A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT
| SILICON FOREST | SUPREMELY HAPPY PEOPLE
THE HUFFINGTON POST MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 10, 2013
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T S O M E H T S I H IS T N A M O W S U O R ? I E P P G I S N S I DA SHANNON, MISS IN
BY LILA SHAPIRO
11.10.13 #74 CONTENTS
Enter POINTERS: New Yorkers Choose a Dem... ‘Degenerate Art’ Found JASON LINKINS: Looking Forward in Angst DATA: The Dangers of Shoes Q&A: Rob Delaney HEADLINES MOVING IMAGE
Voices
OUR TOWN “You’ll never get Mississippi to go for same-sex marriage.” FROM TOP: CARY NORTON; CONSTANTGARDENER/GETTY IMAGES
BY LILA SHAPIRO
BARACK OBAMA: Congress Needs to Pass the Employee Non-Discrimination Act PAUL BRANDEIS RAUSHENBUSH: How Not to Talk About the Beliefs of Others QUOTED
Exit HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: For the Rugrat in Your Life THE THIRD METRIC: The Habits of Supremely Happy People EAT THIS: How to Make a Crust Easy As Pie MUSIC: Dog Ears TFU FROM THE EDITOR: Gays Not Welcome CORRECTIONS:
THE PORTLAND PITCH “Why not start a business in a place you’d really like to live?” BY PETER S. GOODMAN
In Issue 73’s holiday gift guide feature, we incorrectly listed the price of the Mini Jambox. The actual price is $179.99. Issue 34’s “Doubt” cover story misidentified Kathy Mabry’s mother as Julie Mae Wilson. She is Judy Mae Wilson. ON THE COVER: Photograph
for Huffington by Cary Norton
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
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Gays Not Welcome N THIS WEEK’S issue, Lila Shapiro takes us to Shannon, Mississippi — population 1,753. That’s where businesswoman PJ Newton tried, unsuccessfully, to open what would have been the only gay bar in a 100-mile radius on the town’s main street.
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In the course of Lila’s conversations with Shannon residents, a telling detail emerged: most who opposed the bar declined to give their names. But one 80-year-old woman spoke frankly about her reasons for signing a petition to stop the bar from opening. “I’m anti-gay,” she said. “I know that’s not politically correct these days, but that’s the way I feel.” Others had more nuanced views, and an ability to dis-
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
tinguish their personal beliefs from broader principles. As Tom Lyles, a lifelong Shannon resident and business owner, put it: “Two men, two women, I’m against it. But I can’t stop it. The thing of it is, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of speech. We’re in America.” Newton has filed a lawsuit with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, accusing the town of unconstitutionally discriminating against gays. The lawsuit contends, “In opening and maintaining the bar, Newton intends to convey a particularized message: it is okay to be openly gay, and LGBT people are due an equal and respected place in the community.” In our Voices section, President Barack Obama condemns discrimination against gays in the workplace, where it is still possible for an LGBT American to be fired solely because of his or her sexual orientation. President Obama urges Congress to pass the Employee Non-Discrimination Act, which would make such firings illegal.
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“If we want to create more jobs and economic growth and keep our country competitive in the global economy, we need everyone working hard, contributing their ideas, and putting their abilities
I’m anti-gay. I know that’s not politically correct these days, but that’s the way I feel.” to use doing what they do best,” President Obama writes. “We need to harness the creativity and talents of every American.” Finally, in our continuing focus on The Third Metric, we share some of the habits of supremely happy people — including such simple things as appreciating the beauty of a good mixtape.
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DE BLASIO, CHRISTIE, 1 MCAULIFFE WIN THE NIGHT
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Democrat Bill de Blasio beat Republican Joe Lhota Tuesday night in the race for New York City mayor with 72 percent of the vote. He will succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Jan. 1, becoming the city’s first Democratic mayor in two decades. “We are united in the belief that our city should leave no New Yorker behind,” he said during his election party. “The people of this city have chosen a progressive path, and tonight we set forth on it together as one city.” In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie (R) easily won reelection to a second term, beating Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono in a state where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. Virginia’s next governor will be Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who defeated Republican and tea partier Ken Cuccinelli.
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THE 15TH STATE
Illinois on Tuesday became the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage. The House of Representatives passed the bill 61-54 and the Senate followed suit, passing it 32-29 and sending it to Gov. Pat Quinn, who has said he will sign it into law. The bill had faced months of delay in May after House members asked for more time to consider it. It is set to go into effect on June 1.
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Twitter went public Thursday morning under the ticker symbol TWTR, trading at about $45 a share. The company had set an initial public offering price of $26 on Wednesday night, which gave Twitter a market value of more than $18 billion. All eyes were on the company to see if it would suffer the same fate as Facebook, which faced technical problems after it went public last May.
‘DEGENERATE ART’ UNCOVERED
Authorities revealed Tuesday that investigators have found more than 1,400 pieces of artwork in a German apartment, some of which are believed to have been confiscated by the Nazis and classified as “degenerate art.” The works include ones by the famed Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Renoir. “When you stand in front of the works … you have an incredible feeling of happiness,” said Meike Hoffmann, an art expert who has been helping the investigation.
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‘YES, I HAVE SMOKED CRACK COCAINE’
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted this week, following months of speculation, that he has in fact smoked crack cocaine. “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine,” Ford told reporters during a surprise press conference Tuesday. “There have been times when I’ve been in a drunken stupor. That’s why I want to see the tape … I want to see the state that I was in.” Ford initially denied that he was caught using the drug on video, but changed his story after police said last week that they have a copy of it.
‘WE RUN UNITED’
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More than 48,000 people hit the pavement last weekend for the New York City Marathon, just seven months after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai won the men’s race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 24 seconds, and Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo won among women in 2 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds. Last year’s marathon was canceled due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. “We run for the spirit of New York and Boston,” race chief executive Mary Wittenberg told the AFP. “We run united.”
THAT’S VIRAL KIDS REACT TO GAY MARRIAGE
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A selection of the week’s most talked-about stories. HEADLINES TO VIEW FULL STORIES
THE VIDEO EVERY MOM MUST WATCH ON REPEAT UNTIL SHE GETS IT
IF THIS DOESN’T PROVE JOCKS HAVE HEARTS, NOTHING DOES
D’AWWWWWW WWWWWWWW
HOW TO TELL IF YOU’RE A FEMINIST IN TWO EASY STEPS
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LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST
JASON LINKINS
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OBAMACARE PROPONENTS FACE A GRUELING MONTH OF ‘TRENCH WARFARE’ NYONE WHO WANTS to be hopeful about the future of the Affordable Care Act has a long wait ahead of them. Specifically, until the end of November, which is when Jeff Zients, the management guru tasked with making “Healthcare.gov ver. 2.0” a functioning re-
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ality, says he’ll deliver the goods. Of course, at that point, one can only really say that things have taken an optimistic turn — even if the website works as intended. Obamacare enthusiasts still face a shortened timeline to get an adequate number of people enrolled. So, what to do until then? Well, it looks like this chart, along with others of similar ilk, is serving as a hopeful totem in the meantime:
Jeffrey Zients testifies before the Senate Budget Committee on the president’s 2014 budget proposal in April 2013.
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Winners and Losers From Obamacare LOSERS 3% POTENTIAL Will have to buy a higher-quality health plan with no annual cap
REAL CONSEQUENCE 3% NO Have to buy new plans, but similar to existing policies WINNERS 14% CLEAR Currently uninsured who gain access to an affordable policy
SOURCES ESTIMATES FROM JON GRUBER, REPORTED BY RYAN LIZZA
80% UNAFFECTED Largely people who keep their current employer plan This chart has been generated based on rough estimates supplied by MIT’s Jonathan Gruber — who helped build both Massachusetts’ health care system and the Affordable Care Act — to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza. The Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Young serves up a similar analysis, figuring that while “estimates vary,” census data suggests that we’re talking “about 4 percent of Americans, which comes to about 11 million people.” Essentially, this is the view of “people who are losing their health care coverage” from 30,000 feet in the air. The first thing you have to acknowledge, however, is that Gru-
ber’s estimates still demonstrate that “if you like your plan, you can keep it” was a false thing to promise, even if you’re rounding up from 97 percent. Gruber, to his credit, is dead-honest about this with Lizza: Gruber summarized his stats: ninety-seven per cent of Americans are either left alone or are clear winners, while three per cent are arguably losers. “We have to as a society be able to accept that,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, that’s a shame, but no law in the history of America makes everyone better off.” As an interesting thought exercise, it’s worth considering whether, “Three percent of you
Enter will not come out ahead, that’s a shame, but no law in the history of America makes everyone better off,” would have been a better thing for President Barack Obama to say than, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.” But 1,000 “unnamed political strategists” will tell me that my approach is naive and would ensure that no law ever gets passed. And maybe being honest would keep a lot of laws from getting passed, but maybe that’s the cardinal virtue of honesty. But even if the above chart offers some comfort in the knowledge that the vast majority of Americans aren’t receiving shocking letters in the mail from their insurance providers, this nevertheless demonstrates how bad it was that Obamacare had a functioning hashtag before Healthcare.gov was a functioning website. See that 3 percent in the chart marked “no real consequence?” Well, without a way to actually discover there are no real consequences, how are those people supposed to know that? There are, perhaps, a portion of that population who can avail themselves of a functioning state exchange website, but the potential is there that the number of people who currently think of themselves as “losers” is
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double the size of the actual “potential loser” population. That’s bad, because what we’re going to endure between now and the hoped-for end-of-November launch of a functioning Healthcare. gov website is a month of getting nibbled to death by anecdotes. As Dave Weigel points out, this sliver of actual and perceived losers still constitutes a population of “millions of Americans” that
Maybe being honest would keep a lot of laws from getting passed, but maybe that’s the cardinal virtue of honesty.” “can talk to the media about how horrid the experience is.” That means, for Obamacare supporters, “a long trench warfare campaign of fact-checking and, occasionally, apologizing.” He points to this “debunking” of an “Obamacare horror story” over at the Los Angeles Times, which, while successful, took a lot of time and energy. And remember the old adage, “A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” Which isn’t to say any of these
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complainants are liars! Health insurance is a confusing racket, and the thought of losing coverage is unimaginably stressful. The best remedy for this uncertainty, if not the coverage quandary itself, is a website that does not yet exist. Naturally, it should be noted that it’s rather surprising to see so many Republicans suddenly taking an extraordinary interest in people receiving letters about losing their health care coverage. It’s certainly a new thing! But it is likely not a sustainable thing. As Philip Klein admits, over at the Examiner, “there’s also a danger of making the idea that nobody’s coverage will ever change as a result of reform a tenet of Republi-
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The number of people who currently think of themselves as ‘losers’ is double the size of the actual ‘potential loser’ population.” can health care policy.” Well, I should say so, considering that drastically limiting the number of people covered by insurance is actually a cornerstone of Republican health care policy. As Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic explains: Start with the federal budgets crafted by Paul Ryan. You remember those, right? Those proposals passed through the House with unanimous Republican support and were, in 2012, a basis of the Republican
MIT Professor of Economics Jonathan Gruber helped advise the Obama administration on the development of the “individual mandate.”
