#and instead going for a midrange that would not fall

[the-physicality]

.

[jarofstyles]

Fan Club II

A/N: Let the tension begin to build 😈This part is a little shorter than the others but it’s a necessary step - n + d

send feedback and requests here

masterlist

pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

warnings: angst, anxiety attack, and tender moments

word count: 3.5k

Harry was confused on all levels. Y/N was in his brain like a damn worm and didn’t seem to ever be coming out of it. That was the most frustrating part. It had been about a week, his second bakery visit being short and sweet with another hug and asking for 2 more lemon squares, but he had been a bit bland with texting back. He was trying to distance himself. Not fall for the good girl next door act. 

“Harry, please at least make this believable tonight. I’ve seen a few tweets talking about you going to the bakery so someone must have been a fan in there, so make sure tonight you’re a gentleman to her. People are watching.” Jeff Warned. It wasn’t like Harry sat around and complained about her. He barely said a word. He did tell Jeff he didn’t trust her, but he had restricted any social media usage because he knew the moment he found Y/N’s pages he would stalk her for a while. He would need to make sure it didn’t happen. 

They were sharing a car to the restaurant, and everyone knew the secret so when they pulled up to Y/N’s place, Harry felt a little more relaxed. Jeff would take over until showtime at the restaurant. There would be paparazzi by the time they left, but going in would be far easier.

Y/N was nervous to say the least. This would be her first time being photographed officially with Harry, holding hands and everything. It was a big deal and she wanted to look nice. She had done her whole routine, showering and smelling nice, doing a light makeup that she saw all his past girlfriends do, and changed into her outfit. She felt sexy but still fashionable, definitely not too expensive. Just the right amount of everything. 

When she got the text saying the car was there, she knew it was game time. Y/N made sure to bring her keys, her phone, and wallet, putting it all in a small fashionable blue over the shoulder bag before walking to the elevator and making her way out to the car. 

“Hey.” Y/N smiled as she opened the door, climbing into the car and buckling up. God he looked delicious. His hair was all floppy, his outfit matching hers in a strange way. The two of them together looked good, she couldn’t lie. “You look nice.” She said once again, but she really did mean it. “Smell nice too.”

They both sat in the back seat, Jeff and his wife in the front. Harry smiled lightly and nodded. “Uh, thanks. You too.” He went back to his phone. Honestly, if he didn’t? He would have died. Honest to god died. Her tits looked immaculate. Harry hadn’t seen them like this before but he was nearly choking on the way he wanted to bury his face between them. The first he had dated weren’t really all that big in that department— nothing wrong with that. But she had the perfect amount. Perfect handfuls. Something he was positive would be lovely to suck on. Fuck— fucking hell. 

He had to look at his phone or he would get hard. Y/N smelled good too. Like coconuts, vanilla. He wasn’t sure if that was a perfume or a bakery thing but he enjoyed it thoroughly. They kind of matched, too. which was weird. They hadn’t discussed it. 

Y/N sighed a little, not really knowing what she was expecting considering they were in private. She would rather spend no time with him in private if this was the case. She went all out to look nice for him to just say, ‘you too’? God this would be hard. 

“Hi Jeff, hi Glenne, it’s nice to meet you.” Y/N spoke sweetly, “I’d give you a hug, but you know.” She chuckled and sat back, trying to ignore the fact that Harry was ignoring her. What a terrible fake boyfriend he was, really wasn’t into the whole method acting thing. 

“Hey!” Jeff greeted. “Are you ready for the first pap run?”

“You sound so cheery about it.” Y/N laughed, “I guess I’m ready.” She shrugged and pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I reckon dinner will be fun, bit more excited about that. Get to chat with you all a little more.” It was the honest truth. She wanted to spend some quality time with Harry and with Jeff and his wife. If she was going to spend a full year knowing them? Hell, she wanted to make the most of it. She didn’t just want to fake being friends with them.

Was she serious? Harry thought. Come on. That wasn’t real. There was no way she actually thought they would buy that excuse. She didn’t give a fuck. No way. But of course— both of them bought into it. It was like Harry was the only one who could see that this was sketchy. That it wasn’t what was right. She was too sweet for her own good and that alone had Harry very, very suspicious. He listened to them chatter and took glances at her every so often. This would be torture for him. The whole thing. He was so physically attracted to her that he was worried that it may show when they weren't supposed to be acting. Y/N seemed to get along with them great. It was another thing that made him want to pull his hair out. She had to be bad in some way. No one was genuinely this nice and sweet without having a bad side. Gorgeous or not.

Jeff and Glenne were genuinely nice people, and Y/N was thankful that at least they were being open. Then again, Jeff was Harry’s best friend, then surely there was just something wrong with her. It had been a few days since they met and Harry wasn’t letting up no matter what she did. It would be a slow burn she assumed. She looked over at him, catching him already looking at her with a small smile. Y/N turned her attention back to the front of the car, watching as Jeff pulled up to the restaurant. 

It was go time. Y/N walked out of the car after Harry, moving her hand to hold on to his bicep as they walked towards the restaurant. She didn’t really have a method to her acting, she simply did whatever felt natural. Let herself go whenever they were out in public.

Harry placed his hand over hers and squeezed. He could tell she was nervous, and regardless he didn’t want her to be nervous here and feel upset. Especially when they’d be looked at and photographed. 

