SPOILER ALERT! This post assumes you have seen the movie Frozen and are familiar with the characters and story. If you have not yet seen the movie, you shouldn’t be wasting your time reading blogs anyway.
NOTE: I will not do many movie reviews on this blog. Only movies that touch on the themes of this blog (and that I saw and liked) will get mentioned. Frozen falls into that category. Gravity also falls into that category and will likely get a review when it comes out on DVD (as I want to see it again to have it fresh in my mind).
Frozen will probably end up being my favorite movie of 2013 despite stiff competition. While Gravity matches Frozen in heart (and has one of the most amazing movie endings ever) and Despicable Me 2 is probably the funniest movie I’ve seen in quite a while, Frozen is a happy medium of the two. It blends deep emotion with lighthearted humor to make a very captivating (and fun) story. As I alluded in my promo post, Frozen is not a romance. It is also not about “girl power” as one critic put it. It is, however, a love story. It is the story of two sisters coming of age and “testing the ice”. It is a story of two emotional journeys.
And so, without further delay, here is my (heavily abridged) review/critique of Disney’s Frozen.
Frozen opens showing two girls with no emotional problems. They are happy. They are safe. They love each other and feel loved by each other. That and they’re darn cute. Anna wakes Elsa up in the middle of the night, intruding on her space, and Elsa doesn’t get mad. She, in turn, pushes Anna away (off the bed) and Anna isn’t crushed. Why? Because they have bonded. They trust in each other’s love and care for each other. They believe they belong and are valued.
It’s also important to note that Elsa is already showing signs of introversion and Anna is showing strong signs of extroversion. The thought of playing alone, even though it’s the middle of the night, has seemingly not even crossed Anna’s mind. This is important as these personality types are clearly natural bents not a result of the coming events.
Then the inciting moment happens. Elsa strikes Anna with her powers accidentally and the mood changes. The girls’ parents rush in and immediately react. Unfortunately, for everyone other than the audience (cause there’d have been no story), they react out of fear. They blame Elsa. They label part of who Elsa is as bad. As Elsa trusts her parents, she believes them. Part of her is bad. Part of her is unwanted.
They rush off to the troll, Pabbie, who begins with a very key question. At this point in the movie, I was already enjoying it as Tangled 2.0. But with this question, it began to dawn on me just how deep this movie was headed. The question Pabbie asks is “Born with the powers or cursed?” This is actually a pretty important distinction. A curse is something you fight to eliminate. It is foreign and not a part of your original self. Being born with something is a part of your design. You were intended that way…for a reason. If the king had answered “Cursed”, my interest in the story wouldn’t have risen. There are a lot of movies where people get cursed and go on a quest to lift the curse. But the prospect that this movie would be about dealing with the powers, not eliminating them really piqued my curiosity.
Pabbie then warns Elsa that her powers must be controlled. This is good advice. If the powers master Elsa, she will struggle. But if she can take charge of them, then they can be a force for good. This is also true of emotions. People who are controlled by their emotions struggle unceasingly, while people who are in control of their emotions can do amazing things.
Sadly, the king then steps in and redefines “control” as “suppress”. And that was the moment I decided this movie might just kick the pants off of Tangled. Because, now this story wasn’t going to be just “a rather fun story” (as Flynn Rider puts it). This story was going to be my story.
When I was as old as Elsa was in the scene where she visits the trolls, I also had a “power that I was born with”. I was off the charts good at school, learning, games, puzzles, etc. I was testing post high school level on my evaluation tests in virtually every subject, and I was nearly unbeatable at any game that involved strategy/reasoning/problem solving. I was homeschooled and so I was often learning in group situations with my brothers. It became a problem in the eyes of my parents that I was answering all the questions and everything so at one point they asked me to think up the answer silently and then keep it to myself and let the other boys answer.
This had two effects on the course of my life. One, I stopped saying what I was thinking. Instead of blurting out what came to mind, I was building a disconnect between my thoughts and my mouth. A filter is good. A disconnect is not. To this day, I struggle getting my thoughts into words. This is a large reason I write. I can give myself enough time for the words to make the jump. When I communicate orally, I open my mouth to speak and my mind is a dozen thoughts ahead and possibly already off topic. That and nothing in my head starts generating an answer until the question finishes. There is very rarely something that I’m “waiting to say”. I can’t hold more than a sentence or so in my mind at a time.
The other effect this had on my life was that I began to fear my smarts. What if I ended up smarter than my brothers? Especially my older brother, Craig? That would hurt him. Craig was my childhood hero. I wanted him to succeed so bad, I was paranoid about outshining him. Any activity Craig picked up and devoted himself to (ie. ham radios), I steered clear of so he could “be the best” in that area. I prayed many times as a child and even as a teenager that God would “make me dumber”. I also prayed for Craig nightly that he would succeed. I wrote PFC (pray for Craig) on the inside of my retainer case. If any success I had discouraged him, I would have counted it a failure. In short, I had a power I was born with and I had been taught (or taught myself) to fear. So when Elsa is isolated to shield her powers from her sibling, I was sitting up in my seat, glued to the screen. (Craig, by the way, is currently succeeding plenty with his life.)
Emotional suppression is a very hard thing to live with. Just as Elsa did, I believed that suppressing my talents was for the “greater good”. My family will be better off if… People will like me if… I’ll fit in better if… These people become the “glue” of their families. They are the sacrifice to keep the family functioning. They are worried about becoming a source of trouble and so they become very little of anything at all. This is true in Elsa’s case. Never does she protest her parents’ instructions. Each new rule they make (confinement, the gloves), she accepts as necessity. The safety and well-being of those around her becomes her responsibility. She mustn’t hurt anyone ever again. She mustn’t hurt Anna. It is out of love that Elsa closes the door and locks her powers (and her emotions) away.
Then the parents die. This cements their wishes in Elsa’s mind. And the parents’ fear is passed from one generation to the next. I want to note here that the parents are not bad parents. Compare them to Mother Gothel from Tangled. These parents care for their kids. They are doing what they think is best. And same goes for my own life. My parents have loved me since the day I was born and never once intended for me to become isolated. They gave me the absolute best they knew.
Three years pass and it’s the coronation day. Elsa is a reclusive hermit bent on honoring her parents’ wishes and keeping their rules. She fears people finding out. She believes people will reject her if they knew what she really was. Anna on the other hand has a restless, empty heart that she longs for someone to fill. Her love tank is on empty and she knows it. She also knows that young men are rumored to fill said love tanks, and this has become her mission. This is no “fairy tale princess flight of fancy”. This is a hunger at the core of her being to belong to someone. To be loved by someone. Her emotional attachment count is at zero. Prince Hans could have been an ugly, lazy alcoholic who made fun of her and she still would have fallen for him.
And here we have the first of several contrasts. When Hans and Anna show up in the banquet hall to ask Elsa’s permission to marry, we see two girls with serious hurts reacting to them in to very common yet different ways. Elsa’s isolation has shielded her from intimacy. Intimacy, in her book, is too dangerous. If you read my previous posts, she is the righteous rule follower. Anna on the other hand dives head first into intimacy. The faster the better. She is drinking till the well runs dry as fast as she can go. She is the reckless rebel.
We then have a telling repeat of the girls’ opening scene. Anna intrudes on Elsa’s space (by snatching off her glove) and Elsa recoils. Elsa pushes Anna away and she is crushed. Neither action was done in anger or even in frustration. Neither sister has any intent of hurting the other. And yet this time the reactions are way different. No longer do they have the bond of emotional attachment supporting their trust in each other’s love for them. The trust has turned to doubt and now these actions are signs: answers to the question “Does my sister love me?”
Elsa’s powers are then revealed and all her work at being the glue of her family is dashed. Her family is now well and truly broken apart and it’s her fault. She realizes that all the sacrifices she made for Anna have amounted to nothing. She is a failure. And she is no longer safe. She flees to protect herself. This is very common in emotionally suppressed people. When their emotions are laid bare, they flee until they’re safe again. They know no other course. Reason goes out the window. Anna’s pleading with her sister to wait, to stop, to come back, fell on deaf ears.
Anna also immediately assumes it’s her fault. She has had a decade or more to conclude why her sister would reject her. But to her credit she still clings to the hope that her sister still loves her. She rides off in search of Elsa and the arc of the story begins. I want to pause here and just say: Anna is not an airhead. She is driven by what she wants and stops at nothing to get it. WHAT she wants changes as her arc progresses, but she is not just blundering around aimlessly. She is also the only character to learn something by listening to another’s advice. She has a brain and it is processing from beginning to end. I would argue that though she has a lot to learn, she starts and ends the movie more emotionally stable than does Elsa.
Elsa arrives on the mountain and sings her big song “Let It Go” (which I’m pretty sure everyone who has been around me in the last month is sick of). What happens here is that she throws off the rules of her childhood. The righteous rule follower allows herself to rebel, to experience freedom. No more will she suppress who she really is. She’s going to let it go. Good or bad, she’s going to be real. And there is a moment here that I missed the significance of the first time I watched it. She builds a bridge and then crosses it. This is a direct contrast to the moment she freezes Anna. She is trusting her powers again. She is trusting herself. Next, she builds a fortress to protect herself. Within these walls, she is free. Outside, the world doesn’t matter. To her, it may as well not even exist. She is free. And, she is alone.
In my state of isolation, when I was alone, I often felt freedom. It is freeing to be away from the people you fear you will hurt. It allows you to relax. But it is far from a good solution. She is still alone. She has not cured the root of her problem: her lack of emotional attachment. She has only broken out of the mindset she was in that was keeping her from healing. But hey, there’s still popcorn to be eaten.
Anna meets Kristoff (woohoo! big summer blowout! ya?). Another critique I’ve heard against the movie is that Kristoff’s character arc is completely flat. Well, it is. He’s a foil. (That’s why it’s not a romance.) Anna describes Hans to Kristoff and it is clear that Hans has become Anna’s anchor: the well from which her thirst for belonging will be quenched. She has hope. This is something that Elsa does not have yet. Anna also has purpose. She doesn’t necessarily know what she needs, but she’s determined to find it.
Anna and Kristoff meet Olaf, another foil. He is pure comic relief until later, …so I will ignore him until that time.
Anna and Kristoff arrive at Elsa’s palace. I love this scene as it allows Anna to see Elsa without her mask. She gets the answer to her question of “Why did my sister shut me out?” And her response is “Heck yes, I forgive you. Let’s be sisters again.” She says all the right things. She is not condemnatory. She is vulnerable. She is loving. But Elsa triggers (recalling the childhood accident) and pulls back yet again. This is a darn good illustration of an emotional trigger. You can have love and relationship staring you in the face and yet, you can’t see it. Again, when one is emotionally triggered, reason is gone. As Anna pushes in more, Elsa only gets worse. Until she snaps and once again hurts her sister and pushes her away.
They go to visit the trolls. Anna is doubting her ability to bring her sister back. Words didn’t work. The trolls actually have some good advice this time. In the song “Fixer Upper”, there is a line that goes, “People make bad choices when they’re mad or scared or stressed, but throw a little love their way and you’ll bring out their best.” You can tell Anna is processing this and thinking of her sister. This advice tells her two things. One, Elsa’s fresh rejection is not because of her. And Elsa can yet be saved. Anna is learning some rules for love rather than just solely feeling her way along.
But Anna now has a more immediate problem. She is freezing solid. She needs some love of her own. And here we come to the ending which consists of four characters “saving the day” through love. And it’s interesting that it goes in order from most mature to least mature. Kristoff goes first and races Anna to her love (even though by now it’s clear he wishes that were him). He is willing (as Olaf puts it) to love Anna so much to give her what SHE wants most and let her go. Olaf then risks melting to warm Anna up and encourage her. These two acts fill Anna’s love tank. She gets a taste of genuine emotional attachment. When she arrives on the lake, she in turn chooses to give love to her sister even at the cost of the thing she has wanted most the entire movie: romantic love. Kristoff, the proven source of what she has been longing for for so long, is literally running towards her. Instead, she makes the ultimate sacrifice and takes the sword for her sister. This pierces Elsa’s shell. Elsa had previously let her sister see her as she really was with her hurts and her pain and her fear. Yet Anna responds to this reality with love. And this touches Elsa very deeply. She can feel this love. And she in turn loves Anna, thawing her and making her new (her hair doesn’t even have the mark of the original freezing).
And then we have the resolution of the various arcs. Anna and Kristoff get together. WOOHOO! I thought it was fine they didn’t have a guy for Elsa. I briefly hoped that Elsa and Kristoff would get together (since he was stable enough for her and he really likes ice). But to come from where she was to stable enough for a relationship would have been unrealistic. She is healing, but she has a long way to go. I also like that the ending scene is Anna and Elsa, not Anna and Kristoff once again affirming that this story is not about romance. It is a story of children overcoming obstacles and becoming adults. Of people learning to value themselves and to give and receive love. Of one sibling setting out to reach the heart of her sister and bring her home. The movie ends how it began with two sisters skating in the snow which they both love and which neither fears.
So what did I not like? The resolution of Prince Hans’ arc irks me every time. He has the same emotional wound that the sisters do, yet there is no effort made to show him love. He has responded to his hurt and powerlessness by becoming an abuser (not that uncommon). But if we could see beneath the surface, we would see a wound as deep as Elsa’s or Anna’s and we would have much more pity for him. Yes he still needs to be punished. He is still responsible for his actions. But I don’t see him as the villain in this movie.
The true villain is fear itself. Fear drove the parents to isolate Elsa. Fear drove the sisters to question each other’s love. Fear drove Elsa out away from the people that loved her. Fear drove Hans to try to marry into the throne. Fear drove Anna to fall for him. And on and on it goes. Hans should have had at least a scene of glimpsing beneath his shell if not a shot at redeeming himself.
Finally, what did I like best? Two things which in a way are related. First, the accurate portrayal of two big problems kids face today: emotional isolation and emotional rejection. There are a lot of Elsas in this world (I was one of them). There are also a lot of Annas. Most of them grew up in seemingly normal homes (though many regretfully did not). But emotional attachment was obstructed as they matured (perhaps out of fear, misunderstanding, false beliefs, past experiences, etc.). I think a lot of people are going to see themselves and their hurts in either of the sisters.
Secondly, I loved the message of the story’s resolution: people need emotional attachment, and that attachment does not have to be a romantic relationship. It does not have to be cool. It does not have to be with this person or that person. It doesn’t have to be with your parents. (It doesn’t have to be with your siblings either.) It needs to be with someone who sees you as you really are and loves you anyway. The entire story of Frozen is driven by Anna’s seemingly nonsensical notion that Elsa is still worthy of love and that the bond that they once shared can be reforged.


