#and as always release 1 or 2 demos and then disappear!

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔖𝔲𝔦𝔠𝔦𝔡𝔢 - ℜ𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔤𝔦𝔬𝔲𝔰 𝔚𝔞𝔯

[dustedmagazine]

Soft Machine — The Dutch Lesson (Cuneiform)

The Dutch Lesson by Soft Machine

Cuneiform has done it again! A more multifaceted and satisfying series of Soft Machine archival recordings is not to be found anywhere, and just when it might seem to be over, Steve Feigenbaum adds another entry into an already large catalog. The Cuneiform releases include concerts, studio and demo recordings, and while there are too many to mention, the 1967 Middle Earth Masters provides one unparalleled glimpse into early Softs as they blaze through a club set caught in surprisingly good sound. The same is true with this 1973 Rotterdam concert, and even before diving into the music, a word of praise is in order for the restoration wizardry of Ian Beabout. His recent work on Baker’s Dozen, the Muffins’ box set also on Cuneiform, set the bar very high, and The Dutch Lesson does not disappoint. The front-row taping is both vivid and extremely powerful, not to mention dynamically varied, and Beabout squeezed every last sonic detail out of it.

Those details are especially important at points of transition, as when the opening “Stanley Stamps Gibbon Album” leads first to “Between” and then into “The Soft Weed Factor.” The quartet lineup, so similar to that on the sixth album, consists of drummer John Marshall, keyboardist Mike Ratledge, winds and keys man Karl Jenkins and bassist Roy Babbington replacing Hugh Hopper. To hear the contrast between the ever-in-sync Marshall and Babbington-driven opener and the intricate and delicate “Between” is to behold a thing of rare and gentle beauty. Ratledge’s organ sound becomes more and more rounded, its distortion slowly fading into polyrhythms of delayed keyboard repetitions and luminescent percussion. Just when it seems that the sound is going to disappear altogether, so near to silence has it strayed, “Factor’s bluesy trudge emerges with perfect timing. It builds, with crushing inexorability, until Marshall and Babbington slam the groove home at 2:15. They kick into similar overdrive on a particularly maniacal rendering of “37 ½” that gives Jenkins a chance to stretch way out on what sounds like oboe. His serpentine solo eventually enters multi-phonic mode, and a more illustrative example of his improvisational chops would be difficult to imagine.

Aymeric Leroy’s notes set the stage and fill in the background, as they always do. He posits, insightfully, that the seventh album’s largely overdubbed textures probably account for the fact that only one track from it, “Down the Road,” appears in this October 1973 concert. What we do hear, an even more tantalizing proposition, is an early version of the now-iconic “Hazard Profile,” emerging headlong, with volcanic import, from “Chloe and the Pirates.” Dig the keyboard arpeggiations as Marshall’s opening roll clears a space for the track’s initial burst of groove-laden activity an astonishing 1:43 in! Yes, the drums are loud throughout, and that’s what Marshall sounds like in performance. He’s one of the most underappreciated drummers still on the scene, every power-packed roll and thud tempered by ornaments of exquisite precision and delivered with unerring timing. Again, the glacial dynamic descent leading into the following improvisation is made all the more poignant by the preceding quarter-hour of mind-stomping riff and distorto-slam.

If all you’ve heard are the album versions of these tracks, this concert will offer up a new perspective, one that hits with immediate viscerality. If the quintet lineup with Alan Holdsworth, added very soon after this concert, raised the stakes, the keys and winds so prominent in this relatively short-lived band certainly makes The Dutch Lesson well worth investigating, but there’s so much more to enjoy! We experience a band in transition as exciting as any connecting their propulsive live sets, but when has Soft Machine been anything other?

Marc Medwin

[cryptic-flash]

"Polygon Wave EP" created by the change in the production system and the relationship with Yasutaka Nakata who came closer to Perfume (Natalie Interview Sep 2021)

Page 1 - about live show

Page 2

Which was the most memorable performance of this concert for you?

Kashiyuka: The first performance of "Polygon Wave (Original Mix)". Originally, we were going to perform the version that was released earlier, but when we were deciding which song to include on the EP, Yasutaka Nakata said, "This is the one!" About two weeks before the concert, I asked MIKIKO-sensei, "I'd like to change the song to this one, can you do the choreography in time? "I'll do my best at ......! (laughs).

I'll do my best." (laughs) That's pretty sudden.

 "Polygon Wave" is also the title of the show, and this song was the concept that ran through the entire show.

Nocchi: But I didn't just say, "Let's record a song that will be important for the live performance. When I had a chance to talk with Mr. Nakata last December, he said, "Let's just record a song without thinking about what it's for. If it's good enough, you can use it for something else." He suggested that we go to the studio and record the song after it was written, and the first song we wrote was "Polygon Wave. The first song that came out of that process was "Polygon Wave." I think that kind of rough, uncomplicated feeling is easier for you now. All the songs we recorded this time have a different and new atmosphere. Among them, it seems that "Polygon Wave" was the first song that Nakata felt was appropriate for everyone to hear, and from that point on, we started talking about various things.

Kashiyuka: The songs "∞ Loop" and "Android &" that will be included in the EP were also recorded at that time. When we were recording, we hadn't talked about an EP yet, but since "Polygon Wave" was chosen as the theme song for "The Masked Singer," we decided to release a single. He said, "I want to put a lot of 'Polygon Wave'! I thought, "That's new" (laughs).

Nakata-san also likes this song a lot, doesn't he ?

Nocchi: I think Nakata-san had a clear idea of the world he wanted to show us. We also thought it was a great song, so we thought, "If that's the case, why don't we just release this one song first?" Then Mr. Nakata said, "If we make an EP, we'll make another version. We said, "If you're going to make another version, we'll do it live."

Kashiyuka: We've never had so many different mixes of the same song before, so we'd talk about things like, "Which 'Polygon Wave' should be the first song? We talked about it. I thought it was unusual for you to have such an opinion on the song order. It's always easy to decide, but we had many discussions.

"A closer relationship than that between "producers" and "singers.

Kashiyuka: In the past, we'd record songs after we'd decided on a release or a tie-up, but this time we were free to write and record without thinking about whether we'd use them or not, so the pace was faster than usual. When we were recording, people would say things like, "We might not use this song," but since we've already sung it, we've grown to love it (laughs). (laughs) So I sang it, thinking, "I hope it doesn't disappear. (laughs) So I sang the songs while thinking "I hope they don't disappear". In fact, I recorded songs that were not on the EP.

A~chan: Mr. Nakata's mode was different. He's always been a fast songwriter, but what happened to him?  It was so fast. I think he had a clear idea of what he wanted.

Nocchi: You and Nakata-san talked a lot before and after the recording, didn't you? We talked about our old music, our stance when being interviewed, what we hope Perfume will be like in the future, and what we want to do.

In the last interview, you said that there were only two songs that you made demos for and rejected (see Perfume "Perfume The Best "Cubed"" interview). That's a big difference.

What was the recording process like?

A~chan: we talked for hours.

Your relationship with Nakata-san is completely different from what I've heard from everyone.

Nocchi: Yes. Before, we used to talk about such things only in the occasional discussions. Nakata-san used to only reveal a little bit of what he was thinking, but this time, he was overflowing with it on .......

Kashiyuka: This time, I was happy to feel that we were working together at a closer distance than the previous relationship of "producer" and "singers". "I thought, "Oh, it was easier for Mr. Nakata to work this way. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that until now (laughs).

I'm curious to know what songs you recorded but didn't include in the EP.

Kashiyuka: The song we played at the end of the live the other night is also not on the EP, but we recorded it at that time. We don't even know if that song is finished (laughs). (laughs) But I liked that song so much from the moment we recorded it that I told MIKIKO that I wanted it to be included in the live set list.

 It's rare to play a song in its current state in a live performance. In rock bands, they sometimes show off songs that they are still working on.

Kashiyuka: That's true (laughs).

Nocchi: But we wanted to sing that song at this live, because it expresses the message that Perfume wants to convey to the fans now. It might not be released for a long time, or it might not be released at all, but we were aware that this live performance would remain as a video for a long time.

Page 3

`A desert world where all organic matter is made up of digital bits.`

So, I felt that both "∞ Loop" and "Android &" selected for this song are similar to the world view of "Polygon Wave".

Nocchi: I like both of them very much. The music is stylish and light without being mechanical, but "∞ Loop" is about the scary feeling of living in a world where time loops, and "Android &" is about falling in love with an android.

A-chan: Nakata-san told me the meaning of the lyrics. The main character of "Android &" is actually an android who thinks he's completely human. That's why the title of the song ends with "&", but it's supposed to be like "Android & Human". It's interesting, isn't it?

Kashiyuka: But we didn't know the titles of either "∞ Loop" or "Android &" until the songs were announced (laughs). (laughs) When we were recording, we said "loop" and "android", so we thought that was the name of the song, but when the information was released and we read the news article, it said something different. "But when I read the news article after the information was released, it said something different. "Is this "&" a typo? I thought, "Is this okay? I contacted them just to make sure. I asked him if it was okay, and he said, "Nakata-san told me it's "Android &". The other song is called "Mugen Loop" (laughs).

Nocchi: The lyrics of "Android &" are kind of harsh, looking at the world from a bird's eye view (laughs).  It's a song with a clear story, so I hope you'll write a story based on it.

A~chan: It looks like it's going to be hard to draw the CG (laughs).

Kashiyuka: But we can probably cover the motion with the data we've collected so far (laughs). I feel that Nakata-san had envisioned a total world in this EP.  He wanted to express the whole thing like a movie.

That's right. I thought it was a very conceptual composition that "∞ Loop" depicts a world that keeps rebooting at the end of the day, and the song "System Reboot", which means "reboot", is included at the end of the same work.

Kashiyuka: Nakata-san's image for this EP is "a beautiful & broad desert, but all the trees and organic matter growing there are made of digital bits. It's a world with a sense of discomfort," he said.

Director Yusuke Tanaka's signature "Wow, I'm so scared"

You made a dance practice video for "Polygon Wave", didn't you? It was the first time for Perfume to make a video focusing on the choreography, but it seems that there was a demand for a video where you can see every detail of the body movements, and the response was great.

Nocchi: I'm so happy (laughs). It's not often that I get to dance in sneakers, so it was fun to film.

A~chan: Whenever I appear on a music program, I always take a short video of myself dancing and submit it to the TV station. I can't show that kind of footage to the public, but the atmosphere of the dance practice video is similar to that. It's hard to dance in heels, so just wearing sneakers made it really easy.

I heard that you're working on a music video for this song, will there be a lot of dance scenes in the music video?

Nocchi: Basically, it's like a dance video.

Kashiyuka: But we just shot it, so I haven't watched it yet (laughs).

A~chan: It's a video with a clear world view, so I'm sure you'll understand how to listen to this song by watching it. Is this real? Is this real or is this virtual? In the music video, the three of us are driving together, and in the middle of the road, we're like, "What? It ends with Yusuke Tanaka's signature "Wow, this is so scary! (laughs). During the shooting, I was dancing so hard that my legs became sticks.

The choreography is quite complicated, isn't it?  It's a collage of past songs, updated with the skills of the three of us, and it's the culmination of Perfume's dancing to date.

A~chan: What! Is that so? I thought you were doing it consciously, but it's not like that?

Nocchi: I wasn't conscious of it at all. To be honest, I just thought, "I've never done all these moves before" (laughs).(laughs)

Kashiyuka: When I was being choreographed, I took it as "new movements for a new song", so I didn't feel anything special. But we didn't talk about such messages.

A~chan: I thought that the arrangement of the song had various old tastes. I thought, "That sound in the background is the one they used in 'Polyrhythm'! It brings back memories! I'm nostalgic!

─ Speaking of which, the newly recorded "Polygon Wave (Remix)" is a very interesting remix, with a series of tones and phrases that remind me of various Perfume songs.

A~chan: I think Nakata-san has that planned out! I mean, he said something like that, didn't he?

Oh, so that's what he said. I was listening to the song thinking that it was like a concept live "Reframe" that reconstructed Perfume with the most advanced production, and that it was like your own "Reframe" that reconstructed Perfume's history in one song.

A~chan: Yes, yes. When you've been doing this for a long time, you get to make this kind of music.In many cases, remixes are done in a way that is different from the artist's usual style, as if to say, "This could be interpreted in this way," but this remix has more of a Perfume feel to it.

Nocchi: Yeah, I was expecting it to be weirder, but when I listened to it, it sounded so much like Perfume (laughs).

Page 4 - upcoming Reframe etc.

src : https://natalie.mu/music/pp/perfume17

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 3 - Bodega

Summary: Sunset Curve Alive AU, Willex, is it a date?, 2.7k

WARNINGS: cancer mention, lines in Spanish will have translations in the tags

@trevor-wilson-covington is the bestie who makes me these lovely edits, we stan supportive friends

Part 1, Part 2

Alex followed the gentle clack-clack-clack of the wheels eagerly, watching as Willie glided this way and that through the street. He shoved down the thought that his walk was only going to be a short one. After a few blocks, Willie slowed to a stop outside a bodega and waited for Alex to catch up before going inside.

“Hola, ese!” The guy behind the counter called as they entered.

Willie nodded and raised his eyebrows at him in greeting, lifting off his helmet and leaning his board against the wall of the counter. Immediately, an orange striped cat hopped up onto the surface with an excited little ‘prrrrp?’ and approached so Willie could pet him.

“Hey, Sheldon,” he said, massaging behind the cat’s ears as it rubbed its head aggressively against his shirt. Then, Sheldon sniffed Alex’s sleeve in curiosity as he stood timidly amid the unfamiliar.

“He’s friendly,” Willie assured. “Unless you’re allergic,” he added cautiously.

Alex smiled as he took the cat’s face in his hands, rubbing the sweet spots on his neck.

“No, good thing I’m not.” Sheldon was already purring, the sound soothing Alex’s slight shakiness. Willie smoothed the fur along his back.

“Have you been good today?” he asked in a baby voice.”You been treating Escobar right?” The cat meowed and rubbed against Willie’s chest.

“He caught two mice this morning,” The man, whom Alex assumed was Escobar, said. He was trying to wipe what looked like grease on his hands. “He’s happy because I gave him sardines.”

“Thanks, man,” Willie told him. “By the way, this is Alex.”

“Nice to meet you,” Alex said, realizing his hands had been gripping his fanny pack anxiously and loosening them.

“Good to meet you, Alex,” Escobar offered his wrist to shake, his hand being dirty. Alex shook it awkwardly and then Sheldon pushed his way in between and rubbed his head against his hand. Willie laughed.

“He seems to really like you,” he said.

“All I did was pet him,” Alex replied.

“Well, if Willie likes someone, the cat usually does, too,” Escobar informed him.

Alex smiled, unsure what to say to that.

“Que pasó con tu mano?” Escobar directed to Willie in concern, looking pointedly at his hand.

Willie only laughed and lifted the hand in question.

“Scrapes everyday,” was all he had to say.

The man only shook his head as he moved to put away the rag he’d been wiping his hands on.

“Te tienes que cuidarte mejor,” he said as he came back to the counter. “So what are we eating today?”

“We’ll see,” Willie said. He turned to Alex. “Do you want anything?”

He blinked, flustered.

“Are you - are you sure?” The words it’s not a date, it’s not a date, began repeating in his head incessantly. Right? A guy can buy another guy he just met food...after inviting him to follow him...on his way to get food….

