#conversations / victoria clement.

[intheshadowofwar]

19 June 2023

The Imperial Metropolis

London 19 June 2023

So I was just settling into bed tonight, thinking about what I needed to do tomorrow, when I had an inkling that I’d forgotten to do something. Something important. Now, I’d had my meds, so it wasn’t that, I’d eaten dinner, showered, all that good stuff, so what could it be?

Oh. Right. Log.

I woke up very early this morning to get the train from Edgware to Victoria, meeting the group at our hotel just before nine. We proceeded from there to Westminster Cathedral, briefly exploring that building and looking at the Martyr’s Memorial within, before carrying on to the somewhat more famous Westminster Abbey. After a brief interrogation of the statuary on Parliament Square, we went inside.

I highly doubt Westminster Abbey needs an introduction - it’s Britain’s most famous church, and dozens of kings and dignitaries are buried inside. To this day, Britain’s heroes are commemorated in these hallowed walls - Isaac Newton lies next to Stephen Hawking, and there’s Prime Ministers from Pitt to Wilson. It’s absolutely packed, of course, but I’d say it’s well worth a look. The main reason we visited, of course, was the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, the representative of all Britain’s (and previously the Empire’s) war dead. It is interesting, considering the secular nature of most WWI commemoration, just how Christian the tomb is - but I suppose it ought to be, given its place in an abbey. Still, one must remember that he ostensibly represents the Catholic and Jewish soldiers of Britain, not to mention the Hindus and Muslims of the Indian Army.

After the Abbey, we proceeded up Whitehall, looking at the Cenotaph, the Women’s Cenotaph for the Second World War, and the statue of Field Marshal Haig. We went through Horse Guards (Life Guards on duty today) and observed the memorial to the Foot Guards, and then carried on via the Royal Marines Memorial next to Admiralty Arch (a Boer War Memorial, as I can’t escape my thesis topic) to Trafalgar Square. We broke for lunch here, and I had mine in the crypt beneath St. Martin’s in the Field church. It was a nice little cafe, and only a few sandbags and posters away from looking like something right out of the Blitz. Maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas.

After lunch, we looked at the Edith Cavell Memorial. Cavell, for the uninitiated, was a British nurse in Belgium shot for supposed espionage on 12 October 1915 - the monument is tall and heroic, a real ‘King and Country’ sort of thing; the words are even emblazoned on it. This makes the addition of a quote from Cavell in the 1920s - “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred in my heart for anybody.” - a rather curious juxtaposition. Still, it is well worth a look if one is at Trafalgar Square.

From St. Martin’s, we walked down to the Victoria Embankment Park, where a small memorial to the Imperial Camel Corps is situated. There was a brief discussion of Australian troops on leave in London, and then we carried on back up to the Strand and over to Australia House. Australia House, they say, is ‘our house’ in London; but security arrangements had fallen through, preventing us from going inside. Canada and New Zealand, we were told, are not so paranoid about security, and we would have had no problem going inside.

On the other side of the road was the St. Clement Danes Church, which served as a centre for Anzac and Armistice Day services for Australians in London during the interwar years. Today it’s the official church of the Royal Air Force. Statues of Air Marshals Dowding and ‘Bomber’ Harris stand sentinel outside, and the floor is marked with the crests of various RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF and affiliated squadrons. A panel lists the RAF’s VC and GC holders - notably Guy Gibson, commander of the Dams Raid in May 1943. Gibson’s been in the news lately - the conversion of RAF Scampton into a refugee torture chamb- I mean internment centre has placed his office and the grave of his dog under threat. Many people are very emotional about this grave - yet, in an absurdly farcical situation, they absolutely cannot mention it’s name. (The dog was black. The name rhymed with trigger. I’m sure you can put this one together.)

We broke up shortly after, and after a quick visit to Foyles and a brief rest at the hotel, I went with the professor and a few others to Skygarden. This is basically a garden and cafe on top of a skyscraper, and the views are spectacular. Best of all, entry is free. On the way home I fell down the stairs at Monument, and now there’s a big lump on my left arm. These things happen I suppose.

Tomorrow, we head to Green Park to interrogate the memorials there, before spending the lion’s share of the day at the Imperial War Museum. If it goes anything like today did, it’ll be a blast.

[brookston]

Holidays 12.23

Holidays

Be Kind Day

Children’s Day (Sudan, South Sudan)

Day of All Level Operational Control Structures Servicemen (Ukraine)

Economists Day

Federal Reserve Day

Festivus (Seinfeld)

Flag Day (Sweden)

Fool's Day

Happy Things Day

John Canoe Day (Jamaica)

Kisan Diwas (India)

Learn Metric Day

Lillejuleaften (Small Christmas Eve; Denmark)

Metric Conversion Day

National Farmers Day (India)

National Roots Day (a.k.a. Family Roots Day)

Night of the Radishes (Noche de Rabanos; Mexico)

Porlaksmessa (Iceland)

Queen's Birthday (Sweden)

Secret of the Unhewn Stone (Celtic)

Stars & Stripes Forever Day

Suez Victory Day (Egypt)

Tenno Tanjobi (Japan)

Tibb's Eve (Newfoundland, Labrador)

Tom Bawcock’s Eve (Cornwall, England)

Transistor Day

Two Days To Go Day

Victory Day (Egypt)

Yuletide Lad #12 arrives (Ketkrokur or Meat Hook; Iceland)

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Pfeffernüsse Day

National Popcorn Popping Day

Popcorn Popping Day

Root Beer Day

Stargazy Pie Day

4th Friday in December

Bakery Friday [4th Friday]

Feast Days

Abassad (Coptic Church)

Acca Larentis (Celtic goddess who guards the dead)

Behnam, Sarah, and the 40 Martyrs (Coptic Church; Martyrs)

Dagobert II (Christian; Saint)

Dauntless Dragon (Muppetism)

Festival of the Great Heat (Feast Day of Hathor; Ancient Egypt)

Festivus (Pastafarian)

Hanukkah Day #5 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 26th]

Holiday (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) [Date Approximate]

HumanLight Celebration (Secular Humanism)

John Belushi Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

John Cantius (Christian; Saint)

Larentalia (Old Roman festival honoring Dea Tacita, the silent odes, a goddess of the dead)

Lavoisier (Positivist; Saint)

O Emmanuel (Christian; Saint)

Psote (Coptic Church)

Servulus (Christian; Saint)

The Ten Martyrs of Crete (Christian; Saint)

Thorlac Thorhallsson (Christian; Saint) [Iceland]

Victoria (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [52 of 53]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because nobody cares about you as it's nearly christmas.) 

Premieres

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (UK TV Special; 1988)

Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, by Rod Stewart (Song; 1978)

Dirty Harry (Film; 1971)

Emma, by Jane Austen (Novel; 1815) [#4]

Good Morning, Vietnam (Film; 1987)

Hansel und Gretel, by Englebert Humperdinck & Adelheid Wette (Opera; 1893)

My Blue Heaven, recorded by Fats Domino (Song; 1951)

Scent of a Woman (Film; 1992)

This Magic Moment, recorded by The Drifters (Song; 1959)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Disney Film; 1954)

Up in the Air (Film; 2009)

A Visit From Saint Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore (Poem; 1823)

Today’s Name Days

Victoria (Austria)

Ivan, Vikica, Viktorija (Croatia)

Vlasta (Czech Republic)

Torlacus (Denmark)

Eugenia, Senna, Senni (Estonia)

Noel, Senni (Finland)

Armand (France)

Johannes, Victoria (Germany)

Nifon (Greece)

Viktória (Hungary)

Giovanni (Italy)

Balva, Saulcerīte, Viktorija (Latvia)

Mina, Veliuona, Viktorija, Vilbutas (Lithuania)

Sigurd, Sjur (Norway)

Dagobert, Mina, Sławomir, Sławomira, Wiktoria (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Nadežda (Slovakia)

Juan, Victoria (Spain)

Adam (Sweden)

Avrele, Avrela (Ukraine)

Hart, Hartman, Latoya, Wade (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 357 of 2022; 8 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 51 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 28 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Dōngyuè), Day 1 (Geng-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 29 Kislev 5783

Islamic: 29 Jumada I 1444

J Cal: 27 Zima; Fiveday [27 of 30]

Julian: 10 December 2022

Moon: 0%: New Moon

Positivist: 21 Bichat (12th Month) [Lavoisier]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 3 of 90)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 2 of 30)

Calendar Changes

冰月 [Làyuè] (Chinese Lunisolar Calendar) [Month 12 of 12] (Ice Month)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.23

Holidays

Be Kind Day

Children’s Day (Sudan, South Sudan)

Day of All Level Operational Control Structures Servicemen (Ukraine)

Economists Day

Federal Reserve Day

Festivus (Seinfeld)

Flag Day (Sweden)

Fool's Day

Happy Things Day

John Canoe Day (Jamaica)

Kisan Diwas (India)

Learn Metric Day

Lillejuleaften (Small Christmas Eve; Denmark)

Metric Conversion Day

National Farmers Day (India)

National Roots Day (a.k.a. Family Roots Day)

Night of the Radishes (Noche de Rabanos; Mexico)

Porlaksmessa (Iceland)

Queen's Birthday (Sweden)

Secret of the Unhewn Stone (Celtic)

Stars & Stripes Forever Day

Suez Victory Day (Egypt)

Tenno Tanjobi (Japan)

Tibb's Eve (Newfoundland, Labrador)

Tom Bawcock’s Eve (Cornwall, England)

Transistor Day

Two Days To Go Day

Victory Day (Egypt)

Yuletide Lad #12 arrives (Ketkrokur or Meat Hook; Iceland)

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Pfeffernüsse Day

National Popcorn Popping Day

Popcorn Popping Day

Root Beer Day

Stargazy Pie Day

4th Friday in December

Bakery Friday [4th Friday]

Feast Days

Abassad (Coptic Church)

Acca Larentis (Celtic goddess who guards the dead)

Behnam, Sarah, and the 40 Martyrs (Coptic Church; Martyrs)

Dagobert II (Christian; Saint)

Dauntless Dragon (Muppetism)

Festival of the Great Heat (Feast Day of Hathor; Ancient Egypt)

Festivus (Pastafarian)

Hanukkah Day #5 (Judaism) [thru Dec. 26th]

Holiday (Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) [Date Approximate]

HumanLight Celebration (Secular Humanism)

John Belushi Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

John Cantius (Christian; Saint)

Larentalia (Old Roman festival honoring Dea Tacita, the silent odes, a goddess of the dead)

Lavoisier (Positivist; Saint)

O Emmanuel (Christian; Saint)

Psote (Coptic Church)

Servulus (Christian; Saint)

The Ten Martyrs of Crete (Christian; Saint)

Thorlac Thorhallsson (Christian; Saint) [Iceland]

Victoria (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [52 of 53]

Shakku (赤口 Japan) [Bad luck all day, except at noon.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because nobody cares about you as it's nearly christmas.) 

Premieres

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (UK TV Special; 1988)

Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, by Rod Stewart (Song; 1978)

Dirty Harry (Film; 1971)

Emma, by Jane Austen (Novel; 1815) [#4]

Good Morning, Vietnam (Film; 1987)

Hansel und Gretel, by Englebert Humperdinck & Adelheid Wette (Opera; 1893)

My Blue Heaven, recorded by Fats Domino (Song; 1951)

Scent of a Woman (Film; 1992)

This Magic Moment, recorded by The Drifters (Song; 1959)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Disney Film; 1954)

Up in the Air (Film; 2009)

A Visit From Saint Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore (Poem; 1823)

Today’s Name Days

Victoria (Austria)

Ivan, Vikica, Viktorija (Croatia)

Vlasta (Czech Republic)

Torlacus (Denmark)

Eugenia, Senna, Senni (Estonia)

Noel, Senni (Finland)

Armand (France)

Johannes, Victoria (Germany)

Nifon (Greece)

Viktória (Hungary)

Giovanni (Italy)

Balva, Saulcerīte, Viktorija (Latvia)

Mina, Veliuona, Viktorija, Vilbutas (Lithuania)

Sigurd, Sjur (Norway)

Dagobert, Mina, Sławomir, Sławomira, Wiktoria (Poland)

Angelina (Russia)

Nadežda (Slovakia)

Juan, Victoria (Spain)

Adam (Sweden)

Avrele, Avrela (Ukraine)

Hart, Hartman, Latoya, Wade (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 357 of 2022; 8 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 5 of week 51 of 2022

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ruis (Elder) [Day 28 of 28]

Chinese: Month 12 (Dōngyuè), Day 1 (Geng-Xu)

Chinese Year of the: Tiger (until January 22, 2023)

Hebrew: 29 Kislev 5783

Islamic: 29 Jumada I 1444

J Cal: 27 Zima; Fiveday [27 of 30]

Julian: 10 December 2022

Moon: 0%: New Moon

Positivist: 21 Bichat (12th Month) [Lavoisier]

Runic Half Month: Jara (Year) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Winter (Day 3 of 90)

Zodiac: Capricorn (Day 2 of 30)

Calendar Changes

冰月 [Làyuè] (Chinese Lunisolar Calendar) [Month 12 of 12] (Ice Month)

[selfdistancing]

( 1 ) 𝗜𝗡𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗣.

victoria: please don’t tell me you’re bailing on me again? victoria: i’m getting really tired of this victoria: like if you’re not into me that’s totally fine? victoria: just tell me so i stop getting my hopes up?

[mechatherium]

What the heck is a Tully Monster, anyway?

Not to be confused with Telly Monster.

