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Jester wrote a half-good piece about the FW economy disaster. It's bad because he got the economy totally wrong. The FW cashouts were increasing the ISK volume in the hands of players, despite the LP stores are officially ISK sinks. The reason is simple: if you bought a +5 learning implant in the highsec LP store, you paid 65M. If you bought the same item in FW T5, you paid 16.25M. 47.75M ISK was left in the player economy. The FW implants weren't added to the market, they replaced highsec implants, by making highsec missioners leave that field for either faction ships (you needed to give a full ship at T5 and not 1/4) or left missioning totally. You can see that the traded volume of implants did not increase significantly due to FW:
Jesters post is great because it shows how unrealistic it is to attribute the disaster to simple incompetence. It was identified and mass-exploited for long, it was all over the blogs, it was reported by CSM and they still did not fix it. Hell, they had the fix, they just refused to put it to the live server. I agree with him that it was a scheme to make a wealth transfer, to make some players rich at the cost of the majority. Inflation is the tax of everyone. The price of PLEX is the conversion between ISK and real money. If you have a PLEX worth of ISK, you can play for free for a month. You save 15-17 euros. If you had a billion ISK before FW, you had 30-35 euros, assuming you wanted to continue playing and would pay money to upkeep your subscription. Now if you have the same billion, you have 15% less Euros. This money was taken from the EVE players, given to those who exploited the FW system. And they got tens of trillions. The wealth transfer from the average EVE players to the FW exploiters can reach a million dollar. To make it worse, even the cynical "stay docked if you don't want losses" advice doesn't work against inflation.
Why would they do this? Why would they want to screw up with most of their players just to help out some other players? They could keep the dollars for themselves by printing the same amount of ISK, using it to buy PLEX at Jita and trash the PLEX. That would be more subtle.
Enter the DUST Bunnies. DUST will be an ISK sink. Their weapons, clones, vehicles and whatever they use will be NPC seeded. The ISK they pay is removed from the economy and in turn - like a skillbook - an item appears. It won't live long as it will be used in a bloody FPS game. Where will the ISK come from? Two sources: one is that the DUST players buy it via some form of microtransaction (the new intro shows items purchasable with Aur). The other: EVE players hire DUST players with ISK for capturing planets. What planets?
Faction warfare planets. With the current implementation of DUST-EVE integration, the only EVE player who has a reason to hire DUST bunnies are the FW players. So the scheme was to feed up the FW corporations with the T5 cashouts. To fill their coffers with trillions so they will casually spend it on DUST bunnies, letting them play for free. The FW scheme was to remove about one million dollar worth of ISK from the EVE playerbase and give it to DUST players in a "Try DUST out fully, now free!" marketing campaign. To make the players enjoy access to expensive gear for free. Of course when the wallet runs dry, the DUST players won't get more ISK from EVE players, they have to start paying. CCP hopes that by then they are hooked on the game enough to do so.
While 30T ISK might worth $1M to you, legally it worth nothing. It is a game item and it is in total control of CCP Games. You have no ownership over it and they are free to do anything they want with it. They could just announce "we take 15% from the wallet of every player, corporation and alliance and use this money to give free ISK to everyone who tries out DUST in part of its marketing campaign". You had absolutely no legal right to debate that move. But you could hold a Jita riot and unsubscribe in masses. And you probably would. So they did not say that. Just took the money silently and placed all blame on other players: the FW exploiters.
Why did they stop it prematurely? Because there is one thing more "evil" than CCP Games: EVE players. The trillions never reached the FW corporation coffers. Most players involved had nothing to do with FW. The real FW players are in the FW zone for the good fights and I doubt if they earned more than they used to. OK they might got a few billions here and there, but nothing worth mentioning. The money went to players who moved to FW exactly to exploit the cashouts. Their legion pushed the real FW players aside, practically destroying Amarr and Gallente faction, turning Caldari and Minmatar into a huge farming blueball. They ran the multi-account AFK orbiting fleets, they ran the multiboxed missioning bombers and they will not give a cent to DUST bunnies. The price of Slave implants increased by 50% the last two months and the titan BPC contract prices doubled! I guess the trillions from the FW ISK print is already in the coffers of supercapital builders an - ironically - the highsec miners who mine the veldspar for all those titans. Mark my word, soon the horrible fit titan lossmails will pour out of the sky.
The moral of the story: the best counter of "evil" is not "moral" but "selfish". The scheme wasn't caught by some watchdog, it did not leak and no one can prove it (my post is just speculation without hard eveidence). The scheme was destroyed by a bunch of AFK-farming, botting, multiboxing exploiters. They forced CCP to fix FW early. You cannot make an hidden scheme without it being exploitable as guarding it is impossible without clarifying your aims. They couldn't say "those who do it for a titan must stop, those who do it in preparation of DUST can continue". If you see an exploit and no one responds to your calls, you should go and exploit it. Every cent you take is a cent the "evil ones" will miss. I'm sure CCP learned its lesson and will never try to make such market schemes again. All they achieved is making a bunch of players upset with no profit at all.
Summary: EVE is real!
The moron of the week is this specimen, without doubt. Just a week ago it was established that you don't transport expensive small items in an unfit frigate. This week's moron managed to pick the slowest aligning frigate in the game for shiny transport. Congratulations.
Saturday morning report: 176.9B 570M spent on trade alts PLEX. It is operational cost. (5.5+1.1 spent on main accounts, 6.5+0.6 spent on Logi/Carrier, 3.2+0.6 on Ragnarok, 2.7+0.6 on Rorqual, 2.8+0.6 on Nyx, 2.8+0.6 on Dread, 37.4 sent as gift)
Sunday morning report: 178.6B (6.6 spent on main accounts, 7.1 spent on Logi/Carrier, 3.8 on Ragnarok, 3.3 on Rorqual, 3.4 on Nyx, 3.4 on Dread, 37.4 sent as gift)
Monday morning report: 178.5B I have no idea what happened here, no misclick, no gank, nothing in the journal that explains a loss. Can only think of the sharp increase of the implant prices which makes the CCP item price guess greatly undervaluing. (6.6 spent on main accounts, 7.1 spent on Logi/Carrier, 3.8 on Ragnarok, 3.3 on Rorqual, 3.4 on Nyx, 3.4 on Dread, 37.4 sent as gift)


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"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has been selected for the ShoWest/Fandango Fan Choice Award, which will be presented Thursday at ShoWest's Final Night Banquet and Award Ceremony at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas. The Fan Choice Award was voted on by nearly 50,000 moviegoers, who were asked on Fandango to select their favorite film of 2009.
ShoWest, the largest annual convention for the motion-picture industry, is currently under way in Las Vegas. This year's installment will once again end with the celebrated Banquet and Award Ceremony, where awards will also be presented to Vanessa Hudgens, Zach Galifianakis, Amanda Seyfried, Sam Worthington and Jerry Bruckheimer. Rumor has it that a producer from the "Twilight" series will accept the award, and a special video message from one of the franchise's top stars will be played for those in attendance.
"You might have guessed that 'Avatar' would have won the Fan Choice Award, since 'Avatar' was the top ticket-seller in our company's history," explained Fandango Chief Marketing Officer Ted Hong. "But never bet against the passion, loyalty and dedication of the vociferous 'Twilight' fans."
The sequel to "Twilight" garnered nearly 66 percent of the vote — although "Hurt Locker" shouldn't feel too bad, as the same studio (Summit Entertainment) showed off its diversity in 2009 by releasing both films.
"Moviegoers on Fandango have been behind the franchise from the very beginning, and that's why the first 'Twilight' movie won the Fan Choice Award last year," Hong added. "The big question will be whether or not 'Eclipse' will be in the running for next year's award, and if the franchise can pull off a three-peat."
"We are thrilled to once again have the opportunity to partner with Fandango to present the ShoWest/Fandango Fan Choice Award at this year's ShoWest Final Night Banquet and Award Ceremony," ShoWest managing director Robert Sunshine said in a statement. "It is no surprise that the fans have chosen the box-office hit 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' as this year's recipient, and we are excited to present the film with this award."

subset: commoncrawl


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Frank W. Mavero, 80, of Rochester Township, passed away Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, in The Medical Center, Beaver, while surrounded by his loving family.
Born Aug. 11, 1928, in Rochester, a son of the late Frank and Carmella Floccari Mavero, he was a retired design draftsman. He was a member of St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Parish, Rochester, where he was a Eucharistic minister, a former usher, a member of the Holy Name Society and a former member of the Pastoral Council. He was a retired member after 40 years of service with the Rochester Township Volunteer Fire Department, where he also served as a former fire chief. For many years, he was well known for playing Santa Clause for various charitable organizations, family and the Rochester Township Fire Department. He was a 1946 graduate of Rochester High School and then attended Geneva College. He was a volunteer trainer for the Rochester High School football program for 39 years, and was an avid sports fan, especially for the Rochester Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. He loved his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, his family and his friends. He was a friend of Bill.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Rita Mae Colella Mavero, in 1996.
Surviving are his wife, Juanita (Murphy) Frank Mavero; two daughters and a son-in-law, Patricia J. "Tricia" Mavero, Daugherty Township, and Monica R. and Albert N. Mannerino, Rochester Township; three sons and two daughters-in-law, Joseph F. Mavero and his beloved companion, Ruth A. Durkin, Pulaski Township; Vincent T. and Lisa Marie Mavero, Beaver, and Christopher J. "C.J." and Sonya L. Mavero, Brighton Township; five grandsons, Daniel J. Mavero and his wife Nicole, Nicholas A. and Christopher J. Mannerino, Mark Daniel Mannerino, and Gino A. Mavero; two granddaughters, Amanda Lynn Bokash and her husband David, and Bernadette F. Mavero; five great-grandchildren, Manuel Davidson, Jalen and Joseph Mavero, Tanner and Addison Bokash; numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and friends, and his pet companion, Cici. He was preceded in death by a son, Daniel V. Mavero, in 1957; two sisters, Patrina Smith and Josephine Dininno, and two brothers, John and Emanuel "Tony" Mavero.
