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Löwengrube – Die Grandauers und ihre Zeit is a German television series first aired between 1989 and 1992, created by Willy Purucker and directed by Rainer Wolffhardt. It is set in Munich and follows the lives of Ludwig Grandauer and his son Karl, both policemen, covering the years from 1897 to 1954. The TV show is based on Purucker's radio play series Die Grandauers und ihre Zeit ('The Grandauers and their time'). The series' main title Löwengrube, meaning 'Lions' Den', refers to the address of the Munich Police Headquarters inaugurated in 1913.

Cast
Jörg Hube as Ludwig Grandauer (episodes 1–4) and as Karl Grandauer (episodes 5—32)
Sandra White as Agnes Grandauer (episodes 1–3) and as Luise Kreitmeier, born Grandauer (episodes 4–15)
Christian Mader as young Karl Grandauer (episodes 1–3)
Julia Gaßner as young Luise Grandauer (episodes 1–3)
Thomas Klietsch as young Adolf Grandauer (episodes 1–3)
Gundi Ellert as Franzi Gassner, born Reschreiter, widowed Fuchs (episodes 1–3)
Gerd Fitz as Rudolf Grüner (episodes 1—22)
Fred Stillkrauth as Lederer (episodes 1–10)
Marie Bardischewski as Frau Gschmeißner (episodes 1–5, 8–9, 11, 13, 15–16)
Gerhart Lippert as Herr Gassner (episodes 1–2)
Andreas Gepfert as Lichtl-Biwi (episodes 2–3)
Andreas Zappe as young Mezger-Willy (episode 2)
Jonas Vischer as Holzinger (episodes 4–14)
Georg Einerdinger as janitor at the Munich police headquarters (episodes 4–32)
Andreas Hufnagl as young Adolf Grandauer (episode 4)
Peter Weiß as Lichtl-Biwi (episode 4)
Werner Rom as Max Kreitmeier (episodes 5–32)
Christoph Krix as Toni Schöpf (episodes 5–11)
Christine Neubauer as Traudl Grandauer, born Soleder (episodes 5—32)
Walter Fitz as August Soleder (episodes 5–7)
Sepp Schauer as a butcher (episodes 5, 8)
Alexander Duda as Adolf Grandauer (episodes 6—21, 26–32)
Franziska Stömmer as Adelgunde Soleder (episodes 6—32)
Michael Lerchenberg as Kurt Soleder (episodes 6—29, 32)
Gisela Freudenberg as Sara Soleder, born Kampensi (episodes 7—29, 32)
Erich Hallhuber as Metzger-Willy (episodes 7, 13, 17, 28)
Florian Reinheimer as Max Grandauer (episodes 10–21)
Florian Büse-Böhm as Rudi Grandauer (episodes 10–21)
Stefan Reck as Hampel (episodes 10–13, 16)
Gerd Anthoff as Walter Deinlein (episodes 11–32)
Hansi Kraus as Kargus (episodes 11–32)
Peter Pius Irl as Block Warden Uhl (episodes 11–13, 15)
Volker Prechtel as Waldhauser (episodes 11–12)
Mona Freiberg as Kathi Kreitmeier, widowed Lipp (episodes 16–32)
Thomas Darchinger as Max Grandauer (episodes 24–32)

Sandra White, who had been playing Luise Kreitmeier, born Grandauer since episode 4, died unexpectedly at age 26 during the production of the second season. Mona Freiberg was then cast as a substitute, playing the new but similar role of Kathi Lipp.

Music
The opening and end theme was composed by Peter Sandloff and played by the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, recording numerous variations to match the tone of the individual episodes.

