Monthly Archives: October 2019

LAS VEGAS They wandered through the slot-machine maze of McCarran International Airport, through the haze of stale cigar smoke and banners advertising residencies by Calvin Harris and Criss Angel, and into the quiet, cool morning of a city that hadnt yet shaken off sleep.

It was the earliest hours of the first day of October, and these teenagers from every nook of the country were descending on Las Vegas. But they werent going to the strip, or even to nap in their hotel. In a city that represents the pinnacle of uniquely American hedonism, a band of student organizers from March for Our Lives the gun-reform advocacy organization born out of the countrys deadliest high school shooting were headed directly to an empty, gray event venue a half-mile from the airport, to help pull off a presidential candidate forum dedicated solely to the issue of gun violence.

It was, coincidentally, the two-year anniversary of the Las Vegas mass shooting, in which a 64-year-old man dragged 10 rifles into his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel room and opened fire from the window on a crowd of 22,000, killing 58 and injuring close to 500. Across the strip, between ads for Cirque du Soleil and a farm-to-table restaurant, electronic billboards flashed signs of remembrance: BRAVER. CLOSER. PROUDER. STRONGER. #VEGASSTRONGER. Trump Tower glinted like a lighter in the distance.

The forum was about 24 hours away. The event space was mostly empty. The sound of clanging metal rang through the courtyard as a construction crew assembled white security tents outside. In a ballroom inside, clusters of March organizers, still not old enough to legally drink, slouched over round tables covered in white linens, tapping through their phones and chatting quietly, like reluctant college kids killing time at the library.

Lauren Hogg, the 16-year-old co-founder of March, picked at the straw in an empty Starbucks cup full of ice, hugging her white cable-knit sweater closer to her chest. She was 14 when, on Valentines Day in 2018, a 19-year-old man gunned down 17 students at her high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in the South Florida suburb of Parkland. Within days, a group of Hoggs friends launched the activist group Never Again MSD; a month after that, they organized a nationwide protest of gun violence that galvanized nearly 2 million people.

In the span of mere weeks, Hogg and a handful of her classmates became some of the countrys most well-known advocates for gun reform, making it a key electoral issue for Democrats running for office nationally. Now, here they were, watching the venue be converted into a made-for-MSNBC event.

I look back at photos right after the shooting, like from speeches I gave. And I don't recognize myself, Hogg said, brown eyes sharp like flint.

We're better now, today, than we were in the beginning. Because I think people forget that. We were not doing well."

Flanking her in the ballroom was 19-year-old Eve Levenson, whos from Los Angeles and helped organize a number of Marchs protests there last year. She joined March full-time as its federal affairs manager this summer, shortly before starting her sophomore year at George Washington University in Washington, D.C, where she piles evening classes onto a full day of meetings on Capitol Hill.

I called my parents last spring, and basically was like, 'Is it bad to register as a lobbyist?' Levenson said with a booming laugh inside the venues war room, where event organizers spent the morning working.

It's like, obviously, I've never planned a presidential forum before, Levenson said. She was nine years old during the last true open primary for Democrats, in 2007. This was a nice change, though, because the adults I was working with also had not planned a presidential forum. So for once, I was like, okay, it's not that I don't know what's supposed to happen next because I'm young. It's because none of us know.

Hogg sat beside her, spinning in an office chair. Her junior year was only two weeks old, but already shed missed four days, first for testifying in favor of an assault-weapons ban on Capitol Hill, and now for this.

It's almost as if I went from, like, childhood to kind of, adulthood, in regards to having to deal with things that some adults have to deal with, or working in some spaces that are majority adults, Hogg said. I've found myself trying to have to learn how to be a teenager, and especially in spaces where not everyone is traumatized.

She throws around the word trauma like it weighs nothing at all, and still finds it hard to relate to people who havent experienced it.

Trying to interact with teenagers in a non-business, non-political way, is something that is very difficult, she said. But recently, the biggest thing for me is, like, realizing that I need to learn how to be a teenager. And it's hard. It's difficult, you know? It's like, what do you talk about?

Two audio-visual techs walked in. They asked if they could use the room to check its equipment. We scooped up our bags and cleared out, shuffling through the maze of sterile white offices, looking for a place to sit that wasnt in the middle of being made over. We passed by what would, the next day, become the room where forum attendees could sit to decompress from the talk of gun violence and murder, and we passed by the the glamour room, with its silvery mirrors and flattering lighting, where candidates would wait before going onstage.

I find myself kind of disassociating a lot when I'm not with people who are in March for Our Lives or weren't in a shooting, Hogg said, once we found an unoccupied room. The faint untz-untz of electronic Muzak echoed through the venue. My brain kind of just doesn't know how to act in a lot of circumstances with kids, just like trying to have fun and being adolescents.

It's like, when you're like a fish it's like you're a fish in water, she continued. You don't realize that you're in water.

Levenson, sitting directly in front of Hogg and listening intently, interjected. I'm sure that analogy came from the personal experience of being a fish, she said. They looked at each other for a beat and broke into peals of laughter.

***

The next morning, the makeover was complete, a small village erected overnight. Hordes of people spilled into the venue, navigating around circular tables to grab fruit and coffee from a breakfast bar. Reporters in neon green PRESS badges darted in and out of their designated room, staking out spots along the entryway to the ballroom, where the students from March could hang out undisturbed.

