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teenyfish · 4 years ago

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Marine Biology Story of the Day #9

Welcome back to the blog—hello new followers!

So what does a marine biologist actually do for work? Is it always adventure on the high seas?

Well, it’s not always adventure on the high seas—you see, science isn’t exactly super well funded these days, and you need money to do that kind of stuff, AND that money usually comes from shareholders that want you to research things that may be beneficial to them. In addition, as a biologist, you have to spend long periods of time on shore in your office and lab, analyzing data and writing peer reviewed journals in the hopes that they’ll be published. That’s the price you pay for the cool fun times.

So what do I actually do for a living?

Welp, a big chunk of my research is working as a shrimp disease researcher and a shrimp ecologist.

Really, Jillian? You say, What about the sharks? What about the deep sea?

Well, here’s the thing—big charismatic animals are cool and all, but my tumblr handle is teenyfish, and that is because what I like to research are the tiny animals that are much lower on the food chain. Why? Because in many ways, they are the most important, and the most diagnostic when it comes to determining the health of an ecosystem.

How’d I get into shrimp disease?

Well, I used to work for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Trawl Survey.

Basically, we went out on the Chesapeake Bay and would catch all species of fish to determine how fish populations were doing in the Bay from year to year. I began noticing that all the penaeid shrimp we caught began showing signs of blackened gills.

(gradient of black gill infection on left, close up of black gills on right)

I informed one of our P.I.’s (principal investigators) and our Black Gill Disease survey was born.

What is Black Gill Disease? Well, the blackened gills are actually an immune response that a variety of marine invertebrates (crabs, shrimp, lobsters) have in response to foreign invaders (bacteria, viral disease, parasites). In penaeid shrimp (aka the shrimp we like to eat—think bubba gump shrimp), its caused by Hyalophysa lynni, a parasitic ciliate that embeds itself into the gills of the shrimp. Ciliates are microscopic single celled organisms that propel themselves around with little “hairs”

(H. lynni, picture from Frischer et al. 2019)

Once the ciliate bites down on those shrimp gills, the shrimp release melanin that surround the ciliate and begin releasing chemicals that break it down. Unfortunately though, the chemicals also cause tissue death in the surrounding gill tissues, so they start not being able to breath as well. It’s kind of like when you get the flu (or COVID-19—lets be topical) and your body responds by giving you a fever that makes you super duper weak. Gets rid of the problem, but you feel like shit.

(closeup of healthy shrimp gills (A) vs. black gill damaged shrimp gills (B), from Landers et al. 2020)

So, this means the shrimp are weaker, slower, and about 2-3x more susceptible to predation. Which means THEY IN DANGER GIRRRLLL.

This disease was first “discovered” in Georgia and North Carolina in the late 90’s, so it’s actually relative new and completely understudied. Which means once I jumped on this project my career ABSOLUTELY BLEW UP (in a good way).

I got a job as a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Coastal Fisheries Division about two years ago, mostly because of the shrimp disease research I was doing in Virginia. Since moving down to Texas, I’ve been in charge of two major shrimp disease monitoring projects across the entire Texas gulf coast (It takes 8 hours to drive the full length from Louisiana to Mexico). We go out and collect samples from 7 major bays in Texas (Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, East and West Matagorda Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, and Upper and Lower Laguna Madre)

I rely pretty heavily on our fisheries techs to collect samples for me since our coast is so expansive, but I do go out often on our local bay with my husband (he works at another local TPWD lab).

Once we get shrimp, I isolate DNA from shrimp gill tissue, and then I use a really cool DNA fragment tissue sequencing method to see if the shrimp have H. lynni DNA or not. DNA sequencing is just a matter of using DNA primers to go in and select a certain part of the ciliate genome that is unique and differentiated from shrimp DNA. DNA is just a sequence of proteins--adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C), and each species of animal/plant/bacteria have parts of their genome that have a unique ATGC pattern—that’s how we can differentiate species!

Once I know which shrimp are positive for black gill, we can determine if temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, location, or time of year have an effect on how much black gill we see in shrimp populations coast wide.

Now, I got asked to be on TPWD’s PBS show—so here’s a small segment to kind of streamline what I do. Watch me be awkward on television.

youtube

I’m just going to point out, I do not do lab work CSI style, in the dark.

So in addition to black gill, I’m beginning to look at other common shrimp diseases too (like the aforementioned White Spot Disease in the video). Because of this, I got to go to a shrimp disease pathology course at the University of Arizona. Why is a marine disease lab in Arizona you ask? Because Arizona is not near any body of water, so they do not risk contamination. Also, they tell me the Arizona sun is pretty good at disinfecting aquarium equipment. I got to learn new DNA sequencing methods and dip my toe into histology, which is basically sectioning shrimp samples and dying organs so you can see what is going on with an organism’s body.

(cross section of a healthy shrimp gill)

Because of this, my TPWD coworkers and I are hopefully going to hop onto a big disease study with the University of Arizona and South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources—but we are still waiting to hear back from the USDA to see if our study is going to be funded. Fingers crossed.

In addition to the University of Arizona study, I’m working with Texas SeaGrant and commercial shrimpers to collect more samples in the Gulf of Mexico (think WAAAAAYYYY offshore, 70-100 miles offshore). This is where all the big adult shrimp are, and I want to collect samples to see if adult shrimp are passing the disease to their offspring as their babies move inshore. And from the looks of it, the adults have it to.

(one of my boat captains, who is out on the Gulf right now, sent me this picture. Note the dark gills)

I’m sure I’ll have some more information for you all in the future as my studies progress, but for now, I’ll leave you with this: The Texas Gulf Coast shrimp populations are infected with H. lynni—and at some of the highest levels in the country. In the summer, upwards of 80% of shrimp can be infected in coastal Texas regions. In addition, low salinity and high temperatures tend to increase disease prevalence as well, and this might be tied to climate change and warming waters, as well as salinity changes due to increased precipitation (due to climate change) and the rerouting of river flow.

(percentage of black gill positive shrimp across the Texas gulf coast from 2019--from a WIP manuscript of mine)

Thanks for reading ya’ll, and as always, PLEASE do not hesitate to ask questions about my research.

#marine biology #marine biologist #marine biology story of the day #ocean stories #ocean biology #shrimp biology #disease pathology #shrimp disease pathology #parasite biology #real science #texas gulf coast #texas biology #gulf of mexico #penaeid shrimp #shrimp

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go-redgirl · 4 years ago

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GOP wrestles with role of culture wars in party's future

Court: Black man enslaved by restaurant manager should be awarded over…

Marjorie Taylor Greene Roasted for 'Loyalty to Trump' Tweet After Texas…

Republicans wrestling over the future of the party are debating whether to embrace the culture wars that helped former President Trump cement his popularity with the GOP base.

The internal rift, which involves congressional leaders and potential 2024 presidential contenders, comes as Republicans have struggled to dent President Biden's popularity and as they plot their strategy to win back the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.

While some in the GOP are eager to double down on Trump's brand of populism, others argue the party needs to return to its roots.

"I think that the long-term future of the Republican Party requires it to be some version of the traditional Republican Party: strong on national security, low taxes, limited government, limited regulation and in the broadest sense of the word, pro-business," said Vin Weber, a Republican strategist, who espouses the more traditionalist party.

But he also acknowledged, "We're at a moment when cultural issues are pushing everything else aside."

"There's no escaping that cultural issues are dominating," Weber said.

Issues that have dominated the conservative mediasphere in recent weeks include Major League Baseball's decision to pull the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of Georgia's new voting law; the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial; a company halting publication of certain Dr. Seuss books due to racist imagery; and a false report that the Biden administration would limit meat consumption as part of its fight against climate change.

The vanguard pushing the GOP to become more populist in Trump's image include Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) - two potential 2024 presidential candidates - who say they will no longer accept corporate PAC contributions.

"Starting today, I no longer accept money from any corporate PAC. I urge my GOP colleagues to do the same. For too long, Republicans have allowed the left & their big-business allies to attack our values & ship jobs overseas with no response. No more," Cruz tweeted on Wednesday.

That prompted an enthusiastic response from Hawley, who retweeted Cruz the following day.

"Yes! Corporate America has put Americans last. They ship our jobs to China, mock middle America's way of life, try to control our speech and run our lives," Hawley wrote. "It's time we stood up to them. I won't take corporate PAC donations & I'll fight to break up their monopoly power."

The bashing of corporations is striking a discordant tone with other Republicans at a time when they're trying to marshal a unified defense against Biden's plan to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, from 21 percent, to pay for his infrastructure agenda.

"It's repudiating a segment of the American economy and the American electorate that has traditionally been very loyal to the Republicans. It's an amazing example of ideological shapeshifting to wage war along cultural lines," said Ross K. Baker, professor of political science at Rutgers University and a former Senate fellow.

Trump has yet to say whether he will run for president again in 2024, but on Thursday he said that if he did he would "certainly" consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as a running mate. DeSantis is a staunch conservative and longtime Trump ally.

Video: Full Panel: Biden promotes progressive agenda in divided Washington (NBC News)

PauseAd 00:09 - up next "Full Panel: Biden promotes progressive agenda in divided Washington"Loaded: 100.00%Unmute0Full Panel: Biden promotes progressive agenda in divided Washington

The competing GOP approaches in the post-Trump era are also reflected in the starkly different styles of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a strong defender of traditional Republicanism, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has tied himself more to Trump's brand of conservatism.

McConnell hasn't spoken to Trump since mid-December and denounced the former president's role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Since then, he has rarely invoked Trump by name.

McCarthy, by contrast, visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after he left office and is now working closely with him ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump on Thursday renewed his call for Senate Republicans to replace McConnell as their leader, and promised to be a force in the midterms, citing his work with McCarthy.

But the lines in the internal debate over culture wars are fluid. McConnell joined in the tough talk directed at corporate America last month when he warned CEOs to "stay out of politics." He later backpedaled after being pressed on his longtime advocacy of allowing companies to spend freely on political campaigns.

More recently, McConnell led more than three dozen Senate Republicans in calling for the Education Department to abandon plans of offering grants to schools that include The New York Times's "1619 Project," which reframes U.S. history around the arrival of the first slave ship, in their curriculum.

"This is a time to strengthen the teaching of civics and American history in our schools. Instead, your Proposed Priorities double down on divisive, radical, and historically-dubious buzzwords and propaganda," the GOP senators wrote last week in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Baker said Republicans see cultural hot-button issues as more effective in generating attention than attacking Biden, who has maintained strong approval ratings since taking office.

A Gallup poll released in April showed Biden's approval at 57 percent - 16 percentage points higher than Trump's numbers at the same point in his presidency.

"They realize that Biden himself isn't a very good target. But the one thing they can get the blood boiling with are cultural issues: the 1619 Project, Black history, Black Lives Matter," Baker said of Republicans.

Some Republicans want their party to focus less on those topics and more on the issues that unified Republicans before Trump: lower taxes, smaller government, deregulation and a strong national defense.

"I know there are these cultural issues ... that get people very worked up and exercised but I think that there's plenty on the policy agenda, lots of ammunition to debate and a lot of contrasts to draw," said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.). "You can get distracted."

Thune called the false claims about Biden planning to ban Fourth of July burgers and similar blowups "a distraction."

With Biden looking to spend $4.1 trillion on infrastructure, raise taxes and pull troops out of Afghanistan, Thune sees a prime opportunity for Republicans to get back to what had long been their bread-and-butter issues.

"The public historically, at least, has trusted us on national security issues, I think with good reason. And I think that will continue to be a strong issue for us," said Thune. "The economic cluster of issues, taxes and spending will also be grist for a very robust debate about the future of the country."

Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers are worried that even the party's base isn't concerned about increased government spending and the price tags on Biden's infrastructure proposals, which are shaping up to cost $4.1 trillion.

The U.S. added nearly $8 trillion to the federal debt during Trump's four years in office and the Republican Party's base is now less concerned about the deficit than it was during former President Obama's first two years in office, when the Tea Party was on the ascent.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was the GOP presidential nominee in 2012, indicated he would prefer Republicans return to what he considered their traditional strengths.

"I'm not going to criticize other Republicans [and] the issues they tend to focus on. For me, the amount of our debt has been a concern and continues to be and I'm going to continue battling on that front," he said when asked about the recent penchant for fellow Republicans to focus on the culture wars.

Romney said traditional Republican positions on taxes, fiscal responsibility and foreign policy "are right for our economy and right for our future and will return, hopefully, to the centerpiece of our party."

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mysherlockstardis · 4 years ago

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America is already at War.

We are in a Civil Cold War.

We live in 2 separate countries.

It’s Donald Trump’s America vs Mainstream Media America. Yeah, I said it.

This is about the media and Donald Trump.

Donald Trump’s supporters hate the Mainstream Media (MSM). They believe insane conspiracy theories about the MSM like it being under governmental control. The MSM doesn’t share their values, because to be frank, the MSM believes in things like science.

To put it harshly, Donald Trump’s supporters are intimidated by educated people with different opinions then theirs. They don’t believe in climate change. They’re mostly evangelical which makes them inherently opposed to gay marriage and abortion rights. They are unaffected by school shootings, because their first concern is always whether or not Dems will take their guns. So, the one MSM channel that Trump supporters tolerate is that of Fox News.

However, conservative media is skewing so far way from reality that it’s terrifying. Conservative media spreads so much disinformation.

Both sides think the other are brainwashed sheep.

It’s so surreal.

Have you ever thought about how young America’s democracy is?

Like, Rome wasnt’t built in a day, but it still fell.

We’re not even a 250 year old democracy.

In the scheme of history do you know how little 250 years is? That’s like nothing. We’re still so fragile. My great-great grandfather fought in the civil war. Like that’s how relatively recent our country fought in the civil war.

Other countries have gone through centuries and centuries of civil war, and they are small ass countries.

This country has barely been formed, and the fact that our huge ass country lives in 2 different worlds is just jarring.

I don’t believe we’ll ever take up arms against each other in a trench style manner, but we are at the point where people have in fact taken up arms against each other.

When people are stabbed, or shot, or runnover for protesting and counter protesting against each other over political matters then we are already at war.

But now, it’s also become brother against sister.

Husband against wife.

Friend against friend.

Uncle against Niece.

Nephew against Aunt.

People have unfriended each other over social media. Families have stopped talking to each other. Husband and wife are struggling to not be disgusted with others political beliefs and values.

It’s sad. It’s a Cold War. Blood is being spilt. People are walking a dangerous line.

America is a pressure cooker.

I wish I knew the cure to our countries ailment. But the further conservatives disaccosiate from reality and the further progressive our country becomes the more divided we will grow.

Much like the confederate army, I do not believe Donald Trump’s Conservative party will pass the test of time.

America is a majority progressive country as proved by the popular vote being for the progressive candidates out of the last 7/8 elections. I do believe like the electoral college will continue to shift blue.

Democrats flipped Arizona and Georgia to the democratic (more progressive) candidate. That’s crazy!!

I believe our country can get past this. I do. It’s just gonna be a rough lifetime for the younger generation.

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ansheofthevalley · 5 years ago

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In one kiss, you’ll know all I haven’t said - Chapter 1 “Late night talks and late night calls”

Summary: It's New Year's Eve, and ace student Sansa Stark has had a great year. She is at the top of her class in the Daeron School of Political Science; she grew closer to her big brother (and now protector) Robb; she made awesome new friends and was adjusting perfectly to the change moving from cold, icy Winterfell to the bright King's Landing. With her family in town, this holiday season was supposed to be perfect for Sansa, but life is not a song. Life, Sansa would learn, has funny ways to show us what we need; and sometimes, what we need is way better that what we ever dreamed of.

"Come on, Margaery. We're going to be late!" Sansa reminded her friend for the twelfth time in the last thirty minutes.

