The Coffee is pertinent. The Riffs are mandatory.
Here you will find all of the Coffee and Riffs Episodes. Cheers.
Andy Nunez is someone who has both passively and actively informed the music scene in Oklahoma for the last 20ish years. Marian and Andy Nunez opened their music venue Opolis in Norman, Oklahoma in the early 2000s and has been a mainstay of the live music in and passing through town. Opolis has in the last few years delved deeper into vegan food preparation and drinks culture. Now they open up a few nights a week even if there's not a band playing because the food, drinks and atmosphere are just that good. The OBNE crew goes there for lunch whenever we hear they're going to be open. Playing in an array of bands over the years, notably Andy played drums in Starlight Mints through the late 90's until the band ended a couple of years ago. He is now actively performing in Applied Music Program, check out their music in the link below. Everyone who works at Old Blood has spent part of their life either playing or attending shows at Opolis in Norman, Oklahoma and we are grateful to Andy and Marian for their continuing and lasting contributions to the music, art, and good-food scenes in Oklahoma.
Andy runs a Shure SM58 and a MicroKorg through the Hologram Effects Infinite Jets and Dream Sequence, Boss Harmonizer, and the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Mondegreen. The beat is produced by the FunkBox app. Everything is looped on a TC Electronics Ditto x2. He then runs everything into a mixer where he controls the levels.
Does every episode description start with me saying something about how we're back? Probably. I'm not going to look back to see. But we are. We're back. Again. Large and in charge in 2018. And this time we're kicking it off with Mariposa Coffee, a Roaster out of Norman OK, that we've featured in the past but want to shed some more light on as they do amazing things in the world while also making uncompromised coffee. Check them out and feel good about the coffee you're drinking.
We're trying something a little bit new. A little bit different. From time to time we'll be focusing a C&R episode around a specific pedal and attempting to build a soundscape using primarily that one pedal. Today's focus is the Dwarfcraft Grazer pedal with assistance from the Montreal Assembly Puhzing, an Ibanez PH10 Bi Mode Phaser and the Earthquaker Devices Night Wire. I'm playing a 70's era Les Paul stereo into a Fender Bassman and Marshall JCM 800. It is blippy and bloopy and did I mention we're back?
It was a sleepy weekday morning, and Sam Regan invited us into his physical and mental space in Oklahoma City to play a loop machine. His foundations are a keyboard and voices recorded to cassette, a one second loop cassette that Sam made himself, and 60 second loop cassette he procured from eBay. From there, he explores new waves of those sounds through a TCElectronic Ditto X2, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain, and Electro-Harmonix Cathedral. We only wish we could have stuck around to hear those bird noises, but duty calls.
check out samueldregan.com for more of Sam's tunes.
Dusted off this little gem we shot last spring at the Russo Music store in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I had all but forgotten that as we were packing up that day, Scott from Russo handed Brady that guitar and said he should do one. Brady grabbed the Earthquaker Devices demo board, Howie slid over a Supro and we banged out one more.
We can't say thanks enough to our Michael Nicosia, Scott Engle, and everyone we met at Russo Music that day for being gracious hosts and receiving us with open arms. Russo Music is a cut above the rest when it comes to a brick and mortar store, if you're ever in NJ be sure to check out one of their two locations. It's very likely you'll see a few things you've never seen before.
Dillan Witherow swung through town and hung out for a few hours. We got to chat guitars, pedals, and road trips. He plugged in a garbage Strat through a chain consisting of the Old Blood Reflector, Haunt, Adventure Audio Glacial Zenith, Keeley Bubbletron, Old Blood Mondegreen, Caroline Guitar Meteoré, Old Blood Dark Star, and a Ditto X4 Looper. All of which was amplified by a lovely Otis Amp.
Sometimes I like to scroll through Wesga's IG feed and watch all of the video from a period of time when he was videoing ABC's The Bachelor with his phone while running the audio through his modular rig. A commander of aural oddness, Wes helms the craft by manually engaging with the various generators, modulators, crushers and squashers that make up his modular synth cluster cuss. I mean that in a congenial way; it's a beautiful cluster that serves its purpose well.
Organelle uses the same effects chain via the Mixing Link.
Check out Warren's band, they're on tour quite a lot.
Concluding our afternoon with our new friends from Omaha, Mathew hops up to bat and delivers a concise and surprising soundscape. Employing his Strat through the smallsound/bigsound Buzzz, Old Blood Noise Haunt, Dr. Scientist Bit Quest, Montreal Assembly Count To 5, Alexander F1, Tomkat Day Dreamer, Strymon Deco, TC Electronic Ditto X2 into a Fender Super Six mic'd with an Electro Voice RE20 and Shure SM7 into a Zoom H4N shot on Canon Cameras with Rokinon lenses on Sandisk SD and CF cards, synced in Pluraleyes 3.5, edited, color corrected, and encoded in the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Here we are, In Asbury Park, New Jersey. And there he is. Our buddy Michael. Well, first that's our friend Summer, upstairs at Lake House Studio. We headed downstairs to Russo Music and met up with Michael. Michael slings musical gear at Russo. Michael has an insanely large and fulfilling pedal board. He makes no apologies for it. And I like it. Yes, I'm jealous of it. Yes, he gigs with it. Yes, it is heavy. There it is. Drone master Michael, take it away.
*Summer's piece where she employs a Rhodes electric piano accompanied by a Yamaha grand piano and some pedals can be found on the Old Blood Noise youtube channel, go check it out if you like.
We took a break one afternoon from the usual bit of making pedals, writing emails, drinking coffee, and yelling at the intern so that we could hang with the kids from See Through Dresses as they passed through OKC. Sara is first up and plugs into some goodies from Mr. Black, Caroline Guitar Co, smallsound/bigsound and others. We had some drinks, we talked and the kid ran around throwing pedals.
A couple of weeks ago we were in New York working on some video projects and Cathy was helping us out. She showed us Naia's performance videos online and said she had an idea for a Coffee and Riffs and that she'd be out in California the following week. To which we responded "Well yeah, dang. Do that." So here we have Coffee and Riffs, Part Sixty Three with Naia Izumi produced by Datachoir.
Alex Anderson from WMD is up to bat for episode Fifty Nine of Coffee & Riffs. I like when a person's calm demeanor disarms me and makes me comfortable within the first few moments of meeting. Alex possesses that quality. He orchestrated all of the components necessary to make this shoot happen, and navigated all of the variables with deftness. Making impromptu shoots happen is hard folks, especially late at night in a town no one involved in the shoot is from. The credit for this happening truly goes to Alex, so thank you, Alex. He explains his signal chain much better than I can at the end of the video so stick around for that or skip to the end, either way works.
While we were out in California for the 2016 NAMM expo we had the great fortune to throw a party with our friend Scott at his store WIndsor Homebrew Supply Co, in Costa Mesa. We invited any and all to come for a Coffee and Riffs Open Call shoot, where everyone is invited to come participate by performing, spectating, or bringing equipment. It was definitely an experiment, and what a fun experiment it was. We had a total of 14 people sign up to perform and were able to fit in 9 of them before the end of the night.There were several manufacturers and creators in attendence who generously brought equipment for people to use. Represented are Red Panda, Neunaber, Chase Bliss, Walrus Audio, WMD, Strymon, Adventure Audio, Old Blood Noise Endeavors, Temple Audio, Sinasoid Cables, Otis Amps, and Nystrum Guitars. Thunder King Cold Brew and Noble Ale works graciously provided the libations. So here's Part One of the Two Part Coffee and Riffs Open Call at Windsor Homebrew Supply Co in Costa Mesa, California Featuring Pete Jonas, Leon Wright, Jeston Porter, Blake Wyland, and Henry Dillon. Enjoy.
While we were out in California for the 2016 NAMM expo we had the great fortune to throw a party with our friend Scott at his store WIndsor Homebrew Supply Co, in Costa Mesa. We invited any and all to come for a Coffee and Riffs Open Call shoot, where everyone is invited to come participate by performing, spectating, or bringing equipment. It was definitely an experiment, and what a fun experiment it was. We had a total of 14 people sign up to perform and were able to fit in 9 of them before the end of the night.There were several manufacturers and creators in attendence who generously brought equipment for people to use. Represented are Red Panda, Neunaber, Chase Bliss, Walrus Audio, WMD, Strymon, Adventure Audio, Old Blood Noise Endeavors, Temple Audio, Sinasoid Cables, Otis Amps, and Nystrum Guitars. Thunder King Cold Brew and Noble Ale works graciously provided the libations. So here's Part Two of Coffee and Riffs Open Call at Windsor Homebrew Supply Co in Costa Mesa, California Featuring Sean Pierce Johnson, Christian Joseph Terjesen, Case Tanner and Ethan Tufts. Enjoy.
