Friday, December 20, 2013

Invoking the Muse

As an American, one has a few choices in how to approach a decision.  Slavishly, or either out of habit or creatively with some forethought.  I was not happy with the Visual Dinner being served up this evening, so I decided on what my eyes and mind wanted to consume.  I decided I wanted music, but of the liberating kind.  Not the jarring or too demanding and complex.  No King Crimson or Dream Theater tonight.   First one that sprang to mind was STEVE HACKETT: Hungarian Horizons - Live in Budapest.

My late mentor in Photography was Galen Rowell.  I have read most of his late work.  He has a close connection to Music,  Music helps Photographers think.  The Hackett video was therapy for me to spring on new ideas.  

Many in this mailing are photographers.  Looking at lighting, closeups, errors, you imagine new photos, and that is our job.  

Music fans, this is a delightful collection, Cinema Paradiso, (my latest obsession), Concert for Munich, Blood on the Rooftops, Hands of the Priestess.  Prog Rock done Classical style with flute and keyboard.  It doesn't get any better than this.
JA

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Monday, December 16, 2013

FUN STUFF: THUMBS DOWN ON NETFLIX STREAMING

Very simple analysis of NETFLIX STREAMING, the ONLINE SERVICE:

If you like explosions and latest USA content (stupid sh@T) This is for you.

When I look at my Netflix DVD queue, there are 138 movies.  When I look at what is ACTUALLY AVAILABLE from NETFLIX STREAMING ther are: EIGHT (8).  Not 80.  You are not misreading.  NETFLIX is deceptive in how they advertise their on-line service.  

DO NOT GET AN APPLE TV if you think you are doing this for NETFLIX.  GET NETFLIX STREAMING if you are shallow. BOOM!
JA

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FUN STUFF- IDEAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT: APPLE TV ?

For $75 you can get a refurbished Apple TV sent you your local store.  Otherwise it is $99.00.  Why would one want an Apple TV?  I am still figuring that out to some degree.  With the right cables, you can connect every iTunes library in your WIFI equipped house to your stereo.  Pretty cool.  I do not yet have the right cables.  We need TOSLINK to RCA connections.  OK...  

Well, this is an ENTRY to the brave new world of Internet TV on a big screen.  It is not exactly what you expect.  It is not as easy to navigate.  But it does let you use the big screen TV in way it was not carefully designed by MGM, Universal and other Big Hollywood moguls.  Too much of the pre-programmed options lead you subscription services of what you do for free on the net, like HULU.

The second part of Apple TV is access to the big wide world of Netflix Streaming.  STOP.  TURNS OUT THIS IS A MARKETING SHAM.

SEE NEXT E-MAIL.
JA


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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

FUN STUFF - Why Airlines Are Passing Up Wider Coach Seats

This stuff should actually be fun, but it helps to know when arranging your fun. - JA


The Middle Seat

Why Airlines Are Passing Up Wider Coach Seats

A New Seating Plan From Airbus Would Make Aisle Seats Larger

By
Dec. 11, 2013 8:24 p.m. ET

Airbus is hoping to bring bigger aisle seats to coach but it's meeting resistance with airlines, who are making seats skinnier, not wider. Scott McCartney joins Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

Toulouse, France

You can buy extra legroom in coach on most airlines, but how about extra elbow room?

Airbus thinks it has an innovative way to create wider coach seats for wider passengers willing to pay a fee. But airlines won't give an inch.

The European airplane maker has designed coach seating for its A320 family of jets, some of the most widely used planes in service, with an extra-wide aisle seat and slightly narrower middle and window seats. A320 coach seats are uniformly 18 inches wide. Airbus wants to take one inch off each middle and window seat to make aisle seats 20 inches wide. Presto! A bonus add-on fee for airlines selling wider coach seats!

You'd think airlines would jump at the chance to sell yet another add-on fee to travelers. Charging passengers for the wider seat could raise several million dollars in revenue over a 15-year period, Airbus estimates.

But so far, airlines aren't buying it. In fact, they're focusing on making seats skinnier.

Airbus tested the idea with passengers of different sizes, genders, ages and body-mass indexes. It found aisle passengers delight in the extra room, which affords them space to change positions and avoid the stiffness and pain of being locked in a slim chair for hours.

The new seat would be ideal for the expanding market of very large passengers, Airbus said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 35.7% of Americans are obese. So why shouldn't 33% of seats on a plane be designed to accommodate the girth? Airbus also figured wider aisle seats would be popular with passengers with young children on their laps, senior citizens and those wanting more space to work.

"People answered that legroom and kneeroom were better. It's because you can change positions," said Zuzana Hrnkova, head of aircraft interiors marketing for Airbus.

Surprisingly, tests also showed that middle-seat passengers liked the setup better than conventional seating, she said. Even though they lose an inch of seat width, their shoulders have more space from seatmates on the aisle because that passenger is farther away. The point is clear when you sit in a mock-up of the seats at the Airbus design center here. Sitting in the middle between two others, my broad shoulders didn't feel squeezed.

Window-seat passengers were fine with the slimmer seat: They tend to scrunch up against the sidewall anyway, Ms. Hrnkova said. Seventeen inches is about the width of economy seats on Boeing 737s, the most common plane in airline service.

The A320 cabin is 7 inches wider than its rival, the 737, though Boeing maintains that its tube is less curved at passengers' shoulder height, making the difference less pronounced. Airbus says one airline customer, which it won't disclose, challenged the manufacturer to find a way to get ancillary revenue out of those extra 7 inches, and designers came up with the wider aisle seat idea.

Airbus has presented the idea to several airlines around the world that fly the A320, but none has opted to install wide aisle seats. While carriers have been plenty willing to reduce legroom on many rows of airplanes so that a few rows can be sold with expanded legroom, they aren't willing to do the same for seat width.

Virgin America tested a mock-up of the Airbus offering but "at the present time we don't think it is a fit for our business model and guest-service approach," a spokeswoman said. The airline worried that the slimmer seats for non-aisle passengers would be disappointing, and passengers overall would prefer the uniform 18-inch seats.

