How To Start A Day Trading Business?-seven Steps To Day Trading Profit
Day trading, like any other business professions, needs serious education, quality planning, and plenty of practice. Numerous beginners enter the daytrading business each day in hope of making quick cash. But just a few of those who get properly educated, possess a good trading plan and self-control can survive and thrive in the business. Many of them make lots of money every day trading only for a couple of hours, and spend the remainder of their days freely with their family and friends, doing whatever they love to do.
But how to become a good day trader and make real money in the market? Let’s take a look at the idea:
Step 1. We need to give ourselves a thorough education on the financial market. We should find out what financial instruments can be found in the market, and what instruments go well with our day traders best. Next we need to familiarize ourselves with the various day trading strategies and try to find one that fits us the best. Search engines including Google and Yahoo are great places to find day trading courses and strategies. We'll need to carry out our in depth analysis and utilize our own judgment to find the right one that fits us most. We should also equip ourselves with the trading tools such as market research tools, realtime trading software, and find and sign-up with a trustful discount broker.
Step 2. Once we have determined our trading strategy, the next task is to write up a trading plan. Yes, we should put our trading plan in paper. Within this trading plan, we will outline our mission statement-what we wish to achieve in day trading? What are our short term and long-term objectives? Do we want to get a little extra income aside from our regular job, or will we wish to turn into financially independent by doing day trading? We will also want to prepare an in depth plan on our daily trading activities that include pre-market research, our entry and exit strategy, and our after-market groundwork.
Step 3. Set up an account for paper trading. Once we have written up our trading plan, we are set out to test the water by paper trading or carrying out trading simulation. This is very essential as we do not wish to risk our real money before we're comfortable with the game. There are lots of trading simulation software readily available for free on the market and we may also check out with our broker to see if they provide a real-time trading simulation platform. When doing simulation, attempt to consider ourselves as trading with our real money and act according to our trading plans.
Step 4. Set a daily limit, both for profit and for loss. After we have built up self-confidence in day trading, we try to trade once or twice a week with real money. It is very important set a daily limit for both profit and loss. For example, we can set a daily profit target at $200, and a loss limit of $100. Once we have reached either limit, we should stop trading. Turn off your computer, go out and take a walk or have a cup of tea. Never over-trade.
Step 5. Have a good money management system in place. Before we enter each trade, we ought to evaluate our worst case scenario. How much money we can afford to lose in each trade we enter if we happen to lose in every single trade we made for the day? Knowing our maximum affordable loss for each trade is important as we will deliberately limit our size of entry and set up our stop loss even before our trade. This can prevent us from losing big and keep us in the game.
Step 6. Fix our emotion issues through writing trade logs. For day traders, keeping our emotions in check is a big challenge and need much disciple and exercise. Every day, we may be distracted by numerous emotions such as fear, pride, ego, etc. These emotions may prevent us from following our trading plans and eventually deteriorate our confidence. An effective way to fix this issue is to write trade logs regularly on a daily basis. When writing logs, we will analyze each trading action and record the actual logic or emotion behind trade. When we see ourselves fall in the trap of emotions, we will remind ourselves not to make the same mistake the next time. By practicing this plenty of time, we will train our mind to follow the logic and keep our emotions in check.
Step 7. Reward ourselves when we abide by our rules. Whenever we follow our strategy or trading plan to the letter, regardless of a winning or a losing trade, we need to give ourselves a big pat on the back, because we have conquered our emotions and made a big leap toward day trading success and financial freedom. When we have achieved our short term target, we should not forget to reward ourselves for the hard work and achievement. Be it a trip to Las Vegas or a cool iPad, put this in our trading plan as it will motivate us to achieve our goal. In the end, we deserve it anyway.
Lizzie Liang is a full time day trader. If you want to know more about this topic, you should really check out her blog at www.daytradingbusiness.net.
How To Give An Outstanding Acceptance Speech: 7 Presentation Secrets Learned From The Academy Awards
Will you be ready when it is your time to give an acceptance speech?
The following are seven presentation secrets to giving an outstanding acceptance speech in any situation:
1. Prepare For the Moment – You may have heard the Oscar winners say, “I really didn’t think I would win,” or “I really didn’t think I would be standing here tonight,” and then give an acceptance speech like they didn’t think they would win. Well, my question is, “Why did you think you were invited to this gala event?”
Most likely, you will know ahead of time that you will be possibly winning an award, so take the time to prepare your presentation. Practice your speech using a tape recorder or, better yet, a video camcorder. Also, if you can, give a dress rehearsal of your speech in front of friends, family, or colleagues.
2. Agree Who Will Give the Speech - Time and time during the Academy Awards Ceremony, the first person to the microphone will speak for the full thirty second time limit and not allow the other winners in the group (many seen clutching their own acceptance speech notes) the opportunity to give their acceptance speeches. Where this moment should be one of the happiest moments in their lives, you can see the disappointment on the faces of the winners who didn’t have the opportunity to speak.
When you are working as a team on a project and are receiving an award, agree in advance who the acceptance speaker will be. This might be the team leader, the manager, vice president, etc., but work this out before giving the speech.
If you decide on one person to give the speech, then you need to decide on who will be recognized during the time this person gives the presentation. Also, when speaking for the group, make sure the “I’s” are changed to “We’s.” For example, when speaking for the group say, “We would like to acknowledge the following people…” instead of saying, “I would like to acknowledge the following people…” Remember, the designated speaker is representing the group.
If decision is to have several team members speak, achieve consensus on how much time each person will have to speak so that each person has an equal opportunity to express appreciation.
3. Use Notes to Enhance Your Presentation – At the Academy Awards Ceremony, one person read his entire speech from his notes, not once looking at the audience. What he had to say was very heartfelt and sincere; however, his sincerity didn’t translate to the audience because his notes were in the way.
When giving an acceptance speech, use notes as a tool to enhance your presentation and not as a crutch. Only use notes for remembering the opening sentence, important names to thanks, or whatever facts you need to mention. Don’t have the entire speech on notes.
The following are some quick tips for working with notes:
* Practice with your notes so that your speech is natural.
* Type your notes. In the heat of the moment and sometimes bad lighting, our eyesight can become a little challenged. Type your notes in 16-18 point fonts.
* Double space your sentences so that you can easily read your notes.
* Type only on the top half of a full page so that you are less likely to lose your place after looking up at the audience.
* Look up at the audience after every two or three sentences to maintain rapport with the audience.
* Number your notes in case they fall and become scrambled so that you can quickly recover.
* Practice a smooth transition for pulling your notes out of your pocket or portfolio.
* Don’t flip your notes because the flipping noise will cause a distraction for your audience. Practice sliding your notes.
4. Share the Wealth – How many times have we seen at the Academy Awards ceremony where some persons went on about how they personally achieved the reward or, worst yet, forgot to acknowledge the most important person for whom they would not have achieved the award (Remember Hillary Swank not remembering to thank her husband?).
Take the time to give appreciation to the organization giving you the award and to those who helped you achieve the award. No person is an island. You achieved the goal through the help of someone(s), so acknowledge and appreciate them. To save time, if it is a few people, acknowledge them by name. If it is a large group of people, department, or organization, mention the group by name. For example, you might say, “I would like to acknowledge the people in marketing for their hard work on the Peterson project for making this moment happen. If it were not for their time and effort, we would not have won the XYZ account. Thank you.”
