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Friday July 13, 2012
Pride, Greed, Sloth, and general incompetence
This week in local cultural malice, incompetence, and shoddiness, sung to the tune of the seven deadly sins. I've only got four this week, so I guess we're not doing so bad
I am sure that the Florida Cultural Alliance does important work, and deserves all the support we can muster for them. But when I saw the email they sent out yesterday, I just had to share it as an example of the worst kind of corporospeak, and the worst in online interaction design. Try — just try — to have any sense of what the purpose of the email is and what they want you to do after reading it just once. Not possible. I've ready if about a half donzen times and I get it now, and it's stark. The FCA has apparently submitted SUGGESTIONS to a Florida State government entity. They want you to familiarize yourself with the state program they're addressing, read their dense PDF suggestions, write a letter indicating your support for their suggestions and fax (Yes. Fax. In 2012.) it to the number provided TODAY BY 5 PM. Doesn't say who you're faxing it to, and doesn't say why it has to be today. But hey — this was dated 1:25 pm, so they're giving you more than three hours. Get on it.
Oh! And as an afterthought, yeah, you can submit your suggestions for the Five-Year Strategic Plan. Oh wait no, that's for the Six-Pillar Framework. You do it by clicking into a PDF (this one created by the State) that takes your comments and has a "email this form" button which to me looked suspiciously like just a text box with no functionality.
It's not in my nature to wipe lipstick off a pig, but the Jewish Museum of Florida couldn't hack it anymore and signed it's buildings and collection to FIU. And that's fine. The Wolfsonian certainly seems to be thriving under FIU's wing. But tacking the initials of the university to the organization's name, which henceforth will be "Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU", is galling. It makes perfect sense from the institutional ego perspective, but would have been overruled by typographic aesthetics and all-around sanity at a classier organization.
While Googling around for the previous article, I perchanced to click on a link to a Sun Sentinel article. You will probably not get it, but here's what I saw:
"Hey, you found a link to one of our articles in a search engine! Can we interest you in a home-delivery subscription to our newspaper?" Look at your statistics Sun Sentinel — this is not helping your subscription rates. And I guarantee you that it's hurting your readership and credibility. And while we're on it: I understand why your pages need to be choked with ads, but spam popover links? Really?
Next February, the Arsht Center is hosting a concert tribute to Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. It's part of a series of six concerts, half of which are these condescending "tributes" to Jazz Names You Recognize, which in my opinion are demeaning to the performer, the legendary figure, and the audience. But something (and I'm assuming it's actually not the Arsht Center's people) has sunk to a particularly odious level with this, which I received in yesterday's email:
Thelonious Monk is died in 1982 after a heartbreaking final few years. He is a hero to musicians and creative people everywhere. And while this concert does include his son, using the man's name and image like this is repugnant. There is a special place in hell for the people that did this, where they can hang out with the folks behind the John Lennon shirts
Thursday March 27, 2008
Cleveland Orchestra does Beethoven's 5th
The Cleveland Orchestra once again rolled into town this week for their all-too-brief Miami season. They performed a concert last night in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, and perform a second program this Friday and Saturday. Last night's program, a nod to Leonard Bernstein's historic performances in Israel in 1948, included Beethoven's 5th Symphony, a Mozart Piano Concerto, and Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes.
The show opened with readings of the US and Israeli national anthems, which musically work very well together, the latter's sombre slow build a nice counterpoint to the Banner's usual pomposity. This was followed by a rather lengthy curtain talk by the executive director of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation (at one point, he launched into a list of technologies invented in Israel!).
Originally composed for clarinet, string quartet, and piano, Prokofiev transcribed Overture on Hebrew Themes for orchestra himself, and it does as advertised, running medley-like through Klezmer and other recognizable ideas, toe-tapping one moment, morose and swooping the next.
So, how do you get a piano to the front of the stage in the middle of an orchestra performance? Like this, my friends — you break down as many of the band risers as you need to wheel that puppy out. I'm not sure they needed to bother, actually. Mozart always sounds like Mozart, but the Piano Concerto No. 21 is almost a self-parody, the most Mozarty construct ever, a summation of every fun idea out precocious Austrian buddy ever had. Well played by the 31-year old Shai Wosner, who's nervous tics complemented the music pretty well. He fidgeted with the height-adjust on his piano stool, made motions as though wiping dust off the keyboard and shaking it onto the floor, and shook his head quickly during the more stirring piano-less passages. A couple of times I caught him sort of shaking his fist at the keyboard before launching into one of his slow phrases. He seemed to take less relish in delivering these than the 32nd note runs and trills, which he handled with commanding smoothness. Don't let me mislead you, though — Mozart is always a delight to hear, and this was a big, delicious slice of Mozart (who, first and foremost a keyboardist himself, is arguably better represented by this concerto than by, say, one of his symphonies or operas).
But it was all preamble, because after intermission came LvB's Symphony No. 5, one of the most gripping pieces in western music. It's on pieces like this, that you've heard 100 times before, that you truly begin to appreciate the unparalleled mastery of the Cleveland Orchestra and the rich sound of the Arscht's concert hall. Sounds and details I'd never noticed before snuck out at every turn, and the whole thing was alive in a way which few things are. Opening with the heavy, stark, almost modernist first movement, the symphony has light moments, but they are few. Mostly it's dramatic and full-throttle, and fainting and heart attacks do not seem like inappropriate responses. A friend once explained to me that while the string quartet is his favorite sound in terms of timbre and nuance, the appeal of an orchestra is its sheer visceral power, and that power was in full force last night.
Well, you missed it. No worries — you can catch the Cleveland Orchestra this weekend, in a program built around a Tchaikovsky violin concerto. Tickets available for Friday and Saturday, tho only Saturday has some of the cheaper seats left.
Wednesday March 26, 2008
Hey everybody, the Cleveland Orchestra is performing Beethoven's Fifth, tonight only.
Wednesday January 30, 2008
I'm sure glad they just got done putting up these custom-made signs. I fully expect that Adrienne will have the tact to insist on less obnoxious signage.
Monday January 14, 2008
Carnival Center renamed the Arsht Center
On Friday, the performing arts center previously known as Carnival dropped the bomb: it had received a $30 million donation from one Adrienne Arsht, and would now be forever after known as the Arsht Center. Well, actually, the official name is the "Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County." Observations, bullet-point style:
- I think the name is great. The 11-word "real" name is so grotesque that it will never again be uttered, and "Arsht Center" has a nice snappy ring to it, so don't even go there. (Oops, they went there.)
- There's the logo, cleaned up as best as I could manage from the photo accompanying the Herald story. It seems to boldly proclaim that the avant-garde implications the first season at the center have been thoroughly and permanently quashed. I actually doubt this is true, and so I hope this is just an ad-hoc logo and they're working on something a little less generic.
- What's up with a .com or a .org? If they've secured these domains, a nice "website coming" splash would have been helpful, and if not, I'd think that the negotiations would be a lot more, err.. difficult, now: "Hey, we just got $30 million, and we need to buy your domain."
- It's very difficult to sound humble on an occasion like this, and Adrienne Arsht didn't bother trying. Her speech began: "As I look around, it's clear that I stand here on the shoulders of giants. And what I hope I have accomplished in making this gift is that my shoulders become those which you stand on to take this farther." Here's a nice profile on her.
- $30 million is serious money. Of that, Carnival is taking back $10 million of its original donation (That's very big of you guys. Carnival still sucks.), and $14 million goes to Miami-Dade county government to repay a loan (so why are they added to the name? And what's with the huffiness?). But what it does show is that there is serious philanthropic money in Miami, boding well, one would think, for the MAM building.
Wednesday November 7, 2007
The new CEO of the Carnival Center, Lawrence Wilker, will also act as Artistic Director. This is a good thing — it's important for the chief of the organization to be intimate with the actual programming. By the way, Target Globebeat, which brought in the Center's opening last year, will take the form this year of monthly free outdoor performances by local groups on the second Saturday of every month.
Monday October 29, 2007
Michael Hardy, CEO of the Carnival Center, has been fired and replaced with Lawrence J.Wilker.
Monday October 1, 2007
Much of the fault for the less-than-ideal experience of going to the Carnival Center falls on the architect, Caesar Pelli. I lamented the selection of Pelli's firm for the Center over two years ago, and it's nice to see the dots connected this way.
Thursday September 13, 2007
"To reduce costs, the [Carnival Center] plans to present 60% fewer performances itself next year and offer fewer self-sponsored commercially popular shows such as comedies and pop music artists, leaving open dates for outside presenters — but finding room for those shows on the calendar will be tricky."
Wednesday August 29, 2007
Cesar Pelli's firm sued
The architecture firm of Cesar Pelli, which designed the Carnival Center, is being sued in California for cost overruns on a performing arts center project there. File under: things that make you go "hmm…" Among the complaints are seats with obstructed sight lines and other things that are clearly design flaws and incompetence (if true), which brings me back to my bemoaning, back in 2005, the selection of Pelli over Rem Koolhaas.
A response from Pelli's firm:
Because buildings last for a very long time, we have always designed our projects with a long-term perspective. As with the Carnival Center, we designed the Orange County Performing Arts Center for the enjoyment of the children of the community and the generations to come. These issues will sort themselves out over time.
Which to me sounds like they wanted to say: "It's just money. You expect us to worry about money when we're building our monuments to the future? How short-sighted and small-minded you non-creative scum can be!"
Wednesday July 18, 2007
Here's a horse/cart order issue for you: the Carnival Center was told it needs higher-profile programming to attract more private donations. Makes sense, but big names cost big bucks, and you really can't put expected increases in donations in your budget. Perhaps timely, more money for the center from the county.
Monday June 11, 2007
"Ingots were buried under the Miami Performing Arts Center by workers installing the subterranean infrastructure. The performance was photographed. The ingots remain."
Wednesday June 6, 2007
Trouble at the Concert Association of Florida
Judy Drucker started the Concert Association of Florida, and has been its leader for the last forty years. Until last week, that is, when she was forced out by the board of the organization.