Friends will be received Monday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. in the WILLIAM MURPHY FUNERAL HOME INC., 349 Adams St., Rochester. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Tuesday at 10 a.m. in St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Rochester Township.
Interment will follow in St. Cecilia Cemetery.
A Christian wake service will be held Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made, if desired, to St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church Building Fund, 628 Virginia Ave., Rochester, Pa. 15074.


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The chances are you have probably heard that Mint is no longer just a peppermint sweet; it is now also an investment acronym which in the next decade or two could prove extremely profitable for investors.
The concept, which groups the countries of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, has been popularised in recent weeks by respected economist Jim O'Neill, the man who also coined the BRIC term in 2001, identifying Brazil, Russia, India and China as the next global economic powerhouses.
Here Telegraph Money assesses each of the country's investment credentials and explain how investors can profit.
A common feature with all of these countries is that they all boast rapidly growing young populations, so in theory should benefit from the rapid rise in domestic consumption. Mexico is no exception as the average age is 27, which compares favourably to developed economies, such as the UK, were the average age is 40.
The geographical location of Mexico is one reason why economists are excited about its long term growth potential. Mexico has close links to the US and fast growing Latin American countries, most notably Brazil. Over the past five years Mexico has significantly increased its exports into the US, which in turn has boosted growth, currently running at 3.5pc a year.
But the biggest reason why some investors have been more positive and have started investing more money into the region is because of the new economic reforms that have been introduced. The Mexican Government has dramatically lowered its gas and electricity prices, which is expected to increase foreign investment into the country.
Tom Smith, who runs the Neptune Latin American fund, said the reforms could prove profitable for investors.
"The energy sector in Mexico has huge potential but is being strangled by underinvestment. This should change as the government plans to open the sector to private investment for the first time in seventy-five years."
Indonesia has a large and crucially from an economic standpoint young population, with the average age of the 250 million populous just 25.
Experts argue the young population is earning more money each year, in turn leading to stronger levels of consumer spending on goods.
Anthony Eaton, fund manager of the JM Finn Global Opportunities fund, is a big fan and has invested in several shares in the country. He explained the shares he owns are direct plays on consumer spending habits.
"Indonesia consumers are increasingly having more and more disposable incomes. Young adults in Indonesia are no longer commuting on bicyles, instead they are now buying cars.
"I have shares in Jasa Marga, which is the largest toll road operator in the country. As more and more people buy cars – profits for the company will increase significantly."
For years Nigeria, along with Kenya, has been touted as the best country to profit from rapidly developing African economies.
There are two main reasons why Nigeria has been attracting attention.
Firstly its economy is running an account surplus, or in other words is not heavily indebted like the majority of its neighbours. In theory this gives Nigeria's government scope to build infrastructure, which will in turn create more jobs and boost consumer spending.
Another reason why the investment community is so excited is because Nigeria's business market is dominated by a small number of sellers. Mr Eaton said from an investor point of view this is extremely attractive.
"As competition is less intense in Nigeria compared to developed economies it is much easier to identify which stocks are likely to continuing being successful in the future," said Mr Eaton.
"For instance I own shares in UAC, which owns a chain of a restaurants and hotels across the country. It is the dominant market player in both sectors.
If Turkey can sort out its political problems the country could one day become on of the fastest growing European economies.
Nearly half of its 80 million population is under the age of 25, while Turkey is well positioned geographically – between Europe and Asia.
Henrietta Seligman, an analyst at Somerset Capital Management, explains why she is positive on Turkey's prospects.
"Being positioned between Europe and Asia and the potential to act as a gateway to the Middle East offers a compelling background to investing in Turkey. The country offers a deeper stock market with more well-managed companies than many of its eastern European peers," said Ms Seligman.
"However, the ability to unlock Turkey's potential growth is subject to several obstacles, some of which are acting as a barrier to growth currently: namely the large current account deficit and more recently the threat to political stability, which has put overseas investors off investing in the country."
But the risks are high…
Whichever frontier market you back, bear in mind the added risks of investing in such nascent economies – it's not for the faint hearted.
Some experts argue each of the MINTs are now looking pricy. Shares in the Mexican and Indonesian stock markets hit a record high last year, which has put some investors off, including Tom Becket, a fund manager at Psigma Investment Management,
"Given how well Mexico and Indonesia have performed relative to many other stock markets over the last few years, I would be quite wary of them," said Mr Becket.
"On a short term valuation perspective it is not easy to claim that such markets offer a scintillating entry point for investors and they trade at a premium to many other markets, particularly other emerging markets. It is far more important for investors to think about starting valuation rather than economic potential."
Political risks were also cited by many experts as another reason to be wary about putting your money into such immature economies.
Another danger to be aware of is currency risk. Both emerging and frontier market economies are susceptible to wild currency swings. To an extent the value of your investments in a frontier market is at the mercy of the exchange rate – if Mexico's currency falls 10pc – the share prices gains you have made will be reduced by 10pc.
How can I profit from the Mints?
The experts see 10 years as a minimum. This is partly because share price fluctuations in emerging markets are usually more pronounced than in Britain or America, but also because time is needed to see the benefits of an expanding economy filter through to share prices.
The key is healthy returns is patience: if 10 years is a minimum for emerging market investing, think even longer. Trying to second-guess these markets is a risky business.
A useful tactic is setting up a regular investment plan. This "drip-feeding" discourages you from trying to second-guess rises and falls. It also limits the risk of losing money.
The majority of investment funds run by city stockpickers do not have much money in these economies, but there are some specialist funds that invest in Mints.
The Charlemagne Magna New Frontiers fund and Franklin Templeton Frontier Markets fund both have investments in the MINT nations.
But if you just want to have some of your savings in one of the four you can do so through an Africa specialist fund that has a big slice of its money in Nigeria, including Investec Africa Opportunities and Neptune Africa.
There are also a number of Turkey specialist funds, such as the JP Morgan Turkey Equity fund.
But if it is Mexico or Indonesia takes your fancy there is unfortunately no specialist funds at present that solely invest in these fast growing nations.
Your best bet though is to buy a global fund, which has a portion of its money in the MINTs, but also has the majority in developed economies, such as the UK or US. This will give you smoother returns over the long run, while also giving you exposure to these up and coming countries.
The JM Finn Global Opportunities fund, has 15pc in the Middle East and Africa, and is regularly tipped by financial advisers.
Alternatively another option is a cheaper "tracker" fund that replicates the average share performance in these regions. At present there is no such thing as a Mints index fund or exchanged traded fund, so alternatively your best option in to back an index fund that invests in frontier markets, which will include some of the MINT nations.
Examples include the iShares MSCI Frontier 100 Index and Standard & Poor's Civets 60 Index, which tracks the top 10 stocks in each local stock exchange.
• Get Twitter alerts for all our investing stories: follow @telegraphinvest
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Top Signs You Need New Roofing in Philadelphia, PA
Your roof is one of the most important parts of your home. Your roof supports and protects your home, but most homeowners don't bother to have their roofs inspected until their roofs sustain serious damage or they notice leaks. Regular maintenance is important and so are repair. Sometimes, repairs aren't enough, and you'll need to have your roof replaced.
If you're not sure if you need your roof replaced, this is a good place to start. Below are a few signs you need new roofing in Philadelphia, PA.
Curling and Buckling Shingles
If you notice your shingles curling and buckling, it's probably time to get new roofing for your home. To tell if your shingles are curling, take a look at the shingles that get direct sunlight. If they're curling and losing granules, your shingles are likely past their life expectancy.
Missing Shingles
Missing shingles sometimes occur after high winds or storms, but usually, this does not occur at any other time unless your roof is already compromised. To check, make sure all of your shingle tabs are intact.
Roof Age
How old is your roof? Most asphalt roofs last between 20 and 25 years under normal circumstances. After that time period, your roof will no longer adequately protect your home in most cases. You may notice other issues including leaking that may help indicate that your roofing is old and needs replacement.
Weakened Decking
If you notice that your roof feels soft or bouncy underfoot, your decking may be compromised by moisture. Your decking may also be compromised if you notice that there are spaces in your decking where sunlight shines inside your attic. To check, go into your attic on a sunny day. If you need professional advice, Seal Roofing can help when it comes to protection your home.


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Alright so here's the deal: we moved to a new spot. We're still in the same park, but my friend alerted me that the spot across the street from her, was open. She really wanted it, but since they're leaving in 3 weeks, she didn't think it was worth packing up and moving just 10 feet across the street. I honestly didn't believe it was really open, lol! We took a walk over there and sure enough, no one was there. This is seriously the best site in the park because it has no neighbors to the right (for an acre or so…then there's a mobile home), and to the left, there's a parking spot for 2 trucks…a fence, then the next site. They've been having electrical issues with that other site though, so it's rarely occupied. Basically, there's no one to the left or right, I get a HUGE yard for the girls and Mojo to run around in, there's an enormous tree right next to the RV that is absolutely PERFECT for climbing, AND we'll be just a few feet away from our new friends.
I figured it was too good to be true, but I called the manager anyways. He said if I wanted it, it was mine. I couldn't believe it. I shouted "Yes!" (probably deafening him), thanked him and called Nic immediately. I interrupted his fishing, told him to get home ASAP and let him know that the second he does, we're packing up, and moving to the primo spot on the edge of the park with the big yard and tree. He was a little reluctant, but appeased me anyhow. We had the RV packed up inside and out in under 30 minutes, and hauled her over to the new site. It's so big, that we pulled straight in, unhitched, pulled the truck around through our yard, and parked it next to our rig. In a few minutes, we had everything back to normal and made our way outside. It didn't take long for our new spot to feel like home…especially after I got all the lights hung back up the following day.
