POPULARITY
10 episodes with documentproperties
8 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
5 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
2 episodes with documentproperties
Download Ep 191 Why The Flash didn't ignite anything Borderlands: The Movie: The Trailer Michael's opinion of Dune Part 1 Take 2 Is Breaking Bad the funniest comedy? Trailer for The Flash Trailer for Borderlands (the movie) Trailer for Dune Part 1 Trailer for Breaking Bad Link to PSX Longplay of Street Fighter: The Movie (the Game)Playthrough of Nintendo's Back to the Future Trailer for Double Dragon (the movie) Trailer for Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing Game Trailer for Mortal Combat Annihilation (the movie) DOWNLOAD EP 191
Is The Boys too gory for adult men? Has Obi-Wan Kenobi achieved an Obi-Won or an Obi-Loss? Trailer for The Boys Trailer for Obi-Wan KenobiDOWNLOAD NOW!
A información do luns en Radio Nordés
Lemos quere un equipo ambicioso para o partido de mañá na Copa RFEFTertulia con Manín e Manolín “Os Dous de Sempre”
'This is us' i 'Días mejores'; 'Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley i la dinastia de Los Ángeles Lakers als anys 80'; el Rei emèrit, la infanta Cristina i Antonio Resines i l'estrena de 'Operación Mincemeat'
Bill and Ted 3: Saved by Keanu ReevesWas the bounty on The Mandalorian worth the hunt?Download Now! Bill & Ted Face the Music Announcement Trailer for The Mandalorian
Gustavo & Martina took a quick break from what seemed an intense week for fashion and the culinary world. The passing of both icons brings them together to discuss a mental illness that seems to be claiming lives more than automobile accidents. On a lighter note, the podcasters discuss the CFDA Awards and the red carpet. Just hit the play button for the full interviewListen and subscribe via iTunes As always, below are the visuals that go along with our podcast.Loved Hamish Bowles look! The fit on this suit was top notch! The lines created a stripe that made him look much thinner! These stripes created an optical illusion that drew my eye in that made me move from section to section with my eyes. They kept my attention while looking at it. Kourtney Khardashian in Christian Siriano. Loved this look as it kept in line with our current state of empowering women to be forces of nature. This look is slick and flattering but still feminine and delicate. The detailing of the stones on this pantsuit makes the statement considering it is a very simple look that she had on. Thought the accessorizing was done tastefully as well as hair and make-up.Emiily Rataikowski in Brock Collection. I personally enjoyed the structure of this garment. I felt like it collaborated the structure of a masculine garment but yet was feminine with the silhouette of a dress and the floral applique. I also think that Midi length gowns are extremely difficult to execute and she has a tall slender frame that this completely works for her. The fact that the top half and bottom half are two different looks makes them look like a separates which is also great because it is a look that can be dressed up or dressed down. Martha Hunt in Thome Browne. Loved this look in particular because it marries the structured tailored looks that Thom Browne is known for but yet looks delicate and feminine. To me this is also very artistic and that is what fashion is about; art that we wear. The boning in the gown creates the structure and visual interest. The train she is holding in her hand that is attached to the dress also adds to the drama in the gown and gives the eye another thing to look at. I will say it is very visually appealing because there is a natural progression that the eye goes through meaning that it starts at the top and works its’ way down and you stop to look at every detail.Linda Fargo in Oscar de la Renta. Linda Fargo is probably my favorite look of all the looks I personally saw at the CFDA awards. The womenswear director of BG wore a traditional polka dot that most people think is a juvenile print but was worn in an elegant way. This print is one that I believe most people tend to shy away from because it makes you stand out in a crowd. But Fargo does this in a way that is tastefully done. It’s a fairly simple silhouette with the fabric being the star of this show. Bravo to her in not taking fashion so seriously. Tracee Ellis Ross in Carolina Herrera. Gustavo loves this dress for the pure fact that is ultra feminine. From the cascading silk layes of different shades of pink to the bold black strap. It stood our more than others. Naomi Campbell in Calvin Klien. What is there to say about the most Iconic model infringe? Absolutely nothing. There is nothing Naomi cannot wear and not make it work. I love the bold red and the fact that is modern but it reminds me of a 20's flapper dress. Amazing.Cate Blanchette in Monse was the cool chic at the party. The one that goes against the dress code but knows she looks cool. I love this black ensemble with the pop of glittered silver. Upon more research, I discovered that an apron type skirt is layered over the silver skirt as given it an illusion of a topsy-turvy layer. I think this worked great for an event that salutes designer creativity. As Always. LIKE. COMMENT. SUBSCRIBE.Follow our social media:IG: @fashionjunkiespodcast2Twitter: @fashionjunkies2
The Bachelor Australia Season 4 Episode 7 & 8.On this episode, Sophie and Lizzie dwell over missing marshmallows, figure out science and rope in THEIR MUMS to bant with them. To check out our top 10 Bachie Beats for this week, follow the link https://open.spotify.com/user/bachiebant/playlist/6Us9z8OjY3wQcyV88wclgL Follow us on twitter @bachie_bant or email us at bachiebantpodcast@gmail.com
The Bachelor Australia Season 4 Episode 5 & 6.On this episode, Sophie and Lizzie spoil the ending of Titanic, try to keep up with how many contestants are left and have another lesson in wife training. They also chat to former contestant Jacinda Gugliemino, and get some insights into the workings of the show. To check out our top 10 Bachie Beats for this week, follow the link https://open.spotify.com/user/bachiebant/playlist/1zHWa4zmtXx6F0eQpRkzvy Follow us on twitter @bachie_bant or email us at bachiebantpodcast@gmail.com
The Bachelor Australia Season 4 Episodes 11 & 12 On this episode Sophie and Lizzie have school camp flashbacks, meet the fam and say goodbye to some faves. Play along with this weeks Barista Bant, follow the link https://www.buzzfeed.com/matwhitehead/badchelor-datesFollow us on Twitter @Bachie_Bant or email us at bachiebantpodcast@gmail.comTo check out our top 10 Bachie Beats for this week, follow the link https://open.spotify.com/user/bachiebant/playlist/2wdioimczJZcwwJYdD9AnE
The Bachelor Australia Season 4 Episode 5 & 6.On this episode, Sophie and Lizzie spoil the ending of Titanic, try to keep up with how many contestants are left and have another lesson in wife training. They also chat to former contestant Jacinda Gugliemino, and get some insights into the workings of the show. To check out our top 10 Bachie Beats for this week, follow the link https://open.spotify.com/user/bachiebant/playlist/1zHWa4zmtXx6F0eQpRkzvy Follow us on twitter @bachie_bant or email us at bachiebantpodcast@gmail.com
http://www.mpgqs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-03-28_15h23m53.mp3Play Some Normal MusicbyRockwell2.Light In The Dark (Featuring Terri Walker) (Etherwood Remix)bySpectraSoul3.Dark Days (Featuring Foreign Beggars) (Fourward Remix)byAlix Perez4.Gangsta VIPbyTotal Science & S.P.Y.5.Stand Up (Featuring Dynamite MC)byFriction Vs Camo & Krooked6.Back To Your Roots (Friction & K-Tee Remix)byJohnny L.7.Forsaken Ft. Peven Everett & SpectraSoulbyAlix Perez8.UniversebyMarcus Intalex & ST Files9.VIP DrumsbyDoc Scott10.Love Has GonebyNetsky11.About TonightbyLSB12.Forest Fires (feat Etherwood) (Original)byFred V & Grafix13.Rise Again (feat. Suku of Ward 21)byS.P.Y14.Soul FunctionbyDanny Byrd15.Icarus (feat. Hugh Hardie)byLogistics16.Tell Me TruebyLogistics17.Highway 1byLogistics18.Artificial Skin (feat. Keeno and Emer Dineen)byLondon Elektricity19.Phase UsbyLondon Elektricity20.LON 8PM TYO 4AM] (i-dep Rework Mix) byLondon Elektricity
http://www.mpgqs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-03-26_14h22m49-1.mp3 1.LockdownbyCritycal Dub2.DeodandbyMitus3.Electro FunkbyRuffstuff & Nu Elementz4.Latin WaybyCALIBRE5.Space Time (feat Cleveland Watkiss)byCALIBRE6.Get It Back (feat. Shaprece)byQuadrant, Kid Hops & Iris7.I Wait for You (John B Future Jungle Remix)bySouls8.Freak VIP (feat Josh Barry)byFriction9.Paper Faces (feat Martyna Baker - Ivy Lab remix)byLenzman10.Cold Light Of Day (feat. Sherry Davis)byLogistics11.SalsoulbyCALIBRE12.Still Life (feat. Holly Drummond)byLogistics12.Still Life (feat. Holly Drummond)byLogistics
In this inaugural episode, we summarize and listen in on a panel discussion at Carleton University on Examining the Role of the Media in the 2015 Election Campaign that featured Rosemary Barton CBC Host of Power and Politics, Paul Wells Political Editor with MacLean’s, and Susan Dellacourt columnist with the Toronto Star. Next, we interview Kartin Wittig who is speaking at the University of Ottawa on November 11 with a talk entitled Politics in the Shadow of the Gun: The Political Legacies of Rebellions for Party Politics after Civil War. The show then concludes with a recap of the public affairs and live journalism events for the week of November 9, 2015 taking place Around The Hill.
Laurie Bloomfield is an associate professor of psychology at Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada.Laurie grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, and did her BA at Algoma University College (1996-2000). Based on some fascinating research she had learned about during several classes with one particular professor (Laurie claims this was me), she was the only student to conduct her Honours thesis study on animal behaviour (a trend that hasn’t seemed to have changed in years at AU). Also while at Algoma University College she was a teaching assistant in Psychology and the Assistant Manager and bartender for the T-Bird Lounge, which at the time was open all day on Thursdays, and students and professors alike met and enjoyed a beverage or two.Laurie Bloomfield, she's my boss....In 2000 she began work on her Master’s degree at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario with Ron Weisman. There she investigated vocal production and perception in chickadees, as well as learned techniques to explore the neural correlates of auditory perception. She received the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Academic Excellence for her Master’s thesis which examined in detail the morphology and phonology of the “chick-a-dee” call of the eastern Carolina chickadee, and the perception of this species’ call by the closely related black-capped chickadee. She then (2002) went to the University of Alberta in Edmonton to work with Chris Sturdy. There she continued her investigation of auditory perception in chickadees by examining the morphology and phonology of the chick-a-dee call of the western Mountain chickadee. Several lab studies that followed attempted to determine which acoustic features were most important to the birds in making species-specific discriminations. Immediately following the completion of her PhD (2007) she turned down an NSERC post-doc to start as Assistant Professor at Algoma University…. where it all began.Why continue to work with the chickadees? Well, they produce that chick-a-dee call that is a perfect model for understanding perception. It can be broken down into several components to determine what the birds are paying attention to, and perhaps then we can figure out why they modify this call. In other words, what are they trying to say? It’s sort of like attempting to learn another language. Laurie and I talked about a lot of different things, her present research, her inspirations, and other stuff. This one was fun for me as it was the first non Skype interview I have done. Laurie is also the first woman I have had on the show, which is a long overdue thing. Oh yeah, and she is like four doors down the hall from me at work....Thanks again to Red Arms for letting me mash up their music in the closing theme. Buy their music now. mp3 download
Aaron Blaisdell is a Professor in Learning & Behavior and Behavioral Neuroscience in the UCLA Psychology Department. He presides over the Comparative Cognition Lab, studying cognitive processes in rats, pigeons, hermit crabs, and humans.Aaron knows the best way to carry a rat is on your shoulderAfter receiving his BA and MA in Biological Anthropology (at SUNY Stony Brook and Kent State University, respectively), Aaron realized that animal cognition was even more interesting than dead humans. So he trekked on over to SUNY Binghamton for his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology with Ralph Miller, where he studied learning, memory, and temporal cognition in the rat. This was followed by a brief stint as an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow with Bob Cook, an expert on Avian Visual Cognition at Tufts University, where he learned how pigeons perceive and think about the world. In 2001, he emigrated to the climatological and cultural paradise of sunny LA where he has remained ever since. A second interest of Aaron’s is in how human ancestry and evolution can inform us about health and well being in the modern world. He is currently studying the interaction between diet and cognition. He is a founding member and Past President of the Ancestral Health Society, Past President of the International Society for Comparative Psychology, an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Evolution and Health, and a member of the Brain Research Institute, the Integrative Center for Learning & Memory, and the Evolutionary Medicine program all at UCLA.We talked about a lot of different things, including reasoning in rats, sensory preconditioning, how diet affects cognition, representation in rat memory and Aaron's crowdfunded research proposal.Thanks again to Red Arms for letting me mash up their music in the closing theme. Buy their music now.mp3 download
ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Justin Eimers and Cal Moore sit down with Dr. Michael Licona to discuss his ReMIND Conference plenary session, "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Is It Possible to Prove Jesus' Resurrection?" ABOUT DR. MICHAEL LICONA: President of Risen Jesus Inc and associate professor of theology at Houston Baptist University: Mike Licona is associate professor of theology at Houston Baptist University and president of Risen Jesus, Inc. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from the University of Pretoria, which he earned with distinction and the highest mark. Mike was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his book The Case for the Real Jesus and appeared in Strobel’s video The Case for Christ. He is the author of numerous books including The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, Paul Meets Muhammad, co-author with Gary Habermas of the award-winning book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, and co-editor with William Dembski of Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science. His next book will concern ancient compositional devices resulting in discrepancies in the Gospels and Plutarch’s Lives. Mike is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. He has spoken on more than 70 university campuses and has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs. #ReMIND15 @RemindConf--- © The Christian Manifesto 2007-2015
Software Engineering Radio - The Podcast for Professional Software Developers
Ben Hindman talks to Jeff Meyerson about Apache Mesos, a distributed systems kernel. Mesos abstracts away many of the hassles of managing a distributed system. Hindman starts with a high-level explanation of Mesos, explaining the problems he encountered trying to run multiple instances of Hadoop against a single data set. He then discusses how Twitter uses Mesos for cluster management. The conversation evolves into a more granular discussion of the abstractions Mesos provides and different ways to leverage those abstractions.
Software Engineering Radio - The Podcast for Professional Software Developers
Eurueka, framtiden är här! Eller åtminstone pratar vi om den. Vad finns det för olika typer av framtidsskildringar i ungdomslitteraturen? Vad är det för skillnad på en utopi och en dystopi? Och vad tycker vi egentligen om Per Nilssons sätt att skriva? Vi har läst "Otopia" av Per Nilsson, och träffat den österrikiska författaren Ursula Poznanski.Du kan lyssna direkt här, genom att trycka play:Eller ladda hem mp3-filen här. Vi finns också på iTunes!De här böckerna nämns i avsnittet:Otopia, av Per Nilsson, Rabén & Sjögren.Sveket, av Ursula Poznanski, övers Niklas Lindblad, Opal.Erebos, av Ursula Poznanski, övers. Christine Bredenkamp, OpalHjärtans fröjd, av Per Nilsson, Rabén & SjögrenSjutton, av Per Nilsson, Rabén & SjögrenI det här trädet, Katarina Kieri och Per Nilsson, Rabén & SjögrenDu & du & du, av Per Nilsson, Rabén & SjögrenSvenne, av Per Nilsson, Rabén & SjögrenUtopia, av Thomas More.Hungerspelen, av Suzanne Collins, övers Lena Jonsson, Bonnier Carlsen.1984, av George Orwell, Atlantis.Walking dead, av Robert Kirkman, övers. Sara Årestedt, Apart förlag.Den gröna cirkeln, av Stefan Casta, Opal.En sekund i taget, av Sofia Nordin, Rabén & Sjögren.Som om jag vore fantastisk, av Sofia Nordin, Rabén & Sjögren.Kall feber, av Jerker Virdborg, Bonnier pocket. Kallocain, av Karin Boye, Bonnier pocket.
Joe throws a Thanksgiving Day gathering and attempts to interview everyone there.