Kim Cooley is a Williamsport native and has been married to her husband Ted for 36 years. She has two sons, Chris and Justin, who are also involved with the studio. She started dancing at the age of five with Mary Louise Williams. Throughout high school, Kim was involved in gymnastics and color guard. After graduating from Williamsport High School and studying business at Williamsport Area Community College (now Penn College), she continued to dance and work for the Williamsport National Bank and then as the office manager for Clarkson Chemical Company.
She has been dancing a total of 41 years and has been teaching dance in the Williamsport area for 29 years. She has experience teaching dance, ages two through adult, including tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, modern, preschool, and ballroom. Kim has also shared her love of dance with physically and mentally challenged individuals. She choreographed dances for school shows and has done the choreography for school musicals at Bishop Neumann High School, now St. John Neumann Regional Academy. Kim has performed in The Gary Chrisman live show over the years. Kim's background includes experience as an aerobic instructor and participating in competitive aerobics. She has attended numerous dance seminars including: Music Works Unlimited, Robert Christopher, Urban Jam, Jeff Shade's Jazz seminars and Face of the Future. She teaches dance classes at the studio and is also our office manager. Kim loves teaching children and adults dance and has been devoted to dance for most of her life. When Kim is not teaching dance and running the studio office, she enjoys working in her garden, playing with her dogs, playing golf, watching football and baseball, and most of all, caring for her family.
Lauren Cooley, originally from Ridgway, PA, has been dancing since the age of 5. She was a student of April School of Dance for 12 years, where she was exposed to various types of dance including tap, ballet and jazz. Throughout high school, Lauren was also involved in band and musicals, such as “Bye Bye Birdie” and “A Chorus Line”. In 2005, she graduated from Lycoming College with a BA in Photography and Commercial Design. While at Lycoming, she was an active member in the Dance Club. Lauren is proud that she was one of the members who helped form the Dance Club into the popular organization that it is today. She taught tap and took classes in Ballet, Lyrical, Hip-hop, Pointe, and Jazz. After graduating, she was lucky enough to marry into a family that is just as crazy about dance as she is! Her husband Chris has been producing dance shows and working backstage since he was 9, and will continue to do so for the Cooley Dance Company. Lauren has been teaching and choreographing in the area post graduation. She choreographed for the Williamsport Area High School's musical production of "Kiss Me Kate" in 2009 which was a nominee for best choreography of a Large Scale Musical at the first annual "Ray of Light Awards". In 2010, she choreographed for the Williamsport Community Theater League's production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie". She also worked with the Williamsport Area High School and choreographed "Grease". In 2012, Lauren worked with Montoursville Area High School's production of "Godspell", which won "best Choreography". In 2013, she choreographed "Anything Goes" for WAHS. Now entering her 23rd year dancing, she is thrilled to have her own studio!
In 2009, she began her 4-year certification under Dance Masters of America. Dance Masters is an international organization of dance educators who have been certified by test to teach. The training school program includes training and teaching philosophies in a variety of subjects, as well as keeping up with current trends in the dance industry. She also enjoys attending MusicWorks Seminars. Outside of dance, Lauren loves portrait photography, cooking, gardening, and traveling. She is employed as a photographer. She enjoys spending time with her family and trying to catch her Jack Russell, Emma.
Lynn Zitta Miss Lauren's sister, also hails from Ridgway, PA and has been dancing since the age of 4. At April School of Dance she studied 14 years of ballet and tap, 6 years of lyrical, 5 years of pointe, 3 years of jazz and 2 years of stretch, turns, jumps. In her senior year she taught an intermediate ballet and beginner pointe class and was a member of the Dynamic Dance Competition Company. Lynn has had the opportunity to perform in both the Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. Throughout high school she choreographed for numerous school musicals and community theatre productions as well. At Lycoming College, Lynn served as ballet teacher for 6 semesters in the Dance Club and was Co-Captain for 2 years.
Lynn graduated from Lycoming College in 2011 with a degree in Creative Writing and will be graduating with an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in July 2013. She is employed full-time as a copywriter. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her husband Adam, writing poetry and crafting. Lynn is thrilled to be able to teach alongside her sister and has plans to start a competition dance group at the studio in the future.


