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Rounding out July's reviews are: Erin Horáková, who finds Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless delightful on the micro level, but somewhat shapeless in the macro; Nathaniel Katz and Marie Velazquez, who take two looks at the first volume in Daniel Abraham's new epic fantasy series, The Dragon's Path, Nathaniel wondering when the payoff to the book's buildup will come, and Maria whether Abraham plans to complicate the somewhat simplistic treatment of race in the book; and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, who looks at Times Three, an omnibus edition of three time travel novels by Robert Silverberg, with his usual care and erudition.
Also, Strange Horizons is looking for volunteers to help us prepare for the website redesign by checking the existing content for errors. The details are here.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Strange Horizons Reviews, July 25-29
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 9:51 AM No comments:
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Recent Reading Roundup 30
After a couple of dry months, reading-wise, I've gotten back on the horse in a big way and with some very fine books. Here are my thoughts.
- Kraken by China Miéville - It's taken me a while to get to this book, and having finally read it the question foremost in my mind is: why? It's strange enough that Miéville is going back to the template of a Londoner who discovers that there's a magical underworld to the city, is forced into that world, and becomes proffiicient at navigating it and affecting it--a barrel whose bottom he had already rather thoroughly scraped with King Rat and Un Lun Dun, both of which were themselves heavily derivative of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and which, in the intervening years, so many other writers have dipped their spoons into. But to write this sort of story as the follow-up to the breathtakingly original The City and The City, a book that seemed to herald a new stage in Miéville's already genre-changing career, is just baffling. Kraken, in which natural history museum curator Billy Harrow is caught up in a magical arms race after the preserved body of a giant squid--revered by one of the city's many cults and thus imbued with great power--mysteriously disappears, is by no means a bad or unengaging book, and there are some nicely done and typically Miévillian touches such as a labor strike among animal familiars, or ghost policemen who are not actually the ghosts of real people but amalgams of copper clichés derived from reruns of The Sweeney and Life on Mars. But these are just touches--the structure of the novel, the personalities of its characters, and its take on London are all very familiar, from Miéville's previous work and from that of others writers. If it weren't for the fact that Embassytown seems to see Miéville returning to his form of having no form I'd be worried about where he plans to take his career.
- A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - there are a lot of compliments I could pay Egan's already much-complimented novel, but I'll start with the glibbest one--that reading it feels like compensation for having suffered through Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists earlier this year. Both novels are made up of connected stories that jump back and forth through time (though Egan's structure is more adventurous and demands more of the reader's attention) and which together form a single picture. But whereas Rachman, perhaps relying on the bittiness of his chosen format to obscure these flaws, wallowed in clichés and broad, unfunny attempts at humor, Egan's writing is deft and her characters are immediately believable and affecting. The stories span a period between the early 70s and the early 2020s, with characters appearing at different points in their lives, taking over the narrative thread after having previously played a supporting or walk-on role in someone else's story. For the first half of the novel, this seems like a clever and well-executed trick, but ultimately a self-defeating one, as it seems to prioritize a soap opera reading of the novel, in which what's important isn't the work as a whole but simply knowing how character X ends up. It was only very slowly that the brilliance of Egan's approach crept up on me, because of course what happens next, for all that it takes many forms, is ultimately the same--disappointment, disillusionment, and death.
The goon of the title is time, and as the novel slips back and forth within it we watch debauched has-beens on their last legs turn into teenage wannabes quivering with rage and ambition, and promising children curdle into compromised adults. A picture of a long-dead friend becomes that friend on the day of their death, and a teenager convinced that she will never be as beautiful or successful as her friends becomes a contented adult puzzling over the ruin of their lives. If there's one flaw in the novel, it's in Egan's construction of the near future, which has the slightly hysterical tinge that we've come to associate with mainstream writers dipping their toes into SF--barely ten years in the future, America has been largely desertified, the music industry has overcome the digital crisis by marketing to babies, and everyone reads and writes text-speak fluently (OK, maybe that last one isn't so far-fetched). But the future chapters also help to drive home the fact that the goon-like nature of time isn't something that ever stops, and that the characters contemporary to us, who seem to have escaped time's ravages, are merely its next victims. Together with Egan's subtle prose and her generous treatment of her characters, this device gives a theme that might, in another author's hands, have seemed obvious and trite true resonance and heft, so that Goon Squad becomes genuinely heartbreaking.
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - Like Kraken, this book seems like an odd direction for its author to be going in, though in Mitchell's case I wonder if Thousand Autumns doesn't herald a more permanent shift. You can understand where Mitchell is coming from--alongside the praise that has been heaped on his novels, especially Cloud Atlas, there's always been an undertone of concern that maybe what's remarkable about these books, and about Mitchell as a writer, is their structure, the playful tricks with genre, voice, multiple points of view, and intersecting plotlines spread out over time and space (you could of course ask what's wrong with clever structures, and why they're considered less worthy--or a less integral part of the works that contain them--than plot or characters, but that's a broader discussion than we have space for). It's easy to imagine Mitchell deciding to write a more constrained, more traditional type of novel, but the result is, again like Kraken, good but also terribly familiar. Jacob de Zoet is a young clerk in the Dutch East India Company around the turn of the 19th century, who arrives in Dejima, an artificial island off the coast of Nagasaki which for several centuries was the only point of contact and trade between Europe and Japan. Thousand Autumns follows him as he engages in a campaign of reforming the corrupt trading station only to discover that his patron has his own hand in the till, then shifts to the points of view of several Japanese characters, then to that of an English captain who arrives in Nagasaki harbor hoping to take over the trading post.
The novel's themes are familiar from Mitchell's other work--the universality of suffering and oppression, the horror of slavery, which powers the economies of nations and empires, and the mental contortions that slavers employ to justify it, the rare but very real instances in which a single decent individual can make a stand and make the world just the tiniest bit better--and there's a twist on this preoccupation when Mitchell points out that Japan has protected itself from Western colonization and exploitation by isolating itself, but that that same isolation is helping to preserve a restrictive, oppressive system of government. But that's not quite enough to set Thousand Autumns apart from so many other historical novels set in this period--it reminded me, in some portions, of Shogun, and in others of Sacred Hunger. For all that it's well-written and has compelling, delicately-drawn characters and situations, Thousand Autumns can't help but stand in the shadow of these novels (and many others) even as it suffers from a comparison with Mitchell's more inventive treatment of its themes in his previous novels. The one point at which the familiar, unpredictable David Mitchell seems to rear his head is in the middle segment, when Thousand Autumns takes a strange turn towards the pulpy as one of the Japanese characters is kidnapped by a baby-killing immorality cult. This plot strand, however, not only sits poorly with the more naturalistic tone of the rest of the novel but is rather disturbing in the way it plays into the Western characters' conception of Japan as a society ruled by superstition and cruelty. Still, it's a welcome reminder that Mitchell doesn't really do conventional, and a promising sign that in his future work he'll strike a more distinctive tone.
- God's War by Kameron Hurley- Niall Harrison has been furiously evangelizing for this book, calling it one of the best books he's read in 2011. I wouldn't go quite that far, but God's War is certainly very good. Set on the planet Umayma which has for centuries been ravaged by religious conflicts, the story follows Nyx, a nihilistic, amoral bounty hunter, and her team of misfits and outcasts, as they try to keep their heads above water. When Nyx accepts a commission to track down a renegade alien scientist who may be planning to sell weapons technology to the other side in the war, she and her team end up in the crossfires of several powerful groups. If my praise of God's War is more qualified than Niall's, it's because this is a rather shopworn plot, and Hurley doesn't quite do enough to elevate either it or the novel's characters above the familiar beats of this story. The action scenes are good, but not exceptional. The characters are appropriately cynical and hard-bitten, but don't quite leap off the page. The proto-romance between Nyx and her team-member Rhys, a defector from the other side of the war who views his adoptive nation--and his employer--with disdain for their sacrilegious, godless ways, is effective but at the same time a little too obviously manipulative. It should be noted that all of these elements improve as the novel progresses, giving the impression of an author who is growing more comfortable with her invented world and characters, so that I have hope that the forthcoming sequel, Infidel, will either transcend the template imposed by its plot and character types or use it well enough that its predictability ceases to matter. In God's War, however, Hurley is not quite there.
What makes the novel worth reading--and its sequel worth anticipating--despite this flaw is Hurley's worldbuilding, which is complicated, shocking, and overwhelming, all within the confines of a relatively short novel. Umayma was settled by Muslims, or rather followers of some version of Islam several millennia removed from ours, which has developed and experienced schisms and splits after the planet's colonization. Similarly altered version of Christianity and Judaism also exist on the planet, and humans on other worlds practice subtly different versions of these religions. Though religious conflict is at the root of many of Umayma's wars, it intersects with issues of gender (Rhys's nation is patriarchal while Nyx's is matriarcahl, and the war between them is in part over gender supremacy, but both countries send men to the front, either because they are prized or disdained), race (as well as prejudice over skin tone and an at best grudging tolerance of half-breeds, Umayma plays host to several genetic mutations, some of which confer prestige while others are reviled), and the struggle for supremacy between religious and political power.
Hurley does a fantastic job of creating societies that are civilized and permissive in one respect, barbaric and oppressive in others, but more than that, she creates a world in which prejudice and sectarian violence of one form or another are, in the end, inescapable, and shows us how people learn to live on it simply because they have no other choice. On top of which are the alien aspects of Umayma--the centuries of terraforming that have resulted in a barely livable desert, the native viruses first tamed and then weaponized by the settlers, the abilities, such as shapeshifting, healing powers, and control over insects, that emerge within humans as a response to the alien environment, and the semi-organic, blood- and insect-based technology that arises as a response to all of these forces. God's War is a novel of blood and sand, and Hurley makes us feel both--the oppressive heat, the buzz of insects, the stench of a war zone, a boxing ring, or a magician's laboratory. It's an impressive achievement that more than makes up for the shortcomings of the novel's plot and characters, and leaves me eager for its sequel.
- The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson - My immediate reaction when I started reading The Long Ships, originally published in Swedish in two parts in 1941 and 1945, and translated into English in 1955, was that Bengtsson was the Swedish Tolkien. Like Tolkien, he was an academic who nurtured a fascination with his nation's history and with pre-modern literary forms, and who translated that fascination--at the same time as the rest of the literary world was plumbing the depths of the modern, character- and affect-oriented novel--into a pastiche of those forms, a sort of rediscovered epic. For all my love of The Lord of the Rings, there's no denying that this sort of endeavor should give a prospective reader pause--will it be full of inhumanly heroic characters achieving impossibly great feats while declaiming long speeches? It wasn't long, however, before The Long Ships allayed these concerns, and not long after that I was completely under its spell. Though the Tolkien comparison holds water, a more relevant point of reference might be Michael Chabon, who in his introduction to NYRB Classics's reprint of The Long Ships proclaims himself a longtime admirer of the novel, and whose own Gentlemen of the Road was clearly influenced by it. Like Gentlemen and Chabon's other novels, The Long Ships is characterized by an infectious sense of whimsy, and the ability to mingle earnestly told swashbuckling adventure with just a hint of ironic distance.
The Long Ships tells the story of Red Orm, a tenth century Dane who is kidnapped and press-ganged by Vikings, as he journeys to Muslim Spain and Christian Ireland, makes his fortune, wins the heart of a chieftain's daughter, and retrieves a buried treasure originally belonging to the Caliph of Constantinople. It's a rollicking adventure, but it is also often funny and bawdy. Far from being larger than life, Orm is an impossibly winning combination of boldness and bloodlust and endearingly human characteristics such a tendency for sarcasm and hypochondria. Other characters, such as Orm's best friend and would-be poet Toke, his headstrong wife Ylva, and the ill-tempered but ultimately kindhearted priest Willibald, are similarly engaging. An important theme in the story is the spread of Christianity throughout Scandinavia, and the novel's treatment of the strained relationship between pagans and Christians (and between Christians and Muslims, and Jews and everyone) is both funny and intelligent, showing the sometimes underhand tactics that Christian missionaries use to gain hold of pagans, and the way that pagans twist Christianity to suit their understanding of what a religion should be (a theme that is also touched on in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet). Nevertheless, the heart of the novel isn't in historical recreation or comparative theology, but in adventure, and this it delivers so consistently and so well that it was almost sad to turn the last page and realize that there will be no more adventures of Red Orm.
- Eclipse 4, edited by Jonathan Strahan - I've read three of the four Eclipse anthologies, and, as Strahan himself notes in the introduction to this volume, each of them clearly had its own flavor. Eclipse 2 veered toward meat and potatoes SF. Eclipse 3 was literary. Volume 4 goes beyond that into what I'd call slipstream (for the purposes of this post, my rigorous definition of slipstream is "what I point to when I say slipstream"), with stories often aiming for that sense of Feeling Very Strange. But no matter what the theme of the anthology, Strahan and I can't quite seem to get along. I did better with Eclipse 4 than the previous volumes, in that there are several stories I liked and only one (Damien Broderick's "The Beancounter's Cat") that I disliked, but the general level of the Eclipse anthologies continues to disappoint me, to the extent that it's obvious that Strahan and I just don't have the same taste.
The only story in Eclipse 4 that truly excited me was Gwyneth Jones's "The Vicar of Mars," which is set in her Aleutian universe but nevertheless works as a sly inversion of a very familiar type of horror story often employed by the imitators of Lovecraft. The vicar of a the title is an alien who arrives on Mars for a position that he views as semi-retirement, and encounters a deranged woman who may be haunted, and who passes that haunting on to him, thus challenging the very foundation of his beliefs. Jones gives this familiar plot a massively entertaining twist, and besides that does a good job of writing Mars as a place simultaneously lifeless and haunted, and of rooting the story in the Aleutian universe without drowning it in extraneous detail. Other standout pieces include Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Tidal Forces," in which a woman struggles to deal with her lover's inexplicable affliction, Nalo Hopkinson's "Old Habits," in which people who died at a mall spend eternity in it alternately reliving the moment of their death and craving sensation, Rachel Swirsky's "Fields of Gold," in which a recently-deceased man must face up to his failures in life in a party attended by his dead relatives, and James Patrick Kelly's "Tourists," the continuation of the adventures of space-brat Mariska (recently seen in the Hugo-nominated "Plus or Minus"). None of these, however, blew me away, and the rest of the anthology is solid but not much more. I'll probably keep reading the Eclipse anthologies, because there's usually at least one story in them that I love and because no one else in the field is doing what Strahan is doing, providing a high-profile venue for unthemed stories (or at least, they're not doing it as consistently--as Strahan notes in his introduction, the year Eclipse came out there were several other similar anthologies, such as Fast Forward and The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, but none have developed into the kind of series that Eclipse has), but I think it's time to lower my expectations of them.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 11:46 PM 11 comments:
