text:
Hopefully they're taking their vitamins, too! In a short clip, a few select stars of the WTA — Laura Robson, Caroline Wozniaki, Petra Kvitova and others — guess how many USANA vitamins are in a jar. USANA is one of the official partners of the WTA. Before Agnieszka Radwanska delivers the final tally, can you guess which player was the closest? And how many vitamins do you think are in the jar?! | TSF Vault: Videos
Archive for the 'video' Category
the ladies of the wta count their vitaminsDecember 6, 2011
before london, andy tried a new gameNovember 22, 2011
Small court, big results. Before Andy Murray's London hopes got muddled because of injury, the Scot took to a British warehouse to play some Road Tennis. Not sure what that is? Nor were we. adidas explains:
[We invited the] Road Tennis Association of Barbados to London, to teach Murray how to play Road Tennis. A cross between traditional tennis and table tennis, Road Tennis is played on the street, with participants chalking out their own courts. Murray had never played the game before, and was given just one hour to pick up his wooden bat and attempt to master the game's ins and outs, before we put him up against Barbados' finest.
In the video above, Murray gets a "warm-up" with storied English boxer David Haye, who is now retired, and British rapper Example.
adidas noted that the Murray vid was the first of many to come for the brand over the next year: "The event marked the start of our new campaign, where we'll be challenging some of the world's best tennis players, around the biggest tournaments next year." Excited? You bet we are!
As for who Murray gets a lesson from on the Road Tennis pavement? That'd be Sylvain "Lama" Barnett, a legend in Barbados and one of the Pro Road Tennis Association's greatest players of all time.
wta sec: armchair commentary wrap upOctober 31, 2011
By Matt Trollope
While Vika is looking up, Petra is really only looking ahead. (Getty)
Armchair commentary always takes a hit on a weekend because, quite simply, you spend a lot less time in the armchair. So without further ado, here is a wrap of the final weekend in Istanbul which offered up a new tournament champion, some quality tennis, and plenty of juicy plot-lines entering 2012.
Player of the year: Petra Kvitova's absorbing three-set win over Victoria Azarenka in the final went a long way to cementing her — unofficially at least — as the player of the year in 2011. With the four Slams being split between four players and a pervading sense of parity (or instability) throughout the tour, Kvitova's resounding win at the prestigious event elevated her above all other candidates. Although Caro matched her haul of six titles, the Czech's Wimbledon and WTA Championship titles were much more significant than anything Wozniacki achieved. Add to this her sparkling 19-0 indoor record, titles on all four surfaces and her rise from no. 34 to no. 2 and you see a player with a compelling case for POTY honors.
A new era? The weekend's results caused a significant shift in the upper echelons of the WTA rankings, with Kvitova and Azarenka leap-frogging Maria Sharapova into second and third place respectively. For all the talk of veterans flourishing on tour — which remains true at Grand Slam level at least — the top trio are the youngest players in the Top 10. With Wozniacki and Kvitova just 21 and Azarenka just a year older, they have many more years ahead of them, and with the players possessing contrasting styles, the stage could be set for a compelling three-pronged rivalry into the future. Trivalry? We sort of dig this trio.
Inflated ranking: How on earth was Vera Zvonareva ranked no. 2 as recently as the US Open? The Russian, who now sits at no. 7, finished the round-robin stage with a mediocre 1-2 record. Somehow she qualifyied for the semifinals thanks to a count-back technicality, but it was there that she was comprehensively outplayed by Vika on Saturday, a player she had won six of her last nine matches against. With the emotional, mentally-fragile Vera of old resurfacing in Istanbul, the chances of her repeating her major final appearances of 2010 and re-ascending the rankings ladder in 2012 seem increasingly slim.
Tight battles: While it may not have been the best quality tennis ever staged, the championships produced some resounding battles that thrilled the fans in Istanbul. In the round robin stage, Zvonareva and Wozniacki fought out a tough three-set match on the second night of the event, and the next day, Zvonareva again found herself in a three-set fight, blowing a 5-3 final set lead and match points to hand Agniezska Radwanksa a 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 win that featured several rallies worthy of the highlight reel. The final weekend was no different: Kvitova came through roller-coaster affairs against Sam Stosur in the semis and Vika in the final, defeating both in dramatic three-set contests.
Success story: More than 13,000 spectators reportedly packed into the Sinan Erdem Dome for the final, continuing a run of impressive crowds that attended each session. The support for the championships in Turkey was one of the bigger stories of the week and was pleasantly surprising given the event's prior flops in Los Angeles, Madrid and Doha. With a state-of the-art venue, knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowds and an atmosphere the players relished, the unofficial "fifth major" has had some of its former glory restored and appears to be in good hands for the next two years in Istanbul.
So what's next? The stories and results from this year's championships have left us with many tantalising questions heading into the 2012 season. Will the young brigade of Kvitova, Azarenka, Wozniacki and Radwanska continue to flourish when the established greats — Serena, Kim, Venus and Maria — return to the tour fresh and healthy? More specifically, how will Kvitova's impressive game stack up against a fully-fit Serena or Clijsters? Will Azarenka continue her steady improvement and eventually capture a major title? Will Li Na rediscover her confidence in time for the Australian circuit, where she's defending a truckload of points? Will Wozniacki continue to cling to her no. 1 ranking or will she be usurped by bolder, more aggressive shotmakers? Will more decisive action finally be taken on the grunting issue, in the face of increasing complaints and media coverage? And will the WTA unearth a dominant player to bring stability to an erratic, unpredictable tour? Stay tuned …
Matt Trollope began covering tennis in 2008, a natural extension of his childhood obsession for the game that included hitting for countless hours against his bedroom wall and self-producing and editing a fictitious tennis magazine. Based in Melbourne, he has covered four Australian Opens and one Wimbledon championship, and his tennis writing has featured in Australian Tennis Magazine, the Australian Open Official Program, and Alpha Magazine.
wta yec: armchair commentary, day fourOctober 29, 2011
By Matt Trollope
UPDATE: Kvitova is already into the semis with a 5-7 6-3 6-3 win over Stosur. Who said the ladies' season ender had to be a bust? (AP)
Stat of the day: A lot was made of the H2H records involving Sam Stosur entering the tournament — 0-9 against Maria Sharapova, 0-4 against Victoria Azarenka, yet 5-0 against against Li Na. Playing the Chinese prlayer in Istanbul, Stosur improved that to 6-0, with a demoralizing 6-1 6-0 win handing Li her heaviest professional loss in five-and-a-half years. Stosur has only ever dropped one set against Li in her career, and thanks to the victory, now takes her place in the semifinals in Istanbul.
Typical WTA moment: Women's tennis is never short of drama, with cat-fights, tears, and the grunting issue among its many facets. Controversial figures have also been a mainstay — how many times have we seen crowds in the past turn on Venus and Serena, Sharapova, Henin and Hingis? Today it was Vika's turn. The Belorussian has never made a habit of trying to please people — her shrieking being a prime example — and today was no different. Already having qualified for the semifinals, she appeared to tank in the final set of her last round-robin match against alternate Marion Bartoli, gave the Frenchwoman a poor handshake, and was booed off the court at the Sinan Erdem Arena.
Startling admission: All Agnieszka Radwanska had to do was win a set in her match against Petra Kvitova to qualify for the semifinals, and leading 5-1 in the opening set, it appeared she was on track. But Kvitova improved her level, took the set in a tiebreak, and ran out a 7-6(4) 6-3 winner. "Even when I was 5-1 up in the first set, to be honest, I didn't feel I was close to win[ning] the set," Aga said following the match. That's (a lack of) confidence right there. The result allowed Vera Zvonareva to progress to the semis, and despite Vera owning a mediocre 1-2 win-loss record this week, her overall game-winning percentage proved better than the Pole's.
Thought for today/tomorrow: Can anybody stop the Kvitova juggernaut? The Czech is the only player to go undefeated in Istanbul — she hasn't dropped a set — and enters her semifinal against Stosur with a 2-0 winning record over the Australian. A final against Azarenka seems to be looming.
Flashback: We know some of you have been nostalgic for classic women's tennis this week, so why not a little taste of it from the Chase Championships in 1996. Steffi Graf beat Martina Hingis in one of the few five-set encounters in women's tennis history, 6-3 4-6 6-0 4-6 6-0. Cheers, ladies!
Matt Trollope began covering tennis in 2008, a natural extension of his childhood obsession for the game that included hitting for countless hours against his bedroom wall and self-producing and editing a fictitious tennis magazine. Based in Melbourne, he has covered four Australian Opens and one Wimbledon championship, and his tennis writing has featured in Australian Tennis Magazine, the Australian Open Official Program, and Alpha Magazine.
wta sec: armchair commentary on day 2October 27, 2011
By Matt Trollope
Stat of the day: Vera Zvonareva defeated Caroline Wozniacki in three gruelling sets in the last match of day two action in Istanbul. The primary reason? The Russian's 49 winners to the Dane's 13. Note to Caro: relying solely on superb defensive skills just won't cut it at the highest level. Yet while that may be, Wozniacki has secured the year-end No.1 ranking for the second straight year thanks to Maria Sharapova's withdrawal from the event due to a persistent ankle injury.
Typical WTA moment: Masha's withdrawal continues the unfortunate theme of WTA events lacking in star power. The past four winners of the Championships since 2006 — Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Justine Henin — all failed to start, and with 2004 winner Sharapova now gone as well, the event is missing the five most successful players of the past decade. Could you imagine the equivalent scenario occurring at the ATP World Tour Finals? If Federer retired before it began, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray didn't enter because of injury, and then Del Potro withdrew during the week, the tournament would be decimated.
Intriguing interviews: Caro added some spice to the event by telling reporters that she thinks some players grunt on purpose. "They don't do it in practice and then they come into the match and they grunt. I think they [officials] could definitely cut it," she said. Does this mean she thinks the same of her friend Victoria Azarenka, also in the draw and who's one of the loudest shriekers out there? That potential match-up may have gotten a whole lot more interesting | Speaking of complaints: Agniezska Radwanska aired her grievances about the court at the Sinan Erdem Dome. "It's pretty slow. It's weird bounces, and surface very sticky so it's hard to run, as well," she said. But it's not all doom and gloom in Turkey — Caro and Masha shared their enthusiasm about the potential combining of the ATP and WTA year-end events. "It would definitely be nice to see. I think that would be a lot more fun for the fans to see the men and women together," Sharapova said. The ATP will have to streamline their calendar first — its World Tour Finals are still almost a month away.
