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Jason Graves to speak at BAFTA industry event & MoTR to submit community questions for the composer in 36 hours!
Crystal Dynamics Community and Communications Manager, Meagan Marie, will be interviewing Tomb Raider (2013) composer Jason Graves on Tuesday the 19th of February for the next episode of the Crystal Habit Podcast. Marie has offered MoTR an exclusive slot in the podcast to feature questions answered by the composer in person. Kindly she has allowed us to extend this invitation to the community*.
Have questions about my score to the new Tomb Raider? I'll be presenting "The Instrument" live and answering... fb.me/2CNdFDl3N
— Jason Graves (@jgmusic) February 18, 2013
As an award winner himself, Graves is set to speak at following BAFTA industry event "Lights, Camera, Action Hero: The Making of a Blockbuster Through the Eyes of Lara Croft". The topic is the convergence of game and film music score, using his latest project, Tomb Raider, as an example. The composer was interviewed at the end of last year by Zachary Levi in the Sound of Survival, where he elaborates on the classical drive behind the Tomb Raider score:
"Yeah I'm kind of going directly back to the source; Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky... even for some of the scarier stuff you've got Penderetsky who's a polish composer... It goes back to ballets, or opera. Which is kind of the precursor to film and video game - they were telling a story. That's what I love about that kind of music; it tells a story. Even if you don't know the plot you can listen to it. And film music's the same way." - Jason Graves
*For the podcast: We will select 2-3 questions only from the comments selection below by 2:00am, Pacific Standard Time, Tuesday 19th February.
Get posting & stay tuned!
Topics: Jason Graves, Tomb Raider (2013)
When creating a music track,do you watch the trailer before you create or you create first and then the edition team matches it to the trailer.How is the process?
-Jho
Are there any tracks that have an Asian influence?
1). How did the previous Tomb Raider themes influence this soundtrack, if at all?
2). How did you go about creating that amazing instrument? Is this something that's common in creating theme music for Games/Films?
-BinRaider from TRF.
Levi 17 February 2013 at 14:31
Ever since I heard the first snippet of the soundtrack, I was wondering one thing: Does it have any cultural influence on it?
-Levi
Tony 17 February 2013 at 14:40
Akira Yamaoka the composer behind the music of Silent Hill has had many of his tracks cross over in the movie adaption of the franchise or written new tracks t be used in the film. Given the chance would you compose tracks for GK FIlm's adaption of Tomb Raider? If so would you create new tracks and how would film score and game score differ?
Dean Kopri 17 February 2013 at 14:43
What VST instruments do you use (especially strings and percussion) and what real instruments do you use except "The Instrument"? :) All the best! :)
Mikky B 17 February 2013 at 14:43
Was it difficult to compose a track to fit in with the mood of each location or a specific moment in the game? Any difficulties or challenges at all while composing the soundtrack?
Did you feel you had anything to live up to or try your hardest after the great soundtracks from previous Tomb Raider games? Have you, yourself, enjoyed them? Did they inspire you in any way while composing?
Klona 18 February 2013 at 04:03
What kind of feelings other than mystery/suspense did you tailor into the music of Tomb Raider?
Tammy 16 March 2016 at 16:55
I wish I'd been able to hear that talk.


The Newman Group subscribes to several services and attends numerous business and tax seminars. Our goal is to provide our valued clients with the relevant information needed to positively affect their business and taxes. Listed below is this month's articles of interest.


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The last typewriter repairman in NY
Posted on April 20, 2015 in Human Interest News
Paul Schweitzer, NYC's last typewriter repairman.
The last typewriter-repairman in New York City never learned to type.
"I said: 'No, no, that's not for me,'" Paul Schweitzer said.
At 76 years old, Paul still spends five days a week hunched over the innards of a machine built before his birth. He traipses about Manhattan visiting clients his company's served since the Great Depression.
But before we discuss the future of a man and a business focused on the maintenance of an obsolete machine, we must first revisit their past.
"He started doing this work in 1932," Paul said of his dad.
Abraham Schweitzer founded Gramercy Typewriter Co., traveling office to Manhattan office and manufacturing typewriter ribbons from his Brooklyn basement.
"My father," Paul said, "would say: 'Come down and help.'"
When Paul graduated from high school, he enlisted in the navy. After three years in the navy, he returned home. And after two days at home, his father drafted him into the family business.
"Go get yourself a couple of suits and some white shirts and ties," Paul recalled his father telling him.
Abraham Schweitzer saw no reason his job handling inky parts, greasy gears and smelly solutions should exclude him from having to wear a suit to work. Paul's carried on that tradition for decades.
"Back in the 60s and 70s and 80s," he said, "there were typewriters on every desk in the city of New York."
The last typewriter-repairman in New York City recalls an age when typewriter companies occupied six pages of the Manhattan phonebook.
"Having the feel of the machine," Paul said, "seeing the words hit the paper, there are no distractions."
Then computers replaced both typewriters and phonebooks.
"When you're really young, you think it's a toy," Paul's son Justin said of the typewriter. "And it's fun to play with."
Justin spent vacations, snow-days and after-school hours in his father's Flatiron workshop. In the late '90s, he joined the operation full-time.
"I still look at them as machines that could be utilized on a daily basis," Justin said.
"Very, very little competition," Paul said of the family business today.
The Schweitzers service machines from accounting and law firms, real estate companies, the occasional police precinct and many individuals.
"They've been in people's garages or in their attics," Paul said. "They've been handed down from generation to generation."
After 55 years, Paul estimates he's repaired hundreds of thousands of typewriters. For how long how many of the customers in Paul and Justin's files (large notecards in boxes) plan to continue paying to service their obsolete machines remains uncertain.
But as long as the phone keeps ringing, Paul and Justin — as Schweitzer men do — will continue to wind ribbon onto spools using a device Justin's grandfather crafted in the 1930s, stockpiling odd parts in odd drawers and overseeing. graveyards of old machines to cannibalize for the resurrection of others.
"I have quite a large selection in the basement of my home," Paul said.
Watch a Fox NY news report:
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/NY-last-typewriter-repairman.mp4
Good Samaratin Pulls Man from Truck as it Hangs over Cliff
A construction worker who rescued a man from his sport-utility vehicle as it dangled precariously over the edge of an Idaho cliff says he didn't hesitate.
"I knew I had to get him out of the car," Jason Warnock, 29, told NBC News on Thursday, a day after the dramatic rescue.
Warnock was in Lewiston, driving on Bryden Canyon Road below the crash, at around 8 a.m. when he saw a log on the road. Looking up, he saw a 2000 GMC Yukon teetering over the edge of the 30-foot drop — held in place by a chain link fence. He ran up the road and to a pedestrian bridge to reach the vehicle.
He was wearing heavy work boots. "I didn't think I was going to make it," Warnock said.
"I was going to break the window with one of my tools, but I was worried that the impact might push the car over the ledge," said Warnock, who lives in nearby Clarkston, Washington.
The driver, 23-year-old Mathew Sitko, eventually rolled down the passenger side window and Warnock was able to pull him to safety. The dramatic rescue was captured by a photographer for the Lewiston Morning Tribune newspaper.
Sitko was disoriented, and reaching for his music player, Warnock said.
"He just asked about his iPod, and then I was like, 'Give me your hand, you know, because if this thing goes I want to have a hold of you so I can yank you,'" Warnock said.
"He was pretty broke up in what he was saying but then he was like, 'I started reading the Bible last night.' And I was like that's awesome, you know, that's great. Great news," Warnock said.
"I think maybe God … put me here at the right time, and he held you up here for sure for a reason," Warnock remembers telling the driver. "Maybe it's meant to bring you closer to him," he told Sitko.
Lewiston interim police chief Roger Lanier said the accident was triggered by "some sort of mental or emotional episode" that Sitko was having. He was treated for minor injuries, police said.
"What he told the officers was he was literally driving along after dropping off his younger siblings for school, and he was listening to a song on the radio, and some lyrics in the song convinced him that it was essentially his time to die," Lanier said. "He just closed his eyes, took his hands off the wheel, and pressed the accelerator."
Warnock said he doesn't want much attention for his efforts, which is why he left as soon as police arrived, not even giving the officer his name. They sat in the grass and chatted until police arrived.
"After I pulled him out I hugged him," Warnock said. "And we sat down and talked about the Bible."
Watch an NBC report:
http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Idaho-Cliff-Crash-Hero_NBC-Today.mp4
from Myfoxny.com and NBC News