Friday, July 22, 2011
Strange Horizons Reviews, July 18-22
We have two new reviewers this week. First, Lila Garrott looks at Betrayer, the latest installment in C.J. Cherryh's long-running series, and concludes that though it might lay the seeds for interesting stories later on, as a work in its own right it is a disappointment. In today's review, Guria King is more pleased by Kate Griffin's The Neon Court, the third Matthew Swift novel, which, though it disappoints Guria in its handling of its main character, pleases her in its interpretation of the term "urban fantasy." Between the two debuts, Niall Alexander reviews Kaaron Warren's third novel Mistification, a story about and containing stories which Niall finds somewhat less than the sum of its parts--the individual stories are engaging, but the story framing them is less so.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 7:36 PM No comments:
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Recent Movie Roundup 14
It's been rather quiet around here, I know, and will probably remain that way for a while yet. In the meantime, some of the movies I've seen recently.
- Hanna (2010) - What a strange film this is. The premise makes it sound like The Bourne Identity starring a waifish teenage girl, and that's not an inaccurate description, but what it leaves out is how little the film seems to care about any of the plot or character beats suggested by this description, and how much emphasis it places on its visuals. Joe Wright--an unlikely choice for an action director--directs Hanna half as an art-house movie, with long wordless shots that take in the film's frequent changes in scenery (the frozen tundra where Hanna grows up, the Moroccan desert to which she escapes from a CIA rendition facility, the grey gloom of downtown Berlin), and half as a music video, composing the many fight sequences as if they were dances (the Chemical Brothers's fine but often too-present soundtrack does little to diminish the impression that Hanna is a very long video clip with lots of dialogue). None of this is bad, but along the way the film leaves by the wayside nearly all of the connective tissue that might tie these sequences to one another. Though there are nice scenes of personal connection in the film, particularly when Hanna hitches a ride with a talky, bohemian family and befriends their daughter, there's never a good sense of what kind of person Hanna is, what she wants, besides doing her adoptive father's bidding and killing his enemy, and whether she ever comes to feel ambivalent about this mission, and as her good and bad guardians, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett are ciphers. The result is a film that feels like a succession of well done and occasionally very good set pieces rather than a story, and thus less than the sum of its parts.
- Jane Eyre (2011) - I'm probably more enthusiastic towards this latest adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's novel than it deserves, because it's the first version of Jane Eyre I've seen that has managed to crack the book's problematic structure--the fact that though the two chapters that flank Jane's experiences at Thornfield are essential to our understanding of her character (and to Jane Eyre's being more than a melodramatic romance), adapting them in full tends to bog down the story. By using Jane's sojourn with her cousins as a framing narrative from which she can flash back to her time at Lowood school and Thornfield, screenwriter Moira Buffini gives that chapter its rightful importance (and allows the character of St. John Rivers, so often shortchanged in adaptations of the book, his full complexity, which is ably conveyed by Jamie Bell--he's simultaneously appealing and creepy) at the same time as she develops the events that led to Jane leaving Thornfield. It's a clever, elegant solution that nearly obscures the fact that the film is otherwise a solid but not very exciting adaptation. Mia Wasikowska is good but perhaps too muted as Jane, and Michael Fassbender does his duty by Rochester without approaching the complexity and contradictions of the original character--his version of the character is a stock tragic hero, equal parts dashing, noble, and roguish, which serves the film perfectly well but is a cruel reduction of the character as Bronte wrote it. Aside from the innovative flashback structure, the film proceeds through the novel's high points and important scenes respectfully, but with little flair. It's a good adaptation, but by no means an essential one.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011) - Despite being repeatedly disappointed by the Harry Potter films, I kept going with the series until the fifth installment, but even though Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a better adaptation than its predecessors, doing much to curtail the excesses of one of the most troublesome books in the series and delivering one of the films' highlight performances in Imelda Staunton's Dolores Umbridge, as soon as the book series ended I found myself much less interested in anything Potter-related, films included. The hoopla over the film series's end, however, and surprisingly positive reviews for the final film, piqued my interest enough to make it seem worth catching at the movie theater. Before I did that, though, I had to catch up with films 6 and 7a, which very nearly convinced me to let 7b slide. Half-Blood Prince suffers from much the same flaws as all the other Harry Potter films before it--it's rushed, overstuffed, and made almost lifeless by the need to cram so much information into a generous but nevertheless insufficient running time. Somewhere during that process, the actual Half-Blood Prince story, which was my favorite parts of the book, gets truncated, which leads to a rather nonsensical final confrontation between Harry ans Snape (and completely short-circuits the almost-connection they forge through Snape's old potions textbook). Deathly Hallows Part 1, meanwhile, is just as lifeless but for reasons that have more to do with the book--the extended running time granted by the money-grubbing decision to split the final film into two is wasted on the one book in the series with almost no interim climaxes before the final one, and the notoriously dull middle segment of the book becomes even more so on screen.
In both films, however, there are brief scenes--Horace Slughorn recalling a gift from Lily Evans in Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Hermione dancing after Ron's departure in Deathly Hallows Part 1--in which the story suddenly comes to life. They give a sense of the kind of Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves might have created if he'd taken a less detail-oriented, more holistic approach to the books. (And if he'd had an easier task laid before him: I'm not a great admirer of Kloves's adaptations, but that's not to say that any other screenwriter would have done a better job. Not only do the books feature dozens of subplots revolving around dozens of characters, and change tone significantly over the course of the series, but Kloves was writing his adaptations as the series was being written, and lacked the foreknowledge that would have told him what to cut and what to stress from the outset.) Kloves clearly has a sense of the essence of Harry Potter, even if that sense is sometimes divorced from the books (for example his obvious conviction that Hermione should end up with Harry, and in fact that she may be the actual heroine of the series), and the movies only breathe when he allows that sense, rather than specific plot points or lines of dialogue, to guide him.
Which is a big part of the reason that Deathly Hallows Part 2 is actually, and to my great surprise, a pretty good film. The bulk of the film is concerned with the battle of Hogwarts, and the combination of relatively little material to adapt (especially once the decision is made to excise Dumbledore's backstory and truncate Snape's) and unity of time and place give Kloves a lot more room to extemporize and put his own stamp on the story. Not all of his decisions work--the film follows in Half-Blood Prince's footsteps in that the actual Deathly Hallows are given short shrift, which means that Harry comes back from the dead through what seems like writerly fiat, and pairing up Neville and Luna, though sweet, is precisely the sort of too-neat solution that Rowling wanted to avoid when she declared that the characters do not, in fact, end up together--but others, such as the expanded role the film gives to Luna and Neville separately, and the fact that the story frequently moves away from Harry's point of view to show us the battle from multiple perspectives, are very effective. The film as a whole is exciting, moving, and perhaps most importantly, an entity in its own right, one that draws from the Harry Potter books but has a life apart from them. It's what the films should have been from day one, and though it's a bit sad that they only managed to accomplish this in their final installment, better that than never at all.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 5:31 PM 6 comments:
Labels: recent movie roundups
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Strange Horizons Reviews, July 11-15
Paul Graham Raven kicks off this week's reviews with a long, thoughtful look at Gwyneth Jones's collection The Universe of Things, which not only makes the collection seem like essential reading, but doubles as a detailed examination of the themes of Jones's writing. Raz Greenberg is less pleased with another collection, Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars, whose four novellas Raz finds disappointingly uninterested in delving very deep into the psyches of their murderer protagonists. Phoebe North makes her Strange Horizons debut with a review of Seed Seeker, the conclusion of Pamela Sargent's Seed Trilogy which, Phoebe argues, makes a compelling argument for reading the entire trilogy as the character arc of an AI.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 1:34 PM No comments:
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Strange Horizons Reviews, July 4-8
Richard Larson kicks off this week's reviews with a rave for the fourth volume in Jonathan Strahan's anthology series, Eclipse. Though several of the stories strike him as particularly strong, Richard finds the entire anthology well worth a read. We also have two new reviewers making their debut this week. Tori Truslow is intrigued by S.L. Grey's The Mall, which has been championed by Lauren Beukes, but ultimately concludes that its strong parts don't make up an equally strong whole. Sarah Frost, on the other hand, is very pleased with Elizabeth Moon's Kings of the North, which she finds an improvement over the previous book in its series, Oaths of Fealty.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 2:01 PM No comments:
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
A Long-Awaited Announcement
I think I've mentioned that I've been writing entries on television series for the third edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute, David Langford and Graham Sleight. It's been a lot of fun and I'm pleased with what I've come up with, so I was thrilled, several weeks ago, to hear from Graham the news that he's made public today: in association with British SF publisher Gollancz, the third edition of the encyclopedia is going to be made available online, free of charge.
The official website is here, though right now it's just a placeholder where you can read the press release (PDF), follow the SFE on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to receive announcements. A beta version of the encyclopedia will go online later this summer to coincide with Gollancz's 50th anniversary celebrations, and the plan is for the text to be completed by the end of 2012.
The official website is here, though right now it's just a placeholder where you can read the press release (PDF), follow the SFE on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to receive announcements. A beta version of the encyclopedia will go online later this summer to coincide with Gollancz's 50th anniversary celebrations, and the plan is for the text to be completed by the end of 2012.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 7:28 PM No comments:
Friday, July 01, 2011
Strange Horizons Reviews, June 27-July 1
Lisa Goldstein kicks off the week's reviews with her take on Patrick Rothfuss The Wise Man's Fear, the sequel to The Name of the Wind, with which Lisa is pleasantly surprised. Maureen Kincaid Speller is less enamored of Holly Black's White Cat, wondering if this novel about con men doesn't constitute a con on its readers. Christy Tidwell makes her Strange Horizons debut with a review of Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination, a literary fiction novel about a world in which pain becomes visible as light.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Shoutout to Erin Hodges.
Posted by Abigail Nussbaum at 8:37 PM No comments:
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Updated: Tuesday, 07 Jan 2014 07:26 | Comments
A determined final-day push saw Zach Johnson burst through the leading pack to clinch the Hyundai Tournament of Champions title by a stroke from rising star Jordan Spieth in Hawaii.
The 2007 Masters winner carded 74 on Sunday to let his three-shot lead slip away, but a clinical round of 66 that included seven birdies saw him push 20-year-old Spieth, defending champion Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson aside when it mattered.
Spieth, who would have forced a play-off with the eventual winner had he chipped in on the 18th at Kapalua, found four birdies in his four-under-par round of 69 and had reached the turn with a one-shot lead over both Zach Johnson and 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner.
With a score of 19 under for the event, it was an 11th PGA Tour victory for Zach Johnson, who beat Tiger Woods in a play-off to win the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge last month and who tackles the Sony Open later this week.
Dustin Johnson, meanwhile, appeared stricken by the fate that had befallen his namesake on the third day. Five bogeys cancelled out five birdies as he signed for 73 on Monday to finish 14 under for the tournament.
Simpson remained in contention and finished only two shots shy of the victorious Johnson – he tied for third place with Kevin Streelman after the Illinois player hit a six-under-par 67 that included four consecutive birdies on the back nine.
Dufner finished on 15 under for the tournament and took his share of sixth place alongside Billy Horschel, Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson.
Ryan Moore completed the top 10 after holing birdies on 15, 16 and 17 to score 69 on the day.
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Can we survive a nuclear world? Will there be a future for our children? Is there hope for mankind? Do we depend too much on nuclear energy? That was the discussion on Wednesday night, November 13, 2013 at the Sunset/Gower studios Cannon Screening Room.
For the fifth year in a row, the remarkable Kat Kramer presented her series, "Films That Change The World." Film buffs, students and educators were delighted. Kat and her celebrity guests, which include Lily Tomlin, Ric O'Barry, Rick Overton, and Louis Gossett, Jr. as well as Dr. Helen Caldicott, the event shows the film Fallout. Others in attendance were George Chakiris, Pete Hammond, Marsha Hunt, Mark Rydell, Beverly Todd, Glynn Turman.
Fallout, a critically acclaimed documentary about nuclear holocaust was produced by Rough Trade Pictures in association with Screen Australia and Film Victoria. The film explores the myth and reality of Nevil Shute's international bestseller On The Beach and Stanley Kramer's film adaptation of the novel, which was filmed in Melbourne in 1959. That classic stared Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson. The film was co-produced by Lawrence Johnson and produced and co-written by Peter Kaufman. It's 86 minutes long.
The movie, which again reiterated Shute's message, repeated that one small slip can cause a domino fall of nuclear weapons and the total annihilatio of humankind.
Before the screening Dr. Helen Caldicott, a renowned Anti-Nuclear Activist, who was the subject of the 1982 Academy Award winning documentary short, "If You Love This Planet," was introduced by actress Lily Tomlin.
After the film, Katharine "Kat" Kramer moderated an informative eye -opening panel discussion with Dr. Caldicott, actress Donna Anderson (who appeared in the movie), Tomlin, Louis Gossett, Jr, Ric O'Barry, Rick Overton, Karen Sharpe Kramer (Golden Globe Award winning actress, also appearing in the film) and Heather Mayfield, daughter of the novelist Nevil Shute.
To save our planet and avoid global warming, we all have to participate by using less and less electricity and relying more on things like solar power. One of the small things we can do is to shut off the lights when not in the room or turn off your computer or other appliances that suck the energy when they are not needed to be on.
Of the world's stock of nuclear armaments, Russia and the US dominate. It was brought up by several people, why does Iran have to disarm when we, ourselves are armed to the teeth.
The event, which also honored the birth year of filmmaker Stanley Kramer, was being held adjacent to where the great man, Kat's father, once filmed 15 of his 35 movies. For more information on Mr. Kramer go to the site. Kat is the only of her father's four children who followed him into the movie business.
Following the panel discussion, Dr. Caldicott was available to sign copies of some of her books for sale, including "Loving This Planet," "A Desperate Passion," "The New Nuclear Danger," "Nuclear Power Is Not The Answer," "If You Love This Planet," and "War In Heaven."
In the past, Ms. Kramer's topics have included Bullying, homophobia, and Dolphin destruction. If you are interested in future information about the films, please call KNK Productions, Inc, at 818 760 3106 or email [email protected]
To view a trailer for Fallout, go to http://youtube/F0AG6vDIxrc and to learn more about Kat Kramer's films please visit her website.


