text:
Queen Cuisine
Why do we do it? Why do we race around trying to accomplish this and that? What will we have to show after all? Will we ask ourselves if we regret not having spent more time working? I don't think so. Life is not a beginning or an end. Life is a process, and to work so hard and ignore all of the finer things along the way is really missing the whole point.
Now, this is not saying we should not work hard. Work can be fun and rewarding and challenging in and of itself. Most of us are conscientious, but we do need a moment of peace. However, more often than not, we all tend to unbalance the scales. I am merely pointing out that during the process of working hard, we need to pay attention to every single thing we are doing. If we just work toward an end and not enjoy the middle, we are not fully experiencing the rewards that everyday life has to offer.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote that earth is crammed with heaven. "Crammed," she said. To me that means heaven is everywhere-in every nook and cranny if only we look for it. Heaven may be experienced more often than we could ever imagine-that is, of course, if we ever allow ourselves to the time to do imagining!
If we do not pay attention to the peace and joy and pleasures along the way, we really miss out. Here is a prime example of what I mean. It tells of what might have been lost if two people didn't stop a moment. Liz Latsha of The Manor House in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, told me that at her inn, relaxation is something that is encouraged, not only among the guests, but also between her and her husband, and they practice what they preach.
"As the sun goes down, or in the early morning, my husband and I have always tried to get in a walk down by the water, where we seem to do our best talking and thinking," she said. "We use the time to talk about ideas-our hopes and dreams," Liz revealed. "It really gives us the chance to get back in touch with why we are together."
Wouldn't you know that it was during one of these dedicated rituals that Liz and Rick came up with the idea of starting their very own bed-and-breakfast!
Taking a walk along the beach is a simple pleasure than can suddenly open up a whole new world. You bet Liz and Rick feel a touch of heaven every time they walk along the shore. The result of taking time out and paying attention to what is really going on inside of you is essential.
Soothing moments and simple pleasures offer all of us the chance to get back in touch with our inner selves. When we do that, we become more focused and centered and actually enrich what we are doing. The time we spend creating something fresh and artistic should not be rushed. As you go through what you are doing, walk, don't run.
It is good to keep a journal to record your day's activities. See how much time you are spending thinking about everything but your inner soul and spirit. In your journal, as you make changes and record activities and observances, you will find yourself getting in touch and centered. Inns have guest books. These journals record a visitor's impressions and beckon us to write about what we learned by staying at the inn. You would be surprised how informative, revealing, and inspirational they can be.
One of the most impressive guest books I have ever seen is at October Country Inn in Bridgewater Corners, Vermont. Here Richard Sims and Patrick Runkel have volumes of large, bound and unlined books where guests have not only documented their impressions and insights in verse, but also in art. The innkeepers leave out thin magic markers of all colors to inspire such creativity. The books are exciting and energizing to read. I remember spending a cold, blizzardy afternoon by the fire, poring through the books, looking for a new revelation. All of the expressions from strangers-people I never met but have sat where I was sitting-were teaching me a whole lot about simplicity and the joys of paying attention to my inner self. Next time you sign a guest book at an inn, realize that you are taking a step toward finding your soul and offering something to think about, too. It is a simple pleasure to sit at an inn and read a guest book all day.
Soothing moments are everywhere for the taking, especially at inns. One day during one of my visits to Clifton Country Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia, I was working on a new project-this time in the garden. Suddenly I spotted a few very large blueberry-colored morning glories climbing up a brick wall to one of the inn's enchanting cottages. Of course, I was under a tight schedule and filled with the stress of getting the job at hand completed. In glancing over at the flowers, I thought of the oft-repeated cliché, "Take time to smell the flowers." And so I took it literally. I thought, "C'mon, why don't you do it for a change?" So, I told the folks I was working with that I needed a minute-too bad about schedules. I walked over to one of the flowers and put my face right into its wide, trumpet-shaped mouth. I breathed deeply. The beauty of the moment-sensing the velvet of the petals on my cheeks; looking at the flower's life-bearing potential where the seeds are produced and the pollen is generated; and the touch-cupping such a gentle living thing in my hand-it was all a bit overwhelming. I was brimming with good feelings. The flower didn't have a sweet smell-in fact, it didn't have a scent at all! But I got the message of the old maxim anyway, and so the rest of the day went along stress-free and on time.
One of the simple pleasures suggested in this chapter comes from the Willow Brook Inn in Canton, Michigan, suggesting that we plant a butterfly garden. I wouldn't have known what the inn meant if I had not seen one recently at Glen-Ella Springs Inn in Clarksville, Georgia. We were filming for my TV show, Country Inn Cooking with Gail Greco. My director turned to one of our cameramen and instructed, "Get Gail goo-gooing with the butterflies."
So, I got behind this patch of flowers where dozens of small butterflies were dancing around, unmindful of our crew and me. I was fascinated by the flight of fancy they took around and around. I had never seen anything like it. Usually when I go chase a butterfly, the winged creature is off in a flash. Well, our cameraman, Tony, shot video for a good five minutes. The job was done and he was off. I lingered as long as I could. But later that evening, I felt a bit saddened that Tony hadn't put his camera down and Richard his directorial urge aside, and taken a moment to just sit there with me and watch the waltz of the butterflies.
I think this is a good example of why this chapter is so important. Even though life's little treasures are all around us, we have to be reminded of what they are and to go ahead and indulge them. Butterflies are free, and truly, so are you! And besides, remember that the butterfly does not count the months, only moments-and he has enough time. So do you.
If you'd like to read more of Gail Greco's insights and tips to living well, e-mail her at [email protected]


text:
With Cat Zingano's move to Strikeforce earlier this week, Leslie Smith was in need of a new opponent. She now has one.
Smith (3-2-1) now will face Kim Connor-Hamby (4-0) at Invicta FC 3 when the all-female MMA promotion returns in October. Invicta officials on Friday announced the opponent switch.
Invicta FC 3 takes place Oct. 6 in Kansas City, Kan., and the event is expected to stream online for free.
In addition, Invicta officials have announced that submission specialist Ediane Gomes (8-2) will step in for an injured Taylor Stratford against Katalina Malungahu (2-0) early in the card.
Connor-Hamby's skill set lies in boxing, where she is 10-2-2 as a professional with four knockouts since 2004. She took up MMA training after giving birth to get back in shape, then realized she wanted to give it a go in the cage.
She won her pro debut with a 20-second TKO and put away her next two opponents with her hands, as well. But in October, she'll return for the first time since an April 2010 split-decision win over Jessica Hilger.
"I'm very excited to be fighting with all the big names that are on this Invicta FC card," Connor-Hamby stated. "My hands are where it's at. I want to show everyone what a woman can do with boxing inside the cage, and I do not want to go to the ground at all in this fight."
Smith is coming off a "Fight of the Night" performance at Invicta FC 1 in April, when she slugged it out with Kaitlin Young on the way to a majority draw. The Cesar Gracie-trained fighter and Bellator veteran has not won since a January 2010 unanimous decision against Julia Griffin.
The American Top Team-trained Gomes, from Brazil, goes after her third straight win. Her last loss came at the hands of Strikeforce bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey, who submitted her with an armbar in just 25 seconds. Gomes will be making her Invicta debut. She has submitted opponents in six of her eight wins.
Malungahu has both her pro wins by first-round knockout, including a 36-second KO of Ericka Newsome this past July. In addition, the Xtreme Couture fighter had three amateur wins courtesy of her hands.
Invicta FC 3 features a main event atomweight title fight between Jessica Penne (9-1) and Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama as well as bantamweight bouts between Shayna Baszler (14-7)-Sarah D'Alelio (6-2) and former Strikeforce champ and recent title challenger Sarah Kaufman (15-2) vs. Kaitlin Young (7-6-1).
The latest Invicta FC 3 card now includes:
- 105 pounds (atomweight title fight): Jessica Penne (9-1) vs. Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama (8-0)
- 135: Shayna "The Queen of Spades" Baszler (14-7) vs. Sarah "The Monster" D'Alelio (6-2)
- 135: Sarah Kaufman (15-2) vs. Kaitlin Young (7-6-1)
- 125: Barb "Little Warrior" Honchak (6-2) vs. Aisling "Ais The Bash" Daly (13-3)
- 125: Tara LaRosa (21-2) vs. Vanessa Porto (14-5)
- 135: Leslie "The Peacemaker" Smith (3-2-1) vs. Kim Connor-Hamby (4-0)
- 105: Michelle "The Karate Hottie" Waterson (9-3) vs. Lacey "The Ladie" Schuckman (7-5)
- 145: Julia "The Jewel" Budd (3-2) vs. Elaina "Beef" Maxwell (7-4)
- 115: Carla Esparza (7-2) vs. Lynn "Lights Out" Alvarez (5-2)
- 115: Ashley "Smashley" Cummins (3-0) vs. Joanne Calderwood (3-0)
- 105: Amy "Lil' Dynamite" Davis (3-3) vs. Stephanie "Macaquinha" Frausto (3-4)
- 135: Jessamyn "The Gun" Duke (1-0) vs. Marciea "Black Widow" Allen (1-0)
- 115: Tecia "The Tiny Tornado" Torres (7-0 amateur) vs. Kaiyana Rain (5-1-1 amateur)
- 145: Katalina Malungahu (2-0) vs. Ediane Gomes (8-2)
(Pictured: Leslie Smith)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Camellias in bud with Viburnum bodnantense – a painting a day
size 5″ x 5″
I have been drawing and not painting and also plotting some work outlines for this year. Honest.
At the weekend I went to an auction which was fun if a bit slower than I was expecting. We were only successful on one lot but it was MY lot so I was quietly pleased having spotted a wire rack which can be used to store fresh prints until they are ready for drying in blotters at the end of the printing session. It will also store the consumables i.e. tissue and newsprint for the job in a compact way. It is the sort of thing that can cost over £100 bought new and if this one has been used it was lightly.
Here is a tiny sketch of a vase in which some camellias from mother's garden are opening out. I also had permission to cut some of the beautiful pink scented Viburnum bodnantense.
#188 a painting a day by Alison Warner on her lemon a day art blog


