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Camera Calibration Tutorial Preview Render
A preview of the huge, 2 part tutorial coming next week about the Camera Calibration Tool in C4D R14. I will even try a bit of modeling in this one to build out the scene for the projection. It's the first time learning a bit about modeling, so this should be an interesting one. The tutorial should be out early next week. But, as always, try to make it yourself before the tutorial is out. Even a small part of it. It's a great exercise. Until then, have a good weekend!
That's looking awesome, Nick!
Holly Wow!
Great wish to access this professionalism
Can't wait :))) Just amazing like always Nick .
I like the mirror up in the corner. Nice touch!
I like that detail too 🙂
I like the mirror, but the placement of it in the scene doesn't make sense to me :/ Can't argue too much w a fresh looking set, though 🙂
Splendid Nick, i wish you can make more tuts of C4D with AE.
I dont think you have the slightest bit of idea how this community you've built here is thankfull for all your time and effort.
So one more time from me as well;
Thank you nick.
Is this similar to the VIMEO railroad track motion tracking project you did a while back?
I think it might be, when I watched this I just had the biggest feeling of deja vu. Nonetheless, really looking forward to this!
As usual your graphics look sweet!
I'd do the motion of gates going up a bit more detailed though (some jolt and jiggle at the start/end) … looks unrealistic, compared to the picture (=
something is strange: Why are orange balls not much more numberous ? 🙂
DOne something very similar
not at all similar!!
im sure balls appear from the phones screen…
hai friends,
watch photoshop glossy logo tutorial here
good tutorial manu! thumbs up! [:-)]
looking great 😀
Ok another tutorial again. I cant wait to try it. Your awesome Nick!
Wow! Thanks a lot guys, every time I wonder how to make something you come out with the perfect tutorial for that!
not as refined as nicks render, but enjoyed tinkering this afternoon
as usual, lightwave and after effects
nice try!!
Wow ,So nice to see the new one ! and so bad because i do not have R14 !? Is there any simulation or trick on R13 to make camera Calibration?
Camera Calibration in R14 is very similar to Arndt von Koenigsmarck's Photo Match which is available for R13: http://www.vonkoenigsmarck.de/blog/?p=127
Not cheap, but more features than CC.
Great tutorial…
yet another feature along with sculpting not available in the Broadcast version 🙁
Your style is very unique compared to other folks I've read stuff from. I appreciate you for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I'll just book mark this page.


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Pastor's Corner April 22, 2018
Today is Earth Day on our secular calendar and it is Festival of God's Creation on our United Methodist Church calendar. It is a day to pause and appreciate Creation. It is a day to commit to actions which will care for Creation.
While there are political implications, at the heart of it, caring for our environment is a faith issue. One thing I take away from the creation accounts in Genesis is that God masterfully created this planet in such a way that it can create and sustain life, our life. Slight nuances and changes in the rhythms and patterns of this world have significant impact. God has given us this planet as a gift that we are responsible to take care of. And our actions have a positive or negative impact on creation. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't have the opportunity to hike on mountain trails, sit on the shore of a lake, walk along the beach searching for sea shells, or hear the birds sing and enjoy the flowers blooms.
So our faith and these holidays compel us to grow in our care of creation. The focus of Earth Day this year is to reduce plastic pollution. Plastic is an amazing invention. Plastic is so useful and has made our lives much easier! However, plastic is difficult to break down and so once it is created, it sticks around in our environment for a lifetime. Studies say only about 20% of plastic is recycled or incinerated. That leaves 80% of our plastic items in our landfills and our environment. I read an article earlier this year that said the plastic microbeads we most commonly find in our skin care products don't disintegrate, they remain in our water system and ultimately end up in the bellies of fish. That has caused me to re-think what skin-care products I use. We each make choices every day that impact our environment. Our actions do make a difference. I encourage you to find one way you can reduce plastic pollution.
- How can we reduce our use of single-use plastic such as straws, water bottles, plastic silverware, and cotton swabs with plastic sticks?
- How can we use our consumer dollar to protect the environment and reduce use of plastic?
- How can we package our food in ways that use less plastic?
- How can we recycle the plastic products we do use?
- How can you participate in political activism around issues of plastic pollution?
If you want to learn more about plastic pollution and what we can do about it, visit earthday.org.
Walking on the path of grace,
Pastor Patti
Pastor's Corner April 15, 2018
The Power for Living
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." Acts 1:8
When the Holy Spirit showed up with power in Acts 2, it's unlikely many of those present in Jerusalem had any idea the magnitude of what was in store. They were recovering from the trauma of Jesus' death and resurrection. They were trying to follow in his way. They had the Law to guide them. And they were doing their best to remember what Jesus had taught them. And Jesus promised them they would not be alone, in fact he promised that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. That same Holy Spirit who enlivened them on the day of Pentecost is still active in the world today!
Following in the way of Jesus is difficult. We can't do it in our own strength. We need help. We are not alone. We have one another. And that is a great support. But in addition, we have divine help available to us in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us power to live the life of faith.
Way back in the beginning, the Bible teaches us the Creator took mud and breathed into it the breath of life. And human beings were formed. That Holy Spirit is life. The Holy Spirit is movement. The Holy Spirit is power.
Max Lucado shares about the time he wanted to learn how to dance. He went to the library and checked out a book on dancing. He read it. He memorized the diagrams. He learned the rules. He laid out a pattern on the floor and taught himself to dance. When he felt confident, he invited his wife to dance with him. As you can imagine, when he asked her what she thought, she said, "Dancing with you is like dancing with a robot!" She told him to relax, to listen to the music and let the music lead him. When he let the music enliven him, then they danced, they really danced.
When we attempt to live on our own power, we are living like a robot. When we listen to the music and let the music lead us, we can dance through life. The music is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlivens us. The Holy Spirit guides us. The Holy Spirit disrupts us.
For the next six weeks, we will be exploring how the Holy Spirit empowers, shapes, transforms, and disrupts us.
I encourage you to begin each day by opening your spirit to the Holy Spirit. Seek to listen to the music of God and see how it enlivens your steps each day. The Holy Spirit is active in our world, often beyond our awareness. Let's seek to connect with the Holy Spirit together and see how God empowers, guides, transforms, and disrupts us.
Walking on the path of grace,
Pastor Patti
Pastor's Corner April 8, 2018
Seven years ago, I was a leader for two youth mission trips in southeast Tennessee and southern North Carolina. While cleaning out a garage, we discovered almost 20 years' worth of LIFE Magazine issues in mint condition. We carefully spread out all the magazines and arranged them chronologically, beginning in the late 50s all through the mid 70s. The issues covered our workspace with history. One of the other adult leaders was a history teacher, and the youth gathered around her as we flipped through history in a way none of us had experienced. Getting to hold issues sharing pictures of walking on the moon and the Vietnam War and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination brought a new understanding and respect to my life. I also became intrigued by the fact that we were in the backyard of this history: smack dab in the middle of the Jim Crow South. That was something I had not spent much time thinking about before. What were the thoughts of the owners while reading these issues? How did this town react?
Pastor Sami
Pastor's Corner March 25, 2018
At the beginning of the week, I was asked to write a bit about my thoughts on Holy Week. As we reflect on the Passion during this week, Jesus challenged us with his example of love and sacrifice. We remember that Jesus was our savior and paid the ultimate price to forgive our sins. What we often overlook is that Jesus also was a progressive advocate for social justice. Here is a brief article from the United Methodist Church website regarding the mission of social justice.
"Advocating for Justice
The United Methodist Church has a long history of concern for social justice. Wesley and the early Methodists expressed their opposition to societal ills such as slavery, smuggling, inhumane prison conditions, alcohol abuse, and child labor.
We believe that salvation entails renewal of both individuals and the world. Our faithful response to God's saving grace has both a personal and social dimension as we grow in "holiness of heart and life." By practicing spiritual disciplines — "works of piety" such as prayer, Bible study, participation in corporate worship and communion — we grow and mature in our love for God. By engaging in acts of compassion and justice — "works of mercy" such as visiting the sick and those in prison, feeding the hungry, advocating for the poor and marginalized — we live out our love for God through service to our neighbor. "Our love of God is always linked with love of our neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the world" (Book of Discipline 2012, p. 51).
Just as our own discipleship occurs both at a personal and communal level, our work in the world extends beyond helping individuals to transforming the conditions that create injustice and inequality: "it is our conviction that the good news of the Kingdom must judge, redeem, and reform the sinful social structures of our time" (Book of Discipline 2012, p. 53).
Our Social Principles are the church's prayerful and thoughtful attempt to speak to contemporary issues through a biblical and theological lens, seeking "to apply the Christian vision of righteousness to social, economic, and political issues" (Book of Discipline 2012, p. 53).
As the agency tasked specifically to assist The United Methodist Church's work of advocacy, The United Methodist Board of Church and Society works to provide "witness and action on issues of human well-being, justice, peace" through research, education and training."
The Passion of Jesus Christ reminds us that we are not only called to ministry to spread the Good Word but also to challenge social injustice and inequality. I hope this week finds you well.
-Matt Hankins

subset: commoncrawl


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|In the spring of 2008, Bob "Jigger" Mann had set out to pre-fish on the Detroit River to prep for a big tournament. Though he had experienced a lot of motor trouble earlier in the year he felt confident that it had been repaired as the boat ran smoothly for a couple of miles. His confidence building, he ventured out seven more miles down the river.
|Then suddenly his motor shut down. At 8:30 pm it was already getting dark and chilly. All he had was his trolling motor. Powering his trolling motor at 80%, he slowly began making his way back against the current, crossing over from the American side of the Detroit River to Windsor Marina in Ontario.
One hour and fifteen minutes later, the very cold and upset fisherman pulled into the familiar marina where he was met by the Windsor Police and the Canadian Coast Guard, who had received a report that his boat had broken down and may need help. Wrapped in a warm blanket and relieved to be back on land, he related his story to the authorities. At the end of his story, they all wanted to know: what batteries did he have on his boat that would bring him back so far and still have power? "Trojan," Mann told them. They all nodded. "That's why you made it back," they said.


