text:
14 ft. Red Rose Embroidered Tulle Table Skirt Black
- 14 ft.
- Tulle
- Spot Clean Recommended
- Premium
- Serged
Shipping Times
USAFast shipping, Over 90% of US Orders can be Delivered Within (3) Business Days or Less!
(Free shipping is offered on orders over $149.)
Our cut off time is at 10am PST (Monday - Friday)
If your order is placed after our cut off time, your order will begin processing the following business day and you should receive your order as follows:
UPS Free shipping: Up to 8 business days (not guaranteed)
UPS Ground: 2-6 business days (not guaranteed)
UPS Three Day Select: 3 business days (guaranteed)
UPS Second Day Air: 2 business days (guaranteed)
UPS Next Day Air Saver: 1 business day (guaranteed)
USPS Flat Rate: 6-14 business days (not guaranteed)
Please refer to our Return Policy found here.
DetailsTimeless roses emulate pure romanticism and beauty; bring that elegance to your festivities using our 14 ft. Red Rose Embroidered Tulle Table Skirts. Ideal for a variety of events from Quinceaneras to Kentucky Derby celebrations. 14 ft. table skirts are made to completely wrap around standard 4 ft. banquet tables. We highly recommend pairing table skirts with one of our luxurious tablecloths.
14 ft. Red Rose Embroidered Tulle Table Skirt Black
No Reviews Yet


text:
The title of a recent article in Fast Company magazine really caught my interest; "Want a Purpose Driven Business? Know the Difference Between Purpose and Mission."
We have been practicing this distinction for a very long time with our clients, so it was nice to see it in one of my favorite publications. Implementing both purpose and mission is crucial for leading a successful business. The authors made their case immediately: the purpose is a description of WHY you do what you do, whereas Mission is WHAT you do. The authors provided some examples of purpose by mentioning Patagonia, Tom's, Runa and Apple. Unfortunately, their examples were all descriptions of WHAT the companies DO instead of WHY they do it. The examples were expanded descriptions of their business models. The examples did not answer the key purpose question presented in the article; "Is this work going to make the world a better place? And if so, how?"
To clarify our understanding of Purpose, the following example may help: the members of a watch company wanted to create and share their Purpose statement, so they met to discuss why their company existed–its reason for being. After taking time to reflect, talk, brainstorm, ask questions, etc., they agreed that living a balanced life was a common value and belief. They shared stories of how they created personal balance and agreed to transfer that into the company's culture. They could then implement their mission goals grounded by their purpose. Making watches is what they do, and creating balance is why they do it. This could answer the question, "is this going to make the world a better place? And if so how?" Just imagine life in a balanced world!
FarVision believes that Purpose should be created internally and shared externally to distinguish the values of the organization for all. FarVision publishes our reason for being, "FarVision believes that sustainable prosperity relies on truth, generosity and a caring and supportive environment where inspired transformation serves as a guiding force for achieving success", so others know who we are and so that we know we are attracting compatible people.
Today with all the talk about the importance of purpose-driven profit, it is crucial to get it right. Knowing the difference between Purpose and Mission will result in a business that embraces purpose, people and profit.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sponsored By
NYC Pensions To Quit Investments In Fossil FuelsThe city's lawsuit claims BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell contributed to global warming.
Protesters Demand That N.J. Fund State Pensions; Christie Says 'Get Realistic'Dozens of people carrying signs disrupted a conservative group's rally over pension funding on the steps of the New Jersey statehouse Thursday, and urged Gov. Chris Christie to fund the state's pension.
Christie Administration Appeals Order To Pump Funds Into Pension SystemThe Christie administration on Monday formally asked an appellate judge to review a case involving the New Jersey public pension system.
New Report Chronicles Poor Track Record For New Jersey Pension PaymentsA report showing New Jersey's poor track record at paying into its public pension system has come out just as Gov. Chris Christie navigates his latest proposal through a hostile state Legislature to scale back a promised payment.
Judge Orders Christie To Put More Funds Into State Employee PensionsA judge on Monday ordered New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the state Legislature to put more money into pension funds for retired public workers.
NJ Homeowners Feel The Pinch As Property Taxes Rise Despite CapHigh property taxes have some homeowners in New Jersey feeling the pinch, taxes went up dramatically in 2014 despite a cap.
VIDEO: Christie Releases Mock Movie Trailer 'No Pain, No Gain'The governor's office released a trailer Tuesday for a fake summer blockbuster movie titled, "No Pain. No Gain."
Former Gov. David Paterson Pushes For Pension Bill To Help Injured NYPD Cop Rosa RodriguezFormer New York Gov. David Paterson is urging state lawmakers should pass a law exempting NYPD Officer Rosa Rodriguez, critically injured during a fire in Coney Island last month, from receiving only a reduced pension.
Report: 17 Of New Jersey's 21 Sheriffs Are Double-DippingThe 17 double-dipping sheriffs and 29 undersheriffs are raking in $8.3 million a year, said New Jersey Watchdog's Mark Lagerqvist.
Cuomo Discusses Initiatives To Strip Corrupt Lawmakers Of PensionsStripping politicians convicted of corruption of their pensions is not easy, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says, but initiatives are in place to change that.
EXCLUSIVE: Westchester School Administrator's Double Dipping Infuriates PublicA school superintendent in Westchester County, in fact, is raising eyebrows by going through the motions of retirement without even changing offices.
New Jersey's '$100K Club' Of Retirees Grows 50 Percent In Two YearsIt's perfectly legal, but to some, big pension payouts to public employees are outrageous and unaffordable, and they're only growing.
Connecticut Legislature Turns Attention To Budget DeficitWith gun control reform accomplished, Connecticut state lawmakers now have to figure out how to deal with the over $2 billion deficit in the next two-year budget.
Liu Wants Exxon To Release Info On Fracking; NYS Reaches Agreement With Cabot OilThe New York City pension funds hold more than 11 million shares of Exxon stock. Now the funds and City Comptroller John Liu have called on the oil company to release data about its fracking operations.
Opinion: A Doctor's Opinion Of ObamacareGood, hard-working Americans shouldn't be forced to contemplate leaving their chosen profession as they are with federal laws such as Obamacare.


text:
North Carolina 60, UT-Martin 58
North Carolina 60, UT-Martin 58
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Xylina McDaniel tallied 14 points, the most important of those coming in the final minute to push North Carolina into the win column with a thrilling 60-58 comeback victory against the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's Stanford Regional at Carmichael Arena.
McDaniel, who had nine rebounds, converted a put-back with 56 seconds left in regulation to bring the fourth-seeded Tar Heels (25-9) all the way back from an 18-point, second-half deficit. Before fouling out, Diamond DeShields accounted for 15 points, shooting a perfect 9-of-9 at the free-throw line, but just 3-of-12 from the floor as she missed on all five of her three-point tries.
The 13th-seeded Skyhawks (24-8) were paced by Heather Butler and Ashia Jones with 19 and 18 points, respectively, the latter adding eight rebounds as well.
North Carolina came out flat to start the game, shooting only 8-of-26 (.308) from the floor, including 1-of-10 behind the 3-point line, en route to a 35-22 deficit at the break.
The second half saw the Heels make good on only 37.5 percent from the floor, but that was still much better than the Skyhawks who completely went off track with just 30.4 percent accuracy from the field, 1-of-9 beyond the arc, en route to the narrow loss.
UNC, which shot just 3-of-18 on the outside, will now play again on Tuesday night in the second round of the tournament versus a Michigan State squad that demolished Hampton on Sunday, 91-61.


text:
PROMIS is a family-run clinic, and we consider our team of dedicated professionals and seasoned clinicians as one big family. In fact, many of us were previously patients at PROMIS, taking those first steps to our life long recovery, and are trained in the most relevant methods of addiction treatment as well as being armed with the wealth of knowledge from first-hand experiences.
We come from many different backgrounds with one aim in common, to welcome you into our family and provide you with all the necessary support when you embark on your journey to recovery. We want you to experience how recovery at PROMIS can have such a significant and positive impact in your lives, just as we did.
We look forward to getting to know you!
The Team
Managing Director
London Unit Manager / PROMIS Therapist
Clair worked for the British Government as part of their Drug Intervention Program, setting up the first 24 hour service for addicted populations seeking assistance. Clair undertook DANOS training in Drug and Alcohol Knowledge, Motivational Interviewing, and Brief Solution Focused Therapy, in addition to a certificate in Counselling Skills.Clair has worked as a senior therapist in Lebanon in an attempt to introduce Twelve Step Recovery and Addiction Treatment in the Middle East.Clair has experience facilitating group therapy and family groups, utilizing the Minnesota 12 Step Model. Clair's speciality areas include addiction, compulsive helping, women's group therapy, conjoint and family sessions. Clair is also an FDAP Accredited Manager and Supervisor and has a Post Graduate Certificate in Couple and Individual Psychodynamic Counselling & Psychotherapy from the Tavistock.
Senior PROMIS Therapist
GEOFFREY M STEPHENSON, PhD
Director of Research
Consultant Psychiatrist
Dr LAIMONAS GONCARA, MD, MSc, MRCGP, PgDIP(MED), PgDIP(PRESCR), PgDIP(DERM)
Primary Care Physician
Dr Laimonas Goncaras (Dr Liam) has worked since 2007 as a General Practitioner at The Medical Centre in Maidstone, Kent.
Dr Liam graduated from Kaunas University of Medicine (Lithuania) in 2003. He endeavoured in further education in England and obtained Postgraduate Diploma in Medicine (Newcastle University), Prescribing (Greenwich University) and Dermatology (Queens Mary University, London). He also obtained Substance misuse part 1 and part 2 Diplomas from the Royal College of General Practice and is also a proud member of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
Since the early days of his career he was a very keen player in the Substance Misuse Services in Kent, running a Shared Care Service (methadone and suboxone) for the his practice patients and also being the member of a Steering Group with KCA. Dr Liam advises other primary care physicians and doctors on substance misuse, painkillers and appropriate prescribing.
Art Psychotherapist / Aftercare Coordinator
PROMIS Therapist
PROMIS Therapist
Psychiatric Nurse / PROMIS Research Associate
Nutritional Therapist and Fitness Expert
GEORGIE BAINBRIDGE MBPsS
Consultant Therapist
RGN and Rehab Nurse
Starting as a Surgical Nurse Jo provided after- care for elective and emergency surgery at Maidstone Hospital.
Commencing with PROMIS Clinics in 2012, Jo trained as a Rehab Nurse. She thoroughly enjoys this professional arena as it combines her general nursing skills with her interest in mental health and means that she can employ a broader, more holistic skill set.
Jo's main interest is in prescription drug addictions and she studies the pharmacology. She provides healthcare education sessions to patients on the effects that prescribed drugs (such as Zopiclone and Zopildem for example) have on the body, their modes of action, the damage that can be done and why people become dependent or addicted.