WARNING: there is terse language used in the this video, specifically the F word.
Picking back up and finishing out the sessions at the WMD mobile HQ in Southern California, C Freddee of Mantic Conceptual and Holophrase jumps up to bat with his circuit bent Casio and swath of effects. thank you again to WMD for opening their space to us and making this shoot possible.
Wrapping up the session at Hoboken Coffee Roasters, M. Bailey Stephenson of the musical project Sun Riah ties everything together quite nicely with a few pieces that employ her pedal harp and and a small combination of effects pedals. Bailey ran her antique instrument through an EHX Key9, Mooer Shimverb, Old Blood Noise Black Fountain, Caroline Guitar Co Haymaker, and the TC Electronic Ditto X2, depending on the piece. Brady also had a good chat about coffee and Guthrie, OK with Trey Woods of Hoboken. This is more of a long-play episode of Coffee & Riffs; below are times where you can skip around to see different sections of the episode. We want to extend a gracious thanks to Trey and Hoboken for inviting us in and hosting us. If you're ever in the Guthrie area, I highly recommend a cortado and the peanut butter cookie. Thank you as well to Cathy Begien, who besides deftly helming the previous episode, stepped in and ran camera for this one. Cathy, you rule.
It's been a spell since the last Coffee and Riffs; we've been spreading ourselves between additional video series, producing a new pedal, and doing our best to stay clear of the American holiday hubbub while simultaneous leaning into it. This feels good—to be back in the swing of drinking too much coffee while listening to some premium riffs. And what a treat to return with, Cathy Begien spent a few days with us at the Old Blood office and we talked her into doing an episode with us. We drove up to Guthrie, OK and spent a Friday morning at Hoboken Coffee Roasters. They graciously invited us in and gave us reign of their space to fill with our noise and hair. Cathy offers up two performances using a Jazzmaster through some fender amps and swath of interesting pedals. In the first she employs the Broadcast, F1 Flanger, Procession, Kilobyte and Context –from Hudson Electronics, Alexander Effects, Old Blood Noise, Caroline Guitar Co, and Red Panda, respectively. In the second performance she implements the Broadcast, Reflector, Count To Five, Meteoré – from Hudson Electronics, Old Blood Noise, Montreal Assembly, and Caroline Guitar Co., respectively. Both times she used the T.C. Electronic Ditto X2 to loop with. Pretty sure she tuned the guitar with that Boss TU-2 as well.
Cheers. We'll be seeing you again soon.
Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes came by the shop and flexed his riff muscles before a show they played in OKC this summer. He chose to play through the Old Blood Black Fountain, Reflector, and Procession through the TC Electronic Ditto X2, stereo mic'd through a Fender Quad Reverb and the brokenish tweed amp Brian used in the previous episode. We all enjoyed some amazing coffee from Dagger Mountain. We really appreciate Taylor's openness and propensity for good conversation. Check out Dawes on the Internet or at your local record store. they are fabulous.
Ask and ye shall receive. This time around, anyway. Armon Jay and Benjamin Homola kept the party going so we kept the cameras rolling too (or at least attempted to, we had some battery issues in one of the cameras but thankfully we had a GoPro rolling as well to have enough footage to cobble together an edit). Benjamin builds a beat on the Korg Volca Beats and runs that through the Old Blood Noise endeavors Reflector, then lays down a part from the Critter and Guitarri Bolsa Bass through the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession on top of it. AJ then puts some tasty guitar licks over that while Benjamin intermittently manually modulates some knobs while he plays the Jazzmaster through the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, EHX Pog2, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession and Reflector* (*prototype), and the Strymon Timeline. All of this is looping through the TC Electronic Ditto X2 looper. Again, it was a real treat to spend an afternoon with these guys. they are both interesting and compelling artists, but as well, engaging and kind human beings. I'm thankful that out of everything Coffee and Riffs is and allows us to do, it affords the opportunity to meet and interact with some precious souls.
We love when friends passing through town are able to come by the shop. Armon Jay and Benjamin Homola (and an under the radar Mike Fanuele) had an unexpected day off in OKC so we were able to bring them down to OBNE HQ for some smoothies and to shoot some Coffee and Riffs. AJ starts us off by making something wild with the Old Blood Noise Haunt, Reflector protoype, Procession, Black Fountain, EHX Micro Pog, Strymon Time Line and the Ditto X2. This was a really good day. AJ and Ben both have demeanors that brighten any room they walk into.
And later on Ben, Kilyn, Dan and Brady went and saw that band weed in a DIY punk space. which was cool too.
Continuing and closing out the Coop Ale Works sessions, Mandii comes all the way from Tulsa and makes some really great riffs happen while lots of brewery action happens in the background. We slow-sip the Coop Alpha Hive Double IPA while mandii plays her vintage mustang through the Mr. Black Overdrive, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt, Black Fountain Reflector (at the time only known as the chorus prototype), and Procession, looped through the Ditto X2, into a Fender Super Six and Deluxe. Mandii plays in and fronts Low Litas, check them out, they're really killer.
We had the privilege to shoot two episodes of Coffee and Riffs at Coop Ale Works in Oklahoma City. Coop is a brewery we've enjoyed from their onset and it was a real treat to get to shoot there and to enjoy a special-made coffee porter that Will Quinlin brewed up for us. This first installment from the Coop shoot is with Robbie Wing. Robbie lives in and plays music around OKC and works on a farm. He also organizes an annual noise festival called Loop Fest that is really wonderful. For this the fifty first episode, he uses his Micro Korg and Hohner Pianet T through an Akai Headrush, Boss RE-20, Caroline Guitar Co Wave Cannon MKii, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession and Black Fountain, running stereo through a Fender Super Six and Deluxe Reverb.
Thanks again to Victoria, Will, and everyone else at Coop Ale Works for having us over, and to Robbie for taking the time out of his day to come perform.
This being the 50th episode of Coffee and Riffs, we wanted to do something special. We knew we'd be in LA for NAMM (as with the previous five episodes) and we were able to wrangle Henry Kohen of Mylets. Henry was sweet enough to meet us for pizza and riffs at the Echo in Echo Park, LA (the pizza was from next door). This prolific young artist gave us three different pieces to choose from but since this is episode fifty, we decided to use it all. An extended riff exploration. Henry implements the Sleeping Dog FX Fuzz Hound, Greer Amps Southland, Mr. Black Tunnelworm and Downward Spiral, Old Blood Procession, Fuzzrocious Tremorsolo, and a Line 6 M9 Modeler for looping. He plays a 1971 Gibson Les Paul and Milkman Half Pint Amplifier.
Thank you so Much to Kyle Sheline and the Echo for having us by, Wade Burton for guitar and amp loan, and to Summer Mastous for dropping by boosting our overall morale.
Coffee and Riffs, Part Fifty. Here we go.
This episode will round out the Five Starr Sound Labs sessions in Highland Park, California; I want to reiterate how gracious it was of Juan Alderete to invite us into his studio. We are very thankful for that. Juan has a multitude of quality videos over at pedalsandeffects.com—premium content abounds.
In walks Nick Reinhart. Nick starts constructing a dystopian infrastructure of noise almost before we can get our cameras on. Using his Super-Sonic, Nick lined up in varying order: the Recovery Effects Bad Comrade, Small Sound Big Sound Buzzz, Red Panda Particle, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander and Rainbow Machine, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession, Line 6 DL4, and Digitech Whammy. Nick's musical skill is matched by his charm and wit. Before we know it everyone in the room is fully engaged in a somewhat depthy dissection of the definition of Riff. Thanks again to Nick Reinhart, and be sure to check out the multitude of quality acts he's involved in, including but not limited to, Tera Melos, Death Grips, and Big Walnuts Yonder.
Continuing on with the sessions we shot at Juan Alderete's Five Star Sound Labs in Highland Park, California, Jonathan Hischke steps in and takes the reigns of several wiley and unwieldy pedals, all of them musical manglers and dissonant de-constructors. Along with creating an odd, deep, and textural soundscape, he gives us insight into how he makes these pedals work for him. Make them work he did, all of the sounds amalgamating to create a fluctuating noise-scape that seemed to be different with each iteration of the loop. I'm ready for Jonathan to score a sci-fi movie already. Not that that is a thing that is happening, maybe it is, and if it's not, it should be a thing that happens. Jonathan played Juan's P Bass through the Earthquaker Devices Pitch Bay, Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid, Dwarfcraft Pitch Grinder, WTF Loud Button, Digitech PDS-20/20, and theRed Panda Partical, into an SVT with an 8x10 cabinet.