Episodes

Season 1 (1989/90)
 Charivari ('Charivari')
Spring 1897: In a village near Munich, local policeman Ludwig Grandauer marries Agnes, with whom he already has a three-year-old son. During the wedding reception, Mr. Gantner, the overbearing leaseholder of a hunting ground in the woods nearby, is annoyed by pedlar Eccell's singing and yells at him. When Gantner is reported missing the next morning, and a farmer interviewed by the police tells them that his daughter saw Eccell going after Gantner the night before, Eccell is arrested, holding a considerable amount of money as well as Gantner's Charivari in his possession, but keeps insisting that he found it lying on the ground at the edge of the forest. One of the policemen unsuccessfully tries to make him confess by punching him in the mouth hard; afterwards, Ludwig Grandauer has to take Eccell to the Munich police department, where he is held in custody for further investigation. Only years later, Grandauer learns that Eccell hanged himself in his cell after being kept prisoner for almost nine months despite the apparent lack of sufficient evidence against him.
1907: Grandauer, now a constable in the city of Munich, is called to the site of a murder, where he finds a precious pocket watch, that looks exactly like the one Gantner was showing him right before the quarrel at his wedding ten years earlier. After some initial backlash, his superiors follow the trail, and are able to backtrack the watch to a pawnshop, where it was hocked in April 1898 by a man presumably using a false name, having emended his signature to match the initials F. G. engraved into the lid, after first writing an S. Agnes then points out to her husband that the legal family name of the farmer having testified against Eccell, though commonly known by their house name Tannhauser, is actually Schober, and that his son emigrated to America in 1898, not long after the watch was brought to the pawnshop. When the police come to investigate the farm, the daughter admits that Gantner is buried right next to their stable, and accuses her father of the killing, who in turn blames her and her brother, whom they would not find anyway now, eventually revealing that it had been all about his daughter's supposed pregnancy after her having an affair with Gantner.
 Abgründe ('Chasms')
May 1909: One evening while out watching a match of women's wrestling with two friends of his, Metzger-Willy and Lichtl-Biwi, young Karl Grandauer's bicycle is stolen, but he dare not tell the police nor his father Ludwig. Willy and Biwi convince him to try and win the money for a new bike at the horse race; when Karl loses, Willy persuades him to take some equipment from the photographer he works for as an apprentice, and use it to produce erotic images of a young woman he will bring in. Following a minor accident with Biwi's bicycle, a policeman discovers and confiscates the pictures, leaving Karl frightened that his father will know. When he confesses to his mother, she first goes with him to the police and successfully asks for the photographs to be given to her without informing her husband; then she takes her son to the photographer's shop to make him apologize to his master, who turns out to be rather amused by the whole matter.
Meanwhile, Ludwig Grandauer and his colleague Mr. Lederer are busy investigating the suicide of a finishing school's headmaster, Dr. von Mandel, who had allegedly been caught up in a love affair, but is defended by one of the teachers, who accuses the headmaster's wife of being responsible for his death. Grandauer subsequently finds out that she actually did set a trap in order to get rid of her husband by hiring a former prostitute to enter his bedroom, and a private detective to document the incriminating scene.
Agnes Grandauer shows symptoms of a persistent lung disease, and is urged by Ludwig to go to a doctor.
 Herrenfahrer ('Gentleman Driver')
December 1910: A dead man found on a road has apparently been killed by a collision with a car, that lost a metal ring from one of its head lamps at the scene. When examining the house of the deceased man, who worked as a taxidermist, Constable Ludwig Grandauer and Inspector Rudolf Grüner find traces of blood beside his bed, and a hammer lying on the floor. When Grandauer interrogates the taxidermist's journeyman, who is living in miserable circumstances with his wife and children, he admits that he got into a fight with his master over some unpaid wages, and hit him in the head with a hammer, then taking his money before escaping. The metal ring from the car eventually leads to retired Major General von Hagen from Berlin, who acts very dismissive when Grandauer tries to interrogate him, and denies having anything to do with the accident.
Agnes Grandauer suffers form tuberculosis, and her daughter Luise has to take care of her and do most of the housework. One day, a friend of Agnes' son Karl, Lichtl-Biwi, brings in a gramophone to play some music for her, and she takes great delight in listening to it; the same evening, Ludwig announces to his children that their mother needs to enter a sanatory soon, likely before Christmas.
 Wachablösung ('Changing of the Guard')
March 1914: The Munich police has moved into its new headquarters. Adolf Hitler, a young painter from Austria, comes in to have his permit of residence extended. Lederer and novice Dannenberger are detached to monitor a speech held by socialist Rosa Luxemburg.
June 28, 1914: Ludwig Grandauer goes to visit his late wife's grave on the first anniversary of her death with his daughter Luise and his younger son Adolf, while his elder son Karl is doing military duty; at the cemetery they meet Inspector Rudolf Grüner and his wife, who have lost their seven-year-old daughter a few years earlier; Grüner invites the Grandauers to a beer garden in the evening. Lichtl-Biwi, a friend of Karl's also serving in the army, comes to see the Grandauers while on his leave, and goes along with them and the Grüners. When he asks for a dance with Luise, Ludwig very reluctantly gives permission, but after only a few moments on the dancing-floor, the music stops for the announcement of the message that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie have been assassinated at Sarajevo.
In August, after the beginning of the war, the Grandauers receive a letter from Karl, reporting that he is alive and well, even though it is scary when the bullets fly around one's ears. When they go out afterwards for another visit at Agnes' grave, they have a short talk with one of their neighbors, Mrs. Gschmeißner; just as they are about to proceed, she asks how they feel about Lichtl-Biwi's death on the very first day of combat, leaving Luise heart-broken about the news.
 Heimkehr ('Coming Home')
December 1918: Germany has lost the First World War, food is running short, and the Spanish flu keeps killing large numbers of people. When Karl Grandauer comes back to Munich, he finds his family's old apartment inhabited by strangers; his father Ludwig has died from stomach ulcers, his brother Adolf has joined a free corps, and his sister Luise is married to baker Max Kreitmeier, who lost a leg in combat. The couple gives Karl a warm welcome, Max opens a bottle of wine, and they invite him to stay with them as long as necessary.
Late Ludwig Grandauer's superior, Chief Inspector Rudolf Grüner, who is a regular customer of the Kreitmeiers', offers Karl a job in the police force. Karl meets a young woman, who seems to be a saleslady in a music store, but turns out to be the owner's daughter; when her father tells him she is engaged, Karl stops wooing her.
The tumults in Bavaria keep going on: Minister-president Kurt Eisner is assassinated on February 21, 1919; on April 6 the Bavarian Soviet Republic is proclaimed. A few weeks later, the police headquarters is seized by troops of the Bavarian Red Army, and the whole class of police cadets taught by Grüner is taken prisoner; they fear to be shot against the wall, but are set free when the Reds flee from the advancing free corps.
 Konsequenzen ('Conclusions')
October 1920: A dead woman is found at the side of a small road, with a sign labelling her a traitor to her fatherland. During investigation, Karl Grandauer comes across Traudl Soleder again, the woman he had met more than one and a half years earlier, for whose family the murdered woman had been working as a maid for a few weeks. The latter's boyfriend, a blind war veteran, tells the police that she had reported her former employer, Baron von Treuenthal, for illegally stashing weapons; a network of armed right-wing groups is revealed, among others comprising the Civil Guards and the National Socialists. Because of Seargent Holzinger's rash proceeding, the main suspect of the actual murder in question is warned and can easily escape, with some aid by Wilhelm Frick, head of the political police, and by Ernst Pöhner, president of the Munich Police department, who repeatedly tried to curb the investigation. Chief Inspector Grüner, frustrated with his superiors' corruption, considers quitting the service.
 Polterabend ('Wedding Eve')
May 1923: Traudl Soleder and Karl Grandauer are preparing for their wedding, but money keeps losing its value, and things like clothing are hard to come by. Karl runs into Metzger-Willy, an old acquaintance of his, who promises to provide him a Sunday suit and some good shoes. While Karl is at Willy's pompous apartment to fetch the shoes, the police come to the door, and Willy rushes out thru the back entrance, taking Karl's coat with his police badge in its pocket; the police find a storage room with some stolen goods; Karl is temporarily arrested, but released in time for his wedding eve party at the Soleders'. Traudl's mother Adelgunde is upset by the manners and revealing dress of her son Kurt's girlfriend Sara, a Jewish woman from Berlin, and moans about the Jews' alleged disrespect for her catholic faith when she asks the priest for a dance.
Meanwhile, the family's music store is failing, with Traudl's father August facing bankruptcy. During the party, he leaves the house and goes missing; he is eventually found dead in the water. The wedding is called off.
 Umzüge ('Movements')
November 9, 1923: The Soleders are moving out of their expensive apartment into police seargent Karl Grandauer's new official residence, but streets are blocked due to the ongoing Beer Hall Putsch, that started the night before, and Karl is prevented from leaving the police headquarters for some time. When he is able to get out at last, knowing that the police is under order to shoot at the revolters, he is heading for the Feldherrnhalle to save his brother Adolf, an ardent Nazi and SA-member; he arrives just in time to get him out of the crowd as fire is opened. Karl gives Adolf his coat and hat to cover his SA-uniform and thus avoid immediate prosecution, and his sister Luise takes him in for a few days until the situation has calmed down. Later at night, Karl tells Luise about the ruthless actions of the revolters, illegally arresting opponents, and handing out death warrants.
 Schlafzimmergeschichten ('Bedroom Stories')
October 22, 1929: Kurt Soleder is working as a presenter at the Munich radio station, when one of his musicians is coming in late due to some sudden sickness; minutes later the man is dead. Police finds out that he died from cyanide poisoning after eating some of the marzipan potatoes he got from the girl with whom he had spent the night. When questioned by Chief Inspector Rudolf Grüner and Seargent Karl Grandauer, she declares that she found the confections in her mail, with a note saying: "From a grateful customer." The police then focus upon one of the lady's neighbors, a spinster who shows utter disgust about the young woman's many affairs, and who happens to regularly buy the same kind of marzipan potatoes that were found in the deceased man's pocket.
Meanwhile, Traudl Grandauer, now a mother of two little sons, wants to replace their old and creaky double bed; but money is tight, and her husband Karl is too caught up in the murder investigation to go shopping. One day, Traudl takes the chance and sells their bedroom suite to an elderly couple to buy a new one without telling Karl, who is rather indignant over the surprise. Eventually Traudl's mother Adelgunde comes home, upset by the news she heard about the Wall Street Crash.
 Notpolizei ('Vigilante Police')
Autumn 1931: A young man distributing the communist newspaper Die Rote Fahne is beaten up and deadly injured by two vigilantes, who claim that they caught him while breaking a shop-window to steal a radio, and that they only used violence when the alleged burglar put up a fight while being arrested. Inspector Karl Grandauer is not convinced, but the suspects, both SA-members, receive protection from various persons; even Karl's brother Adolf, working as an attorney at the state's court, comes in to influence the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, People in the street are discussing Geli Raubal's death in Hitler's apartment at Munich. At home, Adelgunde Soleder, while preparing for going to an operetta, is confronted with her son Kurt's having married his long-time girlfriend Sara, a Jewisch woman from Berlin.
 Kehraus ('Clean-up')
January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. Chief inspector Grüner is leaving to spend a few weeks in a health resort, and replaced for the time by inspector Walter Deinlein, who fears to have irritated district attorney Adolf Grandauer by uttering a condescending comment about the new cabinet. Kurt and Sara Soleder come to visit Adelgunde on her name day, while Sara is heavily pregnant. Adolf Grandauer offers his sister Luise to convey substantial orders for the Nazi party to her husband's bakery, but advises them to get rid of their journeyman Toni, a leftist who has been caught up in street fights with the SA.
February 28, 1933: Traudl Grandauer persuades her husband Karl to go to Kurt and Sara's Shrove Tuesday party; when they come back home in the early morning, they receive news that Grüner is in hospital after suffering a stroke. Meanwhile, the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe is presented as the culprit for the Reichstag fire, and Hindenburg promptly issues the Decree for the Protection of People and State, massively curtailing people's personal freedoms, including the right to express one's opinion, freedom of the press, the right to organize and assemble, and the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications.
 Volkswille ('Will of the People')
March 1933: Two policemen come to the Kreitmeiers' bakery with a search warrant for the room of their journeyman, confiscating brass knuckles and some communist propaganda posters. Inspector Karl Grandauer is called to a gravel pit, where a dead boy with a bullet in his head has been found. His father, a wealthy industrial and member of the Nazi Party, has repeatedly been threatened by some of his workers, and immediately suspects his son has been killed by his political adversaries. Later, a mute swill dealer is arrested while carrying the gun the deadly shot was fired from. Mr. Hampel, Grandauer's former subordinate, who has just been transferred to the political police, gets a written confession out of the man, who previously claimed to have found the weapon on the ground. Eventually, one of the deceased boy's comrades from the Hitler Youth comes forward, admitting that he had taken his father's old army pistol to practice shooting in the gravel pit, where he accidentally killed his friend, leaving the gun behind.
Meanwhile, Troops of the SA and SS ravage the editorial office of the Münchener Post, the social democrats' newspaper, abusing and arresting its staff. The Bavarian cabinet around minister-president Heinrich Held is replaced by Reichskommissar Franz Ritter von Epp; Heinrich Himmler is appointed president of the police, Reinhard Heydrich is made head of the political police. Constable Waldhauser is suspended from duty after making some taunting remarks against Hampel and the Nazis in general.
 Frühlingsanfang ('First Day of Spring')
March 21, 1933: An elderly Jewish man has killed himself by opening the gas-tap in his apartment, apparently in despair of the rampant antisemitic agitation in Germany; the Grandauers take care of his surviving dog. While many people are listening to President Hindenburg's and Chancellor Hitler's speeches broadcast from the Day of Potsdam, Sara Soleder gives birth to a daughter.
Baker Max Kreithmeier's journeyman Toni, a staunch leftist, is imprisoned in the new established Dachau concentration camp. Adolf Grandauer asserts his brother Karl that the prisoners there are treated well; when they come to talk about Sara and Kurt's child, he points out Heinrich Himmler recently declared that "to him, any citizen of Jewish faith is as good a citizen as that of non-Jewish faith."
April 1933: The Soleders have decided to have their child baptized, but postpone the ceremony, worrying that Sara's Jewish parents would not leave their store as long as the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses is lasting. The child's grandmother Adelgunde is upset by the delay; Adolf, not having been informed of the deferment, comes to visit the couple anyway, and ends up drinking too much. At the police canteen, Inspector Hampel publicly confronts Grandauer about his wife's insinuating to one of her neighbors that his sudden promotion is due to his political alignment rather than to his competence.

Season 2 (1991)
 Bartholomäusnacht ('St. Bartholomew's Night')
June 30, 1934: News are coming in about the Night of the Long Knives. Chief Inspector Deinlein informs his staff that the president of the Munich Police Department, August Schneidhuber, has been executed by a firing squad; the summer party of the police planned for the evening is postponed by a few days. Kurt Soleder is reproved for playing Jazz and spoofing the regime's debasing rhetoric in his radio program; his Jewisch wife Sara implores him to be more cautious, now being a father. Karl Grandauer is heading to Berlin to attend an advanced training course, but tries to pretend going to Leipzig, so he is not expected to visit Sara's parents.
While Karl is absent, his wife Traudl goes to the party with retired Chief Inspector Grüner, but ends up dancing with her husband's young and attractive colleague Walter Toussaint. Meanwhile, a rumor is spreading about Toussaint's alleged homosexuality, swiftly ruining his career and reputation. Traudl and Toussaint have a meeting (without an intention of an affair on her part, but still in secret), where he bids her farewell stating he was "going on a long journey". Not much later he is run over by a tram, presumably having committed suicide.
 Heimtücke ('Treachary')
Autumn 1935: Sara Soleder is distraught after block warden Uhl confronts her with some tenants' complaints about her little daughter Gerti allegedly soiling the sandbox; Uhl then advises her she should rather go to places where nobody knows she is Jewish whenever leaving her apartment. The same day she learns that her husband Kurt has been summoned to appear at the police station and arrested upon arrival, for unwarily remarking that German rearmament means war in front of an external functionary visiting the radio studio. He is sentenced to six months in prison under the Treachery Act of 1934 for causing distrust in the German government by a special court, allowing no appeal. The family tries to hide Kurt's legal trouble from the neighbors, and from his mother Adelgunde, who is devastated when she finally finds out. In Kurt's absence, his wife Sara receives a letter from their landlord, saying that their rental agreement will be terminated by the next date possible; Sara and Gerti are subsequently taken in by the Kreithmeiers.
Meanwhile, Karl and Traudl Grandauer's son Rudi is becoming an avid member of the Hitler Youth; Adolf Grandauer announces to his brother Karl that his girlfriend is pregnant.
 Tauwetter ('Thawing')
February 1936: Due to the upcoming Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, putting Germany into international focus, discrimination against Jews and other minorities is toned down a little; tags designating park benches as "only for Aryans" are removed. During the Games, even the policemen supposed to be working in their offices are spending much listening to the radio, even though they are caught up in an extensive investigation on a possible serial killing. When Sara Soleder, now working in the Kreitmeiers' shop, receives news that her mother has died, Traudl Grandauer goes along with her to attend the funeral in Berlin.
March 7, 1936: Kurt is released from Stadelheim Prison, but finds himself permanently banned from working in broadcasting or any other kind of media; Max Kreithmeier offers him to work as his journeyman at the bakery. When they turn on the radio, a presenter is enthusiastically reporting on the German forces' entering the Rhineland.
 Veränderungen ('Changes')
October 1936: Karl Grandauer is appointed deputy chief inspector. His colleague Inspector Schäfer is following a lead provided by an anonymous woman calling from a telephone booth, incriminating an SS-squad leader of having assaulted her. When this turns out to be a false accusation, Schäfer and Chief Inspector Deinlein are strongly dispraised by Gestapo-officer Hampel. Deinlein, who entered the Nazi Party to avoid drawbacks to his career, feels disgusted with his own cowardice for not defending his staff nor himself. The next day, Schäfer suffers a minor break-down, tossing around files in his bureau and loudly calling out the regime as a bunch of criminals.
Max Kreithmeier is still devastated about his wife Luise's unexpected death in hospital after breaking her foot in spring. His distant cousin Kathi, who came to help him out with his baker's shop, is leaving for Max' continuous hostile behaviour and his spending much time out drinking.
 Gewalttäter ('Violent Offender')
November 1938: Another woman has been attacked by a suspected serial killer, but the surviving victim can only remember the perpetrator's voice, and the investigation keeps stalling. One evening while walking home, Traudl and Adelgunde Grandauer see a mob wrecking a Jew's store, turning away in horror. When Inspector Karl Grandauer comes across a similar incident with his car, he asks a bystanding constable why they are not intervening; as he is told that the matter is taken care of by higher authorities, Grandauer orders his driver to take him away from the scene.
 Sommerfrische ('Summer Holidays')
 Vorsehung ('Destiny')
 Wehrkraftzersetzung ('Demoralization of the Armed Forces')
 Fasanenjagd ('Pheasant Shooting')
 Erbschaft ('Inheritence')
 Abrechnung ('Reckoning')
 Funkstille ('Radio Silence')
 Kopfgeld ('Bounty')

