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Nico Vega and Oh No Fiasco Deliver Hard-Hitting Rock at Nashville's Exit/In
Nashville's the Exit/In, a classic yet almost easy to miss venue, recently played host to Los Angeles band Nico Vega, an up-and-coming powerhouse of a band known for their mix of musical elegance and gritty energy. The opening band, Oh No Fiasco, with whom Nico Vega share a label, combine alternative rock roots with a sometimes cutesy punk flair.
Oh No Fiasco opens, immediately setting the bar for showmanship. The band's lead singer, Lindsey Stamey, is a complete fireball on stage, melting faces right off the crowd as the band plows full force through the first song of their set. The stage is completely electric as the five members of the band bounce, dance, and enjoy what they obviously love to do. Theatrics are integral to the band's performance, exemplified in moments where the band's drummer spits water onto the drums while playing, showering himself and the stage, or when the keyboardist places a small keyboard on another member's feet and plays through the remainder of the song.
Oh No Fiasco ends their unfortunately short set with Stamey singing from the balcony seating of the venue. The group is an obvious crowd-pleaser as fans on the floor show their affection and admiration as she swaggers on through.
Following Oh No Fiasco, Nico Vega takes the stage. Lead singer Aja Volkman approaches the mic, looping vocals in harmony as the band forms onstage. The performance is very personal, humble even. For a band that's known for exemplifying a rebel spirit, they're all terribly mild-mannered.
Not to say they can't kick out a jam like no other.
Volkman's vocals are high-flying, soulful, and smooth as silk one minute, then growling and full of all the raw passion you'd expect from someone who stands on a steel barrel and sings while beating the sides like a drum. Her showmanship onstage is energetic, swaying and dancing from side to side, hands raised or slapping cymbals of the band's drum set. Her passion and feeling for the music itself is soul-touching on a real level.
Not surprising coming from a band that considers itself more a way of life than just an expression of musical talent.
The set features songs from the band's self-titled album of 2009 and their recently released EP, Fury Oh Fury. The band opens with "Lead To Light," leading into "Fury Oh Fury" and "Lightning," all songs from their current EP.
In the midst of the fury and passion comes the song "Wooden Dolls," a slow, expressive tune about the unity of people and also the barriers we create, all sung from atop the aforementioned steel barrel onstage. Volkman's sincerity is clearly visible in her presentation of the lyrics. It's pleading, hopeful, and beautiful in every way.
One of the band's more easily recognizable songs, "Gravity" begins slow with floating guitar and ethereal vocalization, but suddenly exploding into life as the song picks up pace, delivering hammering drum beats alongside Volkman's vocal power as she sings about the oppression of conformity.
The set closes with the band's powerhouse anthem: "Beast." Featured in the trailer for the video game Bioshock Infinite and also a trailer for film Pacific Rim, this song alone is at least partly responsible for the band's recent success, and it's very clear why.
The song begins with a pounding, militant drum and heavily distorted guitar. The guys and girls of Nico Vega know what this song means for listeners, fan or otherwise, and they deliver on every level. It's everything the band is about, rejection of oppression and a demand for unity amongst all people against the "beast of America." That passion is palpable, almost a lusting passion for defiance against whatever it is that holds us down and forces its will on us.
It's the perfect note to end on for a band with their level of conviction and proof that Nico Vega is everything that's still right with rock and roll today. –Jordan D. Frye, Contributing Editor
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Headlight On A Northbound Train: McCartney, AmericanaramA, Deadheads, and Me
My music fandom began sitting on the carpeted floor of a middle-class house in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. My parents owned a record player and a handful of albums, among them The Beatles' Revolver and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Much like the scene in Almost Famous when the protagonist's sister turned her younger brother onto her tunes, the needle touched vinyl, and pretty much everything changed. By junior high, the music of The Beatles and Dylan saturated my psyche and shaped my identity.
At the time, the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin also seared my ears and soothed my soul. Rock 'n' roll inspired all-night adolescent airband artistry and class presentations on the poetics of the Don McLean song "American Pie." Tragedies like the respective deaths of John Bonham and John Lennon jolted our reality. We discovered that Bonham died when we went to school one day and had to ask, "Why are all the burnouts crying?" But of course when Lennon died, everybody cried. Like the McLean song prophesied, we had many, many days when the music died.
In my high school years, punk, new wave, and of course the jubilant jangles of REM and the angelic anthems of U2 put some distance between me and 60s-70s classic rock, but I grew up in close enough proximity to the actual hippies and stoners that I would always suffer an epic kinship to these transformative periods of American popular music that still impact us today.
With all the burning-out and fading-away and ultimate fatality, it's no short miracle than any of the greats that all but danced down the apocalypse still survive this far into the 21st century, to this post-2012 period of popular musical renaissance and revival. With all this in mind, I feel such gargantuan eardrum-obliterating gratitude in relishing the immediate memories of the fantastic fact that in June 2013, in a span that stretched 16 days between two amazing weekends in Tennessee, I would see Paul McCartney at Bonnaroo and Bob Dylan on the Nashville riverfront. I'm likewise blown-away by some of the other bands we've been able to hear, the peers for my ears, who along with the headliners create bookends of beauty and blessing, of soggy singalong eyes and goosebump-inducing bliss.
Frankly, I cannot hype enough hyperbole to express the hopeful holiness, mix enough metaphors to convey the meaning, or raise high too many mocktails to celebrate the recently passed occasions. Frankly, I would feel too selfish to savor this if I didn't have the chance to suggest you catch Dylan or McCartney who are both still on tour, if the other peers-for-the-ears were not still hitting up festival-after-festival for the rest of the summer. As endless rains fall on my 4th of July holiday weekend, I scribble this testimony in hopes that someone might get a nibble of the goodness I've already experienced and perhaps seek out some of these shows the rest of the summer. As I ponder some of the more painful and plainly ludicrous prices that others have paid for the privileges I enjoy, I admit that I am most patriotic when it comes to our popular common culture, from sport to movies, but I am a patriot when it comes to music most particularly.
Since The Beatles official touring ended in 1966 and since Lennon died in 1980, I don't think I've ever really wrapped my mind around the sheer significance of a Paul McCartney tour. Sure, we hear snippets of his later work and lots from the Wings period, but at root, we're not hearing McCartney cover The Beatles; McCartney is a Beatle. Here in my mid-40s, more than a decade into the new century, I am watching a man in his 70s, looking and sounding sharp and charismatic do nothing shy of reclaiming and reviving with sonic groove and grace the greatness of The Beatles.
We hear love songs that kindle every feeling of passion I have for my partner dancing beside me and our world living and dying around us. We hear a song of letting-go like "Let It Be," and for those few minutes we actually obey and let go; we let, it, be! Psychedelic moments surge forth from the tunnel of memory into the sober mess of the present, and we get crazy happy hearing "Helter Skelter" or "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Throughout McCartney's set at Bonnaroo, I had several delightful moments where disorientation met déjà vu, and I felt myself wonder, "Is this even happening?" Similar sensibilities of timely and timeless wonder would return in a little over two weeks at the Nashville riverfront.