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Taikō Risshiden (Wii U)
Published by
Developed by
Also For
FM Towns, Genesis, PC-98, Sharp X68000, SNES, Wii, Windows | Combined View
Not an American user?
DescriptionTaikō Risshiden is an open-ended strategy RPG set in Sengoku-period Japan, where the player takes the role of a subordinate of warlord Oda Nobunaga named Tōkichirō Kinoshita. The player chooses one of several possible professions, rolls their attributes, and must become successful in their chosen life.
Each month, the player receives orders from Nobunaga, and depending on the player's performance, their status will rise or fall. Success will allow the player to rise in rank and status, while failure will see the player's influence diminish, and possibly even result in execution. Depending on the player's actions, the scenario may stick closely to historical fact, or diverge wildly.
The player can travel to various locations via the overworld map, and depending upon their play style, several different modes of play may open up. The player can choose to engage their enemies in turn-based tactical battles, or foster peace through diplomacy. It is also possible to go gambling, date women, and even assassinate enemy (or friendly) characters. However, all actions will have an impact on the player's reputation.
There are no Wii U user screenshots for this game.
There are 39 other screenshots from other versions of this game or official promotional screenshots.
Promo Images
Alternate Titles
- "太閤立志伝" -- Japanese spelling
Part of the Following Groups
User Reviews
There are no reviews for this game.
Critic Reviews
There are no critic reviews for this game.
There are currently no topics for this game.
There is no trivia on file for this game.
Michael Cassidy (21142) added Taikō Risshiden (Wii U) on May 22, 2015
Other platforms contributed by Michael Cassidy (21142) and 雷堂嬢太朗 -raido.jotaro- (60702)
There are no game credits on file for this release of the game. Everything in MobyGames is contributable by users.


