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Home» Drive-By Truckers » Old Times Were Good Times: Remembering The Stray Gators
Old Times Were Good Times: Remembering The Stray Gators
Posted by Lance Davis - February 1, 2015 - Drive-By Truckers, International Harvesters, Johnny Cash, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Neil Young, Silkworm, Stray Gators, Uncle Tupelo
L-R: Kenny Buttrey (drums), Tim Drummond (bass), Jack Nitzsche (piano), Ben Keith (pedal steel), Neil Young (electric guitar)
Photo: Joel Bernstein
Bassist Tim Drummond passed away on January 10. If that name means something to you, it's no doubt due to his relation to several prominent frontmen, including Bob Dylan, James Brown, Conway Twitty, Ry Cooder, CSN, and most importantly, Y, Neil Young. Drummond's lowdown, self-assured basslines could be funky, twangin', behind the beat, in front of the beat, and always in service of the song. And as nailed to the bottom as he was, he'd add subtle, distinctive licks and riffs that help turn good songs into great.
Unfortunately, the death of Drummond marked a significant — and altogether depressing — milestone. The original Stray Gators, backing band for a pair of Neil Young classics, Harvest and Time Fades Away, are all dead. Jack Nitzsche was the first to go, on August 25, 2000. Nitzsche was a composer, producer, and arranger before he was a musician, but his piano and slide guitar were key components to the Stray Gators' keening, roots-rock sound. Drummer Kenny Buttrey passed away next, on September 12, 2004, and steel genius Ben Keith followed on July 26, 2010. Drummond and Keith continued to play with Neil, but the Stray Gators remained shelved for almost 20 years. I know my blog is called The Adios Lounge, but it hasn't gotten easier saying goodbye to some of my favorite musicians, especially the role players who don't benefit from the hype, recognition, and infrastructure of the frontmen.
Historically speaking, The Stray Gators are no Crazy Horse, but who is? Every other Neil Young aggregation — including Buffalo Springfield and CSNY — suffers in comparison to the Horse, even if you can make a half-hearted apples/oranges counterargument. Longevity, consistency, staying true to the garage, it's Crazy Horse then everybody else. The original Stray Gators — Nitzsche, Keith, Drummond, and Buttrey — only played with Neil from 1971-73, and a single oddball reunion (which we'll discuss later). After 6 weeks on the road, Buttrey pulled out, to be replaced by Johnny Barbata. The tour continued for another 20-25 shows, finally finishing on April 3 in Salt Lake City. The Stray Gators wouldn't be heard from for 18 years, at which point a slightly modified lineup backed Neil for 1 album and 3-4 shows. That was the extent of their collaboration. With their story now having an official beginning and end, it seems like a perfect time to reassess The Gators' limited, but quality output.
ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY?
On February 17, 1971, Neil Young appeared on Episode 20 of The Johnny Cash Show, playing solo piano versions of "Needle And The Damage Done" and "Journey Through The Past." Cash filmed his show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, a short jog from his home in Hendersonville. So, while Young was in Nashville, he dined with producer Elliot Mazer, a New York transplant who ran Quad Studios with session stalwarts Norbert Putnam and David Briggs. It was this association that ultimately led to the birth of both Harvest and The Stray Gators.
It was the work of a lesser-known, all-instrumental group, Area Code 615, featuring Putnam, Briggs, the late drummer Kenny Buttrey and assorted other session hands, that piqued Young's interest. "After dinner Neil said, 'Hey, aren't you the guys who have that Area Code 615 band? That was great!,'" recalls Mazer. "Right there he asked if he could come down to Quad and do some work. All he needed was a small group of players, just bass, drums, and steel."
Mazer made a few quick calls, but Putnam was out for the weekend and steel man Weldon Myrick was working the Grand Ole Opry (as he did each Saturday night). With drummer Buttrey acting as the sole 615 representative, Mazer tracked down pedal steel player Ben Keith, and asked songwriter Troy Seals to play bass. "We eventually found bassist Tim Drummond walking down the street," recalls Mazer, "but Troy ended up on the first song we cut, 'Dance Dance Dance,' which wasn't ever released."
Having built his own studio from scratch the year before, Young immediately took to the down-home atmosphere at Quad. With his makeshift backing band — later dubbed The Stray Gators — Young began work on what would become Harvest, cutting master takes of "Heart of Gold," "Old Man," and several other songs over the next 24 hours. "He'd just play us each song," says Mazer, "and we'd discuss the arrangements. Then we went right to work. It felt great in that room right away; we were all totally impressed with Neil and the songs he'd brought in."
–Dave Simons, Tips from the Top: The Making of Neil Young's "Harvest," June 11, 2007
Neil obviously brought in "Needle And The Damage Done," since he played it for Johnny Cash. The album version of "Needle" was actually recorded live at Royce Hall (UCLA) about a week before Young flew into Nashville. Once ensconced at Quad Studios, Neil and the Gators reeled off "Heart of Gold," "Old Man," "Out On The Weekend," and "Harvest" between February and April. For most people, these 5 tracks (of 10) are the core of Harvest, if not an outright proxy. They're certainly the tunes most likely to pop up on a classic rock radio drive-by or satellite feed.
Neil on the Johnny Cash Show, February 1971
While I admit that each and every one of those songs is either pretty good ("Heart Of Gold") or very good (all the others), I can barely listen to them. This isn't really a critique. As I said about "Brown Sugar" in my Bobby Keys post, it's not unusual for a great song to get beaten into pulp through the consumptive machinations of mainstream culture. "Old Man" isn't any different in this respect than "The Times They Are A-Changin'" or "Blowin' In The Wind" or "Baba O'Riley" or [fill in iconic, yet overplayed song here]. On an intellectual level the messages may get through, but I feel nothing. It may as well be background music for a Time-Life infomercial on "The '70s."
Harvest is actually 3 drastically different visions of a single album. In addition to Folk City, each album side includes a sojourn in strings. "A Man Needs a Maid" sounds like it would've fit in better on After The Gold Rush, but the way the orchestra is integrated with Neil's solo piano is very effective. I go through phases where I skip past "Maid," but it's a great tune and MUCH better than "There's a World," which feels like a failed experiment. Interestingly, for all of the album's dusty, western appeal, both songs were recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra during a brief trip to England in late February/early March.
ARE YOU READY FOR ME?
With half an album in the can, Young and the Gators reconvened at the guitarist's newly acquired ranch in northern California, using a large rustic barn — complete with bales of hay — as a makeshift recording space (with Wally Heider's remote unit serving as the base of operations). Once again, Buttrey, Drummond, and Keith set up in a tight semicircle around Young, now using his '50s stereo Gretsch White Falcon electric, with Jack Nitzsche, Young's producer pal from his Buffalo Springfield days, supplying rudimentary piano parts. As he'd done on his previous two albums, Young contrasted his acoustic repertoire with a set of rockers, recording "Alabama," "Words," and "Are You Ready for the Country?" with the same ambient approach as the Quad sessions. "Again, it was all done in the room there, with everything leaking together," says Buttrey. "And it was pretty good leakage, too. Elliot did a really good job of deciding whether it was good leakage or bad leakage."
For my money, Harvest succeeds because of the trio of songs recorded in September, well after the bulk of the album was cut. No pensiveness or passive declarations, no easily digestible ennui, just twangin', crunchy, shit-talkin' rock 'n' roll. To be fair, the contrast between the different visions helps make the album work, but the rock band is the fuel powering the bus. It's also worth noting that while the acoustic songs were the moneymakers, it was actually the heavy rock songs that pointed the way forward for Neil. Following the release of Harvest in February 1972, Young released Time Fades Away (1973), On The Beach (1974), Tonight's The Night (1975), and Zuma (1975) — aka The Ditch Trilogy +1. While acousticana folk and pop ballads were certainly part of the mix between 1973-75, this wasn't hippie-dippy granola fare. These were late night battles with the dark side, fueled by tequila, cocaine, and paranoia. Where "The Needle And The Damage Done" referenced the lifestyle, The Ditch Trilogy sounded like it was bleeding out from it.
Neil Young & The Stray Gators – Are You Ready For The Country
Recorded at Broken Arrow Ranch
Neil Young – vocals, piano
Ben Keith – pedal steel
Jack Nitzsche – lap steel
Tim Drummond – bass
Kenny Buttrey – drums
Crosby & Nash – backing vocals
If ever a song should've been cut in a barn, "Are You Ready For The Country" is the one. It's Harvest's lone country-rock song, a sub-genre with which Neil had long been comfortable ("The Losing End" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," e.g.), and one to which he'd return repeatedly over the years. While the beat is a tad slow — we'll get to that in a bit — the musicians obviously feel comfortable with each other — the false start and quick laughter out the gate being something of a tip-off. The genius of "Are You Ready" isn't just that Neil skillfully merged his rock tendencies with full-tilt twang. Here he's laying back, comping chords on piano as Keith and Nitzsche essentially duel on competing steels. The way they swoop in and out of the song is somewhat similar to a horn section, like a trombone and muted trumpet in a swing band. Why don't more rock and country songwriters incorporate pedal steel and lap steel (or dobro) in the same song? Such a great sound.
L-R: Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp
Live Aid 1985?
Photo: Bettmann Archive
Did I ever tell you about the time I interviewed Jeff Tweedy (January 1996) and asked him about the supposed influence of Gram Parsons? "It's a totally ridiculous critical touchstone that has to be in every article," he replied, "But has very little basis in fact. Sure, he had some great songs, and I like his records a lot, but he has a lot of mediocre shit, too [laughs]. If you really wanna name somebody who's probably a more overwhelming influence on all these bands, it'd be Neil Young — but he's too popular." Neil Young, godfather of grunge AND alt.country. Granted, the B-side to Uncle Tupelo's very first single ("I Got Drunk," 1990) was "Sin City" by The Flying Burrito Brothers, but the band never really sounded like Gram Parsons. They sure as hell sounded like Neil Young, though. Lots of right-minded bands in the '90s and early '00s bands did, some taking influence from both Young AND Uncle Tupelo. I'm looking at you Bottle Rockets, Whiskeytown, Blue Mountain, Backsliders, Gourds, Damnations, V-Roys, Slobberbone, and Grand Champeen.
"Are You Ready For The Country" may be the only song written by Neil Young whose definitive studio version was by another artist. In 1976, Waylon Jennings turned the tune into a Top 10 country hit and arguably took ownership of it. Neil started incorporating Waylon's lyrics and on September 20, 1984, performed it with Jennings on Ralph Emery's Nashville Now TV show. Perhaps the most significant alteration Waylon made to the tune was its thematic focus. Where Young's original was a veiled anti-war song — or at least war-aware because the narrator was about to get sent to one — Jennings' meaning is more diffuse.
