text:
Eastern and Big Sky links
Can the Eagles do it again, knocking off a second FBS team in as many weeks? Here's my preview of today's game against Toledo. Also, here's a preview of the game from the Eastern athletic site, and from Toledo. … Sam Houston State opens a four-game home stand today against Texas Southern. The Eagles will be in Huntsville, Texas, in a couple of weeks, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. … Fresh off a 70-7 loss to Utah, Weber State is at Utah State today. … The Billings Gazette features new Montana State quarterback Jake Bleskin, who's filling in for injured DeNarius McGhee. … The Gazette also previews today's Montana-North Dakota matchup. … Southern Utah isn't being overlooked by Washington State, as our Christian Caple reports. … Idaho State has a chance to start the season 2-0. … The top-rated offense in FCS is …. Portland State, which hosts Northern Arizona today.
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Kimberly Jessy leads Glamourpreneur an international online publicity boutique that works with trendy fashionistas and the beautypreneur market. That's not all, Kimberly works with some of the hottest names in the celebrity industry and position businesses to operate more efficiently to generate more revenue through their celebritized business.
"Businesses need to understand who their target market is, which includes knowing what their demographics consist us. For example, does your business work with women, what is the age range, are they educated, what is the racial makeup, are your clients straight or gay, married or single?," stated Kimberly Jessy.
Paul Lawrence Vann produces and host The Wealthy Speaker Show, he stated, "During the interview Kimberly Jessy provided results focused expertise and insight into what it takes for an entrepreneur and business owner to enhance their brand and exponentially increase their revenue streams through the strategies, tips and tools she shared."
Glamourpreneur is a game changer for businesses that seek to get to the next level of their progression, while increasing their visibility and positioning in their industry. That's not all, Kimberly Jessy is a celebrity reporter, having conducted interviews with the Hollywood elite, such as Twilight Breaking Dawn cast members.
"I highly recommend that others listen to the interview with Kimberly Jessy, she is one of the best guest I've ever had on my show because she added so much value to my listeners during the broadcast." states Vann. Tune in to listen to the archive at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/
The Wealthy Speaker Show is a talk radio show that inspires, motivates and empower listeners to overcome the impossible. Paul Lawrence Vann has produced and hosted over 400 episodes of The Wealthy Speaker Show over the past four years.

subset: commoncrawl


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RBC.com | Français | | Contact Us
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About RBC > Careers > RBC Career Launch Program > Live Discussions
Come join us to hear from our current Career Launch Associates to help you understand how this unique program could be a great first career opportunity. Discover our Career Launch live chats, learn about upcoming events or browse through our archives to check out past discussions.
You are on: Upcoming
Tuesday October 20th, 2015 15:00 – 16:30 ET
Join us on Tuesday, October 20th from 15:00 – 16:30 ET for a live discussion.
Signing up is simple:
You are on: Archived
Thursday October 8th, 2015 15:00 – 16:30 ET
Thank you to everyone that sent in questions during our Office Hours Chat. If you are interested in the RBC Career Launch Team's feedback on the program details, application processes, interview skills, best practices and more, please check out the archived chat here .
Wednesday November 26th, 2014 16:00 – 17:00 ET
Thank you for all of the great questions sent in during our Office Hours Chat. Please check out the archived chat here where Rehana Ciriani, Director of the RBC Career Launch Program, and Lauren Friese, Founder of TalentEgg Inc answered participants' career questions and provided valuable tips on job searching, career development, interview best practices and more.
Wednesday October 15th, 2014 16:00 – 17:00 ET
Thank you for all of the great questions sent in during our Office Hours Chat. Please check out the archived chat here to learn more about the program and to get a glimpse into a day in the life of the RBC Career Launch Associates.
Wednesday October 8th, 2014 13:00 – 14:00 ET
Thank you to everyone who joined our LinkedIn chat, if you missed the session you can check out the archived chat led by our Career Launch Program Associates here .
Application Period:
October 5, 2015 at 08:00 EST to October 26, 2015 at 12:00 noon EST
Interview timelines:
October 27 - December 4, 2015
In-person panel interviews:
Week of November 30, 2015
Program start date:
January 27, 2016
It's easy! Just download and fill out an application form and apply through the link below before the program deadline: October 26, 2015 at 12:00 noon EST.
Check out our essay-writing tips , interview advice , and some additional information about our selection process .
Once your application form is completed, click on 'Apply', select the city and follow the steps to upload your application.
Want to apply in multiple cities? No problem. You are welcome to apply to positions in up to three cities.


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Probabilistic Conditional Independence Structures
Conditional independence is a topic that lies between statistics and artificial intelligence. Probabilistic Conditional Independence Structures provides the mathematical description of probabilistic conditional independence structures; the author uses non-graphical methods of their description, and takes an algebraic approach.
The monograph presents the methods of structural imsets and supermodular functions, and deals with independence implication and equivalence of structural imsets. Motivation, mathematical foundations and areas of application are included, and a rough overview of graphical methods is also given. In particular, the author has been careful to use suitable terminology, and presents the work so that it will be understood by both statisticians, and by researchers in artificial intelligence. The necessary elementary mathematical notions are recalled in an appendix.
Probabilistic Conditional Independence Structures will be a valuable new addition to the literature, and will interest applied mathematicians, statisticians, informaticians, computer scientists and probabilists with an interest in artificial intelligence. The book may also interest pure mathematicians as open problems are included.
Milan Studený is a senior research worker at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.less
294 pages; ISBN 9781846280832
Read online, or download in secure PDF format
Title: Probabilistic Conditional Independence Structures
Author: Milan Studeny
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Java For Everyone 2012 US$ 52.00 831 pages
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text:
Editors' Note: CBS Interactive does not encourage or condone the illegal duplication or distribution of copyrighted content.
Publisher's Description+
Internet Download Accelerator lets you conveniently manage downloads by organizing them in categories with automatic category detection option. The option to listen to/view audio/video files as early as download starts will let you filter out unwanted content immediately. With IDA you can download and save video from popular video sharing services: YouTube, Google Video, and Metacafe. Another feature is the original Active Visual Cart technology. IDA provides a number of features: Advanced Scheduler, FTP Explorer, browse ZIP archives before downloading, plug-ins support, multilanguage interface, download entire folders via FTP. IDA integrates into all popular browsers.
What's new in this version:
Version 5.9.2 improved FTP Explorer, implemented file list parsing and fixed some minor bugs.


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This barrel shaped, glazed ceramic F&F Home vase will display your arrangements to their best advantage. In a striking red finish the vase will complement any room.
Catalogue Number: 219-3089
- Unique Size
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text:
Mother's Day Breakfast Recipes
Make Mom's morning memorable with recipes for pancakes, egg casseroles, French toast, coffee drinks and more breakfast favorites.
Recipe Spotlight
This dish is great anytime of the year, but I love serving it on holiday mornings. It's basically a hands-free recipe that helps me create a fun meal for family. —Andrea Schaak, Jordan, MinnesotaView Slow Cooker Ham & Eggs Recipe


