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Yeah I mean they've never done any episodes with Santas Little Helper before
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Yeah I mean they've never done any episodes with Santas Little Helper before
It's nowhere near the level of a Bart's Girlfriend or New Kid on the Block... but it may be my favorite post-classic era episode focusing on Bart's love life. It's not like there's much in the way of competition. The only other episode that comes close is Season 13's The Bart Wants What It Wants.
Just yesterday I was wondering why they hadn't used Alex Rocco in 15 years, so that's good news
Some things I found interesting:
- Confirmation that FOX conducted the 4-act structure. Wish the staff still had the balls to say no to Fox.
- Only 3% of an original script remains nowadays, vs 30-40% in the old days. To me that doesn't sound like a good thing, it could explain why the stories seem so unfocused, without vision and go completely random from beat to beat. Hopefully this fact puts an end to all those 'Oh no, it's a Rob Lazebnik episode!'-type comments
Three to four percent!? Wtf? If you gave a group of untalented a.d.d. kids an episode to write, you'd still wind up with a more cohesive plot.
I guess the writers traded the focusyn in for a case of fuckitol.
Well, ya'know if you stay positive and forget about trivial things like "proper characterization," "Satire," and "emotional depth" watching new Simpsons episodes can be a seemingly enjoyable lie.
I tried watching a new episode the Simpsons, but I realized the show hit a new low, like a brand new, underground parking structure of sadness.
Actually it's more similar to New Kid On The Block instead of My Sister, My Sitter. Wouldn't be a bad idea if it were the other way around, Jimbo's girlfriend being Bart's babysitter. I think the idea could be interesting if Jimbo gets jelaous even if Bart is not interested on the girl.
I don't know about you but I really love the premise of the Roger Meyers episode. I was missing the character a lot and I think the concept for the episode is fantastic, Itchy and Scratchy related or not. And it will probably be somewhat related to Itchy and Scratchy anyway. I think Michael Price is one of the best writers of the show now, so I hope he does a good job with this one. That's exactly the kind of thing they should do more often: taking minor characters that didn't have a lot of episodes devoted to them and make relatable stories that fit their circumstances. Being the son of a "Walt Disney" type, I can see why Roger Meyers Jr. could be worried about not being up to his father figure (even if he stole the characters anyway). The development may be good or bad, but the premise is really good. Looking forward for this one.
My Simpsons homage!
"Gentlemen, the screwballs have spoken"
500th episode preview clips give british tv critic, Nick Park & hosts a good laugh:
Notice the critic correcting himself: "it is a very sophisti... was a very sophisticated, brilliantly written show"
So the other episodes that Al Jean approved (from the top of my head; "Regarding Margie", "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly", "Milhouse of Sand and Fog", "Mobile Homer") aren't similar to other episodes at all? But this one is? My brain has been blown to bits and pieces.Originally Posted by Michael Price
How can it be similar if Flanders have visited but not The Simpsons. While it may have been just another vacation trip; it would of been 10x interesting to see The Simspons interact in towns like Celebration, Florida. (Even with the current writing staff, which I'm sure would of included prank gags and just random stuff into the episodes.) There are things about towns that have a certain style to them (even though Celebration has been turned over to the community and is not owned by Disney.) that could of been picked apart; additionally, it could of also been made to work within the episode, work to expose The Simpsons character and play an essential part of the plot.
I'm glad to know that real life events (even if they are solely in LA now.) are still being incorporated into the series but even though the under-the-radar thing is different (in that they're able to incorporate as many jokes as possible.), I still feel like the Celebration idea had some merit.
That's a point... However, there is only so much you can do with the not aging part; you have to take into consideration the writing, the appeal, the plots, the intelligence of the audience. You can have the characters remain the same but it isn't going to do any good is the material isn't. I'm surprised he failed to mention the Peanuts since all of those animated characters not aging descends from them but eh, I'll let it slide. He should keep in mind that the voice actors can suffer the same things as the end of the paragraph though, just because it's animated does not mean it can't inherit the same problems.Originally Posted by Michael Price
The Simspons Comics manage to illustrate that better then the episodes; which rehash plots/situations, doesn't take any major steps or risks and feels the need to be complacent 100% of the time. I mean you shouldn't be embracing your " famous sitcom" image, you should be making fun of it/trashing it.Originally Posted by Michael Price
If the original writers are such a home base then why don't we see it in recent episodes; all of the new episodes have been either bland, bad or terrible and that could be faulted to plots which don't exactly work out on a TV screen, jokes whose potential is wasted by going on for longer then they should, the fear that the audience won't "get it" and the general atmosphere of a comedy club where these characters are treated as vessels for jokes rather then actual characters. (only in a few episodes do their characters get shown.)Originally Posted by Michael Price
Also the stuff said about society and the world is mainly based around Los Angeles and not the entire US of A (which Springfield was supposed to represent.) I can understand the extravagant shopping malls, trying to find a parking spot, fancy restaurants and stupid stuff at the DMV as social commentary but it's weak social commentary because it's not truly unique. It feels like they're commenting in life around Southern California because that's where they live, that's the kind of material they know and they're used to where they live and what they know. I mean what reason do I have to watch The Simpsons when I can just drive down to LA and experience most of the stuff they were talking about.
The stuff mentioned about the internet, devices and computers in general feels like a need to stay relevant; it's not even good commentary at that, even Bevis and Butthead don't go on about how technology is an ever present part of our lives, everybody is using it, everybody is getting addicted to it and sucking; they just show it as something the character uses and doesn't exactly understand. That alone if the perfect social commentary for our current technological world.
Makes me miss the days where the creative staff and the fans still had spirit, magic and wonder that made them stand out (even Seasons 13-16); now the magic is gone, the spirit is gone and it's fanbase is significantly smaller then ever before. A sign of the times I guess but I really miss that spirit.Originally Posted by Michael Price
It can't be that way but it can be enjoyable, well written and funny again. How does it "evolve" exactly; does it try to do modern jokes that people will like, does it try to reference modern culture in a way that seems awkward, does it try to understand it's audience? The animation may be in HD but it doesn't make the material any better (it did somewhat in Season 20 but few episodes actually show that.)Originally Posted by Michael Price
Also I wish you had the balls to stand up to Fox and get that obviously better 3 act structure back. I can lend you mine, they are in perfectly good shape and their tough as steel.
Even a quality person would realize that that there are flaws in the product; regardless of whether or not he has a soft spot for the product; You are right about the fact that people have different views though.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Do you actually read those reactions? Or do you just gloss over them without reading deep into them? Those people who hate the Simpsons have reasons for why they hate it and they somewhat go into detail in them; I'm not against the people who like The Simpsons as they enjoy watching it Sunday night but I am against the production of The Simpsons as a "product", as something that airs on 30 minutes for a quick laugh; nothing memorable.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Seasons 13-16 did produce memorable episodes but the seasons after that produced mainly imo crap with a few gems sandwiched inbetween. I don't claim to hate every modern Simpsons episode out there but it is clear that there is a noticeable lack of quality starting with Season 17. Those episodes that are in Seasons 17-23 are only memorable because they have one scene that was in the news or a guest star that appeared in it; it's not memorable because it had good writing or good jokes, it was memorable for only one scene.
Also I actually watch the episode and take notes on it; my reviews are filled with valid criticisms and opinions that represent the episode as a whole and they're also filled with a bit of fair opinion; meaning that it's not slanted towards hate or love, it's just balanced. The Vulture article (which I already commented on) mainly has the author go about how the characters aren't relevant anymore and how the show has been on for a long time as an excuse for the show's decline in quality. I'm not doubting that he took the time to watch the episodes, I'm just saying that people should not make excuses regarding the shows quality; they should either like it or hate it and not try to justify it with something like (It's been on for 500 episodes! give it a break.)
What impact? We're not looking for impact, we're looking for quality entertainment to watch on Sundays. Even then, it's impact can still be regained; just because time has passed doesn't mean it's impact it's lost, it just has to dig deep into the satire, make memorable episodes, make jokes that go above and beyond and actually make a statement instead of trying to be relevant. Something which I doubt the writer is even getting. (since he's like a broken record.) The fans behind the Simpsons aren't driven by nostalgia, they're driven by quality. Quality is quality regardless of the medium. Take for instance a film from the 1940's that has bad writing, bad plotting and bad plots. That film is crap even in the era where standards were loose, for good reason. Now take that film and release it in 2012; is there some sort of nostalgic factor making that film good? No; because it's still crap.Originally Posted by Michael Price
So he's the one who had a hand in the episode sucking... I wonder what jokes he submitted; maybe he contributed the drive through the fast-food lane; or maybe the various Homer and Ralph Wiggum jokes throughout the episode. He should get a better grasp of comedy before contributing jokes; people who let their sons contribute just because he's their son is in itself contributing to the fall of society; having a better grasp of everything just results in a better product.Originally Posted by Michael Price
I wonder if he gets the biting satire and the obscure movie references littered throughout the episode; I also wonder if he's seen Ugly Americans.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Le Jake and Jamie would disagree with you.Originally Posted by Michael Price
If you've come from a theater background then why do most of the episodes you written either suck or are incredibly mediocre? Of course, I shouldn't doubt a person who's written "The Fool Monty".Originally Posted by Michael Price
3%? No wonder why the scripts are all over the place? We're even lucky to get a script where the plot is competent and the number of jokes that are good outweigh the bad. Season 23's "The Book Job" is a great example of this.Originally Posted by Michael Price
They need to stop trying to add jokes here and there and just focus on making quality entertainment. I mean there are some good jokes but those jokes can taken out of the episodes and made into clips; raising the question of why we even need episodes in the first place if the good jokes can just be separated into clips.
