text:
Foxwoods) he also blew us away with his vocals. Here's my playlist:
I decide once again that I don't like the use of the backing track and pre-recorded backing vocals because their strict timing don't really work well with Adam's ad-libbing and I can see this demonstrated during DTRH where it looks like he makes a mistake. RoF is particularly slithery as he gets down on his hands and knees again and that shirt is continuing to open increasingly lower. Fever is performed as if on heat with an extra adrenaline shot. Super lively and super thrusty, like he's ready to hump the whole world in a record-breaking gang-bang. And also there's the full open-mouthed smooch as he grabs Tommy by the neck, savouring the taste by licking his lips afterwards. I'm usually impressed by Sleepwalker but I feel that during this one, he gives it even more of his all with show-stopping vocals and drama to match. After ogling the crowd and telling them that they're sexy, he breaks into a beautiful Soaked. I still don't know how he manages to make such a ghostly sound on that note.
He then launches into cracking rude jokes about being wet and doing stand-up as he purposefully looks down onto his crotch. He seems so relaxed and it's all so natural for him. I have to chuckle once again at Adam's 'glory note lever' which I've mentioned before, where his free arm moves down and his legs move up to produce the high notes in Aftermath. It has a great finish to it. He's so liberal with the daring glory notes in a enlivening powerhouse performance of SFW. He's wild and and at one point tells the audience 'Take my picture, bitch!' as he inhabits his mischief-making rock star. Watch out for the little growl as Adam introduces Tommy and they do a very naughty double jerk-off as he does his solo. Terrence has a minor wardrobe malfunction during his solo and Adam urges him to do it again and work the stairs in front of his home crowd. The dance with Brooke is a very different one to normal and seems to also involve Terrence as Adam strikes a pose. The IIHY singalong is a great way to build up the buzz of the crowd.
Then we get to WLL. Even at the long intro we have a slightly different laid-back vibe which conjures up images of kicking back and sipping a cocktail at the beach. Adam doesn't quite seem to be feeling this, being too pumped up, and spontaneously decides to get creative. Longineu switches drum kit and the difference in the level of energy is amazing. The sound of the clashing cymbals and 'real' drums work a treat to up the feeling of excitement even though it's kept at the same pace. Monte swaps the acoustic for electric guitar during the drum solo and the rocking gets increasingly heavy. Adam lets rip vocally for the most mind-blowingly magnificent of finishes. WOW.
This concert's one for repeated viewings as I realise it's the closest we've come to seeing Adam at his best - on fire and extra horny with superpower vocals. I can't help thinking that he has way more up his sleeve though.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Glam Nation: Washington DC
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 00:47 8 comments
Monday, 28 June 2010
Glam Nation: Baltimore
Columbus during RoF, where he doesn't get up into his feet but stays on one knee. During Aftermath, it becomes apparent that the audience is full of devoted fans. Not only do they know all the words, but they sing with the inflections of the acoustic concert performance. They've spent hours watching the tour footage too. He really rocks out during SFW, getting down onto his knees. He taunts us with the first line of 'Funky Town' as Monte does his riffs during the band intro and everyone loses their shit at the prospect of a new song. But it's not to be, and Adam cracks up at fucking with us so this IIHY radiates joy.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 23:48 5 comments
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Glam Nation: Atlantic City
Adam leaves his hat on for the start of RoF but flicks it off mid way through. There's no kissing during Fever where there are some differences in the choreography such as when he fans his crotch and bypasses sitting down. Sleepwalker sees Monte playing his guitar solo behind his head and Aftermath has a slightly different end. I'm not sure whether Adam means to flip the bird when he flips the switch during SFW. Strut has some cane-wanking when he feels the fire and the dorky shuffle-dance returns during MA's guitar solo. Adam plays a bit of air guitar during Tommy's intro and Brooke ends up on the floor during their dance.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 14:38 5 comments
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Glam Nation: Foxwoods
The hat stays on again for RoF but I don't think it really suits the rest outfit or the song. We have breathtaking vocals during Sleepwalker and startling glory notes in Aftermath and SFW. Look out for the high kick at the end of Strut and the slightly dorky shuffle-dance across the stage at the MA guitar solo. Monte shows us some great guitar licks during the band intro and he and Brooke share a little butt-grind of a dance.
WLL brings a laid-back vibe and high sultry breaths to start it off. The other side of the stage now gets some loving as Adam lazily slinks his way over and seats himself ready in firing position, shooting seductive glances at the audience. He pants and moans his way through the instrumental break and starts riding the platform into an orgasmic scream. In case there are any doubts as to what's on his mind, he gets up led by his crotch, then almost obscenely illustrates what to do with his every inch. This is melodically quite a different WLL and I feel that he's much more spontaneous and freer in expression, perhaps in response to the 'family friendly' reviews. The grand finish is truly phenomenal with a giggle in between as he hits the highest note of the tour so far. Just WOW. Amazing. And he spanks Tommy's bum on his way off the stage.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 22:29 2 comments
Glam Nation: New York II
Lots of energy during DTRH where Adam tells us to jump. Hat stays on for RoF, where he gives a powerful performance. Adam gets kissy bitey teasy with Tommy during a saucy Fever with exaggerated moves. Stunning finish to Sleepwalker, lyric flub during start of WWFM. Gets very naughty with the cane during Strut. IIHY sees bindi failure and 'Ouch, I think my balls just dropped!' and re-adjusting of package. I like the choppy instrumental intro to MW. WLL is WOW with fantastic riffs and amazing vocals enabled with lots of tongue. He gets on his knees for part of it and shows his control freak, constantly signalling for sound adjustments.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 16:03 0 comments
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Glam Nation: New York I
MMVAs and added the glitter trail from his eye. Here's my current playlist of all the best videos:
There's a return to lighting fail during RoF and Adam looks rather demonic as fire is projected onto his face. Fever sees the flirtatious tension finally breaking between Adam and Tommy who have been circling each other and fucking with us for a fair few concerts now. Tommy initiates it when he goes for a timid little peck on the chest then Adam responds by hungrily licking him like his favourite-flavoured ice cream. It looks like Tommy was expecting to be ravaged but the resulting kiss is fleeting. It's he who looks like the cat that got the cream though, and who could blame him, being the envy of every single other person present? It leads to a vivacious performance with top-notch vocals. Sleepwalker drives home Adam's extraordinary singing prowess and I notice he uses the stage more by getting up onto one of the side platforms.
WWFM brings a singalong and we can see how hot it is and why Adam needs his 'air-conditioning' as beads of sweat accumulate and run down his face. Aftermath is pretty but the guitar sounds a little too overpowering. The flirtation continues during SFW as Adam bumps Tommy but throws a glance just to check he's OK. He incorporates some extra chest-popping into the routine and wows with his staggeringly powerful vocals. IIHY sees a mystery white object clinging to Adam's crotch area that's slightly distracting. The band intro sees Tommy stealing a shy kiss onto Adam's shoulder and then planting one onto his cheek. Watch out for that snaky tongue on speed.
The usually libidinous WLL is sultry as hell, leaving me gasping for breath. He sits atop the steps panting out the song before creeping down to the stage. The pace is dreamy. He has a little giggle in place of his every inch, momentarily breaking the mood but then using his voice as percussion. The instrumentals are much improved but the drum solo goes on for a bit too long and it sounds like the band gets a little out of time. Those erotic wails are like primal mating calls that really crank up the heat. What he does to the voice after that and at the climax is other-worldly amazing. I love the slower tease of this version, but FS WLL still has the edge for me. What a way to finish off what I think is the best set so far. The vocals are brilliant and he's truly on fire.
There's a return to lighting fail during RoF and Adam looks rather demonic as fire is projected onto his face. Fever sees the flirtatious tension finally breaking between Adam and Tommy who have been circling each other and fucking with us for a fair few concerts now. Tommy initiates it when he goes for a timid little peck on the chest then Adam responds by hungrily licking him like his favourite-flavoured ice cream. It looks like Tommy was expecting to be ravaged but the resulting kiss is fleeting. It's he who looks like the cat that got the cream though, and who could blame him, being the envy of every single other person present? It leads to a vivacious performance with top-notch vocals. Sleepwalker drives home Adam's extraordinary singing prowess and I notice he uses the stage more by getting up onto one of the side platforms.
WWFM brings a singalong and we can see how hot it is and why Adam needs his 'air-conditioning' as beads of sweat accumulate and run down his face. Aftermath is pretty but the guitar sounds a little too overpowering. The flirtation continues during SFW as Adam bumps Tommy but throws a glance just to check he's OK. He incorporates some extra chest-popping into the routine and wows with his staggeringly powerful vocals. IIHY sees a mystery white object clinging to Adam's crotch area that's slightly distracting. The band intro sees Tommy stealing a shy kiss onto Adam's shoulder and then planting one onto his cheek. Watch out for that snaky tongue on speed.
The usually libidinous WLL is sultry as hell, leaving me gasping for breath. He sits atop the steps panting out the song before creeping down to the stage. The pace is dreamy. He has a little giggle in place of his every inch, momentarily breaking the mood but then using his voice as percussion. The instrumentals are much improved but the drum solo goes on for a bit too long and it sounds like the band gets a little out of time. Those erotic wails are like primal mating calls that really crank up the heat. What he does to the voice after that and at the climax is other-worldly amazing. I love the slower tease of this version, but FS WLL still has the edge for me. What a way to finish off what I think is the best set so far. The vocals are brilliant and he's truly on fire.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 15:05 9 comments
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
RSI Much? Video Awards
I didn't stay up until stupid o'clock in the morning to watch this as I was too tired. The last two days I've actually had to send myself to bed earlier than usual because I physically couldn't continue using my mouse. My shoulder and arm ache and my hand is starting to claw from spending so much time on my laptop. I woke up to the best surprise knowing that it wasn't all in vain. Adam fucking won an MMVA! Here's all the footage:
He arrives in a classy pimpmobile looking nifty in a dashing suit spiced up with matching leopardskin tie and boots. I so want to stop his tie from peeking out under the button on his suit though. His hair looks new romantic, with soft feathered extensions. He's so poised on the red carpet, speaking with eloquence. I mean, who the fuck else would be talking about how touring is educational?