Photo of day: We've always loved Vika's intense post-match winning celebrations. Today's win over Sam Stosur was no different.
My vocal chords are just fine, Caro. Thanks for asking… (AP photo)
Thought for today/tomorrow: Who will come up trumps in the match between Azarenka and Li Na? Given that both women own unblemished records in the tournament so far with one straight-set win apiece, the winner will break the deadlock in the White Group, vault to the top of the group standings and put themselves in prime position for a semifinal berth.
Matt Trollope began covering tennis in 2008, a natural extension of his childhood obsession for the game that included hitting for countless hours against his bedroom wall and self-producing and editing a fictitious tennis magazine. Based in Melbourne, he has covered four Australian Opens and one Wimbledon championship, and his tennis writing has featured in Australian Tennis Magazine, the Australian Open Official Program, and Alpha Magazine.
ladies give japan a thumbs upSeptember 27, 2011
Words of strength. The WTA lined up its stars in Japan to voice their support for a country that has struggled since the massive earthquake this spring caused severe tsunami damage and the radiation and flooding disasters. Classy move, gals.
TSF Vault: Clijsters lends a hand to Japan | The men, too
More: WTA Japan photos
imitations by andySeptember 27, 2011
Not just Nole. On Sunday night in Oklahoma City, Andy Roddick showed attendees at the exhibition featuring himself and Mardy Fish that it wasn't Novak Djokovic who can pull out impressions of fellow tennis players. Skip ahead to the 1:51 mark if you want to see Roddick's Serena impression, including (just for a flash!) her 2009 US Open tirade.
steve berke for mayor?September 13, 2011
Tennis' top pol: We love this video. We love more that we found this video via Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim on Twitter. God love you, 21st century. #fistpump
flashback: irene inspires irina bump lookback, 1997August 28, 2011
Irene-a. While we're bent on avoiding hurricane — oops, we mean hurrican't — jokes for now, TSF contributor Troy Venechanos sent this text along to the TSF crew earlier today: "hope you survived hurricane irina spirlea!"
It was one that had us cracking up out loud, and brought to mind the famous "bump," which — upon watching it again — may have delivered more force to Flushing Meadows than Irene herself. Hard to believe this was 14 years ago in 1997, when a 17-year-old Venus Williams took down Irina Spirlea, the Romanian, 7-6 (5) 4-6 7-6 (7) in the semifinals.
TSF Vault: Flashbacks
from stanford to cincy: sabine's silly vid makes its debut/xperia winner unveilAugust 26, 2011
It happens tomorrow: The Xperia Hot Shots video series will unveil the hottest shot of them all. The six ladies — Alize Cornet, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sorana Cirstea, Dominika Cibulkova, Sabine Lisicki and Heather Watson — battle out for a $100,000 payday. Fans could submit their votes up until Aug. 22. But this is all about popularity, right? We're going with Lisicki on this one… and not because we want her to win, only because we think she is going to win.
Above: Sabine takes a few fans' questions and then one suggestion — serving blind-folded in her final vid.
After the jump: Dani joins in on the fun, too. (more…)
tsf interview: madison is all keyed upAugust 23, 2011
Open-bound: This past weekend was a big one for 16-year-old Madison Keys. The up-and-coming US teen went through three rounds of tennis to earn a win at the Wildcard Playoffs event in DC, scoring herself a spot in the main draw of the Open. Keys took out last year's media darling of the US Open — Beatrice Capra — in the final, 3-6 6-4 6-0. Keys has played in just one other main draw event in 2011, losing to Patty Schnyder in the opening round in Miami in a third-set tiebreaker. The current world no. 456 lost in the opening round of qualies at last year's Open.
Above, Wilson pits Keys in a great video with professional opera singer Lily Oh. In the vid, the two ladies try to teach one another a few tricks about their vastly different trades. The result? Mostly hilarity.
Below, TSF gets in a few Qs with the NYC-bound teen before her first-ever Open main draw.
TSF: You can use your Wilson racket to do anything other than play tennis. What would it be?
Madison Keys: I would eat every meal off of it.
TSF: Flossing is something ___________.
MK: Flossing is something everyone lies about.
TSF: Say you have the option to play in just one of the four Majors — ever. Which do you choose?
MK: US Open
TSF: Katy Perry's "TGIF" video is _________.
MK: Katy Perry's TGIF video is one of my favorites.
TSF: Speaking of "TGIF," Rebecca Black's "Friday" got removed from YouTube. This makes you feel what? Because?
MK: It makes me feel sad because of the hateful comments, but also grateful that my sisters stopped playing it.
TSF: How did you celebrate your sweet 16?
MK: Went out with friends for a movie and ice cream.
TSF: What's your favorite kind of ice cream?
MK: White chocolate raspberry from Whitey's. [Keys is an Illinois native.]
TSF: Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf offer you to play doubles — with one of them. Who do you choose?
MK: Steffi Graf
(Video courtesy of Wilson)
short balls: tennis in cincy is a BFD, is the open draw fixed? and moreAugust 18, 2011
Cin-sational: If you didn't think that the Western & Southern Open wasn't a big deal, take a peek at Cincinnati.com. The online hub for everything Cincy can't get enough of the ATP's Masters 1000 event that is now a double dip (and mini US Open) with the women joining the men for the first time this year. The .com team has littered (in a good way) their homepage with blown-out coverage for the entire week of the tourney, which goes through this weekend. Think the New York Times should take note? We're not so sure that they can fit some 19 links on their top bar alone, as the Cincinnati site did on Thursday. #crowded
It doesn't stop there: If a regular old news site isn't enough for you, CincyTennis.com offers some of the best coverage of a tournament's site outside of the four majors. We've been keeping an eye particularly on the writings of TSF contributor Benjamin Snyder, who is writing for CincyTennis. | Draws: Men | Women
Fixed? ESPN's Outside the Lines had quite the compelling report (with plenty of fancy numbers) saying that the top two players in the US Open get a fixed draw to deal with year in and year out. Watch the report for how they average out the players' rankings that the no. 1 and no. 2 seeds must play against. You think it's rigged too? We can't quite buy it. | Reaction: Busted Racquet
What's up with the Williamses? Both Venus and Serena are expected to be at America's wedding of the year. That's right, Kim Kardashian is finally tying the knot! Was Serena's injury well timed? We all know Serena doesn't like to miss a big party, and if she did well in Cincy that meant no E! red carpet for Kim's nuptials. Just… thinking out loud. Meanwhile, Venus sat down with Tennis.com and revealed that she is, indeed, a grunter. And what else? She sees more of a future for herself in the design world than running the WTA from Stacey Allaster's spot. And while Venus said she wasn't "a committer" in her interview, she and Serena committed to a December exhibition — in Italy. They will be joined by Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta.
Roddickulous: It was a manic Monday for Andy Roddick in Cincinnati, who was attempting a mini comeback of sorts prior to the US Open. A-Rod blew a set and a break lead, then was broken in the third set when a point was awarded to his opponent as Roddick was serving at break point down and smashed a ball into the crowd. Cue the arguing from Andy. | Change of plans: Roddick takes Winston-Salem wildcard
Love kills? Things didn't go so well for love birds Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy this last week. Rory finished 64th at the PGA Championship while Wozy was stunned by American upstart Christina McHale in the second round in Cincinnati. At least they could cuddle, right? Rory visited Caroline in Cincy for the tourney. | Open Court blog: Caro's dad/coach just dad now
short(er) balls: Commentators (and brothers) John and Pat McEnroe talk all about the US Open in ESPN call. | Trendy, chic fashion for black men? A new duo is emerging on the cutting edge. | Who is running things at J.Crew? That'd be Jenna Lyons. | Check out New York magazine's fall fashion coverage. | A teaching professional has been arrested in the Boston area for video taping a male member in the locker room. | New York fashion makes its way to Cincinnati for runway show during W&S Open. | Are you a recreational player trying to look cool? That's uncool, the Wall Street Journal says. | Johnny Mac knows that your body starts to break down as you get older. | US Open wildcard playoff (for a spot in the main draw) will go through Sunday. Among those playing: Beatrice Capra. | Blake Strode looks to win the National Playoffs once again, gaining entrance to the USO qualifying draw. | Headed to the Open but not sure where to eat in Queens? The NYT has got you covered. | Rafael Nadal will appear at Macy's in New York on Thursday for an unveiling of Armani jeans.
(Caro and Rory photo by the AP)
maria (and novak) on instinctAugust 18, 2011
Imitation time: Somehow, Novak Djokovic's imitations just haven't gotten old. The new world no. 1 obviously has a creative side and loves to be goofy, and we appreciate the new medium used for his latest acting gig: playing Maria Sharapova. Nole is well versed in his Maria-dom, but here he takes on Sharapova's ad for HEAD's YouTek Instinct racquet and sort of nails it. More to come for the Open? We wouldn't be surprised.
In Cincy: Novak's into round 3 | Maria faces Kuznetsova
behind the scenes: jelena and nole's photoshootAugust 9, 2011
Move over, cameraman. The ATP Uncovered video series has this great behind-the-scenes look at Novak Djokovic and Jelena Ristic doing a photo shoot for Hello! magazine in July. Our fave part? GF Jelena speaks her mind on being pampered, Nole's dream and living it up — together. Watch above.
TSF Vault: Novak Djokovic | Jelena Ristic
In Montreal: Novak's the no. 1 seed, but has Nikolay Davydenko in the second round, a potential third round clash with Juan Martin del Potro and Gael Monfils, Victor Troicki and Roger Federer all looming should he make a run to the weekend. | Draw
sorana straps on her dancing shoesAugust 9, 2011
The Sorana two-step? No, we're not huge fans of the ill-advised headband that Sorana Cirstea is rocking in the latest Xperia Hot Shots video, but once we got past that, we were completely digging the latest video installment from the behind-the-scenes series. Rosero McCoy, a choreographer most recently known for his work on America's Best Dance Crew teaches the Romanian a few moves of her own in a two-part video sequence. The next vid, yet to be released, will feature Sorana in a Katy Perry-inspired get up with a crew of back-up dancers strutting her stuff. But does she have the (dance) game? "Tennis, it's easier, to be honest," Sorana says during rehearsal at one point. Bring your A-game, SC!
