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CCI HR Consulting is dedicated to the Human Resources profession across Pakistan since last 8 years. Headquartered in Karachi, we enjoy strong links to the various multinational and local companies, where we partner directly with both business leaders and HR Heads. Working flexibly across the nation to provide these companies with the best Talent, deliver customized Soft Skill trainings and providing solutions and tools for Employee Engagement within these companies is our core function. We help build Human Resources leadership teams across a variety of locations and across all industry sectors.
2016 has been a growth year for CCI where we have introduced Online Surveys which is helping organization to assess their employee potential. Companies have been able to identify critical feedback required by them and employees have been able to improve their job satisfaction levels. Another major benefit for companies has been to infuse positive energy in the workplace by showing their commitment to their employees.
As a Consulting company we always look for valuable feedback and support from our customers and in turn can help them achieve success in their roles to enhance productivity by providing them with customized solutions. Therefore I request you to take some time out to reach one of our HR Consultants and discuss how we may be able to help you in making your organizations stronger and better. Contact Us today for more details!


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(AP) Muslims at rally: NYPD surveillance keeps us safe
By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press
Qazi Qayyoom, an imam in Queens, says he believes the New York Police Department is keeping his community safe, and if that means some Muslims are monitored, so be it.
Qayyoom and about three dozen other people on Monday attended the first rally held by Muslims in support of the NYPD following a series of Associated Press stories detailing the police department's secret surveillance of mosques, Muslim-owned businesses and college campuses across the Northeast since Muslim extremists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of people.
The rally, held by the American Islamic Leadership Coalition outside police headquarters in downtown Manhattan, illustrated a division even among the faith's adherents about how far authorities should go in seeking to protect the nation's largest city from terrorists. Other Muslim groups were quick to say the coalition didn't represent their views.
Among the speakers was Dr. Zudhi Jasser, the narrator of "The Third Jihad," a documentary about the dangers of radical Islam that the NYPD showed in the lobby of a police training area and has since disavowed.
Jasser and others, including activist Manda Zand Ervin, said that the danger is clearly coming from within the Muslim community and that it's up to other Muslims to help law enforcement stop the threat. They said Muslims do not want to give up civil rights and are behind transparency in police work but it is wrong to suggest that all Muslims are somehow afraid of the NYPD, the nation's biggest police department.
The NYPD didn't comment Monday. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said he is doing everything within the law to protect the city from another terrorist attack. The department is bound under federal guidelines, known the Handschu guidelines, on how it can do certain investigations, and Kelly said the department's efforts follow them.
The police department has been criticized by many civil rights groups and politicians who say its efforts go too far. Several other rallies have been held in the past months by other Muslim groups that drew hundreds of people to protest the NYPD's tactics. Each side says it's not being accurately represented by the other.
Critics of Monday's rally pointed out that there were few people in attendance and that "The Third Jihad" had been described even by city officials as "over the top."
Linda Sarsour, a member of the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, said she objected to the idea held by some speakers Monday that Muslims opposed to police surveillance were "radical."
Far uptown from police headquarters, a line of yellow cabs was parked outside the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, where many of the men who stopped to pray Monday were taxi drivers. Janitor Yasin Mansoer said the NYPD surveillance of Muslims is "terrible."
Some politicians have lauded the police department's efforts, while others have demonized them. U.S. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a resolute supporter of the NYPD, said the NYPD deserved a medal and other police departments should mimic its counterterror efforts.
The NYPD's efforts included operations in New Jersey's largest city, Newark, where Democratic Mayor Cory Booker and his police director last month said the NYPD misled them, telling them only that it was going into the city as part of a terrorism investigation, not that their entire Muslim community was under scrutiny. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, has lambasted NYPD officials as being arrogant and unwilling to work with other law enforcement groups.
When asked about the criticism by Christie, King said he thought the problem could be resolved easily.
Christie said King was just defending his "buddy," the police commissioner.
King also criticized media reports, saying the AP and The New York Times were slanderous and failed to show both sides of the issue.
The AP said it was "proud" of its coverage of the NYPD spying story.
The Times didn't immediately comment.
At Monday's rally in support of the NYPD, some people said they went to show there are many faces to the Muslim community. Mohammed Hai, a business owner from Long Island, said he wants everyone to know that the extremists don't represent all Muslims.
Qayyoom, who's from Bangladesh, said his friends and relatives aren't bothered by the NYPD's tactics, especially because they were used to much worse in their native countries.
Associated Press writers Karen Matthews in New York and Beth DeFalco in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.
Muslim Protest for More NYPD Monitoring
(AP) Muslims at rally: NYPD surveillance keeps us safe

subset: commoncrawl


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FishUSA is running an ice fishing clearance sale which includes some great deals on Otter Shelters. If you're looking for a flipover or hub jump on these deals, shipping is free!
Check out these Ice Fishing Deals:
Check out the Ice Fishing Sale HERE.
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Keep yourself warm in your shelter with a Mr. Heater Buddy Heater.
Own and use any of these Otter Shelters? Take advantage of these Ice Fishing Deals? Give us your two-cents in the comments below.
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**IceFishingDeals participates in various affiliate programs such as Amazon Associates, and may collect a small commission from posted links.


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London 42 inch Hairpin Entry Table
Blending industrial style with mid century modern influence, this entryway table will become a stylish accent to your home. With metal hairpin legs, a lower mesh metal shelf, and a durable laminate, wood grain table top. Position in your entryway, mudroom, or behind your sofa as a table to decorate with family photos, candles, books, and more
• Industrial design style
• With stylish hairpin legs for a mid century modern influence
• Ships ready-to-assemble with step-by-step instructions
Item Numbers:
Grey Wash: AF42LOETGW
Rustic Oak: AF42LOETRO
Clear Glass: AF42LOETGL
34" H x 43" L x 14" W 24LBS


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Aotea Centre is the flagship among ten iconic venues for Auckland Conventions, Venues & Events. Located in the heart of Auckland city, Aotea Centre is a vibrant home for performing arts in the city as well as an ideal venue for conferences, tradeshows, meetings, gala dinners, cocktail functions and more.
Housing New Zealand's largest modern tiered auditorium, it can seat more than 2,000 people over three levels. However, with expansive foyers and a range of flexible meeting spaces with multiple breakout rooms, the Centre can host small intimate gatherings as well as large, world-class conferences. The Centre's position in the middle of the city centre means shopping, dining, accommodation and entertainment options are all within easy walking distance, as are public transport options.
The building boasts the latest cutting edge technology throughout. All spaces have both wired and wireless connections and rooms can be easily data-linked making the venue ideal for large conventions requiring multiple rooms.
Read more about our Booking Policy here.


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Search Camp 2017 – Twitter & SEMrush overview
Below is an embedded Google Data Studio report showing Twitter engagement and SEMrush keywords for the SEO conference – searchcamp.co.uk.
This dashboard uses Google Sheets, IFTTT and Supermetrics community connectors to pull the data together for easy visualization.
The If This Then That Applet recipe is shown on the right.


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I don't know how to name this ramen dish. Inspired by Dan Dan noodles that I ate in China and a picture of a bowl of ramen that a friend posted on FB. I so miss those lunch outings with them!
So, I thought I should use the soup boiled yesterday as the base and then cook the minced meat as found in Dan Dan Noodles and combined them.
It's good! Think it is healthier than Dan Dan noodles too as I didn't use a lot of oil (chilli oil, sesame oil). The soup is definitely rich enough and with the pork bone and minced pork, the ramen is definitely a very satisfying one!


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VIP Eye Wear is your local Worcester Dispensing Opticians.
Wednesday 10am till 4pm
Thursday 10am till 4pm
Friday 10am till 4pm
Saturday 10am till 4pm
We are closed all other days, however you can call us to make an appointment on other days or evenings.
We are one of the leading Opticians in Worcester offering the best high street prices around. Located at No1 Tardebigge Court, Hewell Lane, B97 6QW. In between Bromsgrove and Redditch.
Bring your prescription to us and choose your frames from our extensive collection of prescription glasses and sunglasses.
Huge range of Men's & Ladies frames. Rimless Frames, Designer Frames, Bold Plastic Frames, Metal Frames, Classic, Trendy and Retro Frames.
Top quality frames with designer frames (without the big price tag!) including Elle, Pilgrim, Lacoste, William Morris, Wolf and many more.
Single vision lenses, Varifocal, Bifocal, Prescription UV Sunglasses, Computer / Office lenses, Reading glasses, Distance glasses…we do them all.
Specailists in Complicated prescriptions. If you need a special lenses / rimless / high index / light sensitive or any other request then please call us to discuss. We have saved people many hours of searching and a lot of money. VIP Eye Wear is where you get EXACTLY what you need – no more no less!
Come and see us and see what a difference high index/ ultra thin lenses make. Not only do they look better but they are much lighter to wear too.
We use top-brand lenses including Hoya, Nikon, Kodak, Zeiss, Sola, Seiko and Pentax to name but a few! In single vision, varifocal and bifocal.
We are a dispensing opticians offering everything and more at the best value prices inline with Boots, Chapmans, Optical Express, D&A, Specsavers, Vision Express, Eyedeal Eyecare, Stephen John Optics, G Tunnel Optictians, Actons, Raynor, Nic Sproson The Optician, R Woodfall, etc.


