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Who is the Rock 'n' Roll Animal?
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Communion with the crowd – my top live shows of 2018
2017 – Live music kept me afloat
Teenage kicks all through the night
RIP John Lever, The Chameleons: We're all souls in isolation
Book Review: Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys – Viv Albertine
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2018 was another tumultuous year. I feel like I've been writing that for several years in a row. World events continued to be a non-stop dumpster fire, and there were some definite ups and downs in my personal life. Through it all, whether I was mourning, celebrating or just enduring, there was live music.
I saw 37 live shows in 2018, which is a pretty respectable number. Here are some of the highlights.
Nick Cave: Any year in which I see Nick Cave is a good year. A year in which I see Nick Cave twice is an exceptional year. When one of those shows is in Dublin, with Cave playing his first show in Ireland in over a decade, that's a fucking spectacular year. Add Patti Smith to the bill, and you've got a concert for the ages. It was a huge outdoor show on the grounds of a 17th century estate, and it was nothing short of amazing.
Patti Smith was fiery and passionate and amazing, as she always is. The sun was barely setting as Nick Cave took the stage and his first words were "Daylight? You all look frightful, so I can only imagine how I look." Cave proceeded to make the huge outdoor venue feel as as intimate as a concert hall as he wandered out in the crowd and climbed on a barricade to sing "The Weeping Song".
Going to Ireland was a dream come true for me, and to see one of my favourite performers in the company of good friends elevated it to something magical.
"The Mercy Seat", live from Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin.
Radiohead: I never thought I would get to see Radiohead live. I had tickets to their 2008 show at Molson Amphitheatre/Budweiser Stage/whatever corporate BS they'll name it after next. That night was the huge blackout that knocked out the city's power for most of the weekend, and when the show was rescheduled, I wasn't able to make it.
Everyone knows what happened at Radiohead's next show. Crowds at the gate just waiting to get in. A stage collapse. One of Radiohead's crew members, Scott Johnson, crushed underneath. Killed instantly. A legal battle that dragged on so long that it was eventually thrown out of court. We all figured the band would never return, and who could blame them. Toronto now holds nothing for the band but memories of loss, pain and a miscarriage of justice.
Then out of nowhere two Toronto shows were announced. I snagged tickets to the first one, way up in the nosebleeds at the ACC. As the date approached, media from all over the world talked about how this was the band's first Toronto date since Johnson's death and how badly our legal system handled it. It was grim and depressing. The night of the show, I was excited but also somewhat apprehensive, wondering what the mood of the show was going to be. When I got inside the venue, I could tell right away that everyone else felt the same way. It hanging in the air, almost palpable.
The band delivered beautiful, intense and moody soundscapes accompanied by a stunning light show, all while without saying a word to the audience. Every time a song ended you could feel the entire venue holding its breath, waiting. At the end of the second encore, Thom Yorke spoke up. "The silence is deafening" he said, and then he stepped back to hold a moment of silence for Scott Johnson. The band then launched into a searing version of "Karma Police".
David Byrne: His stage show for the "American Utopia" record was billed as his most ambitious since "Stop Making Sense", and boy, did it deliver. Dressed all in white and moving and dancing in formation almost the entire show, Byrne and his band were the epitome of joyous motion.
C-Tec: I was stunned when these electro-industrial pioneers reformed and announced a Toronto date. Despite playing at the ungodly hour of 11:30 pm on a Thursday night (work was FUN the next day), they delivered a set of brilliant dark dance music.
Jan Wobble: Founding PIL member, brilliant bassist and all-around genius musician, Jan Wobble's set spanned everything from post-punk to dub reggae, all interspersed with witty storytelling.
VNV Nation: This was my second VNV show, and it catapulted me from a casual fan to a diehard. Their new album is brilliant and Ronan is one of best, most genuine and engaging performers I have ever seen. I was there with a bunch of friends and we all started dancing like mad the moment the set started. Ronan was delighted by this and referred to us as "the dance floor" for the rest of the evening. More than once, he came running over to say "Hey dance floor, how you guys doing? 'This next song is for you!" According to my step counter, I danced 10km that night.
Tags: 2017 in review, concerts
2017 was a hell of a year for me. To say that there was a lot of upheaval is putting it mildly. After being out of full-time work for over two years, I suddenly found myself back in the workforce. I was just starting to get settled when a member of my family was diagnosed with cancer. They died just five months later, just before the end of the year. In the middle of all that, another family member died. And just for good measure, my husband parted ways with his company and started a new job just a few weeks later.
One of the things that kept me grounded through it all was music, both seeing live music and discovering new music.
I saw 23 concerts in 2017, which is pretty much on par with my usual concert-going schedule. In any given year, I try to see as much live music as my budget and stamina allows. Here are the shows that really stood out for me this past year:
Mogwai: I began and ended my year with Mogwai. Mogwai was my second show of 2017 on January 30, the very day after Adam Ant, in fact. They were performing the score they created for a documentary about the atomic bomb, and the documentary was broadcast on a screen behind them. The entire room stood silent and motionless as waves of sound rose and crashed to images of Hiroshima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Looking back, I realized that there was not a single cell phone in sight. Everyone was too mesmerized to take photos.
Mogwai came back to Toronto on December 5, and I ended my concert-going year much as I had begun, with waves of searing noise and melody. Except this time I was smart enough not to take my earplugs out during Mogwai Fear Satan.
PJ Harvey: I fucking adore PJ Harvey and this was her first Toronto show in nearly 13 years. Auspicious number, that! The show sold out very quickly and my friends and I were kind of stuck behind one of Massey Hall's notorious pillars, but none of that really mattered because we were in the same room as the brilliant and majestic PJ Harvey. She was touring her brilliant new album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, and it was no surprise that this was reflected in the set list. What was a surprise – a huge, joyful, earth-shattering, wonderful surprise – was when, right in the middle of the concert, she launched into 50 Ft Queenie.
Anyone who knows me knows that 50 Ft Queenie has been my online handle since the Usenet days. I first used 50 Ft Queenie on alt.gothic, then Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Twitter, Gmail, you name it. Even in silly little iPhone games, if I have to choose a handle, it's always 50 Ft Queenie. The song begins with a loud twanging guitar chord and then launches into PJ's fantasy of being "the biggest woman" who is the "king of the world".
I had never heard it live and wasn't sure PJ even performed it anymore. When I heard the opening chords ring out, I sat in stunned silence for a couple of seconds. PJ tore into the song with a raw, fierce energy and it was fucking breathtaking and glorious. My only regret – and I do regret this deeply – is that I didn't stand up and dance. Everyone around me was sitting and I didn't want to be that jerk who stands up and blocks everyone's view. BUT…it was a rock show and PJ Harvey was tearing it up onstage and I desperately wanted to dance to my favourite song. I made do with shimmying madly in my seat, but if I could do it all over again, I would jump and dance like the king of the world.
Nick Cave: I have seen Nick Cave many many times, beginning with his set at Lollapalooza in 1994, when he ordered the crowd to stop moshing. The show was at Massey Hall and we were in the second row, but even before the show started, it was clear that no one was staying in their seats. There was already a crowd in front of the stage waiting for the arrival of Saint Nick.
When the show started, we all pressed even closer to the stage and Nick, as always, prowled the edge of the stage, reaching out into the audience, drawing us all in close to him. Out of nowhere, during Magneto, he grabbed my hand, looked me right in the eye and sang to me. I stood very still, hardly daring to breathe as I held his gaze. Then the moment was over and he moved on and I stood there hardly daring to believe what had just happened. My heart still skips a beat when I think of it.
VNV Nation: This was my first time seeing them, believe it or not. All the times they've come through Toronto, I've missed them and listened to friends rave about them. This time, they were doing a small club show at The Garrison and even though it was late September, it was 40 fucking degrees inside the club. My friend Sabs and I wore the shortest skirts we owned and danced our feet off. If I did not lose 10 pounds in sweat that night, then there is no God.
And I now know why everyone raves about VNV Nation shows. I don't usually think of electronic/EBM shows as intimate and emotional. That was before I experienced Ronan Harris live – his warmth, his passion, his connection with the audience. The heat is the venue that night due to so much more than just the temperature outside.
Diamanda Galas: I confess that I know more about the legend that is Diamanda Galas more than I know her music. I do know that she has a fanatical and devoted following, and her vocal range and mastery of her voice is unparalleled. So when she announced her first tour in years, I had to go. I like to see artists whose work I'm not familiar with – it keeps me from falling in musical ruts.
I recognized maybe one or two of the songs she performed, but I didn't care. I was there to experience her voice and her whole presence. Galas' hair, make-up and outfits are a cross between Cruella de Ville, Maleficent and Victorian deep mourning, and to say that she carries it off majestically is a massive understatement.
And her voice….I'm not sure I can do it justice. She hit impossibly high notes at a pitch that made me wince, and then swooped right down in a low register. And she made it all seem effortless. After the show, someone posted on Twitter that they were sure Diamanda Galas' voice had opened up a portal to hell. Sounds about right.
Posted: December 29, 2017 in Uncategorized
A few months ago, there was a meme going around Facebook where people posted the albums that influenced them the most during their teenage years. I had an interesting discussion with my friend Rik about it over drinks one night. Rik is a fellow music aficionado and writes his own excellent blog called A Pile of Concert Tickets which I highly encourage you to read. Rik's take on the meme was that people were posting the albums that were most likely to make them look cool. As he put it, "Yes, I was listening to David Bowie and Duran Duran in high school, but I was also listening to The Thompson Twins!" And he has a point. Who wants to confess that they really loved Nik Kershaw in the 9th grade?
I argued that the meme asked us to list the albums we were most influenced by, and listening to something and being influenced by something are two very different things. I had a copy of Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual when I was in high school. I liked it a lot back then, but I don't listen to it now and it didn't really shape my musical taste over the years. The albums that influenced me, the ones I still listen to, are the ones that have stood the test of time, that still speak to me after all these years.
Without further ado, here is my list:
1. Duran Duran – Rio
Ah, Duran Duran. I have loved this band for most of my life. Rio was the first album of theirs that I owned, bought for me by my favourite aunt. On that same shopping trip, Aunt Pat bought me the first makeup I ever owned – brown mascara, blue eyeshadow, pink lipstick. I was 14 and my parents didn't want me listening to rock music or wearing makeup. Aunt Pat was a high school teacher and understood what mattered to kids my age.
Rio is, for me, a perfect album. An album full of light and joy and fun (Rio, Hungry Like The Wolf, My Own Way, Hold Back The Rain), introspection, loneliness and doubt (Lonely In Your Nightmare, Last Chance on the Stairway, New Religion) and pure unfettered beautiful atmospheric weirdness (The Chauffeur). When I got married, I asked for Rio to be the last song of the night because it's such a joyful song.
And of course, I owe so much of my musical growth and discovery to Duran Duran. Read on…….
2. David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
John Taylor and Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran talked endlessly in interviews about what a huge influence Bowie was on them and the whole band, Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album in particular. So of course I had to find it.
My first copy of the album was actually a copied from vinyl onto cassette for me by Ken, a guy I babysat for who had a massive record collection. I was gobsmacked the first time I heard it. I had never before heard an album with such a perfect story arc, executed with such beauty and ferocity and precision.
Finding the actual album proved to be a bit of a challenge. This was the mid 80s, before the age of the Internet (yes, I'm old – shut up) and most record stores didn't carry Bowie's earlier stuff. There used to be a store called Incredible Records at Bloor and Yonge, on the second floor above a clothing store. It was huge and spent many Saturday afternoons there, after telling my parents that I was at the library. They had tons of Bowie, but not Ziggy. After screwing up my courage to talk to the guys who worked there, I bit the bullet and paid $30 to have the album shipped from the UK. It was worth every fucking penny.
3. Sinead O'Connor – The Lion and the Cobra
This album was a turning point for me. My tastes in early high school were pretty mainstream still. Lots of new wave and pop music. Sinead was anything but mainstream. She was raw and fierce and like nothing I'd ever heard. I was fascinated, but wary. Fascination won out and I bought The Lion and the Cobra and was captivated by it. By Sinead's voice, by how she could be shrieking herself raw one minute, and be tender and vulnerable the next. By how the album was all over the place musically, and yet hung together perfectly.
4. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine came out in late 1989, and it took a few months for it to show up on my musical radar. But when it did, it's impact was immediate – visceral and quite honestly, life saving. I bought it at the start of the summer of 1990. I was 19, and things were very bad at home and I had very few outlets for the anger and helplessness I was feeling. I remember hearing Head Like A Hole for the first time, and feeling an instant shock of recognition. I wasn't self-absorbed enough to think "Trent knows my pain" or "He wrote that song just for me"; what I did know was that here was someone expressing anger in a way that gave a voice to everything inside of me. That album stayed on my turntable all summer and to this day, I swear it kept me sane.
5. The Cure – Disintegration
There are moments you remember forever. One of those moments for me is unwrapping Disintegration, putting the pristine album on my turntable, dropping the needle onto the first song of Side 1, and being struck dumb as the perfect, plangent beauty of Plainsong poured out of the speakers. The whole album is an elegant, mournful and darkly romantic masterpiece, full of lush instrumentation that fills the room, all layered over with Robert Smith's inimitable voice.
But Plainsong is the song that always gets me, every time, even after all these years. Many years ago, I saw The Cure on the Curiosa tour at the Molson Amphitheatre. It was a warm summer night and sun was just going down as The Cure took the stage. They opened with Plainsong and the sky blazed gold and red as the opening chords floated out into the night. It was another perfect moment that I remember like yesterday.
6. New Order – Substance
Strange as this may sound, this album became a favourite for me in retrospect. My friends and I used to make tapes for each other as Christmas and birthday gifts, and that was where I first fell in love with so many classic New Order songs. I remember lying in bed with the lights out, listening to Perfect Kiss, Shellshock and Subculture long after my parents thought I had gone to sleep. Months later, I discovered Everything's Gone Green and fell in love all over again. And then I stumbled upon 1963 and then I finally picked up Substance in a record store and realized that all these songs were on the same album. I bought it, raced home and it didn't leave my turntable for months.
7. Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
I started this list talking about how much Duran Duran influenced me. I wasn't kidding. When I read in Smash Hits that John Taylor's favourite song was "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" by Roxy Music, I had to track it down. The track was off of Roxy's second album, For Your Pleasure, and like Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album, it was very hard to find. Again, I went back to Incredible Records and paid a large sum of money for them to import it for me from the UK. When it arrived, I smuggled it home in my backpack and unwrapped it in the privacy of my room. It was packaged in a double sleeve with some of the most beautiful album art I had ever seen – Bryan Ferry and Amanda Lear all in black against a nighttime cityscape.
Of course, the first track I listened to was "In Every Dream Home A Heartache". I have never heard anything like, before or since. The song starts slowly, full of creeping obsession and lust while Brian Eno's keyboards build a sense of creeping unease underneath it all. Halfway through, the song explodes into squalling guitars as Ferry wails about his lost love. It sends chills down my spine to this day.
8. Depeche Mode – 101