Enter presidential platform. Those budgets called for dramatic funding cuts to Medicaid. If Republicans had swept into power and enacted such changes, according to projections prepared by Urban Institute scholars and published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, between 14 and 20 million Medicaid recipients would lose their insurance. And that doesn’t even include the people who are starting to get Medicaid coverage through Obamacare’s expansions of the program. That’s another 10 to 17 million people. So it’s fair to say that the House GOP is objectively in favor of generating between 14 million and 20 million sad letters to people losing their coverage. Like I said before, the necessity of having a functioning website standing at the ready at the moment this system launched could not be seen in starker relief than it this now. Should Jeff Zients and his crack team of fixer-uppers get the job done, we might get a full picture of just how many people are falling through the cracks and why. And from there, we might be able to make changes at the margins of
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existing law to assist those people. That might be a task for which we have both the ability to undertake and the courage to attempt. Should the whole thing go by the boards, however, and we return to the previous status quo of tens of millions of Americans in dire need of help, it will be two decades before anyone has the stomach to try to reform the health care system again.
There’s also a danger of making the idea that nobody’s coverage will ever change as a result of reform a tenet of Republican health care policy.” Nevertheless, while it’s going to be no fun for the Obama administration to endure what could be a month (if not longer) of anecdotal news stories from the sliver of the population losing their coverage, it is, for the rest of us, a reminder of what was at stake in the first place. And it was never some politician’s electoral hopes or postcareer legacy. It was always the fact that tens of millions of America could not afford decent health care.
Q&A
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Comedian Rob Delaney Talks Funny Women on Twitter “I follow many disgusting women, and I’m very grateful for them and the things that they say, and it’s one of my favorite things about Twitter.”
Above: Comedian Rob Delaney performs at KROQ’s Kevin & Bean’s April Foolishness 2013. Below: Delaney performs on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February 2013.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW, VISIT HUFFPOST LIVE
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The Dangers of Shoes
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What are our shoes actually doing to our feet – and which ones should we really be wearing? We talked to Dr. Jacqueline Sutera, a doctor of podiatric medicine and surgery in New York, and Dr. Neal Blitz, Chief of Foot Surgery/Associate Chairman of Orthopedics at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, to break down the dangers of our favorite shoes. — Rebecca Adams and Ellie Krupnick TAP SHOES FOR MORE INFO
HIGH RISK FLIP FLOPS THIGH-HIGH BOOTS
BALLET FLATS
PAINFUL
ANKLE BOOTS WEDGES
CONVERSE SNEAKERS
RAIN BOOTS
RUNNING SNEAKERS
LOW RISK
COMFORTABLE
STILETTOS
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HEADLINES
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The Week That Was TAP IMAGE TO ENLARGE, TAP EACH DATE FOR FULL ARTICLE ON THE HUFFINGTON POST
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Knutsford, United Kingdom 10.31.2013
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Hounds of The Cheshire Forest Hunt poke their snouts through the bars of their kennels prior to the first day of the new hunting season, which traditionally begins around Nov. 1.
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Whitby, England 11.02.2013 Chris Simpson of Chesterfield dons steampunk attire for The Whitby Gothic Weekend. The biannual festival, which began in 1994, attracts thousands dressed in Victoriana, steampunk, cybergoth, and Romanticism styles to the Yorkshire seaside town. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11.02.2013 Participants gather on Copacabana Beach on the Day of the Dead, which Brazilians traditionally celebrate by visiting loved ones’ graves. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Venice, Italy 11.04.2013 A pigeon lands on a boy’s head in the flooded Piazza San Marco. The square is the lowest point in Venice, and always the first to be flooded. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Toronto, Ontario 11.02.2013 Guests pose with a centurion at the 2013 Cathay Ball. This year’s gala, themed “An Evening in Rome,” raised money for the Mon Sheong Foundation for senior care and cultural programs. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Jakarta, Indonesia 11.01.2013 Indonesian workers take shelter from the rain inside a bus during a protest outside city hall. Indonesian laborers across the country went on strike to demand more benefits and better wages. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Los Angeles, Calif. 10.30.2013
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A Crazy Chicken flies down upon the Chupacabra during the Lucha Vavoom Noche de los Salvajes! Halloween show at LA’s Mayan Theatre. The Southern Calfornia cult-favorite Lucha Vavoom mixes good-versusevil Mexican masked wrestling, known as Lucha Libre, with American burlesque and comedy.
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Shanghai, China 10.27.2013 Luke Guthrie, USA, tees off from the 5th hole during the final round of the BMW Masters golf tournament at Lake Malaran Golf Club. This was the 23-year-old golfer’s first trip to Asia, where he finished 4th in the tournament with a 71. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Kabul, Afghanistan 10.27.2013 Samiullah, 23, works at a brick factory outside of Kabul. Many Afghani men work 12 hour days, six days a week for about 557.980 Afghani ($10) a day. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Paranaque City, Philippines 10.31.2013 A boy leaps across clusters of crypts that have been spruced up for All Souls’ Day at a public cemetery south of Manila. Traditionally on this day, many Christians visit cemeteries and memorial parks to offer prayers to their departed loved ones. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Amritsar, India 10.30.2013 A potter paints earthen lamps in preparation for Diwali, the festival of lights. Hindus light lamps, wear new clothes, exchange sweets and gifts and pray to the goddess Lakshmi during the festival. The festival is also observed by Sikhs and Jains. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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Washington, D.C. 11.04.2013 A scaffolding envelops the Washington Monument on the National Mall. The National Park Service announced that the monument will remain dark and closed to the public while work crews remove the scaffolding from the earthquake-damaged monument. The work is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2014. Tap here for a more extensive look at the week on The Huffington Post. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
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BARACK OBAMA
Congress Needs to Pass the Employee Non-Discrimination Act HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, we’re united by a fundamental principle: we’re all created equal and every single American deserves to be treated equally in the eyes of the law. We believe that no
matter who you are, if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve the chance to follow your dreams and pursue your happiness. That’s America’s promise. That’s why, for instance, Americans can’t be fired from their jobs just because of the color of their skin or for being Christian or Jew-
North Carolina business leaders and The Human Rights Campaign distributed flyers in support of ENDA in July 2013.
Voices ish or a woman or an individual with a disability. That kind of discrimination has no place in our nation. And yet, right now, in 2013, in many states a person can be fired simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. As a result, millions of LGBT Americans go to work every day fearing that, without any warning, they could lose their jobs — not because of anything they’ve done, but simply because of who they are. It’s offensive. It’s wrong. And it needs to stop, because in the United States of America, who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense. That’s why Congress needs to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA, which would provide strong federal protections against discrimination, making it explicitly illegal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This bill has strong bipartisan support and the support of a vast majority of Americans. It ought to be the law of the land. Americans ought to be judged by one thing only in their workplaces: their ability to get their jobs done. Does it make a difference if the firefighter who res-
BARACK OBAMA
cues you is gay — or the accountant who does your taxes, or the mechanic who fixes your car? If someone works hard every day, does everything he or she is asked, is responsible and trustworthy and a good colleague, that’s all that should matter. Business agrees. The majority of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses already have nondiscrimination policies that protect LGBT employees. These companies know that it’s both the right thing to do and makes good economic sense. They want to attract and retain the best workers, and discrimination makes it harder to do that. So too with our nation. If we want to create more jobs and economic growth and keep our country competitive in the global economy, we need everyone working hard, contributing their ideas, and putting their abilities to use doing what they do best. We need to harness the creativity and talents of every American. So I urge the Senate to vote yes on ENDA and the House of Representatives to do the same. Several Republican Senators have already voiced their support, as have a number of Republicans in the House. If more members of
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Voices Congress step up, we can put an end to this form of discrimination once and for all. Passing ENDA would build on the progress we’ve made in recent years. We stood up against hate crimes with the Matthew Shepard Act and lifted the entry ban for travelers with HIV. We ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” so our brave servicemen and women can serve openly the country they love, no matter who they love. We prohibited discrimination in housing and hospitals that receive federal funding, and we passed the Violence Against Women Act, which includes protections for LGBT Americans. My Administration had stopped defending the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that discriminatory law. Now we’re implementing that ruling, giving married couples access to the federal benefits they were long denied. And across the nation, as more and more states recognize marriage equality, we’re seeing loving couples — some who have been together for decades — finally join their hands in marriage. America is at a turning point. We’re not only becoming more accepting and loving as a people,
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we’re becoming more just as a nation. But we still have a way to go before our laws are equal to our Founding ideals. As I said in my second inaugural address, our nation’s journey toward equality isn’t complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
America is at a turning point. We’re not only becoming more accepting and loving as a people, we’re becoming more just as a nation.” In America of all places, people should be judged on the merits: on the contributions they make in their workplaces and communities, and on what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the content of their character.” That’s what ENDA helps us do. When Congress passes it, I will sign it into law, and our nation will be fairer and stronger for generations to come. Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America.
