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Amnesty 2022, Part Four
Flames to dust, lovers to friends, and so indeed Amnesty 2022 must come to an end. But our unexpected fourth day of reviews ends things on a high note. Read on for Bahia bass, an anime girl band and a diversion from Broadway. We'll see you again when we see you. Thanks for stopping by!
3 blergs » Saturday, December 17th, 2022 9:44 pm
1 blerg » Friday, December 16th, 2022 10:21 pm
Amnesty 2022, Part Two
Today on the Jukebox's year-end tidy-up: some UK bass, prog-gone-pop, and an international chart-topper with Albanian heritage. But which one? You'll have to read beyond even more of our picks to find out.
2 blergs » Thursday, December 15th, 2022 9:40 pm
Amnesty 2022, Part One
You didn't think we'd end a year without observing tradition, did you?
Over the next three days The Singles Jukebox does its duty. For Amnesty 2022 our writers will bring you the songs we missed, and perhaps some you missed too. Expect worldwide hits, local legends and internet curiosities. It wouldn't be December without it.
3 blergs » Wednesday, December 14th, 2022 9:07 pm
The Singles Jukebox says goodbye
Not all endings are permanent. The Singles Jukebox started on Stylus, and ran for a few years, and only ceased because Stylus itself ceased to be. The planets aligned when two ex-Stylus writers who had never before met turned up by chance at the same quiz night and immediately started talking about starting the Jukebox as a standalone site. Some rickety logistics were figured out, the call was put out to other writers, friends and contacts, and we were back surprisingly quickly.
In many ways, music-crit discourse is in a better place than it was before TSJ, and before Stylus. We gave serious critical consideration to types of music that often didn't have the best reputation. Today, things are better. It's true that some parts of the music-criticverse is still dismissive of what's in the charts, and particularly music listened to by women, young people, queer folk, POCs, and by people in non-English speaking cultures, and these are all things that we proudly championed at TSJ. But looking at what gets a run in major music publications, and it's clear that even if things aren't perfect, these artists and these audiences are taken more seriously than they were.
Is this ending permanent? Nobody knows. It's devastating to be writing this post, not just because we know a lot of our readers loved us, but also because we loved what we did as well. The chances of us coming back are unknown but it may be more likely than a single chance encounter one Thursday night in a pub. The site's archives will remain online at thesinglesjukebox.com, and if anything TSJ-related, or TSJ-writer related is happening, you'll hear about it on our Twitter.
For now, we mourn and celebrate ourselves.
22 blergs » Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 2:20 pm
Thursday, September 1st, 2022
Katherine St Asaph: This is bad, and it didn't have to happen. The site closing, I mean, but also the song.
John Seroff: Seriously, we're going out on ANOTHA ONE with Fucking Drake? You know, I don't believe this guy is even really sad.
David Moore: Am I gonna get misty from this fucking thing? What a defiant, appropriate, utterly mediocre Fucking Drake song to go out on. I'll hand it to him — since the moniker came early and stuck around — that he's somehow adapted and expanded, grown even, without changing the core of who he is or what he does one iota. It's awe-inspiring in its own weird and special and infuriating way. This is the most unequivocal [6] I've ever awarded. Farewell, Jukebox.
Alfred Soto: What I'll miss about The Singles Jukebox: drooling on my laptop as I break my brain in search of quips at the expense of the act who has done the most to reduce man-woman relationships into "Have some Xanax, baby, you lied to me." Fucking Drake.
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: As we make our way to the end of Fucking Drake's imperial era (among other things), the cracks in his edifice are beginning to show. "Staying Alive" is inherently nothing (it's the lead single for the third post-peak DJ Khaled album, for god's sake) and ends up being even less than that. This kind of hyper-minimal, amorphous post-trap works for Lil Baby more often than it doesn't (as recently as a few months ago he gave us the verse of the year on Vince Staples album over something very similar) but combining his ghost in the machine voice with Drake's smooth loverman act ends up creating an utter absence that even the memory of the Bee Gees cannot fill. It's three guys ready to play supporting roles when a song this pointless needs a star turn.
Nortey Dowuona: I hope Lil Baby has a long, prosperous career, in which he will not have to talk to Drake.
Rose Stuart: There is one specific circumstance where this song hits, and that's being drunk and depressed on your birthday. But those circumstances have passed, and seeing as this is TSJ's last review, I think it's only right that none of us be forced to listen to these artists ever again.
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Ever wanted to know what Saturday Night Fever would sound like at the strip club at 4am on a Monday?
Josh Winters: Well, you can tell by the way Drake spits his flow he's a woman's man, no time to throw. Music's mid and the vid's routine, I've been feeling this since 2016. And now it's alright, it's okay, that you may not want to press play. We can try to understand Fucking Drake's effect on man. Whether you're a himbo or whether you're a fuckboy, you're stayin' a [5]! Stayin' a [5]! Feel the city weepin' and everybody sleepin' so you're stayin' a [5]! Stayin' a [5]! Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Stayin' a [5]! Stayin' a [5]! Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Staying a fiiiiiiIIIIIIiIiiIIIIIIIIiiiiive, oh, when you're Drake!
Scott Mildenhall: A charitable view would be that Drake and Lil Baby's enfeebled efforts to sap all of the Bee Gees' vitality are a satirical metacommentary, winking so slyly at the camera that it could be mistaken for a sleep-deprived eye twitch. It could be inferred that, beyond their protestations, they recognise their mortality; that indeed, they are haunted by it. Are they present, or are they already ghosts? If life is just moaning about women, is it life at all? If only we had more time to contemplate. Oh well — for the moment, you could just whack on a bit of N-Trance.
Brad Shoup: "Wants and Needs," but without the needs. A lovely mellotron-like figure flows in and out of itself while the features copy each other's homework.
Michael Hong: Complete misuse of the interpolation — Drake's autotune isn't the issue, but when the most familiar part is at the front and you've already heard how despondent Drake's made it, what's the payoff?
Jibril Yassin: Some of Drake's best songs involve a seeming lack of effort on his part but there's something to be said about failing to lift an interpolation into something resembling the inspired. I can't believe I'm already yearning for the days when DJ Khaled clutched Four Loko cans with more effort than what's being displayed here. Fucking imperial phases really make you think shit lasts forever sometimes.
Anaïs Escobar Mathers: This sounds like every other mid Drake song with only the Bee Gees reference and DJ Khaled yelling his own name (we know his wife isn't doing that, y'all) breaking up the monotony.
Thomas Inskeep: I hate hearing DJ Khaled's same-in-every-song proclamations (you know the ones), Lil Baby is to my ears a dull, lowest-common-denominator rapper (so of course he's huge), and Fucking Drake just moans in autotune over and over. Khaled's records are the epitome of capitalism and conspicuous consumption writ into streaming 0s and 1s, and this is, impressively, one of his worst ever.
Al Varela: Worst DJ Khaled and Drake collab to date. This beat is DISTRESSINGLY bad. It's one thing for the song to not even have a trace of disco influence, but the beat is so flimsy and empty it sounds like a preset. Drake is so badly implemented that his vocal sounds like the acapella version of itself. Him lazily singing "Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive" with his trademark monotone is so forced, it's not even ironically funny. Lil Baby is clearly just here for the favor. The whole song reeks of hack work. Another instance of Khaled desperate to keep the meme alive through his Drake leverage and stupid videos, hoping to convince you that maybe he's still funny and it's worth buying into his "success" bullshit. I'm ready to stop dignifying this clown when you are.
Alex Clifton: If you put "sad Bee Gees" and "mumbling" into one of those AI art generators, you'd end up with this mess. Fucking Drake ruins the party again!
Ian Mathers: There was a Twitter prompt recently about what irrational and frivolous law you would pass if you were suddenly a total dictator. I couldn't think of anything, but "DJ Khaled isn't allowed to be credited as the artist for these things" might be a contender. Maybe if he brought anything interesting or distinctive to the production and/or writing (the right artist could do a lot less than Khaled and still make the credit feel legit, to be clear). Just say it's a Fucking Drake song. And I'm fucking exhausted of that guy.
Iris Xie: I hate you sooooo much Drake. I'm so glad that this website has existed so we could go "Fucking Drake" for its eternity, you creepy grooming-ass self.
Will Adams: Brag about your apparent invincibility over that soporific beat all you want, boys. Just know that you're nothing without the Jukebox. NOTHING.
Hannah Jocelyn: I don't hate the hook — I like how the "ah-ah-ah-ah" is shifted to the last two beats of the previous measure, but the empty space implies he had an interpolation and nothing else to back it up but the laziest internal rhymes possible (what is it again, "want me to fry, want me to dry?"). There used to be Drake memes mocking his "sensitivity" and his passive-aggression — recognizable traits, but this has no personality and is also… nihilistic? Drake doesn't sound too thrilled about staying alive — Lil Baby's verse is generic but at least he sounds happy to be there. Even though he's had a handful of big hits since "The Story Of Adidon", it feels like Fucking Drake gave up completely around that time, and since then has fucking succeeded only because he's too big to fail. I used to think a line in Kanye West's "Famous" went "No matter how hard we try/we're never gonna die", and I feel that about Drake's continued failed self-sabotage. Certified Lover Boy's corny memes had no lasting impact, Honestly, Nevermind would have killed anyone else's career, "Staying Alive" would be some Dose of Buckley-type asshole's #1 worst song in 2009, yet everything he does continues to be a hit. I'll give him this, though: as of now, he's outlived his harshest critics.
Tim de Reuse: Acts whose names you know because you know their names on a song that quotes a song that you know just because everyone knows it — a whimpering ouroboros of self-reference. The beat shivers in place. Lil Baby's autotune shakes like a wine glass about to shatter. Semantic porridge. And so Drake's career shall be, long after the archive of this site has passed into memory; long into the next millennium, long into the period where picture-perfect holograms of him perform from an endlessly regenerating AI catalogue of his mildest hits in oxygen bars around the moons of Saturn. Content mush for the content gods; forever and ever, Amen.
Jonathan Bradley: It feels fitting: the Jukebox dies, DJ Khaled releases another one, Drake contributes yet another slight Drake verse that could have come out any time in the seven-year crawl since Drake last released a good album. The timbre of the drums changes like the seasons, the guests on the track switch out. I accept it. None of us goes on forever. We will be outlived by the stars in the sky, by the winds and the rains, by continental drift and rivers eroding great valleys, by DJ Khaled and Fucking Drake.
Oliver Maier: I keep trying to write a blurb that feels fitting for the occasion, a dissertation on what Drake means, the decade of Drake, how Drake is us and we are all Drake and blah blah blah. In the end, I don't know if it's that deep. What I do know is that this song is a chore to sit through, a three-legged victory lap by Drake and Lil Baby with DJ Khaled alone in the stands absolutely losing his shit. Sometimes a song is just some rich guys cashing in and it doesn't deserve some of the smartest, funniest people on the internet explaining how it sucks. The Singles Jukebox is about more than Drake. Pop music is about more than Drake. The biggest, surliest star in the night sky is still only a fraction of the universe.
Joshua Minsoo Kim: What if the real Singles Jukebox was the friends we made along the way, and the worst songs were some of the best at bringing us together.
Mark Sinker: congratulations we played ourselves
9 blergs » Thursday, September 1st, 2022 11:00 am
So long! It's been a blast (blast).
[7.61]Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Weed and booze meditations on a fizzled relationship, which feel like a warm and fuzzy cloud — a fitting title and sentiment to round out the Jukebox universe.
Thomas Inskeep: The way this Afrobeats track rides a sample from Toni Braxton's 2000 smash "He Wasn't Man Enough" is so smart, I can hardly stand it. (Sure, it's been used a few times before, but never as well as it is on "Last Last.") Burna Boy himself is fine, but the track is the star.
Brad Shoup: Breakups can make you manic, and it was all I could do to follow Burna Boy's switchbacks. There's a little fatalism, some victory lapping, a chorus that eyes the bar but doesn't hit as well as the group vocal of the intro. Sampling "He Wasn't Man Enough" is a great gag: the strum is as restless as Burna, but they kept Toni's coos, hovering placidly over this mess, refusing to engage.
Jessica Doyle: This is sweet, catchy but melancholy, and a song I never would have thought to listen to had it not been The Penultimate Song in the Blurber. (I never would have thought to listen to the first song in the blurber after I got my TSJ acceptance, either.) It takes a certain amount of energy to keep your mind open and your ear catholic, to not default to playing the same songs you find comfort in over and over and over, and the more opportunities you have to find new things the more energy it may take, and here I'm thinking of something I read recently: "What makes online life what it is (that is to say, a hellscape) is the constant and unprocessable realization that billions of other minds exist that go through everything we go through… the untold hundreds of thousands you will connect with online in your life makes real your own meaninglessness in the sea of others." One of the great gifts of the Jukebox was its demand that its writers rise to the occasion and evince that energy: so while we did spend ungodly amounts of words on Fucking Drake and Fucking Taylor, we also considered Kyrgyz feminist swirls and banjo-strumming friars and gleefully contemptuous electropop and yeah almost a decade later I still don't know what was going on here. We had to get out of our own heads, or at least admit that we were staying in our own heads. It'll be harder to do that without the prompt of the Jukebox. But it seems to me that one of the great challenges of life is how things keep changing, nothing gold can stay, na everybody go chop breakfast; if you prefer, the great paradox articulated by Rabbi Simcha Bunam, that we are simultaneously beloved creations of G-d and dust and ashes, or by Octavia Butler, that that G-d is both change and changeable. One confronts one's own meaninglessness and makes meaning anyway. Listening to a pop song you might not have heard otherwise is nothing. Listening to a pop song you might not have heard otherwise is love. Bye, Jukebox. Hello, friends. Let's not stop. I love y'all.
Alex Ostroff: Burna Boy gets over a bad break-up by getting drunk and stoned with Toni Braxton stuck on repeat. Warm and melancholy and a little bit uplifting in the exact way that listening to "He Wasn't Man Enough" after a break-up tends to be. As moving as the production is, and as compelling as some of his lines are, at the end of the day "Last Last" is a good song haunted by the ghost of a great one, endlessly looping Toni's opening vocal riff without any of the strength or catharsis her original ultimately provides.
Hannah Jocelyn: It's hard to compete with Rodney Jerkins' production on "He Wasn't Man Enough," but the five producers here do their best with an aggressively punchy drum kit and filtered strings, even as they occasionally threaten to drown out Burna Boy. Maybe it's deliberate — the lyrics are petty and messy, alternating between "she manipulate my love" and "maybe in another life, you will be my wife", which makes for an uncomfortable close listen. (But also makes it a better Drake song than any Drake song this year!) It's on the hook where everything comes together, all the messiness coalescing into gang vocals shouting "I need igbo and shayo" in a hook big enough to unite crowds worldwide, pandemic be damned.
Will Adams: The genius of the sample is not just drawing some Darkchild from the nostalgia well but how Burna Boy flips it to be a direct response to "He Wasn't Man Enough": "Why you say I did nothing for you / When I for do anything you want me to do," he retorts, intensifying the drama. But despite it all — the drama, the disappointment, the bitter lump that settles in your stomach when you accept that something that's been part of your life for so long has come to an end — he finds comfort in the chorus. "I need igbo and shayo," goes the refrain, and while drowning oneself in substances isn't a great coping mechanism, there's a sense, from the choir of backing vocals around him, that he's in good company, and while it might hurt now, he'll be okay in the end. The key to this song's greatness is convincing me that I'm gonna be okay, too. Onward into the unknown.
Scott Mildenhall: Loud and clear, the opening chorus announces that while loss is collective, so is joy. "Last Last" would sound a lot more lonely were Burna Boy not joined by those massed ranks, all speaking as one, but all with their own stories to tell. While they may be dancing on blistered feet, they're dancing together. And if that isn't something to celebrate, what is?
David Sheffieck: We haven't had a Song of the Summer (TM) since 2019, when after a few years of questionable or middling or forgettable chart-toppers Lil Nas X proved it was still possible to hit all four quadrants. But every year has had at least one banger that could hold the title, and this time that dubious honor goes to "Last Last." Heartbroken and dismissive, fatalist and hedonistic, it's the song for the most fragmented pandemic summer yet. The way Burna Boy situates the titular hook in a refrain that's only repeated as a late prechorus is audacious; the way the chorus vocals rise to envelop him is irresistible. That I haven't been hearing "Last Last" every time I smelled charcoal or walked by a park this summer isn't exactly surprising, but it also doesn't seem right.
Alex Clifton: If I heard this song anywhere else, I'd like it; I'd think it was catchy with an interesting choral hook. I might say "dope, awesome" and leave it at that. It stands out from the blur of pop I've heard this year and actually caught my attention, and I know I'll be thinking about it for a while. But listening to this knowing it's one of the last songs The Singles Jukebox will blurb makes it extra bittersweet. All things come to an end, whether they be something as simple as a movie or as long-running and complex as a relationship. It's a hard thing to face. Even under a veneer of braggadocio, there's no denying that it hurts. But songs like "Last Last" make me even more thankful for all that TSJ has given me: an insight into music from around the world I wouldn't have heard otherwise, an environment to get creative with my own writing, an opportunity to write alongside folks I really respect and admire, and an audience who cared about what we had to say. It's been a wonderfully unique experience, and I cannot stress how grateful I am to have played a small part in this site's history. So I'm going to listen to this all year with a little lump in my throat, no matter how corny or dramatic that sounds, and think of you all whenever I hear it; I hope you think of us too.
Nortey Dowuona: To the whole Singles Jukebox, to all my fellow Africans out there, to my Nigerian co-worker, thank you. Pls, Burna Boy's voice is as luxurious as ever, even in full autotune.
Oliver Maier: I love Burna Boy. I love the feeling in the way he sings, I love the texture of his voice, I love how the last syllables in every line pop and glisten. I love "He Wasn't Man Enough" as well, and I think the sample works beautifully here. I love when pop music is good, because it's like a party trick that you don't get tired of.
Ian Mathers: This is exactly the kind of song I'd usually wind up not blurbing; not because it's bad, not because it's good, but just because (often and especially after blurbing a bunch of other songs) I had trouble finding anything to say about it. The production is nice, Burna Boy is compelling and skillful over it, the massed vocals are a nice touch. But pretty much every song I've read about on The Singles Jukebox has featured some combination of people going deep on stuff I've never heard of before, cracking incredible jokes, pulling out heartfelt and personal reactions to songs, catching stuff I've missed, missing stuff I've caught, and just plain outwriting me. I hope on at least some songs I've been able to be the person doing one of those (or, if I'm lucky, all of them over the years) for someone. And I assure you that even my most mediocre or ill-conceived blurb was an attempt to keep up to that standard. Even when I've had the time and energy (I didn't need to find the desire, that's always there) to try and blurb everything, there was a song or two where the only things I could think to say felt like they wouldn't meet the standard, and after a few frustrating attempts I'd just empty the text box and hit the "Go back" button. I'll even miss getting to do that.
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Breaking up in public as a pop star seems bad, and breaking up with another pop star in public seems worse still. "Last Last" captures the fullness of that experience. It's an uncomfortable listen at times, mercurial and filled with passing ugly feelings, but it's also beautiful on the pure level of melody and language, a collection of folklore and borrowed phrasings that come together into a song that stays ambiguous and uncertain to the end.
Iris Xie: The Singles Jukebox is literally the best, and I love you so much. This song is basically a fitting goodbye: a sad, grooving banger, which basically sums up how I've felt about being in TSJ the past few years. A group of really wonderful, caring, considerate and super smart people who truly care about music criticism and good writing in a time when throw-away hot takes and stan cloutchasing has dominated so-called music writing. Say hi when you see us around on the other corners of the internet!
Joshua Minsoo Kim: School started a couple weeks ago and one of my students told me that she went to her first concert over the summer — it was for her favorite artist, Burna Boy. I mentioned that I went to the Davido show earlier this year and then told her about the other Nigerian musicians coming to Chicago soon. It was a nice moment, and I can thank TSJ for it; this website fueled my love for international pop music like nothing else, and has helped me remain curious about art and the world around me. I've fallen in love with so many things in my time here — the act of writing and listening, the intercultural and intergenerational dialogues inherent in music, my analytical and emotional sides. I get all of that here, from a track whose Toni Braxton sample is a clever foundation for a post-breakup song that's as mournful as it is celebratory. All good things end that way.
Alfred Soto: Undulating with confidence, lingering not a bit, "Last Last" is the ideal club banger.
John Seroff: Burna Boy's most recent album is a nearly unmitigated joy (red-headed asterisk goes here) and "Last Last" is likely the best track on there. Burna treats the core engine of "Last," a chugging and pinging upcycled Braxton classic, as a flashy obstacle course that he dodges through with personality and energy enough for two. If this is the final track for this incarnation of the Singles Jukebox, it's worth remembering that "Last" doesn't have to mean the end. It can mean that we keep, that we stay beyond expectations. See you at the next finish line.
4 blergs » Thursday, September 1st, 2022 7:00 am
Wednesday, August 31st, 2022
Steve Lacy – Bad Habit
We Jukeboxers are not long for guitar heroes.
[7.09]Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Steve Lacy got popular as a solo act off a series of iPhone demos, and even as he's moved to increasingly complex studio compositions he's not managed to shrug off the feeling that he's making sketches rather than songs. He's not a virtuoso in either the complimentary (Prince, Joni) or derogatory (Yngwie Malmsteen, Jacob Collier) ways, but something in between — so obviously gifted with melody and guitar arrangement that his songwriting has not had to evolve much since the middle of the last decade. Yet you can't really blame him for not making a masterpiece yet; "Bad Habit", even with all of its lazy rhymes and simplistic riffing, still shines as a fitfully perfect bauble of a pop song, a track that dances on the edge of glory with every guitar strum but never quite reaches it.
Joshua Minsoo Kim: One of the first blurbs I wrote for TSJ was on a Readers' Week post for Thundercat's "Them Changes." I wasn't a fan, but things changed after "Dragonball Durag"; I appreciated how his NAMM-ready jazz-funk could serve as a distinct conduit for playfulness. I always thought the first Steve Lacy track I'd like would be a similar deal, where his straightforward songwriting, endearingly imperfect vocals and subpar lyrics could become transcendent through the almighty power of lo-fi production. He gets there with "Bad Habit," a track that wields his familiar DIY stylings but ensures every little moment is part of a larger tapestry (a mere "vibe" this is not). The key is the mid-song switch-up, unfurling the hook-laden first half into a sincere call to fuck. It's his slickest song.
Alfred Soto: A pleasant soft-focus R&B track anchored to the wunderkind's goofy multi-track vocals. The less attention paid to lines about biting a lover's tongue the better.
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The evolution from "I bite my tongue, it's a bad habit" to "Uh, can I bite your tongue like my bad habit?" is delectable. Steve Lacy has SZA's talent for writing music that sounds both like dialogue and something ripped straight from a diary. (Or maybe it's Taylor Swift's: "Let's fuck in the back of the mall, lose control" sounds suspiciously like "Meet me behind the mall.") I can only imagine the hold this song will have during cuffing season.
Thomas Inskeep: This Anderson .Paak-ish R&B is delightful because of its off-kilter-ness: the way Lacy plays with the beat, the way he occasionally slips into a near-falsetto, the repeated "it's biscuits, it's gravy" lyric. "Bad Habit" fucks with form and genre for not just Lacy's enjoyment, but ours, too, and ends up sounding ridiculously fresh.
Alex Ostroff: Wistful queer longing, languid like Rihanna's Tame Impala cover, with some looseness reminiscent of Miguel doing Prince. It takes deliberate thought to smoothly morph the arrangement multiple times over the course of four minutes, but somehow "Bad Habit" sounds effortless and spontaneous instead of overcooked. Lacy pines and wishes he'd been bolder in his pursuit of love, but this is the type of unassuming joint you're likely to underrate and put on in the background until it's crept up on you and claimed your heart.
Michael Hong: The trick to "Bad Habit" is how it cuts the first line to make you feel like you missed the step, like you should be catching up to Lacy as he rambles about a missed connection. It's disappointing, then, when he cuts the atmosphere, leaving you feeling like you've finally caught up and all he's got is inattentive advice, a contradictory deflection through the warbled voice cracks of someone too young to truly miss out.
Al Varela: There's something so deliciously infectious about the way Steve Lacy sings "I wish I knew you wanted me". It's a lyric that's been stuck in my brain ever since I first heard it. It matches the mix of euphoria and disappointment that comes with learning someone was interested in you, but it's been long enough that they've moved on from it. In a way, the song almost feels like a dream — especially with the languid guitar and squealing synths giving a very lax, lovestruck feel you can only get with unrequited (re-requited?) love. Plus, the switch-up at the end with the buzzy percussion that almost sounds like beatboxing is a great change of pace. It reminds me a lot of Flower Boy, actually. An album he was in this whole time, in fact! Always exciting to see a longtime artist and collaborator catch their big break with an outstanding song.
Oliver Maier: Lacy might be one of the most influential artists of the last half-decade, his particular flavour of ear candy now the de facto sound for a good chunk of bedroom pop. You can trace it back further — the lo-fi nonchalance from Blood Orange, the reverby guitars from Mac DeMarco — but Lacy's meat-and-potatoes approach was the easiest to emulate, and so it flourished. "Bad Habits", like much of his subsequent output, is the sound of Lacy unable or unwilling to surface from under his own tidal wave. He doesn't convince me that he cared about this relationship much. That's okay. He's not trying to.
Ian Mathers: Subtly, this is a real power move — to go from "I wish I knew you wanted me" to "let's fuck in the back of the mall" without ever sounding like you're breaking a sweat or are even too concerned with the outcome. Everything just feels laid-back, in a way where you can imagine it'd be easy to go along with him.
Nortey Dowuona: No this site was too good for me, my dear.
no blergs » Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 11:00 am
Tuesday, August 30th, 2022
We're here for the backstory.
[6.73]Crystal Leww: SM want aespa to be a label savior, crafting a mythology around them and Kwangya, the metaverse in which they reside. That's fine, probably too much pressure, to be honest, but all I need to believe when I listen to aespa is encapsulated in the 15 seconds coming out of the bridge — the crunchy guitar, the propulsive beat, Winter's "hold up." I believe that aespa could be one of the biggest things that SM ever did if they ever just let these girls and their producers breathe. I want none of the ambition that SM has somehow wrapped them up in and I just want to punch someone in a moshpit to this (compliment).
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A delightfully obnoxious, well-polished machine that makes Western pop feel infantile by comparison.
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Still can't say I understand anything about the lore but I'm here for this for the same reason I engage with similarly pulpy sci-fi: the extreme confidence with which they turn their immensely convoluted worldbuilding into pyrotechnics. Anyone else would be left with pure incoherence — the aespa girls manage to turn it into an arsenal of hits, dramatic but not so overburdened with purpose that it doesn't work as a banger.
Michael Hong: Their debut tested the concept but aespa have gone full force with it, throwing undefined pieces of lore like "REKALL," "SYNK DIVE," and on "Girls," new highlight "nævis on the REAL MY WORLD." It's all utter nonsense but "Savage" and "Girls" have the good sense to combine it with sheer overstimulation so that every mention of "Kwangya" feels familiar if delightfully funny. The rest of "Girls" is the SM concept executed to perfection: cool girl posturing meets the absurd stupidity of the concept (check out the size of Winter's meta-universe gun). Garish sections are messily meshed together only as a whirlwind of noise in the mechanical warnings, loud dance break and rock riffs underneath Giselle and Karina's raps. Winter and Ningning bring the excess as they belt and shriek across its final sections. The rest is perhaps bits of aespa's personality starting to come through, yelps and whoops paired with cold stares as if they're also in disbelief they still have to sing about fighting the Black Mamba.
Jessica Doyle: I had to admit to myself that I'd tipped over from simply feeling like aespa isn't for me to actively avoiding the group (and, furthermore, that I was a lot more receptive to this kind of nonsense when Everglow did it). I'm still allergic to the Kwangya worldbuilding, and it doesn't help that as I get older and more wrinkled I also get more and more uneasy with the sheer amount of plastic surgery Korean idol pop seems to inflict upon / offer / require of its idols. But none of this has anything to do with the actual song, which at least has some fun dubstep energy. The second half of the chorus loses some of the momentum from the first half (and also, their being girls has nothing to do with anything else in the song, they could've just gone ahead and shouted something about Naevis again). But there are clearly worse things that could happen to both us and aespa than a danceable dystopian distant descendant of "Rude Boy." If this is for you, enjoy it.
Anna Katrina Lockwood: Oh my god, I'm just so tired of this shout-singing chorus, minor key, "ooooh I'm a scary teen" K-pop nonsense. For god's sake, just let the kids be cute for a couple years! What happened to all that charming NCT Dream type shit??? Now half these music videos are narrative-heavy dystopian trudges, accompanied by fractured synths and a harsh transition to the glissando-ing pre-chorus. Even freaking TXT have been showing up places covered in soot lately! Anyway, regarding aespa here — the only redeeming factor of "Girls" is that it's an SM track, and those people cannot resist cramming at least one legitimately sticky melody in every song. I've added an additional point to my score because it's just so entertaining to hear the senior SM artists complaining about Kwangya. Never change, Eunhyuk.
Joshua Minsoo Kim: While aespa's Savage mini felt like a collage of older SM girl groups, "Girls" is a signpost for the austerity that defines K-pop's current era. In one sense it's very sad: the genre has undergone a considerable shift throughout the past 15 years from "ambitious and fun" to "ambitious and respectable." Even SuperM's "Jopping," which is the precursor to SM's desire to create a label-spanning superhero multiverse, was closer to the deliriously absurd maximalism of Fast & Furious than its dire "Avengers of K-pop" narrative. On the other hand, this change is just a matter of recalibration. When I listen to "Girls," its steely electronics are trading in the dubstep bombast of SHINee's "Everybody" for imperial cool (you don't need Teddy's production to see the Blackpink influence). And really, this is just f(x)'s "Red Light" if one doubled down on the humorlessness. More broadly, "Girls" points to how the industry today eschews balladry-informed singing for talk/shout-singing and hip-hop pomp. It works here because it's a dazzling spectacle: listen to the guitar crunch, trace the flagellating synth horn melody, feel the drama of its stripped-down bridge before it tumbles into a ferocious instrumental break. After all these years, K-pop songs are still convinced of their ideas and energy; the confidence is magnetic.
Ian Mathers: Seeing that "Girls" is about "aespa and ae-aespa having a full-fledged battle with Black Mamba" and then reading the English translation of the lyrics is the first time I've felt like I was reading item descriptions in Dark Souls in order to figure out parts of a pop video. More lore drops in pop music, I guess I'm saying, although the song itself feels kind of timid — the crazy techno bit is good enough but feels weirdly divorced or quarantined from the rest of the song. Have them sing over that bit! Make the rest of the song less standard! Lean into the less typical bits!
Scott Mildenhall: Talking big and saying little, "Girls" is less kitchen sink and more washing-up bowl. Bearing only traces of maximalism, it has the uncanny air of a workprint, with markers for "DATED DROP TO GO HERE" and "SASSY BIT NOW". None of the disparate elements on display have half their intended power, and that's a shame — irrespective of how played out they may be, they still have the potential to pack a punch.
Alex Ostroff: Other tracks might combine girl group vocals with four-on-the-floor handclaps and late-nite spooky synths, or grinding bass with sudden abrasive intrusions of guitar, or slightly out-of-tune saxophone-esque loops, but "Girls" just melds them all together and makes it sound natural. Since Rina Sawayama is seemingly pivoting towards more earnest and commercially accessible (but still excellent) songs for her sophomore album, I've been missing these types of Girls Aloud-era Xenomania-style aggressive sonic genre mash-ups in 2022, and I'm excited to learn that aespa are fully committed to bonkers stitched-together pop.
Rose Stuart: After spending 2021 releasing what I must charitably refer to as "unlistenable garbage", it's good of aespa and SM Entertainment to remember experimental doesn't have to mean bad. Every idea in "Girls" is well developed, meaning that the small genre shifts create a cohesive collage instead of discordant noise. The rock, EDM, hip-hop and pop elements gel together perfectly, almost as if this is from the company that pioneered this style in K-pop. "Girls" may not be the best SMP song, but it gives me hope for a genre that I feared had been murdered by its mutant descendants.
Kayla Beardslee: On the scale from "Savage" (not something I would casually listen to, but decently successful at its ambitions and I respect it) to "Next Level" (my mortal enemy, etc), this lands somewhere in the middle, just below "Black Mamba." I would be more generous to "Girls" if the production had more distinct sonic character and was less of a flat mishmash of noises, and if the vocals were less shouty and shrill (I prefer Karina's high notes, even though she's not in the vocal line, because her timbre doesn't fall victim to this as easily as Winter or NingNing's). Giselle going "pArT oF mY hEaRt" is funny, though not in an intentional way. The dance break is cool, but it feels like a tease at a more vibrant version of the song that exists in a (Giselle voice) PaRaLleL wOrLd. Choreo doesn't affect my score, but I have to say it — someone save these girls from that dumb-ass flamingo hop. I've settled into a comfortable if unstable equilibrium with aespa: they do their thing, it generally isn't for me, but I still observe and give low-stakes comments from the sidelines, hoping to see the execution of their music deliver on SM's ambitions for it. I guess someone has to keep things interesting.
Alfred Soto: Guitar slashing, hand claps, horror film piano tinkle, vocals as savage as speakers at a political convention — "Girls" has so much going on without exhausting me, schlock and speed and pathos driving the car into the wall and walking out, unscathed and triumphant.
Nortey Dowuona: I will say this for aespa: they are those girls far more than Wiz Khalifa. Also NingNing hits a really nice note on the last pre-chorus that has my eyes floating out of my head.
Juana Giaimo: K-pop was the most intimidating genre for me when I started writing on the Jukebox back in 2013. I didn't know how to approach it, and the fact that so many of our writers are experts on it made me feel there were better voices to cover it. However, following the spirit of this site, I always listened to the songs in the blurber and tried. Most times, I couldn't put my thoughts together, but in 2017 we covered Jonghyun's "She Is" and I felt a new music world open upon me. Not only could I hear his charisma, but for the first time I felt confident writing about a K-pop song. I didn't become an immediate fan of the genre; instead it was only last year that I became fascinated with it. SHINee became my favorite group and SM my favorite label. On that journey, I found myself completely confused by K-pop songs many times — particularly ones from SM, a label known for that — but instead of being intimidated by them, I dove into the complexities of the songwriting and production and learnt how the choreography, concept and more played a huge role in it. When I listened to aespa's "Girls" and the hard rock pre-chorus started I wasn't turned off, but the opposite. It was exciting, made me curious to see where the song could go and made me love how it grew more and more intense with each second. NingNing and Winter's piercing voices play a huge role in that, while Karina and Giselle's tones bring it down, making a great balance. And look at me! Now I'm one of those writers who can distinguish each vocalist in a K-pop group. That seemed impossible to me ten years ago — and I started learning Korean this week (ask me in a couple of years how that played out). But what a decade it has been. I'm sure my thought of 2022 contradicts my reviews of 2013. I can't avoid thinking that my musical growth can be seen in all my words here. In other music publications, it would just be words. But this is different: there's a whole part of me that will be forever saved (and safe) in The Singles Jukebox.
no blergs » Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 3:53 pm
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: A marvel of theoretical pop physics: a song that exists without a single idea needing to have been expended at any point in its production. Too long, and it's less than three minutes already.
Al Varela: This is one of those songs you can tell was manufactured to be a hit, especially with its bright tones and devilishly catchy chorus, but sometimes that's all a song needs to stick with you. I'm probably not gonna come back to "Sunroof" all that often in the coming years, but in this moment where the chorus is still fresh and the energy hasn't died out, it never fails to make me smile.
Nortey Dowuona: When white people finally kill rap, it will sound like this, and we will deserve it.
Oliver Maier: So content is "Sunroof" in its own vacuousness that I can't hate it like I would hate a Rex Orange County song for trying to be poignant. "Only got one thing in the back of my mind" evokes in startling detail the image of a single brain cell containing the concept of making out dinging around Nicky Youre's cavernous skull like a bouncing logo screensaver.
Jonathan Bradley: "You got those pretty eyes in your head" is some android-fixated-on-human-physiology phrasing that falls between the tactility of "Fresh Eyes" and the body horror of "Who gave you eyes like that/Said you could keep them." "Sunroof" has other icky qualities, like a vocal squeezed into a little toothpaste squiggle of minty freshness; this AI is attempting a chirrup of joy.
Scott Mildenhall: It's hard not to feel a warmth for this eminent dweeb, reputedly the first ever resident of Owl City. Someone has to make songs for Disney Channel party scenes, and he's done so efficiently: drawing an untapped concept from the summertime word cloud, then strumming it up into anodyne fantasy. Boring, but harmless.
Rose Stuart: Bland, inoffensive and catchy — this song is tailor-made for TikTok. Personally, I liked it better when it was called "Better Now" by Post Malone.
Thomas Inskeep: Sure, this is a cute, lightweight head-nodder of a summer pop radio jam, but the vocals are intensely irritating, with that post-Post Malone "I'm not going to enunciate a single word" effect that makes it ultimately unlistenable for me.
Anaïs Escobar Mathers: I love this kind of pop song, with the la-di-da's and a clear lean on that ineffable summer feeling where you could potentially have a crush again just because it feels that good to feel even a few minutes of sunshine on your face. It's fun goddamnit, and for maybe three or so minutes, it's nice to forget about everything going on except how you feel kind of alright while listening to it.
Joshua Minsoo Kim: Life is Good t-shirt-ass song.
Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A pleasant, breezy entry for song of the summer which unfortunately feels so clumsy and substanceless that one wonders if it's the product of generations of Maroon 5 inbreeding.
John Seroff: The difficult bit of making pop is altering the recipe barely enough to show flashes of originality without losing the form. Those that over-polish or pander run the risk of reminding us more of the production ladder than hot summer nights. Not to say there aren't pleasures to be had in the vacuum-packed, just that those thrills tend toward penny-candy short and sweet. "Sunroof" is fittingly something of Starburst, redolent of wax paper but creamy and satisfying under the right pressure. If the savor is forgettable, at least it doesn't foul the palate.
Juana Giaimo: Some of my favorite songs to cover on The Singles Jukebox were the "this is not going to change your life" kind; the kind of songs that when I listen to them I think "oh, this is nice", but know that after reviewing them, I probably won't listen again. But would I mind if I turned the radio on by a summer sunset as I'm driving and "Sunroof" came along? Of course not. I would even tap my fingers on the wheel to the beat.
Ian Mathers: One thing I won't miss: Having to sit through the entirety of songs where people sing like this.
Brad Shoup: The chorus is "Better Now" snaking a hand out the passenger window, so that's already a great start. There's his vowel-munching drawl: not fratty, just eager to impress. There's the sun-scrambled lyric, which has all these stock images and automatic phrases but cuts and deals them in magical ways. There's the engineering on the intro that pretends this is beaming in over a crappy transistor from the bygone paradise of… 2011. There's you are exactly what I want/kinda cool and kinda not: a perfect line. There's the sturdy chording and a killer wordless singalong and apparently a Thomas Rhett co-write? Please keep your heart open for [10]s; they are all over.
7 blergs » Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 10:02 am