Season 3 (1992)
 Milchkaramellen ('Fudge Cookies')
 Tigerbande ('Tiger Gang')
 Mütter ('Mothers')
 Barfrau ('Barmaid')
 Unschuld ('Innocence')
 Abschied ('Farewell')

References

Further reading
 Rolf Ulrici: Willy Puruckers Löwengrube. Die Grandauers und ihre Zeit 1897 – 1933, München 1989,

External links
Löwengrube on the BR's website.
Description and review by Harald Kloth.
Löwengrube on the Internet Movie Database.

Period family drama television series
German crime television series
1980s police procedural television series
1990s police procedural television series
1989 German television series debuts
1992 German television series endings
Television shows set in Munich
Television series set in the 1890s
Television series set in the 1900s
Television series set in the 1910s
Television series set in the 1920s
Television series set in the 1930s
Television series set in the 1940s
Television series set in the 1950s

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


There's been a lot of good work done in a very small amount of space!
Only two more to go on each side (plus some Green Glue) and we'll have our Booth isolation work done!
Notice how the sheetrock team has changed the pattern from a normal linear pattern in the 2nd layer to the pattern following the logic of the roofing pattern in the third layer. Recall that from layer one to layer two the crew had installed the sheetrock offset by 1/2 a unit. By changing again the pattern of the sheetrock, they not only made the job easier for the crew coming after them (installing the finished ceiling surface) but they also got out of their own way by creating non-conflicting lines for the screws.
And there you have it: about 8500 lbs of sheetrock, several pails of Green Glue, and I don't know how many thousand screws attaching the whole thing to spring-isolated hat channel.
This makes the Annex slab feel all but imminent!
Our concrete lines will not be square like this, but will express the diamond grid upon which the entire studio is based.
Finally, let's zoom all the way out to see the progress of our landscaping work.
It is a bit tricky to parse because the ground is decidedly not flat where the lines are running. Nevertheless, I suspect that a bit more grading will make it obvious that the lines drawn are in fact straight and true. And when we get some blocks in place, we'll be better able to evaluate the overall scale of the new feature.
I daresay that nothing is being left to chance with this type of construction.
Notice, by the way, how small the Annex looks from this perspective. It's a wonderful optical illusion that the closer you get to the small walls at either end, the smaller the Annex looks. If you get close enough, the whole 1700 sq ft building disappears behind a wall that's just 8′ wide!