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Thursday, May 31, 2012
Diary of a Lost Girl
Diary of a Lost Girl, the second of Georg Wilhelm Pabst's productive collaborations with Louise Brooks, is a potent and gorgeously stylized depiction of an innocent young woman's destruction at the hands of the not-so-innocent. Brooks plays Thymian, a beautiful and sheltered pharmacist's daughter whose dawning realization about the cruel ways of the world coincides with the loss of the security of her family. The opening of the film enacts a lurid symbolic struggle between innocence and sin, naïveté and knowledge. Brooks' Thymian, dressed all in white on the occasion of her confirmation, her eyes wide beneath the iconic ridge of her dark bangs, looks around her with a complete lack of guile, sweetly accepting presents from family and friends, glowing with courtesy and grace.
She seems entirely unaware of all the sexually charged glances being exchanged all around her: the exaggerated leer of her father's assistant Meinert (Fritz Rasp) who all but licks his lips and bulges his eyes like a cartoon wolf when he looks at her; her father's (Josef Rovensky) sexual liaisons with one maid after another; her aunt's (Vera Pawlowa) grim knowledge of these constant affairs; the knowing glances and raised eyebrows of the party guests when they see the new maid Meta (Franziska Kinz), who brazenly stares at her employer with an invitingly wicked smile that openly suggests that the cycle is going to start again. Everyone but Thymian seems to know exactly what's going on, but she is blissfully unaware of the sexual drama surrounding her.
In her pure white confirmation dress, a band of flowers wrapped around her head, she's a vision of innocence so pure and unstained that the mere realization that sin and sexual predation exist in her household produces a fainting spell, confining her to bed as though she's taken ill. She sees the corpse of her beloved maid — who'd committed suicide after being abandoned by Thymian's father — then runs up the stairs in a daze, sees her father with his arm already around the new maid, both of them staring at the camera in a frozen pose, a sly smile on the face of the new maid in contrast to the serene blankness of the dead girl downstairs, and in one fluid motion Thymian swoons to the floor, overcome by the taint of impurity infiltrating her home.
This is only the beginning of Thymian's suffering, as Meinert takes advantage of her vulnerability and rapes her. Pabst freezes the frame at the moment when the creepy druggist lowers Thymian's limp form into bed, and then immediately cuts to a baby carriage being taken out of Thymian's room, months later, carrying the fruit of that forceful union. Thymian's family casts her out, and she's sent to a reformatory, which she soon escapes with her friend Erika (Edith Meinhard), only to fall into a life of prostitution. The man she believes is going to save her, the disgraced and disinherited Count Osdorff (André Roanne), is actually a lazy and pathetic outcast who settles easily into a life of comfort at the brothel with Thymian and Erika. Pabst, though, doesn't portray the brothel as an entirely unpleasant life; the girls have fun and like each other, and Thymian certainly seems happier and better off there than she was under the care of the strict Christian moralists at the reformatory.
The reformatory is run by a stern mistress (Valeska Gert) whose usually stony face betrays an expression of ecstatic joy when whipping the girls through a frenzied gymnastics routine, and a bald-headed, looming movie monster giant (Andrews Engelmann) who first pops comically into the frame by standing up in front of a sign listing the many things that are "verboten" in this dismal place. This cartoonish giant delights in punishing the girls, grabbing them with a clawed hand at the scruff of their neck as though picking up a disobedient puppy, and his leering sadism is both creepy and hysterical — particularly when he runs a confiscated tube of lipstick across his own mouth, grinning impishly, then uses it to write a reminder to punish the girl he'd taken it from, a note signed with a heart to indicate his sadistic love of punishment.
Lesbian eroticism is another obvious subtext here, especially in the reformatory, where most of the girls have clipped, close-cropped boyish haircuts, and Erika introduces herself to Thymian by surreptitiously touching the new girl's leg with her foot and winking at her, echoing Meinert's leering winks. At bedtime, as Pabst pans down the line of girls getting ready for bed, two girls sit in the same bunk, giggling, and fall back into bed together. The scene where the matron tries to seize Thymian's diary is also loaded with suggestive intimacy, with the stern woman grabbing at Erika's bare legs, looking up at the two girls sitting in the top bunk, grasping at them with clawed hands. Later, when Thymian visits Erika at the brothel where she's staying, Pabst emphasizes the brothel's madame putting an intimate hand on the bare back of one of her girls — the gesture is repeated when the madame pushes Thymian together with a male client to dance — and then has Erika kneel before Thymian, taking off her shoes and undressing her, unbuttoning her demure reformatory blouse with its high collar to expose a V of flesh at her neck.
The film is steeped in this kind of sexual suggestiveness. Thymian's downfall has everything to do with sex and money, and sex and money come to be linked in very intimate ways for her. After her first night at the brothel, after she's spent the night with a man — swooning in his arms so that her limp form very much recalls her unconsciousness during Meinert's exploitation of her — the madame hands her an envelope of cash and makes it clear that it's from the man. Only then does the very naïve Thymian realize what's happened, and she recoils from the cash, which Pabst nevertheless emphasizes in a closeup. Much later, when her father dies and she receives an inheritance from Meinert for buying out the pharmacy, the camera glances from the pile of cash to Meinert's smug, cartoonishly grinning face, making it seem as though this too is a transaction, a belated payment for that long ago night when he'd taken her to bed.
It's not all grim tragedy here, though, and there's some limited comedy relief along the way. Among the humorous scenes is a very strange sequence where a goofy guy with a billy-goat beard (a possible anti-Semitic caricature) comes to see Thymian for "dance lessons," and she leads him in a bizarre calisthenic workout inspired by her reformatory exercise drills, while holding a drum protectively/suggestively over her crotch and beating it with a mallet in the way the reformatory mistress had done. The sexual symbolism is especially naked here, but those undercurrents are everywhere in this film.
The plot unravels a bit towards the end with a predictable tonal shift towards an optimistic, redemptive conclusion, seemingly foisted upon Pabst by censors eager to end on a positive note after all this barely coded sex. Even here, though, Pabst's emotional poetry shines through. The film is never less than beautiful, its style fluid and expressionist while also remaining grounded in social realism. And Brooks is just magnificent, with a beautiful and vibrant face that was perfectly suited to the silent cinema. When she smiles, the screen glows, and when she's suffering her eyes seem to contain unimaginable depths of feeling, often assisted by Pabst's very sympathetic photography of her, as in the stunning shot where she stares out a rain-streaked window, the raindrops on the glass standing in for her tears.
4 comments:
- Jon said...
Nice essay Ed and you capture the sexuality of the film perfectly. It's loaded with "sex". I think this film tops Pandora's Box actually. I think Brooks gives her best performance in this film and overall it just plays better than Pandora's Box, IMO. Nice work sir.
- May 31, 2012 at 8:06 AM
- Ed Howard said...
Thanks, Jon. I may like this slightly more than Pandora's Box as well, though both are excellent and both are pretty much carried by Brooks. But Brooks is perhaps a bit better here, delivering an absolutely stunning performance.
- May 31, 2012 at 8:59 AM
- DavidEhrenstein said...
In many ways it's the opposite of Pandora's Box. Lulu is a seductress but Innocent" in demeanor Thyamin is genuinely innocent.
And Brooks is great in both roles.
- May 31, 2012 at 5:26 PM
- Ed Howard said...
Good point, David, the 2 performances are subtly different but both riff on the innocent/sexy dichotomy in Brooks. In this film, she's sexy without even really realizing it, whereas in Pandora's Box she's much more knowing.
- June 1, 2012 at 10:26 AM


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Varying versions of an interesting quote attributed to Mark Twain:
Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
– Mark Twain
Thanks to harveyavatar for sharing this. The awesome quote goes really well with the theme of this website (and the header image concept above).


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Civil War Era Shipwreck May Yield Fortune In Gold
If you ask people about a luxury ocean liner that sank on her maiden voyage, the name that would come to mind for most people would be the Titanic. Yet over fifty years earlier there was another ocean liner, billed as the largest and most luxurious on the seas, which left Galway, Ireland in September of 1860 with 50 first class passengers, 417 in steerage and a crew of 125. The ship made its first stop in St. John's, Newfoundland, but never made it to its final destination in Boston. In her holds were 10,000 sovereign gold coins, potentially worth millions, plus the accumulated wealth of her first class passengers.
Built for the Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., the SS Connaught was a 380 foot, 2,959 ton iron monster powered through the water by two side-mounted, steam-driven paddle wheels. In the annals of history, the largely forgotten story of the SS Connaught is actually one of heroism and one of the most daring rescues at sea in the history of mankind traveling on the water.
On the 8th of October, 1860, the ship was caught in a sudden storm just one hundred miles from Boston. Side-mounted paddle wheel steamers weren't the most stable ships in rough waters and the Connaught sprang a leak. Passengers joined with the crew to try and save the ship and, by joint effort, they managed to bring the leak under control. But that heroic effort was soon doomed by a fire that had broken out below decks during the confusion. Smoke and flame quickly filled the lower decks, forcing passengers and crew out onto the open deck with no time to retrieve the gold or any of the passengers' valuables.
The fire continued to rage below decks and survivors would later claim the hull got so hot that ocean waves would boil on contact with the metal sides of the ship. The captain ordered everyone into the lifeboats but the violent storm quickly smashed those against the scalding sides of the metal hull. Just when it looked like the passengers and crew were doomed, a tiny fruit freighter, the Minni Schiffer and her Captain, John Wilson, appeared out of the gloom.
In a feat of heroism that gets far too little attention in history, Captain Wilson brought the Minni Schiffer alongside the Connaught and threw lines over and, in the midst of tossing, stormy seas, both crews worked in the dark to transfer the women and children over to the smaller ship. Once finished they transferred the male passengers and then the crew. Amazingly, all 591 people aboard the Connaught were transferred to the smaller ship without a single loss of life.
The captain of the Connaught was the last person to leave the ship and, just a few minutes later, passengers and crew watched the big ship pitch over and sink in a 1,000 feet of water taking her treasure of gold down to the bottom. There were so many people on board the Minni Schiffer that they crowded every inch of available deck space and a few even had to hang on to the rigging above the pitching deck of the small ship for the white-knuckle, nighttime journey to Boston Harbor.
Fast-forward 152 years, and in 2012 the Endurance Exploration Group discovered the shipwreck, repeatedly fouled and dragged by fishing nets, some of which still cover the wreck. Some sections of netting stretch hundreds of feet from the ship. Parts of the stern, where the gold was held, have been collapsed by net impacts. The Endurance Group's next series of dives on the wreck will be with a special net-cutting underwater robot in an effort to clear the ship for salvage.
Largely because there was no loss of life, the story of the Connaught's sinking, the heroic rescue of her passengers and crew and the mysterious disappearance of the shipwreck and treasure was lost to history, overshadowed by the start of the Civil War just a year later. While this tale of heroism on a genuinely epic scale may have faded, the gold treasure hidden in the wreck still shines and represents a fortune, even by today's standards.
Will Granderson is a regular columnist for Goldco Precious Metals writing on finance, precious metals, and gold as an investment and in popular culture.
Please click for more information about setting up your own Gold IRA or Silver IRA.