A healthy chunk of D.C.s Democratic political machine had made the trip. Every top-polling candidate running for president and their handlers were there, with the exception of Sen. Bernie Sanders, whod suffered a heart attack the night before. So were several members of Congress, Nevadas governor, 100 or so members of the press, and hundreds of political activists.

And though it was the team from Giffords, the gun-reform group founded by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, that conceived of the forum and did the bulk of the planning, the Parkland students were, by all appearances, the face of the event.

By 10 a.m., Giffords herself was onstage with David Hogg, Laurens older brother and the student who has absorbed the bulk of the flashbulbs, to introduce the forum. His lanky frame cut through the starkly lit, deep blue of the stage.

When the American culture starts to value children and the future of our country more than guns, politicians get afraid, and thats when things change, he said in a brief speech. Giffords and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) flanked him.

After a spoke, Hogg stood on stage for several long beats, struggling, and failing, to take a good selfie with Giffords and Murphy. Youd think David Hogg would be better at selfies than he is! crowed the moderator, MSNBC host Craig Melvin, to laughter from the crowd, as Hogg finally slunk offstage.

It was the selfie that launched a dozen selfies. Tucked into a corner of the venues lobby was a backdrop branded with logos from Giffords and March for Our Lives, and candidates passed through it, alongside students from March, like tourists posing with carnival cut-outs.

A steady stream of them populated the organizations Twitter feed throughout the day: Theres Kamala Harris playing air guitar. Theres Amy Klobuchar, hearing a very good secret. Theres Andrew Yang, sorority-squatting.

And it was clear, from the way the candidates spoke about them, who they were really there to appease.

You did such a good job, Joe Biden said, leaning into the crowd, pointing to the Parkland students sitting in the first rows.

When Emma Gonzalez, a Parkland graduate who joined some of her classmates on the cover of TIME last year, asked former Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Tex.) how he would implement certain elements of his gun reform agenda a plan that March for Our Lives itself wrote he turned the focus back to them.

Id call you, ORourke said, to thunderous applause.

The Parkland students have never had trouble receiving that kind of attention. As quickly as they spun their pain into political action, the country latched onto their tragedy and yanked them, swiftly, into celebrity: a national speaking tour, TV appearances, the cover of TIME.

Then, the backlash. Right-wing media personalities pushed a number of conspiracy theories about Parkland survivors, including David Hogg, fabricating allegations that he was never a Stoneman Douglas student, and that he was a crisis actor hired by Democrats to harm the NRA. SWAT teams had to protect his house.

Close to two years after the shooting, they are expert in the demands made of them, even as March has bloomed into an organization that has very little to do with the specific experience of the students from Stoneman Douglas.

But when politicians talk about gun reform, they tend to flatten it into their likeness.

How in the world could you say that to March for Our Lives? Beto ORourke asked, launching an attack against Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Later, in a small press gaggle at the venues press room, ORourke tore into South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg had just spoken forcefully against a mandatory buy-back program for assault weapons, which March has endorsed, calling it a shiny object that distracts Democrats from pursuing more widely popular gun control measures, like universal background checks and federal red flag laws.

How in the world could you say that to March for Our Lives? asked ORourke, who opposed mandatory buy-backs until recently. A pair of student organizers in their blue T-shirts looked on. I was really offended by those comments. Digging in his heels, ORourke then said Buttigieg represents a politics driven by poll testing and focus group driving, and listening to consultants before they arrive at a decision.

ORourke filed out of the room, and the three dozen reporters and March students followed. Nevada Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui took ORourkes place in front of the few cameras remaining. A survivor herself of the Route 91 Harvest shooting, Jauregui subsequently wrote and passed a bill banning the sale of bump stocks in the state.

She began to talk about the night of the shooting teary-eyed, beseeching, voice unsteady while rows of reporters sat facing the opposite direction, plugging away at their computers, eating sandwiches. A member of Jaureguis team wove through their tables to let them know she was speaking just behind them.

***

Delaney Tarr was gesticulating to nobody, fingers glittering with rings, an iPhone and small notebook splayed out before her. Tarr cofounder of March for Our Lives, 19-year-old college student, astrology enthusiast was doing press, talking local radio hosts through the groups policy agenda for gun reform.

This was the Parkland students afternoon: darting in and out of the press room to watch and film candidates brief press gaggles, holding court with reporters, and occasionally stopping to greet an old friend.

In those interviews, they were candid and guileless. Marchs spokesperson waited by Tarrs side as she wrapped her radio spot. When it ended, he was quick to ask her how it went. Theyve had problems with antagonistic, conservative media outlets.

Verrry left, Tarr drawled. They asked me what Id say to Mitch McConnell. What I answered was, well, what Id say to any legislator is

It was my turn. Tarr and I wandered into the lobby to talk, but after a few minutes were interrupted by a March staffer. Cory Booker wanted a selfie.

I waited for her return, the blue photo backdrop sitting briefly empty across the room. Outside, through the glass walls of the lobby, I saw David Hogg patiently nodding in front of a camera as a journalist chatted him up.

And then, like magic, Tarr was back, jogging to our table with a shake of her head and frazzled smile.

