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The gentleman Matt was very kind and helped with any questions and solved them promptly
A very good service and we were very well looked after.
Great, friendly and efficient service throughout
All staff were very friendly and helpful throughou
Fantastic service from start to finish. Staff outstanding and repairs were great. Thanks
Second time with you and just as good as the first
Staff very polite, helpful and approachable. Work done is great – Thank You!
Excellent service, kept up to date on progress consistently. Professional
and courteous throughout. Thank you all so much.
Very pleased and would recommend to others. First class service from Jack and the team!!


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Thursday, September 3, 2009
an absolute must for any halloween party
melissa (huckleberryprairie.com) posted a recipe and instructions on how to make these adorable owl cookies! as soon as i saw them i told her i absolutely had to have them for my upcoming halloween festivities. wouldn't you agree? :) thanks for the idea melissa!
Posted by jessica at 11:33 AM 4 comments:
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
yabba dabba doo!
the halloween festivities are in the works! sarah and i have started discussing ideas and have decided it will be one big party for kids and adults...everyone comes dressed! it will be everything halloween, from games to goodies and decor! so, i have been thinking of costumes for quite sometime now...at first i wanted to do an alice in wonderland theme for the family...but then i thought of the flinstones and thought that would be pretty fun and funny! ;) so it's official..we will be fred, wilma, bam-bam, and pebbles...oh, and dino (yes, even our dog will be dressed..haha). i can't wait to hear what everyone else has in the works! :)
ella and luke ;)
Posted by jessica at 11:39 AM 25 comments:
candyland party feature! :)
yay!! my candyland party is being featured on creative parties and showers today! so exciting and such an honor! :) this blog is nothing but inspiration! definitely a favorite..i love it! :)
Posted by jessica at 10:11 AM 1 comment:
Labels: candyland party, featured parties
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subset: commoncrawl


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Charleston Eats | Rodney Scott's Barbecue The City's Newest BBQ Destination
It is almost impossible to have a bad meal in Charleston, especially if you steer clear of the tourist ridden spots. Since the last trip for ROSE & IVY, there are a plethora of new restaurants that are worth checking out. First up, Rodney Scott's Barbecue, which recently opened on Upper King Street. As I mentioned in a post about a year ago, Charleston during my college year, we are going back ten years (yikes!) you would never go that far up, what is now a street full of amazing restaurants including this locale. They serve a variety of options from pork to chicken and sides. I recommend splitting the hush puppies, collard greens and macaroni and cheese - and for dessert, the banana pudding is knee buckling good. Here is a peak inside of this new space!
Visit: 1011 King Street, Charleston
Photographs by Alison


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By Philip Zimmermann
Secure Voice over IP: Zfone
14 Mar 2006 - I've just released Zfone, a new product that takes a new approach to make a secure telephone for the Internet.
I think it's better than the other approaches to secure VoIP, because it achieves security without reliance on a PKI, key certification, trust models, certificate authorities, or key management complexity that bedevils the email encryption world. It also does not rely on SIP signaling for the key management, and in fact does not rely on any servers at all.
This looks like it might be quite cool, shame I'm not using linux at work any more, I'll have to wait 'til this eve to have a play ;-)


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A Message from Marlene
Last night I was privileged to present the Lester Bayer Award at the "Look How We've Grown" event at Astoria Lutheran School. The year-end presentation showcased the work of the children in various formats, from performance to presentations or reports generated from their project based learning units. My favorite part of the evening was listening to the grade school sing several of the songs which they'd learned in Chapel during the year. If you can imagine a chorus of angels, that's what I heard (of course, some of the teachers might dispute that moniker!) This school is an amazing place for children. Among this diverse student body, 18 different languages are spoken, a wide variety of religious beliefs and backgrounds are represented, and many faced difficult challenges in their lives. It made my heart glad to be able to recognize this school, not only for their amazing program, but for the positive impact they are making in the lives of their students and families.
The event made me think of a quote from noted Lutheran theologian Martin Marty. He wrote, "In many ways a society where religion is not an official establishment, it is everywhere and nowhere. For those reasons, among others, it is often apparently shadowed and in need of being brought to light."
Reflecting upon last night's presentations I can say without a doubt that the church was brought to light. In that small community, both parents and children knew that they were important and genuinely loved. Pastor and principal stood side by side in ministry, teachers applauded their children with pride, and students, from the youngest to the oldest, cheered on one another.
As we continue to live in a world where racial tensions are constant and the threat and fear of terrorism is very real, the church provides a light to children and families through its schools. Last night, the children and families, and their church and school were one, not divided by the color of their skin or by the languages that they spoke. They were one in the love of Christ.
One of the goals of CUEM is to assist our urban Lutheran and other faith-based schools, to survive and thrive. It is moments like last night which reinforce just how important that mission continues to be. The church is visible through its schools, and can fortify a student to handle the challenges of city living.
As we head into summer, I urge us all to remember our teachers, students and families. I encourage those of you with schools to celebrate how they bring Christ into the world. And I wish you all a refreshing and renewing summer.
Astoria Lutheran School Receives the 2017 Lester R. Bayer Award for Excellence in Urban Education
The 2017 Lester R. Bayer Award for Excellence in Urban Education was presented to Astoria Lutheran School on June 8, 2017. Accepting the Award was Mrs. Mary Leake, Principal and the Rev. James Klockau, Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church.
Granting recognition to those highly successful in operating innovative and effective urban education programs allows the Center for Urban Education Ministries to honor outstanding programs and people. Astoria Lutheran School uses a blend of technology and face-to-face teaching to allow students to reach their God-given potential.
The mission of Astoria Lutheran School is to nurture in students a love of learning and faith in God, and to equip them to meet the challenges of the 21st Century with confidence, integrity, and a respect for others. Students are encouraged to meet the New York State Common Core Learning Standards, but they do it in creative ways using innovative programs and instructional strategies that foster intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual development. Astoria provides a caring, safe, Christian environment that encourages risk-taking for successful and joyful learning, respect for self and others, responsible behavior, compassion, and church and community participation.
Each week, students work in multi-age groups to investigate an aspect of a chosen topic or theme that provides an opportunity for students to apply learned concepts from a variety of content areas. Project-based learning, or "theme", as the students call it, is the focal point and most anticipated day of the week. The school's garden/outdoor classroom has, and continues to be, at the center of the multi-age, project-based studies, allowing students the hands-on opportunity to learn from and connect with nature.
The Center was proud to present this award to this fine group of students and teachers with wishes for continued blessings. The award includes a $1000 cash prize to be used as the school determines. Applications for next year's recipient will be accepted beginning in September. More information is available at centerforurbaned.org.
Innovation Institutes
CUEM is excited about conversations taking place with California Lutheran University and Concordia College New York around the establishment of Urban Innovation Institutes.The Institutes will provide opportunities for professional development, think-tank development and dialogue around issues in urban education. They will have two foci. One focus will be to target educators and administrators in faith-based schools to assist them with cutting edge ideas and pedagogy. The second focus will be to help pastors new to urban areas relate to their communities through education—public, faith-based and private. These regional institutes will be the go-to place for faith-based schools and churches engaged in urban education. Stay tuned for more information as plans are solidified throughout the summer.
Professional Development and Other Team Building Opportunities
One of the ways in which CUEM reaches out to our partners in education is through professional development opportunities. I recently had the privilege to work with educators from The New Life School in the Bronx on shifting teachers' mindsets to incorporate blended learning into the classrooms. The school serves students with special needs from across NYC and continues to seek ways to individualize instruction so that each student's needs are met and their passions and strengths are developed. I'm looking forward to continued work with the teachers and students as they move forward.
For information on workshops or professional development opportunities, please contact me at the CUEM office, 212-870-1105 or drop me a note at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Finally…A Little End of the Year Humor—Have a Blessed Summer!