An older reconstruction of T. gregarium by Stanton F. Fink. (source)

Last month I wrote a post on Illinois’ State Fossil, the enigmatic Tullimonstrum gregarium. I promised a future post where I planned to explain how an international team of scientists from Texas and the UK finally figured out what branch on the Tree of Life the infamous “Tully Monster” belongs on.

Alas, such is not the case. Let me explain.

Ever since Francis Tully brought the first specimen in to Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, paleontologists have tried to discover what sort of animal T. gregarium was. It’s not for lack of material; unlike most fossil organisms, thousands of Tully monsters have been recovered from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek formation in Illinois.

And these creatures are preserved in exquisite detail; Mazon Creek is what is called a Lagerstätte: a rare fossil bed where organisms are so well preserved in fine detail that traces of soft parts are visible. (Other examples include the famous Cambrian-age Burgess Shale in Canada described in loving detail in Steven J. Gould’s Wonderful Life and the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone in Germany that yielded the stem bird Archaeopteryx lithographica.) Good thing, too, as as Tully monsters have no hard parts—no bones, no shell, no exoskeleton.

Even with this wealth of well-preserved material, paleontologists have had a devil of a time trying to classify tullies as a particular kind of animal; the animal was so specialized in its construction it lacks any obvious features that clearly link it a known animal group. As a result over the years tullies have been classified as chordates (animals with notochords—our group), mollusks, annelids (segmented worms, including earthworms), conodonts (another once-enigmatic fossil group, later identified as chordates), and even a descendant of the stem-arthropod Opabinia.

In what I thought was the final answer to “what the heck are these things?” earlier this decade, two different teams of scientists led by Thomas Clements and Victoria McCoy from the University of Leicester in England made comprehensive studies of Tullimonstrum fossils with the latest tools, including scanning electron microscopes and high-powered particle accelerators.

Clements studied the structure of the tully eye, specifically the structure and arrangement of protective pigment structures called melanosomes in the cells of its retina that preserve very well in Lagerstätte fossils; McCoy took thousands of tully fossils to Argonne National Laboratory to use their  particle accelerators like super-powered CAT scanners, trying to image the animals’ internal structures.

In 2016 they released their results, declaring Tully monsters not just chordates, but vertebrates, jawless fish related to living lampreys.

I thought that would be the end of it. Frank Tully’s mystery solved at last. Alas, science often doesn’t work like that.

Humans, you see, are really good at convincing ourselves of things. We build models in our minds to try to understand how the universe works. The problem comes when those models don’t accurately reflect how the universe actually works. Worse, our minds are wired with a tendency to automatically reject evidence that our models don’t reflect reality.

The beauty of science is it’s a constant testing and re-testing of our models against reality, not just by one lone genius but by many people, many groups—the more, the better. The more and harder our ideas of how the Universe works are tested, the more certain we can be the models that survive are an accurate description of how the world actually works.

When I went to refresh myself on my sources Saturday night I ran across an article that led me to this piece in The Conversation published November 11, 2019: “The mysterious ‘Tully Monster’ fossil just got more mysterious.” Trying to find a link to the scientific paper, I ran across an earlier article in phys.org, “‘Tully monster’ mystery is far from solved, group argues,” published in 2017.

The 2017 article describes a paper in the journal Paleontology (not linked, but here’s a UPenn press release) where a team led by assistant professor Lauran Sallan went through the Clements and McCoy papers and found major flaws in their reasoning.

First, Sallan and her team point out that the Mazon Creek formation was a marine environment, an ancient sea bed. Lagerstätte or no, that has major effects on fossil preservation. “In the marine rocks you just see soft tissues,” she says in the press release, “you don’t see much internal structure preserved.”

Next, they point out there were lampreys living with Tully monsters in that same ecosystem; their fossils are found with the tullies, in the same rock layers. And, according to Sallan, et. al, their fossils don’t look a thing like the tullies’.

Then they point out vertebrates were hardly the only animal group to evolve eyes. Eyes, of whatever level of complexity, are found in about every major animal group. And, according to Sallan, tully eyes weren’t that complex; Sallan’s group asserts Tullimonstrum had a simpler form of eye called a cup eye, like those found in many mollusks, nautiluses, some worms—and some primitive chordates.

If tullies had cup eyes, they could not have been vertebrates, however primitive. All known vertebrates, living and fossil, have complex eyes with lenses; there are some groups that lost their eyes secondarily, like some cave fish, but none have ever simplified the design.

Finally, Sallan points out that if tullies had been vertebrates, McCoy should have found two specific structures found in aquatic vertebrates—and only in vertebrates. The first are otic capsules, structures in the inner ear that provide the sense of balance (we have them; we call them the semicircular canals). The other is a lateral line; a sensory structure found in all fish and many amphibians but lost in land vertebrates. Lampreys have both otic capsules and lateral lines; if Tully monsters were really lamprey relatives, as McCoy asserts, her team should have found them in the thousands of fossils they examined.

The 2019 conversation article was written by paleobiologist Chris Rogers from the University College Cork in Ireland. In it, he describes his own work on comparing the structure and chemistry of tully eyes to those of other animals, both vertebrates and invertebrates. Specifically, he focused on their melanosomes, like Thomas Clements did.

Clements claimed the structure and arrangement of melanosomes in tully eyes was the same as in vertebrates, leading him to put Tullimonstrum among the chordates. Rogers tested that claim with a two-pronged approach. First, he studied and compared melanosome structure and arrangement in living and fossil invertebrates with large, complex eyes, finding that some invertebrates, like cephalopods, had similar melanosome arrangements, and that these can be found in fossils as well.

Rogers concluded the arrangement of melanosomes in Tullimonstrum eyes isn’t enough to prove it was a chordate.

Next, he took a page from McCoy’s book, using high-powered X-ray beams generated by particle accelerators at the California’s Stamford University to analyze the chemical makeup of traces of melanin left in fossil tully eyes.

Rogers’ team analyzed melanin in living animals, finding a slight but consistent chemical difference between vertebrates and invertebrates; we vertebrates have a higher ration of zinc to copper in our melanin than invertebrates do. When they used Stamford’s accelerator to analyze melanin traces in fossils of known vertebrates and invertebrates found at Mazon Creek they found the same difference. When Tullimonstrum fossils were finally put under the X-rays Rogers and his team found the traces of melanin left in their fossils’ eyes was more like that of invertebrates.

Rogers is careful to say that this does not prove the Tully monster was not a vertebrate, merely that Clements’ and McCoy’s analyses aren’t the “smoking gun” the popular science press of the time thought they were.

So the mystery remains, the debates continue, and that’s okay. Because that how science happens. Now Clements and McCoy may go over the data they collected some more and answer the concerns raised by Sallan and Rogers. Maybe Clements can show that tully eyes were built just like those of fish, as opposed to the superficially similar eyes of say, cephalopods. Maybe McCoy will go over the thousands of tully fossil X-rays and find otic capsules and lateral lines—or show that contemporaneous vertebrate fossils don’t preserve those either. Perhaps someone will point out flaws in Sallan and Rogers’ work, I don’t know.

Hopefully, what will happen is as these and other scientists look more and more closely at Tully monster fossils, sooner or later they will find some feature—some anatomical or biochemical clue that will point us toward tully origins, and maybe perhaps some living relatives.

Sorry about the wall of text. I’ll try to make my next posting a bit shorter.

References:

Clements, T., Dolocan, A., Martin, P. et al. The eyes of Tullimonstrum reveal a vertebrate affinity. Nature 532, 500–503 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17647

McCoy, V., Saupe, E., Lamsdell, J. et al. The ‘Tully monster’ is a vertebrate. Nature 532, 496–499 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16992

Baillie, Katherine Unger. “'Tully Monster' Mystery Is Far From Solved, Penn-Led Group Argues.” Penn Today, University of Pennsylvania, 20 Feb. 2017, https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/tully-monster-mystery-far-solved-penn-led-group-argues.

Rogers, Chris. “The Mysterious 'Tully Monster' Fossil Just Got More Mysterious.” The Conversation, 11 Nov. 2019, https://theconversation.com/the-mysterious-tully-monster-fossil-just-got-more-mysterious-126531.

[xtruss]

The Tasmanian Resistance Fighter We Should Remember as a War Hero

Tongerlongeter richly deserves a place in the pantheon of celebrated Australian warriors, writes Dr Nicholas Clements.

— 09 August 2021 | Research to Reality

THE CONVERSATION

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images and names of deceased people.

Australians love their war heroes. Our founding myth centres on the heroism of the ANZACs. Our Victoria Cross recipients are considered emblematic of our highest virtues. We also revere our dissident heroes, such as Ned Kelly and the Eureka rebels. But where in this pantheon are our Black war heroes?

If it’s underdog heroism we’re after, we need look no further than the warriors who resisted the invasion of their homelands between 1788 and 1928. And none distinguished himself more than Tongerlongeter — the subject of a new book I have written with historian Henry Reynolds.

Tongerlongeter’s Story

In Tasmania’s “Black War” of 1823–31, Tongerlongeter led a stunning resistance campaign against invading British soldiers and colonists. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation, he inspired dread throughout the island’s southeast. Convicts refused to work alone or unarmed, terrified settlers abandoned their farms, the economy faltered and the government seemed powerless to suppress the violence.

It was a legacy Tongerlongeter could never have imagined in 1802, when his people encountered the French explorers under Nicolas Baudin on Maria Island. Having never heard of foreign lands or peoples, they concluded the pale-faced visitors were ancestral spirits returned from the dead. If zombies are an apt comparison, they were soon to experience a zombie invasion.

Lieutenant John Bowen and party arriving at Risdon, by Thomas Gregson (c.1860). Courtesy of the WL Crowther Library

The British established their first settlement at Risdon Cove, opposite today’s Hobart, in 1803. Only from the 1820s did settlement accelerate up the fertile valleys of the southeast. Tongerlongeter initially restricted his warriors to targeted retribution, but as the violence intensified, all stops were pulled.

By night, Tongerlongeter and his people were vulnerable to ambushes. Gangs of frontiersmen and sealers killed hundreds of men and abducted countless women and girls. Tongerlongeter’s first wife was taken in just such an ambush.

Being wary of evil spirits, Tongerlongeter’s people never attacked by night. But from sun-up to sun-down, exposed colonists lived in constant fear of attack. Using sophisticated tactics such as reconnaissance, decoys, flanking and pincer manoeuvres, sabotage, and arson, Tongerlongeter’s war parties attacked hut after hut, and often several at a time.

Trained from infancy in the arts of war, Aboriginal warriors carried out guerrilla operations with extraordinary discipline and strategy. Apart from soldiers, most colonists were woefully unprepared to face such assailants. Typically, warriors would surround a hut, then kill its occupants, plunder whatever they wanted, and set it alight. Then they “simply vanished”, outwitting even mounted pursuit parties.

In 1828, as the body count rose, Lieutenant Governor George Arthur declared martial law. Vigilantes had long “hunted the blacks” with impunity; now they did so legally.

While such measures took a devastating toll, Tongerlongeter and his allies, the neighbouring Big River nation, only intensified their resistance, making 137 documented attacks in 1828, 152 in 1829, and 204 in 1830. Each year they refined their tactics. Some settlers insisted the colony should be abandoned.

Drawing a Line

In September 1830, under mounting pressure, Arthur initiated a massive military operation designed to crush the resistance of Tongerlongeter and his allies.

The Black Line, as it came to be known, was Australia’s largest ever domestic military offensive. It involved 2,200 soldiers, settlers and convicts — 10% of the white population — in a seven-week campaign designed to “capture the hostile tribes”. Outnumbered by about 200 to one, and using only traditional weapons, Aboriginal resistance had driven the colony to take the most desperate of measures.

Commanded by Arthur himself, the Black Line was a human cordon, sweeping down eastern Tasmania. It was also a stunning failure, resulting in just two Aboriginal people captured and two killed. During the same period, Oyster Bay-Big River warriors killed five colonists and wounded six.

Field plan of military operations against the Aboriginal inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land, by George Frankland (1830). This retrospective map illustrates the general pattern of divisional movements during the ‘Black Line’ campaign in October and November 1830. Courtesy of the WL Crowther Library

Still, the white men had made an impressive show of force, so Tongerlongeter’s people headed for the relative safety of the Central Plateau.

They didn’t make it unscathed. According to Tongerlongeter, who recounted his wartime experiences years later in exile, he

[…] was with his tribe in the neighbourhood of the Den Hill and that there was men cutting wood. The men were frightened and run away. At night they came back with plenty of white men (it was moonlight), and they looked and saw our fires. Then they shot at us, shot my arm, killed two men and three women. The women they beat on the head and killed them; they then burnt them in the fire.

A musket ball almost severed Tongerlongeter’s arm just below the elbow. As his comrades sliced off what remained of his limb, the chief’s pain would have been stupefying. But worse was to come. We know from post-mortem records that someone, presumably using abrasive rock, ground smooth his splintered forearm bone. To stem the bleeding, Tongerlongeter simply said his kinfolk “burnt the end”, belying the true horror of cauterisation without anaesthetic.

The Desperate Final Year

Miraculously, Tongerlongeter survived and made it to the plateau, but the momentum of the resistance waned. Oyster Bay and Big River bands made only 57 attacks in 1831. Desperate to avoid the white man’s guns, they wintered in the frigid high country.

Then, in the spring of 1831, Tongerlongeter’s people made one last foray to the east coast where they found themselves trapped on the Freycinet Peninsula by more than 100 armed white men. They were again forced to slip past the muskets at night.

Tongerlongeter made a beeline back west where his wife, Droomteemetyer, gave birth to a son. Parperermanener was the last Oyster Bay-Big River child — a delicate flame kindled from the dying embers of his people.

