I love infers Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater being aboard theater seating diagnoses a ship and being lulled by the soft hum of the diesel engines and the gentleness of a lullaby movement monitored by stabilizers. Scenes of snow and mountains slip by like visions from a slide show, and ice floes tumble by like toys at sea. But cruises are for men with big bellies and big laughs and women with meticulously coiffed hair and a lot of jewelry who eat and drink themselves into a coma at breakfast and lunch buffets piled high with, well, everything. Dinner is a delight, where a guy like me who doesn't schmooze or say "Howdy, neighbor" can sip an excellent martini and dine on entrees fit for a five-star restaurant. I will say, however, that I am taken by the efficiency of the operation that manages to keep 1,400 passengers busy and happy and well. To the best of my knowledge, no one has suffered from the maladies that often seem to afflict cruises. This is due to some extent to containers of antiseptic jellies that one is encouraged to rub on one's hands. You can't even get into the dining room without doing so. Jeffrey has just abandoned the comfort of the salon to join Cinelli out there in the weather. I watch them laughing together as a breeze musses their hair and the rain dampens their faces, and the glory of a heading into the wind embraces them as it has others since the first time men went down to the sea in ships. Our only other deep-water cruise was on a battered steamer in the Greek Islands, where we had to end the trip by leaping across the gap between the cruise ship and a smaller boat to get to shore.

It was throw the baggage, then follow it, sprawling to the deck of the tug that took us to a hotel across the aqua Aegean kennedy center eisenhower theater seating chart . I felt like luggage. I have managed to amuse myself on the Volendam by catching up on my reading, which includes books such as Larry Kaniut's "Danger Stalks the Land," about the many ways one can die in Alaska: from being eaten by a grizzly to being stuck in the glue-like muck of a river bed while the tide rises and your weeping friends wave goodbye from the safety of the shore. "Why do you read that stuff?" Cinelli asked when I bought the book kennedy center eisenhower theatre . "You'll end up awake all night dangling from the sheer, icy face of Mt kennedy center theater . McKinley, looking down 19,000 feet where a terrible death awaits I know you. "That she does kennedy center theatre . She looks back at me from the open deck at the bow and smiles Jeffrey turns too and beckons for me to join them. So I put down my book and my coffee and I zip up my hooded, waterproof North Face jacket and slip out the starboard door, into the wind and rain and the whisper of distant peaks that say, "Come north, my son, come to Alaska," just as Bali Hai once called from an overheated isle in the South Seas. I stand at a railing and look to the sea, Cinelli on one side and Jeffrey on the other, and I count my blessings as the ship plows forward and the ice scoots by. *Al Martinez's column appears Mondays and Fridays He can be reached at al. martinez . . 'Large foundations are timid beasts," Dwight Macdonald wrote in 1956.

The Ford Foundation proved this in 2003 when its president, Susan Berresford, yielded to outside pressure and inserted dubious language into Ford's standard grant-agreement letter, language that outraged civil libertarians, dismayed members of her own staff and left executives at other large foundations shaking their heads. In January, Ford will have a new president, Luis Ubinas, who should move quickly to rectify the mistakes of his predecessor and realign Ford's day-to-day grant-making with the lofty principles that have guided the foundation -- the second largest in the U. S Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater . with assets of $12 billion -- throughout most of its history. The grant agreement instituted by Ford -- which must be signed by each of the foundation's 5,000 grantees, from Harvard University to the Steve Biko Foundation of South Africa -- reads as follows: "By countersigning this grant letter, you agree that your organization will not promote or engage in violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state, nor will it make subgrants to any entity that engages in these activities. " On quick perusal, these words might seem innocuous or even laudable kennedy center nutcracker . But on close inspection, the language is extremely vague and open-ended, as critics were quick to remind Ford. Richard Saller, then the provost of the University of Chicago, which receives money from Ford, told the Harvard Crimson in 2005 that the "destruction of any state" provision was "hypocritical language" in light of the U. S invasion and occupation of Iraq theater tickets . Ira Glasser, the former head of the American Civil Liberties Union, privately warned Berresford that Ford's new language could lead to 1950s-style blacklisting kennedy center shows . The current head of the ACLU, Anthony Romero, believes that "Ford made a big mistake with the grant language. It has created a pall over the foundation and its grantees. " In the face of these and other lamentations, Ford has refused to back down. Ford's difficulties sprouted in the wake of the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, where 18,000 people gathered to debate the legacies of the slave trade, colonialism and racial and caste discrimination. Some activists at Durban unleashed their fury on Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, and organizations ranging from Commentary magazine to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch appropriately identified and denounced some anti-Semitic rhetoric and leaflets that had circulated at the conference. Two years later, in October 2003, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a wire service in New York, published a withering four-part series about Ford, noting that the foundation had provided long-term funding to a Palestinian nongovernmental organization, the Palestinian Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, which had been accused by some of inciting anti-Semitism at Durban.