Now, Drucker is a phenomenon. In 2003, the SunPost said, "Drucker virtually created the vibrant performing arts cultural scene in South Florida over which she reigns as supreme and indispensable diva." But the Concert Association has a deficit that from the sound of the article is approaching $3 million. Drucker is described as "feisty," which many who have worked with her translate to mean "difficult," "obstinate," and — well, you get the picture. She'll be replaced by Al Milano, who's been with the CA less then a year, but she'll stay on as an adviser, so I don't think this will really tarnish her reputation.
The bigger question is what this portends for Miami's future. There are two ways to read the events. It's possible that Drucker simply made some mistakes, and with someone else keeping an eye on the books everything will level itself back out. A more ominous possibility is that if Drucker couldn't make it work, maybe nobody can. Remember that a chief justification for building the Carnival Center was six major performing arts organizations that needed a home. Well, the Florida Philharmonic folded before the center was even completed, and now we're down to four. The Herald article lists the increased "rental costs and other service fees" at the Carnival Center as one of the main reasons for the Concert Association's troubles. Remember the tense negotiations early last year between these organizations and the center? What if the center just pushed too hard, and the fees are such that, especially after a little miscounting, they end up sinking the Concert Association?
It's just possible that Drucker couldn't make it work because nobody can make it work. And if the CA folds, it's just going to make life that much worse for the Carnival Center. Heck, it'll make life worse for everybody. I talked this over with Tiffany Hill, who is on the board of directors of the Florida Dance Association and Artistic Director of the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood (yes: where I work), who helped me think this through. She summed it up this way: "It's all bad for the cultural scene of South Florida."
Thursday May 31, 2007
Hmm, it looks like the Carnival Center will in fact be closed for part of the summer, for August and part of September, probably in part as a money-saving measure.
Wednesday May 23, 2007
Break me a give — everybody's up in arms about (granted, another) $4 million budget shortfall at the Carnival Center, but a $503 million budget overrun at the airport barely gets noticed.
Tuesday April 17, 2007
More criticism of Carnival Center, from Michael Putney and Genious of Despair.
Wednesday April 11, 2007
Michael Hardy's Herald essay about the Carnival Center
Michael Hardy's Herald essay about the Carnival Center. I suspected that not pointing out he was the center's director was a part of the Herald's head-up-ass approach to their website, and that he was so identified in the print edition, as Henry confirms. The essay goes point by point through some of the complaints the Center has received, most of them just routine first-year pains.
I agree that it's a little disingenuous of Hardy to imply that the tax money that has gone into the center is "not taxpayer money," and he's been taken to task. But the bed-tax aspect is worth remembering, and looking at this from the perspective of decades, it's very possible that the center will pay for itself with the economic revitalization it has very obviously begun to bring (contrast that with the three or four stadiums we've built so far with the bed tax).
But I think part of the reason there is so much
hostility is that several completely different things are being conflated when we talk about the "Carnival Center." Primarily, there is the lingering pain of a construction project run several hundred million dollars over budget at the taxpayers' (sorry) expense. But of course the organization of which Michael Hardy is director had nothing to do with that. There is the building, and there is the organization that currently manages the building. There are plenty to be blamed for the botched construction project — the county government, the architect, the general contractor, etc., but obviously the arts administrators running the facility didn't have anything to do with that. (And let's remember that a not insignificant portion of the expanding construction costs was due to increases in building materials that effected construction worldwide.)
Same goes for the current parking fiasco, which should have been addressed at the earliest stages of planning by the visionaries (I almost used that word in quotes, but let's do give them some credit) who were pushing for this project for decades.
Another source of frustration is traffic around the center. Let me tell you that the Heat fans going to the American Airlines Arena certainly do share some of that frustration. From what I've seen walking around the area on a couple of super-busy nights, the police do a piss-poor job of managing the traffic, but it's worth remembering that Biscayne Boulevard is undergoing major roadwork in that area.
What I think is that the Center's programming is spot-on. It's diverse, with plenty of broad appealing programs (musicals and Broadway were always part of the plan) as well as lots of high-art and esoteric things. The problems are on the marketing/outreach side, and while Hardy is correct that word-of-mouth and time are the two most important factors in increasing attendance, there are some obvious things the Center should be looking at (fix the !@#$% website), and some not-so-obvious solutions it should be looking for. Maybe re-thing the print-ad blitz and bring in some fresh ideas for marketing. The center is doing lots of public outreach, but I suspect that's the area that needs to be beefed up. Maybe some of that radical transparency would help (Hardy's essay is a good first step).
I like the fact that the Herald can run a 'things are pretty bad' article alongside the essay. But I think of it this way — the Carnival's start has been messy, and if anything there still isn't enough blame falling on the people who screwed things up. But I think a rocky start is part of the beginning of anything really great. We could have built a smaller, cheaper, less ambitious performing arts center (almost everyone agrees that something along these lines needed to be built), but is that really what Miami deserved?
Tuesday April 10, 2007
Miami-Dade commissioners are cooking up a plan for Carnival Center parking. I don't understand why it's this difficult to figure out parking for a building that's essentially surrounded on all four sides by parking lots ready to be built up into garages. Also, examination of the report (.pdf) reveals what a very paper-based and old-school administrative system is our county government.
Monday March 12, 2007
Robert goes to Carnival Center for Swan Lake and has some interesting analysis of ticket prices and comparative value. He concludes that even the worst seats in the house are pretty good, and the prices are reasonable. See my Carnival Center review for more, including a photo from the opera house's worst seat (about 2/3 of the way down the page). The legroom issue is interesting, since of course each additional inch of legroom means you sit further away depending on how many rows are in front of you.
Wednesday March 7, 2007
Subtropics: Fluxus Day, FIU New Music Ensemble, and Jan Williams
Fluxus Eve was lots of fun. Clockwise from top right: George Brecht, Motor Vehicle Sundown Event (for John Cage), Larry Miller, Remote Music (for Keyboard), fire piece (not sure of title), and Alison Knowles, Onion Skin Song. Most of these pieces are around 50 years old, and Knowles and Miller were on hand to perform their compositions and add some character (not to mention gravitas) to the performance — both were great. Note that they have these corridors that run through the Carnival Center that are wide enough to drive a car through — and they did!! Also, the highlight of the evening was when Knowles took off one of her shoes, explained where she got it and why she liked it, and invited audience members to share about their shoes. Tigertail's Mary Luft: "These are Birkenstocks. I've never liked Birkenstocks, and I only bought these because they match my silver toenail polish." Yeah!
I saw the FIU New Music Ensemble a couple of years ago performing the music of James Tenney and Christian Wolff at the Wolfsonian, and remembered being extremely impressed, so I had misplaced expectations of greatness for their Subtropics performance. Maybe the Earle Brown pieces were intended to sound hesitant, creaky, and atonal, but even if so I'm convinced that the performers enhanced those qualities with their natural tendencies (re. which: "Sit up!"). Yes, they're students. But I'm not going easy on them — someone obviously thought it was a good idea to include them in the festival, and people paid the same money to see them.
Their musical director apologized because they couldn't perform the first movement of Lou Harrison's Varied Trio (because of a "missing microphone" — wtf??), but didn't see fit to mention anything about a missing clarinet player that is listed for the two of the pieces which thus became quartets instead of quintets. Pianist Marta Milosevic showed the most promise out of the group, but her solo performance, of a propulsive John Cage prepared piano piece, was marred by sloppy page turning — she actually had to pause because fool turned two pages at once.
Jan Williams performing Pickup Sticks by Gustavo Matamoros (1998). The snare drum is microphoned and connected to a Powerbook, triggering digital sound/noise sequences whenever the player makes a mistake and disturbs the snare head. So yes, the point is to make as little sound as possible, and Williams looked genuinely frustrated whenever he messed up (but he was probably pretending). Another composition consisted of whole notes played on a muted gong for what I seriously estimate was 45 minutes and nothing else. This was more interesting then it sounds, but only slightly. I didn't realize it was a La Monte Young young piece, and I think if I had I'd have heard it differently.
Friday March 2, 2007
Merce Cunningham' s Ocean
Thanks to the good people at Carnival Center, I finally got my taste of Merce in Miami. To wit: the 90 minute 1994 piece Ocean.
Intended to be performed in the round, with the dancers on a circular stage surrounded by the audience, and the audience surrounded by the orchestra, the piece was a brave, if imperfect, fit for the Knight Concert hall (my second favorite room in the city, second only to my living room, and it would even upstage that if they got rid of the bizarre fabric hanging in the middle behind the stage — teal and with a pattern that doesn't go with anything else in the building — in fact, it sort of looks like a "it was on clearance at the fabric store" type of situation — what gives?).
Oh shit sorry for the digression. Anyway Merce Cunningham sort of invented Modern (with a capital "M") Dance in the 1940/50s, and his work comes across as stark and formal to this day. This is hardcore, rigorous choreography, with no allusion to an external story, or even to regular human interaction.
Basically, Cunningham is to dance what the abstract expressionists were to painting — a reduction to the essence of the art, with references to outside phenomena (i.e. human story-lines) minimized. This is pure movement, and it's not for everyone.
The piece builds slowly over exactly 90 minutes, the musicians and dancers synchronized by large digital timers clearly visible to the audience. At 1:29:59 the last of the dancers disappears from the stage and that baby is over. That is preceded by a gradual and methodical development (Supposedly the piece is divided into 19 sections, though I read it as maybe 7.) — we begin with very stiff movements, and angular relationships of bodies, which gradually become more organic and energetic. The piece builds to a sort of crescendo (pictured) of movement and color, much more satisfying then what the beginning sections promise. There are dazzling moves, unexpected relationships, and novel ideas at every turn.