"Me? Oh, I'm just over here being cool as fuck. Beer me!"
"Leftin' & a-rightin'" may refer not to political wings, but to a fistfight, and if it's anti-anything, it's anti-religion and anti-drugs, with the preacher and pusher both "sellin' highs." The preacher was a sign of hope in Neil's version, but for Waylon that old Parson Brown ain't nothing but a pusher, which significantly changes the tone of the song,. Jennings also changed the chorus from "Are you ready for the country because it's time to go? to "Are you ready for the country? Are you ready for me?" That kinda makes the song about country music and Waylon Jennings' place in it, a concept explored just the year previous in his massive hit, "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way."
(A collateral coincidence is that "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" was covered by Uncle Tupelo during the Anodyne sessions and singing lead on their version was Joe Ely, like Waylon, from Lubbock, TX. Anodyne also featured a lot of lap steel, pedal steel, and dobro, with Max Johnston (lap steel, dobro) and Lloyd Maines (pedal steel) evoking Ben Keith's weary steel/slide tone heard to such devastating effect on Tonight's The Night and On The Beach. Furthermore, Coffee Creek, the short-lived Tupelo side project featuring Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets, covered "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Are You Ready For The Country," "Get Back To The Country" (from Old Ways, 1985), AND "Powderfinger" at various shows.)
Waylon's lyrical shift was matched by the music. His faster tempo is a better fit for the song's punchy honky tonkin' backbone. I've always felt the Harvest version is too slow, but I attributed that to the musicians' unfamiliarity with the material. I'm sure if they'd been playing it live for awhile, it would've settled into its natural, faster groove. For example, by the time 1986 rolled around, Neil didn't need anyone else to show him how to play his song.
Neil Young & The International Harvesters – Are You Ready For The Country
Farm Aid 2
Manor Downs Racetrack, Austin, TX
Neil Young – vocals, guitar
Ben Keith – pedal steel guitar, vocals
Anthony Crawford – guitar, vocals
Rufus Thibodeaux – fiddle
Hargus "Pig" Robbins – piano
Spooner Oldham – organ
Joe Allen – bass
Karl T. Himmel – drums
Nicolette Larson – backing vocals
For 80 shows in 1984-85, Neil toured America with 2 different versions of The International Harvesters, a group that included Ben Keith on steel and Tim Drummond on bass. However, instead of Jack Nitzsche on piano, the band enlisted the services of Spooner Oldham, who played all of the 1984 shows. For the 1985 tour, Oldham was replaced by the great Nashville session hotshot, Pig Robbins. Not a bad Plan B or C. While they were similar to the Gators, I'm not sure it's fair (or accurate) to consider the Harvesters the Stray Gators 2.0 (or 3.0, if you consider the Johnny Barbata version 2.0). In fact, the Harvesters were a direct offshoot of the Gone With The Wind Orchestra, a one-off band Neil put together for a children's benefit in Miami in 1977. While similar to the Gators, the Harvesters and GWTW Ork were branches on the same roots-friendly tree and probably deserve their own Adios Lounge post. That said, we will hear from them again.
L-R: Neil Young, Rufus Thibodeaux & Joe Allen
I love how much fun Neil seems to be having here. Fun is not exactly a trademark of his, but during Rufus Thibodeaux's fiddle solo, Young is beaming (see below). Can't blame him, the band is crackin'. Some interesting and interrelated facts about this performance: This gig was both the second Farm Aid ever and an International Harvesters reunion, the only one of its kind. The last time the band played was on September 22, 1985, at the very first Farm Aid, which was also the final show of the North American tour. As I mentioned above, you'll notice in this version that Neil sings both his own lyrics and those added by Waylon.
SWING LOW ALABAMA
"Well I heard Mr. Young singin' about her
Well, I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow"
—Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Sweet Home Alabama," 1974
"I'd rather play "Sweet Home Alabama" than "Southern Man" anytime. I first heard it and really liked the way they played their guitars. Then I heard my own name in it and thought, "Now, THIS is pretty great …"
–Neil Young to Cameron Crowe, "Neil Young: The Last American Hero," Rolling Stone, February 8, 1979
Ronnie Van Zant wearing the fabled Tonight's The Night T-shirt. Badass incarnate.
"Alabama" isn't close to the most popular song on Harvest, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a song freighted with more significance. Unlike his other protest song of the era that featured a state as the title ("Ohio"), Neil uses Alabama to criticize more generally. There's no obvious or specific references to church bombings, firehoses, Bull Connor, George Wallace, or Bear Bryant's all-white football teams.* It could've been Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or Georgia he wrote about. Hell, it could've been LA, and WAS "LA" just 18 months later, one of Young's great diatribes from the Time Fades Away tour. Point being, Neil didn't exclusively talk shit about southerners. He had several targets, many of them personal. On this occasion, though, Alabama bore the whip of the lash.
* Ironically, the Crimson Tide football team was being integrated at the very moment this song was being recorded in September 1971. On September 10, black players John Mitchell and Wilbur Jackson debuted for the Tide against USC, a few miles away at the Los Angeles Coliseum. As a T-Town matriculator, I'm using this moment to cash in my "Roll Tide" card.
Neil Young & The Stray Gators – Alabama
Neil Young – vocals, electric guitar
Jack Nitzsche – piano
Stills & Crosby – backing vocals
Over a churning boil of electric and pedal steel guitar, Young makes scorched earth poetry sound elegant. "Alabama" is a cheap shot in many ways, and Neil has since disavowed it, but his hate game was on point and featured one of the best choruses of Neil's extensive catalog. Referencing the banjo from "Oh! Susanna" was a lyrical masterstroke and "old folks tied in white ropes" and "the devil fools with the best laid plans" are brilliantly evocative images. And while the Cadillac could be a class-conscious cheap shot, I can't help but think about Hank Williams, Alabama's greatest songwriter*, a direct influence on Young, and a man who (in)famously died in the back of a Caddy. Venomous, condescending, and judgmental, "Alabama" is a biblical fuck you, up there with Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" and Ice Cube's "No Vaseline." (Not joking.) It's also the first stirrings of the sound that would define the Ditch Trilogy era.
* You could make a pretty decent argument that Hank Williams is not only Alabama's greatest songwriter, but everyone's greatest songwriter.
"Alabama" inspired Ronnie Van Zant to give a little fuck you of his own, but it was a respectful taunt. As any longtime Drive-By Truckers* fan can tell you, Ronnie and Neil were a mutual admiration society. And if you're the musicians in Lynyrd Skynyrd, how can you not be impressed with "Alabama" as a piece of music: the slow build, the nasty guitar tone, Young's double-tracked Gretsch weaving around itself and against Keith's pedal steel, and the controlled heaviness of the Gators' rhythm section. This wasn't Drummond's and Buttrey's first rodeo. Their excellence as musicians is confirmed by the fact that during "Are You Ready For The Country" and "Alabama" they stay out of the fucking way. "Alabama" is a HUGE sounding song, but there's a lot of space between the notes**. The piano, bass, and drums totally stand back and let the guitars do their thing.
* I'm not a huge fan of the DBTs anymore, but I thought they caught lightning in a bottle with the Southern Rock Opera (2001). Main songwriters, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, brought humorous insight to their observations of the Skynyrd/Young dynamic, and if you listen to the riff, pace, and subject matter of "Alabama," I think the song may have invented the DBTs.
** The other band that this song may have invented is Silkworm, the Missoula (Montana)/Seattle/Chicago band that existed from 1987-2005. The combo of wide open space and claustrophobia was a SKWM trademark and they remain one of the most underappreciated rock bands of the '90s.
Neil Young & The Gone With The Wind Orchestra – Alabama/Sweet Home Alabama
Bicentennial Park, Miami
Benefit for a children's hospital charity
Ben Keith – steel guitar
Spooner Oldham – piano
… and the Gone With The Wind Orchestra
Recorded 12 days after Lynyrd Skynyrd's Convair CV-300 crashed into the swamp just north of the Louisiana border, Young's homage is total class and demonstrable proof of his kinship with Van Zant. While you are certainly welcome to rewind this song to the beginning, I thought that beginning it in the middle captures the essence of the song while acknowledging that the recording isn't the best. Fun fact: This was the last time Neil Young ever played "Alabama." As he said in his 2012 memoir, Waging Heavy Peace, "'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it today. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, too easy to misconstrue." OK, so NOW the moment is all that it meant.
With all of your "Sweet Home Alabama" fistpumping right now, you might've overlooked that this lineup was essentially the first International Harvesters band, even if they didn't realize it at the time. The setlist was heavy on Stray Gators material — no doubt influenced by the 2 Gators in the band — and included such Harvest-ers of sorrow as "Old Man," "Heart Of Gold," and "Needle And The Damage Done," "Are You Ready For The Country" served as both intro and outro, and obviously, "Alabama/Sweet Home Alabama." The Gone With The Winds also played the aforementioned "Losing End." It's a shame a better recording doesn't exist.
HAVIN' A BALL, ROLLIN' TO THE BOTTOM
When I suggested that songs like "Alabama" and "Words" portended Young's Ditch era, I wasn't kidding. For all of his folkie credentials, Neil Young was the most consistently elite rock musician of the 1970s. He was perfectly willing to put down the acoustic guitar, turn up the amps, and kick out the hifi jams, motherfuckers.
Neil Young & The Stray Gators – Lookout Joe
Ben Keith – slide guitar, vocals
Lookout Joe, you're comin' home
Old times were good times
Old times were good times.
While you SHOULD recognize this gem from Tonight's The Night, it was in fact recorded during the rehearsals for the Time Fades Away tour, set to begin on January 4, 1973, in Madison, Wisconsin. Young's wobbly guitar is double-tracked in the chorus and instrumental break, with Keith's slide interjections the perfect, boozy complement ("Take it, Ben!"). That 8-bar solo coming out of the bridge is a thing of beauty. Keith plays way behind the beat, very econo, and then Young pinches off some sweet, gnarly bends, finishing that thought with authority. Nitzsche's piano very subtly carries the melody, but is really part of the Drummond/Buttrey rhythm section. Hell, everyone in this song is part of the rhythm section. The dynamics throughout are masterful. I love how the instruments pull back during the verses and Kenny Buttrey is up front and center carrying the load on drums. Very minimalist. But, when the chorus and bridge kick in and the whole band roars into action … spot-fucking-on. You think chumps like Billy Corgan know anything about dynamics? Caucasian please.
Neil backstage in Bakersfield, March 11, 1973
Music aside, "Lookout Joe" is so refreshing because immediately we're introduced to characters we rarely encounter in song.
A hip drag queen
And a sidewalkin' street wheeler
Comin' down the avenue
Is it just me or do those lines echo the opening lines to "Search And Destroy" by The Stooges?
I'm a street walking cheetah