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Archive for the 'before watchmen' Category
before Watchmen: Conway & Kane's Amazing Spider-Man 122
June 27th, 2012 Posted by david brothers
This is the last page of Amazing Spider-Man 122, the issue after Gwen Stacy dies. It's right in the middle of one of my most favorite runs on any comic ever. Gerry Conway on words, Gil Kane on pencils, John Romita & Tony Mortellaro on inks, and Dave Hunt on colors.
The first 140 or so (I've never done a real count, but around there) issues of Amazing Spider-Man are my Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four, and this is one of my favorite single pages out of that entire run.
Steve Ditko gave Spider-Man a creepy outsider feel. When Ditko left and Jazzy Johnny Romita became the principal artist, the tone changed to something more influenced by romance comics and soap opera. Peter became a lot more handsome, the clothes were swinging, and the girls turned from pretty to supa dupa fly. The comic got a lot sexier, is what I'm saying, and Mary Jane Watson had a lot to do with that.
The usual line is that Mary Jane was the party girl, while Gwen was the wholesome girl next door. I don't know if that's actually true, but it's a fair enough starting point if you want to branch out into a deeper understanding of the characters. MJ was definitely a popular girl, the type you'd describe as "hot" instead of "pretty." Lesser writers took that to mean that she was an airhead or vapid, but that was never true. But she definitely represented a somewhat edgier kind of excitement than Gwen did.
Part of the mythos of Spider-Man is that Peter Parker is an extraordinarily selfish person. Or maybe just regular selfish — it's hard to tell when everything in cape comics is so heightened. But he takes everything personally, and he tries to walk around with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He snaps and buckles under pressure before regaining his strength, but that snapping is the important part. Peter Parker needs support. He needs someone to tell him things are okay or to have his back in a pinch. Spider-Man is a role Peter Parker plays, not Peter Parker himself.
What I love about this page is how it shows the quiet strength and determination that Mary Jane always had underneath her party girl exterior. She's been waiting at Peter and Harry's pad for hours, praying for someone to talk to. The problem is that it's dumb ol' Petey, a guy who never met a problem that wasn't his fault. He lashes out at her in his grief, ignoring her own grief, and instead of doing what anyone else would do, MJ turns to leave, pauses, and chooses to stay.
There's something about the choice she makes between panels here that really, really sticks with me. MJ isn't just a supporting character, a prop for someone else's grief. Not when she's written well, anyway. This choice feels significant, for both her and Peter. It's one of my absolutely favorite scenes in Spider-Man comics, and I don't know that I could tell you exactly why. There's just tremendous emotional resonance there, and a certain finality and acceptance, that I really appreciate. She chooses to share her grief, whether Peter wants her to or not.
It's like — does she recognize something in Peter? Is it something she also recognizes in herself? Why does she choose to forgive him for his anger? I think she recognizes how people run away from love and support, in part because she herself is also guilty of that.
There's something deep lurking around here, right below the surface, and I love it. It's like Spider-Man is shifting (or continuing its shift, really) from childhood to adulthood, transforming directly on the page, and making permanent decisions that other comics wouldn't, and modern comics don't. Part of the fun of the first 140 issues of Amazing Spider-Man grow from a 15 year old kid to a college-age adult, and this scene is a milestone moment.
BACKUP STORY! CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR, FEATURING EIJI NONAKA'S CROMARTIE HIGH SCHOOL ! BUY IT USED!
Posted in before watchmen, comic books by david brothers | | 18 Comments »
before Watchmen: Star*Reach Classics #1
I want there to be some kind of cute narrative behind my discovery of Star*Reach Classics 1 like there is for my introductions to Michelinie and McFarlane's Amazing Spider-Man 316+317 (my first comics) and Miller's Sin City: The Big Fat Kill 5 (my first adult comic), but there isn't one. It was just a book I pulled out of a quarter bin six or seven years ago that I thought was really weird-looking and awkward and therefore must-reading.
I grabbed it for a couple of reasons. I knew and liked Jim Starlin's work, especially his Adam Warlock-related stuff. I also knew of Neal Adams's work, though I don't think I'd had any direct experience with it beyond covers. I'm pretty sure I knew of Dave Sim, too, but I didn't know that Cerebus was actually an important comic. It looked like a stupid talking animal parody book. So, hey, a quarter? For a book featuring art by one dude I knew I liked, one guy I figured I was supposed to like, and one guy whose name kept popping up? Why not? It turns out that Star*Reach Classics is a weird little time capsule of a comic, some of it great, some of it… strange.
Even though the vast majority of my experience with Starlin comes from reading Marvel comics, even today, I still have this really firm image of what I think his shtick is. There will be a battle between equal numbers, dialogue that's as much a call-and-response speech as a conversation, amazing starscapes, ankhs, and at some point a close zoom on an eye. Sometimes the eye reveals the universe, sometimes the eye reveals a screaming skull. That's Starlin in my head. It's sort of funny how these things build up over the years and we place guys in these boxes. Sometimes it's wrong. Sometimes it's right.
"…The Birth of Death!" delivers, in terms of what I expect out of Starlin. "…The Birth of Death!" is a bedtime story delivered by a kid's Uncle Mort (hey, something about that name…). Starlin remixes the Christian creation story, documenting the creation of angels, humans, immortals, and finally Death. As I was rereading this, I realized that it reminded me of nothing but "Night on Bald Mountain" from Fantasia. They both have that kinda dark and gloomy but still majestic and horrible feel.
I really like how Starlin draws the story. Instead of the bedtime story just being a framing sequence, with Uncle Mort's words transitioning to captions instead of word balloons, Mort stays in the story every step of the way. His face, or parts of his face at least, is attached to every panel in the story. It's a technique I don't think I've ever seen before, but very cool. His expressions, from anger to awe, really sell the story, which is heightened in a space opera/high fantasy kind of way. Mort's sneers and wrinkles elevate a basic story into something else.
I really like how Starlin renders God, too, as a pair of eyes (with ankhs, skulls, and the infinity symbol) floating in crowded space. It's original and abstract enough to get across the idea of an ever present higher power. Some vague nudity in this one:
I think it's notable that Starlin's version of Death hangs out with two topless Conan the Barbarian looking chicks and holds some kind of weird squid-thing that he refers to as "the Dark Thing" in his hand. Starlin's Death has the same kind of overwrought nobility that Dr Doom bears, but a physicality more fitting for a pulp hero. He's the kind of villain that would drink wine out of a goblet, throw that goblet against the wall, and then casually bury an axe in a hero's skull. He looks like he writes poetry about murders between murders, is what I'm saying.
In the end, of course, Uncle Mort is revealed to be Death, and the child he's reading to is dead. A Longfellow poem and a pale child's body close out the story.
There's another story by Starlin in this one, "Death Building." Was it Matt Fraction who said that the rise of Jim Starlin was the point when nerds discovered acid? Something to that effect, at least. Here's the bottom two tiers from the first page of "Death Building":
And here's the last tier from the last page:
One thing that used to bug me about Starlin was that it seemed like he was always going back to the same well. I eventually got it. It's not that he was out of ideas or whatever it was I used to think. It was more that he was interested in a specific thing, and working out his feelings about that on the page. Or maybe he was working out the various angles of that specific thing. I don't want to assume anything about his feelings. Regardless, Starlin has spent a lot of time examining existence, from death to power to destiny and back again.
I like seeing people working out their thoughts in public. I've done a lot of it here, obviously. It's like watching someone rub their chin and mull over a point in person. Starlin married his conundrum to his artwork, and the results are pretty great. It's not going back to the well at all. It's trying to solve a puzzle by recreating that puzzle in several different configurations.
There are a few stories in this issue. Starlin has another one-pager called "The Origin of God!" (I love that he uses punctuation in his titles so, so much) that's just four panels long and pretty solid. Dave Sim supplies the four-page "Cosmix," which is about suicide, criticism, and art, and still doesn't manage to be interesting or particularly good. It has a last-minute stinger that isn't really earned at all. (I just started watching Black Mirror, and the "Welcome To The Twilight Zone" moment in "Cosmix" is similar to a twist in the (pretty solid) second episode, but with a bit less brutal irony, maybe.)
The last story is "Flightmare," with words by Neal Adams and art by Frank Cirocco, who I'm not familiar with at all, though he apparently drew an issue of Power Man and Iron Fist that I undoubtedly have kicking around somewhere.
"Flightmare" is pretty interesting. Its main thrust is about a man feeling frustrated with training women to fly commercial airliners, and yearning for days gone by. He travels through a series of dreamy sequences as he searches for peace. He sheds the woman, first of all, as he pilots a jet, because ladies these days, am I right fellas? But the jet moves "too fast to enjoy the ride," so he transfers to a World War II-era P-51 Mustang, and then a biplane, and then… a giant naked blue woman? He's naked, too, and he says that "This is the way flight was meant to be!" But look! Coming out of the sun! There's that dastardly woman piloting… a giant naked blue man? So they have a big naked dogfight in their big naked airplanes, the lady shoots the male pilot down with hand lasers from her big naked dude, and then we flash back to reality and she gives him the finger guns, a wink, and a "Gotcha!" Sure. Okay.
It's one of those stories where I can't quite figure out if it has a certain point to make or if it's just a fun lark. It's pretty and fast-moving enough to get wrapped up in, but I don't know if it's about women's lib or the futility of nostalgia or the cruelty of women or just some weird sex dream. But I liked reading it, even if I couldn't tell you what Adams and Cirocco were trying to express. The craft and storytelling are really entertaining in a way that transcends the ambiguity. (Cirocco also draws nice airplanes.)
I like Star*Reach Classics 1 a lot. It's the only one I've read, even after years of owning it, but it's an interesting artifact. I say that I like '70s comics the best, but that's not really true. I like '70s Marvels: Amazing Spider-Man, anything Heroes for Hire related, Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy, and Steve Gerber. There's this whole other world of '70s comics that I missed out on that — judging by Star*Reach Classics 1 — are probably pretty great.
Posted in before watchmen, comic books by david brothers | | 5 Comments »
before Watchmen: Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009
Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009 (ultra-cheap DVD , used book ) has one of my favorite concepts for any story ever. Nine humans are kidnapped by the Black Ghost, a terror organization, and turned into combat robots. Each person gets a specific powerset — some can fly, others are telepathic — and a swanky new costume. Instead of being used to wreak havoc all over the world, though, the nine robots manage to escape from the Black Ghost, thanks to a helpful scientist, and decide to fight back against their masters. (The Skull Man is a pretty great look at the origins of the Black Ghost organization.)
It's a simple concept, but a good one, nonetheless. The cyborgs go up against spies, terrorists, armies, other cyborgs, giant robots, and monsters. Cyborg 009 has a lot of super sentai appeal, but I like how easy it is to update the concept to the modern day. The series dates from the '60s, of course, and features fears and anxiety that's rooted in that time period. But the concept is just loose enough that as long as you have the Black Ghost eager to upset the status quo and nine humans who are upset at how they've been treated, you can apply it to almost any time period. Later this year, Kenji Kamiyama's 009 RE:CYBORG drops, which brings the series fully into the modern day. There's a trailer here, which I think does a great job of showing off how cool these cats are.
Part of the fun of the series is that each cyborg has a certain power. Joe Shimamura, Cyborg 009, is the hero (more or less) and can move at super-speed by activating a circuit. 001, Ivan Whisky, is telepathic, and also a baby. Jet Link is 002, an American that has been given the power of flight. Each of the nine cyborgs has a specialty, so they all have their chances to shine. They're a team, and they have to figure out how to work together and battle the Black Ghost at the same time.
I love the costumes, too. The giant buttons that Ishinomori gave them are fantastic. They're straight out of Walt Disney, and lend the whole affair a cartoony, child-like feel. The golden scarves are the perfect example of "too much" actually being "just enough." The scarves are a great visual, especially when the characters are in motion, and are an iconic touch at this point. A certain class of hero needs a cape to project majesty, and the scarves do that while also being distinctive. The cyborgs look decidedly sci-fi, and actually pretty retro sci-fi. They're from the future of 1966.
I like all the cyborgs, but 008 has a special place in my heart. He's the black dude, called Pyunma, and the only actual soldier in the crew. His power is that he's able to function extremely well underwater, both in terms of surviving indefinitely and deploying sea-based ordnance. Also, he's drawn like this:
WHOA.
I hate this stuff. It's racist and ugly, and stupid on top of that. Ebony White and that one Tintin story just make me angry, in part because that sort of racism is inexcusable but mostly because comics scholars are like "oh, listen, Will Eisner was a legend, how can he be racist? It was the ~times~!" Yes, the times when black people were demonized and dehumanized, ha ha, what a time! Mad Men!
But 008 is a little strange. For one, even though Ishinomori is using explicitly racist iconography, he isn't bringing the same baggage to it that Eisner or others did. 008 isn't a Stepin Fetchit type, and there's not a hint of the "yassuh boss, we's sick!" garbage that makes Ebony White such a Strong Black Character. He's just a regular dude, and he acts like it. It's like Ishinomori adopted the art style but missed out on the baggage that goes along with it.
I can't help but wonder if part of the reason why 008 is more acceptable to me, and more normal than Ebony, is the subtext of Ishinomori's story. The cyborg team is international, with members from China, France, the UK, the United States, Russia, Germany, and Japan. They vary racially among that mix, too. 009 is half-Japanese and half-American, which suggests that he's the son of a military man and a Japanese woman to me, considering the time period. 005 is a Native American. Some of them are broad stereotypes, which varies depending on which incarnation of the series you're reading, but they're intentionally from all over the world.
Ishinomori's exploring the idea of weapons run rampant and what it'll take to put the world on the brink of war. It's about money, and how chasing money can make people evil. He brings in an international cast, like Hideo Kojima did in Metal Gear Solid 4, because he wants to illustrate that war ruins everyone and everything. No one is safe, no matter whether you're a rich ballerina in Paris or a poor farmer out in China.
Something about 008 and his attitude made me more willing to accept him than I would Ebony White or whatever that Tintin comic is. There's a certain tension between 008's looks, which have evolved over the years toward "actual human being" instead of stereotype, and the fact that Ishinomori is trying to show us how war affects all of us. I'm interested in that intersection. I don't know how much contact Ishinomori had with black people, or where he first saw the racist iconography he employed. But I do think it is fair to assume that he employed that same iconography without the same cultural baggage as Eisner or Herge, who did it while reinforcing a very poisonous power structure. It looks like a duck but it quacks like a goose — what is it? It's infuriating and interesting all at once, and if anything, makes me want to know more about the origins of the series and why Ishinomori made the choices he did. In a later series, produced after Ishinomori died, reinvented 008 as a guerilla soldier, instead of a refugee, which fits in even better with Ishinomori's simultaneously global and personal focus.
I can see that Ishinomori was trying to tell a story that's still progressive to this day, one that incorporates warmongering, weapons dealing, and the effects of war on a society. It's about how war screws over all of us, from the people getting blown up on the front line to the people who don't realize how often war is used in support of business interests. It's about weapons possibly being used to prevent that outcome, and the importance of making humane decisions, rather than business-oriented ones, during the course of war. The cyborgs are weapons with free will and minds, and they make choices according to their own morality. That's impossible with a nuclear bomb or drone. There's a point there about where warfare and personal actions meet, but I can't quite grasp it. Are the cyborgs us? Are they the leaders of the world? Just a cool superhero team? Something else?
It sorta bums me out to read a kids' comic from the '60s that gets that fact better than a lot of modern pop culture. The new Splinter Cell demo opens with Sam Fisher, American black-ops expert, torturing and murdering a terrorist on the Iraq/Iran border. Sam, if you aren't familiar with the series, is a hero. The new Call of Duty features Oliver North as an advisor. Ollie North, the same man who funneled weapons to death squads and was involved in narcotics trafficking in order to fund his little hit squads and operations. You know where those drugs ended up? The inner city. He's the guy consulting on a series that is increasingly less interested in showing the horrors of war, which it kinda sorta almost did at one point, and more interested in showing "AW YEAH!" moments. I mean, the news out of Iraq right now is that they're pumping out enough oil to possibly make sanctioning Iran in the future easier without disrupting oil markets. I realize that holding up a children's comic as a great example of social consciousness is stupid… but Ishinomori got it. It's about money, and then men who control that money and want more of it, no matter what the cost.
It is what it is, I guess. Cyborg 009 is great, and I think Ishinomori has a strong message at the heart of the series. I hope the upcoming movie lives up to it, and I hope people keep reinventing it as time goes on. It's a timeless idea, which is kind of sad, actually.
before Watchmen: Akira Toriyama's Dr Slump
June 6th, 2012 Posted by david brothers
One problem I have with recommending Akira Toriyama's Dr Slump (Vizmanga with free preview, Amazon ) to other people is that I always end up wanting to explain the jokes. I think it's one of the most brutally funny comics ever made, so of course I want to focus on what I like: the jokes. But explaining jokes is for the birds. It never comes out right. I could talk about how funny it is that Arale, a little robot girl built by Dr Senbei Norimaki, wishes she had tummy missiles. It's funny because girl robots tend to have breast missiles. Aphrodite A from Go Nagai's Mazinger Z is the mother of mammary-based missiles systems (even though Diana A has a better design), and it's a joke about how girl robots have to have boob missiles because the genre demands it. But by the time I get to this point, you're bored, I'm in over my head, and we're both suddenly very conscious of the fact that the joke is receding into the distance and nobody's laughing.
Here's the first two pages of Dr Slump:
One of the things I like about Dr Slump is its density. It's a gag manga, and it packs a ton of jokes into its short chapters. It's not a buckshot style, either, where Toriyama just throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. No, Toriyama has a very specific tone for Dr Slump, one that's heavy on absurdity and irony. The thing is that Toriyama isn't afraid to meander around inside of that tone. He'll dedicate page space to rolling off joke after joke within that absurd/ironic framework, and when he's emptied out that vein, he moves on to the next scene.
As a result of Toriyama's willingness to blow real estate setting up and knocking down jokes, Dr Slump is leisurely paced. Things just sorta happen, characters move from room to room, and the book never really becomes tense, despite the density of the jokes per square inch. The plot of each chapter has room to breathe, but the jokes never stop. Toriyama uses establishing shots to display jokes, too, like dinosaurs who live in trees or idiot aliens. You're guaranteed at least one solid joke per page, and sometimes six or more.
Dr Slump hits much more often than it misses. It's a smart dumb comic, in fact, because you don't get to make funny dumb jokes without being smart enough to think of them. The tummy missiles joke I talked about earlier is funny on the face of it. It's an absurd request to begin with, since there's no good reason for a little girl need missiles. It's funny that she just assumes she needs to fight the forces of evil, too, and her nervous thought of using her "feminine charm" to fight evil is a good'un. But if you know a little manga history, the joke get even better. It works on a couple of different levels.
Part of the reason that Dr Slump is a smart dumb comic is the body language. Characters wipe their brow, rub their eyes, cock their heads, scream, and fliptake, and it all looks exactly like it's supposed to. It's just real enough to draw you in, despite the giant eyes and tiny noses. Look at that first page. Look at Arale's bored yawn and bleary-eyed sniffles. That's beautiful, and then Toriyama gives Senbei the full Looney Tunes on the very next page. He knows when to amp it up and when to tamp it down.
Most people know Toriyama's work via Dragon Ball Z, if anything, but Dr Slump predates that. His style here is much more cartoony. Normal people have Krillin-style builds, at best, and everyone else is squat and deformed. Dr Slump is much cuter than Dragon Ball Z, and it's for the best. Jokes this dumb and absurd just wouldn't work if his art was more realistic. Suppaman, Toriyama's Superman parody (also known as Sourman), would look ridiculous if he had Goku's proportions. Instead, in Dr Slump, he's another squat, ugly, dumpy-looking guy, the perfect contrast to Superman and full of comedic potential on first sight.
Toriyama is clearly a guy who put a lot of thought into his jokes. He employs a lot of really dumb premises in order to facilitate jokes. In the first chapter alone, Arale goes to a restaurant and orders engine oil, Dr. Norimaki has to wear a schoolgirl outfit in order to avoid being seen as a pervert when buying panties for Arale, and Arale takes an eye exam and spells out N-U-T-S. The first chapter is 14 pages long, and while other strips would thoroughly explore a specific joke like "Arale has bad eyesight" for a chapter's worth of related gags, Toriyama hits you with one good one (two good ones in this specific instance, actually) and moves on.
But all of this is beside the point. I can't hit on the sublime thrills found in Dr Slump because they're so specific to the setting. Toriyama built a world that was the perfect delivery system for his jokes and sense of humor, and then he populated it with circus freaks and idiots. Everyone's a little bit dumb, even the theoretically smart people. You have to read the comic to get the full effect. The first chapter is free on Vizmanga.com.
I'm a big Dr Slump fan, and I'm glad that Viz is finally putting it up on VizManga, since half the series is OOP and too expensive to buy used. I hope you like it as much as I did. At five bucks a volume, you're getting more laughs per dollar than basically anything ever.
Before Watchmen Is Comic Book Poison
One more time, since we're about to suddenly become a post-Before Watchmen society. Buying Before Watchmen is a vote for:
-A comics industry that prizes properties over creators
-A comics industry that will effortlessly use its legal muscle to screw over creators
-A comics industry that strip-mines the past at the expense of the future
I don't know how to put it any plainer than that. Before Watchmen is an attempt to recapture past glories with a crop of A-list talent, instead of creating new glories with that exact same talent. Azzarello? Cooke? Conner? These folks create classics, and instead of hiring them to do that, DC's hired them to fulfill some top down publishing edict to wring all the money they can out of Moore & Gibbons Watchmen, no matter what. It's stupid and short-sighted.
Here's how DC thinks about comic books, from a recent USA Today piece:
"The strength of what comics are is building on other people's legacies and enhancing them and making them even stronger properties in their own right," says Dan DiDio, DC co-publisher.
The first half of this sentence is so wrong as to be laughable. The second half is so corporate it's depressing. Properties: code word, meaning "something we can exploit in other media or in the future." They aren't characters. They definitely aren't art. They're properties. I wish there was a whiny baby font so I could really get across my disgust with Didio's position.
The stuff about building on other people's legacies… no. That's not the strength of comics at all. The strength of comics is the creators, the men and women armed with pens and pencils who go in and make the stories go, who craft classics that are so good that it's like they're daring us not to like them. I don't like Frank Miller's Daredevil because of what Stan Lee and Bill Everett brought to the character. I like Frank Miller's Daredevil because Frank Miller showed me things I'd never seen before. That's the same reason I like Gene Colan's version, or John Romita Jr's version, or Alex Maleev's version.
Dan Didio is objectively wrong about the strength of comics. He's towing the company line, which is that the dissent against Before Watchmen is about Alan Moore being pissy over people using "his" characters. That, in turn, enables all the asinine remarks about how Lost Girls or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the same thing.
The thing is, it's not about characters. It's about ethics. It's always been about ethics, no matter how often scumbags like Joseph Michael Stracynzski suggest otherwise. It's about not taking advantage of the letter of the law to push forward with unethical projects. It's about respecting the talent and the things they bring to the table.
But to DC, it's about toys. "Why doesn't Alan let us play with his toys, huh? Why's he so stingy?" And I know that the comics press is going to enable these guys to get their way. Betting on whether or not a bunch of reviews open with some variant of "Despite the controversy, Before Watchmen is pretty good" or "While a vocal minority expressed a rabid dislike for these books, sight unseen, blah blah blah" is a sucker bet. Of course it'll happen. Gotta protect those relationships to maintain access!
I dunno, man. Before Watchmen is loathsome. It's going to come out and people are going to buy it, but my advice to you, my request, is that you think about the series and what it represents, and then decide if that's the comics industry you want to build for yourself. If you just want to read Batman comics month in, month out, no matter who's doing them, fine. That's your thing. But if you want one where creators are respected, maybe give some thought to not buying the series, and telling DC what you think on Twitter, via email, during San Diego Comic-Con… get up in their face. Force them to talk about it in public.
A lot of creators, from indie megastars like Bryan Lee O'Malley to Big Two mainstays like Chris Roberson have expressed dissent, to put it nicely, about Before Watchmen. People care about this, and it's not just because Watchmen was a really good comic however many years ago. It's because creators' rights matter, respect matters, and ethics matter. Alan Moore is one of the most respected and important people in comics. If they'll put him to the wall, what do you think they'll do to you? Pay attention to what these companies are saying behind the con announcements and press releases. Before Watchmen has a very clear message, and don't be surprised when Before Watchmen II is announced next year.
I don't want the industry that DC is trying to shore up. Not even remotely. There's too many good comics out there to let Before Watchmen be what defines our industry and our habits as consumers.
Don't buy Before Watchmen.
Here's some further reading if you need convincing.
-Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in conversation with Neil Gaiman (!) in The Comics Journal 116, July 1987, TCJ recently uploaded a transcript
-Tom Spurgeon's "Sometimes They Make It Hard To Ignore Creators Issues" and "Twenty-One Not Exactly Original Notes On More Watchmen, Written At A Slight Remove"
-Ryan Dunlavey & Fred Van Lente's Comic Book Comics #5 [preview]
-Image Comics publisher Eric Stephenson's "NO FUN"
-Chris Mautner's "We've come so far: On Before Watchmen and creators rights"
-Michael Dean's "Kirby and Goliath: The Fight for Jack Kirby's Marvel Artwork"
-Kurt Amacker interviews Alan Moore.
-Frank Miller's "Keynote Speech By Frank Miller To Diamond Comic Distributors Retailers Seminar, June 12th, 1994" (from the pages of Sin City: The Big Fat Kill #5)
-The Comics Journal's "The Four Page Agreement"
-Milo George & The Comics Journal's The Comics Journal Library: Jack Kirby
-Michael Dean's "Marvel/Disney's Win Against Jack Kirby Heirs Not About Fairness" and Kirby and Goliath: The Fight for Jack Kirby's Marvel Artwork"
-Gary Groth's "Jack Kirby Interview"
-Steven R Bissette's "Marvel/Disney v Kirby: Part 2" and "Marvel/Disney v Kirby: Do Avengers Avenge… Or Not?"
-This incredibly relevant Youtube clip from The Wire, if you need a pithy explanation on how depressing creators' rights can be

