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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:16 pm
Post subject: Braiding Bread?
In the brand spanking new Artisan Breads (part of the CIA's "At Home" series), instructions for braiding bread are given as pinching the ends of the strands together, then doing your over-unders.
Virtually every other set of instructions I've read directs to start in the middle, and braid in both directions.
I've never understood the purpose of starting in the middle. So, a couple of questions:
1. Does braiding from the middle serve any function, other than being traditional?
2. Do the instructions in Artisan Breads represent a change in direction in the baking fraternity?
A related question. The book includes directions for a six-strand braid. In the past, if I wanted something that big, I would do something like a four-strand base with a second three-strand braid on top of it. What do the bread-makers here think of a six-strand version?
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Joined: 24 Sep 2004
Posts: 443
Location: Paris, France
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 4:13 pm
Post subject:
I've never braided bread myself, but I'm curious about such things so I've often watched instructional videos etc. and the way I understand it, starting from the middle is simply for the purpose of handling shorter strands of dough -- less cumbersome, I guess.
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 456
Location: california
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:01 pm
Post subject:
I've been making challah for years--the one bread I braid, and I always braid from the middle. I divide the bread into three strands, make an "X" first with two strands then lay the last one straight vertically through the center. Braid in both directions, tucking in the ends.
I think starting from the middle assures symmetry in the loaf. If you begin braiding at one end and just keep going, the strands can get long and more stretched by the end of the loaf, resulting in one end looking sort of scrawny and unloved
I haven't seen the artisan breadbakers' new guidelines. I'm trying to picture how that works.
As for making a large, two layer challah...isn't something that usually done for holidays or special occasions, etc? I've never done one, but I'd think you would have to be careful in the baking so that the bread would bake through without the exterior's getting too dark due to the additional baking time.
By the way, my favorite challah recipe is from "The Cheese Board Collective Works", by the Cheese Board Collective. It's delicious, and it's never failed me.
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 10:15 pm
Post subject:
Georgia, there's no significant increase in baking time with a double-decker, because the total mass remains the same.
What you do is make a regular recipe. Then divide it, with 2/3 in one lump and 1/3 in the other. The big lump is used to make the 4-strand base, and the small one to make the 3-strand top.
If the crust is getting too dark you do the same as always: tent it with some foil, so it slows down the darkening.
All in all, the double decker's make a very dramatic presentation. I wouldn't both on a day-to-day basis. But for a celebration it really is worthwhile.
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 456
Location: california
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:08 pm
Post subject:
KYH, I see what you mean about mass, but I was thinking of a recipe that typically yields 2 loaves and using that total amount of dough for one large, double-decker challah. I would think the baking time would have to be increased by at least a bit.
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Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 1324
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:11 pm
Post subject:
Lol .. I've braided only
Georgia thank you for mentioning the "The Cheese Board Collective Works" I have this book and am still (100 years later) afraid to try.
Donna said her (WAY popular tried-and-true international) stollen is
than the "...Cheese Board..." stollen. So the challah suggestion is encouraging. I made a rum baba (baba au rhum!) this Christmas that was lovely, but I sort of want that same bread/cake texture
without the rum
--because I think you could soak it with other things..or no-thing? Would that be challah?
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 456
Location: california
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:44 pm
Post subject:
try the Cheese Board book. It's wonderful. One of the reasons I love it is that it's so generous. Those recipes are exactly the baked goods they sell at the store. Who else gives away their recipes??
The challah can be made in your mixer (I'm assuming a KitchenAid...i.e., with a nice, strong motor and a dough hook). They give you a specific flour measurement, which I think always helps anyone who doesn't make a lot of bread or who is fearful of trying. The dough mixes beautifully in the mixer; then I usually give it a minute or two of hand kneading. The dough is springy and smooth and lovely...like a baby's bottom!
Over the holidays, I made this same bread as the small "turbans" they suggest and added golden raisins, chopped dried apricot, and dried cranberries. One recipe yielded three of those, and they were nice gifts for my neighbors plus Christmas breakfast for us.
By the way, I reduce the baking temp to 350. Just works better for me and my oven. (Come to think of it, I think I reduce the sugar slightly, too...1/3 cup instead of 1/2...this is from memory, so I hope I'm right. Personal preference.)
Try this bread and anything else that catches your fancy in this book. Everything I've made from it has turned out delicious. I can't promise that the challah will be the baba substitute you're searching for, but at least you'll have great challah when you're finished.
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:14 am
Post subject:
Georgia, you point is well taken. But consider this, if you use the entire recipe you're also making a loaf that is longer than usual (otherwise it would be imbalanced and fall over). So, again, there's not that much difference in the depth that the oven-heat has to penetrate. It's the total physical size that's impressive.
That said, it's been my experience that changing the physical size of a dough hardly ever effects baking time significantly. For instance, if instead of two loaves of challah you were to make individual braided buns the buns would likely bake only about five minutes less than the full loaf.
Or, a real life case. I often make the Pane Sicliano in
Bread Baker's Apprentice.
I've formed the double-S shape into three loaves, as Reinhart suggests, into one hommongous loaf, and into rolls. The baking time, in all three forms, is about the same.
If you play with sizes, and are concerned, I would recommend using a thermometer. Bread usually is ready at from 190-210F internal temperature.
And, of course, the thump test is always a fairly good guide.
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:30 am
Post subject:
Lol .. I've braided only hair.
Ginger, you poor deprived child. Braiding (sometimes called "plaiting" in olden times) can be fun.
I've done my share of hair. Friend Wife used to wear hers considerably below her waist, until caring for it got to be a fulltime job. And, as an historic reenactor, I used to put my own long hair up in a "club."
Lou Wentzel, a colonial hero from what is now West Virginia, had a personal war with the Shawnee. Killed more than 100 of them in one-on-one combat. As a taunt he never cut his hair---when he let it down, according to his brother, it would drag on the ground. Now that was a braiding job!
In the maritime world, braids are referred to as sennets, and sennets are part of the arcane artform called "fancy knotwork." You may know it as macrame. There are 400 basic sennets, and unlimited ways of combining them.
I well remember making a new runner to cover the accomodation ladder on my ship. We used a 16-strand Russian sennet, made from 1/2 inch rope. The final pad would be 40 feet long, which, IIRC, required 180 feet for each strand.
Picture this: 16 seamen, each with a coiled rope in their hands. "Ok, #1, you go over the next two guys, then under the next one. #2, you....."
Like I say, it can be fun. And after something like that, braiding bread is a cakewalk.
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 456
Location: california
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:27 am
Post subject:
KYH, I think we're really on the same page. My definition of "a bit longer" and yours of "about the same time" are equal, I suspect. We're only speaking of minutes here. And, yes, I use both the thump test and the thermometer. I worked in a culinary program for a number of years and had the privilege of meeting Peter Rinehart (lovely, lovely man...great baker...) a couple of times (no...he'd never remember...) and benefitting from his expertise. It was the first time I'd ever seen anyone use a thermometer for bread, but it's been a most comforting back-up for me ever since.
Ultimately, for me, it comes down to color, aroma, "thumpiness", and oven idiosyncracies when determining doneness. All of this comes with experience, of course, but I always do everything I can to get new bakers to try bread baking. The rewards are so much greater than the effort.
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 5:45 am
Post subject:
Ya know, Georgia, I used to think you were a bit of all right. But not anymore. How could I while eaten up with jealousy? How dare you have gotten close to Peter Reinhart, when I have yet to have that pleasure.
You're on my list now.
I'm a big fan of Reinhart's work, and wish he'd have one of his workshops close enough for me to attend. In fact, I was asked, on another list, if I'd recommend the new CIA book over Reinhart. My response: With a good baking book, my recommendation is always that it be acquired in addition to, rather than instead of, anything by Reinhart. Let's face it,
Bread Baker's Apprentice
is a hard act to follow.
To be sure, the 12-steps of bread baking in
Artisan Breads
are slightly different. But the irony, of course, is that as addictive as bread making is, a 12-step program just makes sense.
Anyway, I'm sure you're right; our differences have to do more with choice of words than what happens in the oven.
