text:
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria has told the Security Council that Syria "is being destroyed bit by bit."
Peace envoy Lakdar Brahimi also told the council Tuesday that the peace process he has been engaged in is at an impasse and "cannot be implemented as it is."
But he says he is not walking away from the process, saying "I am not a quitter."
The president of the Security Council, Pakistan's Ambassador Masood Khan, came out from the closed-door talks to say that Brahimi told the council that in Syria, "The situation is very grim."


text:
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
2 And when he returned to tCapernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 uAnd they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4 And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, vthey removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5 And when Jesus wsaw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, xyour sins are forgiven." 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 "Why does this man speak like that? yHe is blaspheming! zWho can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 And immediately Jesus, aperceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'? 10 But that you may know that bthe Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he said to the paralytic— 11 "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." 12 And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and cglorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Jesus Calls Levi
13 He went out again beside the sea, and dall the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. 14 eAnd as he passed by, he saw fLevi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
15 And as he reclined at table in his house, many gtax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 And hthe scribes of1 the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, g"Why does he eat2 with tax collectors and sinners?" 17 And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. iI came not to call the righteous, jbut sinners."
A Question About Fasting
18 Now kJohn's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, l"Why do John's disciples and mthe disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 19 And Jesus said to them, n"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 oThe days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and pthen they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old qwineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."3
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
23 rOne Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples sbegan to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, twhy are they doing uwhat is not lawful on the Sabbath?" 25 And he said to them, v"Have you never read wwhat David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of4 xAbiathar the high priest, and ate ythe bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" 27 And he said to them, z"The Sabbath was made for man, anot man for the Sabbath. 28 So bthe Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."
A Man with a Withered Hand
3 cAgain dhe entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. 2 And ethey watched Jesus,1 to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." 4 And he said to them, f"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. 5 And he glooked around at them with anger, grieved at htheir hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." iHe stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 jThe Pharisees went out and immediately jheld counsel with kthe Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
A Great Crowd Follows Jesus
7 lJesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and ma great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and nIdumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around oTyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to phave a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they qcrush him, 10 for rhe had healed many, so that all who had sdiseases pressed around him tto touch him. 11 uAnd whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they vfell down before him and cried out, "You are wthe Son of God." 12 And xhe strictly ordered them not to make him known.
The Twelve Apostles
13 yAnd he went up on the mountain and called to him those zwhom he desired, and they came to him. 14 yAnd he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 yand have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: aSimon (to whom bhe gave the name Peter); 17 cJames the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and dMatthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,2 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
20 Then he went ehome, and the crowd gathered again, fso that they could not even eat. 21 gAnd when hhis family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, "He iis out of his mind."
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
22 And jthe scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, k"He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons." 23 lAnd he called them to him and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But mno one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. nThen indeed he may plunder his house.
28 o"Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever pblasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."
Jesus' Mother and Brothers
31 qAnd his mother and his rbrothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers3 are outside, seeking you." 33 And he answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And slooking about at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 tFor whoever udoes the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."
The Parable of the Sower
4 Again vhe began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, wso that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And xhe was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 "Listen! yBehold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And zwhen the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ait withered away. 7 Other seed fell among bthorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ca hundredfold." 9 And he said, d"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
The Purpose of the Parables
10 And ewhen he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, f"To you has been given gthe secret of the kingdom of God, but for hthose outside everything is in parables, 12 iso that
"'they jmay indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they kshould turn and be forgiven.'"
13 lAnd he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 mThe sower sows nthe word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it owith joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but pendure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qthey fall away.1 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but rthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ubear fruit, vthirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."
A Lamp Under a Basket
21 wAnd he said to them, x"Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 yFor nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 zIf anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24 And he said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear: awith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 bFor to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
The Parable of the Seed Growing
26 And he said, c"The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; dhe knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 fAnd he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like ga grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
33 hWith many such parables he spoke ithe word to them, jas they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them kwithout a parable, but lprivately to his own disciples he mexplained everything.
Jesus Calms a Storm
35 nOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves owere breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 And he awoke and prebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and qthere was a great calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you rso afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, s"Who then is this, that even tthe wind and the sea obey him?"
Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon
5 uThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.1 2 And when Jesus2 had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 vHe lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and wfell down before him. 7 And xcrying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, ySon of zthe Most High God? aI adjure you by God, do not torment me." 8 For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" 9 And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is bLegion, for we are many." 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them." 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed3 man, the one who had had cthe legion, sitting there, dclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And ethey began to beg Jesus4 to depart from their region. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 And he did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and ftell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in gthe Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter
21 And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. 22 hThen came one of ithe rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and jlay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live." 24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and kthronged about him. 25 And there was a woman lwho had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." 29 mAnd immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her ndisease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that opower had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" 31 And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, "Daughter, pyour faith has made you well; pgo in peace, and be healed of your ndisease."
35 While he was still speaking, there came from qthe ruler's house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why rtrouble sthe Teacher any further?" 36 But overhearing5 what they said, Jesus said to qthe ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." 37 And he allowed no one to follow him except tPeter and James and uJohn the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus6 saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, v"Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but wsleeping." 40 And they laughed at him. But he xput them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 yTaking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, zarise." 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And ahe strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
6 bHe went away from there and came to chis hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And don the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and emany who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 fIs not this gthe carpenter, the son of Mary and hbrother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And ithey took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, j"A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household." 5 And khe could do no mighty work there, except that lhe laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And mhe marveled because of their unbelief.
nAnd he went about among the villages teaching.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles
7 oAnd he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to pwear sandals and not put on two tunics.1 10 And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, qshake off the dust that is on your feet ras a testimony against them." 12 sSo they went out and tproclaimed uthat people should repent. 13 tAnd they cast out many demons and vanointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
The Death of John the Baptist
14 wKing Herod heard of it, for Jesus'2 name had become known. Some3 said, x"John the Baptist4 has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him." 15 xBut others said, "He is Elijah." And others said, "He is ya prophet, like one of the prophets of old." 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised." 17 zFor it was Herod who had sent and seized John and abound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. 18 zFor John had been saying to Herod, b"It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod cfeared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he dheard him gladly.
21 But an opportunity came when Herod eon his birthday fgave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." 23 And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, gup to half of my kingdom." 24 And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's5 head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his hdisciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
30 ijThe apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and kthey had no leisure even to eat. 32 lAnd they went away in mthe boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and nrecognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When he went ashore he osaw a great crowd, and ohe had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35 And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36 pSend them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." 37 But he answered them, q"You give them something to eat." And rthey said to him, s"Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii6 worth of bread and give it to them to eat?" 38 And he said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out, they said, t"Five, and two fish." 39 Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he ulooked up to heaven and vsaid a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42 And they all ate and were satisfied. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44 And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
Jesus Walks on the Water
45 wImmediately he xmade his disciples get into ythe boat and go before him to the other side, zto Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, ahe went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when bevening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about bthe fourth watch of the night7 he came to them, walking on the sea. cHe meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and dwere terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, e"Take heart; it is I. eDo not be afraid." 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for fthey did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts gwere hardened.
Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret
53 hWhen they had crossed over, they came to land at iGennesaret and moored to the shore. 54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately jrecognized him 55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring kthe sick people lon their beds to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, mthey laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even nthe fringe of his garment. And oas many as touched it were made well.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ventis® MX4, Li-ion, Desktop Charger, ATEX/IECEx, No Case
Sensors: SO2, NO2
Language: Chinese
Color: Orange
Why carry multiple gas detectors when one can do the trick? The Ventis® MX4 multi-gas monitor has you covered, equipped with four-gas sensors, this device is ready for whatever is thrown its way.
In your line of work, a day on the job can turn from habit to hazard in a single moment. Be ready for gas hazards and more with the Ventis® MX4.
Detect up to four gases: Rely on flexible sensor options to detect combustible and toxic gases in a broad range of settings, making the Ventis® MX4 ideal for both personal protection and confined space applications.
Extend Your Run Time: Battery options that can be changed range from 12-hour, 18-hour and 20-hours available with non-pump models.
Depend on a rugged design: Keep your instruments in the field, not the shop, thanks to an IP68 rating for dust and water ingress and a rugged overmold that is Guaranteed for Life
iNet® NOW Live Monitoring: Allows for real-time text and email updates from panic button, falls, or gas situations. Ability to see and respond to situations as they happen. Geo-tracking allows supervisor to see workers and instruments on map in real-time. iOS 10 or later. Android 5.1 or later.
DualSense® Technology: In the event of instrument failure, a redundant sensor is in place to ensure that your devices are functioning properly. Better to have it and not need, then it is to need it and not have it!