Daddy may have been reluctant at first, but in no time at all, he warmed up to the idea of a huge yard, a huge shade tree, no neighbors on either side of us, and a new friend for him to hang out with right across the street (my friend's Hubby). It truly was a huge blessing and I'm so grateful to her for alerting me of its vacant status!!! Thank you Mama! Thank you so much!!! You're the best! (So are you Nic. Thanks for getting us over here!)
Oh, and it's also a good thing I rushed the heck outta Nic to get over there. I am not kidding, at all, when I say literally 2 minutes after we pulled into our new site, someone else rolled up. They were eyeballing our spot like none other. Maybe it's because we were still hitched up and they were wondering if we were coming or going (that's honestly probably it), or maybe they thought I was some weird chick running around the RV like a spaz, all hippied out, or maybe they were wishing they had beaten us to it just 3 minutes earlier? Probably all 3. They ended up taking the site to our left, despite my friend's Husband and I telling them the electricity fried the last person's electric…only to be told to move elsewhere. I was truly relieved. I like that we have no neighbors, and the ones that are a ways off to our sides, work here. (They have since fixed that site's electric.)
Here's some pics of our new setup. They seriously do NOT do this site justice, but they'll hafta do for now. Future posts are sure to take place outdoors a lot, so you'll see more of our site then. With all our new found room to stretch out, I'm sure we'll be outdoors most of the time.
It's hard to see, but MHG is doing Tree pose on the tree stump (that someone carved a heart into, awww):
They've already built the faeries a home by that tree stump as well:
This kind of gives you an idea how big the huge Cottonwood tree is. We measured it at its BASE, and it's 30 feet around!!!
Standing in our "Forest" that is just beyond our yard. It needs a hammock and a sheet teepee fort, methinks. The girls have so much playing tag while running through the trees.
Standing off to the right of our RV. Our yard wraps around to the nose of our RV as well.
It's a great place to set up a game of Horseshoes with our buddies.
Same standing spot, panning left, watching the girls run around.
This picture looks out our dining room window. We have 2 parking spots. Off in the distance, there's an unoccupied RV that belongs to one of the park's employees, she's a really nice lady. A real go-getter!
It's nice to look out my Kitchen window and not see the side of someone else's RV. No complaints here folks (other than I really need to clean my windows, haha).
Now that you have an idea of how happy we are with our new yard…I shall show you the joys of having a large tree to climb…right outside our front door! Our girls have practically become tree climbing extraordinaires over night! It melts my heart, because I think it's so important for kids to have TONS of outdoors based play in Mother Nature and less exposure to electronics. That, and I grew up climbing and practically living in trees. Just ask my Mom…I never wanted to come down. That's probably why I'm such a treehugger to this day, lol! (MHG playing with her new friend…he's a sweet kiddo…one of our friends' boys.)
Yes, even Mommy and Daddy have gotten their butts up there! The tree beckons you to climb it, I swear!
I feel like I should be playing some awesome song while showing you our tree climbing expeditions, lol. Something by the Black Keys perhaps.
Anywho, that just about sums up how happy we are with our new site. We're going to be here for a WHILE (at least December…probably longer), so at least we'll be really comfortable in the meantime. It does set the bar pretty high for anywhere we go in the future though…but that's a first world problem that I'll happily embark on when the time comes. Until next time, thanks for keeping tabs on us!


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Fourteen candidates from eight different countries were short-listed from 76 entries. They were selected as much for their extremely well-researched projects as for the outstanding quality of their photographs.
The panel of judges, chaired by the photographer, filmmaker and artist William Klein, was composed of:
– Christian Caujolle, journalist, author, exhibition curator, and founder of the
VU gallery and agency
– Guillaume Herbaut, photographer, founder member of the Oeil Public agency
– Fabrice Hergott, director of the Museum of Modern Art in the City of Paris
– Jean‐Luc Marty, editorial director and editor-in-chief of Géo magazine
– Alain Mingam, photojournalist , exhibition curator and agent
– Vivienne Walt, correspondent for Time Magazine
The subject given to photographers for the 2009 Prize was "The Gaza Strip".
The panel's discussions focused first on the quality of the photographic work together with the photographer's chosen approach and unique perspective. Next, they examined the originality of the written proposals and the capacity of each candidate to present a fresh and meaningful view.
At the end of a first round of very lively analysis, the work of three finalists offering differing approaches was singled out: Kai Wiedenhöfer from Germany, Eman Mohammed from Palestine and Lizzie Sadin from France.
In its discussions, the judges made special mention of the quality and sensitivity of the work of 22-year old Eman Mohammed on the condition of Palestinian women, for which she was awarded the judges' Special Prize.
The panel finally decided to award the project to Kai Wiedenhöfer.
For full version of the Award Press Release and further comments on Kai's work, the judging process and the timetable for complertion of the awards project please download this pdf.


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Grill Master Neoprene Koozie $ 3.00
For all the grill masters!
These patriotic koozies are perfect for celebrating America year-round! Frosty drinks are always better with a koozie! This design is available on a red or navy neoprene koozie screened in white. {be sure to scroll through pictures to see options}.


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Alphabetic aren't having any of that shoegazing malarkey. None of your dreary monochrome, monotone moping; "French Boyfriend" is loud, it's catchy, you can dance to it and it's Technicolour. It does what every good single does; it grabs you with intro; eight bars of almost disco drums, organ stabs and a great guitar hook drag you into the first verse where singers Walter Heale and Rebecca Lever deliver their sides of the boy-meets-girl, boy-loses- girl, boy-stalks-girl-with-new-boyfriend story. And it's glamorous (and a bit sleazy) because it's set in Paris.
Alphabetic have mixed a lot influences into this song; the guitar has a clean sixties sound while the production tends towards eighties blue-eyed British soul. Imagine The Shadows in a soundclash with Pulp, ABC and The Associates and you won't be far off the mark; maybe a little Saint Etienne shine as well. This is a great lead track from their upcoming debut album "Touch", out on July 15th.
Springsteen did it with Asbury Park NJ and, much more recently, Michael McDermott's band The Westies did it with Chicago. They created a strong sense of place with characters and incidents directly observed or based on reality. On his EP "LA 14", Rod Melancon has gone down the same route with his own little corner of Louisiana. Of the five songs on "LA 14" (produced by former Dwight Yoakam guitarist, Brian Whelan), four are stories of life in a small town deep in the American South.
The opening song, "Perry", is a mid-tempo rocker with a pumping synth bass, telling the tale of the town's bad boy, before the tempo slows and the time signature changes to ¾ for "Dwayne and Me", a look back at a childhood friendship ended by Vietnam. "Lights of Carencro" is a menacing and grungy, the production matching the story of sudden death and delayed revenge before the final song "By Her Side" slows the pace to tell the love story of a lonely old man, the melancholy feel enhanced by some delicate pedal steel from Marty Rifkin. The central song, "A Man like Me Shouldn't Own a Gun" contrasts with the rest of the EP, as an uptempo thigh-slapping piece to make sure the atmosphere doesn't get too maudlin.
The feeling in the songs doesn't just come from the lyrics; they're often pretty matter-of-fact. Rod's voice, older than its years, seemingly always on the verge of cracking, and some superb playing from Marty Rifkin on "By Her Side" and Brian Whelan's steadily-rising solo on "Dwayne and Me", are powerful and emotive; you can't listen to these songs and not be moved. Rod Melancon understands that the little details add to the pathos; "Lights of Carencro" is more powerful because we know that the dead brother's favourite song was Bad Company's "Feel Like Making Love" and it's always there as a reminder.
There's a darkness on the edge of this town and Rod Melancon's songs expose it, but they also capture the human touch that's always just below the surface. LA 14 -- running all the way from pure pathos to supernatural menace.
"LA 14" is released in the UK on Friday June 17th on Blue Élan Records (BR1015).
Here's the video for "Perry":
It's a sunny Friday afternoon and it's about time for a quick single review. Kakkmaddafakka are from Bergen in Norway and the single "Young You" is a taster for their debut album "KMF", due to be released on June 1st. The interesting mix of slowed-down Italo house piano, an ethereal, fragile indie vocal and a bubbling bassline evokes the era of the first dance/indie crossovers when bands like Primal Scream and The Soup Dragons first jumped on to the Ibiza remix bandwagon. This is one of the songs that's going to sound great at festivals in the sunshine (not Glastonbury then); who knows, maybe it's the beginning of the third summer of love. And, yes, we do get the EMF reference.
Here's the video for the single:
It's not a great time to be involved in the arts at the moment, particularly if you're hoping to make a living out of it but, somehow, people just keep on plugging away at it, grabbing any opportunity that comes along to create something that will enrich the lives of people who see, hear, read or touch it. Dean Owens is one of those artists; constantly touring, recording, promoting and generally getting his songs out there. He knows that you have to take every opportunity that comes along and that's why a breakfast in a Nashville greasy spoon with guitarist/producer Dave Coleman led to his latest single.
Breakfast led to a quick visit to Dave's home studio, swapping a few ideas and Dave creating a moody and magnificent backing track featuring drum loops, live drums, bass and an eclectic guitar arrangement which Dean completed with vocals recorded in Edinburgh. Dean's always been a superb chronicler of emotions and personal history, but recently he's built a few songs around historical events, particularly on his EP "No Man's Land" and "Cotton Snow" is a song in that vein, telling the story of a soldier realising the futility of the Civil War, or any war. And cotton snow? When the cotton gins and fields were bombed, the cotton fell back to earth like snow. It's a sombre and beautiful piece of work that enhances his growing reputation.