We talked about veganism, she said. Totally unprompted.

An airpod fell from her hand and scuttled across the floor. She touched her bicep, where the outline of a nude woman, with a sheet of black hair, curled in the fetal position. From the crown of the womans head, above ground, sprouts a tuft of green leaves.

He looked at my tattoo and hes like, Whats that? she laughed, impersonating Booker. Oh, I thought that was a vegan thing.

Are you vegan? I asked her.

No! she yelped. (Booker famously wont shut up about how he is.)

The strangeness of this a sitting member of Congress lightly asking about her body art and eating habits, at a forum for presidential candidates she helped plan and promote seemed to barely register.

Tarr acknowledges that the original Never Again MSD group is aware of their relative privilege that they were afforded a spotlight to discuss their grief, while other victims of gun violence, particularly in low-income neighborhoods and among people of color, go undiscussed. Its a guilt that, she said, she is still learning to process. And it is damaging to the cause, she said, to act as if the Parkland students are operating in a vacuum.

That celebrity aspect is one that I think can be a bit damaging, because we are activists first and foremost, born out of a trauma and a tragedy, Tarr said. This is not about the fame. This is not about cameras. We don't live these glamorous, glitzy lives this is not what it seems to be perceived as.

Like the rest of the students, Tarr is still figuring out how to reconcile the otherworldliness of of her activism with her youth. But the activism itself comes naturally now. She calls it so comfortable that its like pulling on a cozy sweater.

I was like, I'm going to be a college student, and I'm going to have that experience. I'm going to do this and nobody can stop me.

Still, shes worked hard to build herself a new home at the University of Georgia, where shes a sophomore majoring in journalism and minoring in womens studies. Shes joined a dizzying number of clubs debate, literary magazine, film, and poetry among them where, she said, she has a captive audience for her writing. (Her roughly 180,000 Twitter followers dont hurt.)

But she finds other ways to be good to herself. She is learning how to say no. She is very serious about her bedtime routine. She goes to football games. She made friends who are very different from her, friends who, for example, skin deer.

I think part of this was reclaiming what I thought had been stolen from me, she said about enrolling at UGA. I was like, I'm going to be a college student, and I'm going to have that experience. I'm going to do this and nobody can stop me.

Former housing secretary Julian Castro was speaking a few yards away. Tarr went on.

I, even still now, more than a year out, I'm reconciling with the fact that after the shooting, I put my grief in a box and I pushed it aside, she said. We're better now, today, than we were in the beginning. Because I think people forget that. We were not doing well, emotionally, in the beginning. We had a lot going on.

She continued: I would only open up that can of worms of pain and grief and trauma when I was doing these interviews, because I think a lot of us did have to push our emotions and our pain aside because we felt that we needed to do it for the cause.

The original founders of Never Again MSD dont see each other as much as they used to. But they do have reunions periodically, in part to see each other and in part to meet the newer March organizers, who are sprawled across dozens of chapters around the country.

Coming together like thisit helps.

It's like that whole Hero's Journey, Tarr said, recalling the classic storytelling arc that sees its protagonist called to adventure by an unforeseen force before facing adversity, and, eventually, rebirth.

You've learned something new, so you come back with a different perspective and a different outlook. And feel the fire again, she said. It's always nice to feel that fire again. Because it's never the same unless you're at these events with these people. And then you get passionate, you want to roar, you want to shout, and scream, and I love it. I love it.

The afternoon wore on, and they passed each other like orbiting planets: all on fixed paths, rarely in alignment. They tagged each other in for different meetings, gave each other directions about what to do, and when. Where do you need me to be? is a mantra I heard early and often.

After the last speaker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, finished, I saw Tarr wandering alone through an emptying lobby. Around her, people spilled out of the auditorium, out of the bathrooms, back out of the venue through the now-abandoned security checkpoints.

She was headed to the only room off-limits to the press, but a reporter caught her. He asked what she made of the day. She thought it went well, she said, but didnt really get to watch the candidates speak. She was too busy doing interviews.

She and her former classmates would not have time for a prolonged goodbye. All of them would leave at different times that night flights back to D.C., to Florida, to Massachusetts. Hers was a red-eye back to Georgia, where she would land with just enough time to get a bus back to Athens and make her morning classes.

Top: March for Our Lives Co-Founder Emma Gonzalez (R) attends the 2020 Gun Safety Forum on October 2, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Above: Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang poses for photos with attendees after speaking during the forum. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

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'I Need to Learn How to Be a Teenager': 36 Hours with the Parkland Survivors in Vegas - VICE

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While external factors of course have an impact on our motivation levels at work, the attitude we bring each day is self-determined. Attitude explains how someone fired from his own company might then become a business icon.

Based on my experience as both a professor and consultant, here are 10 behaviors and attitudes that help increase self-motivation and professional effectiveness:

1. Accept reality and others as they are. Self-motivation begins with having realistic and appropriate expectations of work and of those around you. Instead of demanding that circumstances conform to your wishes, accept them as they are and, from that point, find room for improvement.