TSF Vault: Our one-on-one interview with Sorana (2009)
short balls: robert's over and outJuly 30, 2011
Next time, just grab a cup of Joe, Robert. American Robert Kendrick was banned by the ITF yesterday for one year's time for testing positive at the French Open for the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine. Kendrick said the substance was in a capsule that he had taken to combat jet lag. Guess one day of energy equals one year off the tour for the world no. 105. The 31-year-old Kendrick will not be able to play any sanctioned matches until May 22, 2012.
From the Farmers: Tennis.com's Steve Tignor is of the belief that the new American-in-residence in the top ten — that'd be Mardy Fish — should set his expectations a little higher. The dude is sort of on a hot streak.
222 of 'em. TSF contributor Jon Scott brought this vid to our attention on his Daily Spin column on Tennis.com. Yep. 222 winners at Wimbledon for Petra Kvitova. Captured in a almost-seven-minute vid. (Who has such time?!)
short(er) balls: Carmelo Anthony is added to a rather fierce US Open Kids' Day line-up. Joining Melo is his wife La La, Kim Clijsters, Rafael Nadal and Bradley Cooper. Suffice to say we're as excited as we've ever been for a day meant for the kiddies. | Tignor says that the tennis players are in need of a union. Agree? Might make for better bargaining in the future, eh? | Who is bringing the Tacchini brand back from the brink? That'd be Novak Djokovic, says Marketwatch. And fun fact: Sampras wore the brand early on in his career. | Blake Strode has deferred again from Harvard Law School. He remains in the hunt for a second straight birth into the US Open qualifying tourney via the National Playoffs competition. | Milos Raonic is recovering from shoulder surgery and hopes to be ready in time for the Open. Too bad Canada's new no. 1 can't make it to their always-fun Masters event. | We can't get enough: more reasons to love Heather Watson. | USTA doles out $1.3 million in community tennis grants. It's called grassroots, y'all. We dig it. | The World TeamTennis season wraps up with the Washington Kastles team ending a perfect season in Charleston, downing the St. Louis finals in the final. | Maria Kirilenko fails to catch the bouquet at Elena Dementieva's wedding. No one ever said she was good with her (catching) hands, OK?
(Getty images photo)
sabine gets the giggles (and throws a frisbee)July 25, 2011
Creative juices, please. The WTA is doing something different with new-found star Sabine Lisicki. And we sort of love it. Sure, Sabine isn't new to most insider tennis fans, but her semifinal appearance at Wimbledon has vaulted her into quite the public eye in tennis terms, and also has inched her ahead of the blossoming talents of Andrea Petkovic and Julia Goerges, who — among the three of them — are trying to bring somewhat of a women's tennis renaissance to Germany post the Steffi Graf (and Anke Huber?!) era.
So, what are they doing exactly? The tour has teamed up with Lisicki this week in the beautiful Bay Area at the Bank of the West Classic, asking tennis fans to submit creative, quirky, fun, off-beat ideas for a tennis video that features none other than Miss Lisicki herself. Have an idea? Post it on the WTA's YouTube page and watch to see if they take you up on your creative juices…
Here at TSF we're still brainstorming. But something involving Lisicki, a frisbee, the Stanford swim team and a Gladiators-like course just won't leave our thinking space…
More: Lisicki on TSF | Stanford draw
ryan harrison on the rise?July 22, 2011
Ryan's rise? This might be Ryan Harrison's moment. One of the rather promising up-and-coming American youngsters, Harrison is a name that has been thrown around for a couple years and really impressed in a five-set loss in the second round of the US Open last summer to Sergiy Stakhovsky. The 19-year-old has stayed consistent on the tour, and had somewhat of a breakthrough at Wimbledon, reaching the second round after getting into the draw as a lucky loser and playing brilliantly at times against David Ferrer, losing in five sets.
Yesterday Harrison, ranked no. 120, continued his trek on American soil. The Louisiana native took down Xavier Malisse 6-7 (3) 6-4 6-4 in a match that had a few testy moments, which Harrison talks about in the video above. Harrison also talked of his confidence that has been on the rise this year, which he pins to the Open: "I have more belief in myself this year … The US Open was big for me because I played back-to-back matches against guys in the top 30 in the world. I won one of them and had three match points in the other one. That was kind of like a light bulb for me: that I don't need to overplay to beat these guys. I can play my game, play within myself."
Is he the real deal? Guess we'll find out in the next 24 months — and at least get a better idea of over the next two months. | Draw: Hotlanta
(Video via TalkAboutTennis)
the great, weird, awesome, strange, geeky, amazing find of the dayJuly 15, 2011
Combat tennis. Normally we might ask: How do these people actually have time on their hands to do something like this?! But in truth, we really dig this fun, quirky take on tennis meets combat. Sure, it's overproduced and cheesy, but doesn't that make it all the more lovable? On this TGI Friday we say, TGFTF (Thank god for tennis fans). More creative stangeness can be found at the video maker's website, PatrickWillems.com. Willems co-runs Lumberjack Films, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
(Video by Patrick Willems)


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Opera. The director of the success production Arabella returns. This time Christof Loy takes on a notorious poison murderess who falls in love with her own son.
With Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia we continue the successful bel canto line conducted by our principal guest conductor Giancarlo Andretta. The opera, which has not been performed on a Swedish stage since 1903 and in Göteborg only in 1864, offers stunningly fine singing with a grandiose multi-faceted opera heroine at its heart: Lucrezia Borgia. This notorious poison murderess falls in love with a young man who eventually turns out to be her own son...
The production comes from the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where it had great success with Christof Loy as director. He is one of the major names in directing at the moment, and returns to The Göteborg Opera after Arabella and Faust. In his sparse production he emphasises Lucrezia Borgia's various guises and "roles" she plays in the most varied of contexts. Her son Gennaro and his companions are portrayed ambiguously as college boys in a boarding school environment.
The title role was sung in Munich by Edita Gruberova, whilst here we meet a singing star of a later generation in the Russian coloratura soprano Katja Levin. She has previously had success as Lucrezia Borgia in Bologna. The Turkish tenor Bülent Bezdüz returns to us as Gennaro after having portrayed Rodolfo in Bohème and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. The other two leading roles – Lucrezia's wicked husband Don Alfonso, and Orsini, Gennaro's good friend, are sung by two singers well known to Göteborg audiences: baritone Åke Zetterström and the mezzo soprano Ann-Kristin Jones. Expect a thirteen-performance festival of singing in an extremely strong opera drama.
Watch a movie from the performance
Watch photos from the performance
Lucrezia Borgia
When Gaetano Donizetti had his breakthrough at La Scala in Milan in 1830 with the opera Anna Bolena, he had already written half of his 70 operas – all of them created before his 46th birthday! After this breakthrough he cast himself free from Rossini's style and his name was spread around the world. On the same prestigious stage L'Elisir D'Amore (1832) and Lucrezia Borgia (1833) were soon swiftly performed. And, two years later he completed his most renowned tragic opera, Lucia di Lammermoor.**
Difficulties in preparation for the world premiere
When Donizetti received a contractual offer before the opening of the season on Boxing Day in 1833, a decision was made to base the work around Victor Hugo's melodramatic play Lucrèce Borgia. It had been a success in Paris only six months previously. The idea was Donizetti's; he had been particularly keen on the scene towards the end of the play when the poisoner Lucrezia Borgia had arranged five coffins for her victims at the banquette. However, censorship stopped this venture and threatened to ban the opera. The idea that this person who was not only the daughter of a pope, but who would also fall in love with her own son whom she would finally murder by mistake, was presumably just too much for the censorship. However, the opera was permitted, provided that Lucrezia's last five victims died off-stage and no coffins were placed on the stage. The librettist was Felice Romani, the greatest and most experienced librettist of the time, who wrote texts for Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, as well as the early Verdi.
In Italy at that time, which is also called the Bel Canto Era, it was most important for an opera director to have singers that were popular and skilful enough – sometimes this was even more important than having the "right" composer. To play the part of Lucrezia Borgia the soprano Henriette Méric-Lalande, who was of French descent but had a ten year-long career in Italy behind her, was chosen. However, her star had begun to fall and her vocal resilience was no longer what it once had been. Thus she was afraid to test anything new or different from her previous experience. Her first condition – that she refused to wear a carnival mask when she made her initial entrance, since that would mean taking the risk of not being recognized and thus missing out on her entrance applauses – was easy enough to comply with.
Madame Méric-Lalande could instead enter with her mask in her hand. It was worse with the final scene: she demanded from Donizetti a final cabaletta, which was customary in great prima donna operas. The composer maintained that it was unlikely that a mother, who had just lost her son by her own hand, would burst into cascades of coloratura. But, she refused to give in, so Romani had to produce eight lines. Rumour has it that Donizetti composed these lines on purpose in a way that was so difficult for the singer to perform, considering her vocal ability at the time, that she failed to sing it well. The opera itself, however, did not flop, but rather turned out to be a relative success for the latest composing star in the opera world.
Nevertheless, there were continued difficulties with the censorship when the opera was to be performed on other stages in Italy. Descendants of the Borgia family had used their contacts with the Vatican to have the opera stopped. Thus, the work had to be performed under a number of different names and with diverse text revision processes. When it was about to be performed in Paris in 1840, Victor Hugo claimed in court that the librettist Romani had used his play without permission. However, a settlement was reached and, for a new production at La Scala, the composer restored the final scene as he originally wanted to have it – without the soprano's final cabaletta, with the opera instead being concluded with the death-scene of the son, Gennaro. This ending is nonetheless seldom seen nowadays, and The Göteborg Opera production features the original version. On the other hand, Gennaro's aria "T'amo qual dama un angel" will be performed in the introduction to the second act in Gothenburg. This was added by Donizetti later on for the tenor Nicolai Ivanoff, since Gennaro would otherwise not have had his own aria.