If you want to see Dean live, he's taking part in a fabulous event called The Men from Leith on Friday May 6 at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh featuring Dick Gaughan, Blue Rose Code and Dean with his band The Whisky Hearts.
"Cotton Snow" is out on Drumfire Records on Friday April 15th.
And just as a wee treat, here's the video:
Well, it's an interesting one. You can certainly pick out the indie influences (Radiohead for a start) but this adds a few touches that take it several rungs above 2016 shoegazing. "Looking Glass" starts with a simple bass riff leading in to an acoustic guitar part which sounds like the theme from a murder mystery set in a southern Italian village and keyboards which thicken the sound out while still leaving plenty of room for the high, ethereal, almost keening vocal. The guitar part alone sets this apart from most current indie bands, but the addition of saxophone as the song builds creates a very interesting soundscape. It's a hypnotic and almost soporific sound which leaves you intrigued and eager to hear more.
As a first single, "Looking Glass" is good enough to stand on its own merits while hinting at the bigger picture of the album "Duelism" which is released on March 11th. If you want to see The Lazlo Device live they'll be doing album launch gigs at Camden Barfly on Friday March 12 and Brighton Green Door Store on Sunday March 20.
Meanwhile, here's the video for "Looking Glass":
For the follow-up to the rambunctious raunch of their first single, "My Psychosis", Righteous Reprobates have taken a slightly different direction. The second single "We Go with What We Know" kicks off with a tinny pre-intro before launching into a simple guitar riff echoed by the unison lead vocal; it's a lot like early Sabbath with a hint of late sixties psychedelia dropped in to the mix. When the guitar solo comes along, it's not the shredding pyrotechnics of "My Psychosis"; it's simple but effective. At about the two-thirds mark, there's a tempo change before the riff reasserts itself in the build-up to the big finish.
In the run-up to the release of the album, this works well as a stand-alone single, but it also helps to establish, along with "My Psychosis", that Righteous Reprobates aren't just a one-trick pony. There's a lot of subtlety to add to the blood and thunder and if the whole album's up to the standard of the singles it should be very good indeed.
"We Go with What We Know" is released on April 15. Have a look at the video here:
"New Man" is a bit of a departure for Warme. It's a step away from the riff-driven "Council House Opera", their previous single, towards a quieter, more personal song telling the story of a recovering addict. The song moves up through the gears from the quiet despair of a close-miked voice and acoustic guitar to the redemption of recovery backed by the full band and backing vocals. "New Man" is powerful without resorting to any histrionics; the clean lead guitar and understated drums and bass act as framework for delivering a powerful and unforced vocal message. It's a very good song.
Warme are Craig and Jamie Hamilton (guitars), Lee Walsh (vocals), Macaulay Haywood (bass) and Lewis Knight (drums) and they're from Bradford; they've been steadily building up a live following with high-profile support sets and the album "Council House Opera" is out now. Here's the video for "New Man":
Forget about the warnings of storms, sub-zero temperatures and torrential rain, there's a more elemental force coming in over the Irish Sea to the UK in the first couple of weeks in March; The Eskies are coming over to beat you into submission with a high-octane mixture of folk, jazz, klezmer and vaudeville. Picture a New Orleans jazz band jamming with The Chieftains and Gogol Bordello and it might sound a little bit like this. If the download-only single "Jesus Don't Save Me" gets anywhere close to representing their live set, this tour could be quite a ride.
The single has a gypsy jazz feel that intensifies in the second half of the song through a few key changes and builds up towards an ending that leaves you wondering what on earth is coming next. And that's just three minutes' worth. But don't take my word for it, have a look for yourself:
If you fancy seeing this maelstrom live, the English tour starts in March and you can see them here:
Fri 4 Nottingham Bodega
Sat 5 Bedford Esquires (with CC Smugglers)
Sun 6 Milton Keynes The Stables
Tue 8 London The Finsbury
Wed 9 Stroud The Prince Albert
Thu 10 Bristol The Old Duke
Fri 11 Newquay Whiskers
Sat 12 Falmouth Princess Pavilion (with Mad Dog Mcrea)
Sun 13 Birmingham The Rainbow Courtyard (with Mad Dog Mcrea)
We'll be witnessing the mayhem as they take the roof off The Finsbury in London, and anyone catching the shows with Mad Dog Mcrea should be seeing something very special indeed.
It would be a little bit too easy to dismiss Giulia's musical career as a vanity project but give this single an open-minded listen and you'll probably change your mind. You'll realise that she has an interesting voice with just enough of a raw edge to make it stand out against the background of the identically-schooled pop voices that you hear every time you turn on the radio. The combination of her songwriting and voice has managed to snag her a deal with M:89 records to release an album later this year and the single "Road Trip" this month.
The song is a rock-pop hybrid bouncing along on a wave of tribal drums, acoustic guitars and a Celtic-sounding keyboard hook which gets all the way to the chorus before the pulsing bass pushes it firmly into contemporary radio territory. It works as a pop tune, and it's an intriguing taster for the album "Raze Me to the Ground" which is scheduled for late May release.
Don't take our word for it. Have a look and listen for yourself:
Ok, how about this to create a bit of a festive mood? The Rubettes featuring Alan Williams have just released a Christmas single. They were one of the few high profile acts in the early seventies not to score a Christmas hit before the bottom dropped out of that particular market, so they've missed out on all the repeat plays that the likes of Wizzard, Slade, Mud and Showaddywaddy get every year on local radio, shops, bars and clubs. So they've done something about it.
They've reworked Plastic Bertrand's "Ça Plane Pour Moi" (with full writer approval) as a Christmas song and put together some visuals for it full of cute animals and Christmas images. It's either a work of genius or totally cynical media manipulation; maybe it's both, but it's brilliant. They even manage to sneak in a reference to their massive seventies hit "Sugar Baby Love". It's top Christmas fun and you really should have a look at it here:


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Back to the SequelPosted: October 21, 2015 Filed under: Film | Tags: BackToTheFuture, BackToTheFutureDay, BackToTheFuturePartII, MartyMcFly, Michael J. Fox, Sequels Leave a comment
Sequels are so often made hastily and poorly. They are made to capitalize on of the success of the original and cash in once more by recycling jokes, storylines and characters that audiences recognize. It is so rare that sequels are made well that it becomes noteworthy when a sequel actually turns out to be decent.
Let's take a minute to acknowledge some of the best sequels. There's the few that are undoubtedly better than the original: The Dark Knight, Empire Strikes Back, X2: X-Men United, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Bourne Supremacy. Another few are arguably as good if not better: Aliens, Godfather Part II, Spiderman II, Die Hard With A Vengeance (yes.) There's more to mention but in this discussion of great sequels one always seems absent. What better day to bring this seeming injustice to light than October 21st, 2015: The day that Marty McFly travels to in Back to the Future Part II.
Back to the Future Part II is bigger in scope: alternate realities, a dystopian 1985 where the world is turned into a ZZ Top music video with Biff as the star and a lot more time travel than the original. There are plenty of references to the original without it being the same movie over again. The way they re-do the Hill Valley skateboard chase scene but with hover boards is a great homage to the original. Marty then goes back to 1955 and the original movie to literally replay some of the most memorable scenes from a different point and voice and as background music to the current movie at hand If you are still with me after that sentence, you have to agree that's pretty awesome.
This is all not to say that the original Back to the Future is in any way worse or less influential than its first sequel. However, Back to the Future Part II deserves its place on the Mount Rushmore of Movie Sequels. Okay, it probably wouldn't make the Mount Rushmore of Movie Sequels but like at least the Hall of Fame. Any way, there wouldn't be a #BackToTheFutureDay without the sequel and it should get its due, without it we would instead have to acknowledge that October 21st is Kim Kardashian's birthday. Damn, I guess I just did.
Some ending Back to the Future thoughts:
-Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer in the Part II makes you forget that someone else played Jennifer in the first one.
-Billy Zane is in Back to the Future I and II and Zoolander I and II. He's a cool dude.
-Michael J. Fox plays Marty, Old Marty, Marty Jr. and Marlene McFly in Part II. The only comparable acting performance is Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.
–Jaws 19 looks better than Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D, Jaws: The Revenge and all of the Snarknado movies.
-Look where putting money on the Cubbies has you now! Let's Go Mets. Sorry, had to do it.
-I still kind of wish my senior yearbook quote was: Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.
-Finally, on the actual October 21st, 2015 still not sure how or why Doc Brown, an aging, disgraced nuclear physicist and Marty a high school 'slacker' are friends, but do we care?
I Don't Think It Works Like That—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 14—Person to PersonPosted: May 18, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7, AMC Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
Sooner or later, everything ends. Sometimes it ends while you're sharing a plate of onion rings with your family at one of New Jersey's best diners. Sometimes it ends with life simply moving on as people slide into new positions recently vacated by others, like the world is some kind of complex ecosystem. And sometimes it concludes with the Hollywood ending you always wanted and you die surrounded by the empire you created as cops rush the scene. Mad Men ended tonight, and many will say that the golden age of television drama ended with it. To an extent that may be true—I don't know that we'll necessarily see a show quite like Mad Men (or The Sopranos, or The Wire, or Breaking Bad) ever again—but there is still great television being made right now and there will still be great television in the future. But Mad Men was unique in so many ways—it meandered, it took its time, it often confounded viewers, and it was never afraid to get weird. It was one of a kind, and for that reason, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that its finale was totally unique as well.