text:
This fun little question showed up on Lockergnome earlier today. I admit, it has me stumped. I'm not sure that I could come up with just one song to be my official theme song. There are so many good ones out there which fit me… especially stuff that Weird Al Yankovic writes. Many of you will likely choose an emotional or inspirational song – something that has meaning to you. However, I'm willing to be I'm not the only goofball out there.
So let's have it: what song fits you the best? Which track is going to be your theme song? Additionally, what piece of music do you feel should tell MY life story?
- Is the new Xbox worth it?
- The words "wireless security" are an oxymoron – but there IS hope.
- When starting a small business, what pitfalls should be avoided?
- There is still no Blu-Ray on the Mac.
- How do you protect your ideas?
- Will a manufacturer replace a phone due to its having scratches on it?
- Seagate and LSI are forging ahead with new hard drive technology.
- Which older version of Windows do you prefer?
- Can an iPod Touch be used to send a fax?
- Dell has responded on their blog, to the capacitor problem they had experienced in their OptiPlex computers.
- Are you addicted to overclocking?
- What Firefox extensions can you not live without?
- The much-anticipated iPhone 4 software update will reportedly be available in a few weeks.
- Are you a single Geek looking for love in all the wrong places?
- Has your mobile device replaced your land-line at home?
- The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains.
- Which is your favorite breed of dog?
- Do you need help building a website?
- Microsoft has announced an "insta-load" battery.
- DotCloud: 21st Century business platforms are built on cloud computing.
There are no theme songs or title tracks to wade through when you visit our software center. All you'll find is the latest – and best – software and apps for all of your devices and machines.


text:
Aug 16, 2017
On this week's episode of the Success Bully Podcast, we revisit bonus content from a series featuring two amazing Boss Ladies. Amy Nelson, Co-founder & CEO of The Riveter and Tina Nole Founder and Executive Producer of Larj Media.
As an entrepreneur, I'm often so focused on that journey that I forget to harken back to my corporate days. In honor of my corporate trailblazers, we're revisiting thoughts on active leadership mentorship and taking what you learned or what you want to unlearn when building out your own business. Wherever you are with your journey, don't forget to "Build, Lead, Mentor… Repeat."


text:
FrameHold default to current frame
July 3, 2013 1 Comment
Quick one this:
Bearing in mind that 99% of the time when we create a FrameHold node we want to hold the current frame, usually as part of a frozen camera projection. Yet FrameHold defaults to frame 0. Yes, it only takes a second to peer down at the timeline and write in the frame you want, but your time is precious so why put up with that?
You can always write the word 'frame' into any value and it will turn into the current frame number, but that's still 5 key taps that you, a person with your talents, shouldn't have to be making.
If you have access to your menu.py, simply add this line to make every FrameHold you make automatically use the current frame when it's created (should be all one line):
nuke.menu('Nodes').addCommand( "Time/FrameHold", "nuke.createNode('FrameHold')['first_frame'].setValue( nuke.frame() )", icon='FrameHold.png')
It's nothing complicated, just overrides the normal FrameHold menu item, creates a FrameHold in the same way, but uses the nuke.frame() function to grab the current frame number at the time of creation.


text:
Your shopping cart is empty
In stock
Add a sparkling finish to all of your celebration cakes and cupcakes with this Black edible pump spray by Sugarflair.
This non-aerosol edible glitter pump spray in Black is perfect for giving your celebration cakes and decorations a sparkling finish.
To use, simply hold the spray approx 10-20cm away from the cake and spray in short, gentle bursts.
Colour carrier: potassium aluminium silicate E555; colours: titanium dioxide E171, iron oxide E172, vegetable carbon E153.
Allergy Advice:
Suitable for vegetarians & vegans.
Gluten free & Kosher certified.


