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The Zildjian A Custom EFX Crash Cymbal has a unique set of laser generated cut outs that allow it to produce a quick, dry and trashy sound used for accenting and punctuating. The brilliant finish makes this must have shimmer like any A Custom.
MSRP: $17.00 Save: $7.01 (41%)
MSRP: $12.95 Save: $3.00 (23%)
MSRP: $99.95 Save: $40.00 (40%)
What started as a simple string and pedal sales catalog has grown exponentially over the past thirty years. The early days were a time where catalogs didn't have much of a presence in the industry, but what began as a college dorm room operation grew rapidly. In 1986 we moved to a full product offering and 64-page catalog, which over the years has grown to 162 pages. Join the AMS family and get your free catalog now!
Copyright © 1996-2018 American Musical Supply, Inc. All rights reserved. American Musical Supply reserves the right to correct pricing and/or product specifications in the event of typographical errors found in our print catalog or on our website. If a product is listed at an incorrect price due to such errors or because of inaccurate information received from a supplier, American Musical Supply shall have the right to refuse or cancel any orders placed, whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged. If your credit card has already been charged for the purchase and your order is canceled, American Musical Supply will issue a credit to your credit card account in the amount of the charge.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Maui Wowi now has a green smoothie!
Spinach is known as one of the world's healthiest foods, which is one reason why we incorporated it into the Green Smoothie recipe. A small size Maui Wowi® Green Smoothie has enough spinach in it to qualify as one full serving of vegetables. How do we know? The USDA says that 30 grams of spinach (1 cup) equals one serving of vegetables. We are over achievers in this area, because the Green Smoothie has 32 grams of spinach.
Did you know that spinach is grown in Hawaii? It is, but only on small farms. Hawaii only has two seasons - 'kauwela' (summer) with an average temperature of 85 degrees and 'ho'oilo' (winter), averaging 78 degrees. Spinach can only be grown during the chilly winter months in Hawaii when the temperature dips down to 78 degrees. Spinach will probably never be a big production in Hawaii, but it does grow.
You do not have to look very hard to see that green smoothies are popping up all over the country. Nutritionists say that this is not a trend. 'Green' is here to stay. One reason, they say, is because the liquid version of the whole vegetable retains the same nutritional potency and fiber, making it easier to digest.
The new green smoothie is one of the many flavors you can choose from when you book a smoothie catering job in DC, MD or VA. It's a great alternative for those that might be a little more health conscious. All of our smoothies are healthy of course - 100% natural, with no added colors, flavors or preservatives. They're 'onolicious!


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Scott Anthony Gohl, 43
Huntington Beach resident Scott Anthony Gohl died peacefully at his home with his loving family by his side. Scott was born in Champaign, Illinois, and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he attended Northrop High School. Scott went to Indiana University Bloomington and earned a bachelor's degree in business. After moving to California he worked as a Commercial Real Estate consultant for more than 20 years. Scott is survived by his wife Tracy and children Zane and Allegra. He is also survived by his parents, Jim and Mary Gohl and sister, Debbie Jackson of Champaign, Illinois.
Scott enjoyed baseball and coaching his son's T-ball team. He loved music and especially when his daughter was singing. He enjoyed volunteering at his children's school and was an active member of his church, Sts. Simon & Jude.
Funeral service will be held on Friday, May 27, 2011 at 1 pm at Sts. Simon and Jude, 20444 Magnolia, Huntington Beach, CA. 92646.


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Over 300 young girls flocked to Kimbe Soccer Association Oval last Friday as the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) hosted the U20 Talent Identification programme for girls ages 14-19.
With the goal of identifying talented girls throughout the country, PNGFA also visited West New Britain Province in preparation for building a strong team for the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup next year, the programme brought girls ages 14-19 together to participate in soccer activities in giving opportunities to talented and prospective players to show off their soccer talents.
Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) Technical Director Taku Niebo says the Talent Identification Programme is a chance to give opportunity to wider participation throughout the country.
It is a test for the towns and village girls to experiment their knowledge of the sport and it's only fair to stretch out and reach to the village girls who also have the potential to reach new heights.
"With this programme we anticipate that more young girls in rural areas who are talented will be identified because the PNG government is funding huge amount of money to identify potential players all around the country."
It was also great to see our young girls around the country being recognised and appreciated for what they did in TIP. I think it was also wonderful to see how much girls could be involved in football."
The Talent Identification programme was held from 10am to 2pm with all girls getting involved in the football activities.


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By clicking on links below you will be redirected to a different website
Office Hours Mon - Thurs 9am to 3pm, Thurs Eve 5:30pm to 7pm
Fri 9am to noon & new for 2019 Open the 2nd Sat 8am to11am
We offer a variety of services here at the Town Office - from registering your vehicle, paying your taxes to registering to vote. If you are new to Hiram please bring in some proof of residency.
Payment Types - We accept cash and checks as always, we now accept credit and debit cards, there is a 2.5% service fee associated with all card transactions. with a minimum service fee of $1.00.
Vehicle Registrations - For a re-registration you will need to bring in current mileage and proof of insurance, the prior registration is helpful. For a new registration you would need a bill of sale, title or title application on any vehicle that is 1995 or newer, the window sticker if it is a new vehicle, current mileage and proof of insurance. You can have your insurance agency fax us a copy of your insurance card if needed, the fax number is 625-7635. You can process your renewal or request a duplicate through the State by selecting the Rapid Renewal link to the left. Other motor vehicle services are available on the State of Maine website such as vanity plate search and renewal of your drivers license.
The State of Maine changed the title law several years ago,
all vehicles 1995 of newer will required title forever.
ATV's, Boats and Snowmobiles - The previous registration is helpful for both new and re- registrations. For all licenses and registrations proof of residency is required. New registrations require a bill of sale which must have the vehicle identification number (VIN) , a receipt showing sales tax has been paid if already paid and the prior registration if possible. If the previous registration is not available please try to bring in either the registration number for boats or the registration sticker number and year for ATV's and snowmobiles. For a re-registration the previous registration is extremely helpful but not necessary. Most re-registrations can be done online if you choose by clicking here. ( This will open a new website)
Hunting and Fishing Licenses - May be purchased here at the Town Office if you have a previous license please bring it with you or the MOSES number assigned to you if possible. For a new license you would need to bring in proof of residency and completion of any required courses. Most licensees can be purchased online by clicking here. (This will take you to a new website)
Dog Licenses - All dogs six months or older must be licensed by State Law. License fees are $6.00 for dog that has been neutered or spayed and $11.00 for a dog that has not been altered. Dog licenses are valid for a calendar year becoming available October 15th of the previous year and good until December of the current year. You must present a valid rabies certificate in order to process the license and if your dog has been altered please be sure to provide the neutering certificate or other proof. (Needed one time only) A late fee of $25.00 goes into effect on February 1st for all unlicensed dogs. The State mails out copies of all rabies vaccinations, so if we receive one and your dog is not licensed we will be contacting you. This is State Law. Our current ACO is Cindy Eaton she can be reached at 890-5313 or 1-800-733-1421 which is Oxford County Dispatch. We do have an barking dog ordinance which can be found on the ordinance and forms page.


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Dodgeball in the sunshine raises money for young campers
Jul 15 2012
Peter Collins of Team Blue Balls take aim during the 8th Annual Victoria Dodgeball Championships at Royal Athletic Park.Photograph by: Lyle Stafford , timescolonist.com (July 2012)
The Victoria Dodgeball Championships took place outdoors for the first time Saturday, giving competitors the chance to hone their skills in the sunshine.
The tournament, in its eighth consecutive year, was moved from its venue of previous years, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, to Royal Athletic Park on Cook Street.
"This year we decided to freshen it up," said Lesley Petrie, facility and events co-ordinator for the City of Victoria. "It's a different way to get people active."
The tournament attracted 42 teams, each with six to eight members. The co-ed teams could play recreationally or competitively, allowing players of any standard to participate.
Hosting the tournament outside changes the mood, Petrie said. "It's such a fun festive atmosphere," she said.
Teams tested their dodging ability in a total of 800 games. Many teams were made up of friends and companies were also represented.
Each player paid $30 to take part. All proceeds from the tournament, which says it is the largest in Canada, go to the city's Campership program. The program allows families to send their children to a summer camp of their choice, providing the family with up to $150 in financial support. Last year, the tournament raised enough cash for 50 children to attend camp.
"Those are children who wouldn't get to otherwise," Petrie said. "We just try and raise as much as we can."