Likewise, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways say they aren't interested. "Giving one customer a 20-inch seat at the cost of two other customers having their seat width reduced is not what we want," a JetBlue spokesman said.

Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines, which charges fees for everything from carry-on bags to seat assignments to having agents print boarding passes, said it is studying the Airbus idea. A spokeswoman said it is among a variety of options being considered.

Airlines say having different seat widths in the same cabin would introduce more complexity, plus the expense of retrofitting thousands of seats across a fleet. If the wider seats weren't in every A320, they could disappoint passengers when they have to substitute airplanes for maintenance or scheduling issues. Big airlines flying multiple plane types also have the problem of not being able to offer wider aisle seats in the coach cabin of Boeing's narrow-body planes, like the 737 and 757.

In addition, the 20-inch aisle seat might provide a cheaper alternative to buying a first-class ticket to get a wider seat. Some international airlines offer premium economy on long trips with extra width and legroom, typically for about 50% more than a regular coach ticket.

"The implementation is quite challenging," Ms. Hrnkova of Airbus said. Still, she has hope. "Airlines are always looking to differentiate their cabin product. Maybe if one selected it there would be a snowball effect."

The growing girth of people has led to wider seating areas in many public situations where space is limited and packing in seats can lead to more revenue. In 1990, the average seat in performing-arts theaters was 21 inches. By 2010 that grew to 22 inches, according to a study by Theatre Projects Consultants Inc. The new Yankee Stadium opened in New York in 2009 with seats ranging from 19 to 24 inches wide, compared with 18 to 22 inches in the old Yankee Stadium, according to the baseball team. The basic seats on Amtrak's Acela trains are 21 inches wide. (Older trains have coach seat cushions 20 inches wide.)

But airlines have been making coach seats skinnier, not wider. On widebody jets, airlines have more flexibility to determine how many seats they want in each row. On American Airlines' existing Boeing 777-200s, for example, the airline has nine seats in a row. On its new 777-300s just being put into service, coach cabins have 10 seats in each row. The width of the fuselage didn't change—it's a longer airplane—so the seats shrank from more than 18 inches to about 17 inches. Other airlines are making similar moves with widebody cabins.

"It's gone back to the 1960s in terms of comfort," Airbus spokesman Martin Fendt said.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com



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Thursday, November 14, 2013

FUN STUFF - FILM: Cinema Paradiso

No blog post of late as it is still under attack and needs to be moved.  Not a top priority for me for right now, but it doesn't mean we can't use e-mail.

Cinema Paradiso is an Italian Oscar winning film nobody ever told me about (1998?).  I think it is at least one ot the top 10 films of all time.  Perhaps top 5, it is that good.  A very personal story set in Sicily, we saw the directors cut, almost three hours long with sub-titles.

It chronicles the life of Salvatore (or nickname Tito) from age 10, in his 20s and in middle age after he becomes a famous movie director.  The simple coincidences and people he met inspire, frustrate and propel him througout the film.  Starts with his somewhat abusive mother, his adopted Projectionist "father" Alfredo and the complex relationship with the "girl that got away" that forever haunts him.

I first heard about the movie via a Steve Hacket song.  I thought "Cinema Paradiso" was Hackett's tune and I have copies of it in about six or seven playlists on iTunes.  He does credit Ennio Morricone as the author on the CDs.  Ennio Morrocone a master of movie soundtracks, most notibly "The Mission" starring DeNiro and Jeremy Irons.  Like the film, the soundtrack is haunting and all consuming.  See the short video of Steve Hackett playing the main theme.  Stunning.  Hackett on acoustic guitar, Roger King accompanying on Keyboard.

Not necessarily a happy film, it is great drama, romance and storytelling.  The finale, a sequence of some edits is masterful.  Cannot tell tales out of school.  Rented it via Netflix.  Don't say nobody ever told you to see it.

Note to Marty, YES, there is ONE explosion, so you might like it.  Mostly though, not your kind of film.

Still not convinced?  See the Wikipedia link here.
JA

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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Need a shot of Good Music?

This one is a sight for sore ears.  Jazz Fusion meets Heavy Metal.

Every now and then, you trip across something great you weren't expecting.  I put iTunes on "spin mode" and it came up with Al Dimeola's "Race with the Devil on Turkish Highway" from the Infinite Desire collection.  This was a remake of Race with the Devil on Spanish Highway.  Well, on closer examination, I saw that it featured STEVE VAI.  

In my best Valley Girl accent, "well duh" why didn't I notice this before, having had the CD in the collection for many years.

Steve Vai of course is the madman genius who is the heavy metal guitar virtuoso that tutored under Joe Satriani and plays G3 with him.  You won't recognize Vai with short hair.

Di Meola is the fusion guitar genius virtuoso that tutored under Jazz Pianist, Chic Corea.

There is a stunning 10 minute YouTube video of the two of them jamming in Prague.   Pour yourself a nice beverage, lock the door, turn up the volume, sit back and relax to this one.
JA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJbbT32_lTk


Monday, July 8, 2013

WHAT IS A HASWELL PROCESSOR and why should I care?

The lines are clearly drawn, as are the preferences.

The cheapest: Microsoft 

The BEST: APPLE

I saw the writing on the wall years ago and became an Applista.  So when I saw this headline today, I became curious:

Haswell: What Intel’s new processor promises for Mac users


http://www.macworld.com/article/2041397/haswell-what-intel-s-new-processor-promises-for-mac-users.html


Monday, July 1, 2013

FOOD: WEGMANS Roasted Garlic

This is the first of a 12 Step Program.  I am addicted to roasted Garlic.  

Normally, it is a time and energy intensive process that usually discourages me from making it.  Roasting garlic takes away all the bitterness and the character that gives one VAMPIRE MOUTH.

Usually it takes roasting for 45 min to an hour soaked in great olive oil.

The shortcut is out.  WEGMANS, the east coast grocery chain has fresh BULK Roasted Garlic in their OLIVE BAR!