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Viking track impresses home crowd
Andy York
Senior Eric Davis led the Vikings by taking first place in the 3000-meter-steeplechase and second in the 5000-meter-run. (Andy York)
The Lawrence University Track team faired very well at the Wisconsin Private College Championships Tuesday. The Men and women both finished in third place. The women had many unbelievable individual performances. Sarah Slivinski was on a tear for the Vikings. She finished third in four events, and won the javelin throw. She finished third in the high jump, the long jump, the triple jump, and the 400-meter hurdles. Shelly Ebert was also a force for Lawrence. Ebert won both the 800-meter run and the 1500-meter run. Jess Moser was also a major contributor for Lawrence. Moser finished first in the 200-meter dash, and third in the 400-meter dash. Val Curtis was another runner who faired very well on Tuesday. She Finished first in the 10000-meter run, and second in the 5000-meter run. Sally Schonfeld was the last of five Vikings to place high in two or more events. Schonfeld was second in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and fourth in the 800-meter run. Other top finishers for the Vikings were Kelly Scheer who finished second in the 10000-meter run, Michelle Milne, who finished second in the 100-meter hurdles, Lisa Tranel, who finished third in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and Mary Markowitz, who finished third in the pole vault. Combined these women led Lawrence to one of their best finishes of the season.On the men's side, there were also many individual leaders that pulled the team together. Senior Eric Davis had an outstanding day for the Vikings in his last home meet. He won the 3000-meter steeplechase, and then took second place in the 5000-meter run. Don smith also provided necessary leadership has he took second place in the 800-meter run, and with an amazing time, anchored the 4X400 relay to first place. Smith took the baton with approximately a six second deficit, and by the time he was done running, the Vikings had a two second victory. Steve Geisthardt had a very good day for Lawrence. The freshman took first in the 400-meter hurdles, and also took third in the 110-meter hurdles. Sam Buckett also had a very good day, but he did it quietly. Buckett dressed in a hideous blue warm up suit from the seventies led the Vikings in the field events. He took fourth in the long jump, second in the 110-meter hurdles, and second in the pole vault. Bucket's second place finish in the pole vault aided Lawrence to sweep the event. Aaron Guigar finished first, and Adam Wood finished third in the event for Lawrence. Other top finishers for the Vikings include Josh Meyer finishing third in the high jump, Kyle Hewitt finishing fifth in the 400-meter dash, and Paul Schonfeld finishing fifth in the 1500-meter run. The Vikings had many individual highs, but also as a team as well. This was the best finish the men have had all season. Both teams look to keep the momentum going at they compete Saturday at the University of Wisconsin Twilight Meet in Madison Saturday.
The Lawrentian Staff - May 3, 2002
Andy York Senior Eric Davis led the Vikings by taking first place in the 3000-meter-steeplechase and second in the 5000-meter-run. (Andy York) The Lawrence University Track team faired very well at the Wisconsin Private College Championships Tuesday. The Men and women both finished in third place. The women had many unbelievable individual performances. Sarah Slivinski…


