The Queensboro Bridge is one of the most iconic crossings in the world. It spans the East River along side the world famous Roosevelt Island Cable Car. The bridge draws thousands of tourists and commuters per day. It also is one of the only toll-free crossings in all of New York City.
One of the best parts of the bridge is that it is available to pedestrians. Along the walkway is a chain link fence where many people leave locks with messages on them. Others are blank, leaving only the ones that have placed them to know their true meaning. It’s definitely something you have to look for but priceless when you find them.
The Hashtag: The Most Powerful Tool on the Internet
The Hashtag: A word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#), used within a message to identify a keyword or topic of interest and facilitate a search for it.
It seems, within today’s modern world, the idea of a society which is not completely interconnected and collectively influential is unfathomable and even somewhat frightening. What was the world without internet? What was a day without cell phones or computers? How did people communicate, or meet, or get directions, or stay entertained?
We have adapted to our modern world with ease, familiarizing ourselves with new technologies and social impacts every day. Certain trends have faded into the world of retro-vintage ancient history, while others have stood the test of time. Since the recent dawn of social media, the world has become significantly smaller. And when Twitter introduced the hashtag in 2007, a new trend was born. It was arguably the most powerful tool on the internet, and perhaps still is.
Chris Messina, co-founder of the company BarCamp, was officially the first Twitter user to introduce and to actively “use” the hashtag as a means for guiding conversations among groups of people. The concept was initially frowned upon, both by general consumer consensus and by Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone themselves. The founders were uncertain of the potential for the emblem’s impact. They didn’t wholly believe it would catch on. “That stuff is never going to catch on,” they said. “We’re going to build algorithms, we’re going to figure it out, and you won’t have to use hashtags at all. We got it covered.” As it turns out, the hashtag proved itself a worthy tool when friend of Messina Nate Ritter used the hashtag to tweet about the spread of 2007 San Diego forest fires. The trend caught on. Rather than simply existing as a social-circle engine, the hashtag became a source of live news coverage. It proved itself.
From there the hashtag only grew, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. The tool was used to collectively have a conversation about what was important to us, or what was popular in the world. The hashtag was certainly not under-appreciated once it became commonplace. Advertisers began to see the massive potential of the tool. Using the hashtag to follow what was popular among consumers was only the beginning. Soon companies began to pay for their hashtags to become viral, hoping to promote their products or services on a grand scale. It worked. The hashtag became a common visual piece on everyone’s texts. Our tweets were retweeted more. Our followers grew. Other companies, such as Instagram and Facebook began to use the hashtag, utilizing to its full potential the powerful keystroke. Television shows present hashtags during airtime, hoping to grab a larger audience. Some websites, like hashtracking.com, even offer services with which you can track the most influential tags at any given time.
What exists today is a sort of new universal language, so-to-speak. Using a hashtag can instantaneously connect you with people on the other side of the world. People can quite literally become famous using a single hashtag. This article itself could go viral just because of the hashtags used in its publication on twitter. It is quite arguably the most powerful tool in mainstream technology today. Governments certainly have begun to use the tool to their advantage as well, be it for the benefit of society, or for other sinister intentions. It’s important to pay attention now, with the strength behind this emblem, to the way we use it. As technology advances further, and the world becomes even smaller, everything we say, and everything we tag, belongs to the entire civilized world.
source: forbes.com
The CW’s Reign Recap: Alias Was a Show About a Spy!
We start with a Robin Hood style archery competition. Nostradamus is upset about an archery butte. Thomas is a really good shot and he and Francis engage in a penis waging competition. [Read more…] about The CW’s Reign Recap: Alias Was a Show About a Spy!
AMAs Live Blog Tonight at 8 Eastern!
The American Music Awards: Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC
Good afternoon everyone! I’m Mike Tyminski and it’s awards show night again, which means that I’m here with you to liveblog tonight’s American Music Awards ceremony on ABC! The show is set to have a bevy of performances tonight including Katy Perry handling the opener while Miley Cyrus is set to close out the show. The whole show is hosted by Pitbull, who will also be performing his newest hit “Timber” with Kesha.
On that note, I’ll be back at 8 eastern to begin live coverage.