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PAUL BRANDEIS RAUSHENBUSH
How Not to Talk About the Beliefs of Others RECENTLY TWO CELEBRITIES offered us mirror textbook cases on how not to talk about the belief — or lack thereof — of another. On a show that aired Oct. 13, Oprah Winfrey hosted Diana Nyad, who recently completed a historic swim from Cuba to
Florida. In the now famous exchange, Nyad, who is an atheist, explained her beliefs to Oprah: I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity. All the billions of people who have lived
Oprah Winfrey recently came under attack by atheist groups for seemingly disregarding the nonbelief of swimmer Diana Nyad.
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PAUL BRANDEIS RAUSHENBUSH
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before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. So to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity. “Well, I don’t call you an atheist then,” Winfrey said. “I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is. That is what God is. It’s not a bearded guy in the sky.” Oprah came under a heated attack by atheists who thought they deserved an apology for her lack of understanding. In a similar exchange, Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher made their own assessment of the beliefs of others in a conversation on Bill Maher’s show Real Time. First, Bill Maher professed his belief that Pope Francis is “secretly an atheist,” then Dawkins responded by saying: “Like many people, I’m sure that [President Barack] Obama is an atheist.” While not shouting it from the mountain tops, Obama has consistently professed his Christian faith, goes to church, and even welcomed daily scripture reflections sent to him via email by Joshua Dubois who has recently published a collection of those in a book entitled The President’s
We all have the right to decide how to identify ourselves in terms of religion or lack thereof. It is not for others to affix their identity upon us, or strip ours from us.” Devotional. And Pope Francis. What is similar about these cases is that both Oprah and Maher/Dawkins are confronted with people whose values, intelligence, and world view they respect. Oprah heard Nyad talk about the wonder she felt at the universe and her definition of ‘God as humanity’ and thought ‘oh, I resonate with that... you are actually a theist.’ Bill Maher/Richard
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins proclaimed that professed Christian Barack Obama is actually an atheist.
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Voices Dawkins look with admiration at the work of Pope Francis and Barack Obama, and respect their intelligence and ethics and decree that they are actually atheists. In both cases, Oprah and Dawkins/Maher are being simultaneously arrogant and complimentary. Arrogant, in that they assume that anyone who has a similar world view as they do is secretly “one of them”; and complimentary, in that they are saying I admire you enough to claim you for my own belief system. What we can learn from these two vivid examples is that we all have the right to decide how to identify ourselves in terms of religion or lack thereof. It is not for others to affix their identity upon us, or strip ours from us. More positively, these exchanges reveal a truth that is uncomfortable for those who are most invested in the atheist vs. religion fight — no matter what religious or areligious identity we proclaim, many of our world views will overlap in the areas of wonder, ethics, intelligence and aesthetics in surprising and wonderful ways. Instead of denying these similarities that exist between people of different faith traditions and
PAUL BRANDEIS RAUSHENBUSH
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No matter what religious or areligious identity we proclaim, many of our world views will overlap in the areas of wonder, ethics, intelligence and aesthetics in surprising and wonderful ways.” those who have no faith tradition, let’s celebrate what we share, even as we respect those variances that make us different. Ultimately, let’s all work together on the most important project — to make this world a more just, peaceful and beautiful place. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is the senior religion editor of The Huffington Post.
Bill Maher believes Pope Francis is “secretly an atheist” despite being the leader of the Catholic Church.
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QUOTED
“ I dare say we are the throbbing, turgid boner of NBC.”
— Parks & Recreation star Nick Offerman
on why he’s not worried about the show’s hiatus, to The Hollywood Reporter
“ Yes I am. But why should it matter?”
— Maine gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud on rumors that he is gay
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“ But, does she love John Mayer more than John Mayer loves John Mayer?”
— HuffPost commenter Expensive_Wino
on “6 ‘Prism’ Lyrics That Are Probably About John Mayer”
“ Genocide? Let’s not call it that. (That’s what it is, but let’s not call it that.)”
— HuffPost commenter pondweevil on “UN Urged To Declare Canada’s Treatment Of Aboriginals ‘Genocide’”
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Voices
QUOTED
“ Is that me?”
— Nelson Mandela,
when he first saw the actor made up to look like him in the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
It’s just bad public policy… and perhaps illegal.
— Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on the NSA potentially spying on Google data centers
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“ Cats are really nearsighted too. Mine has to lay on the keyboard to read the computer screen.”
— HuffPost commenter FreewheelinFranklin on “How Do Cats See The World? A Lot Differently Than We Do”
“ He was watching Fox & Friends.”
— HuffPost commenter Retrorepublican on “Michael Spann Bleeds From His Eyes; Doctors Stumped”
CARY NORTON
11.10.13 #74 FEATURES
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STONEWALLED HOW ONE MISSISSIPPI TOWN STOPPED A GAY BAR FROM OPENING BY LILA SHAPIRO // PHOTOGRAPHS BY CARY NORTON
LAST SPRING, Pat “PJ” Newton applied for a local business license to open a bar and cafe in Shannon, Miss., two hours away from her Memphis, Tenn., home. A few weeks later, at the mayor’s request, she attended a meeting at the Shannon town hall. As she arrived, she noticed the parking lot was full. Latecomers had parked on the street. Newton, 55, grew up near Shannon and ran a bar there back in the ’90s. She’d been by the town hall many times. She had never seen so many cars parked there. Inside, she was met by a contingent of 30 or so townspeople. The crowd was “stone-faced,” she recalled. “There was not one smile or nice gesture from everyone in that whole room.” A man in the back stood and held up a petition signed by nearly 200 residents. “We don’t want another bar here in the town,” Newton remembers him saying. The petition declared that the bar would offer “no benefits or enhancements to the citizens of the Town of Shannon.” At the end of the meeting, the town’s aldermen voted 4 to 1 to reject Newton’s application. Mississippi is the poorest state in America. Shannon, population
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Residents made vague insinuations about Newton’s morals. “The children will be influenced,” one man said. 1,753, is not one of its more affluent towns. Newton figured that her old neighbors would welcome any new business, especially one that brought people there from surrounding areas. But at the June town hall meeting, none of the res-
Pat “PJ” Newton faced opposition from residents of Shannon, Miss., when she proposed opening a bar there.
“ If I could just meet with every person in town and talk to them, I know they’d change their minds.” Newton stands on the site in Shannon, Miss., where she hopes to open a gay bar.
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idents acknowledged her bar’s potential economic benefits. Instead, residents made vague insinuations about Newton’s morals. “The children will be influenced,” one man said, according to the meeting minutes. One woman said her son practiced soccer in a nearby field. “I don’t want my son playing soccer anywhere near the bar,” she said, according to Newton. No one asked whether the bar would serve gays and lesbians, but maybe they didn’t need to. Newton is gay. Her former establishment, O’Hara’s, which opened in Shannon in 1994, was a gay bar. So was Rumors, the bar that opened in the same location after O’Hara’s closed in 1998. Rumors was the subject of a 2006 documentary called Small Town Gay Bar. It closed in 2010. Now Newton wanted to reopen O’Hara’s on the same spot. Although some people at the town hall meeting said they simply didn’t want another bar in town, no matter the sexual identity of its patrons, several residents who signed the petition presented that night confirmed to The Huffington Post that they did so because they knew the bar would cater to gays. One 80-year-
old resident, Betty Scott, put it bluntly: “I’m anti-gay.” “I know that’s not politically correct these days, but that’s the way I feel,” she said. “I’m a Christian and in the eyes of God it’s an abomination.” For gay people living in small towns throughout the country, and especially in the South, it may come as no great surprise that a town like Shannon would reject a gay establishment. As the gay rights movement has cleared a path to equality for gay citizens in Democratic-leaning states and at
“ I’m anti-gay. I know that’s not politically correct these days, but that’s the way I feel.” the Supreme Court, towns across Mississippi have made news trying to restrict gay people from living openly. In 2009, a school in the southwest part of the state excluded a lesbian from her high school yearbook because she wore a tuxedo in her photo. In 2010, a school district in northern Mississippi canceled a high school prom after a female student demanded she be allowed to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. And
Shannon’s official website endorses “family values” and “protecting ... our cultures for future generations,” phrases that are often used to convey anti-gay sentiment, the lawsuit notes. Shannon Mayor Ronnie Hallmark claims he did not know anything about a lawsuit accusing the town of discrimination.