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June 25, 2017 June 24, 2017 / andrewmisk	/ Leave a comment
Dir. Ted Demme
Written by: David McKenna, Nick Cassavetes (from the book by Bruce Porter)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Jordi Molla, Paul Reubens, Ray Liotta
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a glut of movies about the illicit drug trade hitting American theaters. From harrowing looks at heroin addiction like Requiem For A Dream, to thoughtful examinations of the intricacies and failures of the "war on drugs" like Traffic, to gritty police procedurals such as Narc, the subject matter of these films was as varied as their overall quality. It would seem, however, that Hollywood was addicted to drugs, and that audiences were looking for a fix as well. Looking at my shelf, I certainly tended toward enjoying these types of movies it seems. I owned all three of the aforementioned films, plus other druggy classics from the 90s like Trainspotting and New Jack City. Blow slotted in nicely alongside some of these other films, it wasn't as gritty or real as something like Traffic, but it made for a slick, entertaining movie about the life of one of the biggest cocaine traffickers in history. I remember enjoying the film a lot as a teen, but watching it for this post for the first time in a decade, Blow mostly felt hollow and definitely doesn't stand up with the rest of the movies mentioned here.
Blow is a biopic about the life of George Jung (Depp), America's biggest cocaine trafficker in the 1970s and 1980s. Jung was a part of the infamous Medellin cartel, headed by Pablo Escobar, and he is almost single-handedly responsible for the cocaine craze of the 1980s. It was once estimated that some 85% of the cocaine imported in that decade was brought across the border by Jung. The film opens with Jung's childhood in Massachusetts, where his hard-working but poor father, Fred (Liotta), teaches him the lesson that money is not important, despite the materialistic instincts of his mother. It would seem that the lesson didn't stick, because as soon as Jung is able, he and his friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee) move to California to pursue bigger and better things, and end up becoming local celebrities selling high-grade marijuana. Jung's ambition lands him in prison when he is busted with over 600 pounds of marijuana, and it is here that he meets Diego (Molla) who offers to introduce him to his Columbian friends after they get out of prison. Diego makes the introduction to Escobar, and the rest, as they say, is history. Jung becomes a bigger trafficker than ever, making millions in the cocaine trade, until the birth of his daughter causes him to have an epiphany and a change of heart, and he promises his wife Mertha (Cruz) that he will get out of the life. However, Jung is unable to fly straight, and his continued dalliances with cocaine end up robbing him of his life and his family, and putting him in prison for a 60-year sentence. Jung was released from prison in 2014, but the film ends with him still locked up, having never reconciled with his daughter.
As crime films go, Blow follows a fairly standard arc. The protagonist comes up from nothing, is introduced to the criminal underworld, finds that he has a particular knack for criminality, and, ultimately, flies too close to the Sun and must pay the consequences. It borrows heavily from established classics of the genre, in particular Scorsese's Goodfellas. The casting of Liotta as Jung's father only serves as a constant reminder of that other, better film. It isn't that Blow is a bad film, necessarily. Most films would pale in comparison to Goodfellas, as it's universally recognized as one of the best crime movies ever made. It's just that Blow lacks the depth of some of the better films in the genre. It is perfectly fine entertainment, but its over-reliance on voice over narration and montage makes the audience feel like we're never really getting close to the real George Jung. Too often the film opts to tell, rather than show, causing it to feel light and insubstantial, like a cheap knock off. Rarely does the film deviate from the standard path set for it by the generic conventions of storytelling, and even its more inspired sequences feel predictable because it is a story that's been told so many times before. I think a big problem might just be that George Jung is not an inherently interesting subject for a biopic. There's no attempt to portray him as morally conflicted, or even a suggestion that the toll that his product can take on lives has ever even occurred to him. In the film, Jung seems purely interested in acquiring money and possessions, and he's motivated by little else. He's a largely influential and notorious figure, but he doesn't seem to have any particular personality traits or quirks that make him a noteworthy subject.
Johnny Depp tries to breathe some life into Jung, and he does a nice job in the film of making Jung somewhat relatable and interesting. This film was released just a couple of years before the first Pirates of the Caribbean film would propel Depp into absolute mega-stardom and divert the direction of his acting career, and it's one of the last movies where he isn't playing "Johnny Depp playing Character X." I'm not a huge fan of Depp as an actor, particularly not his post-Pirates work, but he does good work as Jung. The part doesn't require him to do much dramatic heavy lifting, as it doesn't really delve much into Jung's psychology or emotion, but he feels genuine towards the end of the film when he is attempting to resolve the broken relationship with his daughter. By this point, Jung has lost everything, and Depp plays him with a kind of calm acceptance, rather than desperation. The film's final scene is supposed to be the emotional climax, when it's revealed that an aging Jung, sentenced to 60 years in prison, has never received a visit from his daughter. It's a shame that the script didn't provide enough opportunity for Depp to fully flesh out the character or his relationships, because this emotional payoff falls flat entirely.
The rest of the cast performs admirably, for the most part. I like Ethan Suplee in just about everything he's done, but he is largely used as wallpaper in the film, dropping out of the story entirely by the middle. Paul Reubens is great as a flamboyantly gay hairdresser who introduces Jung to the world of marijuana sales. The role was a big comeback for Reubens after his popularity had declined in the 1990s following his arrest for indecent exposure. He brings the same manic energy to the role of Derek Foreal that he brought to his signature role as Pee Wee, although for a much different audience. The biggest disappointment in the movie is probably Cruz, as Jung's wife. She isn't really on screen much, as her character isn't introduced until over halfway through the film. She plays a bigger role towards the end of the film, but her performance is largely forgettable. She rebounds for a scene late in the film where reconciles with her former husband, but her role is otherwise too light.
The film doubles down on its lead actor and protagonist, to the detriment of its overall success. It chooses to highlight style over substance, with multiple showy montages set to classic rock staples. These sequences are fun, and they're probably the best parts of the movie, but, like I mentioned before, they feel preordained and derivative. Watching Jung and Diego do blow and try to find places in their apartment to stash boxes upon boxes of money while "Blinded by the Light" by ELO plays in the background is fun, but it isn't particularly inspired, nor is "That Smell" by Lynyrd Skynyrd underlining Jung's descent into full-blown cocaine addiction. Scorsese is probably the best when it comes to taking iconic classic rock songs and pairing them with memorable filmic images. He's been doing it his whole career. It's obvious that Ted Demme is borrowing heavily from that style, but in being so literal with his song choices, he misses a lot of the point of the exercise.
Ultimately, Blow is a fine movie. It is entertaining, it's well shot, and generally well-acted, to boot. It's just tough to want to watch Blow when there are so many other films from the same time period that deal with similar subject matter in a more interesting or more in-depth manner. Blow was only modestly successful at the box office, and it currently has an approval rating of just over 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels about right. It's certainly not a bad movie, but it isn't very good either, or very memorable. Honestly, I think that the experience of watching Blow is pretty similar to the experience of using its namesake drug. It's fun while you're doing it, but whenever the effects wears off, you're really not left with a whole lot.
Blood Simple (1984)
Dir. Joel Coen
Written by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand, John Getz, Dan Hedaya, Samm-Art Williams, M. Emmet Walsh
I've written before about the breadth and depth of Coen Brothers' filmography. Blood Simple is a perfect example of that depth. Their debut film, it serves as an artistic statement that would define the scope of their career. It finds the brothers arriving on the cinematic scene, nearly fully formed. Though later works would achieve more popularity or prestige, Blood Simple stands out as one of the great debuts in all of film, resembling more the work of an established filmmaker at the height of his or her powers than the first offering from a couple of neophytes. It establishes their interest in genre filmmaking, and many of their trademark cinematic devices appear in the film, at least in rudimentary forms. Far from serving as a still-developing sketch, or an indicator of potential artistry, Blood Simple is a fully formed near-masterpiece in its own right. It's a dark tale of murder, adultery, and deception set against the backdrop of the Texas desert that winds itself up to a frenzy by the third act and maintains a breakneck pace towards disaster. An unyielding thriller that can keep an audience on the edge of their seat for the duration, the film stands up among the best work that the Coen Brothers have done in their long and fruitful career, despite still being somewhat underseen when compared to their more popular works.
The film opens with Ray (Getz) and Abby (McDormand) driving down a Texas highway at night. Their conversation concerns Abby's failing marriage to Marty (Hedaya), who also happens to own the bar that Ray works at. Though their stated destination is Houston, the two pull into a motel and spend the night. Marty, suspecting their affair, has hired a private investigator, Loren Visser, (Walsh) to follow them, and he snaps a few photos of them in their hotel room as proof of the affair. When he provides this proof to Marty, the detective implies that for the right price he'd be willing to eliminate Marty's problem, though Marty initially turns him down. Eventually, though, Marty seeks out Visser, hiring him to kill both Ray and Abby for $10,000. Rather than go through with the hit, Visser breaks into Ray's home and steals Abby's gun, then takes photos of them sleeping again. He returns to Marty with doctored photos, depicting the sleeping couple as corpses riddled with bullet holes, and after receiving his payment he double-crosses Marty, shooting him in the chest with Abby's gun and leaving him to bleed out. Later, Ray returns to the bar to find an unresponsive Marty and Abby's gun. Thinking that she has killed Marty, he decides to cover up the murder. The ensuing cover up leads to miscommunications between Ray and Abby, with each thinking that the other is responsible for the killing of Marty, while Visser engages in a deadly pursuit of the couple, hoping to erase any link to his crime.
Blood Simple is a master class in economical storytelling. At its core, it's a straightforward revenge story, and even as its narrative gets more complex with the added double-crosses and misunderstandings, it doesn't lose any focus or narrative momentum. The film essentially has only five characters, the previously mentioned four, plus Meurice (Williams), the other bartender at Marty's bar, who finds himself tangentially caught up in the murder plot. Largely though, the film revolves around the principals in the love triangle and the murderous Visser, as they play out a savage game of cat and mouse in the Texas back country. With a few notable exceptions, the Coens eschew narrative ambiguity or overarching mystery as drivers of tension in the film, instead letting the audience in on all of the details of the story. Watching the characters make questionable decisions and wrong assumptions about one another heightens the tension for the audience, as the spectators are able to see the Greek tragedy unfolding in front of them, even as the characters are blind to their surroundings. In fact, the title comes from a turn of phrase in which someone is said to be "blood simple" after being rendered incapable of higher thought or decision making in the face of violent surroundings. The film makes the viewer want to reach through the screen and shake Ray and Abby, warning them of the impending doom that's closing in.
The Coens also heighten narrative tension through the film's masterful appropriation of classical noir visual style. The Coens have transported their crime drama from its usual urban setting to the middle of nowhere in the Texas desert, but they otherwise retain many of the stylistic cues of the genre. Aside from a few sunbaked exteriors, the film is dark, scenes often employing contrasting chiaroscuro lighting. Shadows are extreme, with characters' faces often partially or totally obscured by darkness as they issue straightforward, hardboiled dialogue. There is more than enough visual information in the frame to make up for the paucity of verbal context. The shadows reflect both the dubious nature of the characters' morality, and their duality. In this film, there are no true heroes; everyone is kissed by darkness in some way. Borrowing a trick from Sergio Leone, the Coens frame their characters in claustrophobic close-up, highlighting every pore and bead of sweat. At times, lazy flies are allowed to buzz in and out of the frame, crawling along Visser's brow while he meets with Marty to discuss their dirty deals. To say the film is atmospheric would be an understatement, as its mise-en-scene does more than suggest the seediness of its environs, it insists upon the palpability of the griminess of this universe. At times, the desperation practically leaps from the screen.
In addition to successfully adapting the tropes of the noir film, the Coens begin to establish their own unique visual and narrative style in Blood Simple. The slow burning tension of later films like Fargo and No Country For Old Men is on display here, with the brothers already proving to be masters of pace and timing. The film's first two acts are languorously paced. Scenes of dialogue are allowed to play out slowly, either unexpectedly erupting into acts of violence, or, rather, expected violence is denied. The Coens punctuate their shot/reverse shot with stylish tracking shots and rapid zooms that force the viewer to take notice. The final third of the film boils over with tension as Visser closes in on Abby and Ray, stalking them through her apartment. The characters have all gotten on a runaway train, and they're forced to pursue the ride to its logical end. The violence in the film, as in most of the brothers' later films, is matter-of-fact, an unfortunate consequence of the corrupted world in which these characters live. It seems that the Coens enjoy spinning yarns about everyday people who find themselves embroiled in larger schemes, and the roots of that narrative preoccupation are in Blood Simple.
The performances in the film are all top notch, with the Coens already showing a deft hand at directing actors. In what was her first ever film role, McDormand is perfect as Abby. Her performance gives the character just enough subtle edge to keep her true nature in the dark until the film's end. It's hinted that Abby might be some sort of femme fatale, but her actual level of duplicity is hard to pin down. She's a woman torn between a man she loves and one she fears, but McDormand never plays her as a dependent. She has steely resolve, and agency, that grows to a lethal capacity in the film's final showdown with Visser. She's able to balance manic outbursts of emotion and quietly determined acts of violence, and remain convincing in both circumstances. Neither Getz nor Hedaya are given much dialogue to work with, but they embody both of their roles with a lived-in physicality. Hedaya's Marty haunts most of the film as a dead or dying presence, his body often visible on the edges of the frame as a reminder of the murder that has embroiled all of these characters. Getz plays Ray as a working stiff who's simply in over his head, but his workmanlike approach belies a darker side to the character. When it comes time to dispose of Marty's body, Ray drives him out to the desert where he finds out that Marty is mortally wounded, but not dead yet. He proceeds to bury him alive in a harrowing, slowly-paced scene that escalates the stakes and the tension in the film. There is no dialogue, but both actors give memorable performances, with Hedaya struggling mightily to stay alive while Getz slowly, steadily shovels dirt into his face.
It's Walsh, however, who steals the film with his unhinged portrayal of the sleazy detective, Visser. Unlike the other characters in the film, there is little duality to Visser. Walsh plays him as purely evil, and in fact, he seems to enjoy and revel in his impurity. He breathes malice and corruption into his words, and his physical performance is palpably slimy. Visser seems to ooze into locked apartments, snapping his covert photographs and stealing bits of evidence, his stealth belied by the actor's large stature. When it is time for him to pursue his quarry in earnest, Walsh plays Visser as a ruthless, efficient hunter, stalking Abby through her apartment until she is finally able to get the drop on him. Walsh's performance is similar to John Goodman's performance as Charlie Mundt in Barton Fink. Both characters come to symbolize evil incarnate in their filmic worlds, but unlike Mundt, Visser is rotten to the core. Where Goodman's good-natured charm shines through some of Mundt's cracks, Walsh never allows any light to permeate Visser's dark patina. Even his humor is black as the Texas asphalt over which he tracks Ray and Abby.
In lesser hands, a movie like Blood Simple might add up to just another paint-by-numbers pot boiler. The familiar elements are all present here: a spurned lover spurred to murderous rage, cases of double-cross and mistaken identity, a Chekhov's gun which fulfills its narrative promise. However, the Coens routinely elevate basic subject matter and genre filmmaking to the level of complex, high art, and that streak is begun with their debut. They take a very straightforward story in Blood Simple and filter it through excellently realized character work and impeccable visual style to produce an end result that is engaging and visionary. Most of their films are genre experiments, but rarely are they as pure as Blood Simple. The film sets out to deliver a compelling tale of murder and do it in a suspenseful manner, despite removing narrative ambiguity, and it succeeds entirely. Like the characters in the film, once things start to break bad, the audience is simply along for the ride, hoping to survive to the end. When that end arrives, the audience has been taken on a sickening ride that explores the depths of moral depravity and human capacity for malice. Many of the Coen Brothers' narrative and stylistic obsessions are on display here, so it is a must watch for any fan of their corpus, as well as any fan of well-realized suspense and crime films.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Dir. Mel Brooks
Written by: Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger
Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens
Mel Brooks is one of the great masters of film comedy, and I was a fan from early in childhood. I don't know if I saw Young Frankenstein first or Robin Hood: Men in Tights, but those were the movies that introduced me to Brooks's brand of humor, both broad and witty, high- and low-brow, verbal and slapstick. Half of the jokes went right over my young head, but it didn't matter because there were so many jokes. Some of the simplest jokes in Mel Brooks's movies are the best, and thinking back on it, I think my love of comedy probably came from the "walk this way" gag in Young Frankenstein. It's such a simple, stupid sight gag, but it works perfectly and it's laugh out loud funny. From there, I started getting really into comedy. I became interested in comedy as a type of art, and in what really made certain things funny. Sometime in the mid-90s, Comedy Central was added to our cable package and I started watching stand-up and tons of classic comedies. Somewhere along the line, I must have encountered Blazing Saddles, but I can't remember the first time specifically. I'm sure it was on some lazy morning or afternoon during my summer vacation from school while my parents were at work, but I don't really remember watching Blazing Saddles until I was a little older, probably 14 or 15 and going into high school. It wasn't until that age that I was really able to appreciate the movie for the kind of masterpiece that it was, anyways.
