#a big production running from its original essence

[weldnas]

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[jinmalos]

Actually, XBC3 Future Redeemed Spoilers Under here to do with something noted in one of the last cutscenes/people's misinterpretations

I think the big beef about why the Pneuma/Logos cores still being around/semi-sentient enough to "help out" is a lot because it wasn't explained, but I think a lot of people are missing a few points.

Obvs bc of my brand I gotta come in and defend Logos against the Moebius allegations before I get into everything else, but a big argument about how he and Pneuma being even remotely present "just perpetuates the xenoblade 2 feud" actually misses something mentioned. Whether Logos inhabits N's Sword or his Sword's sheath specifically, I think we are forgetting:

Z actually has no clue where it came from.

If it were to be moebius specific, he would know about it and how it came to be and so on and so forth. But he doesn't. He actively comments on how it's weird that N has it and wonders How He Got Ahold Of It. But he also Acknowledges Who/What It Is with his comment on Origin being home to "those who are as gods" in reference to the sword. Again, if it were a Moebius product, Z would know about it and how it got into people's hands. Even in the main game when Noah manifests it, X is irritated with both him AND N because the sword's existence is an inconvenience to every Moebius worth their salt.

Obviously that doesn't explain jack shit about HOW it happened. But Somehow N is running amok with the "Sword of the End" aka the Endbringer himself doctor sex (Malos/Logos), and Z is not exactly pleased but mot exactly troubled by it because it isn't actively bothering him yet. How did it come to be? Is it tied to the sword or the sheath considering N was toting around a Lucky Seven of his own prior to the Agnus Castle incident? who knows. My personal theory is that the same thing happened to Logos that happened to what i THINK happened with Pneuma.

The situation with Pneuma is...a bit more complicated, because of the ending of xenoblade 2, moreso than with Logos. We would presume both Pneuma and Malos were destroyed, but that wouldn't explain Mythra and Pyra's existence beyond that point. This goes more into what little we know about blade anatomy and how the Trinity Processor Cores of Logos and Pneuma interface with them. Seeing as they intake data, record it, and output it, it's very likely that Pneuma did a bit of a black box when handing Pyra and Mythra off to Rex. She took them, their essence, and just kinda yote it into their own vessels. Like a backup. They probably no longer had the ability of an Aegis, and I doubt they were more flesh- or blade-eater than they were mortal. That in and of itself doesn't get explained much, but I'm inclined to think the Pyra and Mythra that stay behind lived normal human lifespans.

I dont know what happened to Pyra and Mythra, but I do think that Pneuma was at least partially damaged. The aegis cores aka the Trinity Processor don't exactly respond to things the same way the average blade does. It's possible that while damaged, at least Pneuma was more intact than Logos was after XBC2.

I assume what happened is they were procured by someone (likely Nia) and kept safe as weaponry, because there's no way either of them would be fully functional as Trinity Processor cores (think: youve got 3 flash drives but only 1 of them is being recognized ik this analogy sucks its the best i got rn). Thats part of why Ontos goes apeshit and reverts to Alpha, after all.

Ontos has to do all of the problemsolving and decisionmaking that Pneuma and Logos did originally. The Alpha we meet is probably the aspect of Ontos specifically responsible for the creation of the separate worlds in the first place.

BUT, Back on the topic of the two other Processors and WTF is up with them. I dont think either of them were fully destroyed, it's likely they just returned to dormant states with no extant "avatars." So they couldn't just pop out of their cores and wander about and probably still even now can't yet, but they are probably still sentient and conscious, intaking info about the world. It's also shown they CAN heal each other, it's possible that if given enough time in Origin (considering it's an extension of Ontos) they'd just finish healing themselves and beat Ontos' ass as is their preordained purpose. But Again, given that Malos/Logos talked to Pneuma at the end of XBC2, I can only assume they're primarily non-functional and just kinda. sitting around for a bit inside their funny computer homes.

We know Lucky Seven is a Melia/Riki construct specifically and thats it's own can of worms, but I like to think Logos allied himself with N/Noah because he knew exactly what their end goal was but thats bc im a Malos Good Ending Truther. I originally personally thought that perhaps Noah's sheath/glove was Pneuma's doing, and the Sword of Origin was primarily Logos (and was just being held back by Noah's refusal to hurt people), but I'm hearing a lot about Pneuma being responsible for maintaining the Ouroboros stones, so if that's the case she's the one in charge of maintaining that power and the gauntlet is just Rule of Cool, and Origin metal is just something they can interface with because it's an extension of Ontos (currently by A/Alvis depending on the chosen gender presentation of the day, with Shulk and Rex taking the place of the other two Processors for a while to help out).

Although...Even though Lucky Seven and Ouroboros and such are metaphysical concepts given form, I'm inclined to just say outright that the sword itself is Logos simply bc it does monado arts oooo spooky.

But yeah. TLDR: Logos isnt allied with the Moebius he is strictly tied to N/Noah (although whether he's lucky seven or SPECIFICALLY the Origin Blade/When it Does Monado Shit) Pneuma is tied to either Noah's gauntlets or the ouroboros stones as a whole (although I believe the former rather than the latter bc its cooler imo), and they're used not only to beat Alpha back into place as Was Their Job in the DLC, but their job is to help finish up what Rex Shulk and co. started in making sure the worlds reunite. Also Noah is in for a rude awakening when he meets the inlaws and Mythra and Malos obliterate him for launching them into the ocean ok bye

[rock-and-compass]

Precursor - I wrote about the fifth season of Angel many years ago - probably around the time that the season 8 comics were first being published. I originally published these meta essays over on LiveJournal and I've decided to re-post them (as written), mostly for archival reasons. I love season 5 of Angel. It's such a shame it got axed before it could get the envisioned 6th and 7th series

Episode 5.3 – Unleashed

Unleashed is the third episode of the season but the first to employ the devious tactic of being about something on the surface but really being about something else on a sub-textual level. By watching the façade you get a neat, self-contained story that has a beginning, middle and end, and gets resolved in forty-plus minutes of television production. But pull back the curtains and you’ll begin to see what’s really going on and in essence, that’s what makes season five so brilliant.

Unleashed, at its heart, is all about family. The episode opens with Team Angel having an evening picnic, sharing Chinese food and catching up with each other. Yet things are not all cheery for the group. They are meeting outside because they don’t know if they can trust the people they work with or the organisation they work for. They are suspicious of each other; Wesley’s lateness, Gunn’s brain boost, Fred’s relationship with a dude called Knox. It has been a month since they took over and Angel is still preoccupied with why they were offered the Wolfram and Hart deal in the first place. What do the Senior Partners want with them? Ironically, Fred gives him the answer in the very next sentence:

Fred: Turns out running a company doesn't leave a lot of time for, you know, covert ops

 Angel is too close, looking for a big plan, a scheme aimed at him personally to realise that Wolfram and Hart are controlling him very effectively thank you very much. 

Wesley asks Gunn if he knows anything more about the Senior Partners plans courtesy of the brain upgrade. Gunn gets defensive, why are they singling him out for suspicion?  They all made a deal, and they all got something out of it. Angel more than any of them, but of course, they don’t know that. Angel again expresses his need to discover what the Senior Partners have in store for them and again Fred gives the reason, shows him the exact plan:

Fred: Angel, it's not like we don't want to be ready. We just have, you know, plates...big, heaping, full plates

He can’t see the wood for the trees. He’s too intent on the big picture when it’s the family photograph he should be concentrating on.  Wesley concurs with Fred:

Wesley: Between running our departments, handling clients, dealing with Spike— 

And just the mention of Spike irritates Angel. He dismisses Spike as nothing more than a distraction. Funny, that he can see Spike as a distraction but fails to make the connection that the Senior Partners’ big plan is simply to distract him from the fight against evil and his mission and to nullify his influence. Fred begins to explain that Spike is more than a distraction, that he’s unique but Angel is just not interested. It’s the last thing he wants to hear and in fact, he takes the opportunity to run away, do what he does best, rescue a helpless girl, remind everyone who the hero is here! 

Except, Angel doesn’t rescue the girl, she gets away. But he does kill the werewolf that bit her. So Team Angel put all their considerable energies into finding her. Her case becomes personal, she gets the personal touch. Angel explains his concern:

Angel: Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up; thought she had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for.

Gee, over identify much?

Helping the helpless, that’s what he does. . . That’s what he did? What is he doing here again?

Spike appears in Fred’s office. He wants someone, well specifically Fred, to help him, but no one is paying attention. His trips into ‘Hell’ are getting longer. He’s getting worried. Fred wants him to go to Wes or Angel for help but Spike’s insistent - nobody else must know. Why the reluctance to share Spike? One word: Fear. Can’t have the old Sire knowing that he’s scared, can he? Worse, what if he told Angel and he still doesn’t care, still couldn’t give a damn about him, and tells him that Hell is all he deserves anyway. And would he be wrong? 

Spike is, let’s be honest here, annoying in this scene, actually, in this entire episode. But that’s because he’s supposed to be. He’s the unwanted child demanding attention.  He feels neglected and wants the world to see it! He’s petulant and obnoxious; he makes up stories to big-note himself (which Fred, in a very sisterly fashion, sees right through). He is exactly like a child. Children can be annoying; they nag, they don’t get that the more they nag the more annoying they get, and the angrier the adults around them become. They persist; they have no understanding of others beyond the self. They kick and yell and scream until they get attention and they don’t care if it is good attention or bad attention as long as they get some attention. Acknowledgement is all that matters. All his bad behaviour, so far removed from the character he was in season 7 of Buffy, highlights Spike’s position as Angels ‘son’ and his symbolic significance to Angel. But nobody, especially not Angel, is paying attention; Team Angel is preoccupied with dog-girl.

The girl in question, Nina, is in fact experiencing a substantial increase in sense perception. She has a sister who is concerned, and a niece, Amanda who loves her. They are a family yet she imagines slashing their throats. They are in danger from her. 

Back at Wolfram and Hart it is all go, go, go. They are pulling out all stops to find this girl. Spike is kind of right when he observes that they are making a big fuss over one girl. But this is what they do (This is what they did? What are they doing here again?) At least they are working together, solving the problem, together, like a family. But they are ignoring the ‘child’ closer to home. ‘Daddy’ just wants him gone.

At Nina’s, the moon is about to rise. She can feel the change coming, she knows it instinctually. She’s about to get dangerous. She tries to lock herself away, keep her niece safe, but the beast is too strong. Luckily Angel turns up to save the day. That’s what he does.  He takes her to a safe place and explains what she is, tells her not to give up hope. It’s all about control. 

Angel and Spike take quite different views of the Nina situation. Angel believes they can help, that she can control the monster and learn to adapt. Spike thinks it’s inevitable that the nature of the monster will win, at least once in a while then have to deal with the consequences when she’s in non-beastly form. They seem to be taking each other's arguments here - Spike is the master adaptor who is in complete control of his inner demon. Angel is the one, who faces the daily challenge of control, whose monstrous nature escapes periodically and who suffers with crippling guilt. It shows us that they have more admiration for each other than they’d care to admit.  Another interesting contrast is their attitudes to humanity as a whole. Spike cares about who he cares about. Those people are few and far between but these few are the recipients of generous love, selfless consideration and undeniable loyalty. His love for humanity is less well-developed; he has only had the soul back for about a year and in actuality, he mirrors the way most people operate. Angel’s love of humanity is more well-practiced. He helps the helpless, that’s what he does. He’s got to do it, to reconnect to humanity. That’s his mission. But is this love genuine or part and parcel of the job? At this point I don’t think even Angel knows. One thing for certain is that Angel loved Connor more than anything and was prepared to tamper with his friend’s minds in order to give him a normal life. Spike’s later day mentor taught him that you can’t beat evil by doing evil. She had the chip removed from his brain to prove it. It's a bit of a shame Angel never had the same instruction. 

Some take the view that Spike has always been motivated purely by selfishness and self-interest and that’s why he acts the way he does in this episode. But this is marginalising all character development that he went through prior to moving to LA, and the fact that in this scenario Spike is scared and worried about what’s going to happen to him. He has a right to be; He’s being sucked into Hell. He sees this girl, this stranger, getting the full force of Angel Investigations, while he, with all his connections to Angel, gets nothing. Of course it doesn’t help his cause that he keeps his problem a secret. A family can’t help if they don’t know there’s a problem in the first place. Fred knows, but she’s too worried about incurring ‘Daddy’s’ wrath if she pays any attention to the black sheep of the family, especially when he needs her working on something else.  