"Well, yeah, Sans. That's the point" her friend replied, her voice an echo finding its way to the small living-room.

"We don't want to be punctual, we want to fashionably late" added Loras, Margaery's younger brother, sitting in one of the dining chairs, scrolling down his phone. The Tyrell siblings were socially savvy as they were beautiful. And they are really beautiful. "But you are forgiven because -"

"You're from the North" screamed Margaery from her room, trying to finish her brother's sentence. Sansa could picture the bright smile in her face as she said that.

"You guys know that Winterfell is not made of ice, right? And that we don't live secluded from people?" she retorted as she rolled her eyes. The siblings would always taunt her with how different she was from southenerns. "You could totally pass for someone from the Riverlands or even the Reach, but the moment you open your mouth, well, that gives it away that you're a northener" Margaery had told her once, in the early stages of their friendship.

When she first arrived at Aegon University, she had a hard time making friends. She's naturally reserved and missed her friends back home, especially Jeyne. But she found a great friend in Margaery. She first met Margaery in her Political Theory class and has since "been under her wing" as her friend puts it. Both Loras and his sister taught her "the Southern way" to do things. Sansa realized it was not just the climate or the scenery that differentiate the North from the South. It was the people, their way of thinking, their way of doing things. And even if the lesson they taught her was really about how to deal with boys, which trends to follow and how to get invited to the coolest parties, Sansa saw a deeper meaning in it. She always did. That was the reason she was a Political Science undergrad. She knew that something as simple as a word or an action is way more than just that. An action, simple as it may be, could wield great power. Words could easily work as a veil or be what they were intended to be, and Margaery understood this. She comes from a very powerful industrial family, she knows all about words, actions and power. The Queen of Thornes is her grandmother, after all.

"OK, I just had the greatest idea for next Halloween" Margaery exclaimed, coming out of her room in her green bathrobe, barefeet and with her make-up half done. "I'm a genius. We get you a blonde wig and bam, you're Elsa. And I'll be your Anna. I tell you, I'm a gen-"

"I'm going to stop right there" Sansa interrumped her friend before she got too excited by the idea. "It's a hard pass on that one. I'll never hear the end of bad Frozen puns" she quickly added when she saw her make what Loras dubbed "the little rose" face. She'd always make that face when she wanted something, ever since she was a little girl. Since then, that face had seen fair its share of successs.

"Besides, Frozen costumes are so 2014" Loras added, winking at Sansa. Margaery's idea of a Frozen revival wouldn't see the light.

"You guys are no fun" she grumbled, slowly walking back to her room.

"And you're making us late"

*****************************************

After waiting thirty minutes in their aparment for Margaery to get ready, plus the forty five-minute ride (with various agurments in favor of an Elsa-Anna ensamble for next Halloween from Margaery) from the apartment to the house of the Harry guy that was throwing the party, it was official: they were late.

The house wasn't a house, but a post modern-style mansion. There was a fountain just in the middle of the driveway, surrounded by beautiful flowers brought from all the corners of Westeros. There were even some essosi wild flowers. The whole scenery screamed money. The three of them looked at the house, then at each other, then back at the house.

Margaery was the first to snap out of the beauty of the facade. "OK, Jeyne Westerling told me this guy, Harry Hardyng, is like the heir of Arryn Mountain Woods or something like that" she started to explain.

"But since he is new to the game" Loras continued, looking around him.

"And has lots money and space to spare" Margaery said with a grin.

"He now wants to surround himself with the best of Aegon University" Loras finished, looking completely pleased with himself.

"But have you even met him?" Sansa inquired.

"I've seen pictures of him" Margaery replied. "Those baby blue eyes..." she sighed.

"But how do we know he's not... you know..." she continued, gesticulating with her hands.

"A werido? A creep?" Loras finished the sentence for her. "Sans, I admit you got a point" said with more seriousness than what their current conversation required.

"Oh Gods, what if he is one of those who's into feet?" Margaery muttered, "I don't know if I can handle that" horror written on her face.

"Well, if he's one of those, worry not, dear sister" Loras consoled her with a melodramatic, jesting tone. "You have ugly feet" that had earned Loras a slap on the arm. Sansa couldn't help but laugh. She always loved it when the siblings jested. It reminded her of her own family, of home.

"Well, I didn't mean a foot fetish" she laughed, "but how about we go inside and see for ourselves?"

When the trio headed arrived at the double-winged door they were received by a grey-haired man in a dark suit, with a not so amicable face.

"Names, please" inquired the man

"Margaery and Loras Tyrell and Sansa Stark" as always, Margaery was the voice of the group.

The grey-haired man looked at the list in his hand, and, after letting out a little sigh, opened the door for them.

If the facade had dazzled them, the interior of the mansion was a whole other thing. White marble floors, stone-colored walls covered with various abstract and cubist paintings, a great, crystal chanderlier that hanged in the center of the room, couches and chairs in cool shades of blue and a great crystal wall that made way to a pool. The room screamed opulence from wherever you saw it. Sansa didn't like it.

There was jazz music playing in the background, and a whole group of people dressed in an elegant yet simple way, conversing and drinking wine that the Tyrell siblings and Sansa didn't know.

It was in that moment that Sansa regretted listening to Margaery and wear the purple mini dress.

Shortly after, the host approached them and introduced himself.

"Hello and welcome to my humbling home" Harry started. "You must be Margaery and Loras. I've heard a great deal of the beautiful roses of Highgarden" he said with some sweetness in his tone. "And you must be Sansa, the beautiful winter rose of Winterfell". Sansa didn't like how he make them all sound like things valuable only on beauty and influence.

"You have a charming home, Harry" Margaery was quick to respond.

"Your garden up front is beautiful. I've never seen those flowers bloom outside the Reach" Loras added.

It seemed it was her turn to say something nice, even though she wasn't feeling the whole "I shit money" vibe of the place and the host. She was about to say something about the room, but she asked about a painting in the shades of blue and purple hanging near where they were standing instead.

"Georgia O'Keeffe, the Black Iris III. Beautiful, isn't it?" he said as he moved to her side. "You can feel the raw sensuality in the way she uses the colors" Harry said, almost in a whisper.

She had a dire need to roll her eyes at the move Harry was trying to pull. Ugh, just my luck, she thought.

"I like the colors, but I'm more into Impressionism and Romanticism. Monet, Bazille, Janmot, Friedrich..."

"I see" Harry laughed "Fine Arts undergrad, I gather?"

"Political Science, actually. Me and Margaery actually-" she turned around to say something to her, only to find out that she was gone. She could see Loras with what she thought it was a TA at the Naerys School of Fine Arts.

Oh, well. It seems I'll have to do this on my own, she thought.

When she turned, she saw him, really saw him: blond hair, baby blue eyes, perfect smile. The young, handsome, sweet, attentive heir. The guy every girl on campus would and most certainly will fall for. But behind those pretty eyes and perfect smile there was a cunning young man, probably used to get what he wants. And he was sweet, too sweet.

"Politics?" he sounded surprised. "I never thought a pretty girl that knows a lot about art like you would torment her pretty head with... arguing" he said with a charming smile.

Smug wasn't enough, he's also sexist. "Oh, it's not arguing" she commented, starting to move around the room, with Harry quickly following her. "At least it isn't when it's done right" she smiled. "It's all about people. It's about everything that surrounds them" she continued as she took a look around the room "It's about being able to detect their wants, their needs, and the best way to make it all happen" she said as she moved closer to him. Harry was like a hawk, never taking his eyes off of her. "But..." she trailed off.

"But?"

"But it can also be about dangers and how to handle them, how to detect them and neutralize them, in way where nobody gets hurt. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don't" she continued, locking her eyes with his. He nodded and smiled. He seemed to catch what she was saying. She gave him another sweet smile. "I don't want to keep you from your hosting duty" she concluded.

He professed his wish to continue their conversation later in the evening, and left her with a very decorous, and very unnecesary kiss on the hand.

It was official: Sansa hated the guy.

She walked around the room some more, trying to find her friends, only to remain alone in a room full of strangers. But just when she was heading towards the gardens, she saw Margaery with two glasses of what were probably a couple of mojitos. "Marge, where have you been? You left me alone with that... that..." Sansa whispered, trying to calm herself. After all, it was not her friend she was angry at.

"With that hottie?" Margaery laughed.

"With that asshole!" Sansa replied as quietly as she could. "Give me that" she took the other glass and took a long sip.

"Hey, easy. We don't want another..." her friend looked around her before continuing "another Jon situation" Margaery couldn't help but giggle at the mention of Robb's best friend.

"Jon situation? Nothing happened that night" she was quick to reply, and even quicker to redden.

"If your definition of nothing is admitting through tears that you had a crush on him pretty much all of your childhood, then throw up, then pass out, then wake up the next morning in his room while he assured you that you slept like a rock while he slept in the living-room and said he wished you were feeling better and that you two could pretend that what you said never happened..." she said, no longer holding back the laughter "OK, then, nothing happened" she took another sip of the mojito to stop laughing.

"OK, it's true that I'm not a heavy drinker and that sometimes, sometimes, I get a little... soapy" she tried to tell Margaery, but she just kept on laughing. "But he took care of me and never brought it up, unlike some people I know" she pointed out, taking little sips from her glass.

"Oh no, he would never do that. Jon Snow is the spitting image of chivalry perfection" she said in a melodramatic tone, similar to her brother's when he's teasing either of them. "You said that to me for forty minutes before you professed your love".

"Oh, shut up. It's been months since it happened and I want to forget about it. But I can't, because every time I drink something with alcohol in it you 'worry' about a Jon situation" she berated her friend.

"OK, no need to get all defensive, I'm just teasing" Margaery said while hugging her. "Besides, Jon Snow doesn't know shit if he can't see what a great, beautiful, smart young woman you are" she said, in all seriousness now. "So the veredict is final on Harry?" she asked, doing a one-eighty.

"Oh yeah. But don't get me started"

"To be honest, I truly don't know what I expected from the new guy" Margaery started, lifting one of her perfectly trimmed eyebrows, "but it certainly wasn't this. I mean, who invites professors to a party? I just saw Loras flirt with that TA from one of his classes".

"Well, he's not technically a professor, you just said he's a TA. And we definetely didn't dress for the occasion" Sansa said, looking down at her attire.

"Oh, honey, no. The occasion was not for us. We look great" her friend replied. Sansa was wearing one of Margaery's dresses, a long-sleeved purple mini dress with silver high heels. Margaery was wearing one of her favorite ensambles, a shimmery gold crop top with a matching high-waisted mini skirt with white-and-gold ankle boots. Both had their hair down, in a cascade of curls.

(Continue reading on AO3)

#jonsa #jon x sansa #sansa x jon #actuallyjonsa #got #asoiaf #jonsa au #holidays au #modern au #college au #jonsa fanfiction #my fanfiction #my writing #my stuff #enjoy some fluff just in time for the holidays

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theliberaltony · 4 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Monday marks the first night of the Republican National Convention, and things could certainly be going better for President Trump.

He is trailing Joe Biden in the national polls as well as in several key swing states. And FiveThirtyEight’s presidential forecast currently says Biden — not Trump — is favored to win the election. In fact, circumstances seem so dire for the GOP that election handicappers like the Cook Political Report think the Democrats — once underdogs — are slightly favored to take back the GOP-controlled Senate, too.

So if Republicans were to lose on that scale — the House, the Senate and the presidency — that raises the question: Would the GOP change course?

This is a question I’ve thought about a lot, and it’s one of the reasons why I argue in my book, “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop,” that America’s two-party system is failing us. With the two parties now fully nationalized, deeply sorted by geography and culture, and locked in a tightly contested, zero-sum battle over “the soul of the nation” and the “American way of life,” it’s nearly impossible to break that cycle. And so I think it’s unlikely that Republicans will become more moderate even if they were to take the shellacking I’ve outlined above.

The problem is that political parties are not singular entities capable of easily changing course. They are, instead, a loose coalition of office-holders, interest groups, donors, activists, media personalities and many others, all jockeying and competing for power. Think of a giant tug of war in which all the tugs have been toward more extreme and more confrontational versions of the party.

In the GOP’s internal rope pull, this has meant that over the past few decades, and particularly since 2010, almost all the would-be moderates have either gravitated toward Trump to stay relevant or simply broken away altogether. And all that momentum in the Republican party is pulling toward a more confrontational, Trumpian direction — even if he is no longer at the helm.

Moderate Republicans are few and far between

Back in March 2019, FiveThirtyEight’s Perry Bacon Jr. described five wings of the Republican Party from most to least Trumpian. The takeaway was clear. The fortunes of those who were the most solidly aligned with Trump (Bacon listed Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina as prominent examples; I’d add Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley) were rising within the party, while the fortunes of the so-called Trump skeptics were falling. Some, like Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, have left the party. Others, like Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, are retiring. And then there are the anti-Trumpers, like former Ohio Gov. and 2016 presidential contender John Kasich, who are now endorsing Biden.

Anybody with any ambitions within the party has, in other words, embraced Trump and Trumpism.

These recent shifts aren’t entirely new, either. They are the latest iteration of a decades-long transformation of the GOP. In short, moderates have been bowing out. And more conservative, more combative, more evangelical, and now more Trumpian Republicans have been stepping up.

In the 2018 midterms, for example, congressional Republicans’ biggest losses came among their most moderate members. The same could happen again in 2020. Not to mention, a good chunk of this cycle’s retiring Republicans are leaving because they not only are tired of Trump and Trumpism but also anticipate being in the House minority again, where they would be powerless.

As political scientist Danielle Thomsen has shown, more and more would-be moderates are opting out of Congress altogether, choosing not to run because they no longer see a place for themselves. This is true in both parties, Thomsen found — but especially among Republicans. Moderates increasingly feel as if they just don’t “fit.”

And that feeling of not belonging may stem in part from party leaders and party activists who want more extreme candidates to run. (It also helps that more partisan candidates are the ones who are naturally drawn to politics.) In a survey of party chairs at the county-level (or equivalent) branch of government in 2013 — well before Trump became president — local party leaders said they preferred more extreme candidates to more centrist candidates. This finding was true especially among Republicans, who preferred extreme candidates by a 10-to-1 margin. (Democrats preferred more extreme candidates just 2 to 1.) If anything, this ratio may be even more lopsided among Republicans. One of the underappreciated changes in the past few years is the extent to which Trump-styled Republicans have taken over the machinery of state and local parties, which means they’ll be able to shape the GOP well beyond 2020, too.

This swing toward more radical candidates may sound surprising — after all, shouldn’t party leaders want to nominate moderates to win? But considering that the overwhelming majority of legislative elections are now safe for one party, most parties can win regardless of who they nominate. In fact, there’s even evidence that the long-standing electoral price of extremism has all but vanished.

These patterns are all part of a vicious cycle that has been feeding on itself for decades. The more extreme the Republican Party has become, the more moderates have opted out or just been passed over. The more moderates have opted out or been passed over, the more extreme the party has become. And the more the Republican Party recedes to just elected officials in solidly conservative states and districts, the more they define the party.

Extreme right-wing media, activists and donors are increasingly influential

Of course, it’s not just elected officials in the Republican Party who are becoming more extreme. Conservative media is part of this trend as well, as it has long played a central role in shaping the GOP. On some days, it’s hard to tell who’s running the country — Trump, or the Fox News hosts who give him many of his ideas (not to mention the rotating cast of characters who have jumped between the administration and the network).

But, at its core, right-wing media is opposition media, built around rejecting liberalism. It is a business driven by outrage and anger. And in its increasingly prominent role in the GOP, it has helped set the tone for the GOP’s existential struggle against liberals’ so-called plans to control everything — media, culture, college campuses. So if Republicans were to go back to being the opposition party because of massive losses in November, right-wing media in its current form would also make it difficult for any would-be moderate Republicans to break through.