Don never made it back to New York (at least not on camera). He found out Betty was dying and seemed to make a half-hearted plea to raise their sons, but as soon as Betty reminded him that he wasn't a big part of their lives to begin with he almost instantly seemed to know that she was right. Instead, he finally makes his way to California and meets up with Anna Draper's niece, Stephanie (and I have to admit that I did not expect to see Stephanie in this final episode). He joins Stephanie on some kind of self-help yoga retreat in the California wilderness. She's given away her child, just like Peggy, and the kid will grow up without his mother, just like a young Don Draper/Dick Whitman. Don seems eager to try to shed the last vestige of his past when he offers to give Stephanie Anna's ring. "Move forward," he tells her (the same advice he gave Peggy in the hospital after she gave birth), but Stephanie isn't taking his words of wisdom, "I don't think it works like that," she tells him.
I'll be honest, at this time, I'm not exactly sure what Don found on that retreat, or if he even found anything at all. It's almost like when Tony Soprano looked out over the Las Vegas desert while high on peyote and screamed, "I get it!" Did he come to the conclusion that he was just like Leonard, the everyman who should be happier—the guy who said his family looks at him, but never really sees him? And if Don did reach some kind of epiphany, would he really just turn around, turn it into an advertisement, and sell it back to McCann? Did he even dream up the famous coke commercial to begin with? Or did he think "I'm just like this guy Leonard, people can't really see me for who I am, I don't even know if I can see myself for who I am, I've failed with my family over and over again, but my one real talent is creating advertisements, it's what I do, and I have to go back with this idea." My guess is that this is going to be Matt Weiner's version of The Soprano's cut-to-black finale—fans will be debating what that final scene means for years. And there's no clear answer (or at least to me there's no clear answer), which makes it both great and frustrating at the same time. For eight years, Mad Men has been asking us whether people can change, now it's all over—my feeling is that it's pretty optimistic in its belief that people, in general, can change. But what about Don? I'm still just not sure.
The rest of the episode seemed far less ambiguous and almost a little tidier than I expected. Joan's boyfriend, Richard, leaves her because he still can't grasp the concept that she'd rather work than travel the world with him—so she starts Holloway & Harris, a production company where she won't have to answer to anyone. When we last see Joan she's using her babysitter as a secretary and running the operation out of her home, which may seem small time, but it's worth remembering that Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's headquarters was originally located in a hotel suite. Something tells me that Joan is going to be just fine. Roger seems happy too. He's going to marry Marie Calvet. The absurdity of this situation seems to suit Roger well. Even he's amazed at how little anyone cares, and he gets one last "Roger joke" in as he refers to Marie as his mother as they sit together in a café. I don't know that I have much faith in Roger and Marie's relationship long-term, considering what we know about both characters. Nevertheless, I think this was a fitting way for Roger Sterling to go out.
My guess is that fans of the show felt that Peggy and Stan also went out in the best way possible. There has been undeniable chemistry between the two ever since they were naked in that hotel room together back in season four, so it's not exactly surprising that they'd end up together in the finale. Call me unsentimental, however, but I was a little lukewarm on the pairing (I didn't hate it, I was just lukewarm on it). I just couldn't help but watch the scene when Peggy and Stan confess their love for one another and think that it was a little beneath Mad Men (although the fact that it didn't come across as a typically graceful confession was pretty great). Two weeks ago, I was left thinking that all Peggy really needed in life was her octopus painting. Her ending wasn't bad, it just was more traditional than I expected, but that's also okay—Peggy Olson has always been the character that Mad Men has viewed with the most hope. It makes sense that she'd get the happiest ending.
It's hard to believe that it's all over. I've heard many people say that to watch Mad Men is to look back on your own life, and it's true. When this show premiered eight years ago I was graduating from high school! Since then there have been graduations, birthdays, and funerals in my life. I've moved to New York, left, and moved back again. I remember first watching "The Wheel," while I was on a transcontinental flight back to America in 2009. It's great how the characters changed, but always seemed to grow into different versions of themselves. And this is what happens in real life too! Take a look at an old year book, or a photo album, or an old picture on facebook, and you'll see the same thing—you're still you, but you've also changed. I keep thinking about Betty's letter to Sally last week as the perfect illustration of this. On one hand, she acknowledges that she understands Sally and that she's no longer afraid for her. She tells her to embrace the adventure. On the other hand, a large part of that letter is devoted to telling Sally how Betty wants to look at her funeral—Betty's definitely changed, but she's still Betty.
I've watched these characters make progress and then backslide so many times throughout the years that sometimes I almost feel like I can see little parts of myself in them. That might sound weird, and I don't think that by watching Mad Men I'm fulfilling some kind of fantasy where I get to see myself on t.v. (I'm pretty sure I'd never want to see that), but it has led me to grow more attached to Mad Men than perhaps any other show I've ever watched. When you strip everything else away, the big ideas that Mad Men dealt with—personal identity, happiness, and fulfillment—are so universal, it's hard not to relate at least a little on a personal level. For eight years, fans of Mad Men tuned in to watch something that they knew was special and unique. So many times it swung for the fences and delivered great moments. You almost want to buy the world a coke just thinking about it.
Other Thoughts:
- True story: I've basically given up drinking soda, but today my roommate was drinking a can of coke and for some reason I just felt compelled to go out and buy one too. I guess the moral of the story is to never discount real-life foreshadowing?
- I loved that when Pete told Peggy that she'd be a creative director by 1980 and that someday people would brag about having worked with her, she responded with the classic Pete line, "a thing like that."
- For some reason the line that made me laugh the hardest this week was when Joan asked Ken how his son was doing and he responded, "He's kind of weird actually. We think he might have problems."
- Weiner really spread the love in this episode. Nearly every major character showed up (even Ken Cosgrove and Harry Crane). Some were speculating that this last episode might only focus on Don, but that clearly wasn't the case.
- So that's it. We've reached the end of the road. I hope you've enjoyed reading my Mad Men season seven recaps. Even though I'll miss writing these, I won't miss staying up until all hours of the night on Sundays. In closing, I'd like to thank everyone who has read and commented, and I'd also like to thank Colin for allowing me to post on his blog.
I Want to Start Over—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 13—The Milk and Honey RoutePosted: May 11, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7 Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
I'll be interested to see what other critics say about "The Milk and Honey Route." While I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad episode of Mad Men (although to be fair, I don't think I'd call any episode of Mad Men bad), it does seem like a rather strange way to spend the show's penultimate hour. There was no Roger Sterling tonight, no Peggy Olson, and no Joan Holloway. Instead we got scenes with Don at an American Legion gathering in Kansas with a bunch of characters we've never met before. Yet to be fair, this hour of Mad Men did appear to wrap up a couple storylines—one brutally, and the other with what seems to be a sense of hope.
For years, Mad Men fans have speculated that Don, once the ace ad man for big tobacco, would fall victim to some terrible smoking-related illness like lung cancer or emphysema. This episode is a classic example of the show zigging when we thought it would zag, as we find out early in the hour that Betty has been diagnosed with very aggressive, late-stage lung cancer. There's no getting better, and most of the medicine and treatment will be palliative. Some may argue that this end to Betty's arc is too melodramatic, however, I found it to be the biggest gut-punch the show has delivered since Lane Pryce's suicide in season five. Betty had finally found fulfillment in her life—she had returned to school and was going to pursue a career in psychology—perhaps something she had wanted to do for a long time (she told Don last week, "I've always wanted this" as she read Freud at her kitchen table). This makes her diagnosis that much harder to take, Betty seemed destined for something close to a happy ending, and in the span of an episode, it morphed into a nightmare. In her final note to Sally, she almost serves as a mouthpiece for the show, stating "sometimes it's best not to prolong things. Sometimes you need to accept when things are over."
Meanwhile, Duck Phillips makes a surprise return in this episode. He informs Pete that there's a great job opportunity at Learjet, but that he'd have to move to Wichita to take it. At first, Pete balks at the possibility. Yet, over the course of the hour he channels his inner Don Draper and realizes that Wichita could be a place for him to start over—and he comes to realize that he needs and wants to start over. He has dinner with his brother, Bud, who mechanically recounts his own philandering ways. He treats his daughter's bee sting with some toothpaste, and he seems to remember just why he and Trudy made such a good team. By the end of the episode, he's ready to move to Kansas with his wife and daughter. Not everyone gets a second chance in life, but apparently Pete Campbell does.
I'm guessing there will be some discussion as to whether Pete "deserves" this ending (if this is in fact his ending, since we still have one more episode left). Many fans of the show have long seen Pete as a kind of villain—Full disclosure, I am not one of these people. For better or worse, Pete has always been one of my favorite characters on the show, and the character with whom I most closely identified. So in his defense, I would ask—has any character changed as much as Pete Campbell over the course of the show's run? Think back to the Pete in season one—the little weasel who tried to blackmail Don, and look at him now. He had to nearly ruin his life to understand just what he had, but Pete spotted an opportunity to turn things around, and he took it. That represents progress. Mad Men, like The Sopranos before it, is fascinated with the question "can people change?" and Pete Campbell has changed. That's why it looks like there's hope for him in the future, and maybe, just maybe, he's earned it.
Kansas represents a new and better life for Pete, but what does it represent for Don? Purgatory? A different location where he still can't escape his past? As has been the case several times this season, many of the scenes involving Don in Kansas take on an almost dreamlike quality—the episode even starts with an actual dream, where Don is pulled over by a policeman who tells him that they've finally caught up with him. He's pressured into attending a veterans gathering, and my first thought was that these were the kind of people Dick Whitman would've been hanging out with if he had never ditched his identity. But Don isn't Dick anymore—even though he confesses to the other veterans that he killed the real Don Draper back in Korea—it's obvious to everyone at the event that he has money and that he doesn't belong. When they believe that he's stolen their money later that night, they break into his hotel room and accuse him of being the imposter that he is. However, Don didn't steal the money, a new Don Draper named Andy, the local handy-boy did. Don realizes this, and tells Andy that if he commits a crime like this he'll have to be somebody else, and that won't be what he thinks it is. Yet despite this advice, the episode ends with Don giving Andy the keys to his car. He ultimately offers him a way to escape—a way to start over. It's becoming clear that Don doesn't want to be Don Draper anymore, but he can't really go back to being Dick Whitman either. As he sits alone at the bus stop as the episode ends, we're left to ask yet again, "who is Don Draper?" At this point it looks like he might disappear completely.
