Artist Managers and Booking Agents – by: Tom W. Gauger

As a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency, I am always amazed at either the scope and talent of an artist’s business team or the why and how an artist exists within the mediocre framework which they are operating from. And believe me, I’ve seen plenty of both. It would seem that many managers fall into these positions, like in many fields, not out of genuine talent or know-how, but by mere presence alone – They were friends of the artist or a brother to one of the members of the act and so forth. If a manager, important at every turn of an artist’s career, is so important, than what exactly is it that makes up a good manager or booking agent?

Most everyone thinks of contacts. No doubt that contacts are important in this business. The thinking is – “Just as long as they act like they know what they are doing and talk a big game dropping some names along the way,” than they must “know” what they are doing and they can get the job done – Or can they?

Many a talented and well-known manager today got into the field, yes, because they knew an individual in the act, but the big difference in their particular operating style, is that they had drive and authenticity and still do today. They got the job done, and still do, because they were approachable, authentic, and had the vision to see the end result. Many a manager today just drools all over the potential end result without the authenticity and approachability that is needed to maintain crucial and vital career lifelines along the way. Artist career pathways are much like a product off the grocery store shelves – There’s a product life expectancy, and the marketing exec’s and everyone else know this. Same in the music industry with a few exceptions as there are in any business.

While we’re addressing artist management, have you ever asked yourself the question – “What makes up a good artist manager? or Who can truly get the job done for me?” Another way to say it is, “I want a record deal with some industry success and who can take me there?” While obviously not guaranteed, and any authentic and honest manager will tell you this, that not every deserving and incredibly talented individual or act makes it – And we’re not talking to the top, but even to the small break or single CD release. This hit or miss approach has frustrated many a well-intentioned artist along the way.

Let’s take a closer look at what is helpful and what might give you some clues to what a potential manager looks like and what he or she can and should be doing to get the job done.

As already mentioned, some immediate traits that you should recognize when talking with potential artist managers are authentic, honest, approachable, creative, thinking of your absolute best and not their interests, qualities. And these qualities ought to exude from who they are and not a put-on, or faked front. Great managers never promise, but deliver. Don’t over-hype, but convey your act in such a way that labels, booking agents and others in the industry just “Have to be involved in the project.” The bearer of the news commands respect and a listening too, because they are at a minimum seen as an individual with scruples, morals and with solid belief in the act. Great managers deliver on what they perceive as genuine and alleged talent and not a musical whim or fleeting musical industry fad. So if you are to find a great manager you to will have to be honest, approachable, think from their perspective of how difficult their job is and appreciate that, and deliver your artist pitch with a non “artsy fartsy” mentality. You’d be surprised at how many “What’s up dude” artists are out there. You want a professional manager than you’d better come across as a professional and well-intentioned act.

Let’s talk a moment about booking agents and the qualities that you will be looking for. I have written an article, The Talent Agent Inside, that you might find interesting and can be found at www.reelmusician.com/reelmusician_026.htm. While that article addresses your own ability to book your act and take up your cause, I will finish the remainder of this article on finding and securing the “right” booking agent for representation. The talent agent like the artist manager is not always easy to spot or find. Many a booking agent will sell you a bag of goods on what they can do and then really never get around to doing it. Your artist manager, if you have one, will be working on this as well, but you should be talking, making phone calls, and emailing potential agents and individuals who can steer you in the right direction.

In short, you need to find an agent who really believes in your act, who can either book you into appropriate venues as a solo act, or book you as an opening act for headliners. Yes, I’m sure you already knew that, but let’s go a step further. Finding these agents is not an easy task. As an agent do you really want to spend your time, your dollar on the phone and mailing out press kits on no-name acts with little in return? You look at all of the acts out there who want to be booked, but don’t want to help out with any costs associated with the basic costs of doing business as a “baby act.” It’s just expected that, especially with the smaller booking agencies, that the agencies will absorb the costs. That being the case, agents and mangers have to deeply protect who they represent and who they pump valuable time and resources into – Somewhere along the way there has to be something or someone who pays the phone, postage, etc.

Try to look at your securing an agent from that perspective and your insight will greatly increase along with your ability to secure an agent. Volumes more could be written on this subject, but for the sake of time, and from the reality that you’ve got more to start working with, with just the last paragraph alone to get you moving, that we will leave it here and pick up in a future article. Just be aware of not only the “big” talkers in the industry, but the individuals who are working hard, but need something to work with as well. Understanding their issues and frustrations will go a long ways in your ability to secure a manger or booking agent. A good talent agent is worth their weight in gold. Before you set off looking for an agent, put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, how am I going to make money with this act? How much of my time and energy is going to be purged with little to no financial results? Figuring out an angle whereby you can help the agent out will not only tell them that you care, but that you’re on the ball and that you won’t have your hand out the entire time. You do your part and in time someone will come along and take the necessary risk on your talent.