I can now buy it by the pound and it lasts weeks in the fridge.  Same price as olives.  
Bon apetite.
JA


Friday, June 28, 2013

Lawyers and disclaimers and going mad...

After being assaulted by too many commercials with stupid LAWYER FINE PRINT disclaimers, I have developed an opinion.  Any advertisement that requires a disclaimer need to be turned off, yanked from the air and not shown.  

The stupid kid in the car with his hand out the window and then the producers add the unreadable text at the bottom (BMW) declaring this is dangerous.  RATED R!

Even the Sparklers that are now too hot that requires a Govt Permit. (Verizon)

Yes, the USA has truly gone mad.  Note: you need to have previously signed a release to read this mail.  :)
JA

Thursday, June 20, 2013

If the World Were Run Like Airlines

Self explanatory.
JA



The Wall Street Journal

If the World Were Run Like Airlines

Sandwich Prices Would Spike at Peak Hours and 'Priority' Elevators at the Hotel Would Cost Extra

  • By SCOTT MCCARTNEY

Columnist's name

Scott McCartney has a look at why the airline industry can penalize customers, surprise them with fees, change prices multiple times a day, and still turn a profit.

Imagine if airlines ran restaurants. We'd live in a world where a half sandwich, the equivalent of a one-way ticket, might cost two times as much as a whole sandwich.

The airline way of doing business is unique—few other businesses have as many rules and restrictions, taxes and fees, frustrations and disruptions. Not many other businesses have such varied and ever-changing pricing for their products. And rare is the business that hits its customers with penalties of hundreds of dollars.

[D]
Michael Witte (4)

Why so different? Airlines face a unique set of challenges, including easy world-wide comparison shopping, high equipment costs, complicated contract work rules, vulnerability to oil price swings and heavy government regulation. And most everything happens outdoors, whatever the weather.

The business has gotten far more complex in recent years as the joys of flying have diminished. Simplified pricing schemes have been tried and have failed. Fees and penalties that have generated revenue have been pushed higher and higher. The result: a $200 fee to change a domestic reservation.

"It's a really hard business," said R. John Hansman, director of the International Center for Air Transportation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "So much depends on many things beyond your control."

The operation is so interconnected that one late flight can make three or four others late, and those delays reverberate all day. "Someone messes up a sandwich, but there are not 40 other sandwiches messed up," Dr. Hansman said.

Airline pricing is something consumers find maddening, but it makes other businesses envious. Many businesses would like to segment customers into different groups, with different prices based on ability to pay, says Jan Brueckner, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, who studies the airline industry.

Grocery stores try with coupons, but airlines have taken this model to an extreme. "It's as if the prices of cornflakes were being changed hour by hour on store shelves," said Dr. Brueckner.

What if they were? We decided to conjure an alternate universe where airlines run everything:

[image] Michael Witte

Your baseball tickets have your name on them. Want to give them to a friend? You can—for a stiff fee.

Subwings Sandwich Shop

Prices at Subwings go up closer to lunchtime, when demand for sandwiches peaks. It may cost more to produce a sandwich with roast beef than tuna, but if the bankers across the street prefer tuna, it's going to be the most expensive sandwich on the menu.

Subwings pays close attention to competitors. If Joe's Subs dropped bologna from its menu, Subwings would quickly double the price on bologna sandwiches.

At Subwings, customers must return their trays to an upright and locked position before departing.

Airmazon.com

Online shopping giant Airmazon.com employs a flotilla of computers to set the price of a pair of jeans. Those bought and worn on Tuesday and Wednesday in February are usually cheapest. Jeans intended as gifts in December cost more. If you want to wear the jeans right away, the price can be 10 times as much as jeans bought 30 days in advance. Any item purchased at any sort of discounted price will be nonreturnable, unless you pay a $200 exchange fee.

Airmazon has a customer loyalty program where points can be redeemed for merchandise, but your odds are better redeeming in slow sales months. Good luck trying to get popular jeans in July.

If Airmazon is late with delivery, the company won't be responsible if weather or traffic is to blame. If your jeans don't arrive because of a problem within Airmazon's control, the company lends you sweatpants.

Hotel L'Aire

You book a hotel room and what do you get? Four walls for the night.

Hotel L'Aire has made all amenities a la carte so customers only pay for what they use. They call it GuestMegaChoice. Want a bed with your room? That's an extra $50 per night. Plan to take a shower? There's a hot-water surcharge of $15 per 10-minute shower. A TV is included, but if you want to use it, you can either bring your own remote control or rent one for $3 a night.

At L'Aire, reserving a room of your choice in advance will cost you a $10 fee. You can pay $10 extra for early check-in. Want to ride priority elevators? $10, please. Checking out online is free, but talking to a desk clerk carries a $25 real-person fee.

The Newark Pilots

At Pilots baseball games, the buyer must attach a name to the ticket, and the name can't change. This practice is to prevent one person or company from buying a whole season of tickets—season-ticket packages aren't offered by the Pilots—and then letting a lot of different people use them.

A policy of no name changes keeps groups that watch a lot of baseball, or resourceful entrepreneurs who might want to control ticket inventory, from buying up a lot of discount seats in advance and handing them out to others. (It's not a security rule: The Pilots, like some airlines, will change names on tickets, for a fee.)

Reselling Pilots tickets on StubHub is strictly prohibited. So is giving them to your buddy if you can't use them. The Pilots ticket office doesn't allow exchanges, either, unless you want to pay a change fee of $200 per ticket.

Occasionally, Pilots players arrive late for games or rain forces delays. No worry: The Pilots promise to keep you informed, though you can probably get better information on your smartphone.

Whole Fare Market

To cram more customers into the store, Whole Fare, a high-end grocery store, recently squeezed its aisles closer together. That created more aisles and more revenue per store. Shoppers have to turn sideways to get down the aisles, however, and only shoppers who enter the store first have enough room for carts.

Shoppers complain they are cramped throughout their visit. Whole Fare recently set up wider rows for customers willing to pay higher prices. They call it "Economy Extra," even though the rows are the same width the store used to have when it opened.

