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. The public library is also one of the event's sponsors, along with, among others, the Rotary Club of Charleston, the Cannon Street YMCA and the YWCA, and the South Carolina Humanities Council. The keynote speaker will be Kwame Alexander, the acclaimed poet and children's fiction writer who won the 2015 Newberry Medal for his book, The Crossover. The event takes place Sept. 23. Paul Stoney, president of the Cannon Street YMCA, and past president of The Rotary Club of Charleston, said the involvement of the two organizations with which he is involved was natural. Both are involved in promoting literacy. "The YMCA is involved in literacy programs, especially for children, and we really felt we should be involved in this initiative, not only one that highlights African-American authors, but set as an example to children who are interested in being in the industry," Stoney told Palmetto Business Daily. "It is an excellent way to expose them." He continued, "As president of the Rotary Club last year I felt it was important that our members back it and become involved as volunteers." The club took that a step further and decided to sponsor the festival this year. "Literacy is one of the major focuses of the Rotary Club," Stoney said. "Members will also be involved as volunteers." Steven Hoffus, who is on the organizing committee, told Palmetto Business Daily that around 30 local authors were in attendance last year, but the event is expanding. This year, the organizers have signed up authors from the area, but also from Georgia, North Carolina, even California, Hoffus said, adding that the event last year attracted a diverse audience and every genre of writing possible. A writer and editor, Hoffus said the genesis of the festival came from a conversation with a just published author, who simply said what a great idea it would be to have such an event in Charleston. The involvement of the public library may be unique, Hoffus said. "I was talking to an author from out of state who had never heard of a festival in a county library, or a library sponsoring such an event," he explained. 68 Calhoun St. Charleston, SC - 29401

The inspiration sign came from a really sweet blog called Team Turnbow, which I discovered, today. She offers cricut directions for making this sign. I don't have a cricut machine, so I have directions for those who are cricut-less. Maybe, I should show you my finished sign, first... I changed "YOU" to Y'ALL"! I love it! It reminds me of a vintage Coca Cola sign. Now, that's a Southern sign! You can change the words up for your version. You can change just the last word or the word smile to something else. What's important is that it fits you. Make It: First, I went to my favorite store......LOWES to get my wood board. You can find boards of various sizes, there. I usually buy 4'x8'x.5" sheets, since I use all the wood. You can have them cut it to the size you want, too. I learned how to use a circular saw, so I just had them cut it in half, so I could fit it in my car. When I got home I cut a 30"x40" piece. Prep: Sanded the edges. Brush the dust off with my little dustpan broom. You will need satin paint in the color of your choice. Brush on 2 coats of paint to cover the whole board. Paint the sides if you don't want to frame your sign. Words: * You have to work from right to left with this one. For example, I started with the letter "F" in the top right corner. Work your way to the left. I know, I know! Not like it isn't already a huge task. But well worth it. I only had Helvetica style stencils, that can be found at your hardware stores. Unfortunately, they have gaps in each letter, so they're not solid letters. I hand-painted each "gap" only to realize, afterward, that I could have used painter's tape to cover the "gaps" and make them solid letters! I know better, now. I used 6" letters on the 1st row, 8" letters on the 2nd row, and 3" letters for the 3rd row. The last row, I hand drew. However, you can print it out on legal size paper, letter by letter, and trace onto board with tracing paper. It took 3 coats of acrylic paint to do each letter. The crazy thing about my style of signs, is how I mess it up after I paint it! Yep. You can skip the distressing part if you like it the way it looks at this point. Distressing: Now, that all the letters are in place, take a medium grit sanding block and sand your little heart away. Make the letters look worn and gritty. I like it to look like I found this "old" sign on the side of the road. Like a discarded vintage gem! Ok, back to the task at hand... Once you have it as worn-out looking as you like, then pour an antiquing glaze (also found at LOWES in the paint section) in raw umber color or use acrylic paint mixed with equal parts water and pour in a disposable cup. Dip a trim paint brush in the glaze/acrylic mix and wipe excess off on the rim. Then, brush all around the edges of the sign. Use a damp rag to dab where you brush so it looks more muddled and not brush-stroky. Brush some on the letters and dab some more. Keep doing this till you are happy with how gritty you made it look. *don't forget about the sides of the board if you're not adding a frame. You can build a frame around it like I did. I used hardwood (oak) 1"x2" to make the frame. Making a frame is a very difficult task that I will share how to do in the future. Most of my signs are unframed and look good that way,too. You can opt to paint the sides black. Hanging: You can screw in a heavy duty picture hanging wire set on the back. You must hang this on anchored screws or a picture wire hanger (found at Hobby Lobby). FYI: expect this take, without making frame, about 6-8 hrs to make (add another 3 hrs for the frame). There is a lot of time involved in the hand-painting and distressing. It's worth it, though. Now, this is going to Texas to hang proudly and, hopefully, bring many smiles to y'all's faces! I love it! Good job!!!!

I love my compost bucket (thanks, Bennett), but I always try to think of ways to keep things out of it. Compost isn’t exactly food waste, but I believe in finding a way to use something before finding a way to recycle it. I’m by no means perfect at this. I still occasionally find a whole cucumber or half a bunch of herbs moldy and slimy in the fridge. Very grrrr enducing, but perhaps a sad fact of a life of overabundance. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve been doing a lot of fruit fermentation this summer. It’s fun, it’s tasty, and for the uninitiated, it’s a very easy sell. “Try my deliciously stinky sauerkraut” may not go over in every crowd, but “Here’s some probiotic plum soda you might like,” pretty much does. The only problem with sodas (and country wines to a lesser degree) is that there does tend to be a decent amount of flavor left in the fruit when it’s time to strain it out. I just can’t bring myself to discard it. So instead, I sauce it. We eat applesauce with abandon here in the US, so why not plum, peach or apricot sauce? There is no good reason, especially when the resulting sauces are so inexplicably silky! This plum sauce has the silkiest texture! All the sauces I’ve made this way do. A couple fun facts: - These fruit sauces will become effervescent and alcoholic if left in the fridge for any length of time. If you’re giving these to the kiddos, make it fast. - Sauce made from soda fruit will be pretty sweet. Not quite jam sweet, but still, sweet. That’s why I recommend these as an addition to dessert. My husband likes to mix these into his oatmeal, though, so if you can do sugar in the am, go for it! - You may have noticed a peach version of this sauce pictured in the post on oat crepes. - I’ve made this sauce with lots of stone fruits, but pip fruits should work, too. Berries are not a great option. As always, feel free to give it a try, but the berries I’ve tried alone haven’t tasted great or had a very nice texture. - Yield will vary depending on the batch of beverage you’re starting with, . From a recent one gallon soda, I ended up with 2.5 cups of sauce. From a 3 gallon batch of wine, I had 3/4 of a gallon of peach sauce! We’re still working through that one and it’s definitely tasty but no longer suitable for breakfast, save a hair-of-the-dog style meal. Texture and thickness are up to you. I like to keep this spoonable, so a quick run through the food processor is all it needs. If you want a thinner sauce, you could also run it through the food mill to take out the bits of skin. Fermented Fruit Sauce Recipe The first several steps of this recipe is actually the first several steps from soda making. Try peach or plum soda for best results. (Just want to make soda? Try Black Currant or Strawberry Basil, too.) I love making this sauce to use the byproducts of soda, but if you want to just go straight to sauce, you can skip the water altogether and just mix and stir fruit and sugar in a covered container, without without kefir whey, à la fruit cocktail recipe I published a couple years ago. When it’s good and bubbly, you’ll just puree it. INGREDIENTS - 2 pounds of stone fruit, washed - 1 cup of cane sugar (yes, you can use less sugar and/or substitute for other types of natural sweetener) - 1/2 cup kefir whey (optional, but if you want this to be probiotic, you’ll need to use a probiotic starter like kefir whey) - 1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional) HOW-TO - Roughly chop fruit and compost their pits. - Put fruit into a 1-gallon or larger vessel and toss with sugar. Allow to macerate for an hour or so, until the fruit is mostly covered in juice. Pour in 8 cups of filtered water, kefir whey and lemon zest. If you overfill your vessel, it will spill when you start stirring, so don’t go fuller than halfway. - Using a long and strong wooden or plastic spoon, stir vigorously, creating a tornado-like vortex in the center of your container.. - Cover the container with a clean kitchen cloth and rubber band. At this stage, you want air in. Depending on temperature, how frequently and vigorously you stir, how fresh your kefir whey was and how concerned you are with alcohol content (shorter fermentation for less booze), you’ll continue stirring and recovering for 12 hours to 3 days. - When the fruit has risen to surface and you see a lot of bubbling when you stir, you’re ready to make sauce. Strain out the liquid and reserve head over to a soda recipe to find out what to do with that. - It’s time to get saucing. Once the liquid is drained, you have the fruit that you’ll be turning into sauce. You can definitely stick it in the fridge in a tight fitting container for a day or so if you’re more focused on making soda than sauce at that particular moment. - Place the strained fruit into a food processor or blender and turn on at full speed. If you like something a little chunkier, reserve about a quarter of the fruit and add it back in after blending. - Store in the fridge and serve on oatmeal, in crepes, drizzled over ice cream, or eat it with a spoon. I like this as a dessert sauce, but it’s quite versatile.

"A collection on the move: UMKC’s massive Marr Sound Archives will move into a ‘robot’" by Mara Rose Williams February 8th, 2014 The Kansas City Star Chuck Haddix strolled up and down the aisles between the towering stacks of recordings stored at the Marr Sound Archives, like a general inspecting his troops.. Honed by decades of radio broadcasting, Haddix’s voice — smooth like molasses and heavy with bass — filled the 1,341 square feet of space in the ground floor of Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.. The unprecedented move will give the discs digital identities and better preserve the collection, but visitors will no longer be able to stand amid its vastness. Until then, a view of the archives is still available through the broad window separating the stacks — seven shelves high, in rows 45 feet long — from the listening room where the public can play some of these recordings. Haddix admits he’ll miss the opportunities to talk about the collection while surrounded by the vinegary smell of acetate, just an arm’s length from recorded history. Somewhere in the middle of one row, Haddix stopped midsentence. He reached out and slid a white paper disc jacket from a shelf about eye level and gingerly revealed the 10-inch, glossy black disc inside. It’s a mid-1920s George Lee Orchestra recording on the Meritt record label, one of the most precious and obscure pieces in the archives, he said. It’s important because Meritt, once at 18th Street and Highland Avenue, “is responsible for the first phonograph recordings ever made in Kansas City,” said Haddix, 62. The Marr archives have the only known collection of Meritt records. As carefully as he’d removed it, Haddix slipped the black disc back into its sleeve and onto the shelf. The need to preserve The nearly $2 million move will gather the entire Kenneth J. LaBudde Special Collections, which includes the Marr Sound Archives as well as some old books, vintage movie posters and show bills. Not every piece in the special collections will have a place in the robot, though. Some of the most delicate records won’t be there, and neither will the collection’s nearly 400-year-old — 1629 to be exact — chant book. It was a gift from a faculty member. The large leather-bound, hand-painted vellum book of Latin chants is one of the oldest items in the collection. Hinds keeps it on a rolling cart near the entrance to the special collection’s storage room. “In the case of fire this would be the first thing I run back and roll out of here,” Hinds said.. Sam Brylawski, chairman of the National Recording Preservation Board and a sound archivist with the University of California, Santa Barbara, said lots of other libraries with recorded sound collections have moved collections off-site, storing discs in temperature-controlled warehouses. Stuart Hinds, director of the LaBudde Special Collections, said housing the collection in the robot will make access easier for folks who, say, want to hear a 1941, one-of-a-kind recording of Charlie Parker in rehearsal playing early bebop with Jay McShann, and at the same time peruse corresponding photographs and manuscripts about Parker. Part of the move is being covered by a $500,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant. The university has to come up with the other $1.5 million. They’ve already got about $800,000, and have until July 31, 2018, to raise the balance. Kelley Martin, library specialist at the archives, plans to document the move for posterity. It’s not just packing up a bunch of boxes and hauling them a few floors up. No way the archives’ records could be supported on an upper-level floor, Martin said. “They are just way too heavy.” That’s why they need to go in to the library’s giant robotic retrieval system. The robot is like an enormous silo four stories high and enclosed in a library addition built in 2011. Inside the silo are stories of metal shelves or flats holding bins of varying sizes. Archived pieces would be stored in these bins. The robot’s arm resembles a monster-sized, movable forklift that responds to computer commands. When a record is requested, a computer tells the arm where in the silo to find it. The arm brings out a flat holding the bin with the material requested. Doing that means every single piece has to first be digitally cataloged. Album jackets, some of which are valuable art, have to be protected by plastic. Then a bar code is attached to the plastic before it’s stored in the robot. The work already has begun. In January, library specialists and students finished a dry run of the process of storing select pieces in the robot. The silo already holds the university’s library books. The floors emptied of books were replaced with study rooms and lounge chairs. Moving the archives will open up the ground floor and give the collection room to grow, Martin said. “As it is we are fighting for space. New collections are coming in all the time.” But some sacrifice comes with the change. Once the move is made, what Martin calls “the wow factor” — the rows and rows of vinyl visible now — will be gone. All of it stashed in boxes, stored in a temperature-controlled storage shaft amidst the books and other library materials retrievable only by the giant mechanical arm of the Miller Nichols Library’s robot. “It’s like the romance will be gone,” said Brylawski, who has visted the Marr Sound Archives several times and loves the sight of so many records in one place. “But I also feel like we are preserving (the collections),” Martin added. “And when it gets down to it, as a preservationist, preservation outweighs wow factor.” Besides, she said archives visitors never could actually walk among the stacks the way she and Haddix do periodically. Visitors could only peer through the listening room window, pass the antique disc-playing machines, including a 19th-century Polyphon music box and trumpet phonographs flaunting finely painted opera heads. Marr’s records The archives are named for Nebraska native Gaylord Marr, a disenchanted actor, director and theater operator who turned to teaching. Marr taught writing, communications, and the history of media at UMKC for 27 years. During his tenure at the university, Marr, an intellectually demanding professor who was loved by his students, amassed a substantial collection of sound recordings that he used in class. In 1986, Marr and his wife, Olga, donated his personal collection — 42,000 sound recordings valued at about $250,000 at the time — to establish the Marr Sound Archives. “The collection quickly outgrew its original location in two rooms on the second floor of the general library,” Hinds said. “When the library was renovated in 1992, the sound archives moved to the ground floor.” Marr, who died in 2006, was the archives’ first curator. Haddix, who teaches music history at the Kansas City Art Institute and recently wrote his second book “Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker,” joined the archives in 1987. He was originally hired as the sound archivist, “but, since it was a one-person shop, he wore all the hats,” Hinds said. Haddix’s title was later changed to director. Under his direction, what started as a music lover and researcher’s donation to special collections has grown to serve the world, Hinds said. The collection of LPs, 78s, 45s, cylinders, transcription discs, instantaneous-cut discs and open-reel tapes, feature genres including jazz, blues, soul, country, popular music, rock ’n’ roll, folk, classical and opera. Over the years scores of music lovers and researchers passing through Kansas City have stopped in to handle and hear an actual LP recording of a particular work or musician. “Marr has an incredible jazz and blues collection,” Brylawski said. “Particularly, the unpublished stuff. They have material at Marr that the Library of Congress doesn’t have. I’m sure of that.” A lot of times it’s some of the same music that folks hear on Friday and Saturday nights, when Haddix becomes Chuck Haddock at the four-hour “Fish Fry” program on KCUR. He plays a mixture of soul, rhythm, blues, jumpin’ jive and zydeco and brings his “music party” to the radio waves. Minutes before the 8 p.m. air time recently, Haddix, with a scruffy leather bag slung over one shoulder and a beat-up record box in his hand, entered the KCUR studios on Troost Avenue. Under his jacket he wore his usual “Fish Fry” T-shirt over some khaki slacks. From the bag he pulled out a stack of albums, most from his own archive of music he’s been collecting since his teens. He took from the record box more LPs, some CDs and a pair of well-worn slippers that he dropped to the floor and slid his feet into. Then he goes about organizing the music he had planned out days before to share with the night’s audience. The music pours into the studio and out over the airwaves. Haddix rocks his head, pats his feet, snaps his fingers and sings along. “I’d be doing the same thing if I were at home, sitting and listening to my music. Here it’s just me, a glass of water and the music.” The minute he opens his mouth, his soothing tone invites listeners to join him on a musical journey to places they might not have been — a juke joint in the deep South or a New Orleans bayou, 1960s Harlem, or Motown (Detroit). “Chuck has been such a great weekend night presence for us,” said Nico Leone, station manager at KCUR. “He is just so knowledgable. He’s been a centerpiece of our weekend programing for years.” Haddix is comfortable surrounded by the music; listening to it, walking through it, talking about it. As a teenager growing up in Kansas City, Haddix worked at Penny Lane records in Westport. That’s where he got to know the record collectors in town. Those are some of the same folks he knows are listening and grooving with him on “Fish Fry” nights. When the time comes to preserve the gems in their collections, they know to call Haddix, to help keep his beloved archives growing.

THE BUZZ 2: Crowd Control How soaring park visitation could rescue public lands. Yellowstone crowds amass for one of nature’s displays. (Photo: NPS/Neal Herbert) JACKSON HOLE, WY – Increased visitation to national parks is straining federal public lands and infrastructure—but it’s also what will save them. That’s what former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell thinks. “If you haven’t had exposure, you’re not as likely to treasure a place like this,” Jewell told a Jackson Hole crowd Friday. But as residents know, exposure, for some parks, is far from a problem. Jackson bursts at the seams with summer visitors on their way to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. This summer is shaping up to be Yellowstone’s second busiest in history, closely following last year’s centennial, park spokesman Jonathan Shafer said. In 2016, Yellowstone saw a record-breaking 4.2 million visitors. In 2017, June visitation dropped 4.8 percent compared to last year, but NPS celebrated its 100th birthday last year, so millions of people made trips to celebrate, Shafer said. At this rate, Yellowstone is still well ahead of the previous three “normal” years. Meanwhile, Grand Teton National Park is bracing itself for the busiest day—not season, but single day—in history come August 21. On an average day in peak season, spokesperson Denise Germann said about 20 to 25 thousand people visit GTNP. The Great American Eclipse is expected to be a well above-average day. This peak visitation is all happening in a period of uncertainty for the National Parks Service and public lands as a whole. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget includes a 13 percent cut to NPS. Jewell’s successor, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, is neck-deep in a review of 27 national monuments to determine if they should shrink, remain intact or be abolished completely. Mother Jones reported that of the Interior’s new confirmed staff, 21 have some affiliation with resource extraction industries. Only three have conservation or even outdoor recreation backgrounds. Yellowstone was stretched for resources long before Trump took office, but a decreased budget will only put the park further behind. Approximately $632 million worth of repairs await attention, the largest of any park in the country. And while visitation skyrockets, the amount of staff the park employs remains relatively stagnant. The park has employed between 350 to 550 staff per year since 2000. In that same amount of time, visitation has increased from 2.8 million to 4.8 million. Accounting for such high visitation, Shafer said, has been a high priority for the park for some time now. “We did a complete study last year about visitation in Yellowstone,” Shafer said. The results of the study will likely be released this month. Shafer could not readily share the exact results, but said that a big consideration the park now faces is how to manage visitor expectations and encourage responsible stewardship. “We know all about all the different animals in the park. The least studied species in Yellowstone is the human,” Shafer said, borrowing a quote from park superintendent Den Wenk. So YNP brought on a team of social scientists to study humans in 2015. The better they understand human behavior in the park, the logic goes, the more equipped park staff can be to manage and mitigate human impact—impact like overcrowded campsites, unsafe wildlife interaction (who can forget the visitors who put a bison calf in their car to save it), and all-around wear and tear. Yellowstone, like many of its public land brethren, is a delicate ecosystem. The more people tread on its lands, the heavier the burden. Boardwalks intersect the park to keep visitors off of fragile thermal features. Signs warn visitors not to approach wildlife, for both human and animal safety. Locals know the saying: a fed bear is a dead bear. But it’s not easy for an organization to compel compliance or heed understanding from 4.8 million people. Still, Jewell says not visiting national parks in this day and age is equally harmful. People are less inclined to fight for something they know nothing about. Passing the torch Jewell is this year’s Teton Science School Spirit of Conservation award recipient, and was the keynote speaker at Friday’s 50th anniversary celebration. But just six months ago, she served the White House as Secretary of the Interior. Teton Science School executive director Chris Agnew listed her many accomplishments during her tenure in the White House: “She brought conservation into the 21st century, bridging conservation, education and access,” he said. “Under her leadership, NPS expanded to tell the whole story of America, including Harriet Tubman National Historic Park or Stonewall National Monument.” Locally, Jewell helped designate 640 acres of land, Antelope Flats, as part of Grand Teton National Park. Jewell also oversaw the designation of Bears Ears, which is now under review, as a national monument. Bears Ears, she said, is a perfect example of humans’ power to damage public lands, but also save them. “Bears Ears is under threat in part because we all have geo tags on our phones,” Jewell said. If somebody posts a picture to social media of a cultural site, or artifacts, without removing the geo tag, “everybody knows where that is. That is a very, very real threat.” But perhaps a bigger threat, she said, is to leave the area unprotected. As a federally protected land, Jewell said, “there are more people out there that you can educate on how to visit these places respectfully, that you can educate about the importance of leaving artifacts where they are for anthropology and archeology and future visitors of future generations.” Indeed, people across the country, and especially in the White House, are less likely to care about the value of public lands if they do not understand them. If she were still Interior Secretary, Jewell said her biggest priority would be to make to make sure that “Nick Mulvaney and the budget committees in the house and senate, and frankly American people broadly, understand that there is tremendous value in public service, public servants, public lands.” Public lands, she said, make the United States “unique among just about all nations because of the treasures that we have under our stewardship.” To land stewards and conservationists who feel disempowered, Jewell offers this: “Elected officials care about what their constituents say.” It might not feel like it, Jewell said, “but they do listen.” Also, money talks. The outdoor recreation industry, Jewell said, is “much bigger than people think”—bigger than automotive, bigger than pharmaceutical. According to Outdoor Industry Association’s “Outdoor Recreation Economy” report, outdoor recreation is an $887 billion industry. Consumers in Wyoming spend $5.6 billion per year. Wyoming’s congressional delegation, however, has continually tried to pawn off public lands in favor of oil and mineral extraction. Rep. Liz Cheney’s voting record consistently favors transferring federal land to state control, arguing that federal management hinders resource extraction and takes jobs away from Wyoming’s workforce. Meanwhile, OIA’s study reports that outdoor recreation in Wyoming creates more jobs (50,000) than oil and gas, mining and extraction combined (27,000). “There are industries in DC that are very narrow and very deep and very wealthy,” Jewell said. “They are speaking with money in a way that influences people on both sides of the table.” The job of the concerned conservationist, then, is to speak louder, and often. Take, for example, Outdoor Retailer. Salt Lake City has hosted the bi-annual trade show for more than 20 years, and gains approximately $45 million in visitor revenue in return. But last month, OR said goodbye to Salt Lake because of Utah’s public land policies, including multiple attempts to rescind Bears Ears. Starting in January, Denver will host Outdoor Retailer and reap all its benefits, and likely more (OR is predicting an economic impact of $110 million over the course of three shows). So keep visiting public lands, Jewell said. Learn responsible stewardship. Spend money where it counts. Show up. “If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu.” PJH

WHITE FENCE INTERVIEW By Alexander Laurence WHITE FENCE is like a music junkshop of the past fifty years, created for people who like old vinyl records and gear. One person’s trash is the next person’s treasure. This Los Angeles based band, started by Tim Presley, has polished up the vile rags of music’s history, and offered a clean update on the state of rock and roll. White Fence has also recently collaborated with such diverse artists as Ty Segall, Cate Le Bon, Foxygen, Jessica Pratt, and The Fall. All these vital signposts are part of the new revolution in music and technology. Modern garage rock music is not about reality, or the state of LA music, but a new way of seeing things as they should be. Tim: Something had to change. In the mid-to-late 2000s, a lot of the psychedelic and shoegaze bands were repeating themselves creatively speaking. We stripped it down of all the excess. If you look at bands from the 1960s, people couldn’t relate to the weirder one, or the more normal one. It just happened that way because of the music climate happening in Los Angeles. We toured on that third album and people freaked out. But I have met people who liked the third album and didn’t like Darker My Love before that. Tim: They had a formula and it worked. We didn’t have a huge fanbase like them. If it worked for us like that, we would have just done the formula. We were more like the Beau Brummels. They were doing Beatles-like music, and garage rock. At the end, they did Bradley’s Barn, which is like a country rock record. That is the one I like. Tim: I did the songs on the first White Fence record during the same time as the second and third Darker My Love records. I was recording it at home. I didn’t think the dudes from Darker My Love would like the songs. I was just doing songs because it was therapeutic for me. I wasn’t too worried about anyone liking it. Tim: Yeah. Mark E. Smith had fired his band on the American tour. Rob Barbato and I met him in Arizona and practiced as The Fall for a day. We were able to finish the tour dates. After that, we just went into the studio and made a new album. Mark E. Smith said “We are going into the studio in three days.” And we were like “What?” Elena and Mark had three songs written. They hummed the songs to us and we came up with the chords. Mark claims to know how to play guitar, but I never saw him play. Tim: Definitely. The more we played them live, the better the songs got, and the more they sounded like actual Fall songs. Tim: When the first record came out, I realized this was something I wanted to pursue. When someone wanted to put the album out, I thought that was weird. People liked it. I had the next one Growing Faith almost completed. When Eric from Make A Mess Records put the first record out, it felt like something I wanted to do. I liked making weird songs in my room. I love the band mentality, but White Fence was 180 from that. Tim: I went to art school and didn’t know what to do with my life. I took a visit to LA, and stayed with Ozzie from Soiled Mattress and The Springs. He showed me a side of LA that I fell in love with. I thought that I could live here in LA, and I did in 2003. It was cosmic that I came here and formed a band. It happened very fast. Tim: Yes. Except the latest one that has Nick Murray and Ty Segall also playing on it. My main hang up with rock and roll and showbiz is a lack of creative studio time. It costs too much money. I had a dream of being like the Beatles or Beach Boys where you live in the studio and you experiment with stuff in the studio. We aren’t on a major label, so we don’t have the money to do that. The closest thing we can get to that is to do it at home and doing it alone, regardless of fidelity. Tim: There is a certain freedom with doing things from home. You can just do it yourself. For some people, it works. Releasing records is no problem. Having a cluster of shows and having to tour is a bigger problem. There is always a new member in White Fence, and I have to teach them all the songs again. Tim: Nick Murray has been playing drums for a few years in White Fence. Josh Puklavetz plays bass guitar, and Cate Le Bon plays guitar and sings with me. She will be in the band. Tim: I met him outside a bar in San Francisco. He had heard to first White Fence records and he wanted to do a split record. I assumed we were going to do a few songs each, but it turned into a more collaborative thing. Tim: I had met her. She lived with my brother in San Francisco. I knew she played music but I hadn’t heard any of it. She was very quiet and I hardly noticed her. And then, her boyfriend at the time sent me some of her music out of the blue. I put out her first record. My label isn’t my main concern at the moment. But I am trying to get the rights to a Gene Vincent record. It’s a record he did right before he died. Tim: Yeah. Jonathan Rado called me and said “Come on over.” He had a studio in his parent’s house. We played “Brooklyn Police Station” really loud at night. It’s like the loudest song on the album. I think that I was banned from his parent’s house since then. Tim: When you have different members, you get a totally different band. It will sound different because this is the first time Cate Le Bon has been with us in Europe. She had a tryout with us on some dates in the East Coast and the South of America. She knew a lot of songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and could solo a lot, so she passed the test. We also recorded a new record together. That will come out soon. photos by Angel Ceballos

Michele K. Short / AMC, Sony Pictures Television How's Jimmy Going To Ruin Things With Kim On Better Call Saul? And more...uh...burning questions about the season finale, 'Lantern.' As the somewhat subdued third season of Better Call Saul shuffles to a close, I still have some frustration about the pace of the plot...and some questions. This whole building full of lawyers couldn't parse Howard's announcement about Chuck? After Chuck's bitter, petty lawsuit threat in the last episode, Howard calls his bluff, assembling the firm's board and giving Chuck the chance to hang himself with his own arrogance and thus affirm the faith everyone should have in Howard's leadership, before sliding him a cheque for $3 million: "The first of three payments, as per the partnership agreement." Chuck knows the firm can't afford it, gasping, "You're not shutting down, are you?" He's not: "I would never endanger the firm. This is mostly from my personal funds, and a few loans." AMC "You're paying me out of your own pocket," Chuck breathes. "You won," Howard replies. Though there are other ways this could still go, Howard is sufficiently confident that Chuck will take the buyout that even before giving Chuck his cheque, he's assembled everyone at the firm, apparently including the custodial staff, for his announcement. AMC "I have some bittersweet news to share," says Howard. "I'm sorry to say, but our fearless leader, Charles McGill, will be leaving HHM, effective immediately. I wanted to take this moment to thank Chuck for everything he's done for HHM. We started off with six employees, and Chuck helped grow us into one of the largest firms in the state. We will be forever grateful for his dedication." He turns to Chuck to offer him a chance to say a few words, which Chuck silently declines, stalking off down the stairs. Previously.TV But as Chuck goes, various HHM staffers stop him to shake his hand and apparently offer congratulations. At least some of these people must be attorneys -- and yet they weren't paying attention to the careful, lawyerly phrasing of Howard's sendoff to Chuck? Nowhere in it is the word "retirement"; only the context -- the all-firm assembly; the round of applause Howard leads as Chuck departs -- makes this separation seem like it could be amicable or mutual. Maybe Howard wouldn't have to pay Chuck off with his own money if these boobs were more attentive. How long was Chuck waiting for Jimmy to come check in on him? Despite Jimmy's "Chuck who?" bravado with Howard in the last episode, of course he can't help being worried about him, and stops by the house to make sure he's okay -- and, when Chuck lets him in, finds out he's doing better than he has in years! AMC The appliances are hooked back up in the kitchen, several lamps are on in the living room -- during the day! -- and the stereo's on. Chuck's not just standing in a house crackling with electricity; he's using machines he doesn't even have to! Soon, it becomes clear that Chuck's been waiting for this visit from Jimmy which he calls out as typical of Jimmy's pattern of behaviour: Jimmy does something wrong, makes a "show of remorse," but ultimately learns nothing and returns to his slippery ways. Jimmy protests that his remorse is not just a show, and Chuck says he's sure Jimmy's emotions are real to him -- they're just pointless if Jimmy's not going to change his behaviour. Jimmy should accept what he is and stop apologizing for it; Chuck would respect him more if he did. Jimmy, aghast, feebly asks if Chuck didn't do anything wrong, but that's not the conversation Chuck wants to have: "You don't have to make up with me. We don't have to understand each other. Things are fine the way they are." Chuck steps forward and takes Jimmy by the shoulders to deliver the final blow: "I don't want to hurt your feelings. But the truth is, you've never mattered all that much to me." AMC As Jimmy stands there shocked, Chuck returns to his desk, sits, and starts reading until Jimmy decides to accept that he's been dismissed and wanders out -- possibly for the very last time ever.? Where are things going between Gus and Nacho? Hector's plan to co-opt Nacho's father Manuel's shop for drug smuggling purposes -- despite Don Eladio's explicit instructions that all cross-border transportation should be chicken-based -- starts poorly, with Manuel, Nacho's father, refusing to pay fealty to Hector, and Hector growling to Nacho on his way out that he doesn't trust Manuel. Nacho, no idiot, knows what that means and decides he can't wait for Hector's fake pills to have their non-effect. Or can he? That look at the end is Gus taking Nacho's measure and understanding everything in an instant, right? And since the last guy Gus determined was his ally against Hector got a pretty sweet money-laundering deal out of it, may we reasonably assume a strategic partnership between Gus and Nacho is something we should expect next season? Could the series have gone on if Jimmy hadn't mended Irene's friendships? Jimmy has, of course, done a lot of shitty things during the series run of Better Call Saul -- to say nothing of the shitty things that, in this timeline, he has yet to do as Saul Goodman -- but deliberately fomenting suspicion of Irene among all her friends at Sandpiper Crossing was low-key one of the worst due simply to the fact that none of the old ladies involved did anything to deserve it, and the only thing motivating Jimmy was greed. So of all the things the finale needed to accomplish, getting Irene back together with her squad via Jimmy's fake hot mic disaster was arguably the most important if we were to continue caring what he does. Jimmy can be as big a scumbag as he wants when his clients are drug dealers; elderly women scraping by on fixed incomes don't need the added stress of grudges. How's Jimmy going to ruin things with Kim? The horror of Kim's car crash has one positive effect: it forces her to get real about her schedule, and the limits on how much work she can actually cram into a day, so that when Francesca tells her she can still squeeze in that Gatwood meeting she missed when she, you know, almost killed herself falling asleep behind the wheel, she only entertains the idea for the length of time it takes her to look at her calendar. Kim then does what she should have in the first place -- passes Gatwood off to another firm -- and gives herself the chance to recuperate with an at-home film festival. She also lets Jimmy talk her into giving up the office, and Francesca (who seems dubious when Jimmy says that if they ever set up another office, she'll be their first call). As they're closing up, she stops Jimmy throwing out his Rolodex full of senior clients: he's pretty sure he's been blackballed by all the cottontops in the area after his chair yoga massacre and will need to cultivate a whole new clientele, but Kim tells him, "You never know." And when he takes one last look at his wall, she promises that they'll get another. "A better wall," he says ruefully. AMC I mean, yes, the next wall will definitely be better -- this one did look like a stock market crash. Sorry. After weeks of tension between Kim and Jimmy, I believed their relationship more in "Lantern" than I have all season; Bob Odenkirk does a particularly nice job as he enters the ER when Kim's getting her arm casted, barely audible as all he can manage to ask is whether she'll have to spend the night in the hospital. Later, as she enthuses about her latest screening of a lifelong favourite movie, To Kill A Mockingbird, she's not bothered by Jimmy's self-assessment as the opposite of an Atticus Finch; when he mopes about Irene's estrangement from her friends and his failure to fix it with a muffin basket, admitting, "I'm not good at building shit. I'm excellent at tearing it down," her response -- "Sometimes you've gotta play to your strengths" -- gives him the idea to blow himself up with the hot mic scheme. Kim is under absolutely no illusions about Jimmy and accepts him for exactly who he is. What is he going to do to blow them up?! ...Who's the heir to Chuck's estate? It seems impossible that a lawyer of Chuck's stature wouldn't keep his last will up-to-date. But to whom would he leave his presumably sizable estate? Rebecca? Would he have changed it to Jimmy, by default, after Chuck and Rebecca's divorce? If so, would he have spitefully changed that bequest -- to Dr. Cruz or Ernesto or the Humane Society -- after his Bar Association meltdown? Why do I ask? Uh. No reason.

Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday, 15 December, formation of a 34-state Muslim military coalition to combat ISIS and terrorist activities in general, according to a joint statement published on Tuesday on Saudi state news agency SPA. Saudi Arabian Defense Minister, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, declared in his official statement that "currently every Muslim country is fighting terrorist individually, so coordinating efforts is very important", that is why the above mentioned countries with the Muslim majority took a decision to form a broad military coalition and military alliance led by Saudi Arabia, with the joint operations centre based in El-Riyadh to coordinate and support all the joint military operations against ISIS and other terrorist groups and organizations as well. A long list of Arab, African and Asian countries with the Muslim majority of people were among the members of the newly formed alliance. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and other Arabic countries along with Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Muslim countries based in Asia have joined the coalition. Many African countries suffered from the extremists' terrorist, such as Chad, Nigeria and Somalia are also among the members of the joint military coalition. It's worth mentioning that Iraq and Syria where ISIS is currently located, controlling the big territories, did not become the members of the Saudi-led coalition. Iran, which is Saudi rival in the fight in Yemen and Syria as well, was also not among the members of the coalition. The announcement made by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Mohammad bin Salman also cited that "a duty to protect the Islamic nations from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations whatever their sect and name which wreck death and corruption in earth and aim to terrorize the innocent" led to the formation of a Muslim nation military coalition that will carry out not only the airstrikes in order to target the ISIS facilities in Iraq and Syria, but also ground operations against Daesh and against other terrorist groups and organizations that are active in the participating countries. Muhammed bin Slaman also said that the countries-members of this coalition will combat not only ISIS but any other terrorist group and that they will cooperate and coordinate their efforts to fight terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan and other countries as well.

Timeline: Quebec City in 1875-1900 1876 Quebec-Halifax Intercolonial Railway is completed. 1878 The telephone (invented by Alexander Bell in 1876) is introduced in Quebec City. 1879 Riots and pitched battle between French Canadian and Irish ship labourers in Champlain District. 1879 Quebec - Montreal - Ottawa Railway is completed. It goes further to the West the next year. 1880 O, Canada, the future Canadian anthem, composed by Calixa Lavallee and Adolph Routhier, is performed in Quebec City for the first time. 1880 Garrison Club is incorporated in Quebec City. The military join free, the civilian pay entrance fee. 1884 St Patrick's School opens on McMahon Street. 1885 Quebec's Legislative Assembly adopts Manufacturers' Law. The law limits work hours to 72,5 hours a week for men, 60 hours a week for women and children. Employers manage to find some loopholes. 1885 Public anger is fuelled among French Canadian as Metis Rebellion in the Canadian West is put down and its leader Louis Riel is hanged. 1892 The first wing of Chateau Frontenac, one of the most photographed buildings in the world, is built in Quebec City. 1897 The first car appears in Quebec City. It travels at 29 km/h down the St. Foy Road in third rear. 1899 The Boer War begins. The first Canadian contingent leaves for South Africa from Quebec. 1900 More than five thousand shoe workers of Quebec City go on strike. The conflict will last for nearly two months. Château Frontenac, built in 1893. Photo : © ProvinceQuebec See also:

Jenn Hobby leaves Q100’s The Bert Show after nearly a decade Jenn Hobby is leaving Q100’s The Bert Show after nearly a decade, she announced this morning. “It’s going to be a whole new chapter of life,” she said on air. “I wouldn’t be the woman I am without the Bert Show.” Hobby got married two years ago and is pregnant with her first child. Her voice cracked when she said that the Bert Show is how she met her husband Grant Rivera, who is a high school principal. She first met him when he showed up in studio when his school band came in. They later fell in love. She will be officially leaving in two weeks. Her final day on air will be Dec. 7. Bert Weiss on air said he is in no rush to replace Hobby’s spot. “I didn’t cry during the whole thing,” she said right after she was off air. But she did have to go to the bathroom and re-do her eye makeup. In an interview after the announcement, she said she had pondered departing for awhile and with a contract renewal coming up, she had to make a call. Hobby’s departure was my guess last week when Q100 started promoting a big announcement. Over the years, she talked about her first marriage, her divorce to Ryan Newell of Sister Hazel and chronicled her engagement, then marriage to Rivera, as well as the upcoming baby. In 2003, she came from what was then 95.5/The Beat, where she was a promotions director and (briefly) a morning producer for the short-lived Woody and the Morning Beat. Weiss met Hobby in 2002 at Cosmopolitan nightclub in Midtown and he liked her. When Lindsay Brien left the show in 2003, he gave Hobby the job. “I was getting into this new morning show. I was over the moon joining being part of such a cool group of people,” she said. Hobby said she began thinking of leaving seriously in June while on vacation in Spain. “After 10 years, I wanted a new challenge. I’ve grown so much on the Bert Show but it’s time to push myself to grow more.” Her last contract ran out earlier this fall and she was working without one. She said she’s going to miss the laughter the most. “We laugh more in one day than most people do in a week,” she said. She has new job opportunities coming soon, she said, but she can’t say yet. (Could it be TV? She has done work locally and even won a contest to co-host “Kelly & Regis” in 2010) Last year, Melissa Carter left the show, replaced by Kristin Klingshirn. That change ultimately didn’t hurt the Bert Show’s ratings, which remain solid on Q100. Will this have a negative impact? Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter. Oh, and Google +, too! Please confirm the information below before signing in.

US president barack obama may have congratulated himself in private for apparently pulling off a difficult balancing act, but if so, he is being a little too hasty. He offered his anxious Japanese host the reassurance Tokyo was so desperately begging for: The confirmation that the territory it stole is covered by the US-Japan security treaty. Then, so as not to infuriate the attentive owner next door, he stated that this "is not a new position", nor one of his making, as the US-Japan treaty preceded his birth, and he reconfirmed that Washington takes no sides in the sovereignty dispute over the islands. However, swaying to and fro on the tightrope he was walking, Obama's balancing act was lopsided at best, because it was conspicuously biased in favor of the troublemaking Japanese prime minister., which should have been returned to China under the terms of these legally binding agreements. Extending the US-Japan security treaty to those islands is both morally and legally wrong. Obama should not expect Chinese connivance in his turning a blind eye to Japan's thievery and its claims of innocence. It was the Japanese government that unilaterally changed the status quo. The dispute over the Diaoyu Islands had cooled down until Japan poured kerosene on it and set a match to it by "nationalizing" the main islands. Obama's praise of "Japan's long-standing commitment to international peace and security" is grating on the ear - and not just to China - because he once again chose to ignore the elephant in the room, saying nothing about Japan's denial of its militarist past and rightist present. By tacitly endorsing Japan's actions, he is giving Shinzo Abe carte blanche to continue destabilizing the region. That Obama has cast aside the strategic ambiguity others have tried hard to preserve may be good in one sense - it helps to relieve some of the wishful thinking that Washington doesn't condone the antics of Japan's right-wingers. But since he has voluntarily bound his country to Abe's war chariot, instead of breathing a sigh of relief that he has completed his balancing act, he might want to start considering how he is going to untie the knots and tame the adventurous Japan under Abe, or prepare to be dragged into an unwanted conflict. Diaoyu Islands vow 'may backfire' The PLA is fully capable of safeguarding China's Diaoyu Islands, says spokesman US President Barack Obama's promise of military cover for Japan's claim on the Diaoyu Islands faces the potential of backfiring, observers said. Obama stated in a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday that the US-Japan mutual security treaty covers China's Diaoyu Islands. "We do not believe that they should be subject to change unilaterally, and what is a consistent part of the alliance is that the treaty covers all territories administered by Japan." The forthright remarks from Obama are widely interpreted as a display of Washington's strong commitment to its Asian allies designed to dispel suspicion of weakening US clout in the region. Obama is on a four-nation tour that was postponed seven months ago because of the US government shutdown. He faced flak at the time for postponing the trip, both in the US and overseas, amid criticism that the US was preoccupied with domestic affairs at the expense of its international commitments. Responding to Obama's comments, Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said that the Chinese army will continue military patrols in "relevant waters" in the East China Sea. The Chinese military is "fully capable of safeguarding the Diaoyu Islands, and it is unnecessary for other nations to go to extreme lengths to provide a so-called security guarantee," Yang said, adding that China will firmly safeguard territorial sovereignty in the face of provocation from Japan. Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said Obama's remarks may lead to unforeseen problems because the military commitment — directly naming specific islands — could "sabotage US strategic initiatives in the region" and undermine its strategic flexibility. "As a result, Tokyo is keeping Washington in check in this regard, and, honestly, the ruling Japanese cabinet is very unpredictable," Ruan said. Ruan noted that Obama's remarks about the islands "also harm the credibility of the US", because instead of taking an honest broker's viewpoint the US is firmly backing one side and this has the potential to cause problems. With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe beside him, Obama told reporters that he had not drawn any new "red line" over the islands, and he emphasized the need to resolve maritime disputes peacefully. "The treaty between the US and Japan preceded my birth, so, obviously, this isn't a red line that I'm drawing," Obama said. Li Haidong, a researcher of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said Obama's visit to Japan aimed to boost Japan's status as a "pillar" of Asia-Pacific security and as a key player in containing China. But, Li said, the two allies have different agendas. "The US seeks stability in the big picture of its relationship with China, yet Japan is not afraid of fanning the flames of a conflict with China," Li said. The US-Japan defense treaty requires Washington to come to Japan's defense if it is attacked. Experts said Washington believes that backing Tokyo will have long-term benefits. Lyu Yaodong, an expert on Japanese diplomacy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Obama is "determined to see tangible progress in his rebalancing strategy" during his Asian trip, and "to achieve this goal, satisfying demands from Japan regarding the islands is necessary". Abe told reporters on Thursday that "the Japan-US alliance is more robust than ever before." "The US pivot cannot succeed without strong support from important allies such as Japan," Lyu said. Ruan noted a shift in the US-Japan military relationship, and one example is that the US is "outsourcing" more Ministry spokesman, also confirmed what Chinese Navy Commander Wu Shengli said on Wednesday about a worst-case scenario. Wu told reporters on the sidelines of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium that the possibility of a military conflict remains between China and Japan, and the priority is to "prevent the outbreak of a conflict". Yang also said the PLA will continue military patrols in waters near a tropical Japanese island close to Taiwan, days after Tokyo announced it would break ground on a new radar base in the area. The radar station on Yonaguni Island, just 150 km from the Diaoyu Islands, marks Japan's first military expansion at the western end of its island chain in more than 40 years. "We are paying close attention to Japan's military trends," he said. "China's military will continue to carry out battle readiness patrols, military drills and other activities in the area," Yang said. - By Zhang Yunbi, China Daily Related: Historical documents dating back to the Ming Dynasty establish Diaoyu Islands as Chinese territory. The challenge to Chinese ownership c... The United States President visit to Malaysia is an opportunity to review TPPA issues, including a Congress proposal to punish countries t... US President Barack Obama steps from the Air Force One as he arrives in Tokyo, Japan on April 23, 2014. Obama began a four-country trip...

Artes de la Rosa Board of Directors President, Tanisia Castillo-Queppet, today announced the departure of Artistic Director Adam Adolfo who will step down this fall from the 17 year old non-profit. He joined Fort Worth’s only Latino arts organization late in 2009 serving first as Executive Director and eventually being named Artistic Director. “We all knew one day Adam might make the difficult decision to continue his artistic journey and explore new opportunities. It is hard to say goodbye, but we are grateful for the exciting work he has brought to Artes de la Rosa’s gallery and theatre. He will be a hard act to follow and we wish him nothing but the best in all his future artistic endeavors,” said Tanisia Queppet, Artes de la Rosa’s first female Board President. During his time, Adolfo has overseen 7 seasons of programming featuring film, festivals, and of course theatre. Some of his directing credits at Artes de la Rosa include, In the Heights, The Fifth Sun, Twelfth Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Romeo & Juliet, A View From the Bridge, Man of La Mancha, and the Tango Opera, Maria de Buenos Aires. Winner of Fort Worth Weekly’s Visionary Award, Adam Adolfo even appeared on the Rose Marine Theater stage serving as the Narrator in the wildly reimagined ‘theatrical’ staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Prior to Artes de la Rosa, Adolfo served as Executive Artistic Director for The Living Opera, General Manager for Ohio’s Weathervane Playhouse, and was a Production Associate at the Arizona Theatre Company. His work as a director has been seen throughout North Texas including productions for QLive, Runway Theatre, Grand Prairie Arts Council, Onstage in Bedford, and The Stolen Shakespeare Guild. Adolfo previously studied with the Texas Shakespeare Festival and holds his theatre degree from Stephen F. Austin University. “I have been fortunate enough to be able to work in the arts community and be a part of Fort Worth’s theatre scene because of Artes de la Rosa. I am proud to have made my home here for the last 7 years,” said Adolfo. “My focus when I arrived was innovation, artistically, but also within what we perceived as “Latino” art. We have challenged our audiences by exploring new worlds and energizing old genres - and I’m proud of that.” Adam Adolfo’s final day will be Friday September 30th. Adolfo will next stage the Regional Premiere of the musical, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown adapted from Spanish Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s film. The production’s opening night is Saturday July 23rd. The Artes de la Rosa Board of Directors will begin a search for an Executive Director in the coming months.

Date: 25 August 2014 Press Release: Immediate The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), one of the COSATU-affiliates, today held a Memorial Lecture in honour of our late Deputy President and COSATU Deputy President, Violet Seboni. The Memorial Lecture was delivered by Minister of Economic Development, Ebrahim Patel, at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. The event was attended by over 400 trade unionists, members of the Seboni family, members of Violet Seboni’s church, COSATU National Office Bearers, and national leadership of SACTWU. The occasion was also used to announce a new SACTWU initiated fund in honour of Violet Seboni – the Violet Seboni Development Fund. According to SACTWU General Secretary Andre Kriel, “this R1m strong Fund will finance local projects in education and training, in empowerment of women, and in economic development, over the next five years”. The money was raised by SACTWU, Zenzeleni Clothing, the TCIA Clothing Group, the Bargaining Council for the Clothing Industry, the Independent Media Group, HCI and the SETA for our sector. Violet Seboni passed away tragically in a car accident near Ventersdorp on Friday 3 April 2009. She was on her way to deliver a general elections message at an ANC Women’s League event. She was born on 18 September 1965. Violet never knew her parents, was raised by her grandmother and later by her grandmother’s friend. After high school she went to look for work in the clothing industry. Violet was a single mother and a garment worker who raised her two daughters, Lesego and Lesedi, on the modest wages that millions of women across the world earn. These women work long hours to sew our clothes, make the caps we wear, the bed linen we sleep on, the towels we dry ourselves with, only to earn very little wages to feed and support their families. In 1999 Violet was elected as the first female Chairperson of SACTWU’s East Rand branch. In 2001 she was elected as Treasurer of SACTWU’s Gauteng region and then as a SACTWU Deputy President. In 2003 she was elected as COSATU Deputy President. She held these two latter positions until her death, and as her daughter, Lesego has said, ‘she died with her boots on’. Violet died during the 2009 general election campaign, whilst travelling to an election meeting of the ANC Women’s League in the North West Province. It is therefore appropriate that we celebrate her life during Women’s Month. In his lecture, the Minister noted that in twenty years after democracy we have made significant progress, but we still have many challenges to address. He highlighted some of our areas of progress. These include: solid institutions of democracy and important freedoms – “to speak, to assemble as citizens, to join trade unions and to strike when needed, to pray as we choose...We are able to approach the courts for justice when we are aggrieved. We have a free press, able to report on the matters of the nation”. Beyond the rights we have won, the Minister also highlighted socio-economic improvements post 1994. Including that: the economy is larger than it was under apartheid, with almost 6 million more people who are working today than in 1994; access to education has expanded greatly, with eight million learners now attending no-fee schools, and 9 million learners are receiving daily meals at school that are provided by government. Mini-bus taxis - which Violet used to get to work every day - are now being assembled in Springs and eThekwini. In the past these were imported. In Gauteng, in the last five years alone, 112 984 houses have been connected to electricity. The challenges facing South Africa, which Minister Patel highlighted, include amongst others: the triple-challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment; the problem of insecure and temporary employment; service delivery and inefficiencies in municipalities; and the practice of cartel behaviour and price fixing amongst companies in the private sector. “Since the adoption of the NGP, the economy has created an additional 1,4 million new jobs, mainly in the public sector, finance, transport and mining. Total employment is today over 15 million,” said Minister Patel. Violet Seboni would have taken a lead role to campaign against and address these challenges. We pay tribute to our heroine: straight talker, principled leader. Issued By Andre Kriel General Secretary SACTWU A full copy of Minister Patel’s Violet Seboni Memorial Lecture delivered today is available below: Violet Seboni Memorial lecture by Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Economic Development, 25 August 2014 at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. Family of the late Violet Seboni Sidumo Dlamini and Themba Khumalo, Presidents of COSATU and SACTWU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and office bearers of Cosatu National Office Bearers of SACTWU Members of the Diepkloof Methodist Church Leaders of the Gauteng region Shop stewards Invited guests and members of affiliates A Memorial Lecture is an opportunity to pay tribute to someone who lived a life that was extraordinary; it is also a moment to reflect on the contemporary challenges that our society faces. Some people put their mark on history in ways that are large and widely-known, people like Shaka, Makana, Moshoeshoe, Mandela, Hani. Some make their mark mainly recognized by those they worked with directly who saw something unusual in the person. The English poet Thomas Gray wrote 260 years ago about a visit to a graveyard where many unknown ordinary people were buried and he remarked that in their lives they may have had much to offer but fate and circumstance prevented their talents from becoming known to others. He said: ‘Full many a flower was born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness on the desert air” Violet Seboni falls in a different category: yes, I will concede that history did not bestow on her the role of a Nelson Mandela but no, neither was her life lived in the shadows unseen in society, her sweetness was not wasted in the desert air. She was an extraordinary leader of workers who by her actions made her mark on her organizations, Sactwu and Cosatu and her work in the Tripartite Alliance. She was gifted, strong, articulate and passionate about what she stood for, she was one of a team of shopfloor activists who together with so many others in her time was part of a powerful movement which changed society. The bare facts of her life is known to many in the audience today. She was born on 18 September 1965. On the same day, the spectacular celestial comet – the Ikeya-Seki – was seen in the skies above the earth. It was a rare sighting. The comet only comes into view from earth every few hundred years. The rest of the time, it is travelling on its very long journey through space. It was one of the brightest comets seen in our generation, an auspicious start to the turbulent life of the young girl. In December 2007, Violet and I were at the Polokwane Conference of the ANC. During the many days there we took walks across the grounds at the University where the Conference took place and I asked her about her family. While delegates debated policy and the developmental state, and cast their votes for a new ANC president, I listened to her story – of her parents she did not know, reared as she was by her grandmother and later by the family-friend of her grandmother, of her own children that she passionately loved. Violet went to primary school and later to Madibane High School in Diepkloof, where she developed a love for netball and a passion for activism. After high school, she became pregnant and her first daughter was born. She went to look for work in the clothing industry. Her story, of a single mother, a garment worker, is the story of many millions of women across the world who sew our clothes and the caps we wear and make the bedlinen we sleep on at night, the curtains that we use to create privacy in our bedrooms, the towels we use to dry ourselves, women who rely on the modest wages that they earn, to feed their families. Violet has two daughters Lesego and Lesedi who were the joy of her life. In 1999 she was elected as the first female chairperson of the East Rand branch of SACTWU. She brought a new energy to the branch at a time when there were many battles to save jobs and to fight for a living wage. We all recall seeing this young, strong woman who showed an organisational maturity beyond her years. Two years later that recognition of leadership qualities by her fellow shop stewards led to her election as treasurer of SACTWU’s Gauteng region and then to her assumption of duties as a SACTWU Deputy President and in 2003, as COSATU Deputy President, two positions she has held until her death, until, as her daughter Lesego said, she died with her boots on. She was a member of the national clothing wage negotiations team, an activist in the fight to defend the rights of workers in the Labour Relations Act and an internationalist who was once deported from Zimbabwe where she had been on a trade union mission. She led COSATU during stormy and difficult times, presiding over many complex moments of debates of the COSATU CEC and Congress and truly came into her own as a tough fighter but also one who prized the unity and internal democracy of the Federation. She was very close to many of leaders assembled here today. I remember how fondly she always spoke of Zwelinzima Vavi, her other General Secretary; of the respect she had for Sidumo Dlamini, her other President. At her funeral in April 2009, I spoke as her SACTWU General Secretary and said: “This talented, strong garment worker was dealt a hard hand by history but she drew on an inner strength that we will always remember. In a different world, Violet would have been given an easier life, completed a university degree – perhaps she would have been a partner in a law firm, perhaps together with her friends and comrades, Busi Msimango, Tshepo Makhene and Glacier Maduna, fighting human rights cases in the Constitutional Court. But destiny gave her a bigger job – it made her a clothing worker and a trade unionist and gave us her talent and her energy.” It is fitting that today, five years later, we have the Violet Seboni Memorial Lecture here at Constitution Hill. This venue was a prison and briefly a defense post for the old Boer Republic, it saw prisoners such as Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, activists in the defiance campaign and accused in the Treason Trial, white workers who went on strike in 1922 and activists who defied the states of emergency in the 1980s ; today it proudly houses our highest court, the Constitutional Court that protects the basic rights and freedoms of the South African people. She died during the 2009 general election campaign, whilst travelling to an election meeting of the ANC Women’s League in the North West province. So it is fitting therefore too that we celebrate her life in Women’s Month with this Memorial Lecture. Twenty years after democracy, where do we stand as a society? We have made very significant progress across a wide front and we have very serious challenges that we must still address. Let us look at some of these areas of progress first. We have solid institutions of democracy and important freedoms, to organize, 20 years ago and the growth rate is almost three times higher than it was in the last 20 years of apartheid. Access to education has expanded greatly with 8 million learners now attending no-fee schools and 9 million learners are getting daily meals at school, provided by government. Investment in improved health-care systems has seen many more clinics built, nurses and doctors employed and medication made available. The big crisis that is HIV is beginning to be contained through the world’s largest ARV programme, after years when we were in denial about the disease. Public transport systems are being improved. Here in Joburg, used every day to travel to work used to be imported in the past. In the last five years we worked closely with two investors and now the country assembles mini-bus taxis in Springs and eThekwini. We are manufacturing trains in factories in Koedoespoort near Pretoria and Nigel. What this shows is how government is taking a basic concept that many trade unions have fought for, the concept of localization, or local manufacturing, and making it real and concrete. Twenty years of democracy has seen a large expansion of electricity. Let me illustrate this by reminding ourselves that the first electricity was installed in a house in South Africa as long ago as 1890. Between that date and the dawn of our democracy, 5,2 million houses were connected to electricity. Since 1996, an additional 7,2 million homes were connected to electricity. In other words, we did more in less than 20 years of democracy than what was achieved in 104 years of colonialism and apartheid. Soweto was a dark city under apartheid, today electricity is generally installed throughout the township. In Gauteng, in the last five years alone 112 984 additional houses were connected to electricity. Jobs are a central concern of trade unions. Violet Seboni died during the first recession that the democracy experienced. It was caused by the financial crisis that started in the United States and rapidly spread across the world, becoming the biggest downturn in the global economy since the 1930s. We lost a large number of jobs during 2009, in what Cosatu aptly described as a ‘jobs bloodbath’, a phrase that Violet used often. Faced with this huge challenge, government developed an economic strategy in the form of the New Growth Path, which was adopted in October 2010, almost twenty months after the death of the remarkable woman whose life we are celebrating today. Since the adoption of the NGP, the economy has created an additional 1,4 million new jobs, mainly in the public sector, finance, transport and mining. Total employment is today over 15 million. The industry that Violet Seboni worked in has been buffeted by the harsh winds of globalization: · Increasing the tariff protection on 35 items of clothing to allow the companies to reorganize their factories · Providing new incentives for local producers through a competitiveness programme and loans from the Industrial Development Corporation, the IDC. Together, these were worth R5,1 billion · Creating a Training Layoff Fund that can be accessed by companies as an alternative to retrenchment, that has been used by 14 factories in the sector to save 1 500 jobs · Linking access to government incentives with full compliance with tax and labour laws · Taking action against illegal imports, with raids on warehouses, better inspections at the harbours and confiscation of about R1,8 billion worth of illegally imported goods from the industry in three years alone · Committing that all government agencies will only buy locally-produced clothing, textiles and footwear I have highlighted some of our success stories of what we have achieved during the period of the democracy, particularly in the past five years. But we have not completed all that we aim to do and the triple-challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment remains. Let me look at some of the challenges. While we celebrate the rise in jobs numbers, we are not expanding employment in the core productive parts of the economy such as manufacturing, mining and agriculture. And too many jobs are temporary jobs. It is for this reason that we say that we need to transform the economy by addressing its structural and systemic features. One area we are dealing with is the monopolies and cartels that fix prices among themselves, abuse their market dominance, over-charge billion and are now in discussion with them for a further compensation for the state and for transformation of the industry. In the next five years,. Violet’s life shows the huge talent among our people that can be tapped more effectively. So we are now working on a major revolution in skills development. We want young people who leave school to go to college for extra skills. Not everyone wants to enroll at a university so we are expanding FET colleges where young people can develop critical skills needed in the economy. South Africa needs more plumbers, welders, production technicians, nurses and teachers. Our job as government, as trade unions and as parents are to work together to create opportunities for young people to be able to reach their potential. In the period ahead, we will be focusing more on vocational and technical education and ensure we have more opportunities for young people to get that first job or to get an internship where they get their first experience in a workplace. The Youth Employment Accord that was signed in April last year will be a big part of our efforts to support young people to start their own companies, find their first job or gain their first work exposure. Sactwu has to be complimented. It has set aside R25 million to promote youth employment, skills development and empowerment and has assisted with placing 18 young people in internships in the industry. Infrastructure development is a further big structural feature we must address. In the past five years, we expanded the spending to build new infrastructure. In all, government invested about R1,1 trillion in new infrastructure, from schools, hospitals, to power stations, dams and transport systems. We will expand this further to ensure that we develop the capacity to generate much higher levels of electricity and expand the quantity of drinkable water. The challenges however at local level with water, sanitation, electricity, good quality clinics, remain very big. In too many cases are our people given poor services. on-going and that the next five years must be a period of radical transformation. In 2005, Violet Seboni addressed a meeting on trade policy and she recognised the importance of workers taking up their issues. She said: “It is therefore comrades, that I do not wish you good luck for today, since I do not really put my faith in good luck. Instead, I wish you good struggle, since a struggle it is. And we expect to see you all… at our demonstrations against job losses and poverty” Part of the struggle we wage is to build a more effective state, one that delivers. It means improving the skills of public servants but also the accountability of political leaders to local communities. I recently reread the speech that Violet was due to give when she travelled to North West on that fateful day in 2009 and I want to share her unuttered words with you. She said “The politics of the belly have destroyed many liberation movements in Africa.” By this she meant the tendency of leaders to focus on their own needs, on how they can benefit, at the expense of the people we serve. The fight against corruption is not only a moral issue. It is also about making sure that monies raised through taxes and other means are used to grow the economy, to create jobs, to provide education and health facilities, to provide basic grants to those in need, not to line the pockets of a small group of politically connected individuals. The other side of the coin of corruption is indifference to inequality – when we no longer care about the bellies of our people and many stay poor while some are very comfortable. Her final speech also said: Comrades, you can change but you must never sell your soul and principles. No matter what, the unity of the workers remains paramount. Any talk to divide the workers is a shame and worse if that is done by former worker leaders. She spoke of a period when there were efforts to divide Cosatu, after the removal of its then President Willie Madisha. Today, COSATU faces again challenges on its unity as it grapples with policy debates about the future of the country and the role of the Federation, the working of the alliance and the impact of government; as it deals with breaches of its founding principles and how to manage diversity of opinion and debate. Such debates and differences of opinion are not new. Neither are the fact that they are very passionately felt. This has been a feature of COSATU throughout its history, from the very first Congress that I attended. The manner in which COSATU resolves its current challenges will be critical to the impact that trade unions will have on public policy. A divided union movement, at war with itself and engaged mainly on massive competition between unions on the shop-floor, will dissipate its energy, its impact and effectiveness at a moment in our history when workers can ill afford it. Leadership is not found mainly in how articulate a leader is, how good and stirring the speeches are, how flowery the rhetoric, how biting the criticism of that which we do not like or extravagant the promises of what we will do in future. A key feature of leadership is wisdom and maturity: the ability to see the long-term needs of a movement beyond the hurts and slights of the moment and identify today, in these circumstances, what is required to achieve the best interests of those we lead and then to work tirelessly to that goal. COSATU has in the past had enormous stores of leadership, giants who led the organization and its affiliates, from shopfloor leaders to national leaders. That deep well of leadership has not dried up, absolutely not. Inside the Federation, there are people of wisdom and courage who can help it navigate the difficult moment and stay intact. We have experienced, strong, wise leaders such as Zwelinzima Vavi and Sidumo Dlamini who have the ability and skill to keep the Federation together, focused on fighting for the rights of workers. This talented leadership’s legacy cannot be a divided organization but instead it must be a strong COSATU, the parliament of workers, with many viewpoints but a common disciplined platform to fight for social justice. It is often said that those who die in a good cause live on in the struggles of those who continue. Sometimes we can take steps to recognize more visibly the contributions of those who are no longer with us, to keep alive their name much as the body has departed. As I bring this Memorial Lecture to a close, I am proud therefore to announce that SACTWU has set up a living memorial to the life of Violet Seboni. The union has raised R1 million to start a Violet Seboni Development Fund that will finance local projects in education and training, in empowerment of women, in economic development, over the next five years. The money has been raised by generous contributions from a number of sources. The donors include SACTWU, Zenzeleni Clothing, the TCIA Clothing Group, the Bargaining Council for the Clothing Industry, the Independent Media Group, HCI and the SETA for the sector. In my funeral oration to this extraordinary woman in 2009, I said “We remember that smile, the laughter, the voice that led us in song, the rough beautiful diamond, Violet, that you were. Many older people would have been proud to have achieved what you did in your 43 years on earth.” Those words still describe how we remember Violet Seboni. It is just sad that Violet was not here to enjoy her grandson, young Aklegang, who she would have proudly brought to union meetings and taken many pictures with. We have great memories of Violet Seboni! SACTWU ICT 2017.