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Flies That Blow
A book I'm reading mentioned bluebottles and greenbottles in the same sentence, in a way that presumed that I would know the difference between these types of insects, and I realized I hadn't a clue about bottles of any color. "Daggurnit, he doesn't know his bluebottles from his greenbottles!" is what some hay-chewing old man might say about me in mockery of my citified, bug- and bottle-ignorant ways. Personally, I'd rather not be mocked, so I looked it up. It turns out both colors of bottles are the same bug, which is neither bottle-like in any observable way nor is it generally all blue or all green. It looks like this:
(Apparently opalescentbottle was a mouthful.)
The same bug is also known by the name blowfly, which I'd heard without ever understanding. But in the same way that bluebottle seems like an arbitrary name for this creature, blowflies don't actually blow on anything. They got that name, apparently, from an Early Modern English term flyblown, which describes meat — animal and otherwise, butchered and living — that has been contaminated with fly eggs. In fact, there's even a word flyblow that describes the eggs themselves. Citing a Texas A&M textbook, Wikipedia notes that the first recorded instances of the word blow being used with flies themselves — as opposed to the eggs, I guess? — are Love's Labour's Lost, The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra. So, you see, even the lowly fly can benefit from William Shakespeare's verbal magic.
Blowfish, on the other hand, got their name as a result of their fondness for recreational oral sex. (Research ongoing. Will update with proper sourcing shortly.)
By kidicarus222 at December 06, 2011
Read more: all things verbal, etymology, insects, shakespeare
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Fake taxi driver jailed for abduction and rape of woman
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48884373
Image copyright Police Scotland
Image caption Abel Muntean was jailed for 10 years and Raul Novac for five years
A teenage rapist who posed as a taxi driver to abduct and rape a woman on New Year's Day in Fife has been jailed for 10 years.
Abel Muntean, 19, picked up the 18-year-old in Kirkcaldy and raped her before taking her to a house where Raul Novac also raped her on 1 January 2017.
Novac, 34, was jailed for five years for the offence.
They were convicted following a trial in which they had denied raping the woman who was intoxicated.
Novac was sentenced to a further two years and three months for breach of bail offences.
'Unspeakably wicked'
Lord Uist told Muntean at the High Court in Edinburgh: "You were convicted by the jury of shocking, predatory and outrageous criminal conduct consisting of the abduction and two rapes of the same 18-year-old woman who was unknown to you.
"You waited in your car outside a nightclub in Kirkcaldy in the early hours of New Years Day 2017 as it was emptying, flashed your car lights to draw her attention to you, pretended to her that your vehicle was a taxi and that you were a taxi driver and so induced her to enter your car.
"Your behaviour towards her, which was obviously premeditated, can be described only as unspeakably wicked and wholly callous."
The judge pointed out that Muntean has continued to deny the offences and shown no remorse. He said the teenage rapist posed a significant risk of further re-offending.
He told the two Romanians: "In the case of each of you it will be a matter for the Home Secretary to decide whether you should be deported on completion of your sentences."
Defence solicitor advocate Iain Paterson argued that Muntean's sentence should be reduced significantly because of his age and status as a child at the time of the crimes.
Both Muntean and Novac were placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
Det Sgt Calum Lawrie, of Police Scotland, said: "We welcome the sentencing of Muntean and Novac who took advantage of the woman and who subjected her to such horrific crimes.
"The woman believed she was being taken home following the New Year celebrations and instead was put through the most traumatic and frightening ordeal."
Scottish Courts
Scotland Sections