text:
A few months back Alton Brown stopped by the office to chat with us about such diverse topics as how to write a recipe for an omelette, his top five pieces of kitchen equipment, and even the future of recipe writing. Now chatting is all well and good, but I'm not going to pass up on the opportunity to actually cook with the man who made me want to do what I do today.
To make it exciting, we grabbed the first raw ingredient we could find—a whole, head-on chicken from the Chinese supermarket around the corner—and placed a bet on it.
The game: we took both breasts off the chicken and cooked them to 155°F. One was cooked by starting it in a hot skillet, the other was cooked starting cold. Which one would lose more moisture?
Check out the video to find out.
I'm not exactly sure what makes this particular experiment "great" or even really an experiment, per se. More like moderately poorly controlled, trivially important kitchen futzing if you want to know the truth. But either way, I had a heck of a fun time doing it; it's a rare thing to get to meet one of your personal heroes, much less to cook a chicken with him. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of watching it.
Watch the Video!
Alton Brown - The Food Lab: The Great Kitchen Experiment
Alton Brown: "No they don't, Kenji. They don't think about that all. And it kills me..." (high-pitched laugh) So let's say that we're going to cook two chicken breast pieces to the exact same internal temperature, but start them at completely different times, so that we have one that goes in hot and cooks for a shorter amount of time versus the one that... you know what, we should weigh them before they go in as well.
So we got 99 grams and 111 grams, one's going to go into a cool pan, and let's pick a final temperature.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: Let me cool this pan quickly because it's already smoking.
AB: So we notice that he likes to live dangerously by pouring water directly into the hot pan of oil so that it aerosolizes, causing third-degree burns. Duly noted! Okay, what kind of surface temperature do you want to see? JLKA: 400?
AB: At least.
AB: So it's okay to put your hands on the chicken and then stick em back in the salt. Okay, also noted. Good sanitation procedures.
JKLA: What's going to live in the salt?
AB: Nothing's going to live in the salt at all. I'm just giving you crap. I think the interesting thing's going to be if we cook them both to the same doneness, if we pick a spot center mass, and we decide on a final temperature, 155, is going to be the comparison of weight of moisture loss. I'm going to hypothesize that there's going to be more moisture loss out of chicken breast B.
JKLA: Right, because we're cooking it at a higher temperature the whole time.
AB: Surface to mass ratio. Reading 161 center mass. #2 is of course way down from that. Da da da da. 78 grams.
JKLA: I'd say it's About 78%, given that we started with basically 100. 99.
AB: But it's not exactly. I mean, if you wanna play all loosey goosey with the facts, that's your business. 78.78% okay. This is primary research, man. We're in Harold McGee territory. Are we close to the same temperature?
JKLA: Yep. It's too bad they don't make chicken breasts in completely uniform sizes.
AB: We're working on it...we're working on it. 84.68%. I was guessing that the piece that went into the colder pan would, because of its reduced surface area, maybe retain more moisture, but indeed there is a relationship between time and moisture loss. So the piece that went into the hot pan stayed moister.
In order to quantify anything that's going on with your food, you've got to have measurements.
JKLA: Yes.
AB: Now ideally, we would have been measuring time. We didn't. But, not only did we weigh things, we weighed things digitally, in metric.
JKLA: In metric, yes.
AB: And we took careful temperatures, not only of the pan, but of the food, so we've got three data points. But this is still a pretty big trend. 84.68% vs 78.78%.
JKLA: Yeah, that's not insignificant.
AB: Lunch! Lunch is up. This is enough to feed like six girls from New York.
JKLA: Well, it's impossible to say without bias, because I know that this one lost more moisture, but...
AB: I note it no difference whatsoever.
JKLA: No?
AB: So what we've learned is that it freaking doesn't matter.
JKLA: Start with a good bird and don't mess it up?
AB: Here's the other thing. Food tastes better when you're hungry. And meat is more tender when you're hungry because you produce more saliva. As Cervantes said, hunger is the best sauce.


text:
Many of the music fans out there already know the songs of the Eclipse Soundtrack. So here is something exciting from Metric whose song Eclipse (All Yours) is the opening song of the Eclipse Soundtrack. Metric is celebrating the release of the soundtrack with a special offer and a giveaway! Visit www.ilovemetric.com to purchase the Eclipse Soundtrack and you can get any Metric Catalogue album ½ price. The offer also includes a free download of the Eclipse (All Yours) acoustic version which was only available with the pre-sale of the soundtrack.
And for the giveaway part!! Metric has given us a SIGNED copy of Fantasies their latest album to giveaway to one lucky winner. This contest is only available only for residents of the US and Canada. All you have to do is a leave a comment below and we will choose a winner at random. The contest will close on Monday 6/28 at 11:59PM EST.
Thanks and Good Luck!!!
Also you can see our Red Carpet Interview with Metric at the 1:45 mark.


text:
The holidays can be a stressful time of year for many people. Often you are juggling shopping, traveling, visiting and entertaining. For many of you, the most stressful part of the holidays is family gift giving.
Here are some suggestions to ease your stress:
Key questions to ask yourself:
- Who do I want to buy gifts for?
- How much do I want to spend?
- What do I want to give?
Make a list of all of the people you would like to buy gifts for. Set a budget of how much you'd like to spend and then jot down at least two gift ideas for each person on your list.
Tips to reduce the number of gifts you buy:
- Make a list of all family members, write each person's name on a slip of paper, each adult selects one slip of paper and only buys a gift for that family member. You only have to buy one gift and no one gets left out.
- Agree among all the adult gift-givers on a dollar limit and do not exceed the agreed-to amount when purchasing your gift.
- Only buy gifts for children under 17 and grandparents.
- For more distant relatives or friends, send a nice holiday card with a family photo instead of a gift.
Tips to spend less money:
- Buy gift certificates for movies, ice cream shops or coffee shops.
- Bake cookies or banana bread and wrap in an inexpensive tin or basket. Use this as a hostess gift or give to your child's teacher or school bus driver.
- Take advantage of your arts and crafts skills: knit a sweater or scarf, build a bird feeder, make a bulletin board with fabric and ribbon, make a scrapbook of family photos or a personalized calendar.
Tips to save time:
- Ask family members and friends to fill out "Wish Lists." This is a great way to get an idea of what people want and need.
- Shop online or in catalogs. Many stores offer free shipping.
- Set a time to shop. Get a babysitter if necessary.
- Create a detailed plan including which stores to visit and what items you are shopping for.
- Don't leave home without your list.
Get organized, be creative and resourceful and enjoy the holiday season!
Happy shopping everyone!
Remember, only YOU can make it happen!
Original Content by Jackie Black, Ph.D., BCC
www.DrJackieBlack.com ~ email@example.com
Scan the QR Code and download your Free MYMARRIAGECOACH App