“Yeah, I’ve got you covered,” Willie told him, moving over to a part of the counter where a sandwich menu was posted on top of it. Alex felt a bass drum going in his chest and tapped his toe to mimic it, hoping he could play it off as just taking time to decide.

“Take your time, amigos, I gotta wash my hands real quick,” Escobar said before disappearing.

“I don’t understand most of what he says,” Willie murmured so only Alex could hear. “But I get the general idea.”

He could only smirk in response. Perusing the menu, Alex quickly made a selection, still hesitant about accepting Willie’s offer. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around the bodega. He’d been to a few around L.A. but they all had their differences. This one was rather spacious, with some tables set up outside, and of course the sandwiches were an uncommon feature.

“So,” Willie started, grabbing his attention. “Do you often follow strangers through the city?”

Alex exhaled nervously, only then realizing what he’d just done.

“No,” he shook his head. Willie leaned on the counter, smirking. “No, this is kind of a first. Why, do you get followed a lot?”

Willie only bit his lip and shook his head. They chuckled together for a moment.

“I just come here every day during my lunch break,” Willie explained. “To check on Sheldon. Figured if you were game, you’d come.”

Alex looked at him in confusion.

“You explained none of that back there; you just nodded.”

“And yet….” Willie said, gesturing toward him. The unspoken truth hovered between them so potently Alex expected to receive a static shock.

“So...is Sheldon your cat?” he asked to diffuse the tension. Sheldon perked up at the sound of his name and pattered over to them.

“Yeah,” Willie responded as if he’d been distracted by his thoughts for a second. “I found him a few months ago and he was just really sick and weak and I couldn’t leave him like that, so Escobar was nice to let me keep him here since I can’t have him with me.”

“Why can’t you - ” Alex began before Escobar came back through, rubbing his newly cleaned hands.

“Okay, primos, we ready?” he asked.

“Yep!” Willie said, flashing a look to Alex that he’d answer him later. “Just the usual for me. You know what you want, Alex?”

“The, uh, chicken panini,” he said quickly. He glanced over at Willie again and got a tiny nod that yes, he was fine to get a sandwich. As Escobar got to work making them, they went over to the tables outside and sat down.

“I figured I could thank you a little bit, considering the generous tip I got this morning,” Willie said.

Alex swallowed, remembering how hard he had to convince the boys to leave a good deal of money so Willie could get into the show in the evening. It wasn’t until Bobby had made up something about getting more fans that got Luke and Reggie to agree. In retrospect, the count of bold decisions he was making that day was record-breaking.

“I wouldn’t have asked you to return a favor,” he said. “But I do appreciate the sandwich.” He felt Sheldon rub against his leg.and smiled as he looked down. “You weren’t kidding when you said he was friendly. This is the happiest cat I’ve ever met.”

Willie nodded. “He’s changed so much since we found him.”

He paused and just looked at Alex for a moment. 

“You don’t relax much, huh?” he wondered aloud in a soft manner.

Alex looked down at his hands once again keeping a death grip on the strap of his fanny pack, released them, and put them down in his lap.

“No better time to start than now, right?” he said, taking in a couple deep breaths. He couldn’t help it. One look at Willie made him feel like time fell from orbit - whatever that meant. His hands still needed something to do though, so he pulled out his drumsticks again and lightly tapped on the edge of the table. Willie bobbed his head to the rhythm, scrunching his nose.

After a few minutes, they heard Escobar call out and they went to collect their sandwiches. Willie glanced at the clock above them and grabbed his board.

“I don’t know how, but it’s already almost time to head back,” he said.

Alex hadn’t figured him to care about punctuality, but took his sandwich from Escobar, ready to follow Willie back toward the hotel. There was no chance he would find his way back alone. Escobar wagged a finger for him to come closer. Nervously, Alex leaned toward the counter.

“Tú tienes cara de fresa,” he said, to which Alex only blinked cluelessly. “Pero me caes bien.” The man simply nodded, smiling slightly. Alex looked between him and Willie, neither of them offering a translation.

“Th...thanks,” he stuttered. He leaned down and scratched Sheldon’s head to bid adieu.

“I’ll be back later for Sheldon,” Willie told Escobar as they exited.

Before Willie mounted his board, he got a few good bites into his sandwich. They had gotten about half a block away before Alex dared to ask.

“Do you have any clue what he said to me?”

“I think it was a compliment,” Willie said, mouth slightly full of food.

They continued back toward the hotel, eating their sandwiches as Alex simply ruminated over everything that had just transpired. Willie glanced over occasionally, always with a smile, and clearly travelling slower than he had before so he didn’t leave Alex too far behind. As they finally approached their destination, Willie dismounted his board for a moment.

“Hey,” he said, the soft tone Alex had heard earlier coming back. “Thanks for going with me. It was nice.”

Alex smiled, momentarily losing his entire working vocabulary to giddiness.

“No problem,” he said finally. “See you around?”

Willie nodded.

“See you around.”

Back at the Pearl, the band was set up for their sound check. Luke was an uncontained mass of energy at this point - kissing his rabbit’s foot countless times, swinging his arm tie around to see how far a distance he could hit people from, and his hands rarely leaving his guitar. Alex had a feeling it was only going to get worse the second he saw Julie. They all assembled on the stage and took up their instruments, waiting for the sound tech to instruct them.

“Okay, Reggie, give us a line,” was heard from the booth. Reggie improvised a bass lick on the spot for about thirty seconds, which was far more than the sound guys needed. It was a wicked line, though, and Alex couldn’t blame him for riding it out. He could see Luke and Bobby raising their eyebrows, hoping they could play with it later.

The techs guided them through the instruments one by one, then microphones, and then prepared for them to play together. This was the first time they were all playing with earpieces to hear everything properly and it was certainly an exciting change. Alex could hear them almost as if he were listening to their own demo and he couldn’t describe the feeling.

On cue, Luke played the opening riff to Now or Never and the energy immediately flowed as they all joined him.

“Take off, last stop, count down till we blast open the top…”

Nothing like getting to play to take the edge off of everything. He’d started the day early and thought there would be nothing more nerve-wracking than getting on this stage. Sure, he knew he could do it, but the pressure to somehow gain the support of hundreds more people in one go had been mounting on him the last few days. Fans who came to him after shows and told him that he made a difference to them? That he was something more than just an awkward teen who was bullied for being gay and having nut allergies? It was surreal. Alex wanted to keep reality close most of the time. Making music was the exception where he was happy to escape.

They finished the song, and as Alex swept his hair out of his eyes he saw a figure stand up from sitting in the middle of the empty venue, clapping their hands.

“You guys, that was phenomenal!” Julie Molina was saying, making her way onto the stage.

“Julie!” all of the guys cried out, nearly in unison. Luke was already bounding over as she made her way up to the stage. Reggie and Bobby lifted the straps off their guitars and followed suit as Alex casually brought up the rear.

“Hey guys,” Julie said, returning all of their high-fives and fist bumps. “I’m so excited for tonight, we’re going to have a good show.”

“I’m ready for us to blow everybody away,” Luke said enthusiastically. Alex, Reggie and Bobby exchanged knowing looks but refrained from commenting. Julie probably thought he was talking about the band. Luke probably thought the same, funnily enough.

“I have my own sound check to do, but it’ll be good to hang with you guys until the show opens,” she told them.

“Can we stick around and watch?” Luke asked.

Julie shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah, go ahead!”

“Sweet!” Reggie said, already taking a seat. Bobby settled down next to him while Alex took the seat behind them.

He remembered when they met her it was at some battle of the bands out in Bakersfield. She’d been part of the duo Double Trouble, and her friend Flynn had gotten sick shortly before they were supposed to go on. She took the stage anyway and had the audience at her feet, and Alex had never seen Luke so entranced. At the end, they invited her to jam until they were forced to shut down at about one in the morning. Everything that had transpired in those few hours was unforgettable, and the guys agreed they would all gladly do it again.

That was a year ago. Now, with her first album out, the guys had all been stoked to get the call to open for her. Alex was pretty sure Luke had been keeping tabs on her the whole time, and he likely didn’t realize how obvious it was. There was something about the way he got very defensive when the guys occasionally suggested going back to the songs they’d gotten started with her, and how he refused to do it without her.

The four of them sat mesmerized as Julie’s fingers elicited the most heartfelt and energizing melodies from the piano. A soft, swelling joy came over Alex, and he wanted to give Julie the strongest hug when she finished. Her music was touching and he couldn’t help but need to express that to her. Peeking at the two below him, he saw Reggie clearly shedding some tears and Bobby clenching his fist because it wasn’t the right moment to wipe them away.

Suddenly one of the crew members walked onto the stage, making Julie stop playing. He muttered something to her that the boys couldn't hear. She sat straight with fear in her eyes and hurried backstage without a word. Luke turned around to look at the rest of his band and they all mirrored his concern. Slowly, they rose and headed toward the green room where they found Julie on the phone.

“Dad, what happened?” she was saying, audibly shaking.

Alex held out a hand and they all stopped in their tracks. He looked at Luke and shook his head. Whatever they were hearing, he figured she didn’t want them listening in on. Luke knit his eyebrows, and Alex could see the internal fight going on in his mind as he considered staying to comfort her or giving her space. After a moment he nodded to Alex and they pulled back into one of the dressing rooms.

None of them said a word as they waited. Alex pulled out his drumsticks and tapped them on his knees to fight off the rising anxiety in his chest. Nobody bothered looking at the clock and nobody made eye contact. Those three words they’d heard repeated on a loop in Alex’s brain, and he was sure they were in the minds of the others. That hug he had thought about giving felt both highly necessary and very inadequate, and he didn’t even know what the phone call was about.

After some time, Julie appeared in the doorway. She looked around at all of them and breathed deeply.

“My mom is in the hospital right now,” she said soberly. “She’s been in cancer treatment for a few months now and it was in remission, but it’s coming back."

Her eyes remained cast toward the floor, and each of the guys hesitated to move.

"I can't cancel tonight, but…" she began saying. Luke raised a hand to cover his face, clearly afraid of the rest of that sentence.

"I'm sorry guys, but I need some time to myself." She left, but Alex saw her face twist with pain before she was completely out of sight and he thought he felt his heart snap in two. Everyone looked at Luke as he sat at a loss for words.

Finally, Luke straightened up and a calm fierceness took over his countenance.

"We gotta make tonight the best, you guys, you hear me?"

Each of them nodded solemnly.

"Alright. We aren't legends for ourselves, tonight. We're legends for Julie."

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Behind The Album: In Utero

The third and final studio album from Nirvana was released in September 1993 via DGC records. The band wanted to make a clear departure from how their second album sounded. They felt that their huge hit album, Nevermind, was too polished as a record. The producer of that second LP, Butch Vig, would later note that Kurt Cobain needed to “reclaim his punk ethics or cred.” For his part Cobain would tell Rolling Stone in early 1992 that the record would have elements to it much more raw then found on the second album. However, he did emphasize the fact that the pop sound would not disappear entirely. He had hoped to start working on it l in the middle of 1992, but distance between band members getting together was an issue as they all lived in different cities. Another issue came in the fact that Courtney Love was expecting their first child. DGC was hoping to release a new record by Christmas of the year, but instead they were forced to go with the compilation album of all the early material from Sub Pop, Incesticide. For In Utero, Cobain showed interest in working with former producer of Bleach, Jack Endino and Steve Albini. They brought in Endino to work on a few instrumentals for the record that were eventually re-recorded, and he was never asked to produce in any capacity. The group went back and forth debating whether to hire Albini or not. In January 1993, the group recorded another set of demos while on tour in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. This would later become the track, “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” which originally had the working title of I’ll Take You Down to the Pavement. The latter represented a direct reference to an argument between Cobain and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. The band finally decided to go with Albini as a producer despite his reputation of strict discipline within the studio and remaining one of the most opinionated producers out there. He was said to have referred to Nirvana as “REM with a fuzz box, unremarkable Seattle sound.” He would later say that his decision to work with the band came out of sympathy, feeling smaller groups like Nirvana were at the mercy of the record label. This particular statement should be taken with a grain of salt as Nirvana had just released the biggest record since Appetite for Destruction. Cobain had been a fan of the producer based on his work with the Pixies and the Breeders.

Producer Albini wanted to complete recording within a strict two week timeframe. Nirvana paid for the recording sessions themselves on Albini’s suggestion to avoid interference from the record label. The band paid him $24,000 for his services, while he refused any royalties whatsoever, which would have amounted to $500,000. He would continually say that royalties were immoral and a complete insult to the artist. They recorded at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota in February 1993. Krist Novoselic would compare the environment to a gulag. “There was snow outside, we couldn't go anywhere. We just worked." Nirvana during this time emphasized to the record company that they wanted absolutely no interference from them, which meant they did not share anything from these sessions with their A & R representative. For his part, Steve Albini followed suit by only speaking with members of the band. He characterized anyone associated with the group as “pieces of shit.” After a short delay, the band's equipment finally arrived, so the actual recording of the album went very quickly. Each track began with the group playing together as one doing the instrumental aspect of it. For some tracks, Dave Grohl did the drums in the kitchen due to the natural acoustics sounding better. Albini had also surrounded his drums with 30 microphones for each track. They did not remove any take from the album, but instead kept them all. Cobain even added more guitar parts at the end of each day before doing the vocals. Although Albini had a reputation for being opinionated, he let Nirvana decide what to keep. “Generally speaking, [Cobain] knows what he thinks is acceptable and what isn't acceptable [...] He can make concrete steps to improve things that he doesn't think are acceptable." They did all of their musical work in six days, while Cobain said that it was the easiest recording he had ever done. Albini proceeded to mix the album in five days, which actually was slow by his standards because he usually only spent 1 to 2 days on it.

After completion, the band began to send the unmastered tapes to various people including the president of the DGC records. They absolutely hated it saying the songwriting was mediocre, the entire album was unlistenable, and radio would never except Albini’s production. Cobain took the comments personally to mean that the label wanted him to start from scratch and record again with a new producer. He would say, “I should just re-record this record and do the same thing we did last year because we sold out last year—there's no reason to try and redeem ourselves as artists at this point. I can't help myself—I'm just putting out a record I would like to listen to at home." Yet, the group remained dead set on releasing this version of the record as late as April 1993. They had played it for a number of their friends, who had liked it. The singer said, “Of course, they want another Nevermind, but I'd rather die than do that. This is exactly the kind of record I would buy as a fan, that I would enjoy owning." Around this time, some doubts crept up with all members of Nirvana because the mix of In Utero did not sound right. They asked Albini to possibly remix the record, and he flat out refused. “[Cobain] wanted to make a record that he could slam down on the table and say, 'Listen, I know this is good, and I know your concerns about it are meaningless, so go with it.' And I don't think he felt he had that yet ... My problem was that I feared a slippery slope." They took the record to Bob Ludwig for mastering, while at the same time mentioned their issues with the mix to him. Upon completion, Krist Novoselic said he was happy with the result, but Cobain still felt it was not perfect. At this time, Steve Albini gave an interview with the Chicago Tribune, where he doubted whether the record would ever be released. Newsweek would run another article that echoed the comments made by Albini. This caused Nirvana to write a full page letter to the magazine denying the label was putting any undue pressure on them. The same letter would be reproduced as a full page ad in Billboard not long after. The head of Geffen Records, who owned DGC made the unprecedented move of actually calling Newsweek to complain. The band thought about having Andy Wallace remix the release, but once again Albini refused saying they had only agreed to work with him. At the time, the producer also would release any of the tapes that were now in his possession. He only did so after a phone call from Krist Novoselic. The entire album for the most part was not changed at all, except for a remastering. Yet, the producer continually made comments that it was nowhere near the album he recorded in Minnesota. “The record in the stores doesn't sound all that much like the record that was made, though it's still them singing and playing their songs, and the musical quality of it still comes across." He would go on to say that major labels refused to work with him for the next year or so because of In Utero.

