TBoss, 2017 second runner-up of BBNaija, told The NET said she does not think Tobi and Cee-c can have a romantic relationship.
Tboss said:- "I will like to talk to Cee-C and probably to Tobi as well. I will like to have a one-on one with those two people. "I really don't think they should have a romantic relationship with themselves outside of the house. I think they should patch up and be friends".
Speaking on emergence of Miracle as the winner of 'Double Wahala' Edition, TBoss added that she expected Miracle to emerge as the winner. "I saw it coming, I wanted him to win. I wasn't surprised when he won," she added.


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Currently operating more than 200 schools and educational programmes, AKES provides quality pre-school, primary and secondary education services to students in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The foundations of the present system were laid by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, III, who established over 200 schools during the first half of the 20th century, the first in 1905 in Mundra and Gwadar in South Asia, and in Zanzibar in East Africa. Today AKES schools and programmes benefit over 85,000 students.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text: package overlay2 // import "github.com/docker/docker/daemon/graphdriver/overlay2"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Horse's Head
Every film on the National Film Registry…maybe.
NFR Films A-Z
NFR Films by Year
NFR Films by Induction
#309) They Call It Pro Football (1966)
OR "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
Directed by John Hentz
Written by Steve Sabol
The Plot: With the merger between the National Football League and the American Football League on the horizon, the newly formed NFL Films presents this epic look at football. With the dramatic narration of John Facenda and a stirring score by Sam Spence, Steve Sabol highlights the gridiron game with such then-revolutionary approaches as telephoto lenses and slow-motion recaps. There are highlights from the most popular teams, players, and games of the era, and yes, instant replays.
Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film no less than "the 'Citizen Kane' of sports movies" and praises the creative team, especially John Facenda's "commanding cadence". There's also an essay by AMPAS documentary curator (and presumably football fan) Ed Carter.
But Does It Really?: "They Call It Pro Football" definitely stands on a piece of ground no other NFR entry can claim. It's always a treat to watch a film whose groundbreaking techniques are so commonplace today you take it for granted. With wall-to-wall coverage of every sport imaginable at our disposal, it's fascinating to watch Sobal and company create the look of televised sporting events that is still the gold standard. With a long-lasting cultural impact to go along with its innovative aesthetic, "They Call It Pro-Football" is a natural for NFR inclusion and a cinematic home-run slam-dunk touchdown. Come on, you think the guy with the movie blog knows any of this terminology?
Everybody Gets One: Ed Sabol had just founded Blair Motion Pictures when he was hired to film the 1962 NFL Championship Game. Thanks to the persistence of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Blair Motion Pictures became NFL Films and signed an exclusive deal with the League to film all of their games. With Rozelle's encouragement, Sabol was allowed to adopt new filming methods of covering the games (up to then football coverage was mostly newsreel-esque wide shots of the field). Sabol also called on the talents of his son Steve to write the film's narration, inspired by Steve's love of Rudyard Kipling.
Wow, That's Dated: The narration mentions the NFL Championship Games, the precursor to the Super Bowl and the NFL-AFL merger of the late '60s.
Seriously, Emmys?: "They Call It Pro Football" premiered on TV as part of the series "NFL Action". That episode begins with Pat Summerall listing the awards the film has won, including Grand Prize at Cortina Film Festival and First Prize at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany. I could find evidence of "Pro Football" competing in Oberhausen, but nothing about its wins. Seriously, Internet? For the record, televised sports didn't have their own Emmy ceremony until 1979. Ed and Steve Sabol would both receive Lifetime Achievement Emmys in 2003.
The narrator is NFL Films' "Voice of God" John Facenda. A broadcaster and anchorman from Philadelphia, Facenda narrated practically every NFL Films production until his death in 1984. I recognized him from the industrial short "Progress Island U.S.A." about the booming Puerto Rico economy of the early '70s. Progress!
For those of us that are a little football-challenged, the film gives a quick recap of the major positions (quarterback, wide receiver, lineman) that's not condescending to viewers who already know these terms.
How are they still the Washington Redskins? Even at the time of this film's release, there were protests from Native American communities. Didn't "Kimmy Schmidt" solve this problem once and for all?
I was very close to listing a reference to the L.A. Rams under "Wow, That's Dated", knowing that they moved to St. Louis in the mid-90s, only to learn that they moved back to L.A. three years ago. Turns out even the little I do know about football is outdated.
Among the few players' names I recognized were Fran Tarkenton ("That's Incredible!"), Gale Sayers ("Brian's Song"), Johnny Unitas ("The Simpsons"), and Bart Starr (Again, "The Simpsons").
That's Vince Lombardi going over his "Packer sweep" maneuver on the chalkboard. I didn't recognize him without his trademark fedora.
You don't need to follow football to admire the athleticism required. The highlights presented here are still fun to watch.
The film showcases my favorite part of football; watching the head coaches cursing on the sidelines.
There's nothing like watching slow-motion instant replay injuries. The games are over 50 years old, but the assailments are still cringe-worthy.
While exciting to watch, all of this football seems less intense than today's game. I wonder how much of that is the presentation rather than the actual game?
What is the title of this film in Europe? "They Call It Pro Pseudo-Rugby"?
The work of both Ed and Steve Sabol, as well as the tireless efforts of Pete Rozelle, helped propel football to become baseball's rival for America's pastime. Every dramatized reference to the games and players started with "They Call It Pro Football".
Ed Sabol was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2011, making him one of the rare non-athletes or coaches to do so.
I'm gonna trace this film's legacy all the way to those "Bad Lip Reading" videos.
This film also paved the way for America to look deep within our own national conscience and ask ourselves, "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?"
Author thehorsesheadblogPosted on January 25, 2019 September 30, 2020
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I am in no way associated with the National Film Registry, the National Film Preservation Board, the National Film Preservation Foundation, the Library of Congress, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the International House of Pancakes, or any other government agency or film organization. Like so many other Americans, I'm just a guy on the internet who watches movies.
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As the stock market soars to one record high after another, analysts do not hesitate to tell us why. One popular explanation is that expectations of higher interest rates are pushing up the stocks of banks and other financial companies (example).
Yet not so long ago, the same analysts were telling us that Wall Street in general and banks in particular were getting rich on the "free money" that the Fed was supplying to them at historically low rates (examples here and here). What gives?
To understand how interest rates affect bank profits, we turn to a wonky concept of financial economics known as the duration gap. Setting the precise mathematics to one side (read this if you really care), the duration gap refers to the difference between the maturity of a bank's assets and its liabilities. If a bank funds itself with from short-term sources like deposits and uses those funds to make fixed rate mortgage loans or buy long-term bonds, then it has a positive duration gap. Interest rates tend to be higher on long-term financial instruments than on those with short maturities, so is the way banks traditionally made a profit.
The downside of the traditional banking model is that a positive duration gap means that profits fall when interest rates rise. Suppose, for example, that your bank makes 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and funds them with deposits that pay an interest equal to the federal funds rate (the rate on overnight loans that the Fed uses at its primary interest rate target). If the loans earn 4 percent and the fed funds rate is 0.5 percent, you have a nice spread of 3.5 percent between return on assets and cost of funds, allowing a good profit even after deducting operating expenses. However, if short-term rates went up, your bank would be in trouble. If the fed funds rate went up to 2 percent while your old fixed-rate mortgages still brought in just 4 percent your spread would be cut to 1.5 percent and your profits, after operating expenses, might evaporate altogether.
Modern banks have ways to reduce the interest rate risk inherent in traditional banking. One of the simplest strategies is to make variable-interest loans. If your funds come from short-term deposits, forget fixed-rate mortgages. Instead, make loans with rates that reset every twelve months according the movement of the federal funds rate or some other short-term interest rate. Suppose that today, you are receiving 3.5 percent on your variable rate mortgages (a little less than if you would earn on fixed rate loans), and you are paying 0.5 percent on deposits. Tomorrow, short-term rates go up and you have to raise your deposit rate to 2 percent, but you also reset the mortgage rate to 5 percent. Same 3 percent spread, same profit, as before.
More complex strategies make it possible for banks even to engineer negative duration gaps while still maintaining their traditional business of taking in deposits and making loans. A bank with a negative duration gap would profit from rising rates and suffer a loss if rates fell.
You get the idea: Banks do not have to passively accept lower profits when interest rates rise and wait for falling rates to boost their profits. Instead, they can adjust their strategies according to their market expectations and their appetite for risk.
A cautious bank would try to keep its duration gap short. Such a bank would earn a modest but steady profit regardless of what happened to rates.
Banks with a bigger appetite for risk can try to guess which way rates are moving. When they expect rates to go up, they can keep their gap short, or even negative gap. When they expect rates to fall, they can make lots of long-term, fixed-rate loans or use other strategies that lengthen the gap. If they turn out to be right, they win big. If they are wrong, they suffer losses.
There is an important qualification, however. Trying to profit from interest rate movements depends not only on the accuracy of forecasts, but also on timing. For example, suppose I think that interest rates will fall. If they do, prices of long-term bonds will rise, since bond prices automatically move in the opposite direction from interest rates. If I am the first to act on this expectation, I can buy bonds cheap now, while rates are still low, and sell them at a higher price after the rate change. However, if other people already played the same hunch yesterday, the purchases they made to lock in their profits will already have pushed bond prices up, and I will have missed my chance.
In short, then, there is no reason to think that bank profits in general will increase either when interest rates rise, or when they fall. Cautious banks that keep their duration gaps short will not be much affected way or the other by rate changes. Banks that take risks based on their guesses about interest rate movements will make profits but only if their guesses are better than the average of others who are playing the same game. Since Wall Street is not Lake Wobegon, not all banks can do better than average. Some will necessarily do worse than average, and their losses will offset the gains made by the winners.
The moral of the story: Take tidy explanations of stock price movements with a large grain of salt.