Blame the scriptwriters but I think the host is rather deluded if she thinks she can give Adam makeup tips and I have to snigger at that one. Girl, Adam was experimenting with makeup way before you were even just a horny twang in your Daddy's thang.
It seems like forever since Adam did a live TV performance in front of a big audience. I think the last time was his return to AI back in April so this is all exciting again. No lasers, but he's silhouetted against a blueish halo of smoke through a backlight. It seems strange to me that he's performing in his red carpet suit and didn't go for a costume change. I'm so used to seeing him sing WWFM in dressed-down gear that the clothes don't seem comfortable enough and he looks too elegantly overdressed. The hair makes him look fierce and the suit lends just a little too much confidence and power to him, taking away that vulnerability.
I give the camerawork and editing a fail as there are too many wide-angle shots and we don't get to see much Adam. We get an idea of the size of the audience though, which is awesome. The sound is fantastic, his voice is strong, the timbre is pleasantly rich and those vocals are absolutely beautifully flawless. I'm surprised to be feeling awestruck once again by how well he manages to sing that, especially straight after three nights of full shows on the trot. Just wow. And I'm so happy he gets some well-deserved pyro at the end.
On collecting the MuchMusic Video Award he seems so excited, enthusiastically swooping down like a plane holding his hands out to the fans before hitting the stage. It's a slightly awkward moment for me when he says he usually doesn't win things. I think the joke falls a little flat as no one really remembers he didn't win. His acceptance speech gets rudely truncated but I'm so grateful he thought to thank his fans first and foremost. No, thank YOU Adam! We fortunately get to find out what else he meant to say in his acceptance speech during an interview after the show. One thing that is bugging me slightly right now though, is how we managed to miss the other award that Adam was nominated for. Was it one that we couldn't vote for? I hope this is one of a long line of awards we can help Adam to win. Right now my arm aches, but it's happily celebrating.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 03:43 6 comments
Labels: Adam Lambert, Interview, TV Performance, Video, Whataya Want From Me
Monday, 21 June 2010
Wham Bam, Thank You Glam!
There's a moment during Fever that will get the Adommy/Lambliff shippers going crazy as Adam grabs Tommy's hair and pulls him oh so teasingly close to his face. The look exchanged between them is one that tells us how close they are, and they both seem to enjoy fucking with us. He seems to hold back just a touch vocally, not reaching for the highest notes. There's much more body rippling going on at this concert during RoF and Fever though we can't see the hips on the RoF vid. Sleepwalker is vocally so impressive especially at the finish. The way he suggestively jabs his cane during Strut is enough to get his mic stand in a jealous fit. The encore is MW so unfortunately Toronto doesn't get rewarded with WLL.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 23:58 4 comments
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Glam Nation: Royal Oak
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 01:09 0 comments
Friday, 18 June 2010
Glam Nation: Hammond
Milwaukee but still very sexy with improved instrumentals and sensuous vocals. Watch out for the grinding with Brooke during IIHY. Here's my playlist:
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 20:43 0 comments
Thursday, 17 June 2010
MTV.co.uk Live Sessions
MTV.co.uk sessions would released, expecting them to coincide with a publicity blitz or the release of WWFM on July 19th, so they came as a surprise. They were taped on the date of the HMV Heaven gig and I actually waited outside the studios trying to meet him but he was running hopelessly late. That combined with spending a very long time perfecting each song meant that I gave up.
At the start of Strut, Adam's voice sounds unnaturally high and he flubs the lyrics swapping pollution and solution. The soft focus camera angles give a strange and slightly freaky perspective. WWFM is very bass heavy with Monte's guitar sounding unpleasantly grating on instrumental break. FYE feels like more of a rocking than electronic version with emphasis on guitar over the synths. The backing vocals on the second verse ruin it though as the sound is terrible. IIHY has plenty of distracting lights but surprisingly so dancers. Again, there's a slight lyric discrepancy as Adam's vocals don't match the backing track. Fever is very camp from the inturned toes to the OTT expressions and I like the variations he made at the end.
Now that we're well into the tour, this slick high-glam look of Adam's feels like it's from such a long time ago. We can see the improvement since then in him, the dancers and the band. I think this tells us a little more about how he's going to be marketed here in the UK, leaning towards the dance-pop vibe. The sound isn't quite right in these and Adam performs much better in front of an audience than studio cameras but the voice is impressive as ever.
At the start of Strut, Adam's voice sounds unnaturally high and he flubs the lyrics swapping pollution and solution. The soft focus camera angles give a strange and slightly freaky perspective. WWFM is very bass heavy with Monte's guitar sounding unpleasantly grating on instrumental break. FYE feels like more of a rocking than electronic version with emphasis on guitar over the synths. The backing vocals on the second verse ruin it though as the sound is terrible. IIHY has plenty of distracting lights but surprisingly so dancers. Again, there's a slight lyric discrepancy as Adam's vocals don't match the backing track. Fever is very camp from the inturned toes to the OTT expressions and I like the variations he made at the end.
Now that we're well into the tour, this slick high-glam look of Adam's feels like it's from such a long time ago. We can see the improvement since then in him, the dancers and the band. I think this tells us a little more about how he's going to be marketed here in the UK, leaning towards the dance-pop vibe. The sound isn't quite right in these and Adam performs much better in front of an audience than studio cameras but the voice is impressive as ever.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 18:04 0 comments
Labels: Adam Lambert, Exclusive Performance, Video
Glam Nation: Milwaukee
The sound mix seems to be a little different at this concert with louder vocals and less echo. I notice that Adam replaces 'Ah' with 'Ooh' during RoF which it makes it even hotter. Speaking of hot, we get the second acoustic WLL of this tour. The light strumming at the beginning leads us to believe that it's going to be another MW but that first bar is enough to make us go crazy with excitement. It feels like the sexual tension is resting on a knife-edge as Adam paces restlessly around the stage before settling on the steps open-legged, flicking out his tongue in anticipation. We finally hear the first notes, telling us what we need and we know he's right because we're already burning up. The song gives way to sensual cries as he leans back, writhing, arching his back and revealing an extra sliver of flesh. It's like the whole audience has focused enough lust to psychokinetically have its way with him, materialising hungry mouths and eager hands all over his body. It's potently erotic because we can virtually see our own hands on him and imagine how it feels. It's too much, we can't handle it for long and he knows it, so he gets back up allowing us to breathe to prolong the agonising pleasure.
He slinks around all sultry but keeps us simmering at the instrumental break. He turns up the heat again with that strong voice, suggestively drawing our attention back to his hottest parts and building us up. Then he stops, teasing, sneering and sleazily licking his lips before the main 'baby' climax. The intensity is maintained for a while as he riffs and runs his hand down his body making us go wild. He then returns to the steps, legs snapping open in a raunchy move so reminiscent of the Art4Life Crazy that I wonder whether he's going for the glory grab. He doesn't, but finishes on a breathy and gentle moan then a sweet 'I love you Milwaukee' incorporated into the melody.
It's almost like Adam knew exactly what else I wanted improving on from Toledo. There are more keys, the sound mix is better, his voice more nuanced, and he doesn't finish so abruptly that it feels like being used and discarded. This felt considerate, like getting a cuddle at the end but still sexual rather than sensual, whereas FS WLL was an all-day love-in until knackered and falling asleep. I still prefer the instrumentals of FS WLL, their psychedelic feel, the acoustic bass and piano, especially at the ready-to-burst build-up and climax which feels much grander in scale. But Adam is on fire at this concert, radiating a sizzling sexual energy stronger than ever before in a scorching-hot show. Cold shower, anyone?
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 00:27 8 comments
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Glam Nation: Columbus
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 01:13 7 comments
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
If I Had You - Music Video
The video starts off with a shot of a party in the making on Twitter, with Adam's invitation and replies from Cheeks, Scarlett and who I think might be Cassidy. The intro is extended just a little, making it sound stuttery on the first listen. Adam walks in with a new-age traveller dreaded mohawk mullet. I despise mullets with a passion. I have always despised mullets. I associate mullets with trailer trash, with ugly-looking people committing heinous crimes against fashion. I despise 80s mullets as well as the Hoxton mullets that cropped up the noughties. It's a hairstyle that I wish had never been brought into existence. The only thing worse than a mullet is the bleached permed comb-over variation. However, I hate that I have to concede, Adam manages to rock it... just, but only because his face is so smiley pretty and we know it's not a real one.
As dusk descends, we see Adam walking through the mist of the forest, which reminds me of his walk out of the smoke and wreckage in the TfM video. His hurried march into the woods is a decisive and determined stomp in time to the music but perhaps a little too aggressive for the joy on his face. I'm surprised I'm not disliking the Glammerpants too much, which contribute towards a Mad Max feel.
The forest and sky cycles through aurora technicolours, building up the excitement as the nocturnal woodland creatures come out to play, jumping about in a hedonistic tribal rave all decked out in fascinating costumes and facepaint. They're joined by magical will o' the wisps and mysterious spectral sprites whizzing through. There's a lot of quick cutting interspersed with wiggling ass shots, making it difficult to spot where his friends make cameo appearances. By far the most prominent is Allison though, where she comes face-to-face with Adam. I initially thought that even E.T. showed up at the party but later realised it's actually a Chinese lion. We have a poi person, a drag Marie Antoinette, a butterfly woman and a stilt-walker but no fire-jugglers.