Tom Gauger is a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency. This author may be contacted at 615-300-5030 or tgauger@reelmusician.com. As a singer Mr Gauger can be heard on Fox TV, UPN TV Station ID’s, O’Charley’s and many others. Mr Gauger is also a writer on the song Who To Love slotted for upcoming telecast on the Emmy award winning soap The Guiding Light. Artists Managers and Booking Agents – copyright 2006 by Tom Gauger.

About The Author Mr Gauger is a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency. As a session singer you may hear him on Fox TV, UPN Station ID’s, O’Charley’s and many others. As a writer you may hear one his songs, that he has co-written entitled Who To Love, slotted for upcoming telecast on the Emmy award winning soap The Guiding Light. Mr Gauger may be contacted at 615-300-5030 or tgauger@reelmusician.com. Artist Managers and Booking Agents – by Tom Gauger copyright 2006 tgauger@reelmusician.com

What can make You a Fantastic Internet Marketeer? – by: Max Clixel

You’ve probably know many answers to this question: a good marketeer palces links, bad one – don’t, good one makes surveys, bad one – don’t, etc. All of these answers are right, but there is one key difference.

I’m gonna share it with you. In a moment. But let’s start with a story first.

Do you remember that story about Henry Ford creating a 6-cylinder engine? If not – do a search – it’s a great story to learn. What was his key to success?

Well, probably good intuition, and I can’t argue with that. But the point of the story is that he persisted on something nobody believed. Nobody else believed it is possible, but he insisted.

And his persistence paid up. So, the secret component in Internet Marketing is persistence. And persistence makes amounts.

For example: one link in your forum signature can make you 2-50 visitors (that wouldn’t make you any money probably, however nothing is impossible). But if you participate in 100 even not-very popular forums – you’re gonna get 200-5000 visitors. And if you sell something for $50 that’s gonna make you on average $100-$2500.

Do you see the point here? Let’s take a look at it in different way. Let’s imagine that you’re exchanging links. If you exchange with only 10 sites (which seems to be not very hard) – you’re gonna get some amount, let’s say 10 visitors per day. And now imagine exchaging links with 1000 sites – that’s 1000 visitors. How to get thousand link partners? Well, get 10 each and every day and in 3 months you’ll have a thousand.

And thousand links for search engines is way to understand that your site is relevant. It’s pretty argueable point, but that’s how Google, Yahoo and many others think. So that’s how a marketeer should think. So get links and many of them. You know that’s needed to be done, but why don’t you do that?

Do you know that you should post your articles to many sites? But why don’t you do that?

Be Persistent! I can’t stress that enough.

One of the biggest mistake of newbies is that they try something for a day or two, see no result and stop doing anything. That’s WRONG! Continue to do something for at least a month to see results, unless you have a million dollars to spend and nobody will ask where did it go. I doubt that’s possible nowadays.

What to do about that? Here is the plan:

Ask yourself: what would be the best to do in next month that will get ABUNDANT result in future? Write that! And do that! Do you need to write 100 articles? Do that! Nobody’s going to do that for you, unless, again, you’re too rich to do that.

Success is waiting for you, just be a lot more persistent. Remember, failure sometimes is a last step left to a great success. Many rich people will tell you that. Go ahead and ask them. And probably they’ll agree that you MUST be persistent in your goals.

1. So set a goal today 2. Start to do it 3. Don’t analyze results until you have done really massive result.

About The Author Max Clixel is an author of www.Clixels.com “Clixelling your way to Marketing”. You can reprint this article freely as long as it’s reprinted completely including this paragraph with active link and without any changes.

Best Recipes: Orange Fruity Smoothie – by: Donna Monday

Orange smoothies are really delicious and this fruit-filled recipe for Orange Fruity Smoothie is one of the reasons why. You’ve gotta love a drink that has wonderful fruits like banana, peach, raspberries and mixes them with nutritious orange juice.

Fruit smoothies are good for you and you will make this Orange Fruity Smoothie again and again.

Orange Fruity Smoothie

• 1 medium banana, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 ripe peach, peeled, halved, pitted and diced
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 ice cubes

Directions

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

About The Author Copyright 2004 Donna Monday Easy to make – fun to drink http://www.1st-milkshake-n-smoothie-recipes.com

How To Stop The Fighting In Your Relationship – by: Brenda Shoshanna

For some couples fighting is the fire that keeps their relationships alive. It lets them know the other cares. Many are determined to win a battle that never ends. Others try to right the wrongs they have experienced in the past with someone new. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior is doomed to failure. When we bring baggage from a former relationship into the present, all new relationships simply become a continuation of the past.

