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Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe: A Novel (Hardcover)
Staff Reviews
"A wonderful light read great for fans of Louise Miller. Anna Kate returns to the small town where her mother grew up following her grandmother's death. There, her grandmother's cafe has always had an outsized affect on the town and Anna Kate must choose between the cafe, her new found family members, and the promise she had made to her mother. "
Recommended by Gwendolyn— From Staff Picks
Heather Webber's Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm.
Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Café.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother's estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father's side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can't stop talking about.
As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.
About the Author
Heather Webber grew up in a suburb of Boston, where she learned early on how to ride the T, skip rocks in the ocean, and root for the Red Sox. As a young mother, she tried her hand at writing novels and is now an Agatha Award-nominated author. She is the author of the Lucy Valentine novels—Truly, Madly; Deeply, Desperately; and Absolutely, Positively—and the Nina Quinn mysteries, among other books. Heather now lives in southwestern Ohio with her high school sweetheart and their three children.
Praise For…
"Full of family secrets, undeniable charm and that particular touch of magic so often found in the South, MIDNIGHT AT THE BLACKBIRD CAFE is a heartfelt and redemptive tale of a daughter looking to move forward in the place her mother couldn't wait to leave behind. Heather Webber creates a town as dynamic and real as her characters—and a story so compelling that it will stay on readers' minds long after the final page. I savored every word." —Kristy Woodson Harvey, national bestselling author of Slightly South of Simple
"Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is an enchanting gem of a novel, brimming with charming characters, heartwarming connections, old secrets, and a southern setting that makes you want to move there. As refreshing as a glass of blackberry tea, this is truly magical realism at its best!"--Karen White, New York Times bestselling author
"Family, fate, and magic intertwine in this endearing Southern tale of long-held secrets, homemade pie, and building one's future from the remains of the past. A tantalizing, delicious delight, through and through. Heather Webber writes with so much detail and imagination that I'll be craving some Blackbird Cafe pie—and the comfort that comes with it—for a long time to come." -- Kristin Harmel, international bestselling author of The Room on Rue Amélie and The Sweetness of Forgetting


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Coopworth History
Sheep Care and
Locker Hooking Supplies for Sale
Washing Fleece in a Washing Machine
If you can't wash your fleece right away, we suggest that you store it in a clean cardboard box or a pillowcase. It isn't good for the fleece to sit in a sealed plastic bag too long.
Machine Washing Instructions: Here's how I wash fleeces in my washing machine-
Fill the tub with hot water. Add 3 times your normal amount of laundry detergent or better yet, about 1/4 cup of inexpensive shampoo, like Suave Lavender, and agitate to dissolve.
STOP AGITATION, press wool into the water and let soak for 15 mins. Set washer to "spin" cycle - MAKE SURE WATER IS NOT SPRAYED ON THE FLEECE AS IT SPINS OUT.
Remove the fleece, fill the tub with hot water to rinse, press wool into the water and let soak 15 mins. Spin again.
You can repeat wash and rinse if you feel the wool needs it. If you used laundry detergent, add a little vinegar to the final rinse to correct the PH
After the final spin, remove the fleece to a towel or sheet and tease open to aid drying. I often dry my fleece on a sheet outside in the sun.
Hand Washing Fleece
I have been washing some wool for customers who want to use it for making Santa beards and for doll hair. It is important to try to keep the lock structure for these uses, so I have been trying several techniques.
The simplest is to use the mesh bags that are sold for washing delicates in your washing machine. Stuff them with wool (I put about one pound in each "sweater" size bag), pre-soak overnight in any temp of plain water, remove the wool, drain the tub, refill the tub with hot water and inexpensive shampoo (I used about 4 oz. shampoo for about 5 lbs of fleece), and gently push the mesh bags of wool under the soapy water to soak again. I let it sit in the soapy water overnight. Since our Coopworth is not very greasy, just dirty, this seemed to work fine. I am told that with greasy fleece, you should take the wool out of the water while still hot to prevent the lanolin from re-depositing on the wool and making it sticky. If you use laundry detergent, do a final rinse with some vinegar in the water to neutralize the alkalinity- wool does not like an alkaline environment- it makes wool brittle! Also, in her article in Shepherd Magazine (Oct. 2006, pg. 30) on washing wool, Hope Yankey warned of using detergent with brighteners, as this can interfere with dyeing of the wool later. I guess this would be OK to use if the wool was to be used only for Santa beards.
After the wash, I again remove the wool, drain the tub, refill the tub with hot water, and gently push the mesh bags of wool under the plain water to rinse. I like to add a little cream rinse to the final rinse water…makes the wool smell so good! You may need more than one wash and/or rinse, depending on how dirty the wool was. Some people say not to "shock" the wool by putting cool wet wool in hot water, but I found this was not a problem as long as I was gentle with the wool. I also like to put the bags of wool in my top loading washer to spin out the water between all steps and after the final rinsing. Lay the bags out on a surface that air can penetrate from underneath to dry. I set up my skirting table in the sun. After the wool was mostly dry, I took it out of the mesh bags and spread it a little to finish drying. I laid a cotton sheet over it to keep stuff from falling on it.
Some of the wool I then dyed using the "immersion" pot method to give a mostly solid color. I say "mostly" because I found that the weathered tips took up more dye, and turned out a little darker than the cut end.
There are other techniques to maintain individual lock structure, though more labor intensive than the one I ended up using; Purchase tulle yardage off the bolt, lay it out and arrange locks in a single layer over half of the length, leaving spaces between the locks. Turn the other half over the top to make a sandwich. Baste all the locks into the mesh (I tried safety pins…worked OK). When done, it will look like a quilted batt. Wash it in hot water with some shampoo, spin out in a top loading washer, rinse, and repeat if needed. Hang on a clothesline or surface that air can penetrate from underneath to dry. Alternately, you can cut the tulle into 18" X 24" pieces, lay the locks lengthwise on the tulle about one inch from the edges, and roll into a "sausage", tying the sausage at the ends tightly and between the locks loosely. Wash and rinse. To see this "sausage" technique, go to; Washing Wool.
Happy spinning!
Jim and Martha McGrath
HC 72 Box 14D
Franklin, WV, 26807
E-Mail Us

subset: commoncrawl


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My images are now available for purchase/download here on the website. Simply click on "Shop" in the menu bar to browse through the photographs.
For the next few days, the image inventory will be limited as I work on uploading each photograph to the shop.
Every image will be a full-size jpeg file, without my watermark. A full-size jpeg is typically large enough to print a 40″ X 30″ photograph (depending on the dimensions of the original image), with no loss in resolution.
The images will cost $5 each, payable via PayPal. Once purchased, you will be able to download the image as many times as you'd like.
All proceeds from the sale of my images will be donated to the Steve Gleason Initiative Foundation. This foundation is a 503c-3 non-profit organization dedicated to the following causes:
- Help provide individuals with muscular diseases or injuries with leading edge technology, equipment and services;
- Create a global conversation about ALS to ultimately find solutions and an end to the disease.
- Raise public awareness toward ALS by providing and documenting extraordinary life adventures for individuals with muscular diseases or injuries.
For more information about Steve Gleason and his Initiative Foundation, please visit this link: http://www.teamgleason.org
Thank you!


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@phorosnutrition Protein pancake review.
1/2 cup svg – 220cal / 3f / 18c / 30p/ 2 fiber
First off, went to make 2 svgs as it directs a cup of water, but that was to much liquid so I had to add in another half svg to thicken it up. Good looking pancakes after cooked for the most part, but not extremely fluffy, and they cook fast. Definitely not a pancake I would eat plain, but with a good syrup it doesn't taste bad. It's a bit dry of a cake, that could be either from the oat Flour, or whey concentrate, and the cake itself could use a bit more base flavor. Macros for the cakes themselves are pretty solid, and similar to brands like @flapjacked , but these are slightly lower carb and higher protein. Yield for a batch is also pretty similar to competitors as well. 2-4 cakes per svg depending on size. Ingredient list is fairly short as only 6 things listed, so you know everything going in which is a plus. Worth mentioning that this blend is 0 sugar! .
Overall I gotta go with a 6/10. Macros are good, but taste needs improvement.
Protein Pancake Mix by Phoros Nutrition High Protein Low Carb Original Recipe, 1lb
Check out my latest video talking about 0 Calorie Foods, including the syrup I used on this stack!


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The National Sports Museum, located at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), celebrates the place of sport in Australian life and promotes national identity and pride. It provides a unique opportunity to showcase what Australian sportsmen and women have achieved on the world stage by exhibiting a collection of sports memorabilia from across all Australian sports in a single location. It is a national focal point for achievements and values in sport, in particular the notion that the pursuit of excellence at the highest level is consistent with a commitment to fair play. It serves as an inspiration to the youth of Australia to be active, set goals and achieve them, and it protects and preserves the nation's sporting heritage, ensuring our unique sporting culture and history is enhanced and appreciated.
The Museum houses The Sport Australia Hall of Fame, the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, the Australian Football Hall of Fame and the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. Exhibition galleries feature Australia's participation in the Olympic Games, the history of the MCG, and displays about many sporting codes. Temporary exhibition areas and a cinema address the sporting issues and events of the day. This is a vibrant, exciting and attractive mix of sporting heritage and interactive entertainment aimed at young Australians and match day patrons as well as the MCG's traditional tourist groups seven days a week.
Located at Gate 3 of the MCG, the National Sports Museum was opened in 2008 following the MCG's northern stand redevelopment project.
The Sport Australia Hall of Fame has a visible home within the National Sports Museum - a place to recognise and honour Australia's greatest sportsmen and women. Including athletes from all sports and those in roles supportive to athletes, the Museum provides a rich context for the achievements and contributions of our Members and Legends. Together, SAHOF and the National Sports Museum inspire and encourage the youth of our nation.
Each Member and Legend of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame holds VIP status at the National Sports Museum, enabling a lifetime of free admission to the Museum.
Spirit of Sport Exhibition – Legends Wall
Information about access is available on the Museum's website, HERE.
Patrons with special needs should read THIS page.
Please refer to the Museum's website HERE for all details of entry costs.
The National Sports Museum is open from 10:00am to 5:00pm daily (except Good Friday, Melbourne Cup Day and Christmas Day, Good Friday). Trading times vary on major MCG event days.
We recommend you allocate at least 90 minutes to fully experience the Museum and the associated Melbourne Cricket Club Museum. Guided tours of the MCG are also available and these last for just over one hour.
Please check the latest updates HERE for information about admission times on match days.
E: www.nsm.org.au P: 03 9657 8879