A tribal map indicating suggested boundaries for Tongerlongeter’s Oyster Bay nation.

The Armistice

On New Year’s Eve 1831, Tongerlongeter’s war-weary remnant, now just 26 in number, were holed up in the remote lake country when they were approached by a small Aboriginal party. They were envoys of George Augustus Robinson’s “friendly mission”, whom Arthur had tasked with “conciliating the hostile tribes”.

Robinson’s terms were: if Tongerlongeter’s people laid down their arms they could, once order was restored, remain on their Country with a government emissary for protection. The chief was undoubtedly suspicious, but the alternative was the wholesale erasure of his people and culture.

When Tongerlongeter’s small band of survivors entered Hobart a week later, the whole town came to witness the spectacle. Spears in hand, they approached Government House, where the governor invited them in. His administration kept meticulous records — but as important as this meeting was, Arthur knew better than to document the promises he made.

Exiled

Ten days later the whole party set sail for Flinders Island. They became dreadfully seasick. Severely dehydrated, Droomteemetyer would have struggled to breastfeed Parperermanener, and soon after disembarking, his tiny body went limp. For the Oyster Bay-Big River remnant, this was no ordinary tragedy. It wasn’t just that a child had died, or even that it was the child of a chief. There were no more children.

Despite the loss of his son, his arm, his country, his way of life and almost everyone he had ever known, Tongerlongeter did not give up hope. As a leader, he couldn’t, and from the outset he was proactive. By popular vote, he represented the exiles in negotiations, settled disputes, provided counsel, distributed justice, and was instrumental in a range of improvements.

In 1834, a visiting missionary identified Tongerlongeter as “the principal chief at Flinders”, where 244 Aboriginal Tasmanians were eventually exiled. When Robinson took command of the settlement in 1835, he immediately recognised the chief’s seniority, renaming him King William after Britain’s reigning monarch.

But good leadership could only do so much. During the five years Tongerlongeter was at the settlement, there were four births but well over 100 deaths, mostly from influenza. On March 21 1837, Tongerlongeter demanded they be allowed “to leave this place of sickness”; and when Robinson hesitated, he asked: “What, do you mean to stay till all the black men are dead?”

It wasn’t just that an “evil spirit” was sickening his people — Tongerlongeter never stopped advocating for their promised return to Country. When that failed, he supported Robinson’s plan for their removal to Victoria, even if the fledgling settlement’s only appeal was that it was not Flinders Island. Some eventually made that journey, but Tongerlongeter was not among them.

Two Kings

King William died from illness on the same day as his namesake in Windsor Castle — June 20 1837.

The two men could scarcely have been more different. One led the largest empire on Earth; the other led a small nation of hunter-gatherers. One dispossessed millions of indigenous peoples; the other determinedly resisted dispossession. One died in the comfort of a lavish castle, the other in a draughty hut on an accursed island far from home.

King William was just a character Tongerlongeter played so his people might have a voice.

If he had anything in common with the British monarch, it was that his death produced a comparable tide of shock and sorrow, albeit confined to a shrinking settlement on a tiny island at the edge of the known world.

Remembrance and The Black War

The Black War, as everyone at the time understood, was just that — a war. Yes, it was a small guerrilla war, but so were most wars throughout history. It’s impossible to overstate its significance for Tasmania and its peoples. The impacts of subsequent wars pale by comparison, and yet these overseas conflicts and their heroes monopolise our commemorative spaces.

How can this be? Almost all those who fought alongside Tongerlongeter were killed in action — not as helpless victims, but as warriors. Theirs was the most effective frontier resistance campaign in Australian history, killing at least 182 invaders and wounding another 176. No less intimidating were their efforts to sabotage the invasion by spearing thousands of sheep and cattle, and burning dozens of homes and crops.

And the impact of their resistance was felt beyond Tasmania. Governor Arthur later wrote it had been “a great oversight that a treaty was not […] made with the natives”, and a chastened Colonial Office took steps not to repeat that mistake. New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi, for instance, was due in no small part to Tongerlongeter and his warriors, who taught the British Empire a lesson in the true cost of “free land”.

Tongerlongeter should be recognised as one of our nation’s greatest war heroes. He should be celebrated by politicians and school children alike, and yet almost no one has ever heard of him.

Tongerlongeter showed the “extreme devotion to duty” and “self-sacrifice” that would later make a soldier eligible for the Victoria Cross. He and his warriors fought year after year in the face of staggering odds.

It’s not that these heroes should receive posthumous medals, but they should receive the respect accorded to those who do. Their skin was black, and they wore no uniform, but if the men and women who sacrificed everything in defence of their country do not exemplify our highest virtues, then who does?

It is an Australian quirk that we don’t officially commemorate or memorialise our frontier wars or those who fought in them. When contrasted against memorials to overseas campaigns, this sends a stark message: our country values these foreign conflicts more than those fought on this country, for this country. And it implies our war heroes are all white.

The Time Has Come

Other countries are far ahead of us in this regard.

A statue of the Chilean Mapuche leader Caupolicán has commanded an imposing position in the centre of Santiago since 1910. Samuel Sharpe, the leader of the Jamaican slave rebellion, was declared a national hero in 1975. And outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s government recently erected a 15-metre bronze statue of indigenous guerrilla fighter Juana Azurduy.

Momentum for commemoration in Australia is building. Aboriginal community groups and elders, with the support of RSL Tasmania, Reconciliation Tasmania and the Hobart City Council, are planning to install a Black War memorial in Hobart’s Cenotaph precinct. When erected, it will be the first of its kind in Australia.

Tongerlongeter and many other heroes of The Black War are buried at the Wybalenna Cemetery on Flinders Island. But rather than being overlooked by an impressive memorial, only thistles adorn their unmarked graves. How Aboriginal people are commemorated or memorialised is the prerogative of their descendants, but admiration for warriors like Tongerlongeter has the potential to transcend race, culture and creed.

This article was originally published by The Conversation.

— About Dr Nicholas Clements! Dr Clements completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 2013. His research explores traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal culture, and the conflict between Aborigines and settlers on the Tasmanian frontier between 1803-1842.

[halsteadproperty]

Spotlight Series: Best Art Galleries in NYC

Curated by Our Halstead Agents

New York City is known for its wide range of cultural diversity and history. From music to food, to art, the city is enriched with extraordinary art exhibits. The famous museums on the Upper East Side are the mainstream venues for art enthusiasts, but there are many more high-end galleries around NY that go overlooked. Whether it is emerging, established or historical, our Halstead agents gave their high-end recommendations in what is known to be a very stratified art world.  

Sargent’s Daughter

179 E Broadway, Manhattan, NY 10002

Lower East Side

A spunky little art gallery on the Lower East Side, Sargent’s Daughter offers a relaxing environment specializing in portraits and contemporary artists who are working in traditional styles. Agent Ante Jakic labels the gallery as super exquisite and loves the minimalist backdrop for its diverse rotating exhibitions.  

(Recommended by Ante Jakic of our Park Avenue office)

Sara Kay Gallery

4 East 2nd St, New York, NY 10003      

East Village

At the crossroads of NoHo, The Bowery and The Lower East Side, set in a 19th century townhouse in the East Village, Sara Kay Gallery is known for its support of female artists and historical movements. “The gallery serves as a meeting place for critical dialogue, collaboration and community building offering events, workshops, panels as well as an annual working artist’s residency for a female artist within the space,” agent Victoria Vinokur says.

(Recommended by Victoria Vinokur of our Park Avenue office)

Pierogi Gallery

155 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002 Lower East Side

Originally founded in 1994 in Williamsburg, Pierogi Gallery relocated to the Lower East Side in 2016 and continues to stand with the rest of the region’s cutting-edge galleries. “Pierogi features the work of emerging and mid-career artists in an eclectic range of media,” explains agent Andrea Ryder. From the conceptual drawings of Mark Lombardi to the multi-media works of Jonathan Schipper, and the dynamic large-scale paintings of Yoon Lee, to the panoramic and filmic drawings of Dawn Clements, this gallery offers award-winning artists.

(Recommended by Andrea Ryder of our Bedford Stuyvesant office)

Pioneer Works

159 Pioneer St, Red Hook, NY 11231

Brooklyn

“A small but powerful creation in Brooklyn,” agent Jared Goodloe says. This art gallery has a wide range of modern art to live demonstrations. The gallery features art for all pallets that sparks creativity and conversation. Most recent installations is for the lovers of music with an installation from Shuta Hasunuma. The best part is it is FREE of charge and has special nights like Second Sunday. 

(Recommended by Jared Goodloe of our Park Slope office)

Art In FLUX

1961 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd 118th St, New York, NY 10026

Harlem

“Art In FLUX is a unique, sort of renegade arts group working in upper Manhattan showcasing uptown artists and putting art in public spaces,” explains agent Karen A. Gastiaburo. Currently, Art in FLUX has an installation of artist-designed windows on a construction site in Harlem, a couple of outdoor sculptures in Inwood Hill Park and a mural installation at 70 West 139th Street. “I love how they support artists from the community and put artwork in places where everyone can enjoy it,” Karen says.

(Recommended by Karen A. Gastiaburo of our Harlem office)

Gitler &_____

3629 Broadway, New York, NY 10031

Harlem  

An ever-changing exhibit in trendy Hamilton Heights. Since the summer of 2014, Gitler & ____ has been one of the few commercial galleries in uptown Manhattan. “The small gallery regularly rotates exhibitions, showing a wide variety of art by artists from the world over—a wide range of mediums from photos to sculptures to paintings,” says agent Vivian Ducat. The Gallery also produces events, dance performances, concerts, readings, and is an organizer of various public art projects including the acclaimed Audubon Mural Project.

(Recommended by Vivian Ducat of our Harlem office)

Suknovic

Suknovic, a Tribeca studio on Franklin Street, is home to critically acclaimed artist Miljan Suknovic – who is very immersed in NYC real estate. During his time in the industry, agent Grigor Licul has gotten to know Miljan quite well. Miljan’s large scale work adorn lobbies of the World Trade Center and R. Livingston Beeckman Mansion, among others. His work is displayed on a regular rotation at most of Silverstein Properties’ building lobbies. “His home serves as a gallery space where he meets visitors and treats them to a glass of wine. It’s a very interesting and immersive experience that differs from a typical high-end gallery,” Licul explained.

(Recommended by Grigor Licul of our East Side office)

[definewine]

Pig in the House Shiraz named Best Organic Wine

The 2016 Pig in the House Shiraz ($25) has been awarded the highest honours for an organic wine at Thursday night’s 2017 Royal Melbourne Wine Show awards. 

The wine was awarded the Trophy for the Best Organic or Biodynamic Wine of the Show, along with a Gold Medal (96/100) in its class.

“This is a great honour at such a prestigious wine show,” said Pig in the House owner and Vigneron Jason O’Dea. “The real reward for us is to be farming organically knowing that we have a sustainable business, producing quality wine at the highest level.”

“I have to say a big thanks to my family who have encourageed me along the way to persist with organic farming.  There is certainly more knowledge about organic winegrowing now then there was 21 years ago when we started the business.”

“It is really exciting to see the various parcels of both conventional and organically Shiraz arriving at the winery each vintage,” explained winemaker Anthony D’Onise. “We are definitely finding there is higher quality fruit coming from the organic vineyards year on year. This then flows through to the wine.”

“Winemaking of the organic fruit stems from the vineyard and we work on letting the specific attributes of the vineyard sing. We expose the wine to only minimal oak influence with the aim having a well-balanced wine.

“Fruit purity is our goal. It drives wines such as the Pig in the House wines. We find any change to the wine is best done by focusing our work in the vineyard.”

“This is the best way to celebrate Pig in the House’s 21 anniversary,” continued Jason. “It has been a lot of hard work, but the pay back in quality has increased exponentially over the past few years. We have received more than our fair share of accolades recently which is testament to the work that the vineyard and winemaking team have put in.”

Pricing:     

2016 Pig in the House Shiraz (Organic,     Biodynamic)                                         $25.00

Distribution:    

Distributed in Victoria by Michael Gow at Raw Wine & Beer on 0412 100 801

Distributed in NSW by Sam Biddle at Verasion Wines on 0459 990 049

Distributed in ACT by Rob Wilson at Rob’s wines on 0425 768 384

Distributed In Blue Mountains and Central West by Jeff Clements Western Regional Wines on 0400 888 111

For further information, images or samples please contact:  

David Cumming at Define Wine Marketing & Communications on 0414 736 342 or david@definewine.com.au

Jason O’Dea at Pig in the House wines on 02 6344 3264 or jason@windowrie.com.au

PIG IN THE HOUSE is a boutique vineyard owned by Jason O’Dea and his wife Rebecca. The Pig in the House began conversion to organic practices in 2001 after the couple moved into an old house that sits amongst the vines and once housed a number of free range pigs. Jason has a wealth of viticultural experience, being part of the O’Dea family that owns Windowrie Estate, one of Cowra’s oldest winemaking families.  The organic move by the O’Dea family was inspired by the proximity of their home to the vineyard. “With our kids running around in the vineyard, the preference for organics was a logical step.  We’re farmers and love nothing more than being out on the property with the family. It was a lifestyle choice firstly, and having seen the health of the soil and vines, is now a quality decision,” explained Jason.