I would.Originally Posted by Michael Price
So why is it that all of these episodes are filled with guest starts then? Not only that, but obvious guest starts. If you don't want to do guest stars for the sake of having guest stars then don't do guest stars. All these guest stars do is show how low the show has gotten.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Maybe it's best to self-censor. I mean it could lead to the people to think harder to make that unique joke rather then joking off. Who cares if it leads to a very little getting pitched, maybe that very little is quality material.Originally Posted by Michael Price
It's nice that we're getting a new Itchy & Scratchy episode but I have to worry a bit because the animation references here haven't been up to par. (they consistently reference Pixar at every moment due to Brad Bird being there and not as any sort of respect to their animation, I mean if they respected animation then maybe every kind of animation should be given some sort of spotlight on the Simpsons and not just Pixar.) Michael, I will watch the episode if you promise to make it engaging and deep and if you promise to tone down on the Pixar references a notch. Of course, I'm guessing that promise will be thin.Originally Posted by Michael Price
If the point of view of Moe is that he's a pathetic loner who barely has any friends and his only companion is Moe rag then it's the wrong mindset. The one in the early season was that of a bartender who was aggressive, had a shotgun but mostly cared for his patrons, if for the fact that they gave them money. I wouldn't blame Price, it's mainly the fault of the writers who thought Moe would have better jokes/moments if he was pathetic, though in the course of the shows later seasons; that decision went nowhere. Changing characters just because it may result in something better is not the way to do it, I mean Homer hurting himself and acting obnoxious may result in different jokes but is it worth it?Originally Posted by Michael Price
Eh, the Cat Lady is the most overrated character out there.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Wow; it's in HD! It's cleaner! The coloring is bright and vibrant! This just makes me appreciate earlier hand-drawn animation more; regardless of the subject matter. This also makes me appreciate Disney's efforts to bring back hand-drawn animation to the forefront. I mean does the public really expect a product that's clean and barely has any mistakes or should the public expect a product that has charm, that has effort, that has some mistakes and that has personality. Mistakes are one thing when they ruin a product but in the proper light, it enhances the product and makes it more "human", to have everything be mistake-free is "robotic", nobody likes "robotic".Originally Posted by Michael Price
My reviews (and others) say otherwise.Originally Posted by Michael Price
It's obviously the two best episodes of the season; a season which isn't representative of what Michael is making it out to be. I'm just glad he didn't recommend "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches", people wouldn't rejoin the Simpsons had they not watch those two episodes he mentioned first.Originally Posted by Michael Price
We'll see...Originally Posted by Michael Price
Unless it's audience leaves en-masse and the production gets too expensive but I'm guessing the people working on The Simpsons will just work for free and pay any production costs out of their pocket if it happens; this show is the only thing they got.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Wow... 21st Century Hipsters. Do you mean Homer becomes one of those people who leans on a wall, dresses in Leather jackets and jeans, owns an iPhone, watches obscure movies and hangs out at obscure night clubs while also wearing sunglasses and listening to dubstep?Originally Posted by Michael Price
Wow... A sort of babysitting episode where Shauna takes Bart into dangerous seedy places; Bart learning an obvious lesson from this at the end. I'd watch every sitcom/animated cartoon that did this plot ever made if I wanted a babysitting plot.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Hey Jake! You were right! How much do I owe ya?Originally Posted by Michael Price
It may bring them to teals but will it bring us to tears; I'd doubt otherwise but we'll see come 2013.Originally Posted by Michael Price
Zombies...BRILLIANT! You absolutely nailed it but unfortunately the douches that work alongside Price will - if they even read Simpsons forums anymore - dismiss it as "Crazy Internet Nerd talk".
I really enjoyed reading that Price interview and look forward to several of these upcoming plots.
So is she Bart's age or younger than Bart?
See that could be an interesting episode, Jimbo a possible paedofile! (Although it would have to be different from Homer Badman)
Zombies nailed most of his criticisms, but I won't be so hard with Price, to me it's one of the best writer now along Matt Selman, J.Stewart Burns and Maxtone Graham. His last episodes were nothing special and some of them even bad but I still get the feeling he handles the characters better than most of the other new writers.
And the more I think about it I believe Bart "babysitting" Jimbo's girlfriend isn't probably babysitting "per se"-he says "kind of babysitting"-maybe Jimbo just order Bart to look after her girlfriend so she won't get in trouble/cheat him with other boys or something.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/...#ixzz1mgHhloNj— At Long Last Leave, Feb. 19, 2012 (Season 23, 500th episode). This Sunday's episode, in which the Simpsons are evicted from Springfield. "It has a lot of little jokes that longtime fans will really like."
Another quick piece with Michael Price:
Not much new until the final paragraph, pasted below:
"With a mind toward the future, Price was able to share a few upcoming story lines and guest stars. One episode he's currently penning will see Itchy & Scratchy Land close down, which leads to Homer and Bart obtaining a small steam-engine train from the amusement park and restoring it to run in their back yard. This attracts the attention of fellow model-train enthusiasts like Rev. Lovejoy and Comic Book Guy, who at first just want to help out, but then end up taking over. Steve Carell recorded a voice spot for early next season, as did Brent Spiner from Star Trek: The Next Generation, who will voice a group of robots working at the nuclear power plant. Steve Coogan will turn up as the director of a cruise ship, and Portlandia's Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein play the husband-and-wife team that lead a hipster invasion of Springfield."
Zombies - fantastic post. I just had to say it.
Thanks to CousinMerl for this great sig!
Also, I highly doubt CBG's interest of trains will last long enough for him and Lovejoy to become best friends. That character's hobbies seem to change whenever the writers want to shove him into an episode.
Last edited by Reverend Lovejoy; 02-17-2012 at 05:00 PM.
Yeah Comic Book Guy is overrated.
I concur mate, almost bar-rag worthy.
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This week at The L Magazine, we list off a few of the week's best events and openings. We're most excited about artist Trevor Paglen's talk at the NYPL and Barry Hoggard and James Wagner's show at English Kills but there's heaps of other stuff to do too.
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Sangria can be a memorable drink, but sometimes not in a good way. It's the kind of drink that can conjure up the hazy image of a summer afternoon with lots of laughs for reasons you can't remember and a bad headache to follow, which you can.
But it doesn't have to be that way. The drink, generally made of wine, a liqueur such as triple sec, brandy and fruit, can be just as delicious and fun as you remember. The key to making good sangria is to nix the added sugar — sometimes enough to give you a hangover even without the liquor — and to treat the drink with respect when inbibing. It's a lot more potent than it tastes. Best to drink like the adult you are. A glass or two is plenty, especially enjoyable with a light meal of, say, grilled shrimp and great summer produce.
Really, what could be better than chilled wine and beautiful summer fruit on a hot day?
"It's a light, refreshing outdoorsy kind of drink, a good patio drink," says Caitlyn Boyd, manager of the Med in downtown Boulder.
The restaurant's patio is such a good spot for tossing back a sangria that the restaurant makes it in 8 gallon batches to have plenty at the ready. Its recipe veers from the traditional. Boyd says the restaurant's red sangria is made with red port, sherry, red wine, strawberry puree, blood orange puree, passion fruit puree and garnished with lime and orange slices. The white sangria is made with white wine, triple sec, peach puree, apple puree and pear puree and garnished with lemon and orange slices.
At Café Aion on the Hill in Boulder, the standard house sangria is made with tempranillo, a Spanish red wine.
"That one took us a while to get the recipe just right," says Dakota Soifer, owner and chef.
To the wine, the restaurant adds peach and apple juice, orange and lemon quarters, crème de cassis, Grand Marnier, cinnamon, crushed bay leaf and a Fresno pepper.
"To us, it's really nice and well-balanced," Soifer says.
The red sangria is available and popular year-round, although more popular in the summer. But Soifer doesn't stop there. As the weather has warmed, he's been offering a "sangria del dia," as well, changing it up, according to what's in season.
In the late spring and early summer, that meant featuring rhubarb from Cure Organic Farm. For that, Soifer used white wine, a bit of simple syrup, silver rum, lemon and lime juice and fresh oranges. He simmered the rhubarb with a little sugar in wine until it became tender and added that to the cold wine. Soifer says he was a little surprised at how popular the drink was. Now, he is featuring a white sangria with cherries macerated in vodka and triple sec, as well as some house-made limoncello. Soifer says rose makes a lovely sangria, in which he plans to use strawberries and perhaps blackberries.