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- Photography
- Tutorials
Retro Tech: "Just handle a Pentax" by illustrator and writer, Richard Bell
Retro Tech: "Just handle a Pentax" by illustrator and writer, Richard Bell
31 Jul 2013|
Click on the image for the full size version.
Join TechTalk in a series that aims to celebrate the technology that has shaped past decades. From cult classics to forgotten oddities, we want to bring them back into the spotlight through the eyes of the people that still love them.
This week we are celebrating the cult classic, Pentax Spotmatic. When the first model was released back in 1964, it was one of the first consumer SLR cameras available and it has influenced many people's love for photography. Richard Bell shares the story of what the Pentax Spotmatic meant throughout his career.
Even before I'd ever handled one, the Pentax Spotmatic was an object of desire. The 'just handle a Pentax' campaign in photography magazines had been followed in the Sunday colour supplements with a series of full page portraits of much-travelled Spotmatics.
These rather battered and personalised models had accessories such as an ill-fitting lens hood held on with elastoplasts, accompanied by captions like 'Alan Whicker's Pentax' or 'Ken Russell's Pentax'. This built an image in my mind of the Spotmatic as a sleek and reliable travelling companion, especially for would-be creatives like me. I wanted to set off on my own adventure.
My sketch of the camera. I think the drawing shows how fond I was of it. Looks like an old friend.
I finally got the chance when, as a student in the illustration department, I was handed a Spotmatic at the start of a three week photography course at the Royal College of Art. Up until then photography had been a half a day a week kind of activity, so the opportunity to drop everything else and engage in for three whole weeks of image-making was literally an eye-opener.
Studio to Seashore
When we started our studio sessions, the 50 millimetre macro lens was the big attraction for me. With my eye for detail in the natural world I'd always been frustrated by the 3 foot limit on close-up photography of the non-SLR cameras that I'd used.
A little time capsule of the contents of my pockets.
To make the most of its ability to zoom-in on textures I fixed the camera to one of those rock-steady studio pillar 'tripods', trained a single raking spotlight on a still-life subject, such as a bunch of keys, and took a long exposure to get as much depth of field as I could. Artful out of focus passages weren't an option for me!
This is my favourite photograph
from the college course. I always liked the contrast of natural
with some mouldering man-made object.
Naturally when we went on location, on a day trip to the south coast, the macro was my lens of choice and I photographed shells, seaweed and a shoe on the strandline. The built-in exposure meter that gave the Spotmatic its name was also a big plus for working on location.
This is a cropped scan from one
of the negatives, taken in the fern house of the Chelsea
Physick Gardens
It's one of those cameras that can help you see the world in a different way. I felt that it had proved itself as an advanced piece of technology that could put up with the treatment it got, indoors and out, from a bunch of student sculptors, painters, potters and textile designers.
Travels with a Camera
The Pentax Spotmatic was the first major purchase I made when I set myself up as a freelance illustrator a year or two later, and it became essential for gathering reference and for making a record of artwork before I sent it off to publishers.
It has to be said that I didn't have a clue how to put mums and babies at ease when it came to the live model session.
But it had its rivals. After six months of a year-long sketching expedition for a book project I went for an Olympus Trip, which wasn't nearly as versatile but which made sense when you have to take all you need for 3 weeks in a backpack. Again I was influenced by a clever advertising campaign, as at that time Olympus was running a series of television ads that featured David Bailey.
Moreover, the Spotmatic had disadvantages as a means of collecting reference for my illustrations. For instance, I didn't always want to take 24 or 36 photographs then wait for the slides to come back from the processor's, so I added a Polaroid camera to my kit. It was a classic of its kind, the model with rubber bellows than snapped neatly shut so that it was just the size of a large paperback, but the film packs proved so expensive that I kept it for special occasions only.
Thatch and weatherboarding of an
old barn.
Like so many of us, I finally made the move to digital and my little Olympus Tough - currently my one and only camera - goes everywhere with me. A Cannon scanner makes a far better job of recording my artwork than the Spotmatic ever did.
I still feel a bit guilty about it but after several years of sitting unused (but not unloved) in the wardrobe my 30 year-old Pentax eventually appeared on eBay, where I sold it for roughly what I'd paid for it back in the 1970s. The macro lens went off to a keen photographer in Gibraltar.
I hope he's enjoyed using it as much as I did.
About the Author: Richard Bell is an illustrator and writer, based in the Calder Valley. You can read his nature diary and drawing journal on Wild West Yorkshire. You can see his published sketchbooks, walks and local guides at Willow Island Editions. He's currently working on a Sherlock Holmes book project.
Did you own a Pentax Spotmatic? Why not send us some pictures that you've taken with using #retrotech on Twitter. For the latest cameras, check out Currys DSLR range.
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Another company that is spreading the usage of solar power is Solar Richmond. Begun in 2006 as a solar education initiative, it quickly grew into an internship and installation program for low income homeowners. Solar Richmond attacks the problem of solar's high installation cost, by providing temporary to permanent labor solutions for solar installers so they can keep their costs down, as well as affordable and subsidized financing alternatives for homeowners. By attacking the problem from both angles, Solar Richmond has created over 300 temporary and permanent jobs and installed solar panels for over 50 homeowners. But the best thing is that there is currently nothing like this program in Atlanta. With an average of 4.5 hrs of sunlight per day, huge swaths of Atlanta residents below the poverty line and in dire need of help with energy costs, and a ballooning tech industry, Atlanta would be the ideal place for a program like this to take root. All that is needed is the right entrepreneur to take the bull by the horns and get started. The model has already been built. It's already proven.
Clearly there is a lot of opportunity in the Solar space across the country. Whether you mimic the models of either of these fine companies, or come up with your own, providing homeowners and businesses with solar power has the potential to be very lucrative and helpful.


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See how to make a copy of the database. It's a super quick and safe way to give you a new database to convert while preserving the original, in case you run into issues with the SSL conversion and need to swap back.
Plus, doing it this way ensures that you only have one line to change in the wp-config file to swap to the newly converted database too.
Thank you for your interest in BlogAid Training.
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To become a member please click here.


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- Title: Tomb Raider
- Web: Official Site
- Developer: Crystal Dynamics
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Released: 5 March, 2013
- Platforms: PC XBox 360 PS3
- Reviewed On: PC
It is my birthday!! And what a fantastic present I got – Tomb Raider for the pc.
Lara Croft is one of the most famous faces in video gaming history, and this is certainly her best adventure in almost a decade. Lara is 22 years of age, and a rookie adventurer still learning the ropes. She decides to take her group of explorers on a trip that ends in tragic circumstances. Lara blames herself for the tragic events that have unfolded, and you will hear her whining quite a lot at the beginning of the game. You get used to it though, and she does turn out to be quite the bad ass once she gets hold of a bow and arrow.
The graphics are extraordinary, and you can tell that the game developers spent a lot of time on her hair and a lot less time on her noticeably reduced bust. She gets lots of blood, mud, and water all over her clothes, yet her hair seems to stay immaculate and beautifully shiny throughout. I wonder what shampoo she uses?
Uncharted sprang to my mind a lot whilst jumping off the walls, climbing ledges and having debris falling all around me. It would be unfair though to compare, seeing as Lara Croft has been around a lot longer than Nathan Drake. Just a shame I don't get to stare at Nathan Drake's bottom whilst adventuring. Lara will have to do.
One thing that really does annoy me more than anything, is the amount of quick time events that occur during the adventure. If you don't press a button at the right time, or if you don't dodge when it tells you to dodge at that exact moment, you die. Luckily it reloads back at the event again, so you don't have to start ages back, but what is the point? It may as well just play a video, and let me carry on exploring.
Exploring is fun. You can go on the look out for materials that you can use to craft your weapons at camp fires, and you also level up, allowing you to give Lara some skill points onto either her survival or hunting abilities. This can all be done at the camp, and it even autosaves nicely for you afterwards. Autosaves are frequent, and I thank the game for that.
It would have been nice to have had less action, more puzzles. But that's the direction the series has been heading down for a few years now. Plus the boys like to see Lara getting down and dirty with a revolver. I just like to admire her hair. But if it is presentation that you're after, then this is the best looking Lara model we have had for a few years now.
It has online multiplayer, allowing you to play as some of the characters from story mode. But it won't keep you entertained for long, as some of the capture the flag missions can get quite repetitive and Tomb Raider is a story driven game. If you are buying this game just for the multiplayer, then you really do need to give yourself a good slap. Preferably on the left buttock.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, action adventure game with a few bits of puzzle solving here and there, then this is the latest, greatest game for you. If you are new to the Tomb Raider series, think of Uncharted. If you liked that, then you will love this.
Now, let me get back to that hair!