104 x 58 x 36 mm (4.1 x 2.3 x 1.4 in) without Pump
172 x 67 x 65 mm (6.8 x 2.6 x 2.6 in) with Pump


text:
Notice: This Wiki is now read only and edits are no longer possible. Please see: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/wikis/Wiki-shutdown-plan for the plan.
WTP and STP Collaboration
Purpose of this page is to collect general information and references about the collaboration between the WTP and STP projects. WTP is a prerequisite of the STP project, and as a consequence integration with STP is important to the WTP requirement process. This is particularly important for v2.0 release of the WTP project, where one the goals is better integration with other eclipse projects. The information on this page is very new and is here to start the process and will serve as a starting point for the collaborative work between the two projects. Any STP or WTP committer can update it.
Note: since only committers everyone can edit these pages, if anyone from the community has contributions or suggestions for additions, please use the stp-dev or wtp-dev mail lists or contact one of the committers from either projects.
Thanks, Naci Dai 18:00, 14 August 2006 (EEST)
Bit of History
WTP and STP share common interests in providing tools and platforms for server-side enterprise computing. In addition, these projects also share committers and companies that are interested in both projects. PMCs on both projects are making a concious effort to make use of each other's technologies where it makes sense. We are now making a planned effort to make sure that this collaboration happens for version 2.0 of WTP and version 1.0 of STP, which are both planned for mid 2007.
Joint Workgroup
A joint workgroup would help speed the process of collaboration between the projects. The following would also help:
- A conf call every other week to start planning, follow progress and resolve issues. We will publish the notes here.
- Component owners in WTP & STP that would own the work.
Gathering Feedback
True to the eclipse spirit, we will gather feedback and information on topics of potential collaboration. We will take into account:
- Feedback from PMCs, contributors, component owners and community.
- Committers who commit to both STP & WTP are very valuable
- Feedback from wtp-dev and stp-dev groups
Potential Areas of Collaboration
- Runtime/Server Support
- Multiple deployment
- Service Creation
- Extensibility of WTP Wizards and APIs
- Project Facets


text:
Poster wall of memories. Photo by Lucy Van Nie.
In the second half of the 1990s, the iconic purple building on the southeast corner of Queen and Bathurst underwent a transformation from dance club to all-ages live music hub. What now houses a modern furniture and décor store was once home to punk, metal, hip-hop, Darkrave, and a whole bunch of proud music misfits.
By: DENISE BENSON
Club: The Big Bop, 651 Queen W.
Years in operation: 1997 – 2010
History: Often, we must look back in order to move forward. That's certainly the case with this story. When last we delved into the history of The Big Bop, it was during its period as a dance club owned by the Ballinger brothers.
Interviewees for that story were hazy, at best, about the closing of the Ballinger's Bop. It was clear that the venue had suffered financial hardships from 1994, when it went into receivership, but concrete details about its eventual end – let alone its evolution as a club space – were scant.
As it turns out, the original Big Bop continued to operate until 1996 under the management of Peter Ballinger.
"Peter was the least seen and the least involved until the Ballingers bought Webster Hall, and the other three brothers – Lonnie, Steve and Doug – were in New York," recalls Trevor Mais who, as DJ Tex, rocked crowds in the building through three different club incarnations.
Mais was an employee at the original Big Bop from 1989, working as busboy, bar back, lighting tech and, from 1993, DJ. While he also did lights at Go-Go and played at clubs including Boom Boom Room, The Phoenix, Joker, and Beat Junkie as DJ Tex, Mais had especially deep ties to Big Bop. He tells me that the club truly struggled from 1995. Various attempts at revival failed.
In spring of 1996, the building at 651 Queen West opened as Freedom: The Nightclub.
"The transition to Freedom was helmed by Jim Tsiliras, who [told me his] father Nick had owned the building since it was the Holiday Tavern, and that the Ballingers leased it from them," says Mais, who played rock, retro, R&B and disco on Freedom's ground floor Wednesdays through Fridays.
"The Big Bop's main floor [street level] only closed for one week during the transition to Freedom," he recalls. "I never stopped working; the main floor was always a viable source of income. That's why they didn't overhaul it. The second floor, however, got a million dollar overhaul, and was closed for at least six months."
Mark Micallef, a Toronto club veteran who DJed at venues including The Copa, Klub Max, and original Big Bop, concurs with the timeline and details offered by Mais.
Micallef was a resident DJ on Freedom's second floor for the club's first few months, but says that even with "completely new sound and lighting" and a clubbier approach to the music played, the venue "never really took off."
Micallef moved on to play at Joker, located at 318 Richmond West. Freedom came to a close a short while later.
In 1997, the building was suddenly re-branded as The Big Bop by new owner Dominic Chiaromonte, the man who would come to paint it purple and guide the venue, however inadvertently, in a very different direction.
Previously, Chiaromonte had owned Ukrainian Caravan restaurant, with locations in Etobicoke and Yorkville. He tells me that after a decade of operation, Ukrainian Caravan went under. Next, he had three silent partners (including cousin Dominic Tassielli) who wanted to invest in a nightclub with him.
They looked at a number of downtown locations over the course of almost a year, until the Bop building came up. It was in the hands of banks at that time.
"I knew of the Bop because I used to be a patron, especially on Depression Wednesdays," says Chiaromonte during a lengthy phone conversation. "The Big Bop was the nightclub for a thousand people in Toronto back in the mid '80s to early '90s.
"I knew the building, and liked it. We jumped on it. It was easy to jump on because the banks wanted to get rid of it. We worked out a very good price for that time."
"When Dom took over in 1997, the building never closed either, and he switched names right away, without hoopla or fanfare," recalls Mais.
Without missing a beat, DJ Tex went on to spin classic rock and alternative on the new Big Bop's main floor.
"In the new Bop era, we moved the DJ booth right to street level, and opened the corner windows so you could look right into the belly of the beast. Some staunch Bop purists didn't like the change, but change was happening all around – musically, and in terms of owners, staff, times, fads and looks."
The conversion: While the capacity of the club – roughly 1,000 people, between all floors – never changed, the Big Bop's main function sure did. Chiaromonte hadn't planned a shift from dance club to live music venue, but that's what happened.
"To tell you the truth, we didn't know what we were doing," he admits. "We just wanted to get into the club with the DJs, and at that time that seemed more logical, in terms of the salaries. We realized within months that it wasn't going to work out. We just couldn't compete with the big dance clubs at the time, like Joker, Whiskey Saigon and Limelight, where people were flocking. That area had become the core for DJed nightclubs by then. We realized 'This is why the Big Bop went under.'"
A musician friend, Yurko Mychaluk of Seven Year Itch, suggested that Chiaromonte and partners book bands. Inspired by the support of live music at venues like the Horseshoe, Lee's Palace and El Mocambo, he agreed.
Mychaluk also suggested Chiaromonte hire talent buyer Yvonne Matsell, who had booked blues acts at Albert's Hall, been central to the success of outstanding Queen West roots and indie rock venue Ultrasound, and also worked at the Horseshoe.
Though The Big Bop was not known in live music circles at the time, Matsell agreed to check out the spot.
"When I saw the middle room, I felt that the venue had great potential," she recalls. "I thought that if I could bring my following, the room would be a great space for bands to play.
"The upstairs room was really lovely and I thought it was prime for singer-songwriters. It was very intimate, and the thing that sold me on it was all of the fairy lights in the ceiling. They also had a piano, which wasn't any good, but lent itself."
Matsell agreed to book those rooms, which she named Reverb and Holy Joe's. The venue's identity as a dance club was put to rest as sound, staging and lights were brought in.
As a good-sized room with a large stage and great sightlines, Reverb became a new home for record label showcases, touring acts, and more established Toronto bands. Matsell's early bookings, which set the tone, included Dave Alvin of the Blasters, Austin's Alejandro Escovedo, Michael Franti's Spearhead, and the first Toronto appearance of Third Eye Blind.
"The Rheostatics played a packed gig the night that Princess Diana died [August 31, 1997]," recalls Matsell. "I vividly remember her tragic accident being played out on the bank of TV screens over the Reverb bar, while the Rheostatics played, unaware of what was happening and why the audience had their backs to them."
Holy Joe's became known a cozy spot to catch talented singer-songwriters and largely solo artists.
"I began residencies up there with people who, at that time were really new to the music scene in Toronto, like Jason Collett, Hawksley Workman, Danny Michel, Emm Gryner, and Amy Millan, before she was in Stars."
"Yvonne kick-started us, there's no doubt about it," credits Chiaromonte. "She was the one who gave us credibility, and basically put us on the map. She knew who to talk to, and all kinds of bands started to come and play."