This first episode is a trial to show how a podcast episode looks like!Music credits:“Chimes,” by Bart DavenportCreative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0Downloaded from: https://archive.org/details/Chimes_447“drum loop,” by maxCreative Commons license: Attribution Downloaded from: https://archive.org/details/maxdrumloop_11
Hear English presents a guest post from professional comedy writer: Joel, aka the Bespoke Joke Bloke www.bespokejokebloke.co.ukOFFICE GOSSIP (Slow)You can get the mp.3 here. Too slow? Try the faster version in the following post. Cooee, nice to see you. How’s your first day? How’s everyone treating you? Nicely? Really? Even Jill? Oh that’s nice. I’m amazed she can still smile; she says it was Bell’s palsy but I think it was Botox. So you can see how special it was for her to smile for you. Have you got a boyfriend? You can tell me I’m really discreet. I mean just ask Jennifer. I didn’t tell anyone when she was going out with Brian from reprographics, who was married to Jessy in accounts. They ended up getting divorced and Jennifer had a telling off from HR. I mean who’d gossip about that and get her into trouble? I reckon it was Harry the guy who does security. It’s not his fault, he just likes a drink. At lunch time, tea time, well most of the time. Poor guy stuck on that desk all day long. Do you like a drink? Oh, me? No, never. Ever come into work with a hangover? Me? No, never…so, do you have a boyfriend?Do you think any of the guys working here are hot? Oh no, workplace romances are always trouble. Take Jennifer: I mean, she had to take 2 months off work. She said it was back strain, but, my mate, who works down the pub and knows someone in the NHS, said she had a breakdown and was in a mental hospital. Like that Jill, who went on a 6 week holiday to see her cousin in Australia, but, I reckon she was having a boob job. She went out a C and came back a D; I don’t think the sun made them grow big.So have you heard any good gossip? C’mon you’re new; everyone’s indiscreet with the newbie. It’s about me? What could there be about me? Oh, that I’m on a final written warning and performance improvement notice for bullying and harassing other staff members. Well if having a chat is what the company views as harassment that’s their problem. Do I have a boyfriend? That’s none of your business!www.bespokejokebloke.co.uk
(Song - "My Newest Revelation". To download full 50 minute podcast, please subscribe via iTunes. Search for "Alex Mine's Music and Sounds Blog".) Welcome to the inaugural podcast of this blog! On Friday Jan 19th, 2013, I had the opportunity to record the local Toronto indie band The Soles at The Central, a cool little spot in Toronto. It’s a fun little club heavy on vibe with a great, friendly bartender/soundwoman who amazingly managed to serve drinks AND run solid sound all night. I was duly impressed. Continue Reading»
NASIR DICKERSONTo listen to this show click above! Nasir Dickerson, BA, MA the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Dickerson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Camden, New Jersey. He is a 2002 graduate and 4thof his class in Camden High School. He has achieved high academic accomplishments, especially, in math, science and music education. He was a member of the National Honor Society, with perfect attendance, and has been the president of his class since his freshman year. Nasir has also earned many academic scholarships and awards, such as the Alexander Oaks Award, which was given to the number one senior student who has won the respect and approval of the administration, faculty, staff and student body, for academic scholarship, character, personality and athletic interest. Nasir was accepted into the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Music Performance in May of 2006. May of 2007 Nasir earned and received his Master Degree in MUSIC EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, with high academic honors.Presently, Nasir is employed at the Camden Public Schools (Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy) in Camden, New Jersey as a Music Teacher. He earned the award of the Best Teacher of the Year in 2010. In 2002 he formed his own jazz group called Nasir Dickerson and the Renaissance Messengers. Today Nasir produced two wonderful CD’s (albums) called the Journey to the Fatherland and The Revealer. Nasir performed and/or actively performs for many legendary greats such as the Philadelphia Legends of Jazz Orchestra (Leon Mitchell), Stylistics, Intruders and Urban Guerilla Orchestra. He also open for legendary jazz greats, such as Dr. Donald Byrd, Robert “Bootsie” Barnes, Wallace Roney, Jimmy Heath, Cyrus Chestnut Trio, Duane Eubanks, Jymie Merritt, Mickey Roker, Stanley Wilson and Sid Simmons. Also, today Nasir performs for wedding bands called the CTO World Entertainment Group (Park Avenue), Bounce - The New Evolution, and The Tony Grandberry Project in the Philadelphia area.Nasir has been playing and studying musical instruments, such as the tuba, tenor, baritone, alto and soprano saxophones since the second grade. He was inspired and taught by many great professors and teachers, such as Mr. Leon Mitchell, Mr. Charles Bowen Sr., Mr. Charles Elliott, Mr. Ronald Kerber, Mr. Tony Salicondro, Mr. Chris Farr, Mr. Danny Muller, Mr. Ben Schachter, Mr. Dennis Wasko, Mr. Tony Miceli, Mr. John Swanna, Ms. Trudy Pitts, Lovett Hines and his older brother Mr. Jamal Dickerson. Nasir was also part of a musical team winning an Emmy Award on Saturday, September 24, 2011.Nasir is also a World Champion 5th Degree Master Black Belt in Karateand a member of a Discipline Military Style Drill Team called the World Champion UPK Pasha Generals. Nasir is also a long standing and key member of the Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble, which is famous for its electrifying drummers, sensational dancers, exciting masquerade and acrobatic show performing all over America also in Africa and the Caribbean. Contact: (856) 236-6217E-mail: nasir83@aol.comWeb-Site: www.unitycommunity.comOrder CD’s www.cdbaby.comFacebook and You Tube / Nasir Dickerson and Nasir Dickerson and the Renaissance Messengers TO LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM CLICK HERE
'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.Free image courtesy of 'stockfreeimages.com'The Water Cooler (Slow)Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. They may look like busy professionals, but the staff at Colourful Solutions Ltd (Colsol), aren’t always as serious or hardworking as they appear, and we find out what mischief they’ve been up to as they talk around the water cooler.Click above to listen. You can get the mp3. here.Episode 6 - The New Printer (Slow) Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. Featuring the vocal talents of Sophie Iafrate (Susan). (Free sound effects courtesy of 'Soundjay.com'), Keith : Good morning Susan, I see you are admiring the new printer. Susan: Hi Keith. Yes, it is about time we had a new one and, with all the new features on this one, I think it will make life much easier. K: Absolutely, especially as this one is voice-activated. S: Voice-activated? Are you sure? I am sure I didn’t see anything like that in the instruction manual when I was reading it. K: No one actually reads instruction manuals. You need to just have a practice, a bit of trial and error. It is scientifically proven that there is no substitute for hands-on experience; reading instruction manuals is not going to do you any good. Take it from me. S: I will feel really silly talking to a printer. It doesn’t seem right. K: Oh Susan, you need to embrace the future! Just use a nice assertive voice and be clear with your instructions and the printer will do whatever you ask. S: (clears throat) Print the document I have just sent to you, in colour on double sided paper. K: Don’t forget to say please, Susan, where are your manners? S: Oops, sorry. Please print the document I have just sent to you, in colour on double-sided paper. Printer? Did you hear? Print! In colour! Ugh I hate technology, I must be doing something wrong. Janet: Morning all. What on earth are you doing Susan? S: I just can’t get this thing to print. J: Well you’re not going to get anywhere by shouting at it, it can’t hear you. S: But I thought it was voice activated… I was just practising with it…trying to get some hands-on experience and…learn through trial and error. J: Voice activated? Don’t be daft, we’re a sales company, not NASA. K: I often see you struggling with technology Susan, and I hate to see this…waste of company time. I think maybe you should take one of the lunchtime IT refresher courses that the IT department run. J: Good idea, Keith. Are you free this lunchtime Susan? S: Well, yes, but I… J: Great, it’s settled, I’ll speak to IT to arrange it. K: Ha! Ha! Ha! S: Very funny, Keith. That’s my lunchtime wasted, I was looking forward to an hour of peace and quiet. K: Got you hook, line and sinker…Ha! Ha! Ha! Later … K (to himself): It’s been ages since I last used a laminating machine, I didn’t even realize we had one in the office. What’s this? Instructions for using the touch screen features of this machine. Oh, nice try Susan, but you can’t fool me that easily. She must have hidden the keyboard somewhere around here. Janet: Keith, whatever are you doing? K: Hi Janet, I’ve just got some laminating to do. J: Yes, I guessed as much, but, what I meant was, why are you rummaging around underneath the table? K: I was just looking for the keyboard that goes with this machine. I think Susan must have hidden it somewhere. J: Why would she have done that? In fact, I don’t think you need a keyboard for this machine, it’s touch-screen isn’t it? Susan, can you come here a second? S: Sure! J: Keith’s having trouble with this machine; you’ve not hidden the keyboard have you? S: No, there’s no keyboard, it’s touch-screen. You just click here [beep] and then here [beep] put the thing you wanted to laminate here and then click “go”. [beep] … And it’s done. Simple! In fact, the instructions are right here in front of you. J: Honestly Keith, sometimes I wonder if you walk around with your eyes shut. I am surprised you can’t work out how to use the laminating machine, though, considering you are always saying how you are a technophile and even Susan, who claims to not understand technology at all, is an expert at it. Maybe I should send you on an IT course as well as Susan. K: Oh no Janet, there is no call for that; I wouldn’t want to put you out. J: Not at all. It is important that you understand how to use all the machines correctly; it saves time in the long run. Having said that, from her talent with the laminator it’s obvious that Susan learns best from hands-on experience so I’m not sure the course would be much use for her, she’ll get the hang of the new printer soon enough. I’ll tell IT to expect you instead. Thanks for your help Susan. K: Yes, thanks for your help, Susan. S: I’m always happy to help! Enjoy your lunch Keith.
Show Notes: News and Notes -Long episode where I am talking all about my crazy christmas knitting plans! 2 sweaters, 3 socks, two toys, one huge shawl….crazy!!Thanks to Rowlesgirl for her gorgeous shawl for the CAC.SOCK-TOBER!! I got three pairs of socks finished. Give away of yarn and buttons!Finished Objects -Mystery Rainbow pencil roving now a gorgeous single ply fingering yarn using the new woolly winder, sock hat for the CAC donations.Works in Progress -Sunday BBQ socksPink Sugarplums socksBoatneck sweaterSwatches for knitting class homeworkRocky Coast Cardigan (Crazy Zombie Squirrel KAL/Sweater KAL)SpectraFrog/Turtle (SSK KAL)Fitness - Weight-loss: lots of good food, and lots of walking at Rhinebeck. Gym since Rhinebeck, need to get knee checked on. Missed two WW meetings, I must attend meetings!! I am a food-addict!
Show Notes:News and Notes - It is a Rhinebeck Roundup - complete with video clips with guest stars Mom, aka SpunCotton, and Dad (he’s not on Ravelry…he is not a social media person)! Yay for 500! give away. PM with your address if you are one of the winners. ;) Goodies from The Knitting Garage at A.L. Stickle’s, which you can read more about here, for the Sock-tober give away next week. I couldn’t remember the name of the prints on the podcast, but here is a link. Sheep Incognito.Podcaster meetup, where I met so many people! You will just have to watch to hear the list. It was that many people. Wooly winder from the parental units for Christmas! YAY!Works in Progress -knee-length vanilla socks (Christmas present), a “Flying Geese” square for the KnitGirllls afghan square swapa hat for the Silent Auction for the Healing Hearts Child Advocacy Center.
VISCERAL POWER^ CLICK ABOVE TO LISTEN TO SHOW ^Sallie Jayne Richardson, always called Jayne, was born on the Army base at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., on May 10, 1934. (The year of her birth is often misreported as 1936.) Her father was a career soldier who would serve in both world wars; her mother was a secretary.Reared in Los Angeles, young Jayne Richardson reveled in the jazz and Latin recordings that her parents collected. She studied art, music and drama in high school and later attended Compton Community College. She took the surname Cortez, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, early in her artistic career.In the summers of 1963 and 1964, Ms. Cortez worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, registering black voters in Mississippi. It was this work as much as anything, she later said, that caused her to regard art and political action as an indivisible whole.She gave her first public poetry readings with the Watts Repertory Theater Company, a Los Angeles ensemble she founded in 1964. Ms. Cortez, who had homes in Manhattan and Dakar, Senegal, was also a founder of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, established in 1991.Ms. Cortez’s marriage to Mr. Coleman ended in divorce in 1964, after 10 years. Besides her son, she is survived by her second husband, Melvin Edwards, a prominent sculptor whom she married in 1975; a sister, Shawn Smith; three stepdaughters, Ana, Margit and Allma Edwards; and a grandson.Her volumes of poetry, many illustrated by Mr. Edwards, include “Festivals and Funerals” (1971), “Coagulations” (1984) and “Jazz Fan Looks Back” (2002); her albums include “Everywhere Drums” (1990) and “Taking the Blues Back Home” (1996).Ms. Cortez, who taught at universities throughout the United States, including Rutgers, was among the artists featured — others include Amiri Baraka, Charles Bukowski, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg — in Ron Mann’s esteemed 1982 documentary film, “Poetry in Motion.”Despite her work’s eclecticism, Ms. Cortez was comfortable invoking a single genre to describe it, precisely because that genre was itself so encompassing.“Jazz isn't just one type of music, it’s an umbrella that covers the history of black people from African drumming to field hollers and the blues,” she told The Weekly Journal, a black newspaper in Britain, in 1997. “In the sense that I also try to reflect the fullness of the black experience, I’m very much a jazz poet.” Jayne Cortez, a poet and performance artist whose work was known for its visceral power, its political outrage and above all its sheer, propulsive musicality, died on December 28, 2012 in Manhattan, NYC. She was 78.Her death, at Beth Israel Medical Center, was from heart failure, her son, the jazz drummer Denardo Coleman, said.One of the central figures of the Black Arts Movement — the cultural branch of the black power movement that flourished in the 1960s and ’70s — Ms. Cortez remained active for decades afterward, publishing a dozen volumes of poetry and releasing almost as many recordings, on which her verse was seamlessly combined with avant-garde music.She performed on prominent stages around the world, including, in New York, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Museum of Modern Art and Carnegie Hall.Ms. Cortez’s work was beyond category by virtue of embodying so many categories simultaneously: written verse, African and African-American oral tradition, the discourse of political protest, and jazz and blues. Meant for the ear even more than for the eye, her words combine a hurtling immediacy with an incantatory orality.Starting in the 1960s, Ms. Cortez began performing her work to musical accompaniment. For the past three decades she toured and recorded with her own band, the Firespitters, whose members include her son, from her first marriage, to the saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman.As performed, Ms. Cortez’s poems were not so much set to music as they were a part of the music. They were chanted more than recited, employing carefully calibrated repetitions, shifts in tempo and modulations of vocal tone.It was as if her verse, which often took on large, painful subjects like racism and misogyny, had become an instrument itself — an instrument, Ms. Cortez felt strongly, to be wielded in the service of social change.In one of her best-known works, “If the Drum Is a Woman,” for instance, she indicts violence against women. (The title invokes Duke Ellington’s 1956 composition “A Drum Is a Woman”):why are you pounding your drum into an insane babblewhy are you pistol-whipping your drum at dawnwhy are you shooting through the head of your drumand making a drum tragedy of drumsif the drum is a womandon’t abuse your drum don’t abuse your drumdon’t abuse your drumTo visit the website of the late Jayne Cortez CLICK HERE.
SUBTLE VIRTUOSITYTo listen to program CLICK HEREIn 1951, Mr. Ahmad Jamal first recorded 'Ahmad's Blues' on Okeh Records. His arrangement of the folk tune 'Billy Boy', and 'Poinciana' (not his original composition), also stem from this period. In 1955, he recorded his first Argo (Chess) Records album that included 'New Rhumba', 'Excerpts From The Blues', 'Medley' (actually 'I Don't Want To Be Kissed'), and 'It Ain't Necessarily So' --all later utilized by Miles Davis and Gil Evans on the albums “Miles Ahead” and “Porgy and Bess.” In his autobiography, Mr. Davis praises Mr. Jamal's special artistic qualities and cites hisinfluence. In fact, the mid-to-late 1950's Miles Davis Quintet recordings notably feature material previously recorded by Mr. Jamal: 'Squeeze Me', 'It Could Happen To You', 'But Not For Me', 'Surrey With The Fringe On Top', 'Ahmad's Blues', 'On Green Dolphin Street' and 'Billy Boy'.In 1956, Mr. Jamal, who had already been joined by bassist Israel Crosby in 1955, replaced guitarist Ray Crawford with a drummer. Working as the “house trio” at Chicago's Pershing Hotel drummer Vernell Fournier joined this trio in 1958 and Mr. Jamal made a live album for Argo Records entitled “But Not For Me”. The resulting hit single and album, that also included 'Poinciana' -- his rendition could be considered his “signature”. This album remained on the Ten Best-selling charts for 108 weeks -- unprecedented then for a jazz album. This financial success enabled Mr. Jamal to realize a dream, and he opened a restaurant/club, The Alhambra, in Chicago. Here the Trio was able to perform while limiting their touring schedule and Mr. Jamal was able to do record production and community work.Mr. Jamal was born on July 2, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy who began to play the piano at the age of 3, he began formal studies at age 7. While in high school, he completed the equivalent of college master classes under the noted African-American concert singer and teacher Mary Caldwell Dawson and pianist James Miller. He joined the musicians union at the age of 14, and he began touring upon graduation from Westinghouse High School at the age of 17, drawing critical acclaim for his solos. In 1950, he formed his first trio, The Three Strings. Performing at New York's The Embers club, Record Producer John Hammond “discovered” The Three Strings and signed them to Okeh Records (a division of Columbia, now Sony Records).Mr. Jamal has continued to record his outstanding original arrangements of such standards as 'I Love You', 'A Time For Love', 'On Green Dolphin Street' (well before Miles Davis!), 'End of a Love Affair', to cite a few. Mr. Jamal's own classic compositions begin with 'Ahmad's Blues' (first recorded on October 25, 1951!), 'New Rhumba', 'Manhattan Reflections', 'Tranquility', 'Extensions', 'The Awakening', 'Night Mist Blues' and most recently 'If I Find You Again', among many others..In 1994, Mr. Jamal received the American Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The same year he was named a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, where he performed commissioned works with the Assai String Quartet. A CD is available of these works.In 1970, Mr. Jamal performed the title tune by Johnny Mandel for the soundtrack of the film “Mash!”; and in 1995, two tracks from his hit album “But Not For Me” -- 'Music, Music, Music', and 'Poinciana' -- were featured in the Clint Eastwood film “The Bridges of Madison County”.Mr. Jamal's CD entitled “The Essence” features tenor saxophonist George Coleman -- Mr. Jamal's first recording made with a horn! Critical acclaim and outstanding sales resulted in two prestigious awards: D'jango D'or (critics) and Cloch (for sales) in France. Its success generated a concert at Salle Pleyel, and a CD has been released “Ahmad Jamal a Paris” (1992) and a second “live” concert by Mr. Jamal in l996 under the same title, unissued except in France and available on the Dreyfus Records on the Internet, Mr. Jamal rightly considers one of his best recordings. Ahmad Jamal's 70th Birthday “live” concert recording Olympia 2000, is known as “The Essence Part III”. “The Essence, Part II”, featured Donald Byrd on the title track, and on his CD entitled “Nature”, Stanley Turrentine is featured on 'The Devil's In My Den', and steel drummer Othello Molineaux augments the trio format. Continuing his recording career, Mr. Jamal released “In Search of” on CD, and his first DVD “Live In Baalbeck”.For students of the piano, Hal Leonard Publications has published “The Ahmad Jamal Collection”, a collection of piano transcriptions. Mr. Jamal continues to record exclusively for the French Birdology label, and his albums are released on Verve and Atlantic in the United States.Mr. Jamal is an exclusive Steinway piano artist.Mr. Jamal's 'About My Life' story in his own words:At three years of age, my wonderful Uncle Lawrence stopped me while I was walking past the piano in my parents' living room. He was playing the piano and challenged me to duplicate what he was doing. Although I had never touched this or any piano, I sat down and played note for note what I had heard. “The rest is history.”What a thrilling ride it has been and continues to be. I was born in one of the most remarkable places in the world for musicians and people in the arts - Pittsburgh, PA. At seven years, I was selling newspapers to Billy Strayhorn's family. Billy had already left home; I didn't get to meet him until years later. Following is a partial listing of “Pittsburghers:”George BensonRoy EldridgeArt BlakeyErrol GarnerKenny ClarkeEarl “Fatha” HinesBilly EcksteinPhyllis HymanMaxine SullivanGene KellyStanley TurrentineJoe Kennedy, Jr.Earl WildOscar LevantMary Loe WilliamsLorin MaazelGeorge Hudson (his orchestra was my first job away from home, I was 17 and just out of high school.) - Dodo MarmarosaDakota StatonBilly StrayhornAt seven years of age I began my studies with a wonderful woman, Mary Cardwell Dawson. In addition to her great influence on me, she was very influential in the careers of many musical personalities on a local, as well as worldwide basis. One of her students is my life long friend, violinist, Joe Kennedy, Jr. Later, while still in my teens, I began studying with James Miller, as a result of Mrs. Dawson's relocation to Washington, D.C.After touring with George Hudson's Orchestra, I traveled to Chicago with The Four Strings, a group headed by violinist, Joe Kennedy, Jr. Unfortunately, the group disbanded because of a lack of employment and in 1951, I formed The Three Strings.The year 1951 was the beginning of my recording career. “Ahmad's Blues,” which I wrote in 1948 during my stint with a song and dance team out of East St. Louis, was one of my first recordings; “Ahmad's Blues” has been heard in the stage play, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” and recorded by Marlena Shaw, Natalie Cole, Red Garland and others. The first session also included my arrangement of the folk tune, “Billy Boy,” which arrangement was copied by many of my peers. I wrote “New Rhumba” around 1951 and it has also been recorded and performed by many others, most notably Miles Davis. My most famous recording was done in Chicago in 1958 at the Pershing Hotel with two of the most talented musicians of the century, Israel Crosby and Vernell Fournier.Five decades covering my career are most interesting to me and contain some of the historical data that you can find by clicking the indicated categories of my web page menu. What you can't find won't be available until my proposed autobiography goes to print.To Visit Ahmad Jamal's website CLICK HERE
Coosa 022 Kevin JardonEn esta ocasion, les presentamos a nuestro amigo y colega Kevin, el cual esta teniendo éxito en la escena UnderGround en mexico, con lo cual a demostrado que los nuevos talentos tienen mucho que aportar en el movimiento de la música electrónica.Es un placer exhibir este buen set. https://www.facebook.com/kevinzombeat https://soundcloud.com/kevin-jardon-1COOSA TEAM
RHENDA FEARRINGTONOriginally from Queens, New York, Rhenda Fearrington always delivers an authentic and warm presentation of Jazz Standards mixed with Soulful originals. She is "true" to her roots which includes performing on the International stage as a back-up singer for Roberta Flack and MTUME, respectively! When Rhenda sings, it's quite evident there's a story being told...and it begins and ends with Joy! She has also spent years as a Commercial/Jingle Singer; 15 years performing for schools with her "Feel Sooo Good Tour;" a motivational program that focuses on building the self-esteem of children! Rhenda Co-produced her first solo CD, "This Moment's Sweetness," in 2012, with prolific Philadelphia Jazz Bassist, Mike Boone, featuring Tenor Saxophone Legend, Larry McKenna. Rhenda is also a writer who had a published column, "The ABC of it," in the Suburban & Wayne Times, for 6 years as well as writing Children's Book Reviews for Kids Can Press, LTD (Canada). Rhenda writes independent blogs/reviews about the Philadelphia Jazz scene, and is currently pursuing having her two children's books published, in 2014.Rhenda was honored for her patronage and voice at Chris’s Jazz Café here in Philadelphia, where she has a special place on their Wall of Fame. “It’s such an honor. I feel like Cinderella coming out of a pumpkin when I walk in at Chris’s “ Rhenda says For the little girl from Queens who belted out Roberta Flack tunes, the time has come for her to wear the glass slipper.