text:
Home by Choice: How Christian Bauer finds thrill in the rogue, lepak culture of Malaysia
Christian Bauer enjoys Malaysian food as much as the rest of us, but it's the rebellious nature of its people that adds a rogue charm to the country he has called home for 28 years.
In conjunction with Malaysia's 61st Merdeka Day, we witness the magic of the nation through the eyes of long-time expatriates who have built their home here.
I remember anxiously thinking to myself, "how am I going to write his story?" upon leaving Brasserie Fritz, where I had just finished an interview with Christian Bauer. It wasn't because his answers lacked substance. They weren't exactly what I had anticipated either – a comely, rainbows-and-roses depiction of the best parts of Malaysia. No, the co-founder and executive chef of Troika Sky Dining wasn't one to sugarcoat at all.
In fact, it was one of the most candid, unfiltered interviews I have had – zero alcohol involved – and it caught me off-guard.
Here is a well-known foreign chef in the local F&B scene who's resided here a solid 28 years and he tells me some of his favourite things about the country, specifically Kuala Lumpur, are the exact things its people (including yours truly) complain about. To quote him, "It's still a bit of a cowboy town, which is a good thing. I say that with complete admiration."
Ironic? Yes. Stupefying? For one who stumbles across netizens' complaints everyday, you bet.
But it's incredibly humbling to see your country through the lens of someone who calls it home by choice and not by birthplace. And as I attempt to string his words into a narrative, I'm reminded afresh how true the adage, 'one's man's meat is another man's poison'. Or in his case, contrariwise.
A foodie at heart
"I was born in Luxembourg and it's a beautiful country but excessively boring. It was even more boring in the '60s and '70s, so I had to leave," Christian recounted of his early years of life.
From that point of our conversation onwards, his innate thirst for adventure was evident. That thirst led him to New York, then to London, occasionally stopping by Paris, and later on to Hong Kong, before finally residing in Kuala Lumpur. On what paved the way to Malaysia, he said, "I was offered a job here for three months and that turned into six months and then it turned into 28 years. This is the country I've lived in the longest in my life."
He has since built a name for himself as a chef and restaupreneur. Together with business partner Eddie Chew, they founded Troika Sky Dining, which also owns Mr Chew's Chino Latino Bar and Brasserie Fritz. While the establishments under his belt offer a melange of foreign cuisines, he's personally very fond of our local food.
"If you don't have a certain amount of rebellion, you're not going to be edgy."
When asked if he has a favourite dish, he couldn't name just one – like most Malaysians. Instead, he unreservedly offered a list of his recommendations, like "nasi lemak with kari babi hutan (wild boar curry) in Taman Desa", "mee rebus along Tun HS Lee" and "that mamak stall near Changkat which serves great roti".
By the way he talked about food and the eateries that came quickest to his mind, it's easy to assume he's a native. He'll even proudly contend against Singaporeans: "Anyone who tells you food in Singapore is better is an idiot. It doesn't even compare!"
"We don't need to fight about the inventor of nasi lemak or Hainanese chicken rice; it's called 'Hainanese chicken' not 'Singaporean chicken'. Try the food in Singapore, then try it in Malaysia and tell me which you like more," he added for good measure.
An affinity for rebellion
Food isn't the only thing Christian prefers here compared to our Southern neighbour. As odd as it sounded to my ears at first, he appreciates the fact that Malaysians are not the best at upholding the law.
In response to the quizzical look on my face, he described his travelling experience on a boat in Italy with a group of friends: "The Singaporeans get onto the boat and they say, 'where are the life vests?' The Malaysians pick up the life vests and say, 'do we have to wear this?'"
"And that's what Malaysia is – we have all these rules and politicians can implement things, and we say good, yes, but then we just ignore it," he said without a hint of disdain.
He elaborated further on how the daily grievances locals face, be it triple parking or haphazard road obstructions, add to the "rogue charm" of the country. "You'd wish there would be some enforcement. And yes, the city would be more liveable if there was, but if you don't have a certain amount of rebellion, you're not going to be edgy."
That said, there are several issues he wishes the authorities would look into. Not surprisingly, the one closest to his heart is related to the food industry.
As an executive chef, he's well-acquainted with the struggles of food import. There's no denying who has the upper hand on this one, with the cost of food being the same but the ringgit carrying only a third of the value of the Singapore dollar.
"We're really struggling to sell good, high-end ingredients at a price that the general population can actually afford and we know the income level in Malaysia hasn't really gone up," he divulged. "What I'd really love to see is for us to have a bigger middle class with a higher income."
Learning how to "lepak"
Despite Christian's venturesome spirit, he's learnt one important aspect of our culture: how to 'lepak'. But being half-German, it didn't come naturally.
"I used to travel to Penang a lot and my Malay friends there taught me how to do nothing," he quipped. "In Europe, we're always asking, 'What do we do now? What do we do next?' When I ask my friends in Penang (the same question), they're like, 'just lepak lah.'"
Soon enough, he found himself on a trip to Kuantan, where he sat in front of the river for an hour with no agenda. This is one of the perks of befriending locals, he recognised, and it's what he would tell other foreign acquaintances now.
"KL is a wonderful place to visit if you have local friends. Fortunately, it's very easy to make friends here. And once you make one friend, you will very quickly have ten," he smiled. (Is it a coincidence that KL is now his favourite city and most of his dearest friends are Malaysians?)
This Merdeka, it's our paradoxical, subversive culture that he'll be celebrating on top of the nation's independence – one that he's contented to be a part of.
Photography: Gan Yew Chin
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Home by Choice
Troika Sky Dining
Here's what's new in the 2018 BMW i8 Coupé, priced at RM 1.3 million
Introducing Michelin's latest tyre, promising better performance even when worn
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text:
These files are for a presentation that Kris Hardy gave at the ABQpy Python User's Group in April of 2015.  The slides are in slides.pdf.

The example code goes in stages, starting with 1_, and ending with 10_.