Despite her efforts and connections, Matsell was let go after about two years ("They decided that they were paying me too much money, and thought they could do it themselves."). She immediately went on to book seminal College Street music hub, Ted's Wrecking Yard.
By this point, the Big Bop featured live music in all three rooms. Chiaromonte had to fill them.
"There was a period of time that I was booking, likely for about six months," he recalls. "I tried to go the same route as Yvonne, musically, but I couldn't get the bands that she got, and I couldn't compete against the Horseshoe because they had all of these loyal bands and agents who didn't want to play for me. It was very discouraging and really rough, but what came into the picture was a lot of young bands.
"I remember talking to my lawyer and asking 'What's the rule for having all-ages events at a nightclub?' He told me we could do it. He also told me that the chances of getting busted when you do all-ages are a lot greater, but I had no choice. And what I realized was 'Hey, I could charge rent for all-ages shows.' Because we wouldn't make money from alcohol sales, the promoter would have to pay us rent to compensate. For some reason, bang – It boomed! We became known as the all-ages club."
The transformation was made all the more complete when Chiaromonte hired Noel Peters to book the Bop's street level space in mid-1999. Peters, who had founded Inertia Entertainment in '96, primarily promoted metal and punk shows, featuring both touring and local acts. He gave the ground floor its name.
"As the Reverb had an identity as did Holy Joe's, my thought was to view the entire complex as 'The Big Bop' and give the ground floor its own Identity," Peters explains. "Metal and punk music can basically be a religious experience so I came up with 'Kathedral.'"
Reverb, Holy Joe's and Kathedral would retain their names –and feature wildly varied sounds- for the rest of the Big Bop's run.
Why it was important:"The Big Bop complex was a classic product of old Queen West culture – free wheeling, open to all, value priced, hard drinking and disdainful of intolerance of any type," states concert promoter Ewan Exall. "That was reflected in the booking policy, which at some point brought just about anything you could imagine to one of the three stages."
Exall, who'd grown up downtown and landed his first job next door to the Bop, at army surplus and outdoor store King Sol, was happy to book shows at the corner of Queen and Bathurst. He brought in dozens of touring punk, hardcore, metal and indie bands – initially working as part of Against the Grain Concerts, then on his own – between 1998 and 2010.
"I really loved the Big Bop, and it was a central part of my life for 10 years."
It was easy to love the Bop building as a music fan. All three rooms were a great fit for their function. Reverb had particularly good sound, a wide layout, and was an ideal showcase space for music of any genre. Holy Joe's, with its couches, felt like a living room where you might just discover your next favourite artist. Kathedral was dark, gritty and perfectly suited to aggressive rock.
Chiaromonte's need to fill all three rooms multiple nights weekly resulted in an unrestricted booking policy.
"We opened the Bop to anything and everything. We opened it up to whoever wanted to book it. It didn't have to be a metal club. It didn't have to be a punk club. Or a rock club. Whatever came around, that's what was slated for that day."
It helped that Chiaromonte had some solid in-house bookers who could make sense of it all. Soon after Peters was hired to focus largely on Kathedral, Andrea Caldwell was brought on board to help book Reverb and Holy Joe's.
Though she didn't then have much experience, Caldwell was immersed in different music scenes, from acoustic to funk, hip-hop, and indie rock. She had worked at Sneaky Dee's and Gasworks, organized singer-songwriter nights at The Artful Dodger, and got hired at the Bop after producing a multi-venue benefit series for The Red Door Women's Shelter.
"The show at Reverb went really well, and Dom needed a booking agent," Caldwell recalls. "By the end of the night, he offered me a job. I woke up the next morning and started calling all the musicians I knew.
"Dominic's main concern as a club owner was to book events that would bring crowds into the venue; he didn't favour any particular scene or make his choices based on musical opinions," adds Caldwell. "That gave us the freedom to take chances, and support several different music scenes at the same time. As well, it was the only club around that supported the all-ages scene, which attracted many talented kids who just needed a chance to get up on a stage and work things out."
While not all shows held at the Bop were all-ages, most were. Noel Peters agrees that this was both rare and much needed.
"The Bop was really the only small all-ages-friendly venue in the city, and for live music, it was great to have the opportunity for a younger generation to come and see their favourite bands or to discover upcoming ones. Within a year or so, demand was high for the space, and we had the Bop running as an almost seven-days-a-week operation."
This gave rise to a new generation of musicians – and promoters – who were able to develop within the purple and black walls.
"I think the Bop was most important for being the place that gave almost every band a chance to play their first gig ever," says Jake Disman, an audio technician who had previously done sound at the Cabana Room, and started at the Bop in 1998 as a fill-in for house tech Aaron Michielsen.
"Bands that had no background, and no real fan base, who could never have gotten a chance to play the Horseshoe, played the Bop," Disman adds. "Kids grew up [seeing bands] there, and when they started their own bands, that's where they aspired to play."
Bands like Alexisonfire, Down With Webster and Billy Talent, while still known as Pezz, played some of their earliest shows on Big Bop stages.
"Down With Webster's Tyler Armes and his friend were on the streetcar one day and they had heard that the Big Bop did all-ages," recalls Chiaromonte, "They were young and couldn't book themselves any place so they came to talk to me. I set them up with a gig, and over the course of 10 years, they did between 10 to 20 shows at Big Bop. Now they're huge.
"Same thing with Alexisonfire; they played our club quite a bit, and then when they got big, they did a special show at the Bop, which was very cool of them."
Down With Webster, in fact, recorded live sets at Reverb to compile a six-track debut EP titled The Reverb Session July '03. They sold this CDR at gigs.
"There were a lot of firsts for artists and promoters in that club," says Caldwell; "First live show, first weekend gig, first time playing a new song live, and so on. The Big Bop gave you space to try out ideas.
"Also, the great thing about having three floors is that we could accommodate musicians and bands at all different stages of their development. I was given the opportunity to book residencies and on-going showcases with artists such as Down With Webster, Cleavage, Pilate, Lindy Ortega, Justin Nozuka, Wave, Graph Nobel, Samba Squad, Die Mannequin, and many more. It was always wonderful when the crowds grew from 10 people to hundreds."
The development of bands on Bop stages contributed, in turn, to the growth of this city's live music scene. More bands, more fans, more people out supporting live music would be the simple equation. There was also no shortage of music industry people who spent a great deal of time in that building, scouting and showcasing talent.
"We saw up-and-coming bands perfect their sets and grow their careers right before our eyes," describes sound tech Lucy Van Nie, who launched his audio career at Holy Joe's in 2000.
"I remember mixing Tegan and Sara there to a crowd of about 65 in the early 2000s," says Van Nie, later the house tech of Reverb. "I remember mixing Hedley for a label showcase a few months before they blew up and took over pop rock in Canada. Bands like My Darkest Days, Alexisonfire, Die Mannequin, and Canadian rockabilly royalty The Creepshow used the Reverb as a home base to try out material and tighten up stage shows before first big singles and national tours."
And then there were the outsiders. The Big Bop – Kathedral in particular – was known as the place to catch punk, metal and hardcore bands, both touring and local.
"Kathedral was a dive to say the least, so that's where almost all of the punk and metal shows were," describes longtime Bop staffer Scoot DeVille. "You can't really destroy a place that's already been destroyed. There were so many holes in the walls."
Hundreds of local punk acts played the various Bop stages over the years, many of them booked by John Tard of The 3tards.
"John brought in just a staggering amount of punk bands, mostly Canadian," credits Jake Disman. "He was a very big part of the all-ages successes that we had."
Exall also recalls that "Over the nine or so years I did shows there, a who's who of indie, punk, emo, metal, and hardcore touring acts came through the door."
His top memories include performances by Cro-Mags as well as fellow American punks AFI ("Those shows were always total mayhem, kids swinging from the pipes, the whole bit.") as well as a certain dubstep star in the making.
"An incredibly young Sonny Moore – 15, I think – fronted his screamo metal band From First to Last at the Kathedral in 2004. They were second out of three bands on some touring package. I always knew that kid would be a star. We at Embrace still work with him as Skrillex, which is one of the things I am proudest of in this stage of my career.
"But the consensus seems to be that the best show I ever did there was At the Drive-In opening for Get Up Kids," Exall adds. "No one really knew who ATDI were at that point; the Vaya 10-inch had just been released. All standard rock superlatives apply to their performance that night."
Exall also speaks of booking local punk band No Warning multiple times, including on bills with King Size Braces ("Those nights were electric! It was just kids having fun, all stage dives, high fives, and the excitement of hanging out on the block outside."), and happily recounts the tale of catching a classic Canadian punk pairing.