This may strike some people as an odd choice. Why not Black Celebration, Music for the Masses or Violator, all iconic albums and ones I love deeply. 101 – both the album and the documentary – is special to me for a couple of reasons. I bought the album the day after a disastrous high school dance, to console myself.
Guys were not lining up to date me in high school. One day, as I was leaving English class, a guy waiting outside told me he liked my hat (a white fedora, as I recall). After that, he would often catch my eye and smile as I left class and soon we were chatting regularly and when the next high school dance came up, he said he'd be there and hoped I would be too. I tried not to read too much into it, but my stomach was full of butterflies as I got ready for the dance. I'd spent all my high school years watching other people go on dates, have boyfriends and girlfriends. Was it finally going to be my turn?
I got to the dance, the guy was there and…he ignored me all night. Even worse, he spent all evening paying attention to my friend's sister. I was devastated, as only a spurned, lonely, awkward high schooler can be. The next day, I told my parents I was going to the library, but instead I went down to Sam The Record Man on Yonge St and bought 101. I brought it home and drowned myself in the music. That live version of Never Let Me Down Again still sends chills down my spine.
On the weekend that I first saw the documentary, my parents were away for the weekend and I was at loose ends on a Saturday night. I saw in NOW Magazine that 101 was playing at the Bloor Cinema and on impulse, I went. This may not seem like a big deal, but I was very sheltered and had my parents been home, there was no way they would have let me go downtown by myself at night. Especially not to see a movie about a rock band. I still remember how daring and bold I felt as I took the subway down to Bathurst and Bloor and then sat in the darkened theatre thrilling to the sights and sounds of Depeche Mode. And how pleased I was when, back at home, I realized I had gotten away with it.
9. Sisters of Mercy – Floodland
Towards the end of high school, I started dressing more and more in black. I dyed my hair as much as I could get away with while living under my parents' roof. I don't even remember when or where I heard the Sisters of Mercy for the first time. I probably heard about them in one of the British music mags I kept stacked under my bed, and I probably saw the video for This Corrosion late at night on Much Music.
When I bought Floodland, I dove into it headfirst and immersed myself in the shameless bombast and drama that is Uncle Andy at his finest. To say that I became a bit obsessed with the Sisters is putting it mildly. I spent hours and way too much money in Penny Lane Records buying import copies of all their albums, EPs, live bootlegs, cassettes, fanzines, unofficial bios etc. I hopped into a car with a bunch of complete strangers to travel down to the States to see the Sisters play their first US gig in 7 years. Two of those strangers are now my very close friends.
10. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Barbed Wire Kisses
Another album that I first owned on cassette. I picked it up used at a local record store. Barbed Wire Kisses isn't really an album, per se, but a collection of B-sides, and rarities. That doesn't matter. The songs are arranged perfectly, starting with several noisy droning tracks that lull you into a state of music-drugged bliss. Then come the short, sharp, noisy guitar anthems, then some more buzzsaw drone, and finally some perfect power pop to end it all off. I used to lie on the floor of my tiny dorm room with the lights off and incense burning and listen to Barbed Wire Kisses over and over.
11. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Tinderbox
I'm supposed to say that I bought this album because Siouxsie is both a goth and a punk icon, but the truth is, I bought this album because of a boy. His name was Dan and he was in my Grade 11 drama class. He was tall and skinny and he wore a black leather jacket and had spiked hair and a British accent. I thought he was really cute and really cool and I wanted him to think I was cool too. I showed up in drama class one day with a cassette copy of Tinderbox in my Walkman, and made a point of mentioning it as often as possible, hoping that Dan would notice and be impressed. He didn't and he wasn't.
Instead, Tinderbox became my gateway into the dark, driven, beautiful and mesmerizing world of Siouxsie and the Banshees.
12. The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
I didn't buy this album because I was a punk fan. It was kind of the other way around. I bought the album because it seemed like all the kids that I thought were cool and popular (and intimidating) were into punk. And the Pistols were kind of legendary. So I bought Never Mind The Bollocks and was amazed at the anger and energy and outrage that came pouring out of the speakers.
And then my father caught sight of the album cover and blew his stack, and I became a diehard punk fan for life.
Posted: March 18, 2017 in Uncategorized
Tags: chameleons, john lever
It was just a few weeks ago, wasn't it, that I said I was sick of writing RIP posts. I actually had a different post planned for today, and I still plan to write it. But this one needs to be written first. Because this time, it's personal. This is a post mourning someone I actually met, spent time with, sat and talked to.
15 years ago, some friends and I formed a event promotion company. To say that this business venture was problematic and short-lived is putting it mildly, but is also a story for another time. The very first shows we produced were The Chameleons; two shows in Montreal – one acoustic and one full on, a show in Toronto and a private meet and greet in Toronto. They contacted us, believe it or not. They had reformed and decided to tour again, and since they didn't have a record company, they were organizing the tour themselves.
You know who The Chameleons are, right? You've heard Swamp Thing. Everybody has heard Swamp Thing. It's a moody, plangent and yet insistently catchy bit of post-punk brilliance that still fills dancefloors 31 years after it was released.
And yet that's just the tip of the iceberg with The Chameleons. Their first three albums are sheer post-punk brilliance. A perfect marriage of Mark Burgess's lyrics that always spoke to the need to connect and belong, the soaring and shimmering guitar lines of Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding, and the insistent, driving rhythms of John Lever's drums. They broke up in 1987, reformed in 2000 and it was 2002 when we put on the only Canadian dates on their North American tour. I took a week's vacation from my day job to travel to the shows in Montreal and Toronto. I did everything from setting up media interviews and sending out news releases to shopping for the band's rider and setting up their backstage food and drink.
When the band arrived, I did my best to be professional and not fangirl all over them. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. They were all fucking sweethearts, every last one of them. They were all working class Manchester lads, no posturing or pretense allowed. John was shy, but over the course of the week, I got to know him a bit. He had a delightfully dry sense of humour. He had me in stitches one day with a monologue about how we'd all be able to connect to the internet with our toasters any time now. On their last night in Toronto, we held a private meet and greet at a local bistro. John spent most of the evening out on the patio. "It's too posh in there" he said. "I don't like posh." He was more comfortable sitting outside with a pint in his hand, chatting to anyone who was out there.
Near the end of the week, he emerged from the tour bus with a stack of CDs. He handed them to me and said "These are for you for taking such good care of us." I still have them all. It's been 15 years, but I still remember that whirlwind, chaotic week. Our promotion company struggled along for a couple more years and then imploded. It all seems like a lifetime ago, and yet it all came roaring back so vividly when the news of John's passing broke a couple of weeks ago.
Thank you for the music John. Thank you for being part of one of my life's many crazy episodes. I hope you're enjoying a pint in the afterlife.
Posted: February 18, 2017 in Book review, Uncategorized
Tags: clothes clothes clothes Music Music Music boys boys boys, punk, Slits, Viv Albertine
I was introduced to Viv Albertine's autobiography by a friend of mine who raved about it. Viv Albertine is, of course, the guitarist for The Slits, the seminal all-girl punk band. I confess that I wasn't hugely familiar with The Slits when I started reading Viv's book. I knew of them, but had heard very little of their music. The Slits were right on the front lines, formed in 1976 and supporting The Clash on their White Riot tour in 1977.
Viv Albertine were there for it all, right there on the ground floor. Names that are now household names among music geeks everywhere are dropped casually into conversation throughout her book because to her, they were just her mates. Her fellow art school attendees. The people she ran into at the pub and parties. The people she snogged and shagged and fell in love with. I'm tempted to list them all, but I'd rather you stumble upon them as you read your way through the book, like I did. Marvelling at just what a tight-knit community of musicians and provocateurs and artists she came from.
Viv's story is divided into two distinct parts – her childhood and youth, up to the demise of The Slits, and then her life post-Slits, as she forges a life for herself outside of music and works to discover who she is now that she's no longer in a band. That may sound odd, but back then, everyone she knew was in a band. Music was the force that drove everyone and she captures with stark honesty how it felt to be cut loose from that world and then struggle to find her footing again.
Her voice is entirely her own. There's a hilarious section near the end of the book where her manager tries to talk her into a using a ghost writer and she tells him to fuck off, resulting in her being asked to leave a public cafe due to her unladylike profanity. She writes with unflinching honesty about being in an all-female band and facing open hostility and abuse, about facing infertility, cancer and the end of her marriage. My own life story is in a distinct rocky patch as I write this, and I need heroes and inspirations more than ever. I need strong women who have striven and overcome to tell me to keep fighting. I need women like Viv Albertine.
We are ugly but we have the music: Remembering Leonard Cohen
Tags: leonard cohen
It's taken me two months to write about Leonard Cohen. I'm not sure why. Maybe I was sick of the fact that every blog post I wrote last year was about the death of one of my heroes. Maybe it was that Cohen died the same week that the most unheroic cowardly man possible was elected to power, and my mind was reeling. Whatever the reason, I am writing about him now.
You don't always remember when an artist enters your life. Some of them, it just seems like they were always there. I remember exactly when and where I discovered Leonard Cohen. I was 15 and babysitting for a family that lived across the street from mine. I spent most weekends babysitting, truth be told. I was shy and awkward, and didn't have much of a social life. I was always happy to earn some spending money, but I must confess that there were certain families that I preferred babysitting for. Namely, the ones with cable TV, comfy couches and tasty snacks.
This family had none of those things. Their tiny black and white TV was in the chilly basement, and they didn't have cable. The whole house was chilly – freezing, in fact – because they believed in keeping their thermostat as low as possible. They were also big into health food, which meant that forays into the pantry for a snack yielded up bags of bran and wheat germ. The one thing they did have was books. One night, after I'd put the kids to bed, I curled up on the hard living room couch with a scratchy blanket over my legs and started inspecting the book shelves. There must be something I can entertain myself with for the next couple of hours! Hey, Leonard Cohen. I'd heard of him.
I picked out a volume of poetry, Flowers for Hitler, and started reading. My eyes grew wide and my mouth dropped open. This unlike any poetry I'd ever read before. There were poems about sex! He even wrote a poem about getting a blow job! And no, it wasn't Chelsea Hotel that I read. It was another poem. Cohen was apparently the poet laureate of oral sex. I didn't know you could write poetry about things like that, and that poems could be both dirty and beautiful. There was a short one-act play in there as well, called The New Step, and I was so fascinated by it that I read it every time I babysat for that family.
I developed a fascination with Cohen and devoured his poetry. His novels were less accessible to me. It was his poetry that I read over and over until I could recite entire poems by heart. I discovered his records and fell instantly in love with that impossibly deep, rich voice. I babysat for another couple, Ken and Judy, who were both huge Cohen fans and told me stories of having seen him live. He disappeared into a monastery in 1994, when I was just finishing university. I figured I would never get to see him live. I kept listening and reading and wrote a paper on him for my Canadian Literature course, even though my prof hated Cohen and was guaranteed to give me a low mark.
I watched documentaries about Cohen. When Phillip Glass set Cohen's latest collection of poems to music for a multimedia spectacle at Luminato, I went and almost imploded when Cohen himself slipped into the theatre just before the lights went down and sat two rows behind me. I went to a live Q&A to listen to Cohen and Glass talk about working together. I watched as Lou Reed inducted Cohen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Then something unbelievable happened. Cohen emerged from several years of seclusion to find that his manager had misappropriated most of his money. To make it back, he went out on tour. My husband and I splurged on the best tickets possible and saw him twice in Toronto, both times within the first 10 rows. The second night, tears started pouring down my face while he sang. We saw him again a few years later, this time the tickets were a birthday gift from me to my husband.
He was 82 when he died. That's a good long run. His time had come and he knew it. He was ready. It's the rest of us who weren't ready yet.
I like to think of him hanging out in the afterlife with Lou and Lemmy and Bowie. Like all of them, he was an outsider and he spoke for us with wisdom, dark wit, bawdiness, and stunning beauty. We are ugly, but we have the music.
How a new wave kid fell in love with The Tragically Hip
Posted: August 20, 2016 in Uncategorized
It was the late 80s when I first heard The Tragically Hip. There was a family I babysat for often and the dad had a massive record collection. Ken would often send me home with mixed tapes full of music, and on one of those tapes was the Tragically Hip's self-titled debut album.
Now, you have to understand that the Hip was not at all my usual musical fare. It was the late 80s and I was a new wave kid through and through. I bought my clothes at vintage stores, dressed mostly in black and bleached my bangs so I could look like Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran. Bluesy twangy rock 'n roll wasn't really on my radar.
And yet, I was hooked. There was something wild and slightly unhinged about the way the band played. It felt like the wind in my face on long car rides during long, hot Ontario summers. It felt like the endless expanse of highway on the way out of Toronto and the gravel roads that made it clear we had left the big city behind. Gord Downie wrote songs about Canada the way that Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood wrote stories about Canada. Evoking that vastness and loneliness and wild beauty with seeming effortlessness, but always with a twist at the end. A sharpness and a bite. Last American Exit was the first song that grabbed me and it has stayed with me ever since.
First time I saw The Hip live was when they played frosh week at Western. I was a frosh leader and so had to stay sober while trying to keep track of a bunch of kids drunk on freedom and cheap beer. Our frosh week theme that year was Ghostbusters and all the frosh were dressed in white ghost-themed outfits. Gord Downie looked out at the crowd, said "You all look like a bunch of sperm running around out there" and then launched into one of his stream-of-consciousness stories while the band jammed.
The next time, it was 1997 and I had tickets to Another Roadside Attraction. One of those tickets was for my boyfriend, until he dumped me. I ended going with a guy that I was good friends with, not having any clue at the time that I would end up marrying him. Many years passed until saw The Hip again, and then it was 2009 and they were doing a 6 -night stand at Massey Hall and there we were again, watching The Hip, this time longtime married.
And then last week, one of the final Toronto shows at the ACC. Hearing the mighty echo off the rafters as the entire crowd sang along to "Little Bones". Watching Gord Downie in his hot pink metallic leather suit, thinking that he sure as hell doesn't look like a man with a terminal illness. Marvelling at the big smile on his face, at how much fun he seemed to be having. And then crying at the end when he stood onstage by himself as the crowd cheered, none of us wanting the moment to end.
In a couple of hours, we're going to head to a local pub and meet up with a good friend to watch The Tragically Hip's final show of the tour from Kingston, their home town. Will this be their final show ever? No one knows. Gord has brain cancer, and he could have anything from a few months to a couple of years left. This is all too sudden and much too cruel, and like so many others, I'm not ready to say goodbye. 2016 has been a year of such loss. So many heroes gone.
There are Tragically Hip viewing parties across Canada tonight. People are gathering in pubs, parks, movie theatres and public squares, coming together to watch a band that was always unashamedly, eccentrically and poetically Canadian.
Thank you Gord. I could always count on you to tell me what the poets are doing.
all that made us punk girls .... and still does
My life and love of food and dance shared with you.
Advice. Staircase Wit. Faux Pas. Movies.
Recording the therapy journey with a pencil and limited artistic skills!
reading. writing. suffragetting.
A psychotherapist's journal
With no reason/To talk about/ The books I read/ But still I do
In search of the perfect butter tart
dispatches direct from the 'cult.
Where all Music is treated equally.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