What I'm getting at is that it was spectacular. Cunningham (who attended the performance) was 75 when he put Ocean together, and he'd mastered the art of working the crowd — the piece starts out difficult, and gives off hints of beauty grudgingly at first, then introduces new ideas and variations, never allowing the attentive viewer a moment of boredom.
Or does it? I noticed a beautiful review by Jane Simpson of a true in-the-round performance of the piece, and she had some issues with it (go read, she's great). But the Carnival Center performance of the piece was I guess the polar opposite to what Simpson saw — the musicians sat on the upper level of balconies, far from most of the audience, and the round mat on the stage hardly masked the fact that most of the audience were, in fact, seeing the performance from roughly a single perspective.
Reservations aside, this is a masterwork by the founding father of modern dance. It's the culmination of Merce in Miami, which is exactly the sort of thing that Carnival Center should be doing — the sort of thing that makes all the heartache surrounding its construction worth it. It's being performed again Friday and again Saturday, and anyone who loves dance, or likes to challenge their aesthetics, should get down there.
Thursday February 22, 2007
Another day, another article about the rising costs of the Carnival Center. This time it's an adjustment to the actual construction costs, up $12.5 million to a total of $472.97 million.
Tuesday February 13, 2007
Michael Putney did the recitation for Copland's Lincoln Portrait during the Miami Symphony Orchestra's performance at Carnival Center on Sunday. In the Herald, Alan Becker was not too impressed.
Wednesday February 7, 2007
The bad news: the Carnival Center miscounted attendances at three Concert Association shows. The good news: this means the Concert Association actually owes Carnival money. But my favorite quote from the article, from CC director Michael Hardy, concerns the previous firing of two previous box office managers, and gives some great euphemism: "we were experiencing some customer-service issues in the box office and some reporting issues that were software-related, and we decided to make a change to get after that and correct that."
Friday January 26, 2007
Low ticket sales and high operating costs caused an unanticipated $610,000 loss for the first three months at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. Not good, but attendence went from 26% in October to 38% in November to 52% in December.
Wednesday January 24, 2007
Cleveland Orchestra at Carnival Center
photo: Roger Mastroianni
For all intents and purposes, this past weekend was the night everyone was waiting for with respect to the Carnival Center's concert hall — the first performance by by a full-scale, professional orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra did it right, too, performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony, paired with Leonard Bernstein's 1st, to a sold-out audience. We already know that the Cleveland Orchestra is considered the best in the country, so the real question regards the Knight Concert Hall's acoustics. (Although "Are they so good that a few performances a year make up for not having a local orchestra?" comes to mind.)
So let's just get it out of the way: the room sounds great. When the music goes lound and fast in the 4th movement of the 9th it was almost overpowering. But where it really shines is on the quiet bits. Bernstein gets all 20th-century-American experimental in the first movement of his symphony, and there are little one and two bar solos for various instruments. Each time, it sounded like the player was sitting in my lap. Your ear adjusts for dynamic levels the same way your eye does going from a darkened theater into bright sunlight, but the Knight hall made everything sound just right.
The hall's sound-modifying features were in their medium-intimate setting, with the canopy in its lowest position and the sound-doors partially open. I spoke to Gary Hanson, the Cleveland Orchestra's executive director, who told me that this was the orchestra's preferred configuration, giving the Knight Concert Hall an intimate sound, not unlike that of their own Severance Hall. The configuration was determined during the orchestra's tuning visit to Miami last year, and will be used for all Cleveland Orchestra performances at Carnival Center. Other orchestras may choose a different configuration; for example, the New World Symphony actually changed the configuration between pieces during their inaugural performance last year.
Hanson was enthusiastic about the sound. He pointed out that like any concert hall, the sound is a little more reverberant in the top balconies and a little more present on the floor, but it is generally very consistent, which is in fact one of the marks of a great hall. The Cleveland Orchestra is very happy in the Knight Concert Hall.
So on to the show. The performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony was spectacular, comparing very favorably with my London Symphony Orchestra recording, especially in the third movement, which sounded the most modern. The biggest difference I noticed was in the opening; whereas on my recording the first movement opens with a bang, on Saturday it built dramatically from a quiet foundation. This performance featured 180 singers from the U/M Frost Chorale and the Master Chorale of South Florida. They sat motionless behind the orchestra for the first three movements, and only came in for the grand fourth movement (the longest), which goes full-tilt almost from beginning to end. Wow. Lawrence Johnson checked the Friday show out for the Herald, and he was also thrilled. (By the way, here is an interesting radio interview with conductor Franz Welser-Möst about his views of Beethoven's 9th.)
What do you pair the most famous symphony in history with? Welser-Möst chose Leonard Bernstein's 1st symphony, which seems odd only at first blush. Bernstein's three movements are very different from each other; one is probing and experimental in a early-20th century sort of way (quirky two-bar solos! woodblock!), the second is fast and dramatic, and the third is mournful, and featured Kelly O'Connor's vocal (which was wonderful, but honestly I couldn't even tell what language she was singing, and it was English); this was the perfect thing to wake up the ears.
And so we have one of the best orchestras in the world in town for a few weeks every year. And while some former members of the defunct Florida Philharmonic feel that this will make it more difficult to re-form a local orchestra, as an audience all we can do is enjoy it. Apropos of that, extra seats have just been released (on the choral riser! should be a great place to sit) for the performances this weekend (Mahler!), and tickets are also available for the March performances (Tchaikovsky!).
I wouldn't let the high-art thing intimidate me, by the way. Dress nice and bring your active-listening ears and you'll be fine. If you can avoid wearing a loud jangly bracelet and moving around all night, you'll be doing better then the woman sitting across the aisle from me (what was she thinking?). There is nothing quite like being in this particular room listening to this particular band; it's something everyone should do.
See also: More information about the Knight Concert Hall at my Carnival Center writeup.
Monday January 15, 2007
"WOW! How much did this cost? Looks nice, can me and a couple hundred of my homeless friends live in it?" Don't miss the video.
Friday December 29, 2006
Noo Yeerz Eave weekend
New Years' Eve? Well, there really are perfectly good stuff-to-do lists all over the place: Miami Music Guide, the Herald (1, 2), MiamiBeach411, and the aforementioned Miami Nights, so I see no reason to do one of my own. The smart money is celebrating with a small group of friends at a low key party, anyway. I'll be at OceanDance, and you're all invited.
By the way, tonight, End of Cinematics [Flash with sound] at the Carnival opera house looks impressive, and of course Woody Allen is kicking it old-school in the concert hall.
What about Monday? How about brunch and a light outdoor activity in the early afternoon?
Thursday December 28, 2006
A few new photos at the Miami at night photoset. Here's the Carnival Center from across the bay.
Thursday December 14, 2006
The Blue Man Period of Milton Van der Spuy
Greig Coetzee performed this one-man play tonight, and will do so again Saturday and Sunday. It's a fantasy about a man who fancies himself an artist, a "Renaissance Man," but is actually a wannabe dabbler. Coetzee lets us laugh at his character for most of the play, but of course he's got a sad twist up his sleeve: the refrain of the play seems to be "but mother says, my talents lie elsewhere."
Any one-person play will struggle to be more then a monologue, right? But Coetzee does a remarkably good job, making excellent use of fractured story lines, jumping from present to reverie, and making surprisingly great use of props. It's a low-key and whimsical little piece, but completely worth seeing.
At the Carnival Center Studio Theater; two performances this weekend. Coetzee is also doing White Men with Weapons, which looks at least as good. (At just over an hour each, it seems like they could have done them both together with a long intermission.)
Tuesday October 10, 2006
The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts
Here's my full write-up on the Carnival Center's—Miami's—new building. Lots of text, lots of pictures = too long to go into the main text flow. Hence the unprescented move of doing a jump. Sorry. Deal with it and click:
Monday October 9, 2006
Carnival Center opening: Target GlobalBeat
Target GlobalBeat was the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts' giant opening party for Miami: a free, 10-hour, 50-performer festival, where the doors were basically thrown open and anyone who wanted to could roam the entire complex unrestricted. And it was expertly organized, too: I suspect that anyone who caught even one of the shows would have been impressed: especially the indoor performances were all first class, many were exotic, and they worked together to create a seamless kaleidoscope of music from around the world by featuring mostly local performers and with international talent. A class act. There were some minor problems with the sound, which I'll mention as I go along, but for the most part they take nothing away from the excellent performers or the Center; after all, each venue (and there were seven) had at least six different performers, who went on in quick succession and with little to no sound check. I'll talk about the performers today, and get into looking at the buildings themselves tomorrow.
The Florida Memorial Steelband opened things in the Knight Concert Hall. Their MC explained how a steel band works—there are 10 players on the steel drums, plus two "percussionists." They played a few original compositions, then brought out the horns and launched into some Sonny Rollins. It was all quite beautiful, even for the faint-of-steeldrum. Featured audio issue: a hissing (almost buzzing) sound from the speakers between songs, probably from a piece of the band's equipment, because it was gone later.
Bharti Chokshi, of the Association of Performing Arts of India, rocks the sitar, with a tabla player, in the Studio Theater. The sitar/tabla combination is the quintessential configuration for Indian classical music. Both instruments are so complex that if you close your eyes, it's difficult to imagine that only two people are making it. Both the performers were masterful, but the 15-minute set, all with people crowding in and taking flash pictures, was hardly ideal for enjoyment of this type of music. Featured audio issue: a strange reverb on the tabla that made the dāyāñ (the smaller of the two drums) dominate the mix a bit. (And yes, my photo is out of focus; I was there to enjoy myself, not fuss with photography.)
Next up were two Indian dancers. They were completely spellbinding, as was the choreography. Their movements were sometimes in unison, sometimes sequential, and sometimes complimentary, and were punctuated by pauses, during which the dancers stood motionless except for subtle movements of their heads. They were, in a word, tight. I cannot possibly explain how great the Association of Performing Arts of India is, or the completely otherworldly beauty of Indian culture. Update: The dancers are Madhavi and Meenakshi Menon, and they have a website.
