text:
Spelpappan.se is a Swedish blog about computer games, roleplaying games, board games, Star Wars, and other retro stuff from my youth.
Most articles are in Swedish, but once in a while I translate them into English when I feel there is a broader interest for that particular subject. Feel free to contact me if you have more information on any subject I write about.
Ever heard the original recording of the Archon theme?
15 januari, 2014 av: Jimmy Wilhelmsson
In december 2013, I wrote about the music of Archon: The Light And The Dark (1983) by FreeFall Associates. It's made by Tommy V. Dunbar and the article resulted in a discussion about what Dunbar does today – and if the same Dunbar co-founded American pop band, The Rubinoos.
To answer these questions, I contacted Dunbar himself – and ended up with the original recording of the Archon theme(!) – enjoy!
I admit, I had never heard of The Rubinoos before, but apparently the've released 8 albums since 1977 and gained some fame with songs like "I Think We're Alone Now" (which was a cover) and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". They also did the theme song for the movie Revenge of the Nerds in 1984, a movie I actually remember quite vividly.
Tommy Dunbar himself co-founded The Rubinoos in 1970 together with Jon Rubin for a school dance at Bay High School in Berkeley, California. A few years after that, he was contacted by Paul Reiche III from FreeFall Associates, whose sister Dunbar had dated for some time.
This is how a computer classic came to be.
I knew Paul Reiche through his sister; I remember getting a call from Paul asking me if I wanted to write a piece of music for a game he was working on. I think he just said it should be sort of "action" music. I wrote the song on guitar and made a recording. Of course this was before the days of the internet, so I think I played it for him over the phone and sent him a cassette, along with the sheet music.
When I look at other scores you've done for computer games, I see Star Control 1 and 2 among others – which also involve Paul Reiche. Did you and Paul often work together?
I'm not sure if anything I did actually wound up on Star Control. I wrote a bunch of music for a game that Paul was working on called, Elmo ("The Adventures of Elmo in the 4th Dimension"). Paul lent me a computer, I think it was an Apple IIe or something. I had to program every note in as a frequency, an attack, a duration, and a few other parameters. It was kind of crazy.
It had only one voice to work with, but it could jump between 2 notes so quickly that it sounded like you were getting 2 notes; you set the second note by choosing a harmonic, so it would jump between the main note and its harmonic.
The only thing was, the higher you got in the harmonic overtone series, the more out of tune it was – and the tone was quite similar to a push button phone… It was a fun challenge, though.
Ancient technology.
What are you doing these days?
I'm living in Sacramento, California. I've got a home studio where I write and record music, pretty much full time. I do a lot of advertising work, as well as recording tracks for songwriters, as well as my own music.
I'm lucky that I can do my dream job for a living!
Did you write the music directly into an Atari or did you compose it on paper with notes? Do you still have any fun material left from that time?
I just composed it on guitar and recorded it, then put it down on paper, I believe – for whoever had to program it in.
I've been trying to find a more modern version of Archon on the web, but can't seem to find any. Do you know any, or have you even recorded one?
Ha! Okay, you just made me go looking through the tape vault. I found something that I believe is the only thing I could find recorded. I think this would have been recorded on a Teac 4 track in 1983 or so. This reminds me that Paul had a follow-up game to Archon, called Adept, that I also did the music for. It was supposed to be like the music for Archon, only inside out. Like instead of chromatic runs descending, you've got chromatic runs ascending.
Both Archon and Adept had something to do with Dark and Light, so the music is alternating between Major and Minor. On this recording, the first half is the music from Archon and the second half is music from Adept.
All to the sounds of a very cheesy drum machine, probably an Oberheim DX! Early days of midi!
Ok, this is great stuff! So finally…do you still have the music sheet for Archon in your possession?
And who owns the copyright to this music today?
I looked through some of my old papers and didn't find a copy of the Archon music, but I did find this Adept (Son of Archon), so here's a scan. It's so ancient looking; of course these days if I was sending that to someone I'd do it in Finale or Sibelius notation programs. This was even before Notator, if anyone remembers that program (it later became Notator Logic, which became the current program Logic).
I still own the copyright to the underlying musical composition to the music. Whoever owns the game would own their sound recording of it, in other words the actual sounds that come out of the game.
Thanks for the memory jog!
So…without further ado I present the original recording of the theme songs from Archon: The Light And The Dark and Archon II: Adept – both written and recorded by Tommy V. Dunbar.
No part of this recording may be used without his explicit consent.
And of course I cannot avoid presenting the finished result in the C64 version of the two games. Enjoy!
May we present RPV – a never-released game about drones from FTL Games
The full story of the World Cup versions of Microprose Soccer
This is how the cover art of Pirates! (1987) was made
Spelpappan presents the world's first Archon Board Game
Vill du stötta Spelpappan?
jimmy@spelpappan.se
patreon.com/spelpappan
Spelpappan ("gaming dad" in Swedish) is a Swedish retro blog run by Jimmy Wilhelmsson with experience in Commodore, computer games and role playing since the mid-eighties.
For other articles in English click here.
Kategori: Spel & Data
Etiketter: archon, checked, english, Tommy V. Dunbar
11 kommentarer till "Ever heard the original recording of the Archon theme?"
Fabio skriver:
Espectacular!!!!!
Jimmy Wilhelmsson skriver:
Anders Carlsson skriver:
As a hobbyist musician myself, I immediately notice that whoever entered in the notes for Adept, "corrected" Mr. Dunbar's score, see bars 3 and 5 where he explicitely ends on a natural E in the key of E flat, which is out of key and may sound like an error. The SID version fixes this by going from E back down to an E flat again, twice even! I just checked Atari POKEY version on YouTube, and it does the same thing.
Of course it might be the composer who was asked whether this was intended, and after making the recording and printing the sheet music agreed that it would sound better to end the note in key. Perhaps Mr. Dunbar will be pointed here to read your blog entry, or if you have reason to follow up privately.
On another note, I noticed it says both songs were created and recorded simultanously. I admit not having looked up the true story behind Archon, but it sounds like Paul Reiche III and the rest of Free Fall Associates were working or at least planning both games before the first even had been released. I always thought Adept was a true sequel, more or less ordered from Electronic Arts when they saw how well Archon was received and sold. Of course they may have had both games in planning and Tommy Dunbar made two songs for them at once, no matter if the second would get used or not.
I know there is a teenage kids' hack for the C64 called "Archon III – Exciter" that is completely fake – someon on Lemon64 even stepped forward and confessed. However a lot of other cultural items tend to origin around trilogies, perhaps it has something to do with Christianity and the Holy Trinity? (*) However I seem to recall to have read somewhere (here?) that Free Fall Associates never even considered a third part in the series, so perhaps they were not into the trilogy thing.
(*) Oops, I almost wrote holy threesome :-P
hehe :)
Yes, you're correct – the both songs were recorded simultaneously. I doubt that Tommy Dunbar knew anything about the details of the two games when he wrote the music – but he clearly made the two compositions at once.
I don't think the two songs were programmed by the same person, though – or at least some time passed between them. The sounds and the style is quite different, even though they originated from the same recording.
I guess that makes some additional questions for someone else… :)
Ok I've talked some more with Tommy Dunbar now; he cleared up a few things:
"I think this is the first time I've heard the actual music from the Adept game. It is definitely programmed in wrong! I would suspect that the programmer didn't understand that the tie on the E natural means that it carries over?"
So…he actually never played Adept. Never even saw it :)
"The two pieces of music were not written at the same time. Archon came first, and Adept was a sequel. I think I recorded the two together at the time that Paul asked me to come up with something for Adept."
So…this might not be the *original* recording for Archon – but probably the only one that has survived. It is however the original recording of Adept and shows the two themes and how they are supposed to work together. So, it's of course still unique.
I believe a sequel was in fact on FreeFall's mind when they released Archon, yes. I guess it's hard for most people involved to remember correctly, but it seems that way. The two games were also released very close to each other – and the C64 version was by far the most successful.
Great, thanks for the clarification! It means us chipmusic snobs have one more bit of trivia to gloat about, that the music heard in the game is not according to the composer's intentions. A bit like correcting someone ordering a Dry Martini that it should really be Dry Martinique (see Swedish movie Yrrol if you didn't catch the reference)…
Mindrax skriver:
Tänkte faktiskt testa spelet igen nu när jag börjat förstå lite av reglerna.
C64an är ju redan uppriggad så varför inte testa spelet då.
Dags att lira!!!
Merman skriver:
A fascinating story, from when EA stood for Electronic Artists and they cared about the people who made the games…
E-post (kommer inte att visas) (obligatoriskt)
Webbsajt
Checked by Mentioned People
This entry has been found and read by the people mentioned in it, which is pretty cool. Confirmed by tweets, blogs or directly.
Want to read more interesting articles from Spelpappan in English?


After having tested around 81 new vehicles introduced to the Philippine market from October 2011 to October 2012, the Car Awards Group Inc. (CAGI) declared the Mitsubishi Mirage the 2012-2013 Car of the Year-Philippines at an awards ceremony held tonight at the 2013 Manila International Auto Show.
CAGI is composed of several members of the Philippine motoring press, including a few from Top Gear Philippines. Our technical editor, Ferman Lao, is the group's current president.
The Mazda BT-50, meanwhile, was named 2012-2013 Truck of the Year, a new award the group handed out this year. Trucks now have a separate category because, as TopGear.com.ph writer Niky Tamayo explains, "trucks will never win COTY." However, only pickups were included in this category this year. SUVs might be thrown in starting next year, according to Tamayo.
UPDATE: We have just been informed by CAGI president Ferman Lao that the Subcompact Hybrid category was scrapped at the last minute because there was only one qualified entry--the Toyota Prius C--in this segment.