The company also launched a line of Regional Whole Fare Markets—smaller stores run by contractors. Whole Fare says RWF stores allow the company to offer groceries to smaller communities not big enough to support a whole Whole Fare store. But its shoppers complain of higher prices, even smaller aisles and lost shopping bags.

Many customers say they are unnerved when a store employee calls out for people to "prepare for final checkout."

Wright Brothers Elementary

All backpacks must fit into the school-issued cubby hole and must weigh less than 25 pounds. If a backpack weighs more, an excess-weight backpack fee will be charged. If there is no room in the cubby for the backpack, it will be checked until your last class of the day. Gym bags can be stored in gym lockers for a $25-per-bag fee, which is waived for starting varsity players and any student holding a platinum-level bus pass.

Beginning in the fall, a fee will also be collected for cubby-stored backpacks.

Write to Scott McCartney at middleseat@wsj.com


Monday, June 17, 2013

FUN STUFF Updated - Philippines Photos

Have a look folks: Friends, fish, fun, wrecks, whale sharks and more.
JA

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Just back from the Philippines

Spent two weeks photographing underwater and on land in Puerto Galera and Dumaguete.  Amazing destinations.  Pristine reefs, great sand creatures (muck diving), wreck diving and multiple Whale Sharks.  Great food, great people.

http://johnares.photoshelter.com/gallery/Philippines-2013/G0000YDug2OJNVsc/

Monday, May 13, 2013

FILM: LINCOLN and ARGO

Saw both Lincoln and Argo recently via Netflix and thought there were both at the top of current movie making.

Argo was a nail-biter and was relatively a-political treatment of events in Iran in 1979.  The movie is "based on a true event," there was some license taken.  Click here for the Wikipedia link.

Lincoln was another Speilberg masterpiece.  Also significant were the differences in politics of the two major parties of the period.  Seemingly 180 degrees from the current situation.  Remarkable performances by an all star cast.  Click here for the Wikipedia link.


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

CABLE TELEVISION: Get this...An Engineering Contest

NOBODY EVER TOLD ME

Amidst Dancing with America's got CSI, there is some good programming out there.
 OK, I am partial to the Food and Cooking Networks.  On the Science channel, I came across something incredible.  AN ENGINEERING PROGRAM.  Not PAWN Stars.

America is supposed to celebrate and elevate STUPID.  And truly be emotional, feeling and shallow.  Tabloid News and Miley Cyrus Diets.  Live the Dumb, Passive Life.

Big Brain Theory is not that.  Engineering whiz kids choose up sides and compete to build a project within three days.   These peole DO things.  Math skills are critical to solving the challenge.  Geeks will eat this up.  

Commercial sponsors seen are Boeing and Rosetta Stone, not Tide and Pep Boys Oil Changes.

SCIENCE CHANNEL:  Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius   SCI

JA



Sunday, May 5, 2013

GREAT MUSIC: an out of control iPOD

Sometimes, putting the iPOD on shuffle is a terrific thing.  I have almost 4000 tunes in the iTunes library and it is hard to put them all in appropriate playlists.  Most tunes have been copied from my CDs or LPs.  I have paid about $300 to the artists for new stuff I find on iTunes.  That's about three dinners for two.  I am happy to pay a royalty, I did not steal new material. 

However, tonight, I came across three ENTIRELY UNLRELATED tunes that are worth writing about.  My tastes stray far off the top 40 so you are not expected to be familiar with these artists.  I am not stuck in the 1970s either.  Suffice to say they all have SUBSTANTIAL FOLLOWINGS as they fly under the music radar.


1. Hotel Luna - Suzanne Ciani
She was one of the original artists on Peter Bauman's Private Music label.  Peter Bauman was one of the original membes of TANGERINE DREAM.  Private music was birthed around the time of Windham Hill, in the mid 1980's.  That was around the time when Yanni was their first breakout artist. 

Hotel Luna is a hotel on the island of Capri where Ciani stayed while composing her self-titled CD about her Italian heratige.  We stumbled onto Hotel Luna back in 2004 on a trip to the Amalfi coast.  Brings back fond memories but this is a great tune anyway.  explore Suzanne if you do not know her.  This is a soft, romantic tune.  From the Hotel Luna CD.

2 The Great Debate - Dream Theater
Hmmm.  Progressive Metal Music and STEM CELL RESEARCH. That is the subject of the 12 minute suite.  They debate it in a song.  Many voice overs, this is a song not for the "low information voter."  A rousing tour de force of Dream Theater.  On the Six Degrees of Separation collection.

3. Return To The Realm Of Eternal Renewal - Steve Hackett
Most of you are familiar with Steve Hackett as the lead guitar of early Genesis.  He has been a favorite of this author since the early 1970s.  This piece is an original classical acoustic solo guitar piece.   Wonderful, will put you in quiet contemplative mood.  On the Metamorphosis CD.


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

SHOOTING CRITTERS: Joel Sartore - A photographer's life

Got this from my dive buddy Dave Haas.  A terrific way to spend three minutes.
JA