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Business for Scotland has warned politicians that its members are not interested in 'crumbs from Westminster' and are voting for independence to take back control of the country's economy.
Speaking to IBTimes UK in Glasgow, BfS' CEO Gordon Macintyre-Kemp told us why exactly why their 3,000 members are voting for splitting the 307-year old union.
He also revealed how over the last couple of weeks, BfS has apparently reeled in hundreds of new supporters.
To find out why, check out IBTimes TV or the video at the top of the page.


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Mon, 19 June 2017
As the situation deteriorated in Ireland in late 1846, the two Cork towns of Youghal and Skibbereen experienced the unfolding horrors in very different ways. The people of Youghal, due to local dynamics, were in a position to rise up against some of the causes of famine. Through the Autumn of 1846 they launched an insurrection in a desperate bid to stop food being exported. However at Skibbereen in west Cork the people found themselves in a far worse situation. Ravaged by severe starvation from as early as October, the town became notorious for the horrific conditions its inhabitants faced.
You can support the show and get lots of bonus content on patreon at www.patreon.com/irishpodcast.
Direct download: Insurrection__Starvation.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:46am EDT
Mon, 5 June 2017
Many travellers who visited the west of Ireland in the 19th century considered it as a frontier of sorts. They were more often than not deeply racist, yet we still rely heavily on their accounts to reconstruct a picture of life at the time. In this show I question how reliable their accounts are. In an effort to create a more vivid picture of life in the 1840s I have interviewed with two archaeologists - Franc Myles and Eve Campbell for this show.
You can support the show at patreon.com/irishpodcast
You can contact me at email@example.com
Direct download: History_vs_Reality_-_What_was_life_in_the_1840s_really_like_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:13am EDT


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Actor William B. Davis is best known as Cigarette Smoking Man, AKA Cancer Man, from the 1990s hit science fiction television series The X-Files.
By know all you X-Files-ophiles know that the Chris Carter-produced show will be returning to television in 2016 as a six-episode miniseries shot in Vancouver, and will feature stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. And returning with them will be the sinister Cigarette Smoking Man, whom the readers of TV Guide voted Television's Favourite Villain.
Davis, the Canadian screen legend, is also an acting teacher who founded his own acting school where he taught stars such as Lucy Lawless. Davis is the author of a memoir called Where There's Smoke... Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man. In this episode's conversation you'll hear Davis talk about the craft of acting and his odyssey to enrich his own artistry, including the time when his fellow student Donald Sutherland was, in Davis's words, "not very good." He also discusses his thoughts on:
This episode is sponsored by the multiple-award-winning comic book store Happy Harbour Comics in Edmonton. Happy Harbour offers every comic and manga and more you could possibly want and if they don't have it in stock, the friendly staff will get it for you.
Happy Harbour supports charities, schools and libraries, its own Artist in Residence, and even a scholarship. The store is family friendly, and the place where I buy all my comics and graphic novels, and where I have all my book launches. In short, it's a great place. If you're in E-Town and shopping for comics, find Happy Harbour in the heart of downtown across from MacEwan University campus on 107th Street and 104th Avenue, and tell them heard about Happy Harbour on MF GALAXY.
Buk Arop, president of the Edmonton-based South Sudan Development Foundation, says that Emmanuel Jal, the award-winning South Sudanese hip hop artist, activist, and actor, is stoking the South Sudanese Civil War. To hear my interview with Jal, download episode 021 from mfgalaxy.org.
Like Jal, Arop is a so-called "lost boy"--a person who lost his childhood to the Sudanese Civil War. Born in 1981, Arop entered the Pinyudo Refugee Camp in Ethiopia where the Sudan People's Liberation Army conscripted him as a child soldier.
When the Ethiopian regime fell in 1991, ten year old Arop and all the other refugees were forced to leave on foot. He arrived in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp in 1992, where he stayed until the year 2000. Then, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees nearly sent him to Norway, but at the last moment switched his destination to Canada, where Arop earned a BA in International Development Studies and an MA in Cultural Studies.
Today Arop speaks five languages and works with immigrant youth in Edmonton. He's also the Secretary General for Abyei Youth Association in Diaspora and the president of the South Sudan Development Foundation.
While Emmanuel Jal spoke to youth across Alberta as part of a John Humphrey Centre-sponsored tour, he made remarks that Buk Arop denounced on Twitter: "Emmanuel Jal, a peace soldier beating South Sudanese war drums. Is Ban Kimoon et al aware?"
I spoke with Buk Arop on April 17, 2015 at the University of Alberta campus to ask him about what Jal was saying and why he objected.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE ON iTUNES
Award-winning hip hop artist, activist, author, and former lost boy Jal Jok, better known as Emmanuel Jal, was born around 1980 in Sudan and experienced trauma early. When he was seven years old, soldiers killed his mother—the first of many of his family to die at government hands. After his father joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army or SPLA, Jal sought refuge in Ethiopia along with thousands of other children, and ended up enslaved by the SPLA as a child soldier—the so-called "lost boys."
Jal eventually escaped to the town of Waat where he met a British aid worker named Emma McCune who was married to SPLA commander, and future South Sudanese vice president Riek Machar. After adopting Jal, McCune took him to Kenya for education, but she herself died in a vehicle accident only months later, and he soon found himself living in the slums of Nairobi.
It was there that Jal discovered hip hop and devoted his life to political art, particularly to engaging the struggles of South Sudan, and became an international star. He's released six albums including Gua, Ceasefire, Warchild, Emmanuel Jal's 4th Studio Album, See Me Mama, and The Key. He's the author of the autobiography War Child, has appeared in a biographical documentary of the same name, and has acted in the feature film Africa United, as well as in the controversial movie The Good Lie, directed by Ron Howard and starring Reese Witherspoon; 54 Sudanese refugees have sued the film's producers for exploiting them.
For clarity's sake, note that Jal uses the acronym SPLA to refer to the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, which fought the Omar al Bashir government based in Khartoum, before South Sudan seceded with the city of Juba as its capitol.
I began our discussion by asking Jal what his life is like in Toronto, given the widespread racial profiling by police there, including the infamous "carding" system in which police, apparently as a matter of policy, stop all African men to demand identification.
Last episode was part one of NOW READ THIS!, in which ten awesome people awesomely awesomed up their awesome reading recommendations. Why? Because a whole bunch of angries didn't like the Bradford Reading Challenge.
What's the Bradford Reading Challenge, you ask? Simple! Author, tech-reviewer, and fandom activist K. Tempest Bradford suggested in an xoJane.com opinion piece that readers should discover the world of writers who never get confused for Mitt Romney, Stephen Harper, or Patton Oswalt.
This episode, instead of ten boffo-socko book baptisers, let's level up to SIXTEEN SCINTILLATING BOOK SPEAKERS.
That's right! We'll hear from:
* Directors Ernest Dickerson, Seith Mann, and Reginald Hudlin
* Alternative Radio founder and interviewer David Barsamian
* South Sudanese community activist Buk Arop
* Sociologist and author Algernon Austin
* Columnist, author, and activist Bill Fletcher
* Hip hop artist and activist Young Mav
* Actors Isaiah Washington, Jamie Hector, Robert Wisdom, and Scott Wilson
* Academic and artist John Jennings
* Academic and activist Nene Khalema
* Novelist and journalist Sparkle Hayter, and
* Scholar and author Runoko Rashidi
To hear the recommendations of Wab Kinew, Chuck D, Daryl Lennox, Lisa Yaszek, Gene Luen Yang, Geoffrey Anguyo, Clark Johnson, Clarke Peters, Denis Simpson, and Levar Burton, just download episode 19 of MF GALAXY from iTunes, and to hear my full interview with Bradford, download episode 18, or stream live from MF GALAXY.org.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE ON iTUNES


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Yorkshire's Favourite Pub
We are thrilled to announce that The Carpenters Arms came third in Yorkshire's favourite pub announced at The Great Yorkshire Show on Tuesday 11th July.
A record number of votes were cast in this year's competition, leading to 15 pubs being shortlisted rather than the usual 12.
The competition, which is run by Welcome to Yorkshire in partnership with the Yorkshire Post and sponsored by Theakstons, saw the public nominate 700 pubs in total.
Thank you to everyone that voted.
Congratulations to The White Swan that came first and The Royal Oak that came second.
The top 30 pubs will feature in Welcome to Yorkshire's Ale Trail. Thousands of copies of which will be distributed around tourist destinations across Yorkshire.
Pictured: L-R Simon Theakston, Peter Dodd, Chris Blundell (chairman of The Carpenter's Arms) Brian Turner.