"One of the times BFGs opened for Dayglo Abortions sticks out. Kids went crazy for the Goofs in a way that I hadn't seen since the '80s. I realized that the entire building was full of people participating in a street culture that we all helped create. That was a pretty awesome moment."
Damian Abraham of award-winning hardcore band Fucked Up also speaks fondly of the punk culture that found a home in the Bop's rooms. He started going to shows there in the late '90s, and thinks of the Bop as "a seminal space."
"I got to see some amazing shows in the building, like The Swarm's last show; tonnes of amazing No Warning gigs; the last Our War show, and various incarnations of the Cro-Mags," Abraham enthuses. "When I was able to finally start playing there, it felt as if Fucked Up had crossed some threshold of legitimacy that my previous bands hadn't. Also, it is the venue where I saw my future wife Lauren for the first time. "
Fucked Up played Kathedral and Reverb close to 10 times during the 2000s, including two of their annual Halloween shows, but Abraham's recollections tend to feature other bands.
"When No Warning opened for Hatebreed there, a bunch of friends they had met on tour from Boston drove up. Up until this point in Toronto, people had been moshing, for the most part, in a very MTV 'push mosh' kind of way. When these people from Boston hit the floor and started throwing fists and skanking and getting super low, the Toronto kids took note. From that point on, hard style mashing hit Toronto. [Producer/manager] Greig Nori and Deryck Whibley from Sum 41 were also there, checking out No Warning as a potential new band to manage. They signed them that night I believe."
There was a heavy crossover of punks and metalheads at the venue.
"My favourite moments at the Bop as a patron were all of Noel's metal shows," raves Exall. "Half the time I had no idea who was playing – 'Some new band from Norway' – so my housemates and I would end up accidentally seeing Emperor or something."
Peters did indeed bring in "Norwegian black metal kings Emperor, heading the Kings Of Terror tour."
It's one of the shows Peters cites as a highlight in the Bop building. There were many others.
"Bringing Stormtroopers of Death in; they never toured, but did once for Bigger Than The Devil. The bar was almost drunk dry that night," says the promoter. "Cradle Of Filth made their first-ever Canadian appearance, back when they were still dark and controversial.
"Longstanding relationships I have with some bands were born in the Bop building; Opeth sold out two shows in one month, playing Kathedral first, and then Reverb 21 days later. Last month, they sold out Kool Haus, presented by me. Mastodon played to maybe 20 people their first time through Toronto; Mercyful Fate came through, and then King Diamond the following year. Having Mayhem successfully enter Canada in 2001 for their first-ever Canadian appearance was memorable, as was booking [country act] Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans only to have maybe 20 people show up. This is only the tip of the iceberg."
Peters left the Bop behind in March 2003, citing dissatisfaction with in-house sound, Chiaromonte's raising of rental rates, and having to put out fires (literally).
"It was fun, and it was good to have a home base for four years, but eventually the business of Inertia outgrew what the Big Bop had to offer in terms of quality, capacity and a professional working environment." (Inertia marks 20 years of presenting aggressive music in Toronto this year.)
The Bop's multiple rooms featured far more than rock. The building also became an unlikely home to raves and electronic music. Goodfellaz and Nocturnal Commissions threw a pile of parties there while Shakti Collective presented a number of blacklight trance events. DJs such as Dragnfly, Lady Bass and Unabomber a.k.a. Christian Poulsen (Hugs Not Drugs) were frequently found on flyers listing 651 Queen West as the address. There were the Ipanema raves on long weekends and, of course, there was Darkrave.
Lloyd Warren a.k.a. DJ Lazarus is the driving force behind Darkrave. DJing in Toronto's alternative clubs since the early '90s, Warren began to play at the Bop in 1998, when he moved his popular monthly Fetish Masquerade events over from Club Shanghai (the Subspace fetish parties later took root at the venue too.)
Lazarus launched Darkrave in 1999.
"I wanted to create a rave environment, but with darker edged music," Warren explains. "Darkrave evolved from featuring mostly industrial to incorporating more psytrance, hardcore/gabber, and dark techno."
At its height, the monthly party took over the entire Bop complex as it attracted crowds upwards of eight hundred "Goths, ravers, clubbers, normals, and people who just found themselves there.
"The Big Bop was huge and cavernous. It was grungy, a bit run down, and a glorious party space," Warren describes. "There was always a room or corner to be explored. Multiple staircases led to different rooms, meaning it was easy to get lost. It was dark – eternally night. You never knew what time it was because there were no uncovered windows to let the sunrise in."
"The Bop was a magical complex," agrees Greg Gallant who, as DJ Phink, played alongside Lazarus at the Bop for both Darkrave and Fetish Masquerade. "It was multi levels of bouncing, fun times. I remember we got UV reactive bubbles a few times for Darkrave. It was fun watching people catch the bubbles with their faces, and then learn that their face also glowed under black light."
Darkrave events tended to feature playful props, like UV lighting, cotton candy machines, and bouncy castles. Some parties really stood out.
"The Darkrave with VNV Nation in 2000 was crazy," says Warren. "I have never seen so many people in the Reverb before. Patrons were literally standing on the wall rails because the floor was so packed. The energy was electrifying.
"One night, an electrical fire started on a hydro pole just outside the Bop. It caused a full blackout inside while hundreds of people were dancing. Instead of everyone leaving, we lit candles and some patrons went on to the stage and started drumming on improvised objects. The dancefloor resumed, and there was a real sense of community."
Gallant, who had played earlier as Phink at venues including Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar and Area 51, was also an anchor of the alt-rave community that gravitated to the Bop, as well as to Funhaus, the club Warren operated across the street from 2003 to 2008 (Chiaromontewas a partner). Phink started the Eloko psy-trance series at Funhaus, having already turned heads with parties held at the Bop.
"The first real party I put on at The Big Bop was with my partners in the Deep Sea Fish psytrance collective," says Gallant. "We brought Infected Mushroom for the B.P. Empire tour, their first time in Toronto. It was a great, sold out event, and they kept the floor bouncing right 'til 5am." (A partial list of raves held at the Bop, with flyers, can be found here.)
Fact was, you never knew what you'd find in the building from night to night.
"We were mostly known for rock, punk, and metal, but it was common to have metal on one floor, a hip-hop show upstairs, and a singer-songwriter showcase in Joe's," reminds core staffer Scoot DeVille. "We were the only venue in the city where you could walk into a punk show on the ground floor, say 'This band sucks,' go upstairs and see a touring metal band, again say 'This band sucks,' and then go up to the third floor to see Esthero having band practice.
"It was actually really fucked up, but it worked. We had everyone from 14-year-old girls dancing in their bras at a rave at 4:30am, to their moms coming to see the throwback hair metal bands they grew up with."
The club's lack of curation may have been borne out of necessity, but in the end, it defined The Big Bop.
"Other clubs in the city at the time, and I mean this respectfully, were too well curated to let our type of music or any really outside music happen there," says Damian Abraham; "But the Bop didn't give a fuck, and booked in Darkrave, black metal, hip-hop, hardcore, screamo – all the stuff that wasn't cool enough at the time for some of the other venues in town.
"It was like CBGBs in that way; [CBGBs' owner] Hilly gets credit for having this amazing ear, but his genius was having an open door booking policy. Television and Ramones were able to play CBGBs when they couldn't find other places in New York to play. That is the Bop's gift to Toronto: it wasn't too caught up in any one thing to prevent the next thing from developing."
Fucked Up perform "Crusades" at Reverb, 2009. Video posted by PunksAndRockers.com
Who else played there: Many who went to Reverb during its early years, myself included, will associate that room with some incredible hip-hop, funk, and soul events. We have promoters Carlos Mondesir of Hot Stepper Productions and Jonathan Ramos of R.E.M.G. to thank for many of them.
Mondesir presented Ninja Tune artists like Amon Tobin, DJ Food, and DJ Vadim, as well as the likes of DJ Cam, Nightmares on Wax, and a very special touring group of turntablists in 1997.
"Deep Concentration was a tour for an album by that name featuring Kid Koala, Peanut Butter Wolf, Cut Chemist, A-Trak, and I added Grouch to rep Toronto," Mondesir describes. "It was probably the best turntablist gig this city has ever seen. A-Trak was added to the bill at the urging of Kid Koala's manager. We had to make special arrangements with his family for him to come and play. Needless to say, it was nuts."
Also in '97, and against many odds, Hot Stepper presented Japanese artists United Future Organization for a sold-out show.
"I did that gig against the advice of my DJs," recalls Mondesir; "I'd say it confirmed the viability of nu jazz in this city for many. Marilyn Manson also attended, which was really odd."