You're moving and you have actually got a few valuable, valuable products. Or maybe you have a great deal of them. There's a good opportunity that some of these possessions are art pieces. Whether it's an investment or genuinely special art work to you, you'll wish to take additional care during your relocation.
Full-service moving companies need to understand the procedure with art work, and this is most likely an added service that they will use. But whether they are looking after it or you would rather have the task in your very own trusted hands, you'll need to know exactly what should be done. If you are utilizing a moving company, ensure you speak with them prior to the move to comprehend their methods so they are up to par with your expectations.
Tissue paper or plain newsprint is strongly suggested to cover and protect the surface of your piece. For optimal defense during the relocation itself, you might want to utilize hardboard, however at the minimum, get corrugated cardboard.
Follow this procedure for securing your art work:
Slide a piece of cardboard beneath the painting. Make certain to keep your hands and fingers off of the work and deal with the cardboard from here on out.
If you have the tissue paper or paper (again, recommended), location it over the face of the painting. You might want to tape the paper down on the corners, but ensure it is no place near the painting itself.
Cover the face of the piece with another sheet of cardboard.
Put another sheet or two of cardboard on each side of the painting to produce a more powerful structure and to prevent bending of the art work.
Wrap tape around the cardboard pieces to protect check these guys out them together.
Place this device in between 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard (or hardwood) and tape all sides together.
Your piece of art ought to now be prepared to go.
If you have framed pieces of artwork, you'll need strong boxes. You'll likewise require tape, bubble wrap and packaging peanuts, and you should consider corner protectors.
Here's ways to load it:
If you are utilizing corner protectors, place them on each corner of the piece.
Wrap the frame with bubble wrap and ensure all the corners are covered and tape it securely.
If you're using hardboard, place the wrapped work in between 2 pieces of board and tape them together.
Put packing peanuts in the bottom of your box to produce a total layer of defense.
Place your piece on this initial layer and fill the box with more peanuts. Ensure the corners are covered. The tighter the fit in the peanuts, the much better.
Seal package shut by taping all edges of package.
Your framed work is all set to move.
If a moving business or a carrier is moving your art work, guarantee the art for its complete worth. If utilizing a carrier, it's finest to shy away from delivering it by ground, as there is more chance for possible damage.
Whether it's a financial investment or genuinely unique art work to you, you'll desire to take additional care throughout your relocation.
Full-service moving business need to understand the treatment with art work, and this is most likely an included service that they will use. If you are utilizing a moving business, make sure you talk to them prior to the relocation to comprehend their approaches so they are up to par with your expectations.
For optimal defense throughout the relocation itself, you might desire to utilize hardboard, however at the minimum, get corrugated cardboard.
If a moving company or a shipper is moving your artwork, insure the art for its full value.


This collection of ongoing works shows a highly coloured mix reflecting my impressions emanating from the country surrounding Alice Springs and beyond. I use photographs, drawings and memory as the basis of my studio produced work.
I am inspired by Coober Pedy and the beautiful colours of the opals mined there, the Ochre pits and the spectacular Rainbow Valley. Here sandstone weathered by water and wind over thousands of years has formed into the most incredible shapes. The depth and range of the colours of these unique shapes is a driving force behind my work.


The Birthplace of Tea
Primeval tea trees cover remote regions of China's Yunnan Province, where tea is thought to have originated. Some trees are nearly 2000-years-old. In 729, at the beginning of Japan's Nara period, Emperor Shomu entertained a group of Buddhist monks with tea, indicating that by this point tea had already made its way into the imperial court, perhaps through diplomatic missions to China. Tea of this era was exclusively matcha, made from pulverizing steamed and dried tea leaves into a fine powder and mixed with hot water.
Taking Root in Japanese Culture
Tea first became widely known during the early years of the Kamakura era (1185-1333), when it was promoted by Zen monks for its medicinal virtues. But it was not until the Higashiyama phase of the Muromachi era (1336-1573) that it assumed definite cultural connotations.
Higashiyama culture is associated with the reception room style of architecture typified by the Silver Pavilion. The tea ceremony of the period shows the influence of this style of architecture, and is known as shoin daisu cha, serving tea on a stand in a reception room. It was a highly aristocratic affair that favored the use of splendid utensils and sumptuous ornamentation in Chinese style. Nobles and the cream of the warrior class would gather on these occasions to enjoy the aesthetic merits of the paintings displayed and the tea utensils themselves.
The Aesthetics of Tea “Wabi”
The shoin daisu cha style of tea ritual treasured Sinicized splendor to the exclusion of everything else. It was a Zen priest by the name of Shuko Murata who is said to be the founder of wabi-cha, a style of Japanese tea ceremony that emphasizes simplicity.
Until that time the focus had been on Chinese tea utensils. Murata replaced the Chinese utensils with locally made crafts. In addition he popularized building a small tea room exclusively for the enjoyment of tea simply for its taste. It became especially fashionable among the townspeople of Sakai, one of the most important seaports in Japan. The city's free and independent spirit proved fertile soil for this new style.
Tea Ceremony was further refined by the great Sen no Rikyu, tea master to the renowned Samurai rulers Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Sen no Rikyu raised Murata’s Wabi concept to the level of a highly philosophical aesthetic, which can be summed up in the phase “Chazen Ichimi”: tea and Zen are one.
Kahei Yamamoto II and the Spread of Sencha
The age of Hideyoshi came to a close, and control of the country fell into the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu. At the same time a new method of drinking tea involving sencha or "infused tea" arose alongside the traditional tea ceremony. Sencha is tea made from whole tea leaves as opposed to the matcha powder form.
One theory holds that sencha was transmitted to Japan via the Zen Buddhism of Ming-Dynasty China. A Confucian scholar at the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1867) called Ishikawa Jozan is said to have systematized the etiquette used. Another century passed and new life was breathed into the drinking of sencha by a former Zen monk turned tea peddler, Baisao.
It was around this time that Yamamotoyama became involved in the history of sencha. In 1738, Soen Nagatani introduced a new way of tea manufacturing with a technique called aosei sencha, meaning “steamed green tea process”. This process yields a yellow-green fresh color with a balanced sweetness and a mild astringency. It is most similar to the taste of green tea today.
The tea available at this time and consumed by the common people was minimally processed. It yielded a tea brown in color with a slight amount of astringency and sweetness. After spending almost 15 years perfecting his manufacturing technique, Nagatani set out for Edo (modern day Tokyo) to sell his new idea. As this was a truly unique way of drinking tea, nobody seemed to be interested in his new creation, nobody except Kahei Yamamoto II.
Yamamoto II had a small tea business at that time. He was so impressed with Nagatani’s new invention that he started to sell this new “steamed green tea” at his shop. He named it tenkaichi, meaning “the best on earth.” The tea went on to become the shop’s best seller.
Once sencha gained widespread popularity, the formal display associated with tea drinking gave way to an even more simplified method of drinking tea: put the leaves in a teapot, add hot water then consume the resulting brew. Without the ceremonial constrains, this simple ritual could be performed multiple times on a daily basis. The Japanese tea we enjoy today is the living manifestation of that tradition.
Tea, Witness to Eternity
Tea has been loved by the Japanese for over 1200 years. At first the exclusive drink of nobility, it later spread to the samurai, then the merchants and finally to the common people. Over the centuries the way it was consumed underwent numerous changes. It served variously as a medicinal brew, a status symbol, and lastly as an everyday beverage. Today it is enjoyed all over the world by people from all walks of life at any time of the day.
Drink a cup of tea - look back over the turbulent course of history on which it has been carried down to the present day - and it is no exaggeration to say that you can feel the spirit of Japan living on unbroken in every sip. Tea has seen Japan’s mighty rise and fall. It is a repository of the memory of all the innumerable tales acted out by humankind on Japanese soil. It is, perhaps, nothing less than a witness to eternity.


Director of Marketing Communications
Tanya has over two decades of marketing communications experience developing and managing 360-degree marketing initiatives: email, print, online advertising, public relations, corporate strategy, and interactive solutions for a variety of industries.
Tanya was most recently Marketing Director at ArtistWorks, an online education company that allows students to study music from top caliber and Grammy-winning artists through their patented Video Exchange® platform. In her two years there, the membership of the site more than doubled. While At ArtistWorks, she also volunteered as a brand advisor and Copywriter for Save the Bay through the Taproot Foundation.
Prior to that, as an Independent Marketing Communications Consultant, she worked with high profile clients including Bizinsure.com, KesslerSF, Rauxa, Euro RSCG/Brann Worldwide, Shutterstock, Fleischman Hillard, and Pottery Barn. Before moving to the west coast, she worked in communications for New York startups as well as for Fortune 100 companies such as IBM and Morgan Stanley.
Tanya is also a fine artist, a prolific stock photographer with Getty/Istock and holds a BA in English and Fine Art from Bowdoin College. Email her if you are interested in writing a post for our blog, submitting content to our newsletter, or forming an ongoing content share relationship with Presidio Graduate School.
Presidio Graduate School educates and inspires a new generation of skilled, visionary and enterprising leaders to transform business and public policy and create a more just, prosperous and sustainable world. Through innovative MBA and MPA and research programs, PGS activates students and professionals across a range of disciplines, industries and sectors to bridge the gap between commerce and the common good.


Vestiges of past eras, testimonies of uses and customs now obsolete … Antique objects arouse great interest today more than ever.
Antiques are a fascinating and mysterious world, all to be investigated and discovered.
In this regard, we have decided to dedicate a series of insights to the topic to highlight peculiarities and curiosities that we will publish on Monday.
The first appointment with Classic Monday is dedicated to an interesting piece of furniture that has fallen into disuse.
It is a piece of furniture that no longer appears in modern homes, except with a merely decorative function:
the game table.
Born in the Middle Ages, the gaming table has undergone several evolutions until its almost definitive disappearance in the twentieth century.
Before the reign of Louis XV any table could be used for the purpose: it was enough to place a velvet or linen cloth on it and voila, the table was ready to welcome endless games of cards or checkers.
It was only in the eighteenth century, the golden age of French furniture, that the table acquired a specific function according to its use.
It is said that Marie Antoinette, the then Queen of France, had a real addiction to gambling, and she was certainly not the only one… Much of the nobility French considered the game as one of the main forms of entertainment.
So it was that the greatest craftsmen of the time designed highly specialized tables, designed specifically for the most popular games: chess, checkers, the beloved tric-trac and so on.
These were very refined pieces, often very elaborate; The most interesting were modular, equipped with drawers and secret compartments.
The real protagonist of this period was the semicircular game table.
Open it could accommodate up to seven players, at the end of the games, the table was folded and placed against the wall where, minimally bulky, it assumed a decorative function.
Louis XVI-style furniture is considered among the most beautiful ever made; Simple and refined, characterized by classic and elegant lines.
They stand in stark contrast to the asymmetry and abundance of decorative elements of Rococo and Louis XV.
A key element is the resumption of the themes of classical Greek and Roman culture, which translates into linear shapes, geometric composure, symmetrical and evocative decorations of the ancient world.
Characteristic of this period are the lounge, play, tea and coffee tables, contained in the volumes and with thin legs with a square section, which have tapered cone or pyramid feet.
Following the French Revolution there will be a further stiffening and simplification of the furnishings.
The Directory style will be established (of which the game table in the image above is a splendid example).
With a rather rigid elegance, it maintains the classic forms of the Louis XVI period, but emptied of inlays, elaborate bronzes.
Mahogany with its austere but imperial color slowly becomes the most widespread and requested wood (which will become one of the characteristic features of the Empire era) without many frills.
It will be in the Empire era that the furniture will return to be enriched with all those symbols also sculptural related to the Roman Empire and the figure of Napoleon.
After the fall of the Napoleonic Empire there will be a further development of this type of furniture that will respond to the need to furnish the houses of the new bourgeois class.