The first costume change into those vicious-looking spikes happens when the chorus kicks in, accompanied by some startling shots of Adam's beautifully luminous eyes at the 'D-d-d-d-do'. I think my favourite is the Steampunky Mad Hatter one because it's such a fabulously bonkers eccentric ensemble made up of seemingly random pieces thrown together. It leaves no doubt as to who the leader of the pack is. The one with the white jeans that we all went crazy over as Adam rocks with the band seems surprisingly normal, apart from a certain stand-out part.
The close-up shot after the bridge I find a little uncomfortable, like an excessively freaky hallucination. The mouthing doesn't quite match the sound, the colours are all garish and I'm expecting Adam's eyes to open but they don't and are closed for way too long, like they've been glued together. But then he eventually opens them and makes me gasp for a moment as they bore into me. He widens them and I widen mine in an automatic response and then it becomes way too frighteningly much and I have to look away. I think I should add that I really enjoy mindbending trips. I think the close-ups need to be more subtle. I do love that dangerously seductive look over his shoulder right at the end, but the transition into it feels a bit unnatural.
Despite my minor nitpicking, I feel this is Adam's best video yet and is closer to embodying who he is and what he stands for more than any other. He must've had a blast making it and I think it shows. It's an unashamedly shallow feel-good fun video full of captivating imagery to watch repeatedly, and perfect for the summer. I know that there are many others who have wanted to know what it's like to go to Burning Man with Adam and his group of friends. I feel that this is his way of answering our question. He has invited us all to join him, bringing fun and creative energy. We've generously been given a glimpse into what it would be like if Adam had a party, and I think it's one that everyone enjoys.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 17:51 0 comments
Labels: Adam Lambert, If I Had You, Review, Video
Monday, 14 June 2010
JLC Good Times
Good Times. I've seen a few of these and it's quite an entertaining show with a more imaginative format than most. The host is from the West Country with a country bumpkin farmer accent. He looks like a hirsute teddy bear and used to team up with Alan Carr as his comedy partner. He tends to be physically affectionate with a habit of kissing guys on the lips so I doubt he'll be able to resist planting a smacker onto Adam.
The show starts at 23:00 UK, 15:00 LA, 18:00 NY, 07:00 Tokyo time. While we're waiting, please go and vote for the IIHY video and sign the petition for PPV online streaming.
If you haven't got your legit copy of CLYG yet, you can get it on For Your Entertainment (EU Edition) (Incl. Bonus Tracks) from Amazon US.
Well that was major technology fail on my part, but here's full uncut version from Five.tv that wasn't aired:
The show starts at 23:00 UK, 15:00 LA, 18:00 NY, 07:00 Tokyo time. While we're waiting, please go and vote for the IIHY video and sign the petition for PPV online streaming.
If you haven't got your legit copy of CLYG yet, you can get it on For Your Entertainment (EU Edition) (Incl. Bonus Tracks) from Amazon US.
Well that was major technology fail on my part, but here's full uncut version from Five.tv that wasn't aired:
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 22:44 2 comments
Labels: Adam Lambert, Chat Show, Interview, TV Appearance, Video
Glam Nation: Mystic Lake
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 21:00 2 comments
Glam Nation: Mahnomen
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 19:09 0 comments
Friday, 11 June 2010
Glam Nation: Council Bluffs
We see a return to the 'up' do, which seems much less rebellious this time round. RoF has an added thrill with the inclusion of the shirt-lifting tribute to the AI version. We have a great view of Adam doing Aftermath and here he reminds me so much of the Upright videos. There seems to be a little pitch control switch in his legs, the higher they go, the higher the belt. I love the way he ends this song. Watch out for that scorching finger lick at the end of SFW. For the first time, contrary to my initial observation, I notice that he does have a golden skull on the top of his cane during Strut, just not creepy feathers. We can see what he's thinking as he suggestively swings his wang, oops I mean cane, around with that nudge-nudge wink-wink mischievous glint in his eye. IIHY sees a moment which will get the Adommy/Lambliff shippers spasming out as Adam runs his fingers through, ruffling Tommy's hair. The encore returns to MW, but it's an extended version with a remarkable colossal final note.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 13:37 5 comments
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Glam Nation: Toledo
We can't see much in the WLL video but when we hear Adam sing that first low seductive bar, we know it's going to be something special. After having been obsessed with the magic of the FS WLL and watching it so many times, it's hard to be objective about this latest version. It does recreate a similar feel, even though it's a little faster paced and persistent, gradually building rather than lapping and retreating in excruciating waves. Those vocals punctuated with aroused gasps and moans are sizzling hot as he prowls around the stage. There's a slightly more aggressive domineering vibe with this one, perhaps due to his different appearance and because he stays on his feet and therefore in charge, instead of getting down on his knees and reversing the power dynamic. The 'baby' ending brings back tour memories from last year but it's too abrupt for my liking, as if he's just finished fucking you and immediately gets up to go while you're left behind stunned and gathering the pieces of yourself together and your instinct tells you to grab hold of him because you want much much more but you know you can't.
At the moment, I prefer the FS version because there's more variation in intensity and I think the band came together perfectly. I miss the jazzy keyboard work from Zac who did an brilliant job when it got to the crescendo part. Still, I'm basing this on the bad quality/partial video we have so far and I may well change my mind later. Regardless, this is one hell of a steamy performance that has me seduced.
UPDATE 11/06/10 - Now that we have more video, I'll add some very brief comments of other notable parts of the concert. I had to wait until I saw a couple of different videos to be sure that Adam messes up coming in too late on RoF. We can hear a sudden change when he realises he's at the wrong part of the song to go with the backing track and has to skip out a few lines to catch up. Adam is such a free-spirited performer, feeling his way through and ensuring each performance is unique that backing tracks or even backing singers don't really work in his favour because they don't allow for that flexibility. This is the second time it's happened recently but he covers it up much better. If all the instrumentals were done by the band then this would easily be alleviated.
Adam's hair is down again for this concert. Sleepwalker demonstrates once again how gifted Adam and Monte are and it's a most welcome change to hear 'What do you' clearly enunciated for once as opposed to the lazier 'Whataya' of WWFM. In the less rhythmic songs that don't have much of a drum beat such as Soaked or Broken Open, I feel that Adam has a bit of difficulty keeping time. I like the change to a high 'pretty boys' in SFW, a performance that's becoming one of the ones I really look forward to because of the rock star energy. Broken Open is decorated with some beautiful trills and IIHY has an incredible note that's long enough to make you faint.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 17:03 15 comments
Monday, 7 June 2010
KFest 2010
I'm not keen on this casual summer look of Adam's. Despite the white, it feels a little too heavy for the daytime and the pieces don't quite fit together very well. Maybe it's the gloves that tip the scales just over. I don't like those sunglasses which give him quite a nerdy look. The sound on these videos isn't good so I can't comment much on the music. Sleepwalker is a highlight for me though, with the super powerhouse vocals and a different guitar solo from Monte. The energy and dancing throughout the set is great.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 15:56 5 comments
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Glam Nation: Sayreville
So that I don't wear myself out, I'm just going to make brief notes for each concert, which should become helpful for future reference should you want to find the concert or the video where he did such-and-such.
The stage is much smaller and I don't like the close proximity of the lighting rig when Adam is on the top platform as it feels a little claustrophobic. There are no plinths on either side of the stage to jump on top of, and the lasers are missing.
Adam takes his hat off at the end of DTRH to reveal a return to flat hair. It looks like we're going to be playing the 'up-do or down-do?' hair game again this summer. I think I prefer the up-do but it's no minor feat to get it under control with all the heat and the sweat. The glittery makeup is much more flattering and less death-like. RoF is sizzling and the vocal is superior to yesterday's. Tommy is like a prop - Adam's plaything during Fever. There seem to be quite a few improvised parts to WWFM but the timing doesn't quite work. I love what he does with his vocals during Aftermath though, which sounds improved. He comes onto the stage during SFW without the shreds of shirt from yesterday so we get to see his bare arms, recalling Bowie Medley memories. There's an Adommy/Lambliff moment where he sings about pretty boys. Adam seems so happy during an energetic IIHY, my personal highlight his dance with Brooke and his shoulder shimmy. The MW encore is shorter with less ad-libbing but it must be moving to have the whole ballroom sing it back in unison.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 15:56 5 comments
Glam Nation: Wilkes-Barre
I didn't stay up for the stream so woke up to an abundance of quality video this morning and was blown away. There's just so much to comment on, from the set list, the arrangements, the vocals, the look, the costumes, the dancing, the light show to and all the visuals in the background.
The show starts off with Voodoo and Adam appears with top hat as a silhouetted figure against an eerie moonlit sky. The outfit looks very similar to that from the IIHY video spoilers. Our voodoo witch doctor soon casts a spell over us all, including the dancers who, like puppet dolls, are at the mercy of his every whim. His make-up is done to give the appearance of spooky sunken eyes. DTRH is as trippy as ever as he has the psychedelic visuals and rainbow lasers to enhance the experience. On his knees, a surprise costume change heralds the start of RoF and a dangerously thrilling way to be seduced to the dark side. If we're getting lured into Hell then we may as well go all-out with the most pleasureable ticket possible for the journey. No head-dress, but plenty of scorching flames licking out from behind. I love Adam's attention to detail. The positioning of his fingers, the bindi and the magnificent trills all add to the Eastern vibe. The bass sounds strange but I'm sure it's something that'll be ironed out as the tour progresses. Adam unfolds as we get to the second verse and it suddenly hits me what he'd been wearing under that coat. THOSE TROUSERS! Remember when we all went crazy over his lace-up leather ones at the Kiss 108 concert? Well these are the fucking shiny silver lamé version! CHEST! And we thought that his neckline was low in the original RoF. I love the elaborate decorations on his shirt.