No one quite knew how Christmas 2018 was going to pan out for greeting card stockists. For Cards Galore, it lost out on the last minute sales as so many of its shops are in the City while indies Love It and Highworth Emporium both feel they benefitted from the 'shop local', 'shop indie' campaigns.
Above: Trish Corner with director Rumit Shah in a Cards Galore shop.
Changing buying habits: "Captions appeared to be slower than the previous year, but these can be quite last minute for us. I think our customers were more cautious, choosing cards that have that little bit extra and appear to be better value for money.
Above: Cards Galore lost out on the last minute Christmas Eve sales.
Above: Amanda and Will Oscroft, with The Greats award they won last year. They are looking to up their spending for Christmas 2019.
Mitigating circumstances: "Good shopping weather helped the recent Christmas trade as the previous year's snow made for challenging trading.
Above: Love It had a stonkingly good Christmas trade.
Above: Aga Gabrysiak (right) in festive mode in the shop.
Above: The Highworth Emporium's card sales soared this Christmas.


text:
Why is cellulite so hard to address and what are my options?
Help is on the horizon
Kaitlin Clark | Freelance Writer
Cellulite can be, quite literally, an annoying pain in the butt. It could also be considered the great equalizer because it doesn't discriminate: Women young and old, slim and stodgy, gym rats and couch potatoes alike, can find themselves with stubborn, uneven texture and dimpling.
There are a few treatments and devices designed to alleviate – but not cure – cellulite. Even with their hefty price tags and multiple rounds of treatment, the results tend to be temporary and subtle, at best.
As many as 80 to 90% of American women experience cellulite dimpling at some point in their life. Reliable, medical research has only just begun to learn more about the condition on a cellular level, including what causes it and how to treat it – for good.
Last year, two surgeons from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons released a brief study of the cellular structure of cellulite dimple formation via ultrasounds, with the hope that by knowing and understanding more about the condition they could help discover improved treatment options.
Why is cellulite so hard to treat?
First things first – this seemingly impervious condition has confounded and bewildered surgeons for decades. Diet and exercise help enormously, of course, but dimpling and uneven texture can appear even in the most athletic among us.
"Cellulite is a common complaint among our patients, yet we have never understood what exactly causes it and what is the most effective way to treat it," explains Lauren A. Whipple, MD, a leading author for the cellulite study released last year.
"I always used to say to every patient I saw for cellulite, that as soon as I could invent something to take care of cellulite, I was going to retire immediately and go buy an island in Miami," laughs Washington D.C.-based plastic surgeon and ASPS member, Troy Pittman, MD, highlighting the lack of effective treatment options.
"The issue with cellulite is a skin support issue," says Dr. Pittman. "I think that most patients look at cellulite in the mirror and they think of it as fat that could or should be treated the way we treat fat with liposuction. And the truth is, liposuction takes support away from the skin, it devolumizes the skin and can make cellulite exceedingly worse."
One key finding in last year's cellulite study is that "there's a high degree of fascial banding associated with the cellulite dimples," says co-author, Joseph Ricci, MD. "When we actually put the ultrasound on people to visualize what was happening beneath the skin, we saw that there is something tethering the skin to a deeper structure, which creates the dimple."
These fibrous bands run perpendicular to the skin, says Dr. Pittman, and the crater that is formed at the intersection of the band and the skin "can only be permanently resolved by breaking those fibrous bands" underneath the skin.
The newbies
Qwo
Qwo, an injectable, received FDA approval in the summer of 2020 to treat banana rolls and cellulite on the buttocks via an injectable enzyme that pinpoints and destroys the collagen within the tethered fibrous bands, releasing the dimpled skin to bounce back to a normal, smooth skin equilibrium, while leaving the surrounding area safe and untouched.
"Qwo is an enzyme, collagenase, that targets those bands and chemically melts them," says Dr. Pittman, adding that physicians will inject Qwo directly into the dimple and around it as well to melt the bands as much as possible. Think of the process as similar to the way Kybella melts fat.
But there is, of course, a catch. "If you think about this collagenase," says Dr. Pittman, "It's breaking down collagen structures, so it's not only breaking the band, but all of the little veinules – these tiny, tiny veins that run through the skin – it breaks those, too."
The disruption of so many fibrous bands at once leads to a "shocking" level of bruising – 10 times worse than liposuction, Dr. Pittman estimates. To make matters worse, the typical course of treatment is three rounds of injections, spaced six weeks apart. Meaning that your entire area of treatment will be the color of a bright berry smoothie for four solid months. But the bright side? The treated cellulite dimples will never return, and you also won't feel as awful as the bruising might suggest, with patients reporting only minimal soreness.
Resonic
Launched in the summer of 2021, this hotly awaited in-office device uses a first-of-its-kind, FDA-cleared Rapid Acoustic Pulse (RAP) technology to noninvasively improve the appearance of cellulite on the buttocks and thighs by delivering rapid-fire, high-pressure acoustic shockwaves – up to 100 pulses per second – to break the septa bands beneath the skin, without damaging the surround skin.
Some dermatologists swear that it also addresses uneven texture that isn't quite cellulite, but isn't not cellulite, either. It's FDA cleared for short-term improvement, but sun exposure and lifestyle changes will quickly diminish the already temporary results.
Avéli by Revelle
The launch of this new device is shrouded in secrecy, with the manufacturer only inviting 40 doctors to trial the next-gen handheld device. Like some of the older cellulite models, it is a handheld device that cuts the fibrous bands under the skin's surface to release the dimple. As opposed to other treatments, which sever many surrounding bands unnecessarily, Avéli's technology allows doctors to identify and target exactly the band they want to cut, but leaving the others intact.
While the clinical study has not yet been released and only a small number of dermatology and plastic surgery practices have the device, Avéli should become more widely available by the end of 2022. This is definitely a procedure that everyone in the medical field is keeping a close eye on.
The OG treatments
One of the first treatments for cellulite deserves a spot on the list of options, but VelaShape has been phased out of doctor's offices over the years in place of newer, more advanced technology than the massage and suction with radiofrequency VelaShape delivers.
Designed to relieve dimpling associated with cellulite, Cellfina actually cuts the fibrous bands underneath the skin via a small device that's inserted through (very numbed) skin on top of, or next to, each cellulite dimple.
Dr. Pittman describes the experience, which begins with the placement of a suction cup-looking device over the dimple, which suctions the dimple up, then a needle is inserted into the center of the suction cup and then the provider "kind of waves the needle back and forth over and over again to basically cut the fibrous band."
This time-consuming process is repeated for each dimple, resulting in major swelling for two weeks, a few days worth of downtime and the possibility of permanent scarring at the injection sites.
Although it's advertised as a one-and-done procedure, Dr. Pittman cautions that it won't prevent new dimples from popping up over time.
Cellulaze
"Cellulaze is basically a laser that puts heat energy on the skin and uses radiofrequency energy to cut the connective bands," explains Dr. Pittman. The heat energy also amps up collagen production to make skin bouncier and stronger, with results appearing within three to six months, and lasting up to a year.
The challenge with Cellulaze, says Dr. Pittman is that "you need to hit those little rubber band-size fibrous bands, right on target with the energy" or else the band won't be cut effectively, and the dimples will still be visible.
"Many surgeons I know like Cellulaze better than Cellfina," says Dr. Pittman. "But they're not going crazy over the results."
To find a qualified plastic surgeon for any cosmetic or reconstructive procedure, consult a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. All ASPS members are board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, have completed an accredited plastic surgery training program, practice in accredited facilities and follow strict standards of safety and ethics. Find an ASPS member in your area.
Lip flips may have been trending on TikTok, but is it the right choice for you?
Three ways to get rid of turkey neck
Six procedures to get now to be summer-ready
How to get rid of under-eye bags
Everything you need to know about hand rejuvenation


text:
Q: Error when setting variable in an Excel VBA Application I've created a working macro that runs linear regression statistical analysis on a data set.  The final piece is to have a variable service level (# between 0 and 100) that the user can enter, then that value will be used in the VBA code.
Here's the working code with a standard service level set at 90:
' Run Regression Application
Dim LastRow As Long
    LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
    Application.Run "ATPVBAEN.XLAM!Regress", ActiveSheet.Range("$A$1:$A" & LastRow), _
        ActiveSheet.Range("$B$1:$B$" & LastRow), False, True, 90, ActiveSheet.Range("$D:$BK") _
        , True, True, True, True, , False

