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How Sound Feels to Musician Who Lost Her Hearing September 7, 2005 By STEPHEN HOLDEN "Hearing is a form of touch," the Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie declares. "You feel it through your body, and sometimes it almost hits your face." Those words echo through "Touch the Sound," an impressionistic documentary directed, edited and photographed by Thomas Riedelsheimer. Subtitled "a sound journey with Evelyn Glennie," it is a mystical exploration of the sensory world as experienced by a renowned musician who lost most of her hearing by the time she was a teenager. Expanding on Ms. Glennie's passionate assertion that hearing is only the most obvious component of deeper physical relationship between sound and the human body, the film is crammed with striking visual correlations to the percussive vibrations she conjures. Every location visited by the film - from a Manhattan rooftop swarming with pigeons, to a construction site, to the rocky Pacific Coast, to the Scottish farm where Ms. Glennie grew up - reveals its own percussive signature. In one of the film's most striking fusions of sound and image, the camera looks up from below to study the shadowy pitter-patter of pedestrians and their pets on a semitranslucent walkway. "Touch the Sound" follows the same rambling format as "Rivers and Tides," Mr. Riedelsheimer's profile of the Scottish earthworks artist Andy Goldsworthy, whose mutable sculptures in nature embrace the concept of evanescence. Like Mr. Goldsworthy and like the great San Francisco experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky, Mr. Riedelsheimer is fascinated with the beauty of the fleeting moment and with what Ms. Glennie calls "the sixth sense." That sense, in her definition, is not an occult connection to the spirit world, but her firsthand knowledge of how the loss of one of the five senses is compensated by the heightened attunement of the other four; that awareness used to be called synergy before the word was hijacked by jargon-spouting corporate bloviators. Ms. Glennie, an articulate, charismatic redhead, becomes vague only when trying to philosophize about the opposite of sound. Structurally the film might be described as a duet within a duet. As the movie rambles here and there around the world, it periodically returns to a loft in an abandoned German sugar factory where Ms. Glennie and the British multi-instrumentalist Fred Frith are preparing to record an album of improvisations. If their project gives the film a center, it is only one aspect of a larger collaboration between the filmmaker and the percussionist. The film follows her from Germany to New York, where she delights a small crowd in the middle of Grand Central Terminal by playing the snare drums, barefoot, to a Japanese restaurant where she arranges chopsticks, dishes, a glass and a metal lid into a makeshift drum kit and gives an impromptu demonstration. Visiting the family homestead tended by a brother, she recalls being "Daddy's girl" and says she still harbors a special kinship with her father, an accordionist who is no longer alive. At 8, she says, she became aware of her progressive hearing loss. She had intended to be a pianist but switched to percussion upon entering high school. A gifted teacher advised her to remove her hearing aids and learn to distinguish musical intervals by pressing her head to a wall and feeling the percussive vibrations in her hands and arms. Out of these experiences developed her sense of sound as a tactile as well as an auditory phenomenon. If Ms. Glennie declares her favorite instrument to be the snare drum, it is the marimba on which she creates the film's most haunting music. "Touch the Sound" concludes with a sustained meditation for percussion and guitar, in which Mr. Frith, stationed on an elevated platform on the other side of the room, elicits plaintive, shivery cries from an electric guitar while Ms. Glennie taps out a deep, quiet, musical prayer on the marimba. This is synergy of a high order. . Directed and edited by Thomas Riedelsheimer; director of photography, Mr. Riedelsheimer; music by Evelyn Glennie and Fred Frith, Roxanne Butterfly, Horazio Hernandez, Za Ondekoza, This Mika, and Saikou and Jason; produced by Stefan Tolz, Leslie Hills and Trevor Davies; released by Shadow Distribution. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 99 minutes. This film is not rated. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Back to Top

anything written about how her asian influences may have influenced the course of john's music, and ours? lt seems even if she never had played, she may have influenced the music significantly.

