Urban Design is a Must for 10th Street!

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According to The City of Omaha Master Plan Concept Element, the community of Omaha should dedicate itself to “promoting and maintaining a high quality of life for all its people.”

Over the last several decades, Omaha’s development trends have turned to suburban patterns, putting pedestrian activity on the backburner to vehicular dominance. These patterns are quite prevalent in West Omaha, and tend to separate areas of activity with long stretches of roads, parking lots and businesses.

Traditional development patterns boast the blend of businesses and homes together as well as large areas laid out for pedestrian activity mixed with a gorgeous dose of landscaping. The more traditional development patterns in older areas of the city, particularly along 10^th Street, have suffered erosion through the two conflicting development styles. We can’t allow this to happen.

Historic 10^th Street’s future is in the hands of its own people – if the community chooses to allow suburban patterns into 10^th Street, the magic of the area will be destroyed.

The Omaha City Council collectively approved the implementation of urban design regulations for the City of Omaha back in August 2007, addressing physical characteristics of development that were previously unmonitored.

These regulations will help stabilize important areas and increase the overall quality for Omaha’s built environment while balancing the needs of all users.

Accommodations for all types of pedestrian mobility, a “park-once-and-walk” design like that of the Old Market, attractive landscaping and historic preservation are key characteristics that will make the 10^th Street area blossom into something fantastic.

“These well designed streetscapes will function like urban villages where one can walk freely and safely to enjoy a community environment involving commercial retail and office services, living, entertainment and public spaces,” according to The Urban Design Handbook for Omaha.

Rezoning 10^th Street will bump the area’s status up from an Area of Civic Importance to a Neighborhood Conservation and Enhancement district. The future of 10^th Street as an NCE district will continue to hold its significant history while also allowing new development.

The process of rezoning will take many years to complete – the new regulations will apply only when new development or construction occurs; but putting these codes in place now ensures a tourist and neighborhood friendly area for the future. Without these regulations in place, the historic area we know now, graced with homes, businesses, beauty and charm, will dwindle down to nothing more than an impersonal cluster of streets and cars.

There is no doubt that 10^th Street is one of the key tourist and residential areas of the Midwest – the new goals and regulations for future growth can only help our community take charge and truly establish a high quality of life for all people.

** To view the Omaha Municipal Code, visit www.municode.com - go to the online library, select Nebraska and then Omaha. Look for Chapter 55 – Zoning and then Article 22 – Urban Design.

** Contact Jed Moulton, Manager of Urban Design for the City of Omaha (444-5208) with questions regarding the NCE district overlay zoning.

I Live in and Love Omaha.

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I’ll admit, as a child I cursed Omaha, Neb. and swore I’d move out and never look back as soon as I turned 18.  I, like many of my other fifth-grade pals, thought places like California sounded much more appealing and had much more to offer.

Perhaps due to our young age, Omaha really didn’t have much to give us at the time.  Or maybe we gathered these bogus ideas from our parents and decided to stick with them, repeating our distaste for our hometown like a broken record.

But Omaha seems different now; this town has grown into something extraordinary with so many opportunities to offer. 

I take back all those daft words I muttered so long ago and will replace them with new ones - I love Omaha, Nebraska.

The reasons for falling in love with Omaha are virtually endless, from housing the nationally renowned Henry Doorly Zoo, to being the birthplace of talented people – hello Fred Astaire and Warren Buffett!

For those who are skeptical, know that I am not alone.  What Cheer, a small web design studio based in - you guessed it - Omaha, also enjoys the town they live in and developed the Web site www.iliveinomaha.com.  The Web site allows Omahans to share their reasons for loving and living in Omaha.

Among the different entries are my personal favorites, “I live in Omaha because it’s the best kept secret,” and, “…because I got here on accident, but after 16 years wouldn’t consider leaving.” 

After much inspiration from entries posted on the site and much contemplation, I have come up with my top three reasons of why I live in Omaha.

1.     Omaha gets bigger and better every year. 

From the newly designed North Downtown area that houses Slowdown, American Apparel and Film Streams, to the ever-expanding restaurant and neighborhood list of West O, Omaha’s getting big!

The activities, business and restaurants don’t show signs of stopping anytime soon – the progress of the city keeps charging ahead with new schools and neighborhoods, especially out west, to keep up with the increasing population.