2. Know yourself and accept that you have strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes we seem to think that making a mistake is intolerable in a good professional, that it leads to disaster. But if we do not come to terms with our own fallibility, we end up piling on frustration and missing out on opportunities for improvement. Being aware of your own strengths and weaknesses allows you to be more effective and may save you from a downward spiral of low self-esteem. Acknowledge your mistakes, but also appreciate your successes.

3. Don't complain. Imagine you own a fast-food franchise and a bad batch of meat is discovered in another location of the same chain. You have done nothing wrong, but your business will be affected. In this situation, a franchise owner could either complain about the stroke of bad luck or be proactive and establish concrete measures to minimize the negative impact of the news. Complaining solves nothing while focusing our attention on that which we cannot control.

4. Appreciate what you have and be grateful. "Psychological hedonism" is a mental mechanism by which we accustom ourselves with astonishing ease to the progress of our work and then no longer appreciate this progress. We must make a pointed effort to pay attention to the positive, to what is working well. When we emphasize what we lack rather than what we have, we can end up discouraged.

5. Bring a positive attitude to your task. A business study showed that positive, optimistic salespeople billed 90 percent more than those saddled with negativity. And that is because the attitude with which we handle a situation or task influences the final result. In other words, if you go to a party thinking it will be boring, you probably won't have much fun, as your initial attitude will make it more difficult. Now, do not confuse positivity with naivet or a lack of realism.

6. Set relevant goals and challenges. According to the goal-setting theory of Edwin Locke, we are motivated when we perceive that our goals can be achieved and will involve considerable effort. Also, we are more motivated by more relevant goals. Therefore, important goals goals that provide something of value to others are more inspiring than an intrinsic objective (e.g., professional development) or extrinsic one (e.g., a raise or promotion).

7. Imbue what you do with meaning. Given the same task, one worker may just carry stones while another helps build a building. Going to work each morning to get paid is not the same as going to serve the community and develop personally. It's about finding important motives for doing what we do and giving our best to the task. A full life is not dependent on our occupation, but our ability make our actions matter.

8. Be proactive. When we take decisive action at work, rather than sit back as spectators, we take on more ownership and feel more motivated.

9. Raise hopes and rely on responsibility. The key to motivation is not so much doing just what we like, but instead pouring the most enthusiasm into what we have to do. And when enthusiasm fades, take responsibility to carry on.

10. Be persistent and persevere. If we give up when faced with obstacles, we head into a negative feedback loop being discouraged, with sapped enthusiasm, making us less likely to achieve our goals. Trying to overcome obstacles is, in itself, a motivating force. Determination and perseverance in tough times are the way to rekindle motivation.

While we cannot control everything around us, we can control our own attitudes and behaviors to our own circumstances. As such, following the ten principals outlined above can help us improve our motivation in all aspects of our lives both professional and personal.

By Pablo Maella, Senior Lecturer of Managing People in Organizations, IESE Business School

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Ten Ways To Increase Your Motivation At Work - Forbes

In this months Well-being column, former BBC Studios exec and corporate wellness coach Tracy Forsyth tackles how to get through next weeks MIPCOM market in Cannes without losing the plot and yourself.

Ah, the annual global TV market MIPCOM. For those who dont work in TV, the picture it can summon is one of TV execs strolling on the Croisette in the gorgeous Cannes sunshine, laughing at star-studded cocktail parties and shaking hands on a multimillion dollar deal before a seafood and champagne lunch on the company yacht. However, for most delegates, MIPCOM is a feat of endurance that can deplete your mind, body and soul and leave you a husk of a human by the time its all over.

Breakfast meetings start at 8.30am and then pitching, buying and selling goes on in back-to-back 30-minute batches right through 6pm. Then its a drinks pitch, client dinner, the industry parties and networking until 2.30am. If you are Animal from The Muppets then this probably energises you. For everybody else, here is my simple survival guide.

Theres a concept in yoga called Brahmacharya that was traditionally translated as sexual restraint. The principle suggests you channel sexual energy into the practice of yoga, not hedonism. Now Im not going to get into the myth of MIP Husbands and Wives that is not my business (although if its true I wholeheartedly disapprove). These days Brahmacharya has lost its sexual connotation and is taken to mean using your energy in the right way.

At MIPCOM, there are a huge amount of distractions and energy sappers. You have to be on from the moment you turn up at the airport because there are 100 people in the industry also on the same plane that you could talk to. Its fun but draining. So, focus your energy on what needs doing, who needs seeing, landing what message you need to land and prioritise that.

Secondly, take at least two minutes every hour to breathe deeply and fully. When you are waiting for your next client, spend that time consciously breathing deeply. In and out. In and out. Or when you are walking from the Croisette to the Bunker, breathe in for four steps and out for four steps. Do it whenever you can. Breathing deeply refreshes us and brings more oxygen into our bloodstream, in turn energising us. It also helps calm down the nervous system and destresses us. All that fresh oxygen to the brain will even help you perform better.

Between spending three-plus hours a day on our smartphones and 12 hours at a desk doing deals and meetings, its no wonder we end up hunched over with a sore shoulders and neck, feeling like a crumpled-up tissue by the end of each day. Stand up and stretch as much as you possibly can. If its difficult to do this in a room full of serious meetings, then go to the restroom and stretch in there. Full-body stretch, raise arms over the head, lean side to side. Fold over from your hips, knees bent (though avoid head below heart if you have high blood pressure). Do some twists from side to side. In yoga, twists are said to massage your internal organs and bring new prana or energy to them. For a real luxury, book yourself in for a post-MIPCOM massage when you get back home and a restorative yoga class.