Most people benefit from an extracurricular passion or hobby or two—or in my case several. As much as I have hoped to enhance and enjoy the avocation of music fandom, at times, I almost abandoned it or even worse sabotaged it. At one point, I almost lost track of the best tracks from sheer necessity and lack of time or lack of money. But then it gets worse, at the very time my fandom had rekindled with verve and passion. Like too many before me and too many after me, I tried to spice up the musical listening and dancing experience with drugs and alcohol. This resulted in bad trips, drunken mistakes, and general stupidity—all in pursuit of a quicker fix and higher high. The Americanarama festival that's now on tour brings together artists for whom, all at different times, I have an acute recollection of almost wrecking the cosmic connection that their music brings for me.
Spanning the years from 1988 to 2008, from the days of youthful entheogenic experimentation to the seemingly endless nights of excessive intoxication, I occasionally overestimated my abilities and my tolerance and seriously compromised my boundaries and my values. Let's just say I'd undermined otherwise potentially perfect nights with The Grateful Dead, My Morning Jacket, and Bob Dylan, ruined not so much for anyone else, but trashed for myself. Yet on the last day of June, I had an opportunity for musical redemption, getting high on the songs and on life, on enjoying the modesty and the clarity of not being "that guy" at the show.
Former Dead and current Furthur guitarist Bob Weir performing solo begins the itinerary, and we got to the show early enough to catch his set. In fact, we could hear Weir's soundcheck as we lined-up outside the venue and were satisfied to get a spot up-close by the stage—even if the ground, instead of a carpet of grass, was merely a fresh layer of mulch, the kind that smells just a little too fragrant, too much like, well, mulch. Other reports have it that the sound quality suffered towards the middle and back of the field, but we were glad to be so close and not need earplugs to enjoy the show.
After opening with a Ratdog track that I enjoyed but didn't recognize on electric guitar, Weir followed on the acoustic with the Dead standards "Loose Lucy" and "Friend of the Devil." The pearls of rock wisdom that lit up his lips and fell from Weir's lyrics were simple yet prophetic and paradoxical in the opening song: "If we don't believe together, we might just cease to be"; and the final refrain "Dreams are lies, it's the dreaming that's real." Of course this rings authentic to me, for whom the drunken dream was a lie, but dreaming a sober psychedelic experience suddenly became real!
My rekindled Dead interest has increased over the last few years as I have rediscovered their music without the aid of any of my former chemical crutches. Music that I once presumed required a listener to be intoxicated has opened itself up to me in new and magical ways completely clean. Last summer, I missed a Furthur show that I'd planned for—in order to attend a funeral; I still have hopes to catch one before too long. I cannot help but admitting that learning Bob Weir would be part of this AmericanaramA event felt like some beatific cosmic payback for doing the right thing last year.
After covering the Bob Dylan track "Most of the Time," mentioning that we wouldn't hear it later, Weir closed his too short set with a track he co-wrote called "Cassidy." The lines invoke endless youth: "Ah, child of countless trees. Ah, child of boundless seas." The stories behind the song are both a charge of hope for a young child born to the Dead tribe back-in-the-day and a tribute to the late Neal Cassady, the reckless and impetuous idol of Ginsberg, Kerouac, and the Beat Generation. The old me was like Neal Cassady, one who sought a false boundlessness of hedonistic debauchery, but the new me might be more like a reborn child who sees countless blessings in a sea of hopeful faith and fidelity, an inner freedom to which the many wildly-winding and rocky-rocking roads finally led me.
I must say that the time between sets at shows can grind down my serenity and patience. Whether out at the food lines and bathroom lines or standing or sitting simply waiting, the minutes that usually fly by just drag on. This time we brought a deck of cards to pass the time as we sat on our now mulch-soiled blanket. But we could barely finish one hand of rummy before My Morning Jacket stormed the stage to open with a campfire anthem that more often closes a show, "Wonderful (The Way I Feel)." The ensuing 75 minutes flew by, with many of our absolute favorite Jacket songs and some surprise back-catalog nuggets. The whole band was tight, animated, on. Something about seeing them in daylight from so close to the stage, especially before the people around us were totally trashed and pushing past us, made this a perfect set for me.
In the midst of all this gloriousness, Bob Weir joined the group on stage to perform two Dead numbers. The first song they chose was "Brown Eyed Women," the lyrics for which I could not get out of my head for days following the show, and these filled me with wicked irony. Here I am cold sober singing in my head the sloppy refrain, "Brown eyed women and red grenadine/the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean."
It's a great comfort to me that another Dead song called "Wharf Rat" is about a down-and-out drunk and that this tag has become the moniker for the Wharf Rats, the seminal clean-and-sober fan community that's created a far-flung fellowship and meeting support structure for Deadheads who voluntarily abstain from alcohol or drugs.
All this said, the Grateful Jacket ranks as one of my greatest concert experiences ever, just those two songs, almost like it was destined to happen since before our MMJ boys were even born. During some of the jammier moments, the way the rest of the Jacket members focused their attentions and intuitions on Weir was just mindblowing. The almost acapella harmonies at the end of "I Know You Rider" with Bob, Carl, and Jim singing to the center of my gut, that was so phenomenal that I just want to cry thinking I actually got to see it! Ever since I first heard it some 25 years ago, the line towards the end of the song—"I wish I was a headlight on a northbound train"—has conveyed such hope for me; others have been that light for me, and we can be that light for others.
At this point, AmericanaramA could be called AmericanaJamma if you ask me. Smiling, I went from "wow" to just more—wow wow wow! The collaborative synchronicity and spontaneity continued during the Wilco set when Weir returned for two more songs, first the Dead's "Bird Song" followed by a face-melting and sheer shredding rendition of "Tomorrow Never Knows" by the Beatles. For all their musical and lyrical inspections, to all the setlist-shapeshifting with each night a different confection, My Morning Jacket and Wilco are wonderful heirs to what the likes of Dylan and the Dead have done for American music.
This life has been a journey between polarities, from the desperation found in "Friend of the Devil" to the grace of Jeff Tweedy opening with "Blood of the Lamb," Woody Guthrie lyrics set to Wilco music. My past experiences of Wilco live had been daytime sets at Bonnaroo where they were a bit woozy for me, even sleepy, but not that night, that last Sunday in June.
Neither Wilco nor My Morning Jacket needs to take the opening spot on a tour, but AmericanaramA conceives itself more as a concept roadshow, of which Dylan has participated in many, like the fabled Rolling Thunder Revue. The crowd at Nashville spanned the generations. Rather than a crew dominated only by old Deadheads and Dylanologists, the field was filled with lots of younger folks, including those who seemed to know most every Wilco or Jacket song.
By the time Dylan took the stage, we were already full to overflowing from the first four hours of the night. To see Dylan in his proper context is to approach him as everything we've heard and read and nothing at the same time. Dylan destroyed expectations when he went electric, when he went for Jesus, when he refused to be a spokesman for whatever generation and instead let his song-poems speak for themselves.
Dressed in a big white hat and impressive white jacket, growling and spitting his verses, Dylan was just another white MC dressed-in white and laying his vision of the world down on the greasy backing track of the white man's blues.
Newer tracks like "Early Roman Kings" could either invigorate or indict the image of power that Dylan undermines even as he takes advantage of it. Looking around the audience, we are all benefactors of that vision, where we're both critic and cynic and innocent psalmist all at the same darn time. Seeing his swagger sinks deep, because by recalling the badass he once was he also reminds us that this elegant grizzly elder is more badass than many of his contemporaries could ever be.
