Vancouver Music – the Electronic Art // Liquid Drum N Bass // DubSTEP

dj Lady Laconic - The Electronic Music Art

Vancouver Music: Lovely Rolling Basslines to Liquid Drum and Bass. When wanting alittle slower, the sound is within the dubstep minimal beats space. sezWHO? Lady Laconic. bpms push past 180 at times then down to 120ish everything inbetween (like my thought pattern sits here. this site is where ideas and notes go... (a jump drive on the world internet)... enjoy.
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listen to me on sound cloud

so im on sound cloud….
look for lady_laconic you’ll hear the new mix

description

Management

General Manager

The General Manager oversees all aspects of the hotel operations including: guest relations, front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, finances, team building, and staff development. The General Manager must possess strong communication skills, both verbal and written, and demonstrate outstanding leadership. The manager must be able to delegate responsibilities, organize complex projects, and establish priorities consistent with hotel objectives.

Assistant General Manager

The Assistant General Manager position will support the General Manager with all aspects of the hotel operations. The Assistant General Manager must also demonstrate strong communication skills and superior leadership abilities.

Front Office Manager

The Front Office Manager is responsible for all duties of the front desk operation which includes: staff training, inter-department communications, and staff scheduling. The FOM usually works a regularly scheduled front desk shift and must be available to work any shift as needed. The Front Office Manager should possess strong communication skills and demonstrate leadership abilities.

Front Office

Concierge

The concierge is available to answer any guest inquires regarding the city, events, and attractions. This individual will provide exceptional customer service to all of our guests and will support other departments including Sales, Front Office, and Bellman/Van, as needed.

Guest Service Agent

Guest Service Agents are responsible for greeting and registering the guest, providing outstanding guest service during their stay, and settling the guest’s account upon completion of their stay. However, the realm of responsibilities will extend beyond that of a typical front desk agent. This allows the Guest Service Agent to expand their skill sets and work in a fast paced environment with new challenges daily. Primary responsibilities include: registering guests, making and modifying reservations, hotel operator, and concierge duties. Guest Service Agents must possess a positive and upbeat personality with a desire to deliver outstanding customer service to our guests. Guest Service Agents must have the ability to multi-task, be detail-oriented, and be able to problem solve in order to effectively deal with internal and external customers.

Night Auditor

Night Auditors are responsible for the front desk operation during the overnight shift. Primary responsibilities include: registering guests, making reservations, preparing daily reports, balancing transactions, and conducting security walks. Night Auditors must be able to work independently and with minimal supervision. They must also be able to problem solve and troubleshoot in order to resolve guest issues that may arise and respond to emergency situations.

Security

The Security position will encompass aspects of both the Night Audit and Front Desk positions as well as overseeing the safety and security of the hotel and guests throughout the evening hours. Additional responsibilities include: conducting security walks throughout the hotel property and responding to guest requests and any noise complaints. Security agents must be able to problem solve and troubleshoot in order to resolve guest issues and respond appropriately to emergency situations.

Van Driver/Bellman

Van Drivers are responsible for transporting guests to and from the hotel to local area attractions as well as assisting the guest with recommendations for restaurants and tourist activities. The Van Driver is also expected to support with front desk operations. Primary responsibilities include: driving guests to designated locations, assisting guests with luggage, maintaining vehicle cleanliness, and concierge duties. Van Drivers must have strong analytical and navigation skills with the ability to coordinate multiple pick-ups and drop-offs on a schedule under continuously changing circumstances. A valid driver’s license and acceptable driving record is required.

Sales Department

Director of Sales

The Director of Sales is responsible for maximizing the occupancy and the average daily rate of the hotel, while upholding excellent guest service and accommodations to all guests. This position will work closely with the hotel’s preferred accounts and group reservations. The Director of Sales manages the sales effort and supports the General Manager on operational issues. This position requires excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

Sales Manager

The Sales Manager assists the Director of Sales to increase corporate client base through consistent solicitations while establishing trust and rapport with clients to generate and boost revenues for the hotel. The Sales Manager services new and existing accounts to ensure repeat business. This position requires excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

Sales Coordinator

The Sales Coordinator assists the Director of Sales and Sales Manager in sales operations including: reserving meetings and conferences, coordinating wedding groups, general administrative functions, and arranging sales blitzes and giveaways. This position requires strong communication skills, both written and verbal.

Sales & Catering Assistant

The Sales & Catering Assistant is responsible for assisting the Sales team by booking and servicing groups, meeting rooms, and conferences while providing exceptional customer service to guests and clients of the hotel. This position requires excellent guest service skills and the ability to understand the guests’ needs and ideas.

Housekeeping

Executive Housekeeper

The Executive Housekeeper is responsible for all duties of the housekeeping operation and cleanliness levels in all areas of the property. Responsibilities include: staff training, inter- department communications, and staff scheduling. The Executive Housekeeper will promote an atmosphere that insures the company mission statement, “Friendliness and Cleanliness”. This position requires strong attention to detail, leadership skills, and the ability to effectively deal with department heads, guests, and team members.

Assistant Executive Housekeeper

The Assistant Executive Housekeeper supports the Executive Housekeeper in all duties of the housekeeping operation and cleanliness levels in all areas of the property. Responsibilities include: staff training, inter-department communications, and staff scheduling. The Assistant Executive will promote an atmosphere that insures the company mission statement, “Friendliness and Cleanliness”. This position requires strong attention to detail, leadership skills, and the ability to effectively deal with department heads, guests, and team members.

Continental Breakfast Attendant

The Continental Breakfast Attendant is responsible for setting up the daily complimentary continental breakfast, ensuring that the breakfast items are well stocked, and cleaning up after breakfast. This position requires multi-tasking abilities and ability to effectively communicate with guests regarding breakfast offerings and basic hotel information. A valid Food Handler’s permit is required.

Houseperson

The Houseperson is responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and appearance of the hotel and providing customers with quality service in a timely and friendly manner. Responsibilities vary but may include: cleaning and maintaining the appearance of the public areas of the hotel, deep cleaning of assigned areas, setting-up and maintaining complimentary hotel lobby functions including the coffee service and nightly concierge events, cleaning and setting-up meeting room functions, restocking housekeeping stations, delivering service items to guest rooms upon requests from the front desk, and driving shuttle van when needed.

Room Attendant

Room Attendants are responsible for the cleanliness of guest rooms, hallways, and public areas in the hotel. Responsibilities include: servicing guest rooms daily in accordance with hotel procedures, stocking cart with room supplies, and replacing bed linens and replenishing guest room supplies. This position requires strong attention to detail, ability to communicate effectively with guests and team members verbally or in written form, and the ability to bend, lift, and be standing or walking all day.

Maintenance

Chief Maintenance Engineer

The Chief Maintenance Engineer is responsible for maintaining the overall operation of the maintenance department and the appearance and working order of the hotel. The engineer must be able to work independently, as well as, with others. Responsibilities may include: maintaining the exterior of the building, parking lot, and common areas, driving shuttle van as needed, maintaining all equipment in guest rooms, conducting monthly safety inspections and training the staff on safety and emergency procedures, and working with vendors. The Chief Maintenance Engineer must be willing to respond to emergencies, even if after hours, and work with corporate maintenance on special remodeling projects or capital expenditure needs. This position requires overall maintenance knowledge and trouble shooting ability with skills in painting, HVAC, carpentry, equipment, and tool usage.

Assistant Maintenance

The Assistant Maintenance Engineer supports the Chief Engineer in maintaining overall appearance and working order of the hotel. This position must be able to work independently as well as with others. The Assistant maintenance position requires overall maintenance knowledge and trouble shooting ability with skills in painting, HVAC, carpentry, equipment, and tool usage.

what does a concierge duties look like?

The concierge duties are many and varied. Being a concierge is one of the most prestigious careers in the hospitality industry. The responsibilities are diverse, and depending on the hotel can range from overseeing the administration of the hotel’s services to personally seeing to the special request of the hotel’s guests.

Here a just a few of the fundamental concierge duties at a hotel:

Greeting guests at the front desk with a friendly and pleasant demeanor.
Providing customer service.
Answering guest inquiries about the city and local events and attractions.
Handling special requests from guests (i.e. limousine service or making the arrangements for special occasions).
Making reservations for guests to eat at area restaurants, procuring tickets for guests to attend to cultural and artistic performances, or booking sightseeing tours.
Interacting with personnel from other departments within the hotel.
Inputting data into computerized reservation systems.

Qualifications required:

At least some college in the field of hospitality. A background in sales, public relations, marketing or public service is extremely helpful.
Several years of experience in customer service.
Excellent communication skills. Must be people oriented and have the ability to deal effectively with the public.
Adequate computer skills.
Clear understanding of hotel policies and procedures.

The success of a concierge depends largely on his or her ability to multi-task and work under pressure, willingness to serve others and talent for being a skilled problem solver. Not every personality can handle the job. But for those who can, the opportunities are out there.

If you are tavelling anywhere anytime soon, then you must visit us for all your travel advice [http://www.besttravelnetwork.org].

Copyright: You may freely publish this article, providing the text, author credit, the active links and the copyright notice remain intact. Thank you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ed_MacDonald

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3848122

copyrights

QUOTE (Marcar @ Mar 31 2011, 02:18 AM)
I have just graduated as a cartographer, and I have been offered a job of producing a map for an organisation (at my home).
Can I accept the job although I do not have registered business?
Who is to obtain copyright approvals – me or them?

Whether or not you can accept the job on personal title or as a business depends on your local business and tax laws. Check into that first. You also want to make sure you have officially licensed versions of the software you’re going to use.

What do you mean by obtaining copyright approvals? Copyright on the finished product? That would initially be yours, as you’ve created it, but it can be transferred to your client. That’s something you need to negotiate with them.