Enjoy!
-Kris


Terence Donovan, who died last November, never believed in leaving anything to chance. Many years ago in Paris, he and David Bailey worked out the 480 things that can go wrong before the final print is attained. He believed in back up, but owning the best part of 100 cameras and as many different lenses does seem a trifle excessive. In truth, Terence was fascinated by cameras: how they looked, how they felt in his hand and, more importantly, how they worked. His collection is coming up for sale at Christie's, South Kensington, on Thursday, 12 June.
Terence Donovan was first and foremost a technician. His idea of a wonderful evening was to sit alone taking a camera apart, examining each piece and then putting it back together again. He was passionate about his cameras and required his assistants to handle them `as if they were the finest and most precious gems'. He hated his assistants wearing clumsy shoes because he could not bear them tripping over his equipment. Should some wretched assistant do this, the mild-mannered Terence Donovan gave forth a stream of vile language.
Terence Donovan's cameras were to him, a skilled photographer, instruments of great beauty. To me, a man in whose hand even a scalpel would be more at home than a camera, they are objects of art. Looking through the Christie's catalogue, I came upon two lots that seemed to me visually outstanding, lots 76 and 78, both cameras made by the Gandolfi brothers. I was not surprised to find that they were Terence's favourite cameras.
Publication information: Article title: With an Eye for Beauty. Contributors: McAlpine, Alistair - Author. Magazine title: The Spectator. Volume: 278. Issue: 8810 Publication date: June 7, 1997. Page number: 56. © Spectator Mar 7, 2009. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.