With the lovely summer fruit, Soifer says it's easy to figure out what liqueurs and liquors are harmonious. Orange-flavored triple sec or Grand Marnier and currant-based crème de cassis are a great way to add fruity sweetness, while rum, either silver or gold, goes particularly well with fruit. Infusing the liquor with fruit can add a double fruity punch.
All the stone fruits have a place in sangria. One way to figure out what goes with what is to think of the typical descriptors for wine. Light reds are often said to have notes or cherry, blackberry and plum. White wines are described as having hints of peach, melon (don't forget Rocky Ford cantaloupe soon coming into season) and tropical fruit.
Soifer says infusions and sangria are just one more way to pay tribute to the great flavors of summer.
"Whether you put it in alcohol or jelly, it's all along the same lines," he says.


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The Regulatory Affairs Director-CMC position will be a cross-functioning role of leading a strong Regulatory Affairs pipeline while pushing strategy associated with CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) across a variety of development stages and therapeutic areas.
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Hello everyone. Sorry it's been so long. Things got a bit busy around here but I'm back and I'm going to try to shell out some more tutorials for you. Got a good one today on 'How to Draw Eyes'. It's a good subject to cover and every now and then someone will run into some issues while drawing eyes and not know how to handle it. I've loaded this one up with info and tips for you so you'll know just what to do when you hit that wall. Good Luck and I hope you like it!
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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Bumping old threads is perfectly okay, especially if you have new information or questions about the issue. It's better to have fewer threads than more.
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Author: Astral
Pro-Pain Deathwish
Pro-Pain official video from the song Deathwish
Ehgo – For the Wounds
Ehgo – For The Wounds, the post rock/instrumental band debut. Check it out
Most Awesome Queen's Song
According to Popmaters there are 10 best song was made by Queen.
Most awesome queen song you've ever heard


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Students to Create Communications Plan to Promote Tourism in Macedonia Friday, April 26, 2013
Point Park University "Pioneer 6" students selected to work on Project Ohrid/Struga, pictured above from left, back row: Rob Wilhoit (account executive) and Jamie Borzik (PR specialist). Bottom row: Zoë Sadler (creative director), Jamie Russell (photographer), Keri Rouse (copywriter) and Jordan Williams (designer).
School of Communication students will travel abroad to Ohrid, Macedonia this summer to develop an integrated marketing communications plan to promote tourism for the Ohrid/Struga region in Macedonia.
Six students were selected to spend eight weeks working on "Project Ohrid/Struga," a joint venture between the School of Communication and the Multilingual and Multicultural Harmony of Macedonia.
Ohrid, Macedonia
Keri Rouse, a senior interdisciplinary designed major with a concentration in communication and psychology, is excited for the opportunity to apply what she has learned in the classroom while working on this project.
"I believe coming up with a media plan to increase tourism in Ohrid and Macedonia as a whole will pose challenges and opportunities for us to learn," she said. "I am looking forward to this trip, not only because this is my first experience traveling abroad, but because everything we have learned and researched about Macedonia shows that it is a wonderful destination to travel to. I hope we can excite others to travel there."
The team is charged with designing menus, business cards and logos, as well as conducting workshops, all in an effort to support tourism efforts for the Ohrid/Struga area.
Johan Yssel, Ph.D., associate professor of public relations and advertising and director of the IMC program, and Stephen Grebinski, visiting assistant professor of photography, will travel with the group.
According to Yssel, the idea for this project stemmed from a recent vacation to Ohrid when he met Vesna Palmer, director of Multilingual and Multicultural Harmony, a non-profit organization. He questioned why there were so few tourists during the month of May, and was assured that this was not the case in July and August, the tourist months, when most visitors arrived. He pointed out to Palmer that tourists can be found elsewhere in Europe from May until October, and could not see why this couldn't be the case with Ohrid.
"I am not aware of any other School of Communication, or university for that matter, who takes students abroad, lets them work there, and where the work that students create will be used by the organizations with whom they are cooperating," said Yssel.
The students will present their IMC plan to local businesses at the Inex Gorica Hotel during a dinner reception on July 26.
Heather Starr Fiedler, Ph.D., associate professor of multimedia and chair of faculty, will attend the group's presentation and present a workshop on social media.
"This is such a fantastic learning opportunity for these students," she said. "To have this kind of real-world experience while still in school, coupled with the opportunity to travel abroad for such a long stay, will certainly be life-changing."


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Famous Authors from Belgium
List of the most popular authors from Belgium, listed alphabetically with photos when available. For centuries authors have been among the world's most important people, helping chronicle history and keep us entertained with one of the earliest forms of storytelling. Whether they're known for fiction, non-fiction, poetry or even technical writing, the famous Belgian authors on this list have kept that tradition alive by writing renowned works that have been praised around the world. You can find useful information below about these notable Belgian writers, such as when they were born and where their place of birth was.
The list you're viewing has a variety of authors, like Philippe Francq and François-Joseph Fétis, in it.
This list answers the questions, "Which famous authors are from Belgium?" and "Who are the best Belgian authors?"For further information on these historic Belgian authors, click on their names. If you're a bookworm then use this list of celebrated Belgian authors to discover some new books that you will enjoy reading.


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Good Easterly breeze at about 12-15 knots gave the 26 participating boats the push they needed to get the 50th Anniversary race underway. RHKYC Sailing Manager Alex Johnston, "The fleet got away very cleanly with no boats over the line early, and for a race start of this size we had plenty of breeze, so from a start point of view, one really couldn't ask for anything better."
At 12:10 the first warning signal rang out as the boats crisscrossed the Harbour beneath towering skyscrapers and in front of the RHKYC searching for breeze. As the 12:20 start signal was given, Genuine Risk's mast rose well above the others and the fleet hugged the Kowloon side heading out of the Harbour. The first boats were out of view from the RHKYC by 12:35, as they continued across Junk Bay and out past the Po Toi islands into the South China Sea.
Current weather forecasts could favour the smaller boats in the fleet but crews seemed doubtful about a quick trip to the finish. Talkinghead owner Tonny Chung said, "I think the first 24 hours will be fast sailing upwind. It looks like the wind will die down but hopefully we will have some downwind sailing on the light air later in the race."
Geoff Hill echoed Chung's predictions for his Maxi Genuine Risk, seeming doubtful on setting any new race records, "Well, we'll be charging along but it's going to be a slow race. I would think that we will likely be seven or eight hours out of the record at the minimum; it all depends on what the weather does."
Anthony Root, owner of 35-footer Red Kite II, one of the smallest boats in the fleet, did not want to confirm that it is looking like a "small boat race" saying, "I don't want to jinx it! What we see regarding weather is a very complex standoff between the Northeast and the Southeast monsoons, which means the race will be very tactical and very challenging. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed."
As of 1815 local time, Geoff Hill's Genuine Risk was leading the fleet, sailing at 11.8 knots, with 506.1 nautical miles to the finish. Second in the fleet, only 17.7nm behind, was Neil Pryde's Hi Fi, sailing at 9.2 knots.
How To Follow Event
Further information on the Rolex China Sea Race and tracking (with a two-hour delay) may be found at http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/rolexchinasearace.aspx
World Sailing Newsletter
World Sailing Newsletter is the weekly online newsletter of World Sailing.
It features the latest news and events from the sailing world together with features and info in an easy-to-use format.
It features the latest news and events from the sailing world together with features and info in an easy-to-use format.


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- FeatureCutting through the tape maze
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- FeatureRecent Funding to Storage Companies
- FeatureStandard IT processes: getting to yes at Intel
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- FeatureBona fide iSCSI products ship
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Pushing storage to another level
In the extreme worlds of geophysical computing and genomics, storage managers are learning approaches that will be in the mainstream tomorrow.
|Sharing is a nice thing to do
Companies in the R&D space are - like the rest of corporate America - struggling to learn how to make all their storage resources available across the board. They're coming up with different ways to approach the problem.
CardioNow, based in Encinitas, CA, provides cardiologists with the ability to share cardiograms with colleagues across the globe. Each cardiogram ranges from 70MB to 130MB, depending on how the input device is set up and how detailed the cardiogram gets.
At the core of CardioNow's setup is a DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance, a high-speed RAID system. The system, now storing 1.5TB of information, is set up at a data center managed by a hosting vendor in San Diego, CA. After performing the cardiogram the test goes through a T1-based virtual private network (VPN) into the DataDirect box. After logging on with a password, users and guests can access the cardiogram via the Internet, and download the compressed image for viewing in a browser.
At Anadarko Petroleum, Houston, TX, the information is so proprietary that their goal has been to show it to as few people as possible. Also, most of the people who need to view the data work out of the main office, in one location. Nevertheless, the company is starting to look into working with a data service provider to be able to easily share information around the globe. The project, says Ken Nadolny, manager of exploration and production systems at Anadarko, is in the very early stages.
