Memory can be illusive and recalling the date, place, and name of an event can sometimes be tricky. Add to this the aspects of aging and injuries and memory can sometimes be difficult to hold onto as these rob you of your memory capacities. To make things easier there are prescription medicines that might or might not be accompanied by side effects. The best option to make your memory capacity better and stronger is herbs that promises to help you hang onto the things you cherish most – that is, your memories.
Need help to improve your memory then rush to your pantry and grab a cup of green tea that contains catechins. Regarded as one of the best elements for learning, green tea catechines works as an antioxidant that helps in making the mental performance better.
Tagged as one of the best herbs for memory, ginkgo is very successful in helping people recollect the recent past. Though not very effective for people suffering from long-term disability, ginkgo is a great option for people suffering from first stage Alzheimer. Side effects are minimal; this makes intake of ginkgo supplements safe and secure.
If you are looking for herbs that will improve the memory power then look no further than anise seeds. Found in most kitchen cabinets, anise seeds if grounded and consumed along with dairy and wheat products can increase memory power within two to three weeks.
Another well known kitchen herb that is used in most Italian cuisines, rosemary performs well not only in tasks that require long-term recalling and remembering but also in tasks that need you to be alert. This herb also enhances your concentration power too.
If you have suffered with an accident or injury that has led to memory impairment then one can safely opt to use Schizandrin that is known to treat memory deficits.
Another herb that helps in enhancing the memory is ginseng. Used in Chinese treatment for centuries, consumption of ginseng powder can better memory function and also enhance cognitive ability.
Scientifically called Melissa officinalis, lemon balm is an herb that is basically used as a garnish for iced tea. Today, it is associated with memory as it is known to enhance brain functionality and improving the areas of memory and problem solving within a few months.
A native herb from the forests of Brazil, guarana is a known brain stimulant that helps in memory and alertness. The after affects of guarana is similar to caffeine as it enhances the memory by making it more alert.
A member of the parsley family, gotu kala is a medicinal herb that decreases anxiety, improves concentration, and prevents memory loss diseases such as Alzheimer.


3. What would you change about your living room? It would be finished!!! I would have casing around the windows so I could hang some curtains, and the wind wouldn't blow in around the windows and make me freeze. My husband would drop the whole idea about tearing all the paneling and mortar off the walls (it's a really old house)... as I said - it would be finished.
4. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty? My dishwasher is sitting, still in the box, in the equipment building. I used to tease my husband that if we ever built a house, he would have to build it around my dishwasher... so, when we moved here, he insisted on getting me a dishwasher... it's just not in our house yet.
6. White or wheat bread? I'm a kid at heart when it comes to eating - I prefer white... but my husband always lectures me that wheat is better for me.
9. How many plants are in your home? 3 and 1/2... I say that, cuz one is just barely hanging on... it's dead, but just doesn't know it yet.
10. Is your bed made right now? Nope - slept on the couch during the ice storm, since our house is all tore apart right now.
12. Is your closet organized? Closet??? I moved into a home which didn't even have a single kitchen cupboard and you are asking me about closets??? Oh, I could totally show you the most stupid, dumbest designed closet in the world - it's in this house! Organized??? nothing in my life is organized right now!
13. Can you describe your flashlight? We use spotlights (due to countless nights of having to check for calves and lambs)... and, NONE of them are working right now.
14. Do you drink out of glass or plastic more at home? We use both - whatever gets grabbed.
17. Curtains or blinds? Right now??? HA! We have NOTHING... NOTHING - did you read my post about my fear of looking out windows when it's dark???
19. Do you sleep with any lights on at night? I like a night light or the tv, but my husband says it bugs him.
23. Do you have welcome mat on your front porch? Ha! If only you could see this place right now LOL - we are in the middle of major home improvements and remodeling... a welcome mat is the last thing on our minds right now.
4. What is in your oven right now? Nothing, 'cept the oven racks.
25. Is there anything under your bed? I think some shoes.
28. Do you have a separate room you use an an office? Yes. But, since I have the laptop, I spend more time in the living room - LOL, ironic, eh?
30. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home? A little bit (a very little bit) of cash somewhere, because that's how my husband gets paid for some of the odd jobs he does.
31. What color are your walls? They have paneling on them... the living room and kitchen have brown paneling; office, bedroom, and bathroom have an off white/grayish paneling.
32. What does your home smell like right now? Eggnog Bread - I got the recipe from Bridget's blog :-) Thanks Bridget!!! Her blog, And Miles To Go Before We Sleep, is AWESOME!
34. What kind of pickles are in your refrigerator right now? Dill!!! We both love dill pickles, and neither one of us really cares for sweet or bread and butter pickles.
35. Ever been on your roof? Did you read my post about my Whooshy, Swirly day??? I was on the roof this past week - while suffering from an ear infection... it was an interesting experience.
36. Do you own a stereo? Yep - two of them.
37. How many TVs do you have? Just one. Although I want one for the bedroom. We had a second one, but my husband gave it to his parents.
38. How many phones? Three - one cordless which is crappy because the battery keeps dying, one corded in the bedroom, and one on the fax machine.
39. Do you have a housekeeper? Ahahahahahahahahahahaha. Oh....ahahahahahahahaha. Hehehehehehehehe. Ahahahahaha - that's the funniest meme question I've ever read.
41. Do you like solid colors in furniture or prints? I like both - but the new furniture we got in July is solid.
42. Is there a smoke detector in your home? Nope - not yet.
I'm not tagging anyone - you can do this if you want. My BBFF and I are meme crazy - that's why I did it... for her (even if she is a moron - hehe).
I LOVE YOU TOO DORK!!!!!
I have an award for my favorite dork!
I love these - helps us get to know each other better! I've got to put this one on my blog as soon as I have a minute. I wanted to let you know that I love your photo charm creations - they are beautiful. I have one bracelet with those charms in it that one of my students got me for Christmas one year, but I've never seen the links for photos. I love pictures and anything that deals with them so this was right up my alley. I may email you at some point to get some prices. BEAUTIFUL!!!
Girl you need to get some curtains. Tack some cheap lacy things up there or something.
Since you obviously love dogs, I posted some pictures of my 3 year old sons puppy room with dog house.
You need Santa to being you 10 elves so you house can get finished. No wondow coverings would kinda creep me out, too.


I've been using Sketch for over 7 months only in a basic way inserting and dragging elements into artboards, adding some colors, shadows, borders, etc. and the first job I built for real was the UI for a mobile application that I also developed with React Native.
Since I really like to transform an image of an UI into a markup with HTML/CSS at 99% of accuracy, I wanted to try the same thing with logos and I did it! I cloned a couple of free logos and the feeling was incredible!
So I decided instantly to offer that service to a company that I've been working with in their website/mobile app and with some help (mostly with the layers manipulation) of a great friend which is an UX/UI designer http://sadok.mx/ , I did the job successfully!! and after that I created a banner and other stuff to practice.


Bookmarks are typically printed in full colour on both sides. They can be fully customized to your imagination. For detailed information on larger or smaller quantities and additional stock choices available, please call your closest Sherwood location or request a quote through our website.
A good rule of thumb to follow for a bookmark size is 2" x 7" on 14 Pt, Gloss Cover stock. However, there are various different types and sizes available. It is best to visit a location and ask for samples of different card stocks.
Bookmarks are traditionally used to interact with your customers. They can be fun giveaways that customers will use over and over. This creates constant contact with your message, brand, logo, or list of services, or they can also be sold. Customers prefer using bookmarks in their day-to-day life, they are more likely to use them or hand them down to friends and family. This ensures that customers are still interacting with your brand every time they open or close their favorite book.
Our experts suggest adding a QR code to your design to link directly to additional online information. This can be a better way to provide more detail instead of cramming lots of detail in your Bookmarks. You may want to include a performance worksheet or a link to an online video or your seminar's schedule. QR codes are linked to an online information site. This ensures that you can change the online information without the need to reprint the QR code.


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Go Ahead, Get Outraged
It isn't new, and it isn't just an Internet phenomenon—it's an essential part of living in a democracy.
mLu.fotos/Flickr
Being outraged at outrage is the new, uptown outrage. To just be outraged is passé, unserious; it is insufficiently meta and thinkpiecey. The real thought-leaders don't write more in anger than in sorrow about Bill Cosby rape accusations; they write more in sorrow than in anger about people writing about Bill Cosby rape accusations. It still gets the clicks, but has a gloss of respectability and contrarianism. Win-win.