UK hard landscaping product provider, Marshalls, approached Brammer, supplier of manufacturing, repair and overhaul products and services, to conduct a full air leak audit at its manufacturing facilities. Brammer has now completed nine surveys at Marshalls sites to date.
Brammer's audit involved using specialist equipment to detect all air leaks, identifying each leak with a number, photographing the leaking units, and specifying the appropriate parts for repair in order to make it easier for the completion of remedial work. On completion of this stage of the process, Brammer's engineering team worked on site to address any issues likely to hamper the remedial work and initiated alternative plans to eradicate such problems before the 'fix'.
Nigel Cork of Brammer believes a compressed air audit has the capability to provide immediate energy savings which could be as high as 30 per cent. When the potential to reduce operating costs by 50 per cent is also taken into consideration, the overall impact on the bottom line is sizable.
Following Brammer's audit at Marshalls and the completion of the remedial work, Brammer is now working closely with Marshalls to lower the pressure at the compressors and to install line-side monitoring equipment so that any future leakages can be identified as soon as they occur. This enables remedial work to be factored in to either a planned maintenance programme, or undertaken as part of an unscheduled outage.


This page will give you information about one of the Chicago's areas, Broadway. At your hand is a map which will provide you with most visited locations, transportation stops and further information about Broadway.
You can view data concerning safety in Broadway, i.e. crime rate, locations of police departments and fire stations. Map also provides information about leisure centers, private or public schools and even dog walking parks. You can also leave a comment about Broadway if you have been living here for a long time and have more information about it.


"The Tethered World of Charles Grogg"
"The World of Charles Grogg"
These landscapes are the result of film that has been exposed to static, then photographed and printed. In this series I continue to play with the idea that our landscapes are internal even when they are external to us. We make up most of what we see. Our vision is mysterious and extraordinary in its capacity to insist that there is always something there.
When traveling through the Southwest, the land can appear simply empty when viewed from a speeding car or glanced at and forgotten on a flyover. Inhospitable. Uninhabitable even. This is of course not the case. The land is full of life, of references to former cultures, of the footprints and artifacts of humanity as fascinating as anything at Lascaux, and of the wonder of life in a landscape carved out by the will to survive. The images here are produced with water based inks in conjunction with photographic materials and some photographic processes, and then photographed and printed.
These images are made from expired Polaroid film without exposure by a variety of processing techniques. Prints are approximately 24 x 30" archival pigment prints on fiber paper and printed in an edition of 9.
Michel Foucault, a French historian whose writings were philosophical, regarded the term "episteme" as indicating a basis for all possible knowledge and discourses for a particular era. Vilem Flusser, in his Toward A Philosophy of Photography defined the episteme of the camera as an "apparatus," something through which possibilities are programmed, predicted, limited and thoroughly redundant. My use of the term episteme for this series is an attempt to define the realm of possibilities and dictates of the usually invisible or underplayed stratum of film. The Polaroid film, in itself, lends a tremendous amount to our understanding of objects we recognize. Because these prints result from film that was never exposed, they are representations of the capacities of the film rather than any outward objects.
"The sea was not a mask. No more was she.
But it was she and not the sea we heard."
"The Medium is the Massage"
Polaroid began making film to introduce its special polymer in 1937 and continued production until 2008. There is a surprising amount of film still in circulation, most of it, even if stored correctly (refrigerated at optimal humidity) most likely useless for its designed purpose. The convoluted production of the film, which required astounding waste and alkalinity, made something beautiful in itself.
I began to explore Polaroid film in its "muted" form; that is, not representative of any dimensional object but of itself only. The works in this series involve disassembling Polaroid pack film, painting oil and alkyd onto Polaroid 664 film substrate, and then "processing" the film against the Polaroid paper or onto aluminum foil. I have photographed the results in order to enlarge the images to reveal the richness of the artifacts that result partly from the process, partly from the crazy beauty of Polaroid.
Nine images, each approx. 16x20 in., total dimension approx 52x64 in.
Nine images, each approx. 16x20 in., total dimension approx. 43 x 66 in. mounted on gessoed panel.
Four images, each approx. 16x20 in., total dimension approx 33 x 44 in.
"How many times, in my garden, I have experienced the disappointment of discovering a nest too late. Autumn was there, the leaves had already begun to fall and in the fork of two branches there was an abandoned nest. To think that they had all been there: the father bird, the mother bird and all the nestlings. And I had not seen them!"
"Her drama was a drama not of heaviness but of lightness. What fell to her lot was not the burden but the unbearable lightness of being."
"The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting."
"What I prefer, about post cards, is that one does not know what is in front or what is in back, here or there, near or far, the Plato or the Socrates, the recto or verso. Nor what is the most important, the picture or the text, and in the text, the message or the caption, or the address. Here, in my post card apocalypse..."
"Have you listened in at God's keyhole / and crept away with his plans? / What do you know that we don't? / What have you seen that we haven't?"
Connections are made, not ready-made.
What is it that brings us together, and keeps us apart? What is it that holds us in our frame, suspended? What art?
David Koehn "The Aquarium at the Potluck"
Painted lips have an ancient history, a practice along the centuries for both men and women. To appear healthy and vibrant is a wish somehow parallel with and yet somehow beyond the phenomenon of good health. And somehow detached. My 10-year-old son Lucas painted these leaves with me for the project.
Drawings made with red and purple cotton thread and shadow. Because the drawings depend on the momentary, long shadows created by the setting sun, the drawings do not exist as anything but photographs.
These images are physical manipulations of a 1955 Brownie Camera photograph. The original photograph is not sharp, not perfectly framed, obviously a tourist's snapshot, and beautiful for its lack of self-consciousness. There is no art in the original but the urge to plead with temporality: this is here, now, and the photographer will not be in this spot or in this moment for long. A picture does not bring us back to a place but refuses what we try to pile onto that split-second moment. Like the symbolism of the images' purported subject, there is no end to failing to get it right.
"The work makes public something other than itself; it manifests something other..."
"All is strife; everything turns into its opposite"
I used an iPhone to make images of crema—the rich foam that forms on my morning espresso—in the summer morning light. These relatively uninteresting experiments in isolating the patterns in the foam as it dissipates became much more interesting in the process of making negatives of the images for platinum printing.
The immediate and physically simple transition from positive to negative colors rendered haunting possibilities—the universe unfolding like cells on a slide, or impossible planets brimming with the promise of sustainable life. In my art practice, I am most interested in the fundamental rejection of the apparent by photographs, in the idea that pictures hold their meaning in abeyance, the way the unconscious— to a trained and curious mind—is clearly visible in our actions but otherwise elusive. In this sense, even the apparent accidental arrival at meaning in the pictures seems destined, as if I had been after these images without understanding them.
Though I made slight adjustments to the digital images as I would have analog images in a darkroom, I left them almost entirely without affect. The blue in these images, for example, is the natural negative of the beige/brown color of the crema, though brown coffee has nothing to do with these pictures. They come instead from processes, not from things.
I take the title of this portfolio, "After Ascension and Descent," from a phrase by Pierre Joris in A Nomad Poetics in which he calls for an approach to writing that accounts for what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari refer to as "rhizomatic," allowing for varieties of discourse, idioms, syntax, even languages.
I gave the work this title because I am at a loss when it comes to speaking of knowing one's roots. My family, with its adopted members, silence about its past, reverence for the absolute at the expense of the profane, has taught me to speak one language only. To be monolingual is to be foreshortened, and like so many Americans I know I speak a provincial, not a global, language. The advent of "wireless" living does nothing to allay this. If anything, we are almost hopelessly tethered—to each other, to the world. It's when we forget this, when we think we are free beyond complicity, that we encounter trouble looking for meaning.
Thinking in these terms has resulted in these images, an expression of desire for growth at the moment of inhibition, when hesitation is the gap between desiring and having.
Burned inkjet print over platinum/palladium print.
My aim here was to expose each piece of the Reconstructions one at a time when I printed them so that the image would no longer seem quite as continuous. The lack of wholeness is unsettling on some level and yet satisfying. Because my aim was not to destroy anything, I tried out ways to put the picture, the landscape, and the world back together using push pins, darts, tape, staples, glue and also thread. I liked the feel and the motion of the needle piercing the image surface, so I settled on sewing with cotton thread. It's a game in some ways, an approximation of how I would guess my own consciousness works to make a complete picture of an object. To most of us, the world is not whole. It's broken, and we each put it together as we need it to be for us. I want for viewers of the pictures to get something that came to me as I produced these artifacts, a recapitulation of my process of making a picture.
All the Reconstructions are printed on handmade Japanese Gampi, produced by the late Masao Seki. I handcoated the paper with platinum and palladium and exposed the images, in individual pieces, separately in the sun. After washing and drying the paper I trimmed and sewed the separately exposed pieces to another sheet of washi, then added other sewing or addenda as the image called for it.
Metempsychosis is the belief in the transmigration of souls, the speculation that the spirit of a living thing migrates after death into another living thing. All of these images consist of one object only, which has been manipulated--spun around, wiggled, or dropped multiple times during a single exposure, or over the course of several exposures. One negative takes anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour to make. I aim to find gesture not only in subject matter but in idea: we are stepping into the river Heraclitus wrote we step into just once, and we're looking at the others before us who have stepped into the river that is always moving. The subject of each of these images is one floral stem, but like our own bodies, it echoes the life of its ancestors in its mellifluous state of being.


A few months back we introduced you to Miami's ES.P. A DJ at one of Miami's biggest clubs, his latest release shows us how his residency at E11even has shaped his understanding of music that makes people move. While the name "Turning Up" might invoke this being a track that is a little outdated by an overused popular phrase, it is quite the opposite: the title refers to a sampled vocal that refers to "turning up" in the literal sense. A nu disco track with emphatic bass spreading lines, ES.P's work here really honors the era of music that it references: when "turning up" meant increasing the volume. Check the track out below as an exclusive stream via our SoundCloud page as a sneak preview of the ES.P EP we can expect to be released in April via iTunes.