On the live soul, jazz and funk tip, Hot Stepper's signature Bump N' Hustle series found its footing at Reverb.
"We've been doing Bump N' Hustle so long that many people don't know that for the first six years or so, it was a full live showcase of emerging soul music artists. Vocalists like Divine Brown, Glenn Lewis and tonnes of others rose through our gigs. Bump N' Hustle was a massive source of pride in local music ability and community."
Surprisingly, Hot Stepper even did some Garage 416 house events at Reverb, including the presentations of Steve "Silk" Hurley, Joe Claussell, and Pevin Everett with his live band, Seance Divine.
"The Reverb sound was great," explains Mondesir of presenting Garage 416 events outside of its main home of the time, Roxy Blu." Reverb wasn't aesthetically nice, but turn the lights down, light some candles, roll some cool AV and it's all good. I used great local AV guys regularly, Projektor and then Mix Motion. That compensated a lot." (Hot Stepper turns 20 this year, with other mainstay events including Break for Love and their Sunday afternoon summer series at Cube.)
As for Jonathan Ramos, his R.E.M.G. logo was featured on a lot of flyers promoting shows at Reverb.
"Jonathan was instrumental in building a quality hip-hop scene at the Bop," credits Caldwell. "He opened a lot of doors for Canadian hip-hop artists. [Through his shows] I was fortunate to work with artists such as The Rascalz, Ivana Santilli, k-os, Choclair, Michie Mee, and Classified, plus Jurassic 5, Ursula Rucker, and so many more."
Ramos, who formed R.E.M.G. in 1993, booked Reverb regularly from 1998 on.
"Their booking policy made it accessible to acts, promoters and genres that didn't always 'fit' at other venues," writes Ramos.
"At that time, hip-hop wasn't the omnipresent genre it is today and wasn't 'welcome' in most venues. There was a misconception that these shows came with low bar sales and attracted violence, and as such most venues either didn't allow the shows or levied prohibitive rental fees."
Some of the other acts Ramos booked in at the Bop include Dilated Peoples, The Hieroglyphics, The Coup, Spearhead, and The Beat Junkies. There's one show that still stands out to him.
"Talib Kweli, September 2006. Kweli was at the top of his game, had one of his biggest hits, and was one of the first to put on a young Chicago producer named Kanye West. The energy in the room was palpable. Both Kweli and the fans had an amazing time." (Ramos remains active as a concert promoter and is now the Director of Live Music for INK Entertainment.)
Talib Kweli live at Reverb in 2006. Video posted by mymanhenri.
Lots of other promoters, performers and DJs took note of the above events and brought in their own. DJs Kola, Serious and Fase produced parties. The Salads hosted their 'Salad Gold' series; Shaun Boothe presented The BarberShop Show; and James Bryan performed with loads of different projects, including The Philosopher Kings and Sunshine State. African percussionist Vinx hosted jam sessions that brought out some of this city's best players and vocalists while local artists Blaxam, Jacksoul, The Pocket Dwellers and Fefe Dobson, among many others, brought the funk and soul.
From Maestro Fresh Wes to Metric or the Misfits, early Death From Above 1979 appearances, and even a Megadeath acoustic show, the possibilities were endless.
"The variety of events that we could be facing from week to week was unbelievable," summarizes soundman Disman.
"One of the best shows that I remember was Asian Dub Foundation in Reverb, which was packed beyond belief. I was trying to do sound for a show in the Kathedral, with maybe 25 people in attendance, but when the audience upstairs started jumping up and down in time, the ceiling of Kathedral was flexing so much that the bands refused to get on stage. We cancelled the show downstairs, and I went up to join the party."
Who else worked there: "Soundmen Jake Disman, Aaron Michielsen, 'Lucy' David Van Nie, Hiroto Tabata and Brendan Bane were the guys who I depended on the most to ensure the musicians were happy," credits Caldwell. "They were true professionals who didn't allow their own personal tastes to dictate their ability to do a great job for artists. Those guys always went above and beyond to make sure the whole night ran smoothly."
Interviewees repeatedly mention the Bop's many fine sound techs, with others including the Kathedral's Mike Unger, and Greg Below, who worked both Kathedral and Reverb before co-founding Distort Entertainment and managing bands including Alexisonfire.
Following Peters and Caldwell as in-house bookers were Rosina Tassone and then Cindy Parreira, who has posted more than 100 live clips from shows at the Bop to her YouTube channel. (Caldwell, who left the Bop in the mid 2000s, went on to work with James Bryan at his UMI Entertainment and continued to book shows. She left Toronto three years ago, returning to Sault Ste. Marie where she now works in animal rescue.)
Clubs of the Bop's size also rely on a solid bar and security staff, with some of the core members mentioned including Sandy Bergin, Jamie Iker, Karen Neko, Pinky Love, Nina Tereschenko, Andrew Ryan Fox, Sylvana Ched, Steve McLeod, Peter 'Slim' Betley, Hubert Wysokinski and Marco Di.
Ken Stone was also a central figure in the Big Bop family.
"Ken was barback in his '50s," shares DeVille. "Sadly, he passed away from lung cancer in 2005. We had a wake for him – Dom actually paid for his cremation – at the Bop. We all went up on the roof, very drunk, and Dom gave us all a handful of Ken's ashes. We each went to our own little spot on the roof, cried, said a few words, and scattered his ashes. We were truly family; we went through births, deaths, divorces, breakups, addictions, recoveries, everything together."
Audio engineer Van Nie, who says he mixed 35 to 50 bands a week at the Bop, agrees.
"The Reverb was my second living room; I often spent more time there than at home, as did most of the Bop staff. It was our refuge, our creative outlet. Through the rough times and the happy times, we were one dysfunctional family, raising a new generation of audio engineers, promoters, musicians and bartenders."
"I used to call the Bop 'The purple people eater' because once you came there, you never left," cracks DeVille, who worked as a busser, occasional bartender, and bouncer.
"If you could work at the Bop, you could handle anything. From drunk minors throwing up on me to holding down a naked man high on PCP screaming about how he was the messiah, I've seen it all. Twice. And I wouldn't change a second of it. That 10 years was the best period of my life, and I miss it every day." (DeVille now works security at both Sneaky Dee's and Hard Luck Bar.)
What happened to it: Chiaromonte co- owned the building until 2007, when it was sold to Toronto developer Daniel Rumack.
"I was ready to pack it in," he admits. "I'd put in so many years, I was drained. During the first years, I even lived at the Bop. I really threw myself into it because I had to.
"By 2007, all of us partners got together and said 'If somebody comes up with this figure, we'll sell.' Somebody did. We had an agreement with him that we would stay on, and if he found someone else, he would give us four months or if I wanted out, I could get out of the lease by giving four months."
That time came near the end of 2009, when Rumack announced he had a new tenant. This too was timely.
"The last few years were not very well attended, and the building was starting to fall apart," describes Disman.
The Big Bop went out with a bang on January 30th, 2010. Kathedral featured 20 bands over 12 hours while Nocturnal Commissions and Embedded presented the 'Good to the Last Bop' rave on the other floors.
"The last song ever played at the Reverb was by me at the rave," says Warren a.k.a. DJ Lazarus. "I played VNV Nation's 'Perpetual.' A fitting song for the end of an era." (Warren currently DJs at Nocturne and Velvet Underground while his roving Darkrave turns 15 this year.)
After the Bop's close, the southeast corner of Queen and Bathurst underwent a significant transformation. Underneath all that grit and purple paint, 651 Queen West was a beautiful brick heritage building. Following extensive renovations, it opened as CB2's first Canadian location in January 2012.
Chiaromonte has not yet been inside.
"No, but I've heard that you walk in, and see the Big Bop sign," he comments. "It definitely looks like they did a nice restoration job. And you can't stop big business."
Apparently you can't stop Chiaromonte either. Though he'd planned to retire after selling the Queen West building ("We made good money."), Chiaromonte opened a new club almost immediately after closing.
"I realized my plans of retirement were bullshit," he laughs. "Within 24 hours, I found the venue out in the west end that would become Rockpile, and we signed the lease. We grabbed all of the stuff from the Big Bop, brought it to the new location in January of 2010, and opened a couple months later."
Many familiar faces went with him. Lucy Van Nie coordinated the move, and did the audio and lighting design and install (he went on to work for Guerrilla Remote, and is now works for Westbury and is house tech at The Piston). Jake Disman is house tech of Rockpile West (the short-lived Rockpile East closed in December), and also works as a touring front-of-house tech.