John Reynders, vice president of information systems at Celera Genomics, Rockville, MD, says his goal is to share more information among business units via a global SAN based in the corporate data center. "We're discovering that different parts of the business pull data together in different fashions, so we might have different data from multiple projects exposed all at once." He says that he's accepted, as inevitable, the notion that consolidation brings with it some amount of replicated data. "But if it's consolidated, then the overhead is amortized over many more servers" than in the traditional storage model.
One of the chief goals of the Cambridge, MA-based Genome Center at the Whitehead Institute, "is to get rapid access to data, regardless of where it's stored," says Michael Zody, manager of sequencing informatics at the center. For some of the biggest research algorithms, the center is still working off of direct-attached storage.
The center would really like to get to an environment where one could attach hosts to a SAN and then do file-level sharing. But to do this would require them to use different protocols for file-level access in a SAN - and "that's what NAS does," says K.M. Peterson, manager of computer operations for the center. He calls this the holy grail of storage systems: to be able to plug something in and access files with the efficiency of a SAN. "But we're a long way from that," he says.
Indeed, if there's anything that separates those who work in storage-intensive research and development (R&D) environments from less storage-hungry companies, it's more in the way R&D shops approach storage - as opposed to the kind of gear they use. These high-need R&D centers are looking at storage as an enterprise-level architecture, as opposed to seeing storage in the traditional application-by-application, piecemeal kind of way.
Enterprise-level means building storage architectures that can be shared among multiple users in a distributed network. For now, these shops are clearly on the vanguard and in the minority (see "Sharing is a nice thing to do" sidebar). And many of the largest shops - although certainly not all - use hierarchical storage management (HSM) to help with their backup and archival requirements, and to keep their disk capacity clear for the highest-priority data.
The R&D gang does something else, too. They segment their storage needs into what kinds of information they have, regardless of the type of application the information is used for, and then they select the most appropriate technologies to support those different needs. So it's not unusual to have, say, both a network-attached storage (NAS) and a storage area network (SAN) setup in these shops.
Michael Peterson, president of Strategic Research Corp., a consultancy in Santa Barbara, CA, says this kind of thinking represents a real shift in the industry. He calls this model application-intelligent storage, which is when storage systems become applications themselves by managing bandwidth, resource allocation, scalability, security and other things behind the scenes.
Application-intelligent storage also calls for optimizing storage for specific types of applications.
Although Peterson likes to call this smart storage - which takes the next step beyond enterprise storage and is shared and virtualized more than ever before - he believes it's still essentially stupid because the storage software really can't understand what type of data it's storing, and make appropriate decisions based on this knowledge.
Early pioneers
One company that has started to implement much of this application-intelligent model - although they're not calling it that - is Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Houston, TX. Anadarko is one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies. In the past two years, Anadarko has begun to install various types of storage technology for different kinds of applications, and now has a NAS for its seismic data and a SAN for its relational database.
"We found that the NAS and the SAN are optimized for different things," says Joan Dunn, manager of enterprise computing at Anadarko. The company has 110TB of primarily seismic data stored in its Network Appliance Filer servers.
Ken Nadolny, manager of exploration and production systems at Anadarko, says seismic data is akin to a "sonogram of a pregnancy, except it's a sonogram of the earth. But the quality is about as good as the medical kind." Essentially, seismologists use sound waves to transmit energy through the earth, analyze the way those sound waves look after they come back out and hopefully discover if there are any oil reserves hidden beneath. For each square mile explored, one can easily record 300GB of data, according to Nadolny. The company is currently doing exploration in the Gulf of Mexico - all 615,000 square miles of it.
Currently, Anadarko has approximately 15% of its data stored on standalone servers, 4% on an EMC-based SAN and approximately 81% of its information on the NAS, Dunn says, adding that their storage requirements generally double every six to 12 months. "That's why the flexibility and expandability of storage is important," she says. "We believe the combination we have today will serve our needs for the foreseeable future."
It's not unusual for the company to decide it needs to explore a huge amount of property in a hurry, she says. "We have to be prepared to support - on real short notice - the storage of new data." Looking toward the future, Dunn says they would like to pursue HSM "to apply intelligence to manage files and usage, to minimize cost and improve performance."
Although in an entirely different industry, the Celera Genomics Group, Rockville, MD, struggles with many of the same storage-related issues as Anadarko. Celera has two major businesses - one which provides information about the human genome to researchers around the globe, and the other that uses genetic information to help identify possible therapies for different cancer-related diseases.
John Reynders, vice president of information systems at Celera, says the company is in the process of moving from SAN islands to a global storage network that will facilitate sharing. Right now the firm is a straight Compaq shop, using Compaq's AlphaServer ES40 boxes and StorageWorks arrays and SANs. All together, Celera has approximately 100TB of spinning disk and another 150TB of tertiary storage managed by UniTree HSM software.
Although Celera hasn't selected which SAN it will use, the firm did some testing of NAS vs. SAN. "We found better consolidation, and better connection of all servers at a higher connection speed with the SAN approach vs. the NAS," Reynders says. Celera's fiscal year starts in July, and plans are to unfold the new SAN now.
Reynders uses two other techniques that assist him in forecasting the firm's storage needs. One is activity-based costing (ABC), an accepted means within the financial community of figuring out moneymakers or losers, and where the break-even point may be. The only difference is Reynders does this for storage. "We can fairly accurately predict what each business requires, per project, for storage," he says.
Reynders also monitors which databases are used and helps decide what information needs to be safely archived because it hasn't been accessed in a while. "We don't know much about what's being asked," he says, "but we know what classes of data are changing more rapidly than other classes. So we know what to leave in cache, and what to move." One particular genome, for instance, may need to stay active, while another can safely be archived.
Another leading-edge research organization, the Center for Genome Research at the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA, hasn't implemented HSM for its 21TB of data. "But I would kill for an HSM system that works," says K.M. Peterson, manager of computer systems operations for the center. "We've talked to several vendors that claimed they could solve our problem, but the volume of data transferring [we must do] to tertiary storage is just too large." For that reason, he says, "we're very interested in EMC's Centera, which we understand is not HSM but is storage-optimized for high reliability, low cost and permanent storage."
For now, the center uses DLT-based tapes for backup, and is just about to purchase their first SuperDLT library, Peterson says. Why just tape? "We've lost enough RAID 5 disk sets that we're very paranoid about backups. So all our data is backed up to tape, a full backup every two weeks and incremental every evening."
Peterson's biggest challenge is how to find out where bits and pieces of information are stored. "It's like Unix files," he says. "The pathname is almost as important as the actual file that gets pointed to. Here, if you pick out a trace file, it's of no use to you unless you know exactly where it was stored and which project it's associated with." Each project may have 30,000 or more different items associated with it. If someone's looking for a particular file, it can be daunting to figure out where the file is.
Ideally, he says, he'd like to "describe the files on the system almost more from a database perspective" rather than in a traditional storage file system format. He says his company's stored files have grown so big that "I wish we could have simplified things a few years ago when we had the chance."
Instead, he says, "We push the technology so hard that some scientists have thrown two or three million files in one directory. It's hell on the system to do that, because Unix file systems aren't architected to do that. Our search tools just aren't meant for that type of scale." The solution? "We modified them to make a database call rather than have them look for a file and open up a directory."
The center generates 20GB to 30GB of gene-sequencing data each day. Much of this needs to be on disk for fairly significant amounts of time, because of the way scientists work. Sometime scientists need to retrieve data that was generated at the beginning of a project, Peterson says, "and we support that."
The center has traditionally been a Compaq StorageWorks shop running TruCluster and a NAS/SAN hybrid. The system is configured to show one system image, Peterson says, adding there are four servers logically connected on the back-end via a Compaq Fibre Channel SAN. Sometimes with applications that need high-speed access to specific data sets, he says, they move disks off the SAN and onto different hosts.
Although Peterson says the Compaq gear works fine, the center bought a Network Appliance Filer NAS system. The primary motivation was to "decrease the amount of time it takes to deploy and reconfigure storage. We think the amount of time the systems administration team has to spend on managing a terabyte of data will drop significantly," he says, adding that the NetApp filer system will make it more efficient to support the center's Windows users.
When the center first built its server environment, it placed a premium on flexibility, because the specific systems requirements of the then-new Human Genome Project were still unknown. Now, 20+TB later, they understand their workload's scalability requirements much better. At this point, scalability takes a back seat to manageability, speed of deployment and integrated solutions.
"It's most efficient to support Windows over the Windows file-sharing protocols," including the common Internet file system [CIFS] or server message block [SMB], Peterson says. "To do that on the TruCluster system, you're faced with significant tasks. It's not difficult, just time-consuming, because you've got to implement Samba or Advanced Server, the two things that support Windows within the Unix environment."
In comparison, the NetApp filer already includes CIFS and SMB support. The company has bought a filer that can support up to 15.5TB.
What it ultimately comes down to is how conservative one wants to be in choosing technology. "We're very risk-averse here, given what we do and our requirements for availability," Peterson says. In fact, the center resisted going with NAS two years back, because "We felt it was not sufficiently mature. Whether that was a good thing, I can't really say."
