#meltzer scholarship

[tunneltalkpod]

Really appreciated Anna’s Vanderpump Rules = Young Bucks scholarship this week. It feeds into my belief that Bravo reality tv and wrestling operate on the insane spiritual wavelength. Up there with the times Meltzer’s discussed which Real Housewives are “draws.”

THANK YOU. For those of you who didn't go to twitter, this is what she dropped in the zoom chat, which sent Allie and Lea into peals of laughter. She's Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wcuenglish]

Our Remarkable Students → Meltzer Scholarship

Amanda Ghianda, a rising junior, is one of two Meltzer Scholarship winners in the English department. She is double-majoring in English (professional writing) and Interior Design with a minor in Art. As for her plans after college, she wants to work in an interior design firm, saying, “I want to design residentially in Charlotte" because she relocated there from New Jersey with her family.

Adding English to her degree took place going into her sophomore year, thanks to a medieval literature class with Dr. Gastle. Amanda had written a paper for him, and he wrote on the back of her paper something along the lines of “Please meet me after class. We need to discuss adding English to your career path.” She met with him and planned out her entire college career to make sure she could meet the requirements of both majors and her minor.

Amanda chose Western Carolina University specifically because the Interior Design program is certified by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), but she also wanted to attend a smaller university. WCU was the perfect fit.

When she’s not studying hard or working her full-time job with Bank of America, Amanda enjoys dancing (and coaching for the Ballroom Dancing Club), reading, playing video games, and creating art. Congratulations, Amanda, and keep up the great work!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The ENIAC Programmers: how women invented modern programming and were then written out of the history books

Kathy Kleiman, founder of the ENIAC Programmers Project, writes about the buried history of the pivotal role played by women in the creation of modern computing, a history that is generally recounted as consisting of men making heroic technical and intellectual leaps while women did some mostly simple, mechanical work around the periphery.

Kleiman summarizes her twenty years of research into the programmers of the ENIAC -- the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, the first modern computer -- whose first programmers were six women: Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence.

The ENIAC programmers had to invent programming as we know it, working without programming codes (these were invented a few years later for UNIVAC by Betty Holberton): they "broke down the differential calculus ballistics trajectory program" into small steps the computer could handle, then literally wired together the program by affixing cables and flicking the machine's 3,000 switches in the correct sequences. To capture it all, they created meticulous flowcharts that described the program's workings.

The women stayed on the ENIAC project after the war because "no solider returning home from the battlefield could program ENIAC," and went on to train the next generation of ENIAC programmers, also creating modern computer science education; they also went on to create the first computer instruction codes.

Kleiman's scholarship is an important rebuttal to the sexist, revisionist history of early computer science, like Nathan Ensmenger's odious 2010 book "The Computer Boys Take Over," which characterized the ENIAC women as "glorified clerical workers" and insisted that the women were only given the job because it was perceived as "low priority" (in reality, the women were the cream of the US Army's Ballistics Research Labs, recruited from math programs at top universities). The slander continues, with the ENIAC women mischaracterized as "low on the intellectual and professional status hierarchy."

Keilman says that the confusion may stem from the Army classifying the women as "subprofessional," and notes that it was common for sensitive intelligence jobs to have misleading titles -- cryptographers were classed as "secretaries" and "clerks" in a bid to disguise the work they did from hostile spies.

https://boingboing.net/2019/06/21/founding-mothers-of-computing.html

[writemarcus]

ZOETIC STAGE Announces Casts & Creative Teams for THE FINSTROM FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK

The readings are free and open to the public.

by Stephi Wild 

May. 12, 2022  

The casts and creative teams have been assembled for Zoetic Stage's second annual Finstrom Festival of New Work which will be co-presented with and hosted at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, live and in person in the Peacock Foundation Studio. The readings are free and open to the public. Tickets will be available at arshtcenter.org beginning Wednesday, May 11 at 12pm/EST.

The winning plays are One Stone: The Story of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein by Kathleen Cahill, Effect If Not Intent by David Rosenberg, Sibling Rivalries Or, Spooks in the Ivory Tower by Marcus Scott, The Public Execution of The American President by Nick Valdes.

Prior to the readings, each winning playwright will spend almost 20 hours workshopping their play with directors, dramaturges, and actors. "The goal of this year's festival is to aid playwrights in a creative rehearsal space to move their play one step closer to a final draft," says Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer.