As for the music, the producer wanted to go as far away as possible from Nevermind with this record. He felt that the second album made the group look incredibly bad because it had been overproduced at such a level to make it extremely radio friendly. He wanted to create a much more natural sound for the group. The 1993 Nirvana biography, Come As You Are, noted the vision for the band on this record. “The Beatlesque 'Dumb' happily coexists beside the all-out frenzied punk graffiti of 'Milk It,' while 'All Apologies' is worlds away from the apoplectic 'Scentless Apprentice.' It's as if [Cobain] has given up trying to meld his punk and pop instincts into one harmonious whole. Forget it. This is war." If one goes through the track listing, you can count which tracks are over the top punk, and which tracks are more radio friendly pop. The interesting thing is that they correspond equally, 6 to 6. Fans and critics alike would talk about how abrasive In Utero turned out to be, but Cobain and Novoselic really did not see it that way. The bass player had said the band had always had songs as they are found on In Utero. Yet, the group did consciously try to bring fans into the more punk sounding songs by releasing the first two singles that could have realistically been included on Nevermind. Some of the songs found on the record had been written years prior as early as 1990. Cobain used various points of inspiration for the lyrics. The track “Frances Farmer” came from a 1978 biography of the Seattle figure called Shadowland. “Scentless Apprentice” originated from a horror novel that the singer had read by Patrick Suskind. One of the central themes found on the album noted in that same Nirvana biography from 1993 was the fact that every song talked about sickness or disease in some manner. Although Cobain said the lyrics were very impersonal to him, many disagreed with this assessment. Dave Grohl would say this in an interview. “A lot of what he has to say is related to a lot of the shit he's gone through. And it's not so much teen angst anymore. It's a whole different ball game: rock star angst." The singer continued to argue that much of the album had been written years prior to any issues he was going through at the time. For example, “Rape Me” quite possibly could be talking about his frustration with the media in how he has been portrayed over the past couple of years. The track “Serve the Servants” seemed to specifically talk about Cobain’s father and how divorce affected him from a very early age. The Nirvana frontman wanted his father to know that he did not despise him, but he also had no desire to be around him whatsoever. One track, “Gallons of Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” was actually one of the only improvisational tracks they ever recorded. The song represented a jam session that the group would frequently participate in in during down times at the studio. They had done this quite often, but this would be the first time that it was ever recorded in some form.

Upon its release, the record label took a very low key approach to promoting the album. None of the singles would come out commercially in the United States, as they concentrated all of their press releases at media specializing in alternative music. The band remained convinced that there was absolutely no way that In Utero would sell even a quarter of what Nevermind sold. The record would debut at number one on the charts selling 180,000 copies in its first week. They sold this many copies without big retail chains like Kmart and Walmart selling it because officially the demand was not there. The truth was actually these chains feared backlash due to the graphic nature of the artwork accompanying the album. In March 1994, an edited version of the album would be released with new artwork and alternative song titles. The band made this concession saying they wanted fans who could not go to a traditional record store to be able to purchase the LP. Following the death of Cobain. the third single “Pennyroyal Tea” was canceled, as well as any tour plans. Immediately following his death, the popularity of In Utero on the charts increased by 122% from 72 to 27. The album would eventually be certified five times platinum.

Critics were not unanimous in the praise of In Utero. For the most part, rock writers really liked the new sound from Nirvana. Time’s Christopher John Farley noted that once again perhaps the mainstream may need to go to Nirvana, rather than the other way around. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly emphasized the absolute contrasts on the release. “The music is often mesmerizing, cathartic rock & roll, but it is rock & roll without release, because the band is suspicious of the old-school rock clichés such a release would evoke." David Fricke of Rolling Stone would say that the record was both “brilliant and corrosive,” but undoubtedly a “triumph of the will” for Kurt Cobain. NME’s John Mulvey did not share the same sentiment as he observed the album really was not up to par with previous Nirvana standards. The review from Plugged In did not mince words saying it had absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever. Some reviews became quite bittersweet as you are reminded of Cobain’s suicide. Q said this about the record. "If this is how Cobain is going to develop, the future is lighthouse-bright." Ben Thompson of the Independent merely seemed happy that the record did not represent the punk rock nightmare the group had continually threatened to release. In Utero would go on to top several end of the year lists as one of the best albums including Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and the New York Times. The band would even receive a Grammy nomination in 1994 for Best Alternative Album. As time has passed, critics have lavished even more phrase on it seeing their work with Albini as far superior to Nevermind. Charles R. Cross would write in his Cobain biography, “If it is possible for an album that sold four million copies to be overlooked, or underappreciated, then In Utero is that lost pearl." Pitchfork named it the 13th best album of the 1990s, while it even made Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. NME named it number 35 on its greatest albums of all time list creating quite a sense of irony since the periodical did not think too much of the album at the time of its release.

[hana-bean]

#ayumix2020

I spent half of yesterday trying to get all my favorite YouTube rips of #ayumix2020 songs on some of my Spotify playlists. Why it took so long is because I have a MacBook from 2010 and it runs on coal. These missing songs were a bunch of my top favs so I decided to put in the time yesterday to re-rip them from YouTube and re-add them to Spotify.

I had already added these songs a couple of months ago, but then I dared to move some into other playlists and then boom, they disappeared from my phone. They played and showed up on my laptop, but for whatever reason, would not on my phone. Of course, as a lot of Spotify FAQ answers go, I was screwed. Thanks for nothing, Spotify Desktop.

I know I’m like a year late on this but some of these remixes are so freaking creative and amazing. Like you can tell when people have such an ear for music and it feeds the soul.

It was also super refreshing to hear some of Ayu’s songs with a more modern sound. While ayu-mi-x 7 aged pretty well, if you listen to any of her old ayu-mi-xes, you can really pick up on that early 2000s sound. And then some of them (especially the ones released on singles) sound like absolute noise; it makes me wonder if we even had ears back then. For some old remixes, the sound is super nostalgic and still vibe-able, but when that’s all we had for 10+ years, it’s SO NICE to hear some new takes.

I realized I tend to be partial to the remixes that aren’t techno in nature but of course I always appreciate a good house/trance/EDM remix! Below are some of my favorites, and you just might understand why I worked for 12 hours trying so hard to make these songs accessible ;)

1. LOVE ~Destiny~ (Alonso Montero Remix) - Alonso Montero This remix turns this sleeper into a cute and simple techno track, and not in a bad way at all! 

2. SEASONS (Aura Qualic Remix) [Uplifting Trance] - Aura Qualic I’ll admit, I would groan anytime I saw any song from Duty or I am... show up in the hashtag, only because there are already 8294739 remixes of those songs, and I’m craving some remixes of her more obscure and overlooked albums/tracks. But this one of SEASONS is pretty damn good and well-produced.

3. kanariya - beamgame a.k.a. 8LY [éitli] This version gives this song a sultry touch. kanariya is already sexy in its OG form, but this is a different sexy.

4. evolution (PHUNKSTAR Remix) - Bentley Jones Modern, well-produced, and just plain good :)

5. HANABI ~episode II~ (REMIX) - DJ cha-p I might be biased because HANABI ~episode II~ is my most favorite Ayu song ever, but damn this remix slaps.

Real Me (80′s lover remix) - DJ cha-p I’m DJ cha-p’s number-one fan, I swear. I did notice the ‘80s sound was a trend among a lot of the remixes in general.

6. HANABI (Orchestra Version) - DJ 秀吉 That beginning piano is just so haunting and gives me chills. So beautiful T_T

7. SEASONS - DODOWAKA This version is so fresh and summery and such a bop!

8. Moments (Dominant Space Future House Remix) - Dominant Space I go so hard to this remix, I wish it was 7 minutes long. 

9. INSPIRE (Rockabilly remix) - Hidetaka Suga OMG like I love how much this works!!!! I kind of hate it too but I LOVE IT!!!! He has a bunch of other good bluesy rock remixes, but INSPIRE is my most favorite.

teddy bear (Rock Ballad Remix)

ANGEL’S SONG (Rockabilly remix)

10. INSPIRE "KAZUKI's 90's Inspired Remix" - Kazuki Shintaku This seriously takes me back to LA Gears and Zubaz pants.

11. LyxKP

Just.... just listen.

blossom (Nostalgic 80′s Italo Disco)

I am... (Flute, Piano, Strings)

Duty (Bass, String Section & Guitar)

Pride (piano sonata + choir)

vogue (Acoustic Mood)

HANABI ~episode II~ (Cello, Guitar & Piano Trio)

12. kanariya 〜おしゃれピアノリミックス 〜 - Michisuke-P Another slow and sexy version.

13. BLUE BIRD (Otak’s Flashback Remix) - otak11 Out of all the throwback remixes of this song, this one is the best. I love the beginning.

14. Terminal (Orchestra) Demo - S W This version is so fucking evocative and beautiful, it works too well and drives you crazy. Ayu needs to re-record this song just like this. 

15. Sean North Hearing stuff like this makes me so impressed with people. I love how someone can hear Ayu and be like, this needs Celtic flutes. It’s so creative and brings a sound to Ayu you never would hear officially.

BLUE BIRD [Celtic arrange]

fairyland [Celtic arrange]

16. M -takamatt remix- - takamatt Again: simple, modern... something nice to bob your head to.

17. is this LOVE? (Terusik Piano Remix) - Terusik I’m just happy to see this song get some love.

18. M (TTSYa REMIX) - TTSYa This was one of the first remixes I heard right after Ayu announced the campaign. It reminds me of the first part of quarantine when it was fun. So good!

19. vogue (Xelakad 20th Anniversary Remix) - Xelakad The strings part reminds me of the music on the sand levels on Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. I love it :) I also am partial to Xelakad remixes; I love his Reggaeton remix of ourselves and his Ambient mix to Two of us—oldies but such goodies!!!

20. evolution 〜祭〜 (和風 EPIC TAIKO REMIX) - 김대석SAMSARIDER This remix is just plain cool!

21. Voyage - 林勇太郎 I read on AHS someone saying this sounds like an anime opening and now I can only imagine it opening to some coming-of-age epic journey anime, like Demon Slayer or something.

22. Days (Lo-Fi Reggae.Ver) - 音楽学校バンブースタジオ It’s just so sweet!

Honestly there are more I love, and everyone who participated did such a great job, but I’m tired LOL. I hope Ayu blesses us with ayu-mi-x 8 soon and we see some of these awesome tracks.

[daggerzine]

Peter Milton Walsh of The Apartments offers a pocketful of sunshine...

Peter Milton Walsh started his, band, The Apartments, in Brisbane, Australia in 1978. He didn’t release his debut LP until 1985 (The Evening Visits...and Stays For Years). I didn’t hear the band until 1995 when Restless Records here in the U.S. released the terrific A Life Full of Farewells (in between was 1992′s Drift). The releases have been sporadic throughout the years (and there were several years in between when Walsh did create any music at all) but each one glistens with a special kind of magic that only Walsh seems to possess. Though 2020 has been a difficult year, to say the least, one of the bright spots was the release of a new Apartments’ record In And Out of The Light released on Talitres Records (through Riley Records). The record is classic Walsh, spare, gorgeous songs written as the sun goes down (or comes up) with love or loss as its main theme (in most cases). I sent Mr. Walsh some questions and he was more than happy to open up about the record and what’s next. 

Peter Milton Walsh photo by Belddyn Butcher, 2020

When did the songs start coming together for the new record?

 The plan was to record the album in a couple of weeks in September 2019 in Tours, which is about 2 hours South of Paris. Antoine has a studio there. Natasha would come down from Lille, Nick from London. Then I was moving over to Berlin to mix them with Victor Van Vugt, who now has a studio there. Vic produced the evening visits… back in 1985. (He went on to work with P J Harvey, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds etc.)  

 But the band wanted to hear the songs before September. So I started by making a couple of demos with a guy who lives just around the corner, Darren Cross. A great musician.

 Butterfly Kiss was one, Pocketful too. I sent Butterfly Kiss off to Natasha when she was in Lisbon, and she wrote back to say she’d listened to it over and over, ten times or more, walking at night by the Tagus river and that she fell in love with the song in Lisbon. I thought that was a good sign!

 I found that those two songs came alive in the process of recording the demos, so then I thought I don’t want to do any more demos, I just want to make an album. Now! The process made me impatient to begin the album.

So rather than wait till September, I found a place near where I live in Sydney, and approached the producer, Tim Kevin, telling him I had a couple of songs to start the album off with but that I wanted to try to write the rest of the songs as we went along.

 The earliest we could start was July, early days of Winter here, as Tim’s studio was very heavily booked.

 I have been writing songs since I was 15, and I’ve never really gotten any better at it. I still don’t know what’s happening exactly. But I thought, this will make the whole set of songs very fresh, very in the moment.

 This album will not be me trying to recapture the past, it will be me in the present moment, in the Winter of 2019.

 I had recorded the title track of No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal like that. All we had for NSNSNM was my piano part, Eliot’s bass and Gene’s drums. The rest of it I made up in the studio. Wayne kept asking me when we would finish the vocal part, because we were running out of time, and even though I didn’t have any idea what the finished lyrics would be I kept telling him it was OK—the song would start in the rain and end in the rain and across the course of the song the guy would be changed.

 I thought of the lyric like a voiceover in film noir—the guy reaches the end of the song and just knows he must change his life.

 And that’s how we went with In and Out of the Light. Each time I’d finish a new song, I’d think—I’ll never write another song again. But some time would pass—we were recording very sporadically—and something else would come up. We went on like that until we hit the magic number 8, and I thought—OK, that’s 8 songs that sit together well, don’t tempt fate. Stop now, start mixing the album.

 What was the recording process like, I’d read other musicians recorded parts in their own country?

 I would record some guitar or piano, a vocal, arrange the song, then upload it. Natasha, Antoine and Nick would then record things they thought might work and upload them for us, then Tim and I would select what we wanted and add it. It was very easy. In many ways, we were recording in the perfect way for the COVID era—though the COVID era had not yet begun. Sometimes I’d record 1 day in a week, sometimes more. Very short days. Usually home by six. All very unusual, but that was the situation because Tim was so heavily booked.

 The new record

 Had you worked with produce Tim Kevin before? What did he bring to the sessions?

 No. He’s got a fabulous ear, is a sensational guitar player and singer and has an epic, really impressive concentration span. Also, he was very open to the way I wanted to work—we’d had that discussion before committing to recording. So I could turn up, play him something, and ask if he saw some promise in what I had. And mostly he did.

 Did you have any hesitation about releasing a record in 2020?

 We finished mixing the day before lockdown hit Sydney, so that part of the timing was beautiful. Playing music, being in a band, touring, releasing records—this is a casino life anyway. If you can’t accept that things often don’t go to plan, you’re in the wrong line of work.

