Blithe Spirit is about the socialite and novelist, Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for the novel he is working on. The scheme goes awry when his first wife comes back to haunt him in the form of a ghost, attempting to disrupt his second marriage and unnerve his current wife, Ruth, who is unable to hear or see the ghost. This comic play, written in less than one week, hit the stage with immediate popularity and remains popular today.
By the time of his death, the Times newspaper was writing of him: None of the great figures of the English theatre has been more versatile than he, and the paper ranked his plays in the classical tradition of Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde, and Shaw.
Joanna Weir Ouston has worked as a theatre director and actor in the UK, USA and Australia, and is a voice and text teacher of international repute. She teaches and directs at the Oxford School of Drama, and previously at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London – two of the UK's leading professional theatre schools. She has also worked as a Voice and Text coach for the RSC, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Young Vic, and professional regional theatres in the UK, as well as the BBC.
For Elements Theatre Company she has directed All My Sons, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, Lettice and Lovage, The Lion In Winter, and was Voice and Text Coach on Murder In The Cathedral. Recently she directed an outdoor production of Shakespeare's As You Like It set in Oxfordshire manor houses for the Oxford School of Drama.
Joanna has given papers and lead specialist professional workshops at international theatre conferences such as Giving Voice (Wales), the European League of Institutes of the Arts (Warsaw, Poland) and the British Voice Association (London & Bristol). In 1987 she received a Churchill Fellowship and an Australia Council Award to further her work in theatre. As an actor she has performed in London, the USA and Australia, and she has also worked professionally as a writer for radio and television.
"It's easy to see why Coward is one of the most popular playwrights of our time. Not only is the subject matter a delight, but the way he presents it is brilliant. The director, Joanna Weir Ouston, states in her notes that "the characters adhere to strong social forms and are masters of the polite riposte which is both funny and cutting, and at times hilariously absurd." This is the only time I've understood every word in a play with British accents and haven't been distracted by it.
Clark (Charles Condomine) is spot-on as he descends from being on top of the world into a realm of disbelief and impending lunacy.
The ghost of Charles' dead wife, Elvira (Stephanie Haig) is an ethereal delight. She's both funny and spellbinding as she makes a mess of things in her efforts to keep Charles forever.
July 20-29 – This summer, don't miss Elements Theatre Company's production of Noël Coward's comedy, Blithe Spirit, directed by Joanna Weir Ouston (Oxford School of Drama, UK). Written during the London Blitz of 1941, it has remained popular for over seven decades, has been nominated for eight Tony awards, and is said to have warmed the hearts of wartime theatre goers. Coward's wit remains timeless in this comedy that explores the endeavors of long-term commitment.
Blithe Spirit is about the socialite and novelist, Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for the novel he is working on. The scheme goes awry when his first wife comes back to haunt him in the form of a ghost, attempting to disrupt his second marriage and unnerve his current wife, Ruth, who is unable to hear or see the ghost. This comic play, written in less than one week, hit the stage with immediate popularity, and remains popular today.
Come to enjoy this timeless, witty comedy, Blithe Spirit, by Noël Coward, presented by Elements Theatre Company of Orleans, MA—a sure way to enjoy a summer evening on Cape Cod.
For tickets call 508-240-2400, visit elementstheatre.org, or purchase at the door.
Welcome to our production of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit. By the time he wrote Blithe Spirit, Coward was a very successful and prolific writer. Incredibly, he wrote the play in only six days in 1941 at the height of World War II. There were no subsequent re-writes, and only two lines were cut from that first draft in the original production which premiered just six weeks later.
In 1941, bombs were falling on London and fear of Nazi invasion gripped the country, so Coward decided to write a comedy to lighten people's hearts and provide a happy distraction from the turbulence and distress of the times. Surprisingly, he chose death as a central theme, shocking a handful of critics but impressing most who thought it was a stroke of daring and genius to write a play about so sensitive a subject.
Death was touching the life of everyone in the nation, yet here was a comedy which centered around a séance, a widower, his second wife and the impishly charismatic ghost of his first wife. It was set in quiet, rural Kent before the war, allowing audience's imaginations to escape back to less troubled times and, while all deaths are sad, Elvira's death from laughing too heartily at a BBC program transformed potential tragedy into farce.
Blithe Spirit was a huge hit. Coward wrote of the first night: "The audience … had to walk across planks laid over rubble caused by a recent air raid to see a light comedy about death. They enjoyed it, I am glad to say, and it ran from that sunny summer evening through the remainder of the war and out the other side." In fact, it ran for four years straight with a total of 1,997 performances. Since then there have been countless revivals in the UK, USA and abroad, a 1952 film directed by David Lean, and a musical version called "High Spirits".
Why was it so successful? It is beautifully written with witty repartee, well drawn comic characters, and is full of charm. It gave people hope that there was an after-life and allowed them to laugh in the face of tragedy. After all, Elvira was having a great time on the 'Other Side' playing dice with Genghis Khan and befriending Joan of Arc. On a deeper level, for anyone whose grief may have lead them to secretly wish in their heart that the spirit of their dearly departed loved one could somehow return or communicate with them, Charles Condomine's comically frustrating predicament would have been a humorous and sobering reinforcement of the need to accept and move forward in one's life.
It has been an absolute delight to return to Elements Theatre Company to direct this play. Elements always looks for a challenge and Blithe Spirit certainly throws down the gauntlet. It may be a light comedy but the theatrical demands it places on cast and crew are considerable. Coward's style of writing is very much of its era and British in its brand of wit and sparring nonchalance. The characters adhere to strong social forms and are masters of the polite riposte which is both funny and cutting, and at times hilariously absurd. Coward's writing employs a distinctive style and syntax which is very much a reflection of his time and culture, and also of Coward himself. His is a theatrical genre which is challenging to British and American actors alike, and also places precise accent demands on the cast. The language may have a lightness and an edge, but the writing is wordy with frequent long, witty sentences which, at times, are like tongue twisters in their complexity. Then, of course, there are the technical demands of the story with its naive fantastical elements.
We have had a very enjoyable time rehearsing this play and working out how to bring Coward's vision to life. It has been my honour and privilege to work once more with this wonderful group of actors, designers, costumiers, set builders and crew – all artists in their fields – who strive to achieve excellence in their areas of endeavour.
Coward wanted to give the British people a distraction from the war, a celebration of British life, and a reason to continue to fight for that life. The mark of a gifted writer is that 77 years later his work continues to entertain and give successive generations of theatregoers a joyous, light-hearted escape.
Born into humble beginnings in Teddington – Middlesex, a southwestern suburb of London.
He attended Italia Conti Academy stage school and his first professional engagement was at the age of 12, in the children's play The Goldfishon January 27, 1911.
He played in several productions with the actor Sir Charles Hawtrey, a Victorian comedian, whom he learned comic acting technique and playwriting.
He was drafted briefly into the British Army during World War I but was discharged due to ill health.
It was during this period he began writing plays, starting with The Rat Trap in 1918 and then his first full-length play, I'll Leave It To You, which opened at London's New Theatre in 1920. (Renamed the Noel Coward Theatre in 2006).
His first success was in 1923 with The Young Idea, followed by high critical acclaim in 1924 with The Vortex.
He premiered Hay Fever in 1925, the first of his plays to gain a place in the mainstream theatre repertoire, and is still considered a comic classic.
He thrived during the Great Depression, churning out many popular hits, from large-scale spectaculars to intimate comedies. Examples of the spectaculars being the operetta Bitter Sweet (1929) and the historical extravaganza, Cavalcade (1931) with its film adaptation winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1933. His intimate-scale hits included Private Lives (1930), Design for Living (1932), and Tonight at 8:30, a series of short plays that ran three evenings. One of these short plays, Still Life, was expanded into a film called Brief Encounter which was nominated for Academy Award and to this day is still one of the most beloved screen romances of all time.
With the outbreak of WWII, Coward left the theatre and worked on behalf of the British Intelligence, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He was asked to go to the US to use his celebrity to influence the American public and political opinion in favor of helping Britian.
He toured, singing across Europe, Africa, Asia and America.
He also wrote, starred in and co-directed the naval drama, In Which We Serve. He based the naval captain in the film on his friend Lord Louis Mountbatten). The movie was popular on both sides of the Atlantic and received an honorary Academy Award in 1943.
Coward's most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful 1941 comedy, Blithe Spirit. With 1,997 consecutive performances, it broke box-office records for the run of a West End comedy. It was also produced on Broadway, where its original run was 650 performances and the play was adapted into a 1945 film, again written by Coward.
Moving away from theatre, he wrote a comic novel in 1960, Pomp and Circumstance, which was a critical success.
He was also an actively-involved as the President of the Actors Orphanage from 1934 for twenty-two years, with a sense of responsibility and compassion . He visited regularly, employed responsible, caring staff, brought famous friends, gave birthday and Christmas presents to all the children, held annual theatrical performances, raising funds to keep it running and moved the children to New York during the London bombings, and kept in touch with many of them over the years.
He was an accomplished painter (regularly painting with Winston Churchill) and a good friend of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
In 1969, he received a Fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature and in 1972, an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Sussex and a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Noel Coward died of a heart attack in 1973 at his Jamaican mountaintop home, March 28, 1984, the Queen Mother unveiled a memorial stone in his honor, in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, and in 1998 she unveiled a statue of Coward by Angela Conner in the foyer of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.