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Downtown annex is leaking
Published: Monday, February 17, 2014 at 10:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 17, 2014 at 10:15 a.m.
The Terrebonne Courthouse Annex, 319 Roussell St., is leaking. It is home to the Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's Office and several courtrooms.
Rainwater seeps through the walls, and a fix is underway, Capital Projects Administrator Jeanne Bray said. There's no cost estimate yet.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (edition 1999)
by Haruki Murakami
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Perhaps if I had started with Murakami here, I might feel differently. Or if I had read it spaced out over more time. But instead, I read this as the last of six over the course of a year and, frankly, it was my least favorite. The things that might seem magical were irritating and I found myself wishing the book over by the halfway point. I saw glimmers of hope and of interesting moments but I much prefer Murakami when he lets his weirdness really fly - there was some strange restraint here, resulting in a book that feels like those weird muggy mornings that make you just feel like going back to bed and starting over again. His dreamy stories are better the crisper they come.
More at RB: http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2014/12/15/the-wind-up-bird-chronicle/
Toru Okada and his wife Kumiko lose their cat which is named after Kumiko's brother Norobu Wataya, a rising economist, political pundit, and, latterly, a politician. Later Toru loses Kumiko as well. Toru quits his job and spends increasing amounts of time at the bottom of a dry well, presumably hoping to lose himself also. It almost takes. But fate, it seems, has other things in store for Toru Okada, whom his young neighbour, May Kasahara, dubs Mr. Wind-up Bird. Fate has apparently been acting on lots of people over the past fifty or sixty years, all leading to Toru's attempts to find his cat and his wife, Kumiko. Eventually the cat comes back. And so does Kumiko.
On the surface it isn't a compelling tale, but Murakami adds moments of spice in the form of gratuitous extreme violence and gratuitous sex, be it physical or mental (in a Murakami novel dream sex is as good as real sex). There are also a number of exceedingly dubious forays into the nature of the self, quasi-mystical communication and healing, and fashion. And of course, in keeping with Murakami's other writing, you will encounter many references to western classical music, jazz, and pop, lots of product placement for western consumers, and, in just over 600 pages, almost no references to anything that originates in Japan.
The writing here is very flat, almost atonal. The protagonist, Toru Okada, is a near blank slate. The women characters are almost entirely reduced to their sexuality (so much so that when they cease to have sex either mentally or physically with the protagonist, they disappear from the novel altogether). On the plus side, I suppose you could say that it is a quick read. On the other hand, I feel like in a few days I won't remember anything that happened. Not recommended.
An intriguing mystery with an eclectic and fun voice. For a story that mostly took place in a dream, in a war and in a well it's scope is contained, and I wouldn't say this book is sprawling in any sense. There were quite a few moments that I thought went on too long but I admire the the lengths at which the characters would speak or listen on the subjects of seeming regularity and Murukami's nonchalance in letting them ramble.
I had heard mixed reviews about this book. It is very strange, but I think I liked it. Lots of parts made me laugh, and lots of parts made me think. I am glad that I knew going into it that there wouldn't be much resolution and lots of it wouldn't make any sense. I would consider giving the book four stars, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to most people.
Definitely 5 stars. This book was recommended to me by a newer friend who seems to have an uncanny knack for knowing which books I will simply love. "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" definitely didn't fail to disappoint.
I'm not sure what it was about this book that captivated me so (okay it was very nearly everything), but I was engrossed from the first chapter.
Not something I could recommend to just anybody, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
By the book's midway point, the novelist-juggler has tossed so many balls into the air that he inevitably misses a few on the way down. Visionary artists aren't always neat: who reads Kafka for his tight construction? In ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' Murakami has written a bold and generous book, and one that would have lost a great deal by being tidied up.
Mr. Murakami seems to have tried to write a book with the esthetic heft and vision of, say, Don DeLillo's ''Underworld'' or Salman Rushdie's ''The Moor's Last Sigh,'' he is only intermittently successful. ''Wind-Up Bird'' has some powerful scenes of antic comedy and some shattering scenes of historical power, but such moments do not add up to a satisfying, fully fashioned novel. In trying to depict a fragmented, chaotic and ultimately unknowable world, Mr. Murakami has written a fragmentary and chaotic book.
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English (2)
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0679775439, Paperback)Bad things come in threes for Toru Okada. He loses his job, his cat disappears, and then his wife fails to return from work. His search for his wife (and his cat) introduces him to a bizarre collection of characters, including two psychic sisters, a possibly unbalanced teenager, an old soldier who witnessed the massacres on the Chinese mainland at the beginning of the Second World War, and a very shady politician.
Haruki Murakami is a master of subtly disturbing prose. Mundane events throb with menace, while the bizarre is accepted without comment. Meaning always seems to be just out of reach, for the reader as well as for the characters, yet one is drawn inexorably into a mystery that may have no solution. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is an extended meditation on themes that appear throughout Murakami's earlier work. The tropes of popular culture, movies, music, detective stories, combine to create a work that explores both the surface and the hidden depths of Japanese society at the end of the 20th century.
If it were possible to isolate one theme in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, that theme would be responsibility. The atrocities committed by the Japanese army in China keep rising to the surface like a repressed memory, and Toru Okada himself is compelled by events to take responsibility for his actions and struggle with his essentially passive nature. If Toru is supposed to be a Japanese Everyman, steeped as he is in Western popular culture and ignorant of the secret history of his own nation, this novel paints a bleak picture. Like the winding up of the titular bird, Murakami slowly twists the gossamer threads of his story into something of considerable weight. --Simon Leake
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:24:47 -0400)
Having quit his job, Toru Okada is enjoying a pleasant stint as a "house husband", listening to music and arranging the dry cleaning and doing the cooking - until his cat goes missing, his wife becomes distant and begins acting strangely, and he starts meeting enigmatic people with fantastic life stories. They involve him in a world of psychics, shared dreams, out-of-body experiences, and shaman-like powers, and tell him stories from Japan's war in Manchuria, about espionage on the border with Mongolia, the battle of Nomonhan, the killing of the animals in Hsin-ching's zoo, and the fate of Japanese prisoners-of-war in the Soviet camps in Siberia.… (more)
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Kris Bryant, the 2013 WCC Player of the Year.
May 22, 2013
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - The University of San Diego baseball team had five players earn All-West Coast Conference honors, highlighted by the WCC Co-Player of the Year, Kris Bryant. Also taking home first-team honors was PJ Conlon, Connor Joe, and AJ Robinson, while Austin Green took home honorable mention honors. Conlon was also selected to the All-WCC freshman team.
Bryant, a 6-5 junior from Las Vegas, Nev., takes home his second WCC Co-Player of the Year award, as he had the same distinction as a freshman. This season, Bryant is leading the nation in home runs (30), slugging percentage (.876), runs scored (72) and is tied for the nation's lead in walks with 51. The 30 home runs is a new USD single-season record, breaking a 25-year old record of 18 held by Dave Rolls. He also surpassed the career home run record, as he currently has 53. In WCC action, Bryant hit .326 with 29 hits, four doubles, three triples, 13 RBI and 28 RBI. Overall, he hit .336 with 68 hits, 12 doubles, three triples, 30 home runs and 61 RBI.
Conlon, a 6-0 freshman from Placentia, CA, has had quite an impressive rookie campaign, posting a perfect 9-0 record, while bolstering an ERA of 1.54. Conlon became the first freshman in USD history to post a 9-0 record. Conlon has made 23 appearances with eight starts, and has moved himself into the Friday starter in the Torero rotation. In WCC play, Conlon posted a 6-0 record with a 1.28 ERA in 49.1 innings of work, including one complete game.
Joe, a 6-0 sophomore from Poway, Calif., takes home his first All-WCC first-team accolade after hitting .322 with 65 hits, 11 doubles, seven home runs and 40 RBI. In WCC action, Joe hit .301 with 28 hits, six doubles, three home runs and had 19 RBI. Joe served as USD's everyday first baseman, and started in 53 games this season.
Robinson, a 6-1 senior from Peoria, Ariz., takes home his first All-WCC first-team selection, after leading the team in hitting with a .339 batting average, while recording 56 hits, eight doubles, five triple, one home run and 27 RBI while playing right field. In WCC action, Robinson hit .397 with 27 hits, five doubles, two triples, one home run and 13 RBI.
Green, a 6-2 redshirt senior from San Diego, had a great final season as a Torero. He earned his way into the USD starting line-up as a catcher down the stretch, and he put up some impressive numbers along the way. In WCC action, Green .344 with 22 hits, six doubles, three home runs, and 19 RBI. Overall, Green hit .280 with 40 hits, 11 doubles, five home runs and 31 RBI.
The Toreros will return to action on Thursday, as they open play in the WCC Tournament at 7 p.m. against Brigham Young University in Stockton, California at Banner Island Ballpark.
LMU Preview
Pack the Stadium Night
ITA All-American's Preview
Petronijevic, Angus, & Vittek Prepare
Marist Preview
USD Looks to Extend Home Win Streak
Valparaiso Preview
Toreros First True Road Game of 2015
CSUN and UCSB Preview
Toreros Look to Extend Win Streak
Aztec Invite Recap
Both Squads Finish Second
SDSU Preview
Toreros Take on Cross-town Rival
WNMU Recap
Highlights from 45-21 win
2015 Home Opener
Previewing Western New Mexico
Volleyball Tournament Preview
A preview of the USD Tournament
Men's Soccer Season Opener
Previewing No. 16 Cal
Training Camp Update
Coach Lindsey Recaps the First Two Weeks
2015 WSOC Preview
A brief preview of the 2015 Toreros.


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Wrangler Men's Rugged Wear Relaxed Fit Jeans$22.99Wrangler is enduring American freedom; it's in the spirit of people who work hard, have fun and recognize courageous individuality. As a company, they believe in solid commitments and perseverance in the face of obstacles and challenges. Most of all, they respect themselves, each other, their western heritage and the environment in which we live.
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You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your ReverbNation experience.
Check out our player for new Live tracks just added!
Chinese Guitar and New Thing-new songs! Please enjoy our new songs. There ani't nuthn wrong with a chinese gtr as long as you rock-unless its plastic and has colored buttons. New Thing is another song for lazy people-unite!


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Let Me Explain comedian Kevin Hart and model girlfriend Eniko Parrish know how to stunt. The couple headed to tropical Fuji to celebrate their fourth anniversary. Hart and Parrish soaked up the sunny sites by way of small plane and yacht. Hart even took a brief moment to document their trip via social media. Take a look at their beautiful vacation here. – ruthie hawkins
Kevin Hart takes girlfriend Eniko to Fuji for their 4th anniversary
Aug 4, 2013 6:45 AM by Ruu Hawkins
Ruu Hawkins
I'm an acquired taste. if you don't like me, get some taste. Catch me on the 'gram @onmysteez.Follow @ruubabie


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No need to tell ICO about laptop losses, says BBC
No personal data was lost when BBC staff mislaid laptops and smartphones worth £240,000, the corporation...
This Article Covers
Risk management
No personal data was lost when BBC staff mislaid laptops and smartphones worth £240,000, the corporation has insisted.
A spokesman said, "The BBC has an automatic laptop encryption programme in place. When a BBC laptop or smartphone is lost we check if any personal data was lost, and an assessment is then made as to whether either the individuals or any authorities, including the ICO should be informed. None of the losses in question triggered any such notification."
A Freedom of Information enquiry by security software firm Absolute Software revealed that in the past two years BBC staff had lost 146 laptops, 65 mobile phones and 17 Blackberry devices worth a total £241,019.
One member of staff was investigated over the theft of a laptop but nobody was disciplined.
The BBC said 15 laptops, three mobiles and one Blackberry were recovered, reducing total losses.
Enjoy the benefits of CW+ membership, learn more and join.
Read more on IT risk management
Lancaster and Newcastle researchers tackle Met Police email challenge
InfoSec Europe 2012: A look at IT security skills in the current climate
Tim Wilson, deputy head of ICT at NHS City & Hackney, on ISO 27000 compliance
Input from the business vital to risk management in infosec, says CISO for Steria UK


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Judgment expected in Kraaifontein cop killing case
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to be set up in Africa
We win or we are out - Fourie
Marker laid down early
Why Microsoft Office has had its day
Transformation faltering as number of black SA CEOs declines - report
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Mushrooms could power your smartphone in the future
Apple Patents Smart Ring With Microphone
Stagefright 2.0: 1bn Android smartphones vulnerable to latest bug
This device runs on free electricity from the air
Property Point invites entrepreneurs to join incubation programme
Finland leads global card payments boom - study
Economic implications of the new SA visa regulations
SA's ailing national power grid needs R204bn boost
Volkswagen South Africa says cars comply with green laws
Former FNB CEO Jordaan invests in local wine startup
Metal Gear Online launches with crazy microtransaction
What went down at MGMS this weekend
You'll need this much space for Black Ops 3 and Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
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Leaked: Far Cry Primal - Survival is Timeless
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Best Public Braai Spots in the Western Cape
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LISTEN: Drake's new song with Beyoncé
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Nicole Kidman tells Lee Daniels she wants to be in Empire
The hydrogen BMW i8 is pure evil
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Pickled ox tongue with sweet mustard sauce
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These jeans will save your life


