Ah, sushi. That accepted Asian comestible art anatomy of bashful origins. That lovely, attenuate cuisine that sates after bringing on the alarming carb-coma. Some alarm it the new advantageous fast food. Some alarm it top art. I just wish to alarm it dinner.
Recently aback from a hometown cruise to Honolulu area my ancestors enjoyed several expertly able sushi meals, a catechism popped to mind: Could I accomplish acceptable sushi at home? I've adapted affluence of Italian, created abounding Chinese dishes and experimented with Indian food. Why not try sushi?
Of two minds, I ample authoritative sushi would be either absolutely simple or absolutely above my grasp. First, I wondered, how harder could it be? Cook some rice, grab some nori, allotment some fish, julienne some veggies and avocados, cycle it all together, and voila! I'll accept that admirable and adorable aftertaste of home, right?
But I aswell knew that sushi chefs absorb their absolute lives perfecting the craft, so could I absolutely apprehend my apprentice efforts to aftereffect in annihilation accidentally akin the adorable Asian book I've appear to apperceive and love? Would my kitchen alone wind up smelling like angle and austere rice? There was alone one way to acquisition out.
To start, I quick-scanned several books on sushi-making. This provided accomplishments on tools, ingredients, sushi history and presentation. I googled and watched a few do-it-yourself sushi-making videos, and again chatted up the chefs at my admired sushi restaurant who affably advised in with able advice on aggregate from fish-slicing techniques to abstruse seafood suppliers.
Finally, with a lot of advice in my arch but no acquaintance in hand, I knew I bare to get my mitts bedraggled trying, so I active up for "Sushi 101," chef Danielle Edmonds' abecedarian chic at Sur La Table's Boulder store. I came abroad from the chic — a two-hour bout de force of sushi abilities — with astute hopes of authoritative my own.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
When biking affairs go afield accomplish memories out of mishaps
The plan was to bead my son Ben off at Colorado State University for a anniversary of video game-making affected (oh, yes; this exists). Again my babe Kaylin and I were to absorb some time in Fort Collins, applique about on adopted bikes, hiking Horsetooth Mountain, touring the Swetsville Zoo and blockage out the bounded brewpubs.
A anniversary above-mentioned to the trip, she bankrupt her arm in two places, acute emergency surgery.
Needless to say, we canceled our alive beat in Fort Collins. It was replaced instead by some blow and alleviation at home, as able-bodied as a aftereffect orthopedic surgeon visit.
Were we disappointed? Absolutely. Was it the end of the world? Of advance not. In fact, with smoke in the air due to the High Park blaze still angry adjacent at the time of our planned trip, some alfresco activities ability accept been adapted anyway. We'll reschedule for this autumn, perhaps, to yield in a CSU football bold and adore the appealing abatement colors. No big deal. Those brewpubs aren't traveling anywhere.
At atomic that's the attitude I try to yield if faced with a disruption of biking affairs — although it's not consistently easy.
Last August, our 15-hour ancestors alley cruise to Yellowstone National Park was continued by added than four hours if we blew a annoy just alfresco Blackfoot, Idaho. Because our Toyota Sienna minivan doesn't appear able with a additional annoy (yes, we should accept ashore a annoy in the aback of the van), we had to alarm an Idaho Falls annoy abundance and ask one of its advisers to drive a new annoy out to area we were abandoned on the ancillary of the highway. Again we had to drive into Idaho Falls to buy and install three added tires to antithesis the car.
I approved to accomplish it upbeat for the kids, again ages 11 and 9: "Oh well, these things happen! What an chance we've had to acquaint Grandma! Let's airing through the annoy store's coarse adjacency and acquisition some ice cream! Fun!"
Of advance it was annihilation but fun, and we accustomed at our bivouac abundant after than anticipated. We absent an afternoon backpack we'd planned, but so what? The blow of our vacation went off after a hitch. (Well, except for the allotment area I apprehend the map amiss on the southern avenue home, administering my bedmate an hour out of our way to Jackson, Wyo.)
Another time, my ancestors was aerial home from the East Coast if delays and cancellations brought us to Denver International Airport too backward to get on any flight to our Aspen home airport. At about 10 p.m., the car-rental agencies were closed. A massive Microsoft assemblage meant all auberge apartment were appointed aural 50 afar of the airport.
We spent the night on the airport floor, holed up abaft the admission adverse at aboideau B48.
Airport advisers were affectionate to accommodate us blankets. Still, we slept anyhow (at best), woke up to a abominable fast-food breakfast and bent the ancient flight home.
While accessory biking misadventures like these about stink, they do accomplish the best stories. In fact, about our banquet table we abide to agitation whether "the collapsed annoy in Idaho," "sleeping on the airport floor" or "Ben puking in the basin at The Broadmoor" is our family's a lot of ballsy biking tale.
For ancestors bonding and memory-making, biking mishaps absolutely do the job. In fact, I attending advanced to more.
A anniversary above-mentioned to the trip, she bankrupt her arm in two places, acute emergency surgery.
Needless to say, we canceled our alive beat in Fort Collins. It was replaced instead by some blow and alleviation at home, as able-bodied as a aftereffect orthopedic surgeon visit.
Were we disappointed? Absolutely. Was it the end of the world? Of advance not. In fact, with smoke in the air due to the High Park blaze still angry adjacent at the time of our planned trip, some alfresco activities ability accept been adapted anyway. We'll reschedule for this autumn, perhaps, to yield in a CSU football bold and adore the appealing abatement colors. No big deal. Those brewpubs aren't traveling anywhere.
At atomic that's the attitude I try to yield if faced with a disruption of biking affairs — although it's not consistently easy.
Last August, our 15-hour ancestors alley cruise to Yellowstone National Park was continued by added than four hours if we blew a annoy just alfresco Blackfoot, Idaho. Because our Toyota Sienna minivan doesn't appear able with a additional annoy (yes, we should accept ashore a annoy in the aback of the van), we had to alarm an Idaho Falls annoy abundance and ask one of its advisers to drive a new annoy out to area we were abandoned on the ancillary of the highway. Again we had to drive into Idaho Falls to buy and install three added tires to antithesis the car.
I approved to accomplish it upbeat for the kids, again ages 11 and 9: "Oh well, these things happen! What an chance we've had to acquaint Grandma! Let's airing through the annoy store's coarse adjacency and acquisition some ice cream! Fun!"
Of advance it was annihilation but fun, and we accustomed at our bivouac abundant after than anticipated. We absent an afternoon backpack we'd planned, but so what? The blow of our vacation went off after a hitch. (Well, except for the allotment area I apprehend the map amiss on the southern avenue home, administering my bedmate an hour out of our way to Jackson, Wyo.)
Another time, my ancestors was aerial home from the East Coast if delays and cancellations brought us to Denver International Airport too backward to get on any flight to our Aspen home airport. At about 10 p.m., the car-rental agencies were closed. A massive Microsoft assemblage meant all auberge apartment were appointed aural 50 afar of the airport.
We spent the night on the airport floor, holed up abaft the admission adverse at aboideau B48.
Airport advisers were affectionate to accommodate us blankets. Still, we slept anyhow (at best), woke up to a abominable fast-food breakfast and bent the ancient flight home.
While accessory biking misadventures like these about stink, they do accomplish the best stories. In fact, about our banquet table we abide to agitation whether "the collapsed annoy in Idaho," "sleeping on the airport floor" or "Ben puking in the basin at The Broadmoor" is our family's a lot of ballsy biking tale.
For ancestors bonding and memory-making, biking mishaps absolutely do the job. In fact, I attending advanced to more.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Christian Louboutin Delivers Sex
The Architecture Museum in London, England heralds the Christian Louboutin Exhibition as the a lot of visited in their history. I was advantageous to appointment this attendant and I will acquaint you why women, and men, are lining up in droves to acquaintance Christian Louboutin.
Upon entering the Architecture Museum, I was afraid at the comfortable admeasurement of the shop, café and admission desk. It wasn’t until I accomplished the access arch up to the affectation that I got a faculty of what was in store. As I climbed, blind down the centermost of the circling staircase, were admirable shoes, new designs, old designs and designs I’d never apparent afraid with bright hoops a la Folies Bergère.
The affectation is abiding in capacity that analyze Louboutin’s plan and his career. Louboutin’s iconic Software in gold acrylic translates anniversary affair into words. Captured are locations of his life. His adolescence spent as an intern cartoon shoes for the showgirls of Folies Bergère, his all-embracing travels, admiration with delicacy and sex, his abrupt attack into garden architecture and his plan with celebrities and socialites. There is no agnosticism that Mr. Louboutin’s acuteness is here, on display, agreeable visitors to acquaintance his world.
A aglow neon “entrée” assurance beckons. I enter, accomplished with excitement, apprehension and adventure. I about-face the bend and I acquisition myself in the Adumbration Theater. A access assuming three absolute adumbration silhouettes of stilettos, lined up ancillary by ancillary in the address of a choir line. A adult representation of the accent Louboutin places on the appearance of his shoes. I about-face addition bend and am amidst by ablaze lights and shoes. No amount area I attending I see shoes, added than 200 brace – and they are all perfection.
“Travel”, the aboriginal affair I see is a bottle carousel spinning bright and alien shoes alluringly on red clover swings. Looking closer, the images in the centermost of the carousel are of Louboutin on some of his abounding travels. These accurate shoes were the aftereffect of humans and places that accept aggressive him about the globe.
“Transparency” was a attending at femininity, skin, and a adumbration of sex displayed on a aerial bottle étagère. Christian Louboutin has a admirable compassionate of women. This accumulating of shoes featured applique and glassy styles, stilettos with lots of toe cleavage, and angle net fabrications from wearable to alone acceptable while seated. Any woman would feel like a siren in the shoes featured here.
“Fetish Room”, the absolute aback bend was draped with atramentous chiffon, and at aboriginal I hesitated cerebration it was agents only. I am so blessed I absitively to go in. I accept not accomplished annihilation as adult or animal alfresco my bedchamber as I did examination Louboutin’s amulet shoe collection. Anniversary brace of shoes was on a basement beneath a bottle topper. Anniversary shoe was accompanied by a photograph, attempt by David Lynch, featuring a nude archetypal in the shoe; every angel was bendable and sexy. This allowance featured a alternative of shoes and photographs from Louboutin’s 2007 Amulet exhibition in Paris. I adore his way of authoritative sex so animal and absolutely beautiful. Despite the actuality that none of the shoes I’d just apparent I could in fact airing in; I still wish to own anniversary pair.
“The Atelier”, a accurate representation of the flat in which Louboutin creates. Right down to the aerobatics that hangs in the bend of his plan space, forth ancillary a book of Loubi and Dita Von Teese on the trapeze. The attic is Louboutin red and the bank accoutrement are absolute images of the atelier in Paris. Sleek bottle cases band one bank and are abounding with all the elements appropriate to aftermath his admirable shoes. A ample vitrine abounding the centermost of the room. It independent sketches, moulds, attending books, appearance inspirations, materials, orchids, and of advance shoes.
Tucked abroad in the aback bend of the affectation was a small, aphotic theater. An ambrosial duke fatigued activated account about the activity of Louboutin, his adolescence up to the present day was the aboriginal of the abbreviate films. The second, one of my admired locations of the absolute exhibition was a abbreviate blur that captured Louboutin in a day-dream. He is cerebration of a new brace of shoes, dozes off, and transports the admirers into his dream. Louboutin is on stage, a cabaret stage; he is belted by two admirable dancers cutting aerial heels. The music is absorbing and très French. They are dancing, and while they dance, the girls’ shoes change from one admirable brace to another, over and over again. Louboutin is twirling and borer and animated and we al of a sudden see his shoes change into a sparking brace of argent rhinestone encrusted oxfords. The song in the conceiving is over and Louboutin awakes. The final attempt is of him abrogation his atelier in the rhinestone shoes from the daydream.
Upon entering the Architecture Museum, I was afraid at the comfortable admeasurement of the shop, café and admission desk. It wasn’t until I accomplished the access arch up to the affectation that I got a faculty of what was in store. As I climbed, blind down the centermost of the circling staircase, were admirable shoes, new designs, old designs and designs I’d never apparent afraid with bright hoops a la Folies Bergère.
The affectation is abiding in capacity that analyze Louboutin’s plan and his career. Louboutin’s iconic Software in gold acrylic translates anniversary affair into words. Captured are locations of his life. His adolescence spent as an intern cartoon shoes for the showgirls of Folies Bergère, his all-embracing travels, admiration with delicacy and sex, his abrupt attack into garden architecture and his plan with celebrities and socialites. There is no agnosticism that Mr. Louboutin’s acuteness is here, on display, agreeable visitors to acquaintance his world.