Just five hours after leaving our previous shooting location at 5:00am, we find ourselves in Highland Park, California, at Five Star Sound Labs with Juan Alderete. Juan is extremely kind and welcoming, with a wealth of knowledge of gear and history he happily shares. We enjoyed getting chill, looking forward to the next time we get to do it again.
Juan constructs his beautifully obliterated sound palette with the T.C. Electronic Ditto x2, Fairfield Circuitry Randy's Revenge, JHS Pedals Emperor, Green House Effects Stone Fish, Vintage EHX Micro Synth, Mantic Concepts - Vitriol EHX - Vintage Big Muff, rounding out the Chain with the wildly fun HoTone - Wally. The beastly Jerry Jones Bass VI helped too.
Here's the second and final installment of the Noble Ale Works sessions in Anaheim, California. At least for now, we want to go back.
So in walks Pete Jonas. Deceptively venerable, pete paints a brief and beautiful sonic landscape while maintaining his timid and kind demeanor. Big things ahead for this young gun. Pete runs his Eastwood Guitar through an Ibanez 1981 Tube Screamer, Spaceman Effects Gemini III, JHS Emperor, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession and Black Fountain, Mojo Hand FX Dew Drop, and finishing out the chain with the TC Electronic Ditto X2. Pete gives all of this noise aural-life with a Tone King Falcon amplifier. All while the rest of us keep sipping on the Noble Ale Works Naughty Sauce Stout which is chock-full of Portola Coffee. Did we mention it's so late at night that it's early?
Thanks again to Joseph and Noble Ale Works for inviting us in and allowing this to happen. It was amazing.
welcome everyone. to the official season two of coffee&riffs. to start it off we visited our buddy mason stoops in anaheim at his favorite brewery, Noble Ale Works. its coffee&riffs though, so we only drank the "Part of a Balanced Breakfast" Oatmeal Stout and "Naughty Sauce" Stout made with Portola Coffee Lab. and then we probably had too much as the night went on. opposite effect of just drinking coffee.
mason plugged his Rhoney guitar into the Oddfellow Effects Caveman V1, Spaceman Spacerocket, Visual Volume, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Procession, Arion Octave, Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine and the Strymon Flint into mason's ToneKing Imperial amp. which has been to 43 states or something. believe it.
Here we are. Starting a new section in the Coffee and Riffs world. Mariposa Coffee in Norman, Oklahoma (mariposacoffeeroastery.com) opened their doors up to us to make some noise and drink all of their freshly roasted and brewed coffee. Benjamin See of Plainspeak (plainspeak.bandcamp.com) hauled in his Janice cabs and plugged into the Mojo Hand Rook, Electro Harmonix POG 2, Red Panda Labs Context, Bondi Effects Sick As, Cusack Effects Tap-A-Whirl, Mr, Black Eterna and a Boss RC-3 for looping sentiments. He gets tappy. Just in time for Christmas, but it wasn't Christmas then. kids love coffee too.
Samantha Crain graced us with her presence and skills at the Mariposa Coffee Roastery sessions. She's not much for looping, and really doesn't need to be. She crafted something fluid and beautiful using the Walrus Audio Deep Six, Bondi Effects Sick As, Earthquaker Organizer, Ibanez Stereo Chorus, and Mojo Hand FX Dew Drop. we continued to drink whatever they wanted to pour for us and it was glorious. coffee rules. mariposa rules. samantha crain rules. riffs rule. it's Christmas today. that rules.
We are approaching the end of Season Two of Coffee & Riffs. To conclude the Mariposa Coffee Roasters session, we have Ben See taking the helm again. He gets funky. Funky with the Earthquakers Devices Depths, Heavy Electronics Radio Havana, Strymon Blue Sky, Walrus Deep Six and TSVG Pedals Slow Ride. He has these Janice cabs. They're also pretty great. We pretty much overdosed on Coffee. So, I think we stopped drinking it by then. Too much of a good thing is still a good thing, but you've probably had too much so you should stop. So I've been told. Been living life by that motto. Since this shoot.
Jack O'Shea takes us on a pell-mell ride of precision riffs just before we had to jump off of this tour bus so it didn't try to leave with us in it. Jack says it himself that he hasn't experimented with many pedals in the past. Well Jack, you had us fooled because you slayed. His chain consists of the Walrus Audio Jupiter, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine, Mr. Black Downward Spiral, Cusack Effects Tap-A-Whirl, and the TC Electronic Ditto. Solid pedal line-up. Solid riff. Solid human being. Thanks Jack, it was cool meeting you.
the C&R team continues its southwest Warped Tour adventure, part three of four. today we welcome Rodrigo Palma, bass player of Saves The Day, to plug into some pedals and drink some tequila flavored tequila. he had his way with the Walrus Audio Jupiter, Caroline Guitar Co. Wave Cannon, Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, Mr. Black Super Moon and the TC Electronic Ditto Looper and created something worthy of a My Bloody Valentine bside. good on you rodrigo, good on you.
"if kids played more pedals and drank more coffee there'd be less gangs."
in this episode of coffee and riffs, we continue our Warped Tour adventure from last summer. the prince of positivity, Chris Conley of Saves the Day, plugs into the old Little Axe Gatekeeper, Walrus Audio Mayflower, Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler, Green House Effects Stone Fish, Strymon Blue Sky, Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine and a prototype version of the Old Blood Noise Endeavors Black Fountain. He loops it over with the TC Electronics Ditto. we spent easily 30 minutes lost in the Conley headspace. the tequila helped get us there. chillin' and riffin, part thirty eight.
The boys from Archabald stop by while they're in town to hang out on the farm, drink some Reanimator Coffee, fall asleep in hammocks, pet Bentley and mess with some pedals. Starting with Andy Othling (archabald, lowercase noises and some other massive guitar demo video stuff), we watch as he creates a cloudy day farmscape vibe using the Mr. Black Eterna, Caroline Guitar Co Kilobyte, Mr. Black Tunnelworm, smallsound/bigsound f*** overdrive and Walrus Audio Iron Horse. a true pedal master. one for the books. the book that has all of the other episodes too. just to be fair.
there was a day. a day when maybe i would go to warped tour and see some bands. well, on one hot day over this summer, a few of us made our way down to dallas to hang out with some guys. first on the list is arun bali, guitar player for Saves The Day. arun is great at guitar, from nashville, fuzz and oil can connoisseur. so he gives some pedals a go. we sweat, we cheer with whoever was playing on the world cup and we drink...tequila, i think. no coffee. it was late in the day. we talk some. about pedals. and we rejoice, to be in the presence of friendship once again. arun plugs into the mr. black supermoon, the old blood noise prototype black fountain (because this was back in june or july or something), caroline guitar co. kilobyte delay, cusack tap o whirl (i love that pedal), chase bliss warped vinyl (i love that pedal too), walrus jupiter, earthquaker devices bit commander. he then proceeds to pleasantly solo our collective faces off. beware of 9:06. we got pretty weird. so i think seth censored it.
yay. saves the day warped tour edition. coffee and riffs.
So this is the beginning of what we will call Season Two of the Coffee and Riffs saga. From this point on you just might hear more about the coffee we drink and the people participating. Or maybe not. Just depends on what footage we got on that particular day. So here it is. Coffee and Riffs Part Twenty Seven with Ryan Lindsey of Broncho. Its a sunny day in early April, spirits are high, the sun is out and there is life all around. Burdens are lifted and springtime has truly arrived. So we shake off the winter sludge to some beats and dancing by Ryan. We kept ourselves fresh with some Yippee IA from Elemental Coffee, which has a certain honey sweetness that carries a red currant acidity. We've been doing our research. Ryan plugs into Caroline Guitar Kilobyte, Mr. Black Deluxe Plus, Boss PN-2 Tremolo, EHX Bass Micro Synth, Ibanez Stereo Chorus, Walrus Audio Mayflower and Walrus Audio Voyager and creates weirdness. Add in the Roland DD5 Drum Machine and it gets moving.
Our old and good friend Tyler Huskerson knows a thing or two about reverb, so we were excited when he agreed to come play some resonating riffs for us. We drink some Thousand Faces Coffee while Tyler tastefully plays through a vintage 1964 Fender Spring Reverb tank, Mr Black Deluxe Plus and Supermoon (chrome edition), Caroline Guitar Wave Cannon, Digitech Whammy, while finishing off the chain with the Ditto looper. Thanks again to Blake and Mark from Atria Creative for helping out on this shoot.