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I got to spend the past year and half working alongside Jesse and watching and Hazel fall in love. So when he asked me to film their wedding I of course said yes:) It was seriously such an honor to get to experience such an emotional and ridiculously beautiful wedding. Jesse and Hazel you guys rock. I hope this film blesses you guys over the years to come:)
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Is it soup yet?
There hasn't been a lot of elaborate cooking going on here recently (not that it's EVER elaborate), it's been more like boil the pasta and throw some Parmenon on top. After slathering on the Earth Balance. But with the waning days of autumn (if I may indulge in a little poetic waxing) the kitchen has become far more attractive than it was during the last despicable part of the Mid-Atlantic summer. Which means it's time for soup!
So here is not a soup recipe (maybe later) but the latest version of homemade veggie broth mix to get said soup started. There have been a few times in the past when I actually did a veg stock from scratch, but let's face it, that is not a common pursuit in my kitchen. First of all I can't stand the idea of boiling vegetables to death and then throwing them away (which most broth/stock recipes tell you to do). I think I really prefer to start out with something more of a seasoning base and then make sure the main ingredients carry the show.
I've mentioned before that there is a standard go-to recipe I use for an instant chicken-style soup base (from Joanne Stepaniak), but recently (well, today) there's been some tweaking and influence on that standard after looking at Bryanna Clark Grogan's Vegan Chicken Style Broth Powder.
I'd never included soy in my concoction, it was pretty much the nutri yeast base with salt and dried herbs. But I riffed on Bryanna's version by using soy milk powder instead of soy protein powder, and the soy milk definitely adds a 'roundness' to the broth. It was good just for sippin'! (Note that the soy milk powder can be left out completely and you will still have a good broth mix.)
Bryanna also uses sugar in her mix, which I'd never done before, and frankly I was suspicious. I didn't want a sweet result, but after making up a bit of broth with this hybrid recipe, I can say there was not a noticeable sweetness, again probably just a rounding out of the flavors.
Methinks this is the new standard. Plus it is another seasoning-type recipe that fits nicely in a 1 lb. recycled peanut butter jar. Hoo boy.
Light Instant Broth Mix
1½ cups nutritional yeast flakes
4 Tbs. powdered soy milk (optional; leave out for a clear broth)
3 Tbs. salt
2 Tbs. onion granules
1 Tbs. garlic granules
1 Tbs. paprika
1 Tbs. dried parsley
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. dried dill or cilantro, or a combination
½ tsp. dried sage
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ tsp. freshly ground white pepper
Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until finely powdered, and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.
To make broth, use 1½ tsp. per cup of water, or more to taste.
Option: for a mushroom-style broth, add a tablespoon or two of dry mushroom powder to the other ingredients in the bulk recipe before blending.
Labels: make your own, seasoning, soup
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Breaking the rules
This lonely little pepper pod came from a plant which came from a seed which came from a plant ('Black Pearl' ornamental pepper) I paid way too much money for last year. Although I got several seedlings this year that looked like the parent plant from last year, the one this pod came from had normal green leaves instead of the almost black leaves characteristic of the variety. It did have a completely black fruit though, which as seen in the photo is halfway to red at this point. Hopefully I left it on the plant long enough for the seeds to be viable.
The usual pod shape on 'Black Pearl' is pretty much round, but this one had a little bit of narrowing at the end so I thought what the muck, let's see what it makes next year. 'Black Pearl' is supposed to be stable, since it has PVP (Plant Variety Protection) status, but the flower from last year's plant that provided the seed for the current year's plant probably had relations with another pepper plant, as the current plant has 'normal' leaves.
Even though the conventional rule is don't save seeds from hybrids cause you don't know what you're gonna get, sometimes that's the whole point. I'd like to see if maybe an individual in the next generation gets some variegation in the leaves, while still producing the inky black fruit. Typically I'll germinate the rule-breakers and see how they grow out for a while. If they are not interesting they can always join the compost pile.
For a really striking ornamental 'black' pepper plant which does have variegated leaves, I prefer a variety called 'Royal Black African'. I got the seed from Amishland Seeds, grew it out for the first time last year, and it was stunning, just as showy as the 'Black Pearl' but with green, violet, and white streaking in some of the leaves, and more pointed fruit (which I like better than round). Even with a late start from seed it caught up with the 'Black Pearl' (which was at least 18" tall at time of purchase) in a few months. The plant in the photo below is still fairly small so there aren't as many dark leaves yet; don't take it as representative of a mature plant. When the plant is mature, the dark leaves dominate and it is much more noteworthy.
The seedlings this year were from my own saved seed, and I think there is even more streaking this year, but since the little darlings are pretty much growing in the shade they are probably not normal specimens. Still pretty though.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange carries a variety called 'Royal Black', and from the website description of the variety I think it's the same as 'Royal Black African', or very, very close to it (the leaves in the website photo appear to be green, however, not dark and streaked, per the accompanying description).
So the season is winding down, the garden was subject to a humiliating lack of sun, and the roller coaster weather helped not one little bit.
Can't wait 'til next year!
Labels: garden, good plants, seeds, vegetables
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Inventory time, and lessons learned
Besides the obvious answer to the question, "What vegetables can you grow in the shade?" (not many), this season brought a few surprises/ successes, and had the gardener been a little more attentive, the success rate would probably have been a smidge bit better.
Insufficient sun is not going to net you big honkin veggies. However, more modestly sized varieties, such as the Pizza My Heart pepper, as well as many hot peppers, may struggle along and produce an acceptable yield. The Pizza My Hearts shown here are probably destined for a veggie sausage-and-peppers combo, as they are sweet but can occasionally zing you with a little spiciness.
I had scads of Jalapeños and Cascabellas (well scads for me anyway). Basil, parsley, and the other herbs did OK. The African marigolds went nuts, and the French Dwarfs got nice and bushy with a little time. The Swiss Chard is even growing moderately well, and the lettuce would have done better if it hadn't gotten eaten by the Trombetta di Albenga squash vines, which only made one damn decent squash, but I didn't find it until after ripping up the vines in disgust. The Trombetta had gorgeous, enormous leaves by the way, and made gillions of flowers (which I didn't use- idiot!), and was certainly not the one at fault for being so stingy with the fruit. Trying to grow it with only an hour or so of direct sun a day is cruel and unusual punishment, so it gave me leaves and flowers instead of fruit.
Which brings me to lesson number 1. You can grow leaves in the shade. Most leaves don't care. It's fruit that cares, and will snub you unmercifully by not showing up to your party. Herbs and greens are the mainstay of the kitchen shade garden.
Then lesson number 2. Forget mammoth tomatoes and put your bets on golf ball sized fruits, if you insist on trying to grow tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and the like in shade. I got a few smallish cucumbers and eggplants this season, so next year, if I am unfortunately still here, the plan is to grow only midget varieties.
Lesson number 3. Once the funds are available again (with salary freezes things are pretty tight, like everybody on the planet didn't know that already), hire an arborist and limb up/down whatever I can get away with on the trees on the property.
Lesson number 4. A fall garden may be the best bet for a shaded yard, as the canopy is decreasing and the light increasing, even though the sun is at at a lower angle.
Lesson number 5. Tear up the front yard and put the garden there. It gets a whole THREE hours of sun a day.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Before the seeds get into the envelopes below, they have to get out of the seed production units, whatever they may be. Herbs seeds can often be uncooperative due to tiny size, and their tendency to hole up in equally tiny seed capsules/cavities.
Enter another use for one of my (way-too-many) kitchen gadgets. Trying to get Thai basil seeds out of their jackets was really yanking on my carpal tunnel. This mortar with ribbed sides was perfect for rubbing the little suckers out of their hiding places.
The top of the bowl is about 5.5", tapering to a bottom of about 2", so my fingers fit easily inside to roll the seed heads around the sides of the mortar, freeing most of the seeds to drop to the bottom.
I love justifying gadget purchases.
Growing pains
The garden was almost a complete flop this year (well, the marigolds did OK). The shade in the back yard is now so complete the harvest wouldn't feed a family of mice. Sigh.
Still, there are some things going to seed, so what do we do? Waste valuable time making seed envelopes! Instead of working on the house and selling it and moving somewhere that has sun!
The latest incarnation is not exactly a step by step, it's more of a spec sheet for what I currently do to contain the seeds of a meager harvest.
There have been some changes to the original envelope template, most notably cutting a curve into the top of the back section ever so slightly, to make it easier to fold down the top flap, and angling the edges on the side and bottom flaps, also to make for easier folding. The template and specs are provided in Word this time so customizing should be easy peasy.
Labels: garden, harvest, make your own, seeds
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We know what we are,
but know not what we may be.
Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.
Design is how it works.
+852 9278 5664
Room F-G, 1st Floor, Kai Fung Mansion,
189-205 Queen's Road Central, Sheung Wan, HONG KONG
OPENING HOURS : MONDAY TO SUNDAYS / NOON to 7:00 P.M.


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Mohsen Mostafavi - Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and educator, is the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design.. Mohsen Mostafavi was born in 1954 and is an Iranian-American architect and educator. He is the Dean and a Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University, and the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of. Henry David Thoreau, der Schutzpatron der amerikanischen Naturfreunde, liebte das Leben in der Wildnis. Doch unvergessen ist sein Missgeschick, als er 1884 ein Lagerfeuer in den Wäldern von.
14.12.2010 · Interview with Mohsen Mostafavi - Dean Harvard university Graduate School of Design.. View the profiles of people named Mohsen Mostafavi. Join Facebook to connect with Mohsen Mostafavi and others you may know. Facebook gives people the. Iranian-American architect and educator Mohsen Mostafavi is the Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Alexander and Victoria Wiley.
Mohsen Mostafavi, Intl. Assoc. AIA, who has served as Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) dean since 2008, will be ending his time in the role at the end of this school year.. Jetzt verfügbar bei ZVAB.com - Versand nach gratis - ISBN: 9783037783498 - Buch - Zürich Lars Müller Publishers Mrz 2015 - 2015 - Zustand: Neu - Neuware - Die Arbeiten des britischen Architekten Nicholas Hawksmoor (ca.1661-1736) gelten als wichtige Beiträge zur britischen und europäischen Baukultur. Allerdings gibt es wenige Bilddokumente. Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) since January 2008, announced Oct. 24 that he will step down from the position at the end of the 2018-19 academic year..
Mohsen Mostafavi, an international figure in the fields of architecture and urbanism, will become the dean of the Faculty of Design beginning in January 2008, President Drew Faust announced today (Aug. 10). An accomplished academic leader, architect, and scholar, Mostafavi is currently the dean of.


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Price Hikes
Below is a sampling of 10 districts that raised lunch prices for the 2004-05 school year.
|Price Increase
|Grand Forks (N.D.) Public Schools
|10 cents
|Utica City (N.Y.) School District
30 cents - elementary
25 cents - middle/high school
|Somersworth (N.H.) School District
15 cents - elementary
25 cents - high school
|Pender County (N.C.) Schools
|25 cents
|Atlanta Public Schools
|30 cents
|New Hanover County (N.C.) Schools
|15 cents
|Boston Public Schools
|10 cents
|South San Francisco Unified School District
|25 cents
|Dallas Independent School District
|25 cents
|Galt (Calif.) Joint Union High School District
SOURCE: Education Week
Vol. 24, Issue 1, Page 3Published in Print: September 1, 2004, as Price Hikes
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All comments are public.


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Boil-water orders? Trucked-in water? Use of the reservoir off of Valley View Road? All of these could be part of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority's worst-case scenario in the event of a severe water shortage, officials said.
Boil-water orders? Trucked-in water? Use of the reservoir off of Valley View Road?
All of these could be part of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority's worst-case scenario in the event of a severe water shortage, officials said.
While that didn't come to pass last summer, it's the type of thing for which officials in Oneida County have a clear contingency plan.
"That would be how things would unfold in the worst-case scenario," county Environmental Health Director Dan Gilmore said. "It's our job to make sure that does not happen."
The biggest concern in a crisis situation is drinking water, followed by environmental impact, Gilmore said.
If Hinckley Reservoir dried up during last summer's crisis and all other measures were exhausted, trucks of water could have been brought into the county to supply farms and drinking water, Gilmore said.
The water would be brought to a central area and people could take it with jugs. Water would also be pumped into some of the distribution systems in the area, Gilmore said.
This has never happened here before, he said.
Unfiltered water
Hinckley Reservoir dropped to nearly 1,185 feet above sea level in September. If it had dropped into the mid 1,170s, water would have been taken from the Southern Reservoir and West Canada Creek, said Patrick Becher, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority.
In that case, the majority of the authority's 130,000 customers would have had to boil water for at least two weeks, Becher said.
The Southern Reservoir, along Valley View Road in Utica, is not part of the authority's filtration system, meaning any drinking water taken from it would have to be boiled.
"It would have affected two-thirds of the system," Becher said.
Impact on creek
Drawing from both the West Canada Creek and Southern Reservoir would have lasted between 30 and 60 days, possibly longer depending on creek flow, he said.
Without drawing from West Canada Creek, the Southern Reservoir would have lasted about 15 days, Becher said.
The creek itself was depleted late last summer, prompting a fishing ban.
If there weren't enough water in West Canada Creek to take out, the Southern Reservoir wouldn't be tapped, Becher said.
Any such steps could have a tragic effect on aquatic life in West Canada Creek — especially trout, said state Assemblyman Marc Butler, R-Newport.
"Trout are very sensitive to the temperature," he said. "The fish were already in bad shape, and we were very close to that reality."
People come to the area to fish and it could have hindered the area's economic impact, he said.
Part of the Hinckley Reservoir working group's agenda is to determine how to prevent a Mohawk Valley water emergency, Gilmore said.
"We don't want to make it a political issue again," he said. "We were in completely uncharted territory."