I realise for the first time during Fever that Adam is barefoot, which I find very sexy. Remember the first time we saw him perform barefoot? I prefer the live arrangement to the album version for the prolonged synthy sounds. The background disco neon gives it a very camp feel. I notice that the dancers all have 'A' on the back of their outfits and the way that they seem to be sniffing him out makes it clear who their master is. The dance moves are great and this is a fierce showing. Here we see the first signs of that renegade tuft of hair misbehaving.
The tribal dance interlude is a clever addition to keep the audience entertained as Adam goes for a costume change. It's ever so slightly 'Thriller' because the dancers seem rather feral. Sleepwalker has a grand cinematic vibe to it as he descends the stairs like the MW reprise. The mournful stone angels straight out of a cemetery remind me of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Adam's coat is a retro-space emperor's robe with the same feel as the Leno outfit. Monte gives us a stunning solo, complemented by Adam's stellar vocals. WWFM is an acoustic version with quite sparse instrumentals, feeling very light and breezy. The arrangement of Soaked works beautifully without the keys aggressively being hammered down. It's a less dramatic and much gentler version better for showcasing Adam's ghostly lingering voice. This concert brings the debut of Aftermath, a surprising addition but what a gem! I think I prefer this bare acoustic version to the big production on the album. The choruses don't sound so shrill so his sweet voice is coaxing and closer to the heart of the song. I love the variations he put in at the end.
Adam leaves us with an fantastic instrumental interlude and laser show as he goes for another costume change. I have a feeling he forgot to top up his hairspray as he got changed. When I saw the outfit I had to laugh as who else would put a huge fucking glittery 'A' on the back of their waistcoat? How can you not love him for that? It's got a bit of an Elvis jumpsuit to it but it's so fun. The way he works the stage jumping up and down various platforms leaves us in no doubt as to what a spectacularly charismatic frontman he is and gives us a glimpse of what he would be like rocking a huge stadium concert. The first glory note sounds flat but the rest of the vocals are strong. Another aspect of Adam I find so endearing is the way he makes the most out of his wardrobe by cutting and pasting clothes together to assemble outfits. I notice that he snipped his shirt just a little too short so that it rides out when he raises his arms.
Strut is becoming one of my favourite live performances from Adam and he starts by calling for his Sunday best - a ridiculously loud stripy coat with tails, promptly brought to him by a dancer. It looks so fabulous on him. I associate this song with a glam feel so this wouldn't have been my guess to have a voodoo theme. The first time I became aware of voodoo was from watching Live and Let Die as a child and it scared the shit out of me. This isn't quite so scary and Adam's cane isn't a voodoo staff with feathers and a skull, but the dancers are all adorned with creepy masks. Adam as ringmaster for the departed does a wonderful job of commanding the army of the underworld. I miss the catwalk strut but look out for the shoulder shimmy as Adam graces the top of the platform. Music Again is pure camp fun and the band interaction is fantastic.
Broken Open brings a change of mood and this one is a stunning spectacle. Adam cuts a lone seraphic figure standing atop the platform. The floating orbs radiating off him even make him god-like (or Patrick Swayze ascending to Heaven at the end of Ghost), like he has all the answers. They feel reassuring, like a protective cocoon and just make you want to hug the person next to you. Seriously though, this is beautifully atmospheric and I can't even begin to imagine the wonderment I'd feel if I'd been there in person.
The last song of the set is IIHY which includes all the band and dancer intros. I'm liking the tribal white stripe down Longineu's face and Monte's Sgt. Pepper military jacket. I find the 'Mr. Glitterbaby' intro so much more amusing than I should. Adam has all the dance moves nailed but it seems like his hair has a life of its own. Each of the dancers has a moment in the spotlight to freestyle and I love his moment with Brooke as it feels we're watching a candid moment between friends and can really see the chemistry. Why does it keep getting so endearing whenever Adam messes up his lines? The backing track keeps going but the look on his face when he realises is precious. He bounces back though, and the laser show is so pretty. The encore is a jazzed-up acoustic Mad World with plenty of improvising and bluesy riffing.
Like the album, the concert is made up of variety. Variety in themes, sounds, visuals and costumes which keeps our attention rapt throughout. I think a slightly different order in the set list would make it flow better though. There isn't a standout 'moment' like that FS WLL or Zurich Sleepwalker but rather a series of highlights. Even then, there are so many to list. We have Voodoo, RoF, Soaked, Aftermath, Broken Open... it's like we have a variety of different concerts all rolled into one vibrant extravaganza. Somehow the result is much more than the sum of the individual parts. Must be the voodoo.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 02:23 10 comments
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Celebrating Glam Nation
15/07/10 - Updated tour dates posters and schedule
16/07/10 - Added 'Ornate' themed set and updated schedule
17/06/10 - Updated schedule and posters
11/06/10 - Added new 'Trip' and 'Fire' themed sets of wallpapers
06/06/10 - Added a couple more wallpapers with Adam on left
I wasn't keen on getting spoilers for the tour but it came as very welcome news that Adam plans to recreate the mysterious witchy voodoo vibe that he had going on at Indio, kicking off the set with Voodoo. We've seen plenty of variations of rocker and glam aristocrat so I'm excited for the change. In the same way that the summer tour last year served to present Adam as a fierce retro space-glam alien, I think this will be a very exciting re-invention to the more earthy and primal, but still magical and enigmatic. I feel that we're in for some spectacular visuals, including steampunk to a New Orleans / Voodoo / Day of the Dead feel.
The recent Frontiers cover shot by Lee Cherry has a little bit of that voodoo vibe, maybe because those iridescent feathers remind me of a witch doctor's staff. I love the photo, which was why I ended up spending hours removing all the copy and extrapolating what was obscured, just for that little extra enjoyment. Click on the photo to get the huge version:
Adam's atmospheric descriptions also inspired me to create some of my own visuals of what I imagine the concerts to feel like, so I've spent time putting together some artwork. The last time I did a set of artwork for this blog, I was surprised to see how similar AO ended up to it, so I wonder how close I'll be with the voodoo theme. This is the first time I've specifically made wallpapers, and it's something that I quite enjoy. I went with two different themes, of voodoo (left) for Glam Nation and space (right), for the current album. Click on the thumbnails for the huge versions and feel free to share. Hope you like them!
I've now added the themes of trip, fire and ornate for when you get bored and want a change. These were inspired by various elements of the set.
1920x1200 (8:5) Poster/wallpaper also suitable for 1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050 resolutions
1920x1200 (8:5) As above with Adam on left for those with Macs
1920x1200 (8:5) Poster with tour dates, wallpaper for huge screens
1600x1200 (4:3) Wallpaper also suitable for 1024x768 resolutions
1280x1024 (5:4) Wallpaper
Latest additions: colour-tweaked and glammed-up versions
One more thing left to do before I tune into tonight's show is to list all the concert dates as they stand at the moment. Looking forward to celebrating all the Glam Nation goodies with you!
04.06.10 Wilkes-Barre, PA, F.M. Kirby Center for Performing Arts
05.06.10 Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom
06.06.10 Wappinger Falls, NY, Dutchess Stadium (KFEST 2010)
08.06.10 Toledo, OH, Omni
10.06.10 Council Bluffs, IA, Harrah's Ballroom
11.06.10 Mahnomen, MN, Shooting Star Casino
12.06.10 Prior Lake, MN, Mystic Lake Casino Hotel
14.06.10 Columbus, OH, LC Pavilion
15.06.10 Milwaukee, WI, Riverside Theater
17.06.10 Hammond, IN, The Venue at Horseshoe Casino
18.06.10 Royal Oak, MI, Royal Oak Theater
19.06.10 Toronto, ON, Molson Amphitheatre (KISS FM Wham Bam)
22.06.10 New York, NY, Nokia Theater
23.06.10 New York, NY, Nokia Theater
24.06.10 Mashantucket, CT, MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods
26.06.10 Atlantic City, NJ, Borgata Spa & Resort / Event Center
27.06.10 Baltimore, MD, Rams Head
28.06.10 Washington, DC, 9:30 Club
30.06.10 Norfolk, VA, The Norva
02.07.10 Charlotte, NC, The Fillmore
03.07.10 Myrtle Beach, SC, House of Blues
06.07.10 Knoxville, TN, Tennessee Theatre
07.07.10 Nashville, TN, Ryman Auditorium
09.07.10 Cleveland, OH, Allen Theater
10.07.10 Louisville, KY, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts
12.07.10 Chesaning, MI (Chesaning Showboat Music Festival)
13.07.10 Lansing, MI (Common Ground Music Festival)
15.07.10 Kansas City, MO, Midland Theatre
16.07.10 Witchita, KS, The Cotillion
17.07.10 Denver, CO, Paramount
19.07.10 Boise, ID, Morrison Center
20.07.10 Seattle, WA, Showbox SoDo
21.07.10 Portland, OR, Crystal Ballroom
23.07.10 San Francisco, CA, The Warfield
24.07.10 Lincoln, CA, Thunder Valley Casino
25.07.10 San Francisco, CA, The Warfield
27.07.10 Costa Mesa, CA, OC Fair - Pacific Ampitheatre
28.07.10 Costa Mesa, CA, OC Fair - Pacific Ampitheatre
30.07.10 San Diego, CA, Symphony Hall
31.07.10 Las Vegas, NV, The Beach at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
01.08.10 Tempe, AZ, The Marquee
03.08.10 Albuquerque, NM, Sunshine Theatre
04.08.10 Lubbock, TX, The Pavilion
06.08.10 Oklahoma City, OK, Bricktown Events Center
07.08.10 Springfield, MO, Juanita K. Hammons Hall
08.08.10 St. Louis, MO, The Pageant
10.08.10 Erie, PA, Warner Theatre
12.08.10 Upper Darby, PA, Tower Theatre
13.08.10 Bethlehem, PA (Musikfest)
14.08.10 St. Jean, QC (St. Jean Balloon Festival)
16.08.10 Concord, NH, Capitol Center for the Arts
17.08.10 Providence, RI, Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel
19.08.10 Hyannis, MA, Cape Cod Melody Tent
20.08.10 Cohasset, MA, South Shore Music Circus
21.08.10 Hampton, NH, Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
23.08.10 Albany, NY, Palace Theatre
24.08.10 Staten Island, NY, St. George Theatre
26.08.10 Roanoke, VA, Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre
27.08.10 Richmond, VA, The National
28.08.10 Raleigh, NC, Memorial Auditorium
30.08.10 Covington, KY, Madison Theatre
31.08.10 Indianapolis, IN, Clowes Hall
01.09.10 Evansville, IN, Victory Theater
03.09.10 Des Moines, IA, Simon Estes Amphitheatre
04.09.10 Rockford, IL, On The Waterfront
05.09.10 Peoria, IL, Peoria Civic Center Theater
07.09.10 Dallas, TX, Palladium Ballroom
08.09.10 Houston, TX, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
10.09.10 Thackerville, OK, WinStar World Casino
11.09.10 Tunica Resorts, MS, Harrah's Tunica - Event Center
12.09.10 New Orleans, LA, Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts
14.09.10 Atlanta, GA, Symphony Hall / Woodruff Arts Center
15.09.10 Atlanta, GA, The Tabernacle
17.09.10 Melbourne, FL, King Center for the Performing Arts
18.09.10 St. Petersburg, FL, Tropicana Field
19.09.10 Hollywood, FL, Hard Rock Live: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
21.09.10 Puyallup, WA, Western Washington Fair