Outside, the giant dragon puppet, brought by the Miami Overseas Chinese Association, rages to the accompaniment of giant drums.
Fusho Daiko, a Taiko ensemble, at the Ziff Ballet Opera House. They cranked it up to 10 right at the start, and then turned it up to 11 later, blasting the place out with just enough rhythmic variation (and almost no harmonic content, except for the occasional conch blow) to be mesmerizing. In a word: fierce. They generally rearranged the drums between every piece, varying the organizational structure of the group. This was one of the highlights of the day. (An inquisitive reader will want to know: "do the men in the ensemble shave their armpits?" Answer: some of them.) Featured audio problem: none—they were unamplified!
One of several parades/street parties in the plaza.
Peru Expression. The band played one song (featured audio problem: the singer and guitar were almost inaudible for most of the song), and then the singer launched into a long story, in Spanish, before bringing out the dancers. I was out of there.
Black Violin, who bring the hip-hop approach to, um, violins. Their act consists of playing violin along with existing songs, and setting classical pieces to beats. The latter approach works a little better, but overall I can imagine this group being more effective in concert, going back and forth with 50 Cent (as they recently did). Still cool, though.
A reduced version of the normally 30-member Klezmer Company Orchestra played around, setting old Klezmer songs to South American rhythms, which worked surprisingly well. Not as joyous and unrestrained as I'd have expected, but they played well, and their musical director's between-song history and anecdotes were interesting. Featured audio problem: couldn't hear the bass(!), except when she played one particular note, high up on the neck.
I was in the nosebleed section for the Delou Africa Dance Ensemble, which turned out to be a bad choice, because I couldn't see the dancing very well, other then to get a sense of joyous abandon. The music was a different story, though. Employing a similar ensemble and soloist strategy as the Taiko group, but to completely different ends, it was precise, aggressive, and had the feeling of one-upsmanship, but with a constant give-and take. The drummers would lay low, and the African Xylophone would play some polyphony, and then they'd come to the front of stage and trade solos, walking while playing. Great. Featured audio problem: feedback.
Conjuncto Progreso. Featured audio problem: not sure, they were arguing with the sound guy and hadn't started yet. I couldn't stick around, because I was on my way to see . . .
The Cooper Temple Church of God in Christ Mass Choir, which was a powerhouse. This is the contemporary gospel choir in full force, and everyone was suitably impressed. Maybe there was a little too much emphasis on the drums, and not enough on the singers, but it worked perfectly for me. Wow.
One of the many performances in the lobby of the Concert Hall. I believe this was Los Tangueros.
Back over to the Studio Theater, where local break-dance crew D-Projects was doing their thing. I only caught a little, but again, it looked like one of the highlights. Breaking done right is still impressive. And it's still being done right, twenty-five years later. Crazy.
Mayday [Flash!] was in the house, playing to what looked mostly like fans, and impressing the crap out of everyone. Not bad for a white, 4-piece (keyboards, bass, DJ, MC) outfit. Featured audio problem: a horrible crackling distorted sound every time the DJ tried to scratch. This was in the Peacock Studio, which is really a dance rehearsal space. It was set up without seating, and black fabric covering the walls, sort of club-like.
DJ Craze, three-time World DMC Champion, closed out the night with some of his jaw-dropping turntable dexterity. Actually, I take that back: there are other scratch-DJ's who focus on show-off DJ techniques, and while Craze has his share of show, what puts him over is his musicality. Dude is dope. Don't take my word for it, check him out here. Dang!
There you have it: a class act all around. I can't imagine anyone going to this event and not feeling right about the Performing Arts Center. Maybe they'll throw a big party like this once a year? There's hoping. My biggest quibble with the day was the annoying plastic rattlers that someone was handing out to the kids; whoever had that idea deserves eternity in a purgatory where a hundred kids shake those things at random while they're trying to pay attention to something. Also, I think there was a fear of having the place overrun with an unmanageable amount of people, hence the wristband thing, which allowed the organizers to reserve the right to exercise some sort of control. No worries, though: while the event was well attended, there was no shortage of wristbands, and I didn't hear anyone complain about not being able to see what they wanted to see. And everyone was walking around with smiles on their faces; I think it was a genuine pride and excitement, that after all the problems, this thing is finished, and it's being done right. Tomorrow: the building!
Friday October 6, 2006
Carnival Center opening
This is it, folks: the big weekend! And not only does the Carnival Center have a brand new website that actually works, but in addition to the expensive stuff happening all this weekend, there's a free festival, Globalbeat, on Sunday from noon to 10 pm. Ok, ok, there are still some problems: when you click the Globalbeat link on the website you get a blank page (try here for the basics), and apparently the big show on Thursday didn't go over great, but it sounds like stuff that can be ironed out. See you there Sunday.
Update: Manola comes through with a press release she dug up out of the Google cache(!) and posted in the comments.
Target Globalbeat is free, but space is limited for the indoor performances. Vouchers, which are redeemable for wrist bands on the day of the event, will be available at the 13 Miami-Dade County Commissioners' District offices from Monday, September 18 to Friday, September 22. Carnival Center recommends contacting the District offices for a specific time and date to pick up vouchers. Vouchers can be redeemed at the Target Globalbeat Tent on Sunday, October 8 for wrist bands which provide admittance into the Center during any one of three three-hour sessions beginning at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Wrist bands will also be issued, as space permits, on Sunday at the Target Globalbeat Tent up to two hours before the start of each session. Arriving early is highly recommended.
Hmm… in other words, anyone who had the inside scoop and got their vouchers two weeks ago is getting in. Everyone else will have to show up and hope for the best.
Monday October 2, 2006
Great idea: Verticus proposes turning the Biscayne Boulevard corridor around the CCPA into a theater district. It's going to take some forward-thinking folks in the development sector, some daring creative types, and a little help from the government.
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts opens
The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts Sanford And Dolores Ziff Opera House had its big opening night last night with the musical The Light in the Piazza. Michael Hardy was on the radio earlier in the day saying that part of what made it a good choice for the opening that it was relatively simple, technically—a good idea for the opening night of anything.
It sounds like everything went off without a hitch. In addition to the article, the Herald has a video, a slide show, and trotted out (hopefully for the last time) their crappy flash animation depicting the construction process.
The parking situation was hassle free, though I don't think we're out of the woods yet—this was only one of the houses, not even completely full (see the pic), and since it was an opening party, people arrived over an extended period, not in a big rush. Rave reviews for the hall itself, as well as for the outdoor and lobby artwork, though. Sounds like everything went very well!
Update: Right after I hit "post" came the review of the show from Christine Dolan: "And in the very first test of the new theater's sound, from the orchestra-level seats, it wasn't just good—it was superb. Near the end of the show, when an agitated Clara sits alone trying to sort out the truth of her life, as she smacks at her face and smoothes the flowing skirt of her dress, you hear the slap of skin-on-skin and the rustle of lacy fabric." Yay!
Tuesday September 26, 2006
Alex deCarvalho has a pretty amazing set of photos of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts Knight Concert Hall shot last week during the tuning concert. Looks beautiful.
Monday September 25, 2006
'Pharaoh's Dance,' a site-specific installation by Gary L. Moore on the plaza of the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. (via dig)
Thursday August 17, 2006
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in the news
Here's the cover of the March/April issue of Inside Arts. The cover story contrasts the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts with the Carpenter Center in Richmond in a standard success/failure scenario:
The geometry of the new Cesar Pelli-designed Miami Performing Arts Center, scheduled to open October 5, 2006, already forms the dominant profile along Biscayne Boulevard in the city's Omni District—the emblem of a revitalized and quickly changing Florida metropolis and of an elevated profile for arts presentation.
Meanwhile, in downtown Richmond, Va., between Broad and Main Streets, the Carpenter Center sits dark and unused. And the ambitious performing arts center project set in motion by the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation—which involved the renovating and expanding the Carpenter Center and two other existing venues as well as constructing a brand-new music hall—is stalled in its tracks, perhaps never to be realized as it was envisioned.
The article goes on to point out the reasons for the Miami project's success: a demonstrable need for such a center in the community, public support for the project both in votes and with financial contributions, and strong resident companies. It mentions, in passing, the overbudgetedness aspect and the unfortunate folding of the Florida Philharmonic. A pretty interesting read.
The cover cheerfully reproduces the the Miami center's pre-construction mockup, which to the untrained eye looks like an aerial photograph of the center, downtown in the background. Of course the photo is a mockup, and the center as it appears in it is a computer rendering (although at least a rendering of actual plans—as far as I know, the parking garage seen on the right side of the image is a pure fantasy).
Speaking of parking, I recommended in that article going for the $20 valet parking rather then the distant $15 self-parking. Well, according to last week's Miami Today, there is no valet company in place.
"I would like to say for the record that the scope of services in this agreement does not include valet parking," said Jami Reyes, chairwoman of the [Miami Parking Authority]. She said the authority does not want to be part of "negative publicity if something goes wrong" with valet services at the center.
This suggests that MPA doesn't believe it can provide valet services for $20. It also sets the center up for hiring another provider, for more then $20 per car, and having to make up the difference, since they've already promised their patrons that price. Which suddenly makes their profit on regular parking (which is 0%) look not so bad.
The Herald has had a pair of articles in the last week about the Carnival Center. The first is a glimpse of the center's first year budget, with predictable results:
The center's first-year deficit is projected at $551,476. And planners had to use extra doses of county tax money and bigger bequests from private and corporate donors to get it down from a first-draft deficit of $2.7 million.
A second article delves into the unpredictability of the acoustics in projects like this until after they're finished and tried out:
At Philadelphia's $235 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where the duo's firm, Artec, created an acoustical system similar to Miami's, classical music critics at its 2001 opening blasted its sound as ''lacking in warmth,'' even ''an acoustical Sahara.'' And even after three years of tinkering, Artec wrote a report in 2004 recommending major, expensive changes to the acoustics of Kimmell's Verizon Hall. Johnson and Nakajima promise Miami won't encore Kimmel's song.
Pretty funny, but it sounds like the Artec learned from the mistakes they made in Philly, and corrected them on our design. Concert hall acoustics is a fascinating, and endlessly complicated topic. More here, here, and here.
Wednesday July 26, 2006
What's up with the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts website?
When Miami Performing Arts Center announced they were changing their name to Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, they had a new web site ready to go, and it was up and running the same day. Let's take a look.
The Center's previous website [screengrab] was certainly due for an overhaul, what with its undistinguished home page and clunky menu system. The new site ditches all of that for an almost all-Flash design. Now, you can on and on reading good explanations of why Flash is bad (and please do). But for starters, let's just take a look at what the user sees when they load up the site:
This is what I got in Internet Explorer. IE has a recently added quirk wherein you have to click on any flash animation before you can use it. This causes some of the content to not display, and some to display but be unusable until you click. Since there are four distinct Flash animations on the home page (!), that's a lot of clicking. In Firefox, the situation is different. If you have flash installed, the site loads normally (albeit slowly), unless, like me, you have flashblock installed, in which case you get this:
Oops! But nevermind; unless you're one of the unfortunate who don't have Flash installed at all, sooner or later you get to the actual site, which looks like this:
We get a main-window animation with all sorts of faces. Clicking on someone's face lets you order tickets for their show, right? Wrong: it takes you to an all-text listing of all shows. You search for the name associated with the face you just clicked, then you can buy tickets. Three boxes along the right give you more information (like about parking) in hilariously minuscule type. But you can increase the font size in your browser if your eyes aren't so good anymore, right? Wrong: this is Flash, remember? That type is staying that size. At the top we get a banner with a little slide-show, and underneath that the main menu. Ah . . . the menu. The glorious little menu.
Well, I sat a couple of people down with this menu and watched them try to use it (apparently nobody at Carnival Center thought of doing that before unleashing it on an unsuspecting world). It invariably gave them fits. Each position on the menu opens a little horizontal submenu underneath. But as you go to click on one of these submenu items, if you brush past one of the buttons on the main menu, the submenu changes. Go ahead and try it! Pretend you want to volunteer! Go to the site, activate the menu, hover over "Membership & Support," and try to click on "Volunteer." See what I mean?
Most of the interior pages are just ported from the old site, and are unremarkable except for that funny menu you have to keep dealing with. (There must be multiple versions of this menu, too, because sometimes clicking "Home" took me home, sometimes it did nothing.)
What's amazing is that it's not that difficult to do this right. Miami Light Project, a Carnival Center "arts partner," has a perfectly hip and very usable web site. The Lincoln Center, which MPAC has spent a lot of time comparing itself to, has a silly (but skipable) Flash intro followed by a Flash-free and relatively usable regular site (with a text-only version). The LA Performing Arts Center has a . . . well, you get the idea. I wonder what happened. Does the new Carnival site work for you? Let me know in the comments, and let me know what browser and version you're using.
Wednesday July 19, 2006
It's official: Miami Performing Arts Center is now the Carnival Performing Arts Center. They transfered their name from the concert hall and ponied up an additional $10 million (for a total of 20 mill) for the name. Knight Foundation kicked in another $10 million and now we have the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall. Not bad for a day's work. Update: Hey look, there's a new web site.
Friday July 7, 2006
Parking at Miami Performing Arts Center has a PL4n!
OK, folks, the plan is here: 1697 parking spaces on four lots and one garage (plus 751 valet spaces), all within
"one- to three-block radius" um, no sorry, I'm looking at your little graphic (shown actual size; I guess we don't need to see whatever that legend is), and the far end of the garage looks a little farther out then three blocks. But let's be serious: you don't walk 'as the crow flies' when you're going to the opera: you have to stick to the sidewalks. I had a little extra time, so I imported a Google Maps image into Illustrator, and traced out a walking route from somewhere at the far end of the garage to the entrance of the opera house:
Then I straightened out the route and compared it to the legend. As sketched, it's 2,496 feet, or just shy of a half mile. No big deal on a nice day, but try it dressed up on a muggy October Miami evening. I actually suggest the valet, which at $20 is only $5 more then the spot in the garage; standing around in the hot air is preferable to schleping a half mile. By the way, Here's a link to MPAC's flash-based parking widget. Personally, it doesn't quite work in IE or Firefox for me, but others may have better luck.
For extra fun, let's count the ways in which the Herald article blows it:
- Swallows the "three blocks" crap hook, line, and sinker—right out of the gate (metaphor whiplash, sorry).
- "announced this week that they have secured about 2,500 valet and self-park spaces" Opportunity missed to break out a calculator: it's actually 2,448 spaces
- "a sell-out crowd at the center, which has a capacity of 4,820" Let's not bother to point out that that means 1.97 seats for every parking space.
- "Center leaders acknowledged the need for nearby parking garages more than 10 years ago while planning the state-of-the-art center, which is $102.1 million over budget at $446.3 million." Good enough, though the original budget was $255 million, which puts the current total more like $191 million over budget.
- "Though the center will miss the opportunity to profit from parking fees from its own garages, Hardy said the new plan won't burden the budget, either." I guess you can't "LOL"s in a newspaper article, so we'll let this one go.
- "The Performing Arts Center is likely to be completed in early August." Wrong.
Update: Another Herald article offers a dry look at MPAC prices.
Thursday June 22, 2006
So . . . will the Miami Performing Arts Center be finished on August 4th? Nope: "The Miami Performing Arts Center is on schedule for its Oct. 5 grand opening, but workers will be putting finishing touches on the complex until the end of the year."
Wednesday June 21, 2006
Transit Man has a pretty great rant about parking around MPAC. I think his point is that there's public transportation around, so less emphasis should be paid to a parking shortage. To which I say: more power to you! On the other hand, opera fans are older, well-dressed people. I find it difficult to picture 2,200 of them riding the rails to get to the theater. But overall the point is well taken. (p.s. The site design still needs some work. Can we have some margins between the text and the edges of the column? And can we not have a "MORE>>" link with each article witch doesn't take you to anything more?)
Sunday June 18, 2006
Lawrence A. Johnson reports that members of the defunct Florida Philharmonic Orchestra are miffed about the Cleveland Orchestra's 10-year deal with MPAC. Seems they believe that the deal will make it more difficult to reform a professional orchestra of our own.
Thursday May 11, 2006
It would be just another in a long series of articles on Miami Performing Arts Center's overbudgetness, but this one is allowing comments, and they're flying.
A quote from the article (attributed to George Burgess): "Due to several unforeseen events, the project's schedule sustained significant slippage in the last half of 2005 to place the completion date of Aug. 4, 2006 in jeopardy if aggressive action had not been taken." And my favorite: "[Bill] Johnson said the exact amount of extra money won't be known until the building is finished and all subcontractors' claims are handled."
Wednesday May 3, 2006
Development and planning around MPAC
Well, the Miami Performing Arts Center seems to be pulling its parking situation into shape nicely. Meanwhile, I have the recent Herald piece, Development blossoms around Performing Arts Center—with no plan in place, which is a criticism of a lack of urban planning (rather then the PAC), specifically singling out the unfinished Miami21 plan. Well, a public meeting to present a draft of the first quarter of the plan has just been announced. After the meeting (on May 13), the draft will be available online, and a series of open houses will begin (presumably to allow the public to comment on the plan).
This will be interesting; we have the opportunity to create the city of the future here, and the Herald is quite pessimistic:
[Development] is occurring with no comprehensive development plan in place. Even as the city's Community Redevelopment Agency . . . spent three years and $716,000 preparing a 250-page master plan for the area, the City Commission has approved one massive project after another, rendering moot some sections of the CRA's plan before it was ready. The city's vaunted new, neighborhood-friendly development rule book, Miami 21, is months behind schedule and may not be in place until fall. Even some in the real estate business question whether stacks of high-priced condos—with few provisions for new parks, public spaces or other public amenities, much less affordable housing or a solution to the area's persistent homeless problem—are what the MPAC district really needs amid signs of a possible condo glut.
Gee, when you put it like that, it sounds kind of crappy. Something tells me, though, that Miami21 will restore that green space, and that the MPAC district will become pedestrian-friendly and appealing. And with the impeding condo crash, it will, for a time at least, even be affordable. Hipsters all over South Florida are saving their money and biding their time. Meanwhile, look at that map – it turns out that MPAC was surrounded by parking lots and garages all along—check out the picture. How did we ever get into conversations about putting parking underground?
Friday April 28, 2006
A childrens' weekend
- New World Symphony has their kids' program, Orchestra Let Loose, and something called the 'Instrument Petting Zoo' (pictured). Get kids together, let them play with the instruments (under serious-musician-supervision) and let them hear some zingers from the repertoire. Sounds like a winner. Sunday, 12:30.
- The Wolfsonian screens Wondrous Oblivion, tonight at 7 pm.
- The Miami Performing Arts Center presents Walking Tall Circus, wherein 120 local children in colorful costumes get down with trapeze, juggling, stilt walking, puppetry, and clowning. Saturday, 2 pm, North Shore Park and Youth Center
(501 72nd Street, Miami Beach). Free. (And yes, the MPAC site talks about it like it happened already, and doesn't give the location, but it's on the arts calendar, and here, so go figure.)
Just in case you're an adult
- Tonight, the Rhythm Foundation presents Seu Jorge, who I can't find a reasonable web site for, but who's cool; trust me.
- The M-Ensemble presents Seven Guitars. "In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson's "Seven Guitars" is the sixth chapter in the continuing theatrical saga that explores the hope, heartbreak, and heritage of the African American experience in the twentieth century." Runs for the next few weekends.
- BB King at the Mizner, Sunday.
- The FIU BFA, mentioned previously.
Friday April 14, 2006
Oh, look: the Miami Performing Arts Center just announced its opening weekend. It's in October, not August.


