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FAQs
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As a startup founder of three years our legal housekeeping is a bit of mess, how can I best setup a system to organize and track
As a startup founder of three years myself, I can relate to how legal housekeeping can be messy. Once a year, I have our own lawyers go through and do an audit of all of our legal paperwork (which costs a couple thousand dollars to be extremely thorough, but it’s worth it). Luckily, there are now many ways to easily manage and track all of your legal, financial, and HR documents via third-party sites that specialize in these management proceedings. I wrote a blog post about this awhile back titled “5 Ways to Save Time Dealing With Documents” which highlights certain sites that can be very beneficial depending on what paperwork you’d like to track or manage. They are as follows:1. GroupDocsGroupDocs is a new, comprehensive online service for document creation and management. It has multiple features, including a viewer for reading documents in your browser, an electronic signature service, an online document converter, a document assembly service, a feature for comparing different versions of a document, and an annotation feature. An individual plan is $10 per month for limited storage and 500 documents, while a group plan for up to 9 people is $19 per user per month. Based on the number of features and pricing, GroupDoc is a good-value purchase for a small business. As you’ll see below, GroupDocs can be cheaper than a service that offers only one such feature.2. signNowWhen you’re closing a deal and need to get documents signed, the last thing you need is a slow turnaround due to fax machine problems or the postal service. The solution is to use an electronic signature service such as signNow, which is one of the most popular e-signature companies in the world. This service allows you to email your documents to the person whose signature you need. Next, the recipient undergoes a simply e-signing process, and then signNow alerts you when the process is completed. Finally, signNow electronically stores the documents, which are accessible at any time. As a result, you can easily track the progress of the signature process and create an audit trail of your documents. The “Professional” plan is recommended for sole proprietors and freelancers, and costs $180 per year ($15 per month) for up to 50 requested signatures per month. The “Workgroup” plan is geared towards teams and businesses, and it costs $240 per user per year ($20 per month per user), for unlimited requested signatures.3. signNowsignNow is another e-signature service. Similar to signNow, signNow allows you to upload a PDF file, MS Word file or web application document. Next, you can edit the document, such as by adding initials boxes or tabs, and then email them out for signatures. Once recipients e-sign the document, signNow notifies you and archives the document. signNow offers low rates for these services: a 1-person annual plan with unlimited document sending costs $11 per month. An annual plan for 10 senders with unlimited document sending costs only $39 per month.4. ExariExari is a document assembly and contract management service that assists in automating high-volume business documents, such as sales agreements or NDAs. First, the document assembly service allows authors to create automated document templates. No technical knowledge is required; most authors are business analysts and lawyers. Authors have a variety of options for customizing documents, such as fill-in-the-blank fields, optional clauses, and dynamic updating of topic headings. They also can add questions that the end user must answer. Once you send out the document, the user answers the questionnaire, and Exari uses that data to customize the document. Next, the contract management feature allows you to store and track both the templates and the signed documents. Pricing is based on the size and scope of your planned implementation, so visit their website for more information.5. FillanyPDFIt’s a hassle having to print out PDF forms in order to complete them. Fortunately, FillanyPDF is a service that allows you to edit, fill out and send any PDFs, while entirely online. This “Fill & Sign” plan costs $5 per month, or $50 per year. If you subscribe to the “Professional” plan, you can also create fillable PDFs using your own documents. With this service, any PDF, JPG or GIF file becomes fillable when you upload it to the site. You can modify a form using white-out, redaction and drawing tools. Then, you can email a link to your users, who can fill out and e-sign your form on the website. FillanyPDF also allows you to track who filled out your forms, and no downloads are necessary to access these services. The “Professional” plan costs $49 per month, or $490 per year.Switching firms can be a hassle. As a former startup attorney, I have a bit of advice about finding the right attorney for your business: it’s best to focus on the specific attorney you’ll be working with. He or she should have a solid understanding of the ins and outs of your business industry, a deep knowledge of the legal issues your startup may face, and previous work experience with startups to ensure a quality and efficient work product. This is absolutely key when matching our startup clients at UpCounsel to attorneys on our platform who can perform their legal work and hash out their legal projects in a timely manner. We also allow clients to store any and all of their legal documents directly on UpCounsel so they don’t have to go searching in alternative places for the correct paperwork. It’s proven to be a free and lightweight way to store legal documents that our clients love. Here's what it looks like:As I’ve mentioned, it’s more important to find the right attorney as opposed to the right law firm. And seeing as you’re a startup, our own startup clients typically save an average of 50-60% on their legal work, since the attorneys don't include overhead fees (a.k.a. the fees included for doing business with the firm itself) in their invoices.Hope this gives you a deeper look into what other sites and services are out there. If you have any questions or would like more information on how best to handle your legal housekeeping/ attorney matters, feel free to signNow out to me directly. As a former startup attorney at Latham & Watkins, I’d be happy to give you some guidance.
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What culture shocks can a South Indian face in North India?
I am a South Indian doctor in Delhi…and sometimes I get these weird questions that surprise me.I was once inserting a cannula into a patient’s vein and at that moment of pain the patient asked me.. ‘you are not from Delhi are you?’ I told her I am from Chennai.. she asked me ‘are you married? What does sahib do?’ I was a little taken aback and asked her why she thought I was married.. ‘coz you are wearing a bindi’ she replied…I smiled at her.. thought she was ignorant and told her I am single…. A few days later one of my consultants asked me ‘you are from the south right..wearing a bindi must be compulsory there’. My reply ‘no mam it isn't compulsory.. we wear it if we like to.’…. And when someone asked me ‘what is the significance of wearing a bindi?’ all I could reply was ‘I am not exactly sure but one thing I can tell you is it doesn't mean I am married :P’ while everyone from a toddler to a octagenerian wears a bindi in the south and not wearing it makes us feel a little weird, the fact that it labels you as being married in the north is something that makes me go ‘enna kodumai sir idu’.When I came to Delhi I was wearing a chain, earrings and finger rings of gold.. one thing that I was advised ‘remove your jewellery else someone will snatch it and remove it for you’ I am not saying such crimes don't happen in the south.. but spotting women who actually wear gold chains is a rarity.. in comparison to the mota mota jewellery that we wear.How can you people live on rice??? When northies live on a staple diet of rotis and aaloo ki sabzi or paneer.. I like rice, you like rotis..so what?This probably doesn't apply to all north Indians but 4–5 people have also asked me this..They:so you are from chennai huh? You speak malayalam right.Me: no I am Tamil.. heard of ‘Tamil’Nadu??They: so it is different from kannad and Telugu also??Me: yes yes totallyThey: oh you are from Jayalalitha’s place?? Jallikattu?? Marina beach? Rajnikanth?Me: thank god yes you finally got it… marina beach is our pride and you can always find Jayalalitha there :PThe dressing and make up that people do here is pretty much diverse from the south.. not that I am judging or anything. That's just you, this is just me.. as long as you don't judge me for not being like you, it's fine… but how often do you see a woman with labour pains walk into the labour room in a government hospital with make up at 3.30AM in the south? Never… and it is a common sight here. And I thought it happened only in Hindi serials :PPS. The above mentioned facts are based on personal experiences and not any generalized comments on north Indians. One more thing that also shocks me is the amiability of the people in the north. They can talk to anyone at anytime without any hesitation and make them feel warm. Kudos to that! :)
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What actually happens in a UPSC interview?