[bleudechauffe]

💙💙💙 @craftedparis ・・・ Hi workers, Today my lovely victoria takes over with a look inspired by the military universe. Volumes are really cool, what do you think? Have a nice day, Clement. 💙💙💙💙💙 Eclair Bag : @bleudechauffe x @blitzmotorcycles Tank Top : @uniqlo Bandana : @clutchmagazinejapan Oxford Shirt : @spellbound_jeans​ M51 Skirt : @workware_hongkong All Star 70' "Hand Dyed" Indigo : @converse #converse #allstar #denimhead #heritage #workwear #ootd #paris #style #fashion #redwing #leatherjacket #myredwings #redwings #redwingshoes #denimporn #selvedge #selvage #denim​ #selvage #stylegram #outfitoftheday #indigo #rawdenim #outfit #styleoftheday

[nsula]

Spring 2017 Honor Roll

NATCHITOCHES – Nine hundred and eight-seven students were named to the Spring 2017 Honor Roll at Northwestern State University. Students on the Honor Roll earned a grade point average of between 3.0 and 3.49. Those named to the Honor Roll listed by hometown are as follows.

 Abbeville ­– Kyle Baudoin, MaKayla Lewis, Ericka Smith;

 Aimwell – Jonathan Poole;

 Alexandria – Alecia Alford, Aaron Beauboef, Brandi Beaudoin, Ariyana Bonton, Irisia Cayton, Joshua Dorsey, William Faubion, Kayla Foxworth, Maeghan George, Natasha Guidry, Mallory Halford, Tara Hall, Rochelle Holmes, Tataniessa Jackson, Amber Jeansonne, Tadriel Jones, Kennedy Matthews, Dean Mayeux, Paige Meynard, Kellie Pebbles, Imani Ricks, Taylor Scarber, Kirstyn Thomas, Brea Thompson, Lessie Walters, Timothy Waters, William Welch, Destinie White, Samantha Wynn, Jenna Wade, Jordan Berlin, Timmaney Kennedy;

 Allen, Texas – Jordyn Warren;

 Anacoco – Jacob Bennett, Meghan Blanton, Reese Buzzell, Alysia Copen, Angela Guy, Karlee Laurence, Terah McClintock, Justin Owens, Cayla Roberts, Deanna Sennett;

 Angie – Daneisha Rayford;

 Arcadia –Ruby Richie, Kaneshia Walker;

 Arnaudville – Bailey Dautreuil, Zachary Leboeuf;

 Atlanta – Lilith Choate, Morgan Williams;

 Austin, Texas – Ysmina Smith;

 Azle, Texas – Alexandra Furtney;

 Baker – Abilgail Martin, Kendrick Shavers;

 Ball – William Kilpatrick, Alice Wilson;

 Baton Rouge – Maisyn Guillory, Madison Harris, Lewis Johnson, Tremia Lockett, Kelia Rowan, Victoria Simmons, Reagan Smith, Andrew Vessel;

 Beaumont, Texas – Andrew Bluiett;

 Bedford, Texas – Jaquanda Quinney;

 Belmont – Brendan Gentry, Tristian Ponder;

 Bentley – Matthew Bowen;

 Benton – Tanner Ash, Dominick Castellani, Adam Fowlkes, Danny Hatcher, Christopher Heard, Jarnee Hunter, Tristan Shelley;

 Blaine, Wash. –Michael Gregg;

 Bogalusa – Kari Fisher;

 Bossier City – Desiree Anderson, Austin Averitt, Abigail Barkley, Tonya Barnes, Breanna Black, Mickayla Blue, Lacy Chism, Tanner Church, Shelby Couch, Callie Crockett, Marda David, Sharonda Demars, Loni Edgar, DeMontre Evans, Matthew Flynn, Bailey Freeman, Kelsey Gallman, Jacob Guest, Andrea Haynes, Anton Inyakov, Dejaney Jackson, Emily Larosee, April Lebick, Danielle Lombardino, Kelsea Long, Dawnya Lopez, Jasmine Lynch, Kasey McClain, Caroline McKee, Sarah McMillan, Andrea Parks, Kennedy Parson, Brittani Phillips, Hope Spaw, Kortney Toellner, Madalyn Watson, Vivian Harper, Whitney Guidry;

 Bourg – Micaiah Richie;

 Boyce – Sammetta Allen, Seth Baggett, John Carley, Sheterica Fields, April Franklin, Kortney Lashley, Timothy Miller, Bobbie Suttles, Adrianne Vallee;

 Breaux Bridge – Ciera Bonvillian, Lyia Miller-Singleton, Ashtin Mouton, Jordan Breaux;

 Brentwood – Joe Tappel;

 Broussard – Taylor Campbell, Tyla Richard, Natalie Woods;

 Brusly – Emma Wallace;

 Bunkie – Zachary Reynolds, Izola Williams;

 Burleson, Texas – Brendan Raincrow;

 Callisburg, Texas – Maycy English;

 Calvin – Caitlin McCarty;

 Campbell – Caidon Campbell;

 Campti – Zachary Friday, Kortney Horton, Destiny Potts, Amy Silas, Dorianna Telsee, Brittney Arnold;

 Carencro – Jeff Soulis, Harold Williams;

 Cartagena, Colombia – Sebastian Alfaro Fontalvo, Carlos Camargo Patron, Edwin Castro Frias, Carlos Lambis-Mondol, Victor Lopez Ramos, Jair Morelos Castilla, Romulo Osorio Herrera, Daniel Racero Rocha, Natalia Zapata Yonoff, Alejandro Dager Carrasquilla, Valeria Perez Espinosa, Oscar Sanchez-Luna;

 Carville – Megan Tallo;

 Castor – Hogan Nealy, Kendall Wallace;

 Cedar Hill, Texas – Timmis Bonner;

 Centerville – Ryan Wade;

 Charlotte, N.C. – Ciera Jenkins;

 Chauvin – Madison Ball, Haley Neal;

 Cheyneyville – Fontana Mitchell;

 Chesapeake, Va. – Chandler Monk;

 Chopin – Sadie Delrie, Dakota Nichols;

 Church Point –Meghan Bearb;

 Clarence – Mayshonna Bayonne;

 Cleburne – Zachary Perry;

 Clifton – Ashley Neal;

 Cloutierville – Alexia Gistarb;

 Coffeyville, Kan. –Emily McCoach;

 Colfax – Peyton Fitzhugh, Wuanicia Kirts, Heather West;

 Colleyville, Texas – David Fry;

 Columbia – Tyker Duchesne;

 Concourson – Chloe Grimaud;

 Converse – Jared Jagneaux, Victoria Walker;

 Corinth, Texas – Madison Walford;

Cottonport –Rachel Lemoine, Kelsey Duskin;

 Coushatta – Dustin Allen, Dillon Foshee, Trevor Hunt, Barbara Johnson, Lajustice Johnson, Tawanda Johnson, Tristen Jones, Aston Lester, Allison Longino, De’Condria Smith, Mikailah Smith, John Squires, Callie Tucker, Treaure Wilson Christopher Grigg;

 Convington – Haley Helm;

 Crowley – Brianna Oliver, Tayla Soileau;

 DeQuincy – Daniel Killian;

 DeRidder – Amie Ashworth, Crystal Smith, Lauren Taylor, Phillip Borel, Kortney Broussard, Jesse Fruge, Bambi Hardesty, Brittney March, Jessica McManus, Christa McCormick, Summer Thomas, Samantha Underbakke, Mandy Wilson, Siaerphin Wolfe, Tia Youngblood, Marcel Bilbo, Breanne Brauer, Jared Heard, Michael Keeper, Nathaniel Perkins;

 Deer Park, Texas – Patrick McDonald;

 Delhi – Saniah Parker;

 Denham Springs – Samantha Burgess, Caleb Callender, Ross Dougherty;

 Derry – Viola Roque;

 Desoto, Texas – Nicholas Forde;

 Destrehan – Ashley Wolf, Jessica Dealminana;

 Deville – Kealee Anderson, Mikayla Brown, Logan Laprarie, Amber Powell;

 Dobson – Melanie Thomas;

 Dodson – Courtney Booker, Catherine Roberts;

 Donaldsonville – Rikki Bergeron, Diante Phillip;

 Downsville – Kyle Otwell;

 Doyline – Patsy Carter, Lucas Darbonne, Joshua Kirkhart, Whitney Vollmer;

 Dry Prong – Megan Alwell, Ashley Burch, Ariana Christopher;

 Edmond, Okla. – Jayzen Boger, Asher Van Meter;

 Elizabeth – Hanna LaCaze, Sadie Perkins;

 Elmer – Victoria Coleman, Brennan Mays, Tula Newman, Hanna Winegeart;

 Eunice – Sarah Arnaud, Tammy Richard;

 FPO, AP, Calif. ­– Amber Travis;

 Flatwoods – Stephanie Willis;

 Florien – Tyler Johnson, Bailey McCleary, Jacob Oxley, Ashton Remedies, Calli Robertson, Adara Sims, Shayna Tilley;

 Forest Hill – Anna Doherty, Halle Lawson, Claudia Marie Musgrove, Melissa Ortis-Nava, Celina Thrasher;

 Fort Polk –Jasmine Brumfield, Ashleigh Foxworth, Jenica Alexis Smithee, Shiela May Tabonares, Kokou Tounou;

 Fort Smith, Ark. – Virginia Cesario, Angelica Valdez;

 Franklin – Ajaysia Moton, Sarah Sonnier, Brandon Ware;

 Fresno, Texas – Shalandrea Martin;

 Frierson – Jamie Russell;

 Gainesville, Fla. – Hayden Hayes;

 Garland, Texas – Dan Nguyen;

 Glenmora – Megan Delrie, Kerstyn Johnson;

 Goldonna – Brandon Smith;

 Gonzales – Haley Genovese, Bryn Hughes, Ivan Longoria, Corley Payne, Jamien Sampson, Jennifer Enloe;

 Grand Cane – Carla Crawford, Jaylen McIntyre, Mary Weeks;

 Gray – Triston Johnson, Austin Pierre;

 Greenwell Springs – Jamie Brooks, Natalie Waker, Katherine Langlois;

 Greenwood – Chantez Ashley, Leah Evans, Branden Savell, Nekidra Turner, Malory Jeter;

 Gretna – Rebecca Lefante, Donquel Sullen, Siera Sutton;

 Hamburg – Randy Gaspard;

 Hammond – Rachel Hogan;

 Joshua Wahlder – Harahan;

 Harlingen – Frances Knight;

 Harvey – Destiny Johnson, Lauren Lewis;

 Hattiesburg, Miss. – John Carter Sanner;

 Haughton – Kelsy Baker, Arneshia Brooks, Luke Johnson, Karim Karkar, Sydney MacFarlane, Samantha McGee, Kody Patterson, Hannah Robertson, Skylar Vaughn, Shannon Walls, Christopher Webb, Gage Woodburn;

 Hempstead, Texas – Joshua Roberts;

 Hessmer –Damaryon Lee;

 Homer – Ashley Hollenshead;

 Hornbeck –Braley Browning, Kynlee Coleman, Logan Hughes;

 Houma – Gavin Bergeron, Chase Hawthorne, Jenna Labat, Jessica Thibodeaux;

 Houston, Texas – Brooke Bourbonais, Stephanie Hall, Tuyet Nhi Nguyen;

 Humble, Texas – Esdeina Gonzalez, Matthew Valdez, TreVan Evans;

 Huntsville, Ala. – Phillip Sampson;

 Jacksonville, Texas – Shahd Abboud;

 Jamestown – James Moss, Dustin Ramsey, Ieshia Thomas;

 Jeanerette – Namosha Rhine, Cedric Paul, Kimyana Teno;

 Jefferson – Emily Ricalde, Samantha Rohr;

Jena – Gracie Creel, Tara Johnston, Brittani Pritchard, Kayla Robertson;

 Jennings – Dylan Bergeron, Claire Clement, Mallory Martinez, Ethan Smith;

 Jonesboro – Niewesley Booker;

 Jonesville – Kayla Ainsworth, Brandon Cage, Sidney Spinks, JaMarcus Wilkerson;

 Kaplan – Chris Hebert;

 Katy, Texas – Timothy Winders;

 Keithville – Tabitha Bolding, Sabreea Chatman, Amanda Cross, Emily Elliott, Audrey Ellzey, Taylor Hughes, Haley May, Hannah May, Erin McDonnell, Jerry Parks, Maya Porter, Cora Procell;

 Keller, Texas – Cayla Klinger;

 Kenner – Willie Soniat;

 Kerens, Texas – Eric Guerra, Cody James;

 Kiev, Ukraine – Iryna Vardanian;

 Kinder – Kelsey Frank, Katlyn Lavergne;

 Kingwood, Texas – Alexandria Bailey;

 Lafayette – Bryce Hernandez, Hudson Laborde, JaKayla Lee, Andrew Palmintier, Melissa Pesacreta, Josef Raines, Stuart Suffern, Tylar Senegal, Julia Towry, Qualantre Jackson;

 Lake Charles – Jennifer Arabie, Andrew Darbonne, Demarquise Edwards, Jett Hayes, Amanda Mustian, Sierra Seemion, Alison Thomas, Alexie White Maysen Linscomb;

 Laurel, Miss. – Payton Roney;

 Lecompte – Jacob Harvey, Rondreska Anderson, Katelyn Coburn, Linzey Evans, Daidrion Jason;

 Leesville – Skyler Abrams, Samantha Anable, Katrina Brinson, Theresa Brown, Lyric Bacote, Kaitlyn Connors, Meagan Cooley, Trevor Fox, Stephen Freshley, Maritza Gonzalez, Taylor Helton, Brandon Judd, TeAmara Judkins, Reagan Koury, Amber Martin, Mercedes Mattes, Constance McManus, Kelsea McKinney, Zachery Myers, Rossana Potempa, Linsey Preddy, Jessica Ramirez, Kayla Richards, Rachel Smith, Taylor Smith, Payton Soto, Samantha Thomas, Oscar Thompson, Kasci Toups, Chelsea Welch, Ashlan Stephens;