text:
The Syrianization of Turkey
by Sungur Savran October 19, 2015 September 22, 2020
By Sungur Savran. This article was published on Socialist Project.
The immense catastrophe that struck Turkey in the streets of Ankara, the capital city, on 10 October, when two bombs exploded in the midst of a thronging crowd of what would possibly turn out to be hundreds of thousands of people, leading to the death of an indefinite number of people, in any case exceeding one hundred, and the wounding of hundreds, some still under the risk of death, is a sharp reminder, if any were needed, that this is a country undergoing a severe political crisis. The tragic loss of life, ranging from a nine-year old boy to a seventy-year old woman and involving the deaths of a very high number of young people, has left the working-class movement, the broad left, the community of Alevis, the minority religious denomination in Turkey, and the Kurdish people, all of whom were involved in the peace demonstration that was attacked, in profound grief and mourning. It is cause for consolation, however, to witness the fact that the main aim of this hideous attack has been thwarted since, despite the grief, the masses have not been intimidated and have come out in militant mood both to protest and to bury their dead.
Protestors shout slogans against violence in reaction to the blasts in Ankara, Turkey.
In unusually precipitated fashion, the government has claimed to have carried out an investigation on what it purports to be a double suicide bombing. They point their fingers at the ill-famed ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS) and claim that this was an attack on the unity of Turkey (why those who target the unity of the country have for decades now attacked the demonstrations of the working-class or of the oppressed minorities and never a right-wing rally remains a mystery!)
The AKP Government Responsible
Whoever the real perpetrators are, it is the government of the AKP and especially what one would call the inner cabinet serving Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that is responsible for this tragedy. The responsibility could turn out to be direct. As explained in a recent article on this web site only a month ago, the Erdoğan camp, having lost the AKP majority in parliament in the 7 June elections, set out on an extremely dangerous strategic path of waging war on the Kurds of Turkey in order to erode the electoral base of the parliamentary wing of the movement, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The concrete aim is to push it below the scandalously high electoral threshold of 10 per cent and to re-establish the previous AKP majority in parliament in the repeat elections scheduled for 1 November, so as to avoid the threat of a parliamentary inquiry into the well-documented corruption cases involving Erdoğan and his ministers, in addition to many other crimes for which he may be tried.
It is possible that although the government is trying to put the blame on ISIL for the crime, in reality it is the agents of the notorious Turkish 'deep state', now controlled by the Erdoğan camp, that has carried out the operation. Failing that, it is highly probable that the security forces and the intelligence agency, controlled single-handedly by the Erdoğan inner cabinet, looked the other way while ISIL, if indeed they were the perpetrators, committed this heinous crime. The author of these lines is convinced that information will leak sooner or later, and sooner rather than later, that this is the case.[1] The extremely tight media ban that has been imposed on the case, including not only the publishing of concrete evidence, but of critical commentary as well, only goes to confirm that the government fears this kind of leak.
Even if the government has not directly been involved, it is still indisputably responsible by sheer studied neglect. This incident is only a barbaric sequel to a series of actions that first saw bombs exploding in HDP locales or demonstrations in the pre-election period and then the killing by a suicide bomber of 34 Turkish leftists in Suruç on 20 July as a retribution to their solidarity with Kobane, the town in the autonomous Kurdish entity of Rojava inside Syria long held under siege a year ago by ISIL. In none of these cases did the government carry out criminal investigation worthy of the name. Although it abusively cited the Suruç attack for what it described as an "anti-terrorist" drive beginning in August, this ended up ignoring the perpetrators of that attack and concentrating instead on the victims' side, i.e. the Kurdish movement and people, as explained in our previous article referred to above. So the AKP government has for all purposes given licence to ISIL for its attacks on the Kurdish and left-wing opposition movements, making it responsible for the Ankara massacre in a very real sense.
The Most Savage Attack on the Working Class Movement
It is of the utmost political importance to remind ourselves who the organizers of the demonstration so heinously attacked were. This was not an event organized by the Kurdish movement per se, as the majority seem to think, although Kurds did participate massively. This was an event organized by two union confederations and two professional associations, one of medical doctors and the other of engineers and architects, both being traditional allies of the progressive wing of the union movement. In short, this was a working-class action against the war on the Kurds. A full contingent of 14 members of the union of railway workers died as a result of the bombing, as well as dispersed casualties for other unions.
Given the working-class nature of the demonstration, one is immediately summoned to put this incident in historical perspective. The ensuing picture is significant in itself: in a country whose history is littered with working-class demonstrations violently quashed with many casualties in human life, the 10 October Ankara massacre stands out as by far the most savage attack ever. The closest one gets in historical comparison is the great provocation of May Day 1977 at Taksim Square in Istanbul, where 34 people died. This time the figure of casualties is at least three times that!
This is not a wanton act of violence. If ISIL is truly involved in the affair, its motives were probably a kind of raising the stakes. The last time when they organized a resounding attack on Turkish soil, Turkey was still underhandedly but in unabashed fashion accommodating the activities of ISIL in Syria. Now the stakes are higher. In a deceptive move, Turkey has opened its Incirlik air base to U.S. war planes bombarding ISIL territory and later joined the coalition put together by the U.S. against the latter. So for ISIL the bar had to be raised in order to convince the Erdoğan camp that this takfiri, Sunni-sectarian organization is a formidable force that is ready, nonetheless, to join hands with Turkey in the war against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its ally the PYD, the ruling force in Rojava Kurdistan.
To the extent that the Turkish state is involved in the planning and implementation of the bombing in Ankara, the purpose was, in our opinion, to nip in the bud the nascent alliance between the workers' movement and the Kurdish liberation struggle. We have been trying, for many years now, to explain that the key to the victory of the masses over the reactionary forces that rule Turkey lies in this kind of alliance. The ruling forces are very much aware of this and this is one of the main reasons why this demonstration was so fiercely attacked.
The Reshuffling of Cards in Syria
The intervention of the Russian armed forces in Syria has naturally attracted a lot of attention around the world. This act radically alters the concrete situation in Syria and has ramifications for international politics at large. For the purposes of this article, let us circumscribe our comments to the impact of Russian intervention in Syria on Turkey, leaving the more general aspects to other occasions. Russia's incursion into Syria is much more closely related to Turkish activist interventionism in that country than is generally admitted. It is our opinion that the timing of Russia's move is closely tied to Erdoğan's intentions regarding Syria. In our previous article referred to above, we stated that if the AKP were to fail to obtain the majority of seats in parliament in the coming elections on 1 November, the Erdoğan camp would in all probability find an excuse to send the Turkish military into Syria. As the reader is probably aware, the government has already laid the ground for such an excuse: the existence of Rojava as an autonomous Kurdish entity with ties to the PKK has already been declared unacceptable for the Turkish government. But since the U.S. cooperates with the armed forces of Rojava in fighting ISIL, Turkey would in all probability use the latter as an excuse to make a military incursion with ground forces into Syria ostensibly to fight the latter, but in reality to supplant the presence of the armed forces of Rojava.
All these plans have been thrown to the wind with the entry of Russia on the scene. The Putin administration, in our opinion, intervened precisely at this moment because the kind of military incursion on the part of Turkey into Syria that we have just described would probably result in a conflagration of unimaginable proportions in the Middle East, drawing Iran into the fray as well and ending up with an unmanageable crisis. Having sensed or even learnt through intelligence the intentions of the Erdoğan camp, the Putin administration simply made a pre-emptive move. That this is so is confirmed by the fact that Russian war planes have repeatedly violated Turkish air space and challenged the rules of engagement that Turkey had established vis-a-vis Assad's air force. So much so that the secretary general of NATO, in quite an undiplomatic speech, declared that such Russian violations were not accidental, implying that Russia was trying to tell Turkey something. We agree. Things have reached such an embarrassing point for Turkey that, whereas it was this latter country that had been demanding a no-fly zone against the Syrian air force in the north of that country for a long time, now a de facto no-fly zone has been established by Russia against Turkey itself! The more general conclusion that we should draw from all this is clear: unless the Erdoğan camp is ready to provoke a world war, the plans for a Turkish military incursion into Syria need to be scrapped for the short term.
The only option left [to Erdoğan's camp] is the Syrianization of Turkey itself … a strategy of civil war based on home-grown takfiri, Sunni-sectarian militia forces to keep Erdoğan in power. "
Where does this leave the Erdoğan camp? If the elections do not provide them with a majority in parliament, this would again raise the spectre of a parliamentary investigation that would threaten to ruin the whole political future, nay the whole future tout court of Erdoğan. Now the route to salvation through Damascus, i.e a state of war bestowing special powers to his administration, is also closed by the Russian incursion into Syria. The only option left is the Syrianization of Turkey itself. By this we mean a strategy of civil war based on home-grown takfiri, Sunni-sectarian militia forces to keep Erdoğan in power. The Islamist forces that the AKP government has protected and supported throughout the Syrian civil war may decide to reciprocate and help the Erdoğan camp in conducting what really amounts to civil war. This strategy may be summed up by the following formula: if you cannot take Turkey into Syria, then bring Syria into Turkey!
Home-Grown Sunni-Sectarian Militia
A host of events that unfolded in the course of these recent months has brought out into the open a process that evidently began after the popular revolt that was triggered by the Gezi incident in June 2013. Lasting throughout the summer, this revolt created great fear and concern in the AKP government. Two different strategies were devised. The camp that crystallised around Abdullah Gül, also a founder and leading member of the AKP and then president of the republic, eventually to be replaced by Erdoğan in August 2014, preferred a strategy of diffusion based on dividing the insurgent masses into a moderate wing and a radical one. The Erdoğan camp, on the other hand, opted for pure repression by force, based on the still strong electoral support the more conservative layers of society were prepared to lend to his leadership. It has now transpired that an indispensable component of this strategy of repression has been the preparation of an array of openly counter-revolutionary forces to be deployed in case the threat to Erdoğan's power reappeared.
Without going into the details of the matter that would inevitably be boring and confusing for the reader uninitiated in the intricacies of Turkish politics, let us quickly provide a panoramic view of the forces thus prepared by the Erdogan camp. The recent attacks have brought forward a new formation called the "Osmanlı Ocakları". The word "ocaklar" refers to the Janissaries of the Ottomans and hence the name of this organization can best be translated as the Ottoman Corps. This formation was active in attacks on the major secular daily Hurriyet because of its critical coverage of certain aspects of Erdoğan's policy. It also made its presence felt in the raids by mobs on the buildings of the HDP, the Kurdish parliamentary party, in over 140 locations around Turkey on the night of 8 September. This formation, it seems, is rapidly growing, attracting elements of the unemployed and the lumpen proletariat with AKP money. It claims that it is already organized in 73 of the 91 provinces of Turkey.
There is then IBDA-C, a radical Islamist organization that predates the AKP, whose charismatic leader was kept in jail for long years, only to be released in the wake of the Gezi uprising under the hardly disguised protection of Erdoğan himself. This organization clearly and openly advocates the use of violent methods against the enemies of Islam. From a critical stance vis-a-vis the parliamentary Islamist tradition in Turkey in the past, it has now moved to a straightforward defence of Erdoğan's leadership.
While IBDA-C is strong in the western part of the country and has been busy attacking the student movement and, in particular, the Kurds, the Kurdish Hezbollah, another militia organization that Erdoğan has lately resuscitated, owes its strength to reactionary forces within Kurdish society. This movement was very active in the 1990s and notoriously massacred Kurdish civilian political figures in collusion with the security forces. But once Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK was captured in 1999 and sent to jail, it lost its allure and was itself repressed by the state starting in 2000. However, its leaders, just like that of IBDA-C were released from prison lately, disappeared into legality and are now represented through the mediation of an innocent-looking legal party. The Kurdish Hezbollah, with absolutely no connection to its Lebanese namesake, is a civil war organization inside Kurdish society. It has been very useful in transforming the October 2014 serhildan (Kurdish for intifada) from a popular uprising into an armed struggle between two groups, the militia of the PKK and its own armed contingents. This is precisely the reason for which it is being supported and protected by the Erdoğan camp.
There are other forces., some inside the Turkish mafia, for instance. One of these, Sedat Peker, a resolute fan of Erdoğan, organized a rally "against terrorism", by which is meant the Kurdish struggle for national emancipation, precisely a day before the 10 October demonstration. Speaking in front of Erdoğan's poster, Peker threatened the supporters of the Kurdish movement with "blood that will flow like a river"! There are also the Turkoman Brigades named after different sultans in Ottoman history, which are charged with struggling against the forces of Rojava.
All in all, this whole array of forces that are being supported and protected by the Erdoğan camp is indicative of the fact that the strategy of civil war is not alien to this camp. Now that military intervention in Syria seems to be ruled out, this alternative seems more and more the most realistic for Erdoğan's quest for survival.
Fraternity Between Peoples or Barbarism
The Middle East and North Africa is rapidly moving toward a situation of civil war within the Islamic world between the Sunni and the Shia (the latter in alliance with the Alevis). Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the main instigators of the Sunni camp while Iran, of course, is the leading force of the Shia camp. Erdoğan's dream is (or should one perhaps say "was") to lead the Sunni populations in this kind of struggle for supremacy within the Islamic world. This is a dream that is rooted in the glory of the Ottoman past. This immediately implies the reconstitution of the umma, the Islamic community at large, under the guidance of the Caliphate, which was abolished by the young republic in 1924. This abolition the Islamists in Turkey have never been able to digest.
This kind of sectarian war within Islam will be a re-edition of the religious wars of Western Europe with redoubled violence. It is to be avoided at all costs. The Erdoğan camp, as well as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran are playing with fire. This extreme threat in the Middle East and North Africa has to be countered by those forces that have no stake in the ground rent generated by oil and natural gas and in the so-called Sharia-compliant finance of the Arab world.
Viewed from the regional angle, the Syrian civil war is precisely a proxy war between these two camps. Erdoğan is the frontline leader of the Sunni-sectarian camp. To even start to command the allegiance of the rest of the Sunni world, Erdoğan has to win his war for survival inside Turkey. In this he has thrown his lot with the takfiri, Sunni-sectarian forces inside and outside the country. This is leading Turkey to the precipice of Syrianization.
Turkey is, on the other hand, a country full of ebullition. Revolts of different kind have succeeded on each other's heels within the last two years. One year after the waning of the Gezi popular revolt, so powerful in the western cities of the country but not in Turkish Kurdistan, a serhildan, i.e. a popular uprising of the Kurdish population broke out for a week in support of Kobane fighting ISIL. In neither of these momentous events was the working-class present as a class. However, in the month of May this year a struggle that brought tens of thousands of metalworkers erupted, spreading from its original hometown in Bursa, an industrial hub near Istanbul, to many other industrial centres. After a long period of dormancy, the working-class is now back in action. So this is a society that is also full of promises. It is only by overcoming the divisions between the three forces that are represented by these three waves of struggle that the progressive forces can win. And here two things are crucial: fraternity between the Turk and the Kurd and the entry of the working-class onto the political scene. Should these two conditions come together, Turkey will not only see the domestic balance of forces shift decisively in favour of a progressive solution to its political crisis, but can also act as the triggering factor for a forward-looking solution, in a process of permanent revolution, to the problems that the whole Middle East faces.
Which tendency will eventually win will be decided by the living forces of history. It is to be seen whether the socialist left will live up to its historic responsibilities. •
Sungur Savran is based in Istanbul and is one of the editors of the newspaper Gercek (Truth) and the theoretical journal Devrimci Marksizm (Revolutionary Marxism), both published in Turkish, and of the web site RedMed.
1. Post scriptum: No sooner were these lines written and the article sent out to the editors of The Bullet for consideration did the major Turkish-language daily Hurriyet reveal that not only had the names of the two suicide bombers been circulating for months as potential threats, but that fully three days before the fateful day the police were informed that precisely such an attack was being planned. Unless this report turns out to be false, the total neglect of the police, which was nowhere to be seen at the site of the first gathering where the bombs eventually exploded, is scandalous or even a wilfully criminal act.
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1. The Hybrid Girl and Her Werewolf
With high school werewolfs and hybrid girls, life can get crazy. Especially when those two Alphas are mates. Harvey Bryant and Addisyn King are mates. Their crush on each other since kindergarten has made them inseparable. What happens next?
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2. My Best Friend's Brother
Hello, I am Olivia Fox. My best friend Lola Young has been my next-door neighbor forever. Her brother Wesley is my childhood crush-- was my childhood crush Anyways, my brother William (Will) has been my older brother also, forever. Wesley & Will and Liv & Lola. Our friendship necklaces say. To Be Continued...
3. The Mikaelsons
Now, we've hopefully all seen TVD and TO, but this is a spin-off of both. Somewhat like the new show Legacies, but focused on Hope, Klaus, and the rest of the Mikaelsons.
4. My Love
Alyssa Rosso may look like your average high-school hottie, but she has you fooled. Ok, maybe not about the hot part, but let me just tell you she is a vampire. She is also a werewolf and a witch. Alyssa is a vampire-werewolf-witch tribrid. Her family traveled from Italy, because of a fire destroying their house. Her mother is a witch who had an affair with a werewolf, which is where she gets her werewolf side. Her father is a vampire who had an affair with another witch, which is how her twin, Ava was born. I'm guessing this is not how you expected her story to be. Do you want to hear more?
5. The Defenders' Apprentice
The Defenders' order is dying, but that's no surprise. They've been in hiding for over a hundred years, and apprentices are getting harder to find – hardly anyone can see the dragons anymore.
Eppie is a successful pickpocket. She keeps her cache – and her ability to see the dragons – well hidden. One day she picks the wrong pocket, and the next thing she knows she's been brought in to a mysterious secret order of swordsmen and swordswomen. She's their last apprentice, their last hope. With far too little training, she sets out to help save the dragon Tiada, but if her mentor and the others fall in the battle, who will defend the dragons next time?
6. Eddystone Light
My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
Slept with a mermaid one fine night.
From this union there came three:
A porpoise, a porgie and the other was me.
Jack studies accountancy, lives with his maiden aunt in an upright Victorian household, and smells like a fish. The fishy smell drives girls away faster than they can be introduced.
When Jack visits his lighthouse-keeper father on the Eddystone rocks, he meets his mother for the first time since he was a baby. She's a mermaid. Jack's mother sends him on a quest to find his two lost brothers, a porpoise and a porgie fish.
Along the way, Jack falls in love, battles carnival hucksters, and is scolded by a porpoise... and that's before he meets the mermaids.
7. Chronicles of the Last Days
Myril's world is sinking before her eyes. Foreign ships flood into the harbor and Anamat's citizens flee across the sea while the governor helps foreign emissaries steal from the city's guilds.
The guildmaster enlists Myril to help save the Chronicles of Anamat from the pillagers and their local allies. Her old friend Darna returns to the city strangely pregnant – if that's what it is. She's also about to become the ruler of Tiadun. Meanwhile Iola, the ambassadress, is determined to fly to the dragons' realm again, even if it kills her, and the Defenders have more troubles than they can manage.
Will any of them survive when the waters rise again?
This book concludes the Anamat/Dragonsfall series.
8. Music Box
What will tear the girls apart more than their love for each other's brothers? Nothing, they have the best friendship a lone wolf could ask for.
9. The Red Door
If you open the Red Door, you never come out. If you say Red Door, you'll never talk again. Kidding, this is comedy and scary! Have fun!!!
10. Matgro Hills
Kennedy Johnson was your normal, country girl, down the road a mile from her best friend, Alyssa Chandler. Every morning she would let the chickens out, milk the cows, walk the dogs, feed the horses, feed the sheep and the other animals. At the end of the day, she walks to Alyssa's house and has a sleepover. To be continued...
11. Priestess of the Dragons' Temple
Once, Iola flew with a dragon. If she can become ambassadress to the dragons' realm, she might fly again, but first she must navigate life as an ordinary priestess. She's wholly devoted to the dragons, but some of her fellow priestesses are dragon-blind and corrupt. Worse, they think that Iola's devotions are actually just a sign of greed.
The ambassadress returns from the dragons' realm, too sick to fly again. Iola might have a chance to take her place, but her rival, Tiagasa, was raised in a prince's palace. Tiagasa thrives on political intrigue and gossip, and her lover is about to become governor of the city.
Iola's few friends and allies aren't much more savvy than she is. Still, they hope to persuade the new governor to make Iola ambassadress so that the temple cam be a true sanctuary of the dragons for a few years more.
12. Rainie Troiana
Rainie Troiano is your average-middle school tutor who is always nice and doesn't believe in bad grammar. Everyone thought that until her parents died in a car crash. Since then, she hasn't spoken to anyone, including her best friends, Emery Gallicchio and Sabine Kint. But, when she tries everyone says,"Oh look, the girl with no parents can talk!" Mostly, when you want to (nobody wants to) hear that from someone, you go to Ashlynne Gallicchio Otherwise known as a bitch, she is also called Emery's devil spawn sister. Anyways, here is her story. To be continued...
13. Scrapplings Children of the Dragons
The dragon flying over Tiadun bay is the only thing that Darna loves in the provinces, and she's also the only person she knows of who can see it. There's nothing else she likes about life at Tiadun keep. When she learns that she might be the daughter of the prince, she's afraid she'll be trapped there forever so she flees to the city of Anamat. In the city, there will be others who can see the dragons, or so the minstrels say.
Along the way, she meets Myril, an older girl with frequent premonitions and an eerie sense of hearing. At the walls, they find Iola, so dragon-struck that she wants to be a priestess, and Thorat, her devoted champion.
Despite these newfound friends, life in the city isn't easy. Darna scavenges for scraps and just about gets by, but when she's offered a sack of gold beads for a small bit of thieving, she takes her chances... and ends up angering the city's patron dragon.
14. The Turncoat Prince
Darna is just a guildswoman, or so she'd like to think, but her alleged father was the prince of a backwater province. Now he's been assassinated, and her uncle has put a price on Darna's head to secure his claim on the throne.
Darna takes her lover's place in a job that will take her away from the city and, she hopes, away from assassins' daggers. Her new employer, the prince, is irate to find that the able-bodied man he hired has been replaced by a limping woman. According to the contract, they're stuck together for the year. The prince is arrogant, but also intelligent and well-read. As winter closes in, their late night conversations turn from sea walls to more intimate territory.
Meanwhile, the province's lost dragon reappears, and even the prince can see it.
This book is the second in the Dragonsfall trilogy. It is recommended that you read The Defenders' Apprentice first. The story also refers back to some events which took place in the two prequel novels, Scrapplings and Priestess.