I have had the opportunity of giving 'THE UPSC INTERVIEW' twice, one in 2016 and other in 2017. Both the time I had the same board headed by former Air Marshal Ajit Bhonsale.I was awarded pretty good scores both the times, 184 (in 2016) and 187 (in 2017) :)Before I answer what happens in UPSC interview, let me break some myths.MYTHSInterview questions are not like the whatsapp forwards you recieve. Example : How to throw egg from a building without breaking it?Interview is not a system of rejection or acceptance. It is just a part of whole process , your written marks are added in your interview score to determine your rank. So you may have high written score but low interview marks can mar your chances of rank and vice versa.Interview is not a test of your knowledge. Knowledge has already been tested in written examination. Interview is test of your personality and confidence. Obviously questions are asked to test your confidence but if you don't know the answer you can say “I don't know sir/ma'am” confidently instead of bluffing. You have to be truely honest.Some interview boards are dreaded due to myth that they give low marks but I think every board has its range of marks( Bhonsale Sir board is dreaded but he awarded me good marks both the times). It is just that every board chairman has probably different parameters and ways of testing you. For example : Ajit Bhonsale sir will make you really comfortable but sometimes when you become very comfortable you let yourself loose and commit blunders. On other hand B.S. Bassi sir is very strict ( I have heard) , puts in you in spot for the first few minutes. His strategy is maybe to check you during tough times.UPSC interview is not like a roadies audition. All the members of the board are highly cordial.BEFORE UPSC INTERVIEWNight before the interview is really tough. There are butterflies in your stomach. There is soo much going on in your head that sleeping becomes a task.On the day of interview it becomes quite a task for us girls because we have to tie a saree. My mom was with me so she helped me with that but handling the saree gracefully is your task. I want to tell you that I wore the same green colour saree for both my interviews because after my first interview I thought it was lucky for me :)2016 interview2017 interview ( 5 kg lighter!!)Once you signNow UPSC office on Shahjahan road , you are made to stand in a line outside the gate for verification by showing summon letters. For me this moment for the first time was in 2016 and it was really mesmerizing. I was like Aamir Khan ’s character in “3idiots” movie where he couldnt stop smiling because it felt like a dream.After all verification candidates are made to sit in a room for document verification. There are 6 tables with 6 candidates each. All the 6 candidates on one table go to same interview board. After document checking candidates are moved to a central hall. Here we are finally told which board we are assigned.Candidates are called one by one for the interview and headed towards respective members 's rooms. A candidate is called 5 minutes before the previous candidates 's interview is over. So you are made to sit outside the interview room. This is the most unnerving moment. My strategy used to be: to sit and gaze around so that I don't think about the impending interview and calming myself in the process. And finally after few minutes the peon asks you to GO INSIDE!!DURING THE INTERVIEWHere I will narrate my 2017 CSE interview held on 24 th April 2018:I entered the room I wished everyone good afternoon ( it was around 1:30 pm ). I was asked to take seat. The interview board had chairman (Air Marshal Ajit Bhonsale Sir in my case) and 4 other members seated around a table. There was a member seating very close to me and watching my every action, most probably he was psychoanalysist or something like that.So finally the interview started :CHAIRMANChairman : Shilpa sit down. Feel comfortable. Take a deep breath. I see a young and smart lady in front of me who has a very good academic background. Are you nervous?Me: No sir ( I smiled)CHAIRMAN : Ok then we will start with the interview.Which areas you are expecting that we would ask from DAF ( detailed application form , it is like a CV which contains information about you, your qualification, your hobbies etc).Me: Sir about my graduation i.e. BDS , my birthplace Chandigarh and hobbiesChairman : What do you derive from making greeting cards? ( Apart from reading , teaching/ mentoring , I mentioned “making handmade greeting cards” as my hobby in DAF)Me: Sir, it is a form of creative expression for me which gives me immense pleasure.Chairman : Ok shilpa.MEMBER 1M1 : What are your views on death sentence for rape accused in case victim is below 12 years? Accused are generally known to victim in cases of child abuse cases.Me : Sir ,you are right. NCRB records state that in child sexual abuse cases 94% of accused are known to victim. This may lead to non reporting or victim turning hostile due to pressure from family.Secondly, death penalty is not a deterrent. It has been proven from many reports.Thirdly , now rape and murder have same punishment so now the rapist will not leave his victim alive .(M1 : good point Dr. Shilpa)M1 : Have you heard about euthanasia? What is the recent SC judgement.Me: Euthanasia in common terms means mercy killing. It is of two types : active and passive euthanasia. Recently SC has allowed passive euthanasia in case patient is in permanent vegetative state.M1: Who decides it is time for euthanasia?Me: Sir , It consists of three layered mechanism . A mechanism for living will has been given which is accessed by the doctor. If he feels that there is need for go ahead the permission is send to a special medical board which consists of four specialists. After approval it is forwarded to district collector.M1: What is living will?Me: It is a directive by a patient that in due course of his treatment if stops responding to treatment or is in permanent vegetative state he be considered for passive euthanasia.MEMBER 2M2 : Comment on our relations with our neighbours with respect to Bangladesh , Nepal.Me: Sir , Neighbourhood first policy has been major component of our foreign policy.Good relations with Bangladesh for example recently land boundary agreement was signed very amicably. There is just one irritant in form of teesta water treaty.Nepal we have historical and cultural ties. 'BETI AND ROTI' ka rishta. A buffer state. But due to unprecedented foray of China into south asia and Nepal playing China card due to its domestic compulsions , relations have taken toll right now.( I wanted to summarize but M2 said ok shilpa fine)M2 : Chinese president XI Xingping and PM modi will be meeting recently. Where?ME: Sir there will be an informal meeting in City of Wuhan , China. Here wide array of issues will be discussed.M2 : China is saying it will be sharing data on satluj river. What is that?ME: Sir basically hydrological data. Water levels and dams to be constructed.M2: Sociolgists are better administrators. Why? (Sociology is my optional subject)ME: Sir, it is basically study of social groups , social institutions and their dynamics. And as civil servant you are basically dealing with these institutions and groups. For eg : as a sociologist one knows laws decide where society SHOULD GO but Societal norms decide where society actually GOES. It serves a great value as a civil servant.MEMBER 3M3 : Dr. Bhatti you were talking about China right now. How are we same ?How does it poses a danger how India is responding? Can we learn something from China?( it was a long question so I broke it into parts)Me: China and India are same with respect to thriving economies. China is second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP and India is 7th.Both are populous nations with huge human capital potential.Dangers : China 's unprecedented foray into South Asia. Increasing footprint in Indian ocean.Learn from China: China has emerged as workshop of world. Its manufacturing sectors contributes around 34% to its GDP where India its just 17% ( Member said good Dr.Bhatti)MEMBER 4M4 : Social media is turning a place for spreading wrong news and all ( long lecture) . How to address this?Me: Sir in the post truth era social media is turning into menance where fake news are being spread. (M4 interuppts)M4 : You used word post truth. Very interesting word. What is that?Me: Sir it is an era where facts are considered less and beliefs and emotions shape the public opinion.M4 : Very good Shilpa. Continue with your answer. How to address?Me: Sir we can address first at legal level. For eg : EU has .......( M4 interuppts.)M4: Shilpa talk at a more local level. Like you are Chandigarh DC.Me: Sir first we can use social media itself. These days every administration has official twitter , FB accounts. From this we can give correct info n allay fears.Secondly in Chandigarh during Ram Rahim case SMS were sent as precaution. We can use this platformThirdly , involving civil society to create awareness to not accept any news at face value before confirming it from standard source.M4 : Did you choose Medical field by choice ? You are no longer pursuing it?Me: Sir , Civil services was always on my mind but idea wasn't very concrete at that time. I choose medical field because of my love for science and I have always performed good in academics.Also while working as a dentist I realized that civil services gives much larger platform to bring a change plus job diversity it offers is unparallelled.CHAIRMANCHAIRMAN : Tell me where woman bureaucrats or officers in general can be of great help?Me : Sir , in police administration for example if the cutting edge officers or bureaucrats in general are woman we can make our police services more gender sensitive.Chairman : yes ok. Continue.Me: Sir I cant think of other areas right now.(Chairman smiled and said ok)CHAIRMAN : Ok Shilpa tell me one last question before we go for lunch. You have heard about tussle between delhi chief secretary and chief minister?Me: yes sir.CHAIRMAN : So now bureaucrats blame its ministers who hamper work and politician blame bureaucrats. What to do?Me: Sir the permanent executive and the elected executive has work in tandem.CHAIRMAN : Yes tell me solution?Me: Following SOP and due process of law.Secondly, Sir transperant administration. Egovernance to cut down bureaucratic red tapism and also ensuring the executive is pro active in various people centric schemes or policies.Thirdly , we can have informal meetings in form of ‘chintin shivirs' or organising sports events for breaking the ice and acting as confidence building measures.CHAIRMAN : Ok Shilpa your interview is over. So now you will go back to Chandigarh or stay back.Me: Sir I will stay back for medical and leave on 26th.Chairman : Ok. Thank you Shilpa.Me: Thank you Sir. ( I thanked other member too)Interview lasted around 25 minutes. Members were extremely cordial and I had a feeling that it went well.And I got a good score of 187 :) I was able to secure 712 rank UPSC CSE 2017 and currently Iam preparing for rank improvement :)I hope this answer conveyed what happens in UPSC interview :)
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What is it like for a foreigner living in Tallinn?