In Part Five of the Coffee And Riffs Sage, we drink some Bent Tree Earthquaker Devices Blend coffee and make some noise with the Cusack Tap O' Whirl Tremolo, EHX Bass MicroSynth, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander and Walrus Audio Mayflower. Strat and Fender Amp, no big deal. Not sure where the animals were during this session. May have still been asleep.
In part six of the Coffee and Riffs saga, we continue to drink the delightful Earthquaker Devices blend from Bent Tree Coffee. Black, no sugar, no cream. Then we plug in the Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid, Walrus Audio Jupiter and Strymon Blue Sky to get weird. Weird it does get.
On a dark and stormy day in Oklahoma, we go out to Blueberry Hill Manor with our buddy Daniel Weaver from Power Pyramid, try out some coffee from Cafe Grumpy compliments of Mike Fadem and play with the Walrus Audio Mayflower, Earthquaker Devices Organizer and Mr. Black Supermoon. I don't think there were any animals roaming. Which was a bummer. But Bentley showed up later and George the cat was sleeping somewhere in the Manor.
A cold front moved in on this overcast Saturday morning. So we made Cafe Grumpy coffee from Brooklyn, NY and plugged Matthew Robertson into the Walrus Audio Deep Six Compressor, Emerson Custom EM Drive, Strymon Blue Sky Reverb and an old Boss PN-2 Pan/Tremolo. Then Matt took us on a musical journey akin to Neil Young making the soundtrack for Dead Man. But I wouldn't let Matt kick my amp. Didn't seem prudent. And I think I was out of coffee during the intro.
We made it through ten episodes without quitting. On a frosty Saturday morning at Blueberry Hill Manor, Kilyn Massey, guitar adventurer for Power Pyramid, pedal builder and youtube specialist, walks us through a hazy sonic exploration using an old Gibson SG, Ibanez SC-10, Mr. Black Gilamondo, Boss RV-5, Little Axe Gatekeeper and Strymon Timeline. We brewed a fresh pot of Cafe Grumpy coffee, poured it black, and all it managed to do was give Kilyn the giggles.
How embarrassing. After five cups of really strong coffee, we needed some pizza from the Wedge pretty bad. But instead I plugged in, tweaked some and made everyone wait a little bit longer. Sorry everyone. Out of the Cafe Grumpy fueled ashes came this little diddy, Coffee and Riffs, Part Eleven. With full support from the Caroline Guitars Wave Cannon, Walrus Audio Voyager, Earthquaker Devices Organizer and the EHX Bass Micro Synth (secret weapon), there came a riff that might one day be a song. Then we went and scarfed all over pizza.
In this the fourteenth installment of Coffee & Riffs, serial instrumentalist Eric Nauni of Beau Jennings and The Tigers and Gentle Ghost takes us on a cacophonous journey with his organ and a tall mug of Elemental Coffee Roasters coffee running through a hearty host of pedals including the Mr. Black Super Moon, Ibanez Twin Cam Chorus, Earthquaker Devices Organizer and Bit Commander, Caroline Guitar Co Wave Cannon, Boss Digital Delay, and the trusty ol' TC Electronics Ditto Looper. A pedal chain almost as long as that run on sentence I just assaulted you with. You're welcome.
All hands on deck for this one. The ever--sweet and always talented Kilyn Massey of Power Pyramid shows us what sophomore success sounds like in his second appearance on Coffee and Riffs. Running through the Siamese Growler from Adventure Audio, Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler, Mr. Black Eterna, Strymon Timeline and a Roland RE--501 Chorus Echo; you can almost see the shimmer on the notes coming from the amp. Almost. Meanwhile, Brady and Seth suffer from over--consumption of delicious coffee from OKC's own Elemental Coffee Roasters which you'll see in Brady's spirited orneriness and Seth's Blair Witch--camera technique. Coffee and Riffs, Part Fifteen.
Our dear friend and contemporary Blake Studdard gives a masterful and understated riffing in this the sixteenth iteration of Coffee & Riffs. Blake is a killer photographer / videographer and is the tasteful brains behind Atria Creative. He also plays in a band called Visions of Chorus's. Today we continue to sip the Elemental Coffee Roasters Yippy IA blend while blake plays through a Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano and Bolsa Bass, Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler and Cosmichorus; finishing out the chain with a Mr. Black Eterna shimmer reverb. Brady just kinda crashes from all of the caffeine. Someone get this man a pizza.
Brady gives us a broody slow-jam to deliberately nod our heads to in this the Seventeenth voyage of Coffee & Riffs. Playing a Schecter Bass XI through a Dr. Scientist Cosmichorus, a Walrus Audio Voyager, a Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler, a(nother) Walrus Audio Voyager, Mr. Black DeluxePlus, ending the chain with a Strymon Timeline for looping.
It was a bright and sunny Wednesday morning when dreamboat Jeffrey Kunde stopped by to drink some coffee and make a riff for Coffee and Riffs part Eighteen. Eighteen. Eighteen. The heat hadn't set in yet, like it currently has, so it was a lovely morning. I experimented with french pressing some Elemental coffee, Kelly critiqued, Jeffrey watched silently with unreadable thought and we all drank it black. He tried out his first Fender amp, used the Walrus Audio Iron Horse, Mojo Hands Effects Villanova, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, Strymon Timeline and Mr. Black Super Moon. We also forgot what episode we were on. So expect voice editing tricks from here on out.
Coffee & Riffs, Part Nineteen. Allie is a pianist often swaying toward the avant garde; we were pleased to have her along because though she'd never really used effects pedals, was eager to experiment. It's quite a journey. It starts out a little frightening and ends in quiet repose. Here she plays her Fender Rhodes through a Strymon Blue Sky, Walrus Audio Janus, Ibanez SC-10 Stereo Chorus, and T.C. Electronics Ditto Looper. We ran out of beans so we had to run by Elemental Coffee and pick up several large pour-overs to go. A big thanks to Blake and Mark from Atria Creative for lending their video skills on these. Oh, and we're in a pool for the next few episodes. Because, you know, reverb.
Music to drown to. More of the pool sessions. Brady was feeling froggy and jumped on the same pedal chain Tyler used in episode twenty and plugged in a Fender Custom Shop Bass VI which he ran through the Digitech Whammy, Caroline Guitar Co. Wave Cannon, Mr. Black Deluxe Plus and Supermoon Chrome, a vintage Fender Reverb Tank, and then also sequenced a Critter & Guitari Bolsa Bass through a bass rig. We continued to enjoy the Yippie IA from Elemental Coffee Roasters in OKC.
At the final Coffee and Riffs pool session, Chase Kerby jumps in, grabs a bow and makes some textural ambient, noise rock. Using the EHX Memory Boy, Strymon Blue Sky, Walrus Audio Mayflower and Digitech Whammy, Chase puts us in our own sensory deprivation chamber, where we get to deal with all of our crap. A wonderful treat for a Saturday morning. Elemental Coffee, black, kept us going. Thanks to Jeremiah Allen and the then unrenovated City Presbyterian in OKC for letting us skate around and be deviants.
We spend the next few sessions on the porch enjoying some springtime sunshine, Thousand Faces Coffee from Georgia, dogs, cats, and the ever-ubiquitous Riff. Brady kept it clean and simple on this sweet little sonic odyssey with the Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte, EHX Bass Microsynth, and the T.C. Electronics Ditto. Also, plenty of pit bull and calico in these episodes, which, really, is the most important part. Enjoy.
Seth hands the camera over to Brady and steps to the other side of the lens for the 24th iteration of Coffee & Riffs. Using a minimal chain consisting of the Chase Bliss Audio Warped Vinyl, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte, Mr. Black Deluxe Plus Reverb, and T. C. Electronics Ditto, he works up something as interesting as the story behind that shiner on his left eye. We are still enjoying Thousand Faces Coffee; Seth is enjoying beer as well, you know, because his face hurts. Our friend Brian from Brand New lent us his voice to help us remember which part we are on.