The opening track of the main set is "Things Have Changed," as if to rub-in and reiterate that this isn't our freewheelin' folk singer that I first discovered on vinyl. He closed that set with "All Along The Watchtower," and we danced near the back of the field, having moved just two songs ago from our spot up close, savoring the view and lights. The lyrics of "Watchtower" walk to the center of me, for this speaks a story from which I am now at a fragile but triumphant distance. There was a time when I could "get no relief" not even from drinking wine, when everything seemed false, when I felt trapped by fate, when the hour most definitely was getting late!
Speaking of late hours, it was now just past 11, and we left before the encore, to follow our own headlights on an eastbound itinerary for a morning that would get here too soon. In the car, I played a version of "Blowin' In The Wind" from the Rolling Thunder Revue, with Joan Baez joining Dylan on vocals. My sweet wife said, "I wish he had played this song," suggesting the emotional power would have brought the whole place to tears. "He never plays this song live," I retorted, with an explanation of his refusal to be "that Dylan" just for us fans. Little did I know then that his gospel friends from his born-again period, the McCrary Sisters, had just joined him onstage for the rare rendition of "Blowin' In The Wind."
I can't undo leaving early or deny that Dylan will probably always remain just beyond our grasp of who we think Dylan is. Americanarama is still on tour as of this writing, and I imagine that something freewheeling and rolling and thunderous in the spirit of American music awaits every fan with tickets to catch this show, sober or not, with a surprise encore like Nashville or with the "Ballad of a Thin Man" that most crowds get.
Something is happening. And we don't know what it is. But we're going to check it out anyway. And keep checking it out as long as our ears and hearts cooperate. –Andrew William Smith, Editor
Pictures by Andrew William Smith
For AmericanaramA tour dates, go here: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/upcoming-dates
For Paul McCartney tour dates, go here: http://www.paulmccartney.com/live/27468-out-there
Listen to Bob Weir with My Morning Jacket from the Atlanta show: http://snack.to/ahp070es
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Mumford & Sons Return to Brooklyn with Unabashed & Very Welcome Sincerity Intact
Bleeding-heart sincerity is uncomfortable for many people. Makes a weaker person turn away, ashamed for the feeler. Second-hand embarrassment and all that. As if honesty is something to be ashamed of. Be it in a moment of unabashed joy, unimaginable pain or just looking deep into someone's eyes to deliver an apology or hard-to-swallow truth. It's easier to turn away and pass judgement instead of attempting to understand. Or respect the torrent of emotion and tribulations involved.
We're all just trying to be better people, sincerely. Or be better at being people.
I first laid eyes on Mumford & Sons in October 2009 when I was one of the few and first American reporters tasked with covering them during the annual CMJ Music Marathon. Their indie buzz was positive (and not divisive) then, and my friend Fred (who accompanied me to the show) corroborated their cachet with a resounding thumbs-up. It had been an important band for he and a former girlfriend, and he was certain I too would walk away a believer.
The Mumfords shared a packed bill that night at the Blue Flowers showcase at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with hypey also-rans The Temper Trap and Golden Silvers. They opened with eponymous album title cut "Sigh No More" and 10 seconds in, I was in tears. I looked at Fred and said, "this is devastating." I would go on to opine of the show in my review: "…from first blush and foot stomp to the last joyful harmony, an undeniable, unimaginable victory." Also tellingly, I said this: "Fans of Damien Rice, the Avett Brothers and BRMC's 'Howl' will freak if they haven't done so already. My larger hope, of course, is that everyone else will, too. That's right: Mumford and Sons is your new band to believe in, kids." "Little Lion Man" and "The Cave" would own millions of brains (including many of my dearest friends) just months later.
In February of the following year, in the dead of winter, I was confirmed to design and manage my very first photo shoot with the band at a Victorian-themed bar in Union Square. A brilliant photographer friend of mine agreed to take it on, and the bar confirmed they'd allow us use of the back portion of the place for 20 minutes so the guys could have some peace. No rest for the weary gentlemen of the road, unfortunately, and myriad reasons prevented them from making their initially scheduled flight, and thusly the whole production was cancelled on the day of the shoot. The lighting, the mirrors, the antique furniture, it had all lined up perfectly. All it needed were four English blokes who were just starting to know what royalty checks look like. That night, however, the show would go on at the venerable Bowery Ballroom — their first headlining stop in Manhattan — where they played a barnstormer of an album-release party. Gone forever were the days when you could happen upon ruddy-faced Hemingway-esque lead singer Marcus Mumford outside the front door of the venue next to the band's gear truck, laughing broadly, enjoying a smoke and beer, and high-fiving anyone who dared approach with well-wishes.
To wit, as I reported then: "I've watched plenty of bands achieve 'full flight' before. That's what following U2 around the country for years and admiring Fanfarlo during CMJ will earn you. But the fiery, banjo-wielding Mumford & Sons showed the capacity crowd truly something special last night, and the crowd – a foot-stomping, hands-in-the-air, doin' a jig, hugging your neighbor mass of winter coat-wearing strangers – sang back every word. 'Awake My Soul' became less an album track, and more a pathos as the night wore on."
Much has been derisively said about the Mumfords' "alt-folk" tent-revival schtick. As if was actually a falsehood. A come-on. A bit of pretend. As if they were trying to insert themselves into a scene they categorically and factually had no part of, like Vanilla Ice in Miami, purporting to be some kind of banger. Just because they were well-educated and London-based and not rural-dwelling sheep herders, clearly this wasn't an honest band. But see, the discerning music lover is smart enough to sniff the shit from the soap. Watching the other audience members have profound reactions while taking in Marcus and the boys was no lark — this was a band doing something important, much-needed and significant. Sounding and answering their own clarion call with the fury of an army armed with little more than banjos, dobros, elbow grease and a lot of passion and sincerity.
Sure, audience members can be given to spontaneous celebratory noodling and hoedowns at a Mumford show, just as industrial fans have the Pavlovian desire to slam against each other. This isn't an emotional display to be critical and suspect of; I reserve much judgement for a human being who can side-eye another human being wrapped up in the unbelievable joy that washes over you when a turn of phrase fixes your heart, leading your outstretched arms to signify "FINALLY," because someone had the big beautiful gall to say it. Whatever IT is for you.
Last night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, I was blessed to witness FINALLY on a grand, arena-sized scale as thousands sang along to "Babel" ("Cause I'll know my weakness, know my voice/And I believe in grace and choice"), "Thistle and Weeds" ("Plant your hope with good seeds/Don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds") and "Awake My Soul" ("In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die/And where you invest your love, you invest your life") among other joyfully rowdy tunes such as " I Will Wait," "Lover of the Light," ubiquitous wunderkind hit "Little Lion Man" and "Roll Away Your Stone."
I don't know about you, but lately, I'm tired of hiding. And since Hurricane Sandy wrecked my life up something fierce in late October 2012 (I remain displaced from my downtown Manhattan apartment as I write this), I've had no choice but to be alternately sincerely troubled and sincerely hopeful, with sometimes disastrous results the last four months. While looking out at the thousands with arms outstretched in their own private Idahos of FINALLY last night, I closed my eyes, sat still as a rock, and just listened to the newly impassioned soulful voices around me. Everyone has their own Sandy.
Excavation is exhausting, but one of the most necessary tasks we have inherited in this mortal coil. How else can you get to the heart of any matter or complication if your knee-jerk reaction is to turn away from the mud that comes with an uncomfortable truth? This is the question that Mumford & Sons seek to answer, sincerely. –Carrie Alison
Carrie Alison is a former editor, music journalist and publicist. She lives in New York City.