The obvious next step is to be outraged at the outrage about the outrage, to wave one's fist in righteous fury at Slate's Year in Outrage, a clever piece of clickbait that lists outrages for every day of the year (with instapolling to entice readers to judge just how outrageous each case was) while writers simultaneously wring their hands over their complicity in outrage clickbaiting. But rather than go down the meta-road of meta-outrage one-upmanship, maybe it's worth asking, for a moment, whether outrage is really so bad or so new.
A few of Slate's essays acknowledge the virtues of outrage—Willa Paskin, for example, ultimately decides that criticizing television shows for their lack of diversity is a reasonable thing to do. But overall, the authors tend to present Internet outrage as a recent and troubling phenomenon. Amanda Hess worries that the outrage of the Internet has created a situation in which the "media order … is at risk of calcifying into a staid landscape where original thought is muffled by the wet blanket of political correctness." Jamelle Bouie worries that outrage may replace substantive politics: "If outrage stands in for activism, if we're focused on the moral temperature of Internet individuals, then we're distracted from the collective action—and collective institution building—that makes real reform possible." Betsy Woodruff points to the conservative outrage machine as a radical Tea Party departure from the right's traditional focus on gradualism and sober critique. Edmund Burke and William F. Buckley, she assure us, "eschewed the mob impulse, the scalp-hunting instinct, and the bellowing ire that's come to be business as usual in some quarters of the right." Thank God this country has never known a conservatism with mob impulses before, huh?
Of course, this country has known a KKK conservatism characterized by actual, not metaphorical, mob impulses and real, brutal violence. Anyone who has read Gone With the Wind knows that the American right has a long, ugly tradition of grievance politics. The novel's neo-Confederate vision of history is based almost entirely on outraged indignation. The South, for Margaret Mitchell (and not just Margaret Mitchell), was cruelly targeted by the North. The KKK was, in her view, a group of somewhat misguided but honorable freedom fighters battling against injustice. And, as in our time, outrage sold well—Gone With the Wind became the biggest bestseller of the 20th century, and inspired an even-more-massive hit movie.
But neo-Confederate propaganda is racist and awful and evil because of its ideology, not because it expresses that ideology through outrage. Linda Williams argues in her book Playing the Race Card that neo-Confederate grievance outrage, as exemplified by Birth of a Nation, was actually a mirror of, and built upon, abolitionist anti-slavery outrage. Birth of a Nation, Williams says, deliberately reversed the imagery and arguments of Uncle Tom's Cabin—which, like Gone With the Wind, was a massive, multimedia hit. Both abolitionists and neo-Confederates created narratives that identified an injustice, which in turn prompted an outraged demand that that injustice be rectified.
Williams doesn't actually call these demands for justice "outrage." Instead, she uses the term "melodrama." Melodrama, Williams says, is not a new Internet distraction from the real work of politics. On the contrary, it is central to the democratic project. Pre-democratic modes, like Greek tragedy, emphasized the importance of bowing to fate; the response to injustice is a lowered head and the recognition that sometimes your dad is just going to sacrifice you to the gods, so make the best of it. In contrast, Williams says, "melodrama always offers the contrast between how things are and how they could be, or should be." Melodrama greets injustice not with tragic acceptance, but with a demand for restitution; it embodies the fundamental democratic demand for a just and equitable society.
When Americans said taxation without representation required revolution, they were creating a melodramatic narrative. When the Gamergate agitators (surprisingly absent from Slate's set of outrage essays) insist that criticizing sexism violates the ethics of games journalism and must be stopped, they are creating a melodramatic narrative. Those narratives can be more or less logical; they can be used in the name of noble causes or vicious ones. But the melodrama, or the outrage, is not new. It helped found the country and continues to be the basis for Americans politics, from debates around health care to debates around torture to debates around immigration reform. Americans are an outraged and melodramatic people, and always have been, for good and ill.
The problem with outrage over outrage is not that meta-outrage is also outrage. It is that targeting outrage as something new and uniquely dangerous is ahistorical and leads to poor thinking and bad conclusions. Bouie, for example, worries that "outrage stands in for activism"—a formulation that fails to recognize that narratives of outrage have fueled practically every successful protest movement in this country's history. The Ferguson and Eric Garner protests have been heavily promoted, organized, and in some cases funded on social media. Setting online outrage against "real" organizing neatly sidesteps the knottier truth—which is that outrage and organizing, online and off, are intertwined. The challenge is not to separate out the outrage, but to figure out a way to harness it to meaningful causes.
Because outrage is so central to democratic change, outrage about outrage can also, inadvertently, lead to a pale elitist recuperation of that old Greek anti-democratic vision. Thus Dan Kois, in the concluding Slate essay, declares, "Outrage is not revolution; it's not even justice, really." He points to the rape allegations against Bill Cosby. Cosby, Kois admits, has been isolated, and had his career resurgence scuttled. But he probably won't face a trial. Ergo, Kois concludes, no justice—and proof that outrage is self-indulgent and pointless. "[P]eople still do terrible things; brands still tweet; inequality persists." Sometimes your dad sacrifices you to the gods. That's the way it goes.
It's true: Utopia will never be attained, the poor will be with us always, and some people, cruelly, will be sacrificed to the gods. But does that mean we shouldn't, with melodrama, hope for something better? Cosby has been publicly shamed; he has suffered some consequences for his actions. That's not the ideal outcome, but it's not irrelevant. Outrage will never create perfect justice, because nothing will create perfect justice. It has undoubtedly been and is still used for trivialities, and not infrequently for evil. But the difficult truth of democracy is that without the logic of outrage, it's hard to strive for a better world.
Noah Berlatsky edits the online comics-and-culture website The Hooded Utilitarian and is the author of the book Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-48.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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November 19, 2011 in ! MP3's, # Festivals, $ Live Shows, Canada, Music | Tags: active child, ambient, anthony gonzalez, chillwave, experimental, indie rock, m pour montreal, m83, minimal, nicolas fromageau, pat grossi, pop, r'n'b, soundtrack music | Leave a comment
>>>>>>>UPDATED! Click here to skip to the review of the live show!<<<<<<<
I just got back to Montréal just two months ago after having been away for over a year. Travelling. Journey. Discovering. Learning. I realised recently that I've been really out of touch with the indie scene while I was away. One of the artists that I still kept in touch with while I was travelling though, was M83. I got their most recent and long awaited two disc release, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (Naive Records, Mute Records) in October of this year. With this recent LP, Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez once again shows us that he's more than capable making music that go beyond just Listening. His talent of painting musical landscapes that we can touch, see, and feel with his sound is something special that has kept me drawn and interested in his music since his first self titled release in 2001—then with Nicolas Fromageau, who is now in Team Ghost. So when I found out that M83—with openers Active Child—was playing a show here for the last day of the festival M pour Montréal, I knew I had to go.
M83 is a group named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83, formed originally in 2001 by two guys from France, Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau. The latter member left shortly after 2005 with releases of M83 (2001) and Dead Cities, Read Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003) together. Since then, Gonzalez has released equally if not more emotionally charged LPs: Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005), Digital Shades Vol. 1 (2007), Saturdays = Youth (2008), and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (2011).
All of M83's albums have been consistent in the artistic language that Gonzalez has done so well in presenting to us. They get compared to a lot to bands that have blown up in the past couple of years like Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Memory Tapes who do have qualities that M83 possesses but the comparison is not so justified in my opinion. M83 goes outside the box of having a particular monolithic sound by encompassing and combining chillwave ambience, psychedelic surf pop, shoegaze, minimal electronic, dreamwave, instrumental rock and experential intention with his sound. This intersectionality varies whether all these elements are in just one song or not. It's clear when you listen to his music. It's clear when you listen to an album begining to end. He makes albums that flow well, sound good, and has tracks that make you dance (you know, generally what makes an album good, eh). But, it's more than that. He's making you a Soundtrack for Life.
Your first cigarette. Your first lover. Your loneliness. Losing a loved one. Heartache. Breaking the rules. The glare of the sun in your eyes. Getting older. The Kiss that never ended. The sand in between your toes. Letting go. Joy. Lessons learned. Thunderstorms. Being Alive. You find yourself in emotional whirlwinds all of a sudden. You stop everything you do and you listen, smell, see, and touch the music. You come out realising all that you've been through 'cause the music has brought you this history. Emotionally charged in the sound, the distant cries of his muffled singing, the Naming of the tracks, and the intention behind the pauses, the music has the power to push you into different realities, bad and good. In the end, there is this clear underlying optimism in his music despite all the sad parts. The Positive in the Negative. Each album contains this inevitable evolution. This varied catharticism is what makes M83 so special.
Some tracks that M83 are most known for are their more upbeat danceable tracks like "Kim & Jessie", "Graveyard Girl", "Midnight City", "Don't Save Us From the Flames", "Teen Angst", "Run Into Flowers", and "Couleurs". While these are fantastic tracks and I have so many favorites on top of these, I want to share some tracks that have become soundtracks for certain moments of my life.