AIR COMBAT PAINTINGS VOLUME VI.
With just TEN copies issued with each of the special editions, Robert Taylor's magnificent pencil remarque will be completed on a separate folio sheet of paper which can either be inserted loosely within the book itself, or, if you wish, available to be framed and displayed as a separate item in its own right.
Specially placed in the front of each of the TEN remarque edition books will be a remarkable bookplate containing the original signatures of FIFTEEN of World War Two's most famous and distinguished aviators. Illustrious veterans whose names include Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring Ace in history; Hub Zemke and Don Blakeslee; and Victoria Cross holders Bill Reid and Norman Jackson to name but a few.
Warrant Officer NORMAN JACKSON VC.
Flight Lieutenant BILL REID VC.


Date: Tue, 7/13/2010, 14:00:37 I want an eviltini!!!
Date: Thu, 6/24/2010, 17:58:19 I've been home sick all week, and I was lucky enough to catch the last twenty minutes of Some Like It Hot on Monday. The dialogue leading up to that line was much better than I remembered it!
Date: Sun, 6/20/2010, 02:34:39 ...how does one make an "eviltini"?
Date: Fri, 6/18/2010, 17:39:42 I do NOT want to see pictures of this evilkini.
Date: Thu, 6/17/2010, 08:49:08 Jaffar's final speech bubble is an actual quote from the movie. The very last line is a reference to the best closing line in ANY movie: Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot.
MG: Good catch on the How To Be Persuasive line!
Date: Thu, 6/17/2010, 08:21:56 The "how to be persuasive" reference is great. :) I wonder how many people will immediately notice that like I did?
You got perfect shots for all the "My beard is evil.", etc. scenes.