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The Tahiti Airport Motel
The Tahiti Airport Motel is a perfect choice for travelers arriving late in the evening or in need of a one night stay on the island before traveling onto other islands on the following day. The property offers 46 rooms including double, twin and family rooms equipped with a high speed internet connection and WiFi.
Each air conditioned room features a sitting area with desk, bathroom with shower, telephone, television, WiFi internet access, coffee/tea facilities, mini-bar and in room safe. There are 41 Standard Rooms offering comfortable accommodations for two, as well as 4 Family Rooms which include a double bed and two single beds.


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The challenge
The ever growing world population and increasing pressure on the planet lead to huge challenges in the food chain. More so, our day to day choices have an impact on our body and our environment. To provide enough, nutritious and sustainable food for everyone today and in the future, a radical change in how we produce and consume food is needed.
The approach
The World Food Center unites consumers and organizations and stimulates them to take more responsibility and join forces to find solutions for challenges in the food chain we face today and in the future. We feed each other. we feed each other.
The World Food Center is the place to be for food. A place where consumers, private partners, knowledge institutes and governments can share knowledge and inspire one another. The lively urban area adds to both an eventful and meaningful lasting awareness among consumers and provide breeding ground for innovation.
World Food Center Experience
The World Food Center Experience offers an educational food adventure where consumers in a playful way get to understand the complex story of the food chain. The goal is to inspire visitors to make conscious choices every day for tasty, healthy and sustainable food.
On the site of the WFC Experience you will find all information.


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Mobile World Congress 2012
O2 mobile and DSL:Clever combination of tariffs saves 10 euros a month
MUNICH/BARCELONA. Following the launch of Alice Home & Go, the Internet flat rate for the home and on the move, in January, Telefónica Germany presented a new offer at the Mobile World Congress 2012 that cleverly combines fixed-line and mobile telephony. From 1 March O2 mobile subscribers will save 10 euros every month when they take out an additional DSL subscription. Then, from 3 April, the offer also applies vice versa. From this date onwards, DSL customers will receive a permanent 10 euros discount on a mobile subscription as well.
"At the beginning of the year all fixed-line and mobile products were united under the O2 brand," says René Schuster, CEO of Telefónica Germany. "Our customers can now cleverly combine the products and even save money. With this we reward existing Alice DSL and O2 mobile customers for their loyalty and provide a very attractive combination of fix-net and mobile." As an example, the combo offer gives O2 mobile subscribers an Internet and fixed-line flat rate for just 19.99 euros a month when choosing the Alice M option. Customers who sign up for a fixed-term DSL contract can save even more. Then the rate is just 9.99 euros for the first three months.
DSL and mobile tariffs with combo savings at a glance
|From 01 March 2012
|Alice M
|Alice L
|Monthly price for new customers
|19.99 euros (29.99 euros from 4th month)
|24.99 euros (34.99 euros from 4th month)
|Monthly price in combination with a mobile tariff1)
|9.99 euros (19.99 euros from 4th month)
|14.99 euros (24.99 euros from 4th month)
|From 03 April 2012
|O2 Blue M
|O2 Blue L
|Monthly price for new customers
|39.99 euros
|59.99 euros
|Monthly price in combination with a DSL tariff2)
|29.99 euros
|49.99 euros
|Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG and its brand O2 belong to Telefónica Europe and are part of the Spanish telecommunication group Telefónica S.A. The Company offers its German private and business customers postpaid and prepaid mobile telecom products as well as innovative mobile data services based on the GPRS and UMTS technologies. In addition, the integrated communications provider also offers DSL fixed network telephony and high-speed internet. Telefónica Europe has more than 58 million mobile and fixed network customers in Great Britain, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.


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A long, long, long time ago, the kid down the street had a birthday. There, at his party, the challenge was on. The game: 'Laser Blast'. The console: his brand new Atari 2600.
Birthday cake was eaten, Fanta was consumed, and after many pixellated tanks were destroyed, I was the winner…
Fast forwarding 30 years……………………………
Indie game maker Clement has announced a stunning new game, Sky Invader which looks very much like a strategic version of Laser Blast. There's the UFO at the top, tanks on the bottom (plus helicopters) but this time it's mouse-controlled with more 'strategy' and less 'shmup'.
Check out the trailer, and prepare for your jaw to interface with your carpet.
It's being made in MMF – a game making system used by respected retro remakers like SpaceTime Games and Ovine by Design.
*thanks to Tigsource for the heads up.


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Artist's description:
I hope viewers will be interested in the collation of different materials, considered spaces and the fragments of landscape which pull together to create a fictional place. I hope that my work evokes a feeling of intrigue, prompting the viewer to ask questions and encouraging them to create their own narrative about the history of the space and the strangers who live there. I think the sense of the places portrayed in my work is carefully balanced between being peaceful and unnerving and I like to think the disposition of the viewer will determine which one is more prominent.
Materials used:
Acrylic Paint, Paper
Dimensions (2016)
Collage by Mairi Timoney
- Collage on Panel / Board / MDF
- One of a kind artwork
- Size: 39.37 x 39.37 x 1.18 in (framed) / 25.59 x 25.59 x 0.39 in (unframed) / 25.59 x 25.59 in (actual image size)
- Framed and ready to hang
- Signed on the back
- Style: Collage
- Subject: Landscapes, sea and sky
This artwork is sold by Mairi Timoney from United Kingdom


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Top 5 Cost-Effective Home Improvement Projects
Five mid-range projects with the highest returns at resale, according to Remodeling's 2014 Cost vs. Value report.
Remodeling's annual Cost vs. Value report compares average costs for 35 popular remodeling projects with the value those projects retain at resale in 101 U.S. cities. The "mid-range" projects category consists of 22 projects, while the "upscale" projects category consists of 13.
We've broken down the mid-range project category to designate the top 5 cost-effective home improvement projects, and the average cost of each. These projects will give you the most bang for your buck at resale:
- Entry door replacement (steel)
- Return: 96.6%
- Average cost: $1,162
- Deck addition (wood)
- Return: 87.4%
- Average cost: $9,539
- Attic Bedroom
- Return: 84.3%
- Average cost: $49,438
- Garage door replacement
- Return: 83.7%
- Average cost: $1,534
- Minor kitchen remodel
- Return: 82.7%
- Average cost: $18,856
Check out each project's breakdown to see how the cost and value have changed over the years, and to see interactive examples. Our chart below displays how the top 5 projects in the mid-range index have varied over the past four years.
SOURCE: Remodeling's 2014 Cost vs. Value Report


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- Refined sportiness with sensual design
- New signature cascading grille
- Fine-tuned proportions and
driving dynamics
Dynamically designed to excite and
challenge on any road, there�s so much
more to life when you�re in a Sonata.
Achieving the highest level of driving performance and steering stability through innovations in
suspension structure.
Comfort-oriented details of the refined interior add a premium touch to Sonata's
distinctive design idiom.
4.2� color LCD supervision cluster displays driving information brightly and easy-to-read by using both analogue and digital read-outs.
In addition to providing the reassuring grip of real leather, the heated steering wheel keeps your hands warm on cold days.
Feel more connected with the 8" touch screen display providing easy operability and outstanding visibility.
This lets the driver and front-seat passenger set their own individual climate control settings.
Advanced convenience feature of the wireless charging pad with unattended smartphone alert will make sure that you don�t leave your smartphone behind.
Rear seat side curtains can be wound up when you want privacy or just want to block out the light.
A sunshade on the rear window deploys at the touch of a button, to cut out glare from the sun.
Arrange the backseat and trunk area the way you want. The rear seats can be folded down in a 6:4 configuration.
The 2.4 GDi engine offers high fuel efficiency and delivers maximum power of 188 ps at 6,000 rpm and maximum torque of 24.6 kg·m at 4,000 rpm. only available in select regions
With maximum power of 171 ps at 6,000 rpm and maximum torque of 22.6 kg·m torque at 4,000 rpm, the 2.4 MPi engine minimizes emission and promotes power output.
The lightweight and responsive 2.0 MPi engine produces a maximum 152 ps at 6,200 rpm and 19.6 kg·m torque at 4,000 rpm.
BSD detects approaching vehicles or unforeseen objects in the blind spot and triggers a warning light and acoustic alert when changing lanes.
Sensing steering wheel movements in relation to wheel rotation, ESC takes care of the engine, braking system and steering during sudden braking and turning to keep you from skidding.
Dynamic bending lights respond to the turn of the steering wheel and illuminates the part of the road you�re turning towards for safer driving at night.
HAC combined lets you get a safe start on an uphill incline without rolling backwards.
ASCC maintains a constant speed and distance from the vehicle ahead by automatically accelerating and braking by using a front radar sensor.


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This month has been full of new things for me!
It's my birthday in August, so I was feeling a party coming on =) Sketched some paper fans, balloons, and confetti...and bam, patterns happened!
I finished fun party collection called "Party Time" (preview pictured above) AND I'm almost done with my lookbook.
The lookbook will include mockups like the one below. I used motifs from Party Time! So cool, right?!