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For traditional media companies savaged by sharp-eyed digital natives, the problem seems to be all about new channels and low costs. But it is so much more: the technologies that have revolutionised the supply of information have also fundamentally altered the appetites and attitudes of consumers.
That explains why so many readers are now satisfied with bite-sized reading from free newspapers, Twitter feeds, Google Alerts, and online digests, where once only a single-source, long-read seemed enough.
This change in 'information appetite' is evident even in high-value reference data. Professionals in law, finance and medicine frequently settle for information that is second-best or "good enough" because it is delivered conveniently (often through Google). This emphasis on functionality and the power of online search underlines the deteriorating prospects for traditional media which fails to understand the impact of the technologies that are rattling their windows and doors.
It is easy to accept that digital media success depends on the three Cs: Content, Community and Commerce. Traditional media has customarily believed it is mostly, if not exclusively, about content. But Community and Commerce are crucial engagement with digital audiences. Then, there's the changing nature of content itself. Traditional media struggles to accommodate one-stop aggregation – the range of non-proprietary content including 'citizen journalism', user generated, and content marketing that highlights the technology-driven, changing appetite of media consumers.
This shift in audience attitude is pervasive. Look at the change in business-to-business media – the publishing, online services and events for people whose profits and professional success depend on them.
Time was when B2B media companies operated in a discreet world where the ability to 'own' whole sectors of business news, information and targeted advertising helped to deliver the best media-industry margins. And its readers were the first to be web-connected. That made many B2B publishers a pretty complacent bunch, who contrasted their claimed "need to know" information with the "nice to know" of their more glamorous (but frequently less profitable) consumer magazine counterparts.
However, that cosy world was swept away by new competition – and by the changed appetites of readers.
Information-rich and digital-savvy companies as diverse as management consultants, market researchers, recruiters and investment banks started to see the opportunities for selling business data and reports to their clients. Many spotted the gaps for "must have" information ahead of the magazine-centric companies which had been lulled by the decades-long advertising boom into filling their pages with low-cost news rather than original data. Then, all but the very best B2B magazines found their revenues squeezed: the uniqueness of their narrowcast "news" content was blown away by Google and digital aggregators.
Paying readers fell away as did many magazines which had once been super-profitable on the back of free 'controlled circulation' funded by advertising. In the UK, for example, once-bloated business weeklies were decimated by the loss of recruitment advertising. Like newspapers, whose whole profitability depended on classified advertising, B2B publishers were exposed by the swing to digital – and the changing needs of readers and advertisers.
Companies like Reed Elsevier, once the world's leading publisher of business and professional magazines, all but abandoned print and sought refuge in online information for which readers would pay. Even then, the rising costs of building data into customers' own workflow systems showed that engagement mattered as much as the information itself in a web world of cloned-content and fragile copyright. And, as elsewhere, the large B2B companies found their economies of scale savaged by low-cost technologies – and agile, new competitors. Again, the content itself was just not enough.
And, now, these traditional companies are losing their grip on the whole media market. Suddenly, the human face of digital – social networking – is all-important. Advertisers whose marketing was formerly built round campaigns in B2B magazines or trade exhibitions, realise now that the technology has pushed them into the media business and created the need for 'always on' content strategies for customers using online communities to research solutions and stay informed.
It is a mirror of the threat posed to consumer media groups by, for example, retailers which realise that they too need to be in 'media'. Social networking and ecommerce strategies are turning the customers of traditional media into its competitors.
But that's only a fraction of the problem.
The real 21st century media challenges are the social networks themselves. Having built powerful marketplaces for consumers and business people, Facebook and LinkedIn are now becoming major providers of content. Traditional media groups will increasingly find their power and profits squeezed by a pincer movement of their own customers (readers and advertisers) and the social networks. Nowhere is this threat clearer than in B2B media.
Ten years ago, as B2B publishers scrambled to profit from the resilience of trade exhibitions or information that really was "need to know", few could have seen the significance of the 2003 launch of LinkedIn. Today, it has revenues of some $1.5bn (growing at 50% per year), makes 25% profit margins, and has 238 million users in 200 countries and 20 languages. It even has 3million users in China. It has a market value equivalent to Groupon, Twitter and Zynga combined – and almost one-third of the mighty Facebook. LinkedIn has grown rich from recruitment companies whose researches mostly start at its database of CVs. But now it's much more.
Publishers everywhere covered the October 2012 launch of its "150 thought leaders and influencers", with blogs by such luminaries as Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Pete Cashmore. Talk of "the ability to follow thought leaders" was side-stepping the real point about that unrivalled list of contributors. In truth, it marked LinkedIn's arrival in the mainstream content business. Arguably for the first time, it gave users: a daily reason to visit; content to share on Twitter and other networks; and differentiated, original reading matter.
In short, LinkedIn has become a publisher and is achieving huge increases in usage. By June this year, the company said its home page traffic had doubled, while year-round revenues had increased by 59% and membership (subscription) revenues by 37%. Crucially, advertising which accounts for some 25% of LinkedIn's revenue (85% of Facebook's) jumped by 36% to $5.6m in the second quarter of 2013.
It's a business on fire with its sights on the profits made by business and professional media across the world. LinkedIn is well armed for the war: some 50% of its members are "decision-makers". While average users spend just 20 minutes per month on the site (compared with 7 hours on Facebook), LinkedIn generates revenue of $16.40 for every hour spent, compared with Facebook's $0.70.
The advertising growth is expected to step-up rapidly with the start of Sponsored Updates for the 3million companies with profiles on the site. The inevitable and growing competition with Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (each are trying to grow their professional status, while LinkedIn is expanding into content and launching new social feeds) cannot disguise the way that it is transforming the B2B market.
LinkedIn may be the game changer for traditional B2B media companies that YouTube is for television broadcasters. And the new challenge of monetizing social networking audiences makes the competition equally formidable for the legacy companies.
While LinkedIn is booming, new single-sector clones like those in education (EdWeb and TES Connect), IT (Spiceworks and IT Central Station), medical (Doximity), public service (Gov Loop), regulated industries (IdeaPlane), and travel (Connecting Travel) are sprouting in the US and UK. The best of these vertical networks will be able to co-exist with the over-arching LinkedIn. But they also point the way to a new B2B media market focused on peer-to-peer relationships and companies embedded in the sectors they serve. It is easy to predict, in B2B as elsewhere in media, that the long-term winners will divide between the largest, best-resourced companies (eg LinkedIn) and also the small, 'hyper-local', narrow-cast specialists.
This is well illustrated by the success of a UK-based company which is making waves across an international market of professionals once known primarily as 'purchasing directors'.
The privately-owned Sigaria was founded in 2004 by Alex Martinez to create the Procurement Leaders Network as "a global membership network serving major corporations and procurement, sourcing and supply chain executives." It provides independent intelligence, professional development and peer-to-peer networking through online, events, publishing and training.
The business has an international client base of some 600 leading companies with 14,500 members and hundreds of thousands of senior executives accessing online news and services each year. It is the classic winning formula of a small company which is thinking big, because it employs just 65 people – spread across offices in the UK, US, and India – and has a turnover of under £10m.
CEO Martinez is as tightly focused as his business: "Our model is not unique. However, it was our early decision to forgo short-term profits and, instead, look to the long-term value of positioning our audience at the centre of everything we did that gave us the strong foundation we enjoy today. Subsequently, each of the services we launched was rigorously discussed, tested and measured with our audience to ensure they provided real value. Historically, I have been amazed at how few publishers (large and small) follow a customer-centric approach…In the search for profits, many have overlooked the value of establishing a proper position of trust and confidence, something which is fundamental in people's willingness to commit to a long-term relationship – and pay a premium price."
The inspired company also exploits the rising importance of procurement in international companies which have realised that these functions can
be the key to strategic supplier relationships, production security, reputation, and risk management. Procurement directors, many of whom are now to be found on the boards of major corporations, are increasingly important to product and process innovation through their detailed understanding of supplier and customer companies. So, the Network has been able to meet the growing need for information and inspiration among a group of people finding their voice, sense of identity and value in organisations across the world.
Martinez got the idea while working for a recruitment software company 15 years ago, during the crazy times of the first dot-com boom. He found himself selling to purchasing departments and realised that these executives were often the unsung heroes, seen as the difficult people who pared down budgets and struck fear into the hearts of visiting sales people. But, all their hard work found its way straight to the bottom line.
Martinez and his co-founders (none of whom had previous experience either in media or purchasing) set out to extract and centralise the knowledge from among the best minds in procurement and share the insights with a wider group via the whole range of platforms. They quickly discovered how readily even highly-competitive companies would share information in order to get something valuable (other people's data) in return.
Today, the Procurement Leaders Network is a flourishing international business combining activities in Europe, the USA and Asia, a membership group, an on-line network, conferences, training, and an award-winning magazine. The business, 50% of whose revenue is subscriptions, is growing strongly on the back of its unique database – intellectual property provided (and constantly updated) by the community itself. And Network members, once the unsung heroes, have become its best ambassadors. They say the events make them feel like members of a club.
Alex Martinez is passionate about his members and their "mission". Colleagues say he constantly meets customers and key prospects and is forever monitoring customer sentiment using structured surveys and feedback from all touch points. The analytics point him towards an ambitious future ever more deeply involved in the business of his members and their millions of suppliers.
25 March 2016 update on LinkedIn from Financial Times:
"LinkedIn may be best known as a place for users to swap furtive notes with recruiters and spy on former colleagues.But Jeff Weiner, chief executive of the professional social network, has loftier ambitions of conceptualising the site as an "economic graph". He wants to digitally map the global economy with online profiles for every worker, pages for each company, listings for all the vacancies in the world and even recording the skills required for the available jobs. But the past few weeks have shown that the professional social network is not simply an economy-watcher, tracking changes from the sidelines. Instead, its fortunes may be more dependent on the jobs market than analysts had anticipated, as 62% of LinkedIn's revenues come from recruiters.
"Shares have fallen more than 40% since Steven Sordello, the company's chief financial officer, warned about slowing growth at the so-called "talent solutions business", which sells subscriptions to companies hunting for potential hires.The stock dropped at a tough time for social media companies, but while Twitter and Facebook have recovered much of their losses, LinkedIn has not. Mr Sordello said sales to large enterprise customers were set to grow in the mid-20% in 2016, down from about 30% year-on-year growth in 2015." (FT.com)