text:
ER nurse Lauren Carson is sick of men and wants nothing more than to return to her regularly scheduled life of junk food, television, sleep, and work.
Sergeant Anthony Miles is used to life-threatening situations. But the latest threat to his life isn't a unit of enemy soldiers. No, she's far more dangerous.
Can Lauren and Anthony get beyond the scars of their pasts to create a new future together?
"Are you even listening?"
"No." Lauren shook her head very slowly, to reinforce her answer. She knew her best friend meant well, but she was way past wanting to be fixed up. Again. This was the second time in a month Char had "found" the perfect man for her. The last man was a math teacher. Doug had been very nice, but not the man for her. She was certain there was some nice English professor out there somewhere who would scoop him up and take him home. It wouldn't be her.
"Besides, you need a roof and he lays roofs. Or whatever they call putting on…roofs." Char waved her hand in the air as if that made things a hell of a lot clearer. "That is such an odd word when you repeat it so many times in a row."
"Roof?" Lauren repeated as she cocked her head and scrunched up her face at her friend. "Have you been talking this whole time?"
"Thanks for listening this whole time. And yes, roof. It's an odd word, am I right?"
"Time to switch to water, Char."
"This is water." She held up her wine glass with a clear liquid in it. "I'm on call this week. You know I can't drink the good stuff."
"Char, I know you're looking out for me—you always do—but whatever it is you're talking about, be it roofs or men, count me out."
"But Anthony is a great guy! I've met him a few times and he's always so funny. And hot. He's more hot than he is funny." Char waggled her eyebrows, licked her finger, and touched it to her butt as she made a sizzling sound. "You need to give him a chance. You'll thank me someday."
"Doubtful," Lauren drawled. "Is he hot like the math teacher was?"
Char smirked and pointed her finger at Lauren. "Noo. And don't be angry about that. You would have loved Doug come tax season."
Lauren couldn't hide her smile as she looked at her friend. "No more chances, Char. I'm fresh out. I want to return to my regularly scheduled life of junk food, television, sleep, and work. In that order."
"He's a sergeant in the Army. That shows dependability, my friend. And we all know how much you like dependable men."
"I also like kittens and puppies, but you don't see me dating them." Lauren sipped her rum drink and looked at her watch. Damn, had she really only been here thirty minutes? It felt like hours. And where had Todd disappeared to? He should be here entertaining Char so she didn't get into mischief…like playing matchmaker. She glanced back at Char. They'd been instant friends since nursing school and she was more like a sister than a friend. But at times like this, she really wished Char would just let her be single. Her ex-husband, Robert, had done a lot of damage to her ego and her trust. Besides, there were no men her type to be found.
Lauren liked the rugged, outdoorsy type of man and they had to be honest or what good were they? Besides, a man would only interfere with her well-balanced life style. She worked whatever shift she wanted. She ate when she wanted. And she had the entire queen size bed to herself. Win, win situation.
"Char, sweetie, you know I love you, but—"
"There's always a 'but'," Char grumbled.
"But…no one interests me. Ever."
"He was divorced a while ago, so no ex-wife to worry about. That's good, no baggage."
"Yes baggage." Lauren pressed her lips together.
"How about we agree that he'll have some baggage, but hopefully not a lot?"
Lauren grunted. "You're going to be the death of me."
"What I'm hearing is 'Thank you very much for your diligent efforts at finding me Mr. Right, Charlotte Reese'."
"You need your hearing checked."
"Anyhow, here's the part that makes all your arguments insignificant. He does home repairs on the side to help his brother's construction business. You need a roof and a man. I've delivered both to you in one nice, tight, sexy package." Char's face was the picture of satisfaction.
Lauren sighed and sipped her drink before turning to Char. "Look, I don't hold the ex-wife against him. We all have a past and if he's as sexy as you say, I'm sure he has a ton of women after him. Which, in my book, is a strike against him. I'm too old for drama. As far as the new roof is concerned, it couldn't hurt to have him and his brother take a look. After all, I believe in helping the small businessman when I can." However, what she absolutely did not want was to be fixed up with some hot guy with women chasing him and the ego that always went with that. She wanted to dislike him already. And of course, he probably loved the female attention. They always did.
There was no way in hell she was going down that road again. Robert had loved women and women had loved him right back. Since the divorce four years ago, she had sworn off relationships, and Char had honored that. Until recently. Lauren didn't mind being alone. That was the only sure way to prevent pain. It was safe. A small voice asked if she really wanted to be safe the rest of her life. She knew taking a risk led to great things sometimes. Lauren sighed and massaged her temples, what she wouldn't give to be home in her sweats watching television. A million dollars. She'd give exactly One. Million. Dollars.
She picked at the label on the water bottle sitting on the bar in front of her, peeling the edge back a bit then smoothing it out. "No talk of roofs or men, please, Char. Let's just enjoy our girls' night out—even though you brought Todd—and our delicious appetizers."
"I brought Todd to introduce you to Anthony. As for the appetizers, they're boxed, frozen, and reheated. 'Delicious' wasn't in the description and it sure as hell isn't in the taste."
Lauren held up a limp zucchini plank, waving it in the air like a white flag of surrender. "Truce?"
Her friend smiled back in lieu of a response.
Char meant well and Lauren loved her for that. She was already starting to feel more relaxed just clearing the air about these stupid fix ups. Until she heard the next words out of Charlotte's mouth.
"He's headed this way!" Char snatched the offered plank and bit into it, smiling broadly. "Now make yourself presentable." She pointed to Lauren's hair and make-up.
Lauren had very little time to react. Exactly five seconds later, Todd, Char's boyfriend, tapped her on the shoulder. She considered not turning around. She considered excusing herself. She considered finding a new best friend. In the end, she pasted a polite smile on her face, slowly rose from her chair, and turned to face Todd and his friend Anthony. She immediately came face-to-chest with a navy blue polo shirt. A few blond chest hairs peeked out from the neck opening where it wasn't buttoned.
She tipped her head back so she could see the face that went with that chest. The man had the clearest shade of blue eyes she had ever seen. Were they blue or were they silver? It didn't matter much; they were breathtaking. She decided she liked those eyes and the face that went with them. A lot. And currently, those breathtaking eyes were watching her with obvious humor. The mountain of a man in front of her, probably over six feet by a few inches, with the build of the Norse God, Thor, was standing so close to her it made her hair tingle and her breathing shallow. One side of his mouth curled up in a half smile. It was pleasantly unnerving. And decidedly wicked. She managed an open-mouthed stare, and that was about the extent of it. Her brain said, "Hello". She wasn't completely convinced her mouth did, however. Who cared if she seemed rude? All she wanted him for was his roofing skills. Even her inner voice cocked an eyebrow at that little fib.
Lauren allowed herself the pleasure of perusing his body, slowly and methodically. He had the typical buzz cut many men did, but his was on the longer side. It looked light brown, but it would have to be longer for her to be positive of the color. Which—again—didn't matter, because she'd never run her fingers through his hair. Or grab that hair in the heat of the moment and demand more of…something.
She wanted to stop, she truly did. That was before she noticed his sexy ears. Her inner voice suggested nibbling on those lobes in the throes of passion. It wasn't an altogether bad idea, she conceded. He had broad shoulders that called to the woman in her. Her mind flooded with images of her hands caressing those shoulders as his muscles bulged beneath her touch. Then she'd let her hands slowly inch down his chest, ripple by delicious ripple. She'd bet money his stomach was equally as rigid, with an ample supply of muscle to go around. Did this man live at the gym?
She made a mental note of the tight, trim waist, faded jeans, and work boots, in case she needed that information someday. She swallowed and blinked. He certainly had the "V" shape of the well-honed body down to a science.
Lauren lifted her eyes back to his, feeling guilty for doing exactly what women complained about men doing. Ogling. It was wrong. She was wrong to have done it. That acknowledgement did nothing to decrease the pleasure she received, however. She noticed a small smirk playing at his lips. Typical hot, egotistical, hot, arrogant, hot man, she grumbled to herself.
"Are you finished?" The low rumble of words was meant for her ears only.
She nodded, watching those damn eyes sparkle. She quickly shifted her look toward Todd and Char. He may have caught her in a moment of weakness, but that didn't mean she had to massage his ego any further.
"Lauren, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is Lauren," Todd said.
A tingling heat swept over her from her sandaled feet to the crown of her head. Oh, God. She had to look at him again.
"Nice to meet you." She managed a polite nod while pressing her lips together and holding her gaze on his chin. The chin that had a delectable dimple planted squarely in the middle of it.
She felt like a curtsy may be in order. The heat of her body increased by another degree or two. Anthony nodded. Once. He nodded precisely once, all the while looking amused. Why wouldn't he be amused—she was practically drooling. He probably felt like tonight's menu special. Hell, he didn't need her telling him that whatever he'd been doing at the gym was working. The guy probably loved looking at himself as much as women loved looking at him.
Strike two.
She would not compete with other women for a place in a man's heart, and she sure as hell wouldn't compete with his ego.
"Yes, same here." His voice was gruff as he extended his hand toward her.
Lauren mumbled as she gathered her wits and pushed away the weak, horny female that had suddenly reared its ugly head. She glanced at his still extended hand then placed her much smaller one in what she could only describe as a paw. The thing was huge. He had a strong grip that swallowed her entire hand.
Lauren forced herself to concentrate on a much safer subject than his body. That would be her roof. Yes, much safer. But before she could open her mouth to speak, he grabbed at his back pocket and pulled out his cell. He glanced at the screen. His brows dipped together and those lips tugged down toward that blasted dimple. Holding up the phone, he shook his head. "I have to take this."
"Oh, absolutely." Lauren responded quickly, nodding. It was a sad day indeed when Lauren Carson let a gorgeous man turn her brain to mush. Yet, here she stood nodding like a fool. What did she care if he answered his phone instead of talking to her? Some men, usually the hot ones, were naturally rude. Hence, why she stayed away from them. All of them.
She watched Todd's rude friend walk away. He had a nice, long, confident stride. Lauren arched one dark eyebrow in appreciation. He was rude and dimply and built like a skyscraper. He also looked just as hot coming as he did going. She reluctantly offered up a small thank you to the Army for keeping their men in such great shape. Lauren decided she should probably get more serious about her gym membership.
"Well, that went well," Todd said dryly.
Char looked at Anthony's retreating back, and then turned to Lauren, her blonde ponytail whipping from side to side with the movement.
"Another one down? What did you say?" Her face was the perfect blend of confusion and frustration. "We leave you alone for two minutes and this is what you do?"
"I have more practice these days. It gets easier by the day." Lauren rolled her eyes. This one, however, she really hadn't wanted to scare away. At least not as fast as she normally did. "He said he had a call he needed to take." She hoped it was the truth. Eh, it probably wasn't. He was too hot and too all male to worry about such things as trivial as honesty and politeness.
"Before we left I saw you blushing and near speechless. If you ask me, you were smitten. Do we have a winner?" Todd turned to Char and wrapped a meaty arm around her shoulder, giving her a squeeze. "Just like the day you met me, huh, Char?"
Char patted his arm reassuringly. "Not now. Lauren and I need to talk and you need to get to Anthony and find out why that call was so important that he ran out of here."
"Don't worry about it." Lauren shook her head. "that would only make me look pathetic."
"After the way you checked him out, I doubt that's possible." Todd finished his last swig of beer, handed the bottle to Char, and announced he would be back with Anthony in tow in a matter of minutes. No matter what it took.
"Oh great, drag him back kicking and screaming, Todd. That would be perfect," Lauren yelled after him.
He waved his hand over his head in acknowledgement. This had to be the worst impression she had ever made on anyone. And he caught her…checking him out. The heat of the blush returned. It might not be so bad if he didn't come back, she decided.
It wasn't that she was opposed to relationships completely. She had to admit, there was a slight chance she could be persuaded to date a caring, faithful, committed, non-rude man. They just didn't exist. Honestly, he was the first man in years that even so much as piqued her interest. Then again, that man probably piqued a lot of women's interest.
Her inner voice reminded her that she did everything except take a bite out of him when she met him. Yeah, that was bad. To complicate matters further, something about him, maybe the look in his eyes, seemed to connect with her. It was weird, like an instant attraction she couldn't explain. Could "friends at first sight" be a thing? She glanced toward the door. Yes. Maybe it was something that happened to strangers and that was the only reason she was so intrigued by him.
Intrigued is one way of putting it.