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The most common problem we see is that these couples do not think they will ever have major problems. Rob and I are a part of the program to give them a different perspective. It is not our goal to scare them, but to encourage them to be prepared. Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." Notice it says "when" and not "if" you pass through the waters. We will all pass through the raging waters. We will all endure the intense heat at some point in our lives.
We shouldn't discourage young couples from boarding that plane, but we should prepare our young people for what lies ahead. First, they need to recognize their natural, sinful state and understand that the heat and the pressure are necessary to transform their hearts. They should be aware of the turbulence and possible disasters that loom. They should have resources to help them deal with conflict and the names of great Christian counselors to help guide them should they not find resolution.
The next time you have to buy a wedding gift, give a pressure cooker; maybe a crock pot. Wish the couple a happy marriage, but tell them to endure the heat, the pressure and by all means, put the setting on low and endure the time. Don't we all want to be a diamond, instead of a lump of coal?
Blessings to all of you in your journey!
Edit (1/18/12): One reader pointed out that the divorce rate is not as high as 1 in 2 marriages. Most of the articles I read stated it was as high as 50%. This link gives a breakdown and additional information. Thank you, Michele for sharing!


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'UPFRONT with Mike Gousha' recap for Jan. 13, 2013
-- Two state lawmakers debated proposed changes to the Milwaukee County Board, with one former board member saying the body worked better when it was part time.
"There has been tension between the board and the county executive since the board went to a full-time position," now state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo told "UPFRONT with Mike Gousha."
Added the West Allis Republican, who's proposing a new bill in the Legislature to change the board along with GOP Sen. Alberta Darling: "If you take a look at what the board accomplished in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was part time, it did much a better job of managing the county's business than the full-time board does today."
But state Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said the Milwaukee Board discussion at the state level is a waste of time given more pressing matters like job creation and the economy.
Erpenbach also said he takes issue with the state interfering with the functioning of the Milwaukee County Board. "I am wondering, as a state senator from Middleton, why am I sticking my nose into this?"
"Imagine if Congress came into Wisconsin, the state Legislature, and said this is how you are going to run your Legislature, and this is how much you are going to get paid," Erpenbach said on the UPFRONT show, produced in conjunction with WisPolitics.com.
Sanfelippo countered the comparison wasn't "apples to apples."
"County government was created by the state. Therefore county government is really an arm of the state," he said. "The state could come in and has the right to say if the county is not performing properly the state can make some changes."
Erpenbach argued Sanfelippo had an opportunity to make these changes before when he was on the Milwaukee County Board and collecting the full salary.
Sanfelippo said he worked for changing the pay back then as well. He said he went as far as giving money back to the treasury for county furlough days.
-- Also on the program was Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Vince Megna, who said he sees candidate David Koch more of an opponent than incumbent Pat Roggensack.
According to Megna, Koch contributed just under a million dollars to help re-elect another conservative justice, David Prosser, in 2011.
"Outside billionaires contribute to the Wisconsin Supreme Court trying to get their voice on it… this is the people's court of Wisconsin not Koch's," he said.
And the lemon law attorney and open Democrat said he's being truthful with people when he states his political and ideological position on issues.
"All judges on the court have an ideology; they just don't tell you what it is," Megna said. "Having an ideology or perspective isn't going to prevent me from applying the law properly and fairly according to facts and argument on any issue."
Megna, Roggensack and Marquette Law Professor Ed Fallone meet in a primary next month. Roggensack is seeking a second 10-year term.
-- State Sen. Luther Olsen discussed the upcoming state budget debate and possible increases in education aid.
"I think the revenue increase should be $200 per student," said the Ripon Republican, a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. "We need to give students some money because we lowered their costs (while) everything else seems to be coming back up."
Olsen said he doesn't think schools that perform better should be the only ones receiving more revenue. The state developed a way of testing performance last legislative session.
"Maybe the (schools) that aren't (performing well) need a little more to be successful also," he said.
Private "school choice," also referred to as a voucher system, is expected to boosted by certain Republicans in the new session.
However, Olsen said he would like to see localities put the voucher system to a referendum.
-- Mike Gousha says Wisconsin is one of only a few states where lawmakers are considered full-time, and some people are saying it's time for a debate about whether lawmakers should be part-time.


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Student Accounts Services
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Students may cash checks up to $60 per day. The cashing of third-party checks is strongly discouraged. Any checks that are returned from the financial institution for any reason including closed account or non-sufficient funds will be charged back to the student's account that received the funds. A $25 NSF fee will be applied to any check returned for non-payment for any reason. Students who have presented NSF checks will lose their check cashing privileges. Faculty and staff members may cash checks up to $50 per day.
Student Paychecks
Student paychecks are distributed in Student Accounts every student payday (every other Friday). Students may cash their paychecks up to $80. Pay advices for students using direct deposit may also be picked up on student pay dates in Student Accounts.
Bookstore Vouchers
Students who have completed their Student Authorization Form to indicate that their loan funds may be used for miscellaneous charges and have a credit balance on their accounts as a result of overpayment or financial aid that exceeds their tuition and other charges are eligible to receive a Bookstore Voucher up to the amount of their credit balance. Students may request a Bookstore Voucher in Student Accounts and use it for the purchase of books and other supplies. Their student account will be charged back for the actual charges they incurred in the bookstore only. Their accounts are not charged for the amount of the voucher. Bookstore Vouchers must be used prior to the first refund period of the semester for which it is given.


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It all started out innocently enough last Saturday, that is, of course, if you think the United States actually needs a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Obama names U.S. envoy to Islamic Conference
President Obama announced Saturday the appointment of Rashad Hussain, a White House lawyer, to be his special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Obama made the announcement in a video conference to the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. In his message, Obama called Hussain "an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff," who would strengthen his policy of outreach to the world's Muslims.
Then reporters, apparently unlike the White House vetters, started digging into Rashad Hussain's background.
Obama's Islamic Envoy Quoted Defending Man Charged With Aiding Terrorists
President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, is at the center of a controversy over remarks attributed to him defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group.
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs quoted Hussain in 2004 as calling Sami al-Arian the victim of "politically motivated persecutions" after al-Arian, a university professor, was charged in 2003 with heading U.S. operations of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The United States has designated the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a foreign terrorist group as far back as 1997. At the time of al-Arian's arrest, then Attorney General John Ashcroft called it "one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world."
Al-Arian pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Sounds bad for Hussain right? Never fear, when confronted with this disturbing sympathy for an admitted terrorist conspirator, the White House immediately rolled out story number one.
The White House says the controversial remarks defending al-Arian two years earlier were made by his daughter — not by Hussain. Both were part of a panel discussion at a Muslim Students Association conference, but the reporter covering the event told Fox News she stands by the quotes she attributed to Hussain, who was a Yale Law student and an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
The Web version of the 2004 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs was later edited to delete all of Hussain's comments. Editor Delinda Hanley told Fox News she believes the change was made in February 2009, though she does not recall who requested the edit.
Hanley remembered telling the group's webmaster: "Let's just take out the quotes since they have been attributed to the wrong speaker."
Someone's obviously lying. So, when the reporter refused to back down, out comes story number two.
Late Tuesday a White House official spoke with Hussain and confirmed to Fox News that Hussain did attend the 2004 event. The official says Hussain went with plans to discuss civil rights in the wake of 9/11, but remembers the conversation turning to Sami al-Arian's case. According to the White House official, Hussain has "no recollection" as to whether or not he made the comments attributed to him.
We've now gone from flat out denial to a non-denial denial, he just can't remember. But wait, there's more, we're not done yet, there are actual audio tapes and transcripts that exist! Cue up story number three.
President's Envoy to Islamic Conference Admits Having Made Controversial '04 Remarks
Presented with a transcript of his remarks at a 2004 conference, Rashad Hussain, President Obama's nominee to be special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, issued a statement Friday evening acknowledging having criticized the U.S. government's case against Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to aid Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Originally, the White House claimed that Hussain denied having made the comments, attributing them instead to Al-Arian's daughter, Laila.
But Politico's Josh Gerstein obtained an audiotape of the remarks, in which Hussain said that Al-Arian's case was one of many "politically motivated persecutions."
On Friday evening, Hussain admitted having made them and the White House backed off its insistence that Hussain hadn't made the comments, though both noted that he did so in the context of disagreeing with the way the government pursued the case against Al-Arian, making clear not to address the specific criminal charges.
"As a law student six years ago, I spoke on the topic of civil liberties on a panel during which I responded to comments made about the al-Arian case by Laila al-Arian who was visibly saddened by charges against her father," Hussain said in a statement. "I made clear at the time that I was not commenting on the allegations themselves. The judicial process has now concluded, and I have full faith in its outcome."
Hussain, currently in the White House counsel's office, said, "I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated."
Busted! Now, will Hussain be thrown under the bus where he belongs?
See also:
Islam envoy retreats on terror talk
Obama Envoy Admits 'Ill Conceived' Remarks Defending Terror Suspect
Obama OIC envoy designate admits to improper remarks in defending terror suspect
Obama OIC envoy designate admits to improper remarks in defending terror suspect
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
Should We Believe Rashad Hussain?
The case of Rashad Hussain
The case of Rashad Hussain, part 2
Rashad Hussain's Troubling Ties
Is White House Attorney Involved in Media Cover-up?
Questions for America's New OIC Envoy Rashad Hussain
Event Attended by Obama's Muslim Envoy Was Held by Group With Troubling Views, Ties
Pro-jihadist Rashad Hussain: Obama appointee's connection to Soros
Is it just me or does it seem like pretty much everyone Obama appoints is some kind of anti-American radical or political miscreant?
/it's really hard to believe that the Obama White House vetting process is this inept and ineffective, they have to know these peoples' backgrounds and yet they appoint them anyway, because they're fellow travelers
Filed under: Blog Entry | Tagged: Attorney General, Audio Tapes, Barack Obama, Civil Liberties, Criminal Charges, Delinda Hanley, Doha, Islam, John Ashcroft, Laila al-Arian, Lawyer, Muslim Students Association, Muslims, Obama Appointee, Organization Of The Islamic Conference, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Qatar, Rashad Hussain, Sami al-Arian, Special Envoy, Terrorism, Terrorist Sympathizer, Terrorists, Transcripts, U.S.-Islamic World Forum, Under The Bus, United States, Vetters, Washington Report On Middle East Affairs, White House Counsel, Yale Law Journal, Yale Law School | 1 Comment »