7:55 PM: I’m back, and in five minutes Katy Perry will hit the stage to start off music’s equivalent to the Golden Globes. Unlike the Golden Globes however, the AMA’s are literally a popularity contest, as the awards are determined by a poll of the music buying populace.
In addition to Perry and Cyrus, among the numerous performers hitting the stage tonight are Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Imagine Dragons, and Lady Gaga.
I’ll be running commercial break to commercial break, so update in between every segment for more news!
8:00 PM: We open with Katy Perry, as promised, singing her latest hit “Unconditionally” to a full blown Japanese motif. It felt truly hit and miss to me, as it seemed like there were some sound issues initially and a strobe light segment involving Perry and her umbrella came off on TV very unspectactularly. However, the full performance built itself pretty well, with strong visuals elsewhere, including a cool effect of raining cherry blossoms.
After the usual introduction, our host Pitbull entered, in true Pitbullian fashion, said a bunch of jibberish and repeating the same word over and over again. He welcomes to the show, sounding thankful to the American Dream, before bringing out four female dancers to shake their booty.
Following the short monologue, Taylor Swift emerges to give the award for best Pop/Rock male artist:
The Nominees are: Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, and Justin Timberlake
The Winner Is: Justin Timberlake
(In a change from prior liveblogs, I’m skipping talking about speeches unless something notable happens since the producers have had a very quick trigger as of late).
8:26 PM: Our second segment leads off with yet another performance, this time by teen idols One Direction. This time around we get a fairly low key performance in which 1D is playing “Story of my Life” in front of a mob of wooden statues that are arranged to look like a million arms of a million fans. While this performance didn’t seem to elevate to the same level as the Perry performance at the start of the show, it still seemed considerably better than most of the performances we got out of this years Grammys.
The voice over announcer then kicks it over to Ariana Grande, who busts out a few bars of “The Way” before starting a new single, a pop ballad named “Tattooed Heart”. This seemed like a potentially star making performance for Grande, who belted out the song with a booming voice that those only familiar with “The Way” will not recognize. The music was the clear star of the performance as it was blocked out simply, with Grande performing in a sparkling red dress with the only visible backing being a small doo-wop ensemble deep in the background.
8:38 PM: Marc Anthony and Zoey Saldana are out to present the award for best Soul and R&B female. Anthony seemed almost comically wooden trying to read off the teleprompter, overforcing every remark.
The Nominees are: Ciara, Alicia Keys, Rihanna
And the winner is: Rihanna
From there the VO guy brings us to Imagine Dragons, who start with “Demons” on a cool dark set with a ton of smoke. Vocally this sounds way different from the album, being brought down in tone quite a bit from the album. We then a ton a large percussion break once the song slips into Radioactive, with every band member participating in the drum breakdown. Imagine Dragons acquitted themselves well on the spectacle and instruments, but vocally this performance was kind of a mess.
From there we get Kristin Bell and Chris Daughtry, out to present Best Country Album.
The Nominees Are: Luke Bryan, Crash My Party, Florida Georgia Line, Here’s To The Good Times, Taylor Swift, Red.
(Is it me or is one of these things not like the others?)
And the winner is: Taylor Swift, Red.
8:50 PM: In what screams odd couple pairing, Michael Bolton and A-Kon are here to present the award for favorite Rap/Hip-Hop album
The Nominees Are: Jay-Z Magna Carta Holy Grail, Kendrick Lamar Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis The Heist.
And the winner is: The Heist
From here they kicked it to Macklemore in Miami, who brings up MLK and the Trayvon Martin case, before asking people to fight against racism.
Naya Rivera and Maya Mitchell now come out to introduce Ke$ha and Pitbull, who are performing my fall earworm, Timber. In front of a clearly disco infused scene we get a surprisingly non-trashy Ke$ha, before Pitbull emerges from our disco ball. The sound issues continue from the opening performance (I feel like Ke$ha got cut off from one of her choruses), but are exacerbated by the backing track awkwardly flipping between having backing vocals and letting the performers cut loose. The camera angles themselves are pretty standard issue except for a cool shot through one of the lower dance pods out there. Overall not too shabby and still better than your average awards show in terms of performances.