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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New Year, Same Crisis: Feds…
The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has continued on into 2022 and recent examples of who has been arrested after illegally crossing the border show the more sinister side of the national problem.
In the Rio Grande Valley Sector, Border Patrol agents arrested two child sex offenders on January 2:
"On Jan. 2, at approximately 7:00 a.m., McAllen Border Patrol Station (MCS) agents arrested three single adult migrants after they illegally entered the United States through Hidalgo, Texas. Criminal records checks obtained at a Border Patrol processing facility revealed a Honduran national who was previously arrested in Pearland, Texas, for Burglary of a Habitation and Indecency with a Child on the same day in 1998. The 41-year-old migrant was convicted and sentenced to 145 days' confinement.
"On Jan. 2, at approximately 11:00 p.m., MCS agents arrested a group of nine near the Sullivan City Auto Salvage in Sullivan City, Texas. Among them, Luis Felipe Aguilar-Diaz, a Honduran national, was discovered to be a registered sex offender. Aguilar-Diaz was arrested in 2016 by the Dallas Police Department for Aggravated Sexual Assault of a 14-year-old Child. Later that year, the 25-year-old was sentenced to five years' confinement."
On January 5, McAllen Border Patrol Station agents encountered a group of eight illegal immigrants, including a 7-year-old traveling with her mother near Hidalgo, Texas:
"A Salvadoran national among the group falsely identified himself using an alias, however, criminal records checks revealed his true identity as Rodrigo Ernesto Quinteros-Mercado, a registered sex offender. In 2018, Quinteros-Mercado was arrested in Houston, Texas, for indecency with a child by sexual contact. The 29-year-old man was convicted of the second-degree felony and sentenced to five years' probation. One year later, Quinteros-Mercado was once again arrested in Houston for stalking and child abuse. Consequently, he was removed from the United States in 2019. Quinteros-Mercado has an outstanding warrant by the Harris County Sheriff's Office."
In the Tuscon Sector, Chief John Modlin revealed agents arrested "Nestor Ramirez-Zarco…The Mexican citizen and registered sex offender was previously convicted of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse in #WillCounty, IL."
On January 8, Modlin said agents arrested "Domingo Marquez-Perez, a Mexican citizen, was convicted in #NorthCarolina of taking indecent liberties with children, a felony."
Acting Chief Patrol Agent Carl Landrum, of the Laredo Sector, stated agents arrested "Jose Padilla Yepez, a 54yr. old Mexican national, had an extensive criminal history including burglary, sexual assault, battery, and re-entry after deportation charges" after illegally crossing the border.
El Paso Sector Chief Gloria Chavez said agents from the Santa Teresa Station arrested a child predator from Ecuador, "who was previously convicted of agg. sodomy, child molestation, & rape out of Atlanta, GA! He served 12yrs in prison for these crimes."
From Townhall.com
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Published : Jul 12, 2019 11:30 IST
The DHFL office in Mumbai.
As the crisis affecting India's NBFC sector simmers, self-serving calls for a bailout rend the air ahead of the Budget.
After the notoriously opaque financial conglomerate Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) collapsed last year, there was fear all around of a wider conflagration in Indian financial markets, the country's own mini Lehman Brothers moment. It did not happen, but a firestorm is waiting to explode.
Engulfed in it will be not only non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) but all entities in the financial sector in one way or another—mutual funds, rating agencies and the usual suspects, accounting firms that have been accused of looking the other way when it mattered most. Connecting all these are, of course, borrowing companies, many of which have borrowed recklessly and sowed the seeds of the grief that has enveloped the sector.
And, as is characteristic of every major financial crisis, there is a growing chorus now audaciously demanding a bailout. As the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman prepares her maiden Budget, she faces not only the pressures of a powerful lobby but also competing demands on a fisc that is stretched taut.
The problem of NBFCs defaulting on payments running into thousands of crores became grave ever since IL&FS Financial Services announced last September that it could not meet its massive loan obligations.
In 2019, four more large NBFCs have defaulted on payments. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) realises that the ramifications of this liquidity crunch could lead to a massive financial crisis. However, financial analysts and economists ask whether a bailout is a solution and whether it is even justified. After all, are NBFCs, acting in collusion with other players, responsible for the mess they are now in?
NBFCs play a vital role, lending mainly to the infrastructure, real estate and auto industries. Known as shadow banks, NBFCs fill a space in the lending arena which is not always serviced by commercial banks. In fact, the tightening credit situation, triggered by the massive and mounting non-performing asset (NPA) burden of banks, left a vacuum that these NBFCs filled, often acting recklessly. Mutual funds, in turn, lent to the NBFCs, encouraged by the happy-go-lucky ways of rating agencies and accounting firms. Investors in mutual funds now fear for their investments.
NBFCs are far from being the Good Samaritan lending when the banks do not. The IL&FS Financial Services situation exposed a seamy arrangement which involves credit rating agencies, mutual funds, moneylenders, auditors and, of course, borrowers. "When you look at how they operated, you will realise why they do not deserve a bailout. They should be allowed to go under and be charged with a crime," says an investment banker. "Until a company goes belly-up, we do not know what is going on. There are fundamental flaws in our system that need immediate addressing, and this does not include bailouts."
When the chain of lending and borrowing is examined, it is obvious that this crisis is the result of complicity between several players. An NBFC insider explains: Auditors of an NBFC give the company a clean chit so that it can earn a good credit rating.
The rating procures the NBFC crores worth of investments, mostly via mutual funds. Typically, fund managers look at credit rating before investing. The NBFC borrows on a short-term basis but lends for long-term projects, returns from which may be some time in coming. Most of the time the NBFC does not recover its loans from the projects, but it needs to pay back its lenders. So it uses the funds coming in from mutual funds and other lenders to roll over its loans.
Because NBFCs keep getting a good credit rating as they are complicit with the auditors (who want to keep their clients and get more contracts), they keep getting the money. As much as NBFCs are culpable, so are the others.
After the IL&FS debacle, the government asked the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to bar the company's auditors—Deloitte; and BSR, an affiliate of KPMG—for five years on charges of lapses in auditing the company. The matter is under review. Meanwhile, both auditors are under investigation by several agencies, including the Serious Fraud Investigation Office.
The culprits
The rating agencies downgraded IL&FS's credit rating only after it became clear to everyone that it was on the verge of a collapse. What was the point of having a rating agency that could not foresee a collapse? For instance, in the IL&FS case, trouble started brewing in June 2018 when one of its companies defaulted on payments. It was in August 2018 when a few more IL&FS companies defaulted, that the rating came down. IL&FS' outstanding loans reportedly amount to Rs.91,000 crore ("Road to Ruin", Frontline , October 26, 2018).
It was well known that NBFCs were in trouble, but it was in June 2019 that the situation became dire. Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), another NBFC, reported debts of approximately Rs.1 lakh crore.
When this came to light, the rating agencies CRISIL and CARE downgraded the A4+ graded NBFC to default status. DSP Mutual Funds, an investment house, sold DHFL's commercial paper at a discount a few weeks after the IL&FS crisis broke; soon problems at DHFL began to compound. In seven months, the company slid to the verge of bankruptcy.
In January 2019, the Essel group, another big player, said it was suffering from payment issues to the tune of Rs.1,029 crore. A month later, Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital and Reliance Infra confessed to Rs.35,000 crore worth of outstanding debt. Ambani has appealed to the RBI to help the "gasping NBFCs". He has also gone out of his way to say he is servicing the debt against "insurmountable odds".
Bankers estimate that close to three trillion rupees are locked in real estate, construction and infrastructure projects. While it is difficult to estimate the exact default amounts, they believe the collapse of big names has led to a liquidity freeze, and the fear of the contagion spreading has hit markets.
To understand why these particular companies are critical in the NBFC space—Credit Suisse says up to 15 per cent of debt mutual funds' assets under management are accounted for by four stressed companies—DHFL, Essel group, IL&FS and Anil Ambani's ADAG. These four companies together owed Rs.3.6 lakh crore to lenders at the end of March 2018. To put this in perspective, one only needs to recall that the entire NPAs of public sector banks are a little over Rs.10 lakh crore.
A Mumbai-based mutual fund analyst told Frontline that unless the problems of liquidity and solvency were settled quickly the uncertainty in the market would remain. "It does not appear that the government is in a hurry to bail out or provide a safety net as it sees it as a moral hazard," said the analyst.
Currently, the loans outstanding at NBFCs stand at Rs.17.2 lakh crore, according to the RBI. To keep afloat, meet payment commitments and bolster investor confidence, defaulters are trying to sell company assets. The Essel group, for instance, is looking for a buyer for 50 per cent of the promoter holdings in Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, one of its flagship companies.
"These are private corporations and it isn't fair that due to their bad judgements and shady arrangements the government has to pay. On the other hand we cannot neglect those who will be affected by the negativity towards NBFCs," said the Mumbai-based analyst.
Genesis of the crisis
The genesis of the crisis was demonetisation, said an economist with a multinational investment bank. At that time a flood of cash got deposited in the banking sector. This found its way to the debt mutual fund market. Unfortunately, lending happened without much collateral. In fact, during this crisis one needs to question the actions of mutual funds and their systems on risk assessment capabilities and processes, he argued.
Speaking of mutual funds, Chetan Pandey, a consultant who was earlier with ICICI Prudential, says, "Portfolio managers have gone way ahead of their mandate, maybe because they were super confident that money will keep coming. In fact, many of them should be pulled up for their lack of better judgement."
Pandey reckons that the exposure of mutual funds to NBFCs is about Rs.76,000 crore. Mutual funds with exposure to debt were particularly negligent in investing in NBFCs. Two marquee players, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank, have delayed redemptions recently. "This is unacceptable. An investor should get back his money as and when he wants it. These are not good signs," says Pandey.
The bailout clamour rests on the assumption that the new government cannot afford a major financial crisis so soon after assuming office. There are some who believe that the RBI's Rs.3 lakh crore reserve, which belongs to the Government of India, ought to be transferred to public sector banks to stem the downward spiral. But for this to happen, the RBI needs a credible external signal mechanism, which can best be provided through an asset quality review of the NBFC sector, said the economist.
NBFCs claim they can sell assets and recover some of their outstanding. But analysts and economists believe these are not long-term solutions. A fundamental problem with NBFCs is that unlike commercial banks they are not subjected to the same stringent regulations. Analysts say the RBI and Securities Exchange Board of India's light-touch approach towards NBFCs is also responsible for the current situation.
For now, the RBI appears to be telling NBFCs: "You have made your bed, now lie in it." RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has said the central bank will step in only if required, suggesting that it does not view the crisis as a systemic one, just yet. At its policy meeting in June, the RBI indicated that it viewed liquidity conditions as broadly sufficient and would improve transparency around how it assesses this.
Currently, there are about 11,400 shadow banking companies in India with a combined balance sheet worth Rs.30,400 crore and with loan portfolios growing at nearly twice the pace of banks. All eyes will be on the government and the central bank as they struggle to fend off a crisis that looms large over the Indian financial sector on the eve of the Budget.
(This story was published in the print edition of Frontline magazine dated Jul 19, 2019.)