As for the rest of the power players in the GOP coalition? They do not offer a moderating influence, either. Key GOP activist groups, including evangelical groups, anti-immigration groups, gun-rights groups, and billionaire donors are far more extreme than the rest of the party. For instance, the Koch brothers have organized something akin to a party within a party at the state level, where they have influenced Republicans to take unpopular positions on taxes, social benefits and climate policy. Libertarian megadonor Robert Mercer has also played an outsize role, funding a variety of conservative organizations that propelled Trump to power, including media outlets like Breitbart.

As a result of these groups’ efforts, elected Republicans are confronted with messaging and advocacy that paint the electorate as more conservative than it really is. This, too, has had the effect of moving the party further to the right. To be sure, the more libertarian business conservatives and more populist social conservatives maintain an uneasy partnership in forming this coalition, but the more they both occupy unpopular positions, the more they must stick together around the shared proposition that the biggest threat to their joint interests is the Democratic Party.

Voters are becoming more extreme

Finally, there are the Republican voters. The GOP is more and more a party of disaffected non-college-educated white people — especially men and those over age 50. And as the Republican Party has traded its younger, college-educated white people — especially women — for the Democrats’ non-college-educated, older white people — especially men — the Republican party’s primary electorate has shifted in ways that make anti-establishment, pro-Trump candidates more prevalent than they were even four years ago, and certainly eight years ago.

Consider, for example, fervently pro-Trump House candidates like Lauren Boebert, who won a surpising primary victory over five-term Republican Rep. Scott Tipton in Colorado; Laura Loomer, whose anti-Muslim remarks got her banned from social media, running in Florida; or Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon enthusiast running in Georgia. These candidates are very much products of the 2020 Republican Party.

It has also meant that Republican voters are more anti-establishment and pro-Trump. Political science shows us that voters follow cues from their parties, and are more likely to change their opinions on issues to align with their partisan identity than they are to change their partisan identity to fit with preexisting opinions. So by redefining what it means to be a Republican, Trump has moved opinions of many GOP voters over the past four years.

It is possible that another leader could emerge and reorient the Republican Party again, as Trump did. But many of these trends predate Trump. So it’s far more likely that ambitious politicians will try to work with, rather than against, the sentiments that Trump has kicked up. Case in point: Republican senators facing reelection this November continue to stick with Trump, and almost all 2024 presidential hopefuls are tacking in a very Trumpian direction.

Some may point to Maryland’s Larry Hogan, the popular moderate Republican governor who has also been rumored to have 2024 aspirations, as a potential future for the Republican Party (noting in the same breath, perhaps, two other popular Republican governors, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Phil Scott of Vermont). These three governors, however, don’t fit with the national Republican Party. They represent three of the four most highly educated states, where the last vestiges of socially liberal Yankee Republicanism still thrive, and state legislatures are so Democratic that voters like having a check on runaway spending. It’s hard to see Hogan, or a similar candidate, having much appeal to Republican voters outside the Northeast. And even as popular as Baker might be in liberal Massachusetts, he is more beloved by Democrats than Republicans.

Public opinion flips between two extremes

But wait, you say: Isn’t America moving in a much more liberal direction? And, if nothing else, won’t that put pressure on the GOP to moderate? It’s certainly easy to think America is moving in a much more liberal direction if you look at trends in public opinion over the past few years. Historically, though, public opinion is most liberal precisely when liberal policies are least likely to be enacted (like now, and especially in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans had unified control in Washington).

Once Democrats regain control, however, and then try to enact more liberal policies, public opinion will likely shift against them, in a more conservative direction — or at least this is how it has worked historically. Americans favor government until they get it. (Remember in 2009 when it was fashionable to proclaim a permanent Democratic majority?) This is the great irony of American public opinion: It mitigates against moderation because it tells the out-party that they don’t need to move to the middle — that public opinion is moving in their direction. That is, right until they win and start governing based on it.

To be sure, Democrats’ electoral fortunes have risen considerably since 2016, enough to take control of the U.S. House in 2018 and pick up seats across multiple state legislatures. The political “mood” of the country (based on aggregated polling) has moved left, to levels not seen since the early 1960s. But it’s a good bet that this shift, particularly on social issues, is partly anti-Trump backlash, which will dampen when Trump is no longer president.

Few forces of moderation remain

Political analysts will sometimes recount how the Democrats, after losing three consecutive presidential elections, nominated Bill Clinton in 1992 and moved in a more centrist direction. This might feel like a tempting comparison to make with the GOP now, but the key difference is that the Democrats of the early 1990s had a more diverse coalition to draw on that made that kind of pivot possible (even as late as the 1990s, the Democratic Party had plenty of rural and Southern supporters). By contrast, the Republican coalition of today lacks any significant liberal or moderate factions who might pull it back to a more centrist position.

The bottom line: American political parties are not top-down entities, capable of turning on a dime. They are loose networks and coalitions of many actors and groups. And because the Republican Party has been pulling in a more extreme direction for decades now, most Republican moderates have either quit the team or reoriented themselves in a more combative, Trumpian direction to stay alive. And these forces will most likely continue to tug at the party, leaving would-be moderates with the same choice they’ve faced for decades: Quit, or get on board.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Lee Drutman

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josephbinningyoumatter · 3 years ago

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HOW TO LIVE AN AUTHENTIC LIFE, ON PURPOSE

We live in a fast-paced, ever developing, and ever-changing world. Full of Tweets, Likes, and shares. In an instant someone’s life can change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. All by hitting send. We decide based on them. What we wear. What we buy. Where we go. How we act and yes, how we show up in life. We decide if we like someone, something, or someplace based on popularity. It is part of our culture now and has become the new social norm, so we all accept it. But are we being authentic? Are we being true to ourselves, or just being marketed and tricked into thinking this is how we should be, act, or show up? You are one decision away from an original life. Only you can decide which way it will turn out. Merriam-Webster defines Authentic as: not false or Imitation: REAL, ACTUAL, and true to one’s personality, spirit, or character. Moving your life in the direction that is not false or Imitation: REAL, ACTUAL, and true to one’s personality, spirit, or character aligns you with the things in life you want and desire and will prevent you from living in fear of thinking “what will happen if I say no?”. Using any method to attain something will NOT work if you do not know what you want as the outcome. The mistake we all make is we focus on the person, place, or thing we think will save us and we focus on something way too big. This creates an enormous gap between where you are verses where you want to be that you think will rescue you from your miserable life right now. That gap can be the thing that can make you feel lost in figuring out what you want, and discovering what your passion or direction is, or should be. Those in life who are genuinely happy in life understand the power of, and vehemently stick to, being their authentic selves. EXAMPLES OF A NON-AUTHENTIC LIFE EXAMPLE 1 Your friends' lives may look more exciting than yours on Facebook, but recent research reveals that is because they might be faking it. A recent survey has found around two-thirds of people on social media post images to their profiles to make their lives seem more adventurous. And over three quarters of those asked said they judged their peers based on what they saw on their Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook profiles. A published British survey, by smartphone maker HTC, found that, to make our own pages and lives appear more exciting, six percent also said they had borrowed items to include in the images to pass them off as their own. More than half of those surveyed said they posted images of items and places purely to cause jealousy among friends and family. 76 percent of those asked also said seeing items on social media influences them to buy them, with men more likely to take style advice and buy what they see. EXAMPLE 2 Over 5,000 people have taken the free online test “Does Your Job Require High or Low Emotional Intelligence?” And after analyzing the data, they made a scary discovery. It was discovered that 51% of people said that they Always or Frequently have to ‘act’ or ‘put on a show’ at work. But they made an even bigger discovery; 51% who must ‘put on a show at work’ are 32% less likely to love their job. Or put another way, if you do not have to fake your emotions at work, you are 32% more likely to love your job. And not only will you be more likely to love your job, you are also much less likely to have negative feelings about your job. People that do not have to put on a show are 59% less likely to dislike or hate their job. This data also suggests that many people would probably enjoy taking a deep look at their own emotional intelligence, particularly to discover whether they must do lots of acting on the job. The more they are forced to act like they have the right attitude, the less happy they will ultimately be. EXAMPLE 3 Another related construct is the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Sociologist Robert K. Merton coined the term to describe a phenomenon that dates to Ancient Greece. Basically, a prediction about the outcome of a situation can invoke a new behavior that leads to the prediction coming true. For example, if I believed that I would fail an exam, that belief may have led me to alter the strategies I used for preparation and taking the test, and I would probably fail it. While I may have had an excellent chance to pass, my belief hindered my performance, and I made this belief become a reality. Psychological research shows that the self-fulfilling prophecy works for both negative and positive predictions, showing again that the beliefs you hold impact what happens to you. EXAMPLE 4 In a yearlong study it was found that those ringing the alarm bells the loudest about climate change are the least likely to change their own behavior. They just want everyone else to. The study divided 600 adults who reported on their climate-change beliefs into three groups: "skeptical," "cautiously worried" and "highly concerned." Then the researchers — from the University of Michigan and Cornell University — tracked how often they reported doing things like recycling, using public transportation, buying environmentally friendly consumer products, and reusing shopping bags. And they asked about support for government mandates like CO2 emission reduction, gasoline taxes and renewable energy subsidies. The Journal of Environmental Psychology published the findings. What they found was very illuminating. The researchers found that the "highly concerned" group was the least likely to take individual action, but they were the most insistent on government action. The "skeptical" group, in contrast, was the most likely to recycle, use public transportation and do other environmentally sound things all on their own. Skeptics were least likely to endorse costly government regulations and mandates. "Belief in climate change," the researchers explained, "predicted support for government policies, but rarely translated to individual-level, self-reported pro-environmental behavior." In plain English: The position of climate-change genuine believers is: Do as I say, not as I do. This study supports a YouGov poll reported on recently, which found that most of those who believe in catastrophic global warming are not doing anything on their own to combat it. More than half said they are not cutting back on their use of fossil fuels or changing their recycling or composting habits. Another study found that "conservation scientists," have carbon footprints that do not differ from those of anyone else. The study found that these scientists "still flew frequently — an average of nine flights a year — ate meat or fish approximately five times a week and rarely purchased carbon offsets for their own emissions." EXAMPLE 5 A study by Deloitte found that 61% of millennial's who rarely or never volunteer still consider a company’s commitment to the community when deciding on a potential job even though 60% of hiring managers see the act of volunteerism as a valuable asset when making recruitment decisions according to a study performed by Career Builder. 92% of human resource executives agree that volunteering can improve an employee’s leadership skills. Only 4% of college graduates, 25 years or older, volunteer each year. Millennial's ages 18 to 30 are more likely to have gone to a protest since the election than any other age group, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3. Millennial's are also more likely than older groups to think protesting is an effective form of political action. In recent days America has seem mass protests and unrest which has in every corner of the country left charred and shattered landscapes in dozens of American cities over the death of George Floyd. They estimate that the damages left behind will total in the billions. Cities who encountered the most loss and damages include: Minneapolis, Minn. Los Angeles California New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Nashville Tenn. San Francisco, CA. Detroit, Mich. Portland, Ore. Chicago, Ill. Atlanta, Ga. Washington, D.C. In a national survey reported by the National Service Knowledge Network of Volunteer Rates by State they ranked the followings states in this order. Minneapolis, Minn. Minnesota #1 with a 43.23% volunteer rate statewide. Portland, Ore. Oregon #13 with a 31.42% volunteer rate statewide. Washington, D.C. District of Columbia #14 with a 31.07% volunteer rate statewide. Philadelphia, PA Pennsylvania #22 with a 28.03% volunteer rate statewide. Detroit, Mich. Michigan #26 with a 26.64% volunteer rate statewide. Chicago, Ill. Illinois #31 with a 24.85% volunteer rate statewide. Nashville Tenn. Tennessee #33 with a 24.12% volunteer rate statewide. Los Angeles CA California #34 with a 23.89% volunteer rate statewide. Atlanta, Ga. Georgia #39 with a 23.00% volunteer rate statewide. New York, NY New York #49 with a 19.61% volunteer rate statewide. This survey points out that except for Minnesota, the cities who had the most people who marched to support the problem, volunteered, and supported in the community the least.They estimate that over one million people will attend a George Floyd protest, yet most have never volunteered in the neighborhoods who need the help the most. Some officials estimate that most still will not. How to Live an Authentic Life, On Purpose Most of us struggle with the need to be seen, heard, respected, and yes, Loved. We all want to stay true to ourselves, but we also want to fit in. Therein lies the dilemma. How do we stay true to ourselves, yet still stay in our Tribe? We were born and created Tribal, a community, a family, and not meant to do this alone. Our Tribe is who we associate with, trust, and allow to influence us. They are that powerful group who are our biggest support system and cheerleaders. They become a family and we can sometimes know them all our lives. They make you feel relevant, seen, heard, important, and valued. But are they the right tribe for you? Are they really your family, or just your influence? Living an Authentic Life will prevent you from joining the wrong tribe and surround yourself with only those who will make you better by being honest with you. Calling you out when you mess up. Praising you on the victories, and yes, walking next to you in the dark valley’s that life will always throw at you. When you do not know WHO you are, someone else will decide it for you and it might or might not be the person you want to be. So how do we do it? How do we keep the passion, yet still be authentic? How do we be REAL, NOT FAKE? Here are some suggestions. - Start with the person in the mirror first. Too many times people seek approval first, and acceptance second. Stop it! Look in the mirror at the person you see and accept them, warts, and all. You are not perfect and need not be, but you are perfect for you. Accept that! - Own your life, do not borrow one. Successful and Happy people need not prove anything to anyone, and they do not need other’s approval. The beautiful thing about life is if you dislike yours, you can always change it. When the haters hate, and they will, let them. And forget them. When you make a mistake, and you will own it 100%, then move on. It's in our mistakes we learn what will and will not work. - Be honest, do not live a lie. Do not pretend to be something or someone you are not, for someone else’s sake. If people do not accept you, as you are, where you are, for WHO you are they should not be in your life, let alone influence you. - Be ALL IN. A living example, more than words, will create action. If you believe in a movement, LIVE the movement 100%. If you believe in a cause, LIVE the cause 100%. Show me how you want me to see you and I will see you. Tell me and it will get lost in the noise. Give 100% every day to everything, especially yourself. Just be All In! - Forgive easily, and often. Successful and Happy people do not hold a grudge, they cannot. It impedes progress. It holds them back. It makes you bitter. Give others the same break you give yourself and forgive yourself, often. Others, and you, will be glad you did. - Put your own oxygen mask on first. We have all heard the warnings on airplanes, “if they deploy the oxygen masks, puts yours on first, then those who are with you next”. Make a habit of taking care of yourself, first. Self-care is the most important care you will ever receive. Make it a regular occurrence and do it often. - Live your life in Service to Humanity. Countless studies have shown that those who put other's needs above their own live longer, happier, more fulfilling lives. Care. Genuinely care. About others, about issues, about people. Then serve them. Do not save them, rescue them, or bail them out. Serve them by allowing your help to be about them, and not you. Do it with no expectations. If you need to be thanked, you did it for the wrong person. - If you have a choice between being right verses being kind, be kind. Successful and happy people can “give others a break”. They do not always need to be right. It is not a reflection on them. Sometimes it is better to lose the battle and win the war. - Pay everything forward. We deserve nothing in life. Life is not fair; it is designed that way. When you receive anything, it is a gift, be thankful, and share it. If you clutch on to life with a clenched fist so nothing can escape, nothing can enter either. Be generous, and life will be generous back. Volunteer, donate, serve, contribute, take part, mentor, and ask nothing in return. Remember, if you need to be thanked, it is a bribe, not a gift. - Life rewards the brave, so be brave. Take a chance, be vulnerable, be approachable, be teachable, take the first step, start the conversation, listen intending to listen and without thinking of what you will say next. Step outside of your comfort zone. That is where you will grow the most. A plant, transplanted from a pot to the ground will grow bigger and stronger, naturally. - Be more understanding. We are a divided world today. Friends lose friends over politics. People are against someone, someplace, or something without ever attempting to understand things from the other people's point of view. Take the time to ask why they believe what they believe, then shut up, do not interrupt, or interject, and just listen. Ask questions, with the desire to learn something and let them believe it even if you do not. People do not care what you know until they know you care. - Be more accepting of others Allow others to coexist around you as they are, not how you think they should be. Successful and Happy people are not threatened by what they do not understand. They attempt to understand it and accept that whatever it might be is the right choice for the other person even though it might not be the right choice for them and is no reflection on them. Accepting others as they are, where they are, for who they are, just as they are is one of the greatest ways to understand others and have a meaningful conversation with them. Do so intending to understand them, not to prove them wrong. If you have enjoyed this article please visit me at www.JosephBinning.com for more helpful tips and articles. You can also get more helpful information in my book You Matter, even if you don’t think so which you can purchase on Amazon here Amazon You Matter, even if you don't think so For my free report Happiness Is A Choice click here: Happiness Is A Choice Free Report Remember: Happiness is a choice, so choose to be happy. Read the full article

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hiphopscriptures · 4 years ago

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Fresh Artist Fridays: Alex Harris Interview - DRAFT

Like most of us, Alex Harris’s life underwent some severe changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. He had to reevaluate his process for making music and hone in on the message he wanted to share through his work. His latest EP titled Frequency is his gift to humanity, an attempt at bringing positive vibrations and good feelings to a dark world. Read Hip Hop Scriptures’ interview with this week’s Fresh Artist Friday Alex Harris below.

conducted by Willow Rose, transcribed by Priscilla Guadarrama

My name is Willow Rose and I’m an intern at Hip Hop Scriptures. I’m focusing on PR and social media management. I know our audience may or may not be familiar with your work so I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your background. When did you become interested in music and realize you wanted to perform and create new music?

