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Providing a sustainable facility for community health and growth
O'Fallon Park Rec Complex
The City of St. Louis wanted a new community recreation center on the City's North Side to serve as a youth and elderly outreach facility, encouraging all ages to be engaged in the community. KAI was tasked with designing the O'Fallon Park Rec Complex to not only accommodate a broad range of athletic activities, but the entire community as well.
Based on community input and the City's objectives, KAI designed a $14.7 million, 75,000 SF community recreation center located in the City's O'Fallon Park. The new, two-story recreation complex includes an indoor aquatic center with zero-depth entry, interactive water play features, lazy river, water slides, three lap lanes, sauna and steam room. An additional pool is included outdoors, with five lap lanes, two-story water slide, climbing wall, and family area. Community activity spaces include a gymnasium with two, full-sized basketball courts and elevated track; 5,776 SF fitness and weight room; multi-purpose rooms for youth and senior outreach programs; aerobic rooms and an indoor/outdoor dining area. The facility was designed for sustainability and efficiency and is LEED certified at the Silver level.
KAI used BIM software to produce working models of the facility, enhancing communication and collaboration among the project team.
Plumbing Engineering, Project Management, Cost Estimating, Fire Protection Engineering, Architecture, Building Information Modeling, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering
"St. Louisans of all ages now have the opportunity to participate in the health and growth of the community through the O'Fallon Park Recreation Complex."
Mayor Francis G. Slay
former City of St. Louis Mayor
Engaging the entire community.
Creating spaces for each demographic segment of the community was extremely important to the design of this facility. All age groups have spaces and programs designed specifically for them, while also enjoying communal spaces for all. Younger children enjoy the pool splash parks, family areas and playrooms. A Teen Hub contains exergaming activities, pool, ping pong and computer stations. Youth and teen outreach programs include Climbing Above Conflict, Youth in Government, literacy programs, and additional programs provided by the Boys & Girls club of Greater St. Louis. Programming for adults and seniors includes active older adult socials, diverse fitness classes and specialized aquatics. A senior center provides designated space for senior community members to gather. The new O'Fallon Park Rec Complex beautifully serves the entire north St. Louis community, promoting health and wellness for all.
"We are thrilled to be a member of the O'Fallon Park community. In cooperation with the City of St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry, we've created a place where children, families and adults can come together to practice healthy principles, socialize and feel a sense of community."
Rob West
Executive Director, O'Fallon Park Rec Complex
Project Recognition
LEED Silver Certified
Check out these other projects.
William L. Clay Sr. Early Childhood Development and Parenting Education Center
Harris-Stowe State University
Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation and Aquatic Center
City of Atlanta
Transforming Communities Through Integrated Design & Construction Excellence
© 2023 KAI. All rights reserved.


