

There you have it – Rachael Ray’s diet, workout, and lifestyle habits that helped her lose weight. They will help you shed the pounds too. So, go ahead and shake off the extra flab without going on a fad diet. Take care!

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Source: https://www.stylecraze.com/articles/rachael-ray-weight-loss/

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How I visited more than 10 places in a day in Mumbai

This was the longest and the never-ending day in Mumbai. Thus, this blog post is going to be a long one. Please, bear with me.

I went to:-

Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount (Mount Mary Church)

Bandra Fort

Bandstand and Mannat

Linking road and Theobrama

The Gateway of India

Nariman point, Marine drive

Le 15 café

Colaba Causeway market

The Asiatic library

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (VT station)

Bandra-Worli sea link

Bombay breeze café

Yes, I saw all of these things in a single day. Not because I had time constraint or I was impatient, but there are a few things in Mumbai which you would enjoy the most at night. And, Colaba Causeway market, CST station is one of them. And considering the places I wanted to see and things I wanted to do, I planned it in a very organized way. (Self-impressed)

MOUNT MARY BASILICA, Bandra (1 P.M.)

To reach here, I de-boarded at Bandra station and took a local auto. It is approximately 2.5 km. away. I had studied for 12 years in a convent school and we used to go to the chapel every day. As we grew up, it became difficult to spare some time to go to a church, and this church made me nostalgic and Mother Mary knows how many mixed feeling I was experiencing at that time. The church was truly a feast to the eye. The church has a beautiful and serene interior. It was very peaceful in there. It was truly like coming back home to your mother and finding that internal peace you were seeking for.

I really liked the paintings of various instances of mother Mary’s life on the interior walls of the church. Apart from the beautiful, wooden statue of Mother Mary, what got my attention was the marble sculpture of the last supper by Jesus Christ. This Last Supper is finely detailed and is a must see for visitors.

Bandra fort (2 P.M.)

I walked down for the Bandra fort. It is located at Land’s End in Bandra, and took me 5-7 minutes to reach there. The first reaction for the Bandra fort Garden was that it was a “Lovers’ park”, as we may call in Delhi lingo, because I just saw couples hugging, leaning, kissing and making out behind the trees, on the stairs and just everywhere. Moving forward, I entered the fort and saw the huge stairs and I quickly recognized that many scenes were shot in different movies on this location. I liked the spots from where I could see the Worli-Bandra sealink. It is a good place to relax at. I quickly video called my mom and showed her the place. At one side, you can take advantage of the sea, another side, a nice view of the garden and the fort, and a clear view of the Bandra Worli Sea link. The view was amazing and it was very pleasing to sit by the bay looking at the sunset and listening to the waves, while cold breeze passes by.

Bandstand and Mannat (02:30)

Bandstand is around 1 km. away from Bandra fort. It is like a long walkway along the sea giving a beautiful view.

And not forgetting the elite and glamorous neighborhood.

Yes, if you are Shahrukh sir’s follower, his house Mannat is right opposite this place. After taking a stroll of the Bandstand I decided took move to the next destination and also saw Galaxy apartments where Salman Khan lives, just 1 km away. Well, they had a tough luck meeting me, as I was on a tight schedule. Just Kidding.

Linking Road and The Theobrama (03 P.M.)

I Reached the Linking road by an Auto. This is the main shopping hub in Mumbai. On both sides of the road, there are a number of shops, a mixture of departmental stores, brand outlets, roadside cart stalls and regular shops selling items like shoes, belts, textiles, readymade garments and food items. (Basically, Mumbai ka Sarojini Nagar Market). Since I don’t like shopping, but love to eat, I went into the Theobrama. The decor is nice with a limited seating. I ordered vegetarian mushroom sandwich, red velvet cupcake and macron. However, they serve wide range of sandwiches, croissants, Rolls, cupcakes, pastries, mousse, tea, coffee and some more stuff. The staff was very delightful.

Must have – Red velvet cupcakes/pastries.

I again headed out to check my shopping skills but I truly don’t like to shop so I decided to head to my next place. I think, it is a good place for shopaholics, not for shopaHATEOLICS like me. Definitely, it was not worth spending more of my time. There are other places which are much attractive than this.