I’d suggest you check with the Chamber of Commerce, or whatever the Australian version is called. They should be able to give you plenty of information.

Hope this helps. For additional information, I recently wrote an article on this together with Derek Tonn. Gretchen Peterson also wrote about that subject for Gisuser.com

good sounds

http://www.graintable.com/#4cd/soundcloud

http://www.myspace.com/ooahmusik/music/songs/beaver-blink-rmx-32235867

http://www.myspace.com/ooahmusik/music/songs/beaver-blink-rmx-32235867

http://www.myspace.com/lukid

http://www.bassnectar.net/

old tunes…. most from you tube and reposted here

http://www.tribemagazine.com/board/jungle-room/159134-old-tunes-thread.html

downloads. old school. tons

http://stressfactor.co.uk/new2007/downloads.html

hints

http://www.hintsandthings.com/index.htm

radio and how thinds changed in canada from 1 event

Moose River mine disaster, 1936

Broadcast Date: April 20, 1936
It is a story that grips the world.
At 11 p.m. on April 12, 1936, three men are trapped 43 metres underground when Nova Scotia’s Moose River gold mine collapses around them. The men are 42-year-old mine timekeeper Alfred Scadding and two of the mine’s owners; 52-year-old Dr. David E. Robertson, chief of staff at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, and Herman Russell Magill, a 30-year-old Toronto lawyer. In this compilation of radio clips, J. Frank Willis reports live from the scene about the desperate rescue efforts.

The men are in the mine on an inspection tour when the ceiling collapses. Townspeople hear the noise and within minutes Moose River miners begin rescue work. Within days, several hundred miners from throughout Nova Scotia — from Westville, Caribou Mines, Montague Mines, Springhill, Goldenville, Waverly and Stellarton — and as far away as Ontario arrive to help. But no one knows whether there are any survivors.

After six agonizing days, Billy Bell, a diamond drill operator with the Nova Scotia government, breaks into an open space at the 43-metre level with his drill. He shouts down the pipe but there is no response. Officials decide to abandon rescue operations.
Bell refuses to leave. Eleven hours later, a steam whistle arrives and a piercing note is sent down the pipe. Bell hears a faint tapping in response. The men are alive.

The three trapped men were in the mine cart on their way to the surface when the mine collapsed. The cable holding the cart snapped but was pinned so quickly by falling rocks that the cart only dropped a few inches. A huge timber fell across the mine shaft above the trapped men and all the collapsed rock was resting on this one timber.

It is now Sunday, April 19. The next morning, mine co-owner Herman Magill dies of pneumonia. Fatigue, weather and continuous rockfalls hamper the rescue. There’s only one hope left — reopening the adjacent Reynolds Shaft, which had earlier been condemned as too dangerous. Experienced miners from Westville and Stellarton are brought in to deal with this extremely unstable environment.

As the rescue operations drag on, newspaper reporters descend on Moose River. At this time, newspapers are the primary source for news from around the world. Radio is considered an entertainment medium. Which is one reason that officials of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, a precursor to the CBC, will not allow their only reporter east of Montreal to go to the scene.

Twenty-eight-year-old J. Frank Willis is the CRBC’s Regional Director for the Maritimes. When he finally receives permission to go to Moose River, it’s already Monday, April 20. He makes his first broadcast at 6 p.m. that day. For two minutes every half-hour Willis is live on air throughout North America. He continues for 56 hours straight. An estimated 100 million people are listening. It is North America’s very first live 24-hour news event, changing forever the perception of what radio can do.

Reaper (www.cockos.com) is shareware

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DeoxIT® D5 Spray (D5S-6) & DeoxIT® D5 Mini-Spray (D5MS-15)
DeoxIT® GOLD G5 Spray (G5S-6) & DeoxIT® GOLD G5 Mini-Spray (G5MS-15)
DeoxIT® SHIELD S5 Spray (S5S-6) & DeoxIT® SHIELD S5 Mini-Spray (S5MS-15)

Formulation:   5% DeoxIT® (active ingredient), 75% odorless mineral spirits (carrier solvent), 20% propellant

Formulation contains petroleum naphtha (odorless mineral spirits) solvent, and is briefly flammable (until solvent evaporates within 2-3 minutes). It’s slower to evaporate, providing flushing action to remove surfaces dirt, grease and other contaminants. Is ideal for connectors and components removed from equipment or those that are easily accessible. It is safe on plastics. When in doubt, always test for compatibility, especially vintage equipment with aging ABS plastic(s).

B) Non drip – Quick Dry Spray:   Nonflammable, fast evaporating carrier solvent formula

Products:
DeoxIT® DN5 Spray (DN5S-6) & DeoxIT® DN5 Mini-Spray (DN5MS-15)
DeoxIT® GOLD GN5 Spray (GN5S-6N) & DeoxIT® GOLD GN5 Mini-Spray (GN5MS-15)
DeoxIT® GOLD GX5 Spray (GX5S-6N)
DeoxIT® SHIELD SN5 Spray (SN5S-6N) & DeoxIT® SHIELD SN5 Mini-Spray (SN5MS-15)

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May be used where fast evaporation and/or non-flammability is required, and no dripping is preferred. It is also safe on plastics.

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Products:
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DeoxIT® GOLD G100 Spray (G100S-2)

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May be used where maximum lubrication is needed, but solvents are not desired. For example, where cleaning and lubrication is required or over-spray might adversely affect sensitive plastics. DeoxIT® utilizes a metered valve which sprays short bursts of 100% liquid



If you fancy a quick, fun approach to making sampled music, why not download Richard Spindler’s Gungirl Sequencer (http://ggseq.sourceforge.net/HomePage)? Its approach is simplicity itself — you just use the left-hand folder tree to click on your desired sample folder, and drag files from this folder directly onto any of the eight tracks that appear by default beneath the timeline (although you can add and delete tracks as you need). You can loop any section of the timeline while working on your songs, and each track has its own volume control and mute button, while a global slider controls the overall output level.
You can set the ‘snap’ value in BPM, frames or seconds, so your samples line up easily on the beat, and to help you do this there’s an optional info window, when you audition your samples, that displays their length. Once they’re positioned on the screen-tracks, you can drag-copy and move your samples singly, or en masse by rubber-banding a box around them, add fades or control their volume envelopes, and even open up a simple sample editor where you can adjust start and end points and apply time-stretching to make multiple files at different tempos fit your songs. You can even export and import packages of songs, plus their associated samples, so you can collaborate with friends. Professionals might mock, but Gungirl is fun, and it’s free.
If you want a very simple and compact pattern-based MIDI sequencer, PQN Audio’s VstSeq (http://pquenin.free.fr/pqnaudio/vstseq) is a 132KB download that lets you enter and edit notes manually in its pattern windows, which can have between one and eight measures, each of between two and 32 steps, at a tempo of between 30 and 300bpm. You can send its MIDI output to any of four VST Instruments, and then either export your completed pattern as MIDI files to another sequencer, or render them as completed WAV files.

————————



The Kristal Audio Engine (www.kreatives.org/kristal) is an audio-only sequencer in a state of flux between freeware and shareware status. The freeware version 1.0.1 was developed between 2003 and 2004 and is still available for free personal and educational use, but commercial users are asked for a modest 24.90 Euros for a single-user licence. Meanwhile, its lead developer created Kristal Labs Software Ltd in 2006, in order to develop a new commercial product, code-named K2, that looks to be nearing completion (you can pre-register to be informed by email when it’s ready).

 

PCMusFreeware01

Kristal Audio Engine: With an easy-to-use interface, plus support for both ASIO drivers and VST-format plug-ins, the capable Kristal Audio Engine provides easily enough features for m

PCMusFreeware02

SEQ24: If you want a MIDI-only sequencer optimised for real-time live performances using a clutch of hardware synths, this could be just the job.
SEQ24: If you want a MIDI-only sequencer optimised for real-time live performances using a clutch of hardware synths, this could be just the job.

usicians who only require audio recording and playback.

Kristal Audio Engine: With an easy-to-use interface, plus support for both ASIO drivers and VST-format plug-ins, the capable Kristal Audio Engine provides easily enough features for musicians who only require audio recording and playback.
Kristal Audio Engine: With an easy-to-use interface, plus support for both ASIO drivers and VST-format plug-ins, the capable Kristal Audio Engine provides easily enough features for musicians who only require audio recording and playback.
PCMusFreeware05

TuxGuitar: If you’re a guitarist, why not check out the freeware TuxGuitar sequencer? It offers a set of features that have been specially tailored for guitar players, as well as a piano-roll editor and a lyric editor.

TuxGuitar: If you’re a guitarist, why not check out the freeware TuxGuitar sequencer? It offers a set of features that have been specially tailored for guitar players, as well as a piano-roll editor and a lyric editor.

PCMusFreeware03

Luna Free: Offering both MIDI and audio recording and playback, and a surprising number of options, including sophisticated routing, yet boasting a simple and relatively easy-to-use interface, Mutools’ Luna Free is a capable and versatile sequencer.
Luna Free: Offering both MIDI and audio recording and playback, and a surprising number of options, including sophisticated routing, yet boasting a simple and relatively easy-to-use interface, Mutools’ Luna Free is a capable and versatile sequencer.