9:07 PM: Dave Grohl and Joan Jett are out to present the award to the favorite alternative rock artist.
The Nominees Are: Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers, and Mumford and Sons
And the winner is: Imagine Dragons!
We then kick back to Pitbull who rushes and stumbles over the teleprompted lines before presenting the award for favorite Latin Music Artist.
The Nominees are: Marc Anthony, Prince Royce, Romeo Santos
And the winner is: Marc Anthony!
After Anthony’s quick speech, Heidi Klum emerges to introduce Justin Timberlake
Timberlake is here to perform a cool new arena rock sounding track titled “Drink You Away”, with a full backing group with horns, multiple guitars, and a backing choir intimately crowded together in the front of the stage. As is usual on these sorts of shows, Timberlake is a complete revelation, as the performance meshes together the catchy sing along song (with the catchy sing along stage presence) with a strong visual sense. Performance of the night so far, and tough to top.
9:21 PM: Kelly Osboune and Nicole Richie are out to present the award for best Pop/Rock album taking a second to bring up the history of the award.
And the nominees are: One Direction, Take me Home, Taylor Swift Red, Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience.
The winners are: One Direction, Take Me Home
The Ceremonies are out to introduce Florida Georgia Line and Nelly to perform their song “Cruise”.
Florida Georgia Line get the relative no-frills treatment, merely getting a video wall as opposed to the smoke, falling cherry blossoms and everything else we’ve seen so far tonight. “Cruise” eventually merges into Nelly’s “Ride”. Continuing a string of strong performances both Nelly and Florida-Georgia Line looked like they were having a blast in each other’s sandbox, with Nelly rocking some serious twang and the country duo enjoying playing backup on “Ride”.
Daisy Fuentes and new Bachelor Juan Pablo Galavis here to announce the winner for best new artist of the year
The nominees are: Phillip Phillips, Imagine Dragons, Ariana Grande, Florida Georgia Line and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
The Winner is: Ariana Grande
Grande gives the first notable speech having to rush through her speech, ultimately pulling a list out of her dress before thanking herparentsdanschneidernickelodeonthelabelandsixotherthingsinineseconds.
9:38 pm: Bill Maher is here to present Rihanna with the Icon Award. Maher brings up her particular relevance in the digital age, before a video package bringing up career highlights appears on the screen. The video package leads way to Rihanna’s performance which involves her walking onstage from a distance opening into “Diamond”. While Rihanna did an amazing job singing the song, the production elements felt off, as the entire performance started in complete darkness, but never progressed into the light show, instead giving off a more Adele-style vibe. This felt like a shame, as the Icon Award makes it seem like it’s her night but the production never kicked into high gear, instead forcing an understated vibe on the whole matter.
Rihanna walks over to Maher, before flipping it to Jay-Z, who gives a prerecorded statement. In a heartfelt moment, Rihanna’s mother, Donna Fenti emerges to present the Icon Award to Rihanna. Rihanna accepts graciously, giving an equally heartfelt speech, joking about her childhood voice and her eagerness to move from Barbados to the US and start her career. Rihanna was great here, it’s just a shame that the whole production felt off, from Bill Maher hosting the segment (because when I want heartwarming and reverential I want the guy who hosted Politically Incorrect and hasn’t moved from that tack in 20 years), to the understated production.
9:51 PM: Ciara and Paulina Gretzky are here to present the award for best Soul and R+B artist.
The nominees are: Miguel, Robin Thicke, and Justin Timberlake
And the winner is: (Sarcastic spoiler space)
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE!!!!!
Timberlake goes into standup mode, discussing how cute Rihanna’s mom is and the same confusion about how one can win awards for best Pop/Rock and best Soul/R+B artist in the same year with the same album.
Pitbull’s here, and he cuts it to live via satellite in Miami for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performing “Can’t Hold Us”. Since it’s clearly looped in from their tour, i’m not gonna worry about the production value since that’s clearly out of the producer’s hands (unless the feed breaks). It is nice to see they got feature artist Ray Dalton out to sing the chorus live, since his rendition there is easily the catchiest thing about that song. It’s also very cool that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis use a full backing band, I think that’s something that more hip-hop artist should have more often. The final highlight of this rendition is Macklemore opting to crowd surf during the breakdown which like most of this performance, seemed super cool.