The Gateway of India (05 P.M.)

I took a taxi for Bandra station as I was not getting any local autos. For the Gateway, I De-boarded at the Church gate railway Station, and took a local taxi to reach there. I explored the place a bit and then I was accompanied by my Massi (relative). We took a ferry ride from the Gateway; it was ₹80 per person and the ₹20 per person extra, if you would like to take the upper deck seats. It was a short pleasure Ferry boat ride in the sea. We got the view of Mumbai port and the numerous ships that dock there. The best part of the ride was when we were feeding the seagulls, and they were so close to us. It was happening experience.

After the boat ride, we explored more of the Gateway of India. Opposite the gateway, stands the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and another statue in vicinity of the monument is that of Swami Vivekananda.

We clicked lots of pictures there, sat for a little while and then moved on.

Must – take a ferry ride.

Nariman Point (07 P.M.)

I remembered this place from the movie, Munnabhai MBBS and I wanted to see those special shaped rocks. We took a taxi for the place and sat on the rocks closest to the sea. The sky in the evening was blazing with the orange and pink calmness in itself. We were singing songs there when we were called to come out of the rocks by the police official. They don’t let anyone sit on the rock in the dark. We were then accompanied by a friend of my massi and he was such an interesting person to talk to. He told that he was a nerd and shared so many interesting stories about Mumbai. He is a Mumbaikar and truly knew the city at heart, he could actually tell the ditch and corner of the city. He told me that each of these tetrapods weigh around 2 tons and this place has appx. 6000 of these, each costing ₹6000 or so.

We enjoyed ourselves there for around 1-2 hours before moving.

Le15 Café Colaba (08:45 P.M.)

This is a classic Italian/French café. We ordered Truffle Tagliatelle, Burrata, lemonade with Jasmine syrup, sea-salt macaroons, egg-less Chocolate cake and Elderflower lemonade (soda). This was the first time that I was having French dishes so I’d not say that I really loved it but it was nice. The lemonade with Jasmine syrup was tasty. I really liked the jasmine syrup twist in the lemonade. The fragrance and that distinct flavor of jasmine were making me drink it more. What we absolutely loved was the egg-less Chocolate cake. It was a chocolate cake layered with chocolate ganache; a chocolate heaven for me.

Colaba Causeway Market (09:30 P.M.)

This is a commercial street market. The market closes by 10 at night. And I, not being a shopaholic; it just was the best for me. However, I did purchase few Fridge magnets for my friends. Apart from the showrooms and small shops, it has numerous small shops and footpath outlets selling everything from artifacts to shawls, carpets and minor antiques to slippers of all kind, which makes it the Lajpat Nagar of Mumbai. The sellers were adamant on the prices so I’d say that either the scope of bargaining is a little less as compared to the linking road market or it was just a bad time to bargain.

We were a bit tired

We anyway had to a taxi for Bandra-Worli Sea link

Thus, we took a taxi from the market for the rest of the places. We asked the driver to halt the taxi at the places we’d like to explore and he happily agreed (of course he would, his money making meter would still be running)

The Asiatic Society of Mumbai (10:30 P.M.)

I wanted to see this because of its white gigantic pillars, giving it a presentation of a royal court of any Bollywood movie (obsessed with Bollywood). I could not see it from the inside as the library was closed for renovation. Anyway it was late for any library to be opened for public. There were people sitting on the stairs. I also quickly posed for some pictures sat in our taxi and moved.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) formerly known as Victoria Terminus (VT station or CST)(10:50 P.M.)

One would think why anyone would want to visit a railway station of a new unexplored city and that to in the night. My massi told me that the best time to see CST is in the evening. And people, this architectural landmark didn’t look like a station to me at all. It looked like a fort, a fort presenting the city. The lighting were glorifying the beauty more. It is the finest railway station I have ever seen. It was magnificently lit at night.

FYI, this station has been the location of filming the “Jai Ho” song in Slumdog Millionaire; and Ra.One.