• Are you looking for a server which allows you to build freely?
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• Are you looking for a server which listens to the players?
• Are you looking for a server which doesn't tolerates Griefing ?
Well then Storm Legends is the server for you, here at Storm Legends we don't take donations as our main priority, we do indeed have donations put aren't a high priority to us, to us Storm Legends the main Priority is the players who play on Storm Legends.
Here at Storm Legends we try to create a server where players can feel a part of the server by sharing their ideas and how to improve the server. On Storm Legends we have very friendly staff and a dedicated team, this team likes to talk to the players on Storm Legends to find out what they think about the server and on any improvements they suggest to the server. Here at Storm Legends we have many features!
Storm Legends also holds a monthly Event were we will give out a Donator rank of Iron Legend to any player who has the most play time at the end of each month and this is to show players that we are great full for their support.
The Storm Legends Team is incredibly dedicated to the server and this is because we feel that to host a Tekkit server you must put the work into it, here on Storm Legends we don't believe in Map Reset unless it is a serious issue, most Servers we have seen always resort to map reset instead of finding solutions for lags and chunks, Here at Storm Legends we have a dedicated team which has already found solutions and use their free time to install these solutions to make the server better for the players.
Storm Legends is a server which relies on Player feedback and without player feedback we feel the server would die.
So Enough Reading come and find out for yourself =-), come and play on Storm Legends And enjoy playing Storm Legends and play Tekkit the way it is supposed to be played.