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Oh, oh... Looks like trouble is coming our way... Can't tell yet if they're friendlies or Sacha Baron Cohen and his film crew??? Anyway, it was nice interacting with y'all again... Just a few tidbits to leave you with before I go... "Kepi blanc" is the nickname for a Legionnaire... It simply means "white kepi" in English... Some Hollywood flicks, such as "Two Mules for Sister Sara," feature the Foreign Legion in Mexico in the 1860's. That was a time when the French ruled in Mexico and the Legion was there to enforce French rule. Anyway, the movie mentioned above, for example, regard the Legion in Mexico as bad guys... Clint Eastwood versus the French Foreign Legion... But to the French, they were heroes. The Foreign Legion had their "Alamo" in Mexico at the Battle of Camerone on April 30, 1863, where 65 Legionnaires fought c. 2,000 Mexican soldiers. It's still a very big deal with the Legion and they commemorate the battle every year on Camerone Day: http://foreignlegion.info/battle-of-camerone/ Of course, the Mexicans have a different take on the battle... Anyway, still can't tell if it's Sacha Baron Cohen and his entourage or the real thing heading at us... Can any of you tell from the photo below? BTW, there's a different "Sister Sara" here - Sarah P. - who'd love to run her bayonet through Baron Cohen... Oh well... Duty calls, mes amis, and I bid you all adieu...
Will do. Along with Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Ronald Coleman, Alan Ladd, Leslie Nielsen (Yes!), Phil Silvers, Nat King Cole (Yes, a kepi blanc), and many other Hollywood actors... Anyway, Marty Feldman and the rest of the Legion better get to protecting the message board from all the spam...
Audrey Hepburn Restaurant in China
RMeingast posted a topic in General DiscussionsRelative of Audrey Hepburn is suing a restaurant in Suzhou City, China, for "personality rights infringement." In English, the joint is called "Angel's Lakeview Garden Cafe," but in Chinese characters they use Audrey Hepburn's name. And inside, the greasy chopstick makes use of Audrey Hepburn in its decor, menu, etc. In related news, the Mexican-style Burrito restaurant in the same city, called "We Ain't Got No Stinkin' Tacos," with a "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" decor and menu, has hired a lawyer, just in case... Article about the Hepburn kerfuffle below: https://www.theepochtimes.com/audrey-hepburn-themed-restaurant-in-china-sued-for-rights-infringement-2_2583298.html
Photo attached to my original post in this thread shows me (either on the left or the right, I can't remember?) with an ami and a dame. We're two kepis blancs in the Sahara, get lost, and accidentally discover the lost realm of Atlantis (ruled by Queen Antinea). Basically the plot of G.W. Pabst's film "L'Atlantide" from 1932. Itself a remake of the 1921 silent original by Jacques Feyder, based on the novel by Pierre Benoit... Anyway, this whole thing is a lame attempt at humour - I've been away from the message board for so long, that some might think I ran off and joined the Foreign Legion... Adieu, mes amis...
Haw, haw, haw... Yes, mon ami, you are obviously an older gentleman - as I am - to remember that song... As Maurice Chevalier sang: "Ah yes, I remember it well...". For you young'uns, the tune was released waaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1973 and sung by Maria Muldaur:
Salut, was unaware of Ben M.'s alleged transgression but had a quick gander after reading your post. "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" was a product of its time. Very loosely based on a book by an ex-Lancer officer (the officers and NCOs in the British Indian Army were mostly Brits and the common soldiers they commanded were Indian). Anyway, I think Ben M. can be forgiven. If anything, Ben M. should have related what infamous film reviewer Adolf Hitler said to Lord Halifax (British Foreign Secretary in 1937 at the time of his meeting with Hitler) about the movie (it was one of Hitler's favourites, apparently), Hitler stating that it showed a: "handful of Britons holding a continent in thrall. That was how a superior race must behave and the film was compulsory viewing for the S.S." Would be interesting to see what someone in India thinks of this film? Anyway, that's as far as I'm wading into that... Duty calls, you know...
Oasis in Desert
RMeingast posted a topic in General DiscussionsHowdy All! Just wanted to drop in for a bit so you all can see I'm still alive and tapping the QWERTY... Just been busy with life... My fellow Kepis blancs and I have been taking things a bit easy under the palms at the oasis and were able to catch some TCM on TV this week... Love the new host from Aussieland, Alicia Malone... (The OTHER new host is ok too...) Anyway, as I've said before, TCM is like a beautiful oasis in the desert of crap that is cable TV... Back to the Legion life, mes amis... Hope nobody is a fightin' and a trouble-makin' on the message board...
Yes, never thought of that, Emily. Excellent points... Anyway, me holiday over and back to Neverland go I... May have been too harsh about Ben M. as host. And guest hosts like Warren B. are nice... As to my short time watching TCM again, I have to say it's certainly a welcome oasis in a desert of cable and satellite TV crap... Ciao.
Yes, but unfortunately think Big Jim McBob is retired and Billy Sol Hurok has passed away: You can watch their celebrity interviewing skills here with a youngish Meryl Streep (Catherine O'Hara):
Thanks Lawrence... Robin Bittman is still doing voiceovers for the promos for the Wine Club, TCM Backlot, etc. TCM went with wordless schedules so she doesn't do the continuity stuff anymore announcing movies coming up next, etc. In the article - https://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2015/12/02/voice-actress-robin-bittman-talks-about-being-the-voice-behind-tcm/ - she states she'd like to try being an on-air host. TCM bigwigs chose to cut her work back to save some dough, but IMHO, they should have cut some/all of the various on-air hosts and expanded Robin's work doing voiceover stuff or even made her an on-air host. (No disrespect meant for Ben M., Dana Delaney, etc. I like them all. They just don't ring my bells as TCM hosts. And R. Osborne is excluded from my talk of cutting back on hosts.) P.S. Ain't Robin's agent. Not a relative. Never met her.
TCM couldn't afford to pay any of those dudes - Woods, Spacey, Baldwin - unless they did it for next to nothing and had the time and inclination. I haven't a clue who could replace Ben M., Delaney, Vasquez, etc. and make people happy? Maybe Robin Bittman: https://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2015/12/02/voice-actress-robin-bittman-talks-about-being-the-voice-behind-tcm/ (When I wrote about the TCM "continuity announcers" I meant the "voice over" announcers like Robin whose voice we heard but never saw her.) Anyway, I've been off the radar so long I don't know if TCM still uses the voice over announcers? Were they cut to save money?? I'm on holiday this week and have access to TCM so will be watching to see... Ciao...
Howdy All! Belated Happy New Year and Happy Holidays! Yes, I'm still around. Life changes have meant I haven't been able to post as often as I once did (Please hold the applause). But this week I happen to be in a position to watch some TCM and so may as well add my two cents to this thread Tend to agree with this as well as much else that has been written in this thread. Nothing is perfect, and that goes for TCM as well. But there are so many alternative choices today it's amazing. IMHO, TCM is pretty good for what it offers. Do I like everything? No. I think TCM needs a new host. Not multiple hosts, but one person. How to find a person who would please everyone is the problem. With all due respect to the likes of Dana Delaney and Ben M. and others, I tend to ignore them and wish they'd hurry up and get to the actual film. That is probably because I remember Elwy Yost from TVO's "Saturday Night at the Movies" and so tend to find TCM hosts lacking by comparison. I don't know, maybe the continuity announcers could do more (I don't know the names of the people who do that for TCM?). Toronto City TV's late Mark Daley was an excellent continuity announcer famous for his witty intro's to movies. You never saw Mr. Daley, just heard his voice (he did do the news for City TV, so you could see him doing that). So maybe dispense with the hosts on camera and just have a "voice" do the movie intro's with the movie trivia, etc. I mean, do we really need to see Ben M. or Dana Delaney standing or sitting and telling us the movie title and a few bits of trivia? Then again, others probably love them for what they do and wouldn't want to see any changes. Anyway, just my few Canadian cents worth. And probably not even worth that. Bye for now as I return to hibernation in my igloo in the Great White North... Ciao.
Anyway, one more thing about Jimmy Doohan is that both he and William Shatner starred in the 1953 CBC TV series "Space Command." Only 1 of the 150 episodes made of this Sci-Fi series still exists and it's probably locked away in a vault somewhere. The series ran from 1953 until early 1954. You can watch Doohan in the National Film Board short made in 1955 titled: "Strike in Town." This 37 minute film was made in Hanover, Ontario, and concerns a strike by woodworkers at a local furniture factory (the Knechtel factory was used for filming. Knechtel was one of the largest furniture factories in Canada in the past - it closed and was demolished in 1983). Doohan plays the son of a woodworker union boss (the dad is an Irish-Canadian and Doohan's own family background was Irish too). You can watch the entire film here on the NFB site (Doohan first appears about four minutes into the film): https://www.nfb.ca/film/strike_in_town Doohan could do accents and he tried out a number of different accents for Gene Roddenberry for Doohan's role on "Star Trek." Jimmy was given much leeway to create his character and so he chose a "Scots accent," as well as giving the character Doohan's own middle name - Montgomery. Anyway, a great magazine article about Doohan can be found here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/10/great-scott/304262/
As a teenager growing up in Sarnia, Ont., Jimmy Doohan joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and he rose to be a cadet major. This would have been between 1938-1940 while Doohan was attending the Sarnia Collegiate Institute (high school). In Canada, lots of high school-aged kids join either the Army Cadets, Air Cadets, or Navy Cadets (high school stoners who toke probably join the Space Cadets... ). Then when you reach adult age, you can then join the regualr forces if you wish. Photo of Cadet Major Jimmy here: In 1940, Doohan joined the artillery as a private. By June 6, 1944 - D-Day - Jimmy was a lieutenant in the 13th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Division. Doohan hit the Canadian beach on D-Day (Juno Beach was the Canuck sector, Sword and Gold were Brits, Omaha and Utah were Americans) and saw combat, taking out two German snipers..At about 11:30 p.m. on D-Day he was hit by friendly fire, being sprayed with machine-gun fire from a nervous Canadian sentry. Jimmy was hit with six bullets - four in his leg, one mangled the middle finger of his right hand (finger had to be amputated), and one hit his chest. The chest bullet would have been fatal if it had not been deflected by a silver cigarette case that had been a gift from Jimmy's brother. Doohan was evacuated to England and after his recovery and rehab he volunteered to be attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force as an artillery spotter. He learned to fly and was then posted to the 666th Air Observation Post Squadron, RCAF, in Holland where he was when the war ended. Doohan also got the honour(?) of being called the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force" and you can read about how that happened here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/78215847@N00/5061155514 For Trekkies, you can see Doohan's missing finger in a few episodes of the original series, and later in the movies, etc., but Doohan did try to hide his right hand during filming... You can see a photo of Jimmy's handprints here: In Jimmy's autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," there's a chapter titled "Giving Hitler the Finger," that describes what happened to him on D-Day.
Introducing The TCM Backlot
RMeingast replied to Barton_Keyes's topic in General DiscussionsThe Canadian dollar value related to the U.S. dollar is closely tied to the price of oil - price of oil goes up, Canadian loonie rises in value; oil price drops, Loonie drops with it. That is because Canada exports a large amount of oil to the U.S. every day and the oil has to be paid for in either U.S. or Canadian dough. Note that Canada plays little role in the actual price of oil at any one time. Canada has to react to the changing oil prices 'tho. University of Western Ontario Prof. Mike Moffatt explains it here: http://economics.about.com/od/pricesexchangerates/a/oil_and_dollars.htm As for this new TCM club and its annual cost and the fact Canucks are SOL in joining, I'm wondering how much longer TCM will be available in Canada? The CRTC finally has mandated that Canuckleheads can have more choice by making cable companies offer a "pick and pay" option for what TV channels you want to watch, and pay for: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/television/program/alacarte.htm It doesn't start until December 1, 2016, when you will be able to pick TCM and pay a monthly amount to watch TCM. The problem could be, as it may be for many other channels, is that if not enough people "pick" TCM, it may not be worth TCM's time and money offering the channel. Other channels may go under too if they can't get enough subscribers under "pick and pay." Anyway, time will tell... Since March 1, 2016, you can pay for a basic cable package ($24.95 monthly from Rogers, a major Canuck cable company) and then add a smaller package of channels (Rogers "theme" pack that includes TCM is $5.00 per month). So, if you're a Rogers customer, you have to pay Rogers $29.95 monthly to get TCM (plus tax and equipment rental). No idea what cut of that goes to TCM in Atlanta. After Dec. 1 this year, it'll be interesting to see how much it will cost to "pick" TCM individually as a cable channel you want to watch. Will it be $10.00 a month? $50.00 a month?? Or $2.00 a month? And how many people will actually choose TCM at whatever price?? Will it be 1,000 Canucks? 10,000 hosers?? Or 100,000 denizens of the Great White North?? I don't know what, if anything, might happen? TCM has to buy Canadian rights for films, so if may happen that they decide the income North of the 49th ain't worth it no more... Time will tell... Just my two cents...