Have an idea or vision you'd like to work with a professional artist to manifest?
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While I don't take orders for traditional "commissions," I do offer a very special option wherein you and I meet (either in-person or a skype/facetime consultation can work) so that I may get a sense of you and the project... and its energy-- and if it feels like something I am interested in taking on, I will then translate this energy and creative vision into a tangible work of art. There is a bit of intrigue, trust and Mystery involved as this is a truly :::reciprocal::: energy exchange and collaboration. The final product will be a bit of a "surprise" to both of us.
For more info or to hit me with your ideas:: firstname.lastname@example.org


Beowulf is an epic poem that focuses on a hero’s quest. Written sometime between 600 and 1000 CE, the poem tells the story of a man named Beowulf who takes up the challenge to kill Grendel, a demonic force attacking Hrothgar’s mead hall. What ensues is a story of courage eventually overcome by forces beyond the hero’s control.
Beowulf fights three major battles:
- Grendelis the first, who is terrorizing Heorot.
- Grendel’s Mother is second. She seeks revenge after Grendel’s death.
- The third is the Dragon that eventually takes Beowulf’s life.
One question is how might we classify Beowulf? Heroic characters typically fall into one of three major categories:
- Heroes (sometimes called Pure Heroes) undergo the heroic quest and are purified by it. Their flaws are removed and they become somehow perfect. They are often, then, uncompromising in their principles and moral code. Thus, they survive and bring the treasure they sought back to their own society for the purposes of making people’s lives better by enacting the proper moral code. Heroes succeed and often become god-like, even if only figuratively.
- Tragic Heroes undertake a quest, but cannot overcome their flaws. Instead of being purified by their quest, they are destroyed by it because of their willingness to compromise themselves and their principles. Often, their societies are left in ruins as a result, too.
These two serve as models of action. In other words, the idea is that they become role models to either imitate or avoid.
- A more modern version is called the Antihero, and is actually the figure we’re more familiar with. Antiheroes manage to succeed, at least partially, despite the fact that they are not purified in their quest. Thus, they are often morally ambiguous, sometimes willing to compromise certain principles for the sake of practicality or revenge.
The Antihero becomes a much more ambigous characters. Often, he achieves the results he or society wants, but he might do so in troubling ways.
Beowulf himself is often regarded as a Pure Hero. But, do you think that he embodies other traits? Look for scenes from Youtube or Google Video from the 2007 film version, particularly the battle with Grendel’s mother. You’ll find a very different portrayal of Beowulf than that which is in the poem. Where might the film producers have found the idea to turn Beowulf into an Antihero?
Discussion questions to be completed this week (10/6 – 10/10):
- What stages of the Hero’s Quest are followed in Beowulf? Keep in mind that the progression won’t be perfectly linear. Which do you think get more emphasis and why?
- If Beowulf is some form of Hero, then who/what constitutes the Villain (or pure evil)? Clearly, Grendel and his Mother qualify, but how and why? And is the Dragon a villain, or just an excuse for more blood and guts?
- Who might qualify as a Beowulf’s Shadow character? Why?
- Who would qualify as the Wise Mentor? Why?


This hand-stamped cuff bracelet fits wrists from about 6″ to 7″ and is slightly adjustable. It is available in copper, sterling silver, rose gold-filled, and gold-filled.
Please message me for a custom quote with the cherished names that you would like on it. (This one pictured is $75 in the rose gold-filled with 4 names.)
*Please note that each bracelet is handmade and is not perfect, which lends to the quirky, handmade feel of the piece.
I look forward to creating something special just for you.


Screen Printing is the traditional process for decorating apparel. For over 25 years, we’ve helped companies and organizations like yours create their perfect t-shirts. We have the capability of printing up to 12 colors per location. The process is simple. If you already have a design, send it to us and we’ll take it from there. Or if you need our help, we have a team of graphic designers ready to take your ideas and bring them to life. Visit our gallery to see our work.


Rustic Waterfront Wedding
This was the first Buffalo wedding I created a few years back. The bride requested a rustic chic theme and was on a fairly low budget. We began searching for the event venue and when we started to realize that classic wedding venues would be out of the question for her budget, I had to think outside the event hall. That's when I found the Marcy Casino at Delaware Park. Delaware Park is the prized Buffalo park where the beautiful Japanese and rose garden are located. The "Casino" as they call it is a beautiful event venue that was just the right size for her wedding, and sat overlooking a serene lake. And the very sweet cherry on top was that it costs a fraction of your average even hall. Now it was time for the fun part- wedding planning. To deliver on the bride and grooms style and budget, I picked up vintage and thrift store frames in gold, collected mason jars and lace and burlap ribbon to create a effortless wedding centerpiece that, when accompanied by the pale fresh flower palette resulted in exactly what the bride and groom dreamed of. Sometimes as an event planner, I have to get really hands on and create decor. And that's ok because it really gave the wedding that rustic homemade feel but with chic elements like the ethereal rose garden where the bride sat for part of the wedding ceremony. The second half of the ceremony took place right by the water. It was absolutely beautiful. The newlyweds were ecstatic with the whole wedding, and that's my job as a wedding planner, to simply make you happy and relieve you of all the stress of event planning.


AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS, PROSE AND PLAYS
Robert Calvert left a huge legacy of written work: poetry, song lyrics, plays, short stories. His appeal has not diminished with the passing of time and the relevance of his work, with particular emphasis on his concerns on the advancements of modern science, ring ever louder and with ever more truth. Much of his written work is now long out-of-print and fetching significant premiums when copies become available.
The Clyvedon Press is honoured to be publishing a new anthology of Robert Calvert’s poems, prose and plays. Compiled with the full authorisation and involvement of Robert’s estate, the anthology will comprise three casebound volumes and one CD, all housed in a slip case, totalling over 1500 pages. The anthology will include a substantial find of previously unknown and unpublished material that was re-discovered in 2016.
This flyer has more information, including a provisional list of contents.


Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven is widely regarded as one of history's supreme composers who produced notable works even after he completely lost his hearing. He was one of the greatest figures in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in music. His reputation has inspired — and in many cases intimidated — composers, musicians, and audiences who were to come after him. Among his most widely-recognized works are his Fifth, Sixth and Ninth symphonies (the latter containing the "Ode to Joy"); Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"); a Violin Concerto; the Pathétique, Moonlight and Appassionata piano sonatas; and the Für Elise bagatelle.
Life and work
Beethoven was born at 515 Bongasse, Bonn, Germany, to Johann van Beethoven (1740–1792), of Flemish origins; and Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven (1744–1787) of Slavic ancestry. Until relatively recently, many reference works showed 16 December as Beethoven's "date of birth", since he was baptized on 17 December and children at that time were generally baptized the day after their birth. However, modern scholarship does not make such assumptions. Beethoven's first music teacher was his father, a musician in the Electoral court at Bonn and an alcoholic who beat him and unsuccessfully attempted to exhibit him as a child prodigy like Mozart. However, others soon noticed Beethoven's talent. He was given instruction and employment by Christian Gottlob Neefe, as well as financial sponsorship by the Prince-Elector. Beethoven's mother died when he was 17, and for several years he was responsible for raising his two younger brothers. Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he intended to study with Joseph Haydn, but the old man had little time for teaching and he passed Beethoven onto Johann Albrechtsberger. He quickly established a reputation as a piano virtuoso, and more slowly, as a composer. He settled into the career pattern he would follow for the remainder of his life: rather than working for the church or a noble court (as most composers before him had done), he was a freelancer, supporting himself with public performances, sales of his works and stipends from members of the aristocracy who recognized his ability.
Beethoven's career as a composer is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods. In the Early period, he is seen as emulating his great predecessors Haydn and Mozart, at the same time exploring new directions and gradually expanding the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces from the Early period are the first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first two piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the famous Pathétique and Moonlight. The Middle period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis centering around deafness. The period is noted for large-scale works expressing heroism and struggle; these include many of the most famous works of classical music. Middle period works include six symphonies (Nos. 3–8), the last three piano concertos and his only violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), the next seven piano sonatas including the Waldstein, and Appassionata, and Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. Beethoven's Late period began around 1816 and lasted until Beethoven died in 1827. The Late works are greatly admired for and characterized by their intellectual depth, intense and highly personal expression, and experimentation with forms (for example, the Quartet in C Sharp Minor has seven movements, while most famously his Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement). This period includes the Missa Solemnis, the last five string quartets and the last five piano sonatas. Considering the depth and extent of Beethoven's artistic explorations, as well as the composer's success in making himself comprehensible to the widest possible audience, the Austrian-born British musician and writer Hans Keller pronounced Beethoven "humanity's greatest mind altogether". Beethoven's personal life was troubled. Around age 28, he started to become deaf, which led him to contemplate suicide (see the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament). He was attracted to unattainable (married or aristocratic) women, whom he idealized; he never married. Some scholars believe his period of low productivity from about 1812 to 1816 was caused by depression resulting from Beethoven's realization that he would never marry. Beethoven quarrelled, often bitterly, with his relatives and others (including a painful and public custody battle over his nephew Karl); he frequently treated other people badly. He moved often and had strange personal habits, such as wearing filthy clothing even as he washed compulsively. He often had financial troubles. Many listeners perceive an echo of Beethoven's life in his music, which often depicts struggle followed by triumph. This description is often applied to Beethoven's creation of masterpieces in the face of his severe personal difficulties. Beethoven was often in poor health, especially after his mid-20s, when he began to suffer from serious stomach pains. In 1826 his health took a drastic turn for the worse. His death the following year was attributed to liver disease, but modern research on a lock of Beethoven's hair taken at the time of his death, and a few pieces of his skull shows that lead poisoning could well have contributed to his ill-health and ultimately to his death (the levels of lead were more than 100 times higher than levels found in most people today). The source of the lead poisoning may have been fish from the heavily polluted Danube River and lead compounds used to sweeten wines. It is unlikely that lead poisoning was the cause of his deafness, which several researchers think was caused by an autoimmune disorder such as systemic lupus erythematosus. The hair analysis did not detect mercury, which is consistent with the view that Beethoven did not have syphilis (syphilis was treated with mercury compounds at the time). The absence of drug metabolites suggests Beethoven avoided opiate painkillers. Beethoven continued working on his music until he died in March 1827. His last musical sketches belong to the composition of a string quintet in C Major.
Musical style and innovations
Beethoven is viewed as one of the most important transitional figures between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. As far as musical form is concerned, he built on the principles of sonata form and motivic development that he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart, but greatly extended them, writing longer and more ambitious movements. But Beethoven also radically redefined the symphony, transforming it from the rigidly structured four-ordered-movements form of Haydn's era to a fairly open ended form that could sustain as many movements as necessary, and of whatever form as necessary to give the work cohesion. The work of Beethoven's Middle period is celebrated for its frequent heroic expression, and the works of his Late period for their intellectual depth. See also History of sonata form and Romantic music.
Personal beliefs and their musical influence
Beethoven was much taken by the ideals of the Enlightenment and by the growing Romanticism in Europe. He initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon in the belief that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution, but in 1804 tore out the title page upon which he had written a dedication to Napoleon, as Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, renamed the symphony as the "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il Sovvenire di un grand Uomo", or in English, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man". The fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony features an elaborate choral setting of Schiller's ode An die Freude ("To Joy"), an optimistic hymn championing the brotherhood of humanity. Scholars disagree on Beethoven's religious beliefs and the role they played in his work.
Beethoven the Romantic?
continuing controversy surrounding Beethoven is whether he was a Romantic or a Classical composer. As documented elsewhere, since the meanings of the word "Romantic" and the definition of the period "Romanticism" both vary by discipline, Beethoven's inclusion as a member of that movement or period must be looked at in context. If we consider the Romantic movement as an aesthetic epoch in literature and the arts generally, Beethoven sits squarely in the first half along with literary Romantics such as the German poets Goethe and Schiller (whose texts both he and the much more straightforwardly Romantic Franz Schubert drew on for songs) and the English poet Percy Shelley. He was also called a Romantic by contemporaries such as Spohr and E.T.A. Hoffman. He is often considered the composer of the first Song Cycle and was influenced by Romantic folk idioms, for example in his use of the work of Robert Burns. He set dozens of such poems (and arranged folk melodies) for voice, piano, and violin. If on the other hand we consider the context of musicology, where Romantic music is dated later; the matter is one of considerably greater debate. For some experts, Beethoven is not a Romantic, and his being one is a myth; for others he stands as a transitional figure, or an immediate precursor to Romanticism, the "inventor" of the Romantic period; for others he is the prototypical, or even archetypal, Romantic composer, complete with myth of heroic genius and individuality. The marker buoy of Romanticism has been pushed back and forth several times by scholarship, and it remains a subject of intense debate, in no small part because Beethoven is seen as a seminal figure. To those for whom the Enlightenment represents the basis of Modernity, he must therefore be unequivocally a Classicist, while for those who see the Romantic sensibility as a key to later aesthetics (including the aesthetics of our own time), he must be a Romantic. Between these two extremes there are, of course, innumerable gradations.
Listening to Beethoven's music yields another possible scholarly analysis: there is definitely an evolution in style from Beethoven's earliest compositions to his later works. The young Beethoven can be seen toiling to conform to the aesthetic models of his contemporaries: he wants to write music that is acceptable in the society of his days. Later, there is much more iconoclasm in his approach, like adding a chorus to a symphony, where a symphony had until then only been a purely instrumental genre. This means that the question changes from whether Beethoven was a classicist or a romantic, to: where is the pivotal moment that Beethoven tilted from dominant classicism to dominant romanticism?. Most scholars seem to concur: the presentation of the 5th and 6th symphonies in a single concert in 1808 is probably closest to that pivotal point. In the 5th symphony, he let a short pounding motto theme run through all movements of the composition (unheard of until then). Then the 6th symphony was the first example of a symphony composed as "program music" (what in Romanticism became standard practice), and it broke up the traditional arrangement of a symphony in four movements. Yet, after that, Beethoven still wrote his very "Classical" 8th symphony and some innocent-sounding chamber music for the English market. However, by the end of the first decade of the 19th century, Beethoven the romantic was without a doubt primary. In contrast, Carl Dahlhaus argues that the evolution of Beethoven's style actually takes him past Romanticism to a place where he was separate from the music of his contemporaries. Dahlhaus points out that our understanding of Beethoven as a Romantic composer derives largely from Beethoven's early middle period, which contains the Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 5. Beethoven's impact on other Romantic composers, however, is taken largely from works between Ops. 74 and 97, of the second half of the so-called middle period. Dahlhaus argues that the tradition of Romantic music is essentially a tradition of Schubertian music, and that Beethoven's influence on Schubert is largely taken from Ops. 74 to 97. By the time Beethoven reaches the late period, he is such an individual as to be best understood as no longer belonging to the same genre as his Romantic contemporaries.
This biography is courtesy of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Once again Villanova and St James will host the 2018 Queensland Catholic Music Festival featuring a significant number of school bands and choirs from all over the state. All vocal groups and choirs will perform in the St James Hall and Church. The festival commences on the afternoon of Thursday 16 August and concludes on Sunday 19 August.
The “Double J Band” will perform at 9.10am in Goold Hall - Villanova College on Thursday 16 August. We wish our musicians all the very best and thank Mrs Cathy Gleeson for her great tuition and leadership. Many thanks also to the parents who have given up their time to transport students out to St Joseph’s, Corinda for weekly rehearsals.
The St James School Choir will perform in the St James Hall on Thursday 16 August at 1.30pm. Our choir members have been rehearsing for several weeks under the leadership of our music teacher - Mr Adrian Van Praag. Good luck to all students.
If you have not already done so, please volunteer to assist with the St James BBQ stall that runs throughout the festival.
Please note also that we have two days off next week;


Erica, fueled by her passion for interior design and organization, joined the Robinson Residential Design team in July 2021 as our Administrative Assistant. Beyond her administrative responsibilities, she actively applies her expertise gained from a diploma in Interior Design Technology to contribute to various residential projects. With an eye for color and a knack for creating 3D models in SketchUp, Erica finds great satisfaction in her dual role at Robinson. What she values most is the opportunity to seamlessly integrate her skills in office administration with her love for interior design. Collaborating with intelligent and creative individuals, Erica enjoys the daily experience of acquiring new knowledge.


Sky Fire Arts- Tesla Coil Lightning Dancing
Shimmy Sisters – Fire Belly Dance
Tina Phoenix- Fire Contortion
Twisted Orbit – Fire Hula Hoop
KaytiBunny – Dragon Staff/ Triple Fire Hoops
Sky Fire Arts – Fire Swords, Double Staff
Hoop Hooligans – Partner Fire Poi
To book a Fire Performance for your upcoming event, or to inquire about any of our services, please email us at firstname.lastname@example.org or fill out the form below. Please be sure to tell us the Date, Time, Location, Theme, and service you are interested in, and we will get back to you shortly! Thank you for your interest in Circus Mafia!


How to Schedule an Appointment
Appointments are typically booked out anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months in advance depending on the artist.
Each artist has their own method of booking appointments: email, online booking form, or some other method. Check out each artist's page to see how their specific process works.
Once the artist you're interested in has opened their books, you'll have a limited window to submit your tattoo to them for review.
THIS PART IS IMPORTANT: due to the nature of bookings and the popularity of some artists, it's nearly impossible for them to respond to every entry. Please do not be discouraged if don't receive a reply for your artist. It means that your tattoo wasn't chosen for this particular booking. But we encourage all of our prospective customers to try again next time, or to see if another one of our artists has a booking open.
The more flexible you can be with your schedule, the more likely an artist can find you a spot for an appointment!


By langhampreschool, Jun 17 2018 05:49PM
On Monday afternoon many of our September leavers visited Mrs Arter at Langham Primary School with their parents as part of their transition into Reception Year. Children will be joined by Nicola next Monday afternoon when they have a further visit to Reception Class.
This week we have shared the stories ‘My Dad is Awesome’ by Nick Butterworth and ‘My Dad is My Hero’ by Dawn Richards and Jane Massey. Children have been very busy making beautiful cards for Fathers Day this Sunday.
This week children have been extremely busy (and messy) exploring in the mud kitchen. There have been lots of mud pies and ‘chocolate cake’ and some children have been noticing change as they mix to combine compost, water, sand and grass.
There has been plenty of opportunity for the children to water the garden and discuss the need for the flowers to have a ‘drink’ with the warm weather continuing. Children have been pouring and measuring when filling and emptying containers in the water tray which support both mathematical language of capacity and hand-eye co-ordination.
The easel continues to be popular with some fabulous pieces of art being produced and mark making taking place.
Following children’s interests, we have made Gingerbread men from salt dough and enjoyed re-telling the traditional tale of the Gingerbread man. We will be painting these and discussing feelings and emotions when drawing faces on our Gingerbread men.
Thank you to parents who have sent in metal tins for our music shed. The new music shed is looking great and children have been exploring sounds by tapping, shaking and banging various metal items.
Next Monday morning we will be joined by Clair Vicary who will be working with the pre-school as a Bank Practitioner, providing cover for permanent staff when required. We would like to say a warm welcome and hope that Clair will enjoy her time with us.
Polite reminder - can children please remember to bring in sunhats, sun-cream and a named water bottle.