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Tag: recycle collective
A Decade In Music – The Solo Bass Years.
My first ever solo gig was at the Troubadour in Earls Court, London, on Dec 15th, 1999 – 10 years ago last week.
The eve of the new millennium, and a gig that started with a lie (the lovely chap who booked the gig asked me if I had a whole set of material after seeing me do one solo tune in a band-gig. I lied and said 'yes' 🙂 ). It wasn't the first time I'd played solo bass in public – that was a product demo at the National Music Show for Bassist Magazine in Nov 97. I also played weird improv noise stuff for a contemporary dance company in Nov 98.
Continue reading "A Decade In Music – The Solo Bass Years."
Lawson/Dodds/Wood album… release is nigh. :)
I've finally heard the proper mixed 'n' mastered version of the Lawson/Dodds/Wood album. It sounds amazing – Patrick has done an incredible job both of the editing and mixing mastering.
In case you missed it, Lawson/Dodds/Wood is a trio that came out of my Recycle Collective project (which is currently on a temporary hiatus). I'd played with Patrick a lot over the years, mainly in our respective home studios, and he was one of the musicians that inspired the Recycle Collective – we were making great music behind closed doors, so why not do it on stage?
Anyway, Patrick and I were thinking about doing a Recycle thing with a drummer, and both of us thought of Roy Dodds. Roy's one of those rare drummers who understands what 'quiet' actually means, but can rock out with the best of 'em. An endlessly creative musician, and perhaps most importantly, one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.
So we did a Recycle gig at Darbucka, and had a really special show. Some amazing music came out of it, and we decided there and then that this would be 'a band' – more than just a one-off collaboration for the RC, we'd do some more shows. And some recording.
We went into the studio for a couple of days in Dec. 07. We did it just like a Recycle gig – set up, play, see what happens. We spent two days doing that, and recorded some amazing beautiful sprawling improvs.
When I got back from a couple of months in the US, Patrick and Roy had already set about editing the big improvs down, distilling them, finding 'the deeper magic' – it's not the way I usually work, but in this instance, especially due to Patrick's diligence and focus, the edits were really spotlighting what was best in each tune. We brought in Mark Lockheart to play sax and bass clarinet on a couple of tunes, and Gwyn Jay Allen on one track. The essence of the pieces is improvs – largely the edits were for length. It's not a 'remix' project.
Along the way, each person who's been involved, from the other musicians to artwork designers, mastering engineers and the like have got as excited about it as we are. Some really amazing music has emerged from a free flowing collaborative project, that is very much the sum of its parts. It made it particularly hard to decide on a name for the band, given that there was no 'band leader' in the trad sense. We arranged our names in various orders, and settled on the one that looked least like a firm of chartered accountants. But this is as much a Roy Dodds record as it is a Steve Lawson record. Same for Patrick. Their personality and musical magic is evident in every second of the music. 1+1+1=a very big 1. 🙂
And now the music is finished, and we've got a CD release date, vaguely – we're going for mid October.
But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we'll have a very special digital version, with some lovely exclusive material, available very soon. You best bet is to sign up for my mailing list on the front page here, or follow @lawsondoddswood on twitter.
You can hear one tune from the album on my Reverb Nation page, and one on Roy's myspace page. And I'll post more about it here ASAP.
Design Museum gig last friday…
About two weeks ago, I got an email from electronic drum-monkey extraordinaire, Andrew Booker, asking me to do a gig with his improv collective Improvizone, at the design museum. This appealed on a few different levels – firstly, Andrew's a fantastic musician and top bloke. Note that the first time I saw Andrew live, I was stood next to Brian Eno who's comment on Andrew's playing was 'have you got his phone number?'… yup, he's fab. Secondly, I've been reading about Improvizone for a long time on his blog, and love the idea – it's quite Recycle Collective-ish in its concept, but tends to be a little more electronica-led and not quite as structurally defined [Recycle gigs are always 3 sets, 3 musicians, 3 lots of solo/duo/trio performance].
I then find out that while the gig doesn't pay (I knew that, no problem), the event we were playin at was a ticketed thing, with peoples paying money to be there… uh-oh. That's not so great: I'm working on a 'creative commons' type manifesto for these kind of gigs (more on the blog soon), and that clearly went against that idea – offering my music free to soundtrack someone else's money-making didn't sound good at all… Quick chat with Andrew, and it seems there's some expenses available, so not completely free and that, combined with the enticement of great people to play with and some connections at the venue for further gigs makes me stick with the gig.
I'm rather glad I did, as it was musically a hugely satisfying experience – the line-up was completed by laptop twiddler Os, who, as well as triggering and manipulating samples of guitarist Michael Bearpark (some great sounds there!), would be processing and looping me, in Ableton Live.
Now, after a chat a few years ago with David Torn about group loop-infected improv, I generally take Torn's view that it makes most sense to have a 'master looper' in a band, and have them take the most responsibility for that side of things. This doesn't preclude other looping, it's just like having a producer on a record… the Recycle Collective usually works like this, even with all the other musicians looping and processing up a storm…
The nice thing about Os looping me is that a) he's very experienced with looping ideas b) he had headphones available for previewing stuff rather than just randomly processing things that may or may not work and c) Ableton Live is a pretty versatile platform on which to loop things.
So the upshot was that I played less than usual, often tossed a bassline and some ambience in Os' direction at the beginning of a tune and then had him grabbing snippets of melody as we went on. If I was playing a 'normal' bassline, he'd quite often tell me he'd grabbed that, and I could move on and do all kinds of interesting Looperlative mangling of my own, while he looped and processed what was coming out… All kinds of fun. And his Ableton set up was sending a click track to Andrew on drums…
All lots of fun, and it made for some fabulous, enjoyable, freewheeling and at times downright funky improv!
And, what's more, the venue loved it, and want us back. We'll have to negotiate on money, clearly, as their expectations may well be tainted by the 'freeness' of the first gig, but they know what we do, how well it works in that setting so we have known skillz to bargain with. Hurrah!
And, once again, I've got another gallery show experience to throw into the pot for the new album ideas, to combine with all the twisted country stuff that came from the Rob Pepper Gallery show… twisted country electronica, anyone?
Getting the ingredients right: thoughts on Improvisation
Sunday's gig with Patrick Wood and Roy Dodds went very well – thanks to those of you who came along. The venue, The Brickhouse on Brick Lane in East London, was suitably strange – on three levels (ground floor and two balconies, the top one had beds on it!) and amazing food, and we had to get them to move the stage away so we'd have room to set up all our toys.
For those of you just catching up, the Dodds/Lawson/Wood trio is a project spawned by my Recycle Collective venture – when it's running, it's a monthly music night, featuring amazing improvising musicians spontaneously composing in different combinations. Quite a few of the combinations I assembled for it are planned to become 'bands' of one sort or another, but many of the musicians involved are so busy that it'll be years before it happens.
However, the trio with Roy and Patrick is one that was so good we've all made it our priority. I've been playing with Patrick for years (he played at the first ever 'proto-recycle' improv gig at Greenbelt in 2005), and have been listening to Roy play with other people for just as long, particularly in Theo Travis' band.
We did a Recycle gig at Darbucka in October last year, and then went into the studio in early December to record in the same way – just set up and start playing. Since then we've been mixing and editing the improvs (which has been interesting for me, as I usually don't edit) and have come up with a record that we're all really proud of (more news on that ASAP).
So Sunday was only the third time we've all played together, but the musical chemistry is amazing.
And that, for me, is what improv is all about – the 'composition' part is just choosing the right players. At its best it's about getting musicians together who respect each other so much that they never feel like going with someone else's idea is a bad thing. Musician who listen more than they shred, whose default position is deferential. It means that the music tends to evolve slowly as each new ingredient is added and the the others react to it.
So I may start with a groove, or some spacey ambience, or patrick may lay out some kind of harmonic territory on guitar or keys, and then the others react to it and the initial idea is modified, developed, morphed into a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Every time I sit down at the start of an all improv gig I wonder if we'll have run out of ideas, if we'll get 20 mins into the gig and just start playing a 12-bar blues or something.