Also, only thank the necessary people during your acceptance speech. Don’t thank Guttenberg for inviting the printing press if he has nothing to do with why you accomplished your achievement. Stay focused on only those people who had a direct effect on your achievement.
5. Let Sincerity Flow Through Your Speech – Let your appreciations come from the heart. Briefly convey your own feelings regarding your appreciation of the award and all that it represents. Be honest and don’t over exaggerate your feelings while accepting the award.
Be clear and concise in your showing of appreciation because you will most likely be under time constraints.
6. Value the Award – Many times during the Academy Awards Ceremony, you will hear the winner of an award say, “I really don’t deserve this award,” or “I really shouldn’t be standing here.” When you make statements like that, you devalue the award and recognition given to you. Also you question the judgment of the people who chose you to accept the award. Simply acknowledge their judgment and recognition and continue your speech.
7. Stay Within the Time – At the Academy Awards, the Oscar winners have thirty seconds before the band starts playing the “wrap it up” music. In many cases, the winner attempts to speak over the music. Between the band and the Oscar recipient, who do you think wins? Of course, it is the band. As soon as the band starts playing the music, the audience stops listening to the recipient.
Many times when you are given an award during a meeting, conference, etc., you are also under time restrictions. In most cases, you will have longer than thirty seconds. Take the time to ask the person in charge of the meeting how much time you have for your speech. Also, make it a habit to look at the agenda ahead of time to see how much time you have been allotted. It may be only three minutes, 10 minutes, or 30 minutes, but find out ahead of time. By finding out ahead of time and staying within the time given to you, you show respect to your audience, the people in charge of the meeting, and most of all yourself. Once you go over the time allotted, you can see the audience members start looking at their watches and stop listening to your important speech.
Note: If you can’t find out ahead of time how much time you have to make your speech, assume you have very limited time and keep you comments brief.
Take the time to apply these seven acceptance speech secrets and you will give an outstanding presentation each and every time you receive an award.
Ed Sykes is a highly sought after expert, author, professional speaker, and success coach in the areas of leadership, motivation, customer service, and team building. You can e-mail him at mailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call him at (757) 427-7032. Go to his web site, www.thesykesgrp.com , and signup for the newsletter, OnPoint, and receive his free motivation and customer service ebooks.
Can I Make Profit With Amega Global?
Amega Global markets a product line that consists of nutrition, skin care, and some magnetic energy products that are all designed to increase overall health and wellness of its users. The company is a MLM company that uses a multi-layered compensation model to reward the distributors of its goods. Many people don’t understand how the multi-level pay plan operates. Some join the business to get rich "tomorrow", but fail to realize that it takes a lot of hard work to make a Network Marketing business successful. It takes dedication, diligence, and hard work to be successful.
Amega Global was incorporated by a consortium of three companies in 2006. The company’s products are manufactured throughout Asia and distributed through the Network Marketing business model. They’ve achieved a worldwide presence with offices currently in 17 countries.
With most business opportunities, the company has to fight to get your attention because of competition from other companies presenting similar products in the same niche. Much importance is placed on the compensation plan and how much money you will make – we have been conditioned to focus on that and think that this factor will shape the success of our future business venture. Amega Global is refreshingly different!
Compensation.
It is the quality of the products that will fuel your business success.
When you concentrate on the unique products and their ability to help people live a healthier life, the money will follow naturally.
These are the investment levels with which you can enter Amega Global:
BA Kit $49 Get Fast Start and Retail Sales
Silver BA $49-$199… $300 daily cap in Team Binary
Titanium BA $200-$499… $400 daily cap in Team Binary
Titanium BA $500-$899… $1,200 daily cap in Team Binary
Platinum BA $900 or more… $3,600 daily cap in Team Binary
The company has a binary compensation plan which seems to have become industry standard in recent years. The 10% binary compensation is solid with the bonus composition looking as though it favors associates that recruit in large numbers. With the Fast Start Bonus set at only 10% for new associates, it appears this greatly favors those at the higher achievement levels. This is both good and bad, depending on what is your current rank. The mega matching bonuses pay seven generations from Diamond and below up to Associate Director. There is a builder’s pool set at 1% of the total country pool for Diamond’s and below. This is a great incentive for new associates who are actively building their business.
Just like any MLM structure, Amega Global is a business which requires action and effort to build – it is no ‘get-rich-quick scheme’! However, you can take it as a given that you will be handsomely rewarded for your sales and recruitment efforts.
Marketing.
Being a health and wellness company, it’s not surprising that the only mention of growing your business is through sharing the product with friends, family and associates.
Amega Global has proprietary technology and innovative life-changing products that are in high demand and are not available from any other company – there is no direct competition! The products, such as the AM Wand, are easily demonstrateable and the benefits (pain relief, increased strength & mobility, and an improved sense of wellbeing) can be quickly observed in many cases. Business Associates find that presenting the products and sharing their own personal results is hugely rewarding and enjoyable – this aspect of ‘the job’ often takes members by surprise!
Warm market promoting methods will bring you results and have worked for decades, however the company doesn’t offer any support to associates wanting to build their businesses online. The techniques used for offline marketing cannot be implemented in today’s online world. It’s too bad that the company doesn’t offer any type of lead generating or follow-up system that I can see.
For anyone looking to build their Amega Global business online, they must understand that personal branding is the key to finding true success. Sharing magic bracelets and wands will bring you some money but will not build massive organizations or strong teams online. This can only be achieved by providing true value and displaying strong leadership abilities.
The best choice would be for each individual to do some reading and serching and then make your own decision on whether or not you would chose to use and promote these products. I am certain in saying that the company, as a whole, is not a scam. You have a potential to make good money if you master the simple art of attraction marketing on the internet. If you take advantage of the fully developed system that provides customized capture pages and a complete sales funnel to market your business and yourself, you can greatly speed up the success that you wish to realize.
Remember, the most important thing in the MLM industry is to improve your personal skill set. The more skilled and able you become, the fastes your income will grow. There is a beautiful connection between self-development and business development in the Network Marketing field. The claim that Amega Global is a scam is unfounded, and if you believe in the products and like the company, then go for it! Put your blinders on and build yourself a legacy...
Your ultimate goal as a business associate of Amega Global should be to create long lasting residual income and you want to be assured that the company is dedicated to operations within the Network Marketing industry for many years to come. To expand your knowledge on network marketing, clik on the above links and receive free training.
Success Through The Eyes Of A Child
As I was driving home last week, I noticed a little boy and his mother by the side of the road. They had stopped walking and the mother was adjusting a toy crossbow to fit more comfortably over the boy’s shoulder. I realized that at that moment in the heart and mind of that small boy, he was not on a sidewalk by a busy road. Perhaps he was hunting in a forest, or was an intrepid explorer of the unknown, ready to pull out his bow and arrows at the slightest hint of danger. In his imagination he was a hero, confident, skilled, and brave. He was alert, prepared, with the expectation of overcoming danger or threat with his skill and swift reflexes.
For a child involved in imaginative play, there is very little distinction between fantasy and reality. Children live and play out their dreams totally in the moment.
There are many principles of success that can be learned by looking through the eyes of a child. Children’s eyes see with clarity and perception and reflect the reality of who they are. Children are uncluttered by training, brainwashing, and by living according to the unwritten rules and etiquette that have assailed the adult mind. For a child life has limitless possibilities that have not been squashed by logic, common sense, or limiting expectations that become part of the adult mind.