Yes, DeForest Kelley gets his own Canada Post stamp too: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/star-trek-stamps-mccoy-1.3553836 And, Miss W, the stamp was unveiled this week at the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in London, Ont. And, and, y'all, I happened to watch yesterday, by chance, Kelley's "film debut" in the 1947 flick "Fear in the Night." This movie is now in the public domain: https://archive.org/details/Fear_in_the_Night It's too bad that I missed posting the link to "Fear in the Night" before March 30 as TCM aired the 1956 remake "Nightmare" (both films screenplay and direction by Maxwell Shane) on that date. Review of "Fear in the Night" by Cornell Woolrich expert Thomas C. Renzi here: http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/11/fear-in-night-1947.html And yes, for those who care, Canada Post has a Klingon stamp too for Canadian actor John Colicos, who played Klingon Commander Kor (the first Klingon to appear in the original TV series): https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/blogs/consumer/details.page?article=2265/09/08/stamps_celebrate_50_&cattype=Consumer&cat=mailandmore More about Colicos here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colicos
"Beam me up, Scott-eh"
RMeingast posted a topic in General Discussions"Star Trek" fans may be happy to hear that Canadian actor James Doohan has a stamp honouring him: http://www.linns.com/news/world-stamps-postal-history/2016/april/star-trek-stamp-canada-scotty-james-doohan.html Doohan's son, Chris "Scotty, Jr." Doohan, unveiled the stamp in Toronto: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/04/23/beam-the-mail-up-scotty If you want to hear "Scotty's" normal voice, check out Doohan in this 1962 episode of "Gunsmoke": Also, check out Doohan playing the cop seated in the chair in this 1964 episode of "The Outer Limits": Great stuff, eh...
Hi Cave Girl, << I mean did TCM's Fred C. Dobbs ever talk about working on the movie "Mondo Cane"? >> If I recall correctly, FredCDobbs never worked on the film "Mondo Cane" and so never wrote about working on that movie. FredCDobbs did work on a "'Mondo Cane' type documentary" and described that: Posted 27 July 2006 - 06:41 PM I was a cameraman on a Techniscope theatrical documentary film back in 1965. It was made for an Italian company. It was one of those in the long series of ?Mondo Cane? type documentary films that were made for the big screen by the Italians in the ?60s. They were very popular in Europe. The greatest ?Mondo? cameraman of them all, Benito Frattari, was our chief cameraman. Gray Frederickson (who later received an Academy Award as a co-producer for Godfather II) was our producer. Luigi Vanzi was our director. Vanzi had a general rule that we shouldn?t shoot more than about 20% to 30% of our film with a hand-held camera, since the theater audience would begin to get dizzy watching a lot of hand-held scenes on the big theater screen, even in a documentary. We had to use tripods quite often, whenever we could. When I filmed the Watts Riot I was not able to use a tripod, and when I filmed a night time shoot-out between the cops and the rioters, the jumpiness of the camera movement didn?t matter. Also, I used the widest-angled lens we had available, and that kept the obvious camera jiggles to a minimum. Techniscope was basically half-frame 35 mm film. Usually a standard 35mm frame has 4 perforations on each side of the frame. A claw pulls down a standard frame 4 perfs. But with Techniscope, the cameras were geared up with a cam that pulled down just two perfs at a time, and that made each half-frame image very wide, like Cinemascope, but without the need of an anamorphic lens. What was lost in grain quality was gained in sharpness of the image because of the lack of all the glass required in an anamorphic lens system. I think the Italians made many drama films using this system. We were told to use Cooke #3 lenses (either 3 or 2, I can?t remember) as much as possible. They were the best in the film business at that time and they produced a very sharp image. I used a portable 35 mm Arriflex converted to Techniscope. Unfortunately, when the film was narrated and edited in Italy, the film company apparently did a very bad job with the narration and editing, and the film was never shown in the US, although we had many spectacular scenes from all over the country, and many incredible news events on film, such as the full-scale Watts riot of 1965. That production represented one of the luckiest moments of my life. I saw ?Mondo Cane? on the big screen in a theater in New Orleans in 1963. I was a young TV news cameraman at the time. I made a mental note of the Italian name of the chief cameraman. A few months later, a couple of co-producers walked into my newsroom to ask if we knew of any unusual documentary filming locations around New Orleans. They said they were making a ?Mondo? film. I went to work for them that next weekend. I quit my regular job a few weeks later and traveled around the country with one of their teams for the next six months. We were split up into about four teams to cover the whole country. I traveled mainly with Vanzi, but I also got to work a lot with Frederickson, and I got to meet Frattari when we were in New York. I think the whole ?Mondo? series started in 1959, with a film titled ?World by Night?, (?Il Mondo de notte?), directed by Vanzi and scripted by Gualtiero Jacopetti. Jacopetti later became a fairly famous director of these types of films, especially ?Africa Addio? in 1966, which I saw in a San Francisco theater. Frederickson later told me that Jacopetti got into some trouble in Italy and even went to jail for a while, allegedly for paying a couple of small African tribes to start a war with each other. Seems that a few Africans were killed during the production of the film. So, to answer your question. Look for some Italian drama films of the ?60s and later, to see more Techniscope movies. Fred ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ << Use your excellent detective skills and tell me what Johann Rush [aka Fred C. Dobbs] has as a connection to these Italian filmmakers, named Luigi Vanzi and Benito Frattari? >> As for Johann Rush, he and two other American cameramen - Morton Heilig (1926-1997) and Baird Bryant (1927-2008) - worked for Benito Frattari doing the filming for director Luigi Vanzi for the Italian "Mondo" documentary film "America paese di Dio." Gray Frederickson was executive producer. Alternate English names for the film are "So This Is God's Country?" and "America, God's Own Country." Most movie databases only give credit to Benito Frattari as cinematographer or photographer and ignore the cameramen who worked for him on the film, but not all. FredCDobbs did describe working with Baird Bryant on the "Italian ?Mondo? type documentary": Posted 04 August 2006 - 05:49 PM In 1965 I worked as a documentary cameraman with the cameraman of "The Cool World". He was Baird Bryant, a non-union cameraman who did some documentary and feature work. He and I worked on an Italian ?Mondo? type documentary. Baird was telling us on the crew about how he had just finished up a feature film in New York. I think I saw the film years ago. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hope this helps.
TCM Challenge - Making Connections Between Things
RMeingast posted a topic in General DiscussionsHi, Just noticed this on TCM Facebook: Fans, we've got a classic film challenge coming your way. This year for The Academy 31 Days of Oscar we're going to play a game inspired by "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Each film we show in February will link to the next film by one actor. So if we show TOP HAT ('35) first, then we could connect with Ginger Rogers, and the next film on the list might be KITTY FOYLE ('40). We won't repeat any actor connections from film to film, and we won't repeat any films throughout the month. The best part? The first film and last film of 31 Days of Oscar will connect as well, making for 360 degrees of connection. Throughout the month, we'll ask you to figure out the connections between each title. Get ready for it. https://www.facebook.com/tcmtv/?fref=nf --------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's supposed to be for February. Have no idea if there are any prizes to be won? TCM wants us to do our own Charlie Chan/Nick Charles/Sherlock Holmes/Inspecteur Clouseau thing and put our thinking caps on to make connections between films...
Just want to add a few more things about Mr. Rush It was pointed out to me in a private email that Mr. Rush made the movie "Journey in Time" featuring his film footage shot in Dallas and San Francisco in the 1960's. It's an anti-drug use film narrated by Alan Hodd. It came out in 1971. The film is available in three parts on YouTube, but I don't think I can post the YouTube link here. If you use the phrase "journey in time part 1 of 3" you will find it and can watch it. Campy, I suppose, and depressing, and makes you realize how little things have changed. Also, don't forget the Italian "Mondo" film "So This Is God's Country" that Mr. Rush did some filming for, working for cinematographer Benito Frattari and director Luigi Vanzi (Gray Frederickson as producer). The entire movie is available on YouTube. Just use the phrase "america paese di dio (1967) film completo you tube" "America paese di Dio" is the Italian title. In 1986, Mr. Rush, while working as a newsman/cameraman in Hattiesburg, Miss., did some investigative work about Robert Easterling's claim to be involved in the Kennedy assassination. This is a PDF file and shows a photo of Mr. Rush (with microphone) interviewing Mr. Easterling as well as the news story: http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/M%20Disk/Mack%20Gary%20Cover-up/Item%2030.pdf One more thing, Mr. Rush carried on a long correspondence with author Harold Weisberg and Weisberg has archived all the Rush letters here: https://archive.org/details/nsia-RushJohann Harold Weisberg has written many books about the Kennedy assassination and the letters from Mr. Rush detail his experiences in New Orleans and after. Many of the letters contain little biographical stories about the life of Mr. Rush. Oh, one more thing, one more thing, Mr. Rush had a theory about the Zapruder film. You can see a film about this on YouTube that was made by Mr. Rush and by Hattiesburg, Miss., dentist Dr. Michael West (West was also a medical examiner who later faced disgrace for his work in court cases). Use the phrase "rush west zapruder film study." The voice at the beginning of the video is either Mr. Rush or Dr. West. I don't know? R.I. P. Mr. Rush
Johann W. Rush (1942-2015)
RMeingast posted a topic in General DiscussionsJohann W. Rush (Sept. 5, 1942 - Dec. 12, 2015) Johann Rush passed away in Kirtland, New Mexico, on Dec. 12, 2015. Mr. Rush was a news cameraman and documentary film cameraman with a long and interesting career. After leaving college, Mr. Rush worked as a news cameraman for WSDU-TV in New Orleans, where he filmed a local activist by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald (Oswald was president of the local branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and was distributing leaflets outside the International Trade Mart in New Orleans on August 16, 1963). You can view still frames of the news footage filmed by Mr. Rush here: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/rush.htm This encounter in New Orleans later led to a long interest in the people and events concerning the assassination of President Kennedy by Oswald in November 1963. In particular, Mr. Rush developed a theory (along with author Max Holland) concerning the Zapruder film of the assassination and the number of shots fired by Oswald: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/opinion/22holland.html?_r=0 [in 1981, Mr. Rush interviewed Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, who had been targeted for assassination by Oswald in April 1963 - Oswald's shot at Walker missed and Oswald was able to escape undetected.] Mr. Rush also did freelance news camera work for the major TV networks, including being present and filming some major civil rights events in the U.S. South. One example is the September 29-October 1, 1962 enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Mr. Rush filmed the event for CBS News. In this online article, Mr. Rush shared his role in the event (the article is about Dan Rather and you need to scroll down to the paragraph "Rather's Tall Tales" to read Rather's role in the Meredith event and the differing memory of Mr. Rush about what Rather was up to at the time): http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1984/07b.html During this same period of the early 1960's, Mr. Rush worked as a documentary film cameraman for the Italian director Luigi Vanzi on the Italian "Mondo" film "America paese di Dio." Benito Frattari was chief cinematographer for the film and Gray Frederickson was executive producer. The English title is "So This Is God's Country": https://letterboxd.com/film/so-this-is-gods-country/ The film is available for viewing on YouTube. Just type in "america paese di dio 1967 film completo documentario" [Film footage by Mr. Rush of one of the 1960's Berkeley riots was included in the 1971 film "Jimi Plays Berkeley."] Mr. Rush also later worked as a news director in Hattiesburg, Missisippi, and lived and worked in San Francisco, California, before retiring to New Mexico. An interesting man with a long and varied career. R.I.P.
Merry Boxing Day to all!! (Hope all had a Merry Xmas too...) Any Boxing Day movies ever made? BTW, Happy New Year!
Male Bookworms
RMeingast replied to Big Kid's topic in Information, Please!"The Battling Bookworm" from 1928: http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/84523/Battling-Bookworm/overview Check out a poster for the film here: http://www.emovieposter.com/gallery/inc/archive_image.php?id=12376731 Not a movie, but Roddy McDowall portrayed the villain "The Bookworm" on the "Batman" TV series: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0519509/ http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t_5n1Pfa1nI/ToNShqusWCI/AAAAAAAAALg/2-vVLjyGJzs/s320/%252329-30%2BA.jpg Another from TV is Burgess Meredith from "The Twilight Zone" episode "Time Enough at Last": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Burgess_Meredith_The_Twilight_Zone.jpg/800px-Burgess_Meredith_The_Twilight_Zone.jpg
Contest winners as chosen by Ed Burns are: Bob Joles: "As I listened to the monotonous staccato of rain on my window, she walked in. An hourglass figure with time on her side." Lex Joy: "If I didn't love you," she retorted, "I'd have told the mob where you are instead of the cops." Congrats!
"Top Ten" script finalists announced: http://tcm.tumblr.com/post/123480167159/noirsummer-script-contest-top-10 Congrats to Christy (SueSueApplegate) of TCM Message Board for making it into the "Top Ten." Now it's up to Ed Burns to choose the two winners: "We've sent these scripts to filmmaker Ed Burns for last judging. He'll select two winners. Embrace the anticipation."