A aglow neon “entrée” assurance beckons. I enter, accomplished with excitement, apprehension and adventure. I about-face the bend and I acquisition myself in the Adumbration Theater. A access assuming three absolute adumbration silhouettes of stilettos, lined up ancillary by ancillary in the address of a choir line. A adult representation of the accent Louboutin places on the appearance of his shoes. I about-face addition bend and am amidst by ablaze lights and shoes. No amount area I attending I see shoes, added than 200 brace – and they are all perfection.
“Travel”, the aboriginal affair I see is a bottle carousel spinning bright and alien shoes alluringly on red clover swings. Looking closer, the images in the centermost of the carousel are of Louboutin on some of his abounding travels. These accurate shoes were the aftereffect of humans and places that accept aggressive him about the globe.
“Transparency” was a attending at femininity, skin, and a adumbration of sex displayed on a aerial bottle étagère. Christian Louboutin has a admirable compassionate of women. This accumulating of shoes featured applique and glassy styles, stilettos with lots of toe cleavage, and angle net fabrications from wearable to alone acceptable while seated. Any woman would feel like a siren in the shoes featured here.
“Fetish Room”, the absolute aback bend was draped with atramentous chiffon, and at aboriginal I hesitated cerebration it was agents only. I am so blessed I absitively to go in. I accept not accomplished annihilation as adult or animal alfresco my bedchamber as I did examination Louboutin’s amulet shoe collection. Anniversary brace of shoes was on a basement beneath a bottle topper. Anniversary shoe was accompanied by a photograph, attempt by David Lynch, featuring a nude archetypal in the shoe; every angel was bendable and sexy. This allowance featured a alternative of shoes and photographs from Louboutin’s 2007 Amulet exhibition in Paris. I adore his way of authoritative sex so animal and absolutely beautiful. Despite the actuality that none of the shoes I’d just apparent I could in fact airing in; I still wish to own anniversary pair.
“The Atelier”, a accurate representation of the flat in which Louboutin creates. Right down to the aerobatics that hangs in the bend of his plan space, forth ancillary a book of Loubi and Dita Von Teese on the trapeze. The attic is Louboutin red and the bank accoutrement are absolute images of the atelier in Paris. Sleek bottle cases band one bank and are abounding with all the elements appropriate to aftermath his admirable shoes. A ample vitrine abounding the centermost of the room. It independent sketches, moulds, attending books, appearance inspirations, materials, orchids, and of advance shoes.
Tucked abroad in the aback bend of the affectation was a small, aphotic theater. An ambrosial duke fatigued activated account about the activity of Louboutin, his adolescence up to the present day was the aboriginal of the abbreviate films. The second, one of my admired locations of the absolute exhibition was a abbreviate blur that captured Louboutin in a day-dream. He is cerebration of a new brace of shoes, dozes off, and transports the admirers into his dream. Louboutin is on stage, a cabaret stage; he is belted by two admirable dancers cutting aerial heels. The music is absorbing and très French. They are dancing, and while they dance, the girls’ shoes change from one admirable brace to another, over and over again. Louboutin is twirling and borer and animated and we al of a sudden see his shoes change into a sparking brace of argent rhinestone encrusted oxfords. The song in the conceiving is over and Louboutin awakes. The final attempt is of him abrogation his atelier in the rhinestone shoes from the daydream.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Djokovic, Nadal, Federer accept lock on Grand Slams
As Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer footfall aback on the grass at Wimbledon, anniversary has acumen to accept he'll be hoisting the bays in two weeks.
None of the added 125 men in the acreage can candidly say the same.
Indeed, it's boxy to brainstorm anyone alfresco that leash acceptable this year's championship at the All England Club, area play begins Monday.
"They've, you know, been appealing egocentric about Grand Slam titles for a little bit," said 2003 U.S. Open best and three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick.
They abiding have.
Either Nadal or Djokovic has won anniversary of the accomplished nine above tournaments, and they met in the endure four finals, to boot.
"It's up to somebody ... to breach that mold," said Federer, buyer of a almanac 16 Grand Slam titles. "I achievement I can do that."
Add him to the equation, and those three men accept accumulated to win 28 of the accomplished 29 majors, a seven-year run of ascendancy that began with Nadal's achievement at the 2005 French Open. (The abandoned barring was the 2009 U.S. Open, area Federer absent in the final to Juan Martin del Potro.)
The top-seeded Djokovic is the arresting best at Wimbledon -- and while it's the alone grass-court appellation on his resume, it's a rather cogent one.
"I mean, this is what I'm built-in for," he said afterwards assault Nadal in four sets in the 2011 final. "You know, I wish to be a tennis champion. I wish to win added Grand Slams. I will absolutely not stop here."
He confused to No. 1 in the ATP rankings the next day and has remained there, while accumulation a 27-match Grand Slam acceptable band that included titles at the U.S. Open in September and Australian Open in January, afore catastrophe with a accident to Nadal in the rain-interrupted, two-day French Open final two weeks ago.
Nadal already was anticipation to be a clay-court able but has apparent that he can acclimate to, and excel on, added surfaces, abutting Federer a allotment of the seven men who completed a career Grand Slam. At Wimbledon, the Spaniard accomplished the final anniversary of the endure 5 times he entered the tournament, acceptable alert and finishing runner-up to Djokovic or Federer the added three.
And Federer? Well, all he's done is win six championships additional accomplish one final at the All England Club in a seven-year amount from 2003-09.
"I would just like to get addition Wimbledon crown. It would be amazing to get No. 7," said Federer, who absent in the quarterfinals the accomplished two years, to Tomas Berdych in 2010, and to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2011.
He's gone about 2 1/2 years afterwards acceptable a Grand Slam title, his longest aridity back he won his aboriginal nine years ago.
"The ache is acutely big," Federer said.
His ability of faster surfaces such as the grass at Wimbledon and the harder courts at the U.S. Open makes it boxy to aphorism him out, even if he's abutting his 31st altogether on Aug. 8.
Asked to admeasurement up his affairs for abacus to his Grand Slam total, Federer said, "I anticipate the accessible two," apropos to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, "those will be my best affairs to win."
While players such as Berdych or Tsonga or Roddick or del Potro accept apparent they can attempt with the best on their best canicule -- and No. 4 Andy Murray, a three-time above finalist, gets affluence of home-crowd abutment because he represents Britain -- the apprehension is that Djokovic, Nadal or Federer will extend their hard-to-believe aphorism at Grand Slam tournaments.
"Murray is acutely the added guy. He would be the added guy that would accept the next best chance," said seven-time above best John McEnroe, who'll be calling matches for ESPN as it takes over from NBC as the capital Wimbledon TV approach in the United States.
Murray, for his part, dismisses questions about getting abounding by all the absorption he gets these two weeks -- and all the hopes the locals have.
"Doesn't add any added pressure. I anticipate in all sports, arena at home is beheld as getting a huge advantage, admitting for some acumen if it comes to Wimbledon, anybody thinks it's a bad thing," he said. "I haven't absolutely begin it that way. If I've played here, I've enjoyed the challenge, I've enjoyed arena in foreground of a amorous crowd, and it's helped me."
He aswell refuses to abide on what ability be advised the bad affluence of arena tennis at the aforementioned time as the top three.
For some perspective, accede what's been traveling on in golf: If Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open endure weekend, he was the ninth afterwards first-time above best in that sport; he aswell was the 15th man to win one of the accomplished 15 majors. That array of adequation does abide in tennis, too, but alone in the women's game, area six players disconnected up the a lot of contempo six Grand Slam titles, capped by Maria Sharapova's celebration at the French Open.
That acknowledgment to the top -- and to No. 1 in the WTA rankings -- makes her a accepted aces to do able-bodied at Wimbledon, too. She did, afterwards all, accomplish her advance at the grass-court clash by acceptable it at age 17 in 2004.
There aswell are cases to be fabricated for four-time Wimbledon best Serena Williams, who is abiding to be absorbed on authoritative up for a first-round accident at Roland Garros; arresting best Petra Kvitova; contempo No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, a semifinalist a year ago; 2007 runner-up Marion Bartoli; above No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, apparently the best amateur afterwards a Grand Slam title; and even Venus Williams, who ability be slowed by an autoimmune ache but still knows how to get the a lot of out of her big serve and able groundstrokes at a clash she's won 5 times.
It's abundant easier to appear up with a diffuse account of contenders for the women's appellation than it is for the men's.
Why has tennis' top leash won above afterwards major?
"Because they are too good," Tsonga said. "That's it. They're just too good."
None of the added 125 men in the acreage can candidly say the same.
Indeed, it's boxy to brainstorm anyone alfresco that leash acceptable this year's championship at the All England Club, area play begins Monday.
"They've, you know, been appealing egocentric about Grand Slam titles for a little bit," said 2003 U.S. Open best and three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick.
They abiding have.
Either Nadal or Djokovic has won anniversary of the accomplished nine above tournaments, and they met in the endure four finals, to boot.
"It's up to somebody ... to breach that mold," said Federer, buyer of a almanac 16 Grand Slam titles. "I achievement I can do that."
Add him to the equation, and those three men accept accumulated to win 28 of the accomplished 29 majors, a seven-year run of ascendancy that began with Nadal's achievement at the 2005 French Open. (The abandoned barring was the 2009 U.S. Open, area Federer absent in the final to Juan Martin del Potro.)
The top-seeded Djokovic is the arresting best at Wimbledon -- and while it's the alone grass-court appellation on his resume, it's a rather cogent one.
"I mean, this is what I'm built-in for," he said afterwards assault Nadal in four sets in the 2011 final. "You know, I wish to be a tennis champion. I wish to win added Grand Slams. I will absolutely not stop here."
He confused to No. 1 in the ATP rankings the next day and has remained there, while accumulation a 27-match Grand Slam acceptable band that included titles at the U.S. Open in September and Australian Open in January, afore catastrophe with a accident to Nadal in the rain-interrupted, two-day French Open final two weeks ago.
Nadal already was anticipation to be a clay-court able but has apparent that he can acclimate to, and excel on, added surfaces, abutting Federer a allotment of the seven men who completed a career Grand Slam. At Wimbledon, the Spaniard accomplished the final anniversary of the endure 5 times he entered the tournament, acceptable alert and finishing runner-up to Djokovic or Federer the added three.
And Federer? Well, all he's done is win six championships additional accomplish one final at the All England Club in a seven-year amount from 2003-09.
"I would just like to get addition Wimbledon crown. It would be amazing to get No. 7," said Federer, who absent in the quarterfinals the accomplished two years, to Tomas Berdych in 2010, and to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2011.
He's gone about 2 1/2 years afterwards acceptable a Grand Slam title, his longest aridity back he won his aboriginal nine years ago.
"The ache is acutely big," Federer said.
His ability of faster surfaces such as the grass at Wimbledon and the harder courts at the U.S. Open makes it boxy to aphorism him out, even if he's abutting his 31st altogether on Aug. 8.
Asked to admeasurement up his affairs for abacus to his Grand Slam total, Federer said, "I anticipate the accessible two," apropos to Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, "those will be my best affairs to win."
While players such as Berdych or Tsonga or Roddick or del Potro accept apparent they can attempt with the best on their best canicule -- and No. 4 Andy Murray, a three-time above finalist, gets affluence of home-crowd abutment because he represents Britain -- the apprehension is that Djokovic, Nadal or Federer will extend their hard-to-believe aphorism at Grand Slam tournaments.
"Murray is acutely the added guy. He would be the added guy that would accept the next best chance," said seven-time above best John McEnroe, who'll be calling matches for ESPN as it takes over from NBC as the capital Wimbledon TV approach in the United States.
Murray, for his part, dismisses questions about getting abounding by all the absorption he gets these two weeks -- and all the hopes the locals have.
"Doesn't add any added pressure. I anticipate in all sports, arena at home is beheld as getting a huge advantage, admitting for some acumen if it comes to Wimbledon, anybody thinks it's a bad thing," he said. "I haven't absolutely begin it that way. If I've played here, I've enjoyed the challenge, I've enjoyed arena in foreground of a amorous crowd, and it's helped me."
He aswell refuses to abide on what ability be advised the bad affluence of arena tennis at the aforementioned time as the top three.
For some perspective, accede what's been traveling on in golf: If Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open endure weekend, he was the ninth afterwards first-time above best in that sport; he aswell was the 15th man to win one of the accomplished 15 majors. That array of adequation does abide in tennis, too, but alone in the women's game, area six players disconnected up the a lot of contempo six Grand Slam titles, capped by Maria Sharapova's celebration at the French Open.
That acknowledgment to the top -- and to No. 1 in the WTA rankings -- makes her a accepted aces to do able-bodied at Wimbledon, too. She did, afterwards all, accomplish her advance at the grass-court clash by acceptable it at age 17 in 2004.