http://vimeo.com/63258091

Monday, April 15, 2013

Heady Metal: Scholars Celebrate a Rock Genre's Cultural Bang


  • The Wall Street Journal

Heady Metal: Scholars Celebrate a Rock Genre's Cultural Bang

'Metallectuals' Make an Academic Case For Maligned Riffs; The Bon Jovi Debate

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio—Earlier this month, rock fans around the world descended on this college town, pumped up for four days of music, booze and headbanging.
Kids attending a rock festival? Not exactly. It was the International Conference on Heavy Metal and Popular Culture, the world's biggest gathering of scholars researching the loud, aggressive—and some say obnoxious—music called heavy metal.
image
For decades, parents, politicians and psychologists have blamed heavy metal for corrupting youth with violent and sexual messages. But a new generation of academics who grew up on groups like Britain's Black Sabbath—widely credited for siring the genre in the early 1970s—is raising metal's black flag in an unlikely place: academia's ivory tower.
These "metallectuals," as they call themselves, congregated at Bowling Green State University clad in black T-shirts with logos of their favorite bands and delivered PowerPoint presentations on topics like "Beyond Black: Satanism, Medievalism and the Dark Illumination of the Self in the Aesthetics of Norwegian and Transnational Black Metal." At night, they conducted field research in Bowling Green's rock clubs while smoking cigarettes and sipping craft beers.
"This is a great day for metal studies, and maybe even for metal," said Jeremy Wallach, 42 years old, an associate professor at BGSU whose research examines how metal is galvanizing youth around the globe the way rock 'n' roll inspired American baby boomers in the 1960s. "To be a metal-head in 2013 is to be part of a global community."
Long considered the domain of stoners and dropouts, heavy metal music has entered the halls of academia. Scholars from around the world recently convened for a cultural summit devoted to the genre. WSJ's Neil Shah reports. Photo: Eva Roca.
Brian Hickam, 42, an archivist of scholarly writings on heavy metal and librarian at Benedictine University in Illinois, says 224 academic papers were published between 2000 and 2011, according to his latest data—more than double the previous 11 years. He says at least 63 scholarly articles were written last year.
The International Society for Metal Music Studies recently launched a peer-reviewed journal, "Metal Music Studies," following a heated debate over what to name it. "You want to distinguish between toxicology and metal, when you're talking about heavy metal studies. People could think—are they studying metals, or music?" Mr. Hickam said.
Once limited to psychological research, metal studies has come to draw on myriad disciplines, from physics, musicology and cultural studies to ethnographic explorations of metal scenes in Puerto Rico, China, Azerbaijan—even Madagascar.
At the conference, musicologists delved into the deep growling of so-called death metal singers, demonstrating the differences between inhaled and exhaled screams, and revealed how some "speed" metal bands secretly use computers to fake their superfast drumming—despite most metal fans' distaste for artifice.
Experts cataloged the widespread use of masks and face paint by bands, and chronicled the history of the heavy-metal concert T-shirt.
image
Eva Roca
British sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris spoke on metal studies at the meeting
"For the first time, I'm talking with my peers," said Dave Snell, a 33-year-old researcher, who received a $80,000 grant from the New Zealand government a few years ago to study "Bogans," New Zealand's hard-partying, metal-loving underclass. "Usually at conferences, it's a room full of suits, and I'm in my Iron Maiden T-shirt," said Dr. Snell, who holds a doctorate in social psychology.
Metallectuals may wear similar uniforms but they have their share of divisive debates: What was the first real metal band? Are "hair" metal groups like Bon Jovi metal or not? Have researchers of "extreme" metal gone too far with their philosophical wanderings?
It isn't easy being a metallectual. Mainstream academics are skeptical. "Professors tell kids, you can study metal, but you will be unemployed," said Gérôme Guibert, an associate professor at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle—Paris 3 who lectured on France's difficulties producing internationally famous metal bands. In New Zealand, Dr. Snell's research sparked a national controversy after it was lambasted by a member of parliament as a waste of taxpayer money. "The fact that it generated so much discussion shows that Bogans are worth study," Dr. Snell said.
Data on funding for U.S. metal research is hard to come by, but anecdotal reports suggest a combination of public and private university funding and self-funding by researchers themselves.
Metal bands and fans are often equally dismissive, preferring to have their debates on bar stools instead of podiums. Marie Jones, a 43-year-old in the parking lot of BGSU who wasn't attending the conference, was "shocked" to learn that 40-something professors were spending four days talking metal. Ms. Jones likes older bands like Kiss, but said she isn't sure so much time and money should be spent studying them. "There are a lot of people who are hungry," she said.
Still, metallectuals take pride in being misunderstood and marginalized—just like metal musicians and fans. The conference, the first of its kind in the U.S., brought together about 175 scholars, musicians and students from four continents, including Todd Evans, a former member of metal band GWAR, whose albums include "Hell-O" and "America Must Be Destroyed."
"You have to keep that 16-year-old mentality," Mr. Evans told the conference.
Metallectuals are much more cohesive than scholars of punk rock, said Bowling Green's Dr. Wallach, who holds a doctorate in anthropology. "Punks don't play well with each other. They always accuse each other of not being punk enough."
Bowling Green State University, which says it has the only Department of Popular Culture in the nation and the largest popular music archives in an academic library in the U.S., appears poised to become a hub for metal research. The metal conference cost about $10,000, with a significant sum coming from an endowment fund set up by two alumni, Dr. Wallach said.
Ohioans have long had a soft spot for heavy metal, which became more popular when the U.S. Rust Belt lost its manufacturing clout in the 1980s, scholars say. The Buckeye state also houses the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and has issued a stream of rock stars, including members of Warrant, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, and the Black Keys.
Matt Donahue, a BGSU instructor who has been officially recognized as the metal band Motörhead's biggest North American fan, welcomed conference attendees with a concert by his own group, MAD 45, at Grounds for Thought, a book store and music venue. Among the songs: a 1958 tune called "Rumble" by Link Wray, one of the earliest musicians to use the distorted electric-guitar sound essential to metal. Academics nodded appreciatively and extracted cans of beer from a cooler.
"This one goes out to all the artists, writers, musicians, and teachers—anyone who has had hassles in their lives," Dr. Donahue yelled, strumming his black and white Fender Stratocaster. "This one is about putting your fist in the air."
Write to Neil Shah at neil.shah@dowjones.com
A version of this article appeared April 15, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Heady Metal: Scholars Celebrate A Rock Genre's Cultural Bang.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

3/30/13 Funstuff Updated

We are downwind of the Beneath The Sea Presentations.  The U/W photography and Hawaii presentations were well attended.  So more attention to Fun Stuff now.

A new Veggie Rescue recipe added today.  Could save Easter Crudites.

And a bunch else.