One of the things on Sunday that triggered these thoughts was when the DJ who was hosting the day said he'd play a few more record and then we could 'get up and jam' – I was really taken aback, as I've never thought of this as 'jamming' at all.. it's a whole other headspace to the 'lowest common denominator' approach that defines most 'jamming'. It's spontaneous composition, acknowledging that each of us as an acutely refined sense of what's 'good' even when nothing is laid down to define what's 'right'. It's not about finding some simple changes we can stumble through to make ourselves feel better, it's about exploring our shared music worlds to find music that otherwise wouldn't exisit, about listening, reacting and trying to add to what the others are bringing. This is 300% music – it's 100% Patrick, 100% Roy and 100% me. I don't think I've ever felt, playing with these guys, that my own musical vision is in anyway compromised or stunted, but I frequently feel my own playing elevated by the genius, sensitivity and creativity of the other two. We never have to ask the others to do something specific, as we each recognise that we are the masters or our own musical discipline – I know what 'steve lawson music' should sound like better than anyone else on the planet, and likewise Roy and Patrick. If I start telling Patrick what to play, it assumes that I know more about what he does that he knows. That's insane.
There is, however, a deeply psychological streak running through all this, in that it takes a while to develop that kind of deep trust, to develop the 'abandonment to the moment' and to foster to confidence required to take the music where YOU feel it should go. With Patrick, this is part of a 6 or 7 year improvising relationship – when we first got together to play, he was rather puzzled by the idea that I didn't want to play written songs, that I didn't want to discuss keys and stuff, but just wanted to play. But the fruits of it is where we are now, exploring this unique shared musical space that the three of us occupy.
I'm really excited about the future of this trio, and the record release. With this, my solo stuff, the duo with Lobelia and Open Sky, I feel like I've got such a rich portfolio of music to work on, and feel really blessed to have the opportunity to explore the respective styles and approaches of the projects.
Timeline and Trivia
Musical Equipment Used
– Elrick Gold Series SLC 6 String fretted and fretless basses, Modulus Basses (6 string fretted and fretless and 4 string fretted), a Rick Turner 5 String Renaissance 'Amplicoustic' fretless bass, two Aguilar SL112 cabinets and 2 Aguilar Tonehammer 350 amp heads, A Jule Monique Preamp, the Looperlative LP1 for looping, Keith McMillen SoftStep controller and Quneo controller, MODDevices MOD Duo for processing, MXR, Darkglass, and Markbass overdrive pedals, a TC Electronics HOF mini Reverb and Flashback delay, Aguilar Overdrive, Fuzz, Compressor, Octave, Chorus, Filter and Preamp pedals, MXR Reverb, Sub Octave Bass Fuzz, Bass Distortion, Bass Chorus Deluxe, Bass Envelope Filter, Bass Preamp & Bass Fuzz Deluxe, Subdecay Vitruvian Mod ring modulator, Pedal Train pedal board an E-Bow+, Latch Lake and Dunlop slides, Dunlop Super Bright strings, East-UK preamps, Evidence Audio cables, GoGo tuners, 2 Korg Mini Kaoss Pad s and a MOTU Ultralite Mk III Hybrid. And I carry my basses around in SlickBag gig-bags.
1986 – got a bass and joined first band
1988 – broke arm, kicked out of first band, formed second band (EARS) – played first gigs
1989 – GCSE Music, Grade C
1991 – AS Level Music, failed – fine at composition, not so hot on history… :o) Somehow got into music college in Perth, Scotland. Teaching as head of bass at West Lothian Rock School.
1993 – left college, moved to Lincoln, tour with Canadian singer/songwriter Johnny Markin. Gigs all over Europe, played on three albums.
1994-96 – working as a pro in Lincoln, teaching, studio and live session work.
1996 – moved to London, more session work, including TV, Radio and theatre work, more teaching.
1997-99 – teaching at Drumtech and Basstech, West London.
1997-2000 – freelance reviewer/interviewer/columnist/gadget guru for Bassist magazine in the UK.
1999 – Toured Europe with Howard Jones. First completely solo gigs in London.
2000 – Released And Nothing But The Bass on Pillow Mountain Records. More solo gigs around England.
2001 – 2 Solo tours of California, including headlining the world's first solo bass looping festival, and tour with Michael Manring and Rick Walker. Clinics for Ashdown Amps and Modulus Basses. Solo gigs in France.
2002 – Another tour in California, Released Conversations, duo CD with Jez Carr, on Pillow Mountain Records, 2 Major tours of UK Theatres and concert halls supporting first the 21st Century Schizoid Band then Level 42. Two shows at the London Guitar Festival. National TV and local radio appearances in the UK. Featured in the Sunday Times Culture Section. Released second completely solo CD, Not Dancing For Chicken. NDFC picked as one of the best CDs of the year by Aural Innovations
2003 – four week solo tour of California, gigs with Michael Manring and David Friesen, including the Anaheim Bass Bash, featured interview in Euphoria magazine, and review of NDFC in Bass Player (Feb issue). New recordings with Theo Travis, BJ Cole and Patrick Wood for future release. Duo gigs with Theo Travis. Gig at the barbican with orphy robinson. Recording in France with Vigroux/Cury/Rives for upcoming release. first italian solo gig and recording session in august. Duo CD with Theo Travis – The Arts Show, alongside Jenny Eclair and Barry Cryer. Acclaimed appearances at The Detroit Bass Fest and European Bass Day. Gigs in US and UK with Muriel Anderson. A second tour in England with Michael Manring in November.
2005 – another year another NAMM show, followed by a few promo gigs with Michael Manring in California. Dates with pedal steel guitarist, BJ Cole, and recording and gigs with singer Cleveland Watkiss, as well as more UK dates, the Edinburgh Festival and a trip to Italy. Started monthly music night, Recycle Collective.
2006 – back to California, NAMM again and some more dates and another day-long masterclass, Recycle Collective continues to be one of the best live music nights out in London, and features musicians such as BJ Cole, Cleveland Watkiss, Orphy Robinson, Seb Rochford, Todd Reynolds, Jason Yarde, Andy Hamill, Patrick Wood, Leo Abrahams, Julie McKee, Andrea Hazell. UK tours with Theo Travis, Muriel Anderson and Ned Evett. 4th solo album, Behind Every Word, released on Pillow Mountain Records. Recording in Italy with guitarist Luca Formentini. New duo formed with singer Julie McKee, for the Edinburgh Fringe. European tour in October, including EuroBass Day and European Bass Day, as well as an electronica festival in Italy. Behind Every Word makes a number of end of year 'best of 2006' lists.
2007 – guess where it started? Yay, NAMM!! Bass-Bash, two days of masterclasses, Modulus clinics and gigs both solo and with Muriel Anderson and Vicki Genfan. Much fun. First New York show too. European tour with Lobelia, including first time visit to Frankfurt Musik Messe and gigs in Italy, Spain, Germany and Denmark, 7 week tour of the US, 24 states, 7000 miles. Gigs at Greenbelt festival with Lobelia, Sarah Masen and Ric Hordinski. Recycle Collective relaunched in September. Playing on one track on Luca Formentini's album, Tacet. First Amsterdam and Geneva gigs in November. Released live EP with Lobelia in December. Recorded improv album with Patrick Wood and Roy Dodds.
2008 – NAMM again, with Lobelia this time, playing the bass-bash and for Looperlative and Modulus. More California shows. Back to England, playing lots of 'acoustic' shows with Lobelia, London Solo Bass Night in March with Todd Johnson and Yolanda Charles, . Year ended with Lawson/Wood/Dodds album 'Numbers' released, and some LDW gig dates round London, followed by a whole string of house concert shows in England and the US with Lobelia. 2008 was also the year of social media – 10 years of running my music career online turning into a 2nd career teaching and consulting on how it all works, including Nokia flying me to Helsinki for their Open Lab, and working on the launch of Ucreative.tv at UCA in Rochester. Finished the year with a series of house concerts in the UK and the US with Lobelia..
2009 – …which continued into the new year on a trip that included a trip to NAMM, a masterclass at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and a series of masterclasses in bass, looping and 'social media for musicians' in various people's houses. But I did miss the bass-bash for the first time ever. Back to the UK for more bass masterclasses and other University-based projects around the future of the internet… look out for a new solo album at some point this year!
2010 – the first half was spent looking after our new born baby, but at the age of 6 months, we took him to the US for a 7 week, 6500 mile tour of house concerts, that took us from Brooklyn to Milwaukee, Massachusetts to Lake Charles Louisiana, via Texas, Tennessee and Ohio. Lo and I recorded a live album on the tour, featuring Todd Reynolds and Neil Alexander, and while in Louisiana I recorded TWO duo albums with Trip Wamsley, released in September. The end of the year featured a sold out London gig with Michael Manring, and speaking engagements in the UK and Berlin at grass roots music industry conferences. I also released another live album, celebrating the 10th anniversary of my debut album coming out.
2011 – first half of the year was focussed on getting my first new studio album in 5 years finished. 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything was released and followed by a 2 month, 8000 mile US tour, which included shows with Julie Slick, Trip Wamsley, Tiger Darrow, Steven Guerrero, Darren Michaels, Neil Alexander, Trevor Exter and Catherine Marie Charlton. The trip also included me guest-performing at Victor Wooten's Music-Nature Camp, teaching a bass masterclass in Virginia, and Lobelia and I being the only overseas musicians to be booked to play at the first Wild Goose festival. Oh, and I also co-produced, mixed and mastered Lobelia's new record, Beautifully Undone. We started selling our music on USB Stick, which has proved v. popular. A move to Birmingham in the late summer promises all kinds of new opportunities.