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Self-directed artwork projects
As a practicing graphic designer, my realm is a visual one. It needs feeding.
So it helps me to have non-commercial projects on the go. These projects may influence or inspire directions I take with client projects, but essentially they stand alone from that work. Currently, these projects are represented by digital artworks, photographs, drawings and paintings. Each continues to grow as a stream of work.
The images below will take you to examples from each series along with accompanying background notes. Some work is available to buy.


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Stocks tumbled to 5 year lows on Wednesday as investors grappled with an increasingly dire outlook for the global economy. Also a growing belief that ratings agencies such as Moody's ignored warning signs in the mortgage securities market eroded investor confidence.
Also, a plunge in emerging market assets and widespread de-leveraging were seen as further signs the credit crisis that has plagued the United States and Europe has begun to hit developing countries. Stock markets around the world have fallen sharply over the last two days.
In another sign of a dismal outlook for global economic prospects the price of copper, a major industrial metal, dove to a three-year low.
How are you trading?
Stocks tumbled to 5 year lows on Wednesday as investors grappled with an increasingly dire outlook for the global economy. Also a growing belief that ratings agencies such as Moody's ignored warning signs in the mortgage securities market eroded investor confidence.
I'm seeing massive liquidations in Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets and I think that's what took down our market, says Tim Seymour. Corporate debt markets around the world are a mess. If you're looking for a trade I would get short the iShares MSCI Germany Index Fund
, Seymour says.
The day's action seems overdone to me, says Karen Finerman. The idea of slowing global growth is not new.
I put on a shiny happy trade, says Jeff Macke. I bought McDonald'sand I lost money. I'm also long the dollar via the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF and long the Ultra Short S&P 500 Fund ETF. Those trades did well
We've been trading between 8200 and 9500 in the Dow , adds Guy Adami. Play the extremes.
This is a bear market, adds strategic investor Dennis Gartman. Rallies are to be sold and weakness is not to be bought.
What do you think? Tell us now!
GLOBAL RECESSION: COMMODITIES PLUNGEOil dropped more than 7 percent, on Wednesday, touching a new 16-month low as rising U.S. fuel inventories added to signs a global economic slowdown has dragged down demand.
Meanwhile, plummeting commodity prices sent energy and materials companies' shares sharply lower. Exxon Mobil was the top drag on the Dow, down almost 10 percent.
We overshot on the upside and I do believe we will overshoot on the downside, counsels Guy Adami. On a positive note, the railroads reported record earnings so there's something good going on.
Eventually commodities prices will bottom too, adds Tim Seymor. Keep an eye on companies like Freeport McMoRan when they do.
Investors spent the day grappling with corporate earnings and profit forecasts that painted a dreary economic picture, at best. Most of the companies who reported earnings on Wednesday including Boeing and Wachovia disappointed investors with poor results.
At some point in time the volatility will end and once again the market will focus on underlying cash flow, says Karen Finerman. Ultimately that's what determines what things are worth. That determines if a company can stay in the game. But in the short term the market is being controlled by fear.
That's truly fundamental, adds Guy Adami. And it makes sense.
If you're holding stock in a 401K and are thinking about cashing out, don't do it, adds Finerman. I wouldn't be surprised to see inflation in the near future and cash is not to be the place to be, at all. I'm riding out the crisis on both sides, by being both long and short.
Lawmakers spent much of the day trying to sort through the aftermath of the Wall Street crisis. Among the evidence they reviewed was this instant message exchange between two unidentified S and P officals about a mortgage backed security deal on 4/5/2007:
Official #1: Btw that deal is ridiculous.
Official #2: I know right...model def does not capture half the risk.
Official #1: We should not be rating it.
Official #2: We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.
The ratings agencies are bringing down the entire globe, exclaims an irate Jeff Macke. Today's testimony before Congress raises the suggestion that nothing out there is what it seems. And if you think this is just a Wall Street problem, you're wrong.
It seems to me there's more regulation on a slot machine in Vegas than there is on securities, adds Dylan Ratigan.
Got something to to say? Send us an e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com and your comment might be posted on the Rapid Recap. If you'd prefer to make a comment but not have it published on our website send those e-mails to email@example.com.
Trader disclosure: On Oct.22, 2008, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's Fast Money were owned by the Fast Money trader; Macke Owns (SDS), (UUP), (MSFT), (BNI), (MCD); Adami Owns (AGU), (BTU), (C), (GS), (INTC), (MSFT), (NUE); Finerman Owns (GS), (PM), (RAI), (DEO); Finerman's Firm Owns (MO), (MSFT); Finerman's Firm Is Short (BBT), (COF), (IYR), (IJR), (USO), (SPY), (IWM); Seymour Owns (AAPL), (BAC), (EEM), (F), (MER)
CNBC.com with wires


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Ordering your Wedding Invitations
Sending your invitations
You should send your invitations six to eight weeks before the wedding. If you have guests coming from interstate or overseas, it is a good idea to provide even more notice (perhaps informally so that they have a chance to make travel arrangements). Ensure all invitations are posted at the same time to avoid some guests receiving theirs earlier than others.
Remember to write your return address on the back of each envelope so that you know if any invitations do not reach your guests.
RSVP Dates
The RSVP date should be set at least 3 weeks before the date of your wedding. This will give you the opportunity to send additional invites if regrets come in.
The font, (often also referred to as lettering or typeface) refers to the design of the individual letters on your invitations. Select a font that is easy to read, and matches the style of your wedding. Curved ornate fonts will give the impression of a more traditional style. Modern fonts with clean lines will allude to more contemporary style. The font you choose, along with your wording and invitation style should create a tone that reflects the tone of the wedding.
The size of the font best used will depend on the invitation you have chosen, the amount of wording. A reputable stationery provider can provide advice on this.
Invitation Wording
The wording may be presented in a variety of styles, and along with the font and stationery style sets the tone for your wedding.
Invitations wording should contain the essential information. This includes:
- who is getting married
- times of your ceremony and reception
- locations of the wedding and reception. Inlcude the full addess
- an RSVP date and address.
If you are having an outdoor wedding you may choose to include any wet weather plans.
How the wording is presented is also affected by how formal the wedding is, who is paying for the wedding and or family circumstances.
Your stationery provider can offer assistance with a range of wording options.
Invitation Printing
Your stationer can print your personalized invitations for you, or you can opt for DIY invitations and stationery, where you will need access to an inkjet or laser printer.
A wonderful selection of inks are now available. Gold and silver inks have always been a traditional favorite. Today you can choose from a host of ink colors to complement the colors and style of your wedding.


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When I say bodyweight workout you are probably thinking of squats, lunges and pushups. What if you want to workout your arms too? Well here is Chad Howse with 4 bodyweight arm exercises that you can do at the park on a nice sunny day. All you need for these is a chin-up bar which you can find at almost any park that has a playground. These exercises are also great if you have a bar at home.
4 Bodyweight Arm Exercises
- muscle-ups 0:40 (targets your biceps and triceps)
- bodyweight curl bicep focused chin-up 1:15 (targets your biceps)
- 30/30 chin up 1:40 (targets your biceps)
- bodyweight skull crusher 2:05 (targets your triceps)
Take a look at the video for demonstrations of each of these exercises.
In this video is Chad Howse creator of the Power Howse Challenge.
Now taking the kids to the park isn't an excuse for not getting your workout done. 🙂