Willow thank you so much for having me on the show. Yeah so basically I started music when I was 7 years old. In my family, we are a big family - five boys three girls eight of us, and I'm in the middle. I've been singing and doing my thing with entertainment since I've known pretty much I could communicate with people. But I started in my parents' church. My father is a pastor of a small congregation in rural Georgia, in the city of Manchester. Over the years my brothers and I, and my sisters initially (the sisters were a part of the group, the family group), and then it evolved to just only being the brothers. And we were known as A7, we called ourselves Inspiration Urban. We travelled all over and then as time progressed, each brother got called to do something very specific, whether it was in the law or authoring books. {two of his brothers continued in the music industry as well}. My roots run deep into music, all the way back to Manchester.

That’s brilliant. You started to touch on my next question. I read that you graduated from Boston University with a masters in Theology and Social Work. I wondered how your background in Theology influenced your music?

What I do - I call it new age soul music. And I think my background, both in social work and I have a minor in psychology undergraduate and a theology degree, which was focused on ethics - that eclectic exposure in learning beyond the roots of Georgia and Manchester, all that experience pours into how I interpreted the power of music. How I use its power and how I allow it to also speak to me and through me to the world. That is the reason why I call what I do new age soul because it is embedded into more of a spiritual element of music itself. I think that we are all spiritual beings, every human experience, and so I think that music is one of the three powerful elements of the universe. Fire and water being two, music being the other because that is how our life begins - with the beat of the heart.

I love that philosophy on the three powerful elements. Listening to your EP, Frequency that just came out, I really felt there was universality in your lyrics and a lot of passion. It is so clear in how you are forming your lyrics and the beat. Would you say that your religious influence and growing up in Georgia - is what drew you to the soul genre?

I think so. I think that was my initial introduction to soul because soul music as a genre, as we have known it, was developed as a combination of gospel, R&B, and some rock and roll too because it comes out of the African American experience as well. But as I grew, because all we listened to was gospel and quartet and gospel choirs and then later people like Al Green and his gospel music and Pastor Shirley Caesar and Caravans and all the groups that our parents loved. But as I became a teenager I started to explore other genres of music: jazz and country music. Georgia has a lot of country stations. And once being introduced to Ray Charles’ story, his country album - music has no boundaries. Regardless of your faith, you don’t have to have a particular sound to do a style. You could bring yourself and your own experience to that particular genre and allow it to evolve to whatever it evolves to. And so it really started to open my thought around how can I bring my whole self, my personal experience - African American, growing up in Georgia, in the rural South, from a big family, from a Gospel background, singing with my brothers, academic experience - what is it that I can bring beyond just saying, “Oh I can sing, oh you can sing” and sing a song or write a song because I’ve been entrusted with a gift to do so? But how can I utilize this gift for the better good of the human experience? So that's where I really come from. And what you hear on the Frequency EP is with intentions to raise our frequency - and not just my own in creating it with the great producers I worked with and writers - but also to those who listen and to be invited to this experience together. So it is not just me sending out waves through the frequency or the vibration of the music itself but also it’s an invitation to the hearer to participate in this rising of positive vibrations that are exhumed from us. That’s what the record is all about.

That’s brilliant. I love the idea of raising vibrations. I feel like this is a tumultuous time for a lot of reasons and having positivity out into the world is something that we need right now. I was reading about the background of the EP, that it was born out of personal experiences. Would you say there was a particular experience that kind of started the creation of the EP as a whole?

I had been writing with several writers (LA, NY, Nashville) over the last couple of years, with them developing a body of work. However, the personal experience, as we all have experienced, but each had a different take on it, was the national lockdown/pandemic. This is when I really start to hunker down. I started to hunker down, the team did. But at the same time, before hunkering down and really honing in on what was created and the opportunity I had to create, there was this enormous wave of, ‘Ahhh!’, of fear come over me, and I was sitting in my living room and all kinds of thoughts - what’s gonna happen, afraid to leave the house - I mean we didn’t know what was going on, no one knew. We only knew what was being fed through the frequencies of popular media and social media. It started to control my environment, my own climate, and I had to settle down and say ‘be still my soul, be still everything my mind and everything about me’ and really say ok - what is it that I can do? Where can I draw from? How can I draw from what I have to create something positive? I reset my own thought process and start to re-engage my team and start to write new music. And really look at the different experiences I had personally participated in or personally observed. It’s really about finding love, being in love, social justice. The song “Humanity” was written and released on Juneteenth and re released on the Frequency, as it relates to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the many senseless -isms: racism, sexism, ageism - that exist and how I felt that at some point in time I had to play by the rules in order to be accepted, especially growing up in Georgia, in the rural South, and I start to say this is what I have to do and start reflect on other people’s stories, friends and of my family as well. It kind of drove the narrative for that piece, “Feel Some Kind Of Way”, the senseless killings in schools and it’s just so much that we’ve seen all the time and we’re saying that there is peace. Peace can be with us. Peace can be in our environment. Unless we start to allow that exude from us and reverberate in some way or another then I don’t think we will ever experience it in a person. But we can’t wait on some external force to do it. We have to bring it to the environment, the universe, to ourselves.

Listening to the EP, my favorite track was “Humanity”. I love that you were going in depth on you reasons for writing it. How has the pandemic shaped the creation and production of your new music? I think the universal condition of all of us being in this situation together is a unique opportunity.

It’s a very unique experience for us to really reflect and to value the humanness of humanity. Just look at all the losses. It was an awakening to say, you can be this way, feel this way, or be in this place and then in the next moment, the next day, the next 24 hour period, everything is taken away, or everything is paused. And it was really an awakening moment. “Falling For You” comes from that space where we can be vulnerable and fall in love again and again and everyday allow and discover something because all we have is this moment. Allow time to stand still and it really helps to encourage to love who you love and love hard. Don’t be afraid to do it because we never know what the next moment will bring. This was very awakening. It’s a very emotional record around everything that was going on and everything that is going on.

Do you have a favorite track on your EP?

That's very hard because I think it just depends on a lot of things — because I think when we chose the body of work it was like out of all the writing I’ve done over the last couple of years, I was trying to develop something to create this body and not really creating it until the lockdown. Ordering equipment and having it sit on the porch for a while and the patio and then come back and get it cause we weren’t sure if we were supposed to touch it or let it sit out there. So all those things but also, each represent me in so many different ways, and my thought process around the human experience. It’s a very hard question but if I absolutely had to I think it probably would be “Humanity”. I think because of where we are. Second to that would be “Falling For You”. I love love.

I can relate. I think with “Humanity”, obviously it is presently relevant but I feel like it’s timeless in the sense that we all need to have strength within us to then stand up and speak out for things that are important to us. What has been your most impactful moment in your music career thus far? Have you had any moments where you were starstruck of just surprised at everything going on?

I don’t think I’ve been starstruck but I have met some stars- cause we grew up in the industry around since we were younger so it became a part of our way of life, my brothers and I and sisters. However, I think certain opportunities are amazing, I’m so grateful. I’m always grateful but sometimes the gratitude is in a different category. When I think about that I came from a small town, I was born in a trailer that my dad bought when he first started teaching, and then he got married, and then that trailer burned, and we moved in with our great aunt for a short while until he was finally able to build a house. So just the struggles and challenges of the path that we’ve taken. And then to ride with our parents really promoting education and faith and music in our family. It led to all of us graduating from high school, all of us going to college, two or three times. I think among the family there are over 20 college degrees. I know that it is not the path for everyone. It doesn’t have to be but it is special to me because it’s a testament to my parents who were the first to be educated, to receive post-secondary education in my family. It really is important to me that I share that and I value that experience and it speaks to where I am today.

I can definitely relate to the idea of just getting an education. I’m in school at the moment and I’ve read recently that just for undergraduate degrees only about 30% of Americans even finish their bachelors, let alone going into higher education. I think that’s really amazing that so many people in your family have been able to get an education.

My family and I have been very blessed and with lots of gratitude and humility. We are a testament because I share often how my parents, my father and mother, were the first to go to college, receive a post-secondary education. For them, education, faith, and of course the arts (music), were the elements of our development. I know the impact of the arts and music first hand on not just my life but on my siblings. I’ve seen it also on my foundation which I think my background certainly is the foundation of my thought process, so I try to share that experience not just through my recordings but also with the foundation that I have in helping a lot of underprivileged, underserved young people and teenagers in our community.

How long has the foundation been around?

The foundation has been around for more than two years. I started that in the interim of the brothers to figure out my own rhythm and sound and the direction I felt very passionate about.

Do you have any final message to tell our audience regarding your work or a cause that you’re passionate about?

I thank you first, again. Let me just say thank you again in my last words to you for having me on. I want one of those who are listening to of course check out the record Frequency. It’s a 6 song EP and I’m really super excited about it. It’s got a vibe and the vibe has all to do with raising the vibrations and love, romantic life. Also a raise in vibrations around social justice, raising vibrations around just loving family, whoever and however you view family and close friends, biological connection. It comes from those three angles. The intention is that we all find another place or space to love ourselves and those around us. A space and place for healing and a space or place of hope. This kind of soul revival or renewal of the human spirit is what the Frequency EP is about. So far, it’s getting great reviews. I’m really super excited about it. We were just number 1 on one of the largest stations. Also we are doing well in Europe. We went number 2 last week on the largest soul/R&B station out of Italy. So we are super excited about the response we are getting and we just want to keep raising the frequencies and the vibrations through the music. Please follow me on social media. You can go to my website and find all my social media handles there at alexharrisofficial.com. I’d love to connect and be a part of a global community making things happen through positive work.

ABOUT ALEX HARRIS:

Alex Harris is a modern soul singer with Gospel roots and is revered as one of the leading creative architects and performers of ‘New Age Soul’ music. ‘New Age Soul’ music offers a spiritual revival to uplift humanity ensconced in healing, hope, renewal, freedom, and love. “I believe that music is one of the three most powerful elements of the universe because it has the power to raise the frequency of humans through rhythm, melody, and sound.”

Alex runs A.C.T. (Arts Conservatory for Teens) and lectures worldwide. He has shared the stage as a performer with Al Green, Aretha Franklin, John Legend, H.E.R., Brandy, and Lionel Richie. Label Cross The Line Music, Ltd is a joint venture between 2 producers -Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, The Go Go’s, Raveonettes) and GRAMMY Award winning producer and songwriter Swagg R’Celious (H.E.R.). His “Frequency” EP is available now on all streaming platforms, and is a unique sonic blend of southern soul, alternative grooves, and Gospel grit.

STAY CONNECTED WITH ALEX HARRIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram - Facebook - Twitter - SoundCloud- Spotify - YouTube - Amazon

STAY CONNECTED WITH HIP HOP SCRIPTURES ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

#alex harris #frequency #fresh artist fridays #georgia #new music

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femmesfollesnebraska · 4 years ago

Text

Artist feature: Barbara Cone

Artist Barbara Cone, who was recently featured in Womanmade Gallery’s Process and Material exhibition, shares with LFF about her process involving struggle, her new series of sculptures, the significance of online exhibitions right now, feminism and more. Interspersed with the interview are excerpts from the artist’s recent statement about her work alongside the work created. All images (c) Barbara Cone.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 1, 58”LX25.5”WX28”D, Fir, cardboard, gesso, graphite, steel cable, velcro, hardware

I did not set out to make work about broken things, damaged things, destruction and fragility but it seems that the times we’re living in seeped into my work in mysterious and profound ways. Yet there is beauty still to be found in damaged things. The concept of Japanese wabi-sabi is very present here.

Where are you from? How did you get into creative work and what is your impetus for creating?

Loved art most of my life but was more into writing. When I moved to Vermont I continued to write for the regional newspaper and taught various subjects at the community college. There was an excellent arts center there near Dartmouth College and I began by taking a few classes in painting. I was brand new at art making and there were a number of well-trained artists in my classes. I felt out of my depth. To make matters worse my work was often different from what was being produced around me. Out of ignorance probably I used the materials in a different way and often veered a bit off the assignment. A master artist and filmmaker had a studio on the top floor of the Arts building and was persuaded to teach an occasional class. Everyone was a bit afraid of him. He was known for his temper and his critiques could be brutal. One time he taught a class in experimental watercolor that sounded interesting to me. While he was in no way friendly, he seemed to see something in my off-kilter work that I couldn’t see, and kept tossing me new challenges. I was under his mentorship for 6 years. An artist exchange in Cuba during this time also affected my work profoundly and I moved into installation and multi-media work. A few years later in New Mexico I was introduced to encaustic and have been incorporating that element into paintings and mixed media works, and teaching encaustic printmaking. My impetus is experimentation: I get images in my head and have to figure out how to make the work and with what. I’m not happy if I start out knowing what I’m doing. I prefer struggling with new materials and adapting materials for purposes for which they weren’t intended.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 1, Detail, 58”LX25.5”WX28”D, Fir, cardboard, gesso, graphite, steel cable, velcro, hardware

After finishing a large body of wall-hung 3D work for a solo show in Boston in 2019, I knew I wanted to push ahead with more 3D work using crushed cardboard boxes but this time largescale constructions hung from the ceiling. I still had bags of crushed cardboard, some with tire tracks still showing on the surfaces. I bought more boxes in as many sizes as I could find. Ran over those too.

Tell me about your current/upcoming show/exhibit/book/project and why it’s important to you. What do you hope people get out of your work?