When I added ServiceLevel as a var:
' Run Regression Application
Dim LastRow As Long
Dim ServiceLevel As Long
    LastRow = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
    ServiceLevel = Range("AA4").Value
     Application.Run "ATPVBAEN.XLAM!Regress", ActiveSheet.Range("$A$1:$A" & LastRow), _
        ActiveSheet.Range("$B$1:$B$" & LastRow), False, True, ServiceLevel, ActiveSheet.Range("$D:$BK") _
        , True, True, True, True, , False

And I get this error:
Regression - Confidence must be a number between 0 and 100

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A key pillar of Centrify's Zero Trust security is to limit access and privilege. An effective way to accomplish this key objective is to make every access workflow enabled.
As many of you know already, ServiceNow is the leading vendor in the ITSM market and is rapidly growing. And, our customers asked for the integration that helps tie the Centrify IAM stack with ServiceNow.
They can achieve this with a combination of Centrify's Identity Services and four Certified Centrify ServiceNow Applications.
The focus of this post is to elaborate on what's new in our integration as part of the 18.4 release.
What's ServiceNow + Centrify Zone Role Workflow?
While it is possible to give users access by statically assigning them to a role with specific administrative rights, a more secure method for controlling access is to establish a request and approval workflow. A request and approval workflow give specific users or members of specific roles the ability to approve or reject access requests. A request and approval workflow improve security by controlling which users can request access, which users can grant access, and how long access is allowed if it is granted.
Checkout access for stored account passwords if you have Centrify infrastructure service deployed.
Login access for systems, domains, and databases if you have Centrify infrastructure service deployed.
Elevated privileges associated with the roles defined in zones if you have Centrify infrastructure service deployed.
This is available within Centrify's Identity platform and the documentation for configuring and enabling the Zone Role Workflow is here.
How to leverage Centrify's Zone Role Workflow from ServiceNow?
Enable Zone Role Workflow at a domain level.
And, choose to override at the system level.
Install the application from the ServiceNow store. This is what one would see after installation.
Configure the properties with the Centrify tenant details.
See the new ServiceNow Catalog Item.
Request for either a Windowed, Permanent or a Temporary access from the catalog item.
Once the request is approved within ServiceNow, the entitlement fulfillment is done by Centrify. This is how it shows up at the computer object level in Access Manager.
IT-users need to automate tasks like account provisioning and password resets, and manage privileged access to on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure. Centrify's identity management integrations with ServiceNow help automate processes, improve visibility, and provide a better experience for ServiceNow end-users and privileged IT-users.
We have 4 certified Centrify Apps in the ServiceNow marketplace to help our customers achieve this. The latest update to the Privilege Access Request app with Zone Role workflow enhancement expands our capability to enable Centrify's Zero Trust security and limit access and privilege for infrastructure access.


Reasons Why Need To Hire A Handyman Services.
Handyman becomes useful when you are struggling to find someone to do various unusual jobs or smaller tasks which contractors who are handling big project do not have the time for or refuse to do. Getting a person to provide repairs for the personalized made features are becoming a problem for many people in this era. A handyman is there to provide the solution.
Some of the services that a handyman provides include repairs an remodeling, minor electrical repairs and services, landscaping, concrete services and many other tasks for home improvements. In addition to doing repairs and home enhancement an excellent handyman service provider will work in cooperation o other professionals to ensure that you get all the services you need to have you home enhanced.
In this age most bust are so busy that time is little for the house chores and minor defaults are left unattended for days or weeks and to avoid this; you should consider a handyman service. A handyman will visit your home to assess the type of work that needs to be done. He will then give the cost of the entire work and the time that will be required so that the client will arrange for the cash as well as the time in which the work will be done. The homeowner also gets to learn about all the possible ways in which the project can be handled.
A professional handyman service provider will liaise with other experts such as the plumbers, electricians, and decorators to provide a whole range of other services. For instance, in a plumbing job, it could be a major task like remodeling a whole bathroom rather than a simple repair like fixing a leaking pipe.
Companies that offer handyman services can charge their services either per individual job while other will charge per hour for the services.
If you do not have the time, skill or the desire to tackle your home maintenance and improvement work you should look for the help of a handyman. Handymen are equipment all round in handling all kinds of home repair and renovation no matter how hard it may be.
If you are in a situation where you need the help of a handyman it is important that you find one who has the knowledge in the kind of work you want done. It is advisable that you choose a handymen firm as they have an expert in every area of home repair and improvement projects. The handymen should not only have experience, they should also have great communication skills, be trustworthy, friendly, reliable, affordable, and can provide emergency services. A professional handyman should finish the task within the agreed time.


Following is a new sample lesson from the soon to be released Synergy Spanish informal dialogs.
This course works best if you have already completed Synergy Spanish.
once you have the foundation from Synergy Spanish you should find using this informal Spanish easy and enjoyable. If you have friends that speak Spansih even better, you can take what you learn and get some real practice with your amigos.


text:
Q: RequestMappingHandlerMapping not showing I am importing my mapping via a service at runtime:
ArrayList<String> uris = [
        "/v${version}/${controller}/${action}**",
        "/v${version}/${controller}/${action}/**",
        "/v${version}*/${controller}/${action}**",
        "/v${version}*/${controller}/${action}/**"
]
uris.each() { uri ->
    //final var requestMappingInfo = getRequestMappingInfo(uri, action);
    // todo : need to cache Handler in IO State/connector for '${handler}.class.getDeclaredMethod'
    addMapping(uri, 'GET', v, action)
}

...
public void addMapping(final String url, final String method, Object controller, String action) {
    final var requestMappingInfo = getRequestMappingInfo(url,method);

    try{
        requestMappingHandlerMapping.registerMapping(requestMappingInfo, controller, controller.class.getDeclaredMethod("${action}") );
    } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
        if (logger.isErrorEnabled()) {
            logger.error("MessageController could not be found for mapping route!" + " [code=(IMSMEE0020)]");
        }
    }
}

private RequestMappingInfo getRequestMappingInfo(final String url, final String method) {
    // 'secured' roles and consumes/produces media type are checked in interceptor based on REQUEST type
    return RequestMappingInfo.paths(url).methods(RequestMethod.valueOf(method)).build();
}

However, regardless of passing the RequestMappingHandlerMapping from an implemented WebMvcConfigurer:
@Autowired
@Lazy
private RequestMappingHandlerMapping handlerMapping;

... the mappings do not ever appear.
Does anyone know what is wrong or how to add mappings to the RequestMappingHandlerMapping???


text:
Diaphylla ornata är en skalbaggsart som beskrevs av Philippi 1864. Diaphylla ornata ingår i släktet Diaphylla och familjen Melolonthidae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Skalbaggar
ornata


Panelists: Jonathan Klarfeld, professor of journalism, Boston University; Ike Williams, attorney; Sarah Wright, Boston Herald; Paul McNamara, editorial page editor, The Middlesex News; Delores Handy, host and reporter, Say Brother.
Chicago: "Group, The; First Amendment," 07/05/1993, WGBH Media Library & Archives, accessed April 24, 2019, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_A1E1EC384F884A5D8F5CDAA51080CF7D.
MLA: "Group, The; First Amendment." 07/05/1993. WGBH Media Library & Archives. Web. April 24, 2019. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_A1E1EC384F884A5D8F5CDAA51080CF7D>.


text:
Home / News in English /
Young Christian Dies In Eritrea Prison Camp
on May 8, 2010 10:45 pm
ASMARA, ERITREA – A young woman has died in one of Eritrea's military prison camps after she was reportedly denied medical treatment for malaria and severe anemia.
Senait Oqbazgi Habta, 28, died April 23 in the Sawa Military Training Centre in Eritrea where she had been detained for some two years for attending a Bible study group with 15 other university students, said Open Doors, a well-informed Christian advocacy and
aid group.
She and other students were imprisoned in large metal shipping containers where they suffered suffocating heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night, Netherlands-based Open Doors said.
"Our local sources say that Habta was offered freedom and medical care in exchange for abandoning het Christian faith. She refused and paid died because of that decision," said Open Doors spokesman Jan Vermeer.
He suggested that she was deliberately brought too late to the medical post in the camp, where she died.
MORE DIE
Over a dozen Christians are known to have died in detention in Eritrea, but Open Doors said that number may be higher. "Most Christians die because they don't receive medical care. Illnesses are rampant because of the horrible circumstances of prisoners," Vermeer added.
Last year Eritrea released some 600 Christians, because many of them nearly died in their prisons, Open Doors said.
Over 2,200 devoted Christians are believed to remain detained in the African nation, with new arrests reported. Over 80 Christians were detained in the past two months, including 11 Christians who gathered for a prayer meeting in April, Open Doors said. It was unclear Saturday where the 11 Christians were held.
Since 2002, Eritrea only allows the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, the Roman-Catholic Church and Islamic groups to operate officially, although church leaders of these traditional denominations have also complained of harassment
"Especially Christians who actively spread the Gospel have been targeted," Open Doors explained in a statement. The Eritrean government has denied any wrongdoing saying it wants to protect the country against dangerous sects and bad foreign influences.
Envoy: Sudan Army Seized 9 Ethiopia Camps
'Who Let Them in?': Ethiopian Army Official Says Eritrean Armed Forces in Tigray
Ethiopian General Admits Eritrean Troops Entered Tigray