Located at 5555A Dundas West in Etobicoke, Rockpile features tribute bands, indie bands, and even hip-hop shows (Talib Kweli performs there on February 20), with punk and metal at the core. Only this time, all-ages really means all ages.
"You know what's so cool? Seeing all these old rockers come in with their kids," says Chiaromonte. "We had the Misfits play both Rockpiles, and it was amazing to see how many of the old punks brought their kids. We were sold out for both shows. And the Misfits loved it."
Thank you to participants Andrea Caldwell, Carlos Mondesir, Damian Abraham, Dominic Chiaromonte, Ewan Exall, Greg Gallant, Jake Disman, Jonathan Ramos, Lloyd Warren, Lucy Van Nie, Mark Micallef, Noel Peters, Scoot DeVille, Trevor 'DJ Tex' Mais and Yvonne Matsell.


text:
Evil Edna's Horror Toilet - Too much Gristle in the Blancmange,tape,1986,UK
Here's another Ozric Tentacles offshot from 1986.Total psych/space weirdness.A real must!
Here's another Ozric Tentacles offshot from 1986.Total psych/space weirdness.A real must!
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The Black Swan Network is the experimental side project of The Olivia Tremor Control.
The Late Music is an 8 track, hour long ambient CD released by the Australian label Camera Obscura in 1997. It features contributions from Julian Koster (The Music Tapes and Neutral Milk Hotel) and Jeff Mangum (also Neutral Milk Hotel).
An EP was also released with The Olivia Tremor Control. Within some of these tracks are extracts from The Black Swan Network's dream appeal - taped contributions from people as to various dreams they've had or would like to have. Musical contributions come from Kirk Pleasant (from Calvin, Don't Jump!) and Roxanne Martin (fablefactory).
In January 2001, Happy Happy Birthday to Me records released a 7" single as part of their singles club.
Other projects involving Black Swan Network members:The Olivia Tremor Control, The Circulatory System, Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't, Sunshine Fix, Frosted Ambassador .
From Elephant six web page
Camera Obscura is proud to bring you "The Late Music (Volume One)", a full-length CD of experimental/ambient tape manipulations by Olivia Tremor Control side-project Black Swan Network. In the unlikely case that you wondered what those strange interludes between the four-part harmony pop gems of OTC's "Dusk at Cubist Castle" would sound like developed into pieces in their own right, here is your chance to find out. "The Late Music" on conceptually from the two and four channel extravaganzas that can be found on the bonus disc of sound experiments shipped with early copies of the "Dusk at Cubist Castle" CD and also on OTC's "The Opera House" and "Jumping Fences" EPs.
Any attempts to describe the seven pieces that make up this release are bound to fall short of the mark, because this is not much like anything we have ever heard before. The sounds created for this release only occasionally give any kind of clue about what was used to create them. For one track, Elephant 6 collective member Eric Ledford contributes an oblique cello improvisation. For another, the voices of infants laughing and crying are brilliantly multiplied and sequenced and processed for an effect that has been observed to create near hysteria in the listener. But on most of the seven tracks here, Black Swan Network have used the source material as an abstract resource to be sculpted into dreamlike Musique Concrete.
The packaging for this disc is non-jewel case, instead coming in a gate-fold card sleeve with tri-fold insert. All art is by Black Swan Network's Will Cullen, also responsible for those amazing Olivia Tremor Control covers.
Press release from :http://www.cameraobscura.com.au/cam003.htm
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Wonderfully damaged and as brilliantly "off" sounding as their best studio work, this 1986 live recording was released in an edition of, I believe, 7 copies (I seem to recall Flaam hawking one on ebay for $100+). As such, it's hardly even known to exist. Certainly it's not included in the brainwashed.com discography for them and yet...here it is. Or rather, here's the music with a copy of the cover image since I wasn't among the lucky 7. In a live setting here, they weave unseemly seams of lopsided electro-pop into Damenbart-ish cod kosmiche excursions amid much distended atmospheric wooze in the grand HNAS style, though I'm not sure if anyone would have anticipated the intimate scat jazz combo they morph into toward the end of this gig!
Get it Here
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Wonderful but capital "W" wacky French jazzy prog with distinct tendencies toward both the post-Canterbury-isms of their countrymen in Moving Gelatine Plates and Rhesus O and the mutant circus jazz of Komintern and Mahjun, but always with the zaniness (particularly vocal zaniness) to the fore, their campy shrill falsetto vocal schtick in particular seemingly genetically grafted from Germany's Nine Days Wonder. Note: this is taken from the CD reissue, which included many bonus cuts and has been divided into two parts.
Get part one Here
Get part two Here
Posted by vdoandsound at 2:14 PM 4 comments
Following up on my post of Video-Aventures, here's Dominique Grimaud's pre-V.-A. freak out outfit Camizole. One of the many anarchistic satirical improvisational action units that formed in the turbulent aftermath of the May '68 uprisings (see also Red Noise, Mahogany Brain, Barricade et.al.), in their case, it would be the combined influence of Julian Beck's confrontational Living Theater and the piss-taking post-Zappa dada improv rock of Red Noise that would direct their work toward such unruly ends. This eponymous archival CD (they never released anything in their lifetime) was recorded at at French music festival circa 1977 toward the end of their days. I won't even pretend that this is of the same godly caliber as what Grimaud was shortly to get up to with Video-Aventures but it's still a fascinating window into a disappeared Cornell-box universe of idiosyncratic real time sonic assembly. Note: this lengthy CD has been divided into two parts.
Get it here
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Following Atlantis Audio Archive blog,of Phase II post,Here's Phase I. Thanks to Fillipo for this!
Get it here
Note that this was posted too a few hours back in http://kraut-team.blogspot.com/, but i also post it here crediting it to Fillipo cause i think this record should appear here too!
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B-People were Alex Gibson's punkwave band when he was mostly famous (and greatly envied) for being Penelope Houston's boyfriend, along with Pat Delaney (Deadbeats, Geza X, Romans) and Tom Recchion from a zillion LAFMS projects [the Los Angeles Free Music Society*]. A peripatetic figure on the Los Angeles post-punk scene, Alex Gibson first appeared around 1978 as the lead guitarist and songwriter of an unrecorded at the time local band called the Little Cripples. When that band's singer, Michael Gira, split for New York to form Circus Mort and, eventually, Swans, the remaining bandmembers regrouped, with Gibson now on lead vocals, and formed B People. (A few of those early Little Cripples songs showed up, reworked, on B People's posthumous career summation, 1986's Petrified Conditions 1979-1981.) B People only managed one EP, a self-titled release on Miles Copeland's Faulty Products label, before splitting up in 1981. Not a very rare record but a great and very omportant gem!
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Not unlike a Techno shaman, this Mexican artist eschews musical cliches in his deliberately elusive music. Using ancient instruments such as the clay whistle, shells, rattles, bamboo and the water drum, Jorge Reyes adds electronic textures to create a mythic pre-Columbian dreamscape. Sounds based on natural elements such as wind and rain enter like foreboding notices of the eternal, underpinning the unnerving percussion. Though mostly instrumental, the odd chant is employed to evoke the indigenous culture of the Americas from a time before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. Much of his music may be classified as Ambient, but Reyes' jazz background shows in the sophisticated compositional structures.
Robert Leaver
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→ ↑ →, (pronounced 'tsk tsk tsk') and moreoften written (though wrongly) as "Tsk Tsk Tsk" or "Tch Tch Tch", was an Australian experimental musical group formed in Melbourne in 1977 by Philip Brophy, Ralph Traviato and Leigh Parkhill.
Sometimes compared to Andy Warhol's Factory collective, the group produced experimental music (Brophy on drums or synthesiser), films, videos, and live theatrical performances exploring Brophy's aesthetic and cultural interests, often on a minimal budget. Musically the group touched upon a wide range of styles including minimalism, punk rock, muzak, krautrock and disco, usually with no vocalist.
Over the ten years of the groups operation it involved over sixty of Brophy's friends and acquaintances including musician David Chesworth, and visual artists Maria Kozic and Jayne Stevenson. They performed in a wide range on Australian venues including pubs, galleries, university campuses and the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre. They also performed or exhibited in Europe, including London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. Brophy dissolved the group in the late 1980s, issuing a retrospective book in 1983: "Made by → ↑ →". He continued to work with his then partner Kozic for some time, prior to her relocation to New York.
Kim's 21st birthday party seemed like a slightly staid affair even if everyone is obviously having a good time. The sound quality is excellent, once again thanks to Tim V and the band play their party style set - which they would do to good effect when they had a minor underground hit with the Nice Noise EP. So there's versions of Funky Town, Eno's Third Uncle and Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part I spread amidst hard drumming originals. Even if they're playing this stuff with an arched eyebrow, it still sounds pretty damned good.