This summer I’ve been showing work in ARC Gallery and WMG in Chicago as well as locally at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta, Maine. This November I have a solo show in Boston at the Bromfield Gallery. I’m preparing a large body of new work for the Bromfield show. I’ve completed three large ceiling hung sculptures for the show and have begun on some wall pieces. The sculptures are the latest iteration of a series I began in 2019 for a solo show in Boston at Canvas Fine Arts Gallery. The series is called C*Artifacts. The components of the pieces were made by crushing cardboard under the wheels of my car and applying one of the following to each of the components: rust, sanded gesso with graphite, encaustic, oil stick or spray paint. Last summer’s C*Artifacts show included small free-standing sculptures and wall-hung 3D pieces. I hope viewers find my most recent work interesting and a little mysterious. I also hope they can see the humor. Visitors certainly seemed to enjoy the video of me running over cardboard boxes with my car at the CFA show in 2019.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 2, 66”LX23”WX24”D, Fir, cardboard, spray paint, steel cable, velcro, hardware

I experimented further with paint and mark-making on the various crushed boxes, pushing the limits of materials like gesso, rust and spray paint. Like before, the unevenness of the surfaces resisted being coated with liquid media. There was a lot of flipping them over and applying further coats to achieve the look I was after.

Does collaboration play a role in your work—whether with your community, artists or others? How so and how does this impact your work?

I would say that collaboration does not play a role in my work at the moment, but I have a history of curating exhibitions. Working with exhibition artists and getting a show from Artist Call to Hanging to Opening to Closing takes many months of hard work, and is definitely a collaborative effort. The time spent was well worth it, but I’ve chosen to spend more time in the studio with my own work.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 2, 66”LX23”WX24”D, Fir, cardboard, spray paint, steel cable, velcro, hardware

Gesso is a common artist material used for preparing surfaces for painting. The gesso I used for FWD No. 1 is a specialized version for underpainting encaustic (wax-based) painting. It is especially thick and creamy, like a yogurt. It sands beautifully and stands up to pretty much anything. The graphite markings took especially well on the gessoed surface.

Considering the political climate, how do you think the temperature is for the arts right now, what/how do you hope it may change or make a difference? It is truly a terrifying and uncertain time. I would hope that visual and performing arts would provide an alternative to what we are seeing and hearing every day about the pandemic, economic crisis and politics. Certainly the challenge right now is to give visual and performing artists exposure even though art exhibitions and performances are not taking place in their usual brick-and-mortar venues. Online shows may or may not be the answer, but it seems all we have right now. As someone who makes work that is often unusual, and may be difficult to represent adequately in a digital format, I’m concerned that some of us will be at a disadvantage. My guess is that artists have already started making work that can be well-represented digitally because they assume it is not going to be seen live in a real space. This change has implications for the making of artwork from now on.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 3, 63”LX20”HX57”D, Fir, cardboard, rust, steel cable, velcro, hardware

For FWD No. 2 I used both matte and enamel spray paint. The unevenness of the cardboard surfaces made for some interesting shading and runs. Turns out spray paint is quite temperamental. I gained a new appreciation for the skill it takes to make street art.

Artist Wanda Ewing, who curated and titled the original LFF exhibit, examined the perspective of femininity and race in her work, and spoke positively of feminism, saying “yes, it is still relevant” to have exhibits and forums for women in art; does feminism play a role in your work?

With the one exception of a video installation called “Atomic Playboy,” my work does not typically have a social or political content, at least not overtly. I’m a strong feminist and have been since the 70’s and I’ve seen some very strong work with feminist content that I admire very much but somehow when I start to make work, it comes from another place.This doesn’t mean I’m not angry about the misogyny in the art world where “artist” means male and women artists are “other.” I can see the need for galleries like WMG that promote the work of contemporary women artists but am sometimes troubled by the segregation of women’s work. Famous women artists like Georgia O'Keeffe were outspoken about this and refused to show work in shows of women artists. I can see both sides.

Fusion of Work and Dream No. 3, 63”LX20”HX57”D, Fir, cardboard, rust, steel cable, velcro, hardware

The rusting process used for FWD No. 3 involved many steps and multiple drying times, but I liked the transformation of the torn cardboard into something you might find on the street after a fender bender.

Ewing’s advice to aspiring artists was “you’ve got to develop the skill of when to listen and when not to;” and “Leave. Gain perspective.” What is your favorite advice you have received or given?

When I was a beginning painter and feeling frustrated by my inability to make what I saw in my head or to manage the materials, I was told, “Stop now, put this painting aside and start a new one using what you’ve learned from making this one and remember that even if you’re not happy with it, this latest painting is the only one like it in the world. You’ve just made something entirely new."

- http://www.bconeart.com/

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Brown Deskins. LFF Books is a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014) , The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015 and Mes Predices (catalog of art/writing by Marie Peter Toltz, 2017). Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. A portion of the proceeds from LFF books and products benefit the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Wanda Ewing Scholarship Fund.

Submissions always open!

https://femmesfollesnebraska.tumblr.com/callforart-writing

#contemporaryart #womanmadegallery

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brooksopim753 · 4 years ago

Text

17 Raisons Pour Lesquelles Vous Devriez Ignorer Domaine De Massereau

In the following paragraphs, we will focus on reworking ideas to transform your basement into a wine cellar.

Evaluate your basement

Is your basement prepared to be transformed into a wine cellar? Before making an attempt an expensive renovation, it is important to gauge if the job is achievable. The basement really should be spacious ample to house a wine cellar of realistic size. It should be able to accommodate virtually any refurbishment that aims at managing the atmosphere in the home which subsequently will influence the storing and aging of your wine. Any inadvertent development could adversely have an effect on your wine collection and in some cases injury exactly the same.

Any basement that is definitely to host a wine cellar really should be sealed off having a concrete sealant and become manufactured from concrete. The ceiling on the area should have no less than an R-19 insulation.

Control the local climate

It will be a pricey affair but we very advocate that you choose to put money into an HVAC (heating, air flow and air conditioning) program that's specific to wine rooms. Typical techniques are not able to regulate humidity and temperature In the room in a means that HVAC methods can.

Program

Ensure that you have each and every facet of the reworking challenge prepared out right down to the tiniest element. There should not be any uncomfortable surprises or unforeseen deviation in the execution. Please Take note - changing your basement right into a wine cellar is actually a high-priced proposition. A mean remodeling occupation will operate into quite a few tens of Countless dollars. Also, if concrete pouring and excavation are concerned, it'll raise the charges further more.

Insulation

In the event you do not need the funds for an HVAC process, it is possible to still Command the temperature of your basement wine cellar proficiently by means of insulation. Basement insulation is largely governed by things for example geographical area so it is suggested which you search for Skilled enable In this particular regard. As an example, in the event you can be found in the southern Usa, it truly is a good idea to install dampness obstacles outside just about every wall in addition to the ceiling and floor. To forestall mildew and condensation buildup, you could also increase shut cell foam insulation.

As has actually been discussed higher than, changing a basement right into a wine cellar is an expensive affair. Therefore, setting up the execution correctly https://hectorzzue149.creatorlink.net/les-3-plus-grands-moments-de-vin-du and pursuing the aforementioned measures will definitely assist in recognizing the wine cellar within your desires.

When you can be found in Georgia, US, and trying to find basement contractors in Atlanta, you might be in luck. There are plenty of construction providers in the area that provide outstanding transforming expert services at affordable charges.

Wine pairing is a well-liked matter within the wine environment but Do you know that there is a well being connection? Do you know that a number of the compounds in wine are fantastic for your personal heath? Wine pairing will now be more details on what wine goes with your chicken, lamb or nut roast. In my new book Nutriwine I clarify how wine pairing will be practiced Later on - by using a wellness relationship.

Wine Pairing & The Molecular Well being RecomendationThe whole practical experience of wine tasting gets improved when you start to pair wine with foodstuff. This could also even further expand your frontal cortex for wine information and result in far more wellness peaks in your body biochemistry because it reacts on the flavour and the foodstuff is better still digested. Most of the time people pair white wine with white meat like hen and fish and pink wine with pork ordinarily beef and lamb. Extremely sweet wine goes with dessert as every other wine paired having a sweet dish will style acidic. The whites will Lower by means of brine and the reds will add texture for the meat and each will draw out flavours. For eating places it may be handy to look at the parts regarding style with the wine as that can't be altered the foods might be created round the wines supplied. Afterall the elements in wine are set extensive prior to deciding to dine.

Whites will variety with regards to dryness to sweetness and age as Now we have viewed earlier. With reds your talking about tannin and oak from a style vary from comfortable to a tough style that extends to leathery. A dry Savignon Blanc will go properly with grilled fish and crab with its citrus notes. With roast hen you could have a Chardonnay to complement the butteryness or even a velvety Merlot to attract out the feel with the meat. Coming to beef you could have Pinot Noir or even a Cabernet Savignon their full physique and also tannins complement the meat. Champagne will Slice as a result of any brine in fish dishes like caviar and oysters. There are a variety of easily printable totally free charts on the internet to download and print to assist your wine pairing. With the huge level of popularity of Asian meals now worldwide Believe Rieslings from Germany for refreshing crispness.

You may think that each one This is often pie within the sky but there's a lot of science at the rear of wine pairing. Such as bell peppers incorporate 2-methoxy-3-isobutylpyrazine which happens to be present in Savignon Blanc. So These two would go nicely collectively. That is a very simple illustration of how innovative This will get but fundamentally he is matching the food and wines primarily based on their aromatic and flavour compounds. If they're comparable they won't clash and as a substitute develop a gastromic synergy.

The main target of wine pairing with foodstuff is synergy that raises your dining expertise. Like any good marriage the wine must not overtake the foodstuff and also the food items will have to not overtake the wine. Together they carry out the best of each other. White wine by way of example will Minimize by way of fishy style as well as citrus notes will enhance the taste from the dish. Lemon is normally served with fish and lemongrass in Asia.

There's two paths In relation to wine pairing. Just one is by pursuing the advice of industry experts in what wine to pair using your foods and the other is empirical - own trial and error. Each person could have different likes and dislikes. As Vaynerchuck claims typically in Wine Library TV if you try a unique wine together with your meals each day in six months you'll know your likes and dislikes.

Dr Maury was a french health practitioner also certified in acupuncture and homeopathy. When it comes to wine Maury thinks that wine functions as an aid to digestion. Medoc wines are perfect at firming the abdomen with their tannins with calcium and magnesium. Also the intestine partitions get toned specifically if the person is prone to diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome. For constipation he suggests sweet wines like Anjou higher in glycerol that can Have got a mild epsom salt outcome. A further promoter of wine and overall health was Dr Luca California. He also wrote many publications on the topic. Because their publications We have now far more scientific reports to establish what they had been declaring at enough time about wine and overall health.

The Energetic compounds of wine for wellbeing are B nutritional vitamins, minerals and phenolic compounds, which include; anthocyanins, catechins, quercetin and resveratrol. The B natural vitamins are Vitamin B1 (thiamin), Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and vitamin B3 (niacin) specifically. B nutritional vitamins are essential for Strength production in your body. Viamin B1 is sweet with the pumping power of the center and amounts are depleted with long lasting utilization of diuretics. Thiamin is additionally excellent for the anxious technique and shields the anxious program from injury particularly in diabetic neuropathy. In addition improves your wondering and was the 1st vitamin to get learned. Vitamin B2 can help from the manufacture of thyroxine hormone which controls metabolism and red blood cells when it works with iron. Most important benefit of riboflavin is the fact it guards the eyes specially the lens versus cataracts. 50 percent of the human body's specifications for Vitamin B3 emanates from the amino acid tryptophan. Becoming a pure anti-inflamatory it's got benefited These with arthritis. In nerve well being it is claimed to relieve depression stress and anxiety and insomnia.

youtube

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mariocxvf177 · 4 years ago

Text

L'histoire De Domaine De Massereau Vin

In this article, we will examine transforming Tips to transform your basement into a wine cellar.

Assess your basement

Is your basement wanting to be converted into a wine cellar? Just before making an attempt a costly renovation, it is crucial to gauge When the project is possible. The basement must be roomy enough to accommodate a wine cellar of acceptable dimensions. It should be equipped to accommodate almost any refurbishment that aims at controlling the atmosphere from the home which in turn will affect the storing and ageing of the wine. Any inadvertent development could adversely have an impact on your wine collection and in many cases hurt exactly the same.

Any basement that is definitely to host a wine cellar must be sealed off that has a concrete sealant and become fabricated from concrete. The ceiling on the room must have a minimum of an R-19 insulation.

Command the climate

It would be a costly affair but we very advise that you choose to spend money on an HVAC (heating, air flow and air-con) process that may be certain to wine rooms. Conventional systems are not able to control humidity and temperature inside the area in a method that HVAC methods can.

System

Guantee that you have got each individual element of the remodeling challenge prepared out down to the tiniest depth. There shouldn't be any disagreeable surprises or unforeseen deviation from your execution. Be sure to Take note - changing your basement into a wine cellar is often a high priced proposition. A mean reworking job will operate into a number of tens of A huge number of bucks. Also, if concrete pouring and excavation are concerned, it can improve the charges even more.

Insulation

Just in case you do not have the spending budget for an HVAC method, you may even now control the temperature within your basement wine cellar successfully by means of insulation. Basement insulation is primarily governed by factors like geographical site so it is recommended that you simply look for Experienced enable Within this regard. As an example, if you can be found during the southern U.s., it really is highly recommended to install moisture obstacles outside the house each individual wall along with the ceiling and floor. To prevent mould and condensation buildup, you could possibly also increase closed mobile foam insulation.

As has become reviewed over, converting a basement right into a wine cellar is an expensive affair. Therefore, setting up the execution effectively and following the aforementioned methods will certainly assist in acknowledging the wine cellar of the dreams.

Should you are located in Georgia, US, and searching for basement contractors in Atlanta, you might be in luck. There are several design providers in the area that provide great remodeling companies at cost-effective costs.

Wine pairing is a popular matter within the wine entire world but Were you aware that there's a wellbeing connection? Do you know that some of the compounds in wine are good in your heath? Wine pairing will now be more about what wine goes with all your chicken, lamb or nut roast. In my new book Nutriwine I demonstrate how wine pairing is going to be practiced in the future - having a wellness relationship.

Wine Pairing & The Molecular Well being RecomendationThe entire working experience of wine tasting receives far better when You begin to pair wine with foods. This will likely also further broaden your frontal cortex for wine information and facts and lead to more health peaks in your body biochemistry mainly because it reacts to your flavour and also the food items is a lot better digested. Most of the time people pair white wine with white meat like chicken and fish and red wine with beef typically beef and lamb. Pretty sweet wine goes with dessert as any other wine paired which has a sweet dish will style acidic. The whites will Lower via brine and the reds will insert texture for the meat and both will attract out flavours. For restaurants it might be practical to evaluate the factors concerning flavor with the wine as that cannot be altered the food items can be made within the wines available. Afterall The weather in wine are established extended prior to deciding to dine.

Whites will range concerning dryness to sweetness and age as We have now seen earlier. With reds your discussing tannin and oak from a style range between smooth to a tough style that extends to leathery. A dry Savignon Blanc will go effectively with grilled fish and crab with its citrus notes. With roast hen you might have a Chardonnay to complement the butteryness or possibly a velvety Merlot to attract out the feel of the meat. Coming to beef you could have Pinot Noir or a Cabernet Savignon their total entire body and also tannins complement the meat. Champagne will Slash by way of any brine in fish dishes like caviar and oysters. There are a selection of very easily printable cost-free charts on the web to down load and print to aid your wine pairing. With the huge popularity of Asian food stuff now around the world think Rieslings from Germany for refreshing crispness.

You may think that each one this is pie within the sky but there is loads of science behind wine pairing. As an example bell peppers include 2-methoxy-three-isobutylpyrazine which can be located in Savignon Blanc. So All those two would go effectively alongside one another. This is a very simple example of how subtle This could certainly get but basically He's matching the food items and wines primarily based on their aromatic and flavour compounds. If they're very similar they will not clash and alternatively produce a gastromic synergy.