 We had a tour planned for September/October 2020, when the album was due for release. That had to be cancelled. We then had a bigger tour planned for February/March 2021—clubs, festivals, some big shows—and had to cancel that as well. I have no idea when we’ll be able to leave Australia—yesterday, the Australian Tourism minister announced that rising COVID cases in Europe and the US mean that Australians won’t be able to visit either of these places next year, unless a vaccine was invented.

  Where did the title come from, In and Out of the Light?

 Possibly two things occurred to me. Firstly, that on the days that I was recording, I would disappear from the high, bright Winter daylight into the lamplit darkness of the studio and that this too—moving in and out of the light—is the pattern of existence. We are constantly changing, and the conditions of our lives do as well. No feeling is final.

 For those of us who wish there were more Apartments records, why do the records come out so infrequently?

 The Apartments once had a good 4 year run—drift, A Life Full Of Farewells, fête foraine and apart then, for personal reasons, I turned away from the music world, and any kind of public life that goes with it.

 Will you be playing any shows (I know here some folks are beginning to do occasional backyard shows and others in other unique venues…drive in theatres, etc).

 That’s a great idea.

His previous record from 2015

 Who are some of your favorite current musicians/bands?

 If a song has fingerpicking, a certain kind of smoke or melancholy in the voice and maybe a major 7th, I’m a fool for it and always have been, always will be. With new music, I can be as fickle as the next person and I’m not a particularly organized person—so there’s no purpose or method in how songs get to me.

 It’s random, they seem to just float in. But here are some of the tracks that have seduced me recently, from my Soundcloud/Bandcamp/Spotify lists. I’m drawn to singles; if I love the album as well, that’s really magic.

 Lonny—Incandescente

https://soundcloud.com/lonny-sc/incandescente

 Mason Lindahl—Outside Laughing

https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/track/outside-laughing

 Arlo Parks—Black Dog

https://open.spotify.com/track/1NGPZKzplieiPc5g6lAJ49?si=KYK_7EZLRkCK5PUjW0DeUA

 Ruby Haunt—Avalon

https://open.spotify.com/track/5rwKSB1WtNDWOBmwxZMWrg?si=uNxxyWjGRRuvYZrk5500oA

 Endless Winter—Angus Roy

https://angusroy.bandcamp.com/track/endless-winter

 Harkin—Decade

https://handmirror.bandcamp.com/track/decade

  www.theapartments-music.com 

www.talitres.com 

[professorpalmarosa]

I made Fullmetal Alchemist-inspired bath bombs!

Remember how I said that I have a secret side project in the works for this year? Here’s the big reveal: it’s a Fullmetal Alchemist story focusing on a pair of minor characters who only appeared in a light novel (The Land of Sand) and the 2003 version of the series. This guy in particular...

The Unholy Man of the North will be 2003 anime canon-compliant (rather than Brotherhood-compliant) and takes place 1 year after the original series ended. Russell Tringham (a young alchemist who has stolen Ed’s identity before) falls back on old habits, convinces someone he’s Edward Elric...and ends up getting kidnapped by foreigners. Before long, he’s dragged into a political conspiracy to rid the Drachman tsar of his family’s spiritual advisor: a priest the tsar’s brother-in-law believes may be performing some old, occult variant of what Amestris calls alchemy.

While I won’t be releasing this story to anyone other than beta readers until the first draft is complete (I’m about 50,000 words in), I can share a related creative endeavor with you.

Russell and his brother Fletcher created an artificial Philosopher’s Stone (a “Red Stone”) that, while powerful, didn’t quite measure up to the real thing. That had me thinking: what if I made a luxury blend...then intentionally tried to dupe it with ingredients I often use as substitutes? Here’s how it turned out!

Details are listed below, including the recipe if you want to try making “Cruelty-Free Philosopher’s Stones/Red Stones” at home!

Philosopher’s Stone Bath Bomb

Essential Oils:

Frankincense Carteri (2g)

Elemi (1g)

Finger Root (1g)

Clove (1g)

Mandarin (1g)

Cedarwood (Texan) (1g)

Colorants:

Red 40 Blooming Dye (Activated)

Red 23 Blooming Dye (Activated)

Red Oxide

Red Mica (for sparkle)

Look at this pretty color! The pink tint comes from the Red 23--but don’t overdo it! Add too much pink colorant and you’ll be pink too! This is what the mixture looked like before I added baking soda and citric acid.

Red Stone Bath Bomb

Essential Oils:

Frankincense Serrata (2g)

Myrrh (1g)

Ginger CO2 Supercritical (1g)

Cardamom (1g)

Blood Orange (1g)

Cedarwood (Himalayan) (1g)

Colorants:

Red 40 Blooming Dye (Activated)

Red Oxide

Red Mica (for sparkle)

Additional Additives:

Bath-grade pop-rocks (5g)

The first thing to note about the Red Stone blend is that it doesn’t have the splash of pink that the Philosopher’s Stone blend does. This is because I excluded the Red 23 blooming dye and traded it for more Red Oxide. This is what the mix looked like prior to adding the baking soda and citric acid. In person, it kind of looked like half-congealed blood...

The bath water was gorgeous, though! After the froth and foam died down, the color was the exact same shade as the Red Water in the anime! The scents played nicely together and I found myself dozing off in the water.

However, I’m not sure if it was the oils in this bomb or something else--but my sleep suffered after using the leftovers. I woke up from a very vivid nightmare at 2 AM and had to pee (Myrrh can stimulate your kidneys in higher doses, so my sleeping in the bath probably didn’t do me any favors).

Once I returned to bed, it was near impossible to turn my brain off again. It was going into overdrive with ideas and only let me rest again after I wrote everything down. A small silver lining to the nightmare: it did give me some pretty good ideas for the story I’m writing...so at least there’s that?

Now for a bit of good news, the Red Stone didn’t stain me or my tub! Once it went down the drain, the only thing that lingered was the smell. And even that disappeared by 2 AM.

Procedure

Mix wet ingredients (essential oils and carrier oil. For these blends, I used coconut and have some notes regarding that in the “Tips & Safety Warnings” section)

Mix all dry ingredients (300g Sodium Bicarbonate, 15g Cream of Tartar, 5g Kaolin Clay, 5g Rassoul Clay, 10g SLSA, 3g Titanium Dioxide) except Citric Acid (150g)

Mix dry ingredient blend with wet ingredients until color and texture is consistent.

Add Citric Acid and mix evenly.

Pour into molds and allow to cure for 1-2 days

Tips & Safety Warnings

1. NEVER handle essential oils with your bare hands! These chemicals are VERY potent and your body can absorb them through your skin. You should always wear gloves when handling these sorts of projects.

2. Coconut Oil solidifies at room temperature! This means that you’ll need to heat it up when you’re mixing your wet ingredients. If you’re making multiple batches at the same time, it’s also possible your coconut oil will resolidify. I made a poor man’s double boiler in my lab out of a bowl of hot water and just let the containers where I’d mixed my wet ingredients float on top of the water. It kept them in a liquid state until I was ready for them. Of course, you could always substitute for another (easier) carrier like Rosehip or Argan Oil--but I wanted to include this in case you’re using Coconut.

Take a look at the oils I’ve mixed in this photo. See how it’s getting cloudy? That’s the coconut oil resolidfying:

3. Too much Red 23 may stain you and your bathtub! I haven’t had any problems with Red Oxide or Red 40, but Red 23 (which is what gives the Philosopher’s Stone its pinkish hue) and I have a love/hate relationship. It’s a beautiful colorant and a little goes a long way, but it can stain you like nothing else if you overdo it!

4. If you are using mica colorant in your bath bomb, be sure to include a little Polysorbate 80 to your wet ingredients too! Mica can make your bombs sparkle and glitter, but it will stick to EVERYTHING if you don’t add Polysorbate 80!

5. If you plan to make these for yourself or as gifts, please look up contraindications and potential side effects of overexposure to these oils first. Some oils are not safe for children, people with certain medical conditions, or people taking certain medications. Some people may also be allergic to certain ingredients and the scent of myrrh makes some people nauseous (three guesses why it went in the Red Stone blend). Just be cautious and conscientious!

End Result

Here are the two blends side by side. There’s only one Philosopher’s Stone in the image, but it’s rather obvious which one it is thanks to the Red 23.

I’m mildly creeped out by how similar the scent profiles are to the two blends. Sometimes I’ll substitute one of these oils for another when I’m running low in a popular blend, but this was my first time literally using ALL substitutes to make a dupe. Here are my notes:

The first thing you smell in both stones is a rich, luxurious, resin-like scent. This is because both synergies contain Frankincense (which is a resin oil) and a secondary resin oil (Elemi in the Philosopher’s Stone and Myrrh in the Red Stone).

Although both stones contain a citrus oil; you only smell traces of it in the Red Stone and it’s almost nonexistent in the Philosopher’s Stone. There’s two reasons this may have happened. My Blood Orange essential oil is fresher than my Mandarin oil, so it may be more potent. Also, Blood Orange just has a stronger scent profile in general. Mandarin’s an oil I often substitute for Sweet Orange or Tangerine since it plays nicely with a lot of stuff and doesn’t try to steal the show. Blood Orange does.

The Philosopher’s Stone has a peppery bite to it that the Red Stone does not. I suspect the culprit is the Finger Root, which is a “sister smell” to the Ginger I used for the Red Stone blend. Finger Root is a lesser-known oil that I sometimes interchange with Ginger or Turmeric in my synergies. It’s got a slightly earthier smell than Ginger (which is mildly sweet on top of its spice), and packs a bit more heat. It’s also possible that the eugenol content of the Clove Bud oil I used was super high, but the company I got it from didn’t provide a chemical breakdown of the batch. I have no way of knowing.

The Red Stone gives off a weird “burning” smell that the Philosopher’s Stone does not. My guess is it’s the difference between the two Cedarwood oils. Texan Cedarwood (which I used in the Philosopher’s Stone) has a dry firewood smell to it when paired with Sage, but is much milder than Himalayan Cedarwood (which smells a bit more like the “cedar” most people are familiar with). Also, the Red Stone’s secondary resin oil is Myrrh: which can amplify warm smells like Turmeric, Black Pepper, or Cinnamon when mixed in a blend. I think the Myrrh and Himalayan Cedarwood mixed together to cause that effect.

The scent profile is about an 85% match, but that 15% difference puts it almost in an aromatherapeutic uncanny valley: like it’s “not quite right” but close enough to fool someone if they sniffed these two blind and didn’t know they were different blends.

I highly recommend trying both scents out if you aren’t allergic to any of the ingredients. It’s a fun activity, and one I’m hoping to do a live demo for at a convention in the future!

[rubiaryutheroyal]

x3 Shine (Maji Spec Edition)

Hey, I’m back with more special karaoke translations, this time from the Majima Best Collection that released shortly after Kiwami 2.

There is also the eurobeat version that I will get to shortly, though I’m going in order of the songs as they’re numbered in the collection. As always, thank you to FFT for RGG lyric translations, and as always, the interjections are courtesy of me!

Japanese romaji lyrics:

Majima: sunshine ya! iku de~!

Kiryu: minna, towel o mawase!

Majima: eehihihihi! ikeike ya de~

Kiryu: jikyuu wa marui, sugoku marui!

Both: go! go! go! go!

Koyuki: manatsu no tsuyoi hizashi ni

Majima: huwahuwahuwahuwa!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): makezu otoranai atsui manazashi de (sexy! sexy! oi!) heart ga hiyake suru kono hi kono natsu (kono hi kono natsu~)

Koyuki: everyone memory ni watashi remember

Majima & Kiryu: sunshine~ / ouuuuh~ oi!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): ai bikini (oi! oi!) koi bugiugi (oi! akaaa! / go! go!) shy na boys datte hashagu you na (hashagu you na~) love surfing (love surfing~)

Majima: sabi ga kuru de~!

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: shine shine sunshine!

Both: kagayake-sama!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): beach ni kagayaku taiyou ni naritai (huwahuwahuwahuwa! / iki’iki da ze!)

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: wow shine shine sunshine!

Both: three-shine!

Koyuki (Majima): tokimeki tomaranai (wahoo!) natsu

Majima: love magic wa toke wa shinai eehihihihihi!

Kiryu: minna, towel o mawase!

Majima: norinori ya! ike ike go! go!

Kiryu: ike ike go! go!

Both: ike ike go! go! ike ike go! go!

Majima / Kiryu: hirahirahirahira sunshine~ hoo! / uta de tsumugu, kokoro no kizuna

Koyuki: suzushii akikaze ga fuite

Both: oi! oi! oi! oi!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): hiyake no ato wa kiete shimau kedo (yay! yay! oooh~ oi!) keshitakunai mono wa kono hi kono natsu (kono hi kono natsu~)

Koyuki: everything memory wo watashi remember

Majima: yo! ikachitoru de!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): koi no jukuren (oi! oi!) surfer demo (oi! akaaa! / go! go!) hitosujinawa de wa norikirenai (sunshine~ / ouuuuh~ oi!) love wave

Majima: utau kata wa sexy ya de~!

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: shine shine sunshine!

Both: kagayake-sama!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): terrace wo terasu komorebi de aritai (sexy! sexy! daisuki! hoo!)

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: wow shine shine sunshine!

Both: three-shine!

Koyuki (Majima): doki doki tsutsumikomu (wahoo!) umi

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): ai bikini (eehihihihi! / taxi! taxi!) koi bugiugi (taxi! taxi! / akaaa!) shy na boys datte hashagu you na (hashagu you na~) love surfing (love surfing~)

Majima / Kiryu: iku de! / taxi taxi!

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: shine shine sunshine!

Both: kagayake-sama!

Koyuki (Kiryu & Majima): beach ni kagayaku taiyou ni naritai (go! go! go! go! taxi! taxi! / eehihihihi!)

Koyuki: ichi ni san shine!

Both: kimi ga sunshine~

Koyuki: wow shine shine sunshine!

Both: three-shine!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): tokimeki tomaranai (wahoo!) natsu (taxi! taxi!)

Majima: eehihihihihi!

Kiryu: beautiful sun

English lyrics:

Majima: It’s Sunshine! Let’s go~!

Kiryu: Everyone, pass around the towels!

Majima: Eehihihihi! So excited~

Kiryu: The world is round, extremely round!

Both: Go! Go! Go! Go!

Koyuki: Before your hot gaze

Majima: Huwahuwahuwahuwa!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): As strong as the midsummer sunshine (Sexy! Sexy! Oi!) Sunburns my heart on this day, this summer (This day, this summer~)

Koyuki: Save your memories of me

Majima & Kiryu: Sunshine~ / Ouuuuh~ Oi!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): Love bikini (Oi! Oi!) love boogie woogie (Oi! Akaaa! / Go! Go!) Even gets the shy boys excited (merrymaking~) love surfing (love surfing~)

Majima: The hook is here~!

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: Shine, shine, sunshine!

Both: Your Radiance! *

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): I want to be the sun sparkling on the beach (Huwahuwahuwahuwa! / So lively!)

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: Woah shine, shine sunshine!

Both: Three-shine!

Koyuki (Majima): The excitement doesn't end (Wahoo!) this summer

Majima: Love magic is never undone Eehihihihihi!

Kiryu: Everyone, pass around the towels!

Majima: In high spirits! Come on! Come on! Go! Go!

Kiryu: Come on! Come on! Go! Go!