What People Get Out of Fighting

It is important to understand why couples keep fighting. For some fighting is a fire that keeps their relationships alive. It lets them know the other cares, things aren’t really over, and sparks still fly between them. Fighting can keep these couples bonded, causing them to think about each other a great deal. Some love power struggles. They love winning and feeling power over the other. This makes them feel strong.

Fighting can easily become a habit, something individuals fall into automatically and instinctively. Needless to say, fighting prevents real communication. Rather than addressing issues, it causes a situation to remain stuck.

“Without a good fight, a relationship is over,” says Mary, a twenty six year old administrative assistant. “The lights have gone off between us. It’s a sign my partner no longer cares.” Mary, who was recently divorced and is now in another choppy relationship feels that eventually she’ll marry a man with whom she can fight – and survive the storms. “ I respect a guy who I can fight with, who can take me as I am.” For Mary being angry, fighting and winning has became her identity. Without it, she no longer knows who she truly is. She does not see price she is paying for this kind of relationship or what toll it takes on all concerned. Unfortunately, the anger many individuals live with on a daily basis can become crystallized into their identity. Needless to say, this blocks out much of the happiness, flexibility, communication and intimacy they desire. “I’m not letting her walk all over me,” Roger would balk whenever his ex wife expressed her needs to him now, or brought up any issue. Rather than listening to what she had to say, he immediately took it as criticism. “She’s trying to tell me I’m inadequate,” he would declare. The war was on. What started as a conversation, turned into a power struggle. From Roger’s point of view, his very manhood was at stake. However, as long as any of us hold onto our anger and continue fighting, there is no hope of working the problems through. Roger could not pause and realize that his partner’s needs and feelings had nothing to do with him. He was determined to take whatever she said or did personally and keep feeling badly about himself. However, it’s impossible not to receive the fruits of what you have put forth. “As you sow, so shall you reap,” is an immutable law of living. Although we may justify all kinds of behavior it is absolutely inevitable that we alll experience the consequences of our thoughts, actions and deeds. There are many steps involved in letting go of anger. The very first is to realize that anger is a toxin. It is not a source of strength or power, but can become an addiction, something that hinders our well being and stops our life from going forward. There are definite steps we can take to undo anger. Here are a few one can take to begin. They are taken from The Anger Diet which offers one step a day for thirty days. These following guidelines are simple, but powerful. Why not try them today and see.

Putting An End To The War

1) Stop Blaming – While we are engaged in pointing a finger, and making the other feel guilty, we cannot see what is really going on. Blame is a way to keep the fight alive. TAKE A VACATION FROM BLAME FOR ONE DAY. Instead of thinking of all the ways the person has hurt you keep your eyes open to watch how you may be stoking the fires. Focus upon what the person has done for you, instead, the ways in which they have been kind.

2) Realize The Price You Are Paying For These Fights – Unless we truly realize the terribly toll fighting is taking on us, we will continue it automatically. Take note of the consequences each fight brings, what it is doing to your body, mind and spirit. Then ask, do I truly want this? Haven’t I suffered enough? Why not stop it today?

3) Choose To Be Happy Rather Than Right – This is the time to expand your view. Define success as being happy rather than being right. Learn other tools and techniques which will de-escalate anger and make a positive relationship possible..

4) Build A Strong Sense of Self-Worth – The best defense against anger is feeling good about yourself. Build a sense of self worth. Treat yourself beautifully and treat your partner beautifully as well. Let go of all that opposes this.

As we have the courage to let go of anger, not only does our health improve, but soon we notice many kinds of wonderful, new people and experiences entering our lives. We attract what we focus upon. When we focus upon well-being, forgiveness and love, that is what will fill our lives.

Copyright 2005 Brenda Shoshanna

About The Author Brenda Shoshanna Melt away toxic feelings with Dr Shoshanna’s new book, The Anger Diet, (30 Days To Stress Free Living.) Psychologist, speaker and relationship expert, Dr Shoshanna has provided the only diet you’ll need – from anger. This diet shows us how to give up one form of anger a day and replace it with a healthy, constructive antidote. Discover how anger camouflages itself, pinpoint the 24 forms of anger, learn what to do when you’re the subject of anger and much more. Dr. Shohsanna is author of many books, including Zen Miracles (Finding Peace In An Insane World), Wiley, Zen and the Art of Falling in Love (Simon and Schuster), Save Your Relationship (21 Laws of Successful Relationships), Living By Zen, (Timeless Truths For Everyday Life). Contact Dr Shoshanna at http://www.brendashoshanna.com , or mailto:topspeaker@yahoo.com

Weaving Your Personal Statement Together – by: Elaine Millward

1. SECRETS TO SUCCESS

2. MAKING A POWERFUL FIRST IMPRESSION

3. AVOID AMBIGUITY

4. MAKING A PROFESSIONAL IMPRESSION

4. BONUS SAMPLE PERSONAL STATEMENT

The failure of the vast majority of students to get admission to their chosen university is one of the great unpublicised stories of our time.

