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Category: Arts & Humanities

Doug Moe: Not the ‘Least’ of his long career

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Wisconsin State Journal

Anybody sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Santa Monica with one eye on the movie business knows the last thing you want to do is invest in a movie written and directed by your business partner?s son. So Jim Hirsch, who has made a career in Hollywood out of not following the rules, did just that.

Hirsch, 65, a 1969 UW-Madison graduate, will be in town this weekend ? he teaches a screenwriting class at UW every fall ? but the date he’s really watching is Oct. 19, when his new film, “Least Among Saints,” is scheduled to open at the AMC Star theater in Fitchburg. It premieres in Los Angeles and New York City a week earlier.

UW alumnus wins two Emmy Awards

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Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus Steve Levitan won his third-straight Emmy Award Sunday for Best Comedy Series for his work as an executive producer on ?Modern Family.? In addition to his Emmy for producing the show, Levitan also won his first Emmy for Best Directing in a Comedy Series for the same show.

UW students combat ‘blood minerals’ in technology

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Daily Cardinal

Today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, minerals harvested from mines controlled by rebel groups cause severe turmoil within the nation. Six million people have died since violence began in 1996, and hundreds of thousands of women have been raped, according to UW-Madison Conflict-Free Campus Initiative campus organizer Katy Johnson. But Johnson said U.S. college students, more than any other demographic, fuel the deadly war by consuming electronics, such as cell phones and computers, which contain these conflict minerals gathered in Congo. Johnson led an informative session Friday to announce CFCI?s plan to join the 100 other U.S. universities in creating student movements that push university administration to pass resolutions urging companies to produce conflict-free products.

?UW-Madison has such a legacy of being this progressive, politically active campus,? Johnson said. ?This is an incredible opportunity for Madison not only to be a leader in the nation but to be a leader in the Big Ten.?

Theater review: Let?s take a fresh look at some guys we thought we knew

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Wisconsin State Journal

Forward Theater Company captures the energy and the skepticism of election season with ?44 Plays for 44 Presidents,? a clever, riotously entertaining production running through Oct. 7 in the Overture Center Playhouse.For 2 1/2 hours, a gifted cast of five actors wrestle, posture and shimmy their way through American history, abridged….Patrick Sims, an associate acting prof at UW-Madison, casts looks of mock astonishment at the audience, as if to make sure we?re in on the joke. It fits that the professor plays PhD-educated Woodrow Wilson, and gives ?A Lecture on Myself.?

Tech and Biotech: PerBlue named to young entrepreneurs list

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison mobile game developer PerBlue has been named one of the 2012 Empact100, the only Wisconsin company to make the list, which honors outstanding entrepreneurs under age 30. Co-founded in 2008 by Dane County native and UW-Madison graduate Justin Beck ? who turned 25 in April ? PerBlue has 40 employees. The company had $1.5 million in revenues last year, all based on its flagship game, Parallel Kingdom….Beck and the other honorees have been invited to a luncheon at the White House on Sept. 28, and 15 of them will be chosen next week to make two-minute presentations about how they will give back to the entrepreneurial community.

UW students curate ‘The Golden Age of British Watercolors’ at Chazen

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Wisconsin State Journal

In Professor Nancy Rose Marshall?s seminar on Victorian art last spring, the homework assignment was truly hands-on: Put together a show of splendid British watercolors for the Chazen Museum of Art. But first, discover just how difficult watercolor painting can be.

“Our attempts to do watercolor really gave us insights into the skills these artists had,” said Caitlin Silberman, one of Marshall?s students who took part in a watercolor-painting lesson from an artist as part of the course.

Doug Moe: Finding a vanished Trojan Horse

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Wisconsin State Journal

This is a tale of two horses, one world famous despite the possibility it never existed, and one that most definitely did exist, in Madison, but then seemed to disappear. It involves a best-selling local novelist, a Dane County judge, an ancient city and a dinner next month in Madison. You might call it a mystery inside a mystery.