I think the hardest lesson newbies have to learn isn't about technique, or the magic of dough. It's that bread making is a totally sensory experience, and that the dough and bread talk to you through touch, and smell, and visual appearance, and aural transmission. Indeed, my only objection to bread machines is that you don't get to play with the dough.
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Joined: 16 May 2006
Posts: 456
Location: california
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 8:17 am
Post subject:
I suspect my recollections would carry more weight if I'd bothered to check my spelling...Reinhart...I'm usually a real stickler, former English teacher that I am
I do remember a few specific things about Peter Reinhart...he arrived in the very early hours of the a.m. in order to prepare several stages of bread mixing/rising, etc. samples for the class. Did it himself...many others asked to have all of that prep work done in advance of their arrival. He was most pleasant, modest, encyclopedically knowledgable. He brought sourdough starter to share with the participants...anyone who wished it carried home a little blob of starter. Just a thoroughly terrific experience.
My grandmother taught me to make bread and it was always a totally sensory experience. Had to be...we barely measured anything. I have numerous recipes with instructions to "add some flour", "add some more flour", "add flour until it looks right".
And I know EXACTLY what each of those instructions means!
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:35 pm
Post subject:
Was a time, Georgia, when virtually all recipes (or reciepts as they were then called) were written that way.
Many a colonial-era recipe, for instance, has instructions like: "add flour 'til enough."
The problem, in the modern world, is we now have 2 generations that have grown up using the words "cooking" and "microwaving" as synonyms. When people raised like that decide to get into real cooking and baking they lack a basic geshtalt; the sort of things we used to learn at our mothers' knees.
So, on one hand, I understand their need for precision in terms of ingredient amounts and directions (you ever wonder why modern recipes say things like, .......in a medium pan over medium-high heat......? Or why they spell out, "in a very little oil, over high heat,...." instead of just saying "saute?" That's why). But, on the other hand, I also see how such recipes act like straight jackets. Not knowing better, such people simply follow the recipe slavishly.
In my own classes I focus on technique. Recipes are secondary. The one thing I want my students to learn is that good cooking consists of good techniques applied to good ingredients. That's the whole secret. Well, that and Saint Julia's injunction to not be afraid!
When it comes to baking, I was kind of in the same boat. Mom was a great cook. But, like so many good cooks, she didn't bake. For us, the nostolgic aroma of fresh baked bread wafted up from a white paper bakery bag, not the oven. So, for the longest time, when I baked bread I slavishly followed the recipe (note the word "recipe." Who knew from formulas?). When it worked, I was ecstatic. When it didn't, I had no idea why, and figured it was something I'd done wrong.
About three years ago I decided to change that, and got into bread making on a serious level. Among other things, that meant discovering Peter Reinhart. Wow! For the first time I started understanding what was going on, and the magic that converts flour, salt, water and yeast into a loaf of bread.
At this rate, I figure another 20 years and I can call myself a baker.
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Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 1324
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:18 pm
Post subject:
Haha Georgia thank you for "assuming" a Kitchenaid mixer for me! I've been assuming one for years, I've mostly assumed that nice shiny copper/cinnamon colored one, but assuming is as far as it's gotten. I cook for only 2, a bakery-bought loaf of French goes stale before we finish it. Consumer Reports likes the Cuisinart now--the old Kitchenaids were great but now weaker I think.
Now Rainey has said more than once that mixing the dough in a breadmaker, but finishing in the oven, is fine. I
have a breadmaker (seemed like a good idea at the time) so I'll try that with the challah. But the recipe makes 3 loaves--I hope cutting it down to 1/3 will be OK? Will report. (Next week.)
Except for the no-knead, every loaf of bread I've made (hand kneading OR breadmaker) has been too dense. I want bread that stretches and then tears apart--not breaks into pieces!
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 552
Location: Central Kentucky
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:31 pm
Post subject:
Now Rainey has said more than once that mixing the dough in a breadmaker, but finishing in the oven, is fine.
Ginger, I can't stress enough, whether cooking or baking, that any way that works for you is fine. If somebody objects, then they need to be taken out behind the barn for a little chat.
It's like the perennial argument about using a scale vs volume measurements. For various reasons, I prefer scaling. But if anyone tells you you can't make a great loaf of bread with volume measurements, that person is an idiot. You certainly can. Hundreds of home-bakers do so every day.
For me, the tactile sensations of bread making are an important part of the miracle. Doesn't mean it's crucial to anyone else. Just means it's what works for me.
Re: stand mixers. I also only cook for two. But I won't give up my KitchenAid Pro 6.
KA's have had a checkered on-again, off-again history, but the current ones seem to be part of an on phase---at least those on the higher end do. The problem people mostly have with them is choosing the wrong model for their needs. If you're a serious bread maker (that is, several loaves made often), for instance, and choose an Artisan, shame on you. But if you're mostly a cake and cookie baker, and do that in small batches, the Artisan serves your needs just fine. Only one I'd shy away from right now is the Classic. There are reasons---such as plastic gears and other parts---for its low price point.
Having been on the recieving end of both good and bad Consumer Reports studies, I have no faith in any of their conclusions. There are established test protocols for most manufactured products, and if you decide to make up your own tests than your conclusions are automatically suspect, IMO. The idea is to compare apples to apples with replicable proceedures.
That aside, although mechanically built well, in-the-field Cuisinart users report a major operating problem: the bowl-mount system is awkward to use under the best of conditions, and tends to lock the bowl to the stand, making it difficult to remove the bowl to empty it. If you watch Food Network and other cooking shows, you can often see that problem in action.
Me, until such time as I can justify owning a Hobart, I'll stick with the KA.
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You can hear episode 157 by clicking on the Flash player below, or if your device does not support Flash, you can visit our listening options page for other ways to receive the show. Episode 157 is one hour and 10 minutes long.
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Major Zero-day flaw in Apple's Safari browser discovered, Apple ignored the warnings so well-known researcher goes public.
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As an investor, Esther Dyson not only gets a glimpse into the future, but appears to live in it as well.
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text: Our room rate is $50 for a person and for 2 people is $25. Our pheasant hunting starting is at $130 per gun. We have a special offer for October 3 where pheasants are only $100 dollars. Our 5 stand super sporting clay, skeet, trap, silo shoot are already available. Staying in our lodge would be more than just memorable as we cook you meals and we definitely have plenty of hospitality. We train our dogs and your too if you want them to be the best hunting company ever. Nonresident hunting preserve license must be purchased in advance. We've introduced Pheasant, Bobwhite Quail along with existing Wild Turkey and Deer. Smokin' Gun Hunting Lodge will furnish specialty packages tailored to suit your needs for both groups and individuals. Half day hunts starting at $130. Our Exclusive Package is a 3 day hunt with lodging, guides, dogs, meals, and processing of game $1,500 per person. All the trap, skeet and 5 stand sporting clays you want to shoot is included in this package. We also specialize in entertaining and satisfying our customers! Our turkey hunt is 5 days with lodging $2,000.


text:
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text:
From: MO, United States
Genre: Blues, Rock
Born in Toronto, Canada, to a Portuguese father and a French-Canadian mother, Gomes began playing guitar in his early teens and was drawn to the blues sounds of BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. While hoing his skills in the blues bars at night, Gomes earned a Master's Degree from the University of Toronto in the 'Racial Evolution of Blues'.
He relocated to Chicago in the late '90s to learn from the blues masters. During his brief stint as a sideman for Magic Slim and…


text:
Ghismonda by Fernando Vicente
Captivating and sensual, Fernando Vicente's work lies at the intersection of inner and outer beauty. The women in his paintings are gorgeous, empowered females, who taunt us by exposing their anatomy. By unveiling these layers of anatomy, he presents a level of intimacy that pushes the perception of classic beauty.
- 19.8 in x 27.5 in
- Giclée print on fine art paper
- Limited edition of 75
- Signed and numbered by artist
- Imported from Madrid, Spain
- Collection of 6 prints from the VENUS series. View all!