"We were looking for plays that move theater forward - the plays of tomorrow. I believe we've found them. These writers took risks, challenging the styles, themes and topics that reflect the world we live in today but in fresh and exciting ways," says Festival Coordinator Gabriell Salgado.

Casts, creative teams and showtimes are listed below:

The Public Execution of The American President

A new play by Nick Valdes

Thursday, May 19 @ 8pm

The day is upon us. A man is to be executed publicly on Capitol Hill. Just a few hours before his execution, he grants an interview to Sam Wiles, who is hoping to finally learn the truth about the day that the former President William Harris committed an act of treason against the United States of America.

Director: Gabriell Salgado

Dramaturge: Vanessa Garcia

Stage Manager: Annabel Herrera*

CAST

William Harris: Paul Wong*

Sam Wiles: Laura Plyler

Officer Jones: Jerel Brown

Sibling Rivalries Or, Spooks in the Ivory Tower

A new play by Marcus Scott

Friday, May 20 @ 8pm

Sibling Rivalries Or, Spooks in the Ivory Tower is an all-male political drama set during the Obama Administration at an Ivy League school. The play follows a diverse group of young black men, all members of a fraternity, who face shifting loyalties and eroded principles when they are forced to compete against one another for a prestigious scholarship/fellowship. The narrative explores racial issues, black camaraderie, competitive suffering, elitism, male bonding, school bullying, apex predators, homosexuality, machismo, and brotherhood and toxic masculinity.

Director: Geoffrey Short

Dramaturge: Kent Chambers-Wilson

Stage Manager: Annabel Herrera*

CAST

Dorian Lewis: Doriyan Caty

Malik Ocean: Thomas Johnson Brandon Montague: Mikhael Mendoza Alistair Fairchild: Justise Hayward Sheldon Henderson: Sefanja Galon Elijah Martinez: Phillip Andrew Santiago Noah Evans: Warren Welds Sarabi Ferguson: Chantal Mendoza Corrina Thompson: Marlo Rodriguez Dean Rudolf Harper: Kent Chambers-Wilson

One Stone: The story of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein

A new play by Kathleen Cahill

Saturday, May 21 @ 2pm

One Stone: The story of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein is a play about an intimate relationship between two scientists - one who became internationally famous, and one who disappeared from history. It is a story about the sexual, emotional, and intellectual connection between Albert Einstein and the physicist Mileva Marić who was his first wife. It dramatizes the uncredited role she played in Einstein's breakthrough achievements and raises questions about how gender affects the success or failure of talent. It is a historical play which leads us to ask if it is any easier for women in science today.

Director: Gail S. Garrisan

Dramaturge: Emma Sue Harris

Stage Manager: Bailey Hacker*

CAST

Mileva Marić: Emma Garcia Seeger Albert Einstein: Bobby Eddy*

Effect If Not Intent

A new play by David Rosenberg

Saturday, May 21 @ 8pm

When Ben leaves his lucrative associate job at a New York law firm to join the Israeli Defense Forces, his secular Jewish family must reexamine its positions towards the state of Israel and their Jewish identity. A play about whether political belief can destroy familial bonds, how Jewish families educate their children about Israel, and how much we owe to our people.

Director: Stuart Meltzer

Dramaturge: Michael McKeever

Stage Manager: Bailey Hacker*

CAST

Mark Silver: David Kwiat* Fay Silver: Jeni Hacker* Cindy Blumenthal: Jodie Langel* Ben Baum: Chad Raven Leo Blumenthal: Wayne LeGette* Jake Blumenthal: Jonah Robinson* Amelia Zheng: Thaylin Xie

(*Member of Actors Equity Association)

Festival Coordinator: Gabriell Salgado Production Manager: Vanessa McCloskey Production Assistant: Talia Rodriguez

Sound Design: Matt Corey

The Festival will be co-presented with and hosted at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, live and in person in the Peacock Foundation Studio. The readings are free and open to the public. Tickets will be available at arshtcenter.org beginning Wednesday, May 11 at 12pm/EST. While the entire festival is free and open to the public, donations are welcome and can be made at www.zoeticstage.org.