Other Thoughts:
· Looking back, the show had hinted at Betty's death several different times. In the season five episode "Tea Leaves," she has a benign tumor removed from her throat and she ponders what life would be like without her. Earlier this season in "A Days Work," Sally mentions getting Betty in the ground.
· In season six, Duck Phillips informs Pete that he has a job opportunity for him in Wichita, to which Pete responds, "Anything on planet earth?" This is a classic Mad Men moment where a small, seemingly insignificant exchange comes back and figures into the plot in a big way.
· I'll see everyone next week for the series finale "Person to Person." I don't know what it says about the show, but I still feel like there's so many different ways this story could end. I remain confident that Matt Weiner will deliver a satisfying conclusion.
This is Ground Control to Major Tom—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 12—Lost HorizonPosted: May 4, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7 Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
By all accounts, Semi Chellas is Matthew Weiner's protégé. Over the years she's written some of the show's finest episodes, such as season five's trippy "Far Away Places," and season seven's "The Strategy." But it was her work on another season five episode, "The Other Woman," that should have prepared us for this week's hour. In that episode, Peggy Olson walked away from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in search of a new beginning while Joan prostituted herself in order to earn partner status at the agency. We'll get to Peggy shortly, but this week was the final straw for Joan. Back in "The Other Woman," she agreed to something terrible with the assurance that it would lead to more autonomy, more respect, and more power—and for awhile it did—she had finally climbed the ladder at SC&P and earned the job she had always wanted. Yet now that the agency has been absorbed by McCann, Joan's worst fears from last week have already come to fruition—she's nothing but a junior-level executive at McCann. Everything she's worked for, after everything she's been through, has been taken away, and she's willing to take fifty cents on the dollar just to get out so she'll never have to deal with it again. Just as Peggy did in season five, Joan leaves the agency—although with just two episodes left, I don't think she's coming back.
If this is the end of Joan's arc (and it may be the end of her work-related story, but I'm almost 100% sure that we'll see her again in the next two episodes), it's worth asking whether any other character has changed as much during Mad Men's run. In seasons one and two she was worried about meeting the right guy and moving to Glen Cove. In the pilot, she even told Peggy to put a paper bag over her head and really evaluate her strengths and weaknesses. Now, she's staring down Jim Hobart and talking about Betty Friedan after her new boyfriend has offered to get Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante to come over and make him listen to reason. Would season one Joan even recognize season seven Joan if you put both of them together in a room?
We also found out this week that Roger Sterling knows how to play the organ! (Side question—why was there ever an organ in the SC&P office to begin with?) I guess it's only appropriate since this episode did serve as a kind of funeral for the agency. Every scene with Roger and Peggy this week was solid gold. I loved seeing him play the organ while Peggy roller-skated through the halls of SC&P, I loved when he gave her Bert's old painting of an octopus pleasuring a woman (was that the most Roger Sterling thing to do or what?), and I especially loved the slow-motion scene where Peggy walks down the hall at McCann for the first time wearing sunglasses while she's clutching Bert's octopus painting. I really hope that this scene hints at how Peggy will act during the rest of her time at McCann—showing up more than a little buzzed at 4 p.m. while just generally lacking respect for authority. Overall, these scenes seemed to serve as comic relief in an episode that was otherwise somewhat heavy at times, while also allowing the two characters to relive the time they spent at SC&P together, yet there was also a sense of sadness hanging over them. As Roger notes, "you're never safe, even when your name's on the door"—with the end of Sterling Cooper & Partners, he has quite literally been erased.
This idea of erasure follows Don throughout this episode as well. He's invited to attend a meeting with Miller about a new low-calorie beer, but he finds that about twenty other Don Drapers (along with Ted Chaough) are also in the meeting. Just as Joan's worst fears about McCann became reality this week, so did Don's. He's simply a cog in a huge machine, surrounded by drones who all turn their pages at the exact same time at the conference table. Don looks out the window and sees a plane fly by the Empire State Building and off into the distance. He senses that it really doesn't even matter whether he's in this meeting or not. He's proven correct as he gets up, leaves and literally no one seems to notice. He shows up at the Francis residence to take Sally back to school, but she's already left. Nobody seems to need him in either his work or his family life, so he decides to do the one thing any sane person would do—leave everything and drive to Wisconsin.
Don has always had a little Rabbit Angstrom in him, but nothing on the show has called back to John Updike's 1960 novel quite like Don's impromptu cross-state road trip in this episode. He's looking for Diana—the waitress who everyone hated from the first two episodes this half season—but when he reaches Racine he can only find the remnants of the life she left behind—her daughter, her home, her ex-husband, and his new wife. I mentioned in an earlier review that Don probably saw a lot of himself in Diana, so maybe it was important for him to see what she left behind since he was always unable or unwilling to go back and witness the people he abandoned in his past. As the curtain closes on this episode Don is still driving. He picks up a hitchhiker who's heading toward St. Paul. Assuming Don's still in Wisconsin, he's heading west. Who knows, he just might make it to California after all.
Other Thoughts:
- After the previous four episodes ended with older songs, this one closed with David Bowie's Space Oddity. I could not have been happier about this.
- Usually more stuff slips through the cracks at a bigger company, but it doesn't sound like Don will just be able to go AWOL at McCann like he sometimes did at Sterling Cooper. He's already missed two client meetings and Jim Hobart doesn't sound pleased. Will Don quit or get fired, or does it even matter anymore?
- Seriously, where did that organ come from? I remember that one of the kids was playing it in last week's episode. Also, was that some left-over Vermouth from the Pima Ryan ad that Peggy and Roger were drinking?
I've Toyed With You Long Enough. No—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 11—Time & LifePosted: April 27, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7 Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
I'm guessing that for all the people out there who have been disappointed in this final half-season of Mad Men up to this point, "Time & Life" was a welcome episode. It's one of the more heavily plot-driven Mad Men hours in recent memory and it mostly eschews minor characters and subplots, and focuses on people we've known and cared about for much of the show's run. Pete Campbell even flipped the script and got to punch someone, so we've got that going for us, which is good.
Remember how season seven's midseason finale was titled "Waterloo?" Well we didn't know it at the time, but Roger's decision to make Sterling Cooper & Partners an independent subsidiary of McCann really did mark the end of the agency. In a sense, that episode was the characters' last stand, while this one represented their ultimate defeat. SC&P is no more, dissolved and swallowed up by McCann Erickson, like a fish by a whale. At first, Don, Roger, and the other partners try to pull off a desperation Hail Mary, much like they did in season's three's "Shut the Door, Have a Seat," and season six's "For Immediate Release," (and even in "Waterloo" itself), by planning to move to SC&P West's office with their accounts that have conflicts with McCann's existing clients. However, this time, there's no Lane Pryce around to fire them, there's no merger, there's no bigger company to buy them out. This time, the deal has been done—they're trapped.
I'm actually glad that Don's dream of moving the partners and some of their accounts to California didn't come to fruition. We've seen that kind of "re-up to preserve the status quo" story several times on this show, and with only three episodes left, I don't think it would have worked well to go in that direction again. Plus, California has always kind of been a new frontier for Don—a place where he could escape from reality and run from his problems back in New York (although one could argue that this hasn't been the case as much ever since Anna Draper died in season four). Now that door has basically closed for Don. It'll be more interesting to see what he and the partners do now that they don't have the option to run anymore. They have no choice but to face reality. They've died and gone to advertising heaven, as Jim Hobart puts it. And it's true—Don, Roger, Pete, and Joan have been defined by what they've built at SC&P, and now that that's gone, a part of them is too. But are they in heaven?—that part is debatable. McCann didn't respect the idea of SC&P as an independent subsidiary for long, who's to say that they'll accept Don working on Coca-Cola, or Roger handling Buick for very long either.
The other main storyline tonight involved Peggy and her choice to give her child up for adoption. Over the course of the episode, Peggy found herself in several situations that forced her to ponder her life not lived—first, in a brief scene with Pete, then with a small girl whose mom has left her at an audition, and finally with Stan. While we've seen Peggy interact with children on this show before (especially while in Pete's presence), we've never seen her talk to someone like she did with Stan tonight about her decision to give up her child. I liked how Peggy kind of dances around the details of the story when Stan asks her what she did, but she gives him enough information so that he knows what's going on. I imagine that would be a pretty realistic response from someone who has been hiding a painful secret for a long time. I also like how she tells Stan that she doesn't know how her son is doing, not because she doesn't care, but because she can't know because that's the only way she'll be able to move on. This echoes back to what Don told Peggy while visiting her in the hospital—"get out of here and move on. This never happened. It will shock you how much this never happened." Just as Don sometimes seems to be filling Roger's old role, Peggy sometimes seems to be filling Don's.
Meanwhile, as is often the case on Mad Men, Pete Campbell's difficulties mirror Peggy's in this episode. While he technically maintains some presence in his daughter's life, she isn't getting into Greenwich Country Day in part because she can't properly draw a picture of a man, and even when Pete comes back to his former home in Cos Cob, he insists on leaving before Tammy gets back from the park. It's no wonder she can't draw a man—Pete would rather save the Seacor Laxative account than his relationship with his own daughter.
So will "Time & Life" quiet some of the negative chatter surrounding this final half-season of Mad Men? I still have no idea how the series will end (and that's good, I prefer it that way), but this was the first episode of the final seven where I feel like Weiner and the other writers can't be accused of wheel-spinning and focusing on the "wrong" characters. They've given us a major plot point and at least suggested new directions for many of the show's main characters; while, at the same time, making it feel like things are starting to wind down. Only three episodes to go. Lets see how it all plays out.