text:
How To Read A Genetic Test Report?
A genetic test report can provide deep insights into your baby's health. Unfortunately, these insights are often difficult and challenging to interpret. Therefore, it is common for parents to feel overwhelmed while trying to make sense of such technical information. If that's the case with you, we would like to help. Use our step-by-step guide and get off to a good start in analyzing your baby's genetic test results.
Understanding Your Baby's Genetic Test Report
1. Demographic Information
Your baby's genetic test report begins with a demographic section. It states basic details like your or your baby's name, date of birth, gender, as well as the name of the test. It also indicates information about the type of sample and when it was collected, received, and reported. This, unlike other sections of the report, is straightforward and easier to understand.
2. Clinical History
As the name suggests, this section summarizes the baby's medical history and describes why a baby is undergoing a newborn genetic test. The reasons can be many, including unexplained illness, unclear symptomatology, family history of a genetic condition, proactive testing, and more.
3. Test Methodology
Our genes form proteins that are responsible for a variety of functions. In some cases, these genes contain a variation, i.e., a change in their standard structure or composition. Such genes give rise to abnormal proteins that fail to perform their functions. And this causes a baby to develop or have a genetic condition.
Our newborn genetic tests analyze a curated list of genes associated with childhood-onset conditions. Variations in these specific genes have evidence to cause genetic conditions in newborns.
GenomeScope Newborn and GenomeScope NICU tests use an advanced DNA sequencing technology known as Next-Generation sequencing (NGS) to analyze 4000+ & 6000+ genes respectively. This technology reads your baby's DNA to identify variations in the target regions with a detection rate of >95%, reporting accuracy of >99%, and a quality score of Q30.
A quality score measures the probability of identifying or reading a gene incorrectly. The higher the score, the more accurate results. Our test yields a result with a quality score of Q30, which means that the chances of error in the genetic test report are just 0.1%.
Results are the most important part of your baby's genetic report. The section is packed with information related to the variations detected in genes within our restricted panel, their nature, location, classification, and the type of disease they can cause.
A test can present three types of results, including: 1
Positive report: A disease-causing variation was identified in genes under review.
Negative report: No change or variation was detected in the genes under review.
Uninformative report: A change or variation in the gene has been detected but can't be classified as there is insufficient data available to classify it as a disease causing variation.
The variation can be homozygous if present in both copies of the genes or heterozygous if present only in one copy of the gene. They can be passed down from parents to offspring in Autosomal Recessive, Autosomal Dominant, or X-Linked Recessive inheritance pattern.
The reported variations are further classified according to the ACMG variant differentiation guidelines, on the basis of their disease-causing ability.
5. Test Limitations
Even with a high reporting accuracy and strong detection rate, our newborn genetic tests present certain limitations, like:
The genetic test report does not rule out the presence of a disease-causing variant as the tests have a restricted gene panel specific to childhood-onset conditions. Further testing is recommended if the baby develops symptoms in the future.
It also does not guarantee the lifelong validity of the results. Genetic testing may show some variations in the future with the discovery of new pathogenic variations.
Our genetic test results do not cover lifestyle diseases like blood pressure, cholesterol, adult disorders, etc.
We do not report carrier status for autosomal recessive genetic conditions in this test. Individuals may opt for knowing their carrier status after 18 years or older when they can make an informed decision regarding the implications of the test.
As a parent, you'll have plenty of questions regarding your baby's health. With our newborn genetic tests like GenomeScope Newborn and GenomeScope NICU, we help you reach a step closer to the answer. LifeCell offers free & mandatory pre-test counseling where parents can understand the scope of the test and learn what to expect from the results.
If the test results are positive, the parents can opt for post-test counseling service with one of our experts. We also store your baby's results up to five years after the test. In case your baby develops new symptoms in the future, this data can be conveniently re-analyzed. We offer a one-time free-of-cost re-analysis within a year from the baby's birth, only including genes specific to symptoms of the condition. A copy of the data is shared on a removable hard drive for an additional fee of INR 2,000.
https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/testing/interpretingresults/