A hair-raising story
The opera is about Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara and married for the third time. Her current husband is Alfonso d'Este whose bass role is that of the third main character. The fourth is Gennaro's friend Orsini, written as a breeches role for a contralto voice. Gennaro and Orsini belong to noble families that Lucrezia has wronged in many ways and even partly wiped out. The opera features several young representatives of these families in minor roles. The fact that Gennaro is actually Lucrezia's son is something he does not get to know until in the final scene, after Lucrezia herself has been given this explanation as to why she had been drawn to this young man: it was the voice of her blood speaking. Everyone spies on everyone else in this opera, not least on the master and mistress Alfonso and Lucrezia; she warns him several times of the risk of ending up as just one in a long row, "Borgia's third husband" – and then not exactly by divorce...When Lucrezia, as revenge for insult and injury inflicted on her by Gennaro's friends, poisons them all, she has not counted on Gennaro himself appearing at this illustrious banquet. The son dies in his mother's arms.
The real Lucrezia Borgia
Not much of the storyline corresponds with the historical Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519). Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, was admittedly her third husband, but she was more a victim of power-hungry men in her own family: the first two marriages were a part of her father's and brother's politics of power, and it was her brother who got rid of her second husband. It is true that her father did become a pope, Alexander VI. After the death of her father and after her brother had been forced into exile, Lucrezia was actually able to live a happy family life with Alfonso, to whom she bore seven children; hardly the macabre death-dance of a marriage portrayed in Hugo's play and Romani's libretto. Moreover, Hugo's play is even "worse" than the opera since Gennaro's father is actually Lucrezia's evil brother. This fact is completely removed from Romani's libretto, in which one is kept in limbo with regards to the identity of Gennaro's father.
A magnificent prima donna role
Donizetti's opera spread to London, New York and many other cities but seldom became an oft-played opera. It came to Sweden – to the Royal Opera – in 1853 and was also shown in Gothenburg in 1864 with a foreign guest performance. On the other hand, it has become a much sought after role for prima donnas with a capacity for vocal excesses: Giulia Grisi, Therese Tietjens, Leyla Gencer, Montserrat Caballé, Joan Sutherland and Edita Gruberová. It has not been performed in Sweden since 1903 (then still at the Stockholm Opera) except for a concertante performance with Joan Sutherland during the early 1980s. However, Orsini's drinking-song from the last act has been a popular concert number ever since the world première. In his production, premièred in Munich in 2009 with Edita Gruberová in the title role, Christof Loy has chosen to take note of the different contradictory roles that Lucrezia chooses, or is forced, to take on. In the first scene she is the Renaissance woman and the yearning mother, dressed in red. Next time she appears she is a tough business woman, dressed in trousers and a blouse with a pussy-cat bow, negotiating with her husband and other potentates. In the last scene – the fatal banquet – she fulfils the image of Lucrezia Borgia as the infamous poisoner, dressed in black with a long white wig. Furthermore, Loy chooses to focus his production around the trauma that mother and son are subjected to throughout their lives, separated from each other, without the one knowing who the other is. Gennaro's cronies are depicted as a young male collective, almost like students at a college. The austere stage design includes the name "Borgia", whose sign, quite in keeping with the story, is stripped of its B and becomes "Orgia". An overwhelming drama and a stunning cast can be expected when Katja Levin, Bülent Bezdüz, Mats Persson and Ann-Kristin Jones play the four main characters with Giancarlo Andretta at the conductor's podium.
Göran Gademan, dramaturge

subset: commoncrawl


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NJ Rep. Donald Payne Dies
NJ Rep. Donald Payne Dies American Association of University Professors
3.06.12 9:32am
Payne was New Jersey's first black congressman.
U.S. Representative Donald Payne of New Jersey has died at age 77.
Payne's brother, William, says he died Tuesday morning at St. Barnabas Hospital. The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent his district. Payne was New Jersey's first black congressman. Payne has represented the 10th District in northern New Jersey since 1988 and was elected to a 12th term in 2010. He was a member of House committees on education and foreign affairs. He had also served as chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa.


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Tagged: Bill James
Jeter Teaches His Critics To Never Sell Him Short
The New York Yankees have reached the halfway mark of the season and they are comfortably in first place in the American League East. This is despite some injuries to some keep players such as Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Michael Pineda, Brett Gardner and Joba Chamberlain. As we do every year, let's look at the individual components of the team and issue grades for the first half.
SHORTSTOP – DEREK JETER (7 HR, 25 RBIs, .303 BA, 43 R, 6 SB)
Who knew that suffering a calf injury that would land you on the 15-day disabled list would be a good thing? For Derek Jeter it was in 2011.
Jeter was forced to miss the 2011 All-Star Game so he could rehab his injured calf at the Yankees' complex in Tampa, FL. While there, Jeter also worked with one of his first hitting coaches in Gary Denbo to find his old swing. It was that work that likely turned Jeter's season and his fading career around.
Jeter came off the disabled list lacing hits all over the yard and he picked up his 3000th hit by going 5-for-5 and hitting a home run for No. 3,000 off David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. From the point he returned to the Yankees until the end of the regular season Jeter hit .344. He ended the season hitting .297 with six home runs and 61 RBIs.
The question heading into 2012 was could he keep it up? Or was it just a fluke and he would continue his decline at age 38 this summer?
The returns are in for the first half of the 2012 season and it appears it was not a fluke. Derek Jeter is simply Derek Jeter again.
His 103 hits after 81 games was the third-bast total in the majors and Jeter was passing legends like Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs on the all-time hit list seemingly on a daily basis. There are thoughts that he might even have a shot at 4,000 hits, should Jeter choose to continue his career into his 40s.
Jeter simply may be among a handful of players that are the best singles hitters in baseball history. Along with Ty Cobb and Pete Rose, the current generation of players gives us Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Jeter of the Yankees. These four have to be considered baseball's elite at what they do best: Rack up hits in bunches.
Jeter's career batting average is .313 and the fact he is hovering over the .300 mark at the halfway mark proves he has not lost the touch at age 38.
The only thing Jeter may have lost is a bit of his power, though the most he ever hit in one season was a pedestrian 24 in 1999. He also is not able to steal bases as he once did. In 2006, he stole a career-high 34 bags. But he has only stolen more than 18 bases once in his five full seasons after that.
But everything else is still there for Jeter.
The only disappointment this season is his rather low runs scored total of 43 at the halfway point. Jeter has failed to score 100 runs in only three seasons out of his 16 full years in the majors. Some of it can be attributed to the fact that the middle of the Yankees' lineup – Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira – hit around .200 with runners in scoring position.
Some of it may have to do with age. But Jeter remains one of the smartest base-runners in baseball and he rarely commits a huge blunder to get himself thrown out on the bases.
When you bring up Jeter's fielding, the sabermatricians go ballistic because Jeter's range at age 38 is not anything like it was when he was 28. OK, I will give them that one. Jeter does not have the range of an Elvis Andrus or Alexsei Ramirez, who both are considerably younger shortstops.
But Jeter committed only six errors in the first half. The Yankees can live with that and they will. The fact is Jeter has won five Gold Glove awards, including in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, and he is not going to give them back just because Bill James says he should.
IHe also is not going to give back his 13 selections in 16 seasons for the All-Star Game. Jeter will be starting in his eighth All-Star Game in Kansas City on Tuesday.
With Jeter, what you see is what you get. He is just a consummate professional who works hard at his craft and gives 100 percent each and every game. He is not only respected highly by manager Joe Girardi and his teammates but he also is admired by the players and managers on other teams.
Yep, "The Captain" who is affectionately nicknamed in the Bronx is just something very, very special. Cooperstown awaits when his career ends but who knows when that will be the way he is going now.
BACKUP – JAYSON NIX (2 HRs, 6 RBIs, .228 BA)
Nix, 29, became Jeter's backup when the Yankees decided that Eduardo Nunez needed work on his defense in the minor leagues.
With Jeter requiring a bit more rest, Nix has made seven starts at short in the first 81 games. He has acquitted himself well. He is not going to hit like Jeter and he does not have the dazzling range Nunez has at the position. But, then again, Nix is not going botch half of the balls hit to him like Nunez did.
Because Nix can also play second, third and the corner outfield spots he is very valuable in kind of Jerry Hairston Jr. sort of way.
Nix played his way on the Yankees' 25-man roster by hitting .323 as a free-agent signee this spring. When Nunez was sent back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Nix was recalled and it looks like he is going to keep his role for the rest of the season.
After playing only four games for the Scranton Yankees, Nunez suffered a severely jammed right thumb and he has missed more than a month. He should be able to return soon but the injury apparently is worse than the Yankees thought originally.
Nunez, 25, is still considered the heir apparent to Jeter when he can't play the position anymore or retires. After all, Nunez was hitting .294 after 51 at-bats when he was shipped out after committing four errors in the first 19 games he played.
Girardi said the Yankees should have not asked Nunez to play so many positions like the outfield. So the thought is that he will concentrate on shortstop mostly at Scranton. But the injury has retarded that development and so Nunez looks like he will stay in the minors until the September 1 call-ups.
Unfortunately the Yankees not only miss his bat but his speed.
With Brett Gardner of the 60-day disabled list and Nunez shipped out the Yankees lost 71 steals from their 2011 roster. Nunez still is tied for second with four Yankees with six steals behind the team leader Rodriguez, who has seven after 81 games.
With Nunez shelved, the Yankees' old standby Ramiro Pena is playing short at Scranton. He is hitting .241 with one home run and 18 RBIs.
The Yankees pretty much know what they are getting in Pena, 26. He can play the infield near flawlessly, he is an adept bunter and is an aggressive switch-hitter with absolutely no power. He has decent speed but he is not an athlete or a speedster like Nunez.
It appears Pena's time has past.
The Yankees have an intriguing prospect at Double-A Trenton in 22-year-old Jose Toussen, who is hitting over .300 there. But all eyes are on Cito Culver at Single-A Charelston (SC) in the Carolina League. He is rated as the ninth-best prospect in the organization. But that might take a hit.
Culver, 19, is hitting just .206 in 74 games there. Scouts are questioning why the Yankees made him their No. 1 in 2010.
Barring injury, Jeter should maintain his climb up the all-time hits list while getting on base for the Yankees' power hitters that follow him. The hope is those power hitters will actually drive him in more often. If Jeter hits over .300 with 100 runs scored and he hits about 15 home runs it will be a very good season for the future Hall-of-Famer.
Girardi has been smart in starting him in only 70 games at shortstop after 81 games. At the same time Jeter has played in 79 games by being used as a designated hitter or a late-game replacement. Girardi will continue to do this to keep Jeter healthy and fresh for the late season push for the division title and the playoffs.