Angel takes the fact that Nina was bitten very personally, despite the fact that the event was out of his control. Lorne likens him to Atlas, carrying the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. Angel and Atlas have a few things in common…both labour under the weight of spiritual burden, both are punished for fighting the ‘gods’. Atlas lost outright; Zeus singled him out for punishment, by making him carry the heavens on his shoulders. And Angel? Well, we’ve already been shown that his ‘reward’ of the Los Angeles Branch of Wolfram and Hart is not all it’s cracked up to be and is in fact a sentence, a burden to be endured. In an interesting side note, another legend tells that the great hero Perseus asked Atlas for a place to stay, but Atlas refused. In response, Perseus showed Atlas the head of Medusa, which turned him to the stone that is now known as Mount Atlas. Angel, it must be noted has been less than hospitable to Spike and, in coming episodes, he does get metaphorically frozen by the possibility that Spike might be the fabled “vampire with a soul”, and not him.  Funnily enough, the story of Perseus was retold under the name ‘The Terrible Head’ in a collection of stories entitled Blue Fairy Book, published in 1898 (coincidentally, the same year Angel was cursed with his soul).  The Blue Fairy has significance in the story of Pinocchio when she turns the marionette into a real boy. To be a ‘real boy’ is the promise of the Shanshu prophecy regarding the vampire with a soul . . . but which vampire with a soul? There are two now. . .  

Anyway, back to the story…Lorne also blames Spike's sudden appearance on their first day at Wolfram and Hart as the reason that Angel’s lost his jolly. But that’s not the real reason, Spike’s just the distraction! Angel’s not a happy rancher, not because Spike is there but because Cordelia and Connor are not. Spike’s presence merely reminds him of that. But he can’t tell that to Lorne, or the others because then they’ll say ‘Connor who?’ and he’ll have to admit that he took away their memories, that he violated their trust and that this is the way he treats his family, who he supposedly loves. It’s easier to blame Spike.

At Nina’s house her sister is furious and worried. She cares. She wants to help. That’s what family does. It gets angry, but it still cares, still loves. But Nina, like Spike, is scared too. Ashamed of what she is, scared she’ll hurt someone, especially her sister or Amanda. She can’t explain it to them, not yet. She won’t tell. She’s too fearful of their reaction. On their way back to Wolfram and Hart, Nina gets abducted. Someone wants Nina and someone in Wolfram and Hart let it happen.  The team works out that Nina is wanted by a group of gastronomists who want to dine on werewolf flesh. Apparently it’ll be exquisite served with a drizzle of white truffle oil. Trouble is, to maintain the delicacy she has to be consumed while still alive. The team activates: the rescue mission is on. Got to save the girl, help the helpless. During the rescue, the Wolfram and Hart mole, Dr. Royce gets bitten by Nina. He's threatened with abandonment to the hungry hoards, but in the last act it's revealed that they have indeed found a measure of mercy. Perhaps there's hope for Spike yet?

Spike is back in Fred’s office. He’s very transparent. He’s quiet and subdued – well, a day of tantrums will tire you out eventually. Fred promises to help him and instantly he becomes less translucent and says like an endearingly cheeky brat, ‘no need to get dramatic’, repeating the words she’d used to him so dismissively earlier in the episode. Is this return to opaqueness subtle manipulation or the result of her belief and attention? Perhaps, it’s a bit of both. He’s happier now, he’s calmer. He’s got some attention and he’s satisfied. 

Angel takes Nina home and Angel gives us a touching indication that he misses being a father, misses Connor when he offers his refrigerator door as space to display Amanda’s artwork. They discuss the importance of her accepting what she is, dealing with it, not letting it rule her life and most importantly, not letting it separate her from her family. Family are the anchor that keeps you attached to humanity:

Angel: Look, if you separate yourself from the ones you love, the monster wins. 

So does that mean his inner monster has won? He’s been separated from Connor and Cordelia. Doesn’t that mean the monster has won? But that was different, that was part of a deal to save them. That’s completely different. . . Isn’t it?

The episode closes with another family dinner with Chinese food. This time it is not outside, but inside, in Angel’s penthouse apartment, his sanctuary, no less. He gathers his ‘demon-hunting, helpless-helping, dysfunctional family’ in close. The monsters are not going to get this one. They look out of the window, trying to see the Hyperion Hotel, their old ‘home’, the place where they knew who they were, trying to find something familiar in this foreign world, looking for reassurance. But they find reassurance looking at each other, trusting in each other. It’s nicely wrapped up. The family is reunited, gone is suspicion and mistrust from earlier. They know that when they work together they’ll win the day. It’s all about family. 

Except…

Spike; his absence is glaringly obvious.  He’s plainly not part of this family. He is absent from all the exclusive ‘family’ scenes, just like Connor. And it's not that Angel is particularly vengeful or malicious. It’s just that the wrong son has moved in and this ‘son’ makes him uncomfortable. This ‘son’ has faced the demon inside and won, he asked for the soul, he’s a unified whole. He’s done everything that Angel has, got the soul, made the comeback from the ‘dead’, loved the girl, saved the world. If he says that Spike’s not special then doesn’t that mean that maybe, Angel’s not so special either? Spike makes him uncomfortable. Spike raises awkward possibilities, just as he’s always done. 

Up next: 5.4 - Hellbound

[tomaque]

BMW XM Diecast Car: Small Size, Big Impact

In the world of diecast cars, size isn’t everything—it's all about the detail, craftsmanship, and the ability to capture the essence of an iconic vehicle in miniature form. The BMW XM Diecast Car achieves all of this and more, packing a powerful punch in a small package. This scale model is a true tribute to BMW's bold design philosophy, offering collectors a chance to own a piece of automotive art in miniature form.

Unboxing the BMW XM Diecast Car

Right out of the box, the BMW XM Diecast Car makes an immediate impression. This 1:18 scale model is a perfect replication of BMW's dynamic luxury SUV, featuring every curve, contour, and characteristic that makes the XM such a head-turner. From the distinctive kidney grille to the sleek aerodynamic lines, this miniature car captures the bold and futuristic design of the full-sized XM in all its glory.

The diecast car is crafted with precision, using high-quality materials that give it a solid feel while maintaining an immaculate finish. The paint job is expertly done, mirroring the real-life metallic sheen of the BMW XM, and every little detail, from the headlights to the exhaust pipes, has been carefully reproduced to stay true to the original design.

Attention to Detail

The BMW XM Diecast Car isn’t just about exterior looks—its attention to detail extends to the interior as well. Open the doors, and you’re greeted with a meticulously crafted cabin, complete with miniature versions of the luxurious seats, dashboard, and steering wheel that are signature features of the BMW XM. The scale model even includes intricate detailing on the console and paneling, making it a joy to inspect and display.

The functional elements of this diecast car further enhance its appeal. With working wheels, doors that open and close smoothly, and a hood that lifts to reveal a miniaturized version of the BMW engine, this scale model offers an interactive experience that goes beyond just being a display piece.

A Collector's Gem

For diecast car collectors, the BMW XM Diecast Car represents a unique addition that stands out. It’s not just a miniature car; it's a statement piece that embodies BMW's commitment to innovation, luxury, and performance. The model’s high fidelity to the original design makes it a prized item for those who appreciate finely crafted scale models.

Collectors will appreciate the level of craftsmanship involved in creating such a realistic and detailed miniature car. The limited production run and the premium quality of this diecast car add to its exclusivity, making it a valuable addition to any collection.

Why the BMW XM Diecast Car Stands Out

What makes this scale model truly impactful is how it embodies the spirit of the BMW XM in a compact form. Despite its small size, the BMW XM Diecast Car manages to convey the boldness and innovation that the full-size SUV is known for. It’s a scale model that doesn’t just replicate the look of its larger counterpart but also captures the essence of what makes the BMW XM an exciting vehicle.

Whether displayed on a shelf, in a glass cabinet, or as part of a larger diecast car collection, the BMW XM Diecast Car is sure to draw attention and admiration. Its combination of sleek design, attention to detail, and functionality ensures that it leaves a lasting impression—truly living up to its promise of making a big impact.

Conclusion

The BMW XM Diecast Car proves that great things come in small packages. As a scale model, it brings together the best of BMW's design and performance in a compact, collectible form. For enthusiasts and collectors alike, this miniature car is a must-have that represents both a love for BMW and an appreciation for the art of diecast car modeling.

[govindhtech]

KServe Providers Serve NIMble Cloud & Data Centre Inference

It’s going to get easier than ever to implement generative AI in the workplace.

NVIDIA NIM, an array of microservices for generative AI inference, will integrate with KServe, an open-source programme that automates the deployment of AI models at the scale of cloud computing applications.

Because of this combination, generative AI can be implemented similarly to other large-scale enterprise applications. Additionally, it opens up NIM to a broad audience via platforms from other businesses, including Red Hat, Canonical, and Nutanix.

NVIDIA’s solutions are now available to clients, ecosystem partners, and the open-source community thanks to the integration of NIM on KServe. With a single API call via NIM, all of them may benefit from the security, performance, and support of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform – the current programming equivalent of a push button.

AI provisioning on Kubernetes

Originally, KServe was a part of Kubeflow, an open-source machine learning toolkit built on top of Kubernetes, an open-source software containerisation system that holds all the components of big distributed systems.

KServe was created as Kubeflow’s work on AI inference grew, and it eventually developed into its own open-source project.

The KServe software is currently used by numerous organisations, including AWS, Bloomberg, Canonical, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise,as IBM, Red Hat, Zillow, and NVIDIA. Several organisations have contributed to and used the software.

Behind the Scenes With KServe

In essence, KServe is a Kubernetes addon that uses AI inference like a potent cloud app. It runs with optimal performance, adheres to a common protocol, and supports TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, PyTorch, and XGBoost without requiring users to be familiar with the specifics of those AI frameworks.

These days, with the rapid emergence of new large language models (LLMs), the software is very helpful.

KServe makes it simple for users to switch between models to see which one best meets their requirements. Additionally, a KServe feature known as “canary rollouts” automates the process of meticulously validating and progressively releasing an updated model into production when one is available.

GPU autoscaling is an additional feature that effectively controls model deployment in response to fluctuations in service demand, resulting in optimal user and service provider experiences.

KServe API

With the convenience of NVIDIA NIM, the goodness of KServe will now be accessible.

All the complexity is handled by a single API request when using NIM. Whether their application is running in their data centre or on a remote cloud service, enterprise IT administrators receive the metrics they need to make sure it is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. This is true even if they decide to switch up the AI models they’re employing.

With NIM, IT workers may alter their organization’s operations and become experts in generative AI. For this reason, numerous businesses are implementing NIM microservices, including Foxconn and ServiceNow.

Numerous Kubernetes Platforms are Rideable by NIM

Users will be able to access NIM on numerous corporate platforms, including Red Hat’s OpenShift AI, Canonical’s Charmed KubeFlow and Charmed Kubernetes, Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box 2.0, and many more, because of its interaction with KServe.

Contributing to KServe, Yuan Tang is a principal software engineer at Red Hat. “Red Hat and NVIDIA are making open source AI deployment easier for enterprises “Tang said.The Red Hat-NVIDIA partnership will simplify open source AI adoption for organisations, he said. By upgrading KServe and adding NIM support to Red Hat OpenShift AI, they can simplify Red Hat clients’ access to NVIDIA’s generative AI platform.

“NVIDIA NIM inference microservices will enable consistent, scalable, secure, high-performance generative AI applications from the cloud to the edge.with Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box 2.0,” stated Debojyoti Dutta, vice president of engineering at Nutanix, whose team also contributes to KServe and Kubeflow.

Andreea Munteanu, MLOps product manager at Canonical, stated, “We’re happy to offer NIM through Charmed Kubernetes and Charmed Kubeflow as a company that also contributes significantly to KServe.” “Their combined efforts will enable users to fully leverage the potential of generative AI, with optimal performance, ease of use, and efficiency.”

NIM benefits dozens of other software companies just by virtue of their use of KServe in their product offerings.

Contributing to the Open-Source Community

Regarding the KServe project, NVIDIA has extensive experience. NVIDIA Triton Inference Server uses KServe’s Open Inference Protocol, as mentioned in a recent technical blog. This allows users to execute several AI models concurrently across multiple GPUs, frameworks, and operating modes.

NVIDIA concentrates on use cases with KServe that entail executing a single AI model concurrently across numerous GPUs.