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The Pelège Group
Range of professions within the real estate sector.
A wide panoply of tools available.
Range of professions within the real estate sector.
A wide panoply of tools available.
The Pelège Group participates in all facets of real estate: residential transactions, property management, real estate development, tertiary real estate market, works management and oversight, seasonal rentals or even estate advice.
The Group has the assistance of 15 affiliated companies uniting experienced and efficient professionals with numerous specialised divisions (legal, financial, works, IT, communication...), so as to guarantee clients and partners top quality service.
Presided by Michel Pelège since the founding of the Ggroup, two major 100% family owned holding companies control, define and drive the branches of the group: Michel Pelège Investissement (M.P.I) and Immobilière Michel Pelège (I.M.P).
The primary holding company of the Group, M.P.I, manages the companies GTF SA, SAS Vaneau, SAS Vaneau Cote d'Azur, Lecobel SA (Vaneau Bruxelles), GTF REIM, Assurances Saint-Germain, Vaneau China Investment and participates in the ownership of Bourgeois Immobilier and GTF Pharma.
Michel Pelège presides over the M.P.I Supervisory Board and Anne-Laurence de Lagrange Chancel over the Board of Directors.
I.M.P is the majority shareholder of the real estate development and oversight company, Proxity.
With a substantial presence in and around Paris, as well as on the French Riviera, through over thirty agencies, the Group turned towards international expansion, with the acquisition of Brussel based company Lecobel in 2014 and with the founding of Vaneau China Investement in 2015.
Michel PELEGE
Managing Director and CEO, Chief Executive Officer
Rental Management
Building Management/Body Corporate
Corporate real estate
Rental Management
Building Management/Body Corporate
Luxury real estate
Luxury real estate
Insurance brokerage
Real Estate in Brussels
Investing in France
Real estate and asset management on the French Riviera
Vaneau patrimoine & investissements
Personal estate management
Real estate development
Works management and oversight
Project management
Property management
for over 60 years
For optimal rental return
Giving value to real estate property
Specialists in residential rentals
The specialist in corporate real estate
Property ownership, asset management
A selection of professional real estate for sale and rent on
Property management on the french riviera
Insurance brokerage
Imagine, develop, build
Luxury end real estate since 1972
Luxury real estate on the french riviera
Estate management and investment advice
Quality real estate in brussels
Investing in French real estate
We are excited to welcome you to our new website www.groupepelege.fr , online show-case of the Pelège Group. There you'll find a General Presentation of our Group and its professions, as well as detailed presentation of all the Groups companies.
Good surfing!
Most recent creation of the Groups companies, Vaneau China Investment aims to counsel and guide Chinese clients (private individuals and companies) in their real estate investment projects in France : residences, office and commercial premises, buildings, real estate development....
Managed by Zhen Li, Vaneau China Investment works closely with its clients, a third office recently opened in Beijing, now complements the two other existing offices in Paris and Hong Kong.


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To stay up to date in today's marketplace, your company should be a part of whatever social media is hot. Right now Pinterest is blazing hot online and your company needs to hop on the bandwagon if it hasn't already. Need 5 ways this will benefit your company? Here they are:
Show the Visual Side to Your Brand
Most products or services have a visual side to them, even if it's just a logo and a few other distinctive graphics. Take the time to prepare aesthetically pleasing visual content to share. For example if your brand creates blog posts for pet products, then make sure all the pictures on the blog posts that direct back to those posts are eye-catching. If you have a service-based business, you can still select pictures on a website or blog that are attractive and will catch someone's attention.
Publicize – Using Pinterest
You want to be where your target market is. So if your target market is on Pinterest, then you want to be there, too. Chances are good there is at least one segment of your target audience on Pinterest. So you need to be there. Consumers won't know you're there though. Let them know by publicizing it on all forms of media that leaves your company or business. Your Pinterest page will receive traffic, even if it's just for curiosity.
Use Instagram
Be creative with photos. Use a program like Instagram to highlight certain boards. Instagram is a photo sharing application that allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter, then share it on a variety of social networking sites. Pinterest's focus is on visual appeal. The more you make your pictures exciting to view, the better chances you have of peaking consumers' interest.
Make Sure the Pins are Something Others Will Want to Re-Pin
When you create a pin, make sure it links to something on your website, blog, or other social network. Not only should it link to something, it should link to something your consumers will want to share their own followers on Pinterest by re-pinning your content. Also, and this is the most important element, make sure it has an eye-catching graphic attached to it.
Do a Marketing Campaign
Pinterest is a great place to do creative campaigns. Since so much of campaigns are visual, Pinterest is perfect and takes the social media aspect of campaigns to a whole new level. The types of campaigns Pinterest can help with are:
- Contests: Allow consumer to create images that might be featured on the company Pinterest page.
- Voting: Ask consumers on a specific board what their favorite item is or pick what other boards they would like to be featured.
- How-To Demos: Demos can be done via videos, posts, and other items to let consumers get better insight into your company's service or product.
Marketing your business on Pinterest is a must in today's online social media world. It's a social network that is around to stay. There are a number of ways you can build interest and even create hype to draw attention to your company and your brand for Pinterest that's growing every day.


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All Hallow's Read!
Give a book for Halloween
After their family is attacked and their father is brutally murdered, the Locke siblings, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode, move with their mother to Keyhouse, their ancestral New England home.
Keyhouse has many doors, and many keys. When a door is unlocked, it might lead somewhere other than where you'd expect—or you might be changed in crossing the threshold. Even in their grief, exploring Keyhouse is an exciting prospect for the Lockes.
But the Lockes aren't Keyhouse's only inhabitants. The creature who caused their father's death is behind one door, searching for a way out—and the murderer under its control is outside, searching for a way in.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Locke & Key is an amazing comic series. It's horror that will keep you up at night, but that's not all: it's a richly layered, well-developed fantasy / mystery / suspense-thriller, with gorgeous artwork.
Terrifying elements: Extremely grisly murders (with pictures). Evil creatures taking people over and making them go on killing sprees. Horrible things happening to characters you are fond of. A key that kills you for a bit, a key that opens your brain, a key that plays a music box that controls people, a key that lets the evil out…
Good for: This series is very disturbing and is not appropriate for children or adults who aren't into nightmares. If you are an adult and you want your pants scared off you, this series is amazing.
Locke & Key is written by Joe Hill (who you may remember from my 5-star review of Horns from last All Hallow's Read) and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez. This story is currently collected into 5 volumes, with the 6th and and final volume on the way. The fifth volume is the best yet!


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Delivery Policy from AdultCity.com.au online Adult Shop:
After ordering online with AdultCity.com.au, you will receive an email confirmation from eWAY containing your order details (if you have provided your email address). We will normally confirm receipt of your order within a few minutes of ordering. We will attempt to send your goods via Australia Post within 1 business day; however if goods are unavailable delivery will take a little longer.
If you wish to query a delivery or have any other questions please contact us at email@example.com.
All orders before 4pm are posted the same day, Monday to Friday.
All delivery times are estimates, as we cannot guarantee what is beyond our control.
South East Queensland: 1 - 2 working days
Central Queensland: 2 - 5 working days
Northern Queensland: 1 - 3 working days
Sydney and surrounds: 1 - 3 working days
Northern New South Wales: 1 - 3 working days
Southern New South Wales: 2 - 5 working days
Melbourne and surrounds: 2 - 3 working days
Western Victoria: 5 - 7 working days
Northern Victoria: 2 - 3 working days
Adelaide: 2 - 3 working days
South Australia: 5 - 7 working days
Perth and Western Australia: 7 - 10 working days
Tasmania: 3 - 7 working days
Darwin and Northern Territory: 3 - 7 working days
ACT: 2 - 3 working days
We do not take any responsibility for misplaced parcels. We offer tracking number services for your peace of mind however we cannot guarantee what is beyond our control.
We offer shipping insurance for a small fee to cover any lost, damaged or misplaced items. If you do not choose to add insurance to your order, we will not be held responsible in any way for any item that is damaged or lost.
Please note: A signature may be required on receipt of orders being delivered. If you are not going to be home, it may be better to send the parcel to your work address. Alternatively, if you will not be home to sign for the delivery, you have the option to mark you shipment with 'Authority to Leave'. If you wish to do so, please make note in your order.
In using AdultCity.com.au you accept that an order
is considered delivered when the postal company updates the Postal tracking number for
that shipment to 'Delivered'.
We will only ship to the address listed on your order form.
Pick up options are not available.
Please note that we are not responsible for postal damage or loss of items marked as "authority to leave".
Postage Insurance - Add postage insurance to your order to guard against loss or damage while in transit.
Postage Insurance is charged at rate of $2.00 per $100 insured.


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Yorkstone Paving – Pathways and Drivewayssyswdbmagic1
Yorkstone Paving Is Excellent for Pathways and Driveways
Yorkstone is a sandstone that is formed through the sedimentary process of silt deposited by rivers in Yorkshire, England. It is a stone that has been used for centuries and has a composition of iron oxides, clay, feldspar, mica, and quartz. The stone is very durable and wears well and is widely used in buildings for walls and landscapes as paving. It can vary in color depending on the materials in its composition.
The stone was initially used for building walls and roofs, but in the present day, this stone is more often used for paving. Yorkstone paving has been extensively used for footpaths roads and other uses where advantage can be taken of the stone's durability and versatility. This paving material has a color that varies from red to brown, with the inside of the stone having a sandy yellow color. Paving is made out of sandstone that can be cut or riven by splitting the blocks apart. Some Yorkshire stone cannot be split and requires to be sawed. These stones are more suitable for building walls and not suitable for paving.
Yorkstone paving that is made of riven blocks has a naturally rough surface for stones that have been split by hand. The paving is generally of a thickness that varies from 40mm to 60mm, but specific thicknesses can be obtained if the quantity so required is large enough. The top grade of this paving is a sandy yellow color and will have dressed edges that allow for uniform patterns in the paving. You can also get such paving in edges that are sawed and where lengths and widths are not equal.
It is best to avoid paving material that has come from soft silty layers and has lamination. Such stone can split when it dries out. The color of the sandstone will vary depending on the amount of iron oxides in the original stone blocks. You will, therefore, find the stone that has colors that range from gray to brown. This variation in color lends its charm to any paving or footpath and can significantly add to its elegance.
Paving is required for any space or area that will see the movement of people across it. It helps such movement to be easy in any place where you need a traversable pathway. Stone paving may not be cheap when you compare it with concrete and other materials, but it gives a natural look that is hard to obtain in any other surfaces. This paving also has a lot of resale value, and can easily be reused if it is carefully removed from its original position.
When the thickness of the paving used is over 70mm, the paving can even be suitable for vehicular movement and if properly laid on a firm foundation can make for excellent residential driveways. The stone weathers and continues to change its characteristics over the years, without in any way losing its ability to perform the function it is laid out for.