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GHCD 2366 – Fritz Busch – Alfvén Mendelssohn Schubert Wagner, 1946 & 1949
Sinfonie-Orchester Winterthur, Fritz Busch – conductor
To the CD in our Shop
Fanfare Magazine March – April 2011
It's believed that Fritz Busch was invited into the Concert Hall Society studios in 1949 at the instigation of Volkmar Andrae, the Winterthur Municipal Orchestra's music director. The Winterthur musicians were a competent band, no more, but the conductor does marvels with Mendelssohn's Fair Melusine. As with Weingartner, there is a sense of building up from rock-steady rhythms, with the ostinato of the main section maintained through pointed phrasing and precision. That doesn't preclude an element of flexibility, however, most apparent in the increased pace when the second theme unleashes its final, stormy appearance, but it is carefully prepared. Sudden gear switches between sections that feature in some more romantic interpretations are avoided in favor of carefully integrated tempos that never lose their impetus. The result is a reading that seems all the more exciting in the delicacy of its concluding moments than in the earlier, well-delineated fury of Melusine's wrath. Elegance and balance also characterize the orchestral version of the Octet's Scherzo, particularly in the way Busch lovingly shapes string phrases. His version is also notable for the single dynamic plane it operates upon, an effect I'm sure was far from being as effortlessly achieved as it sounds.
Busch flew to Los Angeles for the first time in March of 1946, and led three orchestral performances with the Philharmonic. (He would return in 1948 and 1949, conducting opera.) The first half of the third concert was broadcast over NBC as part of The Standard Symphony Hour, named after its sponsor, Standard Oil Company. Granted, the orchestra was going through a rough patch at the time; still, Busch gets a taut reading of the Egmont from them, with fast but sensible pacing in the main section that never loses it impetus in exchange for rhetorical gesture. By way of contrast, when the music requires a persuasive showman, as in the Tristan and Isolde Prelude, Busch supplies all the demonstrative passion one could desire, and an ear for the lyrical, Italianate phrase. Yet control is always there, right down to the slow, pronounced decrescendo of the percussion under the lower strings following the first climax.
Finally, there's Schubert's Dance Suite-a typical arrangement by conductors in that period, who sought to rescue lollipops (to use Beecham's term) they considered too good to leave unknown-includes four of his lesser short pieces: a polonaise, one of the Ecossaisen, a trio, and the 12th of the Valses nobles, D 969. It's pleasing stuff, more of a miniature suite and tension breaker than anything else, and Busch's arrangements avoid orchestral anachronisms. The Philharmonic is again extremely responsive to its guest conductor, if without much of the sheen and blend it would acquire later in its history.
The final selection on the album shows Busch back in Scandinavia, where he spent much of his career. Busch first appeared as a conductor in Malmö in 1946, returning in 1948, 1949, and 1951, but the only surviving audio evidence of his time there is this Midsommarvaka from a lunchtime concert in October 30, 1949. It's a fine performance, despite a less than perfect brass section, with especially good solo winds, and a gloriously sunny strut after the deceptively measured, dynamically scaled-back opening. The reflective central section, all too easily tossed aside in many performances, is just as sensitively limned.
It's not surprising that the sound quality would differ dramatically on a release taken from at least three different sources. Among the best is the Mendelssohn from the Concert Hall Society's commercial recordings: reasonably spacious and full-bodied, though restricted in the treble presumably during the remastering process, to avoid hiss. The Alfven is surprisingly good, both closely miked and resonant, though the opening suffers from wow that surprisingly wasn't corrected, given the state of modern digital technology. The L.A. material has hiss, treble attenuation, and a number of edit. bubbles (such as a few that start at 7:41 into the Prelude and Liebestod) that lead me to think it was made from a second- or third-generation source. Curiously, the Prelude and Interlude from act III of Die Meistersinger is far better than the rest of that broadcast concert, in terms of hiss, frequency response, and warmth. In fact, it furnishes the best sound on the disc. Was it actually from that L.A. broadcast that has otherwise survived in such a poor state, and if so, why does it sound like a recording made on the spot, rather than a studio relay?
Sound questions to one side, this is an excellent album for exposing listeners to the art of Fritz Busch. Although it doesn't display the structural breadth that was a hallmark of his symphonic recordings, or the wonderful rapport with singers that mark his studio and live operatic issues, the intensity, attention to detail, and expansive spirit are all present in abundant quantities.
Barry Brenesal
MusicWeb International March 2011
Guild's series devoted to Fritz Busch's recordings, both studio and live, perhaps inevitably wears a rather lop-sided look. The reason is the scurrying about for off-air broadcast material to supplement the paucity of commercial engagements, a sad indictment of things when it comes to the conductor's discography. Why didn't he record more in the studio? It's a question that, I'm sure, must have occupied admirers of the conductor, who fared much worse, in this respect, than his violinist brother Adolf.
But we must be grateful for what we do have. Take the two Mendelssohn performances, for example, which are the only studio items in this disc. The Overture to The Beautiful Melusine receives a reading of cogency and persuasive drama, whilst the Scherzo from the Octet is a perennial favourite, the performance of which has a vital and generous dynamism, without being at all rushed.
The concert performances come from Los Angeles and Malmö. Busch was in LA in March 1946, and we can hear him in the overture to Egmont, his own arrangement of some Schubert piano pieces, and in two large-scale Wagner works. One can't help noting once again the somewhat quixotic programming. Egmont starts a bit slowly but gradually increases in tension, turbulence and dynamism, sweeping into the fugal entry points with power. It's a great pity that the sound is so constricted and that there is so little sense of colour. It devitalises what was clearly a fine reading. The Schubert Dance Suite is pleasant but really of no great historical import. It's nice to hear one of Busch's rare arrangements at least. Probably the deft Trio is the pick of the four. The two Wagner extracts remind one as to this conductor's excellence in this repertoire. There's surging emotive power in the Tristan episode, but the last chord wavers and the sound is, once again, dull, as it is in the Mastersingers Prelude and Interlude from Act III.
The off-air performance of Alfvén's Midsommarvaka, the Swedish Rhapsody No.1, op.19, seems to be the only example of Busch's conducting in Malmö. The performance encapsulates very well the sprightliness and brio of the music, even its more bucolic moments. The spacious central section is well characterised, so too the fulsome drones and folk fiddle evocations of the later pages.
Interpretatively then, Busch directs with flair, and with insight. Sonically things are rather dull, even the Winterthur studio recordings.
Jonathan Wool
Busch directs with flair and insight. Sonically things are rather dull, even the Winterthur studio recordings.
Classical Recordings Quarterly Winter 2010
One of the oddities of the 78rpm era was the relative failure of the recording industry to pay greater attention to Fritz Bunch. Consequently, one is always ready to welcome any of his live performances that can be resurrected for commercial release. And so it is with this one, most of its content drawn from public concerts, the Mendelssohn items comprising the only studio session. That said, what is offered is sonically, at least, a mixed bag.
In many ways the prize here is the gorgeous account of the Mendelssohn overture. I have always admired two radically different accounts of this score from Toscanini (Guild 2358/59) and Schuricht (Decca 475 6074). Bunch's falls squarely between the two, considerably slower than Toscanini's, considerably faster than Schuricht's. This is a perfect mean, and along with a lively Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Octet, it offers some of the finest sound on this disc. At the other sonic extreme are all but one of the performances recorded in concert in Los Angeles: the Egmont Overture, the Dance Suite that Busch arranged from various Schubert pieces and the Tristan excerpts. The Beethoven seems stylish, but the colourless, scratchy source defies accurate appraisal. The Schubert, somewhat better sonically, is a pleasant trifle, but the Tristan is a sonic failure: gritty, occasionally distorted, and severely limited on top. This is all the more unfortunate, for Busch produces a refreshingly fluent, lyrical reading. The Meistersinger excerpt that follows comes as a shock because of sound that seems far ahead of 1946 technology. It certainly preserves the colour, pomp, and splendour of the performance. Finally, the Alfvén Swedish Rhapsody, if comparatively lightweight, is nonetheless charming and projected with lilt and grace by Busch. Here the sound, though not so wide-range as that in the Meistersinger excerpt, is eminently listenable.
One non-musical eccentricity of this release: the insert notes are barely professional. Although the sonic limitations of this release may put off some collectors, it surely is worth acquiring by anybody interested in this often overlooked giant among twentieth-century conductors.