Trying Out Trackers
If you like building up your songs from step-sequenced samples or VST instruments, you may want to investigate a ‘Music Tracker’ application. Originally developed for the Commodore Amiga platform, there are now quite a few available for the PC (see my July 2004 PC freeware round-up for more info on Trackers (www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul04/articles/pcmusician.htm). Here are some of the latest and greatest that follow in this tradition:
According to its developers, Buzz (www.buzzmachines.com) is not a sequencer, nor a soft synth, nor a tracker, but all these things and more. You can route its Machines (Buzz objects which either create or modify sound — there are already over 100 available) in real time in the Machine Editor, which is a free-form graphic patchbay where you can connect together synths and effect chains. You can then create songs by chaining together Patterns in the Sequence Editor. Although Buzz itself is no longer being further developed, there’s still a thriving community of Buzz users and Machine creators.
Psycle (http://psycle.pastnotecut.org) is a ‘modular music creation studio’ that supports VST instruments and effects in both its own and VST formats, and has various similarities to Buzz, offering an advanced Machine View where you connect virtual components together. It features a 64-track step sequencer with loads of facilities.
Skale Tracker (www.skale.org) supports VST Instruments, MIDI In/Out and 256 virtual channels, and seems to have an enthusiastic following and an active forum, despite the most recent Beta release being in 2004 (its developer has changed job and location, and no updates have therefore been written for some time). The web site was still out of action when I wrote this feature, but nevertheless you can still download the application itself.

 

Rewinds are also important

Dubstep Songwriting Structure (abridged)

Dubsamplescore.jpg

Rhythm

Dubstep rhythms are usually syncopated, and often shuffled or incorporating triplets. The tempo is nearly always in the range of 138-142bpm.[8] Dubstep rhythms typically do not follow the four-to-the-floor patterns common in many other styles of electronic dance music such as techno and house, but instead tend to rely on a kickdrum based around the first and third beat of a bar (a characteristic inherited from 2-step garage) and longer percussion loops than the four-bar phrases present in much techno or house. Often, a track’s percussion will follow a pattern which when heard alone will appear to be playing at half the tempo of the track; the double-time feel is instead achieved by other elements, usually the bassline. An example of this tension generated by the conflicting tempo is Skream‘s Rutten, which features a very sparse rhythm almost entirely composed of kick drum, snare drum, and a sparse hi-hat, with a distinctly half time implied 69bpm tempo. The track is instead propelled by a constant sub-bass following a four to the floor 138bpm pattern, and a sampled flute phrase.

Structure, Bass drops, Rewinds and MC’s

Originally, dubstep releases had some structure similarities to other genres like drum and bass and UK garage. Typically this would comprise an intro, a main section (often incorporating a bass drop), a midsection, a second main section similar to the first (often with another drop), and an outro.
Many dubstep tracks incorporate one or more “bass drops”, a characteristic inherited from drum ‘n’ bass. Typically, the percussion will pause, often reducing the track to silence, and then resume with more intensity, accompanied by a dominant subbass (often passing portamento through an entire octave or more, as in the audio example). However, this is by no means a completely rigid characteristic, rather a trope; a large portion of seminal tunes from producers like Kode9 and Horsepower Productions have more experimental song structures which don’t rely on a drop for a dynamic peak – and in some instances don’t feature a bass drop at all.

Rewinds (or reloads)[12] are another technique used by dubstep DJs. If a song seems to be especially popular, the DJ will ‘spin back’ the record by hand without lifting the stylus, and play the track in question again. Rewinds are also an important live element in many of dubstep’s precursors; the technique originates in dub reggae soundsystems, and is also used at UK garage and jungle nights.[13]
Taking direct cues from Jamaica‘s lyrically sparse deejay and toasting mic styles in the vein of reggae pioneers like U-Roy, the MC’s role in dubstep’s live experience is critically important to its impact.[14] As the music is largely instrumental, the MC operates in a similar context to drum and bass and is generally more of a complement to the music rather than the deliverer of lyrical content.[15]

Showing newest posts with label Hobnox. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label Hobnox. Show older posts

Friday, February 20, 2009

Hobnox Audio Tool

This is a super cool Flash audio tool that Hobnox developed. It emulates a mixing board, 2 TB 303′s, a TR 808, a TR 909 and a number of different effects pedals for your electronica performance curiosity. Now you can practice writing beats and bass lines right online!

REQUIRES FLASH PLAYER VERSION 10
Download page here

————

canada125

[groovetothis=http://groovetothis.net/2011/03/24/deee-lite-x-chubby-fingers/]

the sails

 

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hot

Trousers

Image via Wikipedia

I have never been an advocate for fashion slavery. Fashion can be quirky and surprising, even delightful but it’s an expensive pursuit for one to follow religiously. It also has the disadvantage of lacking permanence; the essence of fashion is that reliance on the idea of perpetual transition, continual evolution.

However, while I have long been a supporter of ‘sartorial allotments’; building and cultivating a long lasting personal style, fashion cycles are pleasantly diverting.
I was rather pleasantly surprised by some of the offerings at the Spring 2009 collections. There was a good deal of the yawn-factor; muted tones on tones, an overkill of chic-bohemia but there were some particularly pleasant individual ensembles and some aesthetically charming pairings.

Burberry Prorsum: Linen & Polish

The appeal of linen, about which I have written at length, is evident here and accentuated by the glorious colour and polish of the footwear. The contrast in texture and the aesthetic cut of the trousers is particularly appealing but the marriage of the shoe and the trouser is the real magic; fresh but somehow remarkably traditional.

Linen trousers are hardly anything new but most chaps wear them very casually – even unironed. Secondly, they are often worn with careless and dreary examples of footwear; this combination shows how outstanding a casual summer trouser can look.

Bottega Veneta: Neckscarves

The neckscarf is an excellent accessory for spring and summer; a dab of colour, a little formality, whimsy and, importantly, balance for ensembles. Some might view it as a little too ‘dandy’ and affected, but these examples from Bottega Veneta show how a rather ordinary outfit can be lifted by a little colour and pattern around the neck. The retro check is particularly attractive.

The Double Breasted Jacket


This appears to be making a comeback and it’s certainly long overdue. A stylish double-breasted jacket has been missing from high fashion, and consequently the adaptive (even plagiarising) chains on the high street; hopefully this means more affordable versions will follow. Its elegance lifts pedestrian and even lacklustre pieces to a fine level of nattiness.

Gucci Blues

Frida Giannini is evidently not ashamed of exploitation. The Gucci name, so powerful and influential that shoppers queue from the early hours on discount days to ‘grab a piece of the action’ as one Selfridge’s shopper aptly put it as she scrambled past the velvet ropes outside the concession in the sales. And Giannini knows this. Consequently, the Gucci runways do have a fair amount of branded tack, relevant for the materialist-glutton in the scowling Ferrari. Ms Giannini often throws a lot of very average and forgettable sportswear onto the runways, but she clearly has talent. The beginning of the Spring 2009 collection seems encouraging; pale and interesting summer suits, wacky floral shoes and a good deal of blue (it seems I frequently forget what a marvellous colour it is).

A Fresher Take on Summer: Paul Stuart

June 28, 2008 (Comments Off)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love a Ralph Lauren summer. The current run of ads featuring bright ties, bright trousers and pops of handkerchief colour were some of the most inspiring of the season. At one point they almost convinced me I would wear bright orange, big-print, flower-patterned tie more than once.

Particularly iconic was the pairing of a summer suit with a canary-yellow Ferrari outside an ivy-covered mansion. A more explicit call to aspirational fashion is hard to imagine.

But Ralph’s bright colours and contrasts can be a little extreme for some days of the year – particularly in England where days, no matter how sunny, rarely escape some cloud cover. A more muted, subtle summer wardrobe is called for.

I found what I was looking for at Paul Stuart in New York. Or, more precisely, in the store’s catalogue.

The cover features a man in white chinos, desert boots, a pale yellow jumper and mint green jacket. Finished off with a lilac handkerchief. It is a sophisticated, individual yet muted combination of colours that says summer just as strongly as the Ralph Lauren ads, but from an entirely different viewpoint. It melts rather than punches.

This model is propping up a picture of the Paul Stuart logo – man sitting on fence with book – in a similarly impressive colour combination. Olive chinos, checked tan jacket, pink-check shirt, orange tie and pale blue cap. Plus chestnut loafers and bright blue socks. I particularly like the socks.

By this point I’m sure you’d love to see the images I’m talking about – the catalogue is available here as a flip-through PDF. Very useful. If you can’t get there through this link, go to www.paulstuart.com and click on Catalog.

Once you’ve got beyond the cover, I recommend going to page five, for the best way to pair summer checks with pink and yellow. Page 21 picks up the same subtle theme with blue and pink checks. And page 30 shows the full range of those socks from the cover. (Page 17 also demonstrates that fascinating effect I mentioned in my posting on window dressing – enhancing the appeal of shoes through rolled-up socks.)

There are some fairly hideous sweaters in there (page 9, page 27) but overall the catalogue achieves that rare thing – inspiring you to try different clothes and colours, while still successfully creating a brand image. Few brands do that well. I believe Ralph Lauren and Etro are two, and Paul Stuart is obviously another. Hackett often does well, but it’s range of casualwear means only a few pages feature jackets and suits. (If anyone knows any others I’d be glad to hear them.)

In fact, the most successful aspect of a recent shopping trip was picking up the autumn/winter 08 Etro catalogue. Few brands publish all their catwalk photos in a catalogue, for free, or have such inspiring catalogues as that produced by Paul Stuart. More should. Perhaps then we would identify something definite and particular with the brand behemoths that Armani, Ferragamo, Zegna etc have become.

Favourite Ensembles: S/S 2006 Missoni

May 13, 2008 (Comments Off)

Missoni is one of those brands that defies seriousness so strongly, that I cannot help but associate it with a casual Italian summer; a holiday in the Bay of Naples, Campari and orange, sweet scents and glorious flora. There is something about the stripes, the rage of colourful patterns and the chic flop of the material that induces me to associate Missoni with the warmer time of year.

Even in the depths of winter, shivering from exiting the shower, I am transported to carefree days in the shadow of the glory and greatness of Rome and to the rippling sparkle and azure of the Amalfi coast when I wrap the famous striped towels around my body. For to me, I do not feel that I have arrived on holiday, particularly Italy, until I begin to dress in the Missoni way; a mix and match of colours, a relaxed and slightly retro fit.