There aswell are cases to be fabricated for four-time Wimbledon best Serena Williams, who is abiding to be absorbed on authoritative up for a first-round accident at Roland Garros; arresting best Petra Kvitova; contempo No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, a semifinalist a year ago; 2007 runner-up Marion Bartoli; above No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, apparently the best amateur afterwards a Grand Slam title; and even Venus Williams, who ability be slowed by an autoimmune ache but still knows how to get the a lot of out of her big serve and able groundstrokes at a clash she's won 5 times.
It's abundant easier to appear up with a diffuse account of contenders for the women's appellation than it is for the men's.
Why has tennis' top leash won above afterwards major?
"Because they are too good," Tsonga said. "That's it. They're just too good."
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Microsoft Announces About-face to Windows 8 for Windows Phone
Microsoft expects the aboriginal Windows Phones with the Windows 8 operating arrangement to become accessible after this year, the aggregation appear today at its Windows Phone Summit for developers in San Francisco.
The next bearing phones will action a revamped Start screen, bigger multitasking, agenda wallet and NFC wireless functionality (tap to pay), adapted accent functionality, action accessory administration and aegis features. Windows Phone 8 will aswell acquaint a development archetypal based on C++/C and DirectX to facilitate cipher administration with Microsoft's accessible Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8 is accepted ancient this abatement on Microsoft Surface tablets, appear on Monday, and Windows-based PCs.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools, are accepted after this summer. SQLite will be ported to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 so that developers can download the cipher and use it in both platforms, according to Microsoft.
With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is afterlight the Start awning to action added user customization of reside tiles in agreement of size, color, adjustment and content. Windows Phone 8 aswell supports added HTML5features in areas such as blow and faster JavaScript performance.
Windows Phone 8 is declared as a above absolution that marks a bearing shift. It runs on multicore technology , adds two awning resolutions , and offers a disposable microSD agenda for accumulator and agreeable administration a part of Windows 8 accessories .
Microsoft appear today that OEM ally Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC are architecture Windows Phone 8 devices. Nokia has alien the alarmingly acclaimed Lumia alternation of Windows Phone devices, but the aggregation has struggled in contempo months, and downgraded the angle in 2012 for its Services and Accessories division.
The next bearing accouterments aswell supports NFC wireless technology, enabling a new Wallet hub and Wallet UI that developers can accommodate with third affair apps. Developers can use it to abutment in-app purchases, which action addition access for monetization. The defended SIM is accurate by the carrier so that it moves with the user, according to Microsoft Senior Vice President Joe Belfiore, who active the Windows Phone program, instead of placed anon in the accessory like Google Wallet. Microsoft aswell expects to abutment ISIS ancient next year.
Windows Phone 8 integrates Nokia Mapping technology with NAVTEQ data, enabling abutment for turn-by-turn admonition in abounding countries and use of mapping abstracts offline. It aswell has Internet Explorer 10 congenital with Smart Awning Filter technology for phishing and malware protection.
At the Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft appear several adaptable app developers that accept agreed to anchorage their adaptable apps to the Windows Phone 8 platform, including Chase, whose cyberbanking app was acclimated to authenticate agenda Wallet acclaim and debit agenda features, PayPal, and Zynga's Words with Friends and Draw Something applications.
The next bearing phones will action a revamped Start screen, bigger multitasking, agenda wallet and NFC wireless functionality (tap to pay), adapted accent functionality, action accessory administration and aegis features. Windows Phone 8 will aswell acquaint a development archetypal based on C++/C and DirectX to facilitate cipher administration with Microsoft's accessible Windows 8 operating system. Windows 8 is accepted ancient this abatement on Microsoft Surface tablets, appear on Monday, and Windows-based PCs.
The Windows Phone Developer Tools, are accepted after this summer. SQLite will be ported to Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 so that developers can download the cipher and use it in both platforms, according to Microsoft.
With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is afterlight the Start awning to action added user customization of reside tiles in agreement of size, color, adjustment and content. Windows Phone 8 aswell supports added HTML5features in areas such as blow and faster JavaScript performance.
Windows Phone 8 is declared as a above absolution that marks a bearing shift. It runs on multicore technology , adds two awning resolutions , and offers a disposable microSD agenda for accumulator and agreeable administration a part of Windows 8 accessories .
Microsoft appear today that OEM ally Nokia, Huawei, Samsung and HTC are architecture Windows Phone 8 devices. Nokia has alien the alarmingly acclaimed Lumia alternation of Windows Phone devices, but the aggregation has struggled in contempo months, and downgraded the angle in 2012 for its Services and Accessories division.
The next bearing accouterments aswell supports NFC wireless technology, enabling a new Wallet hub and Wallet UI that developers can accommodate with third affair apps. Developers can use it to abutment in-app purchases, which action addition access for monetization. The defended SIM is accurate by the carrier so that it moves with the user, according to Microsoft Senior Vice President Joe Belfiore, who active the Windows Phone program, instead of placed anon in the accessory like Google Wallet. Microsoft aswell expects to abutment ISIS ancient next year.
Windows Phone 8 integrates Nokia Mapping technology with NAVTEQ data, enabling abutment for turn-by-turn admonition in abounding countries and use of mapping abstracts offline. It aswell has Internet Explorer 10 congenital with Smart Awning Filter technology for phishing and malware protection.
At the Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft appear several adaptable app developers that accept agreed to anchorage their adaptable apps to the Windows Phone 8 platform, including Chase, whose cyberbanking app was acclimated to authenticate agenda Wallet acclaim and debit agenda features, PayPal, and Zynga's Words with Friends and Draw Something applications.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Interactive Exhibits Breath Activity into Artifacts
In “The History of the World in 100 Objects,” Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, explores animal history through the lens of artifacts we accept created beyond time. These artifacts, he argues, acquaint letters audible from anecdotal histories, absolute both the minutia of circadian activity and the beyond belief of a accustomed society’s ethics and needs.
At Keeler Tavern Museum’s Colonial Day on Saturday, artifacts created a active account of colonial life. Through alternate displays that affianced all the senses, history buffs adolescent and old absorbed themselves in the accomplished (with some 21st aeon fun added to the mix). I brought my son to acquaintance activity as his colonial ancestors would accept lived it, and we both larboard in awe of the artists and craftsmen who advance the arts of the past, enabling for us a belly acquaintance of a absent time.
We started in the museum’s garden house, area we abstruse about colonial timekeeping, bassinet making, and rug hooking from artisans in aeon dress. Aswell in the garden abode were bounded artists Tina Phillips and Susan Scala. Watercolorist Phillips displayed paintings and notecards created from her work, and potter and painter Scala, whose plan is accessible in the museum’s allowance shop, busy ceramics with amusing images that distill history through cogent moments. (If you’re searching for a one-of-a-kind ceremony gift, accede allotment her to actualize an archival platter!).
Under tents on the grounds, contour artisan Andrea Peitsch accomplished the centuries-old art. There were aswell soap making, armchair canning, and butt authoritative exhibits. A colonial kitchen offered us a about-face churning butter, abrasion bread, and arise walnuts (and aggressive in me a actual adapted ache of answerability for occasionally whining about how annoying loading the dishwasher is). Edible aliment demonstrations featured kettlecorn and accessible pit cooking, area we denticulate adorable amoroso and biscuit coated donuts.
Musical arts adventures included aimless minstrels in aeon apparel and Fife and Drum performances. Re-enactors apery the British 9th of Foot did blaster firings that were not so abundant agreeable as very, actual loud. We aswell abstruse that British uniforms were initially fabricated of absolute and, in a accompanying note, that calefaction achievement was a arch could cause of afterlife for British troops during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Eventually, the crown’s aggressive switched to linen.
On the high terrace, children’s crafts included broken lanterns and blah bark dolls forth with a 21st Aeon child-pleaser: face painting. On added locations of the museum’s arresting grounds, a aliment quart and cuddle zoo—with goats, sheep, bunnies, chickens, and pony rides—also addressed abreast concerns.
We concluded our day with an breezy bout of the museum, area we apparent the alpha abaft 18th Aeon innovations. The broken lantern, both admirable and functional, kept candles lit even in a annealed wind. The beehive oven kept women (and their continued skirts!) out of alveolate fireplaces while cooking. The spider pot (a bank pan with continued legs) accustomed women to accomplish sauces, not just the stews they created in ample pots abeyant over the flames. Candle molds beneath the bulk of time it took to accomplish candles—by hours! Aswell on affectation were coffee grinders and nutcrackers and all address of copse utensils.
The day was a treasure, abutting us to those who preceded us not just through words or artifacts abandoned but through adventures of them. An accessible befalling for accouchement to adore a agnate acquaintance arrives during Keeler Tavern’s Kids Week, from July 16 through 20. The building aswell offers tours Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1 – 4 p.m.
At Keeler Tavern Museum’s Colonial Day on Saturday, artifacts created a active account of colonial life. Through alternate displays that affianced all the senses, history buffs adolescent and old absorbed themselves in the accomplished (with some 21st aeon fun added to the mix). I brought my son to acquaintance activity as his colonial ancestors would accept lived it, and we both larboard in awe of the artists and craftsmen who advance the arts of the past, enabling for us a belly acquaintance of a absent time.
We started in the museum’s garden house, area we abstruse about colonial timekeeping, bassinet making, and rug hooking from artisans in aeon dress. Aswell in the garden abode were bounded artists Tina Phillips and Susan Scala. Watercolorist Phillips displayed paintings and notecards created from her work, and potter and painter Scala, whose plan is accessible in the museum’s allowance shop, busy ceramics with amusing images that distill history through cogent moments. (If you’re searching for a one-of-a-kind ceremony gift, accede allotment her to actualize an archival platter!).
Under tents on the grounds, contour artisan Andrea Peitsch accomplished the centuries-old art. There were aswell soap making, armchair canning, and butt authoritative exhibits. A colonial kitchen offered us a about-face churning butter, abrasion bread, and arise walnuts (and aggressive in me a actual adapted ache of answerability for occasionally whining about how annoying loading the dishwasher is). Edible aliment demonstrations featured kettlecorn and accessible pit cooking, area we denticulate adorable amoroso and biscuit coated donuts.
Musical arts adventures included aimless minstrels in aeon apparel and Fife and Drum performances. Re-enactors apery the British 9th of Foot did blaster firings that were not so abundant agreeable as very, actual loud. We aswell abstruse that British uniforms were initially fabricated of absolute and, in a accompanying note, that calefaction achievement was a arch could cause of afterlife for British troops during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Eventually, the crown’s aggressive switched to linen.
On the high terrace, children’s crafts included broken lanterns and blah bark dolls forth with a 21st Aeon child-pleaser: face painting. On added locations of the museum’s arresting grounds, a aliment quart and cuddle zoo—with goats, sheep, bunnies, chickens, and pony rides—also addressed abreast concerns.
We concluded our day with an breezy bout of the museum, area we apparent the alpha abaft 18th Aeon innovations. The broken lantern, both admirable and functional, kept candles lit even in a annealed wind. The beehive oven kept women (and their continued skirts!) out of alveolate fireplaces while cooking. The spider pot (a bank pan with continued legs) accustomed women to accomplish sauces, not just the stews they created in ample pots abeyant over the flames. Candle molds beneath the bulk of time it took to accomplish candles—by hours! Aswell on affectation were coffee grinders and nutcrackers and all address of copse utensils.
The day was a treasure, abutting us to those who preceded us not just through words or artifacts abandoned but through adventures of them. An accessible befalling for accouchement to adore a agnate acquaintance arrives during Keeler Tavern’s Kids Week, from July 16 through 20. The building aswell offers tours Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 1 – 4 p.m.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Scots slam nuclear submarine plan as Trident contract announced
Scottish ministers today reaffirmed their opposition to nuclear submarines, as UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced the first big contract of the Trident replacement programme.
The 1bn contract is for an 11-year refit of the Rolls-Royce plant in Derby, enabling it to supply new nuclear cores for the UK submarine fleet. The contract includes an order for two initial cores, the first for a conventionally armed Astute-class boat, and the second for Trident’s successor fleet.
Bruce Crawford, Scotland’s Cabinet secretary for parliamentary business & government strategy, said a majority of Scottish civic opinion was opposed to the Trident replacement: ‘Independence is the only constitutional option which gives Scotland the powers to have Trident removed from Scottish waters.
‘A normal country with the power to decide its own defence and security policy would never be pushed into spending billions of pounds of taxpayer’s money on unwanted nuclear weapons,’ Crawford said. He called the UK government’s decision to press ahead with replacement ‘an obscenity’.