Mortimer H. Frank
MusicWeb International December 2010
The majority of this disk is made up of a broadcast in the Standard Symphony Hour series. It followed two performances of the works, with the exception of the Mastersinger excerpts, in concerts in Los Angeles. The Egmont Overture is fiery and passionate, with a real sense of drama and tension, such as one seldom hears in performances of this piece these days. Busch grabs the music by the scruff of the neck and wrings it of every ounce of passion and tragedy he can find. The Schubert Dance Suite is a four movement work, compiled by Busch, and comprising the Polonaise in F, D599/4, Ecossaisen, D145/1–6, Trio in E (zu betrachten als verlorener Sohn eines Menuetts), D610 and Valses Nobles, D969. Whilst the orchestration is firmly romantic, there are some delightful passages for the Harmonie, a sound which Schubert would have recognised. It makes a nice interlude between the drama of Beethoven and the tragedy of Wagner. The Prelude and Liebestod receives a lovely performance, in which Busch never lets the piece get out of hand and becomes overblown. The music flows perfectly, as the climaxes come and go, the final one being within the scale of the performance, which has been well thought out and executed. The Mastersingers excerpts receive the same treatment, with Busch holding back, slightly, and letting the music progress at its own pace. The ending is suitably triumphant. The applause has been cut from the end of each piece except the Mastersingers and this has led to the acoustic being quickly faded out when the music stops. I would rather we had been able to share the audience's enthusiasm, for there is much when we can hear it. The sound is somewhat primitive but it's still clear and once the ears adjust to it, it's perfectly acceptable.Hugo Alfvén's Midsommarvaka (Midsummer Vigil) is a lovely piece; totally unpretentious and a perfect example of serious light music. It's brilliantly orchestrated and the material is approachable and entirely enjoyable. Obviously the musicians in Malmö have this music in their blood and they play it with a real belief and love. This is most enjoyable.The Mendelssohn pieces derive from studio sessions and they have the best sound on the disk. The Beautiful Melusine Overture has a nice, light touch, but the Scherzo feels too heavy-handed.
Overall, a fine disk, and a welcome addition to Guild's Fritz Busch series, with good transfers and excellent notes.
Bob Briggs
A fine disk
Audiophile Audition October 2010
Busch made his first visit to the Los Angeles Philharmonic on 7-8 March 1946, following two days of rehearsal, and he gleans from the orchestra a fervent response. The Egmont Overture may seem steadfast at first, but it quite assumes a ferocious momentum, proclaiming its cry of freedom with resolute pageantry. More refreshment follows, Busch himself having orchestrated (in 1944) a series of polonaise, ecossaise, menuet, and "noble" waltzes from Schubert's massive keyboard legacy – a frothy assemblage, eminently Viennese in conception and execution. But the feral passion in Busch's sense of the Great German Tradition comes to us by way of Wagner, in the form of Wagner's Tristan Prelude and Liebestod, played with–what one critic of the period, Carl Bronson, called–"such feelings [taken]. . .to heights that were titanic and devastating." The somber Prelude to Act III from Die Meistersinger imposes a more European sound on the LA Philharmonic, dark in hue and vividly clear in the low voices. The Dance of the Apprentices and Entry of the Masters enjoys a suave transparency, majestic sway and pomp quite apt for the celebration of music itself as a rite of passage.
Busch traveled to Winterthur, Switzerland in September 1949 to record for the Concert Hall Society, likely at the invitation of Volkmar Andreae. The Fair Melusina plays as a water piece whose gorgeous melody keeps ascending and adding various color flourishes. The middle section unleashes a stormy character that Busch keeps intact without sacrificing a steady sense of pulsation. Busch then embarked on a trip to Copenhagen and thence to Malmo–where he had first appeared in 1946–for a luncheon concert 30 October 1949. Busch held an innate fondness for venues Scandinavian, his often sharing conducting duties in Denmark with Nicolai Malko. The Alfven Midsommarvaka–the Mid-summer Vigil–of 1903 receives a splendidly colorful performance, the ensemble's having absorbed much of Busch's own expansive temperament. With Busch, technical proficiency merged with a natural sincerity and affinity with diverse musical styles. Buoyant, athletic, and eminently "rural," the music swaggers in dance rhythms that trip forever lightly in the heart.
Gary Lemco
Resmusica October 2010
So many labels devote themselves constantly to the republication of always same historical engravings with more or less of happiness in the sound restitution, some make proof of more than imagination. It is the case of Guild Historical whose catalogue currently comprises some 93 albums, and who undertook not only to give in circulation certain recordings studio of Fritz Busch, but also some in its public concerts. In that, Guild contributes substantially to a better comprehension of the art of the German big boss, and to even preserve it of a relative lapse of memory, its "official" discography in studio being rather sparse.
Fritz Busch (1890-1951) belonged to a family of musicians which includes/understands in particular the remarkable violonist and chambrist Adolf Busch (1891-1952) of which he is the older brother. Fritz, on its side, was made famous while becoming one of the founders of legendary Festival of Glyndebourne and its musical director of 1934 to 1939, and 1950 to 1951, periods lasting which it records with this particularly homogeneous team certain integral operas of Mozart which are as many first to the disc, and which many music lovers always estimate to be the absolute reference: Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Nozze di Figaro, then beginning of the year 50, Die Entführung aus dem Seraglio and Idomeneo, Re di Creta. It is essential thus like one of the purest figures mozartiennes of all times.
It is also Fritz Busch which was selected to direct the memorable concert of December 10, 1950 in Metropolitan Opera House of New York, in celebration of the second birthday of the Universal declaration of the Human rights of the United Nations, with the exceptional participation of the contralto Afro-American Marian Anderson and the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (Guild GHCD2354).
However the lyric work of Mozart was not the only strong point of Fritz Busch, and this disc shows it in a peremptory way: the program suggested is not only more delectable, but is also interpreted in a masterly way, while offering a digest of the international career of the large leader.
The two pages of Mendelssohn show what a musician of the hardening of Fritz Busch could obtain from a label and an orchestra of second plan but which counted excellent musicians: not being more under contract EMI, Busch joined the Concert Society Hall for some engravings studio in September 1949 the Symphony orchestra of Winterthur (then named Stadtorchester Winterthur – Municipal Orchestra of Winterthur), probably under the impulse of legendary the brucknérien Volkmar Andreae. It seems to have been particularly happy of these sessions of recording, and that gets along in these marvellous interpretations mendelssohniennes, all in smoothness and of a refined poetic sensitivity.
To March 1946, Fritz Busch went for the first time to Los Angeles for a series in concerts of which NBC retransmit part of that of March 10. It is this broadcasting which we find here, concerning of works of Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner. The pages of Schubert are particularly invaluable, because they even constitute one of too rare testimonys of the talent of orchestrator of Busch: Polonaise D. 599 n°4; Scottish D. 145 n°1 with 6; Trio (of a presumedly lost Minuet) D. 610; Twelve Noble Waltz D. 969. The concert accepted the sharpest praises of the public and the critic, and that is included/understood when one listens, for example, the Wagnerian orchestral extracts of a seldom equalized sumptuousness and yet of a legibility.
With regard to the Masters Singers of Nuremberg, Guild mentions the Prelude and Interlude of act III. Let us specify that it is about the Prelude of act III, the Dance of the Apprentices and the Procession of the Masters Singers.
One hardly awaited Germanic Fritz Busch in semi-sparkling Rhapsodie Suédoise n°1 "Midsommarvaka" (Night of Midsummer's Day) of Hugo Alfven, work which made the round the world tour in more or less contestable arrangements of variety: it is to forget the privileged friendly relations which Busch with Sweden maintained (and Denmark). It is thus not astonishing that our chief let himself go to an unslung interpretation, extravertie and absolutely filling with enthusiasm this popular page, while sparing oases of intense poetry in its central part: it is one of the most convincing versions of this picturesque work.
The technical realization of this CD of an major importance and generous knew as well as possible to preserve a maximum of sound characteristics of the original documents, which is worth us a concert of exceptional quality.
Let us announce to finish the exhaustive article on French Wikipédia devoted to Fritz Busch, and point out the preceding discs which are reserved for him at Guild Historical: GHCD2339 (Haydn, Mozart); GHCD2343 (Beethoven); GHCD2352 (Mozart, Schubert); GHCD2354 (Dvořák, Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven); GHCD2356 (Richard Strauss, Mozart).
Michel Tibbaut