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Field Music @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester 18/11/09
(L-R): P. Brewis, D. Brewis, Andrew Moore (who left the band and is now training to be a chef. True fact)
"So rather this than talk, grab your keys and get to work / Cos them that do nothing make no mistakes" – Field Music – Them That Do Nothing
I've got this sneaking suspicion that Peter Brewis is a bit of a genius. Make sure to watch him during a Field Music set – the care and precision with which he works his way through odd but wholly methodical, inside-out drum patterns, the adeptness with which he plays every instrument, his seeming immunity to error – the way he conducts and encourages the new band members, guitarist Kevin Dosdale and bassist Ian Black, cajoling them with conspiratorial looks and broad grins. Also check the solo album he produced during Field Music's hiatus, as The Week That Was (why did it take me so long to work out how good that record is?
We're a few months ahead of the release of the new album, which the band have decided to call Field Music, even though their first album was also called Field Music. Somebody somewhere has added the word Measure in brackets to distinguish the two.
The group play a lot of new material during their 90-minute set and are typically eager to thank their audience for the opportunity. Let's call it an advance road-test, at a very reasonable door tariff – £7 is not a lot more than you pay to see a bunch of no-marks at a 'showcase night', over at the dear old Night & Day.
At first listen, the new stuff sounds definitely, proudly English, in a way that not many groups do any more, since it became the overwhelming cultural norm to draw almost your entire sphere of influence from the American underground and canon. Field Music have never sounded remotely American and for that, they should be applauded.
There's a streak of the seventies running through their sound, very definitely a touch of early Roxy Music, even a little Pink Floyd (a group whose sound and ethos I've always rejected). I once met Peter at a Futureheads concert – I still feel guilty for distracting him as he tried to enjoy the headliners – and remember being somewhat stunned when I asked who their main influences were and he just said 'Queen'. Full stop. Queen were, to me, everything that was wrong with music. Yet here was a group whose intriguing, canny music was giving me so much pleasure and there was the influence, from right out of the Red Zone, as far as I was concerned. Balls, another preconception to be dismantled.
Back to the Deaf Institute show. For now, it's hard to unpick the lock of the new material. It's dextrously played, never formulaic, riddled with ideas, time signature changes, unexpected twists. That prog inclination rears its head when Dosdale and David Brewis play twin lead guitar with slightly abashed smiles ('are we actually allowed to do this?'). The odd dip into the back catalogue rewards the faithful, but there's no Closer At Hand, no You Can Decide – a particularly vivacious rendition of the latter moons ago at The Roadhouse is still one of my favourite ever live moments. We do get Shorter, Shorter, If Only The Moon Were Up and an encore of It's Not The Only Way To Feel Happy, but plenty of gems are missing – which is a great sign in itself.
Now I've been fortunate enough to hear the new record, I can tell you it's a double album, which is something in itself. Who makes double albums? Since punk orthodoxy became the default, the idea of a rock album that doesn't fit onto one side of a C90 has been somewhat verboten. Double albums were pomp-rock excess and prog long-windedness. But iTunes and so forth changes the concept of the album, which can now be as long or as short as you like. If you don't like a track, just deselect it. Re-order the tracks, if you want. Fuck it. An album's just a collection of songs. The group give you a proposed order, but once you have it, it's yours to deconstruct.
If Queen are OK, everything I have ever believed must be reassessed. Even YES might be acceptable...
Independence, goddamnit! Field Music have their own studio, they produce music as they like. They talked seriously about getting proper jobs, so they didn't have to bother with the PR duties that go with being a 'professional band' and could just work at home in the evenings. They'd do music whether they made money out of it or not. They don't think they're rock stars. They don't want to be rock stars. Peter's defiant chorus line from the superb new track Them That Do Nothing sums them up very nicely indeed – that attitude is what I love about them.
Field Music are starting to become an English institution and we're well short of those. That they went on 'official hiatus' after their second LP, Tones of Town, was worrying for the state of the musical nation; that they are back is a great relief. Their originality, work ethic and commitment is an inspiration. Hopefully, that lengthy hiatus has had the desired effect and they'll kick on from here.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Field Music, Field Music live, Field Music Measure, field music them that do nothing, them that do nothing
Yo La Tengo / Euros Childs – Academy 2, Manchester, 7/11/09
Euros Childs
Euros Childs went overground when his youthful, eccentric (and fitfully brilliant) band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci signed a major label record deal in the late 90s. He's still writing eccentric (and sometimes brilliant) songs to this day, but now, they feature lines like 'Write a song and send it off / Sign a contract and get ripped off'.
Elsewhere in a stripped-down set culled from the new Son of Euro Child LP (available for free here), Childs pays homage to bread ('not the TV show or the shit band, the foodstuff') and claims to have written another song whilst house-sitting for Ian McShane – then adorns a superficially inoffensive pop number, How Do You Do, with the lyric 'If I had a monkey, he would shit in your shoes', before shifting it into another world entirely with an unsettling, deliberately off-key chorus croon.
You have to wonder how this uniquely talented but musically wilful man ever found himself in bed with The Man – it's about as logical as the remorselessly experimental Faust being signed as 'the German Beatles'. Still, the pioneering spirit of John Cale flows through Childs' frequently delicious melodies (although there's no attempt at the VU man's granite-stern grandeur) and his restless creativity means that people will always have time for him. Childs is a bit of a wizard in an era where magic doesn't happen. Long may he run.
'Euros mate, I'm off to film another series of Deadwood - can you pop round and look after the yucca plant whilst I'm gone? Feel free to have a tinkle on the baby grand."
Yo La Tengo's spectrum ranges from the fiery (Ira Kaplan's unhinged guitar storms are frequently unleashed tonight) to the delicate and restrained (Georgia Hubley's perfect drumming and muted, reflective vocal style are also often permitted to shine, best exemplified by the new and beautiful When It's Dark, which sounds gorgeous with just two acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies.)
Possibly the evening's only clunker is Avalon Or Someone Very Similar, which swoons wonderfully on the new and excellent album Popular Songs, but fails live, because Kaplan simply can't sing that high. In fact, I assumed Hubley took lead vocal on the song and was very puzzled to see the grizzled guitarist attempting a strangled castrato – you've heard better vocal performances at a 'showcase night' on a wet Tuesday in the Night & Day.
Fortunately, this misjudgement aside, all is well. For the intellect, there's the bloody-minded, hypnotic growl of More Stars Than There Are In Heaven, powered by bassman James McNew's metronomic baritone guitar thrum. Then Periodically Double or Triple, which drops in on the line 'Never read Proust, seems a little too long', before proceeding on a loose-limbed bent, incorporating a cheeky Smile-era Beach Boys interlude and a fifteen-second pause.
For the indie rockers among us who want to dance, the frankly barnstorming Something To Hide provokes widespread delight, even without the killer organ riff that picks up and carries the chorus on the record. Then there's the timeless Sugarcube, from the classic I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One LP – as resplendent as ever – and a triumphant encore cover of Bob Dylan's I Wanna Be Your Lover, with keyboards from Childs and his bassist Stephen Black (who performs solo as Sweet Baboo and played an excellent set at Fuel in Withington recently). Kaplan teases the audience by saying 'when we come to a city, we like to do a cover that's connected, but we couldn't think of any bands from Manchester'. But of course, the legendary 'Albert Hall' (er, try Free Trade Hall) '66 Dylan and The Hawks bootleg was recorded here. Kaplan's no Dylan, but the band whoop it up in fine style.
That capped it, or so we thought – but at the insistence of one totally determined audience member, the band stay on for one more, flickering through the candlelit, dusky You Can Have It All, an inspired reinvention of what was originally a George McCrae funk number. It was a wonderful call from our friend in the crowd and I'm grateful for what followed – it was a special, rare moment of genuinely fine musicality.
Yet more much-needed magic to confound my cynicism.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Euros Childs, Yo La Tengo, Yo La Tengo live, Yo La Tengo You Can Have It All
The Mountain Goats (John Darnielle solo) @ Ruby Lounge, Manchester 11/10/09
John Darnielle is not a rock star. Bespectacled, middle-aged, unrepentantly unremarkable in appearance, he has forged his reputation without recourse to fancy tricks. He's not even a great musician – his guitar style is very simple, he misses chord changes, his piano-playing is far from flub-free. No, the reason Darnielle has a sold out Ruby Lounge singing almost every word of most of his songs back at him is the quality of his writing.
Once he twigs that his devotees can sing Up The Wolves just as well as he can, he laughs, pulls away from he mic and lets them do it. Afterwards, smiling, he says, 'I used to dream that maybe if I became a good songwriter, British people would sing my song back to me in a pub'.
Obviously whip-smart, Darnielle's frenetic rhythm guitar and intensely rapped vocal is matched by a hugely enjoyable line in banter. Tonight, he fits in plenty of older numbers for the hardcore fans, as well as a selection from the excellent new album, The Light of the World to Come. His total command of his audience means he's able to deliver the brilliant, high-tempo relationship-breakdown blast No Children alongside the difficult, tender, genuinely moving Matthew 25:21, a song that manages to address losing a loved one to cancer without sounding trite, histrionic or schmaltzy. This song, more than any other aired tonight, reveals the depth of intelligence and emotion behind the writing.
Darnielle's more extrovert, splenetic side is hugely entertaining and has gained him his ultra-loyal band of followers, but the sheer class of the songwriting on Life of the World to Come serves notice that he is an artist in his prime, deserving of a much wider following. For now though, it's just extremely encouraging to see such a literate, unconventional and brave songwriter connecting with a fanbase that makes up its lack of numbers with the bookish ardour of its faith.
After another song is delivered back to Darnielle by the fans without a missed lyric, he stops and says, 'you guys are obviously way awesome'.
It could have been stagecraft, but I think he genuinely meant it.
Link to free mp3 download of Genesis 3:23 from the new album – which could well the best free download anyone gives you this year.
Filed in Live ·Tags: John Darnielle, Mountain Goats, Mountain Goats Ruby Lounge Manchester
Magnolia Electric Co @ The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 4/9/09
Before the show, Jason Molina (who is tiny) wandered happily around the venue complex, passing me about three or four times. First, he was watching support act The Bitter Tears, next, he came out for a fag out front (enjoying the fact that he turned heads with this appearance, he held up the 'V' for peace sign and lit up), then he passed me in the corridor, by this time, suited up for the show. I patted him on the back.
The younger Ollie would have accosted him at some point – I mean, I had enough chances – but I'm almost 30, don'tcha know. Let the man get on with his life and the show. My role is to spectate and annotate. Or as Denny put it when we went along to see Molina play solo at The Mint Lounge in Manchester, 'what would you say to him? You don't want to get too close to that sort of greatness'.
I don't know if Jason Molina is one of the greats. Too often, his songs revisit the same themes – the first time, they hit, by the third time, you sense a little artifice – and the sound of tonight's set is essentially one-dimensional. It's an awesome, old-time electric rock dimension, but nevertheless, non-aficionado friends of mine are left feeling that the show was a little samey.
But he was rocking up old acoustic gems like Whip Poor Will – and adding hugely impressive layers of distortion and mystery to Talk To Me Devil, Again, which on record, is a lovely, chiming dream! Sure, but if you're not familiar with the songs in the first place, it just sounds like another stern, musicianly blast, from the same Neil Young & Crazy Horse lineage as the last.
I took one look at The Bitter Tears, dressed up as they were in varying shades of preposterousness and wrote them off, before smirking and deciding to stick around and watch for a while. The singer, in white face-paint, hotpants, tights and a red, sparkly top (and straw Stetson) broke off from an excellent song from the PoV of a trucker who's just run over a dog on the freeway to jump into a wary, reserved audience. He gets back onto the stage and unsuccessfully tries some banter, before giving in with one last shot; 'don't worry, the jam band Magnolia Electric Co will be here soon… then you won't have to think too much'.
I wonder, does he have a point? But in the end, I've decided 'no'. An evening watching Molina kick out the jams is fine reward for his fans, who have followed him through his lengthy, varied career.
There is pain in Jason Molina songs, cryptic symbolism, forlorn love – 'static and distance', many haunting images. All the violence of nature, many bleak, empty landscapes and endless variations on the theme of love. At his best, there are few songwriters capable of provoking such emotional resonance….
Fuck it, let's rock for an hour.
Of course, there are numerous cuts from new album Josephine, with which I'm not yet acquainted – but previous Magnolia albums are well represented, especially What Comes After The Blues. The Dark Don't Hide It, one of Molina's poppiest tunes, benefits from the crunchy ambience of the silver-grilled Fender valve amps, more so perhaps than the awesome Hammer Down, which suits the nakedness of Molina + acoustic guitar superbly.
Elsewhere, Talk To Me Devil, Again surpasses the (gorgeous) Fading Trails version so spectacularly, it almost calls for a re-recording – and the classic Magnolia Electric Co LP gets two references. Riding With The Ghost makes for a stirring opening salvo, before a neat bookend set is completed by a suitably huge encore of John Henry Split My Heart. This full-blooded barrage follows audience requests / pleas for Farewell Transmission. 'Oh, we've got something to top that', drawls Molina. He doesn't, but the unexpected lurch into mid air across the Grand Canyon-expanse of John Henry is nevertheless a fan's delight.
Other than that, we get treated to some serious guitar riffs from Jason Groth – one or two friends felt his style was a bit overkill, but I love him for his aggressive, dominant lead, which is not promoted so high in the mix as to be over-the-top. Again, those I spoke to say that Molina's voice was drowned out a bit by the band – nah. I've heard Molina sing plenty. I know what he's saying. Let me bask in the amp power for an hour.
That's where the singer from The Bitter Tears was dead wrong and that's his problem. By hiding his undoubted intelligence behind a misanthropic facade, Alan Scalpone, who could do much better, who could go further, chooses not to. Molina has said so much in his career and provoked so much admiration for his songwriting, that to describe Magnolia Electric Co as a 'jam band', whether in jest or not, was another blooper on the road to the end.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Jason Molina, Magnolia Electric Co
Damon & Naomi @ Chorlton Dulcimer 3/9/09
(250-worder for citylife.co.uk)
When Damon & Naomi started recording together in the early 90s, they didn't consider playing live, thinking a band without a rhythm section would be 'the worst kind'. It's credit to their talent that they made it work, especially as the duo started out played bass and drums themselves.
Naomi Yang is a renowned bassist, having developed a unique approach to the four-string whilst with the influential, reverb-soaked 80s indie stars Galaxie 500. Tonight, however, she plays synth, producing suitably celestial organ tones to flesh out Damon Krukowski's simple, resonant acoustic guitar. High and higher harmonies hang in the air and the music floats serenely, unencumbered by the earthy tones of the traditional rhythm section.
Clearly blessed with enormous brains, Damon & Naomi chat amiably between songs, sharing urbane jokes about misheard lyrics and apologising for selling 'coals to Newcastle' by performing an English folk song – the stark, beautiful ballad 'Cruel Queen'. This, along with the sumptuous 'New York City' and stormily graceful 'I'm Yours' (both on new compilation album The Sub Pop Years) are the highlights of a classy set. In spite of the glacial pace of the songs, the show spins past quickly and seems over before it's even begun.
It's strange to see legendary indie figures in your local pub, but such is the way of things since Dulcimer became a full-time microvenue. A word of warning, though – arrive early if you're coming to a show here, as you won't see much from the back.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Damon & Naomi, Dulcimer Chorlton, Galaxie 500
VORSPRUNG MANC TECHNIK! THE LONGCUT RETURN WITH 'OPEN HEARTS'
This Friday is a big day, not just for Manchester music, but for UK music in general.
They're BACK!!! Tha mutha-fuckin' LONGCUT!
The Longcut – one of this city's finest bands – make their much-anticipated return to live duty with a show at The Deaf Institute, ahead of a second album that proves they're here for the long haul.
Expansive, intelligent, potent and urgent, Open Hearts will delight exisiting fans and convert swathes of the uninitiated to The Longcut's cause.
Open Hearts is an incredibly natural-sounding, confident recording, which demonstrates the strides the band have made since the release of debut album A Call and Response in 2006.
By turns searing, forbidding, meditative and reflective, its beautifully poised, occasionally ferocious sound is an inviting backdrop for lead vocallist and drummer Stuart Ogilvie.
Ogilvie's voice has always split opinion. Fans love him for his impassioned, yearning delivery and candid, emotionally forthright lyrics, whereas others remain totally immune to his style, citing a limited vocal range.
The singer himself is aware of this.
"I've started to sing a lot more on this album, really trying to use the full range of my voice on a lot of the songs", he explains.
"I think a few people are going to be a bit surprised."
Whatever your opinion, it's undeniable that Ogilvie has an instantly recognisable, easily mimicable tone, in the same way that Bob Dylan does. And even his detractors will be unable to deny that Open Hearts shows Ogilvie to have developed exponentially since the last Longcut record.
His Bobness - Has his detractors
Since A Call And Response, he has added more subtlety and variety to his core approach – the unmistakable, signature yowl that elevated the fearsome instrumental churn of early singles 'Transition' and 'A Quiet Life', songs which match anything produced in Manchester this decade for soul-stirring, anthemic fire.
It's those mercurial, thunderous songs that never fail to incite their loyal hometown crowd, who never fail to see a local Longcut performance as an excuse to kick off in style. So the group's long-awaited return to live action at The Deaf Institute – itself developing a fine reputation as a live music venue – promises to make for a sensational night.
"We miss the madness and the adrenaline so much when we haven't played in ages. We're planning a pretty full-on set", promises Ogilvie.
And why not, when their fans turn the floor into a writhing mass of sweaty excess every time they hit full speed?
"It's just a shame we can't get in there with the fans and properly experience it", laughs Ogilvie. "It looks like fun in there!"
Not that anyone should believe that The Longcut are simply a high-energy live act, intent on giving the kids what they want.
The lyrics to 'Something Inside', say, detail the aftermath of the hedonistic impulse, whilst its brooding bassline stalks the wired, distressed vocal. Then the album's title track features a tender vocal delivery and patient, unimpulsive, slowburn build.
Then there's the superb, tech-pop swirler 'Repeated'. This stand-out track builds on the template of the underrated 'Tried and Tested Method', from A Call and Response – and when its chorus resolves itself into a moment of logical, inevitable glory, you're left wondering how something so complex can sound so organic.
A Call and Response - top debut, topped.
Simply put, it's the human touch that Ogilvie's, well, open-hearted delivery adds to the stern, almost Teutonic efficiency of the musical machine manned by bassist Jon Fearon and guitarist Lee Gale.
They're a thinking man's band, who use their brains first and hit the overdrive pedal second – and when it matters.
Perhaps fittingly for a group whose new record affirms their unique, groundbreaking sound, The Longcut have even handled the release of Open Hearts in a distinctive way.
The album is now available for pre-order, but fans who reserve it will be permitted to download the mp3 or FLAC files instantly, before receiving their CD or vinyl copy when it comes out on Melodic Records in October.
The reasoning behind this is linked to a major problem faced by bands in the internet age – the issue of advance 'promo' copies of albums being leaked onto the web, meaning that new records by high-profile bands are routinely heard by digitally savvy fans far in advance of official release date.
"Our biggest concern was people getting hold of a poor quality version of the record before it even came out", explains Ogilvie.
"This way, we know that everybody listening to it, whether pirated or not, is going to be hearing it as it should be heard."