Learn the Lightroom secrets the pros's use to take portraits from good to great in seconds.
Here is a complete list of all the modules in the Lightroom Mastery: People & Portraits course.
Portraits and People, here is what to expect.
The adjustment brush is one of our most powerful tools when editing people and portraits – lets cover how to use it properly.
Now that you know how to use the adjustment brush I'd like to show you how to create your own custom brush presets for future use.
A great thing about Lightroom is that you can also import custom brush presets from the internet, I'm going to show you how.
5 Balancing Exposure usng Brushes.
One excellent way to use the adjustment brush is to balance over/underexposed parts of an image. Here are two examples of how to do this.
6 Radial Filters for Vignettes.
One of the most common uses for the radial filter is to create beautiful vignettes around your subjects. Here are the ways I like to use the radial filter to.
7 Radial Filters for Creative Editing.
Sometimes I find the radial filter is quicker and easier than the adjustment brush for doing creative local editing on an image. Here are some examples.
8 Black and White Points.
Its very important to find the black and white point in any image, but especially in photos of people. I'm going to show you what the black and white points.
9 Crop Tool – Snapshots.
Sometimes our casual people photos aren't shot with the best composition. Here are a few examples of improving casual snapshots through cropping.
10 Crop Tool – Creative images.
The crop tool can really improve our creative portraits and people photos, here are a few of how to improve your images by cropping.
The eyes are the windows to the soul, and the iris is the centerpiece! I'm going to show you how to dramatically bring the iris to life!
12 Editing Eye Whites and Veins.
Making eyes 'pop' in a photo requires also working on the eye whites and removing veins – here is how to do it properly.
13 Balancing Exposure in Eyes.
Sometimes one eye is much darker than the other in a photo, here is how to balance them out so they look great and more even.
It is very common for people to have shiny highlights/hotspots if they are photographed outside or if the temperature is high. This can be tricky but I'm going to show.
15 Wrinkles, Bags, Blemishes – Part 1.
Everyone has various wrinkles, bags under their eyes, and blemishes, and editing them properly can be one of the most dramatic improvements you can make to a persons photograph. In.
16 Skin Smoothing – Part 1.
Now that this image has had the wrinkles bags and blemishes edited, we can finish the image by smoothing out the texture of the skin.
17 Wrinkles, Bags, Blemishes – Part 2.
This portrait has a different feel and far more blemishes in the skin so we will edit this image from top to bottom and correct everything.
18 Skin Smoothing – Part 2.
Now that we've corrected wrinkles and blemishes I'm going to show you how to smooth out the skin tone.
19 Wrinkles, Bags, Blemishes – Part 3.
In this image I'm going to show you how to use the often-neglected 'visualize spots' tool to quickly identify and fix blemishes.
20 Skin Smoothing – Part 3.
To finish this image we'll smooth out the skin using masks and the adjustment brush.
By far one of the most common editing tasks, I'm going to show you how to quickly whiten your subjects teeth so it looks real.
Its nearly impossible to keep long hair in place in general but especially outside. I'm going to show you how I edit out flyaway hair from an image.
24 Editing Eyebrows and Facial Hair.
Sometimes peoples eyebrows and facial hair need to be tamed – in this image I'm going to show you the best methods to edit them properly.
25 Dodging and Burning – Part 1.
Dodging and burning can really add structure to your subjects faces and bodies. In this video I'll show you how to define a jawline and cheekbones by dodging and burning.
26 Dodging and Burning – Part 2.
In this video I'm going to show you how to use dodging and burning to further define the structure of our subjects face in a professional portrait.
27 Dodging and Burning – Part 3.
In our final dodging and burning video I'm going to show you how to use this method to bring out more 'shine and depth' in a black and white portrait.
Now its time to bring all of our techniques together for a top-to- bottom beauty portrait edit.
While editing this professional headshot we will do general edits, detailed skin editing, eyes, teeth, and more.
Editing kids can be very different than editing adults. I'll show you how I like to edit photos of kids and bring out the best.
31 Black and White Conversion.
Editing and converting a black and white photo of people can be different than a color photo. I'll show you the method I use from start to finish when converting.
This image has a very rugged and rustic appeal to it, so I'm going to show you how to add that kind of 'character' in our color choices, using grain.
Now that you've been through the course you should feel confident and sure that you can bring out the best in photographs of people, thank you for joining me!