With a heart full of napalm
As it happens, both songs are Vietnam references. "Search and destroy" missions were the brainchild of General William Westmoreland. It was his thinking that if US soldiers searched for Vietnamese villages and destroyed them, the natives would welcome us as heroes stopping the Communist scourge. "Yes, we killed your entire family in a heroin-fueled panic. On the bright side, though, they died before getting brainwashed by Marxist hooligans. YOU'RE WELCOME, VIETNAM!" Meanwhile, "Lookout Joe" was about those same soldiers coming home from the war and walking right back into fubar environs.
Joe's coming home to a world of drag queens, hustlers, and dope fiends. Wait, are we listening to Neil Young or The Velvet Underground??? If you had to pick one song that represented the Ditch Trilogy and conveyed why that specific era of Neil is so meaningful, you can't do much better than "Lookout Joe." It's unpolished, heavy, brutally honest, darkly humorous, and rocks balls. When Young sings, "Everyone's havin' a ball, rollin' to the bottom," you're totally on board. Just an amazing piece of work.
Neil Young (L) & Danny Whitten, Fillmore East, March 1970
Photo: Joe Sia
Unfortunately, "Lookout Joe" was partly the by-product of tragedy. Though clearly a fictional account, the decadence it catalogued was all too real. As Neil noted back in 1975:
Somehow I feel like I've surfaced out of some kind of murk. And the proof will be in my next album. Tonight's the Night, I would say, is the final chapter of a period I went through.
Why the murky period?
Oh, I don't know. Danny's death probably tripped it off. [Danny Whitten was leader of Crazy Horse and Young's rhythm guitarist/second vocalist]. It happened right before the Time Fades Away tour. He was supposed to be in the group. We [Ben Keith, steel guitar; Jack Nitzche, piano; Tim Drummond, bass; Kenny Buttrey, drums] were rehearsing with him and he just couldn't cut it. He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to L.A. "It's not happening, man. You're not together enough." He just said, "I've got nowhere else to go, man. How am I gonna tell my friends?" And he split. That night the coroner called me from L.A. and told me he'd OD'ed [November 18, 1972]. That blew my mind. Fucking blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and … insecure.
Neil Young to Cameron Crowe, "So Hard To Make Arrangements For Yourself," Rolling Stone, August 14, 1975
"Lookout Joe," then, was essentially a wake for Danny Whitten. His death hung like a pall over Neil, so it's no surprise that the resulting tour was chaotic, disheveled, and for artist and audience, something of an endurance test. If you were the poor sap who thought he was about to get fan-friendly fare like "Heart Of Gold," yeeaaahhhh about that …
Neil Young & The Stray Gators – Time Fades Away
The Myriad, Oklahoma City
Neil Young – vocals, electric guitar, harmonica
Ben Keith – pedal steel, vocal
Johnny Barbata – drums
Recorded a couple weeks after Buttrey bolted from the SGs, "Time Fades Away" is another descent into the abyss, and a stone-cold country-rock classic. Replacement drummer Johnny Barbata doesn't overplay, just fits snugly into that pocket with Drummond leading the band, and the two musicians lock into a cool, syncopated country beat. Nitzsche mostly lurks in the background, but he has these killer, stabbing piano fills coming out of each chorus. He should be playing a tack piano. Numerous sources on the Googleweb have Ben Keith playing slide guitar here, but he's clearly on pedal steel. He offers an understated solo from 2:10-2:38, but mostly keeps a low profile. However, it's Neil who fucking kills this song dead. His guitar playing is sparse, but complementary, his singing is impassioned (and downright snarling in the third verse), and this has to be on the short list of greatest first lines/first verse of a rock song.
Fourteen junkies too weak to work
One sells diamonds for what they're worth
Down on pain street, disappointment lurks
Son, don't be home too late
Try to get back by eight
Son, don't wait until the break of day
'Cause you know how time fades away
There is not a single word out of place. The song is a drunken stagger through Pottersville and another argument for Ditch Trilogy as apex predator of the Neil Young ecosystem. That subtly brilliant lyric shift from "14 junkies too weak to work" to "13 junkies to weak to work" has to be a reference to the death of Danny Whitten. If you're Neil, why wouldn't you write a song about a junkie dying?
Time Fades Away the only way you can get it. On vinyl.
Photo: MikeBeauchamp.com
For all of the bad juju of the Time Fades Away tour and Neil's career-long dismissal of the album, it's a great piece of work. I think "Last Dance" is a dud and that it takes up 25% of TFA is a flaw, but not a fatal flaw. "Yonder Stands the Sinner" sounds like something off Big Pink or The Brown Album, "LA" is a good rocker that talks the aforementioned shit (and a song he actually wrote back in 1968), and "Don't Be Denied" is the last great lost Neil Young anthem. (I wrote about that gem previously.) Time Fades Away also has 3 gorgeous solo piano songs that all rank among Neil's best. "Journey Through The Past" was played on The Johnny Cash Show, "Love In Mind" was actually recorded at the same Royce Hall show that produced "Needle And The Damage Done" (January 30, 1971), and "The Bridge," the song from which the Bridge School Benefit draws its name. The sound isn't pristine and Neil and band are wobbly in spots, but it's rock 'n' roll, who gives a shit? It may not have been a good tour, but there were exceptional performances, and Time Fades Away captures 6 of them — plus adding the earlier (and totally essential) "Love In Mind."
THE HARVESTING: PART II
The Stray Gators final show on that 1973 tour was April 3 in Salt Lake City. They wouldn't play again until the 1991 Bridge School Benefit. Held on November 2, the short setlist was noteworthy for including Dylan's "Forever Young" (TWICE!), "Greensleeves," and not one Young & Stray Gators song from 1971-73. Can you fucking believe that? It's Neil, of course you believe that. The original lineup together for the first and ONLY time since playing the Louisville Convention Center on February 15, 1973, and the closest you get in the old setlist was "Birds?"
Two of the songs they DID play were "From Hank To Hendrix" and "Harvest Moon," both released a year later on Harvest Moon, Neil's acoustic follow-up to Ragged Glory. The album was a conscious throwback to Harvest that reunited Young, Keith, Drummond, and Buttrey. If you count the Barbata Gators as 2.0, this is 3.0. Spooner Oldham again plays keyboards in lieu of Nitzsche, although Jack arranged the strings for "Such A Woman." Young had been recording since September at his ranch outside of San Francisco, so when the Bridge benefit took place 2 months later it made perfect sense to use the informal gig as a workshop.
I know Harvest Moon has its adherents, but I think it's a solid half-album at best. The songs are mostly too long, there's too many that sound like "Heart Of Gold" and "Old Man," and none that sound like "Are You Ready For The Country" or "Alabama." The album needs the dynamic shift those songs would provide. Ironically, the album's monochromatic tone puts Harvest Moon on comfortable, beige-y middle ground, the very place where traveling became a bore back in '72, prompting Neil to head for the ditch. That critique noted, I did say that half the album was solid and this performance of the title track is my favorite of all Harvest Moon-related moments.
Neil Young – Harvest Moon (Unplugged)
Recorded either December 16, 1992, or February 7, 1993
Released on Unplugged, June 15, 1993
Neil Young – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
Nils Lofgren – acoustic guitar
Ben Keith – lap steel
Kenny Buttrey (inexplicably listed as Oscar Butterworth) – drums
Astrid Young, Nicolette Larson – backing vocals
Larry Cragg – broom
Beautiful. Young's voice and harmonica solo are sublime, Lofgren picks out that sweet harmonics riff/melody, I love Drummond constantly smiling (like he's trying to make Neil laugh), Buttrey plays it straight on drums, offering a light shuffle feel at times, and the female backup vox are complementary, but unobtrusive. And yet for all that talent, guitar tech Larry Cragg steals the show on broom. An actual broom. His role is a simplified version of a drummer using light brushes and it was an inspired decision. I've read that Neil was disappointed by his Unplugged performance, maybe the band wasn't up to snuff, but who knows. This rendition of "Harvest Moon" certainly wasn't an issue.
Unplugged was the final time The Stray Gators ever performed together. I'm still not sure if the band accompanied Neil for his follow-up MTV sesh (February 7, 1993), but they were certainly there for the December 16 recording (which I believe is the performance captured above). Where the 1971-73 Gators benefited from being a studio AND touring unit, the 1991-92 Gators were basically put together for Harvest Moon. They played exactly 3 shows: That 1991 Bridge Benefit, the 1992 Farm Aid (#6), and MTV Unplugged. That's it.
When I critiqued Harvest Moon for a lack of dynamics, that was in some ways a by-product of Young knowing the songs weren't gonna be played in a rock show context. The album was as much as anything a reaction to his previous LP, the juggernaut Ragged Glory, released in September 1990. Neil and Crazy Horse toured Ragged Glory throughout the first half of 1991, an experience that gave him hyperacusis (i.e. damaged hearing). As Young told Rolling Stone in 1993, "Those shows were really fucking loud. Loud in the way a crashing plane is loud, amped up for that war sound, that kind of thing. That's what we were going for." Thus, hyperacusis led to hyper acoustics, which led to 4 separate solo tours in 1992. No Stray Gators, just Neil and an acoustic guitar, keyboard, and harmonica.
EPILOGUE: WELL HELLO, MR. SOUL
I briefly want to mention what happened next in the Neil Young biography because it's as Neil Young as it gets. Having eschewed big rock sounds for the better part of 2 years, Young spent the summer of 1993 getting back into the rock 'n' roll saddle with an unlikely (on paper) backing band. The all-acoustic Unplugged album was freshly deposited on CD shelves, so of course that's when Neil decided to hit the road with … Booker T. & The Motherflippin' MG's! True story, but one for another day. Today is all about hoisting a beer to The Stray Gators, a band that played the folk out of country, and for awhile there wasn't afraid to bring the rock. Their stint as Neil's band from 1971-73 yielded 2 excellent, slightly flawed albums, and several tours through the dark side. On a musical level, old times were definitely good times. The Stray Gators are no more. Long live the Gators!
L-R: Tim Drummond, Jack Nitzsche, Neil Young, Kenny Buttrey & Ben Keith
RIP STRAY GATORS
Jack Nitzsche: April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000
Kenny Buttrey: April 1, 1945 – September 12, 2004
Ben Keith: March 6, 1937 – July 26, 2010
Tim Drummond: April 20, 1940 – January 10, 2015
LlToskq zw
Kinks Beatles Beastie Boys Superchunk Thelonious Monster Rolling Stones Minutemen Uncle Tupelo The Band Sam Cooke Dexateens X Los Angeles David Bowie Alabama Soul Asylum Levon Helm Byrds Replacements Gram Parsons Jimi Hendrix Blasters Grand Champeen Bob Forrest Doug Sahm Sabrina Ellis Glossary Jay Farrar Merle Haggard I love you Leilani Maria McKee Clarence White Bob Dylan Dave Alvin Neil Young
Let's Throw Back a Beer and Crank Up the Stereo May 13, 2014
The Black Keys: No Sleep 'Til Chulahoma June 28, 2011
My Heart Lies In Old West Virginia April 16, 2010
The Roots of Levon Helm May 27, 2012
It Might Be One O'Clock and It Might Be Three August 21, 2009
Oh Bobby, Won't You Let It Rock: Bobby Keys, Pt. 1
Every night's a Saturday night And every day's a Sunday I know I've been wrong before But I'm gonna...