What principle of success can be drawn from the little boy with his bow and arrow?
One of the most powerful and yet unused principles of success is the process of visualization. Visualization is the act of creating compelling and vivid pictures in your mind. This is just what the little boy was doing. He was “that hero”; he acted like him, dressed like him, and could picture himself in another time and another place. For him, it seemed like reality. This is a spontaneous, natural process for a child.
Researchers have found that visualization accelerates achievement in powerful ways. It has been proved by research that when performing any task in life the brain uses the same identical processes that it would if you were only vividly visualizing that activity. The brain sees no difference at all between visualizing something and actually doing it.
This principle also is applicable when a person is learning something new. Visualization makes the brain achieve more. In a study by researchers at Harvard University, it was found that students who visualized in advance were able to perform tasks with nearly 100 percent accuracy. Students who performed tasks without using visualization only achieved 55 percent accuracy.
Visualization is frequently used by Olympic and professional athletes to improve performance.
Jack Nicklaus, a legend in the golfing world, once described how he uses visualization. “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. First I “see” where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I “see” the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behaviour on landing. Then there’s a sort of fade out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.” The results of the power of visualization for Jack Nicklaus are convincing: he has won over 100 tournaments earning over 5.7 million in the process.
For a child a high proportion of time is spent in visualization. Adults may say, “He’s only playing” and not see the potential power for success that the child is practicing. Visualization is a process that is naturally strong in the learning and formative years of the child. Research now confirms that visualization activates the creative powers of the subconscious mind. It focuses the brain by programming its reticular activating system (RAS) to notice available resources that were always there but previously unnoticed. Visualization, incredibly, also magnetizes and attracts you to the people, resources, and opportunities you need to achieve your goal.
Next time you see children playing, pause to watch visualization in its purest form. What can you learn and apply to your own life to accelerate and achieve greater success using the principle of visualization?
Barbara White, an experienced educator and parent of three teenagers, speaks with humor, insight, and passion to both teachers and parents on the subject of learning and personality styles. Her latest presentation “Learning Through the Eyes of a Child” is both entertaining and inspirational. For more articles and information visit her websites www.livingbeyondbetter.com
Leo Forecast For 2011
Leo has great stamina and the energy and endurance it has often impresses others. Even when in a quite mood he leaves lasting impressions on others.
Leo lives as exiting life and boredom seldom touches him and gets motivated by a clear vision of success. His energy level makes him capable of fulfilling his dreams. The energy in him can even lead him to disastrous situation but he has the capabilities to pull himself out and thus the professional achievement of his are often great.
He is strong, honest and often exhibit warm and tender feeling towards others.
Dignity is his virtue and refuses to do any thing that is low. Honesty is what makes him different and deceives, he never.
Leos are ambitious and for that develops character persistently, he is distinguishable as always aristocratic and authoritative and opinions are always valued. He has confidence with braveness which seldom gets subdued and is extravagant to live king-size. At the same time he is optimistic, organised and temperamental who exhibits opinions openly.
Now lets us see what is there in store for you in the coming New Year. This guide will help you in planning your affairs so that the qualities mentioned above work best for you.
Jupiter shall be transiting in the Pisces sign till May 2011 and after than it will be in the Arian sign till the end of the year. The transiting Jupiter shall be showering its blessing after May 2011 and before May 2011 this positivity shall be subdued a bit. This transiting Jupiter in the Pisces sign may bring in additional unproductive journeys, extra labour which may not yield much, not favourable results from the Governments. Once the transit of Jupiter ends in Pisces and commences in Aries the overall fortune shall rise and will keep on rising for till the end of the year.
February, August and September 2011 are the months when some additional benefits and positivity get infused by the transiting Mars. The native can benefit by victory over old enemies, old property disputes can get settled, and cure to ailments is also signified.
The placement of Saturn in the second house from the natal moon for most part of the year is not an ideal proposition to except some positivity to be infused by Saturn. The native should guard his assets and should observe some constrain while speaking.
Rahu shall remain in the fifth house from the natal Moon till May 2011 and thereafter it shall slip in to the forth house, both transits are not very good for the native. A delay in acquiring property, hiccups in education and strained love life is indicated.
Ketu in Eleventh from the natal moon and then migrating to the tenth is a superb placement to except some positivity to be infused by transiting ketu. The Job/profession shall be at a rise and the incoming shall show an increase.
Let us check that how the various aspect of life behaves for a Leo in 2011.
• Overall personality and Aggression:- The health should be taken good care by the Leo native this year. There will certainly be small moments when he will be in great shape but the net result can be loss of health. The native should stick to some good basic as eating wrong can do him great amount of damage. So eat right and exercise on a regular basis to keep this aspect at bay.
• Wealth and Material success:- A planed effort is required by the Leo natives. There shall be a definite rise in fortune as the incoming shall increase but the planning should be such that the older properties/assets if any should not be touched or melted as some losses is indicated. If the button of this loss gets triggered then no other planet in the transit could be of any help. So plan in a conservative manner.
• Your siblings, courage and small Journeys:- This year do not indulge into undue altercation with your siblings as the relationship can turn to worse and the matter relating to property and its bifurcation can take a back seat. The small journeys can also trouble you which may not be to your liking.
• Your Home, family and vehicle:- The Home aspect has to be taken great care this year. Saturn is stationed in the second house from the natal moon is aspecting this house with its third aspect and this not a pleasant site for the native. So the matter relating to Home and vehicle may suffer but the inter bonding in the family may grow. There shall develop a better sense of understanding in the members of the family.
• Children & Education:- If you are a student and perusing your studies seriously, there is a strong indication that you may get distracted. So ample care has to be taken so that the distraction is minimal. You will have to put in some extra efforts to reach to your goal.
• Love and Romance:- Do not be over ambitious and treat your love with care as there are strong chances that the relationship may turn bitter, with no one to mend it.
• Disease:- February is the month that will be very good for getting yourself cured of all old ailments. Get a routine checkups done in February and see that all the diseases that played hide and seek with you are caught and cured. Going natural is the order of the year. Get regular medical tests done on you, as chances are there that you catch on some diseases. Avoid prohibited food as it can increase to your woes.
• Spouse:- The relationship with spouse shall be good for most part of the year in 2011. Cultivate good humour and enjoy the relationship with you spouse. This also will be peace giving. You stand a good chance to mend your reputation.
• Debt and Terminal disease:- Mend you habits and inculcate good virtues in you, it shall help in combating this problem. Loans raised for purchasing home can however be a profitable affair. Health can take for a ride.
• Fortune:- You may get a good return of the services you provided in terms of increments in salary and doing good in business but be careful as the fortune you are building for your future may not be helpful to you at all. You may eventually lose you reputation. So be careful in negotiating terms and negotiate keeping the future in mind. Turn religious this year; it will solve most of the problems.
• Profession and Employment:- This is going to be good for most part as Ketu will take a good care of you as it will be transiting this house. Again be cautious in striking deals as what appears good and yields instantaneously may not be that good eventually. Overall it will be a nice year for you as far these two aspects of life are concerned.
• Profits:- The profits shall come but the quantum could possibly not be understood by you. The returns may take a good time in showing its colour but mind you financially this year is going to be good for you. Invest the money wisely as you may loose it unknowingly and this money can take with it the previously earned money as well.