Mentioned: UW professor of classics William Aylward, an expert on Troy

Potential Orpheum closure could harm UW, city events

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Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison students and downtown residents may need to look for an alternative concert venue as the iconic Orpheum Theatre faces the possibility of closing its doors.Co-owners Henry Doane and Eric Fleming need to pay Monona State Bank a loan balance of $1.1 million to continue operating their restaurant, bar and theatre, located at 216 State St.

Go Big Read Book

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Badger Herald

Earlier this year, Interim Chancellor David Ward chose a combination of art and science for this year?s Go Big Read program in effort to promote innovation in the classroom and the community.

Offering of the Angels exhibit at Chazen highlights religious works by major Italian artists

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Isthmus

The UWs Chazen Museum of Art is offering a glimpse into the past ? from 300 to 600-plus years ago ? through Nov. 25. Here, at Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery, visitors can admire rarely seen works from one of Europes most famous museums: the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Madison is this touring shows only Midwestern stop.

DJ, UW create First Wave scholarship

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Daily Cardinal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced a new First Wave full-tuition scholarship Thursday named for hip-hop artist MC Lyte. The $100,000 scholarship was created by a partnership between UW-Madison?s Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, which includes First Wave, and the Hip Hop Sisters Foundation, an organization created by MC Lyte.

Hey, Watch It! What’s playing in Madison movie theaters this week

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison students cross the street wherever they please, blithely ignoring the traffic. Gaggles of them moseying down State Street can be hard to get around. And, inadvertently, their very fresh-faced existence can make the rest of us feel horribly, horribly old. But there?s one incontestably good thing about the students coming back in the fall; they bring a lot of great movies with them.

Hey, Watch It! The wait is over for UW-Cinematheque movie fans

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No daring life-saving breakthroughs. No supply closet trysts. No Clooney. The documentary ?The Waiting Room? doesn?t contain any of the melodramatic flourishes that we?ve become accustomed to from TV medical dramas. But it?s still riveting and important viewing. The film doesn?t officially open in New York until the end of September and will be part of PBS? ?Independent Lens? series in 2013, but the UW-Cinematheque is hosting the Madison premiere of the film on Friday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. at 4070 Vilas Hall to kick off its humdinger of a fall schedule.

Phil Haslanger: Book sheds light on religious roots of protests

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Capital Times

The story of the Catonsville Nine ? a group of Catholic activists who entered a draft board office in Maryland in 1968 and burned some of their records ? may seem like an event mostly lost to the mists of history. There are no active draft boards deciding which young men should be compelled to enter the military. The kind of Catholic activism that dominates the news these days is bishops speaking out on abortion or gay marriage or birth control mandates. Yet in his compelling retelling of this dramatic event from the Vietnam era, author Shawn Peters has not only brought into sharp relief issues around the ethical limits of protest, he also has provided a thoughtful look at the religious roots of protests as current as this summer?s headlines.

Clubs roundup: Catch Mount Eerie at Music Hall

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Wisconsin State Journal

On ?Through the Trees Pt. 2,? Phil Elverum, the Washington-based artist behind Mount Eerie, spells out his musical ethos, singing, ?I meant all my songs not as a picture of the woods, but just to remind myself that I briefly live.? Like Walt Whitman with a guitar, Elverum frequently views his life through the prism of nature, and the songs on his latest record, ?Clear Moon,? are filled with references to fog, passing clouds and rich, earthy moss.

Just Read It: Deborah Blum

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Wisconsin State Journal

Deborah Blum was raised by an entomologist father and a literary mother, she writes on her website, which left her little choice but to grow up and become a science writer. Blum?s 2010 book, ?The Poisoner?s Handbook,? received rave reviews for its melding of science and mystery in the telling of the story of a pair of Jazz Age scientists fighting to catch killers and create the science of forensic detection. Here, Blum chooses three books that speak to the drama science creates.

Chazen gets exceptional ‘Offering of the Angels’

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Wisconsin State Journal

Forty-five artworks traveling from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, will be featured in “Offering of the Angels: Painting and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery,” a historically important exhibition that opens Friday Aug. 24 at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Ave. “It?s thrilling and a very rare opportunity to be able to show works of art from this period of such high quality ? and from the museum that is really at the foundation of our idea of museums,” said Chazen curator of paintings and sculpture Maria Saffiotti Dale, whose expertise is in Italian Renaissance art.