Football experts beyond the ball recommend the 2014 FIFA Creation Drink is Brasil’s to yield. The manageress motherland leads a variety of of the wide-reaching higher-ranking systems. A pre-eminent analytic scale model gives the winningest line-up in Cosmos Goblet account a 45 pct odds to finish first in its 6th patronage and prime since 2002. It each begs an vital confusion: Is Las Vegas fail to notice Brasil? Frolics books aren’t disrespecting the leafy and white-livered by way of whatever swell of the mind’s eye. Brasil is a big minus-550 (risking $5.50 to carry the day $1) ducky above Hrvatska in the occurrence’s break peer, schedule in support of 1 p.m. Weekday in Sao Paulo. It’s furthermore the comprehensive choice, at 5-to-2 per the LVH Superbook, to be celebrating in beginning July, but those prospect teacher’t approximate to reflecting what the same presage calculates as a close by tossup to finish first in. And, dialect mayhap many significantly, not approximately as innumerable fill output Brasil are gambling on the territory. Brasil has truly stayed as a 5-to-2 choice at the LVH since the inception of the yr, but their prospect keep heightened at else funs books. With teams similar to Italia and Uruguay strictly frill their ability — from 25-to-1 to 18-to-1 and 25-to-1 to 12-to-1 1 — Brasil touched up from 9-to-5 to 2-to-1 at Spot Casinos. Amusements books valleywide wouldn’t be threatened by way of Brasil beautifying the 7th hotel-keeper territory to succeed in the Cosmos Beaker. They’d benefit. Facts in fact is, nigh bettors purposefulness hardly ever impede on a side in some relaxation engaging a caption conflicting as insufficient as 5-to-2. They hope for a higher payout. A mortal projectile engaging the Earth Cupful isn’t unique. Italia was 18-to-1 approach into the 2006 1, in which Brasil was likewise privileged, in the past commonest. But in the almost just out Life Drink, Espana rode a 9-to-2 pet rank clear to the legend. Las Vegas loves a big cannon-ball, something Brasil is unquestionably not in 2014. On the vigil of the Sphere Containerful, cheque snapshots of opening to come in the game face and to out first the assemblages downstairs. Number A Brasil — minus-600 Mexico — plus-800 Hrvatska — plus-800 Volcano — plus-2500 Organization B Espana — minus-175 Holland — plus-275 Chilli — plus-400 Land — plus-6000 Union C Colombia — minus-120 Dentin Littoral — plus-350 Archipelago — plus-375 Ellas — plus-700 Congregation D Italia — plus-150 Uruguay — plus-175 England — plus-220 Rib Rica — plus-2500 Organization E Author — minus-150 Svizzera — plus-275 Ecuador — plus-400 Honduras — plus-2000 Company F Argentina — minus-600 Bosnia-Herzegovina — plus-700 Nigeria — plus-900 Persia — plus-3500 Association G Frg — minus-200 Portugal — plus-275 Ghana — plus-1000 Army — plus-1000 Company H Belgique — minus-175 Empire — plus-220 Southern Choson — plus-7000 Algerie — plus-2500 That is a article from lasvegassun.com. too prospect the native, depression hither.

Showing results for: Whoopie Pie Recipe Recipes (51) Lemon Meringue CupcakesSweet and sunny, with all the things we love about lemon meringue pie — but in cupcake form. Kyle's Whoopie PiesChocolate whoopie pies with creamy marshmallow filling are always a bake sale favorite. Whoopie Pieschocolate cakes sandwiched around cream filling. Berry Cream Whoopie PiesTender vanilla cakes with fluffy vanilla filling and lucious berry jam. Perfect for your summer picnic. Mini Snickerdoodle Whoopie PiesA snack cake with true snickerdoodle flavor. Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pieschocolate sandwich cake with cream filling Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal CakesSophisticated cakes for summertime. Mini Gingerbread Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling Reverse Whoopie PiesReverse whoopie pies, two vanilla cookies around a rich chocolate filling. Strawberry CupcakesA summertime cupcake with a burst of fruit flavor. Chocolate Pecan Derby CupcakesChocolate cake topped with vanilla frosting and praline topping. Pumpkin Whoopie PiesThese soft, moist, cake-like cookies are sandwiched around cream cheese filling studded with candied ginger. Peanut Butter Whoopie PiesPeanut butter cookies with chocolate snack cake filling Hi Hat CupcakesYour favorite chocolate cupcake topped with swirls of marshmallow, all dipped in creamy soft chocolate dip. Apple Spice Whoopie PiesTwo generous cakes sandwich a rich cinnamon-cider buttercream filling. It is one of the most decadent desserts you can… Vanilla Chai CakelettesMiniature cakes with the bold flavors of chai tea. Ultra-Vanilla Cupcakes with Easy Vanilla FrostingA pure vanilla cupcake with pure vanilla frosting. Grasshopper CupcakesChocolate cupcakes and mint frosting make a great couple. Tiramisu CupcakesCoffee-soaked vanilla cupcake with a Amaretto mascarpone frosting. Gingerbread Whoopie PiesTender, cakey gingerbread cookies sandwiched with cream cheese filling. Maple Walnut Whoopie PiesTender, delicious maple cakes surrounding cream cheese filling Key Lime Whoopie PiesHandheld cakes with all the flavors of key lime pie. Banana Whoopie PiesBanana cakes studded with chocolate chips and nuts, sandwiched around vanilla or coconut filling. Gluten-Free Vanilla Coconut Flour CupcakesAn easy gluten-free cupcake recipe using coconut flour. Site Search by

Essential Guide Cloud services overview: Pursuing a new business model A comprehensive collection of articles, videos and more, hand-picked by our editors Tips to align cloud computing strategies with clients' business goals Many organizations remain puzzled about how cloud computing should integrate with their overall business objectives, creating an opportunity for cloud providers to step in and help. FROM THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE: Cloud services overview: Pursuing a new business model While organizations have gone from thinking about and moving simple workloads to the cloud to pondering which systems to move off premises next, they are grappling with aligning the technology with their business strategies. > by Accenture, only 38% of C-level executives have integrated their business and cloud computing strategies, despite the fact that 95% have a five-year cloud strategy in place. With cloud adoption growing steadily, observers say enterprises can no longer afford to maintain siloed cloud and business strategies. As a result, there is a significant opportunity for cloud providers "to help enterprises see the bigger picture when it comes to IT transformation and to realize the benefits of aligning business and cloud goals," said Jack Sepple, senior managing director, Accenture Cloud, and Accenture Operations group technology officer. Integration is a crucial aspect of any journey to cloud, whether private, public or hybrid, he said. However, in order for digital transformation to succeed, different teams and departments across the enterprise must work together to achieve shared, big-picture goals, Sepple said. "The objectives that cloud computing enables for the enterprise, such as cost reduction, business agility and better data-driven decision-making, are not IT-specific," he said. "Therefore, to relegate cloud decision-making to the realm of IT would be short-sighted." Cloud computing strategies: How cloud providers can help make the connection That is what cloud providers are finding. Steve Terp, president of Concerto Cloud Services, said clients' ability to integrate their business initiatives with cloud computing strategies is "all over the board" when they talk to business leaders. The level of integration depends on how strategic and how close the relationship is among IT, line-of-business people and executives. Moving business processes to the cloud is a fluid and constantly changing process, he added. "There are so many ways to approach moving to the cloud that it's sometimes difficult for line-of-business people and executives to trust IT's vision for cloud." Concerto has an advisory group that works with technology and business leaders when they need assistance with aligning a business operation with a cloud process. "The most important thing is [that] cloud is a tool for agility, efficiency and the ability to focus on the business rather than getting tripped up on the technology," Terp said. There are so many ways to approach moving to the cloud that it's sometimes difficult for line-of-business people and executives to trust IT's vision for cloud. Steve Terppresident, Concerto Cloud Services When alignment is done well, it creates that agility and allows businesses to do things faster and prioritize where they want to focus their cloud efforts. "Having a plan and executing it to get some of their objectives met and helping them nail down how they can utilize cloud providers and focus on the rest of the business can make a big difference," he said. Although the concept of cloud is relatively simple, it can be hard for a lot of business leaders to really grasp how they can take advantage of its benefits. That's where cloud partners provide value, agreed Jason Cutler, director of channel sales at SADA Systems. In the case of an application like business intelligence, for example, "I would say a lot of time what [business leaders] want is that outcome, and how we get there is really the responsibility of the partner or project leader," he said. "Do they care about the sausage being made or the sausage at the end of the day? The answer is they care about the bottom line -- how is this going to help their business and will they see true value in their organization." Yet, once companies go beyond migrating functions like email into the cloud, "it does require us to bring in line-of-business leaders to the conversation," Cutler added. They want to ensure that the cloud system "is going to resonate across all aspects of the business." SADA developed the Value Envisioning Workshop, which speaks to business leaders on how a cloud offering will work and how it will enable all departments to collaborate and utilize cloud apps from either Microsoft or Google. Addressing an IT skills gap The Accenture study also found respondents perceived a shortage of cloud competencies and an emerging skills gap within IT functions. Seventy-eight percent of C-level respondents said their IT organization may lack the skills necessary to be involved in as a service purchases, even though 88% believe IT should participate in these transactions. "For enterprises that are new to the cloud, IT staff may not be sufficiently familiar with the cloud market to make educated decisions around specific solutions," Sepple said. Companies that are exploring a move to "as a service cloud" should train staff so they can take part in the process, he added. "Cloud service providers could also help alleviate this knowledge gap by working in tandem with IT staff and the C-suite to select the appropriate cloud solution that meets the unique needs of the business." There is "absolutely … a skills gap," agreed Brett Gillett, Amazon Web Services Practice Lead at Softchoice. "If you're trying to build apps in the cloud, that's a very different skill set than putting them there. In many cases, it's about understanding what services are on the platform." That can be a challenge, though, when you consider that AWS is coming out with over 1,000 new features or services this year, he said. "So you can imagine the challenge customers are having to keep up with that rapid pace of innovation." Unlike an internal IT group that needs to focus on all aspects of the business, "We have resources here where that's all they do. Customers who come to us can leverage those resources, rather than spending their entire day thinking about this." Finding the right partner helps ensure they're "not missing something obvious," Gillett said. There is a "long list of skills" missing in an IT organization, according to Terp, including understanding software and software development and how it runs in the infrastructure. Other lacking skills are related to network connectivity, performance around how different systems integrate together and security, he said. "The rules and threats around security change so rapidly, it's difficult for companies to … stay on top of that," whereas cloud partners deal with new security threats every day, he said. For Sepple, the lack of integration between business and cloud computing strategies was the most surprising finding of the survey. "Given the major investment that businesses are making in as a service cloud, we were expecting to see a more unified approach," he said. "By aligning their cloud and business strategies and involving IT more directly in cloud decision-making, companies will be better positioned on their journey to the cloud when the as a service economy comes of age." Next Steps Get tips for verticalizing your cloud offerings How to manage your cloud vendor relationships PRO+ Content Find more PRO+ content and other member only offers, here. Join the conversation

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If.? The main source of action in Sleeping Dogs may be using a bit of old-school punching and kicking to either subdue perps or entirely put them out of commission. Using some martial arts moves to defeat an enemy is fun but there’s something special about blowing up a car whilst riding a motorcycle and then seeing said car flip and turn before it ultimately goes boom. Opting to present a diverse gameplay experience, Sleeping Dogs is set to feature equal parts melee combat and driving action, the latter of which is on display in this new video. Revealed last month in a quasi-official capacity, the revelation that LittleBigPlanet would receive a spin-off game in the form of LittleBigPlanet Karting was something that people didn’t know what to make of. Would LBP Karting be a fun game or was this Sony’s first step in milking the LBP franchise now that Media Molecule seems to be moving on from the series to produce a next-gen PlayStation IP? It was of course hard to imagine what LBP Karting would look like but we now have evidence which points to the game being simple LBP style fun.. Last month we were treated to the surprise reveal of Sleeping Dogs, the game formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong. Still developed by United Front Games but under the guise of Square Enix, Sleeping Dogs’ return was eventful and thankfully didn’t result in immediate disappointment. With a stunning live-action trailer serving as the introduction to the game, the actual gameplay didn’t disappoint either when that was finally shown as the mixture of established open-world action elements combined with new stylistic choices resulted in a marriage that we hardly see in games. A. Create New Account Forgot Your Password? Have a news tip, article, or editorial you think we should know about? Contact our writers with the button below and give us the scoop. We'll be sure to credit you for your find.

I saw this movie at least three months ago, on an awards screener (it's pretty obscure, but was actually nominated for a few Spirit Awards), and absolutely hated it, putting it on my list of the worst movies of 2006. It's yet another glum "intersecting stories show the interconnectedness of life" indie drama, pivoting on the titular corpse (Murphy) and how her death affects the lives of a large number of people. It could be an unconventional murder mystery, but instead it’s a pretentious and heavy-handed mess, with a talented cast trying way too hard to show off their serious acting chops, and a script that strains for grandiose meaning and ends up simply histrionic. Can't we just agree to retire this irritating and played-out genre? Opened limited Dec. 29; in Las Vegas this week One thing I will say about the second feature from Wan and his co-writer, Leigh Whannell, is that at least they try and do something different from their first movie, Saw. They've let other people take over that franchise and moved on to this movie, which is still horror but is much more old-fashioned, a ghost story with minimal gore that's more focused on suspense than gross-outs. But the truth is that Wan is not all that good at atmosphere or foreboding, and after its somewhat exciting opening the movie turns tedious and nonsensical. Also, the pure creep-out factor of ventriloquists' dummies is never used to its full potential, and Wahlberg seriously misses the mark on all the comic-relief bits. Really, this is just another mediocre-to-bad horror movie, which wouldn't be getting any notice at all if it weren't from the creators of Saw. Hardcore torture fans will be disappointed here, and so will anyone else. Wide release I didn't see this movie, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The screening I was supposed to attend was cancelled because of technical difficulties, but in anticipation of writing a review of the film, I had the day before watched Eric Rohmer's 1972 movie Chloe in the Afternoon, of which this is a (presumably rather loose) remake. Chloe is the last in Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series, an alternately tense and playful story about a married man's temptations to cheat on his rather lovely, understanding and devoted wife with a volatile, sexually capricious woman from his past. Aside from its remarkable fixation on turtlenecks, the best thing about Rohmer's film is the character of Chloe, a sort of nihilistic free spirit who doesn't seem to believe in love or marriage or family or much of anything, but is incredibly alluring in her indifference to the world. From what I've read, Rock's version of Chloe (played by Kerry Washington) is not nearly as complex, and that's too bad. Wide release My review in Las Vegas Weekly This movie is actually not opening in Vegas this week, despite how it might appear. Scheduled to be part of the CineVegas Arthouse Series, it has been postponed as that series unexpectedly moves venues. The Tropicana Cinemas, which had been housing the series, has closed its doors, so CineVegas has moved to the the Galaxy Neonopolis, starting next week (details here). This means that the movies scheduled for this week will be pushed. Whenever Sweet Land does open, it's worth seeing for its great prairie vistas and a nice, understated story, although it's a little slow and not as affecting as I had hoped from reading some early reviews. Opened limited Dec. 1

Steve has three decades of C-level management and marketing experience in diverse industries including financial, franchise, sports and service-driven entities. He is a seasoned business development executive with deep knowledge in marketing human capital solutions to senior ranking executives and board members. His proficiency gained from working with all levels of positions within organizations has provided clients with multiple management and human resource solutions. Steve blends his business acumen with a sports industry skillset to the firm’s Sports Recruiting and Consulting practice. This includes playing and coaching tennis at the NCAA Division I level, ownership of an indoor tennis facility where he also served as general manager and head teaching pro, and the father of two NCAA student athletes. Before founding Snodgrass Partners, Steve was a co-managing principal for the executive search practice within DeFrain Mayer, a large regional human resources consulting firm. He gained a rare perspective on the executive search process through earlier roles as vice president of corporate communications for international franchisor ERA Real Estate and vice president at a full-service advertising and public relations agency. A four-year varsity tennis player at Kansas State University, Steve went on to coach the men’s and women’s team for seven years. As a young entrepreneur, Steve also designed, built and operated an indoor/outdoor racquet club and recreational facility in his late 20s. He remained the highest percentage owner of the club for 34 years and was instrumental in its sale in 2010. Steve earned his Bachelor of Science degree from K-State. He holds certificates in numerous leadership programs including the Strategic Alliance Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In addition, he has taught behavioral interviewing techniques and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey Leadership Center). Steve is a graduate of the Leadership Overland Park Class of 1991 and is a member of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and Kansas City Society of Association Executives (KCSAE). Steve has four grown children – Carrie, Lance, Jeff and Kelsey – and five grandchildren. In addition to playing and coaching at the collegiate level, Steve also understands what it’s like to be the parent of a student athlete. Lance played soccer at Regis University where he remains the all-time leader in assists. He was inducted in the Regis Hall of Fame in 2016. Jeff was a kicker at Kansas State University under coaching legend Bill Snyder. He received All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors in 2006. Steve and wife, Bridget, live in Overland Park, Kansas. Phone: (913) 681.2200 ext. 2 Mobile: (913) 484.5106

Izabella Scorupco Born this day in 1970 Natalya Simonova in GoldenEye Izabella Scorupco was born in Poland but relocated with her mother when she was a young child. At 17, she was discovered by a director who cast her as Annelie in the Swedish film Ingen kan alska som vi (1988), which resulted in her becoming a teen idol. Scorupco became a model in Sweden and Europe and then launched a career as a singer. In 1994, she returned to acting and was cast in a number of films including GoldenEye (1995) opposite Pierce Brosnan. Interestingly, she passed on two roles: Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential (1997) and as Elena in The Mask of Zorro (1998). The former role went to another Bond alum, Kim Basinger, who starred opposite Sean Connery in the 1983 Never Say Never Again. I enjoyed her performance in GoldenEye and candidly, I liked the clothing choices made for her, especially in the early scenes of the film of her working at the base. It would be nice to see her in more roles. Marguerite Green Passed away this day in 1983 Production Secretary for From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker Marguerite Green was originally from Brentford, England and got her start in the crime drama The Clouded Yellow (1950) as a production secretary. She would have rubbed shoulders with stars Jean Simmons and Trevor Howard. In her 30+ years in the business, Green worked with several well-known stars: Alan Ladd, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Michael Caine and two James Bonds, as portrayed by Sean Connery and Roger Moore. If you happen to have The Making of James Bond – 007 (1977) then you’ll get to hear from Ms Green herself of her work on the Bond.

at a glance Consider the lowly gourd. As a fruit, it has never received the acclaim accorded the apple, say, or the peach. For the Gourdmaster Sam X, however, the dried gourd is everything. "Called From the Dirt" at Kiaca Gallery in the Short North contains about 15 gourd sculptures, including a series of 4-foot ceremonial-mask sculptures made from gourds and grass. Several paintings featuring gourd-inspired characters and shaker rays, or African gourd musical instruments, are also part of the exhibit. The sculptures and paintings combine elements of traditional African art with a contemporary sensibility. The Gourdmaster is 51-year-old Sam White, who lives in Dublin and his native Georgia. He arrived in central Ohio about a year ago. White came to gourd art in the mid-'90s, he said. His career was in business, running three clothing stores and a restaurant. Before taking up gourd art, "I didn't even do stick men, didn't even doodle." During a visit to Jamaica, he became fascinated with coconut carvers. Later, at a flea market in Georgia, he spotted seven dried gourds. "I said to myself, 'What would the Jamaicans do with these?' " White bought the gourds for $3.50. "For a split second, I saw an image on one of the gourds. I took my finger, and, in the dirt on the gourd, I traced out what I saw. The gourds began to speak to me." He taught himself to carve, burn and paint gourds. Now he leads gourd-art workshops. "Every time I touch a gourd, it feels like the flesh of a beautiful woman -- smooth and silky. My hands just agree with the gourds." White uses several varieties of gourds, such as bottle, cannonball and dipper gourds obtained from Georgia and from farms around Greenville, home of the Ohio Gourd Show. His pieces reflect African themes of rituals and serene family life. "These things come from my genetic memory bank." The carved sculpture The Girl's Party Boat features four figures in a tribal boat. Sea Horse on the Beach is a colorful carved work. Colors in the Red Sea depicts a whimsical scene of an African family in a craft that could be a boat floating in the water -- or through the sky. White wants to make art that "makes you think -- that, when you see a piece, you ask, 'What is this?' "Mosaic maker Terri Albanese likes to "paint" with glass. The Powell resident pieces together segments of cut, colored glass to create mosaics. The colors and textures in the glass produce a rich, painterly appearance. The pieces have a feeling of depth -- even movement. Albanese's "Painting With Glass" will have an opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday in Hayley Gallery, 45 2nd St., New Albany. The exhibit will continue through Sept. 4. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and until 7 p.m. Thursdays. Call 614-855-4856 or visit.

What a year it's been! At the beginning of 2013, we had a two year old, and now we're preparing for her to turn four. We had a tiny baby who was just being introduced to solid foods and didn't sleep through the night. Now, we have a walking, talking, independent little boy who is ready to take on life's next challenge: becoming a big brother! It is always amazing to me to look back and remember how far we have come in one little year. Highlights of the year definitely include making the jump from working mother to stay at home mom, and of course, all of our hard work turning this house from junk into home. Major props to my husband on that front. Yes, we've come an amazingly long way from where we began this year. There is still a lot of work to do, although how much of it will realistically be completed now that our priorities have shifted remains to be seen. We're looking forward to a healthy and happy 2014! Wishing you and your family love, joy and laughter in the new year.

Sunday 16 March 2003 It was Sunday, under the sign of Pisces. The US president was George W. Bush (Republican). In that special week of March people in US were listening to In Da Club by 50 Cent. In UK Beautiful by Christina Aguilera was in the top 5 hits. Phone Booth, directed by Joel Schumacher, was one of the most viewed movies released in 2003 while The King of Torts by John Grisham was one of the best selling books. On TV people were watching Swag. If you liked videogames you were probably playing Donkey Konga or Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes. But much more happened that day: find out below.. You can also have a look at the whole 2003 or at March 16 across the years. Old Newspapers Have a look at the old newspapers from 16 March 2003 and get them! TV Series Which were the most popular TV series released in the last 30 days ? Find out your future Get a FREE Numerology report based on the digits of 16 March 2003! Wish him/her.. Historical Events Which were the important events of 16 March 2003 ?: - Rachel Corrie: American activist killed in a demonstration in Palestine when an Israeli military bulldozer struck her on March 16, 2003. - Ronald Ferguson: American acturary and CEO in charge of the reinsurance company of General Re. Facts: -. - The United States Department of State ordered non-essential diplomats and embassy dependents out of Kuwait, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Damascus. -. - Wen Jiabao was elected Premier of the People's Republic of China by the National People's Congress. He replaced Zhu Rongji. - Sponsored by the World Water Council, a Water forum began in Kyoto, Japan. - General François Bozizé dissolved the national legislature of the Central African Republic and declared himself President, one day after his rebel forces took Bangui, the capital. Music Charts Which were the top hits in that special week of March 2003 ? Top #10 songs in the USA Don't miss our monthly news, no spam guarantee Click here to Subscribe ...and if 16 March 2003 was your Birth Date then Join our Birthday Club! Make this date unforgettable Genealogy: find out your family heritage Magazine Covers What news were making the headlines those days in March 2003? - EW: Entertainment Weekly: no.700 - Time: Man whitewashing picture of Iraq leader Saddam Hussein. - SportsIllustrated: Sports Illustrated: no.99.More info Portrait in Death Lieutenant Eve Dallas tracks killer who hunts beautiful young women. (P, Berkley)More info Atkins for Life Taking it to the Next LevelWhether you've lost weight doing Atkins and want to make your success permanent or you're new to Atkins and are concerned about your health and weight control, Atkins for Life is for you.More info 2nd Chance A brutal madman sprays bullets into a crowd of children leaving a San Francisco church. Miraculously-or was it intentionally?-only one person dies. Then an elderly black woman is hung.More info