Winter grasps one last time and brings a cold front through Oklahoma. So we brewed up some Elemental Coffee, lit a fire and invited John Calvin to come over and teach us how to play guitar the right way. He plugged in to the Walrus Audio Mayflower, Mr Black Gilamondo Phaser and Supermoon, Strymon Blue Sky and Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid. Then he soothed our souls and warmed our hearts with his gypsy song.
this unique springtime porch session takes a dreamy turn as Derek Lemke grabs a strat, blows our collective mind with a weird signal chain and soaks up the sun. Using the Strymon Big Sky Reverb, Walrus Audio Jupiter Fuzz, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte, Dr. Scientist Cosmichorus and drinking a ton of French Pressed Thousand Face Coffee, Derek creates liquid sunshine. actual, liquid sunshine. and then quince got thrown and seth's ankles got burnt.
...And thus ends the first Season of Coffee and Riffs. Our friend Tyler Slemp rounds out the season with some very tasteful loops using the Walrus Audio Voyager, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte, Mr. Black Supermoon, and the T.C. Electronics Ditto while we all come down off of Thousand Faces coffee from Atlanta, GA. Quince the cat yearns to get outside and I believe we went to eat pizza and almost got in a fight, in which we would have lost. bad.
On this striking episode of Coffee and Riffs, Brady writes a circus tune using the Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte and Wave Cannon, Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander and a very, very subtle Strymon Big Sky. The most subtle of all pedals. We were loaded on Elemental Coffee and having a grand adventure as the afternoon rolled in. This is part Twenty Eight. This. Is. Part. Twenty Eight. Twenty. Eight. Twent. Twe.
How To Write A Song. Watch as Ryan Lindsey from Broncho constructs a song out of thin air. Something that will get stuck in your head for days. Here at Coffee and Riffs (and Old Blood), we support bands like Broncho, because they make songs that you can't escape. Effortlessly. Brent from Power Pyramid helps out some too. Ryan plugs into the Earthquaker Devices Bit Commander, Mr. Black GilaMondo, Walrus Audio Mayflower and a TC Electronics Ditto Looper, which he later went and purchased. So you owe us, TC. You owe us big. Just kidding, no you don't. Oh, and that Roland DD5 Drum Machine thing. still shooting up big on the Elemental Coffee Yippee IA.
you should unbutton your shirt a little. loosen your collar. let your hair grow wild. let go. let go. let. go. there are no rules. you can use guitar pedals on drums. dustin ragland proves it. here. now. we let dustin loose on the pedal collection. he mic'd up his c&c kit and got weird. so weird. and its so right. there are no rules. the eqd rainbow machine. the mr black tunnelworm. the greenhouse effects stonefish. the eqd depths. the caroline kilobyte. the ehx micro synth. the strymon big sky. the mojohand fx colossus. the mr black supermoon. the critter and guitari bolsa bass. the mr black deluxe. the walrus mayflower. he did it all. all whilst drinking alliance world coffee. coffee and riffs, part thirty. stiffs not welcome.
While Archabald was in town, Randy Bowman picked up the rarely used les paul and started plucking around with the mr. black super moon, caroline guitar co. kilobyte, walrus audio janus, and eqd organizer. this was before the world got sweaty. back when outside wasn't tangible misery. so we drank some piping hot reanimator coffee too. because it was the right thing to do.
Continuing on outside on a beautiful spring day, Corey Ray uses the Caroline Guitar Co Kilobyte and Wave Cannon, and the Mr. Black Eterna to make a swirly drone riff; accenting it nicely with the Korg Volca Beat. His mane of golden hair outshined only by his smile. Even Brady can't not hug him (note Corey's reaction to the possibly-too-close hug). Most of us were still drinking Alliance World Coffee, some of us switched to beer. Bentley gets frisky with an onlooker. We all basked in the glory of the sun.
Riff on, riffers. Riff. On.
Well dang, if Andy is gonna stop by, might as well get him to do two Coffee & Riffs, right? In this impressive little gem of a riff, Andy bedazzles us with the Mojo Hand FX Dew Drop, the Greenhouse Effects Stone Fish, and a three Earthquaker Devices heavy hitters, Talons, Arpanoid and Rainbow Machine. Rounded out at the end by the T. C. Ellectronics Ditto. Andy rules. Sweet dude, playing sweet riffs, being sweet at life.
The farm stage series of Coffee and Riffs continues with this baby faced, baby shaken dummy plugging into the Caroline Wave Cannon, Earthquaker Devices Pitch Bay and Depths, Greenhouse Effects Stonefish Vibrato/Chorus and Mr. Black Deluxe Tremolo/Reverb. I was sipping heavy on some World Alliance Coffee, so I was thinking about the universe and how heavy it is. And today I read that Black Holes might not be a thing. up is down. left is right. out is in. spelling right is wrong. Coffee and Riffs part Thirty Two.
here we are. still going. season two, which is a rough, subjective view on how we break up this large stack of episodes we have collected in 2014, continues on with our buddy Dan Pechacek of the OKC band Plainspeak plugging into an assortment of noise makers and coming up with one of the catchiest bleeping and blooping songs. or it could be a song. maybe it is a song. a dan song. we were pulling heavily from the Reanimator Coffee out of Philly. the archabald boys were still hanging out too. dan used a combination of the Mojo Hand FX Rook, Earthquaker Devices Dirt Transmitter, Caroline Guitar Co. Kilobyte and Strymon Engineering Big Sky with the looping by dan's Boss RC30. saddle up. take a ride. coffee and riffs part thirty six.
In part thirteen of the Coffee and Riffs saga, Nicholas Ley from Colourmusic and his boy Boo stop by. Nick is a multi-instrumentalist but has a heavy focus on drums. So he showed us his circuit bent Yamaha DD-5 drum machine. And then we danced to the psychotic fuzz grind beats. At different times the DD-5 ran into the Walrus Audio Deep Six and Mayflower, Mr. Black Gilamondo and Supermoon, Earthquaker Devices Arpanoid, Strymon Blue Sky and EHX Bass Micro Synth. Go ahead and dance. Or trance. Or something.
In the conclusion of the first segment of Coffee and Riffs, we take a look at the Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano through the Walrus Audio Jupiter, Strymon Timeline and the EHX Bass MicroSynth. Coffee was meh. Sounds were better.
Later on the aforementioned early Saturday morning, we try out some more run of the mill coffee, don't touch the gourmet donuts and mess with the Walrus Audio Voyager Overdrive running into the Walrus Audio Jupiter Fuzz through a possibly once stolen and pawn shopped 70's Les Paul Custom and some Fender amp. The results are worth a minute and 32 seconds of your time. Coffee and Riffs, Part Two. Cheers.
Early on a Saturday morning, we try out some run of the mill coffee, a slim selection of gourmet donuts and the combination of the Mr. Black Tunnelworm Flanger and the Walrus Audio Jupiter Fuzz through a beat up Strat and some Fender amp. The results are exciting. Coffee and Riffs, Part One. Cheers.
all content © Coffee & Riffs unless noted otherwise.


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SADEWA rainfall and environmental aspects during the flash flood incident in Cicurug Sukabumi on September 21, 2020
23 Sep 2020 • Read : 642 x ,
Generally, the distribution of rain in Java for several months is influenced by the east wind that blows with varying speed between moderate to strong. When the wind with moderate speed crosses Java Island and succeeds in creating convergence on the mainland of Java, it will generate convection and cloud / rain formation, but if the wind blows very hard the mainland of Java Island becomes clear without clouds or cloudy with light rain. In this condition, the water vapor content in Java island will decrease because it is carried to the north (Karimata Strait), while the surface temperature often shows no deviation. Sometimes clouds / rain grows in the highlands of the eastern part of Java Island (Batu / Lumajang / Bondowoso / Banyuwangi) when the east wind weakens a little and there is enough time to form clouds / rain in the area. Cloud / rain in the western part of Java Island is sometimes related to the meso scale cloud / rain system in the Indian Ocean which develops extending itself to the mainland of the western part of Java Island or clouds / rain occurs in the highlands as a result of air lifting due to topography.
Figure 1 Rainfall in Sukabumi and its intensity on September 20, 2020
The intensity of rainfall that was blamed for the flash flood in Cicurug Sukabumi on September 21 at around 16:30 WIB, we traced it using the simulation results of the WRF model integrated in SADEWA-PSTA. On September 20, 2020, daytime rain started at 12:00 WIB in eastern Sukabumi, then the rain extended to the west at 13:00 WIB including in the Curug Kembar area. Rain over Sukabumi lasted until 18:00 WIB, as observed in the simulation results, high rain intensity was observed over northwest Sukabumi while the other Sukabumi areas rained with light to moderate intensity (Figure 1).