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last year, a state-owned agriculture and forestry museum in Jackson refused a same-sex couple’s request to hold a commitment ceremony on its grounds. In 2004, the same year that Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, 86 percent of Mississippi voters passed an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriages. Legal groups that support gay rights are increasingly focused on instances of discrimination in places like Shannon, where voters and legislators are unlikely to pass laws to protect their gay citizens. Last month, Newton and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent civil rights organization, filed a lawsuit accusing the town and its current and former aldermen of unconstitutionally discriminating against gays. They accused the mayor of starting the petition and of conspiring with the aldermen and the townspeople to foil Newton’s plans. The town’s lawyer declined to comment on the matter, and the six current and former aldermen named in the suit did not respond to repeated attempts to reach them for comment.
The day after the lawsuit was filed, Shannon Mayor Ronnie Hallmark sat behind his desk at the town hall with his arms crossed. Hallmark, who owns a furniture manufacturing company in town, first told this reporter
“ In opening and maintaining the bar, Newton intends to convey a particularized message: it is okay to be openly gay, and LGBT people are due an equal and respected place in the community.” that he was not aware of the lawsuit and then said he would not comment on pending litigation. “I don’t know anything about the matter,” he said. “And besides, it really wasn’t up to me.” Shannon’s main commercial strip is a flat, lonely stretch of twolane highway scattered with plain gray buildings. It has an auto body shop, a liquor store, a sports bar, a darkened fried chicken establishment, a produce stand, a grocery that sells loose cigarettes and a number of boarded up buildings and gas stations without pumps.
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Eleven miles down the road is Tupelo, a small city best known as the birthplace of Elvis. Between Shannon and Tupelo lies a sea of soybeans. On Shannon’s website, a message attributed to the mayor pitches the town as a good place to start a business: “We have the potential for growth and are ready when something comes our way.” Newton opened O’Hara’s when she was in her 30s. She didn’t tell the town that the bar would serve gays. She named the place after Scarlett O’Hara, a fellow embattled businesswoman who famously responded to adversity by declaring, “As God is my witness they’re not going to lick me.” Outside, the bar was drab and plain, like most of the other businesses in town. Inside was different. Newton and her friends covered one of the wood-paneled walls with framed black-andwhite photographs of Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Marlene Deitrich and other icons of Hollywood’s golden age. They built a small stage for the Saturday night drag show and put up a glittery gold curtain. The bar was open three nights a week, and it was the only gay bar for 100 miles. People came from Tennessee and Alabama and all across Mississippi. They danced, watched comedians perform and ate barbecue in the back. Some
Top: Newton tending bar at the original O’Hara’s. Middle: Regular performer Vonna Valentino after a show at O’Hara’s. Bottom: Valentino performing a Celine Dion song during a Saturday night cast show.
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customers, particularly those from around Shannon, would park down the road so passersby or police wouldn’t see their cars in the lot. But the bar never brought in much money, and in 1998 Newton decided to sell. She and her partner moved from Tupelo to Memphis, where Newton worked in marketing. Over the years, they ran a variety of businesses in Tennessee, including two other bars and a company that contracts with realtors to prepare houses for sale. Newton assumed her time in Shannon was behind her. But in 2010, when the owners of Rumors decided it was time to sell, too, they called Newton and asked her if she would consider buying the bar back. At first she said no. She liked living in Memphis. She changed her mind only after hearing from dozens of former customers and old friends. “I said, ‘Okay, if you really want it and you’re going to come out and spend money, we’ll do it,”’ she recalled. She leased the building and poured thousands of dollars from her savings account into fixing it up, clearing the nearby lots that were filled with trash and old tires, replacing the deteriorating wood with new
siding and getting the building up to code. To save money, she did most of the work herself. Newton is tall, with spiky white hair. She wears cowboy boots and bolo ties. She’s both confident and mild-mannered. “If I could just meet with every person in town and talk to them, I know they’d change their minds,” she said.
“ There are a lot of LGBT people out there who have not yet received the benefits of all the headlines we see in the papers every day, and we’re looking to find those people and make sure they do.” The day after the lawsuit was filed, she held a party at a restaurant in Tupelo for old customers and friends. Her partner, a blonde in her 50s who asked not to be named, drove in from Memphis, where the two women still live. Newton made the rounds, reminiscing with old customers and handing out blue and melon-colored cocktails and bottles of beer. Someone had ordered plates of fried pickles with ranch dressing
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— a local speciality. Newton ate a pickle and drank something blue, before reflecting on the lawsuit. “I just go back to thinking about Stonewall,” she said. The modern gay rights movement began at a bar. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-owned gay bar in New York City. The raid set off three days of rioting in the streets around the bar, with queer patrons hurling bottles and bricks at the the police. Within weeks, activists in New York had formed some of the country’s first gay rights organizations.
At the time, homosexuality was a crime in every state but Illinois, and bars were among the only places where gays and lesbians could gather. Gay bars were to the gay rights movement as black churches were to civil rights, as one commentator observes in Stonewall Uprising, a 2010 documentary about the riots. The lawsuit against Shannon draws on that history, arguing that O’Hara’s is more than a bar: Like the Stonewall Inn and Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church before it, Newton’s bar would be a sanctuary for politically marginalized individuals and a symbol of freedom and equality. It not only would make
The 1969 Stonewall Inn nightclub riot in NYC’s Greenwich Village is considered by many to be the beginning of the LGBT rights movement.
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free speech possible for the people who gather there, but is itself a form of free speech, the lawsuit contends. “In opening and maintaining the bar, Newton intends to convey a particularized message: it is okay to be openly gay, and LGBT people are due an equal and respected place in the community,” the complaint reads. David Dinielli, one of the lawyers with the Southern Poverty Law Center who is working on Newton’s case, believes that while this particular legal argument has a strong precedent, it is also breaking new ground. “There are a lot of LGBT people out there who have not yet received the benefits of all the headlines we see in the papers every day, and we’re looking to find those people and make sure they do,” he said. Founded in the 1970s to “ensure that the promises of the civil rights movement became a reality for all,” the SPLC has gone to court and won on behalf of black children who were not allowed to attend a YMCA summer camp, Vietnamese fishermen who were harassed by the Ku Klux Klan, and undocumented immigrants who were accosted and beaten by a volunteer organization that
claims to protect the United States-Mexico border. In 2010, it established a legal team dedicated to LGBT issues, particularly in the Southeast, where few other advocacy groups operate. Shannon’s official website endorses “family values” and “protecting ... our cultures for future generations,” phrases that are often used to convey anti-gay sentiment, the lawsuit notes. In this context, Newton’s bar would carry
“ You’ll never get Mississippi to go for same-sex marriage. That may be 200 years down the road, but I don’t think it’ll ever happen in Mississippi.” a “particularly important expressive message,” according to the lawsuit, and the town is violating Newton’s right to free speech. The town is also violating her right to equal protection under the law, the suit alleges. Since Rumors closed, Shannon has turned down three other proposals to open gay bars in the same location. But in 2010, the town approved a proposal to open a non-gay bar and grill in another
Scenes around Shannon, Miss., home to 1,753 residents. Mississsippi is the poorest state in America, and Shannon is not one of its more affluent towns.
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part of town. The town clerk told one gay applicant that the “community would not tolerate an establishment that catered to the LGBT community,” according to the lawsuit. The applicant then suggested a recreation center instead of a bar, but the clerk rejected that proposal, too. The lawsuit cites several examples of the mayor and town aldermen allegedly conspiring to prevent Newton’s bar from opening. Lucy Blair, a Shannon resident who is active in community affairs, told HuffPost that she overheard Alderman Joey McCord telling two women outside a town meeting that he welcomed the possibility of a lawsuit. “Hell, we hope they’ll sue us,” Blair recalled McCord saying. “That’ll delay this thing for at least another two years.” Along with an endorsement of family values, Shannon’s website offers a somewhat poetic description of a town gone to seed: “At one time Shannon was known of having quite of [sic] few aspiring artists. At one time they were three cotton gins, corn elevator and a grain elevator in operation here. Coca Cola was bottled here in around 1915 and 1916. Sadly only remnants remain of what
once was the bustling downtown.” Tom Lyles, the owner of the auto body shop next door to the onestory gray building where gays once gathered for drag shows, summed up the town’s economic problems this way: “When I’m closed, they say the whole town is dead.” Lyles is black, with freckles across his nose and white hairs sprinkled in his goatee. He is 65 and has lived in Shannon his
“ I don’t think we need any bars, but we sure don’t need a gay and lesbian bar. That’s for New York and places like that. Not for a little town.” whole life, serving as a county constable for the last 12 years. He was angry about the town’s decision to reject Newton’s application, he said, but not because he condones homosexuality. “Two men, two women, I’m against it,” he said. “But I can’t stop it. The thing of it is, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of speech. We’re in America.” “They never bothered nobody, and they brought a lot of business to the town,” he said of Newton’s former customers. Striking a philosophical note, he continued,
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“We live in a society with all kinds of people, and we all got to meet our maker at the end of the day. I think everybody got their rights.” Outside the shop, a half dozen older black men sat on stools and in beat-up office armchairs. Some gathered there said they remembered when blacks in Mississippi were barred from entering white establishments. Lyles said he’d never turn away a gay customer. “This is a business,” he said. He turned to a man sitting in one of the office chairs. “Who do we cater to?” he asked. “All people,” the man replied, laughing and nodding. “Ain’t that the truth,” Lyles said. There was a chorus of approval. But one of Lyles’ associates, a black man in a baseball cap, wasn’t laughing. “It’s a disgrace and an abomination,” he said, shaking his head disapprovingly. He wouldn’t elaborate. Of the two dozen Shannon residents interviewed for this story, most who condemned homosexuality declined to give their names. Among them was a 60-year-old woman who signed the petition against Newton. “I don’t think we need any bars, but we sure don’t need a gay and lesbian bar,” she
said. “That’s for New York and places like that. Not for a little town.” Warming to her theme, she continued, “You’ll never get Mississippi to go for same-sex marriage. That may be 200 years down the road, but I don’t think it’ll ever happen in Mississippi.” Asked if she knew any
“ At one time Shannon was known of having quite of [sic] few aspiring artists. At one time they were three cotton gins, corn elevator and a grain elevator in operation here. Coca Cola was bottled here in around 1915 and 1916. Sadly only remnants remain of what once was the bustling downtown.” gay people, she replied, “I have no one in my family who is gay, I don’t. I might feel differently if I knew somebody, but I don’t.” Ultimately, she couldn’t comprehend why anyone would want to open a gay bar in Shannon. “I don’t know why she’s doing it,” she said of Newton. “She could go to Tupelo and have a lot more people.” Newton did look into the pos-
“ Two men, two women, I’m against it. But I can’t stop it. The thing of it is, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of speech. We’re in America.” While county constable and autoshop owner Tom Lyles does not condone homosexuality, he does not deny LGBT Americans their rights either.
