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Mellotron MkVI
Rebirth Of The Cool
By Gordon Reid
The Mellotron has had a chequered history, from '60s 'must-have' to '80s has-been, but it's survived bankruptcy and technological progress, and now it's back, in a brand-new, reworked form. We relate the story of this classic instrument, and see how the new version compares to the old.
Mellotron MkVI.Photo: Richard EcclestoneOnce upon a time, sometime during the late '50s, a Californian window cleaner named Bill Fransen was intrigued by the sounds emanating from one of his customers' garages. Peering through a (newly cleaned?) window, he espied a remarkable contraption. Named after its inventor, Harry Chamberlin, the Chamberlin MusicMaster pioneered the use of pre-recorded tapes mounted inside a keyboard instrument in such a way that, whenever you pressed a key, the sound or musical instrument recorded on the tape emerged through the instrument's amplifier and speakers. Patented in 1949, the Chamberlin used a single strip of tape (called, perversely, an open loop) for each note and, while this precluded musicians from playing indefinitely sustained notes, a spring returned the tape to its start after each note was played, so the attacks of the recorded instruments were reproduced accurately each time you pressed a key.
Former uranium prospector Fransen knew an opportunity when he saw one, introduced himself, and ended up working as Chamberlin's salesman. Unfortunately, the Chamberlin proved to be very temperamental, not least because its electronics were badly supported, the tape guides could go awry, and because the instrument hummed very badly.
Bill Fransen with the first Mellotron off the production line, 1963.Now let's leap forward a couple of years to 1962, to an order placed by Fransen for 70 matched tape heads with a small company in Birmingham in the UK. This firm, named Bradmatic after its owners, the three brothers Bradley and their father, produced a range of products including tape recorders, amplifiers, and, of course, tape heads. Curious why anyone should require so many matched heads, the Bradleys met and eventually joined forces with Fransen, who, unbeknown to Chamberlin himself, had come to the UK to find the skills and finance to produce and sell the instruments. Fortunately, the Bradleys not only had the skills to build Chamberlins, but also to refine them. But, like Fransen, they didn't have the money, so they advertised for support. Bandleader and radio broadcaster Eric Robinson replied, and development of an improved instrument then began.
The Mellotron Mk1
The marriage of Fransen, Bradmatic, and Robinson was made in heaven: Fransen proved to be a talented recording engineer, and the Eric Robinson Organisation owned the highly regarded IBC Studios which were used to record the tapes that were eventually installed in the Bradleys' new keyboard.
Bill Fransen and Norman Bradley in the early '60s.Shortly thereafter, the Eric Robinson Organisation was renamed Mellotronics Ltd, and their first progeny — the Mellotron Mk1 — appeared in 1963. These Mellotrons (the name of which was apparently derived by Fransen from 'mellifluous electronics') closely resembled the Chamberlins, but offered many improvements over them, most significant of which were the transfer of all the tape guides and replay electronics to an internal aluminium chassis, and the replacement of bent-loop tape return springs with coil springs. But the Mk1 remained unreliable, and it was to be almost another year before the first truly playable Mellotron was to appear.
The Mk2
The Japanese could never have invented the Mk2 Mellotron, a 350lb dual-keyboard monster containing more than 70 3/8-inch tape players, a reverb unit, amplifiers and speakers. In modern terms, it was 70-note polyphonic, eight-part multitimbral, and held up to 54 voices in its tape RAM (Rotten Analogue Memory). With eight seconds of sample time per voice per note, this equated to 1260 sounds with over two hours of sample memory! Add to this the twin-channel output, rhythm, accompaniment and 'fill' capabilities, plus an integrated reverb unit, and the specification makes impressive reading even today.
A second version, the Mk2 FX Console, was designed for use as a sound effects machine in TV and film studios. With four separate tape head blocks and independent preamps helping to keep the noise down, the FX was also the first Mellotron to feature a quieter DC motor, transistorised electronics, and electromagnetic tape-track selection (earlier systems had been mechanical).
Strangely, Mellotronics saw its instrument as a type of organ, and aimed its advertisements at the old-time/modern/ Latin dance audiences of the era. Consequently, they supplied a number of Mellotrons to clubs and theatres, while others became the parlour novelties of glitterati such as Peter Sellers.
Nonetheless, the pop and rock community took the Mellotron to its heart, and it was this that ensured its success. By 1967, everyone was experimenting with the Mellotron. The Beatles used it for the flute intro to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and couldn't get enough of it after that (the Spanish guitar riff that opens The White Album's 'The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill' wasn't played by George Harrison — it's straight from a Mellotron factory tape!). The Rolling Stones, Traffic and The Move were also Mellotron users. But perhaps the band that deserved the most credit in bringing the instrument to the world's attention was The Moody Blues. Their 1967 hit 'Nights In White Satin' was probably the first to bridge the gulf between 'beat' music and classical orchestration.
The Model 300
Not content with the Mk2, the Bradleys decided to develop a smaller, lighter, higher-fidelity single-manual (52-key) Mellotron more suited to life on the road. They removed the speakers, adopted a new two-track quarter-inch tape format, and redesigned the motors and electronics. The result was the Model 300 which, thanks to its new solid-state circuitry, more stable DC motor and improved Hammond reverb, sounded far brighter than its predecessors. Sadly, the 300 had an Achilles heel. The new tape format used guides that, over a period of use, built up a static charge. Eventually the tapes would become charged, and they then wrapped themselves around the large drums that formed part of the voice-selection mechanism.
Nevertheless, the 300s were important instruments — not because Mellotronics sold a huge number of them, but because the world was listening to them. New tapes had been recorded, and these were brighter and more dynamic than those in the Mk2. Bands such as Barclay James Harvest and Gentle Giant were influential exponents of the new Mellotron, and the Moody's Mike Pinder added a 300 to his collection of five Mk2s.
The Model 400 & MkV
In 1970 the humungous Mk2s and Model 300s made way for a much more usable instrument — the Model 400. At about 120lbs this was less than half the weight of its predecessors, making the 400 (by the standards of the era) portable.
Despite a long-running battle between Mellotronics and the daft Musicians' Union, the list of players using the Mellotron soon became a Who's Who of music, and perhaps no other electronic keyboard instrument was used as widely and in so many different styles. Yet it is in the genre of progressive rock that the 400 became best known and most loved. The huge popularity of bands such as Genesis and Yes was due in no small part to the sounds of their Mellotrons.
In 1975 the Bradleys designed a new double-manual Mellotron, the MkV. Essentially two Model 400s in a single case, later MkVs incorporated a new, heavier flywheel, and — as a result of their increased pitch stability — these became among the most desirable of all Mellotrons.
But in 1976, the bubble burst. The advent of cheap string machines and primitive polyphonic synthesizers made it much simpler for keyboard players to obtain orchestral textures, and the birth of punk rock meant that they no longer needed to. Overnight, the Mellotron became a dinosaur. In 1977 the company's US distributor, Dallas Music, collapsed owing in the region of 80 thousand pounds, and Mellotronics found itself in severe financial trouble. Unable to meet its financial obligations, the company was liquidated, and its assets — including the master tapes and tape-slicing machines — were sold to a chap named Bill Eberline, the former sales manager for Dallas Music, and a shadowy partner.
Imitating The Mellotron
If you can't find the considerable sum of money needed to purchase a MkVI or one of the refurbished machines supplied by Streetly Electronics, you may wish to imitate the Mellotron using a synth or sampler. Conventional wisdom suggests that this can't be done, but as is so often the case, conventional wisdom is not wise.
True, many synths contain genuine Mellotron samples and offer patches named 'Melly something', but very few of them sound anything like a Mellotron. The trick is to remain true to the limitations and idiosyncrasies of the original. You should use layers to emulate the initial 'pfft' of the key as the tape is taken up by the capstan, the body of the sound, and (on a badly adjusted Mellotron) the characteristic 'zzzzpppp' you may hear as the tape begins to rewind when you release a key. Oh yes, and be sure to limit the envelopes to just eight seconds. Also, the addition of 'Analogue Feel' can introduce a touch of pitch instability to the sound, imitating the slight speed instabilities of the original.
Understandably, most PCMs of Mellotron waveforms are too brief to provide sufficient movement and development within the sound — so the only convincing way to emulate a Mellotron is to sample a real instrument. Such samples have found their way into numerous libraries and feature in many artists' personal collections, but bear in mind that no two Mellotrons sound precisely the same. To get the best from your sampler, you should try to obtain access to an authentic Mellotron and record your own samples. If you do, the results can be superb and, in a mix, indistinguishable from the real thing.
The Mellotron Family Tree
MODEL YEARS MANUFACTURED APPROX NUMBER MADE NOTES
Mk1 1963-64 55 The first of the 3/8-inch three-track Mellotrons. Notable for the toughened Meccano (toy) chains that connected the motors and axles.
Mk2 1964-68 300 The Mk2 replaced the Mk1, and the early models were later recalled for conversion to the newer spec.
Mk2 FX Console 1965-70 60 With independent head-blocks and preamps, a quieter DC motor, and transistorised electronics, the FX was quieter than other Mk2s.
Model 300 1968-70 60 This was the first Mellotron that did not include a speaker in the cabinet. Unfortunately, its new quarter-inch two-track tape format proved to be unreliable.
Model 400SM & Novatron 400 1970-86 2000 Returning to the 3/8-inch format, the 400 was lighter and more robust than its predecessors. 100 were built under licence by EMI.
Model 400FX 1970-84 30 The 400FX was the equivalent of the Mk2 FX Console. Of the 30 built, 15 were sold to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
MkV & Novatron MkV 1975-80 31 Two Model 400s in a single cabinet, the MkV featured additional tone controls and independent channel faders.
Novatron T550 1981-86 5 Internally the same as the Novatron and Model 400, the T550 was a Mellotron in a robust flightcase.
4-Track 1980? 4 Another quarter-inch machine, this was built by Streetly's US service agent. Only four prototypes exist.
Mellotron Studio Symphony 1985 1 Essentially a 24-voice, 16-bit sampler with a Synclavier-esque screen and keyboard. In all likelihood, only a single prototype was built.
MkVI 1999 - 35 (so far) The first commercially produced Mellotron in 16 years; the MkVI offers a viable alternative to a refurbished Model 400 Mellotron.
JK-Mk6 2000 1 A bespoke dual-manual instrument built by Jerry Korb in Vermont, USA; he does not intend to start commercial production.
The Novatron
Happily, Streetly Electronics — the former Bradmatic — survived but, while the Bradleys were able to continue manufacturing instruments, they couldn't call them Mellotrons because the receiver had sold the name along with the physical assets of Mellotronics Ltd. The Bradleys continued making Mellotrons, but without the rights to the name, they needed another. Thus was the Novatron born.
There were three Novatrons: the Model 400SM, the MkV, and the T550. Of these, only the T550 was a new product, the others being rebadged Mellotrons.
The new Mellotron MkVI (left) next to the author's freshly refurbished 1981 Novatron.Punk rock and its New Wave progeny lasted four years, but the Novatron outlived them. In fact, there was a resurgence of interest in progressive rock in the early '80s, with bands such as Pallas, Twelfth Night, IQ and Marillion championing the cause once again. Despite this, the advent of cheap, light and reliable samplers meant that, for most players, the Mellotron was again obsolete. In 1986, Streetly Electronics went into voluntary liquidation, and the Mellotron died.
The Seeds Of The MkVI
Except that... it didn't. Interest in Mellotrons never waned, and enthusiasts kept them in the public consciousness for the next few years. In the USA, there was a period of flux as various companies and individuals experimented with concepts such as the Mellotron 4-Track and the digital Mellotron Studio Symphony. In 1991, a chap named David Kean purchased the rights to the Mellotron name and the tape-making equipment from the man who had bought the assets of the short-lived and by then defunct Mellotron Digital. Kean then established a new company that he called Mellotron Archives. Initially supplying tapes and spare parts, Kean and fellow enthusiast Markus Resch later provided servicing, and produced digitally remastered, and in some cases, 'cleaned up' sets of Mellotron and Chamberlin sounds. They also released a CD-ROM of sampled Mellotrons and Chamberlins (see box elsewhere in this article). Meanwhile, in the UK, John Bradley (son of the original designer, Les Bradley) and Martin Smith resurrected Streetly Electronics, providing another source of tapes and manuals, plus service, sales and support ranging from replacement parts through to totally refurbished instruments.
In 1993, Smith was the driving force behind a Mellotron 'tribute' CD, The Rime Of The Ancient Sampler (Voiceprint VPCD141, now deleted), which was the subject of an SOS feature that June. Soon after, interest in the instrument began to soar, and the '90s saw it used by newcomers such as Oasis, Blur, Radiohead and Saint Etienne, and the not-quite-as-new Elvis Costello, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz and Paul Weller.
Demand for refurbished Mellotrons increased steadily, as did the prices charged for them. Smith and Bradley spent the decade scouring Europe, finding Mellotrons in all states of (dis-)repair, and returning them to England for complete overhauls. And, whereas in 1994 a rebuilt Mk2 might have cost you between £2000 and £3000, the cost is now closer to £8000 for an instrument in tip-top condition. This may seem at first sight to be a little steep, but when you consider the amount of time and work required to refurbish one of these monsters, it's not unreasonable.
Given this scenario, it was perhaps inevitable that somebody would look again at manufacturing Mellotrons. Two men to experiment were Justin Mayer, who in 1993 designed the J-Tron, and New England enthusiast Jerry Korb, the owner of my first Mellotron, a Mk1 with serial number #124. However, Korb never intended his dual-manual Mk6 to be a commercial proposition, and, by the time he demonstrated it to fellow enthusiasts at a Mellotron convention in Canada (yes, they really have them!) Kean and Resch had developed something far more significant. All of which brings us to...
The Mellotron MkVI
The MkVI is, in essence a Mellotron 400 with a number of small but significant changes to the case, mechanics and electronics. Since I own a mint condition Model 400 (serial number 1809, built by John Bradley in 1981) that was recently serviced by Streetly Electronics, this review seemed the perfect opportunity to compare the two.
Unfortunately, reports of one of the early MkVIs were discouraging. The US-assembled unit initially allocated for review in Sound On Sound in 1999 (serial number #005), and later supplied to Noel Gallagher of Oasis, seemed to be beset by problems. By contrast, the instrument in front of me now (#029) was built entirely by Markus Resch and his collaborators in Sweden, and is destined for a customer in the USA. It appears that the emphasis has switched from Dave Kean (who still owns the rights to the name) to Resch.
Knowing all of this, it was with no little trepidation that I embarked upon the review. Time can play tricks on the best of us, and while I have owned three Mellotrons and played numerous more, it's been more than 20 years since I set eyes on a new, virgin Model 400. So it was with some relief that I first saw the large, beautifully built flightcase in which the MkVI was delivered. Indeed, Resch will not supply the instrument without the case, and with good reason. Would you want £4000 of delicate engineering shipped halfway across the world in a cardboard box? No, I thought not.
Manhandling the case up two flights of stairs proved to be more straightforward than expected, thanks to comfortable, well-positioned handles, the assistance of a young lady who is a lot stronger than she appears, and the surprising lightness of the instrument itself. Then came the moment of truth...
Flipping the lid of the MkVI open reveals the keyboard frame. The track-selector mechanism can be seen in the bottom left of the picture, located behind the front-panel controls on the unit.Far from the less-than-perfect imitation I had feared, the MkVI exudes quality. From the superb white paint job that evokes the spirit of the Model 400, to the quality of the control hardware, I could see that Resch has put his heart as well as his money into the job. What's more, the MkVI is no mere approximation to the Model 400. With the exception of one extra control and a bit of chamfering to the edges of the body, it could easily be mistaken for an original Mellotron. Were I to be standing 10 metres away from it, I would be hard-pressed to tell the difference, apart from the fact that the MkVI is a couple of inches taller than a Model 400.
Switching it on, the MkVI comes quickly to life, and a lamp illuminates the Mellotron name on the control panel. Apart from the chunky On/Off switch, the controls themselves comprise the expected Volume, Tone and Pitch knobs, the A/B/C voice selector, and an intriguing Speed High/Low switch not found on the original Mellotron. As shipped from the Sweden, this switch halves the tape speed, reducing the pitch of the sounds by an octave and halving the bandwidth to produce a deeper and duller sound. What's more, you can adjust the speeds of both the High and Low settings independently. This allows you to work with a wider range of tunings, and — if you wish — set alternative intervals between the two speeds (see the box elsewhere in this article for more on this).
The underside of the keyboard unit (held here with its rear edge nearest the camera). Note the bonded-rubber pinch rollers and the metal pad springs (the flanges across the centre of the unit).It was time to take a look inside. If you're not familiar with the innards of a Mellotron, I suggest a quick game of catch-up might be appropriate. I don't have room here to explain how a Mellotron works — this review is already more than generously sized — but if you take a look at the 'Further Reading' box at the end of this article, you'll find an easily accessible resource that devotes considerable space to the subject, and explains some of the terms and mechanical parts I'll be using in the next few paragraphs.
Removing the lid, I was impressed by the quality of the track-selector mechanism and, in particular, the 'fast-action' wooden keyboard, which — if only because of its ebony 'black' keys — is superior to that of the earlier MkVIs assembled in the USA. The idea of speeding up the Mellotron's action was pioneered by one Pierre Veilleux, the former keyboard player in Canadian Genesis tribute band, The Musical Box. However, Markus Resch stresses that his mechanism is quite different from Veilleux's. Apparently, Resch spent much time experimenting with different key construction methods, using experienced Mellotron players as guinea pigs, and eventually settling for an arrangement in which the pressure-pad position is staggered for alternate keys. Original Mellotrons can be modified to offer this, but it was the first time I had seen a keyboard designed in this way at the point of manufacture.
One word of warning here... the pinch-roller and pressure-pad screws on this keyboard are more sensitive to small adjustments than are those of original Mellotrons. But since this MkVI was delivered perfectly adjusted, I never needed to touch these.