Fernando Vicente (Spanish b. 1963) is a successful artist based in Madrid, Spain. He is widely known for his award-winning illustrative commercial work and paintings. His influence comes from anatomical illustration from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Please allow 3 weeks for delivery from order date. Orders are printed on demand, signed, and shipped from Spain.
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©2015 Fernando Vicente for Street Anatomy
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text:
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Coker women's basketball team gathered their second home win of the season on Sunday (Dec. 16) afternoon when they defeated St. Andrews 89-51 in a non-conference match up. With the win the Cobras improve to 6-2 on the year.
The Cobras jumped out to an early lead, and never surrendered it. Coker shot 51-percent from the floor in the first half, and took a commanding 52-18 lead into the locker room.
The second half proved to be much more competitive, as the Knights came out firing and scored 33-points in the final 20-minutes. The deficit however, was too much to overcome as Coker put up 37 second half points of their own and preserved the victory.
Autumn Lau once again led the game in scoring for the second consecutive competition with 29-points. Amber Lau and Kelley Godbout each contributed 15-points, while Hannah Kuhn collected a game high 8 rebounds.
As a team the Cobras scored 42-of-89 points in the paint, and scored 32-points off of 25 St. Andrews turnovers. Coker also hit 81-percent of their free throws, while the bench chipped in 26-points.
The Knights had three players reach double-digit scoring figures, with Danielle Childress leading the team at 15-points. Jazmyne Harvey tallied 11-points, while Tyler Knight landed 10.
The Cobras will be looking to keep their streak alive as they travel to UNC Pembroke on Sunday, December 30. The game is scheduled to commence at 4 p.m.


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text:
wu-tang clan
Wake up RZA, you got an interview!!!
- 2003-04-29 15:53:59
© The Wu-Tang Corp.
- 2003-04-29
We got a very special interview for you today.
being interviewed by PlayLouder.com. Enjoy it, I'm pretty sure you will.
"This nigga's kinda sick, so pardon me," mumbles a sleepy looking RZA. "Normally I get more into what I'm doing, but nigga... I'm blasted. All this travellin' and shit."
That's cool. Most rappers don't bother coming over. 'Specially now.
"Yeah, well fuck them! Fuckin' lazy niggas, stayin' at home like they fuckin' scared an' shit. Heh."
The RZA is fucking tall and fucking sleepy. He lopes into Virgin's interview room like Frankenstein's monster and knocks his fist against mine and I almost forget that I was shitting it about this interview. I mean, dude, this is the fucking RZA! The architect! '36 Chambers'! 'Black Widow'! 'Domestic Violence'! Dude changed my life, and many million others. If there had been no RZA... God knows. Dude is important.
But dude is also a notoriously lunatic, mumbling, random deep-thinker, prone to falling asleep during interviews and storming out in huffs. So I worry. And as ever, I didn't bother thinking of any questions, figuring a nice chat is the best way to get interesting copy.
You sleepy RZA?
"Nah man," he chuckles. "I'm cool. I'm a drama queen, hur hur. Check this out man."
RZA shows me some big ass book.
"I like this book. Somebody gave it me. As a gift."
You get a lot of that sort of thing?
"What, gifts? Hur hur. Yeah nigga. Not enough though. You got anything for me?"
Oops. No, I tell him. Don't be rude.
PlayLouder got all excited a few years back, over the prospect of this new project called, "The World According To The RZA'. The idea was, Bob Diggi ran around the globe meeting rappers, and the best wound up on a collaborate LP. Finally, after much legal wrangling, the LP is ready, and ace. It features a whole host of guest stars, including class acts like
Saian Supa Crew
Xavier Naidoo
, and
Kool Savas
How'd you go about getting everybody involved?
"Well, I had a lot of help and shit. I had some colleagues keepin' they eyes out for me and shit, makin' phone calls. Shit came together."
Are you happy with the results?
"Well... yeah. But I'm kinda disappointed with the fact that four of the songs didn't make it. Nah-mean? I think maybe somebody had a political problem or a business problem or... always some kind of stupid shit, nah-mean? So a couple a songs that I think we coulda made ya see, more, than one song, you nah-mean? But ah, some people got no honour. You got some people that work from the heart, some people that got they dreams, some people that always try and milk you and shit... so you always got some situation."
So you've actually got people's language on there?
People's language?
"My language? Who language? Oh, shit, yeah! Ha ha ha. I got the language! Yeahyeahyeahyeah! Ha ha! They speaking French. Ha! I don't speak no language. As you can see, I don' even speak English too good, ha ha, I'm like, 'uh'? Ha ha ha. Nah, but it's good tho', because the principle goal with this album is to prove that hip-hop can be performed in any language. Like me, I think that music, it's just noise, nah-mean? I think it's music, you think it's noise, or you think it's music I think it's noise."
Yeah. Like you do that whole, 'I got an apple in my mouth' rapping thing and no one can understand what you're saying.
"Ha! Yeah. Like the
Ol' Dirty Bastard
an' shit man."
RZA stands up, puffs out his chest, and starts singing ODB lyrics.
"Up on stage I got mah dick-daaaaaaaahng!"
Hoooooooooo! That's the rage coming out.
"Stinkin' ass hoooooooooooooo! Ha ha! That's the rage right there. So, um, this album is all about that. Nah-mean? It's about the values of what hip-hop is. We don't really understand how or where hip-hop truly started, nah-mean, how you trace it back, whatever argument you get into, back to those five brothers from New York, some cats in the Bronx, whatever. Hip-hop is universal now, there's ciphers everywhere, all over, nah-mean?"
I think there was always hip-hop. Stone-age man beat a rock with a stick and mumbled over the top. He probably sounded like you.
"He did! It's true! If you go back that far it proves it's already around the world, so you don't need me! Hur hur! So that's what it's about right there, for me, hip-hop is a sound, that's the soul of our generation now...you think it's like, the 9 to 25 age bracket, but then you realise it's like 9 to 45 an' shit! Hur hur! It's the sound of our generation bitch!"
Indeed. The form has come a long way from Sugarhill and kids in tracksuits breaking. Now, we have the Nellys and Ja-Rules of the world doing their platinum thing, while, lyrically, progressive rap stays underground. Does RZA care?
"Hip-hop's goin' through the cycle like it always do, nah-mean, where these fake niggas are getting' they chance to shine, and some of the real niggas gotta back on up outside the cage... Waitin' for new niggas to emerge, and bring it back to the essence and shit, but you know, hip-hop has many faces anyway, so, nah-mean, it always been like his, always these different shits, you know, Tone Loc, Hammer, Young MC, nah-mean? Then you had Run DMC, and shit, Slick Rick an all them quality niggas... It's always that way, always some shit deteriorates shit down, then there always someone new and fresh, saying, 'ya'll forgot about this'..."
A lot of cats are taking things back to the old school at the moment. Missy dropped 'Under Construction', Nas did 'Made You Look', even Cam'Ron's rocking cartoon denim...
"Ha ha! Yeah. Well, they all got kids now, nah-mean? The state of it is, well, there's definitely a lot of money to be made. But you know, I don't think hip-hop had given a lot of inspiration lately."
I was gonna ask about this. Why do you think that is? And how about you? Ten years ago, Wu-Tang re-invented hip-hop, but you haven't changed much since. Where's that proper solo album you've been promising for the past decade? Is that gonna change shit?
"Ha ha! Maybe though! Yeah! I got the 'Cure' album I been workin' on, and I'll probably finish it at the end of the year."
I don't believe you.
"Nah! Really! Trust me! Hur hur! Maybe that will be the one for niggas to get re-writing and shit. I dunno if it's new or not. Nah-mean?"
Well, this is what we were saying. Ain't nothing new - hip-hop blatantly is in the bones of humanity... but...
"Exactly man. That's why, instead of calling shit new, we like to say we renew it, we renew the history, bring out the ghosts. It's just like when Wu-Tang first came and shit, I thought I broke the seventh seal of time! Nah-mean? Because when we came with that shit, I felt I was opening people's imaginations. For all the people. I broke the imitations of thoughts. Everybody was popped."
Which is true. The form proceeded to expand, but the anal swine remained, complaining whenever things stepped out of the supposed rules of hip-hop.