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sibility of opening a bar in Tupelo this spring, but she thought better of it. The city is home to the American Family Association, a prominent evangelical group dedicated to the preservation of “family values.” The AFA runs a radio network of 200 stations in 39 states broadcasting Christian-oriented talk shows and regularly calls for boycotts of gay-friendly brands. Bryan Fischer, a radio personality and director of Issues Analysis for the organization, once wrote a blog post in which he claimed that homosexuality “gave us Adolph Hitler ... the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and 6 million dead Jews.” The group’s history with the Southern Poverty Law Center goes back a ways. In 2010, the SPLC added the AFA to its list of active hate groups, a distinction shared by neo-Nazis and black separatists. Leaders of the AFA responded by calling the law center a hate group for oppressing Christian students and attempting to silence those who oppose homosexuality. The American Family Association did not respond to request for comment about the Shannon case. At the party in Tupelo the day
the lawsuit was filed, Benson Hill, a 34-year-old gay man who grew up there and sits on the board of a local advocacy group called Equality Mississippi, said he remembered thinking about an AFA radio campaign the first time he went to Rumors eight years ago. The AFA had devoted a broadcast to the Folsom Street Fair, an annual street festival in San Francisco that celebrates all things
“ I have no one in my family who is gay, I don’t. I might feel differently if I knew somebody, but I don’t.” kink, bondage, and leather. Hill had never been to a gay bar before, and he didn’t know what to expect. Guys with whips? “That’s not what I was looking for,” he said. “I was just looking for a place I could be myself. Be me, be safe. I’d not gone to the bar several times because of the image I had.” Eventually, a friend talked him into going. “I was just so shocked and so pleased to find it was just a neighborhood bar.” Lila Shapiro is a staff reporter at The Huffington Post.
S I ALStartup I C OSceneN Grows F Oin Portland REST BY PETER S. GOODMAN
PORTLAND, ORE. —
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Until they moved into their office on the ground floor of a former factory in an industrial zone known as Produce Row, the four founding members of a startup video game developer suffered a gnawing sense that they were a company in name only. They had all previously worked together in a decked-out loft space on the downtown side of the Willamette River, in a hipster-yuppie enclave rife with fair trade espresso bars and artisanal chocolatiers. But their former company, a game studio, was purchased by a California firm, rolled into a giant Japanese gaming conglomerate, and then shut down. It was early 2012, and they were
all suddenly jobless. So the group hatched a plan to start their own company: ClutchPlay LLC. During the first year, they worked from their homes. The lack of office space complicated operations and undermined their sense that they were really doing what they were ostensibly doing: building a business. The team used Skype to finetune designs for new games and pursue fixes to problems. But without being able to point to the screen and physically indi-
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COURTESY OF PRODUCE ROW
The existence of the competition and the dose of entrepreneurial energy it has injected into Produce Row underscores the aggressive role city governments are increasingly playing in catalyzing the creation of startups in a bid to generate quality jobs. cate what element they were discussing, communication proved frustrating and prone to timeconsuming misunderstanding. Isolated in their homes, they lacked the sorts of spontaneous exchanges that can provoke ideas. What was supposed to be a shared creative endeavor often felt like a futile exercise in logistics. “I think back, and I won-
der how we were able to get it done,” says Jonathan Guest, 36, one of the four ClutchPlay LLC founders. “It’s so much easier to be in the same room.” They are in the same room now by dint of having won a new competition known as the Startup PDX Challenge. The brainchild of the Portland Development Commission — a quasi-public agency chartered to attract investment and generate jobs — the contest delivered a year’s worth of free office space,
Produce Row, prior to renovation. Clutchplay LLC won one year in this office space through the Startup: PDX Challenge.
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donated furniture, a $10,000 stipend, and free legal, accounting and human relations services. The existence of the competition and the dose of entrepreneurial energy it has injected into Produce Row underscores the aggressive role city governments are increasingly playing in catalyzing the creation of startups in a bid to
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scene — now known, perhaps inevitably, as Silicon Forest — kicked off in February when the development commission put out invitations for young companies to join the Startup PDX Challenge. In May, the commission announced the six winners. The list included CoPatient, which combs through medical bills in pursuit of
“ Why not start a business in a place you’d really like to live as opposed to Silicon Valley? Everybody gets the Portland story.” generate quality jobs. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has led a muscular effort to boost the city’s technology prowess, enticing Cornell University to construct a tech-centered campus on Roosevelt Island as the innovative anchor for socalled Silicon Alley. In St. Louis, city officials and local business leaders have joined forces to try to raise as much as $100 million over the next five years, with plans to pour those funds into local startup companies. Portland’s latest campaign to accelerate the local technology
errors and overcharges; Safi Water Works, which is developing a bicycle-powered water treatment system for the developing world; Walker Tracker, which customizes programs designed to encourage walking; OnTheGo Platforms, which builds software for smart glasses; and Alum.ni Inc., an Israeli company that later received funding and moved to the Bay Area, to be replaced by Seamus Golf, which makes hand-crafted woolen golf accessories. This is how a modest, 2,900-square-foot space in a building long ago used to assemble cars, later occupied by a rug dealership, and most recently employed as a campaign field office by Port-
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land’s current mayor came to be full of young entrepreneurs wearing jeans, fleece pullovers and hoodies. On a recent morning, a dozen people sat in the space, peering at computer screens, scribbling on white boards, studying their prototype products and huddling in a windowless conference room as they plotted the future of their fledgling companies. Collectively, they represent the fruits of a city effort to update Portland’s economy as it adjusts to globalization and technological change. They’re also a testament to the difficult process of evolving an idea into a going concern. “The big thing is just feeling like a real company,” says Bernie Rissmiller, 34, one of the ClutchPlay founders. “Being four people working from home, it was like we were just in the ether. Having a space where we’re interacting with people as a company and just being chosen for this is a validation of our business plan.”
FROM FRUIT TO VIDEO GAMES Despite its reputation as a bohemian paradise for perpetually young people inclined to lie around in flannel shirts while
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awaiting the next farm-to-table meal, Portland is in reality a relatively traditional Pacific Northwest economy. It remains heavily dependent on exports for its sustenance. More than 40 percent of those exports are computer chips forged locally — Intel has a major presence — and destined for electronics factories in Asia. This is the sort of commerce susceptible to the ebbs and flows of global demand, and the ebbs have proven unpleasant: The local unemployment rate peaked at 11.3 percent in June 2009, amid a punishing global downturn, before dropping back down near 7 percent in recent months. “We’re trying to diversify,” says Patrick Quinton, executive director of the Portland Development Commission. “We’ve definitely been pushing ourselves to think of ways to generate more buzz around startups and tech in Portland.” Ask Quinton how he and his colleagues dreamed up plans for what became the PDX Challenge, and he does not play coy. “We stole it,” he says. The contest was largely modeled on a competition run by MassChallenge, a Boston-based nonprofit that this year plans to award some $1.5 million in seed capital to promising startup companies. Portland added a uniquely lo-
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“ Being four people working from home, it was like we were just in the ether. Having a space where we’re interacting with people as a company and just being chosen for this is a validation of our business plan.” cal element. It would use its inaugural contest to accelerate the transformation of Produce Row, a key new area in the city’s relentless refashioning. Hugging the east bank of the Willamette and threaded by railroad tracks, the area took shape (along with its name) as an offloading point for fruits and vegetables hauled in from inland farm country. In later decades,
Produce Row evolved into a hub of warehouses holding tiles, rubber, plumbing supplies and glass. Today, the warehouses remain, though their function tilts increasingly toward Portland’s modern-day incarnation as an icon of the culinary pleasures. Microbreweries have established themselves here, alongside restaurant equipment merchants and a processor of high-end meat products. Stumptown Coffee, a local brand with a major following, is headquartered in Produce Row.
Clutchplay LLC employees (from left to right): Bernie Rissmiller, John C. Worsley, Jon Guest and Amy Dallas.