2012 – the year started with the release of Believe In Peace, an all-improv solo record, recorded in Minneapolis. January continued with a return visit to NAMM, 12 shows in 12 days including duo shows with Julie Slick, Michael Manring and Daniel Berkman, a recording session with Steve Uccello and a playing-and-speaking gig at Stanford uni, as well as a masterclass at LA Music Academy. The shows with Julie, Michael and Daniel were all recorded, so mixing and mastering work on those took up a lot of the following months, as well as recording for Californian singer/songwriter Artemis. May saw the relaunch of Beyond Bass Camp, and the remastering of 11 Reasons… 2012 also saw the formation of #ToryCore – a project that coupled the evil words of the Tory govt with twisted avant garde metal. One of my favourite ever musical projects.
2013 – started with NAMM and another 8 shows with Daniel Berkman, and this time Artemis joined us on vocals at every gig. It was one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life to play with them both. Which is why a large chunk of the year was taken up mixing, mastering and releasing EVERY show we'd done up to that point. All 10 of 'em. Went out to Frankfurt to the Musikmesse, more ToryCore shows & a few more gigs with Alvin Stardust depping for his regular bassist. Started teaching at Kidderminster College, and ended the year with a lovely joint tour with one of my favourite bassists – Yolanda Charles, and with a duo show with Andy Edwards on drums.
2014 – Another NAMM trip, 11 wonderful shows with Daniel and Artemis (part of a run of 14 shows in 13 days for me!). Just before NAMM I was invited to speak at the Microsoft Social Research Symposium in NYC, which was one of the most brilliant few days of my life. The duo project with Andy Edwards expanded to become 'Andy, Steve + 1' and we played a couple of gigs with Julie Slick, made an album with Murphy McCaleb and gigged with Jem Godfrey and Bryan Corbett – we have further projects planned. Played a super-lovely duo show with Briana Corrigan, ex-of The Beautiful South, whose solo work I've been a fan of for 20 years. I released a new solo album – What The Mind Thinks, The Heart Transmits. Playing at the London Bass Guitar Show and inviting Jon Thorne to join me on my set led to the release of that as a new album – Diversion. Towards the end of the year, I launched a new subscription service via Bandcamp, with the aim of finding a useful home for the epic amounts of music that I record and want to release…
2015 – NAMM in January, of course, plus a handful of lovely house concert shows with guitar genius Thomas Leeb. Released LEY Lines with Andy Edwards and Phi Yaan-Zek, the first new thing that my subscribers got, which Phi released for everyone else. Did the London Bass Guitar Show again, and had another of my bass heroes Ruth Goller agree to play with me. That was fun. Formed a duo with Divinity Roxx – hip hop, improv, songs, stories, all rolled in. We had a week of playing and did a first gig in Kidderminster. The duo with Jon Thorne was expanded to a trio with Rob Turner, of GoGo Penguin, that band sounds amazing! In September, I release two new solo albums – my first proper solo album releases since 11 Reasons in 2011. A Crack Where The Light Gets In and The Way Home were really well recieved, and got played on Late Junction. In October, I was the cover star on Bass Guitar Magazine, almost certainly the only self-managed, self-releasing, self-everything solo bassist to ever get there without an association with any other artist. Still can't quite believe it. The mag cover coincided with a mini-tour with Jonas Hellborg – we had a wonderful time playing in Birmingham, London and Leeds, and hope to do a bigger tour ASAP. By the end of the year, I'd released 7 albums for Subscribers, all of which I'm immensely proud of! The year ended with the recording of a second album with Phi and Andy, to be released early in 2016. The year also featured a few more Torycore gigs – a thing that gets better every time we do it, and more vital, sadly.
Current Musical Projects
Solo gigs and recording -::- Duo with Divinity -::- trio with Jon Thorne and Rob Turner -::- trio with Andy Edwards and Phi Yaan-Zek -::- performance duo with painter Poppy Porter -::- Torycore.
favourite artists. – these days, it's lots of singer/songwriters, and death metal bands. So, alternately, Bruce Cockburn, Cannibal Corpse, Jonatha Brooke, Cattle Decapitation, Joni Mitchell, Job For A Cowboy, Paul Simon, Entombed, Emily Baker, White Empress, The Blue Nile, Soulfly, Nik Kershaw, Ihsahn…
Along side that, a bunch of other things – Hope & Social, Bill Frisell, D'Angelo, David Torn, Let Spin, Michael Manring, DJ Krush, Throwing Muses, Coltrane, Kristin Hersh, 70s Miles, Beauty Pill, Janet Feder, Jon Gomm, Kenny Wheeler, Trish Clowes, Divinity Roxx, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, J Dilla, De La Soul, Terje Rypdal, KT Tunstall, The Pixies, The Cure…
top 10 (or so) favourite(ish) albums –
Joni Mitchell – Hejira
Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Crown And Treaty/Motorcaid Amnesiacs
Jonatha Brooke & The Story – Plumb
Emily Baker – All At Sea
Kenny Wheeler – Angel Song
Bruce Cockburn – Nothing But A Burning Light
Bill Frisell – Gone, Just Like A Train
Talk Talk – Spirit Of Eden
The Pixies – Doolittle
The Blue Nile – High (or anything else they've done)
bass influences – Current favourites are Tony Levin, Ruth Goller, Michael Manring, Julie Slick and Matthew Garrison but there are literally hundreds. I suppose, in roughly chronological order, those players that have influenced me the most would be – John Taylor (Duran), Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo/Iona), Chris Squire (Yes), Simon Gallup (The Cure), Pino Pallidino (everyone, but especially the D'Angelo stuff), Doug Pinnick (King's X), Ewan Vernal (Deacon Blue), Steve Swallow, Abraham Laboriel, Jaco Pastorius, Scott LaFaro, Freddie Washington, Bernard Edwards (Chic), Ray Brown, Jonas Hellborg, Family Man Barratt (The Wailers), Verdine White (EW & F), Tommy Simms, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Jimmy Haslip, Danny Thompson, Eberhard Weber, Mike Rivard, Marc Johnson, Kermitt Driscoll, Mo Foster, Todd Johnson, Doug Wimbish, Yolanda Charles, Trip Wamsley, Divinity, and loads more.
Etiquette for soliciting press-quotes from people…
I've been asked a few times lately to give quotes to people to use for promo purposes, so I thought it would be a good time to offer some thoughts on the process. Largely because it's something I've done myself from time to time, and continue to do when the conditions are right…
Firstly, it's worth thinking about why we do this, and what value it carries as a promotional tool. Like most promo ideas, it has nowhere near as much influence as we'd like to think, but it can provide context for people who have found our websites or press-packs via other routes, and can also be good for putting on posters and flyers. The value lies in a few different areas –
firstly in the quote itself; having anyone say that you're a badass is helpful, especially if it provides some context as to how they think you're a badass – some kind of stylistic reference, a particular skill they are into etc.
Secondly, there's the association with that artist – if fans of artist [a] see that they are a fan of you, they may well be inspired to check you out. More often than not they won't, unless artist [a] is actively promoting what you do, but a few will…
and Thirdly, quotes are most useful en masse – have a body of evidence from different sources provides people with a framework for understanding your place in the scheme of things.
OK, so that's why they are useful – what of how to get them? Here's my rules that I work by –
I never ask anyone for a quote who hasn't already expressed – privately or publicly – a positive opinion about what I do. Cold-calling someone you've never had any contact with is not only bad manners, it's a recipe for getting either criticism or worse, a lame half-quote that will ultimately make you look like an amateur (no one wants to read a lame quote about you, no matter who said it – you'd be better off getting one from your high-school music teacher or your mum than that).
I never quote anything said to me in a conversation, without getting permission in writing, and offering the person a chance to write something else instead.
if I'm re-quoting what someone has said about me elsewhere, I try and give context for it.
When asking someone who has previously liked what I do for a quote about a new product, I explicitly let them know that I'm totally fine with them not saying anything if they don't like it, or don't want to say anything about it.
My default is to expect to not get a quote. If I do, and all the conditions are right I'll use it.
I never push people on it – I have a fair few musician friends who've expressed a liking for what I do in person, some of whom have offered to give me a quote, who I never pressure for them. They may happen in time, but if they don't, my career isn't built or crushed on whether or not some bassist or whatever says what I do is cool….
OK, that's how I go about getting them, what about what I do about giving them – here's the list:
If I really like what you do, I've probably sent you one already – I spend a large amount of my online time putting the word out about music I love. And by love I mean 'love', not 'music by people who might be able to do favours or who are just mates of mine but aren't very good'.