UP! Funny enough, I generally don't like Drake's playing. However, I LOVE this disc and his playing on it. Highly recommended... this and the Rob Brown have been my favorite Rogue Art discs so far. Less so the R Mitchells but then again I'm not entirely on the horse with Roscoe's recent group work. The band on Frequency is hip; I may have to investigate it, even if it's not earth-shaking. frequency can be purchased by download for 10 bucks, i think. one of the numbers is cut off just a tad. here is a site where you can purchase some music of the same type for download by the song for next to nothing. site works pretty good. music is great(run by ernest dawkins). http://chi-creates.tv/c/

UP! Funny enough, I generally don't like Drake's playing. However, I LOVE this disc and his playing on it. Highly recommended... this and the Rob Brown have been my favorite Rogue Art discs so far. Less so the R Mitchells but then again I'm not entirely on the horse with Roscoe's recent group work. The band on Frequency is hip; I may have to investigate it, even if it's not earth-shaking. frequency can be purchased by download from thrilljockey for 10 bucks, i think. one of the numbers on the download is cut off just a tad.

If you really care if they do more sessions buy the disc from Mosaic. Let the label and the artist reap the tiny rewards. the cut i heard was beautifully recorded and splendid music.

this vinyl has been a fav of mine for more years than i can remember, and i treasure it.

'that's a misleading headline. the man is a former prosecutor, someone who may have made enemies among his former peers for his later actions as a defense attorney.' sustained

Jan 14, 6:13 AM EST Prosecutor Accused in NYC Call Girl Biz By ADAM GOLDMAN Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a tabloid writer's dream. There's a boastful pimp, a federal prosecutor turned tough-talking defense lawyer and a drop-dead gorgeous woman once touted as New York City's top prostitute. Their lives converge at a spacious Manhattan loft that housed a high-priced escort service a mere three blocks from City Hall. "Crime. Sex. Unforgettable people doing unforgettable things," said Barry Agulnick, lawyer for Jason Itzler, the pimp. "This case probably has more of the Hollywood element than any other I've had. It's got a show biz aura to it." The case took an intriguing turn this week when Itzler's previous lawyer on the pimping charges, Paul Bergrin, was accused of taking over the escort service and sleeping with the prostitutes after police jailed Itzler in 2005. Bergrin was a former county and federal prosecutor in New Jersey before becoming a hard-charging defense lawyer, representing clients including a soldier in the Abu Ghraib scandal. He was charged Wednesday with operating a brothel and laundering its profits through fake companies. A phone number for Bergrin's lawyer was disconnected, but the attorney told The New York Times the charges might stem from prosecutors retaliating against Bergrin's aggressive courtroom tactics. Bergrin and Itzler crossed paths in January 2005 when authorities shut down NY Confidential escort service. Few would have imagined that Bergrin would eventually be accused of emulating his client, a man who considered himself the king of New York pimps. Itzler, 39, had run NY Confidential like a showman, promoting its women and charging as much as $2,000 an hour for one of the prostitutes, his girlfriend Natalie McLennan. His business card called his service "Rocket Fuel for Winners." Itzler made a lot money and spent it freely on such expensive toys, including a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz and a $25,000 Cartier watch. After he bragged to a tabloid in December 2004 that he was untouchable, police arrested him. He turned to Bergrin, 51, who had developed a reputation for aggressive tactics and bluster. Bergrin didn't represent Itzler long on the brothel charges - Agulnick took over the case more than a year ago. But authorities say the pimp and Bergrin still had dealings. Authorities say Bergrin and two other men took over NY Confidential's operations and kept the brothel running after Itzler's arrest, employing Itzler's escorts and taking in more than $1.2 million in prostitution proceeds in one stretch in 2005. They laundered the proceeds through two shell companies, prosecutors said. The business started to falter when they began having sex with the escorts, and Bergrin paid the women with money out of the till, authorities said. The day after Bergrin was charged, Itzler, who pleaded guilty in June to money laundering and attempted promotion of prostitution, was sentenced to 18 months to three years in prison. Itzler told the judge he'll "never run an escort agency again." McLennan, who once graced the cover of New York magazine, was not around. Their relationship appears over, Agulnick said. She's scheduled to face trial next month on money laundering charges. Agulnick believes Itzler will rebound and perhaps make a lot of money one day - in "any legitimate business." "Jason is a great entrepreneur," Agulnick said. © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