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McAfee Mystery: Intel CEO Prioritizes Security Via Charlie Rose
There has been much written about why Intel offered an astonishing $7.7 billion for McAfee, the PC anti-virus maker.
I've been an Intel watcher for more than 25 years and I'm struggling to make sense out of this deal.
I've also been reading other Intel watchers trying to make sense of the deal. The most recent attempt is by Jon Stokes at Ars Technica: Why Intel bought McAfee
His article doesn't answer the headline but here is a fascinating snippet:
At the most recent Intel R&D day, Intel CTO Justin Rattner did a Q&A session with the press in which he was asked something to the effect of, "What do you spend most of your time working on these days?" Rattner didn't hesitate in answering "security."
He then told an anecdote about how he was watching Intel CEO Paul Otellini being interviewed by Charlie Rose, and Otellini told Rose, "I've given our company a charter to make [security] job one." Rattner laughed and told us that this statement seemed to come from out of the blue, and it took him and other Intel execs by surprise. But from that day forward, Rattner was focused on security.
Wow. Is this how Intel's CEO sets priorities within the company? Is this how he communicates Intel strategy? Through Charlie Rose?
Justin Rattner is head of Intel's research labs. You would think that he would already know what his priority should be directly from the top and not from a TV show.
How did Mr Otellini communicate to the company that its charter was "to make security job one"? Yet for one of Intel's top execs, and his colleagues, it came "from out of the blue."
What's going on at Intel? Does anyone at Intel, apart from Mr Otellini, know?