"Almost every album that's released now is out unofficially on torrent sites two months or so before it's in the shops, so we're allowing people to get a high quality version from us instead", adds bassist Jon Fearon.
Are the band upset to think that Open Hearts – painstakingly compiled with production help from close friend David Jones, of Nine Black Alps – will be accessible to online pirates for free?
"It's a problem you can't solve without overhauling and limiting the internet, which isn't going to happen," considers Fearon.
"You have to be realistic that not everyone who likes you will buy the record, but personally, I feel a bit guilty if I'm constantly listening to a band that I've not supported in any way."
"Worse piracy has happened at sea", shrugs Ogilvie – but it's a knotty problem and one that does impact upon the chances for artists, especially independently-releasing ones, to make a living from their music.
Piracy - "it's wrong... It's wrong!"
"Bands will always need investment from somewhere, so if there's no money from records, they'll have to sign away something else to get the cash that labels used to provide", says Fearon.
"I do think bands should try and do things themselves and keep control as much as possible though."
This last statement is not just rhetoric.
By recording Open Hearts independently, The Longcut have given the lie to the apathetic convention that bands can't do anything without the help of major labels and a huge budget.
Parting company with their previous label, Sony, only seems to have galvanised and liberated the group as a creative force. Such heavy blows have crushed many a promising British band, but The Longcut are made from steelier stuff than most.
As the oddly-titled, but scenic and impressive piano-led study 'Boom' prettily burbles from my speakers, I think about the hard graft that has gone into the making of Open Hearts – not just the recording process, but the construction of each song.
The sleek lines and watertight integrity of each structure leave me in mind of a monstruous, beautiful ocean liner, carving an inexorable path through difficult waters.
"I think we've become a lot more tight as a band. There's a few tricks on Open Hearts that we couldn't have pulled a few years ago", decides Ogilvie.
"We've become tighter as a band"
"I think on Call and Response, everything was just so intense that it could get a bit much at times. This album is much better balanced."
Meanwhile, the very title of this album reflects the songs' lyrical candour perfectly.
"I've tried to rely a lot less on metaphor to express my feelings on this album and I think that's brought out an honesty and an emotional core to the lyrics", says Ogilvie.
"There were times when I had to stop and question whether some of the words I was writing seemed too obvious or clichéd, but then I could never think of a better or clearer way to express them. I hope that makes it easier for people to relate or connect to the songs on the album."
The Longcut play The Deaf Institute on Friday June 12th, with support from Kingtree & The Roots.
'Open Hearts' is available to preorder on CD or vinyl from http://thelongcut.melodic.co.uk, with the digital download issued immediately.
Filed in Kingtree & The Roots, Live, Recorded ·Tags: The Longcut, The Longcut Open Hearts
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART – Chorlton Irish Club, Manchester 22.5.09
"I never realised how young you were…" – Bob Dylan
I was offered the chance to interview The Pains of Being Pure at Heart ahead of this show, but on first listen, I was totally underwhelmed with them. This album is just derivative, I thought. It's just early My Bloody Valentine ('Come Saturday'), for God's sake. With a dash of The Smiths ('The Tenure Itch'). And The Cure ('This Love is Fucking Right!'). Oh and there's that one that sounds a lot like 'Vapour Trail' by Ride ('Stay Alive').
The songs were catchy, there was no denying that. It's just that the band were so nakedly in thrall to their eighties British indie influences. It's cynical, I decided. These must be ageing, jaded New Yorkers trying to make money out of nostalgia.
They'll get nothing from me, I decided, with a huff and a crossing of my arms.
Then a friend persuaded me it would be interesting to speak to them, seeing as they are one of the more hyped bands to come out of NYC this year. I gritted my teeth and started to come up with some questions.
Here are the first three that came to mind:-
Is it easy to get away with ripping off '80s UK indie in the States?
Are you surprised at the success of your new album, given that it is so derivative?
Will your next record be less derivative?
I decided not to go ahead with the interview.
A couple of weeks passed and once I'd quite finished with Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, I felt an unexpected urge to go back to The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Those jangling hooks had barbs. That winsome, pure pop instinct wouldn't leave me alone. To my shock and surprise, when I put the album on again, I realised that over the past couple of weeks, without realising it or particularly listening to them, I had totally accepted them for what they were. I started to like them.
I awarded the song 'Young Adult Friction' five stars on my iTunes rating. But by this time, it was too late to sort out the interview.
The day of the Irish Club show came around. I was playing a set myself, in the snug room downstairs, before the Pains went on upstairs. So I did my gig, then grabbed a couple of beers and went upstairs to see what all the fuss was about.
First of all, God, it was hot up there… So many bodies, so little ventilation. Sweat was pouring from everywhere before the headliners had even taken the stage.
Then, up they popped… and boy, did I feel like an idiot straight away. They're so young…
X - fashion inspiration for Pains' bass player
Bassist Alex Naidus' killer Malcolm X glasses can't disguise the fact that he can't be a day over 23. Keyboardist Peggy Wang is a classic indie poppet. The second guitarist is so patently into it that his demeanour quite disarms you. Singer Kip Berman is smiling fit to burst as soon as they burst into 'Come Saturday' and the crowd instantly goes for it.
By the time they get to 'Young Adult Friction', there is a bona fide moshpit and Berman just gazes across his crowd, with genuine delight in his eyes. He is touched, you can see it. Wang half tries to retreat behind her hair, bashful, as the front few rows sing her vocal parts for her, but she can't hide her smile.
They didn't expect this; they are in no way blasé about the pleasure they have given to these strangers from the island that sired their music.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have touched a nerve. Their unashamedly nostalgic music is (fucking) right for this crowd, right for this room. It's just like it must have been the first time around – the romantic introverts, bedroom poets and literate loners are brought back together by sugar-edged guitars, untutored boy-girl harmonies and dreamy, shimmery clouds of languor.
It really doesn't matter that it's nothing new. People don't care that it's all happened before. It doesn't even matter that these American kids are bringing our own musical heritage back to us. This crowd do not care who the band are, where they're from, what year it is, or who they've ripped off. They just like the songs.
The moshpit swells as more and more adults (some young, some not so young) are convinced to dive in and accept The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.
I fight my way out of the hall, walk into the gents' and look at myself in the mirror. My shirt is doused in beer and sweat. They've just played 'Stay Alive' and Berman has dedicated it to Manchester, 'because we stole your drumbeat.' Well, that one came from Oxford, actually, I thought to myself.
It doesn't really matter.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pains of Being Pure at Heart Chorlton Irish Club
BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 DERBY COUNTY 0 / There's No Point in Not Being Friends With Someone if You Want to be Friends With Them
Kept updated via text whilst out in Manchester)
DERBY: Bywater; Connolly (c), Albrechtsen, Addison, Stewart; Barazite (Sterjovski – 74), Savage, Green, Teale (Villa – 64); Commons; Hulse
OTHER SUBS: Carroll, Nyatanga, Barnes
Not a game we'd expected to win, but by God, a draw would have been a good result.
Tommo was in Manchester and we were out at 'No Point In Not Being Friends', Chris Killen and Sally Cook's spoken word night at the Deaf Institute. It was a special one, because Chris' debut novel The Bird Room came out last week – more on that later.
We were having a drink in the middle bar when the text came in from Joe. 1-0. Carsley.
As the night wound on, I was sure we would equalise (I always am), but then my dad called me, miserable, to tell me it had finished 1-0 and see how I had got on in London. He rang just as the author Jenn Ashworth was launching into her reading. She is incredibly softly spoken and the place was utterly hushed. My ringtone, even from my pocket, was a huge embarrassment as I hustled outside in triple time. Fortunately, I was stood very close to the exit.
(It's only the standard issue tone, by the way – not 'Who Let The Dogs Out', or anything like that.)
During breaks between readings, Tommo and I went outside, to moan about the state of the team. It hit me with brutal certainty that the problem is goals – looking at the stats confirmed this. We haven't scored in four league matches now. The pressure is on Rob Hulse to deliver big-time, because the rest of the strikers – Ellington, Villa and Varney – have six league goals between them. Hulse has got seven. That's just not enough for the top scorer at this point in the season.
Carsley - I never rated him when he was at Derby. I was wrong.
Hulse is going to have to score a lot more league goals and the others are going to have to chip in too. Varney, Villa, Barnes, Barazite, Commons, Ellington and Green all have what Clough Snr referred to as a 'moral responsibility' to score.
Clough Jnr has referred to a lack of willingness to go into the six-yard box.
"That's where you get your goals, but it's also where you get hurt", he said, after the draw with Forest.
"Are you saying your players aren't brave enough?" Colin Gibson asked him.
"They'll get brave enough over the next few weeks," retorted Clough.
Nigel - in for the long haul
They're going to have to, because last night's results conspired to dump us into the relegation zone.
The current system is a 4-4-1-1, with either Commons or Barnes in behind Hulse, although Villa was brought on to replace Teale after Carsley's goal, which meant 4-4-2 again. But still no goals.
Why no Barnes?
Tommo had to shoot off to get his last train, but I stayed out late at the Deaf Institute. It was nice to congratulate Chris Killen on his achievement – getting his first novel published by Canongate, no less. I just finished it and I'll review it once the hangover has kicked out. It was a good night – local luminaries Socrates Adams-Florou, Sally Cook, Sian Cummins and Joe Stretch (love him or hate him) read too, amongst others. I missed Richard Milward, author of Ten Storey Love Song, because I'd been out for a cig with Anne-Laure (whose new shop is opening in Affleck's Palace on Friday). We came back in just as he was finishing his reading. He had a huge orange box on his head.
Once I got home, I sat staring mutely, disbelieving, at the results and the table. The bastards had all won – Doncaster, Watford, Forest, even fucking Charlton. Southampton had drawn with Norwich, was the only sliver of good news.
We were 22nd in the Championship.
It's ugly and it's painful and if there was ever a must win game, it's our next league fixture – Coventry City, home, Saturday.
Filed in DCFC, Live, Prose
I used to write for drownedinsound.com, you know
Here is a link to some features I wrote yonks ago – Bill Hicks, Pixies, Plans & Apologies, Johnny Domino, James Yorkston…
http://drownedinsound.com/users/owright
There were a lot more.
Tortoise "It's All Around You"
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/3660/reviews/9476
Television live –
http://drownedinsound.com/events/1046/reviews/9905
I can't remember what else.
But in the end, I stopped writing for them, for two reasons – 1) I'd formed The Nightjars and saw it as a conflict of interests.. 2) I fell out majorly with a guy named Colin Roberts, who was pimping Busted on the site. He turned out to become the next editor… so I resigned!
Filed in interviews, Live, Recorded ·Tags: Bill Hicks, Johnny Domino, Pixies Wave of Mutilation, Television live, Tortoise Its All Around You
STEREOLAB / THE WEEK THAT WAS Club Academy, Manchester, 17/12/08-
I walk up to the Krobar to meet Ben, thinking, "I've had enough of this year. A few nights out and some null and void days are all that's left." I feel low on energy, physically and mentally drained. It's winter.
One of my favourite bands are playing at the Academy. I can't even remember the last time I went to a gig that I wasn't playing at. Can't have been Jeffrey Lewis and Plans & Apologies in Derby, can it? This worries me.
I've been listening to a lot of new groups, but not many are hitting me. There seems to be a lot of screaming and shouting going on. Crystal Antlers, the Holy Roar label.
Rock is back.
Retro is back.
Nah.
Not that these things ever go away. To me, a bloke screaming and shouting and howling is by definition, retro. It's that same old 'big bang' explosion of expression, of excitement, anger, pain, of life. The source, the origin. It's exciting for the performer, but it doesn't excite me to hear it, particularly. I'm more interested in what happens after that – what they go on to do once they've stopped getting a kick out of that automatic process of spewing stuff.
Bob Dylan talked about coming to terms with the fact that he became self-conscious about what he was doing, and continuing to create in the face of that realisation. He couldn't just bang out 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' automatically any more. But he didn't stop. The end of Black Francis came when he found that the process "of writing automatically wasn't working so well anymore", around the period of the Pixies' final LP, Trompe Le Monde.
I don't want to feel like I'm in a cul-de-sac, or a backwater, just talking about the same old stuff all the time. There has to be progress. Music doesn't necessarily have to constantly get better through time – not that I believe in any sort of Golden Age – but there must at least be interesting offshoots all the way. Intelligent individuals.
The Week That Was is Peter Brewis from Field Music's new project. I spoke to Peter after their set and gave him a copy of the new Nightjars album. He was as charming and polite as he had been on the previous occasions I've met him. Introduced himself with a firm handshake, didn't assume that I knew his name.
The interviews I've read with them have always left me thinking, 'these lads are the proper stuff'. Musicians who are more interested in making music than being stars. You see, they have the horse before the cart.
I'm not sure that The Week That Was is as good as Field Music was, but with Field Music, they could cherry-pick from years' worth of material – and there are still gems aplenty within the WTW set. In this incarnation, David drums and sings backing vocals, whilst Peter plays keys, guitar and sings lead, with accompaniment from a dedicated bass player and another guy who swaps between guitar and keys. David's drums are the best bit, skittering, formal patterns, accurately snapped out; his high-pitched backing vocals also add a lot.
The songs are largely meditative and thoughtful. One or two are more up-tempo (see the myspace for 'Scratch The Surface' – whose drum intro reminds me of Simple Minds – and yet it's not shit! How?!)
My favourite was a slow, spacious and gracious, seemingly new song with the lyric:-
"There's no one to take you home
The lights are on
"One more", Peter shouts to the group at the end and they roll around the coda for one last, welcome time, before David rather messily brings it to a close.
Peter told me he thought the new stuff was too different from Field Music to be Field Music, which was why they 'split' into The Week That Was and David's School of Language – I'm not so sure about that. Anyway, they struck me, as they have always struck me, as honest lads who work extremely hard on their music.
If the 18-year-old me saw me writing this, he would go insane – that's not what it's about. The 18-year-old me believed in something glamorous, something different. He believed in another world, better than the one he inhabited and that golden illusion, the ambition to transcend his world, kept him sane.
Now, it's threatening to drive me insane.
The Brewis brothers strike me more as crafters than creative genii. There's something very 'process' about their music. It hasn't been delivered to them in a bolt of lightning. They've worked on it, honed it. The original idea will be a simple motif on guitar or piano, then they play with it, construct something with it. Try a different rhythm, to break it up. Backing vocals. They work hard, you can tell. I respect them for it.
Stereolab line up in a half-moon formation around the suitably luminous Laetitia Sadier. The band lurk in the shadows. Tim Gane stands at the back of the stage, playing Fender Mustang through Fender amp. No tech to bring on guitars and drape them round his neck, not even a change of guitar, in fact. He sets his own pedal levels before the set.
Why do people need techs to wipe their arse for them? What are they so busy doing backstage that they can't check their own levels? Well, we're having an economic downturn, dontcha know, so maybe a few roadies might find themselves surplus to requirements in 2009.
Speaking of the downturn, the 'lab make themselves some cash on the merch desk by the simple expedient of pricing their stuff cheaply. £8 for a double vinyl LP is tempting enough to have those long-haired, denim jacket-clad record collectors clambering over each other to pay out fistfuls of notes.
Back to the stage and they kick off with 'Percolator' from Emperor Tomato Ketchup, before playing some of the new album, Chemical Chords. Ben and I are down the front. I feel slightly guilty for being so tall. I don't think Ben does.
An early set-highlight is a quite beautiful rendition of 'Valley Hi', which loses the recorded version's motor-bass thrum and is instead propelled along beatifically by Andy Ramsay's drums and the Nord Lead of one of the two keyboard players, neither of whom I recognise.
Tim Gane stands at the back of the stage, playing Fender Mustang through Fender amp. His head goes from side to side as he chops out rhythm. Everything he plays is rhythm, even the lead.
I am amazed when they suddenly kick into a song Sadier introduces as 'La montagne' – fuck me, it's 'Mountain', from Switched On 2: Refried Ectoplasm. One of the most perfect, focused blasts of guitar I've ever heard. That song floors me every time – emotionally, I can't get over it. It is a truly beautiful storm. The shitty sound in Club Academy doesn't help, but I feel like those kids down the front at the Kaiser Chiefs must feel when 'I Predict A Riot' happens – it's my song.
When you go to watch a band, you subconsciously assume that they must be enjoying playing. Laetitia Sadier gives that impression, as do the rhythm section. Tim Gane seems happy enough, lost in his guitar world. The keyboard sidemen have their moments too, enough for me to forgive them for their general air of being slightly bored. They seem to be a bit more extended and engaged when they're asked to play the complex and soulful 'Double Rocker', from Sound-Dust. Poignantly, Mary Hansen's backing vocal part is picked out on the Nord. I find myself singing it in my head, moving my lips in time. I don't want to catch Sadier's eye at this point.
For an hour and a half, I am happy.
It's a strange business, being a fan. You want the band to be happy doing what they do, because they make you happy by doing it. Once they start rattling out ancient beauties such as 'Mountain' and 'Lo Boob Oscillator' (with a generous extra helping of Neu! repetition at the end), I feel justified in hollering for the galvanising rush of a song that is 'Super Electric', but Sadier says, "no, no, no. We will play a new one. Then we will play an old one."
Someone shouts for 'Crest', which Tim Gane has a little run at, before semi-embarrassedly admitting that he can't remember it.
"You can", says the crowd member.
I feel slightly disgruntled that they were prepared to have a go at 'Crest', but not 'Super Electric'. But when Sadier goes on to announce another new one, I whoop my approval, to show that I am supportive of the new songs angle – that I want Stereolab to enjoy themselves. I want to be a good fan.
The new song is a post-Chemical Chords one, as far as I know. I don't remember it now, but I do recall thinking it was really fucking groovy at the time. Then they play 'Revox', of all things – and I've had three from Refried Ectoplasm, my favourite three at that. Then 'French Disko', which makes four from Refried Ectoplasm! Jesus. I thought I'd be lucky to get one – and wouldn't have dared shout for 'French Disko'.
I wonder who decides which songs are played – Tim? Laetitia? The rhythm section? All of the above, via e-vote?
Stereolab seem like a more obliging bunch, warmer than I had imagined. The bassist, Simon Johns, looks genuinely pleased with the crowd's ovation. Laetitia controls the crowd with short, friendly statements. Tim Gane is lost in his own guitar world. I wonder what the rhythm section do when they aren't making Stereolab records or touring. Maybe they're sessioners, like the guy I spoke to who, when he wasn't playing trombone for the Tindersticks, played trombone for Basement Jaxx and Madness. Somehow, I doubt it, though. They sound too specific.
Johns teases me by playing the chords from the start of 'Super Electric'. Laetitia has already dedicated another old song to "whoever asked for it. You see? It's all in the asking." I decide against the instinct to petulantly reiterate my demand for 'Super Electric' and let them get on with it, seeing as they're entertaining me so royally.
After the encore of 'Cybele's Reverie' and 'Metronomic Underground', it's back to Kro for a last pint with Ben. We smoke and talk about the set, but my enthusiasm for life is already back on the wane. The beer isn't replacing the high from the set.
That doesn't stop me from wanting another.
Ben sagely says no, it's time for us to go home. So, homeward I go, with my black and gold Stereolab t-shirt and a ten-second video clip of the band playing, Sadier mid-shimmy.
At the bus stop, two of the denim-suited long-haired, middle-aged music geeks stand, excitedly debating the evening's set with an acquaintance of theirs, who isn't denim-suited, isn't clutching a handful of vinyl and has not, in fact, been "Stereolabbing" at all. He has been to a pub quiz instead, with his girlfriend.
It's nice to be a fan again.
Filed in Live ·Tags: Chemical Chords, Refried Ectoplasm, Stereolab live, Switched On, The Week That Was