Samantha is a highly requested speaker who loves sharing science anywhere to everyone! She's presented science on the busy streets at Yonge & Dundas, ringside at a Muay Thai Gym, outside a museum in a yurt at 1am for Nuit Blanche, and on a livestream with a CSA Astronaut who was floating around in SPACE!
Previous speaking engagements include presentations at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, the Ontario Science Centre, the 2018 Annual Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Conference, a live webinar via Evidence for Democracy, a talk at TEDxDownsviewWomen, and the Keynote at the 2018 Cedarlane Annual Expo. Samantha co-hosted a livestream at the Canadian Space Agency, MC'ed TEDxUofT 2019, and spoke about the science of celebrity worship at the Red Carpet Party at the 2019 JUNOs.
On March 25th 2019, Samantha and Pierre-Yves Lord co-hosted a livestream Q&A with CSA Astronaut David Saint-Jacques, who tuned in live from the International Space Station!
Samantha brought brain samples and her favourite neuroscience facts to the Toronto Kickboxing and Muay Thai Academy to talk to fighters about the neuroscience and psychology behind performance anxiety. No slides, no mic - just a conversation about mental health.... plus a few squishy brains.
Hands-On Workshop on using Social Media for Science at the University of Ottawa.
When planning your event, please implement the following simple considerations to make it accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Please note that upon receiving any event invitation, it is my personal and professional policy to inquire whether the minimum criteria above will be met prior to confirming my attendance or participation. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns about these criteria or if your team requires additional resources or assistance to make their implementation possible. You can learn more about why these elements are a necessary part of any event here.


I just received my Memorial Bracelet and it is great. It fits well and I am so honored to wear it. I ordered a bracelet for Sgt Michael J Kelley from Mass who was killed in Afghanistan June 8,2005. He was under my husband's command while stationed at Otis Air force base in Otis, Ma. I met him when I would drive onto base. Always a pleasant and professional man who loved his country. Sgt Kelley is greatly missed by my family although we only knew him a short time.


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A leading wood manufacturer developed a new flooring underlayment that combined industry-leading strength, superior moisture resistance and installation ease. The challenge was driving conversion away the age-old industry standard that is cheaper, less effective, but widely available.
Defining potential barriers to conversion and identifying strategies to overcome them were important factors in finding potential growth opportunity.
To understand what drives competitive users to choose plywood, define what barriers exist for the engineered wood product, and establish pricing demand thresholds by consumer segments.
Utilizing a multi-phased approach that involved qualitative and quantitative techniques, attribute drivers and deflectors, usage behaviors, performance superiority/inferiority were identified to help develop new positioning statements. A final quantitative phase developed pricing demand curves around the optimized positioning.
Client developed and launched a targeted plywood conversion program across six states resulting in 27% volume growth for their product vs. the 19% volume growth average across the country.


text:
Buffon snubs one Serie A club as Juventus legend looks for next move
Gianluigi Buffon has rejected an offer from Atalanta because he would prefer to move abroad when he leaves Juventus, according to reports.
Buffon recently confirmed that this would be his last season with Juventus. He has been with the club since 2001, except for the 2018-19 season, which he spent with Paris Saint-Germain. Hence, it will be the end of an era when he ends his time in Turin.
At the age of 43, Buffon is yet to confirm if he will retire or keep playing elsewhere. He has still made 13 appearances for Juventus this season as deputy to Wojciech Szczesny. If somewhere can offer him more regular gametime, he may delay hanging up the gloves.
According to Gazzetta Dello Sport, one of the clubs to enquire for Buffon has been Atalanta. However, he has reportedly turned them down.
The reason is because he does not want to play for a team where he could come up against Juventus. Hence, he is more likely to move abroad if he does continue his glittering career.
There could be the option for Buffon to move to the MLS, or the Middle East.
It remains to be seen which option the 2006 World Cup winner will choose – or if he will call time on his career completely.
Buffon to leave Juve happy
One of Buffon's final appearances for Juventus came on Wednesday, when they beat Sassuolo 3-1.
As the emotions begin to sink in, he explained how he still prepares himself to play at this level and said he would leave the club with no hard feelings.
"I was trying to put pressure on myself during the warm-up as I think that's the best way to get into the right frame of mind, especially when there are no fans," he said.
"We have a great team but we haven't been consistent enough and that's why we've dropped points we wouldn't normally expect to along the way. However, in one-off matches we've shown we can give anyone a game.
"When I re-joined Juve I saw it was a test for myself in a new role and I'm happy because I think I've always gone about the job with enthusiasm. I've given everything to Juve and received even more in return. I'll leave a happy man."
The post Buffon snubs one Serie A club as Juventus legend looks for next move appeared first on TEAMtalk.
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Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Tatul Markarian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Araz Azimov, together with the three co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, on 15 May ended three days of talks at Stirin, near Prague, on the Karabakh conflict, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. It was the first such meeting at deputy foreign minister level. An OSCE statement characterized the talks as \"useful,\" and said that the two deputy ministers will report to their respective presidents.


text:
Come By The Hills Music Festival
Mistahiya | August 13 – 15 | 2020
Standard Amenities
Artists & Schedules
2020 Artists & Schedule
Ticket Locations
About Our Venue
Directions To Our Festival
History of Mistahiya Name
Mistahiya Retreat Centre
14 April 2019 Erin Miller
The Northern Pikes
Saturday, August 17th
Four Performers
New at CBTH 2019
The Northern Pikes were formed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in early 1984. Over the next two years the band recorded and released the independent EPs The Northern Pikes (1984) and Scene In North America (1985) with producer and pal Mitch Barnett. Both were recorded and mixed at Studio West located near Pike Lake, SK.
The original lineup was spawned from the ashes of three local groups, "The Idols", "Doris Daye" and "17 Envelope", and consisted of Jay Semko (Vocals, Guitar), Merl Bryck (Vocals, Guitar), Bryan Potvin (Guitars) and Glen Hollingshead (Bass), who left the band in 1985. At this point Jay moved back to playing bass & numerous drummers came and went until June of 1986, when Don Schmid (The Idols) joined to make it a permanent quartet. With the help of friend and local booking agent Robert Hodgins, the band cut its teeth on the prairie bar circuit. The combination of exciting live performances, well-received indie albums and the continuous stream of demos finally caught the ear of Doug Chappell, President of Virgin Records, Canada, and with the help of managers Fraser Hill and Ed Smeall, The Pikes signed to the label on December 18, 1986.
In January of 1987 the band began sessions at Metal Works Studio in Toronto with producers Rick Hutt and Fraser Hill, and finished mixing at McClear Place Studios for what would become its first Virgin release entitled Big Blue Sky. The album hit the streets in June of '87 and featured the hit singles "Teenland", "Things I Do For Money" and "Dancing In A Danceclub" introducing the band to a wider audience and expanding the touring range to all parts of Canada and the USA.
Spring of 1988 saw The Pikes at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY, and later in Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec for the recording and mixing of Secrets of the Alibi. The sophomore album had a more "live off the floor" feel, and the heavy airplay of the singles "Wait For Me", "Hopes Go Astray" and "Let's Pretend" kept the band on the road virtually non-stop across the continent until the summer of '89.
Up to this point, the primary singers and songwriters were Jay and Merl, with the exception of some group compositions and "Hopes Go Astray" written by Bryan. The Pikes third album Snow In June saw the blossoming of Bryan as a singer and writer, most notably for the wildly popular hit single "She Ain't Pretty". In addition the album featured other smash hits, "Girl With A Problem", "Kiss Me You Fool" and "Dream Away", and featured a star-studded cast of additional musicians – Garth Hudson, Crystal Taliefero, John Sebastian and Stan Szelest, as well as mixes by acclaimed engineers Bob Clearmountain and Hugh Padgham. Recording again in Bearsville and mixing at A&M Studios in Los Angeles, The Pikes spent almost six months working on the album, considered by many to be their finest.
After almost two years of touring to support,Snow In June, the band began work on Neptune in July of '92 at A&M Studios in LA with Rob Jaczko as co-producer. Subsequent sessions continued at Metal Works in Toronto and Blue Jay Studio in Boston. From start to finish the album took exactly two months to record, mix and master, the fastest turnaround since their indie days. Released in November, Neptune featured the keyboard work of Ross Nykiforuk, also a native of Saskatoon and an on stage addition for the Snow In June tour. Also featured were two duets with Margo Timmins of Cowboy Junkies, one of which, "Worlds Away", made its way onto an episode of the TV series "Due South". The album featured the singles "Twister", "Believe" and "Everything".
The spring of '93 saw the last tour on the decade for The Pikes, and the fifth and final album Gig, recorded live during concerts in Montreal and Toronto. It featured 13 songs and showcased the raw energy the band always exhibited onstage.
After 10 years of intense road life & non stop traveling, 8 Juno award nominations, 4 Gold records & 1 Platinum record, the band elected to go on an indefinite hiatus, the Pikes played their final concert on July 2, 1993 in Fort Frances, Ontario.
Six long years later… All original members Jay Semko, Bryan Potvin, Don Schmid and Merl Bryck reunited in December 1999 to assemble a greatest hits package for Virgin Records.
That meeting saw the release of a collection of old favorites and buried treasures, entitled Hits & Assorted Secrets. It also led to a hugely successful Canadian tour in early 2000, some of which was recorded and resulted in The Northern Pikes Live, an album's worth of tunes from various shows in Ontario and Quebec. This in turn led to the decision to record a new studio album in Toronto during the fall of 2000. Truest Inspiration was released in 2001, the Pikes first studio album in 8 years. The song "Beautiful Music" from that album became a hit in Japan and The Pikes embarked on a short but intensive tour in the land of the rising sun in late June 2003, including a Canada Day party at the Canadian Embassy. Shortly after the Japanese tour the guys began work on It's A Good Life, released in December 2003.This would sadly be the last project the four original members would record together – Merl would announce his departure from the group a few short years later.
Jay, Bryan & Don, still experiencing the passion and joy of performance have continued touring as a power trio until the present…
The Northern Pikes were inducted into the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, September 30, 2012 in Regina Saskatchewan with the entire band performing at the induction ceremony.
8 Time Juno Award Nominee
4 Gold Records & 1 Double Platinum Record
Inducted into the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 2012 Western Canadian Music Awards
Socan Classic Award 2018 to commemorate 100,000 radio performances for She Ain't Pretty in Canada
6007-52 Avenue, Vermilion, Alberta T9X 1X3
cbthfestival@gmail.com