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Washington Post Affected by Syrian Electronic Army Hack
Syrian Electronic Army takes credit for hacking popular link referral service Outbrain
Sara Morrison | August 15, 2013 @ 9:40 AM
Washington Post and several other media websites were hacked on Thursday — sort of. The popular link referral service Outbrain (which TheWrap also uses) was infiltrated by the Syrian Electronic Army, causing its links to go to SEA websites. This was the second major hack by the SEA in the past three days.
Though the Washington Post reported that it was hacked, that appears not to be exactly accurate — the SEA provided screenshots of its work to E Hacking News showing that it was actually Outbrain that was compromised. Outbrain provides several major news sites with a content referral widget that gives readers links to related stories. On CNN, Time and Washington Post's websites, some of those links went to SEA websites.
Also read: New York Times Website Outage Not Caused by Cyberattack, Says Paper
Washington Post managing editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said in a statement that Post employees were "subjected to a sophisticated phishing attack, allegedly by the Syrian Electronic Army" several days ago, but that Thursday's attack appeared to be from an Outbrain hack.
"This morning, some articles on our web site were re-directed to the Syrian Electronic Army's site for a period of about 30 minutes," Garcia-Ruiz said. "The Syrian Electronic Army, in a Tweet, claimed they gained access to elements of our site by hacking one of our business partners, Outbrain. We have taken defensive measures and removed the offending module. At this time, we believe there are no other issues affecting the site."
Also read: John Oliver Thinks Washington Post is Front for Jeff Bezos' Massive Meth Operation
The SEA has managed to hack into several media outlet websites and Twitter accounts, most recently several NY Post journalists' Twitter account and the newspaper's Facebook page on Tuesday. In an interview with the Daily Beast, SEA leader "SEA the Shadow" said the attack was in response to Twitter shutting SEA's accounts down.
On Wednesday, the New York Times' website went down for over an hour, but the paper claimed it was due to an internal issue and not a hack.
Outbrain's website is currently down, but the company stated on Twitter that its team was "working to get our system secure and up shortly." The company also sent a statement to TheWrap about the matter:
We are aware that Outbrain was hacked earlier today. In an effort to protect our publishers and readers, we took down service as soon as it was apparent. The breach now seems to be secured and the hackers blocked out, but we are keeping the service down for a little longer until we can be sure it's safe to turn it back on securely. We are working hard to prevent future attacks of this nature.
Media Alley
Media Alley looks at the media landscape from print to digital, legacy media to new media.