As a recommender of music, I'm building a brand, a brand that I actively protect from the accusation that I'll give a quote to anything. So my default for people who ask is 'no', just because I only push things I think are fantastic. It's like my policy for inviting people to play at Recycle Collective gigs – only my most favouritest musicians are in there. I might like what you do, but just not be into it enough to put my weight behind it (and, to be honest, a quote from me REALLY isn't worth that much…)
That said, I'm very much aware that there are a growing number of people who DO buy albums that I recommend (most of my recommendations are made either here, on my forum or via my Twitter music recommendation feed, To The Left Of The Mainstream – if you find your music on TTLOTM, I REALLY like it, and am willing to put whatever reputation and credibility I may have behind it.
Getting a random email out of the blue asking me 'for a quote' that you can use, without having any idea whether I'm remotely into what you do puts me in an awkward position. I'm left with four options – I can lie and say I love it, I can give you a weedy quote that means nothing, I can email you and tell you I don't like it, or I can ignore it and not reply. None of those are ideal, and certainly none of those are likely to get me to do what you want, even if I like what you're doing. A little interaction first, and maybe even asking for my honest opinion privately might make more sense than a 'hey' gimme a quote. I'm well aware that a lot of people aren't going to like what I do. Same goes for what you do. I may not like it. That doesn't mean I don't like you, and it doesn't mean you're rubbish, it just means it's not my kind of thing, and would be misleading for me to be pointing people towards what you do.
In terms of measurable value, I find that the support, encouragement and advice of musician friends is infinitely more value than a public quote from them – I have an unofficial 'council of reference' of older experienced musicians who seem to get what I do, and are willing to offer support, advice and encouragement. Most of them haven't ever said anything publicly about what I do, although one or two of them have got me gigs, and in one case taken a whole pile of my CDs out to Japan to get me some radio play and work on gig promo…
Of the quotes that I do have on my quotes page – all of the non-printed media ones are from people who had said either to me or elsewhere that they like what I do. I then dropped them an email thanking them for the encouragement and asked if they wouldn't mind giving me something that I can use publicly, always with the caveat that I'm fine with it if they don't want to.
As I said before, you put people in a tricky spot asking stuff like this, so choose your people well, and start with some normal polite human interaction before asking for a press quote… …I don't mean to come off like a curmudgeon, and it's always nice to get a message from someone who wants to know what I think of what they do, but spam and marketing BS definitely trigger the red flag with me.
…and if you want to know what I'm digging right now, do check out To The Left Of The Mainstream and comment on the artists there my forum…
London Solo Bass Night – March 4th!
I've just booked a really amazing gig for March 4th at Darbucka World Music Bar in Clerkenwell (the venue home of the Recycle Collective).
The line up will feature a really diverse range of solo bassists –
TODD JOHNSON – Todd is one of the finest electric jazz bassists on the planet, and is known to many via his amazing DVD tuitional series, his loads of youtube clips and his amazing playing with the Ron Eschete Trio. Not to be missed!
YOLANDA CHARLES – playing her [b]first ever all solo show[/b] (!!) Yolanda is one of the most instantly recognisable bassists in the country, thanks to her work with Robbie Williams and Paul Weller. She's also front woman for her own amazing funk band, MamaYo, who some of you will have seen at Bass Day 2006. Her songs are great, her bass playing's funky, and this is one debut you really don't want to miss!
and ME – this'll be my first solo gig in London for MONTHS, and hopefully there'll be some new material on display… 🙂
There'll also be time for some Q and A with all three performers.
Tickets will be £6 in advance or £7 on the door – advance tickets will be available ASAP from the online shop at
Forgotten Gems…
Was just browsing around the pages of my 'top friends' on Myspace, and on a whim started playing the tunes that are on the Recycle Collective page – just in case you've only just found this site, the Recycle Collective is a semi-regular improv night that I run in London with a revolving cast of characters that has produced some of the most incredible music I've ever had the fortune to be a part of…
Anyway, I'd forgotten just how lovely the tunes are that are up on the RC page – go here to have a listen – the first one, Dido's Lament is with Andrea Hazell, and is particularly interesting as for big chunks of it when I tried to loop her voice, all I managed to loop was the reverb on her voice, which makes it all the more ghostly…
The second track is an improv duet with Cleveland Watkiss, the first thing we ever played together, and has a sort of Gregorian chant-ish harmony to it.
Track three is with Theo Travis, and is an improv track from a gig we did in Cambridge, that will eventually end up on a live album somewhere!
The last track features Cleveland again, and Julie McKee – all good stuff!
So head over there, enjoy, and look out for more RC gigs coming up soon!
London Jazz Festival fun
Yesterday's gig at the Barbican with Corey Mwamba was all kinds of fun. As I've mentioned before, this was definitely the most difficult music I've ever had to play, and I was still a little under-prepared given that we'd had only two rehearsals as a band – there were a couple of the lines that I could play fine on my own, without the distractions of other musicians, but in the context of the gorgeous improv soup going on around me, I got a little lost. However, one of the very useful skills I've picked up from all the improvised music settings that I've played in is how to get lost in interesting ways. Learning what to do in a situation like that is your most important tool when it comes to winging it. If you're underprepared, you're very likely to screw up, and no amount of bravado or talking yourself up is going to make your playing any better. So instead, you try and give yourself markers through the tune to find your way again when you've lost it, and in between playing things that sound GOOD even if they aren't RIGHT – after all, the audience don't know the music. There were VERY few of the mistakes I made in the gig that anyone who was intimately acquainted with the music would have been able to spot at all…
At one point in the title track of the set – Argentum – the twinned power of Robert Mitchell on piano and Shaney Forbes on drums just blew over me like an unexpected storm. It was amazing, and beautiful, and a little scary, and I just tried to hang on to my bassline, listening for some clues in Shaney's drumming for where the hell I was meant to be, but really just enjoying the ride. It's a healthy feeling to be out of one's depth with musicians who do their thing with a lot more confidence than you do their thing… I was off of home territory, but as a result was able to take something different to the gig… I don't carry any of the machismo so often attached to anything possibly describable as 'fusion', and I think Corey was drawn to that – both in terms of my 'sound' and my approach to improvised stuff… I don't/cant' do twiddly clever solos over complex changes, so when I get in that situation, I tend to play atmospherically, shaping a sparse melody through the harmony, looking at it as a composition exercise – much the way I approach the Recycle Collective, just with a little more pre-ordained structure. And to my ears, it worked beautifully…
…there was a lovely moment at the end of the second last tune, where it had slimmed down to a drum solo, and we were all creeping back in to an improv section – I was using the 'woodblock' sound that I get by fretting the strings with my nails up near the bridge, and you could see the audience craning their necks to see where the additional percussion was coming from…. I like moments like that. :o)
It was a privilege to play with musicians that good – Corey, Robert, Shaney and Deborah are all incredible players, and delightful people, and I hope I get to play with all of them again v. soon!
Today I will mostly be…
Busy day today – got a remote recording session to finish up for a studio in Nebraska, need to listen through and read through Corey Mwamba's tunes for a rehearsal tomorrow for the London Jazz Fest gig in November, need to chase up the peoples who said they 'might' be coming to tonight's Recycle Collective gig and confirm as many of them as possible, and then pack up my stuff, get down to the gig, and play! Then tomorrow is the rehearsal with Corey (assuming it's still going ahead – no confirmation as yet)…
So Thursday may be the next time I get to blog properly, sadly – I've got lots of thoughts about all this 'future of music' stuff that I need to get down; I might see if I can grab 20 minutes this afternoon to get some of it written up.
Last night's Musician's Union session on gigging and getting gigs was very good – lots of interesting info, support and pointers to places for funding and contacts. The panellists were all very approachable, helpful, and well chosen for the event. The gigs and the money the do them are there if you have the get-up-and-go to get out and get them! Time to get motivated…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Large-scale canvas art complements the contemporary interior finishes at Chestnut Tower. These embellished, over-sized canvas prints look just original oils, but at a fraction of the cost.
Our team fabricated all of the frames and delivered these monstrous prints in H. Marion trucks, where they were securely installed by H. Marion staff.