On September 21, 2020, rain in Sukabumi Regency began to fall at 13:00 WIB with light to moderate intensity, to be precise in eastern Sukabumi Regency, at 14:00 WIB the rain in the western part of Sukabumi Regency began to appear with light intensity. Clouds and rain in the western part of the northwest, to be precise, of Sukabumi district, develop into thick clouds and bring down heavy rain. This rain is part of a cloud / rain system that extends from Lebak Regency which is monitored until 16:00 WIB (Figure 2).
The floods in Cicurug occurred as a result of overflowing of the Cibuntu, Citarik and Cipeuncit rivers at around 16:30 WIB on September 21. The condition of some of the affected areas is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Part of the area affected by flash floods in Cicurug-Sukabumi
The relation between WRF-SADEWA simulation results and floods in Sukabumi shows that rain occurred in the Sukabumi Regency area from September 20, 2020 with light to moderate intensity until September 21, 2020 at 14:00 WIB. Rain with heavy intensity occurs north of Cicurug from 15:00 WIB to 16:00 WIB, however this heavy rain only ranges from 2 to 11 mm / hour or is not classified as extreme, based on GSMAP satellite data (Figure 4). So the trigger for flash floods is not due to extreme rainfall. Another aspect that needs to be considered is the condition of the surrounding environment (land cover and soil type). The drastic reduction in land cover causes the flow of rainwater on the surface to be high. Certain types of soil are very susceptible to landslides, such as Litosol and Andosol. It is known that the land in the northern part of Sukabumi is the type that is prone to landslides, namely Litosol and Andosol. If these two aspects are fulfilled, even moderate rain can cause flooding. At the time of the flash flood on September 21, atmospheric phenomena such as MJO, El Nio and IOD were in normal condition, meaning that there was no trigger for a surplus of rainfall. If MJO or La Ni is active or IOD is negative, then areas like North Sukabumi should get more attention because the potential for landslides and flash floods is getting higher.
Figure 4 Rainfall intensity for three days in Cicurug-Sukabumi based on GSMAP satellite
Compiled by: Ina Juaeni, Risyanto and the TReAK Team.
Cover image source: Tribunnews.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Free Library > Law/Government/Politics > Law > Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal > January 1, 2009
The Free Library > Social Sciences > Social sciences, general > Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal > January 1, 2009
The Free Library > Date > 2009 > January > 1 > Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal
The Politics of Constructing the International Criminal Court.
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The Politics of Constructing the International Criminal Court, by Michael J. Struett
Reviewed by: Yuan Ji
On January 26, 2009, the International Criminal Court (ICC) commenced the trial of Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia leader whose followers have been accused of gross human rights violations including rape, ethnic massacre, torture, and conscription of child soldiers. This was a noteworthy day in the history of international criminal justice, as the Lubanga trial was the first trial held at the ICC since the Court came into existence almost seven years ago. This year is also significant because the Rome Statute grants the ICC jurisdiction over aggression, a term to be defined no earlier than seven years after the Statute goes into effect, and July 2009 will mark the Statute's seven-year anniversary. In this context, the recent publication of Michael Struett's The Politics of Constructing the International Criminal Court comes as a timely analysis of and tribute to the Rome Statute, whose ratification on July 1, 2002 activated the ICC's existence in international law and global governance.
The most interesting question that the book seeks to answer is this: why were so many nation-states willing to reduce their own sovereignties by granting significant authority to a strong, independent international tribunal? In answering this question, Struett places unique emphasis on the discourse by various non-governmental organization (NGO) advocates during the ratification process. Struett makes a valuable contribution to existing scholarship in the field (1) by explaining the discursive role that NGOs can play in forming international policy consensus between sovereign nations, and by highlighting the results of the NGOs' dialogue. While this focus on NGOs is a unique contribution to existing analyses of the ICC, the broad membership of the NGO community makes it difficult to account in detail the motives, roles, and actions of specific nongovernmental entities that were involved in the ICC negotiations. Understanding the reasons behind individual NGOs' involvements at different phases of the ICC construction is important and informative, since there can be significant disparities in their interests and sources of financial support. Even though Struett may not wish to focus on these reasons, their absence is a potential weakness of Struett's work. Additionally, Struett's narrative pays particular attention to the United States' involvement throughout the negotiation process which, as this review will discuss later, is not an entirely unjustified bias.
The ICC is the first international tribunal vested with permanent authority to try criminal cases against individual perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In that context, the formation of the ICC may mark the end of a history in which individuals responsible for the most heinous crimes of mass violence could act with impunity and without fear of legal consequences. Struett's book offers an insightful analysis of the key features of the ICC, the events leading up to its ratification, and the strategies of pro-ICC organizations that proved effective during negotiations. Struett's central claim is that NGOs played a crucial role in developing the Rome Statute and in securing enough signatures to effect its ratification less than four years after the Statute first opened for signatures. His account outlines how NGOs used rational arguments and common-ground norms effectively to persuade an international audience.
Struett acknowledges the notion of state sovereignty as the key reason why earlier discussions of establishing an international criminal tribunal failed to lead to a permanent court like the ICC. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, NGOs presented arguments advocating the establishment of an international criminal court; although these arguments were considered by the United Nations General Assembly's Sixth Committee in the late 1950s, at the time they were not fruitful. This raises a possible critique of Struett's central thesis: if NGOs did play a pivotal role in the establishment of the ICC in the 1990s, why were they not able to accomplish the same goal four decades earlier? Struett anticipates this question and responds by pointing to the polarized political atmosphere during the Cold War era. As the two ideological camps developed and diverged during this period, the notion of a neutral tribunal adjudicating in complete freedom from the influence of either superpower became less credible. (2) Furthermore, Struett suggests that the prevailing understanding during the 1950s of the mutually exclusive sovereignties of states was incompatible with the intrusion of an independent institution's enforcement of international criminal law. Of course, later efforts to create an international criminal tribunal in the 1990s faced this same problem, but Struett posits that it was much more difficult to make a normative argument favoring a neutral third-party body of adjudication in a world divided into two ideological camps, each of which viewed the other as a constant source of threat and distrust. Although the United States and the Soviet Union cooperated to establish tribunals during the post-World War II period and could have cooperated to establish a permanent court, (3) Struett observes that the two countries limited their cooperation to examining the Axis powers' culpability instead of their own. (4) Because most participants in the dialogue in the 1950s concerning the establishment of an ICC were state representatives or state-appointed members of the International Law Commission, (5) the dialogue was also limited to formal authority figures who did not necessarily have decision-making powers within their respective countries. Vulnerable populations who would later become victims of war crimes, genocides, and crimes against humanity did not have "sufficient voice within civil society to bring their views to bear on the decision-makers in national government." (6) All of these factors contributed to the failure among states to establish an international criminal tribunal in the 1950s.
The post-Cold War years presented the NGO community with an opportunity to garner support for an international tribunal. Pro-ICC NGOs successfully formed a coalition and expanded membership through outreach to other NGOs. As an illustration of the coalition's success, about 1,500 NGOs were present at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, which provided a forum for networking among NGOs committed to the promotion of an ICC. A year later, these NGOs participated in a conference call and established the Coalition for an International Criminal Court. (7) They agreed to coordinate efforts during the upcoming consideration of a draft ICC statute by the United Nations General Assembly's Sixth Committee. The NGO coalition effectively increased its claim to legitimacy by publishing objective opinions detailing reasons to advocate both for and against the formation of an ICC. (8) Additionally, the coalition of NGOs was also willing to consider different blueprints for the court's design. Struett makes the revealing observation that unlike state representatives, whose legitimacy lies in their selection by their respective states, NGOs can only maintain their legitimacy by making arguments that appeal to reason rather than to power. The net result was that instead of allowing representatives from a few states to focus only on elements of the Rome Statute that were of interest to them, the NGOs shaped the discussion into one involving state and non-state representatives interested in a variety of issues.
In Struett's terminology, the NGOs' persuasive legitimacy was just as influential as the states' representational legitimacy, and the negotiations became communicative and rational rather than strategic as a result. Struett illustrates the difference between communicative and strategic arguments during the Rome negotiations by examining the dialogue generated by the United States' contention that the ICC should not exercise jurisdiction over states without their consent. (9) Stating the accepted principle of international treaty law that treaties cannot create new obligations for non-participating parties is an example of a communicatively rational argument. A strategic argument, on the other hand, might reason that U.S. citizens should be exempt from unwanted ICC jurisdiction since the United States plays a unique role in maintaining international peace and security. According to Struett, the United States made both kinds of arguments during the ICC debate. The communicatively rational argument was widely accepted by participants in the debate, but the strategic one was not.