i hope this is appropriate: bony, March, 1989 by Darlene Donloe Living With The Spirit And Legacy Of JOHN COLTRANE THE white brick ranch-styled house is tucked inconspicuously behind black wrought-iron gates in Woodland Hills, Calif. Inside, Alice Coltrane, an accomplished jazz musician, sits quietly at the piano, glancing at the photograph of her late husband, the legendary saxophonist, John Coltrane. It's been more than 20 years since Coltrane's death, and yet the memories are vivid and strong as thoughts of him still consume her. "I can't miss him," she says. "He's here. I feel him here." John Coltrane, long considered ahead of his time musically, was one of the jazz world's most innovative musicians. He worked with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk early in his career. Known as "Trane" to his friends, he went on to form his own band in the 1950s, playing radical harmonic and melodic changes that some music critics called "sheets of sound." For four years, John and Alice Coltrane lived as husband and wife, creating "avant garde" jazz until Coltrane's untimely death in 1967. He died from liver cancer at the age of 41. Coltrane's influence over Alice, much like the musical idolatry from his fans, is remarkably strong. Alice Coltrane claims to have spoken to her dead husband. "I see him physically in my room while I'm in a transcendental state," she says. The first time she saw Coltrane, she says, was about a month after he died. "I was sitting in my bedroom meditating when the door opened and Coltrane walked in. He had an instrument that looked like the soprano sax he used to play," she recalls. "He was playing it. Sometimes he looked better than when he was alive." She saw her husband on occasion over a 12-year period, Mrs. Coltrane says. It's been nine years now since she last spoke to John, and she believes it's because he's been reincarnated and is living in his next life. She admits that many people may find her accounts to be unlikely. "I know people don't understand or believe what I'm saying," she says. "All I can say to them is to mediate and find out for themselves." Alice McLeod Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937, growing up in a musical family. She became an accomplished pianist, studying under the jazz pianist Bud Powell and later playing with major musicians. In 1963, she met John coltrane in a jazz club in Europe, and what began as professional adoration soon gave way to romance. The two were married a year later, and Alice joined her husband's band in 1966 replacing pianist McCoy Tyner. Both Coltrane and his wife became deeply religious and began studying the music and religions of the East--especially India. It seems ironic that the woman, once intensely devoted to her music, has cast it aside for what she calls "the path of devotion and understanding." She stopped touring extensively 12 years ago and cut herself off from most of her friends. "Some of it was due to location and distance," she offers. "With some, I just didn't call or correspond." Now, Mrs. Coltrane keeps herself busy with the Vedantic Center, a spiritual center she founded 14 years ago in Agoura, Calif. As the center's director, she holds the title of swami. She also produces a spiritual half-hour television program, which is shown in the spring on Los Angeles' Channel 18. Although she no longer performs regularly, Mrs. Coltrane carries on her late husband's music through the "John Coltrane Festival." The festival, which is funded through Coltrane's estate, highlights the work and talents of young musicians. The Coltrane children have followed in their parents' musical footsteps. Michelle, 28; Ravi, 23, and Oran, 21, live in the Los Angeles area, spending their time studying and developing music and frequently attending their mother's spiritual services at the center. (The couple's first born son, John Jr., died in 1982). She doesn't spend too much time in the "music room," which seems more like a shrine to her fallen hero. The room is the exact replica of the music room in the couple's former home in New York. Everything is in place, the grand piano, the Persian rugs, the many African instruments and Coltrane's numerous awards. Ironically, there is not a single saxophone in the room. One of his saxophones is stored in a back room of the house. The others are used by his sons and a nephew. For Mrs. Coltrane there are many pleasant memories of her late husband, and for those reasons, she never remarried. "I don't know that I'd want to live in the proximity with less a man," she says... "I could never marry again." There is talk of recording and performing again. Alice hasn't done so in 12 years. But more than anything else, she longs for others to appreciate Coltrane's musical accomplishments as much as she does. "John needed to take music to a new level," she says. "That's why when you listen to John Coltrane, you hear everything. Everything was in his music. That's why it's important for people to never forget the contributions he made." COPYRIGHT 1989 Johnson Publishing Co. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

her duo recording turiyana on the charlie haden duets album is one of the of the most beautiful pieces of music i have ever heard. my favorite picture of her is the cover of 'cohn coltrane at the village vanguard again'

