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The lesson of a gradual draft class and how contending teams get better
November 23rd, 2011 | Written by Kip Earlywine
Posted by Kip Earlywine
(Note: Be sure to scroll down and check out Rob's recent entry on Matt Barkley. The Oregon game may well prove to be a turning point for Barkley's draft status.)
The apparent beginnings of a second half surge by the Seattle Seahawks has ignited the "lose to win" debate among fans (which in my imagination, is sung to the tune of Paul Stanley's "Live to win"). Its a topic that in the past was shied away from and avoided, but in 2011 its taken off to a level I've never seen before. Even radio personalities like Mike Salk have openly advocated for losing games for draft position. For some reason, perhaps fueled by the long overdue acceptance of moving beyond Matt Hasselbeck, the nearly undeniable requirement for a franchise quarterback to make the playoffs and the well documented success-rate of first round quarterbacks, the subject has ceased to be completely taboo. I'm guessing a lot of fans were looking at Andrew Luck after getting crushed by Pittsburgh for an 0-2 start and thought, "if we're going to be bad, lets be bad enough."
Despite that, the subject does bring out a lot of heated emotions on both sides. Even on this very blog we've seen some heated discussion in the comments regarding this. So I figured it was high time I weighed in, to explain that there's really no reason to freak out either way. At least not this year.
Depending on the season and the context involved, I've actually been on both sides of this issue in the past. I thought that Seattle gained more by winning in 2002 when a hot finish not only helped Matt Hasselbeck establish himself as a franchise quarterback, but also helped Mike Holmgren keep his job. Without that late 2002 surge, I very much doubt the Seahawks would have been celebrating their first Superbowl berth in 2005. Conversely, when it was obvious that the team was in need of a complete roster overhaul and change at the top in 2009, I felt that losing to secure that change, as well as needed draft position (to assist in finding a quarterback) was clearly more important. Seattle did not draft a quarterback the next draft (2010), and I think its safe to say that though frustrating at the time, it was absolutely the right move in retrospect. Instead, Seattle stayed calm and simply selected the best players they could, and though they didn't get a franchise quarterback (who didn't exist in that draft anyway), they did acquire two players who are already pieces of Seattle's next great team.
So which is it in 2011? This season doesn't really fit well with either of those examples: Seattle does not have a true emerging franchise quarterback as they did in 2002, nor are they a team trending downward and in need of new leadership. But if we made a spectrum with 2002 being on one side and 2009 being on the other, I think I'd lean towards putting this season on the 2002 ("winning is good") half. And not for the reasons many "win now" supporters have suggested.
Rather, while looking ahead to the next NFL draft, one can't help but notice that this isn't going to be a top heavy draft. I don't know if there is a single player on defense that truly deserves to be a top 10 pick. The offensive portion of the draft is actually pretty dang good, but its also a muddled group. Andrew Luck is the consensus top quarterback, and Trent Richardson (if he declares) will be the top rated running back, but after that expect a lot of different front offices ranking the remaining players in a variety of orders. Its very possible that with time, the quarterback class could solidify into a consensus order, but with Jones being rated highly, Barkley lower than he deserves, and Griffin's stock being difficult to predict, the early indications hint at what could become an unpredictable remaining quarterback class not unlike 2011's. Additionally, you are looking at probably four or five offensive lineman going in round one (Kalil, Martin, Konz, and DeCastro are locks.) Similarly, there are about four to six wide receivers who could merit first round consideration. At running back, Lamar Miller will likely be a first rounder, and Chris Polk could end up sneaking into the first round as well. I wouldn't rule out LaMichael James either.
In other words, there are going to be three or four superstars in this draft, and its likely they will all quickly be gone in the first five or so picks. But after that, the draft widens out considerably. To help illustrate this idea, I'm going to use this basic diagram:
The dark blue area represents players who are uncommon talents. In 2012, this group is expected to include Andrew Luck, Matt Kalil, Trent Richardson, and Matt Barkley (whether his reputation is there or not). Richardson has indicated recently that he leans toward returning to school next year, and though I do not think Barkley will return to USC, some believe that Barkley may return as well. Split the difference, and you are probably looking at only 2 to 4 elite players in this next draft. That's not an especially low number, but its dwarfed by the number of Upper Tier players that follows it, a list that probably goes fifteen strong on offense alone, and since teams don't pick purely by BPA, you can expect some of those 15 players to last to the end of the first round. And while this draft completely lacks top 10 worthy prospects on defense, there are quite a few defensive players who could make a lot of sense from the mid-first round on, players like Zach Brown, Alameda Ta'amu, Vinny Curry or Janoris Jenkins. It paints the picture of a draft that falls off quickly at the very beginning, but turns into a gradual plateau for a long time after.
Generally speaking, as you move down the pyramid, each sub-group increases in size and opinion increasingly lacks consensus. By the time you reach the 4th tier, its really anyone's guess who goes where, and its no surprise then that the very best front offices separate themselves the most in this area. And in 2012, you're looking at a pyramid that has very little dark blue, but a lot of regular blue and light blue. That's true with every draft, but its more true with 2012's group than most.
Where have we seen this before? Though not perfectly analogous, we've seen similarly "dispersed" drafts recently in 2005 and 2009.
Top 10 picks, 2005: Alex Smith, Ronnie Brown, Braylon Edwards, Cedric Benson, Cadillac Williams, Pac-Man Jones, Troy Williamson, Antrel Rolle, Carlos Rodgers, Mike Willams (the very same).
In a word, brutal. But consider some notables from the remainder of that same first round:
Notable picks 11-32, 2005: DeMarcus Ware, Shawne Merriman, Jammal Brown, Marcus Spears, Aaron Rodgers, Jason Campbell, Roddy White, Heath Miller, Logan Mankins.
Its worth noting that while Ware, Merriman and Brown went 11th, 12th and 13th respectively, the rest of those players were drafted 20th or later. Of course, Seattle drafted Chris Spencer 26th overall in that same draft. Though not a home run pick, it ended up being the best first round pick Tim Ruskell would ever make. Now lets take a look at another dispersed year: 2009.
Top 10 picks, 2009: Matt Stafford, Jason Smith, Tyson Jackson, Aaron Curry, Mark Sanchez, Andre Smith, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eugene Monroe, B.J. Raji, Michael Crabtree.
Yet again, another incredibly weak top field. Matt Stafford's career is turning out the way you would hope any #1 overall quarterback would, but after that you have four players in a row who were late draft risers, and all four are picks their teams have regretted or will probably regret in the future. Sanchez isn't quite a disappointment just yet, as he's improved every season and is currently sporting an 80 passer rating, but he hasn't progressed nearly as fast as Stafford despite having almost double the playing time to this point. Andre Smith, DHB, and Eugene Monroe had terrible beginnings to their careers, and while I wouldn't rule out a turnaround, I think its safe to say they haven't been earning their $40 million contracts. B.J. Raji has been one of the most valuable DTs in the league, chosen by a team that knows a thing or two about evaluating talent. Michael Crabtree has actually been a pretty solid receiver, just not the superstar many thought he'd be. Overall though, you're looking at two great players and two decent players in a top 10 crop. Consider now how the rest of round one shaped up that year:
Notable picks 11-32, 2009: Brian Orakpo, Malcolm Jenkins, Brian Cushing, Josh Freeman, Jeremy Maclin, Brandon Pettigrew, Alex Mack, Percy Harvin, Michael Oher, Clay Matthews, Eric Wood, Hakeem Nicks, Kenny Britt.
That list already includes 5 pro-bowlers and a franchise quarterback, among other things. And while I think BJ Raji and Matt Stafford are currently on their way to the pro-bowl themselves, the top 10 group has yet to earn a single pro-bowl bid as of this writing.
I guess a logical question when seeing such unusual results is "how could NFL franchises picking in the top 10 let this happen?" Well, its partly because the higher a team picks, the smaller their section of the pyramid is, and the more "locked in" they get. Remember that these were not top-heavy years, and determining the top crust of talent became more of a case of guesswork than usual. It probably also factors that many of the successful players from these lists landed on good teams who were able to put those players in a good place to succeed. It didn't hurt that Michael Oher went to a team that had previously invested heavily in the offensive line, and had both a franchise quarterback and franchise running back to make him look better. It didn't hurt BJ Raji or Clay Matthews that they went to a great team coming off a strange down year.