Struett convincingly argues that the foundation of the NGOs' persuasive legitimacy lies in their discursive practice of establishing topoi, or common premises shared by nation-states, and that making arguments based on these mutual standards was instrumental in the early stages of ICC negotiations. The four topoi that emerged from the ICC debate are encapsulated by Struett as follows:
1. The need to end a history of immunity for individual leaders who commit crimes in the name of their states,
2. The importance of providing equal justice for individuals who have committed similar criminal violations of international law, regardless of the time and place of perpetration,
3. The grounding of the ICC in existing international statutes so that it does not create new international law but can claim jurisdiction over the most odious crimes already recognized by existing law, and
4. The existence of procedures that protect the rights of the accused with a presumption of innocence.
With a focus on the first two in particular, Struett analyzes and provides specific examples of NGOs' efforts in establishing these four common premises. Once the topoi gained mainstream acceptance in the international community, they created a common starting point in the dialogue among nation-states so that arguments based on these topoi were given greater consideration in the negotiation process. An illustration of NGOs' efforts to establish topoi can be found in a 1996 Human Rights Watch paper (10) that emphasized the urgent need to end impunity for the most egregious human rights crimes such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Struett claims that the NGO strategy in this paper was to create a sense of urgency by reminding state delegates that contrary to the first topos in the outline above, the "atrocious crimes under consideration were recurring problems in the contemporary world." As this invocation of urgency gained wider acceptance through later negotiations, the need to end impunity for the crimes listed above eventually became the foundation for subsequent negotiations among nation-states. (11) As evidence for this acceptance, Struett observes that policy recommendations made by the 1996 Human Rights Watch paper regarding subject matter jurisdiction, the complementarity regime, and the mechanisms for the ICC to exercise jurisdiction were all incorporated into the final policy choices made in the Rome Statute.
As negotiations progressed, NGOs' continued appeal to topoi played a crucial role in four important issues that Struett thoughtfully explicates in his book: the list and definition of crimes to be included in the ICC's jurisdiction, the complementary structure of jurisdiction between ICC and domestic tribunals within individual nation-states, the trigger mechanism for activating ICC jurisdiction, and the pace of progress in the negotiations. At the Rome Conference, from which the Rome Statute was to emerge, NGOs demonstrated remarkable dexterity in modifying their positions in response to new issues that emerged in the course of discussion and offering counterproposals after quick analyses of the new issues. One of their initiatives sought to identify students and faculty from law schools in the United States and Western Europe who would be willing to serve as legal counsel for less developed nations (12) in order to ensure that their voices would be heard in the ICC negotiations. NGOs took assertive but persuasive stances on the definition of key terms such as "genocide" and, at the same time, kept in mind the compromises necessary to ensure the passage of the Statute. As a result, consensus began to form that the ICC should be granted inherent jurisdiction over three categories of crimes: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In this way, NGOs' efforts had a direct impact on the final wording of the Rome Statute and consequently, on the scope of the ICC's jurisdiction.
In the ratification process of the Rome Statute, the NGOs acted strategically by focusing on getting signatures rather than ratifications from the nation-states. (13) A state's signature, although not binding, expresses its intent to ratify later and to not act contrary to the terms of the treaty in the interim. Because ratifications from 60 states were required to enact the ICC, the NGOs focused on obtaining signatures first, which were much easier to grant within the political structures of individual nationstates. As more signatures were collected, the general pattern established was then used to convince nation-states that the ICC was likely to be ratified and that its jurisdiction would not be geographically limited to the few states that chose to ratify early on in the process. (14)
Struett also proposes that by actively advocating complementary jurisdiction as a mechanism to curtail the Court's power, the NGO community played a crucial role in persuading states to agree to constraints upon their sovereignty in support of an international court such as the ICC. The Rome Statute provides that any case already subject to a genuine investigation and prosecution in a national court cannot be heard by the ICC, with the caveat that ICC can make the final determination of the prosecution's genuineness. States' willingness to reduce their own sovereignty in deference to the ICC is not only grounded in the complementary nature of its jurisdiction but also in its permanence. Because ad hoc tribunals relied on external military backing to control regions crucial to gathering witness testimony and evidentiary documentation, they had to be established quickly before political support for providing the necessary troops waned. (15) Local cooperation was often unavailable or half-hearted, especially if the accused still enjoyed political or military power in the country. Struett suggests that as a permanent court with wide support from the global community and therefore less need for support from particular power(s), the ICC effectively avoids problems that ad hoc war crime tribunals had encountered in the past and therefore is more persuasive in soliciting nation-states' willingness to reduce their own sovereignties to a legitimate international court.
One bias in Struett's perspective is his particular emphasis on the United States' attitudes and incentives throughout the negotiation and ratification process of the ICC. In the early 1990s, for example, Struett suggests that because the U.S. government was involved in military conflicts with states when it would have likely preferred to prosecute individual leaders, (16) the idea of a permanent international criminal tribunal was an appealing one. However, Struett offers justification for his focus on the United States' political atmosphere by explaining that if the U.S. had shown outright opposition in the beginning stages of the negotiations, the other states would have been much less inclined to pursue the establishment of an international criminal court. In addition, Struett observes that the United States had historically been an advocate of the rule of law in the international community. Its concern that its sovereignty might be compromised was shared by other states, and any hesitation that the United States had shown in endorsing the ICC probably would have been a fair barometer of the general sentiments shared by other states involved in the negotiations. In this sense, Struett's emphasis on the United States is justified and gives a pre-ICC context to the Bush administration's withdrawal of the United States' signature in May 2002. This decision not only runs counter to the United States' tradition of leadership in international justice but, more alarmingly, undermines the ICC's efficacy in providing equal justice by decreasing the tribunal's legitimacy in the eyes of the other countries in the world.
By presenting the motives and arguments advanced by the U.S. and other major state players throughout the negotiations, and by examining NGOs' discursive interactions with them in the process, The Politics of Constructing the International Criminal Court offers an insightful analysis of the process of compromise leading up to the birth of the ICC and NGOs' persuasive role in this process. The success of these NGOs is especially impressive given the significant disagreement during negotiations on a wide array of issues. One of the most controversial questions was whether the Statute should grant the ICC jurisdiction over the crime of aggression; despite the best efforts of NGOs, ultimately the decision of this issue was postponed to prevent negotiations from stalling. Article Five of the Rome Statute grants the ICC jurisdiction over aggression, but the term "aggression" still awaits a definition via the amendment process and must be accepted by seven-eighths of ICC members no earlier than seven years after the launch of the Statute. With the seven-year anniversary of the establishment of the Rome Statute fast approaching, it will be interesting to watch what kind of role the NGOs will play in the negotiations concerning aggression and, consequently, in the potential expansion of the ICC's jurisdiction.
(1.) Although previous scholars have not shared Struett's focus on the NGOs' role during the Rome negotiations, existing scholarship discusses various nation-states' concerns about potential compromises of their own sovereignties and the crucial role that the ICC's complementary jurisdiction plays in their willingness to ratify the Rome Statute. See, e.g., COMPLEMENTARY VIEWS ON COMPLEMENTARITY : PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ROUNDTABLE ON THE COMPLEMENTARY NATURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT, AMSTERDAM 25/26 JUNE 2004 (Jann K. Kleffner & Gerben Kor eds., 2006); STATES' RESPONSES TO ISSUES ARISING FROM THE ICC STATUTE: CONSTITUTIONAL, SOVEREIGNTY, JUDICIAL COOPERATION AND CRIMINAL LAW (Roy S. Lee, ed., 2005).
(2.) MICHAEL J. STRUETF, THE POLITICS OF CONSTRUCTING THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: NGOS, DISCOURSE, AND AGENCY 55 (2008).
(3.) The United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a charter for the Nuremberg court on August 8, 1945, and later cooperated to operate the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946.
(4.) STRUETF, supra note 2, at 53.
(5.) The International Law Commission was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 to promote the development and codification of international law. Instead of serving as representatives with decision-making powers within their respective states, "It]he members of the ILC are elected in their individual capacities to provide their own unique expert judgments on the evolution of international law. However, they are nominated by governments, and their own views on international law historically have reflected the views of their government." STRUETY, supra note 2, at 56-57.
(6.) Id. at 65.
(7.) The use of conference call technology is important, since Struett identifies technical complexity as another obstacle to coordinating dissenting voices and to reaching compromises during the 1950s discussions of forming a permanent international tribunal.
(8.) MICHAEL J. STRUETT, THE POLITICS OF CONSTRUCTING THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: NGOs, DISCOURSE, AND AGENCY 79 (2008).