(I started to answer a very short answer and ended up with a long entry. I hope you find it useful.)As Richard Tuisk said, it depends a lot on where you are from. However, let me tell you what my experience has been so far in Estonia, what I think it is good and what I would see as a downside of living here. Of course, I need to qualify my answer by saying that I am Latin American, but also have lived in four other countries (including the US where I went to college).A quick introduction: Estonia is a small country located in the Baltic Sea next to Russia and Latvia and very close to Finland. It is part of the European Union. The area of the country is roughly the same as Switzerland or as Maryland and Massachussets combined. There is about 1.3 million people living here which means it is not densely populated. The country is essentially flat, except in the south where you find the highest point at 318 meters (1043 ft). The main city and where I live in is Tallinn. The population is about 400,000 people. Tartu is the second city with about 100,000 people and all the rest of towns are smaller than that.Immigration systemIf you are European, moving here is no problem as you enjoy all the benefits of any country within the European Union. If you are not European, the main reasons people immigrate here is to work which would guarantee a working visa or if you are married to an Estonian citizen which allows you to apply for a visa as long as you have enough funds to live here.Overall, the process to get a short-term visa is straight forward. Obtaining a long-term visa is more complicated as you have to speak the language at a relatively high level. Obtaining a citizenship requires that you give up your own citizenship.JobsAlthough Estonia suffered also during the 2008 crisis, there is enough jobs in areas of business and technology for people to move here. One of the problems Estonia faces is that it does not have enough people to fill all jobs in IT areas as I hear.There is a few big companies who recruit people from abroad, but if you don't speak the local language, your opportunities are reduced to the IT area (I work for Skype which originated here in Estonia which was acquired by Microsoft in 2011). You can see a list of notable companies here: List of companies of EstoniaSocial interactionEstonians tend to be reserved in comparison to other Europeans. I suggest to foreigners who come here to be aware of differences so they are not taken by surprise. Some examples of faux pas I have encountered:Using smalltalk in a conversation.Saying good morning when coming to office or good bye when leaving.Smiling with no reason (I have to accept that this could be awkward in Northern Europe and some parts of the US, but it is totally normal in Mediterranean or Latin American environments).Being noisy. People love their quiet here.However, it is totally Ok to try to make a conversation in English especially with young people. I am learning Estonian and try to use the language when I can, but in some occasions (say, at the pharmacy), I need to switch to English and have never found anyone being annoyed by that.The exception to all of this is if you meet young people. They tend to be more open and curious (especially women). I am speaking about more casual environments such as a cafe or a restaurant, but a bit less at work. Another obvious exception is if you are in a touristy area (such as the Old Town in Tallinn), but this should go without saying.It is totally Ok to be in a group of people and be totally silent. For example, you can have lunch or share a cab with Estonians when no one is speaking, but there is no awkwardness on it. Another thing is that people do not demonstrate much through their expressions which is one of the difficult things to deal with for me. Remember, I come from a country where you smile or frown or show your teeth if you want someone to understand you clearly.When having a conversation with an Estonian, you should say what you mean and mean what you say (remember what I said about smalltalk?). For example, if you ask "how are you?" to an Estonian, do it only if (a) you really want to know how the other person is, and (b) don't ask it if you don't know the person well. I value that Estonians take your word at face value and you should do the same with them.One word of advice is that Estonians can be very critical of others, but they are mainly critical of themselves. Someone told me once that complaining is a national sport, and I have to agree with that. In other words, when they tell you that something is truly bad here in this country, you have to take it with a grain of salt.Because of this, you should also expect that people are straight forward with you. In some cases, this borders on rudeness if I measure by my home country's standards, but here is totally Ok. I have seen a few foreigners getting shocked by that, but you get used to it. In other words, they are not politically correct (this I like very much).Also, because people are economical with the language, you shouldn't expect what I would call, a "warm" communication most of the time. As a latin person, I need to say and hear things on a beautiful way, but this doesn't happen here much. It is different when you start to get to know locals.Which brings me to the last point. It takes a while before you break the ice with an Estonian, but it is worth waiting. I have had the chance to establish a closer link with some locals outside my wife's family and I find an honesty and sincerity that I haven't seen in other places. If you get to that point, congratulations, as you have made it through this journey. By this time, you should also be an expert on sharing saunas with people you don't know (and yes, naked) and have had your share of vodka.Quality of life, services, infrastructureWhen compared to other places where I have lived, I have to say that Estonia still doesn't signNow the level of living in Germany or the US, but it is getting closer by the day. However, I would say that Estonia is already at the level that I would call it first-world country in most aspects.Infrastructure and services need some improvement, but they provide the minimum level of service. For example, if you don't have a car, you can use public transportation everywhere even if buses, trains or trams are sometimes old. Roads in Tallinn are Ok, even if you find potholes in some places. Services such as schools and hospitals are public which means that there is always a waiting list. If you need to visit a specialist doctor, you have to wait. On the other hand, the wait is not as bad as in third-world countries (like where I come from). Also, those services are basically free. The downside is that there is almost no private service, and even the ones there are rely partially on the public health system for some aspects.I have had two children born here and had no complaints about the process. In fact, I felt that everything was very professional and that they always try to do their best. However, when I spoke with Estonians, some of them were very surprised that I spoke highly of the hospital system. I guess it's up to my personal point of view in this case.Taxes are low. Personal income tax is 21% flat for everyone. If you live here and your visa allows it, you can create your own start-up in no time which is prevalent among young people in IT.By the way, unemployment was at 8% at the end of Q3 in 2013. I am no economist, but I understand that this is still considered high. However, it came down from 10.2% at the end of 2012.Food, shoppingEstonia has the typical supermarkets like any other European country. There is also local markets, but you probably need to speak Estonian or Russian. Typical food you find are potatoes, wheat-like grains, oats and so on. Pork meat and fish are eaten often here, but beef is not yet too common. Vegetables and fruits tend to be expensive. I miss having international food though. There is one supermarket in town (Stockmann) that carries some international products, but it is very expensive. I was used to visiting Oriental-type shops in Ireland and Germany, but there is none here that I know of.There is a few shopping centres, but the variety is not wide. I am in favor of buying local to support businesses here, but in many cases, we end up buying from abroad because of the lack of options or because we would have to wait for too long. For example, my wife and I love movies (yeah, still buying old-fashioned DVDs), but there is no shop that fills our expectations. Because of that, we buy everything from Amazon.ActivitiesIf you love nature, you are in luck. There is a lot of natural areas in the country and they are a short drive away. There is plenty of sea shores, forests, rivers and lakes. In the Summer you can do hiking, camping, canoeing and you can add cross country skiing in the Winter. Estonians love nature in general.If you are a city person (like myself), then that's another story. There is a few theatres, cinemas, galleries and so on, but everything is limited. Tallinn itself has the most interesting activities in the center. There is plenty of good restaurants though.Cinemas show the popular movies like everywhere else and you can find some artsy type of cinemas for alternative movies. No movie is dubbed here, but they usually carry subtitles in both Estonian and Russian.What is impressive about this countryThere is a few good things that I haven't seen outside Estonia. The first one is the electronic system prevalent in this country. When you are a foreigner and get your Estonian ID, you are also getting your electronic identity. With that, you can file taxes online, access information about property, bank accounts, mobiles, whatever services you need. When you get your local ID number, you automatically get a local e-mail address at the eesti.ee domain that you can redirect to your personal account. With that, you never miss an official communication (such as whenever is time to file your taxes).That ID has also legal validity and you can sign documents electronically anywhere in the world. For example, if you apply to get a car leasing, you don't have to show up at the bank necessarily. They send you some forms, you put your ID card in your computer reader, sign the document electronically, and send it back and that's it. It is the equivalent of putting your signature on paper in front of the bank official or lawyer. Estonian citizens and permanent residents are even allowed to vote online with their ID.A second impressive area is bureaucracy: it is a well-oiled machine. One recurrent example is taxes. You get the notification that your taxes are ready to file, you login to the tax office site, sign in, check that they have the correct information that they have collected from your company, employer and so on, sign with your ID card, and that's it. It might take as little as five minutes. My wife and I file jointly, so it takes us much longer: twenty minutes (and that's because we always forget to do one crucial step so we are delayed).The government doesn't even use paper for their minister meetings. They file everything electronically which is made available so you can follow up agendas, minutes and whatever happens there.You want to open your own company? It might take literally twenty minutes to do that too. All of this thanks to the frictionless bureaucratic system they have here. You want to park? Send a text to the number 1902 with your plate number and where you are parking and it will be charged to your mobile.One more impressive part: internet. Besides having decent speeds, there is practically free access points everywhere through the country. I personally have witnessed free available working access points in national parks and public beaches. You can read this article that talks about this (read the date: 2005!): Estonia sets shining Wi-Fi exampleIn my case, I don't use access points much because I have a decent LTE connection with my mobile. Mobile companies have good coverage and relatively good service. I remember that when we got our internet when we moved here, it took only one day to install it. When I measured the effective speed a few months later out of curiosity, it was 50 Mbps. Not bad.The downsidesAs anywhere else, there is a few things that you need to be aware of that could be difficult to adapt to.The first part for me is the social interaction which tends to be dry and quiet. I mentioned that above, so not much more to say here.Another one is the weather. In Winter, the sun might rise at 9:30 in the morning and set at 3 in the afternoon. That's just about six hours of sunlight. If you add that it is cloudy most of the time during the Winter, then you realise how dark it might be. As counterposition, Summers are amazing (up to 20 hours of sunlight and clear skies easily).Winters are relatively long. It gets cold around the end of October and stays that way until around April. It varies from year to year, but sometimes the temperature drops to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F). Life rarely stops here because of the cold or snow though. I have taken the bus at -30 degrees Celsius. It makes for an interesting ride.One more problem for a foreigner to live here is that you feel a bit isolated from the world. Flights are available mainly to neighbouring countries plus Germany, UK and the Netherlands. If you are from another country, you always need to make connections which makes it longer and more expensive to go back home.Last, if you are from a big city, you might find even Tallinn a bit provincial. It is changing as of late though. On the other hand, there is some positive things out of this too: less crime and virtually no traffic jam as I know it (I live 20 km. from work and make it in 30 minutes on a good day and 45 on a bad one).If you are thinking to move here, I definitely recommend this place.