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by Al Smith
Father Takes Stock
Harrogate the play started its life as part of the High Tide Festival and, after a short run at the Royal Court Theatre, is now embarking on a national tour between 1 and 16 November: the Farnham Maltings in Surrey, the artsdepot in North Finchley, Harlow Playhouse, The North Wall, Oxford, Canterbury's Marlowe Studio, The Garage in Norwich, The Cornerstone in Didcot, The Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds and the Cambridge Junction
An 80-minute two hander, it stars Nigel Lindsay, last seen by us in Speed-The-Plow, as the apparent father of a 15 year schoolgirl played by Sarah Ridgeway who also doubles as wife and mother. It's received mostly rave reviews, although it strikes us as a marmite type of play.
It's set in what seems to be the family flat, designed by Tom Piper on a clinical white traverse stage (we caught it on the last day of its run at the Royal Court) with a kitchen island at one end, two equally gleaming white chairs, and a wall on which, eventually, a photo of the parents hangs on the other.
While mining with precision the relationship between a Dad and his teenage daughter, the play nevertheless leaves a question mark continually hanging over their identities,what is true and what is not. The script ambiguously, especially in view of Sarah Ridgeway's transformation into the medic wife in the final scene, only names the characters as "Him" and "Her".
Past and present also coalesce within a sort of audit, with secrets and reveals, of the parents' marriage and their daughter's life as words and incidents repeat themselves in different patterns.
It has something in common with Blue Heart, which we enjoyed recently, with its repetitions and the acting is impeccable. In fact, it is altogether cool, glossy, clinical and slick, even at the moments when it would appear to be at its most heartfelt - and most cruel.
There's certainly tricksy quality, but maybe the clues are there. In the father's profession of reinsurance (there's quite a bit of financial vocabulary and acronyms), the language of computer games, in the unseen mother of the daughter's best friend who has forged her career in performance psychology and the rhythm of a binary computer program at work.
This felt to us a somewhat one-dimensional play and as if it could be part of larger piece; Unlike Blue Heart the repetitions do not feel true alternatives but part of a closed circuit learning process where the memory of past conversations is solely there so that the incidents and vocabulary can be rearranged.
The father's relationship with his daughter may be unhealthy or maybe it is just he cannot let go, trying to train her to be a smart machine with a degree of independence, which includes a mysterious stay at Harrogate, but always thinking she will come back to him.
There's an undercurrent of corruption in the dialogue, although it's kept deliberately ambiguous as to whether it is commercial or sexual or both TLT and her mechanical sidekick found it a little precious, as if we were going to be tested afterward on whether we'd noticed the links between the scenes - and so then writing a review of this could be a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Still the staccato rhythms are sharply delineated by director Richard Twyman and fluently performed even if its narrating style and stylized format left us rather uninvolved. It's an amber light for a clean-cut but ultimately just a little bit too regimented a piece for us.
Monday, 31 October 2016
Friday, 28 October 2016
Review Magnificence
by Howard Brenton
The State We're In
Which play links squatters, bailiffs, Che Guevara t-shirts, Cambridge University, constables, Brixton Prison, situationism, bonkbuster novel The Carpetbaggers, graffitti, public lavatories the welfare state, Edward Heath's Tory government, a revolutionary banner with a tendency to sag, John Marston's Jacobean satire The Malcontent, baked beans, the clap, the High Court, Winston Churchill ...
(Takes a breath!) ... The church, investigative current affairs programme World In Action, Chairman Mao, the BBC, calor gas lamps, dustbin men, Hollywood stars Caroll Baker and Steve McQueen, cornflakes, Marmite, Mickey Mouse, the Paymaster General, French writer Jean Genet, the Weathermen, Black Panthers, the Apollo Moon Landing, the Stars and Stripes, the Hammer and Sickle, Benny Hill, Marilyn Monroe, Jesus, China, champagne, The House of Lords, the biblical Song of Songs and a London Times obituary?
You may have guessed by the title of this review, it's Howard Brenton's 1973 Royal Court Theatre play Magnificence. This uneven, but complex and fierce play is very much rooted in the student politics, arguments, idealism and violence of the 1960s and 1970s.
The Finborough Theatre production has certainly garnered an impressive cast of theatrical luminaries of that generation to help fund it - Judi Dench, David Edgar, David Hare, Joanna Lumley, Tom Stoppard and Harriet Walter (in case you are the type who wants to complain, the programme/play script acknowlegments studiously avoid the use of Honours' List titles) among others.
A group of squatters during the housing shortage of the 1970s break into an empty derelict house (Phil Lindley's evocative and adaptable peeling-wallpaper set, equally a squat, a Cambridge college and an English garden).
They find themselves under siege from "murder in my heart" Slaughter the freelance bailiff (Chris Porter) acting for an unnamed landlord. An ex British mainland and colonial policeman, he's already been exposed in a TV documentary for a fatal misdemeanour, but is nevertheless backed by a philosophical constable (Tim Faulkner).
The squatters, whose first act is to spray slogans on the walls, are a motley crew, led by libertarian Jed (Joel Gillman) with his pregnant soft-hearted, homemaking girlfriend Mary (Daisy Hughes) in tow.
Plus the more easily swayed, apologetic Will (Will Bliss) with a Uriah Heep turn of phrase, "Doing our 'umble best, Ma'am, to wreck Society", denim-clad Veronica (Eva-Jane Willis) on two weeks' holiday from the BBC and the more quietly-spoken and observant Cliff (Tyson Douglas).
The constable allows the bailiff to raid the premises. In fact, it is the clash between the new (the police constable's concern over the health and safety of a calor gas lamp) with the old (the bailiff's subsequent unregulated private sector violence) which leads directly to Mary losing her baby, Jed's imprisonment and a final path to destruction.
In between the action switches to the rarified environs of Cambridge's ivory tower and a meeting between don Babs (Hayward B Morse) and his smooth talking grey tinted former tutee, lover and now a new breed of managerial MP Alice (Tim Faulkner again).
Magnificence has a rawness, political and literary inclusiveness which are both its strength and weakness. Indeed, Brenton was fresh from writing fringe plays when he was given space at the Royal Court with director Max Stafford-Clark.
The writer using part naturalism, a part Mr Punch stylized Jacobean satiric style grapples with a mosaic of competing issues of some complexity including the archaic leftovers of another age within a new, educated society.
Even the Chief Constable of the local force (force being the operative word) has a Cambridge degree and the Special Branch have tutored the constable in the ins and outs of factional politics and theories.
In 1973 Oxbridge was also still allowed the special privilege of their own top and bowler-hatted police forces (which Cambridge still retains) and a substantial property portfolio. Simultaneously Lord Eccles held the purse strings as Her Majesty's Paymaster General and as Minister for the Arts.
The scene which has lasted the best remains the Cambridge scene, done full justice by Morse and Faulkner, with not only the recognizably Not The 1948 Show or Pythonesque, intellectual playfulness but also ultimately a controlled fury.
Yet the play feels torn inside itself. It has something in common with Seán O'Casey without the dramatic polish but some of the poetry. Finding a dramatic structure for the avalanche of issues becomes problematic and the sudden reappearance, after a considerable absence, at the play's end of Cliff with a final response (harking back to the Royal Court's two scandalous playwrights - John Osborne and Granville Barker) only serves to emphasize the flaws.
Neverthess it still has currency in our twentieth first century. It's a neat irony this Finborough Theatre revival coincides with the hoo ha over Bob Dylan's disruptive silence regarding the Nobel Prize for Literature - Alfred Nobel being the inventor of gelignite which, along with a stylized take on literature, features largely in the play.
Mind you, the current housing crisis and the re-emergence of stories about presidential hopeful Donald Trump's landlord past also make the invalid court eviction notice and harassment of tenants still relevant.
This tragi-comic piece is directed with clarity and pace by Josh Roche benefitting from Joe Price's lighting design signalling the deliberate changes in style.
The title Magnificence with its mixed root meaning of grandeur and pomposity feels accurate for this unwieldy, experimental, hit-and-miss play. At the same time its jabs of sporadic ferocity still hit the spot.
It's an upper range amber light from your agent provocateur reviewer and her own four-wheeled agent of revolution.
Monday, 24 October 2016
Review The Autumn Garden
The Autumn Garden
by Lillian Hellman
Sweethearts and Scoundrels
On a trip to Alabama, TLT recalls a memorable tour of antebellum mansions on the Gulf Coast where a genteel Daughter of The American Revolution evoked times past. Including the institutionalised prostitution (which crossed the racial divide) of which the sons of the leading families partook, practically as an obligation, from an early age.
The Autumn Garden, first produced in 1951, deftly combines the secrets and scandals of life in the American Southern states, national and international politics and Hollywood in a deceptively languid piece by Alabama-born Lillian Hellman, also a former Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) script reader and a Hollywood screenwriter.
In fact, despite the recorded Chekovian inspiration and obvious similarity with fellow southerner Tennessee Williams, it struck us an American Terence Rattigan might be an apt comparison in Anthony Biggs' s production which, by the end, packs a definite punch.
Set in 1949, the owner of one of those Gulf Coast antebellum mansions which has seen better days, Constance (Hilary MacLean), has sold her family's New Orleans' town house on the death of her parents and attempts to resolve a debt-ridden estate.
She has been reduced to running the family's holiday home as a summer boarding house. with the help of black factotum Leon (Salim Sai), dependent on the family's circle of friends for guests.
Now she nervously awaits the return of an old beau, glib artist Nick Denery (Mark Healy) with his wife Nina (Madalena Alberto), from Paris with their German maid (Leonie Schliesing) where he apparently spent the Second World War fairly comfortably under Nazi occupation.
Meanwhile, also staying as guests are a distinguished Boston-born member of the military, General Benjamin Briggs (Tom Mannion), who seems ready to embrace a new progressive order and is estranged from his ditzy movie-going southern belle wife Rose (Lucy Akhurst) and their two grown up sons.
Constance, at a time the European continent had become dependent on American Marshall Aid, has taken in her seemingly demure French niece Sophie (Madeleine Millar), daughter of her dead brother Sam and a French seamstress.
Sophie has come to a business like arrangement to marry young bachelor Frederic Ellis (Sam Coulson) who has literary aspirations and a substantial allowance from his grandmother (Susan Porrett), via his mother Carrie (Gretchen Egolf). Also on the guest register is hard-drinking banker Ned Crossman (Mark Aiken) whom Denery confuses with his brother Willy and whose love for Constance has now become a jaded memory.
The Autumn Garden is surpassed in fame by Hellman's two other plays Little Foxes in which former MGM star Elizabeth Taylor made her stage debut in 1981, and The Children's Hour.
Despite an effective set of faded glory designed by Gregor Donnelly, it struck us that maybe it was written as a movie, or even a soap for radio or that brash relative newcomer on the media scene, television. Still there is plenty of stagecraft, and the ensemble all give fluent and precise performances.
Once the second act gets underway, the previous hints about Hollywood politics and cover-ups become more explicit yet the Chekovian story of unrequited love and lives in the American South remains undimmed and stands on its own account.
Hellman herself was, to say the least, a divisive character. Once she, Showboat star Paul Robeson and Death of A Salesman playwright Arthur Miller were grouped together as radicals. She and lover Dashiell Hammett refused to name names to the House of UnAmerican Activities (unlike, for example, MGM actor Robert Taylor), but she later irretrievably tainted her copybook.
In the public perception she remained a seemingly unreconstructed defender of Stalin, spouting falsehoods in a novel and movie she insisted was a partial factual memoir (even if Tom Stoppard, amongst others, has questioned the nature of literary memoirs in his recently revived Travesties), exposing herself in an undignified spat when she accused a fellow novelist of slandering her as "a liar" on a TV chat show and fell into the hands of lawyers just before her death.