(9.) Id. at 125.
(10.) HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, COMMENTARY FOR THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (1996).
(11.) STRUETT, supra note 7, at 89.
(12.) These countries included Sierra Leone and Bosnia, which had recently witnessed crimes covered under the ICC's jurisdiction.
(13.) STRUETT, supra note 7, at 134-35.
(14.) Under the terms of the Rome Statute, such geographical limitations no longer apply once the Statute is activated by reaching a minimum of 60 state ratifications. After activation, the Statute extends jurisdiction to all states that have signed onto the treaty.
(15.) STRUETF, supra note 7, at 161.
(16.) Examples of such individuals include Libya's Quaddafi, Panama's Noriega, and Iraq's Hussein.
COPYRIGHT 2009 Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal
Ji, Yuan
Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal
From aiding pirates to aiding human rights abusers: translating the eighteenth-century paradigm of the law of nations for the Alien Tort Statute.
Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law.


Switched from gmail with no issues.. App facilitates changeover. Well done.
Several times now, the Touch ID has turned off automatically. I haven't been turning it off and yet, I don't have to use my fingerprint to unlock it.
I do not want contacts added automatically. There is no setting to turn this off.
I have had a yahoo account for many years with the same screen name and I simply love this program. It's real easy to learn and there's nothing confusing about it. Yahoo is great at protecting my security and asks all the right questions. If I got logged out, they made it simple to help me regain my password. I give you.. Yahoo!, 5 stars. Keep up the good work!!!
I have been using this app for a long time with no known issues; however, I recently discovered a huge privacy issue. When you click on the thumbnail of a person that you sent/received an email from, you see their email/phone/mail statistic information. Below that is a section called "frequently emailed." In this section, you can see the names and thumbnails for the people they have recently/frequently emailed. This IS NOT connected to my previously received emails because these are not names I know. They are the names and information of the people they corresponded with. This also includes the email/phone/stats and frequently emailed list for these people as well. This is NOT OK! I went onto my computer and deleted contacts through compose/delete, but they are still showing up on my IOS app. How do you explain this?!? Also, how to you fix it so our privacy, as well as the privacy of those we communicate with, are protected?


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Use 3 integrated quiz activities to track proficiency in over 20,000 topics. Each correct answer produces progress in multiple topics because all of the questions are cross-referenced. This is the most efficient assessment tool you'll ever find.
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Last night was this Winter's Solstice, the longest night of the year. A very dark night after what was, to me, a very dark year. I am hoping that as the days get longer some of the darkness in our country and in the world lifts.
The reeking spirit of hatred, against blacks, immigrants, Muslims, and women are something that I have rarely seen in my adult life, at least at the intensity in the air today. The waves of moral progress I have seen build over my lifetime seem to have come crashing to a halt, and the real possibility of retrenchment of civil rights issues seems more likely today.
It is easy to point to our President and cast blame, but smarter people than me have pointed out that Trump is a symptom, not a cause. The intellectual and spiritual rot on America's political right has festered for decades. It was only a matter of time before the decay became a grotesque infection, if not under Trump's leadership, then someone else would have picked up the torch.
I have some hope that after this long night, 2018 will bring some needed change in my country. But it is a slim hope. Racism, xenophobia, homophobia – they are all part of the same learned fear of the other that has divided humanity from ancient times to the present.
This entry was posted in Personal and tagged musings, solstice, thoughts. Bookmark the permalink.


He is well aware that better-known Democratic politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. are attracting more news coverage even though they have not yet officially declared, and he knows that even though he is the only major candidate running right now, he is running from behind.
That night, he would cheerfully recall the Boehner encounter in a speech at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding.
And two days later, he would hit the last of Iowa's 99 counties, completing a classic campaign feat before any better-known opponent started. He isn't running for re-election to the House, the better to go "all in" on running for president.
A self-described "pragmatic idealist," Mr. Delaney was a businessman before he was elected to the House in 2012: the founder of two financial companies and, at one point, the youngest chief executive on the New York Stock Exchange. Those companies made him one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with an estimated net worth of more than $90 million — allowing him now to finance most of his campaign while, by his own acknowledgment, not yet focusing on fund-raising. At the end of the last quarter, he had raised about $1 million and contributed $2.5 million of his own money.
Mr. Delaney's strategy is classic small-town retail politics. Over five days in August — his 14th trip to Iowa — he covered more than 700 miles and held more than two dozen events, many of them featuring fewer than 20 people in cities with populations of barely more than 1,000.
At a cafe in Greenfield (population 1,800), he met with the Adair County Optimist Club. In Panora (population 1,100), he campaigned for a House candidate, Cindy Axne, and the Democratic nominee for Iowa's secretary of agriculture, Tim Gannon.
In Grundy Center (population 2,700), he canvassed with Dennis Evans, a candidate for the Iowa House. In Atlantic (population 6,700), he visited the farm of another Iowa House candidate, Denise O'Brien, and asked her about agriculture policy.
Less than five hours later, he added one of Ms. O'Brien's policy suggestions — making the national farm bill last longer than five years — to his stump speech.
At the Greenfield event in particular, Mr. Delaney received a warm welcome. Afterward, Marcia Fulton, 77, of Creston, declared herself "extremely impressed." But she also said she was "anxious to see who else comes into" the race.
The caucuses, after all, were still more than 500 days away.


Win the battle with vertigo through specialized testing.
For more than a decade, Tamera Dillen's teaching career was on the rise. She had successfully climbed the educational ladder, eventually making the leap from paraprofessional to full-time high school teacher. Then, one night last fall, everything in her world began to fall down around her.
Audiologist Dr. Lisa Krebs (right) conducts a VNG test.
At least, that's how it seemed.
The problem persisted through what proved to be a mostly sleepless night and into the next morning. That's when a frightened and bewildered Tamera called her daughter and asked her to take her to the emergency room, where she was eventually admitted for what proved to be a two-day hospital stay.
During Tamera's hospital stay, doctors first performed an MRI and a CT scan. That eliminated a brain tumor or some kind of brain trauma as the cause of her dizziness and nausea. Doctors then ran a series of tests and discovered the problem was actually the result of vestibular nerve damage and that she was suffering from vertigo.
As a result of their findings, the doctors at the hospital referred Tamera to the vertigo specialists at Atlantic Ear, Nose and Throat. At Atlantic ENT, the doctors take a team approach that starts with the patient seeing a physician's assistant who has been trained specifically in treating patients with vertigo.
"After that, one of our audiologists performs a vestibular nystagmogram, or VNG," explains Devang Shah, MD. "That is a test that records the motion of the eye as different stimuli are applied to the balance organ.
"We try to put the patient in different head positions to see how the eyes react, and we put warm and cold air in the ear canal, which also stimulates the balance organ and allows us to measure the response to that.
The VNG given to Tamera showed that she was suffering from unilateral vestibular hypofunction, a condition in which the balance system in the inner ear, the peripheral vestibular system, is not working properly. There is a vestibular system in both ears, so unilateral means only one system is impaired, while the other is working normally.
In Tamera's case, Dr. Shah and his team determined that it was indeed the right balance organ that was damaged and causing the vertigo. Tamera's vertigo was severe, but in patients suffering from unilateral vestibular hypofunction, the vertigo can be mild and can actually disappear on its own after a few days or weeks.
That was not the case with Tamera. Two weeks after leaving the hospital she was still experiencing many of the symptoms associated with unilateral vestibular hypofunction. She was still suffering from vertigo, poor balance and blurred vision and was having trouble walking either outside or in darkened rooms.
Tamera was clearly suffering from an acute case of unilateral vestibular hypofunction, so the next step the doctors at Atlantic ENT took was to refer her to a physical therapist who specializes in training patients to compensate for the effects caused by the damage done to the balance organ.
Tamera only missed a week of work as a result of her vertigo, but for a month, she had to catch a ride to work from another teacher who lived nearby because she was prohibited from driving. Walking remained an issue for a while as well. It wasn't until after a couple of weeks of balance retraining that Tamera was able to walk normally again.
During her therapy sessions, Tamera was asked to do a variety of exercises that are designed to retrain the body to balance itself. Among them are a series of eye exercises and simple walking exercises that are eventually combined in a way that allows the patient to regain their balance and live normally again.
Now several months removed from her balance retraining, Tamera says she is just about back to being her old self. She still has the occasional dizzy spell, she reports, but they pass quickly. She also struggles at times to walk in the dark or while looking off into the distance when outside. Other than that, she says, she's fine.