In just a few short years and at a relatively young age Ryan Hewitt has become one of L.A.'s first-call engineers in a notoriously competitive and dwindling market. The son of a well-known remote recording engineer, Dave Hewitt, Ryan's made records with The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Alkaline Trio, Heavens, Blink-182 and Tom Petty. He's also made several amazing solo records with RHCP guitarist John Frusciante. Despite of his success, Ryan is a super nice guy and very easygoing. I found this out firsthand when we sat down to talk at The Pass Studios while he finished up a Chili Peppers b-side mix. His website ryanhewitt.com, has a lot of ino on it and is well worth checking out if you're curious about his sessions. In fact, there was so much info on Ryan's site that I literally only had a couple of questions prepared for him. Luckily Ryan's an enthusiastic talker, and responded profusely to my questions with very little prodding. Where did you go to school? The education thing is a bit of an issue for me with kids going to these recording schools. I went to Tufts University, outside Boston, majoring in electrical engineering. I didn't get the recording bug until I started running the P.A. company at school. They gave me the keys to the equipment shed and I just ran with them! I'd do live to 2-track demos for Tufts-based bands with a DAT machine my father gave me. I borrowed an 8-track from a friend and started doing multitrack stuff in the middle of the night in the equipment shed. It was hilarious! Before going off to Tufts, my father said, "I really don't think you should get into this business. It's a really tough gig. It's hard on your relationships. It's hard on your future family. You're away all the time. Go and get an education in something stable." The music business was not really an option for me in my household. My mother's family is all Jewish with the stereotypical rants — "You're going to school! You're going to an Ivy League school!" They all wanted me to be an architect, but electrical engineering was closer to what I thought I wanted to do. I enjoyed it. I learned to design circuits, solve problems empirically, deal with signal flow — things that are underlying principles of the recording studio. I never actually got to build audio equipment in the end, which is what I really wanted to do then. I started playing in bands and recording and partying instead, and that was the end of that. I graduated with a fine GPA and now all I remember is V=IR! I remember sitting in front of the computer doing all these circuit simulations and saying to myself, "No fuckin' way am I going to sit in front of the computer all my life." This was before Pro Tools of course, and all my idols were working with 2 inch machines. Now here I am sitting in front of a computer all the time, but at least I'm having a lot more fun than many friends in my electrical engineering class! What was the impetus to move out west when you could have stayed on the East Coast and worked there? When I was on the East Coast I was working at Sony as an assistant for about three years, where I assisted Michael Brauer for a long time. He was a fantastic teacher and mentor. Eventually I decided I was done with Sony because Michael no longer worked there, and the focus of the studio became hip-hop — I wanted to rock! Around this time I started getting some engineering work with Phil Ramone. I did a few sessions with him and he took me on as his home studio engineer and tech. I wanted to take the leap into full time freelance work, but it's incredibly hard to leave the comfort of the nest that is the studio — which is a fairly well paying, somewhat steady job — to go off and do something on your own that you're not quite sure of. What made the transition easier was a phone call from Don Wershba at SSL. He called me because I had built up a relationship with the company through Michael Brauer, and our work on the then new 9000. The SSL guys would come over all the time showing us new tricks. They asked me if I wanted to consult for them, introducing and supporting the Axiom-MT (their new digital console) in 1998. They sent me to England and trained me on all their products from top to bottom. That gig helped me to pick up a lot of work, and introduced me to a lot more studios and engineers in New York. You must have been in Oxford then, right? I was in Oxford for a week. I came back and at about that time I rekindled a lot of friendships with people from college who had moved out to L.A. My mother had also moved out to Monterey, California around that time and so I had been visiting the West Coast a lot. I remember a very specific trip where I got back to New York, got off the plane and into the car to go back to the city and it was raining and — this is like a movie pitch — and I could see the skyline as I was coming down the ramp to go through the Lincoln tunnel and I was like, "You know what? I'm done with New York. If someone called me tomorrow and said, 'Move to L.A.,' I'm going to go." A week later SSL called me and said, "Our guy left in L.A. We need you to go out there and fill in for a while, see if you like it. If you like it, you can have the job." I went out for a little while — and it was my first office job, my first nine to five. It was the first time I ever had health insurance and all these perks of a regular job. So I took the gig. I went back to New York, packed up all my gear, had a party and moved to L.A. I was at SSL for ten months. It was the best job I could have asked for at the time because of the great reputation of the company. SSL has consoles in practically every single studio in L.A., except the one we're sitting in! As a result, I got to meet nearly every single studio manager in town, a whole bunch of great producers, great engineers and rekindle friendships with people I'd met years before — maybe through my father or people I'd assisted in New York when I was a kid. It was one of greatest years of my life. I could work nine to five and still do studio sessions with my friends at night. That's what led me to work at Cello. We sold a console to Candace [Stewart] and Gary [Myerberg] at Cello. I got to be friends with them and I was hanging out there a lot. It was right down the street from the SSL office, so whenever I wasn't doing anything at the office I'd go down there and see what was going on and who was working. Bill Bottrell was in there, Rich Costey and all these amazing cats. I would just go over and say, "Hey, is everything okay? No problems? Good. All right, cool, I'm just going to hang out with you." Then I ran into Jim Scott at Cello. I had recorded a Natalie Merchant show on the truck in New York with my father, and Jim wound up mixing it. There was Jim working in this room with all these tapestries and incense and tape and great microphones and great bands. He says to me, "Hey, what are you doing? You should be working here. You should be working at Cello, not doing some desk job." The next day his assistant left! I ran into Jim again that day and he said, "My guy just left, do you want to come work with me? I'm doing the Chili Peppers record next month." It was just this series of fortunate events that continues to lead me to where I am today. That record was By the Way. I gave my resignation to SSL on September 10, 2001. The next day the shit hit the fan and every single session in town was cancelled because everyone was freaking out. I left this cushy job at SSL and then the country was in turmoil and I had a month of no work. Tell me about some of the artists you've worked with. You just did the Heavens record with Joe Steinbrick and Matt Skiba from the Alkaline Trio. Yes, they're awesome, really fun guys. I had talked about this record with Matt during the Alkaline Trio's Crimson record that I recorded. There was one song where he doubled his vocal an octave down and it was just the two of us in the room and I said, "That's a really great vocal range for you. You should maybe think of doing songs specifically like that." He said, "I've got a whole other record like that." So I told him, "If you ever need help with that record call me." Right after that he introduced me to his friend Ben Lovett, whose record I went on to mix right after recording the Alkaline Trio. Ben is quite a character, and he wound up producing and chopping and engineering and creating a lot of atmosphere, and in different parts he sang. He's one of those "I- hate-you-because-you-play-everything" kinds of guys. Ben and I got along really well mixing his record, and then they started Tthe Heavens record in his house in Mount Washington. He's got a great little home studio in his basement. When it came time to mix they called me up, and it was really fun because I'd never mixed anything like that before with beats where they wanted it to be played in a club with really loud drums. I'd mix it to where I liked it, which is with drums fairly loud to begin with, and Ben would come in, "No, no man. Drums loud!" So, we're sitting there together finishing the mix and I'm pushing and pushing and I think I turned the drums up four dB and he's like, "That's it! That's bangin'! Put it on the big speakers!" There were a lot of creative sounds going on in there, just completely unorthodox recordings of all kinds of things. So it was really e-rethinking the traditional guitar/bass/drums scenario and rethinking what role those instruments played in the music and how they were to sound and how I was to balance between them. Joe Steinbrick specifically said, "I don't want this to sound like a punk rock record. Don't make these guitars sound like Alkaline Trio. I want them to sound a little softer or maybe a little quieter in spots, not as clear and defined. It can be a little dirtier, a little more dark sounding." It was fun to put a lot of reverb on them because I had just come off the Chili Peppers record, where not many effects went on that record as a whole. The Heavens said they wanted to have things like the Depeche Mode, New Order and Cure vocal sounds — lots of reverb, lots of delays, lots of effects. It was really fun to have a lot of creative license with that. Cool. And then Tom Petty's The Last DJ — that must've been a fun record. That was really a fun record. That was the second record I did with Jim Scott as his assistant. George Drakoulias was producing that and since then we have become really good friends. That guy is amazing. He's another guy who plays all rock instruments and he knows a lot and he just brushes it off as if it's nothing. He's reserved about his opinions, but then he'll really get in there and give you one when it's necessary. I think the guy is supremely talented and incredibly smart. He's a bit of a goofball. He loves to have fun and he's very sarcastic with a really dry, biting sense of humor. The band was obviously sick — ridiculous musicians — and they cut everything live all together in the room. There was one song that they were having trouble with and George hired a Pro Tools guy to come in and chop up Steve Ferrone's drums, but he was a hip-hop guy. All he did was put it on the grid. Tom came in and said, "No that sounds terrible. What did you do to it?" George hired another guy and he did the same thing. I was in the back of the room — the assistant — and I said, "Well, let me have a shot at it." I had no idea how to use Pro Tools. I knew how to turn it on and open a session and that was about it. I had done maybe one or two sessions on Pro Tools for a friend, but made him do all the mouse work. So I stayed all night for several nights in a row just trying to figure out what I was doing. If you go about it with a musical ear and not your analytical eyes, it's not that hard. I figured out a few things to where I could get around, and I did some edits and I played the song for them. I don't even know if I actually really did anything significant to the tracks. There were a couple of things here and there where it seemed the band wasn't locked together, so I tweaked them a little bit. That song just didn't gel, so it didn't make the record. Later, Tom did a vocal on a song and he said, "You know I'm a little sharp on that, but I like that performance. Hey Ryan, can you fix that?" So if it was a little sharp, I'd tune it down a little bit. Tom said, "That's fantastic! I didn't know you could do that!" He had never really experienced Pro Tools before because he was always very tape-oriented, and if it wasn't right they'd just play or sing it again. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he's right on because he's a phenomenal singer. George then turned to me and said, "All right, go tune all the songs." So I stayed all night for several nights in a row figuring out how to tune vocals. George had me go at it with the idea that we'd tune it, make it perfect and then play it for Tom. Whatever he didn't like we'd throw away. He wound up not liking most of it because it was unnaturally perfect to him, but we did use a few fixes here and there. So, that's how I figured out how to use Pro Tools. Were you using Auto-Tune or something like that, or were you just using the pitch change plug-in? Yeah, I was using Auto-Tune. It was an immense education and just a fantastic way to fall into things. How about Blink-182? Oh, that was a really fun record. Jerry Finn happened to be working at Cello doing an Alkaline Trio record. We had met in passing in the halls when I was in the back room working on a John Frusciante record [Shadows Collide with People] with Jim Scott. Jerry kept walking by the door and he'd stop in and shoot the shit, talking about cars, gear and whatever, and we got to be friends. One day I passed him in the hall and I said, "Will you listen to this record I did and tell me if it sounds good, if I did anything good on it because I just don't know." He was like, "Yeah, I'll check it out in a couple of days." It was the first thing that I did completely myself — recorded, mixed, produced. I did it for free for this random band that was referred to me bysomefriends. A couple of days went by and we kept seeing each other in the hall and he didn't mention it so I'm thinking, "Oh, it just sucked." He came in the next day and he said, "That thing sounded great! Where did you do it? What did you use?" We had an interesting conversation about that and then a month later he called me and he said, "Hey, do you want to do a record together?" Before I even asked what it was I said, "Yes!" "Okay, we're going to start in February. We're going to do it in San Diego in a house. It's going to be five days a week. So let's talk next month and we'll sort it out." "Hey, by the way what band is it?" I asked him. "Blink-182," he replied. I was like, "Holy shit, you've got to be joking!" I was freaking out. We went down to do that record in this big mansion that they had soundproofed and it was one of the best times I've had making a record. Those guys are so much fun and despite what they say or what people think about them, they're very talented musicians. They played every note of that record on tape. That's one thing that Jerry's really particular about — everything goes to tape, [though] vocals and keyboards and such went to Pro Tools simply because it was easier. Setting up in a house like that, where it's not supposed to be a studio, was the most incredible thing ever. Everything about the control room was wrong. Everything about the tracking room was wrong. There were parallel walls. There were all kinds of weird reflections going on. But we just used it to our advantage or tamed problems and made everything work. I'm really proud of the sounds that are on that record because it was a lot of work to get them. We had to move amps from room to room to find the right sound and try different mics and put gobos in different places. It was really, really fun. You end up with really unique sounding records when you're in weird spaces like that. Absolutely. Not to knock studios, because I love working in studios. Obviously a studio is a controlled environment and everything works all the time and you have everything you need in one place, but I've done three or four records at this point in houses and those records are the ones that stand out in my mind as being the best sounding and the most fun to make — because it's such a casual atmosphere. You're not thinking about the hourly rate of the studio when it gets late and you want to do another take. You're just chilling out in a house and if you want to go swimming, there's a pool in the backyard. If you want to eat, there's a fridge over there. If you want to chill out you can go outside in the yard and relax. You can get away from things. You can go to your bedroom. You can do anything you want. That drum sound is unique to you and that record and that room. A house lends itself to sonic experimentation. You have different rooms to try for different vibes on different songs. From that standpoint it was rad. Studios are great for mixing. My studio is in an old warehouse with lots of windows and natural light. When I'm in regular studios like this I feel kind of odd. They're great, but... When you're in a house there's a little bit more personality. It's not thought out, it's not trying to be a studio. It's your living room, your dining room or the guest house. You know what time of day it is. Yeah, there are windows. You can open the windows and air it out. It doesn't smell like a studio where dudes have been living for 18 hours a day for the last 30 years. When you do things on tape and then do the vocals in Pro Tools, do you just transfer the tape into Pro Tools and forget about the tape? In situations like that I'll transfer the tape into Pro Tools as a safety, making sure everything is locked and referenced properly. Then, when it comes time to mix we go back to the master tape. You fly the vocals back to the tape? Yeah. We'll fly the vocals onto a slave tape if we have the budget to have a second tape machine or if we have tracks available on the first machine. On the Blink record we did that. We had forty-eight tracks of tape and everything that was in Pro Tools went to tape. You're not editing the whole song then. If you do, you're doing it... All on tape. Do you do much editing of the 2 inch and then lay down the code and then go to Pro Tools? All the time — actually, another engineer friend had a really great idea that I totally copied, where he makes the assistant stripe all the blank tapes so that you have a consistent time base and you know where all your edits are going to be. You'll know specifically where everything is so you don't have to rely on counter times that might move around to remember where a take was. My take sheets will have the SMPTE number rather than the counter number, and I'll even write out the song form, so that I know exactly where every part is when it comes time to edit. When I'm editing tape, I'll dump the song into Pro Tools first to do test edits so we can make sure everything is going to work. I'll also record the time code into Pro Tools on a track and then feed that out to a code reader. This way I can just play the edit and the Lynx tells me what piece of tape that piece of the song was on. If you cut that, then isn't the time code useless? Yes, but then you re-stripe it later. The initial striping is just for editing purposes so I know where everything is, because then it's quick and I can look at the Lynx and know exactly where I need to go. It winds up making my job way easier. Especially when I'm editing between three or four reels. So that was pretty much the same process you used for the Chili Peppers record too? It's different in that with Jerry, we'll record drums first to a click and then we'll edit the drums together on the tape and then we'll overdub guitars and then bass and then everything else. With the Chili Peppers, the whole band was playing together and so the whole band would be edited across the tape. If the band played it well then we'd use that piece and then another piece and another piece and cut those all together. It was a bit different because you had to really think about your edit points to make sure that everyone was together and you didn't clip anyone's note. The tempo changes since the Chili Peppers don't play to a click, so we always had to do test edits to make sure that everything worked together and that nothing was going to speed up or slow down all of a sudden. Did you use Pro Tools at all on that record or was it totally analog? Just for Anthony's vocals, which were recorded by Andrew Scheps. There were also some assorted overdubs that happened at the end when I had the tapes doing overdubs with John. But Andrew had to do a quick piano or percussion thing at Rick's. Everything went back to tape for the mix whenever possible. What's it like working with Rick Rubin? Does he have a permanent studio at his house now? He's got a house in Laurel Canyon where the Chili Peppers did Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It's a permanent studio in that nobody lives there, but he doesn't own any of the gear that's there. They'll rent a Neve and they'll rent a tape machine or Pro Tools depending on what's needed. There's Plexiglas put in between what used to be a study and the ballroom, which are now control room and live room, respectively. The live room is huge, but it's all unfortunately been carpeted and there's a big American flag hanging from the ceiling and draped on the walls and lots of curtains so it's really dead. But it's an amazing place to do a record. There's tons of room and there are all different kinds of spaces for experimentation with sound and echo. The foyer in there is just astounding and there's another room that the drums on the first track on Blood Sugar Sex Magik — "[The] Power of Equality" — were tracked, where you hear the drums and all this crazy room sound around it. It's this little room, probably fifteen feet square, but with marble floors and two glass walls. I heard they recorded that drum kit with two mics. He has another studio at his main residence in Hollywood. It's a proper studio there with a console and tape machines and Pro Tools and gear that's set up permanently. They track some bands there occasionally, but mainly it's for overdubs. Rick's got a phenomenal nine-foot Bösendorfer in the living room and there's some glockenspiels and some strange instruments hanging out and a couple small rooms for recording. What's he like to work with? His input is completely unconventional. He's not a sounds guy. He's not going to say, "Give me more midrange," or anything. He's going to say, "That sounds good," or "That's not quite right." With the Chili Peppers, after the first take they would come in and make sure they liked the sounds and then they would go out and do more takes. To me it seems that Rick is more about the vibe of the session — to make sure everyone is happy and able to give their best to the music. I feel that he's about the songs themselves, and he's about making the arrangement ideal and perfect and featuring everybody or nobody depending on what needs to happen — that it's not overplayed, that it's not too busy, that it's not too boring — that when something needs happen, the right thing happens. He's a fan of music and so he approaches it with a fan's ear. He makes no bones about saying what he thinks is appropriate for a song. He might say, "I'm getting bored here, something else needs to happen there," or "That intro needs a little something extra. It's too sparse," or, "There's too much shit going on here, pare it down. We need to get rid of something." During tracking he's more sparse with comments and he maintains a very even-keeled level of energy in the studio. A lot of musicians get tremendously excited about something they just did, or a producer will get all fired up and excited, then if it's not as perfect the next time they do it they'll get really bummed. So you have this giant roller coaster of emotion going on. Rick is able to maintain an evenness that smoothes out the roller coaster ride. If something is amazing he might say, "That was great," and everyone will be happy. If something was not that great he might say, "You know, that's not so good. Let's do that again." But no one gets bummed out because it wasn't like, "This is amazing! This is fucking unbelievable!" and then "That sucked!" He's always conscious of the truth doing the job in a studio, and that to me is a feat unto itself. As an engineer working with Rick, you got a lot of room to work out what it sounds like. There's a lot of room, and specifically with the Chili Peppers — I can't speak to other bands he's worked with — they have a lot of autonomy. Rick knows they're going to come up with a fine product, so he's not around a lot during the overdubs, because he trusts all those guys to do their thing. He trusts his engineers to make sure that things are recorded well and in tune. His main interest is in getting the basic track down, because if you have a bed track that's amazing, you can put whatever you want on top of it and the track is going to support it. Sometimes the songs are pared back and simple. Sometimes they need something more. But Rick knows that they're going come up with the parts. When the band writes the songs together they'll all come up with ideas for overdubs and they'll know well in advance of actually recording what they're going to do in the studio. Rick's other focus is the vocals, and he was there all the time with every single lead vocal that Anthony sang. They would try different things. They would change lyrics. They'd swap verses and they'd refine stuff right down to the very end when we were mixing. I've had to track vocals in the middle of a mix. Anthony wanted to re-sing something, so Andrew would do that, or John needed to do an extra background vocal, so I'd run up to his house and do it. We'll think a song is done and then Anthony would say, "No, I think that I can beat that," and then he'd go in and he'd beat it. It's a process where it'll be whittled down to the perfect song in the end. Let's talk about John [Frusciante] a little bit. You've done tons of work with him. You said a lot of the overdubs for the Chili Peppers record were done at his place, and obviously you've worked on all the solo records he's done in recent years. Can you talk a little bit about that relationship and the work you've done over there? I started with the Chili Peppers by assisting on By the Way. Then John went to do a solo record right after that and asked Jim Scott to record and produce it. It was supposed to be two weeks of tracking, two weeks of overdubs, two weeks of mixing. It turned into this giant record that we spent four months on, but after four weeks of tracking, Jim had to do another gig. He said, "Take Ryan here and go in the other room and finish the record." I was scared shitless. It was another instance of being thrown in to the fire. All the basic tracks had been done with Jim, so we had to finish all the overdubs — the guitars and synthesizers and vocals. At the beginning I just frankly said to John, "I just want you to know at this point in my life, I don't have a really great ear for pitch, so I won't really be able to tell you if you're sharp or flat." He said, "That's okay. I'm not going to ask. I'll know." John likes to work extremely fast. He didn't want to wait for the tapes to rewind or wait for me to patch stuff, so I got really efficient working with John. Because I learned quickly how he wanted to work — and he was really particular about a lot of different things — we got a really great working relationship together. We weren't friends or anything at that point, but we could work together quite well. He could come in and I'd have everything set up exactly how he wanted it and I knew when he needed a break — just being the psychologist in that sense of knowing when someone is so frustrated or tired that you need to suggest a break for them because they can't do it themselves. "Hey, why don't we order some dinner?" or "Do you need anything out there?" That kind of brought us together as friends a little bit. That was three months of our working together one on one before he and Jim went on to mixing, and I went on to Blink-182. Then a bit later he wanted to do more solo records. He had all these songs written. He said, "I'm going to do a Chili Peppers album in a year and I have fifty-some songs that I want to record before then. Are you interested?" I'm like, "Yeah, of course I'm interested!" Then he said, "But I want to do it super minimal, 16- track, like it's the '60s — two mics on drums. I don't want to do anything perfect. I want it to be completely the opposite of my last record. I want to make a whole record in a week." I was like, "Yeah, let's do it man!" We had this aesthetic where we went in with minimal stuff — not modern sounding in the least. I listened to a whole bunch of '60s records — spent a lot of time with The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Nick Drake. John fed me all these other records to listen to as we worked and I checked them all out and then we went into the studio in a way I'd never done before. I'd never done a two- or three-mic drum setup. I got all the Beatles' books and started looking at pictures of how they did it back then, and just read up on how to do this stuff and listening with a fresh ear to really hear what was going on. John and his friend Josh [Klinghoffer] would play the whole song straight through on guitar and drums, come in to the control room and say, "All right, cool. Let's do a vocal." "Allright now let's do bass, now let's do this..." The first session we had three songs done, recorded and mixed in two days, which for me (coming off a year-long Blink-182 record where we did twelve songs), that was pretty amazing. With that level of musicianship and organization and free-spiritedness it was really something to behold. John said, "Okay that's the first three songs of the record — let's do the rest." We would convene one week every month for six months and we'd do a record. Monday through Friday we'd record, Saturday we'd mix and then Monday we'd master. It was a completely crazy schedule. It was fourteen-hour days. We'd walk in and hit record and just go. Then we'd take a dinner break and go back to it right up to the last minute. John would say, "What time did we come in today, noon? We can work till two, right?" It would be one fifty-five — "Let me do a vocal." I'd put the tape up and he'd go out there and do a one-pass vocal — then we'd go home. I look back at these records now. My fiancée is obsessed with John's records, and every time I get into her car, these records are on and I hear these songs again and again. John wanted to leave imperfections on the record, and they become endearing qualities that make you want to hear it again and again, and something new comes to the ear on each listen. I think of all the stuff you've done it's my favorite. They're real fun and for me. Listening to them as they were made from one to the next, it's cool to hear the progression of ideas. It was just really great to not do the same thing twice. Every time I recorded drums I did it differently. We were treating leakage differently on the different records too — "Hey, let's put the guitar amp over here this time and let's put the drums over there and lets try this vocal mic on this record." Every record has a slightly different aural take on it, but with the same players and same instruments. I used different microphones every time so I was kind of experimenting and refining my idea of what I wanted out of a minimal mic'ing technique. It's really refreshing to be given that kind of creative freedom by John to do whatever I wanted. A lot of the ear candy overdubs on the Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium — is most of that John taking the tapes home? We did almost all of John's vocals at his house. We did a lot of treatments there and we did a handful of guitar solo things and noodle-y bits. We did all his piano parts at his house. His studio is amazing. He's got some big modular rig he uses for processing stuff? Yeah, he's got a big Doepfer modular synthesizer that he keeps adding on to and he gets the craziest sounds out of that thing. He'll treat anything. I was just over at his house last night to throw a lead vocal through a little bit of a phaser or flanger kind of thing. Any kind of wacky stuff you hear on Stadium is probably the modular synthesizer. He's a genius with that thing. I saw somewhere that you built a studio for Danger Mouse. Do you do studio design as well? I dabble in it. Working with my dad, I had to put together and take apart a studio almost every single day, so I know the inner workings of that process. I've learned system integration from my time with SSL, and my work as an assistant and engineer at different levels of studios taught me practical signal flow applications. I know what I like about certain rooms and I know what I don't like about them. Having a room that is flexible electronically with all kinds of patching available everywhere it needs to be is crucial. A room needs to be comfortable and reflect the owner's personality. It needs to function in a manner that the owner is accustomed to working. Danger Mouse was roommates with my friend Ben Lovett and is also a good friend of Josh Klinghoffer — John's drummer and musical partner. Danger Mouse really wanted to put a place together to do his own projects, and both Ben and Josh subsequently referred him to me after seeing what I did for Ben's studio and John's place. We started working on it and he gave me a budget — not a lot of money. He said he wanted to be able to do tracking, overdubs and a little bit of mixing. I kind of screwed around with the numbers and made some suggestions for workflow and equipment lists. The space he had to work with was less than ideal — an office with short ceilings above a garage with a miserable landlord. I got some construction guys that I have worked with on some other places to come in and we kind of talked about isolating the drums from the floor, building a booth, plugging the windows. I had all these ideas, some of which I read in Tape Op, some of which found I found on Gearslutz — some baffles to hang on the wall, some basic corner traps. Then for the control room, I called an acoustician friend of mine and I asked him for some pointers. It came out pretty damn good. I was kind of surprised. You helped John put his room together too, then? Yes, John had bought a bunch of stuff before I got involved — an API console originally from the Record Plant in New York, a Fairchild 670 and a rack of 1176s and Pultecs and a 1 inch 8-track, but none of it was wired. I brought in my wiring guy and I designed a wiring system, but at the time we didn't know if it was going to be a permanent facility at his house or not. I had patchbays and snakes made, — did the whole system integration — and I went about acquiring more gear for him. We bought a 24-track, a 2-track and an incredible piano from a studio that was closing. We bought a bunch of microphones and stands and all of a sudden we got a studio! We're now having Vincent Van Haaf and Jacques Lacroix over there modifying the control room and running all the wires under the floor, building patch panels in all the rooms and putting the equipment racks in the walls. One thing I'm curious about is that you seem to be able to straddle doing these records like the Blink record and then John's stuff that's just polar opposite. One is very produced and an almost hyper-reality recording, and the other is more documentarian. Do you prefer one over the other? I can't say I have a preference other than that working the way I do with John is easier because there's less shit flying around. At the same time, it's harder because you really have to be on point and it's a lot more work mentally. There's a lot more legwork in setting up four microphones rather than forty. There's a lot more patience required in positioning that one mic absolutely perfectly and making sure that the sound is actually going to work with the other instruments later whereas if you have a thousand microphones, you can make it work with anything. I think that the music and the artists that are producing it should dictate the sound. Not necessarily by saying, "I want it to sound like this," because a lot of times when somebody says, "I want it to sound like this record," they don't really mean that. Perhaps they like certain elements of it, but they don't want it to sound like that record verbatim. I think that a band like Blink-182 that's going to be commercial and big and loud and is marketed towards kids on MTV needs to be recorded in a certain manner. You couldn't record Blink-182 like I record John. You couldn't record John like I record Blink-182. It just doesn't work. There are ways of using elements from both styles of recording — both polar opposite styles. To be a fan of music and to be a fan of recording and engineering and producing, an engineer needs to be able to listen to all these sounds and see that many different approaches are valid. There are people who are like, "I never put more than four microphones on the drums. I never mic the high hat. I always put a mic here on a guitar." I think that's unnecessarily limiting the sonic palate. It's like saying you're only going to paint with the color blue. I loved being educated by engineers like Jim Scott, Michael Brauer and Elliot Scheiner and producers like Jerry, Rick and Phil, who all have completely different, yet equally valid approaches to making records. There are so many ways of making a record and so many different ideas and so many different mic'ing techniques that you've just got to try as many as possible. I feel like I need to try everything and I go through phases where I like a certain combination of microphones. But I'll get bored with it and have to try something else, or I'll spy on someone and see how they're mic'ing something! I feel blessed that I can go from something like Blink to something like John and then to the Chili Peppers and to the Heavens and to Ben Lovett's completely electronic chaos and be able to approach them all differently. My goal with my career is to not be pigeonholed or stamped as having a certain sound. I'd like to be known as a sonic chameleon who can bring elements from different styles of recording and production to the session — an engineer with a broad palette. Do you listen to an equally vast selection of music? I listen to all different kinds of things, and as I'm turned on to working on different projects, those people will in turn show me new music. I had never heard Fugazi before working with Blink, and listening to Fugazi helped me with making John's record. When I worked with John we would really get into listening to the inner workings of The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix records which I had never listened to under a microscope like that. I had always been a casual Beatles and Jimi Hendrix listener. John and I would listen and we'd say, "How the fuck did they do that?" and dissect what was going on to try and figure out how they made Jimi's guitar sound like it was on fire. Then he would turn me on to Aphex Twin or Autechre, The Strawbs, The Move — completely different styles of music, all in one sitting. Obviously you're not an in-the-box mix person. I'll do whatever I have to. Right, but it's not your preference. No, but I have a little room at Encore Studios called The Runway when I need it. I have a Tonelux Mixer, my Pro Tools rig, all my outboard gear. I did a couple of records in there and one of them came out great. Which record? A band called Casket Salesmen, out of Pomona. They're on tour right now. It's a combination of Black Sabbath and Tool — big, loud guitars, riffs. It was really fun. In that situation the tracks were recorded really well. I have sixteen channels of Tonelux Mixer plus some effects returns so I can use my analog effects boxes. I would break the mix out into the mixer as elemental as I could so I could process the tracks individually with my outboard gear. I'd have the kick coming down one channel and snare down another and all the toms and cymbals down another pair. It's mostly drums that were split out on the mix because there are very specific things I like to do. My Tonelux EQs for drums are the greatest thing in the world! To be able to get out of the box and use analog processing feels really good. Once you get the into the analog domain and use a great summing box, it just puts a little more glue between the elements of the mix and a little more width and depth and height into the soundstage. There are people who have become tremendous at mixing in the box, and I have respect for that, but I don't want to do it because it just feels weird. Obviously, only having a small mixer over there, I have to sum stuff in the box, but I do it minimally and where it's not going to matter as much. On Casket Salesmen, they would have six tracks for one guitar part, so I'd sum those in Pro Tools and then stick it through one of my equalizers or something to give it some more life. I think in-the-box mixing is going to become a necessary evil with the incredible shrinking record budget and I'm fortunate to have a good collection of toys to use so that I can make it slightly better than would otherwise be possible. I would be really upset if I couldn't do that! That being said, mixing in a hybrid situation gives so many more possibilities. You can do shit in Pro Tools you can't do on a console. There are effects in there that you can't get anywhere else and I keep buying them. My money keeps disappearing into my iLoks, but then I get to whip out these crazy effects, some of which I've learned conceptually how to use from John and his modular synthesizer. Now I have digital versions of those modules in my box and I can get similar results. It expands the creative palate. Define "height". It was interesting when you said that. Well, I never really thought about it consciously until a friend came by the studio and listened to one of my Chili Peppers mixes. I think he may have kind of coined the term. He said, "There's this height thing going on! It feels like things are stacked vertically on top of each other." You know, like you get layers of instruments that you can spread out left to right and you can get something going on front to back, but there's this thing I've kind of learned through different engineers' techniques — no single person individually -how to make vertical space for instruments and for parts. With John, he creates so many different parts that have very specific frequency ranges. I don't even know if he thinks about it this way or more like tonal ranges, but for me it works out as frequency ranges. We'll do stuff like slow the tape machine down to half speed and overdub a guitar part and then play it back and it'll have this ultra-high frequency thing with notes that guitars are not allowed to play! And so on Stadium I really had a lot of height to play with. There was a lot of stuff on the ground and a lot of stuff in the middle and a lot of stuff on top, but the way that we recorded them, the way that John conceived them musically, parts just layer themselves bottom to top. I listen to that record with my eyes closed and I see the instruments in three- dimensional space. I just feel like I can do this thing where I can get a spread from bottom to top and sometimes I'll listen to a mix in retrospect and think it's too bright. But there's all this stuff happening up there. Of course it's bright. It's a bright sound and if it was dulled down you wouldn't get the impact of that sound anymore. Luckily, the way that John conceives of his parts musically, it wasn't necessary to do a lot of EQ carving to make those things fit. Since that record, I've tried to make that theory work for other bands. It really makes life easy when people conceive of and record stuff this way, so that there's not a whole bunch of shit vying for the same frequency range. If everything is playing in the same tonal area, it's really hard to get definition. There are some bands that don't want the definition, and when you solo their stuff you'll find out why. But generally I like a certain amount of fidelity in a commercial recording. By "commercial recording" I mean something that's probably had a lot of overdubs that you need to make fit together. It's great to work for musicians that have an ear for that kind of thing, that don't record a bunch of parts that step on each other, that really jam up in the mix where you have to put that fader all the way up to make it work. Now this part is the loudest fucking thing in the world because has to compete with three or four other things in the same frequency range. One of the sad clichés of recording engineers is that they're over- weight and three-times divorced. You seem real healthy and you're about to get married. You have to be healthy. You have to be happy. You have to have a partner who supports you unquestioningly and who knows what you're about and what she's getting into with you. When Sarah and I started dating I didn't have any work for about a month and a half and we spent every day together. Ironically, the phone call I got from Jerry Finn to do the Blink-182 record was the day after I met Sarah, and she was actually sitting on my lap while I took the phone call. I don't think she had any clue at that time that I work as much as I do, because we spent every day for a month together and then all of a sudden I had to leave town to do the Blink record. I was gone Monday through Friday for four months. We had very honest conversations about things where I said, "This is what I do," and, "Yes, this is how much I work. I will work sixteen, twenty hours in a day and come home at five in the morning and then go back out at ten the next day." I've been working those hours since I was 13, going on the road with my father. It's totally normal to me, but I don't like working weeks on end of sixteen-hour days, and fortunately I work with artists who don't like doing that all the time either. If I work with a new band, I'll tell them, "I'm not doing that anymore unless it's like we need to absolutely fucking do this right now." I can't do that anymore. It's not worth it for the project. It's not worth it for my health, for our relationship. It took a long time and many subsequent conversations for us to really iron out that situation, but things still come up, because I still love what I do! When Sarah graduates law school she's going to be working a lot. It's going to get more hectic for a few years while she establishes herself in the law field, just like I am right now in the engineering field. A lot of people don't realize that part of life — the give and take, the unconditional support. It seems like you got a lot of your early jobs by being the guy who says, "Yeah, I'll do it. I'll stay till four in the morning!" I sacrificed a lot of my life to my career in the beginning, but it was the only way to get ahead and reach the goals that I set for myself. I wanted more than anything to be making the records that I was listening to on the radio. As far as the fitness thing — as long as you have some kind of physical activity other than pushing your chair from the console to the outboard rack, you'll be okay. I try to go to the gym a couple of times a week, walk or run whenever I can. My drivers license shows me extremely tan from when I first moved to LA. People look at the picture and then look at me all pasty now and can't believe it's the same person. I used to go to beach every weekend when I first moved here and ride my bike twenty, thirty miles. I'm getting back into that these days. I think it's good to work hard, play hard, to keep yourself in shape, to just be well and remember to breathe! It's very important to eat well. When I work with John I lose ten pounds in a week because we eat so well and work so hard. He eats fish, meat, vegetables. There's no sugar in the house. There's no candy. I come to the studio here and they find out I like a certain candy bar, so they buy a whole pile. I quit sugar and bread recently and lost the ten pounds I gained from the candy and feel great! I quit caffeine a year ago. Now I can stay up all night, no problem!