"I wasn't like they had rules at first," barks an animated RZA, banging his fist on the arm of his chair. "There were no rules! Then some nitpickety niggas had to come in and make rules! Fuck that! I came in and was like, 'bring the mother fuckin' ruckus! Uh uh uh uh uh uh! Boom boom boom boom!' Huh huh! Like, damn nigga that's some half time to a finger-snap shit! Nah-mean? Like, kung-fu shit, 'caught in the still', nah-mean? People always forget where they get shit from, nah-mean? Easy forget. This other interviewer was tellin' me, he said Ja Rule said that rappers should be thankin' him, that he's the one that made it possible for all these R 'n' B duets. Hur hur!"
RZA falls about laughing. What is he talking about?!
"Yeah! That stupid nigga! That's been always happenin', nah-mean? It was fuckin', Bell Biv Devoe and shit! Always! And then, didn't us New York
niggas get a Grammy for 'All I Need'? Hur hur!"
People in hip-hop do have a notoriously short memory spans, however. Look at the current magazine wars raging in the US - The Source, once a relevant, articulate mouthpiece for the form is now reduced to mud slinging racism. What does RZA think about the whole Source/XXL,
"For Benzino to challenge Eminem, that's a wrong swing," he laughs. "He's being real stupid. It's obvious what is doin' there. Eminem proved to motherfuckers that white niggas can rap. It's been proved. They say white men can't jump, that white men can't play ball, look at Steve Nash. Fuckin' white niggas can't play ball. Fuckin' bullshit. All men are created equal, nah-mean? Ain't no fuckin' difference in it but what's created by man. We all got equal potential. You can't forget that. There ain't no stereotype for me. You can't say white niggas can't rap, man. Someone take their time
and skill with any technique, you gonna learn it, and you gonna master it, nah-mean? Whether it's football, whether it's playin' basketball, boxin, martial arts, if you put your time and skill into that shit..."
Which reminds me of something I was wondering earlier. Does the kung-fu obsessed producer and MC, whose whole style references Martial Arts, actually practice Shaolin Kung-Fu?
"Somewhat," says RZA, darkly. "Somewhat. Nah-mean? I know the principles very well, I do that meditation shit. That cool? Good. But you know, Benzino against Eminem, that's a mismatch, that's a motherfucker. You know that. Maybe he could beat him up. He could probably beat him up, hur hur. He's a big fat mo'fucker. Hur hur. But tryin' to rap against Eminem, ain't no two ways for that nigga yo. Hur hur."
And speaking of Beef, what does RZA make his homeland's current "War On Terrorism"?
"Well, my album's called 'The World According To The RZA'. Nah-mean? It's really to bring peace. I'm putting all these different pieces of a project together. I'm showin' the connection we do have. Listen. I don't agree with this war an' shit. At first I didn't wanna make too many comments about it, 'cos I didn't know too much about it, nah-mean? Then I started watchin' CNN, and all this shit, because I'm on tour, and all they got on TV is War and porno, nah-mean? That's all you got. And there's only so much porno, so I'm back on CNN again, hur hur.
But check it out. This shit is so phony man. It's so ridiculous. It's like, now they show me they're idea of what's out there... they must be stupid. They must think we all stupid. Everybody knows Americans are stupid. But now, nigga, hur, you stupid too! You got your Tony Blair representin' your shit, and the world's thinkin', yo, London is bad. Ah, shit. This shit is weak you know? That's what I know. They don't got no water, and that's weak. Talkin' about motherfucker's weapons of mass destruction. He a tyrant. I don't know if he a tyrant or not, you know? But, if he is a tyrant, and niggas drop twelve hundred missiles on him, hur, he should just throw tyres and shit at 'em! Hur hur hur! He ain't do shit! He still ain't do shit! He ain't got shit! How old is that guy? He's an old man! He'll be dead of natural causes in a week anyway! Stupid niggas!"
Our attention turns to the huge television in the interview room, which is showing some Right Guard advert. RZA is confused by "that weird Nike logo," and notes that "ya'll got better TV than we do, better adverts and shit. Our media is dumb."
He adds that his friend the Ol' Dirty Bastard stripped watching television whilst in jail because "it was murderin' his mind." How is Ol' Dirty?
"ODB's livin' man. He's out of prison, but he's not allowed out of the hospital for three months. He's in something of a mental, and medical situation. He's keepin' strong though, on the real. And when he's out, he's gonna drop the hottest shit."
And speaking of other Wu mysteries, what happened to
? He was mysteriously booted out of the Clan a few years ago, amid rumours that included one that Cappadonna had slept with RZA's woman...
"Whut? He did my lady? Hur hur!" RZA guffawas. "Nah man. See, he made some bad business decisions and shit. Nah-mean? I'm tired of pushing people, I'm about letting people do what they wanna do, but that was bad, man. I try and
look out for all my children man, I have to let my children touch the stove. Serious. You know, I'm like, look, that stove's hot! Then I ain't gon' say it no more. Hur hur. Hot! The stove is hot! They always gonna touch it I guess. See, experience is the best teacher. But a wise man don't need to experience what's been experienced by others.
"It's like, first there's the whole Wu-Tang Clan, then the solo stuff that's done by Wu-Tang Productions. And the average fucking' deal, like, 1.2 million for two albums? That's good money, that's fuckin', you can get 2 million dollars right there. Everybody scared of that. Nah-mean? For real. And Cappadonna's shoppin' outside the Clan. Nah-mean, I got my business partners, they like, how the fuck you just give away your empire like that?
I'm like yo, it ain't about that yo. It's all about yo, let everybody live out they own full potential. Live your own shit. I ain't into this shot for money anyway. So when Cappadonna came through, I told him, yo, stay away from those labels yo. I'm your protection from these labels. I'm a get yo' money. You gon' get it in yo' hand. But you know, he put a piece of product out that didn't include Wu-Tang, and it didn't involve me, and he didn't get his money. And the he says to me all this shit. And it stopped right there. He did it to himself yo. And I still think he's one of the dopest motherfuckers, on the real. I mean his slang, his personality, his walk, his talk. That's a very special motherfucker."
He still making that LP with Lord Superb?
Lord Superb
's in jail man. It's a shame. And
's in jail too."
Lil' Shyheim? He was the Wu-baby! No!
"He in jail for the next two years. His problem, he's just... too gangsta."
RZA's PR brings in some tea, and tells us that time's up. RZA looks disgusted. "Chill out, we cool."
Then he looks at the tea, and groans.
"What is it with this place man? That ain't no tea. What the fuck is that? Damn. I am not no primadonna man, but would you drink that shit?"
I don't drink tea.
"No? That's dumb nigga! You English! Drink tea! That don't look like no tea though. Certainly not. "
It looks like it's got cum in it.
"Whoa. Nigga, that is not cool. Shit!"
RZA sips a bit, and grimaces. With time all but gone, I remember Kool Kid Fresh asked me to enquire about RZA's fabled Theory Of Mathematics. He smiles at the question, and leans forward conspiratorially.
"Well. OK, let me hit you off. The theory of mathematics is life, nah-mean? I been livin' mathematics. I deal with that shit. Every day you should think about mathematics, and try to arrange your day. Because everything is a cycle. Nah-mean? And so, it's like, the cycle goes higher and higher spirals ups and downs, but it's still a cycle. Whether it's a million or a billion or a trillion, it's still a cycle, and it's getting bigger, and you still gotta be aware. Nah-mean?"
Erm, sort of. But I read somewhere that the universe was shrinking?
"Nnnn. Maybe. But it's expanding at the same time. You got different scientists and weird scientists, but I know what mathematics does in my life, and that's what you gotta learn. What's happenin' is they
startin' to find out that there's no thing for the smallness, and the largeness. You gotta follow your inner spaces up and down to your outer space. The
inner space is in debt to the outer space, and you man try top trace space to find God, or or pure space. Nah-mean? Hur hur! Think on that shit nigga. Hur hur. Nah-mean?"
Um... Not really.
"You will man. You just need to sit the fuck still. Make some beats. Hur hur!"