And this summer, Omahans won’t have a problem finding fun in the city thanks to Mutual of Omaha’s Wild About Omaha Weekend, July 24 and 25.  The weekend will host many free events at a plethora of arts and entertainment venues including the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts located at 724 S. 12^th St., as well as the Hot Shops Art Center at 1301 Nicholas St.

2.  Omaha’s creative scene can’t be beat.

It’s practically inevitable – talk to any musically inclined person about Omaha, and Saddle Creek Records will come up.

As of late, the Omaha Indie label has been laying low – some of their past artists have recently released records with other labels - but Saddle Creek is still signing new acts and is also keeping busy with its extremely successful venue, the Slowdown, which opened in 2007. 

Aside from the Saddle Creek scene, many great out-of-town acts – Elton John two years in a row(!) -  come to Omaha to play to the crowd they’ve heard so much about.  The crowds don’t disappoint.  Neither do the bands.

The Disc Jockey scene is also coming to rise in Omaha, mashing up tunes and making people get down at events like Loom, Goo and Gunk.

And, with a variety of different venues to host shows and dance parties, we don’t have much to complain about – except for maybe missing out on some of the best nights because the event is 21+.

3.     Omaha, Nebraska truly IS the best kept secret

Go out of town to a big city and tell someone you’re from Nebraska – it’s surprising to find out what other people don’t know.

I’ve been asked before if we have cement roads and Walmarts – I’ve also had to answer the question, “What state is Nebraska in?”

Maybe the people I’ve come across didn’t have proper schooling and should consider taking some middle school courses again.  But whatever the problem, it’s their problem. 

Us Omahans are lucky to be in on the secret and we should only hope that one day our ignorant friends from other cities figure it out. 

We do have Walmarts, thank you, but we have much more to offer than any Walmart could – Omaha is a big city with big opportunity for success and growth, but also carries a small town feel with it, allowing us to feel safe and connected with one another.

           

            We must embrace our wonderful community and love what makes us so unique.  Sure, we’re not California with constant warmth and beaches.  We’re Nebraska, with four extremely different seasons that will tickle different fancies and keep us from getting bored.  Hey, it also means an expanded wardrobe!

            There’s something here for everyone, from the College World Series to McFoster’s Natural Kind Café.  You’ve just got to be willing to look and make it work.

            With Omaha’s big steps up since I was in the fifth grade, it’s clear we can only progress from here, and I know our love for Omaha can only grow fonder.

The importance of seat belts.

The impact threw 15-year-old Nick Alfrey’s body from the passenger’s side of his friend’s vehicle into the field at 222^nd Street and West Center Road, where he was quickly pronounced dead.

            Alfrey was riding home from a church meeting May 4, 2004; drinking or speeding was not a factor.  Unfortunately, Nick also wasn’t using his seat belt.

            A pickup truck going 60 mph struck the vehicle Alfrey was in and sent him through the windshield in a matter of seconds.  His life ended there.

            Had he been wearing a seat belt, Alfrey might still be here today.

            “Every time [I] buckled that seat belt in the months following, it was kind of in the back of my mind,” said Taylor Arehart, 20, Alfrey’s old classmate.  “Now my car won’t leave the parking lot unless everyone is buckled up.”

            The seat belt is the greatest single piece of personal protective equipment that we’ve been able to devise, said Bill Mulherin, vice president of traffic programs for the National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter.

            If people aren’t belted into their seat during a collision, Mulherin said, their body will most likely be ejected from the vehicle and hit something hard – like the law of inertia.

            Isaac Newton’s first law of motion can be directly paralleled to the mechanics of a car crash.  The law says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by another force.

            In a car crash, the seat belt acts as the other force so the passenger’s body continues to stay with the car.  With no seat belt, coming to an abrupt stop means the passenger will continue to move forward at the same speed the car was moving.

“An unrestrained driver or passenger keeps going until he or she is stopped by another collision, such as with the steering wheel, the windshield, or the pavement outside the car’s window,” according to the National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter’s “Click It Don’t Risk It” campaign Web site, www.clickitdontriskit.com.

When a seat belt is worn properly, it gives a passenger a 55 percent better chance of surviving a crash, Mulherin said.