Make your own cute denim tassel earrings with just scraps of denim and embroidery thread.
My adventures in the world of punch needle embroidery courtesy of a Makerly craft subscription box.
Turn plain hoop earrings into pretty tassel earrings with just a few simple craft supplies.
A super easy to make bead necklace. Honestly it takes longer to get everything out and then put it away afterwards than it does to actually make this necklace!
Use precious scraps of beautiful Liberty fabric to make a beaded bracelet.
It's easy to buy beautiful necklaces nowadays but it's not too expensive or difficult to make your own completely unique pieces with just a few materials and tools.
Easy to make ribbon and bead bracelet.
An old bangle gets a couple of simple refashions, one worked much better than another.


text:
Dam set for the year as fish go in
LINE UP: Craig Cluff divvying out 30,000 yellowbelly fingerlings for Wuruma Dam. Jack Lawrie
22nd Jan 2018 5:30 PM
FISHING: Wuruma Dam is set for the next season of recreational fishing, with the addition of 30,000 yellowbelly fingerlings on Saturday.
The Wuruma Dam Fishstocking Association has spent $18,500 on bass and yellowbelly fingerlings for this year.
The bass, which went in at the end of December, will grow to edible maturity within two years, while the yellowbellies will be mature in a year and a half.
A good crowd turned out at Wuruma for the fish-stocking day, with volunteers putting on a barbecue and handing out slices of watermelon for the visitors.
Association fingerling co-ordinator David Johnson said they try to stock two-thirds bass, one-third yellowbelly but were considering introducing a third species, most likely silver perch.
"We're getting good catches of both now, it's just the majority of members don't want to put barramundi in because they'll clean up the redclaw," Mr Johnson said.
"People mainly want catch and eat fish and those are all good eating."
Association secretary Hinke Johnson said there were worries about the impact of camping restrictions.
In late 2016 SunWater, which manages the dam, put a limit on the amount of time people can stay at the dam, up to a maximum of two weeks.
"Tourism is important to the bush and absolutely vitalto maintaining the economic well-being of our rural towns," Mr Johnson said.
"Despite many RV campers now being self-contained, visitors arebecoming more numerous with the increase in retiring baby boomers, which could overwhelm the facilities.
"We look forward to an agreement with the council and SunWater on how the area can best be improved for the betterment of the district."
fingerlings recreational fishing

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


George Soros continues his week-long lecture series at the Central European University in Budapest discussing capitalism versus open society. In this second segment, he analyzes the agency problem inherent in the American political system. He believes that the main culprit is a decline in public mortality which he says is fostered by the rise of market fundamentalism. See below for a transcript of the lecture.


Joliet Catholic Academy head football coach Jake Jaworski and senior star running back Keenan Hailey were been named Coach of the Year and Player of the Year by 1340 AM WJOL.
"Congratulations on their respective Coach of the Year and Player of the Year awards," their school recently posted on its Facebook page about the recognition.
The awards capped the Hilltoppers 14th state championship, which came in late November courtesy of a grueling 35-27 come-from-behind win over Montini in the Class 5A state championship game in downstate Champaign.
In the title game, Hailey rushed for scores of 6 and 30 yards for the Hilltoppers (10-4) and finished the year with 2,541 yards and 32 touchdowns on just 149 carries.
Jaworski is now the fifth Hilltoppers coach to lead the program to a state title.
Want to get notified whenever we write about Joliet Catholic Academy ?
Next time we write about Joliet Catholic Academy, we'll email you a link to the story. You may edit your settings or unsubscribe at any time.


text:
Home > Celebrities new worth > Movie > Actresses > Asa Akira
Asa Akira Net Worth
Real name / birth name Asa Akira
Occupation American adult actress and film director
Source of Wealth film
Date of birth January 3, 1985
Birth place Manhattan, New York, United States
The average amount of money Asa Akira earned
How Much is Asa Akira Worth?
Asa Akira is a Japanese-American adult actress and film director who has amassed a net worth of over $3 million. She began her career at the age of 19 years performing successfully as an exotic dancer at the Hustler Club in New York.
Later Akira augmented her popularity among radio listeners with the regular attendance of Bubba the Love Sponge show the time between 2006-2007. The show gave her the opportunity to be acquainted with famous pornographic actress Gina Lynn and subsequently became involved into this sphere too. After she made her debut working on Gina's studio she signed a contract with Vouyer Media and gone even further.
As of 2013, she continued to make various movies as well as directed her first picture titled Gangbanged 6 along with Elegant Angel studio. From the same year, she has co-hosted a podcast called DVDASA with artist David Choe. Having already significant benefit, she was even more pro-acclaimed in 2014. That year Akira was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine article titled 4 Porn Stars on How They Stay Fit. She made waves upon her personality after visiting Dr. Drew Pinsky's radio show Loveline and The Eric Andre Show as well. She also made her appearance in a live-action segment in the Family Guy in 2017.
During her adult career, she has won a lot of awards and different nominations. Asa Akira became the second Asian person to win the AVN Female Performer of the Year Award. She also is the owner of the XBIZ and XRCO Awards, Night Moves Award and more.
NextDJ Drama
PreviousJames Arness
Catherine Oxenberg Actresses
Shannen Doherty Actresses
Heather Locklear Actresses
Nikki Reed Actresses
Sophia Bush Actresses
Bianca Kajlich Actresses
Suggest a Asa Akira Update


text:
How One Man Tried To Slim Down Big Soda From The Inside
By Dan Charles
PepsiCo's product line ranges from salty chips and its sugary namesake drink to more healthful fare like hummus and yogurt. In 2010, the company announced plans to cut sugar, fat and sodium in its products to address health and nutrition concerns.
Many big food companies are caught in a dilemma these days. They want to rebrand themselves as merchants of health — Coca-Cola's new anti-obesity ads are just the latest example — but many of their profits still come from products that make nutritionists scowl.
If there's one person who symbolizes this tension, it's Derek Yach.
A decade ago, Yach, a soft-spoken doctor from South Africa, was building a reputation as a thorn in the side of the global food industry.
He was working at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, leading the WHO's new effort to take on health problems that come from smoking or from unhealthful diets.
Among the academic experts who got to know Yach during those years was Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor from New York University. "He was putting enormous pressure on food companies to stop marketing junk foods to kids," she recalls. "I saw him as someone who saw the food industry as an enormously destructive force in public health."
But Nestle may have misunderstood Yach. Yach himself says that food companies were never the enemy.
The strategy for dealing with the food industry, he says, was very different from his tactics for fighting tobacco. The anti-tobacco formula was simple: "Demonize the industry. Tax it through the roof. Ban all forms of marketing."
But you can't get the same results with sugary soft drinks, he says. If you tax them heavily enough, you can drive consumers away from those products, "but that doesn't mean you solve the obesity problem. It all depends on what they choose as that alternative."
With food, there's always an alternative — another sugary product on the shelf.
Food companies create this universe of options, which is why Yach felt that he needed to talk to those companies, draw them in, persuade them to offer consumers better alternatives.
But he says he never, ever, thought he'd actually go work for one of those companies until one day in 2006. He'd left the WHO and was working at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. He got a call from Indra Nooyi, who had just been named CEO of PepsiCo.
"She had the most powerful vision of how she wanted to transform the company," he recalls.
PepsiCo sells Pepsi, of course. And Mountain Dew, Frito-Lay chips, Doritos, Cheetos, and Cap'n Crunch. But PepsiCo had also picked up Tropicana orange juice and Quaker Oats. In fact, Nooyi wanted to transform the company's entire product line. "Her vision was very clear. There was an opportunity to turn this into the healthiest food and beverage company in the world."
She wanted Yach inside the company, pushing everybody toward that goal.
He took the job. He felt like he had to.
Nestle — and a lot of other former allies in the public health community — were stunned.
"I couldn't believe it," she says. "I was really astounded. I mean, it's not like he went to work for a company that's selling carrots! He went to work for a company that's selling sugar water!"
With that choice, Yach became the symbol of a very controversial idea: that companies like Pepsi can be part of the effort to get people to eat better.
Yach stayed at Pepsi for almost six years. He left a few months ago.
While he was there, he says, he pushed for changes in some of the company's products to make them more healthful, like potato chips with less salt and fat, and beverages with little or no sugar in them.
He got very different reactions to this idea in different parts of the company. Some took it almost as a personal attack.
"People very much loved and believed in their brands. They couldn't believe that there could be anything wrong [with them] or that they should be reducing the way that they market or sell these delightful, tasty brands," he says. But Yach stuck to his guns. "I said, 'We've got to change our marketing strategies. We've got to lower salt, sugar, fat,' repeatedly, over and over."
The food technologists, on the other hand, became Yach's allies. They took on the challenge of making a low-sodium snack that still tastes salty or a soda that's sweet without the calories. This is true throughout the food industry, Yach says. "There are pockets of people who are spending their entire lives trying to reformulate as fast as possible."
PepsiCo has, in fact, adopted some ambitious long-term goals for cutting salt, sugar and fat from its products.
But when it came to making changes right now — launching new products, putting marketing muscle behind them, changing recipes — Yach's goals ran into the limits of what the company was prepared to do.
Executives often got cold feet, because all of those things cost money. And pulling full-calorie Pepsi off the shelves certainly wasn't an option.
"You can't just withdraw from markets. That would simply be giving up market share to a competitor. That wouldn't be permitted by a shareholder," Yach says.
Despite all that, and even though he's no longer a PepsiCo employee, Yach remains convinced that companies like PepsiCo can, in fact, help people change their diets for the better.
He points out that PepsiCo is cutting salt from its products. It's selling a lot more reduced-calorie beverages. And it's now in the hummus and yogurt business.
The change isn't happening as fast as Yach would like, but it is happening, because it's good business in the long run, he says. People's expectations are changing. The arc of history, as he puts it, is pointing food companies toward more concern for health.
Nestle, though, thinks Yach is well-meaning but naive. PepsiCo hasn't changed that much, she says. The company's sugary soft drinks are still adding to obesity worldwide.
In fact, she says, Yach actually has hurt the cause of public health by giving the company more credibility. "He was a much greater asset to Pepsi-Cola than Pepsi was to him, or to public health."
Yach has moved on now, to a company called the Vitality Group. It's part of a health insurer in South Africa.
The Vitality Group finds ways to pay people to do healthful things like eat more fruit and vegetables or exercise. It makes money doing this, because it then has to pay fewer medical bills.
This is an industry, apparently, that really can capture profits by promoting better health.
Dan Charles
Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent.
See stories by Dan Charles