'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.Free image courtesy of 'stockfreeimages.com'The Water Cooler (Fast)Too fast? Try the slower version in the previous post. They may look like busy professionals, but the staff at Colourful Solutions Ltd (Colsol), aren’t always as serious or hardworking as they appear, and we find out what mischief they’ve been up to as they talk around the water cooler.Click above to listen. You can get the mp3. here. Episode 5 - Root Vegetable Crisps (Fast) Too fast? Try the slower version in the previous post. Featuring the vocal talents of Sophie Iafrate (Susan). (Free sound effects courtesy of 'Soundjay.com'), Susan: Hey Keith, could you do me a favour? I’ve got to photocopy this handout for a presentation with a potential client and they’re going to be here in five minutes and I’ve not arranged the meeting room. Could you set up the projector and arrange some sandwiches nicely on plates, make sure there’s a jug of something to drink and stick the crisps in a bowl? Keith: No problem Susan, you know I’m always happy to help! Which meeting room is it?Susan: Meeting room 2, you know, the one with the strange smell. Great, thanks a bunch Keith, I owe you one.… later …Susan: They’re here! Thanks so much for sorting out the room Keith.Keith (with mouth full): Glad I could be of assistance.Susan: And I suppose you earned the crisps you’re eating … wait a second … You greedy thing, you’ve eaten all the crisps in the bowl. Keith (still with mouth full): Sorry, but they’re my favourite flavour. I couldn’t resist.Susan: You aren’t half annoying sometimes Keith.Keith: I said I’m sorry, but it’s your own fault really, if you got flavours I didn’t like then I wouldn’t be tempted. Susan: Next time, that’s exactly what I’ll do. You don’t like those root vegetable crisps do you?Keith: Oh, with beetroot and carrot? No, that stuff’s not for me, I like my crisps to be made of potato.Susan: Then from now on, I’ll get them instead.… later …Keith: Hi Janet, how did Susan’s presentation go?Janet: It went really well, they liked what she showed them and they’ve just emailed to say they want to commission us for the job. Keith: Fantastic, so they weren’t put off by the strange smell?Janet: Nope … but they were impressed with how well arranged everything was, and Susan tells me that you set up the meeting room, so thank you for that. In fact, there’s another meeting to finalise a few details at 5. Would you be able to set the room up again?Keith: Yeah, of course.… later …Susan: Thanks Keith, the room looks great! Keith: You’re welcome.Susan: Right Janet, I think we’re ready.Janet: Not quite, I filled up the bowl in the middle of the table, but for some reason it’s empty again.Susan: Oh Keith, I can’t believe you ate the root-vegetable crisps…you don’t even like them.Janet: You mean…you ate everything in that bowl?Keith: Err, yeah, I’m sorry, it was a bad joke. I’ll get some more root-vegetable crisps from the canteen for you right away.Janet: Keith, to refill the bowl, you don’t need to go to the kitchen, you need to go to the stock cupboard, and then maybe you should go home early via the doctors. The bowl wasn’t full of root-vegetable crisps. Because of the strange smell, I had filled it with pot-pourri.
'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.Free image courtesy of 'stockfreeimages.com'The Water Cooler (Slow)Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. They may look like busy professionals, but the staff at Colourful Solutions Ltd (Colsol), aren’t always as serious or hardworking as they appear, and we find out what mischief they’ve been up to as they talk around the water cooler.Click above to listen. You can get the mp3. here.Episode 4 - A Word With The Boss (Slow) Too slow? Try the faster version in the next post. Featuring the vocal talents of Sophie Iafrate (Susan). (Free sound effects courtesy of 'Soundjay.com'), Keith: I suppose you’ve guessed why I wanted a word with you, Janet? Janet: Er, no. I’ve noticed you’ve been late to work quite often over the past few weeks, so I wondered if it was something to do with that, but I wasn’t sure?K: Late for work?J: Yes, I presumed you maybe had some personal issues that you wanted to talk to me about.K: Err…no. Ah…I mean yes, personal issues, that has been the problem. Mmm, well obviously I have some level of personal issues, but I don’t really want to talk about them.J: Of course, I don’t want you to tell me anything you don’t feel comfortable with. It’s just that your recent late starts would normally mean that you’d be given a disciplinary meeting, unless, of course, if there was a reason, like if you were losing sleep due to personal issues. K: Of course, yes. I’m very sorry. I suppose the last few weeks have been a little difficult personally, so I’ve not been sleeping well and have found it hard waking up in time for work, but, I’m ok now, so late starts are a thing of the past. I guarantee it.J: Well, we won’t have to call you to a disciplinary meeting, and I appreciate you telling me and your apology, but I wish you had told me when the problems started, and we could have maybe helped you.K: Sorry Janet, thank you Janet.J: And, I suppose that explains why you’ve been distracted at work recently too.K: Distracted at work?J: Yes, your work rate is down and some of our clients have emailed me asking why you’ve not been responding to their messages. I suppose your mind has been elsewhere recently. K: Yes, that’s it, my mind has been elsewhere recently.J: You can say that again, your colleagues have been complaining that you’re not much fun to be around at the moment, that you get angry at people and that you’re not pulling your weight around the office. K: I hadn’t realised it had affected my work so badly.J: Well rest assured that everyone else has! But, as you have personal issues, I’m sure if you apologised and explained yourself then that would smooth things over.K: I’ll do just that, and I’ll put 110% into my work over the next few weeks to make up for it.J: Good. And it would be nice if you could put aside your immaturity too.K: My immaturity?J: Well, it would be nice for the rest of the staff to have a few weeks off from your practical jokes. Personally I think a fun office atmosphere is helpful, but your immature attitude often seems to do more harm than good.K: I see. I’ll try to act in a more professional manner.J: See that you do. It’s a shame really. Not long ago I was thinking about increasing your pay and responsibilities, but because of your silliness and these last two weeks, I’ve had discussions with Human Resources about docking your pay.K: Docking my pay? J: Originally we had thought about docking your pay for a year, considering your abysmal performance, but now I’m aware of your personal issues, I will try to convince them just to dock your pay temporarily, we’ll have a pay review after 2 months, and re-instate it if your performance returns to normal.K: Well… thank you Janet.J: Well, I make no promises, but I’ll put it forward. Is there anything else?K: No, I think that’s everything.…later…Susan: I saw you got up the courage to have a word with Janet about that pay rise you wanted. I know you had been losing a lot of sleep over it. Did you get as much as you wanted?K: I think I negotiated a good deal.S: Nice going Keith. I find Janet a really tough negotiator. K: Well I think she’s met her match with me.S: Whenever I ask Janet for something, I come out of the meeting feeling like I’ve done really well but when I think about it afterwards I realise I’ve ended up in a worse position than when I started. K: Well I managed to get her to commit to a pay review in 2 months to re-instate my pay.S: You mean, you went in asking for a pay rise, and came out with a pay cut.K: Now I think about it…yes. But I felt like I’d done really well.S: Well, now I’m convinced that Janet’s met her match with you.K: Hmm…
'Hear English' is a blog that provides podcasts and transcripts to help people learn English, find us at http://hearenglishhere.blogspot.com/.Free image courtesy of 'stockfreeimages.com'The Water Cooler (Fast)Too fast? Try the slower version in the previous post. They may look like busy professionals, but the staff at Colourful Solutions Ltd (Colsol), aren’t always as serious or hardworking as they appear, and we find out what mischief they’ve been up to as they talk around the water cooler.Click above to listen. You can get the mp3. here. Episode 4 - A Word With The Boss (Fast) Too fast? Try the slower version in the previous post. Featuring the vocal talents of Sophie Iafrate (Susan). (Free sound effects courtesy of 'Soundjay.com'), Keith: I suppose you’ve guessed why I wanted a word with you, Janet? Janet: Er, no. I’ve noticed you’ve been late to work quite often over the past few weeks, so I wondered if it was something to do with that, but I wasn’t sure?K: Late for work?J: Yes, I presumed you maybe had some personal issues that you wanted to talk to me about.K: Err…no. Ah…I mean yes, personal issues, that has been the problem. Mmm, well obviously I have some level of personal issues, but I don’t really want to talk about them.J: Of course, I don’t want you to tell me anything you don’t feel comfortable with. It’s just that your recent late starts would normally mean that you’d be given a disciplinary meeting, unless, of course, if there was a reason, like if you were losing sleep due to personal issues. K: Of course, yes. I’m very sorry. I suppose the last few weeks have been a little difficult personally, so I’ve not been sleeping well and have found it hard waking up in time for work, but, I’m ok now, so late starts are a thing of the past. I guarantee it.J: Well, we won’t have to call you to a disciplinary meeting, and I appreciate you telling me and your apology, but I wish you had told me when the problems started, and we could have maybe helped you.K: Sorry Janet, thank you Janet.J: And, I suppose that explains why you’ve been distracted at work recently too.K: Distracted at work?J: Yes, your work rate is down and some of our clients have emailed me asking why you’ve not been responding to their messages. I suppose your mind has been elsewhere recently. K: Yes, that’s it, my mind has been elsewhere recently.J: You can say that again, your colleagues have been complaining that you’re not much fun to be around at the moment, that you get angry at people and that you’re not pulling your weight around the office. K: I hadn’t realised it had affected my work so badly.J: Well rest assured that everyone else has! But, as you have personal issues, I’m sure if you apologised and explained yourself then that would smooth things over.K: I’ll do just that, and I’ll put 110% into my work over the next few weeks to make up for it.J: Good. And it would be nice if you could put aside your immaturity too.K: My immaturity?J: Well, it would be nice for the rest of the staff to have a few weeks off from your practical jokes. Personally I think a fun office atmosphere is helpful, but your immature attitude often seems to do more harm than good.K: I see. I’ll try to act in a more professional manner.J: See that you do. It’s a shame really. Not long ago I was thinking about increasing your pay and responsibilities, but because of your silliness and these last two weeks, I’ve had discussions with Human Resources about docking your pay.K: Docking my pay? J: Originally we had thought about docking your pay for a year, considering your abysmal performance, but now I’m aware of your personal issues, I will try to convince them just to dock your pay temporarily, we’ll have a pay review after 2 months, and re-instate it if your performance returns to normal.K: Well… thank you Janet.J: Well, I make no promises, but I’ll put it forward. Is there anything else?K: No, I think that’s everything.…later…Susan: I saw you got up the courage to have a word with Janet about that pay rise you wanted. I know you had been losing a lot of sleep over it. Did you get as much as you wanted?K: I think I negotiated a good deal.S: Nice going Keith. I find Janet a really tough negotiator. K: Well I think she’s met her match with me.S: Whenever I ask Janet for something, I come out of the meeting feeling like I’ve done really well but when I think about it afterwards I realise I’ve ended up in a worse position than when I started. K: Well I managed to get her to commit to a pay review in 2 months to re-instate my pay.S: You mean, you went in asking for a pay rise, and came out with a pay cut.K: Now I think about it…yes. But I felt like I’d done really well.S: Well, now I’m convinced that Janet’s met her match with you.K: Hmm…
What happens when you get a dozen or so Positively Michael members in a Vegas hotel room at 2 AM after a night of drinking and MJ One? We’re not quite sure, but this is it. This isn’t a typical show, but a special little glimpse into our Las Vegas adventure for all of our cherished listeners. We know we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus, but we’ll be back with our regular shows soon. For now, enjoy, lay back in our Las Vegas tenderness, and if you aren’t too scared away, be sure to check us out at positivelymichael.com, email us at posmikepodcast@gmail.com, or tweet us at @posmike.
MAGNETIZEDTerence Blanchard (trumpet) is one of the most important musician/composer/band leaders of his generation. His emotionally moving and technically refined playing is considered by many jazz aficionados to recall earlier jazz trumpet styles. Born March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, the only child to parents Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver Blanchard, a part-time opera singer and insurance company manager, the young Blanchard was encouraged by his father, Joseph Oliver, to learn to play the piano. In the third grade he discovered jazz trumpet when a big band, featuring Alvin Alcorn on trumpet, played at a school assembly. In his teens Blanchard attended the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, where he studied and played with saxophonist Donald Harrison. While performing with Lionel Hampton's big band, he studied for two years at Rutgers University under the tutelage of Paul Jeffrey and Bill Fielder.In 1982 Blanchard replaced Wynton Marsalis under his recommendation in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, working in that band up to 1986 as lead soloist and musical director. He then co-led a prominent quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison, recording seven albums for the Concord, Columbia, and Evidence record labels in five years, including a stirring in-concert tribute to the Eric Dolphy/Booker Little ensemble. In the '90s, Blanchard became a leader in his own right, recording for the Columbia label, performing on the soundtracks to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues, and composing the music for Lee's film Jungle Fever. In fact, Blanchard has written the score for every Spike Lee film since 1991, including Malcolm X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Inside Man, and the Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for HBO. With over 40 scores to his credit, Blanchard and Mark Isham are the most sought-after jazz musicians to ever compose for film. In the fall of 2000, Blanchard was named artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Keeping up with his love of live performance and touring, Blanchard also maintains a regular studio presence, recording his own original music for the Columbia, Sony Classical, and Blue Note labels. Albums include The Billie Holiday Songbook (1994), Romantic Defiance (1995), The Heart Speaks (1996), the acclaimed Wandering Moon (2000), Let's Get Lost (2001), Bounce (2003), and especially Flow (2005), which was produced by pianist Herbie Hancock and received two Grammy nominations. Blanchard has been nominated for 11 Grammys and has won four in total, including awards for New York Scene with Blakey (1984) and the soundtrack A Tale of God's Will in 2007. In 2005, Blanchard was part of McCoy Tyner's ensemble that won the Grammy in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category for Illuminations. A quintessential sideman as well as leader, he has worked with prominent jazz players including Cedar Walton, Abbey Lincoln, Joanne Brackeen, Jay McShann, Ralph Peterson, Ed Thigpen, J.J. Johnson, Toots Thielemans, the Olympia Brass Band, Stevie Wonder, Bill Lee, Ray Brown, Poncho Sanchez, Dr. Billy Taylor, Dr. John, Lionel Loueke, Jeff Watts, and many others. Scarecrow Press published his autobiography, Contemporary Cat. By April of 2007, the Monk Institute announced its Commitment to New Orleans initiative, which included the relocation of the program to the campus of Loyola University in New Orleans, spearheaded by Blanchard. During 2007, the Monterey Jazz Festival named Blanchard Artist-in-Residence, and the festival formed a 50th Anniversary All-Stars ensemble featuring trumpeter James Moody, Benny Green, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott, and Nnenna Freelon. In 2008, Blanchard helped scored the hit film Cadillac Records. Signing with Concord Jazz in 2009, he released Choices -- recorded at the Ogden Museum of Art in Blanchard's hometown of New Orleans -- at the end of that summer. In 2011, he paid tribute to the innovative Afro-Cuban recordings of Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo by teaming up with Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez for the studio album Chano y Dizzy! In 2012, Blanchard returned to his film work by scoring the soundtrack to director George Lucas' WWII action/drama Red Tails.“I’ve always believed that in life, what you keep in your mind is what you draw to yourself.” That’s how trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchardexplains the title of his 20th album, Magnetic, which finds a stunning variety of sounds and styles pulled together by the irresistible force of Blanchard’s vision.That credo stems directly from Blanchard’s personal faith; raised in the Christian church, he has turned in recent years to Buddhism after meditating with Herbie Hancock while on the road with the legendary pianist. The idea of a spiritual magnetism “is a basic concept in any type of religion,” he says. “Both Christianity and Buddhism have forms of meditation - one’s called prayer and one’s called chanting. But it’s all about drawing on those things to help you attain enlightenment in your life at the same time that you’re trying to give back to the community.”Magnetic gives expression to that belief through the combined voices of Blanchard’s always-scintillating quintet. Its latest incarnation brings together longtime members Brice Winston (saxophone) and Kendrick Scott (drums) with pianist Fabian Almazan, who made his debut with the group on its 2009 album Choices, and its newest member, 21-year-old bass prodigy Joshua Crumbly. In addition, they’re joined by a trio of remarkable special guests: master bassist Ron Carter, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, and guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke.The vast array of approaches undertaken by that ensemble is striking, from the blistering bop of “Don’t Run” to the fragile ballad “Jacob’s Ladder;” the psychedelic electronic haze of “Hallucinations” to the urgent edginess of “Another Step.” As Blanchard says, “It’s a wide range of musical ideas that come together through the efforts of the guys in the band.”Magnetic marks Blanchard’s return to Blue Note Records, which last released A Tale of God’s Will, his triumphant 2007 requiem for his home city, New Orleans, in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. That harrowingly emotional song cycle is just one of many large-scale projects Blanchard has undertaken in recent years. Since first writing music for Spike Lee’s 1990 jazz-set movie Mo’ Better Blues, Blanchard has become a renowned film composer with over 50 scores to his credit, most recently the WWII drama Red Tails for producer George Lucas. This summer, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Jazz St. Louis will combine forces to premiere Blanchard’s first opera, Champion, an “Opera in Jazz” based on the story of the gay boxing champion Emile Griffith. This follows his recent score for Emily Mann’s Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire.After the broad scope of such lofty undertakings, returning to a small group setting can be a challenge. “You get accustomed to having so many different colors at your disposal,” he says. “So I try to figure out a way to have as much diversity in everything that we play, the same expansive color palette as when you have an orchestra and voices.”One way that Blanchard expands his palette on Magnetic is through the use of electronics, creating an overdriven, electric guitar-like sound for his horn during “Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song” or brewing the mind-altering atmospherics of “Hallucinations.” The latter tune, though titled by Blanchard’s 14-year-old daughter, also touches on the lifelong spiritual search evoked by the album-opening title track and “Central Focus,” which was originally recorded twenty years ago on Blanchard’s album Simply Stated. “When chanting for meditation,” he says, “you can have those moments of reflection that will bring new ideas to you. Some people may not call them hallucinations, but I think they’re all related in some fashion.”Not every tune comes from such profound motives. The hard-bopping “Don’t Run” was written solely with the intention of allowing the band to joust with Ravi Coltrane’s soprano and Ron Carter’s mighty bass runs. The title was inspired by a taunt from Carter to Blanchard, asking only half-jokingly when the trumpeter would call on the legendary bassist’s services. “Stop running from me, man,” Blanchard recalls him saying, and when Carter speaks, you listen.Coltrane’s contributions, which also include a taut, powerhouse turn on tenor for “Pet Step Sitter’s Theme Song,” came about simply because Blanchard was blown away by the saxophonist’s latest album, Spirit Fiction. “Ravi has developed a style and a sound that’s very unique,” Blanchard explains. “It’s an incredible feat given who his father was and what instrument his father played. But his being on my record has nothing to do with any of that; his being on my record is simply due to the fact that I love the way he plays.”The same goes for Benin-born Lionel Loueke, who first came to prominence through Blanchard’s quintet before becoming widely renowned as one of the most innovative guitarists and vocalists in modern jazz. “He’s a very unique talent,” Blanchard says. “Lionel always brings a certain spirit and energy to any project that he’s a part of.”Blanchard also readily sings the praises of his core group, which has been evolving over two years together to reach the deeply attuned point at which Magnetic finds them. “I’ve always appreciated the artistry of Brice and Kendrick,” he says of the band’s two veterans. “They’ve very seriously committed to developing their own unique styles of playing.”Of newcomer Crumbly, he says, “Josh is a young guy who’s very talented and brings a lot to the group.” And of Almazan, he continues, “Fabian has been growing by leaps and bounds. His harmonic knowledge has taken the band in interesting directions and he colors things in ways that I think are very fresh and forward-thinking.”So enamored is the bandleader of Almazan’s talents that he affords the pianist a solo spotlight, the captivating “Comet.” Almazan, Blanchard says, “plays with such grace and beauty. We did five or six takes and all of them were so beautiful that it was a hard to choose just one.”Each member of the group provides their own contributions to the album: Crumbly, the lovely and delicate “Jacob’s Ladder;” Scott, the forceful, rhythmically intense “No Borders Just Horizons;” Winston the lithe and intricate “Time To Spare;” and Almazan an “emotional roller coaster” dedicated to his mother, “Pet Step Sitters Theme Song,” which is later reprised as “Another Step.” “We had so much fun playing that tune that we just couldn’t leave it,” Blanchard explains. I thought it showed the diverse nature of the group, when you see the directions that it goes into, totally different from the first take.”In his role as mentor to his younger bandmates, Blanchard takes the mantle from his own onetime mentor, Art Blakey. Stressing the importance for young musicians to compose as well as improvise, Blanchard recalls the legendary drummer’s advice: “Art Blakey told us that composition was the path to finding your own voice. If you improvise, you don’t sit down and reflect coldly on what it is you’re playing because you’re moving so quickly onto the next thing. Whereas when you compose, you have to sit down and really contemplate what each note means and how you get from one to the next. That in itself will create a style.”Terence Blanchard’s own style continues to evolve and expand in exciting and compelling fashion. Magnetic is sure to capture listeners with an attractive power nearly impossible to resist.To Visit Terence Blanchard's website CLICK HERE
"POETIC MESSENGERS"The Unknown Poet and his musical soul-mate Queen have built a solid reputation as two of the premier spoken word artists and lyrical hook masters on the artistic scene today. Through countless live performances, their CD's, radio interviews and video presentations, they shine!This duo's smooth jazzy style and heartfelt delivery are legendary on the poetry and jazz scene and beyond. They have been writing and reciting poetry for over 25 years, coming forth with a style and delivery that is totally their own. These are two spiritual jazzy magnets, touched with poetic genius, delivering thought provoking words that stir the listeners heart, mind and soul, as they share their insightful message of musical truth,..with a historical cultural flavor. Anyone who is blessed with an opportunity to listen to or experience the live or recorded presentations of these wordsmiths will be moved by their Jazzy spoken style like you never would have imagined. Both TUP and Queen were born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They were children of the 50's. They have been together for 36 years. The Unknown Poet in particular was exposed to a diverse array of live music at a very young age. He also had music lessons and was a member of the drum line in high school. At the impressionable age of 9 years old he was introduced to the sounds of the jazz legends such as Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Sarah, Lady Day and Art Blakey just to name a few. He spent most weekends with his uncle Tex and his cousin Tex jr. listening to jazz,..playing checkers and trying to play the stand up bass that stood in the corner of the apartment.The summers on the North Side of Atlantic City came alive with all kinds of music playing in the numerous black owned clubs, two of which LiL' Rossi Lee aka the Unknown Poet spent a lot of time in, absorbing a diverse range of music. One was the famous Club Harlem which his grand-pop had an interest in, and the Wonder Garden which his uncle Bobby Bell owned. From the age of 13 to 25 he spent every summer night on the strip around Kentucky and Arctic Avenues in Atlantic City. He first shined shoes..then worked at Sapps Barbecue, until he eventually landed a job at the place he loved, Club Harlem washing dishes, waiting tables, taking pictures, to eventually being in the audience, backstage and sometimes even at the daytime rehearsals running errands for the artists and absorbing the musical vibration.He says that he is blessed to have witnessed first hand some of those legendary artists of that era and that they've all left a great impression on him and have helped shape him as a,.. poet/vocalist/spoken word/jazz artist. He is forever grateful for this exposure,..for it surely has shaped him musically, poetically and personally. Queen has been rolling with the Poet for 36 years _We Blessed...~