Why do they fail?

Because they think in their terms and do not consider the reader: the admission officer.

They don’t even know they are doing it.

THAT is why they fail to gain a university place.

This article will help you craft a perfect personal statement. Everyone is special and everyone has a personal statement inside them. The main premise of this article is to inspire you. Please don’t feel daunted at the personal statement – simply write the way you speak and you are half way there.

1. SECRETS TO SUCCESS

Your fist aim is to make sure that your personal statement gets read; start with a powerful selling point that catches the admission officer’s eye. Admission officers usually give each personal statement a quick scan before picking the best for a more thorough reading. Your personal statement must therefore clearly show the most perfunctory reader what you have to offer.

This means that your words need to be short and punchy.

2. MAKING A POWERFUL FIRST IMPRESSION

The first and main section of your personal statement will almost certainly be a career and achievements, as this is the crucial area that shows that you can do the course on offer. Within each paragraph of your personal statement, put details of your most impressive or relevant achievements at the top of each section.

Always end your personal statement on a high note so that you leave the reader with a final positive image of you as they put the personal statement down. Make sure you describe yourself in a way that does you justice:

• Give evidence supporting your claims
• Quantify your achievements
• Show that you are a high performer in the most important aspects related to your course
• Use clear and positive language

3. AVOID AMBIGUITY

Phases such as ‘I supported the change process’ or ‘I assisted with financial planning for the company’ leave the admission officer none the wiser as to what you were actually doing. Make it clear what your contribution was. For example:

‘..The position involved analysing past financial performance to identify areas for future improvement and preparing budgets to ensure sound financial planning’

4. MAKING A PROFESSIONAL IMPRESSION

Your personal statement should have a highly professional image.

• Be clear and easy to read
• Draw attention to the most important points
• Be attractive and professionally presented – utilise the online UCAS form!

5. BONUS PERSONAL STATEMENT

Postgraduate Application – Teaching

For three years I have worked as a volunteer Art teacher at a local youth charity. Through these experiences, I have learned how to convey my enthusiasm for art in both the classroom setting and with my students one-on-one. Working with disadvantaged students proved both rewarding and challenging, as I had to make art theory applicable to everyday life. Working in these workshops, I discovered my love for teaching and became determined to help more students understand the relevancy, applicability, and necessity of art in their lives.

I achieved my Bachelor’s of Art degree with honours from Cheltenham University. After receiving my degree, I decided to delve into the media world to apply the theory I had learned. My duties as Production Manager for the BBC involved presenting workshops, script proof and organising training events. My diverse responsibilities have given me the opportunity to interact with every business department from media relations to finance. For instance, I played a crucial role in a short course where I trained a production team in African Art.

This experience provided me with an opportunity to refine my understanding of the inner workings of the organisational environment. In my spare time, I have continued designing websites, and the prospect of developing a web-based learning environment for students remains one of my foremost professional goals. I understand the importance of Web CT and if given this opportunity, would like to design an on-line art portal, including news, course information, forums, and lesson plans.

Indeed, my experiences as a mentor have solidified my desire to become a teacher. I am in constant pursuit of ways to improve my abilities as an instructor and have recently completed my postgraduate diploma in Art History. I hope to combine this academic knowledge with my existing production expertise to stimulate and encourage my students.

From experience, I understand that teaching has both its rewards and challenges. If given the opportunity to study at Manchester University, I would like to create art courses that will provide opportunities for students to apply their theoretical knowledge in real life situations and allow them to give feedback to continually improve the lessons. Although I do not have a formal teaching qualification, I believe my business expertise has amply prepared me for a position at Manchester and that I will bring the unique perspective of a seasoned professional to the students of the course.

End Note:

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Our qualified professional writers will edit your statement to perfection – ensuring your application gets noticed. We recognise that you are unique and, therefore, you will receive customised advice from your personal writer. Increase your chances today!