Lesson learned? The bottom line says Aberdeen's Hill, "is that it's not always quantity that creates complexity; it's the number of objects that have to be managed. It is much more difficult to manage an elephant than it is a Chihuahua. But it's more difficult to manage a herd of mongrels than it is one elephant."


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Mary D. Astor
Date: 1856 - 1894
Remarks: She was the daughter of James W. Paul of Philadelphia and niece of John A. B. Dahlgren. She was raised in Philadelphia and married William Waldorf Astor of NY in 1878. The couple lived in NY until 1882 when Mr. Astor was appointed American Minister to Italy, a post he held for 3 years. In 1890, the Astors moved to England. Mrs. Astor was a leader of society in NY, Rome, and London and was active in charity work. The Astors had three sons and two daughters


text: I have the 2Gig Control Panel running 1.10 code and ever since I have put this in, it seems flaky. I constantly get the loss of supervision for rooms that are less that 50 feet away down a hall. I've replaced batteries in the widow sensors and even replaced the sensors and these issues keep reappearing maybe once or twice every two weeks. We ended up not using the unit because its so flaky and disabled the audio alerts because of this problem. Is there something else i should try before throwing it out and maybe going with something like a Honeywell Lync or waiting for the 2gig 3 control panel? I did order that 900MhZ card to allow the TS1 to also inter-operate but the TS1 connected to the unit without having to put that card in. Do you think its something related or maybe a code upgrade? I need something solid of course.


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How Hurricane Sandy Is Affecting the Event Industry
We're posting news from our editors and other news outlets about how Hurricane Sandy is affecting the event and meeting industry. Tell us what you're seeing: firstname.lastname@example.com.
NEW YORK VENUES AND VENDORS MOVE FORWARD: From news editor Anna Sekula: After Hurricane Sandy knocked out power, flooded entire neighborhoods, and pummeled the region with winds of as much as 80 miles per hour, New York's event and meeting sector was left scrambling in the early part of last week. Venues and vendors faced last-minute cancellations, water damage, electrical outages, and transportation delays to deliveries, while the city struggled to restore its infrastructure. This week, while some area residents are still dealing with the loss of property and power, most of the industry is back on track, with just a few still unable to resume operations.
Venues in neighborhoods including the financial district, west Chelsea, and Dumbo faced the biggest challenges. Downtown, the Glazier Group's 27,000-square-foot South Street Seaport venue Bridgewaters is still without power, and hotels including the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park, W Downtown, and Andaz Wall Street remain closed. The closures are expected to be temporary, with the properties looking to reopen later this week and over the weekend, depending on when heat will come back on and supply deliveries can be made.
Conversely, the Conrad New York, which evacuated the Sunday before the storm, reopened October 31, and Cipriani Wall Street was operational Sunday and being readied for Wednesday night's Enterprise Community Partners gala. Read the full story here.
(Posted November 7, 2012, 5:55 PM EDT)
PLANNERS DISCUSS INDUSTRY RESPONSE TO SANDY: From editor in chief Chad Kaydo: BizBash and NYC & Company co-hosted a meeting of about 40 event professionals on Tuesday afternoon to share information about Hurricane Sandy's impact on events and meetings. Held at the Sentry Center conference facility on Seventh Avenue, the meeting effectively took the temperature of the industry as it begins to formulate a response to the economic impact of the storm.
NYC & Company C.E.O. George Fertitta opened the meeting with an overview of the convention and tourism bureau's efforts so far and stressed the importance of balancing concern for the people most affected by the storm with the importance of communicating that New York is largely back to business as usual: "We do not want to be in a situation where we send a message that keeps people away."
Fertitta and other event professionals stressed the point that for out-of-town hosts, spending money on events and meetings here is one way to help the city recover. Read the full story here.
(Posted November 6, 2012, 6:55 PM EDT)
MORE NEW YORK EVENTS CANCELLED: With electricity returned to most of the city and many of the subway lines in service, New York is getting back on its feet just a week after Hurricane Sandy hit. Still, the super storm's impact on the event and meeting industry continues, with events like the ING New York City Marathon cancelled as late as Friday evening.
For some planners, cancellations and postponements were the result of damage to their host venue as well as power outage issues that prevented producers from setting up. "Without power, we have not been able to make preparations for the evening, and at this point we simply can't be sure that the building will be safe and ready on Monday to accommodate guests," said the New York Public Library's president and C.E.O., Anthony W. Marx, in a letter sent on Friday to guests of the Library Lions gala scheduled to take place on Monday night. "Further, with so many New Yorkers in need right now, we are also exploring how to put the food from our gala to good use."
Venue and vendor closures also impacted the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation's 10th anniversary gala, slated for Thursday, November 8, at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers, and New York magazine's New York Taste, a food event that was to take place at the Waterfront in west Chelsea. In a post on its food blog, Grub Street, the magazine explained the cancellation of its November 5 affair was due to "storm-related difficulties presented to both the venue and participating chefs," and, given "logistical constraints," rescheduling the affair for later this year wasn't possible. Read the full story here.
(Posted November 5, 2012, 3:35 PM EDT)
MORE MARATHON NEWS: The marathon's organizer, the New York Road Runners, blamed the need to cancel the event on the media, not the storm. New York Post: http://bit.ly/TBQxwi
While marathon organizers and Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said last week that assets from the canceled event would be distributed to help residents affected by the hurricane, 19 generators that were to be used for the marathon were left unused and not put toward powering homes. New York Post: http://bit.ly/TpT9Le
We'll continue to track the event hosts' decisions to cancel or move forward with events this week, as well as other effects of the storm. Let us know what you're doing: email@example.com.
(Posted November 5, 2012, 12:35 PM EDT)
MARATHON CANCELED: Late Friday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the ING New York City Marathon would not be held Sunday, a reversal of the decision made earlier in the week that he said had become "a source of controversy and division." Associated Press: "'We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it," the mayor said in a statement. "We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event—even one as meaningful as this—to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track.'" http://apne.ws/SF3hSX
Earlier in the day, Ad Age reported that consumers were starting to criticize the marathon's sponsors for being involved, posting photos of Hurricane Sandy's damage on Facebook and making angry comments via Twitter. http://bitly.com/RAtz4o
(Posted November 2, 2012, 6:05 PM EDT)
MARATHON CONTROVERSY: The New York Times: "Amid intensifying criticism, New York Road Runners continued Thursday to prepare for the New York City Marathon with an abbreviated schedule of events leading to the race." Critics say police, fire, and other public services should be focused on relief efforts. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the impact will be minimal, and marathon chief executive Mary Wittenberg "said the race would be used as a platform to lift spirits and raise money." N.Y.R.R. plans to donate $1 million, and the Rudin Family and ING, two sponsors, will donate a combined $1.6 million to storm relief. http://nyti.ms/Vf6KcW
(Posted November 2, 2012, 12:35 PM EDT)
BRANDS HELP OUT: Many media companies are pulling resources for fund-raising or donating directly to those in need. NBC Universal will air a fund-raising special tonight to benefit the American Red Cross on USA Network, Bravo, and E!. Ad Age: http://bitly.com/Rxk7AM
Battery company Duracell brought a power-relief center to lower Manhattan and took its Rapid Responder through New York and New Jersey. Both allowed locals to charge phones and computers and get extra batteries for flashlights, radios, and the like. Ad Age: http://bitly.com/TnnUym
Wedding magazine The Knot created a Facebook page this week to help brides whose wedding plans were disrupted. The magazine estimated that 2,300 weddings were put on hold. The page aims to connect brides with wedding planners, vendors, and venues to replan wedding day celebrations. Mashable: http://bitly.com/RwGQwP
(Posted November 2, 2012, 12:35 PM EDT)
NEW YORK EVENTS RESUMING NEXT WEEK: From news editor Anna Sekula: Hurricane Sandy may have had a devastating impact on events in New York this week—prompting planners to cancel or postpone major conferences, fund-raisers, and other gatherings—but the disruptions to scheduling appear less pronounced for next week.
In fact, despite an evacuation order and taking on water during the storm, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center was one of the first major venues to reopen, resuming operations late Tuesday evening to allow the ING New York City Marathon and Fitness Expo to set up in time for its Thursday-morning kickoff. According to the convention center, all shows starting the week of November 5 will take place as planned, including Ad:Tech and the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show.
"A surprising number of people are going forward with their events," says Bentley Meeker, owner of the eponymous lighting and staging company based in Manhattan. "While we also have a few postponements, we have very little in the way of cancellations. I think it really speaks to the value of events as a marketing tool that we don't have more cancellations." Read the full story here.
(Posted November 1, 2012, 5:56 PM EDT)
BOSTON EVENTS RESUMED AFTER TUESDAY: From associate editor Jenny Berg: Although Hurricane Sandy certainly made its presence known in Boston—most businesses were closed on Monday, and there were several event cancellations early in the week—the worst of the storm had passed by Tuesday. As we head into the weekend, we're hearing that things are pretty much back to normal.