With Nix, Pena and eventually Nunez is the wings, Jeter has three either current or former major-league players behind him. That is not bad depth.
But the Yankees really could not go very far without Jeter leading off and playing shortstop for them. He is much more valuable than you might think and he still remains the face of the franchise.


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Valibation is a short sci-fi horror film about a man who's a little too attached to his smartphone. The film is somewhat reminiscent of Videodrome, and viewers should be aware that it contains a fair amount of nudity and gore.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Short Film: Valibation
Valibation is a short sci-fi horror film about a man who's a little too attached to his smartphone. The film is somewhat reminiscent of Videodrome, and viewers should be aware that it contains a fair amount of nudity and gore.
Labels: horror, nsfw, short film, video
Lego Creation: Scarf Loom
Lego Loom Machine by Tomasz Zając
Zając's intricate "Lego Loom Machine" is mostly built from Lego bricks and runs off a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. Operating just like a standard loom would, this Lego version takes a ball of wool and separates it into multiple strands. An arm then places another strand of the wool across the rest and pulls down to secure its placement and, in turn, weaving a knitwear tapestry.
Labels: knitting, legos, technology, video
Photography: The Craft Camera
The Craft Camera, a DIY Cardboard Camera!
Via: Ufunk
Via: Ufunk
The Craft Camera aims to solve that issue. It's a simple DIY digital camera built out of cardboard and a low-cost electronic system from Arduino. The camera stores the images on a memory card that plugs into your computer.
Labels: diy, hack, photography
Portrait: Trash Portraits
Portraits Formed From Leftover Trash by Zac Freeman
American artist Zac Freeman creates mosaic-style portraits from upcycled garbage. Specifically, he's chosen trash that is leftover from the items we regularly consume, including colored bottle caps, buttons, and soda can tabs.
Event: D&D Art Show
D & D is an upcoming group art show featuring original Dungeons & Dragons-themed artwork curated by Ben Collison. The art show will open at 7 PM PST on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at Mission: Comics & Art in San Francisco. You can RSVP for the event online via Facebook.
Labels: event
Lego Creation: Hogwarts Castle
LEGO Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by LEGO designer Alice Finch
Seattle-based Alice Finch has unveiled a replica of the Hogwarts castle that rivals the real life set model used by the studio for the actual miniature work at BrickCon 2012. The set replicates both the exterior and interior of Hogwarts in painstaking detail. It recently won both the "Best in Show" and "People's Choice" awards at BrickCon 2012, a rare achievement.
"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This version of Hogwarts is made of about 400,000 bricks and took 12 months to build. It is designed to be architecturally accurate and completely playable. It breaks into sections that pack into 35 large flat boxes or shelves."
Labels: harry potter, legos, models, movies
Typography: Wire
"Wire" by Dan Hoopert
Eighteen year-old U.K. based designer Dan Hoopert designed this font with virtual nails and wire for a University class project using Cinema 4D, a 3D modeling application.
Labels: typography
Illustration: Vintage Scifi Pinups
"Cosmic Workers"
Vintage Scifi Pinups by Waldemar von Kozak
Waldemar's work is reminiscent of the old softcore B movies that were definitely nowhere as good as the posters that advertised them, promising unexplored frontiers full of nubile women and rocket-powered roadsters. You can check videos of Waldemar's process at YouTube
Labels: Illustration, science fiction
Electronic Art: A Million Times
"A Million Times" by Stockholm Studio Humans Since 1982
On exhibit at Design Days Dubai / Victor Hunt Gallery March 18 - 21 2013.
Created out of 288 analogue clocks which are powered by 576 electric motors so that the minute and hour hands can be controlled independently. By doing so the hands are left constantly dancing in slow motion and as they rotate they form elaborate patterns and even work together to display text. Watch the video demonstration of the piece working below.
Labels: electronic art, kinetic sculpture, video
Design: Typographic Chairs
Typographic Chairs by Roeland Otten, 2010.
Photographed by Bas Helbers
Labels: design, furniture, interior design, typography
Link Round-Up: February 28, 2013
Yarn Bombing by Burty Burton
Via: Street Art Utopia's Guerrilla Crochet Gallery
Via: Street Art Utopia's Guerrilla Crochet Gallery
How Disney's 'Paperman' turned old school animation into Oscar gold
If you ever wished there was a quickie way to get your photos from your DSLR to your iPad, there is. The iPad SD Card Reader lets you directly upload photos to your iPad or iPad Mini! That way you can speedily edit and share all your best pics in a jiff.
Uchida Seiji, a 67-year-old retiree in Fukui, Japan, constructed a 6'6" UC Gundam out of paper to show it to kids at area community centers.
Labels: knitting, link round-up, round-up
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Short Film: Fat
fat-lefilm.com">Fat from The Fat Team
Sculpture: Crania Anatomica Filigre
The digitally sculpted 3D printed filigree skull sculpture was a Kickstarter project that ended up becoming the most funded Sculpture project in the site's history.
Labels: 3d printing, crowdfunding, sculpture, skulls
Merchandise: Marvel Paper
Available for purchase from the M'Store. KR10,000
Labels: comics, marvel, merchandise, papercraft
Papercraft: Crafted Cameras
"Postcard SLR Camera"
Labels: papercraft
Sculpture: Mechanical Pocket Monsters
Mechanical Pocket Monsters by Justin Gershenson-Gates
Available for purchase from Etsy.
Available for purchase from Etsy.
Posted by Pipedreamergrey at 9:00 AM 1 comments
Sculpture: Bag End Bonsai
Labels: lord of the rings, miniature, sculpture
Monday, February 25, 2013
Short Film: The Smoke Seller
El Vendedor de Humo tells the story of a traveling "smoke seller" who arrives in a new town to set up shop. With control of seemingly magical smoke which can transform objects at will, it doesn't take long for our young traveler to become the toast of the town. But, as you might imagine, there is a twist..
Short Film: Ursus
"URSUS" by directed by Reinis Pētersons
This isn't a particularly geeky film, but I loved the texture of the animation, so I though I'd share it. Ursus is a a charcoal-drawn animation about a circus bear who takes off to the forest where his true happiness seems to dwell.
Quick Pic: Cylon Engagement Ring
Cylon Engagement Ring by Michael Moragne
Sweets: The One Ring Cake
Labels: lord of the rings, sweets
Tutorial: Wheat Paste Posters
Labels: papercraft, tutorial
Street Art: Game Over
Photographed by Streetfilesss
Labels: graffiti, street art, video games
Lego Creation: Throne of Trek
"Make It So!" by Iain Heath
"STNG as it should have been… Emperor Picard The Magnificent upon his throne, surrounded by his loyal subjects, Princess Troi-Leia (slave girl and fortune teller), Sergeant Buff (Klingon barbarian bodyguard and Sushi chef), Bone Crusher (witch doctor and dungeon mistress), and the fool. Built for the SeaLUG LEGO display at Emerald City Comicon (first weekend of March at the Seattle convention center)."
Labels: fresh take, humor, legos, star trek
Typography: 4d Paper Lettering
"4d Paper Lettering" by Barcelona designers Lo Siento
Labels: papercraft, typography
Tutorial: How to Craft a Book
Here's a set of photographic instructions on how to make your own book. I came across while browsing Imgur. It's impressively simply, unlike other tutorials I've seen, which often call for specialized tools or supplies. I'm pretty sure that you could pick up the thread, linen, and paper needed for this project at just about any craft store in the country for under fifteen dollars. Attach a brass ornament to the cover and this would sell pretty well on Etsy.
Labels: crafts, papercraft, tutorial
Link Round-Up: February 25, 2013
Via: Reddit via BoingBoing
Left to Right: Mk VI (Iron Man 2), Deep Space Suit (Its a Toy/Iron Man 3 Rumor), Mk VIII (Iron Man 3)
Digitally Assembled Futuristic Megalopolises and other works by Yang Yongliang.
Grant Snider's Awesome Posters For Book Lovers
Labels: cardboard, crafts, iron man, link round-up, round-up
Friday, February 22, 2013
Short Film: The Jockstrap Raiders
The Jockstrap Raiders directed by Mark Nelson
Nelson injects a bit of humor into the battlefield genre in this Revenge of the Nerds-esqu short about a group of misfits who are determined to save Britain from the invading German army during the course of World War I. If you were a fan of eighties cartoons growing up, you'll probably enjoy this.
"The Jockstrap Raiders is a Student Academy Award winning animated short film about a group of misfits during world war I. It takes place in Leeds, England where our heroes are all excluded from the war due to various abnormalities. Threatened by the invading German Kaiser and his army, they must learn to become a team and overcome their deficiencies in order to save Britain, and the world.
Completed at UCLA, it is Mark Nelson's MFA thesis project. The short has won many awards, including: Student Academy Award; Best Animation, British Animation Festival; Best Animation Macon Film Festival; Best Narrative Short GI Film Festival; Audience Award Orlando Film Festival."
Video: Signal Loss
Hannes Hummel and his colleagues Philip Carbotta and Thilko Limbeck at the Cologne International School of Design used the Kinect and ReconstructMe -real-time 3D modeling software to scan themselves to create the character and his movements. Looking at the figure in this video running through a triangulated world, you might notice how his motion looks remarkably life-like animation for on-the reason for that is that they're modeled on actual human movements.
Off he runs through a low-poly landscape with the audio of Pariah 's track "Signal Loss" to keep him company, jogging on through this abstract, video game-like environment Which they say was "created to mirror the melancholic mood of Pariah's track. " On the Vimeo page, and in the comments, so they note how they added a combination of motion capture and key frame animation to flesh out the runner and his shimmering landscape.
It's an impressive piece and worth watching in HD too, as it took them over a week to render the video on an 8-machine render farm.
Labels: computer graphics, video
Papercraft: Cardboard Optimus Prime
Warner just finished creating this ten foot tall cardboard robot for a class project. Check out these Work in Progress photos.
Labels: cardboard, crafts, papercraft, transformers
Sweets: Super Mario Cupcakes
Labels: super mario, sweets, video games
Sweets: Mario Mushroom Cookies
"The cookies I made fresh from the oven! I made my own cookie cutter shapes to make the Mario Mushrooms. Sugar cookies made with red and green food coloring. The black eyes were added after baking with a food coloring pen. I really love how they came out!"