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Podcast: Docker and Virtualization
The latest OTN ArchBeat Podcast series features a four-part discussion of Docker and Virtualization. The panelists include Oracle Fusion Middleware architects Mark Nelson, Edwin Biemond, and Jim Clark, Oracle ACE Director and Fusion Middleware expert Lucas Jellema, CTO of AMIS Services, and Rubicon Red co-founder and CTO Matt Wright, a recognized expert in Oracle SOA and BPM.
posted Thu, 16 Apr 2015 17:09:02 +0000
Installing Weblogic with Chef
Want to learn how to create a simple Weblogic Cluster on a virtual machine with two managed servers using Chef? Read this post by C2B2 principal consultant Alan Fryer.
posted Thu, 19 Mar 2015 13:44:38 +0000
Five Steps for Installing Oracle Database 12c o... | Oracle Community
If you install Oracle Database 12c in a non-global Oracle Solaris 11 zone, you get database isolation, simplified resource control, and the ability to reduce licensing costs. Ginny Henningsen and Glynn Foster provide step-by-step instructions.
posted Tue, 24 Feb 2015 17:37:37 +0000
Best Practices for Oracle Solaris Kernel Zones
Oracle Solaris Kernel Zones provide all the flexibility, scalability, and efficiency of Oracle Solaris Zones while adding the capability to have zones that have independent kernels. This article discusses best practices for deploying kernel zones.
posted Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:15:06 +0000
Getting to know Docker: A Better Way to do Virtualization?
Docker allows you to create reusable containers with applications in them. These can be distributed, will run on several platforms, and are much smaller than the equivalent virtual machine images. Learn more in this article from Mark Nelson, Edwin Biemond, and Joel Nation.
posted Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:01:48 +0000
White Paper: Hard Partitioning With Oracle Solaris Zones
This document describes hard partitioning with Oracle Solaris Zones (also known as Oracle Solaris Containers), and how to use it to conform to the Oracle licensing policies for partitioned environments.
posted Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:34:58 +0000
How to Get the Best Performance from Oracle Solaris Network Performance with Oracle VM Server for SPARC
Oracle VM offers flexibility in the assignment of I/O networking resources to domains. With this flexibility comes a wide range of performance possibilities. This article provides guidance regarding the most suitable configuration for certain workloads.
posted Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:52:00 +0000
Tech Article: Securing a Cloud-Based Data Center
When you build a private cloud, you need to protect sensitive data not only while it's in storage, but also during transmission between servers and clients, and when it's being used by an application. When a project is completed, the cloud must securely delete sensitive data and make sure the original data is kept secure. These are just some of the many security precautions a sysadmin needs to take to secure data in a cloud infrastructure. Orgad, Ron, and Richard and explain the rest and show you how to employ the security features in Oracle Solaris 11 to protect your cloud infrastructure. Part 2 of a three-part article on cloud deployments that use the Oracle Solaris Remote Lab as a case study.
posted Mon, 18 Aug 2014 22:43:12 +0000
Fastest way to a Virtual Machine with JDeveloper 12.1.3 and Oracle Database XE 11
- on Ubuntu Linux 64 bit
Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema gets you there in 10 steps.
posted Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:41:52 +0000


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In a country with iron-fisted speech policies like China, when bloggers start calling for a full-blown popular uprising, it's a pretty dangerous time to be a blogger. That's exactly what writer Ran Yunfei has found, arrested for his anti-government views.
After Middle East revolts sparked some Hey, why not here, too commentary between China's digital dissident community, the government clamped down hard—Reuters reports over 100 online critics have been arrested or reported missing since Twitter and blog chatter about a "Jasmine Revolution" began circulating last month.
Ran's been detained for over a month without any reason provided— his formal arrest (for "inciting subversion of state power") only declared now. It could be months until the full consequences of his arrest are clear, and years in prison are a very real possibility.
It's always been risky to stick your neck out and speak ill of China's ruling party—but now seems like particularly dire timing. [Reuters]


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Queen's Gambit
20 Item(s)
Grid List
A Reliable and Ambitious Weapon Against 1.d4
The Vienna Variation is a particular and independent system of the Queen's Gambit. It arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4, when black's capture on move 4 is strongly reminiscent of the Queen's Gambit Accepted. On this DVD, GM Yannick Pelletier offers you a complete repertoire in the Vienna, while covering the numerous possible deviations by White. He also analyses thematic games which illustrate the most important middlegame ideas.
The Vienna Variation - Yannick Pelletier
When facing gambits the most important thing is not to panic, a feeling usually induced by lack of knowledge. Keep calm, learn the antidotes and face the aggression with renewed confidence. This DVD, ideal for players up to 2200 level, will help you to do just that. Andrew Martin is an English chess player with the title of International Master. He has won various national and international tournaments and was a commentator on the chess world championship between Kasparov and Kramnik in 2000. He is known as a professional chess teacher and head trainer of the English youth team. He is a chess columnist, an author of chess books and the author of various instructional videos. He was the publisher of the series Trends Publications. Andrew Martin has recorded extensively for Chessbase since 2004.
Meeting the Gambits - Gambits after 1.d4 - VOL. 2 - Andrew Martin
Opening with the Chigorin shows your intention to play for a win right from the outset. After 2...Nc6 Black's pieces fly into the game putting pressure on White's position from a very early stage. This opening is ideal for the type of player who strives for an unconvential yet attacking game right from the start. This DVD will take you through all the things you need to know in order to play this opening in a fun and exciting way. Simon Williams describes all the main concepts that you will need to know; so even if you forget the actual moves you will have the right reasoning already imprinted in your mind.
The Tactical Chigorin - Simon Williams
Even though the Semi-Tarrasch cannot offer a complete repertoire against 1.d4, being conditioned of White's move order, it is an excellent complement to the Nimzoindian Defence. Moreover, it is a viable way of escaping the strategic pressure in the Exchange Queen's Gambit while also presenting a reliable weapon against the main Symmetrical English systems
Semi-Tarrasch - A Universal Weapon Against 1. d4 - Mihail Marin
The Queen's Gambit Declined ("QGD") has arguably been the most important opening in World Championship matches and elite tournaments for over a century. On this DVD, Sam Collins presents a repertoire for Black based on the rock-solid Lasker variation, reinvigorated with new ideas by former World Champion Vishy Anand and forming the cornerstone of many strong GM repertoires today.
Queen's Gambit Declined - A Complete Repertoire for Black Based upon the Lasker Variation - IM Sam Collins
On this DVD, we will look at a simple-to-learn yet surprisingly effective system that White can play after 1 d4 d5. In all cases White will play 2 c4 - and if given the chance, 3 cxd5! This leads to fixed pawn structures where piece play takes center stage, and in these systems, White's pieces are always stronger than Black's! The main ideas and concepts are thoroughly explained by taking a detailed look at how the best players in the world handle this system.
Simple But Powerful - Exchange on d5 in the Slav and Queen's Gambit - Simon Williams
The Ragozin Defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4) is at the forefront of chess theory. The Ragozin is being played by every top grandmaster in the world - it is time you also add it to your repertoire to get interesting and dynamic positions against 1. d4! The DVD is based around a solid system of play for Black. It favors positions that are strategically complex while trying to minimize any claim that White might have at an opening advantage.
The Ragozin Defense - Alejandro Ramirez
The Meran Variation in the Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5) is a s trategically and dynamically complex opening full of tactical possibilities. And this DVD provides you with a comprehensive overview of typical tactical patterns for both sides. Positional concepts are also explained. In interactive format IM Robert Ris offers you a lot of exercises, including hints and advice that help you to know key tactical patterns of this variation to play it with success. The DVD is a must for those who want to learn more about this opening, and a pleasure for those who enjoy razor sharp battles of the world's greatest players!
Tactic Toolbox Meran Variation - Robert Ris
This Slav DVD is a complete opening repertoire for black after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6. GM Nick Pert has played the Slav defence for over 10 years and provides all his la test and most up to date analysis crammed into 1 DVD. Nick has spent man y hours studying the best Slav lines, and he explains his favourite variations in this DVD. In addition t o the usual video explanations of the French there are some interactive clips where the viewer is tested on a range of theoretical questions and tactics arising from Slav games.
The Solid Slav Defence - Nicholas Pert
Wherever he appears, chess fans gather in crowds. Garry Kasparov is the strongest chess player of our time – and a great personality who can represent the sport like no other chess professional. Now Kasparov comes into your home and shares with you his knowledge of one of the great openings in chess.
MR. KASPAROV - How to Play the Queen's Gambit
Orthodox Variation is an opening choice for Black which will never be refuted. It perhaps has an unjust reputation of being solid and passive, but this all-new ChessBase DVD will challenge that perception
Queen's Gambit Declined - Andrew Martin
Back in the 1950s, it was Botvinnik who popularised the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. The setup, which involves putting the knight on e2 in combination with castling kingside, was revolutionary at that time. Until then, White had either placed his knight on f3 with the idea of s tarting a minority attack on the queenside, or on e2, where it was normally associated with the intention of castling queenside and preparing a pawn storm against the Black King. K asparov, Botvinnik's pupil, would soon follow in his mentor's footsteps, bringing yet further refinements to this flexible system.
A World Champions Repertoire Against The Queen's Gambit Declined - Robert Ris
In this DVD, Lilov will teach you a plan for Black with a6, b5, Bb7, Nbd7 and c5, which is one of the best ways to meet Whites Queens Gambit.
Queen's Gambit Accepted - Valeri Lilov
In this DVD Sam Collins presents a repertoire for Black based on the Queen's Gambit Accepted, 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4. Rather than get involved in the heavy theory of the Classical Main Line, the lynchpin of the repertoire is the active development of the queen's bishop, after 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3, with 4
The Queen's Gambit Accepted - A Repertoire for Black - Sam Collins
Amongst the many advantages of the Tarrasch is the fact that it can be used against the English and Reti Openings.
Tarrasch Defense - Nigel Davies
Openings Vol 03: Queen's Gambit and Queen's Pawn games (1.d4 d5) is the third in a series of five volumes dealing with the fundamentals of opening play in chess.
CHESSBASE TUTORIALS - Queen's Gambit and Queen's Pawn Games - VOLUME 3
In this DVD, Sam Collins examines one of the most important structures in chess, the Carlsbad.
KNOW THE TERRAIN - Carlsbad - Sam Collins - VOLUME 1
The Queens Gambit Declined (known as the 'QGD') is the "Mr. Reliable" of responses to 1.d4. A favourite of many of the world champions, both past and present, its reputation has never been called into question.
Queen's Gambit Declined - D'Costa & Murphy
The Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation is one of the most important opening systems. It has been played by most of the great players in history and from both sides of the board.
Queen's Gambit Declined Exchange Variation - Nigel Davies
Sam Collins continued his investigation into the most common and important pawn structures in chess by looking at the ''Capablanca Structure'' (white pawns on c4 and d4 against black pawns on c6 and e6)
KNOW THE TERRAIN - The Capablanca Structure - Sam Collins - VOLUME 2
20 Item(s)
Grid List