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How can I train myself to have neat handwriting?
When I was going to school, I remember having trouble with math, like writing numbers under each other such as:112345I couldn't do the problem, but my father drilled in to me that the numbers have to be neat, and directly under each other (apparently, it's easier to learn that way).Growing up, my handwriting kept changing. In some instances, I noticed that people were mispronouncing my name, because my 'u' and 'r' looked like a "W," so I started concentrating on making sure they were appearing as different letters.I used to try to copy the handwriting of other people (not forging, just duplicating) but I couldn't do it consistently. Every few lines, my handwriting would change, and if I turned a page from front to back, I couldn't keep my writing consistent. So, if I was writing a letter, each page looked entirely different.Over the years, I have developed my handwriting to be so unique, that people compliment me (which I think is quite funny). It's basically 'fancy printing,' and my signature, if cursive, usually looks relatively the same. I noticed a while ago, that my fascination with crossword puzzles and similar books, is because I'm constantly writing the answers. My OCD is evident in my books, because there are words or individual letters that are written, crossed off, circled, all very methodically (to me) and it doesn't change from book to book.But, what became apparent to me, is that my need to 'answer' the puzzles (I won't look at the answers in the back) is more of a writing practice than a challenge, because I solve in pen.The way to develop neat handwriting is to practice, practice, practice. I've even been at presentations where the lecturer had a pad and a marker, and attendees will ask that I write the notes for the class to copy, because they like "the way I make my 'e's'."I've recently said that it makes no difference what education I have, what I can do, or the goodness I display, because all other people seem to comment on consistently, is "Wow, you have great handwriting."Practice, practice, practice .... we didn't grow up with computers and word processors, and if you have to fill out an application for something, you have to be able to write small enough (yet clear enough) for it to be read.
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How does understanding the elements of music impact the analysis of a narrative poem?
Scaringly difficult subject to write about, and surely, just as ambivalent. I possess no expertise on poetry nor on music, only what a curious & interested mind gathers over these past few years. Hastily point out mistakes or any others short-comings & fallacies.I will be quick to mention Milton, perhaps a little of Eliot, and lastly, Ezra Pound. The effect & connection between music and poetry has definitively varied throughout history. Sung epos & folklore songs, Provençal & Troubadour poetry,... roughly speaking, and this is my observation, the first wedge between the two has been made when poetry became much more erudite, soaked in words-meaning, and forgot the musical rhythms little behind, not that I value one over another.-- Anyway, 19. & 20. century welcomed the revival of the two, and again established connections. French symbolism, Modernism & new musical techniques ( revolution of style both in literature & music, the avant-garde was united across all fields ). Of course, one of the issues is how much of modern poetry can be marked as "narrative" in the obvious sense. The elements of music is such a vague term indeed…To start off with a quotation from Poe`s The Poetic Principle:Contenting myself with the certainty that Music, in its various modes of metre, rhythm and rhyme, is of so vast a moment in Poetry as never to be wisely rejected - is so vitally important an adjunct, that he is simply silly who declines its assistance, I will not now pause to maintain its absolute essentiality. It is in Music perhaps that the soul most nearly attains the great end for which, when inspired by the Poetic Sentiment, it struggles - the creation of supernal Beauty. It may be, indeed, that here this sublime end is, now and then, attained in fact. We are often made to feel, with a shivering delight, that from an earthly harp are stricken notes which cannot have been unfamiliar to the angels. And thus there can be little doubt that in the union of Poetry with Music in its popular sense, we shall find the widest field for the Poetic development. The old Bards and Minnesingers had advantages which we do not possess - and Thomas Moore, singing his own songs, was, in the most legitimate manner, perfecting them as poems.&A poem, in my opinion, is opposed to a work of science by having, for its immediate object, pleasure, not truth; to romance, by having, for its object, an indefinite instead of a definite pleasure, being a poem only so far as this object is attained; romance presenting perceptible images with definite, poetry with definite sensations, to which end music is an essential, since the comprehension of sweet sound is our most indefinite conception. Music, when combined with a pleasurable idea, is poetry; music, without the idea, is simply music; the idea, without the music, is prose, from its very definitiveness.And to finish, a section from a letter to James R. Lowell:I am profoundly excited by music and by some poems - those of Tennyson especially - whom with Keats, Shelley, Coleridge (occasionally) and a few others of like thought and expression, I regard as the sole poets. Music is the perfection of the soul or idea of Poetry. The vagueness of exultation aroused by a sweet air which should be strictly indefinite and never too strongly suggestive is precisely what we should aim at in poetry. Affectation which is thus no blemishMustek and Poetry have ever been acknowledg'd Sisters. As Poetry is the harmony of Words, so Mustek is that of Notes... Sure they are most excellent when they are join 'd. Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy, Sphere-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers, Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierceMilton could have very well be a musician, -his father was-, and his music appeared in print from time to time, one notable contribution was Fair Orian in collection of madrigals in Honour of queen Elizabeth, The Triumphs of Oriana.He was a close friend with a composer Henry Lawes, and the two collaborated on The Masque of Comus, 1634.There is also a distinction to be made between Greek & Roman musica practica, which was performed & sung, and the Pythagorean musica speculativa, theoretical & mathematical understanding, — changed to Christianised harmonia mundi during the Renaissance revival ). Harmonica mundi can definitely be encountered in Milton`s early poetry, At solemn music, Ad Patrem, & passages from 'Arcades', Comus, and 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity'.From At solemn music:“ … disproportioned sinJarred against nature's chime, and with harsh dinBroke the fair music that all creatures madeTo their great Lord.”See how disproportioned resonates with Pythagorean proportions, and it became disproportioned with the Original Sin and the fall from Eden. The reconciliation between the Classical/Pagan & Christian aesthetics and tradition was one of the foremost issues of early Milton. A passage from On the Morning of Christ's Nativity';The lonely mountains o’er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; Edgèd with poplar pale, From haunted spring, and dale The parting Genius is with sighing sent; With flower-inwoven tresses torn The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn.From Paradise Lost:Celestial voices to the midnight air [...]With heavenly touch of instrumental soundsIn full harmonic number joined, their songsDivide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven.& in Hell:Their song was partial, but the harmony(What could it less when spirits immortal sing?)Suspended hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience.Partial music of fallen Angels & Broken music of man. And Book V:Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphereOf planets and of fixed in all her wheelsResembles nearest, mazes intricate,Eccentric, intervolved, yet regularThen most, when most irregular they seem;And in their motions harmony divineSo smooths her charming tones, that God's own earListens delighted.A quick stop with T.S. Eliot and modernism before Pound.Modernism was a turbulent period, literature was chasing music, music was chasing language, and both were born out of impulse to restore expressivity & eloquence that the formality has lost. An important shift has happened, there is no absolute, right or left, right is not the opposite of left, ocean does not kill the fire.Poe & French symbolism played a pivotal role, and I am not confident nor do I know enough to speak about French climate and the effects of Poe in the second half of the 19. century here.Just as literature changed, so did music. Even the so called more traditional composers, like Ravel, are less formulaic and more abrupt, not to mention the likes of Stravinsky. What is very intriguing to me is how well does modern art produce tensions despite the loss of totality & coherence, and how idiosyncratic arbitration took over without losing the profound and human effect of tensity. In this sense, music was not longer a music in musical forms, but rather that of consciousness and its fragmentation.The seeming homelessness of arts in the period is a precondition of the changes that occurred, and this is what T. Hardy called the ache of modernism. There are no happy ends, formulaic tragedies ethically victorious, nor obvious redemption ( debatable, Last part of The Waste Land is an example ). The widening canyon of separation & inability of pristine connectivity is a precondition of the age, and in itself, its product - Postmodernism, a headless human still digging in a graveyard of modernity, seeking hopelessly for a regenerative bone & praying not to find it - he would have to leave. This is why modernism has no green heritage, only skeletons. In Joyce`s terms, Scrupulous meanness. Even the Hegelian aesthetics “in the suspension of equilibrium lies the tendency to return to a condition of equilibrium”, even musical form through dissonance to consonance, is depleted. If one here remembers the quotes from Poe and his posture of indefinitiveness, how it went from his to symbolism and from there to modernism, acclaiming the suggestive aspect.One of the drives of modernism was to thrust poetry back from the street, or jungle, to the sublime, the rightful place, to perform the duties it deserves. The restoration called for a path through prickly subjects, even ironic and laughable, like Prufrock`s underwhelming question, but it manages to pass exactly due to that vagueness, and we sense it as our own.Perhaps all this has been rather imprecise, let me speak about Eliot.So, while poetry attempts to convey something beyond what can be conveyed in prose rhythms, it remains, all the same, one person talking to another; and this is just as true if you sing it, for singing is another way of talking. The immediacy of poetry to conversation is not a matter on which we can lay down exact laws. Every revolution in poetry is apt to be, and sometimes to announce itself to be a return to common speech.... The music of poetry, then, must be a music latent in the common speech of its time.The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticism: “Poetry begins, I dare say, with a savage beating a drum in a jungle, and it retains that essential of percussion and rhythm” - like music.Fairly, music of poetry may differ from music of music, an awkward saying that while musical elements are important for analysis, but the musical elements in poetry categorically & theoretically & applicably differ from those that we apply to music per se.'From Poe to Valery´, essay:Poetry, of different kinds, may be said to range from that in which the attention of the reader is directed primarily to the sound, to that in which it is directed primarily to the sense. With the former kind, the sense may be apprehended almost unconsciously; with the latter kind - at these two extremes - it is the sound, of the operation of which upon us we are unconscious. But, with either type, sound and sense must cooperate; in even the most purely incantatory poem, the dictionary meaning of the words cannot be disregarded with impunity.Precisely, from The music of Poetry;[m]y purpose here is to insist that a 'musical poem' is a poem which has a musical pattern of sound and a musical pattern of the secondary meanings of the words that compose it, and that these two patterns are indissoluble and one.Simply a level beside the denotation of words. In`The Music of Poetry´ another inspect of this climate is presented:The music of a word is, so to speak, at a point of intersection: it arises from its relation first to the words immediately preceding and following it, and indefinitely to the rest of its context; and from another relation, that of its immediate meaning in that context to all the other meanings which it has had in other contexts, to its greater or less wealth of association.Which can be directly linked to his writings On Dante:In English poetry words have a kind of opacity which is part of their beauty. I do not mean that the beauty of English poetry is what is called mere 'verbal beauty'. It is rather that words have associations, and the groups of words in association have associations, which is a kind of local self-consciousness, because they are the growth of a particular civilization.As many words, music ferries such a rich history of meanings, definitions, and relations that is difficult to analyse the impact. Music in one of the Archetypes, and they are hard to contain. Music is a structure separate of understanding, insofar as it escapes the restraints of conventional meanings. The Music of Poetry is, if one takes a leap of imagination, an objective correlative, if I dare expand the term. If I use a line from D. Davie; "It is language which happens through the speaker and not the speaker who expresses himself through language.”-— Can this also be said about music, when it comes to early Eliot?In an 'Aspects of Rhythm and Rhyme in Eliot's Early Poems', J. Chalker, in sum, `The Use “the steadiness and predictability of musical rhythm” is to produce psychological reassurance in the midst of emotional disturbance.´—Such irony, after reading Prufrock, if I thinks solemnly of rhythm, I would say it conveys anything but the reassurance and predictability, yes, the irony that is serves as a distraction from emotional disturbances, and in this fact lays reassurance.Quite enough of Eliot…Ezra Pound!''The idea that music and poetry can be separated,'' he wrote, ''is an idea current in ages of degradation and decadence when both arts are in the hands of lazy imbeciles.''Opera Le Testament De Villon:He started at least two unfinished operas, Cavalcanti and COLLIS O HELICONII.( Two short recordings of the latter can be found here )Rhythm & Music, “the hardest quality of a man's style to counterfeit”.In his three essays about Music in Transatlantic Review, he strongly focuses & advocates time and time-intervals, arguing:“A sound of any pitch, or any combination of such sounds, may be followed by a sound, or any combination of sounds, providing the time interval between them is properly gauged; and this is true for any series of sounds, chords, or arpeggios”Emphasization of space and rhythm was, by space - `space in between concise images - in juxtaposition´ - one of prime concerns of Imagisme. Reader`s interaction is needed to form a connection between them. ( A short answer about In A Station of the Metro ) Another short poem, Alba:As cool as the pale wet leaves of lily-of-the-valleyShe lay beside me in the dawn.Pound˙s poetry, rhythm & music was always more about reaction than explanation, which, I think, anyone who has read him can agree, and that might very well be the only thing on which we can agree. Therefore Poetry & Music are two in one to achieving this reaction.I will briefly present his own attempt to compose a work based on his own poem, Sestina Altaforte (1909 )Loquitur: En Bertrans de Born.Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a stirrer-up of strife.Eccovi!Judge ye!Have I dug him up again?The scene in at his castle, Altaforte. "Papiols" is his jongleur."The Leopard," the device of Richard (Cúur de Lion).IDamn it all! all this our South stinks peace.You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!I have no life save when the swords clash.But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposingAnd the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.IIIn hot summer have I great rejoicingWhen the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson,And the fierce thunders roar me their musicAnd the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.IIIHell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!Better one hour's stour than a year's peaceWith fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!Bah! there's no wine like the blood's crimson!IVAnd I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.And I watch his spears through the dark clashAnd it fills all my heart with rejoicingAnd pries wide my mouth with fast musicWhen I see him so scorn and defy peace,His lone might 'gainst all darkness opposing.VThe man who fears war and squats opposingMy words for stour, hath no blood of crimsonBut is fit only to rot in womanish peaceFar from where worth's won and the swords clashFor the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;Yea, I fill all the air with my music.VIPapiols, Papiols, to the music!There's no sound like to swords swords opposing,No cry like the battle's rejoicingWhen our elbows and swords drip the crimsonAnd our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush clash.May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace!"VIIAnd let the music of the swords make them crimson!Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!Hell blot black for always the thought "Peace!"As a remainder, poem’s speaker is the Gascon nobleman and war-loving troubadour Bertran de Born, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century. There is no way Pound would have wrote the poem in 1914, even 1913, with its pro-war orientation, but in the end, it is a traditional subject of epic.If one isolates the ending words of each stanza:peace – music – clash – opposing – crimson – rejoicing [Stanza I]rejoicing – peace – crimson – music – opposing – clash [Stanza II]clash – rejoicing – opposing – peace – music – crimson [Stanza III]crimson – clash – rejoicing – music – peace – opposing [Stanza IV]opposing – crimson – peace – clash – rejoicing – music [Stanza V]music – opposing – rejoicing – crimson – clash – Peace [Stanza VI]crimson – clash – Peace [Envoi]Not to get into a detailed analysis of this one poem and its technical mastery of Anglo-Saxon metre & alliteration, more famous in his translation The Seafarer.“The phrases are short (two to six small, quick bars), often similar but generally asymmetric, and impetuous with anapest driven leaps, creating an almost flickering quality. The sestina form, however, is used for purely structural function. There is no attempt at word painting or at a sonic/cognitive equivalent. The music matches the original poem, one note or chord per syllable, through the third line of the second sestet. From this point musical irregularities gradually encroach upon the monosyllabic relationship with the text. His formal method was to assign one or two extremely brief music segments (each segment consisting of a different chord, or two or three chords with or without a unison note) as a “sonic signifier” to identify each line of Altaforte’s six end words. When the end word appeared in its new position in the following sestet its sonic signifier would appear as a recognizable determinant. . . .“Remembering category #4 concerning “Criticism via music” in Pound’s essay “Date Line,” we can reflect upon the interpretive insights given us when Pound interrelates music and verse.2 As can be seen above, the temptation to read “Damn it all!” as a colloquial emphatic anapest is dissuaded by Pound’s more pungent cretic ( – ˘– ), giving equal emphasis to “Damn-all.” At the end of the line a spondee (two quarter notes) gives accentuation to “stinks peace,” correcting a tendency to slight “stinks” as a moderately unstressed syllable if giving “South stinks peace” the quite natural reading of a cretic. Similarly, in line six of the same stanza, “heart nigh mad” might be rendered a cretic, yet Pound’s musical setting as three stressed syllables heightens the emotional pitch of the poem by raising the tension on “nigh.” . . .“Under the influence of Antheil’s constantly changing time signatures and note durations[applied to the opera Le Testament] the solo violin sestina utilizes a constant shifting of the number of microbeats per bar from 1/4 to 21/32, with a frequency of triple and quintuple meters presaging the metric simplification of his music over the next two years. Yet Pound’s notation is not secure enough to avoid frequent miscalculations of the note lengths versus the time signatures.“A chordal piece with almost no single notes, frequently using triple- and quadruple-stops with one to three open strings, it repeatedly necessitates the use of “broken chords” or arpeggiation. The result is often a scratchy, disjointed, leaping quality as the player prepares the fingers to approach each new multiple stop. Yet the “breaking” of the chord also favors a clarification of the harmony by lessening the biting dissonance to produce a more consonant sound, often focusing on open fifths or, in arpeggiation, the sweetened effect of an incomplete major seventh chord. Although aesthetically clarified by a few interpretive markings (bowings, accents, staccati, glissandi, sordino, string specification), technically the piece is filled with impracticalities: jagged, wide leaps; constant multiple stops; and some extremely difficult quadruple- stops, which at best render the work barely playable, if not unplayable. (These challenging famous last words often eventually offer an extremely good performance!)” . . . ( Sestina Altaforte” Ezra Pound sets his poem to music )Aforementioned unfinished COLLIS O HELICONII;HYMN TO APHRODITEAphrodite subtle of soul and deathless, Daughter of God, weaver of wiles, I pray thee Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish Slay thou my spirit. But in pity hasten, come now if ever! From afar, of old, when my voice implored thee, Thou hast deigned to listen leaving the golden House of thy father With thy chariot yoked, and with doves that drew thee Fair and fleet around the dark earth from heaven, Dipping vibrant wings down the azure distance Through the mid ether: Very swift they came; and thou gracious Vision Leaned with face that smiled in immortal beauty, Leaned to me and asked, “What misfortune threatened?” Why I had called thee? “What my frenzied heart craved in utter yearning, Whom its wild desire would persuade to passion? What disdainful charms madly worshipped, slight thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho? “She that fain would fly, she shall quickly follow She that now rejects, yet with gifts shall woo thee, She that heeds thee not, soon shall love to madness, Love thee, the loth one.”( John Myers O’Hara translation 1910, which Pound recommended )Scenario/librettoPound described his third opera as half-finished (GK 368). A libretto, two arias, and three instrumental works are the sum of materials we have to inform the staging of the opera Collis O Heliconii. Pound’s libretto refers only to the Catullus poem (see my comments and transcription of Pound’s libretto, COLLIS xvi–xix; 102–111). The joining of the opera’s central aria in Latin—Catullus’ carmen 61—and a secondary aria in Greek—Sappho’s “Poikilothron”—continued the pairing of languages heard in the second opera Cavalcanti (Italian and Provençal). The composer’s principal motivation for relating the Latin and Greek poems in an opera was to anchor modern English lyrics in the Greek rhythms while demonstrating how a grasp of Latin will refine a poet’s style.The four key actions of Sappho’s Poem 1 are Sappho’s invocation to the goddess Aphrodite; the goddess’s descent from heaven; Aphrodite’s direct address to Sappho regarding her dominance over human will; and Sappho’s invitation to Aphrodite to take action side by side to reverse an unrequited love.The relationship of the Sappho invocation to the Catullan poem, which is widely accepted as an epithalamium, is not an obvious one. But even if we overlook recent scholarship that depicts carmen 61 as a lampoon of an epithalamium, we can find structural resemblances between the two poems. Sappho’s poem provides an authorial match to Catullus’ carmen 61: each poet inserts her- or himself into the poem; each writes in a way that distances the poet as author from the passions written about; and each poem includes a theme of same-sex preference. It was Henry Wharton who first introduced the English reader to Sappho’s love for a female and possibly Theodor Bergk who earlier had done the same for the German reader (Williamson 51–52).2For contrast and drama in his opera, Pound would develop the literary relationship between Sappho and Catullus. He had named them in his 1929 essay “How to Read” as among the essential canon of authors "who actually invented something" (LE 27). In 1934, Pound praised Catullus for his treatment of sapphics: “. . . the only man who has ever mastered the lady’s metre” (ABCR 47). He published the essay “Date Line” the same year, claiming that the musical setting of a poet’s words was a fourth form of criticism (LE 74). Had Pound’s attempts at setting the two poets’ words to music led him to these declarations?Pound’s preference was for us to hear the two poets’ words in the original language, their rhythms and styles brought directly to our ear through the music—the successful formula he had used to dramatize the Cavalcanti–Sordello literary relationship in his second opera. Pound’s pairing of Sappho’s 1 with Catullus 61 removes Sappho from the sphere of influence of Ovid, where most readers became acquainted with her through reading the Heroides. The opera was to place her Latin legacy clearly on the side of Catullus. For more on this, see COLLIS, chapter V, “Sappho.”SapphicsEzra Pound's holograph score of his setting of Sappho Poem 1 from his 3rd opera,Collis O Heliconii.Shown: Introduction to End of Stanza 1 with sapphic stanza and transcription of Pound's lyrics added in red.Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (YCAL 53, Box 46/1015)Reprinted by permission, Second Evening Art. All rights reserved.Pound’s musical events in the Poikilothron convey a feeling for the meter through quantity and syllabic durations. Only the first stanza (see music score above) corresponds wholly to the sapphic stanza as defined by the Alexandrian grammarian Hephaestion (2nd century A.D.). Here is the sapphic meter as it has come down to us from Hephaestion’s manual of Greek meters, the Enchiridion:– ˘ – x – ˘˘ – ˘ – x– ˘ – x – ˘˘ – ˘ – x– ˘ – x – ˘˘ – ˘ – x– ˘˘ – –[The x represents an “anceps” in which the syllable can be short or long.]O’Hara, too, conformed only his first stanza to the Hephaestion sapphic. He maintained the feeling of sapphics through quantity (eleven syllables in the first three lines, five in the fourth), through a liberal use of the choriambic foot – ˘˘ – (though not always in the Hephaestion choriambic position), and through sounds in English that evoke the Greek sounds. Pound follows suit in the music (see the entry on Stanza 4 below).Musical InfluencesWhen Pound approached the setting of a Greek poem accompanied by lyre, he did not attempt to imitate ancient Greek music. Though he had acquired vol. 1 of the Lavignac Encyclopedia of Music which features Maurice Emmanuel’s entry on Greek music, he relied on this text more for its relevance to poetic meter than for compositional ideas.He lent Mary Barnard his own volume, recommending it as the preferred source for understanding how to write sapphics in American English using Emmanuel’s system of musical forms and strategies (Barnard, 56, 58).For his melodies, Pound looked beyond Greece, east to Indonesia. Pound turned his attention to the Javanese scale as had Claude Debussy, but distanced himself from the composer, lamenting that Debussy had turned to composing ‘mush.’3 Debussy had been influenced by performances of the Javanese gamelan at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Access to information about and recordings of world music were random and haphazard, the nascent field of ethnomusicology being represented by only a few key individuals until well into the 1950s.The specific source for Pound’s approach to the Sappho aria, however, is traceable to the Austrian Erich von Hornbostel, one of the earliest musicologists to make field recordings of the music of Indonesia. Hornbostel reported his findings in “Phonographierte Melodien aus Madagaskar und Indonesien” in 1909. Pound most probably learned of him from his friend, the American concert pianist Katherine Heyman, who mentioned Hornbostel in her 1921 bookThe Relation of Ultramodern to Archaic Music (58).4 On July 7, 1924, Pound programmed an arrangement of a Hornbostel Javanese transcription for solo violin, played by Olga Rudge in Paris.5Pound’s Musical Strategy: Modality and TonalityTo the ear accustomed to a diatonic scale, the intervals of Pound’s unusual scale join with the rhythms “to cut a shape in time” (Barnard, 55). Pound’s single accidental of C# in his scale for the Poikilothron aria resembles the transcriptions of Sumatran music compiled by von Hornbostel at the turn of the century.Pound employs six tones —A, C#, D, E, F, (G)—and avoids B altogether. The use of five tones only in stanzas one through four creates a sense of modal music, i.e., a type of scale that is sui generis, where each tone has equal weight, rather than tonal, which is a hierarchical system of music with a central pitch to which the other pitches relate. In modal music the notes do not function as harmony. Only in the fifth stanza does Pound introduce the G to create the sense of a musical key with the stable relationships of the fourth between D and G, and the already present fifth between D and A. The six-tone scale, with certain features acting like a diatonic scale which has seven tones, implies the key of D minor. B is simply avoided and the C# serves as a raised “seventh” step which wants to resolve to D.When the tritone sounds between G and C#, the composer moves from modal to tonal music. In Stanza six, he resumes modality.The contours of Pound’s melodies arise from the qualities of spoken word in the poem—supplication, solicitation, question, demand, and judgment—, the intervallic movement expanding and subsiding with the emotion. The composer brings forward the contours of Sappho’s words through timbre, dissonance, tritone, and accent. Guided by the belief that he can recover the form apart from the formulaic metrics passed down by tradition, he does not attempt to recover ancient Greek melody, but presents new composition as his fifth form of criticism (LE 74–75).Stanza 4: Inner form in Sappho’s Poikilothron:In stanza four, Sappho’s rhetorical devices lead to a highly structured colloquy between the poetess and goddess, even as the language remains colloquial. The composer strives to make this duality salient—structural formality/linguistic familiarity—not only to transmit Sappho to a modern audience but to promote his own interest in Sappho as a mortal poet conversant with the gods.At stanza four we find rhyming patterns in the syllables: otti deute / kotti deute. Here, Pound foregrounds Sappho’s word play by striking the repeating hard surfaces of her Greek consonants—t, d, p, k—against his neo-Sumatran scale, the strangeness of the scale serving to inflect each sound. Sappho’s voice rings out, resonant and striking in her Poundian afterlife, with none of the Ovidian invention and melodrama qualifying her poetic achievement.Stanza 4, lines 3–4, bars 45–49“You asked, what pray tell have I suffered and why pray tell do I call?”Following three breathy vowels on the same pitch, “e-re ot-”, the consonant load of the syllables, “ti”–“dau”–“te”–“pe”–“pon”–“tha,” meets each of the descending pitches with percussive impact. The final syllable pepontha (“have I suffered”) hits the bottom of the singer’s tessitura on A,an octave and a minor sixth below “e-re ot-.” The word kotti (“and what”) rebounds one octave higher on the A, then C# and A again,before a second leap downward to the low A. There follows a third and lesser rebound and descent. The word melodykalemmi (“do I call”), broken by a sixteenth rest, gives the illusion that all is settling down. Pound delivers the last syllable “-mi” on the less-than-resolute e to end the stanza (supported by an A in the violin).Stanza 5: the tritone in Pound’s aria Poikilothron:The Music Column of Make It New 2.1 discussed Pound’s use of the interval of the tritone to insert a critical marker indicating genius within the music. In the Sappho aria, we might expect that when Sappho refers to herself in the poem’s fifth stanza (“kotti moi”), Pound will employ the tritone, and he does not disappoint. He makes the tonality of the tritone salient by preceding it with modality in the preceding four stanzas and in the subsequent sixth stanza.What Pound said:“The more Greek a man knows the better his English cadence is likely to be, and the greater richness, variety, height, precision, colour of his criteria; the greater the variety of his ideas and memories of what verbal melody can be and should be; and the finer his perception of all verbal sounds whatsoever.”(Ezra Pound. “Dust upon Hellas.” Time and Tide XV.45 [November 10, 1934]: 1429–1430).“Greek seems to me a storehouse of wonderful rhythms, possibly impracticable rhythms. If you don’t read it and if you can’t read Latin translations from it, it can’t be helped. Most English translations are hopeless. The best are in prose.”(Ezra Pound. Letter to Iris Barry. July 1916. L 87).( SAPPHO IN POUND’S THIRD OPERA, COLLIS O HELICONII )I would still say that Pound`s musical interest & experimentation ( Classical Greek and Latin, 11th- and 12th-century troubadours like Arnaut Daniel and Gaucelm Faidi, French trouvères like Guillaume le Vinier, and their 14th- and 15th-century heirs like Dante, Cavalcanti and Villon ) were an extended branch, or outgrowth, of his colossal studies in versification. The sound, not semantics!Arthur Daniel, if Pound were asked to give a name of his idea forerunner of whom he said: “when the Provençal [language] was growing weary, and it was to be seen if it could last, and [he] tried to make almost a new language, or at least to enlarge the Langue d’Oc, and make new things possible” —Make it new! The famous motto.OBLIGATORY listening, a different reading of Sestina Altaforte. If you do not hear the music, Sir, God help thee…So, how does understanding of music impact poetry? — Some say intrinsic, and some have not given it a thought or two. Same goes with criticism & analysis.
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What is your most bizarre airport experience?