Finally, remember to hydrate. I love a rum cocktail. And a glass of prosecco. But when you add those to six coffees in the morning and four cups of tea in the afternoon, its no wonder you start to feel a bit jaded and wan.

There is pressure to drink at MIPCOM because many a time you are entertaining clients or out at a party. But sustained drinking and caffeine intake over three to four days will have you feeling rotten. So hydrate as much as humanly possible: drink herbal teas, water, hot water with lemon, water with cucumber. Just drink your H20.

Good luck!

Tracy is a creative mentor for the Channel 4 Indie Growth Fund, the producer of the WFTV mentoring scheme and a professional executive coach. Follow her at walterwootze.com

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TBI Well-being: How to survive MIPCOM - TBI Vision

Hi companies,

A quick note from a puzzled customer/bystander. Im trying to decipher the signals that youre sending out to the world; there seems to be a sizeable paradox on display.

All three of you madecoincidental headlinesin support of the global climate strikes, even halting business for a day to show that you mean business. It is awesome to see companies taking their environmental footprints seriously; that is the only way were going to make any progress if entities and people accept they are part of a massive web of emissions and consumption, and each does what it can to reduce.

It gets kind of weird though when you take your great initiatives and jump on board with the broader activist movement. For example, you also (at least Patagonia), linked up with 350.0rgs Bill McKibben, who had this to say on Patagonias website: Climate isnt an issue its a lens, a way to understand the economy, politics and foreign affairs. If growth was how we understood the 20thcentury, survival is how well bottom line the 21st.

Bill is quite clear where he stands; he is a fighter, an activist and happy jail-bird for the right cause. You three businesses are a bit of a conundrum though your very existence, and success, is kind of a bombastically huge exclamation mark on how we got into this global emissions mess, isnt it? In what way do any of you respect Bills survival metric?

The luxurious three of you Lush, Patagonia, B&Js thrive only in wealthy environments, ones where there is a lot of money to suck out of image-conscious jeans. A notable commonality of your brands is hedonism; you dont just slyly peddle luxury, you shout it.

The world is groaning under the burden of feeding, heating, and keeping healthy 7+ billion people. As you and Bill both claim, we need to lessen our footprint, to curb emissions, to live smaller. All well and good!

But lets be honest about what you flog. A container of sweet vanilla, pure marshmallow powder and a hint of lavender $7.45 per 190g or eight bucks tax incl for a single, decadent bath bomb. A cosmetic facial product consisting of rosewater and iris flower extract, glycerin and beeswax, all for only $29.95/100g, or a modest $300/kilogram.

Ben & Jerry, surely one of your most common ingredients is irony, with sprinkles of ineffable sanctimoniousness. One web page over from your description of the culturally imperative The Tonight Dough flavour (Caramel & Chocolate Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookie Swirls & Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough) all humour evaporates as younotethat Climate change is about Justice The cruel irony of climate change is that people in the developing world those who can least afford to adapt will pay the steepest price for the 200 years of industrialization and pollution from the developed world.

I guess those who can most afford it are the ones that form your customer base, correct? You know what the steepest price is, B&J? How about $10 for a liter of ice cream?

How about $160 puffy jackets for children 6 months of age, with the lecturing manufacturer proudly proclaiming on their wall that 1% is for the planet. In other words, Patagonia will show its utter and total climatic devotion by sending $1.60 to help fund climate activism, and somehow find a home for the other $158.40 siphoned from the wallets of lifestylers. Probably 10 percent goes to the factory in China that makes these things, Im guessing? Ben & Jerry, those poor people in the developing world, all 3+ billion of them how does your extravagantly expensive lifestyle product fit into their fight for survival? Do you think they are impressed to see what you sell, while at the same time you demand that they stop using the fuels that barely keeps them alive? And Lush, what precisely is the profit margin on $300/kilogram of your sludge that is predominantly glycerin, beeswax, and some flower squeezings that pampered-silly pre-teens massage into their little faces?

Dont get me wrong, Ive enjoyed your products, including a Patagonia fleece for years, until it was so out of style friends wouldnt let me wear it. Because you know as well as I do that its about style as much as longevity. I enjoy Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz ice cream when I can find it, but Canada is cruelly deprived of this flavour. And Lush, trust me, no one enjoys smearing pumpkin and banana and ground-up almonds all over their face as much as I do (though you could have warned about the dangers of doing this outside; a hundred frenzied birds are terrible for the complexion).

And being a businessperson, I have no problem with you making healthy profit margins thats how free markets are supposed to work.

But are you not architects, captains, optimizers, and gleeful champions of the over-consumptive lifestyle that is the very root cause of excessive emissions?

In an era where you are demanding immediate action with respect to greenhouse gas emissions/climate change, how do you even begin to justify your existence? The world does not need you. The world would suffer not the slightest if all three of your organizations vanished tomorrow. Your employees need not suffer, surely those deliriously large profit margins would be able to provide very handsome severances? Patagonia, you brag how youve sent $89 million to various environmental causes since 1985 in your 1% for the planet campaign; what happened to the other 99 percent/ $8.9 billion? And would those 6-month-old babies survive in, say, a $30 coat as opposed to the $160 beauty you peddle? Or is it built extra-capable for their arctic explorations?