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About Whosoever
Every time I open Whosoever I am amazed at the quality and quantity of work that goes into this magazine for GLBT Christians, their friends and families. I am especially grateful for the information Whosoever provides for that closeted Christian who after being rejected by his or her church and family has nowhere to go but the Internet to find someone who understands. (Soulforce Founder Rev. Mel White)
Whosoever was founded as a print magazine in 1996 to serve as a voice and a resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Christians. Back then there was little, if any, support to be found for LGBT Christians — not just on the internet, but also in print. Christian magazines such as Christianity Today and Moody's regularly took potshots at LGBT people.
Whosoever published four print editions under founding Editor Candace Chellew, who had more than 20 years' experience in the media, before moving online for good. At its peak Whosoever.org received more than 500,000 web hits a year — and many readers wrote to say how it had either changed or literally saved their lives.
For 18 years Whosoever's mission was to stay on the cutting edge of the LGBT movement for acceptance in both church and society. In the meantime, Candace earned her Master of Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in 2002, and in 2003 she was ordained by Gentle Spirit Christian Church of Atlanta and went on to serve in ministry. In 2008 she published Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, of which Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said:
In Bulletproof Faith, Candace Chellew-Hodge reassures gays and lesbians that God loves them just as they were created and teaches them how to stand strong, with compassion and gentleness, against those who condemn them.
In 2019 Rev. Paul M. Turner, Senior Pastor of Gentle Spirit Christian Church, answered the call to serve Whosoever in the role of Editor-in-Chief under the guidance of Candace in the role of Editor Emeritus. Together they've broadened Whosoever's mission to be about reaching all those who seek a deeper understanding of the truly loving God, whose unconditional love is experienced as boundless grace.
Whosoever welcomes contributions per our Submission Guidelines.
Early press coverage
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 17, 1998
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 9, 1997
Bay Windows, December 19, 1996
Whosoever Press Release, 1996
Articles about/featuring Rev. Candace Chellew
The Advocate, March 28, 2006
Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier, October 3, 2004
Q-Notes (N.C.), June 19, 2004
The State (Columbia, S.C.), June 13, 2004
Articles by Rev. Candace Chellew
Q-Notes (N.C.), November 5, 2005
The State (Columbia, SC), April 30, 2005
Identity Magazine, August 20, 2004
Southern Voice, October 22, 1998
Radio appearances by Rev. Candace Chellew
On "The Other Side" on XM Satellite Radio, May 2003 (Part 1)
On "The Seed Show" on WCEO Radio (Columbia, S.C.), July 8, 2004
Covers of Whosoever's print editions
Whosoever Issue 1