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Album - Winter Storm Slovakia | Oficiálny fanklub Tarji Turunen na Slovensku
Hlavná ponuka:
Raw Tour 2021
Rock/Heavy
The Best of Tarja
The Shadow Self
The Shadow Self - The Album
The Brightest Void - The Prequel
Luna Park Ride
Colours in the Dark
Left in the Dark
My Winter Storm
from Spirits and Ghosts
WORLD WIDE LIVE STREAMING 2020
Concerts for a Dark Christmas 2018
Beauty and the Beat
Ave Maria - En Plein Air
In Concert - Live at Sibelius Hall
Henkäys Ikuisuudesta - Jouluinen Platinapainos
Maailman Kauneimmat Joululaulut
Henkays Ikuisuudesta
Noche Escandinava II
Yhden Enkelin Unelma
Yhdessä Jouluna 2019
Oopperan Tähdet 2019
Tähtien Kevätkonsertti/Tähtien Vappu
Syksyn tähdet 2018: Tarja Turunen & Waltteri Torikka
Noche Escandinava III
Tähtien vappukonsertti
Kulttuuritalo 60 vuotta: Tarja Turunen & Vantaan Viihdeorkesteri
SuomiLOVE
Concerts for a Dark Christmas
Ave Maria Concert
The celebrations for the Centennial of Finland
Breath from Heaven
Syyskauden 2016 avajaiskonsertti
Orchestral Tour Russia 2016
Ave Maria Christmas Tour 2015/Ave Maria Joulukonsertti 2015
Joulu yhdessä - kiertue 2014
Ekumeeninen joulu 2013
Sydänten Joulu-kiertue 2013
Christmas in the Heart - Tour 2012
Christmas Tour 2011
Savonlinna Festival 2011
Christmas Concerts 2010
One Christmas Night
Halloween Concert
Soi Suvessa 2009
Baltic Sea Festival 2009
Joulun Henkäys 2008
Finland Independence Day 2007
MTV3 - 50 Years Gala 2007
Henkäys Tour 2006
Tomorrow's Child 2006
Lied Concerts 2006
Lahti Organ Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival 2006
Noche Escandinava
Album/video
Raskasta Joulua
Zu zweit allein
An Empty Dream
Castillos de papel
Habilita la cerveza
Paradise (What About Us?)
Angra - Angels Cry
Never Too Far
Mad Rush film
Doro - 25 Years in Rock
The Good Die Young
Walking with the Angels
In the Picture
Tired of Being Alone
Leaving You for Me
Perinteinen Pop-Levy
Romeo ja Julia
Raskasta Joulua 2019
Sweden Rock
Tarja & La Beriso
Tarja & Asspera
Tarja & Within Temptation
Tarja & Stratovarius
Tarja & Van Canto
Tarja & Adrian Barilari
Tarja & Floor Jansen
Tarja & Living Colour
Tarja & Angra
Tarja & Scorpions
Tarja & Kipelov
Tarja & Liv Kristine
Idols Tekee Hyvää
Tarja & Doro
Tarja & Rata Blanca
Doro - 25th Anniversary Show
Kummit Concert
Marimekko Fashion Show
Rhapsody in Rock
Spin - The Musical
Tarja & Pepe Willberg
Evankeliumi
The Voice of Finland´16
TARJA NA SLOVENSKU
Trnava - 07.09.2019
Bratislava - 07.12.2016
Košice - 02.12.2016
Nitra - 17.12.2010
Snina - 14.08.2010
Žiar n./H. - 24.06.2009
Žilina - 16.09.2005
B. Bystrica - 07.06.2003
Twitter Q & A with Tarja
TARJA > Beauty and the Beat
Out: 30.05.2014
INTERVIEW "BEAUTY & THE BEAT"
INCEPTION OF THE PROJECT
TARJA: The idea of performing live with a symphonic orchestra, choir and Mr. Terrana on drums was originally mine. Mike has done a recording with drums over classical pieces that I think it is great. I could imagine it on a stage with a real orchestra as a part of a bigger concept. I believe this kind of combination of instruments, particularly playing mainly classical music, is very unique. I have been making collaborations with orchestras before and I could foresee a great outcome.
MIKE: I had the idea to record a version of the "1812 overture" as a tribute for Cozy Powell about 4 years ago. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to record a whole CD of classical tunes, which become known as "Sinfonica".
I had performed many solo shows across Europe and South America playing the classical pieces from "Sinfonica" and the people seemed to enjoy
the mixture of powerful rock drumming with classical music.
One day during a break from the road, Tarja and I were discussing our interests in classical music and opera and we decide to put together a show called "Beauty and the Beat".
It seemed natural enough, because Tarja is very well known for playing classical concerts on her own; I however was new to the classical world and being a self taught rock drummer I was not sure how my drumming style would fit in with the orchestra. After we finalized the concept we decide that we needed to do a test show just to see if it would work live. Fast forward to Bulgaria 2011, we were booked to perform to a full house in a beautiful ancient amphitheater.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR THE FIRST SHOW?
MIKE: To prepare for this first show we did 2 days of rehearsal with the orchestra, which in the beginning was not so easy for me. This show was to be the model for all of the other shows on the Beauty and the Beat tour to follow so it was very important for us.
TARJA: I was training vocally hard during many weeks before the first show. I also took singing lessons with my vocal coach in Buenos Aires to make sure that I was in the correct track. I needed to find new clothes for this show as well, so I trusted the local Argentinean designers for it.
I sent the scores that I had for the orchestra and choir in advance, so they had the material in hand before the real rehearsals started in Plovdiv with Mike and me. The orchestra had been rehearsing the songs alone without the soloists for some weeks. When we arrived to Bulgaria, we had two days of rehearsals with them. It was very exciting for all! We realized during the rehearsals how demanding and challenging the actual program is, but we all enjoyed the challenge. I talked with the conductor all the tempo issues in each of the songs in advance and made sure that we were all in the same page.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE SHOW
TARJA: For me it is rather impossible to sing classical music with in ear monitors or a handheld microphone, because I want to hear my natural voice and also I want to have my hands free while singing. In these concerts I used two wedges where the monitor engineer mixed the instruments from the orchestra that were needed in order for me to hear the tuning and tempo properly. Also I had my voice with some reverb in the wedges. For the classical pieces I used a microphone that is designed for this type of performances, brand called Schoeps. It is a microphone that I am not holding in my hand nor it is very close to my mouth, but instead is on the stand more or less 30 cm away in front of me. A handheld microphone I used in the rock songs in order to get more definition in the voice. The volume of my voice is rather lower in those songs comparing to the classical pieces.
It was always a challenge in these concerts to get the monitor sound fixed in the sound checks, but that is what sound checks are designed for!
I had to plan carefully the set list and running order for these concerts. While we needed to keep the interest of our audience it wouldn't get too difficult for me to sing. It is vocally very challenging to make the changes between classical pieces and rock ones. I was glad to have the chance to relax and concentrate into my following pieces at the backstage while Mike was performing his solo numbers.
MIKE: First of all acoustic drums are very loud, so I had to adapt my drum tuning and playing style for the dynamic level of the orchestra, this involved tuning my drums lower and using tape to dampen the toms and snare drum.
I also had to be very aware of my striking power when playing. You cannot play acoustic drums with the same intensity with an orchestra as you would with a rock band. This took some time and practice.
It was also technically complicated to get my in ear mix correct for this kind of project. All the instruments were mixed and then divided into sub groups that were sent to my mixer. Its very important to have a good musical and dynamic balance between all the orchestral instruments, otherwise you don't hear the piece in its correct form, making it difficult to play along.
All of these variables had to come together perfectly so that I was able to play and perform the pieces to the best of my abilities. A task easier said than done; however I have always enjoyed a good challenge and I enjoy playing all forms of music. I believe it's important as artists to push ourselves into different areas in order to grow and to evolve.
I must say I learned a lot about music, myself and from the classical musicians and conductors involved with the Beauty and the Beat project. It was really interesting and fantastic experience and I hope to do it all again in the near future.
HOW WAS IT TO WORK WITH AN ORCHESTRA?
MIKE: Orchestras normally don't play in time the way rock or metal bands do. They are free in their interpretation of the pieces and they rely on the conductor for the correct tempo, dynamics, and intensity. The orchestras basically kind of swims in the time, not playing in perfect time like a metronome. This forced me to make a compromise. I had to take an average between my feeling for tempo and dynamics and the conductors' feel. Please keep in mind that in a rock band you play with 3 or 4 other people, within the framework of an orchestra you are working with 80 people or more. It's a lot of information to consider, so to work this way, you must have BIG EARS! I had to listen, watch and take my cues from the conductor. Normally in a rock band the drummer is the conductor. Again not being a classically trained musician I had to learn these things on the spot.
The conductor is the man who runs the show on stage and most of the conductors in the tour were kind and open mined to my concept of rock drumming mixed with the classical pieces. However initially there were a few moments of confusion, because of the shear volume of the drums. One of the biggest problems is that the pieces I play are famous and they don't need drums. They sound perfect without modern rock drums. So I think for many my interpretation of these pieces was a bit of a shock. Normally the second day of rehearsal was always better and we got to know each other and play together. At the end the conductors, orchestras, choirs and myself all had to adjust accordingly. Not all orchestras are equal: some are better; some have more or less experience. The conductor can also modify the performance of an orchestra. There were many variables involved that changed with every show we did, every show was uniquely different and challenging.
TARJA: I have been working with several orchestras before the "Beauty and The Beat" project, so for me performing with an orchestra or choir it was not a new experience. Anyway, every orchestra sounds and plays differently and every conductor works differently. It always takes some time to adapt to the change as a soloist and you have to be ready to direct people with things you need. This concept of having the drums playing together with an orchestra brought a new challenge for all of us, because of the tempo issue. We didn't use any click tracks during the concert, so as usual there are differences in tempos because no orchestra plays like a drummer is used to. So many times we had difficulties in hearing each other properly or getting the tempo right even in the middle of the song, but we managed pretty well. The orchestra of Zlin really is a great orchestra and it was a pleasure to be their soloists for three nights for the video recordings.
LETS TALK ABOUT THE DVD RECORDING
TARJA: There is an extra tension around when you know that you are recording and filming the concert. It is funny, but there is no way that you could forget that and only concentrate in making the show as usual. Everybody in the crew, including me were nervous about the situation, but in a good way. Everybody wanted to make the very best out of it.
We didn't have any camera rehearsals, so the filming crew really worked hard during the concert.
MIKE: We are very fortunate to be able to rehearsal and record the DVD in the Convention Center, a very beautiful new venue in Zlin Czech Republic. The orchestra and conductor were professional young open-minded people so we were off to a very good start. There were two days of rehearsal scheduled with the orchestra and choir before the taping of the DVD. We also added some new pieces to the show, among them a medley of Led Zeppelin, so it took some time to work out the transitions from song to song. All 3 shows were sold out and the 2nd show was recorded for the DVD. I was a bit nervous before the show even thought I have made many DVDs before, but never with an orchestra. I was also singing, which is also something I am not normally doing with the rock bands I play with. So I remember just sitting in the dressing room, alone and thinking: "you really going to do this". And well… I did! It's also not so easy to play drums wearing a suit and tie. Many jazz drummers in the past used to play in this style. Now that I have completed 15 shows playing drums in a suit I have a new found respect for them.
TOUR IMPRESSIONS
MIKE: After the DVD we embarked on 12 more shows in Russia, Czech Rep, Mexico, Lima Peru, Finland, Estonia, Romania and Poland. Of course when you travel you run into all kinds of different barriers: language, mentality, political, but in most cases the experiences of working in foreign countries and working with new artists is a pleasurable and rewarding experience. I think it's an education you simply cannot buy. It is the real world experiences, which truly shape us into what we ultimately become. The Beauty and the Beat tour was very much unlike most of the rock n roll band tours I have experienced.
We were flying into the cities, and then driven to very nice hotels and we rehearsed in very nice comfortable conditions. The venues were also very beautiful theaters or concert halls. On a rock tour you drive in a bus directly after the show to the next show, but on a tour of this nature we were in each city for 3 days. So after rehearsal you can enjoy the city and relax a little bit before moving on. All of the orchestras and conductors were different, but all of them were brilliant in their on way so this kept things interesting.
TARJA: Touring with Beauty and The Beat was relaxed, but on the other hand also hard work. We traveled a lot between the cities and countries and always had two days of rehearsals with each orchestra before the concert. I had to keep on training my voice during this tour, since the program was a real challenge to me and I had to keep focus in my singing technique.
The rehearsal days were usually really long and meanwhile we were also doing promotion, interviews and signing sessions. So touring doesn't only mean concerts.
In Romania unfortunately I got really sick and we needed to postpone the concert a couple of weeks even though we tried until the last minute to make the show as planned. It is very hard for me to keep myself healthy all the time and especially if I am performing classical music, there is no way for me to sing the program properly if I get something as mild as flu. During rock tours, I have sang several times while being sick without audience even realizing it, but classical concerts are different and require vocally more from me.
Otherwise the tour with Beauty and The Beat was really a wonderful experience. I learned enormously from working with different orchestras, choirs and conductors. Also the fact that we always performed in beautiful, big theatres or concert halls, made us feel happy that we could reach many people to listen to us.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAT PROJECT?
TARJA: Our main goal with these kinds of concerts is that the younger audience experiences the beauty and power of a symphonic orchestra and choir. Hopefully it will serve as an introduction to classical music for some of our fans.
MIKE: We hope that the release of the DVD will help to promote the concept of fusing rock and classical music together. It is really music for the masses and for all ages, so I think it should appeal to a very large part of the music listening population. We also hope to play many more concerts all over the world.
MIKE: Recording the Beauty and the Beat DVD was a great memory! We met a lot of nice people along the way and made many new friends in far away places. I love working with Tarja, it's always a great pleasure. I would also like to thank her for the opportunity and for trusting me to play with her in this classical musical environment. I think of myself mainly as a rock drummer so I must say that this DVD has become a millstone in my career. I am very proud and honored to be a part of it and to have done something new, fresh and exciting.
TARJA: I have only great memories from this experience. I am very happy that we worked hard to make this DVD happen, because in the end it shows that it was worth it. The concert looks and sounds good and we all can be proud of it. I hope we can continue making people happy with music, same way as music makes us happy every day.
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text:
Sergey Lishtvan (né le ) est un lutteur biélorusse. Aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1996, il remporte la médaille d'argent dans la catégorie des moins de 100 kg en lutte gréco-romaine. Il participe également aux Jeux de 2000 et de 2004 mais sans remporté de médailles Il a été également le porte-drapeau de la Biélorussie lors des Jeux olympiques d'été de 2000.