DAVIS -- Just over a month after a young Davis police officer was shot and killed on the job, a University of California, Davis professor was under fire for comments he made in the past about killing officers.
UC Davis literature professor and author Joshua Clover is facing scrutiny over his comments about police.
In an interview published in 2016, when asked what's wrong with society today, he said, "People think that cops need to be reformed. They need to be killed."
In 2014 the professor tweeted, "I mean, it's easier to shoot cops when their backs are turned, no?" He also wrote, "I am thankful that every living cop will one day be dead, some by their own hand, some by others, too many of old age."
"I think there should be no statute of limitations at all on violent sentiments online," said Nick Irvin.
This week, Irvin, a UC Davis comparative literature student, exposed professor Clover's comments in an opinion piece in The California Aggie.
"I want people to know that one of our professors is saying these things and he wants people to die for nothing more than the badge that they wear," Irvin said.
Irvin said he's known about the professor's comments for months but he wanted others to be aware following the shooting death of Davis police Officer Natalie Corona.
"I just wanted people to know what this university is allowing," Irvin said.
"We find it unconscionable that anyone would condone much less appear to advocate murder. A young police officer has been killed serving the city of Davis. We mourn her loss."
"On the day that police have as much to fear from literature professors as black kids do from police, I will definitely have a statement. Until then I have nothing further to add."
Irvin told FOX40 he also reached out to professor Clover. In an emailed response Irvin said Clover stood by his comments and offered no explanation.
Clover's Twitter page has since been set to private. FOX40 obtained images of the tweets from Irvin.


text:
Health & WellnessNutrition & Fitness
How to Not Pee Yourself During Postpartum Workouts
by Elizabeth Yuko
Aug 19, 2019 at 3:00 pm EDT
Image: Zodiacphoto/Shutterstock. Design: Ashley Britton/SheKnows.
If you're used to an active lifestyle, it may take a little bit of time to adjust to your postpartum body. Your center of gravity may have shifted, you may have aches and pains you never did before, and you may even pee a little (or a lot) when you workout. This is really common, but is there a way to stop it from happening? Luckily, there is, and she's here to help.
Why do some people pee during workouts after having a baby?
First things first: Why does this happen? According to Dr. Blair Green, a physical therapist and co-author of Go Ahead, Stop & Pee: Running During Pregnancy and Postpartum, you need to keep in mind that pregnancy is a time of tremendous physical change for you.
"During pregnancy, the muscles of the pelvic floor adapt to a growing fetus, changes in posture and hormonal changes," she tells SheKnows. "The pelvic floor muscles serve many functions, one being control of bowel and bladder function. The increased demands placed on these muscles during pregnancy make them susceptible to dysfunction."
Not only that, but labor and vaginal deliveries also place the pelvic floor muscles at risk because of all the stretching, pressure and sometimes tearing of the muscles and associated soft tissue.
"These changes in length, strength and coordination of the pelvic floor muscles, along with the abdominal muscles and diaphragm, can lead to problems following delivery including leaking urine, which is known as stress urinary incontinence," Blair explains.
And while stress urinary incontinence is common, Blair says that it is never normal. "In fact, physical therapists trained in the management of pelvic floor dysfunction can help women during and after pregnancy to prevent or eliminate leaking or peeing during workouts, or at other times," she notes.
Is it possible to strengthen our pelvic floor?
First of all, Blair reiterates that any type of bladder leakage — no matter how light or heavy — is not normal. Ideally, the best way to begin to retrain pelvic floor muscles is to see a physical therapist who specializes in pelvic health.
"Pelvic floor muscle retraining, or what is commonly known as a Kegel exercise, has been shown to help the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence," Blair explains. "The pelvic floor muscles are primarily endurance muscles but also respond to impact and loading, such as what occurs with exercise such as running and jumping."
Learning how to activate these muscles as well as relax them is key, she says. After that, exercises should focus on slow and quick repetitions, longer holds, and coordination with functional activities.
"However, this is just one piece of a big picture," Blair notes. "Exercises should focus not only on strengthening the pelvic floor, but also on coordinating the breath with the pelvic floor muscles and the abdominal muscles with the pelvic floor muscles. These muscle groups work together to provide central stability to the trunk and pelvis."
What are some good post-baby exercises?
Every person is different, and will move at a different pace after having a baby. Blair says that respecting your body is key; try to follow what it is telling you feels good — or does not feel good.
According to Blair, it is important to start with foundational exercises, which should include general mobility, breathing, pelvic floor muscle activation/relaxation and exercises to help retrain the gluteal muscles (posterior and lateral hip), as well as the muscles that stabilize the shoulder and upper body.
Not sure where to start? Blair suggests deep diaphragmatic breathing, as well as pelvic floor muscle activation while lying down You can also try other positions, like getting down on all fours and rocking back and forth on your hands and knees. You can do progressions including bridging, leg lifts lying on your side, wall pushups and starting to include the abdominals through a curl up exercise.
"Start with low-impact cardiovascular exercise such as walking, biking or swimming, until the core and hips are strong enough to support you with running and jumping," Blair says. "If at any time you are feeling pain, or symptoms such as pressure in the pelvis, leaking urine, bowel incontinence or anything that just doesn't feel right, seek help!"
How long will you pee during postpartum workouts?
Again, the answer is different for every person, Blair says. Some will never experience leakage and for others, it may be more severe. "Remember, leakage is not normal," she explains.
In the first days and weeks following childbirth, you may experience some leakage as the pelvic floor muscles recover, but this should subside over the first month. If any leakage continues, worsens, or starts when previously there was none, this is not normal and you should seek help from a pelvic health physical therapist.
The good news is it's likely not permanent. "In many situations, the muscles of the pelvic floor and the supporting systems can be retrained so it's not something you have to live with forever," Blair says.
pelvic floor exercises postpartum fitness workout
Lizzo Opens Up About Dysmorphia, Positivity & Being 'So Much More' Than Body Talk
No, You Can't Prevent Post-Pregnancy Hair Loss — But Here's What You Can Do
Here Are the States With the Best & Worst Vaccination Stats
Why We Gave Up Being a Paleo Family
We Can't Stop Listening to Michelle Obama's 2020 Workout Playlist
What to Do After You Find Out Your Partner Cheated


Enter below for a chance to win a Citrus Zinger!
The Citrus Zinger offers an easy way to extract juice and flavor from citrus fruits and infuse them directly into your water bottle. Creating delicious lemonades, limeades, and orangeades, the Citrus Zinger flavor infuser is great for the active, on-the-go water drinker.
Sounds delicious to me! Enter using the Rafflecopter below, then leave a comment! Thanks!


Thanks to a very generous Villun, I'm ready to jump in for some Overwatch!
You can find me at WillTVR#1167.
The Domer wrote: OP updated through three_gunn.
...it's def no TFC or TF2 but it's the next gen of online team gameplay and it's a well oiled machine of a game. i would recommend anyone to jump in once and just have fun.


I looked at my web stats. One article talking about 2016 Howard County Charter Amendments got over 3000 reader. It is amazing. I was trying to figure it out why. Partially there were not so many other articles talking about these two important ballot initiatives. If you searched online, my article came first.
For Question A, I am for it. There were 74382 Yes and 67408 No. The difference is 6974 votes, around 5% of total votes.
For Question B, I am against it. There were 83992 Yes and 50306 No. The difference is 33686 votes, around 25% of total votes.
The really surprising facts now are the early voting, which is almost close to 50% now.