            In the beginning, lap belts were the only kind of safety belt.  Although they keep the body strapped into the seat, they allow the body to fold and hit the dashboard, causing head injuries.

            “Since everything that makes us what we are is in our heads, if you’re having head injuries, it sort of eliminates the need for having [seat belts] in the first place,” Mulherin said.  “So they went to the three-point seat belts.”

            A properly worn three-point safety belt comes over the shoulder and fits snuggly about the waist.

            “It actually provides the belt over the strongest parts of the body; the parts that are most likely to absorb the crash without injury,” Mulherin said.

            UNO graduate student Kristin Logan, 26, learned the importance of the three-point belt the hard way.

            On July 7, 2000, just after she had graduated high school, Logan’s boyfriend at the time was driving the two home through a rainstorm in her ’94 Ford Escort.  They were crossing the dangerous intersection of 168^th and State Streets - an area nicknamed “the State Street jump” due to a hazardous hill many high school students like to “fly” over, often times while intoxicated.

            In the midst of lightening and gushing rain, the car hydroplaned down a hill and flew off the opposite side of the road, hitting a tree head on from nearly 40 mph.

            Logan was wearing her seat belt partially right.  The seat belts in her car stuck in a certain position when the doors were shut and blocked the driver’s, so they unbuckled the top portion of their seat belts, leaving only the lap belt as their safety harness.

            When her car came in contact with the tree, Logan hit her head on the dashboard, split her head open, bit through her tongue and broke several of her teeth.  She also left the scene with torn ligaments in her left elbow and massive bruises on her lower abdomen and hipbones, causing the doctors to fear internal injuries. 

            “People thought [the bruising] was really terrible,” Logan said.  “I was like, ‘No, this is fine, these bruises on my hips - the alternative would be me going through the windshield.’”

            Logan said her lap belt saved her life. 

            “The tree that we hit was right on the brink of a stream below.  So, it’s like, a 40-foot drop off,” Logan said.  “So we would have probably went through the windshield and straight down into there and then when someone showed up they would see a car that was wrecked and they would hopefully be able to figure out that people had gone down.  Who knows if we would be living or not? I kinda suspect not.”

She also believes that having a shoulder strap could have prevented the damage to her teeth and head.

Mulherin agrees with Logan; the shoulder strap keeps the upper body away from the dashboard and away from harm – but Mulherin, like many others, didn’t think much of the seat belt and its unique power until his own experience.

“New Jersey passed a law requiring seat belt use for drivers, and I pretty much had the 

idea that I wasn’t going to let the government tell me what to do in my car – never mind the 

government regulates vehicle design, vehicle manufacture, tolls, licensing and insurance,”

 Mulherin said.  “I’d always assumed that if I was in an accident it would be a rear ender 

accident, and I further assumed that it wouldn’t be my fault and I would be fine.”

  But in May of 1989, Mulherin was stopped on a four-lane road, waiting to make a left-

hand turn into a driveway.   A vehicle going 60 mph hit Mulherin from behind – and no safety 

belt was holding Mulherin to his seat.

 “It was exactly the type of accident I thought I’d be in,” Mulherin said.  “My assumptions 

were partially correct; I did get pushed back into my seat, but I failed to take into account the 

rebound action, and I came forward and hit the steering wheel with my chest.  I broke the 

steering column - got fortunate and wasn’t seriously injured.  I kind of woke up that day and 

said, ‘You know what? I don’t care about the law, I’m more in it for me.’ Unfortunately, it took 

an accident.”

Waiting for an accident to happen before seat belts are used is unfortunately a common theme.  Mulherin attributes this thought process to rebellion.  Younger drivers don’t want to be told what to do by the law or otherwise, so in an act of defiance they don’t wear a safety harness.

“Yeah, they’re right, they have that control,” Mulherin said.  “But what has to happen is 

each of us have to come to the point where we realize, ‘If I violate the law, the government isn’t 

going to shed any tears – my parents will, my friends will, but the law and the government isn’t 

going to. So I need to make these choices for me, because of me.  If there’s a law in there, that’s 

nice, but this really is a self-preservation type of thing.’”

And, for a lot of people, it’s hard to understand that a fatal car crash can happen to anyone. 