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The richest 1% of the population owns more of the world's wealth than the remaining 99%.
If you are reading this it is because you belong to, or you may want to join the 1%.
Now that you have escaped financial irrelevance, let us advise you in the three key areas that you will need to deal with: growing, protecting and preserving your wealth.
Whether you are an individual, represent a corporation or a government, our team of experts will provide you with first-rate information, and will build an unbreachable firewall within which you and your investments will be secure. We are, furthermore, directly involved in the institutions in charge of developing the international financial and fiscal regulatory frameworks.
At WTF Bank we don't merely adapt to the circumstances, we determine the circumstances. Welcome to WTF Bank, where your interests are ours.


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Watering our plants is one of the best activities that we can do during our free time. This is because we not only show our care to our plants, but we also inhale clean and fresh air. However, you need to have the best flexible garden hose so that you can easily water your plants. In this article, we're going to show you the best ones.
The Benefits Of Using A Flexible Garden Hose
1. Easy to Use and Lightweight
One of the best things about using a flexible garden hose is that you won't have any problem carrying it around. It is very lightweight because of the materials that it's made of. Compared to rubber hoses, these flexible hoses are usually made of plastic, paper-like materials, and light stainless steel compounds. This is what contributes to the lighter weight of flexible garden hoses. It's also because of this that you'll find it very easy to use. It just makes watering hassle-free and fun.
2. Compact and Portable
Another cool thing about these flexible garden hoses is that they are very good in saving space. These hoses are long, where some even reach to 80 or 100 feet in length. However, when they are not in use, they retract and become shorter, thus making them easier to store. You can even place them inside your cabinet or shelf because they don't take up much space.
These are very compact and portable. You can even bring it with you on your camping trips or anywhere you want to go.
3. Easier Usage
The other benefit that you'll get in using a flexible garden hose is that you no longer have to roll it up when you're done using it. In the case of flexible garden hoses, these automatically contract and roll themselves up when you're done using them. You don't even need to have a reel because you can just leave it nicely tucked on the ground.
4. Kink and Twist-Free
This is perhaps one of the best benefits that you'll get out of using a flexible garden hose. The most common problem when you water your plants with a hose is that the hose usually twists or kinks up. When this happens, the water cannot flow through the hose. Thus it cannot go out of the other end. This happens because the texture of the hose easily coils up.
With the help of a flexible garden hose, you don't have to deal with this problem because they are assured to be kink-free. This has to do with the hose's expandable and flexible texture.
5. Better Durability
These flexible garden hoses are also more durable compared to the regular rubber and vinyl hoses. This is because they are made of lightweight and sturdy materials. They are flexible, which means that they don't easily get deformed or get damaged. The hose can easily stretch and adapt to the environment. Though they may look a little bit flimsy, it's just an illusion. These are durable garden hoses that will surely be with you for a long time.
Top 5 Best Flexible Garden Hose Reviews
1. LOMOND SUPPLIES Expandable Garden Hose
Via: Amazon.com
The LOMOND SUPPLIES Expandable Garden Hose is a highly recommended flexible garden hose that you can buy because it features solid brass fittings and a durable brass nozzle. This ensures you that it is a durable product. Aside from that, it has two nozzles which give you more freedom to use it for a variety of outdoor activities. It's also pretty lightweight and compact, which is why you will surely enjoy watering your plants even for an extended amount of time. When not in use, this hose is just 17 feet in length. This then expands to a whopping 75 feet when you're using it.
- This garden hose is made of high-quality materials.
- It's also very lightweight. You can easily bring this and carry it with you anywhere.
- This is also a very easy to use flexible garden hose. Just stick one end of it to the water source, let the water flow, and it automatically expands.
- The spray nozzle is not that good. There are times when water can't easily come out of it. There are also times when the sprayed water is too widely spread.
2. Gnome Platinum Garden Hose
Via: Amazon.com
The Gnome Platinum Garden Hose is also a pretty good choice if you're searching for a flexible garden hose. When you use this product, you don't have to worry about kinks and tangles, because its flexible texture assures you that. Aside from that, it features heavy duty solid brass connector that has its own on and off valve. This is 17 feet in length. But when you let water flow through it, this automatically expands to 50 feet.
- This flexible garden hose is very easy to use.
- It's also pretty durable. When you use it, you'll feel that it is made from premium materials. It feels stable and robust even though it is flexible.
- Water can flow through it smoothly. There are no sudden slowdowns or water bursts.
- There's a bit of problem with its contraction because there are times when it suddenly contracts. It's because of this that it sometimes do not reach its maximum length of 50 feet.
3. FlatLED Garden Water Hose
Via: Amazon.com
You can also try out the FlatLED Garden Water Hose because this is a reliable and durable flexible garden hose. It features a durable latex hose that ensures it won't have any problem tolerating high water pressures. It's also designed to be very lightweight. You'll find it very easy to carry around especially if you need to cover some areas. This garden hose can expand up to 25 feet, which is enough if you have a small to medium sized garden or lawn.
- This is one of the most lightweight flexible hoses because of the latex material that it has.
- It's also very flexible. What's best is that they return to their original position because they're kink-free.
- They take up a very small space, considering that they can only expand to 25 feet in length.
- You need to take extra care of it. See to it that it won't run over by your car or to be consistently stepped on because they can easily show signs of wear and tear.
4. Vita Guardian Expanding Water Hose
Via: Amazon.com
The Vita Guardian Expanding Water Hose is probably one of the best flexible garden hoses in the market today. It can expand up to three times its original size, as it can reach up to 50 feet in length. It is also very durable as it is made of high-strength polyester. Meanwhile, its interior is made of natural latex. This makes it a robust hose that can tolerate high water pressures. You are also assured that this won't tangle up because of the flexible textured design it has. What's best is that it offers you a 30-day money back guarantee. For sure, you'll have the peace of mind when you have this product.
- This flexible garden hose is very sturdy. You'll feel that it is made of high-quality premium materials when you're using it.
- The solid brass on its ends adds aesthetical appeal and also functional support.
- It's effortless to handle. You can maneuver it in different directions.
- This is one of the most affordable flexible garden hoses in the market.
- It can expand very fast.
- It's a little bit heavy due to the sturdy and high-quality materials it has.
5. Green Mill Expandable Garden Hose
Via: Amazon.com
The Green Mill Expandable Garden Hose is another flexible garden hose you can also try. It is 17 feet in length but can expand to 50 feet. It features a lightweight design, making it very easy to use. You don't have to exert much force to carry it. It even has a nozzle that features seven settings, giving you more freedom when watering.
- It expands to its maximum length in just a matter of a few seconds.
- It is a well-manufactured product, making it look and feel durable.
- This is also very lightweight, lighter than other flexible garden hoses that have similar features.
- It is a bit expensive.
The best product to emerge out of the five reviewed flexible garden hoses is the Vita Guardian Expanding Water Hose. This is because it has all of the features that is required of a reliable, durable, and fully functional flexible garden hose. It can expand up to 50 feet which means that you can cover a vast area with it, and it is also pretty lightweight and affordable. This will surely help you have a more enjoyable and easier time in watering your plants