The main purpose of wine pairing with food items is synergy that improves your dining working experience. Like several great marriage the wine must not overtake the food stuff along with the foodstuff will have to not overtake the wine. Together they convey out the ideal of one another. White wine such as will Reduce by fishy style and the citrus notes will complement the flavor of your dish. Lemon is usually served with fish and lemongrass in Asia.

There's two paths when it comes to wine pairing. One particular is by adhering to the recommendation of gurus in what wine to pair using your food items and one other is empirical - personal demo and mistake. All and sundry will have different likes and dislikes. As Vaynerchuck suggests generally in Wine Library TV if you are attempting a different wine with the meals each day in 6 months you'll know your likes and dislikes.

Dr Maury was a french medical professional also competent in acupuncture and homeopathy. In regards to wine Maury thinks that wine acts being an aid to https://www.domainedemassereau.com/ digestion. Medoc wines are wonderful at firming the tummy with their tannins with calcium and magnesium. Also the intestine walls get toned significantly if the individual is liable to diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome. For constipation he endorses sweet wines like Anjou superior in glycerol that will Possess a delicate epsom salt influence. Yet another promoter of wine and health and fitness was Dr Luca California. He also wrote a number of textbooks on the topic. Because their books We've far more scientific reports to confirm the things they were saying at the time about wine and wellness.

The Lively compounds of wine for well being are B vitamins, minerals and phenolic compounds, for example; anthocyanins, catechins, quercetin and resveratrol. The B natural vitamins are Vitamin B1 (thiamin), Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and vitamin B3 (niacin) especially. B nutritional vitamins are essential for Electrical power production in the body. Viamin B1 is good with the pumping strength of the center and concentrations are depleted with lasting usage of diuretics. Thiamin is likewise fantastic for your nervous procedure and protects the anxious process from hurt particularly in diabetic neuropathy. Additionally enhances your wondering and was the initial vitamin to generally be found. Vitamin B2 allows in the creation of thyroxine hormone which controls metabolism and pink blood cells when it really works with iron. Main advantage of riboflavin is usually that it shields the eyes specially the lens against cataracts. 50 % of your body's demands for Vitamin B3 comes from the amino acid tryptophan. Staying a pure anti-inflamatory it has benefited Individuals with arthritis. In nerve wellness it is said to relieve melancholy anxiousness and insomnia.

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dippedanddripped · 4 years ago

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Charli D’Amelio, the 16-year-old dancing queen of TikTok, is deep in thought. From the scrunched-up look on her face, an endearing expression familiar to her 70 million followers on the video-sharing app, a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that she is flummoxed by one of life’s imponderables, and not which of her parents is the better dancer.

“That’s a really hard question,” she replies, after some deliberation. “My mom grew up a competition dancer and sometimes does TikTok dances with me, but my dad did breakdancing, and that’s raw, so if I had to ask someone to break it down in the middle of a party, I would have to say my dad.”

“They’re both really good dancers,” Dixie, Charli’s 18-year-old sister and fellow TikTok sensation, offers diplomatically, adding: “There’s a lot of pressure at family reunions, weddings, and birthday parties.”

And then some. As their not inconsiderable number of fans suggests (Dixie is no slouch in the followers department, with her account garnering over 29 million to date), the D’Amelio sisters are as adept as their parents when it comes to cutting a rug — particularly Charli, who has been studying dance since she was just three years old. Dixie, the more outgoing of the two, is better known for talky videos in which she puts her comedic chops to use.

They are also good sports. Despite their age and burgeoning popularity, they are self-effacing, forthcoming, and generous with their answers, which they deliver without bratty or calculated affect. Asked, for example, if she and Dixie are given to spats worthy of Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Charli doesn’t skip a beat.

“I mean, we’re teenage sisters,” she says matter-of-factly, when we speak over Zoom in June. “So, obviously, we get into disagreements. It’s usually about clothes. We’re the same size, so I tend to wear a lot of her clothes. But Dixie is my number one go-to person — we’re just so close, and our fights usually last two seconds and then we’re over it and, like, ‘Hey, wanna go for a car ride?’”

The sisters are not always easy to tell apart — “We couldn’t be more different,” says Charli, “but we’re used to getting, ‘Oh my God, you guys look like twins!’”— especially on this day, on which they are both wearing high-waisted faded jeans and primrose-colored sweatshirts, their hair pulled back in a similar fashion. “That’s so funny,” says Dixie of their matchy-matchy outfits, “I swear, we haven’t even seen each other this morning.”

It’s a genuineness that goes a long way to explaining their regard on a platform that — despite its early rap for being inauthentic, a venue for creativity cribbed from elsewhere — places a premium on authenticity.

“Charli is accessible in a way I don’t think many other creators are,” says Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter covering Internet culture for The New York Times. “She’s incredibly humble, and polite, and unproblematic, which is rare in the influencer space. I think Dixie offers a similar appeal. Both of them feel very down home and accessible.”

Stephanie Hind, Head of Talent Management and Operations at TikTok, agrees. “On TikTok, no matter what type of creator you are — an athlete, a designer, an entrepreneur, an artist, or anything in between,” she maintains, “you’re celebrated for being your authentic self. It’s been wonderful to see Charli and Dixie find success by staying true to their passions, putting in hard work and determination into their content, and showcasing joy, creativity, talent, and humor in such an authentic way.”

Adds the girls’ father, Marc: “As parents, in the beginning we were sometimes, ‘Why are you doing videos in your room with your bed unmade and clothes on the floor?’ But Charli understood instinctively that not only did she want to portray her true self but that the people consuming her content wanted to see that from her.”

Theirs is an authenticity that extends to their boundless positivity and the causes (climate change, Black Lives Matter, anti-bullying) that they promote on their accounts, without coming across as cloyingly earnest.

“I’ve been saying these things my whole life,” says Charli, who was tapped in March by Procter & Gamble to create #DistanceDance, a campaign to encourage people to stay-at-home during the pandemic that generated more than 8 billion views and 1.7 million imitation dances from celebrities, influencers, children, families, and others. “The fact that I now get to share that positivity is so important to me. It’s truly what I believe, and now people actually listen.”

“She is the number one person on the app, and has a lot of very young eyes on her,” says Dixie, fidgeting with a piece of toy slime. “I think she’s so happy to have the platform to talk about things that mean a lot to her. That’s important for me, too, but I don’t have the pressure that she has.”

Clearly it’s a genuineness that is resonating beyond the digital landscape. Charli is not only the most followed person on TikTok, but has also parlayed her popularity into collaborations with celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Bebe Rexha, as well as brands like Hollister and Sabra hummus, for which she appeared in a 2020 Super Bowl commercial (becoming the first TikTok creator to be featured in an ad during the coveted tentpole sports event). She has taken tentative steps into Hollywood, having provided the voice for Tinker in the upcoming animated film StarDog and TurboCat, and has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

She even sat front row at Prada’s Fall/Winter 2020 show in February, a gauge of pop-culture currency if ever there was one. “Going to the Prada show was definitely something, like, I never thought I would ever be…,” Charli recalls, uncharacteristically reaching for her words. “It was my first fashion show ever, and it was like a dream.” The content partnership she did with the Italian fashion brand during the show led to Charli’s social and press mentions growing by more than 160 percent in the days following the event.

Not to be outdone, Dixie, who studied drama from an early age, made her professional acting debut this year as Georgia in the Brat TV series Attaway General, and has collaborated on shoots and videos with brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren and Dermalogica. In early July, she released her first single, “Be Happy,” which debuted at 41 on the Emerging Artists list on the Billboard Charts and has generated more than 40 million views on YouTube. There is also talk of the D’Amelio clan appearing in their own reality TV show, the family having reportedly signed a deal with American Idol production company Industrial Media.

But for all their undeniable talent, personality, and relatable style (fans study the sisters’ choice of clothing, hairstyles, and nails with the rigor of biblical exegesis), their popularity is also the result of a perfect storm of circumstances. For one, they have an undeniably strong support system. Parents Marc and Heidi seem determined to ensure their daughters are happy and safe doing what they love most, while trusting them to make the right decisions and create content that they can be proud of.

“Unless it’s something that requires us to play the parent card,” says Marc, “we let them make a lot of the decisions about the opportunities that are presented to them. The girls are great. If there is something questionable, like foul language or whatever, they will ask, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’”

Outside the family there is also a solid team in place. The sisters are both managed by Barbara Jones of OutShine Talent and Billy Mann of The Well, and represented by the Hollywood powerhouse United Talent Agency (UTA) — a division of labor which can be confounding to outsiders.

“If you watch the show Entourage,” explains Greg Goodfried, the Co-Head of Digital Talent at UTA, “the managers are Eric, who help Vinny Chase with every aspect of his life, and we [he and his colleague Ali Berman] are Ari. We’re the ones who source and negotiate the deal, and then hand it off to the managers and the client to execute.”

Charli’s rapid ascent — she only started posting last May — is inescapably tied to the rise of TikTok itself, which has gone from a popular global app with negligible traction in the United States to a social-media behemoth, with over 2 billion downloads that has shaken up the entertainment industrial complex and global Internet order. As Goodfried affirms: “It was the right time and the right place for the right person to just emerge on a platform and become a superstar.”

TikTok was an idea whose time had come, and it didn’t hurt that the Chinese conglomerate that owns it poured over a billion dollars into marketing in the first year alone. But there are other important factors at play, including the superior video editing tools the app offers by default.

According to Lorenz, its success lies in no small part to being the anti-Instagram. “It broke the follow graph,” she explains, “and makes all American social networks, where users have to seek out and curate their own feed of content by ‘following’ people, seem archaic. Follower numbers on TikTok are much more of a vanity metric. The ‘For You’ page allows each piece of individual content to live on its own and find its own audience. This is a much better and more engaging way to deliver content than by following an ever expanding group of people/accounts.”

It’s also an easier point of entry for video than Instagram and YouTube, on which aesthetics and production values are key. “With TikTok, it’s literally just your phone,” explains Ali Berman. “Combine that with the emergence of a generation of parents who are more open minded to [social media], and for the first time, people were like, ‘Oh, this is something I can do.’”

“Talking to a lot of my friends,” says Charli, “TikTok is bringing them and their parents a lot closer together, which is really cool. I see a lot of parents and the kids doing dances together. I think it’s awesome that it’s so inclusive of people of all ages.”

Little wonder that brands, with varying degrees of success, are lining up like superfans at a K-pop VIP High-Touch concert. “We’re seeing a ton of enthusiasm from brands,” says Berman, “especially around working with native TikTok creators. They’re really excited, because from a content perspective, it’s a whole new muscle for them to flex.” While opportunities for paid media exist, savvy companies — like Parisian fashion label Jacquemus — are artfully bringing the personalities of their brand to life through the creative usage of in-app effects and filters, and, in the case of Givenchy, which partnered with Young Emperors as a part of its #GivenchyActingChallenge, original sound to encourage user creations.

However, what TikTok delivered to creators, brands, and families at warp speed, the global coronavirus pandemic took away. Just as Charli and Dixie were poised to take advantage of the many opportunities that have promptly come their way, like much of the world, the family retreated indoors to quarantine — hunkering down in a rental property in California.

“I used to want a break from it all for a couple of weeks or so,” says Dixie, who has been accepted to the University of Alabama where she plans to do a business degree. “But after this quarantine period, I never want another break again. I was having the time of my life and I want to get back to work and travel and meet people immediately.”

Though the break temporarily put paid to a slew of meet-and-greet appearances with fans, and led to the rescheduling of several projects – including the Hollister campaign that involved print and videos (not to mention the cancellation of Dixie’s prom) — it has also led to them accruing more followers than ever, with their individual accounts and the combined family one surging over the last few months. They might have been cooped up inside, but so was everyone else — an eager, captive audience for entertaining video content.

It’s also afforded the family a moment to hit the pause button and assess matters. “It brought us a lot closer,” says Marc, “and we were able to have a lot of conversations to prepare for what’s next. Hindsight being 20/20, these are conversations we probably should have had earlier, but everything happened so quickly.”

“When I stop to think about it, I’m like, ‘Whoa, this is so crazy,’” says Charli. “I don’t even know how this happened. But if there’s one thing that I really don’t do, [it’s] overthink things.” Which is just as well, as in the weeks since we spoke, the news broke that TikTok may be banned in the United States due to national security concerns, and Charli and her ex, fellow TikToker Chase Hudson (better known as Lil Huddy) were involved in a messy war of words as part of the TikTok influencer debacle known as the “TikTokalypse.”

Not that anyone should worry too much about the D’Amelio girls. In addition to digital content opportunities, live touring, podcasts, books, TV, licensing deals, and endorsements are all on the table. They’re not going away anytime soon. And on the advice of their family friend, wine critic turned author and marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk, Marc and Heidi have taught the girls not to “take the positives or the negatives to heart.”

Or, as Charli puts it: “My parents have always been, ‘We don’t care how many followers you have. You still have to do the dishes and take out the garbage. They don’t put me on a pedestal. And I’ve always been big on making sure that what I put out on the Internet about myself is stuff I would want everyone to see. I’m a teenager and [am] obviously not going to make the right choices 100 percent of the time, but I do my best to be the best person I can be, on and off screen.” Spoken like an authentic voice of a generation.

#tiktok #Charli & Dixie D'Amelio #TikTokalypse

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vacationsoup · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/an-ode-to-orchids/

An Ode to Orchids

A bright array of phalaenopsis, cattleyas, vandas, dendrobiums, and oncidiums stand in pots and hang graciously from stands inside the lobby of Hospice of the Golden Isles. As visitors and staff walk by, one man gently pulls off dead leaves and tends to the plants under his care. Some may need repotting, others periodic fertilizing. Under his careful eye, the plants provide a beautiful landscape inside, where passersby often comment on the curated garden.

Taylor Schoettle has been traveling from Darien once a week to tend to the orchids at the hospice facility for the past six years. Throughout his career, he has been a zoo curator in Puerto Rico, a marine education specialist with the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service in Brunswick, and a biology teacher. And now, he is known as the Orchid Man.

“It’s just like people who collect coins or glassware or antiques. For me, it’s orchids,” says Schoettle, who first started displaying his plants at the Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church in Darien for two decades before moving them to Hospice of the Golden Isles.

“I can’t have a greenhouse with orchids and not have people enjoy them,” he says.

Schoettle’s greenhouse, which he built with the help of his sons, is filled with different types of orchids, from the exotic cattleyas to the classic phalaenopsis. He has been known to travel to Jacksonville for the orchid show in March each year. “You will be fascinated by what you see. Oftentimes, I like the weird ones,” he says.

But Schoettle didn’t immediately jump into growing orchids after he was given one while living in Puerto Rico. His first love was reserved for heliconia, known as the lobster-claw, wild plantain, or false bird-of-paradise. “They are very rich in color … bright, brilliant; My God, they are just amazing. I took some with me, but they kept dying,” he says.

So he shifted his focus to orchids and found the species to be more resilient than most people believe. With the right care and dedication, he says, the plants can thrive. And for those that don’t seem to bloom, don’t give up on them. “I had a vanda that didn’t flower for years. Then, I put it in front of a window and, all of a sudden, it flowers. Last year, of the flowers I had, most were vandas,” Schoettle says.

Dawn Hart of Ace Garden Center on St. Simons Island enjoys vandas, too. “They are smaller, but their blooms are a true blue orchid; not one that has been dyed, which there are some,” she says. “You can get blues and dark, dark purples in the vandas.”

Hart often has a display of orchids at the front of her nursery, with new arrivals every two weeks or so. Classic white phalaenopsis stand in pots next to blossoming cymbidiums. Orchid hanging baskets near the entrance are ready to be filled with cattleyas or dendrobiums.