Voice-over guy is back to bring out Fall Out Boy, who are out to nominate the favorite Country Female Artist.
The nominees are: Taylor Swift, Amanda Lambert, Taylor Swift
The winner is: Taylor Swift! (It’s actually starting to bug me that they’re just nominating random top 40 people for genre awards — country, like rock these days is a niche and it’s kind of a backhanded slap in the face to the people who have to go through mid sized venues night after night to be the best in their genre only to end up getting passed over by something that’s in heavy rotation on Z-100, but that’s me).
10:06 PM: After showing a quick video on the “Queen of Cuba” Celia Cruz, we head over to Jennifer Lopez, who is here to perform a tribute to the Latin legend. The whole performance has a ballroom feel to it, but had the sort of big performance progression you tend to expect from awards shows, with multiple costume changes from a more classical dress to a colorful flowing carnival affair ending in a fairly skimpy sparkly piece that left little to the imagination. This is closer to what I expected from Rihanna’s centerpiece performance than the drab affair we ended up receiving.
Alicia Silverstone and Nathan Fillion are here to present the award for Single of the Year.
and the nominees are: Florida Georgia Line ft. Nelly “Cruise”, Robin Thicke ft. Pharell and T.I. “Blurred Lines”, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz “Thrift Shop”.
And the winner is: “Cruise”
Sarah Silverman appears to present the award for best Soul and R+B album of the year, and takes a comical swipe at the notion of Timberlake and Thicke getting a ton of Soul and R+B nomintions.
The nominees are: Rihanna Like a Diamond, Robin Thicke Blurred Lines, and Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience.
And the winner is: Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience.
Justin’s second award speech begins with him dropping what will likely be the line of the night: “Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee this is the first time I can say I’ve been racially profiled by a white woman”.
10:23 PM: We return to Jennifer Hudson introducing A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera performing “Say Something”. We get a similar layout and production to the Rihanna performance, however this time around the darkness laden, orchestra-heavy layout makes more sense, with “Say Something” being the sort of moderately depressing ballad that tends to thrive with the haunting performances those intimate visuals ultimately provide.
We then get a quick intro from voice-over guy who introduces Kendrick Lamar in short order. He’s performing “Swimming Pools” surrounded by laser lights and some colorful backing video. It was the sort of loose performance that made for a great come down from the ultra-depressing “Say Something”
Austin Mahone and Kendall Jenner are here to present the award for favorite Electronic/Dance music artist
And the Nominees are: Avicii, Daft Punk, Calvin Harris, and Zedd
And the winner is: Avicii!
The winner is: Avicii
10:34 PM: Jeremy Renner is here to introduce Lady Gaga who is performing her new single “Do What You Want” with R. Kelly. This performance doesn’t hesitate with the schmaltz, opening with a phone call to President R. Kelly that sounds straight out of “Trapped in the Closet”, before Gaga walks over to the office to burst into the song. As opposed to Lady Gaga’s opener at the VMA’s, this performance had the levity that Gaga had circa before Born this Way when she was running around in Meat Dresses for no good reason….and as I say that, the fun part screeches away when Gaga randomly veers into the dramatic in the last 15 seconds while negative headlines of her are displayed on the video screens.
Andrew McCutchen and Jaimie Alexander are out to announce the nominees for Country artist of the year. It’s moderately amazing to watch presenters stumble over heartfelt congratulations the way Jaimie did over congratulating McCutchen on his NL MVP award.
The nominees are: Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, and Hunter Hayes
And the winner is: Luke Bryan
10:48 PM: The cast of Shark Tank is out to announce the winner of favorite rock/pop group.
The nominees are: Imagine Dragons, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and One Direction
The winner is: One Direction
Lady Antebellum, winners of favorite country group are out to nominate Luke Bryan. Bryan is performing “That’s My Kind of Night”. He gets the similar laser treatment we saw from Lamar, but flips between red and white, which is an awesome effect until the camera closes in on the drummer and you realize the camera can’t see through the light. As has become an awards show tradition, we get the obligatory Taylor Swift rocking out shot. I’m not a country music fan in the least, but Bryan seemed to be on his performance a-game and the energy was certainly appreciated to what’s been an up and down third hour.