25.09.10 Singapore, Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix
26.09.10 Singapore, Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix
03.10.10 Nagoya, Japan, Diamond Hall
04.10.10 Osaka, Japan, Namba Hatch
06.10.10 Tokyo, Japan, JBC Hall
07.10.10 Tokyo, Japan, JBC Hall
08.10.10 Tokyo, Japan, JBC Hall
10.10.10 Manila, Philippines, Mall of Asia Concert Grounds
12.10.10 Hong Kong, Star Hall - HITEC
14.10.10 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Putra Indoor Stadium, Bukit Jalil
17.10.10 Auckland, New Zealand, Trusts Stadium
19.10.10 Melbourne, Australia, Palais Theatre
20.10.10 Sydney, Australia, Enmore Theatre
22.10.10 Brisbane, Australia, Tivoli
25.10.10 Honolulu, HI, Blaisdell Concert Hall Theatre
26.10.10 Honolulu, HI, Blaisdell Concert Hall Theatre
06.11.10 Helsinki, Finland, Cable Factory
08.11.10 Oslo, Norway, Sentrum Scene
09.11.10 Stockholm, Sweden, Debaser Medis
10.11.10 Copenhagen, Denmark, Vega
12.11.10 Munich, Germany, Theaterfabrik
14.11.10 Hamburg, Germany, Grunspan
15.11.10 Berlin, Germany, Postbahnhof
16.11.10 Stuttgart, Germany, Zapata
18.11.10 Paris, France, Trabendo
19.11.10 Cologne, Germany, Gloria
20.11.10 Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Paradiso
22.11.10 Vienna, Austria, WuK
23.11.10 Zurich, Switzerland, Xtra Club
24.11.10 Milan, Italy, Magazzini Generali
26.11.10 Birmingham, UK, Academy 2
27.11.10 Manchester, UK, Academy 2
28.11.10 Glasgow, UK, ABC
29.11.10 London, UK, Shepherds Bush
15.12.10 Los Angeles, CA, The Music Box
16.12.10 Los Angeles, CA, Club Nokia
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 01:44 13 comments
Labels: Adam Lambert, Artwork, Glam Nation, Images
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Blick in Black
Blick.ch for now. These rousing acoustic songs are simply breathtaking.
The sound on these recordings is excellent and hearing Adam's pristine voice feels like he's right next to you singing into your ear. I've felt that Sleepwalker hasn't been quite perfect in concert recently, but the acoustic renditions always are, and this is a stunning example. We get to hear the breathiness during 'Walker walker walker' and plenty of those gorgeous scrapey tones. The riffing where he really gets to play around and improvise is always a joy. WWFM is another beautiful one to add to the ever-growing collection.
The sound on these recordings is excellent and hearing Adam's pristine voice feels like he's right next to you singing into your ear. I've felt that Sleepwalker hasn't been quite perfect in concert recently, but the acoustic renditions always are, and this is a stunning example. We get to hear the breathiness during 'Walker walker walker' and plenty of those gorgeous scrapey tones. The riffing where he really gets to play around and improvise is always a joy. WWFM is another beautiful one to add to the ever-growing collection.
Posted by Adam Bombed (Lambosessed) at 01:54 5 comments
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Christmas Eve at Copper Mountain
Copper Mountain Resort is set to go all out Monday for Christmas Eve with its popular En Fuego celebration, which includes a rail session, torchlight parade down the mountain, Santa Claus zip lining across the lake, bonfires and, new this year, a glow light parade for the little ones. The rail session kicks off the festivities at 4 p.m., with registration from 3-4 p.m. at Woodward at Copper's Cage facility. Taking place in Lower Bouncer Park, the rail session is free and open to all levels of skiers and riders as long as they register beforehand and wear a helmet. It's not a competition, but there will be prizes and swag giveaways.Next up is the glow light kids' parade, new this year, in the Easy Rider Learning Area next to the base of the American Eagle lift. To participate, children need to meet at Pizza Carlo at 5:45 p.m. and the parade starts at 6. Then at 6:15 p.m. the torchlight parade starts, featuring approximately 50 members of Copper's Ski and Ride School sliding down the mountain on Main Vein in the dark, each carrying two flares and following one behind the other so that viewers at the base see a long, curving snake of lights. For some instructors, it'll be their first time skiing or snowboarding in the dark. "It's a blast," said Don Coleman, adult programs manager for Copper Ski and Ride. "We take it easy at first for people who haven't been on a torchlight parade or skied at night before. It takes a few turns to get the sensation down. … After four or six turns, everybody gets the hang of it and away they go."Although the downhill part is fun, Coleman said one of the biggest thrills is riding the high-speed quad at night. "The lights of the Village quickly slip away, and on a clear night you're up there, looking at the stars, flying along on the chairlift and then, boom, you're at the top, in another world. It's a fabulous experience for all the employees who get to do it. Really it's a great team-building experience."The parade down the hill lasts about 15 minutes, although Coleman said it feels longer. "The interesting thing about it is when we get over the last pitch and start coming down toward the Village, you can hear a dull roar from kids shouting and cheering. Halfway down that last pitch you know it's the coolest thing in the world because it's making a whole lot of people very excited. The kids just go nuts. It's a beautiful event." In addition to ski and snowboard instructors, Santa Claus himself will slide down the hill in the torchlight parade. At the bottom, he'll light the Christmas tree in Burning Stones Plaza before hopping on the new Alpine Rush Zip Line and taking off across West Lake and presumably on to the North Pole to handle his holiday preparations.
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Some die with their boots on, some die of cancer, but most lefties die of their broken hearts.Albrecht, Richard
I waited day and night for the voice of God within me, to know what He had to say to me, to learn what I had to do. In this seclusion the earliest realisation, the first lesson came to me. I remembered then that a month or more before my arrest, a call had come to me to put aside all activity, to go in seclusion and to look into myself, so that I might enter into closer communion with Him. I was weak and could not accept the call. My work was very dear to me and in the pride of my heart I thought that unless I was there, it would suffer or even fail and cease; therefore I would not leave it. It seemed to me that He spoke to me again and said, "The bonds you had not the strength to break, I have broken for you, because it is not my will nor was it ever my intention that that should continue. I have had another thing for you to do and it is for that I have brought you here, to teach you what you could not learn for yourself and to train you for my work." Then He placed the Gita in my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do the sadhana of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion and desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and faithful instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high and low, friend and opponent, success and failure, yet not to do His work negligently. I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions of faith and profession, but the Sanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as lived. This is the Dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from of old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.Sri Aurobindo
On the whole, "organic" illnesses of the body are viewed as a misfortune over which the victim has little control. Not so for "mental" illnesses. These diseases of the mind become diseases of the "self." We (our "selves") can distance ourselves from our "bodily" illnesses: "my leg is broken" or "my heart is failing." But, because of mind-body dualism, our mind is our self. "My mind is sick" is not differentiated psychologically from "I am sick." We cannot distance ourselves, take a detached view of our minds: we are our minds. When a disease affects brain function, the afflicted person and those around him feel that the "self" must be somehow in control of the disorder of "self."Jean M. Goodwin
My waking thoughts are all of thee. Your portrait and the remembrance of last night's delirium have robbed my senses of repose. Sweet and incomparable Josephine, what an extraordinary influence you have over my heart. Are you vexed? Do I see you sad? Are you ill at ease? My soul is broken with grief, and there is no rest for your lover.Napoleon Bonaparte
Just because our political heroes were murdered does not mean that the dream does not still live, buried deep in our broken hearts.Joseph Robinette
The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealedCharlotte Bronte
Poetry spills from the cracks of a broken heart, but flows from one which is loved.Christopher Paul Rubero
A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.George Bernard Shaw
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken."Albert Camus
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spiritBible
Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts.Unknown
Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or broken heart, is excuse for cutting off one's life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.Charlotte P. Gillman
The heart was made to be brokenOscar Wilde
Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts.Unknown
Broken relationships are a source of heavy heartbreak that seem to affect every family.Jerry B. Jenkins
God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces.Unknown
When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead keep your head up high and gaze into heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal.Unknown
Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.Bible
A broken heart is what makes life so wonderful five years later, when you see that special guy in an elevator and he is fat and smoking and saying 'Long time no see'Phyllis Batelle
It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace."George Bernard Shaw
God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces.Unknown
There may be some tenderness in the conscience and yet the will be a very stone; and as long as the will stands out, there is no broken heart.Richard Alleine
My will, my faith and my body have been challenged, but make no mistake, my heart is strong and my resolve to fight will never be broken.Anastacia
He has a deep contempt for Britain, the British people and parliamentary democracy. He is trying to climb back to power via the Treaty of Rome, and put Britain under government from Brussels for ever. In 1970 Mr Heath solemnly promised that he would not take Britain into the Common Market without the full-hearted consent of the British people. He broke his pledged word then, and he now says he will not accept a 'No' vote on Thursday. Heath promised more jobs and higher living standards inside the EEC. These promises were all broken, and he now tells us we are so poor we cannot come out; beggars can't be chooses. That is false, too. Heath's leadership has been a total disaster for the British people. The Tory Party threw him out.Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn
I dont want a broken heart; cause Ill lose all the pieces.Lil Wayne
But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love for ever. Had we never lov'd sae kindly, Had we never lov'd sae blindly, Never metor never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted.Robert Burns


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Today I had an Italian friend of mine (I lived there for 2 years) find me on Facebook. I hadn't seen or heard from the man in 10, almost 11 years. It was a joyous reunion and fun to catch up. I really hold relationships dear and truly love seeing people I haven't seen in years.