I have worked for an airline at LAX for the last 6 years. Bizarre doesn’t even begin to describe some of the people and situations I’ve witnessed. I could list hundreds of examples but I don’t want to scare you away from flying altogether, so here are just a few.I was working the front desk at our airline lounge one afternoon when a guest walked in and asked to purchase a day pass. She was a thin, 40-something brunette, about average height, sporting thick-rimmed glasses and a pixie cut. At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.As I went through the process of selling her the pass, she started telling me about her day which turned into vague stories about her life. I kept having to pause and look up at her because I couldn’t follow what she was saying. She spoke rapidly and rambled about unrelated topics, jumping from one to the next. I attributed her behavior to airport stress and politely nodded and smiled (as one does when they work in customer service and are privy to many a life story). I handed her the receipt and welcomed her to the lounge, pointing in the direction of the main seating area.After she settled in, she approached the desk once more to ask about the amenities and we spoke again. I don’t remember what was said because my co-worker had distracted me during the conversation. He gave me an eyes wide open, brows raised look followed by a “why are you still talking to this woman” nudge because he noticed she was acting a bit erratically. I responded to him with an eyes wide open, brows raised look of my own followed by a “she’s nice and probably just anxious about traveling so don’t be mean” smile. “Whatever, I’m going on break.” He laughed. “Good luck.”She noticed none of this, as she was pacing from the desk to the door and back to the desk while looking at the ceiling and chattering about on the way back to her seat.Shortly after, a police officer entered. He showed me his badge and stated he was looking for a woman by my new friend’s first and last name. I informed him that she was there and led him to her seat in the center of the lounge where thirty or so other passengers started looking on curiously.The police officer spoke with her, asking basic questions such as her name and travel plans. He stepped outside the lounge for a moment and shortly returned with three more police officers. They advised me to cancel and refund her ticket, as she would “no longer be flying”. Minutes later, a handful of paramedics and firemen appeared with a stretcher.“What is going on?” I asked.“She escaped from a mental institution this morning.” The officer beside me said in a low voice. “Her husband reported her missing and we traced her here through his credit card charges.”My eyes widened.“Yeah.” He nodded in agreement.After consulting with my manager, I led them to a private room within the lounge so they could escort her without a peering audience. As they walked her there, she began knowingly screaming, “Please don’t take me back, please!” It took two men to cuff her to the stretcher while the others tried to calm her down but she resisted, sitting up and continuing to cry out, “Please it’s not true! My husband put me there, whatever he told you it’s not true! Don’t make me go back!” She began to swear in her proceeding cries for help. The medics injected her with a needle and her shouts diminished to whimpers. I stood frozen as she looked at me, eyes pleading, and begged “Don’t let them take me” before surrendering onto her back. My mind raced as rapidly as she had spoken when she first entered the lounge. What if she really didn’t belong there? What if it is a conspiracy? She didn’t seem like she needed to be in a mental institution, after all she’d made it this far on her own… But what if everything they are saying is true? Maybe her husband really is just trying to help her... Can I do anything either way? I knew that the answer was no and gazed down helplessly. They led her out through the room’s private exit as I proceeded to apologize to the other guests in the lounge, purposely avoiding direct eye contact and mumbling something about how I couldn’t give them any other information but that they had nothing to worry about. I went back to my desk. As I canceled her ticket, my co-worker returned. “Did I miss anything?”…I kid you not.Second story is short and “sharp”! I worked out of Logan Airport in Boston for a year before transferring to LAX. Our ticket counter there was directly adjacent to TSA, so we saw everything. One time an elderly passenger was going through with his cane when TSA discovered a sword inside of it. Yes, a sword. He claimed he had no prior knowledge…Last but definitely not least, we had a woman fly from Seattle to Los Angeles with her “emotional support” turkey. It is banned now but at the time there was no written policy that specifically forbade it. I will leave you with this photo, which speaks (or gobbles) for itself:EDIT: This was my first Quora post and I was not expecting many people to read it, but thank you for the views and upvotes!Here are two bonus stories that occurred when I was working recently for anyone who is interested in the bizarre and shocking goings-on of an Airport Baggage Claim.My friend was opening the baggage office at 5am when she heard a loud thud. Random noises are not uncommon at LAX, but the Arrivals area at 5am is generally quiet. She walked over to the baggage carousel to investigate the sound and saw a man lying on the floor covered in dust and pieces of plaster. She looked up and saw a giant hole in the ceiling. This man literally fell through the ceiling. Police officers were called and upon further investigation they found blankets, toothpaste, shaving cream, and other amenities up there. Some of you may remember this story from the news, but they found out he had been living in the ceiling above the baggage carousel for months, rent-free!A white-haired man with a salt and pepper beard and thick black trench-coat was pacing frantically and swearing to himself by our LAX baggage carousel one afternoon. I walked into the baggage office and asked my co-worker Lauren* (not her real name) what his deal was. She said he was angry that his bag did not arrive with his flight. She had been trying to get information from him for 20 minutes so she could locate it but he just kept walking into the office, cursing the airline for losing his bag, storming out and looping around the non-moving baggage carousel as if expecting his suitcase to magically appear with each completed lap.I spoke firmly to Roger* (also not his real name) saying we could not help him without any info as to who he was, where he flew from, or his bag tag number. He threw his boarding pass and baggage claim ticket in our faces and escalated his anti-airline rant “I will never fly ever again! Never! I’m taking the Greyhound next time!” to an anti-America rant “This [BLEEP] COUNTRY! I hate this country!” and then listing off the many ways in which he felt wronged by the government, no longer referencing air travel at all. I glanced at Lauren who mouthed, “this guy is loco” and we immediately began the search for his bag to rid ourselves of his presence.I pulled up the bag history and saw that his bag was scanned in LAX just 30 minutes prior. Temporary relief filled our lungs until we realized that it was mis-tagged as a transfer to Honolulu, Hawaii and loaded onto that connecting flight.“Great!” Lauren stated. “We can just have the ramp team pull the bag.”Not great. The flight had left just 5 minutes prior, so the bag was already en route to Honolulu. Had he cooperated from the beginning, we could have discovered this immediately and reunited him with his bag before the flight departed. Of course since the redirect wasn’t his fault (the agent in his origin city incorrectly tagged the bag to Hawaii under a similar passenger’s last name - always do a visual check of your luggage tags before they get sent away!) we advised him that he would be compensated, his bag would be sent back to LAX ASAP, and we would set up delivery to his address upon receipt. He would have it by the evening.He fumed.“DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S IN THAT BAG? DO YOU?” We stared at him blankly as he shook his index finger in our faces. “MY ROCKS!”Lauren and I looked at each other, both at a loss for words. He continued. “THEY ARE THE MOST VALUABLE ROCKS IN THE WORLD!”We repeated that we would call the supervisor in Hawaii directly to personally ensure that the bag was placed on the return flight.“AND WHAT IF THE PLANE CRASHES, HUH? WHAT THEN?” Our office was getting smaller by the second. “IF THAT [BLEEP] PLANE GOES DOWN AND EVERYONE ON IT DIES, THEIR [BLEEP] LIVES COMBINED ARE NOT AS VALUABLE AS MY ROCKS! HOW WILL YOU GET MY ROCKS TO ME THEN?”We readied ourselves to call airport police, worried he may become as violent as his speech, when his younger, long-haired colleague appeared by his side.“What’s going on Rog’?” He wore flip-flops in December and spoke as he chewed on gum.“These [bleep] lost my rocks! My bag went to [bleep] Hawaii!”His friend paused for a moment, a smile forming on his lips.“That’s excellent news.” He remarked to our surprise. Roger (can I call him Rog’ too?), stared at him dumbfounded. He continued slowly and in a soft voice, “The rocks were meant to go to Hawaii. They needed to touch down on Hawaiian soil.” His smile was fully formed by now. “Remember the curse? This is the chance we’ve been waiting for to finally lift it. After all these years! This is excellent, just excellent.” He sputtered gleefully.Lauren and I took turns hiding from these two in the back office.Roger had calmed down, but only in a calm-before-the-storm type way. He dug through his hand bag, pulling out a smooth and glossy brown stone, no larger than the size of the circle formed by touching your thumb to your forefinger.His voice rose again.“SEE THIS ROCK? SEE? THIS IS ONE OF THEM.” He waved it in front of our faces. We weren’t trying to get fired, so we didn’t say anything back to him. Our lack of a reaction must have upset him because he proceeded to lunge his arm backwards and lurch it forwards, throwing the Most Valuable Rock In The World at the wall and missing my face by inches. His priceless stone became chipped upon impact and fell to the floor.We 100% should have called the police, but we stood there in stunned silence and let our supervisor with perfect timing handle him. She spoke to them coolly and finally got them to leave. He left his precious rock behind as Flip-Flops told us we could keep it before skipping out the door behind him.I plastered a smile on my face and waved to good ol’ Rog’ on their way out, calling after him deviously, “Aloha!”We breathed the Most Satisfying Sigh of Relief In The World and laughed as Lauren speculated that he must have grave-robbed ancient stones from King Tut. She joked that when the bag did arrive, we should grab an entire roll of fragile stickers and wrap up every last magical rock with them as well as the entire outside of the bag before sending it out for delivery.I discarded my present shortly after finding no evidence of the supernatural, thereby deeming it the Most Overrated Rock In The World while contemplating new career choices.
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