Still fighting hackers.  Staying just barely ahead of their abilities.  So be prepared for the parasite to kill this host and see a new address for this venue for the legitimate invite list.
JA

FYI Google has bee of NO HELP  If you start a blog, STAY FAR AWAY FROM GOOGLE BLOGGER.  Use Bing to find other venues.  And yes, I despise Microsoft too.
--

BOURSIN: Fond Memories, New Sauce

BOURSIN is one of those great recollections of aromas that bring you back to the time when you first liked garlic.  Of course BOURSIN is not really a cheese, but a deceptive Garlic Delivery System.

It has been copied as Rondele and Allouette and other knockoffs of course.  Garlic fans please continue.

Vegetables occur.  I hate rabbit food.  I had a close brush with Tofu a year ago and survived.  However, the following sauce can make you almost like your veggies.

TWO TABLE SPOONS BOURSIN or equivalent 
Microwave 15 seconds to soften

Add ONE Tablespoon Mayo or Sour Creme.  Mayo is more buttery, Soure Cream is more tart.

Add 1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard

Sprinkle with Cumen Powder

Stir and taste. 

Adjust and serve over your Easter Penance Vegetation
JA










Friday, March 29, 2013

APPLE v SAMSUNG

As top dog, Apple has few friends.  The new American way.  Criticize the best.   No, rather than innovate, better to pile on and be vengeful.
JA

SOURCE: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/03/apple-could-ditch-samsung-as-ipad-mini-display-supplier/

Apple Could Ditch Samsung As iPad Mini Display Supplier

By on 03/29/2013

Apple Could Ditch Samsung As iPad Mini Display SupplierApple and Samsung's relationship is not exactly the best of relationships, no thanks to the flurry of lawsuits that they have thrown against one another in the recent year. In fact, there are whispers going around that the second generation iPad mini tablets that were rumored to feature Retina Display resolution will no longer rely on Samsung to deliver the touch panels, but rather, Cupertino has decided to call upon the assistance of Innolux to help them out.

This outcome is predictable, although it will still cause ripples down the line, considering how both companies are still going up against one another in the court of law. Right now, most of the iPad mini displays are manufactured by Samsung, and this particular contract loss could deal a sizeable blow to the South Korean conglomerate's bottom line, unless of course, they come up with a best selling tablet of their own to eat into the iPad mini's sales. Looks like the law of the jungle operates here yet again, and executives at Innolux might want to prepare some bottles of bubbly to celebrate, too.

Related articles:
Windows 8 Tablet Screen Requirements Lowered To 1024x768 Resolution
Samsung To Release 8-Inch Tablet With Full HD Resolution?
Asus Padfone Infinity Pre-Orders Now Open, April Release Confirmed Again
Belkin Unveils Ultimate Keyboard Case For The iPad

Follow:Tablets
The Apple iPad mini was launched on Oct 23 2012 in San Jose. It features a 7.9" display (1024x768), is 7.2mm thin and weighs 0.68lbs. The resolution makes it compatible with the iPad 2 apps, so previous software will just work on this device. There is a WiFi-only version, but an LTE version as well. LTE modem and bands may differ from country to country. Apple's specification also include a 10-hour battery life, and at launch time, the USA pricing was as follow: $329 (16GB, WiFi), $429 (32GB, WiFi), $519 (64GB WiFi) -- add $130 for the LTE versions. Read the iPad mini Review 
Samsung is a South-Korean conglomerate which counts many subsidiaries like Samsung Electronics, which you probably know very well, but also Samsung Heavy Industries which builds ships, or Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Securities and many more. Samsung is responsible for an amazing 20% of South Korea's exports. In the consumer electronics world, Samsung has gone from being a company with a reputation for cheap products to becoming one of the most respected companies in the world.

The Beatles in 2004?

What would the Beatles have been like in 2004?

I was searching for a certain riff that I heard on a car commercial recently and I thought it was a Dream Theater (DT) snippet. 

Along the way, I stumbled upon a recently re-discovered DT audio track from my favorite band:  STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS.  This instrumental cut is over 10 minutes and has a bit of Bach influence if you look for it.  It is on the Train of Thought CD and the Live in Budokan DVD.

Only for those who enjoy complex music.  Joan Baez fans should stay home on this one.
JA



Thursday, March 28, 2013

IRON CHEF AMERICA: Wylie Dufense v Mario Batali

Here is an unlikely battle among culinary titans.  Wylie Dufense of WD-50 (NYC), the innovative,  Molecular Cuisine genius versus traditionalist Mario Batali.

Check your Food Network and Cooking Channel listings this weekend for encore presentations.
JA

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Carry On, Stills - The Wall Street Journal.

I thought you would be interested in the following story from The Wall Street Journal.

Carry On, Stills

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324103504578376860602097542.html?mod=itp

The Wall Street Journal App provides a new way to experience the Journal's award winning coverage, blending the best of print and online. Special features include:

  • "Now" Issue featuring updated coverage throughout the day, with top article picks from Journal editors
  • Market Data including quote search and customizable Watchlist
  • Videos and slideshows published with free articles

Click or tap the link below to download The Wall Street Journal from the Apple iTunes App Store.

http://www.wsj.com/mobile



Sent from my iPad

Friday, March 15, 2013

WSJ - Second Thoughts: How to Follow Your First Bottle

I admit, with wine and a group, we tend to order the same old that we liked at first, perhaps as congratulations for finding the group will tolerate.  See if you find yourself in the article.
Enjoy the playground,
JA

FIRST IMPRESSIONS matter the most. According to college recruiters, corporate executives and humorist Will Rogers (among others), "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." But what may be true about life is not necessarily true about wine. In fact, I'd argue it's the second bottle that counts most of all (unless it's a second bottle of the same wine—but more on that later).

Marc Rosenthal for The Wall Street Journal

The first wine prepares the palate—its responsibility is pure refreshment. It's more vinous entertainment than vinous enlightenment. Or as Michael Madrigale, sommelier of Boulud Sud and Bar Boulud, says: "The first bottle is the overture, the second is the crescendo." (That's the way sommeliers talk when their restaurants are located across from Lincoln Center.)