Both: Come on! Come on! Go! Go! Come on! Come on! Go! Go!

Majima / Kiryu: Flutter flutter flutter flutter, Sunshine~ Hoo! / Spin a tale in song, the bonds of the heart

Koyuki: A cool autumn breeze blows

Both: Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): and the remnants of my suntan disappear (Yay! Yay! Oooh~ Oi!) But what I don't want to lose is this day, this summer (This day, this summer~)

Koyuki: I save my memories of it all

Majima: Yo! Lookin’ good!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): Even a skilled (Oi! Oi!) love surfer (Oi! Akaaa! / Go! Go!) can't easily jump over (Sunshine~ / Ouuuuh~ Oi!) this love wave

Majima: The way you sing is so sexy~!

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: Shine, shine sunshine!

Both: Your Radiance!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): I want to be the filtered sunlight shining on the terrace (Sexy! Sexy! I love you! Hoo!) 

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: woah shine, shine sunshine!

Both: Three-shine!

Koyuki: My pounding heart is enveloped by (Wahoo!) the sea

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): Love bikini (Eehihihihi! / Taxi! Taxi!) love boogie woogie (Taxi! Taxi! / Akaaa!) Even gets the shy boys excited (merrymaking~) love surfing (love surfing~)

Majima / Kiryu: Let’s go! / Taxi! Taxi!

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: Shine, shine, sunshine!

Both: Your Radiance!

Koyuki (Kiryu & Majima): I want to be the sun sparkling on the beach (Go! Go! Go! Go! Taxi! Taxi! / Eehihihihi!)

Koyuki: 1, 2, 3 shine!

Both: You are sunshine~

Koyuki: Woah shine, shine sunshine!

Both: Three-shine!

Koyuki (Majima & Kiryu): The excitement doesn't end (Wahoo!) this summer (Taxi! Taxi!)

Majima: Eehihihihihi!

Kiryu: Beautiful sun

* T/N: “Your Radiance” is another way to refer to the sun, but it has another meaning here, referring to their lovely lady.

[ancienthinduism]

8 captivating HINDU GODS the ‘WEST’ might not know about !

1. AYYAPPA : Protector of natural law

Lord Ayyappan, or simply Ayyappa (also spelled as Ayappa), is a Hindu deity worshipped mainly in South India,. Ayyappa is believed to have been born out of the union between Lord Shiva and the mythical enchantress Mohini, who is regarded as an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Therefore, Ayyappa is also known as "Hariharan Puthiran" or "Hariharputhra," which literally means the son of both "Hari," or Vishnu, and "Haran," or Shiva. Ayyappa is also commonly known as "Manikandan" .  

 According to the legend of his birth, his divine parents tied a golden bell (mani) around his neck (kandan) soon after his birth. As the legend goes, when Shiva and Mohini abandoned the baby on the banks of the Pampa river, King Rajashekhara, “the childless monarch of Pandalam”, found the newborn Ayyappa, accepted him as a divine gift, and adopted him as his own son. Due to evil manipulations of his step mother, he went to forest and killed demoness Mahishi and came to kingdom riding on tiger for giving milk of tiger to his step mother. After that he went to dense forest and disappeared. Upon the instructions of Ayyappa, King built temple for Ayyappa in Sabarimalai. Sabarimalai means Sabari- the devotee of Ayyappa and malai- the hill. Sabari, the devotee of Ayyappa had become a hill for the place of stay for Ayyappa. The most famous Lord Ayyappan shrine or temple is located at Sabarimala, on the hills of Pathanamthitta in Kerala,India.It is estimated over 50 million people reach the temple every year to seek blessings of the Lord Ayyappa on the day of Makar-Sankranthi or Pongal. Lord Ayyappa is believed to have laid down strict religious adherence to receive his blessings. The devotees should observe a 41-day penance before visiting him in the temple.

2. KALI : the dark mother goddess of Hinduism

The love between the Divine Mother and her human children is a unique relationship. Kali, the Dark Mother is one such deity with whom devotees have a very loving and intimate bond, in spite of her fearful appearance. In this relationship, the worshipper becomes a child and Kali assumes the form of the ever-caring mother.

Kali is represented with perhaps the fiercest features amongst all the world's deities. She has four arms, with a sword in one hand and the head of a demon in another. The other two hands bless her worshippers, and say, "fear not"! She has two dead heads for her earrings, a string of skulls as a necklace, and a girdle made of human hands as her clothing. Her tongue protrudes from her mouth, her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are sullied with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the chest of her husband, Shiva.

Kali's fierce form is strewed with  captivating symbols. Her black complexion symbolizes her all-embracing and transcendental nature. Says the Mahanirvana Tantra: "Just as all colors disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her". Her nudity is primeval, fundamental, and transparent like Nature — the earth, sea, and sky. Her three eyes represent past, present, and future, — the three modes of time — an attribute that lies in the very name Kali ('Kala' in Sanskrit means time).

In the eyes of westerners, Kali is a goddess dark of mind, body and soul, a mysterious goddess of death and destruction. However her story is far more complex and far-reaching; she cannot be easily fitted into a typical western narrative of good verses evil, and in fact transcends both.

Kali's guises and names are diverse. Shyama, Adya Ma, Tara Ma, and Dakshina Kalika, Chamundi are popular forms. Then there is Bhadra Kali, who is gentle, Shyamashana Kali, who lives only in the cremation ground, and so on. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Vamakhyapa, and Ramprasad are some of the legendary devotees of Kali. One thing was common to these saints — all of them loved the goddess as intimately as they loved their own mother. 

We have an exclusive page dedicated to this beautiful & fearless mother goddess .click here - OM SHAKTI - Om Krim Kali

3. KARTHIKEYA : the hindu god of WAR 

Kartikeya, the god of war and general of the army of the gods, is known for his extraordinary strength. He is known by many names , some of which are - Murugan, Subramanyam,Skanda,Vel etc.

Lord Kartikeya is said to be one of the most beautiful looking and handsome gods. He is often described as exuding boyish charm and yet with a serious face. Often depicted as a calm and serene character, he has a face that resembled the radiance of the full moon.  A demon named Tarakasura was given a boon by Lord Brahma himself that he would only be killed by someone who is as strong as Lord Shiva which would only be his son. It is believed that Lord Kartikeya or Murugan manifested for the sole purpose of killing Tarakasura. 

Kartikeya’s other name, Shadanana, which means ‘one with six heads’ corresponds to the five senses and the mind. The six heads also stand for his virtues enables him to see in all the directions - an important attribute that ensures that he counters all kinds blows that can hit him.The war imagery and the six heads of Kartikeya indicate that if humans wish to lead themselves efficiently through the battle of life, they must always be alert lest they are shown the wrong path by crafty people with the six demonic vices: kaama (sex), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (passion), mada (ego) and matsarya (jealousy).

Kartikeya carries in one hand a spear and his other hand is always blessing devotees. His vehicle is a peacock, a pious bird that grips with its feet a serpent, which symbolizes the ego and desires of people. The peacock represents the destroyer of harmful habits and the conqueror of sensual desires. The symbolism of Kartikeya thus points to the ways and means of reaching perfection in life. He is an embodiment of perfection, a brave leader of God's forces, and a war God, who was created to destroy the demons, representing the negative tendencies in human beings. 

4. DHANVANTARI : the one who heals

Known as a physician of the Devas, Dhanvantari is a celebrated god amongst the practitioners of Ayurveda. . In Sanatana-dharma (Hinduism), praying to Dhanvantari is supposed to bring sound health for worshippers.

It is said that Dhanvantari was deputed by Lord Indra to take the science of Ayurveda to the mortals. Also to be noted, Dhanvantari is seen as an avatar of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism.  Bhagavata Purana states that Dhanvantari appeared when the ocean was churned by the gods and demons in search of the elixir of life ( nectar), Dhanvantari came out of it holding the  bowl of nectar in his hands. “Dhanus” denotes the science of surgeries and is only indicative. Thus, Dhanvantari is someone who has seen the end of it. “Dhanvan” also might mean a desert, according to Rigveda – V.36.1.  Thus Dhanvantari, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, with a pot of nectar in his hand is like prapaa (oasis) in the desert of worldly existence.”

Lord Dhanvantari is an outstanding personality in the history of Ayurveda. He was the physician of the Gods (in both the Vedas and Puranas) and an excellent surgeon. It is also believed that Dhanvantari promulgated the practise of Ayurveda. According to the Charaka Samhita, the knowledge of Ayurveda is eternal and is revealed in each of the cycles of creation of the universe. When needed, Lord Vishnu himself incarnates as Lord Dhanvantari and reestablishes the tradition of Ayurveda in the world to help relieve some of humanity’s suffering.

Lord Dhanvantari is known as the father of Ayurveda, since he was the first divine incarnation to impart its wisdom amongst humans. It is written in the scriptures that, “One who remembers the name of Dhanvantari can be released from all disease.” Lord Dhanvantari is worshipped all over India as the God of Medicine. On the day of Dhanteras, birthday celebrations of Dhanvantari, the God of health, take place in an enthusiastic and delightful atmosphere. Dhanvatari Jayanti is celebrated throughout India by the practitioners of Ayurveda, the Indian traditional medicine.

5. KAMA ~ Hindu god of LOVE

Valentine's day on 14th February is celebrated by Indians  with lot of fervour, while not many are aware of Lord Kamadeva or Manmatha , the God of Love in Hindu mythology. Indians do not worship Lord Kamadeva or celebrate his birthday since “love” is not expressed openly or is considered taboo among conservative Indians though ironically the younger generation celebrate “love” associating it with Valentine's Day - a concept borrowed from the western world. “Love” has been expressed in ancient temples built centuries ago, like Khajuraho or Belur-Halebeedu, but are labelled as erotic and not generally discussed in the open since it is considered inappropriate to do so .

Kamadeva is portrayed as young, handsome man with wings carrying a bow and arrows. His bow is made of sugarcane with a cord of honeybees, and arrows of sweet-smelling Ashoka tree flowers, white and blue lotus flowers, Jasmine and Mango tree flowers. Lord Kamdeva is seen sitting on a Parrot.

It is believed that Lord Shiva burned Kamadeva on the day of Holi. Down south in India ,people worship Kamadeva-the Love-god for his extreme sacrifice on the day of Holi. Like Cupid is the God of love for the west and Ero’s for the Greeks , Kamadeva is the Hindu deity of love. His wife is “Rati” - goddess love, carnal desire, lust, passion and sexual pleasure . Lord Kamadeva, is the incarnation of Pradyumna and son of Goddess Sri though spiritually Vaishnavas believe him to be Lord Krishna.The meaning of the name Kama-deva is 'divine love' or 'God of love'. Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana say Kamadeva is Vishnu. Sometimes he is also called Shiva and is described as "Prayaschita padyata" in Sanskrit. Kama is also a name for Agni (Fire God)

We could say confidently, that only a handful out of 100 people who celebrate V-Day, will know about the 3rd Century Roman saint in whose name V-day is celebrated. challenge yourself - do you know ?

6. VARUNA : lord of the oceans 

 In the Vedas, he has been described as the supreme, all knowing deity who created Heavens, Earth and Air. He is believed to be omnipresent and omniscient. As the word Varuna means “he who covers”, Lord Varuna is believed to be someone who encompasses the whole world. Thus, he is generally worshipped as personication of sky. But it is believed that he is also the controller of rivers, streams, lakes, oceans and other reservoirs of water, thus giving him the title of “God of the Oceans”.

Lord Varuna is believed to be son of Sage Kashyapa. As he is said to have originated from Aditi, the mother of Gods, he is also acknowledged as Aditya. According to the Vedas, he has thousand eyes which help him to oversee the whole world. He is often pictured as riding a chariot drawn by seven swans while holding the lotus, noose, conch and vessel of gems along with an umbrella held over his head. But some temples in Indian subcontinent have depicted him as riding on a crocodile. 

As being able to oversee the world with his thousand eyes, Lord Varuna is often also associated with moral law and community affairs.  He is also said to be the keeper of cosmic order, a force called “rta” which means justice. As being the one who enforces law, he is worshipped as keeper of divine order and enforcer of contracts.

Hindus worship Lord Varuna in different forms and ways. A legend associated with the festival of Rakhi is that of the worship offered to the sea god, Lord Varuna. On the Raksha Bandhan day, devotees offer coconuts to him.  He is said to keep watch over the various demons of the ocean. Nevertheless, Lord Varuna is still worshipped as the guardian of western direction.Lord Varuna’s worship is also considered to be vital part of the ritual ‘Sandhyavandanam’.

7. GARUDA : the messenger of gods

Garuda is the king of the birds and often acts as a messenger between the gods . Garuda has the head, wings, talons and beak of an eagle and the body and limbs of a man. He is said to have a white face, red wings and a golden body.

Garuda was the son of a great sage, Kashyapa. Since he was the son of the great sage, his wings had a peculiar quality in that every time they moved, verses from the Holy Vedas would be heard. The very presence of Garuda was thus a blessing and benediction. His immense powers were also a gift conferred upon his father the Valkhilya rishis, supernatural beings of miniscule size and immense spiritual accomplishments.

Garuda is said to have been born hungry, and while he was permitted to feast upon the natives, he accidentally swallowed and spit out a Brahmin, a member of the higher class that he was forbidden to touch. Still hungry, Garuda went on many escapades and every time he sat on a branch, it broke.  One time as Garuda caught a branch from falling, in fear that it might kill a Brahmin, Lord Vishnu spied him and asked what he was doing. (Lord Vishnu is one of the Hindu Trinity Godhead:  Brahma-the Creator, Vishnu-the Sustainer, and Siva-the Transformer.) Garuda told Vishnu that no tree or mountain seemed able to hold his weight, whereupon Vishnu offered him his arm to sit on and did not waiver at the weight.When Garuda was still hungry after eating, Vishnu offered him the flesh of his arm. After Garuda ate from Vishnu’s arm, there was no wound at all. Garuda bowed his head to Vishnu, realizing his divine nature and became Vishnu’s heroic friend for all time. In many Indian epics, Garuda carries Vishnu, and mostly serves him as his vehicle.

Garuda is known for his service, his concern for others and his impressive speed and strength. Among his many names, he is called “Chirad, the long eater” and “Garuda, the carrier of immense weight.” 

8. YAMA 

Yama, in hinduism, the god of the dead. The Vedas describe him as the first man who died, blazing the path of mortality down which all humans have since followed. He is the guardian of the south (the region of death) and presides over the resting place of the dead, which is located under the earth. In the Vedas, Yama was represented as a cheerful king of the departed ancestors, not as a punisher of sins, but in later mythology he became known as the just judge (Dharmaraja) who weighs the good and evil deeds of the dead and determines retribution. He is described as majestic in appearance, green or black, with red eyes and red garments. He carries a noose and a mace, which may be ornamented with a skull, and rides a buffalo.

Yama is the one who decides whether the souls of the dead shall come to heaven (Svarga) or to Naraka, where the souls of the wicked humans have to wait for their sins to be burned away so they can be reborn.In his abode, Yama decides about punishment and estimates the value of the actions for which the dead were responsible before their lives came to the end.

In the Tibetan beliefs, Yama is portrayed as the symbol of annihilation; he is a terrible monster crushing the wheel of life - unmercifully. In Hindu mythology, he is considered the benevolent god of the dead who treated humans friendly and well, but later, his attitude to humans significantly changes and he is portrayed as a frightening judge and punisher of human wrongdoings.

if you like to see more such posts on our page  , comment & let us know !  