Doug Moe: Fire-eating monk’s sabbatical turns into a circus

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Wisconsin State Journal

This story has historic puppets on loan from England, a Benedictine monk on sabbatical from Minnesota and a new play set in Mazomanie about some famous brothers from Baraboo. It has just about everything except someone cheating death by eating fire. Strike that. Sunday afternoon, Brother Paul-Vincent Niebauer will eat fire.

On Campus: UW grad student’s ‘Feminist Ryan Gosling’ blog hits the big time

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Wisconsin State Journal

Be careful what you blog about ? it might make you famous. That?s the lesson learned by UW-Madison graduate student Danielle Henderson. When she started a blog with photos of hunky movie star Ryan Gosling mouthing cheeky, made-up feminist thoughts, she intended it as a study guide for herself and a source of laughs for a few like-minded friends. She?s about to start her second year in a master?s program in gender and women?s studies. Now, after attracting more than 20,000 followers, the blog feministryangosling.tumblr.com is being published in a book, “Feminist Ryan Gosling,” coming out on Tuesday.

Books fail to accurately represent our increasingly diverse world

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Wisconsin State Journal

Though the issue of minority representation in children? books has garnered attention for decades, the disparity has increased during the recent recession, according to the Cooperative Children?s Book Center at UW-Madison?s School of Education, which tracks how many children?s books published each year feature minority authors and characters. The center found 3.6 percent of children?s literature published last year featured black authors, main characters or themes and 1.7 percent featured Hispanics, both the lowest proportions over the past decade.

Quoted: UW-Madison librarian Megan Schliesman

Just read it: Jerry Apps

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Wisconsin State Journal

Jerry Apps started his career as a county extension agent in Green Lake and Brown counties in 1957, then moved on to work as publications editor in the State 4-H Office. Born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, Apps is now the author of more than 30 books, many of them on rural history and country life, and is an emeritus professor at UW-Madison. Apps suggested three books, one published in 2010, one in 1939, and one in 1854. ?I believe all three of them have much to say to us today,? he said.

Know Your Madisonian: Kathy Borkowski helps make history accessible

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Wisconsin State Journal

Kathy Borkowski landed in Madison as so many do, to attend graduate school at UW-Madison. She was a bit of a late bloomer ? 35 at the time ? owing to family tragedy. Her parents died when she was a teenager, leaving her to raise three younger siblings in South Bend, Ind. She didn?t begin her undergraduate coursework until age 30. The delayed start has not held her back. She went on to earn two master?s degrees, one in history, the other in library sciences. In 2004, she became director of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, the state?s oldest book publisher.

School Spotlight: Campers study Native Madison

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Wisconsin State Journal

Native Madison ? a new camp run by the Madison Children?s Museum ? originated from a fascination with the effigy burial mounds on Observatory Hill on the UW-Madison campus. The camp, which ran July 16-20, was designed for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who toured the effigy burial mounds with guide Aaron Bird Bear, a Native American who works in the School of Education.

Around Town: KlezKamp offers a day to focus on Yiddish

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Wisconsin State Journal

Yiddish culture is experiencing a renaissance in ? of all places ? Madison. At its peak, Yiddish culture displayed incredible diversity in its music and literature, Henry Sapoznik told a crowd Sunday in his opening remarks at A Biselle (?A little bit of?) KlezKamp, a daylong program of Yiddish language, music, dance and arts on the UW-Madison campus. One of the great historical facts about Yiddish, not widely acknowledged, is that in 1916, UW-Madison was the first university in the world to offer a class on Yiddish language, said Sapoznik, director of the UW-Madison?s year-old Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, which put on KlezKamp.