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text:
March 10th, 2012
Yet more thoughts on fanfiction: E. L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey
Ilona Andrews drew my attention to the phenomenon that is FSOG and I couldn't help but dive face first into the trainwreck.
That review by lazaruspaste is truly amusing on top of being edifying, by the way, and I love her voice.
It was infuriating. I wanted to scratch my eyes out or maybe the characters'. I'm not really sure. At one point, I had to start drinking heavily. But even gin didn't dull the fury.
I know, I know; the ease at which I get TWS is truly horrifying. It's almost like norovirus — somehow, sometimes, despite how many times you might get it, your immune system never quite develops full resistance to it.
(Here's another funny summary of the highlights of FSOG from Read|React|Review in list form, for those of you who might want to read this after seeing the trainwreck. Bonus! Drinking game from Livingbyfiction that's hysterical. )
There's a bit of a kerfuffle going on about the fact that FSOG's previous incarnation was a fanfiction of Twilight called Master Of The Universe.
MoTU was one of the most popular series on ff.net, a repository for free fan fiction. During the height of its popularity, an auction for the series raised $30,000. The author appeared on a fan fiction panel at the 2010 ComicCon and attended a three day conference in DC thrown by her fans.
There's a lot of divided opinion on the matter and I've spent the better part of the night trying to figure out where I stand on the matter.
Jami Gold's assessment of the situation:
Beyond what's legal or illegal as far as copyright, trademark, fair use, or derivative vs. transformative works, fanfic authors owe a debt of thanks to the original creator (after all, without the original work, the fanfic author wouldn't have been inspired to use that as a jumping-off point). And in return, I believe a fanfic author should never exploit the characters, setting, world—or the original author's brand or fan loyalty—for their own gain.
I believe that if someone chose to invest their time, energy, and heart into doing something, they deserve to be paid for it. I've said it before and I'll said it again now: everything's been done before, somewhere, somehow, countless endless times.
This follows that I believe that people should be allowed to be paid for fanfiction, yes?
After all, Wicked, and Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies are pretty much fanfictions that are capitalizing off of their established fanbases.
It's true that they are considered parodies, but I think that line is sometimes a bit too indistinct. It's not enough of a hard line that I'm ready to pass judgement on someone just because they're playing in someone else's sandbox.
Some defenses of James that I don't find relevant to what I find problematic about the situation but feel I should address because I don't want them to pop up as strawman arguments:
Trojanwalls comments that:
Recently I found one of my favourite authors posting her opinion on a book that she admits she barely read - 'Would FSOG be as successful without Twilight? Probably not. It's definitely cashing in on the Twilight fandom's desire for nookie between beloved characters.' – probably because she read other people posting similar opinions on their blogs. Maybe they are right, maybe I missed something – but it seems wrong to judge a book by its biased reviews which is what she seems to have done.
My reaction to that is, if James truly thought that her work could stand on its own feet, then she wouldn't have put it up as fanfiction. Also, something that DA and Smart Bitches lambastes in quite the way lazaruspastes did is unlikely to surprise me in terms of quality.
Pavarti K Tyler, on pull-to-publish fanfiction (I don't think she's explicitly talking about MOTU, but these arguments have been used in defense of MOTU being published) :
But what about some of the stuff I wrote that really wasn't based on them. What about the original fiction I was writing that I plugged their names into just so I could put it out there. I didn't have the balls to self-publish it then, would it be wrong to pull and publish it now?
Again, if James didn't have the balls to throw her baby out there and have it judged on its own merits, then it shouldn't be an issue that people are complaining that she's capitalizing off Meyer's fame. Either it's OF or it's FF, make up your mind. Everything has a price, and you're staring right at it. This is vaguely related to my actual beef with her, but I wanted to clarify that the names were never the problem.
What specific issues do I have with James?
I feel like she cheated and that she's a bit morally suspect for her actions.
I'm not even going to go into chat transcripts that imply she only went into the Twihard fanfiction world just to drum up a fanbase so she could get catapulted into fame.
"Well don't tell anyone – I have visions of being interviewed by Time Magazine for revolutionizing publishing…"
"I have done it as a sort of exercise.. to see if I could … and I think I have proven that I can… I now want to capitalize on it…"
"I have to say I do not feel as passionately as you do about the fandom"
"it's like the old groucho marx joke which I cant remember about not wanting to belong to a club that you're a member of…"
even when you publish it on amazon, theres still gonna be negativity "true… but I'm sure it's easier to take with a big fat paycheck LOL"
What I really despise is that I feel like she's gamed the system for her own benefit and it reflects extremely poorly on the rest of us, writer or fanficcer alike.
I feel that Wicked and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies were likely held up to a higher standard because they had to overcome the stigma of being derivative works. They are also open and upfront about being derivative, which is actually a mark in their favor.
In my opinion, James took something that could have been an Original Fiction (OF) and essentially springboarded her work by branding it as Twilight fanfiction. Then, as far as I can tell, she took her work, which was available for free, as soon as she figured out that she could capitalize on it, and stripped it of all identifying tags and published it for her own profit.
So she's cheating by gaining a built-in fanbase, by bypassing the slushpiles (virtual or otherwise) using the knowledge that fans will read almost anything in their desire to get more of their crack, by using fans as free sounding boards and critique partners, and finally she's cheating Meyers of whatever advertising she could have provided through her fanfiction.
KimmyDonn also makes a very good point when she says:
You wrote a great fanfiction 'novel.' That's great! Wonderful! You have readers and reviewers ready and eager for your next work. Don't just give them redressed left-overs. Put that practice piece aside. Give it the place it deserves as a lesson learned and start your new and completely original idea. If you're worried about losing those fans in the meantime, tell them what you're doing. You might redress 'left-overs' in the form of out-takes from your completed story to keep them checking your page. Tack on a teaser from your Work-In-Progress to whet their appetites, and then, give them what they really want – something original.
Yes, it's also a bit suspect when you take something that was originally **free** and repackage it for sale, even with significant overhaul.
Every person's first novel, or heck, their second novel is essentially a trial to see if they have the chops to make it. Not only has James slunk past the starting line by advertising her work as FF, but she's not even really respecting her fans or Meyers by putting her first novel up as sort of a tribute, something to give back to what inspired her and gave her what's now her fanbase. I feel like she had the change to take the classy route and she utterly gave it up and rolled around in the muck.


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KDE and the KDE devel framework, the KDE Workspace, KDE Edu, KDE Games, Gwenview, Konqueror, Dolphin, Amarok, KOffice, etc, etc
"when the project was first started, it was a play on the term 'CDE' which was the dominant UNIX desktop environment at the time. It stood for 'Common Desktop Environment'. Well, this was going to be better than common. It was going to be *cooool*. Being German, they replaced the 'c' with a 'k' and called it KDE. But within the year, the meaning was dropped and now it's just a letter ... which is what has subsquently happened to the rest of the acronym as well."
It's like 3M .. they make all kinds of goods and what not, but the name actually stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. They never did start mining commerically, however, and today it's just '3M'." --- aseigo
This is an acrynom.


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Playing The Feud With Josh Reddick and Letters From Sam Part Two
Are you ready Family Feud contestants? We've got the top four answers on the board. The category is: Name something that is incredibly hot.
"The surface of the sun"
Excellent answer.
"A vindaloo dish at an Indian restaurant."
A bit obscure, but yes, that's correct.
"Actress Diane Lane"
"PawSox outfielder Josh Reddick at the plate."
The number one answer.
(photos courtesy of Kelly O'Connor)
OK, forgive me for the lame stab at comedy, but I'm having a hard time describing just how well Josh Reddick is swinging the stick.
I guess some stats would be a good place to start.
On Thursday night at Lehigh Valley, Reddick went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs in Pawtucket's 11-8 win over the IronPigs. Josh has homered in four straight games and has crushed 8 HR in his last 11 games to move into a tie for the league lead. Thru 20 games, the 24-year-old outfielder is batting .296/.376/.691 with 6 2B, 1 3B, and 8 HR.