And right opposite is the Municipal Corporation building (BMC building). It is also known as the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation Building. It is similar in style and worth the look and the photography. There is a safe staged area in front of the CSMT and the BMC building where people can easily click pictures.

Bandra – Worli Sea link (11:15 P.M.)

THIS IS WHAT I WAS EXCITED ABOUT AND WAITING FOR THE WHOLE TIME. INDIA HAS A SEA LINK. We were in the taxi; windows were down, riding above the sea, cool wind, huge towers and thick ropes above us. It is an architectural marvel of India. I was wondering this 5-6 Km drive, late in the night with friends, would me so much fun. I cannot describe the feeling of experiencing the moment you were waiting for.

The Sea link is not accessible to pedestrians; two-wheeled cycles and three-wheeled vehicles are prohibited as well, so you would have to take a taxi to drive through here.

Bombay Breeze Café (1 A.M.)

We were feeling hungry when we reached home, so we freshened up and took a taxi to the café, in Andheri West. It is a rooftop café, has an open bar, live sports screening, hookah, board games. I had been to some bars, restaurants, cafes now in Mumbai, but I loved the look and the ambiance of this open house café. It had this youthful vibe, not-so-loud not-so-dim perfect music. We sat on the sofa sitting as it gave us some privacy. We ordered cheese balls and some drinks. The staff was courteous and friendly. The food was crunchy-munchy delicious and the mojito was relieving too. We had a cool time there.

It was a 16-17 hours amazingly beautiful and enjoyable day. I wished I could have seen few places in not-a-rush time, but not at all complaining. Because to spend more time, I might have to come here early in day’s time and I’d rather not in such hot weather.

However, there are still few places unexplored, so I will visit this city again soon, but in some other season.

Lovely. Excellent. Long. Exploring Day.

[zipgrowth]

Why Flipped Learning Is Still Going Strong 10 Years Later

Ten years ago two Colorado chemistry teachers unleashed a brash concept on a K-12 landscape where few questioned the age-old formula of lecture, homework, assess, repeat. It was the early days of YouTube (then two-years old), and it was getting cheap and easy to make and post videos, so the two teachers—Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams—proposed shifting lectures to videos students would watch at home, and asking students to come to class prepared to problem solve with their peers. It became know as the flipped classroom—a modern, video-based version of a model pioneered by a handful of higher ed professors during the 1990s.

A few years later, the concept lit up like rocket fuel thanks in part to the catchy name, along with fast-growing home internet connectivity and a shout-out in Sal Khan’s popular TED Talk. Or maybe it stemmed from the fact that anyone could get the gist of the teaching idea in the time it takes to rattle off a sound bite. “It’s a simple model,” says Bergmann. “Simple designs work well, and simplicity makes things happen.”

Simple designs work well, and simplicity makes things happen

Jon Bergmann

Whatever the cause, it was a hit with teachers everywhere. By 2008 it had its own conference, FlipCon (which closed domestically, but not internationally, in 2016). A New York Times headline went so far as to call it a “Death Knell for the Lecture,” while other mainstream media outlets scrambled to cover the craze. Detractors predictably sprang up to call it an online video fad. And Bergmann, Sams and Khan turned it into a bonafide career path.

What was less certain then was that flipped would still be going strong a decade after those first bite-sized chemistry lectures appeared online, and that it would spawn a global movement, picking up devotees in dozens of countries around the world, or that edtech companies from EDpuzzle to PlayPosit and Schoology would still be making money off it long after that first news cycle came and went.

Of course, the flipped movement still has its critics. It can mean more work for students and teachers alike, it disadvantages students without strong home internet access and it’s all too easy for teachers to get it wrong, isolating students even further. “A kid who does not do their homework normally will not watch the lectures at home even if you hold them accountable,” educator Chris Aviles has written in a screed against the model’s hype.

But notably, a cohesive opposition movement has failed to materialize, in part because research on its impact in the classroom has generally been positive (or at least neutral). Perhaps also because as flipped learning has evolved, it has adopted much more of an open-ended definition. It has become hard to pin down as it finally begins to shake off the stigma of an online video fad.