With the keyboard gone, the threaded tapes in the tape frame can be clearly seen. The tape frame itself is also easily removable so that tapes can be changed swiftly — more so than on older Mellotrons, in fact.Delving deeper (by removing the keyboard) I was similarly impressed by the quality of the pinch rollers. These are vital to the smooth operation and playing of a Mellotron, and Resch's choice of bonded rubber rather than neoprene, and his use of high-precision bronze cores, suggest that he is more than an enthusiast: he is a perfectionist.
Next, I removed the tape frame. Doing so demonstrated another improvement over the earlier MkVIs; the wide bar through which the ends of the tapes are laced now sits comfortably on the top of the frame to make removal and replacement a painless affair. The instrument was supplied with a classic Mellotron tape frame comprising violins, cello and flute, and it proved to be nicely laced, with what were obviously new tapes. Bravo!
Taking out the tape frame reveals the stainless-steel capstan (running from the bottom left to the top right in this picture) more clearly, and allows a better view of the flywheel (top right) and head block (in front of the capstan, centre).
Finally, sticking my head inside in the now half-empty shell, I was much encouraged by the quality of the stainless steel capstan, the large flywheel, the other mechanical hardware and the extrusions thus revealed. There is no doubt that Resch has spent heavily to produce a machine of this quality.
At this point, I was ready to question one of Resch's major design decisions. At first glance, it appears that the MkVI's preamplifier lies in the base of the machine, sharing a case with the power supply. The preamp in original Mellotron 400s lay close to the head block, minimising the distance from heads to electronics, and therefore limiting the risk of unwanted noise creeping into the signal. However, closer inspection shows that on the MkVI there is a small preamp inside the head block itself, which raises the internal signal to line level. This arrangement means that, although the cable connecting the head block to the valve preamp is nearly three feet long, it should be less susceptible to noise problems, such as picking up the radio broadcasts of nearby taxi companies.
What lies in the base of the cabinet is a further output stage and it is this, as noted above, that shares its case with the power supply. I trust that Resch has sufficiently insulated one from the other, both in terms of mains electricity, and in terms of electromagnetic leakage.
To check whether this new layout worked as planned, I had a friend measure the signal-to-noise ratio of both my Model 400 and the MkVI. Surprisingly, he found the figures to be -57dB and -52dB respectively. This means that, for a given signal level, the new machine is somewhat noisier than my vintage one. What's more, the noise generated by my Model 400 was consistent, whereas — perhaps because it uses a valve output stage rather than solid-state electronics — that of the MkVI was continually fluctuating by a few dBs. Given that Mellotron Archives claims a signal-to-noise ratio approaching -70dB, I found these results rather anomalous until Resch explained that the quoted figure was for the head block preamp itself, not the complete assembly with 35 tape heads connected to it. Resch has told me that he will amend the company's figures to clarify matters.
Before reassembling the machine as delivered, I tried inserting a vintage frame manufactured by Streetly Electronics. This was when I encountered my next setback, and it was twofold. Firstly, I discovered that the thumbscrew mounts are metric rather than Imperial. Given that the MkVI is manufactured in Sweden, that's not surprising. Secondly, I discovered that the MkVI's tape guides are a fraction of an inch too narrow for the tapes in my existing frames, making them susceptible to crinkling and/or jamming. Clearly, the MkVI is not compatible with all the Mellotron tapes in circulation, so be aware that you may not be able to use some existing tapes in the new machine.
The difference between metric and Imperial threads did not seem to be a problem when placing a vintage frame into the MkVI, but the same is not true when placing a MkVI frame into the Model 400. You cannot tighten the thumbscrews. In addition, the MkVI's frame is slightly longer than the 400's, so it hits a large retaining bolt in the base of the Mellotron. Resch tells me that I could have bent a small metal pin in the tape frame to circumvent this, but I would have been loath to do so, even though the displacement needed was only a few millimetres. On the positive side, the extra length allows the tapes to be a little longer, increasing the eight-second limit by a few percent, but it means that — in some cases — neither machine's tapes and/or frames may be 100 percent compatible with the other's.
Not wanting to risk either of the tapes/frames at this stage, I reinserted Resch's in the MkVI, reattached the keyboard, and discovered my third reservation. Original Mellotrons have small screws inserted vertically at the back of each key. These allow the user to adjust the mechanical (as opposed to musical) pitch of the key, which is vital to compensate for any warping that may occur as the decades pass. The MkVI lacks these. To be fair, Resch's keyboard (which is built by the company that provides keyboards to Steinway) proved to be first-class, and the adjusters would be redundant at the moment, but who knows whether they will be necessary when the MkVI is as old as my Model 400? The company claims that the keys are warp-proof. Time will tell.
Having noted these reservations, I completed reassembly of the machine, and switched on...
Selecting the three voices in turn, I immediately noticed that Resch has used original master tapes to create his new frames. For this, I applaud and thank him. The MkVI was bright, and 'cut' in exactly the way a Mellotron should.
To best compare the MkVI to my Model 400, I inserted a new set of Streetly tapes comprising the same violin/cello/flute voices into my Mellotron, and played the two instruments side-by-side. As a consequence of a little treble 'lift' in the valve preamplifier, the MkVI proved to be somewhat brighter than the 400 (this might explain the additional noise noted above). Anyway, I found it most acceptable. The violins were edgy, the cello rasped, and the flutes were pure 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. As far as the sounds are concerned, the MkVI is as good as the smaller Mellotrons get.
Of equal importance, I found that the MkVI was very stable, thanks in part to its heavier flywheel and to the new, high-torque motor that drives it. Furthermore, it suffered none of the 'drag' that makes some Mellotrons go flat if you play a fistful of notes and lean too heavily on them.
At this point, I decided to get daring. I removed both keyboards, swapped the frames, and reassembled. Then I prayed. Switching on both Mellotrons, I found — to my relief — that my frame played within the MkVI, although the tapes did not return as easily as they did in my Model 400.
Playing a few phrases, I now found that both Mellotrons sounded a little dull. The reason for this is that the tape and head alignments are slightly different on the two instruments. Discovering this solves one of the enduring mysteries surrounding Mellotron Archives' tapes, the sound of the MkVI, and vintage Mellotrons. To summarise, a handful of players have claimed to find Mellotron Archives' tapes muffled and uninspiring, placing the blame on the digital remastering. Many people (myself included) believed that Kean and Resch had used a low-cost Sound Forge digital workstation to remove pitch inconsistencies and reduce the background hiss from the original recordings. However, when I quizzed Resch about this, he assured me that the retuning was minimal — a handful of notes — and that the noise reduction was applied only to a handful of Chamberlin sounds, not to the Mellotron tapes.
So why do some players believe that MkVIs sound dull, whereas others find that Kean's and Resch's tapes sound dull in their Model 400s? I believe that the answer is staring us in the face: the MkVI heads have one azimuth, and the instrument should be used with tapes that match; the Model 400's heads have a slightly different azimuth, so you should use this with tapes that match. Cross-match, and the sound suffers. Simple!
Studying the MkVI closely, I wondered whether I could overcome this by adjusting the azimuth individually for each head. On a Model 400, you do this by slackening the head-mounting screws and using a special head alignment tape to find the optimum position. Retightening the screws without nudging the heads can be tricky, but I understand that it's possible. In contrast, the MkVI has no azimuth adjusters. Apparently, you can effect minute changes by applying pressure to the heads, thus distorting the mounting pins by a fraction, but I was not prepared to do this.
Finally, I decided to quit Analysis Mode, reinsert my favourite frame ('Mk2 Violins'/'Ian McDonald Flute'/'Russian Choir') into my 400, and just play the two machines. Ooh... this is as gorgeous as keyboard playing gets. The MkVI is worthy of the Mellotron name, and that's the highest praise that I can lavish upon it.
In particular, I found the fast keyboard action a delight. Far from the spongy, resistive action that insists that you play block chords on most Mellotrons, this was capable of rapid solos and accompaniments. As already noted, my own machine was overhauled by Streetly Electronics immediately before this review, and was also a joy to play, being fast and responsive. But the MkVI was a tad better. Mind you, it would be interesting to compare the two when they are both 21 years old. I suspect that, once the MkVI has bedded in, the difference between it and my Model 400 will be of no significance whatsoever.
The Low Speed Switch
Using the violin/cello/flute tapes installed in the MkVI, I wasn't too impressed with the low-speed option. But when I swapped these tapes for a second frame supplied by Resch, I discovered how interesting this could be. The classic Mellotron trumpet turned into a delicious trombone, and the piano became deep and grandiose. Clearly, your use of this (or not) will depend largely upon the tapes you install in the instrument.
Today the Mellotron is enjoying a revival that would have been unthinkable at the start of the 1990s, and models that you could hardly give away 12 years ago are now fetching anything up to 10 thousand pounds. The reason for this is in part nostalgia, in part appreciation of a unique instrument, and in part a consequence of a unique sound that has never been bettered. Even the deficiencies of the Mellotron force players to develop musically interesting techniques to play it — in particular, the 'tarantula-creeping-up-the-keys' technique that overcomes the eight-second note length limitation. Then there's the interaction between the player and the instrument. Far from being a collection of soulless on/off switches, a well-adjusted Mellotron allows you to molly-coddle notes, coax them, or grind them out. Even different tapes demand different playing techniques, some using just the keyboard, others combining it with the swell pedal or other effects.
So, given that refurbished Mellotrons are now becoming as rare as eight-minute Minimoog solos in 13/8, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would eventually have the courage to start production again. That Markus Resch has done so with such obvious care, dedication and skill is a great relief to a Mellotron aficionado like myself.
In fact, I'm not just relieved... I'm delighted. The Mellotron was never rendered obsolete by modern polysynths and samplers, and it's just a shame that it has taken so long for it to be rediscovered. Eric Robinson died in the '70s, Frank Bradley died of a heart attack in 1979, Bill Fransen and Harry Chamberlin died in the '80s, but at least Les Bradley survived until 1997, which was long enough to see the start of the resurgence in the Mellotron's popularity. Their ghosts must be wearing broad grins as they haunt the great keyboard museum in the sky.
For a full history and description of the Mellotron, with many pictures plus contributions from famous exponents such as Rick Wakeman and Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, I recommend that you investigate The Mellotron Book by Frank Samagaio (ProMusic Press, distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 1931140146).
Alternative Futures
Streetly Electronics, currently based in Birmingham, UK very close to the original Bradmatic factory, is also planning to restart production of Mellotrons. But rather than copy the basic Model 400, the plan is to develop a new version of the T550 flight-cased Novatron. Delivery is expected early in 2003.
+44 (0)1889 504211.
tronbros@aol.com
www.vemia.co.uk/mellotron/
It's a real Mellotron.
It sounds superb.
It plays beautifully.
The construction is first-class.
It would grace an art collection, let alone a recording studio.
The MkVI tape guides are slightly too narrow (or some tapes are a fraction too wide) so it will not be compatible with all tapes.
The tape azimuth is not the same for MkVIs and original Model 400s, which leads to compatibility issues between Mellotron Archives' products and those of Mellotronics/Streetly Electronics.
There are no key pitch adjusters.
The review MkVI was slightly noisier than my Model 400.
The MkVI is a real Model 400 Mellotron, built to a very high standard by someone prepared to spend the time and money to do the job properly. Sure, it's not perfect (what is?), but if you don't lust after a MkVI, you should see a doctor immediately. You're not well.
US $5200 (about £3400 at time of going to press). Price includes flightcase but excludes shipping.
M Resch AB +46 70 424 0221.
Mellotron Archives +1 403 262 2121.
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text:
Bill Miranda | Heads Up Reminders for a New School Year
Signal Contributor
Santa Clarita Councilman Bill Miranda
It's back-to-school time in the Santa Clarita Valley as students of all ages return to the classroom this week. A full year of in-person instruction is ahead for our students, as well as the teachers, administrators and staff members who support them each day. This means that not only will there be more cars on the road during drop-off and pick-up, but drivers can also expect to see more pedestrians on sidewalks and crossing intersections, particularly in school zones.
With the start of every new school year, it is vitally important to review the rules of the road and the positive behaviors that make for "Heads Up" drivers and pedestrians in Santa Clarita. By keeping these rules and tips in mind, we can all do our part to ensure the streets in our city remain safe for all users.
Car accidents can occur for a number of reasons, but they are often the result of driving at an unsafe speed. Remember that areas around schools have a 25 mph speed limit when children are present. However, it is best to assume children are present when driving near a school at all times – and in residential areas in general – so reduce your speed and pay extra attention to the road.
Accidents can also happen when someone is distracted. This goes for drivers and pedestrians alike. The Heads Up mottos of "See and Be Seen" and "Disconnect from Distractions" relate to this and remind all residents to focus on one thing at a time.
See and Be Seen speaks to both pedestrians and drivers. If you are behind the wheel, it is incumbent upon you to anticipate pedestrians at crosswalks – even more so when you are in a school zone with an increased likelihood that people will be crossing the street. For students and their parents, See and Be Seen is a reminder to look both ways before crossing and make eye contact with stopped drivers, so you know they have seen you before you continue.
Disconnect from Distractions and put your phone and other devices away until you have reached your destination. Using your phone to talk or text without a hands-free device while driving is against the law in California, and it also takes your attention away from the road.
Walking to and from school while looking down at your phone keeps you from being able to see vehicles when you are approaching an intersection, as well as cars approaching the crosswalk that may not have seen you, creating a recipe for disaster. At the same time, it is important to remove your headphones because listening to music makes it much harder to hear emergency vehicles.
Please talk to your young kids and student drivers to reinforce the good habits that contribute to traffic safety in Santa Clarita. It may seem like second nature, but reviewing your own driving and walking behaviors will also shed light on changes that can be made to be an even better safety role model going forward.
Traffic safety is the responsibility of every resident in Santa Clarita. At this time of year, it is as important as ever to add a few extra minutes to our daily routines so we don't cut corners when it comes to safety. With children excited to see friends on campus and parents rushing around between pick-up, drop-off and work schedules, it can be easy to have a momentary lapse in judgment. By adding a few extra minutes to our schedules, we can remain calm and take preventative actions that keep our families and others safe.
Please take time to be a heads-up driver and pedestrian and ensure this back-to-school season is happy and safe for all.
Mayor Bill Miranda is a member of the Santa Clarita City Council and can be reached at [email protected]
Jason Gibbs | You've Got a Friend at City Hall
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text:
Winterton
Parents say school stabbing cannot be allowed to happen again as police insist safety is top priority
Police have said the safety of young people and school staff was the most important thing following an incident at Winterton Community Academy on Monday
Parents of pupils at a school where a staff member was stabbed by a pupil have said it cannot be allowed to happen again.
Joy Simon, 61, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed by a pupil in her office at Winterton Community Academy on Monday morning.
A 16-year-old girl has been charged with attempted murder and appeared in court yesterday.
Police spent the entire day at the school and both police and the school's head Gareth Morris moved to reassure panicked parents it was an "isolated incident."
Humberside Police attending the incident at Winterton Community Academy.
Following a special meeting on Tuesday night, one shocked parent said: "We are here for reassurance and to see if the school will be putting in security checks - that is more important than anything, it can't happen again."
Community's shock at Winterton Community Academy stabbing
But today, Superintendent Dave Hall of Humberside Police insisted the safety of young people and school staff was the top priority.
He said: "North Lincolnshire is a safe place to live and incidents like this are rare. We work with schools, academies and the local authority to create a safe environment that allows children and young people to achieve their full potential.
"The safety of young people and school staff is our number one priority."
He said everyone in the community had a role, including parents, pupils and teaching staff, not to "rest on laurels" but to speak out about any risks to the safety of people in schools.
Humberside Police Superindendent Dave Hall, pictured outside Scunthorpe Police Station
He told how Humberside Police is part of the force-wide Safer School Partnership to provide consistency in relation to safeguarding and security in schools.
Superintendent Hall said: "This is built on a model of early intervention by community police officers and PCSOs who engage with teachers and young people.
Parents send best wishes to school stab victim
"That is so they can come forward to raise concerns and that allows us to intervene at the earliest possible opportunity.
"We are in schools in North Lincolnshire on regular occasions so we can create that environment where people have confidence to come forward. That way we can provide the appropriate level of intervention and matters will be dealt with proportionately. the safety of young people is the Number One priority."
He added: "If people have concerns they will be listened to and their concerns will be taken seriously.
"We are also part of the curriculum aiming to keep young people safe through advice about safety on-line, Stranger Danger and personal safety issues. That enables young people to develop personal resilience."
Superintendent Hall said: "Through partnership, we review best practice looking at vulnerability and we don't rest on our laurels. We are constantly learning lessons."
Humberside Police