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


When you implement a finalizer, using the destructor syntax, the finalizer needs to always call the finalizer of its base class. The C# compiler will automatically take care of this, invoking the finalizer of the base class within a finally block to ensure that it gets called.
Because the call to the finalizer of the base class occurs within a finally block, it will get called after all of the code within the derived class' finalizer has executed. This means that the sequence in which the finalizers are called is from the most derived class up the inheritance chain.
For example, if Terrier inherits from Dog, code in the Terrier's finalizer will execute before code in the Dog's finalizer.
A copy constructor is a constructor that you can define which initializes an instance of a class based on a different instance of the same class.
If a base class includes a copy constructor, you can add a copy constructor to a derived class, from which you call the copy constructor of the base class.
The ICloneable interface in the .NET Framework includes a single Clone method, meant to make a copy of the object it is invoked on, returning the new copy.
The problem with the ICloneable interface is that it gives client code that uses it no information about whether a deep or a shallow copy (or something in between) is going to be done. Given the ambiguity and the fact that the client doesn't really know what the contents of the cloned object will be, it's recommended that you don't implement ICloneable, but rather design your own interface or methods, where you can make the semantics more clear.
A copy constructor is a constructor that creates a new object by making a copy of an existing object. ICloneable is a standard interface that you can implement, whereby you'll add a Clone method to your class. The purpose of the Clone method is to make a copy of the existing object.
Neither a copy constructor nor the ICloneable interface dictates whether you make a shallow or a deep copy of an object.
Your class can implement both methods for making a copy of an object.


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While LeBron James and Don Lemon dis POTUS Trump, they ignore the BIGGEST killer of black people
(National Sentinel) Cognitive Dissonance: In recent days NBA star LeBron James appeared on host Don Lemon's little-watched CNN program to complain about how POTUS Donald Trump is "dividing" America and fostering racism.
Prominent black figures making such baseless claims about the president is nothing new.
During the interview, however, James and Lemon also discussed the former's opening of a new school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, for "at risk" black youths. It's good that James is giving back to his community. Charity, for the most part, is admirable.
But if he's really concerned about protecting blacks who are 'at risk,' he should focus more on combatting the No. 1 killer of blacks by far: Abortion.
As Breitbart News reports:
Induced abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for a disturbing 61 percent of deaths of African Americans, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
A report Thursday analyzed research using data from the latest year for which all the pertinent information is available (2009) and found that induced abortion was responsible for 1.152 million deaths, making it the number one cause of death in the U.S. at nearly twice the number of deaths from heart disease (599,413) and cancer (567,628).
While abortion accounted for nearly a third of all U.S. deaths in 2009 (32.1 percent), more troubling still, it made up 61.1 percent of African American deaths, according to the study published in the Open Journal of Preventive Medicine (June 2016).
Let that sink in: Nearly two-thirds of all black deaths are caused by abortion.
Not 'racist' police officers. Not 'racist' white people. Not 'racist' America. Abortion.
Which means that blacks are voluntarily killing off their own ethnic group.
In a July essay, the Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr. wrote that 52 percent of all African American pregnancies end in abortion. He also noted that while abortion is the most common operation performed on women, it is also "the least regulated medical procedure" and is often "completely ignored by health regulation enforcement."
Three FREE ways you can help us stick around
More, per Breitbart:
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 2007 and 2010, more than 35 percent of the deaths by abortion in the United States happened to black babies, despite the fact that blacks represent only 12.8 percent of the population. Conversely, non-Hispanic whites, who make up 63.7% of America's population, account for only 37.7% of all U.S. abortions.
LeBron James and Don Lemon have legitimate fears regarding the future of blacks in America.
But POTUS Donald Trump and police officers are the least of their worries.
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Why would we listed to sports figures? They have an IQ less than high school. Their popularity goes straight to their heads and they think they are masters of the universe. CNN is also a bad punch line to a sick joke.
We love Trump. He is THE greatest President since Abraham Lincoln. Nothing they say will change our minds … ever.
Lou Sander
Why all the fuss about abortions of people of color? They choose it freely.


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Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen Behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance
By Serhii Plokhy
Oxford University Press, 2019, 360 pp.
Reviewed by Maria Lipman
In This Review In This Review
In early 1944, the United States established a number of air bases in Soviet Ukraine. Their fate mirrored that of the uneasy U.S.-Soviet alliance, which was initially sustained by a common enemy but quickly unraveled after World War II ended. Plokhy's unique account of this well-known episode benefits from the recent opening of Ukrainian archives containing KGB documents detailing the Soviet surveillance of the Americans at the bases. The American and Soviet servicemen eagerly cooperated but were struck by their cultural differences. The Soviets thought that the Americans were wasteful (they used spare parts instead of repairing broken ones) and lacked commitment (they broke for lunch before their work was finished). The Americans were surprised by the great number of Soviet women doing "men's jobs" and by Soviet farmers' reliance on hoes instead of tractors. Warm relations soon chilled as the Soviets recruited civilians and servicemen to spy on the Americans and roughly interfered in the Americans' dating of local women. Meanwhile, leaders in Moscow and Washington grew increasingly suspicious of each other, and by the time the last air base was closed, in May 1945, the allies had become rivals.
More By Maria Lipman
United States Ukraine Strategy & Conflict War & Military Strategy Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics
More from Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Republics
To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture
By Eleonory Gilburd
Mirrorlands: Russia, China, and Journeys in Between
By Ed Pulford
Laboratory of Socialist Development: Cold War Politics and Decolonization in Soviet Tajikistan
By Artemy M. Kalinovsky
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Morning! Been listening but getting to the message board late!
great to catch your show "live"once again Scott ! always a pleasure and always something different and surprises ,, I FINALLY got that Cecil Taylor -hour long program on PBS - taped and watched it and I was simply so enjoying it !! what a genius !! and your show turned me on to Cecil and I just wanna say thank your for that also - !! WFMU !! yeah !! the possibilities are endless with you and all the other DJs !!
Cool - thanks. yeah that reminds me, I need to bring by Hey Cecil! one of these days. I miss doing those.
oh I remember them and the archives too Scott when I need a dose of Cecil cool !
Putting together quite a shopping list from this morning's show.
Killin' it as always. Everything's coming up "HARRY!" today.
good sounds--just what I need right now.
Yes, please bring back Hey, Cecil! Love love love.
I think Chora might be one of my favorite improvising units too after that.
Acid Birds rule it too.
Oh yeah, now I see what you mean about Acid Birds. Learn a new thing every day!
Dang. I was hoping it would never end.


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You won't have to compromise on the comfort level, giving you a good night's sleep. Now you both can have that good night's sleep your way – Together.
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The amazing thing is that you will not be able to feel a difference in firmness level in the middle. It is seamless.
Four Star is also able to add the "Anti-Bedbug / Detense / Outlast" feature with an added cost. On top of this, we are able to tailor and deliver your perfect mattress to your home within 10 days upon purchase!
Four Star DuoFeelTM is the only mattress in Singapore that can have two separate feel in one seamless mattress and it's only available at Metro CentrePoint. Hurry down now!


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Remarkable Results Radio Podcast - Carm Capriotto, AAP 22nd September 2015
RR 048: Jeff Matt from Victory Auto Service
Meet Jeff Matt owner and founder of Victory Auto Service & Glass, a family-owned, award-winning auto repair and auto glass business with six locations in Minnesota and Florida, is known for its honest, dependable service.
Before opening Victory Auto in 1997, Jeff worked as an automotive technician and dreamed of opening a shop where the customer always felt cared for, never felt taken advantage of, and always received the highest quality service at the best price. Jeff opened the business as a small, one-bay shop in a suburb of Minneapolis and it has now expanded to five metro locations in Minnesota and one location in St. Petersburg, Florida with more than 40 employees.
Jeff knew from the beginning he wanted to use his skills to be a blessing to those in his community by providing free and low-cost repairs to those in need. In 2003, Victory Auto began to partner with Minnesota non-profit Free to Be, Inc.(which was recently re-named Cars For Neighbors) to provide free and discounted auto services to individuals and families suffering from financial hardships in Anoka County. Since then, Victory Auto has donated in kind more than $500,000 to Free to Be. Jeff has also donated dozens of cars and thousands of dollars in repairs over the years to individuals in need in his community who were brought to his attention.
In 2011, Jeff received an Eleven Who Care award from local Minnesota TV station KARE 11 for his charitable work with Free to Be. Victory Auto was also honored with a prestigious Integrity Award in 2010 from the Better Business Bureau. Three of their locations received an Angie's Super Service Award in 2014 & 2015, they were named a 2014 Top Shop by Motor Age magazine, and they just received the 2015 Minnesota Business Ethics Award. Additionally, Victory Auto has seen an increase in sales of over 40% and has doubled in the last five years from three locations to six.
We cover a lot of ground about being a multi-shop owner, with his 50 plus bays and 20 plus technicians and 13 service advisers. He credits his 20 group and his business coach for having a strong impact on him. He is resolute on his main mission to recruit and develop the right people on the team because it interconnects with his personal drive to create a strong family type culture inside the business as an extension from his teams own home environment.
Victory Auto Service and Glass Web Site
Buy Carm a Coffee