It will be interesting to see how M83 is live tonight. I no doubt believe that Gonzalez will take us on a journey. For those of you lucky enough to get tickets to the now sold out show, see you there and bon show! Don't forget to come back for a review of the live show! Thanks to M pour Montréal for having me cover this and especially to Catherine who made this possible.
You can buy M83's music here!
MP3: M83 – Dancing Mountains
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/06-m83-dancing-mountains.mp3
MP3: M83 – Coloring The Void
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/02-m83-coloring-the%20void.mp3
MP3: M83 – Safe
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/10-m83-safe.mp3
MP3: M83 – Let men burn stars
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/11-m83-let-men-burn-stars.mp3
MP3: M83 – Klaus I Love You
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/10-m83-klaus-i-love-you.mp3
MP3: M83 – Another Wave from You
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/04-m83-another-wave-from-you.mp3
Live in Show: M83 & Active Child
It was a beautiful night in Montréal last night in the Latin Quarter, barrio host of M for Montréal and the globally recognized and acclaimed Mutek Festival. Le Monument National was lit up wonderful purple hues, Club Soda got blared its' lightsin preparation for the M83 after party, and as always, le S.A.T.'s sound system was heard going beyond the walls to the dark rimmed glasses, fancy winter boots, thrifty tops and waves of plaid wearing people smoking outside.
Active Child is a project that recently came into fruition by Pat Grossi, native of New Jersey who now lives in Los Angeles. Accompanied by two more band mates that look surprisingly similar to Grossi himself (or maybe it was just the lights, jaja), Active Child busted out music that reminded me of the 80's electronic pop sound of Depeche Mode & New Order, the soundtrack nature of M83, the ambiance of Ocuban, the new school style of R'n'B now popularized by Drake and The Weeknd, and Grossi's voice! (So, all good things. Jejeje). Oh! His voice sounded like the Presets lead vocalist, Julian Hamilton. Oddly enough he doesn't sound like this in his debut studio LP, You Are All I See (Vagrant Records, 2011). Either way, studio or live, his voice is wonderful, unique, interesting, and cosmic (he used to sing in a choir)! Pat Grossi has an incredible voice that has a transformative range of style which, along with the fact that he plays a mean harp and experiments with synthesizers, enables him to paint soundscapes just as M83 does while keepin' it slightly sensual with some R'n'B flare.
I had no idea who Active Child was, no idea what kind of music but figured it was worth seeing if they were opening for M83. It was definitely a decision I don't regret. They impressed the hell out of everyone in that crowd and no doubt prepared us for the journey we were about to take with M83 but dosing us with a cheeky adventure of their own. Fantastic performance!
MP3: Active Child – Playing House
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/03-active-child-playing-house.mp3
MP3: Active Child – Hanging On
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/02-active-child-hanging-on.mp3
Buy their music here!
Now onto M83. Hoorah! The long wait was over! The lights dimmed and epic synths started our journey into space. The background was lit with tiny lights reppin' stars that changed colors throughout the show with six or so brightly lit up columns lining the back. The whole set up reminded me of some space portal platform. Beyond the columns, the stars, space, infinity, and the unknown. Ooooooo. The four stood in between us the galaxy. They were going to take us on a cosmic voyage. They were our passageway and as curious, adoring, fundamentally imaginative creatures, and lovers of the dream state M83 is so good at inducing, we acquiesced.
"Intro", the first track off of their latest album started slowly through the speakers. The synths were prolonged and etched carefully deeper and deeper as the lights began getting more intense. All of a sudden there was this creature. Looked like a human but had a possum rat head! Possum rat hands and eyes and ears! It was alien to us but that was what we signed up for. The adventure begins.
The band came on with full applause. Founder of the group Anthony Gonzalez (center), and his three touring bandmates, INCREDIBLE vocalist/keyboardist Morgan Kibby—who helped in production of Saturdays = Youth and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (right), drummer Loïc Maurin (back), the possibly new bandmate that M83 was searching for a few months back (left), hopped on stage to full and ear deafening applause. You knew with this kind of opening that the rest of the night was going to make history in our memories. What an intro song! What a start! With Gonzalez strutting his dance moves with his back against us arms behind his head, and hoards of people singing along and crying out "Carry on! Carry on!", it was clear that from the crowd to the band, everyone was In It Together From the Beginning.
M83 never dropped a beat throughout the entire set. The energy was kept high like a good DJ at a club and they were simply unrelenting in their efforts to make us sweat. At one point Gonzalez paused and made a little joke about how was going to err speak English and then laughed and spoke French well 'cause, you know, we all knew he was from France. Jajaja silly man. So, this was the one time that there was a "significant" gap in the tracks. It was a good gap. The crowd loved him more because of his charming humor.
After "Intro", they went into "Teen Angst" which got the crowd even rowdier with a very nice change up in the climax of the song with some techy beats that reminded me of their musical history in Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. They didn't play any songs off of M83 or Dead Cities but they paid tribute to them with these kinds of change ups in their more recent songs that they did perform which I really liked. It kept the momentum of the energy high and kept the integrity of their musical evolution.
They go straight into one of their most popular tracks that put Saturdays = Youth solidly on the map, "Kim and Jessie". Can I just say, THEY KILLED THIS TRACK. It was ridculous how good it was live. Kibby was rockin' out hardcore Led Zep styles. I was amused and was pulled in by the new bandmate who reminds me a lot of the bandmate that every band has to have or has had at some stage. Curly hair, surfer cali look, not too much emotion on his face like what he's doing is super serious and there's no fun in seriosity. But you know he feels the music and the emotion super intensely and he's about to explode with it 'cause he gets those wide eyes at climatic moments and his body goes into crazy dance offs and guitar offs. You know what I mean? Meanwhile, Anthony had this epic happiness to him on stage.
They always changed up the build up, build down, and climaxes of songs to include that minimal techy Kraftwerk-y Space-y PEWPEWPEWPEW Space gun Tron-like musicality to remind us that we were on an alien space voyage with them. At some points I literally felt like I was at a Rave in Space. Lasers! Stars! Alients! Epileptic strobe lights everywhere! It was so surreal. It was so amazing.
Everyone on stage was having a blast. Dance offs, guitar offs, tamborine offs. Laughs and petite and brief exchanges were made between the bandmates. There wasn't much conversation with us verbally, but we were very much connected to them the whole time and the room was palpable to this. Their harmonies on every single track was INCREDIBLE. On point. To a tee. I think that's why everyone walked out of this show unquestionably happy and impressed. The energy from the crowd, the band, to the music was just so explicitly intense. Smiles were on everyone's faces.
M83 ended the set with "A Guitar and a Heart", a song true to the instrumental rock influence within their music. After the whole hearted ovation, the band came on and started with "Skin of the Night". It was epic. And then, the moment came when they played one of my favorite songs and DESTROYED any and all good encores that we've seen in the past on our memory's map.
"Couleurs" came on with a fierceness. The nine minute build up was tantric. They built and built and built and kept us on the edge for the longest possible moment. Everyone is going nuts on stage. Kibby is wilin' out on the tamborine. The guitarist abandons his keyboard station goes onto the other side and starts banging on an electronic drum kit. The drummer is KILLING it (he reminds me Phil Selway, the mad talented drummer of Radiohead). Gonzalez is on the floor! He runs around! Then all of a sudden the intensity calms down while we're on the brink of tipping. Gonzalez screams "MONTRÉAL"! We scream back. He screams again, "MONTRÉAL"! WE SCREAM BACK. "Couleurs" comes back in full force after this pause and puts an end to this aural tantric tease. The pace was ridiculously quick and hardcore in the end and pushed the limits like all good encores do. Head banging. Spaces were getting distorted. People crying. Fist pumping. Jaws open. So much love. I'm sure the humidity in the room went up 20% from all our sweat and tears.
This is one of the best shows I've seen in a long long time. Definitely one of the best encores I've ever seen as well. It would be so hard to top. Their studio albums don't even compare with their live show…which is awesome and telling of what a great band they are. The best songs of the night for me were "Kim & Jessie" and obviously, "Couleurs".
I've already shared some of their tunes in this post. Click here to be redirected!
Setlist: M83 @ Le S.A.T. (Montréal; 19 11 11)
01 Intro*
02 Teen Angst%
03 Kim & Jessie^
04 Reunion*
05 Year One, One UFO*
06 We Own the Sky
07 Steve McQueen*
08 Wait*
09 This Bright Flash*
10 Claudia Lewis*
11 Midnight City*
12 A Guitar and A Heart%
13 Skin of the Night^
14 Couleurs^
* Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
^ Saturdays = Youth
% Before the Dawn Heals Us
It sucks they didn't play anything off Digital Shades which is one of my fave M83 LPs but the selection was great regardless. I think they might have played "Gone" off of Dead Seas leading up to "A Guitar and A Heart" as well, but I'm not completely sure.