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This sort of evolution has become a familiar thread of the American story. From Detroit to Oakland, former factories and warehouses within the city core have been turned into condominiums and eateries, their plain brick walls and exposed plumbing retained as urban chic accents.
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Portland adopted one of the toughest urban growth boundaries in the nation, limiting development beyond the urban core and effectively preempting the suburban sprawl that has devoured the outer rings of major metropolises like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Atlanta. Develop-
“ We’re trying to diversify. We’ve definitely been pushing ourselves to think of ways to generate more buzz around startups and tech in Portland.” Portland, a metropolitan area of 2.2 million people, stands out as a particularly dedicated practitioner of this variety of urban re-imagination. The efforts are central to the city’s work to attract investment and generate employment. As most western American cities have over the decades embraced car culture, adding freeways to exploit access to abundant land as cheap housing stock, Portland has famously axed planned highway expansions while emphasizing public transportation and pedestrian walkways. In the early 1970s,
ers and rural landowners protested, but the result was precisely the sort of development favored by the urban planning set: densely clustered, laced with bicycle lanes, and endowed with a wealth of parks and landscaped walkways. This sort of living has attracted people — and their money — from California, New York and elsewhere. In recent years, the Pearl District, a cluster of old warehouses in the city’s northwest, has been reborn as a hive of glass-fronted condos, designer home-furnishing outlets, boutiques and wine bars. In neighborhoods once written off as dilapidated or rife with crime, moneyed professionals have de-
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scended, renovating Victorian homes on leafy streets. Now, city leaders have set their sites on Produce Row. They plan for it to remain an industrial sanctuary, with housing confined to the periphery. But the nature of industry now tends toward the local technology scene. The commission sought to harness the startup contest as a way to work towards two goals at once: boosting startups and elevating Produce Row. “We wanted to specifically get
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the word out about the district outside of Portland,� Quinton says. For Portland, nurturing a startup culture may depend upon emphasizing the city as a pleasing place to live and work, in order to compensate for some missing elements. Throughout the country, technology startups tend to be clustered around world-class research universities that spawn entrepreneurial undertakings and then feed them with breakthroughs and talented recruits. Researchers at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, have long stocked Silicon Valley with talent and ideas. The
A finalist participates in the MassChallenge 2013 Boot Camp.
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On this morning, [Worsley] is working on a new title they are calling the “skull game,” in which a skeleton wanders around trying to recover his treasure. Eight empty cans of Red Bull are lined up on his desk, alongside three unopened ones. University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, Duke, and Wake Forest have played a foundational role in the state’s thriving biotechnology industry, much as M.I.T. has crystallized growth in the Boston area. Portland has Oregon Health Sciences University, a respected institution, but it is narrowly focused on its area of expertise. Beyond that, no campus fits the bill. So city leaders have found themselves having to work harder to catalyze startup culture. In essence, they need to sell the community as a desirable place to wake up in the morning, and draw a contrast to the other places startups tend to proliferate. Quinton, the development commission chief, cannot resist an implicit dig at northern California, a place now known just as much for its temperate weather as it is for
epic traffic jams and seven-figure prices for modest homes. “Why not start a business in a place you’d really like to live as opposed to Silicon Valley?” Quinton says (assiduously avoiding the fact that it rains approximately 400 days a year in his town). “Everybody gets the Portland story.”
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE As the commission designed the contest, it had to settle one question: Where in Produce Row would the new companies land? Commission staff began hunting for a space, one with room for all six winners. They settled on the ground floor of the two-story former factory on a major thoroughfare, Grand Avenue. Aside from its previous life as a campaign office and before that a rug dealership, it had been vacant for most of the previous two decades. The building’s owner, Lori Livingston, immediately saw
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the merits of the proposed deal: The commission would furnish $100,000 in renovations — carpeting, new tile, a little kitchen space, and new bathrooms — in exchange for her agreeing to a year’s worth of free rent. “I like having those startups down there,” Livingston says. “Maybe one of them will wind up being a tenant for us long-term. If not, we’re left with an improved space.” Livingston was included on the selection committee that picked the winners. She joined two local venture capitalists, a founder of a Portland startup incubator, and a partner from a Portland seed fund that takes stakes in early-stage companies and provides mentoring. Once the commission began inviting applications, measured expectations for participation were quickly exceeded. “We were thinking maybe 100,” says Katherine Krajnak, the contest’s project manager. “We got 240.” Most of the applicants were already in Portland. But about 20 came from other states — including California, New York, Washington, Connecticut and Utah. The winners moved in on July
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1. By the commission’s reckoning, it remains too early to assess the program’s success. What happens to these companies a year out is what matters. Will they unleash successful products, hire new employees, and add fresh paychecks to the Portland economy? But in the estimation of the startups themselves, the contest has already yielded positive results. The companies are benefiting from simply being in one shared space and having access to
Field testing of Safi Water Works’ first UV water purification prototype in Kampala, Uganda.
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Throughout the country, technology startups tend to be clustered around world-class research universities that spawn entrepreneurial undertakings and then feed them with breakthroughs and talented recruits. financial and legal expertise. Amy Dallas, who oversees ClutchPlay’s business development, had been mulling whether to seek funding for the new company. Winning the contest put her in touch with an experienced lawyer at a major local firm who bluntly laid out the pros and cons. Yes, extra cash can be useful for obvious reasons, but outside investors bring pressures to succeed or fail quickly. They may want to realize their gains too swiftly and find an exit, with their immediate interests potentially conflicting with the company’s long-term aims. The investors might press to release new games too quickly, before the designers are fully satisfied that they have achieved the best gaming experience. “Once you get funding, it’s no longer your own company,” Dallas says. “It was really useful to
be able to have a totally candid conversation with someone who has faced all these issues before. I don’t think we need funding right now. For us, continuing to have autonomy was really important.” ClutchPlay could by now have afforded its own office space. After losing their last jobs, the four founders plowed everything they had into launching the new company — their severance, their savings, and their so-called self employment assistance, an Oregon program that provides unemployment benefits to people who are not looking for work but rather seeking to start their own business. Last fall, they released their first game, Little Chomp, a sort of cross between Angry Birds and the children’s classic book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The title was soon spotlighted by a prestigious video game venue, the Pax East Indie Showcase. The partners have since been flooded with contract work from other
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gaming studios, bringing in some $900,000 this year alone, they say. They figure they have enough on hand to keep operating solo for another year. The ClutchPlay founders say building their business in a shared space is beneficial, just by virtue of working in close proximity with others facing similar early-stage challenges. “You hear people’s pitches over and over again, and, just by osmosis, it helps,” says John Worsley, 35, another ClutchPlay founder. On this morning, he is working on a new title they are calling the “skull game,” in which a skeleton wanders around trying to recover his treasure. Eight empty cans of Red Bull are lined up on his desk, alongside three unopened ones. On the other side of the room, Katie Vahle, 36, one of two cofounders of CoPatient, tends to her burgeoning database of medical records. It’s the key asset in the company’s arsenal. Hiring people to handle medical billing and pursue potential savings is not new, but the idea behind CoPatient is to crowdsource the data: Ordinary people are invited to scan their bills and send them
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in. With the information, CoPatient can amass a picture of what medical procedures are covered from community to community, and see which procedures are covered by insurance companies and at what rates of reimbursement. The company farms out individual cases to current and former medical professionals who are familiar with different aspects of care, and the professionals seek out errors and overcharges. While CoPatient does not charge a fee, it hangs on to 30 percent of whatever savings it finds, and kicks out a portion to the advocates who work on the cases. “We want to be the trusted
The office space of PDX Challenge winner Seamus Golf.
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“ When you leave corporate America and leave a steady paycheck and health benefits, it’s just a little unsettling, and it’s good to be around other people in the same situation.” health care adviser to consumers,” Vahle says. “We essentially want to take business away from the collection agents.” Vahle did not lack for resources when she applied for the startup contest. With an M.B.A. from Wharton and a background in biotechnology and health-care management, she speaks with the polished confidence of someone well-versed in her subject — not arrogant, but fully accustomed to being the authority. Vahle and her co-founder began CoPatient in Boston, where both had worked in the corporate ranks of health-care management. They moved to Portland a year ago, when a local insurance company extended investment and offered office space. But cubicle culture did not suit them. They felt isolated amid a sea of people with clearly delineated roles helping a large insurance company run its business.
The startup challenge offered a way in to a different experience. “This was a great way to be around other startups,” Vahle says. She values the monthly roundtables with her counterparts, where they discuss how to get their websites higher in Google searches, which technologies are useful in building their products, and how to tap into new markets. No more than 20 feet from her desk, the Walker Tracker team has been selling their product to corporate wellness programs, a channel Vahle is pursuing as well. “It’s the knowing you’re not alone,” Vahle says. “When you leave corporate America and leave a steady paycheck and health benefits, it’s just a little unsettling, and it’s good to be around other people in the same situation. It reminds you that you need to be scrappy, that you need to push the boundaries.” Peter S. Goodman is the executive business and global news editor of The Huffington Post.