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OK, so I just want to give a shoutout and recommend staying at Jesa Gigantes Beach Resort, our resort of choice when we were at Gigantes Islands. I came knowing about Jesa Resort when I was researching for places to stay during the planning stage of our Gigantes trip. When googling about Gigantes Islands, I noticed that most of the arrangements made by other travel bloggers (even Drew Arellano on "Byahe ni Drew") have been with Gigantes Hideaway Inn and Resort.
However, after stumbling across many blogs featuring Hideaway, I was discouraged with some of the comments of other bloggers or reviewers about their experiences at Hideaway. Feedback noted by some reviewers include poor location (beachfront filled with scallop shells, no sunset view in the afternoon, etc.), lack of cellular signal for any network (you have to go to this placed known as the "call center" to text or call loved ones) and other stuff (Google is your friend). With that information in mind, I began searching for alternative places of accommodation in Gigantes Norte. Enter Jesa Gigantes Beach Resort. Continue reading


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WHEELER, THOMAS BENTON (1840–1913). Thomas Benton Wheeler, judge and lieutenant governor, was born in Marshall County, Alabama, on June 7, 1840, the son of William Henry Edward and Mary Magruder (Barton) Wheeler. His father died in 1846, and his mother moved the family to Hays County, Texas, in 1854. During the Civil War Wheeler enlisted as a private in Company A of Peter C. Woods's regiment and was soon promoted to captain and authorized to raise a company. After the war he moved to Austin, where he was admitted to the bar and became county attorney of Travis County in 1867. He was removed from office by Union officials as an impediment to Reconstruction. From 1872 to 1877 Wheeler served as mayor of Austin. In 1873 he helped prevent rioting at the time of the Coke-Davis Controversy. In 1877 Wheeler moved to Breckenridge in Stephens County to practice law. He was elected judge of the Twelfth Judicial District in 1880 and reelected in 1884. He resigned in 1886 and served as lieutenant governor from 1887 to 1891. Wheeler bought land on Aransas and Red Fish bays in 1889 and in 1890 began to work for the construction of harbor facilities at Aransas Pass, where he resided after 1893. Wheeler married Kitty G. Manor in 1866; after her death in 1881 he married Ida DeBerry, and they became the parents of two children. Wheeler's "Reminiscences of Reconstruction in Texas" appeared in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association (later the Southwestern Historical Quarterly) in July 1907. He was a Knight Templar and a member of the Methodist Church; he served as superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school at Aransas Pass for twenty-two years. Wheeler died in a San Antonio hotel on February 21, 1913.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: White, 1891-). San Antonio Express, February 21, 1913.
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Christian and I did some reconnaissance work at the Seattle Public Library last week, researching design styles from the past century. On Monday, I met the newspaper photographer down there and we sort of sneaked into the stacks to get some shots.
Not sure if that was totally kosher - but the librarians didn't seem too bothered. But I think it's a bit bizarre to stumble upon a photographer, with old magazines sprawled all over the place, snapping away amongst the stacks.
One thing that Christian and I decided about the building, designed by Rem Koolhaas - it's very cold and unwelcoming for those who are staying for long periods of time. The lighting is very harsh, the hard floor surfaces are not conducive to standing or sitting. So, while it looks totally hip, it's functionality is not exactly intuitive or easy. But it looks cool.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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PC version comes out November 19, 2013
Not interested in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's Limited Edition? Well how does the Lethal Pirate Edition fancy you? It's available exclusively through Amazon, and here's what you get for $69.99:
Mmm, I think the Limited Edition is actually way more enticing here. Strike two, Amazon.
Oh, by the way, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will be out November 19, 2013 for the PC.
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Like Monday's strip, but this one is about Fridays (" T.G.I.F.")
Like Monday\'s strip, but this one is about Fridays (\" T.G.I.F.\")
I love this one!
Where's the poop strips your Muse ordered you to do?
That was Mimi's muse, not necessarily Nina's muse.
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text: With all apologies to Austin Powers, the 2019 Mini Cooper Hardtop is; groovy baby. Starting at $22,750 (including an $850 destination charge), the latest edition of the iconic British Mini Cooper Hardtop is available as a two or four-door, featuring three power options, and three trims. Loaded with technology features, the latest Mini Cooper Hardtop is sporty, nimble, and perfect for the individual looking for an affordable and eclectic daily driver.


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Hotel de Sharp: Lessons From Four Seasons' Founder
Hotelier Isadore Sharp's Anticipated Memoir is, Ironically, Short on Service
Isadore Sharp's book, "Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy," is typical of the problems with many C-suite memoirs, for Mr. Sharp has three distinct stories to tell. First, there's his personal story: The heartwarming tale of the plucky Toronto Jew who rose from being a day-laborer on his immigrant father's building crews to running the most respected hospitality business on the planet. It's a story Horatio Alger would admire.Then there's the history of the hospitality business itself. How Four Seasons, which began as little more than a motor lodge in downtown Toronto in 1960, leapfrogged Goliaths like Hilton to become the ne plus ultra in the hotel business, where the richest and wealthiest on virtually every continent relax. (It should be noted there is not a Four Seasons on Antarctica. Yet.) And lastly, there's the story of Four Seasons' unique business model -- in 1974, it stopped owning its hotels, content instead to make its money building them and then signing staggeringly long service agreements (usually in the 80-year range). This is the story of how Sharp transformed his company essentially from a manufacturer to a service business, on purpose, long before it was fashionable. Each of these would be an interesting tale in its own right: Rags-to-riches stories are always popular and often instructive; the evolution of the hospitality industry over the past half century would lend a fascinating perspective on North American culture; and a discussion of how Mr. Sharp transformed his company and an honest appraisal of the challenges would be valuable at this time like no other. And while any of these individual stories would make an interesting book, it would take a writer of inordinate skill to seamlessly interweave them into one compelling and exciting narrative. Unfortunately, for all he may be otherwise, Mr. Sharp is not a writer of inordinate skill. As a result, we get at best only superficial accounts, as if lifted from a half-century of daily planners and calendars: I made this decision here, then I had a meeting there, then we had this situation over here. Opportunities fall more or less from the sky. Characters and key players arrive and disappear without warning or weight. It all seems stunningly random. It's quite possible that this is how Mr. Sharp feels. Who among us is capable of looking back upon the tangled threads of our lives to carefully discern the patterns, the leitmotifs, the themes? But one buys a book like this ultimately to learn. For advice. Direction. To use the experience of others to advantage. That is the promise. And a writer who does not deliver on that promise is not delivering value. It's ironic, actually. Because in a very real sense, this observation about value lies at the heart of what has made Four Seasons successful. Mr. Sharp would be the first to admit (as he does in the book) that Four Seasons is what it is because of a culture of fanatical devotion to understanding what his guests want and a rigorous dedication to the idea that actions speak louder than words. To then write a book that neither delivers what a reader would want, nor does it in a way that is believable, is, at best, a lost opportunity, and, at worst, disappointing in the extreme. Now, it is probably true that the most compelling of the three stories -- how Mr. Sharp realized that he was in the service, and not manufacturing, industry and how he managed his company through that transition -- is probably the one fraught with the most ugly details. Mr. Sharp might believe that advertising these difficulties would serve no purpose for him or for the Four Seasons. But he's not writing this book for himself or his company. He's writing it for everyone else. And such a story would be of astonishing value to all the rest of us who are trying to negotiate our tiny ships through the Scyllas and Charybdises of today's economy.