• Losses: - Do not be over experiment doer this year as the profit earned above may quickly vanish in wrong direction. Health and your accumulated wealth can take a beating. You have to be very careful while deciding in selling and buying properties. Similarly nagging health problems should be immediately consulted.
Jyotishacharya Vinay Sheel Saxena is a prominent vedic astrologer and Vastu expert. He has been practicing Indian Vedic astrology methodologies and techniques more than 20 years and provides best astrological services as vedic astrology predictions, vastu tips, horoscope, business and education readings.
Nietzsche, Artistic Intoxication, And The Collapse Of Nihilism: The Body As An Ontology Of Practice
I.
Nietzsche writes, “what does nihilism mean? That the highest values devaluate themselves” (WP 2). Nietzsche then sees ‘nihilism’ as the reality of the disappearance from our world of “highest values” that claim to be universal and objective. Nietzsche writes, “the real world, attainable to the wise, the pious, the virtuous man- he dwells in it, he is it” (TI, “How the ‘Real World’ at Last became a Myth”). For more than two thousand years now metaphysical rationalism has defined how we relate to the world in terms of epistemology, ethics, and politics. With Platonism a dualism was introduced into our horizon, whereby we have come accept the notion that truth and what justifies our conduct here on earth resides in a transcendent, idealistic, metaphysical “real world,” while our material realities are merely transient, inadequate, and needing of transcendence if we are to commune with that “real world.” Since Plato rationality, the dialectic, ascetic contemplation, and the will to give a spiritual interpretation to the unstable forces of becoming have become cultural hallmarks of modernity: what is valuable is one’s resolve to behave in such a way so as to tap into a transcendent logos of truth and absolute dignity.# The rise of Christianity, Nietzsche continues, only reinforced human beings’ conviction that a “life worth living” should be deeply marked by its metaphysical orientation: “The real world [the ideal world of the Forms], attainable for the moment, but promised to the wise, the pious, the virtuous man (‘to the sinner who repents’)” (Ibid). Christianity eventually inherited the dualistic tradition of Platonism, so that most of us continue to locate the source of value-making in an ideal realm that remains detached from everyday life but that has the power to pass judgments and impose norms on it.# What confers dignity to one’s life is one’s ability to behave, here on earth, in ways that prepare one for a promised millenarian communion with a deity in charge of history.
A defining feature of the highest values then is the project to impose on life rational or ethical perspectives that console us: through the intellectual and moral traditions of the Western consciousness we have been trained to believe that there exists an objective set of values to which we can appeal for meaning. Not surprisingly Nietzsche includes among the highest values most of our secular value systems, for they embrace the Platonist-Christian spiritual notion that truth really exists as a presence in a higher spiritual order although such presence must be recovered from behind the empirical realities of becoming, life, or nature. Nietzsche writes that “no doubt, those who are truthful in that audacious and ultimate sense that is presupposed by the faith in science thus affirm another world than the world of life, nature, and history; and insofar as they affirm this “other world”- look, must they not by the same token negate its counterpart, this world, our world?” (GS 344). Our scientific pursuits constitute another way in which we manifest the “will to truth” that drove both Platonism and Christianity. All three movements “negate” life because they affect some level of violence not only on nature but also on ourselves, since the search for objective, ultimate truths may cause us to turn life into a means (or a necessary ordeal) to securing these truths, as, for example, when scientists only show interest in the animal-mechanical aspects of life rather than its creative possibilities. Nietzsche sees the emergence of the so-called modern ideologies (classical liberalism, socialism, positivism, historicism, Darwinism, scientism, etc.) of late nineteenth century Europe as manifestations of the “metaphysical faith” that informs modern value making activities. # He warns against “the nihilistic consequences of the ways of thinking in politics and economics, where all ‘principles’ are practically histrionic: the air of mediocrity, wretchedness, dishonesty, etc. Nationalism. Anarchism, etc. Punishment” (WP 1). Behind the emotional and spiritual appeal of modern ideological systems, there subsists a will to dissimulate the reality of the collapse of value systems that claim objectivity and that give the modern personality a sense of moral comfort and stability.
Nietzsche’s metaphor for the nihilistic individual who makes value a matter of his own will is the “ugliest man,” # who operates the “death of God,” that is, the collapse of so-called objective metaphysical and secular ideals. We learn that the ugliest man (a figure of the morally self conscious modern subject) has grown tired of God’s pity, that is, God’s ability to transparently see through the horrible character of an existence (that of the ugliest man) that pretends to simulate ideal models. As a result, the ugliest man can no longer “endure” a God that witnessed “unblinking and through and through” his (the ugliest man’s) hypocritical, violent, hateful, and irreverent attitude toward life. “Where I have gone,” declares the ugliest man, “the way is bad. I tread all roads to death and destruction” (Z, IV, “The Ugliest Man.”). So God has to be murdered because His pity is too great and revealing.
The ugliest man tells us that God “looked with eyes that saw everything- he saw the depths and abysses of man, all man’s hidden disgrace and ugliness” (Ibid). The ugliest man, being self-conscious of the ugly nature of his life and experiencing a great deal of guilt since the presence of the highest ideals proves to be a mirror that constantly reflects back his life as a great lie, resolves to abandon his own identification with traditional, idealistic systems of values. He proclaims his power to fashion his own ideals. Like the modern compassionate individual whose pity toward the other leads her to affirm her will to power, pity then has a similar effect on the ugliest man. Though he reacts against God’s great pity, the ugliest man perceives such pity as a mirror, for his appreciation of God’s pity causes him to experience a moral disgust against his own life since, like many of us, he was trained by the “religion of pity” to deeply trust in God’s judgment. So the pity of the modern individual and the pity of the ugliest man are similar because in both individuals pity causes a deep reaction against the traditional perspectives on practical life. The ugliest man develops a hatred of values based on the pity of God (or of the ascetic ideologue, for that matter) because pity constantly reminds him of his own impotence, that is, his need to judge himself on the basis of values that subsist outside the scope of his will and that reflect back on his illusory life.
What is ugly about God’s murderer, the ugliest man, is his will to embrace the collapse of old idols as a reason to introduce a reactive set of values that further depreciates life and that demands our own creative intervention: “the ugly is the form things assume when we view them with the will to implant a meaning, a new meaning, into what has become meaningless: the accumulated force which compels the creator to consider all that has been created hitherto as unacceptable, ill-constituted, worthy of being denied, ugly!-“ (WP 416). God’s murderer is ugly because he deepens the meaninglessness of our world, so that if we are to defeat nihilism, we will have to transfigure his ugliness and introduce a more authentic set of values. The ugliest man experiences a visceral sentiment of spiritual nakedness that panics him into seeking a false compensation to the collapse of traditional values. He wants to escape nihilism without overturning old metaphysical habits. He now relies on the values offered through the practices of commercialized mass culture, social-utopian movements, political parties, and other secular value systems that pursue the will to truth.# Nietzsche writes, “the ways of self-narcotization.- deep down: not knowing whither. Emptiness” (WP 29). The will to action of the ugliest man is basically a form of negation, not positive construction, for he further pursues the metaphysical faith of the ascetic outlook; he acts on the basis of the notion that the traditional values have failed to produce the absolute truths that should guide our life. He expresses a will to impose on the lives of others meaning schemes that actually degrade their personal needs, impulses, and styles of life. This debilitating character in the perspective of the ugliest man is formative to nihilism: the death of God as the clash of competing, reactive, secular perspectives on human existence.