And as the picture at the top implies, its hard to not notice just how incredibly well Green Bay did in these two "weak" drafts, securing one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, an elite nose tackle and an elite pass rusher. And they did so while John Schneider was a member of their front office, using a system he brought over with him when hired as the Seahawks general manager. While Rodgers was gained through patience and luck, and Raji was gained by staying true to their board, Clay Matthews actually required a highly uncharacteristic trade up to acquire.
Could a 1st round trade up be in the books for John Schneider in 2012? If the season were to end today, the Colts would likely take/trade Luck at #1. But after that, you have three teams in a row who have invested in quarterbacks recently (Panthers, Vikings, Rams). If Richardson opts not to declare, that leaves only Matt Barkley and Matt Kalil as the remaining elite prospects. In a draft where the talent pool at say the 3rd overall pick won't be radically different from the talent pool in the mid-first, that creates a massive incentive to trade down, even with the new rookie wage scale. And of course, after Barkley and Griffin are both off the table, you are looking at a flat-out buyers market year, where trading down will be hard to do and trading up will probably cost less than usual. We know that John Schneider loves to move down, but its just not going to be easy to do that this time. In 2005 and 2009, there was only one top 10 trade in those two drafts combined. That one top ten trade was of course for Mark Sanchez, which may not have materialized if not for then Browns coach Eric Mangini's connections to the Jets. A friendly rookie pay scale will help entice buyers to a degree, but why would any team spend significant capital to draft from essentially the same talent pool? Unless its for a quarterback.
In that sense, there could be an ironic advantage to picking later and targeting a quarterback. The Atlanta Falcons paid a king's ransom for Julio Jones, but there is something to like about the fact that they controlled their own destiny. They got their man. Had they picked 10th, they might have been tempted to wait it out- and miss out- as a result. As things are shaping up now, you will likely have teams in the top 5 picks holding Barkley and Griffin out for trade. I'd rather pay two firsts and get Barkley for sure than take a 50/50 shot at getting Barkley for half that price. If Seattle ends up picking 8th, that will be a very real temptation.
Great front offices work tirelessly so that they will always make the best decisions possible with the available players at each draft pick. But that hard work and success does not lure them into an arrogant mentality where they believe hard work alone will always bring a needed piece of the puzzle to their doorstep. When there is a piece out there that is critical to the equation, they've shown a willingness to make a bold move for that player, even in the case of Green Bay: a team that is famous for singing the praises of trading down, not up.
Finally, its worth nothing that as unlikely as it would have seemed at the time, the 2005 and 2009 drafts produced franchise quarterbacks after the top of the first round. Aaron Rodgers somehow fell all the way to the 24th pick. Jason Campbell isn't a franchise quarterback, but he's no slouch either. He went with the very next pick. Josh Freeman was the 17th overall pick in 2009. What if Matt Barkley suffers from Jimmy Clausen lookalike-itis and has an inexplicable Aaron Rodgers fall? What if Robert Griffin makes a dramatic rise into the first round, but not the high first round, as Josh Freeman did? While I strongly advocate Seattle taking their fate into their own hands this next draft by moving up, if they foolishly choose not to, there is legitimate hope that they could luck out anyway. And even in the worst case scenario- no worthy quarterback reaches Seattle's first pick- we can take comfort in the knowledge that Seattle will at least be getting a pretty good player thanks to a deep second tier of talent, even if that player isn't playing the position we want the most.
This isn't to say that its always better to pick later. That's hardly the case. In many drafts, such as the 2010 version, picking twice in the first fourteen picks was a huge blessing. However, the way that the 2012 draft appears to be shaping up, this looks like a year where there are significant silver linings to picking a little bit later, enough to legitimately question if it makes it worth the losing and the resulting hot seat it would put our coach and front office on.
14 Responses to "The lesson of a gradual draft class and how contending teams get better"
Nice piece, Kip, if for no other reason than the perspective it provides.
Also I don't think you're correct Softy. I do listen to a fair amount of his show during the work day and I'm pretty sure he has taken the "win, baby, win" position when the subject has been brought up.
You're making me get my hopes up for a QB trade-up. I would love it but I don't see it happening. I really think that on this blog in 5 years you will be writing something like "we wondered if John Schneider would ever trade up; now we know he never does that."
aredub says:
Excellent write up man! Solid! Love the thought process, I've been back and forth on the win now and lose now train. This helps put it all into perspective.
Good article. Teams only trade up to target certain players, not to simply pick from the smaller, more elite pool. The Jets and Falcons didn't trade up to pick higher, they traded up to specifically add Sanchez and Jones to their teams because those players were considered to be the "missing pieces" for those teams. I believe that the Seahawks are in a similar position where overall, their roster is not bad, but they are in dire need of improving at one specific position – QB. They could certainly sit back in whatever spot they earn and upgrade talent/depth at another position. Would their OL improve with DeCastro at LG? Would their secondary get better if they add a 1st round CB? Could their DL use more talent in the rotation? Or course, but is that going to help them improve at the most important, and unfortunately the weakest position on the roster? No. It will simply make next year just like this, a team without a legitimate QB, but with too much talent to pick high enough to draft a legitimate franchise QB prospect.
I usually subscribe to the "trade down, add more picks" belief. However, over the past 4-5 years, the Seahawks have ignored the QB position, and with each year, the need has only gotten more and more obvious. This year's Seahawks provide the perfect example of a team that needs to trade up to fill a specific position with a specific player. Obviously the team needs better talent across the board, but not nearly as much as it needs its QB.
These are the reasons why I think that a trade up, even as high as pick #2 is the appropriate thing to do.
1. Obviously, the QB position is the weakest position on the team. An upgrade is needed. I actually expect the Seahawks to draft 2 QBs this year – one early and one developmental backup guy later.
2. Often, when new GMs and head coaches take over, one of the first things they do is hand pick the QB that will be the face of the franchise and define their tenure as GM/HC. Carroll & Schieder have not done that yet and this will be their 3rd off season.
3. Assuming Carroll & Schneider view Luck and Barkley as being 1A and 1B, can't miss guys, what is it worth to draft one of them? How much would you all trade away to get Andrew Luck? Is it worth two #1s? two #1s and #2s? More? Carroll's friend, UW coach Steve Sarkesian recently said that if he was in the NFL and drafting #1, he would take Barkley over Luck. If Barkley is really just one small step below Andrew Luck, isn't it worth trading away almost as much to draft him as it is to draft Luck?
4. The right QB could stabilize the team's most important position for at least the next decade. Do you really believe that Carroll & Schnieder intend to tie their legacy to a couple of castaway QBs? No way! They probably feel the need to get their guy in place now, to give him a season or two to adjust to the NFL before their contracts are up.
5. Carroll/Schneider have used the last 2 drafts/off-seasons to create a roster that is perfectly suited to insert a young QB. Okung, Carpenter, Moffit, Gallery, Miller, Rice… Seems like the front office has been drafting and signing guys that will make a young QB's life a lot easier once he finally arrives.
6. I am sick and tired of the "wait until next year" argument for drafting a QB. I have heard it since 2009. Assuming Barkely & RG3 declare, this will be a strong QB class. If both stay in school and only Luck declares, that would be very different. I also wouldn't be opposed to selling the farm to try to get Luck from Indy. I just don't see that happening.
Jim J says:
I don't think Luck or Barkley are worth trading two #1's and more. Lets just look at the history of our #1 pick. Okung out with ankle injuries last year. Could be out with ankle injuries by end of this year. Carpenter out with knee injury for the rest of the year. Before that Curry – who never panned out. The only recent uninjured choice is Earl Thomas.
Look at how many time Tevaris has been tackled this year. It's not all his fault! He has suffered an injury and he is playing through it.
So before we go trading the farm for one player who will probably get injured, you should at least finish building the offensive line to protect them.
Jim J. – I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. I would say that the offensive line is finished. To say that Okung "could be out with ankle injuries by end of year" could be said of any player in the league. Tom Brady could reinjure his ACL, Drew Brees could reinjure his shoulder, We have every position on the offensive line filled with young talented players with bright futures – with the exception of LG. Would you really forego an opportunity for a legitimate QB to upgrade the G position? Admittedly, the injury situation is unfortunate, but I think that Okung, Unger, Moffit, and Carpenter have the potential to become one of the league's better offensive lines very soon. Even the great Steve Hutchinson lost a season due to a broken leg. He still turned out pretty solid. I don't think anyone would ever say that Holmgren should have drafted his replacement because he lost his 2nd season to an injury. If our 1st round picks will "probably get injured" anyway, it would make perfect sense to trade 2 for 1 – since they could both end up injured.