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Archive for the 'television' tag
Smart TVs Just as George Orwell Envisioned
As I mentioned recently, I've been immersed in dystopian novels. George Orwell would mutter I told you so about these latest Smart TV revelations if he was still around.
Careful what you say around your TV. It may be listening. And blabbing. A single sentence buried in a dense "privacy policy" for Samsung's Internet-connected SmartTV advises users that its nifty voice command feature might capture more than just your request to play the latest episode of Downton Abbey. "Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party," the policy reads.
Samsung's privacy policy notes that in addition to voice commands being transmitted, information about your device, "including device identifiers," may also be beamed over the Internet to the third-party service, "or to the extent necessary to provide Voice Recognition features to you."
McSherry called that bit of qualifying language "worrisome."
"Samsung may just be giving itself some wiggle room as the service evolves, but that language could be interpreted pretty broadly," she said.
(click here to continue reading Your Samsung SmartTV Is Spying on You, Basically – The Daily Beast.)
Samsung eventually admitted the 3rd party:
Samsung has confirmed that its "smart TV" sets are listening to customers' every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets.
The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share the information, including sensitive data, with Samsung as well as third-party services.
Samsung has updated its policy and named the third party in question, Nuance Communications, Inc.
(click here to continue reading Samsung warns customers not to discuss personal information in front of smart TVs.)
Hmm, sounds familiar. Remember this from a few weeks ago:
Consumers have bought more than 11 million internet-connected Vizio televisions since 2010. But according to a complaint filed by the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General, consumers didn't know that while they were watching their TVs, Vizio was watching them. The lawsuit challenges the company's tracking practices and offers insights into how established consumer protection principles apply to smart technology.
Starting in 2014, Vizio made TVs that automatically tracked what consumers were watching and transmitted that data back to its servers. Vizio even retrofitted older models by installing its tracking software remotely. All of this, the FTC and AG allege, was done without clearly telling consumers or getting their consent.
What did Vizio know about what was going on in the privacy of consumers' homes? On a second-by-second basis, Vizio collected a selection of pixels on the screen that it matched to a database of TV, movie, and commercial content. What's more, Vizio identified viewing data from cable or broadband service providers, set-top boxes, streaming devices, DVD players, and over-the-air broadcasts. Add it all up and Vizio captured as many as 100 billion data points each day from millions of TVs.
Vizio then turned that mountain of data into cash by selling consumers' viewing histories to advertisers and others. And let's be clear: We're not talking about summary information about national viewing trends. According to the complaint, Vizio got personal. The company provided consumers' IP addresses to data aggregators, who then matched the address with an individual consumer or household. Vizio's contracts with third parties prohibited the re-identification of consumers and households by name, but allowed a host of other personal details – for example, sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education, and home ownership. And Vizio permitted these companies to track and target its consumers across devices.
(click here to continue reading What Vizio was doing behind the TV screen | Federal Trade Commission.)
Continuous Video Recording in Progress
You didn't realize that your habits were worth so much money to the corporate surveillance world did you? Too bad the data mining industry doesn't share in any of the profits they've harvested from your habits and propensities.
Plus the whole listening to you every second might not always be in your own best interests:
Upon further investigation, however, police began suspecting foul play: Broken knobs and bottles, as well as blood spots around the tub, suggested there had been a struggle. A few days later, the Arkansas chief medical examiner ruled Collins's death a homicide — and police obtained a search warrant for Bates's home.
Inside, detectives discovered a bevy of "smart home" devices, including a Nest thermostat, a Honeywell alarm system, a wireless weather monitoring system and an Amazon Echo. Police seized the Echo and served a warrant to Amazon, noting in the affidavit there was "reason to believe that Amazon.com is in possession of records related to a homicide investigation being conducted by the Bentonville Police Department."
That warrant threw a wrinkle into what might have been a traditional murder investigation, as first reported by the Information, a news site that covers the technology industry.
While police have long seized computers, cellphones and other electronics to investigate crimes, this case has raised fresh questions about privacy issues regarding devices like the Amazon Echo or the Google Home, voice-activated personal command centers that are constantly "listening." Namely, is there a difference in the reasonable expectation of privacy one should have when dealing with a device that is "always on" in one's own home?
The Echo is equipped with seven microphones and responds to a "wake word," most commonly "Alexa." When it detects the wake word, it begins streaming audio to the cloud, including a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word, according to the Amazon website.
A recording and transcription of the audio is logged and stored in the Amazon Alexa app and must be manually deleted later. For instance, if you asked your Echo, "Alexa, what is the weather right now?" you could later go back to the app to find out exactly what time that question was asked.
(click here to continue reading Can Alexa help solve a murder? Police think so — but Amazon won't give up her data. – The Washington Post.)
Luckily, my "dumb" tv still chugs along…
Update: the Samsung story is from 2015, the Amazon and the Vizio stories are more recent. Main point still stands however…
TV Stations Accept Political Ad Cash — and Leave Viewers in the Dark | Free Press
Media analysts project that campaigns, Super PACs and "social welfare" groups will spend a record-breaking $3.3 billion on political ads by Election Day.
And let's consider these stations — are they offering any local news coverage to debunk the lies in these ads? Are they exposing the deep-pocketed interests behind the groups buying ad time?
…Free Press took a deeper look at local news coverage in five of the cities — Charlotte, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Milwaukee and Tampa — where ad spending has been highest.
We inspected the political files of stations in these markets, identified the groups most actively placing political ads and pored over hundreds of hours of local news transcripts. In all five of these markets, we found that local newscasts were lacking when it came to covering the ads that dominated their stations.
In other words, they provided no local stories exposing the special interests behind these ads, and only one station among the 20 surveyed devoted eve
TV Stations Accept Political Ad Cash — and Leave Viewers in the Dark | Free Press
Poverty Pickets Get Paper-Bag Dousing On Madison Avenue – 1966
Mad Men finally began Season 5 after a seventeen month hiatus, and opening the first episode was an incident fairly closely based on fact, and resonating with the current Occupy Wall Street movement. From the New York Times Archive, May, 28, 1966:
More than 300 poor people and antipoverty workers picketed the Madison Avenue headquarters of the Office of Economic Opportunity yesterday, demanding more money for city programs, but they received only a pelting by water bombs apparently thrown by irate office workers.
(click here to continue reading Poverty Pickets Get Paper-Bag Dousing On Madison Avenue – POVERTY PICKETS GET A DOUSING – Front Page – NYTimes.com.)
You have to be a subscriber to read the whole article (or be able to go to a library, how quaint). Here's a few paragraphs I ran OCR1 on:
Shortly after the demonstration began, a series of handprinted signs were taped to the inside of the second-story windows of 285 Madison Avenue, half a block away. The building is occupied almost entirely by the Young & Rubicam advertising agency.
The signs read: "If' you want money, get yourself a job"; "You voted for Lindsay, see him"; "Support your local police–no review board," and "Goldwater '68."
A container of water was pitched out of one of the windows of the building, splashing two spectators.
Later, two demonstrators were hit by water-filled paper bags thrown from the building. One of the water bombs struck James Hill, 19 years old, of 224 York Street, Brooklyn, who then slipped and fell to the pavement. He was not hurt. The other struck 9-year old Mike Robinson of 777 Fox Street, the Bronx.
Mrs. Esmé Robinson, the boy's mother, and several other angry women immediately went up to the sixth-floor offices of Young & Rubicam, from which several onlookers said they had seen the water bombs thrown.
But a secretary in the office said:"That's ridiculous, they didn't come from this floor. This is the executive floor. That's utterly ridiculous."
"Don't you call us ridiculous. Is this what Madison Avenue represents?" shouted one of the women.
"And they call us savages," exclaimed Mrs. Vivian Harris, another of the women.
Manager Apologizes
The women were invited to the second floor to meet with Frank Coppola, the Young & Rubicam office manager, who apologized for the incident. He told them:
"We have 1,600 people in this building, and I can't control all of them. I've ordered all the windows closed and I have men patrolling all the floors to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Pretty much as portrayed on Mad Men…
New York TImes May, 28, 1966.PNG
- Optical Character Recognition [↩]
Bill Moyers Returns
PBS should be ashamed, siding with the Fox News Tea Party Republicans instead their long-time employee, Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers has more credibility in his shoelace than any corporate putz working for PBS.
Bill Moyers says he is returning to public television in January, but he won't be found on the PBS lineup. His new hourlong weekly show, called "Moyers & Company," will focus on one-on-one interviews with people not often heard on television, "thinkers who can help us understand the chaos of this time," Mr. Moyers said in a telephone interview. "We're going to be concerned with the state of democracy and the state of affairs, but we will leave the daily and weekly story to others and try to do the back story."
Earlier this year, Mr. Moyers, who retired from PBS in April 2010, said he had received $2 million in financing from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for the new show, but PBS had told him it couldn't find an appropriate time slot.
(click here to continue reading Bill Moyers Returns to Public Television, but Not PBS – NYTimes.com.)
links for 2011-04-04
Well, the deal has been closed, and it sounds like there's not a ton to worry about in the short term, at the very least. Weiner has signed a deal for two more seasons, which would be the show's fifth and sixth, and has extended his deal with the Lionsgate studio, so that if AMC decides they want a seventh season, Weiner will be the one running it. As for the various contentious issues (which I discussed on Tuesday night), here's what I've been told from a source close to the show:
With all the fear of radiation fallout, I thought it might be useful to tell you about a cheap, effective, homemade radiation tester you can easily assemble and rely upon. Follow these simple instructions, IT REALLY WORKS!!OPEN A BAG OF POPCORN
Prime Suspect Remake
I agree completely with Matt Zoller Seitz:
"Prime Suspect" wasn't burdened by such pressures. It wasn't an American-style network TV show; it was a series of movies, or miniseries, or movie-miniseries. (That I'm having trouble just labeling it says a lot.) Created and overseen by Lynda LaPlante, it debuted in 1991 with a 200-minute, two-part drama. The next 200-minute two-parter aired 17 months later, in December 1992. Another aired in December 1993. The fourth "Prime Suspect" departed from the template, offering three self-contained 100-minute stories that aired three weeks apart. The final three installments returned to the 200-minute, two-part model, airing in 1996, 2003 and 2006. It is hard to imagine any broadcast network indulging that kind of "whatever works" production schedule — and that's the first warning sign that this project has an excellent chance of being flat-out bad, or else competent but compromised, like ABC's short-lived American version of the ITV series "Cracker."