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Ibex Dunes Sand Verbena Sunset 1
I want to thank California photographer Steve Sieren for camping with me last month in Joshua Tree National Park & for sharing his location advice about photographing desert wildflowers near the Ibex Dunes in Death Valley National Park. Following his advice, I drove 90 miles from where I set up my camp at Furnace Creek down to the southeastern corner of the park where the dunes are located. After a short 4wd excursion from the highway, I parked my truck and hiked for 45 minutes towards the dunes. I've been working with a lot of photo tour clients the past few months, so it was refreshing to experience such a fantastic location by myself. The sand verbena was in full bloom so I composed this image and waited for the exquisite light of sunset to capture the moment. If you want to photograph sand dunes without a ton of people & tracks on them, keep the Ibex Dunes in mind.


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CGG cuts seismic vessel charter costs
French geophysical company CGG has decided to reduce vessel charter cash costs for the seismic vessel Oceanic Champion while under strict cost and cash management.
The geophysical company said on Tuesday that, in line with the agreements announced in January regarding three vessels, the Viking Vanquish, the Pacific Finder, and the Oceanic Phoenix, CGG and CGG's Norwegian subsidiary Exploration Investment Resources II have entered into an agreement to substantially reduce the cash burden of the charter agreement, guaranteed by CGG, in respect of the Oceanic Champion, an active seismic vessel, in exchange for agreed settlement amount.
As part of the agreement to settle this amount on a non-cash basis, CGG on March 13 issued $12.1 million in aggregate principal amount of its 6.50% senior notes due 2021 to the relevant charter counterparty.
The Oceanic Champion is operated by CGG Veritas Eidesvik Ship Management, a joint venture between CGG and Eidesvik.
The vessel was originally built in 1994 and upgraded in 2007. It is 106.3m long and 22.4m wide with a gross tonnage of 9405.


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On May 27, 2013, students together with their teacher Tatyana Andryunina came to the Botanical garden, to help for head of the department of flora Irina Ruzaeva to result in order of garden territory.
Heavy rain and next to them the heat led to the fact that many territory of the Botanical Garden were covered thick with weeds. Flowers and other plants, most of which are listed in the Red Book of Russia, began to suffer greatly from weeds. Most needed help territory "Samara steppe" and that is why there went our assistants. After receiving instructions from Ruzaeva Irina guys immediately got to work. Despite the fact that the guys have worked long, hard and very high quality to do the job, they were unable to clear the area completely, as the grass was very much.
The event ended with a small picnic juice and cakes which is an integral part of every events of the Training Centre for Ecology. While eating Irina Ruzaeva thanked participants of the action for their assistance and noted that the basic rule during the work on Botanical Garden is quality rather than quantity.
The action was attended by 11 students at the school number 90 GO Samara.
«Green City» program is supported by the Alcoa Foundation and Alcoa SMZ volunteers.
1. Instructions before starting work.
2. No - dry grass! Swept and cleaned.
3. The grass has grown very high.
4. Results achieved!
...read more>>>


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The most prized possession in international soccer, the FIFA World Cup is played every four years and hosted by a different country each time. The first World Cup was played in 1930 and won by hosts Uruguay. They defeated Argentina in the championship match. Thirteen nations competed in the inaugural World Cup, which was also the only time participating teams weren't required to qualify for the tournament. Brazil captured back-to-back World Cups in 1958 and 1962 and has a total of five championships — the most of any country.
Once a nation other teams feared, Brazil has fallen off the international map somewhat. Their last World Cup came 14 years ago at the 2002 tournament in South Korea.
Germany and Italy are right on Brazil's tail with four World Cups apiece. The Germans are reigning champions, after defeating Argentina at the 2014 tournament in Brazil.
Former German striker Miroslav Klose is the tournament's all-time top goal scorer with 16, followed by Brazilian great Ronaldo at 15.
The 2018 World Cup will be played in Russia, which beat out Portugal/Spain and Belgium/Netherlands to host the tournament. Russia's best World Cup performance was in 1966 when it finished fourth overall.
Soccer World Cup Betting Lines Today
The World Cup qualfying round will heat up again in the fall when Argentina faces Uruguay on Sept. 1 in a highly anticipated match. A victory for Argentina would put them in the lead among South American qualifying teams. In other action, Brazil will face Ecudor on Sept. 1.
Keep track of all the qualifying matches using the competition widget — a helpful tool that also offers up-to-date odds to help you make your betting decisions easier.
Soccer World Cup Standings Right Now
Whether it's in the qualification stage or in World Cup group action, expect all the powerhouse nations to be near the top of the standings.
Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy, France and Spain are among countries always expected to be near the top of the table and battling for a World Cup title.
Follow where your team sits in the standings throughout the qualifying stage and into group competition as it will be a major factor in your betting decisions.
How To Win At Champions League Betting
A lot can change in two years when the 2018 World Cup gets underway. The Germans will enter the tournament with a similar, yet a bit older, team that won the 2014 championship.
That being said, Germany is still considered the favorite to win the World Cup outright as Bet365.com has the four-time champions at +500 to win its second consecutive title.
Argentina's odds of +900 to win outright may change with the news of superstar forward Lionel Messi announcing his retirement from international soccer recently.
As always, you have to put Brazil in the mix of teams considered favorites to win it all. Bet365.com has the five-time champions at +900 to claim its sixth crown.
Some teams have already started playing qualification matches. In the South American qualification, Uruguay and Ecuador jumped out to solid starts as both are tied with 13 points apiece after six matches. Argentina is also in the thick of things with 11 points, while Brazil has been sluggish out of the gate with nine points through six matches.
The United States, which is +5000 underdogs to win the tournament outright, opened qualifying action on the right foot with two wins and seven points through four matches.
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text: Sorry, this offer has ended but find more current Printable Coupons at Freebies 4 Mom. Print two coupons to Save $0.75 off two Yoplait Kids products. Look for specially marked packages of Yoplait Trix yogurt (see below) and you can mail in 2 UPCs to get a Free Color Color Cooler (it's like a cooler sleeve for your yogurt cup). No receipt is necessary, just the original UPCs. There is a limit of 4 per address and this offer expires 9/25/12.


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FALL: When I think of fall, I think of layering, especially layering SUMMER CLOTHES into your fall wardrobe (working on that PPW of course). T-shirts instantly make outfits casual. I am not a big fan of casual wear because I like to go the extra mile to look more individualized, but for my lazy days, I like to pair T-shirts with dressy clothes like my black high-low dress from H&M, which cost me $10. As for my shoes, I paired my black Sam Edelman heels that I got from Goodwill for $5 with my gifted knee-high socks to create a casual bottom look as well. I am not a huge fan of the sock plus heels combo, but I like how quirky it looks.
WINTER: I am soooo ready to bring out my coats! I got this brown Forever 21 peacoat before I practiced the "mytencents" principles, so it was relatively expensive; I think it was about $20? I will never make that same mistake again! Anywho, I wanted to go for a sophisticated look with some edge, so I paired the shirt with a Jones New York collared sleeveless top that I got from a garage sale for a dolla, black Bebe denim bottoms that my aunt gave to me, and Mudd laced combat boots that I picked up at a garage sale for a buck.
SUMMER: Ohhh summer, it's going to be awhile until we meet again. What I love and hate about summer is that I can't layer. It's kind of hard to make different outfits when you want to wear a minimal amount of clothes. That is when I rely on accessories to amp up my looks. My very Asian-y mom always remind me to wear a hat during the summer to keep my not-so-light-colored skin from getting any darker. I do not like hats because they add extra weight to my head…if that makes any sense. Being the obedient daughter that I am, I do listen to her by borrowing her hat like this red Nine and Co. straw hat that she got at a rummage sale for $2. 😛 It does not feel like summer without a pair of high-waisted shorts and boat shoes, so I belted my Calvin and Klein high-waisted denim shorts that I got from my aunt with my maroon Coach belt that I got from a garage sale for $0.50. Lastly, I sealed the deal with my grey with red accents boat shoes from Nordstrom Rack, which I got for less than $15.
My ten cents #26: Trial and error, baby, trial and error. Try different trends that emphasizes on little accents or make your own! I truly believe in the importance of little details because they make a huge difference! Let it be socks and heels or layering with collared shirts, do what your heart contents.