NVIDIA intends to actively contribute to KServe as part of the NIM integration, expanding on its portfolio of contributions to open-source software, which already includes TensorRT-LLM and Triton. In addition, NVIDIA actively participates in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which promotes open-source software for several initiatives, including generative AI.

Using the Llama 3 8B or Llama 3 70B LLM models, try the NIM API in the NVIDIA API Catalogue right now. NIM is being used by hundreds of NVIDIA partners throughout the globe to implement generative AI.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[shristisahu]

Navigating Procurement Excellence: A Deep Dive into Cost Savings Strategies

Originally Published on: SpendEdge |Everything You Need to Know About Cost Savings in Procurement

In the realm of procurement, chief procurement officers (CPOs) consider cost savings a linchpin strategy. Despite procurement's evolution into an enterprise-wide initiative, its essence is intrinsically linked with cost savings. The modern landscape demands advanced cost-saving initiatives, propelled by digital technologies such as AI, ML, KPI dashboards, and value engineering. This paradigm shift emphasizes continuous cost-performance tracking, stringent control over once uncontrollable spends, and the development of no-frills, high-quality products.

Cruciality of Supplier Cost Management

Efficiently managing suppliers based on 'procurement savings' is pivotal in today's hyper-competitive environment. The impact on a firm's market competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals is substantial. Supplier cost analysis, despite its limitless benefits, often lacks the attention it deserves, limiting negotiation capital and hindering the ability to secure cost-efficient deals.

Tackling the Maverick Spend Menace

Maverick spending, occurring outside predefined rules, poses a significant threat, devouring a substantial portion of a procurement organization's total spend. CPOs unanimously advocate ruthless reduction of maverick expenses to enhance cash flow efficiency and ensure robust procurement savings. Adopting centralized procurement systems becomes imperative to unveil and control this stealthy menace.

Empowering Cost Reduction with Value Engineering

Traditional cost reduction measures fall short in propelling procurement into the future. Cutting-edge strategies, particularly value engineering, take center stage. Value engineering involves proactively assisting the supply side in scrutinizing products, annihilating unwanted costs while maintaining an optimal balance between cost and performance. When strategically applied along the supply chain, value engineering can lead to significant procurement savings, outperforming conventional cost-cutting measures.

How SpendEdge Enhances Procurement Savings

1. Gain a Competitive Advantage

Embedding cost analysis in the supply chain, businesses can build a competitive advantage and produce superior goods and services with a lower cost structure. SpendEdge experts assist in identifying best-fit suppliers swiftly, supporting better negotiations for improved decision-making that positively impacts the bottom line.

2. Capture Key Cost Drivers for Enhanced Supplier Productivity

SpendEdge's cost modeling experts undertake microscale analysis of key cost elements to improve visibility into supply-side performance, ensuring tasks run within budget, and facilitating procurement savings.

3. Benefit from Data-Based Insights on the Supply Side

With expertise in big data, SpendEdge gathers terabytes of supply-side data, providing meaningful insights through supplier reports and contextualized category alerts. Clients leverage these insights to roll out successful cost savings initiatives across their procurement organizations.

Contact us.

[linuxgamenews]

Jump-Dash-Run Bzzzt: A Vibrant Arcade-Style Adventure

Bzzzt 2D platformer game launches you into a jump-dash-run on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Developer KO.DLL's imaginative work has truly brought this project to life. Available on both Steam and GOG with Positive reviews. I want to share some exciting news about a new title, and it's something that's really caught my eye. Bzzzt is a thrilling 2D platformer that launches players into a test of speed and agility on Linux as well as Steam Deck. Think of it as a vibrant dash through a world where you're constantly jumping, running, and dodging obstacles. Due to be a trip back in time, paying homage to those classic arcade games from the 1980s, but with a modern twist. The Bzzzt launch has a visual style that is certainly noteworthy. It uses pixel art, which might remind you of the graphics from old school arcade titles, but with a fresh, futuristic feel. This is all about bringing the charm and magic of those early gaming days into today's world. The levels are full of traps and challenges that are both diverse and cleverly animated. This is due to make every moment in this title a test of your reflexes and skills.

Bzzzt – Official Launch Trailer

Now, let's talk about the brain behind the Bzzzt launch - Karel Matějka, also known as KO.DLL. Who has also been in the industry for over 30 years and has worked on some pretty big names. Such as Mafia, Operation Flashpoint, and even some Star Wars and Toy Story titles. He started creating his own titles at just 12 years old, and his passion for gaming is evident in Bzzzt. He's all about recapturing the essence of those games from the '80s that inspired so many, including himself. Karel Matějka puts it best when he says that this project is about rekindling the magic of old-school titles. And sharing the experience of those first 8-bit adventures with a new generation. He sees Bzzzt as a way to launch back into the kind of independent development that was prevalent in the '80s. A period known for its boundless creativity and addictively fun titles.

Described in reviews as a delightful blend of expertly crafted platforming, charming pixel art, and catchy music. It offers a 'try and die' gameplay experience that's both challenging and rewarding. Players can enjoy various difficulty levels, perfect for both casual gamers and speedrunners. The Bzzzt engaging level design, along with its precise controls, makes it an easy recommendation for fans of classics like Super Meat Boy and Celeste. With its blend of fun, replayability, and high-quality production standards, this game stands out as a must-play for platforming fans. Receiving praise for its imaginative levels and tight gameplay.

There's also an original soundtrack that launches alongside Bzzzt, composed by Martin Linda. If you're into gaming music, you might have heard his work in other titles. He's also the mind behind Rytmik, a well-known music app that started on the Nintendo DSi and evolved over a decade. Bzzzt 2D platformer launches on Steam and GOG and can be played on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC, as well as on the Steam Deck. So if you're looking for a blend of nostalgia, challenge, and modern gameplay, this might be your style. But first, make sure to try the native Demo. Priced at $10.79 USD / £8.99 / 10,61€ with the 10% discount.

[socialbrewcoffee]

Kona coffee beans: The essence of Hawaii's rich coffee culture

Kona coffee is not just any coffee. It’s the coffee that’s been captivating coffee lovers around the world in millions. It’s the export that has taken Hawaii to the forefront of the world’s topmost coffee-growing nations. With its roots firmly planted in the elevated slopes of Hawaii, Kona Coffee brings to your cup a unique combination of flavor, aroma, texture, and aftertaste that cannot be matched by any other coffee. Suffice it to say, every sip of Kona Coffee brings you the essence of sun-kissed Hawaii and the experience of a world-endorsed coffee.

The rich culture of Kona Coffee Beans

Born in an unusual terrain

Kona Coffee has the advantage of a location not available to any of the world’s coffees. With Hawaii’s nutrient-rich volcanic soil and ideal climatic conditions, Kona coffee has everything that a budding bean needs to transform into a coffee of extraordinary stature. Apart from the rich natural environment of the Kona region of the Big Island, Kona Coffee also owes its legacy to the dedication and meticulous care of the local farmers, who choose hand-based methods over automation in cultivating these legendary beans.

Symphony of rare flavors

Every sip of pure Kona coffee is nothing short of a sensory journey that takes you away from the humdrum of the mundane world. Feel your worries and cares being replaced by delight and wonderment, as this delectable coffee begins to unleash its notes of chocolate and caramel upon your palate, along with an acidity that’s smooth as satin.

Sustainable and responsible coffee

Organic Kona coffee is a testament to Hawaii's ongoing commitment to fair and sustainable farming practices. Every pack of Kona Coffee is proof not only of cultivation and processing that’s completely devoid of any undesirable practices, ingredients or materials but also of the respect that this coffee accords to the labor behind its success story.

The pride of a community

Kona coffee is not just a product that emerges from a production facility, it’s the fabric that binds a whole community in harmony for several decades. Kona Coffee is a tradition that’s celebrated across homes and occasions all over Hawaii. In fact, Hawaii even has a festival themed around Kona coffee that is one of the world’s largest and oldest-running coffee festivals.

Social Brew. Your gateway to Pure Kona Coffee.

 At Social Brew, we’re passionately committed to bringing true coffee lovers some of the world’s most exotic coffees, including Kona Coffee. If you’re in the mood to try Kona Coffee, buy our 100% Kona Coffee Single Origin. This mild Arabica coffee will deliver a distinct semi-sweet flavor combined with a rich and prominent aroma to give you the full and true experience of Pure Kona Coffee. You could also browse through our fine range of other specialties including 100% Waialua Single Origin Coffee , Hawaiian Blend Coffee, and Decaf Brazil Coffee. No matter which of our specialty coffees you choose to purchase, we assure you of an experience that will change your perception of coffee forever. 

[atlanticcanada]

People flock to Newfoundland in search of the Come From Away kindness -- and find it

Janet Hayward didn't show too much outward excitement Friday night as she walked toward a Gander, N.L., theatre to see the musical that inspired what she calls her "Newfoundland Quest" -- but she did arrive a full hour early.

The 54-year-old high school teacher from Indiana has spent the past three weeks driving all over Newfoundland to capture the essence of its people, culture and landscape, and relay it for her students. She began dreaming of the trip after she saw "Come From Away" over a year ago on Apple TV Plus. The musical tells the story of the town's efforts to care for thousands of people stranded there on planes grounded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.

The story gripped her, and she couldn't let it go. So she applied for, and won, a special grant for teachers in Indiana to embark on the journey.

"It's the kindness of the whole thing," Hayward said in an interview. "I really wanted to meet the people behind the kindness."

She is among many, from all over the world, who have come to Gander in search of that kindness. And she was not disappointed.

Thirty-eight planes carrying more than 6,500 people were ordered to land at the Gander airport on Sept. 11, 2001. The town has a population of about 11,800 people and "Come From Away" is about those who opened their homes, community halls and businesses to shelter the "plane people" for the five days they were stranded. Its characters are based on real people in Gander, and the real things they did to dampen the passengers' horror as they learned what had happened.

The musical was a smash on Broadway, running for a record-setting five years at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City. The Gander production is the first fully staged presentation of the musical in its hometown, according to Michael Rubinoff, the play's originating producer. He congratulated Friday night's crowd for snagging "the hottest theatre tickets on the planet."

Barbara Amiel Pearson first saw the musical in 2017, during a particularly dark time in her life. She lives in Florida, and she said she was "despondent" after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election. "I had lost hope in this country, I had lost hope in the world, I had lost hope in people," she said in an interview this week. "And then I see this play ... and I felt like I had to go and see if people could really be this good."

She arrived in Gander for the first time in October 2017. "I had one goal: I wanted to meet Newfoundlanders," she said. So she went to the Tim Hortons across from her hotel and started talking to people.

Amiel Pearson, 72, said she met people on that trip she is still friends with today, including Gander resident Diane Davis, who is the inspiration for the character Beulah Davis in the play.

As is a common experience for many Newfoundland visitors, both Pearson and Hayward were invited into strangers' homes for meals, tea and lengthy chats.

Amiel Pearson returned to Gander in 2019, and she'll be arriving again next month; she has front-row tickets for the "Come From Away" performance on Aug. 12. She says her will includes instructions for her two daughters to use part of their inheritance to visit Newfoundland. "It really caused a profound change in my life," she said.

Derm Flynn said he's heard many stories like Hayward's and Amiel Pearson's, but he's still moved by each one. He was mayor of nearby Appleton, N.L., on Sept. 11, 2001. He and his wife, Dianne, took in six passengers.

"We're not used to a big deal being made of the fact that we can invite someone into our home for a cup of tea," he said this week, adding that Newfoundlanders don't want to be seen as "blowing their own horns."

"There are contrary Newfoundlanders, just as there are contrary people all over the world," he added.

The Flynns' story is told through the Derm Flynn character in "Come From Away." About a year after the play opened on Broadway, they began hosting an event for tourists called Meet The Flynns, where they invite people into their home for lunch, tea and a chat. They've entertained guests from the rest of Canada, the United States, Australia and Germany, he said.

They charge for the visit, but it's a way to give people who've seen the play the kind of welcoming experience they're looking for, Flynn said.

Hayward hopes to instil in her students a sense of the kindness she has discovered in Newfoundland. To that end, she plans to start an after-school social club. She'll get students together to talk about themselves and their interests and what they'd like to contribute to their community. And then, together, they'll undertake "one wonderful kind act or service a month," she said.

In the meantime, her husband and both of her sons have joined her for different parts of her Newfoundland adventure, and they've loved it as much as she has, she said.