If an Americanized "Prime Suspect" ends up on the NBC grid, it will likely debut at midseason with a six-episode limited run. If it gets picked up, its producers will have to make 22 episodes a year, each running about 42 minutes. The drama will be stuffed into ad-friendly five- to seven-minute chunks like Spam packed in cans. And although there might be some content that's considered "edgy" by network standards, I doubt we'll see anything like the opening act of "Prime Suspect 1," which showed a group of male cops and a male coroner examining the naked, pasty, hideously hacked-up corpse of a female rape-and-murder victim. Far from being gratuitous, the scene was integral to the program's unflinching attitude toward the vilest human behavior. It looked at savagery through a cop's eyes. And the sexualized brutality showcased in that first scene connected to the professional and personal struggle of DCI Tennison, a great detective whose male colleagues treated her as, at best, a female interloper, at worst a piece of meat.
An NBC version of "Prime Suspect" can't match the first 20 minutes of the first British show, or spend 200 minutes (five regular-length American broadcast TV episodes!) on a story as racially and sexually charged as the one that drove "Prime Suspect 2," or attempt a muckraking urban epic along the lines of "Prime Suspect 3," which dealt bluntly with prostitution, child pornography and the death of a "rent boy" without seeming exploitative. Nearly 20 years after the debut of "NYPD Blue," NBC and its broadcast brethren still aren't tough enough or wise enough to handle that sort of thing. Commercial cable is only slightly better-equipped. There's violence galore on FX and AMC and other commercial cable channels, but it's mostly stylized genre violence (action thriller mayhem, sci-fi gore). They're still oddly shy about sex, shooting around naughty bits when they show the act at all. And they won't let characters say "fuck"; when John Slattery's character said it on "Mad Men" — a series aimed squarely at adults — AMC bleeped him. (And since I mentioned "Cracker," let's note that on the original British series, Robbie Coltrane's Fitz was a chain smoker. ABC didn't want to air a show with a hero who smoked, so on the U.S. remake starring the late Robert Pastorelli, the hero was an ex-smoker who kept a cigarette tucked behind one ear.)
More important, American TV is averse to letting race, class, politics and other touchy elements drive stories because it might make viewers and sponsors skittish. That's why the American crime show's favorite bad guy is the serial killer, a mythologically exaggerated monster whose existence lets filmmakers titillate and terrify while declining to engage with society at large.
Jane Tennison never dealt with effete, wisecracking, Hannibal Lecter-type bogeymen. She lived in reality. Over 15 years,"Prime Suspect" dealt frankly with sex, sexism, race, class and the intrusion of politics into police work. It did so subtly, prizing plausibility and never delivering a jolt without reason. And it treated time as an ally instead of an enemy. One of the pleasures of "Prime Suspect" was the opportunity to re-engage with it after a long break and discover that Tennison had risen in rank or settled into a new job or a new relationship. The gaps between installments enhanced the sense that you were seeing excerpts from a life in progress.
You can't do any of that on NBC. You can't re-create or even approximate "Prime Suspect" in a commercial broadcast network series that airs 22 episodes a year. The material can't breathe in the same way. And forget about being unflinching. What passes for unflinching on NBC is "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," an entertaining but mostly absurd procedural that bears about as much qualitative relation to "Prime Suspect" as "Training Day" does to "Serpico." And don't even get me started on TNT's "The Closer," a fitfully entertaining series that has wrongheadedly been described as an American answer to "Prime Suspect," presumably because its main character is a strong-willed female detective. (It's not a subtle psychological drama, it's a suck-up-to-the-star spectacle about a mercurial Southern belle following her muse and dazzling the nonbelievers. "Prime Suspect" writes in plain script, "The Closer" in big block letters.) Not many American cop shows, broadcast or cable, have engaged with reality as directly as "Prime Suspect" — and the best of those were produced not in Hollywood, but in Baltimore: "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Corner," and "The Wire."
(click here to continue reading The problem with American remakes of British shows – Prime Suspect – Salon.com.)
Coincidentally, Netflixed the entire 7 seasons of Prime Suspect recently, and enjoyed them immensely. I doubt very seriously it will translate into American-style television drama. Maybe if it was on HBO, maybe, but certainly not on NBC. The remake may turn out to be ok, but it will not be anything like the Helen Mirren classic, which you should watch if you haven't. Or re-watch if it has been a while…
Helen Mirren's Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, the only female DCI on an old boy's club London homicide squad, is like a phantom lurking around the edges of the action while the men rush through their latest murder case, joshing and winking in the kind of male camaraderie the cop genre has celebrated for decades. When DCI Shefford dies of a sudden heart attack, Tennison demands to take over. Despite her superintendent's resistance ("Give her this case and she'll start expecting more."), she becomes the squad's first woman to head a murder investigation. Scrutinized at every moment by her superior officers, Tennison is faced with a case that spirals out from a single murder to a serial spree, a second-in-command who undermines her authority and her investigation at every turn, a team resistant to taking orders from a woman, and a private life unraveling due to her professional diligence. Lynda La Plant's script is a compelling thriller riddled with ambiguity that turns dead ends, blind alleys, and the mundane legwork of real-life cops into fascinating details. Mirren commands the role of Tennison with authority, intelligence, and a touch of overachieving desperation. Superb performances, excellent writing, and understated direction make this BBC miniseries one of the most involving mysteries in years. Look for future British stars Ralph Fiennes and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles.
A Guide to All 36 Seasons of SNL Streaming on Netflix
If you have a Netflix account (and you should), and a streaming device (which isn't that difficult to come by, there are so many options these days), this might be useful to while away winter nights, fighting off insomnia.
With hundreds of episodes from each season of Saturday Night Live finally available on Netflix Instant Watch, we thought we'd put together a few of the highlights to help you get your bearings. Obviously, it's an overwhelming amount of material that's available, so this guide will help point you to interesting or historic episodes, notable guest hosts, and where the appearances are of classic characters.
It should be noted that a few of the seasons are still not yet available, specifically seasons 26-30. Netflix will presumably be adding those at some point, and we'll update this guide when they do. But until then, here's a somewhat obsessive guide to all of the seasons of SNL currently available to stream on Netflix.
(click to continue reading A Somewhat Obsessive Guide to All 36 Seasons of SNL Streaming on Netflix | Splitsider.)
I notice Splitsider has a link to the infamous Sinead O'Connor episode where she rips up a photo of the Pope. I started watching this episode, but didn't make it long enough to know if this scene was bleeped out or not. I'm curious because Lorne Michaels had refused this show to ever be broadcast in syndication.
Deadwood on Blu-Ray
Still lament that Deadwood didn't finish telling its story. A quality show, ended too soon.
The demise of "Deadwood" is still depressing. The western drama's abrupt end after just three seasons — following a bullheaded royalties dispute between HBO and co-producer Paramount — was one of the most surprising and bizarre injustices in TV history. Series get canceled all the time — sometimes early in their runs, because they weren't generating big enough ratings to please the network, and sometimes very late, after years of financial and critical success (and creative wheel-spinning). The case of "Deadwood" was unique, and uniquely depressing. Its plug was pulled when it was one of HBO's top-rated dramas and a critical darling with a lively, engaged fan base. There was talk that the show might finish out its projected five-year run with a couple of TV movies, but it never amounted to anything. And after a few months, with the show's immense cast dispersed and the sets torn down, it soon became clear that this was a fantasy that would never come true. "Deadwood" was dead, and it was never coming back.
But with the release of the complete series on Blu-ray, fans can experience the next best thing to new episodes: the chance to see the whole thing again through fresh eyes.
Granted, this is what Blu-ray boosters claim the format does for everything: movies, concerts, sporting events, nature footage, you name it. And to greater or lesser degrees, the boosters are always right; you do see more detail on Blu-ray, along with finer gradations of light, shadow and color. But TV shows with high production values such as "Deadwood" are in a unique, and in many ways more thrilling, class; watching them in high-definition is not like rewatching a feature film that you originally saw on a big screen — a restoration of detail, a return to an ideal, original state. No, this is akin to getting a chance to stand close to a huge, elaborate mural that had previously been seen only in photographs, and admire the texture of the paint and the precision of the brushwork.
This is definitely the case with "Deadwood." The series was carefully lit, shot on 35mm film, and funded by one of the more generous budgets in TV history. Milch's set-builders, costumers and set decorators invested the title locale with more detail than the pixelated murk of regular TV could reveal. Blu-ray lets you appreciate tactile nuances of clothing, architecture and skin that once were submerged in electronic broth. The fine brushwork was always there. We just couldn't see it.
(click to continue reading "Deadwood" rides again – HBO – Salon.com.)
Oprah and her nakedly avaricious audience
Won't miss Oprah when she ends her show; I've never been a fan, and have become less tolerant of her diva-isms as they become more pronounced.
It was like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire," but without all those nettlesome questions separating people from their prizes. By now, it's got to the point where an audience that doesn't score any booty goes home crestfallen.
Viewed charitably, the car and technology and pajama handouts amount to an immodestly rich and successful woman letting some of the wealth trickle down. But a skeptic might classify them as almost a form of bribery: Keep loving me, baby, and I might buy you that diamond necklace.
And the shows' nakedly avaricious nature — audience members were virtually quaking with excitement as Winfrey teased out the prize announcement Monday — threatens to overshadow some of the good, and serious, work Winfrey does.
(click to continue reading Steve Johnson: Oprah one-ups herself: Free flights for audience – chicagotribune.com.)
and I loved this
Oprah Winfrey's…studio audience — stocked with "ultimate" fans the way George W. Bush used to stock his speeches with partisans
The Wire – the Dickensian aspects
The Wire complete – all five seasons ( I purchased on a whim, and have been quite pleased)
I've been conducting my annual Wire review1, and am in the fifth season.
Is The Wire Dickensian? David Simon dislikes the comparison. In this recent Vice magazine interview he admits a similarity in the "scope of society through the classes" covered by The Wire and Charles Dickens, but says he feels his treatment of the theme has more in common with Tolstoy and Balzac.
The thing that made me laugh about it with Dickens was that Dickens is famous for being passionate about showing you the fault lines of industrial England and where money and power route themselves away from the poor. He would make the case for a much better social compact than existed in Victorian England, but then his verdict would always be: "But thank God a nice old uncle or this heroic lawyer is going to make things better." In the end, the guy would punk out.