 Lena – Bridget Goff, Jessica Gorum, Brandon Guin, Justin Williams;

 Libuse – Alysia Hawthorne;

 Lisbon – Malcolm Cooper;

 Little Elm, Texas – Hunter Gagnon, Kaitlyn McCullough;

 Livingston – Cody Cambre;

 Logansport – Tiarra Carter, Susannah Cox, Inda Gurley, Charles McClintock, Susan Wheless;

 Longview, Texas – Robdrick Halton, Travis Pope;

 Lumberton, Texas – Joshua Terry;

 Mandeville – Connor Loar, Thomas Marlbrough, Anthony Pastorello, Morgan Stelly;

 Mansfield – LaBrittainy Alleb, Alexus Cannon, Demetri Hill, L’Kirious Lane, Alexis Montgomery, Jason Morgan, Elizabeth Sullivan, Stanley Woodley, Tremeon Allen;

 Mansura – Deaisha Johnson, Distiny Thompson;

 Many – Allison Armstrong, Chancee Branam, Tiffany Ford, Ashley Lafitte, Taylor Leach, Timothy Lewing, Melodie Lovelady, Jenifer Meadows, Tanner Mizell, Arlyssia Perry, Tanner Rains, Tessa Reeves, Jasmine Sweet, Bailey Walker, Janerrica Warfield;

 Maringouin – Heather Chatelain;

 Marksville – Melanie Dauzat, Andria Lachney, Morgan Lemoine;

 Marrero – Chance Creppel, Brittany Diodene, Lauren Guillot, Darielle Hayes;

 Marshall, Texas – Alexis Balbuena, Serdalyer Darden, Payton Ebarb, Amy Hale;

 Marthaville – Madeline Procell;

 Melissa, Texas – Kylah Banasky;

 Metairie – Safieh Azimi, Kathryn Bancroft, Mary Gaffney, Joseph Gordon, Tyler Jacobs, Taylor Jennings, Tyler Jordan, David Sampson;

 Midland, Texas – Savannah Cantwell;

Minden – Kadeem Bailey, Raylicia Dillard, Deohija Henderson, Amanda Rogers, Joshua Wilkins, Christopher Shinall, Abby Greene;

 Minneapolis, Minn. – Bobby Chan-Chan;

 Miramar, Fla. – Shawn Stephens;

 Monroe – David Allen, Courtney Blakes, Taylor Edwards, Emaia Faulkner, Breonna Gibson, Oneka Jackson, Treniya Wadley;

 Montgomery – Miranda Bartlett, Morgan Bartlett, Hannah Vercher;

 Mooreland, Okla. – Gunner Taylor;

 Mooringsport – Shaylee Sirmons;

 Moreauville – Mylesha Johnson, Payton Miller;

 Morgan City – Lindsay Blair, Norris Duthu, Krystina Pitre;

 Murfreesboro, Tenn. – Samantha Waters;

 Nanteuil, France – Jessy Gautronneau;

 Napoleonville – Logan Simoneaux;

 Nashville, Tenn. – Holly Quach;

 Natchez – Lauren Seawood;

 Natchitoches – Donterica Triplet, Sharlexus Addison, Kwanstan Adkins, Austin Aldredge, James Armstrong, Abbie Atwood, Ashlyn Balthazar, Adam Barnes, Sharne Barnette, Ramon Barralaga, Allison Berry, Thea Berry,  Christopher Billiot, Joanna Boydstun, Simone Brewer, Rachael Bryant, LaKrisha Burrell, Ebone Burton, Corieana Ceaser, Colton Chadick, Leilani Chelette, Michael Chelette, Austin Chester, Emily Coffman, Michael Cozad, William Cromartie, Jacob Dahlhoff, Kenneth Darcy, Joshua Davis, Martha DeBlieux, Jasmine Dilworth, Jessica Escobar, Virginia Falgoust, Keyaira Dumars; Irene Flakes, Matthew Fontenot, Daniela Forrero Salcedo, Mark Gallien, Fernando Gonzalez, Ian Grant, Chardonnay Green, Dallas Guillory, Latoya Hayes, Emily Heard, Amber Holmes, Jesamin Huff, Michael James, Holly Jenkins, Joshua Kaufman, Ricky Lacour, Emily Leone, Kirk Leone, Kainesha Leveston, John Lindsey, Corey Llorence, Abbey Martin, Melaina Martin, Jermeka McBride, Michael McClung, Carlie Miller, Nathalia Miranda Garcia, Taiwania Mitchell, Sarah Moody, Unai Neketan, Karmen O’Connor, Donovan Ohnoutka, Rekeithia Pier, Kenneth Poleman, Destinee Roberson, Kayla Salas, Paula Sanchez Luna, Phelan Sewell, Anna Smith, Nicholas Smith, Patrick Smith, Brianna Stelly, Theresa Stelly, Bethany Straub, Harrison Thomas, Kiara Charles, Anastasia Thompson, Kaleb Usleton, Ebony Vaughn, Fierra Vaughn, Kristina Vujanic, Matthew Westerfield, Brittany White, Sarah Kay Whitehead, Logan Williams, Jevan Wilson, Lanae Wilson, Donna Cooper, Christine Fuller, Kary-Katharine McCormick, Naloni Walker,

 New Iberia – Bryson Bourque, Sania Dauterive, Krysten Freyou, Khantisha Grayson, Madison Romero;

 New Llano – Crystal Blum, , Faith Toups;

 Newellton – Chasity Glasspoole;

 New Orleans – Zoe Almaraz, Brandon Demas, Karrington Johnson, Teia Jones, Carolyn Marks. Diane Nguyen, Tayla Oliver, Don’Keitia Swayne;

 Newnan, Ga. – Samantha Sims;

 Newton, Texas – Savanna Simmons;

 Noble ­– LeeAnna Ebarb, Savannah Jordan, Alexandria Warner;

 Oakdale – Destani Johnson, Marvette Williams;

 Oil City – Maegan Allborty;

 Olla – Morgan Barbo, Meghan Knight;

 Opelika, Ala. – Ceaser Stephens;

 Opelousas – Destiny Arceneaux, Kierra Doucet, Shaquanna Gallow, Desiree Lewis, Shelley Perksin, Kayla Pitre, Zoei Sonnier, Courtney Tatmon;

 Orange, Texas – Hunter Uzzle;

 Orlando, Fla. – Dalene Mathieu;

 Otis – Sabrina Thiels;

 Oxon Hill – Tamara Slaughter;

 Palm Harbor – Mackenzie Geier;

 Paris, Texas – Jordan Whatley;

 Pearland, Texas – Tanisha Williams;

 Pelican – Tabetha Caldwell;

 Pensacola, Fla. – Amyris Anderson;

 Picayune, Miss. – Katie LeBlanc;

Pickerington, Ohio – Zachary Gorman;

 Pineland, Texas – Desmond Lacey;

 Pineville – Charles Anderson, Dustie Bridges, Rylee Choate, Glory Deaton, Halie Ducote, Katelan Gossett, Amanda Hinson, Trequan Joseph, Jessica King, Samantha Louie, Michael Marino, Ameera Ghannam, Erica Raines, Samuel Hebert, Jasmine Overgaard, Brittany Shackleford, Glynn Sillavan, Chloe Solomon, Evan Stuckey, Suzanne Thompson, Brandon Timmon, Caitlyn Touchet, Carly Touchet, David Veal, Emily Wiley, Steven Wimberly, Patricia Jason;

 Pioneer – Kayla Rockett;

 Pitkin – Braydon Doyle, Emily Hardisty, Madison McDonald, Emily Odom;

 Plain Dealing – Jennifer Clarkston;

 Plaucheville – Matthew Armand;

 Pleasant Hill – Emily Walker;

 Pollock – Anna Armstrong, Tanner Brazil, Kari Taffi;

 Port Allen – Kennedy Cullen, Evan Daigle, James Fairchild;

 Port Orange, Fla. – Sean Logan;

 Prairieville – Colleen Carline, Claire Credeur, Samantha Daigle, Otha Nelson, Caleb Ricca, Dwight Robinette, Mikayla Tudor;

 Princeton – Searra Anweiler, Keeleigh Bennett, Jasmine Jackson, Tricia Malone, Ty Shilling, Chelsea Morris;

 Provencal – Andrea Farrell, Jamie Litton, Derek Toro;

 Purvis, Miss. – Carter Hankins;

 Rayne – Cameron Desselle, Dannie Harmon, Jacquanna Steiner;

 Richton, Miss. – Kalen Meggs;

 Ridgecrest – Jackie Coates;

 Ringgold – Regan Edwards, Miracle Mays;

 River Ridge – Taylor McCardle;

 Robeline – Kelcey Dubois, Willie Garcia, Patricia Goodwin, Alyssa Maley, Angela Mitchell, Kacy Morace, Taylor Morgan, Brittany Woodell

 Rockwall, Texas – Kari Runnels;

 Rogers, Ark. – Taylor Bush;

 Rosepine – Angela McClelland, Nikole Morris;

 Rosharon, Texas – Whitney Washington;

 Ruston – Tiffany Coleman;

 Saint Amant – Bryn Edmonston;

 Saint Martinville – Malik Anthony, Chaselyn Lewis; Destiny Simon, Maleik White;

 Saline – Makayla Jackson, Isabella Jones, Aaron Savell, Ashley Tisdale;

 San Antonio – Anthony Renteria;

 San Pedro Sula, Cortes – Jose Bustillo Aguero;

 Santa Fe, Texas – Micaela Bouvier;

 Savannah, Ga. – Larry Johnson;

 Scott – Joy Trahan;

 Scurry, Texas – Rebecca Blackshear;

 Searcy, Ark. – Lora Wood;

 Shongaloo – Laci Roberts;

 Shreveport – Alana Adams, Elizabeth Antee, Baylee Aultman, Kennedi Baylor, Tylar Bedford, Brionne Blanche, Joe Bradley, Desean Britton, Ashley Brokenberry, Jasmine Brown, Krysten Cahanin, Rikkia Ceaser, Jordan Chance, Cameron Coleman, Tyra Cooper, Derienne Copeland, Tyler Cummings, Tristine Czaska, Taylor Davis, Shalanda Duncan, Elijah Durr, Sarah Elbert, Rebecca Glorioso, Tiffany Gomez, Ashleigh Grace, Tiffany Greggs, Christion Hall, Jennifer Hardey, Taylor Harkins, Kari Harris, Jessica Hartline, Jacob Hattaway, Mariah Hester, Maya Hooks, RaTonya Howard, Elizabeth Huff, Aubrey Hullaby, Brittney Jackson, Katherine Jaynes, Thomas Jaynes, Brittany Jefferson, Jada Johnson,  Charlecia Jones, Kiera Jones, Lajarious Jones, Jason Joshua, Alicia King, Akilah Lewis, Keydran Little, Brianna Mason, Fred McClure, Acquiria Mitchell, Jasmine McConnell, Brandon Melancon, Jessie Miller, Lavelle Mitchell, Arielle Moore, Maria Ogletree, Kendrick Payne, TreSor Pennington, Tierra Perry, Rikell Quintero, Kendall Reeves, Lillian Reynolds, Mollie Reynolds, Carribean Richardson, Jasmine Roberts, Lawson Scott, Fredicka Seawood, Catherine Shaw, Kaylin Smith, Khandice Smith, Latrice Smith, Shelby Sowers, Rashima Stewart, Morgan Strickland, Khalil Sumlin, Jordan Taylor, Albert Tuiel, Rhiannon Venable, Shelbie Waltman, De’Andra Washington, Jayla Washington, Brattany Waters, Celte Weaver, Victoria Whaley, Aljata Williams, Lana Williams, Joseph Zaia, Kassidee Kennedy, Alexis Mason Latravia Mosley, Chekayah Samuel;

 Sibley – Madison Mouserl

 Sicklerville, N.J. – Amy Talorowski;

 Sieper – Joseph Fowler;

 Silsbee, Texas – Carson Fuller;                                              

 Simmesport – Taylor McBroom;

 Simpson – Christina Snider;

 Slaughter – Brittany Brown;

 Slidell – Robert Carter, Kierston Jackson, Isabel Melhado;

 St. Francisville – Kaitlyn Lastrapes, Kathleen Morse;

 St. James – Kaitlin Cayette;

 Starks – Melina Royer;

 Stockton, Calif. – William Mafi;

 Stonewall – Alexa Barron, Emily Cecil, Hailey Compton, Amber Freeman, Kelsey Garsee, Mallory McConathy, Emily McConell, Colby Orr, Madison Parker, Alicia Phelps, Kirsten Sanders;

 Sunset – Lauren Pope;

 Tallulah – Christian Cobb;

 Tampa, Fla. – Ryan Woehlert;

 Theriot – Leeanne Whitney;

Thibodaux – Gabrielle Dantoni, Terrance Johnson, Landon Oliver;

 Tickfaw – Alexis Hughes;

 Trout – Kalee McGuffee, Andrea Walters;

 Tulsa, Okla. – Kaihe Fisher;

 Tyler, Texas  – Austyn Fendrick;

 Vacherie – Tameeka Ross;

 Van

 Ville Platte – Regan Hazleton;

 Van Alstyne, Texas  – Kevin Hendricks;

 Vidalia – Sydney Gillespie, Khalia Harris, Charles Johnson;

 Ville Platte – Steven Smithl

 Vinton – Alayna Zaunbrecher;

 Violet – Demetrius Boulieu;

 Vivian – Emily Holley;

 Waggaman – Miranda Beck-Bird;

 Wake Village, Texas – Michaela Johnson;

 Waskom – Shelby McNeil, Kendall Perot;

 Wellington, Fla. – Carlos Lopez Lagoa;

 Welsh – Jordan Durio, Katherine Salassi;

 West Monroe – Michael Dailey, Beyonca Dickens, Austin Dodson, Bailey Hargrove, Jasmyn Johnson, Melissa Taylor, Sarah Weir, Christopher Wynn;

 Westwego – Eryn Percle;

 White Oak, Texas – Reagan Praznik;

 Winnfield – Hollie Frederick, Samantha Frederick, Kaitlyn Hines, Branden Jennings, Brooklyn Johnson, Hunter Johnson, Stormie Jordan, Javonti Thomas, Cameron Warren, Katrina County;

 Woodworth – Carolyn Jarvis;

 Youngsville – Blaie Fontenot, Alexys Hebert, Lorin Prejean;

 Ypsilanti, Mich. – Anthony Enos;

 Zachary – Darrul Anderson, Amanda Billeaudeau, Mason Bulot, Ethlel Felder;

 Zwolle – Kamryn Bedsole, Dayton Craig, Jared Fisette, Addison Garcie, Lloyd Gentry, Treveon Perry, Ali Remedies, Breanna Rivers;

[peckhampeculiar]

New pub for Peckham

The Clayton Arms will relaunch under new ownership later this month as a “traditional boozer by south London, for south London”.