text:
Review: DJ Shadow, The Mountain Will Fall
The album is slack, with perfunctory ideas waiting impatiently for guest stars to enliven them through association.2.0
DJ Shadow's 1996 landmark Endtroducing… was about as ambitious a slacker monument as had ever been committed to wax (or at least Mo' Wax), a carefully curated quilt of influences, samples, and breakbeats. By comparison, The Mountain Will Fall is just slack, with perfunctory ideas waiting impatiently for guest stars to enliven them through association. Where once Josh Davis's ideas seemed to spill forth from his record crates like blood from the Overlook Hotel's elevators, the innovation has scabbed over on The Mountain Will Fall. The cross-crossing genres of both Endtroducing… and 2002's The Private Press gave off the impression of tilting from an overhead view of a topographical map and beholding the suddenly three-dimensional perspective of where music was and where it would be going; The Mountain Will Fall is devoid of elevation.
Actually, it's not all so bad. The opening title track, a single-minded but hopeful dirge, gives off a broken, metallic vibe suggesting something far greater to follow. Unfortunately, the prelude might be the strongest element in the entire set. It takes a special kind of listlessness to make the contributions of collaborator Nils Frahm (whose soundtrack to last year's Victoria was one of the most gorgeous slow burns in recent movie history) sound impatient and unfocused. That's to say nothing of how stifled Davis lets the ferocious Run the Jewels sound on "Nobody Speak," a sadly fitting title when held up against the likes of RTJ's own recent output. The only more fitting title, in fact, would be the album's own. How the mighty have fallen.
Label: Mass Appeal Release Date: June 24, 2016 Buy: Amazon
Review: King Buzzo's Gift of Sacrifice Brazenly Veers Off the Beaten Path
The album sacrifices conventionality for weirder, wider possibilities.3.5
Despite its peculiar, even revolutionary approach to the acoustic singer-songwriter format, This Machine Kills Artists, the solo debut from the Melvins's Buzz Osborne—a.k.a. King Buzzo—generated buzz (pun intended) almost exclusively among the band's faithful. Now, as if to encourage a second look at his pursuit of heretofore unrealized sounds, Osborne has delivered Gift of Sacrifice, another album that veers off the beaten path.
On This Machine Kills Artists, Osborne plowed through 17 propulsive numbers that rarely broke the three-minute mark in the process of reimagining the acoustic guitar as a primarily rhythmic, at times almost percussive, instrument. In contrast, Gift of Sacrifice offers mostly lengthy atmospheric tracks that achieve a dark, pensive beauty, in large part due to the added presence of Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, who's featured throughout the album. "Delayed Clarity" begins with a series of brooding, heavily strummed acoustic chords to which Osborne eventually adds a gorgeously melancholic guitar lick. Two minutes into the song, Osborne begins to sing, and Dunn uses his standup bass to create—with the help of substantial delay effects—an eerie, swirling soundscape that submerges the track's vocals in a psychedelic fog.
In the course of inventing their own brand of overpowering sludge metal, the Melvins have been often overlooked for their experimentation, but Gift of Sacrifice—with "Delayed Clarity" as its centerpiece—often spotlights Osborne's masterful ability to explore strange worlds of sound by slowing down the pace and emphasizing texture over melody. "Housing, Luxury, Energy" reverses the structure of "Delayed Clarity," with another set of brooding, heavily strummed chords accompanied by simultaneous tracks of Dunn's arco patterns, including a scraping, atonal noise. Over more than six minutes, the song intensifies to the point where Osborne's baying vocals and thunderous strumming produce an overwhelming maelstrom. The common thread of Osborne's two solo albums is the transference of metal's sonic density to the acoustic realm, and with this track and most of Gift of Sacrifice he's especially succeeded, with Dunn providing thick foundational tones for extra heaviness.
Motifs of our oppressive, delusional, and arrogant ways seem to pervade Gift of Sacrifice. The surprisingly catchy "I'm Glad I Could Help Out" possesses a creepy, lurching rhythm aided by Dunn's plucked bass notes as well as Osborne's lyrical portrait of endurance through persecution: "They came to terrorize/The wisest of the wise/You have to survive/Before you can do anything." While possessing only a rough intelligibility, the lyrical fragments on "Science in Modern America" appear to paint an all-too-relevant portrait of intellectual and moral decrepitude: "Forget everything and face nothing" is one such fragment, and it speaks volumes as to how Osborne views a world ruled by ignorance and cowardice.
The biggest surprise on Gift of Sacrifice is "Mock She," perhaps the first "Hey, foxy mama" song that Osborne has ever written. It's certainly the album's breeziest offering, even as various elements undermine any straightforward sentiment it might express. After all, Osborne's idea of a come-on is "Hey, baby, if you do what you've been told/My insulation's gone, girl/You make me overload." And as if to further suggest the breakdown of the authoritarian, mechanical narrator, his voice eventually disintegrates in a metallic gurgle while Dunn's frantic bassline becomes increasingly atonal and arrhythmic.
Gift of Sacrifice flirts with such chaos, though sometimes in a compartmentalized manner: Three tracks, including the opener and closer, are short instrumentals that might have been elongated for further immersive and exploratory effect. Otherwise, the album is an off-kilter musical gift born of Osborne's sacrifice of conventionality for weirder, wider possibilities.
Label: Ipecac Release Date: August 14, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: Aminé's Limbo Skillfully Melds Traditional and Modern Hip-Hop Modes
The album proves that the rapper can keep pace with his contemporaries while drawing on the history of hip-hop.3.5
On the intro to his 2018 mixtape, Onepointfive, Aminé demonstrated his talent for verbose, declaratory scene-setting. The opening track of the Portland-based rapper's second studio album, Limbo, likewise sets the stage with a chopped soul sample-driven beat and telling references to hip-hop's past (Jay-Z) and future (Rico Nasty), while unfurling some of the moral concerns plaguing his thoughts. The album also contains new spins on the dormant practice of skits, and one such interlude pays tribute to the late Kobe Bryant, while others serve as outros for the tracks "Riri" and "Fetus." These skits find Aminé conversationally musing to himself and his friends about growing older and his place in the world, and they're a welcome, thoughtful nod to the rap opuses of yesteryear.
By the album's halfway point, though, it's clear that this isn't just another throwback, as Aminé's full-bodied beats, vintage soul samples, and clever rhymes set him up as a deserving carrier of Kanye West's torch. "Roots" features R&B/funk icon Charlie Wilson, a favored collaborator of Kanye, while "Pressure in My Palms" includes a reference to the origin of the divisive rapper's beef with Taylor Swift, as well as a brief but unmistakable interpolation of Kanye's 2005 track "We Major." On "Mama," Aminé lovingly sings the praises of his mother and her herculean efforts to raise him, as if in homage to Kanye's "Hey Mama"—though the song also links to 2Pac's "Dear Mama."
One of the album's more complex lyrical moments, "Becky" is an examination of racial inequality in America that centers on Aminé's suburban upbringing, repeatedly returning to the line "Mama said/don't ever bring a white girl home to me." The song fascinatingly looks at the contradictions between the behaviors of individuals and the trends of the masses, a kind of liminality hinted at in the album's title. Aminé is also frequently caught between his swagger and his conscience, resulting in a moral ambiguity that's further explored on "Fetus," which, in another stroke of highly uncharacteristic attitudes in rap, ponders the potential harms of bringing a child into the world. The production of these songs, like much of the rest of the album, is unhurried, allowing Aminé to enunciate words fully, the percussion patiently churning and the guitar lines slowly strummed.
Aminé isn't quite as good a singer as he is a rapper, and certain songs, like "Compensating" and "Riri," feel encumbered by their repetitive hooks. But when he's spitting verses, Aminé's bars feel as painstakingly worked out as those of J. Cole, though his looser, more blasé demeanor saves him from the strident handwringing of the North Carolina MC. (Cole would not, for example, say "Get off my dick and my balls" with the gusto that Aminé manages here.)
In melding traditional hip-hop form with just the right amount of modern trap verve, Limbo makes the case for Aminé, if not as the next great rapper, then as a pop-rap workhorse. The album proves that he can keep pace with his contemporaries while drawing on the history of the genre in ways many of today's innovators are unconcerned with engaging.
Label: Republic Release Date: August 7, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: Glass Animals's Dreamland Relies Too Heavily on the Mundanities of Reality
The album makes room for evocative, sensory lyrics and sonics that verge on the cinematic, but it also spends a lot of time on the mundane.3
Glass Animals's Dreamland blurs the line between dreams and reality, winding its way through a diaristic tour of frontman Dave Bayley's life. The album catalogues the singer-songwriter's relationships, observations, and growing pains with a typically felt and colorful attention toward the senses. As such, it's more personal than either of the band's previous two efforts, but that also means that it sacrifices the kaleidoscopic alignment of feeling and imagination that helped make those albums so distinct. It's a bit of a trade-off, then, as the change in subject matter allows Glass Animals to find new direction, but their previous mode of world-building was, in some ways, more satisfying.
The band's 2014 debut, Zaba, was seemingly dispatched from another planet, with lyrics filled with oddball imagery that was accompanied by vaguely exotic, waterlogged instrumentals and distant birdcalls, while 2016's How to Be a Human Being was a playfully literary collection of songs about a cast of fictional characters. Dreamland still makes room for evocative, sensory lyrics and sonics that verge on the cinematic, highlighting the sense of physical touch (the latter word is used several times throughout), but it also spends a lot of time on the mundane artifacts in Bayley's personal memory bank—Grand Theft Auto, hotels with "pool paintings on the wall," Scooby-Doo, The Price Is Right—to middling effect. And his expressions of lust for various lovers alternate between the pedestrian ("Sometimes all I think about is you/Late nights in the middle of June" is repeated ad nauseam on "Heat Wave") and the nonsensical ("You taste like surfing videos," from "Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth").
Throughout Dreamland, Bayley remains fixated on the carnal escapes that make reality bearable, like sex and drugs, and the fleetingness of those pleasures, which Glass Animals explores with a knowing wisdom. The band's songs toe the line between dissecting such coping mechanisms and offering an escape of their own: Their bouncy keys, irrepressible melodies, and Bayley's malleable vocals are intoxicating in their own right, belying the fact that these songs are keenly aware of how temporary their pleasures are.
The standout "Your Love (Déjà Vu)" perfectly encapsulates this threading of the needle, pairing twirling flute and celebratory, horn-like synths with lyrics such as, "I know you want one more night/And I'm backsliding/Into this just one more time." The relationship described on the song is a momentary fix whose dwindling potency is conveyed by Glass Animals in such a way that suggests time is running out and that they're making the absolute most of it.
As Dreamland pivots from polished indie rock to electro-pop to hip-hop, it largely sidelines Drew MacFarlane's guitar, which is only front and center on the self-professed B-side "Melon and the Coconut." Thumping 808s and skittering hi-hats dominate songs like "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" and "Heat Wave," replacing the shuffling drums, marimbas, and raw-material-inspired percussion of the band's prior work, and it's surprisingly refreshing. "Tangerine" incorporates a staccato beat that sounds almost identical to the one on Drake's "Hotline Bling," while Dr. Dre is name-checked on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast," a West Coast reference that Glass Animals doubles down on by having Top Dawg fixture Derek Ali mix the track.
Like How to Be a Human Being, Dreamland moves into more vulnerable terrain in the end, but the earlier album's concluding run of emotive anthems, including "Poplar St" and "Agnes," completed a well-rounded emotional arc. Here, songs like "It's All So Incredibly Loud" and "Domestic Bliss"—which focus on a relationship's breaking point and a woman experiencing domestic abuse, respectively—make dreary use of swelling string sections, undermining what should be the album's tragic fulcrum. Instead, Dreamland's best moments are propelled by slick drum machines and Bayley's confidence as a frontman. His turn inward isn't without humor and insight, but writing about other people on past albums provided a more enveloping experience, fleshing out imagined places and people with an intrigue that's missing here.
Release Date: August 7, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: Billie Eilish's "My Future" Is an Unexpectedly Upbeat Tribute to Isolation
The singer's new single is a deceptively hopeful tribute to personal independence.
The world could use a pick-me-up right about now, but those hoping that pop singer Billie Eilish would follow up her multi-Grammy-winning debut with a "Bad Guy"-style banger will likely be disappointed by her new single, "My Future." The track, produced by brother Finneas, is the 18-year-old's first new release since February's "No Time to Die," the theme from the James Bond film of the same name, which was pushed to the end of the year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Like that song, "My Future" starts off as a dreary but gorgeous dirge, with Eilish's soulful, layered vocals stacked on top of atmospheric keyboards. Halfway through, though, the track pivots to a spry midtempo shuffle, transforming into a deceptively hopeful tribute to personal independence: "I'm in love with my future/Can't wait to meet her." During a period in history when time itself seems to have come to a halt, and the future is uncertain, the song's lyrics smack of irony: "I know supposedly I'm lonely now/Know I'm supposed to be unhappy without someone/But aren't I someone?"
Eilish gets even more animated in the music video for "My Future." The clip, directed by Australian artist Andrew Onorato, is bathed in cool blue tones before a rainstorm gives way to a more colorful palette, matching the song's shift in mood and tempo. In her isolation, Eilish appears to find solace, communing with and eventually becoming one with nature.
Watch below:
Review: With Folklore, Taylor Swift Mines Pathos from a Widening Worldview
The album anticipates questions surrounding the singer's genre bona fides and leans into each contradiction.4.5
Country and roots music are too often used as shorthand for "serious" artistry, a notion steeped in matters of race and rockist authenticity fetishes. The implication that pop music is an inherently lesser art form has been the focus of the discourse around albums by Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus in recent years. Taylor Swift's Folklore has already been subject to similar—and perhaps similarly misguided—scrutiny. That Swift has enlisted Aaron Dessner of the highly regarded indie-rock band the National as both a songwriting and producing partner—in addition to her frequent pop collaborator Jack Antonoff—and has embraced a grayscale, rustic visual aesthetic for the project has led many to declare the album a credibility maneuver or act of rebranding.
What makes Folklore such a compelling album, then, are the countless ways in which Swift, the savviest and most acutely self-conscious artist of her generation, anticipates questions surrounding her genre bona fides and leans into each apparent contradiction. She invites this degree of "What does it mean?" discursive handwringing because, on some level, it frees her to make the music she wants to make at any given moment. Folklore is neither a culmination of Swift's career to date nor a pivot in a new direction. She's doing exactly what she's always done: offering a collection of incisive, often provocative songs that incorporate authentic, first-person details and leaving others to argue over specific genre signifiers.
Song for song, Folklore finds Swift at a new peak in her command of language. While tracks like "Cardigan" and "Invisible Strings" hinge on protracted metaphors, "Mad Woman" and "Peace" are blunt and plainspoken. In every instance, what's noteworthy is Swift's precision in communicating her exact intent. "I can change everything about me to fit in," she sighs on "Mirrorball," a sentiment that's emblematic of her ability to bait autobiographical readings while also actively subverting them. If she's offering a comment on her own desire to keep up with next-gen pop stars like Billie Eilish, then the obvious follow-up question is why nothing on Folklore sounds like a viable Top 40 single. Swift's answer comes in the song's final stanza, a marvel of vulnerability: "I'm still trying everything/To keep you looking at me."
In other words, Swift's at a point in her career where she knows chart success is incidental to broad cultural impact, and she has the cachet to sacrifice the former for the sake of the latter. "All Too Well," from 2012's Red, has rightfully become one of her signature songs despite not ever having been released as a single, and that same fate seems likely for many of the tracks here. Every song on Folklore boasts at least one couplet or stanza that's simply extraordinary for its command of language, narrative voice, empathy, or some combination thereof.
The standout "Seven" first presents itself as a wistful remembrance of childhood before revealing the complexities of what we lose as we age: "Picture me in the weeds/Before I learned civility/I used to scream ferociously/Whenever I wanted." The song also presents a queer text within Swift's songwriting for the first time, which broadens the narrative voices she's employed over the course of her career. "Illicit Affairs" builds to what seems like it will be one of the singer's trademark middle-eight tone shifts, only to end abruptly without resolving into another chorus, enhancing the sense of finality in her dressing-down of a former lover. Rather than pulling her punches by repeating a catchy refrain or hook, she lets some of her bitterest lines linger, and it's one of the album's most impactful moments. Later, she sings from the POV of the rejected party on "This Is Me Trying" to devastating effect: "You told me all of my cages were mental/So I got wasted like all my potential." The track finds Swift giving credence to the other person's view of her, making for an even more believable narrator.
Swift's early albums were hamstrung by her insistence that hers was the only story to be told—that, essentially, she was the protagonist in everyone else's autobiography, and not just in her own. Folklore's shifting perspectives—an homage to heiress Rebekah Harkness on "The Last Great American Dynasty," the queer through line in the love triangle of "Cardigan," "August," and "Betty"—highlight how Swift's widening worldview has deepened her skills as a songwriter. And even if none of these tracks sound like a "hit," "Invisible String" and "This Is Me Trying" still demonstrate Swift's masterful grasp of song structure. Her use of repetition throughout the album is particularly effective: "The 1" invokes both "the greatest films of all time" and "the greatest loves of all time" as sources of regret, while each stanza on "Invisible String" begins with a line that uses passive voice to create a narrative remove.