He backed the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s plan to rid Scotland’s waters of the submarine. Scottish CND’s report, Disarming Trident, lays out a two-year timetable for recalling the Trident fleet to its base at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde, and putting the weapons beyond use. It says that all 220 warheads, including those stored at the nearby Coulport facility, could be disabled within eight days, then transported south for dismantling.
Crawford said that the plan had the backing of international experts: ‘The suggested timetable is a welcome indication of how quickly Trident could be removed once Scotland has the powers to decide its own defence and security policy.’
A Scottish Sunday newspaper report suggests that the Ministry of Defence is secretly urging the UK government’s ministerial and legal teams to gear up to meet the threat posed to the future of the Trident programme by the Scottish National Party’s long-held commitment to banish the weapons from an independent Scotland.
Hammond’s more immediate concern, though, is to manage stresses within the UK coalition over replacing Trident, which many in the Liberal Democrats oppose.
What has become known as the ‘main gate’ formal decision on committing to replacement will not be made until 2016, but Hammond has argued that the long lead times involved make it necessary to begin tooling up industrial facilities now.
The 1bn contract is for an 11-year refit of the Rolls-Royce plant in Derby, enabling it to supply new nuclear cores for the UK submarine fleet. The contract includes an order for two initial cores, the first for a conventionally armed Astute-class boat, and the second for Trident’s successor fleet.
Bruce Crawford, Scotland’s Cabinet secretary for parliamentary business & government strategy, said a majority of Scottish civic opinion was opposed to the Trident replacement: ‘Independence is the only constitutional option which gives Scotland the powers to have Trident removed from Scottish waters.
‘A normal country with the power to decide its own defence and security policy would never be pushed into spending billions of pounds of taxpayer’s money on unwanted nuclear weapons,’ Crawford said. He called the UK government’s decision to press ahead with replacement ‘an obscenity’.
He backed the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s plan to rid Scotland’s waters of the submarine. Scottish CND’s report, Disarming Trident, lays out a two-year timetable for recalling the Trident fleet to its base at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde, and putting the weapons beyond use. It says that all 220 warheads, including those stored at the nearby Coulport facility, could be disabled within eight days, then transported south for dismantling.
Crawford said that the plan had the backing of international experts: ‘The suggested timetable is a welcome indication of how quickly Trident could be removed once Scotland has the powers to decide its own defence and security policy.’
A Scottish Sunday newspaper report suggests that the Ministry of Defence is secretly urging the UK government’s ministerial and legal teams to gear up to meet the threat posed to the future of the Trident programme by the Scottish National Party’s long-held commitment to banish the weapons from an independent Scotland.
Hammond’s more immediate concern, though, is to manage stresses within the UK coalition over replacing Trident, which many in the Liberal Democrats oppose.
What has become known as the ‘main gate’ formal decision on committing to replacement will not be made until 2016, but Hammond has argued that the long lead times involved make it necessary to begin tooling up industrial facilities now.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade writes book on fatherhood
In the hours following a big win, NBA players often hit the town and kick back with a celebratory dinner — and perhaps a cocktail or two.
But after a recent day’s worth of sweat and floor burns, Dwyane Wade was anything but a man on the town. He spent the evening with his eldest son, Zaire, hitting the books.
“I came over to his house and found them in the kitchen, doing homework,” said Wade’s mother, Jolinda. “Watching the interaction, with Dwyane putting it in a way where his son could understand. Once he got it, they high-fived and hugged.”
Here’s a little secret: Of all the names Wade goes by — D-Wade, Flash, MV3 — there’s one he holds most dear: Dad.
Wade — who will spend Father’s Day 2012 on sports’ center stage as his Heat hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals’ pivotal Game 3 — regularly uses his Twitter account as an open love letter to his two boys, Zaire and Zion. He also maintains a blog on parenting issues in partnership with Pepperidge Farm.
While every proud musing and family photo he posts is seen by his 3.3 million Twitter followers, here’s something his army of loyal fans might not know: Wade has penned a book on fatherhood that’s due to hit stores in September.
It’s self-evidently entitled A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball.
Wade may be passionately devoted to his sport, but he calls fatherhood “the single most significant undertaking of my life, and the job I take most seriously.”
During a break in Saturday’s practice at Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena, he elaborated: “Anyone who’s a father, you know it’s one of the most special things … and one of the purest relationships that you have in life. I enjoy being one of the guys with my boys, but I also enjoy being a leader and being able to lead them and help mold the way that they think.”
This time last year, three months after winning full custody of his two sons after a bruising custody battle with ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, Wade authored a piece for Newsweek magazine on life as a single dad. Wade wrote then how the stresses of being a key player on pro sports’ most polarizing team wash away every morning when he wakes his kids for school.
Wade’s bitter, public divorce had limited his time with his boys, and the resulting emptiness convinced him he wanted to be a full-time dad in addition to a full-time star. Around the same time Wade was winning custody of Zaire and Zion, President Barack Obama asked him to be part of a national parenting program intended to persuade fathers to become more involved in their kids’ lives.
But after a recent day’s worth of sweat and floor burns, Dwyane Wade was anything but a man on the town. He spent the evening with his eldest son, Zaire, hitting the books.
“I came over to his house and found them in the kitchen, doing homework,” said Wade’s mother, Jolinda. “Watching the interaction, with Dwyane putting it in a way where his son could understand. Once he got it, they high-fived and hugged.”
Here’s a little secret: Of all the names Wade goes by — D-Wade, Flash, MV3 — there’s one he holds most dear: Dad.
Wade — who will spend Father’s Day 2012 on sports’ center stage as his Heat hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals’ pivotal Game 3 — regularly uses his Twitter account as an open love letter to his two boys, Zaire and Zion. He also maintains a blog on parenting issues in partnership with Pepperidge Farm.
While every proud musing and family photo he posts is seen by his 3.3 million Twitter followers, here’s something his army of loyal fans might not know: Wade has penned a book on fatherhood that’s due to hit stores in September.
It’s self-evidently entitled A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball.
Wade may be passionately devoted to his sport, but he calls fatherhood “the single most significant undertaking of my life, and the job I take most seriously.”
During a break in Saturday’s practice at Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena, he elaborated: “Anyone who’s a father, you know it’s one of the most special things … and one of the purest relationships that you have in life. I enjoy being one of the guys with my boys, but I also enjoy being a leader and being able to lead them and help mold the way that they think.”
This time last year, three months after winning full custody of his two sons after a bruising custody battle with ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, Wade authored a piece for Newsweek magazine on life as a single dad. Wade wrote then how the stresses of being a key player on pro sports’ most polarizing team wash away every morning when he wakes his kids for school.
Wade’s bitter, public divorce had limited his time with his boys, and the resulting emptiness convinced him he wanted to be a full-time dad in addition to a full-time star. Around the same time Wade was winning custody of Zaire and Zion, President Barack Obama asked him to be part of a national parenting program intended to persuade fathers to become more involved in their kids’ lives.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Modular Solution for Social Housing
George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation is pleased to present “Fluxcity: Prefabricated/Modular Solution for Social Housing”. The exhibition will open as a conceptual web exhibit in June, 2012 and related works will be available to view at the foundation exhibition space in September 2012 at 454 West 19th St, New York. NY 10011.
Sustainability has never been a more pressing need in the state of current socio-economic trends. George Maciunas, who stated “efficiency is giving the most performance for the least cost”, invented the 1900-square-foot prefabricated mass building system known as Fluxhouse as an flexible solution for social housing. Echoing MoMa curator Pedro Gadanho’s famous statement, “curating is the new criticism”, the exhibition will engage the concept of urban sustainability through adaptive design solutions.
Copyrighted in 1965 as an improved design to Soviet Block Housing, Fluxhouse is a modular unit based on a minimum number of components and a simple manufacturing method of fabrication and construction. With simple tooling requirements, the manufacturing process is readily adaptable to existing automation systems. Easily customized to residential, institutional, industrial, and agricultural functions, the Fluxhouse unit can be multiplied to construct buildings of any size and configuration. Naturally eco-friendly, Fluxhouse is resistant to natural disasters including fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, as well as deterioration caused by rot, termites, corrosion, and discoloration.
Maciunas, who is known as the “Father of SoHo” for gentrifying this neighborhood with artists’ cooperatives, envisioned Fluxcity as an adaptive ‘knowledge-city’ manifesting collective intelligence into the built environment. As the world faces its greatest economic challenges due to poor speculation in property developments and an expanding global population, prefabricated systems like Fluxhouse hold their greatest potential as a cost efficient government sponsored solution used to repair lower and middle class communities and raise the standards of living for the world today.
The commercial applications of Fluxhouse are examined in the newly published “An Assessment Report”. Eric Gould, founder and director of Helicon Design Group, and architects Scott Weinkle and Mauricio Arduz will present experimental 3D digital renderings of Fluxcity. The exhibition space will display images from “Ciphers”, the latest project of Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photographs of isolated suburban settlements reveals the hidden geometries of living environments. The topics of architectural consumerism, cooperative living arrangements, nomadism, and urban morphology will be studied in the scholarly works of Stewart Brand, Nikos Salingaros, Christopher Alexander, Michael Haerdter, and Rosi Brandotti among others.
Sustainability has never been a more pressing need in the state of current socio-economic trends. George Maciunas, who stated “efficiency is giving the most performance for the least cost”, invented the 1900-square-foot prefabricated mass building system known as Fluxhouse as an flexible solution for social housing. Echoing MoMa curator Pedro Gadanho’s famous statement, “curating is the new criticism”, the exhibition will engage the concept of urban sustainability through adaptive design solutions.
Copyrighted in 1965 as an improved design to Soviet Block Housing, Fluxhouse is a modular unit based on a minimum number of components and a simple manufacturing method of fabrication and construction. With simple tooling requirements, the manufacturing process is readily adaptable to existing automation systems. Easily customized to residential, institutional, industrial, and agricultural functions, the Fluxhouse unit can be multiplied to construct buildings of any size and configuration. Naturally eco-friendly, Fluxhouse is resistant to natural disasters including fires, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes, as well as deterioration caused by rot, termites, corrosion, and discoloration.
Maciunas, who is known as the “Father of SoHo” for gentrifying this neighborhood with artists’ cooperatives, envisioned Fluxcity as an adaptive ‘knowledge-city’ manifesting collective intelligence into the built environment. As the world faces its greatest economic challenges due to poor speculation in property developments and an expanding global population, prefabricated systems like Fluxhouse hold their greatest potential as a cost efficient government sponsored solution used to repair lower and middle class communities and raise the standards of living for the world today.
The commercial applications of Fluxhouse are examined in the newly published “An Assessment Report”. Eric Gould, founder and director of Helicon Design Group, and architects Scott Weinkle and Mauricio Arduz will present experimental 3D digital renderings of Fluxcity. The exhibition space will display images from “Ciphers”, the latest project of Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photographs of isolated suburban settlements reveals the hidden geometries of living environments. The topics of architectural consumerism, cooperative living arrangements, nomadism, and urban morphology will be studied in the scholarly works of Stewart Brand, Nikos Salingaros, Christopher Alexander, Michael Haerdter, and Rosi Brandotti among others.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Making Hadoop Safe for Clusterophobics
Hadoop remains a difficult platform for most enterprises to master. For now skills are still hard to come by – both for data architect or engineer, and especially for data scientists. It still takes too much skill, tape, and baling wire to get a Hadoop cluster together. Not every enterprise is Google or Facebook, with armies of software engineers that they can throw at a problem. With some exceptions, most enterprises don’t deal with data on the scale of Google or Facebook either – but the bar is rising.
If 2011 was the year that the big IT data warehouse and analytic platform brand names discovered Hadoop, 2012 becomes the year where a tooling ecosystem starts emerging to make Hadoop more consumable for the enterprise. Let’s amend that – along with tools, Hadoop must also become a first-class citizen with enterprise IT infrastructure. Hadoop won’t cross over to the enterprise if it has to be treated as some special island. That means meshing with the practices and technology approaches that enterprises are using to manage their data centers or cloud deployments. Like SQL, data integration, virtualization, storage strategy, and so on.
Admittedly, much of this cuts against the grain of early Hadoop deployment that stressed open source and commodity infrastructure. Early adopters did so out of necessity as commercial software ran out of gas for Facebook when its data warehouse daily refreshes were breaking terabyte range, not to mention that the cost of commercial licenses for such scaled out analytic platforms wouldn’t have been trivial. Anyway, Hadoop’s linearity leverages scale out of commodity blades and direct attached disk as far as the eye can see, enabling such an almost pure noncommercial approach. At the time, Google’s, Yahoo’s, and Facebook’s issues were considered rather unique – most enterprise don’t run global search engines – not to mention that their business was built on armies of software engineers.