Ironically, then, the ugliest man, a symbol of the modern subject who reacts against God’s pity, embraces a mode of existence that inspires revulsion in some of us owing to its ugliness, that is, the character of the contradiction that plague his will. Nietzsche writes, “ugliness signifies the decadence [read decline] of a type, contradiction and lack of co-ordination among the inner desires-signifies a decline in organizing strength, in ’will,’ to speak psychologically” (WP 800). Contradiction in the basic impulses of the self points to an “ugly” mode of life, and we see in the ugliest man a desire to escape the hold of metaphysics accompanied by a will to impose on the world secular values whose skeleton is the old metaphysical faith in the will to truth. He reacts against the old metaphysical values’ tendency to ignore and distort our practical needs, motives, and reasons to be effective cultural actors, yet the secular values that he re-imposes on the world often refuse others the right to pursue their own practical needs, motives, and reasons. “The effect of the ugly is depressing: it is the expression of a depression. It takes away strength, it impoverishes, it weighs down” (WP 809). An individual experiences moral stagnation and lack of creativity when, for example, she models her outlook on life, her values, or her lifestyle on the moral discourses and norms offered by the managers of mass culture (modern figures of the “ugliest man“), for the latter excel in the administration of the masses’ desires, needs, and values. Nietzsche notes that “the ugly limps, the ugly stumbles: antithesis to the divine frivolity of the dancer” (Ibid). Contradiction in the impulses of the ugliest man, as shared by the late modern subject, promotes an aesthetically and ethically objectionable mode of existence because a self that cannot act and create abandons life to its challenges, imperfections, chaos, and difficulties, when it should act to remedy them.
By ‘nihilism,’ therefore, Nietzsche means the process whereby we lose faith in the notion that there exists objective sets of values that should always provide models for our lives because of the nauseating, pitiful and ugly character of the will (of the reactive modern subject) that upholds these values.
II.
In ways unforeseen by the modern subject, the body proves to be a powerful force in our ability to transform and reinterpret the aspects of becoming that we find objectionable. Nietzsche reminds us that “in all willing there is, first, a plurality of sensations, namely, the sensation of the state ‘away from which,’ the sensation of the state ‘towards which,‘ the sensation of this ‘from’ and ‘towards’ themselves, and then also an accompanying muscular sensation, which even without our putting into motion ‘arms and legs,’ begins its action by force of habit as soon as we ’will’ anything” (BGE 19). Qualities in the disposition of the body directly affect the nature of the becoming around us because both the body and becoming constitute a continual matrix of forces, and whether we subsist in nihilism or achieve an emancipated world depends on the nature of the pertinent direction these forces take. Nietzsche notes, “I tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you” (Z, Ibid, 5). Nietzsche sees the will itself as an excessive force, and the forces whose excess the will configures are overwhelmingly those of the body, as opposed to purely cognitive and psychological elements, for only in the will as a bodily balance of forces can we understand Nietzsche’s claim that value depends on our ability to organize the chaos that structures the modern self. Nietzsche tells us that “what is essential ‘in heaven and on earth’ seems to be, to say it once more, that there should be obedience over a long period of time and in a single direction: given that, something always develops, and has developed, for whose sake it is worth while to live on earth; for example, virtue, art, music, dance, reason, spirituality- something transfiguring, subtle, mad, and divine” (Ibid). The disparate physiological and psychological structure of the will must be released, though in a regulated fashion if anything valuable is to take root in our culture. Nietzsche has in mind something akin to the great Romantic poets‘ notion of creativity as “controlled emotion.” # By referring to the “chaos” in the self, Nietzsche means to draw attention to the need to sublimate the multiplicity in the structure of the will.
Numerous practical issues and challenges structure our lives, so that we often do not seek to provide complete solutions to all of them. The only avenue we have to making something out of such practical chaos is to assume some level of self-discipline, so that we can prioritize our practical needs and make constructive choices. That Nietzsche underscores the chaos that exists in the self should be seen as his way of reminding us that we owe our cultural achievements to our ability to exert violence on the practical aspects of life that define us. For Nietzsche self-mastery involves a process whereby “an irreplaceable amount of strength and spirit had to be crushed, stifled, and ruined (for here, as everywhere, “nature” manifests herself as she is, in all her prodigal and indifferent magnificence which is outrageous but noble)” (Ibid). The flurry of practical-bodily issues that plague our lives demands a “narrowing of our perspective,” if we are to turn practical challenges into aesthetically and morally satisfying practices and value.
We also learn that that the multiplicity of the bodily will cannot be “explained mechanistically” (Ibid). For Nietzsche the forces of the will do not rationally structure themselves in a way that allows the mind to intuitively intent and represent the world, independent of the influence of the body because the will configures itself as will only as a result of forces spontaneously clashing. Consciousness cannot function as an interpretive force detached from the bodily realities of the self. Nietzsche believes that the Cogito functions as a conscious, mediating expression of a body structured as an unconscious self with its own hermeneutic powers.# Rational concepts can help interpret the modalities of the self, as an agent immersed in the practical events of life, but only after subterranean, bodily dynamics of willing give coherence to these rational concepts. Thus Zarathustra notes, “You say ‘I’ and you are proud of this word. But greater than this-although you will not believe in it-is your body and its great intelligence, which does not say ‘I’ but performs ‘I’” (Z, I, “Of the Despisers of the Body“). The modern subject is conscious of its own categories, but it fails to realize how much more significant is their real origin. A disembodied mind cannot grasp the real nature of the world it wants to interpret because emotions, personal temperament, behavioral habits, and our brute interactions with the material processes of the everyday life contribute to the ability of mind to accurately grasp what it wants to interpret. Our representations of the world take place as a continual matrix of rational and personality processes. In practical everyday life, Nietzsche is telling us, part of the reason why our interpretations of the world satisfy us is that they emotionally and temperamentally satisfy us; that is, such interpretations have grasped the metaphorical (symbolical) reality of the body since they draw on the latter’s multiplicity and continuity with the practical forces of becoming to impose perspectives on the world.
III.
In Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy we learn that great art is a product of a dialectic between two metaphysical and artistic principles: the Dionysian and the Apollonian (BT 1). The terms are derived from figures of Greek mythology, Apollo being the god of the plastic arts and Dionysus being the god of the musical arts. The Dionysian and the Apollonian, Nietzsche argues, are metaphysical principles because they are forces that underlie the world but also represent real dynamics of human subjectivity, whose synthesis represent the tragic experience in art.#
The modes of functioning of the two principles are then different in a way that proves important for artistic production. As metaphysical forces they point to the existence of a unified and transcendent reality of an artistic will (Ibid); the role of the Dionysian is to commune with that “primal unity”, and the role of Apollonian is to make that communion meaningful to us as individuals. The basic modality of the Apollonian is the dream experience, which expresses itself through the categories of imagination, illusions and representation, which in turn are crucial for the self to understand itself as a unified subjectivity, for they supply the forms and schemes that the subject inherits from society and imposes on the world to make it meaningful. Nietzsche asks us to “keep in mind that measured restraint, that freedom from wilder emotions, that calm of the sculptor god” (Ibid). Owing to their power of transfiguration,# the illusory but beautiful Apollonian codes that impose order on Dionysian frenzy repose the subject on a comforting state of self-knowledge and self-mastery, for the world is no longer absorbed as becoming, change and suffering but comprehended through clear rational models. The basic element in the Dionysian principle is the intoxicating experience that expresses itself through artistic rapture, an experience that dissolves subjectivity into the fluxes of becoming, for when the subject is under its intoxicating influence, “everything subjective vanishes into complete self-forgetfulness” (Ibid). The Dionysian owes its power to its ability to upset the balance of social norms, values, and categories (nurtured by the Apollonian) that make our life normal and meaningful as “sovereign” individuals.