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You are here: Home / Sarasota - Bradenton / Theatre / Broadway / ATTENTION CLASS: LATE NITE CATECHISM, THE RAUCOUS, ROLLICKING INTERNATIONAL HIT COMEDY IS COMING TO Venice Theatre Nov. 9 & 10
ATTENTION CLASS: LATE NITE CATECHISM, THE RAUCOUS, ROLLICKING INTERNATIONAL HIT COMEDY IS COMING TO Venice Theatre Nov. 9 & 10
October 30, 2014 Comment Off 36 Views
ATTENTION CLASS: LATE NITE CATECHISM, THE RAUCOUS, ROLLICKING INTERNATIONAL HIT COMEDY IS COMING TO Venice Theatre Nov. 9 & 10!
(Venice, Florida) Catechism classes are never as much fun – or as hilarious – as when they are led by Sister in the international hit comedy Late Nite Catechism by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan. Late Nite Catechism will be presented on Venice Theatre's MainStage Sunday, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. and Monday, Nov. 10 at 3 and 8 p.m. All seats are $30 and are on sale now at the theatre's box office located at 140 W. Tampa Ave. in Venice, online at www.venicestage.com or by phone at 941-488-1115. Generous group discounts are available.
Late Nite Catechism is an uproarious piece of theater that takes audience members back – sometimes nostalgically, sometimes fearfully – to the children they once were. The irrepressible Sister teaches an adult catechism class to a roomful of "students" (the audience). Over the course of the play, Sister goes from benevolent instructor, rewarding the "students" for correct answers with glow-in-the-dark rosaries and laminated saint cards, to authoritative drill sergeant. These abrupt mood swings are bound to strike a resonant chord with everyone who survived the ups and downs of going to school, with an omniscient authoritarian at the helm.
The Catholic Register (Toronto) said, "The show appeals to Catholics and non-Catholics alike since 'Sister' clearly explains religious references in lighthearted ways while maintaining a serious tone that isn't too preachy and far from being saccharine." The New York Times declared, "Late Nite Catechism speaks to an audience much broader than the membership of any one church."
Late Nite Catechism, which was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award in New York and recently won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Lead Performance for Maripat Donovan, is currently playing in New York, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, Vancouver, Scottsdale, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Chicago, where it has been playing to full "classes" since it opened in 1993. Productions in Boston, Sydney and Melbourne recently ended after playing two years in each city. Sister is always available for private classes and fundraisers through Entertainment Events, Inc. at (877) FUNNY NUN.
Again, tickets for Late Nite Catechism and all Venice Theatre shows and events through June 2015 are available at the box office at 941-488-1115 or online at www.venicestage.com. Venice Theatre is located at 140 W. Tampa Ave. on the island in Venice. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, and one hour before all performances.
140 W. Tampa Ave
Tickets: 941-488-1115
www.venicestage.com
Venice Theatre's mission is making a dramatic impact on all stages of life. The second-largest out of 10,000 community theatres in the United States, it is located at 140 W. Tampa Ave .on the island in Venice, FL. Its MainStage offers seating for 432 patrons and features musicals, plays, concerts and special events. Its Yvonne Pinkerton Theatre seats 90 patrons and is home to the theatre's "Generations", Stage II and Cabaret Series. In addition to providing entertainment to the community, Venice Theatre has a wide range of education and outreach programs for children and adults.
ENTERTAINMENT EVENTS, INC. (Producer) is based in New York City. EEI has made its mark on the theatrical touring industry by offering a variety of new and exciting plays and musicals to an ever growing list of professional presenting organizations throughout the country. In addition EEI has performed over 1,500 fundraising events for schools, church groups, and private parties. EEI brings all aspects of producing under one roof: sales, production, casting, creative and technical. EEI productions have been produced and presented in all 50 states as well as in Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. Since 1999 EEI has produced: Late Nite Catechism: The Series, Maybe Baby, It's You, The Yiddish Are Coming, The Yiddish Are Coming!, Shout! The Mod Musical, Tony N Tina's Wedding, Defending the Caveman, We're Still Hot! The Musical and are former producers of Jeanie Linders' Menopause The Musical. EEI is now proud to present Girls Night: The Musical, Late Nite Catechism, Sister Strikes Again!: Late Nite Catechism 2, 'Til Death Do Us Part: Late Nite Catechism 3, Sister's Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the Magi's Gold, Sister's Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go To Heaven?, The Santa Class and A Girls Night Musical: Girl Talk!
In : Sarasota - Bradenton, Theatre / Broadway
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These modern home office interior ideas brings range of plan, project, design trends. This collection from architects or home planners can get beautiful inspiration style, colour, design, and furnishing for your space plan, project. Decorate the home by your own themes or decors can be the most important elements for your home. It is ideal that whole room will need a certain decor where the people will feel comfortable and safe by the theme, decors or themes.
As you know with this modern home office interior ideas, it is also better to look for the advice from the architect, or get ideas on the blogs or book first, then choose the good one from every ideas then put together and merge to be your own themes or decors. For make it easier, be sure the themes or designs you will decide on is suitable with your own characters. It will be perfect for your home because of based your own characteristic and taste.
Crucial things of the house decoration is about the perfect layout. Find the furniture maybe easy thing to do but ensure the plan is entirely efficient use of space is not as quick as that. Because taking into consideration to picking out the right furniture concept, and efficiency should be your main aspects. Just keep the simplicity and efficient to make your room look wonderful.
Make a pleasant and cozy interior is certainly a matter of satisfaction. With a little works and effort we all can establish the environment of the space better than ever. Thats why this modern home office interior ideas can offer inspiring options in an effort to decorate your room more lovely.
Related Post "Modern Home Office Interior Ideas"


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Campylaea é um género de gastrópodes pertencentes à família Helicidae.

As espécies deste género podem ser encontradas no sul da Europa.

Espécies:

 Campylaea doderleiniana
 Campylaea hirta
 Campylaea illyrica
 Campylaea lefeburiana
 Campylaea ljubetenensis
 Campylaea macrostoma
 Campylaea padana
 Campylaea planospira
 Campylaea pouzolzi
 Campylaea sadleriana
 Campylaea trizona