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3 bedroom detached house for sale Primrose Place, Durrington, SALISBURYThis BRIGHT and SPACIOUS THREE BEDROOM DETACHED family home is in IMMACULATE CONDITION and comprises KITCHEN/DINER, living room, downstairs cloakroom, family bathroom, MASTER EN-SUITE, LARGE ENCLOSED REAR GARDEN, GARAGE and DRIVEWAY PARKING. More details ›
3 bedroom detached house for sale Marina Road, Durrington, SalisburyWe are holding an open house event on this property on Saturday 3rd October between 10am - 12 noon. Please call us on 01980 624155 to book an appointment to view. More details ›
3 bedroom semi-detached house for sale Avondown Road, Salisbury, SP4 8ETThis very well presented semi-detached family home is available with NO ONWARD CHAIN. Extended to the front, allowing for the SUPERB KITCHEN/BREAKFAST ROOM and boasting THREE DOUBLE BEDROOMS. Planning permission has been granted for a downstairs Utility /cloakroom. Set in the sought after villa... More details ›
Added on 02/10/2015 by Purplebricks.com, National. Call: 01702 744147 Local call rate
2 bedroom detached bungalow for sale Marina Close, Durrington, SP4A two bedroom detached bungalow situated in a very popular area within the sought after village of Durrington. Viewing recommended with no onward chain. More details ›
2 bedroom end of terrace house for sale Avondown Road, Durrington, SalisburyAn IMMACULATELY presented TWO BEDROOM end terrace house. Situated in the POPULAR VILLAGE of Durrington, this lovely home MUST BE VIEWED to be fully appreciated. Having been recently MODERNISED throughout this home benefits from a LARGE lounge, CONSERVATORY, DRIVEWAY PARKING and a GARAGE. More details ›
3 bedroom end of terrace house for sale Coronation Road, Durrington, SalisburyA spacious THREE BEDROOM END TERRACE house benefiting from a LIVING/DINING ROOM, KITCHEN, downstairs cloakroom, family bathroom, SOUTH FACING GARDEN, outbuilding and OFF ROAD PARKING. NO ONWARD CHAIN. More details ›
3 bedroom terraced house for sale Larkhill Road, SP4An older style terraced house offering well arranged accommodation to include dual aspect sitting room, kitchen/breakfast room, bathroom with separate W.C., and three bedrooms, parking and good size rear garden. Viewing essential. More details ›
1 bedroom ground floor flat for sale Bulford Road, Durrington, SalisburyATTENTION INVESTORS! A ONE BEDROOM GROUND FLOOR FLAT located within the popular village of DURRINGTON with TENANT IN SITU. The property comprises EAT IN KITCHEN, living room. DOUBLE BEDROOM, family bathroom, COMMUNAL GARDEN, GARAGE and OFF ROAD PARKING. More details ›
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Seaspan Corporation announced today that it accepted delivery of a 14000 TEU containership, the YM Warmth. The new containership, which was constructed at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.
The recently introduced Wärtsilä 31 engine, which has been acknowledged by Guinness World Records as being the world's most efficient four-stroke diesel engine,
IMTRA today released its Omega LED lights. Designed specifically for recessed lighting applications in large yachts, the DC-powered Omega LED lights feature a high-quality,


text:
Branding Iron Inn
No prices found through our partners. Please contact the business directly or check some of our recommended alternatives.
TripAdvisor Reviews Branding Iron Inn Dubois
Travel Blogs from Dubois
Welcome to Bear Country
We arrived today at Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). We will stay just outside of the park in an amazing little camping cabin that just happens to be open by luck...does this all sound familiar?
Lava Mountain Lodge has tent spots right out side of park so we check it out. Tent camping was $18 but they happen to have a grizzly cabin with a heater, bunks, and a ...
Day 3
... them Goldilocks, Oreo, Tank(Because he was so muscular) and Mischief. We took a walk through Dubois and stopped by a drugstore that had ice cream, my mom bought us some. My mom told us if we found change it was free game for the game room. Maeve and I played a game of pool and I ...
Guess What Animal I Am
... trip has given our family!
A huge statue of an elk greeted us at the Dubois KOA. Better then that though was finding 6 horses living just steps away from our campsite. The owners kept their horses in a barn at the campground and told us the kids were welcome to visit and feed the horses. The kids could hardly wait to get over to the barn and spent hours talking and petting them and feeding them ...
D24: To Use the Toilet or Not?...and The Star
... appeared to be broken. Though, we didn't find everything as quick as we could have and completely missed the need to immobilize the head until Annemarie came over and hinted about it. Oops :). By the time we finished, it was completely dark and our headlamps were the sole source of illumination in the burned valley.
It ended up being a tough scenario for everyone, but the instructors said afterwards that we all took it as seriously as it needed to be taken ...
D22: 8 Miles & The Shoshone Plateau
... people in this world ever get to view. What a wild and crazy adventure, with just a few days remaining. Something about the soft pitter patter of rain against the forest floor as dusk quietly approaches...it always brings me to a place of quiet introspection, lost in thoughts of life and the important things and what's to come. Good things to ponder.
The lightning and rain dissipated after about 15 minutes, and dessert was a raging success. ...
Other places to stay in Dubois
Copthorne Hotel Cardiff CaerdyddCopthorne Way, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff | 4 star hotel
- Not quite what is was
- Average
- A pleasant stay