Yet, as Biggs implies in the programme notes, whatever her mendacious literary and monetary manoeuvring, her reputation could well have suffered, with her skill as a writer downplayed, because she was a woman who played a man's game but was not tolerated as a man would be.
Just as Hellman's own reputation can be simple or complex, subject to the motivations of those portraying her, so The Autumn Garden is skilfully constructed, a simple tale of the South or a multifaceted piece. An amber/green light for a worthwhile and careful revival.
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Review Blue Heart
Blue Heart
by Caryl Churchill
The Discreet Harm Of The Bourgeoisie
Ah, it turns out Boris Johnson was only following in the footsteps of Caryl Churchill in presenting alternate scenarios in writing.
For the first play Heart's Desire, part of a double bill under the title Blue Heart, does exactly that in director David Mercatali's sparky revival at the Orange Tree Theatre in association with Bristol's Tobacco Factory Theatres.
First performed successfully in 1997 (and we suspect the politics and events swirling around at that time underpins the two plays), Heart's Desire and Blue Kettle turn out to feel just as perky in 2016.
Equally interestingly in different ways the plays leave space for the audience to almost become an expectant character, write its own script and achieve a kind of satisfying dissatisfaction with its own interpretation.
We should of course mention the plays are also very funny.
In Heart's Desire, a family on the verge of a meal together await the return of a 30-something daughter from Australia. But this becomes a kind of Groundhog Day moment without the upbeat trajectory or memory of previous occasions.
Dad Brian (a lugubrious turn from Andy De La Tour), grounded Alice (Amelda Brown) and girlish Auntie Maisie (Amanda Boxer) seem doomed to repeat the same scenario again and again.
At first the variations are obvious. The subtle rumble of a tube train (sound effects Max Pappenheim) trails a phone call any family would dread. But afterwards in the repetition controllable verbal sparring becomes more flagrantly random and is interrupted by another wildcard arrival of alcoholic son Lewis (Alex Beckett).
When daughter Susy (Mona Goodwin) finally arrives, she has the cut glass tones of a Noel Coward character before - yes, it's all cut off for another round of our expectations fulfilled and then denied.
We certainly don't want to spoil the spontaneity but a visit from a Pinteresque totalitarian bureaucrat, an outsize bird in need of a manicure and a firearms' episode all figure, along with a Beckettian-crossed-with-Kafkaesque carnivorous human version of a dog chasing its own tail.
The second play of the evening Blue Kettle eats into itself in another way. A middle-aged man Derek (Alex Beckett) sets out to con several elderly woman from different stratas of society that he is the baby each of them gave up for adoption many years previously in the hope of money and property.
But at the same time there's just a touch of the patronising superior actor or even playwright about him, policing the women thinking he can measure and control their reactions. As his plans implode, words take on a linguistic life of their own and finally break down, just as painters can eschew photographic realism with outlandish colours and disintegration on the canvas.
This is an unsettling yet invigorating evening with a fine cast in a pared-down effective set from Angela Davies and lighting from Chris Swain sharply defining scenes.
It's a green light for plays with enough of a hook in shared human experiences to wrench us out of the comic absurd into more achingly human personal and political territory of trust and betrayal.
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Review Ragtime
Book by Terrence McNally
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
The Grand Illusion
If ever a musical was designed to fit the word "epic", surely Ragtime is that musical, a sweeping panorama of American life which artfully combines a child's eye view of an expansionist yet democratic, idealistic nation with complex adult concerns.
Adapted from a sprawling 1975 novel, which was followed by a 1981 movie, the musical distills the pre-First World War story into the tale of a WASP family - mother, father and little Edgar - a Jewish immigrant father and young daughter and, last but not least, a proud black musician and his lover who buy into the American dream only to suffer numerous injustices because of their race.
Its score encompasses the music of ragtime turning from the joyous to ominous, the rhythms of marching songs. soaring melodies of aspiration and love. Thom Southerland's production has many fine moments with a 24-strong cast of actor-musicians playing out the syncopated trail of ambition and tragedy.
Old and new, fictional and real life characters wend their way through and collide in the story of Ragtime filtered through the picture book and derring-do imagination of Edgar (Ethan Quinn alternating with Samuel Peterson) who pointedly also shares his first name with the writer of the original novel.
There are some crisp and visceral vocal ensembles from the first song Ragtime to the fine Getting Ready Rag led by black musician Coalhouse Walker Jr (Ako Mitchell) and the resonant New Music. Anita Louise Combe as Edgar's mother transforms from restrained wife to a person in her own right, providing one of the highlights of the show in Back To Before. As well as Seyi Omooba's solo (and professional debut) in the thrilling Till We Reach That Day.
There's a feel of pioneer America in the saloon bar set with scattered stars on the wood panelling, designed by Tom Rogers and Toots Butcher. This musical manages no mean feat in intertwining the birth of the movies, the rights of women, tabloid journalism and the growing strength of the workers' movement in America with a sprinkling of literary references.
Nevertheless with a large cast, the stage does sometimes feel over-busy and there are occasional lapses. Sitting in the third row, there were times when the mic levels disrupted the piece. This was particularly evident, despite a fine performance by Jennifer Saayeng as Coalhouse's lover Sarah, in the crescendo of one of the show's best known songs, Your Daddy's Son.
The separate ultimate fates of Sarah and Coalhouse also felt slightly diluted - Sarah's moment of tragedy by the sound levels of the ensemble and a lack of tension in Coalhouse's final act. At these times, the action and ironies needed sharper definiton.
Yet, the beauty of the score and the intelligence of the lyrics and book with its touches of humour still shine through. Even in the more seemingly peripheral role of escape artist Harry Houdini (Christopher Dickins), there is a double resonance, very subtly, both politics and entertainment, to the chains binding him.
As the show underlines it is Houdini who has the most knowledge and understanding about himself and America, "he knew he was only an illusionist". It's an amber/green light for a flawed but energetic and exciting production.
Sunday, 16 October 2016
Review Oil
by Ella Hickson
Cold Comfort Farm
In the week President Buhari of Nigeria (a petroleum nation) said his wife belonged "to my kitchen", we filled our tank and drove to see Ella Hickson's take on the oil industry. Indeed Oil marries the growth of our dependence on this fossil fuel with the emancipation of women.
At its centre is May (Anne-Marie Duff) . We follow her progress over more than a century, seeking not so much a room, but an energy resource, of her own.
Maybe it is a magical mystery tour of a female Flying Dutchman fuelled by oil before it becomes a dwindling resource. Maybe it is more a psychological tour of a woman's mind and life with designer Vicki Mortimer, lighting by Lucy Carter and sound by Peter Rice at times subtly indicating electrical synapses of the brain.
We first encounter May in 1889 as the pregnant wife who has married into a Devon farming family labouring on the land from sunrise to sunset, constantly needing to chop wood for fuel with candlelight a nighttime luxury.
This freezing and spartan existence is interrupted by the arrival of a stetson-wearing American (Sam Swann). He demonstrates to them the smelly convenience of kerosene lamps and introduces the concept of land acquisition, stubbornly refused by the family despite May's attraction to this brave new world of money, commerce and light. It is at this point pregnant May seems to start on a journey leaping through electrical synapses of time
The play (or more accurately five shorter linked plays with the recurring characters of May and also her daughter Amy played by Yolanda Kettle), is sandwiched between two songs an English folk song, There Were Three Ravens, and ends with Justin Bieber's Love Yourself.
There are five time shifts flagged up, three in the past: The 1880s, Britain's imperial sphere of influence in the Persian oil fields in 1908 and the formica kitchen of a (female) oil executive's Hampstead home in the 1970s, then forward to 2021 in the Iraqi desert with a British woman MP determined to bring her daughter home by hook or by crook.
Thirty years after that, it's finally back to the future at the Singer farm where oil is rationed - mother and daughter left to fend for themselves in one room barely able to afford commercially rationed oil and the cycle starting again with a new world power and salesperson with a proposed solution to all our energy problems.
We'll make no bones about it. This is a strange one, perhaps with something in common with the Royal Court's space fantasy X. And with references, lots of references, relevant but barely integrated, the scenes sometimes feeling sketch-like.
The farming family is called Singer, maybe a gesture towards the mechanisation of women's manual labour into commerce, on machines which still needed drops of oil. A British officer in Iran has the surname Samuel, the same as one ofthe founders of the Shell oil company.
There is also a reference to menstruation as May hired as waitress gets "blood on the napkins". And so it goes, often managing to stitch in references a few snippets of history but without knowing that history, the effect is random, in fact frustrating, for an audience member.
Even the publicity photo shows Anne-Marie Duff looking for all the world like Bernard Shaw's Eliza Doolittle seated in a modern - er - kitchen. Presumably with all the electrical goods and the materials used to build the kitchen products, in one way or other, of oil.
It is this mash up which makes this feel like a rather clumsy attempt to tie together and mirror many magpie elements in a confused woman's mind. It seems strange for example, that in 1908 a Persian waiting woman would be paid monthly, even when paid in cash, as if she were on a modern salary paid in retrospect into a bank account.
Or that a 15-year old schoolgirl in 1970 when Libya effectively started to nationalize its oil fields talks about leaving school at 16. The school leaving age was only raised from 15 to 16 in 1972. In the last section the Singer farm of the future, when oil is scarce, is suddenly not in Devon but in Cornwall.
Maybe there is also an attempt to chart a history of literature - for example, Virginia Woolf time-travelling, a countryside idyll imagined by Amy's 1970s' boyfriend Nate sounds like something out of Arnold Wesker's 1959 play "I'm Talking About Jerusalem"
There are a lot of "maybes" because while there are the occasional witty elements, there appears to be no heart to Oil and, although there are constant references to and attempts to foreground oil, it does not seem the main concern of the writer Ella Hickson (or dramaturge Jenny Worton).
The cast give their all and there's fluent direction by Carrie Cracknell, using video projections (Luke Halls) as well as lighting and sound to link the plays. However if confusion is one of the themes, it unfortunately is reflected in the structure of the piece.
The disparate themes feel shoehorned in rather than an artistic choice growing naturally out of the content. It did made us wonder whether it was originally conceived for the screen rather than on stage.
These are certainly women who do not stay chained to the kitchen sink, but despite a strong cast and direction, our own wells do not gush over for Oil and we give it an amber light. And TLT and her own little gas guzzler may well take up the popcorn and watch again the, albeit male-dominated, movie and Oscar-winning performance of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood based on Upton Sinclair's Oil!
Review Mountains Of Madness
Carolin Kopplin explores the strange world of cult science fiction writer HP Lovecraft and finds thrills in a dramatisation of a classic horror story.
Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft, adapted by TL Wiswell
Land That Time Forgot
The London Horror Festival has found its new home at the Old Red Lion Theatre. The UK's original and largest festival of horror in the performing arts has scared audiences since 2011, celebrating suspense, originality, and the macabre.
T. L. Wiswell's adaptation of cult science fiction writer HP Lovecraft's 1931 novella brings to the stage the nightmarish fate of a geological expedition to the Antarctic from which few of the researchers returned.
Six years later, Dr. Willa Dyer (Sasha Wilson), the leader of the expedition, shares the disturbing secret of what happened in those regions in the hope of deterring another team of explorers who aim to go to the same "cryptic world of frozen death".
Playwright TL Wiswell's reimagining of the classic story transforms the explorers into female scientists and moves the action back to the 1920s in a 50-minute piece which is clearly a labour of love for director Lorenzo Peter Mason.