text:
Listening Oct 11, 2006
CBGBs RIP
by Llewellyn Hinkes
The history of rock may be written by the losers, but this week the losers will have some attention in their hands to point out the decline of Western civilization that'll ensue when CBGBs closes this weekend. Some may be wistful, some will have moved on, and some might actually go to the last shows there. It may not be the same as back in '77, but a Talking Heads tribute band should provide the requisite nostalgia.
The last shows at the club are currently filled with a slew of hardcore bands like Agnostic Front and some old mainstays like the Dictators, but not a lot of the New Wave sounds that took over between punk and hardcore. Maybe it's that New Wave isn't in vogue like it used to be—maybe it's that the hardcore bands might beat them up—but they still deserve a little sampling.
» Listen to "Obey the New Wave" at WFMU's Beware of the Blog
Make sure to listen to Furious Pig's version of the ketjak, otherwise known as "The Ramayana Monkey Chant"—a Balinese music drama performed by 100 people sitting in a circle simultaneously chanting. The echo effect is haunting, and somewhat similar to the The Langley Schools Music Project.
» Listen to "The Ramayana Monkey Chant" at ubuweb
After New Wave, No Wave eventually came to NYC, which had neither synthesizers nor speed. The compilation No New York was considered the beginning and end of the genre for a while, but there's plenty to be found outside of that boundary. In Florida, for instance, Teddy and the Frat Girls were screaming minimally to their hearts' content.
» Listen to Teddy and the Frat Girls at Post-Punk Junk
Just like how Lester Bangs is known for pointing out the music coming out of CBGBs in the '70s when nobody else was, Julian Cope is the krautrock equivalent. Besides putting out his own albums, he's also known for being a Warren Buffet-type character: Any band he mentions should be considered epic until listened to and proven otherwise. I'd been able to collect most of his highly essential Krautrock Top 50 list, except for Walter Wegmüller's Tarot, which had been a slippery eel until a few days ago.
» Listen to Walter Wegmüller at 8 Days in April
Be sure to also check out Julian Cope's Head Heritage, which provides streams of his recommended album of the month as well as his own song makings.
What else is there to say about CBGBs that hasn't been said a million times already? Maybe that they never booked enough Brazilian psychedelia. Well they'll have the opportunity to make up for this indiscretion in their new Las Vegas location, but until then Jards Macalé will have to fill in the gap.
» Listen to Jards Macalé at Brazilian Nuggets
TMN Contributing Writer Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones is a Washington, DC-based writer whose work has also appeared in the Atlantic, Toronto Star, Washington City Paper, and the Awl. More by Llewellyn Hinkes
Follow Llewellyn Hinkes on Twitter