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Reser's Fine Foods is one of the nation's premiere manufacturers of high-quality refrigerated foods including deli salads, side dishes, chip dips, tortillas and Mexican snacks for families across the United States and Canada. Reser's manufactures thousands of products! Some of our brands include Reser's, Mrs. Kinsers, Don Pancho, Baja Café, and Stonemill Kitchens. You will see our mouth-watering products in supermarkets, restaurants and local outlets across the nation!
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Great Benefits:
We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package designed to help employees live a healthier life, build rewarding careers and save for the future. Reser's offers choices whenever possible, because we recognize the diverse and ever changing needs of our employees. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, AD&D, life, 401(k) with match, wellness programs, paid holidays and vacation time to name few!
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Rolf to make first court appearance
Rolf Harris is to front court for the first time after being charged with 13 child sex offences.
The Australian entertainer is scheduled to make a brief appearance at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday morning London time.
Harris faces six counts of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1980 and 1981 and three charges of indecent assault on a girl aged 14 in 1986.
The 83-year-old was also charged three weeks ago with four counts of making indecent images of a child in the first half of 2012.
Harris's first court appearance comes as it was revealed on Sunday his artwork has been removed from galleries on board luxury ocean liners including the Queen Mary 2.
A spokesman for cruise giant Cunard told British tabloid the Daily Mail: "When allegations regarding Rolf Harris first came to light some time ago we felt it was appropriate to remove his pictures from display in the art galleries on board."
His portrait of Queen Elizabeth also is reportedly in art limbo with no one - including Buckingham Palace - able to confirm its whereabouts.
The artist and singer was replaced as the host of British television show Animal Clinic after being arrested for a second time in early August.
It was revealed in April he'd been dropped as the face of British Paints.
Harris was first questioned over allegations of sexual assault in November 2012.
He was arrested in late March 2013 by officers from Operation Yewtree which was established following the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
At the beginning of August he was re-arrested following further allegations.
A police file of evidence was then passed to prosecutors who recommended Harris be charged.
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Travel Related Sites
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This group is SPECIFICALLY for members who identify with the group theme 'TRAIN TRAVEL'. If you are a member of Traveling Passions and you are logged in, please upvote & downvote the members listed. Our system is built to keep the Groups area focused solely on the appropriate members & your votes help! Also, please feel free to create and post about the TRAIN TRAVEL Group in the Traveling Passions - Travel Loving Forum. Thanks!


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Ego Co.'s Costume Ball opens on the 24th and it's sure to get you ready for any costume ball/party that is on your schedule. The Medusa Hair from HANDverk is available in a variety of colours and it is the perfect "wig" to…scare off people? Which you wouldn't want to do in this amazing Black Widow dress from Happy Undead. If dresses aren't your thing, the Black Widow Corset is sold seperately. The Catrina Makeup from Shakeup! is a great finishing touch to complete your sexy/scary look for any party!
And if you are hosting a party, well Senzafine has you covered! This gorgeous Nevermore Dark Parlour set comes with a 37 animation couch (8 couple poses) which seats up to 3 singles, drapes, wall sconces that can be turned on and off, area rug, and decor pillows. Great to set the mood for any ghoulishly posh bash you might have!


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Through the study of history, students learn how to interpret their own experience and to shape their own values by engaging in dialogues with the past. The study of history also nurtures the ability to view the world from multiple perspectives, including interdisciplinary ones. Finally, history provides the foundation for informed participation in both the local and the global community by teaching how to apply critical thinking skills to solving problems. The study of history offers excellent training for a variety of occupations, from teaching to law, government, business, and the arts.
The PSU Department of History encourages active engagement in historical inquiry, whether at the introductory survey level, in seminars, or in community-based learning. Active engagement requires students to learn how to master basic knowledge, ask historical questions, access and evaluate information, and communicate what they have learned in both written and oral forms. Helping students master the use of a variety of sources and tools to unlock the past is a goal of all history courses.
We also invite you to visit the Friends of History website. The FOH is a community organization devoted to the promotion and dissemination of historical information in the Portland area. Monthly roundtable discussions on the Civil War, book discussion groups, and presentations by guest speakers on all manner of historical topics are just a sample of FOH's program offerings.
Support the History Department by making a donation through the PSU Foundation's secure website.


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Moro, Esteban and Vicente, Javier and Moyano, Luis G. and Gerig, Aurig and Farmer, Doyne James and Vaglica, Gabriella and Lillo, Fabrizio and Mantegna, Rosario N. (2009) Market Impact and Trading Protocols of Hidden Orders in Stock Markets. [Working Paper]. p. 9.


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Manage My Account
Open a New Account
Requesting an account is quick and easy - and at no cost to you. Why not save time and do it now?
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Use your Address Book to create, edit, delete or check an address and schedule a pickup.
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Even more account tools to help you manage your FedEx Account and shipments.


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minniepauz wrote:And please tell your son THANK YOU for protecting us and serving his country!! And I always like to thank the parents too since they all sacrifice so much too!!
gorgeousfluffpot wrote:
Meanwhile, take care, be at peace ... remember the wise words: this, too, shall pass.
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We have been blogged! This time, with one of our videography partners, Joseph Testa Films. We first met Joe on Facebook, chatting on several occasions in different wedding planning and industry-related groups. When the opportunity came up to plan a destination wedding for one of our couples, Azia and Hondo, on relatively short notice, Joe and his wife Peggy happily agreed to assist us with videography for the wedding. They did a fantastic job! We highly recommend Joe for all of your video needs!
Since then, we have collaborated at several bridal shows, and often promote special deals with each other, in order to maximize value, while not sacrificing quality of service, for our clients. We also co-administer several wedding message groups together on Facebook, providing planning advice and resources for brides and vendors.
Recently, Joe sent us a short questionnaire, using the answers to create a feature about our business. Below is the link to the post on Joe's blog. Enjoy!