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo suspended Saturday's parliament session aimed at ousting the embattled house speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari, Garowe Online reports.
The sitting which was expected the opposition MPs allied to the PM Hassan Ali Khaire to vote on a controversial impeachment motion has been "put on hold" after intervention by President Farmajo. The motion now flops as it passes its deadline.
The move came after a night talk between Farmajo, Jawari, two deputy speakers, Abdiweli Ibrahim Mudey and Mahad Abdalla Awad focusing on opening dialogue to resolve the current political crisis.
The speaker of the parliament has welcomed the President's intervention in the deadlock and called on the MPs supporting him to have the same opinion for peaceful means to resolve political differences.
The crisis began early this month after lawmakers linked to the PM's office filled the impeachment motion against the speaker, accusing him of being an impediment to the Parliamentary procedures.
Notably, a majority of the signatories of the motion were Ministers, including the Security and Finance Ministers Mohamed Abukar Islow and Abdirahman Dualle Beyle respectively and several deputy Ministers.
Jawari who has been the Speaker since August 2012 blamed the PM for the current political impasse and plotting the motion against him in a bid to concentrate all powers in the country under the executive.
Early, the International community urged Somali leaders to respect the rule of law and the Constitution in ending the impasse that risks derailing hard-earned political and security gains in the past 12 months.