This is another of my favourite ensembles, from the spring 2006 Missoni collection. The really standout item, as with many Missoni ensembles, is the knitwear. The colour matching and cheerful striping avoids mere preppyness; the different widths and cornucopia of tones are signature Missoni. To some eyes it might seem excessively bright, but the magnificence of it is the somewhat hypnotic effect in the way it draws the eyes down from the broadness of stripe on the chest to the narrowness of the waist.

The orange belt is a clever addition; the trousers are uneventful and though checked, are too subtle to compete with the knitwear. Consequently, the belt draws some of the fruity colour down from the top half into the lower half. And though the lower half is indeed less colourful, it is well matched -  rather like a cocktail that unites something exotic with something plain; making the whole better than the sum of the parts.

The shoes are the one thing that did not initially appeal to me. I considered them a little moody in tone considering the punch of the rest but on further reflection, they finish off the outfit completely. White shoes, which I had considered more appropriate at first, might actually downgrade the outfit from being a healthy stab at retro to being like something from 1970s Monaco; a little cliché and ever so slightly trashy. The blue suede is far more subtle, if a little artisan or geek-chic.

The parts that really add lustre to this appealing outfit are the deep salmon pink shirt and the ever-so-skinny knitted scarf. The cuffs of the shirt are particularly appealing, folded up over the sleeve bottoms of the v-neck, reaffirming the delivery of this ensemble as something for the summer and I do like that only the top button of the shirt is undone; I have begun to find, in some outfits, that doing so retains the structure of a shirt better. The scarf, while most will doubtless consider it rather too decorative and absurdly lacking in function, actually lifts this outfit from being a delightful but practical v-neck, shirt and trouser combination into an outfit that could be excused at the most demanding of summer venue or occasion. It furthers perfectly the uniqueness that Missoni have rightly been credited for promoting.

Enjoy Your Fashion Cycle

April 14, 2008 (2 Comments)

Everyone knows fashion is cyclical. But the key to understanding its enduring appeal is that people don’t live through that many cycles.

Slim trousers have been in the ascendancy in men’s fashion for almost a decade now. From their first daring suggestion on the catwalk, through gradual acceptance as the norm in high-end tailoring, to the point now where it is hard to find anything other than straight or skinny jeans in high-street stores.

This is the end point: as soon as your mate Dave (who knows as much about fashion as he does about French literature – Beckham and the three musketeers is about it) is wearing narrow jeans, the trend is finished. The high street is saturated and the designers are searching for something new.

That was the cycle. The next cycle will see a different shape dominate – bootcut is the current favourite. But because the cycle is so long, it could last the whole of your twenties. You will identify slim trousers with your youth, and bootcut will seem like a breath of fresh air – a more mature, flattering shape. It will seem like an original trend since, even though it was popular in the past, you weren’t around to wear it.

The same would be true of baggy jeans or flairs. They may not be original, but that hardly matters. You didn’t get to wear them before.

You really only get two of these cycles, possibly three. By the time you are into your thirties, you may stop noticing anything about trends or fashion. And even if you end up wearing the dominant shape of the times (by default, like Dave), you will hardly notice. You may even keep the same pair of jeans for decades – many men do.

In my teenage years, bootcut jeans were probably the most fashionable. Hip-hop baggy jeans also had a slightly embarrassing following among white, middle-class kids. For me, therefore, the past decade and its narrow trouser aesthetic has seemed like a maturing time – one where straight, slim trousers with suits seemed like the obvious choice. The seemed timeless. Surely they are simply a realisation every man comes to after the follies of youth?

In another five years I will probably be proved wrong. But by then I won’t care. Because baby carriers and combination boilers will be taking up much of my retail time; but also because I will have formed this attachment to slim, straight trousers at a formative age – one where I had a certain amount of time and disposal income to spend on clothes. It will probably be ingrained in me forever by then.

So don’t criticise fashion cycles for being unoriginal. You only get two or three – enjoy them while they last.

Blue Jean Baby

April 8, 2008 (6 Comments)

In a fairly recent magazine article, a fashion journalist noted that the prevalence of stonewashed denim among Hollywood leading men amounted to an embarrassment for the very image-conscious film-making industry. Pictures of starry-wonders such as George Clooney pottering around in light blue and rather shabby jeans were items of evidence and though the question central to the piece was ‘What is wrong with our leading men?’, the real question I was tapping my fingers over was; ‘Whatever happened to those very blue jeans?’ You know the sort of thing I mean – solid blue colour, unwashed, with brightly contrasting turn-ups: the sort of thing worn in the 1950s and early 60s with penny loafers and baseball jackets. I remember Grace Kelly wearing a pair at the end of Rear Window; reclining gloriously whilst reading a fashion publication. Their strength of tone epitomised the artistic character of that era; Pop art reigned supreme and American culture was an appealing export. Colour representations were apt to be bright and simplistic – rather like a cartoon or a child’s drawing. Lichtenstein’s ’industrial paintings’, and Rosenquist’s billboard-influenced collaging come to mind when imagining this bluest of blue denim.

Though friends of mine contend that such denim must still be available somewhere (what isn’t in our aggressively productive world?), it is rather hard to find. Brands like Cheap Monday and Dr Denim manufacture brightly toned blue denim but it is nowhere near the texture or particular tone. In fact, when searching online for denim of any kind, jeans seem embarrassed of ’blueness.’ Though marketed as indigo, so many jeans avoid true blue dyes. They’re darker and more steely; many are practically dark grey. Recent denim trends have pointedly avoided blue – all tones of grey, black and even brown have replaced azure as the standard for jeans. And to me, this is a great shame. True-blue denim is irreplaceable; the only alternatives seem to be wearing a darker hue or returning to the dreaded Tom Selleck-esque light stone washes. Both are depressingly inappropriate for the outfits I have in mind which, in actual fact, centre around the pre-Preppy Americana and are thoroughly appropriate for the coming warmth; red gingham shirts, burgundy loafers and tortoiseshell Wayfarers: an homage to the mid-Twentieth century of ‘American cool’ – without, of course, the drop top Chevy and the slick backed hair.

men in suits

i did not write this, it was written by Simon Crompton in Feb 2010. To view his site go to :  http://www.mensflair.com/permanent-style/page/4

Gaziano & Girling

While up in Northampton last week, I stopped in to see Gaziano & Girling’s new workshop. And Dean was kind enough to show me round. There aren’t many shoe makers in England that combine a bespoke and ready-made business in the way that G&G now does, both responding to client’s requests and designing new collections for wholesale and private-label work.

These two sides of the business inform each other in some interesting ways. For example, working with clients on their ideas for bespoke can create inspiration for a ready-made collection. And while some other brands get input from clients through special orders, it is not the same proportion or relationship as that gained by bespoke. You can see some of the slightly more daring G&G bespoke ideas here, from stingray through to laser designs. These are all waiting to go to Japan with Dean for a trunk show.

gaziano-girling-stingray

“Having a ready-made business also teaches you rigour,” comments Dean. “Manufacturing forces you to be disciplined and consistent. If a bespoke shoemaker makes one pair wrong, he can tweak it or redo it. You can’t do that with an order of 100 ready-made.”

gaziano-girling-daniel

Bespoke shoemakers without any manufacturing, on the other hand, have a slightly narrower perspective. For example, they often have to use merchants for sourcing leather. A business with bigger volume can afford to order its own leather in bulk, and deal with the tanneries directly.

gaziano-girling-closing

“I think it also teaches you how much tolerance men have for the fit of their shoes,” says Dean. “Bespoke tends to focus quite narrowly on how a man’s shoes should fit, according to fixed ideas or a golden formula. But if you watch a man try on sizes, you realise how much personal preference plays a role. You remember there’s a person on the other end.

gaziano-girling-clicking

“Some men prefer very tight, others quite loose; the Japanese will nearly always go for a size longer and narrower than you’d think. There’s a difference between having the size that ‘fits’ and the size that a customer thinks looks good.”

gaziano-girling-three

And of course, bespoke shoes inform the quality and design of ready-made, as these pictures and Gaziano & Girling’s burgeoning reputation attest. Characteristic design features include the peaked toe-cap and aggressive waist treatment.

Finally, a quick tip from Dean on polishing: try mixing the water you use with a little surgical spirit, in around a 4:1 ratio. Brings out the shine just lovely.

Good luck to Dean and Tony in their new home.

Different Ways To Give A Tie Spring

February 4, 2010 (Comments Off)

tiesA good tie has some form of ‘spring mechanism’ so that, after you have untied it roughly, tugged it out of your collar and hung it up, the mechanism gradually returns it to its natural shape.

This is achieved through the slip stitch, which runs the length of the tie from one tack to the other and requires some slack so that, when it is compressed, it can ‘spring’ back into position. On some ties, you will see this slack as a small loop of thread protruding from the narrow end. Off the top of my head, my Hermès, Drake’s and Bulgari ties certainly have it.

However, this is not the only way to create some slack. The excess thread can also be tucked back inside the tie, sometimes even secured to the slipping of the tie itself or to the back of one of the labels. This can be done at the narrow or wide end of the tie.

So why are several ways of achieving this ‘spring’ still being used? “You might wonder that, as I  did once when I first started in the trade,” says Martin Brighty of Hunter’s.

“I was told by the head slipper (seamstress Lil Groger of Holliday & Brown) that the women tie makers would move from firm to firm, bringing with them different techniques. They were often told to use the style of the firm, but if they could they would retain their own method as it was faster – and they got paid per tie. These days the girls again all move between companies, some work for two tie makers at a time, depending upon who has the work. So construction can vary; Hunter’s has both loop and tucked-back ties.”

There is no particular advantage to any of these methods. But one obvious difference with the loop is that you can see it – the spring mechanism and so the craft is on display. The others are less obvious or can’t be seen at all. So some manufacturers prefer the loop in order to prove the craftsmanship involved in their ties.