"I just feel like nothing can go wrong and everything is going my way," Reddick told me after the game. "When I'm up there, I'm just trying to swing at good pitches and it's working out for me right now."
"He's a confident hitter," said PawSox hitting coach Chili Davis. "He knows he can hit and he's figured out that he can drive the ball all over the field. He's not chasing pitches. It's a long year and you go through ups and downs, but I like where he is right now."
Some hitters say that when they're on a hot streak, the baseball looks like a beach ball coming out of the pitcher's hand. Not Reddick.
"The beach ball comment is kind of overrated to me," Reddick said. "The main thing for me is just trying to keep my head down and take a nice easy swing and not get overanxious up there. That's what I'm doing. I'm seeing the ball all the way to the bat instead of pulling off."
"He had three good at-bats tonight, but in his last at-bat I think he went out of his zone," Davis said. "He swung at a 2-0 changeup and I'm trying to get him to not waste at-bats. Keep working the pitchers, get good pitches to hit, and then hit them hard."
This is the second time in Reddick's minor league career that he has gone deep in four straight games. In 2009 at Portland, Josh went hitless in the season opener before belting home runs in the Sea Dogs next four games.
"When I did it in Portland, all of the reporters came up to me and said that I tied a team record," Reddick said. "The next game I went 0-for-4, so I'm going to keep that off of my mind as much as possible. I'm not going up there trying to hit home runs – things are working in my favor right now and the ball is going out for me."
He doesn't necessarily look like a typical home run hitter at a slender 180 pounds, but since August 2nd of last year, Reddick has 18 HR in his last 225 Triple-A at-bats (HR every 12.5 at-bats).
"He's got pop because he's got good bat speed," Davis said. "He doesn't take half-swings. When he sees something that he wants to hit, he's trying to hit it hard. You can't teach bat speed. You can teach a lot of things, but you can't teach bat speed. He was blessed with that."
* * * * *
For the second straight road trip, my 4-year-old son Sam sent me a note and had my wife Peg mail it to the team hotel in Pennsylvania (you can see the first note here).
Here is letter #2:
Once again, the words were not really separated and it took me a few minutes to translate, but I think I've got it.
How are you Daddy? Do you know what I just got? A travel easel. Love, Sam.
Short and to the point this time.
* * * * *
The PawSox (13-8) conclude their 7-game road trip on Friday night at 7:05. I hope you'll join us for radio coverage beginning with the pre-game show at 6:50 on the PawSox radio network and pawsox.com.
And a 4-game homestand begins on Saturday night at 6:05 against Toledo with a big fireworks show after the game. Hope to see you at McCoy!
I'd love to hear from you. The address is firstname.lastname@example.com
If you Twitter, you can follow my tweets at http://twitter.com/Dan_Hoard
And I have finally joined Facebook. Just search for Dan Hoard and look for the photo of me with the handsome lad.


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When architect Kai Cole began designing her Mediterranean-style Santa Monica home, she weighed all the usual concerns — space, light, flow — along with one quite specific to her family's needs: where to hold the Shakespeare readings.
Cole and her husband, "The Avengers" director Joss Whedon, have hosted impromptu Sunday afternoon gatherings of friends to perform the Bard's plays since the late 1990s, when Whedon was producing the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and he and his cast craved a creative outlet far removed from the program's fantasy world of demon-killing high school students.
So when she was trying to figure out what to do with a pitched corner of the backyard that overlooks a country club, Cole envisioned it as an open-air performance space and set rock slab seats in a few tiers around a semi-circular grass stage, a la Sophocles.
"I came back from being away on a movie and Kai was like, 'I built an amphitheater. Is that OK?'" Whedon said. "When she designed the house we talked about having people come and paint. There's a potting wheel, a sprung dance floor. We were always wanting to invite creativity into and through the house."
Whedon's new movie takes that domestic impulse a step further — he shot the film, a black-and-white contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing," at home.
A tart romantic comedy chronicling two pairs of lovers, Whedon's "Much Ado" retains the 16th century language but places its characters in a modern world of iPods and cupcake towers. There are multiple steamy love scenes, a few stolen puffs of marijuana and, as befits a Shakespeare adaptation from a man who made a teenage girl an action star, a slyly feminist take on a plot line that revolves around one character's virginity.
"We wanted to make it accessible and fun and hip and approachable for a modern viewer," said Alexis Denisof, a "Buffy" alumnus who plays the sharp-tongued Benedick and who participated in many of Whedon's backyard readings over the years. "We're not standing around in tights and ruffled shirts. We're telling a cool sexy story with guys in sharp suits."
Filmed in secret over 12 days while Whedon was on a break from "Avengers," the movie is homemade in a multitude of ways. The crew shot in Whedon and Cole's kitchen and children's bedrooms, and cast and crew members often spent the night during production. Family friends cooked for the movie's big party scene, and dirty wine glasses from a real party supplied the props for the fictional morning after.
Nearly every actor in "Much Ado" has at least two credits from the so-called Whedonverse — Denisof ("Buffy," "Angel," "Avengers") and Amy Acker ("Angel," "Dollhouse," "The Cabin in the Woods") play Benedick and Beatrice, the play's wry, sparring couple; Fran Kranz ("Dollhouse," "The Cabin in the Woods") and newcomer Jillian Morgese are its wide-eyed lovers Claudio and Hero; and Nathan Fillion ("Buffy," "Firefly," "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") and Tom Lenk ("Buffy," "Angel," "The Cabin in the Woods") are the comically incompetent constable Dogberry and his loyal sidekick Verges.
Making a film as a break from making a bigger film might seem peculiar, but not in this household. "I relate to my friends usually through work," Whedon said. "I'm a workaholic. Part of making the movie wasn't just reconnecting with my artistic roots, it was reconnecting with my house and my friends. It was a true homecoming. It was the best way to get them all to spend 12 days with me."
On their terms
The idea for "Much Ado" came from Cole, a producer on the film. A graduate of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, she has designed her family's last three houses and run a small textile company while raising the couple's 8-year-old daughter, Squire, and 10-year-old son, Arden. Tall, warm, with a faint Massachusetts accent, Cole has a habit of collecting artistic people — after she met a couple of Cirque du Soleil performers at a party one night, she had them over to her house to teach her and her son trapeze.
As an architect, Cole works for family and friends; a special interest of hers is how to lend a new house the character of an old one. The "Much Ado" house was built in the 1920s, but Cole gutted it to the studs and rebuilt it using reclaimed French wood and tiles, graceful arched doorways and leaded glass windows and antique furniture from yard sales in Cape Cod, where she grew up.
"I don't believe there was a moment where Kai said, 'Well, I'd better do this in case we shoot in here,'" Whedon said. "But that is a big damn kitchen and when you're in the little alley by the stove and realize, 'Wow, there's enough room to get a camera in here,' you're very grateful. The house informs what the movie is. It has a combination of sunny spaciousness and dark labyrinthine intrigue."
Cole and Whedon, who have been together for 22 years, hatched the "Much Ado" plan while at a bar in New York in 2011 contemplating how to spend a break he had in between shooting "The Avengers" and beginning its intensive post-production. After years of frustration with a planned "Wonder Woman" movie that never happened and other film projects that languished in development, "The Avengers," which Whedon also wrote, was his first big-budget movie as a director, an effects-laden comic book picture with a huge cast and a complex story meant to incorporate various plot strands from other Marvel movies.
Instead of taking a planned trip to Europe, Whedon told Cole what would really help him decompress from the set was a Shakespeare reading.
"I saw this opportunity for 'Much Ado,'" Cole said. "We could just really, quickly sneakily film it. I just hounded Joss, 'How could we do this?' I was very big on, 'Don't tell anyone, 'cause they're going to tell you it's a bad idea.' It was what I always dreamt we could do — make a movie without the normal Hollywood barriers. I hear so often, 'Kai, this is just how it's done.' I don't believe that in construction, and I don't believe that with making movies."
Whedon and Cole had been looking for such an opportunity — a $200,000 Internet musical Whedon wrote and directed to keep busy during the 2007-08 Hollywood writers strike, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," became a surprise sensation and inspired the couple to start a production company, Bellwether Pictures, for inexpensive, personal projects. A second Bellwether film that Whedon wrote and Cole produced, a paranormal romance called "In Your Eyes," will be out this year.