text:
John G. Myers may refer to:

 John Gillespy Myers (1831-1901), owner of John G. Myers Company, a department store in Albany, New York
 John Golding Myers (1897-1942), a British entomologist

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
AMSAT-BB October 2016
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2301z SO50 Oct. 17
by Jay Garlitz 17 Oct '16
Here in FL41cu after a long day of travel. Will try to fit in pass of SO50 if weather allows. See you on more birds 10/20, but try to fit in a few passes before.... 73, Jay AA4FL -- Dr. Jay H. Garlitz, AA4FL -President/CEO Connected World Internet Ventures, In. -President-Elect, Medical Amateur Radio Council, *www.marco-ltd.org <http://www.marco-ltd.org>* -Courtesy Clinical Assoc. Professor, UF Dentistry, Dpt. Community Dentistry -FCC Trustee, W4DFU at Univ. of Florida, since 2005, www.gatorradio.org. The Club Station of the Gator Amateur Radio Club, at UF since 1934 -member 2013 T33A Banaba Island Dxpedition, Central Pacific, www.t33a.com -other past personal calls 3D2FL (Fiji), T30FL (Tarawa), T33FL (Banaba),
Re: [amsat-bb] Pratham: IITB Student Satellite
by JoAnne K9JKM 17 Oct '16
> North pass near to Finland, from russia to greenland; No signal. No signal on 145.980 on 33 degree elevation pass near Chicago. -- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm(a)amsat.org
CY9C LoTW?
by R.T.Liddy 16 Oct '16
The following was found on the latest Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin. Perhaps, the missing QSOs are the ones from SAT QSOs that had "issues" with their logging software. DE... Bob K8BL CY9C ST. PAUL ISLAND DXPEDITION (Press Release/QSL Status). Randy, N0TG, sent the following press release [edited]: QSL cards have been sent to the printer. We estimate to start sending cards in next 3 - 4 weeks. LoTW has been uploaded. Unfortunately, and mysteriously some data did not upload to LoTW. We will investigate that and see what can be done after we get finished with the distribution of QSL cards direct and Bureau.
Re: [amsat-bb] SatPC32 parking frequency?
by Alan 16 Oct '16
Reid, You could fake up a geostationary satellite. Theoretically the Doppler shift would be zero. Practically, very close to zero, depending on how good your tweaking is. If you placed it below your horizon, say on the other side of the earth, the antennas would point at the desired parking position between passes. The rig would remain in satellite mode however, but maybe that is enough? 73s, Alan WA4SCA <-----Original Message----- <From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of w4upd <Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 11:00 AM <To: amsat-bb <AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org> <Subject: [amsat-bb] SATpc32 parking frequency? < <Has any one tried setting up SATpc32 to have a parking/return frequency <when there's no satellite in range? I know that if you manually turn off <the radio sat mode, that the rig (in this case my IC-910) will return to <the frequencies it was tuned to before activating SATpc32. < <I would like to fake a satellite that is always in range with low <priority or find a way that when satellite passes are done and waiting <on new passes, that SATpc32 would return to the frequencies it was on <before activating the program. < <Anyone done this? < <Reid, W4UPD <Amsat: 17002 < < < <_______________________________________________ <Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available <to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed <are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. <Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! <Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
SatPC32 bug
by Michael Hatzakis 16 Oct '16
Hi all, I posted this with screen shots and perhaps it was rejected because of that, so will try posting with plain text only: I've been off the air for some years and am trying to slowly bring myself back. I since upgraded my old shack PC from WinXP to Win 7 and most of my programs work, but I had to replace ARSWIN with ARSVCOM (I am using Pablo's EA4TX ARS RCI-SE LPT board with my Yaesu AZ-ELE rotor) I installed the newest version of ARSVCOM and it works great controlling my RCI-SE board with a new SIIG LPT board. I also re-installed SatPC32 and it works fine too. ARSVCOM creates a virtual port and it appears properly in the device manager. I read the following FAQ: http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=103053.0 And ran the SDX program for SatPC32 and configured the SDX utility it to COM9. And when I run "Read Pos", it reads the proper position from the ARS RCI board. In SatPC32, I configured the Setup -> Rotor Setup to Yaesu_GS-232 and "search" for ARSVCOM so it starts on SatPC32 startup and stored the configs and restarted. But SatPC32 still does not talk to ARSVCOM when I hit R+ or when I manually park or position, it does not send the command to ARS board, any ideas what could be wrong? Michael K3MH
WD9EWK NPOTA stops today
by Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) 16 Oct '16
Hi! I am currently at the Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco in CM88oa. This is NPOTA site SS10, and I will work the next SO-50 pass at 1713 UTC here. If I make enough QSOs for an official NPOTA activation, I will return to San Francisco for the 3-NPOTA site at Fort Point, on the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge (NS22, RC11, TR13) before leaving the Bay Area. Watch my APRS track http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9 and my Twitter feed http://twitter.com/WD9EWK for my location and updates during the day. Will try any available passes, FM and SSB, to make these activations. 73! Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK
SATpc32 parking frequency?
by w4upd 16 Oct '16
Has any one tried setting up SATpc32 to have a parking/return frequency when there's no satellite in range? I know that if you manually turn off the radio sat mode, that the rig (in this case my IC-910) will return to the frequencies it was tuned to before activating SATpc32. I would like to fake a satellite that is always in range with low priority or find a way that when satellite passes are done and waiting on new passes, that SATpc32 would return to the frequencies it was on before activating the program. Anyone done this? Reid, W4UPD Amsat: 17002
Re: [amsat-bb] K4AMG LVB Tracker
by Rich/wa4bue 16 Oct '16
Thank you Jeff Hope you visit our home page K4AMG.org. a dummy, I did not bring the equipment manuals to the event. The schematic gives the identifier for "U 1" but does not tell me what "Q1 -Q4" are nor does it give "R & C" values. The station is stored at another location so I do not have the box to open and view. We were operating solar power. We will try that. Thanks Rich W4BUE -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 7:34 AM To: Rich/wa4bue Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] K4AMG LVB Tracker Hi Rich, Did you try to recalibrate? I used to have a problem with my LVBT up in NJ losing calibration all the time. I contacted AMSAT and they sent me a new F/W chip, this resolved the problem... 73 Jeff kb2m -----Original Message----- From: Rich/wa4bue Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 6:10 AM To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] K4AMG LVB Tracker Yesterday at the an event we were operating a GOTA operation, it appears our LVB Tracker about 4 - 5 years old failed on the rotor side. The numbers that correspond to the 5500 rotor did not track and the elevation rotor did not respond. The Azimuth rotor responded. The 5500 rotor worked great manually. We did a test run 3 days before and all was well. Anyone experience this problem???? God Bless Rich W4BUE Founder K4AMG K4AMG.org _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Re: [amsat-bb] help LabJack and SatPC32
Nick, 64-bit? I got this from Erich recently: ==== Hi Alan, I have just tested the U12 at my Windows 10, 64-bit, Acer Laptop. It works flawlessly at a USB 2 and USB 3 port. I had only to copy the ljackuw.dll from my Windows 7 PC into the C:\Windows\SYSWOW64 folder. The U12 is an excellent device. You don't need to care about drivers because it uses the Windows own HID drivers. 73s, Erich, DK1TB === 73s, Alan WA4SCA <-----Original Message----- <From: AMSAT-BB [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nick Pugh <Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 4:13 AM <To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org <Subject: [amsat-bb] help labjack and satpc32 < <I am moving satpc32 to a windows 10 operating system. I have a very old <Labjack and when I open satpc32 i get an error missing labjack.ddl file < <any suggestions < < < <tnx 73's nick < < < < < < < < < < < <_______________________________________________ <Sent via AMSAT-BB(a)amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available <to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed <are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. <Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! <Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
help labjack and satpc32
by Nick Pugh 16 Oct '16
I am moving satpc32 to a windows 10 operating system. I have a very old Labjack and when I open satpc32 i get an error missing labjack.ddl file any suggestions tnx 73's nick
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Members of the Acacia fraternity accept the Most Engaged Greek Organization award.
BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Student groups, athletic teams and individuals were honored along with faculty, staff and community partners at the recent Civic Engagement Banquet.
Sponsored by Illinois Wesleyan University's Student Senate in collaboration with the Action Research Center, the annual event celebrates those who have made significant contributions to community service.
According to the Independent Sector, a national leadership network for nonprofits, foundations and corporations, the value for an hour of volunteer service in Illinois during 2014 was calculated at $24.74. In total, the time that the Illinois Wesleyan community contributed to volunteer and civic service totals $824,040. Action Research Center (ARC) officials said IWU set a goal of 45,000 volunteer hours for this year. Faculty, staff and students can still report hours at www.iwu.edu/action.giveaday.html.
The Acacia fraternity won Most Engaged Greek Organization. Philanthropy Chair Brian Yager '17 worked through the Action Research Center to reach five nonprofits in the community, where fraternity members participated in seven consecutive days of community service and philanthropy. Members performed tasks ranging from cutting wood to construct a book bin to cleaning out pet rooms at the Humane Society of Central Illinois. Yager hopes to make the Seven Days of Service a chapter tradition.
Jerome Maddox represented State Farm, winner of the Community Partner Award. ARC Director Deborah Halperin is pictured at right.
The Illinois Wesleyan women's volleyball team won the Athletic Team Award. ARC Director Deborah Halperin said coaches and players challenged themselves that each member of the team would perform 24 hours of service. "These women are not just great examples of the student-athlete, but also of the student-athlete-volunteer," said Halperin.
State Farm was recognized with the Community Partner Award, a recognition to honor all the work the company does to support nonprofits in the area, said Halperin.
Professor of Political Science Jim Simeone, for his work as co-founder of ARC and his leadership in the Weir Fellowship program, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Teach-In, the IWU Peace Garden, supervising IWU's City of Bloomington internship program allowing students to get involved in local government, and his active role in the development of the Legacy of the Land Community Supported Agriculture program.
Julia Savich '16 of Palatine, Ill. was honored with the Alternative Break Leadership Award. A physics major, Savich has attended Alternative Spring Break every year she has been an IWU student.
IWU Dance Marathon received the Most Engaged Registered Student Organization. This year IWU Dance Marathon raised more than $7,700 for the Children's Hospital of Illinois.
Ngan Pham '19, a biology and chemistry double major from Chicago, received the Most Engaged First-Year student award.
Julie Lewis '16, a sociology and Hispanic Studies double major from Glenview, Ill. received the Most Engaged Senior Award. Lewis has received the Weir Fellowship and an ARC Alumni Fellowship. She is also director of the Mini Masters program where Illinois Wesleyan students provide free music lessons to local youth. She recently won the Zoellick Fellowship in Social Entrepreneurship to implement her idea for a project to build 25 benches at bus stops on Bloomington's west side.