By tragic art Nietzsche means the effect of the dialectic between these two principles. He notes that these two different tendencies run parallel to each other, for the most part openly at variance; and they continually incite each other to new and more powerful births, which perpetuate an antagonism, only superficially reconciled by the common term ‘art;’ till eventually, by a metaphysical miracle of the Hellenic ‘will,’ they appear coupled with each other, and through this coupling ultimately generate an equally Dionysian and Apollonian form of art-Attic tragedy” (Ibid). The two principles contest each other but also strengthen the effects of each other on the psyches of the tragic hero and his or her audience to create a tragic artistic experience, for whereas Dionysian rapture tends to build up in us a longing for a return to normality through Apollonian codes, Apollonian categories tend to gradually cause in us a feeling of cultural suffocation that compels us to demand a Dionysian release. A synthesis between the two principles, Nietzsche believes, is particularly significant to artistic creativity, for whereas the Dionysian inaugurates the release of chaotic primeval, de-individualizing metaphysical forces, the Apollonian imposes codes on that frenzied release to make it a coherent and tolerable artistic expression.
What makes the dialectic tragic is not only the contest and its resolution but also the character of the whole process: its dominance by the Dionysian principle. The Dionysian principle expresses a “primordial unity” within which all categories dissolve in the fluxes of change, becoming, and suffering, for “in song and in dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way toward flying into the air, dancing” (Ibid). Allowed to run its course as a purely metaphysical and artistic principle, the Dionysian has a liberating, narcotic and joyful effect in the subject despite revealing the essence of life as change, instability, and pain because the subject loses its ability to judge when it finds itself in total communion, as if merging, with the primordial metaphysical unity that underlies existence. This may compel us to wonder about the true nature of the relationships between the tragic and the meaninglessness of existence: if the tragic merges the subject with the absurd realities of life, is it a worthy aim to embrace a tragic outlook on life if it condemns us to a meaningless form of existence? This question poses a serious challenge to Nietzsche if we can correctly assume that once it grasps life as absurdity and suffering, the Dionysian will subsists at this level of its terrible discovery as an end-in-itself. Nietzsche writes, “the highest art in saying Yes to life, tragedy, will be reborn when humanity has weathered the consciousness of the hardest but most necessary wars without suffering from it” (EH, “The Birth of Tragedy,” 4). The aim of the Dionysian experience is not to stagnate in a meaningless existence but to go beyond and transforming the absurd suffering that plagues life; the tragic constitutes a truly affirmative perspective on life because suffering is the ground for asserting a joyful mode of existence.
IV.
Nietzsche believes that “the intoxication of the will” has the power to turn the will from its inward direction, where nihilism has imprisoned it, and thrust it outward into becoming; “intoxication must first have heightened the excitability of the entire machine: no art results before that happens” (TI, “Expeditions of an Untimely Man,” 8). The mechanism of intoxication consists in its ability to cause a condition of arousal in the will. If one believes that it is one’s duty to better human existence by creating progressive conditions, whereby the inspired individual authentically fashions a world meaningful to her because it reflects her creative possibilities (in the fifth section of the Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche tells us that “it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.”), and if one believes that human beings should be able to so relate to life as the meaning of their humanity, then one would welcome “a certain physiological precondition” that revives our sense of power and purpose. Nietzsche continues, “the essence of intoxication is the feeling of plenitude and increased energy” (Ibid). Intoxication can reverse the state of nothingness associated with nihilism because it has the power to cause the self to believe that it can master both itself and the world. Nietzsche insists that “it is impossible for the Dionysian man not to understand any suggestion of whatever kind, he ignores no signal from the emotions, he possesses to the highest degree the instinct for understanding and divining, just as he possesses the art of communication to the highest degree. He enters into every skin, into every emotion; he is continually transforming himself“ (Ibid, 10). A rapturous experience then emphasizes feeling as central to our awakening to becoming; as Heidegger remarks, in his discussion of rapture, “feeling achieves from the outset the inherent internalizing tendency of the body in our Dasein [the mode of existence of human beings].” # Through feeling, the cohesive powers of the body are extended into the world as our mode of existence. Nietzsche strongly feels that “from out of this feeling one gives to things, one compels them to take, one rapes them-one calls this procedure idealizing” (Ibid, 8). So the self’s emotive powers constitute an opportunity to reawaken the self.
But it is not enough to arouse the self; the body must also affirm itself within becoming. Nietzsche writes, “let us get rid of a prejudice here: idealization does not consist, as is commonly believed, in subtracting or deducting of the petty and secondary. A tremendous expulsion of the principal features rather is the decisive thing, so that thereupon the others too disappear” (Ibid). The goal is not to change the structures of becoming, for as an underlying reality, it will always remain a “primal unity” of chaos. What the intoxicating self tries to achieve is a “tremendous expulsion” of the figures it finds most authentic about itself. Such a self takes its lead from the multiplicity in the body in a manner that allows us to argue that the latter actually functions as an ontology of practice. The body that transfigures becoming is the body that expresses not what it readily takes to be its own essential features, which often are artificial and oppressive cultural norms, but what Dionysus recognizes as the underlying nature of reality: life as frenzied becoming, a realm in which our socially assigned individuality, which ignores needs that are true to us, is dissolved. Here the multiplicity of the self truly becomes an immanent dimension of the practical possibilities of becoming, as Dionysus tries to secure his “symbolic jubilee” of nature. The Dionysian hero seeks to change our perspectives on the structures of becoming by giving them powerful symbolic expressions.# The main issue that still concerns us is, using the Dionysian model, how do we recognize a body or a self as a symbol of affirmation?
We learn from Zarathustra, the self-proclaimed disciple of Dionysus, that we can symbolically recognize the non-nihilistic, transfigured body in the contorted forms it takes when the subject engages in a dynamic activity like dancing. He declares, “I should believe only in a God who understood how to dance” (Z, I, “Of Reading and Writing“). As much as the tragic hero, the teacher of the superhuman finds Dionysus, the god of music and dance, particularly useful in our effort to overcome nihilism, for through intoxicating dance the normal categories of bodily expectations and behavioral conventions are displaced.# Not surprisingly, Zarathustra reminds the “higher men,” who suffer from cultural impotence and who desire to recover their power of willing, “although there are swamps and thick afflictions on earth, he who has light feet runs across mud and dances as upon swept ice” (Z, IV, “Of the Higher Man,“ 17). Zarathustra confronts the ponderous weight of cultural decline and nihilism through affirmation, but a precondition for the success of that confrontation is the elimination of decadence and resignation as weighty afflictions that plague the body.