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Phil Keaggy: "Yes, There is such a note."
Judging by the size of the crowd in the back room performance area of Nashville's World Music store, it's hard to believe that the man taking the stage is a seven-time recipient of the GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year and twice nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album. The seating is limited to sold-out crowd of 100. Performing his one man show is Phil Keaggy, Christian musician and undeniable legend of guitar.
To say that Phil Keaggy is a good guitar player is something of an injustice to the man's ability. He is commonly ranked among the top three finger-style and finger-picking guitarists in the world, but that is only a portion of what makes the man so incredible to listen to and to watch.
Phil took the stage, wasting no time of the hour and a half he planned for his set, jumping right in to a frenzy of acoustic guitar that can only be described as awe-inspiring. His finger work is almost difficult to comprehend as he strings notes together in a delicate series of tones that resonate to fill the entire room.
The stage in front of him is filled with pedals, which he continually plays with, using loops and delays to create what any rational person would assume is a quartet of guitarists playing together. Phil used his setup to create rhythm behind his playing, throwing loops of harmonics and pseudo-bass lines into the mix, and even shouting and singing into the body of his acoustic, laying tracks of his voice down with the rest to create his own harmony with. He did this without missing a single beat and kept a smile on his face through the entire show. It's refreshing to see any performer who seems to enjoy their work quite as much as Phil Keaggy does.
One of the incredible things about Keaggy's performance is his transformation of a cover. Most artists are well-accustomed to spinning their own take on a famous song, but Keaggy goes far beyond that. Half way through the set Keaggy calls a friend, Mike Pachelli, to the stage to perform a few songs together, leading in with a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love.' It is truly astonishing how Keaggy can take something as comparatively simple as a Dylan song and turn it into something so rich and layered. He utilized the skills and techniques he is known for but did so in such a way that he didn't overpower Pachelli's playing. The two blended their sounds together to create something new and complex, but simultaneously recognizable as the original song.
There is a noted playfulness as Keaggy continued the performance. He launched into a cover of Bonnie Raitt's "Take My Love With You," which he prefaced by saying he had "learned this yesterday," expressing, tongue-in-cheek, that at his age it takes a little while to learn a song, earning ripples of laughter from the audience. His performance of the song, much like his cover of Bob Dylan, was unique, flawless, and showed no indication of unfamiliarity with the song whatsoever. The same unique exploration of the sound was present in a later cover of George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun."
There is emotion in the sound that Keaggy creates. He prefaced a later song, entitled "Let Everything Go," by telling a short anecdote about riding his bike and chasing hot air balloons on a sunny day. As the last notes of the symphony he alone created floated through the air, it's almost impossible not to feel as though you yourself are standing in the sun, watching those balloons float away into the sky. It's an awe-inspiring experience, to say the least.
Time flies by when you're watching someone as enthralling as Keaggy perform. Before we know it, 90 minutes has passed and the set ends. Phil approaches the mike, thanks the audience for attending, and makes a simple request that the crowd help support the Blood Water Mission in their efforts to combat water crises in Africa by buying an album, from which a portion of the sales will go directly to help missions overseas.
Naturally, none of the audience wants to leave without hearing more. The performance is personal, and when the request is made, Phil graciously accepted and approached the mic again to perform a song titled "True Believers." There is nothing held back. He purposefully and wonderfully combines trapping, high-flying moments and more traditional acoustic styles. Coming back again to his light-hearted nature, on the last chord of the song, his fingers stretched like a circus contortionist over the frets of the guitar, he looked up at the audience, smiled and said, "Yes, there is such a note," and finished.
At his heart, Phil Keaggy is purely a man of God. His humility onstage and simple enjoyment of the sounds he can make are inspiring enough. It's fair and fitting to call his sound 'divine." If there is any proof that there is a God, it's that someone so imbued with the message he believes can create something so beautiful as a result. Maybe God decided it was high time to break into the music business. –Jordan Frye, Contributing Writer
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Universal is opening a new theme park, called Epic Universe, in Orlando
There's a new theme park coming to Orlando, Fla., and it's going to be epic!
Universal Orlando Resorts announced today it is building a new theme park, called Universal's Epic Universe, that is going to "create an entirely new level of experience that forever changes theme park entertainment," according to a press release.
While details are limited and no plans for an opening date have been announced, Universal's Epic Universe said the park will be an adventure for guests where the journey is just as exciting as the destination.
"Our vision for Epic Universe is historic," said Tom Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Universal Parks & Resorts, in the release. "It will build on everything we have done and become the most immersive and innovative theme park we have ever created. It is an investment in our business, our industry, our team members and our community."
Universal's Epic Universe will be located within a 750-acre site and feature amusement rides, an entertainment center, hotels, shops, restaurants and more. The park will be just a few miles from the existing resort in Southwest Orange County.
"We look forward to the new level of entertainment and innovation Universal's Epic Universe will bring to one of our state's most important industries," said Governor DeSantis. "We look forward to Universal's continued contribution to our state's economic growth and development."
Universal Orlando currently employees 25,000 people and will hire an additional 14,000 team members as part of Epic Universe, including professional, technical, culinary and other specialized positions.
More details about Universal's Epic Universe are expected to be revealed over time.
For more information, visit www.universalorlando.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The son of a wealthy Exeter merchant, George Hakewill attended St. Alban's Hall Oxford (Fellow 1596-1611; MA 1602, D.D. 1611). He was chaplain to Prince Charles (1612) but was dismissed for opposing the proposed Spanish marriage; afterwards he was archdeacon of Surrey (1617) and rector of Heanton Purchardon during the civil war. Hakewill corresponded with Sir Kenelm Digby, who contributed a commendatory letter to the third edition of Hakewill's Power and Providence of God (1635).
1630An Apologie or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God.
The vanitie of the eie. 1608.
King David's vow for reformation: delivered in twelve sermons before the Prince. 1621.
A comparison between the dayes of Purim and that of the powder treason. 1626.
An apologie or declaration of the power and providence of God. 1627, 1630, 2 pts 1635.
A sermon preached at Barnstaple. 1632.
Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721); James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; Francis Godolphin Waldron, in Biographical Mirror (1795, 1798) [portrait]; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses (1815); "On Hakewill's Apology" Blackwood's Magazine 9 (June 1821) 313-17; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); R. W. Hepburn, "Hakewill: the Virility of Nature" Journal of the History of Ideas 16 (1955).
1. 1610 John Heath, "The Vanitie of the Eye. Ad M. Geo. Hakewill" Two Centuries of Epigrammes (1610) sig. E7v.
2. 1766 ca. Samuel Pegge, 1766 ca; in Anonymiana, or Ten Centuries of Observations on various Authors and Subjects (1809) 106.
3. 1815 William Wordsworth, in Essay, Supplementary to the Preface (1815); Prose, ed. Grosart (1815) 2:113n.
1. 1690 Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (1690-91; 1721) 2:124-25.
2. 1769 James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 2:349-50.
3. 1812 Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 17:17-18.