Heres the problem, when you cross over from being captains of sustainable business practices to brothers-in-arms with the likes of McKibben. Heres a quote from him from your very ownemail/post, Patagonia: it has been a great pleasure to watch the climate movement, as it has grown, focus its attention ever less on the natural world and ever more on the injustice that is at the core of this strange moment in history.

It is bad enough when people knowingly make climate change a political issue, because you all know how politics goes right? If you want true progress, who in their right mind would seek to make the issue political? Need I ask you to view the carnage of the US political landscape to ask yourself if making climate change political is a good idea?

On top of that, there seems to be scant wisdom in vigorously attacking fuel industries that keep 7 billion people alive, all the while selling over-priced lifestyle products that are only affordable because of the wealth generated by that cheap energy. Every earthling relies on cheap reliable fossil fuels for energy and life as we know it. Cutting off heat supplies and eliminating the cooking fuel of billions of under-developed people simply isnt going to happen, and it wont in the comfortable west either.

Take, for example, Rhode Island in January of this year. Their governordeclared a state of emergencywhen overly-strong natural gas demand during a cold spell depressurized the system and 7,000 customers nearly froze to death. Im not kidding, the governor pleaded If you have heat, please, call your loved ones, your church members, anyone in the area, offer for them to stay over at your house. Make sure they have a warm place to stay tonight. This near catastrophe happened because people like McKibben have successfully blocked new pipeline construction. Do you honestly want a calamity like that on your head?

If, for some logical-yet-inconsistent reason you declare that you would rather stay in business and keep harming the planet with your existence, then we need to work together, the existing energy industry, the burgeoning renewable energy industry, the purveyors of luxury goods, and citizens as a whole. You need to stop attacking and start collaborating, and not with hate-filled shouters like McKibben. We need some grownups at the table.

And, as a start, if you decide that staying in business is preferable to shutting your doors, then please admit that you know better than anyone that lifestyle is not to be trifled with; people do not want to go without your Stuff That No One Needs.

There is no doubt that you are doing all you can to limit your footprint and go carbon neutral. Good for you. But the existential questions you raise when you support climate activists like McKibben is: why are you here at all?

If the stances of companies like these dont make sense, theres a reason. Pick up a copy of The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity available atAmazon.ca,Indigo.ca, orAmazon.com to find out why. It may well be the best decision you will ever make!

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Column: An open letter to Patagonia, Lush Cosmetics, and Ben & Jerrys your climate activism/lifestyle marketing/bipolar worldview begs the...

Perhaps more than anywhere else in London, Soho has stood as an emblem of hedonism. In testament to this, as the area attempts to cling onto its identity in the face of advancing gentrification, The Photographers Gallery is holding an exhibition that celebrates its resplendent visual and cultural history.

Opening on October 18, Shot In Soho includes works by legendary photographers like William Klein, Anders Petersen, as well as the late Corinne Day, whose Soho home occasionally served as the set for her renowned editorial shoots. The exhibition features other photographers who arent necessarily associated with shooting Soho, such asKelvin Brodie,Clancy Gebler DaviesandJohn Goldblatt, but who helped to document it nonetheless. It also includes new, specially commissioned work by Daragh Soden, who explores the heart of contemporary Soho.

A cultural hub and a hub for multiculturalism, its little surprise that Soho became the face of countless iconic movements from Swinging London over on Carnaby Street to the beating heart of the music scene on Denmark Street and home to various communities that shaped the areas personality.

Now, Soho is flanked by commercial hotspots and taunted by the impending arrival of developers (the gallery seems keen to highlight the eventual impact of the local Crossrail station on Tottenham Court Road). It seems the area itself a tourist destination these days is battling to guard its character.

Though Soho still harbours relics of its eccentric past, they serve as embers of a long history thats potentially winding down, but ought not fade from memory thanks to the wealth of photographers who documented it.

Shot In Soho runs at The Photographers Gallery, London from October 18February 20; thephotographersgallery.org.uk

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The Photographers' Gallery celebrates the chaos of Soho in new show - Creative Review

It is interesting to note that at 23, the age thatChalamet is now, he was still serving time as Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, an ordeal that has nodoubt contributed to his desire to take risks in his career. Theres a littlegremlin inside of me that thinks, Just say something shocking. Youre onlyhere for a few minutes, say something terrible, he admitted to Willem Dafoein Interview magazine late last year,talking about his attitude towards the press, but also somewhat accuratelypegging what he offers in The King. Theresa kind of perverse glee I get from that.