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WENDY GEORGE
For the Rugrat in Your Life
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Holiday Gift Guide
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Parenting
This year’s hottest toys mix up old-school fun with ultra-new features. From classic characters with modern bells and whistles and triedand-true childhood favorites to a music station made for 2013 kids, here are our picks for every little one on your list. — Farah Miller
HELLO KITTY AIRLINES PLAY SET, $39.99 Little imaginations will take flight on this adorable jet. Includes a cute carry-on, mealtime set and a mini passport for stamping fun. Ages 4 and up. KOHLS.COM
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
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The Habits of Supremely Happy People BY KATE BRATSKEIR
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ARTIN SELIGMAN, the father of positive psychology, theorizes that while 60 percent of happiness is determined by our genetics and environment, the remaining 40 percent is up to us. In his 2004 Ted Talk, Seligman describes three different kinds of happy lives: The pleasant life, in which you fill your life with as many pleasures as you can, the life of engagement, where you find a life in
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your work, parenting, love and leisure and the meaningful life, which “consists of knowing what your highest strengths are, and using them to belong to and in the service of something larger than you are.” After exploring what accounts for ultimate satisfaction, Seligman says he was surprised. The pursuit of pleasure, research determined, has hardly any contribution to a lasting fulfillment. Instead, pleasure is “the whipped cream and the cherry” that adds a certain sweetness to satisfactory lives founded by the simultaneous pursuit of meaning and engagement. And while it might sound like a big feat to tackle great concepts like meaning and engagement (pleasure sounded much more doable), happy people have habits you can introduce into your everyday life that may add to the bigger picture of bliss. Joyful folk have certain inclinations that add to their pursuit of meaning — and motivate them along the way.
They Surround Themselves With Other Happy People. Joy is contagious. Researchers of the Framingham Heart Study who investigated the spread of happiness over 20 years found that
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those who are surrounded by happy people “are more likely to become happy in the future.” This is reason enough to dump the Debbie Downers and spend more time with uplifting people.
They Smile When They Mean It. Even if you’re not feeling so chipper, cultivating a happy thought — and then smiling about it — could up your happiness levels and make you more productive, according to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal. It’s important to be genuine with your grin: The study revealed that faking a smile while experiencing negative emotions could actually worsen your mood.
They Cultivate Resilience. According to psychologist Peter
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Exit Kramer, resilience, not happiness, is the opposite of depression: Happy people know how to bounce back from failure. Resilience is like a padding for the inevitable hardship human beings are bound to face. As the Japanese proverb goes, “Fall seven times and stand up eight.”
They Try to Be Happy. Yep — it’s as simple as it sounds: just trying to be happy can boost your emotional well-being, according to two studies recently published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. Those who actively tried to feel happier in the studies reported the highest level of positive moods, making a case for thinking yourself happy.
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They Are Mindful of the Good. It’s important to celebrate great, hard-earned accomplishments, but happy people give attention to their smaller victories, too. “When we take time to notice the things that go right — it means we’re getting a lot of little rewards throughout the day,” Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. told The Huffington Post in May. “That can help with our moods.” And, as Frank Ghinassi, Ph.D. explains, being mindful of the things that
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do go your way (even something as simple as the barista getting your coffee order right) can make you feel a greater sense of accomplishment throughout the day.
They Appreciate Simple Pleasures. A meticulously swirled ice cream cone. A boundlessly waggy dog. Happy people take the time to appreciate these easy-to-come-by
‘I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings,’ is one of the top five regrets of the dying — a sentiment that hints at the fact that people wish they’d spent less time talking about the weather and more time delving into what it is that makes their heart swell.” pleasures. Finding meaning in the little things, and practicing gratitude for all that you do have is associated with a sense of overall gladness.
They Let Themselves Lose Track of Time. (And Sometimes They Can’t Help It.) When you’re immersed in an activity that is simultaneously challeng-
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ing, invigorating and meaningful, you experience a joyful state called “flow.” Happy people seek this sensation of getting “caught up” or “carried away,” which diminishes self-consciousness and promotes the feelings associated with success. As explained by Pursuit-ofhappiness.org, “In order for a Flow state to occur, you must see the activity as voluntary, enjoyable (intrinsically motivating), and it must require skill and be challenging (but not too challenging) with clear goals towards success.”
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They Devote Some of Their Time to Giving. Even though there are only 24 hours in a day, positive people fill some of that time doing good for others, which in return, does some good for the do-gooders themselves. A long-term research project called “Americans Changing Lives” found a bevy of benefits associated with altruism: “Volunteer work was good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteered were happier and experienced better physical health and less depression,” reported Peggy Thoits, the leader of one of the studies. Givers also experience what researchers call “the helper’s high,”
a euphoric state experienced by those engaged in charitable acts. “This is probably a literal “high,” similar to a drug-induced high,” writes Christine L. Carter, Ph.D. “The act of making a financial donation triggers the reward center in our brains that is responsible for dopamine-mediated euphoria.”
They Nix the Small Talk for Deeper Conversation. Nothing wrong with shootin’ the you-know-what every now and then, but sitting down to talk about what makes you tick is a prime practice for feeling good about life. A study published in Psychological Science found that those who take part in more substantive conversation and less trivial chit chat experienced more feelings of satisfaction.
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Exit “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings,” is one of the top five regrets of the dying — a sentiment that hints at the fact that people wish they’d spent less time talking about the weather and more time delving into what it is that makes their heart swell.
They Spend Money on Other People. Maybe money does buy happiness. A study published in Science found that spending money on other people has a more direct impact on happiness than spending money on oneself.
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if their presence served a purpose, an experience that is closely connected with increased well-being.
They Uphold In-Person Connections. It’s quick and convenient to text, FaceTime and tweet at your buddies. But spending the money on a flight to see your favorite person across the country has weight when it comes to your well-being. “There’s a deep need to have a sense of belonging that comes with having personal interactions
They Make a Point to Listen. “When you listen you open up your ability to take in more knowledge versus blocking the world with your words or your distracting thoughts,” writes David Mezzapelle, author of Contagious Optimism. “You are also demonstrating confidence and respect for others. Knowledge and confidence is proof that you are secure and positive with yourself thus radiating positive energy.” Good listening is a skill that strengthens relationships and leads to more satisfying experiences. A good listener may walk away from a conversation feeling as
Maybe money does buy happiness. A study published in Science found that spending money on other people has a more direct impact on happiness than spending money on oneself.” with friends,” says John Cacioppo, Ph.D., the director of the Center of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Social media, while it keeps us in touch, doesn’t allow us to physically touch, which harvests the warmand-fuzzies and even decreases feelings of anxiety.
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They Look on the Bright Side. Optimism touts plenty of health benefits, including less stress, a better tolerance for pain and, as HuffPost Healthy Living recently reported, longevity among those with heart disease. When you choose to see the silver lining, you’re also choosing health and happiness.
They Unplug.
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Whether by meditating, taking a few deep breaths away from the screen or deliberately disconnecting from electronics, unplugging from our hyper-connected world has proven advantages when it comes to happiness. Talking on your cell could increase your blood pressure and raise your stress levels, while uninterrupted screen time has been linked to depression and fatigue. Technology isn’t going away, but partaking in some kind of a digital detox gives your brain the opportunity to recharge and recover, which — bonus — could increase your resilience.
They Value a Good Mixtape. Music is powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it could match up to the anxiety-reducing effects of massage therapy. Over a three month period, researchers from the Group Health
Research Institute found that patients who simply listened to music had the same decreased anxiety symptoms as those who got 10 hourlong massages. Choosing the right tunes could be an important factor, however, as a happy or sad song can also affect the way we perceive the world. In one experiment where researchers asked subjects to identify happy or sad faces while listening to music, the participants were more likely to see the faces that matched the “mood” of the music.
They Get Spiritual. Studies point to a link between religious and spiritual practice and mirth. For one, happiness habits like expressing gratitude, compassion and charity are generally promoted in most spiritual conventions. And, asking the big questions helps to give our lives context and meaning. A 2009 study found that children who felt their lives had a
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purpose (which was promoted by a spiritual connection) were happier.
They Make Exercise a Priority. A wise, albeit fictional Harvard Law School student once said, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” Exercise has been shown to ease symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, thanks to the the various brain chemicals that are released that amplify feelings of happiness and relaxation. Plus, working out makes us appreciate our bodies more. One study published in the Journal of Health Psychology found that exercise improved how people felt about their bodies — even if they didn’t lose weight or achieve noticeable improvements.
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They Go Outside. Want to feel alive? Just a 20-minute dose of fresh air promotes a sense of vitality, according to several studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. “Nature is fuel for the soul, “ says Richard Ryan, Ph.D, the lead author of the studies. “Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature.” And while
most of us like our coffee hot, we may prefer our serving of the great outdoors at a more lukewarm temperature: A study on weather and individual happiness unveiled 57 degrees to be the optimal temperature for optimal happiness.
They LOL. You’ve heard it before: Laughter is the best medicine. In the case of The Blues, this may hold some truth. A good, old-fashioned chuckle releases happy brain chemicals that, other than providing the exuberant buzz we seek, make hu-
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mans better equipped to tolerate both pain and stress. And you might be able to get away with counting a jokeswapping session as a workout (maybe). “The body’s response to repetitive laughter is similar to the effect of repetitive exercise,” explained Dr. Lee Berk, the lead researcher of a 2010 study focused on laughter’s effects on the body. The same study found that some of the benefits associated with working out, like a healthy immune system, controlled appetite and improved cholesterol can also be achieved through laughter.
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They Spend Some Time on the Pillow. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed isn’t just a myth. When you’re running low on zzs, you’re prone to experience lack of clarity, bad moods and poor judgment. “A good night’s sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety,” Dr. Raymonde Jean, director of sleep medicine and associate director of critical care at St. Luke’sRoosevelt Hospital Center told Health.com. “You get more emotional stability with good sleep.”