POIGNANT EXPRESSIONSQuickly becoming one of the most buzzed about jazz singers on the New York scene, Marianne Solivan does not remember an “ah-ha” moment that brought her to the music she has devoted herself to: “I don’t recall having a big moment that made me like jazz. I just dug it.”It is that same simplicity of statement with its intrinsic honesty that characterizes Solivan’s style. The infallible swing of Ella, the daring of Betty Carter, the matter-of factness of Carmen McCrae…They can all be found in the voice of Marianne Solivan, whom trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has called “the modern-day paradigm to which all singers should aspire.” It is no coincidence that the 2009 Jazzmobile Vocal Competition finalist has graced recital halls, jam sessions and club stages with such noted musicians as Roy Hargrove, Steve Lacy, Jeremy Pelt, Ray Gallon (Ron Carter, Lionel Hampton, T.S. Monk), Ugonna Ukegwo (Tom Harrell, Jacky Terrason) and Jane Monheit’s sidemen Neal Minor and Michael Kanan.Born in Queens, New York, Solivan’s family lived in Venezuela and New Jersey before settling in Massachusetts, where she attended high school. Already an alto sax student, it was in secondary school that she began singing seriously, studying classical voice and appearing in musical theater productions. Upon graduating, she entered The Boston Conservatory with a concentration in musical theater. After her first year in college, Solivan took time off from school and drifted away from singing, not returning for three years. The urge to resume studying voice and go back to school coincided with her discovery of the voice that would become her greatest influence: Ella Fitzgerald.She recalls, “I purchased the four oddest recordings for a jazz newcomer: one of those Ella Fitzgerald songbook compilations, a Dominique Eade recording, Nina Simone Sings The Blues and At the Village Vanguard: Betty Carter. Fitzgerald, especially, made a great impression on her: “There’s such tremendous hopefulness in all her music. No matter how sad the ballad, no matter how bad the break-up song, there’s always a silver lining. “Solivan was singing pop when she entered Berklee College of Music, but quickly decided she wanted to learn this music called jazz. Earning a dual degree in Music Performance and Education, she taught music for a year before entering New England Conservatory and earning a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies.Armed with two prestigious degrees and formidable talent, Solivan moved back to the city of her birth in 2007, placing in the Jazzmobile Vocal Competition, appearing as the only featured vocalist on clarinetist Darryl Harper’s The C3 project recording, Stories in Real Time, and touring France as the lead vocalist in an innovative staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Solivan is as likely to pop up at jazz institution Smalls Jazz Club with a full band as she is an intimate restaurant with only a piano accompanist. Regardless, jazz lovers and musicians alike are captivated by her sound and her style. Not all are able to articulate what attracts them as well as Pelt. Ultimately, they just dig it. To visit Marrianne Solivan's website CLICK HERE
Pure ImprovisationBetty Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones in Flint, Michigan on May 16, 1929.At a young age, she began the study of piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music, and by the time she was a teenager she was already sitting in with Charlie Parker and other bop musicians when they performed in Detroit. After winning a local amateur contest, she turned professional at age 16, hooking up with the Lionel Hampton band by 1948, billed as Lorraine Carter. Hampton was the man who hung the nickname 'Betty Be-Bop' on her (a nickname she hated, as she found bebop limiting and wanted to do more than just scat), but it stuck, and ultimately she changed her stage name to Betty Carter. At the age of 21, she traveled to New York with the Hampton band and set up home there.Betty spent the early 1950s as a singer with different groups. She did several shows at the Apollo, playing with such notables as Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie, toured with Miles Davis in 1958 and 1959, and spent much of the rest of the time on the outskirts of the jazz scene. Her refusal to adopt a more "mainstream" jazz style led to difficulty in finding bookings and making recordings. She made her first recordings in 1955 with a then-unknown piano player named Ray Bryant. The album, Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant, was little received, and her second set of recordings, with the Gigi Gryce band in 1956, languished unpublished until 1980. By 1958, she was ready to record again, and another little known album, I Can't Help It, was the result, followed closely by a recording on the Peacock label (a Texas gospel label), Out There. She was developing a reputation as a fiercely independent woman (an attitude she developed based in part on her interactions with Gladys Hampton, Lionel's no-nonsense wife) and a devoted jazz singer, and her popularity among the inner jazz circles was high, but critical and popular acclaim eluded her. She was becoming well-known for her signature style that combined off-beat interpretations of classic tunes and wild scat-singing that never seemed to find the right beat. Even a move to the ABC label for her 1960 album The Modern Sound of Betty Carter did little to help that. She needed a break, and it came in the form of Ray Charles.Ray Charles, on a recommendation from Miles Davis, agreed to take Betty on tour with him in the late 1950s. Enchanted by her voice and looking for a partner to record a series of duets, he enlisted Ms. Carter in a project that became Ray Charles and Betty Carter. The album, recorded in 1961, became an instant critical and popular smash; the single Baby It's Cold Outside gave Betty her first introduction into the popular music scene (indeed, at the 1997 White House ceremony where President Clinton presented Ms. Carter with a National Medal of Arts, the President said, "Hearing her sing 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' makes you want to curl up in front of the fire, even in summertime."). The sessions took on almost legendary status; after fifteen years in the business, fame had finally found Betty Carter. And Betty Carter chose her family. She was raising two sons at the time, Myles and Kagle Redding, and chose to concentrate on that rather than capitalize on her recent success. Other than the 1963 Atco album Round Midnight (which showcased a different side of Betty that many critics strongly disliked), and a very short 1964 United Artists album called Inside Betty Carter, she made no recordings between 1961 and 1968. She still performed, doing club dates mostly around the New York area, but the name of Betty Carter eventually faded back into obscurity again. By 1969, though, Betty was ready to get back into music. The problem was - no one seemed to want her.She started her road back with a live recording on the Roulette album. Finally - Betty Carter (an apt title) is considered one of her finest works, but it didn't garner much interest at the time. A second live recording, again titled 'Round Midnight, met with the same fate. Unable to drum up enough interest and tired of trying to satisfy the demands of recording companies, she came up with a solution - she founded her own company. Bet-Car was founded in 1971, and would be the soul source of her recordings until she signed with Verve in 1988. The Bet-Car years produced some of Betty's finest albums - The Betty Carter Album, Betty Carter (later rereleased as At the Village Vanguard), Now It's My Turn, and I Didn't Know What Time it Was - culminating in the December 1979 recordings that became The Audience with Betty Carter, called by some the finest vocal jazz recording ever made. Performances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1978 helped solidify Betty's place in the jazz world, not only as a major vocal talent but also as a discoverer of new talent (including through the years such names as John Hicks, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Mark Shim, Dave Holland, Stephen Scott and Kenny Washington).Her Bet-Car recordings continued into the 1980s with Whatever Happened to Love? and a landmark session with fellow jazz legend Carmen McRae recorded live at a series of 1987 San Francisco dates. By 1988, finally someone took notice of her talents: Verve, on the lookout for under-appreciated jazz singers such as Abbey Lincoln and Shirley Horn, signed Ms. Carter to a contract and immediately set about rereleasing the majority of her old material. In 1988, she burst back on to the popular jazz scene with Look What I Got, the album that earned her only Grammy award. The next decade produced several more outstanding recordings that featured a more mature sound - not reined in by any means, but perhaps softer, Betty Balladeer instead of Betty Be-Bop. She garnered Grammy nominations for 1990's Droppin' Things and 1992's It's Not About the Melody. She continued to feature young, up-and-coming musicians on most of her albums, a practice broken only on the 1994 album Feed the Fire, considered by some to be her finest work since Audience. Betty remained active in developing new musicians through the Jazz Ahead program, founded in 1993, that brought unknown jazz musicians to New York to work with her. She performed at the White House in 1994, and was a major headliner at Verve's 50th anniverary celebration in Carnegie Hall. She continued to stay active with her teaching right up until her death from pancreatic cancer on September 26, 1998. With Betty Carter gone, the jazz world has been left a gaping hole that no one artist could ever hope to fill. While other female (and male) jazz singers will come along, it's doubtful that anyone will be able to match Betty's combination of singing talent, compositional ideas, and willingness to teach. It's up to those of us who remain to ensure that her legacy grows and that the generations that ensue will have the pleasure- no, the honor - of sitting home, late at night, and drifting off into Betty Carter's world.Jazz is about the immediacy of the creative process. No other music allows so much personal freedom and no singer takes advantage of it like Betty Carter.To listen to Betty Carter on SOJP CLICK HERE!
*Two Guys and Their Joysticks would like to apologize for The Polish’s audio quality this episode. He thought the mic was working – it wasn’t. Next week will sound better, promise!*Ladies and gentlemen, guys and gals, boys and girls, kids and kidesses, welcome back to the crazy gaming podcast, Two Guys and Their Joysticks! After returning from bloody battle in the last Mortal Kombat tournament, Charlie ‘The English Dream’ and the ever Polish Jacek rise to bring some exciting news on this week’s news in vidya gaems, like:Deus Ex: The Fall (A sequel… On tablet? Hmmm…)Precursor games pausing Shadow of the Eternals kickstarter D:Sony’s 40 exclusives at E3 (Look at Microsoft shaking in their booties!)FABLE: ANNIVERSARY OMG WTF SO HYPEA new WoW raid typeShitty dumb fucking twin stick piece of garbage Halo Windows 8 smelly shitty game… Shit (Charlie isn’t hyped)Also, as per the weekly ritual (not the Satanic one), your hosts will discuss their latest gaming enjoyments, with:Paranautical Activity: Over-sensitive editionFairy Bloom Freesia…….. I’M A MAN, OKAY?!The Art of the Mass Effect Universe BookAlan Wake (MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!)Battleblock theatreThe weekly discussion is a lovely chat about ports, with a focus on iOS ones. Witness gaming history, as well, when the guys create the new form of gamer vocabulary: Re-ports, when a game port changes big aspects (Minecraft iOS, Splinter Cell: Double Agent Xbox Original). Get hyped for that!Again, we have a special, heart filled track for the break from the ever Polish Jacek. May his soul be carried safely through the afterlife.Stay tuned to our Facebook page for the possibility and format of one or more E3 specials! Get hyped, kids. Get hyped. Here’s the episode: http://ia600308.us.archive.org/17/items/E07ShhNoTearsOnlyDreamsNow/E07%20-%20Shh%20No%20Tears%2C%20Only%20Dreams%20Now.mp3Here’s the official page: http://www.facebook.com/TwoGuysAndTheirJoysticks
Welcome back, guys and girls, to another instalment of Two Guys and Their Joysticks. In this fateful episode, Charlie ‘the English dream’ and the ever Polish Jacek deliver the news they scavenged from the pre-E3 silence- they work hard to bring you the latest goodies, including:-Dying Light reveal (so scary!)-The Curiosity iOS project-KotoR on the iPad-Unity on iOS FREEEEEE!-Final Fantasy 14’s collector’s edition (+1 XP for Square Enix)-Fary Cry 3 map editor: BLOOD DRAGON EDITION, SON!-Remedy’s future plansThe chaps tell us about their recent gaming hijinks, too. Charlie’s finally had a go at Papers, Please and also dipped into the Chinese ninja warrior game, Mortal Kombat: Deception. Jacek, wonderful as ever, describes the worryingly enlightening Plague Inc and the absolutely badassery of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. A special treat for you listeners this episode is a fan letter from a game retailer employee. We get to see his insights into the Xbox One, which are very interesting! Furthermore, landing with a controversial BANG is the episode’s discussion on the Saint’s Row genre, where it’s going, how we feel about it and what other folks are saying. Here’s the episode: http://ia801709.us.archive.org/14/items/E05TypicalTopics/E05_%20Typical%20Topics.mp3Here’s the official page: https://www.facebook.com/TwoGuysAndTheirJoysticks
QUIET AUTHORITYBest known as a contributing member of the bebop jazz movement and a member of the Oscar Peterson Trio, jazz bassist Ray Brown performed with jazz giants from Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker to his wife Ella Fitzgerald. Despite Fitzgerald’s short-lived marriage to Brown (1947-1953), she remained a lifelong friend and musical associate. A disciple of the 1940s Oscar Pettiford school of jazz bass, Brown developed an individual style renown for its tastefully executed rhythmic lines within the context of ensemble accompaniment. His talent reflects such breadth and diversity that he was the most cited musician in the first edition of the Penguin Guide to Recorded Jazz (1992). Unlike many of the founders of bebop bass, Brown still performed and earned a successful living as a studio musician, record producer, and nightclub owner. Raymond Matthews Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 1926. He took piano lessons at age eight and gained knowledge of the keyboard through memorizing the recordings of Fats Waller. A member of the high school orchestra, he soon found himself overwhelmed by the number of pianists among his classmates. "There must have been 14 piano players in it. And 12 of them were chicks who could read anything on sight," explained Brown in Jazz Masters of the Forties. In the book Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing, Brown revealed the main reason for ending his study of piano: "I just couldn’t find my way on it. It just didn’t give me what I wanted." Soon afterward, Brown, unable to afford a trombone, switched to bass, an instrument provided by the school’s music department.Brown’s new musical role model emerged in Duke Ellington’s innovative bassist, Jimmy Blanton. As he told Jack Tracey in Down Beat, "I just began digging into Blanton because I saw he had it covered—there was nobody else. There he was, right in the middle of all those fabulous records the Ellington band was making at the time, and I didn’t see any need to listen to anybody else." As a teenager Brown played local engagements. Despite offers by bandleaders, he followed his mother’s advice and finished high school before performing on the road with regional territory bands. After graduating in 1944, he performed an eight-month stint in Jimmy Hinsley’s band. Around this time, Brown fell under the influence of bassists Leroy "Slam" Stewart and Oscar Pettiford, a prime mover of a modern jazz bass approach. He next joined the territory band of Snookum Russell. Eight months later, while on the road with Russell, Brown followed the suggestion of fellow band members and moved to New York City.In 1945 Brown arrived in New York City, and during his first night visited Fifty-Second Street—"Swing Street," a mob-controlled thoroughfare lined with various jazz clubs. That evening he encountered pianist Hank Jones, a musical associate, who introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie. That same evening, Gillespie, prompted by Jones’ recommendation, hired Brown without an audition. Attending the band’s rehearsal the next day, Brown—a 19-year-old musician still largely unfamiliar with many of bebop’s innovators—discovered that his fellow band members were Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, and Max Roach. "If I had known those guys any better I would have probably never gone to the rehearsal," admitted Brown in Jazz Journal International. "The only guy I knew something about was Dizzy because some of his records had filtered down through the south where I’d been playing with a territory band." The group’s leader, however, immediately recognized the talent of his young bassist. As Gillespie commented, in his memoir To Be or Not to Bop, "Ray Brown, on bass, played the strongest, most fluid and imaginative bass lines in modern jazz at the time, with the exception of Oscar Pettiford." Shortly afterward, Gillespie added Detroit-born vibraphonist Milt Jackson. In Jazz Masters of the Forties, Brown recounted his early years with Jackson: "We were inseparable. They called us twins."In 1945 Brown appeared with Gillepsie at Billy Berg’s night club in Hollywood, California, an engagement which, with the exception of a small coterie of bebop followers, failed to generate a favorable response from west coast listeners. In Gillespie’s memoir To Be or Not to Bop, Brown summarized the band’s Hollywood stint: "The music wasn’t received well at all. They didn’t know what we were playing; they didn’t understand it." During the winter of 1946, Gillespie returned to New York and opened at Clark Monroe’s Spotlite on 52nd Street with a band consisting of Brown, Milt Jackson, Stan Levey, Al Haig, and alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt. In To Be or Not to Bop, Brown modestly described his role in the sextet, "I was the least competent guy in the group. And they made something out of me." In May of 1946, the sextet recorded for the Musicraft label, cutting the sides such as "One Bass Hit"—featuring Brown’s bass talents—and "Oop Bop Sh’ Bam,’ and "That’s Earl Brother." On Feb 5, 1946, Brown took part in one of Charlie Parker’s sessions for the Dial label, recording such numbers as "Diggin’ Diz."In 1946 Gillespie formed his second big band, using the same six-member line-up. On February 22, 1946, Brown appeared with Gillespie’s big band for a RCA/Victor session organized by pianist and jazz critic Leonard Feather. As Feather wrote in his work Inside Jazz, "Victor wanted an all-star group featuring some of the Esquire winners, so we used J.C. Heard on drums and Don Byas on tenor, along with Dizzy’s own men—Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, and Al Haig—and the new guitarist from Cleveland, Bill de Arango." The date produced the numbers "52nd Street Theme," "Night in Tunisia," "OI’Man Rebop," and "Anthropology." Between May and July of 1946, Brown appeared on such Gillespie recordings as "Our Delight," "Things to Come," and "Rays Idea" (co-written with Gil Fuller). In November of the same year, he cut the classic Gillespie side "Emanon."In 1947 Gillespie assembled a smaller group inside his big band which included Brown, Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis and drummer Kenny Clarke. As Jackson told Whitney Baillett, in American Musicians II, "We’d play and let the band have a rest. I guess it was Dizzy’s idea." Attending an August 1947 Gillespie big band session Brown’s bass is heard on such numbers as "Ow!," "Oop-Pop-A-Da," and John Lewis’ "Two Bass Hit" which Brown’s bass is heard driving the band and, at the composition’s close, soloing with force and a controlled sense of melody. On December 10, 1947, Brown married vocalist Ella Fitzgerald in Ohio and moved into a residence on Ditmars Boulevard in the East Elmhurst section of Queens, New York. Soon afterward, the couple adopted a son, Ray Jr.After leaving Gillespie’s band in 1947, Brown and performed with Fitzgerald on Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic tours and various record dates. "When I left Dizzy," commented Brown in Ella Fitzgerald, "the band was getting ready to go to Europe, and I couldn’t. I’d just gotten married to Ella Fitzgerald. At that time I was in a bit of a curl between her and wanting to be with her as well. She wanted me to travel with her trio; she had Hank Jones playing piano. So I finally decided I was going to stay in New York." During a concert series in September 1949, Brown performed when Canadian-born pianist Oscar Peterson made his debut with the tour (according to Brown, he had already performed with Peterson at informal Canadian jam sessions). In 1950 Brown and Peterson performed as a duo, and for the next several years, were also billed on various tours.In 1950 Brown recorded with Charlie Parker and, between 1950 and 1952, appeared with the Milt Jackson Quartet. The quartet’s pianist John Lewis recounted in The Great Jazz Pianists, "We were all friends and would play together when Dizzy’s band wasn’t working." At another Parker session in August 1951, Brown found himself in the company of such sidemen as trumpeter Red Rodney, John Lewis, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Together they backed Parker on sides which included "Swedish Schnapps," "Si Si," "Back Home Blues," and "Lover Man." A few months later, Brown appeared with the Milt Jackson Quartet, and on March 25, 1952 Brown attended a Charlie Parker big band recording session in Hollywood, California.In 1952 Brown and guitarist Irving Ashby became the founding members of the Oscar Peterson Trio. Ashby’s replacement, Barney Kessel, performed with the trio a year before Peterson recruited guitarist Herb Ellis who, along with Brown on bass, formed one of the most famed jazz trios of the 1950s. "Herb and I rehearsed all the time," stated Brown in Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing. "For a trio that didn’t have any drums, we had it all. Herb and I roomed together and we played everyday. Not just the gig. We played golf in the morning and guitar and bass in the afternoon, and then we would shower, take a nap, go to dinner, and go to the gig. We had it all." Under Peterson’s leadership, Brown and Ellis underwent a challenging musical regimen. In Jazz Journal International, Brown revealed his admiration for Peterson’s reputation as a difficult task master: "If you are not intimidated by absolute professionalism, then you have no problem. Sure he’ll throw you a curve from time to time by calling unscheduled numbers or unexpectedly doubling the tempos, but if you’re not good enough to handle that, you shouldn’t be with Oscar anyway."By 1953 Brown and Fitzgerald ended their marriage. As Stuart Nicholson noted his book Ella Fitzgerald, "Ray remained adamant that he would pursue his career with Oscar Peterson, and the couple had begun to see less and less of each other. Finally, they decided to bring their marriage to and end and filed for a ‘quickie’ divorce." The divorce was finalized on August 28, 1953 in Juarez, Mexico. Fitzgerald maintained custody of Ray Jr., yet she and Brown remained friends. In November 1953 they, along with Oscar Peterson, appeared at a concert in Japan.In 1958 Peterson replaced Ellis with drummer Gene Gammage, who stayed with the trio a few months until Peterson recruited drummer Edmund Thigpen. Fortunately, Brown was able to stay with the trio and earn a comfortable living. However, by the early 1960s, the group also proved demanding in its performance schedule. As Brown explained in Jazz Journal International, "Some of the tours were really punishing—we’d come to Europe and do 62 one-nighters in 65 days." After his 15-year membership in the Oscar Peterson Trio, Brown left the group in 1965, and settled in Hollywood, where he worked in the areas of publishing, management, and record production. In 1974 he co-founded the L.A. Four with saxophonist Bud Shank, Brazilian guitarist Luarindo Almeida, and drummer Shelly Manne (later replaced by Jeff Hamilton). One of Brown’s exemplary studio dates emerged in the 1974 album Dizzy Gillespie Big 4.By 1976 Brown appeared four days a week on the Merv Griffin Show. A year later, after two decades of appearing as a sideman on the Contemporary label, Brown recorded the solo effort Something for Lester, placing him in the company of pianist Cedar Walton and drummer Elvin Jones. In Down Beat Zan Stewart gave the album the magazine’s highest rating (five stars), and commented, "Walton and Jones are apropos partnersin sound for the superlative bassist… Ray’s imparts the line to ‘Georgia’—what glorious tone he possesses! It continually overwhelms the listener, as does his superb intonation, for Brown is always at the center of each note."In a 1980 Jazz Journal International interview, Brown told Mike Hennessey, "I’m very fortunate. I’m still able to travel and play various countries and still be liked by the public. I’m able to play what I like to play and as long as people want to listen, that’s fine with me." During the 1980s, Brown recorded solo albums for the Concord label as well as releases by the L.A. Four, and numerous guest sessions with pianist Gene Harris. Since his first appearance on Telarc Records in 1989, his albums for the company include the 1994 trio LP (with pianist Benny Green and drummer Jeff Hamilton) Bass Face, Live at Kuumbwa, the 1995 work Seven Steps to Heaven (with Green and drummer Greg Hutchinson), and the 1997 release Super Bass. Brown still performs both as a leader and accompanist at festivals and concert dates. "During the past decades Brown’s sound and skill have remained undimmed, "wrote Thomas Owens, in his 1995 book Bebop: The Music and Its Players. "He is an agile, inventive, and often humorous soloist. His arco [bow] technique is excellent, though he seldom reveals it. But he shines most brilliantly as an accompanist. Examples of his beautiful lines are legion." Interviewed in The Guitar Player Book, Herb Ellis also lauded the talents of his former music partner: "[Ray Brown] is in a class all by himself. There is no other bassist in the world for me, and a lot of players feel the same way. On most instruments, when you get to the top echelon it breaks down to personal taste, but I tell you, there are a lot of guys on his tail, but Ray has it all locked up."