The apparently rational structure of a college science lecture draws the audience into disquieting events as Dyer relates how, beyond a hitherto unknown mountain range higher than The Himalayas, her expedition members discover not only ancient ruins but also a dangerous secret.
Their discoveries take them beyond the boundaries of known science with life forms unidentifiable as plants or animals but, far more devastatingly, they also find both researchers and dogs left at their camp slaughtered..
Dr. Dyer's suspenseful recollection of the events during the ill-fated journey is aided by Peabodie (Natalie Morgan) and Danforth (Libby Grant), two members of the research team.
Chilling sound effects from Keri Danielle Chesser, as well as slide projections and inventively ghoulish makeup prove effective in transporting the audience from the lecture room to an icy hell.
Director Lorenzo Peter Mason's production is beautifully designed by Anna Sances and clearly influenced by silent film. An amber/green light and a must for any Lovecraft fan.
Thursday, 13 October 2016
Review The Dresser
The Dresser
by Ronald Harwood
On The Chessboard
The King is in his counting house in Ronald Harewood's 1980 play The Dresser, but his health is failing and mental faculties faltering. Yet he remains literally a man of many roles, running a Shakespearean repertory company during World War II bombing and taking on Shakespeare's King Lear, Richard III and, yes, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in alternate performances.
Played here by Ken Stott, "Sir" the actor/manager inherits the legacy of actors like Edmund Kean in more ways than one. He maintains a precarious hierarchy, in a manner part galley slave gangmaster, part headmaster, touring the British Isles.
All the while, he's kept on his feet, chivvied, bolstered by and nannied on to the boards by his dresser for 16 years, superstitious yet expedient Norman (Reece Shearsmith).
A comedy, a tragedy and - in the case of Norman - a touch of music hall variety, The Dresser hearks back to a repertory system age when theatre became part of, and was in part bailed out, by the national war effort. But here the countdown to the production of King Lear, instead of an ordered chessboard, is as out of sync as the Lear mad scene, mired, we are subtly reminded, in the dangerous politics of the time.
At its centre Stott captivates and repels with his fruity tones and timing as the collapsing, mercurial, selfish Sir.
Sir who is dependent on the lure of the footlights to impress and bring fresh meat to the company yet still determined, however haphazardly, to keep what he sees as "the faith".
The only male actors available are those not called up - too old or invalided out. Like bespectacled Geoffrey (Simon Rouse), with the air of a civil servant rather than a thespian, unexpectedly elevated to the role of Fool. Or a saturnine Oxenby (Adam Jackson-Smith) who could possibly be a communist or maybe something else, at any rate out for "a new world order", especially if it involves a play he has written.
While "Sir" is "sir" to his company, it is his apparent consort who is truly "Her Ladyship" (a Wagneresque Harriet Thorpe), the daughter of a Baronet, although perhaps first brought in like another minor artistocrat's daughter who is mentioned and whose mother invested money in the company.
Also part of the aging thespian's retinue is the efficient stage manager spinster, Madge (Selina Cadell), whom we learn was dazzled at the start of her career by the footlights and "Sir" but has now having given up all hope of that first passion for him being reciprocated,
Directed by Sean Foley, The Dresser takes place on a handsome, detailed set designed by Michael Taylor. A crossways' dressing room with corridor at the side occupies the first act and a revolving set revealing backstage, the wings and finally full frontal performance in the second, with neat musical transitions by Ben and Max Ringham and lighting from James Farncombe.
Inspired by Ronald Harwood's time as a dresser for Donald Wolfit, there's plenty of kingly pomp, as much as farcical missed entrances, in the play within the play. As well as visceral insight when the lives of the protagonists and the Shakespearean drama superimpose on each other. Yet this is no sentimental trip down memory lane.
Despite the comedy, The Dresser is a sad, bitter play focussing on a theatrical world which subsists as a perpetually under-funded hierarchy of coercion and exploitation.
With its sporadic, if gentle, hints that performance also underpins violent debt-fuelled politics, it's a green light for this strange, double-edged dissection of a touring company at war.
by Ronald Harwood
On The Chessboard
The King is in his counting house in Ronald Harewood's 1980 play The Dresser, but his health is failing and mental faculties faltering. Yet he remains literally a man of many roles, running a Shakespearean repertory company during World War II bombing and taking on Shakespeare's King Lear, Richard III and, yes, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in alternate performances.
Played here by Ken Stott, "Sir" the actor/manager inherits the legacy of actors like Edmund Kean in more ways than one. He maintains a precarious hierarchy, in a manner part galley slave gangmaster, part headmaster, touring the British Isles.
All the while, he's kept on his feet, chivvied, bolstered by and nannied on to the boards by his dresser for 16 years, superstitious yet expedient Norman (Reece Shearsmith).
A comedy, a tragedy and - in the case of Norman - a touch of music hall variety, The Dresser hearks back to a repertory system age when theatre became part of, and was in part bailed out, by the national war effort. But here the countdown to the production of King Lear, instead of an ordered chessboard, is as out of sync as the Lear mad scene, mired, we are subtly reminded, in the dangerous politics of the time.
At its centre Stott captivates and repels with his fruity tones and timing as the collapsing, mercurial, selfish Sir.
Sir who is dependent on the lure of the footlights to impress and bring fresh meat to the company yet still determined, however haphazardly, to keep what he sees as "the faith".
The only male actors available are those not called up - too old or invalided out. Like bespectacled Geoffrey (Simon Rouse), with the air of a civil servant rather than a thespian, unexpectedly elevated to the role of Fool. Or a saturnine Oxenby (Adam Jackson-Smith) who could possibly be a communist or maybe something else, at any rate out for "a new world order", especially if it involves a play he has written.
While "Sir" is "sir" to his company, it is his apparent consort who is truly "Her Ladyship" (a Wagneresque Harriet Thorpe), the daughter of a Baronet, although perhaps first brought in like another minor artistocrat's daughter who is mentioned and whose mother invested money in the company.
Also part of the aging thespian's retinue is the efficient stage manager spinster, Madge (Selina Cadell), whom we learn was dazzled at the start of her career by the footlights and "Sir" but has now having given up all hope of that first passion for him being reciprocated,
Directed by Sean Foley, The Dresser takes place on a handsome, detailed set designed by Michael Taylor. A crossways' dressing room with corridor at the side occupies the first act and a revolving set revealing backstage, the wings and finally full frontal performance in the second, with neat musical transitions by Ben and Max Ringham and lighting from James Farncombe.
Inspired by Ronald Harwood's time as a dresser for Donald Wolfit, there's plenty of kingly pomp, as much as farcical missed entrances, in the play within the play. As well as visceral insight when the lives of the protagonists and the Shakespearean drama superimpose on each other. Yet this is no sentimental trip down memory lane.
Despite the comedy, The Dresser is a sad, bitter play focussing on a theatrical world which subsists as a perpetually under-funded hierarchy of coercion and exploitation.
With its sporadic, if gentle, hints that performance also underpins violent debt-fuelled politics, it's a green light for this strange, double-edged dissection of a touring company at war.
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Review Darkness, Darkness
Francis Beckett admires the historical accuracy and heart in a murder mystery linked to a highly-charged, divisive turning point of Britain's recent industrial past.
Darkness, Darkness
by John Harvey
Strikers and Lovers
Set in Nottinghamshire during the miners' strike, Darkness, Darkness is at once a thoughtful play about the 1984-5 miners' strike and a whodunnit.
Novelist John Harvey has adapted one adventure from his Charlie Resnick detective series about the investigation of a cold case – the murder of a miner's wife during the strike and part of its theme is the bitter conflict between striking Yorkshire miners and working Nottinghamshire miners.
Having written a history of the strike (Marching to the Fault Line by Francis Beckett and David Hencke, Constable), I was glad to see that John Harvey had done his research and has a deep understanding of the emotions the strike created.
In fact, surprisingly given that he is a professional crime writer, the play is stronger when re-creating the strike than when dramatizing the investigation.
Indeed Nottingham Playhouse's locally-inspired current season is brave and interesting. New work strongly connected to the city of Nottingham and the county of Nottinghamshire fills its studio space and main stage, directed with care and love.
In the studio space, there's another subterranean tale, The Underground Man, a new play about William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, the Fifth Duke of Portland, an eccentric Nottinghamshire aristocrat who created the now famous tunnels at Welbeck Abbey.
While my single evening in Nottingham allowed for only one play, I did get to talk to playwright Nick Wood, and get a flavour of another interesting Nottinghamshire-inspired theatrical adventure in addition to the riveting crime and coal play that is Darkness Darkness.
The murder victim, Jenny Hardwick (a wonderful, restless performance from Elizabeth Twells) is married to a staid working Nottinghamshire miner (Chris Donnelly) and having an affair with a striking Yorkshire miner (John Askew).
Decades later Charlie Resnick, impressively brought to brooding, contemplative life by David Fleeshman, carries out the investigation into the unsolved case, aided by a young, female, black high-flying colleague Catherine Njoroge (a convincing and combative Simone Saunders.)
The cast is excellent – there is not a weak link anywhere. Husband and lover naturally are the first suspects when it comes to investigating her murder. I shall not of course tell you whodunnit, but, while remaining engrossed, I have to report that I had it nailed well before the end of the first act.
The script moves rapidly from place to place, with a traditional realistic set clearly out of the question. John Harvey himself writes that he didn't want to be "tied down by over-realistic and detailed sets ... allow[ing] for a more impressionistic evocation of place and a fluid relationship with time."
An ingenious set device from designer Ruth Sutcliffe permits scene to follow scene quite smoothly. The time shifts are well handled by writer and director Jack McNamara – the play moves frequently and seamlessly between 1984 and the twenty first century investigation.
There is a less sure touch when it comes to the sub plots concerning the personal lives of the two detectives – they probably work well in the novel, but seem a little contrived on the stage.
Darkness Darkness may not be as well-executed as Wonderland by coalminer's daughter, Beth Steel, recently performed at the Hampstead Theatre, but that is an impossibly high bar to jump.
The Nottingham Playhouse has a fine play inextricably linked to an event three decades ago that still rouses passions locally and had vast repercussions for the city. It's a magnificent achievement by writer, director, cast, and a brave adventure by the theatre. A green light from me – get to it if you can.
The Nottingham Playhouse has a fine play inextricably linked to an event three decades ago that still rouses passions locally and had vast repercussions for the city. It's a magnificent achievement by writer, director, cast, and a brave adventure by the theatre. A green light from me – get to it if you can.
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Sell your old gear (please no skis, boots, or bindings older than 7 years) at our annual Ski Swap on consignment. 25% of the selling price goes to Okemo Mountain School – the remainder you will receive in a check about 3 weeks after the swap. You may also choose just to donate your equipment – all donations are tax-deductible. All gear must be dropped off on the following days and may not be brought to the swap during sale hours. Equipment drop-off is at the Sitting Bull Restaurant at the Main Base of Okemo Mountain. Please use the entrance that is slopeside and nearest to the First Aid Building.
Swap drop-off dates and times are:
- Saturday, November 11th; 10am – 3pm
- Sunday, November 12th; 10am – 3pm
- Wednesday, November 15th; 10am – 3pm
Okemo Mountain School is a non-profit educational institution dedicated to the academic and athletic development of serious snow sports athletes. Student athletes are given the opportunity to train in alpine ski racing, snowboarding, and freestyle skiing, while pursuing a rigorous course of academic study. Okemo Mountain School relies heavily on fundraisers like the Swap to help keep tuition affordable.