Tao of Sound is the band/production team comprised of multi-instrumentalists Taku Hirano and Daniel Pearson. Taku is one of the top-call percussionists on the touring and recording circuit. Daniel is Bass Player/Composer/Producer and has written and composed music for television productions and motion pictures. These world-class musicians have performed live, recorded with, and consulted a who's who in the music industry, spanning practically every genre of popular music. Their music has been heard on HBO, NBC, ABC, PBS, and major motion picture scores for Twentieth Century-Fox and DreamWorks, film soundtracks for DreamWorks, Atlantic Records, and Capitol Records.
Tao of Sound has worked with some of biggest names in the American music industry, from almost every genre of music including Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Lopez, Nine Inch Nails, Whitney Houston, Nelly Furtado, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Prodigy, Dr. Dre and Lionel Richie. Internationally, they have performed and recordings with two-time Academy Award-winning Indian film composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), Japanese pop superstar Utada Hikaru, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Golden Globe/Grammy Award-winning artist, Kitaro.
As expert remix artists, recently Tao of Sound has worked for Kanye West's "Heartless" and tracks from the Michael Jackson Remix Suite.
Combining Zen-like Eastern influences with electronic beats and rock swagger, Tao of Sound delivered a striking, memorable debut from Domo Records in June 2010.
Their latest release "RONIN" in 2013 allows Tao Of Sound to step to the front of the stage with their eclectic, ever-changing style. From their first album to RONIN's edgy pop sounds and epic world-electronica orchestrations, Tao Of Sound has carved out a completely original musical identity.