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T3 Minneapolis
T3 is a unique approach to office building and an investment in both the past and future of Minneapolis – specifically the rich history of the warehouse district. T3 builds on the character of the past with a progressive modern perspective.
As businesses compete to attract and retain staff, T3 offers a modern re-interpretation of the historic building that appeals to young professionals. It celebrates the robust character of historic wood, brick, stone and steel buildings, but provides state of the art amenities, environmental performance, and technical capability needed for competitive businesses in Minneapolis.
© 2020


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Posted: June 11, 2014
Jake Grady loves Bull's Hollow ranch and all the challenges and hard work it entails. But the past year hasn't been easy—his father's good name has been tarnished, and new financial problems are threatening to destroy everything the Gradys have built. Performing live under a stage name has become his escape, a way of blowing off some serious steam.
Accountant Paige Reynolds found Jake's guitar-playing alter ego intriguing, but her connection with the real Jake sends her attraction into overdrive. When she's summoned to make order out of the chaotic paper trail at Bull's Hollow, he sets her world a-rocking—both in bed and out. But Paige has a plan; she's determined to create her own path for the future, but is soon left scrambling for firmer ground.
Good news about Jake's potential singing career is followed by the revelation of another family secret, one that has him questioning whether he belongs at Bull's Hollow at all. But leaving the ranch would mean leaving his family…and Paige. How much is he willing to give up for a real shot at fame?


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Lack-Of-Clothes Make The Lack-Of-A Man
(An older customer comes to my checkout. He has been staring at me a lot while he has been waiting for service. I am 17 at the time.)
Customer: "Are you from [area in my town]?"
Me: "Oh, no. I don't live there."
Customer: "Are you sure? I've seen you around there, at [address that is not mine]."
Me: "Oh, no. You must be mistaken."
(The transaction continues, extremely awkward as he keeps insisting he 'knows me from somewhere' and has 'seen my house' and things to that effect. I brush him off as one of the harmless, odd customers that one sees in a day.)
Me: "Right, so that comes to £52.56."
Customer: "Oh I only have £50 on me."
Me: "Well, if you have no other means of paying, we'll have to take something off."
Customer: "Like your clothes?"
Me: "…no."
Customer: "Like my clothes?"
(I am speechless and upset, and about to go into a rant and call a security guard over, when the next customer intervenes.)
Next Customer: "You are soooo creepy, mate."
(The customer scuttles off after paying me the full amount, obviously embarrassed about being caught harassing a teenage girl!)