Palmarès
Source.

 Jeux olympiques d'été
   Médaille d'argent aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1996 à Atlanta en lutte gréco-romaine chez les moins de 100 kg

 Championnats d'Europe de lutte
  Médaille d'or en 1996 en lutte gréco-romaine chez les moins de 100 kg
  Médaille d'or en 1998 et 2000  en lutte gréco-romaine chez les moins de 97 kg
  Médaille d'argent en 2002 et 2004 en lutte gréco-romaine chez les moins de 96 kg
  Médaille de bronze en 1995 en lutte gréco-romaine chez les moins de 100 kg

Références

Lien externe
Fiche de l'athlète sur le site de la FILA.

Naissance en novembre 1970
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 1996
Lutteur aux Jeux olympiques d'été de 2004
Médaillé d'argent olympique biélorusse
Naissance à Minsk
Naissance en RSS de Biélorussie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Welcome to the Hotel Torino! No not in Turin. In Eritrea.
First you need some background on how geeky Toritto wound up in Eritrea in 1964.
No surprise. We had troops there. We have troops everywhere.
One Spring day while at Ft. Devens in Ayer Mass. I received an order to go to Boston.
Yippee! "And what is my mission in Boston sir?" asks the dumb PFC.
"Get a passport" is the reply.
Where can I be sent where I can't travel on my Army ID card wonders I.
I soon found out. Asmara. Where? Eritrea. Where's that? Near Ethiopia.
Now Ethiopia an Italian understands. We did split two wars. Eritrea is actually a former fascist Italian colony on the horn of Africa and in 1964 was under control and U. N. mandate of Ethiopia. Ethiopia wanted to keep Eritrea as it was her only outlet to the Red Sea.
Italians had occupied Eritrea for decades – Mussolini wanted to build the new Rome. Italy had also occupied Libya but Libya and Eritrea alone do not a new Roman Empire make. Everywhere else in Africa and the Middle East was already occupied by British or the French. Eritrea would be the jumping off point for the invasion of Ethiopia. Italy had been defeated by Ethiopia in 1896. Mussolini took no chances. He used planes, artillery and poison gas against troops on horseback and armed mostly with spears or outdated rifles.
The Italian colonists followed the army and settled in, stayed on during WWII when the British took Eritrea from Italian troops and stayed on still rather than return to a war shattered Italy. They were still there in 1964 – some 30,000 in Asmara alone. My name fit right in.
After being in Asmara a couple of weeks I discovered I had done most everything there was to do except make the trip to the beach at Massawa, the port on the Red Sea some 70 or 80 miles away. Was I an adventurous sort?
Only one problem. Asmara was on a plateau 7,600 feet up. Getting to Massawa involved a truly treacherous 40 mile drive down a two lane narrow switch backed road with shear cliffs on one side, no guard rails and traffic, including trucks coming in the opposite direction. And they drove like Italians.
After reaching sea level it was go like gang busters to cross a forbidding inhospitable virtually uninhabited desert flatland where temperatures reached 120 degrees in the shade. If you could find shade.
No problem. The brave soldiers of the all conquering United States Army estimated it was a six pack of beer trip for each man each way.
My first trip to Massawa was in the back of an open '49 Willies Overland – high adventure indeed. Down the mountain I didn't look. Kept my eyes closed. Across the flats I kept hearing the theme from Lawrence of Arabia in my beer filled head. Poured some of the beer on my head to keep cool. My face and arms had that crispy look.
The annual mean average temperature approaches 86 °F and is one of the highest found in the world. In mid summer themperatures reach well over 100 degrees. Massawa, being on the Red Sea is noted for its very high summer humidity as well despite being a desert city. The combination of the desert heat and high humidity makes the "comfort" index seem even more extreme. The sky is usually clear and bright throughout the year.
We stayed at the beach. Lived in sleeping bags and lean-tos. Barbecued over fires. Walked in the Red Sea. Got some more sunburn. Stayed wet.
We could get necessaries in Massawa where the Army ran a supply depot and an R & R site.
A bunch of us wanted to go into the city to a real bar with music and lights. Like this was Miami.
Well there is only one place. The rooftop bar of the Hotel Torino.
The hotel in the background – closed during the Eritrean War but now rebuilt and completely refurbished!
On the roof of this "low budget" establishment was a bar from which you could see the sea. Around the edges a few potted palms and big Christmas style lights in Italy's colors strung around the whole roof. There was a bar with stools and tables where one could sit alone, with friends or comely local girls.
Above all there was live music! And a dance floor! A nice little Italian-Eritrean band played those Italian hits from the '30s. I could envision Mussolini's picture and Italian Army Officers sitting under it in the very same spot sipping on a Compari and soda, cooled by a soft breeze from the sea. Followed by British Army Officers sipping gin. Followed by Americans drinking whatever was available. A truly zen moment indeed.
It had been only 25 years since the end of WWII. For a young early 20 something dude today it was as if the greatest conflagration in human history ended in 1993 and the band was playing music from the '80s.
Toritto in Massawa -1965. I almost got killed in that Renault!
"Compari soda piacere" for Toritto as he sat directly under where Il Duce's picture used to hang, listening to "Perfidia" enjoying the moment in time. I knew it would never come for me again.
Walking down the rickety stairs as I was leaving I realized that half the rooms contained young ladies of the evening. The price got lower as you approached the street. I was later told that everyone called the place the "Four floors of whores". So much for ambiance.
The Torino was built in the 1930s and had seen it all. It has been completely refurbished since and it can be seen on the internet in its new mint condition in case you're hankering to sit where Toritto sat at 22. The modern fascist architecture of the day with a pinch of Ottoman is now considered art-deco. It's still rated low budget and I'm sure it retains that touch of seediness kind of like an Italian-Eritrean version of Rick's Café Americain, only outdoors.
It's a place to go for those adventurers who don't want to travel on a guided tour. If you ever get there and sit in that roof top bar have a drink for me.
strung above the roof top bar.
Italian band plays thirties favorites.
they dreamed of home, of Italy.
I remember this post well, Frank, and enjoyed reading it again.
This was a great post, Frank. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. I didn't know you were stationed at Ft. Devens. I live in Groton, the next town over.
Jennie – I was at Devens for the first 5 or 7 months of 1964. The Army Security Agency training school was there; it was where we learned our "snooping" skills. My brand new wife and I had an apartment on High Street in town and she worked at ITT. When I went to Africa she went home to her parents, got a job, saved our money and we were able to buy our own home before I got out in 1967. Regards.


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