On the fear of clusters side, players like Oracle, EMC Greenplum, and TeradataAster are already offering appliances that simplify deployment of Hadoop, typically in conjunction with an Advanced SQL analytic platform. While most vendors position this as a way for Hadoop to “extend’ your data warehouse so you perform exploration in Hadoop, but the serious analytics in SQL, we view appliances as more than transitional strategy; the workloads are going to get more equitably distributed, and in the long run, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more Hadoop-only appliances, sort of like Oracle’s (for the record, they also bundle another NoSQL database).
Also addressing the same constituency are storage and virtualization – facts of life in the data center. For Hadoop to cross over to the enterprise, it, too, must get virtualization-friendly; storage is an open question. The need for virtualization becomes even more apparent because (1) the exploratory nature of Hadoop analytics demands the ability to try out queries offline without having to disrupt or physically build a new cluster; and (2) the variable nature of Hadoop processing suggests that workloads are likely to be elastic. So we’ve been waiting for VMware to make their move. VMware – also part of EMC – has announced a pair of initiatives. First, they are working with the Apache Hadoop project to make the core pieces (HDFS and MapReduce) virtualization-aware, and separately, they are hosting their own open source project (Serengeti) for virtualizing Hadoop clusters. While Project Serengeti is not VM-specific, there’s little doubt that this will be a VMware project (we’d be shocked if the Xen folks were to buy in).
Where there’s virtualized servers, storage often closely follows. A few months back, EMC dropped the other shoe, finally unveiling a strategy for leverag ingIsilon with the Greenplum HD platform, the closest thing in NAS that replicates the scale-out model storage model popularized with Hadoop. This opens an argument of whether the scales of data in Hadoop make premium products such as Isilon unaffordable; the flip side however is the “open source tax,” where you hire the skills in your IT organization to manage and deploy scale-out storage, or pay consultants to do it for you.
If 2011 was the year that the big IT data warehouse and analytic platform brand names discovered Hadoop, 2012 becomes the year where a tooling ecosystem starts emerging to make Hadoop more consumable for the enterprise. Let’s amend that – along with tools, Hadoop must also become a first-class citizen with enterprise IT infrastructure. Hadoop won’t cross over to the enterprise if it has to be treated as some special island. That means meshing with the practices and technology approaches that enterprises are using to manage their data centers or cloud deployments. Like SQL, data integration, virtualization, storage strategy, and so on.
Admittedly, much of this cuts against the grain of early Hadoop deployment that stressed open source and commodity infrastructure. Early adopters did so out of necessity as commercial software ran out of gas for Facebook when its data warehouse daily refreshes were breaking terabyte range, not to mention that the cost of commercial licenses for such scaled out analytic platforms wouldn’t have been trivial. Anyway, Hadoop’s linearity leverages scale out of commodity blades and direct attached disk as far as the eye can see, enabling such an almost pure noncommercial approach. At the time, Google’s, Yahoo’s, and Facebook’s issues were considered rather unique – most enterprise don’t run global search engines – not to mention that their business was built on armies of software engineers.
On the fear of clusters side, players like Oracle, EMC Greenplum, and TeradataAster are already offering appliances that simplify deployment of Hadoop, typically in conjunction with an Advanced SQL analytic platform. While most vendors position this as a way for Hadoop to “extend’ your data warehouse so you perform exploration in Hadoop, but the serious analytics in SQL, we view appliances as more than transitional strategy; the workloads are going to get more equitably distributed, and in the long run, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more Hadoop-only appliances, sort of like Oracle’s (for the record, they also bundle another NoSQL database).
Also addressing the same constituency are storage and virtualization – facts of life in the data center. For Hadoop to cross over to the enterprise, it, too, must get virtualization-friendly; storage is an open question. The need for virtualization becomes even more apparent because (1) the exploratory nature of Hadoop analytics demands the ability to try out queries offline without having to disrupt or physically build a new cluster; and (2) the variable nature of Hadoop processing suggests that workloads are likely to be elastic. So we’ve been waiting for VMware to make their move. VMware – also part of EMC – has announced a pair of initiatives. First, they are working with the Apache Hadoop project to make the core pieces (HDFS and MapReduce) virtualization-aware, and separately, they are hosting their own open source project (Serengeti) for virtualizing Hadoop clusters. While Project Serengeti is not VM-specific, there’s little doubt that this will be a VMware project (we’d be shocked if the Xen folks were to buy in).
Where there’s virtualized servers, storage often closely follows. A few months back, EMC dropped the other shoe, finally unveiling a strategy for leverag ingIsilon with the Greenplum HD platform, the closest thing in NAS that replicates the scale-out model storage model popularized with Hadoop. This opens an argument of whether the scales of data in Hadoop make premium products such as Isilon unaffordable; the flip side however is the “open source tax,” where you hire the skills in your IT organization to manage and deploy scale-out storage, or pay consultants to do it for you.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
EPA grant to help clean T&G site
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $200,000 to a Worcester organization to help fund the cleanup of contaminants such as asbestos at a downtown building that has long housed the Telegram & Gazette.
The Worcester Business Development Corp. plans to begin work at 20 Franklin St. this summer as part of an effort to revive a 35-acre neighborhood around The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, according to WBDC President Craig L. Blais.
First, he said at a news conference yesterday outside the building, “We have to deal with the condition of this property.”
The WBDC purchased the four-story building and a nearby parking lot last year for $300,000 from the New York Times Co., parent company of the Telegram & Gazette. The newspaper still occupies the building, but plans to move to leased space across the Common at 100 Front St. by August, according to Telegram & Gazette publisher Bruce Gaultney.
An environmental report prepared last year for the WBDC described a range of conditions at the property stemming from historic operation of printing equipment and storage of inks, solvents and other chemicals. Asbestos is also present in sound-proofing material, floor tiles and wrapping around pipes, according to a grant application filed last year by the city with federal authorities.
Mr. Blais said it will cost about $1 million to clean the building and about $12 million to $15 million to renovate it for tenants.
The grant to the WBDC was part of $6.75 million in brownfields funding awarded in May by the EPA to Massachusetts projects. Nationally, the EPA handed out $69.3 million in May for brownfields projects. Brownfields are contaminated properties that require cleaning for new development.
The city last year sought but did not receive a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Brownfields Economic Development Initiative for cleanup efforts at 20 Franklin St.
In addition to the new $200,000 EPA grant, the WBDC has received $200,000 for its project from a city revolving loan fund, Mr. Blais said.
Among those attending the event yesterday were Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Richard Sullivan Jr. and City Manager Michael V. O’Brien.
The EPA grant does not absolve the building’s past owners of financial responsibility for any cleanup, according to Mr. McGovern. Mr. Blais said the WBDC remains in financial negotiations with the New York Times Co. for funding for the cleanup.
Mr. Gaultney said in an email that the announcement of the grant was a positive step in the WBDC’s efforts to revitalize the area around the Hanover Theatre.
“We are talking with the WBDC about possible funding to help with the necessary clean up that is very typical for a site such as this,” Mr. Gaultney wrote.
The Worcester Business Development Corp. plans to begin work at 20 Franklin St. this summer as part of an effort to revive a 35-acre neighborhood around The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, according to WBDC President Craig L. Blais.
First, he said at a news conference yesterday outside the building, “We have to deal with the condition of this property.”
The WBDC purchased the four-story building and a nearby parking lot last year for $300,000 from the New York Times Co., parent company of the Telegram & Gazette. The newspaper still occupies the building, but plans to move to leased space across the Common at 100 Front St. by August, according to Telegram & Gazette publisher Bruce Gaultney.
An environmental report prepared last year for the WBDC described a range of conditions at the property stemming from historic operation of printing equipment and storage of inks, solvents and other chemicals. Asbestos is also present in sound-proofing material, floor tiles and wrapping around pipes, according to a grant application filed last year by the city with federal authorities.
Mr. Blais said it will cost about $1 million to clean the building and about $12 million to $15 million to renovate it for tenants.
The grant to the WBDC was part of $6.75 million in brownfields funding awarded in May by the EPA to Massachusetts projects. Nationally, the EPA handed out $69.3 million in May for brownfields projects. Brownfields are contaminated properties that require cleaning for new development.
The city last year sought but did not receive a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Brownfields Economic Development Initiative for cleanup efforts at 20 Franklin St.
In addition to the new $200,000 EPA grant, the WBDC has received $200,000 for its project from a city revolving loan fund, Mr. Blais said.
Among those attending the event yesterday were Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Richard Sullivan Jr. and City Manager Michael V. O’Brien.
The EPA grant does not absolve the building’s past owners of financial responsibility for any cleanup, according to Mr. McGovern. Mr. Blais said the WBDC remains in financial negotiations with the New York Times Co. for funding for the cleanup.
Mr. Gaultney said in an email that the announcement of the grant was a positive step in the WBDC’s efforts to revitalize the area around the Hanover Theatre.
“We are talking with the WBDC about possible funding to help with the necessary clean up that is very typical for a site such as this,” Mr. Gaultney wrote.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Mary Perry Makes Her Mark in Regional Job Growth
The daughter of working-class immigrants, long a “hockey mom” who spent years and years finishing a college degree as a part-time student, Mary Perry knew she was starting late and would be climbing a long, steep ladder in the professional world.
Climb she did, from a low-level bureaucratic position with the state, off to a stint working for private non-profits, then back to the state and up a couple more rungs. With hard work along each step, she learned more, drew on past experience and earned trust.
Now, Perry is the go-to person for large economic development and job creation needs in Southeast Wisconsin.
A 10-year resident of Wauwatosa, Perry is the regional account manager for economic and community development with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC). Her beat is the seven-county area – Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha – that makes up what many call the economic engine of Wisconsin.
Until July 1, Perry had held a series of positions, for just the past couple of years similar to what she’s doing now, with the state Department of Commerce. That’s when Commerce was broken up and disbanded, its pieces parceled out to different entities.
WEDC, a public-private corporation, was created by legislative act to take on the economic and community development roles Commerce had held. But it was not to be simply a transfer of personnel and duties under a new name – it was a tearing down and starting over.
Perry had to, in effect, reapply for the job, and won it, as did quite a few, but by no means all, of the former Commerce staff. Those who made the grade were those who demonstrated that they were eager to shed any “old guard” bureaucratic mentality that might linger.
“We are more agile, more flexible,” Perry said of WEDC. “At Commerce, we had very defined programs, and you had to fit in to one of those programs.
“Suppose you wanted to expand your business and create new jobs – which is what we want. This is the program that seems to fit best, whether that’s, say, non-refundable tax credits, or a low-interest loan.
“You fit this, this and this criteria, but you don’t fit with No. 4.
“Sorry, you don’t qualify. You’re not eligible.”
WEDC has its own long list of programs, some new, some holdovers, but it has fewer stringent rules and, in fact, a mission to customize its services – to break molds where necessary to help ambitious companies succeed when and where they want and need to.
Fi-Med, a Wauwatosa-based company with offices in Richmond, VA, and Orange, CA, had a hot new product in its field, the complex world of medical billing systems.
With about 38 employees at its Wauwatosa headquarters, Fi-Med needed to expand, and not by just a little. The company wanted to add 145 new jobs, soon, but lacked operating capital.
“Bank lending is very tight,” said Fi-Med co-owner Christine Krause. “We couldn’t do it without the help of WEDC.”
Perry went to bat for the company and arranged a $750,000 low-interest loan from the state that no bank was willing to give.
“You have a very tough time persuading any bank to make a loan for operating funds,” Perry said. “And you’ve got something new that you need to act on fast and big, before someone else steps in front of you.
“We wanted Fi-Med to stay out front, and we wanted those jobs here.”
Perry worked closely with Krause and especially her business partner, Adrian Velasquez, to set up the loan while Fi-Med moved forward with its launch. They looked into other WEDC programs as well, such as refundable and non-refundable tax credits. But despite some risk, the quick cash infusion of a direct loan seemed to be the answer for Fi-Med.
Climb she did, from a low-level bureaucratic position with the state, off to a stint working for private non-profits, then back to the state and up a couple more rungs. With hard work along each step, she learned more, drew on past experience and earned trust.
Now, Perry is the go-to person for large economic development and job creation needs in Southeast Wisconsin.
A 10-year resident of Wauwatosa, Perry is the regional account manager for economic and community development with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC). Her beat is the seven-county area – Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha – that makes up what many call the economic engine of Wisconsin.
Until July 1, Perry had held a series of positions, for just the past couple of years similar to what she’s doing now, with the state Department of Commerce. That’s when Commerce was broken up and disbanded, its pieces parceled out to different entities.
WEDC, a public-private corporation, was created by legislative act to take on the economic and community development roles Commerce had held. But it was not to be simply a transfer of personnel and duties under a new name – it was a tearing down and starting over.