Ebony, March, 1989 by Darlene Donloe Living With The Spirit And Legacy Of JOHN COLTRANE THE white brick ranch-styled house is tucked inconspicuously behind black wrought-iron gates in Woodland Hills, Calif. Inside, Alice Coltrane, an accomplished jazz musician, sits quietly at the piano, glancing at the photograph of her late husband, the legendary saxophonist, John Coltrane. It's been more than 20 years since Coltrane's death, and yet the memories are vivid and strong as thoughts of him still consume her. "I can't miss him," she says. "He's here. I feel him here." John Coltrane, long considered ahead of his time musically, was one of the jazz world's most innovative musicians. He worked with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk early in his career. Known as "Trane" to his friends, he went on to form his own band in the 1950s, playing radical harmonic and melodic changes that some music critics called "sheets of sound." For four years, John and Alice Coltrane lived as husband and wife, creating "avant garde" jazz until Coltrane's untimely death in 1967. He died from liver cancer at the age of 41. Coltrane's influence over Alice, much like the musical idolatry from his fans, is remarkably strong. Alice Coltrane claims to have spoken to her dead husband. "I see him physically in my room while I'm in a transcendental state," she says. The first time she saw Coltrane, she says, was about a month after he died. "I was sitting in my bedroom meditating when the door opened and Coltrane walked in. He had an instrument that looked like the soprano sax he used to play," she recalls. "He was playing it. Sometimes he looked better than when he was alive." She saw her husband on occasion over a 12-year period, Mrs. Coltrane says. It's been nine years now since she last spoke to John, and she believes it's because he's been reincarnated and is living in his next life. She admits that many people may find her accounts to be unlikely. "I know people don't understand or believe what I'm saying," she says. "All I can say to them is to mediate and find out for themselves." Alice McLeod Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937, growing up in a musical family. She became an accomplished pianist, studying under the jazz pianist Bud Powell and later playing with major musicians. In 1963, she met John coltrane in a jazz club in Europe, and what began as professional adoration soon gave way to romance. The two were married a year later, and Alice joined her husband's band in 1966 replacing pianist McCoy Tyner. Both Coltrane and his wife became deeply religious and began studying the music and religions of the East--especially India. It seems ironic that the woman, once intensely devoted to her music, has cast it aside for what she calls "the path of devotion and understanding." She stopped touring extensively 12 years ago and cut herself off from most of her friends. "Some of it was due to location and distance," she offers. "With some, I just didn't call or correspond." Now, Mrs. Coltrane keeps herself busy with the Vedantic Center, a spiritual center she founded 14 years ago in Agoura, Calif. As the center's director, she holds the title of swami. She also produces a spiritual half-hour television program, which is shown in the spring on Los Angeles' Channel 18. Although she no longer performs regularly, Mrs. Coltrane carries on her late husband's music through the "John Coltrane Festival." The festival, which is funded through Coltrane's estate, highlights the work and talents of young musicians. The Coltrane children have followed in their parents' musical footsteps. Michelle, 28; Ravi, 23, and Oran, 21, live in the Los Angeles area, spending their time studying and developing music and frequently attending their mother's spiritual services at the center. (The couple's first born son, John Jr., died in 1982). She doesn't spend too much time in the "music room," which seems more like a shrine to her fallen hero. The room is the exact replica of the music room in the couple's former home in New York. Everything is in place, the grand piano, the Persian rugs, the many African instruments and Coltrane's numerous awards. Ironically, there is not a single saxophone in the room. One of his saxophones is stored in a back room of the house. The others are used by his sons and a nephew. For Mrs. Coltrane there are many pleasant memories of her late husband, and for those reasons, she never remarried. "I don't know that I'd want to live in the proximity with less a man," she says... "I could never marry again." There is talk of recording and performing again. Alice hasn't done so in 12 years. But more than anything else, she longs for others to appreciate Coltrane's musical accomplishments as much as she does. "John needed to take music to a new level," she says. "That's why when you listen to John Coltrane, you hear everything. Everything was in his music. That's why it's important for people to never forget the contributions he made." COPYRIGHT 1989 Johnson Publishing Co. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

It's extremely difficult - let's say impossible - that it will ever come out on Cd. It's a 2 LP set. There are some great stories behind it, of course. And it was a big mess thanks!