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{ personal: }
I spent twelve days traveling last month, fourteen if you tack on a quick two-day work trip spent mostly on planes. Some was pleasure, a lot of it was business, all of it was fun. I was back in Manhattan for a few days here and there. And since you asked, yes, it was during the heatwave.
Let me explain something about us Northern Californians, more specifically, those of us who live within a fifteen mile radius of San Francisco. It's a hot day when it's 77° out. It's a scorcher if it's 82° and it's a proper heat wave it breaks 85°. I don't know what to do with myself when it's 100° out. I really don't.
I drank a lot of water and tried to move slowly. I also tried to pretend I wasn't sweating profusely the entire time. My body was in shock, my brain on vacation. I hit American Apparel for some shorts, (neon pink corduroy!), a bunch of tank tops and a headband. The most wonderful thing about it was being warm at night.
Since I was not operating in familiar and particularly photogenic surroundings, I recreated some of my favorite outfits upon my return home. Most noteworthy was the long skirt I picked up at Topshop. Lightweight, sheer, vibrant and sexy. Perfectly comfortable without compromising style. Love.
Another favorite is The Sweater. It's been a while since an item of clothing drew me in and held me captive. It's the most unbelievably inconvenient sweater. Oversized and floppy, no buttons, no belt, no tie, nothing. With a hood. What do I want with a hood? Oh, but love at first sight is fierce and no logic would deter me from making that practically deconstructed sweater mine. I wear it all the time.
I'm going to wear it again tomorrow.
xo, f
{ deets: }
Lavender chiffon tank top/American Apparel, floral shorts/Topshop, orange chiffon tank top/American Apparel, watercolor maxi skirt/Topshop, deconstructed sweater/Topshop, neon green skinny jeans/Urban Outfitters.


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SMH: Mother Cursing & Fighting In Front Of Her Lil Daughter! (Grandma Pulls Out A Broom & Chases Her Down) "Bitch You Aint Built Like That. Wheres My Money"
Watch the older lady come running out with a broom
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Crater Creator wrote:Attitude can make a difference. CryoS had a valid idea, but "why isnt this on traxus/MSG?" comes off sounding accusatory: little better than "WHY IS THIS A POLL." I think what CitizenKane's driving at is that we should let people know when we appreciate their effort, even if their contribution isn't useful to us personally.
So, what you're saying is, let's enjoy happy time?


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Enjoy some of the best seats in the stadium with Prime House Seats. We have made available a limited number of house seats exclusively for this opportunity and online only. If you have been looking for a prime seat location for that special occasion or to impress an important client, then look no further and click on Buy Tickets next to your desired game below. Seat locations are row 10 and below!
Game and prices are subject to change.


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One of the most difficult of topics to discuss is the demise of your startup. There is nothing to say in advance or after it happens to make you feel any better. No words exist that will take away the sting of the failure and you will relive aspects of the process the rest of your life. Many serial entrepreneurs have lived through at least one failure and some, more than one. There are a few that have not experienced it and if lucky never will.
The purpose of this article is to alert you that many startups just do not make it. The reasons are wide-ranging and sometimes just strange. Sometimes, you cannot prepare in advance. When possible, planning an orderly shutdown is preferable over hitting the wall at 100 miles per hour! At least in an orderly shutdown, you have a chance to manage creditors, staff, and operations to protect as many as possible and as much of the assets as possible.
The following is a short list of reasons for demise: 1) Product failures, 2) Commercial failures, 3) Development failures, 4) Management failures, 5) Financial failures, and 6) other. Experienced executives can sometimes manage these events and turn a business around. The less seasoned professionals may face more challenges than experience allows for effective management. Many times, it does not matter how good the manager is, the company will be doomed.
As an example, I ran into a friend a few weeks back. This person is a great manager. He was developing a company for a VC group. After much planning and having a deal done for the next financing, he received a call saying the fund was not going to go through the deal. The news came about a week before the business would run out of funds. There were no other prospects for investment and the time was too short. My last discussion with the friend was along the lines that he would be closing the company in about 5 days!
In the biotechnology space, clinical trials are required to demonstrate effectiveness of a product and gain FDA approval. Two Phase III trials are generally required to demonstrate safety and effectiveness of the product. Many early stage biotechnologies have experienced break of the code and analysis of the Phase III data to find their product did not work. This typically makes all investors run for the hills! If the company is not well capitalized, it will be gone in days. This has taken place numerous times and it is not something you can plan for. Companies having received in excess of $300MM have failed over night for just this type of event.
The point of this article is to alert you that FAILURE happens. You can learn from it, you may be able to manage it, but more often than not, the company disappears quickly. Just be aware that the streets of "Startup Land" are not paved with "Gold". You will put in long hard hours and experience many great things, but sometimes the magic catches up to you and poof, "Now you see it, Now you don't"!
Taffy Williams is the author of: Think Agile: How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed to via Amazon


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About Cro-Mags
Before the Cro-Mags, the idea of combining heavy metal and hardcore together was unheard of. But with the release of their classic debut, The Age of Quarrel, hardcore-metal was born, and in its wake came a legion of similarly styled offspring (Biohazard, Vision of Disorder, etc.). Although the group endured an endless amount of lineup shifts (which is probably the main reason they never became as well known as they should have), the Cro-Mags continued to record and tour in one form or another. Through it all, the New York City-based group's leader has been bassist Harley Flanagan who, in 1977 at the ripe old age of ten (!), started his first punk band during a European trip. Upon returning to NYC, Flanagan supplied drums for the Stimulators, a band that performed quite a bit locally and in Washington, D.C., alongside Bad Brains. The early '80s saw the initial Cro-Mags lineups formed with a variety of members playing alongside the only constant: Flanagan. By the middle of the decade, the best-known Cro-Mags lineup was in place — Flanagan on bass, former Bad Brains roadie John Joseph on vocals, Parris Mayhew on guitar, and Mackie Jayson on drums — and soon built a rabid following via shows at CBGB's. The quartet recorded a 13-track demo that made the rounds throughout the underground — eventually officially released in 2000, as Before the Quarrel — and landing the Cro-Mags a record deal with Profile's Rock Hotel label (with second guitarist Doug Holland joining, as well). Similar to how Bad Brains aligned themselves with Rastafarianism, it was around this time that members of the band became closely associated with the Hare Krishna faith. With a loud buzz forming, the Cro-Mags issued their aforementioned debut, The Age of Quarrel, in 1986. With such bands as Slayer and Metallica becoming increasingly popular, it seemed like the musical tides were changing in favor of groups like the Cro-Mags, as nationwide tours with such groups as Motörhead and Megadeth expanded their audience. But it wasn't meant to be, as both Joseph and Jayson exited the group after its supporting tour (the latter of which would later turn up in the Bad Brains and the Fun Lovin' Criminals). Instead of following up their debut right away, it wasn't until 1989 that Best Wishes was released, which saw Flanagan double as lead vocalist. With increasing troubles with their label, Mayhew left the group, but by the early '90s, the Cro-Mags were up and running once more, as Flanagan and Joseph resuscitated the band with a pair of albums for the Century Media label — 1992's Alpha-Omega and 1993's Near Death Experience. However, after the release of a double-live album, Hard Times in an Age of Quarrel, the Cro-Mags split up. Since then, various versions of the Cro-Mags have recorded and toured (including a brief reunion of Flanagan and Mayhew which resulted in 2000s Revenge). Flanagan eventually returned with a new band, Harley's War (which included ex-Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Rocky George); who issued their debut in 2003, titled Cro-Mag.
HOMETOWNUnited States


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Funny Animals.
This guy must be thinking once the cats move, I get my break.
Roosting cats.
Now who is the master here & who is taking whom for a walk?
This dog must be wishing for reversal of their roles.
Rest assured we are going to end up with really cute pictures.
This cat must be thinking what did it do this time?
Lets party, life is beautiful.
Cute & adoring
Other Posts:
Petri Art.
Tattoo Removal.
Nature's Ice Show.
Interesting Door Mats.
Creative Business Cards.