text:
Architect, Park Thyself
Ian Baldwin
Bon Marche garage, by George Applegarth, 1960. [Image credit: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections]
The history of American development in the 20th century is a history of the car.
In the first half of the century, America converted itself from a society that moved on streetcars, trains and horse-wagons into one that moved in buses, cars and trucks. As national affluence and mass motorization nested snugly into each other's legends, the purr of the internal-combustion engine became an urgent growl to remake town and country as pliant hosts of the automobile. It was heeded. One-third of the typical American city is asphalt. In the second half of the century, we dealt with the consequences, and muddle through them still. The auto-urban relationship — fumbling, overheated, unsatisfying for both parties — never stands still long enough to be rationally inspected. But there is one place where city and car merge into stasis: the parking garage.
For simply presenting this long-overdue look at a building type that makes the modern city possible, the National Building Museum's House of Cars: Innovation and the Parking Garage, (on view through July 11) deserves much credit. It deserves more for being doggedly focused and well-organized, if somewhat limited in scope.
The exhibit's first sections look at the emergence of car culture in the early 20th century, and here the skills of the curatorial team, ably led by Sarah Leavitt, are most evident. Packing an extraordinary amount of archival finds into the relatively small exhibition, it details a clear timeline in which cars forged the path later followed by computers: from high-tech novelty to household appliance in the space of two decades. By the onset of the Great Depression, 80 percent of American families owned one.
Car jockeys in uniforms, circa 1930. Wheeling, West Virginia. [Image credit: West Virginia State Archives, Don Hawkins Collection]
Well before suburbia and the automobile became indivisible, the car was an urban phenomenon whose sudden appearance caused havoc with downtown streets and traffic. The spatial problem became so acute that following a 1920 streetcar strike, Los Angeles banned daytime curbside parking downtown (business owners and drivers rose up in anger; the ban was shortly repealed). While an off-street place to park appealed to city fathers, it was also a perfect solution for drivers, who needed an indoor facility to store and service the relatively fragile machines. Early garages doubled, logically, as repair shops and filling stations. They also played a civic role in appearance, their designers cladding them with glazed terra-cotta facades and operable windows.
The interiors of these structures offered innovations such as reinforced concrete ramps and car-sized elevators, with tight clearances reflecting the fact that all parking was done by attendants. One of the exhibit's unearthed gems is a photo of a Wheeling, West Virginia, garage in '30s showing the half-dozen car jockeys outfitted in the military style of the era, complete with polished boots, riding breeches, and Sam Browne belts. Parking your own car, like pumping your own gas, would not become common until the 1970s.
What's striking about the photographs of garages from the golden age of the late 1920s is how many were able to attain the scale and refinement of contemporary office buildings. Equally pleasing, in their heyday, were Bauhaus-inspired garages like Robert Law Weed's 1948 split-level deck in Miami, expressing the poetics of the spare concrete frame. A floor-to-ceiling nighttime photograph of George Applegarth's Bon Marche garage, opened in 1960 in Seattle and recently defaced by a new façade, speaks to the shared fluidity of concrete and cars.
Louis Kahn, cylindrical garages within circular towers. [Image credit: The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania]
The seeming takeover of everyday life and public space by automobiles in the 60s and 70s spawned defensive efforts to remove the car from the city (Ulrich Franzen's Queens Sector) or push it deep into the urban fabric (Louis Kahn's plan for cylindrical garages within circular towers). That battle having been lost, we're left with guerilla cheek like Moskow Linn's pez-dispenser proposal for ZipCars.
You can't help but think despairingly of how economics hijacks design in today's low, flat, and vast garages, whose small-minded gestures at urban participation like street-level retail or pseudo-historic facades are clumsy attempts to fool all the people all the time. On the inside, the alienating emptiness of the garage is a meme for the uneasy banality of modern life, as compellingly suggested by Peter Rose's documentary voyage through an empty garage. An opposing technique, the garage as sexed-up object, is on view as well: Eric Owen Moss's edgy millennial blob in Culver City is sandwiched between two projects down the freeway in Santa Monica, Frank Gehry's 1980 Santa Monica Place and the Civic Center Garage by Moore Ruble Yudell, which opened in 2007 as the first LEED-certified parking structure.
The show only half-bats an eyelash at the notion of a "green" parking garage, and even shows a model of another, a head-scratching project — Leven Betts's Filter Park Garage in Chicago — that uses a giant slab across the JFK expressway in Chicago to park 1,000 cars while somehow promising to clean the air. It does, to its credit, suggest the silliness of New Urbanist developments heavily reliant on parking and mentions, obliquely, the damage wrought by motor infrastructure in cities. One of the show's most revealing photographs is an aerial shot of a project under construction in Atlanta, showing the 7,000-space substructure that will support the "transit-friendly" community above.
Leven Betts Studio, Filter Park Garage proposal. [Image credit: Leven Betts Studio]
Eric Owen Moss, Wedgewood Holly Complex, Culver City, CA. [Image credit: Eric Owen Moss Architects]
But it also has some passages ("many think parking structures can also promote downtown travel, indirectly protecting historic districts that otherwise could be seen as inaccessible") that will have visitors wondering if the lead sponsor National Parking Association had some hand in the show's content. For the record, it didn't.
One doesn't go to national museums expecting cultural assumptions to quake, but this museum exists to promote engagement with the built environment, and staring out a car window is only one, highly superficial, form of engagement. At a moment when environmental awareness, urban consciousness and design sensibility seem to be enjoying a rebirth in this country, the exhibit wants for tougher questions.
For example, does it make sense to celebrate garages as iconic when the traffic they serve has played such a large role in cheapening the built realm? Is the waste inherent in this "infrastructure of empty space" sustainable? Can a garage be good because it is not that eyesore so common in American downtowns, the asphalt surface lot?
Moskow Linn, ZipCar dispenser proposal. [Image credit: Moskow Linn Architects Inc.]
Unfortunately, the high-design garages highlighted by the show are an infinitesimal percentage of the stock. Precast parking decks can now be "designed" by software and erected in a couple months, but will have a decades-long effect on the cityscape. After so much bitter urban-renewal experience, why do dour, overscaled parking blocks still regularly victimize cityscapes?
There may be some relief on the horizon in the form of new technologies enabling smaller, automated garages. Lifts for shunting vehicles up, down, back and forth were first deployed in the 1950s (the exhibit plays period newsreels enthusing over systems with names like Park-O-Mat and Pigeon Hole) but the dominance of self-parking ramped garages moved further advancements abroad. The urban real estate boom may bring them back: a 408-car automated garage, which would be the densest in the country, is planned for a historic neighborhood in Baltimore.
Until mechanical sophistication makes it economically viable to tuck garages inside, under, and behind more buildings, however, we are stuck with the garage as a (typically unwilling) work of architecture. There is enough compelling material on display here to argue that even if the program of car parking is banal, its design should not be.
For an architectural call to arms in garage design, look no further than Simon Henley's superb study, which appeared in paperback earlier this year. Henley, an architect with his own firm in England, tells much of the same story as House of Cars, but takes advantage of his format to deepen his inquiry into the architectural soul of the garage and expand his research beyond the US to Western Europe and the UK.
The Architecture of Parking [Thames & Hudson, 2007] is a labor of love. Henley seems to verge on what the British would call an anorak for garages; he leads bicycle tours of London car parks and seeks out foreign ones when he travels. Yet it's hard to imagine a book of this scope being as delightful as it is without this dedication. Over 250 pages, Henley discusses over 50 garages in detail with text, excellent photographs and architectural drawings. This forces the complaint that the book's lack of an index limits its value as a reference.
Another complaint might be that the book swims a bit too happily in its own tank. While I've faulted House of Cars for not taking a hard enough look at parking's deleterious effects, at least the exhibition raises some questions. Henley's intense focus is on the garage as architecture. He coolly identifies our "addiction," and like a bartender serving a drunk, sets up the next round.
But if there's a book to entice one on a morally ambiguous design bender, this is it.
Henley's introductory essays laying out the programmatic and aesthetic evolution of the garage are deeply knowledgeable and finely written. The featured garages are grouped into four sections — Matter (concrete), Light, Elevation, and Obliquity (geometry and ramping) — defining the essential "garageness" of parking architecture.
OMA, Souterrain, The Hague. [Image via architecture-page]
The examples span time and Europe, from Venice's skylit, spiral-ramped Autorimessa Comunale of 1931 to OMA's 2004 Souterrain in The Hague, a potentially paradigm-shifting project combining a horizontal garage with transit stations underground. Henley gives a fair and full accounting of UK and US brutalist projects from the 1960s, such as Portsmouth, England's now-demolished Tricorn Centre, and New Haven's Temple Street Garage by Paul Rudolph.
Some wonderful examples come from Germany. The 1953 Parkhaus Haniel in Dusseldorf juxtaposes poured-concrete butterfly columns with a gauzy glass skin (it evokes strongly Eero Saarinen's Dulles Airport, designed five years later). Three more recent garages have achieved a rich surface hapticity by wrapping themselves in bamboo, larch, and pine.
The Architecture of Parking has enough compelling images and drawings that it could have easily denigrated into a visually driven coffee-table book. Thankfully, Simon Henley's love for an under-loved subject has given us a valuable work of scholarship and an inspiring sourcebook for designers. It is one of my favorite architecture books of recent years.
Ian Baldwin, "Architect, Park Thyself," Places Journal, January 2010. Accessed 22 Jan 2022. https://doi.org/10.22269/100125
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Past Discussions View
wow nice. This is really amazing.
B.McGuigan
Interesting read and relation/reaction to the "new urbanist" movement.
I saw this somewhere and immediately thought of the article
http://www.lstudio.com/lines/parking-structure.html
It's a video that (of all people) Lexus sponsors on the parking systems & architecture of the past/today and tomorrow
Our historical progress marked by this obsession with the car, its implication for mobility, personal symbolic significance and its repercussions on the architectural landscape its leading us to a far tedious and unsustainable city development practices.
It's cheerful to note that Simon conducts bicycle tours.
Thanks for the link to the L Studio video. This film is shown at the NBM exhibit and it includes an interview clips with "Architecture of Parking" author Simon Henley.
Ashiaali
Good Post! Very informative, glad that you are going to continue writing things like this!
http://www.cooperburns.co.uk
Wow, even the most mundane and boring of architecture has found its way into the art world... very interesting read.
It's so common now for published material to be solely intended to sell something or to advance the cause of the writer in one way or another. It was refreshing to read something that is actually intended to benefit the reader, as this article was. Great work!
The information put together in this article is extremely valuable to anyone with even a passing interest in this area. I hope you continue to cover this topic.
Ian Baldwin is an architect and critic based in New England.
More by Ian Baldwin
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The Architecture of Harry Weese
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text:
Opinion: How Russia could become a U.S. ally
As the Kremlin stokes the conflict in Ukraine, there's lots of talk about a Cold War redux.
Opinion: How Russia could become a U.S. ally As the Kremlin stokes the conflict in Ukraine, there's lots of talk about a Cold War redux. Check out this story on htrnews.com: http://htrne.ws/1NbJ0xB
Published 2:29 p.m. CT June 24, 2015 | Updated 8:49 a.m. CT June 29, 2015
Mikhail Khodorkovsky(Photo: AP)
As the Kremlin stokes the conflict in Ukraine and ratchets up tensions with NATO, there's lots of talk about a Cold War redux.
So it was fascinating to hear Mikhail Khodorkovsky — the billionaire oil magnate whom Russian President Vladimir Putin imprisoned for a decade — describe a Russia that could be a democratic ally of America and Europe 10 or 20 years from now.
"Sooner or later, the system will collapse," Khodorkovsky told the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington last week, adding, "After Putin, the situation will change."
Freed by Putin just before the Sochi Olympics and now living in exile in Switzerland, the 51-year-old dissident urged Western nations to prepare for that future.
"The West must establish close relations with the European-oriented part of Russia and (plan for) rapid reintegration into the global system after the regime changes," he warned, because "we're not going to have a big window of opportunity."
With Putin firmly ensconced in power and cracking down on any opposition, this does sound like a pipe dream. The ease with which Putin restored authoritarian rule and the huge domestic support for his seizure of Crimea seem to offer scant hope for a democratic Russia. Yet there is good reason to ponder Khodorkovsky's advice.
For one thing, the former magnate's own biography puts him in a unique position to raise these issues. Khodorkovsky was one of the so-called oligarchs who bought chunks of Russia's natural resources for a song during the wild 1990s, when Russia was making the transition from communism to capitalism. Khodorkovsky's early reputation was not too savory; when I interviewed him at the World Economic Forum more than a dozen years ago, he seemed hard and cold.
But unlike other oligarchs, Khodorkovsky transformed his oil company, Yukos, into a giant ready to play by international standards and rules. He also contributed funds to Russian opposition groups, which is why the Kremlin trumped up tax-evasion charges against him, seized his company, and sent him to Siberia.
Now, in exile, he funds the Open Russia Foundation, which helps struggling Russian civil-society groups.
Khodorkovsky unofficially represents the urban, educated Russians who demonstrated by the tens of thousands in Moscow and other cities in 2012, calling for a more open and less corrupt political system. They are the main hope for Russia's future, even though they don't yet have a leader. (It's not clear whether Khodorkovsky seeks that role.)
Moreover, as Khodorkovsky points out, the Russian population is geographically oriented toward Europe. Although the vast Russian landmass lies mostly in Asia, "out of 140 million (people), 120 million live in the European part," he said. "And that part is increasing. After people figure that out, the question of whether Russia is or isn't a European country won't exist."
Indeed, it is bizarre that the Russian economy is still so dependent on oil, gas, and other natural resources, many of which have been renationalized and are run in an opaque, third-world fashion, with large sums reportedly siphoned off to serve the political interests of Kremlin cronies.
With its educated population, rich in engineering and other technical skills, post-Soviet Russia should be leading the way in high-tech innovation, on par with Europe and the United States. Instead, mafia-style corruption and heavy-handed government regulations thwart such development.
Rather than catching up with the West, Putin relies on energy income as if he were an oil despot in a developing country. And his much-touted turn to Asia depends heavily on disadvantageous energy deals with China, which threaten to put Russia in thrall to Beijing.
At some point Putin's economic mismanagement may boomerang.
Khodorkovsky said the current confrontation between Russia and the West is "absolutely artificial," promoted by Putin and Russian elites to help them hold on to power.
"They desperately need an enemy which will distract the populace from all the corruption," he said, "and inflaming them (against the West) is the only effective mechanism for the survival of the regime." That's why he believes there is no hope that Putin will abide by any strategic agreement with the West on Ukraine.
Meantime, the Russian president has been able to convince his own people that the West is a huge threat to Russia. The Kremlin maintains near-total control of national electronic and print media, which tell the Russian people the war in Ukraine is all America's fault.
Khodorkovsky does not say how he thinks a post-Putin reality could evolve. (Some Russian analysts believe it can happen only after Putin dies.) But he makes a couple of essential points.
First, many Russians actually want what democracy offers, even though they reject the concept. They associate democracy with the economic disaster caused by the failed transitional period of the 1990s, after the Soviet Union collapsed. But if you ask them whether they want an independent judiciary, fair local elections, and other elements of democratic life, they will say yes.
Second, the Russian dissident insists that countries can change their political culture and that Russians are not doomed by their history to despotism. Germany, he points out, became a democracy, albeit under Allied occupation.
Third, U.S. and European officials should think now about how to integrate a post-Putin Russia no matter how far off it is. "In the end, this will entail accession to NATO and the European Union," he argued.
Of course, repeated efforts after 1991 to link Russia to the European Union and NATO failed, for reasons far more complex than the eastward expansion of NATO. It's not clear what formula would work in the future.
Yet Khodorkovsky is correct to prod U.S. and European leaders to exercise more imagination, and not to give up on future generations of Russians. As Putin tries to provoke fears of a new Cold War, it's not too soon for them to start brainstorming about what now seems inconceivable: a Russia in tune with the West.
Read or Share this story: http://htrne.ws/1NbJ0xB
Manitowoc seniors: It's tax season. Here's where to find help.