. In the late '90s your band Muscadine signed with Sire Records, got a big advance, and bought recording gear with it. Sire's Seymour Stein came to North Carolina. He was the first rock star record guy we had ever met. He let me do anything I wanted while producing the Muscadine records. I had full creative control. We bought a lot of gear with the first and second advances. Those were different times. Most of the first pieces I purchased were stolen — that was a real blow. We put it in a place called StudioEast in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the late '90s our band used that place as our headquarters. The original owner, Arthur Smith, was a celebrity in the South. Their primary business had been producing backing music for karaoke. I began engineering and playing the instruments myself on a lot the karaoke tracks that came out of there. How did that work impact you as a musician and producer? The process of copying those productions turned out to be a really informative experience. The guy at the studio basically figured out there was this kid — me — that was a one-man-band and could lay down all the parts on these songs. All he had to do was trade me room and board in his studio, and he had a steady supply of catalog tracks without having to employ a full band of guys. I kept an apartment up above the tracking room. It was the first real professional studio that I was trained in. I recorded versions of Motown tunes to Bon Jovi, R.E.M., Sheryl Crow, Lenny Kravitz, Jackson Browne, and the Eagles. I would routinely engineer and track whole karaoke albums. While it was somewhat embarrassing to be doing karaoke tracks 24/7 at the time, in hindsight it turned out to be one of the best learning experiences I could have ever had. I was getting deep inside all these tunes and their tones, while at the same time experimenting and pushing myself in the studio to duplicate all these sounds and playing styles. What kind of gear did you find at StudioEast? Old RCA BA-6A compressors, Pultecs, EMT plate reverbs, Scully tape decks, and Altec gear. I spent hours combing through all of this stuff. Those golden pieces — Neumann U 47s and Fairchilds 660s — these are the things that you dream about as a young engineer. These are the pieces of gear that are the holy grails, and usually there is a reason why. The collective consciousness remarkably picks up on the merits of the great tone; prices rise and then everyone has to have it. I was lucky, in a way, in that I was exposed to great gear very early in my career, before it had such a vintage cache. I was exposed to all types of Pultecs at StudioEast: EQP-1As, MEQs, and HLF-3Cs. I pulled a [Universal Audio] Cooper Time Cube out of the dregs of that studio. People couldn't have given a shit about a Cooper Time Cube, a [Gates] Sta-Level, or an RCA 77 mic in the 1990s in North Carolina. I remember a guy in North Carolina that used RCA 44s as doorstops in his amp repair shop. What is your dream signal path? A V72 preamp into a Pultec into a RCA BA-6A. The BA- 6A is the number two compressor behind a Fairchild. To my ears, those are the two compressors that actually create atmosphere and enhance and widen a tone source. The design of a Fairchild is just bonkers; it's the fastest compressor in the world! I'm very interested in [Fairchild designer] Rein Narma. The Fairchild always brings a "wow" factor to it, particularly on a vocal during a mix. If you want magical shit, unfortunately there are only a few compressors that offer that. I think with most compressors you get something, but you lose something at the same time. That is true. I record to tape most often, so I don't use much compression going in these days. The room I mix in a lot has two Fairchild 670s, so the stereo bus and drum bus on my mixes always sees these limiters. It helps that my tracks are fairly light in the compression department. A good tracking compressor for me would probably be a VCA compressor, like a dbx 160 or the Vertigo Sound Quad Discrete VCA compressor [VCS-2]. That's a compressor you can actually track through with without much degradation of bandwidth. I'm leaning toward the Alan Parsons school of thought these days; with little or no compression, the Studer tape deck, and real instruments played dynamically. After Muscadine disbanded, you built a studio in Georgia? Yeah, with my buddy, who has since passed away. He was our first drummer, way back. He struck it rich in the construction business and wanted to build a studio; I was the gear captain. We put together a good spot. It was our own private place that booked sessions through word of mouth. We focused on great instruments — we had a guitar and amp collection that was out of this world, and more vintage drums than any other studio I've been to since. The console was an MCI JH-636. We had two tape machines, an Ampex MM 1200 and an Otari MX-80. You've been referred to as a "one-man orchestra" — a guy who can play most all of the instruments on a record. Is that how you recorded your solo album, Gentle Spirit? Half of Gentle Spirit was performed and recorded alone, mostly engineering by myself as well, in my little bungalow studio in Laurel Canyon. It was a wood- walled and ceilinged room with Spanish tile floors. It sounded pretty good. The street noise was so extreme that on many records we used a lot of dynamic mics, like a live show. A [Shure] SM7 was often used for vocals. I had nice condenser mics, but they only got used at night when the traffic died down. There are bits of noise — horns, rain, and cars — all over the Gentle Spirit record. We would mic the Leslie speaker out in the yard, the plate reverb was in the dog cage outside, and the guitar amps were often out on the back deck. The other half of Gentle Spirit was a band that I assembled from the weekly jam sessions I was having. There was a "house band" of guys who consistently showed up to play music. These were the guys I wanted on my record. We had Andy Cabic and Otto Hauser (Vetiver), Chris Robinson and Adam MacDougall (The Black Crowes), Josh Grange (k.d. lang, Dwight Yoakum) on pedal steel and some other Laurel Canyon statesmen as well, including Barry Goldberg (The Electric Flag) and Gerald Johnson (Steve Miller Band). Gentle Spirit also has cameos from people like Johnathan Rice, my best old friend Colin "Husky" Laroque, and many other Canyon locals. I'm glad it happened the way it did. It was a wonderful time; it was genuine, and not in the least bit contrived. That's why it worked and why there has been this much interest in it. My policy was to never record any of it, oddly enough, even though it was taking place inside a recording studio. One could get the idea that you're a tape purist. Did you do any DAW recording for this album? Actually, a part of Gentle Spirit was done digitally. Somehow the word got out that it is "completely analog," which is not true. I don't hear a huge difference between the tracks cut to tape and the ones cut to [Apple] Logic. Some songs were transferred, as well. The musical sensibilities, the songs, and the gear are the same. There are no plug- ins or anything. That's a big part of it — keeping all the effects physical. There's a spring reverb and there's a plate at my space that we used during tracking and roughs. The mixing of that record was done at The Hangar in Sacramento by Thom Monahan, with myself and engineer Bryce Gonzales helping out. Thom used the excellent reverb selection at the Hangar extensively; there are several AKG springs and an EMT plate. The Hangar has so much amazing outboard; it's pretty insane. We had to stay focused and not patch four pieces of gear on every track! The bus compressor we used on that record was a Thermionic Culture Phoenix. People can get lost in this equipment idea, instead of just doing things... It's really easy to sit back and say, "I can work with anything. I can make a record on an iPad." But it's not true. I'm completely geared out. But what really works for me is to cut down the amount and keep equipment that is proven to work. The music you record has a certain vibe to it, and it comes from you. It's not just reaching out for a 1970's palette to sound like one's heroes. For me there's a goal to try and transcend an era. If you sound exactly like an era then, at your very best, you're just aping a sound or making a copy of something that was greater than what you're doing. That's not a goal to me. But it is a goal to take a bit from every little thing and create my own sound. When you produce other artists, how do you approach getting the best out of them? I do have a very strong sensibility about the integrity of each part of the band, from tuning the drums to the microphone choices. There are not a lot of preconceived things, but there are things that I feel extremely strong about. Like a [Neumann] U 47 above the drums; sometimes that's about 60 percent of my drum set. My [Fender] Princeton amp is on every album that I do. I use a lot of crystal microphones because of their extremely limited bandwidth. But I try to find a balance and not overbear a band's sound with my own thing. I coax out the performances and the personality of the singer. That's the main thing. I can't produce anybody that's trying to be a character that they're not. When you're mixing songs that you've tracked, how do you maintain a fresh perspective? I guess just lots of time. It's always harder for me if the process has a deadline. But on a song where I've done all the instruments, I've been doing that for so long I can almost take myself back from it and pretend it is a band with a drummer, a bass player, and everything. It helps that I'm not that attached. Sometimes it can backfire — like when all the parts are done with the same groove from the same guy's hands. That's something to be cautious of. You might lose the spark. Nigel Godrich came to work in your studio. He did an album [A Different Ship] there in May and June 2011 for a band called Here We Go Magic from Brooklyn. The fact that those guys came and did that was sort of a catalyst for us to pop in and build the control room. It was all in the same space before that. That can be cool, but now it's better to be able to hear things well. Now we have essentially a tiny version of Abbey Road's Studio Two, where you walk up the stairs and the control room is up above. Nigel Godrich showed you a trick on how to mic drums without phase problems. Tell us about that. He's big into the angles of the microphones, so that they're completely straight to each other and things aren't shifted or turned. Even the top and bottom snare mics are like [shows a horizontal figure]. Instead of facing each other... Yeah. That turns out good, especially if you start to bring up a bunch of tom mics. We did a song a long time ago where the whole drum set was just one mic. The people that I know, producers I work with, they talk about that as a romantic idea, "We're just gonna use a few mics, like back in the day." Then, once they're done, they have kick and snare mics on. They can't stick with just one. I would be the guy that would just use one. It definitely cuts down on all the cancellations and all the problems. Do you prefer an analog workflow? Plug-ins and Pro Tools are just very hard to work with, for me. Every little thing takes a long time. I know most people say that it's easier. When an album is on tape, you can pop on a tape and just push up the faders and — boom — it's there. With the computer it can be brought back on the desk, but that's a big fight. I guess the point I'm saying is that when I go back to hear it, even though you can save your whole shebang, it always feels changed. I'm always making adjustments, like something about the bass drum; "Now it's gone again?" I remember you've also used a cassette for saturation? Yeah. There's a version of that Madonna song I did, "La Isla Bonita" [from Through The Wilderness, a Madonna tribute compilation]. I tracked that on digital and I mixed to a cassette deck and put it back to digital. That's why it's got the wow and flutter. I'll use the varispeed on a tape machine; like when I'm putting down an organ track, I'll actually pull the speed up and down. I always enjoy that, like on examples such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," where it goes a little bit sharp and flat, based on the machine. What qualities are you looking for in recording equipment? Just that it's got to have a color, that it's gonna serve a purpose, and that the construction and intention are of a certain quality and usefulness. I'm trying to find things to keep forever, not things to keep trading. There are guys I know who have had everything in the world, whether it was [AKG] C 12s or [Telefunken E LAM] 251s. "Let's split hairs for hours about Mylar versus PVC." It gets ridiculous, really. If I was an artist that went to a producer that couldn't make up his mind, and his decisions weren't strong and assured about his gear, I would be scared. You couldn't trust him. I'm trying to be conscious and to keep things within a smaller orbit. Recording to 24-track analog — and staying analog throughout the project — really helps with that. What was your default vocal/acoustic guitar signal path for the Gentle Spirit record? I use my trusty David Marquette [Mercury Recording Equipment Co.] racked V72s -I've had them for many years and they appear on almost every record I make. The vocal mics on Gentle Spirit were a Neumann CMV 563 with an M7 [capsule], an EV 664 and a Shure SM7. The chain would be the mic, a V72, a Manley Enhanced Pultec and a Urei 1178. You became tight with Jackson Browne after he was handed an early copy of Gentle Spirit a few years ago. Jackson is truly an inspiration. I'm proud to say he's a friend; he's such a special guy with an amazing set of ears in the studio, and obviously an amazing wordsmith and singer. We have worked together in the studio on some of his new material. I also got him to sing on the Dawes record [Nothing is Wrong] I mixed at his place. I'm going to ask him to sing some on my new record; I hope he is down to do it! From Jackson you see where an unwavering commitment to quality and musical values leads you. Jackson owns and runs Groove Masters, one of the finest studios in Los Angeles. It's a private studio and a world-class spot. You co-produced the album Fear Fun for Father John Misty. What did you bring to the record? I'll say that that record was made how I think records should be made. We explored sonically, took many chances, did not second-guess every decision, and we powered through with emphasis on being creative every step of the way. Josh Tillman came to me with some amazing songs — that was the genesis. I assembled a team: the great Keefus Ciancia on keyboards, I played most of the stringed instruments, and Josh played drums and sang. Josh is one of my best friends and that record truly was a blast to make. We were a bit like John Lennon and Harry Nilsson or James Taylor and Dennis Wilson; a couple of salty dogs making an L.A.- centric record. I can't say enough about how great the tunes are. "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" is a classic. Acerbic wit and a few U 47s can't go wrong... What do you think about the relationship of a song and its recording? How important is the quest to find your own sound to convey a certain musical message? Extremely important, and it's the only way really to get your message to resonate with anything in the universe. When your sound and vision — whatever you want to view it as — is really you and your singular distillation, only then will it be able to contain a message of any power or distinction. Five Star Studios Partial Gear List Studer A80 2-inch, 24-track Otari MX-80 2-inch, 24-track Ampex ATR 102 mixdown deck MCI JH-416A 24x16 console with Sage Electronics op amps Quad Eight 6-channel mixer Tannoy monitors with Mastering Lab Crossovers Yamaha NS-10m monitors Bryce Electric compressors RCA BA-6A compressor dbx 160 Classic Audio's APIVP25 (from kit) Pultec EQP-1A Hairball 1176 (from kit) Telefunken V72 Avedis MA5 Ecoplate II Plate Reverb Shure Mics: SM7 and SM57 Neumann Mics: U 47, U 67, U 87, KM 64, KM 84 "The Studer is Jackson Browne's machine; he laid it on me a few years ago. It was meticulously maintained by Ed Wong, who has been with Jackson for 30 years. The Otari is there as a backup now. It's like a Honda; it just runs forever. The main engineer at Five Star is Bryce Gonzales, who makes amazing tube compressors himself, so we have an array of Bryce Electric compressors." -JW

Video. The shift started with getting people off the couch with Wii Sports and grew into a full-blown workout option with Wii Fit. All that moving around is being recognized for its health benefits. Today, Nintendo of America and the American Heart Association announced a partnership dedicated to promoting active play video games. Dr. Clyde Yancy, the president of the AHA, said that the partnership recognizes that busy American need “new and innovative ways to get active” and called teaming up with Nintendo “bold, different and beyond our typical approaches. We’re going to meet people where they are. We’re going to get into the game.” The two organizations have launched Active Play Now, a website that details how games like Wii Sports Resort can be part of a healthy lifestyle. The new synergy between NOA and the AHA also means that Wii and Wii Fit packaging will bear the familiar American Heart Association logo, which is a likely first for a video game console. Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s EVP of Sales and Marketing, also said that both organizations will also be powering an Active Play Summit. The multi-disciplinary conference will gather luminaries from science, the health professions and video games discussing ways to that active play titles can help individuals and families get the recommended daily amount of moderate to intense physical activity. For all the billions that a Halo or a Call of Duty may make in a financial quarter. Microsoft or Activision can’t say that their games are prolonging their players’ lives. Now, Nintendo can. More on Techland: It’s-A Him (Again!): Hands-On with Super Mario Galaxy 2 Does It Come in Black?: Nintendo to Offer New Color, New Bundle for Wii The Techland Interview: Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime

Last Wednesday night The Pinhook was home to a wonderfully eclectic mixture of bands. Some of the most enjoyable lineups are the ones that you don't quite think would mesh well together, but once you get to the show it all doesn't seem to matter anymore. There's a sense of spontaneity that keeps the night exciting, and that's exactly what happened in Durham on Wednesday night. Ava Luna and Krill were wrapping up their SXSW run and making their way back up north, which as a southerner that doesn't get to trek down to South-by is always a joyous time. The two acts teamed up with Blanko Basnet, a group that's become a go-to opener for buzz bands like these, and brought one hellaciously fun show to an intimate Pinhook crowd. The evening kicked off with Blanko Basnet and a set that was filled with roving guitar licks and infectious choruses. Joe Hall's vocal melodies display a staggering sense of dynamic shifts, one minute you're hooked on the buoyant verses then the song upheaves its pre-set structure and shifts into swiftly changing chords, brisk drum beats and some subtle harmonies. Blanko Basnet played some of the standouts from their debut full length that was released last summer and threw in a new track as well, which makes me excited to know that Blanko won't just be a one-off side-project from this Hammer No More The Fingers guitarist. Blanko made for a smooth transition into the indie-punk leaning power-trio of Krill. Despite a set mired technical difficulties with their microphone, Krill rolled right along with it, even joking that "it wouldn't be a Krill set if something didn't mess up." But the band never lost their footing, blasting through short songs filled with heavily distorted guitar, throaty shouts and tight drum beats that drove these songs along with a headstrong sense of determination. While Blanko's brand of indie rock eased the crowd into the evening, Krill thrusted their sounds upon the crowd with the ferocity of a punk act but the smooth sensibilities of a pop-rock group. Krill's romping sense of intensity was anchored by vocalist Jonah Furman's swiftly spat vocals, tying together the entire aesthetic of this Boston-based indie punk crew. While the openers of the evening proved to be an exciting combination of two different ends of the indie-rock spectrum, Ava Luna took the night up to the next level. Sure this self-described "nervous soul" act displays a bit of punk-rock influence in their spastic rhythmic tendencies, but most of Ava Luna's songs are firmly rooted in a far weirder territory than the previous acts. Ava Luna is defined by their eccentricity, whether vocalist Carlos Hernandez is belting out his frenetic shouts or Becca Kaufman and Felicia Douglas are smoothly crooning their way into the listener's hearts, you're guaranteed an entertaining performance. With equal parts R&B and peculiar art-rock, Ava Luna played through some of Electric Balloon's standout tracks like "Daydream," "PRPL," and "Sears Roebuck M&Ms" while tossing in some of the best tracks from their debut Ice Levels. Their set felt like an anomalous blend of the quirk and tenacity of Talking Heads and the vocal prowess of Dirty Projectors, making for a weird yet whimsical closing to this incredible night of music.

It was a calm, peaceful afternoon in the Pridelands, Simba and Nala were out taking a walk to the meadow to spend some quality alone time together. Suddenly Nala noticed a figure laying unconscious in the mud on the border. "Simba.. look over there," She said, She gestured with her tail to the figure and she and Simba started to rush towards it. When they reached the figure they saw that it was a strikingly familiar lion, about a year and three months older then Kiara. Nala gasped as a thought entered her head as she quickly nudged Simba. "Simba, you don't think he could be Kopa do you?.. After all those years.." She said. Simba sighed and smiled gently at Nala. "Sweetheart.. That's a possibility. But I don't want you to get your hopes up, then just be disappointed if it's not Kopa." He said gently. "Simba, he's starting to wake up." Nala said. The young lion sat up slowly, "Where.. Where am I?" He asked. "You're in the Pridelands." Nala said. "I'm King Simba, and this is my mate, Queen Nala." Simba added. "M-my parents.. were named Simba and Nala." He said. Simba and Nala exchanged a half startled and half alarmed look. "What's your name dear?" Nala asked. "My name is Kopa." Kopa said. Simba and Nala exchanged a startled look before Nala turned back to Kopa. "Kopa.. is it really you?" She asked. "Yes.. who are you?" Kopa asked. "Kopa.. I'm your mother." Nala said. Slowly Nala moved forward. When she reached him, she slowly took in his appearance. His mane was muddy and ratty, He looked dangerously underfed, He had cuts and scratches and burns all over his body. However when Nala looked into his eyes, She knew instantly that he was her skin, He shared her striking greenish-teal eyes, the only one of her cubs to inherit them, Kiara having inherited Simba's reddish-orange eyes, and Kion having deep brown eyes. "Kopa.. it is you." Nala said, as she came foward and nuzzled him. Kopa gazed at her. "Mom?" He said. "Yes my darling, it is me" Nala said, tears were pouring down her face. Simba came up next to her and pressed his muzzle to her cheek comfortingly. Nala leaned her head against his shoulder, as Simba had tears brimming in his eyes. "Kopa.. I'm your father." He said. "Dad?" Kopa asked. "Yes my son." Simba said, smiling as he joined the nuzzle. "Kopa.. Where have you been all those years?" Nala asked. "I'll explain once I get some food Mom." Kopa said. Nala smiled, "Of course my darling. Let's go home. Your brother and sister will be so surprised to meet you." She said. The three of them made their way back home, happy to be reunited again. _________________________________________________________________________ When they reached Pride Rock, Kopa stopped dead in his tracks and gazed at his home. "You don't know how long I've waited to see this place." Kopa said. Slowly they walked up the slope. When they entered the den, Nala called for her other children as Simba sent Zazu to fetch Rafiki to check on Kopa's wounds. "Kiara, Kion come over here." Nala called. Kiara and Kion ran over to their parents, they stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed Kopa. "Daddy, mommy who is that?" Kiara asked. "Kiara, Kion this is Kopa, your older brother." Simba said. "Kopa?" Kiara asked. Slowly she moved forward and studied Kopa's face. Like Nala had, Kiara instantly recognized Kopa's eyes, as they were similar to her mother's and Nona's eyes. Kopa smiled gently at Kiara,"Kiara.. You weren't even born when I was abducted, and look at you now, a beautiful kind lioness." He said, his voice was drowning with love and pride. Kiara smiled back and wordlessly gestured for Kovu to join them,"Mommy and Daddy didn't tell Kion and I about you until a few days ago." She said. "Kion?" Kopa asked. Kion slowly walked forward. When he reached them he huddled against Kiara's leg, "It's all right Kion, this is Kopa, he's our older brother." Kiara said. "I disappeared when Mom was pregnant with Kiara." Kopa said. Kion nodded. "Ok." He said. Kiara bent down and picked him up, She began to put Him to bed. While she was gone, Sarabi and Sarafina, having heard about the wonderful event from Zazu, went over to them and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Kopa. Sarabi was the first to speak, "Kopa.. is it really you?" She asked. Kopa smiled at her. "Yes, Nai Nai, it's me." He said. Sarabi came forward and tearfully embraced Kopa. Nala came over to Sarafina and pressed her muzzle to Sarafina's cheek. Sarafina gently returned Nala's affection. She then she went over to join Sarabi and Kopa. "Kopa...it's Nona." She said as she embraced Him. "Kopa, would you like some zebra?" Nala asked. "Yes mom, I'm starving." Kopa said. While they were eating, Kopa told them about the years of his capture. Simba and Nala were greatly horrified that he had been in a elephant bone cage. "Kopa.. did the hyenas feed you?" Nala asked. "Not much, mom." Kopa said. A look of horror and sadness crossed Nala's face. "Oh... my darling Kopa." She whispered. "Mom, it's ok I'm home now." Kopa said reassuringly as he nuzzled Nala. "It's time for bed." Simba said. The Royal Family went to their sleeping place and settled down. Kopa was laying on Simba's other side. The six members of the Royal Family peacefully went to sleep.

For anyone who doesn’t know the name Jesse James he was a murderer and thief whose crimes mostly occurred in the post-Civil War period in the central part of the United States. In his own lifetime he became a romanticized figure, thanks to dime novels and magazine serials that made up stories of his adventures. He was eventually killed by Robert Ford (hence the title). One of the strengths of this movie is that it sure isn’t Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in regards to romanticizing the criminals. In addition to being a murderer and a thief, this movie clearly presents James (Brad Pitt) as an out and out asshole who terrorizes pretty much everybody around him…when he’s not belittling them. A few scenes with his wife and children are shown to keep him from being a caricature, though. Instead, the movie allows the people within it to romanticize the larger than life character from the dime novels. Chief among them is Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). He convinces his brother Charley (Sam Rockwell) to join Jesse and his brother Frank James (cameo by Sam Shepard) in a train heist. After the heist everyone goes their separate ways and the movie spends a couple of hours on various events that happen in their lives. In fact, this is more an ensemble movie than a Brad Pitt movie. A number of familiar faces, such as Jeremy Renner, Mary-Louise Parker, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Schneider, Alison Elliot, Michael Parks, James Carville, , and Zooey Deschanel appear. Nick Cave For me, the two best parts of the film were the opening 20 minutes and the closing 20 minutes. The opening features a train heist that is beautifully shot in the darkness with the train’s lights coming through the trees. And the final 20 minutes are what happens after Ford kills James. I was glad that the movie didn’t end just because Brad Pitt wasn’t onscreen anymore. In fact, it was this final 20 minutes or so that sold me on the movie. This leads me to my one negative with the film – the pace. This is a slow-moving, although periodically poetic, film presentation. It sometimes takes people 3 minutes to exchange a couple of sentences while they stare at each other. More than once I caught myself doing a time check on how far along I was in the movie. We spend a great deal of time with minor supporting characters. Although they are amusing, did we really need ten minutes of the sexual adventures of Jesse James’ cousin’s father’s second wife? I feel that 30 minutes could easily be taken out of this movie to tighten it up. There is narration throughout the film. I found out afterwards that the narrator (Hugh Ross) was an editor on the movie. I’m tempted to joke that maybe he should have spent a little more time editing and a little less time narrating. I also found out afterwards that the studio and adapter/director Andrew Dominik were at odds regarding the pace of the film. They wanted one with more box office appeal, while he wanted to stay true to the original 1983 Ron Hansen novel of the same name. His first cut of the film was actually four hours long. He got it down to the existing 2 hours 40 minutes, but the studio wanted it even tighter. Although Dominik did not have final cut, Brad Pitt was also a producer on the film and he backed Dominik. The studio acquiesced, and after twice delaying the release, finally put it in theaters. Unfortunately, it did poorly at the box office. Despite having Pitt to draw people in it grossed less than 4 million dollars in its entire four month domestic run. To be fair, though, it was released in the month of September where studios send movies to die. Other September releases around this time included Serenity (2005), A History of Violence (2005), Lord of War (2005), and Eastern Promises (2007) – all films that “underperformed” at the box office, but also ones that are well worth your time. On the critical side of things, this film received two Oscar nominations. One was for Roger Deakins’ cinematography and the other was for Casey Affleck as Supporting Actor. You could easily argue that he was just as much the star of this film as Brad Pitt was. The “supporting” tag was perhaps done because he had a chance to also receive a nomination as Best Actor for another film that same year – Gone Baby Gone (his brother Ben Affleck’s directorial debut.) As it turns out, Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men, and Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for There Will Be Blood, so as good as Casey Affleck was in both films, he didn’t stand a chance of winning against those two. And make no bones about it, Affleck is quite good in this movie. He plays an awkward, hero-worshipping fan of James to start, and then over the course of the film becomes more and more disenchanted with him, especially when there’s a real possibility that James is going to kill him. Overall, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a very well made film. It certainly moves at a slow pace, so if you are looking for an adrenaline fix then you should look elsewhere. But if you stick with it you get good performances and a film that knows the importance of finishing the story, even if the biggest star is no longer onscreen. If this sounds interesting then I recommend you give this film a try. Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars This is one of those films that serves as proof that someone really has the goods. Casey Affleck has skills in front of the camera, and this film is the proof of it. I agree that it's too slow and it's a bit too meandering. It could lose that 30 minutes without losing much. Still, it's an awfully pretty film even when not much is happening. There are some interesting choices here, and while I don't agree with all of them, I agree with many of them. Yeah, after seeing Gone Baby Gone I expected the younger Affleck's career to take off, and had I seen this movie back then I would have expected it even more. It was another three years before he made another movie, though, and it was with this same director. Can't say I disagree with the major points you've presented; this is pretty much what I expected your review of this to be. Neither can I disagree with your assessment that a good half hour (or maybe more) could've been excised from the film without losing very much. There was a class in the film school I went to where one day we were supposed to bring in a clip or sequence from a film that best exemplified what it was about cinema that we loved so much. I brought in the train robbery scene from this film; it is unquestionably the single most breathtaking sequence in the entire film, and one of the best-looking scenes in all of cinema, in my opinion. I've made mention numerous times on my blog how I can get by the shortcomings of a film if it is unbelievably nice to look at (well, most of the time), The point you made in reply to my comment on your other post about how a really strong film shouldn't need the cinematography to be so good that it takes you out of the film is a valid one as well. This film is probably one of the really good examples of just such a film, and why a film like this manages to work for me where it otherwise shouldn't. Just a small clarification on me noticing/not noticing cinematography. The large majority of the time that I notice more than a shot or two in a film is when the film itself is not holding my attention whether because the story is uninteresting, the acting isn't compelling, or the pace is too slow. It's not that great cinematography takes me out of a film and therefore lessens it; it's that I only really notice the cinematography when the movie is less than impressive. There are always exceptions, of course, and Lawrence of Arabia is probably the finest example one can make for this, for me at least. Currently this movie and Brad still being my fav. I'm glad you liked it.

Doreen Marfeo Real Name: Doreen Ann Marfeo Nicknames: Doreen Dobson (maiden name) Location: Johnston, Rhode Island Date: March 29, 1990 BioEdit Occupation: Purchasing Editor, Rhode Island School of Design Date of Birth: January 7, 1955 Height: 5' 7" Weight: 115 lbs. Marital Status: Married Characteristics: Doreen had brown hair with green eyes, a chicken pock mark on the front of one calf, capped front tooth and noticeable Massachusetts accent. CaseEdit Details: Thirty-four-year-old Doreen Marfeo was the wife of Stephen Marfeo. The two had met in 1976 and learned that they both enjoyed active lifestyles. In 1978, they were married. Stephen worked in the jewelry business and enjoyed weightlifting and driving fast cars. Doreen was a successful career woman. She was the purchasing editor at the Rhode Island School of Design. She was also a tidy, punctual person who visited her elderly mother often. In October of 1989, she abruptly quit her job, saying that she wanted a change. According to Stephen, she began behaving erratically. At some points, she seemed on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He remembered waking up in the middle of the night and finding her crying in the living room. She refused to talk about tell him what the problem was. On March 29, 1990, she didn't make her usual call to her mother, and when Stephen came home, he found that she was not there. However, he waited two days to declare her missing, doing so only after her mother threatened him into it. When asked about her, he claimed that she had taken only a week's worth of clothes in a suitcase and had only $600 with her. She left behind her curlers, toothbrush, pet cats, and 1984 Ford Tempo. She also had left no note explaining where she may have gone. Police questioned her family and friends and could find no reason for her to just disappear. Investigators soon considered Stephen the most likely suspect in her disappearance after they learned that he had hired private investigators to follow her for eleven months. They were shocked when they learned that he did not have the investigators look for her after she went missing. They were also suspicious about his delay in reporting her missing. On June 13, three months after she vanished, two anonymous letters were sent to police. One attacked her character, accusing her of having affairs with several men that she worked with, and using these affairs to get promotions in her job. The second letter described how Stephen strangled her to death on a couch and dumped her body into a pond. Police could find no evidence of an affair with any co-workers. Her co-workers and friends said that she would never have an affair with a co-worker. Interestingly, some of the names listed were of elderly or retired co-workers, making it more likely that the letter was merely written to defame her. However, ten years earlier, Doreen apparently told her sister Lorna that she was having an affair and contemplated leaving Stephen. Her sister convinced her to stay with him. Authorities however found no evidence to suggest that she had done this again. Doreen's disappearance remains unsolved. Investigators are certain that Stephen is responsible, but he denies any involvement. Surprisingly, Doreen's mother and sister also believe that he is innocent. Suspects: The police long suspected Stephen Marfeo of killing Doreen. During the police investigation, he changed his story about the last time he saw her several times. Authorities felt it was suspicious that he had hired two separate private investigators to follow her around prior to her disappearance, but when she actually vanished, he seemed unconcerned with locating her. He not only waited two days to report her missing, but he also did not have his investigators look into her disappearance. Investigators suspected that Stephen may have written the anonymous letters that were sent to them. A psycho-linguistics expert examined the letters; he believed that the letter writer was close to Doreen and knew her well. He felt that the letters were written to throw off the investigation. Overall, he concluded that Stephen most likely wrote the letters, and that he was most likely responsible for his wife's disappearance. A type style comparison later confirmed that the first letter was written on Stephen's mother's typewriter. Extra Notes: This case originally ran on the November 17, 1993 episode. Results: Unresolved. Doreen's mother eventually came to accept that Stephen was most likely involved in her disappearance. Although no trace of Doreen has ever been found, in 1999, Stephen Marfeo shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Laura Vincent, and seriously wounded her new boyfriend, Sal Puleo, before driving to a secluded reservoir and taking his own life. His suicide letter mentioned that he was alive "nine years too long" and that he had "felt guilty" for Doreen's disappearance, but he did not claim direct responsibility. However, these actions seem to imply that he had something to do with it. Many detectives are certain that Stephen killed his wife, but believe the case cannot be closed until Doreen's remains are found. Links: - Doreen's Case on the Charley Project - Doreen's Case on the Doe Network - Police To Search For Body Near Barkhamsted Reservoir - Did suspect die knowing wife's fate? - (Article Mentioning the Marfeos) Illuminate the Psychology of Abuse