Zarathustra wants a subject prepared and predisposed to change, and, as we noted above, intoxication achieves this through an emotive experience that has the power to orient the self beyond the absurd, though here we see the same process articulated in a body that upsets its normal categories. Zarathustra advises the “higher men“, “lift up your hearts, my brothers, high! higher! And do not forget your legs! Lift up your legs, too, you fine dancers: and better still, stand on your heads! “ (Ibid). Through the activity of dancing the body symbolically affirms its liberation from nihilistic normality; that is, Zarathustra sees a possibility to uplift the subject above the conditions that have so far acted as a hinder to her life, for through dance the whole person is involved with the rhythmic pulses of music in a way that turns his or her life into a work of art, an achievement Dionysus envisions for anyone aspiring for a meaningful life. Zarathustra’s celebration of dance symbolizes the ability of some of us to transfigure the reality around them by transfiguring their own selfhoods.
Nietzsche writes, “What does the tragic artist communicate of himself? Does he not display precisely the condition of fearlessness in the face of the fearsome and questionable? -This condition itself is a high desideratum: he who knows it bestows on it the highest honours…In the face of tragedy the warlike in our soul celebrates its Saturnalias…” (TI, “Expeditions of an Untimely man“, 24). A Dionysian-like affirmation includes the ability to create a clearing effect in the midst of a nihilistic, hostile world that reacts to our own authentic needs, and such a clearing effect must also be a physiological experience, and that is why it takes a Saturnalian quality. The tragic artist seeks to produce a symbolic, positive situation within overwhelming conditions of nihilism. Zarathustra’s use of dance to render weightless the “swamps and thick afflictions” of nihilism represents his call that we rely on the body to introduce a positive symbolic force into becoming. Nietzsche insists that the Dionysian experience “is explicable only as an excess of energy” (Ibid, 4). Through dance, as a means to disrupt a nauseating and pitiful normality, we recognize a fracturing of existence, owing to an oversupplied artistic will, as a precondition toward creating the body as a symbol of affirmation.
That Nietzsche asks us “to welcome every moment of universal existence with a sense of triumph” should lead us to assume that life will continue to be a challenge that invokes our powers to judge and act, so that existence reduces to an eternal need to impose meaning schemes on the world. This leads Zarathustra to ponder: “if ever I have played dice with the gods at their table, the earth, so that the earth trembled and broke open and streams of fire snorted forth: for earth is a table of the gods, and trembling with creative new words and the dice throws of the gods: Oh how should I not lust for eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the Ring of Recurrence!” (Z, III, “The Seven Seals,” 3). Nietzsche again reminds us that the transfiguration effected on becoming through existential action is not meant to permanently change the character of becoming, for the latter will have to remain a locus of possibilities and thus a field of chance, instability, suffering and dice throwing.# The body as beautiful figuration, through dance, consists in the insight that intoxication temporarily presents the self as a figurative aberration within nihilistic becoming. Nietzsche writes, “affirmation of life even in its strangest and sternest problems, the will to life rejoicing in its own inexhaustibility through the sacrifice of its highest types- that is what I called Dionysian…” (TI, “What I owe to the Ancients,” 5). Because beauty in becoming consists in a transfigured perspective that exalts our being and because beauty in becoming symbolizes our will to affirmation we can say that “the crooked” body that enraptures itself in Dionysian dance affirms a will that embraces the transfigured, beautiful realities of becoming as its content.
One could wonder whether the Dionysian self should be kept in a constant state of intoxication to maintain its affirmative and aesthetical qualities? Clearly it would not be healthy for any human person to subsist in a constant state of rapture. The state of the Dionysian self is temporary, and after the rapturous “metaphysical comfort” has passed, it may express its satisfaction with the important changes operated on the categories of our culture. To understand this process, we must return to Nietzsche’s vision of tragic art as a synthesis between the beautiful codes and appearances of the Apollonian principle and the ecstatic and rapturous affirmations of the Dionysian principle. Nietzsche notes that “tragedy closes with a sound which could never come from the realm of Apollonian art. And thus the Apollonian illusion reveals itself as what it really is- the veiling during the performance of the tragedy of the real Dionysian effect; but the latter is so powerful that it ends by forcing the Apollonian drama itself into a sphere where it begins to speak with Dionysian wisdom and even denies itself and its Apollonian Visibility“ (BT 21). Through its codes and dream-like categories the Apollonian principle seeks to return the subject to the normality of social existence as an individual satisfied with the prevalent cultural order, but as Nietzsche notes Dionysian intoxication is powerful enough to upset the reigning codes. The body transformed into a symbol of affirmation, beauty, and joy remains a transfigured body, and if it is to be re-coded by the Apollonian perspective, for the sake of a return to social normality,# such re-coding must incorporate the Dionysian body as a unique, often non-conforming self, for the Apollonian force must speak “finally the language of Dionysus.” Like the masters of slave morality, the Apollonian order would show respect to the Dionysian force only if the latter expresses itself through a powerful force of affirmation. Having been impressed by the Dionysian-like self’s ability to convey its different practical needs, our Apollonian-like cultural conventions are likely to be influenced by the former (the “other”) as society debates value.
V.
We found that Nietzsche believes that nihilism, as the collapse of objective values that some of us perceive in aspects of contemporary life, originates from a feeling of repulsion against the ugly character of a mode of existence disfigured by its “metaphysical faith” and which compels some of us to abandon our reverence for objective value. We agree with Nietzsche that transforming our nihilistic table of values should include embracing the tragic hero’s bodily approach as a model. That is, since the Dionysian perspective, as aesthetic intoxication, gives the tragic hero a means to both overcome and elevate life, we should embrace it as our guide to face up to practical life and affirmatively draw from the latter values that reflect our own unique needs. Indeed in the example of Zarathustra we saw that such model can actually succeed in turning the human subject into a culturally creative being by transforming the body into a situation of personal, joyful and aesthetic affirmation.
www.kalaharee707.com
The Fine Art Of Going Fast.
Passionate about cars, motorcycles and anything mechanical that started out well-made and has endured decades without ever being molested, Jeff is a product of the southern California hot-rod scene, his father, Allen’s, understudy. While Jeff didn’t inherit his dad’s mechanical skills, he did acquire the discriminating eye of an artist and the passion for historical significance. Indeed, it is each subject’s inherent blend of art and history that makes every Jeff Decker sculpture exceptional.
Yet it’s more than the motorcycle that makes Decker’s work so fascinating. As he tells it, “There is nothing that embodies the urgency of our age and the modern synergy of man and machine better than a motorcycle and its rider. It is a perfect marriage of mechanical and organic aspects of our world.” Decker seeks to capture the glory of the Golden Age of motorcycle racing. “These guys were every bit as colorful as Wild Bill Cody in the cowboy era. In fact, boardtrack racers played to bigger audiences than Babe Ruth. I am committed to giving them their due.” As you examine Decker’s work you see this commitment in the subject’s race face, their position on the bike, their grip on the bars and the detailed rendering of every valve tappet getting revved to its limit.
The research that Decker performs prior to creating each sculpture is a clear indication of his passion. Take, for example, the iconic “Flat Out at Bonneville” piece, where Rollie Free stretched his bathing-suit-clad body across his Vincent Black Lighting to ride 151.3 mph across the salt for the world record. The rider’s total commitment is clearly evident, but the historical accuracy of the sculpture came through exhaustive research.
“I uncovered a scrapbook that had been stored in the basement of the son of Rollie Free’s mechanic. With that archive I was able to trade with Herb Harris, Mike Parti and Jay Leno to assemble the largest source of reference on Rollie’s person. Jerry Hatfield, who was writing a book on Rollie, had to put off publishing for years because of the find. Thousands of documents and photos gave me the background I needed to sculpt. I also used his actual motorcycle, posing a model in the famous prone position to capture the image from all angles. Several details found during my research helped the restorer Herb Harris make his motorcycle more faithful to that famed day in 1948.”