^ Pete Carroll and Scheinder has both said that they're done building the line. We've already invested two 1st on our book end tackles, a 2nd on our center, a 3rd on our OG, and a fairly decent FA for our other OG. If we're picking OL, it'll be with a mid round pick like a 3rd-5th round pick. Our investment on our OL is far greater than most other teams.
As for QB, I would take it if it needs 2 1st rounds (3 is mortgaging the future). We're delaying this for way too long. If we miss, what do we do? Another year of Tavaris? I think I'll shoot myself.
Furthermore, this draft doesn't match up with our other needs – particularly the DL (pass rush 3 Tech or a super DE). The highest rated DT is Clemson Brandon Thompson and the seemingly highest rated DE is Quinton Coples, both of which I would not be jumping off my couch. Do those people excite you? Not for me.
Oh yeah, if you're taking the "wait for next year" route, well, if RG3 and Barkley declares, the QB crop next year is void. It might be even worse than 2010 when Bradford was the only 1st round grade QB (I had him as mid 1st round grade).
Don says:
TJ, I agree with everything you say, 100%. This is what I have been preaching as well. Though I have been taking it a step further, and just hoping for the team to improve and somehow lose. Atlanta was a good example of this, miss that 60 yd field goal! The higher up in the draft you are, the less you have to pay to move up to get the QB. Also, this makes it more enticing to the team that you are trading with, since they will not be trading down so far and be able to get a quality player themselves, or even trade down again. I am all for trading whatever it takes to get Luck or Barkley, because they are worth it in the long run. The teams that can sit back and take the best player available already have their QB in place.
Excellent article Kip!
First round mock draft: 23rd November « Seahawks Draft Blog says:
[…] forget to check out Kip Earlywine's excellent piece from yesterday – it's a great read and highly recommended. I also compiled a tape review on Matt […]
You've sort of got me convinced we should trade all our draft picks for Luck now. Just don't cry if he gets injured and we got nothing from the draft until he recovers.
^ The thing is injury is ALWAYS a risk no matter what. There is every possibility that Peyton Manning could have ended up like Chad Pennington who needed 4 surgeries on his arm, which turned it into the weakest arm in the NFL at one time.
That was a really good article. I agree that based on your reasoning a trade up for a QB is a very sound option. You mentioned your scenario may include offering two 1st round picks for Barkley. I agree and personally would throw in Tate or a 2nd round pick in 2014 to cement the deal with Carolina at the #2 pick.
Sea-Town says:
You can't manage your team around a "what if he gets injured mentality."
Sounder says:
Advocates of losing a season for the benefit of one draft pick often ignore the value of playing well and supplementing the draft with free agency. A good free agent player obviously looks for the best contract, but Carroll and Schneider have made huge progress with UDFA signings like Baldwin, Browner this year and free agent signings like TE Miller, DT Branch, OG Gallery, QB Jackson, etc. I would like this team to be a haven for good players to want to come here and play for a winner. If the money is the same, i would like good players to be attracted to Seattle. (I don't want players comfortable with losing.) A lot of the current front office success is a function of their ability to evaluate talent and project their vision of that talent into their system. Their success with middle and lower ranked draft picks further illustrates that ability. For that reason, I am comfortable with their decision making ability and actually hope for opportunities to trade down and always pick up extra draft picks as opposed to trading up. Give me more players like Chancellor (5th), Sherman (5th), Wright (4th) to go with Ruskell's Red Bryant (5th), Mebane (3rd), Hill (3rd). Compare these 1st round picks like Ruskell's Curry (#4pick), Holmgren's Koren Robinson, Jeremy Stevens, Chris McIntosh, Lamar King etc. and you get a sense of the quality of the drafting and rapid rebuilding that is going on right now.


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Why the All Blacks are not a priority for world class Cruden
by Daniel Gilhooly, AAP
Aaron Cruden goes past Adam Ashley Cooper at ANZ Stadium.Source: News Limited
Aaron Cruden says All Blacks selection isn't in his thinking as he prepares for his Super Rugby return with the Chiefs.
World class five-eighth Cruden left for France in late 2017, frustrated at having spent several seasons as the backup to Dan Carter and then seemingly having to do the same when Beauden Barrett switched to a playmaking role.
The 31-year-old said two seasons in Montpellier has made him a better player but he hasn't made it a goal to add to his 50 Tests.
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Aaron Cruden of the Chiefs looks to pass at GIO Stadium.Source: Getty Images
"I just want to contribute to each environment I'm in and haven't thought too much about the All Blacks," he said.
"I've been removed from that environment for a few seasons and there have been a lot of changes in that scene as well."
Cruden has signed a one-season deal with the Chiefs under their new coach Warren Gatland but it's enough time to impress new national coach Ian Foster, who will also have World Cup duo Barrett and Richie Mo'unga to call on.
Three weeks out from the start of the season, he said his priority is to bring further success to the Chiefs, having been a central cog in their titles under Dave Rennie in 2012 and 2013.
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Cruden believes long-serving former Wales coach Warren Gatland will be a good fit at the Chiefs.
"His pedigree speaks for itself, you can see what he's been able to do with the Welsh national side," Cruden said.
"He's obviously a passionate Waikato-Chiefs man and having him back in the region will do wonders for this team.
"He's brought his own style and structure to training, and talking to a lot of the boys they are really energised."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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A Pattern of Freedom: On Can Xue's 'Frontier'
Madeleine LaRue August 4, 2017 | 4 min read
If in The Last Lover, Can Xue's Best Translated Book Award-winning novel from 2014, characters seem to be wandering in and out of each other's dreams, in Frontier, the author's latest work to be published in English, experience has almost become detached from bodies entirely. It floats as if through the air of Pebble Town, a settlement of uncertain size on an unspecified, but presumably northern, Chinese border, attaching itself by turns to the town's various human and animal inhabitants. Several unrelated characters share a memory of "standing on the ocean floor," while others recognize their fathers or lovers in the form of geckoes and wagtails; mysterious shadows in one woman's house are said to belong both to "invisible people" and to wolves. Just as the human effortlessly fades into the non-human, so do the boundaries between inner and outer life, between life and death themselves, lose their solidness. When one character is shocked by the beauty of a woman's red skirt among a herd of sheep uttering "sorrowful cries," Can Xue writes, "It was wondrous," and indeed, all of Frontier is.
One of the best-known experimental writers in China, Can Xue (the pseudonym of Deng Xiaohua) has found increasing success in the West for her strange but luminous work. Frontier, originally written in 2008 and now published in Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping's translation, is perhaps the best and most beautiful of her novels yet to reach English readers. Plot never dominates Can Xue's work; rather, her novels build upon images and affects that repeat, vary, and recombine, giving rise to patterns at once original and tinglingly familiar. While readers approaching Frontier as a cipher to be decoded are therefore likely to grow frustrated, those who allow themselves to be immersed in it as in music or painting will begin to perceive the novel's complex harmonies. Something of Frontier's lush and perilous landscape may resonate particularly with American readers, who will sense in it a counterpart to their own mythology of a sublime internal frontier.
"Where there is desire," Can Xue wrote in The Last Lover, "there is a wilderness." Frontier develops the equivalence even further, until Pebble Town's magical terrain is just as much the manifestation of its inhabitants' desires as it is the backdrop for them. Whether it is the vastness of the Gobi Desert (which Pebble Town is said to border) or the floating garden that sometimes appears miraculously in midair, the landscape of the frontier, as one character observes, exerts "tremendous pressure on people." A man named Lee, who, gazing at the "scenery outside," feels his heart, "long covered with dust, bubble over with joy," has the following conversation with his wife:
"Nothing you see here is actually what it appears to be."
Grace raised her left eyebrow, as if thinking of something.
"Do you think this is like our ailments?" she asked him.
"Do you mean the thing inside us and the thing outside us are the same thing?" Lee was perplexed.
"Lee, Lee, we've finally broken out!"
The ecstasy at this apparent unity of interior and exterior life implies that a threshold far beyond the geographical has been crossed. Pebble Town is repeatedly described as a utopia, but it may also be something like a utopian purgatory. Hardly anyone does much of anything—most of the town's residents are employed by the enigmatic Design Institute, though no one ever works—yet they are all caught up in barely-articulable processes of metamorphosis, as if straining to break into another type of existence of which Pebble Town is the premonition. Moreover, some of them have a whiff of death about them: one man is told outright that he smells "a little" like a "dead person," and another, plagued by dreams of being chased, blurts out, "The dead are struggling for territory against the living people." The Design Institute itself is said to look like "a giant grave," and its director's adopted relative Ying, who wanders the grounds of the Institute like a "timekeeper," recalls a god of death, counting down everyone's seconds.