Huey Long Real Name: Huey Pierce Long Jr. Case: Suspicious Death Date: September 8, 1935 Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana CaseEdit Details: Nicknamed The Kingfish, Huey Long was a noted Louisiana governor and senator planning a bid for President of the United States. Had he succeeded, he might have been one of the greatest and most controversial American Presidents to hold office. However, he was killed on September 8, 1935, in a shooting that remains controversial to this day. Huey only went one year of law school, but by the age of twenty-nine, he had successfully argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. When he was thirty-four, he was elected governor of Louisiana. He was brought into office thanks to his philosophy of re-distributing American wealth. At the age of thirty-seven, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Dr. Carl Weiss When talks started of him becoming president, many of the rich and powerful became fearful. Many also took up arms, believing that the senator would be better dead than alive. As a result, Huey hired several bodyguards to protect him. Although Huey was nice to his friends, if someone crossed him, they became an enemy for life. He would sometimes use his power to ruin the lives of his enemies. Judge Henry Pavy was one of the many elected officials that Huey targeted for political destruction. Pavy's twenty-nine-year-old son-in-law, Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, however, was seen as apolitical. On September 4, 1935, Huey returned to Louisiana from Washington, D.C. Four days later, he was shot, allegedly by Carl Weiss. Weiss was immediately killed by his bodyguards. Huey died from his wounds a few hours later. The inquest determined that Weiss had probably shot Huey to prevent him from destroying his father-in-law's political career. Although the case seemed open-and-shut, some believed that Weiss was innocent and that Huey was killed accidentally. On the day of the shooting, the Weiss family gathered together for dinner at Weiss's father's home. According to those present, his father was the one angry about Huey's gerrymandering tactics. Weiss himself actually calmed his father down, minimizing Huey's actions. After dinner, Weiss went to visit a patient's home. He made a call from the patient's home and then left. Instead of going home, he went to the State Capitol. House Bill No. 1 would determine the fate of Judge Pavy's career. Huey was determined to have the bill passed. At 9 pm, Huey walked throughout the capitol, talking to various individuals. Some believe that Weiss went there to plead his father-in-law's case. On three separate occasions, Weiss would attempt to approach Huey, but he would be brushed off each time. At 9:20 pm, Weiss approached Huey for the third and final time. Some believe that during this encounter, Huey made an angry remark towards Weiss. They believe that Weiss punched him in the face. After that, they believe that Huey's bodyguards shot Weiss and accidentally shot Huey. After the shooting, Huey, despite being seriously wounded, continued to order people around. The surgeons overlooked a serious wound to his kidney. A day-and-a-half later, he died from his wounds. At the official inquest, Weiss was named the assassin, but many remain unconvinced. There appeared to be no evidence that he planned on shooting Huey. It is known that Weiss owned a .32 caliber pistol, which he kept in the glove compartment of his car. However, author Ed Reed believes that he has uncovered evidence that Huey was not shot with this gun. The official version of the shooting claims that no bullets were retrieved from Huey's body. However, a relative of one of the surgeons present claims that a .38 caliber bullet was pulled from the body. This bullet could not have come from Weiss's gun. A second bullet was also allegedly found while the body was being prepared for autopsy. A doctor and close friend of Huey's allegedly approached the mortician and asked him to step away from the body. The friend pulled another bullet out of the body that would have been a .45 caliber bullet. This also would not have come from Weiss's gun. Reed also believes that Weiss would not have been able to enter the Capitol with a gun. On the night of the shooting, Weiss's brother and cousin came to the building and found his car in the parking lot. Realizing that it was locked, they went back to get the keys. When they returned, they found that it had been moved to another spot. When they opened the car, the gun was missing and his bag was apparently rifled through. A security guard at that Capitol claimed that someone, not Weiss, moved his car that night. One of Huey's guards claimed that he believed Weiss's gun was planted with his body. Reed believes that due to the guards' lack of training, they mistakenly believed Weiss had a gun and shot him. When they realized their mistake, they went out to his car, took his gun, and planted it on him. Reed learned that Huey apparently had a busted lip when he entered the surgeon's room. When asked about it, he claimed "that's where he hit me". One witness claimed that he meant that Weiss hit him in the face with his fist. For years, it was difficult for anyone to investigate the case. Several investigative files, along with Weiss's gun, were lost or misplaced. In 1987, forensic expert James Starrs began to investigate the case, hoping to find the lost evidence. He looked into the police investigators from 1935, focusing on the then-chief of police, Louis F. Guerre. One of Starrs's investigators found Guerre's will. In the will, there was a list that mentioned miscellaneous police files. More importantly, another list in the will mentioned Carl Weiss's gun. It was traced to a safety deposit box in New Orleans, where it was in the possession of Guerre's daughter. Along with the gun, there were several unused .32 caliber bullets and a spent .32 slug. At first, it was assumed that the slug was from the bullet that killed Huey. However, ballistics tests conducted by the police determined that the slug had not come from Weiss's gun. However, the Louisiana State Police still holds the position that Dr. Carl Weiss was the assassin. The Weiss family, on the other hand, wants Carl's name cleared, certain that Huey was shot by his own bodyguards. Extra Notes: This case first aired on the September 30, 1992 episode. Results: Unresolved. After the broadcast, a former superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, Francis Grevemberg, came forward, claiming that Huey was indeed killed by his bodyguards. Grevemberg claimed that he was told by two eyewitness state troopers that Dr. Weiss was unarmed when Huey was shot. The troopers claimed that the bodyguards did accidentally shoot Huey and plant a gun with Weiss. Grevemberg claimed that he did not come forward until forty years later because the Louisiana State legislature was filled with pro-Long politicians who would not believe the story or support an inquiry. In research unavailable to the public, it has been revealed that Senator Long had a life insurance policy of $10,000. The policy would double if he died by accident. The Long family was awarded $20,000. After Long died, the insurance company hired a private investigator to look into the matter. In 1936, the investigator concluded that Senator Huey Long was fatally shot accidentally by his bodyguards. However, the debate still remains as to what really happened to Huey Long on the night he was shot. Links: - Huey Long on Unsolved.com - Huey Long on Wikipedia - Scientist Says Report Casts Doubt on Story Of Huey Long Death - Controversy, mystery still surround the death of Huey P. Long - Was Huey Long Killed By His Own Bodyguards?

Seriously. This is amazing. I usually don't eat my desserts, I give them away. Um, I ate this one. All of it. Well, no, I shared it with my mom. Kind of...it was so tasty. And oh my...the almond crust was so much better than any regular crust. I am really trying to do a low-gluten diet. Partially because I'm at home and mom's gluten free, but also because it's generally healthy from what I've read. And now it's gone :-( I made this pie to take with us on a five-day trip. Yeah, it half gone before we left, then in two days it was gone. So I decided I must share this recipe with you--please please make this, you will NOT regret it. It's a great summer recipe, since its no-bake, and takes about 20 minutes to make. Side note--you can also make a tasty dessert if you just make the crust, put it out on a flat cookie sheet, let it sit for half an hour, and then cut it up into cubes! No-Bake Cheesecake with an Almond Crust modified from joyofbaking.com Almond Meal Crust 1.5 cups almond meal 2 tbsp. sugar 6 tbsp. melted butter No-Bake Filling 8 oz. cream cheese slightly less than 0.25 cups sugar 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (you can also flavor it with other extracts, hazelnut maybe) 1 cup heavy whipping cream In a small bowl, mix together the almond meal, sugar, and melted butter. Press into the bottom of a pie pan. Then in another mixing bowl, mix together the vanilla, the sugar, and cream cheese. In a separate bowl, either by hand, or with a mixer, whip the heavy whipping cream until there are soft peaks. Then fold it into cream cheese gently. Spread the whole mixture into crust, and cool it in the fridge for at least 3-6 hours, overnight is best. Then serve! Maybe with some cherry pie filling? Or even by itself is amazing :-) Enjoy! 1 comment: I made this into "mini" cheesecakes with lemon extract instead of vanilla and topped with lemon curd- sooooo good!

[tag: how-to] Java Reference In-Depth Information This example is very similar to the previous example. The only difference is that we use a Collection of Map objects instead of an array, and pass that to the constructor of JRMapCollectionDataSource so that the Map objects can be used to populate the report. It is worth noting that, even though we use java.util.ArrayList to group the Map objects, this does not have to be the case. Any class implementing the java. util.Collection interface will work just as well. Java Objects as Datasources In addition to databases and maps, JasperReports allows us to use Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs) as datasources. We can use any Java object that adheres to the JavaBeans specification as a datasource. The only requirements for an object to adhere to the JavaBeans specification are that it must have no public properties, it must have a no-argument constructor, and it must provide getter and setter methods to access its private and protected properties. Let us create a Java object that can be used as a datasource for our next example: package net.ensode.jasperbook; public class AircraftData { public AircraftData(String tail, String serial, String model, String engine) { setTailNum(tail); setAircraftSerial(serial); setAircraftModel(model); setEngineModel(engine); } public AircraftData() { } private String tailNum; private String aircraftSerial; private String aircraftModel; private String engineModel; public String getAircraftModel() { return aircraftModel; } public void setAircraftModel(String aircraftModel) Search WWH :: Custom Search

A pair of longtime rivals square off Wednesday morning as the TSSAA Spring Fling softball tournament opens on Field No. 3 at Murfreesboro's StarPlex. Friendship Christian School (21-11) will take on The King's Academy (25-3) at 10 a.m. in the four-team, double-elimination tournament. The programs have alternated winning the last two championships. TKA defeated Friendship twice in the 2016 finals to win the crown. Friendship came out of the loser's bracket in 2015 to top The King's Academy for the title. Back on April 10 in Lebanon, the Lady Lions swept a doubleheader from Friendship 10-2 and 14-10. The other side of the bracket finds Davidson Academy (33-9) playing Donelson Christian Academy (16-9). Wednesday's winners will meet 10 a.m. Thursday while Wednesday's losers will face a 4 p.m. Wednesday elimination game. Tournament finals are scheduled for Friday. FCS earns another state bid - JACKSON -- Friendship Christian wasted little time in punching their ticket for a third consecutive berth in the TSSAA's Spring Fling next week in Murfreesboro. The Lady Commanders stunned West Region champ University School of Jackson 7-0 and 11-2 Thursday to sweep the best-of-three series. Game 1 found FCS jumping on the Lady Bruins in the top of the first thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly by Brice Dabbs and a three-run homer off the bat of Hannah Alexander that staked pitcher Kennedy West to a 4-0 lead. West took care of business the rest of the way, throwing a complete game four-hitter, striking out eight with only one walk. For good measure, Friendship tacked on single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings and finished with 11 hits. Alexander added an RBI double to go with her homer. Annalise Jarnigan went 3-for-4 and scored three times while Riley Walker had a single and an RBI double. Thursday's Game 2 was much more of the same as the Lady Commanders ripped USJ pitching for 13 hits. Friendship set the tone early once again, scoring five in the first and three in the second. Jarnigan got thing going with a one-out double in the first, then scored on Walker's booming double. After a steal of third, Walker scored on a wild pitch. Sydney McCormick drew a walk, then Alexander was hit by a pitch. Both came home ahead of a line drive HR to left by Bayley West. West finished with three hits while Cameron Burton, Walker, Jarnigan and Brooke Eakes had two hits apiece. Kennedy West went the full seven in the nightcap, allowing six hits, striking out six and walking two. The Lady Commanders, now 21-11 on the season, will open play in the state tournament Wednesday in Murfreesboro.

11-year-old girl accidentally shot 12-year-old brother at range, documents say Eyewitnesses told state police an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot her 12-year-old brother at a shooting range in Centre County, according to court documents released Wednesday. (WJAC) HALFMOON TOWNSHIP – Eyewitnesses told state police an 11-year-old girl accidentally shot her 12-year-old brother at a shooting range in Centre County, according to court documents released Wednesday. An affidavit of probable cause said the boy was shot in the head with a Hi-Point 9mm pistol after a bullet ricocheted off the ground. Police said the boy has thus far survived life-threatening surgery and is recovering slowly, but he is said to be permanently blind. Officials said that when they responded Sunday to the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Scotia Shooting Range, they found two separate large pools of blood on one of the auxiliary ranges. They said they also found a box of .380 pistol-caliber ammunition split open in the parking area. Police said the firearm was reported to have been loaned to the victim’s uncle. The firearm allegedly was returned to the owner after the shooting, police said. Police also learned that the father of the children, Anthony Lakeith Vankirk II, 32, of 145 West Clearview Avenue, Ave. in State College, was present at the range, along with his brother and his son. Police said Tuesday that Vankirk faces multiple charges in connection with the shooting. Charges against Vankirk include five felony counts of possession of firearms-prohibited and another five felony counts of firearms carried without a license. Police said he's not allowed to own guns due to a 2005 drug conviction.

Mark Makowiecki | July 21, 2016 ACL is calling on the NSW Government to allow parents to know if their child’s school teaches the so-called ‘Safe Schools’ program after the list of schools was mysteriously made secret in early July. ACL NSW Director Mark Makowiecki said the list was removed without explanation or consultation with parents. “The NSW Government has an obligation to work alongside parents, ensuring that the wellbeing of children is first and foremost,” Mr Makowiecki said. “Safe Schools has caused widespread concern in the community, particularly among parents who are upset that their children are being taught gender is just a social construct. “The ACL looks to the Baird Government to work with the Federal Government by implementing its directive to remove age-inappropriate sexualised material from minors as well as providing transparent information to parents. “We all passionately agree that bullying is never acceptable for any reason. This program however is about teaching contested gender ideologies, not about anti-bullying and that is why it should be removed. “The ACL calls on the NSW Government to clarify the reason why the list is now hidden,” he said. “Is it, as an Education Department spokesperson reportedly said, because of a ‘number of inaccuracies’ in the list or because schools were being ‘harassed’, as claimed by the Safe Schools Coalition of Australia. “ACL is unaware of any school being harassed because their name is listed on the website. “Parents wanting to find out if their school takes part in the controversial ‘safe schools’ program is not harassment; it’s being involved in their child’s education.” In June the ACL expressed concern that the age-inappropriate sexualised program was still being taught in NSW primary schools, despite the Federal Government’s concern with the material. Each day that passes new revelations about the full extent of the dangers of the program emerge. A poll in Fairfax Media shows low support for “Safe Schools” with almost 90 per cent of respondents saying the program should be removed. ENDS Media Contact: 02 6259 0431 Optional email code August 31, 2017 August 25, 2017 September 19, 2017 Never miss an update about the marriage debate or other key issues facing Australian Christians:

Spiced Baked Fries0 March 6, 2013 by Sarah There’s a story behind why I’m making my own baked fries. Nope, it’s not at all because I’m trying to be healthy. I’d actually rather choose the fried version in a heartbeat. This baby in my belly is making me crave all sorts of unhealthy things like french fries, hamburgers, and pizza. Sigh. My husband doesn’t seem to mind. The reason why I’m being all domestic and making my own fries is because Pat and I are in our second year of giving up eating out for Lent. I’m still a newbie at observing the season of Lent. It’s basically a time in the church calendar when you intentionally create more space for God, oftentimes by giving up something in which God-time can take place. Now, I really don’t think a pregnant woman choosing to give up anything food related is a good idea. Especially with my cravings that seem to require a trip to a drive-though way too often. In fact, there were a couple times where I seriously didn’t think I could handle it. What were we thinking?! But alas, there’s at least one good thing that has come out of this all. Home baked fries. They are easy and awesome. I had no idea you could create something so crispy and flavorful in your own oven! I’ve actually made them twice now already. And yes, they’re definitely a lot healthier than the fried variety. I guess that’s not such a bad thing. Spiced Baked Fries, adapted from Tastefully Julie 3 russet potatoes, cut into fries (see photo) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon salt Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Soak cut potatoes in water for about 30 minutes or more. This removes the starch. While potatoes are soaking, stir together all the spices in a small bowl. Drain water and spread potatoes onto a baking sheet, greased with a nonstick spray. Drizzle olive oil and spread spice blend over the potatoes. Mix together with your hands. It’s messy but ensures the most even coating! Spread the potatoes out in an even layer. Bake for 20 minutes. Flip the fries, increase the temperature to 450 and bake another 10 minutes. Flip the fries, and bake for a final 10 minutes. Keep your eye on them during this final stretch of baking and take them out if they’re starting to get burnt. They’re done when they’re nice and crisp! Category in the kitchen | Tags: What do you think?

Snapshot of life deep in the Great Barrier Reef Joint AIMS and CSIRO Marine release 2 February 2006 After more than 00 days at sea, scientists have begun compiling a rich picture of seabed life across the length and breadth of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. They are processing 15,000 plant and animal samples, 2000 sediment samples, 2200 hours of video footage and 140 gigabytes of echo-sounder data from almost 1400 sites on the continental shelf. This vast, underwater snapshot has been gathered during 10 voyages by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QDPI‘F). "This has been the most intensive scientific exploration of the lesser known, deeper seabed of the world's largest marine protected area," principal investigator Dr Roland Pitcher of CSIRO says. "With the fieldwork completed, we're now identifying the diverse animal and plant samples and processing video footage and acoustic data. "Although only part way through this task, we have already seen nearly 6000. "The scale of this project is unprecedented worldwide and reinforces Australia's role as leader in tropical marine science," CRC Reef program leader Professor Peter Doherty of AIMS says. "The‘F and the Queensland Museum, and is affiliated with the global Census of Marine Life. Further information: Dr Roland Pitcher , CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Phone: 07 3826 7250 Professor Peter Doherty , AIMS and CRC Reef Phone: 0418 469 770 Media assistance and underwater video footage available from: Bryony Bennett, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Phone: 03 6232 5261, 0438 175 268

Box Score - - Samford at Indiana Box Score - - Samford vs. UNLV Updated Stats The Samford University volleyball team turned in its best day of the young 2017 season Saturday as the Bulldogs toppled the undefeated and homestanding Indiana Hoosiers, 3-2, before beating the UNLV Rebels, 3-1, at the Hoosier Classic, which was hosted by Indiana University at University Gym. Samford (5-9) finished the two-day, four-team competition with a 2-1 record. On Friday, the Bulldogs opened the tournament with a 3-0 loss to FGCU (6-4), but then bounced back Saturday with thrilling triumphs against Indiana (10-1) and UNLV (4-9). In Saturday's opening match, Samford posted a momentous 25-22 victory in the first set against the Hoosiers. Indiana then bounced back to take the next two frames and garnered a 2-1 overall advantage in the contest. With their backs against the wall, the Bulldogs never relinquished their fight and rallied for a 25-19 win in the fourth set. Samford's victory forced a decisive fifth set in which the first team to 15 points would take the win. The Bulldogs battled hard in the fifth set and not only needed 15 points for the win, but in the back-and-forth set against the hometown-favorite Indiana, Samford finally clinched the contest, 17-15, to hand the Hoosiers their first loss of the 2017 campaign. On Saturday, the Bulldogs also proved to be the first team this season to take two sets from Indiana, much less the three that they earned to secure the pivotal victory. Heading into Saturday, the Hoosier had outscored their opponents by a total of 30-4 this season. Junior outside hitter Krista Boesing paced three Samford competitors with double-digit kills against Indiana. The Bulldogs' native of New Albany notched 14 digs in the contest as Shayla Phillip and Kendal Strand followed with 12 and 11, respectively. Phillip, Samford's talented middle blocker from Columbia, South Carolina, turned in a brilliant .455 hitting percentage to lead the team. Sophomore Grace Tiesman and junior Taylor Anderton also played huge roles in the Bulldogs' upset victory. Tiesman accumulated 22 digs in the contest to lead Samford in the category, while Anderton finished with 37 assists. The Bulldogs' Kelsi Hobbs nearly tallied a double-double with 10 digs and nine kills. Strand concluded the matchup with 11 kills and 10 digs. In Samford's second match of the day, the Bulldogs cruised to a 3-1 victory against UNLV. Samford took the first two sets in dominant fashion, 25-17 and 25-16, before the Rebels notched a 25-16 triumph in the third frame. The Bulldogs then closed out the contest in the fourth set with a solid 25-18 performance. With the win, Samford registered its second straight triumph of the 2017 campaign. The Bulldogs' victories also occurred in their first all-time meetings against Indiana and UNLV. Boesing tallied a jaw-dropping 25 kills versus the Rebels and finished the match with a phenomenal .476 hitting percentage. Strand and Hobbs also added double-digit kills with 12 and 10, respectively, to help lead Samford's attack. Tiesman again led the Bulldogs in digs with 17, while Anderton and true freshman Corinne Meglic combined to register 51 assists in the victory. Anderton finished with 39 and Meglic posted 12. The Samford University volleyball team will next be in action Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. (CT) as the Bulldogs begin Southern Conference play at home against The Citadel Bulldogs in a highly-anticipated matchup to be held at the Pete Hanna Center. For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordVB and @Samford_Sports on Twitter. Box Score - - Samford at Indiana Box Score - - Samford vs. UNLV Updated Stats

HAIM Something To Tell You Columbia/Polydor Buy via Official Store, Amazon or iTunes | Listen Below Nearly four years after their commercial debut Days Are Gone propelled the Los Angeles-based sister trio into top ten album charts in eight countries, HAIM return with their second full-length outing Something To Tell You. With the success of Days Are Gone, the band (comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Danielle, keyboardist and guitarist Alana, and bassist Este) spent two years on tour. Decompressing from life on the road and getting into the right frame of mind to write new material for the follow-up proved to be a bit of a challenge. "All we knew for two years was wake up, soundcheck, play the show, go to sleep and fit in a slice of pizza at some point," Alana recently told Rolling Stone. "We needed to turn our brains from touring brains back to writing brains. When we came home, we literally got off the bus, took a nap and went right into the studio." After a few uninspiring creative months, the group was asked to quickly write a song for inclusion in the Amy Schumer film Trainwreck, which eventually evolved into future album cut "Little of Your Love.” Although it wasn't ultimately used for the soundtrack, the exercise was the flashpoint they needed to move forward. "We got back to just 'write how you're feeling'," explained Alana. "After that, we wrote hundreds of songs. It was like vomit." The world got a small taste of what was to come on Something To Tell You when HAIM performed the set's lead single "Want You Back" and "Little of Your Love" as musical guests on Saturday Night Live back in May. Their stage presence that night—confident, focused, passionate, quirky—seems to be an accurate extension of their studio work. It's actually quite a good thing that Something To Tell You continues where its predecessor left off, with unabashedly sun-kissed SoCal pop defined by thick layers of gated reverb drum claps, bright keys, jaunty bass, and playful guitars. That's not to say that the album is one-note; there is nuance to spare, certainly. There is something deliciously retro about it, and the abundant comparisons of the band to classic Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles are fair enough. But there's also a nouveau sheen that's decidedly 2017, and primary producer Ariel Rechtshaid (Usher, Adele, Solange Knowles, Plain White Ts) does well in not letting anything become throwback kitsch. "Want You Back" is a solid album opener with an irresistibly sing-able chorus, punched up with synth hiccups, bass slaps, and gobs of interesting vocal ad-libs ("Little of Your Love" follows in a similar vein). The mid-tempo chug and meshed harmonies on "Nothing's Wrong" comes rather close to being a Christine McVie standard, but it's so well executed that the craftiness outweighs whatever mimicry might be implied. "Ready for You" is a smidge funkier with its syncopated rim click groove and big Eighties chorus. HAIM wait until after the album's mid-point for a complete change of pace with "You Never Know.” The drum beat fattens and steadies, drizzled lightly with acoustic guitar and buoyed by a dense, rubbery bass line and a perfectly restrained vocal. Things amp back up somewhat with the fantastic "Kept Me Crying" and its defiant shuffle that builds toward a buzzy electric guitar coda. The album closes with the beautiful "Night So Long,” a stark departure from the warm glow of the rest of its track list. It's introspective, if not woeful ("I say goodbye to love again / in loneliness my only friend"), but "Night..." is a phenomenal showcase for Danielle's rich alto lead. All told, Something To Tell You is good pop music: it's memorable, balanced, and believable. There's a level of musicianship and care that's tangible here, and the Haim sisters have capably employed their evolving singing and songwriting prowess in nearly all the right places. And while sticking to what they already do well is more than likely going to help them to avoid the oft-feared industry sophomore slump, it will be intriguing to see if the band uses their forward momentum and obvious competence to take a few more risks next time around. Until then, this stuff is going to make a lot of people's summer playlists, and pack a lot of enthusiastic crowds into HAIM's inevitable major world tour. Notable Tracks: “Kept Me Crying” | “Night So Long” | “Want You Back” | “You Never Knew” BUY HAIM’s Something to Tell You via Official Store | Amazon | iTunes LISTEN:

Islamabad, Sep 13 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said his country is willing to set up joint patrols with Afghanistan to combat militants along their porous border. His remarks came weeks after US President Donald Trump called on Pakistan to do more to eliminate militant sanctuaries, a long-standing demand by Washington. "We are open for joint patrolling, we are open for joint posts" along the border with Afghanistan, Abbasi was quoted as saying by Dawn online on Wednesday. "We will put up a fence there; the Afghans are welcome to put up another fence on their side," he said. The Prime Minister denied Pakistan was harbouring militants, insisting it was "fighting agents of chaos". He said Afghanistan in turn needed to do more to fight terrorism against Pakistan. "If you want statistics, there is much more happening across the border from Afghanistan than anything that happens from Pakistan into Afghanistan." "All the criminal elements we are fighting are based in Afghanistan," Abbasi said. Trump called on Pakistan to eliminate militant sanctuaries in a speech last month laying out a new South Asia strategy to try and win the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan. Abbasi said his government had yet to receive any specific demands from the Trump administration, adding that Pakistan would act on any information shared by US authorities. He denied that Pakistan supported militant groups as he batted away suggestions that," Abbasi said. When asked about US plans to get tough on Pakistan and cutting billions of dollars worth of military and financial aid, the Prime Minister said: "We have nothing to hide, as a general rule you do not punish allies. We are open (with the US). We are transparent." Abbasi said that the US had not clarified some of the perceptions that were created after Trump's policy statement on Afghanistan and South Asia. --IANS soni/sac

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Since announcing its mirrorless digital medium format camera system back at last year’s Photokina in Germany, Fujifilm has kept a tight lid on the first GFX camera’s full specs and pricing. Now all is revealed and the first shipment of bodies and lenses should be landing in Australia right around now. You can read our 'Sneak Peak' from the current issue of Camera by clicking on the pages above. But let’s cut to the chase regarding pricing - the GFX 50S body delivers on the promise of being “well under $10,000”, but that’s in US dollars of course. In Australia it just scrapes under at $9999, which still makes it a lot cheaper than Hasselblad’s rival X1D and in the ballpark in terms of competing with the top-end full-35mm D-SLRs from Canon and Nikon. The standard GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens (equivalent to a 50mm) is priced at $2399 so that’s a shade under $12,500 to jump into a digital medium format system…only Pentax’s 645Z offers a similarly affordable route, but it’s a significantly bigger and bulkier camera than the GFX 50s. There are two other lenses available immediately – a 32-64mm f4.0 zoom (equivalent to 25-51mm and priced at $3499), and a 120mm f4.0 macro lens (95mm and $4199) – but Fujifilm is promising three more lenses by the end of 2017; namely a 23mm f4.0 ultra-wide (equivalent to 18mm), a 45mm f2.8 wide-angle (36mm) and a 110mm f2.0 short telephoto (87mm). There’s also an adaptor for H-Mount lenses (which, of course, Fujifilm has some involvement with) and which give the GFX system a lens-shutter option. A number of the GFX body’s major features have already been well-documented since Photokina 2016, including the interchangeable EVF, the new G Mount with a fully-electronic 12-pin interface, and the 44x33 mm 51.4 MP (effective) CMOS sensor which is designed by Fujifilm – or “customised”, as the company nicely puts it – and fabricated by Sony. What’s now revealed is a 425-point contrast-detection AF system (in a 17x25 pattern), 256-zone metering and a continuous shooting speed of 3.0 fps with no limit on the JPEG burst length. The sensitivity range is equivalent to ISO 100 to 12,800 with expansion up to ISO 102,400 and a one-stop ‘pull’ to ISO 50. The camera’s focal plane shutter has a speed range of 60 minutes to 1/4000 second, but there’s the option of a sensor-based shutter which boosts the top speed to 1/16,000 second, or ‘electronic first curtain’ operation. Flash sync is up to 1/125 second. The GFX 50S captures a maximum image size of 8256x6192 pixels with the option of one smaller size, but a total of seven aspect ratios – 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1, 5:4, 7:6 and 65:24 (i.e. the ‘true’ panoramic ratio). JPEGs can be captured at one of three compression levels while RAW files are captured with 14-bit colour (RAF format) and there’s the option of RAW+JPEG recording. The GFX 50S has dual memory card slots for the SD format, both with UHS-II speed support for SDXC devices. Not surprisingly, quite a number of JPEG processing features from the top-end X Series cameras have found their way into the GFX 50S, including the ‘Film Simulation’ presets (with the latest ACROS B&W modes), ‘Grain Effect’ and the ‘Lens Modulation Optimiser’. New is something called ‘Colour Chrome Effect’ which is designed to boost the colour saturation without compromising tonality. Other notable features include five auto bracketing modes (including for the ‘Film Simulation’ presets), a multiple exposure facility, intervalometer and WiFi. The GFX 50S records Full HD 1080p video with stereo sound and the availability of various functions such as the ‘Film Simulation’ presets. There’s a stereo audio input for external mics and an output for monitoring via headphones. An uncompressed video output is available from the camera’s HDMI connector for recording to an external recorder. Physically, the GFX 50S looks and feels a bit like a supersized X-T2, although it’s neither big nor bulky for a digital medium format camera. The fully weather-protected magnesium alloy bodyshell – which is actually smaller overall than either the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II or the Nikon D5 – weighs in at 920 grams with the detachable EVF attached. It sports a pair of dials – for shutter speeds and ISO settings – and a top-deck monochrome LCD read-out panel. The 8.1 cm LCD monitor screen has a resolution of 2.36 megadots, has a three-way tilt adjustment (like the X-T2) and provides touch controls including for autofocusing. There’s an optional vertical grip which holds an additional battery and a tilt adapter for the EVF. Interestingly, there’s a monitoring facility for the age of the batteries, scaled from zero to four. See our Sneak Peek first look here! For more information visit the website at

Andrew Minnick 1906 - 2007 Services for Andrew Minnick, 101, of Middlefield, Ohio, were Monday, July 2, at Russell Golden Rule Funeral Service, Middlefield. Burial was in Middlefield Cemetery. Mr. Minnick died June 27, 2007, at Briar Hill Health Care Residence in Middlefield. He was born June 23, 1906, in Cleveland, and had lived in the Middlefield area since 1932. Mr. Minnick was a member of the Middlefield School Board of Education from 1945 to 1954, serving as president for one term. He also was a 50-year member of Knights of Pythias No. 716, Middlefield, a member of the Maple View Mennonite Church, Burton, Ohio, and a former member of the First United Methodist Church, Middlefield. He owned and operated Andy's Barber Shop in Middlefield from 1932 until he retired in 1971. Mr. Minnick married Rae Taubman on Aug. 27, 1977; she survives. Other survivors include a son, Keith, Newland, N.C.; two daughters, Carol Schwendeman, Burton, and Judith Cain, Lansing, Kan.; eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. His first wife, Claudine (White), died in 1962. The family suggests contributions to Hospice of Care Corp., 831 South St., Chardon, OH 44024.

Syria to join UN groups in bid to establish peace talks Syria's foreign minister says his country will participate in UN-led working groups toward a third round of Geneva talks on the fate of the country. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem addressed a UN gathering of world leaders as the international community scrambled to respond to Russia's new airstrikes in his country. Mr Al-Moallem stressed that the working groups proposed by the UN's special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, are non-binding. The foreign minister described them as "brainstorming" sessions meant to prepare for the launch of new talks sometime in the future. But he added: "How can we ask the Syrian people to head to the ballot box while they are not safe in the streets?" Mr Al-Moallem added that airstrikes alone will not be successful against the Islamic State group unless they are coordinated with the Syrian government. He US-led coalition have called on Russia to cease attacks on the Syrian opposition and to focus on fighting Islamic State militants.