text:
Q: get different error when I use executemany command I write the following code I got the errors when I use executemany. But when I use loop for executing query, it works properly. How Can I fixed this issue.
    def insertRows(self, query,data):
    print data[0]
    try:
        self.cursor.executemany(query,data)
        self.connection.commit()
    except MySQLdb.Error, e:
        try:
            print "MySQL Error [%d]: %s" % (e.args[0], e.args[1])
        except IndexError:
            print "MySQL IndexError: %s" % str(e)
        self.connection.rollback()

The value of data[0] is:
('fawn', 'clueweb09-enwp01-00-14080,clueweb09-enwp01-00-24424,clueweb09-enwp01-00-10099,clueweb09-enwp01-00-21754,clueweb09-enwp01-00-08946,clueweb09-enwp01-00-01993,clueweb09-enwp01-00-09127,clueweb09-enwp01-00-10921,clueweb09-enwp01-00-19249,clueweb09-enwp01-00-08960,clueweb09-enwp01-00-03517,,clueweb09-enwp01-00-10011,')

This is the query:
query = """
    INSERT INTO tabel
    (`keyValue`, `postings`)
    VALUES
    (%s,%s)
    """

Then, I got the following error:
    self.cursor.executemany(query,data)
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 255, in executemany
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 36, in defaulterrorhandler
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable

Also when I want to run the following code I got the error from line using executemany command.
def insertDocId (self,docIdsMapId):
    query = """
    INSERT INTO DocIds
    (`docName`)
    VALUES
    (%s)
    """
    self.insertRows(query,docIdsMapId)

This is the error:
     self.cursor.executemany(query,data)
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 255, in executemany
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 36, in defaulterrorhandler
TypeError: not all arguments converted during string formatting

When I use loop instead of executemany it works.
def insertDocId (self,docIdsMapId):
    query = """
    INSERT INTO DocIds
    (`docName`)
    VALUES
    (%s)
    """
    for item in docIdsMapId:
        self.cursor.execute(query,[item])
        self.connection.commit()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Florida Hotel & Conference Center is located in Florida's largest shopping centre and the thrills of International Drive are only a few minutes' drive away. While staying at the Florida Hotel, guests can enjoy relaxing in the outdoor pool or working out in the 24-hour fitness center. The hotel also offers 2 on-site restaurants along with a Starbucks coffee shop.
This hotel is 62km from Sanford International Airport and 35km from Orlando International Airport.
The spacious rooms all come with an en suite bathroom, a hairdryer, a direct dial telephone, satellite/cable TV, a radio, Internet access, a fridge, an iron and ironing board, a coffee machine, individually adjustable heating and air conditioning and 2 double beds.
Guests can enjoy convenient dining at Cricket's Grille, located in the hotel lobby. Every seat in the room has a view of a TV, meaning guests don't have to miss their team just because they're on the road. Cricket's Grille Bar also has a shuffle board table and a pool table for guests' enjoyment. For guests' dining pleasure, traditional American cuisine is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition, an abundance of restaurants lie in the immediate vicinity of the hotel building.
The hotel grounds feature a large, heated swimming pool as well as a sun terrace. Visitors may also enjoy relaxing in the hot tub or working out in the gym.


text:
About Scottish Opera: A Midsummer Night's Dream
1st Mar 2022 to 5th Mar 2022
Dominic Hill, Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre, returns to Scottish Opera to bring his Shakespearean expertise to bear once more. Joined by designer Tom Piper, famed for the Blood Swept Lands and the Seas of Red installation at the Tower of London, he promises to enchant and entertain with Britten's beguiling work.
Scottish Opera Music Director Stuart Stratford conducts a dynamic cast that includes recent Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Catriona Hewitson as Tytania, widely praised for her performances in the Company's recent productions of Così fan tutte and L'elisir d'amore, and David Shipley (Rigoletto, 2018), as Bottom. They are both making their role debuts alongside countertenor Lawrence Zazzo as Oberon.
Also in the cast is Scottish tenor and broadcaster, Jamie MacDougall (Falstaff, 2021); former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Elgan Llŷr Thomas (Falstaff 2021); Dingle Yandell (Tosca 2019); Jonathan McGovern (The Telephone 2020) and 2021-22 Emerging Artists, Lea Shaw and Glen Cunningham, who both recently toured with Opera Highlights. They are joined by a children's chorus.
Sung in English with English supertitles
7th March 2022 - 12th March 2022


After all the awful places I've been to (Chennai tops that list), Nagercoil is quite a heavenly place. The road to Kanyakumari had good tree cover with the occasional pond and other water bodies providing good relief to the surroundings.
The hols are over, and classes are on their way back to routine (sometimes dreary routine). After a mostly wasted vacation stay at hostel, the time spent at home wasn't too bad… Well, at least, it wasn't as fruitless as the typical holiday. Just as always, there were grand plans, most of which never came to be. But life has taught me something about being content. I understand that there is little point in wasting the present thinking about time spent not so fruitfully in the past.
Well, all that said and done, the holidays weren't so bad at all. I spent a lot of it experimenting with Django and later drowning myself in documentaries (Through the Wormhole and Fabric of the Cosmos). Inspired by all the physics happening in the documentaries, I even went on an equation solving spree working out Maxwell's equations for a whole lot of interesting problems from the excellent book, "Electromagnetics" by John D. Kraus!
After all the awful places I've been to (Chennai tops that list), Nagercoil is quite a heavenly place. The road to Kanyakumari had good tree cover with the occasional pond and other water bodies providing good relief to the surroundings. Also, the breeze was refreshingly cool and eased maintenance of body temperature. The constant breeze ensured that I never actually sweated it out on the road. And that is pretty important on a long journey. Kanyakumari district is almost Kerala with all its coconut trees, and thanks to the roadside vendors, a refreshing tender coconut was never far away.
The first 10 km of the journey was pretty straightforward. There was nothing much out of the ordinary in that. But, with the balls of my feet beginning to hurt, and the persistent (but reasonably mild) sunshine starting to give me a little bit of a headache, will power started getting involved in the equation. But, in the end, the trick was to just soldier on, one step at a time, not thinking about the next step until you have made the present step.


Find and book a ferry trip, boat taxi, or cruise in Opole Voivodeship. The beauty of Opole Voivodeship is best experienced from the water. Whether you're on holiday or exploring a little closer to home, travelling by boat is a magical experience.


HARRISBURG - Democrats on Tuesday won all three open seats on Pennsylvania's Supreme Court, a stunning result in a historic race that could dramatically reshape the powerful but scandal-plagued institution for years to come.
Judges Kevin Dougherty, David Wecht, and Christine Donohue will join the seven-member bench in January, creating a dominant 5-2 Democratic majority as the court is poised to consider landmark cases involving the death penalty, natural-gas drilling, and legislative redistricting.
Dougherty, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge and brother of city labor leader John J. Dougherty, was the only Philadelphia-area candidate to win. He also was poised to outpoll all candidates, days after the city's Democratic establishment publicly urged voters to support him.
Republicans had controlled the bench since 2010, and hoped to retain the majority. But the Republican nominees - Judges Judy Olson, Mike George, and Anne Covey - were solidly defeated, as was independent Paul Panepinto.
The new members will remake a court that has been racked by turmoil and infighting in recent years: Two justices since 2012 have resigned in disgrace, while another still on the bench has been mired in a scandal over pornographic email.
Political observers say that whatever effect those events have had on the court's image, Tuesday's winners - elected to 10-year terms at a salary of $203,000 a year - will inhabit prestigious roles with a near-incomparable ability to influence Pennsylvania.
"The state Supreme Court . . . regularly has to weigh in on decisions regarding legislation and executive actions that have enormous repercussions," said Christopher Borick, political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. "Establishing the direction of the court is incredibly important."
Two nonpartisan watchdogs labeled this contest - the only state Supreme Court race in the country this year - the priciest in American history, with expenses totaling nearly $16 million.
And the Democratic victors collected the lion's share of that money.
Dougherty raised more than $3.5 million, records show, and he benefited from huge contributions from his brother's union and others. Those same unions were major contributors to Wecht and Donohue as well, as were trial lawyers groups, according to campaign finance records.
Combined, records show, the three Democrats - who often appeared to run as a ticket - raised about $8.5 million.
By comparison, their four competitors - three Republicans and one independent candidate - combined to raise less than $3 million.
Lynn Marks, executive director of another watchdog group, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, said that money aside, this election could be a turning point for the state's justice system.
"There is a real opportunity for the Supreme Court to move into its next chapter," she said.
The state's two other appellate courts also had elections Tuesday. Democrat Alice Dubow, a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge, won a seat on the state's 15-member Superior Court. Allegheny County attorney Michael Wojcik, also a Democrat, won a place on the nine-member Commonwealth Court.
But the Supreme Court was the contest that drew the most competition.
Two of the vacancies were created when former Justices Joan Orie Melvin and Seamus McCaffery resigned - Melvin after being convicted for corruption, McCaffery to end an inquiry into X-rated emails. The other seat became open when former Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
The candidates, all judges, were evenly split by party affiliation - three Republicans, three Democrats, and one independent - as well as geography. Three were from the Philadelphia area, three from around Pittsburgh, and one from Gettysburg.
Dougherty, 53, did not shy away from the connection to his powerful brother. On the campaign trail, he said he was proud of the relationship - and insisted it would have no effect on how he would rule from the bench. Last week, Dougherty held a rally at Philadelphia's City Hall to tout endorsements from all 12 Democratic City Council members.
His campaign also spent nearly $3 million on television advertising in 2015, according to the Center for Public Integrity, outpacing all other candidates and political groups.
Wecht, 53, was also visible on television. The Superior Court judge received sizable donations from many of the same groups as Dougherty, and spent about $1.8 million on ads, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
Wecht, son of famed forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, campaigned on a platform of transparency, saying he wanted to have cameras in courtrooms and a ban on gifts to judges, among other pledges.
Speaking after a victory party in Pittsburgh, Wecht said he was "humbled by the confidence of the people of Pennsylvania."
"I appreciate the confidence that the voters have shown in me," he said. "I will aim to serve them well. I am focused on law - I am not focused on nonsense."
Donohue, 62, another Superior Court judge from Allegheny County, also pledged to return integrity to the court, citing her 35 years of experience and her familiarity with judicial ethics.
The three Democrats beat out Covey, a Commonwealth Court judge from Bucks County; Olson, a Superior Court judge from Allegheny County; and George, president judge of Adams County.
Independent candidate Panepinto, a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge, also competed.
There was at least one indication Tuesday that Dougherty's fortunes were bright.
While several voters at the Christy Rec Center in West Philadelphia seemed indifferent toward candidates for mayor and City Council, Dougherty appeared to have by far the most name recognition.
Donohue, speaking from a gathering of about 100 friends and supporters at her Pittsburgh-area home, said after the results that Tuesday was "a fabulous night."
"I'm so honored and humbled by this opportunity that's been afforded to me," she said in an interview. "To serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and to really make it the court that it always should have been - one that's full of integrity and honor."
Inquirer staff writers Samantha Melamed and Caitlin McCabe contributed to this article.