Other Thoughts:
- I liked how in the final scene the partners were completely ignored in the office meeting after they announce that they'll be moving in with McCann. Don and Roger used to command so much authority, now nobody really bothers paying attention. Don tries to sell the move as a new beginning, but nobody's really buying that. They all know it's the end.
- "Greenwich, Connecticut is built on divorce!" I don't know if that makes it into the pantheon of great Pete Campbell quotes, but it's very close.
- I've mentioned this in other reviews, but how many of these characters end the show working in advertising? Peggy says she's going to McCann. Joan is the only partner who doesn't get an account from Jim Hobart. Don looks disillusioned. I could honestly see all of them moving on from advertising completely.
But What's Next?—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 10—The ForecastPosted: April 20, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7 Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
Back in the old days, whenever Don Draper would blow up his life, he would have a plan—or at least he would make it look like he had a plan. Now, Don stares at his apartment building, empty except for a few pieces of patio furniture. It's representative of the blank slate that is his life—the blank slate he has so often craved over the course of the show's run. Yet this time, it seems clear that Don has no plan. While many have commented that Mad Men's previous two episodes have dealt with the idea of "the life not lived," "The Forecast" shifts the show's focus to the future, and just like Don, many of Mad Men's other main characters have no clue what they hope to gain as their lives progress. When Don asks Ted Chaough "what's next?," all Ted can come up with is that he'd like to sign a pharmaceutical company, and when he asks Peggy, she says that she wants to become SC&P's first female creative director. Later in the episode, he asks Sally what she wants to be when she grows up. Her only response is that she wants to eat dinner. As Don tries to probe deeper, the answers only get more murky.
One thing that's becoming increasingly clear is that the people in Don's life are no longer afraid to call him out on things. Last week, Megan called him an aging, sloppy liar. Within the first five minutes of this episode, Melanie, the real estate broker tasked with selling his apartment, tells him that his home reeks of failure and unhappiness. Later, after Mathis completely bombs in a meeting with a client, at least partially because of advice Don gave him, he tells Don that he has no character and that he's only succeeded because he's handsome. And finally, Sally tells him that she just wants to get away so that she won't turn out like him or Betty. What's interesting is that Don seems to actually internalize all of this. Sure, he lashes back at Mathis and fires him. Sure, he grabs Sally's arm and tells her that she's more like him and her mother than she thinks, but you can tell that he's legitimately hurt by both comments. The old Don was Teflon, none of this would have phased him. Yet the new Don takes these comments to heart, probably because he knows, at least on some level, that Megan, Melanie, Mathis, and Sally are all right to criticize him. At the very least, they're not wrong.
Ever since Betty gave Glen a lock of her hair way back in season one, the two have had one of Mad Men's strangest relationships. That relationship reached its apex tonight as Glen actually tried to make a move on Betty. This was, in-part, a reaction to Glen's own uncertain future, as he informs Betty that he's failed out of college and is joining the army (hey, maybe Betty wasn't completely delusional last week when she told Don that people seek her out to share their confidences). And even though Betty ultimately rejects him, it's obvious that she finds some kind of strange pleasure in what's happened. I guess this was an appropriately weird way for one of the show's oddest storylines to conclude.
The other main story tonight centered around Joan, who met a wealthy real estate developer while she was on a business trip in Los Angeles. At first, he appears to be every bit her equal. The two hit things off, and it even looks like he might figure into Joan's own personal-life forecast. However, when she tells him that she has a four-year-old son, he reacts so selfishly that it looks like things will fall apart completely. Joan's been hit from all angles during season seven—whether it be lack of respect at work or in her personal life (remember when Bob Benson proposed to her in "The Strategy," by basically telling her that she wasn't getting any younger?). That's why it definitely seems like a victory—at least for now—when he turns up at SC&P and apologizes. Yet at the end of the day, can we really say that Joan's forecast is any clearer than the rest of the characters?
But ultimately, these final episodes seem to be asking whether there's any chance that Don Draper can actually change. Earlier this week, Todd Vanderwerff wrote a piece for Vox, in which he mentioned that he hopes that the show will conclude with Don approaching some level of self-realization before reverting back to his old ways one last time, much like Tony Soprano did in The Sopranos. While it's still too early to say whether this will be the case, Don does seem to be on a path toward something—at least that's what all his questions about the future and increased level of introspection seem to suggest. He'll keep on chasing it, but what he finds is another question entirely.
Other Thoughts:
- The previous episode ended with Don alone in his empty apartment. This episode ends with Don standing alone, outside his apartment, which has just been sold. He's moving farther and farther away from the person he used to be.
- When Don probes Peggy on what she would like to achieve, she eventually says she would like to produce something meaningful and lasting. Don's response—"You think you can do that through advertising?" Again, this seems to be another example of a character who used to define himself through his work realizing that maybe that work was hollow all along. What are the chances that Don quits advertising by the end of the series?
- To be fair, I'd be grossed out too if I were Sally and both my parents were hitting on my friends.
What If You Never Get Past the Beginning Again?—Mad Men Season 7, Episode 9—New BusinessPosted: April 13, 2015 Filed under: Mad Men Season 7 Recaps, TV | Tags: #MadMen #JonHamm #AMC #MadMenRecaps #MadMenSeason7 Leave a comment
By John Andrew Fraser
We begin with Henry Francis stopping by to literally drink Don's milkshake and we end with a wide shot of Don standing alone in his empty apartment, the one that was once so elegantly decorated by Megan—the one that was supposed to represent a new beginning. "New Business" is a wild, somewhat disjointed episode, similar to, yet very different from "The Runaways" from the first half of this season. Both episodes balance a multitude of characters and storylines, and many of these storylines deal with the characters making rash, impulsive decisions and/or encountering borderline surreal situations.
Last week, I assumed Diana, the waitress from the diner who was reading The 42nd Parallel, would be a one-off character in the same mold as Neve Campbell's mysterious stranger on a plane from season seven's first episode, "Time Zones." But less than ten minutes into "New Business," Diana is back. I had no idea what to make of Don's interactions with Diana in "Severance," and I still find it odd that Matthew Weiner would bring a character like this in with only a handful of episodes to go, but after learning some of Diana's back story, I get the feeling that Don sees a lot of himself in her. They're both from the Midwest, they both abandoned their families (Di's dead daughter even calls back to Don's brother Adam Whitman, who hanged himself in season one after Don rejected him), and they both seem to possess the same world-weary sadness when it comes to life. The main difference between the two is that Diana doesn't want to forget the pain she's caused those she's left behind, while Don in large part refuses to remember. Maybe that's why Diana's around—to make him remember over the course of these final five episodes.
Diana still seems to exist in a kind of half-dream state. She's like a reprieve from the real world for Don, and he needs it in this episode, as his divorce with Megan looks like it's going to get messy. However, the ever-impulsive Don tries to take matters into his own hands by writing Megan a check for $1,000,000. How much cash did Don make from the McCann deal? Maybe he ends up living in some small, rundown apartment with Diana as the series concludes. He certainly seems to be quietly divesting himself of his possessions in this episode. He's paid off Megan and lost a large sum of money in the process and he's definitely going to need some new furniture. I liked how Don told Roger early in the episode that Megan wasn't Jane, yet Megan gave Don almost the exact same speech that Jane must have given Roger when they divorced. She even got to tell Don that he's getting sloppy and old (surely reminding him that he's running out of chances and that eventually age, and death, will catch up with him).
The other prominent storyline this week involved Peggy and Stan dealing with a photographer named Pima Ryan, who was shooting an ad for SC&P. While Pima may have been talented, she was also a con-artist of sorts, coming on to both Peggy and Stan to advance her own work. Was it a coincidence that Peggy told Stan that Pima was in advertising more so than art? Wouldn't you expect Peggy to be the one to argue that advertising is important, that it is art? Maybe Pima's helping her see that there needs to be more in her life than just advertising. Yes, Pima's had a lot of adventures along the way. Yes, her work may have led to fame and notoriety, but Peggy ultimately rejects Pima because she realizes that she (like advertising in general) is insincere. Perhaps I'm reading into this too much, or maybe even if Peggy is starting to come to this realization she'll just be pulled back into the advertising machine like Ken was last week, however, I do think this is something to keep an eye on over the next five weeks.
If last week's big thematic element was "the life not lived," this week seemed to be about looking at the reality of one's life and then desperately trying to turn away from it. Don would rather cut an enormous check than go through more divorce proceedings with Megan. Roger would rather sleep with Marie Calvet than face anything in his personal or work life, and Harry Crane…well lets not even get started on that one. Oddly enough, Pete Campbell, who has had very little screen time this half-season so far has become pretty philosophical. Last week he mentioned how he felt like he was really changing his life in California, but now it just feels like a dream. This week, while on his way to a golf outing with Don, he basically sums up one of the major ideas that Mad Men's been exploring all along—"You think you're going to begin your life over and do it right. But what if you never get past the beginning again?" The carousel keeps spinning, aren't we just bound to get off where we got on?
Other Thoughts:
- Betty only shows up for a minute here, but she's going to get a masters in psychology from Fairfield University. Interesting how the tables seem to have turned since season one when Betty was in therapy. But would you really want Betty as your psychologist?
- We get a Sylvia and Arnold Rosen sighting in the elevator. Arnold seems to be really amused by Don and Diana. If he only knew.
- I love how Roger is kind of haunted by his past in this episode. He can't play golf because Bert Peterson will be there, and Megan basically walks in on him and her mom, but in the end he just doesn't care.
- Harry Crane's indecent proposal was pretty cringe-worthy. Harry will never cease to be a sleaze-ball. Seriously, do people really think Pete is sleazier than Harry at this point?