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Happy Thursday!
Today's my blog tour stop for The Traveling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones. I loved how charming this book was, and I really think you will too.
However, a warning: you're going to want to stock up on snacks while you read, because there's no way you're going to be able to read about Laurie, Pamela and everyone's adventures, without wanting some of their delicious-sounding treats.
Title information:
Paperback, 368 pages
Published March 3rd 2015 by Berkley (first published May 22nd 2014)
Two-second recap:
Laurie Davis has always followed her passion. After escaping family drama to start a new life in New York City, she's up for whatever challenges life brings. So when an opportunity arises for her to use her travel industry expertise and serve as an assistant and tour guide for her idol, Pamela Lambert-Leigh, star of television's Tea-Time with Pamela, she jumps at the chance.
But Laurie's exciting adventure ends up entailing a lot more than scouting locations for the cake queen's new cookbook when Pamela's sassy mother and sulky, rebellious daughter tag along for the trip. As they cruise around bakeries in New England trading local delights like Red Velvet Cake and Whoopie Pies for British specialties such as Victoria Sponge and Bakewell Tarts, more secrets than recipes are revealed.
Now, in between rediscovering romance, learning to forgive family, and finding the best dessert on the East Coast, Laurie, Pamela, and the gang might find there's nothing a nice cup of tea, a sweet treat, and a little bit of friendship can't heal…
Full review:
As someone who has lived on and off in London for her entire life, it's pretty much impossible for me to not want to read a book with the words "tea shop" in the title. Throw in the fact that The Traveling Tea Shop is also a book about cake AND four women learning how to empower themselves, I kenw I had to read this book immediately.
Beloved British author Belinda Jones introduces us to Laurie, a British ex-pat who has moved to New York City to start over. When given the chance to work with her long-time idol (and British baking queen!) Pamela Lambert-Leigh, Laurie absolutely jumps at the chance.
What follows is a hilarious, complicated roadtrip across several New England states - in a double-decker bus, no less! - as Laurie, Pamela, Pamela's spry and charming mother, and Pamela's stroppy teenaged daughter, all learn how to adjust to the trip, work on past issues, while enjoying some of the best cake recipes that New England has to offer.
Belinda has hit on the perfect balance of friendship, relationships and baked goods in The Traveling Tea Shop. When we first catch up with Laurie, we quickly learn that she's a go-getter with a great attitude, but she's also experienced a lot of hurt in her past. She's the perfect sister soulmate for Pamela, who has also had a lot of pain in her past, only her misfortunes are typically spread across the pages of international tabloids.
Thanks to Belinda's cheerful, irresistable writing, she clearly shows just how these two women balance each other - even if Laurie has driven mad by the vagueness of Pamela's planning process sometimes! - and how they need what the other one has to offer, especially when it comes to Laurie's ability to conspire with Pamela's mum Gracie, and her refusal to let Ravenna - Pamela's daughter - dictate terms.
As they progress on their trip, Belinda does a great job of showing how something comforting like cakes can help bring out the best in others, including opening kitchens and hearts and minds to virtual strangers. I loved the little details that Belinda added on the cooking process - e.g. the history of the cakes, mouthwatering baking and decorating tips, and the fact that many chefs only share recipes with fellow chefs - and how all of this served to add to the personal journey that all the women were going through.
While there were the obvious romantic moments in Traveling Tea Shop, including a dashing driver and his son who both seemed just too perfect, they shouldn't be taken as just standard chick-lit love interests. Instead, both men offer valuable opportunities for both Laurie and Pamela to grow, and make the trip an even more emotional, well-rounded journey in the end.
Bottom line: this is a delightful, charming book. And man, I'm hungry now!
Final verdict:
Belinda has clearly sprinkled a lot of love and joy into writing Laurie and Pamela's story, and it clearly shows on every page, as we meander carefully across several states in our favorite double-decker bus. Even though Belinda does approach many issues with a light touch - e.g. Pamela's personal problems - the truth is, that's what I and any reader just need in a book like this.
If I understand correctly, Traveling Tea Shop is Belinda's first US book deal, ever. But with such a sweet, heartwarming story, I think I can almost safely say that it certainly won't be her last. I highly recommend this book for fans of warm-hearted contemporary fiction, and for readers who just need a little pick-me-up in their lives.
About the author:
Following ten years as a magazine journalist and travel editor, Belinda Jones began writing novels inspired by her adventures, including The California Club, I Love Capri and the prequel to The Traveling Tea Shop - Winter Wonderland. She has visited more than twenty-five countries and hopes to write her way around the world by the time she's done! Originally from the U.K., she currently lives on the magical island of Coronado, California with her American dog, Bodie.