Labels: super mario, sweets, video games
Papercraft: Thumbprint Portrait
Available for purchase from Etsy.
Labels: papercraft
Papercraft: Paper Cities
Duralar, enamel paint, pins.
Photographed by Rob Jaffe
London artist Matthew Picton uses strips of paper from popular (and often symbolic) media such as sheet music and DVD jackets to construct historical maps of the world's major cities from around the world. In one piece, Picton represents the Great Fire of London with the burnt pages of Daniel Defoe's The Plague Years. In another, the artist constructed Lower Manhattan from news headlines that followed the World Trade Center disaster.
Labels: maps, papercraft
Mosaic: Jewel of the Universe
"Jewel of the Universe" by Chris Chamberlain
via Mail Online
Link Round-Up: February 22, 2013
News: Marvel announced Iron Man 3 Lego sets will hit the shelves on March 7.
News: Warren Ellis' new panel-a-day webcomic, Scatterlands is now live.
The Hobbit Map Dress
New Pacific Rim concept art is wonderfully weird.
Spider-Man hiding under wedding cakes that are otherwise perfectly traditional is now a thing. Personally, I would have opted for Deadpool.
Why You Should Judge a Book By Its Cover
Labels: avengers, link round-up, mash-up, movie posters, round-up
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Short Film: To This Day
"To This Day" by Canadian design firm Giant Ant
Poem written by Shane Koyczan
To This Day is a collaborative project in which animators were given the opportunity to animate a twenty second segment of a powerful spoken word piece by Shane Koyczan over the course of just twenty days. The results are as beautiful as they are moving. You can learn more about the To This Day at the project's website, and the organizers hope you'll also spend a moment learning more about the anti-bully movement at bullying.org.
Sculpture: Reverse Perspective
"Reliquaries" by Al Farrow
Churches constructed of Guns and Bullets.
Churches constructed of Guns and Bullets.
"I am perpetually surprised by the historical and continuing partnership of war and religion. The atrocities committed in acts of war absolutely violate every tenet of religion, yet rarely do religious institutions speak against the violations committed in the name of God. Historically, Popes have even offered eternal salvation to those who fought on their behalf (The crusades, etc.).
In my constructed reliquaries, I am playfully employing symbols of war, religion and death in a facade of architectural beauty and harmony. I have allowed my interests in art history, archeology and anthropology to influence the work. The sculptures are an ironic play on the medieval cult of the relic, tomb art, and the seductive nature of objects commissioned and historically employed by those seeking position of power."
Posted by Pipedreamergrey at 11:31 AM 0 comments
Video: Pinky Demon Blocks the Exit
Watch as artist ELEMENTAL79 remasters the classic game Doom into HD. A few hundred thousand more frames and we'll have ourselves a re-release.
Labels: speed painting, video, video games
Illustration: Bic Pen Designs
Bic Pen Illustrations by Dutch artist Erik de Haan
de Haan's Southeast Asian flavored illustrations are completely hand-sketched using only a Bic pen. Understandably, many of them have been used as tattoos.
Posted by Pipedreamergrey at 9:30 AM 2 comments
Labels: Illustration
Video: Batman Rockabilly
Denis Medri's Batman Rockabilly art series gets visualized all at once in a short vid. I don't know about you, but I would totally Tivo this series if it came to television!
Illustration: Zodiac Signs
Prints available for purchase from Deviant Art. US$18.84
Yuhon puts a fresh twist on the symbols of the zodiac, giving the a Gaiman-esque comic book feel.
Labels: Illustration
Science: Transparent Specimens
New World Transparent Specimens by Lori Tomita
Tomita first removes the scales and skin of fish that have been preserved in formaldehyde. Next he soaks the creatures in a stain that dyes the cartilage blue. Tomita uses a digestive enzyme called trypsin, along with a host of other chemicals, to break down the proteins and muscles, halting the process just at the moment they become transparent but before they lose their form. The bones are then stained with red dye, and the brilliant beast is preserved in a jar of glycerin.
Link Round-Up: February 21, 2013
Source: Anonymous ART of Revolution
F*ck You. Pay Me. Mike Monteiro, Design Director, and co-founder of Mule Design Studio speaks at CreativeMornings about running a design business. More to the point, his lawyer spells out the importance of using contracts, even if you are running a creative business.
ILM has just released a new video detailing how they were able to digitally recreate New York for Joss Whedon's mega-blockbuster. In it you'll find out exactly how much of the film was shot in New York, see a lot of green screen work, all the tiny details that have to be added to each frame and even learn a few cool pieces of trivia. For either Avengers or filmmaking fans, it's a must see.
Jason Adams illustrates the 2013 Oscar Best Picture Nominees
Play Texas Hold 'Em With These Artistic Game of Thrones Cards
The Secret Law of Page Harmony: A method to produce the perfect book (single-link graphic design essay).
Labels: link round-up, round-up
Quick Pic: Colonel Sanders Cosplay
Colonel Sanders Dressed cosplaying Dragon Ball Z
Source: Kotaku
Is there anything that isn't better in Japan?
Labels: quick pic
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Short Film: The Longest Day Care
"The Longest Day Care"
You need only 5 minutes to check out David Silverman's Oscar-nominated short short film, The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare! If your favorite member of the Simpsons family is Maggie, this is the perfect movie for you. In this completely dialog-free film Maggie is left in the tend care of the Ayn Rand Daycare Center, where she must protect a caterpillar against her nemesis.
"Maggie Simpson spends a day at the Ayn Rand Daycare Center where she is diagnosed at an average intelligence level. Longing to be grouped with the gifted children, Maggie finds her destiny by rescuing a lonely cocoon from Baby Gerald, who is busy smooshing butterflies."
Labels: animation, humor, short film, video
Video: Berlin Block Tetris
"An animation I made for Uni. Everything is made in After Effects without Plugins.The idea is based on a kind of parody of the former Socialist building style. They used to build whole cities where each house was designed identically to create cheap housing for workers. These 'blocks' were so similar that in Soviet times, you could easily wake up at a friends place in another city and still feel like you are in your flat. Even the furniture was the same."
Labels: architecture, tetris, video, video games
Posters: Star Wars
"Finally on my winterbreak- I decided to do some personal projects, and actually upload something here, which i haven't done in months! Anyway, i decided to do some movie posters, since i need more graphic design things for my portfolio. So, this is the first in a series of Star Wars posters, heavily inspired by the work of the great Saul Bass, a graphic designer from the 60's. Obviously, the movie depicted is A new hope, the first Star Wars movie from 1977."
Labels: Illustration, movie posters, posters, star wars
Paintings: Pop Culture Portraits
Duke R2-D2 based on Francois-Xavier Fabre's Portrait Of A Man
These acrylic paintings by Hillary White are part of White's exhibit at Nosh Kitchen Bar in Portland, Maine, which runs through February. The exhibit includes Formal Portraits of Batman, Voltron, and other pop culture icons.
Labels: fresh take, paintings
Concept Art: Robogirl
Robogirl by Samuel Conlogue
Via: InspireFirst
Via: InspireFirst
Labels: concept art, robots
Sculpture: Alien Queen Ice Sculpture
Alien Queen Ice Sculpture by Koji Kareki of Japan & Kei Sakugawa of Canada
Created for this year's Winterlude ice sculpture contest in Ottawa, Canada.
Tech: 3Doodler
3Doodler is a 3D printer pen that makes it possible to "draw" three-dimensional plastic objects. The pen works by heating a thin plastic wire until it is pliable, and then cooling the plastic with a fan after it comes out of the pen tip. The creators of 3Doodler, Peter Dilworth and Max Bogue of WobbleWorks, are raising funds for the project on Kickstarter.
Labels: 3d printing, crowdfunding, tech, video
Street Art: Panda Mural
Panda Street Art Mural by Hawaiian street artist Aaron Martin
Aaron Martin aka Angry Woebots just completed this large mural in Honolulu. As is common with Martin's work, the piece conveys an impression of insanity conveyed through imagry of an appealing, often adorable, monster. "I was supposed to paint a grizzly bear, and I was like, whatever, I'll paint a panda bear." Read an interview with Martin ("Angry Woebots") at Contrast Magazine.
Labels: mural, street art
Link Round-Up: February 20, 2013
Bioshock Artwork by Joe Misrasi
Prints available for purchase from Society 6. US$17.68
Prints available for purchase from Society 6. US$17.68
Labels: bioshock, horror, link round-up, paintings, round-up, video games
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Short Film: Slow Derek
"Slow Derek"directed by Dan Ojari
This stop motion film was Dan Ojari's thesis film for the Royal College of Art, and it was selected for Sundance in 2012. It tells the story of a cubicle drone named Derek who struggles to keep pace with the speed of the larger world. The story is riddled with fun special effects that serve as an effective metaphor for daily life.
Labels: fantasy, short film, stop motion, video
Street Art: The Wolf
Labels: graffiti, street art
Sweets: Portal Cake
Companion Cube Wedding Cake by Cakes by Beth of Manchester, U.K.
Labels: portal, romance, sweets, video games
Event: MINTcondition
MINTcondition is a comic book themed group art show held annually at the Ltd. Art Gallery in Seattle. This year's show opens on Friday, March 1, 2013 and runs through Sunday, March 31, 2013.
Video: Forging Jaime Lannister's Sword
In the news series "Man At Arms" master swordsmith and renowned propmaster Tony Swatton recreates iconic weapons from film and television. For the premiere episode, Swatton recreated Jaime Lannister's sword from Game of Thrones from scratch, with a hilt forged from molten bronze, and then taken outside for an epic battle against a windshield.
Labels: game of thrones, metalwork, television, video
Diorama: Battle of Hoth
Source: Fighting 118th
"This dio is in my living room. Thanks for looking. No photoshop in any picture."
Barry had a spare 140 square feet in his living room. Some folks would've bought another couch, but Barry went in a different direction. He re-created the Battle of Hoth in excruciating detail. Take a look! None of it is Photoshopped.
Link Round-Up: February 19, 2013
"Marvelphabet" by Mike Boon
15 Spectacular Buildings Where Origami Meets Architecture
The Death of Romance in the Shadow of the Colossus reads the acclaimed PS2 game as a myth about the rise and fall of the European Romantic movement.
Romancing the drone: how America's flying robots are invading pop culture
Terrible Drawings of British Actors
What if Pixar made Star Trek? One artist answers that question.