Rivoting…..that's all I can say.
You won't want to miss a word of this tell-it-like-it-is, no b.s., promotional products blog newsletter.
Well, at least it'll beat searching it out if you ever wanted to come back because of something powerful you read previously.
Lotta hype, huh? Well, if you know me, you know I'm totally the opposite.
Want my opinion? That's what you get, even though others in the industry may not like it!
If you sign up for this newsletter, I'll send you a copy, the moment I'm finished!


An intriguing programme has been put together for this issue, consisting of Shostakovich's four most substantial works for piano, namely the two solo sonatas and the two concertos.
The latter are both popular (especially no.2 thanks to Classic fm), but the sonatas are heard much less often.
Sonata no.1 is a remarkable work; written in 1926 when Shostakovich was still a student, it is a powerful, in some places brutal work, which, in its percussive use of the piano, owes something to early Bartók. Only twelve minutes long and in a single movement, it packs quite a punch, and Peter Donohoe turns in a stunning performance, relishing the required assaults on the lower reaches of the keyboard.
The second Sonata was composed in 1943, between the monstrous 7th and 8th Symphonies, and is dedicated to the memory of Shostakovich's favourite piano teacher, Leonid Nikolayev. It doesn't have the same untamed use of keyboard sonorities as the first, but is a much more spacious and extended work. There are also instances, particularly in the Allegretto first movement of the same faux naïveté that one frequently finds in the string quartets of this phase of his career. The Largo contains passages of spooky nocturnal perambulation, while the finale begins with an unaccompanied right-hand melody that I half expected to be treated as a fugue – it never really is – reminding me that the composer's next work for the piano was indeed the 24 Preludes and Fugues of 1950. This movement is easily the longest – getting on for the length of the other two put together – and also the most complex, but such is Donohoe's concentration and responsiveness to the shifting mood and character of the music that the somewhat disparate structure holds together convincingly.
The Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings (better known as Piano Concerto no.1) has always been amongst my favourite early Shostakovich works. It abounds with that enfant terrible abrasiveness, but also contains the gorgeously beautiful slow waltz that characterises the middle movement. Then there's the madcap finale, with its cheeky trumpet tune and Keystone Cops conclusion. Donohoe is again superb, but so also is the Orchestra of the Swan under David Curtis. There is a fine cutting edge to the playing, with the tightest possible ensemble and – here the excellent recording comes into its own – a perfect balance between soloist and orchestra.
The same is true of the Second Concerto, with for me, ideal tempi. Some might find the Andante a little on the slow side, but this speed gives the music space and allows it to dream. In this same movement, I was interested to find Donohoe unashamedly Romantic in his shaping of the phrases. This is, I'm convinced, as it should be; Shostakovich is surely indulging in a little nostalgic pastiche here, and there is no point in apologising for it!
A deeply satisfying disc, well complemented by Daniel Jaffé's lucid booklet notes.