“For many people, our typical experience in cars is this: we get in the car, we arrive to 

where we want to be, we don’t have any issues,” Mulherin said.  “And so we misunderstand the 

actual risks we’re taking when we’re behind the wheel. We don’t actually give those risks the 

‘do’ that they deserve.”

Such was the case for Arehart.  Even with the loss of her friend, she decided to get into a 

car once more with no seat belt.  

            “I was not the driver, but the passenger,” Arehart said.  I was not wearing a seatbelt and I can’t even remember why I didn’t put it on. Thankfully, I was not seriously injured, but I could have been. I think I was given a friendly reminder, ‘Think about it Taylor, you know what can happen.’”

            It doesn’t have to take an accident to turn someone on to seat belts. Parents have a huge responsibility in teaching their kids between safe and unsafe.  And, parents are more likely than peers to influence their child’s seat belt use, according to research conducted in 2008 from a team of University of Nebraska at Omaha students promoting seat belt usage among tweens.

            Along with parental action, The National Safety Council, Greater Omaha Chapter has helped increase seat belt usage and awareness through their “Click It Don’t Risk It” campaign.  Since the campaign started in 2002, Mulherin has seen the rates of individuals wearing seat belts rise over 80 percent.

Mulherin wants people riding in cars to think about the risks they’re willing to take and to 

think about what the real risks are – not just what is perceived.

“The reality of it is, every time you get in a car and drive, there’s a risk,” Mulherin said.  

“You can’t make that risk go away, so we have to take steps in advance to lessen that risk to 

ourselves.”

            Perhaps Alfrey wasn’t aware of the great risk he was taking the night he died.  His death is just one of the 42,000 to 44,000 auto deaths that take place in the U.S. every year.

            “We will never know if things would have come out differently if Nick had been wearing his seat belt,” Arehart said.  “We can only hope that out of the tragedy came something good, and that could be people realizing they have to wear seatbelts for protection.”

###

 Current NE laws, according to Mulherin and www.clickitdontriskit.com:

-       For teens and drivers operating on provisional operator’s permits, whether they’re operating or passengers, if they’re under 16 they must be wearing a seat belt no matter where they are in the car.

-       For young children who require car seats, they have to be in an appropriate restraint system for the size and weight of the child.

-       For adults over 18 or those driving on full drivers licenses, Nebraska law requires that you wear seat belts when you’re in the front driver or passenger seat.

-       The fine for not wearing a seat belt is $25, and the driver and passengers can be fined separately.

Diavolo!

a dancer flying through the air.

Heim in the middle, working with the dancers.

Friday night, I had the amazing opportunity to go see the Diavolo dance company based out of Los Angeles, Ca., at the Lied Center in Lincoln.

Diavolo has been compared to Cirque du Soleil - the dancing is very acrobatic, and gives you scenes to a story that the viewer ultimately makes up.  But, as I have been told, they don't want to be entirely paralleled to Cirque. 

The founder of Diavolo, Jacques Heim, originally from Paris, has choreographed for Cirque du Soleil's "Ka," however, and is working on a new Cirque piece for 2011, according to his bio.

The dancers in Diavolo are taught to trust one another with their lives - it requires trust to fly feet into the air and be sure that someone will be at the other end of the stage to catch you.

The company has been in Nebraska since the end of February, and auditioned local dancers to join in the Diavolo Project: Nebraska.  Out of the 40-some that auditioned, about 15 dancers were picked to train with the company and dance in the two performances at Omaha's Orpheum and the Lied in Lincoln.

I tried out and unfortunately did not make it.  But given my training and given the acrobatic nature of the tryout, I'm okay with it.  It was a lot of running and smacking yourself on the ground, flying into the air without a certain placement of the arms, and learning crazy floor rolls.

I came home with many a bruise and a pain throughout my muscles for days - my favorite!

Now, imagine the dancers who were actually a part of the performance and took bruises home every day after rehearsals that lasted for hours! Ouch!

During the company's time here, I was also fortunate to take a couple master classes led by some of its members.  My goodness, they are talented and RIPPED.

But the show was absolutely incredible - bodies shot through the air above oversized prop pieces that sway back and forth.  

Heim spoke in-between pieces and at the end of the show. His humor is top notch as well as his drive.  He has a beautiful mind and you can tell the dancers he works with absolutely adore him.  