When they walked into the place, he looped an arm around her waist and let her lean into him. He felt a small hand on his jacket lapel and let her play with it as Jeff took care of the reservation arrangements. They’d been sat outside at a nice place with those bulb string lights, lots of plants. They’d be sat facing people so photos could be taken— but the people wouldn’t know that. He’d have to keep a good face this whole time. It was going to be a new challenge but part of him was giddy to be able to play it up and touch her during this time.

Y/N’s nerves weren’t really that noticeable, but to anyone else it would just seem like she was nervous because she was on a date with Harry. It was a normal reason to be nervous and frankly, she felt it made her seem more relatable. Despite the fact that Harry and Y/N were acting, they seemed to flow quite naturally and easily off of one another. It didn’t take a lot of effort, she just leaned into him whenever he touched her and vice versa.

“Ooo this is nice.” Y/N commented on the look of the place. She had obviously never been here before, but it looked like it would be good. The smell coming from the kitchen was incredible as well. “Thank you again for inviting us out..” Y/N said to Jeff, purposefully saying us instead of me so anyone who heard knew they meant Y/N and Harry as a pair. She scooted her chair a little closer to Harry, making sure there was enough space for them to have subtle touches if need be. Y/N wasn’t sure what Harry would want, but she wanted to have their options open and ready. She had never seen him actually interact with a woman like this except for when he was with Kendall and those photos leaked. She wondered how he would act when he meant for people to see.

Harry felt the pressure but also knew he was lucky Jeff was here to keep the conversation going. He was feeling a little awkward but fell into his conversation relatively easily. 

“So the bakery... Harry said it’s lovely. That the lemon squares are amazing.” Glenne broke the ice, opening up her menu. It was a midrange pricing so he was hoping that she wouldn’t freak too bad. Money really wasn’t an object to Harry. Granted, most of his clothes were gifted to him and he didn’t pay for much luxury items because they were sent for promotion, but he didn’t mind spending if it was for a good time. He had millions. 

“They are very good. I like them a lot. All of the things are great, though.” Harry complimented sincerely but she wouldn’t know that. His arm hung over the back of her chair, subtly showing ownership. that’s what it would come across as anyways. Most people wouldn’t know this about Harry but he was possessive, jealous, and pathetic when it came to his lovers. He didn’t like sharing. He loved being alone with them and being in their own worlds. He hadn’t had a perfect fantasy of that yet but he figured he may as well get out his affectionate wants when it was supposed to be shown. Pass it off as acting.

Y/N smiled brightly when her bakery was mentioned, her pride and joy. She was just about to speak when he complimented her baking even more. That was cute. Too bad it was all acting. She needed to get out of that mind frame though and really sink into the character. She’d deal with her emotions at a later time. 

“That’s sweet, thank you.” Y/N smiled over at him, setting her hand on his thigh and rubbing her thumb against the fabric of his pants. “But yeah, my sister opened it up 5 years ago and I co-own. We have a solid flow of customers. It’s really fun, we’ve been saving to get it refurbished.” Y/N explained, also looking down at the menu. She quickly decided on the grilled miso salmon and carried on speaking. “I want to buy the upstairs bit as well. Want to open it up to local musicians to have gigs there and stuff. Also possibly wanted to do a kids baking class. Lots of ideas.” Y/N smiled, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear. She was really ambitious and career driven, always wanting to improve. It was something she took pride in and hopefully Harry would come to admire about her.

Harry was impressed. She had ideas and they didn’t seem to involve being famous, so to speak. She seemed to want her bakery to do well but anyone who had a business desires it to thrive.

“That’s a lovely idea, pet.” His hand took purchase on her shoulder then. It was bare, jacket off so he ran his thumb over the softness of her skin there. Absolutely delicious. Y/N had to know that she was fucking gorgeous. That she had inspired many a man’s fantasies. He could see down her shirt slightly and had to adjust slightly, knowing he would get a stiffy if he continued. Harry was watching for any telltale signs she was lying but from what he could tell, she really did want to do that to her bakery. And that was pretty admirable. 

It took a second for Y/N to relax into Harry’s touch, not having expected it. The feeling of his rough calloused fingers caused butterflies to erupt in her tummy. She could only imagine how good they would feel on her clit— fuck she had to stop. 

“Lots of musicians in the town would thrive off of it. A little bit of exposure and a place to play goes miles for people who aren’t very hopeful.” Jeff confirmed. “You’ll have to ask Harry for opinions when you do that. He’s good at that stuff— the stage design.”

Y/N hummed in response, “I’m sure Harry could come up with some brilliant ideas, always does.” She complimented, sending him a small wink just to keep the ball rolling. It was nice to be able to flirt and know that it was meant to be reciprocated. Maybe this whole acting thing wouldn’t be too bad? She could just live out her fantasies like this. 

The waiter came and brought over a bottle of wine for the table and took all of their orders. Though the restaurant was mid range, she still had a feeling that this was a place posh people went. She’d have to get used to that as well. Y/N felt too normal for places like this, but then again, Jeff was really good at making her feel comfortable.

To Harry, the dinner was weird. Not in a bad way. But he had found that their chairs had gotten closer during the meal. They’d touched each other a bit— not sexually. Or trying to be sexual, he should say. He had been living out part of a mental fantasy, letting her hold his hand and play with his rings when they waited for the food to come. Y/N hadn’t gone for the most expensive thing— rather a cheaper item and he had tried coaxing her into getting something a bit more, but she said no. It was weird that she was acting like money didn’t motivate her. Isn’t that why she took the damn job? But they’d been touching subtly and talking, Harry smiling down at her pretty little face. He had an urge to kiss her too— which had scared the fuck out of him. He wanted to swoop in and taste her gloss before it went away but he couldn’t. When they finished though, Harry looked at her and began to talk. 