Hope you guys enjoyed the show!
Thanks again to M for Montreal and Catherine. 🙂
July 21, 2011 in Music | Tags: adrian lux, bag raiders, big boi, dance, electronic, fleet foxes, flight facilities, giselle roselli, hip-hop, indie, pop, rap, rock, the rapture | 1 comment
hi everyone! it's been a little while since my last post and since then i have been catching up and listening to soooo much music and there is soooo much good music out right now it's ridiculous. a bunch of new albums, a bunch of a new up and comers…but this post is about what i've been obsessed with lately…new and old…but within the year or so. this post is filled with good beats. trust. let's start with the rapture's incredible new single from their forthcoming album! have been dancing to it all morning since hearing it.
MP3: The Rapture – How Deep Is Your Love
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/the-rapture-how-deep-is-your%20love.mp3
i got into big boi's latest album, sir lucious leftfoot, pretty late but since hearing it i haven't been able to stop. having been disappointed with his previous lp i just didn't think something like this would come from him. fantastic fantastic beats. it's good hip-hop with catchy lyrics that isn't all just kanye and jay-z shit you know? in the sense that the lyrical content of Ye and Hov has less relevance than News of the World nowadays. sure, their beats sometimes are awesome like sampling Otis Redding in their new single "Otis" for upcoming lp watch the throne, but their lyrics are just so horrible to listen these days (like rhyming D'ior Homme with homie) that it's refreshing to hear tracks like "Tangerine", "Turns Me On", "Hustle Blood", "Back Up Plan", and my favorite, "Shine Blockas" from Big Boi where the beats of the rhythm and the cadence of his delivery is just sooo sooo soo good. it's light enough to give you that pop encouragement to dance and get down and dirt, lyrically interesting to keep your mental in check. such a fantastic album.
MP3: Big Boi ft. Gucci Mane – Shine Blockas
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/13-big-boi-shine-blockas-ft-gucci-mane.mp3
flight facilities is a group from sydney, australia. that's all i know about them jajaja at the moment. their track "crave you" is gettin' pretty big here and their release of the crave you ep with a bunch of remixes from the likes of cassian, c90's, ted and francis, was back in april and i've just gotten a chace to to listen to it now and it's quite good. so i'm sharing the original and my favorite remix done by the c90's.
MP3: Flight Facilities ft. Giselle Roselli – Crave You
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/1_crave_you_feat__giselle_original_mix.mp3
MP3: Flight Facilities ft. Giselle Roselli – Crave You (C90's Remix)
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/3_crave_you_feat__giselle_c90s_remix.mp3
bag raiders are a house duo also from sydney. they've only had one album release but have done a ton of eps released from the formidble fool's gold label and bang gang…as well as having done remixes for cut copy, kid sister, and midnight juggernauts. their track, "shoot stars" was released in 2009 and is what got them noticed in australia. such an amazing pop track.
MP3: Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars
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adrian lux is a dj/producer from sweden. his most popular track "teenage crime" gets quite a bit of play here in australia and errrybody knows it and gets their groove on. it's a good one.
MP3: Adrian Lux – Teenage Crime
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/adrian-lux-teenage-crime.mp3
lastly, i want to share one of the greatest songs of this year. yes, that's right. a pretty hefty claim but to me, it's true. as y'all probs know, fleet foxes released their new album this year (and are currently on tour), helplessness blues. it is another heartfelt soul belting lp and it just warms my body like a cleanse. "grown ocean" is the most inspiring track, i feel, on the album…and of this year for me. every time i listen to it, i feel like i'm in the mountains looking at a never ending sunset driving through the sky with the clouds as my road. windows down. the title from this post is derived from this song. turn it up guys.
MP3: Fleet Foxes – Grown Ocean
https://acquiescetomusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/12-fleet-foxes-grown-ocean.mp3
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Mixtape: New Beginnings
March 3, 2011 in ! MP3's, * Mixtapes, Music | Tags: aeroplane, aussie, bcee, bomb the bass, born i, braids, calibre, chill, dance, electronic, erykah badu, floating points, four tet, gang starr, glitch, gui boratto, heyoka, hilltop hoods, hip-hop, house, indie, james blake, jurgen paape, kruder and dorfmeister, mimosa, mochipet, netsky, pop, random rab, rap, s.p.y., skream, tanya morgan, the go! team, virtual boy | 2 comments
currently, i am in the warmth that is mexico! have been travelling around here for roughly a three weeks now and i have a lot more to explore! before that, as y'all might know, i was at burning man and made a west coast to east coast roadtrip out of it…camping in as many national parks as possible, being with nature, doing amazing hikes, and reconnecting. since my first burn, my music expansion became exponential. the new music i was listening to was an integral part of my travels in america too…a lot of music in this mixtape i was listening to when the sun was setting or rising, when i was cruising on a long and winding road down a mountain, when i was just being.
the music in this mixtape means a lot to me and i hope y'all can feel it. there's a mix of all of the new influences i was introduced to, as well as some old school love. there's everything from grime dubstep drum and bass to indie rock pop. thanks for waiting for so long for it to come out!!! like with all the mixtapes before…it's really important to listen to it in order. from what i gather, most of you guys have itunes, which is shit for my mixtapes 'cause it still doesn't play it in order even if i renumber the tags myself. please click on the playlist file, so it plays the files in order. using vlc, mediamonkey, songbird, or winamp is the best 🙂
playlist after the jump! get ready to get GRIMEY!
download: atm's mixtape – new beginnings
Recap: MEG/Osheaga Festival
August 5, 2010 in ! MP3's, $ Live Shows, @ Canadian Artists, Canada, Music, ^ Reviews | Tags: alternative, arcade fire, black devil disco club, dance, devo, disco, edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros, electronic, final fantasy, folk, funk, gangster rap, hip-hop, indie, jimmy cliff, k'naan, keane, meg montreal, owen pallett, pavement, pop, rap, reggae, retro, rock, ska, snoop dogg, stars, the black keys, the juan maclean, the national, weezer | Leave a comment
what an epic epic weekend. meg montréal had an incredible lineup, especially for the boat. osheaga had a disturbingly amazing lineup which made this horribly organised festival all the more worth while. so yeah, before i talk about the music, i wanna talk about the osheaga festival.
what mainly pissed me off was this whole "green stage" thing…why not have a GREEN FESTIVAL?!?! oooooh, one stage! ONE! raw/vegan/vegetarian green food stand! great way to really show how committed one is to the enviro movement. what is even WORSE is the amount of trash left lying around because we had to walk minutes just to get to a garbage can. the state of the grass and grounds around the toilettes was horrendous as the one picnic table became a dumpster! and that fountain that was nearby that was spritzing water…for what purpose!?!?! to cool people off, sure, but running it at that level for the entire two days is the biggest waste of water ever. why not have a water fountain that people can USE to REFILL our water bottles?!?! instead of charging 5$ for people to buy new ones. we have such good LOCAL food and produce, good LOCAL vendors here yet none of it was represented in the midst of the digustingly expensive hot dogs at la fleur, beers at budweiser, and even fresh fruit, chips, and water at the smaller vendors.
the only good thing about osheaga outside of it's incredible lineup this year is the fact that you were allowed to bring in your own food and water. so my friend and i made delicious salmon arugula and baby tomato salad along with egg sandwiches and saved ourselves from unhappy stomachs and wallets. yes the music is important but, ultimately it is the experience as well, and at 75 bucks or 150 for both days, it isn't less affordable when you have to spend more than 30 bucks each day on little food or drink to sustain yourself. 5 dollars for a hot dog?!?! voyons donc c'mon! though osheaga isn't as large or as aged as coachella or bonnaroo, the food there is filling and well proportioned, there are good options for all types of diets, and NOTHING was at least 10 dollars like it is at osheaga. the corps and sponsors rent out the space only to make more money by ripping us off. fuck dis shit! as snoop dogg would say.
i look forward to the day when osheaga will continue to have good music, be true to their environmental initiatives, and support local independent quebec food and produce!
but, enough of the ranting! overall, the weekend was faaaantastic for great music and dancing. so, recap of meg boat and osheaga weekend after the jump!