One thing you can do to keep yourself safe is to have an emergency kit in both your house and your car. Some things to include in your kit are items like a flashlight, batteries, bottled water, packaged food, a blanket, a first aid kit, and safety flares. If you are driving, it will be extremely important to monitor the road conditions and leave plenty of room between the cars around you. This is especially true in times of heavy rain, slow, and/or sleet. You will also have to engage in defensive driving and be aware of what other drivers around you are doing! Although you might be obeying common safety rules, you can't be certain that others around you are taking the same safety precautions.
However, if you have been the victim of another's negligent driving, Attorney Doug Stoehr is a central PA area attorney who takes cases for automobile accident victims. These cases may occur in situations where people have been injured or passed away due to the fault of another person, such as through car/pedestrian, bike, motorcycle, and truck accidents. For more information regarding his practice or to set up an initial consultation, please call his office at 814-946-4100.


text:
Information Design Augsburg
Prof. Michael Stoll + information design students
History of Infographics
Showcase: Student Works
Showcase: Final Theses
Prof. Michael Stoll
Info Design Students
Prof. Michael Stoll studied communication design at the HTWG, University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany, from 1987 to 1991 and graduated with the thesis "A Classification of Infography".
From 1991 to 2005, he was a freelance designer and infographic artist based in Tübingen. His clients included newspaper publishers in southern Germany. He also held courses in infography at the "Journalistenzentrum Haus Busch" journalism centre (Hagen), the IFRA newspaper institute (Darmstadt/Frankfurt) and the Akademie der Bayerischen Presse (Munich).
Since 2005, he has been teaching media theory and infography at the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, where he is head of the study track Information Design in the Department of Design. Key study-related activities he offers on a regular basis include field trips to international conferences and partner universities, lectures by leading practitioners and sector-specific exhibitions at the department. His students have won several awards for work they created in his courses, including two silver awards at the Malofiej Competition, one silver award at the SND Annual Competition and several European Newspaper Awards.
He teaches the course "Visual Storytelling with Soundslides and Flash" on a regular basis at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (Germany) as part of the bachelor programme "Journalism/Digital Media" (Journalismus Darmstadt).
At the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), he regularly teaches the course "Visual Culture: Infography" for the masters programme "Journalism" (AJM).
He serves as the Educational Director (Intl. Affairs) for the SND Society for News Design (USA) and coordinates the academic exchange between participating universities (The Society for News Design).
He is also a member of the International Institute for Information Design IIID (Vienna, Austria) and serves on the editorial board of its Information Design Journal (John Benjamins Publishing Company).
He is also participating in the Adobe Education Leader programme. An Adobe initiated programme, that enables networking and exchange of ideas among the most influencial educators worldwide.
In 2009, he was jury president for the Malofiej-17 infographics competition at the University of Navarra (Pamplona).
Prof. Michael Stoll also collects historic infographics and owns one of biggest collections on the topic. He put together the highlights of his collection for a travelling exhibition called "History of Infographics".
Prof. Michael Stoll is married and father of four kids.
http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~mstoll
mstoll@hs-augsburg.de
Augsburg University of Applied Sciences
Department of Design
Campus am Roten Tor – Friedberger Straße 2 – D-86161 Augsburg
Office K3.05 – Teaching Room M3.09b
skype michaelstoll
twitter mstoll
facebook https://www.facebook.com/prof.michael.stoll
mobile +49.171.4801803
secretary +49.821.5586.3401
direct +49.821.5586.3413
Verleihung des Deutschen Infografik Preis 2014
QVED 2015 Konferenz, München
10 Fakten zur Geschichte der Infografik
Schräg von oben. Und ohne Fluchtpunkt.
Den Traum vom Fliegen lernen
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Look no further for your perfect vacation spot than Utopia. This comfortable oceanside home in Frisco is situated in the peaceful Runboat Circle neighborhood, an easy walk from the beach and miles from the cares of the world.
Enter on the first level, where four comfortable bedrooms await. Two queen bedrooms with TVs, one a master, open onto a spacious shaded deck where you can relax in the refreshing ocean breeze. An additional queen bedroom with TV and a bedroom with two bunk sets share a full bath off the hall. The laundry area completes this level.
Come together in the open and airy living, dining, and kitchen area with breakfast bar and adjacent full bath. Complete with soundbar and DVD player, the living area is an ideal hangout spot for family entertainment. Picnic on the screened porch or soak up some sun from the oceanview sundeck, where you can plan your day's adventures while you watch the sunrise.
Stroll to the nearby beach via the community path at the end of the street and spend your days playing on one of the most popular beaches in the area. Your family will enjoy walking or riding bikes through the residential neighborhood. Public sound access is a short drive away, or you can head to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse for the best view on Hatteras Island. With shopping, dining, and even more family fun all within a few minutes' drive of this comfortable abode, you are never far from excitement and adventure. Find your vacation paradise at Utopia.
Does Utopia induce bed sheets, pillow sheets, wash cloths and bath towels?
This home does not offer a linens package for the 2018 season, so the only thing that is provided are pillows and blankets.
Hi ! I would like to know if dog are allowed?
For the 2019 season, Utopia does not allow pets.
Rent it, it was reasonably priced for four bedrooms. Conveniently located to the beach access. Thank you, we enjoyed our vacation and the weather was great all week.
It's a lovely house on a quiet street and plenty close enough to the beach.


Antigua, the larger of the two main islands, is 108 sq mi (280 sq km). The island dependencies of Redonda (an uninhabited rocky islet) and Barbuda (a coral island formerly known as Dulcina) are 0.5 sq mi (1.30 sq km) and 62 sq mi (161 sq km), respectively.
The island of Antigua was explored by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named for the Church of Santa Maria de la Antigua in Seville. Antigua was colonized by Britain in 1632; Barbuda was first colonized in 1678. Antigua and Barbuda joined the West Indies Federation in 1958. With the breakup of the federation, it became one of the West Indies Associated States in 1967, self-governing its internal affairs. Full independence was granted Nov. 1, 1981.
The Bird family has controlled the islands since Vere C. Bird founded the Antigua Labor Party in the mid-1940s. While tourism and financial services have turned the country into one of the more prosperous in the Caribbean, law enforcement officials have charged that Antigua and Barbuda is a major center of money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms smuggling. Several scandals tainted the Bird family, especially the 1995 conviction of Prime Minister Lester Bird's brother, Ivor, for cocaine smuggling. In 2000, Antigua and 35 other offshore banking centers agreed to reforms to prevent money laundering.
In March 2004, the Bird political dynasty came to an end when labor activist Baldwin Spencer defeated Lester Bird, who had been prime minister since 1994. In 2005, income tax, which had been eliminated in 1975, was reintroduced to help alleviate Antigua's deficit.
On July 17, 2007, Louise Lake-Tack became the first woman governor-general of Antigua and Barbuda. In June 2014, Gaston Browne led the Antigua Labour Party to victory in the general election. It was a return to power for the Antigua Labour Party after ten years as the opposition. The party won 14 of 17 seats. Brown was sworn in as prime minister on June 13. Governor-General Dame Louise Lake-Tack left office in August 2014. Antigua Labour Party member Rodney Williams replaced her.
See also Encyclopedia: Antigua and Barbuda .


Mario Mariniello joined Bruegel in October 2012. From 2007 to 2012, Mario was a member of the Chief Economist Team at DG-Competition, European Commission. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Organization from the European University Institute of Fiesole (Florence) and a M.Sc. in Economics from CORIPE (Turin).
During the time he spent at the European Commission, he developed the economic analysis of a number of topical Antitrust and Merger cases such as Qualcomm, oneworld and Star alliances, ebooks, KLM/Martinair, Newscorp/BSkyB, UPM/Myllykoski. He also participated to the drafting of the new European Guidelines for the application of Art.101 TFEU to Horizontal Cooperation Agreements.
Mario's work at Bruegel focuses on European competition policy and regulation issues. His columns and policy works are published or quoted in leading international media, such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, La Tribune, Project Syndicate, Vox, Les Echos, De Standaard and others.