text:
OR MORE THAN 10 years, the intricate, multiseason narrative TV drama has exercised a dominant cultural sway over well-educated, well-off adults. Just as urbanish professionals in the 1950s could be counted on to collectively coo and argue over the latest Salinger short story, so that set in the 2000s has been most intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically engaged not by fiction, the theater, or the cinema but by The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Deadwood, The Shield, Big Love.
After watching videos of The Sopranos 13-hour first season, the film critic Vincent Canby discerned that this new genre—owing to its "cohesive dramatic arc," the quality of its production values and ensemble performances, and the sophistication of its writing—amounted to a "megamovie" rather than merely a tarted-up TV miniseries. And he bestowed on it a fairly exalted pedigree, tracing it not just to Dennis Potter's English production The Singing Detective (1986) and Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) but even to Erich von Stroheim's lost silent masterpiece, the nine-and-a-half-hour Greed (1924).
Such claims were a tad much—as are, in a similar vein, The New York Times Virginia Heffernan's avowals that The Sopranos premiere was "like the publication of Ulysses" and that the series "may have required more patience and effort from the lead characters than drama ever had, from Euripides to Artaud to Stoppard." Still, the megamovies have warranted, and received, careful analysis—at least 20 books have taken on The Sopranos, and now we have Kings of Madison Avenue, by Jesse McLean, a companion volume to the megamovie of the moment, Mad Men, a series set in a New York advertising agency in the early 1960s. The book, at a well-padded 231 pages (complete with the inevitable cocktail recipes), is pretty slight, but its detailed, often observant exegeses of the first 26 episodes—and the release of the DVDs of the same, which include audio commentaries of every show and supplemental documentaries on the stylistic achievements and historical context of the series—prompt readers and viewers to undertake the considered appraisal that this deeply textured, painstakingly crafted drama deserves.
Some elements of Mad Men's appeal have been nicely explained by Charlie Rose (who can always be counted on to embrace the conventional wisdom) in that inimitably sycophantic, answering-his-own-question-that-isn't-even-a-question way of his: "Why has this so resonated, especially with critics and people who like smart writing and tightly drawn characters?" he pronounced in an interview with the show's creator, Matthew Weiner, and two of its male stars, Jon Hamm and John Slattery. The writing—and the direction, photography, and (with one important exception) acting—is superlative, the show is dramatically compelling. Moreover, as Rose's customarily reverential invocation of the critics suggests, not just Rose but also Mad Men's affluent, with-it target audience are particularly susceptible to liking what The New York Times' Arts and Style sections tell them to like (30-plus articles in two years!). Add to this the meticulous, lush styling and art direction, which make the series eye candy for its (again) target audience, already in thrall to the so-called mid-century-modern aesthetic—an appeal that's now further fueled by the slimline suit/pencil skirt marketing tie-in with Banana Republic, that canny purveyor of upper-mass-market urbanity. Then there is the miraculous Hamm, playing the lead character, Don Draper. Here is an actor who at once projects sexual mastery and ironic intelligence, poise and vulnerability. That alchemy has created the greatest male stars, from Gable to Grant to Bogart to McQueen to Clooney, because it wins for them both the desire of women and the fondness of men. So the show's white-hotness was all but predetermined.
Finally, there's another factor, one that cuts both ways and thereby contributes to Mad Men's inner tension: the peculiar emotional chord the show's setting strikes with viewers over 30. Critics invariably discuss how the series echoes John Cheever's stories, Billy Wilder's The Apartment, and Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road (a novel Weiner says he hadn't read when he created the show). But for every audience member familiar with gin-soaked Shady Hill, there are dozens whose notions of the glamour of adult life, of Manhattan, and of "creative" careers were shaped by endless reruns of three sitcoms with concrete ties to Mad Men's particular milieu: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and That Girl. The key to television success, Don Draper tosses off, is to offer "derivative with a twist." Mad Men is those shows grown up, grown hard, and—in ways that flatter its writers' and viewers' images of themselves—grown wise.
ANBY WROTE THAT a defining characteristic of the megamovie—a genre whose leisurely pace allows for an almost novelistic vividness and accretion of detail—was its commitment to observing its "time and place … with satiric exactitude." Outwardly, Weiner, who was an executive producer and writer on The Sopranos, seems to have taken that comment to heart. Keen observers, he and his staff understand that suits were sackier in 1960 than in 1963; that a department-store heiress in 1960 would wear a dress that had been featured in, say, Vogue in that year, and that she could have her hair done daily, while a secretary's wardrobe in 1960 might include a new sweater from Klein's but also a dress that had been in style in 1958, and her hairdo would degrade as the workweek ground on; that a suburban kitchen was far more likely to be decorated ersatz colonial than space-age; that clothes have to fit the performers as they did in 1960 or 1962; that actresses must be trussed up in period-accurate foundation garments, because otherwise the characters' bearing will be anachronistic—and they understand that bearing reflects and informs temperament and behavior. At its best, this fetishistic attention to period accuracy succeeds in summoning an alien world in which characters move, fidget, and even kiss differently. Weiner, though, seeks a goal beyond that. He wants to achieve something like the satiric exactitude Canby spoke of: "The story is told in the detail, and those details have their own life," he told The Times.
By this standard, though, Weiner's exercise is unavoidably sterile. The pattern of a necktie, the club frequented, the restaurant patronized, the shopping bag carried, the prep school attended, together with a thousand other details, signify minute social distinctions, and reveal and even define character. But crucially, the telling details from a lost world can't tell today (even if the club, restaurant, store, and school still exist, they can't connote now what they did then), which perforce means that Mad Men is something of a costume drama.
This striving for verisimilitude serves another purpose: Weiner seems to hope that getting the vintage mitten clasps and IBM Selectrics right will help viewers believe that outrageously un-PC attitudes and behavior were as common as the series shows them to be. Mad Men is hailed for whatThe Times calls its "unflinching portrayal of Eisenhower/Kennedy–era sexism, racism, anti-Semitism," and this unrelenting focus on the unenlightened aspects of the past is clearly central for Weiner and his writers. Most of the supplemental historical material in the DVD sets focuses on racial and gender issues and progressive politics, including a lengthy paean to the SDS's gaseous Port Huron Statement. The takeaway is clear, as The Times approvingly quotes an academic who indulges in a rather Whiggish interpretation of history: "The show explains why the '60s had to happen."
But even if the portrayal were as "dead-on" as The Times assures us it is, that portrayal is hardly neutral. In describing a scene in which sexist badinage is exchanged at an account meeting, McLean correctly points out that "the series is critical of this limited view and is not afraid to spell [its criticism] out." That stance—which amounts to a defiant indictment of sexism and racism, sins about which a rough moral consensus would now seem to have formed—militates against viewers' inhabiting the alien world the show has so carefully constructed, because it's constantly pressing them to condemn that world.
And that stance is responsible for the rare (and therefore especially grating) heavy-handed and patronizing touches in an otherwise nuanced drama. Must the only regular black characters be a noble and cool elevator operator, a noble and understanding housekeeper, and a perceptive and politicized supermarket clerk? Must said elevator operator, who goes unnoticed by the less sensitive characters, sagely say when discussing Marilyn Monroe's death, "Some people just hide in plain sight"? Get it—he's talking about himself. He's invisible. Even worse, that stance evokes and encourages the condescension of posterity; just as insecure college students feel they must join the knowing hisses of the callow campus audience when a character in an old movie makes an un-PC comment, so Mad Men directs its audience to indulge in a most unlovely—because wholly unearned—smugness. As artistically mistaken as this stance is, it nonetheless helps account for the show's success. We all like to congratulate ourselves, and as a group, Mad Men's audience is probably particularly prone to the temptation.
ny period drama will have its share of slips, and most of Mad Men's are inconsequential. ("The military-industrial complex," coined by Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address, finds itself on the lips of account manager Ken Cosgrove in 1960; if the pompous dilettante copywriter Paul Kinsey was a Freedom Rider—itself an implausible plot element, intended to signal that the times, they are a-changin'—he would have been going south to desegregate interstate transportation, not register black voters, as the show has it.) But other slips demonstrate an unsure grasp of the show's setting and characters—and of the class differences that complicate the rather blunt stance the series takes. A supplement to the first season's DVDs makes explicit what attentive viewers already understood: Mad Men deliberately shocks its audience by presenting as reasonable and commonplace behavior we now find appalling. This gambit, a signature feature of the show, can force the audience to viscerally experience the foreignness of the past, and when so used it can be a brilliant dramatic ploy—but only if the action portrayed is as de rigueur as the show suggests. At a child's birthday party, for instance, a man hits a boy who has spilled a drink, and no one reacts, not even the boy's father. The Draper family, in another case, drives away from the scene of a family picnic, nonchalantly leaving their trash on the ground where they were sitting. Yes, corporal punishment was more common then than now, and Iron Eyes Cody wouldn't be tearing up on TV screens for another nine years. But Dr. Spock's permissive parenting notions exercised a near-hegemonic sway over child-rearing practices in the bedroom communities of the Northeast's professional class, and however one chose to correct one's own children and whatever the state of America's roadsides, the actions portrayed were simply not the done thing. Nice people—the educated and affluent—didn't hit other people's kids, and they didn't, especially in front of their children, walk away from a pile of trash they had created.
Mad Men's most egregious stumble—though seemingly a small one—involves Betty Draper's college career, and it is generally emblematic of this extraordinarily accomplished show's greatest weaknesses, and specifically emblematic of its confused approach to this poorly defined character. Betty, the show establishes, was in a sorority. So far, okay. Pretty, with a little-girl voice and a childlike, almost lobotomized affect; humorless; bland but at times creepily calculating (as when she seeks solace by manipulating her vulnerable friend into an affair); obsessed with appearances and therefore lacking in inner resources; a consistently cold and frequently vindictive mother; a daddy's girl—Betty is written, and clumsily performed by model-turned-actress January Jones, as a clichéd shallow sorority sister. (Just as Don's self-invented identity is Gatsby-like, so Betty, his wife, is a jejune ornament like Daisy, though without the voice full of money.) But she's also a character deeply wronged by her serial-philanderer husband, and she's hazily presented as a stultified victim of soulless postwar suburban ennui (now there's a cliché). So, perhaps to bestow gravitas on her, or at least some upper-classiness, the show establishes that she went to Bryn Mawr. But of course Bryn Mawr has never had sororities. By far the brainiest of the Seven Sisters—cussed, straight-backed, high-minded, and feminist (its students, so the wags said, preferred the Ph.D. to the Mrs.)—Bryn Mawr was probably the least likely college that Betty Draper, given to such non-U genteelisms as "passed away," would have attended. So much for satiric exactitude. In the pilot and through the early stages of the series's development, Weiner had planned to show little of the Drapers' home life, which might explain Betty's woefully undeveloped character. The strength of the megamovie is that it can build complex characters over time—but the telling details it accumulates to serve that process work only if the writers are clear and consistent about what they are trying to say.
O WATCH THIS megamovie as it should be watched, as a 26-hour (and counting) cycle, and to read McLean's dissection of its intricacies, is to grasp Mad Men's triumph: its emotional intelligence—evident not only in its writing and acting but in its exquisite direction, lighting, and photography—overwhelms its mushy ideology and whatever Important Points it wants to make. At its best—and it usually hits that mark—its characters are true to themselves and therefore to their time and place. Thus in the pilot, Don—who is quickly established as a sophisticated adult, wry, not lacking in sensitivity, genuinely curious about the inner lives of women (after all, fathoming their aspirations and desires is the key to his professional success), sexually adventurous but intolerant of the lewd frat-boy behavior of the junior executives—sternly rebuffs a pitiful pass from the new girl, Peggy, an innocent from Brooklyn, whose observations of the office culture have led her to believe that she must offer herself to him. Peggy is obviously relieved, as are the viewers, whose faith in their hero has been rewarded. But just as the audience is luxuriating in his admirableness, Don tries to buck up Peggy, still quaking from the scolding he gave her, by telling her to "go home, put your curlers in …" It's the kind of casually sexist remark that makes today's viewers squirm. And it's precisely what Don would say to Peggy—because she's a woman, but not just because she's a woman: she's also a secretary, dowdy, and from an outer borough.
Don Draper is also consistently true to the past the writers have established for him. Some critics find his appealing unflappability implausible, and they fault the show for sacrificing its commitment to verisimilitude in the interest of maintaining the lead actor's appeal. They fail to grasp that Don—whose entire identity is a fabrication—would have to possess preternatural cool. He's always on. In the single most affecting scene of the entire series, Don pitches an advertising campaign to Kodak. He's projecting slides of his children and his wife as he talks—tears welling, his voice slightly quivering—about the ache of memory. It's a deeply poignant scene, made even more so by the modulation of Don's emotions. And it's a bravura performance by Hamm—of Don's bravura performance (watch Don's persona shift as he slips into the pitch). Viewers feel, and want to feel, that Don's emotion is genuine—but they also know that Don is selling himself, and that it could all be an act. The series's most chilling sequence follows Betty in the Draper house as she spends morning to night methodically searching suit pockets and papers and rifling through desk drawers to discover evidence of Don's infidelity. Viewers are conditioned to know she'll find it—what else would be the point of the sequence? And some are no doubt uncomfortable when they realize that, thanks to the way the directing and writing have built up the suspense, they're rooting for the bad guy, as it were. As evening comes—the sequence nicely captures that yucky feeling at the close of a day spent shut up in the house—Betty has found … nothing. After a momentary surprise, the viewer realizes that of course Betty would find nothing, because—and it's the same reason Don's winning poise is entirely believable—like all great liars, Don never lets down his guard.
Today the megamovie is America's most accomplished and vital mass entertainment, so it's fitting that Mad Men, which is the most quintessentially American megamovie made to date, explores a peculiarly American theme and exploits a peculiarly American asset. Leave it to a show that famously employs an unusually high number of women writers to capture—more vividly than anything I've encountered save Norman Mailer's short story "The Language of Men" and, obliquely, John O'Hara's"Graven Image"—the unrelenting, low-level competition and consequent posing, the miscues and jarringness, the monotonous lack of intimacy that characterize a good deal of the conversation among middle-class American males. And leave it to television to enshrine correct Americanese.
Weiner's policy of not allowing British actors to play American characters stems from his eminently reasonable logic that his show "is so American, it should be played by Americans." And, unusual for a megamovie, its characters aren't (as they say) "ethnic," and they're not cops, criminals, or the downtrodden. Rather, they're predominantly well-educated, articulate WASPs. So verisimilitude doesn't demand that the characters shave ts and drop g's. Unlike so many fancy American TV dramas, Mad Men doesn't require the viewer to pause and replay the DVD to make out what's being said. Rather, the actors deliver their often fizzy but (because it's guarded or reflective) never fast-talking dialogue with the clear, relaxed enunciation of casually elegant American speech. Unlike performers in most naturalistic American productions—theatrical, cinematic, or on television—who can only gesture at meaning with the fragmented language with which they're supplied, the Mad Men actors are given precise words and whole, often clever and grammatically complex sentences to work with.
The cognoscenti, though, have largely ignored this quiet virtue while extolling what are really the show's considerable flaws. Ah, the media juggernaut. If Mad Men were half as good as the hype would have it, the show would be one of the best ever produced for American television. It's both.