“Listen— May get intense, yeah? Lots of cameras flashing. Just hold on to my hand and don’t let go.” He was serious. There were a lot of cameras and a lot of flashes and he didn’t want her to freak.

This part did make Y/N nervous. The cameras. She had seen pap videos previously and they always made her uncomfortable to watch. It was scary having people say things to you whilst bright cameras were flashing. 

“Okay, I trust you.” Y/N told him in a soft voice, giving him a small smile that really was only meant for him. Part of her didn’t want this night to be over, she wanted to hang out with him some more and chat with him. It was her day off tomorrow so she didn’t mind staying up late and going home if that’s what he wanted. She doubted he would want her to stay the night.

Harry held her hand and as soon as they stepped out, the cameras flashed like crazy. Asking Harry to look at them, to say who his girl was. Who she was. How old she was, what’s her name. Were they dating? But Harry got irritated when he felt her move behind him, seeing someone had pushed her slightly and she had stumbled. He stopped in the middle, gently grabbing her hip and pulling her to walk with him. 

“Be careful, mate.” Harry said to the pap, brows furrowed. “Alright, love?” Y/N looked flustered, but nodded. So he continued on, lifting her by her waist and putting her in the car before climbing in behind her. Genuine concern took over when he saw her breathing heavier, face knitted in concern as he gently pulled her over and let her hide her face in his neck. His glare was actually visible to the outside where people took photos through the windows before Jeff sped off. “Hey.. Y/N? You okay?” Harry spoke, pulling her back.

The experience was something Y/N couldn’t explain. As a person who had mild anxiety, she thought that she could handle a situation like that but it was intense in a way that she truly didn’t know what to explain to anyone. You really just had to experience it to know. When she was pushed it really sent her into a small panic, trying her best to hide her face a little now that she’d felt what paps could really be like. Harry came through though and genuinely helped her. She was so thankful for him and for him sticking up for her as well. It meant a lot. It went by so quickly she could barely process it, a bit shaky and out of breath. Going off instinct she nuzzled her face into Harry’s neck, taking deep breaths to calm herself down and relax. It was over, she had jumped the first hurdle and things would get easier from there. At least that’s what she told herself. 

“Y—yeah, I’m okay... that was just.. a lot.” Y/N told him in a soft voice, still close to him but she wasn’t sure if that was okay. Y/N decided that it would be more hurtful if he moved her off than if she moved herself, but she really couldn’t do that right now. “I’ll be okay, just need a second..”

“It’s okay.” Harry rubbed her back a few times. He wasn’t a complete asshole. She was obviously shaken and he couldn’t even blame her. He wasn’t sure why so many had popped up— he was positive they’d only called for 3 but, that’s a later question. “You’re alright? Yeah? Shit’s scary sometimes but you made it through.” He didn’t know why he slightly melted but seeing her in genuine fear and feeling her shake slightly against his body made his urge to protect her come right to the front. “Jeff, drive around for a bit, yeah? Pop into Waitrose and get her a drink.” He could tell that she was going to be okay but needed a little coddling. He continued to rub her back and let her hide in his neck. Her breath was hot against his neck, and he felt her start to calm down.When Jeff came back, Harry gave her the drink and gently peeled her away, letting her stay seated close to him. “Slow sips. Just relax. You did great.”

Y/N kept herself nuzzled into the crook of his neck while she waited, finding that to be the safest place on earth. She relaxed just by taking in his scent and feeling his heart beat through the pressure point that beat against where her nose was. That combined with his hand on her back was doing the trick. This wasn’t acting and she knew it wasn’t. It gave her hope that he wasn’t in fact a shit person, he was concerned and cared enough to ask Jeff to drive around some more and get her a drink. She really did appreciate it and him. 

“Thank you.” Y/N said quietly, taking the bottle into her still slightly shaky hands and took a small sip before taking another slow one. Y/N did do great, she knew she did. She had seen enough pap videos to know how to elegantly carry herself, but there were way too many paps there. She’d never seen that many. Maybe people were just that excited to see Harry have a girlfriend.

Harry knew later on he wouldn’t regret being kind to her right now. She was genuinely terrified and he didn’t want that for anyone. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she didn’t want fame, but that didn’t mean he could trust her. Maybe he could be nicer. But he had to keep a distance because his cock was not on board with that. It wanted to bury itself in her plump little ass. But whatever— he could use that visual later. 

“You’re alright, Y/N.” Harry watched her carefully. “Didn’t know that many were going to be out there but, don’t worry. We’ll make sure we do our very best so that doesn’t happen again.” She wouldn’t get away from paps— but having 20 flashing cameras blinding her and pushing? That wouldn’t ever happen again. He was willing to risk his career on that. No human decency. 

“Now, let's get you home.”

--------------------------------------

[part 3]

A/N: H is soft, he cracks under pressure 🤧- n + d

let us know what you think! 

masterlist

[bathroommakeover677]

Bathroom Remodel Arizona Trends

Winning Philosophy For Bathroom Remodel

Looking for a bathroom remodel? - Call Toll Free $11-877-590-0658

Payments are structured and begin right away, which makes it easier to budget. Home equity loans usually have a fixed rate, so the amount you pay will likely stay at or close to the same amount each month. If you aren’t planning to start remodeling immediately, you can move the money to an interest-bearing account and earn money on your money (replace your shower).