There aren’t many reasons for not having a loop, but Martin’s colleague David Walker knows one: “I remember selling ties in Harrod’s back in the day, and these Nina Ricci ones were very expensive, £85 or so. One day a man came in and complained that his tie had fallen apart. ‘It just came away in my hands,’ he complained. Turned out he had cut off the loop, thinking it was a loose thread.”

So that’s one disadvantage of an obvious sign of craft.

[Many thanks to Martin and David for their help with this and other posts]

Ties Facts From Peckham Rye

February 2, 2010 (3 Comments)

peckham-rye

Following on from the last, rather popular post on Peckham Rye and Hunter’s founders David Walker and Martin Brighty, here are some more insights from the interview:

- When you turn a tie in your hand and it seems to change colour slightly, this is because the light is reflecting off the warp. The warp is one direction of the weaving (the other being weft) of the silk. The warp is subtler and sets the foundation for the tie’s tone. While I have written about warp before (in a piece on Vanner’s) I hadn’t cottoned on to this way of revealing it.

peckham-rye-2

- Woven ties will often fray slightly along the front edge over time. If you run a small flame (from a lighter, say) quickly along that edge, it will burn off the stray threads and not damage the tie. The same can be done with loose threads in the main weave. (This technique is used with manmade fibres in other industries, but only where you want them to melt and so fuse together. Silk will not fuse, just burn off.)

peckham-rye-3

- Hunter’s makes a lot of ties for military units. And so many have been amalgamated recently that new designs are coming though all the time. Usually the designers take the dominant colours of each unit and try to find the best combination of them. There’s only a limited number of colour combinations out there though, plus over time the tone of the colours can change – if units have used cheaper tie companies, often the colour over the years comes to look nothing like the original design. That’s one advantage of a history in the industry – at Holliday & Brown they had swatches going back to the 1920s and earlier. So they could check the original swatch.

- The old hand-worked, shuttle looms could weave greater detail than today’s mechanised ones, though obviously nowhere near the speed. “In that old book we had a swatch of the Bugatti Racing Club, which from memory was a royal-blue ground, with a very thin – like one pixel – stripe of black, four pixels of gold, four of red, back to gold, then the black again. You couldn’t achieve that detail today, those looms don’t exist,” says David.

- Back then England made the bulk of the world’s ties, which explains why Holliday & Brown was making for Bugatti. English salesmen spent their lives travelling the globe – Buster Brown of Holliday & Brown used to spend nine months on the road (six of those in the US), all by train and steamship of course.

- When making bespoke ties, a man’s neck size is as important as his height. A short man with a very thick neck may be more in need of a bespoke tie than one of above-average height. And when tall men do have bespoke made, they need to have a wider blade – usually four inches. Otherwise it will just look too skinny.

Two Aspects Of Figuration

January 28, 2010 (3 Comments)

suit-backI discovered an interesting aspect of figuration today, while being measured for a new suit. (Figuration being the process where a tailor adapts a suit to your particular bodily quirks – the steps beyond just making sure the shoulders are the right width.)

The tailor pointed out that I have a slight stoop forward, slightly prominent shoulder blades, a hollowed lower back (partly due to being slim) and a large seat. If you can imagine that effect down the line of my back, it produces a S-shape – exaggerated curves caused by the shoulder blades and bum, with a hollow in between.

Most other suits I have follow the line of my back, meaning that the rear of the skirt kicks out a little over my bum. To correct this and mitigate the S-shape, a little more fullness will be added in the small of my back with this suit. But a little will be taken out of the front too, so that the waist size remains the same. Effectively, the lower half of the jacket will be swung backwards a touch.

On my previous suit I had also noticed that the collar stood away slightly from the back of my neck. A fairly obvious fault. But it was also pointed out this time that, when I looked at the suit from the front, this standing away was most prominent on the right of my neck.

This, it seems, was because I leant ever-so-slightly to the right, as well as a little forward. That was noticeable both at the neck but also below my right arm, where the cloth collapses a little between the waist and scye. Rebalancing the suit a little, so it is slightly lower on that right side, should correct this.

Both of these are aspects of fit that I have never noticed before, but of course now will not be able to ignore. Like the day after I had my first bespoke shirt fitted, and realised all my shirts had a slightly short left arm.

These are the pleasures of bespoke, such as they are. Every time you improve one facet of fit, you discover another that is wrong.

I admire tailors and shirtmakers for being able to spot these little things. But I do wish they’d stagger pointing them out to me.

Made-To-Measure Shirts At Diverso

January 26, 2010 (2 Comments)

diverso-shirtI remember when I first stumbled across London shirtmaker Diverso. It was a few years ago, when my enthusiasm for clothes was still some distance ahead of my knowledge. Shirts with high collars were highly fashionable, but I couldn’t find any at an affordable price. So when I discovered this boutique tucked down one of the alleys of St Christopher’s Place, I was enthralled.

High, two-button cutaway collars, cocktail cuffs and, most mesmerising, a sea of innovations, colours and patterns. My first purchase was a white shirt with a red floral pattern on the collar band, the inside of the cuff and the edge of the placket. My second was a brown-and-white stripe with white collar and cuffs. I have since disposed of both.

But this was the fault of my youthful tastes, rather than the quality of the shirts. The fit was good, nice and slim at a time when that was harder to find. And the quality of the cotton was high. (You! The one singing ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess. Stop it.)

So I was interested when the guys at Diverso, James and Darren, invited me to try their made-to-measure service just before Christmas. This time I went for a more conservative blue Bengal-stripe, with the lowest of their collars (which happens to be exactly the same height as the ‘taller’ collar prescribed to me by Turnbull & Asser bespoke). My only design whim was to opt for a club collar. Because I don’t own one.

An approximate size (‘medium’) was put on me and adjusted in several places. The collar was made smaller, the cuff size reduced and the arms shortened. The last two had been such a problem with my previous purchases that I had ended up shifting the position of the cuff buttons myself to try and tighten them.

Most importantly, the tails were lengthened. Because the problem with fashion shirts is that some men wear them untucked, some tucked. The length is therefore usually a compromise between the two.

Diverso shirts are made at a factory in Italy whose main customer is Dolce & Gabbana main line. James and Darren convinced it to make shirts for them when they travelled to Italy (fresh from leaving university and a job respectively) and pretended to have financial backing. A successful, cult shop in Fulham later, they moved to St Christopher’s Place and are now contemplating expansion. Wholesale carries Diverso shirts in the south-east, Birmingham and Nigeria, amongst others.

When the shirt came back two weeks later I have to say I was impressed. The collar, body and arms fit well. I was pleased that I opted for just one button on the collar, as this makes its height less noticeable. If I was to niggle, I’d probably have the cuffs a little bit tighter. But overall it was a good first job.

Worth a look, particularly if your tastes in shirts (or ties, or polos) are more adventurous than mine.

try

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Piano Lessons

Piano Lessons and I… what I remember about playing à

When I was a child, we had a piano in the living room.
My brother played it. I wanted to play too – but this is  after I found out that my sister will now start in piano lessons.

I wanted to play the piano all the time; however, my little fingers could not create the sounds on the keys as fast or as firm for the sounds that I imagined in my mind. (Melodies that I heard my brother capable of playing.)

I did imagine myself to become some future great pianist.
My first teachers were good. I think I had a teacher who’s name was Elaine – a nice lady who I enjoyed having as my teacher. She was very encouraging to me! Plus, I received sparkly stickers for completed exercises and M&Ms on the spot for good sight reading. I learned fast and loved my lessons. Afterall, it was kidsplay — you know, the easy stuff.

I would hope these little fun lessons would lead me to becoming a wonderful pianist…
So what’s the story, did I turn out to be a great pianist? Do I play now? No.

Two strange things happened a couple years into my lessons.

Firstly: afew years into my lessons we moved to another city, Vancouver. My mother sent me to a very fat ladys house that stunk. She owned these BIG dogs that would dash toward me when I would enter the “somewhat white picket fence” that leads me to the front door. Each time I saw those slobbery panting stinky dogs I woul fear if I am the next dinner for them, or possibly a snack since I was only at the most 6 years old.  The teacher also stuck me in the closet when my sister had her lesson. Weird? Slightly.

Second: My mother placed a Baby Monitor inside the piano room to make sure my sister was actually practicing.

See, because my sister made a recording of her playing the piano, then from time to time (or more) use that cassette recording on a stereo system in the room so Mom thinks she is practicing.

Clever of my sister… but this made me hate the piano. I felt that since I was being listened to at every moment, each wrong key or sound that came out in my practicing weas being critiqued and therefore, scolded.

This sort of tactic took the pleasure out of creativity for me.
Deep down I wish my Mom did not do that.

I think creativity is a KEY ELEMENT for me.

Without creativity, the pleasure to life is gone.
When I was missing my practice times and pretending to be “sick” to skip my lessons. You could say I had a massive resistance to learning and playing the piano.
By the end of my fourth grade year, I had called it quits—“for good.”

I was reminded of this experience today while reading Eric Maisel’s A Writer’s Space.  In his chapter, “Frank and Janet,” he illustrates how harsh criticism can affect a writer’s willingness to take risks—or even to write at all.

He says,

“We may have experienced things, such as persistent criticism or repeated rejection, that now prevent us from writing. We may have done things, such as inflicted harm or wreaked havoc, that stop us from writing. As painful and difficult as it may be to face those issues, can we write if we don’t face them?”

edmonton house – my memory

When you arrive at this location, you will notice three driveways leading off the edge of the cliff.

Before October 1999, three homes with a spectacular view of the North Saskatchewan River existed here. On October 23 of that year, this changed, when a massive landslide caused these homes to slide down the bank into the valley below. How did this happen? Hopefully this Earthcache will shed some light on this unfortunate saga.