Of all the apples I picked over the weekend, I like this one best. What goes around comes around.
Liam Busts a Move Bryce's Halloween Boo Note: I received several requests last week for more pictures or videos starring the boys. These should bring on a smile. If they take too long to download here at the blog you can watch them at youtube HERE and HERE.
My weekend has gone at the speed of light with two dances at the Pine Tavern and three stories covered for the local paper. The Rhythm Fire dancers were busy too. The band pictured here is not Wildfire. It's Wildlife. Other Sunday shadow shots are HERE.
Thanks to our tea party hostess Katherine and happy birthday to Jayn!
Watch a video of the Back Porch Cloggers performing at Floyd's Harvest Festival and County Fair HERE. Another of Bernie Coveney and Chris Luster entertaining fair attendees is HERE. Some of the above photos were published in this week's local paper. That's my friend Builder Bob in the blue ribbon photo.


text:
Statue stolen from Oakhurst Veterinary Hospital
By Joe Ybarra
OAKHURST, Calif. (KFSN) -- A symbol of the care for animals is missing from the Oakhurst Veterinary Hospital. It's in the form of a full-size statue of a boy and a dog and it was stolen over the weekend.
Sally Wider, the practice manager at the hospital, said, "it just kind of represented a really nice place to bring your animals."
Wider noticed the statue was missing the moment she showed up to work on Monday. It was attached to a boulder near the entrance for more than a decade. "It's just a boulder with a bunch of leftover feet on it now," Wider added, "it's just sad."
The statue was heavy. Wider said it would have taken multiple people to lift it and brute strength to break the bond with stone. A planned effort, she said, because the motion sensor surveillance cameras didn't catch the theft. Peggy Brannan, who lives in Oakhurst, said, "I think it's horrible, I mean it's been there for so many years, why would someone take a statue?"
Rachel Barkume who also lives in the town added, "As a resident of Oakhurst, I feel violated, this kind of stuff doesn't happen in small towns."
Wider feels the same way and talking about it brought her to tears, "Cause it's our home, that's why."
The community is trying to bring the statue home through social media and word of mouth. People have been constantly calling the front desk for updates but so far, there's no sign of it. "I'm hoping they can't hide it, somebody is gonna see it and give us a call," Wider said.
In the hands of a thief, Wider said the statue isn't worth anything-- it's not made of metal and the value can only be measured by what it means to the people at the hospital. "Whoever took that, is not gonna, you know, they don't have those types of feelings."
Still, with a big piece missing outside, Wider still has hope. The work at the veterinary hospital keeps going and the care never stops.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the statue is asked to call the Madera County Sheriff's Office.
oakhursttheftveterinarianmadera county
Madera school collects over 4,100 cans in canned food drive
Housing Watch: Tesoro Viejo in Madera County to release new models
New deal expands fire services in Madera County tribal land
River Fire in Madera, Mariposa counties 100% contained


This edition was launched April 14th 2017 and can still be mail ordered for delivery to your adress.
The Speedgroup Drag Racing Magazine is a printed, bi-lingual magazine (English and Swedish).
112 pages with an exclusive design. We hope this will be a magazine you wish to return to over and over again!
Order your copy of Speedgroup Drag Racing Magazine below. We use PayPal´s payment solution online with multiple payment options via debet- or creditcard. You do not have to have a PayPal account.
We have placed FAQ and answers at the bottom of this page.
Magazine inkl. porto Sverige. 6% moms tillkommer.
Vid annat antal, kontakta oss!
Includes postage to any country. 6% sales tax is additional.
What focus does the magazine have?
Can the magazine be read online as an e-publication?
– No, it comes in printed format only.
Can the magazine be bought in stores or other places?
– It can be bought at events Speedgroup is present at, races and exhibitions. In addition, we will co-operate with race teams and organisers active in the series and championships and make it available at as many events we can. Feel free to contact us at magazine@speedgroup.eu to inquire if there are options close to your location other than mail order.
Can I sign up to receive the next edition automatically?
– We don´t yet offer a subscription service. However, if you ordered edition #1 online and entered your email address in the process, we will send out an email alert to you when the next edition is published.
How often is Speedgroup Drag Racing Magazine published?
– The plan was initially to publish two editions per year. However for cost reasons, only one edition was produced. For 2018 digital solutions are looked at, meanwhile our websites are filled continuously with news and feature articles.
How many copies is the magazine printed in?
– It was printed in 20 000 copies.
Who is the publisher and producer of the magazine and where is it printed?
– Speedgroup is the publisher and for the design and production we have chosen to work with one leading Nordic publishing company Förlags AB Albinsson & Sjöberg in Sweden. They have many titles in their portfolio, among others the magazines BILSPORT, Allt om MC. www.fabas.se The magazine was printed in Vimmerby, Sweden.


text:
Joshua Mark McEachran (* 1. března 1993 Oxford) je anglický profesionální fotbalista, který hraje na pozici středního záložníka za anglický klub Milton Keynes Dons FC. Je také bývalým anglickým mládežnickým reprezentantem.

Klubová kariéra
McEachran se narodil ve městě Oxford. Začal hrát fotbal za klub Garden City F.C. v lize Oxford Mail, kde si ho všiml klub Chelsea. Připojil se k mládežnickému týmu v 8 letech a vyrůstal v akademii Chelsea, kdy zároveň plnil své školní povinnosti v Marlborough School ve Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

Chelsea
McEachran si poprvé zahrál za první tým Chelsea 15. září 2010 v základní skupině Ligy mistrů proti Žilině, kdy nastoupil jako náhradník. Stal se tak prvním hráčem, který si zahrál soutěž, a přitom se narodil až poté, co Liga mistrů vznikla (25. listopadu 1992). V Premier League debutoval 25. září proti Manchesteru City (prohra 1:0).

Poté postupně hostoval v Swansea City AFC, Middlesbrough FC, Watford FC, Wigan Athletic FC a nizozemském Vitesse.

Reprezentační kariéra
McEachran reprezentoval Anglii na mládežnických úrovních, byl členem týmu, který vyhrál Mistrovství Evropy ve fotbale hráčů do 17 let 2010. V roce 2010 byl pozván do týmu U21 na přípravný zápas s Německem, kde poprvé nastoupil v základní sestavě.

Klubové statistiky

Odkazy

Reference

Související články
 FA Youth Cup

Externí odkazy

Angličtí fotbalisté
Fotbalisté Chelsea
Fotbalisté Swansea City
Fotbalisté Middlesbrough FC
Fotbalisté Watfordu
Fotbalisté Wiganu Athletic
Fotbalisté Brentford FC
Fotbalisté Vitesse Arnhem
Fotbalisté Birminghamu City
Fotbalisté Milton Keynes Dons FC
Narození v roce 1993
Narození v Oxfordu
Narození 1. března
Žijící lidé
Muži

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I've been letting you guys off the hook of late, slipping you the odd slightly dodgy Hammer film instead of leaving you to swivel on a big fat length of Sy Fy which, let's face it, is what you all deserve. I haven't been merciful for any altruistic reasons of course. It's simply that Hammer Horror paintings sell and Sy Fy movie paintings don't. Swamp Shark for instance, fetched only half what a 1937 sheet of Izal toilet paper did on Ebay last year, despite being twice as absorbent. Still, this column is devoted to bad movies so I've had to bite the bullet and produce yet another piece of art destined for either oblivion or a really big wipe. If I'm going to suffer so are you, so squeeze into that Speedo, assume a squatting position and get ready to bellyflop into… Blood Surf!


text:
Our celebrity ambassadors and supporters help us to raise vital awareness of cystic fibrosis (CF). Find out more about the celebrities that support our work.
HRH, Prince Charles
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM became our Patron in 2014 in our 50th year.
Our Ambassador
Jenny Agutter, actor and star of the BBC's 'Call the Midwife' is a celebrity ambassador for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Like 1 in 25 people in the UK, Jenny carries the cystic fibrosis gene. Jenny's niece and grand-nephew have cystic fibrosis, so she knows the full impact of the condition on her families. Her passion for our work is vital in our fight for a life unlimited for all with cystic fibrosis.
Jenny said: "My niece, Rachel, and my grand-nephew, Albie, have cystic fibrosis. I know first-hand the impact this condition has on families and over the years I have met many families who continue to inspire me with their determination, resilience and hope.
The Cystic Fibrosis Trust's work is vital, providing life changing world class research, day to day care and support as well as campaigning for life saving drugs for all. I am proud to be an ambassador for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust as they tirelessly strive to ensure a future where everyone with CF can live a life unlimited."
Our Celebrity Supporters
Roger Black MBE is a former Olympic, European, Commonwealth and World Championship athlete. As an Olympian his words of encouragement have been a great source of support for our marathon runners.
James Dunmore
James Dunmore, star of 'Made in Chelsea', sadly lost both of his sisters, Lucinda (19) and Jodi (22) to cystic fibrosis when he was a young boy. Last year, he raised thousands of pounds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. James also supported our campaign calling for access to life-saving drugs Orkambi and Symkevi on the NHS.
Every penny donated helps create a brighter future for people with cystic fibrosis, by funding support, research or other vital work.
There are so many ways you can join the fight for a life unlimited. Choose from joining or organising an event, supporting one of our campaigns, fundraising, volunteering and much more!
Get in touch with us to speak to someone on our Helpline, found out about an event or speak to our Press Team.