text:
From the editorial advisory board: Local youth…
From the editorial advisory board: Local youth sue over environment
By Daily Camera |
This week's question: An 11-year-old boy whose neighborhood burned in the Fourmile Fire has joined with a friend afraid of losing favorite hiking trails and an 18-year-old student with a growing asthmatic condition in a lawsuit filed in Boulder County District Court against the state for failing to protect the environment. The lawsuit is part of a youth effort in all 50 states. A nationwide team of legal experts has been assembled through the nonprofit organization Our Children's Trust to represent the young people in their lawsuits. What do you think?
A group of students is suing the state for failing to protect the environment. While this may be a clever way of garnering media attention, it is a misguided and inappropriate use of our judicial system. This is at best a silly distraction from the hard work of developing long term solutions to our environmental problems.
In our society lawsuits are being used like get-rich-quick schemes. Teaching our children that large complicated problems can be solved by assigning blame and then filing a lawsuit is short sighted and irresponsible.
I applaud these young people`s activism. They should be encouraged. Their passion for the environment can bring about real change. The Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the formation of the EPA, all came about because passionate citizens pressured the government to act.
We need more environmental legislation. We need to make sure we continue to fund agencies like the EPA. We need to elect representatives to Congress who believe that environmental stewardship should be a top priority for our government.
Rather than file a frivolous lawsuit, how about rallying their friends and their friends` parents to take up their cause. They should identify candidates at all levels of government who are on their side and work to get them elected. They can call, email and visit their elected representatives and show them that the will of the people is not to be denied. That is what democracy is all about.
Judy Amabile
jamabile570@earthlink.net
I`d like to express my admiration for the young men and women who announced that they intend to sue the federal and state governments for failing protect our environment, even though I suspect that there must be grownups behind the scenes calling the shots.
If we as individuals would take serious steps to improve the environment even in modest ways, the politicians would take us seriously. Right now, politicians continue business as usual because they don`t see us as being serious about creating a cleaner world.
While it is true that governments have a major role in protecting our environment, and should be sued if they fail in this mission, we ought not to ignore what we as individuals should be doing to create a living world for our children and grandchildren.
We unthinkingly do things on a daily basis that adversely affect the environment. Driving cars when we could be riding a bus or a bicycle. Using plastics that will last 1,000 years. Generating too much garbage that threatens to overwhelm our dumps. Using too many forest products, such as paper. Do we really need Kleenex when handkerchiefs are renewable?
A related problem is that we are caught in a cultural treadmill that the corporate world insists on feeding us primarily through advertising. For example, If we began avoiding products that carried too much packaging, the corporations would adopt and reduce their use.
Keep in mind: There is no infinite growth in a finite world.
Marc Raizman
marcraizman@yahoo.com
Environmental agencies have dropped the ball according to some outspoken youth in Boulder and throughout the country. I think they are right. Little wonder that young people are demanding more positive action from state and federal authorities responsible for slowing climate change, protecting endangered species, and enforcing pollution control laws. Too many adults are complacent about melting Arctic ice caps. We drive single occupancy vehicles too much. We don`t bring cloth bags to the grocery. Our residences devour energy. This pent up frustration among youth will be demonstrated today with the "iMatter March" in Denver and around the nation. These protesting kids are worried about their future. I salute them marching for a good cause.
Besides the youth mobilization, lawsuits will be filed to get agencies to reduce global warming and enforce environmental protections. Instead of lawsuits these concerned and dedicated kids and their parents might have more success by electing officials that will reign in the worst polluters such as electric utilities, Monsanto, Exxon, Bechtel, Massey Energy, Peabody Energy, Cargill, or local carbon emitters.
Another non-violent action would be encircling offices of legislators apathetic to global warming. Or convincing parents and friends to consume less, drive less, eat less red meat and become energy self sufficient. According to Bill McKibben, the "curb carbon czar" and founder of 350.org, Congress (including both political parties) refuses to halt carbon emissions. We need to help our youth kick our carbon addictions if global warming is to be mitigated.
Spense Havlick
havlick@colorado.edu
This lawsuit raises three points for me. First, what is the role of an individual state or local government in the solution of a global problem? In my nearly 40 years working in and for governments, I`ve developed great respect for the grave limitations of governmental entities to solve broad social problems or engage in grand social experiments. We have done it before, but I think the global environmental problem dwarfs all previous problems.
Yet what is the alternative? Can we wait for voluntary action? Do we need something like a global green benevolent despot? I, for one, come up without an answer other than to continue muddling through. Ultimately is the solution a zero population growth, low consumption global society?
Second, what would that society look like? Would we all be self sufficient peasant farmers, except with really cool camping gear and high speed Internet access? Let me take a cue from my neighbor`s bumper sticker. Do we ban animal agriculture? What set of statutes and regulations will constitute an ultimate solution to this problem? What enforcement apparatus will work? We currently struggle just to enforce parking, weed, trash, and noise problems.
Finally, I think the kids involved in this exercise will learn a lot. This lawsuit may get nowhere. If it proceeds, the kids will learn that litigation is lengthy, costly and painful. The Scott Carpenter skatepark started with a bunch of kids making an appeal to City Council. This is a long-shot, but it raises the big issues.
stevefisher2995@yahoo.com
The Kids vs Global Warming 52 lawsuits aim to invoke a common law doctrine of protection of the public trust as a fiduciary duty of governments. They demand that the atmosphere be judged a public trust to be preserved, like land and water, for future generations.
Launched in 50 states including Colorado, the suits will be heard throughout the land and are a key way for the youth to be heard. They cannot vote or raise sufficient cash to lobby Congress; but they are nonetheless the inheritors of today`s pollution delivered through institutional support for polluting industries. They have standing as an injured party as surely the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide endangers human health.
The youth could not have more daunting science to buttress their case. Geoscientists are now holding that we have entered into a new geological period called the Anthropocene marked by sustained human impact on the earth`s biological conditions through resource depletion and climate disruption. And the National Research Council this week issued a requested report warning Congress about the grave advance of human-caused climate disruption that will thrust "profound" threat on future generations. Like the youth, the NRC calls for action on a national level.
The kids` somewhat quixotic efforts perhaps could be aimed at Exxon Mobil for apparently funding a team of denier-skeptics who have co-authored a blizzard of supposedly independent papers opposing conclusions of climate science, with the result of misleading federal officials who in turn block climate action. Perhaps in time they will.
Anne B. Butterfield
annebbutterfield@yahoo.com
(The Camera`s editorial advisory board members are: Judy Amabile, Anne B. Butterfield, Ed Byrne, Jimmy Calano, Dave Ensign, Clay Evans, Steve Fisher, Spense Havlick, Cinda Kochen, Marc Raizman, and Brian T. Schwartz.)
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Dear white conservatives:
Letters to the editor: Marshall Fire and alarms; climate change; Marshall Fire and inclusivity; COVID-19 and children
Opinion: Leslie Glustrom: Marshall Fire carries the fingerprint of climate change