Voice over guy then sends it to TLC, whom is performing “Waterfalls” with Li’l Mama in place of the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. It’s interesting because they have a look that seemed closer to the late 90’s “No Scrubs” era but stuck to their first hit. Li’l Mama nails the rapping middle section for what is a nice throwback performance that hit all the right nostalgia notes. Visually it stuck mostly to some water oriented visuals, but it filled a nice void as the penultimate performance.
11:00 PM: 2 Chainz and Jaden Smith are here to introduce Miley Cyrus’ performance of Wrecking Ball. The opening is suitably weird with Cyrus rocking a two piece bathing suit looking dealie in front of a video screen with lip-synching cat floating through space progressing into explosions through the chorus.
Pitbull is back to announce the award for artist of the year
The nominees are: Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
And the winner is: Taylor Swift (for the third time!)
Following a brief awards speech, a wide angle of Pitbull is shown where he says the awards show equivalent of “Show’s over, go home!”
I’ll be back in a few minutes with some final thoughts.
Final Thoughts: The American Music Awards are to the Grammys what the Golden Globes are to the Oscars, but instead of getting the boozy dinner party where someone will eventually say something stupid, we got a fairly unmemorable show full of good, but not great performances. Luckily, they roped in Justin Timberlake by tossing him two awards and he provided the sort of jolt that only a star who knows he’s too big for this show can provide. Pitbull was kind of a mess as a host, as his style seemed to be the antithesis of everything you want in a host, something notable in the way that a faceless voice-over got the honor and privilege of playing the show’s traffic cop. Toss in some nonsensical category distinctions and the fact that the people think that Taylor Swift had three years of being the best and biggest pop star on earth and you can see why this show tends to fall behind the Grammys (for prestige) and the VMA’s (for big moments and train wreck potential) in the public consciousness.
I believe the next time I’ll be liveblogging an awards ceremony like this will be next year as award season kicks into gear with the Golden Globes. In the meantime I’ll have some reviews through the next couple of weeks followed by some opinion pieces as the entertainment machine slows down into it’s holiday dormancy.
Have a great week, a happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to the next time we get to do this!
Why Gay Men Love To Hate Muscle Bears (And Hate To Love)
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along (Muscle Included)?
Many of the articles that I write really come from a variety of experiences. Most of the times they are a combination of my own experiences mixed with others to culminate in what I take out of it all and put it in the best way possible so that it sparks a healthy debate between everyone else. Funny thing is with this one, it never really crossed my mind until a recent Facebook post. A good (and very smart) friend of mine put this post up regarding how the bear community views the muscle portion of it and ultimately how it really ultimately reflects on how you yourself are as a person-
“What’s so tragic is watching guys who should have loads of self-respect lost in this self-defeating exercise of defining these “muscle bears” as physically superior and themselves as losers in the same scene, and then blaming these guys they really don’t even know for their mental and spiritual discomfort. There’s a betrayal of something that has always been an awesome option for self-defining as bear, which is to know you’re as hot as you feel you are and not to give a fuck what anyone else might think. It’s the people standing in groups, bitterly dishing the guys they are attracted to who they assume aren’t into them who ruin the atmosphere at bear events, not the guys they point and sneer at.”
This wound up sparking a very long threaded debate on how men, not only in the bear community but in the gay community as a whole, view muscle guys. It really boils down to this- haters are really just haters. Let’s break this situation down, because I have done this somewhat and I know I am not the only one who has been in this corner of somewhat “hate-dom”. This is a random scenario here-
I am at a popular gay bar with a couple of my friends. All of a sudden, a group of muscle bears (or guys, whatever) walk in in an upbeat and happy mode, order drinks and stand around with the impression that they are having a great time. This will then trigger something in my head to think that even if they are having a great time and are laughing and dancing and whatnot, they are still a bunch of royal douchebags. Why? Because in a lot of guys minds, they are insanely insecure when they are around men like that. This is for so many different reasons.