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How do Juliet's Nurse and Friar Lawrence contribute to the tragedy of the play?
Extracts from this document...
How do Juliet's Nurse and Friar Lawrence contribute to the tragedy of the play? Juliet's nurse and Friar Lawrence play a major part in the build up to the death of Romeo and Juliet, and they contribute to the tragedy of the play in many ways. They are the two people who arrange the marriage and try their best to make Romeo and Juliet be together. Friar Lawrence is involved with both the character of Romeo, and the character of Juliet, and it is his job to look after them, as he is their confessor, and they go to him to talk about things they have done wrong and things they are worried about. It is also his job to forgive people (in God's name) for their wrongdoings, and give them advice. The Friar is sought by many characters for advice, including Romeo, Paris, and The Nurse. This is an indication for the audience that he is a caring and respected man, devoted to helping others. Friar Lawrence has probably known Romeo and Juliet for most of their life, so he wants to help them on a personal level, not just a spiritual level. Romeo and Juliet can definitely trust the Friar because he is not permitted to tell anybody about what he hears in confession, and also, the Friar is the only person not involved in the feud, and as the two are going against their families and friends, the Friar is the only person that they feel comfortable talking to. ...read more.
The Friar hurries to the vault to be with the waking Juliet. He tries in vain to persuade Juliet to leave the dead Romeo and escape with him, but she refuses so he deserts her. Eventually he reveals the truth to Prince. There is dramatic irony in this scene when Romeo enters the tomb and believes Juliet is dead. The audience are expecting Juliet to wake up and escape with Romeo, but she doesn't awake while Romeo is there. He drinks a potion and dies, and then Juliet wakes up and finds her Romeo dead, so she stabs herself. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play when the audience are aware of something the characters are not. The Nurse occupies a similar position in Juliet's life to the Friar in Romeo's. She enjoys her power over Juliet, which is illustrated in her teasing. The Friar enjoys teasing Romeo as well as he does this early on in Act 2 however, unlike the Friar, the Nurse does not have a public position, so when things go wrong, she lacks the courage to face the consequences of her actions. Juliet's Nurse is a common character, who usually speaks in prose, along with the servants. To the audience she appears as a comedy character, and lightens the tone of the tragedy of the play. ...read more.
Act 3 Scene 5. Juliet thinks that the Nurse is being a hypocrite, but we know that she is just trying to be practical and sensible. The Nurse's last duty in the play is to be the one who discovers the drugged, sleeping Juliet. Her grief is intense but it seems a fair price to pay for her betrayal. The Nurse and Friar Lawrence are the only two people that know Romeo and Juliet's secrets and the Nurse is impressed by the way he talks, "O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night to hear good counsel." Act 3 Scene 3. This shows the audience how uneducated the Nurse is, as she is impressed by the Friar just because he has as educated voice. I believe that Romeo and Juliet died as a result of Friar Lawrence's haphazard plan. He should not have suggested such a dangerous plan, as he was playing with their lives, and also, the Nurse should have stopped Juliet from getting involved with a Montague, or backed her up when she said she wouldn't marry Paris, although if Juliet wasn't frightened of her parents, then she would not have had to go along with Friar Lawrence's risky scheme, and maybe things would have worked out between the pair. ?? ?? ?? ?? Becci Loughran 10D English Coursework Romeo & Juliet ...read more.
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Uh Oh—A Crappy Italian Company Might Build The Netherlands' New Stealth Fighters
Finmeccanica Group has a reputation for screwing up
Uncategorized July 9, 2014 Lieuwe de Vries 0
The Dutch minister of defense recently attended talks in Rome to decide who would build nearly 40 F-35 stealth fighters for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Lockheed Martin in the U.S. designed the single-engine, radar-evading jet, but the company licenses some of the actual manufacturing to foreign factories.
The Netherlands is considering tapping Italian firm Alenia Aerospace to make most of the Dutch jets, which could form the backbone of the RNLAF for many decades.
The choice is a potentially risky one. Alenia Aerospace is part of the Finmeccanica Group alongside companies such as AnsaldoBreda and AugustaWestland. Finmeccanica has a reputation for high-profile failures. And if it screws up the Dutch F-35s, an entire European air arm could be in jeopardy.
When the Dutch national rail carrier Nationale Spoorwegen wanted trains to run on its new fast rail link to Antwerp and Brussels, it turned to AnsaldoBreda to produce the trains.
The first Frya trains arrived two years late and service began in 2009. It soon became apparent all was not well. Reports surfaced of serious manufacturing quality issues. Those few early trains suffered frequent outages, with as many as 80 percent of them being out of service at any given time.
Though AnsaldoBreda remained optimistic about its ability to resolve the issues, the company made little progress. The final straw was in the winter of 2012. Limited passenger service had just begun when a period of light frost accompanied by snow set in. Large chunks of ice formed underneath carriages as melt water from the roof refroze on the trains' undersides.
These chunks tended to come off while the trains were moving—and bounce off the tracks back into the carriages. Most Dutch rolling stock is tough enough to handle this battering. Fyra was not. In January 2013 a train shed large pieces of underside plating. Authorities barred Frya from the Belgian-Dutch High Speed South track.
A legal battle ensued. The Dutch and Belgian national carriers wanted AnsaldoBreda to take back the trains and refund the cost. AnsaldoBreda continued to play down the problems, claiming it could quickly rectify them. In the end, AnsaldoBreda accepted the trains and refunded NS and the Belgians.
There's more.
The Royal Netherlands Navy has long operated the British-made Westland Lynx helicopter from its frigates for submarine-hunting and search and rescue. Though the rotorcraft were still going strong in the 1990s, the navy decided to replace the Lynxs with strictly European-built helicopters.
NATO established the Helicopter Management and Acquisition group to oversee design and production of what would become the NH90 helicopter, pictured below. Finmeccanica's Augusta—which eventually merged with Westland—was responsible for building the 12 Dutch navy copies.
There were long delays. Helicopters finally began to trickle into service in The Netherlands and other countries in 2007, years late.
In anticipation of the NH90's arrival, the Dutch had already phased out the Lynx and were flying old Cougars as a stopgap. Crews should have welcomed the new NH90s. Instead, the aviators complained about physical discomfort due to high vibration and noise levels. An investigation led to the introduction of improved noise-cancelling headgear.
Larger troubles loomed just over the horizon as the first machines deployed on frigates during counter-piracy operations off the Somali coast. The copters suffered corrosion and wear far beyond what should occur in brand-new aircraft.
The Dutch national aviation research lab examined the NH90s and found construction and design errors. They ranged from a poorly designed tail structure to improperly applied or completely missing sealants. These errors reflect poorly on the quality-control procedures at Finmeccanica's facilities.
Dutch officials characterized subsequent talks with AgustaWestland as productive. The burden of the NH90's tasks fell—again—to the Dutch Cougar fleet, which the Ministry of Defense had wanted to downsize drastically. As such, there was no budget for the increased Cougar operations. The navy was losing its wings.
This June, the Dutch halted NH90 deliveries when they and the Italians failed to agree who should pay for fixing the flawed copters—and also cover the cost of extra Cougar flights.
Alenia Aerospace, the prospective fighter-builder, has had its own issues with manufacturing quality in recent projects. The company was to be the preferred supplier of horizontal tail surfaces for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. But once production got underway, flaws appeared in the Italian sub-assemblies. The aircraft's skin de-laminated and came loose.
The problems resulted from Alenia's improper use of shims and the over-tightening of bolts. Alenia's errors led to delays in the production of new Dreamliners and forced Boeing to rebuild many of the aircraft it had already delivered. In the end, Alenia lost its status as the lead manufacturer of tailplanes.
Alenia plans to build the Dutch F-35s at a new factory at Cameri air base. Alenia will also assemble Italy's F-35s—and hopes to attract maintenance contracts from stealth fighter-operators across Europe.
But it appears the Italian government is going to halve the number of F-35s it purchases, from 90 to just 45 or so. The cut could jeopardize the Cameri plant's profitability—and puts the pressure on Rome to also do as much post-production maintenance work as possible at the facility.
The Dutch had hoped to exchange production for maintenance. In other words, The Netherlands would allow Italy to build the Dutch F-35s. Italy meanwhile would let the Dutch repair Italian F-35s at a facility in The Netherlands. But that fair exchange now appears increasingly unlikely.
To be fair, past problems with Finmeccanica Group projects don't necessarily spell trouble for Alenia's F-35 involvement. But they do seem to hint at a group-wide corporate culture that fails to promote quality. Alenia's Dreamliner failure in particular is a worrying sign.
Maybe the Dutch should get their stealth fighters elsewhere.