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Was $199.95 NOW $159.95
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"Killer" by Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper (the man) may be laughed at now as an out of touch dinosaur who is not only a silly Republican and a golfer but a bit of a throwback to an area of rock and roll where "style" not "substance" was the primary source of entertainment.
I don't agree with that assessment of the man's work but especially not of his work with the "Alice Cooper Band" back when he was the solid singer and occasional lyricists for one of the 70's finest garage rock/art rock/proto-punk/glam rock/heavy metal/Broadway bands ever.
This description may sound like a burst of insanity but it's absolutely true: the original Alice Cooper band was an absolute gas, starting out with their two weird, math-garage-rock-Zappa influenced albums to their first hit "Love it To Death" which was one of the first albums to match garage rock, art rock and darkness in absolutely equal measure.
This album was a huge hit off of the success of "I'm Eighteen" and the band picked up even greater successes with albums like "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies" but the peak of their career, the peak of "art-garage" and one of the 70's best rock and roll albums of all time was the '72 followup to "Love it to Death" called "Killer."
Let's start with the presentation: Alice Cooper was always a band with a solid emphasis on image and presentation but that didn't really start to coalesce fully until this album. The cover of "Love it to Death" could have been the cover of an Aerosmith album: the cover of "Killer" was unmistakably "Alice Cooper" with a close up shot of a snake, tongue elongated, a blood red background and "Alice Cooper" and "Killer" childishly scrawled above and below the snake, respectively.
And then there are the songs: no real hits but the best collection of songs the band ever put out. Certain albums, especially "Billion Dollar Babies" suffered a bit (in my opinion) from the band's "macabre" image. They certainly possessed some good music but they often seemed a bit too…silly.
Not so much on "Killer." Yes, there are some silly moments, especially lyrically but in general this album feels more "real" and "raw" when compared to later albums. I feel the reason for this (musically) is that the band is focusing on punching out aggressive, raw garage rock with intricate garage arrangements influenced mostly by rock and roll (very little of the Broadway shenanigans which made their later albums more diverse but harder to take seriously).
And yet, for all the "rawness" the band successfully integrates a wide range of textures, including a great horn section on "Under My Wheels" (the hilarious "driving" song about running somebody over) to the simple but effective guitar layering on "Halo of Flies."
The later is a particular success musically as the band easily moves through a stunning succession of simple but great riffs with the ease of a King Crimson. Yes, the stuff they're playing is way simpler than Bobby Fripp but constructed with more actual songwriting talent.
In other words, these riffs and arrangements are not designed to show off or push the boundaries of music (in the way King Crimson usually did) but to push certain emotional buttons, which the song successfully does (let's just ignore some of the banality of the lyrics, kay?)
The other lengthy tune, "Killer" is just as good in its own way: driving, atmospheric, weird and with a rather disturbing lyrical image of an emotionless killer being led to the gallows. Once he's "hung" at the end of the song and that savage keyboard riff starts looping endless…well, let's just say it startles me every time I hear it.
However, these lengthy sonic explorations are not the stock and trade of the band on the album: for the most part, they stick with sweaty, garage glam and roll such as "Be My Lover" which has a simple but genial riff and melody and funny lyrics.
Perhaps the best moment on the album is "You Drive Me Nervous" which opens with an excellent blast of feedback, has the sloppiest, rawest and best riff on the album combining with an excellent Cooper work out (his pig-like shrieks of "NERVOUS! NERVOUS! NERVOUS! NERVOUS!" do exactly that) and another solid horn arrangement on the outro creating a glam garage rock masterpiece.
The theatrical elements of the band do continue to pop up time and time again including the rather brooding yet complex "cowboy ballad" "Desperado" which moves through several different sections and even has a thrilling string arrangement at the end.
I hate to go "song by song" with this review (as I swore against that when I got back to reviewing) but the album has such a strange diversity within its relatively simple style that it's hard not to point out the ways all the songs differ. And how strange, macabre and even socially relevant the songs are even to this day.
Songs like "Dead Babies" which might seem like a bit of a bad joke (kind of like "I Love the Dead") is actually simultaneously a joke and a chilling anti-bad parenting tune (the line "well we didn't love you anyways" actually hits me hard for some reason).
Sure, that somewhat serious tone didn't stop the band from chopping up dolls n stage oat the climax of the song. But that's just Alice Cooper for you: mixing real social critique with horror movie aesthetics to create an unsettling experience. Do you laugh? Do you cringe? Do you do both?
You should do both. The best horror should simultaneously make you laugh at the absurdity of the situation and twitch nervously at the horrific nature of what you're experiencing.
And that's essentially what the band pulls off here: a high quality b-horror movie soundtrack that features a wide range of weird characters and horrific situations that simultaneously make you laugh and shriek as it explores the dark side of life realistically AND ridiculously, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty that enhances both the humor and the horror.
Later on, the band mimed the "silly" element a bit too much, going into clever but goofy concept album territory and throwing on tons of gore imagery to make up for the lack of true horror. Think of "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies" as "Killer Part 2" and "Killer: In Space" respectively.
Both are high quality pieces of entertainment that still possess a few moments of legitimate social intrigue but neither possess the same level of intrigue, depth and horror as the original masterpiece.
But that doesn't mean they're not good: they're still Top of the Pops. Just buy all the original Alice Cooper band albums. They're all good (even the maligned "Muscle of Love.")
Songs to YouTube:
"You Drive Me Nervous" for the garage-rock-fury, "Halo of Flies" for the complex weirdness, "Desperado" for the "ballad" atmosphere and "Be My Lover" for shits and giggles.
"Niagara Falls" by Greg Hawkes
Bleep. Bloop. Bow bow bow…bow buh bow bow…fwee…zip zoooooo…blip blip…Bah bah bah! Bah bah bah!
That's my interpretation of "Niagara Falls," the first solo album by The Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes.
This might be a hard review to write (and read, for that matter).
Okay, so you've probably heard a few songs by The Cars, right? "My Best Friend's Girl"? "Just What I Needed"? Maybe even "Let's Go" or the super duper hit "Drive." Drive by The Cars. Heh Heh HEH.
The Cars were an amazing pop band led by the super tight pop smarts of Ric Ocasek and featuring the amazingly underrated lead work of Elliot Easton. Ocasek was a solid rhythm guitarist who could compose a great pop song in his sleep.
However, when you think of The Cars, do you think of the ultra clever lyrics? Or the blazing guitar solos? Maybe you think of Ric's detached vocals or ugly mug crooning out backing vocals for "Drive"?
You probably do. I know that I do. But the thing that stands out the most for me and which always brings me back to The Cars is the keyboard work of Greg Hawkes.
Hawkes was probably the most talented member of the group, instrumentally: he was not only a great keyboard player but he could also play bass, a little guitar, some drums and even saxophone. He later recorded an album of all ukelele covers of Beatles tunes with the uke taking up every single instrument part.
Mostly, however, Hawkes was a master of weird keyboard textures, layering his synths creatively and creating independent melodies and counter melodies that almost always served as the song's main hook.
For example, sing "Let's Go" in your head. Right now. Did you sing the vocal melody or the rhythm guitar part? Or did you start singing "bow bow bow…bow buh bow bow"? Of course you did! That weird little keyboard melody is a perfect hook and it combines with the tight melodies and harmonies of Ocasek to create an unforgettable tune.
Maybe every single note Hawkes played was dictated to him by Ocasek: I've never heard any Ocasek solo albums and couldn't really tell you. However, listening to this 1983 solo album (released at the height of Cars mania (which didn't exist)) I get the distinct feeling that Hawkes had a lot more to do with the keyboards parts and general arrangement than most people realize.
Basically, this sounds exactly like the Cars but with almost no vocals and a lot more keyboards. Hawkes plays every instrument on the album (except for a brief flute part by his wife, Elaine). Instruments include thousands of keyboards, some rhythm guitar and programmed drums.
I mean, it sounds EXACTLY like The Cars circa "Shake It Up" and could perhaps be an album of outtakes for all I know.
As a result, it sometimes sounds like slightly cheesy keyboard pop but without the amazing pop songwriting gift of Ocasek. Hawkes is smart enough to avoid singing and lyrics (only blathering out "Jet lag, it's a drag" and "Voyage into space, check out some other place" into a vocodor on "Jet Lag" and "Voyage Into Space" respectively.
The album definitely sounds good while it plays but as mentioned Hawkes is no songwriting: none of these songs feature a real distinctively, instantly memorable instrumental melody to guide you. Yes, they all do have melodies but they aren't exactly…the best.
That said, the album does feature a barrage of interesting and well arranged keyboard parts and tones that show off a lot of imagination, talent and playing skill.
It really gives you a great insight into the band, especially around the time of "Heartbeat City": by the evidence of this album, Hawkes was definitely arranging and probably completely playing at least 80% off the music on that album by himself.
But it's lack of good melodies means it can't really sit on the same podium as the best Cars albums or probably even the best Ocasek albums. Instead, it serves as fun piece of background music that should instantly transport you back into the 80's and may even make you get up and dance…
Or not; after all, it has yet to be released on CD. As far as I know, cept I saw an image of it in a CD case on Google while searching for an album cover…Intriguing.
"A Rainbow in Curved Air" by Terry Riley
The avant guard underground of the 60's was alive with the progress of the unknown, the uncertain and the Cage-ian ideas of chance, non-music, improvisation, the bleeps of electronics and the whir of excitement coming out of the minimalist composers focusing on simple, repetitive mantras: the Phillip Glass, the LaMonte Youngs and the Terry Riley's.
For the most part, the music these composers made was fascinating in theory, incredibly groundbreaking in sound and style while being very boring and/or difficult to listen to in practice.
Yes, there was perhaps a limited application of the endless "drones" and "under tones" and "over tones" and "mantra, drone state of minds" preached by Young.
Glass was a bit more conceivably enjoyable as his style was later co-opted by some rock bands, such as Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno as he himself simplified his approach to create minimalistic operas and soundtracks that diluted his approach for a more mainstream audience.
Admittedly, it's a pretty big deal for somebody like Glass to "make the mainstream" such as he did (in a limited fashion) but there's one composer who I think made an even bigger impact on the burgeoning rock/pop/soundtrack scene and who did so with one simple, easy to digest 40 minute album.
Of course, I'm talking about Terry Riley and his album "A Rainbow in Curved Air."
I realize that it would have been easy for me to make a fairly lame joke there, such as "Of course, I'm talking about the eternal Axl Rose and his beloved masterpiece 'Chinese Democracy'" but I'm not in the mood for such shenanigans and frankly am getting rather bored of such tired set ups.
I just want you the reader to know I could have made the joke. But didn't. You're welcome.
Anyways, Riley's album was probably THE break through avant guard pop album of its time. David Crosby worshiped it and played it endlessly. Pete Townshend named "Baba O'Riley" partially in honor of him. Curved Air took their name from the album.
Hell, even Ritchie Blackmore and Dio got into the act!
Okay, so "Rainbow" is not named after this album. Sue me.
Why did this album take off in such a (minor) way? Probably because it's completely listenable, light hearted and even fun while also maintaining a strict experimental edge. Riley is pushing the envelope and attempting to change the musical world but doing so in a way that many more people can enjoy.
He does all this while maintaining strict allegiance to the idea of chance music and "found" sounds. It makes the album a fascinating listen from beginning to end and it sounds ahead of its time even now.
Naturally, it consists of two side long tracks, the first of which is the title track. The basic approach of this track can be summed up by…well, you know how Townshend named "Baba O'Riley" after this track?