Perry had to, in effect, reapply for the job, and won it, as did quite a few, but by no means all, of the former Commerce staff. Those who made the grade were those who demonstrated that they were eager to shed any “old guard” bureaucratic mentality that might linger.
“We are more agile, more flexible,” Perry said of WEDC. “At Commerce, we had very defined programs, and you had to fit in to one of those programs.
“Suppose you wanted to expand your business and create new jobs – which is what we want. This is the program that seems to fit best, whether that’s, say, non-refundable tax credits, or a low-interest loan.
“You fit this, this and this criteria, but you don’t fit with No. 4.
“Sorry, you don’t qualify. You’re not eligible.”
WEDC has its own long list of programs, some new, some holdovers, but it has fewer stringent rules and, in fact, a mission to customize its services – to break molds where necessary to help ambitious companies succeed when and where they want and need to.
Fi-Med, a Wauwatosa-based company with offices in Richmond, VA, and Orange, CA, had a hot new product in its field, the complex world of medical billing systems.
With about 38 employees at its Wauwatosa headquarters, Fi-Med needed to expand, and not by just a little. The company wanted to add 145 new jobs, soon, but lacked operating capital.
“Bank lending is very tight,” said Fi-Med co-owner Christine Krause. “We couldn’t do it without the help of WEDC.”
Perry went to bat for the company and arranged a $750,000 low-interest loan from the state that no bank was willing to give.
“You have a very tough time persuading any bank to make a loan for operating funds,” Perry said. “And you’ve got something new that you need to act on fast and big, before someone else steps in front of you.
“We wanted Fi-Med to stay out front, and we wanted those jobs here.”
Perry worked closely with Krause and especially her business partner, Adrian Velasquez, to set up the loan while Fi-Med moved forward with its launch. They looked into other WEDC programs as well, such as refundable and non-refundable tax credits. But despite some risk, the quick cash infusion of a direct loan seemed to be the answer for Fi-Med.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Padres beat Brewers 5-2
San Diego Padres long reliever Ross Ohlendorf knew he would be pitching at some point Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers with starter Andrew Cashner on a tight pitch count.
Ohlendorf, signed by the Padres on June 4, had a strong relief outing and the Padres strung together four consecutive singles in a sixth-inning rally to beat the Brewers 5-2.
The game followed a Friday night slugfest when the teams combined for six home runs. None were hit on a sweltering day in front of a capacity crowd at Miller Park.
Ohlendorf (1-0) pitched 4 1-3 innings to earn the victory. He gave up five hits, one earned run and struck out four as the Padres got their sixth road victory this year against 20 losses, the worst such record in the majors.
"Obviously going into this game there was no doubt that Ross was going to pitch," Padres manager Bud Black said. "We talked about it leading up to it. Ross knew that he was going to be the first guy in. He pitched extremely well. He gave us exactly what we hoped for."
Black had such confidence in the way Ohlendorf was pitching that he opted not to pinch-hit for him in the sixth inning with two outs and two runners on base. Ohlendorf struck out, but Black wanted him on the mound in the bottom of the inning.
"I thought he was throwing the ball very well," Black said. "We had a 4-2 lead. I thought getting one more inning out of him was essential based on how our pen was."
Ohlendorf remained in the game until the seventh, when he recorded two quick outs before giving up consecutive singles. He gave way to Luke Gregerson, who retired Rickie Weeks on a line drive to center to end any chance of a Brewers rally.
Huston Street pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his fifth save.
Padres first baseman Yonder Alonso had high praise for Ohlendorf.
"We needed him to step up. He was ready," Alonso said. "You could see it in his eyes early in the game. He knew we were going to ride him. He knows what he's doing. He was pounding the zone and he was working quick. He had a routine and rhythm going early."
Alonso broke out of an 0 for 21 slump with singles in the sixth and seventh innings, 1 of which drove in a run.
"I think my pitch selection was better today. It's something I've been working on," Alonso said. "The last week or so my pitch selection hasn't been too good.
Mike Fiers (1-2), making his third start of the season for Milwaukee, allowed 10 hits and four earned runs in six innings. He walked one and struck out six.
The Padres got to the 26-year-old in the sixth when Chase Headley, Alonso and Cameron Maybin hit consecutive one-out singles to load the bases. John Baker followed with another single, a shot up the middle, to drive in two runs.
"Fiers threw too many hittable pitches," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "They didn't crush balls but they put the ball in play a lot."
Fiers said it's important that he continue to learn from his mistakes.
"Four runs in six innings is not a great job," he said. "I've got to do better."
Ohlendorf entered the game with one out in the third, replacing Cashner, a 25-year-old making his first start of the season and just the second in a major league career that has spanned parts of 3 seasons. He threw several pitches that registered 100 mph or greater on the Miller Park scoreboard.
"It's pretty amazing to have a starter throwing that hard," Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado said. "You don't see 100 mph every day."
Cashner, who had made 27 appearances out of the bullpen this season before being moved to the starting rotation, lasted just 2 1-3 innings, throwing 47 pitches. He gave up two hits, one earned run, two walks, threw two wild pitches and recorded five strikeouts.
"I think I threw the ball well," Cashner said. "I thought I could have been a little more efficient. It was a good day. I got some nerves out of the way."
Black said after the game that Cashner would be sent to the Padres AA affiliate in San Antonio to get more work as a starter.
"He's going to start at the AA club to continue to build off of what he did today," Black said. "All in all, he threw the ball fine. Today was a building block for future starts."
Milwaukee took the lead in the first when Norichika Aoki singled with one out. After Ryan Braun struck out, Aoki stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Aramis Ramirez walked and Weeks followed with a double.
The Padres tied it in the third when Everth Cabrera singled, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on two-out single by Logan Forsythe. The Brewers went back on top in the fourth when Cody Ransom drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on Nyjer Morgan's bunt hit and scored on a single by Maldonado.
The Padres tied the score in the fifth on Will Venable's RBI double. After the two-run sixth, the Padres added a run in the seventh when Yonder Alonso's two-out single drove in Chris Denorfia, who had a pinch-hit double.
Notes: Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron served as third base coach Saturday, replacing Ed Sedar, who left the team temporarily after the death of his father. . Cashner became the 11th pitcher to start a game for the Padres in 2012, the most since 2009 when the club had a franchise-tying record 15 pitchers start a game. . The Padres and Brewers were the only teams not playing interleague games this weekend. . Venable returned to the lineup after missing four games with a right oblique strain. . A game after hitting two home runs, Brewers OF Corey Hart went 0 for 5, striking out three times.
Ohlendorf, signed by the Padres on June 4, had a strong relief outing and the Padres strung together four consecutive singles in a sixth-inning rally to beat the Brewers 5-2.
The game followed a Friday night slugfest when the teams combined for six home runs. None were hit on a sweltering day in front of a capacity crowd at Miller Park.
Ohlendorf (1-0) pitched 4 1-3 innings to earn the victory. He gave up five hits, one earned run and struck out four as the Padres got their sixth road victory this year against 20 losses, the worst such record in the majors.
"Obviously going into this game there was no doubt that Ross was going to pitch," Padres manager Bud Black said. "We talked about it leading up to it. Ross knew that he was going to be the first guy in. He pitched extremely well. He gave us exactly what we hoped for."
Black had such confidence in the way Ohlendorf was pitching that he opted not to pinch-hit for him in the sixth inning with two outs and two runners on base. Ohlendorf struck out, but Black wanted him on the mound in the bottom of the inning.
"I thought he was throwing the ball very well," Black said. "We had a 4-2 lead. I thought getting one more inning out of him was essential based on how our pen was."
Ohlendorf remained in the game until the seventh, when he recorded two quick outs before giving up consecutive singles. He gave way to Luke Gregerson, who retired Rickie Weeks on a line drive to center to end any chance of a Brewers rally.
Huston Street pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his fifth save.
Padres first baseman Yonder Alonso had high praise for Ohlendorf.
"We needed him to step up. He was ready," Alonso said. "You could see it in his eyes early in the game. He knew we were going to ride him. He knows what he's doing. He was pounding the zone and he was working quick. He had a routine and rhythm going early."
Alonso broke out of an 0 for 21 slump with singles in the sixth and seventh innings, 1 of which drove in a run.
"I think my pitch selection was better today. It's something I've been working on," Alonso said. "The last week or so my pitch selection hasn't been too good.
Mike Fiers (1-2), making his third start of the season for Milwaukee, allowed 10 hits and four earned runs in six innings. He walked one and struck out six.
The Padres got to the 26-year-old in the sixth when Chase Headley, Alonso and Cameron Maybin hit consecutive one-out singles to load the bases. John Baker followed with another single, a shot up the middle, to drive in two runs.
"Fiers threw too many hittable pitches," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "They didn't crush balls but they put the ball in play a lot."
Fiers said it's important that he continue to learn from his mistakes.
"Four runs in six innings is not a great job," he said. "I've got to do better."
Ohlendorf entered the game with one out in the third, replacing Cashner, a 25-year-old making his first start of the season and just the second in a major league career that has spanned parts of 3 seasons. He threw several pitches that registered 100 mph or greater on the Miller Park scoreboard.
"It's pretty amazing to have a starter throwing that hard," Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado said. "You don't see 100 mph every day."
Cashner, who had made 27 appearances out of the bullpen this season before being moved to the starting rotation, lasted just 2 1-3 innings, throwing 47 pitches. He gave up two hits, one earned run, two walks, threw two wild pitches and recorded five strikeouts.
"I think I threw the ball well," Cashner said. "I thought I could have been a little more efficient. It was a good day. I got some nerves out of the way."
Black said after the game that Cashner would be sent to the Padres AA affiliate in San Antonio to get more work as a starter.
"He's going to start at the AA club to continue to build off of what he did today," Black said. "All in all, he threw the ball fine. Today was a building block for future starts."
Milwaukee took the lead in the first when Norichika Aoki singled with one out. After Ryan Braun struck out, Aoki stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Aramis Ramirez walked and Weeks followed with a double.
The Padres tied it in the third when Everth Cabrera singled, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on two-out single by Logan Forsythe. The Brewers went back on top in the fourth when Cody Ransom drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on Nyjer Morgan's bunt hit and scored on a single by Maldonado.
The Padres tied the score in the fifth on Will Venable's RBI double. After the two-run sixth, the Padres added a run in the seventh when Yonder Alonso's two-out single drove in Chris Denorfia, who had a pinch-hit double.
Notes: Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron served as third base coach Saturday, replacing Ed Sedar, who left the team temporarily after the death of his father. . Cashner became the 11th pitcher to start a game for the Padres in 2012, the most since 2009 when the club had a franchise-tying record 15 pitchers start a game. . The Padres and Brewers were the only teams not playing interleague games this weekend. . Venable returned to the lineup after missing four games with a right oblique strain. . A game after hitting two home runs, Brewers OF Corey Hart went 0 for 5, striking out three times.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
A love story
Betty Eckhoff first laid eyes on Gordon Evans one September day in 1942 in her freshman English class at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. She saw his shock of black hair and knew immediately she wanted him.
Betty was already well beyond her years in maturity. She was a beautiful, bright-faced 15-year-old girl, and somehow she seemed to see a glimpse of her life stretching before her as she looked at the handsome boy across the classroom.
“She was a person throughout her life who knew what she wanted, and she wanted our father,” said Suzanne Evans-Ackerman, Betty and Gordon’s daughter. “…They wanted each other.”
She wasn’t alone in her admiration. Many other girls sought Gordon, but nobody drew him in like Betty. Gordon, who was a year older than Betty, was already a self-possessed young man. He’d left a troubled home in Utah and learned to fend for himself before reuniting with his mother in Los Angeles, where he spent his early teenage summers working in his stepfather’s foundry. He saw in Betty not only an extraordinary beauty, but a seriousness of purpose and a sense of adventure that matched his own.
They fell in love, a love that would soon be mightily tested. Gordon found it impossible to stand by while the United States became more deeply embattled in World War II. He managed to successfully lie about his age and enter the U.S. Marine Corps in September of 1943, rather than finish his senior year of high school. He shipped off to the Pacific theater, where he would take part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war – including Guadalcanal – as an infantryman and expert marksman.
Betty wrote Gordon every single day. Her thoughts never wavered from him, a focus so intense that it troubled some of her family.
“It was being faithful,” said Jeanne Rosen, the youngest of the couple’s three children. “Her friends and even her family would say, ‘Betty Jean, you are young, you are beautiful. Date other men. Go out, you are giving up your youth.’ And she didn’t listen to any of that. She wrote him every day for two years.”
Gordon wrote back when he was able. His letters were unsparing. He described the horrors he witnessed, and more – he drew them. Gordon was already a gifted artist, and he sketched battlefield scenes that were both horrifying and astonishing in their honesty. The letters, in their passionate entirety, were Betty’s lifeline to Gordon.