"We'll definitely be back."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/gvVx86k

[indigobard]

Big Oil

It is a commonly held belief that the world runs on oil, an abundant natural resource that powers the world from transportation to heating to electricity generation. However, a closer examination of the properties and origins of this mysterious substance may reveal the unsettling truth: that oil is in fact the magical necromantic corpse juice that fuels our society as we know it.

Oil, also known as petroleum, is formed from the remains of dead organisms that have been compressed and heated over millions of years. While this may seem like a purely natural process to the layman, Something far more sinister is at play. I posit that the necromancers of old, masters of death and the afterlife, discovered a way to extract and refine the essence of the dead for their own vile purposes.

The idea that oil is the product of necromantic magic may seem far-fetched to the indoctrinated, but consider the fact that oil has unique properties that suggest it is not of the natural world. It burns with a strange, otherworldly glow, and has been known to resist the laws of physics when used in certain applications. Additionally, its presence seems to be concentrated in certain regions, suggesting that there is some sort of intelligent design behind its distribution.

Perhaps most concerning of all, however, is the fact that the world's most powerful institutions and individuals are deeply invested in the continued use of oil. Governments, corporations, and even entire nations rely on this substance to maintain their power and influence. They and we are all addicts. It is not difficult to imagine that those in positions of authority may be in league with the necromancers, using their power to keep the true nature of oil a secret from the general public. 

The implications of this fact are staggering. Oil is a form of necromantic magic, the entire fabric of society is built on a foundation of death and decay. The consequences of this realization will be catastrophic, leading to widespread unrest and upheaval. Maybe we are already there.

Given the evidence at hand, it is clear that a more thorough investigation of the origins and properties of oil is warranted. Oily then can we truly understand the dark forces that drive our society.

[mi6014ikepearson]

REBRANDING - “SHIFTING FOCUS & AVOIDING BACKLASH”

with the impending sense of mortality that the unstoppable march of time’s imprisonment over all existence comes the reality that all things, no matter how perpetual, will theoretically change in some aspect, eventually.

and as a (mostly) capitalist society - our world is no different.

humanity is a unique species in that we have developed our cognitive thought over years of evolution to make new discoveries, construct systems, craft new inventions - and importantly, to the context of this project..

products.

WHAT IS REBRANDING? - “THE 411 FROM A 20 YEAR OLD STUDENT WITH NO BUSINESS EXPERIENCE″

" The future starts today, not tomorrow. "      - Pope John Paul II

with brands, much like everything else in life: Change is inevitable. 

Business rebranding is the process of changing the way a business presents itself to the public, including its name, logo, and marketing materials.

This is often done to reflect changes in the business, such as a change in ownership or a shift in the products or services offered. 

WHY DO COMPANIES REBRAND? - “IF IT AIN’T BROKE DON’T FIX IT”

Additionally, rebranding can be a way for a business to distance itself from any negative associations that its old brand may have had. For example, if a company has gone through a difficult period, such as a scandal or financial downturn, rebranding can help it move past that and start fresh with a new image.

in the case of this brief, William Lawson’s appears to be rebranding in an attempt to help the business better align itself with the target market audience and thus give it a leg to stand on, and potentially stand out amongst the already oversaturated market of alcohol brands that Gen Z, and Millenials consume.

in essence; it’s time for William Lawson’s to refresh its image and rejuvenate its customer base to stay relevant and competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment.

AVOIDING THE BACKLASH - “AUDIENCE PUSHBACK FOR ORIGINAL FAMILIARITY”

everyday dawns with its own set of challenges and opportunities, and without embracing change, the business can’t live up to its potential - And a big part of that is managing customers’ expectations and perceptions.

alas, even with this in consideration:      rebranding can backfire - even if you don’t really do anything at all..

the M&M’s brand recently attempted to promote inclusivity through changing the designs of their mascots, through a few very minor changes.

“The Red M&M is now more kind and patient with his peers, Orange is coming to terms with his anxiety, etc.”

Amongst the aesthetic revisions is a removal of the characters’ peach skin tone, and a strangely contested change in footwear..

with this backlash; the company reluctantly had to announce that it was dropping its 'spokescandies' because the desexualisation of the green M&M had upset people so much..

this tweet from @DyanmoSuperX expresses my opinion on the whole ordeal..

a more drastic example of a similar phenomenon is the story of Mr. Peanut; who I will provide a summative case study on, now.

CASE STUDY - “THE STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MR PEANUT. (1916-2020(?))”

during the 2020 SuperBowl; Planters broadcasted an advert that saw Mr pesnut, and two of his buddies driving around the PeanutMobile, on a rocky mountain trail - where Mr Peanut swerves to avoid running over an armadillo in the middle of the road.

in doing so; his automobile falls off the side, into a canyon; as the trio cling to a branch, protruding from the cliffside.. but with their combined weight; they’re too heavy, and one must sacrifice themselves so the others can survive.

being the hero that he is - the 104 year old nut makes the hard decision, himself - sparing his 2 pals, as he plummets, and seemingly dies in a fiery explosion

the response to the strange decision were initially lukewarm; with brands sending their condolences to their fallen comrade; over Twitter, whilst the general public expressed a strange sense of loss for a mascot that was previously seemingly nothing special.

but I guess you never knew how good something is until it’s gone.

and as such: Planters completely undid the continuity of their decision to kill of the mascot - with him being reborn from a tear of the Kool-Aid-Man as a quirky dolphin noise making, quip-spitting baby..

I chalk this up to the success of marketable characters such as Baby Groot and Grogu; however, when asked about the decision - the creative leader behind the campaign cited “Avengers Endgame” and the death of IronMan as the phenomenon that inspired the decision.

people were mostly happy with BabyNut - and expressed support to see the mascot revived, however: a significant issue was raised, that I think was the primary cause for wanting to revert this change..

a year into the campaign; they decided to follow again, in Groot’s footsteps as they put Mr Peanut in an awkward transitional state between baby form and adult, again: as they produced a few ads celebrating his 21st birthday.

clearly they were tired of the backlash that came from BabyNut; and decided to begin an attempt to return to normalcy:

and a few months later, it was as foretold happened..

from here, Planters have returned to using their mascot, as normal, in adverts.

it’s here that we find another example of the issues that surround advertising.

humans will also outwardly attempt to seek out something to complain about; when even the slightest of changes are made - and as such leads us to the ultimate question..

SO HOW DO WE REBRAND WITHOUT GETTING BACKLASH? - “LEARNING FROM THE PAST” 

Rebranding is a unique and powerful tool that when used effectively can promote the company by funnelling new business that adds substantial value through potential customer engagement, while making the business stand out from it’s competitors.

It is, however, an incredibly complicated undertaking that requires plenty of pre-planning and research to put together a strategy that accounts for all reactions with fleshed out outcomes to ensure success      ( as evidenced through many an example )

as such, with most of these blog posts - we need to use our findings to come up with a formula for success we can convert into our own approach for the final film:

STEP 1 - “PLANNING”

it is critical to know why you’re rebranding - and construct a comprehensive strategy before you begin investing materials into it - as it can be costly, otherwise..

even though this brief is design based - these are factors to consider, heavily.

as stated earlier, we know that the William Lawson’s brand is attempting to shift their image to better align itself with a new target market audience; to increase business profits.

its with this understanding that we can build up a plan of action, and the first step of said plan is..

STEP 2 - “UNDERSTANDING THE AUDIENCE”

this step is the most crucial in the rebranding process, from my understanding: hence why I have gone to such lengths researching and analysing every topic I can think of that would enhance this project, to its maximum potential.

through an understanding of the things that have both worked in the past, as well as the reasoning for why these elements were successful we are able to use this to ensure that the film is one that matches the audience expectations, as well as the brand’s.

you need to anticipate questions and concerns, as evidenced through the M&M campaign - where an inability to see how the customers would react; lead to a failure of a campaign.

preparing your existing customers is a necessary step, and this is achieved through being transparent:      “yes this is going to be an ad;       yes we would like your business;       please consider purchasing our product.”

STEP 3 - “BE CONSISTENT”

from my observations the absolute best way to rebrand is to do so in a way that will avoid a drop in business; so for me, I want to ensure that the rebrand affects the existing clients as little as possible.

It will take time for the new focus to start paying off, and as such you do not want the current revenue flow to drop.

finding a way to appeal to the newer generation, whilst still maintaining the brand’s identity is a factor I have been studying carefully through my brand analysis, and as such I am prepared to attempt to do so in my final film through the type of comedy I choose to write in being universally appealing, by not relying too heavily on the current state of modern-post-ironic humour; and instead using a blend of all elements that will hopefully pay-off in a universally charming film.

[hi-5-sunflower]

Saeed's intro

I did a post recently of the book's first chapter, which is Laura's introduction. However, since our other main protagonist, Saeed, doesn't come in until chapter seven, I'm jumping ahead to his intro to let the people of writeblr get to know this alchemist buddy a little bit 🙂

Length: 1,300 words

Summary: Saeed works on a potion to compete with his best friend for a permanent job as an alchemist.

Content warnings: Mention of illness. None others that I'm aware of (but please let me know if you think any need to be added!)

Saeed Azhari hardly saw where he was going as he made his way upstairs to the alchemy lab, his mind working like a colony of ants.

Stripewood bark has some anti-inflammatory properties, he thought, running a hand through his shaggy, overgrown hair. Might be a good addition to the sunleaf mixture.

The tiny lab was quiet when he arrived, and he took his preferred spot in the rear corner, close to the supply cupboard. He flipped open his pack to retrieve a stack of scribbled notes from inside before letting it drop at the foot of his stool.

A gray tabby cat leapt onto the long table to greet him, staring at him with huge green eyes.

“Hi, Quicksilver,” said Saeed.

He stroked the top of her head, and she responded with a purr, spinning around leisurely. Then he spent a few minutes absently gathering supplies for the day, considering the herb ratios for his potion. As he returned to his seat, the door swung open.

Tavi’s face was lit up in a broad grin as she strolled in. “Morning, Sai.”

“Hey. You’re in a good mood today.”

“Of course I am,” she said. “You do know what today is, don’t you?”

Saeed considered it, half panicking for a second that he’d forgotten her birthday. But no, that had been a few months ago. “Uh...sweetbread day in the dining hall?”

“No, silly.” She flopped her bag down onto her end of the table. “Today marks exactly one month until Emberhawk officially hires me.”

“Oh yeah,” said Saeed, his own lips quirking up. “Except I think you meant to say, until Emberhawk gives you the boot.”

“Ha!” Tavi casually tossed her burgundy braid back over her shoulder. “Honestly, you might want to spend today packing your bags. This thing is as good as done.”

“We’ll see about that.”

She was right about one thing anyway: the end of their year-long apprenticeship with Emberhawk Alchemy was rapidly approaching. At its end awaited a permanent, well-paying alchemist position with the company—but only one. Both of them had impressive achievements under their belts. The remaining question was which of them would come out on top.

Saeed pored over his notes for a few minutes as Tavi got settled. He’d been thinking about his current project—a cough remedy—nonstop, and he had some new ideas to try out.

Maybe a little more sunleaf this time. He shredded the herb by hand, staining his tawny fingers a yellowish green, and piled the foliage into his alembic. Fragrant vapors issued from the device as the mix simmered.

Most days, he and Tavi worked as lab assistants, running errands for the alchemy team, taking inventory, and performing repetitious production tasks. Today, however, was what they called a “free day”—a day off from their scheduled assignments, usually granted once or twice a week, in which they got to utilize this cramped little lab to conduct their own projects.

Simply put, these were the days that really counted. Here was the space in which they could prove their personal worth in potioncraft.

“How’s it going with the endurance tonic?” Saeed asked, his cheek resting on his palm while he waited for his concoction to distill.

“Could be better, actually,” said Tavi. “I had to scrap the recipe I was working on. We’re all out of lion blossom.” She rolled her eyes.

Saeed sympathized with that. Their limited access to materials was the one big stumbling block of the apprenticeship. Particularly with more expensive ingredients, they were allotted minimal amounts to work with, if any, so they had to ration carefully.

In fact, that was the primary challenge of his cough remedy project. Lyusk root was well-known to be highly effective for respiratory ailments—particularly this new, stubborn one, to which Saeed’s own brother had recently fallen victim—but there was never any of the root in their supply cupboard.

He’d just have to find an alternative.

And he would. One way or another.