If your remodeling project is going to be a lengthy process, you may be tempted to spend the money on other things instead. A home equity loan is a secured loan against your house, so if you stop making payments, the bank can take possession of your home. If home values take a dive, you may owe more on your loan than the home is worth.

The Heart and Soul of Arizona Bathroom Renovations

All HELOCs have a draw period and a repayment period. The draw period is the amount of time you have to use the line of credit you were approved for. Once that period expires, you can no longer withdraw funds, and you must start repaying the full loan. You can use as much or as little money as you need and only pay back what you use.

Four Quick Tips About Bathroom Remodel Arizona

During the draw period, you may be given the option to make interest-only payments. HELOCs are variable-rate loans, which means the interest you pay will fluctuate and affect your monthly payments. It can be easy to take on more debt than you can afford, since you can borrow multiple times from your HELOC and don’t have to make payments right away (https://lincolnbathroom.com/arizona/).

If home values fall, you may owe more than the home is worth. It can take a bit longer to get approved for a HELOC than a home equity loan. Kitchen remodels are the sixth-most popular project in the country, according to HomeAdvisor’s 2021 True Cost Report, with 23 percent of households undertaking some form of kitchen remodel, says Mischa Fisher, chief economist for HomeAdvisor.

Value report, minor kitchen remodels recoup 77. 6 percent of their cost in home value.“Because of the relatively higher cost of kitchen remodels, financing these projects with lower-interest home equity loans could be a great way to improve your home value,” Fisher says. Bathroom remodels also provide relatively good return on investment, with 64 percent of a midrange remodel’s cost recouped, according to Remodeling’s 2020 Cost vs.

Tips When Searching For Bathroom Remodel Arizona

“Since that is more cash than most people would like to pay up front, bathroom remodels could be one of the best options for financing.”Wood deck additions have seen one of the most significant increases in popularity of the major projects tracked by HomeAdvisor’s True Cost Report, rising from the 10th most completed project of 2020 to the seventh most planned project of 2021, Fisher says.“They also provide a solid return on investment, according to Remodeling’s 2020 Cost vs.

Call Toll Free To Start your Bathroom Renovation - $11-877-590-0658

Replacing your garage door practically pays for itself, says Sterling, of Georgia’s Own Credit Union.“While it’s not necessarily the splashiest home improvement one can make, homeowners recoup 94. 5 percent of their investment,” she says. “In many cases, this home improvement may be a necessity if the garage door is not working properly.”Roof replacements are also a wise investment, Sterling says.

9 percent, according to Remodeling’s 2020 Cost vs - bathroom renovation Arizona. Value report.“Like garage doors, this may also be a necessity if you have an old or damaged roof. You also get a better return on shingles as opposed to metal roofs,” she says. If you’d rather not use your home equity for home improvements, you have other options.

How to Explain Bathroom Remodel to Your Boss

However, personal loans can be a useful short-term solution to remodeling when you don’t have much equity but the improvements you are planning will increase the value of your home significantly. Though rates for personal loans are higher than those of home equity loans, you don’t risk losing your home if you default (closet bathroom remodel).

If you qualify for a credit card with a 0 percent interest promotion, it can mean financing a home improvement with no interest, provided you can pay the credit card off before the promotional term ends. Be careful, though, because interest rates can and will go up if you are late or miss a payment, and they can reach astronomical levels.

With a cash-out refinance, you refinance your mortgage for more than what you currently owe, replace your current mortgage with a new one and take the difference in cash. Keep in mind that cash-out amounts may be limited, and that this option is only smart if you can get a lower interest rate on your mortgage.

[putschki1969]

Magic Moment Self Liner Notes

Notes: Finally I had some time to translate these self liner notes. It’s great to get some insight. I always appreciate a song more after having read the thoughts behind it. There is lots of precious content here so please be sure to read it. I recommend you listen to the album while going through this post.

SPECIAL ~ SELF LINER NOTES

Source: https://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/wakana/special/

-- Your 2nd album 『magic moment』 is officially completed. Did you create this work while having an overarching theme in mind?

Yes. Throughout this entire album I wanted to express a “magic moment” - hence the title. This theme first came to life when I released my EP 『Aki no Sakura』 last November and it appeared once again during my live tour in December. Back then when I was just starting to work on my EP my director and I originally came up with “magic hour” as our central motif. 

-- “Magic hour” is the time just before sunrise or just after sunset when the sky’s colours are changing from orange to purple and everything is drenched in beautiful light.

Exactly. From then onwards we were tackling the theme of “magic hour”, after all, this kind of transitional moment can be applied to many situations in life. I thought it would be nice if we could turn all moments of life into music.

-- The album seems to overflow with many such “magical moments” of life. Please introduce each song individually.

01. breathing Lyrics: Wakana; Composition / Arrangement: Yumemi Kujira

-- This is the full sized version with lyrics of the instrumental piece "eve" that served as intro for your EP 『Akino Sakura』.

When we were working on the 『Aki no Sakura EP』" we decided to record a full sized version for the album

-- There is a sense of gracefulness and natural vitality.

The song is basically made up of a chorus that is repeated a total of four times but listening to the music written by Yumemi-san many different sceneries are being conveyed, you will notice bird-like sounds in the interludes between the different choruses, you will hear a waterfall flowing, you will feel flowers blooming in profusion. Also, one day the wife of our 1st violinist came to visit us at the recording studio, she is a flutist so we made use of her talent and added some flute to the song. Adding this raw and fresh sound really broadened the world views presented in the music. When I listened to the melody for the first time the movie "Avatar" came to mind. So I let myself be inspired by that film while writing the lyrics. The protagonist of “Avatar” was injured on the battlefield and became paralysed. But when he was syncing with his avatar, he was able to walk again. Watching the scene where he is in sync with his avatar and steps firmly on the ground for the first time always has a great impact on me, I wanted to include this special feeling in my lyrics. 