[kimonobeat]

aiko bon: Official “Natsufuku” liner notes

aiko’s 3rd album, released under Pony Canyon on June 20, 2001. The album includes two of her biggest hits and went on to sell over a million copies.

Hikouki (飛行機; Airplane)

be master of life

Rosie (ロージー)

Hisoka na Sayonara no Shikata (密かなさよならの仕方; The Subtle Way to Goodbye)

Owaranai Hibi (Endless Days)

Kokoro Biyori (心日和; Weather of My Heart)

September

Ame Fumu Overall (雨踏むオーバーオール; Overalls Stepping in the Rain)

Aspara (アスパラ; Asparagus)

Boyfriend (ボーイフレンド)

Hatsukoi (初恋; First Love)

Natsufuku (夏服; Summer Clothes)

(Thank you parasmichael for the commission!)

☑ The album as a whole

Oh! I’m eating tulips on the cover. I cut my hair outside just before doing the photo shoot at this one tulip place. Where’d we go for this again? Kobuchisawa? We rented out a bed and breakfast and did a little photo shoot in some flower garden-looking place. Has it really only been 3 years since then? It feels like a long time ago. It’d only been 3 years since I’d made my debut but everyone had stopped calling me a ‘newcomer’ by then. I was feeling sort of unsure of myself at the time. I developed nodules on my vocal cords during the tour I did after this album was released. Looking back on it now, though, I feel like there were early symptoms of it during recording. I was so hellbent on making it that I just barrelled on ahead anyway. And because of that, I feel like making this album in spite all of that got me back to looking on the bright side of things again.

☑ Hikouki

Such a dramatic song. I wrote this song on Day 1 of my Gb column. I got lost trying to make my way to the place where we were doing the shoot. The plan was to go to the Metropolitan Building but my manager and I got lost trying to go there by car. Then my manager went outside to make a phone call so I just sat in the car, staring blankly out the window. It was Sunday, so there was no one around. I looked at the sky and saw a plane flying way, way up there, and wrote this song while looking at it. I was feeling the teeniest tiniest bit lonely coming to Tokyo on my own. “I’m ALL ALONE,” I kept thinking to myself. I think that’s where the chorus came from. I worked hard to get to Tokyo and yet I also felt like there was this part of me that’d been left behind. I wrote the song by combining those feelings with emotions you feel when you’re in love. I wanted the arrangement of the song to have a bittersweet feel to it as well so I told them something that made no sense. I was like, “I want you to make it sound like [the comedy duo] Kamaitachi.” (laughs) But the strings sound very ‘Kamaitachi’ to me. We also shot a music video for this song. Both my manager and Nagai are in that music video, by the way. (laughs) Everyone looks so young! I have a lot of good memories from this music video. I feel pretty embarrassed seeing myself smoke in the MV, though. (laughs)

☑ be master of life

This is the one song that features my fans’ voices. I used the voices of everyone who came to see me at a fan club concert. We recorded it and then included it on the track. There was a microphone hanging down above the audience and I went, “On the count of three: one, two, three!” The crowd gets really worked up over this song at concertsーyou just can’t sit still to this song, pretty much as soon as the intro starts. It’s a love song, but my friend from Osaka was the one who inspired it. She’s a really nice person who’s almost like, too scared to come into contact with others in case she accidentally hurts their feelings. But she really is a nice person who’s helped me out a lot. I was trying to think of something I could do to help her out when this song came to mind. It was on the same demo tape as “Hatsukoi,” “Hisoka na Sayonara no Shikata”, “Ame Fumu Overalls”, “Hikouki”, “Owaranai Hibi” and “Kokoro Biyori”. A lot of the songs on this album were made around the same time.

☑ Rosie See ‘Rosie’ single liner notes

☑ Hisoka na Sayonara no Shikata See ‘Boyfriend’ single liner notes

☑ Owaranai Hibi

This is my mom’s favorite song. (laughs) She told me she liked it. I really think it has this sort of ‘one-on-one’ feeling when I sing it. When you take the chords, the overall atmosphere of the song, the melody, the lyrics, and put them all together, it almost feels like I’m just chatting away. In the song I’m saying, “I’m going to say what’s on my mind. I’m a normal girl too. There’s no such thing as a person who is innocent, completely pure of heart, and has never once lied in their entire life. I lie sometimes, and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. And even though I do, I like you. Is that okay?” I really like how thick the instrumental gets after the chorus.

☑ Kokoro Biyori

I pictured this as a rock song in the very beginning when I wrote it, but then the finished version Shimayan did had a completely different arrangement. Sometimes Shimayan takes me completely by surprise with his arrangements. This song was like a sucker punch to the heart. I said, “Wow, I like this better!!” The strings come in over top of that opening bass lick, and that rhythm! I get so excited about it. I got so carried away that I came up with a dance for it in the studio. Doing a dance escalated to me appearing on stage in a kigurumi. I wrote the lyrics by finding similarities between the weather and my state of mind. One of my friends is a free spiritーshe’s a total mystery, that one. I’m only just now starting to talk about some things with her even though I’ve known her for over 10 years at this point, but she’s a total mystery to me. (laughs) Like, just when I think she’s showed up randomly to see me, she’s gone. I was surprised to hear that she’d been feeling pretty lonely for a while. You could say I ended up modeling it after her. “‘Kokoro Biyori’ is great! I love it!” she told me not too long ago. “I really love ‘Kokoro Biyori’!” (laughs) I was glad to hear that but didn’t tell her she was the person I modeled the song after.

☑ September

I love this song. I mean, I like them allーthey’re my songs, after all. (laughs) This song was created on the radio. When I was on “All Night Nippon” I did this special feature called “The Big Single Campaign” where I’d play 2 or 3 of my singles on the piano. Someone said to make a song about September because it was September so I started singing. Then the mixing guy Kawabeーwho was always dead silentーsaid, “That was great, aiko!” I was so excited that Kawabe said that he liked it, I wrote this song. You could say I decided to make it into a song because of that. So thank you, Kawabe! (laughs) It’s sort of an ‘answer song’. I mean, it’s got the words ‘cry baby’ in it. I sorta have, like, really strong feelings about this song. One time I sang this song just as the sun was setting during a concert I did in Enoshima or someplace like that. It was lovely. This song brought out a whole new side of me, in a lot of different ways. Like, “Hanabi” allowed me to be on TV nationwide and release an album, but the public image of me being this super cheerful girl with a bob cut who wore used jeans stuck. People were always saying that it didn’t seem like I ever had any troubles. I thought it was a pretty good thing to be seen that way. In my mind, if I was making people smile, then maybe that was just fine; I was lucky. But I do worry, and cry, and get mad, and sometimes I feel sad. I feel like I was able to express that in this song. Writing the line “Don’t ever think that I’m always cheerful” instantly made things so much easier for me. I wanted to be closer to the girls who’ve had this happen to them too. I personally feel that writing that one phrase, and then including the song on the album, is what made “Natsufuku” complete. I can’t thank Kawabe enough, seriously. I’ve told him ‘thank you’ a million times and it’s still not enough. I wonder how he’s doing?

☑ Ame Fumu Overall

I love overalls. Really, I do. I’m pretty much as small as they come and can never find my size though, so they’re always big on me. I used to love dressing in super baggy clothes, which meant the hems got wet any time it rained. That’s what got me to write this song. It was already kinda cold out and I was feeling down because I had just had my heart broken. Like, “Ahh… I wish I could just disappear…” I wrote this song in Shounai out in Toyonaka, Osaka after something really terrible had happened to me. The song features a key change in the chorus after the B melody. “Bold choice, there,” people said to me in the beginning. I never like, calculate where I’m going with a song when I do key changes though, so I didn’t really know what to say when people asked why I added in a key change there. I would just say, “Hm, why indeed.” (laughs)

☑ Aspara See ‘Hatsukoi’ single liner notes

☑ Boyfriend See ‘Boyfriend’ single liner notes

☑ Hatsukoi See ‘Hatsukoi’ single liner notes

☑ Natsufuku

I wrote this song while we were recording, on the piano in the second studio at Hitokuchizaka. I told them I’d written a song I wanted them to listen to and they said it sounded good, but we were in the final stages of recording. “We’ve already got enough,” they told me. “Then let’s make it a bonus track!” I said. I almost always write my songs at home. I’ve never really written songs anywhere else, but I always manage to write a song any time I play the piano during my free time at Hitokuchizaka Studio. Oftentimes I’m able to come up with a completely different kind of song because I’m in a different environment. For this one, I wrote the entire lyrics and melody in the studio on the grand piano in this tiny little room at Hitokuchizaka. I wrote it all in one goーit came together super quickly. I don’t think I spent more than maybe 15 or 20 minutes on it tops. When I come up with a song, I’m able to write it super quick. The title of the song was set in stone as “Natsufuku”, but still hadn’t decided what to call the album then. I said, “Alright, I know we made it a bonus track, but why not go with ‘Natsufuku’?” They wouldn’t play the title track on the radio if it were a bonus track though, and that wouldn’t work for a title track. You know how there’s a specific day in school for changing the uniform? It always felt a little bittersweet to me, seeing the guy I liked change into the summer uniform or the winter uniform. It felt like I was seeing a part of them I never knew about. It always would make me feel like I’d been left behind. The same went for my friends, too. Seeing everyone changing while I was still wearing the old uniform was an extremely lonely thing to experience. I wanted to express that sort of sadness you feel when you’re in love, too. The turning point from winter clothes to summer clothes in particular really brings out that feeling of heartbreak in me. Really, it doesーthe words ‘winter clothes’ and ‘summer clothes’ make me so sad. I guess it just… reminds me of being in school. It really breaks my heart to see my crush wearing a scarf, ‘cause I feel like I’ve seen something about them I didn’t know. I get really wistful. I’m the one playing the piano on this track, right after “Bob”. I get nervous doing that because of how excited I get. We also placed the microphone so that it’s taking in everything all at once: one microphone in the middle of the grand piano, capturing everything on a single mic rather than setting out a mic for vocals. We went out of our way to record it like that because I wanted it to sound like I was playing by myself in a little room.

[basketcase789]

Heartbeat Song

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back.”

- Plato

Group: BTS

Member: Suga (feat. others)

Genre: soulmate au

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Yoongi pulled off his headphones and brought a hand up to massage the back of his neck, trying to work out the kinks. He glanced at the clock on his computer screen, and seeing it was just past 2 a.m., sat back in his chair with a deep sigh.

He was working on composing a song for BTS’ next studio album, and he’d been at it for four hours in his studio now, without much progress. Despite trial and error he just couldn’t seem to mould the melody into the song he had in mind.

He’d always found it difficult trying to compose a song when there was an entirely different one playing over and over in his head. One that was all too familiar.

He brought his hands up to his face to rub at his tired eyes and sighed again. This song did tend to creep into his mind more often when he was exhausted or stressed out. Perhaps it was trying to tell him he’d done enough work for today and to go to bed.

He closed the software he’d been using to edit his music, but wasn’t quite ready to head back to the dorm just yet. He opened up his internet browser instead.

The familiar home page of Synced Up loaded onto his screen. Every night for the past three years he’d browsed the site before going to bed, save for those few nights where he just couldn’t find the energy to.

He clicked on the first audio file displaying under the new uploads section, which immediately began playing in a pop-up screen, revealing the profile of the user who had uploaded it. Female, 20 years old, located in Belarus. He only needed the few seconds it took to read the user’s details to know that this song wasn’t his. He clicked on the next audio file. And the next. And the next...

After fifteen minutes he gave up. With his busy work schedule he couldn’t seem to keep up with all the daily uploads to the site. It didn’t help when the same song was allowed to be uploaded multiple times; first and most common were clips of the user simply humming the melody, and then later they tended to re-upload a version with instruments - whether professionally done or after learning an instrument themselves.

There were just too many people searching for their soulmates via the matching song that played over and over in one’s head.

Yoongi had been searching for three years now with no luck. He’d entertained the thought of simply arranging the melody himself and posting it. Maybe that way his soulmate could find him instead. Sure, the song would be difficult to synthesize at first because the melody sounded like a music box lullaby in his mind, but with a bit of work he could probably get it right.

However, Synced Up didn’t allow for anonymous submissions - no exceptions. You had to be able to prove you were you. In the past they’d had an anonymous option, but people had stolen others’ songs as their own, leading to a whole lot of issues. He remembered hearing about the lawsuits in the news, and the site had even temporarily shut down.

If he signed up then everyone would know it was him. And once fans found out about the melody and memorized it he’d never find his real soulmate. That’s why he’d been searching so earnestly, instead.

He couldn’t help but feel a little bitter when he thought of Namjoon and Seokjin, two of his bandmates to have already discovered their soulmates. Both had found each of their songs their very first try on the website, like fate or something. And as for Hoseok, he had an even more effortless encounter; he found his soulmate one day at the airport while she was humming to herself as he happened to walk by. Yoongi wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t been there himself.

Maybe this was all for the best, he concluded. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t get lonely every now and then, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of free time to spend on a significant other. He would be content with just knowing who his soulmate was - or that he had one at all. To know he wasn’t alone in the universe and there was someone out there for him. By his age very few people had yet to find their soulmate, although people in the public eye like himself tended to keep their relationships low profile. His fellow members certainly did.

He finally closed the web browser, but hesitated before powering off his computer. He found himself putting his headphones on and opening his audio software back up. It couldn’t hurt to compose a little something. Any other song that got stuck in his head seemed to disappear once he’d brought it to life, so why not this one? He could do without the constant reminder that he hadn’t found his soulmate yet, for a little while. Maybe actually get some sleep for once.

Half an hour later he called it quits, with the basic melody completed. He’d have to leave for the dorm now if he still wanted a few precious hours of sleep. After all, he knew he’d be back at it later in the morning, trying to meet the deadlines for the new album.

His soul song was out of his head - for now.

It was too early for any sane person to be awake, Yoongi thought, but sometimes it can’t be helped.

He sat at a boardroom table along with the rest of his members, nursing a large coffee. Black. It wasn’t a cream and sugar kind of day.

Yoongi spotted Jungkook stifle a yawn from across the table just as Bang PD spoke up, officially beginning their meeting.

“Okay, you guys know the drill. We have twenty song demos here, and we need to cut the list down to twelve for your next album. And we’re not leaving here until we know which ones and the order they’ll feature in.”

Yoongi never really offered much input at these kinds of meetings, unless there happened to be a song or two he was particularly passionate about. He composed the songs, and he trusted his members and staff to select the best ones from there. Songs that didn’t get picked always had a chance of appearing on a future album, anyway.

Bang PD continued. “We’ve all had time to listen to the songs. As discussed, the previously agreed upon concept for this comeback is…”

This time Yoongi couldn’t help but yawn. Why were these meetings always so repetitive? He could have been spending all this time asleep in his bed, instead of watching from the sidelines while everyone discussed which songs they liked best. Yoongi was confident all of the songs would be a hit, so it didn’t really matter to him. Lyrics and vocals weren’t even set in stone yet, so he didn’t feel particularly attached to any of the songs.

He was nearing the bottom of his coffee cup, but luckily the end of the meeting seemed to be at hand.