Mixtape: Summer and Sangria
July 20, 2010 in ! MP3's, # Festivals, $ Live Shows, "News", * Mixtapes, @ Canadian Artists, Canada, Music, ^ Reviews | Tags: actress, ambient, bass, ben frost, caravan palace, chill, crookers, crystal castles, d'n'b, dance, delphic, demdike stare, drake, dubstep, esau mwamwaya, eviatar banai, experimental, flying lotus, funk, fur, groove, gucci mane, hip-hop, house, israeli, Jay-Z, joanna newsom, jurgen paape, La Roux, lounge, M.I.A., major lazer, minimal, moby, monsters of folk, mook e, naive new beaters, nic sarno, notorious b.i.g., pop, progressive, psychedelic, radio utopia, radioclit, rap, shad, shotey hanevua, soul, sts, techno, tensnake, the do, the juan maclean, the orb, the roots, the temper trap, theophlius london, trip-hop, two door cinema club, utah jazz, yelena | 2 comments
so, lots of things have happened since my last serious post. the montréal jazz fest. tons of shows in between. lots more coming up! i've got die antwoord (YESSSSSSSSSS!) tomors, meg montréal and osheaga are coming up, and i am once again heading off to new york for a week and along the way i will be checking out flaming lips in central park! annnnnd the hard tour in nyc which features m.i.a. and a bunch of crazy fun other artists! i will mos defs be covering meg montréal but i dunno about the rest.
oh fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally! this mixtape has been soooo long due. like for real. the original playlist for this was made probably two months ago but obviously since then i've been hearing a lot of new artists so the playlist is now what it is. i had to put this out before it got too crazy. there are 40 tracks so unfortunately, like last time, i had to convert all the songs to a lower bit rate just to save space and upload it to mediafire…the mp3's that i offer are of their original quality (very good) but within the mixtape it is all converted.
this mixtape is amazing. not gonna lie. unforts i couldn't fit ALL the new stuff like lcd soundsystem, ratatat, etc etc but managed to put some amazing tracks from new albums released by m.i.a., crystal castles…and more. there is everything in here from minimal, techno, hip-hop, rap, house, haaaaaaaaaaauss, d'n'b, experimental to psychedelic, soft-pop, israeli goodness, and xyz genre jajaja.
it's come to my realisation that for those of you who use itunes, the playlist doesn't quite work and you'd have to renumber them manually just so the tracks play in their proper order…maybe some of you do this, maybe some of you don't (because you use players like mediamonkey (woohoo!) or songbird (woohoo!))…but i DO encourage you guys to listen to my mixtapes IN ORDER. most of my time spent making them is well, doing the write up, but most importantly, is picking and choosing what goes in the mixtape and how to fit it in…if it isn't played in order, well i could just pick a bunch of songs i like and zip it up and let it be that. but that's no fun and so impersonal. i put a lot of love and effort into these mixtapes so i hope that you guys get to hear it the way it's supposed to be heard! soooo…enough rambling, let's dance! playlist after the jump!
p.s. happy belated to a special mr. taha!
Download: ATM's Mixtape – Summer and Sangria


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Navigating Dating Beyond the Binary
Jamie J. LeClaire
Dating in 2020 can be a challenge for anyone, especially amid a global pandemic, but navigating dating as a nonbinary person more than that. It is a constant exercise of resilience and vulnerability.
When it comes to sex and dating beyond the binary, not only are we given no blueprint, no representation, and no guide whatsoever, but we're also working against the heteronormative messages we've all been indoctrinated with by media and culture from birth. And it's these messages that set the tone for the modern dating scene. On top of that, transgender and gender nonconforming folks routinely deal with microagressions, misgendering, and harassment on dating and hookup apps, regardless of how inclusive they claim to be.
For all of these reasons, dating, especially with apps, can seem like a mentally and emotionally daunting task for a nonbinary person. But if you approach it with a few things in mind, it's both possible and potentially liberating.
Here are five ways I've learned to safely and creatively navigate dating spaces as a nonbinary person:
Choose your dating apps wisely
For those of age and otherwise able to use them, dating apps can open up the dating pool, especially if you find it difficult or unsafe approaching people in person. A few apps have been putting forth more initiative into making their platforms affirming, inclusive, and accessible to more genders, sexualities, and diverse relationships.
While unfortunately dating apps are not available to minors, there are other ways to meet queer people online -- even though all of them won't be the right place to look for dates -- like Facebook or Reddit groups, queer Tumblr blogs, or the message boards here on Scarleteen.
If and when you are able to hop on dating apps, it's about quality over quantity. Here are a few I think are worth your time spent crafting that perfect bio for:
From the people who brought you the Queer Personals instgram, comes Lex, a personal-ad style dating app for by and for queer people of all genders. Lex prioritizes safety and inclusivity in their app. Lex doesn't require you to connect another app to sign up, and uses minimal identifying information. You can choose to connect your instagram, or make an instagram specifically for Lex, and gives you full control over your information. You can post 3 "personal ads" a month and respond to as many as you'd like. The queer people I've met through Lex, especially during quarantine, have become some of the coolest, nicest people I know, and I'm excited to be able to meet and flirt with them in person.
Ok Cupid has been around for a while and has consistently evolved their platform to be inclusive of all genders, sexualities, and relationship styles.
They use question prompts to determine whether you and another person are compatible on a fundamental level, including politically and ethically. You can select which or all gender(s) to connect with. You also can identify your sexual orientation as one or more of a dozen options and identify your gender as one or more of nearly two-dozen including nonbinary, gender fluid, and genderqueer.
Of course, there's a catch. You eventually have to answer the unfortunately inevitable, "I want to be included in searches for [Select One] Man/Woman" question… but you can decide whether or not your profile is shown to straight people.
#Open (called "Hashtag Open") is a newer kink-positive, sex-positive app that caters to the alt-sex community. Their mission is proudly and loudly one of inclusivity and identity.
You can choose from a number of gender identities, sexual orientation, and relationship orientations and choose to list your pronouns. But the best part is that their "include me in searches for..." question has a nonbinary option, and the option to select more than one. They have a detailed preferences section that lets you use hashtags to communicate exactly what you're looking for. Under the "boundaries" section is even a "hard-limits" section where you can list your non-negotiables using hashtags and be alerted of potential conflicts.
And there's really no catch. It's a very new app, so it's just starting to grow it's user base and could stand to be more user-friendly, but it has potential and partners with many notable sex educators!
There is still no perfect dating app for transgender and gender-nonconforming folks (and by all means, if you build apps, let's talk!) but in the meantime, these are probably your best bet!
Be explicit in your intentions
If you're using dating apps, use your bio to communicate who you are and what exactly you're looking for, to the extent that you feel safe doing so. For example, in my bio, I have "they/them pronouns only", "nonbinary/genderqueer" and "looking for casual, communicative, intimate sexual relationships with queer cuties".
Signaling the type of relationship and shared values you're looking for will save you time and energy. It helps if you try not to be vague. A way to go about this more subtly though, that I and many other queer folks incorporate, is by including hashtags that are relevant to your politics, your identity, and/or your queerness. For example, in my profile I have #TransIsBeautiful #BlackLivesMatter, and #KeepYourLawsOffMyBody included.
Not only will you be weeding out at least some of the incompatible, bad, or unsafe people on the app, but you'll also yield more quality potential matches, reserving your energy.
Think outside the apps
Queer and trans folks have historically had to rely on the creation of alternative spaces or means of communication when it comes to intimacy and dating, and the age of digital media is no different.
We've gotten especially crafty during quarantine. With the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a queerly-beloved game, queer people have taken it upon themselves to set up virtual dates that take place at one another's islands. If you're a fan, joining queer ACNH Facebook groups or Discord chats can be a great way to meet folks. In general, joining the queer Facebook groups in your neighborhood is a good way to potentially meet friends and dates alike. As long as the group rules permit, you can use it similarly to a personal ad.
Social media has also made it easier to host and hear about events that are exclusively for the trans community or that are explicitly transgender and gender non-conforming affirming. For example, @QueerSpeedCruising is a new queer speed dating/cruising event that takes place periodically in New York, when we aren't in the middle of a pandemic. It was started and is run by two queer comedians, Alex Schmidt and Lily Marotta, who recognized the importance of having a safe space for queer and trans/GNC people to meet and mingle in an environment with none of the pressure, anxiety, and expectation that might come along with a one-on-one date.
HER, another social dating app for lesbians and queer women and nonbinary people, has been hosting virtual speed dating events periodically throughout quarantine.
You can also check the websites and social media pages of your local LGBTQ+ center or reach out to them directly to find out if they have any virtual mixers or dating events coming up. If not, suggest one!
Throw out heteronormative (s)expectations – write your own scripts
We live in a society where heteronormative sex and dating scripts are, quite frankly, inescapable. All of us come into our nonbinary or otherwise gender diverse identity in different ways, but wherever we're coming from, it's normal to feel nervous, inexperienced, or unprepared for intimate relationships and sex that exist outside of those prevailing narratives and gendered power dynamics.