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Town Square
Class breaks down college barriers
Original post made on Jan 5, 2011
Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, January 5, 2011, 9:51 AM
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a resident of Monta Loma
on Jan 5, 2011 at 2:29 pm
This should be a program filled with hope and future heartwarming stories. Anything that promotes education to an at-risk population is AOK with me. But who's paying for it? I thought there was no extra money for programs like this. Good luck to everyone involved.
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The Slow Life and Fast Death of DJ Screw
He was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas—a generous godfather to a generation of rappers, an entrepreneur of Houston's mean streets, the master of a scene fueled by codeine cough syrup and hip-hop beats.
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At the deejay's funeral in Smithville, they sang gospel songs. Most of the singing came from his family and the older folks, dressed in their Sunday best and sitting in the center of the packed church, one of those small, tidy, weathered white buildings you see in the country. Jammed along the walls and in the corners was a much larger crowd of younger people wearing leather jackets, gold chains, new basketball shoes, and extra-large T-shirts. Some had tattoos on their legs, forearms, and necks. They didn't sing along much with the hymns. Most of them, I thought as I watched them shyly look for places to squeeze into, had never been to Smithville before; they probably didn't spend much time in church either. Next to the deejay's gunmetal-gray coffin at Mount Pilgrim church was a large sign that looked remarkably like a giant $1 million bill, with a picture of the deceased in the center.
A dozen people got up and spoke. Members of his family, who called him Robert Earl, talked about his childhood in Smithville. Some of them talked about the name by which several million people knew him as an adult. "I was one of the first people he told he was going to be named DJ Screw," said his first cousin Donald Davis. "I said, 'DJ Screw, what kind of a name is that?' But he made it, and I was so proud of him." The deejay's rap- music buddies from Houston, where he died, spoke too. "He gave me a skill when I didn't have one," said DJ Chill. Another, named Mike D, said, "I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for DJ Screw. He put a lot of life, a lot of spark into a lot of people's lives."
You may never have heard of him, but Robert Earl Davis, Jr.—a.k.a. DJ Screw—was one of the most influential musical figures to come out of Texas in the past decade. He wasn't a musician or even a rapper; he was a guy behind the turntables mixing other people's music and raps together. He built his career on a strange, brilliant idea: slow down the music, like taking a 45 record and playing it at 33 rpm. Then he put it on tape and sold it. His tapes became an underground sensation, so popular that people would drive hundreds of miles to his Houston home to buy them. No one knows how many tapes he recorded in his short life—probably more than a thousand—or how many copies are out there. Probably millions. They were dubbed endlessly and passed around neighborhoods and schools like keys to a secret underworld. And the rappers on the tapes, whom Screw had nurtured in his little studio, eventually became famous in their own right. He was a mysterious outlaw hero: artist, entrepreneur, and benevolent godfather in the most vital music scene in Texas.
In truth, this isn't just Screw's story. It's also that of the gritty urban subculture around him, one in which young black men struggle daily with the pathologies of drugs and violence. But here on the south side of Houston, you'll also find astonishing creativity, powerful dreams, and an unrelenting capitalistic spirit that fits right in with the city's long wildcatting tradition. Screw, more than anyone, set the tone you'll hear these days in H-town.
Still and all, he's dead. Screw's story, like that of so many brilliant modern music pioneers, from Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain and Tupac Shakur, ended badly and early. While Screw was slowing down the music, he was slowing himself down with various substances, especially codeine. It finally killed him, on November 16, 2000, at the age of 29. The New York Times noted his significance in a lengthy obituary, but here in Smithville they didn't need to be told. "This guy was a giant," said Screw's cousin Bobby Jerman at Mount Pilgrim church. "All over Houston you hear folks bangin' that music—bangin' that Screw. Even when I come to Smithville, I hear it—boom pa, boom pa, boom pa, boom. That was Screw—bangin' that Screw." As I left the church, walking past the clutter of cars and mourners, I passed some kids who didn't get in, bangin' that Screw through the open doors of a Delta 88. It was loud and slow and sounded like the deck was eating the tape. A couple of cars down, another young man opened his car door and started blasting a Screw tape too. It seemed, on this bright Saturday morning, entirely at odds with the regular-speed world of the grieving. They were outsiders, defiantly doing it on their own, just like Screw.
The fact that i'm a 43-year-old white guy doesn't keep me from liking rap. Just the opposite. Like all my favorite modern pop music, rap is all about rhyme, rhythm, and riff—the playfulness of words, the violence of sounds. Rap is impish like Snoop Dogg, harsh like Ice Cube, smart like De La Soul, stoopid like Eminem, yearning like Tupac, ironic like the Beastie Boys. Rap is the aural equivalent of a series of perfect fast breaks—street poetry in motion, the rhythm of aggression, the inevitable pounding of beat and image, dance and sex.This most certainly is not what DJ Screw's music is all about. Screw became famous for derailing these flights of beat fancy. Listening to Screw music is like being in a fever dream. At first it sounds like something is wrong—like the tape will be spitting out of the deck at any second or maybe the batteries are so low the machine is about to die. Everything seems to be dying—voice, beat, scratches, melodies. It's like a retreat into a whole new world.
When I first heard a Screw tape, I just didn't get it. These days, as rap music is shooting to new heights of sophistication, Screw sounded like an annoying gimmick. I found it hard to make it through a song, much less a whole tape. I wasn't alone. Houston rapper Mike D told me about driving around with some friends who were not from Houston and playing them Screw tapes. His friends hated it, even though they were fans of rap music. "They said, 'We can't listen to that.'" Mike D told them that they had to get high to get the full effect of the experience. They demurred. "They said, 'You people here drink cough syrup, you smoke weed, and you listen to slow music. You are crazy.'"
Mike D laughed hard at the memory, as did the handful of other rappers sitting around the room at a music distributor in Houston called Southwest Wholesale Records and Tapes. We had gathered in December, a few weeks after Screw's death, to talk about his life and the Houston rap music industry he had helped define. Here, besides Mike D, were rappers known as Hawk, Lil-O, Clay-Doe, and 3-2. They are all part of the Screwed Up Click (SUC), a kind of Wild Bunch of the Houston rap scene, some two dozen rappers who are at the top of the local game (others include Big Pokey, Lil' Keke, Big Moe, and Lil' Flip; there is no glory in being medium), all of whom owe their success to Screw. On that day, Hawk was wearing a shirt that read "He Made Me Who I Am Today: DJ Screw."
Southwest Wholesale is one of the biggest one-stop distributors of rap music in the country. It's also something of a clubhouse for Houston rappers. They release their new albums here, and the giant warehouse is always abuzz with activity, like the local hip-hop scene itself. What makes H-town rap singular is not how many superstars it has—with the exception of Scarface and South Park Mexican, few Houston rappers are known outside of the South—but how homegrown it is. More than three hundred rap albums were released here last year, including several featuring Hawk, Lil-O, Clay-Doe, Mike D, and 3-2, and the musicians enjoy huge local support. There are studios, mastering plants, design companies, CD and tape manufacturers, viable labels, fanzines, distributors, and promo companies. There's a radio station—97.9 FM, the Boxx—that plays a lot of local rap. And there's a club circuit with supportive fans that extends from Houston through the South, from Austin to Atlanta. Indeed, Houston is a focal point of the Down South, or Southern rap scene, and local rappers are huge in cities like Little Rock and New Orleans.
The biggest proof of Houston's success is in album sales. In Houston a modest success for a local rap artist is selling 19,000 albums, which can put $150,000 in a young man's pocket. A big success, like last year's CD by Big Moe, City of Syrup, is selling 100,000. Overall, more than a million albums were sold by Houston rap artists in 2000, according to Greg Ellis, a project manager at Southwest Wholesale, and most of those were by members of the SUC, guys who got their start rapping at Screw's house.
Ellis compares the Houston scene to the punk rock revolution of the late seventies, when everybody, it seemed, was starting bands. "The cultural difference is that in Houston, it's not bad to make money," he says. "The goal is not to lose your middle-classness but to achieve it." Although there is plenty of rapping about street violence, guns, and the like, most of the songs concern the vagaries of leisure: ballin' (partying), being a player (one who excels at partying), making money, and hanging out with your buddies in H-town. They rap in detail about the outrageously colorful, candy-coated slabs (cars) with screens (TVs) mounted on the visors, twenty-inch blades (wheels), and wood (wood-grained steering wheels). They sing about swangin' and bangin' (slowly and artfully swerving while cruising and listening to music) and taking drugs, which include marijuana (sometimes dipped in formaldehyde and PCP and called "wet" or "fry") and, especially, codeine cough syrup, which is usually mixed with soda pop or lemonade and poured over ice into a large Styrofoam cup. It's also called lean, because when you drink enough of it you begin to, well, lean. There's a lot of leaning going on in Houston these days. The cover of City of Syrup shows Big Moe pouring a purple drink from a Styrofoam cup over the Houston skyline. "Po' it up," Big Moe sings, "let your mind be free."
And they rap about Screw. In rapper ESG's huge hit, "Swangin' and Bangin'," he sings, "And now you know what my real G's do: sip syrup, swang and bang, jam nothing but that Screw, fool." In Houston they admire Screw because of his mind-boggling success and influence. Nothing has had more effect on what the kids say, wear, drive, and ingest than those Screw tapes. They love him for doing something so obvious, slowing music down, and turning it into an art form. And for taking them along for the ride.
A couple of weeks after Screw's funeral, I returned to Smithville, drove past the railroad tracks and the cemetery, down Hel Kat Lane and then Cemetery Road, and into the rutted passways of the Countryside Mobile Home Park, looking for Ida M. Deary Davis, a.k.a. Mama Screw. This is not, I thought, the Smithville of Hope Floats. The route I took was the same one Screw used to take, though he used to announce his arrival, in his bright blue Impala Super Sport with fifteen-inch blades, five screens, and a monster stereo system, in a different fashion. "When he'd get to the corner down there," Davis told me, "I'd hear that car stereo. He'd turn it up and I'd say, 'Here comes Screw.'" She smiled at the memory, sitting in the living room of the trailer she shares with her longtime companion, Jack Thompson. On the walls, scattered among photos of her grandchildren, are posters from her son's handful of CDs— several featuring a skull with a screw through its head.Robert Earl Davis, Jr., was born July 20, 1971, in Bastrop, not far from Smithville. His father, Robert Senior, was a long-haul truck driver based in Houston. His mother (who had a young daughter from a previous marriage), came to the area to be with her mother when her son was born. She returned to Houston, but the marriage was foundering; soon it would be over, and she and her kids moved to Los Angeles for a couple of years, then back to Houston, and returned to Smithville in 1980.
When Robert Earl was young, he wanted to be a truck driver like his father. That changed the more he heard his mother's music collection. The boy's life was changed forever by two things: seeing Breakin', the 1984 hit movie about rap and break dancing, and discovering his mother's turntable. He would take her B.B. King and Johnnie Taylor records and "scratch" them on the turntable the way deejays did, slowing the spinning disc and then allowing it to speed back up, playing with sound. Robert Earl began buying records of his own and playing deejay with his distant cousin Trey Adkins, who would rap. "Screw had a jam box," Adkins told me, "and he hooked up two turntables to it and made a fader out of the radio tuner so he could deejay." Adkins said if Robert Earl didn't like a record, he would deface it with a screw. One day Adkins asked him, "Who do you think you are, DJ Screw?" Robert Earl liked the sound of that and in turn gave his cousin a new name: Shorty Mac.
The boys rode bikes and played video games. Screw was obsessed with a game called Galaga and could play it so well that he could make the score counter go all the way back to zero. He was a decent student but never excelled at school. "All he had was music in his head," said Davis. In addition to a love for music, Screw picked up something else from her. To support her income (she The Slow Lifehad three jobs as a cleaning lady), she became something of an independent businesswoman. "I'd make tapes from my records," she remembered. "Not many, but people would come by and buy them. He would stand there and watch me."One day Robert Earl Davis, Sr., came and got his son and took him to Houston. That, as it turned out, was probably for the best. There were no jobs for black teenagers in Smithville, and Screw needed an urban environment to perfect his urban art form. He went right to work on it. "When I'd leave home," his father told me, "I wouldn't worry about him being on the street. I knew he'd be up in his room playing his music." Robert Senior was driving for a chemical company and went all over Texas and Louisiana, and during that time father and son lived in a hard-edged black working-class neighborhood near Hobby Airport. Screw dropped out of Sterling High School when he was a sophomore. All the low-key teen cared about was music, he told his skeptical father, and he was going to make it big one day.
At seventeen Screw got his first job as a deejay, at Almeda Skating Rink on the south side. Soon he would be working at clubs like Boomerang, where he refined his turntablism—juggling the beats of two different records, scratching, repeating phrases, improvising, watching the dancers' reactions to certain songs, riffs, and rappers. Screw liked West Coast gangsta rappers like Compton's Most Wanted and Ice Cube. He was always working the turntables at home, studying the techniques of New York deejays and making mix tapes—compilations on which he would string together rap songs, scratches, and various beats—for friends from albums in his huge record collection. One day in 1989, he was mixing in his apartment with some friends. They were drinking and smoking marijuana and, according to Charles Washington, who would become Screw's first manager, Screw accidentally hit the turntable's pitch button, slowing everything down. Screw liked the way it sounded, though he was incredulous when one of his friends offered him $10 to record a slowed-down mix tape. "Screw thought the guy was crazy," said Washington. But he did it, and the next day Screw's friend came back with a couple of friends, who also wanted slowed-down tapes.
For the teenager, it was the beginning of a whole new career. Sometimes on his tapes Screw would get on the mike and call out the names of Houston neighborhoods over the music; then he'd slow the whole thing down and sell the tape or just give it away. Eventually Screw started letting friends and friends of friends rap, or "flow," over the beats. They would bring a list of songs with beats they wanted to rap to; Screw would add his own records. "He'd see what you wanted to flow off of," Shorty Mac told me, "and then find a beat. Whatever mood you were feeling, he'd jump on that with his scratches and beats." Screw had two turntables and would use his right hand to scratch and his left to run the volume crossfader between the two, fast, like a joystick, though he could scratch with both hands at the same time, and even his knees, Houston rapper Al-D told me.
But Screw also had the ear. He knew what beats to use and which would sound good when slowed down later, when to scratch and when to flow. Screw was always in control of the session, directing and coaxing his rappers like a conductor. "He was a true artist," said Russell Washington of BigTyme Recordz (no relation to Charles Washington). "He cared about the minutest of details. The scratches had to be just right. He told me that every song on that tape told a story." Once he had his bass-heavy mixes finished, he would slow the tape down and record it onto a master cassette. He would then dupe copies onto one-hundred-minute Maxell chrome tapes—called grays—which he would buy in bulk from Sams Club. Every tape had a name, like South Side Still Holding or Syrup and Soda. At first Screw would write them by hand on the label, along with his pager number. There was no cover art, no track listings. As he started selling more and more tapes, he began getting the labels printed. And the pager stopped answering.
Everybody wanted Screw tapes. One reason was that you could understand the words, and the rappers Screw chose were all good with words. Another was that Screw picked great songs, usually West Coast gangsta raps that he liked and not whatever was a hit. Plus, he was a homeboy, from their very own south side. Maybe best of all, Screw had found a way to slow down time—he had found another world. So many people were coming to his apartment to buy tapes that the building manager thought he was a drug dealer. The police kicked in his door a couple of times looking for drugs. He moved to a home near Gulfgate Mall and fans followed, knocking on his door at all hours.