As such, throughout season five the term "Dickensian" is used in a mocking manner to pour scorn on the journalistic values of senior Baltimore Sun editor James Whiting. As Simon says in the same Vice interview: "There was a little bit of tongue-in-cheek satire on the show directed at people who were using Dickens to praise us."
(Just to be clear: he's using the word to mock not his critics – but his supporters! Sometimes Simon seems to embody an inversion of a well-known NME cliche: "I just do what I do, and if nobody else likes it, it's a bonus.")
Certainly there are points where The Wire parts ways with Dickens. Despite the links between the various strands of society shown on the programme – drug crews, docks, newspapers, police etc – it largely avoids the sort of outrageous coincidences that Dickens routinely relies on, and sentimentality – another Dickens staple – is in the main absent from The Wire, although it does creep in a bit towards the end, the death of Bodie ("You're a soldier") being the most glaring example.
(click to continue reading The Wire re-up: season five, episode eight – the Dickensian aspects | Media | guardian.co.uk.)
- there really hasn't been any better television show [↩]
Reading Around on August 1st
Some additional reading August 1st from 19:08 to 21:26:
- The Wire Rewind: Season 3, Episode 3 – Dead Soldiers (Veterans edition) – HitFix.com – Tosha's sparsely-attended wake, meanwhile, is shown in parallel with the sprawling drunken one the cops hold for the late Ray Cole. As mentioned previously in these reviews, Cole was played by "Wire" executive producer Bob Colesberry, who died unexpectedly before season three began. Cole's long and impressive film career is alluded to in Jay Landsman's eulogy (there are specific references to "Mississippi Burning," "After Hours" and "The Corner," which is where Simon and the late David Mills first teamed up with Colesberry).
- Southwest Says Mechanical Issues Are Beyond Its Control, But It's Not as Bad as You Might Think – >> The Cranky Flier – Many of you have already heard that in its contract of carriage, Southwest has now decided that mechanical issues are outside the airline's control. How do I know? Because I've received more email from readers on this issue than any other, I believe. It's amazing how this has grabbed people's attention. The reality of this, however, is not as dire as many are suggesting.
- Communautarisme: la démocratie contre la République – Jean-Paul Brighelli revient sur les récentes sortie de Nicolas Sarkozy sur les «Roms». Un signe de plus que désormais, sous couvert de diversité, on désigne les citoyens, on les trie, par communautés. Cela revient à pulvériser la République. (republished photo – swanksalot)
Arrested Development Movie Is Definitely Happening
Awesome. Coincidentally, we've been watching Arrested Development on DVD, and we have been rolling on the floor with guffaws of laughter. Such a funny show, holds up to a second viewing even though Iraq is not in the news as much as it was in 2003.
According to GQ, both star Will Arnett and Mitch Hurwitz, creator of the beloved cult Fox sitcom, have verified that their highly anticipated film adaptation is finally in the works after years of rumors. Of course, there are still some details to be worked out, such as trying to co-ordinate the filming around the schedules of a dozen in-demand stars like Jason Bateman and David Cross, but considering the trials and tribulations the film has faced to get to this point over the last four years, that's barely a minor hurdle.
So what do we know about the movie? Well, not much, other than these two vital facts: Everyone from the original series, which went off the air in 2006 after three critically acclaimed seasons, has agreed to return for the movie
(click to continue reading 'Arrested Development' Movie Is Definitely Happening, Say Will Arnett and Mitch Hurwitz | Inside Movies.)
and from GQ:
we were talking to Will Arnett. And this is what he said: "Yes, it's happening." He went on, but here's the upshot: there is a script—!!!—but it is not finished; all of the principle cast members are on board, but there is no timetable to actually make the movie. So then we called Mitch Hurwitz to make sure that our ears did not deceive us and that Arnett wasn't just pulling our leg. They didn't, and he wasn't.
"Believe it or not, we have started the script," Hurwitz told GQ. (And by "we," he means himself and "Arrested" co-executive producer Jim Vallely.) "We're taking a little abeyance while we get ['Running Wilde'] up and running. But it is our absolute next priority and we can't wait to do it." So, rejoice! Hurwitz also had a bit more to say: "We're changing some of the Bush references to Obama because we started it awhile ago. And the Bluths may not be vacationing in the Gulf of Mexico anymore. We also might have to recast the part of Uncle Mel, the former action movie star. But other than that we have a clear path."
(click to continue reading GQ Exclusive: Arnett, Hurwitz Say "Arrested Development" Movie Is On Like Donkey Kong: The Q: GQ.)
Can't wait, and even though I'd prefer Arrested Development came back and did another three year stretch on television, a movie would be the next best thing.
Dustin Hoffman on new HBO show – Luck
I'd give Luck1 a chance – even after John From Cincinnati crashed and burned, David Milch still is permanently of interest 2 because of Deadwood. Dustin Hoffman has his moments, as does Nick Nolte. Wonder if it will be done in time for September?
HBO announced Wednesday that it has picked up the series "Luck," which was written by David Milch ("Deadwood," "NYPD Blue") and stars Dustin Hoffman. Michael Mann directed the pilot for "Luck," which also stars Chicagoan Dennis Farina, Nick Nolte, Richard Kind, Jason Gedrick and Jill Hennessy.
"'Luck' is a provocative look at horse racing – the owners, gamblers, jockeys and diverse gaming industry players," according to HBO's press release. The drama "begins shooting this fall at Santa Anita Park and other Los Angeles locations" but no premiere date has been set.
(click to continue reading Dustin Hoffman bets on new HBO show – The Watcher.)
"Deadwood: The Complete Seasons 1-3" (Michael Almereyda, Timothy Van Patten)
The press release from HBO is below.
LOS ANGELES, July 14, 2010 – HBO has picked up the new drama series LUCK, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming. LUCK is a provocative look at horse racing – the owners, gamblers, jockeys and diverse gaming industry players. LUCK begins shooting this fall at Santa Anita Park and other Los Angeles locations.
"Michael Mann delivered a pilot from David Milch's brilliant script that took our breath away," notes Lombardo. "We are truly excited that these two artists, and our extraordinary cast headed by Dustin Hoffman, will be bringing LUCK to life."
The cast for the pilot stars Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Kevin Dunn, Richard Kind, Jason Gedrick, Ritchie Coster, Ian Hart, Tom Payne, Kerry Condon, Gary Stevens and Nick Nolte. Jill Hennessy guest stars. Pilot credits: executive producers, David Milch, Michael Mann and Carolyn Strauss; co-executive producer, Henry Bronchtein; producer, Dustin Hoffman; written by David Milch; directed by Michael Mann.
- IMDb doesn't have much info about it either, other than saying it is already in post-production [↩]
- to me, which is implied, but might as well state the obvious [↩]
Alterman on the Retirement of Bill Moyers
On the topic of the imminent retirement of Bill Moyers, Eric Alterman recounts, in part:
Nearly twenty years ago, I spoke to Edward R. Murrow's top producer, Fred Friendly, who told me he thought of Bill Moyers as "the Murrow of our time…the broadcaster who most upholds his mantle." But while Murrow remains television journalism's most admired historical figure, it's all but inarguable that Moyers long ago surpassed his achievements.
This is no knock on Murrow, who, after all, spent most of his career on radio. His See It Now–the program that helped take down Joe McCarthy in 1954–enjoyed just four years of life in a regular prime-time slot before it gradually disappeared as an occasional series, unable to find a sponsor. Defenestrated at CBS, Murrow gave up on network news entirely and accepted John Kennedy's offer to head up the USIA in 1961. But when Bill Moyers likewise found his brand of journalism unwelcome on network news, he had another option. He was able to return to PBS, where he had begun his career as a broadcaster fifteen years earlier. With his decision to found his own production company, Public Affairs Television (PAT), together with his wife and executive producer, Judith Davidson Moyers, he assured himself complete editorial independence, and in the quarter-century that followed, he fashioned a body of work without parallel in the medium's brief history.
Who but Bill Moyers could have devoted so much time to the work of Joseph Campbell and Robert Bly; done television's most hard-hitting reporting on the Iran/Contra scandal; investigated the media's failure in Iraq; defined the human impact of economic inequality; examined the ability of corporations to manipulate the "public mind"; evaluated the real-world impact on local communities of corporate-driven "free trade" agreements; devoted hours and hours of TV to a poetry festival, to the Book of Genesis, to the sources of addiction and to the relationship between the environment and religion, etc.? The variety of topics, moreover, is only half the story. Moyers's methods were unique. Where else but on a Bill Moyers program were Nobel laureates and laid-off steelworkers invited to speak at length to America, without interruption or condescension?
Bill and I have been friends–and frequent professional collaborators–for nearly two decades. But we first met in Managua in 1987, where he and his crew were talking to protesters outside the US Embassy for his landmark PBS special on The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis. Not long afterward, I spent months speaking to his co-workers at CBS and elsewhere for a magazine profile of him. All were eager to talk, as we were in the midst of one of many brief "Draft Moyers for President" movements, though a few were conflicted. Some felt abandoned by his decision to leave CBS and quit fighting the good fight for network news; but most remained grateful for the opportunities his work had offered them. Onetime CBS Morning News producer Jon Katz told me, "When you work with Bill, it ruins you for everyone else." Yes, Moyers would "drive the executives berserk with his agonizing over everything, and getting him on the morning news was like a three-month Kabuki dance every time. But the end result was the most brilliant stuff we ever had."
[Click to continue reading Bill Moyers Retires]
I Will Miss Bill Moyers
The Bill Moyers Journal was one of the few news shows I watched with regularity1. I will miss him as he retires at the end of this month.
Thanks to all of you who wrote to express your disappointment and dismay at hearing me say last week that the JOURNAL will be coming to an end with the April 30th broadcast. My team and I were touched by your messages, but I want to disabuse those of you who fear that we are being pushed off the air by higher-ups at PBS pointing to the door and demanding that we go. Not so. PBS doesn't fund the JOURNAL; our support comes from foundations and our sole corporate funder, Mutual of America. Together they've given me an independence rare for broadcast journalists. Our reporting and analysis trigger controversy from many quarters, as any strong journalism will, but not one – not one! – of my funders has ever mentioned to me the complaints directed their way. They would continue their support if I were to stick around.
I'm leaving for one reason alone: It's time to go. I'll be 76 in a few weeks, and while I don't consider myself old (my father lived into his 80s, my mother into her 90s) there are some things left to do that the deadlines and demands of a weekly broadcast don't permit. At 76, it's now or never. I actually informed my friends at PBS of my decision over a year ago, and planned to leave at the end of last December. But they asked me to continue another four more months while they prepare a new series for Friday night broadcast. I agreed, but said at the time – April 30 and not a week longer.
It wasn't easy deciding to close the JOURNAL. I like what I do, I cherish my colleagues, and my viewers remain loyal and engaged. I will miss the virtual community that has grown up around the broadcast – kindred spirits across the country whose unseen but felt presence reminds me of why I have kept at this work so long. But it has indeed been a long time (almost 40 years since I launched the original JOURNAL in 1971), and that's why I can assure you that my departure is entirely voluntary. "Time brings everything," an ancient wise man said. Including new beginnings.
[Click to continue reading Bill Moyers Journal: Bill Moyers on Retiring from the JOURNAL]
And I guess it's too late for Bill Moyers to run for President. Oh well.Footnotes:
- probably the only one, if you don't count Jon Stewart's Daily Show [↩]