New landlord Clement Ogbonnaya is a south-east Londoner who grew up in New Cross Gate. “I went to school at St Thomas the Apostle College and I’ve always eyed up this pub from afar,” he said.

After working for various venues including Paradise By Way of Kensal Green and The Laundry E8, last year he heard the Clayton Arms owner was considering selling up. “I just badgered and badgered and finally in March I bought the pub of my dreams.”

The pub will be renamed Prince of Peckham, a moniker that’s partly inspired by Clement’s love of Peckham-based sitcom Desmond’s and the character Lee “The Peckham Prince” Stanley.

It will be warm and welcoming and a place for the whole community to enjoy. “When I grew up Peckham High Street is what we called the frontline,” Clement said. “It’s the A202, it connects south-east London to Victoria and for me it’s like Peckham’s shop window.

“The whole ethos of the pub is to create a space for old and new Peckham to co-exist and enjoy, because at the end of the day we’re all Peckhamites. It will be a pub for everyone, a place where we can all jam, we can chill, we can share a pint.”

By the time the pub reopens on May 18 it will have a completely new interior, he said. “I’m stripping it all back – I’m taking it back to a traditional boozer, with comfortable seating, a fireplace, lovely wallpaper. It will feel like a home from home.”

Caribbean food specialists White Men Can’t Jerk will run the kitchen and there will be wine, a simple cocktail menu and beer. “We will have craft beer but other beers too,” Clement said. “Red Stripe, Heineken and Kronenburg are really nice beers, and Guinness is a classic.”

The empty space upstairs will be transformed into a lounge bar and live music venue with room for 120 people. “There is a side of Peckham that’s all about the arts, the creatives and the musicians,” Clement said.

“I’ve met with local promoters and DJs and I had a great conversation with a photographer called Russell Newell, who’s been taking photos of Peckham and the inner city since the 1970s. They’re fantastic images and he’s spoken about doing an exhibition upstairs.

“I want to approach Goldsmiths, Camberwell College of Arts, local schools and colleges as well. They’ll be able to take over the space and do whatever they want with it and we’ll just keep it rolling. I’m really excited about it if I’m honest.”

[diarynz]

Rugby: Heartland Championship's third round sees several tryscoring thrillers

New Post has been published on https://diary.nz/rugby-heartland-championships-third-round-sees-several-tryscoring-thrillers/

Rugby: Heartland Championship's third round sees several tryscoring thrillers

West Coast and North Otago continued their unbeaten runs on top of the Mitre 10 Heartland Championship table, but not without clawing their way back from big deficits after the third round was marked by a number of 80 minute thrillers on Saturday.

After last week’s round was split across Friday evening and Saturday afternoon games, most fixtures were back in their regular 2.30pm timeslots, and for Greymouth fans who chose to go to John Sturgeon Park instead of staying home to watch the All Blacks vs Tonga, they got their money’s worth.

Trailing 31-14 at halftime, West Coast engineered a stunning comeback to beat Mid Canterbury 43-41 in a 13-try shootout.

The home side had their first converted try inside of five minutes, but Mid Canterbury dotted down three times to take a 19-7 lead out of the first quarter.

West Coast closed the gap to five points with another seven-pointer, but Mid Canterbury went over two more times before the break, their first-five Corey McKay having converted three of their five tries, to raise a 17-point buffer.

Returning from NZ Heartland XV duties, Mid Canterbury flanker Seta Koroitamana would score a double in the match, as did winger Manasa Bari, who like fullback Matt McAtamney posted tries for the second week in a row.

The visitors would get their sixth try in the second stanza, with McKay converting it plus popping over a penalty, but they were now desperately trying to hold back a red and white tide, as the West Coast came charging home.

The hosts dominated the third quarter with three tries, one converted, to tie the scores up 31-31, and although Mid Canterbury traded tries with West Coast to move back ahead 41-36, the Coasters were good for one more seven pointer.

Sweating on the conversions, the home side used three different kickers as fullback Todd Struthers, centre Sean McClure and first-five Jesse Pitman-Joass all added crucial extras.

Lock Sam Liebezeit scored two tries, having also dotted down last week, while West Coast welcomed home their NZ Heartland reps in captain Troy Tauwhare and second-five Sione Holani to grab five pointers.

Taking maximum points from a match which at one point they looked like getting nothing, West Coast kept the top spot from likewise unbeaten North Otago, who performed their own miraculous comeback for an important North Island tour win, beating Poverty Bay 34-30 in Gisborne.

The home side would lead by ten points at halftime, as they opened the scoring through a penalty from fullback Andrew Tauatevalu, about to have another high-scoring day, as he also got their opening converted try for 10-0.

North Otago closed the gap with first-five Mike Williams dotting down and his proficient goal-kicking halfback Robbie Smith adding the extras, before the teams traded seven pointers through Poverty Bay winger Scott McKinley and visiting No 8 Charles Elton.

In what could have been the decisive moment, Poverty Bay got an automatic seven-point penalty try on halftime when North Otago deliberately knocked the ball down in front of the line.

Not discouraged, North Otago began the second half with a Smith penalty, before Tauatevalu responded in kind for 27-17.

North Otago then kicked it up a gear as centre Clement Gasca scored, with Smith coolly adding the extras and then another penalty to lock up the scores 27-27 with 15 minutes left.

Poverty Bay moved ahead again with Tauatevalu’s third penalty, but North Otago kept coming and who else could be the hero but their local legend Ralph Darling – as the centenarian-capped player and former skipper came off the bench to score the match-winning try in the 76th minute.

Underneath the unbeaten sides, there was considerable movement on the points table, as the teams who picked up their second win from three games made rapid advancement.

After being disappointing last week against King Country in Taupo, Buller welcomed back lock Jeff Lepa and their talisman first-five James Lash from NZ Heartland XV duties, and it was Lash brought the magic again with a penalty 8m in from touch to get his side up 22-21 over a gutted Wanganui at Victoria Square.

Perennial Meads Cup contenders, Wanganui have now dropped their three opening games for the first time in 14 seasons of the Heartland competition.

The visitors started well enough to lead 14-0 as winger Vereniki Tikoisolomone scored two tries, the first coming off a three vs one overlap and then winning the race to the ball after a kick ahead into the same corner.

First-five Craig Clare, back from being the NZ Heartland XV fullback, converted both tries from near touch, and Clare’s absence would be keenly felt after he could not play the second half following an injury to his pectoral muscle.

After a mistake-riddled first half, Buller gave themselves some hope while Wanganui conceded points right on halftime for the third straight game, as home town winger Alex Paterson scored down the short side after buildup from Lash and centenarian-capped halfback Andrew Stephens.

Buller closed up to 14-12 after the break as they put the ball through the hands for the other winger Petaia Saukuru to score, with Lash converting from touch, before Wanganui took advantage of a scrum ball popping out for halfback Lindsay Horrocks to feed his prop Raymond Salu, who dashed 30m under the posts.

Down 21-12 with 15 minutes left and trapped in their own half, Buller needed something and Lash provided it with a quick tap and dash through the defenders to run deep into Wanganui’s 22m, with the ball then spread back towards the middle for second-five Iliesa Ravudra to cross on the other side the posts.

From the kickoff, Wanganui foolishly tried to spread the ball and run out of their own 22m, but got trapped in the ruck near the sideline and Lash raised the flags with his pressure three pointer.

Wanganui had a penalty opportunity of their own on a similar angle approaching injury time, but reserve first-five Dane Whale could not connect.

James Lash was the hero again for Buller in their one-point win over Wanganui in Westport.

Their second home win was not quite enough to move Buller into the top four, as Thames Valley continued to shake off their shock start from the Poverty Bay loss to pick up a comfortable 43-15 win over a brave East Coast in the early 12.50pm kickoff match in Paeroa.

In the battle between the defending Meads Cup champions and winless wooden-spooners, Thames Valley made a swift start to lead 17-0 after the first quarter, but the visitors hung tough to get their three unconverted tries on either side of halftime to close the gap to 24-15 after 42 minutes.

However, Thames Valley, playing without NZ Heartland XV captain Brett Ranga, stayed composed to run in three more tries, converting two, while keeping East Coast from their second bonus point in as many games.

Bay of Plenty import second-five Danny Kayes picked up a double, as did returning NZ Heartland XV winger Harry Lafituanai, while flanker Laulea Mau, promoted into the starting XV, scored for the second game in a row.

After his Heartland record-equalling seven penalties against Wanganui, this time first-five Regan Crosland just had to kick three conversions.

The visitors five-pointers came from second-five Tawhao Stewart, flanker and captain Hone Haerewa, and winger Epeli Lotawa to follow up last weekend’s fine try.

South Canterbury have also shaken off their stumbling start, while Horowhenua-Kapiti will need to go away and have a rethink, as the Lochore Cup champions were smashed 57-7 in Timaru.

The visitors welcomed back all four of their NZ Heartland XV reps into the starting lineup, but they fell apart in the third quarter as South Canterbury raced away for 38 points in 20 minutes, with Horowhenua-Kapiti having a man in the sinbin at that time.

South Canterbury had led 12-0 at the break through tries by fullback Zac Saunders, for the second week, and flanker Cam Russell, with Theo Davidson adding a conversion before he would make way for returning NZ Heartland XV halfback Willie Wright, coming on at halftime.

Wright would kick with 100 per cent accuracy for six conversions, plus a penalty, as his side went roaring into the head wind in the second stanza.

Tries came from the other Heartland XV returnee in Kalavini Leatigaga, winger Clarence Moli to follow up last week’s double, along with Joel Smith and Solomone Iavaka.

A seven-point penalty try added to Horowhenua-Kapiti woes.

Both team’s ran on their benches for the final quarter, where the visitors finally got a reply converted try from centre Junior Laioifi off a kick and chase, although the home side had the last word when prop Tokomaata Fakatava dotted down.

And after playing in a prime time televised match under the big lights of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium last week, Wairarapa Bush were back home in Masterton and pulled out a 37-31 win over King Country in another high try-scoring thriller.

On their fast-running artificial turf, Wairarapa Bush score 15 unanswered points to start and would then take a 25-14 lead into halftime, before King Country came charging back with two more tries to lead 26-25 with quarter of an hour remaining.

It would be an eventful 15 minutes, as the home side scored to regain the advantage, and then seemed to have sealed the match with a converted try for 37-26 in the 72nd minute. However, King Country went hunting from the kickoff and gave themselves a chance with their fifth try to close back to within six points with four minutes left.

The home squad held out, despite the squad missing a few injured players, with skilful winger Tristan Flutey getting a double to make it three tries in two home games, while Brendon Campbell came off the bench to also get a brace.

King Country’s tries were shared around the park through No 8 Chulainn Mabbett-Sowerby, lock Josh Balme, second-five Brad Armstrong, winger Tayne Tupaea and reserve Alex Thrupp.

Tristan Flutey runs in one of his two tries in Wairarapa Bush’s narrow win over King Country in Masterton.

Results, Week 3.

Buller 22 (Alex Paterson, Petaia Saukuru, Iliesa Ravudra tries; J Lash pen, 2 con) bt Wanganui 21 (Vereniki Tikoisolomone 2, Raymond Salu tries; Craig Clare 2 con, Dane Whale con). HT: 14-5 Wanganui.

North Otago 34 (Michael Williams, Charles Elton, Clement Gasca, Ralph Darling tries; Robbie Smith 4 con, 2 pen) bt Poverty Bay 30 (Andrew Tauatevalu, Scott McKinley tries; penalty try; Tauatevalu 3 pen, 2 con). HT: 24-14 Poverty Bay.

South Canterbury 57 (Tokomaata Fakatava, Cam Russell, Joel Smith, Kalavini Leatigaga, Clarence Moli, Zac Saunders, Solomone Iavaka tries; penalty try; Willie Wright pen, 6 con, Theo Davidson con) bt Horowhenua Kapiti 7 (Junior Laioifi try; Ethan Reti con). HT: 12-0.

Thames Valley 43 (Danny Kayes 2, Harry Lafituanai 2, Laulea Mau, Ben Bonnar, Bobby Motuliki tries; Regan Crosland 3 con, Cole Berridge con) bt East Coast 15 (Tawhao Stewart, Hone Haerewa, Epeli Lotawa tries). HT: 24-10.