“When you ask people what the flipped classroom is, they automatically go to the videos,” says Ryan Hull, a Kansas middle school teacher who has been flipping his social studies classes for the past six years. “I know that making a video is probably the most intimidating part for most people. But you’ll find the vast majority of my time now is dedicated to figuring out what in the world I’m going to do in a class period where I used to talk for 35 minutes.”

The promise of more time for active learning is key to the flipped appeal, its fans say. Equally important, the approach offers a readymade solution to a universal problem: In the information age, how do you teach students to think for themselves when so many answers are just a Google search away?

“We feel that everything is changing,” says Sigrún Svafa, a Danish-language teacher in Iceland who has traveled across Europe as a flipped-learning trainer. “I could be babbling about something trying to convince you to listen to me, but if you need this information you could just look it up. We have to do something about that, and it’s really a global issue.”

Flipped OS

Early this decade there was perhaps no one person—not even Bergmann or Sams—more associated with flipping the classroom than Sal Khan, due in no small part to the more than 140 million views his Khan Academy videos had racked up by 2012. But to hear Khan tell it, that association was little more than a coincidence of timing. Namely, his videos were approaching critical mass just around the same time as flipped learning was coming into its own.

“I kind of fell into this a little bit,” says Khan, in an interview with EdSurge. “Halfway through my TED Talk, I do say ‘flipped,’ but I didn’t even realize there was something called a flipped classroom movement when I said this. Almost by coincidence there was this flipped classroom movement and this meme—and it’s a powerful movement.”

Khan makes no bones about the fact that both he and his nonprofit have benefited from the association. But he says Khan Academy has a “mixed relationship” with the term flipped classroom. “I always put an asterisk by it and I always say, ‘This is kind of just the start,’ he says. “It isn’t about strictly about saying homework in class and lecture at home: it’s doing what’s most appropriate in the right place when the student needs it.”

But if Khan was the face of the movement, at least to the outside world, Jon Bergmann has always been its heart. When flipped hit it big, he left the classroom to free up time to travel the world spreading the gospel of flipped (Svafa has seen him in Iceland—twice). Along the way he helped found the nonprofit Flipped Learning Network and, more recently, the Flipped Learning Global Initiative, an organization that combines research with a community of practicing flipped learning experts (and a new certification program).

A year and a half ago, Bergmann tasked his researchers with evaluating the flipped-learning movement, looking at both published studies and stories collected from educators over the years. In the end, the researchers came up with a handful of perhaps unsurprising conclusions: flipped learning is constantly evolving, has transformed class time into active learning time, attained a global following and is creating new job opportunities. Through examinations of classroom surveys such as Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up, the Flipped Learning Global Initiative estimates that around 16 percent of U.S. teachers are currently flipping their teaching, and 35 percent would like training on the subject; 46 percent of principals want new teachers who know how to flip a classroom.

But the exercise also determined that flipped learning wasn’t just another teaching strategy competing with other models, such as project- or mastery-based learning, but rather a kind of bait to get instructors interested in broader teaching philosophies. “We’re saying we need a simple way to move from active to passive learning, and the simplest way to do that is via flipped learning,” Bergmann says.

Think of flipped as the operating system of education

One of Bergmann’s favorite ways of thinking about this broader strategy comes courtesy of one of his research fellows, Robert Talbert, a math professor at Grand Valley State University, in Michigan. “He used a metaphor to describe this,” Bergmann says. “Think of flipped as the operating system of education. All the other active-learning strategies, such as project-based learning, inquiry and mastery learning—those are the apps. Flipped is a framework to make this all work.”

It’s Not About Video—Until It Is

Aaron Sams was one of the original co-founders of the modern flipped-learning movement, and, like Bergmann, he too has crisscrossed the globe giving talks and training teachers. Recently though, he’s taken a step back to pursue a PhD in STEM instruction, and he has begun to explore more general questions of what makes good teaching (as opposed to good flipped teaching).