I know that I watched the movie at least a few times during high school, but it wasn't until it was screened in a film class that I took my senior year of high school that the real comic genius of Blazing Saddles sank in for me. The class helped to put the movie into a proper context for me. It introduced me to some of the classic Westerns that Blazing Saddles was sending up, and also to some early classic comedies to help put the film into a historical context in that sense. Thinking back on it, it was pretty amazing that my public high school in West Virginia offered a film class at all, but I was lucky that it did because it would be a very formative experience for me. I have that class to thank for introducing me to so many great American films, as well as a handful of foreign classics, and for cementing my desire to pursue an education and a career in film. The class was a senior-only elective that was taught by an English teacher with a particular interest in movies, and she varied the curriculum, including silent films, art house, and classics both new and old from all genres. It was great.
The film stars Cleavon Little as Bart, a railroad laborer who becomes the first black sheriff in the West. Bart is installed in his position by the corrupt Hedley Lamar (Korman), who is hoping to undermine the town of Rock Ridge and drive out its citizens so that he can buy up their property and profit in a land deal when the railroad passes through the town. Bart is in the unenviable position of being a black man in a frontier town full of white people (who all seem to be related), but he eventually is able to win them over just in time to defend Rock Ridge from Lamar's schemes. Unable to shake the town's confidence in Bart, Lamar decides to recruit an army and take Rock Ridge by force. With the help of Jim (Wilder), a once-famous gunfighter who is now Rock Ridge's resident drunk, and his old friends on the railroad, Bart is able to conceive of a plan to save Rock Ridge from Lamar and his minions. In classic Western fashion, they construct a fake town, rig it with dynamite, and when the army attacks, they blow men and horses alike sky high. A chaotic brawl ensues with the characters spilling out of the film, over the fourth wall, and into the "real world." Eventually, Bart and the Kid meet back up in the world of the film (after taking a break to watch a bit of it in the movie theater), and, in a closing act fitting for Western heroes, ride off into the sunset…in a limousine.
The film's humor is all over the place, and it is one of the most jam-packed comedies that I've ever seen, with only Airplane! possibly packing more jokes into its scant runtime. Blazing Saddles, and nearly all of Brooks's comedies, acts as a catchall for 20th century comedy. It embraces the shtick and musicality of Brooks's roots as a Borscht Belt comedian, the physicality of slapstick, high-brow conceptual humor, and pointed social satire. It's the kind of movie that can surprise you on repeat viewings with new jokes, because you missed them while you were busy laughing at the other jokes. In addition to acting as a repository of American comedic tradition, Blazing Saddles also acts as a deconstructive tool for traditional myths of Americana in general. Brooks takes the traditional American Western film and turns many of its tropes on their heads to provide a commentary on the false nature of those American creation myths. For him, the frontier was not a promised land, peopled by cowboy heroes conquering nature through sheer force of will and determination. It was, instead, peopled by white men too boorish or corrupt to recognize the basic human decency of another man simply because his skin is a different shade.
Watching Blazing Saddles in school, in particular, felt somehow subversive. Not only was the film's humor too cutting edge for a classroom setting, even thirty years after the fact, its social and political commentary felt progressive in a modern setting as well. The film's take on race relations in America felt as fresh and accurate in 2004 as it must have felt in 1974, unfortunately. The film's treatment of racism, while humorous, is rightfully complex. In Blazing Saddles, as in real life, bigotry is the mindset of the ignorant and the crass. The townsfolk of Rock Ridge, aren't painted as cruel or unsympathetic people, but more as simpletons. They are uneducated, likely inbred, and fearful of anyone different than themselves because they have been fed a steady stream of misinformation about other groups of people. After they realize that Bart is a just, kind, and capable sheriff, they begin to warm to him, although only inasmuch as he is able to help them out of their own bad situation. For his own part, Bart has to prove himself doubly capable, just as many minorities today find that they have to work twice as hard in order to gain the same achievements as their white counterparts due to false biases against them.
I think that the great achievement of Blazing Saddles, however, is in pointing out the roots of bigotry and intolerance. While the townsfolk are ugly and crass, their racial hatred is stoked by the desires of the film's true villain, Hedley Lamar. He attempts to use racism as a tool to help him achieve his political and capitalist goals, installing Bart as the sheriff in an attempt to destabilize the status quo of Rock Ridge enough that he can swoop in and profit from others' losses. Bigotry is a tool that has been used by the upper class to fragment the working class for centuries, and Blazing Saddles depicts this truth subtly and perfectly. Race is a social construct used to divide people who should otherwise be working together for mutual benefit, and keeping people of different ethnicities and skin colors fighting amongst themselves has been key to maintaining a status quo in which the same wealthy land and business owners reap the most benefit. There is no room for equality in capitalism. While people are all, obviously, biologically the same, it is in the benefit of the ruling class to uphold the myth of racial difference.
One of the best and easiest ways for people to step outside of their comfort zones, racially speaking, is to engage with art that is made by and about the lives of people who may come from a different ethnic, racial, or socioeconomic background than themselves. One of the greatest things a movie can do for an audience is introduce them to a new way of thinking or open their eyes to a different way of life than they might be accustomed to. I was lucky to grow up in an open-minded household where people of all shapes, sizes, skin colors, and walks of life were welcomed and celebrated. I had and have friends from many different backgrounds. I am happy to live in a world that is diverse and multicultural, because I think that experiencing other cultures and other types of people inherently makes me a better and better-rounded person. But for someone who is not as sold on the values of inclusivity and equality, seeing a movie with a strong or relatable black protagonist might be the first step to some sort of understanding. I'm in no way making apologies or excuses for people who hold racist or bigoted beliefs, because I don't think there is any place for that sickness in a modern free society, but I do know that there are people who eagerly accept the information that is provided for them without seeking out counterpoint or clarification because they simply don't know any better. Vitriol can be persuasive, but so can humor. Sometimes the easiest way to someone's heart is through their funny bone. I think that maybe Mel Brooks had this in mind when he made Blazing Saddles.
June 4, 2017 June 2, 2017 / andrewmisk	/ Leave a comment
Dir. Ridley Scott
Written by: Hampton Fancher & David Peoples (from the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Blade Runner is, without doubt, my favorite film that I have so far reviewed for this project. By now, my affinity for science fiction is probably apparent, and I believe that Blade Runner is the finest modern science fiction film ever made. It carries on the traditions of genre classics, both in its style and in its themes, while also breaking new ground and introducing new tropes that would become staples of the sci-fi film for years to come. The film introduced the trappings of cyberpunk to the screen, and its dystopic vision of a future in which advanced cybernetic technology and artificial intelligence exist alongside the crumbling ruins of a once-proud earthbound 20th century society has informed the style of science fiction ever since. Without Blade Runner there is no Robocop, no Matrix, no Ghost in the Shell. Its importance in the history of the genre can't be understated, and, to me, it is a perfect film.
The film's opening title roll succinctly and directly introduces the film's themes, as well as the future world of 2019 in which it is set:
"Early in the 21st century, the Tyrell Corporation advanced Robot evolution into the NEXUS phase – a being virtually identical to a human – known as a Replicant. The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them. Replicants were used Off-world as slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and colonization of other planets. After a bloody mutiny by a NEXUS 6 combat team in an Off-world colony, Replicants were declared illegal on earth – under penalty of death. Special police squads – Blade Runner Units – had orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any trespassing Replicant. This was not called execution. It was called retirement."
Rick Deckard (Ford) is the titular Blade Runner, who is coerced to take one final assignment before his own retirement. A group of Replicants have escaped from one of the Off-world colonies, murdering over two dozen humans in the process, and Deckard is tasked with finding and retiring them. While tracking Pris (Hannah), Batty (Hauer), and the other Replicants, Deckard meets and falls in love with Rachael (Young), an advanced prototype Replicant who has been implanted with a human's memories. Deckard's relationship with Rachael causes him to question the nature of humanity as well as the moral implications of his hunt for the Replicants.
The film's premise is simple, but its presentation is incredibly complex. Scott packs the frame with visual information, introducing details about this world through a unique and unmistakable aesthetic. The film is unrelentingly dark, borrowing and updating the aesthetic of the noir film. This dark, gray color palette is reflective of the fact that though Blade Runner presents a high-tech future, this is no age of enlightenment. It seems that society has regressed rather than progressed in spite of the strides of science and technology, with all but a few people living in relative squalor, scraping just to get by. The benefits of technology are reserved for the wealthy, like Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) who lives in a penthouse atop the massive Tyrell Building, which houses his corporation and which towers over the slums where most of the film's action takes place. The shadowy streets below the Tyrell Building are lit up by crisscrossing search lights, and characters' faces are illuminated by the flashing lights of the omnipresent flying police cruisers, giving the world a paranoid sense of constant surveillance. The only steady sources of light are the glowing neon billboards, advertising products like Coca-Cola and Atari. In the future that Blade Runner imagines, it would seem that traditional nation-states have been abandoned in favor of an overarching corporate hegemony.
Blade Runner is as dense symbolically and textually as it is visually, with Scott drawing on a history of literary and filmic influences to further his film's themes. One of the most obvious parallels in the film can be drawn from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Arguably one of the first works of science fiction, the tale of man's quest to play God and create life has its fingerprints all over Blade Runner. All of the Replicants are, in a way, spiritual cousins to the famous Monster. His body, constructed as it was from corpse parts, was a reminder of man's mortality, just as the Replicants' built-in four year life span is a constant reminder of the fleeting nature of life on earth. And just like the Monster, the Replicants never asked to be created, but now that they have been given the gift of life, they naturally begin to seek out meaning in their existence. Theirs is a tragic case of an unfortunate being that was given all of the capacities to question their existence, but none of the means to truly enjoy it or make it meaningful. The film also takes several cues from Fritz Lang's sci-fi classic, Metropolis, which concerns itself with widening class inequality in a seemingly Utopian future. In both its themes and its art design, Blade Runner owes a deep debt of gratitude to the earlier film. These literary and cinematic callbacks help to align Blade Runner in the larger history of science-fiction, and align its themes with the ur-questions that sci-fi has been asking since its inception: "What is Man's place in the Universe?" "What, if any, is the will of our Creator?" and, ultimately, "What does it mean to be Man?"
These questions are most directly brought up in the character of Roy Batty, leader of the rogue Replicants, and his quest to meet his maker. Religious symbolism is prevalent throughout the film, but the most obvious religious motifs and iconography are associated with the character of Roy Batty. His character is the most fleshed out of all the Replicants, and he seems to be the only one with a concrete goal in mind after their mutiny and escape to Earth. He is on a quest to meet Dr. Tyrell and inquire as to the purpose of his short life. Batty is the prodigal son, returned to his father to be celebrated as a crowning achievement, but he's also the avenging angel, bringing Tyrell his comeuppance in the form of a swift and brutal death. Later in the film, Scott makes a more direct religious allusion when he has Batty drive a nail through his palm while he is chasing Deckard through the abandoned hotel at the end of the film. The gesture has major significance in the context of the larger scene – Batty uses the nail to stabilize his malfunctioning hand as it becomes apparent that he is shutting down – but when coupled with Batty cradling a dove while he gives his final soliloquy, the symbolic meaning is even more apparent. All of the Replicants, but particularly Batty, are Christ figures. They were created to save humanity from the hardships of labor and war, but most importantly, like Christ, they were created to die. They were also created as an Other, something for their human counterparts to hold up as an example of non-life, non-humanity. However, unlike Christ, their suffering and death is as robbed of meaning and permanence as their short lives. Like Batty says before he dies, all of the wonderful things that he has seen, things that no human will ever experience, will be washed away, "like tears in rain." If the measure of humanity is one's capacity to empathize and value the experience and the life of one less fortunate that oneself, then the humans in Blade Runner have failed the test spectacularly.
Of course, it is really the tragic figure of the doomed Replicants that the audience is meant to pity by the film's end. Their circumstances, being brought into a cruel world that seeks to use them for slave labor and then discard them after four years of life, is naturally pitiable enough, but the performances of the actors portraying the Replicants, particularly Hannah and Hauer, breathe humanity into these robots and give them an emotional depth often unseen in films about androids. Brion James and Joanna Cassidy are both good in their roles as Leon and Zhora, respectively, but these two Replicants aren't given nearly as much screentime as Pris and Batty. All of the actors play the Replicants with a kind of savagery that's bubbling just underneath the surface. Hannah plays Pris like a wounded dog in her first appearance in the film. She beds down under some trash outside Tyrell Corporation geneticist, J.F. Sebastian's (William Sanderson) home. When he discovers her, she's initially frightened, shying away from his gaze before she reluctantly agrees to come inside and be his friend. Of course this is all a canny set up, a ruse to gain Batty access to Dr. Tyrell, but Pris is convincing enough for the naïve, lonely Sebastian. To this point, it seems that the Replicants are prone to lash out violently when backed into a corner, programmed to focus on short term survival, but when Batty and Pris are reunited at Sebastian's, they exchange a series of small glances that make the audience aware that this was all a part of their cunning plan.
Eventually Deckard tracks Pris down at the dilapidated hotel that Sebastian has taken over as his home. Pris gets the better of Deckard, getting the drop on him by pretending to be one of Sebastian's harmless animatronic creations and then showing off her advanced athletic prowess as she does back handsprings across the room, grabbing Deckard in a choke hold with her legs. Rather than killing Deckard, she goes back for another gymnastic run across the room, giving him time to recover. Deckard shoots Pris down and she dies, screaming and writhing on the floor. There's both a mechanical and an animalistic quality to the way that she twitches on the floor before dying. In one sense, she seems to be malfunctioning, but in another she seems to be a panicked animal, caught in a trap, trying desperately to free itself when it's already too late. In this brief scene, Pris encapsulates the experience of being a Replicant so well. She lures Deckard in with her cunning, and overpowers him with her superior physicality, but her downfall is her innate desire to show off. She could have easily killed Deckard, but Pris instead opts to give another display of her power and it ultimately costs her her life.
The most advanced Replicant, of course, is Batty. He's the oldest of the four, only a few months away from the end of his four-year life span, and he has had the most lived experience and learned the most about mankind and what it means to be human. Rutger Hauer is a tour de force in the film's final scenes, playing Batty as both Id and Ego as he pursues Deckard to the rooftop of the hotel. The hunter has become the hunted, as Batty attempts to give Deckard a taste of the fear that the Replicants must feel every day. Batty, like Pris, displays animalistic qualities, howling and barking after Deckard and running lithely through the crumbling building. This is, of course, only one side of his personality, as he also repeatedly goads Deckard with quips about fairness, competence, and humanity. He seems omnipresent as his voice projects from the walls, crashing through the plaster on occasion to remind Deckard that his pursuer is just on his heels. Batty's manic pursuit of Deckard is one of the film's most memorable sequences, with Hauer's intensely blue eyes and menacing smile popping off the screen. He plays the doomed Replicant with malice, but never lets the audience forget that Batty is a tragic figure.
Batty's final soliloquy, which Hauer wrote himself on set, gets to the crux of the film's argument about humanity. In just the four years that he was given to live, Batty has experienced and seen things that no human ever will. He has developed a personality, emotions, and, most importantly, a set of memories that are uniquely his and a bit of life experience from which he can draw. These are the qualities that make Batty a human being, even though he is not designated as such. When he is no more, all of those experiences will be lost. Being granted life, Batty's desire was to live it, freely, to gain experience and knowledge, but his creators had another plan for him. When Batty saves Deckard from falling off the roof, he passes the ultimate test of his humanity, ironically a test that none of the film's human characters seems possible of passing. Batty has developed empathy, and by allowing Deckard to live, and explaining to him that the fear that he is feeling at that moment is akin to the fear that the Replicants feel every day of their existence, Batty is passing that lesson on. Before he dies, Batty releases a dove which flies skyward. The camera follows it up and gives the first glimpse of a blue sky beyond the smokestacks and fog of Los Angeles.
I haven't even touched on so many things that I love about Blade Runner, but to try to fit everything in to one post would be a fool's errand. I called it a perfect film, and I feel it is that because it's more than the sum of its parts. It works on both an ethical level and on a strictly narrative level, leaving the audience with questions to ponder about both. The film contains great performances, a fantastic score, a visual aesthetic that helped to influence and define an era of science-fiction filmmaking. It asks heavy philosophical questions and largely lets the audience fill in their own answers. The basic question that viewers of the film tend to ask, namely "Is Deckard a Replicant?", can be answered by posing another, more important question: "What does it mean to be a human when the most humane characters in the film are the Replicants?" It ultimately doesn't matter whether or not Deckard is a man or a machine, because in Blade Runner humanity is not strictly defined by the presence or absence of mechanical parts. It's defined by what the characters do with the life they're given. It's defined by their desire for "More life, fucker/father." It's defined by a striving to be and do more, to consume experience with a voraciousness and to give meaning to that experience.