West Coast 43 (Sam Liebezeit 2, Troy Tauwhare, Sione Holani, Jared Mitchell, Logan Winter, Amenatave Tukana tries; Todd Struthers 2 con, Sean McClure con, Jesse Pitman-Joass con) bt Mid Canterbury (Seta Koroitamana 2, Manasa Bari 2, Matt McAtamney, Jackson Donlan tries; Corey McKay 4 con, pen). HT: 31-14 Mid Canterbury.

Wairarapa Bush 37 (Tristan Flutey 2, Brendon Campbell 2, Johan van Vliet, Ueta Tufuga tries; Tipene Haira pen, con, Tim Priest con) bt King Country 31 (Brad Armstrong, Chulainn Mabbett-Sowerby, Alex Thrupp, Josh Balme, Tayne Tupaea tries; Evaan Reihana 3 con). HT: 25-14.

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[hub-pub-bub]

‘Bringing Together Authors and New Audiences’

The National Book Foundation’s spring NBF Presents lineup of two dozen events comprises sessions in many parts of the United States, all set between January and May.

This is the second season of expanded outreach programming made possible by a three-year $900,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Publishing Perspectives readers will recall the program moving into 10 states in its first season.

This season of NBF Presents—a moniker under which all of the Foundation’s public programs now fall—highlights the foundation’s continued commitment to providing and supplementing national access to literary programming at libraries, colleges, festivals, conferences, schools, and performance venues in a wide range of American communities.

In addition to standalone events bringing foundation-honored authors to new cities for public conversations and panels, the spring season of NBF Presents will include two large events—in Albuquerque and New Orleans—tied to the Foundation’s Author in Focus and Literature for Justice programs.

While the season will see the return of programming with partners in New York, Minnesota, Texas, Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona, and other states, the foundation is also newly partnering with five libraries, five colleges and universities, and four festivals.

In a prepared statement, David Steinberger, chairman of the board of directors of the foundation, is quoted, saying, “For the foundation, the launch of NBF Presents was a promise to continue to think about access to literature and quality literary programming in a truly national way.

“The National Book Awards and the work of the foundation exist to reach beyond any one region and any one type of reader. NBF Presents makes that possible, bringing authors and new audiences together for meaningful discussions around books and the universal themes to which they are able to speak.”

At an NBF Presents event in Albuquerque, where this spring’s program will see a large-scale event. Image: National Book Foundation

Foundtaion-Honored Authors on the Road

As with the fall 2018 season, the spring season will offer conversations on an array of relevant themes to a wide range of communities in regions across the country.

Authors confirmed to appear at NBF Presents events in the spring season include Carol Anderson, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Robin Benway, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jamel Brinkley, Robert A. Caro, Jennifer Clement, Leslie Connor, Sloane Crosley, Charmaine Craig, Anthony Doerr, Casey Gerald, Daniel Gumbiner, Adam Haslett, Brandon Hobson, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Victoria Johnson, Min Jin Lee, Robin Coste Lewis, Karan Mahajan, Rebecca Makkai, Ibram X. Kendi, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Sigrid Nunez, Tommy Orange, Erika L. Sánchez, Sarah Smarsh, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, John Edgar Wideman, Monica Youn, and Kevin Young, with more to be named.

“The National Book Awards and the work of the foundation exist to reach beyond any one region and any one type of reader.” – David Steinberger

Programs will include continued partnerships with Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. These recurring campus events, presented under the program title NBA on Campus in years past and the inspiration for the expanded work through NBF Presents, will take place as part of NBF Presents in 2019.

The NBF Presents lineup also includes a new season of the “Eat, Drink & Be Literary” series, presented since 2006 with the Brooklyn Academy of Music and comprising unique evenings of dinner and conversation with acclaimed contemporary writers. Events tied to two of the foundation’s other programs—Author in Focus: James Baldwin, supported by funding from Velvet Film via the Ford Foundation, and Literature for Justice, made possible by a grant from the Art for Justice Fund—will also be part of the spring season, in Albuquerque and New Orleans.

Since its launch last year, NBF Presents has put an emphasis on working with new partners at a variety of presenting venues, including public libraries able to program around their communities’ audiences and interests. This month at the Tulsa City-County Library, the site of one of the first of the season’s programs, 2017 NBA Winner Robin Benway (Far From the Tree) and Brandon Hobson, an Oklahoma resident and 2018 NBA Finalist (Where the Dead Sit Talking), will delve into themes of family, childhood, and identity, topics which both of their Awards-honored novels address at length.

“Tulsa City-County Library is thrilled to partner with the National Book Foundation to bring authors Robin Benway and Brandon Hobson to Central Library,” said Rebecca Harrison, assistant manager at the central branch of the library. “The NBF Presents program has given our library the opportunity to start a community-wide conversation about fiction and family, with the help of two acclaimed authors.”

Established Partnerships Maintained in Spring Season

The 2019 spring season will continue establishing new partnerships with colleges and universities throughout the country, including an event this month at the Community College of Philadelphia, where 2018 National Book Award longlister Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Heads of the Colored People) and two-time National Book Awards author Adam Haslett (You Are Not a Stranger Here and Imagine Me Gone) as they discuss the vitality of stories that reflect the lives of everyday people, the struggles they face, and how humor can work to reveal deeper truths.

Jeffrey Markovitz, director of the creative writing certificate program at the Community College of Philadelphia, is quoted by the foundation, saying, “The Community College of Philadelphia is excited to welcome National Book Foundation—honored authors to our campus.

“Philadelphia has a rich literary tradition and community, and our students are always enthusiastic to meet and discuss craft with established writers. Such an event gives our students the chance to see where they themselves may be as working writers.”

An updated NBF Presents calendar will soon be available at the Foundation’s site.

At an NBF Presents event in Boston in 2018’s inaugural season. Image: National Book Foundation

More from Publishing Perspectives on the National Book Foundation and its programs is here.

[caveartfair]

Female Artists Are Front and Center on Frieze London’s Opening Day

Julia Scher, Live, Frieze London 2018. Photo by Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Linda Nyland/Frieze.

Of all the works at Wednesday’s VIP opening of the 16th edition of Frieze London, one stood out as being particularly well timed. Six days after Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Cavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school, Andrew Kreps hung in his booth a work by Andrea Bowers that depicts a black woman with each of her hands placed on the shoulders of two men in suits, standing beside her. The men are holding a poster unspooled enough to display two words: “BELIEVE WOMEN.”

Priced at $85,000, it sold in Frieze’s opening hours, the gallery said. And while such a work, created this year, explicitly references the #MeToo movement, the fair as a whole features more booths this year where works by female artists are front and center. This may have been spurred, in part, by the theme of Frieze London’s special curated section called “Social Work,” which is devoted to female artists who have challenged the status quo. But Loring Randolph, Frieze’s artistic director for the Americas, reported that more galleries than usual had independently chosen to bring work by female artists.

Andrea Bowers, Believe Women, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York.

Installation view of Salon 94’s booth at Frieze London, 2018. Courtesy of the gallery.

“There’s more of a female presence throughout the fair,” Randolph said of this year’s edition. (Frieze Art Fair leadership is also predominantly made up of women, with Victoria Siddall serving as director of all four fairs, Joanna Stella-Sawicka as artistic director for Frieze London, and Bettina Korek as the recently appointed executive director for Frieze Los Angeles; Nathan Clements-Gillespie is the artistic director of Frieze Masters.)

Spurred on by the political climate, and by the increased attention paid to the estates of women artists who were mostly ignored by the art market during their lifetimes, galleries and auction houses have become acutely aware of the demand among collectors for art by women, and have responded accordingly. This happened to some extent during Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, when works by Joan Mitchell at several galleries were among the most expensive works sold on the opening day. But at Frieze, the presence of female artists in general appeared more pervasive.

The most prominent example was at the booth of David Zwirner, the entire front of which was stuffed with new work by female artists. Where there was a fairly macho “Gazing Ball” sculpture by Jeff Koons a year ago, this year sat an elegant, undulating red steel sculpture by Carol Bove, entitled Aphorism (2018). It sold in the fair’s first hours for $750,000; another went for $350,000. Lisa Yuskavage’s intimate portrait Couple in Bed (2017) sold for $900,000. A painting by the 83-year-old British artist Rose Wylie sold for £150,000, and a minimalist work by 87-year-old British painter Bridget Riley sold for £600,000.

Couple in Bed, 2017. Lisa Yuskavage David Zwirner

Aphorism, 2018. Carol Bove David Zwirner

James Green, a director at David Zwirner in London, said that his team hadn’t made a conscious effort to place only works by women at the front of the booth (and there are works by Oscar Murillo and Wolfgang Tillmans elsewhere). Rather, they wanted to focus exclusively on fresh-from-the-studio work at Frieze London to contrast with the older works created by male artists, such as Bruce Nauman and Franz West, that anchored the Zwirner booth at Frieze Masters.

“It just so happens that each of the works by the female artists are individually very powerful,” Green said.

A few booths over, Kamel Mennour was presenting the largest-ever work made by Tatiana Trouvé. Called The Shaman (2018), it’s a sculpture of a tree trunk with its roots upturned to face the fairgoer. The tree’s twisted branches extend outward, and the whole thing is partially dunked into a shallow pool of water dotted with pillows cast in marble. At nearly 28 feet long and 25 feet wide, Trouvé’s sculpture took over the entire booth. It quickly became the most-talked-about work at the fair, beating out the giddily berserk Urs Fischer one-two punch at Frieze London’s entrance. (Gagosian was showing a series of three triptychs by Fischer, made from a digital substrate that the artist silkscreened onto mirror-like aluminum panels; Sadie Coles HQ had one of his increasingly ubiquitous wax candle sculptures of art-world figures, which can be melted down and prefabricated by the buyer—this one of the curator Francesco Bonami, who is depicted staring at his iPhone.)

Installation view of Tatiana Trouvé, The Shaman, 2018, at kamel mennour’s booth at Frieze London, 2018. © ADAGP Tatiana Trouvé. Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris/London.

“We always want to do solo booths at Frieze London, and the last four years have been with women artists,” said Kamel Mennour’s Samy Ghiyati. Priced at €650,000, the gallery was still looking for a buyer for The Shaman—one with enough space to house the massive installation—as of Wednesday evening.

At Marian Goodman Gallery, director Rose Lord said that the gallery specifically decided to kick off its newly announced representation of the photographer Nan Goldin at Frieze, and chose several works that highlight Goldin’s feminist gaze and commitment to accurately portraying LGBT subjects—evidenced here by an indelible image of two boys lying atop of each other on Fire Island, with cracked cans of Budweiser strewn about.

“The future is female, as they say,” said Lord, who declined to give any sales figures, per gallery protocol, but did mention that there was a lot of interest.

“It’s a good time to be selling women artists, and Nan Goldin is very well-suited to this moment,” Lord said.

Jimmy Paulette after the parade, NYC, 1991. Nan Goldin Marian Goodman Gallery

Lisson Gallery had a booth that featured artists who, as a press release put it, “practice, seek to explore, analyse and provoke the notion of identity.” This included Laure Prouvost, the baffling, wonderful, playful artist who will represent France at the 2019 Venice Biennale. At Frieze London, Prouvost is staging a performance called it’s a tragedy (2018) as part of the fair’s Live section. For this work, incognito opera singers linger by crowds or lunch tables, keeping to themselves before suddenly breaking into a full-throated aria, singing overheard phrases that had been said by the people around them. (I was one of the lunch-eaters, and it was quite a shock to get a sudden soprano belt in the ear.)

Prouvost also anchors Lisson’s booth with a 12-foot-long tapestry, though when commenting on the primo real estate, international director Alex Logsdail noted that “you couldn’t really have this anywhere else; it’s too big.” As of Wednesday afternoon, it was still unsold, but Lisson found buyers for two other Prouvost works, priced at €12,000 each; Haroon Mirza’s Counterfeiting the counter fitters (2018) at £45,000; a Ryan Gander sculpture and a screenprint for £90,000 and £15,000, respectively; and John Akomfrah’s two-channel video Transfigured Night (2013) for £75,000, among others.

Installation view of Lisson’s booth at Frieze London, 2018. Courtesy of the gallery.

Installation view of Lisson’s booth at Frieze London, 2018. Courtesy of the gallery.

Installation view of Lisson’s booth at Frieze London, 2018. Courtesy of the gallery.

Maureen Paley had a new rainbow-colored Rebecca Warren sculpture at the front of her booth, tall enough to see from all the way down the hall. And Salon 94, the New York outfit that has long championed female artists, featured vintage works by Laurie Simmons and new works by Marilyn Minter prominently, one of which was sold for $200,000 on Frieze London’s opening day. Conversation swirled around Wednesday’s reveal of the portrait Minter had shot of Lady Gaga for the cover of this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine—Gaga had asked for Minter specifically, said Salon 94 founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn.

One might have assumed that Andrew Kreps had specifically asked Andrea Bowers for a politically charged work in response to the allegations of sexual assault levied against Brett Kavanaugh, which have pushed the cry to “Believe Women” to fever pitch, but that was not the case. The gallery’s Alex Fitzgerald said that the decision to put it in the booth was made a month ago, as the work had to be shipped from Los Angeles, where Bowers lives and works. It wasn’t made with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford or any of the Supreme Court nominee’s other accusers in mind.

“It’s just something with Andrea’s work that this moment is mirroring,” Fitzgerald said. “But it is timely.”

from Artsy News

[rebeccahpedersen]

Location, Location……….Not Location, Anymore?

TorontoRealtyBlog

Or maybe “location” is no longer even two of the three most important criteria, as the saying goes.