Award-winning floral and event designer Bron Hansboro has devoted his career to navigating clients through the creative process and transforming their visions into exquisite events since 2014. Fondly referred to as “The Flower Guy,” he is the lead creative and floral designer at The Flower Guy Bron. A master of the art of floristry, Bron provides bespoke design and styling experiences for events of all types. A wanderer of the world and a modern-day Renaissance man, he has a passion for art, wine, and great company, as well as his favorite medium to create in; flowers.
Bron deeply values his interactions with clients and peers alike and understands the power of making connections through design. His work with flowers is organic and modern. He describes his process as listening to the flowers as they whisper to him. Bron is dedicated to providing seamless and stress-free design services and loves seeing the looks on his clients’ faces when they see their concepts and ideas come to life.
Bron has received the WeddingWire’s “Couples Choice” designation for four consecutive years and is a Special Events “2019 Young Event Pros to Watch” designee. His work has been featured in publications such as InStyle, Essence, WeddingPlannerMag, and WeddingChicks.
His knowledge of the industry and his award-winning work in florals makes him a top choice for any event. As a member of the community, his work to promote inclusivity within and outside of the LGBTQIA+ community makes him invaluable as a member of our Vendor Services Advisory Team.


Dennis Ferrante was the Director of Music at Christ the King parish, Worcester MA for 30 years. The cornerstone of the parishes music ministry has been a philosophy of capturing the expressive meaning of 'Catholic' as presented in the parish repertoire and the many musical groups which Dennis led. The Festival Choir, Folk Ensemble and Youth Choir each contribute a level of imagination, and tradition that encourages active and full assembly participation in song and worship.
Dennis was also Music Director at St Anne's Shrewsbury, St John's in Worcester and while a student there, the organist at Assumption College.
Dennis got his start in music education and liturgy at the Power Memorial Academy in New York City where he studied in under James Welch, the founder of the Welch Chorale and director of the Chorale at the Power Memorial Academy. Dennis then studied under James E. Topper, Music Director of St Augustine of Hippo in Union City, NJ before settling in the Worcester area in 1968.
Dennis passed from this life on January 20, 2018. Wake is at Christ the King church on Thursday, January 25 4-8 pm, funeral Mass is Friday, January 26 at 11 am.
Your chapter executive have decided to donate and collect donations in support of the national mission of the National association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) in memory of Dennis C. Ferrante's life and ministry. All gifts collected here will be made to the One NPM Fund or the Mark C. Kulyk Fund for Music Ministry (special projects).


KDDI Corp exhibited a series of concept models of mobile phones developed by the company's design development project "au design project" at CEATEC JAPAN 2008 currently running at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
The concept models include the "gakki to keitai" featuring the fusion of a mobile phone and a musical instrument as well as a model equipped with a solar battery.
The gakki to keitai was designed in collaboration with the Yamaha Design Institute. Six models inspired by musical instruments were developed on the concept of "a mobile phone that plays music / a musical instrument that can be used as a mobile phone."
The phone with the guitar motif "Strings for fingers" has 10 strings under the sliding display on the handset. The strings respectively correspond to the numbers from 0 to 9, and the user can dial the phone by pulling the strings instead of pressing the buttons.
The "Band in my pocket" is a bar-shaped terminal equipped on its side with an attachment that functions as a harmonica, trombone, etc. Five attachments are offered so that users can enjoy the sounds of five different musical instruments by changing the attachments.
The "Sticks in the air" phone is designed to look like a drum stick. The user can use it as a musical instrument by moving the terminal, which is vertically split into two parts, up and down just like playing an actual drum. To use it as a mobile phone, the split parts need to be joined together.
In addition to those models, KDDI introduced (1) the "Key to touch," which combines a mobile phone with keys covering two octaves, (2) the "Box to play," which has four operating faces and functions as an MP3 player, a speaker, etc depending on the shape and (3) the "Trio in your hand," which is composed of an input pad, a display and a ten key pad that can be operated like a turntable.
The concept model introduced as a "plywood-inspired mobile phone-PLY" was designed by designer Hideo Kambara. PLY means lamination, according to the company. The terminal has six layers, and the top layer is for the display. The other layers respectively function as a projector, a printer, a game controller, etc. Looking back on the history of designs and mobile phones and wondering what the future would be for mobile phones, "I finally reached the idea of 'PLY,' the layers," the designer said.
As concept models equipped with a solar battery, the "SOUP" designed by Hironao Tsuboi as well as the "voyage" and the "gem" designed by the designer group "mile" are exhibited.
The SOUP reflects the image of "soup," in which the functions and elements of a mobile phone are concentrated and blended. It was designed so as to "obscure and blend" the edges between the display and the chassis as well as the borders of the solar battery, the speaker and the camera, the designers said.
In respect to the "voyage," when the back of the chassis is opened, the solar battery appears and the terminal transforms into a shape that looks like a satellite.
The "gem" reflects the image of gem stones dug out of the earth, according to the company.


By Ashna Asim
Foucault speculated that we live death – that death shapes who we are. In The Birth of the Clinic, he discusses how death has changed over different time periods. In the Renaissance, death was the great equalizer. Irrespective of the social hierarchies that exist while alive, it was believed that we live the life we are meant to live after we die. During the Renaissance, death was seen as universal – as something that erases individuality. Foucault argues that this contrasts with modern culture, in which death gives rise to singularity. In modern day, the individual defines him or herself through the notion of death. Foucault argued that: “Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret” (Foucault 172).
We are a unique species because we live with the knowledge that we are going to die. For Foucault, death is the individual’s truth and visible secret. Through the gaze of the autopsy, Foucault argues that what was once invisible becomes potentially visible – hence what Foucault calls a “visible invisible.” And yet, even through the autopsy, we are “unable to see clearly” in what is a “strange form of blindness” (Boundas 526).
How then do we attempt to grasp the “lyrical core of man”?
How do we carry the weight of this truth: that one day we will die?
Our society has been described by some as death-phobic, often regarding our reluctance to discuss end-of-life plans with our loved ones. In the health care system, conversations surrounding death are often shrouded in fear.
And yet, we live with death. It is pervasive in our literature and film. It is pervasive throughout our art.
Why is it, then, that talking about death can be so difficult? The answer to “What happens after I die?” is not simple – it can’t be simple. That’s why, when I would ask my mom about death, she would turn to poetry – quoting the Urdu poet Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi:
Who says that when death comes I will die?
I am but a river that will join with the ocean.
Death and dying are dealt with extensively in poetry. Death has a myriad of different meanings. Death has been compared to falling asleep, yet also to waking up. Take for example John Donne’s Death, Be Not Proud, when the speaker says:
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
In this poem, death is personified. Death is the enemy that we battle against throughout our lives. Death is portrayed as transient – while the soul is immortal. When we die, we cease to be prisoners of death. Death is simply a gateway to another reality when we “wake eternally.” Death is conquered.
Death is the end but death is also an escape from the drudgery of life. Death can be seen as cutting life too short, and yet death can give life meaning. For Ghalib – the Urdu and Persian poet of the Mughal Era – death is change, movement, and progression:
Ambition is busy weaving dreams
Yet there is death
Without which dull would be life itself (26).
The Romantics explored the theme of death extensively. Percy Byshe Shelley mourns the death of fellow poet John Keats in Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats:
He is made one with Nature: there is heard
His voice in all her music, from the moan
Of thunder, to the song of night’s sweet bird;
He is a presence to be felt and known.
In this elegy, death is inscribed onto the physical body – and thus, it is the body that is dying and the spirit that is being freed (becoming “one with Nature”). The poem suggests that life is a dream from which we are awakened after we die. The poem also draws a distinction between the process of dying – which is feared and associated with negative imagery (“leprous corpse) – and death, which is associated with the “incarnations of the stars.” What I find particularly compelling is that the poem suggests that Keats conquered death through his art. The poem suggests that Keats’ life itself has become a work of art and thus art is in the position to create eternity.
There’s that concept – eternity. A concept as inexplicable as death. Here, art is the vehicle to eternity.
Death is to be conquered. But death is also surrender. Death has its own significance in various cultures and across different time periods. Philosophers have philosophized, poets have poeticized. Death is a void we fill with metaphors. We try to make sense of the unknowable, try to find answers to questions that are difficult to grasp, difficult to articulate.
It makes perfect sense to me that poetry is used as a vehicle to probe the conceptual framework of death. If indeed death gives rise to singularity, then poetry allows us to fill the void with our own meanings, our own abstract visions of what death means to us. It allows us to find, in Foucault’s words, “the lyrical core of man.” Poetry allows us to find some solace, or at the very least, something to hold on to.
Boundas, Constantin V. Columbia Companion to Twentieth-Century Philosophies. New York: Columbia U Press, 2009. Print.
Dollimore, Jonathan. Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture. New York : Routledge, 2001. Print.
Donne, John. “Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud.” Poetry Foundation, 2017. Web.
Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic; an Archaeology of Medical Perception. London: Tavistock, 1973. Print.
Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Khan. Ghalib: Selected Poems. Ed. Ahmed Ali. Trans. Ahmed Ali. N.p.: Is. M. E. O, 1969. Online.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats.” Poetry Foundation, 2017. Web.