I love garlic. There is just something about the aromas of a head of garlic roasting that make me want tons of pasta and more! Not everyone understands about how to roast garlic. It's not hard at all, and after roasting it, it becomes this wonderfully sweet flavor!
Slice the top end off of the garlic bulb about 1/4-inch. Place the garlic bulb on a sheet of aluminum foil.
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper.
Fold the foil to form a cocoon around it and place in the oven for one hour.
Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 4-6 minutes. Then, remove garlic bulb from foil packet.
Squeeze garlic bulb at bottom end to remove garlic cloves from the bulb.
Use for any purpose where garlic is required.
Word of warning to you! If you eat a lot of garlic, it will come out of your pores and make you SMELL like garlic, so be very careful how much you use and how much you eat, because when you get done roasting it, you will definitely want to eat it!
What are your favorite recipes for using garlic?


The Huawei Ascend P7 has been leaked, again. This time official images of the device are coming from China's certification program. The device has a mysterious button.
After a leaked press image of the Huawei Ascend P7 emerged just yesterday, and just 3 days till the start of MWC more details for the new slim Huawei machine emerge.
Posted on Weibo today, this could possibly be the first official image of the Huawei Ascend P7 "Sophia".
Hasn't been long since we first talked about the successor of the Huawei Ascend P6 and the MediaPad X1. Earlier today, this flagship smartphone-budget tablet combo made a brief appearance thanks to the spy cam.
An internal document from Huawei has leaked the specifications for the Huawei Ascend P7.