Think of the first minute or so of that song with the repeating synthesizer figure. But a lot more complex.
A basic riff enters into the scene that holds down the fort for Riley's improvisation, the first of which is perhaps the most memorable: the ascending sequence of notes that turns into a radar "call and response" tone that increases in speed to a fever pitch.
Every instrument on the album is played by Riley painstakingly overdubbing and it creates a fascinatingly dense layer of sound that never becomes over powering. Instead, the synths and organs pulse in repetitive but ever changing ways.
And no dissonance: he isn't blasting out ugly noises or barraging the listener with untenable noise: it's all listenable and if you threw a drum beat under it, even danceable.
The one complaint I feel you could lodge (fairly) at the track is that it can become rather tiresome by the end. It feels like Riley has run out of completely amazing ideas by the last…three or four minutes of the track. By then, however, one should totally be in the "trance" state of mind described by LaMonte Young and it won't matter.
The second track, "Poppy No Good and the Phantom Band" isn't quite as good because it's nowhere near as dynamic. It's more of a "drone" piece with Riley overdubbing a lot of saxophones on top of his sustained keyboards.
However, Riley is a competent and at times even great saxophone player so it isn't worthless. Sometimes he plays some interesting repeated saxophone riffs that are overlaid with intriguing keyboard parts. That doesn't stop this track from being a bit of a harder sell when compared to the first.
In spite of the relatively difficult sound of the second track (which does at times approach dissonance) it's still a solid achievement that brings a little diversity and a slower pace to the album.
What I find so fascinating about this album is how often it's been copied by other artists in not just the sound but in the structure. How many two track Tangerine Dream albums are there on the market? How many of them start out with a faster, dynamic piece and then slow down for a more drone based tone poem?
For that matter, how many Ash Ra Tempel albums follow that same format? How many ambient albums?
Of course, repeating synthesizer figures weren't exactly invented by Riley or even perfected by him. Although I generally find the album to be pretty timeless, it can feel a bit "thin" by today's electronic music standards, even with all of Riley's mad overdubbing.
But it's still a groundbreaking, endlessly listenable and heavily enjoyable album. Find it, if you can.
Songs to Youtube:
"A Rainbow In Curved Air" should tell you all you need to know.
"Sweet Insanity" the Unreleased Second Album by Brian Wilson
I don't know what it is about these unreleased Brian Wilson/Beach Boys albums that fascinate me so much. I think it's a combination of Brian's utter sincerity and belief in his work as well as the fact that they are sometimes more interesting than the product they released around the same time.
Such as this absolutely…Insane album, the proposed follow up to Brian's semi successful solo debut "Brian Wilson." That synth drenched album was as weird as anything, a little bit 80's but 100% Brian with a group of great songs, some artistic drive and Dr. Eugene Landy trying to get as much money as possible by insisting on songwriting credits.
He pulled the same thing on this album and while I don't think he wrote a single note or syllable of this album, his greasy, creepy fingerprints are all over this album. Landy is interesting: I fully believe he saved Brian's life but he exploited him brutally and forced him into situations he probably wasn't ready to be involved in at the time.
Such as pushing Brian to become a typical 80's pop star. The artistic pretense of certain sections ("Rio Grande" specifically) of "Brian Wilson" have been pushed away and an increased focused on "fast 80's pop songs mark "Sweet Insanity" as does a simultaneously improved sound (more guitar and live work) and worsened arrangements (tons and tons and tons and tons of bleeping, blooping weird synthesizers).
Of course, pushing Brian to become an 80's pop star was doomed to failure (he was old, weird and couldn't dance) but that didn't stop Landy from making Brian appear on night shows, swaying around in a distracted, upset manner to the "Brian Wilson" track "Nighttime." Disastrous.
Well, is this album a disaster on that kind of level? Not at all: I insist that every Brian Wilson associated album is worth listening to and this is no different. It's just…weird. Again, in a somewhat weird way as it balanced heart felt sincerity with banality similar to "Adult Child" but in an 80's fashion.
A great example would be the first song (on my copy, as there are a thousand different versions floating around) "Someone to Love" which comes on after a brief excerpt from the song "Concert Tonite" which consists of little more than a chant of the title.
"Someone to Love" is full of the trademark Brian Wilson compositional moves: immediately upbeat tune with an insistent catchy melody; an immediately different and yet equally catchy chorus; technically complex bridges that change keys, tempo and time signature changes; weird, weird lyrics; deep, complex arrangements (that in this case consist mostly of synthesizers).
One has to look past the somewhat wheezy arrangement tones and the "as usual" bad lyrics: this is a pop masterpiece in the typical Wilson mold and one that shows Wilson was finally "back" in a rather unique way.
I mean, one can't expect "Pet Sounds" from a mind as warped as Brian's was at the time. One can hope for more fully arranged "Love You" albums which is essentially what this and his debut were: albums filled with well written pop masterpieces that were arranged in an odd and unique fashion.
Because as 80's as the album sounds, it has a tone and style completely unique from the basic aesthetic of the 80's as possible. This sounds NOTHING like Phil Collins or the Pet Shop Boys: it's its own thing, for better (yes) and worse (nothing ground breaking).
The ballads here are pretty solid but I honestly feel like its one of the few Wilson albums were the upbeat songs are the best part of it (perhaps this and "Love You" being the only two). "Water Builds Up" is an impossible to describe pop song with a beautiful "water builds up!" chorus that is technically simple but somehow magic in Brian's hands.
"Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel" and "Rainbow Eyes" are good ballads but not amongst Brian's best. Again, I know they are heart felt but I don't quite feel the genius of even songs like "Diane" (another unreleased gem, sung by Dennis Wilson).
"Love Ya" is a song that should have been on the album it's title nearly matches as it has that same mix of simple synths and catchy melody and would have, in fact, been a standout track on that weird album. "Make a Wish" masks rather banal lyrics with an instantly uplifting and catchy melody that will NEVER leave your head (just typing the title brought it raging back into mind).
I described more songs than I wanted to in this review but it's hard to avoid: each song has the same basic feel and approach but is differentiated by a careful approach to melody writing, complex arrangements and careful dynamics that build up and fall off with ease.
Honestly, listening to the album makes me confused: although it sounds somewhat worse as far as tone goes when compared to "Brian Wilson" it probably has better, catchier songs that fit in as well with the 80's as Brian was ever going to and which, in another epoch and with a little tweaking, may have been considered essential parts of the Wilson songbook.
And then you hit the last track on the album. And it all makes sense. Yes, I'm talking about the infamous, legendary and universally beloathed (that is beloved and loathed at the same time) "Smart Girls" and it's the worst creative decisions made by a member of the Beach Boys (yes, worse than "Kokomo" and "Stamos").
Lofty you say? Hard title to live up to I bet you might think? I can understand your doubts but let me put explain it in three words: Brian Fucking Raps.
That's right: Brian. Fucking. RAPS.
I'll let it sink in. Please, go do something for a few minutes. Have a shot. Pet a dog. Tell somebody you love them. Cry into a mirror. Do what you have to do to let the idea of that sink in and fall out without infecting your mind too heavily.
In what I can only imagine was a Landry move ("Hey Brian! Rap's huge! You should give it a shot!") Brian…raps. I mean, kind of: this is the mid 80's we're talking about when rap was a bit more…simple. No Eminem, no Tupac, no Public Enemy. Instead, it was a growing movement still finding its feet and thought of as a simple novelty by the majority of the white world.
And yes, Brian sounds exactly like your dad (or grandpa) sounds whenever he tries to make fun of rap. Except Brian is, of course, serious: with lyrics like "My name is Brian and I'm the man/I write hit songs with a wave of my hand" I have no doubt Brian was serious about this track.
The worst part about the song (beyond the simple, basic rap style) is that they mixed in random snippets of Beach Boys songs as Brian raps. And I don't mean in that Bomb Squad/Dust Brothers style of mixing and matching musical ideas to create a new whole.
No: Brian will be rambling about surfing and they suddenly throw in a 1.5 second slip of "Surfing USA" to remind us, yes, Brian wrote this song about surfing. It's jarring, poorly done and ruins whatever…uh…flow the rest of the song had?!
All right, all right, point's made: I've now rambled almost 400 words out of 1,200 about this one damn song. But I truly believe it's the one reason this album never got released (beyond, perhaps the title, but that could have easily been changed) as this album is nowhere near bad and is in fact one of Brian's best solo albums.
p.s. I forgot to mention that Bob Dylan sings on the song "The Spirit of Rock and Roll." No, I don't get it either.
p.p.s. A few of these songs ended up on the Wilson solo album "Getting In Over My Head" in slightly inferior versions.
Songs to Youtube:
"Someone to Love" as it immediately sets the mood for a fun, upbeat musical roller coaster.
The live performance of "Nighttime" so you can get a feel for how stupid of an idea it was to force Brian to be an 80's pop star.
DO NOT YOUTUBE SMART GIRLS. Seriously, I'm begging you. It's for your own good, kiddo.
"This Sporting Life" by Diamanda Galas
After a series of increasingly intense and haunting albums that explored deeper and deeper realms of emotional torment, outre singer Diamanda Galas released "The Singer" a relatively restrained collection of piano and vocal covers that showed her debt to blues, jazz, standards and other roots oriented music. It was perhaps her most easily listenable album she had released up to that point and although it received some confused reviews (this was before she had established the cover routine as part of her repertoire) it can be seen as somewhat "lighter" style which may have helped lead her to the nearly accessible John Paul Jones collaboration "This Sporting Life."
This Sporting Life…needs organizing…
Such a collaboration may seem incredibly bizarre on first glance: the First Woman of Avant Guard Shrieks collaborating with John Paul Jones, bassist of a DEDLY DUM heavy metal group with blues under pinning? A disaster.
…living on a knife's edge…
However, it actually makes sense once one realizes that Jones is a restless musical soul who has done more for good music than Jimmy Page ever did once he left the over rated bloat monster of Zeppelin. Sorry, I can't rate "The Firm" or the "Death Wish II" soundtrack as anything more than the tattered idiocy of a former junkie who wasted all his talent at a young age, chasing 13 year old girls while on tour.
And please say ANYTHING of his pathetic collaborations with Plant (no quarter given to pleading, poorly thought out nostalgic cash grabs) or his praising Puff Daddy ever for any reason at all.
This Sporting Life's forever changing…
Enough Zep bashing though: it's boring and designed to shock. I do have a lot of respect for certain aspects of Zeppelin but Jones has long been my favorite member as he seemed more prone to…change and experiment. His solo album "Zooma" sounds a lot like prime Primus while he produced such great works as "Independent Worm Saloon" by the Butthole Sufers.
Plus he's a king of bass I always forget about because I never, ever listen to Zed Leppelin.
Are you bored? Are you jaded?
Easy questions with obvious answers: what does this album sound like? Well, the first track "Skotoseme" sets the mood immediately: Diamanda chants underneath a light drone and then Jones comes in playing his dunderheaded metal bass line while Pete Thomas of the Attractions bashes out "Better than Bonham" drums. Galas shrieks over top, babbles, raves and screams in her best tradition.
It sounds a little goofy sometimes but I feel that's the effect: Galas showcasing her wonderful sense of humor…wonderful in the sense that it's darker than the darkest gallows humor. You know, the kind of jokes that make staring at the dead body of your once beloved swinging from a gallows pole while you're being buried alive seem light hearted in comparison.
As light hearted as the album cover which has Galas splayed across the front of a car driven by Jones with a crazed expression on her face and a knife in her hand as if she was moments away from either murdering Jones, holding him up for cash or demanding crazy, crazy sex.
Is it hot? You bet but a special kind of hot that perhaps reflects more about me than the album cover.
Has all enthusiasm faded?…
Not yet but that's because I like this album. Not a LOT a lot as it's not really too emotionally moving like Galas' best work but it's simply a gas. That's right, a gas. Even in song's like "This Sporting Life" which sounds like a gang of mad woman plotting somebodies rap and murder (if contemporary interviews are to be believed, it's Snoop Dogg) of some dude.