text:
For Stocks, It's the Economy Vs. a World of Hurt
Investors' high expectations for the U.S. economy have been met this year, but they were unprepared for the trouble on other fronts
Volatility has returned with a vengeance in the first half of 2018. Tuesday was no exception, with stocks down sharply on renewed worries about President Donald Trump's trade feud with China. Yet, for all of its whipping around, the stock market is even with where it was in early January. Considering how high investors had set their expectations, they should be pleased to have gotten off so easily.
The stock market has some things going for it right now, of course. Corporate tax cuts helped push profits up sharply—analysts...

subset: commoncrawl


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Collection Label
$ 1,350.00
* MTO (Made-to-order): Your MTO item will be delivered to you within 5-6 weeks from purchase date. Made-to-order is not equivalent to custom or made-to-measure purchases. The garment's sizing is identical to our ready-to-wear products. Returns are not accepted for MTO items, but exchanges for different sizes may be accommodated for an added cost. If you'd like to place an order for a suit size that is not listed on the website, or submit special instruction concerning length of the jacket, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
"The Gabardine collection is my homage to the 80's. The muted, midnight navy fabric and the gold shank buttons epitomize the essence of the color palette and sartorial details of the 80's. The subtle characteristic of subdued color and sheen are brought together, highlighted by HVRMINN's sharp silhouettes. The style represents the classics in a new and refined context - retrospective yet edgy. I styled the look with our contrast-collar blue shirt and yellow striped silk tie.
- Minn "HVRMINN" Hur
- Double Vent, Peak Lapel, Double-breasted, Flap Pockets, Lacquered Nickel Buttons
- 100% Wool Serge Fabric from American Woolen Company
- Full Canvas Construction
- Functional Sleeve Buttons upon Request
- Dry Clean Only
Merchandise can be exchanged within 14 days of the date on your invoice. Please return the item unused with all original tags, labels, and packaging in tact. Items that have been worn, washed, damaged, or untagged will not be accepted for exchange.
For returns, full-price merchandise must be processed 10 days of the date listed on the invoice. The item must be in its unused condition with all original tags, labels, and packaging in tact. Items that have been discounted will not be accepted for returns. We will do our best to accommodate you fully with all reasonable exchanges in regards to sizing and styles. The cost of all returns and exchanges will be paid for by the purchaser.
Upon receiving your order, we will process and ship your item within the next 24-48 hours via FedEX. Once the item has shipped, you will receive a tracking number by email. Orders that are placed after 3:00 pm EST on Friday will be processed on the next following business day. Complimentary Shipping & Returns on all U.S. Orders.
Domestic Ground: 3-6 Days FREE
Domestic 2 Business Days: 2-3 Days $35.00 (USD)
Domestic Next Business Day: 1 Day $40.00 (USD)
International Shipping: $50 Flat (Duties will be applied by country.)


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My favorite Christmas playlist
December is here! December is far and away the best (read here as the only acceptable) month of the winter. There is a crispness about the freezing cold air, an extra bit of warmth to every light that brightens the dark night sky, a certain magic in the stillness. The smells, sights, and sounds of Christmastime are nostalgic and exciting, whether you're five years old or fifty, and I love that.
I have been looking forward to this month since the beginning of The Pastiche because of all the holiday-oriented content I couldn't wait to talk about.
One of my very favorite things about the first days of December is slowly reintroducing Christmas music into my daily listening when cooking, cleaning, or having people over.
I love a good mix of old and new, traditional and indie, sentimental and joyful. So without further ado, I thought I'd share my wintery favorites with you.
Happy December!
Listen to my Spotify playlist here
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Michael Bublé
Just Like Christmas - Low
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
January Rain - David Gray
Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson
Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio (Charlie Brown)
White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
Christmas In The Room - Sufjan Stevens
White Christmas - Bright Eyes
Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney
The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
Sleigh Ride - She & Him
Generator ^ First Floor - Freelance Whales
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Michael Bublé
That Was The Worst Christmas Ever! - Sufjan Stevens
I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Kay Starr
Christmas Lights - Coldplay
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio (Charlie Brown)
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing - Sufjan Stevens
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - The Head and the Heart
Cold December Night - Michael Bublé
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Dean Martin
Christmas Wish - She & Him
Winter, You Tease - Layla
Carol of the Bells - John Williams
Baby, It's Cold Outside - Frank Sinatra & Dorothy Kirsten
Christmas Song - Dave Matthews Band
The Night Before Christmas - Bright Eyes


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Resources for Revision
Obviously this is a crucial part of any exam program and over the year I have tried lots of different ideas. On this page you will find ideas about when and how revision can be offered and some recources to go with it. The difficult part is that revision is very much an individual process both for teachers and students, so please consider the following just ideas and use the resources any which you want!
To access the entire contents of this site, you need to log in or subscribe to it..
Click the free stuff button on the home page to access free pages or check the blog (which is also free).


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CODRadiant Tutorial #1 - IntroductionAn introduction to mapping in Call of Duty 1
This is part 1 of 2 - CODRadiant Tutorial #1 - Introduction
- CODRadiant Tutorial #1 - Introduction
- CODRadiant Tutorial #2 - Downloading & Installing
What is Gtk Radiant?
GtkRadiant is a level design program developed by id Software and Loki Software. It is used to create maps for a number of video games. (Source: Wikipedia) Here, we will deal with CoD Radiant, though, as we're going to create maps working on Call Of Duty 1 which also has some improvements over Gtk.
What you need to know before moving on with mapping
- You'll need some basic computer knowledge. Don't expect to find everything ready and working.
Knowing some basic things about C programming language would be cool, too, as CoD1 is based on it.
- You need to make sure you like mapping cause, if you do, even if you find it difficult at first, you'll love it. If you're not into it, you'll eventually give up.
How long will it take you to learn and build a good looking map.
Depends on how much time and effort you put into mapping. Don't go for the difficult parts from day one. Personally, it took me about 2-3 years so I could create some maps that I feel proud of. Still, I have to learn many more things. All in all, you need to have patience, moving slowly and steady. You need to experiment a lot and build things by yourself so you can actually make sure you're good to go to the next level of your knowledge. You'll also need to have fantasy so you can create extraordinary stuff. As Einstein once said:"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.â€
Does CoD Radiant have bugs?
Sadly yes as it was being used by very experienced mappers back in 2002-03 and I'm pretty sure they didn't plan to give it to the world at that time. You'll face those bugs, you'll get annoyed by those bugs. But, as you advance, you'll get over them.
Are you ready?
Proceed to part 2: CODRadiant Tutorial #2 - Downloading & Installing


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We live in a world where terrorism is a constant and unpredictable threat. Recent attacks have hit too close to home for some of us, and may make all of us feel powerless over our personal lives and businesses. Likewise, as insurers and insurance stakeholders, recent attacks remind us that we have to be smart about what we do to protect our livelihoods. It's a business, yes, but it's also a valued service.
2016 has been a year of growth and evolution here at SpatialKey from enhancing our solution for underwriters, actively monitoring catastrophic events that impacted insurers, and bringing on more 3rd-party data partnerships to fuel our solutions. With 2017 on the horizon, now is the time to reflect on the events of 2016 and understand how they can inform your strategy for 2017.
SpatialKey Inc. (SpatialKey) is pleased to offer its insurance clients access to crime risk data from Location, Inc., a leading provider of U.S. location based analytics. Location, Inc. specializes in providing hyperlocal crime risk data to help underwriters understand, measure and select risk, and calculate premiums with greater accuracy. Exposure managers can also use Location Inc.'s crime risk data to quickly identify and manage adverse portfolio accumulations.