-- The line “土を踏み生きて行く者 | beings who live stepping firmly on the ground” is very reminiscent of that scene.

Yes. With Earth’s gravity most creatures live on the ground, some in the air or in the water. The same goes for birds. All of us are breathing and living here united by our beating hearts. We are living an ordinary life on this earth until some day it is time to say goodbye and go to another place, “楽園へいざゆけ | let’s go to paradise”. “Paradise” is an unknown place, in a sense this lack of knowledge is very harsh. Yet, you dare to set foot into this new world, there are still so many places to discover. 

02. Yureru Haru Lyrics: Wakana; Composition / Arrangement: Miki Sakurai

-- Compared to the first song, the tempo is increased considerably. The piano in the beginning is very refreshing.

This song has had a huge impact on me ever since Sakurai-san first sent it to me, I especially love the beginning of the chorus. It conveys a dazzling light, it awakens a sparkling sensation inside of me making me feel like I am looking up at the sun while riding my bicycle. I really wanted to do a warm spring song like that. I also like the change of atmosphere between the cute verses and the rather cool chorus. I wanted to have the hero of this song shout out their emotions during the chorus. There is an image of movement rather than stillness, I wanted it to be powerful.

-- The phrases “駆け出した | you broke into a run” and “君の叫び | your cry” tie back to your intention.

Those words represent impulses, an urge to start running, a cry that can no longer be contained. There is excitement and nervousness. You have a clean canvas in front of you, you can just follow your urges and draw freely. The line in the second chorus “睫毛に触れたのは 昨日の自分の欠片 | fragments of yesterday’s me are touching my eyebrows” is supposed to be about tears. When tears are hitting your eyelashes they will linger there for a while, you are releasing fragments of yourself which you have gathered and contained inside of you. There are so many things you have to deal with, all kinds of feelings, you cannot help but cry. Nevertheless, you think it’s best to break free and start running. 

-- Before you start running and follow your impulse you are experiencing many feelings. This sentiment comes across well with the use of “sway” in this line of your lyrics - “春の香り揺れてる  | swayed by the scent of spring”.

As spring comes you will notice that along with spring’s unique scent your thoughts and feelings are also being swayed. That’s why I didn’t use the words “spring’s scent” but instead I decided on “swayed by the fragrance of spring”.

03.where Lyrics / Composition: AlbatoLuce; Arrangement: Akihito Takahashi

-- This song leaves a strong impression with its speedy acoustic guitar strokes and four-on-the-floor rhythm.

The intro melody with its "oh ~ oh ~" felt very different to anything I had ever sung before, I thought it was nice and a catchy tune. The lyrics are also very meaningful, the messages carried along the words are beautiful.

-- Speaking of meaningful lyrics, I felt like the protagonist of this song is turning into an adult and slowly learning to love all the wounds and scars that have gathered throughout the years, they are finding themselves and a place where they belong.

You can definitely interpret the lyrics like that during certain passages. However, rather than trying to find a story for the whole song, I think it’s more important to look at the individual lines, every single word is meaningful. That's why the song is easy to listen to. In addition, I have never sung a song that’s completely in midrange. I wanted to give it a try.

-- The contrast between the sharp music and your soft whispery singing provides a nice nuance.

While recording I was very conscious of my vocals, I sang with a breathy voice. It almost sounds like I am talking, like a recitative style. I would like to do more research on this approach, there is still a lot to learn. 

-- Within your airy singing, there are certain key points that you are emphasising with your voice, it almost feels like an attack. Those words will leap at you and touch your heart. For example, the line “構わない | it doesn’t matter” in the second verse starts with a very powerful note. 

I received some direction and advice while singing, it’s meant to feel like an attack. The chorus rhythm was specifically chosen to invoke a sense of charging ahead.

04. 442 Lyrics: Wakana, Airi Okamoto; Composition / Arrangement: Koichi Ikekubo

-- That title makes you really curious.

Apparently the frequency of a baby's first cry is 442 Hz, so that’s what inspired me to choose the title.

-- Interesting! A mid-tempo song with a powerful rhythm. I think it conveys a very passionate and slightly forky atmosphere.

Originally the song had a strong Indian touch

-- Now that you mention it, it really does sound like someone is playing the sitar?

Yes, yes it does! Initially I thought it would be difficult to sing Japanese to this kind of music but Ikekubo-san told me I could do whatever I wanted with the song. We chose an approach that would match a baby’s crying. The lyrics are co-authored. First of all, we discussed what the song could be about, we talked a bit and decided we wanted to make the song about moments when you feel the need to sing and the reasons behind wanting to sing. Then Okamoto-san provided a lyric draft and I felt immediately inspired, the words just kept flowing out of me. Especially worth mentioning is the first chorus line “愛の声が聴こえた | I heard the voice of love” , Okamoto-san came up with that. Inspired by this line, I wrote the following “最後の碧に終わりを告げた時でも | even when the end is announced for the final blue sky”. In a way it feels like the only reason one was born was to listen to the “voice of love”. This singing voice is echoing through your entire body. When we are born our cries are creating the same sound, isn’t that strange? Why is that? While contemplating this one realises that we are all born to do something, our first cry is like a singing voice giving expression to that purpose. We are born for this very thing, it’s like it is our mission, our fate. It’s going to be different for everyone but each of us will be living in order to do and achieve SOMETHING. Which is why our first cry, our first song if you will, sounds the same for all of us.