This concluding chapter takes in the entire century, highlighting continuities and disjunctions, repertorial patterns, absences, and disappearances. It addresses the ways in which early music's increasing normality related to aesthetic conservatism after around 1840, discusses the reasons for certain works' totemic allure, cautions against the rigid association of certain aesthetic choices with particular political persuasions, and foregrounds pervasive feelings of French musical decadence as a driving force for revivalism of both French and foreign music. Paradoxically, after decades of disdain, French Baroque dance and keyboard music — low-status "feminine" repertories — became the focus for turn-of-the-century composers writing explicitly "French" music, while Bach became a "universal" reference point. Finally, the book returns to its opening (Le Vieux Paris, 1900), broadening to address the general question of what revivalism can tell us about the ideological premises that underpin cultural life.
An aesthetic, historical, and theoretical study of four scores, this text is a treatment of the topic of Russian opera in the Silver Age. Spanning the gap between the supernatural Russian music of the 19th century and the compositions of Prokofiev and Stravinsky, the book explores how Russian symbolist poets interpreted opera and prompted operatic innovation. The book shows how these works, though stylistically and technically different, reveal the extent to which the operatic representation of the miraculous can be translated into its enactment. The book treats these largely unstudied pieces by canonical composers: Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades; Rimsky-Korsakov's Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya; Scriabin's unfinished Mysterium; and Prokofiev's Fiery Angel. The chapters, revisionist studies of these composers and scores, address separate aspects of symbolist poetics, discussing such topics as literary and musical decadence, pagan-Christian syncretism, theurgy, and life creation, or the portrayal of art in life. The appendix offers a complete English-language translation of Scriabin's libretto for the Preparatory Act.
Wackenroder's tale "Joseph Berglinger" is used to model the cultural practice of Schumann and his circle, fashioning idealistic notions about Beethoven's Ninth Symphony while scorning bourgeois concert goers and their untutored figurative language of adulation. This separation of "elite" comprehension from social class and power proves to have helped generate creative energies that both commoditized and explored grand orchestral music as an inner, subjective experience. It also conditioned the "decadence" affected by the haughtily expressed idealism of some composers and their critics. Rachmaninoff and Delius are considered as exemplars of Seidl's "New Musical Lyric" style, caught between the cultural character of the symphony concert and the exploration of musical expression at its most refined.
Not unlike Jugendstil, 'decadence' has had a difficult time establishing itself in musical scholarship. In both cases, concept and label originated and were used chiefly in other fields: the former in the visual arts, the latter in literature. Moreover, both had been entrenched in specific cultures: German(ic) in the one case, French in the other. Yet another impediment to an objective application of 'decadence' in musical discourse arises from the contradictions, misunderstandings, and misinterpretations that span the term's history in all disciplines. Finally, for a broadly interdisciplinary examination of Mahler's life and music under the convolute concept of decadence, transition, and modernism (the purpose of this chapter), the historian must take into account Vienna's unique social, political, and artistic complexion around 1900.