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49ers pass Cowboys to advance to NFC Championship Game as winning streak lives on
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Republicans voted to roll back landmark FCC privacy rules. Here's what you need to know.
House Republicans voted Tuesday to repeal a set of landmark privacy protections for Web users, in a sharp pivot away from the Internet policies of the Obama administration. President Trump is expected to sign the measure.
Tuesday's vote is likely to lend momentum to a broader rollback of Obama-era policies, particularly in the technology sector. And it empowers Internet providers to enter the $83 billion market for online advertising, where the ability to collect, store, share and sell consumers' behavioral information is directly linked to companies' bottom line. Proponents of the repeal argue the regulations stifle innovation by forcing Internet providers to abide by unreasonably strict guidelines. But defenders of the privacy rules say they are the only thing preventing broadband companies from spying on their customers and selling that data to the highest bidder.
Broadband companies such as Verizon and Comcast are racing to develop ways to mine and analyze customer information — such as their browsing habits, app usage history, location information and more. The FCC's rules, which were passed in October in what was billed as a rare victory for privacy advocates, had set limits on how Internet providers could use that information, seeking to give consumers more control over the data they generate as they traverse the Web on their smartphones and computers. They were scheduled to go into effect in December 2017.
The new legislative measure would effectively allow providers to access and use a wide range of customer data without seeking their users' explicit consent, much as Google and Facebook do now. It also releases Internet providers from obligations to increase protections of customer information against hackers and thieves. And it prohibits the nation's top telecom regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, from seeking to restore its privacy regulations in the future.
Many broadband companies say those rules are unnecessary because they already offer detailed privacy policies and take steps to defend their businesses from online attack. Industry groups said Tuesday that narrower definitions of privacy from other federal agencies are sufficient to protect consumers, but declined to say whether they would support beefing up those measures.
Have questions? Read on for answers.
What is the House voting on, exactly?
Technically known as "a joint resolution of congressional disapproval," the House voted on a measure that would repeal what policy experts refer to as simply the FCC's broadband privacy rules. The measure will now go to the White House.
What are these rules Republicans are trying to repeal?
The broadband privacy rules do several things.
1) They require Internet providers to be transparent about how they handle your data, such as the sites you visit and your Social Security number. Providers have to disclose what they collect about users, as well as how and why they use that data. They also must make public who else might see that data as a result of any sharing or selling agreements.
2) The rules specify the conditions under which Internet providers may use certain types of data. Under the rules, Internet providers must get your explicit permission to share or sell things such as your geolocation information, your health information, your children's information, your financial information, your Social Security number, your browsing history, your app usage history or the content of your messages, emails and other communications. This means that Internet providers can't place a notification about their practices in fine print and say they got your permission when you clicked "okay" — they must instead offer clear notices to ensure that consumers know what they're agreeing to. Any other types of information that Internet providers share, such as the data plan you've purchased, are considered "nonsensitive" by the FCC; while Internet providers don't need to ask for explicit permission before collecting it, they must allow consumers to opt out of that collection at any time.
3) The FCC rules require Internet providers to meet industry standards on security, protecting user data from theft and fraud.
House voted to repeal the rules. What happens now?
Assuming Trump signs the measure, Internet providers will be freed from those obligations, which would otherwise have taken effect later this year. With this data, Internet providers can sell highly targeted ads, making them rivals to Google and Facebook, analysts say.
Internet providers also will be free to use customer data in other ways, such as selling the information directly to data brokers that target lucrative or vulnerable demographics.
"ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Charter will be free to sell your personal information to the highest bidder without your permission — and no one will be able to protect you," wrote Gigi Sohn, a former FCC staffer who helped draft the privacy rules, in a recent blog post on the Verge.
Selling your data is merely one of the four ways in which Internet providers intend to make money off consumers. The others include selling you access to the Internet, as they have traditionally done; selling access to media content they've acquired by purchasing large entertainment companies; and selling advertising that directly targets you based on the data the provider has collected by watching how you use the Internet and what content you consume.
Could there be benefits to this?
Potentially. AT&T, for instance, used to offer Internet discounts to consumers in exchange for letting the company monitor their browsing history. Such programs could see a return, and be marketed as a way to access cheaper Internet. Industry advocates also argue that data-driven targeting leads to more relevant advertisements.
But overall, repealing the rules gives Internet providers more power over my information?
Don't companies such as Google and Facebook already use my data for advertising?
They do. But much of the debate is over whether Internet providers should enjoy the same privileges. Just because online companies take advantage of your data, consumer groups say, doesn't mean Americans should have to submit to Internet providers (or any other industry) that wants to do the same. And although consumers can generally switch from one search engine or online video service to another, they add, switching Internet providers is much harder — especially when many Americans have only one or two choices of broadband company.
By contrast, GOP lawmakers and industry advocates argue the FCC rules stifle business and innovation. And, they say, companies such as Facebook are already subject to certain privacy guidelines published by the Federal Trade Commission, so it would be better if telecom and cable companies lived under those expectations, not the more expansive definition of privacy approved by the FCC.
"The question is: Why would you have different rules for ISPs in that regard than the rest of the Internet ecosystem?" said Howard Waltzman, general counsel for the 21st Century Privacy Coalition, an industry-aligned advocacy organization.
Can't the FTC go after Internet providers with its rules?
At the moment, not really. The reason has to do with the FCC's rules on net neutrality. When the FCC passed those rules, it branded all Internet providers as "common carriers," essentially a fancy legal term to describe traditional phone companies.
So if the House vote succeeds and Trump signs the measure, that releases Internet providers from the FCC's privacy regulation but does not do anything to apply the FTC's own privacy guidelines to the industry. The FCC can still sue companies after they have allegedly violated consumer privacy, industry groups say. So can state attorneys general. But the FCC will be unable to write regulations that preemptively bar privacy violations, meaning that Internet providers will be subject to less oversight as a result of the congressional measure.