The festival is named after beloved South Florida playwright and arts patron Tony Finstrom, who was a long-time Carbonell Award judge and founder of the Silver Palm Awards. The author of numerous plays, Finstrom was the recipient of various honors including the Charlie Cinnamon Award and the South Florida Theatre League's Remy Pioneer Award. Mr. Finstrom passed away in December 2018.

[telavivcity-blog]

2018 Aviv Competitions - Full Winners Concert

https://telavivcity.co.il/?p=6945&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr The City that never sleeps 2018 Aviv Competitions - Full Winners Concert https://telavivcity.co.il/?p=6945&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr The winners of AICF’s 19th Aviv Competitions were announced on January 3, 2018, at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. This year, thirty five candidates competed in four categories: piano, singing, cello, and brass. The winner of the Rafi Guralnik Award for Piano, a prize of $6,000: Yuval Chen. The winner of the Michal Oren Award for Singing, a prize of $6,000: Sivan Keren. The winner of the Gottesman Family Award for Cello, a prize of $6,000: Haran Meltzer. The winner of the Benny Gal-Ed Award for Brass Instruments, a prize of $6,000: Noam Fresko. The winner of the the Ministry of Culture and Sports Award for Best Performance of an Israeli Piece, a prize of 15,000 Shekels: Elisha Kravitz. The winner of the Eva and Georg Koigen Award for Best Performance of an Israeli Vocal Piece, donated by Mira Zakai, a prize of 7,000 Shekels: Sivan Keren. The Winners of the Meira Geyra Audience Choice Award, donated by the Gottesman family, a prize of 2,500 Shekels each: Yuval Chen (piano), Michal Doron (singing), William Weil (cello), and Noam Fresko (brass). Due to the high level of skill throughout the competitions, the AICF decided to award a special prize, to the sum of 7,500 Shekels, to the following musicians: singer Michal Doron and pianist Rafael Skorka. source #aicf #artists #arts #aviv #Classical #Competition #culture #elishakravitz #foundation #grants #haranmeltzer #Israel #Israeli #michaldoron #Museum #music #noamfresko #rafaelskorka #scholarships #sivankeren #telavivmuseum #tel-aviv #williamweill #yuvalchen TEL AVIV - THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS #museum #Uncategorized

[pentagrammarian]

“Don’t Be a Spud 2017″

Thread: Here's why @AnnieZaleski is one of maybe 10 music writers I give a shit about; and maybe there's more, but the field doesn't really warrant paying close attention to it.

 As I say often, the Best American Sportswriting book was always leagues better than the Best Music Writing book when that mockery of a collection still published -- WHOOPSIE on THAT one! Anyhow...

 When @AnnieZaleski revisits a classic album or writes a big piece, she not only consults but quotes previous research on the topic.

 When your typical music-writer hack interviews an artist about a classic record, they usually don't bother consulting previous work.

 So they ask all the same questions and get all the same answers and write the same story. And the reader thinks,"Yeah, seen that before."

 Or maybe the writer did some research, but they don't cite it. Music sections/sites have this adolescent need to be recognized as THE authority on the topic. Ditto the writers. So they either skip or obscure their research. Even when they DO cite other writers' work, their editors tend to remove the quotes/attributions, for their own shady reasons, be they based in ego or ignorance:

[Timid moron editors be like,] "Uh, duh, why would we quote ANOTHER publication?! We need to be the ill phat dope money-bomb! We won't look cool!"

That's not how scholarship and knowledge advances. Do some research, cite it, and if you get an interview opportunity, ask some NEW sh*t.

 Frankly, if the field of music writing -- whose minor-league reputation, believe me, is better than it deserves -- had a greater body of institutional knowledge, maybe it wouldn't be such a pack of tossers, and maybe it would still have an annual Best Music Writing book.

 So anyhow: Here's the great @AnnieZaleski dropping science on Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes. http://www.salon.com/2017/02/25/because-its-fear-after-all-that-kills-us-tori-amos-released-little-earthquakes-25-years-ago-today/ … This is how you do it.

 My closing, salient directive/lesson being: In case nobody every told you, you're allowed to quote other writers' work--AND SHOULD.

 I'm working on a book now, and oof! The archive is three decades of terrible writers writing terrible stories, all asking the same questions and writing the same story, often--usually--with the same obvious headlines.