Hart often sees a spike of orchid purchases during wedding season and before the holidays. At a higher price point among the houseplants, orchids are often given as gifts, Hart says. “Typically, people don’t want to indulge themselves, so that’s why it’s kind of a special gift. It might not be something you think to do yourself,” she says.

In fact, Hart was gifted her first orchid, just like Schoettle was. For both, the plants proved to be more resilient than they first thought. “Don’t be afraid of them. Even though they are delicate looking, they are a pretty great, long-lasting, interior houseplant. There’s not many as refined and elegant looking as an orchid,” Hart says.

Many orchids are ephiphytic, which mean they can live on other plants — such as trees — and derive moisture and nutrients from the air. Because of this, their roots are often exposed. Orchid growers know not to trim the roots that may extend over a pot; it’s actually a sign the plant is healthy, Hart says.

Moisture — but not necessarily water — is critical for orchid care. “Part of the problem is that people hear ‘tropical’ and think they need a lot of water, and they drown them. A lot of times, the roots really need air to breathe more than water,” Schoettle says. Think of the Amazon, he explains. High humidity and a mist that covers everything is hard to mimic inside our dry environments here, which is why many serious orchid enthusiasts have a greenhouse.

Drainage pots are ideal to avoid drowning the plants. For those kept indoors, orchids can stay in the grower pot inside a larger pot; that way the water can flow out of the smaller pot without leaking all over the furniture, Hart suggests.

For those who want to keep orchids inside the home, they need to consider places that avoid direct sunlight but provide a lot of bright, indirect, or filtered light. Hart says orchids tend to do well in bathrooms, where steam from showers and baths can mimic the humidity the plants enjoy.

Watering amounts depend upon the type of orchid medium used — bark uses more than moss, which allows for more aeration. The ice cube philosophy says you can water an orchid with one ice cube, but the trick is divisive in the orchid community. “Our orchid supplier doesn’t like that ice cube philosophy. He says the ice cube kind of shocks it. So he’s not a proponent of it,” Hart explains.

Even under the best conditions, sometimes orchids can be a bit finicky. “It can bloom for three weeks and then you won’t see it at all again. It happens,” Schoettle says. To enhance the chance of respiking, Hart suggests you cut lower down the stalk, not near the bloom, and above a joint.

While tropical conditions are best for the majority of orchids, certain types can grow in northern climates or higher altitudes, including odontoglossums, masdevallias, cymbidiums, and miltonias. Generally, most orchids need to live in environments above 60 degrees. They can handle a brief cold spell but nothing sustained. Think of it this way: Orchids tend to like the same degrees that humans prefer.

“There’s usually a space in any household to accommodate them,” Hart says. “I think they are a special gift for someone who has everything. And they are also long-lasting enjoyment for the homeowner. I don’t think they ever go out of style.”

The Orchid Primer

Phalaenopsis

Phalaenopsis, sometimes called the moth orchid, is a popular choice for orchid lovers today. “They are more popular and some people find them easiest,” says Hart.

While there are a variety of colors, most phals in stores are usually white or purple. And the blooms are long lasting; under the right conditions, they will flower for a few months. “In an ideal world, if you buy one that is both budded and blooming, you should get two to three months,” Hart says.

For Schoettle, phalaenopsis is a personal favorite. “It’s probably one of the most elegant kinds … rows and rows of those faces, so broad, so expressive. It’s also one of the easiest to bloom,” he says. “I don’t want to say they have been cheapened because they are so common. They haven’t; no, they haven’t. And when I was first doing orchids, they weren’t common.”

How to Keep Them Alive

Temps They can handle up to 90 degrees or as low as 60 degrees.

Water Don’t let them dry out. Potting mediums will determine how much water is retained; bark needs watering weekly whereas sphagnum should be watered when the top layer feels dry.

Light Low light or shaded areas are better. A key to look for are the leaves, which should be an olive green color. If they are darker, the plant isn’t getting enough light; if they have a red edge, they are getting too much light.

Cymbidium

Cymbidiums, which usually have several blooms on the plant, are a favorite of Hart. “So many different colors; they are beautiful,” says Hart, as she looks over a large display of orchids at Ace Garden Center. On that day, she has cymbidiums in mustard yellow and deep crimson colors that stand out amongst the purple and white phalaenopsis nearby.

Since cymbidiums can be a pricier option of orchid, they are popular choices to celebrate special occasions, found in corsages or bridal bouquets. “You know you are special when you get a cymbidium orchid corsage. Sometimes in bridal bouquets, you will see cymbidium orchids. White cymbidium would be a very classic upgrade,” Hart says.

How to Keep Them Alive

Temps Ideal range is 70 to 85 degrees and 55 at night.

Water Keep moist throughout the summer, can lessen to barely moist during winter. Mist the bottom on the plant, not the blooms. “A lot of blooms themselves prefer not to be misted. Just around the foliage,” Hart says.

Light Strong indirect light during summer. The leaves can burn, so check for a medium green color.

Dendrobium

Dendrobiums are taller options of orchids, and the smaller blooms aren’t the only eye-catching element. This orchid also has a cascading amount of foliage and roots. They also like to be in smaller pots, which enhance their height.

For Hart, she selects dendrobiums that have a lot of foliage — “that’s just part of it for me,” she says — and will use them in mixed arrangements where the dendrobiums provide the height and ferns can be nestled around the bottom. “If someone has a cachepot for the dining room table, just sitting one orchid in it doesn’t do much; but add plants around the bottom,” she says. “They can be potted in same pot. Some people will change things out and put them in their cachepot and then line the top with moss. That way, they can water everything individually.”

How to Keep Them Alive

Temps They can stand a bit of heat, as high as 95 degrees, and down to 45 degrees at night.

Water Water more during summer months, when the plant is growing. Less so in winter.

Light Dendrobiums like a lot of light, just not direct sun.

Cattleya

These exotic orchids have striking blooms with a ruffled fringe on the flower. Like cymbidiums, cattleyas can be found in wedding bouquets and corsages.

The vivid colors of cattleyas create a beautiful spray of flora inside one’s home. Cattleyas tend to do well in pots, and they can even handle the light on a windowsill. But as an epiphytic plant, these species thrive best when air can get to their roots. “You see them in hanging baskets. You can really do some dramatic things with them on tall house plants and on the trunk of the trees, where you have them in little indentations in the trunk and have them in there and spritz them,” Hart says.

Cattleyas come in different sizes, from large to miniature. “I tend to favor the big cattleyas. I love the intricacies of the faces,” Schoettle says.

How to Keep Them Alive

Temps Keep between 55 and 85 degrees.

Water The size of the plant matters in how often you water. Minis and seedlings will need to be watered more often, usually five to seven days, because they store less water in their pseudobulbs and roots. Larger ones can be watered every 10 days or so.

Light Light should be strong, but not direct. The leaves should be medium green, and the blooms should look healthy. If you are having difficulty with your plant blooming, it may not have enough light.

Source: Golden Isles: The Magazine for Brunswick, St Simons Island. Jekyll, & Sea Island, By: Bethany Leggett

#CoastalGeorgia #Georgia #HolidayOnStSimonsIsland #StSimonsIsland #VacationOnStSimonsIsland #VacationSoup

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annasdesignblog-blog · 6 years ago

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Week 6 - Group Project: Start and Progress

The group project started on 8th of February when we got set the brief and found out our groups in the lecture. This is my group, in photo order: me, Tom, Alison, Anniko (team leader), Georgia and Karolina. I’ve actually worked with most of these group members before apart from Anniko, who’s an exchange student, as we are all on the same course; specifically, I’ve worked with Alison on multiple projects so I was quite pleased to find out we’re working together as we work really well.

After the initial brief, which is to create imagery to go on plain and uninteresting areas of the Markeaton Street campus on the theme of ‘birdhouse’, the groups had a chance to sit down and get to know each other. Although we all knew each other already, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Anniko so we used the sample questions, such as what is your happiest memory, what is your favourite place, your most embarrassing memory, etc., as a way for her to get to know everyone and for us to get to know her. After the chat and laughs, we decided to explore the campus and look for areas which would be ideal for the project. These are some I photographed:

The first and last photos were areas which in particular caught my eye; they are both areas many people use as a walkway, and as there aren’t any classrooms there I thought they would be good to use.

After exploring the campus, we have made the decision to mindmap individually throughout the week about what the word ‘birdhouse’ meant to us personally. This is what I came up with - a mix of sketches and mindmaps. I have split the words ‘bird’ and ‘house’ up and thought about the associations of each word. The sketches reflected on the mindmap, and helped me visualise the words and how the ideas can be taken further.

On the 5th March we had arranged a group meeting, and me, Alison, Anniko and Karolina attended; Tom didn’t attend and didn’t say why, and Georgia had to commute so she chose not to attend and instead share her thoughts through a Facebook group chat we created. During the meeting, we all shared our thoughts, coming up with the following associations of the word ‘birdhouse’, and have created a mindmap together:

Charity – living in a house provided by someone else

Safety – a place to call home

Family – where life begins

Building and labor

Freedom – can leave and come back as they like

Designed to lure a specific target

From this, we were inspired by the word freedom the most and the connotations of it, and how birds specifically relate to this theme too. Again, we made another list, but this time thinking about the associations of the word ‘freedom’:

Movement

Speech

Human rights

Happiness

Being able to do anything

Be yourself

Acceptance

The initial idea then happened - we have associated freedom with activism; perhaps placing quotes on a staircase from inspirational young activists would be an interesting take. The interactive side of it would be that if a code or something like that were to be scanned, a video of where said quote came from would come up. We have each researched different young activists, using these websites as help: https://www.complex.com/life/young-activists-who-are-changing-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR01ONZAq4ZH6TrbvEylg3YOWlS6kvJKY3E8MnM59xMMTrvsjkWbMrTsFfM (Complex magazine) and https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/13/young-people-are-angry-meet-the-teenage-activists-shaping-our-future?fbclid=IwAR0M76QvULiMY3rH9bn8DzcKjAudPcDsNFSse8kLRBJMrTSwBpDShke40L8 (The Guardian newspaper). However, after this, we decided to make it broader and focus on important activists in general. Individually again, we all planned to choose an activist and create some ideas and sketches based on them and their work. I have still decided to focus on someone I found in both these links; Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez, who has been working in climate change activism all his life. I’ve picked Martinez as he focuses on fighting climate change which is such an important topic currently, and definitely something that relates to university students who are young and have the potential to create the change needed.

From this research, I did quick illustrations of objects associated with climate change, so nature, extreme weather, recycling, Earth and power plants:

These are some of the sketches I have came up with and presented in our next group meeting on the 12th March, attended by me, Alison and Anniko. They are all based on one quote which summarises the work of Martinez - I have decided instead of sketching, carry on doing some rough illustrations digitally as I’m also working with a large amount of text so it makes it easier to do so.

After discussion, we have decided that the images should relate to the quote, rather than being a portrait of the person as it’s clearer what the quote means with illustrations to go along with it. We have also decided that all of our artworks should look the same, to create consistency. These are the following guidelines we decided on together and wish to apply to our artworks: the same font (not decided yet), drawing relates to the quote, white / transparent background and no black outlines on the images. This is the style of artwork, created by another team member we want to use:

This is the idea I have decided to use as the final; this is just the sketch, as the final will be created after the presentation on 22nd March - the idea uses a simple contrast; the bright colours on the right hand side represent the world after the ‘great decisions’ have been made, whilst the black and dull side on the left represents the world now that Martinez is trying to change by preaching that we have the freedom and choice to do so.

Action Plan - Review from Week 3:

In the blog post that reviews the industry by looking at different articles, awards and organisations, I have said that I haven’t got any work I want to include in my portfolio that is editorial and this was an issue as this is an area I am really interested in. I have decided to re-style L’Officiel USA magazine; specifically, the first issue featuring Lana Del Rey being interviewed by her contemporaries, collaborators and friends (https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/lana-del-rey-cover-story#image-7486). I’ve chosen this particular issue because it’s the first issue published by the magazine, so a significant one, and I also like the photographs used. I have re-designed the front cover, and the magazine spread which focuses on the Del Rey interview. I have decided to add doodle style illustrations on top of photos; the doodles are simply white, to keep the sophisticated style of the magazine.

(The quality has been reduced due to the maximum capacity this website can handle. The full spread can be seen in person if requested.)

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everysuperherofighting · 6 years ago

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The Best Music of 2018

2018 was a strange year for me. It should go without saying that the politics were grim, as the United States continued to embrace gestapo-esque tactics and concentration camps as a way of dealing with the “immigration crisis” (a lot of this happened under Obama too of course). The planet continued to slide into a dystopia of global warming as more and more animals became endangered or went extinct all-together. The mid-terms happened, with typically mixed results. Elon Musk called someone a pedophile on twitter for some reason.

On a personal level, in 2018 I moved to Ohio from Oregon (again). My band put out an EP. And I lost my father, something that I still grapple with on a daily basis, though it gets less present over time.

I’ve become interested in how I discover new music, as I’ve gotten older and can’t really consider myself to be fully plugged into any sort of youth culture, sub or otherwise. Finding new music has become a very intentional process; if I didn’t seek it out deliberately, I probably wouldn’t end up hearing much of anything. But that’s always kind of true for arty-weirdos like me.

For better or worse I discovered a lot of music the last two years through Youtube. As you probably know, if you play a song or an album on Youtube, there’s an autoplay feature that will automatically play something else when it’s done. I’ve found a lot of my favorite music lately this way, and in some ways it’s kind of filled the role that “cool record store clerk” or “late-night college dj” might have filled in the times past. This is not necessarily a good change. I’ve heard you can find a lot of white supremacists that way too.

Youtube has also become invaluable if you’re someone who wants to make a list like this one, and can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars on albums. I think sometimes the artists even get paid a minuscule amount for the clicks! Hooray free information! I hope we can all find decent jobs someday.

1) CAMP COPE - HOW TO SOCIALISE & MAKE FRIENDS

I debated with myself about whether to put Camp Cope at number one, as they’re not the most musically complex or adventurous of my favorite albums this year. However I can’t think of another band that felt like it lyrically captured the zeitgeist of the times in such a powerful way. The whole album is great, catchy and upbeat jangly indie/punk with tinges of early 90s midwestern emo, made by three woman from Melbourne, Australia. Singer Georgia McDonald has a great voice, imbued with urgency, and her accent is a lot of fun to listen to too. Her lyrics have that same emotional rawness and honest specificity that early emo has as well - on “The Omen” she sings about loving someone since they were 17 and wishes for rescue dogs and a house by the sea, while on “I’ve Got You,” she bounces from the death of her father to police shootings, the loss of her childhood home, and the grappling with mental illness, and it all feels thematically relevant as this great moment of exhaled catharsis.

The stand-outs for me, however, are “The Opener” and “The Face of God.” “The Opener” is a scorching indictment of the indie music scene, as McDonald calls-out all the garbage women in bands have to deal with, from accusations that they only succeed based on their gender, to men continually explaining things, to men showing up to lay down a big steamy pile of unrequited love BS. These aren’t new observations, but hearing them all laid out in a row like this highlights their invulnerability and their ubiquitousness, the daily microaggressions that lead up to a larger picture of persistent inequality. On “The Face of God,” McDonald narrativizes the Me Too movement from the perspective of an abused fan, musing “could it be true? You couldn’t do that to someone. Not you, nah your music is too good,” her tortured delivery capturing the rage, shame, disbelief, and sadness of all the Me Too revelations about artists that we liked, and who abused that power again and again and again and again and again and again and again an

2) IDLES - JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE

Image by Paul Hudson via Flickr

Idles was one of my favorite discoveries of last year. I was actually a little concerned with this album since I’d heard the band was “embracing positivity” , and what I loved about Brutalism was their raw, unhinged sound and clever but cynical and pissed-off lyrics. There’s also a recurring thing for me of finding a really cool raw sounding band, punk adjacent but not necessarily fully in the scene, who then get less “punk” (and to me, less interesting) with each subsequent release as they sort of turn into just another indie dude band who like Big Star or the Replacements. This band sounds raw as fuck, I’ll say, and then later they’ll put out their fucking mandolin album.