Yes, I was there... wonderful. hoping it comes to cd. the recordings are valuable, i hear. it's a 3 record set? all those egos together must have made for great stories.

heard on wnur this morning. anyone know about this supergroup? 057 - LABORATORIO DELLA QUERCIA 2/ Dialogando (Terenzi) 11:10 Recorded at "Quercia Del Tasso", Roma (I), July 5-6, 1978 Danilo Terenzi: trombone; Roswell Rudd: trombone. 3/ La Quercia (coll. improvisation) 21:29 Recorded at "Quercia Del Tasso", Rome (I), July 5-6, 1978 Evan Parker: soprano, tenor; Danilo Terenzi: trombone; Frederik Rzewski: piano; Kenny Wheeler: trumpet; Tristan Honsinger: cello; Paul Lytton: drums. 1/ Tromblues (Rava) 11:00 4/ Vortex Waltz (Giammarco) 14:46 5/ Nella Casa Delle Papere (Colombo) 10:07 6/ La Legge E'Uguale Per Tutti (Vittorini) 6:11 7/ The Message From The Maine (Rudd) 18:00 Recorded at "Quercia Del Tasso", Rome (I), July 5-6, 1978 Kenny Wheeler: trumpet; Alberto Corvini: trumpet; Enrico Rava: trumpet; Roswell Rudd: trombone; Danilo Terenzi: trombone; Evan Parker: soprano, te- nor; Maurizio Giammarco: sopranino, soprano, tenor, flute; Steve Lacy: so- prano; Steve Potts: soprano, alto; Massimo Urbani: alto; Eugenio Colombo: alto, baritone saxophone; Tommaso Vittorini: baritone saxophone; Frederik Rzewski: piano; Martin Joseph: piano; Tristan Honsinger: cello; Irene Aebi: cello; Kent Carter: cello, bass; Roberto Bellatella: cello, bass; Paul Lytton: drums, percussion; Noel McGhee: drums; Roberto Gatto: drums. 1979 - Horo Records (Italy), HDP 39-40 (2xLP)

i would be surprised if many of our heroes dont have many stamps honoring them in europe.

......fine effort! an all-star cast, dontcha think!

beautiful kenny clarke show tuesday night!

New stamp honors Ella Fitzgerald By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press WriterWed Jan 10, 2:25 AM ET The lady is a stamp! The U.S. Postal Service honors the First Lady of Song — Ella Fitzgerald — with her own postage stamp Wednesday. The 39-cent stamp is being released at ceremonies at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, and will be on sale across the country. People who don't know about her will see the stamp and think: "What makes this person special? And perhaps find out about the person and about the music," said her son, Ray Brown Jr. Fitzgerald wasn't self-important, perhaps reflecting the values she sang about in the Rodgers and Hart song "The Lady is a Tramp": "I don't like crap games, with barons and earls. Won't go to Harlem, in ermine and pearls. Won't dish the dirt, with the rest of the girls. That's why the lady is a tramp." Phoebe Jacobs, executive vice president of The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and a longtime friend of Fitzgerald, described the singer as "a very private lady, very humble." After Fitzgerald confided in 1961 that she had never had a birthday party, Jacobs gathered a star-studded collection of people for the special event. The party was a secret, so Fitzgerald was told to dress up because there was a television interview. "When the lights came on she took her pocket book and hit me on the shoulder," Jacobs recalled. "She was like a little kid, she was so happy." Fitzgerald was a baseball fan and the guests included her favorite player, Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle. They embraced and traded autographs. Fitzgerald's appearance on a stamp comes less than a year after Mantle was featured among baseball sluggers. Born in Newport News, Va., in 1917, Ella Jane Fitzgerald moved with her mother to Yonkers, N.Y., as a youngster and began to sing and dance from an early age. She began winning talent competitions in the early 1930s and was hired to sing with Chick Webb's band. She later became famous as a scat singer, vocalizing nonsense syllables, and performed with most of the great musicians of the time. She recorded the song books of such composers as Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and Johnny Mercer. Over the years, Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy Awards and many other honors, including the National Medal of Arts, presented to her in 1987 by President Reagan. ___

Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Classical music can help change the world A reader posted a very interesing comment on my recent article Music can change the world - Indeed, Harry Belafonte, and other pop music icons, have made a difference, and continue to, but what comparable influence have classical musicians had in the last 50 years? ... the last 100 years? - Bodie Pfost. Now that is a good point. There have been many examples of classical musicians (and composers are excluded from this discussion) making media friendly gestures in support of human rights, but very few examples of musicians actually prepared to lose their freedom, and audience, in pursuit of what they believe in. But among the exceptions is Paul Robeson (pictured here), and his activism is particularly relevant with the controversy over the execution of Saddam Hussein still reverberating around the world, as Robeson founded the American Crusade Against Lynching. Robeson is best known as an actor and singer, and for his powerful bass-baritone voice which reached down to C below the bass clef. He was acclaimed for his playing of Othello in Shakespeare's play, and his celebrated concert performances helped achieve a wide audience for Negro spirituals. He was also a political activist. He campaigned for the rights of Asian and Black Americans, and as part of this founded the American Crusade Against Lynching. In 1948, Robeson was active in the presidential campaign to elect Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace, and went on the campaign trail among ethnic minorities in the southern states. His political vews resulted in NBC cancelling his scheduled appearance on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s television program, Today with Mrs. Roosevelt, in 1950. In 1950, after he refused to sign an affidavit that he was not a Communist, the U.S. government took away Robeson's passport. When Robeson and his lawyers asked officials at the U.S. State Department why it was "detrimental to the interests of the United States Government" for him to travel abroad, they were told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries". The travel ban ended in 1958 when a U.S. Supreme Court test case ruled that the Secretary of State had no right to deny a passport, or require any citizen to sign an affidavit, because of his or her political beliefs As I described in a recent article Robeson was president of the English Pete Seeger Committee, of which Benjamin Britten was also a member. This committee sponsored Seeger's visit to the UK in 1961 while the singer was awaiting sentencing for contempt of Congress. The photograph here shows Seeger testifying to the House on Un-American Activities Committee in 1955. Robeson's support for the Soviet Union was controversial. He took part in pro-Soviet rallies to combat fascism and anti-semitism in the early 1940s, sung in the USSR in 1949, and was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952, and continued his support for the USSR after clear evidence of the Soviet regimes anti-semitism emerged. Robeson, who died in 1976, was a fearless and committed campaigner for human rights. Even if some of his later activism was naive and misguided, he can truly be said to be a classical musican who showed that music can help change the world. Now for more on classical music and ethnic diversity read BBC Proms - a multicultural society? Pete Seeger photo credit New York Post Corp. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