Cliftonville's Liam Boyce will stay patient to earn a full-time deal Cliftonville star Liam Boyce is willing to risk becoming a free agent to achieve his dream of returning to full-time football. The prolific striker, whose 60 goals in the last two seasons have gone a long way to delivering successive Irish League titles to Solitude, finds himself at a crossroads and has no intention of rushing into a decision. He is out of contract this summer and Cliftonville's initial offer of a new one came with a June 1 deadline – a matter complicated somewhat by the 23-year-old's subsequent call-up to the national side's ongoing tour of South America. Boyce makes no secret of the fact that he aspires to bigger and better things and is hoping reported interest from England, Scotland or even the League of Ireland turns into something more concrete. "Coming here (to South America) is a big deal so hopefully common sense will prevail and I can talk to Cliftonville when I get home," he said ahead of the friendly against Uruguay. "Full-time football is my dream and if I have to wait for my chance, then I have to make big decisions and look after myself. "I love playing for Cliftonville but this is my life and my career so I have to make the best of it. "My agent filled me in with who was interested in me before I came to Uruguay and I told him to email me when I was here if there was any interest. "He has been emailing me asking how I'm doing here but he is talking to a few teams to see if one of them will take a chance on me. "I'm prepared to wait as late as possible to get a full-time team." Boyce's previous experience of life outside Cliftonville was a mixed bag. He was surprisingly picked up by Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen in 2010, but never made his way into the first team reckoning and was released after little more than a year. But the sour end to his time in Germany has not dampened his enthusiasm for a challenge. "I don't regret going to Germany at all," he added. "That experience made me the player I am today. "It might sound stupid but I learned how to pass a ball and the training was a big help and something I want to do it again. "I've started training the way I should be and I've lost some weight. "To make it in full-time football you need more training than the Irish League can give you and I am taking it much more seriously now." Boyce is desperate to add to the four caps he won under Nigel Worthington against Uruguay and Chile and admits he is pushing himself to the very limits to earn his chance. "It's been three years since I was in the squad, but I was fitter then so it wasn't such a big a step up," he conceded. "Going from training two nights a week to this is massive to be honest so I can feel the difference already. "When I'm with Cliftonville it is obviously much more relaxed but here there is a lot of work to do. "Now that I am here I want to play and test myself against a La Liga winner and Champions League players. "I know there are players in front of me but it is up to me to get myself into the manager's thoughts." Belfast Telegraph

Kevin Durant matched his season high with 37 points, and the Thunder beat the Houston Rockets, 120-98, Wednesday night in James Harden’s first game back in Oklahoma City. Wizards 84, Trail Blazers 82 — Host Washington earned its first victory after starting the season with 12 straight losses, getting 19 points from Jordan Crawford in a win over. Knicks 102, Bucks 88 — Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points to help New York snap a three-game road losing streak by routing. Steve Novak added 19 points and Tyson Chandler chipped in with 17 points and eight rebounds for the Knicks. Hawks 94, Bobcats 91 — Al Horford scored 17 points and hit two clinching free throws to help host Atlanta win its sixth straight. Josh Smith and Lou Williams also had 17 points apiece for the Hawks. Ben Gordon finished with 26 points and Ramon Sessions had 18 to lead Charlotte, which has lost two straight and three of four. Clippers 101, Timberwolves 95 — Chris Paul had 23 points and 11 assists, and host Los Angeles welcomed Chauncey Billups back to the lineup for the first time this season with a victory over Minnesota. Billups had 8 points and three assists in 20 minutes as the Clippers ended a four-game losing streak. The five-time All-Star, beginning his 16th NBA season, was sidelined for more than nine months after tearing his left Achilles’ tendon Feb. 6. Pistons 117, Suns 77 — Brandon Knight and Charlie Villanueva scored 19 points apiece, and Detroit routed Phoenix in Auburn Hills, Mich.. Spurs 110, Magic 89 — Manu Ginobili had 20 points, Gary Neal scored 19, and visiting San Antonio won its fifth straight. Tim Duncan added 15 points in 27 minutes and Tony Parker chipped in 14 points and eight assists. The Spurs also posted their eighth consecutive victory on the road. Grizzlies 103, Raptors 82 — Marreese Speights had 18 points and 12 rebounds to help host Memphis (11-2) to its third straight win and maintain the best record in the NBA. Jazz 96, Hornets 84 — Al Jefferson had 19 points, Marvin Williams scored 16, and visiting Utah beat New Orleans to win its second straight. Bulls 101, Mavericks 78 — Luol Deng had 22 points and six rebounds to lead host Chicago over Dallas.

Profile Songs Photos Endorsements Royalty Records is a full service nationally recognized label and distributor for both Canadian and international recording artists and labels. Since its creation, Royalty has focused mainly on country music, and now represents recordings by such current Canadian names as Colin Amey, Lisa Brokop, George Fox, Gil Grand, The Poverty Plainsmen, Gord Bamford, and Lisa Hewitt. New artist signings include After Tuesday and Megan Morrison. Royalty also represents the recordings of Canadian legends such as Bev Munro, Jimmy Arthur Ordge, Joyce Smith, and R. Harlan Smith & Chris Nielsen. The Royalty catalogue also includes a variety of other genres of music. Old time dance and polka music is represented by five albums from the internationally acclaimed The Emeralds (Bird Dance fame), polka icons Frankie Yankovic / Walter Ostanek, Brian Sklar's Western Senators and Gaby Haas' catalogue, as well as jazz, big band and solo piano by Canadian great Tommy Banks (now known as Senator Tom Banks), fid broadjam.com © 2017

By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle The Nets knew they'd squandered a pair of big opportunites Sunday night in Brooklyn. First, they missed a chance to finally pull dead even with the Atlantic Division-leading Knicks with a deflating 105-93 loss to Atlanta at the Barclays Center. Second, and perhaps more importantly, they bid a not-so-fond farewell to the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues before embarking on their eight-game, 17-day trip while the circus visits Downtown Brooklyn. Fortunately for our borough's first pro sports franchise since the Dodgers left town in 1957, Motown was the first stop on their grueling road odyssey. The Nets took full advantage of the lifeless Pistons on Monday night, cruising to a dominating 119-82 rout of Detroit before 16,072 fans at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Though the Knicks beat Utah to salvage one win on their six-game Western swing Monday and retain their ever-slimming lead in the division, the Nets (39-28) boosted their record, and collective egos, before visiting Dallas on Wednesday night. "A lot of things that we didn't do well [Sunday] night, we did well tonight," said Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo, who watched Deron Williams continue his brilliant play since the All-Star break while getting a surprising lift from the previously idle bench veteran Jerry Stackhouse. Williams poured in a game-high 31 points and Stackhouse added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in his first game action since Jan. 26 as Brooklyn dropped Detroit to 0-9 in March. "I just wanted to impose my will a little bit more in this game. We gotta take this win and build on it," said Williams, who played just 28 minutes but surpassed the 30-point mark for the third time since taking a pair of games off prior to the break to get treatment on his swollen ankles and undergo a juice cleansing that helped him drop some pounds and get some lift back in his game. "I think we really improved our game throughout the night," added All-Star center Brook Lopez after putting up 18 points and pulling down eight boards in the opener of the Nets' extended trip. Stackhouse, who has been chomping at the bit to get some playing time the past month and a half, didn't waste any time when called upon to enter the contest. He looked as if he'd never missed a game, drilling jumpers and making an acrobatic layup that has his teammates leaping off the bench in celebration. "Coach came to me and said he was going to give the younger guys some time," Stackhouse said of his long layoff. "He made sure that I stayed in shape and stayed ready to go so I can help in the playoffs. I think it has benefitted our young guys. It's been a blessing in disguise. If I had played all those minutes, I'd be worn down by now." With stops in Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Utah and Cleveland still in front of them before they return to Brooklyn on April 4 to host the Chicago Bulls, the Nets will spend more time in the air and in their hotel rooms than they do on the court over the next 15 days. Hopefully, when they find themselves back in Brooklyn, they"ll also be on top of the division and ready to make a serious run at an elusive NBA title after five long non-playoff seasons. "This is how we needed to start off our road trip," Lopez said after whipping the Pistons. Something tells me how they finish the trip will be of much greater importance.

By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Eagle Sunset Park — Police Captain James Grant admitted to community leaders that the area his precinct covers is “quite larger than I thought.” Grant, newly installed as the commanding officer of the 72nd Precinct, said “I have a pretty good handle on it now.” The 72nd Precinct covers the Sunset Park, Green-Wood Heights, and Windsor Terrace communities. Grant, a 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was assigned to the precinct earlier this month. “I was elated,” he said. Grant came to Community Board Seven’s meeting on Jan. 18 to introduce himself to the board members and vowed to work closely with them on neighborhood issues. “I’m very eager to work with you,” he told board members at their meeting at the Sunset Park Court House at 4201 Fourth Ave. Among the new programs Grant is starting at the precinct is an e-mail notification system. Residents who sign up for the system will receive e-mail alerts from Grant. Residents would also be able to use the system to tell Grant about crime patterns or quality of life issues concerning them. “Any issues that come up we’ll enter into a little database,” Grant said. The information will be forwarded to the precinct’s officers so that they can act on it. Aaron Brashear, the board’s Sergeant-at-Arms, said Green-Wood Heights residents are already in the habit of regularly reporting graffiti vandalism to the precinct. Graffiti vandals leave their “tags” in the area of Green-Wood Cemetery on Seventh Avenue and 23rd Street, according to Brashear. A vandal’s “tag” is a marking identifying within the graffiti that identifies the vandal, like an artist’s signature on a painting. “There are a lot of active community groups and block associations to keep an eye out,” Brashear said. “We encourage reporting of any crime, especially graffiti,” Grant told him. “We take pictures of the tags, download them, and send them to the vandals squad.” When Grant asked board members and residents at the meeting if there were any problems they wanted him to address, Lynn McAvoy spoke up. McAvoy, director of the Sunset Park Recreation Center, said she was concerned over the presence of a group of men who participate in gambling activities inside the center, in front of children. “They’re there all day, but I’m particularly concerned about their being there at 3 o’clock, when children come in. We have an after-school program. We try to clear them out because children come at that time,” McAvoy told Grant. Located inside Sunset Park on Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street, the center provides educational and recreational activities for children and adults. The presence of the gamblers is troubling, according to McAvoy, who said the men enter the center and take up space, but are not members. “They don’t belong inside the building. They are supposed to be members (to enter),” she said. Grant said he would send a police officer to the recreation center to look into the matter.

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USA [WARNING: The following post will spoil all of Season 1 of USA Network's "Mr. Robot."] Angela taking the job at E-Corp. Instead of picking up where episode nine left off — with Elliot and Tyrell in the Mr. Robot arcade seemingly ready to either join forces (or become enemies?) — we fast forward three days, the hack has already happened, and neither us nor Elliot knows how we got here. It's a confusing and fitting way to end a season. This is a show that's constantly staying one step ahead of its audience. Where another show would telegraph a character death for weeks and meditate on a major revelation for an entire episode, "Mr. Robot" barrels forward through its story, stopping for no one. In that way, it was kind of perfect that the show moved right past the hack itself and instead focused on the new reality that the hack created for the world of the show. Still, it was confusing, right? We don't know what happened to Tyrell. We don't know where Elliot was in the 72 hours in which the hack went down. We don't know what thought process drove Angela to work for the company that's responsible for killing her mother. For the sake of clarity, here's what we know for sure happened in the finale, and what it means going forward. 1. The hack worked. Even though the show has made it dangerous for us to declare what's "real" and what's imagined, it's pretty safe to say the hack worked. We see people in fsociety masks running through the streets. We hear the AllSafe consultant/part-time CFO tells Gideon that losing the company won't be a complete disaster because fsociety wiped out all debt. The E-Corp exec shoots himself on TV, and the guy at the shoe store talks about it while admonishing Angela for working there. If the hack was imagined by Elliot, then the whole show is imagined by Elliot. And while Elliot is surely an unreliable narrator, there's no suggestion that the entire reality of the show doesn't exist. Plus, Business Insider wrote about it in the show, so it must be true: USA 2. Whiterose is cozy with E-Corp. This is probably the biggest thing that happened in the episode with respect to what's going to happen in Season 2. Whiterose is the leader of the Dark Army, the Chinese hacking collective which fsociety needed to carry out the cyberattack on E-Corp. We first saw Whiterose in episode eight, when she meets Elliot and tells him he needs to hack Gideon in order to take out the honey pot he set up in E-Corp's server. It was one of the most memorable and strange scenes of the series so far, with this character we've never seen before talking about the concept of time and putting Elliot in a helpless position. USA The next time we see her is in the post-credits scene at the end of the season finale. This time she's dressed as a man. The actor, BD Wong, did an interview with Vulture where he confirmed that Whiterose, a transgender person, is the one who has the episode-ending conversation with E-Corp CEO Phillip Price. It's also clear that it's Whiterose when her watch beeps right before the episode ends (it also beeped in the scene in Episode 8). USA When you start to connect the dots here — the CEO of the company that got hacked is seemingly in league with the leader of the collective that hacked it — and consider the scene where Angela ominously asks Price why he's still so confident earlier in the episode, it's clear that the winners and losers of the hack aren't as clear as they seem. 3. Elliot can embody his hallucinations (a.k.a. "Mr. Robot"). This is a small but key detail to the show's internal logic. During the scene in the coffee shop, Elliot chokes Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) and throws him against a wall. The next shot shows us the scene from a different perspective, and we see that Elliot is the one against the wall and he's choking himself with his own hand. USA That means that Mr. Robot can be Elliot in a physical sense. This isn't a case where Mr. Robot is a ghost that follows around the real Elliot. The "real" Elliot can float between bodies. This clears up those instances where Mr. Robot interacts with other "real" characters (because it's all Elliot). It also presents some different possibilities going forward. 4. Elliot is probably the one in the mask in the fsociety message, not Tyrell. Someone on Reddit altered the distorted audio and found that the un-processed voice sounds a lot like Elliot's. While the man in the mask looks like he has blue eyes (and Tyrell is Swedish), the way the shots cut back and forth from the masked man's eyes to Elliot suggest it's him. USA USA 5. The popcorn gun is still at large. Episode nine ends on an on-the-nose shot of Elliot, while talking to Tyrell, staring at the popcorn machine at Mr. Robot HQ. That's the popcorn machine, you'll recall, where Darlene hid the gun that she stole an episode earlier. The popcorn gun and Tyrell don't appear in the finale, and Elliot wakes up in his SUV three days later. Coincidence? USA So that's what we know. But when it comes to some bigger questions — Where is Tyrell? How does Tyrell's wife play into this? — we'll have to wait until Season 2. The show's creator Sam Esmail has said repeatedly that "Mr. Robot" was originally a movie script, and Season 1 is only the first act. Based on the finale, the second act will be largely about who really orchestrated the hack, and how Elliot got in the middle of it. Read the original article on INSIDER. Follow INSIDER on Facebook. Copyright 2015. Follow INSIDER on Twitter.

You are here Steeling the show ON a chilly day typical of Geneva's winter in November 2015, Phillips set the world record for the most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction when the hammer came down on the Patek Philippe Ref 5016A "Only Watch". Including fees, the one of a kind timepiece sold for 7.3 million Swiss francs, or just over S$10 million. Though the Ref 5016A is one of the most complex wristwatches Patek Philippe has made, boasting a tourbillon, perpetual calendar and minute repeater, the specimen sold at auction was cased in the least expensive of metals - stainless steel. Platinum watch cases are the priciest due to the complexity of machining and cost of material, while gold is the most popular precious metal for its recognisable colour. Mere stainless steel is usually the metal of choice for sports or affordable watches. Ordinary steel tends to rust or stain with exposure to air and moisture, while the addition of chromium gives stainless steel its, well, stainless properties. The metal is also strong, biologically inert and relatively inexpensive, making it popular for applications as diverse as construction, surgical tools and kitchen sinks. For the same practical reasons, stainless steel is a popular material for watchcases. Being less flashy than gold also makes stainless steel a common choice. That is obvious in the numbers: over 50 per cent of the watches exported from Switzerland in 2015 were stainless steel. "Stainless steel watches prove to be something of a paradox in the world of luxury watch collecting," says Sam Hines, the international head of watches at Phillips. Last year, the New York-based auction house sold eight vintage Patek Philippe watches for over a million Singapore dollars - all of which were stainless steel. The price premium for stainless steel cases is common in the world of high-end vintage watches, particularly those with complicated movements. Being expensive and rare watches when new, such watches often have correspondingly expensive cases made of gold or platinum, making steel cases exceedingly rare, especially for top of the line watchmakers such as Patek Philippe. "During the 1940s through to the 1970s, first class watch manufacturers would not dream of using an inferior metal such as stainless steel," explains Mr Hines, "On very rare occasions, a patron might request a stainless steel case as a special order . . . during the Second World War, certain brands had to use stainless steel for their watch cases due to the scarcity of precious metal." "Many collectors aspire to vintage stainless steel due to the rarity of their production," says Mr Hines, leading to price premiums for stainless steel specimens that are staggering. "The Patek Philippe Ref 1518 (chronograph with perpetual calendar) was introduced in 1941 and can be found cased mainly in yellow or pink gold . . . 281 examples were made and four known examples in stainless steel were rumoured to have been made for the king of Iraq in the mid-1940s." "Today, a very good quality yellow gold example is worth US$500,000, while a prime pink gold example is worth US$1 million," notes Mr Hines, "A stainless steel 1518 is worth in excess of US$5 million." That being said, only exceptional vintage stainless steel watches are outrageously expensive. The vast majority of such watches are eminently affordable, even those from prominent makers. In that sphere, Mr Hines recommends a 1940s stainless steel Omega, which can be had for anywhere from several hundred dollars to the low thousands. The collectability of high-end, vintage steel watches has not gone unnoticed by today's watchmakers. In fact, the reverse is true in contemporary watchmaking. "While some brands have traditionally not dabbled or executed a core range in steel," says Matthew Green, the worldwide merchandising chief for luxury watches and jewellery at duty free retailer DFS Group, "we see more and more of the (new launches) going in this direction." And it's not just establishment watchmakers that are doing this. "Independent watchmakers have successfully expanded the idea of value in a different direction by producing one-off or rare pieces in steel while still maintaining their positioning, including H Moser and Laurent Ferrier," says Mr Green. "These pieces carry the value encompassed by the brands at a new, (more affordable) price point for today's consumer." Stainless steel is intrinsically an inexpensive material, which means steel watches are typically less expensive, all things being equal. This suits the straitened times, particularly with the luxury watch industry facing drooping demand. "Over the past two years, we have noticed the preference of our consumers gravitating towards stainless steel", says Mr Green, who oversees the DFS luxury watch division in 14 countries around the world, giving him a keen understanding of global trends. "Many watchmakers are actively responding to the increase in price-conscious consumers looking for a clear value proposition." "Many complications, such as an annual or perpetual calendar, traditionally offered in precious metals, are launching in stainless steel," notes Mr Green, making them more affordable than before. Another prominent example from the world of independent watchmaking is FP Journe, which took a nuanced approach. The watchmaker introduced a five-piece set of complicated watches, distinguished by their 38mm cases in stainless steel. Though individually cheaper than their precious metal equivalents, they are sold only as a set, raising the cost of entry. Stainless steel is in vogue not just for rare, complicated timepieces, but also for entry-level watches as watchmakers endeavour to make their wares more accessible. Vacheron Constantin, for instance, recently debuted the Quai de l'Ile in steel. Previously available only in gold, palladium or titanium, the Quai de l'Ile now can be had for half of what it cost before. But Mr Green cautions: "There is a fine line in expanding product offering to meet consumer demand while retaining brand value - it all comes down to the execution of the new products." - The writer is the founder of WatchesBySJX.com, Asia's leading online journal on mechanical watches.

Changed name to WSP Global Inc. after acquiring U.K. firm of the same name in mid-2012 MONTREAL—The engineering firm known as Genivar Inc. starts the year with a new name and stock symbol, WSP Global Inc. (WSP), as part of a previously announced reorganization. Genivar bought U.K.-based WSP Group PLC in mid-2012 for what was then the equivalent of $442-million in cash—a move that broadened the company’s base outside Canada and tripled its total revenue. A few months later, Genivar became one of the companies embroiled in Quebec’s Charbonneau judicial inquiry into corrupt practices in the construction industry but it continued to integrate the two businesses. The Quebec-based company announced this week. The company also announced an addition to its board of directors, Josee Perreault, a senior vice-president at Oakley Inc. sports brands. Perreault was credited with introducing the Oakley retail brand into Canada.

Analysis found likelihood of tanker spill ranges from one every 23 years to one every 196 years VANCOUVER—A study from Simon Fraser University says Enbridge is drastically underestimating the likelihood of oil spills from the Northern Gateway. It said, said the study. John Carruthers, president of Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, said the report is misleading. He pointed out that Gunton appeared as a witness at federal review panel hearings for Coastal First Nations, a group that opposes the pipeline, but did not submit the report for review by the panel. “All of Northern Gateway’s conclusions have been subject to peer review, information requests and questioning by interveners and the Joint Review Panel,” Carruthers said in an email. The study was released days before the questioning phase of the hearings comes to an end and too late to be submitted, he said. “Given the timing, we can only conclude this study was purposely kept off the evidence record to avoid being tested in the hearing process,” he said. The spill numbers are inflated, Carruthers said, and the study does not reflect the new technology proposed for Northern Gateway. “Their study results are not borne out by real world tanker spill statistics. Based on Gunton’s estimates we should expect 21 to 77 large spills every year worldwide while in reality after 2000 it has been below 3, and in 2012 was zero,” Carruthers said..

Bayern Munich Thomas Muller has yet to make an appearance for the German national team. ((JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)) He's being touted as the heir apparent to German national team captain Michael Ballack. Thomas Muller is only 20, but the talented playmaker exhibits all the poise and maturity of a 10-year-veteran, winning plaudits for his polished performances since making his debut for Bavarian bigwigs Bayern Munich last year. After making only sporadic appearances during the 2008-09 Bundesliga (German first division) season, Muller has established himself as a semi-regular starter for Bayern during the current campaign, although manager Louis van Gaal has still limited his playing time. Muller, who can play either as a creative midfielder, winger or forward, has made the most of his opportunities. On Sept. 12, he came on as a substitute and scored two goals in a 5-1 win over bitter league rivals Borussia Dortmund. Three days later, he scored another pair in Bayern's 3-0 victory over Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa in the UEFA Champions League. A product of Bayern's youth academy, Muller is the talk of the Bundesliga, a fact underlined by his being voted player of the month for September in Kicker, Germany's leading sports magazine. He was also called up for last month's friendly between Germany and the Ivory Coast, but didn't get a chance to make his national team debut - the game was cancelled following the suicide of German goalkeeper Robert Enke on Nov. 10. Too young for it all? Still, many feel it's only a matter of time before Muller graduates from Germany's Under-21 side and earns his first cap for his country's senior team, en route to being named to the German roster for the 2010 World Cup. But national team coach Joachim Low, the man whose opinion matters the most, has been hesitant to commit himself when pressed by the media on whether Muller will be on the plane to South Africa next year. "I think the main reason why Muller [isn't guaranteed a spot on the World Cup roster] is because Low doesn't want to be seen as someone who picks someone on the strength of half a dozen games," Raphael Honigstein, a soccer journalist for German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, told CBCSports.ca "He's only played [a handful] games for Bayern in the Bundesliga this season, and I think it would be interpreted as rash." Another potential red flag for Low is Muller's perceived lack of discipline. The Bayern playmaker was expelled after earning two yellow cards within the opening 30 minutes of a Champions League match against French champions Bordeaux last month. There are other forces working against Muller making the trip to South Africa, not the least of which is Bayern being less than thrilled that that their influential midfielder is already being eyed by the national team while he is still developing. "Bayern is not happy that after only a few games Muller is being hyped up and being talked up as a future German international," Honigstein explained. "Bayern worries that Muller is going to lose his head, so they weren't exactly excited that Low picked him for that Ivory Coast friendly after only a few Bundesliga appearances." Still, Bayern may have to deal with the fact their young, budding super star will be competing in his first World Cup before he even celebrates his 21st birthday. "I think in the long run if he can see regular action for Bayern this season and continues to play at a high level, he'll certainly be in the German squad for next year's World Cup," Honigstein said.

Ultimate Human #4 - Story by - Warren Ellis - Art by - Cary Nord - Colors by - Dave Stewart - Letters by - Dave Sharpe - Cover by - Cary Nord - Publisher - Marvel Comics As Jeph Loeb promises to systematically dismantle everything good about “The Ultimates”, it’s been a virtual godsend to see Ellis taking on some of the characters and demonstrating that there’s plenty of good stories that can be told with them. The premise for “Ultimate Human” — Tony Stark and Bruce Banner collaborating on a cure for the Hulk — is a strong idea that makes particular sense in the context of the Ultimate universe, where such things haven’t been tried before. Ellis took the fairly unexpected step of making Ultimate Pete Wisdom into the Ultimate Leader, a British super-soldier reject. His goals are fairly similar to the regular Marvel Universe Leader, so it’s not entirely clear why Ellis felt the need to staple an existing character onto the concept, though I’d have to assume he’s just having a bit of a laugh with the very idea of an Ultimate Pete Wisdom. This final issue of the series brings things to a conclusion, although after a strong opening double and a weak third issue, the fourth issue wraps itself up without fully delivering on the early promise. Two issues in, it genuinely seemed like “Ultimate Human” might actually alter the Ultimate Hulk’s status quo. After all, Marvel is quite sparing with the Ultimate titles they release, so each one has the potential to matter. As it happens, its main contribution to the Ultimate Universe was the examination of how the Hulk actually works on a physical level, which feels a bit like Ellis looking at the kind of future-pseudoscience one would expect from him. That aspect of the series, seen at its heaviest in the first two issues, was actually one of the more enjoyable elements. This issue ends up resolving the story with a massive fight, which ends when the Hulk defeats the Leader and then leaves. It leaves the reader feeling as though the story is incomplete. Early in the issue, Stark disables the nanobots that have “cured” Banner, causing the Hulk to resurface again, and the two never speak afterwards. It would’ve been nice to see some emotional resolution to what happened. As presented, the book literally ends with the Hulk mid-jump and only a superficial apology directed at Banner by Stark, as the former disappears into the sky. Nord puts in an amazing performance with a truly fantastic depiction of the Hulk, a figure so large he appears to take up entire pages. Nord’s cinematic style could really teach Hollywood a thing or two about how to present the Hulk, and combined with Ellis’ excellent dialogue, the brutish Ultimate Hulk is both hilarious and menacing. Well-timed to deal with the “Iron Man” and “Hulk” movies this year, “Ultimate Human” stands as proof that Marvel still has some clue how to approach the Ultimate line of titles. Ellis, meanwhile, effortlessly demonstrates with his unique style why he’s one of the industry’s top writers, even when he lets some of his excesses get the better of him, because even if the plot doesn’t fully grab me, the characters are spot on. The smart thing for Marvel to do now would be to get him onto “Ultimates”, and prove that the title and characters do have legs beyond Millar and Hitch. Someone, make it happen please.

The Bachelorette 2014 Andi Dorfman bombarded Twitter last month with wedding propaganda, and claimed to be planning her and Josh Murray’s big day. Ironically, they’ll still haven’t set a date yet. While Andi and Josh were in NYC attending Bridal Fashion Week, Josh’s little brother, NFL player Aaron Murray got down on one knee and proposed to his long-time girlfriend Kacie McDonnell. It’s no secret that the Murray Family are not fans of Andi Dorfman, however they adore Kacie and are thrilled to have her marrying in to their family. Sources close to Andi Dorfman exclusively told CDL that Andi despises Kacie, and is uber jealous of her. Kacie has it all (see her pics here), or at least everything that Andi wants out of life. Andi confessed multiple times that she dated athletes and pro-ball players, and Kacie landed the NFL playing Murray brother, and Andi got stuck with retired baseball player and vitamin hustler Josh. To add insult to injury, the Murray Family worships the ground Kacie walks on and they are boycotting Andi and Josh’s nuptials. So aside from the fact that Kacie seems to have the perfect fiancé and the Murray Family’s support, what is Andi’s beef with her? Well, everyone knows that Andi Dorfman quit her job as a DA to pursue a career in the TV world. After getting passed over for Dancing With The Stars, Andi has been campaigning hard to get ABC to televise her and Josh’s wedding, is rumored to be in talks with the Couples Therapy producers, and cozies up to every reality TV star she can meet (her latest BFF is Kim Zolciak). Ironically – Kacie McDonnell already has a TV career and was a news anchor and reporter for FOX, has successfully modeled, and has a slew of fans on the Internet. Our CDL exclusive source claims that Aaron’s fiancée Kacie isn’t exactly a fan of Andi’s either. Apparently Andi insisted that Aaron and Kaci delay their engagement as Andi felt it would detract from the media attention on ‘The Bachelorette’ but they naturally refused. Our source claims, “She (Andi) was furious that Aaron and Kacie got engaged because she wanted the center of attention to be on her. Aaron and Kacie would not change their plans and it made Andi furious. This has led to the estrangement between the whole (Murray) family. The sister Stephanie sent out tweets congratulating Kacie, but none to Andi.” So, are you Team Kacie or Team Andi? Do you think Andi and Kacie have any legitimate beef with each other – or is Andi just completely insecure and jealous of the other Future Mrs. Murray. Which couple do you think will make it down the aisle first? Let us know in the comments below! Pics of Kaci McDonnell Media outlets must CREDIT and LINK to Celeb Dirty Laundry on this exclusive post. Pingback: Andi Dorfman Loses Josh Murray TV Wedding: Producers Say No Since Andi's BFF’s With Nikki Ferrell | Celeb Dirty Laundry()

Jennifer Aniston strips, has a 'Friends' reunion Ignore what Brad Pitt may or may not have said about ex-wife Jennifer Aniston in his Esquire interview. The "Friends" alum was busy making headlines of her own by reuniting with castmates on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and stripping down in the new trailer for her upcoming film "We Are the Millers." Aniston joined Ellen DeGeneres as guest co-host Wednesday and to prepare for the gig, she went to the house of former co-star Matthew Perry with cameras in tow to ask for advice. What she got was a mini "Friends" reunion with Aniston, Perry and Courteney Cox -- back on screen together for the first time in years. Danny Field / Warner Bros.