- I honestly felt bad for Megan in this episode. She seemed like she wanted to make the divorce as civil as possible, but her family just kept dragging her down. You can always count on Marie Calvet to stir the pot.
- "What career? She's a consumer!"—Roger Sterling


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We are active members of a number of organizations dedicated to the adventure and outdoor sports industry. As adventure seekers ourselves, we love what we do. Participation in industry meetings, conventions and expositions allows us to connect with clients and gain insights into the issues and concerns they face. We hope to see you at an upcoming show!
America Outdoors
2019 Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah December 9-12
America Outdoors Association (AOA) is a national trade association established in 1990 with the merger of the Western River Guides Association and the Eastern Professional River Outfitters Association. AOA represents the interests of over 550 professional companies that provide a wide range of outdoor recreation services and outdoor equipment to more than two million Americans each year. Members operate in 43 states and 50 foreign countries. Member companies offer whitewater raft trips, canoeing, kayaking, horseback riding and horsepacking, camping, hiking, fishing trips, bike tours, dude ranches and a variety of other outdoor recreation services.
Idaho Outfitters and Guides
2019 Annual meeting Lewiston, ID December 3-5
The Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association represent the majority of the state's full-time licensed outfitters and guides. Members primarily are small, independently-owned businesses offering guided hunting, fishing, river running, trail riding, hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, snowmobiling and guest ranch trips.
Montana Outfitters & Guides Association
2020 MOGA Winter Convention in Bozeman, MT. January 9 – 11
Montana Outfitters & Guides Association (MOGA) includes more than 200 of Montana's professional licensed outfitters and guides with operations that span the state's regions. With years of experience guiding hunters, fishermen, horseback riders, skiers and snowmobilers, their outfitters will show you the best of Montana.
Dude Rancher's Association
2020 DRA Convention at Alisal Guest Ranch, Solvang, AZ. January 29-Feb 1
The Dude Ranchers' Association (DRA) was formed in 1926 to preserve the special way of life and wonderful environment in which dude ranching takes place. Membership in the association is a rigorous two-year inspection and approval process, to ensure that guests are treated to genuine western hospitality combined with the lodging industry's highest standards.
2020 Annual Convention in Denver, CO. February 4-6
Colorado River Outfitters Association is a trade association representing approximately 50 licensed professional river rafting outfitters who specialize in providing outstanding outdoor adventures for families and individuals of all tastes and capabilities. The organization's mission is to promote rafting in Colorado and provide a reasoned voice on legislative, regulatory and other developments that affect the commercial rafting industry, the health of local rivers and Colorado's tourism economy as a whole.
Phone - 800.615.8418
Fax - 208.748.9433
Lewiston Office Hours
8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. PST
Monday - Friday
Cumberland Office Hours
8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. EST
Monday - Friday


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3 little pigs – the first little pig poem
For her homework my 6 y.o daughter had to write a poem about the first little pig and how he felt about his house and the big bad wolf.
What she came up with was very funny – see what you think!
Ha ha ha I feel safe in my big strong house made of straw.
The big bad wolf is outside trying to get inside my door.
I can hear him huffing and puffing trying to blow down my house.
But I'm not worried as he's no stronger than a mouse.
Hang on? What's happening? My house is starting to fall down!
Oh no, it's all gone wrong. I feel such a clown.
It's all a bit scary Mary. My, that wolf is hairy..
I'll end up as his dinner today.
Oh how I wish I'd built my house another way.
Stone Age Acrostic Poem
For his homework this week my 7 y.o. son had to write a poem about the stone age.
After a bit of brain storming about which words he wanted to use and a little help putting it all together he came up with this fantastic acrostic poem.
I thought it was so good, I just had to blog about it!
As explained on readwritethink.org an acrostic poem "uses the letters in a word to begin each line of the poem. All lines of the poem relate to or describe the main topic word".
Our word was HUNTER.
Hunting Wooly Mammoths to get our dinner.
Using flint spears and axes that we made.
Nearly getting whacked by big tusks as we kill our prey.
The fire cooks the delicious yummy meat.
Eating in our cave wrapped up snug in animal fur.
Recording our lives by painting on the cave walls.
Image on right – "Paul Jamin – Le Mammouth" by Paul Jamin – Salon de 1885. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Wedding gifts poem
A short poem written by my wife regarding wedding gifts (we needed money for a conservatory, so she wrote this for us to politely ask for money instead)…
We hope not to offend
By writing this request
It's wedding gifts we're talking about
As we're unsure what to say for the best
We've got a lovely home full to the brim
More things just won't fit
So a conservatory is what we hope to build
A place for Samuel to play and for us to sit
So if you'd like to contribute to our fund
A huge thank you is what we would say
Looking forward to seeing you in October
We hope you have a fantastic day!
Wedding anniversary poem
This is a wedding anniversary poem that my fantastic wife wrote for her parents (i think it was their 40th anniversary?)…
Life seemed easier in the Sixties
Where two people were destined to meet
Him a Chippy and her a Nurse
A romance started which seemed quite sweet
January 1970 arrived
And the couple said "I do"
A life together they started
And soon their family grew
Their first born, a son, arrived
Followed by a daughter after a few years
Their life was happy and complete
Where they shared their hopes and fears
They had a few parties
They had some fun
He loved fast cars
She loved the sun
They travelled about
Lived here and there
Spain, The States, Wellingborough
Oh, that jet-setting pair!
So 40 years together
Congrats! What's your secret rule or law?
She's got lots of patience
He watches Utd and shouts "FORE"
So here's to many more years
Of fun, happiness and laughter
Keep enjoying yourselves
And live happily ever after


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- Home >
- Power Tools >
- Air Tools, Compressors & Spraying >
- Air Nailers & Staplers >
- Axminster Air T50P 16G Brad Nailer
This medium weight trade-rated nail gun fires 16 gauge T-headed brad nails from 20mm to 50mm in length. With its low air consumption, this nailer can be used with any of the smaller 25 litre capacity compressors. It can be used with standard trigger firing or in bump mode where, with the trigger engaged, a nail is delivered each time the safety stop is depressed, useful for fast fixing. The gun is easy to load and the handle has a high grip rubber covering. An adjustable exhaust air outlet means that the exhaust can be directed to where convenient. A 1/4" BSP quick release male bayonet fitting is provided in the back of the tool for direct connection to the airline. Details of suitable airlines and fittings can be found in the Air Hose section. Supplied in a plastic storage case.
|Air Consumption
|4.5 cfm / 127.4 l/m
|Load Capacity
|100 nails
|Nett Weight
|2.1 kg
|Operating Pressure
|70 to 120 psi / 4.8 to 8.3 bar


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New 2020 ToyotaCorolla SE Sedan
- Stock: T90031
9 views in the past 7 days
Disclaimer: The advertised price does not include sales tax, vehicle registration fees, finance charges, and any other fees required by law. Price excludes $300 documentation fee.
- Fuel Economy
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Toyota Corolla
Included Packages & Accessories
- Special Color
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- 2.0L 4-cyl DOHC 16-Valve Dual VVT-i, CVT
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- Toyota Safety Sense 2.0: Pre-Collision Sys w/Pedestrian Detection, Full-Speed Range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alert w/Steering Assist, Lane Tracing Assist, Automatic High Beams, Road Sign Assist
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When superstorm Sandy surged into the East Coast, New Jersey Transit suffered $120 million in damage — because they had inexplicably not moved trains from the flood zone. Nobody responsible has been fired. And now the agency has declared their hurricane planning a State secret:
What NJ Transit did to prepare for Sandy remains largely secret. The agency that operates bus and light-rail and commuter rail services declined to release its strategy when requested under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act. When asked for communications regarding Sandy preparations, NJ Transit released a 3½-page "Rail Operations Hurricane Plan" that was stripped of all information except for the title.
Agency spokesman John Durso Jr. said that detailing the agency's storm preparation plans would create a security risk.
"Recent events including the uncovering of an al-Qaida-led terrorist plot targeting rail service reinforces why NJ Transit will not disclose sensitive information that could potentially undermine the security of our transit infrastructure, our customers or our employees," Durso wrote in an email last week.
Apparently, NJT would have us believe that al-Qaida can control the weather.


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Let's toast the sandwich as it's British Sandwich Week. Sandwiches have come a long way since the Fourth Earl of Sandwich ordered meat between two slices of bread to keep hunger at bay while he continued gambled in 1762. With over 200 varieties of bread available and as many fillings to choose from, the sandwich is a versatile and tasty snack.
First select your loaf. The final sandwich flavour will depend on the bread-filling combination. An intense flavoured filling needs a stronger tasting bread to match it so it won't get overpowered. Brussels pâté or cold beef matches well with wholemeal bread. While subtle vegetarian spreads work well with a white loaf.
The sandwich filling is a matter of personal choice and the variations are endless. Cheese is a universal favourite but can get boring. Try grating it (it does actually make it taste better) or adding salad. Mixing in mayonnaise, capers and olives adds a new dimension.
If you are stuck for filling ideas, visit Sandwich-Recipe.co.uk. With sandwich filling suggestions, ranging from the the Fried Egg and Bacon Buttie to My Best Butty to the Pesto, Avocado and Cheese Sarnie there's something for meat eaters, veggies and kiddies.
A slice of advice
The Federation of Bakers has a detailed section on bread nutrition, broken down into fibre, salt, folic acid, calcium and gluten.
Andrew's blog is devoted to making the perfect cheese sandwich. All you need to know about choosing the right bread, margarine and cheese. Andrew has a set method for arranging the filling to give a satisfying meal - this is no snack.
Open Sandwich is the website of the town of Sandwich, which it seems the Fourth Earl had only a tenuous connection. Brief history of the town, the Earls of Sandwich and the famous Fourth Earl, plus how he and the sandwich itself got their names.