http://www.jubilatores.com/music.html or http://www.jubilatores.com/index.html

Woman wants kids back after social worker marries ex-husband CLEVELAND (AP) - A woman says she was persuaded to give up custody of her four children by a social worker who secretly dated and later married her ex-husband. Rochelle Kidd and her lawyer are asking a judge to review how social worker Na'Sheema Hillmon handled the case. ADVERTISEMENT Kidd, 31, was so convinced by conversations with the social worker that her ex-husband was going to gain custody of the kids that she agreed to it, said attorney Josh Barnhizer. His client wants a chance to get her children back and deserves to know if Hillmon influenced county officials in the custody fight, he said. Hillmon resigned from the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services after the department found out about the marriage. County officials reviewed the file at the time and still believe the children belong with their father and not with Kidd, who acknowledged whipping them with an electrical cord before taking parenting and anger management courses. "What this worker did is horrendous, in my opinion," said Jim McCafferty, director of the Family Services department, which handled the case. "I'm not trying to defend that. I'm sick over this. All I can say is that as soon as it came to our attention, we took aggressive action on this." The children's ages range from 6 to 12 years old. McCafferty said the county has not received any allegations of maltreatment by the father, Victor Anderson. Hillmon, 30, said it was a mistake and unprofessional to get romantically involved with Anderson but believes the children are better off because of it. "I just going to be honest with you and tell you that I fell in love with these kids before I ever knew Victor's name. ...I found happiness, and I'm sorry it was at somebody else's expense," Hillmon said. "But her children are very well taken care of. I do their hair, I do their laundry, and love them to death. I do." The county took the children from Kidd's home about three months after Kidd and Anderson married in January 2004. The parents lived apart, and Anderson was given custody by October 2004. The children sometimes stayed with their mother as well. The children were removed from Kidd again in May 2005 after the youngest boy, then 4, was seen hanging over a porch railing unsupervised. Anderson was given legal custody in June 2005, just days after divorcing Kidd. Hillmon and Anderson married seven weeks later. Hillmon said their relationship did not start until weeks before they married. Hillmon continued on the case and filed an affidavit with the court in August 2005 saying she had visited the family at Anderson's residence and found "the home and living situation appropriate." She did not mention she had married Anderson. Kidd's lawyer said his client deserves an unbiased chance to reunite with her children. "My kids shouldn't have to go through this," Kidd said. "The games that was played, it just ain't right. Once they saw what Ms. Hillmon did, they should've got back in touch with me and helped me get my kids back." ___ Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com

aye

Mr. Donche could use a new geography book. that comment, i think, was tongue-in-cheek.

Afghanistan and Wyoming: A Comparison December 24th, 2006 The distance between Wyoming and Afghanistan is extensive, reaching nearly 800 thousand miles. The country of Afghanistan is a land-locked mass of desolation, populated by a unique breed of people, most of whom possess livestock and/or firearms. None of the vehicles are required to pass an emmissions test, and many of the drivers are skilled on dirt thoroughfares. Everywhere you turn there is construction of some sort taking place. The landscape itself is a variation of mountains, valleys, rivers, sparsely populated urban collections of a relatively simplistic nature, one tree on the Eastern side and many on the Western, lots of rocks and dirt, and snow. The countryside is primarily the same color as the University of Wyoming athletic teams, as is Wyoming’s beautiful countryside. The dust is ubiquitous; it is alive and has ninja-like qualities, efficiently sneaking up on you and lurking at every turn. It is bordered to the South by Pakistan, which it aspires to be like in all things. But, like Colorado, Pakistan has more people and thinks it is better than Afghanistan. The animals, both wild and domestic, are all free range, which means at any given moment one could find itself fused to the framework of your automobile. Large spiders run rampant. A similarly common phenomenon is the relentless ration of high-speed winds which one becomes oblivious to after enough torment. The weather can change at a moment’s notice. There are more animals than people, and at least six cars for every citizen. There are more trucks than any other type of vehicle. Many of the citizens speak broken English. It is not advisable to drink the water in some places. A portion of the population still uses outhouses. The children all want to live somewhere else. Many people move away, only to return later. There are still early-model tractors in use. Many people attend religious services, sometimes because there is nothing else to do. Each village has at least a mechanic who can fix anything with anything else, a grocer, and sometimes a gas station. It takes a long time to get from one end to the other. The tourists always stand out. You don’t need to lock your door sometimes, and sometimes there are no doors anyways. Everyone seems to know everyone else. Some scientists speculate that Afghanistan is Wyoming’s less desirable twin. The above description of Afghanistan might give some the impression that it sucks terribly, however, such is not the case. Well, at least not for the reason that first crosses one’s mind. The point is, being that I am from Wyoming, and even though I am far from home, I see a lot of things that remind me of the big double-u y. It is obvious that the folks back home keep us in their minds and hearts, and we appreciate everything you do to support us over here. Don’t ever think that your actions go unnoticed–we see it. We are bombarded with thoughtful gifts and letters and thanks from you all each day. It is clear that you care, but I wanted you all to know that you are in our hearts also. Have a Merry Christmas! –Senior Airman Dan Donche, 20th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron, Afghanistan http://www.casperstartribune.net/militaryBlog/

just found i missed the sinatra orgy. damn. damn. damn. havent checked hrb in a long time. archives, maybe?