That Swift employs her long-established songwriting tropes in novel ways is truly the most significant development on Folklore, rather than her choices of collaborators or whether the album scans as pop or alternative or electro-folk. She's mined this type of melancholy tone before, but never for the full length of an album and certainly never with such a range of perspectives. It isn't the weight of the subject matter alone that makes the album feel so vital—it's the exemplary caliber of her writing. She may sing of wasted potential, but Folklore finds Swift living up to all of the praise she earned for her songwriting earlier in career.
Label: Republic Release Date: July 24, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Taylor Swift Drops Surprise Album Folklore and Self-Directed "Cardigan" Video
The special effects-heavy clip finds the singer climbing inside a dusty upright piano and into a moss-covered fantasy world.
Less than a year after the release of her seventh album, Lover, Taylor Swift has dropped the follow-up, Folklore, along with a music video for the track "Cardigan." The singer announced the surprise release on social media early on Thursday, accompanied by a series of grayscale photos of the erstwhile country star in the woods that—though reminiscent of an A24 horror film or a metal album cover—reflects a return to a more stripped-down sound.
Reportedly shot according to CDC-recommended Covid-19 safety guidelines and overseen by a medical expert, the video for "Cardigan" was directed by Swift, who also reportedly did her own hair, makeup, and styling. The special effects-heavy clip finds the singer climbing inside a dusty upright piano and into a moss-covered fantasy world, tinkling the ivories of an overflowing grand piano at the edge of a CGI waterfall. Later, she clings to the instrument on a stormy sea before traveling back to reality.
Co-written and produced by the National's Aaron Dessner, "Cardigan" is an unassuming piano ballad notable for its pointillistic percussion and Swift's understated vocal performance. As for the titular sweater, it apparently serves as a metaphor for an artist whose love life bears the marks of more than a little wear and tear: "When I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone's bed/You put me on and said I was your favorite."
Watch the video below:
Folklore was written and recorded remotely with Dessner and features collaborations with Bon Iver, Jack Antonoff, and a mysterious songwriter billed as William Bowery (after all, it wouldn't be a Taylor Swift album without a little sleuth-baiting).
Folklore is out now on Republic Records.
Review: Ellie Goulding's Brightest Blue Trades the Garish for the Merely Palatable
The album refines the singer's sound, slowing tempos and removing sonic affectations to reveal a core of amorous pop anthems.1.5
Ellie Goulding's Brightest Blue begins with the aptly titled "Start," a tasteful, piano-driven rumination about the impossibility of new beginnings and the difficulty of overcoming past regrets. The track showcases the British singer-songwriter's knack for letting songs build and generate suspense, and her skill for creating tension with delayed yet catchy hooks. As the album wears on, though, it's clear that this opening salvo is a fluke, as the rest of the soporific set tries in vain to refine Goulding's sound, slowing tempos and removing sonic affectations to reveal a core of amorous, unmemorable pop anthems.
On past albums, Goulding used bombastic production and copious vocal processing to distract from her limited range as a singer. If not for her whimsical phrasing and over-articulation of words, her paper-thin vocals would feel virtually anonymous. She largely downplays the grandiosity on Brightest Blue, instead opting for more stripped-down ballads like "Flux" and "Woman," wherein she struggles to bring the melodies she's written to life. These tracks give the impression of an industry songwriter laying down a guide vocal for a more skilled vocalist—a notion furthered by the head-scratching decision to both interpolate Dua Lipa's "Be the One" and name check Madonna's "Material Girl" in the same breath on "Power."
Several songs on Brightest Blue utilize backup choirs, a trick Goulding has employed to maximum effect on past hits such as "Love Me Like You Do," in an attempt to raise the album's insistently midtempo pulse. Though fewer and farther between than in the past, strange computerizations mangle the singer's voice on "How Deep Is Too Deep" and "Brightest Blue," the hooks of which are either partially or fully sung via Vocoder. That these tracks' ostensible emotional pinnacles find Goulding harmonizing with a robot counterpart—her voice manipulated beyond recognition—dehumanizes her, eliciting a discomfiting irony that plays as unintentional. It might be fun if Goulding weren't so straight-faced about it all.
Goulding has tended toward painting co-dependence and submissiveness as causes for celebration. After all, she once opined, "Why don't you be the artist and make me out of clay/Why don't you be the writer and decide the words I say?" with little-to-no self-awareness on 2010's "The Writer." Here, she gestures toward self-love on "New Heights"—"Love without someone else feels right/Love for myself in this new light," she sings—and the not-so-subtly titled interlude "Ode to Myself." Yet, these attempts at thematic course correction feel bland and repetitive, and the red-flag relationship dynamics persist, such as her desire to conform herself to her lover's identity on "Tides," blithely relinquishing her own agency.
At times, it seems as if Goulding is pushing back against controlling and abusive partners, but that would require a more self-possessed and attitude-laden POV, which is entirely absent here except, perhaps, on the single "Hate Me." For the most part, she doesn't have the chops or soul of contemporaries like Florence Welch, who sings of similar subject matter with a real torch, and who shares a collaborator in Joseph Kearns, who produced almost every song on Brightest Blue. At Kearns's behest, the album takes a relatively new tack for Goulding, trading the garish for the palatable, but it's no less grating as a result.
Label: Polydor Release Date: July 17, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: Protomartyr's Ultimate Success Today Is a Visceral Portrait of Discontent
The album fuses existentially oriented lyrics with ferocious guitars and frantic percussion that sustain a sense of anxiety.4
Protomartyr's sound is forged from the bones of punk and the blood of indie rock. The Detroit four-piece delivers heady lyrics with an ironic detachment in the vein of Destroyer and the Mountain Goats, while the blistering noise and distorted intensity of their music brings to mind Sonic Youth and early Sleater-Kinney. Their fifth album, Ultimate Success Today, continues this stylistic balancing act, with existentially oriented lyrics accompanied by ferocious guitars and frantic percussion that sustain a sense of anxiety.
With their 2012 debut, No Passion All Technique, Protomartyr established an effectively brute-force post-punk approach, but by 2017's Relatives in Descent, they'd mastered the ability to prevent both the literary brawn of their lyrics and the sophistication of their musical arrangements from getting lost in the wreckage. Tracks like "Modern Business Hymns" and "The Aphorist" are reminders of the band's knack for whipping up a din and then immediately cutting through the chaos, as well as their mastery of the art of modulation—of when to let things simmer and when to let them boil over.
This approach renders the wailing and assaultive crescendos of their music that much more potent. There's a form to the function, of course. References to philosophical concepts and pre-Enlightenment literature could be considered over-thought if Protomartyr's sound didn't possess such raw immediacy. The band's emphasis on Greg Ahee's dissonant guitar lines, and their play with different levels of loudness, results in songs that prize forward motion.
A dark vision of the individual's role in society is given voice by frontman Joe Casey on "Bridge & Crown": "Everybody knows/We're holding on to little dreams/To drive our bodies down the line/Until there's nothing left." The band's catalog is strewn with such musings about life as a fulfillment of a disappointing fate, and they've perfected that obsession here. Alex Leonard's drums slam with guillotine-like efficiency, and songs often end with the spike of a minor-key chord, providing little comfort after all the tense buildup. The album externalizes the workings of a tortured mind, one whose only semblance of hope, as evoked on the final track, "Worm in Heaven," is a basic acknowledgement of existence—of having been alive and leaving a trace of that presence.
Protomartyr's despair is rooted in capitalism, whose enervating routines the band satirizes throughout Ultimate Success Today. Casey wields a stinging, well-observed disdain for the corporate world and its participants, as well as for the insidiousness of technology. The feral "Processed by the Boys" comes for the free-market patriarchy with teeth bared and guitars ablaze: "Fill out the form, download the app/Submit your face into the scanner/Everybody's hunted with a smile/Being processed by the boys." The singer's cutting truths and humor are delivered in a mode that's nearly spoken word—forceful, angry, and declarative. Elsewhere he sings with a slurred drawl that's forlorn and observant. Wishful sentiments curdle into bitter mantras like "Dignity or toil/Syndicate or gang/Rose and thorn," on "Michigan Hammers," or the titular lyric, which appears on three different songs, teasing out his pessimistic worldview in loops of self-defeat wrought by systems of productivity and profit.
At times, Ultimate Success Today can be too self-aware. On "The Aphorist," a title among several here that could double as descriptors for the band's lyrical aesthetic, Casey muses, "We're all mowing esoteric patterns in the grass." And the album is almost too neat, given Protomartyr's newfound use of saxophone, self-conscious touches like the chirping crickets at the beginning and end of a few tracks, and the seamless sequencing of songs. But the restless punk spirit and flippant, downtrodden ethos that prevail over the project render Protomartyr's painstaking intellectualizations as fuel for a visceral winding up and release of discontent.
Label: Domino Release Date: July 17, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: The Chicks's Gaslighter Is a Defiant Act of Rebranding
The band's first album in 14 years is steeped in personal and political rage.4
There's compelling data, generated largely by the work of Dr. Jada Watson of the University of Ottowa, that draws a clear correlation between the blacklisting of the Dixie Chicks from country radio and the immediate and striking downturn in airplay for all women on that format. The statistics are dire and indefensible. Though program directors and radio consultants will deny, deny, deny, there's evidence that the industry made a purposeful choice to punish all female artists for the Dixie Chicks's perceived crimes.
So, in 2020, country music really and truly needs a comeback from the Dixie Chicks, an album that will allow one of the genre's all-time greatest acts to stage a triumphant return and redress the industry's injustices over the last decade. But Gaslighter, the band's first album in 14 years, isn't it. Instead, it's a defiant act of rebranding: The Dixie Chicks are now known simply as the Chicks—a not-insignificant change that speaks to both the social power of language and to the trio's stated intent to "meet this moment" in our nation's history.
Sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer figure even less prominently on Gaslighter than they did on the band's last album, 2006's Taking the Long Way, and that's also a not-insignificant development. By teaming up with producer Jack Antonoff, the group has made a decisive transition into a pop act. It's easy to mourn the sound that defined the band, but to reject the album out of hand for its pop aesthetics is to deny them their own agency as artists.
Gaslighter emerges as a fascinating, messy album that's steeped in personal and political rage. Divorce is hardly unusual subject matter in pop and country music, but artists who record "divorce albums" often struggle with the notion that they should aspire to making their story universally accessible to listeners. Natalie Maines makes no such mistake in her songwriting here. What elevates Gaslighter above thematically similar albums is the specificity of her unflinching detail as she recounts her ongoing legal battles with ex-husband Adrian Pasdar.
On "Sleep at Night," Maines retells the story of how Pasdar brought his mistress backstage at a concert to introduce her as a fan of the band. Maines is fully in control of her narrative voice when she sings on the track: "My husband's girlfriend's husband just called me/How messed up is that?/It's so insane that I have to laugh/But then I think about our two boys trying to become men/There's nothing funny about that." Later, on "Set You Free," the soaring ballad that closes Gaslighter, she pleads, "Decency would be to sign and release me," referencing the still-festering terms of a contract dispute.
On the tracks that explicitly relate to her divorce, which is a full three-quarters of the album, Maines dispenses with the idea of a narrative remove. She sings in first person, and the details she's chosen to share are autobiographical, albeit presenting only her perspective. At times, that makes standout songs like "Hope It's Something Good" and "My Best Friend's Wedding" feel, at the very least, like voyeurism. While it's always a critical dead-end to assume that first-person narrators are stand-ins for a singer, Maines actually invites that reading: On "Gaslighter," when she sings, "Boy, you know exactly what you did on my boat," it's a marvel of bitterness. That the album later includes a song with the title "Tights on My Boat," though, lessens the mystique or possibility for interpretation or engagement.
That would be more of an issue if the songs weren't so well-constructed and engagingly performed. But that's exactly what makes Gaslighter superior to its predecessor. As part of my clinical work, I've testified as a witness in some truly nasty divorce cases, and I've never once thought to set court transcripts to a percussive four-four stomp or some Lorde-style EDM, but damned if it doesn't work for the Chicks here. "Gaslighter" and the extraordinary "March March" boast distinctive lyrical hooks, while "For Her" and "Julianna Calm Down" feature real dynamic ranges that give the tracks a sense of movement and depth. Antonoff's production choices truly draw into sharp relief Rick Rubin's conservativism at the helm of Taking the Long Way.
While the album sounds current for 2020, there are a handful of moments that suggest how much more strongly Antonoff could have leaned into the Chicks's previous style. On "For Her," Antonoff layers one of Strayer's finger-plucked banjo figures into an arrangement that explodes into a sing-along gospel chorus, while Maguire's fiddle adds a jarring, ominous tone to the instrumental outro of "March March." When working with a vocalist as powerful as Maines, the impulse to foreground her performances makes sense—and it's worth noting that "For Her," "Julianna Calm Down," and "Set Me Free" are among the finest performances of her career. But the album gives the impression that Antonoff wasn't sure how to engage fully with Maguire and Strayer's exemplary skills with traditional acoustic instruments.
By incorporating country signifiers into what is otherwise a terrific, of-the-moment pop album, Antonoff and the Chicks could have come up with a style that's even more progressive, akin to the production on Kacey Musgraves's Golden Hour. If nothing else, that highlights how the Chicks still have room to grow, either with or without Antonoff, as they move into this new phase of their career. Gaslighter may not have been the album that country music needed, but it's clearly the one that the Chicks needed to make.
Label: Columbia Release Date: July 17, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Review: Lianne La Havas's Eponymous Third Album Embraces the Catharsis of Loss
On her third album, the British singer-songwriter settles into a sense of immediacy.4
British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas is an adept storyteller, capable of both capturing who we are at our most alone and making us feel closer to one another. Her love songs conjure a striking intimacy, even when she's backed by the sumptuous BBC Symphony Orchestra in the storied Barbican Hall, and take on a degree of universality, even when she's singing directly to a video camera in her living room. But it's the latter method, when her sound is at its most stripped down, that best conveys the evocative immediacy that caught the attention of Prince, who mentored La Havas in the years before his death.
On her third album, La Havas settles into that immediacy, positioning her guitar as the beating heart of the music. The eponymous album finds her again chronicling the course of a romance, but this time she quite intentionally does away with the glossy fuss of 2015's blindingly polished Blood, subsisting throughout on her hard-earned wisdom. The album instantly feels more purposeful than its predecessor: Where Blood can feel labored over, perhaps too hungry for hits, Lianne La Havas isn't seemingly beholden to such expectations.
As she recounts the fate of a relationship from its onset to its demise, La Havas often prioritizes the passion of the moment over the logic of hindsight bias. On "Read My Mind," you can practically hear her smile as she sings, "The pure joy/When a girl meets a boy/Pure chemistry." She never loses sight of her needs, however distressing they might be. She's quick to provide counsel to herself and outright plead with her lover on "Paper Thin." Her vocal floats, at times on the verge of cracking from emotion, atop harp-like fingerpicking: "Baby, you gotta run free/Please don't forget about me." La Havas leans into the heartrending grief of prematurely losing a relationship.
A cover of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes" appears at the climax of Lianne La Havas as a fretful turning point in the album's central relationship. La Havas's version of the In Rainbows track is slower and earthier than Radiohead's more cerebral original, yet it retains all of its fragility. Radiohead articulates the unspoken fears and doubts that occupy a night spent overthinking, and La Havas is seized by the same impulse to verbalize her grievances, gingerly handling the painful edges of rejection and abandonment, albeit with more self-compassion.
Sonically, the warbly synth of "Courage" and frantic drumming of "Seven Times" don't feel too far removed from In Rainbows's sonic palette. But La Havas's style remains tricky to pin down, existing somewhere in the nexus of the soulful warmth of Corinne Bailey Rae, the confessional lyricism of Amy Winehouse, and the folky melodicism of Joni Mitchell. To call it soul music would be reductive; too many black artists have hastily been assigned the label just for the color of their skin, a restrictive tendency that La Havas herself has railed against. But without a doubt, La Havas makes soul music insofar as it originates from the soul.
The album's twinkling denouement, "Sour Flower," depicts the metamorphosis that can occur after overcoming a breakup. La Havas's voice is rich and robust as she belts, "I'm not crying over you/When I cry/Now I'm free." She attains catharsis by providing herself refuge and realizing that she can heal herself. She leaves us with an empowering moral: that we possess the ability to revive our spirits after loss, and that it may well be boundless.
Label: Nonesuch Release Date: July 17, 2020 Buy: Amazon
Interview: Alejandro Jodorowsky on Psychomagic, the Theater of Cruelty, and More
Interview: Kate Lyn Sheil on Calibrating Her Performance in She Dies Tomorrow
Review: HBO's Lovecraft Country Confronts the Evil Lurking Beneath American Life
Review: Aminé's Limbo Skillfully Melds Traditional and Modern Hip-Hop Modes
Review: Sputnik Toils in the Long Shadow Cast by Ridley Scott's Alien
Review: Get Duked! Is a Cheeky Mashup of Social Critique and Genre Thrills
Review: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Is More Like the Ultimate Pain
Review: Martin Margiela: In His Own Words Celebrates Secrecy as Fashion Power
Blu-ray Review: America as Seen by a Frenchman Joins the Arrow Academy
Review: Boys State Presents an Aptly Dire Microcosm of American Politics
- Features5 days ago
Interview: Alejandro Jodorowsky on Psychomagic, the Theater of Cruelty, and More
- Features6 days ago
Interview: Kate Lyn Sheil on Calibrating Her Performance in She Dies Tomorrow
- TV6 days ago
Review: HBO's Lovecraft Country Confronts the Evil Lurking Beneath American Life
- Music7 days ago
Review: Aminé's Limbo Skillfully Melds Traditional and Modern Hip-Hop Modes