Lightweight and rugged, the Pelican™ Storm Case™ is the result of years of perfecting and testing in both the laboratory and the field. From the proprietary HPx™ plastic resin that is tough during low-temperature impact testing, to the patented Press & Pull latch that opens easily, every facet of these lightweight cases has been created to defend your vital gear.
The Pelican™ Storm Case™ has been designed to meet or exceed military testing requirements. Many are airline size appropriate, and all are internationally shippable.


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Publication of inside information on BGH IIP
Balkan Gas Hub EAD operates the first and sole platform for disclosure of inside information in Bulgaria and the SEE region, registered by ACER. more...
2023 GAS RELEASE PROGRAM AUCTIONS
In continuation of the news from November 11, 2022 regarding the start of registration of potential participants in the Gas Release Program for 2023, we would like to inform you that according to the news published by Bulgargaz EAD, tenders under the program for 2023 will not be held. more...
Start of Registration for Participation in the 2023 Gas Release Programme
Withregards to the auctions under the Gas Release Programme (GRP) for contracts with a delivery period in 2023 more...
FORTHCOMING AUCTION FOR THE PURCHASE OF NATURAL GAS BY BULGARGAZ EAD FOR DECEMBER 2022
We are pleased to inform you that on 7 November 2022, from 9:00 to 12:00 (Sofia), an auction for the purchase of natural gas by Bulgargaz EAD for a product with a delivery period of December 2022, with a delivery point Virtual Trading Point of Bulgartransgaz EAD (VTP Bulgaria) will be held on the trading platform of Balkan Gas Hub EAD. more...
We are pleased to inform you that on 27 October 2022, from 9:00 to 12:00 (Sofia), the second auction for the purchase of natural gas for technological needs by ICGB EAD for daily products with delivery dates 02 November 2022, 03 November 2022 and 04 November 2022 with a delivery point IP Stara Zagora will be held on the trading platform of Balkan Gas Hub EAD. more...


Now onto our third release Faerie Dragon this time presents you with the much anticipated debut album of Salakavala from Helsinki, Finland. most fans of Soumi sound will recognise Salakavala from their web releases on their free mp3 website Antiscarp.tk. This album contains many of Salakavala's finest tunes that have remained until now unreleased, the cream of the crop from years spent in their studio. The music itself is free flowing truly psychedelic trance with fantastic Suomi flavour.


The word COMPANDER is a contraction of words COMpressor and ExPANDER. In Telecommunicaton and Signal Processing ,Compander is a non-linear circuit used for improving the signal-to-noise ratio.The data rate is important in telecommunication because it is directly proportional to the cost of transmitting the signal. Saving bits is the same as saving money. Companding is a common technique for reducing the data rate of audio signals by making the quantization levels unequal.
An electronic circuit implementing the compander consists of a logarithmic amplifier at the transmitter for compression and an anti-logarithmic amplifier at the receiver to nullify the effect caused by the compression. When an analog signal is applied at input of logarthmic Amplifier,the input signal is compressed and this is sent through channel which comprises of linear variable gain amplifier and at the receiver end,we receive this compressed signal and at end of anti logarthmic amplifier We can retrieve the original signal which is expanded form of compressed signal.
Professional wireless microphones use this compander since the dynamic range of the microphone audio signal itself is larger than the dynamic range provided by radio transmission.Compander is used in digital telephony systems, compressing before input to analog to digital converter and then expanding after a digital to analog converter.
Quantization error , effects of noise can be minimized using Compander. Companding is also effective in reducing buzz, hiss and low-level audio tones caused by mild interference. Companding reduces dynamic range so that fewer bits are needed to digitize the audio signal. Companding can improve the useful range of wireless systems as well.
By narrowing the dynamic range of the signal to be amplified, the noise that is amplified can be reduced.
For better signal to noise ratio (SNR) and to minimize distortion in received signal, compander is used.