1. They compare body types and feel as if they need to look like them in order to get that attention.
2. Snarl all they want, these guys want the muscle dudes to be attracted to them and if they go in with a defeated or cunty attitude about it, it just worsens the whole process.
3. This will then lead to them having minor chit chat with their other friends about said douchebags, who most of the time are just trying to enjoy themselves and not get into a weird process of guys glaring at them for no reason.
4. Bottom line, its freaking insecurity.
This can also cause a chain reaction of sorts in which I have written about so many freaking times before- separation. Division. Something that the gay community seems to fight against and want so badly to have some sort of unification yet these types of issues are working against that thought. Why do we do this to ourselves? Many times I have been at these bars and have found a swarm of guys who come from all backgrounds of life, be it size, race, finance and so forth all standing around and talking to each other and having a good time. Then again, I have also seen situations where its the Asians in one corner, the black guys playing pool, the white bears all huddled up like they are playing a game of football and the muscle guys who stick with each other for whatever reason need be. In these types of situations, everyone stands shoulder to shoulder but no one engages and keeps to themselves.
But there has to be a reason for this happening, and in my opinion it really can stem from growing up and choosing who you want to hang with on the playground, only this time around there is a lot more body hair and drinks that don’t come in a sippy cup. We might think the other group is weird or we aren’t attracted to them or the new expression of “Aint nobody got time for that”. Time for what? Unless someone provokes you or gives you a reason to not like them, why the hatred? What the hating? Why glare at someone who seems to be having a great night just because you are the one that’s angry? Then again, why be angry? Because in this situation you bring the misery on yourself as a form of self-deprication. I am guilty of it, and many others are. It stops us from really opening our eyes and enjoying what is really great about this community, especially ones who want to go to the big “bear” events and enjoy themselves wholeheartedly and not get mad if a particular group seems to be having a great time and not focusing on you. Really at the end of the day you gotta love yourself before you love anyone else. Am I quoting RuPaul here? Sure. But that line makes fucking perfect sense.
So let’s have this be a lesson to everyone- go out, enjoy YOURSELF, enjoy YOUR TIME, and not focus on the muscle guy in the corner and what they are doing. Better yet? Go up and introduce yourself. You never know what can happen and the positive effect it can have on your life. Cheers, y’all.
Lauren Conrad & Whitney Port Engaged!
TGIF and love is in the air! There are so many newly engaged people of Hollywood.
Whitney Port AND Lauren Conrad have recently said YES! to their prince charmings & who couldn’t be happy for them? Especially after witnessing all their heartbreak on The Hills. Two beautiful women with gorgeous rings.
Of course EVERYONE knows Kim Kardashian has recently said YES! to a 15 carat stunner, from beau Kanye West. Wishing all the happiness to baby North’s parents.
Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky are expecting their second child! Babies are so amazing, congratulations to the beautiful pair.. And baby makes 4!
While discussing babies, Josh Dallas & Ginnifer Goodwin are not only newly engaged but also expecting their own little baby together!
Kelly Clarkson is a new wife AND now she’s going to be a new mom! The beautiful singer is expecting her first child with her new husband, Brandon Blackstock. She deserves all the happiness in the world, she finally found her happily ever after!
Album Review: CFCF – Outside
CFCF: Outside
Similar Artists: D’eon, Emeralds, The Orb
Genre: 80’s soft rock, new age, electro pop
Label: Paper Bag Records
If you’re asking me, I’d much rather see a great producer sticking to his guns and continuing to hone his individual craft rather than prove his versatility by releasing music that is somewhat risk taking, yet neither as original nor as satisfying as his earlier work. Not that CFCF’s releases haven’t all been varied in their own right; Continent saw him treating his lush instrumental soundscapes with an early IDM vibe, The River saw him taking on the slow paced cinematic cues from films, and best of all, last year’s Exercises saw him taking influence from Philip Glass and Ryuichi Sakamoto with the inclusion of minimalist piano figures and drifting ambience. Outside — his 2nd full length release — however, is a hard left turn, and one that see’s Mike Silver embracing pop stylings that are at least a few hairs short of modern.