“It was a real bond,” Rosen said. “And my father, when he wrote those letters back, was illustrating all over them with scenes from the battlefield, and political sarcasm, even at that age, 18 or 19. And then my mom – I just learned this from my aunt this past year, would get these letters and pin them on the wall, and it would give my aunt shivers and nightmares because here are all these gruesome pictures from the war.”
Betty’s sister, Barbara Hall, recalled that sometimes when the family was away from their home, Betty would suddenly insist they return to see if a letter from Gordon had arrived.
She would throw such a fit that her mother would relent. Her father, a sportswriter for the LA Times, would often look at Gordon’s drawings in astonishment.
“Oh my God,” her father would say, according to Hall, as he beheld the artwork. “Gordon has a sensitive soul.”
Betty was already well beyond her years in maturity. She was a beautiful, bright-faced 15-year-old girl, and somehow she seemed to see a glimpse of her life stretching before her as she looked at the handsome boy across the classroom.
“She was a person throughout her life who knew what she wanted, and she wanted our father,” said Suzanne Evans-Ackerman, Betty and Gordon’s daughter. “…They wanted each other.”
She wasn’t alone in her admiration. Many other girls sought Gordon, but nobody drew him in like Betty. Gordon, who was a year older than Betty, was already a self-possessed young man. He’d left a troubled home in Utah and learned to fend for himself before reuniting with his mother in Los Angeles, where he spent his early teenage summers working in his stepfather’s foundry. He saw in Betty not only an extraordinary beauty, but a seriousness of purpose and a sense of adventure that matched his own.
They fell in love, a love that would soon be mightily tested. Gordon found it impossible to stand by while the United States became more deeply embattled in World War II. He managed to successfully lie about his age and enter the U.S. Marine Corps in September of 1943, rather than finish his senior year of high school. He shipped off to the Pacific theater, where he would take part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war – including Guadalcanal – as an infantryman and expert marksman.
Betty wrote Gordon every single day. Her thoughts never wavered from him, a focus so intense that it troubled some of her family.
“It was being faithful,” said Jeanne Rosen, the youngest of the couple’s three children. “Her friends and even her family would say, ‘Betty Jean, you are young, you are beautiful. Date other men. Go out, you are giving up your youth.’ And she didn’t listen to any of that. She wrote him every day for two years.”
Gordon wrote back when he was able. His letters were unsparing. He described the horrors he witnessed, and more – he drew them. Gordon was already a gifted artist, and he sketched battlefield scenes that were both horrifying and astonishing in their honesty. The letters, in their passionate entirety, were Betty’s lifeline to Gordon.
“It was a real bond,” Rosen said. “And my father, when he wrote those letters back, was illustrating all over them with scenes from the battlefield, and political sarcasm, even at that age, 18 or 19. And then my mom – I just learned this from my aunt this past year, would get these letters and pin them on the wall, and it would give my aunt shivers and nightmares because here are all these gruesome pictures from the war.”
Betty’s sister, Barbara Hall, recalled that sometimes when the family was away from their home, Betty would suddenly insist they return to see if a letter from Gordon had arrived.
She would throw such a fit that her mother would relent. Her father, a sportswriter for the LA Times, would often look at Gordon’s drawings in astonishment.
“Oh my God,” her father would say, according to Hall, as he beheld the artwork. “Gordon has a sensitive soul.”
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Aboat a French housewife
I learned to bake by following the recipes in "Joy of Cooking." So I'm in my comfort zone with blondies, gingersnaps and apple crisp. But what kind of baker would I have become if I had grown up in Paris instead of New Jersey, and my first cookbooks had been "I Know How to Cook" and "I Know How to Make Pastries," both by Ginette Mathiot?
Recently, I had a chance to find out, when a copy of "The Art of French Baking," a compilation of recipes from both of Mathiot's classic books, landed on my kitchen counter. Mathiot, then a 25-year-old home economics teacher, published "I Know How to Cook" in 1932 (the first edition of "Joy of Cooking" debuted in 1931). It went on to sell 5 million copies, becoming the French housewife's kitchen bible. Dipping into the new book, I was curious to see what kinds of after-school treats and simple desserts the real housewives of Paris have been routinely whipping up for the past 80 years.
In the summer, I'm always looking for dessert recipes nice enough to serve to company but quick enough to throw together if I want to spend most of my time at the beach. Strawberry season is upon us, so with my very first box of local berries I decided to audition Mathiot's Strawberry Frangipane for a place in my summer dessert rotation. If your mother isn't French and you didn't go to culinary school, you probably have never heard of frangipane. This is a real shame. Frangipane is a deliciously rich and flavorful batter made from egg yolks, sugar and ground almonds. When scraped into a tart pan and dotted with strawberries, it bakes into a cakelike tart that is easy to make but a little more elegant in presentation than the strawberry cobbler I have relied on it in the past.
I love this book, but I'm glad I came upon it after I'd baked my way through Fannie Farmer and Betty Crocker. Mathiot's style is to streamline rather than overexplain. Her Madeleines recipe, for example, doesn't tell you how to smooth the rather stiff batter into the molds or how many cakes you'll wind up with (I got 24). The Frangipane recipe doesn't specify the size of the pan you'll need (I found a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom to be just right). But if you have mastered simple American recipes and want to produce cakes and cookies with a little more savoir faire, "The Art of French Baking" may be the book for you.
I added a dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt to Mathiot's recipe. If you don't have superfine sugar, use granulated sugar and give it a whirl (about 1 minute) in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Serve slices (the tart gets a bit messy when sliced, because of its crisp top crust and moist interior) with whipped cream.
Recently, I had a chance to find out, when a copy of "The Art of French Baking," a compilation of recipes from both of Mathiot's classic books, landed on my kitchen counter. Mathiot, then a 25-year-old home economics teacher, published "I Know How to Cook" in 1932 (the first edition of "Joy of Cooking" debuted in 1931). It went on to sell 5 million copies, becoming the French housewife's kitchen bible. Dipping into the new book, I was curious to see what kinds of after-school treats and simple desserts the real housewives of Paris have been routinely whipping up for the past 80 years.
In the summer, I'm always looking for dessert recipes nice enough to serve to company but quick enough to throw together if I want to spend most of my time at the beach. Strawberry season is upon us, so with my very first box of local berries I decided to audition Mathiot's Strawberry Frangipane for a place in my summer dessert rotation. If your mother isn't French and you didn't go to culinary school, you probably have never heard of frangipane. This is a real shame. Frangipane is a deliciously rich and flavorful batter made from egg yolks, sugar and ground almonds. When scraped into a tart pan and dotted with strawberries, it bakes into a cakelike tart that is easy to make but a little more elegant in presentation than the strawberry cobbler I have relied on it in the past.
I love this book, but I'm glad I came upon it after I'd baked my way through Fannie Farmer and Betty Crocker. Mathiot's style is to streamline rather than overexplain. Her Madeleines recipe, for example, doesn't tell you how to smooth the rather stiff batter into the molds or how many cakes you'll wind up with (I got 24). The Frangipane recipe doesn't specify the size of the pan you'll need (I found a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom to be just right). But if you have mastered simple American recipes and want to produce cakes and cookies with a little more savoir faire, "The Art of French Baking" may be the book for you.
I added a dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt to Mathiot's recipe. If you don't have superfine sugar, use granulated sugar and give it a whirl (about 1 minute) in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Serve slices (the tart gets a bit messy when sliced, because of its crisp top crust and moist interior) with whipped cream.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Beware of Altered Standing Liberty
I took a call last week from one of our customers who wanted to know why his San Francisco Standing Liberty quarter was returned to him as “questionable authenticity.”
Whenever someone questions an opinion of authenticity, I get a lump in my throat. Do I remember his coin; did we make a mistake? It’s those thoughts that drive me crazy, because I take it personally.
This was ingrained in the early 1970s, when the American Numismatic Association Certification Service was the only authentication service in the U.S. We had a big job to do and a lot of responsibility fell on our shoulders to “get it right.” Back then, if an opinion was questioned, we took the coin back for review and study. Any errors were then corrected.
On one occasion, after I detected a “new” state-of-the-art fake, we learned that several similar examples had been authenticated previously. The coins and photo-certificate were recalled, but the experience affected some egos and taught us to be even more careful with our opinions in the future.
It is one thing to “miss” a good counterfeit the first time one is encountered, but I believe it is a worse mistake to condemn a genuine coin as a fake or alteration. This type of mistake really gives me nightmares. It is better to say that you are not sure one way or the other – a “no decision” opinion – or that you need more time to look for a genuine piece to use for comparison.
Years later, while working at the INS Authentication Bureau, a few more authentication services were available for collectors. Our director, Charles Hoskins, considered more authentication options a good thing for collectors as they could get a second or third opinion on their coin.
In view of past experiences, I anxiously awaited the return of the Standing Liberty quarter discussed over the phone. I’ve since re-examined the coin, and it is with relief that I can confirm that it had an added mintmark (Fig 1). In this case, the mintmark was the wrong shape, yet the faker had done a good job blending the added “S” to the coin. Let’s review these coins.
In my experience, the Standing Liberty series has one key coin that is subject to date alteration – the 1921. The quality of the alterations runs from “crude” to “deceptive.” When changing the date, a fairly large area must be tooled, smoothed and blended. There are some deceptively struck counterfeit coins dated 1917, but I have yet to encounter other dates of the same quality.
Most other fakes I’ve seen have been rather poor casts when viewed with magnification. My experience is skewed, however, as it may take years for a particular counterfeit to pass detection by professional dealers and finally reach an authentication service. All the coin dates of this series are subject to design alteration. Liberty’s head, chain mail and shield are areas to watch.
The other frequently seen alteration are added mintmarks, in particular on the 1923-S and 1927-S coins. That was the case on our customer’s coin. In uncirculated grade, any mintmarked 1919 coin may be a good candidate for alteration, but I have yet to see one. I’ve only seen two Denver alterations; both were made using 1924 Philadelphia hosts so I’ll say that the San Francisco coins are targeted the most.
The mintmark alterations in this series fall into two basic groups. The first is rather crude. They are possibly older attempts or “practice coins.” The area around the added mintmark is often badly tooled or discolored. Most of these fakes have the same style “S” that is seen on 1932-S quarter alterations. The second group falls at the other end of the scale. These coins are very deceptive, use an “S” in the correct shape, and have the area around the alteration blended nicely. These “newer” alterations are obviously done using high magnification and delicate instruments to blend the added letter to the surface.
Do I hear a chuckle from the fellow altering coins at his kitchen table with a 5X hand lens and a razor blade? Remember that tooling around an alteration will reflect light differently. So I’m not giving away any secret here when I tell you that the skillful engravers doing quality work have learned what metal flow looks like on a coin – enough said.
Over the years, I have seen two instances where an altered Standing Liberty quarter has been slabbed by a major grading service. In one case, the dealer owner relished showing his “prize.” This is not right. As in the distant past, the service should be allowed to correct its mistake quietly. I’ve always believed that the best safeguard for all the authentication services is an informed public. Each time a coin is slabbed and returned, at some point in time hundreds of collectors and dealers will have the chance to appraise its grade and authenticity. That helps keep mistakes off the market.
Whenever someone questions an opinion of authenticity, I get a lump in my throat. Do I remember his coin; did we make a mistake? It’s those thoughts that drive me crazy, because I take it personally.
This was ingrained in the early 1970s, when the American Numismatic Association Certification Service was the only authentication service in the U.S. We had a big job to do and a lot of responsibility fell on our shoulders to “get it right.” Back then, if an opinion was questioned, we took the coin back for review and study. Any errors were then corrected.
On one occasion, after I detected a “new” state-of-the-art fake, we learned that several similar examples had been authenticated previously. The coins and photo-certificate were recalled, but the experience affected some egos and taught us to be even more careful with our opinions in the future.
It is one thing to “miss” a good counterfeit the first time one is encountered, but I believe it is a worse mistake to condemn a genuine coin as a fake or alteration. This type of mistake really gives me nightmares. It is better to say that you are not sure one way or the other – a “no decision” opinion – or that you need more time to look for a genuine piece to use for comparison.
Years later, while working at the INS Authentication Bureau, a few more authentication services were available for collectors. Our director, Charles Hoskins, considered more authentication options a good thing for collectors as they could get a second or third opinion on their coin.
In view of past experiences, I anxiously awaited the return of the Standing Liberty quarter discussed over the phone. I’ve since re-examined the coin, and it is with relief that I can confirm that it had an added mintmark (Fig 1). In this case, the mintmark was the wrong shape, yet the faker had done a good job blending the added “S” to the coin. Let’s review these coins.