text:
Q: Django ORM. How to save() new value? How to save() new value?
Error:  AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'save'
I have this code:
class Magazin(models.Model):
    owner = models.ForeignKey(User, related_name='user_magazin', verbose_name='Owner')
    name = models.CharField("Magazin_Name", max_length=30)
    products = models.ManyToManyField('Product', through='MagazinProduct', blank=True, null=True)

class MagazinProduct(models.Model):
    product = models.ForeignKey('Product')
    magazin = models.ForeignKey('Magazin')
    quantity = models.IntegerField()

I try something like this:
from magazin.product.models import *

In [2]: user = 2 #user id

In [3]: quantity = 4

In [4]: magazin = Magazin.objects.get(owner=user)

In [6]: mp = MagazinProduct.objects.get(magazin=magazin, product=1) #product=1 this is ID

In [8]: mp.quantity
Out[8]: 1

In  [9]: mp.quantity = quantity
In [10]: mp.quantity
Out[10]: 4

In [11]: mp.quantity.save()
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'save'

A: You just need to change to:
mp.save()

instead.

mp is an instance of MagzinProduct class, and mp.quantity is just an int which doesn't have a save method. To update an instance, you call save() on this instance, and in this case it is simply mp.save().

A: You don't save an attribute - you save an instance. In your example you call save method on mp instance like mp.save() which would save all the attributes of that object. See official docs for reference.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Top 10 Most Dominant Athletes of Present Era
UpdatedTuesday, September 29, 2015
The most dominant athletes have something special that attracts the attention of whole world and make them unique in their field. They have different skill levels and talent that ranked them higher than other competitors. Here we assembled a list of top 10 most dominant athletes of present era. Please record your opinion about our effort in comment section.
1. Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey is undisputed most dominant athlete in the world that are currently in action; rather she is more than most dominant athlete. Ronda Rousey is a UFC fighter and current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. Her two wins in the past year have lasted an average of 15 seconds. The 28 year-old fighter is undefeated in mixed martial arts, having won eleven of her twelve fights in the first round and nine by armbar. Her supremacy and dominance is cleared from the fact that she has won every UFC fight she has fought, beating some of her opponents in less than a minute. She's not just undefeated; she's effectively untouched. This is the reason Rousey ranked No 1 in our list of top 10 most dominant athletes of present era.
2. Michael Phelps
The most decorated Olympian of all time Michael Phelps ranked No 2 in our list of most dominant athletes of modern era. Phelps is a competition swimmer and has won 22 medals in Olympics. He also holds the record of all-time Olympic gold medals (18 golds), Olympic gold medals in individual events (11) and Olympic gold medals in individual events for a male (13). He also holds the record of the most first-place finishes at a single Olympic Games.
In any type of swimming competition; the dominancy of Michael Phelps is unchallengeable. He is world record holder in 100 meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley. A total of 77 medals in major international long-course competition, 61 gold, 13 silver, and 3 bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships are clear indication of his dominancy in swimming.
3. LeBron James
LeBron James is the best man with a basketball. He is the most dominant player in the game right know. In his basketball career LeBron James has won two NBA championships, four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, two Olympic gold medals, two NBA Finals MVP Awards, an NBA scoring title, and the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. His eleven time selection in NBA All-Star teams, 11 All-NBA teams, and six All-Defensive teams is a clear evidence of his dominance in the game. He is also the Cavaliers' all-time leading scorer. His dominance and supremacy in NBA brings a lot of money for him too. Currently he is one of the most paid athletes in the world. His net worth is estimated over $350 million.
4. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The Business Insider ranked Floyd Mayweather at 14 in their top 50 most dominant athletes alive. But it is a little more injustice with Mayweather. In our list of top 10 most dominant athletes Mayweather ranks at no 4. He is undefeated since 1996; winning 49 fights with a percentage of 100. In his 49 victories he won 26 by knockout. In 2015 he also won the fight of the century against Manny Pacquiao. In our opinion these stats are enough to rank him much higher than 14.
Serena Williams is undoubtedly the most dominant tennis athletes of present era. She is one of the best athletes in the world. She has won 21 Grand Slams women singles titles. She also competed in Olympics and won gold medals. She won her first Grand Slam singles title in 1999 and continuous to rake up trophies in 2010s. She continues to dominate a new generation of tennis that sees her as an icon.
Serena has an awesome winning record against her greatest rivals like Justine Henin and Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Lindsay Davenport and even her elder sister Venus Williams. Serena is a dominate athlete both in singles and doubles including 21 in singles, 13 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles.
The comparison between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi isn't new thing. Both are best soccer players in the world. But the recent past record compels us to rank Cristiano Ronaldo higher than that of Leo Messi. The year 2014 was a phenomenal year for Cristiano Ronaldo in which he won his 3rd Ballon d'Or award. He is the only player who scored 50 + international goals for consecutive five years. In 2014 he remained leading goal scorer in La Liga. His 28 hat-tricks in La Liga and 230+ goals in the Spanish League is a small evidence of his dominance in soccer.
7. J.J. Watt
J.J. Watt is one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL. Watt has done freakish things since joining the league in 2011. He's put up 20.5 sacks in two separate campaigns, won NFL Defensive Player of the Year during both of those seasons. Watt became the first player in NFL history to record two 20+ sack seasons in a career.
8. Usain Bolt
Next in our list of most dominant athletes of present era is Jamaican sprinter and world's fastest man Usain Bolt. Either it is Olympics or any other athletics championship Usain Bolt is uncatchable and untouchable. He is the fastest man who has ever lived. In 2015 athletics championships; his dominance wins over his greatest rival Justin Gatlin is another evidence of his supremacy in dominance in athletics. Once again he proved that he is No. 1 in the world.
As soccer is the most popular sport in the world and Lionel Messi is the best player of the present era. He is also one of the greatest soccer players of all-time. We can easily compare him with soccer legend Maradona and Pele.
The five times Ballon d'Or winner Messi, continuing his epic run in the 2014 World Cup, led a refurbished Barcelona team to the crown. He also became all-time leading goal scorer in La Liga in 2014.
10. Novak Djokovic
Next in our list of most dominant athletes of present era is Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic. The 28-year-old Serbian star emerged as one of the promising tennis players in the world. Right now, he's the No. 1 player in the world. Djokovic has always been a dominant figure in tennis. He has won ten Grand Slam titles in the age of 28.
With legends like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both taking a step back at times, Djokovic has conquered the tennis world.
‹ King of NBA LeBron James Net Worth 2015 › Cristiano Ronaldo All International Goals for Clubs and Country