-- It seems like your own mission and the meaning behind your singing are taking shape through the worldview presented in the line “喜びも哀しみもひとつに繋がって、溢れ出したものが歌である | both sadness and joy are united and overflowing to become a song”.

That final chorus block is very important because that’s where I tried to put all of my thoughts and feelings into the lyrics. This is the point where I have no choice but to convey what I haven't been able to convey at the beginning of the song. That’s why I wrote it like that. As a result, things slowly fall into place while you are listening to the song, at this point everything starts to make sense. That's also the reason I wanted to end the song with just my vocals to bring the point across.

05. Hirari Hirari Lyrics / Composition: Sairenji!; Arrangement: Mine Kushita

It's a heartrending song. The sadness is palpable during certain parts of the melody when I am using falsetto. 

-- Yes. It is a beautiful and sad medium-slow track.

It's a song about people who want to meet but cannot meet. There are many reasons for that...Maybe someone leaves and you cannot see them again or you desperately want to see them but lack the courage to approach that person... Lyrics like this which are written by someone else are very refreshing, it’s nice to get a completely different point of view, that also affects my singing style.  I wanted this song to sound breathy, I would for everyone to listen to it during a quiet moment. 

-- The song starts with just your vocals, from your first breath onwards there is a special depth, your breaths become part of the song. There are only two passages in the first verse where the quality of your voice changes considerably, it’s when you are singing “静けさ | silence” and “優しさ | tenderness”..

Those two phrases are reminiscent of the melody. The word “静けさ | silence” is meant to sound transcient, almost like a hallucination, a nuance that’s barely there and you have to strain your ears to pick it up. I wanted to sing every word clearly, I want everyone to understand my Japanese easily. As with 「where」, it was necessary to change the way my midrange singing sounded. For example, in the second verse there is the line “時が止まったままもう君は... | time has stopped but you...”, it’s all sung with the same note but it serves as melody. When I thought about how to sing those parts I realised that I wanted the melody to guide my singing.

-- Also, there is a beautiful and ephemeral vibration in your singing voice when you sing the line “夕暮れにかすんだ | got hazy within the dusk”.

That's right. I emphasised “kasumu | to become hazy” with a breath . This way it can sound either sexy or slightly scary. I think the word “kasumu” is very beautiful. I also really love the lyrics in the final verse. “たやすく愛と名付けないで | never call love easy”.

-- Is this supposed to emphasise the importance of the feelings that still remain inside of someone despite being separated?

I personally never take the word "love" lightly, it is not just a simple word but in this case the phrase is actually supposed to express the feeling of not wanting to be reduced to a single word by other people.

06. Aki no Sakura (Acoustic ver.) Lyrics: Kei Saito, Yoshitaka Taira; Composition: Kei Saito; Arrangement: Toshio Uchida

-- You recorded an acoustic version of 「Aki no Sakura」, which was the title song of your EP.

I really loved the acoustic arrangement of the song at my December live with the participation of percussionist (Nakakita) Yuko-san. I wanted to include it in the album so we made that happen. The song’s tempo has been decreased slightly compared to the original and it’s just my vocals, the percussion, an acoustic guitar, an accordion and a violin. I know Uchida-san who made the arrangement for this song from my Kalafina days, he played the guitar at Kalafina’s Otadama performances. It was nice to meet him again, it’s thanks to him that the song become warmer and more tragic. There was also someone from Uchida-san's agency who suggested we include some scat singing in the interlude. Combining the sound of the guitar with my scat singing was very refreshing and fun.

-- There is a phrase in the song where you sing, “笑い合ったね | we shared laughter”, the “i” in “warai” felt particularly warm, it’s like we are getting a new look at the lyrics with this version of the song.

Yes, I tried changing the nuance of my falsetto. I performed it live a few times ever since the release of my EP so my understanding of the song has changed quite a bit. This is how new nuances come to life.

07. myself Lyrics / Composition: AlbatoLuce; Arrangement: Yoshifumi Ise

-- A slow number that progresses with main focus on your vocals, the piano and some strings. Your comforting singing voice is very pleasant.

Initially, the arrangement was very heavily focused on the piano, there was a sense of quietness. When I listened to the track for the first time it left a strong impression on me, it reminded me of sublime songs like “Amazing Grace”. I was very adamant about keeping the song tranquil and calm, I didn’t want it to become too dark or too emotional. I used my breath consciously and expressed my lines with a singing voice that’s very close to my speaking voice.

-- This song is mostly low to midrange. The first and second verse are warm and comforting, the chorus on the other hand is very emotional. 

The chorus is definitely more powerful than it was in the original version during pre-production. For the pre-production I was using falsetto during the chorus. But once I had decided to speak most of the lyrics, I thought it would be best not to include falsetto. This kind of song is really difficult because every aspect of yourself is laid bare, that was quite the challenge.

-- When confronted with this type of slow song and small ensemble isn’t it necessary for you as a vocalist to provide the rhythm with your singing?

Yes, the most important aspect of my singing was how to create the rhythm. During one recording we used the clicking sound of a metronome to double the tempo. Then, once I had gotten used to the song, I was able to sing without the help of the metronome. 

-- In the lyrics you are touching upon the subject of weak hearts, weaknesses we all have in common. You are singing about times when you are not able to reveal your trembling heart. Is this possibly about looking back at one’s own own trajectory, about overcoming such times?