It starts off pleasantly enough with “Beyond Light”, one of only a few instrumental tracks. Through a simple synth pattern that in turn becomes backed by multiple layers of drums, bass and woodwinds, CFCF reaches a state of perpetual chill-out bliss. The next track however, the stringent “Jump Off The Train”, introduces the album’s true obsession: good, old fashioned notes. If the first track had an early Oneohtrix Point Never vibe, this one feels more like the direction Emeralds were going in on Does It Look Like I’m Here. “Find” too, feels like it was taken directly out of the Mark McGuire handbook. Although these sounds are nothing new, I have no real complaints with the melodies or songwriting on this album.
What does eventually bring down these productions though, is how Mike Silver has ornamented them with his own unaffecting, and often flat voice. His voice is somewhat similar to Dan Snaith’s (of Caribou fame) — another great producer who has moved closer to pop’s infrastructure on recent releases — but the difference is that Dan Snaith uses his voice to extend the individuality of his compositions, while Silver is singing for the mere purpose of having vocals in his work at all. With this said, the vocals are tuned down in the mix, and rarely get in the way of the other, more enjoyable aspects of he music. The track where he really gets this mixture right — where his plan of hushed vocals and overlapping electronic rhythms finally comes into full view — is “The Forest at Night”. The thing is, it’s so similar to many of its surrounding tracks that it doesn’t stick out as much as it should have.
The true inspiration for Outside — which you would have been able to guess without any external research — is Peter Gabriel, whose exotic brand of stadium pop comes through in a big way on tracks like “Feeling, Holding” and “The Crossing”. It’s pretty much undeniably cheesy, and clearly didn’t come off in the cool retro vibe CFCF probably imagined. While Silver does, to an extent, play appropriate homage to Gabriel, he does little to extend his trademarked sound in any way; a few songs actually feel as though they could break into “In Your Eyes” at any moment. In fact, maybe he would have been better off just making this a covers record, as “Strange Form of Life”, originally a Bonnie “Prince” Billy song, is surprisingly one of the biggest highlights of the album.
I keep feeling like I’m being too harsh on this record, as Mike Silver is still showcasing his expert production techniques, just in ways that I find to be unflattering. But whether the sounds of Outside appeal to your personal tastes or not, there’s little denying that it’s not the timeless document its creator was working towards. He tried to go big and came out a tad bit sour, but that’s ok, because it means CFCF is one step closer to making his masterpiece.
Track Listing:
1.) Beyond Light*
2.) Jump Out of the Train*
3.) Strange Form Of Life*
4.) Find
5.) This Breath
6.) Feeling, Holding
7.) The Forest at Night*
8.) Transcend
9.) The Crossing
10.) Walking in the Dust
Album highlight – *
Theater Review: Every Day A Visitor
For most people, the thought of spending their golden years in a nursing facility brings an overwhelming sense of dread. After all, in such a stifling environment, there isn’t much to do but sit around, play cards, listen to one another complain about the food and personal ailments (provided the hearing aids are intact) , and wait for a knock on the door from the man with the hooded black cloak. For the residents of a Jewish Nursing Home in the Bronx, there is a livelier alternative. In Richard Abrons’ off Broadway play, Every Day a Visitor, this alternative is a world of imagination. Instead of living a painfully drab existence, these spirited seniors decide to take on personas of well known political figures to “role play” themselves into a happier state of mind. While it doesn’t eliminate their realities, it certainly alleviates the monotony of their day to day routines. From Mayor LaGuardia to Bella Abzug, Henry Kissinger to Golda Meir, new dialogues are created and eventually, this all too often forgotten sect of society is reinvigorated.
It is refreshing to see a show that both illuminates and empowers the elderly. Usually, they become stereotyped and neglected by a youth obsessed media driven by beauty and botox. Here, we meet older individuals who realize that, while circumstances may not change, self-perception and self-respect can be altered. While it seems like fortune cookie wisdom, it is a gentle reminder for young and old alike
Unlike other quality works of entertainment that have paved paths for the aging (Recall TVs classic Golden Girls and Ron Howard’s 1985 film Cocoon) Every Day a Visitor has a scarcity of laugh out loud moments. Yet it succeeds in holding a continuous smile. The didactic script can sometimes feel more like a lecture and less like a night at the theater. Perhaps to the great delight of these veteran actors, some of the cast appear to be too spritely to be among the downtrodden and feeble. But under Margaret Perry’s sound direction, Every Day A Vistor takes a maudlin notion and turns it into a breezy, yet poignant piece of accessible theater.