Gêneros de gastrópodes
Helicidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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By Steve McAllisterSpecial to the Star
If you've visited an online sportsbook to place a wager or two on Bryson DeChambeau expecting the hellacious hitter of the golf ball to wreak havoc on Augusta National — and the field — at this weekend's Masters tournament,chances are you did so without realizing that the sportsbook isn't a legal entity in Canada.
For many, reading the fine print doesn't go beyond checking the best-before date on the almost-empty carton of milk or tub of yogurt that's been sitting in your fridge for … fingers crossed … two weeks. There's no way you've bothered to go through the terms of conditions, for example, of a sportsbook such as betway.com. If you did, you'd see the company is licensed in Britain, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Sweden.
Noticeably absent: Canada.
That may change as early as this year, providing first that the House of Commons and the Senate approve an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada which will allow for single-event sports wagering. Passing of the amendment will give the provinces authority to license and regulate this country's sports wagering industry. Until now, legal sports wagering has been limited to parlay-style games operating by provincial lotteries or unregulated offshore wagering books. According to the Canadian Gaming Association, $14 billion annually is spent by Canadians on offshore betting websites and $14 billion annually is spent by Canadians on offshore betting websites and illegal gambling operations.
"(Sports gambling) is not going away," said Paul Burns, president and CEO of the CGA, an advocate for an expansion of the gaming industry across the country. "We've had it for decades in this country, and we're just trying to change the way we do it."
While it's perfectly legal for Canadians to place a wager on those offshore gaming websites today, many bettors don't realize they're playing on unregulated sites — especially since gaming companies are promoting their free-to-play games and other products during Canadian televised sporting events (Georges St-Pierre, showing off a head of hair, promoting BET99) and on other media outlets.
But that lack of regulation can come with a price.
Burns and the CGA office frequently receive phone calls from bettors looking for help in trying to settle a dispute with an offshore operation. It's also not unusual for bettors to complain about operators having deep pockets and short fingers when it comes to releasing money to winners.
"Internet gaming grew up as the wild west," Burns said. "I was at conferences in 2007 and 2008, and (the offshore businesses) were taking pride in saying they weren't regulated and they weren't paying taxes. People were doing their own thing and making a ton of money.
"The reality is that the world has caught up. Many of the leading companies have been asking the provincial governments, 'Will you please regulate us? And we'll pay taxes.'"
That's good news for Canadian sports bettors, especially those living in Ontario. Burns says the province is not only well-positioned to begin the licensing process once Bill C-218 gets the go-ahead in Ottawa, but will also be wide open for business. OLG, DraftKings, FanDuel, theScore Bet and PointsBets are expected to have a presence in the province's new regulated betting marketplace. (Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, announced in February that it intends to launch an online casino betting brand.)
"What's attractive in terms of the North American sports market is that Ontario is the fifth- or sixth-largest jurisdiction available. Here's a market of 14 1/2 million people." Burns says. "We're bigger than Michigan, we have more people than New Jersey, we're bigger than Pennsylvania."
And that will provide bettors with an a la carte menu of wagering options, whether it's laying down money on the traditional betting-friendly sports (NFL and college football, the NBA, MLB), or finding a "long tail" site that provides an expanded sports odds offering to include hockey, golf, European soccer, MLS, tennis and cricket, and Canadian-based leagues such as the CFL, Canadian Premier League and Canadian Elite Basketball League.
"Hockey is going to be the interesting one," Burns said. "If you can get live in-game wagering right, you're going to win because we have a very high knowledge base for hockey in this country. There are games almost every night of the week. With Canadian hockey fans, they will watch Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on a Tuesday night because they're Penguins fans as much as they are a Canadiens fan or a Leafs fan.
"We're bringing a whole new group of people into the gambling scene because a lot of people who bet on sports won't consider themselves to be gamblers. They may never go to a casino, but they bet on sports every year."
Offshore gaming operators feeling smug that their Canadian customers won't leave because of the inconvenience of signing up with a new operator may very well be disappointed. An American Gaming Association study conducted in the spring of 2020 showed that bettors in the U.S. were moving toward regulated companies, and spending with "illegal bookies" dropped 25 per cent in legal betting states in 2019.
"Ontario is going to be a very competitive marketplace," said Burns.


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← Lacking nothing in a troubled world
The last Christian in Europe? →
Past troubles and future dreams
Posted on April 24, 2016	by iankellogg2014
Text: Revelation 21:1-6 (new heavens and a new earth)
Anniversaries are often times of fun and fond memories as at birthday parties or during our celebration this year of the 40th anniversary of Mill Woods United Church.
Anniversaries can also be times of sadness as when we mark the death of a loved one or a military defeat.
Last week saw several significant anniversaries. Yesterday was the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, the English poet and playwright. Friday was Earth Day, an annual event to promote environmental protection and peace. Thursday was the 90th birthday of Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada, England and the British Empire.
Today is another anniversary: the centennial of a defining moment in Irish history. One hundred years ago today, a group of Irish nationalists began a six-day armed rebellion in Dublin in a failed attempt to win Ireland's independence from Britain. It was called the Easter Rising because it began on Easter Monday and was drowned in blood by Easter Saturday.
The southern part of Ireland that eventually did gain independence in 1921 after a two-year-long war with Britain commemorates the Rising every year on Easter Sunday. As we know, Easter moves about on the calendar. This year Easter fell on March 27. But in 1916 Easter Sunday was on April 23, and so the first day of the Rising, April 24, was Easter Monday.
This year's celebration of the centennial of the Rising culminated in a huge military parade in Dublin on March 27. The leaders of the Rising, all of whom were executed by the British as traitors to King George V, are heroes in Ireland. Although the Rising failed, it is hailed as a key moment in the events that led to Ireland's partial independence in 1921.
Today, I have chosen to talk about the centennial of the Rising in Ireland for a couple of reasons. First, most of my ancestry is Irish and Scottish. For instance, my maternal grandfather went off to France in 1914, where he was seriously wounded in 1915, wearing a Scottish kilt. And so I have a familial interest in the struggles of Irish and Scottish people with England, its United Kingdom, and its Empire.
Second, today's Irish Centennial brings to my mind another Easter Monday anniversary that will dominate the hearts and minds of Canadians next April — the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. This Battle — which historians says marked the birth of Canadian nationhood in a way similar to how the Easter Rising marked the birth of Irish nationhood — began on Easter Monday in 1917, which on that year fell on April 9.
Next year's commemoration of the centennial of this battle — from April 9th to 12th 2017 — will be a centrepiece of a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 1867.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge was the first time that all four Canadian divisions, 170,000 young men in all, fought as one against the Germans. The Battle ended when the Canadians took the Ridge from the Germans, although at a terrible cost in both Canadian and German casualties.
I see some parallels between the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 and the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Both occurred during World War I. Both involved British colonies who were hoping to gain a greater measure of independence from the Empire. Both involved loss of life – 340 Irish citizens and 140 British soldiers in Ireland and as many as 10,000 Canadian and German soldiers in Vimy Ridge.
There are also contrasts. The Easter Rising was an act of treason against King George V and his Empire while the Battle of Vimy Ridge was fought for that same King and Empire. Why, then, are they both celebrated as glorious sacrifices?
Those who love the British Empire might bristle at the glory heaped today on the executed leaders of the Irish Easter Rising. 1916 was a dire moment for the British Empire in its fight-to-the finish against the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Turkish empires. The last thing Britain and its French and Russian allies needed in 1916 was an Irish rebellion that might inspire other British colonies in India, Africa, or the Caribbean to try and break free of Britain's grip.
Those who value the lives of young people regardless of the country for which they fight might bristle at using a battle in which 10,000 people died as a key marker of national pride, especially if they consider World War One to be one fought largely to maintain colonies.
In 1916 and 1917, Germany and its Kaiser were the hated enemies of Canadians. But this past week in researching the links between Kaiser Wilhelm and King George, I came across an article from the Daily Telegraph that shocked me. The Kaiser and the King were first cousins, which I had known. But the article also showed how Kaiser Wilhelm would have become the King of Britain if the laws of royal succession were then what they are today.
Beginning in 2015, heirs to the British throne are ranked only according to birth order and not also by sex. Before 2015, the only way a female could become British monarch was if she had no brothers.
The article noted that if the law of succession had been sex-blind when Queen Victoria died in 1901, she would not have been succeeded by her second-born child, Edward, but by her first-born child, Victoria. Her daughter would have reigned as Victoria II for only a few months since she died shortly after her mother did. In turn, Victoria II would have been succeeded by her first born child, William who was Queen Victoria's oldest grandson, and who by 1901 was also the Kaiser of Germany.
If today's law of succession had been in place in 1901, William/Wilhelm would have been King of England, Kaiser of Germany, and Emperor of both the British and German empires!
In this scenario, Queen Elizabeth would never have become a monarch. Her 90th birthday last Thursday would have gone unnoticed since today she would be a minor royal, one who was about 50th in line to the British throne.
If the laws of royal succession had been sex-blind in 1901, Germany and England might even have been allies and not enemies in World War One. Kaiser Wilhelm II would not have been the most hated man in Canada, denounced as he was from every pulpit and editorial page in the land during the Great War. Instead, Wilhelm would have been our beloved monarch, King William V, the Emperor for whom Canadian young men were urged to kill and be killed in that war.
Some may find this thought experiment silly or tasteless. To me, it highlights the arbitrary nature of the horror of World War One.
I am sad that 60,000 Canadian young men died fighting for King George in the First War and against the man who could have been their King, Kaiser Wilhelm.
I am sad that 500 people died in Ireland in a failed attempt to gain independence from Britain in 1916. I am angry that their leaders were executed in 1916 as traitors to King George and as supposed collaborators with his first cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm, who could easily have been their king instead.
I am disappointed that so much Canadian pride is invested in World War One and in the Battle of Vimy Ridge. For this reason alone, I am not looking forward to the celebrations of 150 years of Confederation next year in 2017.
But perhaps I could try to chill and not focus so much on historical matters. Perhaps channeling my 10-year old self would help. I was 10 years old in 1967, Canada's Centennial Year. I remember it well and I loved it all. I liked the new Maple Leaf flag. I liked singing Bobby Gimby's song "CAN-A-DA." Do you remember it? "North south east west / There'll be happy times / Church Bells will ring, ring, ring!"
I was happy that my family lived about an hour's drive west of Montreal and that we went there to Expo '67 many times. I loved reports of the Summer of Love in San Francisco and the sense of optimism that seemed to permeate 1967. It was a time when all things seemed possible.
Perhaps the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017 will feel like this too . . . even if a few sour notes are heard about genocide from the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; even if some people in Quebec use the occasion to bring up the wounds of the conquest of New France in the 1760s and the realities faced by French-speakers since then, just as President Charles De Gaulle of France did in Quebec in 1967 with his notorious "Vive le Quebec libre!" speech; even if a few curmudgeons like me question why we glorify the Battle of Vimy Ridge with its 10,000 dead in a useless war.
Perhaps if people like me lighten up, we will all have a good time next year.
Except, today at age 59, I look at national pride differently than when I was 10. In 1967, I was ignorant of the conquest and genocide that is part of Canadian, British, and French history. I didn't suspect that the leaders of the British Empire might be as culpable as the leaders of the German Empire in the disaster of World War One. When I was 10, I didn't know much of anything, to be frank.
I don't regret the loss of this innocence, which for me started almost as soon as Centennial Year was over. In early 1968, the Tet Offensive showed that the U.S. was probably going to lose the War in Vietnam. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy upended U.S. politics and led to the election of Richard Nixon as President, a leader who was dead-set against change.
The Prague Spring of 1968 was crushed by Soviet tanks in August. A general strike in France almost toppled the government of Charles De Gaulle. A civil war in Nigeria led to famine in Biafra. After the optimism of the Summer of Love and Canada's Centennial Year, 1968 felt like the start of an era of turmoil, darkness, and fear.
But many of us also felt great joy and hope in 1968. In the movements against the Vietnam War, for civil rights for Blacks, and for equality of women; in youth rebellions all around the world; and in the many struggles to end European colonialism once and for all, 1968 showed us paths to the new earth we want.
Looking back, 1967 seemed like a dream built on sand. In contrast, 1968 began my quest to find hope in reality despite its grittiness and to pursue dreams that were built on all the joy and pain of a life lived in the light of truth.
I imagine that I will survive the celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary next year. From time to time I may speak out against the dominant narratives. From time to time I may even feel a few stirrings of national pride.
But if I have learned anything so far in the ups and downs of life — including 60 Good Fridays and 60 Easters — it is this: the surest route to Love is found in reality regardless of all that we may not like about it.
We don't yet live on the new earth we want. Nevertheless, this old earth gives us the only place where we can speak truth to power; the only place where we can reach out to one another in love; and the only place we can pursue our visions of a new world in joyous struggles against official lies, hollow nationalism, and endless war.
And for this Easter truth, I say again, Thanks be to God.