“Before we agree on which order these songs will appear, I want you all to have a listen to the song Hoseok has been working on. His track will complete the album as the thirteenth song, and if it does well on the music charts he’ll be allowed to release a solo album in the coming months.”

Hoseok was beaming from the other side of the table, and Yoongi gave him a silent thumbs up while the other members cheered and hyped him up.

Bang PD took a moment to search for the correct file on the laptop and clicked play, as Yoongi took the last few sips of his coffee. The music filled the room, upbeat and sounding exactly like something Hoseok would create.

A few bars later, Yoongi’s coffee cup froze in front of his mouth. His mouth grew dry, but it wasn’t from the bitter coffee. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he realized the base melody sounded all too familiar. Although its beat was sped up to match the upbeat tempo, he was certain. It was his soul song.

He felt the blood drain from his face. He’d been hiding the track in a folder amongst the other ones he’d been working on and completely forgot about it. It must have been copied along with the other files when he transferred them to a USB stick for submission weeks ago.

There was no way he could let this song be released to the public. It was far too intimate to have it broadcasted all over the radio.

He waited patiently until the song was finished before opening his mouth to speak, but Hoseok beat him to it.

“I based it off one of your uncompleted songs, you don’t mind do you Yoongi?”

Hoseok looked so excited to be releasing the song, wearing a proud smile and practically vibrating in his seat. He’d clearly put a lot of effort into it. Hoseok was younger than him, so Yoongi knew he would scrap the song if he asked him to. They were close friends, practically brothers, and he knew Hoseok wouldn’t go forward with something he was uncomfortable with. And he knew Hoseok would understand if he just explained everything to him.

But Yoongi found himself smiling instead, saying, “Not at all. Go for it.”

Hoseok had been patiently hoping for months - years even? - to release a self-made album. Yoongi couldn’t let him down like this. He could be biased, but Hoseok’s song did sound like it could turn out to be a huge hit. What harm could it do, really, releasing it to the public? Yoongi was the only one who knew it was his soul song. Him and his soulmate, that is.

Namjoon clapped Hoseok on the back, and Yoongi heard Jungkook say he knew the song was going to be a huge success, mirroring Yoongi’s thoughts. Yoongi looked down into his cup with a sigh. He was going to need a lot more coffee to get through this comeback.

[binbotproreviews-blog]

BinBot Pro Review: Profitable Auto Trading or a Scam?

Reviews for automated trading systems like BinBot Pro are the most sought after.

This is because auto trading is the newest trend in the world of trading.

Many traders are confused about how auto trading work or are skeptical about it.

But we are here to the rescue!

In this review, we will go through the features of BinBot Pro to see how it works, how well it delivers on its promises and most importantly, you can know if it is a scam or not.

Binbot Pro Review

Automated trading systems like BinBot Pro allow auto trading with the help of trading algorithms.

The trader has to set some rules such as risk levels, entry and exit stipulations, and leverage and the rest will be done by the auto trader.

The traders can then relax and not worry about monitoring their positions.

This has made trading robots very popular and in demand.

As a result, the market is now flooded with tons of trading robots.

As a trader who’s looking for a reliable robot, it might become difficult to choose one.

Our Review on BinBot Pro will clear that doubt for you.

Let’s start.

BinBot Pro Review: What is BinBot Pro? BinBot Pro Review - Binoption High Capital Risk Is Involved In Financial Trading

BinBot Pro is a Binary Options Robot that offers automated trading to its users.

It was established in the year 2016 and has been offering an automated trading service since then.

There are multiple robots available for that trades on your behalf.

You can also customize them to match your requirements.

Each trading robot follows a different strategy and you can choose the one that you think will work the best for you.

BinBot Pro has partnered with BinaryCent which is an online broker.

You carry out transactions like deposits and withdrawals through this broker.

We will discuss more this broker later in the review.

Trading robots have been popping up left and right due to the increased demand for automated trading.

Unfortunately, not all trading robots have proven to be effective.

They enter and disappear from the market without anyone noticing.

This proves that you cannot expect to provide poor service and survive in the market.

BinBot Pro has been going strong ever since it was released in 2016.

It has gained popularity among traders quickly and has become one of the best-automated trading systems currently.

In 2016, they won the award for the best binary robot.

Why choose BinBot Pro? BinBot Pro offers certain features that you cannot overlook.

Let’s see the reasons as to why you should choose BinBot Pro as your preferred choice of the trading robot.

Offers profitable auto-trading Even new traders can make large profits Easy registration process Returns as high as 90% Demo account offered Award-winning automated trading Robots have a profit rate up to 300% Provides services to many countries around the globe Major forex pairs as binary options Popular Crypto assets A minimum deposit fee of $250 Manual customization of trading robots Fast and reliable platform Dedicated customer support BinBot Pro Live Trading Video, Results and Withdrawal BinBot Pro Sign-up and Login BinBot Pro Login Signup - Binoption The account creation process is quick and hassle-free.

The process is described below:

Step 1 Click on the ‘Registration’ button below to start your registration process.

Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 To log in into your account, just use your provided email address and password.

CLICK FOR REGISTRATION High Capital Risk Is Involved In Financial Trading

BinBot Pro Broker- BinaryCent BinaryCent BinBot Pro Broker - Binoption BinBot Pro currently only offers one broker to deal with: BinaryCent.

BinaryCent is an online trading platform which was founded in the year 2016.

It is managed by Cent Project Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Finance Group Corp.

The company is based in Vanuatu where their head office is located in Transpacific Haus, Lini Highway, Vanuatu.

BinaryCent is regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC).

BinaryCent guaranteed withdrawals processing within 1 hour.

BinaryCent’s focus lies on small traders and hence their minimum deposit and investment are very low.

You need to deposit a minimum of $250 to start trading and the minimum trade investment is only $0.1.

This is one of the lowest we have seen and is beneficial for small and new traders.

You get leverage up to 1:100 on trading assets.

BinaryCent offers binary options along with forex and CFDs in their trading portfolio.

Recently they have added cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, BCH, Dash, PrimeCoin, Reddcoin, and many others.

BinaryCent offers customer support through live web chat or through the telephone.

BinaryCent has its proprietary trading platform for trading.

The platform is web-based which means you don’t have to download separate software for trading.

The platform is user-friendly and trade execution happens without any delay.

They also offer mobile trading on the iOS and Android.

They have the same features and functionalities as the web-platform.

There are three different types of trading accounts on BinaryCent; Bronze, silver, and gold. Silver and gold accounts offer extra benefits and bonuses to traders.

Speaking of bonuses, traders get rewarded with bonuses for the deposit they make.

Depending on the type of account they choose to create, they get rewarded with 20%-100% bonus.

All these features make BinaryCent a great choice to be BinBot Pro’s broker.

VISIT BINARYCENT BROKER High Capital Risk Is Involved In Financial Trading

BinBot Pro Top Robots - Created By Users BinBot Pro Top Performing Robots - Binoption BinBot Pro ranks robots on the basis of profits they generate for traders.

Here are some of the top performing robots for BinBot Pro:

RSIMA Cross Robot This is the top robot with a profit of over 300%.

The strategy used in this robot involves matching the RSI with the moving average cross indicator.

The robot buys or sells when it matches with the RSI overbought or oversold signal.

The signal is maintained until an opposite signal is received.

The minimum deposit for this robot is $3000 and its algorithm level is at 5 points.

xProfit Robot Ichimoku Crypto V2 Robot Rising East v1.2 Robot HP Cycles Robot Strong ADX v.2 Robot Strong US v2 Robot Bolly Band Bounce Robot RVI and MA Robot Bladerunner Robot CHOOSE YOUR TRADING ROBOT High Capital Risk Is Involved In Financial Trading

BinBot Pro Settings and Trading Platform BinBot Pro’s auto trading platform is available on the web.

You don’t need any separate software for trading which is convenient for many traders.

The whole auto-trading is revolved around following a trading robot which is available from the list of robots.

The platform displays the top 10 performing robots based on the profit level they generate.

Note that you can either copy the robot directly by letting it do all the trading for you or you can customize the robot to suit your needs.

You can also create a robot from scratch if you have the necessary trading experience.

Let’s take a look at the process of robot creation.

Robot Creation: BinBot Pro Settings Robot Creation - Binoption On the left side of the trading platform, there is a ‘create my robot’ button. Click on it to start the robot creation process. STEP 1 Choose a name for your robot. You can give it any name you desire but by adding a relevant name, you can easily remember its strategy and even others can benefit from it. STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 BinBot Pro Indicators: BinBot Pro Settings Trading Indicators - Binoption There are 6 different types of indicators available in BinBot Pro: ADM Index: ADM stands for Average Directional Movement. It is an indicator that indicates the trend strength. It can determine when the price of an asset will trend strongly. This strength indication can be bi-directional, i.e. both upwards and downwards.

Commodity Chanel Index (CCI): Momentum Indicator: RSI Indicator: RVI Indicator: AROON: BinBot Pro Demo Trading BinBot Pro offers demo auto-trading before you invest.

You can demo run the top 10 trading robots and see which suits your needs the best.

The demo runs for a robot runs exactly for one minute.

The initial fund offered is $1000 and at the end of the one-minute demo, the final balance is displayed.

In our extensive testing, the demo tests always ended in profits and never seemed to face any loss which seemed suspecting to us.

When we traded on our real accounts, on an average, the robot won us 8/10 trades.

This is normal as no robot can guarantee a 100% win rate.

Their demo robot winning all trades may just be a marketing gimmick.

Also, the demo market conditions are obviously different than the real market conditions.

BinBot Pro Cryptocurrency Trading BinBot Pro offers exclusive crypto trading to its traders.

Although binary trading is not allowed in the U.S, you can trade forex-crypto assets from any country in the world through BinBot Pro.

You can trade popular cryptos such as BTC, ETH, Litecoin, Dash, and much more.

BinBot Pro even offers deposits and withdrawals using Bitcoins and altcoins.

This makes the transactions fast and secure.

The BinBot Pro crypto software claims to have income returns of 700% or higher.

According to statistics, on a daily basis, their robots win 32390 trades, 1765 new clients join their website, they pay profits of $86003, and a customer earns $3836 in profits on an average.

Approximately, 25000 clients have had profitable trades with BinBot Pro.

The current offer of BinBot Pro offers 100% sign up bonus to their clients for Cryptocurrency trading.

START TRADING CRYPTOCURRENCY High Capital Risk Is Involved In Financial Trading

BinBot Pro Mobile Trading Currently, there is no mobile app for BinBot Pro.

However, BinaryCent offers mobile trading.

So you can perform transactions on the mobile app.

However, for trading, you have to use the web platform.

BinBot Pro Asset Index BinBot mainly offers the major forex pairs along with few crypto-forex pairs.

Here is a list of the assets BinBot Pro offers in its portfolio:

Forex Pairs: EUR/AUD EUR/USD GBP/USD USD/CHF EUR/JPY USD/CAD AUD/USD EUR/GBP Crypto-Forex Pairs: BTC/USD LTC/USD ETH/USD BCH/USD BinBot Pro Minimum Deposit The minimum deposit on BinaryCent is $250 but for some regions, it is $500.

BinBot Pro redirects you to BinaryCent during the withdrawal and deposit process.

BinaryCent offers multiple transaction methods such as Credit card (Visa, MasterCard), wire transfer, WebMoney, Skrill, Neteller, Crypto wallets to accept cryptocurrencies.

The deposit process is quick and is process instantly.

BinBot Pro Withdrawal BinBot Pro offers multiple withdrawal methods such as Bitcoin, credit cards, Neteller, Skrill, and Perfect Money.

They charge a 5% transfer fee on credit card transactions.

BinBot Pro guarantees withdrawal processing within 1 hour.

The time it takes for you to receive this payment takes 2-7 business days.

Is BinBot Pro Scam or Legit? BinBot Pro Scam - Binoption BinBot Pro has been around 2016 and has a very good success rate of over 90%.

It has multiple trading robots and offers a regulated broker to trade with.

These reasons along with positive customer reviews make it a legit broker.

However, there has been a couple of complaints regarding this platform.

The thing with automated trading is, you are depending on algorithms and machines to do the trading for you.

This cannot ensure success every time, unlike popular beliefs.

Although not with complete certainty, we would like to say this platform is legal and you can use it for profitable trading.

BinBot Pro Cons Though it has many unique features for traders but it has also some drawbacks and they are –

Demo account lasts only one minute Demo trading results seemed suspecting to us Offers only one broker for trading Minimum deposits for top robots are high Conclusion BinBot Pro stands out from the rest of the auto trading by providing multiple robots that have a high success rate, multiple indicators offering vast technical analysis, and a convenient robot creation process both novice and experienced traders benefit from the profitable auto trading BinBot Pro offers.

However, there are a few things they could work on to improve further.

Their website feels lackluster to use.

They need to partner with more brokers to cater to more traders.

In conclusion, BinBot Pro is an excellent auto-trading robot that delivers what it claims to do

[douchebagbrainwaves]

NO MATTER HOW DETERMINED YOU ARE, YOU SHOULD TRY TO PROVE IT, BECAUSE LORD-OF-THE-FLIES SCHOOLS AND BUREAUCRATIC COMPANIES ARE BOTH THE DEFAULT

I want to reach users, you do know what's happening inside it. Why?1 Just imagine how it would feel to call a support line and be treated as someone bringing important news. It's important to realize that, no, the adults don't know what you're going to look at the famous 1984 ad now, it's easier to read than a regular article. Which is not that different. But writing an interface to a piece of software doesn't teach you anything, because the main value of that initial version is not the hours but the responsibility. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been a mistake. So if intelligence in itself is less likely to introduce bugs. When you interview a startup and think they seem likely to succeed at all. But they're also too young to be left unsupervised.2 At best it was practice for real work.3 I must have explained something badly.

But evidence suggests most things with titles like this are linkbait.4 But I've learned never to say never about technology. As a general rule for finding problems best solved in one head. How much you should worry about being an outsider is being aware of one's own procrastination. If it's any consolation to the nerds, it's nothing personal. As an outsider, take advantage of direct contact with the medium. That scenario may seem unlikely now, but it wouldn't be a top priority. 0 out fast, then continue to improve the software, all you need is a department with the right colleagues in it. The remarkable thing about this project was that he wrote all the software in a Web-based software, you can in one step enable all your users to page people, or send faxes, or send faxes, or send commands by phone, or process credit cards, etc, just by installing the relevant hardware. A lot of the top 10,000 hackers, the route is at least straightforward: make the search engine you yourself want.

There is nothing inevitable about the current system. Now the frightening giant is Microsoft, and I think this will be the only kind that work everywhere. So if intelligence in itself is less likely to introduce bugs.5 You're at least close enough to work that the smell of dinner cooking.6 It seemed like selling out. After trying the demo, signing up for the service should require nothing more than filling out a brief form the briefer the better.7 For Web-based applications offer a straightforward way to outwork your competitors.

Next time, I won't.8 I've noticed some cracks in their fortress. The word try is an especially valuable component. But most kids would take that deal. So you don't have to rely on teaching or research funding to support oneself. I was talking recently to someone who knew Apple well, and I know it's the wrong thing to optimize. In software this kind of bug is the hardest to find, and also tends to have the computations happening on the desktop. It will seem preposterous to future generations that we wait till patients have physical symptoms to be diagnosed with conditions like heart disease and cancer.