INSEPARABLEThis husband and wife team have a devotion for the arts that definitely shines through. They not only share a deep love for one another, but their passion is evident musically and poetically. This marriage of hearts and artistry is truly a gift.Jimmie Tjari Highsmith, Jr., was born September 18,1967 in the “Flower City” Rochester NY, the birthplace of Jazz luminaries Cab Calloway, PeeWee Ellis, Chuck Mangione and many others. James, or as his friends call him “Jimmie” is a seasoned Jazz musician who began his musical incipiency at the mere age of 7. Jimmie began studying piano, which created the foundations for his song writing in his later years. A music teacher introduced him to the harmonious sound of the saxophone, and the rest shall we say is history. Recognizing Jimmies potential, he was guided to study music at the Hochstein School of Music where he honed his ability to musically shine and stand out from his peers. Jimmie brought that same focus and thirst for music to the High School for Performing Arts where he walked the halls with and befriended other standouts like Motion Picture Actor/TV Star Scott “Taye” Diggs, R&B Singer Charlene “Tweet” Keys and Opera Diva Regina Zona. At School of the Arts, Jimmie was exposed to a musically competitive environment of band competitions, jazz combo performances, composition classes and other competitive solo scenarios. In Jimmies senior year, he auditioned for and was accepted into the prestigious Eastman School of Music, where he played Baritone sax in the Eastman School of Music Jazz Ensemble. After graduating from High School, Jimmie enlisted in the US Air Force. While stationed in New Jersey, Jimmie found himself in the ideal location to access the New York and Philadelphia jazz scenes. During this time, he formed a jazz band consisting of musicians from both the US Air Force and Army. The band played at many military events and performed in various countries as part of the entertainment for the International USO Tour and Tops in Blue. In 1992 Jimmie returned to Rochester where he launched his professional music career. Jimmie has formed many bands, which have been recognized as top regional jazz bands playing in big music festivals and clubs. He has shared the stage with multiple Grammy Award winners, including Alicia Keys and Wynton Marsalis. His sax work represents some of the best in the Smooth Jazz and Contemporary Jazz Genre. Jimmie has also performed with many notables such as: Joseph Wooten, Chris Beard, Paul Boutte, Joe Beard, Carl Thomas, Grey Mayfield, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Johnny O’Neal and Yolanda Adams. He and his band have also opened for many big named artist, such as: Natalie Cole, Little Richard, Najee, "Papa John" DeFrancesco, Robert Cray Blues Band, Joyce Cooling, Montell Jordan, Shameika Copeland, Neville Brothers, Me'chelle Ndegeocello, Jodie Watley, Chris Bodie, Temptations and The Isley Brothers.To visit Jimmie Highsmith's website CLICK HERE! Lutonya Rachel Highsmith, a Rochester, New York, was born on August 20, 1969. Lu, as she is affectionately known, has published essays, news articles and poems over the past twenty years. No matter which form she has chosen to exhibit her talents, each has been reflective of her passion for spirituality, sensuality, and social consciousness.She has performed at festivals, coffee houses, nursing homes, schools, churches, art galleries, clubs and community events throughout Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Atlanta and Toronto. Highsmith has been featured in the Rochester-based newspaper, Minority Reporter; the Buffalo-based newspaper, Challenger and as a “Woman to Watch” in The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. In September 2008, Lu published her much-anticipated debut book of poetry “Vicissitudes” through her company, Lucreations Publishing. Her second book of poetry “Ascension into Love” was released in August, 2010. She is also an active member of the artist-advocacy group CSWA (Culture Starts With Art!) and currently co-hosts a bi-weekly poetry night called “Flowetic Rhythms” at Gallery One Fine Arts in Rochester, NY. In October, 2012, she joined forces with her Grammy-nominated musician/composer husband, Jimmie Highsmith Jr. on her first CD entitled, “Ascension”, produced by Variance Records. Lu has recently embarked on becoming the designated Slam Master in Rochester, NY by forming Rochester’s first Adult Slam Team called "Roc Bottom Poets", traveling to Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany; as well as hosting Poetry Slams in Rochester. To Purchase Lu Highsmith's books please CLICK HERE!To Purchase Lu Highsmith's CD please CLICK HERE!
OffTopical Podcast returns without Joshman who pulled a Charlie Sheen, only for the show to be saved at the last minute by JPartridge! Topics Include: Boston Bombings, Child Joys, Conspiracy Theories, and favorite Sports Heros. Skits include: Drugs! Oblivion Movie Trailer, and Vaccine commercial. Please leave a 5 star written review on iTunes if you enjoy the show. Twitter @offtopicalpod
General Reminder We'll be kicking back up with Seven Inches In and PosMike's Pages next week. Until then, be sure to check out these videos: Sunny – Live in Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6FmS5Co-j4 James Brown at Zaire ’74 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCn2W-OXH5I And if you're keeping up with PosMike's Pages, be sure to read Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson by Joe Vogel from page 92-129. It's the section on BAD! News - Is AEG really planning to raise paternity questions? This case could get ugly. - The Jackson family plans to use home movies in court. - The Jury pool is at 104, but it’s actually getting narrowed down! -La Toya is on TV. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FrXzYB4jxns -Prince isn’t actually dating a Princess. Turns out they made up the princess part. -Event Magazine interviewed Paris! Check out what she had to say. Be sure to check us out on twitter or our forum, or email us at posmikepodcast@gmail.com. You can also find us on facebook, instagram, and tumblr. Until next time, lay back in our tenderness and thanks for listening! Â
We’re back with another “illustrious†episode filled with News, Music, and insanity. News Katherine wants TJ to get $9000. TJ thought it was too much (what?!). Michael’s former manager most likely won’t be getting commissions from the Estate. Katherine’s claims against AEG have been thrown out, but the suit against AEG Live is still moving forward with a start date of April 1st. Sources say Prince is planning to testify. Speaking of AEG, guess which company is no longer for sale? Music – Seven Inches In Everyone loved Alex Isley, and we’re sure that everyone is going to love this week’s selection as well. Instead of giving us music that we may not know, this week the lovely Sparklesocks has given us two performances by the Godfather of Soul – James Brown. Sunny – Live in Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6FmS5Co-j4 James Brown at Zaire ’74 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCn2W-OXH5I  And GlitterySocks' suggestion, Night Train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEyh46zXBpE Books – PosMike’s Pages You would think that Thriller couldn’t get anymore awesome, but you would be wrong. This week we cover the Thriller section of Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson by Joseph Vogel. Listen in for all of our favorite moments and pick up the book for even more amazing insights into the music we all know and love. Thanks to our Contributors! We’re pleased to announce this week’s member, post(s), and tweeter of the week! Member of the week: Tinkerbell58! We love you Tinkerbell! We wouldn’t be the same without you. Post of the Week: Everything from LADYINHISLIFE aka the gifmaster. Tweeter of the week: B.E. Find her at @birgiterika. We love talking to you, and thanks for being a part of our community! And a HUGE thank you to all of our donors! You all make this show possible. That’s all folks! Be sure to check us out on twitter or our forum! You can also find us on facebook, instagram, and tumblr. Until next time, lay back in our tenderness and thanks for listening.
  News  Who doesn’t wanna take Questlove’s Classic Albums class at NYU? We’re all in love with Questlove, and a war may be erupting between two admins fighting for his L.O.V.E.  Another trial? Looks like it. Katherine is taking AEG Live to court. Michael Jackson ONE tickets are now available to Cirque Club members! Get them while they're hot! Arnie Klein wasn’t quite arrested, but he no longer owns a Warhol. When Did She Get Married? A while ago. Congrats, Janet! Music: Seven Inches In After mixed reviews on Sun Ra (despite overwhelmingly positive reviews from the posmike hosts), Sparklesocks brings us this week’s artist: Alex Isley. Yes, there is a relation. A Side: Into Orbit B Side: I Can’t Help It cover Bonus: Free EP | Covers Album  Books: Posmike's Pages We're obsessed with this book and seriously recommend it to all fans of both Michael and music. We couldn't have possibly said everything we wanted to about the introduction/Off The Wall portion of the book, but we sure said a lot. Next week we will be reading to the end of the section on Thriller, and we really encourage you all to join.  Contributors: Member, post, and tweet of the week! Member of the week: jvfsmilePost of the week: LJMissesMJ meets The Jacksons!Tweeter of the week: @taelyns  We'll talk to you all next week! Let us know what you think of Alex Isley and of the next portion of the book! You can contact us by emailing posmikepodcast@gmail.com, going to our forum, or sending us a tweet. Until then, lay back in our tenderness. Â
News What’s the latest legal news going on in the MJ world? We’ve got you covered. Which Michael moment did Complex Music cite as one of the most important music moments in civil rights history? Listen in and see if you agree. Are Beyonce and Jay Z really gonna raise Blue Ivy at Neverland? We don't know Beyonce or Jay Z, but we still think we can give you the answer. Music: Seven Inches In We welcome the great, the wonderful, the always snarky sparklesocks to host the first "Seven Inches In" segment, where she’ll present her case for why we should all give Sun Ra our full attention. The songs she cites are Moon Dance, Tenderness, and we also get a special treat in the form of a BBC Documentary. The anticipated hidden meaning of the title is also revealed, although we'll warn you, it's pretty anti-climactic. Books: Posmike's Pages We present the first book of Posmike's Pages, Man In The Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson by Joseph Vogel. If you want to keep up with us, we'll be reading from the preface to the end of the Off the Wall section before our next full length show two weeks from now. Contributors: Member, post, and tweet of the week! We’re sending out some major love to our contributors, including our member of the week, Heather, our post of the week, from Nantucket Cat, and our tweet of the week, from @MJRemix. Let us know what you think about Sun Ra and Man In the Music! Contact us through email, posmikepodcast@gmail.com, on twitter, @posmike, or on our forum, positivelymichael.com. And, as always, remember to lay back in our tenderness. Â
OffTopical returns with its take on Pulp Fiction, J Partridge stops by to lend a hand with topics like: New Xbox rumors from Microsoft, if we were super villians, Judge Dread Review, what is your reasonable dream car? and the death of Chris Kyle and the impact of mental illness and military suicide. Skits are in the theme of Pulp Fiction! Follow us on twitter @offtopicalpod listen to us on Stitcher smart radio on your moble device or desktop and leave us 5 star written reviews on iTunes- it really helps!