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Following up on yesterdays posting of the Juke/19 boxset, here's the passingly cited collaboration between Juke/19 mainman Shinro Ohtake (now much more known in the Japanese visual arts world, his delightfully messy childhood-gone-wrong visual sensibility displayed in the enclosed book) and Eye from The Boredoms. Anyone that cocked an ear to the Juke/19 will understand well that Eye's inspired infantilism schtick is as indebted to Juke/19's sound as his neon junkstore visual sense is indebted to Ohtake's fine arts output. One suspects that their coming together here is something of a pilgrimage to Mecca of sorts for Eye. As for what it sounds like...well...let's see. The year is 1996, there's a room full of childrens instruments on hand, a cockamamie thematic conceit is in place (in this instance, that the album is by a collection of "24 puzzle punk bands") and Eye is a featured performer. 3 guesses.
Note: this lengthy CD has been divided into two parts.
Get part one Here
Get part two Here
Posted by vdoandsound at 5:41 PM 18 comments
More stellar Neue Deutsche Welle madness, in this case of an explicitly schizophrenic cast. There is much dead sharp minimal synth action here, some of it in a submersed bloopbeat way thats very Vanity Records, some of it delivered with a toxic souring of it's candy coated melodicism that is both Tietchens-y and tumescence inducing. At other times, one can expect everything from squashed and dejected sounding spins on the Czukay/Wobble/Leibzeit collaborative aesthetic to all out retarded gooning and pie pan banging. So good.
Get it here
Posted by vdoandsound at 5:38 PM 10 comments
Following my posts of unreleased material by Ghedalia Tazartes along with assorted exponents of Australian underground sounds, here's a further installment of of unreleased experimental music history thats bound to astound. Anyone up for 100+ minutes of broadcast quality live Henry Cow? Thought so. I'll refrain from indulging in some extended analysis of Henry Cow and their importance, a subject thats been hashed over endlessly by now. Rather, I'll just state that this recording is nothing short of a revelation and includes reams of goosebump inducing improvisations that are of crucial importance, especially given the critical role improvisation played in the Henry Cow dynamic and how little of this side of their work has heretofore been documented (one LP of their live double and one side on the Greasy Truckers compilation). Over an hour of this is dedicated to said unreleased improvised material, making this recording something of the ark of the covenant for R.I.O. fanboys and improv geeks alike. Why oh why has this slice of musical godhead failed to receive a proper release yet? Only the R.I.O. overlords at ReR can answer that. For now though, I expect many here will be greedily supping from the teat of this fount of goodness and inspiration.
AT THE REQUEST OF CHRIS CUTLER, THESE LINKS HAVE BEEN DELETED, AS ReR ARE CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH NDR TO OFFICIALLY REISSUE THIS (ALONG WITH OTHER) LIVE HENRY COW MATERIAL.
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On this release Stone Breath features Timothy and Aliseon from MD psychedelicists Mourning Cloak in a more spectral acoustic vein. Following on from the critically acclaimed Mourning Cloak CD "In Dreams You See", "Songs of Moonlight and Rain" establishes an acid-folk thread somewhere between the occult realms of Current 93, and the mantra-strum of Japanese legends Ghost, and is in the same zone as some of the more haunted moments of Alastair Galbraith's "Morse" and "Talisman" albums. Acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, penny whistles, zitherlin, chimes, tibetian bells, hand drums and many other instruments are used to infuse songs like "Perched upon the Temple Bell, the Butterfly Sleeps", "Words Written on Petals" and "To Cull Undying Flowers" with a unique poetic force that lives up to their fantastic titles. The atmosphere of this release will stay with the listener like the reverberation of water droplets in the stone cistern of a Japanese water chime.
"Songs of Moonlight and Rain" is packaged in a tri-fold textured card wallet and includes a eight page illustrated lyric booklet, all illustrated in Timothy's finest mind-altering style.
Instruments played on this record:
Acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, yule bells, whistles, chimes, harp, bowed zither, tambourine, windchimes, tarka, tibetian bells, water, blackbirds, kalimba, sitar, screech owl, sword, sheet metal and drum.
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Presaging the emergence of the whole Boredoms/UFO or Die mayhem-in-the-romper-room aesthetic by some 10 or so years (Juke/19 leader Shinro Ohtake would go on to collaborate with Eye on the Pipeline CD/book project in 1996, making the connection explicit) Juke/19 delights in creating willfully imbecilic universes of sound where episodes of absurdist brilliance sit jowl to jowl with passels of merely passable midrange howl, though these sudden right turns from cantankerous cacophony to gleefully cartoonish instant compositions create some gripping tension, as these ruptures in tone occur with a logic palpable only to those involved. As everything from mulched video game marching music for mongoloids to what sounds like Sally Smmit being tasered by Maurizio Bianchi emerge at unexpected intervals from the din, you begin to get the sense of some very alien minds at work here. Everything I've just said fails to adequately account for the contents of disc three here though (1981's "Pieces"), which sits at an esoteric-bordering-on-occult right angle to all the rest of the boxset's contents both in it's seriousness and eerieness and which strongly calls to mind the ceremonial, processional and very Dome-like work of the stunning Japanese outfit The Mask Of The Imperial Family before hazing out into a fathoms deep cavern of claustrophobic resonances. Strongly compelling stuff here, folks.
Get disc one (Juke/19) Here
Get disc two (Ninety Seven Circles) Here
Get disc three (Pieces) Here
Get disc four (Soundtrack) Here
Get disc five (19/Single: 4 Titles) Here
Posted by vdoandsound at 4:24 PM 9 comments
Explicitly located on the sturm und drang side of the Neue Deutsche Welle equation and fronted by the very distinctive caterwauling yelp of Christoph Anders (whom Chris Cutler would wisely later hijack for his Cassiber project), Toto Lotto were known (if at all) for their inclusion on the seminal NDW compilation LP Schau Hor Main Herz Ist Rhein. Corrosive both musically and lyrically, Toto Lotto are utterly indebted to the tabula rasa mentality that informs both their immediate peers in the Einsturzende Neubauten camp and their kissing cousins in the American no wave scene. Indeed, with Anders handing sax scree here as well, Toto Lotto's debt to The Contortions is made plain. If it were in my remit to do so, I'd switch the indexing and direct one and all to begin with side B as this is where their sound is maneuvered into a substantially more precedent free direction, specifically via the introduction of driving synthetic blooping and loud rhythm box clatter which, when set against the venomous ironic braying of Anders makes for some powerfully disorienting sound and motion.
Get it here
Posted by vdoandsound at 4:13 PM 8 comments
All previous Vas Deferens Organization and related project posts on Mutant Sounds can be found below with new links.


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Dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied, hound-type dog breed.
The standard size dachshund was developed to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was bred to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits. In the United States, they have also been used to track wounded deer and hunt prairie dogs.
Dachshunds also participate in conformation shows, field trials and many other events organized through pure-bred dog organizations such as the American Kennel Club (AKC). According to the AKC, the dachshund is ranked in 13th place in popularity amongst dog breeds in the United States.
While classified in the hound group or scent hound group in the United States and Great Britain, the breed has its own group in the countries which belong to the F?d?ration Cynologique Internationale (World Canine Federation). Many dachshunds, especially the wire-haired subtype, may exhibit behavior and appearance that are similar to that of the terrier group of dogs. An argument can be made for the scent (or hound) group classification because the breed was developed to use scent to trail and hunt animals, and probably descended from the Saint Hubert Hound like many modern scent hound breed such as bloodhounds and Basset Hounds; but with the persistent personality and love for digging that probably developed from the terrier, it can also be argued that they could belong in the terrier, or "earth dog", group.
A typical dachshund is long-bodied and muscular with short stubby legs. Its front paws are disproportionately large, being paddle-shaped and particularly suitable for digging. Its skin is loose enough not to tear while tunneling in tight burrows to chase prey. The dachshund has a deep chest which provides appropriate lung capacity for stamina when hunting. Its snout is long. According to the AKC standards for the breed, "scars from honorable wounds shall not be considered a fault" because the dachshund is a hunting dog.