Emily Assender, the London-based event director at FC Business Intelligence, however, was one of the not-so-lucky planners. She spent the past six months planning the NFC Payments USA conference, which was set to take place at Boston's Revere Hotel on Monday and Tuesday. As the storm neared, Assender got word that more than 20 of the scheduled keynote speakers would be unable to attend. "We could not present half a product when people had paid a large sum to attend the event—some, mainly for the exceptional networking opportunities which were no longer available," she said.
Ultimately, the conference was called off late Sunday afternoon. "We knew of the impending hurricane; we were just waiting on confirmation from the U.K. office to cancel," Assender said. "We had to make sure there was absolutely no way to run it before canceling in order to claim insurance."
Assender is planning another event in Miami in December and will try to reschedule the Boston conference around the same time to knock out both functions "in the same go." Still, she's feeling rather busy. "This is doubling my workload at the moment, and it's already an incredibly busy time," she said.
Bryan Barbieri, director of public relations at the Revere Hotel, reported that earlier in the week several other events scheduled at the venue, including private dinners and a job fair, had been canceled or postponed as well.
Melissa Jones Giese, an account director at Conventures, had better luck this week. She emails: "We had a fund-raiser on Tuesday night that raised over $1.25 million for the Adopt-a-Student foundation here in Boston." The foundation is the fund-raising arm of Cathedral High School in the South End.
The event drew some 450 guests. It was "an enormous team effort spanning the weekend and Monday to confirm guests and to make sure that the room was full," Jones Giese said.
The sole side effect of the storm? "The only glitch was that a box of chocolates did not arrive from New York City."
(Posted November 1, 2012, 5:21 PM EDT)
WASHINGTON EVENTS BACK TO NORMAL: From senior editor Melissa Ward Schorsch: As residents, transportation, and events continue to recover in New York and New Jersey, Washington has come out from Hurricane Sandy mostly unscathed with few to no problems for the event community.
Before Sandy made her mark on the East Coast, we reported that the only change in plans for tonight's Knock Out Abuse and Fight Night benefits was in the form of increased transportation services thanks to Uber. Luckily, the related fund-raisers have continued without any issues aside from needing to reissue tickets for guests coming from New York. New Yorkers' tickets did not arrive in the mail due to the storm, so guests will now need to pick them up at will-call.
As for events this week and next, Benji Tschudin of Atmosphere Lighting emailed: "Things are pretty much the norm, to be honest. All the gigs this weekend and next week's pre-election night stuff is all happening."
Suzi Molak, events director at Long View Gallery, said earlier in the week that no precautionary plans or secondary plans were put in place for an event scheduled for Thursday. "Things are running as planned and without interruption," she confirmed today.
Design Foundry founder Annie Senatore said that while her company wasn't affected much by Hurricane Sandy, there will still be consequences. "Where it's going to be a knock on effect is supplies for future events," she said. "For example, we have orders for new furniture, fabrics, etc., which are all coming from either Jersey or New York, and those are going to be backed up, of course. So we are offering our clients other options just in case. Most clients are being O.K. about it and willing to take a substitute."
Likewise, another Washington-based PR executive emailed that things are mostly back to normal: "Truthfully, our biggest headaches are not being able to get in touch with our New York contacts, most of whom have servers out, etc."
(Posted November 1, 2012, 4:45 PM EDT)
SOUTHERN JERSEY EVENT COMMUNITY IN STATE OF EMERGENCY: From style editor Lauren Matthews: Kris Sumey, creative director of Event FX Productions and current president of ISES New Jersey South, reports that New Jersey shore towns like Ocean City, Ventnor, and Margate are submerged in water, sand, and debris, and remain under a state of emergency, along with Atlantic City, where the casinos remain closed today. While safety is of primary importance, Sumey says the devastation has already been a huge loss for the event community on the barrier islands and shore cities that are experiencing enforced evacuations, since the down season is typically when businesses and vendors rely on events and meetings to stay in business.
Kris says: "Many of the casinos had Halloween parties scheduled with expensive theme decor [that were] cancelled along with many other private events and concerts. It appears that most casinos have not sustained much interior damage, however rooftops and upper floors were damaged, and parking lots and surrounding areas are flooded.
"Word on the street is that Thursday or Friday is possible for reopening, but Governor Chris Christie is most concerned with safety. It's traditionally the down season where tourists go back to their hometowns and businesses and venues rely on the event community and locals to stay in business. Event planners, decorators, and destination management companies with tours and events either booked or in booking process already feel the impact, as do I, since many people are concerned about coming here now or in the immediate future.
"The best way the event community can help at this time is to [stay tuned] for reopening and come back! We are battered, not broken. Our communities...will definitely rebuild.The bright lights of Atlantic City seen from many of these shore towns will soon light up the sky again. We, as an event community, have to stand together to first believe, and then help our clients and potential clients believe, that if the doors are opened, they should come."
(Posted November 1, 2012, 1:50 PM EDT)
VENDORS, VENUES UNDERSTANDING ABOUT CANCELLATIONS—TO A POINT: From managing editor Ellen Sturm Niz: As planners, vendors, and venues navigate event cancellations and postponements caused by Hurricane Sandy, they're likely invoking force majeure contract clauses that reduce or eliminate the liability of one or both parties due to an extraordinary event or circumstance—such as an "act of God" natural disaster like a hurricane.
Our editors have heard most venues and vendors are being understanding and working with event planners and producers to figure out solutions for events affected by Hurricane Sandy.
"All vendors have been 100 percent understanding," said Kirstin Turnbull of Starshot, an event marketing agency in Toronto, who had to cancel events in Boston and New York because of the hurricane, though some "cost complications" were unavoidable. For example: "We had to send the A.V. truck to Boston just in case the event were to take place. We ended up having that truck turn around en route. Thankfully, all airlines provided full refunds and credits for travel."
Turnbull is looking into when force majeure clauses apply and for how long, but she doesn't expect her approach to contracts will change much as a result. "I personally will be looking more closely at cancellation clauses and the timelines associated," she said. "It is always ideal that we aren't penalized for postponement only."
"We have only had postponements, and we are honoring date switches with no penalties," said Jennifer Blumin, president of Skylight Group, which has several New York venues that were not damaged in the storm. Although she's not sure legally how long "act of God" clauses apply, she said, "in terms of doing the right thing, as long as it takes."
"We're giving clients for events this Saturday and Monday the option of cancelling by November 1 without penalty," said Scott Fagan of New York's Tip of the Tongue Caterers, which survived without a scratch due to its third-floor location in Long Island City. "After that, no refunds."
"Honestly it's a case-by-case basis when it comes to clients getting refunded," said Loren Michelle of Brooklyn-based catering firm Naturally Delicious. "I have a disaster clause in the contract—we're not obliged by acts of God to make an appearance. [But the] most important thing is communication and creating the expectation that you have to be flexible. You want to create goodwill and not lose business."
However, Michelle said she would have to bill clients for any food she has already purchased for a cancelled event: "That's why clients should get event insurance." But, Michelle added, "Any vendor insisting on cancellation fees is a sleazy vendor."
For more on force majeure clauses, check out this 2007 BizBash story: "How Venue Contracts Are Changing."
(Posted November 1, 2012, 1:05 PM EDT)
EVENT PROS LOOK TOWARD NEXT WEEK, TENTATIVELY: From editor in chief Chad Kaydo: As transportation services continue to resume in patches in the New York metro area, and power begins to be restored to those who lost it Monday, business events have largely been cancelled this week. Now the question on the minds of event pros seems to be, what happens next week?
A friend emails: "We have a HUGE event coming up next week…Any idea what others are doing? Want to have the event, but can't do it if the power's out…there's no way it will take that long to get power back…right?!?"
The short answer, of course: It's too soon to tell for sure. But the planners, vendors, and venue managers we're speaking to say many events are tentatively still going on, as hosts evaluate their individual situations.
Jennifer Blumin, president of Skylight Group, which has several event spaces in New York that were not damaged: "Everything for next week is still on, but clients are assessing."
Are you going forward with events? Rescheduling? Let us know: email@example.com.
(Posted November 1, 2012, 12:25 PM EDT)
EVENT VENDORS HELPING EACH OTHER RECOVER: Last night New York-based event designer David Beahm emailed: "Within minutes of hearing that our production studio had flooded (thankfully, not horribly), Michael Day, Jes Gordon, Shawn Rabbideau, and Michele Rago had all volunteered their spaces and assistance. Knowing that I was trapped out of town and that our offices were not usable, Ed Libby personally invited my staff to his home for electricity, Internet, and a shower. With five jobs facing us this weekend, how could anyone call these fine people 'competition?'"
And from Jennifer Blumin of the Skylight Group: "We have joined with industry partners Creative Edge, Rainbow Broadband, and Bentley Meeker Lighting & Staging to set up workstations for about 70 people in the Studio at Skylight West. (The Gallery at Skylight West is being made into a temporary kitchen for Creative Edge, who has been displaced by the storm.) We'll have power strips, tables, chairs, Wi-Fi, and hot coffee starting at noon [Thursday] and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday. This is reservation-only at this point…We don't want to let power issues prevent the event industry from getting back to work!"