On April 16, a new building will open at Paris-Orly airport, connecting the former West and South terminals. Paris-Orly airport will therefore become a single terminal, structured around 4 Departure and Arrival zones, Orly 1, 2, 3 and 4, replacing the South and West terminals. This single terminal will make the travel experience easier, faster and more customer-friendly.
On March 19, Paris Aéroports introduced new signage to prepare for the opening of the new building, known as Orly 3. To limit the inconvenience, all the changes were made overnight, from March 18 to 19. In just a few hours, 6,500 interior and exterior display panels and signs were modified.
The historic names of Orly-West and Orly-South have now been abandoned. The new names of Orly 1, 2, 3 and 4 correspond to the departure and arrival areas: 1, 2, 3 and 4. The check-in "halls" and boarding "areas" have also disappeared to give way to check-in "zones" and boarding "gates".
Whether customers are departing, arriving or have a connection at Paris-Orly, everything is clearly indicated on the many display panels and signs (and on their boarding pass for departing passengers). To reach your check-in zone, pick up your bags or find your connecting flight, simply follow the signs.
Until the new Orly 3 building is officially opened, Air France flights, including La Navette flights, will continue to operate in the same zones as before. Only the names have changed.


text:
Portstewart Football Club appoint new Head of Youth Development
The Premier Intermediate League outfit launched a new Academy last summer
Jonathan McCrudden (Image: Portstewart FC)
Portstewart Football & Community Club have announced the appointment of Jonathan McCrudden to the position of Head of Youth Development.
The Premier Intermediate League outfit launched a new Academy last summer.
McCrudden will help develop Portstewart's young players who will one day play for the club's senior team.
"It has been a key position for us to fill since the launch of our New Academy back in July of last year and we are delighted that Jonathan has taken up the role," said Freddie McGowan, Portstewart FC chairman.
"We got the man who fits the high standards we have set for our Academy.
NI Football League says it was 'blindsided' by Irish Cup news
Amateur League 2020/21 season cancelled amid ongoing coronavirus restrictions
"He will bring unrivalled enthusiasm and dedication to his new role and his philosophies and standards will raise the level not only of our players but also our coaches in our quest to develop our young players.
"Listening to his vision for the future development of the club's Academy is refreshing, preparing our young players for the best possible chance of breaking through to our senior set up is extremely exciting and is another solid brick in the foundation of our great club."
Irish Cup
Northern Amateur Football League
Northern Ireland Football League


The Marvel Cinematic Universe is not ready for Carol Danvers.
Originally tipped for an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War – word is the Russo Brothers filmed scenes involving Brie Larson's heroine, only to shelve them at the 11th hour – Miss. Danvers is now expected to make her MCU debut next March, when the long-anticipated Captain Marvel solo movie takes flight.
Touting a who's who of Hollywood talent and a deeply nostalgic 1990s setting, Marvel's first female-led blockbuster has all the makings of a special, ground-breaking expansion of the MCU, and while attending last night's premiere of Infinity War, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Variety that Captain Marvel is far and away the strongest superhero they've ever introduced.
You're going to get the most powerful superhero we've ever introduced and what I think is one of the most unique and inspiring origin stories. We are a little less than halfway through filming now. We had an early call time this morning so they could finish and get here for the premiere tonight and then they'll be back early tomorrow. It's going extremely well, and it's a great cast on that film.
There's also the small matter of Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, two fan-favorites who are set to feature pretty prominently in the standalone movie from co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The former character is of particular importance to Feige, given he helped formed The Avengers six years ago and ostensibly redraw the parameters that make up the comic book movie genre.
Being able to tap into Carol Danvers story for the very first time — to bring that to the screen and tap into an era of the MCU we've never been in the '90s. To see a version of Nick Fury whose reached a point in his career where he thought the wars over and the best days are behind him.
Certain things he encounters in this movie sets him up for the path where we are 19 films later. It's really special, and I can't wait for us to finish it, cut it together, put it in theaters so people can see it, and then people can go see the next Avengers film next year.
Captain Marvel will help bridge the gap between Infinity War and Avengers 4 when it touches down in theaters on March 8th, 2019.


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text:
Q: MySQL had to be shutdown because of a faulty JS script. Now it won't start anymore even if no changes were made Edit: It seems this issue is happening for a lot of people:
XAMPP - Error: MySQL shutdown unexpectedly
https://community.apachefriends.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=78728
Same exact error.

This is my local setup and there are the logs:
InnoDB: using atomic writes.
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use Windows interlocked functions
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Uses event mutexes
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.11
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Number of pools: 1
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Using SSE2 crc32 instructions
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, total size = 16M, instances = 1, chunk size = 16M
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: 128 out of 128 rollback segments are active.
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Creating shared tablespace for temporary tables
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Setting file 'C:\xampp\mysql\data\ibtmp1' size to 12 MB. Physically writing the file full; Please wait ...
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: File 'C:\xampp\mysql\data\ibtmp1' size is now 12 MB.
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Waiting for purge to start
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: 10.4.8 started; log sequence number 113854; transaction id 9
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Loading buffer pool(s) from C:\xampp\mysql\data\ib_buffer_pool
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] Plugin 'FEEDBACK' is disabled.
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] InnoDB: Buffer pool(s) load completed at 191121  9:48:22
2019-11-21  9:48:22 0 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '::'.