text:
Q: Amazon EC2 instance unexpectedly using CPU and network (not http). How to analyse? I would like to try and better understand how to analyse the following situation (which is no longer occurring)

*

*CPU pinned at 50% all night (100% of 1 core I suppose) according to Cloudwatch.

*Network usage all night: almost completely flat at 1MB/5 mins

*Http logs mostly empty.

*My computer left on all night, connected to the instance with SSH and a database connection.

*All of the above stops when I unplug my ethernet connection in the  morning.

*Has not occurred before, no longer happening.
I'm wondering if there's a way to analyse the network usage by IP, port, or the cpu usage by process, retrospectively, or if there's any other approach that I could use to learn more about what happened.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Join us for Aviator's series of Wedding Events throughout the year where you can understand more about ECHO, Aviator's bespoke wedding experience, and enjoy an exclusive glimpse into the stunning spaces at the hotel.
A visit to the inspiring Luxury Wedding Show is a must for all those planning that perfect wedding. Whether you are looking for a traditional wedding or seeking more of a contemporary affair, the Luxury Wedding Show is the event for you; a unique experience with plenty of ideas to help plan your perfect day. A must-visit event for the whole wedding party.
By bringing together a selection of the finest wedding suppliers, the Luxury Wedding Show provides an opportunity for couples and their families to experience a truly special day out while being introduced to suppliers in every area required for their big day.
Aviator's Weddings Showcases are specially designed to inspire couples looking for something different. Unlike traditional exhibition style wedding fairs, our Wedding Showcases give couples a relaxed glimpse at one of Hampshire's most unique wedding venues. Couples will have the chance view our stunning spaces and sample our award winning food and drink offering through interactive canapé sessions, cocktail tasting and more.
Each couple will also receive a complimentary luxury gift bag.


text:
'; // This line removes the website URL from comment form. $fields['url'] = ''; return $fields; } add_filter('comment_form_default_fields', 'wpb_alter_comment_form_fields');Negaunee Seeks $3.683M Grant for Campground & ORV trailhead Negaunee Seeks $3.683M Grant for Campground & ORV trailhead
HomePowersports Nation
Negaunee Seeks $3.683M Grant
By sxsnation-dave
Negaunee Seeks $3.683M Grant to for Campground & ORV\Snowmobile Trailhead
Information and images provided by the city of Negaunee Michigan
Negaunee Seeks a $3.683M Grant for Campground & ORV trailhead with U.S. Economic Development Administration for the construction.
A new program offered under the American Rescue Plan Act provides opportunities for communities like Negaunee to apply for grants under the Competitive Outdoor Recreation Tourism Grant program. A grant to help communities and regions devise and implement sustainable economic recovery strategies through a variety of non-construction and construction projects to respond to damage to the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation sectors from the coronavirus pandemic and to promote the economic resilience of regions dependent on those industries.
"As stated during the dedication of the Jim Thomas Pavilion last year. Negaunee will begin to mark a new and aggressive era of investment in the public parks. Negaunee stands at the crossroads of all modes of recreation; from hiking to biking, snowmobiling and ORVing", City Manager Nate Heffron said.
The grant is broken into two components that complement each other; the first, being the campground and the other being a snowmobile/ORV trailhead.
The campground will be located off of County Road 480, within the city limits of Negaunee. It will sit on roughly 12.1 acres of land and is designed to host 71-sites that will have both electrical and water hook ups. Additionally, a campground office, restrooms, showers, and sewer dump station will be constructed.
Campground/Trailhead Lacation
"The campground location will be right off the Iron Ore Heritage Trail and Michigan DNR snowmobile route #8. These access nodes make it a great location for tourists to be accommodated for an array of trail uses," Heffron said.
According to Mona Lang, Negaunee's DDA Consultant, "Both the campground and trailhead will have a significant economic impact on Negaunee and the surrounding area."
An economic impact study was performed by the Lake Superior Community Partnership (LSCP) in preparation for the grant. The study finds that a total of 58.65 jobs is expected to be associated with the opening and development of a campground with a 100% capacity from May to October.
The study also finds that the campground could realize gross sales of $653,200 a year, at 100% capacity, for 71 modern campsites, at a rate of $50 per night. Even at 50% capacity the campground could gross $326,600 per year.
Once the campground is constructed, funds for the campground will be used to help operate and reinvest in the facility. It is estimated that campground will costs $50,000 to $60,000 a year to operate.
The trailhead will be located off of Rail Street adjacent to the Negaunee Ice Arena on approximately 4.7 acres. It will be constructed similar to Michigan DNR snowmobile and ORV trailheads. The site will include a primitive restroom, a lighted parking-lot, a picnic area, and some protection zones for historic foundations and cultural sites. The trailhead in all can host 25 or more parking sites for trucks and trailers.
"We hope to make Negaunee the launching point for snowmobiles and ORV's on the west end of Marquette County. This site is close to downtown and can offer many conveniences to trail users", Heffron said.
This endeavor is made possible because of the strong relationship the city has fostered with the Iron Ore Heritage Recreation Authority (IOHRA). The two parcels where both the campground and trailhead would be located are owned by the IOHRA. Recently both entities have signed a 99-year lease on these lands,
"We are happy to be working with the city, we believe it will bring in more users, provide amenities for existing users, and provide additional awareness of the trail system," Carol Fulsher, Administrator of the Iron Ore Heritage Trail said.
If successful in obtaining the grant the city will have to invest 20% of the total cost of the project which equals $920,800. The city hopes to begin construction in 2023.
Questions concerning this release may be directed to the attention of the City Manager, Nate Heffron at (906) 475-7700 ext. 11. Article
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Recently I've had the privilege of working with colleagues at Lexis Nexis on a variety of projects in the area of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. So I am pleased to share with you the following paper, which has been accepted for presentation at the 16th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law in London next week. It's co-authored with colleagues Zach Bennett and Kate Farmer.


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Yvon Dupuis,  (October 11, 1926 – January 1, 2017) was a Canadian politician.

Political career
Born in Montreal, Dupuis was educated at Collège de Varennes in Longeuil, Quebec, and worked as an insurance agent and as the owner of two music stores prior to running for elected office.