Tony Award-winning ‘Parade’ based on true crime story

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Wisconsin State Journal

Musicals are more than just jazz hands and tap dancing. But with the lighthearted qualities typically associated with the art form, it can be hard to avoid certain escapist tendencies. Music Theatre of Madison?s production of ?Parade,? which opens Thursday, July 26, is grounded in the dark reality of an important story. MTM has also partnered with the Jewish Federation of Madison for a special program on Sunday, July 29. The program will include a historical summary by Randolph and UW-Madison Jewish studies and theater professor Bob Skloot, as well as a talk by Matthew Bernstein, author of ?Screening A Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television,? before the evening?s show.

Newberry Consort runs gamut in Madison Early Music Festival

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Wisconsin State Journal

The Madison Early Music Festival has explored a range of programmatic themes in its 13-year history. The last two years? focus on North and South America has been a refreshing stretching of the boundaries of what is traditionally thought of as defining the category of “early music,” and perhaps no concert in this year?s festival stretches that boundary more than the one given by the Newberry Consort.

Know Your Madisonian: Magazine editor Joel Patenaude is vocal about silent sports

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Wisconsin State Journal

Joel Patenaude didn?t know it at the time, but when he was running or riding his bike on the hills around Mount Horeb as a kid, he was taking part in a silent sport. The UW-Madison graduate, whose journalism career has taken him to stints in Egypt, Dubuque, Iowa; and Isle, Minn., among other places, has been editor of Silent Sports Magazine since 2004.

Celebrating the long days of Our Lives

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Wisconsin State Journal

James Danky, a faculty associate in journalism at UW-Madison and an expert on minority communities and the press, said Our Lives has several things going for it despite the sour publishing climate. It is a free-distribution, niche publication at a time when subscription-based, general-interest magazines such as Newsweek are foundering. Its target audience has considerable discretionary income, a draw for advertisers.

History resounds at festival

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Wisconsin State Journal

The summer after Paul Rowe joined the faculty at UW-Madison?s School of Music, something felt amiss. ?In July, the building was totally lit, the air conditioning was on, and nothing was going on,? he said. For a building meant for music-making, the whole place was eerily silent. Why not fill it, he thought, with musicians who shared his passion for early music? Rowe?s wife, singer Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, and music professor Chelcy Bowles, UW-Madison?s director of continuing education in music, agreed. By 2000, the three had founded the Madison Early Music Festival, filling early July with sound.

Stage Presence: Music helps enrich the hospital environment : 77-square

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Wisconsin State Journal

People know me as: Ka Man ?Melody? Ng, doctoral student in piano performance and pedagogy at UW-Madison, studying with professors Jessica Johnson and Christopher Taylor. I?m also coordinator for the university?s Sound Health Community Program, a teaching assistant at the piano department, a continuing studies instructor, a piano teacher at the Piano Pioneers/Piano Lab Program, and president of the Music Teachers National Association UW-Madison Collegiate Chapter.

Doug Moe: Taking the scenic route to Carnegie

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Wisconsin State Journal

Jim Erickson may be the only musician to ever qualify to play at Carnegie Hall without realizing he was doing it. It brings to mind the old joke about a couple of tourists who are looking for the famous music hall in New York City when they spot a man carrying a violin case.One asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice,” the musician says.

Author Somerville’s dark, bright river

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Wisconsin State Journal

?This Bright River? opens with a scene set in a State Street bar on a frozen night in January. Two unnamed men share a few drinks before the night takes a terrifying turn. ?This?ll be interesting,? says one of the guys. Indeed. Author Patrick Somerville sets a chilling tone right out of the gate, a chill due not only to the winter temperatures but also to the nameless characters engaged in immediate, baffling violence. Somerville, 33, is a UW-Madison graduate who teaches in the master of fine arts program at Northwestern University.

Study: Economic impact of Dane County arts scene is double comparable communities’

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Wisconsin State Journal

The amount of money that nonprofit arts and culture organizations in Dane County ? and their audiences ? poured into the local economy in 2010 was nearly double that of many other communities of comparable size, according to a new national study. Groups ranging from tiny dance companies to the region?s symphony orchestra helped generate more than $145.5 million, compared to the median $78 million spent in similar communities with populations of 250,000 to 500,000 people, according to “Arts and Economic Prosperity IV,” touted as the largest study ever of its kind.