My point now being what I said in reference to the late, great Bill Paxton: When artists die, they're gone, and they're not coming back, and nobody's ever going to have a chance to ask Bowie or Prince or Hanneman any more questions that they never heard before.

 Do you want to look back at your story and--whether you realize it or not--have the same drek that a dozen other hacks wrote?

 Or do you want to contribute something meaningful to the record/literature on the subject?

 Cuz most music writers just want a groovy hang/rap session.

And that's no good for anybody. Not the artist, not the readers,not the field, not your peers, and--contrary to what you imagine--not you.

 I thought Richard Meltzer's [Cameron Crowe indictment ca. 2000] "Third Spud From the Sun" concluded "Don't be a spud," but I'm not seeing that in the online version I found. (http://condor.depaul.edu/dweinste/rock/meltzer-afrev.html ) Maybe it's in the version I recognized from Best Music Writing.

 So think about that, friends (and if you're in my Twittersphere, I'm preaching to the choir).

 But the rest of you--and us, too--go out & get some good stuff. Archive it safely. The rest of you: Don't be a spud. This stuff matters.

Do the job right, huh? Please? Thank you.

 xoxo,

 dxf

[simonconsultancypage]

The 2017 PLUS D&O Symposium in a Snowy New York City

It was another great D&O Symposium in New York City this week. The show went on despite the huge blizzard that blew through the city on the morning of the Symposium’s second day. The turnout was once again great, the panels were excellent, and we all made it through the snowstorm together.

  I was very fortunate to be able to moderate a panel on the afternoon of the Symposium’s second day. The topic of the panel was the global rise in collective investor actions, and we had a very distinguished set of speakers to address the topic. In the picture below, I am standing with the panelists, from left to right, Darren Check of the Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check law firm; me; Jennifer O’Neill of Allianz; and Jonathan Richman of the Proskauer Rose law firm.

    There was a very special guest at the year’s Symposium. Jane Pochon is the head of financial lines claims for the Asia Pacific region for AIG. She attended the PLUS D&O Symposium as the winner of a scholarship awarded by the Australia Professional Indemnity Group (APIG), which is the Australian professional liability insurance community’s counterpart to PLUS. It was a pleasure meeting Jane and having her attend the Symposium. In the first picture below, I am standing with Jane and with Pete Herron of Travelers, and the President of PLUS. In the second picture below, I am standing with Jane and Robbie Thompson, PLUS’s Executive Director.

      I wanted to include a picture of my old friend and RT Specialty colleague, Tony Falkowski. Tony is one of our industry’s true legends.

    In this picture, I am standing with Sujal Vaidya  of AIG. I think Sujal didn’t believe me when I told him I would publish the picture in The D&O Diary. Guess again…

    If you ever wondered what it looks like from the stage at the PLUS D&O Symposium, well, here you go. I took the photo from the stage right at the beginning of my panel session.

    My congrats to the PLUS conference co-chairs, Kevin Gadbois of Great American, Brenda Shelley of Marsh, and Steve Goldman of Chubb, as well as to the PLUS staff, for another excellent Symposium.

The post The 2017 PLUS D&O Symposium in a Snowy New York City appeared first on The D&O Diary.

The 2017 PLUS D&O Symposium in a Snowy New York City published first on http://ift.tt/2kTPCwo

[wcuenglish]

Our Remarkable Students → Meltzer Scholarship

Jessica Stephens, a rising senior, is one of two Meltzer Scholarship winners in the English department. She is majoring in English (professional writing) with a minor in Journalism. After college, she would like to go into either marketing or publishing, saying, “It seems interesting and like the type of job where it’s not the same thing every day.”

While she remained undeclared for her first two years, Jessica always gravitated towards English before declaring it as her major this year. “I loved reading, and I seem to be good at writing,” she explained, which made an English degree so appealing.

Jessica is originally from the Raleigh area, specifically Coats, but Western Carolina University pulled her in from the very start. On her tour of the school, she immediately felt comfortable. “I just felt like I belonged here.” WCU had just the right size campus and an environment that made her feel at home.

When she’s not studying hard or working part-time at Walmart, Jessica unwinds by playing video games, exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway, and playing with her cat, Cleo (pictured above in her favorite hiding spot: on top of Jessica’s clothes). Congratulations, Jessica! We’re glad to have you in our program!