One of the funny blogger stories I have was when I reached out to Christina Thielst from Christina's Considerations. She loves to tell this story to people. First, you have to know that Christina's blog was one of the first healthcare IT blogs I found when I began blogging 7.5 years ago. In fact, I must admit that I barely knew her name. I always just thought of her as the RHIO (there's an old term for you) blogger.
Well, 6 years or so later I saw her name and picture on LinkedIn and so I decided to request that we connect. She politely replied that she declined my connection because she only connected with people she knew on LinkedIn. I was a little sad at the response, but replied that she probably had forgotten me and that we'd known each other's blogs for many years. She then replied with a request to connect and an apology for not recognizing my name. It turns out she was like me and only knew the name of my blog and not my name.
As I thought about these long term relationships it's fun for me to look back at which blogs were around when I first starting blogging about EMR. Here are a few that come to mind:
Neil Versel – I'm happy that I now consider Neil a friend, but when I first started blogging I looked to him and learned. He was and is a professional journalist and I was just a hack. I learned a lot from him and modeled a lot of what he was doing.
Healthcare Guy – I was always amazed at the stuff Shahid would write on his blog and enjoyed HITSphere which he created. Now he's my partner in two businesses which we first talked about creating after we met in person at a HIMSS press room. I'm still amazed every time I'm on a call with Shahid. I like to just sit back, listen and learn from him.
HIStalk – I think Mr. H remembers those good old days. The funny thing is that when I first came across his posts they didn't make much sense to me. They're so full of industry jargon that it was like reading another language for me. Of course, now it's often news and rumors I've already heard, but I still enjoy his wit. It's like picking up the healthcare IT tabloids. You can't look away. Plus, Inga is a sweetheart, even if she won't tell me who she is. Maybe the Inga mystery is better.
Dalai's PACS Blog – Sadly someone I have yet to meet in person. The PACS blog was and always has been an irreverent mix of many topics sprinkled with PACS talk. I have a feeling that the blog reflects the writer, which is why I'd love to one day meet him.
The Medical Quack – Barbara Duck has always been a good friend to me. I've always hated her blogger design, but she seems to like it. Barbara and I first met on the EMR Update forum (where I really cut my EMR teeth), and she's always been a kind, but passionate lover of healthcare. I still remember how brave she was to be developing an EMR on her own (she's since shut it down).
Candid CIO – Still one of my favorite blogs to read. I think Will is one of the smartest hospital CIOs that I've met. He has great insight and a great view of his job as CIO. Plus, I love a hospital CIO that's willing to take time to blog.
The Healthcare Blog – I'm not sure if this one started a little after mine or if I just didn't find it until after. Although, it was one of the early ones and had great writers like David Kibbe and Vince Kuraitis. Plus, the always interesting Matthew Holt. It's not exclusively healthcare IT (which is my love), but a huge portion of it is about health IT.
When I think about all of these blogs that have been there since the beginning it's fun to see so many of them still around and blogging today. That's a special commitment. Although, I also realized that when it comes to blogs, you might call us the Legacy EMR bloggers. To use my own analogy, are we the Jabba the Hutt EMR bloggers? In some ways I think I am. The question is whether a blogger does better with age like a fine wine or if it just rots and gets thrown out.


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The Christie G Series provides the full package for small venue applications. Its single-lamp design lowers your cost of ownership without compromising image quality, while the standard six-segment color wheel offers maximum brightness. Featuring a host of ProAV features such as Dynamic Contrast, wireless connectivity, three lens choices, input options and 360 degree projection, the Christie G Series gives you the flexibility to choose the perfect solution for your application.
As an added benefit, the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) simulation mode enables users to reproduce images with an advanced gray scale level, which is ideal for viewing a variety of medical images, such as CT scans, X-rays and ultrasonography.
Featuring high brightness with a variety of ProAV features, the Christie® G Series projectors are ideal for boardrooms and conference rooms, education, houses of worship and other small venues.


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Google TalkBack
Description of Google TalkBack
Google TalkBack aims to improve blind and vision-impaired users' day to day life, by using tech-related solutions.
The app makes it easier for these users to interact with their devices using their voice to call on actions and their earring to get feedback.
You will receive spoken, audible or vibration feedback according to the action you're looking for and be able to better interact with your device. In case you're having any problems with your app, you can reach Google's support service by visiting the website: https://support.google.com/talkback/
Google Talkback is already pre-installed in almost every Android device, and you can turn it on by going to settings, and selection the accessibility menu. If you are using Android 4.1 and above, you just need to touch Talkback and switch it on.
If you're device is paired with Android 4.0, on the accessibility menu, touch Talkback to switch it on and then go back to the previous scree to select Explore by Touch. You're app is ready to use now. Lastly, if you are using Android 3.2 and earlier, select both the Accessibility the Talkback checkboxes.
Please note that this is an accessibility app, which means it can observe your phone state to make it adapt announcements to your call status as well as retrieve window content and check text as you type.
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This app passed the security test for virus, malware and other malicious attacks and doesn't contain any threats.


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Six Paralympic Athletes Nominated for ESPY Award
Six U.S. Paralympic athletes have been placed alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Tom Brady. They have all proven to be among the best competitors in the sports world over the last year, according to ESPN.
Six of the eight 2008 ESPY Award nominees for Best Athlete with a Physical Disability are Paralympic athletes. Matt Scott (Detroit, Mich./Whitewater, Wisc.), Phil Scholz (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) and Marthell Vazquez (Long Beach, Calif./Virginia Beach, Va.) were all nominated for Best Male Athlete with a Physical Disability, while Patty Cisneros (Lake Station, Ind./Champaign, Ill.), Jessica Galli (Hillsborough, N.J./Champaign, Ill.) and Susan Beth Scott (Cape Girardeau, Mo./Colorado Springs, Colo.) were nominated for Best Female Athlete with a Physical Disability.
Cisneros is co-captain of the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team, which will mark her third Paralympic Games. She led the 2004 team to a gold medal in Athens and will resume her role as the starting point guard in Beijing in September. Not only is Cisneros an excellent athlete, but she is an admirable coach as well. Cisneros led the University of Illinois' Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team to a national championship title in her first year as head coach in 2008.
Galli, the 2007 Paralympian of the Year,has broken numerous world records on the track. She was a silver medalist at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney and finished fourth twice in 2004 in Athens. In 2007, she won two gold medals at the Paralympic World Cup and broke three world records on the track at Meet in the Heat in Atlanta, Ga. Galli is currently a graduate student at the University of Illinois working toward a degree in health policy and administration.
"It was a shock, but a really good one," Galli said about her nomination. "I just had a really, really good racing year in 2007. To be honest, it's really nice to be recognized for that."
Sixteen-year-old Susan Beth Scott will be making her Paralympic Games debut in Beijing and is a member of the resident-athlete swimming team at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Born with a tumor in her spine, which caused limited sensation in a part of her legs, Scott underwent surgery to remove tissue from her spinal cord. But her surgery did not stop her from trying to achieve her dreams. She began swimming in local competitions at age nine, and had a seven-medal performance at the 2007 Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Scott enrolls in online classes in order to train full-time for the Paralympic Games.
Scott said her world record breaking performance in the 400m freestyle at the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials in April helped her receive the nomination. Scott believes all the athletes nominated in her category have shown progress in their sports over the past year.
"They're all great athletes and they all deserve the nomination," Scott said.
Scholz is also making his first appearance on the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Team this year. Heading into his sophomore year at Loyola College in Baltimore, Scholz is an athlete with blindness who moved with his family from Munich, Germany to New York when he was seven years old. Although he just gained his American citizenship in December, he has already set numerous American records.
Meanwhile, Matt Scott has become a powerful presence on the U.S. Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team. Scott played on the team at the 2004 Games in Athens and led the team to a silver medal at the 2006 World Championships and a gold medal at the 2007 Parapan American Games. He has also helped the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to three national championships and on New Year's Day 2008, received national attention when he starred in his own nationwide Nike advertisement.
Although Vazquez will not be participating in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, he has traveled the world with the U.S. Paralympics Soccer National Team. He was named the MVP of the 2007 Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association World Championships despite the fact that his team finished the tournament in 10th place.
Shay Oberg and Ryan Kocer were also nominated for the award, competing in softball and wrestling, respectively.
Winners are selected solely by fan voting. You can support your favorite Paralympic athlete by casting your ballot online now through July 12 at 11:59 p.m. ET at http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/espys2008/#/voting/. According to ESPN, more than 12.5 million votes were tabulated last year.