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The company that started as a secret Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.35% project to build hardware that could stream media to televisions no longer thinks those gadgets are the key to its Wall Street success.
Roku Inc. ROKU, +0.90% made its debut Thursday after raking in at least $219 million in an initial public offering that valued the company at roughly $1.3 billion, and shares zoomed nearly 68% higher than the $14 IPO price to close at $23.50. In morning trading Friday, shares jumped again to more than double the IPO price, suggesting investors have taken to the company even after it failed to raise private capital at a $1.5 billion valuation earlier this year.
Roku is largely known for its line of TV streaming sticks and devices, but executives say that the future lies in money generated from what people use the gadgets for: consuming content. Roku is staking its growth on its dedicated TV and streaming device operating system, described as "platform" revenue in company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that showed sales growth of 91% in the first six months of 2017 from the previous year.
"What's important in the evolution of the company is the platform business is becoming a greater and greater portion of Roku," Chief Financial Officer Steven Louden told MarketWatch in a telephone interview Thursday. "It's now 80% of our gross profit and I think it's great proof-point for investors about really what the Roku business model is about."
Don't miss: Roku IPO: Five things to know about the streaming-device company.
The company generates revenue from its streaming operating system in three ways: It sells ads, which make up about two-thirds of the current platform sales, and has revenue-sharing agreements for content and subscriptions purchased via its operating system, according to Louden. A final 5% comes from licensing the technology to others.
"[Licensing fees are] probably the place that has the most significant revenue recognition around it," Louden said. "Our licensing fees—we have multiyear deals with TV brands as well as service operators through our Roku Power program. We actually have almost $70 million in deferred revenue on the balance sheet, which is a lot of value."
As the software side of the business grows at a near triple-digit clip, hardware sales dipped 2% to $117.3 million in the first six months of 2017 compared with last year. But Roku doesn't see what it calls "player" revenue as a profit driver, Louden says, but rather a way to attract new customers to its platform.
"We focus on overall profit growth at Roku," he said. "We are making a strategic trade off between the player segment and the platform segment because we are not trying to maximize for player revenue.…We look at the player segment as a customer-acquisition path as opposed to thinking like a hardware company and needing to maximize revenue on that."
Roku's focus on the software ecosystem echoes the sentiments of other hardware startups that have made it to Wall Street, like GoPro Inc. GPRO, -2.49% and Fitbit Inc. FIT, -2.58% It is a path that Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.57% has shown to be possible, as the iPhone maker's software and services revenues have continued to grow even as sales growth for its hardware has stalled.
IPO experts are closely watching the company's non-device revenue and give credit to executives for recognizing that hardware was not the path to Roku's most promising future.
"What [executives] were able to do was recognize their hardware business model was not a long-term smashing success and manage to change, and not to have a giant dip in the process moving from the hardware to the platform and have some decent margins along the way," said Barrett Daniels, Chief Executive of Nextstep, a San Francisco company that helps private firms go public. "The good part of the business is really growing."
Daniels says he was pleasantly surprised by the company's S-1 filing because, unlike some other recent tech IPOs such as Snap Inc. SNAP, +0.61% , executives didn't give themselves massive stock grants, their financials appear to be "well-managed" and the company went public at the right time.
"Unlike Evan Spiegel at Snap—large stock grants are actually pretty common—the executives don't seem to be robbing the place. I think they've done a very responsible job."
See also: Six things to know about the Snap IPO
Roku's debut comes at time when the market for IPOs appears to be improving. The total number of IPOs this year has already surpassed the total number of deals completed for all of 2016. What's different about Roku's IPO is that investors in the private companies look to have missed an opportunity, passing on a chance to invest at a $1.5 billion valuation.
"Public investors seem to be the smart ones," Daniels said. "They were able to recognize good fundamentals and good future prospects. Private market investors are the dumb ones, meaning they had a chance to invest in this six months ago and they passed. I think this is a new sort of world we're living in."
Roku's IPO also arrives at a good time for technology companies, as the SPDR Technology Select Sector exchange-traded fund XLK, -0.80% has rallied 5.2% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.58% has gained 2.8%.
Roku ROKU, +0.90% sold at least 9 million shares in the IPO for $126 million, and selling stockholders Menlo Ventures and Sky Ventures Ltd. combined to sell 6.7 million shares. Underwriters have access to 2.35 million more shares, which would be split between the company and selling stockholders if they are sold.
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text:
Sam Miranda Chardonnay Pinot Noir N.V.
A delicate bead of bubbles highlights the fresh white stone fruit and yeast romas. Peach and subtle strawberry flavours are evident on the palate which lingers and finishes with crisp natural sherbet like acidity. An elegant traditional sparkling style that is designed to suit all manner of celebrations! Enjoy.
Sourced from our Myrrhee vineyard, a classic blend of bottle fermented Chardonnay Pinot Noir aged on its lees for 12 months. A Subtle creamy aroma followed by distinct lemon/ citrus fruit flavours with dry crisp finish to the palate. A wine for celebrations.
The free run parcels of each variety; 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir, were blended together prior to a cold co-fermentation around 12c in tank. The finished base wine was fined using skim milk to remove any harsh phenolics and then sent off to be Tiraged and fermented in the bottle in the traditional Method Champenoise style. The sparkling wine was then aged on its lees
for 12 months.
Screw Cap
Sam Miranda
Grape Variety
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
Growing Region
King Valley
Date Bottled
Discorged January 2017
% Alcohol
Residual Sugar


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A bit of inner turmoil always accompanies the purchase of the newest Worms game. Do I really need this? I just bought one last year. Ten seconds later: Okay, fine, I'll get it. Despite the general sameness of each title with minute changes to keep things fresh, Team17 consistently makes just enough of those changes to warrant the yearly refresh. Worms Clan Wars follows in this mold, making lots of little updates, plus one big one.
The 3D-rendered, 2D-styled graphics are gorgeous, taking the colorful depth of Worms Revolution to the next level. The shadows and precision in Worms Clan Wars are striking, with an almost hand-drawn level of detail. Blowing a hole in the wall to reveal part of the background can be a costly distraction: remember, at the end of the day, we're here to kill worms, not sightsee.
And kill worms we shall. Clan Wars contains a whopping 65 weapons in its complete arsenal, featuring most of the gadgets from Revolution and ten brand new additions. These range from the explosive Mega Mortar and Bovine Blitz to the useful Oxygen and Teleport Gun. As someone who adopted mostly Scouts in Revolution just for increased movement speed, the Teleport Gun is my favorite new weapon: it transports worms to whatever location it's pointed at, and can be used indefinitely so long as the worm has not touched the ground. Timing the aim does take practice, but the possibility of long-distance worm travel in a single turn is worth the effort.
Those weapons are available via a weapons panel that appears on the right side of the screen, with all 65 icons visible and the ones you have access to colored in. I do prefer the style of panel used in Revolution, which overlays the entire screen and allows for larger icons of each weapon. Icons in Clan Wars, and even the gear info below the weapons panel, are very small and tough to differentiate. And with every icon visible—not just your available items—you often have to scroll through an entire column just to reach your weapon of choice. This costs precious seconds of your turn that could be used for worming your way toward the enemy.
Of course, dedicated Worms fans will likely get used to the panel and onto killing quickly enough. Clan Wars features the physics objects system introduced in Revolution and enhances it to almost puzzle-platformer status in some places. Prehistoric talons need to be lodged in a hole to create a path for your soldiers; bones attached to rope-pulleys act as elevators that require careful jump-off timing. The new Oxygen item allows worms to breathe underwater and avoid the health penalty, while Winged Monkeys can grab physics objects and drop them in front of—or onto—unsuspecting worms.
All of these features, new and old, can be enjoyed in single-player as well as local and online multiplayer. Up to four teams, with as many as eight worms per team, can battle it out in the diorama-themed levels. Although I didn't get to try multiplayer during this pre-play due to unfortunately empty servers, it's obvious that Clan Wars is focused on your ability to go wormo-a-wormo against other human beings. With multiplayer ranked matches, Clan Wars (the title and name of the clan arena) league play, "Wormnet" chat rooms, and all the other goodies we've come to expect—like worm customization and level editors—readily available, there's no reason not to throw down with your friends.
Unless you're playing single-player, which is a good reason. Katherine Parkinson voices our new, spoiled "crypt-creeper" narrator, and brings the same snooty disregard for worm life to the role as Revolution's Matt Berry. One of her many great quotes: "My butler air-dropped a back up worm into this exhibit. Several actually. Then he remembered to give one a parachute. So there's one living back up worm in here somewhere."
There will be plenty of back up worms when we review Worms Clan Wars upon full release later this year.


text: Zach Condon's makeshift world-folk outfit Beirut surveyed the exotic oompah and frostbitten bar-balladry of Eastern Europe on last year's Gulag Orkestar, a charming exercise that never quite transcended its "exercise-ness." Condon dragged Beirut into French cabarets for the follow-up, The Flying Club Cup, an album that still leads more with its head than its heart, though the level of sophistication Condon achieves bridges a lot of gaps. As a song-cycle inspired by different French cities and their attendant moods, The Flying Club Cup moves gracefully from homemade waltzes laced with pumping accordion to more elegant pop songs like "Cliquot" and complex Euro-jazz like "In The Mausoleum." Condon's theatrical croon and rich string arrangements hold the album together while it tells a musical story about the acculturation of the boozy.


text: On 16 Mar 2011, at 08:59, Christopher Forsythe <chris at perian.org> wrote: > Can all of this infighting be taken off the lists? I'm tired of hitting the delete button. Agreed. To anyone having objections: While I personally do not find them justified I do apologise for the extra effort it means to you but kindly ask you to also consider others who might feel like me. Unsubscribing is comparatively little effort and I'd appreciate if you would do so without starting another discussion that does not help. I would appreciate anyone deciding to stay on though.