For all its supernatural suggestions, however, Pebble Town also belongs undeniably to contemporary China. There are allusions to a surveillance state ("Everyone's movements are tracked!") and an ominous reference to "execution reform." A young man named Marco, whose identity is one of the least stable in the book ("in a split second he became a different person"), was adopted by a Dutch family as a child and later sent back. He longs to return to Holland (which Pebble Town also supposedly borders), and undertakes a dangerous journey across a river and through a desert attempting to reach his idealized Western past. Liujin, a woman characterized as a true "daughter of the frontier," was born in Pebble Town because her parents fled "Smoke City" for the "clean" borderlands, "where no air pollution existed;" Liujin and her father, listening "to birds singing outside the window," in or near the Gobi Desert, feel they are in a "utopia." While Frontier is much more than a wistful social fantasy, this sense of injustice—surveillance and oppression, exploitative adoption practices, the destruction of the natural world—courses beneath the book's brilliant landscapes like the mysterious waters said to flow under Pebble Town itself.
There are books that seem to expand ever outward, so that upon finishing them, readers see the world anew through the author's eyes. Others expand inward, leaving behind a glow to be carried for days like a secret. Frontier's "bright, shining," shapeshifting town, "a paradise for vagrants," lovers, and wolves, offers, like poetry, what Can Xue says each of her characters already possesses: "a pattern of freedom."
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Madeleine LaRue is associate editor and director of publicity for Music & Literature. She lives in Berlin.
My Thoughts on The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
C. Max Magee August 31, 2003 | 3 min read
The modern novel seems to have always been about the self - so often characters are drawn from life, episodes derive from anecdotes, the narrator from the author himself. Modern writers are not slapping together memoirs and changing the names and places. They are much more graceful about it. It is more accurate to say that a certain type of novel is really a set piece constructed to illuminate the world inhabited by its author, as a lantern might shed light upon the interior of a cave, throwing some surfaces into sharp relief while leaving other nooks and crevices shrouded in shadow.In the interest of full-disclosure, I should mention that I have always been irked by Franzen's often autobiographical non-fiction (most of it is collected in How to Be Alone). There are several bothersome things about Franzen that are revealed by his non-fiction: his inability to conceal his belief in his own inarguable specialness, a tendency to dwell on his social troubles as an adolescent, a need to divide the world into two camps (typically for him and against him) whenever he discusses anything. All in all, he has the demeanor of someone who had it rough in junior high and has now exacted his revenge by becoming successful. It just doesn't feel graceful to me. Before I read The Corrections, I knew I would be bothered by whichever of the qualities he employs in his non-fiction were also present in his fiction.Yet, there is no way around it. Franzen wrote a very successful, very perceptive novel about what it means to be an adult in this day and age. His characters: Chip, bitterly unwilling to see his difficulties as the result of his own mistakes; Denise, sexually confused and professionally driven; Gary, who believes in family but must bully and acquiesce to mean-spirited impulses in order to serve this belief; Enid, a meddler who desperately wants her freedom; and Alfred, a proud man, decimated by disease, are typical people, borderline cliches even, that he has infused with complexity and emotion so that they are real enough to walk and talk among us. They are spectacular in their ordinariness, in the similarity of their problems to our own troubles or the troubles of people close to us.A glance at the fiction in the New Yorker in any given week will, more often than not, contain these types of characters, though not as fully realized as in The Corrections. There is, now, a tradition of this sort of story, stories about what it means to have been alive in the past fifty years. These stories are full of neuroses and addictions, the small-scale crises of individuals blown up bigger than life size. Any collection of short stories from the 1970s will include a number of stories like this. This tradition perhaps begins in earnest with the stories of Joyce Carol Oates and Raymond Carver (see What We Talk About When We Talk About Love). There are many others too, from this time; Ann Beattie is another good one. And the traditions continues up through the present with Dave Eggers, a fervent practitioner of late, and the majority of Pulitzer Prize winners from the last 25 years.This type of story or novel is adept at focusing intently upon modern life, dissecting its minutiae. These writers provide no escape for the reader, only mastery in wielding the microscope. There should, of course, be no limits on fiction, and this novel of the self should not be abandoned. In fact, it is valuable in its insights, in its pertinence to the readers' own circumstances. However, why not embrace the limitlessness of the form, why not devote more time and energy to seeking out the stories that are waiting in the ether to be told, that are not so grounded by their concrete relevance to the experiences of the reader? This perhaps sounds like a defense of genre writing, but that too seems limiting to me. The Corrections may be the best "novel of modern life" or "novel of the self" ever written, but we shouldn't expect excellence from that type of book alone. There are too many senseless barriers to the one thing that lies at the heart of all this fiction: imagination.
C. Max Magee | 3 min read
Motherless in Brooklyn
C. Max Magee September 16, 2003 | 2 min read
Violence and Tenderness
My review of Jamesland by Michelle Huneven
C. Max Magee December 3, 2003 | 2 min read
Some of you may know that I'm currently up to my ears in grad school applications. Luckily, posting on The Millions has a salutary effect on me, and also, I just finished a book, so I need to write about it. Jamesland opens with Alice, great-granddaughter of philosopher William James, having an odd waking dream of a deer in her house. Alice fixates on the deer as a portent of a coming change in her life, and the very next day her life begins to change slowly and inexorably. The book does not dwell on the supernatural, though it does have a bemused dialogue with the otherworldly throughout. Mostly it is about three forty-somethings whose social and professional lives are deteriorating and reconfiguring. I'd call it a mid-life crisis, but these characters have that quality, peculiar to Californians, of being youthful, unserious adults. The book is mostly set on the East Side of Los Angeles in neighborhoods that I know well. It was great to read a book that addresses a somewhat larger Los Angeles than usual. Movie stars are around, and Hollywood is nearby, but they are just parts of the great stew of the city, things that are noticed but after a while not accorded any greater importance than things like Griffith Park or the LA River. The only other book that I have read that successfully turns LA's flashy side into just another bit of peripheral scenery is T.C. Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain. Huneven is well-known in Los Angeles as the food critic for the LA Weekly, and the way she writes about food in this book is magnificent. Pete (who along with Helen, a modern sort of minister, are the other two wayward adults) is a former near-celebrity chef who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, suicide attempt combo. His character is both abrasive and charming, the type of person who makes you nervous the moment he steps into the room. As he coaxes himself back into the functioning world, he takes up cooking again, and this is the venue for Huneven's descriptions of foods. It was nice to see that Huneven did not place this book firmly in the world of food and restaurants in the way that many writers tend to crib from their day jobs. Instead, Huneven manages to weave her knowledge skillfully into the larger narrative. The book itself is a rather satisfying meal, best taken over a few languorous days on a sunny balcony or sitting on a park bench.
My Review of Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King
C. Max Magee January 15, 2004 | 2 2 min read
My Review of The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
C. Max Magee February 12, 2004
My Review of Paris Trout by Pete Dexter
C. Max Magee February 23, 2004 | 2 min read
Review: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
C. Max Magee April 19, 2004
The Known World feels like a book that took a long time to write. The writing proceeds at a slow but churning pace. Jones meticulously ties each character to one another, to the land, to the curious circumstances of the "peculiar institution" of slavery. We are taught in school that slavery was a black and white affair, but Jones takes great pains to describe a human landscape where such distinctions are blurry: the most powerful man in Manchester County, William Robbins, dotes upon the two children he has fathered with his slave, Philomena; Oden, the Indian, exaggerates his cruelty towards blacks to maintain his tenuous superiority; and Henry Townsend, the gifted young black man at the center of this novel, acquires a plantation full of slaves from which discord flows, imperceptibly at first. The lesson is the messiness of slavery made real by the vivid lives of each character. Over the course of the novel, Jones sketches out each character, from birth to death, using deft flashbacks and flash-forwards that are scattered throughout like crumbs and give the book a marvelous depth. In this sense, the book reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. The book ends before the Civil War begins, and so the triumph of good over evil is not allowed to mitigate the brutal picture of slavery that Jones paints. Perhaps because it was so assiduously researched, this novel feels like history and it feels like life. Here's hoping that Jones' next one doesn't take ten years to write.