I'm aching this morning! A tendon in my ankle is sore, my quads are sore, both IT dnds are, as are both shoulders. Oh, and a knee that is now clicking in an unfamiliar and non too pleasant way. Feel's like I've done more exercise in 48 hours than you have in the last 4 months. As regular readers know, I've been sidelined with a stomach injury which has prevented me from running for an unbelievable 4 months. Last weekend was the first time I managed to run for more than 3 miles without stopping. So, it would be fair to say I was somewhat nervous about turning up to the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon on the back of 1 reasonable training run, which itself I really struggled on. The guy that asked me to run with him in the event Mike, was in complete contrast. He may not have ever done any mountain marathons, but he's in top condition, after running in fell races for the last 6 months and even running a couple of days support with his friend Steve Pyke, who just got the record for scaling all of the Munros (283 Scottish peaks above 3000ft) in 40 days. Needless to say, if Mike had kept pace with Steve Pyke, I knew I was in trouble! Mike had set the bar high and entered us into "Bowfell". The toughest and longest team-class apart from "Scafell".
I did however provide one useful skill to Mike, I'm a reasonable navigator. It's a skill I've really only learned in the last year. 12 months ago, I'd could have just about told you which way was North on a compass. I went on a free navigation course given by a member of the MDS forum, which set me on the road, and then I took part in 2 Mountain Marathon's last year, my first ones ever. I did, it appeared, have some reasonable talent for map reading. Still it was 8 months since my last event, so I dusted off my compass and this time I had to learn how to plot grid references. I did score classes in the last 2 events, which are clearly marked on the map for you. Here you get a map and a small list of 10 grid references. So, after 15 minutes Googling "how to plot a grid reference I realised it wasn't too difficult. I downloaded the Saunders 2009 grid references and plotted them on a map to practice. I managed it ok, plotting them all more or less where they should have been. So, I was comfortable I could at least get us from control to control, even if it was going to be at slow pace.
All of my equipment is geared up for week-long desert races and I wasn't about to go buying anything new for this event, since they are not really my primary focus. So, I would make do with what I already had. I do have some OMM waterproofs, which were both required items, and put to good use this weekend as you will read later. I have my desert racing stove, 1 tiny 15g titanium stand that burns hexamine fuel tablets. That was going to have to do. Everyone else seems to use gas stoves on the events. I have a 30l OMM rucksack, which is ideal for a week in the Sahara, with enough room for a week's worth of food, but way too big for a couple of days in the Lake District. Again, I can't justify buying a 15 or 20l pack just for this, so my 30l would have to be used. My sleeping bag was fine, the 8C PHD one was perfect. I took my extra small Thermarest sleeping mat, which at 230g is still twice as heavy as the balloon beds favoured by the Mountain Marathoners. I took my Thermarest compressible pillow too, which at 200g is a luxury I've learned I need to do any form of camping. The Saunders organisers had emailed us warning a week or teo ago that the Fells were dry, there was little water to be had, and even the river in the mid camp ran out half way down the field. So, scared to death I packed my most unwise item, a 2l platypus water bladder, and filled it to the brim. This of course instantly added 2kg to my pack weight, but I figured it was better than hunting down muddy trickles on bone dry fells. I put in my dehydrated meal, and some snack bars and nuts too. Finally my tent, which I bought for my ill-fated Tenerife expedition 3 years ago (I'll mention that later). Anyway, I have a 2-man Terra Nova tent, which weighs a kilo and is a tent used by many MM competitors. I gave Mike the tent pole, the pegs, the cooking pot, fuel and lighter to carry, and I carried the main tent itself. I also packed a substantial first aid kit after reading about an accident from the recent LAMM event in Scotland. So half a kilo of survival bag, bandages, and meds went in the pack, as well as the rest of the required clothes and equipment items.
My pack weighed in at a thoroughly depressing 7kg. My pack weighed less than this for a week in the Atacama Desert including 3000Kcal of food per day! I knew I was geared up for the wrong sport when I saw the teeny tiny packs that everyone was sporting at the Saunders.
Half of the reason I packed as I did was a comfort thing. I'm super comfortable running in deserts, I know what little I can get away with there and survive. I'm like a fish out of water (bad choice of words give the weather it transpired) in the Fells. Bad weather spooks me. Sounds odd right? It didn't used to, but I got into a lot of trouble trekking alone in a remote mountain forest in Tenerife 3 years ago. Like an idiot I had assumed it was always sunny in Tenerife and didn't check the weather forecast. There was a category 2 (I think they call it an "orange warning" or something) storm warning broadcast, and I was trekking 60km from the sea level to the tip of a 3750m Volcano at the centre of the Island over 2 days. I wasn't equipped for more than a light rain shower, got scared, disoriented and lost in cloud in a pine forest on an initial steep 2000M ascent. My scant waterproofing failed, and I got drenched in the heaviest rain I am ever likely to experience in my life, wading steeply uphill through a torrent of water flooding down. I got cold and hypothermia started to set in. It's a long story (in full here), but I made it to a road and stepped out in front of a car to get rescued by some German tourists. My skin had all turned white, my arms looked like a corpses. They drove me to a hotel where I got help, and effectively saved me in the process. It was that experience that brought me down to earth with a bump. I wasn't immortal, and Mother Nature commands respect. Since then, I have had a fear of being in remote places in bad weather. Both are those are par for the course in a typical mountain marathon. So, my equipment for these events is my comfort factor. I over-pack because I stand a better chance of surviving. The same applies to my navigation. I think I learned so well, because I trust only myself to get me out of trouble. The other reason I've done these few Mountain Marathon's is to face my fears born out of that Tenerife nightmare, and try and get comfortable with bad weather again. This has been gradually happening.
So, Mike turned up at my house at 5:30am on Saturday morning. I didn't get back from London until late the night before, so there was no way we could go up and camp the night before the event. I drove us up to Wet Sleddale (of "Withnail and I" fame, for those that have seen the movie). They weren't messing around when they called it "Wet" Sleddale I thought, on the drive home. We got there at 7:15am, registered and then sat in the car for an hour. I had been an avid reader of the MWIS (mountain weather forecast) for the last few days and so (if it were to be believed) we were in for a fine day on Saturday, potentially rain overnight, but clearing a little in the morning but then definitely some rain showers and higher winds later on the Sunday. Almost everyone was in shorts, including Mike, but I opted to run in tights. Less skin to cover with my expensive P20 once-a-day desert sun block I figured. I also ran in my Raidriders adventure top, a long sleeve white shirt that wouldn't look out of place under a suit. Used to best effect fending off fierce desert sun, and showing signs of too many years of use now . I had my OR Sahara cap and sunglasses to complete the outfit. Oh, almost forgot I had to purchase some Inov8 Mudclaw 270 shoes almost a year ago, as they have rubber studs about 6mm long, and regulations for one of the other MM's I did required at least 4mm studs. The shoes have however seen better days. They are lightweight, minimal cushioning, no frills fell shoes. After a few events in some grim weather they started to slowly fall apart. Again, I was too cheap to buy any new ones for this event, so I used them, holes and all. The registration for the event had been quick and easy, and we were greeted by friendly staff all weekend. I've done two other events in the past, and this one ran like the OMM did, in that the organisation was a well oiled machine, and things ran smoothly and well.
At 8:20 we wandered up to the start, where two nice ladies were handing out free sunblock. I had a bit extra to cover my delicate little ears! We got out maps and ten minutes or so later, we got our list of controls and were off. We walked 20m from the start and like everyone else sat down to plot grid references. We decided just to plot the first few before setting off.
Below is the map. The blue line is day 1 and shows the approximate route we took between the controls (black circles). The red line is day 2, and the small triangles are the controls on that day. You can view a bigger version of this map here.
We set off walking up a wall and then we set our first bearing for a control near a small waterfall, some 2km away. We were still at low altitude, around 300m, and the terrain was tussocky and slow. It seemed to be somewhat wetter underfoot than I was expecting too? Not too much drama hitting the first Control. We hit the gill (a small river), and just headed upstream 30 or 40m to find the control. It was nice to get the first one bagged ok. The next control was about 2.5km away again, and up over a hill, into a valley then up a reasonably easy climb. We had to navigate between two out of bound areas. If anything we went slightly to the left of where I wanted to come out, but a few minutes lost if any at all, as we hit a good path and then hand-railed along a wall to cross the a river and road in the valley. So, feet wet early on, and they would stay like that for 2 days. We joined a snake of people climbing up a hill, all doing various courses, but happened to be headed the same way for once. We found the control and then had to follow a taped route down and around a farm at Burbanks head the East end of Haweswater.
At the end of the taped route we had our first navigation decision. Head diagonally up hill for 2km or run along a good wide path along side Haweswater until we were closer to the control and then head more steeply up a gill-side for a 200m elevation gain to take us up to 450m. We opted for the latter, so we ran along at a good pace before then heading slowly up through a bracken covered hillside to the left of Four Stones Hill and then up further to the 454m trig. At this stage I set my altimeter to 454M too. I had bought a cheap (£20) altimeter from ebay, the one expense I made for the event, reasoning it was a safety device, and it appeared all of the more experienced teams used them. From the trig I saw the control a ¼ of a km below and we headed down and Mike tagged it. We then headed West, joining a path and climbing up to 600m. I kept an eye on the altimeter and at 600m we took a bearing straight for the next control, which was also around 6oom. We joined the ravine slightly too low, as the control was at the bottom of it, and so we had to head up about 50m to find it. All fairly painless, and no time lost really.
We next had to had to either bear straight for the next control which would have meant a descent, then ascent up a gill, or head up Wether hill along a good path, contouring around some re-entrants before coming at the control from above. Again we took option two, but we didn't quite stay on the good path for long enough and had to dip in and out of a couple of small ravines to hit the control. Slightly finer navigation would probably have saved us a few minutes, but I'm learning all the time. We plotted the next few controls here, and were a little dismayed that it was about 7km to the next control. We were at 600m in height and faced a pretty horrible and fairly steep climb up 200m to regain the main path and take us up to the top of the mountain "High Raise" at 802M.
We then ran down slightly before heading back up to Rampsgill Head then down and up to the highest point of the weekend 828M peak "High Street". The high pressure and glorious weather gave panoramic views of the fells 360 degrees in every direction. Sadly I have no photos. I use my iphone as a camera normally, and phones with GPS are banned from the event so I left it in the car. At High Street a couple of other guys doing Bowfell asked if we had any local knowledge and which would the best way to descend to the next control. Neither me or Mike had ever been here but I offered my opinion as to descend East, starting in the saddle between Thornthwaite Crag and Froswick peaks (by Over Cove). I reasoned there looked to be less scree slopes. It was a steep descent anyway, losing 500m in ¾ of a km. The other option would have been to go via Mardale Ill Bell, which we did see others heading towards. Everyone decided to go with my option which turned out to be pretty good I think.
My hill climbing fitness was already showing up to be shockingly poor now , but my descent skills are pretty good. I lead, running down through the short screen slope and then bounding down the grassier slopes below. I assumed everyone was close behind, but glanced back and Mike was more than 100m away, and the other two guys twice as far. Oops. Lesson learned, pay more attention when descending. You should always stay close to your partner in these events. Because me and Mike have only run together a couple of times we don't really know each others ability of various terrains. I can descend very fast, and Mike can climb very fast! Personally, I'm more envious of Mike's skill! Mike caught up and we continued down. I kept glancing back, but once too often as my foot hit a pot-hole on the steep slope descent and it caused my toe to point up and buckle by knee inwards, the opposite direction to the way it should bend. It made some horrible crunches and noises. I dropped to the ground in pain and sat there hugging my knee, genuinely worried as to what I had done. Mike is a physio and said worst case was you could damage your ACL that way. Best case was that it was a Patellar tendon strain. He said if it was ACL it would swell it within 12 hours and I wouldn't be able to put much pressure on it. It really did hurt, right under my kneecap, but adrenaline was fuelling me so I carried on, taking it a little steadier.
We got to the next control in a large sheepfold near Kentmere Reservoir. We then headed alongside the reservoir itself and took a bearing diagonally South East up to "The Tongue". I was beginning to struggle at this point. My knee was obviously hurting, as was my stomach injury. However, I had also neglected to take on much fuel so far, and we were already ¾ of the way through the day. I had drunk plenty of water but only had a couple of chewy bars and was running close to empty. I was feeling slightly shaky, usually a good indicator of low blood sugar. The lack of training in the last 4 months, of course meant no hill climbing either so I was really suffering on steep ascents and Mike was frequently having to stop and wait for me. I was seriously slowing him down on the hill climbing. When we got to the next control, between two knolls, I had to sit down and take 5. I knew I had to force down some calories as I could see the next and final horror climb between Kentmere Pike and Harter Fell. I ate 500 kcals worth of honey roast cashew nuts, upped my water intake. Past experience on long events has taught me that when you feel rough, up your food and water and that fixes most things.
There were a good few teams around at that time and many were taking the most direct line to the control in the next control which involved dropping 100m and then gaining 430M up a nasty craggy side of Kentmere Pike. Knowing full well, I was ascending so poorly on the steeper hills I suggested we contour around to the North maintaining our current height and then tacking a less steep ascent up to "The Knowe" just below Harter Fell. This was still to be a 350m gain and slightly longer, but better in my mind than the more direct option given my current condition. The climb still proved torturous. I was just slow, plain and simple. My cardio fitness was there, but my leg strength has been lost in the wilderness last 4 months. I was frequently stopping and turning around to drain the lactic acid from my legs, and then climbing more and repeating. We headed diagonally up skirting Drygrove Gill where other competitors were tagging a control on the course there were doing. It proved a useful spot as it was a control for us on day 2.