text:
Most of us invariably need to ride close to vehicles on the road. It's a trite analogy, but I always keep it in mind: two tons of metal versus about 200 pounds of bike, bone and muscle--who's going to win? Here are key survival skills.
Look and listen
First of all, pay 100 percent attention, just as you would while driving. Use your senses--often you can hear an engine in advance of the car, and see or hear a dog before it chases. Problem sounds include tires squealing, hard engine acceleration and loud music from an open window. If I hear these I pull over to let the vehicle pass.
Pick smart routes
The best roads have few cars, low speed limits and no blind corners. Often, a slightly longer route with fewer cars will be faster than a shorter, busier one. Also, try to find roads with a shoulder you can ride on. Yes, we are vehicles with the right to be on the roadway, but with two tons versus 200 pounds, I prefer to stay clear when I can do so safely.
More From Bicycling
Don't keep secrets
When you drive, you use turn signals, and your car has brake lights. As you ride, try to think of what drivers will see as they drive up behind you. Use hand signals to indicate where you intend to go. At intersections, make eye contact with drivers to ensure that they see you. Also, for future goodwill, wave a thank-you when you're given the right of way.
Stay steady
Looking behind you without swerving is an essential skill. For new riders, simply glancing back with your hands on the brake hoods may work, but this method often causes the bar to turn in the direction you're looking. This way is better:
To look left, move your right hand toward the center of the handlebar near the stem, then drop your left hand off the bar as you turn your head to look back. Track racers use this technique when doing a Madison relay change. Watch the Madison at the Olympics this year--magic bike handling. Keep your upper body relaxed the entire time and practice, ideally in an empty parking lot with lines you can follow.
Hook your thumbs
Always wrap your thumbs around the handlebar, instead of laying them across the top. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a rider go down after his hands were jarred off the bar when he hit a bump. Also, please, no aero riding on busy streets. Save it for when you're on a smooth road with few cars.
Alex Stieda, the first North American to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, with 7-Eleven in 1986, leads tours and skills camps (stiedacycling.com).


text:
'Nixon In China': An American Opera Inches Toward Classic At 25
Twenty-five years ago today, Houston Grand Opera mounted the world premiere of Nixon in China, the first opera by a young composer named John Adams. Two days later, The New York Times described it as a "coy and insubstantial work" and "hardly a strong candidate for the standard repertory."
But over a quarter century, Adams' opera, based on President Nixon's 1972 peacemaking visit to China, has become nearly as strong a candidate as Nixon himself was. With at least 44 productions so far, the opera has been recorded twice and heard more than 200 times in famed houses in New York, Vienna, London, Amsterdam and Berlin, but also in Boulder, Colo., Portland, Ore., Kansas City, Mo. and Freiburg, Germany.
New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, in his award-winning book The Rest is Noise, takes an opposite view of Adams' music, Alice Goodman's libretto and director Peter Sellars' production, calling Nixon possibly the greatest American opera since Gershwin's Porgy and Bess:
By yanking opera into a universally familiar contemporary setting, [Sellars] was almost forcing his composer to clean out all the cobwebs of the European past. Adams also had the advantage of an extraordinary libretto by poet Alice Goodman. Many of the lines come straight from the documentary record — the speeches and poetry of Chairman Mao, the fine-spun oratory of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, the convoluted utterances and memoirs of Nixon — but they coalesce into an epic poem of recent history, a dream narrative in half-rhyming heroic couplets.
Adams said that he wanted to find our own mythology in our own contemporary history. He and Sellars followed with more modern figures in The Death of Klinghoffer and Doctor Atomic. And Nixon may have just inspired Adams' peers to base operas on contemporary personalities like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (the subject of an opera by Michael Daugherty) and Harvey Milk (brought to the stage by Stewart Wallace).
The Metropolitan Opera's 2011 production of Nixon in China, with baritone James Maddalena reprising his original performance as Nixon, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Nov. 19.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Optimistic Voices
Posted January 1, 2015on:
The Wizard of Oz was released by MGM in 1939, with music by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. I know every lyric of every song, and more of the spoken dialog than I'll admit in public. "Optimistic Voices" is the name of the short piece that plays when the gang first sees the Emerald City in the distance, and may be my favorite part of my favorite movie. I love the 1930s style of the tune, and also get a kick out of Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow) looking around puzzled, as though he's thinking, "Hey, where's that music coming from?" Just a tiny throwaway bit, but fun.
But it's hard to understand the lyrics as sung by the choir in the flick. As many times as I've seen that movie (don't even ask), I didn't really know what they were singing until someone brought it to my attention a few years ago. Harburg wrote the lyrics as a sort of as a "code" to an America which had just crawled out of an economic depression and a war. In an effort to find a clip that didn't have an ad longer than the song, I found something really cool. The audio portion of the first link is actually Arlen and Harburg singing it in rehearsal for the choir to get a feel for it. How cool is that? Nevertheless, my main point of posting this is for the lyrics. Aren't they great? So very simple…
Here's the Arlen Harbug clip:
Optimistic Voices Rehearsal
And if you aren't a movie trivia geek like me, here's the actual scene from the movie:
Optimistic Voices Choir from the Wizard of Oz
And here are the lyrics. If you're still with me, I recommend opening the second clip and reading along while they sing 'em:
You're out of the woods
You're out of the dark
You're out of the night
Step into the sun
Step into the light
Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place
On the face of the earth or the sky
Hold onto your breath
Hold onto your heart
Hold onto your hope
March up to the gate and bid it open
You're out of the woods
You're out of the dark
You're out of the night
Step into the sun
Step into the light
March up to the gate and bid it open, open…
Wishing you all – individually and collectively – sun, light, hope, open gates and glorious places in 2015 and beyond…


text:
The U.S. economy didn't contract in the fourth quarter after all, but the bigger picture remains the same: It's still stuck in slow motion.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic growth, grew at an annual rate of 0.1% from October to December, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
The new data stems from a government revision, after it initially reported last month that the economy contracted 0.1%. Revisions are common, and Thursday's report marks the second of three estimates on GDP.
Overall, the change is so minor, it doesn't really change the picture of the U.S. economy. Growth slowed in the fourth quarter, and is far too slow to boost job growth, which remains the key problem facing the economy.
"This report provides further evidence that the economy stumbled into the finish line last year," said Jim Baird, partner and chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors, in a research note. "While the revision is technically an improvement, the bottom line is that it's still bad."
Related: Workers over 50 are the new 'unemployables'
One major economic theory suggests that the economy needs to grow around 3% a year to bring unemployment down by one percentage point. The unemployment rate was 7.9% as of January.
This slow growth is exactly why Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that a "reasonable guess" would point to the unemployment rate not falling to 6% until around 2016.