C. Max Magee


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Holding the line in eastern Ukraine
All is not quiet on front lines of eastern Ukraine, where soldiers man posts, respond to fire and await promised peace.
by Ioana Moldovan
Tue Sep 15 2015 12:35:17 GMT+0000
Ukrainian soldiers man the trenches of the forward post of Zenit, a Ukrainian army position on the front line, 2km from Donetsk airport. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Donetsk, eastern Ukraine - Unlike Pisky or Avdiivka, two hot spots on the eastern Ukrainian front line close to the airport, Zenit is not the name of a town. It is a military defence position that was once the point of anti-aircraft defence systems of the Donetsk airport.The soldiers are under orders to hold the position and not retreat.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed the lives of nearly 8,000 people since it started in April 2014, according to the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights. This number includes Ukrainian armed forces, civilians, and members of the opposing armed groups. More than 17,811 people were injured and over 1.3 million have been displaced.
The two ceasefire agreements signed in Minsk had no real effect, as the reality on the front lines was not peaceful, and people continued to die.
RELATED: Ukraine's forgotten ceasefire
Zenit looks like a post-apocalyptic film set. The few buildings that remain standing are full of bullet and mortar holes. The grass fields are graveyards for rusty armoured vehicles and skeletons of cars. The ground is littered with craters from grad missiles and mortar rounds. The trees are bare, their branches shaved off by flying shrapnel.
After months of continued ceasefire violations, Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists agreed to strive for an end to all truce violations starting September 1. On the evening of September 1, the front line was silent. In Zenit, there was only gunfire, no mortars - only "provocation", as the soldiers call it.
The soldiers at Zenit are from different divisions, coming from different types of armed forces, and are now under the command of the 93rd Mechanised Brigade. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Ukrainian soldiers at Zenit prepare their weapons for another night of shooting. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
The trenches on the front line are used for cover, shelter, and sometimes to connect different positions. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Medics at Zenit bring in an injured soldier, whose forward post had been hit by direct mortar fire. The nearest hospital is some 30km away in Krasnoarmiisk. Doctors must drive at night with no headlights and under the constant threat of being shot in order to reach proper medical care. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Konstantin 'Koha' Bernatovich, 33, takes a moment of rest. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Before the relative quite of September, the fighting would become more intense and explosions more frequent in the evenings, after 7pm. The soldiers smoked behind bullet-proofed steel boards to be safe. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
The soldiers try to maintain a sense of humour, which helps take the edge off. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Ukrainian soldiers at Zenit receive packages from relatives and volunteers. Ukrainian volunteers raise money using social networks to buy military equipment, clothes, food supplies and even medicines to send to the front. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Ruslan is on duty three times a day as a cook, preparing the meals for the soldiers at Zenit in very basic conditions. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Sergey, who goes by the nickname 'Student', is a 25-year-old soldier from Sverdlovsk, Luhansk Oblast. His parents back home think he is the enemy. He has not spoken to his father, a former miner and the most pro-separatist in the family, in over eight months. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
During the evenings, when they are not on duty at the forward post, soldiers at Zenit pass the time reading, watching TV, mending their uniforms, playing games on their mobile phones, or just chatting. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]
Ukrainian soldiers say being underground is safe because of the concrete walls. [Ioana Moldovan/Al Jazeera]


Joe Pagliuca enhances open telling with more stories he would not share with his young audiences! Visceral and very, very funny, Joe's madcap tales will stay with you long after the last words.
Note: Tonight, we will be meeting on the second floor.
MBTA Subway: Red Line (Davis Square Stop); • MBTA Bus line: Routes 94 and 96. • Parking: the parking area is not available before 7:30 PM. The driveway splits in two, take the left side. • Accessibility: Havurat Shalom is Handicap Accessible via a ramp in the rear • Food: Food is allowed as long as it is Vegetarian or Dairy. No meat, please! • Allergy Free: HS is a Non-Smoking place. Also, please avoid bringing pets or wearing strong scents such as perfume, cologne, or after shave.
RSVP for Open Telling with Joe Pagliuca Featured at Story Space Tue 09/11/2018 to add comments!


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Building Oversight Failures
Your use of 'grub' is far to kind to these bottom feeders who are essentially industry itself, and the coalition's ideology always believes 'we' can trust business and they will do the right thing. They have their dollars in their pockets and for the rest, not their problem under current laissez faire caveat emptor 'law'. Considering Victoria is a bastion of the ALP it reflects our TweedleDee and TweedleDum choices at the polls. Our governments take no responsibility for what they wrought and can be counted on to do the absolute least they can do about such things.
Fred123 2019-06-15 11:45:10 UTC #42
Just when you thought it was safe to back in the water, oops, the jerry-built apartment tower you lived in, now comes another fiasco.
Residents left homeless, crying in the street after Sydney high-rise evacuation
A resident of a Mascot apartment block evacuated over structural concerns says he was left crying in the street and threatened with arrest after trying to rescue his pets.
What an absolute disgrace.
mark_m 2019-06-15 22:16:46 UTC #43
How to really P… Off a whole generation of unit owners.
Is it at all possible to find a positive in what must appear a terrible nightmare to all affected?
Is there good fortune that unlike other high rise failures in other parts of the world there has been no catastrophic collapse?
Two high rise projects constructed in the same City in the previous ten years is a serious and significant warning sign. How many other properties or ongoing projects are at risk?
Will this event prompt real action, and will it prompt governments to act? Owners corporations might have some recourse to remedies at law, given time to seek out those responsible.
It is government that is responsible for the legislation, and system of regulation under which these high rises are constructed.
For every project there is a controlling beneficiary, the developer who instigates the project, arranges the finance, engages the architects, the project managers, and foots the bills. While these and many of the contractors may have liability insurance, who is ultimately responsible for the outcome?
Assuming the developer is still an entity are they liable, and in fact are their responsible officers at the time legally culpable, if at all?
Our legal system has recently fought to reach back through decades to hold individuals accountable. Is what has been happening to these residents of Sydney also a crime, or simply an unattributed error with no one to be held accountable?
A topic Choice might consider offering some insight to @BrendanMays?
What level are owners corporations covered for insurance for such events, and is there a shortfall in regulation, or insurance cover for such events?
Is such insurance even affordable assuming it might need to cover structural or foundation related failures?
Too late. All the guilty and/or responsible parties appear to be walking free.
'There's nobody for them to sue': Mascot apartment owners to pay for repairs
Property experts call on the NSW Government to do more to ensure residents of strata apartments are better protected if their buildings are affected by major structural damage.
I skimmed the article but didn't see reference to who the builder/developer was? Various and sundry online references suggest Advanced Properties director John Elias may have been the developer, while Krikis Tayler may have been the architect … unconfirmed …
Yes, being built 10 years ago it is outside the statutory defect period and warranty period…see this as it summarises these in NSW…
Carroll & O'Dea Lawyers
Protection For Your Home: Critical Time Periods for Building Defects
When building defects occur there are time periods which need to be complied with to ensure that your rights to pursue responsible party(ies) are not lost.
Maybe a case for negligence could be taken?..if the responsible parties still exist/trading.
Maybe a case for negligence could be taken?..if the responsible parties still exist/trading
Which is why the alternative proposition of extending legal liability to the key individuals needs consideration. I'm not looking for a long discourse on the impractical aspects of overturning centuries of legal precedent based on the law leaning towards the powerful and wealthy, while providing independent corporate being.
Or Government could simply cop it on the chin and accept responsibility for not delivering on it's responsibilities. If government insists on having building regulations, approvals and charging fees, it seems fair they accept failure is by their hands. If not then why not have zero regulation and no fees or approvals. At least then all owners would know where they stand, and what to put in the legally binding contracts for purchase that tie the developers managers personally! Deal or no deal?
Edit added comment
P.S. Or on the alternative
Looks like we have an answer on this too!
Government conflict and the failure to enact proper oversight (sort of) explained.. What a surprise - not.
BrendanMays 2019-06-17 00:46:56 UTC #49
Thanks all, I'll add this to the list of suggestions for investigations.
What a surprise - not.
I found the report referred to in the link very enlightening.
In particular the recommendations contained in the Appendix A of the Shergold Wier Report,
Building Confidence – Improving the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across Australia
State Building Ministers Forum 30 April 2018, released as a public document.