Labels: comics, Illustration, link round-up, marvel, posters, prints, round-up, typography
Monday, February 18, 2013
Short Film: Moon Dust
A pilot crash his landing pod from the Moon in the middle of a forest. He carries a secret with him that could cost him his life...
Labels: science fiction, short film, video
Street Art: Graffiti Artist IEMZA
Labels: artist, graffiti, street art
Posters: Do you need a designer?
Do you need a designer? by Kelly Cree
Prints available for purchase. US$35
Fresh Take: Video Game China Pattern
I had some downtime so I decided to make myself a new set of dinnerware based on The Willow Pattern.
Labels: 8-bit, fresh take, video games
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The One Ring Messageboard
Elrond Hubbard wrote:The late President Ronald Reagan once reminded the American People that, "Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again."
Elrond Hubbard wrote:Without quoting anybody this time, America hasn't needed the moniker of having "Become a Totalitarian State" to violate the rights, liberty and dignity of its own people, over the past couple hundred years. As a "model of democracy" for the Free World, this country has always done whatever it could get away with - especially to its own. The excuse has always been that America is an "experiment" in Freedom, so where it's failed, we're just supposed to chalk that up to "experience" and then alter the experiment, further. Until Snowden let the cat out of the bag, the NSA knew what complete and total freedom was all about, wallowing in its own crapulence. Now, though, there's a token leash on it, for the sake of appearances and at least that's something. But should there be a repeat of 9/11, let's say, then it will be given carte blanche by the public, as they get out from underfoot and let NSA get on with "protecting" them. What's more, when the worst of Global Warming starts to kick in, control of dwindling resources may become of paramount importance, what doors that might open to, I wouldn't care to hazard a guess. In my view, though, the worst thing about the US Government is that the only power citizens have is their vote. Problem is, anyone being voted in is just as corrupt and incompetent as those being voted out - so that the vote of We The People has lost most of its purchasing power, if you will.
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The Secret to Surviving the Winter: Healthy and Filling Soups
It's winter time. It's either cold or snowing or raining or all of the above!! We asked our healthy and nutrition writer, Simone Stromer, MD, CHC [AADP]
www.nutritionthroughlife.com to give us some tips for healthy winter eating. Read on.
During winter, chances are that you are craving more comfort foods, generally those packed with excess fat and calories. Soups are now the most important meal to add to your diet because they are the ultimate food to warm your body and fill you up with all the nutrients that you need while being relatively low in calories and processed ingredients. In Japan, where there are low rates of obesity, miso soup with nutritious seaweed and soy beans is commonly a daily part of the diet, and is even prepared for breakfast. Soups are also the ultimate meal-in-a-bowl; a large bowl paired with a piece of crusty whole grain or sour dough bread can keep you going for hours.
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your winter soups:
Soup is an excellent way to pack in a few of those high-nutrient/high-fiber food groups– whole grains (like rice and barley), vegetables (any kind), and beans (like chickpeas, red kidney beans and lentils). Adding these to your soups will turn a simple vegetable soup into a balanced meal.
Ultra-low calorie soups (like plain tomato soup, low-fat minestrone soup without pasta, or non-dairy carrot-ginger soup) can be used as snack foods—you can eat the soup slowly and the large amount of liquid will fill you up, preventing you from reaching for the piece of bread, bag of nuts, or potato chips that you may have wanted.
It is preferable that soups are made from vegetable, chicken, or beef broths and kept clear, with the exception of adding tomato paste or stewed tomatoes for extra flavor. If you buy store-bought soup stock or broth, try to avoid those with MSG and more than 100 mg of sodium per serving.
If you want to add a touch of creaminess to your soup, avoid high-fat creamers like heavy cream or half and half and artificial creamers and instead try low-fat sour cream, low-fat milk or soy milk in small quantities. Add the low-fat options to your soup at the end of cooking to avoid boiling them.
For a dairy meal, try adding a sprinkle of shredded low-fat cheese or parmesan to the top of your vegetable soup.
Soup is not only healthy, but it is delicious as well. My family loves the minestrone with homemade white bread or with pasta and some grated mozzarella. Try a bunch and let your family discover their favorite.
4 Top Picks
Lactose Intolerant? See How to Eat Dairy
Cholesterol Concerns? Assess Yourself
Bad Eating Habits? Assess Your Diet
Probiotic Foods: See What to Eat
Eat to Lose Weight and Build Muscle


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Indicative Rate * AU$95 to AU$220
Water views from every apartment at Shelly Bay Resort. Their three storey property enjoys a beautiful beachfront position at the best beach in Hervey Bay where swimming is wonderful on all tides. Spacious north facing balconies capture both the winter sun and summer breezes. Centrally situated on the Esplanade with Hervey Bay's most popular restaurants and cafes close by.
The well-appointed one and two bedroom apartments are fully self-contained, with air-conditioning and fans, Foxtel television, a fully equipped kitchen, washing machine and clothes dryer, iron, hairdryer and queen or king beds.
Facilities include a lift to all floors, free secure car parking, free boat and trailer parking, free Wi-Fi, lagoon style swimming pool, tennis half court, barbecue, licensed on-site restaurant and paddleboard/kayaks for hire.
Take advantage of the free tour booking service. Visit the spectacular World Heritage Listed Fraser Island or swim on the Great Barrier Reef on a day trip to Lady Elliot Island. From mid July to early November, in the calm warm waters of Hervey Bay you can experience the best up close and personal humpback whale encounters in the world. Stroll the Esplanade, throw a line in the water plus so much more.
The comfortable and affordable Bay view apartments provide a separate dining and lounge with fully equipped kitchen and laundry facilities. The bedroom is at the rear of the property ensuring a restful night.
Features a balcony with views across to the Bay and the best swimming beach in Hervey Bay.
Shelly Bay Resort is wonderful for couples with 20 spacious one bedroom self-catering apartments. Each has a queen or king bed in the bedroom which is located at the rear of the building for a relaxing sleep.
All apartments have a north facing beachfront balcony which captures both the morning sun and the views of the bay, cable television in lounge and bedroom, air-conditioning and fans with full kitchen and laundry. These clean and spacious apartments are all individually styled and decorated.
Shelly Bay Resort is wonderful for families offering six two-bedroom apartments. Each has a queen or king bed in the main bedroom (at the rear of the building for a relaxing sleep). The second bedroom has two single beds to accommodate families or king bed for couples.
Each apartment has a north facing beachfront balcony which captures both the sun and the views of the bay, Cable television, air-conditioning and fans, full kitchens and laundry. All apartments are individually styled and decorated with everything you need for a short or long stay.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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- Bright, 7-inch LCD screen with 16 million colors.
- Intuitive touch-based navigation.
- Runs third-party apps.
- Deep social integration.
- Lots of periodicals available.
- No 3G, just Wi-Fi connectivity.
- Proprietary AC adapter.
- Battery life is short for a dedicated ebook reader.
Ever since the
Design and Features
The Nook Color doesn't use monochrome E-Ink for its reading screen, like the
But there are downsides as well. The most significant is the battery life—Barnes & Noble rates the battery life at "up to 8 hours." Pretty weak compared with the weeks of use you can get out of one charge with most E-Ink-based ebook readers. The screen is also more reflective than E-Ink displays, although I was able to read the Nook Color outside in broad daylight without much trouble. Finally, as anyone who works in front of a computer knows, LCDs can cause eyestrain. Indeed, at maximum brightness the screen did hurt my eyes, but the brightness control is easy enough to adjust. In most reading environments, I found turning the brightness down to about 25 percent was about right. At maximum brightness, the Nook Color is literally a flashlight.
At 8.1 by 5 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and nearly a pound (15.8 ounces), the Nook Color is both bigger and heavier than the Kindle or the original Nook. Unlike the plastic wafer feel of traditional e-readers, the Nook Color feels like the slab of aluminum and glass that it is. It's still light enough to tote easily, though, and I was able to comfortably use the Nook Color with one hand, which really isn't possible for long periods with the 1.5-pound Apple iPad.
The basic, gunmetal gray design with black soft-touch back panel is accented by a small, triangular cutout in the lower left hand corner. This is just a design element, although it does help conceal the micro-SD slot. The Nook Color comes with 8GB of memory, enough for about 6,000 books, newspapers, or magazines—though the latter two take up more space because of their photos. With a micro SD card you can expand the storage up to 40GB (up to 32GB cards are accepted), which is far more space than you're likely to fill with books.
A Touch-Sensitive Reading Interface
The Nook Color comes with few physical buttons: just Volume controls on the right panel, a Power button on the left, and the "N" logo below the screen that serves as your Home button. All other navigation comes via the touch screen. Tap the bottom of the display, and a software menu pops up with Library, Shop, Search, Extras, Web, and Settings. The Library is the main repository of all your books, magazines, and newspapers. Shop sends you to the Barnes & Noble Store, but you have to be connected to a Wi-Fi network to get there—the Nook Color lacks 3G connectivity. Search will not only catalog all the titles on your Nook, but also search online bookstores and the Web. Extras is the holding place for applications like Contacts, LendMe, Pandora, and other Android Apps that Barnes & Noble will port to the Nook Color. Wherever you go on the Nook's menus there is always an on-screen icon that instantly takes you back to the last book or magazine you were reading, which is a nice touch.
Reading on the Nook Color is very intuitive. You can move forward or back in books by swiping the screen or tapping, and the display is pretty responsive. Rapidly flipping through pages is possible in a way that would be unthinkable on E-Ink displays. You can adjust the text size and typeface, but perhaps most importantly, you can adjust the brightness while you are reading. If you are like me, you will do this pretty often, and usually to turn the brightness down.
The combination of the color display and touch screen give you more options for managing your books. You can drag books onto your desktop and arrange them into piles so you can access them without going into your library at all. Inside your library, you can create shelves of books according to your taste, perhaps grouping all your cookbooks together, or all of your Steven King novels. This kind of organizational flexibility makes it a lot easier to find books than on the Kindle.
The Nook Color lets you load and read personal files as well. In addition to PDF and ePub files, the Nook supports JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP files. You can also view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The device supports MP4 video, although the company says it will be a few months before video-enhanced content becomes available for the Nook Color. Think cookbooks with instructional videos, as opposed to a pure YouTube client—though you can watch YouTube videos through the Web browser.