In my experience, the Standing Liberty series has one key coin that is subject to date alteration – the 1921. The quality of the alterations runs from “crude” to “deceptive.” When changing the date, a fairly large area must be tooled, smoothed and blended. There are some deceptively struck counterfeit coins dated 1917, but I have yet to encounter other dates of the same quality.
Most other fakes I’ve seen have been rather poor casts when viewed with magnification. My experience is skewed, however, as it may take years for a particular counterfeit to pass detection by professional dealers and finally reach an authentication service. All the coin dates of this series are subject to design alteration. Liberty’s head, chain mail and shield are areas to watch.
The other frequently seen alteration are added mintmarks, in particular on the 1923-S and 1927-S coins. That was the case on our customer’s coin. In uncirculated grade, any mintmarked 1919 coin may be a good candidate for alteration, but I have yet to see one. I’ve only seen two Denver alterations; both were made using 1924 Philadelphia hosts so I’ll say that the San Francisco coins are targeted the most.
The mintmark alterations in this series fall into two basic groups. The first is rather crude. They are possibly older attempts or “practice coins.” The area around the added mintmark is often badly tooled or discolored. Most of these fakes have the same style “S” that is seen on 1932-S quarter alterations. The second group falls at the other end of the scale. These coins are very deceptive, use an “S” in the correct shape, and have the area around the alteration blended nicely. These “newer” alterations are obviously done using high magnification and delicate instruments to blend the added letter to the surface.
Do I hear a chuckle from the fellow altering coins at his kitchen table with a 5X hand lens and a razor blade? Remember that tooling around an alteration will reflect light differently. So I’m not giving away any secret here when I tell you that the skillful engravers doing quality work have learned what metal flow looks like on a coin – enough said.
Over the years, I have seen two instances where an altered Standing Liberty quarter has been slabbed by a major grading service. In one case, the dealer owner relished showing his “prize.” This is not right. As in the distant past, the service should be allowed to correct its mistake quietly. I’ve always believed that the best safeguard for all the authentication services is an informed public. Each time a coin is slabbed and returned, at some point in time hundreds of collectors and dealers will have the chance to appraise its grade and authenticity. That helps keep mistakes off the market.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Nurturing leads to amazing transformation
I’m standing in my front yard, holding the noodle strainer over the bushes in front of my living room window. I’ve found a long, flat piece of bark, and am using that to gently, gently prod the moth along.
“Come on, buddy,” I mutter as I nudge him. Her? The moth is beautiful, white with black spots, but it’s got a snub-nosed head and an orange striped thorax beneath the spotted wings and looks almost aggressive, so … “him.”
On the third careful push, the moth gets moving, and starts walking along the inside of the sieve. I rotate the bowl, quickly, and tilt it, trying to get the moth to move to the lip, and to the leaves beyond.
This moment has been over six weeks in the making. It was April 14 when I moved the empty mulch bag and found the remarkable caterpillar underneath. I had never seen anything like it -- striped smooth red alternating with prickly black -- and I scooped the caterpillar up, took it inside, and made it a little home in a glass vase. I added some leaves and set it on the kitchen table.
I didn’t intend to keep the caterpillar forever, just long enough to identify what kind of butterfly it was going to be. But once I looked up a caterpillar guide online, it was beautiful! A Giant Leopard Moth! No way was I going to let it go! I had to see it through its whole metamorphosis.
Of course, I’ve never cared for a caterpillar before, and couldn’t find much information on how to take care of it. So I guessed. I replaced varied dead leaves with varied fresh leaves very few days. I dripped in a little bit of water.
And I disregarded my friends’ and family’s skepticism. People would walk into the kitchen, peer inside the unusual centerpiece, and shrug. My son and husband looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and silently agreed, “Crazy Mom,” more than once.
Things did not improve as the weeks went on. “Look! It formed its chrysalis!” I exclaimed one day. But the casual observer couldn’t see the chrysalis by looking into the vase; only I saw it, by dumping the whole matted clump into my hand and gently peeling apart stuck-together leaves.
After finding the chrysalis, I changed my tactics. I left it alone, I stopped replacing leaves, kept dripping in water. The old leaves turned brown and droopy. Fuzzy white mold grew along one side.
I believed the caterpillar was dead. Everyone believed the caterpillar was dead. It had to be, right? No signs of life, for almost four weeks. Mold. Brown leaves. I was just days away from dumping the whole mess out on the lawn, when today, I came home, happened to glance in the vase, and, “Oh!” There he was! Pure white, with black spots, gripping the inside of the vase.
I danced around the kitchen, thrilled to see the moth. Thrilled that I hadn’t killed him. Thrilled by his beauty.
And now, outside, the moth, on the lip of the strainer, finds the leaves, reaches out, crawls down, follows the branch, and in an instant disappears from view. I spread the branches, peek down, and try to catch a last glimpse.
“Come on, buddy,” I mutter as I nudge him. Her? The moth is beautiful, white with black spots, but it’s got a snub-nosed head and an orange striped thorax beneath the spotted wings and looks almost aggressive, so … “him.”
On the third careful push, the moth gets moving, and starts walking along the inside of the sieve. I rotate the bowl, quickly, and tilt it, trying to get the moth to move to the lip, and to the leaves beyond.
This moment has been over six weeks in the making. It was April 14 when I moved the empty mulch bag and found the remarkable caterpillar underneath. I had never seen anything like it -- striped smooth red alternating with prickly black -- and I scooped the caterpillar up, took it inside, and made it a little home in a glass vase. I added some leaves and set it on the kitchen table.
I didn’t intend to keep the caterpillar forever, just long enough to identify what kind of butterfly it was going to be. But once I looked up a caterpillar guide online, it was beautiful! A Giant Leopard Moth! No way was I going to let it go! I had to see it through its whole metamorphosis.
Of course, I’ve never cared for a caterpillar before, and couldn’t find much information on how to take care of it. So I guessed. I replaced varied dead leaves with varied fresh leaves very few days. I dripped in a little bit of water.
And I disregarded my friends’ and family’s skepticism. People would walk into the kitchen, peer inside the unusual centerpiece, and shrug. My son and husband looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and silently agreed, “Crazy Mom,” more than once.
Things did not improve as the weeks went on. “Look! It formed its chrysalis!” I exclaimed one day. But the casual observer couldn’t see the chrysalis by looking into the vase; only I saw it, by dumping the whole matted clump into my hand and gently peeling apart stuck-together leaves.
After finding the chrysalis, I changed my tactics. I left it alone, I stopped replacing leaves, kept dripping in water. The old leaves turned brown and droopy. Fuzzy white mold grew along one side.
I believed the caterpillar was dead. Everyone believed the caterpillar was dead. It had to be, right? No signs of life, for almost four weeks. Mold. Brown leaves. I was just days away from dumping the whole mess out on the lawn, when today, I came home, happened to glance in the vase, and, “Oh!” There he was! Pure white, with black spots, gripping the inside of the vase.
I danced around the kitchen, thrilled to see the moth. Thrilled that I hadn’t killed him. Thrilled by his beauty.
And now, outside, the moth, on the lip of the strainer, finds the leaves, reaches out, crawls down, follows the branch, and in an instant disappears from view. I spread the branches, peek down, and try to catch a last glimpse.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Anderson made 'Moonrise Kingdom' unforgettably good
Wes Anderson begins his movies with a "W" and concludes them with an "n." He is a filmmaker who boasts an unmistakably original, and virtually unmatched, visual signature. But his penmanship stretches far beyond the look of a film, focusing equally if not more so on the feel — the context, the subtext, the characters, the emotion, and everything in between. And when it comes to the look and feel of Anderson's latest, "Moonrise Kingdom," the film looks wondrous and I feel just the same.
Beautifully choreographed shots, symmetrical and centered framing, a strong reliance on zooms, vibrant colors — I could write essays on Wes Anderson's visual prowess, something that stands immediately distinguishable from fellow contemporaries in the field of film.
He has a style and by now he has absolutely mastered it, with "Moonrise Kingdom" being his most immaculately shot film yet — a surreal, scrupulous style that has less in common with Anderson's live-action films and more so with his previous film, 2009's animated "The Fantastic Mr. Fox." The result is downright stunning.
And the film — in all its imagination, surrealism, and meticulous design — could have easily been an animated effort, but I doubt it would have been filled with this much life. "Moonrise Kingdom" is filled with a unique vitality; a special kind that trickles into you slowly, growing ever so slightly until the emotions seep out from within through laughter, tears, and pure cinematic ecstasy.
It's a movie filled with joy and sadness, hilarity and heartbreak, and innocence that is both preserved and shattered. A dreamlike fairy-tale grounded in reality, "Moonrise Kingdom" tells the story of orphan nature scout Sam and bottled-up eldest child Suzy — pen pals who agree to runaway together while an eclectic search party seeks them out.
Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are absolutely grand as Sam and Suzy, both young actors I would love to see Anderson work with again. They embody such rare, developed features for such young characters, and Anderson gets us to ache for these characters. They are both running away for reasons that, to a child, seem monumental. Even as an adult, I was absolutely overwhelmed as the undertones of sadness paved this film with layer upon layer of authentic human emotion.
Arriving at the adults in the film, I became inconsolable. Classic Anderson archetypes, quirky at their surface and depressingly tragic at their core, populate the film — from Sam's camp leader Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), Suzy's parents Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand), and the "sad, dumb policeman" played by Bruce Willis, who has not given a performance this great since 1999's "The Sixth Sense."
"Moonrise Kingdom" is a masterful achievement, easily nudging its way to the top of Wes Anderson's body of work along with his most inspired achievements of "Rushmore" (1998) and "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001). What's so special about 'Moonrise' is that it combines the best elements of these films and molds them into something brand new, yet strikingly familiar as Anderson's autograph is stamped throughout.
I have already watched this film twice, and will joyfully and willingly watch it again and again — an experience I predict will be impossible to ever grow weary of. This very well may be Anderson's opus, his absolute masterpiece — a film I'm at a loss to find any faults with. "Moonrise Kingdom" is about as close to perfect as any film this year will hope to reach — or any year, for that matter. This is a movie that demands and deserves to be remembered. I know I will never forget it.
Beautifully choreographed shots, symmetrical and centered framing, a strong reliance on zooms, vibrant colors — I could write essays on Wes Anderson's visual prowess, something that stands immediately distinguishable from fellow contemporaries in the field of film.
He has a style and by now he has absolutely mastered it, with "Moonrise Kingdom" being his most immaculately shot film yet — a surreal, scrupulous style that has less in common with Anderson's live-action films and more so with his previous film, 2009's animated "The Fantastic Mr. Fox." The result is downright stunning.
And the film — in all its imagination, surrealism, and meticulous design — could have easily been an animated effort, but I doubt it would have been filled with this much life. "Moonrise Kingdom" is filled with a unique vitality; a special kind that trickles into you slowly, growing ever so slightly until the emotions seep out from within through laughter, tears, and pure cinematic ecstasy.
It's a movie filled with joy and sadness, hilarity and heartbreak, and innocence that is both preserved and shattered. A dreamlike fairy-tale grounded in reality, "Moonrise Kingdom" tells the story of orphan nature scout Sam and bottled-up eldest child Suzy — pen pals who agree to runaway together while an eclectic search party seeks them out.
Newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward are absolutely grand as Sam and Suzy, both young actors I would love to see Anderson work with again. They embody such rare, developed features for such young characters, and Anderson gets us to ache for these characters. They are both running away for reasons that, to a child, seem monumental. Even as an adult, I was absolutely overwhelmed as the undertones of sadness paved this film with layer upon layer of authentic human emotion.
Arriving at the adults in the film, I became inconsolable. Classic Anderson archetypes, quirky at their surface and depressingly tragic at their core, populate the film — from Sam's camp leader Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton), Suzy's parents Walt (Bill Murray) and Laura (Frances McDormand), and the "sad, dumb policeman" played by Bruce Willis, who has not given a performance this great since 1999's "The Sixth Sense."
"Moonrise Kingdom" is a masterful achievement, easily nudging its way to the top of Wes Anderson's body of work along with his most inspired achievements of "Rushmore" (1998) and "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001). What's so special about 'Moonrise' is that it combines the best elements of these films and molds them into something brand new, yet strikingly familiar as Anderson's autograph is stamped throughout.
I have already watched this film twice, and will joyfully and willingly watch it again and again — an experience I predict will be impossible to ever grow weary of. This very well may be Anderson's opus, his absolute masterpiece — a film I'm at a loss to find any faults with. "Moonrise Kingdom" is about as close to perfect as any film this year will hope to reach — or any year, for that matter. This is a movie that demands and deserves to be remembered. I know I will never forget it.
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