The ESPYS will air July 20 on ESPN.


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RBC.com | Français | | Contact Us
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About RBC > Media Newsroom > Speeches > "Defending Trust: Banking for the 21st Century"
Barbara G. Stymiest
Chief Operating Officer
RBC Financial Group
Canadian Club Luncheon Conference
April 3, 2006
Montreal, Quebec
Thank you very much and bonjour Mesdames, messieurs, ladies and gentlemen ..
C'est merveilleux d'être de retour à Montréal. Certains d'entre vous étaient peut-être présentes, dans le public lorsque j'ai parlé devant le Club, il y a de cela quelques années.
We were debating the merits of rules-based corporate governance such as that imposed by Sarbanes Oxley over the Canadian practice that rooted governance in understood principles and stated guidelines. I was arguing for a more "made in Canada solution", one that considered guidelines to be preferable to rules in most circumstances.
Today, you might assume that someone who has had to confront the Enron debacle in such an obvious and costly manner would reflect differently on comments made in defense of guidelines and the principles that attach to the notion of "comply or explain". Reflect and then perhaps offer a more considered view about resting trust with management.
So, in response to that observation let me say how pleased I was to learn that the Canadian Securities Administrators recently decided that they would not demand external audit opinions on the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting.
Many will recall that this was among the most controversial and costly aspects of SOX and the CSA decision is a significant move away from the US rules in support of greater interpretation that considers a Canadian context.
Issuers may choose to engage the external auditor to assist in the evaluation process but there will be no requirement for the issuer to obtain an audit opinion on the effectiveness of these controls.
And that sounds very much like a guideline to me.
Rules are absolutely necessary in an ordered society. Don't get me wrong. But I don't believe that rules alone deter corporate misconduct.
And I don't believe that rules promote trust. That is rooted in understanding and the carefully developed relationships we rely upon whether personal or institutional.
In the world of governance, I am convinced that rules often persuade the dishonest to find other means to an end: to be more focused on the obstacles that constrain ambitions. This isn't the same as meeting expectations within a set of guidelines that are produced both to establish standards and yet encourage flexibility and creativity in meeting them.
Our development is about adaptation, after all and, of course, as things change we all learn.
At least that's what the wisdom is in retail - that buyers learn. My remarks today are tied to this adage. But I think you'll find that our regulators and enforcement personnel remain convinced that those intent on wrong doing learn as well - if only to get around or bend rules. So do those who meet rules head on but remain intent on achieving their goals with complete honesty.
So we need to be very sure of our intentions as rule makers. In a world constantly reshaped by extraordinary social and technological progress, a world in which our individual expectations invariably change, this debate over rules as opposed to guidelines has become commonplace. In fact it has finally stretched into the far corners of our pop culture.
Take Elizabeth Swann for example. She was the young heroine who played opposite Johnny Depp in the recent motion picture, Pirates of the Caribbean.
In her attempt to get a ship full of pirates to meet the terms of an agreement, Elizabeth called on her captors to respect the "Pirates Code". She was told that not being a pirate she had no right to invoke the code. Even if she were a pirate she needed to recognize that the "code" was more a set of guidelines than a book of actual rules.
Unable to rely on the code, Elizabeth was forced to resort to other means.
So the debate is endless and perhaps only more amusing when prosecuted on the stern of a pirate ship lost in the warm sun of a Caribbean sea.
Up in Ottawa the point of view is slightly different if only influenced by geography but even there the premise must be recognized to be the same: things change, people change. Expectations change and the world we share together of course changes too — usually to accommodate those who share the world.
More than 90 years ago the British economist Charles Fay observed that "the tradition of Canadian banking is evolution not revolution." In the context of what was happening in Canada at the time, I am not sure the man could have been more wrong.
If we walk from this building and turn toward the financial district here in Montreal we will come shortly to Rue St-Jacques or St James Street as the old English used to say.
There, exactly one hundred years ago this spring, at #147, a man named Edson Pease commissioned an American architect named Stone to design a new stone building, one that would become the head office of the Royal Bank of Canada. Pease wanted to be closer to the action. He wanted to aggressively respond to the rapid rise of Canada's west and the opportunities he was sure would attend that promise.
At the time, he was a joint general manager of the Bank and was responsible for all territory west of Montreal. Later he became chief executive and managing director and a man convinced that success in Canada was tied to the men and women who were landing daily at the docks, having chosen to build their futures in this country.
His decision to move the Bank's head office from Halifax to Montreal set in motion an unprecedented period of business building for RBC — a revolution if only in our corporate history.
But don't be misled. There was a lot going on in Canada generally over the first two decades of the 20th century. It was a time of enormous expansion. Fuelled by immigration and the boom in the west, economic growth was beginning to forever shape the face of the entire country.
By 1910 the banking industry in Canada was in the middle of an extraordinary cycle of consolidation that touched every province and territory - most of that operated from right here in Montreal.
And there is no question that through these heady times the face of Canadian banking was starting to assume another kind of image, one captured more in the architectural awe perceived in bricks and mortar and connected more to strength and stability than a sense of personal service and individual relationships.
There's an expression still in fashion around the water cooler today. "Clients love their bankers. It's their banks they hate."
The famous Canadian humourist Steven Leacock captured the apparent discomfort between client and bank, sharing a feeling of complete intimidation in a short piece called My Financial Career that found its way into his book, Literary Lapses.
It was published in 1910, the same year the Royal Bank embarked on an acquisition and building program that saw 526 branches added over the next eight years, beginning with those of the Union Bank of Halifax and wrapping up with the 113 far west branches of the Northern Crown Bank.
"When I go into a bank," wrote Leacock, "I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight of money rattles me; everything rattles me. The moment I cross the threshold of a bank and attempt to transact business there, I become an irresponsible idiot. I knew this before hand, but my salary had been raised to fifty dollars a month and I felt that the bank was the only place for it."
Without ruining this short story let me simply say that first impressions became lasting impressions for this fellow. The same might be said for Helen Goff or should I say for Pamela Travers. That's the name Helen Goff, whose father was a bank manager, assumed when she wrote her books about the nanny, Mary Poppins, back in the mid-30s.
If you didn't read any of the books I'll wager you might have seen the Disney film. It was released into theatres first in 1964, again in 1973 and again in 1984. It told a story set in London - in 1910.
Any hope of escaping the scene captured by Leacock was lost forever in the image of the staid almost emotionless father of young Jane and Michael. George Banks was a banker, an officer in The Dawes, Tomes, Mousely, Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.
You may remember that on Mary Poppins' day off, she suggested that Mr. Banks take his children for a visit to the dark and hushed, oak paneled temple in which he worked every day. He thought it would be a perfect opportunity to introduce them both to the bank and his son Michael, with tuppence in his pocket, to his first bank account.
Fans of the film will know that things went quickly down hill and, again without spoiling the story, it is safe to tell you that the senior Mr. Dawes failed to convince Michael that the bank was the right place to deposit his "tuppence".
Like Leacock's depositor before him, Michael beat a hasty retreat from the tomb-like structure, cash in hand, with no immediate thought of returning.
Soon a century will separate us from these scenes. For those who measure the pace of change, it is instructive that Travers penned her picture of the bank more than a generation after Leacock put his emotional recollection on paper but both depositors were captured in the same time: in 1910. And both banks failed to get the deposit apparently missing by miles the clients' expectations.
The Globe and Mail suggested a few weeks ago that the last five years have been enormous in terms of meeting the evolving needs of the Canadian banking client. Elsewhere some recognized the close of the century as a point that would usher in a time of incredible opportunity for banks, investment dealers, financial planners and mutual fund companies alike.
In their widely celebrated book Boom Bust and Echo, David Foot and Daniel Stoffman suggested that by 2000 the financial services industry would be looking into the face of an entirely new and very large client base populated by a very different kind of client.
That was ten years ago.
Their theory was rooted in the irreversible aging of Canada's baby boomers. By the turn of the century they would all be over 40.
The notion is that anyone born before 1940 who had been financially successful in life would be handing that success over to those who were born after 1967, to the so-called "baby busters" or to members of the "echo" generation. For these people new spending would focus on "cars, houses and other necessities of life", including a search for investment advice.
The potential for new opportunity forecast by Foot and Stoffman invariably links to our ability to accommodate change. The future presses into our lives and shapes immediate demands for increased balance and stability in everything we do but particularly in our investment decisions.
He might well have been speaking to everyone involved in the Canadian banking industry when the American author and futurist, Alvin Toffler, said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write but those who cannot learn and unlearn and relearn."
And this is what all of us have been doing, particularly over the last few years, largely in response to the new demands of the echo generation and the opportunities presented both by technology and a highly educated workforce.
The parallels between the first two decades of this century and the first two decades of the last are irresistible in terms of the influence rapid change has had on this industry.
One hundred years ago we met expectations first by opening branches and extending the network. Trust was promised with a guarantee of reach, security and stability. And, yes: bricks and mortar presented the face of that early ambition.
Although it still attaches to security, today trust is defined much more within the development of individual relationships and, inside these, satisfying complex needs. In this respect we are working to anticipate an ever-widening set of individual expectations by increasing the depth of our skills and resources in the branches, on the phones, on line and in our mobile salesforces in an effort captured best by simply saying, "Client first".
Yes, the banking client is, in most important ways, very different indeed today. Safety and stability are key determinants but so, as predicted, are demands for advice and the trust and performance that makes advice credible.
Motivated by new ambitions, and defined by increasing confidence and apparently limitless expectations, the banking client sets the standard today.
The clerks don't "rattle him". The wickets don't rattle him. What was once an almost daily visit to a banking hall for the average retail bank client has been reduced to actually visiting the bank no more than four or five times a year.