text:
100% Handcrafted Two-sided Marble backdrop for photographers.
Repeat possible, but not a copy
Color Name: White and soft Gray
The thickness of the finished surface: 5-6 mm.
Weight: 1.5-2 kg.
Base Material: Plywood
Covering: Concrete stucco of own production
Marble backdrops have their distinct textural pattern. They are very practical and not at all heavy. The usage of Marble backdrops painted in different colors will make your approach to photography easy to distinguish and memorize.
The size of Marble backdrop you can pick from the catalog.
The color of the reverse side you can pick from the Concrete or Marble catalog.


text:
Today's lineup
Furcal, SS
Lofton, CF
Drew, RF
Kent, 2B
Garciaparra, 1B
Mueller, 3B
Ledee, LF
Navarro, C
Penny, P
Furcal, SS
Lofton, CF
Drew, RF
Kent, 2B
Garciaparra, 1B
Mueller, 3B
Ledee, LF
Navarro, C
Penny, P
In case some of you were worried about the Dodgers chances of winning the division, remember the old axiom – pitiching wins championships. The White Sox were good proof of that last year. So take a look at what has happened so far with the starting pitching –
—-W-L–Quality Starts–E.R.A.
Col 5-8——9——5.94
The starting pitching is going deeper into games, giving up less runs in the process then the rest of the division (except for S.F., over a point lower E.R.A. !). Over the course of a season, that makes a huge difference for the guns in the bullpen. As soon as some of the younger guys, Kuo, Osoria, pull themselves together, watch out. They aren't going to win 100 games, but if the starters can keep up this kind of production, the division is their's to lose.
Thanks. I knew the SP was improving significantly but had not analyzed like you have. You're right. When the young relievers get on track, the pitching will be fine. Looking forward to an exciting season as the lineup gets stabilized.
How many games is Navarro's defense going to cost the Dodgers this year? Having patients for a young hitter is one thing, but his play behind the plate is just too costly to wait through….
Speaking of defense, Furcal just made his 6th error. Does that bother anyone else?
The Dodgers would have won if Navarro did not allow that passed ball. He also made a throwing error. I certainly hope he gets better or Martin should get his chance.
"The Dodgers would have won if Navarro did not allow that passed ball. He also made a throwing error."
I'm fairly certain that one was on Brad Penny more than Navarro. Navarro doesn't get cut much slack though, as he should have been able to block the pitch. But if you watch the replay again, Navarro set up outside but seemed to be expecting the pitch up. As the ball was released, Navarro's glove started to go upstairs, and of course the ball broke down and away. I think Martin will be a great catcher one day, but this one shouldn't cost Navarro his job entirely… but we'll see how this story plays out in time.
navarro is definitely pressing, and it shows. either depodesta was way off on this guy, or just needs to be relax. still he not the "catch and throw" guy as advertised, and was not any bettter than jason phillips, as far as i can see…plus has he thrown out any basestealers – YET!?!
and please, can we officially give furcal a day (or more) off. we have not one, but two, quality backups at shortstop with
oscar particularly a skilled leadoff hitter.
lofton is truly a better leadoff guy and grady should try to shake things up with
mueller in the two hole and move furcal
down to six.
jesuispret, thats a good idea. i think ideally you are gonna want furcal followed by lofton, but for now it would be a good idea to shake it up a bit.


text:
This report contains market size and forecasts of PE Container Liner in global, including the following market information:
The global PE Container Liner market was valued at million in 2021 and is projected to reach US$ million by 2028, at a CAGR of % during the forecast period.
The U.S. Market is Estimated at $ Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $ Million by 2028.
PP Container Liners Segment to Reach $ Million by 2028, with a % CAGR in next six years.
The global key manufacturers of PE Container Liner include Taihua Group, Greif Flexible Products & Services, Linertech, Caretex, Louis Blockx, Anthente, Norseman, LC Packaging and Nihon Matai, etc. In 2021, the global top five players have a share approximately % in terms of revenue.
We surveyed the PE Container Liner manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and industry experts on this industry, involving the sales, revenue, demand, price change, product type, recent development and plan, industry trends, drivers, challenges, obstacles, and potential risks.
Total Market by Segment:
Global PE Container Liner Market, by Type, 2017-2022, 2023-2028 ($ Millions) & (Units)
Global PE Container Liner Market Segment Percentages, by Type, 2021 (%)
Global PE Container Liner Market, by Application, 2017-2022, 2023-2028 ($ Millions) & (Units)
Global PE Container Liner Market Segment Percentages, by Application, 2021 (%)
Global PE Container Liner Market, By Region and Country, 2017-2022, 2023-2028 ($ Millions) & (Units)
Global PE Container Liner Market Segment Percentages, By Region and Country, 2021 (%)
Competitor Analysis
The report also provides analysis of leading market participants including:
Further, the report presents profiles of competitors in the market, key players include:
|Report Attributes
|Report Details
|Report Title
|PE Container Liner Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2022-2028
|By Companies
|Taihua Group Greif Flexible Products & Services Linertech Caretex Louis Blockx Anthente Norseman LC Packaging Nihon Matai Thrace Group Sinopack CorrPakBPS Chongqing Storsack Eceplast Powertex
|Historical Year
|2018 to 2022 (Data from 2010 can be provided as per availability)
|Base Year
|Forecast Year
|Number of Pages
|111 Pages
|Customization Available
|Yes, the report can be customized as per your need.
Report Insights:
CHOOSE YOUR BUYING OPTION Select Licence type with your requirement and needs
Why Choose Us
Comprehensive ResearchOffers Penetrative insights & holistic understanding of the market
Lowest Price GuaranteeWe offer the lowest prices for the listed reports
Client FocusedPersonalized updates and 24*7 support
Quality & ReliabilityWe are committed to providing reliable and highly accurate data with an excellent quality control system
Market SegmentationWe provide alternative views of the market to help you identify where the real opportunities lie
A license granted to one user. Rules or conditions might be applied for e.g. the use of electric files (PDFs) or printings, depending on product.
A license granted to multiple users.
A license granted to a single business site/establishment.
A license granted to all employees within organisation access to the product.
Upto Working 24 to 48 hrs
Upto 72 hrs max - Weekends and Public Holidays
Online Payments with PayPal and CCavenue
Wire Transfer/Bank Transfer
Hard Copy
Offers Penetrative insights & holistic understanding of the market
Strictly follows the Research Meth-odology for flawless results
Ensure the best and affordable pricing
All your transactions are secured end-to-end, ensuring a satisfactory purchase


text:
This is a quick departure from the blog's main topics, but I've been writing a series for The Atlantic Cities launch, sponsored by Dow, on "The Progress of Urban Development." The last post went up today, so all 31 are up here. I like some posts better than others, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites here:
High-Speed Rail and the New Regional Economics
Aside from the particular merits of any individual project, high-speed rail is arguably a crucial component of an economic strategy centered around mega-regions, defined as large, contiguous economic areas containing multiple cities and their surrounding suburbs. As AtlanticSenior Editor and academic Richard Florida has argued, mega-regions are the relevant economic unit for the 21st century. And even a casual comparison between U.S. mega-regions and proposed high-speed rail lines reveals a connection.
How Cities Innovate
Technology is a major driver of economic growth in the modern world. But technological progress is not equally distributed around the globe. It is no accident that web startups are concentrated in Silicon Valley, biotech firms in Boston, and so on. In fact, approximately 20 metropolitan regions account for most of the world's technological innovation, as measured by patents, an imperfect but widely acknowledged measure. It is no surprise that cities are drivers of technology innovation worldwide, and that a couple dozen cities are disproportionately innovative. Understanding why is crucial for promoting economic growth as well as for informing cities' strategies for boosting innovation. The economic logic behind this is fairly simple and revolves around the concept of "clusters."
A World With Fewer Farmers
In 1900, 41% of the U.S. workforce was employed in agriculture. Today, that number isless than 2%. Yet, the sector has kept pace with increasing demand for agricultural goods, thanks in large part to advances in mechanization and labor productivity. To many, these trends are inexplicably linked to the worst features of industrial agriculture, including unsustainable use of pesticides and commercial fertilizers, or to the decline of the family farm. But the relationship between urbanization and agriculture is more complicated. Understanding it is critical to the promotion of sustainable development throughout the world.
What "Food Miles" Misses
Scholars emphasize that assessing the environmental impact of food is an extraordinarily difficult task. But there is agreement that food miles are just one piece of the puzzle. For city dwellers this offers some relief. Eating local is not the end-all-be-all of environmental consciousness. So how can consumers make better food choices? The place to start is agreeing on a common definition for sustainable food production. And life-cycle analysis, though difficult, may offer a path forward. Some have pushed for food labels to include greenhouse gas emissions across the entire life-cycle. Others have emphasized that a price on greenhouse gas emissions would help food prices reflect their environmental impact. Eating sustainably is certainly still up for debate. And asking just how far food traveled to arrive on your plate is still a relevant question. It just isn't the only one.