After what seemed like, and probably was not far off one hour, we got to the top of The Knowe and dropped down off East side of Harter Fell. It was another fairly steep descent, tough on the quad muscles at this point, and my knee was complaining about it as well. I took the descent slightly easier but still a respectable pace, keeping pace with a solo competitor running on the opposite side of a gill from us. We tagged the control and 550M and then followed the gill down to a hard stone footpath which we ran down quite quickly. The path was enclosed, out of bounds either side and we ended up going almost right to the finish, and running through the camp, doubling back to get the final control and then running back the finish. I don't think everyone was so conscientious of the out of bounds mark and headed through an earlier gate, probably saving 5 minutes but still we followed the route and were happy. We crossed the line in 6:49 I think. In 32nd position. 61 teams were registered to start the event, I guess about 55 actually started, but I'm not certain as the final results don't show all the teams who withdrew (I know this because I know one team that did withdraw and there results are not on the list).
Mike bought me a can of Coke from the finish, and some milk for his cereal. They told him they had sold out of beer. Seems a little poor that the teams doing the shorter courses get to buy all the beer when they finish earlier in the day; presumably they set no limit per person. That's one small jibe at the otherwise faultless organisation. I don't drink anyway, but Mike would have bought some. We set up the tent and filled up our water from the stream. Mike had been refilling his bottles all day, whereas I had just about got by on the 2l water I filled from home. There has been plenty of water in the streams on the fells and the mid camp river was flowing well. I assume there had been lots of rain because the scare stories of dry fells didn't feature at all. I could have got away with stream refills and saved myself a couple of kilos in weight. I took a 600Mg Ibuprofen for my knee. Mike looked at it and thinks it will be ok. It is likely to hurt for a couple of weeks I think, but hopefully no serious damage done. Mike spotted a couple of his friends who it transpired I had met on a Bob-Graham round support a couple of years ago, and we had a chat about the day and complained about that last hill!
It got quite chilly in the evening and I had my waterproof jacket on for warmth as well as my fleece and hat. We ate around 5:30pm, enjoying some of my awesome Mountain House meals. I import the 'meals for two' (which are meals for 'one' hungry runner) from the States, as the Mountain House selection sold in the UK is very limited indeed and doesn't have the decent portion sizes or choice. Hilariously I managed to burn a hole on one of my socks, as well as adding another hole to my already fairly holy fell shoes, putting them a little too close to the stove. Lucky I wear two pairs of socks, so I was ok for day 2. We got off to sleep about 9pm, and both slept intermittently all night, as you do when camping.
I slept well enough to feel rested, but woke to intermitted rain drops and higher winds. We popped out heads of the tent to see the clagg (low cloud) was down to about 400M, much as the weather forecast had predicted. Visibility above 400m (and later on much lower) was going to be poor. We had breakfast and some coffee. I took another 600mg ibuprofen before the start and we headed to the start line, collected the grid references and plotted them all. We would face another 400M steep climb over ¾ km up Shipman Knotts straight away. We cleared the start and it started to rain immediately. We were already in our full waterproofs anyway. I hoped I would be ok with a climb so early in the day but I began to feel pretty sick about half way up. The train of people climbing split into two, and I remember earlier thinking we needed to stay left, but the right fork looked an easier climb and there wasn't much difference in where they bought you out, about 150m apart.
I climbed really quite slowly, Mike frequently having to stop and slow up. I was feeling really nauseous and the wind and rain just compounded the miserable feeling. By the time I got to the top I was almost on auto pilot and was just following a train of people along a wall. I took a bearing and it was right and carried out. I had to stop for a few mins, as I genuinely thought I was going to be sick and wondered how wise an idea it was to start the day in such a poor state. Still I carried on but something was wrong. We were heading upwards and the wall we should have been following was along one contour line (no elevation gain). I checked the bearing again, it was the right one, so we carried on. I stopped twice more and then remembered I had an altimeter, and it showed we were way to high. I studied the map and saw that there were two walls running parallel to each other, one lower down the hill. It was hard to spot under out of bounds marker lines, but I had missed it and we were 150m metres higher than we should be, as well as further North. I have to carry the can for the nav mistake, as I was doing the main navigation. We backtracked and cut down to the right wall, then carried on along it until we found the control. We then had to trudge back up that same 150m height gain to join the path we had left 30 mins earlier. So, half an hour lost due to my slightly poor mental state after feeling sick. Still, the nausea had by now improved even though the weather had deteriorated.
I was expecting showers all day, some heavy, and high winds but certainly not as rough and persistant as it turned out. For the whole day there onwards it was heavy rain and at times gale force winds on the tops. The cloud dropped lower, so we were in cloud for the whole day with visibility down to less than 100m for the most part. This is the weather that shows the men from the boys in navigational terms. I had just been shown to be one of the boys with that early error. The sickness was a factor though,quite possibly bought on by the big dose of ibuprofen. I just wasn't paying enough attention. After that early major nav mistake my nav was pretty sharp until a couple of smaller errors near the end, despite the awful weather. You do question what the hell you are doing with your Sunday getting lashed by sideways rain and high winds when most sane people and reading the Sunday papers indoors. Me and Mike did however retain our sense of humour all day, as did pretty much everyone we met on the hills. We did see quite a lot of teams heading back down due to the weather, and the results at the end of the day showed at least 10 more teams in our class alone had thrown in the towel on day 2. They were probably the sensible ones!
We headed up and over Kentmere Pike and then to the control that we had passed on day 1, in Drygrove Gill, which it transpired was a control on our course today. It didn't really make it any easier to find though as we spotted it when we were about 10 metres from it, as the cloud was so thick. A few teams were huddled in the small ravine getting some shelter and putting on more clothes or waterproofs. We saw a good few people who just wore shorts all day long. Obviously hardier men and women than us, in our full water proofs. The next control was 5km away, the first 2.5km of which we had travelled in the previous day. A sharp descent down Harter Fell and then run along the stream to the stone Path near yesterdays finish. I had hoped we would emerge from the cloud as we lost height but we only got as low as 400m and it was of course still there.
We knew we had lost a lot of time with that nav error and so took a slightly riskier route to the next control, a sheepfold off a spur called Brunt Tongue. We timed our pace and walked up the path, crossing a stile and them timed the next 1km to around 425m height. We then took a bearing from where we thought we should be by then, up over Brunt Tongue at 500m and down to the sheepfold. We definitely made up a little time here as other teams had played a slightly longer safe option of staying on the path for longer. I don't think we made up much, maybe 10 mins. We hit the sheepfold spot on, tagged it and then ran down a well trodden path through marsh and bracken to a bridge by Mosedale Beck at 410m and then along a good path before a steep ascent up to a small tarn at "Howes" at 510m.
The weather was turning worse; heavier rain and the higher wind. It was now very windy indeed on the tops and a fair amount of "lean in" was required at times . We had resigned ourselves to being rained on and blown about all day. Once you resign yourself to that, mentally, the task becomes easier. My OMM jacket did a great job, kept me dry all day. OMM waterproof trousers didn't. They failed after an hour or two. They seemed to soak up rain like a sponge. When I took them off I swear I could have got half a litre of water or more out of them. I was a bit surprised at that, since you'd have expectedt better from the brand.
It was at this stage I realised I was coping fine with the bad weather, and the Tenerife demons had not come back to haunt me. Maybe I've turned a corner here. Sure, the weather could have been worse, though standing on the tops it felt pretty rough. It was only 1.5km to the next control, but it needed some good navigation. I seemed to find myself at the head of a group of about 4 other teams who were clearly also after the same control, whether they be on our course or not. Again, we opted to stay high and not follow some others into a valley, just to climb back out of it.
We contoured around, both or our ankles complaining bitterly about it. The other teams behind must have agreed with my, since they were following us. I cling onto the hope that my navigation decisions were half reasonable this weekend. There was a tough steep climb up Selside Pike (655m) just skimming to the right of the peak and walking above some crags to our right. Upon reaching that top the gale force wind blew so hard that I actually dropped and flattened on the ground. We were quite close to a big drop to the right, and it wouldn't take much more blow me right off. I got back up and leant hard into the wind staying low until we cleared the top and the highest winds, and dropped into the valley beneath where I spotted the control near the cheerfully named "Old Corpse Road". I was now feeling strangely good. I had picked up the pace. Maybe my endurance was waking back up at. In normal ultra races I tend to start to improve at the 20 miles mark. Today, my "ups" seemed to coincide with Mikes "downs", and vice versa. We'll have to work on synchronising them!
We set a bearing for the next control with two other teams following and headed over marsh and knolly ground for 1.5km. I impressed myself at walked on compass right to the next control within 5m. The guys behind caught up and said I hope you don't mind us following you still. I said I didn't mind at all and we all headed off on the next 3km leg, mostly following a wall to get back to cross path from day 1. From the path crossing we took a bearing to head for a crag top, but ended up about 150m to the right on another crag top. I looked at the compass but reasoned it had to be the other crag. We headed across and the other team with moved off ahead and us waved us to say it was there. I'd just drawn the grid reference slightly too far south and picked the wrong crag, but no harm done there as we had to pass the other crag to get to the footpath down to cross the road in Swindale, much as we had near the start of day 1.
One of the other teams had initially run off ahead, and then stopped to check maps and fallen behind. We didn't see them again. We were now still in a group of 4 just to close down these last 2 CP's. The last climb of the day, a 170m pull up to near Talibert Head was completed, everyone feeling it by now, even Mike I think. We followed a wall around a farm and I took a bearing off a wall corner straight to the control which was listed as "a boulder" by a stream. I learned a lesson for another time here. I should have aimed upstream, and not straight to the control. Heading downhill on a contour I must have drifted downhill by 100m. As we approached the stream we saw other teams heading towards a control 200m further downstream. The other guys started heading that way and I said that can't be it. The compass "says no" and there is not a boulder there. They seemed convinced and I was swayed by the masses but stated, I am sure it is the wrong control. I was right. Got there and it was not the one we were after, so we spent another 5 mins trudging back upstream to find the right one. I noted we were not the only ones to make the same mistake as a team ahead of us had done the same. I figured another 10 minutes lost there. Even so, one last control left, a little more than 1km away , albeit over the same tussocky marshland from the previous day.
We were all pretty tired by now, and again we started to drift downhill as we headed towards the control, very easy to do I think. One guy from the other team was ahead at this stage and I shouted him back as I spotted the last control about 200m above us. We all headed up there tagged the last one, and all jogged gently down the hill and into the finish another 1km away. The finish was in a large marquee fitted out with tables and chairs. Some food was provided, which was hastily scoffed down and well received. A big thank you for the organisers for doing such a great job this weekend and always being happy and cheerful. I know events organisation is very challenging and to do it well, and still retain a sense of humour is even tougher. Well done SLMM. We had dropped 4 places overall and finished 36th overall. The car park was almost empty, the shorter courses would all have come in earlier and some teams from all classes had quit I guess. In fact only 40 teams from our class finished at all! I drove us home and later plotted the routes you see from that map. We covered 19.5 miles with 5500ft of ascent on day 1, and 17.5 miles and 4950ft of ascent on day 2. Two tough days in the mountains, day 2 made more challenging by the weather. It was a good learning experience for us both, but really showed up just how the 4 months running hiatus has hit my ability.
Today I ache, as I mentioned but my stomach is ok. I think that is due to the lack of running on day 2, and not a miracle cure. I need to get some answers to what is causing the pain and get back on the path to full fitness again. My knee is clicking a lot, which isn't nice. Not sure what's going on there, but I hope it fixes itself soon.
Mike enjoyed his first mountain marathon and I'm sure will do more in the future. I can only apologise to him for being so out of condition and slowing him down this time. He may well do the Rab or the OMM later in year. He'll need another partner for those though. Dark and White events banned me from their events (they run the Rab) after I heavily criticised the organisation of last year's event in a blog post on here. I subsequently removed the post so they would allow Mike to compete in their events, even though I would stay banned. Personally, I think you should take a bad review on the chin, admit the faults, and do better next time! It's the only event in 5 years of doing events all over the world I have ever had so many issues with. I'm quite certain they'll sort out the problems from last year and run a smooth event in 2010. SLMM and the OMM both ran like clockwork.
One final note. I mentioned in my previous post that I had half a dozen friends doing Racing The Planets Gobi March (I plan to take part next year); this year in the Turpin Basin in China. I got back last night and checked the final results to read that every single one of them had completed and in some style. Christian Sheister (who I shared a tent with in the Atacama 2009) came 2nd overall! The rest of the people I know from Racing The Planet events too; Lucy, Sam F, Sam G, Diego and Tremaine all finished well. Some of them are doing all 4 RTP deserts this year, so the best of luck to them! One sad note though, a couple of friends have posted updates and blog posts to say a 31 year old US male competitor who collapsed on day 4, died a couple of days later in hospital. I don't know any details, but we all push ourselves to and beyond our limits in these desert events, and this is a reminder of how dangerous they (and in fact any endurance events) can be. My thoughts go out to his family and friends at this sad time.
Like the new blog look.
Thanks Andrew. I'll be limping for a week or so, but I hope this knee isn't too much to worry about. The blog looks a bit cleaner and there is a wider area for the text, so less scrolling.
I might not be running this week, but ever the optimist I entered another event which I'll post about next week.
Hi Rich- well done, hope your injuries are ok now. What event are you doing this weekend?
I've not got any events planned at the moment. See how this knee clears up. It's very clicky and sore right now. I'd normally have done the Harden Hard 'un this weekend, but just not possible after last weeks knee mishap. Friend of mine wants me to do a 15 mile Gritstone race in a couple of weeks, or at least train somewhere in the Peak District with him. All depends how this knee holds out. The evtn I've entered is next year, i'll post some details after the weekend.