It's not unheard of for a director of a big-budget action movie to pivot to a more modest, creatively motivated project — after circling the globe for the thriller "The Da Vinci Code," for example, Ron Howard made the smaller budget historical drama "Frost/Nixon."
But the transition from directing the Hulk and Thor saving New York City to shooting a black-and-white Shakespeare adaptation in your home is more dramatic than most. Whedon and Cole put up the budget for "Much Ado" themselves (they declined to disclose it) and cast the film — largely with people who had been playing make-believe at their house for years.
"I kind of thought we might show up and it would be Joss filming with his iPhone," Acker said. "We'd all been at their house before. You'd walk in at 6 in the morning to shoot, and you'd see Arden and Squire coming down for their breakfast. Nobody seemed fazed by it."
Whedon shot in black and white to lend the film a classic, noir feeling and to distinguish it from Kenneth Branagh's sunny 1993 adaptation of the same play. "Black and white gives you a timeless elegance even if there's a giant lawn mower you can't get to move," Whedon explained.
Even within the controlled environment of the 9,600-square-foot house, there were production problems — a demolition crew started noisy work on the house next door until Cole persuaded them to pause when cameras were rolling.
During the party scene, Cole plays a woman who jumps into the pool. Because of the timing of the shoot, she ended up filming that sequence at the beginning of the evening — and spending the rest of the night as hostess-producer in wet clothes.
Refreshed for 'Avengers'
After shooting wrapped, Whedon and his assistant, Daniel Kaminsky, edited the film on their laptops while Whedon finished the postproduction work on "Avengers." "It was a great way to wind down after a day of micro-editing explosions," Whedon said. "It helped 'The Avengers' enormously. I came back not just rejuvenated but with a much clearer eye towards what I needed to do in the editing room."
"Avengers," a kind of superhero supergroup movie, was a critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing movie of last year and propelling Whedon into a new stratosphere as a director. He is writing an "Avengers" sequel and producing a new TV series, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," set in the Marvel universe.
Eventually Whedon and Cole told people about their secret movie shoot — including Whedon's representatives at the Creative Artists Agency. "I was so excited by the question, 'What were you thinking?'" Cole said, of that meeting. "I was like, 'We weren't!'"
"Much Ado" has played to strong reviews at the Toronto and South by Southwest film festivals — New York Magazine called the movie "the smoothest and most enjoyable of all Shakespeare comedies on film" — and distributor Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions will open it in five theaters June 7 — a much more modest bow than Whedon's big superhero film.
"What is success?" Cole said. "For us, success is making the movie in the first place, doing it ourselves in our home with our friends. If it doesn't make any money, it isn't going to kill us. Our expectations were already met."


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Raven Industries has announced a new development platform that will allow software companies to integrate their software into the Slingshot RTK correction, data transfer, remote support and high speed internet access system.
Several software providers, including AgWorks and SST Software, have already signed up and begun implementations using the new software development tool, called an API. Once the software is integrated into Slingshot via the API, users of the respective software will be able to access key functions with Raven displays while in the field.
"Utilizing Raven's Slingshot API allows SST Summit users to access tools within our software developed to better integrate the office with real-time field operations," says Matt Waits of SST Software. "The added value of wireless data transfer between Raven field computers and SST Summit software is immediately visible in reduced time, lower costs and increased data collection."
Raven's Paul Welbig described the Slingshot API as the first step in response to demand for customized wireless interactions with Raven field computers from third parties. It will eliminate the need for cumbersome data transfer using thumb drives and will streamline the way operations manage valuable data collected by field computers.


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FALMOUTH — After a week of working long days rebuilding a home in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, 10 Falmouth students are getting used to being back in the swing of things at school.
They are the fifth generation of Falmouth students to make the 1,700-mile trip south to work with Habitat for Humanity, rebuilding homes damaged by the storm.
According to Holly MacEwan, high school service coordinator, 50 students have been part of the program over the past five years. Each student must answer a set of questions in an essay to earn a spot on the team.
"It is a privilege and a challenge to get on," MacEwan said.
On the Jan. 20-26 trip, one sophomore, eight juniors and one senior helped Habitat and "The Tiger Team" – a group of retired men who work with Habitat – fix the home of Bay St. Louis resident David McCulloch.
"We repaired the house for (David), whose house was pretty devastated by Katrina," junior Nate Boehm said. "He had hired a contractor (to repair the house) and had a heart attack while the contractor was working."
While McCulloch hospitalized, all of the interior copper piping in the home was stolen, and he couldn't afford to rebuild.
MacEwan said McCulloch he was on site every day, thanking the volunteers for their work.
The students said that by the time they left the renovation was almost complete and they were proud of the work they were able to accomplish.
"We went down there because it feels good to make a difference and we really helped someone out," junior Graham MacEwan said.
In addition to working on the home, the students had a jam-packed schedule filled with opportunities to truly experience the community.
"We engage in the community a lot when we are down there," Holly MacEwan said. "The students are on the Habitat site working a full work day and as soon as they are done they go to a child development center and play with the kids there for a while and then there is an evening activity."
Juggling the long work day with the rest of the activities was the most challenging part of the trip for the students, because most of them have never worked for that long.
"We were on a really tight schedule," Graham MacEwan said. "We would get up at like 7 a.m. and have breakfast. After breakfast we would go to the job site and from the job site we would go right to the child development center and then the evening activity. We had a tight itinerary, but it worked out."
For the most part, the town of Bay St. Louis is rebuilt, but there are still areas that look like the storm just passed through.
"There are a lot of empty lots and stairs from houses that were there," junior Sabrina Smithwick said.
Sidebar Elements
Falmouth students and members of the "Tiger Team," a group of retired men who work with Habitat for Humanity on a regular basis, strip shingles to prepare for replacing the roof on David McCuloch's home.
Ten Falmouth students traveled to Bay St. Louis, Miss., last month for Hurricane Katrina repairs with Habitat for Humanity.


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North Carolina homeowners are in for one nasty surprise if the state�s insurance carriers have their way:
North Carolina homeowners are in for one nasty surprise if the state�s insurance carriers have their way: They�ve asked the state for an average rate increase of 17.4 percent in homeowners� premiums to take effect June 1, 2013.
Renters would shoulder an even higher statewide base rate increase of 30 percent, with proposed condominium rates jumping to an average of 29.5 percent.
The request would have to be approved by the N.C. Department of Insurance before it could take effect. Coastal counties, including Jones, would see the highest average increases � in fact, those rates would climb as high as 30 percent.
This isn�t the only increase insurance companies, represented by the North Carolina Rate Bureau, have sought over the past decade. In 2008, insurers petitioned for a 19.5 percent increase and were granted a 4.05 percent hike instead.
For coastal area homeowners, the impact was even greater, according to the Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, or BASE, a trade association that advocates in favor of those who live and work along the coastal counties.
BASE says that when outgoing Commissioner of Insurance Jim Long approved the 2008 rate increase, 63 counties saw a corresponding upswing in their premiums. BASE also says that coastal homeowners, including those in Carteret and Onslow counties � have been the recipients of rate increases �every rate cycle since 1992 � including 2005 and 2007 and 2008. In comparison, Charlotte area rates remain unchanged since 1992.�
Following several active hurricane seasons, coastal counties � where many of our readers own second homes � witnessed a surge in the number of homeowners-insurance carriers that dropped their coverage in the Tar Heel State.
Of the companies that continue to provide homeowners coverage in this part of Eastern North Carolina, many no longer offer protection against wind and hail damage, effectively indemnifying themselves against payouts in the case of a hurricane strike.
Instead, homeowners must purchase separate pool coverage through the state. As taxes and homeowners insurance have continued to rise and salaries for those still employed have remained depressed, foreclosures are becoming more commonplace. Many simply are tapped out, which makes the Rate Bureau�s request for another increase even more egregious.