Download a pdf from:
https://aibs.com.au/Public/News/2018/ShergoldWeir.aspx
There are significant recommendations for registration, qualifications, training and documentation management. The report is industry centred. There appears to have been no public consultation. Areas that may be of current public concern appear to be outside the terms of reference! The Ministers appear to be interested in changing the system for the future. It might imply acceptance the system is broken, while sidestepping the issue of remedy.
There is no discussion concerning how a reliable high rise building and construction environment might improve insurance access. My uninformed take is that legal remedy for owners, is currently very limited. Legal excuses/evasion as much as government inaction.
In the covering letter by the authors in the report to the Ministers the final paragraph says.
At present, there is heightened interest in the regulation of the safety of the built
environment. It is vital to maintain public confidence in Government oversight of construction activity. Given the degree of interest in our report, we believe there would be value in releasing it publicly, perhaps with your response to its recommendations.
Possibly understatement of the year, except it dates from April 2018 and not 2019!
The ACA ( Architects Association of Australia) has provided a useful summary of progress on the state government responses as of April this year 2019.
https://aca.org.au/article/implementing-the-shergold-weir-report
Notably the profession may feel like it has been left out.
" the Shergold Weir report provides an opportunity for greater consistency across Australia and a chance for architects to re-establish and redefine their professional role in the construction industry "
While not saying as much - it suggests there has been some disconnection between the profession and the rest of the industry.
In respect of what has gone wrong nationally and at the feet of the state governments is there yet another Commonwealth RC on the way?
Possibly not given the ACA's assessment of progress by the NSW LNP lead govt?
" There is much work to be done in NSW and in the ACT. The ACA believes that clear timing is an important part of this, and it is essential to set clear target dates, particularly in NSW where timeframes are vague. "
We all read the news?
Thinking about buying a new apartment? Don't do it
My advice to my kids and anyone who'll listen is this: do not buy a new apartment, especially if it is over three stories high.
For future reference in this thread, this ABC opinion piece provides a stark assessment of the risks of buying a high rise apartment.
It also reaffirms the situation is made worse where properties do not have access to insurance cover.
The role of non disclosure agreements where there are settlements, and the incentives for owners to keep quiet, hide issues that might affect future property values is worth further discussion.
Do consumers have a legal right to know?
Can a Body Corporate or Owners Corporation also legally enter into a non disclosure agreement in a settlement? Would the agreement have those details recorded in full and available on the record for discovery by future prospective buyers?
The pile under the carpet is growing!
Mascot Towers apartment owners will have to pay over $1 million for rectification works including $5,000 for a media consultant.
Sydney cracked unit owners to pay $1m levy
The owners of units in the cracked Mascot Towers building have been given until August 1 to pay a special levy worth thousands of dollars for each unit owned.
Cracked Syd tower's $1.1m bill detailed
Owners and residents of a cracked Sydney apartment building have sent a letter demanding access to the building and greater transparency.
Talk about adding insult to injury.
It might imply acceptance the system is broken, while sidestepping the issue of remedy.
I am not sure that the system is broken as there are many designers/architects/engineers, developers, builders, contractors and certifiers who do the right thing by the people they are working for, including the customer. Where the problem lies is with the few that do cut corners, possibly to make extra money or due to pressure from the people they are working for (to meet time frames, total project costs etc).
What needs to be done is to work out how to ring in and change the system so that it doesn't affect those who are doing the right thing, but only those who are doing the wrong thing.
One thing which I raised in an earlier post is breaking the 'love-ins' particularly between the certifiers and the builders/developers. The certifiers should be independent and no matter which certifier is on the job, the same outcome should be achieved. Unfortunately from the evidence to hand this is not the case.
Maybe certifiers should be assigned to a development/project by say the government so that a random certifier without a pre-existing relationship with the developer/builder signs off on the work done. If a certifier is caught out doing the wrong thing, just like say a developer/builder so also be, then they should be struck off the list so that they can no longer work in the industry,
This simple action would result in greater responsibility and accountability, as well potentially simply clean up those who cut corners within the existing industry.
I am not sure that the system is broken as there are many designers/architects/engineers, developers, builders, contractors and certifiers who do the right thing
It is broken twice irrespective of those who may be doing their best:
It is firstly broken because we the public cannot tell who has or has not done their best until it has gone wrong. Does anyone really know which projects have hidden defects? The consumers buying or renting certainly do not, and rely on the system for assurance.
It is secondly broken because existing legislation and the law does not provide access to a satisfactory remedy for all those owners and tenants caught out to date. Nor does the system provide a remedy for any one who has purchased into a high rise property built under the current system, (post builders liability period). That the insurance industry will not support such a large market is a definite indication of how lacking in confidence underwriters are of the system in place now!
Changing the rules in NSW by the end of the year does nothing to address the circumstances of all current or soon to be owners of newer buildings.
As a retired Engineer, I will politely suggest it is very difficult, if not impossible to inspect previously completed work and provide an assurance that a building or structure is defect free. An audit of construction records can assist, assuming they can be relied upon! The time to verify key details of the materials and methods of construction to design is during construction. I guess a very clever team of Engineers could place large plastic bladders throughout an empty structure. Install load monitoring devices. Install a system of safety restraints to guard against catastrophic collapse, and with the surrounding area evacuated pump the bladders full of water. By simulating a sequence of calculated overloads you might say a building is safe. You might also have stressed it one step short of an obvious failure and induced a new defect for later?
Hopefully someone finds a way that can be relied upon, and insurers convinced to provide cover for disruption and structural failure at a reasonable cost.
In the end perhaps like the Mr Fluffy insulation debacle the NSW and other state governments may need to spend the broader tax payers money to fully remediate and compensate all affected owners of existing buildings. It would appear it is also for Govt to find a way and pay for the level of inspection and testing deemed necessary by an independent third party. Perhaps the ACSE NSW in the most recent instance with the support of an independent statutory authority.
An update on the Mascot Towers fiasco.
Fundraising appeal made for Mascot Towers
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the NSW government will hold to account those responsible for the damage to Mascot Towers, as owners face a hefty repair bill.
And an article regarding the Metropolitan Fire Brigade warning of the level of fire risks at the Neo200 building only to have their concerns dismissed by the Melbourne City Council.
'Why did it not act?': Notes, emails show Melbourne council was warned before...
A Melbourne high-rise damaged by fire in February was deemed a medium risk by the fire brigade several years earlier — but the local council overruled that assessment and determined the risk was low.
As time passes vested interests, including government, have become increasingly autocratic as well as dismissive of expert advice when the choices were between a dollar in a pocket whether directly or indirectly and accepting said expert advice. Further when there is a supposed relationship between politicians and the public service, the politicians increasingly see the public service as servants not advisors. And here we are
vested interests, including government, … dismissive of expert advice when the choices were between a dollar in a pocket
Unexpectedly a reversal of the cash flow.
Funding from the public purse, to cover three months temporary accommodation. No doubt the $3M will help. It however will not pay for all the other costs or repairs, assuming the damage is repairable?
NSW govt to help Mascot Towers residents - 9News
The state government will announce assistance for residents of the cracking Mascot Towers in Sydney, includ...
Another article regarding apartment owners facing huge bills to remove dangerous cladding.
9now.nine.com.au
Victorian primary school teacher slugged with $108,000 bill
By Christine Ahern
The most telling quote is 'Opposition planning minister Tim Smith says the Victorian Government needs to help residents pay for the enormous cost of removing the cladding.'
The ALP government has not raised its head, nor has the opposition, to enact and enforce operable building regulations that hold builders/developers to account, but seem inclined to promote subsidising rectification, whether or not they do it.
'Australia, owned and operated by property developers' is not just a throw away, it is shown to be reality as more shonky buildings that passed so-called oversights are revealed in the press and the humming just gets louder - and then crickets.
Now there concerns that the Mascot Towers building is sinking.
Live: NSW Now: Mascot Towers sinking, engineers' report finds
MORNING BRIEFING: There are more woes for Mascot Towers residents after an engineers' report finds the building is moving in a downward motion.


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Tarantino's March Madness Pt.8
10:06 AM Events / Fests , Quentin Tarantno's March Madness , Reviews 1 comment
Over the course of March the New Beverly Cinema is housing Quentin Tarantino's March Madness. The whole month is in celebration of Quentin Tarantino's birthday and will feature 37 movies selected by the master himself. Most of the films that are playing come from Tarantino's personal collection and a number of them are not available on DVD. The month long programming will feature plenty of grindhouse movies that have been influential to Tarantino and plenty of others as well. Tarantino's March Madness will also be capped off with a seven day run of the uncut version to "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair." I will be attending thirteen nights of programming at the New Beverly Cinema and in an effort to give my readers the most in-depth experience I can I've planned to breakdown each of the events. Hope you enjoy and here's Part Eight...