![Dance To You Podcast - [Mixed By JayPerez]](https://ivyfm.s3.amazonaws.com/i320/281520.jpg)
Tracklist1. Chasing Summers - Tiesto w/ We Want Some Pussy - 2 Live Crew [JayPerez Mash-up]2. Don't You Worry Child (Feat. John Martin) [Original] w/ Don't You Worry Child (Feat. John Martin) [Promise Land Remix]3. Rock The House - Afrojack w/ Let's Go (Feat. Ne-Yo) - Calvin Harris [Acapella] [Jayperez Mash-Up]4. Molly [Quintino Remix] - Cedric Gervals5. Apollo (Feat. Amba Shepherd) - Hardwell6. Tuna Melt - A - Trak and Tommy Trash [Exclusive Play]7. Dear New York - Firebeatz and Schella8. Just One Last Time (Feat. Taped Rai) [Hard Rock Sofa Big Room Mix] - David Guetta9. Arrive Beautiful Leave Ugly - Dada Life10. Iron [Dyro Remix] - Nicky Romero & Calvin Harris11. I Love It (Feat. Charli XCX) [Apocolypto Remix] - Icona Pop12. Fall into the Sky (Feat. Ellie Goulding) - Zedd13. How We Do - Showtek & Hardwell14. BBBS (Big Bad Bassline Sound) - Clockwork15. Clash - Alesso [Exclusive]16. Euphoria [JayPerez Extended Dub] - Usher & Swedish House Mafia [Exclusive Premiere]Heres the link to the free download of my version of Euphoria : http://www56.zippyshare.com/v/81148491/file.html
Pour écouter cette chroniquePatronat et syndicats de salariés négocient actuellement un renouvellement du contrat salarial. Que sortira-t-il de leurs discussions ? bien malin qui peut le dire. On sait que le gouvernement, qui vient d'accorder aux entreprises des avantages significatifs sous forme de crédit d'impôts, exerce une pression forte pour que les organisations patronales trouvent un terrain d'entente avec les syndicats ouvriers. Les négociations promettent d'être difficiles et on ne peut exclure une intervention de l'Etat qui, faute d'accord des partenaires sociaux, légifère, au grand dam, d'ailleurs, des patrons eux-mêmes qui seront les premiers à se plaindre de ce que les députés et sénateurs auront multiplié les amendements qui leur déplaisent.Cette situation n'est pas nouvelle. On pourrait même dire qu'ele est endémique et qu'elle explique, d'une certaine manière, la prolifération de notre droit social et de toutes ces réglementations dont les employeurs se plaignent si fréquemment. Pour dire les choses simplement, l'hypertrophie de notre droit social est, pour beaucoup, le fruit de la faiblesse du dialogue social dans notre pays. Plutôt que de s'en plaindre, les organisations patronales devraient s'interroger sur les causes de ce déficit, mais cela leur est naturellement difficile alors même que beaucoup de leurs membres ont développé une véritable phobie des syndicats.Le cas du salaire minimumLe cas du salaire minimum est exemplaire de la manière dont le déficit de dialogue social favorise l'effervescence réglementaire. Dans un article publié il y a quelques mois, Philippe Aghion, un économiste qui enseigne à Harvard et a conseillé Ségolène Royal et François Hollande, a montré que les pays dans lesquels les relations sociales sont vivantes, ceux dans lesquels les organisations syndicales sont puissantes et en mesure de négocier, sont aussi ceux dans lesquels les législations sur le salaire minimum sont le plus rares (Can policy interact with culture ? Minimum wage and the quality of labor relations). Il y a, pour dire les choses de manière plus savante, une forte corrélation négative entre les effectifs des organisations syndicales et les lois sur le salaire minimum. Les pays nordiques qui ont des syndicats puissants font sans. A l'inverse, la France ou la Grèce, deux pays dans lesquels les syndicats sont très faibles ont une législation rigoureuse sur le sujet.On comprend bien pourquoi : là où les syndicats ne peuvent rien obtenir par la négociation parce que trop faibles, l'Etat se substitue à eux. Mais, et c'est ce qui se produit en France depuis des décennies, plus l'Etat intervient, plus les syndicats s'en trouvent affaiblis : pourquoi se syndiquer si l'Etat intervient, si l'on peut obtenir le même résultat en votant une fois tous les quatre ou cinq ans ? l'intervention de l'Etat pour compenser la faiblesse syndicale ne fait que l'aggraver. Cette situation se complique de ce que plus les syndicats sont faibles plus leurs membres, leurs militants se spécialisent dans la gestion des organismes paritaires au dépens de l'action sur le terrain auprès des salariés. Ce qui conduit, dans le cas français, à une sorte de blocage de nos institutions dont on vient d'avoir une belle illustration. On le sait, le gouvernement a choisi de réduire de manière significative le coût du travail. S'il l'a fait en choisissant un crédit d'impôt plutôt que le transfert des cotisations patronales vers la CSG ou la TVA, c'est que cela aurait conduit à un casus belli avec les organisations syndicales qui risquaient de perdre une multitude de postes dans les organismes gestionnaires, comme, par exemple, les caisses d'allocations familiales. Rien n'aurait justifié, une fois qu'elles auraient été financées par l'impôt que siègent à leur conseil d'administration des représentants des organisations syndicales ouvrières et patronales. Ce sont 1632 administrateurs, 16 par caisses et il y en a 102 caisses, qui auraient pu à terme perdre leur poste. On comprend que le gouvernement se soit méfié.On a là, donc, une machine infernale. La faiblesse syndicale se nourrit d'elle-même pour le plus grand tort des salariés mais aussi de l'économie, de sa compétitivité. Oui, de la compétitivité, car l'on a découvert que les syndicats n'étaient pas, comme le croient trop volontiers les libéraux et les organisations patronales, un frein à la productivité. Bien au contraire, de bonnes relations sociales l'améliorent. C'est ce qui ressort en tout cas des travaux récents de Gilbert Cette, sur des données françaises, et de quelques autres sur des données américaines et allemandes (Labour relations quality and productivity: an empirical analysis on french firms.)Des syndicats puissants améliorent la qualité de l'information des entreprises Il ne s'agit évidemment pas d'être naïf et de penser qu'il suffirait de syndicats puissants pour améliorer la compétitivité d'une industrie. On a, bien évidemment, de nombreux exemples du contraire. Mais voyons ce qui se passe lorsqu'un syndicat s'étiole dans une entreprise. D'un coté, et ce peut être le bon coté pour les employeurs, les conflits sociaux s'espacent, les jours d'arrêt pour faits de grève diminuent, les réunions du comité d'entreprise se passent mieux, les tensions apparentes disparaissent. Mais de l'autre, l'entreprise perd une source d'information importante sur les problèmes qui peuvent surgir en son sein. Les syndicats, lorsqu'ils sont puissants, lorsqu'ils ont des contacts réguliers avec les directions font circuler des informations qui sont autrement bloquées par la structure hiérarchique. Tout cela peut paraître théorique, mais ne l'est pas. Je prendrai un exemple banal mais que j'ai vécu dans un établissement du groupe Alcatel il y a quelques années. C'était une usine dans la région parisienne construite à l'ancienne avec une toiture en shed, en dents de scie avec de grandes surfaces vitrées. L'une de celles-ci était cassée. En hiver, les ouvriers qui travaillaient en dessous avaient froid, recevaient de la pluie lorsqu'il en tombait, refusaient donc d'occuper les postes exposés, d'où des conflits quotidiens avec les chefs d'équipe. Le contremaître de l'atelier le savait et protestait régulièrement, mais il était incapable de se faire entendre de la direction de l'usine, le responsable de l'entretien qui avait un budget étriqué avait toujours affaire plus importante à traiter. Lorsque les ouvriers se sont plaints au syndicat, celui-ci a immédiatement fait remonter cette affaire au sommet en indiquant que si rien n'était fait l'atelier se mettrait en grève. Dans les jours qui ont suivi la décision a été prise de réparer le toit défaillant. Les tensions dans l'atelier ont disparu et sa production s'est améliorée.Ce n'est qu'un exemple mais on pourrait en trouver mille dans le quotidien des entreprises. Autre dimension souvent négligée de l'action syndicale : la gestion des tensions et des conflits. Est-ce parce qu'on en entend surtout parler à l'occasion de conflits graves qui conduisent à la grève, on a en général le sentiment que les syndicats mettent systématiquement de l'huile sur le feu. Leur rôle est en réalité bien plus subtil. Ils arbitrent entre tous les motifs de mécontentement qui remontent jusqu'à eux. Ils font le tri dans les conflits et ceci, en fonction des rapports de force avec la direction. Ils font avancer les dossiers qui leur paraissent suscceptibles d'aboutir ou de recueillir un fort assentiment des salariés. Ils calment le jeu pour tout le reste.Puissants, ils mettent en avant les conflits qui concernent un grand nombre de personne, qui leur permettent de mobiliser beaucoup de salariés pour atteindre un objectif grâce à l'action au sein de l'entreprise, tracts, prises de parole, manifestation, arrêts de travail… Lorsqu'ils sont faibles et qu'ils n'arrivent pas à mobiliser sur des problèmes collectifs, comme cette vitre brisée dont je parlasi à l'instant, ils mettent l'accent sur les conflits individuels qui se traitent à l'extérieur de l'entreprise, devant le juge. La montée en puissance des affaires liées au harcèlement moral est directement corrélée à la faiblesse de l'action syndicale. C'en est un subtitut. Moins les syndicats peuvent agir au sein même de l'entreprise avec les moyens traditionnels de la lutte ouvrière, plus ils s'adressent à la justice.Or, ce n'est une bonne chose pour personne. Ce n'en est pas une pour la victime qui se retrouve isolée dans son combat et souvent rejetée par ses collègues. Le plus douloureux dans les cas de harcèlement, c'est souvent l'indifférence ou l'hostilité des collègues, or ceux-ci sont très prompts à trouver que la victime exagère, qu'elle en fait trop. Ce n'en est pas une non plus pour celui que l'on accuse, à tort ou à raison, de harcèlement : bien loin de l'image d'Epinal de l'employeur occupé à défendre becs et ongles les cadres accusés, la réalité est qu'ils sont, le plus souvent, à leur tour ostracisés, condamnés par leurs pairs et mal vus de leur direction qui se serait passée de ce genre d'affaire. Il faut avoir vu un cadre accusé de harcèlement pour comprendre combien cela peut être douloureux, même s'il est effectivement coupable. J'ajouterai enfin que si les faits qui ont conduit à cette accusation de harcèlement sont liés à la structure, à l'organisation de l'entreprise, à sa culture, à la charge de travail… ce ne peut pas être traité au tribunal qui ne juge que des cas singuliers.La qualité des relations sociales améliore les performancesDes organisations syndicales puissantes, qui réunissent de nombreux salariés, sont donc utiles dans plusieurs cas de figure :elles évitent d'abord, l'intervention de l'Etat, ce qui peut être une bonne chose si cela permet de trouver des solutions mieux adaptées. Là où le salaire minimum est non pas imposé par la loi mais négocié avec les organisations syndicales il varie selon les secteurs et selon les régions. Ce qui n'est pas illogique. Le pouvoir d'achat d'un salaire n'est pas le même dans une grande ville et dans une zone rurale, les contraintes de la distribution ne sont pas celles du bâtiment ou de la métallurgie, elles permettent ensuite d'anticiper les problèmes. Lorsqu'une entreprise va mal, des organisations syndicales bien informées le savent et peuvent inciter les directions à prendre des mesures qui évitent que les difficultés se traduisent par des lienciements. On parle beaucoup de l'efficacité du temps partiel pour résister aux difficultés en Allemagne. Mais il n'a été efficace que parce qu'il a été très tôt négocié avec les partenaires sociaux elles améliorent, enfin, la qualité des décisions puisqu'elles permettent d'intégrer dans la réflexion des données qui autrement échappent aux directions.Mais il ne suffit pas que les organisations syndicales soient puissantes, il faut encore qu'elles soient écoutées et convaincues de la pertinence des décisions prises par le management. Ce qui suppose des institutions adéquates. On parle souvent de la présence de représentants syndicaux dans les conseils d'administration des entreprises allemandes. C'est effectivement une bonne solution en ce qu'elle permet de nourrir en permanence la négociation sociale, de faire circuler l'information de bas en haut et de haut en bas. En ce qu'elle permet également aux directions de faire valoir leur point de vue, de l'argumenter et non plus seulement de l'imposer comme si elles avaient la science infuse et toujours raison. Un des facteurs qui expliquent le désenchantement de beaucoup de salariés, désenchantement que les enquêtes menées au sein des entreprises révèlent régulièrement vient de ce que les décisions qui tombent du ciel leur paraissent souvent contradictoires, incompréhensibles. « On ne sait où l'on va » est l'une des expressions les plus souvent entendues dans les entreprises. Et pour cause : les directions se contentent d'imposer leurs vues sans chercher à justifier les changements de cap, de stratégie, d'orientation. C'est comme cela et pas autrement. Inutile de dire que cette liberté qui leur est laissée d'agir comme ils l'entendent n'est pas toujours du meilleur effet. Là où ils existent, les contrôles, ceux du conseil d'administration d'un coté, ceux des organisations syndicales de l'autre contribuent à l'amélioration de la qualité des décisions.Pourquoi si peu de syndicalistes en France ?On peut imaginer que dans les mois qui viennent le gouvernement ou le Parlement vont proposer des mesures allant dans ce sens. Reste à savoir si elles permettront d'enrayer la chute des effectifs syndicaux et d'améliorer le dialogue social.Modifier les institutions qui organisent le dialogue social peut aider à atteindre ces objectifs, mais est-ce que ce serait suffisant ? pour que le dialogue social reprenne tournure, il faudrait agir sur les causes profondes de l'affaissement des organisations syndicales. Elles sont multiples.Il y a, ces dispositifs institutionnels qui entretiennent depuis des décennies la division syndicale, freinent voire interdisent l'émergence de nouveaux acteurs et favorisent la concentration des forces syndicales dans le secteur public, mais cela tient aussi à des phénomènes plus lourds sur lesquels il est plus difficile d'agir. J'ai déjà dit un mot du rôle de l'Etat qui en jouant de la loi faute d'accords négociés entre partenaires sociaux, gêne le développement des organsiations syndicales. Mais il n'y a pas que cela. Il y a l'évolution de l'économie française. Les secteurs fortement syndicalisés dans l'industrie ont disparu. Les syndicats n'ont pas su s'imposer dans les secteurs nouveaux, la grande disribution, la restauration rapide, l'intérim… cela tient évidemment aux contrats de travail privilégiés dans ces établissements mais aussi, peut-être, au manque d'imagination des organisations syndicales qui, plutôt que de chercher des solutions nouvelles ont préféré concentrer leurs efforts sur le secteur public.Il y a, aussi, la structure de l'économie française, son coté dual, avec d'un coté quelques très grandes entreprises internationales et de l'autre beaucoup de petites entreprises. La présence d'organisations syndicales dans les grandes entreprises ne pose guère de problème. Elles ont les moyens d'employer des spécialistes en ressources humaines, rompus aux techniques du dialogue social, qui savent négocier. Même si leurs directions n'apprécient guère les syndicats, il leur est difficile de leur interdire d'agir et de travailler. Il en va tout autrement dans les entreprises plus petites. La négociation sociale est une charge supplémentaire pour les chefs d'entreprise qui peuvent difficilement la déléguer à des collaborateurs qui ne sont pas mieux formés qu'eux à cet exercice. Et ce qui vaut pour les chefs d'entreprise vaut également pour les salariés : même avec la meilleure volonté du monde on ne s'improvise pas leader syndical ou négociateur. Cela demande des compétences, notamment en matière de droit du travail, qui manquent à la plupart.La proximité avec les salariés rend, par ailleurs, beaucoup plus problématique tout conflit un peu tendu. Même protégé, le salarié peut craindre des rétorsions et l'employeur s'offusquer de ce que ses décisions sont mises en cause. Si le syndicalisme est si faible en France, c'est que beaucoup de patrons, surtout dans les PME qui représentent l'essentiel de l'emploi, s'y opposent avec la plus grande vigueur. Ils sont patrons chez eux et veulent le rester et n'acceptent pas de partager si peu que ce soit leur pouvoir.La compétitivité est aussi affaire de dialogue socialOn l'a compris, la compétitivité ne saurait se limiter à une action sur le coût du travail. C'est aussi l'affaire de l'innovation et, plus inattendu, peut-être, de la qualité du dialogue social. Là-dessus les entreprises françaises ont de gros progrès à réaliser et les pouvoirs publics de gros efforts à faire en matière d'imagination pour trouver le moyen de contourner ces obstacles que sont l'environnement institutionnel et la structure de l'économie française. Cela ne se fera sans doute pas d'un seul coup de baguette magique. La Présidence Sarkozy avait pris quelques mesures allant dans la bonne direction avec notamment la loi Larcher de 2007 qui impose une concertation préalable, voire une négociation, avant tout projet de loi social, avant de revenir en arrière. La Présidence Hollande devrait poursuivre dans cette direction.
Pour l'écouterLe rapport Gallois est sorti. Le gouvernement a surpris en reprenant la plupart de ses préconisations. Ce qu'il a fait au risque d'aller un peu vite parce que ce rapport n'est pas aussi important qu'on l'a dit. Pour l'avoir lu, je dirai qu'il est plutôt décevant et que les analyses qu'il fait de la situation sont marquées par un extrême conformisme, on a l'impression de les avoir lues mille fois, et, ce qui est peut-être plus gênant, par ce que je qualifierai d'absence de curiosité. Tout cela peut s'expliquer par la rapidité avec laquelle ses auteurs ont du travailler, mais tout de même. Dans une libre-opinion publiée il y a quelques jours dans Libération, Philippe Askenazy disait qu'on croyait « lire un discours de Raymond Barre à la fin des années 70. » Il y a effectivement un peu de cela dans ce texte convenu. Mais il y a surtout un défaut d'analyse de la situation qui amène à s'interroger sur la pertinence des solutions proposées.Le rapport commence de manière classique par le décrochage dans la compétition internationale de notre économie :Tous les indicateurs le confirment : la compétitivité de l'industrie française régresse depuis10 ans et le mouvement semble s'accélérer. La diminution du poids de l'industrie dans le PIB français est plus rapide que dans presque tous les autres pays européens ; le déficit croissant du commerce extérieur marque nos difficultés à la fois vis-à-vis des meilleures industries européennes et face à la montée des émergents.Soit, mais pourquoi ? Dix ans de droite ?Il y a dans ces premières lignes du rapport trois mots qui auraient du inciter à Gallois et ses collègues à approfondir ce diagnostic : « depuis 10 ans », depuis, en somme, que la droite est au pouvoir. Est-ce que ce sont les mesures prises par les gouvernements de Jacques Chirac et Nicolas Sarkozy qui sont en cause ? Et si oui, lesquelles ? Est-ce, a contrario, l'absence de mesures ? Mais alors pourquoi n'ont-elles pas été prises ? qu'est-ce qui s'y opposait ? quels étaient les blocages que leurs successeurs pourraient aussi rencontrer ? Et si les décisions prises par ces gouvernements ne sont pas en cause, faut-il remonter plus loin, plus haut ? On pense naturellement aux 35 heures tant rebattues. Et si celles-ci n'y sont pour rien comme il est probable, faut-il chercher ailleurs ?Les hypothèses ne manquent pas. Je voudrais en signaler deux qu'on évoque rarement : la dualité de l'économie française et sa répartition géographique.On souligne souvent que la France manque de ces sociétés de taille intermédiaire, de ces grosses PME qui font le succès de l'Allemagne, mais c'est que nous avons, d'un coté, beaucoup de très grosses entreprises de taille internationale, et de l'autre, une multitude de petites entreprises qui ne réussissent pas à se développer. Et lorsque l'on parle de compétitivité, il faudrait se demander si elle a reculé partout également. Danone, Michelin, Areva, EADS, pour ne citer que ces quelques noms de grandes entreprises, ont-ils perdu en compétitive ? Cela ne se lit pas ni leurs résultats ni dans leurs positions dans les grands classements internationaux. Ce qui amène à se poser une question : si ces entreprises n'ont rien perdu de leur compétitivité, la dégradation massive de notre commerce extérieur ces deux dernières années ne vient-elle pas de ce qu'elles exportent moins depuis la France et plus depuis leurs usines installées ailleurs dans le monde ? Ce qui pourrait relever de la marche normale des affaires.Prenons, pour être plus précis, le cas d'une entreprise qui exportait il y a dix ans en Asie. Ses ventes dans cette partie du monde ont fortement augmenté, ont tant augmenté qu'elle décide d'y construire une usine. Ses exportations vers cette région disparaîtront puisqu'elles se feront depuis la Chine, la Thaïlande ou la Malaisie. Les chiffres de notre commerce extérieur s'en ressentiront naturellement, mais on ne peut pas dire qu'elle ait perdu en compétitivité.Mesurer des effets de ce type aurait sans doute évité cette confusion entre perte de compétitivité et dégradation du commerce extérieur. Ce sont deux phénomènes différents, même s'il est vrai que beaucoup d'entreprises vendent moins à l'étranger parce qu'elles sont moins compétitives que leurs concurrentes étrangères.Deuxième phénomène qu'il aurait été intéressant d'étudier : la répartition géographique de l'industrie en France et son rôle dans nos difficultés.Il n'est pas rare lorsque l'actualité met en évidence une entreprise en grande difficulté de découvrir qu'elle est installée dans des villes dont on entend à peu près jamais parler. Ce n'est pas un hasard. L'industrie française s'est, depuis les années soixante, éparpillée sur tout le territoire. Les villes, un peu partout, ont voulu leur industrie, on offert aux industriels qui venaient s'installer chez elles des conditions avantageuses. Cela a créé des emplois et contribué à la modernisation de la France dans ses profondeurs, mais cela a aussi isolé les entreprises, rendu plus difficile leur croissance. Difficile de trouver dans ces petites villes les services dont les entreprises ont besoin, difficile également de trouver les compétences qui leur permettraient de se développer. Thouars, pour ne prendre que l'exemple de cette petite ville des Deux-Sèvres, a deux entreprises de plus de 250 personnes, Loeul et Piriot, un spécialiste de la viande de lapin, et la CEE, un spécialiste des sacs papier. Deux belles PME qui ont ou pourraient avoir des perspectives de croissance. Mais pour cela il leur faudrait des compétences qu'elles ne peuvent pas trouver sur place. Recruter un ingénieur pour améliorer le process industriel ? ce sera difficile. Des techniciens, des spécialistes marketing, des professionnels de la vente ? pareil. Lorsque l'on dit que les entreprises ont du mal à recruter malgré le chômage, lorsque l'on ajoute qu'elles ne se développent pas autant qu'elles pourraient, on oublie cette dimension. Quel ingénieur de qualité ira s'enterrer dans cette petite ville qui n'est pas sans charme mais qui n'offre à son épouse que peu de chance de trouver un emploi, qui n'a pas de maternité et dont les établissements scolaires ne préparent pas aux études supérieures qu'il peut souhaiter pour ses enfants. La disparition des services publics, leur dégradation contribue à la diminution de la compétitivité de beaucoup d'entreprises installées loin des grands centres urbains.Il ne suffit pas, comme fait le rapport, de regretter que les jeunes ingénieurs ne choisissent plus l'industrie, il faut aussi se demander pourquoi tant d'entreprises n'arrivent pas à recruter des professionnels.La compétitivité hors coûtCette réflexion sur la géographie aurait amené les rédacteurs de ce rapport à approfondir ce qui est son autre grande faiblesse : l'analyse de ce manque de compétitivité. Ils distinguent bien la compétitive par les prix et celle par la qualité. Mais ils ne vont pas au delà. Prenons la compétitivité par les prix. On a beaucoup parlé du coût du travail, mais il n'en qu'une des composantes. L'autre est la technologie, la qualité des processus de production. Si l'économie américaine est sortie de sa longue léthargie, c'est grâce à l'injection massive de technologie, d'informatique, d'électronique… dans ses processus de production.Le manque de compétitivité des PME françaises vient de ce qu'elles n'ont pas su profiter autant que leurs concurrents en Allemagne ou ailleurs, de ces technologies qui permettent de réduire les coûts. Les auteurs le signalent, ils donnent même des chiffres : 34 500 robots industriels, avec une moyenne d'âge élevée, sont en service en France, contre 62 000 en Italie et 150 000 en Allemagne. Mais ils ne vont pas au delà. Pourquoi les entreprises françaises sont-elles si peu équipées ?Est-ce parce qu'elles sont trop petites ? parce qu'elles n'en ont pas les moyens ? parce qu'elles manquent des compétences nécessaires pour investir dans des technologies qui demandent des savoir-faire pointus, rares, qu'on ne trouve évidemment dans aucune de ces petites villes dans lesquelles sont installées tant d'entreprises. On aurait aimé qu'ils mettent l'accent sur ce phénomène, qu'ils s'interrogent et se demandent comment amener ces PME à s'équiper de matériels plus modernes. Mais non rien. Alors même que se poser ces questions, c'est presque y répondre. S'équiper de ces technologies, de ces robots demande des moyens financiers. Ces PME les trouveront peut-être demain auprès de la banque publique d'investissement. Cela suppose aussi des compétences, et à défaut de pouvoir les recruter directement, pour les raisons qu'on a vues, des services qui les apportent aux entreprises. Ils auraient pu insister sur la modernisation des centres techniques, des instituts Carnot, de ces institutions qui ont pour vocation d'aider les entreprises à accéder à ces technologies nouvelles mais qui ne le font manifestement pas de manière suffisante. Ils auraient pu proposer la réorganisation de ces réseaux, des financements, le développement de mécanismes qui favorisent le partage des inventions et permettent surtout à ces organismes de mettre à disposition des entreprises petites et moyennes des ressources, compétences, bases de données, contacts… qui les aident à moderniser leurs produits ou leurs processus de production. Qui mettent, pour ne prendre que cet exemple, les dirigeants d'une petite entreprise un peu perdue dans une petite ville en contact avec des gens au fait des dernières technologies.Des réflexions de ce type les auraient sans doute amenés à s'interroger sur la possibilité de créer ce que l'économiste Marshall appelait au début du 20ème siècle des districts industriels, ce que les économistes appellent aujourd'hui plutôt des clusters qui sont à l'origine des succès industriels de l'Asie. Il s'agit de regroupement dans une même ville, une même vallée, une même région d'entreprises qui font le même métier ou des métiers voisins et qui peuvent donc partager des services en commun, logistique, marketing, recherche, exportation… On en a en France plusieurs exemples, le décolletage en Haute-Savoie, qui a permis à la France d'être leader mondial dans ce domaine, le vêtement avec la concentration des ateliers textiles dans le Sentier…Ils auraient pu enfin parler autrement de formation. Ils en disent un mot, ils lui consacrent même un chapitre et soulignent les gaspillages de la formation professionnelle mais ils n'apportent de solution à un problème lié, pour l'essentiel, au détournement des budgets de cette formation par les organisations syndicales, ouvrières et patronales, comme l'avait montré le rapport Perruchot.Lorsque l'on aborde les questions de formation, on évoque en général le rapprochement de l'université et des entreprises. Les auteurs de ce rapport ne manquent pas à cette tradition. Peut-être aurait-il mieux valu qu'ils s'interrogent sur les échecs répétés des multiples tentatives faites ces trente dernières années et qu'ils proposent ce qui serait tout à la fois le plus simple et le plus efficace, tant pour les entreprises que pour l'université et pour l'emploi des jeunes diplômés : la mise en place de dispositifs qui donnent aux entreprises la possibilité de contribuer au financement de thèses d'étudiants en troisième cycle. Cela inciterait les étudiants à se tourner vers le monde de l'entreprise et cela donnerait à celles-ci la possibilité de nouer des liens avec de jeunes chercheurs susceptibles d'être recrutés. On se plaint beaucoup de ce que les entreprises pratiquent peu la recherche ou, plutôt, qu'il y a peu de recherche privée. Ce serait un moyen de la développer.Pourquoi ce rapport est-il si décevant ?On l'a compris, j'ai trouvé ce rapport très décevant, trop court dans ses analyses, trop conventionnel dans ses approches. Cela peut, pour une part, s'expliquer par le peu de temps laissé à ses auteurs. Mais cela tient aussi à la méthode retenue. Ses auteurs ont compilé les rapports existants, repris leurs analyses, leurs données. Pas étonnant que dans ces conditions ils tombent sur les mêmes propositions et les mêmes résultats.Cela tient encore, et peut-être surtout, à une erreur de casting. Louis Gallois est un grand industriel, il connait bien le monde des grandes entreprises internationales, il sait ce que peuvent être leurs problèmes de compétitivité et comment les résoudre. Il connaît beaucoup moins bien le tissu industriel français, les problèmes de ces PME dispersées sur tout le territoire qui n'arrivent pas à croître malgré leur potentiel. Il aurait pu pallier tout cela s'il avait eu le temps de mener de véritables analyses, s'il avait pu s'entourer de spécialistes de ces secteurs, s'il avait pu aller rencontrer ces dirigeants, réfléchir avec eux à leurs problèmes. Il n'en a, évidemment, pas eu le temps.Est-ce que tout cela condamne les propositions de ce rapport et les décisions que le gouvernement a prises à sa suite ? pas forcément. La réduction du coût du travail soulagera sans doute nombre d'entreprises dans la période de grande difficulté que nous traversons, cela leur permettra de mieux résister au choc de la concurrence extérieure et peut-être même pour certaines de reconquérir des parts de marché, cela atténuera les critiques du patronat à l'égard du gouvernement et aidera à la négociation d'accords avec les organisations syndicales sur le marché du travail, le gouvernement pouvant dire aux patrons, au Medef, j'ai fait ma part, à vous, maintenant de faire des efforts, mais cela suggère que les ces mesures risquent de ne pas donner des résultats à la mesure des attentes. Et c'est dommage.