I almost always start with a white wine that doesn't have too much weight, in terms of fruit and oak, but has plenty of acidity. That's why a Chablis is so often my default choice. I might also opt for a minerally Chenin Blanc, or maybe a dry Riesling or Grüner Veltliner. Other common options include that Spanish mainstay, Albariño, as well as Soave, Verdicchio and Vermentino (Italy is particularly fertile ground for first-bottle whites).

If the first bottle is sparkling, it almost always has to be Champagne—most often a simple nonvintage, though occasionally a tête du cuvée (the prestige bottling of a Champagne house). I'll rarely start with a cheap sparkling wine, as it seems like too great a leap to the second, inevitably much better, bottle. It would be like risking the vinous equivalent of the bends, the decompression sickness of deep-sea divers who ascend too quickly from the bottom of the ocean.

When it comes to rosé, I'm of two minds. Many people I know dislike rosé—they think, as one friend of mine does, that rosé signals "cheap." (Never mind how fashionable rosé has become.) But I also find that if I order rosé first, I often want to keep drinking it—there's something so seductive about a good rosé that I've even committed the sin of ordering a second bottle of the same wine.

And it is considered a sin of sorts to order a second of the same. People who drink the same wine twice over the course of a meal are not only displaying a lack of imagination and missing a chance to try something new, they're also probably doing a disservice to the meal. After all, how likely is it that the wine will go as well with the second course as it did with the first?

I feel like there should be a warning posted on wine lists: "Ordering the first bottle twice may be injurious to your wine education." Alas, there are plenty of people guilty of this particular sin. At Tony's in Houston, which happens to have a really good wine list, the restaurant's general manager, Scott Sulma, told me that his customers ordered the same bottle "about 50%" of the time.

Has he noticed any particular patterns? "Cabernet drinkers tend to stay with the same Cabernet more often than anyone," Mr. Sulma said. The people who tended to be the most adventurous were adventurous with both their first and second wines, he noted.

And what about that second wine? What sort of qualities should it possess? According to Aldo Sohm, chef sommelier of Le Bernardin in New York, the second wine should build on or maintain the qualities of the first. Mr. Sohm believes that first and second bottles are equally important, though he noted that the second wine should "evolve" from the first in terms of both complexity and price. My friend Mark, a collector, believes much the same thing—although the last time I ate dinner at his house, he served two wines that I consider second-bottle types, 1998 Soldera Brunello normale and 1998 Soldera Brunello riserva. Both are rare, and both are great wines.

Not that a great second bottle always has to be a great wine. As Mr. Sohm noted, it can also be the proper evolution from the previous bottle. That was the case at a recent dinner with friends at I Trulli restaurant in New York. I asked one of my dining companions, a rosé-avoider, to choose the first bottle. "I like to start with a nice, crisp dry white. I think it should be something that people are comfortable with," my friend opined. "Maybe a Vermentino or a Soave."

Just then, I Trulli's owner and wine director, Nicola Marzovilla, appeared. He suggested starting with a light red. "Why does everyone start with white?" he asked. He had a section of his wine list, entitled Chillable Reds, for this very purpose. Alas, we were all fixed on a white. "Then try something different," said Mr. Marzovilla. "Order a Nosiola instead."

The Nosiola, a Vermentino-like white wine from Trentino, was delicious—light, bright and charming—and a perfect start to the meal. (It also came with a perfect first-bottle price tag of $39. That's another of my first-bottle rules: It should be inexpensive enough that the second bottle can cost a bit more.) We complimented Mr. Marzovilla on his choice.

Did many people order the same wine twice at his restaurant? I asked. Mr. Marzovilla looked horrified by the idea and practically threw up his hands. "Why do people do this?" he asked, addressing the world at large as much as our table. "You wouldn't have salad salad salad for your meal!"

The Nosiola was so delicious and so drinkable, it soon disappeared—too soon, in fact, as our appetizers had just arrived but the bottle was empty. We had two courses to go—would a second bottle see us through, or would we need to plan for a third?

A third bottle presents an altogether different dilemma—and it puts the second bottle into a different category as well. The second bottle, instead of being the crescendo, becomes more of an intermezzo. My friends and I discussed our dilemma. What should the price and character of the second bottle be? Should it be another white or should it be a red? We thought it should be pricier than the first wine but not that much more expensive since we now had to budget for a possible third.

We pored over the wine list, weighing our options. There were attractive Barberas, Dolcettos and other light reds that would pair well with our pastas and provide a good transition to our next possible wine. Mr. Marzovilla reappeared and suggested a Tuscan wine made with grapes grown on his own estate, the 2010 Massoferrato Sangiovese. You'll love it, he said—and at $39, the price was certainly right for a wine that might not be the last of the night. We quickly agreed, and Mr. Marzovilla returned with the wine.

He poured us a taste and we all concurred it was delicious—marked by bright red fruit and a lively acidity. My friend the rosé-hater loved it so much that he declared it was a "Sangiovese by way of Morey-St. Denis," a reference to a famous wine village in Burgundy. As Mr. Marzovilla began filling our glasses, I noticed he wasn't pouring from a regular wine bottle but a liter—a third larger than a standard-size bottle. Our problem was solved. Sometimes a perfect second bottle isn't a matter of evolution, complexity, color or price—sometimes it's simply a matter of size.

See wine videos and more from Off Duty at youtube.com/wsj. Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com.


Friday, March 8, 2013

The Great Pinots of Oregon

Was lucky enough to visit Oregon twice in the last two years.  Think of one word to describe their best wines.  PINOT.  

Red or White you ask?  The answer is yes.  Pinot Noir for the Reds and Pinot Grigio/Gris for the whites.  However, to my tastebuds, the Pinot Noirs stand out.  I particularly liked Youngberg Hill and Seufert Winery in Dayton, OR.    
JA

Wine columnist Lettie Teague showcases some of Oregon's finest Pinot Noirs. Photo: Getty Images.
IT HAS BEEN almost half a century since David Lett planted the first Pinot Noir vines in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Rain and ridicule followed in almost equal amounts, but today the top Oregon Pinots are some of this country's most sought-after wines. In fact, in what would be a first, a major California winery is about to buy a number of Oregon vineyards.
According to Peter Bouman, a real-estate broker with Oregon Vineyard Property, the wine giant Kendall-Jackson is closing soon on the purchase of two Oregon vineyard properties, including a parcel in the Eola Hills, and is in negotiations for additional properties. "This would be about a 1,500-acre play, of producing vineyard properties, if it all comes down," Mr. Bouman said. Kendall-Jackson declined to comment.