Then "Baby's Insane" comes on and you know Galas is having a laugh: it's much too over the top to be serious. In fact, when performing this song, she'd always tell a story about how some critic slammed her for the song at which point she climaxes the story with "he's trying to ruin my fun."
Are you one of those people?
And then "Hex" comes on and you really feel like THIS is the moment the whole album's been building up to (appropriate as it's the last song) as it really combines the furious rock and roll drive of Jones and Thomas into an enchanting groove while Galas puts on her best performance yet: chanting, shrieking, improvising and building, building, building to a climax that puts much of the rest of the album to shame.
This is the bad Samaritan…
One should take a minute to appreciate the diversity of this album: Galas sometimes hitches a ride on a metal monster bass riff groove and sometimes babbles and babbles on top of each other in songs like "Do You Take This Man" that feel like streamlined version of past hits. Sometimes she seems to nearly croon only to remind listeners of the fact that she is perhaps the finest and most daring vocalist of her generation.
Make sure there's a crowd below…give a little when you go…
One last thought: this is as close to a pop album as Galas ever produced. Of course, it's as pop as water but it features a focus on simpler song structures, actual melodies and diversity in a way she never really approached throughout her career.
This makes it a good album with which to introduce her to your friends but it lacks the emotional punch of her best work. It's fun and has great musical ideas but never stuns or surprises you.
Perhaps the best way to approach the album is the way Galas and Jones obviously are on the back cover: driving a convertible care free through the streets of a big city, roof down, laughing your ass off and blasting the strange noises to annoy the city folk.
Songs to YouTube
"Skotoseme" will tell you all you need to know but find the live version on David Letterman or Jay Leno or whatever show it's on. It's surreal seeing her there.
Tomorrow we'll look at something as equally avant-guard and accessible. Stay tuned!
"Upstairs at Eric's" by Yaz
"Yaz (or Yazoo in the U.K.) were a two piece synth pop duo consisting of keyboard player/songwriter/arranger Vince Clarke, formerly of Depeche Mode and singer/songwriter Alison Moyet. They released a few singles, made a minor splash with two albums of synth pop in the early 80's but had broken up by 1983, lasting a little over a year. Clarke formed the much more successful and long lasting Erasure while Moyet had a successful solo career." – a boring, uninspired reviewer reviewing a band that to them meant little and who is seemingly a footnote in history.
Yaz has been plagued by that kind of dismissive attitude for a few decades now. In spite of making a splash as the "Next Big Thing" upon their debut, they quietly faded away after their demise, victims of their own success.
Clarke found a much more compatible, long lasting partner in smooth voiced Andy Bell in Erasure, pumping out nearly a dozen albums of electronic pop that has gained in complexity of arrangements in a way which the relatively stark "Upstairs at Erics" simply can't seem to compete.
Moyet, the bluesy voiced shouter on top of all of Yaz's tunes, went on to a more appropriate blues oriented direction, finding her feet on material that featured more live instrumentation and which suited her vocal approach more effectively
Basically, Yaz has been forgotten as a stepping stone for Clarke from early Depeche Mode (who's later success eclipsed even his own in Erasure) while also bringing the solid vocalization and songwriting skills of Moyet into the consciousness of the public.
Which is a shame because this album is honestly better than both Clarke's early Depeche Mode album, "Speak and Spell," beats out the vast majority of his work with Erasure and though I won't speak for Monyet's solo work, I can't imagine it being as irrevocably quirky and interesting as this album.
There are a few reasons that I find this album to be so interesting: the first of which is the evolution of Clarke's music.
In Depeche Mode, Clarke had three keyboard players to work with as well as a singer. "Speak and Spell" had solid songs but had a weird, thin sound that somehow suited the material. The album was ground breaking as well, so people could ignore the thin wisp of the sound.
Later productions by Clarke for Erasure would become more epic, with layers and layers of synthesizers, drum machine work and even guitar work coming into the mix to compete with layers and layers of harmonizing Andy Bells.
Intriguing, sure and well done but this style somehow seems more generic and less interesting (to me) when contrasted with the early Yaz style which was a direct continuation of the Depeche Mode line but updated.
Basically, Clarke had better learned how to layer his synthesizers while maintaining an atmospheric, minimalistic edge that makes the material darker and more serious sounding when contrasted with the pure pop joy that marks most of Erasure's work.
And then there is Moyet. Her raspy, blues influenced singing may seem to clash with Clarke's sing-song melodies (darker in tone than earlier melodies but always the insistently catchy style that Clarke always preferred): but that's only because it does.
This contrast is a huge part of what drives Yaz and makes them a more intriguing band. Bell's vocal style may have been more suited for synth pop but it often blends in (in a good and bad way) with Erasure's music and arrangements in a way that goes down easy but doesn't create any tension.
On this album, Moyet sounds like the worst possible choice for the singer (due to the contrast, not her abilities) and this creates a fascinating tension in the music I've rarely heard.
It's true that later raspy blues singers would attempt to mine a "synthesizer plus bluesy voice" approach but Yaz was not only the first but the best due to their commitment to songwriting, creating a diverse set of songs and creating a strange, dark aura about the album.
Which is set immediately with lead off track "Don't Go." A trademark Clarke synth riff enters (the kind that makes you think "I've heard this before!" when you haven't) and builds up slowly until Moyet enters.
She sings a rather harrowing (if cliché) story of heart ache while Clarke layers on slight but trademark touches, such as drum stabs, harmony riffs and simple but catchy synth chording.
The album then moves through various songs that vary in tempo ("Midnight") style ("Didn't I Bring Your Love Down" with a more upbeat approach) and even through strange avant guard exercises (the indescriable "I Before E Except After C").
Is it all good? Not always (especially the last track) but it remains solid, engaging and intriguing throughout. And never once loses the strange atmosphere created by the contrast between synthetic sounds and bluesy vocalization.
Yaz released another album "You and Me Both" which mines many of the same styles and approaches but in a more "pop" oriented direction. It has a solid selection of tunes but no real atmosphere which signaled the beginning of the end for the group.
It's a shame the group lasted so shortly and became so obscure so quickly. They really had some great work which, for all the band members later successes, they never quite matched in terms of quality or intrigue.
Thankfully, you can get their entire discography on the box set "In Your Room" which features both albums, a CD of remixes (which isn't that good) and a DVD collecting all their performances. Nice. Pick it up if you like off putting, art minded synth pop.
Amazing or Amazingly Shit? "Half Gentlemen Not Beasts" by Half Japanese
"What's the worst album you've ever heard in your life?" As a reviewer, I often get asked this question. The worst album I ever heard? There are so many ways one can define bad music! One could go the completely subjective route and say all music is based on taste and that there is no way you can objectify taste.
However, one could also go the ultra objective route and rate music based on the notes played, the construction of the songs, the quality of the playing and the quality of the lyrics (if it's song based music to which you're listening) as well as the memorability and harmonious nature of the music.
Well, if one wants to rate music on such an objective scale, I'd have to say that "Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts" the triple (!) debut (!!!!!) by the Michigan-born Fair brothers would undoubtedly be, objectively one of the absolute worst albums I've ever heard.
This is an album with six sides of ridiculously written, out-of-tune music played on out of tune instruments by two idiot-savants that obviously barely know what they're doing. The lyrics are the absurd droolings of a permanent man-child with a touch of autism. Objectively, listening to this album from start to finish is absolute agony.
Subjectively, this album is also one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life.
Okay, here's where things start to get a little too intellectual (and perhaps more than a little stupid). David and Jad Fair are infamous for their naivety, crude approach and their dedication to never, ever getting better. Ever.
This can be viewed as a crime against music or as a refreshing breath of fresh air. There is nothing else in the world that sounds like this…except for perhaps the Shaggs which I won't get into right now. Jad (usually) plays guitar like somebody who just picked it up for the first time. David (usually) plays drums in the same manner.
Both scream childish gibberish that focuses on girls they like, bands they love, girls they hates, bands they love, things they like doing, things they hate doing and an unending obsession with Jodi Foster, of all things.
Does this album sound a bit "serial killer" to you? Well, the Fair brothers are genuinely harmless but I think with a tad more insanity they'd be on some kind of watch list: both are rather nerdish, nebbish weirdos that have to be hovering near Asperger's.
The music is always loud (cept when it's not) and always noisy and sounds like a barely in control improvisation session: every song sounds the same but every song sounds different. The band tries their best to make each song stand out but over three sides of vinyl (including two complete concerts indexed as one track!!!) one starts to get a headache.
Basically, it sounds like the worst garage band ever (skills wise) playing whatever pops into their head and trying to create a diverse, unique experience and failing most of the time.
However, as one listens to the album, it starts to create its own unique soundscape and world view. Yes, it's endless and the songs basically sound the same but you start to hear little weird touches…the kind of thing a real musician would have never included or "fixed up" to make it sound "better."
This includes single note, endlessly repeat riffs, go nowhere solos, guitar tuning that's done by "string tension" rather than actual notes played (or sometimes even stringing it with the same string six times) and a complete lack of care and abandon.
It all starts to make sense which can (and should) become terrifying: am I becoming a nerdy, nebbish, Asperger based potential serial killer too?
No: you're just experiencing the unique sensation of absolute musical freedom. Kind of…I mean, as naive as the band wants to present themselves as being they still have a musical philosophy which guides them…that being that knowing what you're doing is inherently limiting.
The basic concept is that if you "know" how to tune and string a guitar, how to play the "right" chords, all the "right" scales and how to "properly" write and arrange a song, you are falling victim to rules created for you by somebody else…rules that should not apply to you as they are rules you did not create and which will lead to music inherently limited by those rules.
I'll admit it: this philosophy is intriguing to me and I agree with it to a certain extent. I have found that musicians simply have to play and write as if they know no boundaries. Try out new things, different sound combinations that they've never played and hopefully they can create something that's somewhat unique and free of the "limitations" of the correct way to do things.
Which is why this album is, subjectively, one of the top 10 albums ever created. Because it's music created with absolute freedom by two lunatics that are barely able to bash out anything even accidentally coherent on their instruments (they swap instruments a lot and both sing so it's hard to know who is doing what and when).
But here's the thing: completely unhinged and unschooled creativity such as this ultimately leads to…everything sounding exactly the same. As the band "expresses" themselves "absolutely freely" they end up making everything sound like everything else as they lack the skill to…differentiate their playing or "composing" approaches in anyway.
This is another reason why the album is objectively awful: a completely uniform sound palate.
But then there is the personality factor, the charisma and the charm which are impossible to define and bottle and which will vary from person to person. One person's "charming masterpiece" will be another person's "incoherent gibberish."
So, long story short, the album is simultaneously the best album ever made and the worst. Both opinions are completely, perfectly, 100% valid and both can be proved using both subjective and objective definitions.
Which is why you should buy it and listen to it once a day for the rest of your life. And it's been re-released on CD!
Songs to Youtube:
You kidding me?!