Based on the notes of Ormonde Jayne Montabaco
Unleash the magnetic allure of "Onyx," a fragrance that embodies the essence of mystique and sophistication. At its zenith, the captivating blend of cardamom, mountain air, juniper, bergamot, clary sage, and orange creates an invigorating and aromatic overture, setting the stage for an olfactory journey into the unexpected.
As the fragrance unfolds, the heart notes of tea, hedione, magnolia, violet, and rose add layers of complexity, evoking a sense of timeless elegance.
In the depths, the base notes of tobacco leaf, iso e super, suede, sandalwood, ambergris, tonka bean, and moss emerge. This intricate and harmonious composition leaves a lasting and memorable trail, making "Onyx" not just a fragrance but a statement of refined allure and enigmatic charm.


Paper 1: Comprehension – Listening, Reading & Translation
Topic areas: Society, political and artistic culture, immigration, multiculturalisation, history
Paper 2: Writing – Translation and Essay
Critical essay on a prescribed film and literary text plus a short translation exercise
Paper 3: Speaking
Two discussions with stimulus material. Internally conducted and externally assessed.
During the course many students may also have the opportunity of short residential visits to the countries where their language(s) is spoken and there are Work Experience links too. Occasional trips to the cinema and the theatre are also part of the Sixth Form experience.


Here is what some of Pauric's clients have said about him.
“We hired Pauric for a family photoshoot and our wedding. He made everyone feel at ease, produced absolutely fantastic photos. With little or no direction from us he created the most beautiful photographs of our wedding. I would have no hesitation in recommending Pauric!" - Naomi Donaldson
“Pauric assisted us get our website and profile enhanced with his photographic skills. He is very professional in everything he does. He made us look good! We recommend him for business photography and person profile shots." - Derek Jennings
"We were so pleased when we secured Pauric as our wedding photographer. Planning a wedding can be a very stressful time, but Pauric immediately put our minds at ease with his calm and measured approach. Throughout the wedding planning process he was easily reachable, accommodating to our needs and nothing was too much trouble.... The quality and variety of the photos Pauric managed to take throughout the whole day is amazing, and what we love is that the more we look at them the more we notice how much thought has gone into each image. He captured all the little details that made the day personal to us - the place settings, the signposts, the biscuits, the shoes(!). Our wedding album really tells the story of our day in the best way possible....
When presented with the finished album, we were overwhelmed with the quality of the photos and the beautiful way in which they are presented. The finished collection has the perfect balance of family / bride and groom / table photos, as well as the natural, non-posed photos which give a real sense of the day... We couldn’t have been happier with our choice of photographer to capture our special day. Pauric provided an excellent service from start to finish and we would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking for a photographer for a special occasion. - Clíodhna and Will
The photos of the groups are being very ‘liked’ on Facebook !! - Gael Linn
Fantastic! Hope you enjoyed as much as us! - Partymad
On the recommendation of a client, I hired Pauric McGroder to shoot our clubs for our new website and corporate brochure. At our initial meeting we asked Pauric to create something really special that would show the exclusivity and excitement of our new facilities. When Pauric came back with the photographs we were blown away. Pauric delivered far more than we expected. What’s more, he is an absolute pleasure to work with, and a genius at what he does. One of our pools, which many photographers had previously tried to photograph, was always a challenge, and we never ever got what we wanted. Pauric got the perfect picture in just a few hours. I simply could not recommend him enough. - Alan Leach, Area General Manager, West Wood Clubs, Ireland and Bosnia


Artistic Expression Unveiled: Hand-Painted Women’s Boho Flare Skirt with Unique Details
Embark on a canvas of creativity with our Hand-Painted Women’s Boho Flare Skirt, a masterpiece that celebrates individuality and artistic expression. Adorned with unique details, this skirt invites you to wear your creativity, expressing a story of vibrant colors and imaginative strokes.
1. Hand-Painted Artistry: A Personalized Masterpiece
Immerse yourself in the unique artistry that graces every inch of this Boho Flare Skirt. Each stroke is a brush dipped in the colors of imagination, creating a personalized masterpiece that mirrors your unique style and artistic expression. Revel in the freedom to wear your creativity.
2. Boho Flare Silhouette: Whimsical Movement in Every Step
The Boho Flare Silhouette adds an element of whimsical movement to your every step. Whether you’re twirling under the sun or dancing at a festival, the boho skirt flowing design enhances your style with grace and charm. Experience the fusion of artistic expression and bohemian freedom.
3. Vibrant Hues: A Palette of Personal Expression
Indulge in a palette of vibrant hues that form a kaleidoscope of personal expression. From bold reds to soothing blues and lively yellows, the Hand-Painted Boho Flare Skirt becomes a canvas for your emotions and moods. Let the colors reflect the vibrancy of your personality.
4. Unique Details: Imaginative Strokes and Patterns
The skirt is adorned with unique details, including imaginative strokes and patterns that add depth to the artistic expression. Each detail tells a story, creating a visual tapestry of creativity and individuality. Embrace the uniqueness of your Boho Flare Skirt as it becomes a wearable form of self-expression.
5. Versatile Styling: From Casual Chic to Artistic Glam
Transition seamlessly from casual chic to artistic glam with this versatile skirt. Pair it with a simple tee for a laid-back day out or elevate your ensemble with bold accessories and a stylish blouse for a night of artistic expression. The Boho Flare Skirt adapts to your creative mood and the occasion.
In the spirit of Artistic Expression, our Hand-Painted Women’s Boho Flare Skirt invites you to wear your imagination. Revel in the hand-painted details, embrace the freedom of artistic expression, and let your style be a canvas that reflects the vibrant colors and unique details of your creative spirit.


This is such an exciting time of year. I love to decorate for the holidays and have a tree in my office. This year’s ornaments include a selection from Looney Tunes, The Grinch and the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters! I’ve been collecting ornaments for a long time and they all have a special meaning or memory. I have a “Baby’s First Christmas 1981” ornament that was given to me when my daughter was born. It has been placed on our tree at home every year since. Ornaments bring special memories or thoughts of friends & family and makes decorating fun!
We have a lot of “elves” at the Credit Union to help you with making your life easier. Hope to see you soon! Warmest wishes to you and your family. I hope you have a safe and wonderful holiday!
President and CEO


The miles cherished and the road ahead—honor them both in our commemorative 120th Anniversary Speedbird Bandana. Made from all-natural cotton and generously sized for more versatile wearing options, or to add to your wall collection. Finished with a distinctive pattern and our 120th Anniversary Speedbird graphics. Let your love for this milestone year continue—match this bandana with our 120th Anniversary Speedbird Cap.
• Materials: 100% cotton.
• Design Details: Generously sized at 27"W x 27"H.
• Graphics: Soft-hand print.


The Mahima Black/White Lamp Set by Ashley is the perfect combination of style and functionality. This stunning set includes two lamps, each with a sleek black and white design that will complement any home decor theme. The lamps feature a cylindrical shape with a brushed nickel finish on the base, adding a touch of elegance to the overall look.
The lamps are crafted with high-quality materials for durability and longevity. They stand at 29.5 inches tall, making them the perfect height for most tables or nightstands. The lamps also come with crisp white drum shades that diffuse light in a soft and soothing manner, creating a cozy and relaxing atmosphere in any room.
One of the distinguishing features of this lamp set is its unique design. The black and white pattern adds a contemporary touch to any space while maintaining a classic look. The contrast between the colors makes a bold statement that adds a touch of sophistication to the ambiance.
The Mahima Black/White Lamp Set by Ashley is incredibly functional as well. The lamps use a 3-way switch that allows you to adjust the lighting intensity according to your preference, giving you the flexibility to create the perfect ambiance for any occasion. The lamps also use a standard 100 watt bulb, providing you with sufficient lighting for any task, whether it be reading or working on your computer.
In conclusion, the Mahima Black/White Lamp Set by Ashley is a stunning and functional addition to any home. Its sleek design, high-quality construction, and unique black and white pattern make it the perfect addition to any space. Rest assured, this lamp set will not only meet your expectations but exceed them.


Hi, I'm Olivia (but I usually go by Liv) and I am a Boston-based actor and Intimacy Director.
Over the last year, I've been performing with Shit-Faced Shakespeare in their 2023 spring and fall runs of Macbeth, and the Taming of the Shrew in the spring of 2024.
As an Intimacy Director, my working style is relaxed and collaborative - coming to Intimacy Direction from the consent education world, I know how important it is to find a healthy balance of laughter and gravitas. I bring with me a great deal of adaptability, finding what tools work for each room, as well as a full bag of sour candy. I have completed Level 3 training, and am currently pending certification with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators.
As a human, I am a cold-brew lover, am usually wearing a jumpsuit of some kind, and have the cutest cat in the world.


This is an interactive online timeline of ‘highlight’ events for each year of the festival from 1978 to 2013 to celebrate Dance Umbrella’s 35th anniversary. The featured events were chosen by former Artistic Directors, Val Bourne and Betsy Gregory, as some of the highlights for that particular year. We hope you enjoy the range of media to engage with, from written content and images, to audio and video files.
As you’ll notice, several artists – Stephen Petronio, Jonathan Burrows, Shobana Jeyasingh, Rosemary Lee, Paul-André Fortier and Stephan Koplowitz – have shared their memories and reflections from different years in the festival’s history. Feel free to leave comments as well as your own memories from featured events. You can also tweet your recollections using #DUTIMELINE.
The timeline is a constantly evolving creation and we hope to be able to develop it in the future into a fully-functioning archive that can be used by students and researchers worldwide.
Feel free to leave a comment or share your own memory next to an event, and also share the content on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Recollections on Twitter can be shared using #DUTIMELINE.