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Rep. Justin Amash knows how a battle-worn activist feels.
Trudging from House office to House office, and sometimes from seat to seat on the House floor, the freshman Republican from Michigan spent his free office hours last fall asking colleagues to support his baby — a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
He visited about 60 Members, tirelessly talking with anyone who would listen as he outlined the reasons his amendment was better than the multitude of other BBA proposals.
But when the time came for the House to vote on a budget amendment in November, the resolution brought to the floor was not Amash's. It belonged to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a 10-term Virginia Republican.
The situation illustrates the downside of being a freshman in an institution where seniority rules.
But in the massive freshman class, Amash, a mere 31 years old, stands out for his persistence. The tenacious lawyer-
turned-lawmaker, who served in the Michigan House, takes extraordinary measures to shine the spotlight on his causes.
Few Members, if any, instruct their staffers to cold-call hundreds of Congressional offices to schedule one-on-one meetings for their boss with other lawmakers. Amash's aides phoned 390 Member offices to set up BBA discussions.
It's not hard to picture him — he's kind of a nerd — talking up his amendment with colleagues. He's like a younger version of a high school civics teacher, spouting wonky language about budgets and economics.
The reaction Amash received was one of surprise. Democrats especially were shocked to see a Republican seeking their support. Others, he said, were curious as to why he took the time to meet them individually.
Despite the kudos he received for his efforts, the "f"-word returned to haunt him: "You don't really think they'll let a freshman Member of Congress amend the Constitution, do you?" one Member smirked to him last year.
"When someone's been here for 20 or 30 years, they are naturally less open to the viewpoints of people who are coming in who are new, who have been here for two years or four years," he said. "They figure, what do we know?"
Unshaken, Amash shrugged off the bully's comment. Now — three months after the BBA vote, even though the topic is somewhat stale — Amash is still advocating for his legislative baby.
Constitutional Wonk and Idealist
Amash harbors no special love for NPR or Planned Parenthood. A libertarian at heart, he abhors the use of government funds to prop up private enterprise. Like most Republicans, he calls himself "pro-life."
So why did he vote against his party on GOP proposals to ax federal funds for public radio and the reproductive health nonprofit? Because a 225-year-old document weighed heavily on his conscience.
Amash goes to extremes for more than his BBA. He's just as stubborn when it comes to the Constitution, which tends to gnaw at his brain and "trigger alarm bells in my head" as he reads bills and resolutions, he said.
"To me, the Constitution is the first thing you have to look at when you look at legislation," he said. "It's not something you look to just to find a justification to defeat legislation. You have to look to it even when it might be a subject matter that you want to support and you want to promote."
That explains the seating chart affixed to the wall to the left of Amash's desk. Smack in the center of the horseshoe grouping is Amash.
"That's me right there in the middle," he said proudly, pointing to the photo last fall.
He explained it was a class that greatly affected his life: constitutional law. He loved it so much that he bid on the seating chart at a student auction and asked his professor to sign it for good measure.
That might be one way he earned a reputation on Capitol Hill as a wonk, despite being the second-youngest lawmaker. Friedrich Hayek quotes speckle his Facebook. He keeps framed photos of the Austrian economist in his office.
When anyone wants to debate the original intent of the Constitution, Amash is always game. And his colleagues seem to know that about him.
But sometimes Amash's loyalty to the Constitution carries him away from the Republican fold. He'll vote against a measure if it doesn't toe the constitutionality line — even a GOP proposal.
In the case of the NPR and Planned Parenthood votes, Amash knew that if he flipped out his handy iPhone Constitution app — a tool he uses on a regular basis — he'd read that Article 1, Section 9 prohibits laws that single out any one company or group. Both proposals were unconstitutional in his eyes.
However, not all of Amash's dissensions come in the name of constitutionality. With his libertarian tendencies, he sometimes disagrees with Republicans on areas of foreign policy and civil liberties, often finding himself aligned with unlikely Democrats.
He opposed a four-year extension of certain surveillance powers in the USA PATRIOT Act, for example. He rejected the fiscal 2012 defense policy law because of the controversial detainee provision allowing the president to hold without trial U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism.
Amash was the only Republican to vote against a bill that would have required "In God We Trust" to be displayed throughout government offices — even though the Eastern Orthodox icons nailed above his office door show that he's religious.
"Trying to score political points with unnecessary resolutions should not be Congress's priority," he wrote on his Facebook, where he defends his every vote.
Thanks in part to stances such as that, Amash is one of the more independent-minded freshmen. In votes where majorities of the two parties opposed each other, Amash stuck with Republicans 89 percent of the time in 2011, the 25th-lowest rate among House Republicans, according to Congressional Quarterly records.
"Some figures I've seen are actually lower than this," he said almost disappointedly after seeing his CQ grade. Open Congress, he and an aide said, scored him in the 70s.
Vigor in All Topics
Just to the right of Amash's Austrian economists photo shrine sits a large framed cartoon character that looks like Mickey Mouse.
"That's not Mickey Mouse; that's Oswald," Amash corrected. "He predates Mickey."
Amash spent the following five minutes prattling on about Oswald, Disney's first major character, a lucky rabbit that looks like Mickey Mouse.
Amash's love for Disney characters shows that not all his passions are super brainy. But like his wonky delights, he goes to extremes on behalf of his other causes.
Take his transparency and accountability fixation, for example. His belief that Americans should have easy access to their legislators' voting records and rationalizations led him to start explaining every yea or nay he casts on the House floor.
He's the first lawmaker to do such a thing, a tradition he started while serving in the state House. His Facebook reporting has won him praise from other lawmakers, been featured in dozens of newspapers, including Roll Call, and drawn 20,000 "likes."
The "About Me" section on his website details his and his staff's salaries and health care benefits — also in the name of transparency.
"The public wants to see what their Members are doing," he said. "How is taxpayer money being spent? How are Member of Congress voting? So I try to make every effort possible to let my constituents know what is going on in my office."
In the name of transparency and good governance, he won't vote in favor of legislation or amendments he hasn't read, which sometimes leads him to vote "present."
"I think a lot of times Members vote along with their party," he said. "They use the party as a shorthand for how they should vote on things. I just don't operate that way."


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Award winning photo journalist to open Leitrim exhibition
Frosted Glass Dresses by Eadaoin Mc Gourty.
Award winning photo-journalist photographer Peter Wilcock will open a dual exhibition by Didier Riva and Éadaoin Mc Gourty at Solas Art Gallery, Ballinamore on Friday, Feb 9 at 7.30pm.
Didier Riva is a multi faceted Photographic Artist living in Leitrim for the last 20 years. Didier started photography in Paris in the 80s, taking portraits for students at the Actor's Studio, which led to work for the cinema, theatre and music scene (rock, jazz, flamenco); during this period Didier worked with the Mime Artist Marcel Marceau on his show: le Manteau, for a year.
Didier's arrival in Ireland followed the trajection of many artists seeking a spiritual resolve (or indeed not actively seeking but enveloping the sense of mysticism that permeates the landscape of Leitrim). The Artist finds the connection with his surroundings – that sense of place the observer who, having cleared the mind of chitter-chatter, is consumed by clarity of resolution – a life defining moment to be captured and shared.
Didier has averred he wishes, that for the viewer, this series of photographs to be all about observation, immersing oneself in the image to take a journey of discovery, to become a child again with no boundaries from the intellect, allowing the soul to breathe in the shapes and colours.
Éadaoin Mc Gourty's environmentally provocative show melds Art and Fashion into one fascinating exhibition.
Her concerns with the depleting ice at the North Pole, its resulting effect on climate change and the disruption to our environment need no reminder – we only have to look out our windows to see the incessant degradation of our weather with storm after storm.
Éadaoin takes the substance of ice and through observation and exploration has created a fashion collection that evocatively utilises recycled plastics to recreate the shapes and forms of ice. Her show includes the process by which she developed her ideas through photography, painting and abstract art.
Éadaoin gets to the point when she says; "I decided to create an avant garde collection, an artistic interpretation of fashion, which aims to bring the striking beauty of ice to the foreground of conversation in the hope of increasing awareness of the importance of retaining this natural resource".
It is an unusual meeting of minds these two exhibitions running side by side, Didier and Éadaoin are in one way stating the same thing; stop, take note and relish our resources. This dual exhibition will be officially opened by award winning photo-journalist photographer Peter Wilcock on Friday, Feb 9 at 7.30pm.