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This website is an information portal about Chuze mobile app built in WordPress. We were hired by another development company called Squarable to customize a WordPress theme. Client sent us the graphic art files and we convert them into HTML. The website is responsive and it looks good for small screens too.
Additionally, we were in charge also of create and configure the blog of Chuze. The blog is built in WordPress too and it uses an existing WordPress theme. The client bought the theme and we setup the instance and we did minor customization in colors and fonts.
Categories: responsive-design, web-development-2, wordpress
Tags: blog, html5, psd-to-html, theme-customization, wordpress-theme


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Girls ages 16-21 CLICK HERE to receive FREE Jazzercise Dance Fitness Classes - all year long! Just find your nearest location and sign up!
If you enjoy getting tons of freebies, deals, great coupons, helpful tips, recipes, laughs, and lots of odds & ends, then please follow Freebies for Friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Linkedin, Instagram and Youtube to make sure you don't miss anything.


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Waiting For Tomorrow To Wake Up from Monster Children Magazine on Vimeo. Just a nice feel-goody video from Monster Children.
Tag: feel good
Seattle-based hip-hop artist Macklemore raps about his hometown of Seattle on this superb feel-good tune that I'm really feeling. I'm more than happy to give some exposure to great talent and Macklemore certainly has got that flow going.
Crudely made, but fun to check out nonetheless, Summer Rules! is a blog about all the things that make summer great. Check it out.
The Hoof & The Heel – "Fireworks" (NSFW) from Bryan Schlam on Vimeo. Here's the music video to "Fireworks" by The Hoof & The Heel. It totally gives off that feel-good vibe (minus the ending) and it just looks superb. Kick off your weekend by watching this video now. [via] Check out the Vimeo page […]


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What an Excellent Day for an Exorcism
Season 2 • Episode 8
The team rushes to the scene of violent poltergeist activity that's wreaking havoc at a teahouse. After learning why Shepherdstown is the epicenter of all the hauntings, they bring in an ordained exorcist to help them banish the demon forever.
42 min|TV-14|Premiered 08/29/2017


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Sisters For Change is launching Phase 1 of its community network in late 2014.
Join today for free membership in year one.
Who can join?
NGOs and women's rights organisations working to combat violence against women, or to provide services to women who have suffered violence
Research institutions involved in projects relating to violence against women and girls
Technology organisations working in women's rights, women's empowerment, women's education or on initiatives to combat violence against women
Development organisations working on women's rights
International NGOs running campaigns or programmes specifically in the area of violence against women
Funders, foundations and investors focused on women's rights, violence against women and women's empowerment
Individuals and community activists involved in social change initiatives with a focus on violence against women
Priority countries for Phase 1 are organisations in Asia where we are launching our pilots, but we welcome members from around the globe.
How to join
Join today! Become a member and help grow and strengthen the Sisters For Change Community Network. Simply fill out the membership form below and we'll get in contact to bring you on board.


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Today's tickers: HAL, JBLU, DELL & HL
HAL – Halliburton Co. – Shares in the Houston, Texas-based oilfield services provider dropped as much as 5.8% to $34.86 today on reports BP is accusing a unit of the Halliburton Co. of destroying evidence that could have shown the company is also at fault for the deadly explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last year. Options traders expecting the stock to remain under pressure this week placed short-term bearish bets on the stock.
Weekly puts that expire at the end of the trading week attracted heavier-than-usual volume, with the Dec. '09 $35 strike put trading more than 4,400 times against open interest of just 444 contracts. It looks like investor purchased the majority of the $35 strike weekly puts for an average premium of $0.53 each.
In-the-money put buyers at this strike stand prepared to profit should the price of the underlying fall another 1.1% to breach the average breakeven point on the downside at $34.47 at expiration. Bears picked up put options at the lower Dec. '09 $ 34 strike for an average premium of $0.31 each, as well. Approximately 2,700 puts have changed hands at the $34 strike as of 12:30 PM ET. Options implied volatility on Halliburton is up 5.7% at 50.55% in early-afternoon trade.
JBLU – JetBlue Airways Corp. – Investors initiating near-term bullish positions in JetBlue Airways this morning appear to have shown up relatively late to the party, however, late could be better than never as long as the price of the underlying stock continues to rise in the next couple of weeks. Shares in JetBlue Airways Corp. are up 1.7% today to stand at $4.78 as of 11:20 AM ET. The stock has rallied roughly 30.0% since AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy on November 29. Some traders jumped into JBLU calls last week on the heels of the AMR Corp. news, purchasing most of the 4,915 total open positions at the Dec. $4.0 strike for an average premium of $0.17 apiece.
The air-carrier's ascent in the meantime has made the option to buy the stock at $4.00 at December expiration far more expensive, particularly now that the contracts are in-the-money. Less than one hour into today's session, it appears one trader bought around 5,100 in-the-money calls at the Dec. $4.0 strike for an average premium of $0.70 a-pop. The calls are far more expensive than they were just a few short days ago, but the trader may turn a profit as long as shares in JetBlue Airways exceed the average breakeven price of $4.70 at expiration later in the month.
DELL – Dell, Inc. – The PC maker popped up on our scanners this morning due to bearish options activity in the front month. One investor may be positioning for Dell's shares to continue to slip following the company's announcement Monday that it will no longer sell its Streak tablet, which runs on the Android operating system and has been on the market since January, in the United States. Dell's shares are down 0.50% to stand at $15.85 just before 11:45 AM in New York trade.
The company's SVP of the Enterprise Solutions Group is scheduled to address investors at the Barclays Capital Global Technology Conference in San Francisco, California, tomorrow. More than 5,900 in-the-money put options changed hands at the Dec. $16 strike against open interest of 2,283 contracts. It looks like one investor purchased the majority of the puts for an average premium of $0.45 apiece. Profits may be available on the position should shares in Dell decline 1.9% to breach the effective breakeven price of $15.55 at expiration.
HL – Hecla Mining Co. – Call options on the largest and lowest cost silver producer in the U.S. are flying off the shelves, with shares in the mining company trading 5.85% higher on the day at $6.33 as of 12:10 PM on the East Coast. Hecla Mining Co. calls are most active at the Jan. 2012 $6.0 strike, where more than 58,000 in-the-money contracts have changed hands against open interest of 7,027 positions.
It appears most of the calls were purchased for an average premium of $0.63 per contract. The investor or investors responsible for the bulk of the buying activity may profit at expiration next month as long as shares in Hecla Mining top the average breakeven price of $6.63. Hecla Mining presented at the Wall Street Institutional Investor Conference in New York this morning. Shares in HL last traded above $6.63 back on November 15.
Caitlin Duffy


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Grad Student's AMAZING cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Archive for music
Air Picks Air Guitar Toy
We've all played air guitar at some point and when playing air guitar, we are all rock gods. Now it's time to take air guitar to the next level. Air Picks are pocket sized electronic air picks that allow you to enjoy a few songs. How you play them in the air is up to you.
There are three picks to choose from right now with songs like Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction, Born to be Wild, Smoke on the Water, and Sweet Home Alabama. There is no volume control though so this could get annoying very quickly.
Digital Music to overtake CDs in U.S. sales by next year
Things have been bad for the music industry ever since itunes and it is getting worse. Physical album sales are expected to drop 40%. The RIAA in the US and the worldwide IFPI have often said that these drops in sales are only due to piracy, but we all know that that is just bogus. Much of the drop is due to the decline of the album format.
Much of the industry's sales has always been due to stronger whole albums in some cases and of course the necessity to buy a whole album at $15 to $20, even when you only want one or two songs. Strong quality albums are what sells. Quality. Are there any modern Beatles? Stones? Bah. I'm going back to bed.
I Am T-Pain microphone
If you like Auto-Tuning, check this out. T-Pain has been using Auto-Tune so much that it's become his trademark sound, and people have been capitalizing on this. The "I Am T-Pain Mic" will let you sing into the microphone and it will play it back in T-Pain's signature voice.
You can even record your singing and transfer the file to your PC if you want to. Is it worth $40? Well, I guess that depends on your taste in music.
TDK Life On Record High Quality Boomboxes
TDK is offering their Life On Record line of products, which include a great build quality and industrial design that includes elements like aluminum, a retro look and a graphic equalizer. They can be connected to music players and USB drives.
The three speaker Boombox will cost you $499. All of the items look absolutely awesome. If you want to get all the details, keep an eye on TDK's website. Their Life On Record page should be up very soon. We hope to see more devices in this style.
Grace Digital Audio Victoria Retrowriter
If you want to convert your vinyl collection into a digital format, then here's another option. The Victoria Retrowriter from Grace Digital Audio will do the job while looking perfectly retro.
The device is a multi-functioning music system that allows you to record your music from vinyl or from auxiliary RCA inputs to blank CD-R/RW's. The Grace Digital Audio Victoria Retrowriter will cost you $158.88. It won't fool anyone into believing that it's an actual vintage piece of hardware, but it looks cool.
Novak Cassette to Digital Converter
Look if you haven't given up on cassette tapes by now, you probably never will. But if you ever want to let that old cassette player rest in peace, then the Novak Cassette to Digital Converter is what you need to transfer your old cassettes into digital formats.
The device couldn't be easier to use. Just insert a cassette tape, hit "record," and you're off. You now have digital music in either MP3, WAV, or WMA files. The Novak Cassette To Digital Converter also has a USB port and a built-in speaker.
Pandora wants to stream music in your car
Pandora has it's sights set on a variety of options for in-car music streaming. The news comes straight from Pandora's Chief Technology Officer, who told attendees at the SF Music Tech Summit that the company is working with car manufacturers to more thoroughly integrate Pandora into vehicles.
Apparently the first thing they are concentrating on is an in-dash or hands-free option so you can use a docked device running Pandora. Then, "within a few years," that could evolve to include Pandora services built right into in-car entertainment systems.
Audio records made from glacier ice
Remember that James Bond movie with the Ice hotel? The entire hotel was sculpted out of Ice and it's for real too. Everything in the hotel is completely usable. Similarly, artist Katie Paterson taken the idea and made recordings of 3 glaciers (the Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull and Solheimajökull) of Iceland.
She pressed them into three records that were cast and frozen with the melt water from each of the glaciers. When the time came, the records were played on three separate turntables non-stop until they melted. The process took only 2 hours.
Olive Opus stereo with 2TB of music storage
Olive has unveiled a new line of stereos today in the form of the Opus. And it has some serious storage capacity and a unique design. It's official name is the Opus No. 4. This stereo will conveniently save imported CDs in lossless FLAC format and has a touchscreen menu.
It will let you make playlists, listen to online radio stations and more. There's also wireless playback. The Opus is available in several models to suit your needs. There's a 500GB model, a 1TB model and an extreme 2TB model.
Latest Cheap Trick album released on 8-Track
Cheap Trick are living up to their name. Their latest trick is that their newest album will be released on an 8-track tape. Hows that for gimmicky marketing? On one hand, no one will ever hear your songs, but on the other, your stunt will get all kinds of publicity for when the tracks hit iTunes.
It will cost you $30 if you still own an 8-Track player. The new album is comprised of 12 songs broken into four sets of three songs each. It must have been hard to edit them to adhere to the four 10-minute slots on a standard 8-track.
Gemalto and Universal Music unveil Smart Video Card
Since sales of physical music formats have declined dramatically with the massive adoption of digital music, record companies have been struggling to find a new format that music fans will buy. For instance, SanDisk launched its slotMusic format to try and boost physical music sales.
Gemalto and Universal Music have announced another new music format called the Smart Video Card. The rectangular card has a hole for a DVD player spindle and a SIM card with up to 120MB of content stored.
Best Buy may sell vinyl records soon
If you've been paying attention to the gadget world you know that we've featured many turntables. Companies are making more and more. Seriously, people are spinning more vinyl. And according to the New York Post, Best Buy is thinking about selling vinyl records in their stores. Yes, it's hard to believe.
Vinyl albums' sales are growing. As much as 15 percent in 2007 and 89% more in 2008. The 2009 forecast is even better. And so Best Buy has started a pilot program in 100 stores. The results were good. So good that they are thinking about using as much as eight square feet in each of their stores to sell vinyl records.
The Beatles come to Rock Band
Fans of both The Beatles and Rock Band have reason to get excited. Very excited. Are you sitting down? MTV Games and Harmonix have just announced a partnership with Apple Corps, Ltd. to bring the band's music (and instruments) to the Rock Band universe.
The game will apparently premiere with a set of new hardware "modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career." If you ceck out the site, there's a holder page up with a launch date of September 9th, but as soon as we get more info, we'll pass it on.
Marantz CR502 all-in-one music system
Marantz, known for its luxury hi-fi output, has announced the CR502, an all-in-one music system. The CR502 consists of two stereo amplifiers, each with 2 x 25W, adding up to 100W of music output and comes complete with a CD drive and DAB tuner.
You'll also get a variety of inputs and outputs that includes a USB 2.0 port. It's all packed into a compact aluminum chassis. The CR502 will also give you a clock radio and alarm with sleep functions. This all-in-one will cost you about GBP 499.