Something had to be done, so Screw set a time to sell: from eight to ten in the evening. Cars would start lining up down the block, bringing hundreds of fans, some from as far away as Dallas, who would crowd into the front yard. At around eight, Screw, who stood five feet seven inches tall, would open the security gate to his driveway, and the fans would line up at his back door. Accompanied by a .45 pistol and a dog (and later by his girlfriend Nikki and friends in the SUC), Screw would stand there and sell grays and chat with fans, some of whom were in such awe they couldn't speak. Then they would drive off, pop the new tape into their decks, and listen to what the SUC was rapping about: their clothes, the latest slang, the new toys they had found to put in their cars. But it wasn't all just about the material world. "Screw would speak to you through the turntable," longtime fan Tosin, who used to sell Screw CDs from his Web site, told me. "Say one of his friends died. He'd play certain songs with an RIP feel, keep doing it over and over, chopping words to make a point. It's like he knew what you were going through by the way he was playing." Patrick Lewis, head of Jam Down Entertainment, told me he thinks Screw's music had a lot to do with the decrease in Houston gang violence in the mid-nineties. "He was all about slowing down, chilling out, smoking a little weed. No more hating. Screw became a part of life."
For a rapper, or anyone with visions of rapping, performing on a Screw tape was like getting asked into the Game. "That was everybody's dream—to be on a Screw tape," said Lil-O. Girls were more likely to notice you, for one thing. Maybe more important, your songs were getting heard on the street, eventually leading, as it almost always did, to a record deal. Screw and his tapes became a kind of underground radio station. "When Screw had it," fan Mike "Doc" Green told me, "he was going to break it in the South—Memphis, New Orleans, Lafayette, Oklahoma." C-Note of the Botany Boys, who had never released anything before, remembered people on the streets coming up to him and quoting his raps from a Screw tape. Besides being a launching pad to fame, Screw's home studio was a place to hang out. And it was a lab for aspiring artists. "We were all growing, feeling ourselves out," said Hawk. C-Note told me, "Without Screw, I'd probably be on the streets or in jail or dead." Instead, he became a local hero. "We was trendsetters."Screw, the underground hero, actually came to the surface in 1995 to do his first legit release, All Screwed Up, on BigTyme, but he was clearly more comfortable down below. The problem was, he couldn't always control things down there. Screw lived by the bootleg (his mix tapes were, legally, unauthorized uses of other artists' material), but he also suffered from them. Anyone in Houston could make copies of his tapes, slap on a label, and sell them on the street at a huge profit. And they did. Sometimes bootleggers used cheap tapes and put Maxell labels on them, often getting the titles wrong. Others would make their own mix tapes, slow them down, put Screw's name on them, and sell them at flea markets. As home CD-making technology became affordable, some began making digital versions of Screw tapes.
Screw had achieved true fame, some of it spread by the bootleggers: His name had become a verb and an adjective. To "screw" a tape meant to slow it down, and a "screwed" tape was one that had been slowed. His business-savvy friends tried to get him to protect his name and consolidate his operation—set up a distribution system, get on the Internet, join the modern world. Finally, in January 1998 Screw stopped selling from his house and opened his own store, Screwed Up Records and Tapes, on Cullen. It wasn't your typical music store. There were no CDs, records, or tapes in the main room, no listening stations or magazines. Just Screw tapes (which by now were clear-plastic cassettes, or "clears") sold from behind bulletproof glass.
But the store was a minor fix. Nothing could deter the pirates, who were selling mass quantities on the Internet and directly to the stores, some making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Screw would complain, "If you want the real, all you gotta do is call the shop." But the deejay, who was expert at scratching and mixing records and motivating teenagers, knew little of business and was never angry enough to do anything about it. He still expected people to drive for hours and line up for him. Some record stores became pirates themselves, duping and selling their own Screw CDs and cassettes. James Cooper of Musicmania in Austin, one of the biggest rap stores in Texas, tired of asking Screw for product and began buying from bootleggers. "People would say to me, 'You're screwing Screw.' Well, I'd told him I'd buy from him. He wasn't interested in being a businessman. He could never get it together. He could have made a fortune."
True, but Screw was stubborn and, for all his complaining, happy with his life. He certainly made plenty of money—no one knows how much, but it was surely more than a million (Tosin estimates that Screw could take in $3,000 on a good night of tape sales). Screw was a traditionalist: a diligent analog guy in a digital world, a deejay who worked with vinyl when others had graduated to computers, a believer in cassettes when others had left them behind. He took his time with projects, working long and hard, sometimes two or three days straight. Russell Washington told me Screw took almost a year to make 3 'N the Morning, Part Two, his second legit release. As it was in his music, time was irrelevant in Screw's life. "With Screw," rap producer TJ Watford said, "your days turned into nights and your nights turned into days." Screw dressed for work in comfortable Dickies pants and Fubu ("For Us By Us") shirts, and he would wear his shoes until his feet came out of the sides.
He didn't care about his shoes. He cared about the music. And keeping the rappers, his friends, happy. "He'd give you the shirt off his back," Hawk said. "As our careers were blossoming, he never wanted any credit." He was generous in other ways too. "He had guys calling him from prison," remembered his mother. "He would send them money. I'd say something to him and he'd say, 'Mom, they just want to talk.' He never said no to nobody." Wannabe rappers would approach him on the street and start rapping at him. Screw would listen, no matter how awful they were, and sometimes give them his phone number. But like any artist, he also had his eccentricities. Screw didn't like banks, and he had to be persuaded to open an account. He was the kind of guy, said his former manager, Charles Washington, who would have buried a bunch of money somewhere. Screw paid for everything in cash, trafficking in $100 bills.
In spite of his unique business practices, in 1998 Screw was at the top of the Houston heap. That year he released about one hundred tapes, as well as All Work No Play on Jam Down Entertainment. Screw worked steadily on other projects—deejaying at shows with SUC members and doing an album, Screwed for Life, with rappers Hawk, Fat Pat, and Kay-K under the name DEA. "People been listening to my shit so long they're all screwed up," Screw boasted in an interview. "When they listen to the radio at regular speed, it sounds like the Chipmunks to them."Screw himself was getting pretty screwed up too. BigTyme's Washington last saw his friend in 1999. "He didn't look the same as he had a year or two earlier," he told me. Codeine was taking its toll. "Screw was really a small person, but the drug made him bigger." More accurately, it was his lifestyle: the long hours sitting in the studio, the fried chicken Screw loved (Popeye's, Church's, and his favorite, Hartz Chicken in Missouri City), and the lethargic, slowed-down world of codeine cough syrup that had caused his body to balloon to more than two hundred pounds.
It's hard to say how the drug abuse influenced Screw's work, but in 1999 he put out only a dozen tapes, and they weren't as adventurous as they used to be, in Tosin's opinion. There was less freestyling, Screw didn't play with the turntables much, and he was using the same songs on many of the tapes. Washington thinks maybe Screw was losing interest in the tapes or maybe just in being an underground hero. "I heard he was going to stop making them completely," he told me. In 2000 Screw released only eight tapes. Other deejays, like Michael 5000 Watts and others at the north side label Swisha House, were picking up the slack, feeding the growing market for slowed-down rap. Screw kept himself busy with other projects. Last May he opened a second record store, in Beaumont. His goal, he said, was to have one in every city in the country. In October Screw moved his studio to a large warehouse. He planned to expand it, open a front office for his label (including a room for taking Internet orders), and set up a room where his rappers could write. Finally, it seemed, Screw was taking care of business.
But drugs, it seemed, were taking care of Screw. Only two months earlier, rap producer TJ Watford and University of Texas film student Ariel Santschi had shot an interview with Screw for a documentary they were making on his life called Soldiers United for Cash. Watford was shocked when he saw the deejay, who had been up for three days recording and looked awful. "Screw didn't seem to have any direction," Watford said. "He was talking in circles. I thought I saw a dead man walking." In video from the interview, Screw is smoking cigarettes that appear damp, as though they have been dipped in something.
On October 28 the filmmakers returned for another interview and were shocked again, this time pleasantly. Watford no longer feared that Screw was about to overdose. "He seemed so much more alive," he said. Indeed, when I saw the footage, Screw didn't seem like a man on the brink of death. He looked good, younger than his 29 years. He was overweight, about 215 pounds, with a round face, short hair, a mustache, and a flat crop of hair on his chin. He had a big ring on his right pinkie (for being voted best deejay in the South in a 1999 contest) and a big round medallion around his neck with "Screwed Up Click" on the curves and "DJ" in the center. He looked straight into the camera and spoke softly, confidently. "Wassup, TV world?" he began in his comfortable drawl. "Most of y'all don't know me. I been in your tape deck for years, know what I'm saying? My name is DJ Screw, know what I'm saying?"
Two and a half weeks later he was dead on the floor of a toilet stall at his studio, an ice cream wrapper clutched in his hand. The news threw young people all over Houston into despair. "I had to leave work," the rapper Duke told me. "I couldn't take it. He was like a brother to me." At the wake and the memorial service in Houston and then the funeral in Smithville, speakers praised Screw's generosity and work ethic. They spoke of his heart troubles, and they criticized the media for mentioning drugs as the probable cause of death. "The newspapers in the city of Houston were not fair to a great young man," said his cousin Bobby Jerman at the funeral. "Screw did die of a stressful heart attack." I wanted to believe it, as did everyone else. That's what funerals are all about.
The autopsy report, released in January, confirmed what Screw's close friends already suspected: He died of a "codeine overdose with mixed drug intoxication." He had "toxic levels" of codeine—an opiate, like heroin—in his blood, as well as Valium and PCP. Like many users, Screw would blend drugs to enhance the high. There was no mention of heart disease, though he did have an enlarged heart. Yes, Screw did drugs (according to one old friend, he had sipped syrup every day for the past decade); he was also, in his cousin's words, a great young man. If the history of popular music shows us anything, it's that the two are not irreconcilable.
Of course, music and drugs have always gone together, from jazz and heroin to psychedelic rock and LSD to raves and Ecstasy. I know that a beer makes a song by .38 Special go by easier. Music is a dream, especially under the influence of certain drugs. And it was clear to me that I needed help understanding this Screw music. I needed syrup.So, like Joe Friday going underground to understand the hippies and their weird music, I got the hookup (never mind how). I measured two ounces of the mediciney purple codeine cough syrup into a baby bottle, as I had been shown by a devotee of the craft, and then poured that into a bottle of Big Red, slowly down the sides so the carbonated soda pop wouldn't fizz up. I capped and shook it for thirty seconds, slowly unscrewed the top, and sucked off as much of the escaping carbonation as I could. It was, I was assured, part of the ritual. Then I poured the foamy red potion over ice into a Styrofoam cup. I sipped. It tasted sweet, with a kind of metallic edge. I sipped some more. Then I pulled out June 27th, the unofficial anthem of the south side, and popped it into my tape deck.
It began the way all Screw tapes did: his slurring introduction, the dragging beat, the familiar keyboard melody buzzing like a dying gnat. Then, as I sipped my syrup, something happened. Like a shift in the afternoon light, the bass got deeper and the keyboards began ringing like bells. I wasn't thinking about the music; I was feeling it. Everything made sense. I wasn't impatient at all, and the tape was over before I knew it. Next (by this point my cocktail was long gone) I listened to 3 'N the Morning, Part Two. Nothing seemed slow; everything was, for the lack of a better word, mellow. Then, since I have a tape player with pitch control, I screwed some other tapes. Van Morrison sounded great and Lucinda Williams awful. Willie Nelson's "Night Life" was transcendent, an entirely new song. Then, all of a sudden, I got very sleepy.
When I had asked the rappers Mike D, Hawk, Lil-O, 3-2, and Clay-Doe how important syrup and weed are to screw music, there had been a pause. "You want the truth?" asked Mike D. "Yes," I replied, knowing what was coming. "It's everything," he answered, and the room erupted in laughter. "With syrup it sounds so right," said one of the others. "You right on time," said Mike D, to more laughter.
Not everybody agreed, though, about the importance of being screwed up. "I like Screw music, and I don't smoke or drink," Russell Washington told me. "I don't like everything that's screwed. But some songs you hear screwed and it just feels better. Especially if it's something you like." Web site owner and fan Tosin said, "Screw music isn't about doing drugs, but a lot of people smoke or sip syrup and that adds to it. Me, I clean up the house listening to Screw." Screw was of two minds on the subject. In the liner notes of 3 'N the Morning, he wrote instructions for listening: "Get with your click and go to that other level by sippin' syrup, gin, etc., smoke chronic indo, cess, bud, or whatever gets you to that other level." But in that late October interview he said, "People think just to listen to my tapes you gotta be high or dranked out . . . That ain't true. There's kids getting my tapes, moms and dads getting my tapes, don't smoke or drink or nothing."
Screw did, and Washington, his former manager and a recovering crack addict, admitted what Screw's family couldn't: "His lifestyle killed him. Syrup, pills. He probably needed help but didn't know where to turn." The truth is, Screw was surrounded by others living the same life he was, one that he himself had put to music. What might have seemed troubling to normal folks—from his obesity to the tape buyers, high on codeine, crashing into the fence around his house—would not have seemed out of the ordinary or dangerous to the king of the underground. He had created this scene. What could possibly hurt him?
Over at Screwed Up Records and Tapes, the slow life goes on. In January I walked in and stood in front of the dry-eraser board that showed the titles of about 125 Screw tapes. His music throbbed off the walls. I got in line and ordered South Side Still Holding from the man behind the bulletproof glass, who turned out to be Shorty Mac, who has been running the store since Screw's death. He told me the label is going to keep releasing old tapes as well as eight to ten new ones Screw had made before he died—mostly mixes with only a little rapping. The store has recently started putting tapes on CD, in plain plastic cases with no track listings. They're also finally selling them on the Internet (screweduprecords.com).Screw's family is also trying to get his affairs in order, but they're running into the kinds of problems that often accompany a dead rich man, from the woman claiming to have had Screw's baby to squabbling about his store, equipment, and money. Screw was never much of a businessman, and now his two long-divorced parents, neither of whom have had much experience in the business or music worlds, have to deal with the chaos he left behind. Some wonder what became of all the cash Screw kept around. His father told me there is a safe-deposit box, but because of a court order, no one has seen what's inside. His mother just wants to get his jewelry back from one of Screw's cousins. Whatever happens, it's clear that some kind of business plan needs to be made in Screw's world. There are at least 135 master tapes, as well as twenty shoe boxes full of other tapes, some of them unreleased—a potential gold mine. And hundreds of bootleggers, making millions off Screw's good name, to be fought.
It should be obvious by now that screwed music is no gimmick. It is so popular in Houston now—among blacks as well as Latinos and white kids—that every local label releases two versions of every rap CD: a regular and a screwed version. If the label doesn't screw it, someone else will. C-Note had an apt analogy for Screw's influence: "You can't tell everybody to stop using computers," he said. "It's not gonna happen. Well, screwed music is like computers."
One of the things that stuck in my head from Watford and Santschi's documentary was Screw's simple advice that seemed to sum up his career: "Always be yourself. Don't try to be like the next man, know what I'm saying? Be you." Sometimes people need help finding their own voices, especially on the south side of Houston. In February I went to a late-night recording session at a small studio on Telephone Road. It was Al-D's night, but Shorty Mac, a rapper named Trey, and a young woman were all there to rap with him. As producer Watford recorded the beats, the four sat hunched over spiral notebooks silently writing their raps, slapping the air with the cadence of their thoughts, sounding the words that would soon be rushing from their mouths.