UPDATED: FEB 14, 2019 Rating from an old notebook. This beer I remember well, it used to come in a multipack of canned bitters along with the likes of Boddies and Theakstons. And this was the worst of the lot, thin, watery and lacking any hop character.
From old tasting notes. Label says "brewed by Whitbread PLC in London, England". Hazy Amber orange color topped by a thick creamy beige head. Lovely toffeeish malt aroma. Smooth, creamy complex, spicy malt flavor has an underlying fruitiness to it. Nicely balanced by light bitter hops in finish.
Aroma: light malty, some hops. Appearance: clear dark gold, no head. Taste: light sweet. Palate: some bitters appearing, medium long dry finish. Overall: unremarkable bitter with the irritating description "strong ale" on the label. Pint at The Marquis of Westminster, London.
Fine English bitter. Pours a copper color with little to no head. Minimal flavor thou has some malt on the nose. Had in Dover on cask.
Cask. Rust coloured ale with a thick yellow-white top. Nose is malty with some orange rind and marmalade smells. More marmalade in the mouth, with a touch of copper and old pennies, and some sweet malts. Lacking something and overall a bit too sweet.
Cask at The Nags Head in Chichester. Copper coloured with a good head. Has a small soapy aroma and a slightly sweet taste.
Sampled this well known bitter in Coanes, Johnstone in March 1991. Cask, handpump dispense. Clear dark amber in colour with a creamy white head, unusual fragrance of summer flowers in the aroma. Thin mouthfeel leads to a slight sweetish taste overall. PAle malt base gives a light floral digestive biscuit base with soft berry fruit. Dry hop resin in the rounded aftertaste cuts through the sweetness. Malt returns in the sweetish finish with barley sugar noted in the mouth. A poor session bitter.
500ml can poured a pale golden color with a frothy white head and some thin lacing. Aroma of light grains and hops. Taste is light malty sweet and a moderate hoppy bitter finish. Not a big fan of nitro flow brews, but this is one of the better ones.


text:
iTunes Preview
Common Sense Age 14+
Critics Consensus 84%
Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman's point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it's a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times.
Rent $3.99
84% TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: Testament of Youth is well-acted and beautifully filmed, adding up to an enriching if not adventurous experience for fans of British period dramas.
14+ COMMON SENSE
Heartrending WWI drama has heavy content, strong heroine.
Anna Chancellor
David Heyman
Juliette Towhidi
© 2015 Testament Distribution Limited, British Broadcasting Corporation and The British Film Institute. All Rights Reserved.
English (Subtitles, Stereo, Dolby 5.1)
Bulgarian (Subtitles), Czech (Subtitles), English (United Kingdom) (Subtitles), French (Subtitles), German (Subtitles), Hungarian (Subtitles), Indonesian (Subtitles), Polish (Subtitles), Portuguese (Subtitles), Simplified Chinese (Subtitles), Slovak (Subtitles), Slovenian (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles, Stereo), Spanish (Spain) (Subtitles), Thai (Subtitles), Traditional Chinese (Subtitles)
Closed captions (CC) refer to subtitles in the available language with the addition of relevant non-dialogue information.
Artists in This Movie
Viewers Also Bought
A United Kingdom
Effie Gray
Movies in Drama