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"We then lay in the Pentagram and began love-making, all the time visualizing the Satanic Force so that it could – temporarily – take possession of our bodies."
Farrant skirts around the alleged "invoking" ceremony of September 1971 at Highgate Cemetery in the account about his life which he self-published in 2001. In fact, he makes no mention of it. Closer to the time it was of prime importance; so much so, he reflected on those purportedly recent events from his prison cell in 1975 and wrote a rambling article which he then mailed to Brian Netscher, the editor of New Witchcraft. Here is a facsimile of one of the pages from his article plus a published photograph in the magazine showing him and Martine de Sacy naked:
"In September 1971, together with twelve members of the 'Secret Order of the X' [which Seán Manchester later learned he called the 'Order of the Black Moon'], we met in Highgate Cemetery to conduct one of the most dangerous magical ceremonies in existence. … Such a task was by no means easy, for in magic darker forces are most potent when evoked to an earthly plane … For the sake of the uninitiated, and to allay any confusion which may arise over this point, a few words should be said here to explain the difference between White Magic and Black Magic … it should be understood that magic itself is neither 'black' nor 'white' – it is neutral. Further, magic is only a physical element through which 'outside' Forces may be evoked, not itself 'active' but only a channel through which such Forces may be brought into operation.
"We preferred the 'communication' ceremony of High Magic after having taken all these things and more into consideration. According to the magical requirements of this ceremony we 'worked' from within a specifically constructed pentogram [sic] (a five-pointed star) and constructed an adjacent (sealed) triangle in which the 'apparition' could appear. To the North of the Pentagram but within the Circle that enclosed it an altar was constructed on which most of the ritual objects were placed. These included a vessel of consecrated water, appropriate talismans each member would wear, ritual knives, and the sacred scrolls which contained the necessary form of Ritual. Candles and the corresponding elements of air, fire, earth and water were placed at the respective cardinal points of the Pentagram while the secret signs of evocation and names of God-forms were inscribed at strategic points on the Circle. The triangle was also 'reinforced' in like manner by placing a type of burning incense around it. When all was prepared the Ceremony commenced, timed so that the vital part would take place at midnight. The first part of the ceremony was dedicated to the symbolic anointing in oil of each participant [which, as far as can be ascertained, was just himself and Martine de Sacy] and the Calls and incantations necessary to summon forth the apparition. (For the annointment [sic] everyone present with the exception of the High Priest and Priestess, disrobed and remained naked throughout the Ceremony). These 'Calls' were made in strict accordance with the form of ritual and served two purposes: to dispel any unwanted elements which may have hindered the appearance of the demonic entity, and to open a channel of psychic force through which the entity could later materialize. When the preliminary part of the ceremony had been completed the actual evocation ritual then began. The intrinsic details regarding this part of the ceremony, however, must remain secret; suffice it is to say here that the entity (in its now omniscient form) was to be magically induced by the ritual act of blood-letting, then brought to visible appearance through use of the sex act. The act of sexual magic was in the ceremony performed by the High Priest and Priestess as being symbolic of total Unity, a 'oneness' of the masculine and female principles in magic and a necessary factor when an opposing Force has to be controlled. The act of blood-letting which immediately preceded this was perhaps the most crucial moment of all, for at this stage the invoked Force could now materialize aided by the 'life-force' symbolically released through the spilling of blood from the Priestess's body. In magic, blood is symbolic of the 'life-force' or 'spiritual energy' which permeates the body and in this context is used in many advanced magical ceremonies. It would not be sacrilegious to compare the use of wine as symbolic of blood in the Catholic Communion. [It would be sacrilegious, however, to compare any of what Farrant is describing as remotely indicative of the Catholic Eucharist.]
"Accordingly, at approximately 11.45pm, I drew blood from the High Priestess by lightly pricking her breast. This blood was then sprinkled into the chalice into the chalice of Holy Water as a symbolic offering to a Deity.
"I now made the most important Calls with the Priestess. These summoned the Deity to our midst in a non-malignant form to 'take over' our bodies. When these Calls were over the Protector of the Circle (sometimes called the High Priest) continued to repeat the Holy Names of the Deity. I disrobed the Priestess and myself and, with consecrated blood, made the secret sigils of the Deity on her mouth, breast, and all the openings of her body. We then lay in the Pentagram and began love-making, all the time visualizing the Satanic Force so that it could ¯ temporarily ¯ take possession of our bodies. Suddenly the Protector was silent. The entity was present. We felt our bodies being 'charged with Power' and there was now a visual Force all over us.
"The Priestess then had an orgasm which lasted six to seven minutes. I too experienced orgasm during this time which lasted over a minute. (I refer to actual ejaculation not the period approaching climax). The Ritual had worked. I had many strange visions during intercourse and so did the Priestess, but these could never be explained. But most importantly, our bodies had been magically 'offered' and used by a tremendous outside Force which could now be materialised to visual appearance in the triangle prepared. The Priestess now lay in the Pentagram staring fixedly toward the triangle while I arose to begin the Commands of manifestation. At this stage the Pentagram turned icy cold and felt as though some 'warm power' had suddenly left it. The fire in the triangle was obliterated by a misty 'smoke' and simultaneously the candles went out. … I suddenly looked up and at the top of the hazy form I saw two eyes meeting my gaze. … When I saw and felt the tremendous Power which emanated from the two demonic eyes, I went cold and began to lose all sense of my physical being and my faculties. I couldn't speak, though I received a clear message from some distinct 'voice,' and I think fear first came after this when I realized how difficult the demon would be to control, and realised we might never leave the Circle.
"It was rather like having a vivid dream and not being able to control it though one knows the inevitable outcome. … This ceremony performed in Highgate Cemetery finally proved beyond doubt – at least as far as most psychic investigators are concerned – that the majority of sightings and stories relating to the phenomena there were true. Unfortunately, however, such proof will rarely be acceptable to the hardened sceptic; but we had at least succeeded in establishing to our own satisfaction not only that the Highgate Vampire did exist, but the very nature of the phenomenon and those factors which had primarily caused its existence. … With the usual precision of Fleet Street I became an 'Evil High Priest of Black Magic' while the phenomenon was again reinstated as a blood-sucking ghoul that might have escaped from some Hammer horror film. Ironically (concerning the latter) the Press Media for once may have been closer to the truth than they originally intended."[2]
People who knew him remarked that Farrant was not the same person after his release from prison, and would attribute this to his being in jail; not least having to share his cell with an axe murderer for some of that time. Something had certainly happened to alter him, but Seán Manchester believes it occurred prior to his arrest and incarceration, and he was by no means the only one to consider Farrant possessed. The best known exorcist at the time was the Reverend Christopher Neil-Smith. This Anglican vicar of St Saviour's Church, Hampstead, visited the prison in question early on to "drive out the evil of David Farrant." But, despite the priest's best efforts, the evil remained, intensified and spread.
[2] "Invoking the Vampire" by David Farrant (New Witchcraft, issue 4, 1975, p36-38).
[3] "Casanova Witch A Failure As Lover" by Peter Earle, News of the World, 30 June 1974.
[4] The Highgate Vampire by Seán Manchester (Gothic Press, 1991, p136-137).


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Discover a modern design by Peerutin Architects. As a proof, see what they did in one of their house projects in Capetown, South Africa. It was truly a contemporary house with an exceptional elegant design, which fits for today's active lifestyle. The lights are just right in place to give an additional beauty of the house. See the house during the day and see how nice it is to stay in a large terrace while enjoying your favorite drink under the heat of the sun. In addition, look what's inside. It is a large living room with a style. Filled with a contemporary sofa set, this living room is a nice place to stay and relax indoor.
From : Peerutin ArchitectsAdvertisement
Wow, this must be one of the most beautiful homes i've seen!
i luv it
one thing tho where are the stairs
i wanna live here o.O
wow i dont know wat to say this is amazing infact this is more than amazing and these are the best design ..i like em ..i wish i should own 1 of them
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.


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- Cables
- Otros cables (2)
- Efecto de Guitarras & Electrónica
- Recambios & OKnobs (1)
ROCKTRON - Technology for Guitarists. The concept behind ROCKTRON has always been to deliver quality sound to the guitar player through exciting and often very innovating products. Many of the Rocktron products seek to marry a vintage style to modern technology and bear the mark of actual longtime musicians who understand and appreciate the needs of guitar players and then design and develop products accordingly.
Rocktron Replacement Tube - for Banshee/Banshee 2 Talkbox
en lugar de 39,00 €
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incl. IVA más gastos de envío
Oferta válida hasta el: 06.06.2020
Banshee replacement voice tubing For use with the RocktronBanshee Talkbox/ Banshee 2 Talkbox Colour: transparent (clear) Material: Vinyl Length: 6.5 feet (198 cm) Have your spare Banshee tubing ready when you need a fresh tube for your performances.
MIDI cable, 7-Pin Delivers power to the MIDI foot controller via pins 6 and 7 (for use with all Rocktron controllers including Midi Mate, Midi Xchange, All Access) Ideal for use with Rocktron preamps, amplifiers, or effect devices with "phantom power" out Length: 900 cm (30ft) Carries A/C power to your footcontroller. Plug either end of the 7-Pin MIDI cable into a MIDI input jack and the other end into the output of your MIDI (...)
MIDI cable, 5 to 7 Pin Transfers commands from yourMIDI foot controller (7-pin MIDI OUT jack) to any MIDI controllable gear/ to any device with MIDI input (5-pin). For use with all Rocktron controllers (including Midi Mate, Midi Xchange, All Access) Allows more flexibility on location placement of power supplies Input for AC-power supply at 5-pin MIDI-jack Length: 900 cm (30ft) For example, plug (...)
Producto indicado: 1 hasta 3 (desde 3 en total)


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Photo by tibchris used under a Creative Commons license.
Thomas Roberts, Drake's Bay (Permanent Press, 2010).
House-hunting one afternoon in Kensington, near Berkeley in the East Bay, San Francisco State history professor Ethan Storey stumbles onto a trail that may or may not lead back to evidence of Sir Francis Drake's visit to the Bay Area more than four hundred years ago. As he soon discovers, the mystery is of more-than-academic interest to some rich and powerful interests, and Storey's efforts to uncover the truth prove to be hazardous to his health. Without giving the plot away, I will say that the story (and Storey) move around the Bay Area, from Kensington and Berkeley to San Francisco to Richmond, both on and off the water.
Here's the publisher's page. Clark Isaacs says it features excellent prose. CelticLady calls it a suspenseful and entertaining story. Jenna A. recommends it highly. Laura Pryor says it's an old-school mystery (scroll down) that relies on intelligent plot twists and well-paced revelations, rather than relentless violence and gore. It's on (UC Berkeley's) Bancroft Library's list of mysteries set in the Bay Area. Mary Rees chatted with Roberts. And here is Wikipedia's page on Sir Francis Drake. Did he visit the Bay Area?


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My Art Evolution
It started with a couple of stick figures who became known as Brandon and Dewey. A couple of characters held together more by circumstance than by friendship.
Fourteen years ago, I probably would have killed to have my art look like it does now. Thankfully it's changed a lot since then. Those stick figures were used as filler so that the page full of text didn't look dry and bland. Originally I was using funny pictures that people sent in their e-mails, but when I was cornered on copyright concerns, I thought it best to remove the pictures and just toss in my own doodles and stylizations.
Long gone are those stick figures from 14 years ago. Surprisingly, with nothing other than years of practice, I managed to make comic characters that look like they were done by someone who knew what they were doing. With no formal training or even compatriots to help me learn and grow, I kept at it and picked up tricks and techniques along the way. Is what I'm doing now something that has real artistic merit? I'm not sure, but when I step back and look at one of the comics I make today, I'm seeing something that makes me go, "Wow. That's pretty good."
It has to keep evolving though. It's still nowhere near what I want it to be.