Social Reading and the Bookstore
The Nook Color lets you share recommendations, quotes, and even entire books with your friends. Connect the device to your Twitter and/or Facebook accounts, and you can clip passages from within books and post them to the Web. With a few clicks I was able to tell the world: "I've read 1 percent of Decision Points by George W. Bush." Barnes & Noble's LendMe application lets you share digital books. Loan a book to a fellow Nook user and they will be able to read it for two weeks. During that time it will be unavailable to you, but after two weeks it will reappear in your library. Not all books can be lent out, and of course, they can only be lent Nook owners. Anybody want to borrow my digital copy of Decision Points?
The Barnes & Noble Ebook Store has more than 2 million books, including 194 of the 205 current New York Times bestsellers. The company signed up a host of newspapers and magazine providers, including The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, National Geographic, and most importantly, PC Magazine. Magazines come through with the layout and images intact. You can read them as a full page or in article view, which re-flows an individual story into a more readable template. It isn't as flashy as some of the iPad magazines out there, but it is an enjoyable experience and dead simple for publishers to support.
Android Apps and Web Browsing
The Nook Color runs a version of Android 2.1, but does that mean it supports Android apps? Yes and no. The Nook Color does not access the Android marketplace directly, but Barnes and Noble ports some Android apps to the platform. The company has a few games, Chess and Crosswords, as well as Pandora Internet radio pre-loaded in the Extras section. That said, the company plans to keep these apps in the Extras section and keep the Nook Color focused on reading.
The Nook Color's Web browser, on the other hand, is a little more than an "Extra." Although not quite a full version of Chrome, it will get you online fast and the browsing experience isn't bad. There are some quirks—like tapping to zoom in on a page, instead of the more intuitive pinch-and-zoom functionality. Still, when you are using the browser, it's easy to think you are holding a tablet and not an ebook reader.
Battery Life and Conclusions
Testing battery life for ebook readers is usually pretty difficult. The Amazon Kindle will run for a week with its 3G radio on, and as long as a month with it disabled. That is certainly not the case with the Nook Color. The company says it will last up to 8 hours, and my testing confirmed that number. After a day of heavy reading, about 3-4 hours, I went to bed to find the device dead in the morning. The next day, I got the Nook Color to survive the night by turning off Wi-Fi. If you read for more than a few hours a day, you should plan on charging daily. This is much better than the color-screened
Make sure you bring your charger wherever you go. Although the Nook Color looks like it has a standard micro USB port, it will only charge with the Nook AC adapter. I tried both 5V and 10V adapters, with no luck. Nor can you charge the device by connecting it to a PC. Turns out the cable that comes with the Nook Color has a few extra pins in it, to enable faster charging. The custom connector supports 2000mAh charging, whereas most mobile electronics use 500mAh chargers. This is limiting, since it significantly reduces your charging options, but it isn't much different than the proprietary charger that's required with the iPad.
With the original Nook and Kindle selling for just under $200 each (less than $150 each if you forgo 3G) and the Apple iPad starting at $500, the $250 Nook Color occupies a place right in the middle. As long as you don't expect full tablet functionality, and you keep your Barnes & Noble-approved AC adapter handy, the Nook Color makes a perfectly amiable reading companion if you want to see your books in full color.
More Ebook Reader Reviews:


text: Mr. Arkadin Posted September 25, 2009 Report Share Posted September 25, 2009 (edited) Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera holds the position of the most financially successful musical in history, a smash-blockbuster of epic proportions that still manages to draw crowds over 20 years after its original premiere. It's the Titanic of musicals. And now, after years of middling successes and flops, Webber is attempting to revisit his smash success with a sequel, entitled Love Never Dies. The official story summary is as follows: It is 1907. Ten years after the mysterious disappearance of The Phantom from the Paris Opera House, Christine Daae accepts an offer to come to America and perform at the fabulous new playground for the rich - Coney Island. Arriving in New York with her husband Raoul and their son Gustave, Christine soon discovers the identity of the anonymous impresario who has lured her from France to sing. Graced with stunning designs, passionate lyrics and a magnificent score, this brand-new musical is a rollercoaster ride of obsession and intrigue...in which music and memory can play cruel tricks... and The Phantom sets out to prove that, indeed, LOVE NEVER DIES. It's all very absurd. Some of it doesn't even make much sense (it's clear from casting calls that Gustave is really the Phantom's son, not Raoul's, which seems impossible given the narrative of the original musical), and some of the details are curiously odd (descriptions of a mechanical Christine automaton, like the one from the original show, acting as this show's "chandelier" equivalent in terms of an audience-wowing special effect, or the casting notices which mention characters "Mr. Gangle," "Mr. Squelch," and "Fleck," who are "strange and mystical" characters who "comment on the story," like a Greek chorus). But some of it is interesting; Coney Island, at least on paper, is the right playground for a man of the Phantom's talents, given his talent as an illusionist, architect, and showman, and in the right hands could be a compelling setting. As it stands, Webber's artistic judgment is very suspect. He's been in decline for quite some time (and even at his height was more of a showman than a skilled artist), and has yet to prove himself still capable of making a successful show. That said, I suspect he knows that, and maybe he's just hungry enough to produce something worthwhile, though from the plot summary and casting notices, Love Never Dies seems more bizarre than good. But at least it's interesting, I suppose, and not a safe, dull retread of the original. The involvement of skilled director Jack O'Brien and designer Bob Crowley is certainly promising. And I have to say that I can't help but be a little bit more interested after this new trailer. It's nothing awe-inspiring, but the sample of Webber's score featured here, which is admittedly all too brief, sounds very fine (complete with a new spin on the famous Phantom motif from the original show), and the old footage of Coney Island gives off a nicely creepy vibe, albeit it seems more than a bit jarring when compared against the elegant Parisian setting of its predecessor. On October 8th, the show will get its official announcement, complete with a live performance of music from the show (Ramin Karimloo will star as the Phantom, and Sierra Boggess as Christine Daae). I'll be curious to see how it pans out when the show makes its premiere in Spring 2010. Edited September 25, 2009 by Ryan H. Quote I've Seen That Movie Too Link to post Share on other sites


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Hybride orgel oplossing
A combination between a pipe organ and a digital organ
We are increasingly hearing about 'hybrid' or 'combination organs' in the organ world. But what exactly does that mean? A 'combination organ', the word says it already, is a combination between a pipe organ and a digital organ. This combination can offer your church many different advantages. For example, you can replace your old-fashioned console with a, often less expensive, digital console. You also have the option of very simply adding extra voices to your current pipe organ.
Viscount Hybrid Organs
Viscount has been a forerunner with the development and building of 'combination organs' from a long time. Our company has a long experience on building musical instruments and is very flexible on the construction of different installations by facing every exigent request. Our digital organs are equipped with the most advanced technology like Physis and are designed to be perfectly interfaced with pipe organs be meaning of V.P.I.(Viscount Pipe Interface), a special proprietary device that has been especially designed for this purpose. We are also able to offer an exclusive patented solution that allow our digital organs to be always tuned with pipes organs. In fact the notes frequencies emitted by pipe can slightly change because of ambience temperature variation. Our device is equipped with temperature sensor and microphone that detect temperature and frequency changes, both those information are used to tune the notes produced by the digital generation with those produced by pipes. We made a lot installations worldwide of this advanced technology that has proven to be very reliable and fast.


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Over the course of the 1960s, the U.S. Army released a series of videos (at least ten, maybe more) featuring ongoing military R&D projects. The progress reports mostly highlighted advances relating to military equipment — missile operations systems, tanks, personnel carriers, things like that. But at the end of the second progress report, the producers at the Army Pictorial Center managed to squeeze in the footage you see up top.
There's just something about the overly exuberant narrating style of the 1960s that really cranks the absurdity of this video up to eleven.
[Spotted on BoingBoing]


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Oracle likes to talk about "engineering together" its formidable database, middleware and business applications software directly into its data center hardware.
But it looks now as if it's not going to be engineering anymore into the former Sun Microsystems chips and machines it has owned for the last six years.
Oracle is in the process of laying off about 1,800 employees, mostly from the hardware business that was Sun, which was acquired for $7.4 billion in 2010. The long-running high-end chips business and its correlated Unix-based Solaris operating system both appear to be headed for the Computer Tech Museum, since neither has been profitable for Larry Ellison's mothership.
Reports originated by the San Jose Mercury News and The Layoff, an online source for IT business layoff new, said Jan. 23 that Oracle is laying off approximately 450 employees in its Santa Clara-based SPARC hardware systems division and that about 1,800 employees companywide are being asked to leave.
Further reading
The majority of those being let go are hardware and Sun-based software developers, although some of them are in management and staff positions.
"The Santa Clara facility is not closing as part of this reduction in force," an Oracle spokeswoman said in a media advisory. "Rather, Oracle is refocusing its Hardware Systems business, and for that reason, has decided to lay off certain of its employees in the Hardware Systems Division."
The Mercury News reported that rumors had been spreading for some time that SPARC and its Unix operating system Solaris were on the way out since Oracle made cloud services its No. 1 business four years ago. Since then, the company's cloud-based revenue has risen as hardware sales have fallen.
Six months ago, Oracle revealed its new SPARC S7 processor would be offered as an Oracle cloud computing service. Thus the writing was on the wall for enterprises that utilize SPARC chips in their servers that a phase-out was imminent.
Oracle's hardware revenue fell 13 percent quarter to quarter in its last earnings report. Licensing for on-premises software also had dropped by 20 percent, leaving cloud as the most promising section of its business. Cloud revenue has risen for 12 straight quarters.
CEO Mark Hurd claimed on Dec. 15 Oracle passed Salesforce.com to become the No. 1 provider of software-as-a-service cloud applications sales to companies with more than 1,000 employees.


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Safety in the District
We value safety and strive to have an internalized awareness of safety in our district. We cannot educate students in unsafe environments or situations, so it is imperative that we look at things through the safety lens. We do our best to train staff and students, raise awareness, and cooperate with other agencies to ensure that all of our students and staff are safe.
Notification System
AMSD has a notification system that is used for attendance calling, event announcements, and perhaps most importantly, for safety related notifications.
If you have a student in one of our schools, please ensure that your school contact information is up-to-date so that you can take advantage of the system.
If you need to make a change to your contact information, please call or visit your school office.