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In today's sponsored show we cover the Juniper MX; it's a platform that's build from the ground up to support high-density Ethernet services that can be used in both enterprise and service provider core, aggregation, and edge as well as broadband and mobile backhaul. The Juniper MX line up is as follows: MX5, MX10, MX40, MX80, MX240, MX480, and the MX960. The Juniper MX features custom built silicon called Trio which focuses on high-scale, line-rate performance, and inline services such as port mirroring, IPFIX, NAT, and GRE. There are three different categories of line cards: switching only, routing plus switching, and all of the above plus hierarchal queuing. As we say, "the line cards are full of awesome"!
The MX has a perfect combination of price to performance no matter what role it's fulfilling in the network.
Show Links
The Bay Area Juniper Users Group (BAJUG) is also being held October 16th 2012 in Sunnyvale. Free registration at http://bajug.eventbrite.com
The O'Reilly Juniper MX book is at http://tinyurl.com/junipermx
Douglas Hanks is a Data Center Architect with Juniper Networks and focuses on solution architecture for service provider and enterprise. He is certified with Juniper Networks as JNCIE-ENT #213 and JNCIE-SP #875. He is the author of the Juniper MX Series by O'Reilly and several Day One books published by Juniper Networks. Douglas is also the co-founder of the Bay Area Juniper Users Group (BAJUG).
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @douglashanksjr
Russell has worked in the IT telecom and networking industries for over 15 years. He has worked in the leading financials for and fortune 500 companies for eight years designing their global networks and high performance trading networks throughout Europe and the US. Russell holds a B.Eng and B.Sc degree in computing from Auckland University and a masters in Information systems from RMIT in Melbourne. He also holds multiple industry certifications including his CCIE.
Harry Reynolds has over 30 years of experience in the networking industry, with the last 20 years focused on LANs and LAN interconnection. He is CCIE # 4977 and JNCIE # 3 and also holds various other industry and teaching certifications. Harry was a contributing author to Juniper Network Complete Reference (McGraw-Hill) and wrote the JNCIE and JNCIP Study Guides (Sybex Books) & coauthor for Junos Enterprise Routing and Junos Enterprise Switching (O'Reilly). Currently, Harry performs Customer Specific Testing that simulates one of the nation's largest private IP backbones at multidimensional scale.
Derick Winkworth has 17 years of experience in the industry as a developer, network engineer, architect. He is currently the product manager of JUNOS Manageability. In his current role he focuses on usability of JUNOS and automation of networks built with JUNOS. You can follow him on twitter where he goes by @cloudtoad. He occasionally blogs on PacketPushers.
The Packet Pushers thanks Juniper for the sponsorship and supporting the Packet Pushers. We hope to have more podcasts on the same topics. Let us know what you would like to hear from Juniper – any favourite products or technologies ?


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When the preseason schedule came out, the evening of August 22 looked like a fun night for "told ya so's" and backseat G.M.-ing in the Bay Area.
Niners at Raiders. Oakland's rookie wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey — the seventh overall pick and consensus choice for biggest reach in the 2009 draft — on one side, and San Fran's Michael Crabtree, the 10th overall pick and consensus choice for "guy who slipped too far," on the other.
Well, it's not going to work out that way.
Heyward-Bey will be there, Crabtree won't.
The latter is in Day 23 of a holdout that's linked in large part to his camp's perception that he should have been a top-five pick and thus is superior to Heyward-Bey, even though Crabtree was drafted three spots lower than DHB.
Heyward-Bey's deal with Oakland was for five years and $38.25 million, with $23.5 million in guaranteed money. In his MMQB column from earlier this week, Peter King wrote that Crabtree won't settle for less than what DHB received.
But the time-honored slotting system used for signing unproven players to absurd contracts says that Crabtree should get a little less than what the ninth pick, B.J. Raji, got from Green Bay: Five years, $28.5 with $19.5 guaranteed.
A source with knowledge of the negotiations told me Wednesday, "Nothing's changed."
Which means Crabtree, utterly convinced he's better than Heyward-Bey, continues to collect dust and reinforce the diva label that was affixed to him in the weeks before the draft.
And Heyward-Bey plays on.


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To fill its basketball coaching vacancy, Oneida High School looked to its past.
The school announced Monday that Jacob King will be its new men's basketball head coach. King, 38, will be serving his second stint as the Indians' head coach, and will replace Zach Smith, who departed the program last month.
Dr. Jeanny Hatfield, Oneida Special School District's director of schools, made the announcement on Monday. She picked King from a field of three finalists forwarded to her by a committee that interviewed six candidates. The other finalists were current Oneida Middle School head coach Shawn West and former Huntsville Middle and Scott High women's basketball coach Chad Marcum.
King is an Oneida alumnus, and played for the Indians in the mid 1990s. He graduated in 1997. He began his high school coaching career as an assistant on Bill Hall's staff at Scott High, and later served as head coach at Oneida, where he succeeded Kevin Windle in 2005. He coached the Indians' program for three seasons before resigning in 2008, when he was replaced by Rusty Yaden.
Oneida struggled during the regular season from 2006 to 2008, having graduated a large number of seniors after the 2004 and 2005 seasons, but advanced to the regionals in each of those seasons after finishing third place in the District 4-A tournament each season.
In a written release Monday morning, Hatfield said King was selected because he met the criteria that had been set forth for the position.
"I was looking for a coach that would be a mentor to our students, had good character, and who valued our students above all else," Hatfield said. "The right candidate also had to meet the expectations and goals I had put in place for the program.
"After Coach King's interview with the panel and a second interview with the director, I believe he has the humility, motivation and coaching skills to mentor our young men and bring championship basketball back to Oneida."
King will serve in a non-faculty position. He is employed by his father's company, Danny King Lumber.
Speaking by telephone Monday morning, Hatfield said she had made her decision on Friday, and had made a courtesy call to each of the other finalists to "let them know that we've decided to go in a different direction."
Besides the three finalists, others interviewed for the position included former Oneida player and current Bryan College graduate assistant Jake Wright, former Kentucky high school coach Steven Jaco and former Grundy County coach Jerry Brown.
The panel tasked with narrowing the list of candidates included Oneida High School principal Kevin Byrd and athletics director Jimmy May, along with OHS women's basketball coach Marv West. Others on the panel were former college player Derek Keeton, former Oneida and University of Tennessee standout Brynae Laxton Miley, and Roane County athletics director Tony Clower.


text: THE complete hotel software system for hoteliers to book rooms, functions, record vat sales, and manage the hotel, in a nutshell. Independently designed for small to medium size hotels, Resident Pro is professional, well established, software for hotels – highly customisable to your business. Resident Pro is "feature-rich", which means that whilst other software may ultimately fall short of essential features that you need to run your business, Resident Pro will work naturally for you, and grow with your requirements… linking to epos in your restaurant and bar, telephone systems, online bookings, and channel management too. Contact me


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Ruby Moon will have a Christmas open house on Saturday, December 1 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Enjoy appetizers and delectable sweets, gourmet cheeses and of course, free wine tasting. Owners, Jamie and Anita, will be giving tours at both 12pm and 2pm and will be drawing for door prizes throughout the day, including a free night stay in the Sunset Suite.
The winery is located at
9566 US Hwy 41 A
Henderson, KY 42420
Google Map of the location.
For more information visit www.rubymoonwinery.com