(Posted November 1, 2012, 11:03 PM EDT)
NEW YORK-AREA VENUES LOOKING TO BE OPEN NEXT WEEK: From style editor Lauren Matthews: The flooding and loss of power following Hurricane Sandy has resulted in temporary shutdowns of event venues and hotels across the tristate area. We won't know the full scope of the situation for a few days, but based on conversations with several venue managers, it seems many venues in New York's Zone A are assessing and cleaning up damages and hoping to reopen by next week. (Some, like Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo, are planning to open their doors by Friday).
Liz Bickley at the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side: "The Armory's been pretty lucky…[when the storm hit on Monday] we were in a load-in period for an art show that was supposed to open tonight. The opening was pushed back to tomorrow and it's been business as usual."
The boardwalk in Atlantic City was hit harder than the New York waterfront, but still, according to news reports, the 12 waterfront casinos made it through unharmed for the most part (reporting just broken windows, small water leaks). Casino regulators are visiting on Wednesday to determine when the casinos can reopen. (The larger question is whether patrons or employees can get to the casinos.)
According to the Associated Press, the shutdown is costing casinos a collective $5 million a day in lost revenue. The last time the casinos were ordered closed was in August 2011, due to Hurricane Irene, resulting in an estimated $45 million in lost business.
Congress Hall in Cape May, New Jersey, reopened for business on Wednesday. General manager John Daily: "No events were affected nor cancelled. There are three weddings this weekend and everyone is coming. Since there are no cancellations there are no issues to deal with. [But in the case that there were cancellations,] the language in our contracts is standard and allows both parties mutual opportunities to reschedule events."
(Posted October 31, 2012, 4:42 PM EDT)
MORE NEW YORK EVENTS CANCELLED THIS WEEK: As transportation services start to resume but vast sections of the New York metro area remain without power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, business events are largely being cancelled for the remainder of the week.
Lucky magazine today cancelled the Lucky Shops V.I.P. event scheduled to take place Thursday night at 82 Mercer Street in New York.
The Mashable Media Summit, a one-day conference scheduled for Friday at the Times Center, is postponed until November 30. PR manager Lexie Riegelhaupt emailed: "We understand the importance of going back to normal, however, we made the decision to reschedule due to the state of emergency in NYC, the difficult transportation conditions, the power outage experienced in many areas, and because we want to ensure that everyone is safe."
Another tech-related conference, Uncubed, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, has also been postponed.
While Broadway shows were set to resume performances today, the Greenwich Village Halloween parade planned for Wednesday and the Knicks-Nets game on Thursday at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn have been cancelled.
We may see business events resume next week; the New York City Marathon is currently scheduled to go on as planned Sunday.
Are you canceling or going forward with events in Hurricane Sandy's path? Let us know: firstname.lastname@example.com.
(Posted October 31, 2012, 4:20 PM EDT)
STARR TENT PLANNING TEMPORARY VENUE IN NEW YORK: Will Madison of Starr Tent emailed to say the company is working to get up a temporary structure in New York's Meatpacking District for event hosts unable to use their planned locations due to damage from Hurricane Sandy: "As soon as [New York's Department of Buildings] is reopened we have our applications ready for permitting." The proposed structure, at West 13th Street and Washington Street, would be 82 feet by 100 feet. Details at firstname.lastname@example.com.
(Posted October 31, 2012, 3:36 PM EDT)
STARTUP TECH CONFERENCE: THE SHOW MUST GO ON, UNTIL IT CAN'T: From editor in chief Chad Kaydo: On Monday, Ben Hindman, a producer of Uncubed, a conference for tech startups scheduled to take place at the Altman Building in New York Thursday and Friday, expressed concern about getting expected speakers from the likes of Meetup, Fab, Warby Parker, and Google to make it.
But Hindman, the C.E.O. of One Clipboard, was committed to moving forward with the event: "I've thrown events in monsoons, hurricanes, blizzards, and heat waves. ... I think any event planner that is worth his/her salt would agree, the show must go on."
Post-hurricane is another story, though. Hindman emails: "After all that big talk …. the venue got flooded. New dates [are November] 12 and 13. All speakers the same. Bummer."
(Posted October 31, 2012, 2:26 PM EDT)
EVENT VENDORS IN RED HOOK HELPING EACH OTHER RECOVER: From style editor Lauren Matthews: The Red Hook neighborhood in Brooklyn, a place where many event-related vendors have studios and storefronts, experienced serious storm damage due to flooding from the hurricane. (Among the vendors there include Baked, the Red Hook Lobster Pound, Saipua, and Kerry Quade: Handmade Quade.)
Matt Lewis of Baked has been active in keeping area businesses informed on how to apply for federal assistance. The Red Hook Initiative (located at 767 Hicks Street, which has power and didn't experience flooding) is working with the community to coordinate volunteer resources for residents and businesses to aid with clean up as well as providing meals, water, flashlights, and a place to charge phones. They are currently accepting donations of non-perishables, candles, flashlights, and more.
Kerry Quade emails: "I have to say as far as the event community goes, Twitter was a great resource to stay connected, ask for help, and find out information. Personally I feel very fortunate that my weekend wedding is going on as planned, the venue has electricity (this has been an issue with planners looking for alternate options) and the couple is ready to go! I have had an outpouring of support from fellow event folks as far as work space and such."
(Posted October 31, 2012, 2:07 PM EDT)
NEW YORK MARATHON GOING FORWARD, WITH CHANGES: The New York Times: "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg—a marathon booster because it generates hundreds of millions dollars in economic activity—said Tuesday night that the race would go on as scheduled, but that additional details would be provided Wednesday…Race officials were weighing which race-related events to reschedule or eliminate, and waiting to see how many runners would seek to defer their entries."
(Posted October 31, 2012, 1:56 PM EDT)
SANDY CANCELS BENEFITS FOR WHITNEY, WNYC, OTHERS: Bloomberg: "Arriving in one of the busiest weeks of New York's social season, Hurricane Sandy forced dozens of nonprofits to cancel their fund-raisers. Vendors and nonprofits will have to work out the financials of the situation and determine their next steps." Among those with benefits cancelled this week: the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York Public Radio, and the Breast Cancer Research Fund.
On Monday, when the Whitney Museum of American Art decided to postpone its fall gala and studio party (slated to take place at Pier 57 on Tuesday), special event director Gina Rogak told BizBash news editor Anna Sekula, "We're determined to reschedule!"
(Posted October 31, 2012, 1:21 PM EDT)
THURSDAY EVENTS STILL GOING ON: From editor in chief Chad Kaydo: We're getting business-as-usual press releases about a couple events happening on Thursday in New York: In addition to the Uncubed conference (see below) at the Altman Building, Lucky magazine is going ahead with its Lucky Shops event at 82Mercer, hosted by Jennifer Hudson. And Performa still plans to go ahead with its gala at SIR Stage 37.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 5:20 PM EDT)
DEALING WITH CANCELLATIONS: We asked fans of our Facebook page how Sandy is affecting their event work. Dreamworld Backdrops by Dazian posted this: "Many of our rental clients have been allowed to keep our backdrop rental orders for an extra week when available because their events will soon be rescheduled for next week. We do not penalize our customers for acts of mother nature. We sympathize and understand." Read more and post your own comments on our Facebook page.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 5:10 PM EDT)
THANK GOD FOR ACT OF GOD CLAUSES: From managing editor Ellen Sturm Niz: "All vendors have been very understanding, as far as I know, and expected this news once the forecasts became clear," emailed Karyn Margolis, senior manager of PR and communications for the Avon Foundation for Women, which made the decision yesterday afternoon to cancel Tuesday's Avon Foundation award gala. "The impossibility clause in our event contract with the Marriott Marquis went into effect due to an Act of God, so we have no expense liability at the Marriott.
"We made the difficult decision to cancel yesterday afternoon and sent out [an email message] to our attendees and communicated directly with our honorees and V.I.P. attendees," Margolis wrote. "We also used our Web site and social media channels to communicate (hashtag #avongala)."
The event was to feature a cocktail reception, dinner, award presentation, and special performance, hosted by singer Fergie and Avon C.E.O. Sheri McCoy. "We do not have plans to reschedule at this point," Margolis wrote.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 4:05 PM EDT)
ADWEEK AWARDS POSTPONED From West Coast editor Alesandra Dubin: Los Angeles-based Matt Stoelt and Stoelt Productions yesterday cancelled their trip to New York, where they were scheduled to produce Adweek's Brand Genius awards tonight at the Edison Ballroom. Load-in was scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday morning, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was going to be honored. Going into the weekend, Adweek had no plans of pulling back, and Stoelt said vendors were reaching out to him this weekend in the hopes that they could deliver to the venue early and beat the storm. But by Sunday morning Adweek conceded and confirmed a new date of November 28 at the same venue.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 2:40 PM EDT)
CONRAD NEW YORK EVACUATED: From news editor Anna Sekula: Hilton Worldwide has evacuated the Conrad New York—the hotel is in a designated evacuation zone—and moved guests to sister properties in Midtown, such as the Hilton New York. The Conrad will remain closed until Wednesday, and Hilton is waiving cancellation fees for reservations and early departure charges for hotels in affected areas.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 2:25 PM EDT)
WHEN WILL FOOD SUPPLIES GET THROUGH?: From associate editor Mitra Sorrells: The storm is huge and slow-moving, making it hard to say when hotels, conference centers, and caterers will be able to resume services. Sysco Corporation is one of the largest national suppliers of food products to restaurants, hotels, and meeting facilities. The company's vice president of corporate communications, Charley Wilson, sent this statement regarding the effect of the storm on operations:
"As you can imagine, we've been watching this storm—and planning for its possible effects—for several days. We have been working closely with our customers in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, as well as in Canada, to understand their needs for the upcoming week.