With the voucher I was lucky to be given, tickets only cost me $6 a piece!  I couldn't believe what a deal it was for how incredible of a show I was given.  

Nebraska is so fortunate to have this opportunity thrown at them.  I can't put into words how appreciative I am and how incredible the members of Diavolo are.

If you ever get a chance to take a class or at least see what they do, jump on it.

New album and CD release show for Omaha's Little Brazil

photo from www.littlebrazil.net 

            If sitting down and actually reading a book doesn’t interest you, perhaps Omaha indie band Little Brazil’s new album released Tuesday will.

On March 28^th the band will celebrate its third full-length record with a CD release show at The Waiting Room Lounge.

            The new CD titled “Son” deals with fictional and non-fictional concepts, said guitarist Greg Edds,  Songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Landon Hedges said it is like one big storybook that deals with many family oriented situations.  “Son” covers the good of falling in love, children and marriage, but doesn’t leave out the bad of adultery, divorce and death.

            “It’s the very high highs of family issues - and the lows,” Hedges said.

            Right now, the band is in the middle of a three-and-a-half-week tour playing throughout the U.S. and winding down the tour with their release show in Omaha.

            Nebraska bands Eagle Seagull and Noah’s Ark Was A Spaceship, and Missouri band The Life and Times will be opening for Little Brazil’s night. 

            “We’ve got a pretty eclectic line up of bands that’ll be sure to bring a lot of energy,” Edds said.  “We’ll be excited to be playing all of our new material to everybody that comes out; it’ll be fun.  Homecoming shows are always interesting – we’ll be tired, but we’re always looking forward to it.”

            UNO sophomore Ryan Moore is also looking forward to the show.

            “From what I have heard on their Myspace page, I expect it to be a pretty good show,” Moore says.  “It sounds like their sound has matured a bit and its making their new music sound great.  Just going off of their Myspace, this will be by far their best CD yet.”

            This third time around, the band focused on writing the concept of the songs, Edds said.  Before, they were writing material as a band that “were just rock songs – just basic.”

            The songs on “Son” are quicker with heavier story lines.

            “It was more focus from the beginning, which before we really didn’t have,” Edds said.  “We were having fun, but we weren’t really concentrating on the writing material.”

            Little Brazil began writing the new album about a year and a half ago, and worked with AJ Mogis who, Hedges said, “had a good hand in producing this album this time.”

            The band decided to release with Anodyne Records from Kansas City, Mo. this time, as apposed to past releases with Mt. Fuji Records from Seattle, Wash.

            “It was just kind of time for us to take another step and we felt like Anodyne was the right step to take – not a huge step, but a step nonetheless,” Hedges said.

            Little Brazil also took a step this January at the Omaha Entertainment Awards, where they won the award for Best Rock Group.  The year before, in 2008, they received the award for Best Alternative/Indie band.

            “We were all pretty surprised,” Edds said.  “We did not expect it at all – we were really thankful.”

            This summer, Little Brazil will be hitting the east coast and will continue touring throughout the rest of 2009.

            The release show on the 28^th will surely show just how far Little Brazil has come, and how far they will continue to go.

            “I’m just stoked to play the show just because it marks another one down,” Hedges said.  “We’ve accomplished a lot, and it just marks another step in the direction that we’re moving.  I’m expecting, I don’t know, a good rock ’n’ roll night.”

           

             

              

I'M IN SOUTH PADRE BITCH.

"Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly!"

(photograph by tony bonacci)

Alexia dreamed of being many things as a child; she recalls an old school year photo album where she had to write what she wanted to be when she grew up – “I wanted to be the tooth fairy.”

She had a liking and a talent for drawing as a child, and by high school realized her future would have something to do with art.

In high school she helped her mom create the black faux-fur dress she would wear to prom – a prom dress of fake black fur was surely not going to be found in your typical store.
            Alexia Thiele developed a voice and style all her own – one that’s taken her quite far as a clothing designer. 

Thiele owns Autopilot Art, an Omaha clothing company where she creates one-of-a-kind pieces.  She does it all – stitched, dyed, zipped and buttoned jackets, silk-screened T-shirts and lacy, multi-fabric dresses.  She also crafts silk-screened onesies and jackets for babies and children.