In Shakespeares Henriad, the arc that Prince Halfollows from Henry IV Parts I and II through to his coronationand eventual triumph in battle in Henry Vis in itself not unlike the ascension of a boyish movie star: Initiallyregarded as a heavy-drinking wastrel, he is forced to prove himself worthy ofpublic adulation by recasting himself as a serious man, leaving behind hisyouthful follies to cement his place in history. The diminutive Prince Hal, anickname meant to cut him down to size, is not a million miles away from theequally-belittling R-Pattz, or the cutesy Timmy Chalamet. Making The King, it would appear that Chalametisto extend the metaphormounting his own version of Agincourt, a swing forpower meant to announce his arrival as a full-grown leading man. Certainly, hehas a face designed for solemn close-ups: minutely expressive, perfect atconveying doubt and fear. If he is capable of the perverse glee and thebuck-wild, go-for-broke idiocy that Pattinson brings to the screen, he has notyet permitted us to see it. When the camera cuts between them, Chalamet is stilland exquisite, and Pattinson is gloriously, stupidly outsized. What results isa fascinating switch between the sacred and the thrillingly profane.

When he appeared as if from nowhere in Luca GuadagninosCall Me By Your Name, what madeChalamet so affecting was the way that, like an optical illusion, he appearedto shift from man to boy and back again, occasionally graceful and composed,and far more often petulant and attitudinally teenaged. Ironically, a little ofElios kid self-centerednessto say nothing of the adolescent sex-drive thatdrove him to quite literally have sexwith a peachwould not have gone amiss in his portrayal of the young andwayward Henry V, whose Wikipedia entry has a section with the brilliant title Supposed Riotous Youth. In interviews,Chalamet has proven as studious and as earnest as Pattinson is irreverent, withGuadagnino noting his intoxicatingambition to be agreatactor in a 2018 interview in GQ. (Pattinson, when he was roughlythe same age that Chalamet was in that profile, was bundled into media training forsuggesting that he styled his hair with the spit of twelve-year-old virgins.) Consequentially, ifhe does not effectively embody the young Princes sybaritic qualities, he iswell-suited to the role of a boy King: Something about him does appear predestined,focused on his future eminence. It is difficult to picture Chalamet, theyoungest person to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars in eight decades,wasting much valuable time on drunken revelry.

Because The King does not useShakespeares dialogue, we do not hear the Prince talking about hot wenches orthe tongues of bawds; there is some light carousing, and some heavy moping, butChalamets Hal often seems emo rather than excessive in his hedonism. It doesnot help that in loose breeches and a tunic, he resembles a beautiful gap-yearstudent with a penchant for hemp harem pants, or that for the first half anhour he has the same tousled, heroin chic hair that he typically wears tofashion week. Co-written by Joel Edgerton, who also appears as its taciturn,un-comic Falstaff, the films relatively unpoetic screenplay is more interestedin the ever-looping relevance of its sexual and class politicsdick-swingingrulers starting fruitless power struggles, poor men laying down their lives inservice of other, more powerful mens whimsthan it is in replicating the musicalityand elegance of the original text. (Viewers tolerances may vary: Personally, Iwould argue that to rewrite Henry Vslyric, immaculate Saint Crispins Day address takes, as the Dauphin says toHal, extremely beeg balls.)

If it is meant to function as a coronation for an older, graver incarnation ofTimothe Chalamet, The King is half successful.It is more likely to be remembered as the film in which Robert Pattinson tookhis love of perversity to its logical end. Having survived the trial-by-fire ofemerging as a sensitive, talented actor after years spent in the wilderness ofyoung adult vampire movies, he is free from the tyranny of having to makegood decisions, giving him the opportunity to make interesting ones instead. Heis hilarious here, rousing in his excess, and so evidently loving theexperience that his pleasure is contagious: To watch him deploying troops witha minute flick of the wrist, or flipping his incongruous wig as if hes posingfor a catalogue, is joyful. He has nothing left to prove. He has us at allo.The most interesting thing will be to watch Chalamet steadily reach the samelevel of abandon as he ages, until he is self-assured enough to play the fool.

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The King Is a Chaotic Coming of Age - The New Republic

Vancouver Writers Festival

An Evening with Emma Donoghue

When: Oct. 22, 8 p.m.

Where: Performance Works, 1218 Cartwright St.

Tickets and info:writersfest.bc.ca

The award-winning author/screenwriter/playwright Emma Donoghue is a mindful traveller, but not in the meditative, pay attention to the moment, without judgment kind of way.

No, Donoghues mindfulness has a distinct purpose. Its there to register and record everyday experiences as potential fodder for future stories.

Take, for example, Donoghues latest novel Akin. The book is set mostly in Nice, France, and it tells the story of an almost 80-year-old professor who has, through sad circumstances, been entrusted with the care of his 11-year-old great-nephew. The street-smart kid lands on the mans doorstep on the eve of his trip to Nice to revisit his childhood home and to get to the bottom of a family mystery dating to the Second World War.

The author of the huge literary hit Room (shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize) and screenwriter of the movie of the same name (Donoghue was nominated for an adapted-screenplay Academy Award) spent considerable time in Nice over the last decade before writing this book.

Im always taking notes. It can give an extra thrill even to a weekend trip, said Donoghue, from her home in London, Ont. It was really that in Nice. When I was mugged by a seagull, for instance, I remember thinking Ill use this. Im losing my lunch, but I will put this in the book.

And she did.

Donoghue adds that this location in particular wasnt just a place to collect stories, but it also became the backdrop for all the stories, making it the first location to actually inspire a whole Donoghue novel.