text:
Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes: cohort comparisons over three decades
G Eiben, C S Andersson, Elisabet Rothenberg, V Sundh, B Steen, L Lissner
24 Citeringar (Scopus)
Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare dietary practices among different birth cohorts of 70-year-old Swedes, who were examined between 1971 and 2000.
Setting: Göteborg, Sweden.
Design: Four population-based samples of 1360 70-year-olds, born in 1901, 1911, 1922 and 1930, have undergone health examinations and dietary assessments over a period of almost three decades. One-hour diet history (DH) interviews were conducted in 1971, 1981, 1992 and 2000 with a total of 758 women and 602 women. The formats and contents of the dietary examinations were similar over the years. Statistical analysis of linear trends was conducted, using year of examination as the independent variable, to detect secular trends in food and nutrient intakes across cohorts.
Results: At the 2000 examination, the majority of 70-year-olds consumed nutritionally adequate diets. Later-born cohorts consumed more yoghurt, breakfast cereals, fruit, vegetables, chicken, rice and pasta than earlier-born cohorts. Consumption of low-fat spread and milk also increased, along with that of wine, light beer and candy. In contrast, potatoes, cakes and sugar were consumed less in 2000 than in 1971. The ratio of reported energy intake to estimated basal metabolic rate did not show any systematic trend over time in women, but showed a significant upward trend in men.
Conclusions: The diet history method has captured changes in food selections in the elderly without changing in general format over three decades. Dietary quality has improved in a number of ways, and these findings in the elderly are consistent with national food consumption trends in the general population.
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Swede Samhällsvetenskap 100%
Diet Medicin och livsvetenskap 48%
Elderly Medicin och livsvetenskap 47%
trend Samhällsvetenskap 34%
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examination Samhällsvetenskap 32%
Yogurt Medicin och livsvetenskap 32%
Food Preferences Medicin och livsvetenskap 31%
Eiben, G., Andersson, C. S., Rothenberg, E., Sundh, V., Steen, B., & Lissner, L. (2004). Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes: cohort comparisons over three decades. Public Health Nutrition, 7(5), 637-644. https://doi.org/10.1079/PHN2003576
Eiben, G ; Andersson, C S ; Rothenberg, Elisabet ; Sundh, V ; Steen, B ; Lissner, L. / Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes : cohort comparisons over three decades. I: Public Health Nutrition. 2004 ; Vol. 7, Nr. 5. s. 637-644.
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title = "Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes: cohort comparisons over three decades",
abstract = "Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare dietary practices among different birth cohorts of 70-year-old Swedes, who were examined between 1971 and 2000.Setting: G{\"o}teborg, Sweden.Design: Four population-based samples of 1360 70-year-olds, born in 1901, 1911, 1922 and 1930, have undergone health examinations and dietary assessments over a period of almost three decades. One-hour diet history (DH) interviews were conducted in 1971, 1981, 1992 and 2000 with a total of 758 women and 602 women. The formats and contents of the dietary examinations were similar over the years. Statistical analysis of linear trends was conducted, using year of examination as the independent variable, to detect secular trends in food and nutrient intakes across cohorts.Results: At the 2000 examination, the majority of 70-year-olds consumed nutritionally adequate diets. Later-born cohorts consumed more yoghurt, breakfast cereals, fruit, vegetables, chicken, rice and pasta than earlier-born cohorts. Consumption of low-fat spread and milk also increased, along with that of wine, light beer and candy. In contrast, potatoes, cakes and sugar were consumed less in 2000 than in 1971. The ratio of reported energy intake to estimated basal metabolic rate did not show any systematic trend over time in women, but showed a significant upward trend in men.Conclusions: The diet history method has captured changes in food selections in the elderly without changing in general format over three decades. Dietary quality has improved in a number of ways, and these findings in the elderly are consistent with national food consumption trends in the general population.",
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Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes : cohort comparisons over three decades. / Eiben, G; Andersson, C S; Rothenberg, Elisabet; Sundh, V; Steen, B; Lissner, L.
I: Public Health Nutrition, Vol. 7, Nr. 5, 2004, s. 637-644.
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AU - Eiben, G
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N2 - Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare dietary practices among different birth cohorts of 70-year-old Swedes, who were examined between 1971 and 2000.Setting: Göteborg, Sweden.Design: Four population-based samples of 1360 70-year-olds, born in 1901, 1911, 1922 and 1930, have undergone health examinations and dietary assessments over a period of almost three decades. One-hour diet history (DH) interviews were conducted in 1971, 1981, 1992 and 2000 with a total of 758 women and 602 women. The formats and contents of the dietary examinations were similar over the years. Statistical analysis of linear trends was conducted, using year of examination as the independent variable, to detect secular trends in food and nutrient intakes across cohorts.Results: At the 2000 examination, the majority of 70-year-olds consumed nutritionally adequate diets. Later-born cohorts consumed more yoghurt, breakfast cereals, fruit, vegetables, chicken, rice and pasta than earlier-born cohorts. Consumption of low-fat spread and milk also increased, along with that of wine, light beer and candy. In contrast, potatoes, cakes and sugar were consumed less in 2000 than in 1971. The ratio of reported energy intake to estimated basal metabolic rate did not show any systematic trend over time in women, but showed a significant upward trend in men.Conclusions: The diet history method has captured changes in food selections in the elderly without changing in general format over three decades. Dietary quality has improved in a number of ways, and these findings in the elderly are consistent with national food consumption trends in the general population.
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Eiben G, Andersson CS, Rothenberg E, Sundh V, Steen B, Lissner L. Secular trends in diet among elderly Swedes: cohort comparisons over three decades. Public Health Nutrition. 2004;7(5):637-644. https://doi.org/10.1079/PHN2003576