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About The Author Get Into Uni Oxbridge educated editors help you research, structure, write, present and produce your personal statement. Elaine Millward is the director of getintouni and leads workshops and writes articles on the subject. http://www.getintouni.com elaine@getintouni.com

21st Century Career Success – by: Michelle L. Casto

When it comes to modern career development, one thing we can all count on is change. With the advent of technology, telecommuting, and E-commerce, how work is performed is in a state of reinvention. Self-employment and small business development will become more the norm than big business. And career changes will be more frequent due to rapidly changing organizations and industries. Finally, the line between one’s personal and professional life will become even more blurred. Since the modern world of work is rapidly changing to keep up with the demands of our fast-paced lives and lifestyles, here are some characteristics of what the new work contract will look like:

• Seeking more meaning from work.
• Equating “career success” with personal satisfaction over paycheck or status.
• Everyone will need their own “name-brand.”
• Increased use of technology.
• Finding work that needs doing.
• Changing in the way management and leadership is conducted (less arrogance at the top level, more power on lower levels).
• Increased need for networking and self-marketing.
• Lifelong “trying on” of various roles, jobs, and industries.
• Creating a plan that is flexible, and continually assessing the “fit” of the work.
• Increased representation of women and minorities in the workforce.
• Changing career fields numerous times in a lifetime.
• Self-responsibility: Everyone knowing they have to chart their own career direction.

However, the 21st century career also offers many advantages:

• More career opportunities for everyone.
• Freedom to choose from a variety of jobs, tasks, and assignments.
• More flexibility in how and where work is performed, i.e. working from home or telecommuting.
• More control over your own time.
• Greater opportunity to express yourself through your work.
• Ability to shape and reshape your life’s work in accordance with your values and interests.
• Increased opportunity to develop other skills by working in various industries and environments.
• Self-empowerment mindset.
• Allows you to create situations or positions where you can fill a need in the world that is not being filled.
• Opportunity to present yourself as an independent contractor or vendor with services to offer.

How can you successfully navigate through the turbulent times of change and career uncertainty? By developing resiliency, exercising proactivity, creating excellent self-marketing tools, keeping your skills up-to-date, and finding your unique life balance.

1. Develop resiliency (the ability to bounce back).

Having the right attitude about career change is imperative to your ability to bounce back from setbacks, sudden changes, and twists and turns along your career path. You will experience a lot of career change and transitions, so you may as well get comfortable feeling uncomfortable.

2. Take a proactive approach to your career development

You must constantly be on the lookout for new ways to apply your gifts and talents in the new economy. This requires thinking creatively, actively promoting yourself/business, and being actively involved in how your career progresses. Staying involved in professional associations, and continuous networking are excellent ways to connect with other like-minded professionals.

3. Create first-rate marketing materials

Always keep your resume current. You never know when you are going to want to share it with someone or pass it along. If you are in business for yourself, develop classy business cards and letterhead. Harness the power of the internet by developing an interactive website.

4. Commit to lifelong learning

To keep earning, keep learning. Do not wait until you lose your job or want to look for another position to gain new skills or training. Recognize the need to be open to learning and attend classes related to your area of expertise to keep your skills sharp and marketable. Keep in mind the top skills needed for career success include:Communication, Computer-knowledge, Creativity, Customer Care

5. Find your unique life balance

There are four dimensions to life: love, labor, leisure, learning. Remember that work is just one aspect of your life pie. Be sure to indulge in all of your areas. Because having an overall balanced life is what leads to the most fulfillment.

About The Author Michelle L. Casto, M.Ed. is a Whole Life Coach, Speaker, and Author of the Get Smart! LearningBook Series: Get Smart! About Modern Romantic Relationships and Get Smart! About Modern Career Development. She can be reached at coach@getsmartseries.com (361) 816-0685. Visit virtually: www.getsmartseries.com and www.brightlightcoach.com

The Psychology of Torture – by: Sam Vaknin

There is one place in which one’s privacy, intimacy, integrity and inviolability are guaranteed – one’s body, a unique temple and a familiar territory of sensa and personal history. The torturer invades, defiles and desecrates this shrine. He does so publicly, deliberately, repeatedly and, often, sadistically and sexually, with undisguised pleasure. Hence the all-pervasive, long-lasting, and, frequently, irreversible effects and outcomes of torture.

In a way, the torture victim’s own body is rendered his worse enemy. It is corporeal agony that compels the sufferer to mutate, his identity to fragment, his ideals and principles to crumble. The body becomes an accomplice of the tormentor, an uninterruptible channel of communication, a treasonous, poisoned territory.

It fosters a humiliating dependency of the abused on the perpetrator. Bodily needs denied – sleep, toilet, food, water – are wrongly perceived by the victim as the direct causes of his degradation and dehumanization. As he sees it, he is rendered bestial not by the sadistic bullies around him but by his own flesh.

The concept of “body” can easily be extended to “family”, or “home”. Torture is often applied to kin and kith, compatriots, or colleagues. This intends to disrupt the continuity of “surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others”, as the CIA put it in one of its manuals. A sense of cohesive self-identity depends crucially on the familiar and the continuous. By attacking both one’s biological body and one’s “social body”, the victim’s psyche is strained to the point of dissociation.