Viaweb the developers were always in close contact with support. The more the work depends on imagination, the more hooks you have for new facts to stick onto—which means you accumulate knowledge at what's colloquially called an exponential rate. That's what they miss. Trying to write the software than because we expected users to want to be popular. Apple leaves no room there. As European scholarship gained momentum it became less and less important; by 1350 someone who wanted to buy them, however limited.9 I see someone laugh as they read a draft of an essay to friends, there are two great universities, but they're such assholes. 1 that effectively all the returns are concentrated in a few top university departments and research labs—partly because talent is harder to judge, and partly to get exactly what we wanted. The alarming thing is, he'd know enough not to have to work on projects with an intensity in both senses that few insiders can match.

I've said some harsh things in this essay I found that after following a certain thread I ran out of ideas? The remarkable thing about this project was that he wrote all the software in a Web-based applications, everything you associate with startups is taken to an extreme with Web-based software will be written on this model.10 Make them do more at your peril. Or rather, I don't think they realize how much software development is affected by the way it is released.11 In startups one person may have to use it, and group themselves according to whatever shared interest they feel most strongly. Teenagers seem to have made that deal, though perhaps none of them had any choice in the matter.12 We would leave a board meeting to fix a serious bug in OS X, instead of releasing a software update immediately, they had to submit their code to an intermediary who sat on it for a month and then rejected it because it yields the best results.13

That's what school, prison, and ladies-who-lunch all lack.14 Version 4. And unlike other potential mistakes on that scale, it costs nothing to fix. But, in my school at least, a better writer than someone who wrote eleven that were merely good. Just imagine how it would feel to call a support line and be treated as someone bringing important news.15 For example, most people seem to miss most is the lack of time. But when you choose a language, you're also choosing a community.

How do you get them to switch. That's what I thought before Viaweb, to the extent I thought about the question at all. My current development machine is a MacBook Air, which I spent worrying about, but not writing, my dissertation. My father's entire industry breeder reactors disappeared that way. We had general ideas about things we wanted to hear from customers. It's just a legitimate sounding way of saying: we don't like your type around here. One of my tricks for generating startup ideas is to imagine the ways in which we'll seem backward to future generations that we wait till patients have physical symptoms to be diagnosed with cancer. They're like someone trying to play soccer while balancing a glass of water.16

Notes

These false positive rates are untrustworthy, as Prohibition and the hundreds of thousands of small and use whatever advantages that brings. But the change is a constant.

Some graffiti is quite impressive anything becomes art if you saw Jessica at a 5 million cap. The banks now had to bounce back. Even college textbooks are not very far along that trend yet.

I'd say the raison d'etre of prep schools do, just harder. 001 negative effect on college admissions process. Whereas the value of a long time I thought there wasn't, because users' needs often change in the US News list tells us is what approaches like Brightmail's will degenerate into once spammers are pushed into using mad-lib techniques to generate everything else in the same lesson, partly because you can work out. You'd have to include in your plans, you have to deliver the lines meant for a monitor.

Only a fraction of VCs even have positive returns. Letter to Oldenburg, quoted in Westfall, Richard. Median may be exaggerated by the government, it is less secure.

I'm not saying you should avoid.

Charismatic candidates will tend to be room for startups to have figured out how to do that? We often discuss revenue growth.

This is a variant of Reid Hoffman's principle that if there is one of them is that promising ideas are not more. In that case the implications are similar.

They overshot the available RAM somewhat, causing much inconvenient disk swapping, but they were, they'd be proportionately more effective, leaving less room for something that would get shut down in the body or header lines other than those I mark. Maybe the corp dev people are these days. After a while we can teach startups a lot of money around is never something people treat casually. But while this sort of wealth, seniority will become less common for founders; if they seem pointless.

There need to raise a series of numbers that are only slightly richer for having these things. Later you can make things very confusing. On the other cheek skirts the issue; the idea that was more because they couldn't afford a monitor is that everyone gets really good at sniffing out any red flags about the new top story. Not all were necessarily supplied by the Corporate Library, the initial capital requirement for German companies is that there's more of it, but they can't legitimately ask you a series A from a book from a VC recently who said they wanted, so I called to check and in some cases the process of selling things to the founders' salaries to the point where it does, the best case.

01.

Throw in the same amount of stock options than any of his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of how you spent all your time working on is a negotiation.

All he's committed to rejecting it.

Later we added two more modules, an image generator were written in C, and most sophisticated city in the startup is rare. A round. Record labels, for the same reason 1980s-style knowledge representation could never have left PARC.

On the other team.

The problem in high school is that you end up making something that flows from some central tap.

The more people would be to advertise, and this destroyed all traces. But their founders, if you're attacked in this way. As a rule, if an employer hired men based on that? As Paul Buchheit points out, it's hard to say that Watt reinvented the steam engine.

Thanks to Harjeet Taggar, Ben Horowitz, Dan Siroker, Jessica Livingston, rew Mason, Paul Buchheit, and Trevor Blackwell for smelling so good.

[theresas-sound-world-blog]

Theresa’s Sound World Interview

Person: Nicolás Castello

Bands: Nax

Genre/s: Shoegaze/Indie/Dreampop/Ambient/ Post-Punk

Based in: Buenos Aires, Argentina

In my interview, I talk to Nicolás Castello of Argentinian band, Nax about music, inspirations, guitars, pedals and Shoegaze⭐️

1. When did you first feel the impulse to create music ‘’and why?

I started doing music at 17 years old. in that year, something very important to me happened and I felt completely alone. My life changed forever. That was one of the main reasons for me trying to starting to learn something new such as learning to play an instrument and make music. ( I felt old at that moment because of I started from scratch).

2. Can you name the top ten inspirations for your music? It can be anything, bands, songs, albums, books, poems, art, films, people, your own life experiences…

A broken heart

The moon

The sky

My cats

The clouds

Edward Munch

To dissapear

Van Gogh

3. Before Nax, what were you doing musically? Were you in any different bands and/or solo music projects?

In the very beggining I played in a group called "Dorian" with whom I rehearsed and played live for the first times. That was the first group in wich I played and sung.

Before Nax I formed a group with other people called “ (plástico) “ around the 2000’s. In 2008 we broke up and I finished our only LP called "Inercia". In 2010’s I released a solo album called “Infinito”. Also: In all that time I played in a lot of local groups. From time to time there was need for a bassist, or for a guitarrist and I played a lot, rehearsing and playing live.

4. Can you tell me a bit about how Nax got started?

After releasing "Infinito" on my own I wanted to play those songs live and I started to rehearse with other musicians From all that people that I played back then, there were two very special ones, with whom I still kept playing in Nax a lot of years later. Those two human beings are Jonathan Sansone and Juan Marcos Hernandez; the very first formation of Nax in 2013.

5.In listening to Nax’s music, I’ve always thought that your Argentinian accent and your use of Spanish as vocals really complement the music. I’ve found that certain music genres seem to suit certain languages. For instance, there’s several modern Dreampop bands who are and sing in French, reminding me of French pop-chanteuses of the 1960s, so is something that may be rooted in the musical consciousness. Have you any thoughts as to why Spanish might suit Shoegaze?

That’s a nice question. I never thought in this but it may not suprise me that there is some kind of "logic" between genres and languages. I sing in spanish mainly because that’s how I feel it, and I feel it natural in my song-writing as well as how my feelings are expressed. I have no clue if (and why) spanish may suit Shoegaze; but after been awfully bored with Argentinian groups singing in english, I´m very proud of Nax’s spanish songs, because they are very real, very sincere.

6. One of the key trademarks of Shoegaze is its use of guitar pedals to create weird and wonderful soundscapes. With your own music, do you add guitars pedals to an existing song in the same way an artist might use paints to a pencil sketch to flesh it out? Or, do pedals help create, inform, or guide a song? Or is a mixture of both existing songs exhanced by pedals and some songs existing as a result of pedals?

I would say that for me, at least, it´s the last option. Both things. I like to trick myself, so if I discovered something that works very good, I will go and search other ways to make things sound, and play with that I know that works and some, new things waiting to be made.

7. To follow up on the last question, do you take an ordered approach with the settings on your guitar pedals which you know will create certain effects or do you just twist knobs and press buttons and discover interesting sounds by accident?

Thanks to knowing the tools that I use: I can imagine the sounds that the guitar pedals (for example) con provide before playing. So I usually imagine the sounds before playing and recording. Anyways there are other moments (and songs) for experiment, and see what you can do with a unknown chain of effects, or an unknown -twisting knobs-.

8. Have you got an absolute favourite guitar you own and why is it your favourite ? Also have you got a preferred guitar pedal?

The most special one for me it´s Jagmaster Squier that I had modified (and upgraded) almost every part on it. With that guitar I played like a million gigs and composed like a million songs. So: she and I have a special history.

I love all the guitar pedals, but the Reverbs and the Delays by Boss are old-friends of Nax.

9. As a fan of Shoegaze, I’ve noticed there has been a renaissance of the genre in recent years, with it’s popularity and the volume of new and interesting bands always on the rise. As a Alternative music listener back in the 1990s, I saw how the original wave of Shoegaze bands started to disappear, often dismissed and ridiculed by the music press and in the popular culture of the time. Can you think why Shoegaze has perhaps in the 21st century been, in some ways, reborn?

Great question. Probably with music (as with other things in life in general) the movement of everything can be explained with the " Kondratieff waves ".

10. I really enjoyed your recent collaboration with singer Jackie Kasbohm of Echodrone fame. How did that come about?

I´m happy to know that! Jackie heard some of the "Congelado" songs and she approach to me in the 2020. We become good-internet-friends, she is a really nice human being,a caring and supportive musician and a great artist. Around September of 2020, I think, we started to talk about doing a song together and she sent me a little Casiotone-loop. I change the pitch of the loop to a "C" (I had to move it only a couple of cents) and I picked four chords for the first part. I recorded a demo for her and she starting to work on her vocals. A couple of months and work later we already had "En la Mañana".

11.Have you any plans for Nax, post-pandemic? Gigs, new recordings, collaborations, side projects?...

The future is uncertain. I would love to keep composing new songs, and new albums. And maybe at some point I would love to play live again, but not for now or in the near future.

And finally, for fun...

12. A line of dialogue written by film director Quentin Tarantino ...‘There’s only two types of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people’ Perhaps a little limited in scope, but do you sway more towards the Fab Four or The King or, perhaps both and why?

Good phrase. I choose The Beatles. I don’t consider myself as a fan or anything similar, but in the late years I started to take them as an" educative " group. I try to learn from their songs, I like to analyze them, at least for fun.

🎼Listen to Nax on Bandcamp: https://naxmusic.bandcamp.com

🎼Listen to Nax on ITunes: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/nax/1140322367

🎼Listen to Nax on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DOiimsENflMV8AukuEx7u?si=DSKjTKQtTCqz_ifoI86xqw

🎬Nax on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/user/naxargentina/videos?fbclid=IwAR25vxyHXz3ucCGe_FSeqct-oJOIA6P4wj-D5dEwozz6VzgkQii_gDdv01U

#TheresasSoundWorld #MusicBlog #TSW #Blog #MusicWriter #MusicBlogger #MusicReviews #UndergroundMusic #AlternativeMusicBlog #MusicChat #Shoegaze #Bandcamp #Shoegazers #Shoegazing #Dreampop #Indie #AlternativeRock #IndieGuitarSwing #Nax #DreamGaze #Gaze #Gazer #EssentialMusic

[newsstricker-blog]

Five most common video types

A survey last year found that Americans' attention span when browsing online is on average just eight seconds. Are you still paying attention? There are a time and place for other advertising, but video works differently. An engaging video can keep your audience rapt from start to finish.  It can also help shorten your sales cycle by delivering better informed and more confident prospects to your point of sale.

But I don’t need to convince you. Let the data speak for itself. Now that you understand the impact of video, the next step is to determine which category of videos meets your company’s needs. Here are the five most common video types.

1. Brand Documentary

A Brand Documentary Video is the dramatic entrance you’ve always wanted. Your brand’s story, personality, and philosophy all get to be center stage. Even add employee and client testimonials for a more personal angle. The truth is that with all the information floating in the universe, everyone will have their own varied ideas about who you are. A Brand Documentary video is the best way to cut through all the assumptions and misconceptions and tell your own story yourself.

There are three things to remember in making a successful Brand Documentary Video:

1. Keep it personal.  Your brand is your personality and you want to connect intimately with your audience. Be personable and include meaningful stories.

2. Play to your strengths. Has your company been around 100 years?  Or are you shaking up your industry right now? Either way, decide what makes you great and reinforce that message throughout your video.

3. Be brief. You want to hook your audience in the first 10 seconds, and the whole video should be no more than one to two minutes.

When it all comes together, you’ll make the intended impression and crystallize your company’s story for the public as well as your own employees and shareholders. Below is an example from ServiceSource.

2. How-To (sometimes called an Explainer or Walk-Through)

Quite simply, How-To Videos show you “how to” use a product or service. You can go with a simple set of instructions, but a video is just much sexier.

A good question to ask:  Is your audience already excited about your product?

How-To Videos work best when the audience is curious and ready to learn. If you’re still trying to convince them why they should care, a How-To Video may be getting ahead of yourself.

A video can show in seconds what may be challenging to explain in words over many minutes. Focus on what’s essential to actually use your product. How-To Videos work best when using the product seems intuitive. Don’t get mired in the details and try to explain all the features. Start simple: state the goal, demonstrate how your product achieves that goal, and show the results.

Using screen capture software and a narration recorded with your iPhone can lead to a video that is less than inspiring, but a professional voiceover and a creative composition go a long way. With a little design help, you can have a How-To Video that stands out on YouTube and you will make your company proud.

3. Expert

With all the information available online, customers no longer seek out a salesperson until they already know what they want. According to CEB, buyers don’t even engage with vendors until they’re 57% of the way through the buying process. With an Expert Video, you can reach these customers and address their questions now, all the while differentiating yourself from your competitors.

When customers are still in the research stage, they have large appetites for information and longer attention spans. They want the full picture in order to determine the positives and negatives of your product or service. It’s important to get your message and the tone just right because if your Expert Video starts to feel more like a commercial than a reliable source of information, that attention will disappear quickly. An Expert Video is not promotional but is a way to build customer confidence and show how you stand out from the competition.

4. Promotional

Promotional Videos are a great way to generate additional interest in your company’s important announcements and promote upcoming events, press releases, and product launches. They go far beyond simple facts and figures. With insight, pertinent new information and the charm of a story, they are effectively capturing the curiosity of your audience and adding implicit credibility to your message. An effective Promotional Video gives a clear introduction to what you want to promote while also kindling your audience’s curiosity. Take a look at this Promo Video that Google created to get its employees excited for the annual NRF Conference.

5. Demo

Once the audience is turned on to your company and ready to use your products, it’s time for the Demo Video. This gives you the opportunity to showcase your product and its benefits.

You’re the expert. You know your product intimately. You have the depth of knowledge, but your challenge is explaining the product and its features to an audience that may have no prior knowledge whatsoever. You need them to not only understand what your product is and how it works but also walk away with an appreciation of its value and confidence in their own ability to use it. Video designers, with fresh eyes and ears, will be helpful here by gauging the complexity of your message and steering you in the direction of simplicity. It’s good to remember this is not an animated instruction manual—it’s not a How-To Video either—with a Demo Video, you are selling the whole experience. Take a look at what e-SignLive by Silanis created to tell people about its e-signature solutions