text:
Hillary Clinton Reveals Why She Stopped Wearing Skirts And Switched To Pantsuits
By Brent Furdyk.
Published: 1 hour ago
Over the past few decades, Hillary Clinton has become identified — and occasionally mocked — for her signature pantsuits.
In "Gutsy", the new Apple TV+ documentary series in which she co-stars with daughter Chlesea Clinton, the former Secretary of State reveals that she hasn't worn a skirt "since 1999," and explained why.
According to Clinton, while she was First Lady, she and then-president Bill Clinton visited Brazil in 1995, where she chose to wear a "first lady skirt suit" for the official visit.
Hillary Clinton Admits She And Bill Once Forgot Their Daughter Chelsea At The Kremlin: 'It Was Pretty Traumatic'
"We had a nice conversation, the press came in, they had what's called a press spray, so they had all these photographers," Clinton recalled, as reported by Insider.
"So, we finished the meeting, we finished the visit, I go back to the White House, and somebody has taken a picture up my skirt, and has billboards in Rio selling a certain brand of underwear."
According to Page Six, Clinton also detailed the experience in an interview with CBS News set to air on Sunday, Sept. 11.
Hillary Clinton Coming To TIFF Industry Conference To Present Docuseries
"I was sitting on a couch and the press was let in. There were a bunch of them shooting up," Clinton said.
"All of a sudden the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down with, I thought, my legs together. But the way it's shot, it's sort of suggestive," she continued.
"I also begin to have the experience of having photographers all the time – I'd be on a stage, I'd be climbing stairs, and they'd be below me," Clinton added.
"I couldn't deal with it, so I started wearing pants."
Sunny Hostin Shares An Alternate Take On The Queen's Reign On 'The View'
Patrick Dempsey Debuts New Platinum-Blonde 'Ferrari' Look


I'm getting ready to go for my run. I was just looking at the blog and I don't like it. The colors are too blah!! I'm going to search around for a better template. Blogger should offer more, there are so many blogs now. Anyway, time to go running.
Sometimes its good to 'clean your plate' and try something different. i don't think it looks bad.


text:
18 March 2018 / #Programming
ScyllaDB is better than Cassandra, and here's why.
by Kartik Khare
Database by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
ScyllaDB is one of the newest NoSQL database which offers really high throughput at sub millisecond latencies. The important point is that it accomplishes this at a fraction of the cost of a modern NoSQL database.
ScyllaDB implements almost all of the features of Cassandra in C++. But saying it's a mere C++ port would be an understatement. Developers at Scylla have made a lot of changes under the hood which are not visible to the user but that lead to a huge performance improvement.
You are kidding, right?
No, I'm not.
As you can see (if you went to that link), for most cases, Scylla's 99.9 percentile latency is 5–10X better than Cassandra's.
Also in the benchmarks mentioned here, a standard 3 node Scylla cluster offers almost the same performance as a 30 node Cassandra cluster (which leads to a 10X reduction in cost).
The most important point is that Scylla is written in C++14. So, it's expected to be faster than Cassandra which purely runs on JVM.
However, there have been lots of significant low level optimizations in Scylla which makes it better than its competition.
Shared-Nothing Approach
Cassandra relies on threads for parallelism. The problem is that threads require a context switch, which is slow.
Also, for communication between threads, you need to take a lock on shared memory which again results in wasted processing time.
ScyllaDB uses the seastar framework to shard requests on each core. The application only has one thread per core. This way, if a session is being handled by core 1 and a query request for that session comes to core 2, it's directed to core 1 for processing. Any of the cores can handle the response after that.
The advantage of the shared nothing approach is that each thread has its own memory, cpu, and NIC buffer queues.
In cases when communication between cores can't be avoided, Seastar offers asynchronous lockless inter-core communication which is highly scalable. These lockless primitives include Futures and Promises, which are quite commonly used in programming and so are developer friendly.
Avoid kernel
When a row is found in an SSTable, it needs to be sent over the network to the client. This involves copying data from user space to kernel space.
However, Linux kernel usually performs multi-threaded locking operations which are not scalable.
ScyllaDB takes care of this by using Seastar's network stack.
Seastar's network stack runs in user space and utilises DPDK for faster packet processing. DPDK bypasses the kernel to copy the data directly to NIC buffer and processes a packet within 80 CPU cycles. (source: DPDK Website)
Don't rely on Page Cache
Page cache is great when you have sequential I/O and data is stored in the disk in the wire format.
However, in Scylla/Cassandra, we have data in form of SSTables. Page cache stores data in the same format, which takes up a large chunk of memory for small data and needs serialization/deserialization when you want to transfer it.
ScyllaDB, instead of relying on page cache, allocates most of its memory to row-cache.
Row-Cache has the data in an optimised memory format which takes up less space and doesn't need serialization/deserialization
Another advantage of using row cache is it's not removed when compaction occurs while the page cache is thrashed.
These are the major optimizations in ScyllaDB which make it much faster, more reliable, and cheaper than Cassandra. Scylla has many other optimizations under the hood which can be found here.
If you are curious about more designs like those above or if you want to get in touch, connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook or drop an email to [email protected]
Beginner's working guide to JavaScript generators
How to make your first Pull Request on GitHub
#Mobile App Development
How fast is Flutter? I built a stopwatch app to find out.
#Life Lessons
Why developers should think more like product owners