Green is the most popular term applied to the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, it's probably the most overused as well. At UniMac, green isn't just a buzzword; we've been focused on water, energy and labor efficiency long before green became vogue.
Our commitment to building the most efficient laundry equipment on the market is evident in our status as the market share leader. You'll find our UniMac commercial washer-extractors, drying tumblers and flatwork ironers in the laundries of some of the biggest names in the hospitality industry. But you'll also find these same machines in properties that have ranked green with as high a priority as guest satisfaction.
UniMac will never make outlandish boasts about the savings you'll receive by installing our equipment. That's why when we put our "conserve, save green" logo on our laundry machines, it means something.
Best of all, choosing to work with one of UniMac's highly trained, authorized distributors brings a wealth of expertise to your laundry. Our partners don't focus on pushing equipment; they're committed to providing a total laundry solution. They understand that running an efficient laundry is the result of a partnership of all parties as well as a review of the utilities and systems supporting the operation.
UniMac is proud to be a founding sponsor of Green Lodging News. We look forward to helping properties experience the savings our laundry equipment can provide. But more important, we're excited to work together with you to preserve the Earth's precious resources and lower our impact on the environment.
For more information on UniMac's industry-leading products and services, call (800) 587-5458.


text:
La temporada del 2019 de pilota valenciana incorporà canvis notables en l'àmbit professional: les lligues d'escala i de raspall es desdoblaren en sengles categories segons el rendiment dels figures, els quals a més reduïren la seua participació en les partides del dia per a concentrar-se en les competicions oficials; a més, la disputa de les copes Diputació s'ajornà a l'octubre i la dels trofeus individuals tornà a jugar-se abans de l'estiu, durant el qual l'activitat dels pilotaris professionals es rebaixà al mínim, la qual cosa facilità que pogueren descansar més o agarrar-se vacances.
A l'abril s'estrenà un nou campionat mixt, el Trofeu Fundació, que substituí als patrocinats Savipecho, Mas y Mas i la Fundació José Luis López, amb la incorporació de Baleària.

 1 de gener: el portal PilotaViu deixà d'actualitzar-se.
 9 de març: morí Ferrer II, escalater professional i trinqueter d'Alzira.
 22 d'agost: el trinquet d'Alginet obrí de manera excepcional per al trofeu de festes.
 18 de setembre: la Federació atorgà els seus guardons a Moltó, Seve, Félix, De la Vega, Victòria, Montesa i À Punt, entre més.
 9 d'octubre: Malonda II rebé una medalla al mèrit esportiu i Genovés I la Distinció de la Generalitat Valenciana.

Campionats i trofeus

Referències

Pilota Valenciana
2019

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


5 minutes away there is the old Balinese Aga-Village of TENGANAN. Sometimes it is a little big touristic, but a must see! When you walk through the village and reach the jungle it is manifestation. from eveywhere people coming along small tracks which we never would see.The nature is not to discribe. If there is a ceremony - gratulations! Please ask for these dates.
25 minutes away, near Amlapura, capital of our province Karangasem, is the new renovated Water-Palace of the last King. even a must.
A very special daytrip is the drive via the old road from Amlapura to Amed. Untouched Bali! No tourism, dry, poor, but always happy people on the road. The people there are living like in the middle- age. On 1000 people there are one TV and three radios. Here the way is the goal. When you have reached Amed you find some Hotels, especially for scuba divers with their PADI and CMAS stations. After swimming and snorkeling you go back another way: Via the most beautiful rice-terraces (located here and not at Ubud!) to "Tirta Ganga" the last kings fresh-water swimming pools. You are back in the late afternoon, sit down at our Pavillon, having a fresh fruit juice, later a Lobster, Snapper or Steak in our Restaurant directly on the beach. Cold beer and some longdrinks..... what do we need more?


Homespun Stitchworks..... For the love of vintage: Hello!.... did you miss me?
Sorry I have been absent without leave! I am afraid I have been rather poorly! The dreadful cough that I have and cold caught up with me rather!!
I have not finished my wall hanging or even started my nursery picture!! I will have to set to this week. It is a short week as it is Easter weekend coming up. As I have been unwell I am taking the long weekend off.
BUT on Saturday 19th April I am going to the Vintage Bazaar in Frome to see what goodies in the fabric department might be there! I will report to you about the fair on the Tuesday. It promises to be good as it says there are 40 stalls of vintage textiles and other goodies...... sound promising. It starts at 9am.
Also that weekend on Easter Monday (21st April) in the Portscatho Memorial Hall there is the Homespun fair and vintage treasures. homespunfair.blogspot.com has the details for you to look at if you are near.
I have to get myself sorted this week and try and deal with this terrible cough that I have, although tired I feel better that I did. People who know me will say it takes alot to stop me in my tracks!!!
I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy whatever stitching you are doing, let me know what you are up too, I would love to hear.
Happy Stitching!..... it's good to be back!


text:
IDEA StatiCa partners with Hilti to advance anchor design technology
Steel-to-concrete
Hilti Group and IDEA StatiCa have entered into a software development agreement focusing on a component-based, finite element method (CBFEM) for anchoring/footing topologies to help improve workflow efficiency.
Hilti and IDEA StatiCa have entered into an agreement to further improve the speed and accuracy of steel-to-concrete connection analysis for structural engineers. With this development, Hilti and IDEA StatiCa strengthen seamless workflows and increase productivity and safety in construction projects.
The new software solutions will support structural engineers with advanced base plate design, weld, and stiffener design and finite element analysis.
Oliver Glockner, Head of Application Software Product Management at Hilti said, "We see that connections and anchoring, as well as workflows, are getting more and more complex. We support structural engineers with the latest analysis technology to further help them improve their speed, accuracy, and processes."
New solution launched
To solve today's/future challenges, a fundamentally new approach to steel-to-concrete connection analysis was needed. With Hilti's knowledge in anchors and concrete and 10+ years of construction software experience combined with IDEA StatiCa's knowledge in steel design and FEM, a unique solution for these problems has been developed.
The new approach is based on a robust finite-element solver with accurate material models as well as a unique description of the anchor behavior to allow a realistic design of the full connection. In addition, the two companies have been working together to solve challenges in the current design process such as multiple, manual data transfers; design assumptions that don't fit together, such as rigid and non-rigid baseplate; and improving the management efficiency of changes across the workflow.
Early involvement and feedback of customers supported the improvements:
Marianne Johannsson, Structural Engineering Manager at Balco Group, said "Design of a plate (full connection including anchors, stiffeners, base plate, etc.) might take up to 4 hours plus 2 hours to create the report. PROFIS Engineering Suite could save us up to 50% of the time. We've been waiting for this!"
Per Jørstad, Structural Engineer at Sweco, said, "We can save up to 50% in time spent - from 2-6 hours to 1-2 hours - by doing all checks with one piece of software."
"We believe that the new component-based finite element method (CBFEM) is the right approach to break the limits of anchoring/footing topologies while keeping safety first. We put the CBFEM into the core of our product, IDEA StatiCa Connection, and Hilti has integrated it in their new PROFIS Engineering Suite", said Lubomir Šabatka, CEO at IDEA StatiCa.
Hilti Group
Matthias Hassler, Spokesperson
+423 234 4949 / e-mail: media@hilti.com
Juraj Sabatka, CSO&CFO
+420 725 078 287/ e-mail: juraj.sabatka@ideastatica.com
About Hilti Group
The Hilti Group supplies the worldwide construction industry with technologically leading products, systems, software and services that provide construction professionals with innovative solutions and superior added value. The Group employs more than 28,000 team members in over 120 countries who passionately create enthusiastic customers and build a better future. Hilti generated annual sales of CHF 5.6 billion in 2018. Hilti's corporate culture is based on integrity, teamwork, commitment and the courage to embrace change. The headquarters of the Hilti Group is in Schaan, Liechtenstein.
Website: www.hilti.group
About IDEA StatiCa
IDEA StatiCa develops software for structural engineers, fabricators, consultants and all others who perform or use structural analysis. Our development team researches tests and applies new methods of analyzing the behavior of structures and their members. Based on this, we create IDEA StatiCa – software that enables engineers in more than 70 countries to work faster, evaluate requirements of the national code thoroughly and use the optimal amount of material. For us, creating software is a way to contribute to making every new construction around the world safer and cheaper. The headquarters of the IDEA StatiCa is in Brno, Czech Republic.
Website: www.ideastatica.com


text:
Q: What is the difference between delegate and event in C#?
Possible Duplicate:
What is the difference between a delegate and events?

This question I got at an interview and I still don't know what the answer should be.
I would appreciate any thoughts!