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Author Archives: mortgagelendingstatenisland
Mortgage Rates Higher Still Despite Market Improvement
Most of this has to do with the timing and intensity of yesterday's market movement. MBS weakened at a gentle pace throughout the day. The losses were sufficient for several lenders to adjust rates higher, but most lenders kept rates unchanged from the morning. Therein lies the problem. While it's true that bond markets are in stronger territory versus yesterday's latest levels, they're still not quite back to the levels in effect yesterday morning when lenders put out mortgage rate sheets. Long story short, most lenders didn't adjust rates to account for yesterday's weakness and are simply getting caught up today.
3.625% is once again the most prevalent conventional 30yr fixed rate for top tier scenarios, although 3.5% is by no means extinct. Tomorrow brings the much-anticipated vote on membership in the European union for the U.K. (aka "Brexit"). As far as we know right now, the biggest risks from an interest rate standpoint won't materialize until Friday morning, but we could see the effects as early as tomorrow afternoon.
Mortgage Rates Deeper into 3-Year Lows
As such, we find ourselves well into the lowest rates in more than three years, even if the pace of improvement is lagging the drop in US Treasury rates. For what it's worth, 2016's mortgage rate improvements have kept up with Treasuries much better than in 2012–the last time markets were moving abruptly for somewhat similar reasons. The average lender is now down to 3.5% in terms of conventional 30yr fixed quotes for top tier scenarios. Further improvements from here will be hard fought, so it makes good sense to consider locking to avoid a temporary pull-back ahead of next week's vote on the British referendum on remaining in the European Union.
Mortgage Rates Close to All-Time Lows
Mortgage Rates Steady Despite Market Volatility
Mortgage rates held surprisingly steady today, even though underlying bond markets were in noticeably weaker territory. As bonds weaken, rates normally move higher, but there's been a bit of a disconnect recently. In light of our discussion last week, perhaps it isn't so surprising. We had anticipated that mortgage rates would start out with an advantage this week because they didn't move much lower at the end of last week even though bond markets were stronger. In other words, bond markets are suggesting rates should be right about where they were on Thursday afternoon, and that's exactly where they are.
Naturally, this means that we no longer have the same sort of implicit advantage we enjoyed on Friday afternoon heading into the weekend. As such, it's definitely safer to lean back toward locking. The most prevalently-quoted conventional 30yr fixed rate remains 3.625% on top tier scenarios, with a smattering of lenders still down at 3.5%.
Mortgage Rates Rise a Bit Despite Market Improvement
While it is true that rates can exhibit this "sideways at the lows" behavior before continuing to even lower levels, it's just as much of a risk that rates are running into a bit of a floor here. As such, locking is an easy call here, given that rates are at 3-year lows. Risk tolerant borrowers would also be justified in waiting to see how things shake out (i.e. waiting to lock) as long as they accept the possibility of being forced to lock at a slightly higher rate if markets move against them. Yes, that sounds obvious, but the point is to decide on a limit of rate movement before accepting the defeat. For instance, if my rate is x today, I will lock if rates move to x+.125%.
Mortgage Rates Hold Steady Ahead of Jobs Data
With the impressive run we've seen so far in addition to the outright levels being close to the year's lowest, there's limited incentive to delay locking. To be sure, rates can definitely continue to move lower, but past precedent suggests the current scenario is typically a better locking opportunity.
Tomorrow brings the important Employment Situation report–the most important piece of economic data in the US on any given month. It always has plenty of potential to move bond markets (and thus, rates), although the generally strong level of job creation is old news to some extent. Financial markets may instead focus on other aspects of the report, like the average hourly wage component, because it speaks to inflation. Inflation is the last major hang-up for the Fed when it comes to continuing to hike rates. If market participants view the Fed as more likely to hike, present day interest rates will likely rise in advance of the next Fed meeting.
Mortgage Rates Unchanged Despite Market Pointing Higher
Bonds are currently pointing to slightly higher rates, yet the average lender is unchanged compared to yesterday's latest levels. This has to do with today's trading momentum in bonds. They pointed to higher rates in the early morning, but recovered just before mortgage lenders sent out rate sheets. As such, lenders were perhaps a bit more conservative than they might have been if markets were simply unchanged versus yesterday. Several hours later, bond markets began slipping, again pointing to slightly higher rates. A small minority of lenders may adjust rates between now and the end of business today, but not enough to push the average off course.
This discrepancy between what markets are saying and what lenders are offering is useful. It lets us know that–all things being equal–rates will be slightly higher tomorrow if bond markets don't budge from here. The catch is that they usually do budge, but the point is that the imbalance tips the scales just slightly in favor of locking. And the scales were already looking a bit tippy.
With rates near recent lows and some apparent resistance to further improvement, locking is a more compelling option than it had been a few weeks ago. What about floating? There's a place for that strategy as well, as long as you understand the risk that markets could move against you and you're prepared to lock at a higher rate if markets move too much.
Mortgage Rates Holding Near 3-Year Lows
Mortgage rates were little changed today, keeping them in line with the lowest levels in nearly 3 years. Specifically, there have only been 2-3 days with better rates since May 2013, depending on the lender. That puts the average lender at 3.625% in terms of conventional 30yr fixed rate quotes for top tier scenarios. Some of the more aggressive lenders continue to offer 3.5%. These rates are a mere quarter point higher than the all-time lows seen from late 2011 through early 2013.
With that in mind, locking is never a bad idea–especially if you had previously held off in hopes that rates would improve. The more aggressive approach would be to acknowledge that rates have been in a downtrend since at least mid-March, and resolve to lock when that trend ends. The trade-off for the chance to lock at rates that are slightly lower than today's is that you might end up being forced to lock at rates that are slightly higher than today's.
At current levels, there are a separate set of considerations for different loan types–especially FHA. Understanding this requires a bit of background on the financial markets that underlie mortgage rates. Simply put, most mortgages are designed to fit in a certain bucket with other mortgages that share similar attributes. Rates haven't ever been low enough for long enough to create enough demand for a bucket that can accept FHA rates lower than 3.25%. As such, many of the better-priced FHA lenders have been stuck at a lower bound of 3.25% for quite some time, and that will continue to be the case unless the broader rate spectrum moves even lower and looks like it will hold its ground. With all of that in mind, for borrowers who are being quoted 3.25% on FHA loans, there's obviously far less incentive to floating your rate.
On a final note, keep in mind that 30yr fixed FHA loans have mandatory mortgage insurance for any loan-to-value. As such, conventional borrowers with good credit typically have lower payments even though top tier conventional rates are slightly higher.
Mortgage Rates Drop After Yellen Speech
Mortgage rates moved decisively lower today, following a speech from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. While she accomplished it in several ways, Yellen's overarching message was that the Fed is in no hurry to raise rates. Keep in mind, the Fed Funds Rate is not the same as mortgage rates. In fact, the two can move in opposite directions at times. In general though, when the Fed is perceived as providing more accommodation (via low rates or various bond buying programs), it's good news for all sorts of financial markets, including the market for mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) that ultimately dictate mortgage rates.
In other words, easy Fed policy is a rising tide that lifts most boats. Stocks and bonds received a big boost, to be sure (MBS are part of the bond market). In fact, the MBS gains were so steep that most lenders didn't adjust rates to fully account for the market movement. This is typical when volatility increases, for better or worse. If markets are able to hold current levels, rates would continue to drop. As it stands, the most prevalent conventional 30yr fixed quote on top tier scenarios is now easily back down to 3.75%, with many lenders pushing back into 3.625%. Just last week, there were quite a few lenders up at 3.875%. To be fair, there are still some out there today, but that won't continue to be the case unless bond markets take a sudden turn for the worse tomorrow.
As far as the risk of sudden turns for the worse, this is one of those rare opportunities where the average lender could endure a bit of bond market weakness tomorrow without a significant change in rates. It's one of the only situations where floating could be argued to have a better than 1 in 2 chance of paying off. That said, days like today carry increased risks of movement in the other direction in the near term. In other words, you might have to wait for volatility to shake out before taking advantage of the next opportunity to lock.
Mortgage Rates Continue Higher
Mortgage rates moved higher again today, casting a bigger shadow on last week's improvements. Rates haven't yet returned to the higher levels seen at the beginning of last week, but they're quickly closing the gap. Still, the notion of "higher rates" is relative when most lenders are still quoting the same contract rates today vs yesterday. It's only when we look at the upfront costs (or credit, depending on the scenario) that we see a deterioration. The average lender continues quoting conventional 30yr fixed rates in a range of 3.75-3.875%.
When it comes to the road ahead, yesterday's weakness alone was enough to call last week's positive trend into question. Naturally, today's weakness only adds to the negative vibes. To be sure, there is more room for rates to rise without setting off the most serious warning bells regarding the longer term trend, but the momentum is negative enough that it doesn't make sense to roll the dice without considering the risks. For those who choose the riskier path, be sure to set stop-loss level (i.e. locking to avoid further losses if rates rise to x.xx%).