The “You” in the lyrics can be yourself or a specific someone. The song is actually less about overcoming hesitation, fear or weakness and more about learning to live with these things.

-- I see. In the final chorus you are singing “愛してた事 | the fact that I loved you” in past tense, what is the meaning behind that?

I thought about that a lot. We are reborn every day, you loved yourself back then just as much as you love yourself right now. Among all the versions of yourself, there ought to be one that is weak - yet that version of you still deserves love. 

08. Kimi Dake no Stage Lyrics: Wakana; Composition / Arrangement: Satoshi Takebe

-- Finally 「Kimi Dake no Stage」 is available on CD, we have only heard it live before!

I have been singing this song live ever since October 2018. The song and lyrics were produced around September of that year. Amazing musicians participated in the recording of this song. In particular, I wanna mention the drummer Kasuke-san (Noriyasu Kawamura), just like me he is a person full of longings. The feeling of being wrapped up by the music is wonderful. I had been singing the song for a long time already so when the band recorded it I felt comfortable going into the vocal booth and singing at the same time. It felt like we were performing live. I had to sing the song all by myself a second time that day but the feeling of being accompanied still remained inside of me.

-- You are using a clear singing voice here.

I had a clear image of the song and while performing live, I experienced so many great things. That’s the reason why I aimed for a clear singing style, I simply wanted to match the clearness of the song.

-- When I read through the lyrics, I felt really drawn into the song from the very first line, “列をはみ出して 泳ぐ魚が見えたよ | I saw fish swimming out of line”. It’s very Wakana-like since you love aquariums so much, the message within that phrase is also incredibly strong. 

That first part of the song is depicting someone standing in front of a water tank. Imagine a group of sardines swimming in the tank and all of a sudden one of the fish is breaking away and swimming in the other direction. The little fish that chooses a different path stands out. Watching the fish you start wondering what it might see, what it might experience. And now have a human child take the place of this fish. Everyone in the group is at school while a single child is deciding to skip class. 

-- It’s not always a clear line, sometimes life is about breaking away even if there is no clear intention behind the action.

It’s not so much about breaking away from everything, rather it’s about taking on challenges so you can try things you want to do. I had that kind of experience when I was a  young student, it took a lot of courage, many times I felt very uneasy and frightened but it was also very refreshing. Even now that I have grown up and I am an adult I can still say with certainty that I do not regret my thoughts and decisions from back then. Therefore I think if you want to do something you SHOULD do it, be straightforward and honest with yourself. That doesn’t only apply to teenagers ... You should also live by that philosophy in your 20s and 30s. Even when you are getting older you might feel the urge to break free and do something new. 10 years from now I will surely be in a completely different position having to deal with all kinds of worries. We are all the heroes of our own stories, of our own lives so we need to take responsibility. However, I also included parts about falling in line in the lyrics. For things to go smoothly we can’t just break away all the time, it’s also about cooperating with others in school, at work or in other situations of life.

-- That's why you are also singing about how everyone - strangers and acquaintances alike - is always breaking into a run to do something.

That's right. The second half of the song is about remembering the place where I grew up. I was raised in Fukuoka but back then all I wanted to do was move to Tokyo. Now I love Fukuoka. I guess you don’t realise what you have got until it’s gone. I feel the same way about my family. Back then I was impatient and itching to do something, that's why I want to tell my past self, “it’s okay, I understand if you want to leave.” Even now, all I want is my passion to bring light to my life, I made it this far thanks to my family and my friend, I am here because of them. That’s how I came up with the line “初めて誰かを守りたいと思ったとき 自分を愛してくれる人のため 今があるんだ | the moment you first want to protect someone you realise that you exist for the sake of those who love you”.

09. Orange Lyrics: Wakana; Composition: Ryota Iwakoshi; Arrangement: Kazunori Fujimoto

-- 「Orange」 was included in your EP 「Aki no Sakura」, it’s now part of your album.

Someone from the A&R division of my record label really loved this song so they suggested I should include it. *laughs* I am also very much in love with the song so their words motivated me to add the song to the tracklist.  

-- The positioning of the song in your album is very refreshing. For example, 「Kimi Dake no Stage」 is all about the warm embrace you feel in the place you were born in. That transitions nicely to a sense of nostalgia which is conveyed in 「Orange」.

The tracklist order can strongly influence your perception of a song. When I was a student, I was itching to do something new and came to the city. Now I am living my life here and watching orange sunrises while thinking about [blank]. This “…” part consists of all kinds of crazy feelings, feelings from my past, my present...being able to listen to 「Orange」 on this album makes things more real and brings back all these memories and feelings much more clearly.  

-- The lyrics of 「Orange」 and 「Kimi Dake no Stage」 are also somehow connected. The “あなたの笑顔に逢いたいから | I want to meet your smile” sung in 「Orange」 seems to be tied together with the “笑顔を届けられたら | I would like to bring a smile to your face” in 「Kimi Dake no Stage」. The driving force of your singing is conveyed very well.

Yes. If possible I would much rather see smiling faces instead of sad ones!

10. Happy Hello Day Lyrics: Wakana; Composition: Akihiro Kasuga; Arrangement: Shu Kanematsu

-- This song starts with overflowing feelings of gratitude and happiness.

We are celebrating the day of our birth with a “Happy Birthday” song so I thought, “why not write a song that celebrates the day we met?” While listening to the melody I could see myself singing this kind of song in front of my audience. “Thank you, I am glad we were able to meet today”, it’s these feelings I wanted to put into words to make lyrics out of them. The sound of the string quartet is beautiful, and Kanematsu-san piano playing is incredibly smooth. His playing during the recording was super cool, he went wild *laughs*

-- The song picks up momentum during the final chorus with the included clapping, that’s quite quite the grand scale.