The final run-in for the A Division promotion race gets under way tomorrow with effectively three clubs battling it out for two places. Top-of-table Northern Social look to be best placed as they are not only 13 points clear, but also have on paper the easiest run-in - away to ORP tomorrow, followed by a trip to second-bottom Hebburn and then home to Blagdon Park. In contrast, second-placed Belsay and St George's Rovers, who are only three points behind them, face a much more difficult task even though the next two weekends shouldn't pose too many problems. Belsay are home to Hebburn tomorrow and then entertain bottom club West Wylam, while Rovers are at West Wylam before a home game against Monkseaton. The real crunch, however, comes on the final day of the season - September 13 - when Belsay and St George's have to battle it out, with the latter having home advantage. Belsay skipper Pat Wisbach feels it will go right down to the wire. "It looks as though it will be between us and St George's Rovers for the second promotion spot," said Wisbach. "It won't be easy as we found at Monkseaton last weekend when they set us a big total (259) and we got it with only four balls to go. "I don't think any of our remaining fixtures will be easy and we won't be underestimating either Hebburn or West Wylam. "However, St George's have been having a fantastic run and it could come down to the final game between us at their place." After last week's shock home defeat by bottom club Whitley Bay, Cowgate's only hope in the JoLoring.com Premier Division title race is that leaders Warkworth slip up while they take maximum points from their remaining fixtures against Bedlington (away), Wallsend (home) and Bates Cottages (home). PREMIER DIVISION: Bedlington v Cowgate, Bomarsund v Stobswood, Clara Vale v Bates Cottages, Corbridge v Stocksfield, Warkworth v Wallsend, Whitley Bay v Chopwell. A DIVISION: Belsay v Hebburn, Blagdon Park v Riverdale Spitfires, Civil Service v Monkseaton, New Hartley v New County, ORP v Northern Social, West Wylam v St George's Rovers. DUNCAN MADSEN

There’s been a long and heated debate about the ability of Stormtroopers. While in theory they should be killing machines, they never seem to be able to hit their target. What is ironic about this episode is that it shows them in training being able to hit their marks perfectly. Apparently it’s when they are under pressure that they can’t perform. Breaking Ranks starts out with Ezra at the Imperial Academy, training to become a Stormtrooper. The reason why is not immediately known, but we later find out it’s part of a mission planned by the crew of the Ghost. He has to pass several rigorous courses in order to move up in his training. He eventually gets two new characters to help him out along the way. One of them, Jai Kell, is trying to get back to his family on Lothal. The other, Zare Leonis, is trying to find his lost sister, who mysteriously disappeared. This is one of the first episodes where Ezra is truly a likable character. Before, he just felt like the typical pesky and annoying kid, but here, you actually feel like rooting for him. While this is not the most exciting episode, it’s still a great ride. It ditches the usual structure the other episodes have had, which I appreciate. This episode is also pretty significant if you look at in terms of canon. It confirms the notion that eventually people were recruited to be Stormtroopers and they were not Clones anymore. Breaking Ranks is not the best episode so far, but it’s not bad either. There’s plenty of suspense and action to keep everyone interested. The one small complaint I have with it is that I would have liked to see more of the rest of the crew. While Ezra served fine as a main character, he’s probably not going to lead the story a whole lot in the future.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cavaliers coach Byron Scott calls it "watching the birds," and he's not happy about it. He uses the phrase to describe his players remaining earthbound and watching loose rebounds soar above them and into the hands of opponents. Such inaction is why the Cavs currently are tied for 24th in the league in rebounding. Last season, even without Anderson Varejao for half a season, the Cavs ranked 14th in the league in rebounding. They were fourth in offensive rebounding and tied for 22nd in defensive rebounding. This season, with Varejao back and averaging 7.5 boards per game, they were ranked 16th in offensive rebounding and tied for 24th in defensive rebounding after their preseason loss at Philadelphia last Wednesday. They are getting outrebounded by an average of four a game, grabbing only 27.6 percent of the available offensive rebounds and 66.7 percent of the available defensive rebounds. They need more help from youngsters such as Tristan Thompson, Samardo Samuels, Jon Leuer and rookie Tyler Zeller. "It's a big-time concern," Scott admitted. Ironically, Scott said Varejao's return is partly to blame for the lackadaisical effort on the boards. "Those guys think he's going to get every rebound," Scott said. "So they don't go as much. Our guards have to rebound the ball, too. It just isn't on the bigs, it's on the whole team. "Andy just does it because it's sheer hustle and energy. You've got to hope you can find a couple of other guys who feel that same way when the ball goes up in the air. Tristan has the ability to do it. He has to do it much more. He can't just do it now and then. Samardo has the ability to do it and it's the same with him. You've got to do it every single time you're on the floor. You have to go after every offensive rebound and every defensive rebound. If we can just find a few guys who want to do it on a day-to-day basis like Andy, we should be in good shape." Varejao said part of the problem is that so many new players are still learning the system. His rebounding philosophy is simple. "You've got to treat every shot as a miss and go after the rebound," he said. His advice to the youngsters is equally simple. "Just box out," he said. "Doesn't matter if it's your man or not. Just box out whoever is next to you and somebody's going to go get it." As usual, Scott will provide some incentive for his team to improve on the boards. "It's just something we've got to get better at," the coach said. "We're going to do a lot of work on it. Obviously, we're getting ready for the season, but it's going to be really emphasized in practice, and the best way to emphasize it is, you give up an offensive rebound, you run. There's got to be some type of consequences in there for us to understand how important it is for us to be a good defensive rebounding team." TV time: Kyrie Irving will guest star in a new episode of Disney XD's "Kickin' It" tonight at 8 p.m. Irving plays himself, visiting a mall shoe store to promote his new shoe. Correction: A story Saturday on the Cavs picking up the third-year options of Irving and Thompson misstated how long the two are tied to the team. They are tied to the team at least through the 2014-15 season.

Since defensive linemen Rubin started all 16 games next to Taylor last fall, but only three times has the duo been healthy enough to play together this season. “There’s definitely a difference,” Rubin said. “You could tell with me and Taylor being back, I think we’re holding teams down to less rushing yards and we enjoy having each other in there. If I’m not making a play, he’s making a play and then, you have Browns coach Pat Shurmur added, “Tackling the runner, controlling the running game or tackling a short pass, it’s team defense. Typically, that happens when you’re playing zone coverage where guys see the ball, they see what’s happening and they get to where they’re supposed to be. That’s just team defense and playing our defense better when you have more guys around because everybody’s got a gap. Everybody typically has to defeat a block and once that happens, when the ball defines itself, you go and get the ball. I think our guys are just doing that all better.” Rubin, who made three tackles in a 20-17 win over Oakland on Sunday, credited the team’s success with its ability to come together. “We’re definitely getting it together and we feel like we’re putting all the pieces together and we’re making everything come (together) and win games,” Rubin said. “I like the direction we’re going and we want to put another one together next week. We’re finally jelling. We’re finally putting all the pieces together, offensively and defensively. They were able to drive down the field and help us out at a crucial time and helped us win the game.” Over the final four games of the season, Rubin and the Browns will see powerful runners in Jamaal Charles (Kansas City) and Alfred Morris (Washington), as well as a rematch with Rashard Mendenhall, Johnathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman of the Steelers. He is working to finish the season on a positive note by continuing to limit opposing running games. “That’s what we’re pushing for, to definitely get in the playoff hunt and try to finish our year out on a good note,” Rubin said. “We’ve been close all year and putting these last couple games together would be huge, especially for us as a team and for the city.!

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Story highlights - The explosion blew out windows at the court building - Police are looking for two people seen running from the scene - The investigation into the blast is continuing An explosion blew out windows at a court in the Netherlands early Wednesday, police in Amsterdam confirmed. The explosion in a staircase of the Amsterdam District Court building occurred at about 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m ET Tuesday), said a police spokeswoman, who cannot be named in line with department policy. Police are now searching for two people seen running from the building, she said. She declined to comment on whether any threats had been made against the court. "There have been a lot of different reports about what happened, but we can't give any details about the explosives or how it happened as our investigation is at very early stages," she added. The court building is in the southern part of the city.

My lovely bride and I have favorite restaurants all over Chicago, but a spot to which we are particularly partial is Forno Diablo on Diversey, just west of Sheridan. It’s a mood-filled interior . . . you walk through black velvet curtains to enter a place where I have never had a bad meal. As you nurse a glass of Malbec and wait for dinner, there are several flat screen televisions above the bar that play old Charlie Chaplain movies. And that’s appropriate because just up the street is The Brewster Apartments, the former Lincoln Park Palace, where Charlie Chaplain occupied the penthouse in 1915 and 1916 when he was filming movies at the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company over on 1333-45 Argyle. The Bewster Apartments, now a condominium building, started its life as the Lincoln Park Palace when it was finished in 1896. It must have soared over this section of the city at the time; few buildings on the north side would have rivaled its height. The Palace stood among the first generation of tall Chicago buildings – one year after the Marquette Building on Dearborn and contemporaneous with the Fisher Building at Dearborn and VanBuren. It was steel-framed and filled with light, the result of a skylight or rotunda across the roof of the building that streamed sunlight into the hollow core of the structure, a core in which bridges of glass blocks led residents to their apartments. The Chicago Tribune on January 22, 1893 announced that “E. Hill Turnock is preparing plans for the Lincoln Park Palace apartment building for B. Edwards, proprietor of the American Contractor. The article went on to disclose that the structure would be 100 feet high, “ornamented with twelve larges bays.” Two entrances were planned, one on Diversey and “the ladies’ entrance,” facing Lake Michigan to the east on Park Street, what is now Pine Grove. Each of the building’s nine floors was planned for six apartments of six, seven or eight rooms. The optimism faded quickly. On July 31, 1895 the developer, Bjourne Edwards, died when he stepped on a piece of loose scaffolding and fell from the roof of the partly finished structure. The next day The Trib reported, “The unfinished building rears its somber, majestic proportions above its surroundings, to be completed by some one else, but it is a monument to the struggles and trials and the pride of the man who conceived its plans.” Edwards was a Norwegian immigrant who did manual labor until he had enough money to enter school. He spent several years in seminaries in Illinois and Iowa. Then he became a book agent. In 1886 he began The American Contractor. Seven years later he was rich enough to build one of the great apartment buildings on the north side of the city. The neighbors in the “fashionable residence district” had been against the building from the beginning. They must have smugly nodded when Edwards hit the pavement. Trouble followed. The two great entrances were spanned by arches composed of a single piece of polished Jasper stone from Minnesota. But as the building settled, the arches broke into pieces. Despite what the neighbors thought, the Lincoln Park Palace was luxurious, every inch of it deserving the “Palace” that was a part of its name. The Chicago Tribune of 1896 raved about the “richness, beauty, and everlasting qualities” of the rusticated pink Jasper granite from which it was built. Telephones connected each apartment with the building’s office. Electric and gas lights were used throughout the building. And it was successful. In October of 1897, following its completion in 1896, the Palace, according to The Tirb had all but one or two of its 60 apartments rented. For whatever reason, though, the Palace did not provide a fair return on the original investment, and in November of 1900 a minor investor, General Henry Strong, the President of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, was awarded the building as the winner of a suit he had brought against the widow of poor old Bjourne Edwards. The structure was estimated to have cost about a quarter of a million dollars to build. Strong nabbed it for about $146,000 in the judicial sale. Mrs. Edwards “. . . purchased the residence adjoining the Lincoln Park Palace on the west and moved into it,” according to the November 25, 1900 Chicago Tribune article. The architect of what is now The Brewster Apartments, Enoch Hill Turnock, was a fascinating guy in his own right. Born in the mid-1850’s in England, he moved to Elkhart, Indiana with his family in the early 1870’s. Ten years later he moved from Indiana to Chciago where he worked until 1890 in William LeBaron Jenney’s office, the same office that started the careers of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird and Martin Roche. Hill began his own practice in 1890, so the Lincoln Park Palace must have been one of his first commissions. In the index to the database of Chicago building permits from 1898 to 1912, he is listed as the sole architect of 37 buildings, dating from 1896 to 1907. [ markers/497.htm] Then in 1907 he left the big city and returned to Elkhart, Indiana, where he continued to design buildings in Elkhart, Goshen and Nappanee. In fact, five buildings that Hill designed in Elkhart and Nappanee are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The architect died in 1926 and is buried in the Lindenwood Cemetery in Fort Wayne. His greatest commission in Chicago still stands at the corner of Diversey and Pine Grove. Affixed to the pink granite in the southeast corner is the plaque that designates the Brewster Apartments as a Chicago Landmark. It reads, “The principles of skeleton-frame construction that made possible tall commercial buildings were used her for an early highrise apartment building, originally known as the Lincoln Park Palace. Behind its heavy masonry walls is an exceptionally innovative interior, a light and airy construction of cast-iron stairs, elevator cages, and bridges, paved with glass blocks, and topped by a skylight.” Turnock used the same design techniques that distinguished the first generation of great skyscrapers in the Loop on a building that took at least one life to build. It's worth a look, and while you're there stop in at Forno Diablo. You won't be sorry on either account.

NEW HAVEN — Federal authorities charged two former Wesleyan University students Friday with selling the synthetic party drug Molly, which resulted in the hospitalization of at least a dozen students on two occasions during the 2014-15 school year. A federal grand jury indicted Eric Lonergan, 22, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Zachary Kramer, 21, of Bethesda, Md., on charges connected with sales of the drug on campus, said U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly. Daly said Lonergan and Kramer had been providing Molly to other students on the Wesleyan campus since at least 2013. She said Lonergan sold Molly from his dorm room most evenings, and that in early 2015 Kramer took over as the primary supplier to the Wesleyan campus. Both men, who were expelled after their arrests, are accused of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute MDMA and AB Fubinaca, the scientific names of the synthetic components of the so-called Molly were being sold, and one count of attempted distribution of MDMA and distribution of AB Fubinaca. Each of the charges carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $1 million. In addition, the two are accused of selling MDMA within 1,000 feet of a private college, a crime that carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of a year and a maximum sentence of up to 40 years. The charge also carries a fine of up to $2 million. Both also face state charges along with three other former students, Rama Agha al-Nakib of Lutherville, Md., Abhimanyu Janamanchi of Rockville, Md., and Andrew Olson of Atascadero, Calif. All were expelled. Lonergan also faces state criminal trespassing charges after, authorities said, he attended a festival on campus in violation of a no-trespass order. Kramer and Lonergan appeared before a federal magistrate Friday afternoon and were released on $250,000 bond each. They are scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Middletown in June and in federal court in Hartford in July. The drug known alternately as Molly, MDMA and Ecstasy is a psychoactive with similarities to both the stimulant amphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria, emotional warmth and empathy toward others, and distortions in sensory and time perception. "There is a perception, clearly a misperception, held by far too many people that synthetic drugs are harmless party drugs," Daly said. "This perception is not only wrong but as the charges here make clear, very dangerous." In February, 11 individuals, including 10 Wesleyan students, were hospitalized after taking Molly. Federal authorities said Friday that in a previously unreported incident, several students were also hospitalized in September after taking a similar dose of Molly. The drug was provided in capsules, and users either swallowed the capsule or opened it and snorted the powder inside. "One student snorted only one-twentieth of a gram, yet in 10 minutes passed out," Daly said. That student was ill for two days before being hospitalized. Michael Ferguson, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge for New England, said synthetic drugs can be deadly. "One of the dangers of these synthetic drugs for the user is you just don't know what you're taking," Ferguson said. "Unfortunately, Molly can be a name of a hundred different substances, so you really are playing Russian roulette." Officials said Friday that drugs confiscated during the investigation were tested in a laboratory, and did not contain MDMA but did contain AB Fubinaca, a synthetic cannabinoid commonly known as "Spice" or K2. Ferguson said many synthetic drugs are manufactured in Asia then smuggled for distribution into the United States. He said there have been cases of Molly mixed with methamphetamine and "bath salts" — another designer drug. He said traffickers try to stay ahead of laws banning substances by frequently changing the chemical makeup of the drugs. Lonergan is accused in the indictment of beginning to buy and sell Molly to students in November 2013, usually in his dormitory room between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Authorities said Lonergan also provided customers with advice on how to use Molly, as well as other psychedelic drugs. In 2014, when Wesleyan distributed a warning to students about the dangers of substances such as Molly, Lonergan answered by distributing a pamphlet of his own, instructing students on the use of psychedelic drugs, federal prosecutors said. At the same time, authorities said Kramer began buying Molly from Lonergan and redistributing it to his own customers. In September 2014, according to federal prosecutors, Lonergan agreed to provide Molly to students who were planning a "rolling" party at Wesleyan, a party allegedly planned around use of the drug. Lonergan is accused of providing several grams of what he represented to be Molly to an individual who then distributed it to students in 0.1 gram capsules. Several students overdosed on Sept. 13 and required medical treatment. The indictment charges that after the overdoses, Lonergan sent what are described as "electronic communications" to several of the students, claiming to have sold them safe drugs, which he had tried himself in advance. Federal prosecutors said Lonergan also sent some of the students a link to a digital video showing him performing a test, which purported to show the substance he was selling was authentic Molly. Three months later, federal prosecutors said, one of the students who had overdosed provided the Middletown Police Department with a capsule she claimed to have purchased from Lonergan the previous September. Laboratory analysis showed that the capsule did not contain MDMA, but rather AB Fubinaca, a synthetic cannabis-like substance and something called 6-MAPB, which is similar to MDMA. By early 2015, the indictment says, Kramer had taken over for Lonergan as the primary supplier of Molly on campus. The indictment goes on to say that Molly distributed on campus by Kramer resulted in overdoses by another 11 people — 10 of them Wesleyan students, on Feb. 21. The students reported symptoms similar to those who had been medically treated in September, and several required hospitalization. Two of the students were hospitalized in critical condition, and one of them was medically revived after his heart stopped, federal prosecutors said. Law enforcement laboratory tests on drugs responsible for the second set of overdoses again tested positive for AB Fubinaca. Wesleyan put out a statement Friday that said it "remains deeply concerned about the events that occurred this past February as well as the broader problem of drug abuse. All of the students arrested in the February incident were promptly expelled from the University. The University has fully and comprehensively cooperated with local, State and Federal authorities at each step of their investigation and it will continue to do so."

Rooney, Ibrahimovic and Benteke? I have my own players to worry about, says Jose Mourinho JOSE MOURINHO insists he's not thinking about the possibility of signing Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Christian Benteke. Jose Mourinho wants to instil a winning mentality at Chelsea “Until August 31 we will see if anyone can improve our squad”Jose Mourinho Chelsea are intent on strengthening their frontline with all three names mentioned as possible targets. But the Special One is adamant he's only focused on the current crop of Blues stars. He said: "At this moment I'm so happy with the people I have here that I'm not thinking about other players. "If I have to think about some players, I have to think about my players who are on holiday period and still have to join us on July 28. "The first part of my job is to get the best from these players, try to push the young boys to the levels they can reach, and to try to make a real team. After that, we will see. Mourinho wants to bring the glory days back to Stamford Bridge "This is a period where the big clubs, and the managers of the big clubs, are connected with every player. "Until August 31 [and the close of the transfer window], that's the old story in football. Rumours and rumours and rumours. "At the end of the day, after so many rumours, some things come true. Wayne Rooney has been linked with a move to Chelsea... ...as has Zlatan Ibrahimovic "Until August 31 we will see if anyone can improve our squad, but my focus and ambition is to work with these guys." Mourinho has named two sides for tomorrow's first match of his return, the pre-season contest with Singha All-Stars in Bangkok. The Portuguese boss begin with the same 4-2-3-1 formation favoured by predecessor Rafael Benitez and which delivered the Europa League trophy in May. Christian Benteke has also been linked with Chelsea He added: "Winning is part of a culture - if you can do that even in friendly matches, we have to do it. "I don't like to lose, the players don't like to lose. They are competing fantastically in training sessions, and against several players, so my boys will try and get a result. "To lose is not a drama. It doesn't change anything in the teams - but it's not nice. We don't like that. "It's not the most important thing to get a result, but we want to win." Mourinho says he isn't thinking about new signings Eden Hazard has come in for special praise from the Special One Chelsea had been chasing Edinson Cavani

Manchester United star Michael Carrick: We will be in the title race next season! MICHAEL CARRICK is convinced that struggling Manchester United will bounce right back into the title race next season. WE'LL BE BACK: Michael Carrick is confident Manchester United will be challenging for the title next season [GETTY] The England midfielder admits that the current campaign has been frustrating but says of next term: "I don't doubt for a second that we won't be up there challenging." Carrick returns to his home city of Newcastle today in a United team that occupies seventh place in the Premier League after winning only half of their 32 fixtures. The champions also crashed out of both domestic cup competitions and are on the verge of a Champions League exit after the midweek home 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. But Carrick, 32, insists that heads have not dropped in the dressing room despite the champions losing their way this term. Hopes are high for the next campaign and he said: "An awful lot can change from season to season, so we are looking ahead thinking we can challenge again. "We have the potential to come back stronger next time - that is something we have always believed in as long as I have been here." But, while optimism is well and truly there for the future, he said of the current season's form: "It's been disappointing, really. "There are certain times here through the years when we have had two bad results on the spin and the roof caves in and everything is wrong. "But then we have gone on to achieve things - but for that week with a couple of bad results it was disastrous, horrible. "This season it has been over a longer period but, hopefully, next time around we can get back to winning more often." Has it affected the players personally? He said: "It's horrible. It is not nice. You go home after a bad result and you suffer more than most. "That's because it is our responsibility if we have not performed and had the result. You take it to the next game. "You constantly ask questions of yourself. It is not nice. You have to face the public on the school run or taking the kids somewhere. CLEAR VISION: Michael Carrick is convinced United will be challenging for the title again next season [GETTY] “We have the potential to come back stronger next time - that is something we have always believed in as long as I have been here.”Michael Carrick "It's not pleasant, but if you want to take good times you have to be prepared for the bad times. "The league position is disappointing, though the Champions League form has been good and hopefully still is." Speaking at a photo-shoot for the PUMA evoPOWER football boots, he added: "It has been a frustrating time." That frustration has been particularly evident at Old Trafford where United have lost six of their 16 games, drawing three and winning seven. Carrick said: "We never expected to be in this position in the league at this stage. We haven't played well enough and certain games have been quite damaging. "But you look at our away form and that has been particularly good and we have been good away from home and in the Champions League." And Carrick believes that all hope of pulling off a surprise second leg result in the Champions League second leg clash at Bayern next week is very much alive. He said: "There is a possibility. We are still in it, we are well in the game. It is a big challenge. "The first challenge is in Munich and then, after that, there will be big challenges ahead if we get through." Carrick, who joined United from Spurs in July 2006 for £18.5m, said of his own form this season: "It's been a mixed bag, really. "At times I have been quite happy. At some points I feel I have been doing quite well and at others not so much, but that is the same for every season. "You have good and bad spells. I am always harsh on myself, so last season when people were saying good things I thought there were times I could have done things better. "When things are not going well as a team the first thing you look to is yourself and your own performance and if you can do better. I can certainly do better." Today, Carrick and company face the challenge of Newcastle where he will be watched by his Geordie family in action. Carrick grew up as a Newcastle fan and his father Vince, now converted from the Toon Army to a Manchester United fan, will be watching him. Carrick said: "He was as big a Newcastle fan as you can get but now he follows me and United. I don't think there will be any divided loyalties in this one!"

Sunderland boss Gus Poyet eyeing shock swoop for Valencia ace Ever Banega GUS POYET in lining up a ambitious swoop for Argentina international Ever Banega. WANTED: Poyet was Banega at the Stadium of Light [GETTY] Banega, who spent the second half of the season on-loan with Newell's Old Boys from Valencia, is not wanted at the Mestalla and is available for around £8m. Poyet was interested in bringing Banega to Sunderland in January, but was unable to persuade the 25-year-old to join his relegation-threatened side. With midfield ace Jack Colback set to quit the Stadium of Light for a bumper payday elsewhere, the Black Cats boss is eager to add creativity to the centre of the park. Banega has made 112 appearances and scored seven times for Valencia since joining the La Liga giants in 2008. But he was one many high-profile named who failed to make Argentina's 23-man squad for the World Cup. Tottenham's record signing Erik Lamela and former Manchester City and Manchester United man Carlos Tevez were also overlooked by coach Alejandro Sabella. It has been a busy summer already for Sunderland, who have brought in Billy Jones from West Brom and Jordi Gomez from Wigan on free transfers.

Cesc Fabregas out of Chelsea's squad for Man United clash tonight CESC FABREGAS is out of the Chelsea squad for tonight’s clash with Manchester United. AFP The Blues head north knowing a win could end Louis van Gaal’s spell in charge. But Guus Hiddink will have to do without the Spanish midfielder for his side's visit to Old Trafford. A Chelsea insider told the Telegraph that Fabregas has a fever. His absence comes on the back of a run of off-field dramas. The 28-year-old was booed by his own fans after the departure of Jose Mourinho after it was wrongly claimed he was leading a dressing room revolt against the Portuguese. He’s also picked a fight with ex-Chelsea man Pat Nevin, who was forced to apologise for accusing Fabregas of saying he’d rather lose than win under his old boss. AFP Hiddink faces another selection headache for tonight’s game, with Diego Costa suspended. “He [Falcao] is training with us, but there is a difference of being fit and game fit”Guus Hiddink The Spain striker returned to form with a double against Watford on Boxing Day, but picked up a fifth yellow card of the season in that game and misses out tonight. Potential replacements Eden Hazard and Loic Remy both have knocks while Hiddink says Radamel Falcao is not fit enough to play against his former club. “He [Falcao] is training with us, but there is a difference of being fit and game fit,” Hiddink said. “You need longer in training. We talked to him about the intensity of training. If you are fit to train, the next step is to be game fit.”

Man United and West Ham to face FA action after Upton Park violence THE FA have launched an investigation after West Ham fans pelted Manchester United’s team bus with objects as they arrived at Upton Park. GETTY The Hammers would go on to win the last ever match at their famous ground 3-2 thanks to a late Winston Reid effort. The FA issued a statement soon after the match in response to the disturbances and confirmed an investigation would be launched. A post on the FA Twitter feed said: "The FA strongly condemns the unsavoury incidents this evening involving both the Manchester United team coach outside West Ham United's Boleyn Ground and objects thrown from a section of the home support during the game. GETTY “The FA strongly condemns the unsavoury incidents this evening involving the Manchester United team coach”FA Statement "We will work closely with both clubs and the Metropolitan Police to fully investigate these matters." Kick-off for the match was delayed until 8.30pm because of the disturbances and West Ham started brightly. They took the lead through Diafra Sakho but United hit back through Anthony Martial in the second half. The Frenchman scored twice to put the Red Devils in front but Slaven Bilic’s side were determined to leave Upton Park by making history. A 76th minute effort from Michail Antonio and then Reid’s goal sent the fans into a frenzy as they completed the comeback win. However, ugly scenes marred the occasion with the FA ready to investigate both teams.

Man United boss Jose Mourinho explains what will make Old Trafford a fortress again JOSE MOURINHO insists he is NOT the man to bring the fear factor back to Old Trafford. But the Manchester United boss believes his club’s fans and star players can turn their stadium back into a fortress. United’s critics have claimed the once-fearsome Old Trafford reputation has slipped on the watch of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. And the Dutchman’s stale style of football certainly had the United faithful bored into submission for large chunks of the last two years. But as the Mourinho home reign starts with tonight’s clash against Southampton, the Portuguese boss claims United don’t need a special ONE, but a special 70,000-plus. Mourinho said: “It is not me. The team yes and the fans too. “And I think everything starts there, the relationship between the team and the fans. **MANCHESTER UNITED TRANSFER NEWS: WHO DOES MOURINHO WANT? WHO HAS SIGNED? WHO COULD LEAVE?** .” All eyes will be on Paul Pogba as the world record signing makes his second United debut tonight. But Henrikh Mkhitaryan - another big money summer signing - is handed a first start. Mourinho insisted he is not the sort of boss to select his big buys just to safeguard his own reputation. GETTY “Mkhitaryan is a super football player and he will be given a lot of opportunities”Jose Mourinho He said: , Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard were the best options for the team, adapted to the reality of the Premier League so I made that decision. “But Mkhitaryan is a super football player and he will be given a lot of opportunities this season.” Tonight’s home atmosphere will also doubtless be boosted by a home bow for cult hero striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has started with goals in each of his opening two games. And although the Swede only has a deal for one season, Mourinho has no doubt he will be at the club for next season as well. He said: “No, I have no doubt. He seems happy. “I ask every day because I know how important it is with a family guy like him, I ask about wife, kids, integration. house. “Everything ifs fine, everybody is happy. His motivation is high so he is here no doubts for the next two years.” One issue that needs to be resolved is whether Ibrahimovic will be joined by Southampton’s Portuguese defender Jose Fonte before the transfer window closes at the end of the month. The Saints were unhappy accused United of unsettling their skipper. But Mourinho said: “I don’t comment. I don’t care. The market is open until August 31. I keep saying I am very happy with the players I have. I don’t speak.”

What's Roo worth now ...£100m? Sir Alex Ferguson is doing his best to damp down the euphoria being heaped on man-of-the-moment Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney Rooney is just awesome, isn’t he?” Ferguson’s insistence that Rooney has played as well as this in the past for United and that he is just a member of our team was understandable. The most experienced manager in the business will always promote the team ethic above adulation for the individual. Yet the simple fact is that the quality and consistency of Rooney’s displays make it impossible to ignore his headline-making claims. Not even those who suffer at the 22-year-old’s hands are averse to singing his praises. Ferguson’s former midfielder Jonathan Greening, now skipper of Albion, admitted he and his team-mates had found Rooney unstoppable as he scored one, made two and generally terrorised the Premier League new boys. “Rooney is just awesome, isn’t he,” said Greening. “He’s one of the best players in the world, even at his young age. “It’s very hard to pick him, either in the hole or when he drifts wide or drops off. He’s fast and he’s strong. I don’t think there’s a weakness in his game.” On the eve of the match, Ferguson had reiterated his right to play Rooney in whichever role he deemed best for the team, despite the player’s preference for operating through the middle. Here, Rooney got his wish, tucking in behind Dimitar Berbatov. But the simple fact is - and no-one knows it better than Ferguson - that Rooney has licence to roam. And to kill. Greening said: “It simply doesn’t matter where Alex Ferguson plays him. You’ve just got to let him play where he feels he will be effective. “If he’s getting joy down the left, he’ll go there and if he’s getting joy down the right, he’ll go there. “I watched him play for England in midweek and he was awesome. There’s just no stopping him at the moment. “In the world today you’ve got players like Messi, who is truly a great player, but we’re lucky in England to have a player like Wayne Rooney because he’s somebody who can change a game, a bit like Paul Gascoigne used to. “Of course, the scary thing about Wayne is he’s still only 22, so his best years are still ahead of him. “They say you don’t hit your best form until you’re 27 or 28 so I dread to think what he will be like when he’s that age. “Wayne’s work-rate has always been outstanding. At the moment he’s hitting tremendous final passes and scoring goals too. ‘The thing is, in a team like United’s, he’s just going to go on learning and get better. He’s going to be some player in four or five years.” After three times going close to breaking Albion’s resistance, Rooney finally struck - his eighth goal in six matches for club and country - with a lovely near-post finish following Berbatov’s excellent through pass. Rooney went on to lay on goals for Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani, with Berbatov stabbing in his first league goal for United in between. Rooney, who hits the ripe old age of 23 on Friday, agreed with the suggestion that he is in the form of his life. Then he confirmed Greening’s ‘scary’ prediction by insisting: “I know I can play better. I know I can get better so I’ve got to keep working on the training ground and, hopefully, there will be better performances to come. “I’ve probably not had a better week in professional football. I’ve played well for England, we won both games, I got four goals, and I’ve scored again for United. I’ve worked on every part of my game. I work on different things and thankfully it’s starting to pay off. Amid the focus on Rooney’s fabulous performance, Greening found time to highlight the contribution of former team-mate Ryan Giggs. He will be 35 next month but now revels in a central midfield role. “You simply can’t fault Ryan Giggs,” said Greening. “He’s played 700-odd games here and he’s still going strong. He sprinted 70, 80 yards to chase our centre-forward in the 88th minute and then a minute later hit the pass which led to the fourth goal. He is some pro, some player. The scary thing is he could still be doing it for another two or three years, especially playing that role. Albion, blasted by four goals in the final 35 minutes, were left licking their wounds and vowing to fight on. “I don’t think we could compromise our beliefs,” said Greening. “Playing the way we did last season we proved a lot of people wrong by winning the league. “OK, we just couldn’t stop United once they scored, but it won’t stop us carrying on playing the way we do. We like to play attractive, passing football and, hopefully, that will continue and see us through.” Boss Tony Mowbray admitted: “Realistically, we can’t compete with United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Our big game is next week against Hull. “The world-class players in the Premier League are with the top four clubs, particularly up front. “They score goals while everyone else finds it hard to score on a regular basis. “I don’t want to turn it into a money issue, but these are £30m players. I mean, what is Rooney worth now, £100m?” [>

West Ham in talks to swap Simone Zaza for this international striker WEST HAM have opened talks over a potential swap deal to replace Simone Zaza with Napoli striker Manolo Gabbiadini. GETTY Italy forward Zaza has flopped for the Hammers since joining on loan from Juventus, failing to score in nine appearances. And boss Bilic is ready to cut his losses as he seeks reinforcements in January. A clause in Zaza’s loan deal means the Hammers have an option to make his move permanent for around £20m. GETTY “West Ham could swap striker Simone Zaza for Napoli forward Manolo Gabbiadini” And club bosses are weighing up whether to sign him and sell him on to Napoli in part-exchange for Gabbiadini. Sources close to Zaza have revealed that talks are now underway to take the 25-year-old to Naples. But West Ham are in no hurry to pull the trigger as Bilic has doubts that Gabbiadini is the answer to their goalscoring problems. GETTY Everton came close to signing the 24-year-old in the summer only for Napoli to pull the plug on a transfer. But Gabbiadini, who has six caps for Italy, has endured a slow start to the season and Bilic wants to see if his form picks up. West Ham also have the option to send Zaza back to Juventus early for just the £5m loan fee they paid to sign him.