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Back to Black
Meet Layal Nadar, Dubai born and raised fashion designer and founder of LAYAL. The brand is the city's latest ready to wear collection for style connoisseurs in the region.
Derived from Layal's own get-ready routine, her inspiration for the label is taken from the eternal "I don't know what to wear" struggle that women all over can relate to. Whether it be for a day or night look, clothes can be confusing and there is no meticulous way of planning outfits ahead of time.
That being said, Layal's goal for her brand new ready to wear label is to make things simple and chic. Her personally designed and worn 'twin set' outfits can be mixed and matched and also worn as singular, statement pieces.
Layal's signature look is all black twin-set from her latest collection – simple yet mysterious!


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DUFL: round of contradictions
In the matches of the DUFL, the Pitmen U14 and U16 played away games with MFC Kremin, and Shakhtar U15 and U17 entertained Dnipro.
In the game with Kremin the Pitmen's younger team started the game with energetic performance in the attacking third. The result did not take long in coming – as early as on nine minutes, Denis Svityukha put the Pitmen in front. Such developments forced the opponents to change their tactics and turn to attacking football, which played into Shakhtar's hands. The Pitmen capitalized on free zones, and on 24 minutes, thanks to Leon Gladkovskyy, they managed to cement their lead, and in the next attack Abdula Abdulaev made it 3-0. After the break, the overall picture of the game remained the same. The Pitmen dominated proceedings and continued proving that with goals. On 35 minutes, Abdulaev again found himself in a good position to send the ball into the back of the net. The Pitmen kept on scoring, with Roman Shysh and Oleksandr Kurtsev also finding the net.
Shakhtar U14 head coach Andriy Zabolotnyi has reflected on the game:
- We totally controlled the game, creating goal-scoring chances. We could have won with a greater result. The boys tried to follow the instructions, there were not episodes when somebody would stop and feel complacent, despite the fact that the opponents are weaker than us. We were pleased with the quality of the game. We managed to score an early goal, Kremin had to play more open football, we seized on our chances and created a comfortable lead. We carved the opposition defence open well.
MFK Kremin U14 (Kremenchuk) - Shakhtar U14 (Donetsk) - 0:6 (0:3)
Goals: Svityukha (9), Gladkovsky (24), Abdullayev (26), Abdullayev (35), Shysh (44), (Kurtz 55)
Shakhtar U14: Turbaevskyi, Potalov (Tkachenko, 31), Shysh, Avdeyev, Alizadekh (Zaitsev, 31), Maslov (Kobzar, 31), Kobylyanskyi (Umanets, 31), Savchenko, Svityukha (Kurtz 31), Abdullayev, Gladkovsky (Plaksa, 40)
Head coach: Igor Leonov
Coach: Andriy Zabolotnyi
In the older group, Shakhtar managed to quickly take control of the initiative. Gennadiy Zubov's charges went forward straight away and organized positional attacks. However, the opponents were ready for such a scenario, so the main focus was on defence. The Pitmen, despite dominance, did not take a lot of shots. Our team managed to carve the opposition defence open on 62 minutes. After a 3-player move involving Danylo Litovchenko, Bohdan Pribluda and Andriy Apanchuk the ball hit the hand of the opposition defender inside the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot. Pribluda converted a penalty kick. But after ten minutes the hosts managed to organize a counterattack through the flank, which resulted in a goal. The time that was left before the end of the game was not enough for the Pitmen to pull out a win.
- The game proved to be nervous overall, - Shakhtar U16 head coach Gennadiy Zubov has reflected on the game. – The opponents defended in numbers, it was hard to carve open their defence. Kremin operated roughly, we felt their determination. We dominated ball possession, but we did not expose flanks, there was not much aggression in the final phase of attacks. We will analyse errors, make conclusions and carry out necessary work.
MFC Kremin U16 (Kremenchuk) - Shakhtar U 16 (Donetsk) - 1:1 (0:0)
Goal for Shakhtar: Pribluda (62, pen.)
Shakhtar U16: Gurskiy, Koryakin, Bilyi, Shushko, Dobrokhotov, Nazarenko, Apanchuk, Liskov (Baydaev, 70), Vishnyakov (Pribluda, 41) Maksimenko (Litovchenko, 41), Vyachistyi
Head coach: Gennadiy Zubov
Coach: Oleksandr Alimov
The match between Shakhtar U15 and Dnipro U15 proved to be tough. In the opening five minutes the Pitmen had a number of chances to take the lead. But shots from Olexiy Sidorov, Maksym Golik and Volodymyr Pelipak did not find the target. Dnipro proved to be more successful in terms of conversion of chances. On seven minutes, following a free kick, they took the lead. In response, the Pitmen started playing more energetically. As a result, on 18 minutes, Dnipro's defender brought down Pelipak inside the penalty area. Mykyta Kabrel converted a spot kick. After four minutes, Kabrel again reminded about himself, but this time in a different light: Mykyta got the second yellow card. In the end of the first half, the visitors again took the lead. In the second half, Shakhtar, despite being reduced to ten men, attacked a lot and had a number of chances to equalise. In one of the episdoes, the opposition goalkeeper managed to neutralize Maksym Golik bearing down on goal. In the added time, Dnipro found space to organise their own attack, but Alan Aussi fouled on Dnipro's forward inside the penalty area. The visitors converted a spot kick to wrap the game up.
- We studied the opponents, seriously getting ready of the game, - Shakhtar U15 head coach Oleksandr Ladeyko has reflected on the match. – We conceded an early goal, but then we equalized, and the inspiration returned. However, soon we got reduced to ten men for the remaining sixty minutes. In this situation, it was not easy to play on equal terms with such an organized team as Dnipro. The goals we conceded were the result of our defenders' errors. The result is not good, but I think that the boys played well, although we were down to ten men. Dnipro managed to convert their chances, and we had problems.
Shakhtar U15 (Donetsk) - Dnipro U15 (Dnipropetrovsk) - 1:3 (1:2)
Goal for Shakhtar: Kabrel (18, pen.)
Shakhtar U15: Trubin, Biblik (Dubko 31), Aussi, Snisar (Kharchenko, 36), Prokha, Babenko (Fedoruk, 59), Bodnya, Pelipak, Kabrel, Sidorov (Dyakov, 36), Golik
Head coach: Oleksandr Ladeyko
Coach: Oscar Ratulutra
The Pitmen's older team dominated proceedings in their game, forcing the opponents to defend. Dnipro gradually tried to go forward, but every time Shakhtar defence would play well. The Pitmen's attacking moves looked sharper and soon it brought the result. Vladislav Kuzmenko got a through pass from the flank, received the ball and sent it straight it into the net. The Pitmen kept piling on pressure, the situation on the flanks was made dangerous through Maksym Andryuschenko and Dmytro Pavlish. However, Shakhtar managed to cement their lead only on 66 minutes thanks to a goal from Olexiy Kaschuk. In the following attack, Oleg Vakulenko's quality actions inside the penalty area led to a third goal.
- We were gearing up for a tough game, because Dnipro are one of our competitors to advance from the group, - Shakhtar U17 head coach Valeriy Rudakov has given his post-match comments. Our task was not only to win, but also show good game. The result of the work was clear, everything panned out well. We played confidently in defence, closed down the opposition leaders and played aggressively in the attacking third. We could have scored more goals but Dnipro's goalkeeper played well.
Shakhtar U 17 (Donetsk) - Dnipro U17 (Dnipropetrovsk) - 3:0 (1:0)
Goals: Kuzmenko (36), Kashchuk (66), Vakulenko (72)
Shakhtar U17: Vertey, Konoplya, Mate, Sobolevskiy, Pavlish, Chekh, Kashchuk (Yakovets, 78), Gaivan, Kuzmenko (Bodnaruk, 43) Vakulenko, Andryushchenko (Kravchuk, 41)
Head coach: Valeriy Rudakov
Coach: Oleksandr Koval