Tavi stripped the husks off some chiba stalks, leaving green stains on her long fingers to match the ones on Saeed’s shorter human ones. As a member of the Jirian race, Tavi had a physique naturally built for arboreal life: remarkably long fingers and toes, effective for branch-gripping, and a prehensile simian tail. Their skin came in an array of grays, and Tavi’s complexion was a pale shade reminiscent of a dawn sky. Her burgundy hair was bound, like most days, into a single plait hanging down her back.

Saeed returned his attention to his notes for another quick review, then stood up and made for the supply cupboard again.

The shelves of the narrow closet were lined with jars and sacks of herbs, minerals, and brightly colored concentrates. Just standing in here, breathing in the cacophony of herbal scents, sent a thrill through his veins. Despite their complaints about the limits upon them, they still had a good variety of ingredients to experiment with.

Now, to find that stripewood. The S’s were on the lower shelves, which was convenient, as Saeed was rather short. There you are. He plucked a jar off the shelf. Curls of shredded brown bark filled it halfway, and Saeed unscrewed the lid, gingerly extracting a few pieces.

He closed his palm around them, focusing. In this dead and dried form, there was only a trace of its original life energy left within it, but it was there, and he could feel it if he really concentrated. He let his mind go quiet, let the little shavings tell him what their purpose was.

Its essence, once brought out, would provide a mild soothing effect, but without numbing. Just what I need. He sent a wave of gratitude to the bark before heading back to the table to put it to use.

In his peripheral vision, Tavi was scribbling away, making that face she always did when she was deep in her tasks, with her eyebrows furrowed and the end of her tongue sticking out. He set to work, smiling to himself.

Starting with their first alchemy lesson when they were just eleven years old, the two of them had shared a fascination for potion making, matched only by their drive to outdo one another every step of the way. They had something of a code between them: no cheating, no sabotage, and no being a sore loser. Even as teens, they’d adhered to that code strictly.

Most of the time, anyway.

Saeed used a mortar and pestle to grind the stripewood bark into a coarse powder before stirring it into the sunleaf mixture. Then he shuffled through his notes again, resenting the fact that he could barely read his own handwriting.

“Sai,” said Tavi, nodding toward his equipment, “let me borrow that quarterspoon really quick.”

He slid the little measuring scoop down the table to her.

“Thanks.”

They spoke little over the course of the next few hours, and Tavi wrapped up her day by transferring her potion-in-progress into a brass storage urn. Saeed did the same with his own product. Soon he’d need to find time to run safety testing on the potion, but he felt good about what he’d come up with today. He hummed a little tune as he set to putting away supplies.

“I see that cocky look on your face,” said Tavi, smirking as she came up beside him.

Saeed shot her a look of feigned indignance. “Who, me?”

“Yes, you.” Tavi gave him a playful shove. “Don’t you worry, I’ve still got some good ideas to try out.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Saeed. They walked back to the table together, and as Saeed prepared to pack up, he noticed a few greenish potion droplets on his notes. The ink smudged as he tried to wipe it dry.

We’ll see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! And as usual, here's the tumblr link to the book's full intro for anybody new to the story!

You can also buy a copy for 99 cents (USD)!

Tag list: @thelaughingstag @a-completely-normal-writer

[firefield]

David Bowie - Reality (2003)

“The thing, probably, that keeps me writing is this awful feeling that there are no absolutes. That there is no truth. That we are, as I’ve been thinking for so many years now, fully in the swirl of chaos theory.” DB, 2003

I always learn new things about David Bowie whenever I listen through his complete discography chronologically, and this run through is no different. As I get close to the end here, I’m reminded how much less I know about these later works, due simply to the fact that they have existed for a much shorter time, and my experience with them is more limited. “Reality” rocks more than I realized on release day, especially coming off the heels of “Heathen” with all its layers and mystery and subtleties. An empty house afforded the opportunity to really crank this one up, a vinyl pass, and CD pass, and finally the 5.1 surround sound edition - and yeah - DB said he wanted a simpler sound, and wanted a record that could be translated into a live show easily and effectively and he got that in spades.

As with all his post-80’s work, and especially his post-heart attack material, “Reality” embraces the darker and more cynical side of DB’s many characters - from the irony of the album title with album art portraying a very cartoony space-man Bowie looking about as unreal and non-Reality as possible and still be recognizable - to DB’s insistence that he made a “positive!” record despite themes of aging and death, loneliness and anonymity, geopolitical strife, day-in-day-out mundanity and the creeping threat of urbanization to nature. Regarding the subject matter of Reality he told Interview Magazine, “This is probably a period when, more than any other time, the idea that our absolutes are disintegrating is manifest in real terms. Truths that we always thought we could stand by are crumbling before our eyes. It really is quite traumatic.”

I read quotes like that and I think, for a guy that is largely known for (and criticized for) his ability to synthesize the past and his surroundings into something entirely David-Bowieingly unique, he certainly shows skill at synthesizing the future as well. Beyond things like financial chicanery like Bowie Bonds and the impact of the internet on the creation and distribution of music, Bowie often hit at the very essence of what unites as well as divides.

The seeds of this malleablity of truth that DB describes had been planted in my country during the civil rights movement and the tragedy of the Vietnam War, but began to flower and bloom after the 9/11 event - affecting Bowie’s home turf and his family profoundly. Heathen is prescient, Reality is a little angry about things. DB took time to specifically say what Reality was not: it was not an angry album, it was not a response to 9/11, it was not his “New York Album” - but then he’d spend just as much time gently walking back those claims, almost wondering aloud if it was, in fact, all of those things and more. He speaks around this time about how naturally writing music came to him. Unforced, calmly. I think this “flow” is why you can glean so many little contradictions about Reality and it’s intentions and meaning. He’s letting it happen, not dictating the plot; the tensions of that city and that moment in time allowed to mold and shape the work. Polar opposite to the Heathen recording environment at Allaire Studios in the Catskill Mountains, Reality was recorded in the cramped Studio B of Philip Glass’s Looking Glass Studios in NYC and both those disparate studio choices impact their respective products acutely.

Reality is Bowie’s most “hands-on” record since Diamond Dogs, employing all his multi-instrumentalist abilities, and it’s also one of his most thoroughly demoed. Most all of Reality was demoed out in Studio B by DB and Tony Visconti playing all the instruments, with Mario McNulty (the same engineer DB would later trust with the posthumous reimagining/re-recording of Never Let Me Down) as studio assistant. According to Tony, he had a feeling that many of these “demo tracks” would not ever actually be re-recorded, so they were laid down at a useable fidelity. Consequently, much of the demo material survived on the final album. The band brought in for final overdubs was chosen with the live show in mind specifically. This was a smaller, tighter unit of BowieLive veterans and by all accounts recording was smooth and productive.

New Killer Star opens the record, and is also Reality’s debut single (that contained one of his more surprising B-sides, Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s ‘Love Missle F1-11’) and is a spectacular Earl Slick led hazy, woozy guitar statement.

This is followed by The Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso - recorded in 1972 but delayed until their 1976 debut. This track mimics the space occupied by the Pixies cover Cactus - the second track on Heathen - DB pulling tracks from his past that he enjoys and placing them where they give the record momentum. Quite a different interpretation if you have heard the original - DB took liberties with both the lyric and the arrangement and it’s a cool little track.

Never Get Old follows and addresses the common theme of time and aging in DB compositions…. (Cygnet Committee, Time, Hearts Filthy Lesson, Changes, Fantastic Voyage, and many more) and the composition itself references much of his past in Space Oddities countdown, the elongated guitar strands of Heroes, bits of melody from Crack City, the four-walls-closing-in sense of Low and some of Hunky Dory’s ominous moments. A pounding live favorite.

…and seamlessly right into The Loneliest Guy. Anyone who saw the Reality Tour knows the captivating power of this piece, and it’s honesty and fragility was one of a few reasons why I thought this would be DB’s final album.

Looking For Water. Man, I *love* this song. It’s one of my favorite vocal performances on Reality and would certainly end up on my list of “underrated DB songs” were I compelled to make one. I like repetition in music, and it’s hypnotic and mantra-esque qualities - and this is one that always gets a significant volume boost.

She’ll Drive The Big Car - a supercool stab of Bowie sash and swagger, and a killer vocal performance, masking some seriously sad lyrics. Bowie manages to sound defiant, tired, funky, deferential, sexy and soulful all in the course of a single song. He’s such an effortlessly great singer, that’s it’s easy to become so accustomed to it that you almost miss it. It’s just “him.”

The exceedingly sweet “Days” fits nicely with all of Realities reflections, and has for me become a song I pay much more attention to since we lost the man to cancer.

Fall Dog Bombs The Moon is one of DB’s most overtly political songs, and was apparently written very quickly - under a half and hour - and directly addresses the Iraq War and the profiteering involved. Relatively bleak with murky lyrics, it’s a interesting and unique DB composition.

Try Some, Buy Some is just beautiful and I think one of Bowie’s most interesting and genuinely heart-felt covers (along with Waterloo Sunset, also from these sessions.) The inspiration to do this song comes directly from the 1971 Ronnie Spector version and the impact it had on him personally. DB seems to be absolutely sincere when he claimed that he had completely forgotten that it was a George Harrison composition until he sat down to work on the album credits.

Next up is the sizzling rocker Reality that has one foot in Tin Machine and one foot in The Next Day. Love Earl’s guitar sound here. Like New Killer Star, the guitar layers in this one sound amazing on the 5.1 surround mix.

Ahh yeah. Another in an amazing number of fantastic Bowie album closers. I’ve made it a point in my life to quit ranking art into “good/better/best/sucks categories and hierarchies and see art as an experience, not a competition. My friends know this about me, and consequently tease me and attempt to prod me into breaking this creed. Under unrelenting pressure to name a “favorite David Bowie track” I named Bring Me The Disco King.

I could give many reasons why this would be the one…. The repetition I mentioned earlier, here found in Matt Chamberlain’s drum loop (interestingly snagged from ‘When The Boys Come Marching Home,’) the overwhelming sense I had when I first heard it that this was DB’s final record, the sense that the threat of jazz that had always pounded on David’s door in his chord structures and harmonies had finally broken down the door… the very tangible sense that this was a composition that had already had a long life but stayed tucked into the shadows by its unsatisfied creator, only to be given life and light on this great album after it had been stripped down to almost nothing - simplicity being the sought after key to its finally being allowed to soar. If it’s not already obvious, I think this song is magnificent. Literally. The fact that David knew it was deep inside there, he just had to mine it out over the course of a decade or so is extraordinary.

Couple of thoughts about a track that didn’t fit well on Reality but made it to bonus/B-sides…

How cool is his cover of The Kinks Waterloo Sunset? In the years after his death, when I feel that loss in my heart, it’s Waterloo Sunset I turn up to 11 and allow it to yank me back out of that murk.

“People so busy

makes me feel dizzy

but I don’t feel afraid

as long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset

I am in paradise.”

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss acts as playwright when he writes songs. He’s far more confident, and certainly more vulnerable, when he allows himself to play the part. In such a way, songwriting opens up a whole new world that pulses with untapped potential. So much of what he has accomplished in 15 years resides in his willingness to expose himself to what his imagination and intuition have in store. He steps into a playwright’s shoes with considerable ease (just look at his resume), and always one to put on plenty of bravado, especially during our Zoom face-to-face, it’s the natural order of things.

“As I get older and write more and more songs, I really recognize that I’ve always preferred to write for another context other than my own,” Criss tells American Songwriter. He speaks with a cool intensity, gesturing emphatically to accentuate a sentence, and when you let him go, he’s like the Energizer Bunny 一 “I can tell by just how quiet you already are that you’re fucked,” he jokes at the start of our video chat. But he remains just as engaged and focused when listening.

He soaks in the world, taking astute notes about behavior and emotional traits he can later use in song. His storytelling, though, arrives already in character, fully formed portraits he can then relay to the world. It’s not that he can’t be vulnerable, like such greats as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright, who have all embroidered their work with deeply personal observations, it just doesn’t feel as comfortable. “I’ve always really admired the great songwriters of the world who are extremely introspective and can put their heart and soul on the chopping block,” he muses. “That’s a vulnerability that I think is so majestic. I’ve never had access to it. I’m not mad about it. It’s just good to know what your deal is.”

Criss’ strengths lie in his ability to braid his own experiences, as charmed as they might be, into wild, goofy fantasies. In the case of his new series “Royalties,” now streaming on Quibi, he walks a fine line between pointed commentary on the music industry, from menial songwriting sessions to constantly chasing down the next smash, and oddball comedy that is unequivocally fun. Plotted with long-standing friends and collaborators Matt and Nick Lang, co-founders of Team StarKid, created during their University of Michigan days (circa 2009), the show’s conceptual nucleus dates back more than a decade.