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Day 2 - 26 April 2019
AI Technology Solutions
AI Technology Solutions: Chair's Welcome and Opening Comments
Anthony Bartolo
Sr. Cloud Advocate
10:00AM - Day 2
View Future of Computing: Artificial Intelligence's Impact on Real World Scenarios
Future of Computing: Artificial Intelligence's Impact on Real World Scenarios
The world is changing. Our desire to have information at our fingertips at all times allows us to be more informative of our decisions and selections. Data now resides in the cloud but parking it there is not enough. Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in understanding all this data, but where does one start? Capturing data from the world through IoT is becoming easier, but how do we secure it's source? Attend this session to learn how organizations are working towards better understanding their data and better utilize it to achieve more. Real world demos pertaining to IoT, Azure Sphere, Functions, Cognitive Services, Custom Vision API and Spatial Computing will also be shared.
Lauren Kunze
12:00PM - Day 2
View Panel: Harnessing the powers of chatbots for business
10:30AM - Day 2
View Keynote: From 0 to 100 Million Messages a Day: Steps to Build, Optimize, and Scale Enterprise Grade Intelligent Agents
Keynote: From 0 to 100 Million Messages a Day: Steps to Build, Optimize, and Scale Enterprise Grade Intelligent Agents
Drawing on real customer case studies, this talk will detail the design and technical considerations involved in building "intelligent" agents with real traction and real business results. You will learn:
- When machine learning is effective–and when it isn't
- What types of human resources are required
- An actionable chatbot development roadmap
Aditya Kalro
Engineering Manager
11:00AM - Day 2
View Challenges of Data, Features, and Compute at Facebook Scale
Challenges of Data, Features, and Compute at Facebook Scale
AI and ML at Facebook is being used at ultra large scale. Facebook's AI Usage has grown exponentially over the last 2 years and is accelerating. Almost any dimension such as model size, data size, feature size, number of unique users, number of models, etc is exhibiting the same exponential growth rates. This growth pushes Facebook's AI infrastructure to scale not only compute for inference and training, and also for a critical component of data and feature processing and engineering. Diverse business applications for AI results in a large amount of experimentation, thus driving the cost and importance of AI engineer developer efficiency.
Creating pipelines which are affordable and efficient while improving developer efficiency is critical to enabling the sustained scaling of AI at Facebook. Facilitating exabytes of training and features along with low latency inferencing is changing the nature of data processing systems. In this talk, we will outline the challenges of growth and scale and how these challenges are changing how we build our data and processing systems.
Networking Break
Mark Dunn
Director - Data as a Service
Lexis Nexis
12:10PM - Day 2
View Solo: Optimising entity due diligence with robotics process automation
Solo: Optimising entity due diligence with robotics process automation
- Entity due diligence market drivers (ie. why is it important)
- Entity due diligence process (ie. what companies do)
- Where RPA fits (ie. benefits of RPA)
Mauro Arruda
Smartia Ltd
12:20PM - Day 2
View Industry 4.0 – Surely its all about data and analytics… is it?
Industry 4.0 – Surely its all about data and analytics… is it?
Companies recognise that there is an enormous value in the data they create and they are making plans to capitalise on it as quickly as possible.
Manufacturing is leading the way, both as one of the largest producers of data from factory systems, machines and sensors, and as one of the leading adopters of the new technologies that make up big data and artificial intelligence.
However, the rapid evolution of big data technologies, coupled with an incredible level of complexity of industrial automation and robotic systems, has led to "analysis paralysis" at some manufacturers. Questions of where to start and how to apply these technologies along with the uncertainty at the potential scale of deployments, are preventing some companies from moving forward, especially with specific use cases seemingly so unique at this point in time.
In this presentation, Smartia will discuss 7 steps for setting up a successful industrial data and AI framework.
Mark Braithwaite
Technical Specialist
12:30PM - Day 2
View AI : Experts not required
AI : Experts not required
A fast paced, interactive and example driven exploration showcasing the AI capabilities of the Wolfram Programming Language. This presentation will demonstrate how sophisticated AI tools can be rapidly developed and deployed to extract new insights from your data and improve decision making.
Networking Break
Dr. Wei Cui
Squirrel AI Learning
02:30PM - Day 2
View How AI Make Personalised Education Affordable for Every Family in China
How AI Make Personalised Education Affordable for Every Family in China
All students are different in terms of their learning pace, level of content mastery and learning gaps. In the traditional human-teacher-centered instructional setting, however, students' different learning needs are hard to be fulfilled because of the undifferentiated instructions and teachers' divided attention on each of the student. The unequal educational resource distribution is also prevalent across the globe. High-quality education is not accessible to every student due to geographical constraints, limited resources, and it is often unaffordable for many families. Squirrel AI developed an intelligent adaptive learning online system to tackle these problems. It continuously monitors and assesses individual student's abilities to detect their weaknesses, identify gaps in prior knowledge, allow students to progress at their own paces and improve students' learning outcomes. The system offers optimized learning solutions and synchronized tutoring support to maximize learning efficiency as well as to increase students' knowledge, skills, and competencies. In this talk, the underlying techniques used to build the systems and the performance evaluation experiments will be introduced.
Jos Keulers
Sales Director EMEA
NGD Systems, Inc.
03:00PM - Day 2
View Computational Storage Accelerating AI Applications
Computational Storage Accelerating AI Applications
Distributing compute power to storage nodes creating so-called computational storage leads to greater scalability, simpler upgrading, and better fault tolerance. The approach is well-suited to modern applications including real-time analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality, autonomous systems, IoT, and cybersecurity. It also reduces the strain on system-level resources and networks. It is particularly valuable now that new technologies such as NVMe and persistent memory have greatly increased the speed of storage accesses, often overwhelming the ability of other parts of systems to keep up.
Reema Patel
Programme Manager
Ada Lovelace Institute
03:20PM - Day 2
View Panel: AI for social good
Richard Freeman, PhD
03:20PM - Day 2
View Panel: AI for social good
Emma Lawton
Digital Strategist
Parkinson's UK
03:20PM - Day 2
View Panel: AI for social good
Kristina Barrick
Head of Programme, Digital Commission
03:20PM - Day 2
View Panel: AI for social good
Panel: AI for social good
• How is AI being successfully applied to challenge social problems?
• What are the potential uses of AI to solve social and ethical problems?
• AI's impact across Health, Environmental Sustainability and Public Welfare