In fact, the individual banking client of today appears to have less and less time for banking. And the irony of that reality is that the banking client of today has never been confronted with more choice in terms of financial products and services. And so we work to uncover new ways to bring the bank to the client.
In every way this reveals the one thing that constantly requires reinvention and that rests in this question of trust. Trust remains illusive. It is fragile and easily lost.
Trust is the one thing no banker will be forever guaranteed by his client. In our view, it must be earned constantly with service and with improved performance and we have come to know that well.
This is what lies behind our "Client first" and the related, "First for you" positioning that today drives not only our external communications but also a great deal of our internal focus. These concepts have emerged from a new understanding that we have of our clients, one that demands that we be more knowledgeable and technically thoughtful.
We are determined to bring greater depth and dimension to the services we provide to our clients because these are the expectations. We are determined to broaden our product offerings across the bank because these are the expectations. We are no longer simply "order takers" in your mind or in our own minds. The image conjured by bricks and mortar is quickly falling away.
And it is this desire to meet expectations that lies behind our repeated calls on Government to ease the bizarre rules that forbid banks in Canada to sell insurance products through their branch networks.
Every defense of this quite unreasonable regulation seems to me to be a defense of the relationship between government and the insurance industry, not a defense of the relationship between the industry and the insurance client.
This is not about better service and it is not about protecting privacy. These are red herrings. This is about losing sight of the financial services client of today.
If he was alive, Leacock's assessment might have been more damning but probably more humorous as well. As it is we are allowed to open insurance retail outlets beside our banks; not in the banking hall; not upstairs; not downstairs; only beside the branch.
For example, there is one beside a branch in Scarborough, in Toronto, which does a brisk trade. We have just recently opened a retail insurance office in Kirkland on the West Island.
But if I was a teller and you came to my wicket at the neighbouring bank branch and asked me about insurance by rule, by law, there is nothing I am allowed to say to you.
I can't give you a brochure. I can't point to the building next door. There is no one to whom I am allowed to refer you. I have to be what I know you don't want me to be when it comes to your questions. I have to be unhelpful, unknowledgeable, not service oriented.
So when it comes to insurance, that's what you should expect at the branch because that's the law, that's the rule. In the branch we say nothing about insurance. True, you can buy it from us on the internet. Yes, we are available by telephone. But in the Branch we say nothing.
Along the lines of services designed to facilitate the language laws here in Quebec and in other provinces, we are thinking of having signs made that will sit at the wicket and simply say. "Insurance Not Spoken Here". It will avoid a lot of embarrassment.
Never mind that you can buy insurance at your local grocer at the same time you thought about picking up a steak for dinner. Never mind that you can connect your decision to buy jumper cables at Canadian Tire with a decision to buy life insurance for the whole family. The fact is you can't buy it at any branch of the Bank. Stop asking!
And what about a mortgage? Oh well that's not an issue. You can get one of those over at your insurance company.
What about a savings account? Not a problem. Your insurance agent will open one for you at the same time you complete the policy application.
Heavens, out in Alberta at Bank West you can bank, trade securities and buy insurance all in one go. No holds barred.
Who are we kidding with these rules?
The insurance industry has said recent polling is unequivocal; a significant number of respondents believe that when you consider the products and services provided by banks today it is clear that they already have enough of a clients' personal information.
The suggestion apparently is someone someplace else should have more. And this is offered in defense of personal privacy.
These obviously aren't the same people who are buying RBC mortgage insurance to protect their homes. And they aren't the same people buying our travel insurance — by my last count that was nearly everybody who traveled with additional insurance.
They must be the same people who didn't want banks and securities brokers to merge back in the late 80s. I have been wondering where those people got to after all this time.
Here in Quebec the story is even more sharply pronounced. The caisse populaires have been selling insurance since 1987. You can get information and advice in the branch. You can expect a sensible referral to a broker. In fact, they might even have a broker sitting there in the branch. How convenient is that?
Allowing the caisse populaires to get into the selling of insurance was forecast to be a body blow for the insurance industry. The sales agent "population" would shrink in the face of lost jobs.
Yet nearly 20 years later insurance ownership in Quebec is greater than in Canada as a whole, especially among low-income groups who have access to coverage at arguably lower costs than that offered by traditional carriers.
And the number of insurance sale agents? It has not declined. It has increased inside a very interesting shift between the agents tied to a specific company and those who operate independently across the Province. There has been a huge shift to independent status, likely in accommodation of change.
Let me come back to where I began a few minutes ago and restate a bias for guidelines over rules. In the wrong place rules simply increase costs unnecessarily and for no one's benefit. Attempting to enhance a sense of security should not be confused with fostering trust.
In determining their role in the marketplace I am convinced that government must confront the same expectations as every other participant. In this respect none of us must ever lose sight of the buyer, his capacity to learn and his constant search for simplicity and reliability within a relationship he can trust.
We must never lose sight of the influences that shape that learning, particularly our shared circumstances and the ambitions that drive us to accept them.
In reaching to meet the expectations of more than 11 million Canadians every day we rely on the nearly 70,000 employees who are working very hard to adapt to change and discover a new paradigm inside the banking hall that distant history alone captures in terms of bricks and mortar.
In 2006 we are nothing more and nothing less than people like you, anxious to meet needs, build lives and dream.
Just as corporate governance can sometimes lose its wisdom in the face of rigid rules, creating barriers to market constrains our ability to meet the needs of our clients. Government needs to reflect on that point as we await the opening of the 39th Parliament and approach yet another turn of the bank Act and the rules that stake its ground.
Thank you.


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After the Boer War, Richard Haldane, the War Minister, spearheaded a reform of the British Army. Hindered by a nation obsessed with its Navy, and a political system opposed to conscription, the opportunity to grow the army was limited, so instead Haldane concentrated on modernisation and training, with the aim of building an elite force of 6 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division, all available for rapid mobilisation as a British Expedition Force (BEF) in mainland Europe. Backed, if needed, by a reserve of 14 Territorial divisions of volunteers.
The overseas portion of the British Army – specifically those armies in India, Egypt, South Africa and the Middle East lost out big time in this re-structure and overhaul. Despite the fact that over half of the total strength of the army was stationed overseas, these forces were often starved of men, equipment and resources in order to bolster the BEF.
At the outbreak of war in August 1914 the BEF was about 120,000 strong and ready to go. They had seen the European heavyweights poke each other in the eye and were ready to get stuck in. Unfortunately, whilst they were expertly trained – especially in the use of the rifle, in which they were probably the best in the world, they were trained for a mobile war, and did not have huge numbers of artillery, machine guns, mortars or grenades.
So, with big smiles and a sense of adventure, the BEF boarded trains and headed off to Belgium. The sentiment of the time was that it would 'be all over by Christmas' and it will all be a jolly good escapade. However they marched straight towards an enemy that had already forced the armies of Belgium and France to run and hide. Germany was hugely superior in numbers, had more artillery, more bombs, and more shells, she also knew how to 'dig in' and form strong defensive positions.
However despite the odds, the BEF put up a huge fight and frustrated the on rushing German army. This can be seen clearly in the famous "Order of the Day" given by the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, on the 19th August, 1914:-
"It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies,
for the immediate present upon one single purpose,
and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers,
to exterminate first, the treacherous English,
walk over General French's contemptible little Army."
With typical British humour, the BEF gladly embraced being called contemptible, and from that day on they would be forever known as 'The Old Contemptibles'.
The BEF fought heroically, In an after-action report, one Prussian officer estimated that the British had at least 28 machine guns per battalion. In reality, they had only TWO machine guns per battalion. All that firepower came from bolt-action rifles in the hands of men well-trained in their use.
Despite lacking men, guns and ammunition, the BEF managed to halt the German Army and put a very large British spanner in the wheel that was the Schlieffen Plan. The German advance had been stopped. Paris had been saved. It came at a cost though. By the end of 1914, the original BEF had been practically wiped out.
The survivors of The Old Contemptibles were rightly proud of what they had achieved between August 5th and November 22nd 1914. In 1925, Captain John Patrick Danny, RFA, founded the Old Contemptibles Association for veterans of the BEF. At its height it had 178 UK branches and 14 overseas and produced its own magazine.


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Over the past week crude oil prices have been rocked by conflicting macroeconomic data and a suspected price-fixing scandal, and the resultant price swings have left many investors questioning the validity of the current price levels. As you would suspect, there is no consensus as to whether oil is over, under or properly valued at current levels, though the concern over a price-fixing scandal seems a likely factor to potentially affect the market in the immediate term. Unsteady but generally upward-trending economic data should (in general terms) correlate with an increased global demand for oil, but increased output from the United States likely will drive prices down in the long-term.
The United States recently reported declining oil stocks, but stocks in Cushing, Okla. have begun to climb sharply after two periods of decline. Increased reserves in Cushing signal increased American production, likely resulting from a progressively more robust shale oil industry. Recent macroeconomic data also has placed pressure on crude, as European, American and Chinese manufacturing and consumption numbers have been erratic in recent reporting periods.
Crude prices very likely will whipsaw in the near-term. The market is nearly impossible to pin down, despite the probable results of the current positive supply shock and the uncertain demand numbers, the oil market tends toward unpredictability. Currently, crude is in the midst of an early rally, but in the upcoming weeks and months it would not be surprising to see the average price of oil driven down as the United States' and Canadian oil renaissance enters full tilt.
So it is clear that the near term price action is likely to be volatile with a slight downward bias. I want to look at a trade to the short side that also could benefit from increased volatility. The options market is implying a downside target of $89.05 by July expiration. I want to look at a slightly more conservative target.
Buying the /CL Jul 90.5-89.5 Put Spread for $0.20
Risk: $200 per 1 lot
Reward: $800 per 1 lot
Breakeven: $90.30
This trade gets me short crude with a great risk vs. reward ratio at a price target that is more conservative than what the market is implying.