The bluffs beneath Whitemud Road lie at the outside of a meander on the river. This river bend is the feature from which the “Riverbend” neighborhood takes its name. It is also the feature that continues to threaten homes along the bluffs. At the outside of a meander, a river flows at its fastest. The fast moving river has more energy, and the erosive power of the flowing water increases. This can lead to Bank Scour, the removal of a riverbank by water and the materials it carries. Where bank scour occurs, Mass Failure is a potential outcome. In the case of this location, the Mass Failure brought down three homes with it. A Mass Failure is an event where sections of an eroded bank slide, slump or topple into a river or stream. Where a bank has no vegetation, consists of sandy material, or is high and steep, the likelihood of mass failure is even greater.

When the landslide took place, it was not a uniform event. Firstly, a block of land fell into an 18-meter deep graben (a graben is a depressed block of land). This took place almost directly behind the home of Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, which was the middle of the three destroyed homes. This left two margins of land on either side of the “hole”. These points were very unstable. The first one to collapse was the North side, followed shortly thereafter by the South side. While the North side fell because the original slide had undercut this margin, the South Side of the graben collapsed because of immense groundwater flow. This was followed by several smaller slides that left the landscape much like it appears today.


A second factor was also found to affect the bank stability. Large amounts of groundwater flowing towards the river further weakened the stability of the bank. This continues to be a problem for nearby residents. An underground stream about halfway down the bank continues to weaken the slope, and neighbours have installed wells to limit the flow of groundwater. The specialized equipment diverts 250,000 liters of water a day to storm sewers and into the river. There are currently twenty-five homes on this street, and nearby 154 Street (to the North) that remain at risk. Currently four of these homes are uninhabitable because of the imminent danger of another mass failure event. The city engineering department monitors the bank stability with the red markers (see right) that are very present in this area. These sense ground movement, and provide signs if another event may be forthcoming. In the 1970’s, a smaller slide took place along 154 Street, one block North of this site. No property was damaged and no one was injured. The slide is still visible if you drive along this street. Perhaps this should have served as a warning that this was not a suitable building location?

Logging Requirements:

You will need to show that you learned something at this site. I wouldn’t want you not learning anything, and then going and building a house at a dangerous location! This is also a requirement of the Earthcache program.

Please answer two of the following questions:

1) Based on the neighbours’ current bank, estimate how much land was lost in the 1999 slide? (How far from the current bank to the former bank location?)

2) Based on your knowledge from this Earthcache, provide another location in the City of Edmonton that might be prone to bank erosion. You may provide a Lat/Long, or a description (ie. end of X Street, in X Neighborhood)

3) How wide do you estimate that the current graben is? Remember, a graben is the block of land that is depressed from the surrounding land.

You must also post a picture with your log. Don’t get too close to the edge though!

References:

Edmonton Journal, April 9, 2008 “Owner defiant after order to leave endangered home”

Peter Barlow, et al, “Setbacks in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada”, Instability Planning and Management: Seeking Sustainable Solutions to Ground Movement Problems. (Telford: 2002) at 75.

Bowes v. Edmonton [2007] C.C.S. No. 9138- Lawsuit vs. city with many geotechnical details.

this is not school. okay? defining the music

or popular music, 1990 was the year of lip-synching, lawsuits and record-labeling laws. But as the temperature rose on arguments about pop — about whether performers should be expected to sing while they dance, and about the presumed negative effects of nasty lyrics — the music itself stagnated. Superstars put their efforts into stage spectacles rather than music, but among the year’s hard-sold arena productions, only Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” tour was worth a second thought. And amid the plethora of 1990 album releases, far too many sounded like reruns. As a critic, I found myself looking toward stylistic fringes and geographic outposts, where conventions haven’t yet hardened into routines.

There are stirrings at those fringes. Slowly but irrevocably, the notion of coherence in popular music is changing. New songs don’t just roll along in one mode but zap between textures, tempos and emotions so fast that some listeners risk whiplash injuries. Rap showed the way with its disk-jockey collages, but now even bands that play instruments are beginning to record songs that sound like hyperactive metal/rap/pop/reggae/funk medleys. (The composer John Zorn’s avant-rock band Naked City allows itself only seconds per genre.)

Style-crunching bands like Living Colour, Fishbone, Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More — whose hit single, “Epic,” summed up the spirit of 1990 with the chorus “You want it all but you can’t have it” — drew some of 1990′s most active, enthusiastic audiences.

Women continued to make up for lost time. Many of the year’s most memorable songs came from women who lead bands or have prominent voices in mixed-gender groups, from Sinead O’Connor and Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth) to emerging British performers like the Heart Throbs, Kirsty MacColl and Lush to pop contenders like Lisa Stansfield and the squeaky-clean Wilson Phillips. Female rappers also started to challenge the sexism of their male colleagues.

But those developments are still fringe phenomena. In 1990, worries that have been building since MTV appeared in 1981 seemed to be coming true. More than ever, pretty faces and fancy footwork outweighed music, as appearance threatened to conquer substance. (Madonna, the definitive video-era performer, has managed to turn appearance into substance.) At video-style concerts by performers like Janet Jackson, New Kids on the Block and M. C. Hammer, dancing was more important than singing, and the singing was often on tape.

Fakery wasn’t confined to the stage: in 1990, listeners found out that European-made dance hits by Milli Vanilli and Black Box actually featured singers far less photogenic than their video clips and lip-synched “concerts” would have fans believe. The revelation that Milli Vanilli didn’t sing on its album, and the withdrawal of the group’s Grammy Award as best new artist, offered little consolation. There’s no guarantee that cute-and-switch won’t happen again if producers can figure out how to silence tattletales.

With a few exceptions, pop’s most important public appearances took place in courtrooms rather than concert halls. Around the United States, prosecutors and legislators fulminated over the dangers of pop lyrics about sex or suicide, as Judas Priest, the 2 Live Crew and people who sold Crew albums were hauled into court. Acquittals were the rule — the 2 Live Crew jury couldn’t help laughing at the evidence — but record companies and stores grew gun-shy.

Under the threat of state laws requiring labels, record companies agreed on a uniform warning sticker, and many record stores decided not to sell any album with a warning sticker to people under 18. (To soak up four-letter words or depictions of sex and violence, youngsters would have to turn to television, books and PG-13 movies instead.) By the end of the year, things had gotten so touchy that MTV refused to run a Madonna video because it included leather costumes, glimpses of nipples and androgynous embraces. Meanwhile, other groups courted notoriety, like the “horror-rap” specialists the Geto Boys, who were inspired by slasher films. One company refused to distribute their album, in the apparent belief that listeners could not distinguish fact from fiction.

Behind the various uproars, mainstream pop was rarely startling, as 1980′s trends played themselves out. Rap topped both the albums and singles charts in Billboard magazine, but it was rap that didn’t even think about challenging pop formulas. The canny M. C. Hammer lifts his music from old, familiar hits, while the second-rate Vanilla Ice is the inevitable white rap imitator.

In chart-topping pop, heavy metal provided the wardrobe for young men who want to sing sentimental pop ballads. The squalling guitars and artless vocals of collegiate (or alternative) rock were heard on dozens of virtually interchangeable albums, as a once-unpredictable underground started imitating itself. Paul Simon completed “The Rhythm of the Saints,” his worthy African-Brazilian-Caribbean synthesis, but was outshown (yet not outsold) by Africans and Brazilians with better voices and more gusto. Lush, background pop triumphed with performers like Mariah Carey and Wilson Phillips.

But yes, there were recordings (generally available, perhaps for the last time, on LP, cassette and CD) and performances worth commemorating, grim and glorious. Here are one critic’s choices of the peaks and troughs of 1990.

THE TOP 10:

1. Sinead O’Connor: “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” (Ensigh/Chrysalis). The Irish songwriter as broken-hearted banshee, with a voice that can change from a lullaby to a cutting laser. In modern settings, she taps the age-old pain of traditional Irish music; she admits to suffering but clearly won’t be broken by it.

2. Living Colour: “Time’s Up” (Epic). Whiz-bang music that shreds heavy-metal categories, ricocheting from funk to thrash to anthem, behind messages that are earnest but rarely sententious.

3. Youssou N’Dour: “Set” (Virgin). After Westernizing his music, the Senegalese bandleader with the soaring tenor voice has forged an African-style internationalism, where rock and funk take their place behind chattering Senegalese mbalax. Other international albums worth hearing are “Hot Heads” (Shanachie) by Les Tetes Brulees from Cameroon; “The Best of Tom Ze” (Luaka Bop/Sire/Warner Brothers) and “Elegibo” (Mango) by Margareth Menezes, both from Brazil; and “The Rustavi Choir” (Nonesuch) from Soviet Georgia.

4. Madonna’s “Blond Ambition” tour.Pop’s leading sex symbol was determinedly uningratiating and unseductive but fully in charge as she acted out vignettes about sexuality, patriarchy and power. There were hokey moments, and too much of the music was canned, but the show left people thinking. Her “Justify My Love” video was a bonus; just hinting that a red-blooded man and woman might have polysexual fantasies stirred up a nationwide discussion.

5. Charles Mingus: “Epitaph” (Columbia). Mingus summed up his roots and aspirations in a symphonic-length work he didn’t live to hear performed; the reconstructed piece is the best argument yet for the repertory movement in jazz.

6. Sonic Youth: “Goo” (DGC). Amid guitars that ring and crash and jitter, there are cryptic, offhanded ruminations on rock stardom and sexual tension — too noisy for pop songs, too concise for anarchy. Guitar noise runner-up: Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Ragged Glory” (Reprise).