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Violent Crimes Case Results
Hermosa Beach, Drunk Client Fights Bouncers, $200 Fine
The Hermosa Beach Police arrested our client after bouncers at a well-known, popular bar downtown reported that he had punched certain bouncers. The bouncers immediately responded with far more force, breaking our client's fingers and piling on top of him, kicking him repeatedly in the ribs and legs. They had a great deal of pent-up resentment of any bar patron who showed any amount of disrespect toward them.
Our client, age 42, was released from the police station with severe pain in his hand and blood caked in his hair, as well as scrapes to his elbows, shoulders and face.
The client was on probation for a second-time DUI, so this brush with the law marked his third-alcohol related criminal case in about five years. In his second DUI two years earlier, he had allegedly tried to escape police by evading arrest and then argued with police while being arrested. The second DUI was with the Hermosa Beach Police Department, too.
All was not gloom and doom, however, when the client came again to Greg Hill & Associates for his defense (we represented him on his second DUI earlier). He reported that the police only cited him for violating Penal Code § 647(f), public intoxication, and not fighting in public (Penal Code § 415(1)) as we expected, or battery (Penal Code § 242) as might have been expected. In other words, it appeared that police recognized either a self-defense issue or had trouble believing what the over eager and overly aggressive bouncers claimed (one of whom was an off-duty cop from another local city).
Our client also had two witnesses who Greg Hill contacted by telephone. Each witness reported in writing, under oath in a signed declaration, that the bouncers were extremely aggressive and our client was attacked after telling the bouncers to please just let him leave the bar.
Without All the Details, What Happened?: Hermosa Beach, drunk client allegedly fights bouncers, case resolved for misdemeanor disturbing the peace (Penal Code § 415) with only a $200 fine and payment of the Hermosa Beach booking fee.
At the arraignment, we saw that the he Hermosa Beach City Prosecutor did charge our client with only a violation of Penal Code § 647(f), public intoxication, much to our relief. The alcohol issue was a big factor in the case and the prosecutor initially sought 104 Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings by our client, as well as 20 anger management classes, a $500 fine plus penalties and assessments, 20 days of Cal-Trans, the $340 Hermosa Beach booking fee, a stay away order from the Pier Plaza area for three years and 36 months of informal, or summary, probation. Alternatively, our client could serve 120 days in county jail.
Our client was shocked by the severity of the first offer. Over the next eight months, Greg Hill gradually negotiated a better and better offer, first bringing in the signed witness statements of the two witnesses.
He then submitted a Defense Position Letter to the Hermosa Beach City Prosecutor, outlining the self-defense issues and explaining that alcohol really had nothing to do with the incident, although it would seem like a convenient reason to use to explain what happened, especially because the incident took place in a bar.
Eventually, after eight court appearances, the case was resolved for thirty-six months of summary probation, a $200 fine (no penalties or assessments added), payment of the booking fee and a stay away order from Pier Plaza.
The client was happy with the final terms of the plea bargain, as his work made doing 104 AA meetings impossible, let alone 20 anger management classes and 20 days of Cal-Trans. He was also appreciative that the financial outlay had been reduced from $500 plus penalties and assessments (approximately $2,500) to just $200 with no penalties and assessments.
It merits mention for the reader that there is no longer a dedicated Hermosa Beach City Prosecutor position with the city. Instead, misdemeanor matters such as this case are now handled by the Redondo Beach City Prosecutor's office.
For more information about the issues in this case summary, click on the following articles:
What Is Disturbing the Peace (Penal Code § 415)?
What Is Resisting Arrest under Penal Code § 148 (a)(1)?
Hermosa Beach, Drunk Client Fights Bouncers, $200 Fine :: Hermosa Beach Public Intoxication Lawyers Greg Hill & Associates


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Nissan Leaf Named Kelley Blue Book Green Car of 2011
Home » Automotive Reviews » Electric and Hybrid
Despite its miniscule fleet in the United States, the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle has been named the top green vehicle of 2011 by Kelley Blue Book because of its "ground-breaking combination of range, room and price."
The Chevy Volt, an electric car with a range-extending gas engine finished second in the voting by the renowned car guide.
Although there about 20,000 active reservations in the U.S. for the Nissan Leaf, less than 500 have been delivered via mechanical issues or the recent earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.
Kelley Blue Book labeled the Leaf as "the first electric car for the masses."
Here's a list of the top 10 electric cars of 2011, according to Kelly Blue Book:
1. 2011 Nissan Leaf: 99 miles per gallon equivalent
2. 2011 Chevy Volt: 93 miles per gallon equivalent
3. 2011 Toyota Prius: 50 miles per gallon (51 city, 48 highway)
4. 2011 Lexus CT 200h: 42 miles per gallon (43 city, 40 highway)
5. 2011 Honda Insight: 41 miles per gallon (40 city/43 highway)
6. 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid: 39 miles per gallon (41 city/36 highway)
7. 2011 Volkswagen Golf TDI: 34 miles per gallon (30 city/42 highway)
8. 2011 Hyundai Elantra: 33 miles per gallon (29 city, 40 highway)
9. 2012 Fiat 500: 33 miles per gallon (30 city/38 highway)
10. 2012 Ford Focus: 31 miles per gallon (28 city/38 highway)
PrevPreviousVolvo S60, 2011 car review
NextVolvo P1800, 1961-1973 car reviewNext


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Q: Overriding abstract methods in Java Here is a class View of the MVC paradigm, the class consist of 2 JDialogs, to be opened on click of JMenuItem - addEvent and editEvent.
 public class EventView extends javax.swing.JFrame {

 private javax.swing.JDialog addDialog;
private javax.swing.JDialog editDialog;

private EventModel model;

     /** Constructor */
    public EventView(EventModel model) {
        initComponents();
        this.model = model;
        updateEventTable();
    }

   public void addEventListener(ActionListener al) {
        addEventButton.addActionListener(al);
    }

  /* public void clearListener(ActionListener cl) {
        clearEventButton.addActionListener(cl);
    }*/

   public void addDialog(ActionListener ae) {
        addEvent.addActionListener(ae);

    }
   public void editDialog(ActionListener ee) {
        editEvent.addActionListener(ee);
    }

}

The controller class handles the user interaction with listeners.
public class EventController implements ActionListener {

//... The Controller needs to interact with both the Model and View.
private EventModel model;
private EventView view;

/** Constructor */
public EventController(EventModel model, EventView v){

    model = new EventModel();
    view = v;
    //... Add listeners to the view.
    view.addEventListener(new addEventListener());
    //view.clearListener(new clearEventListener());
    view.addDialog(new addDialogListener());
    view.editDialog(new editDialogListener());
}

class addEventListener implements ActionListener {
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
        String name = "";
        String date;
        String start="";
        String end="";
        String venue="";
        String details="";
        String opportunities="";
        String moreOppor="";

        try {
            name = view.getEventName();
            date = view.eventDate().toString();
            start = view.startTime();
            end = view.endTime();
            venue = view.locationWhere();
            details = view.getDetails();
            opportunities = view.getOpportunities();
            moreOppor = view.getMore();
            model.addEvent(name,date,start,venue,details,opportunities,moreOppor,end);
            view.showSuccess("Event Added!");

        } catch (Exception ex) {
            view.showError(ex);
        }
    }
}

class addDialogListener implements ActionListener {
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
       System.out.println("");

    }
}
class editDialogListener implements ActionListener {
    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
         System.out.println("");
    }
}

I have two question in relation to this module:

*

*EventController is showing an error that it is not abstract and does not override abstract method actionPerformed when I believe I did. Correct me if im wrong. I do have an additional JMenuItem called deleteEvent but I havent touched that yet. Working on NetbeansIDE F.Y.I

*I would like to replace the lines System.out.println(""); with something that will allow me to display the dialog addDialog of the view class but I cannot access the component. how to do this? I've tried view. but it doesnt show up allow for setVisible(true) .

A: *

*Your compiler is quite right:  EventController does not declare a public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) method. It does have two inner classes that have the method, though, but that doesn't count.

The way you have named your class, addEventListener, suggests that you really meant to call the method addEventListener instead of declare a class, but no definite suggestion can be given based on your code.