text:
Winemaker Spotlight: Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga of Marqués de Murrieta
People 3 minutes 29 August 2019
How the owner of Rioja's oldest winery changed everything in order to preserve its legacy.
The reputation of Marqués de Murrieta, and its Ygay Estate, is as old as it is illustrious. Founded in Rioja in 1852 by Luciano de Murrieta y Garcia-Lemoine, who held the royal title of Marqués de Murrieta, Marqués de Murrieta was first established in Logroño and is the oldest operating winery in Rioja. And, while it's true that longevity is a component of its prestige, the arrival of Garcia-Lemoine also represented a turning point for the region in terms of both technique and the quality of the wines being created. Prior to opening his winery, Garcia-Lemoine spent time in Bordeaux learning how to make wines of a finer character than was typical for the time, and those skills were put to good use in Rioja.
Nearly 100 years later in 1983, the estate and the 3,000-square-meter granite palace that shares the same name were purchased by Vicente Cebrián, the Conde (Count) de Creixel. Only three years later, Cebrián died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving his son, Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga, as the inheritor of the estate and in charge of the business.
It was a very challenging time for the young Cebrián-Sagarriga and he weathered it partially by building a stellar team, including his talented head winemaker, María Vargas, who joined the winery in 1995. Cebrián-Sagarriga also invested heavily in updating the winery and its existing structures, to date spending approximately $60 million on the project. However, this investment also came with its own challenges: how do you innovate and update a winery with such historical importance without disrupting the existing traditions and heritage?
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was it like when you became the owner of the winery?
My life changed in 1986 when my father passed away when he was really young, 47 years old, from a heart attack. I was quite young, just 24 years old, and had just finished my education. Although, I was quite involved in the wineries because I had come to work with my father when I was even younger. I began to work at the winery while I was studying at the University of Navarra. I remember perfectly when I was 18 years old I was in my first course at the university and my father called me and told me, "Dalmau, I confirmed that our export director is not going to work any more with us." I asked him, "Did you find another one?" and he said, "I found another one: it's you."
How did you feel about that?
At that moment I hated my father. I'm working with [him] at the winery, but I need to be at the university, I need my time here. But he was tough, he said no. He said I need to finish my education but I need to work with him and to travel.
Was that hard?
In one way it was difficult, and in another way it was really attractive. When I was 18 years old I'd already visited 50 different markets and countries. Was it easy? No. But it was really, really attractive in the way that I was educated. Not many people who are that age have worked in 50 different markets and countries. So you have these two opposite ways of looking at this: difficult and hard, and at the same time, unique and nice.
When my father died, and it was like two shocks. The first shock is inside your family. I had three sisters younger than me, plus my mother was really young. To lose a father so young . . . And then the second shock is in a professional way, as the boss of a lot of companies that my father owned. Not just the winery—he was also involved in real estate and in a lot of other companies. He was the only one, and then everyone was looking at me.
What kind of changes have happened at Marqués de Murrieta?
I decided to concentrate 100% on wine. I hired a new team to work with me on the wine, a young, young team that were really feeling and thinking the same things about wine. After this new young team came on I decided to move forward to update the whole project. I began with the wines and updated all of the different styles inside Murrieta. I decided that it was really important to do it in a slow way. It's not good for the wine, for the winery, to do it in a rushed way. I decided I needed a minimum of 10 or 12 years.
Meanwhile, I decided to begin to show the market what we wanted to do. I decided to release another wine, Dalmau, and it was like a shock for the legacy of Murrieta—the first winery in Spain, the first winery in Rioja that is known for making a classic style of wines. It was a modern style of Rioja, far away from the concept of Rioja, far away from the typical taste of Rioja. We created this—it was made in a totally different way. We began to show that we wanted to produce wines with a lot of fruit, less oak, younger oak, and more balance between oak and barrel. Trying to send a message that there's a new era of Marques de Murrieta.
What was the reaction like?
I think the market had two reactions. One reaction was when the wine was analyzed just as a wine, and the market was really in love with the wine. But there was a second reaction when they realized that the wine was coming from Marques de Murrieta. Some people were really attracted to the idea, but some people criticized that a classic concept like Murrieta was doing something like this.
Have things changed significantly at the winery?
The identity of our wines is still there. I didn't change anything, I mainly updated many things that I thought were not ideal for the new era. It was too big to change things completely. When you've worked for 160 years there's no sense in changing many things. You need to update, you need to bring your winery, your wines, your project, to the year in which you're living. When I use the word "change" I use it in this sense: I changed everything so that it would stay the same.
Photos courtesy of Marqués de Murrieta.
Written by Jacob Dean
Jacob Dean is a freelance food and travel writer and psychologist based in New York. He holds a doctorate in psychology and enjoys small international airports, dumplings, and hosting dinner parties. He is also allergic to grasshoppers (the insects, not the mixed drink).
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If you have a loved one in a nursing home, it is important that you know how to identify signs of nursing home abuse and neglect. Equally important is contacting an experienced and qualified nursing home abuse lawyer at the first indication of mistreatment.
If you are in need of a nursing home lawyer in Concord, Manchester, or surrounding areas of New Hampshire, call Van Dorn & Curtiss at (603) 556-4148 to schedule a free and informative consultation today.
If you have begun to notice any of these signs, please contact the Concord nursing home abuse lawyers at Van Dorn & Curtiss today. We serve all of Vermont and New Hampshire.