The recent soap challenges hosted by Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks were such a success that she created a monthly Soap Challenge Club. In order to participate, soapmakers must become members of the club and pay a nominal fee to enter each challenge. And the reward? Well, besides the chance to hone your soapmaking skills and learn new techniques, there’s a prize. Not just any old prize, though; this month it’s an 18-bar slab mold with silicone liner generously provided by Bramble Berry® Soap Making Supplies! (Someone’s going to be very happy).
This month’s challenge is the peacock swirl. I’ve tried this technique only once before, and it didn’t turn out particularly well because the soap batter was too thick to create the fluid lines needed to create the complex design. So I chose a slow-moving recipe to give myself plenty of time to work, and I designed a midnight black soap with vibrant electric blue and purples, deep rose and pastel pinks, and white swirls.
Since I only wanted to create a small batch – in case of an epic fail – I created a small slab mold from a cut-down cardboard box, and lined it with butcher paper. The “comb” you see is also homemade, and it’s used to create the first part of the design.
Then I gathered my materials. Bamboo charcoal, four micas, and oil-soluble titanium dioxide (a whitener) were mixed with just a bit of the liquid oils from my recipe. My essential oil blend of sweet peppermint and sharp tea tree stood ready to add a surprisingly pleasant wake-up zing. My oils were weighed out and ready for the lye solution.
As always, safety first – gloves and safety goggles are a must when working with lye. Ready to begin!
The essential oils were added to the oils and stirred a bit, the lye was slowly added, then stick blended (see the color change)? I didn’t want the soap too thick, so I only blended until the batter was emulsified.
Some of the batter was poured into each of the pre-mixed colorants, and the bamboo charcoal was added to the batter remaining in my bowl. This was my base color, so into the mold it went.
Now for the fun part! I gave the colors a quick stir with my mini-frother (love that thing!) and decided at the last minute to pour them into squeeze bottles. Then alternate stripes of color were added to the width of the mold until all the colors were used up.
It would be pretty if left like this, but the challenge was the peacock swirl, so on to the next step. For some reason, it helped to think of drawing balloons as I used my chopstick to create a wavy pattern on top of the non-pareil swirl. Finished!
After setting up for a day, it was time to unmold and cut into bars. Soaps made in slab molds require a different method of cutting, so out came my adjustable log-splitter. The first cut split the slab lengthwise into smaller slabs, the log-splitter was adjusted for the next cut, and the smaller slabs were sliced widthwise to create the finished bars.
I decided to name this soap “Aurora.” My intent was create a soap reminiscent of the Northern Lights (or Southern Lights for our down-under friends). In that regard, I failed because my colors weren’t vibrant enough. The aroma hits the mark, though, because it’s zingy and refreshing. And, truth be known, I like the design on the side of the soap better than the peacock swirl. Next time I use this technique, I might just cut it differently to accentuate that part!
Aurora is on the curing rack and will be listed in my Etsy shop around the middle of July.
Thanks for following me, and please stick around for the next challenge. 🙂


Luz Mila - Colombia Cinnamon Anaerobic Coffee
Roast Profile:- Light
Grown by Luz Mila at Finca El Oasis, this very special coffee has been exposed to a dry anaerobic fermentation for 30 hours with the pulp left on, during this fermentation tartaric acid and fresh cinnamon has been added.
Afterwards, the cherries were pulped, gently washed and left to dry on raised beds.
Luz Mila moved from Caqueta 8 years ago and decided to establish in Gaitania, Tolima, with her husband and 4 kids! Luz Mila then bought a farm and after 5 years of hard work and despite low commercial coffee prices she was able to purchase another farm to truly establish her amazing coffees.
These days Luz Mila is dedicated to producing incredible Micro-lot coffee, taking amazing care and attention to her work and we are especially proud to be able to support and showcase her amazing work.
Variety | Caturra
Process | Cinnamon Anaerobic
Altitude | 1900 - 2200 MASL
In addition to the incredible coffee of Luz Mila, we have also worked with the amazing artist & illustrator Rheannon Ormond.
Rhe has created the beautiful artwork for this years special Christmas release and we are so incredibly happy to be able to showcase this amazing work with you all.
You can find more of Rheannon's work here:


Our Professional Staff
TOM LUPFER (Director/Producer/Technical Director) is a graduate of the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University, where he earned a M.A. He also holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Susquehanna University. Currently, Tom is a drama teacher and Related Arts Subject Matter Leader at a performing arts magnet school in Montclair, NJ. In May 2015, Tom co-produced the documentary film Ceremony for This Time, premiering at the Montclair Film Festival. The film chronicles the creation of a performance piece celebrating the power of the performing arts in education.
The director/producer for PV Theatre since 2007, Tom is proud to collaborate with his wife Merielle, with whom he was honored to share the 2014 Montclair State University JoAnn Fox Award, given to a director who is: "an inspiration to his/her students, whose passion for theatre is infectious, and who creates a community, a loving extended family in his/her school in the process of producing high quality productions." Tom's favorite productions are his twin daughters.
MERIELLE LUPFER (Director/Costumer) earned a B.S. from the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University. A 2001 alumna of PVHS, she is overjoyed to give back to the program that was her initial training in the craft. As an actress, favorite roles she has played include: Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Amy in Company, and various roles in The Laramie Project.
At PV, she has designed costumes, props and scenery, as well as co-directing since 2007. Merielle was honored to accept the 2014 JoAnn Fox Award honoring excellence in directing a HS Theatre program. She is most happy when she is at home with her family, which has grown to include her beautiful twin daughters.
MICHAEL MAHADEEN (Vocal Musical Director/Orchestra Director), a conductor, educator, performer, and composer, works as Assistant Director of the Symphony of Winds and Percussion at New Jersey City University, and serves as a music director, conductor, and orchestrator with the Montclair State University Theater and Dance Department and various local theater companies. Broadway/NYC credits include: On the 20th Century, Show Boat, Waterfall, The Hills Are Alive!, Once on this Island. As a composer, Michael has had music performed by the Czech Radio Orchestra (2007 Dvořák Festival, Prague and Vienna), the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colonial Symphony, various all-state, region, high school, collegiate, and community ensembles, and is known internationally for his scores to video games in the Wing Commander series. In 2013, Michael began work with Connect4Education, arranging for their OnMusic Conducting course.
Michael graduated with honors from MSU, majoring in Music Education/Music Theory and Composition, and is a recipient of the New Jersey Distinguished Student Teacher Award. In September 2013, Michael returned to MSU for his graduate studies in composition, concentrating in musical direction/conducting for musical theater, and became the Graduate Assistant for the program in September 2014. Michael is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, MENC, and ASCAP. His music is published by Bandworks Publications.
FRANCESCA SILVANO (Choreographer) is a native of Rome, Italy, where she graduated from the National Academy of Dance, before attending the Covent Garden School of Dance in London. Upon moving to the U.S., Mrs. Silvano has performed for various dance companies and choreographers in New York City. She holds a degree in Comparative Literature, and is happy to share both her talents -- academic and performing-- at PV.
KELSEY MCGRAIL (Choreographer) is a PV Theatre alum, class of 2012. She started choreographing during her junior year, and has choreographed musical numbers for ten PV Theatre musicals. She is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo.
CURTIS SHIELDS (Lighting Designer) is a New York City based lighting designer for theatre, dance, and opera. Broadway: The Spongebob Musical (Assistant to LD). Regional: Shrek The Musical, Evita (Assoc.) Oklahoma! (Assoc.), Fallen Skies. Additional Credits: West Side Story, Carrie, Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA, Triumph of Love, Den of Thieves, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (Assoc.), The Joci Awards, and numerous dance shows. PV: Urinetown, Anything Goes, Don’t Drink The Water, Cabaret, The Laramie Project and Ten Years Later. A proud PV Theatre alumni, Curtis is happy to be back in the space where he found his love for theatrical design. He is a graduate of Montclair State University where he received a BFA in Lighting Design. IG: @curtisshieldsdesign
ADAM FARNAN (Scenic Designer) is a carpenter who has worked with PV Theatre since 2010. He started off as a student on the crew team his sophomore year of high school, and became master carpenter his senior year. Since graduation, he has worked as Assistant Technical Director and Scenic Designer. In addition to his work at Pascack Valley, Adam also designs and constructs scenery for other HS and community theatres.


There are several instrumental groups offered at Fremont Christian School: Elementary Band, Junior High Band, Warrior Band, and Dixie Dominus. The Elementary and Junior High Bands are what gets most students started off in the instrumental music field. In these groups, they are taught how to master an instrument and how to read music. They perform several times a year. Warrior Band and Dixie Dominus consist of many musically talented high school students. These groups are constantly performing and participating in band competitions.
The Junior High Band is made up of 6th, 7th and 8th Graders who have had at least one or two years of music training on their instrument. In this class, students develop their musical abilities in reading music notation, tone production, phrasing and performing. The Junior High Band performs number of times throughout the school in formal concerts, festival adjudications and in our pops concert series titled "Java 'n' Jazz." The typical instrumentation for this ensemble is flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, french horn, trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba, double bass, and concert percussion. Students will be introduced to playing different musical styles, from Jazz to Classical.
Symphonic Band is the final stage of instrumental instruction. Students at this level should be proficient at tone production, phrasing, and be able to play in many different musical styles ranging from Jazz to Classical. The objectives of this course are to give students an enriched experience in instrumental performance and to provide many opportunities for public concerts.
The Dixie Dominus Traditional Jazz Band is a select group of 6-9 musicians who rehearse three times weekly. During the course of the year the students involved in the Dixie Band work to improve their understanding of traditional jazz music and growth as creative improvisers. The Dixie Band performs numerous times throughout the year ranging from concerts and private engagements to farmer markets and Jazz Festivals.
Big school opportunities in a small school environment: Fremont Christian School partners with families to provide our every day kids both an extraordinary education and genuine encounters with Jesus, all within a community of compassion.