text:
OK, I shouldn't be enjoying this. Scienceblogs, my former mothership, has accepted an as-yet unknown quantity of a nutrition blog funded and run by… PepsiCo. Now, I don't drink carbonated sugar drinks much, and when I do they aren't multinational corporation products, but that has less to do with the fact that they are capitalistic running dogs than that they simply taste awful, as we'd all realise if we weren't brought up to like them.
Many of my former cobloggers are outraged, or suspicious. Some even assert that bloggers ought to be totally pure, and allow no advertising (no prizes for guessing who the pure ones are). One, Mike Dunford, takes a sensible wait and see approach; no doubt he will be excoriated by the pure ones for a moral failure. Damned empiricists! He's probably a conservative pedophile. At least one other is in agreement with this approach.
And I am totally unsurprised. I would love not to have advertising, because I think advertising is the root cause of much of what is presently wrong in our economies and social orders, but I don't get to choose where I live, and I unfortunately acquire to provide the resources I would need to pay for the things I'd need to blog by myself. And if I had, it would probably involve advertising, since the lottery plan seems not to be working out for me.
So the alternative is to get you lot to subscribe, or I can use the free service provided by WordPress (or Blogger, or whoever) so long as they are able to fund it, using… advertising. Sucks, but then who ever said that life was fair or well organised? Apart from Ayn Rand, I mean.
But the thing that most surprised me with the screaming irony was a comment, by the person most responsible for my having to leave Scienceblogs because I was some kind of social throwback and I was to be told this until I recanted and submitted, and even then I was to be repeatedly criticised, just so I'd know my place in the social hierarchy: that it would be a shame to lose the community of being able to chat to other bloggers. Colour me unsympathetic. Terribly uncivil of me, I know. But then, I'm a dick.


text:
Fake ID
Charlottesville Criminal Lawyers
False identification crimes include more than simply using a false document to enter a club or obtain alcohol or cigarettes illegally. It is also illegal to possess, alter, make, sell, or distribute a fake ID, or to loan your own ID to a friend to use, or assist a person in any way with obtaining a fake ID. This means that even simply passing along a fake identification card to another person could be a crime.
Call Today for a Free Case Evaluation
(434) 972-9600
High Quality Representation
To protect your rights you need a knowledgeable defense team that can review and challenge the government's case. Our attorneys have 20 years of extensive experience in defending clients in all state and federal courts. We have the ability to evaluate the strength of the prosecutor's case, and how to negotiate for lesser charges or obtain alternative sentencing options. In the event a resolution acceptable to the client is not available, the firm has extensive and successful experience in defending criminal cases at the trial and appeal level.
Serious Consequences
Many of our UVA clients, or their parents, believe that the police or the prosecutors will give students a break or treat them leniently. This is not true; the police and prosecutors will charge and prosecute a student just as quickly as anyone else. If you are charged with a crime, it is important to take the charges seriously. Possessing, using, or distributing false forms of ID are considered a Class 1 misdemeanor under Virginia Code Section 18.2-204.1 and 204.2.
The punishment for a Class 1 misdemeanor includes a potential jail sentence of up to twelve months and a potential fine of up to $2,500. Using a fake ID to purchase alcohol is also a Class 1 misdemeanor offense carrying a maximum jail sentence of one year and and/or $2,500 in fines. In addition to these penalties, you may have your driver's license revoked for up to 12 months, be fined a minimum of $500, and/or be required to perform at least 50 hours of community service, under Virginia Code Section 4.1-305. If you are underage and charged with using a fake ID to obtain alcohol, you may also be charged with minor in possession or other alcohol-related offenses. You may also be subject to honor charges at UVA.
If you are under 18 years old at the time you are charged, you will be charged as a minor in possession of alcohol and your case will go through the Virginia Juvenile Court process. If you are charged in the City of Charlottesville, your case would be heard in the Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court located at 411 East High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902.
If you are between 18 and 21 at the time you are charged, your case will be heard in the General District Court. If you are charged in the City of Charlottesville, your case will be heard in the Charlottesville General District Court located at 606 E Market St, Charlottesville, VA 22902.
Contact Us
If you are facing criminal allegations, we are prepared to stand up for your rights. Call us today at (434) 972-9600 or contact us online.
Please note that the use of our contact form does not create an attorney-client relationship and therefore there is no attorney-client protection for the information you choose to submit to us. As such, please do not submit any confidential or privileged information in the contact form.
We are located in Charlottesville, but our lawyers handle cases in Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Greene County, Fluvanna County, Louisa County, Nelson County, Madison County, Orange County, Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro, Augusta County, and across Virginia.
Davidson & Kitzmann, PLC
211 E High St
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone: (434) 972-9600
Fax: (434) 220-0011
© 2020 Davidson & Kitzmann, PLC


text:
Friday, December 14 – Friday, December 21, 2012
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who drew heavy criticism from Republicans over her statements following the September attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission, withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state this week. "Washington Post" diplomatic correspondent Anne Gearan explains why she did it and who might get the post. The push to curb union power advances in Michigan. The passage of the...Read More


text:
Australia's prime minister said Sunday he was hopeful that clues would emerge soon to help find Flight 370 even though searchers again failed to find jet debris, as relatives of Chinese passengers on the plane protested in Malaysia to demand the government apologise over its handling of the search.
"An increasing number of ships are scouring an area of the Indian Ocean off western Australia after a new search zone was identified Friday, but the only objects scooped up by the vessels so far have been fishing equipment and other flotsam not connected to the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed March 8 with 239 people on board," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.
Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy told reporters that "there has been no discrete debris associated with the flight".
In Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott insisted that the intensifying search effort was positive because objects have been recovered from the ocean in the zone after a weeklong search in another area spotted items from planes that ships never managed to find.
The maritime safety authority said nine planes took part in the search Sunday, leaving in staggered times from a military base near the western city of Perth. Eight ships were on the scene, including the Australian navy supply ship HMAS Success, which was designated as the vessel that will store any wreckage found.
Objects spotted so far include three with white, red and orange colors by a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 plane, China's official Xinhua News Agency said. The missing Boeing 777's exterior was red, white, blue and gray.
In Malaysia, several dozen Chinese relatives of passengers of Flight 370 demanded that the Malaysian government apologise for its handling of the search for the plane and for the prime minister's announcement that it crashed into the southern Indian Ocean before any wreckage was found.
The group staged its protest at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, hours after flying in from Beijing, waving banners that read "We want evidence, truth, dignity" and "Hand us the murderer. Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back." They also demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard the plane, which disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, were Chinese. China has urged Malaysia to be more open about the investigation, while Malaysian officials have defended their handling of the probe and the information they have provided to passengers' relatives.
Searchers for a full week relied on satellite data from various countries as they tried to find the plane in a different zone to the south of the current area, but abruptly shifted course Friday after authorities concluded the plane could not have traveled as far as they had thought based on its estimated speed and fuel consumption.
That prompted the change in the hunt for the plane's likely entry point into the sea and its "black boxes," which should contain clues to what caused the aircraft to be so far off-course.
An Australian warship with an American black box detector and specialists aboard to use it was set to depart Sunday from a port near Perth to join the search. It will still take three to four days for the ship, the Ocean Shield, to reach the search zone — an area roughly the size of Poland, about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) west of Australia.
"The ship will take part in the surface search until the debris is positively identified and an underwater search area is then predicted," U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews told reporters.
In addition to the US Navy's Towed Pinger Locator used to hear pings from the black boxes, the ship will also have an unmanned underwater vehicle and other acoustic detection equipment that will be used to try to find the wreckage on the seabed under the search zone.
But the search area is so huge that investigators are first hoping to find floating wreckage of the plane so they could set a smaller zone using sophisticated analysis to determine a location from where the debris drifted. Even if they do that, recovery of the jet's flight data and cockpit voice recorders could be complicated.
The area is dominated by a muddy ocean floor known as Broken Ridge, which is actually a plateau where depths range from as shallow as about 800 meters (2,625 feet) to about 3,000 meters (9,843 feet).
Matthews said the Navy's ping locator has the "capability to do search and recovery operations down to a depth of 20,000 feet."
Data on the black boxes may help investigators solve what has become one of aviation's big mysteries — what happened to Flight 370, with speculation ranging from equipment failure and a botched hijacking to terrorism or an act by one of the pilots.
Australian Prime Minister Abbott also announced that a former Australian defense chief, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, will lead a new search and recovery operations center in Perth to coordinate the international effort.


text:
DETROIT (AP) — Thousands of people are taking part in a Detroit march commemorating the 50th anniversary of one made in 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr.
The walk kicked off Saturday morning at Forest and Woodward Avenue and is proceeding down Woodward to a riverfront rally at Hart Plaza.
The civil rights icon visited Detroit on June 23, 1963, to lead tens of thousands in a freedom walk and also previewed his "I Have a Dream" speech.
Mayor Dave Bing and the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are among those participating in Saturday's march and rally.
Detroit NAACP President Wendell Anthony said the march "signifies that the work for freedom and justice must continue" in Detroit and worldwide.