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Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 30
Posted by DA&B at 7:41 AM 2 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Family travel, Germany
Friday, November 28, 2008
Friday, November 28
Well, take care!!
Posted by DA&B at 11:26 AM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, November 26
Hello All!
Well - we had another cleaning day here at the apartment - it is not easy keeping up with a toddler and a hairy monster (I mean dog). When people tell you that a Golden Retriever has a lot of hair (and I do mean alot - believe it!!) I fully believe after almost 5 years with him, that I should be used to all that hair, but man I think he has more over here...We couldn't ask for a better family dog though - he is the best companion for Brenna - she loves him to death...
I went and made a wreath tonight with several of the transplants here in Germany - I didn't do a great job socializing - but when do I ever. One of these days, I will learn how to mingle better - just not sure when... The wreaths that everyone made turned out really pretty - I made the least decorated one, but they are still pretty. My hands still smell like Evergreen though!!
I think I figured out my video stuff - so that will be great for Brenna and me on the plane - I can't believe it is only a little over a week away :-)
Sorry - no pictures again today...
Take Care!
Posted by DA&B at 12:32 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 25
Hello All!!
Not to much to report on today - just spent some time cleaning (much needed - I'm not a very good housewife on cleaning duties - that is for sure), had German class, and spent time trying to get some videos downloaded for the upcoming trip (which the downloads were not successful yet - grrrr...)
The leftovers keep calling my name - I wish I had some will power - hopefully, things will get back to normal food wise after the holidays. I'm curious to see how Dustin does here all by himself ;-)
Sorry, no pictures and not a lot of thoughts about today - I think I need to get more sleep ;-)
Take Care!
Posted by DA&B at 12:17 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday, November 24
Posted by DA&B at 11:37 AM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 23
Posted by DA&B at 10:30 AM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Germany
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Saturday, November 22
Posted by DA&B at 11:49 AM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, family pic
Friday, November 21, 2008
Saturday, November 22
Hello All!
Well, there is something to be said about snow in the Black Forest - I woke up this morning to find our little village looking like a Christmas post card!!! I'm waiting for Brenna to wake up this morning - I can't wait to see her excitement :-) It almost feels like Christmas morning with how pretty it is, plus all the baking and cooking I did yesterday :-)
I know I always go overboard on making stuff and our friends probably will be overwhelmed by how much stuff I bring, but I just get carried away and my stomach really starts taking over ;-)
I ended up making the following (mind you that there are only going to be like 10 people there today...): homemade banana pudding, yeast rolls, cinnamon cream cheese bars, no bake cookies, and buckeyes. For the last two - the peanut butter was really talking to me... Mmmm-peanut butter and chocolate :-) Anyway, I love a Thanksgiving or Christmas with a ton of food - that does say the holidays to me (no matter how much Weight watchers tries to say - family and visiting - sorry!!)
Well, I will try to get a picture or video up today or tomorrow. No travel pictures from this weekend as we aren't going to be going far ;-) We are definetly looking forward to the Christmas markets opening up next weekend.
Take Care!
Posted by DA&B at 11:10 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Friday, November 21
Oh my, another missed day of posting yesterday... No reason - just not much to post (and I still haven't got my camera out - can you believe that!!!). Brenna and I had a playdate yesterday afternoon - the weather was rainy, but we braved it :-) She was still tired from her nap - I'm sure we will try to go another time. She has been taking some long naps lately...
We got home the same time as Dustin, which was lucky because than I could just run Justice out to go to the bathroom in the rain (it is a bit challenging taking them both out every afternoon, especially when the weather stinks). Dustin was nice enough to run me to weight watchers so I could stock up on their snack bars over here - they are all really good (o.k., so they are good in the States too, but it is way easier there to find 100 calorie packs!!!).
Today will be a busy baking day - we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow with some American friends :-)
Take care!!
Posted by DA&B at 10:33 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 19
Posted by DA&B at 12:19 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Justice
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, November 18
Hello All!!
Sorry there wasn't a post yesterday - I wasn't feeling well!! Luckily, Brenna was a trooper and really helped me out by taking a long nap with mommy yesterday afternoon!!
I am pretty much back to myself today (note to self - don't eat so much junk next weekend - I'm pretty sure that is what did me in ;-). Brenna and I are dancing around the apartment again and for our commenter yesterday - we made some very chocolate pudding on the stove today (boy do I miss the easy instant pudding mixes!!). Anyway, I do think it is good for us to learn how to make these recipes from scratch and they are a good time killer with a two year old at home. Although she was quite disappointed that her apron was in the laundry today...
We also decided to buy Wall-E on itunes so that we could watch it over here (it doesn't come out over here until January) and bought some "dancing songs" while we were on as well (Brenna loves Wooly Bully and The Chapel of Love :-)
Hope everyone is doing well and I will see about getting the camera out later today :-)
Take Care!
Posted by DA&B at 6:40 AM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Sunday, November 16
Posted by DA&B at 12:54 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Family travel, Germany
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Saturday, November 15
Posted by DA&B at 1:12 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, family pic, Family travel, Germany
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday, November 14
Posted by DA&B at 4:59 AM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Germany
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Thursday, November 13
Hello All!!
Well - we didn't get everything done on our list today, but we did get a lot done :-) Brenna and I had German class this morning and then we went to the sale at the Haus de Gastes. The sale was only for toys/books/CDs/DVDs - but we still picked up some good stuff. I got a new CD that I know that Brenna will enjoy dancing to (in German) and small cooking (metal pots) pots/pans for Brenna (boy, are they loud!!). We had a quiet afternoon and Dustin actually was able to get off work early to join us for the lantern walk (wow, was it cold outside - my hands were numb when we got home!!). It was cute to see the lanterns all lit-up, but of course, I forgot my camera today... Oh, well - Brenna wasn't really in a smiling mood for the walk anyway - just kind of straight faced...
We didn't make it to the grocery store or to the weight watcher meeting (to pick up some snacks) - I guess I will just have to see what I can make here with what is available :-)
Dustin is off to England tonight :-( At least he comes home tomorrow and we will be able to spend the weekend together. Not sure yet what we are going to do. We talked about seeing more castles (which I think would be fun), but I haven't checked the weather forcast yet to see if it will pleasant for that.
Anyway - I'm going to try to turn in early tonight. Sorry - no new pictures today - I'm sure we will have some after the weekend (if not tomorrow :-)
Take Care!!
Posted by DA&B at 12:34 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Wednesday, November 12
Posted by DA&B at 12:12 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Germany
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Tuesday, November 11
Posted by DA&B at 11:41 AM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Germany
Monday, November 10, 2008
Monday, November 10
Posted by DA&B at 12:11 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sunday, November 9
Posted by DA&B at 12:49 PM 1 comments | Permalink
Labels: Germany
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday, November 8
Posted by DA&B at 1:41 PM 0 comments | Permalink
Labels: Brenna Pic, Family travel, Germany


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[Ed. note: This is the opening instalment of a five-part narrative. Subsequent instalments to come. Monica is preparing this narrative as part of a forthcoming book on her life experiences.]
|||| Monica Maldonado
[WARNING: References to rape, physical violence, clinical gatekeeping, and transphobia.]
Personal note: I've chosen to tell this story to confront a larger phenomenon — the wholesale exclusion, isolation, desexualization, and near-universal disgust directed at trans women — strictly and specifically through my individual lens. I chose this not because I felt I couldn't discuss this in more abstract and universal terms, but because I think in this case it's actually beneficial and it adds to the conversation a narrative context which I feel is often missing. As a result, this narrative is a bit more involved than usual. Rather than continuing to allow cis people to frame this discussion on their terms and making it about them and their sex, it's time we told our own stories because this has never really been about cis people.


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Saints Of The Undergrond – Love The Sin, Hate The Sinner (2008, Warrior Records)
- Dead Man Shoes
- Tomorrow Never Comes
- All In How You Wear It
- Good Times
- Exit
- American Girl
- Signs Of Life
- Bruised
- Moonlight Mile
- Jimmy
Band Lineup:
Jani Lane – Lead Vocals
Bobby Blotzer – Drums
Keri Kelli – Guitars
Robbie Crane – Bass
Additional Musicians:
Chuck Wright – Bass
Rick Flores – Keyboards
Produced by: Bobby Blotzer, Keri Kelli, & Jani Lane
Total Time = 36:40
Saints Of The Underground MySpace page
Warrior Records
Sometime back in 2005, I read an article online that reported that this "supergroup" had begun preliminary work on a record. First thing I remember coming to mind was: "Is this a supergroup?". You've got two big names in Warrant frontman Jani Lane and Ratt drummer Bobby Blotzer but would the average Hard Rock fan even know who guitarist Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper's band) and bassist Robbie Crane (ex-Vince Neil, current Ratt) are? Even if this was the late '80s/early '90s, I'm not sure this would be considered a "supergroup". Immeadiate comparisons to the ill-fated 1992 Contraband project come to mind, especially since Blotzer was involved in that one too. The other thought was when would Jani Lane's personal demons force the project to implode and be abandoned? I'll admit that when I put this CD in the stereo I really wasn't expecting all that much. Turns out that this project is pretty good.
Opening track 'Dead Man's Shoes' is a solid Hard Rock tune with a great gritty vocal by Jani Lane and a melodic hook that really gets the album off to a rockin' start. The song goes back to Bobby Blotzer's 2002 project, Twenty 4 Seven, with John Corabi & Robert Marcello. 'Tomorrow Never Comes' keeps up the pace with another solid vocal by Jani and some cool guitar from Keri Kelli. I've never really heard much work from Kelli but what I've heard two songs in was pretty good and he also shines on 'All In How You Wear It'. The opening riff from Kelli sounds very Guns 'N Roses and it gives the song a sleazy feel when added to Lane's dirty vocals. It's easy to notice that Mr. Lane's voice seems to have gotten lower as he's aged, making him sound stronger and harder than his glory days in Warrant.
'Good Times' is the second song taken from Blotzer's Twenty 4 Seven project and continues with the melodic Hard Rock while 'Exit' is a little lighter and more Pop-oriented. I'm not sure why the band decided to cover Tom Petty's 'American Girl'…..lack of original material maybe? It's a good straight on version of the song but, with two Blotzer songs already recycled, wouldn't original material be better served? One thing I noticed is that the drumming is a little heavier by Blotzer here than on the original but the song as a whole is still spot on. 'Signs of Life' continues the pure Hard Rock with a heavy mid-paced groove that, along with Lane's vocal, sounds similar to Warrant circa the DOG EAT DOG/ULTRAPHOBIC/BELLY TO BELLY (1992/95/96) era.
'Bruised' is probably the heaviest song on the record with the Blotzer/Crane rhythm tandem in top form and Keri Kelli laying a solid guitar foundation for Lane to sing over. I still can't get over Lane's performance, absolutely much better than expected. Cover #2 (or #4 if you count the two Twenty 4 Seven songs) is of the Rolling Stones track 'Moonlight Mile'. It's decent, I like the acoustic guitar but I'll stick with the original by Mick, Keith, & the boys. Last song is 'Jimmy', an interesting song that sounds like a Thin Lizzy tune. A little research finds that 'Jimmy' is a Lane penned number from back in the beginning days of Warrant and now it finally sees a proper release on the Saints album. This is probably my favorite of the album with it's '70s groove and the best melodic guitar of the record/
Bottom Line:
I'm pleasantly surprised. Like I mentioned earlier, I expected this to be a disjointed fiasco based on what was going on with Jani Lane's addivtive life but this album has Lane and company fully focused on bringing some decent Hard Rock to the fans. Jani Lane puts in a really solid performance with his vocal work and Keri Kelli puts some solid leads and solos down. The Blotzer/Crane tandem is solid after 10 years together in Ratt so they keep everything together nicely. My only disappointment is the covers and retreads: I'd have rather had fresh material than two cover songs and the recycling of an old Warrant song and re-recording of two Bobby Blotzer songs (from another project) makes things a little disjointed. The music is fresh to most ears but diehard fans will recognize the songs and may ask if this was a real band collaboration or just a quick one-off for a check. Still a solid album and one of the good surprises this year.
Favorite songs: 'Dead Man's Shoes', 'Jimmy', 'Bruised', 'Good Times', 'All In How You Wear It'