Note: Technically this is the 13th event of Tarantino's March Madness however it is only the 8th event I've attended. I missed the "Crack House" and "Redneck Miller" double bill to kick off the month, the night of Ralph Bakshi animation with "Coonskin" and "Hey Good Lookin'," as well as the first midnight feature of March Madness, "Shame of the Jungle." Sadly I missed Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's extravaganza "Grindhouse" and "Machete" double (triple) bill as well as "Man Friday" and "Cooley High" double on March 16th and 17th.
This is the third midnight feature of March Madness Quentin Tarantino has programmed. A 1970's romp I'd never seen starring Rock Hudson. A film that as the days grew closer the more and more intrigued I was to see it. Earlier on during March Madness, the odd-ball trailer screened to promote the evening as well as the titillating feature. It is a trailer that had myself as well as the crowd giggling at all of the sex but also scratching our heads because the sex was taking place between students and their high school teachers. Before I get completely engulfed in taking about the midnight feature I will quickly mention the trailer ahead of it. In promotion of Friday March 25th's midnight programming we saw the trailer to "Friday." The stoner comedy vehicle that put Chris Tucker on the map. Friday is a comedy that I've seen a million times and the trailer is a nice tease to all the hilarity that goes on in the 1995 film directed by F. Gary Gray.
"Pretty Maids All in a Row" starts off by taking the inner-sexual thought process of a man and projects it on to the big screen for all to see. We are introduced to Ponce (John David Carson), a high school teen who has never had sex but constantly thinks about it. Opening with a walk through the California campus from Ponce's point-of-view, we are lambasted with nubile women and fixated shots of their breasts, asses and crotches. For straight women this could be a bit over-bearing but it is extremely valid depiction of the teenage male mindset. It is also a perfect reminder that we are watching a midnight movie, something that generally appeals to titillating, thrilling and horrific events. 'Maids' is hardly all tits and ass though, it is actually a totally different film than that.
Before we get to what 'Maids' is actually about lets continue to talk about all of the glorious sex appeal it contains. The entire film is stuffed full with um, pretty maids. Absolutely dripping wet with luscious women. Never before have I seen a high school body with so many gorgeous and sensual women. Seriously, there is not one teen girl in the film that couldn't be a model or in the pages of Playboy. Its a film that you could hear moans and grunts from men within the audience as we're given seductive glances up a various girl's skirts or as one of the various vamps undresses. Director Roger Vadim made sure he personified all the women as nothing more than lustful objects to pine over. The film does objectify women as sex objects however once the film gets moving and the real plot is revealed the continual lewd acts slow down and begin to make sense. That said, regardless of whether woman may find the amount of sex appeal offensive it is a perfect representation of the teenage male mindset.
Rock Hudson never officially announced his homosexuality openly, although knowing his real-life sexual preferences made this movie something of a enigma. His role in the film is that of a womanizer. So much so his nickname is even Tiger. In the California high school he is the assistant principle, counselor and the football coach. His counseling sessions however are where things get racy. Instead of counseling, he is having sex with the female student body of the high school. Watching as Hudson is put through more than 3 sex scenes leaves us wondering where his head was at. Obviously Hudson is an actor, so he is acting, but watching as he struggles through these scenes with desirable women is pretty hysterical in hindsight. A perfect example of this is a scene between Tiger and a substitute teacher Miss Betty Smith played by Angie Dickinson. Tiger is teaching Miss Smith that sexual acts can be experienced without feeling anything. The irony of this scene is legendary. Hudson is fondling the seductive Angie Dickinson explaining he has no feelings, when in actuality he doesn't. Man is instead craving the studly John David Carson or debonaire Telly Savalas.
As much as Rock Hudson is a dreamy hunk in Pretty Maids All in a Row he is a bad guy and not a character you are suppose like as Tiger. First, he's sleeping with underage women. A big no-no. Adults sleeping with teens is like a lioness hunting a baby antelope, they are defenseless. Adults have certain advantages over young and naive minds, knowing all the right things to say. It is sick, twisted and our first sign we shouldn't trust coach Tiger. The next warning sign comes when we realize Tiger is a married man with a seductive wife waiting at home as well as a daughter. So not only is Tiger a pedophile, he is also adulterer. Yeah, he's dreamy but he's also has a sinister agenda underneath that bawdy exterior.
The opposite to Tiger's pre-planned devilish objectives is Angie Dickinson's character Miss Betty Smith. She is asked by Tiger to help a Ponce with his lack of sexuality. There is an innocence to Miss Smith in the film that is absent from Tiger. Tiger knows what he is asking Miss Smith to do. He is pulling the wool over her eyes. On one hand Tiger is helping out a student by setting up a sexual escape for him, but on the other hand he is tricking Miss Smith into doing something she may not be prepared for. This balance is quite remarkable and earnestly hilarious. Especially the scenes between Miss Smith and Ponce. They are awkward, carnal and laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Pretty Maids All in a Row is a remarkable feat. On the surface it appears as just a simple male fantasy. Hot women in overly suggestive clothing or no clothing standing around looking pretty, but there is a lot more going on. It is a on one side a honest depiction of a teen male and their sexual appetite. The other angle of the film I will continue to leave a mystery. Nothing that I can find in the form of trailers, promotional items or synopsis reveal a major plot point to the film, so I too will leave it untouched. Said portion of the film is a fresh surprise and ends up making any curiosity and turning it into appreciation of such a engaging twist that is not really a twist. Is that cryptic enough?
Lastly, I tripped out learning that the suggestive script is written by Gene Roddenberry. Yes, the guy who created Star Trek! 'Maids' was of course post-Star Trek, but regardless you can see Mr. Roddenberry's genius here. This film on the surface looks like nothing more than cheap thrills for sex-craved men, but there is really a whole lot more going on underneath and it deserves to be credited for its ability to mix sex appeal, psychology and mystery. Director Roger Vadim also deserves credit for his ability to mix sensuality and comedy in a coming of age story filled with a array of thrills utilized to tickle all of our senses.
Quentin Tarantino's March Madness continues throughout the rest of the month. Check the New Beverly's website for full details and times. Also stay tuned for more coverage of March Madness as I will be continuing to do write-up's on the rest of the events scheduled. You can also check out my previous coverage to March Madness with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.
Marc Edward Heuck says:
Might I gloat that one of the pretty maids, June Fairchild (she of the cackling-in-Savalas'-face moment), is a close friend? :D
Schofizzy's Movie Alphabet
Tarantino's March Madness Pt.10
Review - Paul
Review - Battle Los Angeles
'The Wolverine' Loses Aronofsky
Bobcat Goldthwait's Next Project
Rebooting Robocop
Review - Rango
Review - I Saw the Devil
The Wright Stuff II Rundown


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Resonance: Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)
Posted by cary on June 14, 2018 July 20, 2018
An indie darling of 2011, Supergiant Games' Bastion is undoubtedly a work of art. Late to the party as usual, I only just played it for the first time a few months ago. Knowing its reception and legacy, I can safely now say it's a self-contained masterpiece in terms of gameplay and style. It's hard to say whether or not it lives in the shadow its spiritual successor, Transistor (or vice versa), but Bastion stands firmly and proudly on its own legs. And with a game of such brilliance comes a soundtrack to match.
Now, I'm not afraid to admit that Bastion's modern musicality didn't immediately win me over. Unlike with some background music in game, Bastion's background music isn't what I'd call ambient. It's omnipresent, loud in some respects, and quite different from what you might expect in a spritely, colorful, isometric RPG. Well, it was quite different from what I expected anyway, which was something along the lines of quiet and orchestral. This assumption was based only on what little I'd seen of its gameplay, so shame on me for being so judgmental.
While Bastion's soundtrack is an overall winner just in terms of "good music," I chose fan-favorite "Build That Wall" or Zia's Theme here simply because it's an outstanding piece that helps to elevate the game's soundtrack as a whole, as well as the game itself.
The lush guitar of "Build That Wall" floats throughout the world of Bastion. There are levels in which you can hear it strumming softly in the background only to have its sound build as you reach specific points. The theme accompanies a character in the game named Zia. (In fact, you first find her by following the sound of her song.) Zia is a survivor, along with The Kid (your character) of the terrible Calamity that befell the land of Caelondia, the fractured world of which provides Bastion's backdrop. The lyrics of "Build a Wall" apparently touch upon the tumultuous history and war between Zia's people – the Ura – and the Caelondians. It's a song tinged with such melancholy that it almost belies its crisp, clear vocals.