text:
Guys... be carefull !!!
From 3rd August 2012 onwards, some old Fraudsters, previously operating through different names such as, GWEN ELECTRONICS, Habel Electricals Inc etc... are back again, this time operating under the name of "Graz E-Books and Data Conversion Technology" & "Graz Technology Inc"
I was contact by the same guy Edsel, this time posing as an HR Manager for Graz Technology. His details are as following
Edsel G. Clay
HR Manager
Graz E-Books and Data Conversion Technology
Tharandter Str. 431DE, 03387
Dresden, Germany
If any of you check their domain "Grazdata.com" on whois.com they would find the dates of registration that it is 3rd August 2012 and on the very next day they have emailed million of ppl around the world, including me with the email of JOB Offer... rest of the story remains the same... same blah blah blah... Data Entry home based job and shit.
Just wanted to warn you all so that non of you can fall victims to fraud.
The email that was send to me is given below (all though i never applied for any such job)...
Dear Applicant
regarding your CV, we are again opening the new Data Typing work year 2012,
at Graz E-Books Conversion and Data Technology,
our post offer are open as "Customer Data Typing part time",
To know more about us visit: http://www.Grazdata.com
This offer will be Valid after review of your application form and CV,
(all package details included with application form)
Last date is 07 August 2012 to submit application form and CV,
If interested please submit application form with CV by Email,
(Click to download application form by visit our website and download
directly to Employment Page) All job details are included in Application form,
Or Click here to Download:
(Copy paste above link If click does not work)
Submit CV and Application only to Email: email@example.com
(Note: To avoid Disappointments submit form and CV as soon as possible)
(Add email@example.com in your Address book to get our email safely in your Inbox)
with best regards
Edsel G. Clay
HR Manager
Graz E-Books and Data Conversion Technology
Tharandter Str. 431DE, 03387
Dresden, Germany
This email was sent by Graz Technology Inc, Tharandter Str. 431DE, , Dresden, DE 03387, using Express Email Marketing.