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CONCACAF Champions League Semi-final
Petra Martic (CRO) - 2015 ODLUM BROWN Vancouver Tennis Open
Petra Martic (CRO) hits a return to Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS) during their women's singles match at the Odlum Brown Vanopen in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Aug 19, 2015. Photo by Joe Ng
Rebe Mcgowan - 2016 WTF World Taekwondo Junior Championships
MacKenzie Boyd-Clowes
WHISTLER, BC - April 2, 2017: MacKenzie Boyd-Clowes of Canada competes in the 2017 Canadian National Championships Large Hill Ski Jumping at Whistler Olympic Park Ski Jumping Stadium on April 2, 2017 in Whistler, Canada.
Michelle Wie watches her drive duing the first round of the LPGA 2015 Canadian Pacific Women's Open at the Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, B.C. on August 20, 2015.
2015 Gastown Grand Prix
Alex Cataford (right) of Silber Pro Cycling leads the chase around the corner
Vancouver, Canada. 12th March 2017. Fernando Luna (3) of Argentina defends against Danny Barrett (3) of USA during day 2 - Cup Quarterfinal HSBC Canada Sevens Rugby at BC Place Stadium. USA defeats Argentina 14-12. Credit: Joe Ng
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2016 The Cloverdale Rodeo & Country Fair
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Canadian Brett Rheeder took his first Red Bull Joyride win on Slopestyle Sunday August 21, 2016 in Whistler.
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FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualifiers - Canada vs Mexico
2016 Giro di Burnaby


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Hello Jan: We haven't forgotten you! Here's a sample of Bernie's activity with Maggie:-) As you can see, they are 2 contented doggies. We took them to Marathon in the Florida Keys for a month during Jan. & Feb. They turned into little beach bums...they would loll in the sand or in a lounge chair just watching activity in the pool or ocean. None of us wanted to return home. The first thing they had to do on arrival in WV was plow through the snow:-( We hope things are going as well as possible for your busy household. We look forward to the latest.


WASHINGTON, D.C. (WOMENSENEWS)–All eyes were on new Chief Justice John Roberts yesterday as he presided over the oral arguments for two far-reaching challenges to abortion laws.
Roberts, a conservative who deflected most questions about abortion at Senate hearings in September during his nomination to the high court, revealed little on questions over whether parental notification laws must require an exception for the health of the mother and whether federal laws against racketeering and extortion can be used against protesters who block access to abortion clinics.
But observers had their first insight into the disposition of the new court on the explosive issue of reproductive rights when a crucial question arose: whether abortion laws can take effect while they are being challenged as unconstitutional.
On several occasions in the hearing of Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Roberts questioned the need to strike down an entire abortion statute based on a single sticking point–in this case, the lack of an exception for the health of the mother.
In arguments before the justices, Kelly A. Ayotte, the attorney general of New Hampshire, rejected the notion that the lack of the health exception posed a problem, arguing that a "judicial bypass" provision would cover medical emergencies by enabling doctors to get quick permission from a judge to circumvent the law's requirement that physicians notify a parent of a pregnant teen at least 48 hours before performing an abortion.
Several of the justices seemed unsatisfied with that explanation.
But Roberts seemed to suggest that even if the judicial bypass provision is deemed problematic, it should not necessarily invalidate the entire statute.
"It's a problem that arises only in emergency situations," Roberts said. He then questioned whether those rare cases should "implicate the vast majority" of cases in which the pregnant teen's health is not at risk.
That statement, along with other comments, suggested he was searching for a way to change the current standard of jurisprudence, which permits courts to stop abortion laws from taking effect while the courts decide if the laws pass constitutional muster.
Challengers to the law, represented by Jennifer Dalven–deputy director of the New York-based Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union–argued that the law is unconstitutional on its face, regardless of the frequency of health emergencies.
Reproductive health advocates have argued that changing the standard of jurisprudence so that abortion-related laws would be in force until they are ruled unconstitutional would compel women to obey them even as the laws are being challenged.
Meanwhile, several justices raised questions about the central element of the case–whether parental notification laws must provide an exception for the health of the mother–as Supreme Court precedent has held. Many questioned why the New Hampshire law makes an exception for the mother's life but not her health and expressed concern about pregnant minors who may need immediate medical attention.
Justice Antonin Scalia brushed aside those fears, arguing that a doctor could quickly get around the 48-hour notification requirement with a judge's permission.
It only takes 30 seconds to place a phone call to a judge, Scalia said. If a doctor can't wait that long, he or she "better not put on his gloves" before performing an abortion, he quipped.
But Dalven responded that the judicial bypass provision is unconstitutional because it would necessarily delay medical attention, a potentially "catastrophic" situation for a pregnant teen whose health is at risk.
Observers also paid close attention to Sandra Day O'Connor, a supporter of abortion rights who has cast the swing vote on several key abortion cases and seemed to be searching for a compromise in the Ayotte case.
But O'Connor may not be able to influence the outcome this time.
She has said she plans to step down from the bench immediately after her successor wins confirmation. Samuel Alito, the conservative appellate judge nominated to replace her, has not yet run into significant resistance on Capitol Hill. If he takes his seat before the court delivers a ruling on the Ayotte case–and the eight remaining justices are evenly divided–Roberts could order a rehearing of the oral arguments.
After the oral arguments, activists and protestors on both sides of the case gathered on the front steps of the Supreme Court to make their case to the media.
But Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C., and Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Va., said they were concerned that some of the justices appeared eager to narrow the standard of review as it applies to abortion laws.
Roberts "seemed to imply that because medical emergencies are not a large fraction of abortions, (the New Hampshire law) could be upheld," Gandy said.
Gandy said that was her hope, adding that a "bare majority" of judges seemed to favor the case made by Planned Parenthood, an impression shared by Smeal.
The court also heard oral arguments in two other abortion-related cases, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women and Operation Rescue v. National Organization for Women.
In both cases, Joseph Scheidler, through the Pro-Life Action Network and Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion rights group, was accused of orchestrating a nationwide criminal campaign against abortion clinics in an effort to drive them out of business, thereby violating federal anti-racketeering laws.
Smeal was also concerned about "harsh questioning" of the women's rights lawyers in the racketeering cases. A defeat would lift a federal injunction prohibiting demonstrators at abortion clinics from conducting blockades, trespassing, damaging property or committing acts of violence. The lack of an injunction, Smeal said, could lead to a resurgence in violence against abortion providers and their patients and ultimately the shuttering of more abortion clinics.
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue West, an outgrowth of Operation Rescue, echoed that sentiment, saying a defeat for women's rights groups would help anti-choice activists "make inroads" in their goal to shut down abortion clinics. "That would make it harder and harder and harder to obtain someone to kill your baby," he said.