There are three dachshund coat varieties: smooth coat (short hair), longhaired, and wirehaired. Longhaired dachshunds have a silky coat and short featherings on legs and ears. Wirehaired dachshunds are the least common coat variety in the United States (although it is the most common in Germany) and the most recent coat to appear in breeding standards. Dachshunds have a wide variety of colors and patterns, the most common one being red. Their base coloration can be single-colored (either red or cream), tan pointed (black and tan, chocolate and tan, blue and tan, or isabella and tan), and in wirehaired dogs, a color referred to as wildboar. Patterns such as dapple (merle), sable, brindle and piebald also can occur on any of the base colors. Dachshunds in the same litter may be born in different coat colors depending on the genetic makeup of the parents. The dominant color in the breed is red, followed by black and tan. Tan pointed dogs have tan (or cream) markings over the eyes, ears, paws, and tail. The reds range from coppers to deep rusts, with or without somewhat common black hairs peppered along the back, face and ear edges, lending much character and an almost burnished appearance; this is referred to among breeders and enthusiasts as an "overlay" or "sabling". Sabling should not be confused with a more unusual coat color referred to as sable. At a distance, a sable dachshund looks somewhat like a black and tan dog. Upon closer examination, however, one can observe that along the top of the dog's body, each hair is actually banded with red at the base near the skin transitioning to mostly black along the length of the strand. An additional striking coat marking is the brindle pattern. "Brindle" refers to dark stripes over a solid background—usually red. If a dachshund is brindled on a dark coat and has tan points, it will have brindling on the tan points only. Even one single, lone stripe of brindle is a brindle. If a dachshund has one single spot of dapple, it is a dapple.
The Dachshund Club of America (DCA) and the American Kennel Club (AKC) consider both the piebald pattern and the double dapple (double merle) pattern to be nonstandard. However, both types continue to be shown and sometimes even win in the conformation ring.
Dogs that are double-dappled have the merle pattern of a dapple, but with distinct white patches that occur when the dapple gene expresses itself twice in the same area of the coat. The DCA excluded the wording "double-dapple" from the standard in 2007 and now strictly use the wording "dapple" as the double dapple gene is commonly responsible for blindness and deafness.
Dachshunds come in three sizes: standard, miniature, and kaninchen (German for "rabbit"). Although the standard and miniature sizes are recognized almost universally, the rabbit size is not recognized by clubs in the United States and the United Kingdom. The rabbit size is recognized by the F?d?ration Cynologique Internationale (World Canine Federation) (FCI), which contain kennel clubs from 83 countries all over the world.An increasingly common size for family pets falls between the miniature and the standard size, frequently referred to as "tweenies," not an official classification.
A full-grown standard dachshund averages 16 lb (7.3 kg) to 32 lb (15 kg), while the miniature variety normally weighs less than 12 lb (5.4 kg). The kaninchen weighs 8 lb (3.6 kg) to 11 lb (5.0 kg). According to kennel club standards, the miniature (and kaninchen, where recognized) differs from the full-size only by size and weight, thus offspring from miniature parents must never weigh more than the miniature standard to be considered a miniature as well. While many kennel club size divisions use weight for classification, such as the American Kennel Club, other kennel club standards determine the difference between the miniature and standard by chest circumference; some kennel clubs, such as in Germany, even measure chest circumference in addition to height and weight.
H. L. Mencken said that "A dachshund is a half-dog high and a dog-and-a-half long," although they have been referred to as "two dogs long". This characteristic has led them to be quite a recognizable breed, and they are featured in many a joke and cartoon, particularly The Far Side by Gary Larson.
Dachshunds are playful, but as hunting dogs can be quite stubborn, and are known for their propensity for chasing small animals, birds, and tennis balls with great determination and ferocity. Many dachshunds are stubborn, making them a challenge to train.
Dachshunds can be aggressive to strangers and other dogs. Despite this, they are rated in the intelligence of dogs as an average working dog with a persistent ability to follow trained commands 50% of the time or more. They rank 49th in Stanley Coren's Intelligence of Dogs, being of average working and obedience intelligence. They can have a loud bark. Some bark quite a lot and may need training to stop, while others will not bark much at all. Dachshunds are known for their devotion and loyalty to their owners, though they can be standoffish towards strangers. If left alone too frequently, some dachshunds are prone to separation anxiety and may chew objects in the house to relieve stress.
Dachshunds are burrowers by nature and are likely to burrow in blankets and other items around the house, when bored or tired.
Dachshunds can be difficult to housebreak, and patience and consistency is often needed in this endeavor.
According to the American Kennel Club's breed standards, "the dachshund is clever, lively and courageous to the point of rashness, persevering in above and below ground work, with all the senses well-developed. Any display of shyness is a serious fault." Their temperament and body language give the impression that they do not know or care about their relatively small size. Like many small hunting dogs, they will challenge a larger dog. Indulged dachshunds may become snappy or extremely obstinate.
Many dachshunds do not like unfamiliar people, and many will growl or bark at them. Although the dachshund is generally an energetic dog, some are sedate. This dog's behavior is such that it is not the dog for everyone. A bored, untrained dachshund will become destructive. If raised improperly and not socialized at a young age, dachshunds can become aggressive or fearful. They require a caring, loving owner who understands their need for entertainment and exercise.
Dachshunds may not be the best pets for small children. Like any dog, dachshunds need a proper introduction at a young age. Well trained dachshunds and well-behaved children usually get along fine. Otherwise, they may be aggressive and bite an unfamiliar child, especially one that moves quickly around them or teases them. However, many dachshunds are very tolerant and loyal to children within their family, but these children should be mindful of the vulnerability of the breed's back.
A 2008 University of Pennsylvania study of 6,000 dog owners who were interviewed indicated that dogs of smaller breeds were more likely to be "genetically predisposed towards aggressive behaviour". Dachshunds were rated the most aggressive, with 20% having bitten strangers, as well as high rates of attacks on other dogs and their owners. The study noted that attacks by small dogs were unlikely to cause serious injuries and because of this were probably under-reported.
In this page you can download free PNG images: Dachshund PNG images free download
In this gallery "Dachshund" we have 67 free PNG images with transparent background.


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When it comes to the ESU – its programs, events and opportunities for people of all ages – there's no shortage of enthusiasm to keep it going strong well into its next 100 years. Members care deeply about legacy, preservation and tradition while also looking to innovate, broaden and renew the things about this organization that make it unique and relevant.
The refrain of our mission "to celebrate English as a shared language to foster global understanding and good will by providing educational and cultural opportunities for students, educators, and members" resounds in the various and thought-provoking lectures and social events planned for this year. And we don't want you to miss any of it.
Your membership dollars, just like your name, travels farther than you ever will. Locally and nationally, programs like The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition, TLaB, and the National Speakers Program continue to enrich the lives of tens of thousands of members, students and teachers.
Renewing your membership or upgrading to a National Patron membership, translates into what we've already stated: preservation and innovation; tradition and relevance; legacy and renewal.
And do remember, all membership dues and gifts to the ESU, including National Patron membership, are fully tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
With more vigor than ever, we look forward to your support and participation in the coming year.
Membership does not include enrollment in English in Action or the Andrew Romay New Immigrant Center (ARNIC).
The English-Speaking Union of the United States is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Membership contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.


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We're big fans of Richard Quest and have been twittering with him since he began his show on CCN called 'Quest Means Business'. The show is cool because he twitters while he is on air.
His voice is of course great for a remix.
(Monalia is playing Melodica and piano)
If you want to download the MP3 you can find it here http://tr.im/gCN5
Ha! Got the twitter stamp of approval from Richard himself!
And now we got a really nice write-up on the CNN blog promoting the track:
Making Music While the Economy Burns
Check out our recent Christian Bale Techno Tirade Remix as well (due to very explicit language this remix is rated NSFW, not safe for work).


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Ingrain or Scotch carpeting was a main stay of early 19th century carpeting for households both common and wealthy. Woven as a two layer double cloth with geometric or curvilinear designs, ingrain carpeting became popular through the last half of the 18th century and blossomed in the 19th century.
One of only four known American produced ingrain carpets is in the collection of The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (SPLIA). It also has the most supporting information about its manufacture at Jones Mill, located in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Advertisements from Jones Mill appear in the newspapers during the 1830's and document the production of figured ingrain carpeting among other fabrics.
Ingrain carpeting woven by American fancy weavers in the first half of the 19th century is distinct from the imported Scotch and Kidderminster carpets. The American versions use locally produced softer grades of wool and have a slightly different structure, more akin to the structure of woven coverlets of the same period.
It has been extremely difficult to document the American carpets because with the use of soft wools, the carpets were less durable and ended up being worn out, cut up and used for smaller rugs, and simply disappeared.
We've been working at Thistle Hill Weavers to reproduce the Jones Mill example both in its original color, and in a blue and white version which will be installed in SPLIA's restored Sherwood Jayne House.
Master Weaver Rabbit Goody write about historic textiles. Her weaving studio, Thistle Hill Weavers, in Cherry Valley, NY, is a small mill modeled after the trade shops of the 19th century.