Every Day A Visitor plays off-Broadway at Clurman Theater on Theater Row (410 W. 42nd between 9th and 10th) Now playing through Dec. 14th. Tickets available at the box office, online, . https://www.telecharge.com/Off-Broadway/Every-Day-a-Visitor/Overview?AID=AFF000022800&cm_mmc=Maxamoo-_-affiliate-_-web-_-AFF000022800 or by phone: 212-239-6200
Three Women Freed in London After 30 Years Alleged Captivity
Three women have been rescued from a south London home after one of the women called a local London charity to report that she had been held against her will for three decades. Two other women were also rescued from the house.
The charity, Freedom Charity, notified police of the phone call which occurred in October. According to Metropolitan Police, the phone call to the charity was made after one of the women held captive watched a documentary regarding forced marriages.
Metropolitan police have commented that a 67-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman have been taken into custody upon a slavery and domestic servitude investigation.
“All three women, who were highly traumatized, were taken to a place of safety where they remain,” police said in a statement. They confirmed that an investigation of the “very serious” allegations was underway.
The three women rescued are reportedly a 69-year-old Malaysian woman, a 57-year-old Irish woman, and a 30-year-old British woman.
It has not been reported as to which of the three woman made the phone call for help or how long the other two had been held.
Theater Review: The Preacher and The Shrink
The Preacher and the Shrink by playwright Merle Good may well be one the most incredulous plays I have ever seen. The plot centers on Dr. Michael Hamilton (Tom Galantich), a grief stricken minister from rural Pennsylvania whose wife recently passed away from breast cancer. His mentally unstable daughter Constance (Adria Vitlar) has returned home from New York City to rekindle the estranged relationship with her father. Both are dealing with their loss in different ways: Constance copes by being angry and disbelieving in God; Dr. Hamilton mourns in a stoic, quiet way while his once solid, now floundering Christian faith is tested. So far, it has a basis for decent Theological debate. Here is where it takes a turn into the ridiculous zone: Constance has been seeking aid from Dr. Alexandra Bloomfield (Dee Hoty), a caring, but somewhat hard-nosed psychiatrist who just happens to be visited upon by Constance’s Daddy. Bloomfield starts counseling Hamilton and they soon “remember” that they were once childhood sweethearts. Will they rekindle this long past romance? Are you still awake? If so, you’ll soon be zooming down another path of unintentional silliness. Constance makes a sexual harassment claim against one of her father’s church pastors, Rev. David Wheeler (Mat Hostetler). She is willing to drop the charges against him if– well, I won’t ruin it. This play has done enough damage to itself.
This hackneyed script is chock full of pithy lines including, “Grief can tear a family apart”, “I used to think a scar was a sign of hope, but now I think a scar is just a scar” and the ever- so- insightful, “Life can take many turns.” For audience members, a U-turn from the theater might be the best direction.
Luckily, there are a few redemptive qualities in this ill-conceived mess. Vitlar is a promising young actor who gives layered dimensions to her mentally conflicted Constance. Three time Tony award nominee Hoty makes the best of bad writing by delivering Bloomfield’s lines with the best professionalism she can muster. Brian Prather provides a practical, but pleasing set that works
nicely as Bloomfield’s psychiatric office.
Good’s purpose for authoring The Preacher and the Shrink is no doubt well intended. The themes of spiritual conflict and questioning Deity can make for gripping, thoughtful drama. But here, his foundation is flimsy from the start and continues to falter throughout. While it won’t shake any religious beliefs you may have, you may leave questioning your own faith in choosing a better play.
The Preacher and the Shrink is playing now at the Beckett Theater on Theater Row (410 W. 42nd street between 9th and 10th) Tickets available at the box office, online at: https://www.telecharge.com/eventoverview.aspx?cityName=NY%20City%20Area&productId=9918 or by phone: 212-239-6200.