Joy as an Act of Resistance is dope though, as their music continues to embrace a raw, chaotic sound of guitars that both swirl and jab like shards of glass, pounding “Lust For Life” toms, and stripped down basslines, while frontman Joe Talbot howls sarcastic indictments of masculinity, homophobia, and racism. In a similar way to last year’s Pissed Jeans album, they tackle ugly toxic masculinity with ugly, tough sounding music, hearkening back to a punk rock that was less rigid in sound. There’s this infectious positivity that runs through the whole thing however, a joy that comes from casting off the fixed roles that the patriarchal society tries to put upon us and embracing our (ironically) gentler natures. “I wanna be your best ever friend forever” Talbot says, sincerely on “Love Song.” “Let’s hug it out,” he repeats on “Never Fight a Man With A Perm,” and though the song is making fun of a coked out bruiser, I have a feeling it’s a sentiment he would share.

3) THE ARMED - ONLY LOVE

The synthesis of hardcore punk with electronic music is something I’ve been anticipating. There’s definitely been forebearers (Horse the Band comes to mind, though there’s probably other stuff in the underground), but this is the first time I’ve heard it done so well. The Armed sound like if you took one of the better mid-2000s screamy hardcore bands and mixed it with the noisiest and most frenetic parts of a chip-tune song. That may sound like a nightmare to a lot of you, but again, it’s done so well here that it just sounds like a noisy chaotic mess in the best and most elegant possible way. This is not to underplay the tightness of the song-craft at work here - the chaotic sound seems to me to be carefully orchestrated. Glitchy, brutal, climatic, and beautiful. (And the parts where the lady sings remind me of Blatz. The world could use more Blatz.)

4) SCREAMING FEMALES - ALL AT ONCE

Image by Jason Persse via Flickr

This band is kind of a mainstay on my year end list at this point, but I feel like they continually top their previous efforts, a rare quality for most bands. Incredible vocals, incredible song-writing, incredible guitar playing, as they reach ever greater levels of accessibility and hookiness, while still maintaining that slight edge that would put them forever as at home in a basement as a venue.

5) KALI UCHIS - ISOLATION

Kali Uchis lands at that sweet spot where pop, hip-hop, jazz, soul, and psychedelia intersect that’s occupied by similar weirdos like Janelle Monae, Miguel, and the Internet. It’s no wonder that one of the all-time prophets of future-looking pop, Boots Riley, shows up on one of the singles. There’s a real bossa-nova, latin jazz vibe on a lot of these tracks, and a kind of retro-sheen even as it pushes into the future. “It’s no fun to feel like a fool,” Kali Uchis croons while straight up wall of sound style saxophones blurp in the background. “Pussy is a hell of an addiction.”

6) THE INTERNET - HIVE MIND

Another year-end list staple for me, the Internet have been consistently putting out some of the best, solid-ass R+B since 2011. The whole thing is smooth as hell, but weird or tasteful in all the right places; the “hoo hoo” on “Humble Pie” or the building horns on “Mood.” And retaining just a hint of that old Odd Future off-kilterness around the edges. OG Dungeon Family poet “Big Rube” shows up on “It Gets Better (With Time).”

7) JEAN GRAE AND QUELLE CHRIS - EVERYTHING’S FINE

Quelle Chris is a new one for me, but I rocked Jean Grae when I first started getting into indie rap back in high school. I always wondered what happened to her since then, but apparently she’s been putting out a steady stream of mixtapes and underground releases pretty much the whole time, self releasing a lot of them through bandcamp. She’s a wicked lyricist, and her and Quelle Chris trade off bars of dense wordplay and biting commentary on the current age of “self-care” and neoliberal hellscapes over beats that are just weird enough. Much of their verses are delivered through a lens of ironic detachment, but it’s especially affecting when the irony cracks into real urgency or emotion, as in “Breakfast of Champions,” a reflection on the grueling, consistent presence of racism in America. “It’s bound to wreck your body or straight burn your body out” they muse, and then later, as if realizing the gravity of it all, “it’s like damn, shit, fuck, wow…”

Also Quelle Chris apparently taught himself to program 8-bit video games for one of the videos.

8) SELF DEFENSE FAMILY - HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PUNK MUSIC

Yeah dude, you know I like punk rock that don’t follow no rules. This is definitely more in the vein of Fugazi, or maybe even a slightly more jagged Wilco, than a NOFX or 7 Seconds, with nods to Americana and a vocal delivery that reminds me of a raspier Craig Finn. A central preoccupation of the album seems to be the delicate balance between art and maturity, made all the more so when you’re tied to a subculture that’s only “supposed” to last you through your early 20s. There’s some great lines throughout: “ “Explaining motherhood to a man, cold observation but he’s not capable of understanding; detailing math to a dog, won’t retain a word but if you’re lucky he may be a good boy and nod” and “The world’s not turning for you and the road never rises, you’re eking out a living like every other asshole” are highlights for me, but I think my favorite bit of cleverness is actually just the juxtaposition between the titles of tracks 6 and 7. “Have You Considered Punk Music?” asks one. The other: “Have You Considered Anything Else?”

9) SINGLE MOTHERS - THROUGH A WALL

Image by CRUSTINA! via Flickr

And here we have a release that’s a little more meat and potatoes, with steam-rolling drum beats, distortion, and yelled vocals about the desperation to be found in modern life’s mudanities, “dog parks and IPA.” This album’s just some fucking ferocious non-screamy hardcore, with that same relentless quality that the best hardcore albums have. “Catch and Release” even has some double kick on it. Interestingly, I find some of the core anxieties the same as in the album above however: “Better people than you or I have lost that spark for life,” Andrew Thomson bellows on 24/7, a Cassandra portending the potential pitfalls of age.

10) HOP ALONG - BARK YOUR HEAD OFF, DOG

Singer Francis Quinlan has an incredible voice, powerful and worldly, and she paints quick snapshots of narrative with her lyrics like a Lydia Davis story. The music has shades of mid-western emo, with some kind of funky, almost Jackson 5 style guitar lines. This one is definitely a step up in terms of instrumentation from their earlier records, with strings, acoustic guitars, and other orchestral touches. The title refers specifically to a dying dog from one of the tracks, though it also seems to apply to all the characters briefly given voice throughout the album.

11) CINDER WELL - THE UNCONSCIOUS ECHO

Beautiful, haunting folk from Amelia Baker of Blackbird Raum (and a few other fellows mostly from the folk punk/bluegrass scene). A little more straight folk than Blackbird Raum’s high energy mix of folk, metal, and hardcore. Stripped down and evocative, with one foot firmly in an irish folk tradition. Like Blackbird Raum, there is a foreboding quality to much of the music, like a warning of dark things to come.

12) NONAME - ROOM 25

A micro-trend I noticed in hip-hop this year was short albums, notable from a tradition that often includes massive releases and mixtapes stuffed with skits and interludes. This is the first of example of this on my list, clocking in at a respectable 34:48. Noname is a great rapper with an intricate flow, technical without being too dense for a more casual listener, keeping her ideas and narratives clear and present over funky neo soul beats. At times she can be extremely candid, rapping about her sexual escapades, emotions, and insecurities. In one of my favorite moments, the track titled “No Name,” she discusses the spirituality behind her stage name: “When we walk into heaven, nobody’s name gon’ exist; just boundless movement for joy, nakedness radiance.” She’s funny too though. “I’m just writing my darkest secrets like wait and just hear me out; saying vegan food is delicious like wait and just hear me out.”

13) JEFF ROSENSTOCK - POST

More noisy power pop from former Bomb the Music Industry frontman Jeff Rosenstock (though I suppose by this point his solo career is at least as significant; Bomb albums never made it to Pitchfork). I think this one’s a little less varied than “Worry” before it, and a little rawer around the edges. The title is seemingly referring to the time post-2016 election, though it seems to often be more interested in profiling the anxious mood than making specific political points (which you probably all know anyway). I can’t think of another song writer off the top of my head that more consistently exemplifies the anxieties of the millennial generation, whether it’s the mid-20s woes of joblessness and friend loss often detailed in Bomb the Music Industry, or this current outing. On “Yr Throat,” he talks about the ease he has talking about relatively frivolous matter like video games and vinyl records, verses more important matters. One of my favorite lines in the song is a little more direct however, commenting on you-know-who: “It’s not like any other job I know; if you’re a piece of shit they don’t let you go.”

14) DEATH GRIPS - YEAR OF THE SNITCH

Image by Montecruz Foto via Flickr

Supposedly the album title has something to do with Charles Manson, at least according to their very vocal and sometimes uncomfortably affiliated online fanbase. It’s pretty rare that I can fully decipher what a song is about, other than generally surreal lyrics that hint toward a dirty and unsettling underground, whether urban, suburban, or solely online. Death Grips, if you don’t know, make experimental and abstract hip-hop, featuring dark and somewhat unconventional beats, with a live drummer, seeming to draw as much from the tradition of noise music than from rap. For as weird as all this is, however, there’s usually a pretty solid song structure underlying each track, and they create some sticky hooks out of all the electronic chaos and bellowed raps. This time around there seems to be a bit of a shoegaze influence as well, which…. doesn’t quite fit their aesthetic? But is pretty interesting all the same.

15) RAVYN LENAE - CRUSH

Steve Lacy from the Internet (the band) produced this 5 track long EP of retro/future funk and R+B. “Sticky” is as catch a song as ever there was, and Ravyn Lenae does a great job kind of floating over the beat, mixing up her delivery. These artists nod a lot to 70s R+B and funk, and I love that they preserve the strangeness of a lot of that stuff, that otherwordly vibe, whether it’s the “oooo-HOO-hoo-hoo” on “Sticky” or the blunted synth stabs on “4 Leaf Clover.”

16) HINDS - I DON’T RUN

Image by Paul Hudson via Flickr

Indie rock from Madrid with several lady vocalists that’s just a tad sloppy, in a good way. Catchy and relationship oriented, but scratching at something deeper beyond the surface. I love the way the vocal mics all seem to distort slightly. Maybe I’m just an old now, but it makes me nostalgic for college in some way, smoking cigarettes and being heartbroken. Which was probably not actually as fun as I remember it.

17) JPEGMAFIA - VETERAN

Hard as hell raps over jittery noise beats that sometimes merge into moments of dreamlike beauty from a hip-hop auteur who handles all the production himself. This kind of reminds me of when Pitchfork called Odd Future “/b/ boys” (referring to 4chan). This is the new Extremely Online hip-hop, endlessly irony poisoned, vaguely left-wing but mostly cynical, inside jokes upon inside jokes. It seems like there’s some real anger in here too, and his raps often involve promises of violence, usually upon various members of the alt right: “Look, it’s the young alt-right menace; What’s the pistol to a pennant?”

18) MILO - BUDDING ORNITHOLOGISTS ARE WEARY OF TIRED ANALOGIES

Milo reminds me of the best of the older backpacker rappers, dropping classic lines so fast that you miss about 2/3rds of them the first couple times through. Equally at home dropping a reference to a video game, a philosopher, the harshness of race in America, and the Guggenheim fellowship, like one of those memes that eradicates the distinction between high and low culture by putting references to existentialist philosophers over a picture of Spongebob. Of course, hip-hop has always been doing that, hasn’t it?

19) EARL SWEATSHIRT - SOME RAP SONGS

Image by Anna Hanks via Flickr

Another notably short album, at a brisk 24:39. The songs are short too, often coming across as sketches, though really this is the kind of project made to listen to in one sitting. Like a lot of the rap albums on here, this is a project that takes the beats as well as the rhymes seriously, pushing forward into avant garde territory, but in a mellower way than JPEGMAFIA or Death Grips. They have an almost hypnotic quality to them, as Earl raps in his slightly aloof manner, though here the aloofness feels more like a mask only thinly hiding a deep sense of melancholy. The samples on here are thick with that old record hiss - even the vocals are hissy, like a transmission from someplace far away.

20) SUDAN ARCHIVES - SINK

Sudan Archives is a violinist from Cincinnati who makes pop music that sounds like nothing else out there, though it takes cues from hip-hop, R+B, electronica, and world music. The beats are stripped down but still lush sounding, the violin often leading in a way that sounds strange and otherwordly, utilized for it’s ability to create rhythmic hooks, while her lyrics meld the personal with the empowering with the political.

21) TEYANA TAYLOR - K.T.S.E.

Kanye West produced 5 different 7 to 8 track albums this year, with mixed results. A lot of people stan Pusha T’s Daytona, but this one was my favorite, a short and sweet album that’s mellow, romantic, and a little dirty. Teyana Taylor puts in a very versatile performance, and her voice is perfectly suited to ride over the old soul samples that make up the bulk of the production. Kanye’s musical output was of course overshadowed by his various bizarre political statements and right wing flirtations, but it would be a shame for this gem to get lost in the fray.

22) CHURCH OF THE COSMIC SKULL - SCIENCE FICTION

I don’t always love heavily conceptualized “revival” type bands, but this one is so much fun, not just doing pitch perfect 70s hard rock, but also spoofing (at least, I think it’s a spoof) the phenomenon of 70s cults. The members seem to dress in all white, and look like they just stepped off some Jesus-dude’s farm/compound. Of course it wouldn’t work if the music wasn’t so damn hooky. Harmonies, heavy organs, and hella riffs.

23) VINCE STAPLES - FM!

And another super short hip-hop album from one of contemporary rap’s best. Vince’s projects usually feature stripped down beats that would sound good in a car or a club, but the lyrical matter is dark as hell, another example of what a strange genre gangsta rap is when viewed from the outside. It’s hyper-masculine and braggadocios, but also equally often an expression of black pain that is then commodified into bangers for clubs, cars, and house parties full of white frat boys to dance and drink to. The contrast is all the more apparent every time Vince mentions one of his dead friends. I dunno dude, maybe I’m just getting old.

24) JANELLE MONAE - DIRTY COMPUTER

This didn’t grab me as immediately as her previous two full lengths, trending a little too close to mainstream pop for my tastes. But underneath the added sheen, it’s still a Janelle Monae album, bouncing gleefully from Prince-style funk jams to buoyant electro tunes. Monae drops the cyber-punk robo future concept to make an on-the-nose, album length celebration of queerness (though I think there may be some sci-fi on the Dirty Computer short film, which I haven’t watched yet.) The celebratory nature fits the larger, more conventional pop moves here, a sort of “queering” of mainstream pop. There’s also more rapping here than ever, and it’s always fun to hear Monae drop some bars.

25) FUCKED UP - DOSE YOUR DREAMS

Image by CRUSTINA! via Flickr

Similar to the above, this is an album from a long time favorite of mine that didn’t grab me as much as their earlier efforts, and that also seems to be making some moves toward a more mainstream pop sound, though here of course it’s pop music featuring a bellowing, gravel voiced hardcore singer and a bunch of loud Cock Sparrer style guitar lines. This is a concept album, apparently about a character who quits his job and goes on a drug fueled odyssey through the nature of reality, learning to reject an oppressive capitalist society, which sounds like the plot of an 80s British comic book, and hey, the cover is basically ripped straight from the pages of Watchmen, so there you go. They try out a lot of different styles here, which can be a bit hit or miss, but the core of Fucked Up, the interplay between Abraham’s bombastic bellows and huge sounding guitars, is as raucous and triumphant as ever, if a little more familiar.

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