He was first elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 1952 provincial election in the riding of Montréal–Sainte-Marie as a member of the Liberal Party of Quebec. He was defeated in the 1956 provincial election. He ran unsuccessfully as an independent Liberal in Saint-Jean—Iberville—Napierville in the 1957 federal election, but was successful as the Liberal Party of Canada candidate in the same riding in the 1958 federal election. He was re-elected in the 1962 and 1963 elections. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretary of State by Prime Minister Lester Pearson on May 14, 1963, and served in that role until he was appointed minister without portfolio on February 3, 1964.

He was accused of accepting a bribe related to the licensing of a new race track in his riding, and resigned from the cabinet on January 22, 1965. He was the first cabinet member in Canadian history to resign under criminal charges. He was defeated as an independent Liberal candidate in the 1965 federal election. Dupuis was acquitted of the corruption charges on April 16, 1968.

On February 4, 1973, he was elected leader of the Ralliement créditiste du Québec, but failed to win election in Saint-Jean in the 1973 provincial election. Under pressure to resign as leader, he left the party and founded the Parti présidentiel on May 5, 1974. He resigned as leader of his new party on October 21, 1974, and announced the end of his political career. He was replaced as leader by Yvon Brochu, who merged the party with the Union Nationale on May 31, 1975.

Post-political activities
Dupuis later worked as a radio announcer on CKVL, CKAC, CHLT and CIBL radio stations. He was the president of Publivox Inc., and owner of Agence de Voyages Yvon Dupuis Inc. from 1981 to 2003. He died on January 1, 2017, at the age of 90.

See also
Politics of Quebec
List of Quebec general elections
National Assembly of Quebec
Timeline of Quebec history
List of political parties in Quebec

References

External links

1926 births
2017 deaths
Canadian radio personalities
Liberal Party of Canada MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec
Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
Politicians from Montreal
Quebec Liberal Party MNAs
Quebec political party leaders
French Quebecers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Great news for apricot fans as first British fruit of the year hits Tesco stores
Apricot lovers are in for the sweetest of summers this year, after Tesco announced it expects a record amount of English-grown apricots to be available in its stores over the summer season. Apricots flourish in continental climates with cold winters, but without spring frosts. So traditionally they have grown in countries like Spain, France, Morocco, Turkey and Iran.
Tesco were the first UK retailer to start selling English grown apricots and started working on a production partnership with one of the UK's largest stone fruit producers from Kent back in 2010. With the first of the season's English apricots about to hit Tesco stores this week, there's great news with an incredible 180 tonnes expected to be picked over the summer- the largest amount ever grown in the UK.
Tesco stone fruit buyer Karen Bee said: "Apricots are fast becoming one of the summer fruits of choice across the UK. Bursting with flavour, our English apricots are really sweet, have a beautiful orange blush and are firm yet juicy – everything that a classic apricot should be. The English variety are every bit as good as imported apricots and joins the ranks of British strawberries, cherries, apples and pears, as some of the best quality and tasting fruit grown in the world. "The arrival of great quality English apricots over the last few years has helped to invigorate the demand for this stone fruit."
In the last year UK demand for apricots has rocketed by an unprecedented 75 per cent, making it one of Britain's most in demand fruits. Apricot trees still need a lot of sunshine and as a result all the production at the moment is in the southern counties, with growers based either in Kent or the Isle of Wight. Until the late noughties English apricot production was not thought possible because of our cooler temperatures. But the arrival on the market of apricot cultivars or tree hybrids bred especially for climates like the UK's, that would flower later in the spring, have made English apricot production possible.
Nigel Bardsley, of Bardsley Farms in Kent, a partner supplier to Tesco and the UK's largest apricot grower said: "This year we have had pretty much perfect growing conditions with a cool winter needed to allow the trees to rest, a warm spring and lots of summer sunshine with a bit of rain in between."
The number of UK producers commercially growing apricots has doubled in recent years to eight.
News & Image source: Tesco


In the last decade two-wheeler electric vehicles have been taking over the streets of Asian capitals, to the point that it is time to declare the gas moped commercially dead. Rest in peace.
While in the western world electromobility remains the domain of a technological elite, it has already arrived to the masses in Asia. China counts over 180 million e-bikers and produced nearly 37 million e-bikes in 2013 and 450 million bicycle users are waiting to buy an e-bike as their next mean of transport. In all South-East Asian countries where driving a two-wheeler vehicle is more popular than driving cars, electric vehicles are displacing gasoline vehicles as the dominant mode of urban transportation.
Two-wheel electric vehicles come in different kinds. If it has pedals, then it is called an electric bicycle, the equivalent of a moped. Otherwise it is called an electric scooter. It is dignified by an upgrade to the motorbike category if its top speed is above some legal limit – 50km/h here in Vietnam. All are powered by batteries which are recharged by plugging into a domestic wall socket, demonstrating that the need for a dedicated charging infrastructure was a myth.
The advantages of this means of transportation are that it generally does not require a driving licence, is faster than a bicycle, more convenient than bus and cheaper than a motorbike. Indeed the average e-bike in Asia costs only $167. The market is very different in the western world, where the average e-bike costs $800 in the USA and $1500 in the EU. The savings on fuel costs are also real, even in a dirt cheap oil year.
In some places electric two wheelers have an image issue, as the first segment to have taken the market is e-bikes designed for high schoolers. But producers upgrade technology and design every year. For example, for $720 in Vietnam one can have an electric scooter which goes up to 50km/h, carries two adults thanks to a 1200W power motor, has a 100km range and copies the design of the Vespa Primavera, an iconic Italian model. This cost is about the average monthly salary in Hanoi, or six times the monthly minimum wage in Vietnam.
As the technological frontier moves, the market shifts from basic e-bikes, that already pushed the good old gasoline moped into obsolescence, to bigger electric scooters. This is mostly happening without government subsidies or targeted policy. The market shifts because there is demand and technological progress. The demand pull is allowed by light regulatory constraints, in contrast with motorcycles which are more heavily regulated, not to say banned from some downtown streets in many Chinese cities.
The number of road accidents with e-bikes and e-scooters can only increase a lot, along with the popularity of these vehicles. The accumulation of risk factors to the drivers is worrying: teenagers, people with no driving licence, riding a vehicle with high acceleration, high speed, wearing no protection, riding in urban traffic; weakly enforced vehicles standards and traffic regulations. Risk factors to others also include no registration makes it easier to flee after hitting someone, and the use of the bike lanes endangers slower traffic. There is a controversy about the low noise of electric vehicles: pedestrians can't hear them coming. Most available studies look at electric or hybrid cars, not at two wheelers, and the other risk factors listed above make it difficult to determine causality, and conclude with robust confidence that silence is a risk factor. I would prefer to make the rest of the traffic quieter than to make the electric vehicles louder.
Is this technological shift a good thing for the environment? Electricity is not yet so green everywhere. More advanced chargers and systems are required to make the electric vehicles a part of the smart grid. Another problem which remains to be managed is that the most popular models have a lead-acid battery. Lead pollutes, especially in countries where the recycling system is inefficient, and each battery contains 10kg of it.
But at the city scale, the environmental benefits are clear: the e-vehicles are silent and release no exhaust fumes. The advantages regarding the local air quality are especially important in Asian capitals, which are the most polluted cities in the world. According to our estimates, a typical gas scooter emits 0.1g of fine particulates per kilometer, or 400g per year. A typical electric scooter causes ten times less emissions in a country like Vietnam where half of the electricity comes from coal.
The market cannot be trusted to produce lighter and cleaner gas vehicles. The switch to electric two wheelers and cleaner power appears a more powerful way to solve the Asian cities air quality crisis.
You said "The market cannot be trusted to produce lighter and cleaner gas vehicles. " I do not agree with you. Now there are some mini and foldable electric bike on the market which I think are lighter and cleaner than two-wheeler electric vehicles.
I completely agree. Electric scooters are the future. We are seeing it happen all over the world. I currently live in Taiwan and the shift over to electric scooters will change things dramatically here. Especially when it comes to environmental issues.


A postcard showing Kinsley High School in Kinsley, Kansas. It was built and completed in 1943 after a fire destroyed the main building of the previous school. At the extreme right in this postcard, is the gym which was built in 1922. It was not destroyed in the 1941 fire.


Jiji PressOf the ¥7.51 trillion budget set aside in fiscal 2013 to rebuild areas hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, ¥2.65 trillion, or 35.3 percent, was left unused, the Reconstruction Agency said Thursday.
The proportion of the unspent funding was almost unchanged from 35.2 percent in fiscal 2012, indicating that the country has made little progress in overcoming delays in implementing reconstruction projects.
The agency said the reconstruction funds were unused because it took time to obtain local consent for reviews of reconstruction plans and to acquire land, and also because bidding for many reconstruction projects ended in failure due in part to price hikes for construction materials.
The reconstruction budget for fiscal 2013, which ended in March, consisted of the special account budget for reconstruction programs and funds carried over from fiscal 2011-2012. Of the total, ¥4.86 trillion was executed.
Of the unused funds, ¥1.96 trillion will be carried over to fiscal 2014 and ¥691.7 billion will be used to finance projects other than those originally planned.
The budget implementation rate stood at 62.8 for projects to assist disaster victims and at 77.5 percent for projects to revitalize industries. But the rate was low, at 47 percent, for reconstruction projects related to the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.