I made a mistake in my JS script, which prompted everything a heavy infinite loop:
for(let i = 0; i <= numberOfDemos++; i++ ) {

...and then everything had to be shut down.
Here's my config (the server has way bigger numbers, of course, but it shouldn't matter):
# Example MySQL config file for small systems.
#
# This is for a system with little memory (<= 64M) where MySQL is only used
# from time to time and it's important that the mysqld daemon
# doesn't use much resources.
#
# You can copy this file to
# C:/xampp/mysql/bin/my.cnf to set global options,
# mysql-data-dir/my.cnf to set server-specific options (in this
# installation this directory is C:/xampp/mysql/data) or
# ~/.my.cnf to set user-specific options.
#
# In this file, you can use all long options that a program supports.
# If you want to know which options a program supports, run the program
# with the "--help" option.

# The following options will be passed to all MySQL clients
[client]
# password       = your_password
port=3306
socket="C:/xampp/mysql/mysql.sock"

# Here follows entries for some specific programs

# The MySQL server
default-character-set=utf8mb4
[mysqld]
port=3306
socket="C:/xampp/mysql/mysql.sock"
basedir="C:/xampp/mysql"
tmpdir="C:/xampp/tmp"
datadir="C:/xampp/mysql/data"
pid_file="mysql.pid"
# enable-named-pipe
key_buffer=16M
max_allowed_packet=1M
sort_buffer_size=512K
net_buffer_length=8K
read_buffer_size=256K
read_rnd_buffer_size=512K
myisam_sort_buffer_size=8M
log_error="mysql_error.log"

# Change here for bind listening
# bind-address="127.0.0.1"
# bind-address = ::1          # for ipv6

# Where do all the plugins live
plugin_dir="C:/xampp/mysql/lib/plugin/"

# Don't listen on a TCP/IP port at all. This can be a security enhancement,
# if all processes that need to connect to mysqld run on the same host.
# All interaction with mysqld must be made via Unix sockets or named pipes.
# Note that using this option without enabling named pipes on Windows
# (via the "enable-named-pipe" option) will render mysqld useless!
#
# commented in by lampp security
#skip-networking
#skip-federated

# Replication Master Server (default)
# binary logging is required for replication
# log-bin deactivated by default since XAMPP 1.4.11
#log-bin=mysql-bin

# required unique id between 1 and 2^32 - 1
# defaults to 1 if master-host is not set
# but will not function as a master if omitted
server-id   =1

# Replication Slave (comment out master section to use this)
#
# To configure this host as a replication slave, you can choose between
# two methods :
#
# 1) Use the CHANGE MASTER TO command (fully described in our manual) -
#    the syntax is:
#
#    CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST=<host>, MASTER_PORT=<port>,
#    MASTER_USER=<user>, MASTER_PASSWORD=<password> ;
#
#    where you replace <host>, <user>, <password> by quoted strings and
#    <port> by the master's port number (3306 by default).
#
#    Example:
#
#    CHANGE MASTER TO MASTER_HOST='125.564.12.1', MASTER_PORT=3306,
#    MASTER_USER='joe', MASTER_PASSWORD='secret';
#
# OR
#
# 2) Set the variables below. However, in case you choose this method, then
#    start replication for the first time (even unsuccessfully, for example
#    if you mistyped the password in master-password and the slave fails to
#    connect), the slave will create a master.info file, and any later
#    change in this file to the variables' values below will be ignored and
#    overridden by the content of the master.info file, unless you shutdown
#    the slave server, delete master.info and restart the slaver server.
#    For that reason, you may want to leave the lines below untouched
#    (commented) and instead use CHANGE MASTER TO (see above)
#
# required unique id between 2 and 2^32 - 1
# (and different from the master)
# defaults to 2 if master-host is set
# but will not function as a slave if omitted
#server-id       = 2
#
# The replication master for this slave - required
#master-host     =   <hostname>
#
# The username the slave will use for authentication when connecting
# to the master - required
#master-user     =   <username>
#
# The password the slave will authenticate with when connecting to
# the master - required
#master-password =   <password>
#
# The port the master is listening on.
# optional - defaults to 3306
#master-port     =  <port>
#
# binary logging - not required for slaves, but recommended
#log-bin=mysql-bin

# Point the following paths to different dedicated disks
#tmpdir = "C:/xampp/tmp"
#log-update = /path-to-dedicated-directory/hostname

# Uncomment the following if you are using BDB tables
#bdb_cache_size = 4M
#bdb_max_lock = 10000

# Comment the following if you are using InnoDB tables
#skip-innodb
innodb_data_home_dir="C:/xampp/mysql/data"
innodb_data_file_path=ibdata1:10M:autoextend
innodb_log_group_home_dir="C:/xampp/mysql/data"
#innodb_log_arch_dir = "C:/xampp/mysql/data"
## You can set .._buffer_pool_size up to 50 - 80 %
## of RAM but beware of setting memory usage too high
innodb_buffer_pool_size=16M
## Set .._log_file_size to 25 % of buffer pool size
innodb_log_file_size=5M
innodb_log_buffer_size=8M
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit=1
innodb_lock_wait_timeout=50

## UTF 8 Settings
#init-connect=\'SET NAMES utf8\'
#collation_server=utf8_unicode_ci
#character_set_server=utf8
#skip-character-set-client-handshake
#character_sets-dir="C:/xampp/mysql/share/charsets"
sql_mode=NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION
log_bin_trust_function_creators=1

character-set-server=utf8mb4
collation-server=utf8mb4_general_ci
[mysqldump]
max_allowed_packet=16M

[mysql]
# Remove the next comment character if you are not familiar with SQL
#safe-updates

[isamchk]
key_buffer=20M
sort_buffer_size=20M
read_buffer=2M
write_buffer=2M

[myisamchk]
key_buffer=20M
sort_buffer_size=20M
read_buffer=2M
write_buffer=2M

[mysqlhotcopy]

What's the problem here?

A: I ran file MD5 checks against the whole folder that I saved just 2 days ago. There was virtually no difference between the files beloning to XAMPP at all. The only affected items were the ones I worked on. Then I looked at what operations XAMPP does and if there's any cache / temporary config files. There's none. XAMPP itself is just a simple installer. I even rolled back the mysql folder from that backup but to no avail.
Then I re-installed the same XAMPP package (3.2.4) on another machine and it worked.
Something, somewhere was stuck and I'll never know what. I just reinstalled and that fixed it. Didn't even restart between reinstalls.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: MySQL INTO OUTFILE issue with new lines in content I'm exporting a database report with a shell file. If I run the query in PHPMyAdmin the file comes out fine, new lines at the end of each row in the database only.
However when I run the query in my shell script using outfile to generate the file I get /n, /r and /r/n in some of the columns content. I can't work out what causes this or how to avoid it.
The issue only seems to be caused in the colour column which is the third in the example export.
Query:
mysql $MYSQLOPTS << EOFMYSQL
SELECT Product_Name, Item_Size, Item_Colour, Item_Price, Current_Stock, Item_Price * Current_Stock AS Stock_Value
FROM Items
ORDER BY Product_Name
INTO OUTFILE '$FILE'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
EOFMYSQL

Example result:
"Scarf_in_Peach","ONE SIZE","12/04-B2B2 ",10.00,3,30.00
"Scarf_in_Pink","ONE SIZE ","11/06-odds-C1C12100",10.00,0,0.00
"Scarf_in_Red","ONE SIZE ","11/06-B7B2-C1C12100",10.00,0,0.00
"Scarf_in_Sand_","ONE SIZE","11/06-B1I3-C1C12100
",10.00,0,0.00
"Scarf_in_Sand_/_Blue_Flowers","ONE SIZE","12/04-B2E2-C1C12100 ",10.00,4,40.00
"Scarf_in_Teal","ONE SIZE","11/06-B5G1-C1C12100
",10.00,0,0.00
"Scarf_in_Teal_/_Red_Flowers","ONE SIZE","12/04 - B2B2 ",10.00,1,10.00
"Sunrise_Skinnies","16","ODD-R1S009-1-BLUE",20.00,0,0.00
"Sunrise_Skinnies","8","ODD-R1S009-1

BLUE",20.00,0,0.00

A: You have 2 options:

*

*Replace carriage return and line feed characters with empty string within your query. Pro: it is completely up to you what characters you filter out and from which fields. Con: you have to create expression for each affected field manually.

*Use FIELDS ESCAPED BY character option of the SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE ... command:

FIELDS ESCAPED BY controls how to write special characters. If the
  FIELDS ESCAPED BY character is not empty, it is used when necessary to
  avoid ambiguity as a prefix that precedes following characters on
  output:

*

*The FIELDS ESCAPED BY character

*The FIELDS [OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY character

*The first character of the FIELDS TERMINATED BY and LINES TERMINATED BY values

*ASCII NUL (the zero-valued byte; what is actually written following the escape character is ASCII "0", not a zero-valued byte)
The FIELDS TERMINATED BY, ENCLOSED BY, ESCAPED BY, or LINES TERMINATED
  BY characters must be escaped so that you can read the file back in
  reliably. ASCII NUL is escaped to make it easier to view with some
  pagers.

Pro: this is a fast and standard approach, that you can easily apply to all export functionality using this approach. Con: less flexible. For example, if the lines terminated by option is set to \n, then \r is not going to be escaped, which can still cause some issues on some systems.


Actress Lydia Forson has said that regardless of the fact that some Entertainment Blogger in Ghana disrespect celebrities, they feed them.
According to the actress who is known for her deeper understanding of the entertainment industry, regardless of the disrespect for female celebrities by Bloggers, writing on puts food on the table of entertainment bloggers.
She made this known through a tweet.
The tweet read "Entertainment Bloggers don't seem to get that without a functioning industry YOU TOO WONT EAT".