Beatrice Patsalides describes this transmogrification thus in “Ethics of the unspeakable: Torture survivors in psychoanalytic treatment”:

“As the gap between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ deepens, dissociation and alienation increase. The subject that, under torture, was forced into the position of pure object has lost his or her sense of interiority, intimacy, and privacy. Time is experienced now, in the present only, and perspective – that which allows for a sense of relativity – is foreclosed. Thoughts and dreams attack the mind and invade the body as if the protective skin that normally contains our thoughts, gives us space to breathe in between the thought and the thing being thought about, and separates between inside and outside, past and present, me and you, was lost.”

Torture robs the victim of the most basic modes of relating to reality and, thus, is the equivalent of cognitive death. Space and time are warped by sleep deprivation. The self (“I”) is shattered. The tortured have nothing familiar to hold on to: family, home, personal belongings, loved ones, language, name. Gradually, they lose their mental resilience and sense of freedom. They feel alien – unable to communicate, relate, attach, or empathize with others.

Torture splinters early childhood grandiose narcissistic fantasies of uniqueness, omnipotence, invulnerability, and impenetrability. But it enhances the fantasy of merger with an idealized and omnipotent (though not benign) other – the inflicter of agony. The twin processes of individuation and separation are reversed.

Torture is the ultimate act of perverted intimacy. The torturer invades the victim’s body, pervades his psyche, and possesses his mind. Deprived of contact with others and starved for human interactions, the prey bonds with the predator. “Traumatic bonding”, akin to the Stockholm syndrome, is about hope and the search for meaning in the brutal and indifferent and nightmarish universe of the torture cell.

The abuser becomes the black hole at the center of the victim’s surrealistic galaxy, sucking in the sufferer’s universal need for solace. The victim tries to “control” his tormentor by becoming one with him (introjecting him) and by appealing to the monster’s presumably dormant humanity and empathy.

This bonding is especially strong when the torturer and the tortured form a dyad and “collaborate” in the rituals and acts of torture (for instance, when the victim is coerced into selecting the torture implements and the types of torment to be inflicted, or to choose between two evils).

The psychologist Shirley Spitz offers this powerful overview of the contradictory nature of torture in a seminar titled “The Psychology of Torture” (1989):

“Torture is an obscenity in that it joins what is most private with what is most public. Torture entails all the isolation and extreme solitude of privacy with none of the usual security embodied therein … Torture entails at the same time all the self exposure of the utterly public with none of its possibilities for camaraderie or shared experience. (The presence of an all powerful other with whom to merge, without the security of the other’s benign intentions.)

A further obscenity of torture is the inversion it makes of intimate human relationships. The interrogation is a form of social encounter in which the normal rules of communicating, of relating, of intimacy are manipulated. Dependency needs are elicited by the interrogator, but not so they may be met as in close relationships, but to weaken and confuse. Independence that is offered in return for ‘betrayal’ is a lie. Silence is intentionally misinterpreted either as confirmation of information or as guilt for ‘complicity’.

Torture combines complete humiliating exposure with utter devastating isolation. The final products and outcome of torture are a scarred and often shattered victim and an empty display of the fiction of power.”

Obsessed by endless ruminations, demented by pain and a continuum of sleeplessness – the victim regresses, shedding all but the most primitive defense mechanisms: splitting, narcissism, dissociation, projective identification, introjection, and cognitive dissonance. The victim constructs an alternative world, often suffering from depersonalization and derealization, hallucinations, ideas of reference, delusions, and psychotic episodes.

Sometimes the victim comes to crave pain – very much as self-mutilators do – because it is a proof and a reminder of his individuated existence otherwise blurred by the incessant torture. Pain shields the sufferer from disintegration and capitulation. It preserves the veracity of his unthinkable and unspeakable experiences.

This dual process of the victim’s alienation and addiction to anguish complements the perpetrator’s view of his quarry as “inhuman”, or “subhuman”. The torturer assumes the position of the sole authority, the exclusive fount of meaning and interpretation, the source of both evil and good.

Torture is about reprogramming the victim to succumb to an alternative exegesis of the world, proffered by the abuser. It is an act of deep, indelible, traumatic indoctrination. The abused also swallows whole and assimilates the torturer’s negative view of him and often, as a result, is rendered suicidal, self-destructive, or self-defeating.

Thus, torture has no cut-off date. The sounds, the voices, the smells, the sensations reverberate long after the episode has ended – both in nightmares and in waking moments. The victim’s ability to trust other people – i.e., to assume that their motives are at least rational, if not necessarily benign – has been irrevocably undermined. Social institutions are perceived as precariously poised on the verge of an ominous, Kafkaesque mutation. Nothing is either safe, or credible anymore.