Its a funny mixture. It is an international touristy city, but it is also very French as well, said Donoghue about the south-of-France locale. Its very modern. Its all about pleasure and hedonism and so on, but also it has so many traces of World War II in particular. So it really intrigued me and I thought I could write a novel about quite dark things but set in this very sunny, touristy setting, which makes it a much more interesting mixture. It was the first time Ive ever written a book because of living somewhere.

A native of Dublin who has called Canada home since the late-1990s, Donoghue will be talking about the Nice novel and other topics when she is here Oct. 22 for An Evening with Emma Donoghue, one of the marquee events at this years Vancouver Writers Festival (Oct. 21-27).

One of those other topics will undoubtedly be Room.

In Room, the story is told from the perspective of a young boy who is being held captive in a small room with his mother. Its the pairs relationship that anchors the story. Akin while it has no criminal and disturbing plot lines and is expansive in terms of geography and time does see Donoghue delivering another adult/kid relationship that at times can also seem confining.

Yes, I do like it when people are in some sense trapped together. Its like Sartres line that hell is other people. I enjoy that, said Donoghue.

Donoghues life is busy. She has many projects on the go, including a novel and a film version of her novel The Wonder. And adapting Charlotte Bronts last novel Villette into a TV series. She is also raising 15- and 11-year-old kids, so she says its not uncommon to see her typing away on her laptop while she sits in the dentists waiting room or in a parked car.

Adding to that packed schedule is the promotion of a book.

Its a bit of an effort to go on the road, but on the other hand you have fun times especially if you can run into friends or relatives as you go along, said Donoghue. You certainly eat better. I frequently think, Oh, I wouldnt be having charred octopus if I was home with the kids.

Promoting a book in Canada Donoghue says tends be a different, more-engaging experience than touring south of the border. Here theres a sense of community that Donoghue, a natural and interesting talker, likes a lot.

In the States it is just two weeks of events my publisher has set up for me. Its not particularly linking up with other authors, said Donoghue. In Canada, it is the festival circuit and it is so much more sociable. Also, the Canadian literary scene I find really democratic and not really a star system. Everyone pals along in the green room.

While Akin is her latest work, Donoghue knows that no matter its success, or the success of other future projects, Room will always be a part of the conversation.

I never expect to have another Room. I think I was very lucky on hitting on an idea that was so capturing and I certainly dont expect that to happen every time. It was such a fluke. It sold so many millions of copies, said Donoghue. I just feel like I want to keep writing the books that obsess me and get them published. Luckily, because of Room, they tend to reach more readers than they used to, so thats a permanent plus, really.

Adding to the life of Room is an upcoming theatrical adaptation. The play, penned by Donoghue, is set to premiere next spring in London, Ont., before moving to Toronto. Donoghue, who already has a large handful of plays under her belt, said it was nice to return to this form for Room, and that adapting it to the stage was easier than writing the movie.

What do I do? So I got about a dozen books on film writing from Chriss (her partner Prof. Chris Roulston) university library and I remember feeling like a total loser. When youre checking them out youre kind of embarrassed that the librarians see you. Then you know you get to the Oscars, said Donoghue, with a chuckle.

While Donoghue was having a bit of a laugh with the Oscar comment, she actually is very serious about that accomplishment and thinks her path is one other female writers should consider tracing.

Whenever I meet young women I try to push them to be more ambitious, because we have been indoctrinated not to be. All of us have been raised to be helpful and, you know, move to the back, really. Filmwriting in particular, you know, 87 per cent of films are still written by men, so I think when a woman has a novel that is a big hit, I really think she is duly bound to try and write the film herself, said Donoghue. Its not impossible.

Often when beloved books are adapted into movies people worry if the film will be as good. Fans of a novel suggest you should read the book before seeing the movie and when asked about that Donoghue agrees.

I quite agree if you are going to experience both do read the book first because it is really hard for us to picture anything differently once weve seen the movie. You cant get those faces out of your head, so just for that technical reason, said Donoghue. And you shouldnt read the book right before the film because then you come out and (you send a) crotchety email to the author going, Why did they cut that character? You need to enjoy each on their own merits. I think the absolutely ideal experience would be to read the book and then two years later you know luckily it does take a few years to make a movie go see the movie then.

Donoghue is currently in discussions about adapting Akin for film.

As a star novelist, Donoghues work is always open for scrutiny. One particular reviewer, though, really stands out. A few years ago Stephen King, yes that Stephen King, reviewed Donoghues The Wonder in the New York Times.

Yeah, Stephen King, oh that was great because I felt it gave people a totally false sense that I write his kind of books, said Donoghue again with another laugh. Im sure The Wonder got a lot more readers, because people said, Oh, this is a Stephen King recommendation. He is a really good reviewer. It was so exciting.

Donoghue may have more of an understanding of literary criticism than most as her father, Denis Donoghue, is a renowned literary critic.

He is still writing away at 90, said Donoghue about her dad. Hes working on a book about Henry James. He makes me feel that I am not very prolific by comparison, that I should really get out of bed earlier.

What about giving him her work to read?

Ahhh, yes, its a bit nerve-wracking, but of course he doesnt treat me like a critic, added Donoghue. He treats me like a loving dad.

dgee@postmedia.com

twitter.com/dana_gee

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Room author Emma Donoghue's new novel dives deep into love and loss, and what it means to be a family - Mitchell Advocate