If “Royalties” (starring Criss and Kether Donohue) feels familiar, that’s because it is. The 10-episode show ─ boasting a smorgasbord of delightful guest stars, including Mark Hammill, Georgia King, Julianna Hough, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lil Rel Howery ─ captures the very essence of a little known web series called “Little White Lie.” Mid-summer 2009, Team StarKid uploaded the shoddy, low budget production onto YouTube, and its scrappy tale of amateur musicians seeking fame and fortune quickly found its audience, coming on the heels of “A Very Potter Musical,” co-written with and starring Criss. Little did the trio know, those initial endeavors laid the groundwork for a lifetime of creative genius.

“It’s a full circle moment,” says Criss, 33, zooming from his Los Angeles home, which he shares with his wife Mia. He’s fresh-faced and zestful in talking about the new project. 11 years separate the two series, but their connective thematic tissues remain striking. “Royalties” is far more polished, the obvious natural progression in so much time, and where “Little White Lie” soaked in soapy melodrama, the former analyzes the ins and outs of the music world through more thoughtful writing, better defined (and performed) characters, and hookier original tunes.

“Royalties” follows Sara (Donohue) and Pierce (Criss), two struggling songwriters in Los Angeles, through various career exploits and pursuits. The pilot, titled “Just That Good,” features an outlandish performance from Rufus Wainwright as a major player in dance-pop music, kickstarting the absurdity of Criss’ perfectly-heightened reality. As our two main characters stumble their way between songwriting sessions, finally uncovering hit single potential while eating a hot dog, Criss offers a glimpse into the oft-unappreciated art of songwriting.

In his own songwriting career ─ from 2010’s self-released Human EP and a deal with Columbia Records (with whom a project never materialized) to 2017’s Homework EP and Computer Games’ debut, Lost Boys Life, (a collaboration with his brother Chuck) ─ he’s learned a thing or two about the process. Something about sitting in a room with someone you’ve never met before always rang a little funny to him.

“You meet a stranger, and you have to be creative, vulnerable, and open. It’s speed-dating, essentially. It’s a different episode every time you pull it off or not. All the big songwriters will tell you all these crazy war stories. Everyone has a wacky story from songwriting,” he says. “I slowly realized I may ─ I can’t flatter myself, there are tons of creative people who are songwriters ─ have prerequisites to just put the two together [TV and music]. I’ve worked enough in television as an actor and creator. I can connect the dots. I had dual citizenship where I felt like it was really time for me to go forth with this show.”

But a packed professional life pushed the idea to the backburner.

Between six seasons of “Glee” (playing Blaine Anderson, a Warbler and lover to Chris Colfer’s Kurt Hummel), starring in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on Broadway, and creating Elsie Fest, a one-day outdoor festival celebrating songs of the stage and screen, he never had the time. “I was lucky enough to be busy,” he says. “As Team StarKid’s star was continuing to rise with me being separate from it, I was trying to think of a way to get involved again with songwriting.”

At one point, “Glee” had officially wrapped and his Broadway run was finished. It appeared “Royalties” may finally get its day in the sun. “I went to Chicago for a work pilgrimage with the Langs. We had a few days, and we put all our ideas on the map: every musical, feature film, show, graphic novel, and animated series we’ve ever thought of,” he says. “A lot of them were from the Langs; they were just things I was interested in as a producer or actor. We looked at all of them and made a top three.”

“Royalties” obviously made the cut.

Fast forward several years, Gail Berman’s SideCar, a production company under FOX Entertainment, was looking to produce a music show. Those early conversations, beginning at an otherwise random LA party, showed great promise in airlifting the concept from novel idea to discernible reality. Things quickly stalled, however, as they often do in Hollywood, but Criss had at least spoken his dreams into the universe.

“I finally had an outlet to put it into gear. It wasn’t until two to three years after that that things really locked in. We eventually made shorts and made a pilot presentation. We showed it to people, and it wasn’t until Quibi started making their presence known that making something seemed really appealing,” he says. “As a creator, they’re very creator-centric. They’re not a studio. They’re a platform. They are licensing IP much like when a label licenses an indie band’s album after the fact.”

Quibi has drawn severe ire over the last few months, perhaps because there is a “Wild Westness” to it, Criss says. “I think that makes some people nervous. Being my first foray into something of this kind, Quibi felt like a natural partner for us. If this had been a network or cable show, we would’ve molded it to be whatever it was.”

Format-wise, “Royalties” works best as bite-sized vignettes, charming hijinks through the boardroom and beyond, and serves as a direct response to a sea of music shows, from “Nashville” and “Empire” to “Smash.” “Those shows were bigger, more melodramatic looks at the inside base of our world. I’ve always been a goofball, and I just wanted to take the piss out of it,” he says. “This show isn’t about songwriting. It’s about songwriters… but a very wacky look at them.”

“30 Rock,” a scripted comedy loosely based around “Saturday Night Live,” in which the focus predominantly resides around the characters, rather than the business itself, was also on his mind. “It’s about the interconnectivity of the people and characters. As much of the insider knowledge that I wanted to put into our show, at the end of the day, you just want to make a fun, funny show that’s relatable to people who know nothing about songwriting and who shouldn’t have to know anything.”

Throughout 10 episodes, Criss culls the “musicality, fun, and humor” of Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and Max Martin, two of his biggest songwriting heroes, and covers as many genres as possible, from K-Pop to rap-caviar and classic country. While zip-lining between formats, the songs fully rely on a sturdy storytelling foundation ─ only then can Criss drape the music around the characters and their respective trajectories. “I wanted to do something where I could use all the muscles I like to flex at once, instead of compartmentalizing them,” he says. “I really love writing songs for a narrative, not necessarily for myself. I thrive a little more when I have parameters, characters, and a story to tell.”

Bonnie McKee, one of today’s greatest pop architects, takes centerstage, too, with an episode called “Kick Your Shoes Off,” in which she plays a bizarro version of herself. “She has her own story, and I’ve always been fascinated by it,” says Criss, who took her out to lunch one day to tell her about it. Initially, the singer-songwriter, known for penning hits for Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, and Britney Spears, would anchor the entire show, but it soon became apparent she would simply star in her own gloriously zany episode.

In one of the show’s standout scenes, Pierce and Sara sit in on a label meeting with McKee’s character and are tasked with writing a future hit. But they quickly learn how many cooks are in the kitchen at any given moment. Everyone from senior level executives to publicists and contracted consultants have an opinion about the artist’s music. One individual urges her to experiment, while another begs not to alienate her loyal fanbase, and then a third advises her to chronicle the entire history of music itself ─ all within three minutes or so. It’s absurd, and that’s the point. “Everyone’s been in that meeting, whether you’re in marketing or any creative discussion that has to be made on a corporate level by committee. It’s the inevitable, comedic contradictions and dissociations from not only rationality but feasibility.”

Criss also draws upon his own major label days, having signed with Sony/Columbia right off the set of “Glee,” as well as second-hand accounts from close friends. “There are so many artists, particularly young artists, who famously get chewed up and spat out by the label system,” he says. “There’s a lot of sour tastes in a lot of people’s mouths from being ‘mistreated’ by a label. I have a lot of friends who’ve had very unfortunate experiences.”

“I was really lucky. I didn’t have that. I have nothing but wonderful things to say,” he quickly adds.“It wasn’t a full-on drop or anything. I was acting, and I was spreading myself really thin. It’s a record label’s job to make product, and I was doing it piecemeal here and there. I would shoot a season [of ‘Glee’] and then do a play. I was doing too many things. I didn’t have it in me at the time to do music. I had written a few songs I thought were… fine.”

Both Criss and the label came to the same conclusion: perhaps this professional relationship just wasn’t a good fit. They parted ways, and he harbors no ill-will. In fact, he remains close friends with many folks from that time. So, it seems, a show like “Royalties” satisfies his deep hunger to make music and write songs ─ and do it totally on his own terms.

“I still say I want to put out music, and fans have been very vocal about that. I feel very fortunate they’re still interested at all,” he says. “That passion for making music really does come out in stuff like [this show].”

“Royalties” is Darren Criss at his most playful, daring, and offbeat. It’s the culmination of everything he has tirelessly worked toward over the last decade and a half. Under pressure with a limited filming schedule, he hits on all cylinders with a soundtrack, released on Republic Records, that sticks in the brain like all good pop music should do. And it would not have been the same had he, alongside Matt and Nick Lang, not formed Team StarKid 11 years ago.

Truth be told, it all began with a “Little White Lie.”

[taww]

Review: Legacy i·V2 Class D Stereo Amplifier

Legacy iv2 stereo amplifier

The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW)

TAWW Rating: 5 / 5

Class D power going toe-to-toe with Class A refinement

PROS: Nonexistent noise and distortion; tube-like midrange purity; full tonal balance with stellar bass; effortless power delivery; top to bottom refinement.

CONS: Ever-so-slight reductions in top-end extension, low-level resolution and dynamic life; slight mechanical buzz; binding posts could be nicer.

Class D (a.k.a. switching) amps have been around for decades, but really started to hit the audiophile scene in the early 2000′s. My first experiences around that time were a mixed bag, to say the least. A PS Audio HCA-2 sent my way for review blew its output stage when I powered it up. (In retrospect, my subwoofer setup may have been the culprit.) I wrote a review of the original NuForce integrated amp which, despite some sonic promise, felt like an unfinished product. The $30, battery-powered Sonic Impact "Class T" amp became a budget sensation, beguiling even some SET tube lovers, but its magic quickly ran out if you demanded more than a few watts from it. (The magic also ran out for its chip manufacturer Tripath, which went bankrupt.) And then there was a first-generation Bang & OIufsen ICEPower module, packaged inside an integrated amp by a high-end marque. It sounded pretty bad - dry, grainy, lifeless. How much was due to the ICEPower module vs. the rest of the amp is impossible to say, but it wasn't an auspicious introduction to the technology. Given this checkered past, it's little wonder Class D has been battling a reputation for sonic mediocrity with audiophiles. But new technologies make progress quickly, and the increasing number of rave reviews for the latest and greatest from Hypex, Pascal, ICEPower and others had me wondering... has Class D finally "made it" sonically? My time so far with the ICEPower-based Legacy i·V2 (USD $4,785) has been a pretty convincing yes.

Description

I won’t get into all the history and technical details of ICEpower technology - for that, I recommend this excellent audioXpress article. Of note is that ICEPower, after starting off as an independent subsidiary of Bang & Olufsen, split off into its own entity in 2016. The ICEedge controller chip at the heart of the Legacy amp’s 1200AS modules had been under development for 7 years and represents the latest and greatest iteration of ICEpower’s proprietary technology. It can scale in power from 50 to as many as 7,000 watts, and unlike some of those earlier Class D amps I tried, it has an array of sophisticated control and protection features to ensure smooth, bulletproof operation. In many months with the amp I’ve experienced zero clicks, thumps, signs of oscillation or other hiccups.

A kilowatt of clean power from this one board!

The i·V2 implements the ICEdge 1200AS modules as-is without any bespoke customizations to the circuit. (Note that this is the higher-performance mono 1200AS module, not the less expensive 1200AS2 stereo module that’s much more common.) Some other brands add their own input stage, but Legacy chief Bill Dudleston has opted to keep things stock and simple. You might be wondering, why can't I buy these modules myself then, slap them in a Chinese enclosure from eBay, save thousands of dollars and call it a day? The simple answer is ICEPower only sells them to OEMs, and forbids direct sales to consumers. But Mr. Dudleston also mentioned grounding of the modules as an area of special care, saying they were able to achieve a few dB's of additional noise performance through careful experimentation. At this level of power and performance, the little things matter.