This level of dedication caught the eye of Willie G. Davidson, who led the charge to name Decker as Harley-Davidson’s official sculptor. The most visible result of this recognition so far appears on the grounds of the H-D Museum in Milwaukee. Unveiled at the museum’s opening in 2008, this 16-foot-high, 5,000-pound monument to achievement is a life-plus-half-size 1930 DAH hill climber and rider that is considered Decker’s masterpiece.
Working from his own immaculately restored DAH—and within sight of the legendary Widowmaker hillclimb venue—Decker propped the bike in the position he wanted and had a model climb aboard, dressed with actual examples of the period’s helmets,
goggles and leathers. The dramatic pose came by looking though volumes of photos of early hillclimbers, where the guys who won reached the top while tossing the bike forward in a blaze of dust and glory. The sculpture came after more than a year
of sculpting, molding, casting, welding and patination.
From board and dirt track to speedway and road course, and to the back roads and byways in between, every sculpture’s goal is to capture the emotion of the moment for the rider and the machine depicted. In addition to his fine art pieces, Decker’s art is used for perpetual awards at the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), The Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA) and the Legends of the Motorcycle concours’ de elegance.
“The people who are collecting my artwork are passionate about motorcycling. But they also appreciate the work I put in. It takes months and sometimes years to make a piece and costs thousands of dollars just for the foundry work. Sure, the prices for my work aren’t small, but I love the look on peoples’ faces when they take ownership. And while I’m sensing a breakthrough in the fine arts world, I will always do this work for what it says about motoculture, especially in its historical sense.”
Rider, December 2009
Class Act: Top 10 Tips For Using A Motivational Speaker To Inspire Youth
Now, more than ever, they need the courage, ethics and critical thinking skills to solve complex problems. Adults the world over are counting on them.
The reality, however, is that many of today's youth, from the tween to the twenty-something, are disillusioned and disenfranchised. Today's adults are leaving them with a legacy of war, environmental degradation and poverty, where a person's worth is too often judged by the size of their bank account.
How can adults help them rise to the challenge?
Many teachers, administrators and community leaders are turning to motivational speakers as a way of reaching and inspiring youth. Rich Libner, president of MCP Speakers, has worked with school boards, college administrators and youth leadership to bring messages of hope to young people. They need to feel they can make a difference, says Libner, and motivational speakers have proven time and again that the actions of one person matter. It's the kind of learning that goes way beyond the classroom.
Many teachers, administrators and community leaders are turning to motivational speakers as a way of reaching and inspiring youth. Rich Libner, president of MCP Speakers, has worked with school boards, college administrators and youth leadership to bring messages of hope to young people. They need to feel they can make a difference, says Libner, and motivational speakers have proven time and again that the actions of one person matter. It's the kind of learning that goes way beyond the classroom.
Inspire the youth in your life with our top 10 tips for using a school or youth-oriented motivational speaker.
1. Pinpoint what is holding your group back
2. Identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
3. Seek expert advice
4. Remember that timing is everything
5. Choose a speaker who can connect with youth
6. Involve youth in planning the event
7. Get the most fame you can afford
8. Think of what personal experiences will have the most impact on your group
9. Inspire the adults so they can pass it on
10. Tie the speaker's lessons to ongoing projects and activities
1) Pinpoint what is holding your group back
Maybe it's poverty. Broken families. Lack of positive role models. Hopelessness. Fear of the future. Poor self-esteem. The more specific you can be about the needs of the youth you are trying to reach, the more successful you will be at finding a speaker who can make a difference in their lives.
2) Identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
While it is important to recognize the power of the past, a good motivational speaker should provide the inspiration and tools for youth to succeed in the future. Think about the unique challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for your group and pass this valuable context on to your speaker.
3) Seek expert advice
You wouldn't expect to put together an event menu without the advice of a caterer or mike a conference room without the assistance of a sound technician. So don't hesitate to contact a speakers bureau when looking for a motivational speaker for your school or youth group, advises Libner. A speakers bureau will help take the uncertainty and guesswork out of speaker selection. The relationship is really a partnership, Libner notes, with both parties sharing the same goal: a standing ovation. A speakers bureau will also offer event planning support, including help with travel arrangements, audio-visual requirements and back-up planning in case a speaker must cancel. The host organization doesn't pay anything for the speakers bureau's services, since payment comes from the speaker.
4) Remember that timing is everything
Choose the right moment for a school or youth motivational speaker. Endings and beginnings are both excellent opportunities to employ a speaker--think graduation or during the first week of high school or university. At these important moments, young people may be more receptive to a motivational speaker's message, either because they are concerned about the future or open to possibilities. Motivational speakers can also be used to help celebrate successes--for example at an athletic banquet or an event to congratulate honour roll students--or as a way to motivate achievement prior to exams.
5) Choose a speaker who can connect with youth
Some motivational speakers use their young age to connect with the audience, but don't feel your motivational speaker must be a peer to be effective. It is more important that the speaker, regardless of her age, creates a believable bond with the students and quickly inspires trust. Humour and personal anecdotes are important ways to connect with youth, but beware of speakers who use controversy, obscenities or devaluing of adults as a cheap way of building rapport with the crowd. A skillful motivational speaker will orient the presentation to different learning styles so everyone stays engaged.
6) Involve youth in planning the event
Nothing gets buy-in faster than having the power to shape the outcome, so make sure that youth have the opportunity to contribute their ideas to the event. Not only will they feel valued but the final product will better respond to their needs.
7) Get the most fame you can afford
Young people are immersed in a celebrity-conscious culture so use this to your advantage. Know your budget and secure the most well-known talent you can.
8) Think of what personal experiences will have the most impact on your group
Motivational speakers typically share their personal journey as a way of teaching and inspiring others. Andrew Brash, for example, is a mountain climber who abandoned his own climb to rescue someone who was left for dead by another expedition. Matt Hill, actor, athlete and co-founder of Run for the Planet, speaks to audiences about fulfilling dreams against the odds and the power of a role model. Will an elite athlete who grew up in poverty, a cancer survivor, a mountain climber or a Paralympian be the most compelling speaker for your youth?
9) Inspire the adults so they can pass it on
It can be difficult to get all the middle schoolers or all the freshmen in your city together in one room to benefit from a motivational speaker. In-service the adults who spend time with the youth and you can multiply the benefits a thousand-fold. Motivational speakers can present to teachers, parents, professors and service agencies. They can even present to student leaders as a way of helping the leaders inspire and motivate their peers. Hosting a small in-service rather than a keynote event means those in attendance will feel more like participants than audience members. Increased interaction with the speaker through a workshop or discussion format can extend learning.
10) Tie the speaker's lessons to ongoing projects and activities
Revisit the principles, strategies and messages from the motivational speaker's talk during the rest of the year. This will deepen the learning and allow students the opportunity to try out techniques.
Article Directory - http://www.mcpspeakers.com/Top-10-Tips-for-Using-a-Motivational-Speaker-to-Inspire-Youth.html
MCP Speakers www.mcpspeaker.com represents some of the best and the most engaging speakers and entertainers in the business. Business Leaders, Writers, Sports Figures, Media Personalities. These experienced speakers bring ideas to life with energy, emotion and passion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)