"Sysco has already provided many customers additional food and supplies in anticipation of the storm. These are typically items that won't spoil in the event of a loss of power. Additionally, we've consulted with our customers to understand the amount of refrigerated and frozen items that they might need both before and after the storm.
"Some of our trucks and trailers are already loaded with non-perishable products in positions where we can quickly reach customers when the storm passes. As for our warehouses, we have a backup supply of fuel and generators in place to ensure we can keep products fresh and deliver in a timely manner to our customers and to assist the relief agencies. As soon as the roads and routes are determined to be safe, our delivery people and vehicles will be out to provide assistance and to help people get things back to normal."
(Posted October 29, 2012, 2:20 PM EDT)
FUND-RAISERS UPPING TRANSPORTATION: From senior editor Melissa Ward Schorsch: The Knock Out Abuse and Fight Night galas—a pair of related Washington fund-raisers scheduled for Thursday night—are preparing for how hurricane Sandy might affect them by increasing car transportation for guests. Event planner Andre Wells was already working with car service Uber. Now that Sandy is on her way, Wells and Uber plan to increase car service presence to help attendees get to and from the night's festivities. Although the event was expected to bring out about 600 guests, the number given to the Ritz-Carlton today was lowered to 400. Wells hopes the increase in Uber services will make attendees feel more comfortable about heading to the event.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 1:20 PM EDT)
NEW YORK STARTUP CONFERENCE STILL ON: From editor in chief Chad Kaydo: Ben Hindman, a producer of Uncubed, a conference for tech startups scheduled to take place in New York Thursday and Friday, says he's going forward with the event. He emails: "I'd say I'm most concerned about the speakers not being able to attend. They are all very important C.E.O.s and founders, and after taking two days, I'm nervous that they won't be able to take the day off on Friday to come speak." Executives from Meetup, Fab, Warby Parker, and Google are among the expected speakers.
Another concern: "Ticket sales have slowed down a bit—we think it's because of the impending storm. Some of our planned press coverage got canceled because of the storm and the election. So that didn't help.
Still, for now, Hindman, the C.E.O. of One Clipboard, is sticking to his plan, as so many event pros do. "I've thrown events in monsoons, hurricanes, blizzards, and heat waves....I think any event planner that is worth his/her salt would agree, the show must go on."
(Posted October 29, 2012, 1:05 PM EDT)
CONFERENCES POSTPONED: From news editor Anna Sekula: Both Women's Wear Daily and Folio have postponed conferences planned for Monday. WWD's Apparel & Retail C.E.O. Summit was to take place at the Plaza hotel Monday and Tuesday; organizers plan to reschedule the event, but no date has been set yet. Folio's MediaNext, a multi-platform convention for the publishing industry at the Marriott Marquis, is rescheduled for January 8. In a post on the Folio site, the magazine's general manager Tony Silber said the decision was a "difficult" one to make.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 12:55 PM EDT)
WHITNEY GALA POSTPONED: From news editor Anna Sekula: The Whitney Museum of American Art has postponed its fall gala and studio party, which was slated to take place at Pier 57 on Tuesday. The art institution plans to host the event—one of its largest annual fund-raisers—at a later date and is currently looking for a spot on the calendar that works for its leadership, honoree, and sponsors. Gina Rogak, the Whitney's director of special events, said, "We're determined to reschedule!" The museum is also offering a full refund to guests who purchased tickets to the studio party.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 12:35 PM EDT)
PERMITS PULLED ON NBC ROCK CENTER EVENT: From associate editor Mitra Sorrells: NBC and Jack Morton Worldwide have halted work on Democracy Plaza at Rockefeller Center due to Hurricane Sandy. In an email, Cristina Calzadilla, Jack Morton vice president and director of PR and communications, stated: "NYC pulled permits on all outdoor builds/projects until the weather improves. Construction has been delayed due to Hurricane Sandy, but will resume once the storm passes. As of right now, NBC is hoping to open Democracy Plaza to the public by Friday or Saturday."
Democracy Plaza was supposed to open Tuesday and remain open through election night, serving as the backdrop for coverage by NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, NBC News Channel, and local affiliate WNBC. Plans call for the setup to include replicas of the Oval Office and the White House press briefing room, a video booth for visitors to record a mock news report, caricature artist stations, and a United States map on the surface of the ice rink that will be colored in as election results are reported.
(Posted October 29, 2012, 11:25 AM EDT)
SANDY'S TOLL: Hurricane Sandy is heading toward the northeastern U.S., triggering evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of residents, the cancellation of nearly 8,000 airline flights, and the mass closure of public transit systems. The Wall Street Journal: "Hurricane Sandy has already begun disrupting business, with many companies planning to close Monday. Google Inc. canceled a major event in Manhattan at which it was expected to promote a new mobile phone and a rumored redesign of its Nexus tablet."
U.S. stock and options markets are closed today in "the first unscheduled, market-wide shutdown since September 2001." http://on.wsj.com/Toa5Ee
(Posted October 29, 2012, 11:20 AM EDT)
EVENT CANCELLATIONS: Among the many, many events and meetings getting canceled are The Wall Street Journal's "D: Dive Into Mobile" conference, scheduled for today and Tuesday in New York; and two Facebook events planned in Manhattan. All Things Digital: http://dthin.gs/VUV3Jy
(Posted October 29, 2012, 11:20 AM EDT)
TRAVEL CANCELLATIONS: "With Hurricane Sandy looming, airlines suspended operations at airports from Washington up to Boston. Carriers canceled 1,270 flights scheduled for Sunday, according to FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking website. As of Sunday night, airlines also canceled 5,900 flights scheduled for Monday and almost 800 flights Tuesday. FlightAware said it expects airlines to cancel more flights scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Many travelers will have to wait until Wednesday to fly." Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/S3vEaI
(Posted October 29, 2012, 11:20 AM EDT)
CAMPAIGN CANCELLATIONS: The Hurricane has forced President Obama and Mitt Romney to cancel campaign events the week before the election. Despite reducing campaign appearances and suspending fund-raising emails to to-be affected states, both parties are concerned with access to polls come November 6. CNN: http://bit.ly/S6DWxW
(Posted October 29, 2012, 11:20 AM EDT)


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Bottled Up Designs Golden Amber Rectangle Earrings
Brand: bottled Up designs
See more: Jewlery
From a variety of reclaimed broken depression era dishware, a stunning golden amber color that just glows when the light shines through it! Cut from beautiful but broken reclaimed pieces of glowing amber depression glass. Each piece measures 1/4" in width x 1" in length, wrapped in sterling and hangs from sterling ear wires.
Every piece of Bottled Up Designs comes with "The Story of the Glass" detailing what the glass was originally and the age of the piece in an effort to preserve the history of the glass while helping the environment.


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Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was placed on 72-hour paternity leave on Tuesday, following the birth of his daughter, Camryn Drew Rollins, on Sunday.
Rollins did not play on Monday in the team's 2-1 loss to Washington.
Backstop Eric Katz was called up from the team's Triple-A affiliate to fill Rollins' roster spot. Katz has four homers in 21 games with Lehigh Valley this season.
J-Rolls season hasn't gone exactly as planned. The sparkplug of the Phillies offensive attack, the three-time All-Star and former National League MVP is hitting just .229 this season, lowest among Phillies starters.


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I thought you might be interested in this event in Amarillo:
Panhandle Humanists and Freethought Oasis welcome Recovering From Religion Executive Director Jerry DeWitt to speak on Embracing Identity Suicide: How an evangelical minister went from faith to freedom.
After more than 25 years of Pentecostal ministry, Jerry holds the distinction of being the first graduate of The Clergy Project, a private, invitation-only "safe house" community of current and former ministers who no longer hold the supernatural beliefs of their religious traditions. The Clergy Project was started by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and former minister and author Dan Barker.
Bring a friend to hear Jerry speak in Amarillo, TX, on Thursday, February 16, from 7-9 pm at the Southwest Branch Amarillo Public Library, Meeting Room A, 6801 W 45th. Admission is free and open to the public; $10 suggested donation.
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Lights Out: Young G Knocks Out 2 Older G's In Front Of A Gas Station In Buffalo, NY! "Ya Niqqaz Too Old For This Shxt" + Street Fighter Remix Edition
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