Expounding upon notion of doing something different, "Build That Wall" is hardly the type of song you'd expect to hear in a game while bashing enemies and picking up potions. And yet, somehow, the song's acoustic guitar and stripped-down sensibility melds perfectly with the game's broken landscapes. And as the game is quite literally about building a safe haven, a bastion — building it from the rubble left by the Calamity — how fitting it is to present a song that says, sure you can go ahead and build that wall, but someday, that wall is going to fall. It's inevitable and cyclical. The real question then is not who's going to build the next wall?, but who's going to do something different? Supergiant Games did just that by including this song in Bastion, and just look at how "doing something different" paid off handsomely in the end.
Lede image from Flickr user BagoGames (CC BY 2.0)
BastionBuild That Wallfeaturedgame musicgame soundtracksresonanceSupergiant GamesThe KidVirtual BastionZiaZia's Theme
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Awesome analysis of that great tune. I love Bastion, but I have never played Transistor.
Thanks! I've never played Transistor either, but I hope to change that sometime soon.
Reblogged this on Recollections of Play and commented:
For my second Resonance post during Virtual Bastion's month-long celebration of game music, I opted to cover one of the more memorable songs from Bastion. This truly wonderful game likely didn't need "Build That Wall" to make it good, but this amazingly earwormy tune helps makes it all the better.


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Tag: android
Pop star Zara Larrson made over £700,000 on 'Roblox'
January 4, 2022 Joey-Bandroid, gaming news, iOS, news, pc0 comment
Swedish pop star Zara Larrson says she's made over £700,000 by selling digital merchandise on Roblox. READ MORE: Best kids games on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch to play in 2021 Larrson is perhaps best known for hits such as 'Lush Life', 'Symphony,' and 'Ruin My Life', but has also set up a neat side-line selling Roblox in-game items such as hats, backpacks and sunglasses. "My jaw dropped when I heard," she told the BBC. The price of Larrson's digital merchandise starts from less than £1, and has earned her…
'PUBG Mobile' bans over 2million accounts in one week for cheating
September 2, 2020 Joey-Bandroid, gaming news, iOS, news, pubg mobile0 comment
PUBG Corp has announced that it recently carried out a massive ban wave for the mobile version of its hit battle royale game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Read More: Raze is an 'Overwatch' hero trapped in a 'Valorant' agent's body PUBG Mobile has suspended over two million user accounts and over 1.5million devices, the company announced on Twitter. The bans stem from multiple cheating offences, ranging from auto-aim to speed hacks. The reported bans come from a single week – August 20 to August 27 – the company confirmed on Twitter. Statistics…
How to Unlock Scuba Jonesy (& All His Styles) in Fortnite
June 24, 2020 Joey-Bandroid, fortnite, gaming, iOS, mac, nintendo switch, pc, PS4, video gaming, Xbox one0 comment
The newest season of Fortnite is finally here. Here's how players can unlock the Scuba Jonesy skin along with all of his different styles. A new season of Fortnite means plenty of game-changing mechanics being introduced into the mix. The theme of this season seems to be nautical nonsense as water plays a heavy emphasis on every skin available in the battle pass. The new battle pass, like with all previous seasons, comes along with new cosmetics, skins, dance emotes, and V bucks for the player to unlock. Here's how players can…
An Update on Android TLS Adoption
December 10, 2019 Joey-Bandroid, android studio, https, security, tls, tls by default0 comment
Posted by Bram Bonné, Senior Software Engineer, Android Platform Security & Chad Brubaker, Staff Software Engineer, Android Platform Security Android is committed to keeping users, their devices, and their data safe. One of the ways that we keep data safe is by protecting network traffic that enters or leaves an Android device with Transport Layer Security (TLS). Android 7 (API level 24) introduced the Network Security Configuration in 2016, allowing app developers to configure the network security policy for their app through a declarative configuration file. To ensure apps are…
Fortnite is finally coming to Android this summer
May 22, 2018 Joey-Bandroid, epic games, fortnite, gaming, mobile0 comment
Fortnite is finally coming to Android…in a matter of months. After dominating the iOS gaming charts since March, the wildly popular sandbox survival game will be hitting the world's top mobile operating system at some point this summer. Creator Epic Games buried the news in the middle of a larger blog post titled, "The State of Mobile," noting, vaguely, "We know many of you are excited for this release, and we promise that when we have more information to share, you'll hear it from us first." That news comes amid…


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The show hall will open at 7:00 a.m.
and judging will begin at 8:00 a.m.
Judging for these divisions will begin at 8:00 a.m.
4 entries per person per class in these divisions.
These divisions are for OOAKs, and Limited Runs ( 50 or less in the run ).
Judging for these divisions will begin after the Breyer OOAK / VLR Divisions.
These divisions are for Test Runs, OOAKs, Extreme Factory Customs, DAH and Limited Runs ( 50 or less in the run ).
Judging for these divisions will begin after the Stone OOAK / VLRS divisions.
Judging for these divisions will begin after the OF China & OF Resin divisions.
4 entries per person per class in this division.
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Products should not just be about what they can do but there should also be concern of how it can affect you. 98% of the bathroom tissue on retail shelves are made from full grown trees manufacturers chop down. The tissue that is made from the trees contains chlorine bleach which they use to whiten and soften. Unfortunately, chlorine can get into the system. This is not the best solution for the consumer.
At WHOLEROLL, we have a long term objective and we don't cut corners. We are concerned about the climate and your best interests. We don't want anymore trees to be cut down because they are needed long term to help combat the climate crisis which is so relevant and important to the next generation, and we don't want any chlorine to get into your system.
WHOLEROLL is 100% Natural and Organic. There are no dyes, chlorine, fragrances, chemicals or BPA in our products. It's simple. We want what's best for you.


Choose from the best restaurants in Pordenone that deliver Club Sandwich to your home or office.
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Preheat the oven to the hottest temperature, 500F or hotter. Place a pizza stone in the middle of the oven and the pizza steel in the top third of the oven for at least 30 minutes.
Place the nigella seeds in a dry frying pan and lightly toast, 30 seconds.
For the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, preserved lemon liquid and lemon juice. Set aside.
Divide the dough into 2 and form into 2 balls. Place on a floured board cover with a towel. Roll one piece of the dough into a 10-inch circle, ¼-inch thick. Transfer to a well-floured pizza peel or paddle. Brush the dough to within ½ inch of the edge with olive oil. Transfer the dough from the peel directly onto the heated stone or steel and bake until golden and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Toss half of the cilantro, preserved lemon and olives with the dressing. Place on top of the pizza and sprinkle with half of the argan oil and nigella seeds. Serve immediately. Repeat with the other pizza dough and toppings.


You've heard of Massage Envy. How about Skin Laundry? Face Haus? The new HeyDay? They're also disrupting this sector.
No one would disagree that the U.S. spa industry suffered significantly during the Great Recession. And most people would agree that the spa industry is back on track. Numbers from the International SPA Association's 2014 U.S. Spa Industry Survey indicate as much.


Memories of the past didn't belong in my life.
*Warning: It is necessary to read first Sociopath's Obsession, before starting Sociopath's Revenge.
Shaking the fogginess from my head, I tried to get up but my legs wouldn't move. No matter what I did, they didn't respond. As soon as my eyes adjusted to the haze around me, I spotted a huge piece of wood pinning my legs. I sat up and tried with all my strength to push it away, but it was useless.
"Sapphire." Her name came out as a hushed whimper. No matter how hard I tried to clear my throat, I couldn't speak any louder. After the accident five years ago, talking with more volume was a luxury I couldn't afford. How I wished to shout just then to make the woman I loved open her eyes so we could run with our little one.
"Daddy!" Kristina cried out somewhere from my right. "Daddy, help me! He wants to take me away." She started crying and kept screaming my name. A man's laugh echoed in the warehouse, and the familiar sound of flesh being slapped created a burning rage inside me. My hands fisted and once again, with a loud cry, I pushed the wood, but it didn't budge.
"See, boy? You can never win with me. Now your precious daughter will know what it's like to make me happy." Kristina whimpered, and in a second, I heard the door shut loudly, trapping us inside.
No matter what I did, she'd have those nightmares for the rest of her life.