Speaking of enclosures, the i·V2 has an extremely solid all-aluminum chassis with rose gold accent trim and plenty of ventilation around the modules. It's reassuringly hefty at 30lbs/13.6kg, so you wouldn't immediately guess it's a class D amp were it not for the 610W continuous (1000W peak) power rating. There's zero flex anywhere and while I have no idea how sensitive the modules are to vibration, knocking on the chassis gives a satisfyingly dull thud - much superior to anything you'd get on eBay or from lower-priced ICEPower resellers. There's a meter on the front, however this is neither a power meter as on McIntosh, nor a bias meter as on Pass Labs, but a measurement of the available AC power line voltage. There's a small pot on the rear panel to center it, and once calibrated it stays motionless during operation. I'm not really sure of the purpose of it, perhaps to monitor if your power lines are sagging when pulling in excess of the 1200 watts that the i·V2 is capable of delivering. The overall look is nicely done though probably a matter of taste... my wife not-so-affectionately nicknamed the amp "JARVIS" [sic] because the triangular meter reminded her of the yellow mindstone on the forehead of Vision, JARVIS's superhero embodiment in the Avengers movies. In what seems to be the fashion these days, the power/standby switch is located under the front panel, and there's an additional power switch at the AC inlet. One set of very standard 5-way insulated binding posts is provided along with balanced XLR and unbalanced RCA inputs. At this price point, I would have liked nicer posts, e.g. Furutech or WBT Nextgen. Not that there's anything wrong with the provided ones, and perhaps these posts were necessary to meet the extremely high power spec, but they feel decidedly prosaic and less pleasant to turn vs. the now-ubiquitous WBT's. A 12v trigger input rounds out the package.

Can’t get enough of rose gold? The i·V2 has you covered.

Setup

I tested the amp in two very different systems: the main reference rig, consisting of PS Audio DirectStream DAC ($6k), Gryphon Essence preamp ($17k) and Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Aretté ($25k) speakers; and a second system with RME ADI-2 DAC ($1200), Pass Labs XP10 preamp ($5k) and Silverline Prelude Plus ($2k). As you can imagine, really critical listening was done with the reference rig, but the second setup helped feel out how l the Legacy worked in a less expensive system. Interconnects are my usual mix of Audience Au24 SX and DH Labs Air Matrix; speaker cables were Audience Au24 SX or Furutech DSS-4.1. With the big rig, the Furutech was an excellent match; in the smaller system I used the Audience. I used only the balanced XLR inputs of the amp, so if your results differ from mine and you're using unbalanced RCA, that may be a factor. My system has been fully balanced for several years now and there's been no looking back.

The i·V2 is somewhat sensitive to the choice of power cord. I say "somewhat" because it certainly won't sound wrong or bad with a given cord, the stock one included, but nuances of its presentation can change - bass response, hall perspective, top end extension and soundstage proportion were the most noticeable aspects. For most of the time I was admittedly lazy and used a trusty Audience powerChord SEi without further thought. One day I finally swapped one of @mgd-taww​'s proprietary cords and found it to make a nice difference, which warranted some further tinkering. I found the otherwise superlative Furutech DPS-4.1 to not be a great match - it delivered tons of detail and a huge soundstage, but sounded slightly hollow tonally and lost some of the i·V2's endearing smoothness. The Audience Forte F3 (currently $149) was the big surprise - I actually preferred it to the more expensive powerChord. Audience graciously provided me with a set of Forte F3 cords a few years back when they debuted, but I haven't spoken much about them as I hadn't gotten them to click in my system. With most gear, the Forte was lighter, airier, but lacking some substance and transparency vs. the big-brother powerChord SEi. But with the i·V2, the Forte was surprisingly even better balanced and focused than the powerChord, with a more present midrange, more mid-bass punch and a bit more attack and air on the top end. Some systems and ears may still prefer the more laid-back perspective and silkier top end of the powerChord, but I really liked what the Forte did. At such a reasonable price point, it's a no-brainer upgrade over stock.

Direct connection from the RME DAC worked, but a preamp was much preferable.

A quick word about preamps: you need one with this amp. The RME DAC didn't sound particularly good driving the i·V2 directly and greatly benefited from the Pass Labs XP10. Moving up to the Gryphon Essence preamp was even better, and the i·V2 was more than resolving enough to reveal the Gryphon's substantial advantage in musical resolution and extension at the frequency extremes over the Pass Labs. As mentioned, many purveyors of Class D amplifier modules add their own flavor to the sound with an extra input stage (e.g. PS Audio adds a tube input buffer to the Stellar M1200) and this is one interesting way to go, but my preference would probably be to stick with a vanilla but more neutral ICEdge module as in the i·V2, then tune the system with a proper preamp.

Another setup observation: yes, Class D runs extremely cool vs. traditional amps, but they do still generate some heat and I was a bit surprised that the i·V2 always ran slight warm to the touch, similar to the Bryston 4B Cubed. And sure enough, I measured around 58W of power draw at idle - virtually identical to the Class AB Bryston, or an Ayre AX7e integrated for that matter. The big difference is that the i·V2 will deliver the vast majority of its musical power thereafter into the speakers and not the heatsinks, and temperature rose very little even during some heavy listening sessions. It will never get burning hot, but please don't stick it in an enclosed cabinet - as always, ventilation is still required. If you plan to keep the amp in standby, rest assured it draws only around 0.3W, and sound is delivered almost immediately upon power-up. It does require a few minutes to start sounding its best, but certainly warms up much faster than Class A or AB amps that generally require an hour or more to get close to their full potential.

I do wish the binding posts were fancier...

Finally, while the amplifier is absolutely dead quiet through the 92.5dB-efficienty Audiovector speakers, I noticed a slight buzzing sound from the amplifier modules themselves. It wasn't really audible from the listening position, but you could definitely hear it by the equipment rack. It's comparable to the slight buzz from a toroidal transformer that's dealing with a little DC on the power line, but I'm unsure that is the cause here vs. some intrinsic noise from the ICEPower's switching supply. None of my other components are having this issue at the moment, though in fairness, the Gryphons' exceptional quality transformers that are fully potted and enclosed set a benchmark for mechanical quietness. Not a major issue, just mentioning for completeness.

The Sound

Looking back at my listening notes from the first couple hundred hours of the i·V2's time in my system, it was apparent that I really needed to give the amp more time to break in. I should have known better, as my experience with audio gear employing high-speed switching circuits like DACs and Class D amps is they take a very long time to settle in. The DirectStream DAC needed at least 500 hours to sound its best, and despite cranking the Legacy amp into a 4-ohm dummy load for dozens of hours at a time with my break-in playlist, it took a couple hundred more hours before the Legacy started to click in the reference system. The second system is more forgiving and sounded good earlier on, but I'd still make sure to give the amp many, many hours before passing judgement.

Once that was out of the way, listening impressions were consistent and roundly impressive. Among the Legacy's more enviable characteristics: super low distortion; dead-quiet silence; terrific bass response; seemingly endless power on tap; smooth tonality with no discernible coloration; a surprisingly silky treble and full mid-bass; and a relaxed, slightly laid-back perspective that's a bit less immediate than my Class A amps, but still resolving and involving. Let's delve in...

Head to head with the mighty Gryphon Essence

Tonally, the Legacy struck me as slightly mellower than my reference Gryphon Essence, at least with the Audiovector speakers. I hesitate to say the Legacy is "warmer," or the Gryphon is "brighter.” The Legacy, along with the Gryphon or the Bryston 4B Cubed have less overt tonal coloration compared to, say, the Pass XA30.5 (distinctly but not excessively warm), Valvet A4 Mk.II (more forward in the upper midrange) or Ayre AX7e (crisper and lighter). The upper frequencies were very slightly less prominent with the Legacy than the Gryphon, even though I’d never call the Gryphon bright or the Legacy rolled-off. There’s just a little less air in the soundstage, and instruments with strong HF energy like Donald Byrd’s trumpet in “Witchcraft” (Byrd in Hand, Qobuz 16/44) felt slightly curtailed vs. the ultra-open Gryphon. It might have more to do with the amps’ approach to harmonics than their inherent brightness, which I’ll get to later.

The midrange is smooth and balanced, with a purity that's a step above my aural memory of the Pass and Bryston. As with the treble, it has a sense of warmth and silkiness not for what it adds to the signal, but for what it doesn't. It’s so exceptionally free of any audible distortion that even the lovely Valvet sounded a tiny bit grainy and coarse by comparison. Given that I lauded the Valvet for its midrange purity relative to the Bryston 4B3, which in turn I also liked for its midrange quality, that’s saying something.

Class D amps typically have great bass, and the Legacy didn't disappoint. Earlier in the review period, it easily surpassed the Gryphon in weight and punch, making the Gryphon sound slightly anemic on tracks like Billie Eilish's “all the good girls go to hell” (Qobuz 24/44). It was also more neutral and controlled than the Pass while having even more punch. The Gryphon still has more texture, depth and musical resolution with my speakers, and more recently it has retaken the lead in overall bass response for reasons I'm still trying understand. Either the Gryphon has finally fully broken in its enormous bank of supply capacitors, or improvements to other aspects of the system (e.g. a 20A power line) have favored it. Given that many love the bass performance of Pass Labs and the Gryphon is considered world-class in that regard, the Legacy has to be considered superb, with both the power and refinement to satisfy music lovers across a wide spectrum of genres and tastes.

What really stands out about the i·V2 is how it can combine all of the above qualities with over 600 watts of continuous power, yielding a balanced presentation that's utterly composed regardless of volume level or material. The way it scales its refinement beyond ear-splitting levels makes most every traditional amp seem shouty, edgy or strained by comparison. While the Bryston 4B3 sounded better the louder I played it, it wasn't as smooth and detailed; the Pass XA30.5 got a bit lumpy and loose at the limit; the Valvet gets a little edgy and coarse at moderately high levels; and even the mighty Gryphon Essence can get subtly brighter as you ask more power of it. The Legacy is an effortlessly smooth operator, and I certainly didn't have a speaker on hand that could faze it in any way.

Tradeoffs

Resolution of fine detail is where the Class A stalwarts pull away from the Legacy. There’s a few aspects of reproduction where this exhibits: top-end extension, harmonic resolution, very low level detail and soundstaging, which I’ll attempt to detail...

The top-end is what I would call slightly soft. It's not rolled-off, nor did I find it "dark" as I've seen some people call it. It's more that a level of sparkle and sheen that is subtly omitted from the sound. Instruments like cymbals, triangles and trumpets still have realistic tonality, they just feel slightly softer around the edges. This also affects the feeling of harmonic completeness - the highest overtones of woodwinds are somewhat curtailed. This led my oboist wife to comment that the i·V2 made oboists she was personally familiar with sound even smoother and sweeter than real life, whereas the honesty of the Gryphon Essence gave a more realistic representation.

The Valvet A4 Mk.II and certainly the Gryhon Essence, and by aural recollection the Pass XA30.5, also capture a bit more of the ambient signature in a recording - the "hall" sound, the sense of performers in a space. It’s not that the Legacy is very lacking in this respect, but similar to early SACD players, it does still have a touch of the “velvet curtain” effect where below a certain threshold, subtle parts of the signal seem attenuated. This can also makes listening at very low levels a tiny bit muffled. Resolution is still excellent, at least on par with amps around the $5k price point, e.g. the Bryston 4B Cubed. A pair of Benchmark AHB2’s could be interesting competition, but I haven’t heard it, and it doesn’t have anywhere near the current capability of the Legacy.

The last area where I found the Class A amps superior was dynamic contrasts. Despite the Legacy being the most power amplifier I have ever used by a long shot, it actually didn't sound more dynamic at typical volume than the 50 watt Gryphon, or the 55 watt Valvet monoblocks. Sure, it will play much louder than they can, but loudness isn't the same as dynamics. The Gryphon and Valvet both had a bit more life, a bit more contrast in colors... I hate to say it, but more “PRAT.” I'd put the Legacy somewhere between these amps and the Bryston 4B Cubed, which had a greater tendency to flatten dynamic nuances. (Note: my speakers are quite efficient and tame, so I’d imagine this could be a very different story into something significantly under 90dB/watt and/or presenting a tougher load.)

One more caveat to the above observations: it might be more speaker-dependent with the i·V2 than a typical linear amplifier. Interestingly, I found the i·V2 to kind of be the opposite in terms of speaker interactions and tonality to what I usually experience with my systems. The reference Audiovector speakers, with their ruthlessly revealing AMT tweeters and critically balanced tonality tend to be less forgiving of amplifiers than the much more affordable Silverlines with their soft-dome tweeter. However I actually found the i·V2 to bring out just a bit of upper midrange and lower treble prominence with the Silverline (not a bad thing per se), while sounding comparatively mellow with the Audiovectors. Load-dependent performance is a well-known challenge with the Class D topology, and while designers have found increasingly sophisticated means of mitigating it, it is probably still a factor here, albeit a much more nuanced one than in the past. I have to wonder if this variability is why one still hears of such wildly varying opinions of Class D amps... in any case, an audition with your preferred speakers is highly advisable. 