Binary gender roles and expectations limit sex and relationships for straight, cisgender people as well, but they're even more salient for gender-nonconforming folks. Questions arise like "Who messages first? Who pays for the date? Who makes the first move? What pet names am I comfortable with? You may find that you want to use different words to refer to your genitals, not want to use certain body parts or engage in certain types of sex. Which is wonderful because pleasure is about (so much) more than penetration, and it isn't limited to our genitals! Reading queer inclusive sex education books like S.E.X., second edition: The All-You-Need-To-Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties, Trans+ and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves can also really help expand your understanding of what sex and intimacy can look like.
Other great resources for learning your desires and boundaries when it comes to romantic and sexual intimacy are Scarleteen's Sexual Inventory Stocklist, and this zine, both of whch can help you determine what you are and aren't comfortable with when it comes to sex and your body and help you communicate that to your potential partners.
The sex toy and gender-affirming product markets are expansive and growing, making all kinds of sex and fantasy possible and pleasurable for people of all genders, no matter what genitals you have or whether or not you want to use them!
Unlearning these scripts and rewriting the rules can be scary and hard, but thinking through your needs and asserting your boundaries is so worth it!
Above all, prioritize your safety, comfort, and wellbeing
Dating new people can be thrilling and exciting, but at the same time, it can be anxiety-inducing and both physically and emotionally vulnerable. This vulnerability is two-fold for transgender and nonbinary folks, who experience dating abuse & violence at alarmingly higher rates, and this abuse comes both IRL and virtually.
So often we are met with messages on dating apps that range from harmful and hateful to ignorant and disgusting, which, on top of the regular fatigue that comes online dating, is exhausting. As a result, it is crucial and self-preserving to dedicate adequate time and resources to your mental health and well-being.
If, and when it's safe, to meet someone in person again, choose a public place where you feel comfortable, preferable somewhere welcoming of queer and trans people and with gender-neutral bathrooms if that makes you feel more affirmed. Ensuring your environment is a safe space may help you feel more at ease during your date.
Tell someone reliable who you trust -- like a parent, sibling or friend -- where you're going, and what time you'll think you'll be returning. You can give them access to your phone location or determine an emergency word or phrase, and check-in periodically throughout the date.
An important way to prioritize your wellbeing is to consistently communicate and assert your boundaries when it comes to intimacy, touch, and sex. This could include going over pronouns, setting expectations and parameters for the language you use around your body parts, discussing appropriate safer sex methods, and more. Also, pay attention to how a potential partner responds to these discussions. How they respond to open communication around sex is a good indicator of whether they're someone you end up wanting to be intimate with.
Yes, dating can be a figurative minefield for nonbinary folks. But by practicing boundary setting and body autonomy and awareness, you're taking precautions that will not only lead to more positive experiences but also preserve your emotional energy.
Remember, you deserve to be excited about dating and enjoy yourself. I hope, with the help of these tips, you will be able to lean into the thrill of dating and the potential for intimacy and pleasure. Because the reward -- living, lusting, and loving, fully and freely as your authentic self -- is so sweet!
originally written 07.25.2020 • &nbspupdated 07.25.2020 •
How to Make New Relationships, Add New People to Pods and Have Sex More Safely During the Pandemic
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There is this awesome article on how to do Magento Payment Gateway Integration? You will learn to create a Magento plugin for a new payment gateways which is one of the most widely used article.
This article has link to download/clone the code from the GitHub.
We thought of sharing it with Magento community through GitHub.
This is tested with Magento 1.7 and it works fine. There are still tweaks that we would like to do but it is good enough as the first draft.
Have a look and let us know if you need any help in setting it up.


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Doug Johnson | June 11, 2019
Source: Nijat Nasibli/iStock
Takeaway: Vaping may be the butt of many memes, but vape shops could help Alberta in ways beyond job creation.
Though the butt of some pretty cruel memes and jabs, vape shops are an understated boon to Alberta's economy, proponents say. Beyond providing jobs, the industry, still largely seen as a vice in Canada, offers some economic relief to the province in unexpected ways.
The City of Calgary has no data on the number of vape shops within its limits and the Government of Alberta could, similarly, provide no insight on the matter. However, according to an email from the City of Edmonton, there are 43 active businesses within its database whose names include words relating to the activity: vape, vapour, vaper and vapor.
Further "online research" by a City of Edmonton represenative showed an additional 15 licensed vape shops in town not including the word vape or its derivatives, the email said.
"Based on our research we can confirm at least 58 licensed businesses in Edmonton that would fit the 'vape shop' description. There may be additional retail stores that would meet that description that are in operation but that did not show up in our searches," the email said.
According to Zandran Rodriguez – founder and owner of five-year-old Edmonton-based business Planet of the Vapes– a regular, one-location vape shop, like his, employs between five and six people.
"Basically, there are lots and lots of people working [in the field]," Rodriguez said. "The entire industry was started by small businesses like vape shops and e-juice manufacturers. Many of them are operating in Alberta – even though some of them have grown large, the vape industry is still in the boot-strapping phase."
Most of the specialist vape shops in Alberta are still locally owned which, according to Rodriguez, keeps the funds in the community.
That said, different forms of vape and vape juices are available at chain corner stores now – and many of these products are produced by large corporations instead of "mom and pop" operations, said Darryl Tempest, executive director of the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA).
Prior to large tobacco companies expanding into the market, many vape companies and producers were smaller and more local, Tempest said. This was only about eight years ago, he added. Now, big-name tobacco companies are selling their wares through a huge network of corporation-owned corner stores.
"These were people making their own devices and making their own juices because they weren't available anywhere," he said.
"Specialty product vape shops engage in local employment. Those other, larger entities create employment like most conglomerates do – at scale and use scale to keep costs down."
Smaller, locally owned vape shops with five or six locations will have staff, a small marketing team and some administrators. According to Rodriguez, a regularly sized store couldn't function without at least four staff, while some corner stores and gas stations operate with just one employee behind a desk.
"It's not like a liquor store; there are things that need to be explained to the customer," he said. "It needs the human element ... They say retail is dying, but with vape shops, it's kind of the opposite. It needs that person."
People can also purchase vape products online, but Rodriquez said those customers are likely already the ones who know what they're looking for.
On the other side of things, corner store chains tend to have these jobs elsewhere in the world, somewhere further up the distribution line, Tempest said.
The CVA estimates there are around 1,000 – 1,200 shops around the country. Right now, seeing the positive and negative effects of vaping on the economy has not been thoroughly studied, though Tempest said that something like this could come out in the next two or three years.
Between diminishing profit margins and a ban on advertising, it's hard for new vape shops to get going, Rodriguez said. Most of the competition comes in the form of huge companies that pivoted into the market.
Rodriguez added that the main goal of specialist vape stores is to cater to people looking to quit smoking. Large-scale producers, often owned by big tobacco companies, tend to be more profit-motivated, he said.
"[Vape shops] are not like gas stations or convenience stores where - a lot of vapes are sold there, but they don't have the expertise and people aren't going there to get off of cigarettes," Rodriguez said.
Tobacco, as a generator of vice tax dollars, brings in a good deal of funding for the provinces (according to a report by Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, this revenue makes up about 2 per cent of a jurisdiction's total tax revenues), but each dollar represents added cost to the healthcare system and an allotment of funds that could be used elsewhere.
Tempest said that, as there are around seven million smokers in the country – a Statistics Canada report suggests there were closer to five million people who smoked at least occasionally in 2017 – and that smoking-related disease is the "number-one preventable form of death in Canada," from a harm reduction standpoint, vaping can help ease the burden on the country's healthcare system.
"It's generally assumed that vaping is safer than smoking," he said, adding that Health Canada states this on its website - which is true.
Vaping is also relatively cheaper than smoking, Tempest said. This leaves more funds in the coffers of former smokers across socio-economic classes.
"More of your disposable income goes towards food and everything else," he said.
Trying to convince people to see vaping in this light is something of an uphill battle, he said, though the stigma surrounding it is decreasing with time.
"Anything that's seven or eight years old is still fairly new, from a developing industry point of view," he said.
Although vaping has its detractors, its small business model - at least as it stands - has some benefits for local economies.