7. Robert Cray: “Midnight Stroll” (Mercury). All the unflappable muscle of classic Southern soul anchors songs of romantic remorse. Soul had a modest revival in 1990, with fine albums by Etta James (“Stickin’ to My Guns,” Island) and the Holmes Brothers (“In the Spirit,” Rounder). Reunion concerts by the J.B.’s, the Meters and Booker T. and the M.G.’s reaffirmed that funk lives.

8. Shazzy: “Attitude: A Hip-Hop Rapsody” (Elektra). A New York rapper sets strong-voiced, tough-minded raps in a backup buzzing with unexpected sounds. The other most important rap albums of 1990 are both problematic. Ice Cube’s “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” (Priority), a portrait of the inner city as a murderous jungle, is marred by virulent misogyny, while Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet” (Def Jam/Columbia) lacks the sonic momentum of the band’s previous album and spends too much time griping about Public Enemy’s bad press.


9. Bo Dollis and the Wild Magnolias: “I’m Back . . . at Carnival Time” (Rounder). From New Orleans, a drumming, chanting tribe of Mardi Gras Indians is joined by the Rebirth Brass Band for nontraditional but jubilant versions of carnival standards.

10. Deee-Lite: “World Clique” (Elektra). Music for dance clubs that still sounds like giddy fun at home, with the punching-bag beat of house music and the sly, sunny vocals of Kier Kirby.

THE BOTTOM 10:

1. Vanilla Ice: “Ice Ice Baby” (SBK single). How did the Pat Boone of rap — slow, mediocre and unconvincing — get the first No. 1 rap single? The obvious explanation, years after rap has conquered pop, is that radio stations still are not colorblind, preferring a white rapper to black ones.

2. Milli Vanilli: The joke of 1990. It used to be said that anyone could be a pop singer; anyone, perhaps, but the dancing, lip-synching Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan.

————this is not school. okay?———–

Donna Gaines uttered these words as a challenge to the several hundred audience members slumping before her in wooden auditorium seats. Her statement bore its share of paradox, since the gathering was an academic conference, typically the site of scholarly muscle flexing. But the words of Ms. Gaines, a sociologist and journalist who wrote the innovative study of alienation among suburban adolescents, “Teen-Age Wasteland,” in many ways epitomized the challenge posed by an unusual two-day conference at Princeton University this weekend.

The conference, “Youth Music and Youth Culture,” which brought together students, tenured professors, freelance writers, artists and music-industry representatives, was organized by Prof. Andrew Ross, who is the director of the program in American studies at Princeton and one of academia’s most visible iconoclasts. By doing so, Professor Ross demonstrated that even the staid Princeton campus could be a safe place for the outlaw subjects of pop music and street culture.

“I don’t think it was monumental; it wasn’t designed to be that,” Professor Ross said afterward. “But it was important to have in a place like Princeton, to show that the Ivy League could deal with this material.”

The conference, which ended today, welcomed the challenge brought by nonacademic viewpoints. Writers including Ms. Gaines and The Village Voice critics Robert Christgau and Greg Tate appeared alongside Lawrence Grossberg, George Lipsitz and other leaders in cultural studies, a developing academic “anti-discipline” devoted to examining popular culture.

The most striking innovation, however, was the inclusion of those who are normally the object of such discussions but rarely have the chance to speak for themselves: the innovator of vogue dancing, Willi Ninja; Lady Kier Kirby, who used to call herself Lady Miss Kier, and DJ Dmitri, both of the dance-music group Deee-Lite, and Carmen Ashhurst-Watson of Rush Communications, the management company that oversees the careers of such rap superstars as Public Enemy and LL Cool J.

Ms. Ashworth-Watson said she viewed her involvement in the conference as beneficial to herself and the scholars she had encountered. “People need to understand that it’s a business as well as an art,” she said in an interview. “Academics need to understand the history, but also what’s impacting rappers in their daily lives.

“And if academics could bring back what they’ve learned here to their home fronts, it could help legitimate hip-hop for the mainstream.”

Over dinner at Terrace Club, a student eating club on campus, DJ Dmitri said: “Any artist is a step ahead of the critics. We’ve actually been in the clubs and experienced it.” Lady Kier Kirby said she agreed. “Experience is the key,” she said. “To be there, to witness it.”

The duo offered a slice of club life during the dance panel, when Lady Kier Kirby recited an ode to technological bliss as Dmitri swirled sight-and-sound projections behind her. Later in that panel, Mr. Ninja moved his elegant body in a demonstration of voguing.

Some scholars also included hands-on musical experience as vital elements of their presentations. Prof. Robert Walser, a musicologist at Dartmouth, strapped on an electric guitar and punctuated his talk on the connections between heavy metal and classical music with explanatory riffs. Discussing music and the body, a feminist musicologist, Susan McClary, demonstrated the physical effects of a backbeat by shaking her hips to Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour.”

After a decade spent steeped in high theory, scholars seem willing to take their analysis beyond texts into areas of daily experience. “We need to transform the world in a political way,” Ms. Gaines said. “With some notable exceptions, the academy sat by silently during the 1980′s. Now thinkers can’t afford to do that.” ‘Responsibility of Intellectuals’

The possibilities of intellectual work as a form of activism was among the conference’s strongest subtexts. In his talk, Dick Hebdige, the author of “Subculture: The Meaning of Style” (Methuen, 1979), mentioned the “responsibility of intellectuals to bring forward social possibilities that have been overlooked.”

Panelists acted upon this mandate throughout the conference. Tricia Rose, a hip-hop theorist, spoke of the connections between graffitti art and urban vocational schools. George Yudice, an editorial board member of Social Texts, an academic journal, discussed the links between youth homelessness in Brazil and that country’s outburst of funk music. In the conference’s most graceful and moving piece of analysis, Walter Hughes, a professor of English at Princeton, spoke of disco’s creation of a male homosexual “body electronic,” and followed the journey of dance-floor culture into the age of AIDS. Diana Ross’s “Love Hangover” had never before sounded so deep.

One constituency not widely represented on the panels was that of young people themselves. Professor Ross included one graduate student, Sarah Thornton of Wesleyan, whose presentation on public space and dance culture offered some exciting insights. But Professor Ross said he felt the already diverse mix was complicated enough without directly including the subjects of these various studies. Who Knows What

The youthful inventors of the subcultures under discussion showed themselves ahead of the academic pack anyway. One student asked a group of panelists for their opinion of riot grrrls, the blossoming post-punk feminist movement; only Mr. Christgau of The Village Voice knew what she meant. Yet signs of riot grrrls abounded throughout the campus, on the graffiti on dining room tables and in the clothing and dance styles of the students dancing to DJ Dmitri’s sounds on Friday night at a party held at Terrace Club.

That party was one of Professor Ross’s priorities for the weekend, he said. “It was my revenge for all the conferences where there was no party, and we ended up subjected to the lounge music of bad hotel bars,” he said of other academic conferences he had attended. The party stood as a metaphor for the conference, demonstrating the possibilities and limits of breaking down barriers between critics, fans and performers. In Terrace Club’s basement, students could quaff beers with Mr. Grossberg or compile of a list of college-rock protest songs with Mr. Christgau. Upstairs, they watched Mr. Tate pull riffs from his guitar as his band, Women in Love, performed.

But the creative impulse remained aloof. Mr. Ninja, undoubtedly the subject of a future academic critique, simply found a quiet corner and did his gorgeous dancing by himself.

glasscity scenes : odd 2

Abandoned and neglected:

This house has since been demolished:

Commuting home from work:

Apparently the word ‘parkade’ is a western Canada-only word:

Shirtless on Main street:

Peaceful protestors:

Hot dog:

Painted over a million times:

Vancouver doesn’t get much rain in the summer, and it’s obvious who waters their lawn and who doesn’t:

The person who owns the gentrifier stencil has been busy…

Faux thatch roof:

odd pictures of glass city

the oddness of scenic Vancouver:

http://spacebeach.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/slinkachu-fame-festival-2010/#more-1266

Slinkachu Fame Festival 2010


Something real cool and artsy I came across seeing from the London based artist Slinkachu in Italy’s Fame Festival 2010. He created six scenes across the southern city of Grottaglie and photographed them. For the slip n slide he used a mp3 player for the sound effects as you can see in the following clip. Very cool indeed !? Read more for pics and the video.

            

 

d wit 3 e’s

No matter where I am, at a wedding, at a club, in my house, or in the middle of a conversation I will drop everything, squeal with joy and run to the dance floor (or danceable area) whenever I hear the song ‘Groove is in the Heart.’

I adore this song more than any other song in the world. Seriously. I have adored this song since its release in late 1990. Sure, I went through my Madonna is God phase when Erotica became one of the first CDs I ever bought. Then there was the early stages of Grunge and Alternative Rock with Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and my foray into all-ages punk rock gigs. Yet at my high school graduation, when I straddled the worlds of the rave scene and emo, I still rushed to dance when I heard the first few notes of ‘Groove is in the Heart’ in the Calgary Convention Centre.

The amount of times I’ve danced to this song must be in the thousands, yet iTunes tells me I’ve only played it 56 times. It is my 4th most listened to song; surpassed only by Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam (which is my morning alarm), Sexyback by the pop-sation Justin Timberlake and We Are Your Friends by french house artistes Justice vs Simian. Which I suppose tells you that I am a big fan of sexy, party, dance songs.

Wikipedia has a charming description of the Deee-lite’s number one hit saying that it is a “funky, cheerful love song that compares the new feelings of infatuation with hearing a good (“groovy”) song.” I completely agree. I run to this song like 80s rom-coms stars run to each other.

Saying you don’t like Groove is in the Heart is essentially saying you don’t like: Herbie Hancock’s “Bring Down the Birds,” Vernon Burch’s “Get Up” (the drum track and slide whistle are from that song), Eddie Jefferson’s “Psychedelic Sally” (horn riff),  Bootsy Collins (bass and guest vocals!) or  Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest (rap). Basically not liking this song means that you hate it when awesomeness combines -you fascist!