Pour écouter cette chronique donnée sur AligreFM le 07/02/2012L’Allemagne comme modèleLa nouveauté de cette dernière semaine est certainement l’installation de l’Allemagne comme modèle économique pour la France. Certains s’en réjouissent, trouvant que c’est une excellente chose que l’Europe entre ainsi dans les faits, d’autres s’en offusquent, trouvant assez surprenant et, pour tout dire, un peu déplaisant de se voir ainsi comparé au bon élève si l’Allemagne est bien un bon élève, ce qui n’est pas le cas dans tous les domaines comme on nous l’a régulièrement rappelé. Mais cet exemple allemand a été surtout convoqué par le Président de la République pour vendre sa TVA sociale dont l’objectif avoué est de réduire le coût du travail. On a dit, à juste titre, qu’une hausse de 1,6% de la TVA n’effacerait pas l’écart entre les salaires français et ceux pratiqués dans les pays émergents. C’est l’évidence, mais ce n’est sans doute pas l’objectif. Cette mesure vise beaucoup plus les écarts de compétitivité entre l’industrie française et celle de nos voisins immédiats avec lesquels nous faisons l’essentiel de notre commerce. Est-ce que ce sera suffisant ? ce peut l’être marginalement pour des entreprises qui exportent en Europe des produits également fabriqués en Italie, en Espagne ou en Allemagne. Tous pays qui pourraient, éventuellement, réagir, en prenant à leur tout des mesures qui renchérissent nos produits. Mais revenons à l’Allemagne : son succès viendrait, si on a bien compris Nicolas Sarkozy, de ce qu’elle a su baisser les salaires, de ce qu’elle a, au fond, appliqué les recettes du Medef. C’est, bien sûr, inexact. Si l’industrie allemande est aujourd’hui si puissante c’est pour bien d’autres motifs.Entreprises exportatrices : des salaires plus élevés que la moyenneLes performances de l’industrie allemande à l’exportation sont, nous dit-on, la meilleure preuve de sa compétitivité. C’est exact. Mais il faut tordre le coût à une première idée : ce ne sont pas des salaires plus faibles qui en sont la cause. Non seulement, les salaires allemands, sont, malgré les mesures de Schröder, parmi les plus élevés au monde, mais ils sont plus élevés que la moyenne dans le secteur manufacturier et ils le sont plus encore dans les entreprises qui exportent (Schank, Schnabel, Wagner, Do exporters really pay higher wages? et Klein, Moser, Urban, The contribution of trade to wage inequality). Ce n’est pas propre à l’Allemagne. On retrouve le même phénomène un peu partout dans le monde, dans les pays industrialisés comme dans les pays émergents. Aux Etats-Unis, l’écart sont de l’ordre de 7 à 11%. Et ceci est particulièrement vrai pour les salariés les plus qualifiés. En Allemagne, cet écart entre les salaires pratiqués dans les entreprises qui exportent et celles qui ne travaillent que pour le marché domestique n’a fait que croître ces dernières années avec la libéralisation des marchés et l’augmentation du nombre d’entreprises allemandes qui exportent. On devine pourquoi : les entreprises qui exportent emploient des personnels plus qualifiés, la concurrence plus vive à laquelle elles sont confrontées les amènent à investir dans tout ce qui peut améliorer leur compétitivité. Et, enfin, comme elles sont en général plus importantes que la moyenne, elles bénéficient d’économies d’échelles. Ce ne sont pas les exportations qui augmentent les salaires, mais ce sont les plus performantes, celles qui emploient les personnels les plus qualifiés, celles donc qui paient les meilleurs salaires, qui exportent. S’il y a eu modération salariale en Allemagne, elle a surtout concerné les entreprises qui travaillent pour le marché domestique. Ce n’est donc pas de ce coté là qu’il faut chercher la raison des meilleures performances de l’industrie allemande.Un tissu de PME exportatrices qui ont la confiance de leur banquierLa raison est plutôt à chercher du coté de la structure de l’industrie allemande. On sait qu’il y a plus de grosses PME en Allemagne qu’en France. Et que celles-ci, qu’on appelle les Mittelstand, jouent un rôle déterminant dans les succès de l’industrie allemande à l’étranger. Mais pourquoi ?On peut avancer plusieurs explications. La première est à chercher du coté du financement de ces entreprises le plus souvent familiales qui entretiennent des liens étroits avec leur banquier. Elles n’en ont souvent qu’un, l’Hausbank, qui les connaît parfaitement bien et est un spécialiste du crédit aux entreprises industrielles. Parce qu’il entretient avec eux des relations solides, il leur prête volontiers sur le long terme, ce qui favorise les investissements de productivité. Parce que c’est un spécialiste du crédit aux entreprises, il peut leur fournir des services multiples et variés : analyse économique du secteur, études de marché à l’étranger… A l’inverse, les entreprises françaises même petites ont en général plusieurs banquiers qui les connaissent moins bien, sont donc plus sensibles au risque pris et préfèrent, pour ce motif, leur prêter sur le court terme : les banques françaises consentent plus volontiers des avances de trésorerie à leurs clients que de quoi financer des équipements et des machines. Ce mode de financement favorise bien sûr le développement d’activités industrielles qui demandent plus de capitaux que les activités de service.Cette qualité des relations entre les entreprises et leur banque est particulièrement utile dans les périodes de crise. Lorsqu’en 2009, l’industrie allemande a connu de très graves difficultés, les banques sont venues au secours de ces entreprises familiales, les prêts aux entreprises ont augmenté alors que chez nous, on le voit aujourd’hui, nos grandes banques ont plutôt tendance à restreindre le crédit dans les périodes difficiles.Et lorsqu’elles prêtent, elles le font dans des conditions proches de celles consenties aux grandes entreprises, ce qui est bien moins le cas en France. Cette différence tient, pour beaucoup, à la structure du secteur bancaire en Allemagne, bien moins concentré qu’en France, avec beaucoup de banques locales, municipales, de coopératives, de caisses d’épargne, les Sparkassen, spécialisées dans le financement de l’industrie, souvent contrôlées par le autorités municipales particulièrement attentives aux performances des entreprises et au marché de l’emploi. Beaucoup ont, d’ailleurs, dans leur raison sociale l’obligation d’être profitable mais aussi de soutenir les activités locales. Si l’on cherchait quelque chose de similaire en France, on pourrait le trouver du coté des caisses régionales du Crédit Agricole dont le rôle dans le soutien l’agriculture française a longtemps été déterminant. De ce point de vue, le projet de François Hollande de créer une banque d’investissement avec des établissements délocalisés dans les régions, proches donc des entreprises, est une bonne idée qui pourrait corriger cette faiblesse notre économie.Une spécialisation qui protègeAutre différence : la spécialisation. Les PME allemandes qui exportent sont plus autonomes que les françaises. Elles ont cherché et trouvé des niches, des créneaux techniques sur lesquelles elles se sont développées à l’abri de la concurrence avec des produits qui ne souffrent pas trop d’un coût élevé, soit parce que le travail n’entre que pour peu dans leur coût final, soit parce qu’ils sont protégés par des brevets qui interdisent la copie, soit encore parce que leur fabrication demande de telles compétences que les écarts de salaires entre pays ne jouent plus de manière aussi significative. Les grosses PME françaises, qui sont souvent des filiales des grands groupes industriels, pratiquent plus volontiers la sous-traitance : si elles exportent, c’est à l’abri, sous le parapluie des grands groupes. Or, cela les fragilise : leur donneur d’ordre peut à tout moment leur préférer un concurrent mieux disant installé ailleurs dans le monde. Tout ce que l’on dit sur l’incitation des grands groupes à tirer les PME à l’exportation va donc plutôt dans le mauvais sens. Cette autonomie à l’exportation des PME allemandes n’est possible que parce que l’Allemagne a développé un formidable outil de mutualisation, de partage des efforts commerciaux. C’est le pays des grandes foires. Il faut être allé une fois à la Foire de Hanovre, qui regroupait l’année dernière 6500 entreprises venues de plus de 65 pays pour en mesurer la puissance. Les industriels du monde entier viennent faire leur marché en Allemagne. On ne peut pas dire qu’ils le fassent en France. Et ces foires allemandes sont accessibles à toutes les entreprises, même aux plus petites : le m2 de stand est vendu à la foire de Hanovre moins de 200€.Centrales nucléaires, TGV ou aéronautique, pour ne prendre que ces quelques exemples de spécialités industrielles françaises, font appel à de très hautes technologies et demandent des compétences et tout un environnement qui ne se copient pas du jour au lendemain. Il faudra des années avant que la Chine ou l’Inde fabriquent des avions capables de faire concurrence à Airbus ou à Boeing. Des années, sauf si… nous les aidons. Et on aperçoit là une autre différence majeure entre la France et l’Allemagne. Nos exportations sont très souvent tirées par de gros contrats négociés au plan politique. Nicolas Sarkozy est allé en Inde faire la promotion du Rafale, après l’avoir tenté sans succès au Brésil et en Lybie, et il espère bien en tirer un avantage politique. D’autres avant lui ont fait de même et c’est même une des traditions les mieux ancrées dans les couloirs du pouvoir que l’organisation de ces voyages politico-industriels où le Président emmène quelques dizaines de grands patrons pour signer des contrats. La presse d’opposition s’en moque en général, soulignant chaque fois que possible l’écart entre les déclarations d’intention et la réalité des contrats effectivement signés. Mais il arrive qu’ils aboutissent. Et c’est alors que la différence entre l’Allemagne et la France apparaît.Que peuvent en effet demander les autorités politiques des pays clients au Président de la République ? des remises de prix ? Ce n’est pas de leur compétence. Ils recherchent des avantages politiques, des investissements chez eux et des transferts de technologie. En achetant des Rafales, si elle les achète bien, l’Inde se procurera également des compétences, du savoir-faire qu’elle pourra demain nous opposer. Il en va évidemment tout autrement lorsqu’un industriel indien achète des roulements à bille, des moteurs ou des pièces mécaniques très sophistiquées à un producteur allemand : seuls comptent alors les caractéristiques, les performances et le rapport qualité-prix. Dit autrement, la spécialisation de l’Allemagne la protège mieux de la concurrence des pays émergents.Un hinterland industrielToutes ces caractéristiques que je viens de décrire sont anciennes, datent, pour certaines, du début de l’industrialisation en Allemagne, pour d’autres de l’immédiat après-guerre lorsqu’il a fallu créer des institutions financières pour distribuer les fonds du plan Marshall. Les mesures Schröder n’ont donc pas grand chose à voir avec cela. Les mini-jobs dont on parle tant, ces emplois qui permettent de gagner 400€ en travaillant à temps partiel exonéré de cotisations sociales et d’impôts qui ont tant fait pour améliorer les statistiques du chômage outre-Rhin et augmenter le nombre de travailleurs pauvres, sont surtout utilisés dans les activités de service : restauration rapide, services aux personnes, commerce de détail… On en trouve beaucoup moins dans les entreprises industrielles qui ont besoin d’un personnel qualifié.Ce qui est nouveau, et probablement décisif pour l’avenir de l’industrie allemande, est la création, ces dix dernières années d’un véritable hinterland, d’un arrière pays industriel dans les ex pays socialistes, la Pologne, la Hongrie, la Slovaquie et, surtout, la Tchéquie. Les industriels allemands ont investi massivement dans ces pays, surtout l’industrie automobile qui voyait ses marges diminuer et qui souffrait d’un manque de flexibilité lié au développement d’une automatisation conçue pour réduire le coût du travail.On en parlait la semaine dernière, à propos de la Chine, l’automatisation a de nombreuses vertus, elle améliore la productivité mais elle rend plus difficile les changements rapides de gammes de production. En créant des usines dans les ex-pays de l’Est, les Allemands ont trouvé des pays avec des traditions et un environnement favorable, une population éduquée, une tradition industrielle, un enseignement professionnel de qualité que le communisme n’avait pas détruit. Et, bien sûr, une main d’œuvre bien meilleur marché et ceci à quelques heures de route de ses grands centres de production. Il ne faut pas plus de 5 heures de transport par la route pour aller de Prague au cœur de l’Allemagne. Ce n’est pas plus loin que Paris de Lyon.Les industriels qui se sont installés en nombre dans ces pays de l’Est, sont allés chercher des salaires plus faibles mais aussi une plus grande flexibilité. Flexibilité dans la production comme je le disais à l’instant avec des usines moins automatisées, mais aussi flexibilité salariale. Il est bien plus facile de faire varier, à la hausse ou à la baisse, le coût du travail dans ces pays qu’en Allemagne ou en France. Parce qu’il est plus facile de licencier le personnel quand la charge de travail diminue, mais aussi parce que la structure des salaires s’y prête qui associe un fixe et des primes ou des bonus dont le montant varie en fonction de l’activité. Si celle-ci diminue, la masse salariale suit…Ces investissements dans les ex pays socialistes sont en train de modifier profondément la géographie économique de l’Europe. Il ne s’agit pas en effet de délocalisations éphémères comme celles que pratiquent les industriels à la recherche de coûts salariaux toujours plus faibles, comme Nike qui quitte un pays lorsqu’il trouve mieux ailleurs, il ne s’agit pas non plus de délocalisations pour conquérir un marché, comme lorsque Carrefour s’installe en Chine pour vendre aux consommateurs chinois, il s’agit vraiment de la constitution d’une immense zone industrielle à l’est de l’Europe. Les Allemands sont là pour rester. En témoignent leurs investissements en R&D dans ces pays qui vont leur apporter dans la durée ce qui risque de rapidement leur manquer en Allemagne : une main d’œuvre abondante et motivée (Kampik, Dachs, The Innovative Performance of German Multinationals Abroad). Un modèle allemand ?On connaît les problèmes démographiques de l’Allemagne. Ce n’est pas la seule difficulté qui menace à moyen terme l’économie allemande. Il en est une autre directement liée à ces mesures prises par Gerhard Schröder dont on nous vante aujourd’hui les mérites de ce coté ci du Rhin : le désengagement des salariés allemands. Un récent sondage de Gallup, l’institut américain, révélait que 13% seulement des Allemands étaient engagés dans leur travail. 20% de la population est activement désengagée et le reste n’est ni l’un ni l’autre. Cela se traduit par un absentéisme élevé que Gallup a évalué à 247€ par salarié, et probablement par une diminution de la productivité et une dégradation de la qualité. D’autres études soulignent les effets pervers des mii-jobs introduits par Schröder qui éloignent du marché du travail des gens qui se contentent de ce salaire d’appoint plutôt que de chercher un emploi.S’il convient de regarder ce qui se passe en Allemagne, s’il est pertinent de s’en inspirer ce n’est pas forcément en allant chercher du coté de mesures dont la principale vertu aux yeux de ceux qui nous les proposent est d’apporter de l’eau au moulin du Medef. Le montant des salaires et des cotisations sociales sont une réalité incontournables. Et si l’Allemagne nous donne un exemple, c’est bien lorsqu’elle nous montre que l’on peut rester compétitif avec un coût du travail élevé pour peu que l’on construise une économie et une offre industrielle adaptées. C’est ce à quoi devraient s’attacher nos prochains gouvernements.