text:
When you are building the electrical system for a big truck, you need to have the right parts on hand to make it happen. That means you need a good supplier for all the parts that you need. You can accept only the best parts and circuits so you can do a good job. You will need dividers and splits and so much more. When you think about it, you will need a great deal of parts like the rf power dividers to do the job.
You can find all the parts that you need to build a good truck electrical system in one place. There is no margin for error and you need the best parts for the job. Just think what it will be like to get all the parts you need whenever you need them. You can build all the electrical systems that you want in a timely manner.
Consider all that you will need and make a list. Then go online to find a seller that you can count on. They should be a company with a good reputation and a solid history of providing electrical parts and service to people just like you. Go with only the very best that you can find. Accept no imitations. You can find reliable parts at wholesale prices when you look online for them.
Make your project all that it can be with the right parts. Think about all that you will need for future projects as well. It is a good idea to have plenty of parts on hand if you do this for a living. With that, you can be sure that you can handle any situations that arise. You can split power and divide it all day long. Your truck electrical system will be great.


text:
Find A Medicine
Welcome to the Passport Health Plan Online Preferred Drug List (PDL)!
This easy-to-use tool is just for you – members of Passport Health Plan.
The tool will let you look up medicines and find out if they are covered
by Passport Health Plan. To get started, click on the link below.
Call us with any questions:
Please call us Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.:
- If you have questions about this webpage,
- If you have questions about your prescription drug coverage, or
- To get a hard copy of our Preferred Drug List
Toll-free: 1-800-578-0603, then press 2