The average North Carolina resident simply can�t afford to pay more to the highly profitable insurance business for the same insurance coverage. But there�s still time to affect the outcome by making opinions known: Until Oct. 19, Tar Heel residents can chime in by emailing email@example.com. Additional information can be found on the DOI�s website.
State residents need to speak up or they will soon be paying the price for remaining silent right out of their wallets.


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Facilitating the spread of knowledge and innovation in professional software development
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In this panel, these programming languages experts try to find the places where we could probably past each other to try to find common ground.
Irina Guberman demonstrates how unique features of the BEAM in combination with Erlang OTP can take a company's servers to the next level of resiliency and robustness.
In this article, the author discusses how to collect metrics and achieve anomaly detection from streaming data using Prometheus, Apache Kafka and Apache Cassandra technologies.
Kevin Gilpin discusses the renewed focus of the software design process and code complexity in software security, describing how design review can be modernized to help improve application security.
Jon Currey examines the evolving use of randomized communication within HashiCorp's Consul, a popular service mesh solution. Along the way he considers how to evaluate academic research for production use, and what to do when real-world deployments go beyond the researchers' assumptions.
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At its most basic level, a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is a work order tool that helps you get the right people on the job. But, like an iceberg, 90% of its functionality lies beneath the surface.
When the first CMMS packages appeared in the market, maintenance managers used the software for work order generation and scheduling. Someone would create a request for maintenance work, the maintenance group would enter the request into CMMS, and voila; out popped a work order. Unfortunately, the software did little more than automate a paper process.
Subsequent generations of CMMS could compile all relevant maintenance data, including equipment repair histories, associated labor hours, and spare parts levels. The data are valuable for producing "trending" reports, which show a historical view of the department and its performance, allowing personnel to make informed decisions.
Today's CMMS programs can have hundreds of users across several sites. These users are responsible for managing equipment and labor needs as well as purchasing and budgeting activities. These powerful software packages are now the engine for a comprehensive maintenance management program. Let's explore ten features of CMMS software that go beyond basic work order functions.
Tip 1: From preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance. Maintenance personnel have long managed Preventive Maintenance (PM) programs with a CMMS. The computer holds the scheduling limits of a PM task and routinely generates a work order when the required date or meter reading occurs. The system works fine for noncritical assets that require only routine maintenance. For more critical machinery, a CMMS can control a Predictive Maintenance (PdM) program. Using PdM techniques, you can establish a tolerance level in the CMMS for a piece of equipment. If the system sees an "out of limits" input, the CMMS automatically generates a work order and prevents the problem from growing worse.
For example, suppose you are responsible for daily checks of breaker temperatures. One day you find the breaker's temperature exceeds 200 degrees F. When you enter that reading into the CMMS, the system automatically recognizes that the value falls outside the preset temperature range and the system immediately generates a work order, which sets the repair cycle in motion.
Tip 2: Making repair/replace decisions. Deciding whether to repair or replace a piece of equipment is a common problem for many companies. With a CMMS, historical information about a piece of equipment's performance is only a few mouse clicks away.
Once a work order is complete, that information becomes part of the "history" for that machine. Over time, each asset has its own time line, detailing the history and tracking the costs of the repair (see Fig. 1, on the original article's page 54). This historical information allows you to compare the costs of maintaining a piece of equipment versus replacing it.
Tip 3: See what isn't getting done. Another decision-making tool of a CMMS is a "backlog" report. This report shows the work that is either in progress or as yet unassigned. If the scheduled work exceeds the available labor hours, the backlog report is a good tool to justify new staff, reassignments, or the addition of contract help to get you "over the hump."
Experienced managers know one of the most difficult requests to upper management involves a request for new staff. With a carefully managed CMMS, the information in the "available hours versus required hours" report is objective evidence a manager may not otherwise have. However, more staff may not be the best solution. A realignment of responsibilities may be more appropriate. For example, suppose your staff spends considerable time running conduit, which takes away from the time allowed for maintenance tasks. By purchasing a conduit bender, you can reduce the labor hours associated with these tasks and better use your workers time.
Tip 4: Vendor accountability through warranty tracking. With a CMMS, if you encounter a problem with an item, you don't have to go digging through file cabinets to find warranty information. Instead, the warranty information becomes part of the equipment record when you enter the item into the database. A side benefit of some systems is the vendor receives a charge for the repair; automatically.
A CMMS can also provide you with detailed data to back up your claim. For instance, if a vendor questioned the frequency or nature of repairs on a piece of equipment, a work order history could quickly illustrate its maintenance history. The system can track non-warranty vendor service items, such as test equipment calibration.
Tip 5: Determining the value of a PM program. As an industry, we are now seeing that an effective PM program needs ongoing refinement to maximize equipment life and reliability. A CMMS facilitates this process by providing historical data on failure rates and their correlation (if any) to the PM task. For example, suppose you create a PM routine to overhaul a complex conveyor system every six months. After a year, you notice the frequency of breakdowns actually increased. You would then take that information from the CMMS and go "back to the drawing board" to find a PM technique that will achieve the desired results.
Tip 6: Getting control of your inventory. Spare parts are an integral part of the repair process; therefore, you need to keep a tight control on your spare parts inventory. One benefit of better inventory control is having the right spare parts on hand. With a CMMS tracking "parts used" versus "parts on hand," it's easy to ensure you're prepared for any planned task (see Fig. 2, on the original article's page 54 and Fig. 3, above). Once the supply reaches the assigned "minimum" level, the CMMS generates a purchase order for approval.
Keeping the right parts available means fewer emergency "rush" orders. This saves you time and money. But, it also saves you the embarrassment of not being ready when you finally get that precious downtime after three months of trying to schedule work.
Tip 7: Make maintenance schedules available to other departments. When a CMMS generates a work order, it clearly identifies the person and department who initiated the request. If other users of the system need to get in touch with the originator of the work request, their contact information is readily available. Monthly or quarterly reports identify the work your group performed for other departments, the date of the repair, and the cumulative cost (see Fig. 4, on the original article's page 56). For facilities that charge other departments for maintenance, this feature is indispensable.
Tip 8: Gathering data for certifications. Achieving ISO or QS 9000 status, or meeting FDA or OSHA guidelines, are critical factors for any organization. Many CMMS packages offer "ready-made" reporting functions for certification purposes. These certifications are often steps to Total Quality Maintenance (TQM). In most cases, achieving TQM status is not financially or logistically possible without the support a CMMS provides.
Tip 9: Break equipment down by its component parts. To better show the makeup of equipment, a CMMS program typically provides a hierarchical relationship between parts in a piece of equipment. For instance, service entrance switchgear would break down into sub-assets, including a breaker. The breaker has its own subassets, such as the frame and the contacts.
A more detailed view of a piece of equipment leads to more accurate repairs and maintenance. Workers have more information and can find necessary parts within a complex system.
Tip 10: Budgeting within a CMMS. A CMMS can create financial statements to highlight budget information. This allows you to pinpoint areas needing attention, before costs get out of control. For example, you may normally spend a certain amount of time maintaining DC motor brushes each quarter. Now let's say you're 30% over budget; is this because of a price increase, too much wear, additional DC motors, or unnecessary changes? A CMMS can help you answer these questions. Or, suppose you are under budget in your training. You don't have any training scheduled for the rest of the year. However, if you still have training funds available, you could squeeze in a few more classes.
The CMMS is a great tool for managing data. These ten tips are just the tip of the iceberg. You can explore new ways to make use of your CMMS by meeting with your staff on a regular basis to discuss new ideas. With enough exploration, you may find some real treasures beneath the surface.


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General motorcycle conversation
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I have a 1979 cb650 and im looking for the following information. 1. I have a good pair of stock headers and instead of buying a whole new exhaust system I'd like to buy some slip on mufflers and call it a day. Does anybody have any suggestions as far as slip on mufflers go, not looking to drop a ton of cash on a pair. 2. Will going with shorter mufflers cause a back pressure issue? Stock mufflers are about 26 inches long and im looking at a pair of reverse cone slip ons that are 17 inches. The bike has a stock intake system i.e airbox filter the whole system if this is any help.
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