Sign up online with MyAlberta eServices to receive renewal reminders for vehicle registrations and driver's licence/identification cards.
Sign up with My Alberta eServices and we'll remind you when it's time to renew your driver's licence/identification card and/or vehicle registration. You'll receive an email 2 months before and then again 2 weeks before the expiry date.
Albertans holding parking placards for persons with disabilities or disabled licence plates will continue to receive renewal reminders through the mail.
Seniors over the age of 70 will receive mailed reminders until April 1, 2018.
Albertans are responsible to ensure that their registrations, licences, and identification cards are current. A driver's licence is valid for one to five years, depending on the class, and expires on your birthday. Registrations expire on an assigned month based on your surname.
Check the expiry dates on your licence plate, driver's licence, or identification card and mark them on your calendar.


text:
Southwold man admits cannabis charges
A SOUTHWOLD man has admitted growing cannabis and attempting to smuggle the drug.
Terrence Smith, 55, of Foster Close, pleaded guilty to three charges at Ipswich Crown Court on Monday.
The court heard that Smith's arrest on June 16 last year was the result of an investigation launched by the UK Border Agency in Coventry. The inquiry was then passed on to Suffolk police and officers moved in to arrest Smith when a package containing cannabis was delivered to his home.
A search was later carried out at Smith's home and 11 cannabis plants were found growing at the property, along with 778.57grams of cannabis resin and 249.19gms of cannabis, the court heard.
Smith admitted being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a Class B drug. It was alleged he was involved in an plot to smuggle eight kilograms of cannabis resin into the country.
He also pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of a Class B drug, and admitted a third charge of possessing cannabis and cannabis resin.
The total value of the drugs involved in all three charges is understood to be just under �28,000.
Smith was released on bail and will be sentenced later this month.


APTET 2019: Andhra Pradesh TET 2019 – The AP TET 2019 has known as Andhra Pradesh Teacher's Eligibility Test. APTET 2019 conducts by the Higher Education Board of Andhra Pradesh (BSEAP). Basically, AP TET 2019 organized for those candidates who want to make the career in teaching fields. It is a mandatory test to qualify for to become a teacher in Government /private schools sector. Here we are informing candidates about the APTET 2019. It is a state level entrance exam of Andhra Pradesh State. Every year the Board of Secondary Education Andhra Pradesh has conducted the exam in the month of January 2018. The Authority will conduct two papers – Paper 1 Primary School Teacher (Class 1 to 5) and Paper 2 Upper Primary School (Class 6 to 8). Read the complete article to get more information regarding AP TET 2019 like Application Form, Date, Syllabus, Admit Card, Result.
Latest Notification: The respective Authority is going to release official Notification in the month of December 2018. The Exam will probably conduct in the month of January 2019.
Authority Name: Higher Education Board of Andhra Pradesh (BSEAP).
The Candidates must have passed Intermediate standard from APBSC (Andhra Pradesh Board of Secondary Education).
The Candidates have secure 45% marks aggregate in the qualifying examination or equivalent examination.
To the reserved category, 5% of relaxation in the percentile is given.
The Candidates have a degree/appearing in 4yrs Bachelor of Elementary Education (D.EL.ED).
Candidates have a Bachelor's degree from the recognized university of the board.
The B.Ed degree is required from the recognized board.
Applicants must have completed the B.Ed (Bachelor in Education).
The examination will conduct for two papers: Paper-I will be conducted for Primary teacher level (I-V) and Paper-II will be held for the Upper Primary Level (VI-VIII).
Duration: The Examination Duration will of 2 ½ hrs.
The Question paper will consist of 150 questions for 150marks.
The Question paper will Objective type as MCQ.
AP TET consists to papers (Paper-I and Paper-II).
Paper, I will be connected with those candidates who want to be a teacher for 1 to 5 classes.
Paper II for those candidates who want the teacher for 6 to 8 classes.
A candidate who wants to be a teacher for both (classes 1 to 5 and Classes 6 to 8) will have to appear in both papers.
The Application form will be available in the month of January 2019. The interested and eligible candidates can apply through online mode by official website. Candidates need to fill all personal and educational details in the online registration form. Before going to apply the aspirant's check the official notification.
Candidates fill all required details in online application form.
Next, submit your application fees.
Take a print out of filled application form for the further use.
All applicants have to pay Rs. 250/-.
AP TET 2019 Admit Card – The Andhra Pradesh TET Admit Card 2019 will be available through online at the official website of APBSE. The Admit Card will issue by the conducting authority before one week of examination. According to previous years, information admits card will be issued in the month of January 2019. The Admit Card is mandatory to bring to the exam hall. Otherwise, candidates can't allow entering into the examination hall. To download admit card the Candidate needs to enter your DOB and registration no. The respective will provide soon to download admit card. The admit card will contain all essential details of candidates and examination like Candidates name, image, DOB, exam date, exam time and the name of the exam center.
AP TET 2019 Result – The Result will be announced in the month of February 2019. The Secondary Education Board Andhra Pradesh is the authority who will announce the result. After completion of the examination, all appeared candidates can check their TET exam result by online mode at authority official website. Keep in touch with our web page to get latest and upcoming more information regarding AP TET Exam Result 2018, Date and other. The candidates can check your result by entering registration ID / Roll number and DOB. The Candidates takes a hard copy of AP TET 2019 Score Card for future use.


LIFTMASTER model MH commercial opener is a 1/2hp hoist drive. It is part of the commercial opener. This garage door opener has an ac motor on 110vac. A battery backup is not available. The remotes are dip switch on 315. The rail is style is None.
The warranty on the MH garage door opener is 2 years on the motor and 2 years on the remaining opener parts from LIFTMASTER.
The model MH is still available.
LIFTMASTER model MH commercial opener brochure in PDF format at NO CHARGE!


text:
The Wire Troll: Pavel Zacha Powers Past Slump
November 24, 2018 | By RotoRob | comment on this post
Pavel Zacha's slow start is done now. (Profimedia.cz)
Welcome back to another week of Fantasy hockey. We're nearing the end of November, a time when you should have a good idea of where you stand in your leagues. Fix your weaknesses with the wire.
This week, he Penguins lost struggling goalie Matt Murray to the IR, leaving Casey DeSmith to man the net (see below); the Oilers added to their defensive depth by acquiring Chris Wideman from Ottawa for a conditional 2020 sixth round pick; and NHL scoring leader Mikko Rantanen is $2,000 poorer after getting slapped with an embellishment fine.
And now, let's get to this week's Fantasy hockey waiver wire recommendations…
Pavel Zacha, C, New Jersey Devils (ESPN: 1 per cent; CBS: 8 per cent): Zacha got off to a putrid start, failing to record a single point through the first 12 games. Well, he's making up for lost time now. After potting two goals Wednesday, he now has four goals in the last three games. Yes, he's sometimes guilty of coughing up the puck (34 giveaways last season, four in his last game alone), but he seems to have gotten his game going on a new line as the centre on the second line with wingers Jesper Bratt and Marcus Johansson, a combo that has provided early returns and controlled play well. Zacha has been a streaky player so far in his career, but after scoring 25 points in 69 games last season, he seemed poised for a breakout. Perhaps it's just been a tad slow in the coming. And like most athletes, he seems thrilled to be interviewed (see video below).
Casey DeSmith, G, Pittsburgh Penguins (ESPN: 4 per cent; CBS: 43 per cent): Smith had a solid rookie season, posting a fine 2.40 GAA in limited action, and he's been even better in the early going this season, with just 25 goals allowed in nine starts and four relief appearances. With starter Murray struggling with both injuries and ineffectiveness and now landing on the IR, the net is DeSmith's for the foreseeable future. As long as you keep Smith away from the Bruins, he'll be a fine play for you.
Alex Stalock, G, Minnesota Wild (ESPN: 0.6 per cent; CBS: 8 per cent): With Devan Dubnyk currently ill, Stalock has taken over as the main man in the Minny net. Stalock wasted no time in establishing himself as a viable Fantasy option, backstopping the Wild to a 4-2 win over the Jets on Saturday with a 26-save effort, including 14 in the first period alone. He saw his most action ever last year, but wasn't at his best (2.85 GAA, .910 save percentage). This season, Stalock has been much sharper, with a 2.54 GAA heading into Saturday's fine showing. The one-time Shark backup has struggled to grab a starting job, but has generally been very impressive when called on, so grab him if you need short-term help.
Mikko Koskinen, G, Edmonton Oilers (ESPN: 2.4 per cent; CBS: 28 per cent): No. 1 goalie Cam Talbot has struggled so far, allowing Koskinen to see more and more action of late. Koskinen is a great story, having last played in the NHL in 2010-11 before heading back to his native Finland for a couple of years and spending the last six seasons in the KHL. He turned in another solid effort Friday, saving 23 of 25 shots, coming within 17 seconds of his second shutout of the season and giving him five straight games of three goals or fewer allowed. Koskinen already has five wins with a solid 2.65 GAA and looks like a fine pickup for the long haul.
James Reimer, G, Florida Panthers (ESPN: 0.8 per cent; CBS: 21 per cent): There's plenty of goaltending options this week as yet another Roberto Luongo injury has forced Reimer back into the No. 1 role for the Panthers for the time being. Long-time backup Reimer never seemed comfortable starting, but like it or not, he's got the job now, and perhaps this will help him shake off a poor start. He appeared in a career-high 44 games last season, but wasn't great (giving up 120 goals). Still, Reimer has been a sound goalie throughout his career, earning 134 wins with a 2.80 GAA, .914 save percentage and 21 shutouts, so he's worth looking at if you need help.
David Schlemko, D, Montreal Canadiens (ESPN: unowned; CBS: unowned): Schlemenko missed the first few weeks of the season with a knee injury, but has stepped right into major minutes upon his return two weeks ago. Okay, so he's not exactly the most skilled or fastest defenseman on the Habs, but he did log a team-high 30 shifts on Friday, picking up an assist (on the PP), three shots, four blocks and a pair of minor penalties. You won't ever get much offense from a generally bottom-pairing defender like Schlemko, but he's averaging around two and a half blocks and one and a half hits per game, and that has value.
RotoRob Tune of the Day
American pop singer/songwriter Brenda Russell is a five-time Grammy winner. From her 1993 album Soul Talkin', here is "Who Are You," featuring R&B singer Bobby Caldwell.
Now it's your turn. Let us know in the comments below who your favourite Fantasy hockey pickup of the week is.
Tags: Pavel Zacha
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 24th, 2018 at 2:04 pm	and is filed under HOCKEY, RotoRob, The Wire Troll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.