text:
Offers subject to change or withdrawal, availability
is limited. Some discounts are not combinable.
Day 2: Prague
Prague has been a magnet for artists, writers, scientists and composers for centuries. It also boasts great beer, a lively art scene, stunning castles and up-and-coming fashion designers, making it a fun as well as a beautiful place to visit. Explore Prague through the eyes of Jewish author Franz Kafka on a tour of Prague's Jewish Quarter.
(Breakfast Buffet)
Day 3: Prague to Nuremberg (Embark)
Transfer from your hotel in Prague to your ship in Nuremberg.
(Breakfast Buffet)
Day 4: Nuremberg
Upon your arrival in Nuremberg, you'll delve straight into the city's highlights with a visit to Nuremberg Castle, an impressive medieval complex in the heart of the historical center. Experience the city like a local on a walking tour that will bring you to iconic spots and lesser-known gems. You'll also be able to learn the intriguing history of the Jewish people in Nuremberg during World War II. Dive into the significance of Nuremberg's role in Jewish culture with a Jewish Nuremberg and WWII outing.
In the evening, a special Captain's Welcome Reception and Dinner will be prepared for you.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Welcome Dinner)
Day 5: Regensburg
Spend the morning discovering Regensburg's long line of dukes, kings and bishops that called the former Bavarian capital and Free Imperial City home. Find your need for speed with a tour of the state-of-the-art BMW factory. Tour the carmaker's futuristic plant and learn how it has cranked out millions of automobiles. Alternatively, join your local guide for a walking tour through Regensburg's fascinating Jewish Quarter.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Dinner)
Day 6: Straubing, Deggendorf, Vilshofen
Nestled between Regensburg and Passau sits a town surrounded by the foothills of the Bavarian Forest, Deggendorf. Journey deep into the alluring Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany's first national park, and discover outdoor leisure at its best. In Straubing, uncover the Bavarian town's deep-rooted love for all things food and drink. Amid its bustling town center lined with shops, offices, pedestrian areas and restaurants serving up traditional German food and beer, is a city with a fascinating story.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Dinner)
Day 7: Vilshofen, Passau
A new day brings new experiences in the "City of Three Rivers," Passau, where the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers join together, at one time bringing an influx of wealth and culture into the region. Take to the German city by foot and explore its splendid mix of old and new. Marvel at the Italian baroque-style St. Stephen's Cathedral, which holds the second largest church pipe organ in the world.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Dinner)
Day 8: Weissenkirchen
Start your day in the heart of the Danube's Wachau Valley, strolling through Weissenkirchen's idyllic wine village while sampling mouth watering apricot treats. Named for its white church that dominates the landscape, the city is flanked by vineyard-lined hills, historic houses and beautiful courtyards. The Melk Abbey is a baroque monastery and sits atop a rocky formation overlooking the Danube.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Dinner)
Day 9: Vienna
On this day, explore the "City of Waltzes" and dive into its vast artistic legacy with your choice of tours. The city is known for its imperial palaces, famous residents and expansive art collections. See the Musikverein, a beautiful concert hall that is home to the Vienna Philharmonic. Or discover Viennese history at the World Museum Vienna, renowned for its collection of Habsburg family treasures. Explore the "City of Waltzes" from a new perspective on a Jewish Vienna excursion.
In the evening, a special Captain's Farewell Reception and Dinner will be prepared for you.
(Breakfast Buffet, Lunch, Farewell Dinner)
Day 10: Vienna (Disembark)
Disembark the ship. If your cruise package includes a group departure transfer or if you have purchased a private departure transfer, you will be transferred to Vienna International Airport for your flight home.
(Continental Breakfast, Breakfast Buffet)
Enjoy the great outdoors and bespoke experiences along the Danube in cities that inspired fairy tales. Prague boasts Hradcany, the biggest, and arguably the most extraordinary, castle in the world, and an Old Jewish Quarter that's witnessed both hardships and celebrations for centuries. Discover the old walled city and Nuremberg's mesmerizing castles on the Nuremberg Panoramic City Tour. Confront and explore the region's complicated and devastating history as you visit infamous Nazi documentation centers and party rally grounds. Stroll through countless enchanting old towns and villages, with plenty of "Let's Go" opportunities for hiking and biking in Regensburg, Straubing, Deggendorf, Vilshofen, Passau and Engelhartszell – all teeming with magnificent architecture, age-old tradition and outstanding breweries. Explore Weissenkirchen and its devastatingly-beautiful landscapes. Participate in a "Village Day," and stroll through towns accompanied by wine, apricot treats and a vineyard hike. In the historical capital of Vienna, you'll be met with glorious food, wine, art and outdoor experiences all on your search for new inspiration along the Danube.
Included in your 3-day stay:
$729 per person (for 2 guests)
For solo travelers, there is a single supplement of $399.
Note: This extension is for cruise/tours that begin or end in Vienna.
The prices shown are U.S. dollars per person, based on double occupancy, and subject to availability. Prices quoted for land/cruise arrangements are subject to increase without notice. Once we have received your deposit, land/cruise prices are guaranteed. Air prices quoted via phone or email are subject to increase and are guaranteed only from the time that full payment is received. Also, air prices or air promotions mentioned on this site or on the phone do not include baggage fees imposed by airlines. Sorry, we are unable to offer air from countries other than the U.S. However, for those international customers who are able to arrange their own transportation to the trip origination city, we are able to offer the land/cruise portion of the package at the price quoted.
Copyright © 2020 by Vacations To Go. All rights reserved. CST 2072920-50


text: RouterBOARD 911G-5HPacD is our low-cost small form factor CPE board with 802.11ac support. It's perfect for building low-cost 802.11ac CPE devices, as the list price is only $79. Yet, the device is very powerful- it's equipped with 720MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet port, power jack and 1300mW 802.11ac 5GHz Dual Chain wireless onboard. Comes with RouterOS L3 license.


text:
Environment: JBoss 3.2.2 (Production), JDK 1.4.1
I have several JBoss servers clustered together, with farmed MBeans running on each. What is the best way to remotely connect to these MBeans from a client without requiring the client to specify a particular server (in other words, the MBeans need to be location-transparent to the client).
Also, how would a client get a list of all of these MBeans running across the entire cluster?
You should probably look into the direction of jmx-rmi-invoker. I haven't used this myself though.
-- Juha


text:
This will be our last year in San Diego before we move again. Instead of planning a bunch of big-ticket trips, we've decided to make a San Diego bucket list and make the most of the time we have left in this beautiful area.
I've broken the list down into activities, landmarks, food, breweries and wine. I have two kids under five, so some of these items are not age appropriate, but I do have a few notes at the end.
San Diego Bucket List
San Diego Zoo
- San Diego Zoo at night
Sea World Legoland& Legoland Hotel Knottsberry Farm
- Disneyland
Seaport Village
- Safari Park
- Tidepooling Point Loma
- Tidepooling La Jolla
- Grunion run
- Apple pick in Julian
- Kayak La Jolla Caves
- SUP Mission Bay
- Del Mar Fair
Bike Coronado Bike Mission Bay Bike Ocean Beach
- Bike Oceanside
- Hike Torrey Pines
- Hornblower Cruise
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
- San Diego Museum of Art
- Midway Museum
New Children's Museum
- Museum of Man
- Salk Institute
Ski Big Bear
- Padres game
- Gulls game
Christmas Card Lane
- Surfliner to San Juan Capistrano
- Zoomars Petting Zoo
Balboa Park Old Point Loma Lighthouse Mt. Helix
- Mt. Soledad
Cabrillo National Monument
- Mission San Diego de Alcala
- Mission San Juan Capistrano
- Star of India
- Extraordinary Desserts
- Hammond's Gourmet Ice Cream
- Donut Bar
- Nomad Donuts
- Juniper & Ivy
- WhisknLadle
- Cucina Urbana
- Puesto
- Great Maple
Soda & Swine
- Pizza Port
- Prep Kitchen
- Hodad's
- C-Level Lounge
- The Prado
- Marine Room
- Hotel Del Brunch
- Cafe Sevilla
- Asti Ristorante
Breweries and Wine:
Temecula Wine Tour(Wilson Creek Winery is kid friendly) Stone Brewery(kid friendly dining) Ballast Point Tasting Room
- Modern Times Brewery
- Green Flash Brewery
- AleSmith
- Mission Brewery
Coronado Brewing Company(kid friendly dining)
- Karl Strauss Brewery
- 32 North Brewery
I tried to make this list family friendly, but there are some places we would rather not bring small children. Nicer restaurants, wineries, breweries, etc.
BUT, I was pleasantly surprised by a winery and a few breweries for their family friendly atmosphere. We LOVE to go to Wilson Creek Winery for their White Cabernet and a peaceful picnic in the grass.
If you've every lived or visited San Diego and have something you think I should add to my list, I'd love to hear about it!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016


text:
Flashback Fridays: Black Moon - I Got Cha Opin Remix
Purchase Black Moon's "Diggin' In Dah Vaults" album here in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/diggin-in-dah-
Posted by @QWorldstar
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Roast Shoulder of Lamb With Rhubarb
A seasonal rolled boneless shoulder lamb roast with fresh rhubarb and served with a light gravy made with stock, sweet cider or apple juice. Great family roast or one for entertaining.
Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4-5, 180-190°C, 350-375°F.
Place the joint on a chopping board and make several slits over the surface with a sharp knife. Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon on both sides and into the slits.
Transfer the joint to a metal rack in a large non-stick roasting tin and roast for the preferred, calculated cooking time, basting occasionally with any meat juices.
30 minutes before the end of the cooking time remove the roast from the oven, put the lamb on a plate and remove the rack from the tin.
Add the rhubarb to the base of the tin and drizzle over the honey. Position the lamb on top of the rhubarb. Brush the surface of the joint with the rhubarb and ginger conserve and return to the oven for the remainder of the cooking time.
Remove the joint from the oven with the rhubarb, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the light gravy; spoon off any excess fat from the roasting tin and discard. Place the tin over a medium heat and sprinkle over the flour. Stir well with a small whisk or spoon, add a little stock and stir again, scraping the base of the pan to release any rich lamb sediment.
Add the remaining stock, cider or apple juice and any meat juices from the lamb plate. Adjust the seasoning if required and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain before serving.
Serve the lamb with seasonal vegetables and the gravy.
This recipe works well with half lamb shoulder joints too.
Cooking Times
Medium: 25 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 25 minutes
Well done: 30 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 30 minutes
- Serves: 6
- Preparation Time: 20 minutes
- Cooking Time: For 3lb, 1 hour 15 minutes
1.3kg/3lb lean rolled boneless lamb shoulder joint
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
10ml/2tsp ground cinnamon
60ml/4tbsp rhubarb and ginger conserve
225g/8oz fresh rhubarb, roughly chopped
30ml/2tbsp runny honey
For the Light Gravy:
25g/1oz plain flour
600ml/1pint good, hot lamb stock
75ml/2½fl oz sweet cider or apple juice