text:
Future of 'crown jewel of arenas' in doubt as Hochelaga YMCA closes
The YMCA building will close on Dec. 31, although Y officials said the area will stay open until the end of the hockey season. What happens to the arena after that is up to the city, which owns the entire property.
YMCA CEO says shuttering neighbourhood centre is 'heart-wrenching' but it's too expensive to maintain
Isaac Olson · CBC News · Posted: Nov 15, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: November 15, 2019
Stéfan Marquis launched a petition to save the Hochelaga YMCA's hockey arena that collected nearly 6,000 signatures in four days. (Jennifer Yoon/CBC)
For a decade now, Stéfan Marquis has been trekking across the city from his home in Old Montreal three to four nights a week to play hockey in a rundown arena managed by the YMCA.
"The arena in Hochelaga is one of the few on the island that actually offers hockey time for adults," he said. "This one is the crown jewel of arenas."
Most arenas run by the city are geared toward youngsters. That's not a bad thing, Marquis said, but adults need exercise, too.
So when Marquis heard earlier this week that the arena might be closing, he launched an online petition to keep the ice rink open.
In a city that revolves around hockey, the petition caught on fast, garnering nearly 6,000 signatures in four days.
On Wednesday, the YMCA made it official: it's shuttering three Montreal YMCA locations as a cost-cutting measure, including the old schoolhouse in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve that's been home to the neighbourhood Y since 1980, along with the rickety arena next door.
The YMCA building will close on Dec. 31, although Y officials said the arena will stay open until the end of the hockey season. What happens to the arena after that is up to the city, which owns the entire property.
Borough taken by surprise
Marquis's petition is addressed to Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, and he will bring it to her office next week since Montreal owns the property.
A spokesperson for the borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Julie Bellemare, said there are no plans yet for the schoolhouse or arena.
The YMCA has been located in the old city-owned schoolhouse since 1980, offering a range of services, including a weight room, pool and arena. (Jennifer Yoon/CBC)
"Our priority is to preserve the services available to affected citizens in the borough," Bellemare said.
She said the borough is working with the YMCA to seek out alternative venues for "the programs most relevant to the community."
What will happen to the YMCA property will be part of a reflection on sports and recreation in the borough as a whole and in the Hochelaga neighbourhood, she said.
Hot market for developers
But Marquis doesn't want to wait. He wants Plante to step in before it's too late.
He's heard plenty of talk that developers are already eyeing the property, as the area is ripe for gentrification. Right next door to the arena is a modern housing complex that stands in sharp contrast to the neighbourhood's more modest homes.
It's a hot location, just steps from the Olympic Park, two Metro stations and the Marché Maisonneuve.
The Hochelaga YMCA's arena is located just off Hochelaga Street, at the corner of Aird Avenue, about one block from the Olympic Stadium. (Jennifer Yoon/CBC)
Marquis's biggest fear is that the city will sell the arena to a developer rather than spend the money to bring it up to modern standards.
"The structure might be a little outdated and it might need a bit more than a renovation," said Marquis, who is an architect. "But just completely getting rid of the ice rink and not replacing it or not trying to find a solution for us is just devastating."
Hard but necessary decision
The YMCA pays the city a nominal rent for the old school and arena, in exchange for covering the cost of renovations and repairs
As far as the YMCA is concerned, those costs are now just too high, said Stéphane Vaillancourt, CEO of the YMCAs of Québec.
Montreal skaters light up the Olympic Stadium's new bowl — a first for the city
The building has a pool, weight room, dance studio, locker rooms and gymnasium, attached to the arena.
That arena's freon refrigeration system is outdated and expensive to run, he said, and fees from the membership base isn't covering the overhead.
"The members have been very, very loyal to the YMCA over time," Vaillancourt said.
"It's really a question of how can we maintain a building of that size with the revenues that are generated? Unfortunately, it just doesn't balance."
As a hockey player himself, Vaillancourt said he understands how attached players can be to their arenas. Beyond that, he said, he knows how much the Hochelaga Y means to the community, but he has to ensure the organization stays in good financial health.
It might be old and have a leaky roof, but there's much love in the community for the YMCA-run hockey arena in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. (Jennifer Yoon/CBC)
"It's not a pleasant experience to announce this kind of decision to our staff and volunteers who have been there for so many years, having a great impact and changing people's lives in that community," he said.
"We have been trying for years and years to improve the financial situation of that building and the others."
The YMCA is a charity, and although the decision was heart-wrenching for both him and the board, the organization needs to remain sustainable to continue offering services at all 40 locations in Quebec.
The hope, Vaillancourt said, is to renew the YMCA's presence in Hochelaga, by offering some programs to the community at smaller locations throughout the district.
'Truncating a way of life'
Marquis does not want this hockey season to be his last at the Hochelaga arena.
His hope is the city will find a way to preserve it — perhaps applying for a government grant to replace the greenhouse gas-emitting freon system with an environmentally sustainable refrigerated rink.
Quebec cancels bass-thumping, house-shaking electronic music festival at Big O
Keeping the arena open is important to the regulars, both young and old, said Marquis. He described the looming closure as "truncating a way of life."
"If I had real alternatives, maybe I wouldn't feel so bad about it," he said, citing the difficulty of booking ice time throughout the city. "The adults have very little time to play, and if they do get time, it's very late at night."
Guy-Favreau YMCA to close, 2 other Montreal Ys to drain pools, close gyms by year's end
As Montreal families desperately hunt for affordable housing, advocates warn of looming crisis
Man skates for 19 hours in Maisonneuve Park to raise money for Alzheimer's Society


text:
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Marvel Adventures Hulk (2007-2008) #3
Marvel Adventures Hulk (2007-2008)
What do you do when you're a gamma-irradiated monster on the run from the authorities? ROAD TRIP!! Bruce Banner hits the open highway with his best buddies, Rick Jones, Monkey and... Radioactive Man? Rick's not too happy with Bruce's new pal, but how does an ordinary guy get rid of a nuclear-powered super-villain who might be the key to saving Banner from the curse of the Hulk?
Paul Benjamin
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Superhero Movies & TV
The debut of the newest member of the critically-acclaimed MARVEL ADVENTURES line! Caught in a blast of gamma radiation, brilliant scientist Bruce Banner now finds himself in times of stress turning into the living engine of destruction know as THE INCREDIBLE HULK!
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four (2005-2009)
All adventure, all action, for all ages! Join Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing for a wild ride of all-new, unforgettable exploits. When the world-renowned heroes happen upon some children in distress, they naturally rush to the rescue! But not everything is as it seems, and the Fantastic Four are in for much more than they bargained for.
Avengers VS
It's the Avengers versus some of their all-time greatest foes! Can they stop the likes of Red Skull and Loki?
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Find out just who the Fantastic Four are and how they came to be in this modern ALL AGES retelling of a classic featuring new art and a new, updated script! When nuclear plants around the globe are swallowed up by the Earth itself, it's up to the Fantastic Four to take on the source of all the mayhem - the Mole Man!
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Collects Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (2010) #1-4. Captain America, Iron Man, the Black Widow, Thor, the Vision, Nova, and the Invisible Woman...a powerful collective of the greatest heroes the world has ever known. They are the Avengers, and they want it known they're here to stay. But when Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants threaten to destroy several major cities unless their demands f


Bush and Saddam – One Trillion dollars and thousands of US lives.
Obama and Qaddafi – One Billion dollars and zero US lives.
To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now.
One reason for Obama's success on foreign policy–the Republicans are not able to stop him for political gain as they have been able to do on the economy.


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text:
Q: Trigger Java Code When a specified Webpage is called on the local maschine I want to run Java Code on local Machine if a specified Webpage is called (HTTP request).
For example I am opening https://stackoverflow.com/, then I want my Java code to be triggered and this code opens some directories.
Is that even possible ?
Maybe with Sockets or is it possible to analyse the http Transfer with Java ?
I could not find a solution, please help.

A: Yes, it's possible.
You could create a monitor that looks http traffic and detect requests to the desired site using pcap or the java wrapper jNetPcap.
Related to: Monitoring of network traffic
Also other way is to create a java http proxy that analyzes the data flow before forward the request and configure it as your system proxy