Maybe now it’s “size, age, location,” or some combination of those.

Throughout 2018, I’ve seen a huge shift in buyer appetite away from location, and toward the overall offering in a home.

Let me explain, and give you a few case studies…

Do you value the “L” and the “V” on your handbag?

Louis Vuitton.  Come on ladies, some of you own one of theses pieces of magic!

$3,000 for this bag that transforms all your belongings into better belongings!  Your wallet is more special, your sunglass case is fresher, your package of Kleenex is more special.

It’s why you drop $3,000 on a bag, instead of carrying a $400 Michael Kors alternative.

We could probably play this game all day long, and to be fair, I’m sure there are products or services that I value, that other people don’t.

What I’m obviously getting at here is the value of a brand name, or if we’re going to be completely honest, we wouldn’t use “value;” we’d use “price.”

A Louis Vuitton handbag carries personal effects, as does a Michael Kors bag, but one costs 7-8 times as much as the other.

So when it comes to the “brand-name” of a Toronto neighbourhood, how do you feel about paying the price?

And to circle back to the concept of value, if you do pay a higher price for what you could elsewhere at a lower cost, do you assign a value to that location?

The value of a brand-name is in the eye of the beholder.

Some people don’t care if their neighbourhood has a “name,” and others do.

Terms like “Leslieville” and “Davisville Village” weren’t in the common vernacular 15-20 years ago, but real estate agents, and trendy residents wanted to have that panache that accompanies a homogenous, identifiable neighbourhood, and as an extension, the value.

You’ve probably heard this story at least 2-3 times before if you’re a long-time blog reader, but I’m going to tell it again.

Circa 2004, I was at an extended family function in Burlington, whereby just about everybody attending was from Burlington, Hamilton, or Niagara.

There was one woman, however, who was from Toronto.  She, of course, didn’t know that I was from Toronto as well.

When our mutual friend introduced us, I asked her where she lived.

“Leaside,” she said, with a smile and obvious pride.

Leaside.

Yes, Leaside.

You all know where Leaside is, right?

Good.  So when I pressed her and said, “What street are you on?” I was quite amused when she said, “Chilton.”

“Chilton?” I asked, with a backwards-jerk of the head.

“Chilton isn’t in Leaside,” I said, with a handful of her family members listening in.

“It’s in East York,” I told her.

She smiled, confidently, and said, “Ohhhh……south Leaside, David.”

The member of my family, who was the link between myself and this woman, was absolutely beaming with delight.  This was her aunt, who she didn’t much care for, and whom she always found to be pretentious and competitive.  Suffice it to say, she was enjoying my unintentional takedown of her full-of-sh!t auntie.

“Actually, south Leaside is bordered by Bayview, Eglinton, Moore, and Laird,” I told her, trying to be helpful, believe it or not.  “Chilton is in the East York triangle.  Nice spot, but about 1.5 KM away from the Leaside border.”

This was meant to be conversational in nature, on my part.  I had no idea that this woman had spent the last decade telling her out-of-town family that she lived in Leaside, when she did not.

Which brings me back to my point, today.

Do you care if your neighbourhood has a “name?”  Or better yet, a “brand name” associated with the neighbourhood?

What would you say to somebody who lived on Bloomfield Avenue?  It’s a gorgeous street, tree-lined, one-way, very quiet, and two blocks from Greenwood Park.  But what is this area called?  Does it have a brand name?

Well, I guess real estate agents and residents have started to simply call it “Greenwood Park.”  So maybe we can’t escape the name-game.

I’ve noticed a trend through the first six months of 2018 whereby many of my buyers are shying away from the “name” areas and looking for more value elsewhere.

Once upon a time, buyers valued the name-areas, with the “better” schools, or access to retail, transit, parks, and amenities.

And I put “better” in quotations because the Fraser Institute ranking is not the be-all and end-all.  You also want to look into the class sizes, curriculum, outdoor space (tremendously important to me, since I want my kids to play outside and not play X-Box all day…), and extra-curricular activities.

So far in 2018, I’ve had at least 4-5 buyers end up in areas they did not think they’d be in, simply because the offering was superior.

I was recently working with a couple who started out in the west end, but couldn’t really afford what they wanted.

So I took them to midtown, and introduced them to Davisville Village and Leaside.

I showed them a semi-detached house in North Leaside; 3-bedrooms, 2-bathrooms, finished basement, private driveway with a garage, fenced backyard, and on a very quiet street, with lots of kids, priced around $1.3 Million.

This house falls into the prestigious Northlea Public School district, which not only has the coveted French Immersion program, but also has an exceptional school ranking, and excellent facilities.

The house is about a 5-minute walk to the future Laird TTC subway station, and is 8-10 minutes from Serena Gundy Park.

As new parents, looking to grow their family, I thought this house was perfect.  And so did they!

Until they got to thinking, and realized what they really wanted, and both what was important to them – and what was not.

In the end, they determined that as gorgeous as Leaside was, what they wanted would cost them about $2.5 Million.

What they wanted just didn’t jive with this location.

So they put location on the back-burner, and put the age, size, and style of the house at the forefront of the search – a trend that, as I said, is gaining momentum.

One week later, we were looking at a new-build at Eglinton and Victoria Park.  How’s that for a change in location?

This house was brand-new, never lived in.  40-foot frontage, 4-bedrooms, 4-bathrooms, built-in garage, and massive finished basement.

But it wasn’t just the “on paper” specs that put it in another category, ie. beds, baths, etc.  It was the extras!  Heated floors, security cameras, 200-amp panel, smart-home features, Pella windows, and everything aged 2018.

And how was the home priced?  Same as the one in Leaside.

My buyers loved the house.  They didn’t care where it was.  They couldn’t have possibly cared less about the location or brand-name of a “Leaside.”  They simply wanted a larger home, with all the features they covet.  She got the massive walk-in closet she’s always wanted, and he got the man-cave in the basement; two things they wouldn’t get in Leaside unless they spent DOUBLE on the home.

Earlier this year, I had a similar experience with a couple who started their search looking up at Yonge & Blythwood with the “buy the worst house on the street, to get into the best area” mentality, but who eventually went in the complete opposite direction.

I showed them Riverdale, Leaside, Allenby, Bedford Park, and the like.

We bid on one house around February or March – a very narrow detached home on a 25-foot lot (that’s small for this location!), built new in 1989.  This was a 3-bed, 4-bath home, which left something to be desired for the home itself, but was in a fantastic neighbourhood, highly coveted, and a great school district.

The house was built well above grade, with an elevated front porch.  So with three toddlers, the prospect of lugging a stroller up and down those stairs every day (no access to the garage from the house) wasn’t looked forward to.  But the buyers were willing to overlook this daily grind to get the house……at a price.

Listed for $1,599,000, I think there was something like 12-15 offers, and the house sold for $1.95 Million.  We were well below that number, not even entertaining the idea that a house this narrow would fetch a price like that.

I continued to show them houses; Browning, Roselawn, St. Clements, Erskine, and eventually we ventured into Leaside and saw the Brentcliffe’s, Donlea’s, and Glenvale’s of the world.

And then one day, they asked me about new builds in East York.

East York?  Really?

This was a far cry from Leaside!  Not even close to John Wanless Public School!  Without the same panache as Allenby!

But you know what?  They didn’t care.

They wanted to buy a house, not an area.

We settled on a brand-new, detached, 4-bed, 4-bath on a 34-foot lot.

Private driveway, built-in garage, main floor family room, 5th bedroom in the basement, and one of the largest basement rec-rooms I have ever seen in a house this size.  29 x 20 feet!  That’s one room!

I was instantly jealous.  The man-cave possibilities were endless, although my clients were thinking “kid’s play room.”

Try as I might to push them toward an 80-inch TV, pool table, 16-person sectional couch, and a couple of Lazy-Boys, they were unmoved.  This was an incredible kids’ play area; one that was triple the size of what they might get in the other areas we were looking.

This house had also never been lived in, and at the risk of sounding naive, it was well-built, and the finishes were spectacular.  The finishes weren’t just higher-than-average-end, but they were tasteful, and the buyers wouldn’t need to change anything.

The flow of the house was excellent.  This wasn’t a 1950’s-built, thrice-renovated home that had been semi-gutted multiple times over 70 years, leading to awkward layouts.  This was a strategically-built home with the layout and flow that a 2018-buyer covets.

All-in-all, it was exactly what the buyers wanted, nay, dreamed of.  And that sounds cheezy, I know.  Any time I hear the word “dream” associated with real estate, I sigh.  But this house had everything they wanted, and then some, and would have cost double if it were in the areas we were previously considering.

The icing on the cake was that we paid $100,000 under the list price, after a series of drawn out negotiations.

This was a different world than the 12-15 offer melee we experienced only a couple of months earlier.

I had a similar situation with a couple who was looking in Roncesvalles earlier this year.

I’ll save you the drawn-out story like the first two examples, but once again, we went from a 3-bedroom, semi-detached on anywhere from an 18 to a 22 foot lot, suddenly to a detached 4-bedroom in the Parlawn area.  Once again – same price.

Those who are big proponents of neighbourhood-value will say, “So what?  So you went outside of great areas into inferior areas to get a larger house.  This isn’t rocket science.”

No it’s not.

But it’s a trend, and the trend is gaining momentum, from what I can tell.

I would say the overwhelming majority of buyers still target location first and foremost.  But this has fallen from a near entirety to that majority, which is noteworthy, no matter what conclusion you want to draw…

The post Location, Location……….Not Location, Anymore? appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

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[utkchp]

Eataly: Exploring Food & Culture in Italy

Victoria Clements, Class of 2018 Business Administration Major Honors Ambassador, Honors Mentor

“I left with a new outlook on cultural differences and food, and I am thankful for this new insight. I have realized the significance of things that I otherwise would not have given a second thought. I used to not think about how, why, when, or with whom I ate, but we came to find out that this is essentially the foundation of Italian culture.”

Overlooking Vatican City from the top of St. Peter’s Basilica

What better place to study the culture and psychology of food than in Italy?!

That’s how a group of 14 students spent their summers this year! We traveled across several breathtaking regions of Italy in order to study the cultural differences between the regions, themselves, and between the U.S. and Italy. I have always had the aspirations to travel, but I have not had the opportunity to do so, until now. This was the first time that I had been overseas, and I look forward to stepping out of my comfort zone even more in the future because of this trip.

Seeing Mount Vesuvius and becoming “Ready for the World” in Naples

I did a lot of research before I left for this trip, which contributed to my excitement about Italy. Of course, you can only read so much, and everything was even better than I expected! I had a to-do list of things to see and do while in Italy, and I did everything that I planned on doing. I will, however, return and maybe live there for a significant length of time! People often talk about finding love in Italy, and I did, as well: I fell in love with the country itself!

Campo di Fiori open air market

It is so easy to visit Italy and just be “one of those Americans.” This course did very well with integrating the Italian ways of life into our itinerary, though, and I am very grateful for that. We learned some Italian simply by living out our days there, and we were truly immersed in the culture. We didn’t just eat authentic foods, we went into the home of an Italian woman and cooked our own dinner. We didn’t just learn about the benefits of organic and local foods, we had a lecture on slow food and taste-tested at open air markets. We didn’t just learn about the importance of coffee, we toured and tasted at local coffee bars. We didn’t just devour chocolate desserts, we took a chocolate-making workshop and toured the factory. It was opportunities like these that painted us a very detailed picture of the Italian lifestyle.

Cooking class in Dafne’s home

Of course, we had plenty of free time to act like tourists and visit the monuments and museums and explore the historic cities of Italy that seem older than time itself! Some of these activities included touring the Roman Colosseum, throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain, climbing the 551 stairs of St. Peter’s Basilica, aweing at the Sistine Chapel, drooling over Ferraris around the factory, climbing Giotti’s Bell Tower in Florence, marveling at the Statue of David’s contours, and many more! We had complete free days that included trips (by train!) to Santa Marinella beach, Cinque Terre village towns, Pisa, Venice, and other places! This freedom to travel where we pleased really boosted our confidence to handle situations on our own when in a foreign setting-what a helpful life skill!

One of the many gelatos that we devoured in Italy!

After reading assigned articles, we met in a classroom for group discussions. I feel that these conversations were beneficial to all of us, and they were very insightful. Everyone was very open at these gatherings and provided insightful and thought-provoking comments. I liked seeing other people’s perspectives on topics. It was neat hearing views that differ from mine-which was the whole purpose of this course!

I recognized that Italians have unique views and opinions regarding US issues, and I enjoyed hearing their opinions and seeing how they responded to these events. The locals were very friendly and appreciated the art of debate. It was such a neat experience to talk with them and gather varying viewpoints. Now that I have returned to the US, everything seems so plain and boring here! We were pretty much spoiled in Italy with such pure, fresh, and unique foods! I wanted to bring everything back with me-the gelato, the cheese, the bread, the language, etc.! I admire the Italian culture so much, and I have integrated aspects of it into my home. Naturally, I have brought some Italian practices (and many souvenirs!) back with me.

Our group with our tour guide, Giorgio, in Piazza Navona in Rome

I had such new, unique, and unforgettable experiences in Italy, and I was sad to leave. I left with a new outlook on cultural differences and food, and I am thankful for this new insight. I have realized the significance of things that I otherwise would not have given a second thought to. I used to not think about how, why, when, or with whom I ate, but we came to find out that this is essentially the foundation of Italian culture. Many people go through life with this similar narrow vision and closed-mindedness, never having the opportunity to expand their horizons as we have done. I will carry memories and skills from this Eataly experience with me forever. Arrivederci!