text:
With a swag of awards under its belt including Architecture/Residential Construction Winner 2001 Design Awards, Intergrain Timber Awards Best Residential Interior 2001 and Master Builder Awards Best Custom Home over $700,000 for the South West Region, this residential project is truly something that Buckby Electrical is very proud of.
Designed by multi-award winning John Wardle Architects to create an optical instrument and built with impeccable attention to detail through Lyons Constructions, the dwelling itself comprises of four bedrooms, four bathrooms, two living spaces, lift, study, gym, spacious open plan kitchen and dining and an external spa area. Rigorous attention to detail was required by the Buckby Electrical crew to ensure exacting standards were meet including testing and re-testing of automated systems controlling lighting, security and blinds.


text:
Bayern Munich 2-0 Juventus: Robben Torments Juve's Left, Vucinic Sorely MissedApril 2, 2013
A very watchable game at the Allianz Arena ended 2-0 to Bayern Munich thanks to a wonderful first half performance.
The Bavarian outfit opened the scoring within the first minute: a David Alaba shot from 30 yards was deflected into the far corner of the net leaving Gianluigi Buffon helpless. Thomas Mueller sealed the win in the second half with a tap-in, but Bayern will feel they should have scored more.
At halftime Gianluca Vialli branded what he saw the worst 45 minutes Juventus have played under Antonio Conte on Sky Italia and he was probably correct.
Let's break the game down from a tactical point of view.
It's always interesting to see a 4-2-3-1 come up against the 3-5-2 because of the many permutations possible in exposing each others' weaknesses.
Conte selected Federico Peluso at left-wing-back while Mirko Vucinic wasn't well enough to start after catching the flu. Jupp Heynckes went with a very predictable lineup, with the only change coming in Luiz Gustavo replacing Javi Martinez due to suspension.
Early stages
Apart from the obvious setback of Alaba's goal, Juventus looked quite comfortable in the opening 10 minutes.
Toni Kroos, playing as a No. 10, was asked to man-mark Andrea Pirlo and attempt to stop him dictating the play from his regista role in Conte's three-man midfield.
He did a good job stopping Pirlo's vertical threat, but the Italian found Peluso and Lichtsteiner several times with lateral passes.
In the 16th minute, Kroos appeared to pull his hamstring and went off injured—it's never nice to see a player go off, but this was a blessing in disguise for Bayern.
Heynckes was forced to bring Arjen Robben on and switch Mueller inside, resulting in a rampant Dutch winger eager to prove why it was wrong to leave him on the bench.
He immediately began to attack Peluso whenever possible and took him to school in the wide areas. Giorgio Chiellini came inside from the wide areas to help but he too was taken to the cleaners.
Before the game, it was clear the plan would be to try and expose Peluso. Conte taking him over Kwadwo Asamoah was a very conservative selection, but the extent of which Robben pummeled him was almost beyond belief.
Bayern were hitting the byline with every opportunity and pinging low balls into the box: high balls are usually won by Juve's towering defensive line, but firing in low balls is a tactic even Conte uses when fielding Martin Caceres to feed Alessandro Matri.
After a promising spell in the first 15 minutes for the Old Lady, Robben became the catalyst for a dominant 30-minute spell for die Bayern.
Juve's shortcomings
Throughout the first half, it was evident that Juventus were struggling to keep the ball.
They looked flustered, which is a rarity, and many mistakes were made across the defensive line which placed the team under immense pressure.
The mistakes were a result of pressing: Kroos, then Mueller as his replacement, and Mario Mandzukic ran their hearts out for the side. Mueller ran an immense 12.53 km on the night, while Mandzukic managed 10.91 km (via Sky Sports Events Centre).
When Pirlo did receive the ball, he didn't get much to look at.
This was partially down to the man-marking job, but also down to a certain lack of Vucinic. The Montenegrin does not get the credit he deserves, but this encounter will serve as a global reminder of how instrumental he is.
He's the link between the forward line and Pirlo, and without him fit Juve have no one else capable of fulfilling the deep-lying forward role.
Matri and Fabio Quagliarella are two pure strikers—a poacher and a channel-runner respectively—and have never had the skillset to cope with receiving the ball under the amount of pressure Bayern exerted.
Even Claudio Marchisio was made anonymous, and if Bastian Schweinsteiger and co. managed that, Matri had absolutely no chance.
Final stages
After Buffon's error to make it 2-0, Juventus felt a goal would still make it a mental victory for themselves.
Conte threw on a half-fit Vucinic and the difference was, dare I say, miraculous.
He linked the back line to the forwards and helped Juventus build momentum and pressure instantaneously. With Sebastian Giovinco on too, the Bianconeri went 4-4-2 with Chiellini at left-back in a Hail Mary attempt.
The Montenegrin gave Juventinos an agonising glance of what this game could have been had he started, and also made it clear to Conte that it's a position that needs shoring up—perhaps every effort should have been made to secure Fernando Llorente six months earlier.
Bayern still threatened, of course, through the hardworking Mandzukic and electric pairing of Robben and Franck Ribery, but the zest on Juve's midfield was almost unrecognisable.
Credit, though, to Dante and co. who withstood random spells of pressure to secure a clean sheet. The Brazilian was at his best, read the game superbly and saw off a variety of different threats in three different types of striker.
Overall, the defence's concentration levels were spot on.
It's not over, but it's a tough call for Juve.
Bayern's clean sheet at home was vital, and Robben admitted in the post-match interview on Sky Sports 2 that he'd have taken a 1-0.
A backlash ensues at the Juventus Stadium, but the Old Lady will be missing key men in Arturo Vidal and Stephan Lichtsteiner after they picked up bookings.
Javi Martinez will be back and you can expect Bayern to slow the tempo right down and frustrate.
Lastly, congratulations Bayern for a scintillating performance.


text:
Should some Ohio Medicaid recipients have to pay premiums?
Posted January 18, 2016 in Selected Press
Tens of thousands of low-income Ohioans could lose Medicaid coverage under a state plan to charge premiums and impose penalties on those who miss the payments, advocates for the poor warn.
Tens of thousands of low-income Ohioans could lose Medicaid coverage under a state plan to charge premiums and impose penalties on those who miss the payments, advocates for the poor warn.
"Poor people have trouble paying premiums because their choices are too hard. Rent, car repairs, utility bills. Even if they pay up and come back on (Medicaid), there is a disruption in care, and you may not take your medicine for a few months or get the treatment you need," said Wendy Patton, senior project director for Policy Matters, a progressive research group.
"It will work against the kind of good results we've seen with Medicaid expansion."
State officials plan to ask federal regulators later this year to allow premiums to be charged to nondisabled, working-age adults on Medicaid who have incomes of less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,200 a year. The requirement would affect more than 1 million of the 3 million Ohioans covered by the tax-funded health insurance.
Under the proposal, premiums -- the lesser of 2 percent of household income or $99 annually ($8.25 a month) -- would be paid into a modified health savings account. If premiums are 60 days late, Medicaid coverage is suspended until the money is paid; pregnant women are exempted.
The plan is subject to approval by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as premiums are not allowed under current law. Federal officials have approved premiums in states such as Indiana, Oregon and Wisconsin, but none has guidelines as strict as what Ohio proposes.
Based on the experience in other states, advocates project that premiums could result in an enrollment decline of up to 15 percent and cause those with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension or mental illness to go without care or medications.
"You could have someone with schizophrenia, or someone who has been recently hospitalized or who can't get their insulin, all sorts of circumstances," said Jon Honeck, a fellow with the Center for Community Solutions.
Supporters discounted the gloomy predictions.
"It's pretty ridiculous to say this will be an undue burden when premiums for most will be $1 or $2 a month," said state Rep. Jim Butler, R-Oakwood.
In the state budget passed last summer, the legislature directed Gov. John Kasich's administration to seek the federal waiver. The goals are to reduce overall Medicaid costs and encourage personal responsibility among beneficiaries.
Premiums, Butler said, are not to make the state money but to create an incentive for beneficiaries to get care in the proper setting and adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Health savings accounts would allow participants to earn points that are equal to dollars. For instance, a participant can earn points for quitting smoking or lowering his blood pressure or blood-sugar level. A preventive-care visit involves no points, but non-emergency use of a hospital emergency room costs points.
"Savings comes from people getting care in the right place and improved health outcomes," Butler said.
Ohio's $3 billion Medicaid program eats up the largest chunk of the state budget, and lawmakers have to rein in costs, said Rep. Robert Sprague, R-Findlay, another supporter of the plan.
The state's recent expansion of eligibility brought an additional 650,000 onto Medicaid rolls. The federal government is covering the additional expense for now, but next year, costs start to shift over to the state.
Sprague, referring to the proposed premium, said, "For 2 percent, they get a gold-plated medical card. The contribution is important. You become very price conscious when your own money is at stake."
Lawmakers also included in the budget a requirement that medical providers other than emergency rooms give all patients, in advance, a breakdown of costs, how much the insurers will pay and how much the patients will owe. That begins next year and does not require federal approval.
Patients "can shop (for medical care) just like we shop for cars or food," Sprague said.
Original Article: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016...