Victims typically react by undulating between emotional numbing and increased arousal: insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of the traumatic events intrude in the form of dreams, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations.

The tortured develop compulsive rituals to fend off obsessive thoughts. Other psychological sequelae reported include cognitive impairment, reduced capacity to learn, memory disorders, sexual dysfunction, social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, or even mere intimacy, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic microepisodes, and emotional flatness.

Depression and anxiety are very common. These are forms and manifestations of self-directed aggression. The sufferer rages at his own victimhood and resulting multiple dysfunction. He feels shamed by his new disabilities and responsible, or even guilty, somehow, for his predicament and the dire consequences borne by his nearest and dearest. His sense of self-worth and self-esteem are crippled.

In a nutshell, torture victims suffer from a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their strong feelings of anxiety, guilt, and shame are also typical of victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and rape. They feel anxious because the perpetrator’s behavior is seemingly arbitrary and unpredictable – or mechanically and inhumanly regular.

They feel guilty and disgraced because, to restore a semblance of order to their shattered world and a modicum of dominion over their chaotic life, they need to transform themselves into the cause of their own degradation and the accomplices of their tormentors.

The CIA, in its “Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983″ (reprinted in the April 1997 issue of Harper’s Magazine), summed up the theory of coercion thus:

“The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level. As the subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose the capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations.”

Inevitably, in the aftermath of torture, its victims feel helpless and powerless. This loss of control over one’s life and body is manifested physically in impotence, attention deficits, and insomnia. This is often exacerbated by the disbelief many torture victims encounter, especially if they are unable to produce scars, or other “objective” proof of their ordeal. Language cannot communicate such an intensely private experience as pain.

Spitz makes the following observation:

“Pain is also unsharable in that it is resistant to language … All our interior states of consciousness: emotional, perceptual, cognitive and somatic can be described as having an object in the external world … This affirms our capacity to move beyond the boundaries of our body into the external, sharable world. This is the space in which we interact and communicate with our environment. But when we explore the interior state of physical pain we find that there is no object ‘out there’ – no external, referential content. Pain is not of, or for, anything. Pain is. And it draws us away from the space of interaction, the sharable world, inwards. It draws us into the boundaries of our body.”

Bystanders resent the tortured because they make them feel guilty and ashamed for having done nothing to prevent the atrocity. The victims threaten their sense of security and their much-needed belief in predictability, justice, and rule of law. The victims, on their part, do not believe that it is possible to effectively communicate to “outsiders” what they have been through. The torture chambers are “another galaxy”. This is how Auschwitz was described by the author K. Zetnik in his testimony in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961.

Kenneth Pope in “Torture”, a chapter he wrote for the “Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender”, quotes Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman:

“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.”

But, more often, continued attempts to repress fearful memories result in psychosomatic illnesses (conversion). The victim wishes to forget the torture, to avoid re-experiencing the often life threatening abuse and to shield his human environment from the horrors. In conjunction with the victim’s pervasive distrust, this is frequently interpreted as hypervigilance, or even paranoia. It seems that the victims can’t win. Torture is forever.

About The Author Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 . Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia. Visit Sam’s Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com palma@unet.com.mk

Music and Technology – A Perfect Mix – by: Jane Karwoski

To many people, listening to their favorite music as they go about business is a necessity. To others, it is simply a diversion as they go about the boring day-to-day chores we have in life. For some, it is a sensual experience and a form of creative self-expression, whether as an active participant or merely an avid listener.

I myself don’t just enjoy music; I live and breathe for music. I am a musician/songwriter and when I am not writing music or playing music somehow life is not the same for me. This is how I express my emotions, share thoughts, and converse with the world around me. Many times I get lost in the height of a passionate compositional piece, only to find the time has passed by so quickly that I have forgotten all of the things on my mind that have been bothering me.

As technology becomes more advanced, sometimes the creative and artistic aspects of music become less vital to the world than the equipment it’s transmitted on. We might ask ourselves what life would be like without technology, but consider life without some form of music. Without the passion that some music can give us, all the devices that we have at our disposal wouldn’t be quite as interesting.

Consider watching television without music in the background; or a movie without a soundtrack. Who cares about how large the screen is or clear the picture is? How exciting would the picture are eyes focus on be without are aural senses participating.

I don’t care how many mp3 players or stereo systems are on the market. No one would be buying these products if we as human beings didn’t crave some form of music to soothe our souls. At times, technological advancement in our lives can stress us out. We reach for our headphones and listen to music to help us cope.