Bernard GirardUne grève moderneLe 26/12/2011Pour l’écouterLa grève dans les aéroportsDepuis une dizaine de jours, aucun journal radio ou télé ne s’ouvre qui ne nous donne des informations sur la grève des personnels de sûreté des aéroports. On a vu le gouvernement prendre fait et cause pour les usagers obligés de faire de longues queues jusqu’à envoyer des policiers et des gendarmes les remplacer, geste extrême qui amènerait, dans une entreprise privée, le patron qui oserait cela devant les tribunaux.On comprend les intentions du gouvernement : jouer de l’agacement que suscite ce genre de grève à la veille de Noël, faire preuve de fermeté à la veille d’une échéance électorale et mettre en difficulté son adversaire socialiste partagé entre le soutien aux grévistes et le souci des usagers. Commet-il une erreur ? ce n’est pas impossible, mais ce n’est pas certain. La recette a été suffisamment souvent éprouvée pour qu’on ne puisse exclure qu’elle marche une nouvelle fois, tant il est vrai qu’il est pénible de faire la queue dans un aéroport dans l’attente d’une inspection de bagages qui s’éternise…Cette grève qui s’achève avec des accords qui ne donnent pas vraiment satisfaction aux grévistes aura, cependant, été l’occasion de jeter un œil sur une profession que l’on connaît sans la connaître, une profession assez caractéristique des évolutions de ce qu’on appelait hier la classe ouvrière.Des effectifs largement issus de la diversitéUne première remarque frappe quiconque a jeté un regard sur les personnels qui assurent la sécurité dans les aéroports : beaucoup, sinon la majorité des personnels employés dans ces activités de contrôle sont issus de ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui la diversité. Ils sont une bonne illustration de ces nouvelles couches populaires qui occupent les emplois de service, mais aussi les emplois ouvriers. Issus de familles immigrées ou eux-mêmes immigrés, souvent de sexe féminin, plus de 45% de ces agents sont des femmes, ce qui est exceptionnel dans les métiers de la sécurité, ils ont fait des études qui leur ont permis d’acquérir quelques compétences. Mais l’absence de diplômes ou lorsqu’ils en possèdent, ce qui est le cas d’un certain nombre, la possibilité de le faire valoir, et le chômage les ont condamnés à travailler dans ces nouveaux métiers des services qui demandent des compétences, comme on verra, mais qui sont mal considérés, mal payés et soumis à des contrats précaires.Toutes caractéristiques qui pourraient donner mille occasions de faire grève et que l’on retrouve d’ailleurs dans les revendications des grévistes qui réclament une augmentation de 200€ par mois.Cette grève a donc plusieurs dimensions, même si c’est d’abord une grève pour les salaires. Il est vrai qu’ils sont faibles. De l’ordre de 1500€ brut par mois, ce qui représente à peu près 1300€ net pour qui a un emploi à plein temps. Des salaires plus faibles encore, donc, pour ceux qui travaillent à temps partiel, ce qui n’est pas le cas le plus fréquent. Des salaires d’autant plus faible qu’il ne s’agit pas d’emplois de bureau, mais d’emplois postés avec des horaires décalés, du travail de nuit, le samedi et le dimanche. Le contrôle des bagages et des passagers se fait sept jours sur sept, de très tôt le matin à très tard le soir.On dira que ces salaires correspondent à ceux d’emplois sans qualification. Mais est-ce vraiment le cas ?Des métiers qui demandent des compétencesCe sont des métiers qui paraissent demander peu de qualifications, mais comme souvent dans les services, c’est bien plus compliqué que cela. Ces métiers demandent en réalité des qualifications. Elles sont décrites dans la littérature professionnelle, dans les conventions collectives. Il faut, pour ne prendre que cet exemple, un niveau minimal d'anglais permettant de procéder à une réconciliation bagage/passager. Il faut maîtriser l’agacement des passagers, savoir calmer le jeu, maîtriser les outils mis à leur disposition, savoir pratiquer une fouille… De fait, on ne peut exercer ces métiers sans une formation et sans un certificat de qualification professionnelle (CQP) délivré par un centre de formation conventionné par la direction générale de l'aviation civile (DGAC) mais aussi, ce qui est plus rare, un double agrément du ministère de l’intérieur et du ministère de la justice.Ces métiers demandent donc des qualifications réelles et diversifiées puisqu’il y a plusieurs métiers, opérateurs, profileur, chef d’équipe… ce qui explique qu’on ne puisse remplacer au pied levé les grévistes. Les policiers et gendarmes que le ministère de l’intérieur a mobilisés en masse n’ont en rien diminué la longueur des queues : ils ne savent tout simplement pas faire, ils n’ont pas été formés pour.Mais, comme souvent dans le monde des services, il s’agit de qualifications banales, beaucoup de gens savent un peu d’anglais, et les formations techniques, plus rares, sont courtes au plus quelques semaines. Ce qui explique que le turn-over y soit élevé et les rémunérations faibles : des compétences banales ne favorisent pas les salaires élevés.Une structure qui favorise la concurrence et donc les salaires faiblesCe n’est pas la seule raison qui explique des salaires faibles. Il est d’autres salariés aux compétences tout aussi banales qui réussissent à obtenir des salaires plus élevés. Si les salaires sont ici si faibles, c’est que la structure et l’organisation du secteur s’y prêtent. Cette activité qui était autrefois prise en charge par des policiers a été privatisée en 1996 et confiée à des sociétés privées qui se font concurrence, une concurrence d’autant plus vive qu’elles sont nombreuses, une douzaine se partagent le marché des aéroports parisiens, et que leur contrat est remis en cause tous les trois ans. Cette concurrence permanente favorise naturellement le maintien de salaires faibles dans des activités qui sont essentiellement de main d’œuvre. A chaque renouvellement de contrat, un concurrent peur venir avec une solution plus économique. Dans d’autres métiers, cela passerait probablement par des gains de productivité qui réduisent les effectifs mais maintiennent les salaires quand ils ne les augmentent pas. Dans des métiers de main d’œuvre comme ceux de la sécurité, les entreprises qui veulent réduire leurs coûts doivent agir sur la masse salariale. Elle sont d’autant plus incitées à le faire que ce n’est plus une activité en croissance. Le chiffre d’affaires des sociétés spécialisées a diminué de manière significative ces dernières années. Cette diminution est pour une part liée à la baisse du trafic passager. Elle s’est accompagnée d’une diminution des effectifs. Or, l’on sait que ce n’est pas lorsqu’elles licencient que les entreprises sont le plus incitées à accorder des augmentations de salaires. Entre 2003 et 2009, les entreprises spécialisées ont perdu un millier d’emplois. Mais comme cela ne suffisait pas, certaines entreprises ont réduit les rémunérations de leurs personnels. Plusieurs salariés interrogés dans la presse à l’occasion de cette grève ont indiqué que les leurs avaient diminué lorsque la Brinks, l’un des principaux opérateurs, avait repris le contrat d’un précédent prestataire. Voyons comment. Et pour cela il nous faut raconter la manière dont cette grève a commencé à Lyon Satolas.Un métier sous contrôle permanentLa grève a donc commencé le 16 décembre à Lyon, elle s’est rapidement étendue à d’autres aéroports de province et de la région parisienne, à Orly, puis à Roissy.Cette contagion rapide, pas si fréquente dans une profession éclatée entre près de 150 sites (il y a en France 145 aéroports qui reçoivent des passagers) est l’indice du profond mécontentement des personnels qui exercent ce travail. Un mécontentement que l’on peut mesurer à un taux de turn-over très élevé. Cette profession employait en 2009 9800 personnes. La même année, 4350 personnes ont quitté ce métier et 3700 ont été recrutées. Taux de départ : 44%, taux de recrutement : 38%. Peu de professions ont un taux de turn-over aussi élevé. Mais si jusqu’à présent les salariés mécontents se contentaient de donner leur démission, en un mot de voter avec leur pied, ils ont cette fois-ci décidé de se mettre en grève. Pour comprendre pourquoi, il faut revenir au mois de novembre, quelques semaines avant que n’éclate la grève, à l’aéroport de Satolas, dans la banlieue de Lyon.Pendant des années, le contrat de surveillance des passagers était, dans cet aéroport, assuré par Securitas. Puis, en novembre dernier, la Brinks a repris ce contrat. Dans ces cas là, l’entreprise qui emporte le contrat reprend les salariés déjà en place en application de l’article L122-12 du code du travail qui indique que « s'il survient une modification dans la situation juridique de l'employeur, notamment par succession, vente, fusion, transformation du fonds, mise en société, tous les contrats de travail en cours au jour de la modification subsistent entre le nouvel employeur et le personnel de l'entreprise. » Cet article est appliqué dans de nombreux métiers de service, l’informatique, le transport, la gestion des eaux, des ordures… il l’est chaque fois qu’il y a des activités de sous-traitance. Il protège les salariés mais aussi les donneurs d’ordre qui peuvent plus facilement se défaire d’un prestataire qui ne leur convient plus si celui-ci peut se dégager du contrat sans devoir licencier tout son personnel.La Brinks a donc repris les salariés de Securitas, mais elle ne s’est pas contentée de reprendre l’activité, elle l’a réorganisée de manière à en réduire le coût : elle a diminué le nombre d’heures de nuit et demandé aux opérateurs chargés du contrôle d’effectuer également l’accueil, deux mesures qui lui permettaient de réduire la masse salariale et donc de faire une proposition plus avantageuse que celle de Securitas, c’était l’objectif et c’est ce qui lui a permis de gagner la compétition, mais elle l’a fait aux dépens des salariés qui ont du, dés novembre, travailler plus pour gagner moins du fait de la réduction des heures de nuit qui sont, comme on sait, majorées.Lorsque l’on parle de privatisation, on pense en général au transfert de la valeur ajoutée vers les actionnaires, mais il faut, dans ces activités de sous-traitance, aussi, et peut-être surtout, compter avec cette mise en concurrence qui incite les entreprises à réduire leurs coûts, et donc leurs coûts salariaux, pour obtenir les contrats. Au delà des salaires, un contrôle éprouvant…Ces réductions de salaire et augmentation de la charge de travail étaient en soi un motif de mécontentement. Elles se sont compliquées, dans ce métier très particulier qu’est la sûreté dans les aéroports, d’une pression très forte de la hiérarchie, d’une hiérarchie qui a changé avec le renouvellement du contrat : il ne s’agit pas que les salariés relâchent leur attention au risque de laisser passer un terroriste ou quelqu’un qui y ressemble. Les personnels sont en permanence contrôlés, surveillés, comme peu le sont. C’est une autre caractéristique de plusieurs de ces métiers de service que l’on rencontre plus rarement dans l’industrie où les contrôles portent en général plus sur les produits, sur la qualité, que sur les individus.Ce contrôle permanent est éprouvant. Il l’est plus encore lorsque l’on est mécontent et que l’on est tenté de protester contre son employeur en réduisant ses cadences, en pratiquant des formes plus ou moins sauvages de grève perlée.Des salariés mécontents, dont les rémunérations réelles diminuent, dans l’impossibilité de quitter leur emploi vue la montée du chômage, dans l’impossibilité de manifester leur mécontentement en limitant leurs cadences, en permanence soumis au contrôle de leur hiérarchie… il n’en faut pas beaucoup plus pour que la grève, qui n’est pas dans leur tradition de métiers peu syndiqués, paraisse comme la seule solutionEt comme chaque fois qu’il y a grève, les frustrations, les humiliations remontent. Et elles sont nombreuses pour ces salariés qui, travaillant pour des prestataires extérieurs, n’ont pas droit aux services que les aéroports et notamment ADP, Aéroports de Paris, offrent à leur personnel, en matière de restauration, de comité d’entreprise. Autant de détails qui ajoutent au sentiment d’être maltraité et considéré comme des travailleurs de seconde zone.Au delà des salaires, c’est tout un système que ces personnels de sûreté contestent donc. Et si ce mouvement a pris tant d’ampleur, s’il s’est étendu à tant d’aéroports c’est que cette situation est vécue par tous de la même manière. Des usagers pris en otageLe grand argument pour casser cette grève et envoyer des policiers remplacer des grévistes est qu’elle prend en otage les usagers, les passagers qui partent en vacances. C’est bien le cas et c’est l’une des caractéristiques des grèves dans les transports d’affecter directement les usagers qui peuvent, à juste titre, se sentir les otages d’un conflit qui ne les concerne en rien, au moins au premier abord. En réalité, ils sont tout à fait concernés puisqu’ils bénéficient de ce système, la pression sur les prestataires se retrouvant dans les prix des billets. Les taxes que les compagnies aériennes paient aux aéroports pour les dépenses de sécurité et de sûreté varient de 8 à 13€, ce qui n’est pas négligeable sur des billets dont les prix ont, on le sait, beaucoup diminué. Elles seraient sans doute plus élevées de quelques dizaines de centimes si les salaires des personnels chargés de la sûreté étaient plus élevés.Mais revenons aux usagers. Lorsqu’un constructeur automobile fait grève, ses clients peuvent se tourner vers la concurrence. Dans le cas des aéroports, des compagnies de transport public c’est beaucoup plus difficile. Tout simplement parce qu’elles disposent d’une espèce de monopole sur leur activité. Ce qui donne à des salariés qui n’en ont guère d’autre un moyen de pression sur leur employeur mais aussi sur le donneur d’ordre, en l’espèce les aéroports. On a parfois parlé d’égoïsme, on a reproché à ces salariés de ne pas se préoccuper du confort des voyageurs qui partaient en vacances. A-t-on oublié combien ces mêmes passagers peuvent être, à l’occasion, déplaisants avec ces personnels chargés de la sûreté ? mais ce n’est qu’un détail. Revenons aux aéroports.On aura remarqué combien ils sont jusqu’à présent restés discrets. Alors même que ce sont eux qui tiennent la solution. Il leur suffirait de renégocier le contrat de manière à autoriser ces entreprises à augmenter leurs salariés pour qu’elles cèdent. C’est ce qu’ils feraient si l’Etat et les compagnies aériennes les y incitaient. Mais c’est manifestement tout le contraire. Bien loin de pousser les entreprises et les aéroports à négocier, le gouvernement menace les syndicats, casse la grève, envoie des policiers et des gendarmes remplacer les grévistes. Sous couvert de prendre le parti des usagers, il prend en fait celui des aéroports et de ces sociétés de service.Cette attitude pourrait surprendre de la part d’un gouvernement qui n’a de cesse de parler de la classe ouvrière, de chercher à la séduire par tous les moyens. Mais il est vrai qu’il aime une classe ouvrière docile qui travaille plus pour gagner plus sans protester, qui ne se met pas en grève, qui achète français et vote comme il faut, c’est-à-dire à droite… Ce n’est pas vraiment une surprise, c’est juste le rappel d’une évidence : la droite n’a jamais aimé les combats ouvriers et s’est toujours trouvée, dans les luttes sociales, du coté du patronat. Est-ce que ce rappel aura un effet sur la campagne ? est-ce que cela empêchera Nicolas Sarkozy de vanter les valeurs ouvrières le temps d’un discours ? ce n’est même pas certain tant la gauche s’est montrée discrète. Sans doute François Hollande a-t-il critiqué la gestion « à coups de menton » de la grève et l’envoi de policiers dans les aéroports, mais on aurait aimé qu’il profite de cette crise pour nous dire s’il envisage de revoir une organisation des services dans les aéroports qui est, disons pour rester mesuré, perfectible.Il ne l’a pas fait. C’est dommage. Ce l’est d’autant plus que l’on peut deviner au travers de ce conflit ce qui frappe et fruste beaucoup de salarié : l’augmentation des contrôles sur leur travail, la pression sur les effectifs et les salaires, l’instabilité de la hiérarchie, des procédures, des stratégies.Si la gauche voulait vraiment susciter un désir chez les électeurs il faudrait qu’elle leur donne le sentiment qu’avec elle les choses peuvent vraiment changer de manière concrète. Les employés des société de sûreté ne demandent pas autre chose : quelques dizaines d’euros de plus par mois, de la considération et des motifs de conserver des emplois qu’ils fuient lorsqu’ils ne font pas grève.
Fezz Vol. 1 NO. 12 The Monsters Playlist:Halloween Scream, The MeteorsAt The House Of Frankenstein, Big Bee KornegayThe Monster, Bobby PleaseVampira, Bobby BareThe blob, five blobsThe Cat, Rod WillisDinner with Dracula, John ZacherleDo the Zombie, SymbolsMr. Ghost Goes to Town, The Five Jones BoysDon't Meet Mr Frankenstein, Carlos Casal Jr.Swamp Gal, Tommy BellWerewolf, Gary Warren Mad House Jump, The DaylightersThe Mummy's Bracelet, Lee RossWombie Zombie, Billy TaylorVoodoo Voodoo, LaVern BakerGraveyard Rock, Tarantula GoulGravedigger, Mass TemperThe Witch, The SonicsThere's A Ghost In My House, R Dean TaylorDead, Cresa WatsonWitch Queen Of New Orleans, RedboneGraveyard, Leroy BowmanThe Gila Monster, Joe JohnsonNightmare Hop, Earl PattersonWatusi Zombie, Jan DavisYou Can Get Him Frankenstein, The Castle KingsRockin' In The Graveyard, Jackie MorningstarKing of Monsters, Man... or Astro-Man?Werewolves On Wheels, The Mercury FourJekyll And Hyde, Jim BurgettShockmonster Stomp, The Ghastly OnesI Was A Teenage Werewolf, The CrampsWolfman, Bobby Fuller FourWolfman, The Dynotones Halloween, The MisfitsGraveyard Queen, Zombie Ghost TrainSkeleton Swamp, Coffin NailVampires Curse, Koffin KatsDaddies Makin' Monsters, Demented Are GoLeather Zombie, Phantom RockersVampiresa Mujer, Jonathan RichmanNight of the Vampire, Roky Erickson and the Explosives
Quand on est amoureuxTous les chanteurs ont chanté l'amour,à leur façon,Brassens, disait; « parlez moi d'amour, je vous fous mon poing sur la gueule.Brel chantait « ne me quitte pas ».Et je ne vous parle pas de Claude François, Sheila ou Joe Dassin.Pour certains d'entre eux, c’était même leur fond de commerceLa mienne dit: »qu'est ce qu'on est con quand on est amoureux ».Bonne écoute.Yannick Foll Quand on est amoureux Paroles musiques Yannick Foll Tous droits réservésRefrain : Lam mi lam Qu’est ce qu’on est con quand on est amoureuxRem miQu’est ce qu’on est con, qu’est ce qu’on est con Rem lam Qu’est ce qu’on est con quand on est amoureuxMi lamMais que c’est bon d’être con non de nonDo Mi On boit dans le verre de sa bien aiméeDo MiEn se disant « je saurai ce qu’elle pense »Rem LamOn boit dans le verre de sa bien aimée Mi Lam L’amour c’est avant tout, se rassurerTu déjeunes les yeux dans les yeux La confiture à coté des tartines Tu déjeunes les yeux, tu déjeunes les yeux Tu perds tes moyens, mais le cœur joyeux On pense à son amour toute la journéeCe qu’on va dire quand elle va appeler Le combiné à peine décroché On ne bafouille que des mots insensés On l’appelle, mon p’tit chou au chocolat Toute la panoplie, de mots un peu gagaOn l’appelle mon p’tit chou au chocolatLe cœur en sucre, le cerveau en nougatOn n’ craint pas, d’effeuiller la margueriteRisquant de se, choper une sinusiteOn ne craint pas, d’effeuiller la margueriteMême si des fleurs on est très allergique Ça n’gène plus, de rouler sur le gazon D’avoir de nombreux plis au pantalonÇa n’ gène plus, de rouler sur le gazonL’amour vous remet, souvent en questionTous les prétextes sont bons pour s’embrasserLe nez dans le, grand plat de spaghetti La dernière pâte, étant presque engloutieLes lèvres se rejoignent, finissent en baiser 13/10/2008
Michael McCord, President, MicroInsurance Centre, LLC talks about the factors that push the growth of microinsurance, the evolution of products and the biggest challenge in microinsurance.
Stuart Rutherford, co-author of “Portfolios of the Poor”, talks about the inspiration for the research on financial diaries that was the foundation of the book. Stuart is the founder of SafeSave Bangladesh, an organization that provides reliable basic banking services, profitably, to poor men, women, and children in Dhaka. He became interested in how poor people manage their lives and their money as a result of working in developing countries as an architect and then for NGOs. From this perspective he became involved in microfinance as a practitioner (in Bangladesh), teacher, consultant, and writer. He is the author of The Poor and Their Money (Oxford University Press, 2000) and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester, UK. He lives in Japan.
Bob Christen, director of the Financial Services for the Poor initiative at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, introduces the groundbreaking book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day. The authors of the book recorded and analyzed the financial diaries of a group of households in Bangladesh, India and South Africa.
Richard Rosenberg, consultant to CGAP, discusses how the Compartamos IPO affected investors and competitors, and whether the experience was a singular event or is likely to be repeated.
Carlos Danel, Co-CEO and founder of Compartamos, speaks about the necessary stepping stones for mobilizing savings and shares his views on the lessons from the IPO of Compartamos.
Richard L. Meyer is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University with experience in microfinance, rural financial markets and rural nonfarm and microenterprises in developing countries. He has worked extensively on international projects, including long-term residence in Brazil and Thailand, where he served as Chief of Party for USAID projects. Richard Meyer speaks about challenges and implementation practices of agricultural finance.
Richard L. Meyer is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University with experience in microfinance, rural financial markets and rural nonfarm and microenterprises in developing countries. He has worked extensively on international projects, including long-term residence in Brazil and Thailand, where he served as Chief of Party for USAID projects. Richard Meyer speaks about challenges and implementation practices of agricultural finance.
Roshaneh Zafar, Managing Director of Kashf Foundation, Pakistan speaks about the implementation of the deposit mobilization strategy that Kashf has put into place. She explains the role of the technology in microfinance and how Kashf has employed technological innovations for the benefit of their clients.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