A: 1) You forgot to implement the actionPerformed() method in the EventController Class.
2) You should set the view as an argument of addDialogListener and editDialogListener.
Something like :
public class addDialogListener implements ActionListener {

    private EventView view;

    public addDialogListener(EventView view){
       this.view = view;
    }

    @Override
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
       view.doWhatever();
    }
}

And then :
view.addDialog(new addDialogListener(view));

A: public class EventController {

}

instead of
public class EventController implements ActionListener {

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Home/Products & Services/Meat & Poultry/Animal Welfare at Cargill/Our Recent Achievements
Animal Welfare at Cargill
Global Commitment Statement
Ongoing Commitment to Animal Welfare
Species-Specific Commitments
Beef Business
Broiler Chicken Business
U.S. Turkey Business
U.S. Egg Business
Key Issues We Care About
Our Recent Achievements
Industry Standards and Guidelines
Government Regulation
Research and Continuous Improvement
Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW)
For 2016, 2017 and 2018, the UK-based Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) named Cargill one of only a handful of companies globally to achieve Tier 1 or Tier 2 status, the two highest animal welfare levels in the organization's six-tier ranking system.
The BBFAW is designed to improve corporate reporting on farm animal welfare management, policies, practices, processes and performance and, over time, contribute to tangible improvements to the welfare of the animals raised for food within company supply chains.
It is the first global measure of farm animal management, policy commitment, performance and disclosure in food companies and is designed to enable investors, companies, NGOs and other stakeholders to understand the relative performance of food companies in this area. The program is supported by founding partners, Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection, who provide technical expertise, guidance, funding and practical resources. In 2014, Collar Capital joined the program as a partner.
The 2018 report validates Cargill's commitment to animal welfare best practices, policies, processes and performance. Cargill maintained its Tier 2 ranking for 2017.
View our 2019 survey responses to BBFAW here.
Remote Video Auditing (RVA) by a third party
Cargill employs remote video auditing (RVA) by a third party for animal welfare purposes at our North America animal processing facilities, including beef, turkey and chicken plants. We were the first to implement RVA at beef plants.
RVA empowers a third-party auditing firm to identify any deviations from Cargill's animal welfare policies and protocols. The audit firm provides immediate notification to Cargill management, which ensures any variances are efficiently and effectively identified and addressed.
RVA provides the transparency necessary to demonstrate Cargill is adhering to its commitments and provides the company with an independent evaluation of our processes that aid in our continuous improvement efforts.
Cargill's third-party RVA provider audits nearly 250,000 head of cattle annually at the company's processing facilities, in addition to auditing more than 42,000 Canadian broiler chickens weekly, and more than 47,000 turkeys weekly in the U.S.
Another technological advancement deployed for poultry
We are currently working with Oxford University in the UK to develop video motion equipment that will enable early detection of certain potential disease issues in flocks.
Meeting consumers' expectations
We offer products and solutions that align with our customer and consumer values. These include:
Our Honest Turkey™ is an antibiotic-free turkey product line available across the U.S.
Our Honeysuckle White® and Shady Brook Farms® turkey brands ended the use of gentamicin – an antibiotic used in both human and animal healthcare. Turkeys continue to receive antibiotics for control and treatment of disease.
In 2016, Cargill was the first major beef processor to announce a 20 percent reduction of antibiotics used for people and animals in the beef supply it controls.
Cargill offers a variety of cage-free egg products in the U.S.
Cargill is working with third parties to establish a certified and audited claim for humanely raised beef in the U.S. and Canada.
Cargill's Central America business is demonstrating its commitment to continuous improvement by learning and implementing cutting edge best practices at our Costa Rica chicken processing facility.
We are partnering with the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom on a project to evaluate and optimize bird handling and welfare. At the end of 2018, our facility and bird handlers will receive Poultry Welfare Officer certification.
Poultry Welfare Officer (PWO) Training courses were designed and initiated in 1994 and have since evolved, based on science, legislation and commercial practice. The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC - a UK Government independent advisory committee) stated in its 2003 report that the Animal Welfare Officer course developed by the University of Bristol, has attained a high level of recognition and the role of the Animal Welfare Officer should be formalized in legislation and their responsibilities should be outlined in the relevant code of practice.
The position and job description of PWO's was formalized in EC Regulation 1099/2009 from 1 January 2013 therefore, the University of Bristol PWO training courses have resulted in legislative change across Europe.
Demonstrating Leadership in Animal Welfare
We offer products to meet a variety of consumer desires around animal welfare and health. Here are some examples of new protein solutions we have delivered for our customers and consumers:
In 2016, Cargill ended the use of gentamicin – an antibiotic used in both human and animal healthcare – for disease prevention in turkeys processed for its two largest U.S. brands, Honeysuckle White® and Shady Brook Farms®. Turkeys will continue to receive antibiotics for control and treatment of disease.
In 2016, Cargill expanded its antibiotic-free turkey products in the U.S. through the creation of its new Honest Turkey™ product line. These products come from turkeys that are never treated with antibiotics, unlike conventional turkey products.
In 2016, Cargill was the first major beef processor to announce a significant reduction (20 percent) of antibiotics used for people and animals in the beef supply it can control
Our Central America business is demonstrating its commitment to continuous improvement by learning and implementing cutting edge best practices at our Costa Rica chicken processing facility. We are partnering with the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom on a project to evaluate and optimize bird handling and welfare. At the end of 2018, our facility and bird handlers will receive Poultry Welfare Officer (PWO) certification. The University of Bristol PWO certification is widely recognized by retailers, industry and policymakers throughout the UK and European Union, as providing highly regarded animal welfare training.
Cargill receives animal welfare awards in China
In 2014 and 2015, our poultry business in China was recognized with China's first animal welfare award by the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association, the China Association for the Promotion of International Agricultural Cooperation and the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
In 2018, Cargill received China's Good Chicken Production Award from Compassion in World Farming. The Award recognizes Chinese producers that are making significant commitments to improving the welfare of broilers by addressing the stocking density, breed and the need for environmental enrichment.


In 2014 I walked the Camino Francés. I started in St Jean Pied de Port and finished in Finisterre.I hiked for 33 days and covered something close to 553 miles (890km). It was great. This is a list of 4 hikes longer than El Camino De Santiago. Let's get started.
Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) - The Pacific Crest Trail is a huge hike that runs 2,663 miles (4,285km) along the West Coast of the United States. The complete trail begins at the Mexican border and ends when hikers reach the Canadian border in the north. The hike is famous for avoiding civilisation. Most people take nearly 5 months to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and Halfwayanywhere.com suggests that the average hiker will spend between $4000 and $6000 (USD) doing so.
Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) - The Bicentennial National Trail connects the village of Cooktown in northern Queensland to Healesville, a historical town in Victoria just north of Melbourne, Australia. The trail is 3,300 miles long (5,311 km). The Bicentennial National Trail links other tracks together, and is split into 12 sections. Many of these sections are extremely remote and hikers will need to be completely self-sufficient.
Te Araroa - Officially opened in 2011, Te Araroa is the youngest of all trails on the list. It stretches from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand to Bluff in the South. The trail is of course littered with beautiful beaches, rainforests, and volcanos. Some say that the 1,864 mile (3,000km) trail is the best way to see the country. The hike takes between 100 and 160 days to complete.
Great Himalaya Trail - At 1056 miles (1,700km), it's not the longest trail on the list but at a peak altitude of over 20,000 feet it is certainly the highest. The trail passes through remote villages and at times shadows Mt Everest. Plans to expand mean that the trail could soon enter India, Tibet, and Bhutan. While the Great Himalaya Trail may be the toughest hike on the list, it is made worth it by the abundance of unique mountain scenery.
If you would like to read my camino story you can click here.
Click here to learn the 5 reasons I love long distance travel.
Click here to find and like Lostnorfound on Facebook.


New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has directed all states to shut down distilleries and sugar mills manufacturing, storing and transporting ethanol, without obtaining permission from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO).
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said no industry can run without having appropriate authorisations under the rules as well as license from PESO.
"PESO as well as State of Uttar Pradesh and all concerned States shall take appropriate action in accordance with law, that is hazardous waste and chemical waste rules and the PESO, as it is the competent authority to issue licenses.
"In our considered view, being licensing authority it is vested with obligations to ensure that the person/industry do not generate or produce absolute alcohol without obtaining the license prior to such production," the bench said.
The green panel was informed that there were over 147 industrial units in the country and a large number of them were not complying with the laws in force.
The tribunal restrained five industrial units in Uttar Pradesh from manufacturing alcohol and issued notices to them.
The five units which have been issued notices are — Hapur-based Brijnathpur Distillery, Lakhimpur Kheri-based Swampurnanand Distillery, Nanoata Distillery in Saharanpur, Anupshahr Distillery in Bulandshahr and Nanpara Distillery in Bahraich.
The order came during the hearing of a contempt plea filed by NGO SAFE alleging that the authorities were allowing illegal operation of these units without license and in contravention of the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules 1989, putting lives at grave risk.
The plea referred to UP government's affidavit and contended that only two of the 35 distilleries had requisite license while the others were manufacturing ethanol illegally.
The matter was slated for next hearing on September 14.
"The industries manufacturing absolute alcohol or ethanol were not only operating illegally without the requisite permission from competent authorities, but also manipulating the actual total production, storage and sales figures of absolute alcohol causing not only huge financial loss to state revenue but also jeopardising safety of people and environment," the NGO has said in its contempt plea.
The NGT had last year directed that no manufacturer will produce absolute alcohol without seeking appropriate permission from the Ministry of Commerce, Chief Controller Explosives and other authorities.
"It is in view of the fact that under the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989 and Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules 1996 as notified under the provision of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, such permission is required," the tribunal had said.