I must admit, being a musician that composes and plays totally by my senses, I don’t know what I would do without the technological advances in music in the past decade. I would not be able to do what I do as effectively or as effortlessly if it weren’t for digital multitrackers, compact disk recorders, and all the other high-tech devices at my disposal. At one time, an amateur musician could not afford to own any of these devices, or be capable of operating them without some kind of experience in recording engineering. So for me, technology and music is a perfect mix.

About The Author Jane Karwoski is a musician/songwriter and co-publisher of the e-book “The Incredible ipod”. To sign up for a free newsletter go to http://www.the-incredible-ipod.com.

Linking is Queen – by: Shawn Campbell

If content is king, then linking is the queen that shares his throne. We have all heard about adding content to your site to give the search engines fodder to consume. But the secret to luring the search engines is the links to your site. Today’s search engines look very carefully and critically at who is linking to you, and what it is that they are saying about you. A link from a leader in your industry carries a lot of weight and means that your site is important. Two links from industry leaders means your site is even more important. 100 links from random web sites, from industries you are not even related with, means almost nothing. Thus, getting links is only the start; the important thing is getting good links from quality web sites.

Why do links matter?

Since the arrival of Google and their PageRank, search engines have put a lot of weight on links to a site. There used to be simple ways to get good rankings: Meta tags, titles, keyword density, etc… Today, things have become more complex, with search engines now using a very complicated algorithm that involves:

• links to your site,
• what is written in those links,
• who is linking to the site that links to yours,
• what are the keyphrases used in those links,
• what is the quality of the site that is linking to yours,
• how many other links does that site have,
• how many links out (and to what sites) does your site have,
• and other such criteria.

To use a rather appetizing analogy, these new criteria are added to the stew that is your site, along with the quality and quantity of the content. Left to simmer on the worldwide web, this stew is then eaten up by the search engines depending on how well your site matches the aforementioned criteria. Put differently, the king and queen must join together to turn your site into a number one result.

How do we get links?

It all starts with content. No one will link to you unless you offer quality information about a particular subject. If you are in real estate, you must offer information about the area you sell. If someone wants to buy in your area, first s/he will want to learn about it, so you will need to have good resources about that area. The next step is to find new sites that would benefit from your site’s information; new sites whose clients would potentially buy your real estate. For example, one of our clients (www.monlac.com) sells real estate in the Laurentians area of Quebec. Their site has content on activities in Quebec and the nearby Laurentian mountains. Thus, we will be soliciting links from web sites such as the nearby water parks and ski hills, nearby towns, lake and boating associations, and local construction web sites to name just a few. To these web sites, not only will linking to www.monlac.com make their customers happier, but it is in their best interest that the site sells real estate since it brings in more business for them.

How do you solicit links?

To solicit sites you have to use a lot of elbow grease. Send out personalized emails to these sites. Don’t send out mass emails or spam. Be friendly, and point out the benefits of linking to your site. If you are lucky, maybe 1 in 3 emails will get a response. It is frustrating and discouraging, but keep your spirits up. Many times a site is perfect but they don’t ever update it, so your site won’t get the link in because nothing ever changes on the solicited site. Don’t waste too much time on sites that haven’t been updated in years. It is also important to follow up. Until you get a flat out denial, keep saying “Hi”, and keep it personal. Keep track of who you have contacted and what you have written or said because you have to make it seem like they are the only person you are contacting. As soon as they get a sniff that you are sending out a mass email, or that you are using the exact same approach with other sites, you will probably lose their respect – and their business!

Do not forget to submit to the directories such as the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org), because getting listed here counts for a lot in all the big search engines. Take your time and choose the right category to submit to. Also, read about how they want their descriptions and titles written, and write them that way. These are the keys to getting into the directories.

Soliciting links is a very time-consuming (and frustrating) venture, but it is essential to getting good rankings in the search engines. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. Getting your first link is like getting your first sale. It is just as hard – and just as satisfying.

Good luck,

Shawn Campbell

About The Author Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and co-founded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field. Contact: shawn@redcarpetweb.com

Best Recipes: Mango Peach Smoothie – by: Donna Monday

Do you like mangoes? You’ve got to try this delicious Mango Peach Smoothie. The mango gives this refreshing drink a luscious tropical twist and the peach brings a mellow groove that makes the flavors in this fruit smoothie really cool indeed.

Mangos are becoming very popular and are a lot easier to find in your supermarket fruit section. So why not try something a little different? Bring home a mango and enjoy it in a nice cool smoothie with some peaches and a twist of lime. Oh, how sublime.

Mango Peach Smoothie

• 1 cup peeled mango chunks
• 1 large peach, peeled, pitted, and cut into chunks
• 1 cup peach nectar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice

Directions

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

About The Author Copyright 2004 Donna Monday Easy to make – fun to drink http://www.1st-milkshake-n-smoothie-recipes.com