Written by Doug Johnson


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Depth Psychology
Symbols, Archetypes, and Jungian Psychology in Great Expectations Movie (1998)
Posted on September 25, 2019 September 24, 2020 by Diana
Jungian Psychology in Great Expectations Movie (1998)
This article explores the movie Great Expectations (1998) through the lens of depth psychology in general and of certain concepts of Jungian psychology in particular. The movie Great Expectations (1998) offers a modern time story similar to the one told in the well-known novel with the same name by Charles Dickens. This article focuses on the movie alone without discussing the similarity or deviation from Dickens' novel. Set in the United States, the movie narrates the memories of Finnegan Bell and how each experience influences his development as an individual. The main Jungian themes identified in the movie are the protagonist's journey of individuation, the encounter with different archetypal dynamics (the death mother, the anima, the inner child), the destructive influence of unaddressed complexes and a numinous encounter with the shadow. The movie's strong use of strong visual elements such as the color green, the strategic use of water and the repeated image of the fish, provide a mirror of its symbolic contents.
Movie Synopsis
The movie Great Expectations was released in 1998, directed by Alfonso Cuaron, produced by Deborah Lee, and features Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert De Niro as lead actors. The movie follows the life of an orphan boy, Finnegan Bell, his affection for a woman from a different social class and his journey towards fame, success, and wealth. Young Finn likes to draw. His journey begins when he has a scary chance encounter with an escaped convict whom he helps out without telling anyone. The richest woman in the gulf, Ms. Dinsmoor, pays Finn's caregivers to have him spend time with her young niece Estella. As time passes, Finn and Estella become teenagers and share a kiss. Their paths separate for seven years until an attorney shows up offering Finn the opportunity and money to go to New York and be the artist in a solo show. He goes to New York, begins to paint and sees Estella again, intensifying his chemistry with her. Finn's show is a wild success but Estella leaves to marry. Finn is heartbroken. The same night, he is visited by the convict he helped escape as a boy -Lustig- who congratulates him on his success. He once again helps him escape "old associates" who are chasing him but Lustig gets stabbed and dies in Finn's arms. With his last breath, he confesses that he is the man who secretly financed his trip to New York and the success of his show. Finn continues to pursue his art until one day he goes to visit Paradiso Perduto -the place he and Estella grew up- only to synchronistically run into her. She apologizes for the past and the movie ends on a hopeful and romantic note.
Main Depth Psychology Features
While the movie follows a storyline inspired by the famous novel by Charles Dickens, it tells a modern and adapted story which at times affords itself the freedom to deviate from the original. Examining Finn's life through a depth psychological perspective reveals several Jungian core concepts such as Finn's ego and persona development, his libido surge in the face of anima projection around Estella, Ms. Dinsmooor's death-mother complex around men, Lustig's original shadow-like appearance and his sacrifice later in life. It's also worth noting, the movie's strong visually symbolic elements such as the color green, the strategic use of water, and the repeated symbol of the fish.
Looking at the movie as a whole it seems to reflect Finn's journey towards a more whole and more balanced individual. The very first line of the movie is Finn's narration:
"There either is or is not a way things are. (…) I'm not going to tell the story the way that it happened. I'm going to tell it the way I remember it."
This opening hints at Finn's awareness that his perception of physical reality is heavily influenced by his psychic reality. In the Transcendent Function, Jung describes artists as being gifted in accessing the unconscious. According to him, "the very advantage that such individuals enjoy consists precisely in the permeability of the partition separating the conscious and the unconscious." (1969, par. 134) The movie ends with Finn returning to this childhood realm: "one day I went home" suggesting a return to the self, a more whole and integrated self.
A Numinous Encounter with the Shadow
As he follows and draws the fish in the water in the opening scene, Finn comes across a man completely submerged in water (unconscious). This man scares him, questions him and threatens him. It is clear that Lustig is the representation of the shadow. He is presented on the news as an escaped convict, morally wrong and cast away by society. He is a death row fugitive. He is hidden or hiding and he also threatens Finn with death. Jung describes a meeting with the shadow self in a very similar fashion: "The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality." (Jung & Storr, 2013, p. 91)
Finn's narration seems to describe his encounter with Lustig with an element of numinosity.
"Perhaps you've had an experience like that, in childhood, and told no one. Perhaps you've had that brush with a world so large that you seldom or never saw it again".
While Finn retelling of the encounter exposes a numinous element, it is not revealed until the end of the movie that Lustig was equally if not more impacted by it.
The Archetype of the Child
The movie begins with Finn's child's play. A free and happy Finn walks in shallow water, playing with his coloring pencils and his drawing notebook. He is surrounded by nature and teeming life- fish in the water, free-flying birds, representing powerful symbolism for the unconscious. He lives a simple and beautiful life and he likes to draw. He draws fish. Carl Jung describes the ease with which children are in touch with their unconscious through their child play in his book "Memories, Dreams, Reflections."
Jung highlighted in his work several attributes of the archetype of the child that can be also seen in this movie. For example, Jung believed that "the child is potential future. Hence the occurrence of the child motif in the psychology of the individual signifies as a rule and anticipation of future developments." (Jung & Kerényi, 1985) After Finn accepts Ragno's offer to come to New York and have a paid art show, he revisits, accesses and expresses the inner child part of him. Finn shares:
"And I could still draw, nothing had lessened it, as much as had abused it, as much as I'd abandoned it. It was a gift and it was still mine, and everything else was less real."
Finn, the child, is also presented as the savior and redeemer. The symbol of the fish is repeated throughout the movie. Finn draws the fish as a child. He catches the fish as a young man. He and Joe have a secret language around "how to smoke a swordfish". The fish is depicted on the lid of his crayon box, on the cover of his notebook in New York as we well as on the cover of the notebook Lustig keeps. Also, upon arriving at Paradiso Perduto for the very first time, Finn uncovers a tile with his foot on the ground that reveals two fish in an ellipse. This is reminiscent of the story of Christ who feeds the multitude with the loaves and two fish provided by a boy. "The symbolism shows Christ and those who believe in him as fishes" (Jung, 2014, p. 186). Finn helps Lustig every time they meet. He not only keeps the secret of their encounter but he brings more than he is asked. He brings the right tool to remove the shackles. He also brings pills and booze to numb the pain and he brings food.
Even though Dinsmoor represents him as "a scared little mouse scurrying her lawn", Finn is courageous in showing up at night to help the shadowy figure of the man in the orange suit. Later, when Lustig visits him at his apartment in New York, Finn lets him in and eventually helps him escape the "old associates" who are chasing him, only to then hold him as he dies in his arms. The sacrifice he consciously makes for Finn ends up giving meaning and purpose to his life. Through his chance encounter with Finn, Lustig is somehow in time transformed from an escaped prisoner to a benefactor.
Lustig whose childlike qualities are hidden to him seems to be projecting his bright inner child shadow onto Finn. He becomes obsessed with his drawings, talks of him with admiration and gratitude. Lustig keeps Finn's drawing notebook and is so inspired by it that he chooses to dedicate his life to financially support Finn's success as an artist. Sadly, his projection prevents him from discovering his own inner child. "Closer examination of the dark characteristics–that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow–reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality." P91
Ego Development
Throughout the movie, Finn alternates between periods of time when the conscious mind is in control and times when the unconscious is at play. This point to the compensatory function of the psyche and the interplay Jung describes in the Transcendent Function. For example, after Estella leaves abroad for the first time, following their first kiss, a broken-hearted Finn goes through a period of maturing. He stops drawing and painting and lives a simple and physical life.
"I put aside fantasy and the wealthy and the heavenly girl who did not want me. None of it would happen to me again. I had seen through it. I elected to grow up. "
As he narrates this period of his life, Finn is shown on a boat, fishing and spearing a large fish as opposed to drawing and painting it. This reminds of the hero archetype who slays the animals. Jung talks about the symbolism of large marine animals that "in psychological terms, they would probably symbolize the original total unconsciousness, out of which the individual ego can rise and begin to develop toward maturity." (Jung, Henderson, Franz, Jaffé, & Jacobi, 2013). In Jungian terms, this period of his life can be called ego development. Finn becomes more confident, more self-empowered.
"Whose business was it what I did with my life? Who'd gotten my life in order? Me. I was in control. And everything I wanted, I had."
Finn's Persona
After Finn arrives in New York it is becoming evident that he is missing the persona of the sophisticated artist. He goes to the restaurant where Estella invites him, but has to borrow a dinner jacket to be allowed in. The attendant has to follow up and remind him to return it. Finn seems to forget himself. When he is asked how he prices his work, he doesn't have an answer. He admits he's never sold a painting. When Ragno asks him if he needs anything else. He adjusts by requesting additional publicity. He arranges an interview with a reporter. During the interview, he fabricates parts of his story in order to make his life more dramatic and impressive. He is building a persona or a false ego for the first time. He has never had to do this before in his simple fisherman life with Joe. Now he is turning himself into the New York artist with a traumatic past:
"I was born again."