Her textile designs began about eight years ago.

After helping create her high school prom dress and realizing for the first time that she could make what she couldn’t find, she started altering clothes for her petite 5-foot-1-inch figure around the age of 20 – by hand.

“I’ll find stuff I did then and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, I was really patient,’” Thiele said.  “I can’t believe I sat there and sewed all that.”

At 22, Thiele progressed from alterations to sewing throw pillows for her apartment; then the scratch construction of clothing began. 

Before fashion was the main focus, Thiele took part in group art shows featuring installations, collages and video pieces.  In August 2005, she switched over to just sewing and had her first actual fashion show, “Fabrication,” at the Bemis Underground with her friend, Omaha artist and designer Peter Frankhauser.

After “Fabrication,” Thiele never stopped making clothes.  People specifically wanted her jackets – so she made jackets.

Thiele had much more on her plate in 2005 than just her first fashion show.  Oct. 8 she married Jacob Thiele, a member of Omaha indie band The Faint.   She had also been studying at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and was supposed to be working on her thesis.  The newlyweds decided to take some time to travel to Europe, which put her thesis off until the spring of 2006.

Thiele graduated from UNO with a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis in intermedia.  Her thesis was an installation project that featured Thiele and her twin sister Andrea.

“It was kind of like a video project mixed with these puzzles that are collage pieces of my twin sister and I, our faces together, and the room was complimentary colors,” Thiele said.   “The video projection was a video I did of our faces spliced together where it was confusing - where you didn’t know what was off about our faces.”

In December 2006, months after earning her degree, Thiele came to the conclusion that she could make a living doing what she loves by creating a company out of it - thus, the birth of Autopilot Art.

Her fashions are sold online through her Autopilot Art Web site, as well as some shops around town.  Bellwether Boutique in the Old Market and BBB Skateshop in the new Saddle Creek Records Complex both sell some of her clothes.

Thiele also uses her company name to design clothes for Omaha bands and musicians to wear – she mainly works with Tilly and the Wall, but has also created clothes for the Flamboyant Gods and for friends Orenda Fink and Stefanie Drootin.

But she won’t limit herself – Thiele takes up commissioned jobs when she’s asked.  She’s done everything from interior design to dance costumes.  Recently, she worked on the wardrobe for a new Lifetime movie, “Acceptance,” scheduled to premiere this summer.   The flick will star Joan Cusack and Mae Whitman, a big Autopilot Art fan.

Right now, Thiele is designing a curtain to be used as a bathroom door at Brothers Lounge at 38^th and Farnam Streets.  She is also preparing for her solo fashion show, "Departure," March 28 at Bancroft Street Market at 2702 S. 10^th St.  

Taking on so many projects is made easy, thanks to her in-home studio. She fancies the ability to work at any time, in any condition - waking up and deciding to work on a project while still in her pajamas is a common one. 

Although she tries hard to keep her studio tidy, there comes a time where her workspace inevitably gets muddled.

“During a show it’s crazy,” Thiele said.  “It can get really hellish in there.”

With Thiele’s solo show coming up, she’s spending most of her days in the studio.  But for her, hours spent working in her studio feel like minutes.

“It’s a big time warp room when I go in there – sometimes I measure how long I’ve been in there by how many times I’ve listened to the same record,” Thiele said.

Having three interns to help out also makes the time fly – they work on projects that Thiele sometimes finds “monotonous,” like detail stitching on collars or pockets.  With her interns taking care of those details, she has more time to create new pieces.

“I might take for granted that that part’s important still, and I might half-ass it, so it’s good to have somebody actually care to take the time to do that part of it,” Thiele said.

Thiele has immersed herself in her own designs and doesn’t care about what other designers are doing.  Inspired by music and driven by art, she has a unique outlook on her work – if she doesn’t know or care about what others are doing, she finds it much easier to make what she likes.

“I realized that when I painted when I had all this art history training, the more I knew about art the less I could paint – it got to be overwhelming,” Thiele said.  “I lost my voice in knowing too much.”

For Thiele, ignorance is bliss.  She just wants to focus on her voice and the art it makes – she’ll continue to look past the poor economy and big business competition to do what she loves. 

“You just fight your way through it,” Thiele said.  “I’ll get in more stores, do more things.”