text:
Previous Lesson
Complete and Continue
Advanced Pine Script Use Cases
Introduction (4:07)
Useful Tricks
Debugging PineScript Indicators (13:30)
Generating PineScript Code in Python (10:55)
Triggering an alert at a specific time inside a bar (6:21)
Triggering an alert x minutes/seconds before the close of the bar (3:15)
Advanced Indicators
RSI Divergence (11:32)
Showing/Hiding Indicator Elements from Parameters (4:06)
Projecting Trading Session to the Future Bars (5:52)
Reproducing standard Stop Loss / Profit Target (10:10)
Reproducing standard Trailing Stop Loss (2:22)
Combining Multiple SL/TSLs (2:51)
Moving Stop Loss to Breakeven after Profits (5:39)
Using Highest High / Lowest Low as TSL (3:17)
Creating Dynamic Stop Loss based on Volatility (4:40)
Calculating Profit Target Dynamically based on Risk-Reward Ratio (3:33)
Calculating Quantity Dynamically based on Value to Risk and TSL (3:52)
Entering / Exiting Positions at Specific Time / Day of the Week (4:23)
Enabling / Disabling Strategy Filters from Parameters (6:15)
Custom Screeners
How Custom Screeners work in PineScript? (7:45)
Integrating an Indicator into Custom Screener. Example for RSI Divergence (5:30)
Sorting Results of Custom Screener (9:19)
Teach online with
Integrating an Indicator into Custom Screener. Example for RSI Divergence
Lesson content locked
If you're already enrolled,
you'll need to login
Enroll in Course to Unlock


text:
As readers of ad-rag know, justice isn't always swift for ad plagiarists. In fact, often they're rewarded for their misdeeds.
That isn't the case for Kmart, which in an act of desperation recently lifted the marketing strategy, broadcast campaign and tagline of retail leader Wal-Mart.
Read here about how their hapless attempt at me-too marketing backfired and (combined with decades of blunders) lead them to declare bankruptcy.


text:
Doug and Red, 2020
Get a fine art print from an original painting by Doug Frye. Use the drop menu to select the fine art material and the size you want. All art prints are archival quality and made in the USA.
Free shipping in the domestic U.S.
- Canvas is medium texture with Oxford 2-over-1 weave, includes matte varnish, 405gsm, 1 1/2" deep
- Fine art paper is cold press textured, 300gsm
- Vibrant matte paper is smooth, 230 gsm
Please allow 10 days for shipping details. For some canvas prints, please allow additional time due to varnishing and stretching.


text:
Speakers: Prof. Dr. Rolf Steyer
Summer term 2008, Course, Course length: 21.50 hours, Language: German, Topic: Methoden der Evaluationsforschung
Hint: Are you a member of Jena University? In this case you do not need to demand the course but can directly log in. Materials of lectures can be downloaded from within the university network without login.
Here you can demand the above course. After you sent this form, you will receive a confirmation via email. In case you do not get a confirmation, please contact us! If there are costs, we will send you a bill within the next days. As soon as you are entitled to access the course videos and files we will send you a password with witch you can log in.


text:
- Arbeitsgedächtnis (1)
- Cortisol (1)
- Elektroencephalogramm (1)
- Exekutive Funktionen (1)
- Flexibilität (1)
- Frequenzbandkopplungen (1)
- Inhibition (1)
- Phasen-Amplituden-Kopplung (1)
- Stress (1)
- cross-frequency coupling (1)
The Role of Phase-Amplitude Coupling in the Relationship between Acute Stress and Executive Functions (2016)
Phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling is a mechanism thought to facilitate communication between neuronal ensembles. The mechanism could underlie the implementation of complex cognitive processes, like executive functions, in the brain. This thesis contributes to answering the question, whether phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling - assessed via electroencephalography (EEG) - is a mechanism by which executive functioning is implemented in the brain and whether an assumed performance effect of stress on executive functioning is reflected in phase-amplitude coupling strength. A huge body of studies shows that stress can influence executive functioning, in essence having detrimental effects. In two independent studies, each being comprised of two core executive function tasks (flexibility and behavioural inhibition as well as cognitive inhibition and working memory), beta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling was robustly detected in the left and right prefrontal hemispheres. No systematic pattern of coupling strength modulation by either task demands or acute stress was detected. Beta-gamma coupling might also be present in more basic attention processes. This is the first investigation of the relationship between stress, executive functions and phase-amplitude coupling. Therefore, many aspects have not been explored yet. For example, studying phase precision instead of coupling strength as an indicator for phase-amplitude coupling modulations. Furthermore, data was analysed in source space (independent component analysis); comparability to sensor space has still to be determined. These as well as other aspects should be investigated, due to the promising finding of very robust and strong beta-gamma coupling for all executive functions. Additionally, this thesis tested the performance of two widely used phase-amplitude coupling measures (mean vector length and modulation index). Both measures are specific and sensitive to coupling strength and coupling width. The simulation study also drew attention to several confounding factors, which influence phase-amplitude coupling measures (e. g. data length, multimodality).


text:
Please Select
Adam West
AL Petteway & ..
Alex de Grassi
Amrit Sond
Andrew York
Bill Perry
Brian Gore
Catfish Keith
Chris Proctor
Danny Combs
Davey Johnston..
David Cullen &..
Doug MacLeod
Doug Smith & M..
Eltjo Haselhof..
Greg Hawkes
Happy Traum
Henry Mancini
Jim Earp
John Fahey
Lasse Johansso..
Laurence Juber..
Mark Hanson
Martin Paris
Mike Pachelli
Nick Charles
Pat Donohue
Pat Donohue & ..
Pat Kirtley
Peppino D'Agos..
Peter Finger
Peter Huttling..
Phil Keaggy & ..
Pierre Bensusa..
Preston Reed
Richard M Sher..
Steve Baughman..
Thom Bresh & B..
Tim Pacheco
Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel..
Tony McManus
Tracy Moore
William Coulte..
Quick Search
Use keywords to find the product you are looking for.
Advanced Search
Steve Baughman
My Account
Cart Contents
The Angels Portion - Steve Baughman
The Angels' Portion
Celtic, Appalaachian and Swedish tunes plus originals that are so catchy you assume they're traditional as well.
Combining his unique techniques with his inherent feel, sensitivity and use of dynamics, Baughman is once more left standing in the dock as one of the usual suspects charged with committing excellent music to record. With so much heavenly musichere, it is difficult to guess which tracks the angels will claim as their rightful portion.
~ ~ Minor 7th
In the making of fine Scotch whisky, there is no ingredient more precious than time. The process begins with barley and the purest water. The barley is soaked, dried over a peat fire, crushed into grist, moved to the grist hopper and mixed with hot water. The mixture eventually finds its way into an oak cask that will be its home for the next 12, 15 or 21 years. There it sleeps, alone and undisturbed, except by angels sent from heaven to perform a sacred but daunting task, to turn this simple mixture into a glorious Uisgebeatha, the Water of Life.
As the world turns, as stars dim, as empires wane, the angels labor in the darkness. Then, their miracle complete, they depart. The stillman returns to the cask and savors the first vapor of new creation. There he observes that what was once a full barrel is now only a partly full barrel. And he smiles. Evaporation, some say. But the stillman knows. For even the angels love a drop of the pure.
It is my hope that over the next 12, 15 and 21 years, the process of musical fermentation will endow my playing with a richness worthy of this album title. Until then, I am honored to share with you The Angels Portion.
~ ~ ~ Steve Baughman
Recent review of
"The Angels Portion"
From the standpoint of technique, what sets Steve Baughman apart from other guitarists working the Celtic vein is the use of his favored "Orkney Tuning" and a middle-finger "thwack"---a sort of banjo frailing technique applied to the guitar. Combining these unique approaches with his inherent feel, sensitivity and use of dynamics, Baughman is once more left standing in the dock as one of the usual suspects charged with committing excellent music to record. This time out, though, Baughman expands beyond the heavily-worked Celtic realm, as reflected in the collection's subtitle "Celtic, Appalachian and Swedish Guitar Instrumentals". Indeed, he goes still further and includes an original composition ("Bonnie Wahine") in what he calls the "burgeoning genre called Celto-Hawaiian music". The ethereal Scottish tune "Roslyn Castle" opens the album on a Celtic note with images of misty mountains. Baughman reinvigorates the oft-recorded "Carolan's Draft" as "One Draft Too Many", which he performs on a seven-string guitar. Appalachia is represented by the fiddle tune "Hickory Jack", dating from a 1937 field recording of a Kentucky fiddler. A nod to Sweden is given on "Skalarna" and "Polska Efter Pelle Fors". Baughman embellishes three selections with a second guitar, most beautifully on "Jer the Rigger", a fiddle tune from Clare which he drastically slowed down from it usually frantic pace to allow the melody to be fully realized. With so much heavenly music here, it is difficult to guess which tracks the angels will claim as their rightful portion.
©Patrick Grant
Steve Baughman
Product Type:
AMR CDs
Item #:
This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 29 September, 2005.
Customers who bought this product also purchased
Everybody's Pickin' On Leiber & Stoller
The Collection - Tracy Moore
The Collection - Peter Finger
The Collection - David Cullen
Guitar Blues - Kenny Sultan
POPPIN' GUITARS: A Tuneful Of Sherman
Web hosting
and design by Canvas Dreams LLC
Copyright 2023


text:
Many of you have commented about our floof lately and have wondered about how much time Mom Paula takes to groom us. Keeping our floof beautiful is a lot of hard work on both our part and Mom Paula's part.
It begins each morning with giving ourselves a bath. So far, Mom Paula hasn't given us a bath, but we know the time will come and we're dreading it (so is Mom Paula!). We can't believe Mom Paula is sharing this photo of us not looking our best!
Mom Paula keeps a comb, some toenail clippers, and one of our Furminators beside her bed. Before we even get out of the bed in the morning, she combs us and looks for mats. The Furminator is great for helping to get those nasty mats out. Brulee is most relaxed first thing in the morning and she will allow Mom Paula to groom her (we're still working on trimming the claws, though).
At night, Mom Paula uses a pin cushion brush on us. We tolerate that much better than the comb. Once again, she may need to use the Furminator to remove some mats. She also tries to trim our claws in the evening, but that usually ends up being a 3-day job because we're not very patient for the nail clipping. Sometimes, we're not very cooperative with her and she has to groom us a 3rd time during the day or just wait until the next day. We let her know when we've had enough! Truffle tends to "nip" at her and Brulee just squeals like a pig! MOL.
The result are below!