A: A delegate is similar to a function pointer in C/C++. It holds a reference to a method and to an object instance (if the method is non-static). Delegates are usually multicast, i.e. they hold references to several object/method pairs.
An event is a notification mechanism, based on delegates. The only thing it exposes publicly is a pair of methods (add/remove) to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the notification. A delegate type is used to define the signature of the handler methods, and the list of subscribers are (usually) stored internally as a delegate.

A: I readily admit that this reply doesn't compare the difference between delegates and events. However, I think with the replies that others have given for Events along with a bit more detailed explanation on delegates, you will see the difference between the two.
More specifically, once you have a clearer understanding of delegates, I think you will gain a conceptual difference between delegates and events.
What has helped me in understanding what a delegate is, is thinking of them as nothing more than a container for a single method.
To conceptualize how a delegate is a 'container' of a method, review this example that makes use of a delegate to invoke three different methods - Note that although the same delegate instance is used to invoke three different methods, the delegate instance will only contain (or target) one method at any given time.
class Program
{
    delegate void MyDelegate();

    static void Main()
    {
        //Notice how we use the same delegate instance
        //to target different methods of the same signature

        MyDelegate myDelegate = new MyDelegate(MethodA);
        myDelegate(); //Invoke the method
        myDelegate = MethodB;
        myDelegate();
        myDelegate = MyClass.MethodZ;
        myDelegate();

        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static void MethodA()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Method 'A' is doing work.");
    }

    static void MethodB()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Method 'B' is doing work.");
    }

    class MyClass
    {
        public static void MethodZ()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Method 'Z' of MyClass is doing work");
        }
    }
}

You'll notice that the delegate in the example can contain/target any method that has the same signature as the delegate (returns void and takes zero parameters in our example). If you pause here and digest that principle, you're off to a good start at understanding delegates.
With that being said, what confused me about delegates is when I would ever explicitly implement delegates in my code. The example program above explicitly makes use of a delegate, but there is no practical reason to do so since the Main() method could just as well have called the target methods directly - i.e. we could have just done...
static void Main()
{
    MethodA();
    MethodB();
    MyClass.MethodZ();

    Console.ReadLine();
}

So what is an example of when we would implement a delegate explicitly? Jon Skeet helped me with answering that question when he said

...you can think of a delegate type as
  being a bit like an interface with a
  single method.

Knowing that a delegate is a container for a method and, now, considering that a delegate is like an Interface with a single method, consider this:
Say we have a program that will start the engines of different types of vehicles - Car, Motorcyle, and Airplane.
Our program will consist of vehicle classes - one class for each vehicle type. Each vehicle class is responsible for starting its own engine. In addition, similar to implementing an Interface, each class will make sure that its method that starts its own engine, will have a specified signature that all other classes (and the Main) agree upon.
So we have something like this:
class VehicleProgram
{
    //All vehicle classes implement their own engine starter method that has this signature
    delegate void StartEngine();
    static void Main()
    {
        //The Main doesn't know the details of starting an engine.
        //It delegates the responsibility to the concrete vehicle class
        foreach (StartEngine starter in GetVehicleStarters())
        {
            starter(); //Invoke the method
        }

        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static List<StartEngine> GetVehicleStarters()
    {
        //Create a list of delegates that target the engine starter methods
        List<StartEngine> starters = new List<StartEngine>();

        starters.Add(Car.StartCar);
        starters.Add(Motorcycle.StartMotorcycle);
        starters.Add(Airplane.StartAirplane);

        return (starters);
    }

    class Car
    {
        public static void StartCar()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The car is starting.");
        }
    }

    class Motorcycle
    {
        public static void StartMotorcycle()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The motorcycle is starting.");
        }
    }

    class Airplane
    {
        public static void StartAirplane()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("The airplane is starting.");
        }
    }
}

Since delegates hold methods, we were able to implement a design where the Main() simply gets a list of delegates then invokes the method. This design is very similar to how we implement Interfaces.
Read more on When to Use Delegates Instead of Interfaces

A: I have an article on pretty much exactly
In brief, you can think of an event as being a bit like a property - but instead of having get/set operations, it has add/remove. The value being added/removed is always a delegate reference.
Delegates themselves support operations of:

*

*Combine (chain multiple delegate instances together)

*Remove (split them up again)

*Invoke (synchronous or asynchronous)

*Various things to do with finding out the target, invocation list etc

Note that delegates themselves are immutable, so combine/remove operations return a new delegate instance rather than modifying the existing ones.

A: The other answers so far are all quite good. Here's another way to think about it.
What's the semantic difference between a property and a field?  I don't mean what are the technical differences, like a property is actually a pair of methods, blah blah blah. I mean, as far as understanding the meaning of a program goes, what is the difference?
A property is usually a public member of a class, and it represents a property of the thing being modelled. That is, you want to make a model of a newspaper so you make a class Newspaper and you give it a property Publisher. The publisher is a property of newspapers, so Publisher is a property of the Newspaper class.
A field is usually an implementation detail of a class. Maybe the Publisher property is actually implemented as a field.  But newspapers do not have "fields", so you don't expose the publisher field as a public member of the Newspaper class; you use it as a private implementation detail of the Publisher property.
Events and delegates are somewhat analogous. An event is something in the model. A button is a thing that can inform you when it is clicked, so the Button class has a "Click" event. The delegate that actually does the informing is the implementation detail of the event.

A: Basically, a delegate is just a wrapper around what would be a function pointer in C (or a list of function pointers).
An event is an even higher level abstraction that wraps the concept of a delegate together with methods to subscribe and unsubscribe a method to such delegates.
An event is a "property" that exposes an add and remove method (invoked via += and -= in code) to add/remove subscribers to a delegate list.

A: Here's a really good article on it.
http://www.akadia.com/services/dotnet_delegates_and_events.html
Basically, events provide for a tightly coupled publish subscribe paradigm, while delegates provide for a much more loosely coupled design.
Events are easier and more straightforward to use, though.

A: Delegates are nothing but a function pointer, where in the function gets called asynchronously But Events are nothing but notification. For example clicking button is an event, so for that you need subscribe for the click event of a button etc..

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Organically Grown Mini-Shared Services: Is It Time to Evolve from Workable to Optimal?
What Will You Say No to in 2019?


text:
Sponsored by TGA Mobility, Dr Warren Survives Extreme Weather to Cycle Length of Britain in 11 Days for Event Mobility Charity
Through intense heat and torrential storms, Dr Mark Warren, aged 50 from Bredon near Tewkesbury, has raised over £2,000 by cycling 1173 miles for Event Mobility, a charity based locally to him in Pershore that loans TGA mobility scooters at nationwide events.
Event Mobility is a registered national charity which provides access to shows and events for disabled, elderly and mobility impaired people through the short-term loan of electric scooters and manual wheelchairs. With the availability of TGA mobility scooters, county shows and events such as Blenheim Horse Trials, The British Grand Prix and Glastonbury are more accessible to people with walking difficulties. TGA is a long-standing partner of Event Mobility and works closely with this charity to ensure a comprehensive range of scooters is available and suitable for a range of mobility needs.
Mark completed this epic challenge within his 11-day target arriving in John O'Groats at 5:30pm on 3rd August 2019. He cycled the length of Britain using the National Cycle Network maintained by the charity Sustrans. Departing Land's End at 8am on 24th July, Mark cycled through Churchtown, Dulverton, Berkeley, Bridgnorth, Bury, Kings Meaburn, Abington, Strathyre, Aviemore, Lairg and concluding at John O'Groats.
He was supported by his family in a campervan and friends who rode with him at various stages whilst ensuring he had support at the end of each day. Mark had to endure huge extremes in weather during his challenge which included riding on the hottest day of the year in Cornwall through to intense rain and flooding in the north. He managed to battle against being 'totally chilled through' with loss of sensation in his hands and feet and the cumulative fatigue of riding over 100 miles per day back-to-back.
As he reached the famous signpost at John O'Groats, Mark was totally elated as he explains: "I can't believe I have pedalled the whole length of Britain, it is going to take a while to sink in. I am tired, relieved but also ecstatic. My experience has been truly amazing and I'm sure the funds I have raised will help Event Mobility expand their services – their provision of TGA mobility scooters at events is so vital. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, especially my family, friends and TGA Mobility, without their assistance I would never had made it."
Mark continues: "There have been so many highs and lows on the way – highs have been the unbelievable views I have encountered and reaching Scotland was a significant milestone. The north coast of Scotland is absolutely breathtaking. This really lifted me when I was so tired. Lows were the weather especially in England as it was so changeable, thank goodness when I reached Scotland the temperatures were more manageable. Climbing over Exmoor was brutally hot whereas the thunderstorms around Manchester totally drenched me. Several times I had to ride on roads that had turned to rivers with so many dangerous potholes full of water, you really had to have your wits about you. I had to deal with punctures and wheel changes and all the clouds of midges in Scotland that descend when you stop, add to this all the horsefly bites. Nevertheless, the experience has been so rewarding, I have met so many wonderful people of different nationalities and other individuals tackling their own end-to-end challenges. I will never forget these 11 days, so rewarding, both for myself and my chosen charity Event Mobility."
Donations towards Mark's challenge can still be placed at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/event-mobility/landsendcycle2018