text:
Pip and Posy: The Scary Monster
Two friends play together and share yummy biscuits. Axel Scheffler's cuddly art is a joy. Pip and Posy love playing. But what's the right kind of play? One day, Pip comes to Posy's house wearing a scary monster mask. But he gives Posy a bit of a fright! Oh dear. Luckily, when Pip takes the mask off, Posy feels much better. Now they can share the yummy biscuits she has baked! Reassuring fun by the artist of The Gruffalo. (That's why the pictures are so lovely.)
Axel is the illustrator of The Gruffalo and many other favourite picture books.
Axel has won many of the major book prizes, including the Smarties and Bluue Peter Awards for The Gruffalo, the Blue Peter and Sheffield Children's Book Prizes for Room on the Broom, the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year for The Gruffalo's Child and the Red House Award for Super Worm.
Changes and New Experiences


This module was developed by Dr. Larry Bramlage in conjunction with UCDavis and the California Horse Racing Board. Participants will learn what Bisphosphonates are and how they affect the bone development in a racehorse.
This module will explains the circumstances that lead to jockey falls in flat racing, as well as their associated injuries, fatalities, and insurance costs. Jockey Safety is an educational module provided courtesy of the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Horse Racing Board at no cost to users or racing commissions. To Enroll, select READ MORE.
This is an update to course 103 of the Advanced Horsemanship program provided by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
COURSE WILL BECOME AVAILABLE SOON: California's Racing Safety Program Overview is an educational module provided courtesy of the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Horse Racing Board at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
COURSE WILL BECOME AVAILABLE SOON: Scapular Fractures in Race Horses is an educational module provided courtesy of the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Horse Racing Board at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
COURSE WILL BECOME AVAILABLE SOON: Humeral Fractures in Race Horses is an educational module provided courtesy of the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Horse Racing Board at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
Nutrition and Balanced Feed Programs is the fifth continuing education course in the Advanced Horsemanship program provided by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
Introduction to Thoroughbred Risk & Protective Factors is the fourth continuing education course in the Advanced Horsemanship program provided by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
Understanding the National Uniform Medication Program (NUMP) is the third continuing education course in the Advanced Horsemanship program provided by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.
The Hoof: Inside & Out is the second continuing education course in the Advanced Horsemanship program provided by the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at no cost to users or racing commissions. To enroll, select READ MORE.


We don't believe in contracts. Or in submitting long proposals.
Instead we work to make you happy. If you're not 100% happy within your first 90 days, ask for your money back.
Life is too short. It's more fun this way. And more efficient.


What's the Best Way to Learn About Our QFX10000 Switch? Try a Virtual Version.
The vQFX10000 makes it easy for you to try out our QFX10000 high-performance data center switch without the wait for physical delivery. Although the virtual version has limited performance, it emulates the same features of the physical switch for the control plane, or both its control and data planes.
Use the vQFX10000 to create an instant virtual lab for a demo, proof of concept, training, script development, configuration validation, network change simulation, and more.
Simply download, install, and begin your free vQFX10000 trial. There's no time limit for the trial; use the virtual switch for as long as you like.
Click the button below and select the evaluation software version you want to download. You'll need to accept the Juniper End User License Agreement to proceed.
The vQFX evaluation is a community supported project.
Click "Register" to create a Customer Care account and continue to Step 2. A Juniper Customer Care representative will contact you within 24 hours about your account.
Fill in the remaining fields as requested.


Winchester, Virginia is an authentic community surrounded by breathtaking natural beauty. Those who appreciate nature will love our city's proximity to Shenandoah National Park, the park's famed Skyline Drive, and its thousands of acres of preserved wilderness land. Our city and the surrounding area are home to many other parks with a roster of outdoor activities from hiking, to fishing and boating, to horseback riding and more. Avid golfers will enjoy the challenges offered by Rock Harbor Golf Course, with a design that celebrates our region's varied topography.
Our city's downtown area is a bustling retail center that's a favorite among shoppers and festival-goers. Among structures and sites dating back to Colonial days, you'll find unique shops and dining establishments. The Loudoun Street Pedestrian Mall has become a prime destination, with its mix of upscale boutiques, specialty shops, and locally owned restaurants and breweries that spotlight area performers and arts activities. On Saturdays from May through November, the downtown area hosts the Old Town Farmers Market, featuring in-season produce and artisan food items from a 60-mile radius.
A particularly popular destination is our city's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, one of just 29 in the U.S. This state-of-the-art movie theater includes a full restaurant and bar, providing a unique setting in which to enjoy the latest releases. That's just one example of our region's many arts offerings, which include many local theaters and arts galleries, along with Shenandoah University's magnificent Conservatory, hosting more than 300 arts events annually.


The problem is, that dirX, dirY and dirZ are coordinates in the global coordinate system. So the velocity direction is dependant on the ship's euler angles.
As far as I read the manual, there is no command to get an object's current "looking direction", so I need to transform the three euler angles to a (normalized) 3D-Direction (x, y, z).
There are lots of formulas on the web, but I don't know the exact axis convention of AppGameKit to choose the right one.
Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try!


List building is the first and most important thing you need to do in order to build a profitable online business.
Because building a list can help not only increase traffic to your website, but it also helps you create an audience.
An audience that you can reach out to and connect with at a more personal level.
Then, if you will start provide value to the audience you are building, thus to your email subscribers they will start to pay you back for your efforts.
And by paying you back I am referring at opening the emails you send them, clicking on the links you place in those emails and sharing your website with their friends and peers.
Plus, if you are selling any products or services they will open their wallets and pay you, because you helped them by providing valuable resources and advice.
Now, here are a couple of resources to help you get started with building a responsive email list.
Creating a high converting signup forms for your list can be a hard and expensive task if you are not a designer. But you can find out how to easily create good looking signup forms and webinar landing pages.
List building is just the beginning of creating a profitable business, so there is more to learn.
But this time I've got you covered, because if you join my newsletter there are more tips coming your way which you can use to take action immediately.


text:
//_sleeper - A Short Film by Jordan Buckner
Buckner, Jordan (PI)
School of Creative Technologies
As part of BFI's yearlong celebration of British animation, BFI and BBC set out to find the most exciting and original filmmakers working in animation, from across the UK.
The 13 commissioned films encompass a number of different approaches, using styles and techniques ranging from hand-drawn images to live-action puppetry, stop motion, CG, 2D and 3D, and covering a diverse range of genres from science-fiction to documentary; celebrating the medium of animation in all its breadth.
Development and delivery of the animations were managed by independent production company Wingspan Productions which previously produced the successful BFI/BBC collaboration Listen to Britain in 2017.
Layman's description
In May 2018 I was selected by the BFI and BBC to be part of Animation 2018 - a funding opportunity to support 12 emerging animators in the UK. As part of this project, I produced "//_sleeper", a short animation about creepy obsessions in dying industrial towns. The film premiered at the BFI Southbank on November 19th, and then went on to play on BBC Four on December 2nd. Since then, the film has been available on BBC iPlayer and BFI Player.
Synopsis - "Set in a dying industrial town, //_sleeper tells the story of Frank, a recluse who wakes each day to a strange anomaly on the horizon. Black treacle skies, glowing monitors and strange phone calls are the backdrop to this unsettling character journey, as Frank looks ever watching towards the horizon - the anomaly awaits him. "
//_sleeper
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-sleeper-2018-online
https://player.bfi.org.uk/
animation, film, art direction
Access Project
BFI Film Link
13 new short films from new and emerging animators, commissioned through a prestigious initiative by the BFI, BBC Four, and BBC Arts.
Animation Arts & Humanities 100%
Anomaly Arts & Humanities 31%
Dying Arts & Humanities 29%
Puppetry Arts & Humanities 23%
Live-action Arts & Humanities 22%
Production Companies Arts & Humanities 21%
Animator Arts & Humanities 21%
Short Film Arts & Humanities 19%


Sweet Spirit is a leave-in conditioner using a blend of natural oils, fragrant herbs and flower essences. A touch of honey adds body and manageability. Hair is perfectly balanced and ready for any style. Sweet Spirit can also be used on dry hair to revive or restyle. The natural Orange Blossom fragrance makes this a refreshing delight for the senses. Sweetness brings life into balance.


Below you'll find directory style listings of plastic surgeons in Northampton and/or Northampton medical spa facilities offering cosmetic surgery procedures in Northampton.
If you're looking for some plastic surgery in Northampton, then you can't go wrong with a Northampton plastic surgeon. Whether you're looking for a breast augmentation, tummy tuck, or liposuction in Northampton, you can be sure that you're receiving top-notch service. But you want to separate the contenders from the pretenders and that is where we can help. Simply fill out the contact form below, and we can put you in touch with a highly regarded, board-certified Northampton plastic surgeon in your area.