I get upset when someone disses ‘Groove is in the Heart’ and I think that’s because I feel that the song is my personality in music. It’s Deee-Groovy.

But to each their own.

sampling …and the casio VL-1 piano

Deee-Lite

Deee-Lite  (world clique 1990 release)

and the casio keyboard.

all the people in the house say Worship

kidding

The VZ-1 is a full-sized, 5-octave, velocity & pressure sensitive keyboard utilizing the IPD tone generation (a type of Phase Distortion synthesis) and offers 16 note polyphony. It’s a digital synth capable of some great strings and “polite 80′s sounds”. You could use up to four sounds for splits, layers, velocity, cross-fades, etc. It has a large, blue, back-lit LCD display for editing patches. Editing is in-depth and quite a different approach than other synths before it. Its sounds are akin to the Casio CZ-series and sort of Yamaha DX-like. It’s not particularly cool, but it looked impressive in its day with the blue back-lit graphical display.

Casio VZ-10M Image

Casio KeyboardCasio VZ-1 Image

Jimmy Spicer 
The Bubble Bunch  (1982)

 for the Other songs sampled in Deee-Lite‘s Who Was That:

     
We Are Neighbors   We Are Neighbors by Chi-Lites (1971)
     

———

songs sampled in Jimmy Spicer‘s The Bubble Bunch:

     
Thighs High (Grip Your Hips and Move)   Thighs High (Grip Your Hips and Move) by Tom Browne (1980)
     

Other songs that sampled Jimmy Spicer‘s The Bubble Bunch:

     
Poor Georgie   Poor Georgie by MC Lyte (1991)
     
Do the Bus a Bus   Do the Bus a Bus by Busta Rhymes (1998)
     
Clumsy   Clumsy by Fergie (2006)


graphic designs by suzette zuch (via Lady Laconic)

various

various work designs for flyers, posters, logos … Read More

via Lady Laconic

death ♠

I have to say that I do not normally write on topics that are coming from my heart…

(I normally write blips, words, afew paragraphs on very light topics – like deee-lite or music or production of sorts… )
Not today…
So in getting these awkward feelings of displeasure, shock and emptiness, I will write to get my thoughts into some sort of alignment.

topic: Death by hanging  ;(

My best girl friend just had something horrible happen. Possibly the most horrible thing ever.

Her love: the man who is her soul mate hung himself in his bedroom.

This horrific news made her almost feel like she, herself lost the air she breathes. She is left yelling in horror; the voice projects sounds that only come out when in disbelief, shock and agony.

My best girl friend JUST had found out that her ‘best guy friend /knight with shining armour’ commit suicide.

———————
HE: Late 20’s [29ish], was a ‘ladies man’, cute, charming, employed, was on an anti-depressant — plus I think he did prescription drugs from time to time.

SHE: Loved him to pieces. Late 20’s, pretty, has grace and pizzaz, musically famous [has appeared on the front of the BBC among other appearances], were friends for years, he kept her ‘doing right’ when she wanted to do wrong – she got her act together because of him.
———————————-

the following I copied from wiki:

HOW:
A hanging may induce one or more of the following medical conditions, some leading to death:
• Closure of carotid arteries causing cerebral ischemia
• Closure of the jugular veins
• Induction of carotid reflex, which reduces heartbeat when the pressure in the carotid arteries is high, causing cardiac arrest
• Breaking of the neck (cervical fracture) causing traumatic spinal cord injury or even decapitation
• Closure of the airway
• Death erection
The cause of death in hanging depends on the conditions related to the event. When the body is released from a relatively high position, the major cause of death is severe trauma to the upper cervical spine. However, the injuries produced are highly variable. One study showed that only a small minority of a series of judicial hangings produced fractures to the cervical spine (6 out of 34 cases studied), with half of the fractures (3 out of 34) being the classic "hangman's fracture" (bilateral fractures of the pars interarticularis of the C2 vertebra).[12] The location of the knot of the hanging rope is a major factor in determining the mechanics of cervical spine injury, with a submental knot (hangman's knot under the chin) being the only location capable of producing the sudden, straightforward hyperextension injury that causes the classic "hangman's fracture".
It is worth noting however, that there is evidence suggesting that there might be superior alternatives if there were sufficient interest to support research into such matters. Consider in particular an event recounted in the biography of Albert Pierrepoint.[6] Events followed a most unconventional sequence during the hanging of a particularly powerful and uncooperative German spy during World War II. Pierrepoint relates: "Just as I was crossing to the lever, he jumped with bound feet. The drop opened, and he plunged down, and I saw with horror that the noose was slipping. It would have come right over his head had it not caught roughly at a point halfway up the hood - it had in fact been stopped on his upper lip by the projection of his nose - and the body jerked down, then became absolutely still apart from the swinging of the rope. I went down into the pit with the prison medical officer. He examined the body and said to me: "A clean death. Instantaneous." He sounded surprised, and I did not blame him. I was surprised myself, and very relieved. On my next visit to Wandsworth the governor told me that the severance of the spinal cord had been perfect."
Not surprisingly in retrospect, it appears that such unconventional application of forces might be particularly efficient. There is at least some evidence that some of the countries with particularly active programs of judicial execution may have given the question of the design of efficient and reliable nooses practical attention. For example, photographs of nooses in a South African execution chamber opened to the public after abolishment of the death penalty, showed double nooses. See for example this link: South_Africa_Pretoria_prison_gallows.jpg Presumably the upper noose held the lower one in place to ensure a perfect hangman's fracture. The possibly more elegant, but probably more tricky English technique with a single running noose and a rope so arranged as to whip around into the ideal position, might well have been too error-prone to be satisfactorily reliable in any but highly skilled hands. If so, the likes of the double noose might have much merit.
The side, or subaural knot, has been shown to produce other, more complex injuries, with one thoroughly studied case producing only ligamentous injuries to the cervical spine and bilateral vertebral artery disruptions, but no major vertebral fractures or crush injuries to the spinal cord.[13] Death from a "hangman's fracture" occurs mainly when the applied force is severe enough to also cause a severe subluxation of the C2 and C3 vertebra that crushes the spinal cord and/or disrupts the vertebral arteries. Hangman's fractures from other hyperextension injuries (the most common being unrestrained motor vehicle accidents and falls or diving injuries where the face or chin suddenly strike an immovable object) are frequently survivable if the applied force does not cause a severe subluxation of C2 on C3.
Another process that has been suggested is carotid sinus reflex death. By this theory, the mechanical stimulation of the carotid sinus in the neck brings on terminal cardiac arrest.
In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death, rather than asphyxiation. Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral edema and then cerebral ischemia. The face will typically become engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack of oxygen). There will be the classic sign of strangulation, petechiae, little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst blood capillaries. The tongue may protrude.
Compromise of the cerebral blood flow may occur by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins. Only 31 newtons (7 lbf or 3.2 kgf) of force may be enough to constrict the carotid arteries to the point of rapid unconsciousness.[citation needed] Where death has occurred through carotid artery obstruction or cervical fracture, the face will typically be pale in color and not show petechiae. Many reports and pictures exist of actual short-drop hangings that seem to show that the person died quickly, while others indicate a slow and agonizing death by strangulation.[14]
When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat for some period after the brain can no longer be resuscitated. The time of death in such cases is a matter of convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. In Britain, it was normal to leave the body suspended for an hour to ensure death.
After death, the body typically shows marks of suspension: bruising and rope marks on the neck. Moreover, sphincters will relax spontaneously and urine and faeces will be evacuated. Forensic experts may often be able to tell if hanging is suicide or homicide, as each leaves a distinctive ligature mark. One of the hints they use is the hyoid bone. If broken, it often means the person has been murdered by manual choking.

What a sad sad sad horrible permanent measure.

God please keep D in your view for the next few weeks. Please give her the strength she desperately needs to get through this okay. I know it is written that God does not give a man more of a challenge then they can handle… But this is something that is tipping her breaking point. Lord, I pray you love D and keep her close to your spirit.
A domino effect would do nothing but bad outcomes for many.
God is good. And you are love. Amen

 



to be honest- this is a thought – and a 2ndary suite post

Visualization of the various routes through a ...

Image via Wikipedia

[url=http://www.divshare.com/download/13104084-9a8]DivShare File – 2ndarysuites.pdf] <–offtopic post

someone told me to describe me inafew sentences->

I am a hard working woman. (At times)…

I care about people and I care about their happiness — sometimes over my own.

At the end of the day, I want to be loved. In love and loved.

Still can’t seem to find the one yet — even though they are out there…

I am an artist who hopes to do something with my passion…

I am the youngest of 3.

I am an auntie – to 3 of the cutest kids you could ever lay eyes on.

I have a radio broadcasting degree – concentrating in radio news.

I worked in tactical communications… I have worked for a radio station… I have a weekly radio show… I love underground music…   I would like to go back to school and complete a computer science degree….
Anything worth having is worth working for.  I have never obtained anything of value that I did not work hard to attain.

What was easy to obtain isn’t around for too long.

Positive thinking is a good start but also a good finish to anything.

I consider myself down to earth and low maintenance but this is not always true. It is hard to surprise me – because I am always suspicious.

I love a good laugh and when I can understand wqhat makes you tick – believe me our conversations can be very interesting.

I decided to try go on myspace to see what all the fuss was about…. I must confess I find it pretty interesting.

thats me.

2nd suite

[url=http://www.divshare.com/download/13104084-9a8]DivShare File – 2ndarysuites.pdf[/url]

timelapse vancouver

to cameron

Cam, check this one out:

http://www.divshare.com/download/12975850-33e

 

Lady Laconic is

It’s simple:

I’m like a pool.

Sometimes deep, sometimes shallow, always bound to give a chemical reaction.

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