text:
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Gilmore Girls."
If you're keeping track — and you most certainly are if you're a Gilmore Girls fan — then you know that no definitive answer has been given about who Rory's baby's father is on Gilmore Girls.
Many of the actors from Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life have offered their two cents about the final four words (whether in jest like Scott Patterson or sincerely like Lauren Graham) where Rory told Lorelai she was pregnant, but not many have been brave enough to talk about who the father could be. Yet, the following Gilmore Girls actors have discussed who the father is and while they don't offer any conclusive clues, the actors' guesses can fill the void left behind by Gilmore Girls.
After the revival premiered, the creator of Gilmore Girls, Amy Sherman-Palladino, gave this pretty frustrating response to The Hollywood Reporter about the identity of the father, "It really wasn't about the father; it was about the event."
She continued:
"People can make their own conclusions about who the father is, there's not a thousand choices out there, but it really wasn't about the boy because, quite frankly, one of the things that's always been a little weird is how obsessed with Rory's love life everybody got when the point of the show was never about their love lives."
While I get the show wasn't about the women's love lives, if you end on a cliffhanger of Rory being pregnant with the father of the baby not revealed, you're asking for speculation — especially when Netflix then goes and posts this hilarious tweet about the identity of the father.
—Netflix US (@netflix) December 28, 2016
So while Sherman-Palladino and her husband Daniel Palladino are keeping a lid on the biggest mystery of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, here's what some of the actors have had to say.
Alexis Bledel
You would expect that if anyone knew the identity of the father that it would be Alexis Bledel since her character is the one who's pregnant. Well, if she does know, Bledel has been playing it close to the vest to the media.
Most recently, while promoting her new series The Handmaid's Tale at the TV Critics Press Association press tour on Jan. 7, Variety reported that Bledel said she had no preference on who the father is because it's really up to Sherman-Palladino.
"I honestly haven't gone down that path of imagining it," she said.
As fans have only been imagining who the father is since A Year in the Life came out, this seems highly unbelievable to me.
Matt Czuchry
On Nov. 28, just days after A Year in the Life premiered on Nov. 25, actor Matt Czuchry, who plays frontrunner Logan, spoke to The Huffington Post about the identity of the father. Like Bledel, he referenced it being the Palladinos' story.
"In terms of those last four words, it really is Amy and Dan's last four words. It is their story," Czuchry said.
But then he added the major clue of, "I'm very protective over those four words. They did tell me who is the father of that baby." While he was vague and said the fun of the final four words was coming up with theories, the fact that Czuchry knows the truth just solidifies for me that Logan is the dad.
Milo Ventimiglia
Another member of the cast to give some "insight" is the man behind Jess — Milo Ventimiglia.
"I don't think it's any of the three guys at all," Ventimiglia said on the red carpet at the Golden Globes to Variety, referring to Rory's original boyfriends of Dean, Jess, and Logan. "You know what, I haven't really sat around and thought about it, wondered who it was, so I'll be as surprised as anyone else is," he added.
Although even members of Team Jess have to admit that the possibility of Jess being the father is a long shot, Ventimiglia's answer provides no solace at all.
Scott Paterson
Despite the plethora of vague responses from the actors, the always reliable Luke (actor Scott Patterson) provided a logical theory that many fans can support. When talking to Entertainment Weekly, Patterson found parallels between his own character and his onscreen nephew when it comes to their relationships with the Gilmore women. He said, "I'm thinking it's Logan's kid and Jess is going to fight for her." If you like the idea that Logan is Christopher and Jess is Luke, Patterson's opinion makes a whole lot of sense.
Tanc Sade
—tanc sade (@TancSade) December 20, 2016
The actor who plays Life and Death Brigader Finn provided a pretty outrageous and humorous theory of his own, courtesy of a tweet. Tanc Sade insinuated that perhaps it was his character who impregnated Rory. After all, he was there at the New Hampshire bed and breakfast the same night that most fans suppose Rory became pregnant. Maybe Finn and Rory were having a secret affair all along?! (Uh, probably not, but it's an amusing prospect.)
Jack Carpenter
Paul (who?) is actually one of the candidates to be the father, yet even the actor who portrays him — Jack Carpenter — doesn't think it looks promising for Rory's boyfriend of two years. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter how likely it is that Paul is the father, Carpenter said, "I guess I would doubt it, but I have no idea." Considering that Rory regularly forgot Paul existed, I'm inclined to agree with Carpenter.
While I wish that the third biggest contender — the Wookiee — had an actor who portrayed him to speak up, I'm certain that just like the other actors of Gilmore Girls, he wouldn't provide an official answer. So, keep on theorizing, my fellow Gilmore Girls fans — even if Sherman-Palladino doesn't think that was the point of the revival.