Further Musings...

The Legacy i·V2's exceptional performance forced me to check my notions of fidelity. In terms of measured performance, it’s among the best I’ve experienced (along with the Bryston 4B Cubed), and my ears registered its sound as correspondingly pure and distortion-free. Could the Legacy's slightly smoother, less bright and less overtly dimensional perspective actually be more accurate than my other amps? It's been shown (by e.g. Nelson Pass) that some judicious 2nd order harmonic distortion can add a sense of dimensionality to a recording, which explains why tubes can sound so "holographic". In the tube case, I find this to be a euphonic (albeit lovely) deviation from the original recording. The Gryphon Essence is also a soundstaging beast, and while it’s far more neutral than any tube amp I’ve heard, could some of its dimensionality also be additive rather than accurate? Could something similar be said of the i·V2 slightly soft treble - is this actually the absence of distortion that exists in virtually all other systems, including the ones used to master recordings? Listening to a bright pop album, e.g. Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (Qobuz 24/44), the i·V2 was certainly more listenable than the crisper and more sibilant Gryphon. On the other hand, the Gryphon has a bracing immediacy, a feeling of being pulled into the mix and enveloped by the music. The i·V2 by comparison is a little tame, a little reserved, perhaps even a tad muffled. Is that extra dynamic verve and contrast I hear from the Gryphon and other Class A amps real, or an artifact? Which is more accurate?

Because of the infinite number of variables in the recording and playback chain, there's likely no clear-cut answer. While no one buys a Gryphon or Pass Labs for the best specs, there’s no denying that the latest crop of Class D amps are on another level of measured performance from old-school Class A machinery. On the other hand, I do feel the i·V2 subtracts a few things from the signal. How much does that matter to your ears in your system? It's a close enough call that I can imagine circumstances of some preferring the Legacy to the Gryphon. For me personally, while I could happily live with the Legacy, I do inevitably find myself returning to the Gryphon for those extra nuances - the fineness of instrumental textures, the palpability of the soundstage, the dynamic inflections - the things that make hifi more evocative of the real thing. 

I recently attended a lovely performance by The Cleveland Orchestra in their summer home, Blossom Music Festival. (Hurray for the return of live concerts!) When I returned home that evening, the Legacy was hooked up in the system. I put on a live recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra - not at all equivalent in venue or performance to what I had just heard, but bear with me - and it struck me that the tonality of the i·V2 was actually quite evocative of the real thing. Live orchestral performances have a ton of energy, and yet they sound so smooth and sweet compared to typical reproduced sound. The i·V2 captured that silkiness to a greater degree than I’ve heard in my system, but was lacking some of the edge and vitality. Switching to the Gryphon gave me more of the excitement of the live event, but tonally it wasn’t quite as spot on. At this point, we’re probably approaching the limits of conventional reproduced sound, so some tradeoff will be necessary. Which one is “better” may depend on your frame of reference. E.g. if you like the neutrality and balance of solid state amps, you'll likely find little missing from the Legacy's presentation; if you favor the tonal color, dynamic verve and larger-than-life presence of tubes, you may find the Legacy a little dull. The very fact that I'm having to finely parse these matters of fidelity and taste is a testament to the overall excellence and refinement of the i·V2. To accomplish that that with 610 watts on tap for under $5k is a significant milestone for Class D technology, and a remarkable feat of engineering.

I must mention the obvious ecological benefits of Class D over Class A - we are drawing literally hundreds fewer watts, we don't need to keep it running or warm it up for extended periods to sound good and we are generating far less waste heat. The electric bill and thus cost of ownership will also be appreciably less. On the flip side, the jury is still out on how long these amps will last, vs. a Gryphon or Pass Labs or Bryston that one can easily imagine humming along for 20+ years. As such, and as is often the case with newer and more commoditized tech, I'd expect resale value to be significantly lower than those marques. Just a couple extra things to consider when you're plunking down a not-inconsiderable amount of money on a piece of kit.

Conclusion

The Legacy i·V2, and Class D amplification more broadly, are emblematic of larger shifts in high-end audio technology. Just as solid state and digital audio took a while to hit their stride and gain legitimacy in the exalted (ok I'll say it, snobby) circles of the high-end, we've hit a point of maturity with Class D where technological sophistication and subjective fidelity can go hand in hand. The fact that I strained my ears comparing the i·V2 to a $24k Class A reference that is far and away the best amplifier I have ever heard in my system is all the proof I needed. For under $5k, the Legacy i·V2 delivers a balance of refinement and power that is unmatched by any conventional amplifier I'm aware of near its price point, and competitive in absolute terms with the better amplifiers under $10k and beyond, regardless of technology. It's a cut above what I heard from the Bryston 4B Cubed, and while I haven't had the Pass Labs XA.8 series in my own room, I would not hesitate to line it up against them. Many may still prefer the more overt musicality of the hot-running Pass behemoths, but my feeling is it'll be more a matter of personal taste or system matching, as opposed to one of absolute fidelity.

I have a few burning questions on my mind now. The first is how Legacy's implementation of the ICEdge 1200AS compares to other ones on the market - could you get similar or even better performance for less? The next one is how does the Legacy/ICEdge stack up against other Class D implementations from Hypex, Purifi, Pascal and others? And finally, I've also heard a lot of wonderful things about the Class H Benchmark AHB-2 from ears I trust. It too is compact, cool-running, superbly specified and relatively affordable, but utilizes a sophisticated implementation of traditional linear amplification technology. I would love to compare and contrast the Legacy with that amp.

In the meantime, I strongly endorse an audition of this amplifier without prejudice. It's a remarkable achievement in amplification - highly recommended!

[aion-rsa]

Will the Rocky IV Director’s Cut Kill its Charm?

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Rocky IV remains a prototypical example of 1980s American franchise filmmaking, having conveyed a patriotic Cold-War-evocative ethos through the aesthetically shiny lens of scrappy superhuman pugilists pummeling each other over revenge and world peace, all to Vince DiCola’s absurd synthesizer-strewn score. Oh, and lest we forget, it had a robot!  While those attributes entitled the 1985 film to the smug dismissal and earnest appreciation of posterity, star/writer/director Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming director’s cut risks erasing its allure.

Stallone, who announced his plan for a new Rocky IV cut last year, has completed his redux of the famous franchise‘s four-quel. However, unlike that other director’s cut dominating current conversations, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Sly’s upcoming Rocky IV Director’s Cut is an update of a film that was properly released by its director. Having premiered back on Nov. 27, 1985, Rocky IV was a box-office-topping hit that proved profoundly profitable for studio MGM, with a worldwide gross of $300 million ($733.3 million adjusted for inflation,) against a budget of $28 million. Moreover, despite its oft-focused foibles, the film retained enough interest 33 years later to be directly followed up in Creed II. However, to borrow his parlance from 2006’s Rocky Balboa, Stallone seemed to have “stuff in the basement,” to unleash for the fourth film.  

“We’ve just been working on punches and sounds because it’s never complete,” explains Stallone of his director’s cut approach in an Instagram update. “I’ve said this before, you can go back and see a movie that you’ve done 50 years ago and go, ‘I’ve got to re-edit that.’ And every director feels the same way. It’s not about making a movie, it’s about remaking. Unfortunately, you run out of time, you run out of money. They basically throw you out of the room. So, therefore, you don’t get a chance, but on this one, I finally got a chance, so I’m feeling great about this.”

While the full extent of the changes Stallone made to Rocky IV obviously won’t be known until he premieres his new cut, some tidbits have made the rounds. One of the earliest-known changes is the elimination of one of its most campy, pseudo-sci-fi elements, the aforementioned robot. Specifically, the Jetsons-esque talking robot—a real-life invention called SICO, created by International Robotics Inc.—that well-to-do champ Rocky gives as a birthday present to his leachy live-in brother-in-law, Paulie (Burt Young) in the film’s first act. However, the robot—complete with a fancy-for-1985 cordless phone system installed—became a punchline, even for within film, during which it was implied that Paulie eventually altered its settings to sound and act like an alluring female maid that worships him while fetching his beers. Thus, the elimination of the robot not only deletes the amusing automaton, but it also necessitates an essence-altering recut of Paulie’s birthday party scenes. Yet, Stallone’s response to a fan’s posted desire to give SICO a reprieve was met with Ivan Drago-like coldness, stating, “I don’t like the robot anymore.”

MGM/UA

And that brings us to the film’s Siberian Bull big bad himself, Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, whose claim-to-fame fight in which he beat Carl Weathers’s Apollo Creed to death will apparently be extended in a yet-unknown manner in Stallone’s new cut. The role positioned newcomer Lundgren for stardom in what was only his second onscreen appearance, having previously appeared six months earlier in 1985 Bond movie A View to a Kill as a thug named Venz; a role he acquired due to his real-life romantic relationship with co-star Grace Jones. Besides being an imposing spectacle of a human being (which he remains to this day), Lundgren’s outing as Drago was meant to depict him as the ultimate villain, a soulless Soviet slayer shaped by communism, steroids and all-around godlessness. However, while that façade was shattered by the end of the film (and even more so in Creed II), it remains to be seen if extended Drago scenes—specifically in the Apollo fight—ends up weighing the film down unnecessarily.

Read more

Movies

Rocky IV Director’s Cut Will Ditch Robot

By Mike Cecchini

Culture

Could Rocky Balboa Really Have Gone the Distance?

By Tony Sokol

If there’s one thing that critics can’t take away from Rocky IV, it would have to be Stallone’s artfully economic approach as a director. The film manifests as a slim, trim 91-minute affair that saves money by being deliberately diluted with lengthy montages—FOUR of them in total. In fact, even if we generously discount his blatant reuse of Rocky and Apollo’s Rocky III-closing sparring session for the opening scene, two of said montages fully consist of recycled footage from the previous three films. Indeed, the movie kicks off by playing “Eye of the Tiger” during the franchise-obligatory recap of the previous film’s final fight, and Rocky’s contemplative car ride after Apollo’s death is riddled with flashback scenes, during which a soundtrack song, Robert Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out,” plays out in full! You certainly have to hand it to Sly, the man knows how to get a big bang for his production buck. Yet, as with other intrinsically-Rocky IV aspects, one must wonder if Stallone has soured on his in-retrospect-amiable montage method of movie-making as much as the Robot.

On another note, Rocky IV is also known to be riddled with major movie mistakes, and I do mean A LOT of them; proverbial warts that have also come to define the film. For example, a major continuity mistake occurs before the Apollo/Drago fight when Apollo is in the ring trash-talking Drago, shouting, “I want you! I want you!” while his bare hand mockingly points at the Russian. Of course, just minutes earlier, we saw Apollo getting his hands taped up in his dressing room, and he was clearly gloved up when he came down to the ring in a James Brown-accompanied spectacle entrance. Additionally, a similarly bizarre mistake occurs during Rocky’s mid-movie vision of Drago in the aforementioned “No Easy Way Out” montage, which shows the Russian in the red trunks that he would later wear in the film’s final fight. Yet, most egregiously, Drago is clearly sporting the actual cut under his left eye that Rocky would deliver to him in the second round! While I could see Stallone wanting to fix mistakes like this, it would still be a shame to lose them.

However, a director’s cut of Rocky IV could yield benefits. After all, it could correct Apollo’s funeral scene, in which an odd focus error occurs on the right side of the frame that blurs out a few attendees, leading viewers to think it was censored. Moreover, it could prospectively integrate legendary lost elements. For example, Drago’s iconic evil line—delivered after he just killed Apollo—declaring “If he dies, he dies” was originally complemented by another would-be famous line that wasn’t even delivered in the film, but could finally get its onscreen due. Rocky IV’s teaser trailer featured an ominous introductory monologue from the villain that, contemporaneously, was just associated with the character as the movie line. Delivered in Lundrgen’s labored Russian accent, lines such as “My name is Drago” and “Soon, the whole world will know my name” were prominent pieces of the film’s early ephemera. In fact, the latter line was famously sampled at the end of New Wave act Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s 1986 hit (famously used in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off), “Love Missle F1-11,” in which the trailer clip—along with imitated lines from Scarface and The Terminator—was included to exemplify the song’s commentary on American cinematic ultraviolence.  

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Regardless of how it turns out, fans of the campy four-quel will be anxious to see what surprises Stallone has in store for the Rocky IV Director’s Cut. However, he has yet to reveal release date.

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