Librarians offer list of beach reads

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Wisconsin State Journal

A plethora of mysteries, histories, kids? books and romances will fill readers? mythical beach bags this summer, but authors Madison claims as its own also are beckoning for attention. Heading the list of non-fiction recommendations is yet another Madison-based author. UW-Madison emotions researcher Richard Davidson joined with veteran science writer Sharon Begley to release ?The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live ? and How You Can Change Them? (Hudson Street Press, $25.95) in March.

Exhibit Turns Women Veterans’ Stories Into Art

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WUWM

As we head into Memorial Day weekend, we?re going to hear from women veterans whose military service has inspired artwork. A new exhibit at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison features 20 prints that resulted from private conversations between veterans and local artists. As WUWM?s Erin Toner reports, several women say the project helps validate their service to the country.

Saving songs, spirit: Madison Maennerchor members take pride in performances but know how to kick back

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Wisconsin State Journal

Young and old voices combine for a commanding sound that fills the room during a recent Thursday night rehearsal. Singers stand for the last piece and sway ? mostly in unison ? during the chorus. After the last note is sung, chairs are pushed back and tables are soon crowded with beer bottles and plates of sausage and Limburger cheese. Meet the Madison Maennerchor, the city?s German men?s choir, which celebrates its 160th anniversary this year.

Serkin brings exceptional performance to Union Theater

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Wisconsin State Journal

Here are some of the things that I think characterize a good musical performance: a program that surprises in its content and its execution; moments of unexpected and enlightening conversation between pieces; the co-existence of stunning beauty, thinky material, and wit. So, Peter Serkin is my kind of performer. His solo concert at the Wisconsin Union Theater provided all of the above with intelligence and grace.

Madison software company has Titanic connection to Hollywood

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Wisconsin State Journal

For the new 3D version of “Titanic” that?s now in theaters, director James Cameron marshaled an army of visual effects technicians who spent over a year converting the 1997 film, frame by frame, into 3D.And those technicians would probably buy the owners of a Madison-based software company a round of beers, to thank them for making that time-consuming job a little easier. If the rotoscopers are doing their jobs right, audiences won’t even notice their work, said Perry Kivolowitz, one of the four partners in SilhouetteFX and a computer science professor at UW-Madison.

UW-Madison student-designed shelter marries art and function

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Wisconsin State Journal

Kala Van den Heuvel and 20 of her UW-Madison classmates were confronted with images of Hurricane Katrina. They interviewed survivors of the 2005 natural disaster. Their goal: design a temporary shelter that could serve future disaster victims. The final project, a 14-by-10-foot cardboard structure, is on display until Sunday in the lobby of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St., as part of the museum?s third ?Design MMoCA,? a juried design showcase.

On the Aisle: UW Dance’s ‘Les Muses’ showcases student work

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Wisconsin State Journal

Les Muses” at the UW-Madison Dance Department is an entertaining short program of eight modern dance works, all with cryptic titles “Imagen Corporal,” “relentless equanimity” and danced to mostly textural music. The line-up includes two solos, a quartet, a trio and several larger works, all choreographed by students save “not enough of,” a new piece by artist in residence Pamela Pietro.

On Campus: ‘Radioactive’ chosen for UW-Madison’s common reading program

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison students will be reading ?Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout? next fall as part of the university?s common reading program, Go Big Read, according to a UW-Madison news release Monday. The illustrated biography by Lauren Redniss, a National Book Award finalist, was chosen by interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward.

Hugh Ambrose, son of author Stephen, to discuss ‘The Pacific’

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Wisconsin State Journal

Hugh Ambrose describes the seven-year production process for ?The Pacific? as ?a personal journey,? which he will relate in Madison on May 3 as keynote speaker for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Foundation?s annual gala at the Monona Terrace and Convention Center.

John Hall, a graduate of Palmyra-Eagle High School and West Point who holds the military history chair at UW-Madison that was endowed by Stephen Ambrose shortly before his death, said both versions of ?The Pacific? do a good job of not sanitizing ?the theater of The Good War that starts to test and strain the word ?good?? due to the tactics of mutual annihilation.