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William Woods University will hold its annual Equestrian Academic Showcase Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 1-2), featuring clinics with both celebrated WWU graduate and hunt seat trainer, Kris Killam, and renowned saddle seat trainer, Paul Boone.
The showcase is an annual event designed to allow prospective equestrian students a chance to view WWU horses and riders in action, and learn what William Woods has to offer them.
Saturday will begin with equestrian events that include an introduction to the equestrian studies (EQS) division, barn tours, a parade of disciplines and a presentation on EQS scholarship opportunities.
There will be break-out sessions with the four riding seats offered—western, saddle seat, hunter/jumper and dressage. During these sessions, students and parents will get a change to ask questions of equestrian faculty and students. There will also be a separate question and answer session about the EQS division in general and EQS division alumni speakers.
Featured clinician, Kris Killam, will speak on Saturday about career opportunities in the equine world. Killam graduated from the WWU equestrian program in 2002, and has since become a well-respected trainer and rider in the hunt seat industry. He has attained an impressive series of wins in show jumping competitions, from Wellington, Fla., throughout the Midwest and Canada. He is an instructor at Colby Creek Stables in Ithaca, Neb.
The saddle seat clinic will be conducted by Paul Boone, trainer at Boones Farm and Stables in Concord, N.C. A long-standing member of the American Saddlebred community, Boone has trained many world champions, including the five-gaited sensation, (SA) Carswald Prince's Domino.
Boone has many ties to William Woods: he instructed rider Ashley Eisenhower, who later became a student at WWU, and now works as a professional in the Saddlebred industry. William Woods graduate, Lynn McCallister, worked for Boone before starting her own barn, and current student Jesse West spent a summer under his tutelage as well. Another graduate, Cydney Cutchall, works for him currently.
Both clinics will begin on Sunday at 9 a.m. and will run all day in separate arenas.
William Woods University, in 1972, was the first school in the country to offer a bachelor's degree in equestrian science. A degree in equine administration was added in 1992.
The university has a reputation for providing one of the finest equestrian studies programs in the country—filling a national, regional and local demand for graduates holding a four-year equestrian science degree.
This demand is heightened by a thriving equine industry that contributes about $112 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product each year.
The university's equestrian facilities encompass a city block, with 150 large box stalls in four stables, two heated indoor arenas, a lighted outdoor ring and a 40-acre cross-country riding course.
The equestrian studies program is the most popular field of study at William Woods There are currently 158 equestrian science majors and 45 equine administration majors. The placement rate for WWU equestrian graduates is nearly 100 percent.
Breeds represented in the William Woods stable include American Saddlebreds, Appaloosas, Arabians, Morgans, National Show Horses, Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, Friesians and Warmbloods.
Prospective students interested in attending the Equestrian Academic Showcase should contact the WWU Office of Admissions at (573) 592-4221 or email@example.com.


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* Higher labor costs, strong A$ boost costs
* Chevron's overall 2013 budget just shy of Exxon's
* Wheatstone LNG project in Australia still on budget
By Braden Reddall
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Chevron Corp added $15 billion to the cost of the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) export complex, as the U.S. oil company's largest single development joins a growing list of Australian LNG projects to run over budget.
The new $52 billion estimate for Gorgon, now 55 percent complete, came on Wednesday alongside Chevron's $36.7 billion overall 2013 budget for capital and exploratory spending. That compares with a 2012 budget of $32.7 billion, and is just shy of the $37 billion annual budget of far-larger Exxon Mobil Corp .
Like other Australian LNG projects, Gorgon's inflated cost is largely due to labor shortages, logistics challenges and the strength of the Australian dollar. Half of the six other LNG plants being built in the country have sustained cost increases averaging more than 20 percent.
Chevron said about one-third of the projected increase for Gorgon from its 2009 estimate of $37 billion, or A$43 billion, was due to the appreciating Aussie dollar and a change in the mix of currencies since the project was sanctioned. Start-up is still due in late 2014.
Chevron owns 47 percent of Gorgon, while Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell Plc each hold 25 percent stakes and the rest is shared by Japanese LNG buyers Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric.
The updated cost figure for Gorgon, located on a remote island off Western Australia, is basically right in the middle of analyst estimates that ran from $45 billion to $60 billion.
Analysts and executives say the economics work out regardless, since Gorgon gas contracts are linked to oil. While the Aussie dollar has strengthened by about 20 percent since 2009, and half Gorgon's costs are in the currency, oil prices are up about 80 percent in that time.
Joe Geagea, head of Chevron's gas business, also points out there will be few competing LNG suppliers over the next few years. "I believe it will hit the market at the right time," he said in an interview in Tokyo.
Shipping LNG to Asian markets is now a hot topic, with Shell saying earlier on Wednesday it would move the headquarters of its integrated gas business to Singapore from Europe to account for the shifting center of gravity.
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a highly anticipated report that found exporting LNG from the United States would benefit the country's economy more than it would harm it.
Australian cost inflation could be felt well beyond Gorgon. Chevron's $29 billion Wheatstone LNG, also in Western Australia, is due to start up in 2016, though Chevron signed off on that spending only a year ago when it had a better handle on costs, and the company said on Wednesday it remained on budget.
"Our exploration program continues to discover additional gas resources that could support future expansions of our Australian LNG developments," Chevron Vice Chairman George Kirkland added in a statement.
Chevron's overall LNG production, including Wheatstone as well as a delayed plant in Angola starting up next year, will grow to the oil-equivalent of 460,000 barrels per day (boepd) in 2017 from just under 200,000 boepd now. That is a huge contributor to Chevron's goal of increasing its overall output by 700,000 boepd to 3.3 million boepd over the next five years.
Apart from LNG, Chevron is going to spend heavily next year on three projects in the Gulf of Mexico: Jack/St Malo, Big Foot and Tubular Bells, with the first two due to start up in 2014.
Also included in its list of major projects were deepwater developments off Nigeria, the Chuandongbei natural gas project in China, Papa-Terra off Brazil, Hebron off the coast of Canada, the UK's Clair Ridge, and the Tengiz expansion in Kazakhstan.
Reflecting the San Ramon, California-based company's shift of focus away from refining, its "downstream" budget for 2013 is just $2.7 billion, down from $3.6 billion this year.
As for Gorgon, Chevron's struggles with cost are only exacerbated by the ambition of the project on Barrow Island. Bringing in materials from the mainland adds to cost, and the island is also Australia's most protected type of nature refuge, so Gorgon managers face tight environmental guidelines.
Also included in the price tag is the world's biggest carbon capture and storage project, which will collect up to 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in a reservoir under the island.


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Category Archives: Income Tax
New IRS Form 8971: Basis Reporting for Taxable Estates
When an individual dies leaving a gross estate (plus past taxable gifts) that exceeds the federal exclusion amount in the year of death ($5.45 million in 2016), a Form 706 Federal Estate Tax Return must be filed. This has long been the law. But a new law now imposes an additional filing requirement on… Read More »
Estate and Trust Tax ID Numbers: FAQ on the EIN from the IRS
It probably won't come as a surprise to anybody that income has to be reported on a Federal Income Tax Return. We're all accustomed to providing our social security number to our employer, bank or brokerage institution so that income, dividends and capital gains can be reported to the individual and to the IRS…. Read More »
IRS Clarifies New Same-Sex Marriage Tax Issues
As most of you are probably aware, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in June that struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Constitutional Due Process Challenge The case, United States vs. Windsor, was an estate tax case out of New York. Thea Spyer and Edith Windsor… Read More »


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David Fincher is set to direct and Brad Pitt to return to star in the upcoming sequel to zombie epic "World War Z" at Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions.
New Paramount CEO and chairman Jim Gianopulos, who has a long-standing relationship with Fincher, has not officially official greenlit the movie yet, he is expected to do so in coming weeks. Production would probably begin in the first quarter of 2018.
The word first came last year that Pitt had been courting Fincher to direct the film and that the director was intrigued by the idea. Gianopulos has since taken over the studio reins has been weighing which projects to pursue and let go from the previous regime's slate – this has proven an obvious keeper.
Fincher hasn't directed a film since "Gone Girl," but recently shot the Netflix pilot "Mind Hunters". Fincher is always weary of sequels, but Pitt certainly has his ear – the pair having previously collaborated on "Se7en," "Fight Club" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".
Source: Variety


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Verify the quality of your installed geomembrane
Liner integrity surveys, also known as geoelectric liner leak detection, is a method of verifying the quality of installed geomembranes by locating leaks. Leaks can be found both before and after cover material placement. Many regulatory agencies are adding leak detection as a requirement for new construction. Liner integrity surveys can save our clients a substantial amount of time and money by identifying seaming failures, punctures, cracks, and tears in containment systems. GLA's leak detection team has over 130 million square feet of experience.
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Erik Olhoffer | 530.272.2448 | firstname.lastname@example.com


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Billing & Sales
Internet connection problem? Power off your modem/router for 30 seconds, then turn it back onFeel free to contact us
Unfortunately if you subscribe to our Lightspeed DSL, it does require a telephone line through either AT&T or Bellsouth. If you cancel the line, it will cancel the DSL service since we are forced to lease the DSL service through their phone lines.


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Watch Aashiqui (1990) Full Hindi Movie Online Download Aashiqui (translation: Love) is a 1990 Bollywood musical romance film directed by Mahesh Bhatt, starring Rahul Roy, Anu Aggarwal, and Deepak Tijori in pivotal roles. The film made the careers of singer Kumar Sanu and composers Nadeem-Shravan. Upon release, it received positive …Read More »
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Detectamet Inc was established in October 2014 and is a wholly and independently owned USA sister branch of Detectamet Ltd (& CK Safety Ltd).
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