The movie also seems to point to this symbolical fake re-birth through the visual representation of pregnant belly art expo during Finn's first visit to the gallery he ends up painting for. This new mask does not hold up as he is clumsy during social encounters and loses his patience with Joe during his opening.
Estella as the Anima
Estella appears unexpectedly in Finn's life. Their meetings often seem to have an archetypal aspect through their either magical, numinous quality or through a more sensuous feel. The anima and the creative side of Finn's inner child seem to be bound in the scene of their first encounter. Later in the movie, as Finn begins to draw again and attempts to access the part of him that he has neglected and abandoned, Estella also magically reappears. Finn is in an overgrown garden teeming with life, watching a ladybug, when he sees Estella for the first time. Throughout the movie, she wears different shades of green when meeting him which represent "in folklore a symbol of hope. (Jung, Henderson, Franz, Jaffé, & Jacobi, 2013)" They seem to repeatedly meet in the presence of water (a symbol of the unconscious). Right from the beginning, Finn is warned by Nora Dinsmoor about the potential helplessness and heartbreak he will experience as a result of his feelings for Estella, and her predictions come true. All of these elements can be associated this the anima. "The anima is more likely to be intoxicating and to take over us unwittingly. It's hard to resist the lure of the anima (in the form of enticing desires and the promise of seemingly blissful happiness)" (Le Grice, 2016, p. 50)
Estella plays the archetypal role of the alluring, unattainable and ever desirable subject perfectly. She repeats this role throughout the movie in a pattern: discounts Finn, seduces him, disappears. "In one aspect, the anima represents the promise of the fulfillment of desire, an escape from the pain of ego-consciousness into the bliss of romantic union, which is a reenactment of the mother-infant relationship. Hence the hypnotic allure of the Femme Fatale anima figure." (Le Grice, 2016, p. 53) She discounts Finn at first by calling him "the gardener" and by dramatically tossing his portrait of her. She then entices him to the water fountain and surprises him with a kiss. When they grow older she invites herself to his place, sensuously teases him and then leaves abruptly. In New York, she kisses him again at a water fountain, tells him she thought she saw a much "bigger" version of him and then uses him as a pawn in her ploy to get her boyfriend to marry her. She has been trained to break hearts and as Dinsmoor confesses later, and she repeatedly uses Finn as a practice subject.
A strong archetypal charge emerges the moment she shows up in his hotel room. She symbolically wakes Finn up from slumber and tells him it's time to paint her. There is a surge of libido (psychic energy) in Finn and he goes on a drawing frenzy. When she once again leaves him abruptly, he chases her barefoot and for the first time challenges her with a question:
"What is it like not to feel anything?"
Estella appears to be an internal conflict about Finn's question herself. Her teary eyes in the cab show an emotional side for the very first time. She is in pain.
Finn is often desperately looking for Estella. He seems to be in an archetypal possession, driven mad by Estella's news of her engagement. At the conclusion of his show, Finn once again goes seeking her, inebriated, finally courageous enough to confess his feelings. He yells:
"Anything that might be special in me is you"
which points to his anima projection onto Estella. Jung teaches about projections that they "lead to an autoerotic or autistic condition in which one dreams a world whose reality remains forever unattainable. The resultant sentiment d'incomplétude and the still worse feeling of sterility are in their turn explained by projection as the malevolence of the environment, and by means of this vicious circle the isolation is intensified." (Jung & Storr, 2013, p. 92)
Finally, Finn's desire to be on the same social plane as Estella is a catalyst to his personal investment in his art and his success. In a way, his longing for Estella leads him to embrace his gift for painting and gives a deeper meaning to his life."The anima possesses the potential to lead us into disaster or misadventure but also guide us (often through the carnage) to the discovery of a greater life meaning."(Le Grice, 2016, p. 53)
Dinsmoor's Death Mother Complex
Complexes have been defined as a subpersonality that takes us over. The Death Mother is "is the primary symbol and force of the wounded feminine principle" (Harris & Harris, 2014) and she is often associated with the myth of Medusa. Medusa lives in a cave and she turns to stone any man that lays eyes on her. Dinsmoor lives at Paradiso Perduto (Lost Paradise), a decaying mansion with statues of children in the garden. There are no adults other than Finn ever shown with Dinsmoor. She offers money in exchange for Finn's time, knowing their precarious financial situation. She slips the money under the door the first time Finn visits her place, without ever being seen. She, herself, has been emotionally frozen for the past 30 years after being abandoned at the altar by her groom.
"Her room smelled of dead flowers and cat piss."
When Finn asks her what she feeds her cat she replies: other cats.
Her anger towards men is evident from the beginning when she orders young Finn to dance for her. She gets angry when he doesn't know how to. "I'd like for you to dance. That's why you're here. To entertain me." From Dinsmoor's first encounter with Finn, she is a mocking persecutor who seems to forget that he is just a boy. Her thinly veiled disdain for men reveals her habitual perspective and pattern of behavior. She mocks him when he apologizes for not knowing any dances. "You can't or you won't!?" She gets mad at a mere child whom she has paid to entertain her.
Dinsmoor she sees herself as a victim of men, which she no longer sees as human but animal:
"What kind of creature takes such a thing, such a gift, a trust? Who does this? A man does this, so men must pay."
She calls Finn a "scared little mouse" and uses him as practice for Estella's man-hurting training program. Dinsmoor raises Estella to see men as dangerous, not be trusted. She teaches Estella to create a cold and intangible persona and to manipulate and use men to her benefit.
"Estella will make men weep. She'll break them. I taught her well. When she returns, she'll cut through them like a hot knife through butter."
In this way, she freezes Estella's ability to have meaningful and loving relationships with men. "Death Mother costs women their chance to grow in a balanced way, to confront their inner and outer reality, and to have compassion for themselves that is born of the knowledge gained from their own torments and struggles." (Harris & Harris, 2014, p118)
Depth psychology teaches that all complexes have an archetypal core as well as a hook. Dinsmore seems to know this as she mentions it several times. "The hook is in deep, isn't it dear?". Finn and Estella seem to get wrapped up in Dinsmoor's death mother complex. She is the puppeteer who controls their interactions. The movie reflects this visually in a brilliant way through the evolving dance of Finn and Estella under the mad like instructions of the aging Dinsmoor who commands "smile, smile, smile. Fine, don't smile." Dinsmoor and Finn repeat the pattern of the broken heart.
"You know what this is? This is my heart, and it's broken. Can you feel it?"
Jung describes the tragic aspect of our unawareness of the repeated patterns in a complex. "It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going." (Jung & Storr, 2013, p. 92) Dinsmoor eventually seems to become aware of her doing when she screams a panicked "what have I done?" after Finn takes her hand and puts it on his heart as she did in the very beginning. Through this powerful and deliberate gesture, he reveals to her that she succeeded in inflicting a similar wound in him that had been troubling her for years.
"Her sick obsessions were now mine."
In conclusion, this article analyzes the movie Great Expectations through a Jungian psychological perspective. The main Jungian themes identified in the movie are the journey of individuation, the encounter with the shadow, the archetypal motifs of the inner child, the death mother, and the anima. Alfonso Cuaron's film is a visually vibrant production that shows forethought and intentionality. The director brilliantly weaves symbolically rich elements that offer continuity and depth. These elements include the color green, the representation of fish and the presence of water.
Cuaron, A. (Director). (1998). Great expectations [Motion picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox.
Harris, M. M., & Harris, B. (2014). Into the Heart of the Feminine: Facing the death mother archetype to reclaim love, strength, and vitality. Asheville, NC: Daphne Publications.
Jung, C. G. (1968). The collected works of C.G. Jung: The Transcendent Function (Vol. 8) (H. Read & M. Fordham, Eds.; G. Adler & R. F. Hull, Trans.). London: Routledge & K. Paul.
Jung, C. G., & Kerényi, K. (1985). Science of Mythology: Essays on the myth of the divine child and the mysteries of Eleusis: The Psychology of the Child Archetype. London: Ark Paperbacks.
Jung, C. G., Henderson, J. L., Franz, M. V., Jaffé, A., & Jacobi, J. (2013). Man and his symbols: Fear of The Unconscious. Bowdon, Cheshire, England: Stellar Classics.
Jung, C. G., Jaffé, A., Winston, R., & Winston, C. (2013). Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. S.L.: Stellar Classics.
Jung, C. G., & Storr, A. (2013). The Essential Jung. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (2014). Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 9 (Part 2): Aion: Researches Into the Phenomenology of the Self. Princeton University Press.
Le Grice, K. (2016). Archetypal reflections: Insights and ideas from Jungian psychology. London: Muswell Hill Press.
Whitmont, E. C. (1969). The symbolic quest. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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