text:
Blog Archives
June 28th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Second Wave Of Categories And Nominees Added To 'Teen Choice 2010' Airing August 9
via press release: SECOND WAVE OF CATEGORIES AND NOMINEES ADDED TO "TEEN CHOICE 2010" AIRING MONDAY, AUGUST 9, ON FOX[Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Winners Of The 37th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards Announced
The Bold and The Beautiful wins the award for outstanding drama series.[Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Daytime Emmy Awards Ratings Have Seen Better Days, But Will Certainly Be Up From Last Year
Like most awards shows, The Daytime Emmy Awards ratings have seen better days.[Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
USA vs. Ghana World Cup Match Draws Nearly 15 Million on ABC; Most-Watched Men's World Cup Game
The 2.5 hour match window (2:30-5:12 p.m. ET) averaged an 8.2 rating, 9,455,000 households, and 14,863,000 viewers, based on fast nationals.[Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Lead Actor In A Drama Series Emmy: Who'll Be Nominated? Who Should Be?
Will Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston again lead the same list of nominees?[Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 10:28 am
USA-Ghana World Cup Match Preliminary Ratings Up 10% vs. USA-England
The World Cup match between the USA and Ghana averaged a 9.9 metered market rating on ABC [...][Read-More]
June 27th, 2010 at 9:21 am
TV Ratings Saturday: 48 Hours Mystery Repeat Tops The Night
The 10pm 48 Hours Mystery repeat was the only show on broadcast TV Saturday that drew over a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating.[Read-More]
June 26th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Comedy Central's Tosh.0 Sees Series Highs With Viewers, Adults 18-49 on Wednesday
The June 23 installment of Comedy Central's Tosh.0 delivered a series-high 2 million watchers and a best-ever 1.3 rating among adults[Read-More]