text:
Shambhala Art and Meditation Retreat
For a week at the beginning of January, a group of us attended a Shambhala Art and Meditation Retreat at Fynbos Estate, near Malmesbury.
Mary Anne Botha – a trained Shambhala art teacher – led the retreat, along with Andras Hajdu, who joined her from France as a co-director. Nicola Savage and Delany Middleton provided key support and co-ordination, doing the lion's share of behind-the-scenes-work so that those of us attending the retreat could focus on the teachings.
What is Shambhala Art?
Well, taking our cue from Trungpa Rinpoche's book "True Perception," it's art as the practice of non-aggression.
By giving us the opportunity to work in a wide variety of artforms – including acting, singing, writing, calligraphy and object arranging – and coupling perceptual and expressive exercises with meditation, study and contemplation – Mary Anne and Anras skillfully introduced us to artistic expression as a potential path of awakening.
The trick is to use the artmaking process – no matter what you're making – as a support to bring you back to the vividness and spaciousness of the present moment – the basic goodness that's available everywhere, at all times.
In this way, it's no different to meditation.


text:
Jan 07, 2015 7:48 PM GMT
Hi guys I'm here asking for any tips you all may have on starting a new gym routine. I haven't been to the gym in a wile and want to get back. The last couple of times I've been I went straight to the pool/hot tube area but I want to start working out but it seems like such a chore. I want to start the RJ strength foundation workout but I just cant seem to be motivated. Please help!


text:
If you have read a few of my earlier posts, then you are probably aware that I always talk warmly about the Castlevania games. Even though, it was with mixed feelings and expectations that I started to play this recent entry in the long lived series. My doubts stem from the pretty big failure of Castlevania 64 on Nintendo 64, the only other 3D installment of Castlevania I have tried. That game was so bad, that I could only play like 10-15 minutes until I had to stop. The graphics were bad, the controls were worse and the gameworld and the feeling it gave were worst. But, after failures you are more likely to succeed, or? Let's see how Castlevania: Lords of Shadow fares.
Large but constrained world
The game takes places over large areas, if you check out the map shown to you between the levels, but if you thought large areas meant exploring and looking for cool hidden areas with treasures you will be quite disappointed. Sure, there are some hidden stuff to be found and nice areas that are not exactly shown where it is, but to a very high degree the game plays out over quite straight forward, almost-one-way levels, which is a bit of a letdown, since it could have introduced more free roaming and exploring a 'la Zelda and Demon's/Dark Souls.
Many of the old Castlevania games, although they are in 2D, have large areas to explore, even from the early start. You will of course meet places you cannot enter the first time you get there, but there are always a lot of areas to explore. I remember playing Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest for the first time and it was so huge; many villages, castles and levels to explore! Ok, back to Lords of Shadow. Why doesn't it feel alive and opened up to explorers and adventurers? The first thing is all the hints; actually they are not even hints, they are big shiny pointers and signs, almost spelling out "this way only!", even though the environment have open roads going in other directions, but these are closed…! Invisible walls are one of the worst things I hate about games, especially now-a-days you would suspect the designers had learned to replace the invisible walls with better design; e.g. do not show an open road leading to another direction if the player cannot go there, that is extremely annoying.
Whip that whip!
Enough about the places where you cannot go in the game! Back to the action with some whipping of the old whip. The action in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow goes from ok to frustrating. Most of the times you can just whip away and most monsters will perish, but sometimes the whip is very hard to aim with, especially with fast moving enemies and such. The game has solutions for this, and you get upgrades for the whip, other weapons and special moves to avoid enemies or attack better. The problem is though that these special movements demand special button combinations, like press X, then Y then hold X or press Y repeatedly 8 times. One or two of special moves is easy to remember, but in the heat of the action it is so easy to forget which buttons to press and when; I would have preferred if you could assign these special moves to a button (perhaps the four different corners of the + stick).
Beautiful world
The game world, although very restricted even though it seems open and free, is beautifully rendered and very colorful and alive. They have made a very good job with the graphics and it really feels like you are in a Castlevania game, even though I would preferred even less villages, forests and marshes and even more castles, haunted houses and underground areas.
No control over the no-controlled camera
A final thing I have to talk about, and unfortunately complain about, is the controls. They work quite well from time to time but sometimes you are completely out of control. This is especially apparent when you reach a new "frame" or area inside a level; at that point the camera suddenly changes position and if you were walking "down" before but then they put the camera 90 degrees to the left, so you instead walk almost into a deep gorge… It would have been so much better if they could have made a free-viewing 3D game, then this would never had happened. Now it feels so strange that you first move in one direction, down a road, by holding the stick down, but then halfway through the road the camera moves and you holding the stick downwards suddenly moves the character to the right side of the road…
Out-of-place tasks
One small thing worth mentioning is also the quite ridiculous mini games (trials) that you are presented with. I guess this is the burden of being on a new console; you have to include these kinds of strange tasks just to have special achievements in the game, like killing X monsters before doing Y. I love these kind of small tasks in games like Super Mario Bros, but in this game it just feel very out place, since it has a darker and sinister feeling to it.
What could have been a great 3D rendered version of the Castlevania games ended up being (another) disappointment. The world is beautiful and the story is as gothic as you want it, but that doesn't make up for bad controls, constrained levels and weird camera handling. I have to stick to my Castlevania motto: give us a huge 2D Castlevania, for the big consoles with thousands of rooms, areas and caves to discover! Or, make a 3D game that plays like a free-feeling vampire hunting, gothic tale!
- Platform(s): Xbox 360 [version tested], PlayStation 3
- Developer: MercurySteam
- Version: Release
- Release date: 7 October 2010
- Beautiful game world
Official trailer


text:
Earn points toward FREE PIZZA with Piece of the Pie Rewards
More About Domino's Near 14476
Domino's: We're Reinventing Pizza Near 14476
When you're craving a heavenly slice of cheesy, meaty, veggie-loaded goodness, we know your tastebuds don't want just any old pizza near 14476. You want a hot, delicious pizza with a flavorful tomato sauce, generous heaps of mozzarella and asiago, expertly diced pepperoni, and a hand-tossed crust that's crunchy, crispy, and chewy. You want pizza, perfected. You want Domino's.
At Domino's near 14476, we make it fast and easy to get the fresh pizza you're craving. Order your pizza over the phone or online, or visit a Domino's near you to place a carryout order.
First, start by selecting your favorite crust. Pick from a hand-tossed crust that's seasoned with the perfect balance of garlic and butter, a pan crust featuring two whopping layers of cheese, a crunchy thin crust, or even a gluten-free pizza crust! Then, choose your sauce and your favorite pizza toppings. Pick as many as you want! Whether you're a serious fan of mushrooms and spinach or love spicy pepperoni and tangy asiago cheese, your nearest Domino's has it all!
With millions of different ways to craft a single Domino's pizza (yes, we said millions and we mean it), you can be sure we have a slice that suits your tastes. From its sauce to its size, build your own pizza or choose from one of our famous specialty pizzas, like the ever popular Ultimate Pepperoni, MeatZZa™, or Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch, and have it delivered hot and fresh to your doorstep, today!
From Our Oven to Your Door: Pizza Delivery Near 14476
When you order from your Domino's near 14476, you'll see that we're pretty serious about pizza delivery. In fact, we're so serious about it that we'll make you a promise. We guarantee that your pizza will arrive toasty hot and fresh at your doorstep, straight from our oven! Want to see how fast we can deliver? After you place your order, use our patented TrackerⓇ to stay up to date on the status of your pizza order. Follow your pie from the moment the sauce is added to the second it leaves our door for delivery... and do your best not to drool on your computer's keyboard in the meantime.
Wings, Sandwiches, Desserts & Pizza Takeout Near 14476
We deliver pizza, but we're also superstars when it comes to speedy pizza takeout near 14476. Order from our pizza menu or try something new! Make your tastebuds happy with an order of stuffed cheesy bread, an oven-baked sandwich, flavorful salad, or satisfying pasta, and a dangerously sweet helping of dessert. You can't go wrong with an order of Domino's Marbled Cookie Brownie™, Cinna StixⓇ, or Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake.
With over 12,000 locations in 80 plus countries, we know customer service and we know quality. Our mission is to be Kendall's best pizza delivery company and everything from our courteous delivery drivers to our stellar pizza coupons reflects this commitment. Order online, call your local Domino's restaurant near 14476, or use our free smartphone app for hot, fast, and delicious pizza carryout and delivery today! We're different than other pizza restaurants. We're your number one pizza place near 14476!


text:
Public health workforce development
Public health is about protecting against community health risks and threats, preventing illness, and promoting health and wellbeing across the whole population or population groups.
- Applications for the Public Health Leadership Programme are now open
- Applications now open for Massey University SHORE/Whariki Easy Evaluation workshops and training support.
Read the related news item (massey.ac.nz)
- Te Raukau o te Uru
The Public Health Association of New Zealand recently launched Te Raukau o te Uru: Public Health Nursing Knowledge and Skills Framework.
Te Uru Kahikatea: Public Health Workforce Development Plan 2007-2016 is the national strategy that guides public health workforce development in Aotearoa, New Zealand.


text:
The Air Jordan 10 Retro "Shanghai" represents the Jordan 10s final stop in the 2016 "City Series" pack. The sneaker features a "Shanghai-at-night" inspired colorway of black textured leather on the upper with a mix of gamma blue and fierce purple on the translucent outsole and an embroidered "HAI" hit on the ankle.
Customers who bought this product also purchased...
You May Also Like


text:
Stay in shape at our gym! From serious cardio sessions on the treadmills to intensive strength training at the machines, the gym offers the solution for all those who, on vacation, want to stay fit. And for those who prefer an outdoor activity, the Best Western Premier Bang Tao Beach Resort & Spa proposes Yoga and Pilates classes with beach view at the pavilion.
Click here for the Holiday Planner
Other Facilities
Click here for the Holiday Planner
Other Facilities
- Air-conditioned Lobby
- 24 Hours Reception
- 2 Restaurants
- Swim-up Pool Bar
- Lobby Bar
- Fitness Room
- Table Tennis
- Pool Table
- Petánque
- Water Sports
- Kids Club
- Spa (By The Sun Spa)
- Wi-Fi Throughout (Complimentary)
- Currency Exchange
- Meeting Room
- Luggage Room
- Excursion and Tour Services
- Room Service
- Laundry Service
- Baby Sitting Service
- Taxi Service
- Scheduled Shuttle Bus (To Patong and Phuket Town)
- Car Rental
- Car Park