There have been other non-Oregon investors (Washington state's Chateau Ste. Michelle bought Erath Winery some years ago, and the Burgundy-based Drouhin family created Domaine Drouhin in 1987), but no significant California winery has ventured north to date.

There was a time, some 20 years ago, when California's Mondavi Winery looked into buying Oregon Pinot Noir—but backed away on account of the weather. "We agreed to sell Pinot Noir to Mondavi in 1993," recalled Rollin Soles, now owner of Roco Winery and then head winemaker at Argyle Winery (where he remains a consultant). "But 1993 was very late to flower, and Mondavi was not used to September rain or late flowering." The Mondavis exited the deal and Mr. Soles made Argyle's first prestige Pinot Noir with the former Mondavi fruit in a vintage that turned out to be great.

Oenofile: Some Oregon Pinot Noirs worth seeking out

F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Soles is one of the Oregon originals—a winemaking pioneer who came from Texas by way of Australia and Switzerland 27 years ago to try making wine in a marginal climate. Over lunch in Portland a few weeks ago, I asked Mr. Soles about the early years. Were there times during all that bad weather, with all those lost crops, when he simply lost hope?

Mr. Soles guffawed. (He does that a lot.) "I didn't think any of us would survive," he replied. "But we're better winemakers because we decided to come to the Willamette Valley." The "we" in this case extended not only to his fellow winemaker Mark Vlossak of St. Innocent Winery, who was sitting across the table, but to the rest of Oregon's winemakers as well.

Oregon producers are nothing if not collegial—it's something they take as much pride in as they do their ability to make wine under challenging circumstances. More than anything else, the message I heard over and over during my recent Oregon visit was that the success of one winemaker was the success of them all.

Vintners handle the state's rainy climate with a collegial spirit.

Dick and Deirdre Shea, owners of Oregon's famed Shea Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton area, said that even the winemakers who buy their fruit were willing to share winemaking ideas. This is particularly notable since Shea sells Pinot Noir grapes and makes its own Pinot Noir, too. "Our competitors are also our customers, but we feel free to call and ask questions," Mrs. Shea said. "If you're the only good producer in Oregon, you're not going to get shelf space or a place on a winery list." In other words, a collective tide was required to raise all Pinot Noir boats.

Of course, the Shea name on a label helps a lot, too. Shea Vineyard Pinot Noirs are some of the state's most sought-after wines—and the fruit doesn't come cheap. How much does it cost? Mr. Shea didn't want to say, but some of the winemakers I talked with, including Maggie Harrison of Antica Terra, said she pays around $12,000 an acre, compared with $7,500 to $10,000 for a typical Pinot acre in Oregon.
Ms. Harrison is one of Oregon's most promising new talents, having come to the Willamette Valley by way of Southern California, where she worked with the famed Manfred Krankl at Sine Qua Non. Ms. Harrison was particularly struck by the supportiveness of other winemakers when she arrived. "Dick Shea even sold me some fruit," she marveled. "People are very protective of one another here—there's a wildly generous collaboration." Perhaps that's because they've all faced the same challenges: choosing the wrong clones, the wrong rootstock and enduring the Phylloxera louse—not to mention, of course, the challenging climate.

Was she afraid this esprit de corps might end with the arrival of a big company like Kendall-Jackson? Ms. Harrison, like most winemakers I spoke with, was enthusiastic at the prospect of a neighbor 100,000 times her size. Like the others, Ms. Harrison hoped the California giant would bring Oregon a higher profile.

And that's something that Oregon still requires, despite all its current success. The best Oregon wines can be hard to find. That's due in part to size—most Oregon wineries produce fewer than 5,000 cases of wine a year—and also because they have a solid market at home. Oregon residents drink a lot of Oregon wine—a surprising 20% or so of Oregon's production is consumed in-state, says Charles Humble of the Oregon Wine Board.

But Oregon producers need to do a better job of distribution. As Mr. Vlossak said, "If you make over 1,500 cases of wine, you need to go outside of Oregon." And he added, "You have to know how to sell. You have to know how to talk to people." Mr. Vlossak, in keeping with his own advice, was set to embark on a multistate sales trip.

And what of the wines that Oregon producers are selling? With a few exceptions, the Pinot Noirs that I tasted from some top producers ranged from good to exceptionally good. The overall quality was impressively high—from the much-heralded 2008 vintage to what critics have called the lesser vintages of 2009, 2010 and 2011. There were a good many standouts: the lush and generous St. Innocent wines, the opulent Sheas, the frankly delicious Pinot Noirs from Mr. Soles (who made first-rate sparkling wines at Argyle as well). There were also nuanced examples from Ms. Harrison at Antica Terra (notably the 2010 Botanica) and Doug Tunnell at Brick House (another Oregon original). And there were well-made, accessibly priced wines from Tony Soter's North Valley label and the "basic" Willamette Valley Pinot from Domaine Drouhin.

Then there are the much-anticipated 2012 wines still to come. The 2012 vintage has been universally deemed "superb" by Oregon winemakers. Or as Mr. Soles declared, with an un-Oregon-like immodesty, "the wines of 2012 will blow your mind." But will the prices as well? They'll probably go up, Mr. Soles acknowledged, not just because of the high quality but because of the small crop as well.
That might be a problem. After all, it wasn't so long ago that Oregon Pinot producers were criticized for pricing their wines too high (a lot of wines cost more than $50 a bottle.) The current prices seem a lot more reasonable. Mr. Vlossak agreed. "The price/value is in balance for now," he said. "I just hope we don't screw that up."

See wine videos and more from Off Duty at youtube.com/wsj. Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com.