The series endeavored to tar the Ford Foundation with the brush of anti-Semitism, and, in a fast-and-loose manner, implied that some of the NGOs that Ford had chosen to fund had ties to terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza. The series had the desired effect: The American Jewish Congress asked lawmakers in Washington to examine the tax-exempt status of foundations such as Ford, on the grounds that Ford may have financed "terrorists and terror-related activities. " At the same time, 20 members of Congress, led by Rep kennedy center eisenhower theater seating chart . Jerrold Nadler (D-N. Y. ), wrote to Berresford demanding that she immediately investigate the allegations in the series. The foundation initially denied the allegations, but, ultimately, Berresford promised that Ford would stop funding the Palestinian Committee kennedy center org . Then, perhaps unaccustomed to political fisticuffs and the close scrutiny of determined critics, she went too far and allowed her detractors to help dictate textual changes in the grant letter kennedy center wash . (Berresford insists that the language was not imposed on the foundation. )In any case, Ford's new grant language sent shock waves through the foundation world kennedy center . One executive at another large foundation told me, "This is the kind of language that, had it been from the government, the ACLU would have to sue. " A former high-ranking Ford employee noted with dismay: "Susan is very tough and principled, so they must have really twisted her arm to get her to put in that new grant language. "Ford's grantees in the upper reaches of academia immediately resisted the new provisions. In April 2004, Ford received a letter from nine university provosts -- including those from Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Chicago -- who wrote that "it is difficult to see how this clause would not run up against the basic principle of protected speech on our campuses. " Say, for instance, that a student organization at Columbia University were to sponsor a Palestinian film festival -- as one did in 2003. All of Columbia's Ford grants could theoretically be jeopardized if a film in that series was deemed to be supportive of "violence, terrorism, bigotry or the destruction of any state. " And it wasn't clear whether the grant agreement covered the speech of professors, alumni magazines or books published by university presses. In the end, the provosts, reluctant to damage their relationship with a crucial funding source, forged an uneasy compromise with Ford. Nearly all of Ford's grantees opted to remain silent about the language in the grant letter: They rely on the foundation for essential financial support.

But one New York-based grantee decided to stand on principle Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater . The leaders of the Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelmann and Glasser, the former ACLU director, told Berresford that "the trouble with such ill-defined standards as 'promoting terrorism' or 'promoting bigotry' or 'promoting the destruction of any state' is that they inevitably embrace advocacy and speech kennedy center performance . The rights of those who advocate for unpopular ideas and proposals are then at the mercy and discretion of those who interpret and enforce such vague and over-broad restrictions. " Berresford declined their request that the language be changed and, in late 2004, the alliance returned a $200,000 grant to Ford. The ACLU, which routinely defends people whose behavior could well be seen as bigoted or terroristic -- detainees being held at the U. S kennedy center calendar. prison at Guantanamo Bay, for instance -- initially accepted the language, but after a protracted internal battle, refused more than $1 million in Ford grants. Large foundations may indeed be timid beasts, but Ford's history is full of innovation kennedy center tickets . In the 1960s, under the leadership of McGeorge Bundy, the former national security advisor to President Kennedy, Ford helped to establish the Public Broadcasting Service, the National Council of La Raza, the Urban Institute and a number of public-interest law centers. During congressional hearings in 1969, Bundy aggressively defended the entire foundation sector against the machinations of elected officials. Berresford's post-9/11 capitulation to outside critics was a dark moment in the history of a great institution. Ubinas would do well to ponder the mistakes of recent years and move to restore the foundation's credentials in the realm of civil liberties, and its independence in the realm of politics. Revising the language in the grant-agreement letter is an appropriate way to begin that process of renewal Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater . .

CHICAGO — Kanye West finally got the platform he always felt destined to occupy on Saturday kennedy center eisenhower theater seating chart . With the city skyline to the west, Lake Michigan to the east, and about 50,000 fans chanting his name as the closing act of Lollapalooza's second night, the native of Chicago's South Side looked over at his beaming mom sitting beside the stage. "See, Mom, I told ya," he said "I told ya I wanna rap kennedy theater . It works!"West was the first hip-hop act to headline Lollapalooza, which in its fractured two-decade history has morphed from a traveling alternative-rock festival into a massive, three-day gathering of the musical tribes on Chicago's lakefront that rivals Coachella (in California) and Bonnaroo (in Tennessee) as a summer festival destination. The 130 performers ranged from children's singer Ella Jenkins, who turned 82 over the weekend, to the pre-adolescent punk band the Blisters, which featured Sam and Spencer Tweedy, sons of singer Jeff Tweedy john f kennedy center . Not to be outdone, Jeff Tweedy's band Wilco was scheduled to be among the closing acts of the festival's final day Sunday, along with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Queens of the Stone Age. This was not the Lollapalooza of Perry Farrell's twisted past, a traveling freak show dominated by body piercings, tattoos and sometimes disturbing bands such as the Jesus Lizard the kennedy center . This was the new family-friendly Lollapalooza, with Farrell as jovial emcee and kids-stage performer and the creme of mainstream rock and rap spread across nine stages. In recognition of how hip-hop dominates the youth culture that Lollapalooza once helped redefine, this year's lineup was expanded to include more rap acts than ever. West topped a bill that included Britain's Lady Sovereign, Lyrics Born and Blackalicious, among others. West celebrated by dusting his set with cameos from Common, million-selling rapper Twista and rising star Lupe Fiasco, gliding on a skateboard to perform his hit "Kick Push. " Despite early technical problems that prompted West to grumble that his sound crew had "embarrassed me in front of my city," the rapper delivered dramatic versions of "Jesus Walks," "Gold Digger" and "Crack Music" with a large band that included a seven-piece string section outfitted as masked bandits. West also briefly reprised the Gnarls Barkley hit "Crazy. " The instant summer classic was everywhere at the festival, performed by West, the Raconteurs and Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo Green himself. The Raconteurs' version was the most surprising, with an animated Jack White clearly enjoying his hiatus from the White Stripes to share vocals and guitar duties with Brendan Benson. White also dug into a cover of Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" with hair-raising conviction. The Gnarls Barkley set was among the weekend's most anticipated, and the duo of Green and DJ Danger Mouse, who confined himself to playing keyboards, did not disappoint .

A 13-piece band took dark and unexpected detours, covering the Doors' "Who Scared You?" and the Greenhornes' "There Is an End," but brightened things up just enough with the Motown groove of "Smiley Faces" and, of course, "Crazy. " Green belted out the chorus like a man on intimate terms with dementia, but he refused to turn it into an epic sing-along. Similarly business-like was the iconic indie-rock trio Sleater-Kinney, which performed its final show outside the members' adopted hometown of Portland, Ore Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater - kennedy-center . , before calling it quits as a band . There were no tears or maudlin farewells, only pin-your-ears-back rock kennedy center performances . Guitarist Carrie Brownstein whipped up a storm of feedback in tandem with drum dynamo Janet Weiss on "What's Mine Is Yours. " Yet Weiss' harmonica brought a wistful beauty to "Modern Girl," and the closing "Turn It On" served as a fitting farewell theater . "Don't go away," Corin Tucker sang, "can't stand the thought. "Some of the festival's best moments were the unexpected ones . Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater tickets The bane of a hundred-plus bands is that it's impossible to see most of them. The joy is that fans on their way to see one group might stumble into something even better Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater - kennedy-center . Such a moment occurred when the Denton, Texas, quintet Midlake broke out the song "Roscoe" soon after the festival opened Friday.