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Chiptuned: 1UP's Game Music Blog
Insights into game music and the people who create it.
2009's Finest: The Suitably Breezy Music of Flower
By Ray Barnholt Jan 08, 2010 12:47 PM PSTTags: PS3 Flower (PS3)
Interactive soundtracks are something you can only really pull off with videogames, yet with such potential there, few games have really managed (or bothered) to pull them off. Koji Kondo strives for it in his Zelda and Mario music, but besides him, it's rare to see much a lot of playing around with near-dynamic, incidental music in big-budget commercial games.
So it's not too surprising to have a small game like Flower try for a more natural-sounding music treatment that at least makes you think it's reacting to the player. Indeed, the score isn't "dynamic" in the sense it's constantly monitoring your input, but the style and composition of the music and the things that trigger and add onto it make for great sound design that really does complete the game, and that's why I call it my favorite game soundtrack of last year.
Vincent Diamante's use of strings, piano and woodwind instruments is a natural fit for the wide-open, humanless landscapes of Flower's levels, so while it may be a "no-brainer," it's no less nice to listen to. As the player advances through the areas, new instruments arrive on the track and usually stay there, and events like collecting all the petals in an area or otherwise busting through a certain part of a stage raises the intensity of the music. It's like playing a GE commercial, and that's OK.
Of course, the music itself is complemented by the sound effects, be it the plinks and plucks of the flowers as you fly into them (consciously designed to add harmony), or the ever-present sound of the blowing wind. Sometimes, that's all there is, with the music ducking around levels 4 and 5 to let the relative silence take over. Another advantage of the soundtrack is that the music always "fits" what's onscreen. Even if you just let go of the controller and idle, the hums of the strings or the occsaional piano notes jel with the break in action. Compare that with a game on the other end of the spectrum, like God of War, where you could have Kratos standing in a corner for 30 minutes while the bombastic chant-heavy score feels a bit unnecessary as it loops in the background.
Perhaps most importantly, Flower's music doesn't sound "fake." Koji Kondo's desire to make music more interactive outside of the plastic guitar realm means he's been beholden to digital synthesized sound. Such synth has gotten better and sounded more realistic as years have rolled on, but any given Mario tune from the last eight years still has a distinct artificial quality to it (though there were several fantastic live orchestrated tunes in Super Mario Galaxy). Flower sounds like an instrumental band is there just trying to match what's onscreen, but it was really just one man creating some beautiful music with his tools. Anyway, like I said, just listening to Flower isn't the best way to experience it. It helps that it's also a pretty good game.
2009's Finest: In Praise of the ODST OST
By Jeremy Parish Jan 05, 2010 12:19 PM PSTTags: Xbox 360 Halo: Combat Evolved (XBOX) Halo: Combat Evolved (PC) Halo 3 (XBOX 360) Halo 3 ODST (XBOX 360) Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox Live) (XBOX 360)
Supercharged 8-Bit Nostalgia Abounds in the Hudson/Takahashi Meijin Remix Album
By Ray Barnholt Jan 04, 2010 12:42 PM PSTTags: NES Lode Runner (PC) Lode Runner (PS1) Star Soldier (GC) Bomberman (NGA) Bomberman (NES) Lode Runner (NES) Milon's Secret Castle (NES) Star Soldier (NES) Bomberman (PSP) Bomberman (PS3) Milon's Secret Castle (Wii) Lode Runner (Wii) Star Soldier (Wii) Star Soldier R (Wii) Lode Runner (XBOX 360) Bomberman Ultra (PS3)
Making sure the new year starts off right, Hudson and their very own game-promoting master, Takahashi Meijin, are bringing us "Takahashi Meijin Legend: Soul of the 16-Shot," a new album produced by IOSYS, the ensemble most famous among Japanese hardcore gamers for their remixes and supplemental tracks for the Touhou series of PC shoot-em-ups. They've done plenty more than that though, and have since proven themselves masters of videogame music remixing. Now, these superfans of the 8-bit days have joined forces with the man who was the figurehead of the period. I just gave myself chills!
Calling this a "Takahashi Meijin remix album" is a slight misnomer, though, at least to me -- Takahashi is no stranger to belting out a tune or two, but this isn't a series of retakes of those (there was a collection of Takahashi's theme songs released a little while ago, anyway). Rather, this is Takahashi singing mostly-new songs over remixes of Hudson game music. All of their hallmark Famicom/NES games are represented, including Star Soldier, Starship Hector, Lode Runner, Bomberman and so on.
If you haven't yet, go ahead and play the video above for extended samples of each of the tracks. It runs the gamut from high-energy stuff, like the opening Star Soldier song, and onto the more mellow, bouncy tunes from Challenger and Milon's Secret Castle. Based on the samples, this is sounding like a pretty high-quality record, even for IOSYS, so if you know the games better than you know the Meijin, you should be able to enjoy yourself. The album drops on January 27, on the Japanese iTunes Store and elsewhere around the web (the best bet for overseas buyers is probably Amazon.co.jp).
A Very Chiptuned Christmas: The Revenge
By Bob Mackey Dec 21, 2009 10:08 AM PST
On the last installment of A Very Chiptuned Christmas, I shared a slightly-dated (though still very good) playlist full of Christmas-themed video game music perfect for any holiday season. As promised, I'm back to share a newer collection of songs from the same source, as well as many relevant resources provided by the industrious 1UP readership. And just like last time, I'll make things easier on all of you by providing links to said songs -- consider it my Christmas gift to you. I'm kind of on a budget.
Christmasy Video Game Music: Volume 2
1. Megaman X - Night In The White ~ Iceberg Stage ~
2. Happy de Guzman - Carol of the Windfish
3. Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, Fumie Kumatani - NiGHTS - 07 - Frozen Bell (Take the Snow Train) (Original Version)
4. Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy X - Macalania Forest
5. Dave Wise - Snowflake Mountain - Diddy Kong Racing
6. Dale North - Final Fantasy 6 All is Calm VG ReMix
7. GrayLightning - Phantasy Star 2 Dezoris Winter [OCR]
8. Serious Sam - Serious Sam The Second Encounter - Jingle
9. Baldur's Gate II ~ Shadows Of Amn - Romance I
10. deim0s - Donkey Kong Country Christmas Cave [OCR]
11. Tweek - FF7 - Frozen Landscape (Buried in Snow)
12. StarCraft - The 12 Days Of Xmas
13. McVaffe - Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts Ice Mountain Symphony [OCR]
14. mp - Secret of Mana Dirge for the Frosty Plains [OCR]
15. Final Fantasy 6 - Final Fantasy 6 Lonely Christmas on the Veldt
16. Suikoden - Suikoden A Night Before Christmas
17. Shariq Ansari - Zelda 64 - O Stormy Night
18. Zeratul - Secret of Mana Ice Crystal Fields Forever [OCR]
19. Animal Crossing - Christmas Eve
20. Dale, Kaijin - Final Fantasy Christmas Sailing VG ReMix
And if that wasn't enough, here are a few more more resources for Christmasy video game music, provided by Chiptuned readers.
8-bit Jesus (thanks kid_atomic) - Several Christmas songs each done in a chiptune version of a different NES game.
Slightly Dark Chrismas Mixes (thanks kentdoggydog) - Apparently obscure gaming music website Slightly Dark has been compiling its own Christmas playlists every year for the past seven years. Good stuff.
8-bitcollective's Advent Calendar - (thanks kentdoggydog)- Several Christmas chiptunes that aren't necessarily video game specific.
That's all the holiday cheer I have left to spread this season. Now go forth and be merry.
A Very Chiptuned Christmas
By Bob Mackey Dec 17, 2009 9:06 AM PST
While Christmas-themed video games are a rare and mostly terrible occurence, Christmas-themed video game music is far more common -- and, dare I say, heartwarming? Those of you who, like me, grow tired of hearing the same Christmas songs over and over and over would no doubt prefer nerdy alternatives to all the Silent Nights and White Christmases out there -- but where do you even start looking?
Consider this post an early Christmas present.
A little over five years ago, Something Awful Forums user Justice Caterson took it upon himself to create the ultimate playlist of Christmas-themed video game music; and to this day, his selection of songs gets passed around every holiday season.
Since this playlist doesn't see much action outside of its birthplace, I figured I'd spread the love and share it with you plucky 1UP readers. I've even taken the liberty of linking to locations where you can download some of these songs -- since a handful of them are from Overclocked Remix, legality issues are irrelevant. For the rest, I've linked to YouTube-hosted versions of the song, but if you're a video game music fan, you should probably know where to find video game music.
Christmasy Video Game Music: Volume 1
01. Earthbound - Winter's Theme
02. Lufia 2 - Christmas in the Village (Silver Bells) [OCR]
03. Napple Tale - Snowball
04. Ragnarok Online - Come On My Deer!
05. Sonic 3D Blast - Diamond Dust Act 1
06. Disgaea - Ray of Light Going into the Future
07. Metroid Prime - Ice Valley
08. Ragnarok Online - Don't Cry, Baby
09. Final Fantasy IX - Ice Caverns
10. Christmas NiGHTS - Welcome to Christmas NiGHTS
11. Super Mario World - Super Mario's Sleigh Ride [OCR]
12. Sonic 3D Blast - Diamond Dust Act 2
13. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon - Dreams on Wings
14. Napple Tale - The Snow Princess
15. Ice Climber - Snow Cone Heaven [OCR]
16. Mario Kart 64 - Party in the Snowland [OCR]
17. Megaman 8 - Frosty Delight [OCR]
18. Sonic 3 - Ice Capped [OCR]
19. Donkey Kong Country - Christmas Cave [OCR]
20. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon - Chocobo's Happy Christmas
21. Sonic Adventure - Snowy Mountain
22. Mario Kart 64 - Frappe Cafe Vibe [OCR]
23. Christmas NiGHTS - Merry Little Christmas [OCR]
I'll be back before Christmas with an entirely-new and slightly-less-dated playlist full of songs; in the meantime, feel free to suggest your own additions. We might be able to come up with a Volume 3 of our own.
Music Tech Spotlight: iMUSE
By Bob Mackey Dec 05, 2009 4:22 PM PSTTags: PC Day of the Tentacle (PC) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (PC) Sam and Max Hit the Road (PC)
The advent of affordable CD-ROM drives changed the medium of video games greatly -- though figuring out how to best use this technology didn't happen overnight. While the relatively massive storage space of the CD gave gaming an almost limitless potential (at the time, anyway), some developers had no idea what to do with this surplus of megabytes, aside from filling them with embarrassing full motion video. But many games smartly took advantage of the CD's most obvious function by including "real," pre-recorded music on the disc itself that could also be listened to on any CD player; Sega in particular used this feature to sell their Sega CD console; and though this system bombed spectacularly, gamers still have fond memories of soundtracks like Sonic CD.
But in this rush toward realism, the obsession with Redbook audio interfered with some very revolutionary music technology.
iMUSE, developed at LucasArts by composers Michael Land and Peter McConnell, came into being at a time when the idea of a household CD-ROM drive was still a few years off. And perhaps most importantly, this music technology sprung forth from what would soon be known as LucasArts' most fruitful and creative period. Really, the concept behind iMUSE is simple; what makes the tech itself amazing is that so much thought was invested into an overlooked element of PC gaming -- remember, sound cards were far from mandatory when the first iMUSE game, Monkey Island 2, came out in 1991. At the time, most folks relied on their chirpy internal PC speakers, which had less range than your average doorbell.
Essentially, the purpose of iMUSE is to make music more "organic" in video games; the system functions to synchronize audio with on-screen action, and transition between different tracks smoothly at a moment's notice -- much like what you would see in an old Warner Brothers cartoon. While some of LucasArts' zanier adventures like Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle employed iMUSE to greater extremes, the system's flagship title, Monkey Island 2, may be the most subtle and effective use of Land and McConnell's technology to date. The first major area of the game is designed to show off all of iMUSE's tricks, as the main theme of Woodtick village changes ever-so-slightly (with some excellent transitions) as Guybrush travels to different areas. It's an amazing effect, and you can check it out by skipping to 5:40 in the video below.
As time passed and games became less reliant on MIDI, the iMUSE system generally became less applicable -- though some version of it exists in even the latter LucasArts adventures. Luckily, many composers and designers have borrowed from LucasArts' school of organic music; the basic concepts of iMUSE have been seen outside of LucasArts games, though not as often as they should. It kind of makes you wonder where this technology could have went if the multimedia age had been delayed just a few years.
Does Akira Yamaoka's Departure from Konami Spell Doom for Silent Hill?
By Jeremy Parish Dec 04, 2009 5:08 PM PSTTags: PS2 Silent Hill 2 (PS2) Silent Hill 3 (PS2) Silent Hill 2 (PC) Silent Hill 3 (PC) Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2) Silent Hill 4: The Room (XBOX) Silent Hill 4: The Room (PC) Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3) Silent Hill: Homecoming (XBOX 360) Silent Hill: Homecoming (PC) Silent Hill Shattered Memories (Wii) Silent Hill Shattered Memories (PS2) Silent Hill Shattered Memories (PSP)
The Unrecognized Genius of Go Shiina
By Bob Mackey Dec 01, 2009 2:32 PM PSTTags: Tales of Legendia (PS2)
In a fair, just world, Namco composer Go Shiina (real name Masaru Shiina) would be as prolific and well-recognized as some of the bigger names in Japanese video game music, like Yasunori Mitsuda or Motoi Sakuraba. But -- as you should know by now -- the world is unfair, meaning that Shiina's spent the majority of his decade-long career toiling in obscurity.
If you've been listening to Retronauts over the years, you've undoubtedly heard some snippets from his Mr. Driller Drill Land soundtrack; Jeremy's used selections from this album in at least two episodes that I can remember. And with good reason; in this (sadly) Japanese-only GameCube game, Shiina took one of the most overlooked aspects of a puzzle game -- the soundtrack -- and went absolutely nuts with the resources given to him by Namco. With Drill Land, Shiina developed his own signature, eclectic style that's really unlike any other composer out there. Combining many different genres of music, Shiina created an amazing collection of songs that bounce between smooth jazz, epic orchestral themes, and children's choirs without a moment's notice. It's very experimental, but in a good way.
The Drill Land soundtrack's popularity is so low that I couldn't even find a single song from it on YouTube, so I've taken the liberty of uploading one of my favorites for this post. Unfortunately, the Drill Land OST never saw an official release, so the only way to enjoy is via audio rips of questionable legality. Like this one:
Shiina tackled Namco's flagship RPG franchise for his next project, and while his Tales of Legendia soundtrack wasn't quite as varied as the work he did on Drill Land, it certainly raised the bar for regular Tales composer Motoi Sakuraba -- whose work can be a little bland and droning when he's uninspired. Legendia itself wasn't particularly great, but Shiina's jazzy, uptempo style once again took advantage of Namco's generous sound budget to produce an unforgettable OST. Here's a small sample of its awesomeness:
After pitch-hitting on one of Namco's most popular series, Shiina went on to work on a few more Tales spinoffs, as well as THE iDOLM@STER franchise, which has thankfully stayed in Japan. While his most recent soundtrack for Tekken 6 may be far more mainstream than his past work, it still shows a level of sheer energy and boisterousness that's rare in video game music. The dude clearly loves what he does, and his work definitely needs more attention.
Want to Listen to a Videogame Concert Live This Weekend?
By Ray Barnholt Dec 01, 2009 2:22 PM PSTTags: PS3 Metal Gear Solid (PC) Metal Gear Solid (PS1) Afrika (PS3) Metal Gear Solid (PSP) Metal Gear Solid (PS3)
Here's a bit of news I thought was worth noting. Shows like Video Games Live have become regular enough for any game music nerd to find a way to attend, but still not everybody can experience the thrill of orchestrated game music live. Well, as the next best thing, you'll be able to go online and listen live to "VGO: Awakening," an independent game concert at Boston's Berklee Performance Center this Saturday evening at around 7:30 PM (4:30 Pacific). (Locals can buy tickets from the same link.)
According to the flier, the show will include pieces from Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2, Chrono Cross, and others, and will also feature special guest Wataru Hokoyama, who did some work on Resident Evil 5 and also composed the soundtrack for Afrika (which will also get some love at the show, and is the big reason I'll personally be tuning in). You can prepare by heading to the Berklee Internet Radio site, selecting the "BIRN 2" channel and grabbing its M3U file, which you can drop into your media player of choice.
(News & flier via Original Sound Version)
Music That Rocked In Games That Didn't
By Chac ranajxy Nov 20, 2009 10:42 AM PSTTags: PS2 Legaia 2: Duel Saga (PS2) Chrono Cross (PS1) Xenogears (PS1) Chrono Trigger (SNES) Chrono Trigger (NintendoDS)
There was a time not so long ago when I could convince myself to slog through any game, no matter how insipid. It was back during that dark period that I got my hands on Legaia 2: Duel Saga. Looking back, the game wasn't horrible, but sitting through the ensuing 35 hours of undiluted mediocrity was probably one of the worst uses of my life I've ever made. It wasn't a total loss, though, because suffering through Legaia 2 allowed me to discover an unexpectedly brilliant soundtrack.
Legaia 2's score is the brainchild of three renowned composers: Hitoshi Sakimoto, Michiru Oshima, and Yasunori Mitsuda. Now, when people think of Mitsuda, they typically go directly to Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, and his other efforts with Square. There's a reason that nobody mentions Legaia 2 - he phoned it in. Some songs sound like mere imitations of his grander works from Chrono Cross while others just smack of laziness. Fortunately, even a lackluster effort from Mitsuda is still better than some composers at their best, and he offers up a few standout pieces like "Advancing to Faraway Places" that deliver the signature Celtic sound we've come to expect from him.
It's just disappointing that the majority of Mitsuda's tracks play it a little too safe. There's no experimentation and not much variety, which makes for some immediately forgettable fare. Take "Wasteland of Faraway Places," for instance - it's pleasant, but derivative. Try listening to it; you won't be able to remember a thing about the song by the time you finish reading the next paragraph.
Far worse than a lack of originality, though, is music that's simply bad. Michiru Oshima is probably best known for her work in anime series like Fullmetal Alchemist, but game music has never really been her strong suit. There aren't any miracles here. Oshima's contributions to the soundtrack are universally the worst ones, with some songs managing to sound completely obnoxious from the first note. There's no discernible style or inventiveness here, either - she composed pure background noise. In fact, there's really not a single track of hers that I can in good faith recommend that you listen to.
So aside from a few catchy Mitsuda tracks, the album is sounding pretty lackluster, right? Well the set list is saved single-handedly by Hitoshi Sakimoto. I've always felt like Sakimoto has never gotten the recognition he deserves, and the fact that his work here has gone ignored is essentially proof of that. Two tracks in particular stand out. The first is "Paying the Worthless War," which is as close to perfection as I've ever heard game music sound. The second is "Lost Forest," which is a relatively complicated piece that isn't on quite the same level, but still stunningly beautiful.
Granted, not every track Sakimoto composed is a masterpiece and some songs come dangerously close to aping Mitsuda's style, but nearly every note he committed to his melodies is pleasing to the ears. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that his compositions alone justify dropping cash on the OST.
If nothing else, Legaia 2's soundtrack is surprising. We have the tragically underappreciated Sakimoto stealing the show with an outstanding set list while the seemingly infallible Mitsuda fumbles. And despite some inconsistency in the soundtrack and Oshima's thinly-veiled attempt to ruin the whole thing, this an impressive batch of songs overall. Even now, I still fondly remember trudging through Legaia 2's seemingly endless gauntlet of crap not because the game was any good, but solely for the thrill of finding out what the next dungeon theme would be. You can't ask much more of game music than that.


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Watch "the musical genius" Chilly Gonzalez perform a medley of songs from Solo Piano II at Swedish American Music Hall in SF.
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