“I used to talk a lot about the fact that flipping is not about the video, it’s about what you do with your classroom time,” explains Sams. “But the more I think about it, good teaching is about what you do with the classroom time.” Flipping, he says, is a tool to help move the classroom toward active learning, and a better use of face-to-face time. “So I would probably take a few steps back from what I said a few years ago—that it’s not about the video—and say, I think it kind of is.”

Khan suggests that while video-based instruction is inferior to human interaction, it still holds value as part of what he calls “micro-explanation,” whereby students can turn to their teacher’s lectures (or, say, Khan Academy videos) to reinforce concepts during the active-learning process, at the exact moment they’re ready to learn them.

Lecture still exists in a flipped model, but the way professors use it is far different. Once lectures are turned into a series of modular videos, students can consume them as needed. Ryan Hull, the middle school teacher in Kansas, practices what he calls the “in-flip,” where students watch videos in class, “so that when they have questions, I’m here.”

Cara Johnson, a former high school anatomy teacher in Allen, Texas, who now works as an instructional coach, has even seen students whose teachers have not adopted a flipped model approaching their peers in flipped courses to get their videos. “Now it’s just the expectation,” she says of flipped learning at her district. “Students know the power of having that just-in-time instruction.”

Students know the power of having that just-in-time instruction

Cara Johnson

Masters of Flip

Teachers who have been flipping their classrooms for a few years tend to follow a similar trajectory.

They might be nervous or skeptical in the beginning, flipping their class unit by unit as they collect enough activities to fill up class time. And at first many students resist. Research has shown that students sometimes have a hard time using passive video effectively, and often need help being more productive during active-learning time. “For students that have figured out the game of high school, it was like I was changing the rules, and that was frustrating for them,” says Johnson about the early days of changing her anatomy class.

“When I switched to mastery learning, I took away the due dates,” Johnson explains. “I said, ‘Look, here’s what I expect you to learn, and here’s everything you need to learn it. Go learn it, but I’m not going to tell you to learn it by this date.’ All of the students took a sigh of relief.”

Mastery- or competency-based learning is one of those fuzzy pedagogical terms that is open to interpretation. Khan calls it a “loaded word” that educators use in different ways. To him, mastery learning is simply not pushing kids ahead when they’re still struggling. “It just means that you have multiple tries to make sure you don’t have debilitating gaps.”

Part of its appeal to flipped educators is that the mastery-based approach carries the Bergmann-Sams seal of approval. Before Bergmann began thinking of the flipped classroom as “the glue that holds it all together,” he and Sams promoted the idea that within a flipped classroom, entire units could be given to students at one time to learn at their own pace. And still, within a mastery-based flipped learning classroom, there would be time to spare for projects, genius hours and Socratic seminars galore.

“Applying the concept of mastery learning to the flipped classroom just makes sense,” says Hull, who like Johnson, has introduced the concept to his middle schoolers. When his students are ready to move on, they must show him they’ve mastered at least three-quarters of the material. At that point, if they want better grades they can always go back to past material they struggled with and try again.

Really, Hull says, he’s pulling from the work of researchers such as Benjamin Bloom, who advocated a mastery approach more than forty years ago. “Education runs in circles,” Hull says. “Mastery learning worked back then, and now we’re coming back to it, and it’s still working.”

Johnson, Hull and even Svafa, the Danish teacher, have all run classes that seem positively Montessorian. Hull boasts that on any given day, students in his class can be working on five or six different things. Svafa, who teaches adults returning to high school, gives her students an enormous amount of flexibility to work on the areas where they feel weakest during class time. And Johnson is helping with a project in a physics teacher’s classroom where students are spending the entire period figuring out how to create an enormous Mondrian painting from a tiny model.

But the same three teachers have also spent class time giving short lectures on topics they love, teaching students how to be better independent learners and hosting group conversations on topics in the news. The secret to making it all work, they say, has nothing to do with eliminating direct instruction from class. Rather, it lies in the true flexibility that the flipped-classroom provides.

“I say to people, ‘It’s not forbidden to have a good lecture in class,’” Svafa says. “That’s really nice sometimes—just to talk about something you love. But if you record all the boring stuff, there’s so much more time for all the amazing stuff.”

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