They Walk the Walk. Ever notice your joyful friends have a certain spring in the step? It’s all about the stride, according to research conducted by Sara Snodgrass, a psychologist from Florida Atlantic University. In the experiment, Snodgrass asked participants to take a threeminute walk. Half of the walkers were told to take long strides while swinging their arms and holding their heads high. These walkers reported feeling happier after the stroll than the other group, who took short, shuffled steps as they watched their feet.
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How to Make a Crust Easy As Pie BY JULIE R. THOMSON
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Exit HEN COMPARED with layer cakes and French pastries, it becomes overly clear that pie is one of the easiest desserts to make. All you have to do is toss a filling, throw it into a pie crust, bake and enjoy. But pie does have one thorn in its heel, and that is the crust. While pie itself is super easy to make, pie crust is not as user friendly. And for the novice baker it can be downright scary. But bakers, listen to us, don’t let pie crust intimidate you. Once you’ve tried your hand at it once or twice (and possibly thrown a bag of flour across the kitchen and cursed in frustration), you’ll soon see that you’re truly in control when it comes to crust. There’s really not much to it. Just take a deep breath; keep in mind a couple of helpful tips; and remember, that at the end of this pie crust experience comes great pie — many and many of them. Here’s what you need to know for a stress-free pie crust experience:
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• Start with cold butter. Really cold butter. We like to throw our butter in the freezer for about 30 minutes before working with it to make pie crust — especially dur-
ing the summer months. • Use ice-cold water. Actually, all your pie crust ingredients should be ice cold. The reason you want cold ingredients is to make sure you don’t melt the butter before it reaches the oven. You want to keep the butter really cold so that little pea-sized pieces of butter get worked into the dough still intact — they’ll make your pie crust perfectly flaky. Also, working with warm butter means working with a sticky dough and that is a guaranteed disaster.
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• Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before rolling it. • When rolling the dough, don’t be too stingy with the flour. Every recipe will tell you to only add as much flour as needed so that the dough doesn’t stick. While this is true, most novice bakers tend to be way stingier than necessary when it comes to flouring the dough for easy rolling. If your dough is sticking in any way, just add more flour. Please. • If you feel like your pie dough is getting too warm to handle, take a break and put it in the fridge. These couple of minutes you waste
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waiting on your dough to cool will save you many hours of frustration. • Many people swear by glass pie plates. Not only do they let you see how cooked the bottom is — avoiding a surprise soggy crust — but they’re known to conduct heat evenly too. • Once you have your crust rolled and ready to fill, give it 15 minutes in the fridge just to make sure it’s nice and chilled before it goes in the oven. This can also help prevent a soggy-bottom pie. Now that you know everything you need to know when it comes to pie crust, give it a try with this pie crust recipe. You’ll be amazed at how easy it can be.
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MUSIC
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Dog Ears: Born in November In which we spotlight music from a diversity of genres and decades, lending an insider’s ear to what deserves to be heard. BY THE EVERLASTING PHIL RAMONE AND DANIELLE EVIN
ASMAHAN
FRANCY BOLAND
JOSÉ ITURBI
Asmahan, also known as Amal Al Atrash, was born in 1918, the only daughter among four children. She lived in Lebanon until she was 2, then moved on to Demergi, Turkey, where her father served as governor. By the age of 6, the young aristocrat lost her father and the family moved to Egypt; fortune was lost and hardships endured. To make ends meet, her mother sang at private social functions. Her brother became the renowned vocalist Farid El Atrache. Raised on European music, she incorporated Arabic traditions and created her own sound. After Farid hit it big on Egypt’s national radio, Amal was discovered by Mouhammad Al Qasabji, who crowned her Asmahan. Asmahan’s untimely death came in 1944 as a result of a car accident. Discover Asmahan with “Ya Dirati Idi Fi Idek,” from Archives Des Années 1942/1944.
Bebop composer/arranger and pianist Francy Boland was born in Belgium in 1929. He took up piano at the age of 8, and post-WWII attended the Royal Music Conservatory in Liège. After becoming a legend in Paris, Boland took off during the ’50s with the Chet Baker quintette, eventually landing Stateside. He went on to write arrangements for Count Basie and Benny Goodman, then forged an octette alliance with drummer Kenny Clarke. Boland and Clarke issued dozens of releases during their tenure. Collaborations include Woody Herman, Henri Renaud, Aimé Barelli, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, Mary Lou Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Gigi Campi and Stan Getz. The genius passed away in 2005. Revisit Francy Boland with “Fiebre Cuban,” featuring Kenny Clarke, from the collection Mambomania–Talkin’ Verve.
Classical virtuoso José Iturbi was born in Spain in 1895 to music-loving parents. He took up piano at 3, and by 7 he was earning serious coin playing in silent film houses. In his teens, he won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatory of Music, where he graduated with honors at 17. Iturbi made the rounds on the Paris café circuit before teaching in Geneva. By the late ’20s, he played Carnegie Hall and inked a deal with RCA Victor. Holding court as the principal conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Iturbi was also a leading radio and film figure, composing for MGM. Collaborations include Judy Garland, Tallulah Bankhead, Ethel Barrymore and Frank Sinatra. The virtuoso passed away in 1980. Remember him with “Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major K. 332: II. Adagio,” from Mozart: Œuvres Pour Piano.
TAP TO BUY: iTunes.com GENRE: World ARTIST: Asmahan SONG: Ya Dirati Idi Fi Idek ALBUM: Archives Des Années 1942/1944
TAP TO BUY: iTunes.com GENRE: World ARTIST: Francy Boland SONG: Fiebre Cuban ALBUM: Mambomania–Talkin’ Verve
TAP TO BUY: iTunes.com GENRE: Classical ARTIST: José Iturbi SONG: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332: II. Adagio ALBUM: Mozart: Œuvres Pour Piano
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MUSIC
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI
BROWNIE MCGHEE (with Sonny Terry)
Avant classical composer/conductor Krzysztof Penderecki was born in Poland in 1933, on the eve of Hitler’s takeover. As a boy, he picked up the violin and piano, and by his late teens attended conservatory in Krakow. After the war, he became a champion at the Warsaw Competition for Young Composers, setting his trajectory. Penderecki’s trove of works include “Dies Irae” and “Resurrection,” which premiered at Carnegie Hall. Collaborations include Berlin Philharmonic; orchestras in France, England, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland; and performances with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and Isaac Stern. Accolades include a UNESCO Award, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, three Grammy Awards, and many honorary doctorates. Discover his groundbreaking “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 Stringed Instruments,” from the 1973 release Penderecki: Orchestral Works Vol. 1.
Blues duo Brownie McGhee (guitar) and Sonny Terry (harmonica) are a dominant force in blues lore. Walter Brown McGhee was born 1915 in Tennessee into a musical family. He caught polio as a child and was left with a limp. Saunders Terrell (Terry) was born in 1911 in North Carolina into a musical family and in boyhood lost his sight in a farm accident. McGhee and Terry first met in 1939 playing with Paul Robeson in Washington, D.C. In 1941 the two were busking in New York City, and by 1944 the pair made their first recording. In 1947, they moved on to separate projects, but reunited for Tennessee Williams’ musical of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955, recording three albums together that year. Their partnership flourished through the mid-’70s. Collaborations included Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Terry passed away in 1986, and McGhee in 1996. Both are in the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame. The title “Better Day,” from Smithsonian Folkways American Roots Collection, is an authentic and serendipitous marvel.
TAP TO BUY: iTunes.com GENRE: Classical ARTIST: Krzysztof Penderecki SONG: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 Stringed Instruments ALBUM: Penderecki: Orchestral Works Vol. 1
TAP TO BUY: iTunes.com GENRE: Folk ARTIST: Brownie McGhee (with Sonny Terry) SONG: Better Day ALBUM: Smithsonian Folkways American Roots Collection
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AARON COPLAND Iconic American composer and arranger Aaron Copland was born in New York City on Nov. 14, 1900. His first musical inspiration came from his older sister, who taught him piano. By his teens, sights set on composing, he went to Paris, where he became the first American student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger. (He was selected a few years later to write a concerto for Boulanger’s American performances.) Copland’s creations run the gamut: orchestral, choral, ballet and film. His most notable works include “Appalachian Spring,” “Billy the Kid,” “Rodeo,” “Of Mice and Men” and “Connotations” (a piece written for the opening of Lincoln Center in 1962). Collaborations include Martha Graham, Orson Welles, Serge Koussevitzky and Andre Kostelanetz. His accolades include the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in Composition for “Appalachian Spring,” the 1950 Oscar for Best Musical Score (The Heiress), and the 1960 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Orchestral Suite from The Tender Land). The maestro passed away in December 1990. Revisit Copland’s epic 1938 title “Billy the Kid: The Open Prairie Again,” from The Copland Collection: Orchestral & Ballet Works, 1936-1948; stirring and elegant. TAP TO BUY: iTunes. GENRE: Classical ARTIST: Aaron Copland SONG: Billy the Kid: The Open Prairie Again ALBUM: The Copland Collection: Orchestral & Ballet Works, 1936-1948
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Most Americans Don’t Know People Can Be Legally Fired for Being Gay
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We Live in a World Where Salads Have More Sugar Than Donuts
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Students Hospitalized by Noxious Odor That Turns Out to Be Axe Body Spray
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‘She’s a Homewrecker’ Website Relentlessly Shames and Exposes the ‘Other Woman’
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Cop Tricked Teen With Autism Into Buying Pot, Lawsuit Claims
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People Are Now Instagramming While Driving With the Hashtag #ihopeidontcrash
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