text:
Queue It Up! Vol. 1
Teens>
Post author:Aaron Spears
Post category:Teens
Tags: anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, film history, movie recommendations, movies, protest, racism
Films Recommendations for Young Adults: Police Reform
A documentary on any given topic can be a great way to see life thru someone else's eyes. Some may inspire you to dig deeper into a particular topic. Some may open your eyes to worlds you never knew existed.
For this installment of Queue It Up! we're going to take a look at a topic that is currently in the streets of all across America and is gaining momentum withing City, State and National governments too. Police Reform.
The push for police reform has been decades in the making and documentary filmmakers from around the world have been chronicling this topic for just as long. Below are titles, descriptions and links to either start watching these films now, or to request them from the Library.
As always, if any of these films connect with you, there are more to watch and plenty more materials that dive into the topics in a much deeper way too.
First up, a few films that give some hisotrical context.
July '64 (55 mins) This short documentary is streaming on Kanopy. The night of Friday, July 24th, 1964 started off normally enough in Rochester New York, stiflingly hot and humid; but by the next morning no one would look at race relations in the North the same again. JULY '64 takes a penetrating look at the underlying causes of the riots or urban insurrections that swept through Black communities like wildfires that summer and in years since.
Revolution '67 (90 mins) from award winning documentarian Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno is streaming on Kanopy and focuses on the explosive urban rebellion in Newark, New Jersey, in July 1967. The events in the film reveal the long-standing racial, economic, and political forces which generated inner city poverty and perpetuate to today. Newark residents, police, officials, and urban commentators, including writer/activist Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, prominent historians, and '60s activist Tom Hayden, recount the vivid, day-to-day details of the uprising.
The film also trace those traumatic days back to decades of industrial decline, unemployment, job and housing discrimination, federal programs favoring suburbs over cities, police impunity, political corruption, and a costly, divisive overseas war (Vietnam). Americans should not have been surprised when race wars exploded, turning cities into combat zones, bringing Vietnam back home.
Law & Order (89 mins) is an Emmy winning 1969 film from director Frederick Wiseman that surveys the wide range of work the police are asked to perform: enforcing the law, maintaining order, and providing general social services. The incidents shown illustrate how training, community expectations, socio-economic status of the subject, the threat of violence, and discretion affect police behavior.
These films explore how citizens can hold the police accountable.
Copwatch (95 mins) is Camilla Hall's film from 2017 that follows "WeCopwatch", an organization dedicated to bringing awareness to their community and exposing police brutality/harassment. Members of the organization legally record/document arrests, but often find themselves to be victims as well. WeCopwatch filmed the original videos of the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Freddie Gray in Baltimore that ignited the entire nation.
Policing the Police (54 mins) is a 2016 Frontline investigation inside one police force that's been ordered to reform by the Department of Justice: the Newark Police Department in New Jersey. Take a nuanced glimpse into how topics in the national discussion about race and policing are playing out every day on the streets of Newark, in community members' homes, and in the city's police precincts.
MILITARIZED POLICE
Since the 1990's there has been an increase in military equipment being given to local police.
Peace Officer (110 mins) won multiple awards when it came out in 2015. It documents the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the very personal story of William "Dub" Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state's first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer involved shootings in his community while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.
Urban Warrior (49 mins) is a short film that documents the formerly bright line separating U.S. military operations from domestic police work has become increasingly blurred. From Waco to the WTO protests, weaponry and tactics once reserved for the battlefield have been used in police operations on U.S. soil. Urban Warrior investigates the debate over the use of military tactics in law enforcement, and looks at the impact this trend is having on American civil liberties by interviewing academics, journalists, police officers and military personnel.
COMMUNITIES AND THE POLICE
Dispatches from Cleveland (74 mins) explores the soul of Cleveland through the story of Tamir Rice in five different chapters. In the aftermath of unfathomable tragedy, everyday people still have a voice and collectively can make an impact on their communities. In this particular story, the people of Cleveland banded together to take out a prosecutor who didn't have their backs. Each chapter is a different aspect, perspective and set of characters that are woven together in this story which, though heartbreaking, is ultimately empowering.
Stop – Challenging NYPD's "Stop and Frisk" Policies (88 mins) follows three years in the life of David Ourlicht, one of the four named plaintiffs in Floyd et al. v. the City of New York et al. By interweaving the story of David's family with the action around the trial, STOP places the stop & frisk controversy in the context of a long history of civil rights. From David's Jewish grandfather, who describes being arrested in Greenwich village on his first date with David's grandmother, an African- American woman, to David's biracial father, Italian-American mother, and mixed race sister, the Ourlicht family offers a powerful backdrop to the flashpoint issue of stop & frisk. The film asks: Must we trade safety for civil rights?
P.S. I Can't Breath (21 mins) gives viewers a raw, uncensored glimpse into the Millions March NYC. Real interviews with the protesters show the depths of hurt and anger in the community, along with their hope for justice and suggestions for solutions to inspire the change many wish to see! P.S. I Can't Breathe encourages the observer to digest information regarding the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and understand the youth's perspective on the topic while taking a deeper look into aftermath or postscript of hope lost and shattered dreams when justice is not equal for everyone.
Operation Small Axe (69 mins) takes a raw and unflinching look at life under police terrorism in Oakland. Through the stories of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon, the film focuses on the occupation of Oakland's communities of color by militarized and racist police forces. Oscar Grant was shot in the back and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle on January 1st of 2009. On March 21st, Lovelle Mixon was killed by Oakland police after having allegedly shot five OPD officers, killing four.
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Will the Opening of the Nazi Archives be a moment of truth?
I'm curious about the recent opening of the Nazi archive. Would we be able to, once and for all, settle this issue of how many Jews were actually killed by the Nazis? Could this be the moment of truth for the revisionists?
Best, [name withheld for fear of persecution]
Thanks for your interesting query. Only time will tell for sure what the exact impact of the opening of the "Nazi archives" at Arolsen will bring. With that said, AnswerMan believes that the opening of the archives will be another minor revisionist victory.
Others anticipate more from Arolsen. For instance, in Georges Theil's book, Heresy in Twenty-First Century France, he writes:
"The information and statistics of which Arolsen disposes in abundance are, of course, of capital significance. For they are the ultimate key: here it will be obvious whether a holocaust happened or did not happen."
I am less optimistic. Understand, that I believe the archives at Arolsen will certainly support the revisionist position. This will not be a "moment of truth" however as the revisionist position has been proven many times over. Arolsen will be only one more straw on the proverbial camel's back.
Consider that original Soviet propaganda put forth the estimate of 1.5 million Jewish deaths at the concentration camp Majdanek. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has taken an iron cast of the "gas chamber door" from that camp and made it the final display that one sees during their tour. Today however, experts at the Majdanek museum have "revised" the actual number of Jewish deaths down to 59,000. The "gas chamber" door has been shown to be a widely used air raid shelter door. Still, textbooks repeat extraordinary figures for Majdanek and the USHMM does not inform its tourists of the real function of that heavy steel door.
It is highly unlikely that the opening of the ITS files at Arolsen will put the matter to rest. The mainstream media has portrayed the files that way with the anticipation of finding extremely high numbers of deaths recorded. This would then put an end to revisionism once and for all — or so the argument goes. However, if the numbers are low, as I am quite sure they will be, the matter will be swept under the rug and alternative ideas will pop up as to what really happened and how the dastardly Germans falsified the records to show lower numbers than what really happened.
Case in point, by 1992, the Soviet archives in Moscow opened. These archives held the Auschwitz "death books" (Sterbebuch). Each book contains hundreds of death certificates. Each certificate meticulously records numerous revealing details, including the deceased person's full name, profession, religion, date and place of birth, time of death and cause of death. The death registry books fell into Soviet hands in January 1945 when the Red Army captured Auschwitz. When the archive opened it was revealed that Moscow had 46 of these volumes. They covered partially the years 1941, 1942, and 1943. There were no volumes for 1944 or 1945. It has been suggested by the International Red Cross that the Soviets "misplaced" the additional missing volumes. Russian officials permitted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - the International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany to make copies of the death certificates. There were 69,000 death certificates. Even if one extrapolates for the missing books, the numbers do not grow to the mythic millions proportions. Still, this information is largely neglected by the fundamentalists.
When Franciszek Piper, the Director of the Auschwitz museum wrote his article, "The Number of Victims" (published in the US in 1994), he states, "When the Soviet soldiers liberated the camp [Auschwitz] in January 1945, they found documents that confirmed only 100,000 deaths." Still, in light of the hard evidence, Piper suggests that many victims were never registered into the Auschwitz camp and rather went directly to the gas chambers. Therefore although maybe 100,000 inmates who were registered died at Auschwitz, some 1 million who were never registered were murdered there. What evidence you ask is there for the 1 million murdered? There is actually no evidence of the murder of these people.
Piper and others have examined train records to review how many inmates were sent to the camp. They then looked at how many were registered and theorized that the rest were murdered. They largely ignored the fact that Auschwitz also served as a transit camp and that many individuals transferred there were not registered there, because after a brief stay (a few days to a few weeks) they were moved on to other camps within the system. The fundamentalists have attempted many times in the past twenty years to conclusively finish off the revisionists. Every attempt has failed miserably. When revisionists are proven to be correct, the facts are buried. I expect the same from Arolsen.
Technique and Operation of German Anti-Gas Shelters in World War II: A Refutation of J. C. Pressac's "Criminal Traces" www.codoh.com(info)/incon/inconpressac.html
Defending Against the Allied Bombing Campaign: Air Raid Shelters and Gas Protection in Germany, 1939-1945 www.codoh.com(info)/incon/inconabr.html
Majdanek Victims Enumerated http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/new/index.php?language=EN&tryb=news_big&id=879
Title: Will the Opening of the Nazi Archives be a moment of truth?


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Q: How to do a correct vlookup in Openpyxl? I tried to do a vlookup in openpyxl  , but the formula is working if the both files are opened.If not the output is NA. The code which I use is this:
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Research Journal of Biological Sciences
Studies on Occurance, Richness and Composition of Zooplankton in Seena river water at, Mohal, Dist- Solapur, MS, India
D.A. Kulkarni
S.S. Surwase
1Department of Zoology, S.M.D.M. Mahavidyalyaya, Kallamb, Dist. Osmanabad, MS, INDIA
2 Department of Zoology, Rajaram College, Kolhapur, MS, INDIA
Int. Res. J. Biological Sci., Volume 2, Issue (2), Pages 25-28, February,10 (2013)
This investigation was undertaken to study the physico-chemical characteristics and zooplankton composition of the Seena river water. Physico-chamical parameters of Seena river water were favorable range for growth of Zooplankton. The Zooplankton community was maximum in summer season and minimum in the monsoon due to high temperature and low turbidty in summer season and vice versa. The composition of the zooplankton (rotifera) was dominant (40.82%) followed by Cladocera (25.67%), Copepoda (18.78%) and Ostracoda (14.71%). The Dominant trend of zooplankton in the present investigation Rotifera &
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