Location! Location! Location! Classic 4-bedroom colonial, situated on a quiet street, in much coveted Sasqua Hills neighborhood, offers premier location for commuters (only 1 1/2 miles to Westport or East Norwalk Metro North train stations,) foodies (close to a dozen, or so, restaurants in nearby Saugatuck) or sunbathers (just minutes to Calf Pasture Beach.) Or, stay home and entertain. With warm weather approaching, the expansive deck and gazebo, overlooking a level back yard, provides the perfect setting for outdoor festivities. Move inside for more formal parties, in the glow of the fireplace, in the front-to-back living room. Gather around the family room fireplace, for casual get togethers. Retreat to the bonus room, over the garage, perfect for a home office, playroom or secret hideaway. Cozy up to the bar in the basement's panelled den. Make sure to check out the unique spice rack cabinet, in the kitchen. Upstairs, the master BR features a walk-in closet and master bath. Three additional BRs share a hall bath. Lots of storage space in the attic and unfinished basement area completes the picture.
MLS #170176050 provided by Marilyn Katz of Berkshire Hathaway NE Prop.


Franklin Dehousse, a Belgian professor of EU law and a judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) until late 2016, says that putting the court in charge of Brexit's implementation "is for the UK worse than the status quo and looks a lot like judicial imperialism".
The professor's intervention comes as Catherine Day, a key ally of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, boasted that the bloc expects it "will call most of the shots" in the negotiations.
Incredibly, the Labour Party's Shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, has agreed that EU nationals should be able to appeal to some "external" authority above the British courts to enforce their rights, which he believes should be superior to those of British nationals.
Starmer argues that EU nationals should not be subjected to any financial thresholds or language requirements when bringing foreign spouses into the country, for example. However, Britons are required to earn a minimum of £18,600 before they can do so, in order to ensure it will not fall on taxpayers to support their partners, who must also pass an English test.
Professor Dehousse has previously argued that such attempts to turn EU nationals into a "super-privileged caste" in Brexit Britain are "hard to justify".
The "colonial" attitude of the EU's representatives has raised the hackles of dedicated Brexit campaigners, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, who have always maintained that a mixture of new powers over Britain's trade policy, tax regime, marine resources, and so on will allow the country to thrive even without a formal agreement with the bloc.
"The idea that a foreign court should rule on the rights of people living here is akin to the outdated colonial approach taken towards China in the unequal treaties of the 19th century," the Somerset MP declared.
Leaving the EU without a deal would see Britain trading with the bloc under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, meaning tariffs of roughly £5.2 billion for exporters.
However, tariffs on EU imports would raise around £12.9 billion, and exporters – principally carmakers and food producers – could be amply compensated for their losses through a combination of investments, subsidies, and economy-wide tax cuts without breaking WTO rules.


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George Clayton enters national hall of fame, Seminole County Sports adds six
By J.C. Carnahan
Former Lake Brantley head coach George Clayton, pictured on the eve of his final football season in 2015, was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame last month. (CHRIS HAYS / STAFF)
Former Lake Brantley football coach George Clayton was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame last month in Bismarck, ND.
Clayton, who attended the ceremony with family and friends, joins 17 other Florida high school coaches in the NHSACA Hall of Fame since the inaugural class was announced in 1996. That group includes former Oviedo basketball coach Ed Kershner, who was inducted in 2013.
A Houston native, Clayton spent one season coaching in Texas before going on to finish with a 153-66 career record after 19 seasons at Lake Brantley. Clayton won at least seven games in a season 17 times and qualified for the playoffs 16 times while overseeing the Patriots.
Clayton was named Orlando TD Club coach of the year following his final year in 2015, during which Lake Brantley went 10-0 in the regular season and reached the second round of the playoffs.
The Patriots also went undefeated in the regular season under Clayton in 2011 and 1998 and finished state runners-up in 2006.
Six added to Seminole County HOF
A mix of former area athletes, coaches and community contributors are among the six inductees this year in the Seminole County Sports Hall of Fame.
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The Class of 2019 includes Seminole High coach June Winn, former tennis pro Jim Courier, who was born in Sanford, and 1953 Seminole High grad Buck Metts, who played halfback at Florida State alongside Lee Corso and Burt Reynolds before later coaching at Lyman and Seminole.
Sara Reece, Drew "Bundini" Brown and Whitey Eckstein round out the rest of the class.
Reece, a state and local leader for the Babe Ruth League youth program, serves as president of the Central Florida Bambino Buddy Ball League, which is designed for players with special needs.
Brown, who was born in Midway, became a boxing trainer and corner man for Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammed Ali after serving in the Navy during World War II. Eckstein is the father of 2006 World Series MVP David Eckstein. He helped lead the creation of ball parks and other sports and recreational amenities in the county.
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Q: android secure connection with server not working I am working on an application in which i have to make secure conenction with server.
The server had jks keystore and server side developed using java which i imported in my application as bks.
Here is command i sued to import certificate from jks to bks
keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore  trust.jks -destkeystore newcertificate.bks -srcstoretype JKS -deststoretype BKS  -srcstorepass "password" -deststorepass "mycert" -provider org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider -providerpath bcprov-jdk16-144.jar
and follow all the steps in following
Secure connection with httpclient in android
but its not working. I am getting ioexception message as "No peer cerrifate".
Can anybody tried such thing. Any code snippet will be of great use.
Thanks.

A: I followed the steps mentioned here. and solved..
steps to generate self signed keys for server and client
The link explains all the things. It works great...


Normal butyl acetate (also known as n-butyl acetate) is a chemical compound with a molecular formula of C6H12O2. It is commonly used as a solvent in the production of lacquers, inks and adhesives. This product is a colourless liquid that has a fruity banana odour. This product is highly flammable with a flash point of 24° C and a flammability rating of 3. It is highly miscible with all common organic solvents (alcohols, ketones, glycols, esters) but has only slight miscibility in water.
The most common method for creating normal butyl acetate is via the esterification of a butanol isomer and acetic acid which are heated in the presence of a strong acid (e.g. sulphuric acid).
A chemical trader would have a bulk petrochemical storage facility to regulate this product. Storage is normally in a cool, dry and well ventilated facility away from oxidising agents. Normal butyl acetate should be kept out of direct sunlight, heat and open flames. Solvents such as normal butyl acetate should be stored in drummed containers such as isotanks made of stainless steel, aluminium or carbon steel.
A bulk solvent exporter would normally distribute this solvent in bulk vessels or tank trucks. For transportation purposes, normal butyl acetate is classed as a flammable liquid with a fire hazard rating of 2. A full bulk chemical distributor would export the solvent throughout regions such as the UK, Europe, Africa and America. This product is a packing group 3.
What is N-Butyl Acetate used for?
The most common use of normal butyl acetate is as a solvent in the production of lacquers and paints. Its other major use is in the creation of adhesives and hardened coatings. Normal butyl acetate is also used in the pharmaceutical industry as a solvent or an extraction agent. Its minor uses include cosmetic products, fragrance solvent in perfumes, as an anti-corrosive agent, in cleaning and car care products. It is also used in the synthetic fruit flouring industry. The main user end markets are the paints/lacquers, coatings, cosmetics, leather, cleaning and the pharmaceutical industries.


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Split-Squad 6-2 Wins For The Tigers In Spring Training
By Packey@Detroit4lyfe Mar 1, 2011, 5:38pm EST
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The Tigers improved to 5-0 this Spring Training season with a pair of 6-2 split-squad victories, one at 'home' against the Toronto Blue Jays and the other on the 'road' against the Philadelphia Phillies.
At the Tigers' Spring Training home in Lakeland, the majority of the A-lineup beat up on Blue Jays' lefty Ricky Romero, who lasted only 2.1 innings while giving up five hits and four earned runs. Miguel Cabrera had his first hit of the Spring, a three-run double, and Victor Martinez added three hits for the Tigers. Jacob Turner picked up the win, tossing three innings of one-run ball.
On the road against the brunt of the Phillies' A-squad, Ryan Raburn tripled in a run off of former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee in the first inning and then later hit a two-run homer off of former Tiger Eddie Bonine, pacing the Tigers' B-squad to a similar 6-2 win. Andy Oliver picked up the win after giving up a run in three innings of work. Adam Wilk, Enrique Gonzalez, and Robbie Weinhardt struck out six in five scoreless innings of relief.
The Tigers continue their busy week of Spring Training with a full-squad game tomorrow against the Houston Astros, first pitch at 1:05 p.m.


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