That’s Kanematsu-san and my own clapping you hear, all the staff members and my manager also joined in on the clapping *laughs*

-- I think this song will have an even greater scale once you perform it live and the clapping of everyone in the audience will be overlapping. In that sense I believe your feelings will come across well during the chorus when you are singing about “you” and “us” in lines such as “君と逢えた | kimi to aeta” or “手を繋ぐよ | te wo tsunagu yo”.

When I am singing at a live venue in front of a large number of people, it feels like you and me - all of us - are talking together. Of course we each have our own regular lives with our own problems but in that moment all we are doing is enjoy music together That’s why in one chorus I chose “手を繋ぐよ | we are holding hands” and in the final chorus I wrote “手を繋ごう | let’s hold hands”. Thank you for coming to meet me, let’s hold hands! Surely we will be able to meet again in the future and then our hands will be joined once more.

-- Is it that feeling that makes you sing the final chorus with such a more powerful voice?

Yes, it’s crazy how much heart and strength I put into that part. When I sang the line “今生きている | ima ikite iru“ the “ikite” ended up sounding savage *laughs*.

11. magic moment Lyrics: Wakana; Composition: SIRA; Arrangement: Shu Kanematsu

-- The title song is the final track on your album 

I asked SIRA to compose a song related to the theme “magic hour,” when I got the song, its temporary title was actually “magic hour”. After I wrote the lyrics for the song, I decided on the current title and simultaneously made it the album title since I felt it best symbolised the essence of the album.

-- The 6/8 time signature of the song makes it sound very grand and magnificent, its evocative nature seems to lead right into the future. I feel like 「magic moment」 being the last track provides a fitting conclusion to the whole album.

I think so too. The song makes you feel like your journey will continue, there’s a sense of embarking on a new journey. In a way it’s closely connected to the first song of the album 「breathing」, it’s nice to have this little call-back.

-- The words you use in 「magic moment」 and 「breathing」 are also connected. The line “高鳴る音さえ | even the throbbing sound” in 「magic moment」 seems to be tied to the “高鳴る胸 | throbbing heart beat” and “鼓動 | pulsation” in 「breathing」.

That's right! Everyone is always saying how they need to take responsibility and that they are gonna be an adult from now on but when are you really an adult? Can you not be an adult and still live your life enjoying yourself? Shouldn't we be allowed to dream? I wrote the lyrics with these feelings in mind *laughs*. It’s like reading a fantasy novel that invites you to explore a foreign world. The rhythm changes during the chorus which gives the song a very mysterious vibe. That's why I thought it would be nice to use frivolous and floating phrases instead of real words

-- Frivolous and floating, what do you mean by that?

A sense of recklessness maybe, not knowing what’s ahead of you but still wanting to continue forward *laughs*, I guess a responsible adult would call it, “to lose your footing and float away”...the lyrical subject of this song just wants to dream. 

-- For me both the melody as well as the lyrics convey a strong sense of “human life”. There is a line that says "最後の場所は決めたよ | I know where I will die" and later in the song you mention “何処か遠く | somewhere far away”. This person might not have decided on the road they will be taking but they already have their sights fixed on a specific goal?

The hero of this song doesn’t need guidance or a map. He or she has already found a perfect place for their final sleep. And that place is actually not too far away. However, until that very last moment of your life you want to travel far. One should be living with the goal of wanting to experience one miraculous moment after the other. Life is not about trying to reach that final place, it’s about living your life to the fullest until you reach that place. That’s what this song is about.

[taww]

First Take Review: Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté Speakers

As previously chronicled, a move to a new residence last year challenged my undying devotion to 2-way monitor speakers. Though I had two great ones at my disposal - the Silverline SR17 Supreme and Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté - asking these relatively compact speakers to fill a large living space with the weight and scale of a symphony orchestra was unreasonable. I needed something that could move more air, but far too many big speakers I’ve heard sound slow, discombobulated or opaque vs. a quality 2-way. Enter the Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté (USD $25,000), which confidently assured me of no such compromises during an audition at Audiovision SF. After a bit of listening to some alternatives and the requisite spousal approval, I traded in the SR 1’s and placed an order for a pair of SR 6 AA in piano black with the intention of keeping these as my long-term reference speakers. I’ve logged about 3 months with them and while they’re still taking their sweet time to break in, it’s time to gut check: are they turning out to be everything I had hoped they would be?

Related Reading

Quick Take: Audiovector R 3 Arreté & SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté

Breaking in a Big Speaker: Week 2 with the Audiovector SR 6

Acoustically Treating Side Reflections: Even Better and Not as Hard as You Think

Design & Setup

IMO this is a gorgeous speaker that looks impressive in a room without being dominating - sleek and elegant, with pleasing proportions and a beautiful finish. While our room is a good size, it is an all-purpose living space for my wife and me plus our two large-ish dogs, and there was no way audiophile speakers with a large footprint or funky aesthetics would ever set foot in our home. The Audiovector was a relatively easy sell to my wife and there have been zero groans or offhand remarks about its size or appearance, which makes it an unmitigated success. The magnetically-attached grills are wonderfully crafted, muting the technical look of the baffle during more casual listening, snapping on and off with precision and sticking together for easy storage. The sound isn't bad with them on either - fractionally less open and bright, which is actually kind of nice for background music.

Full-range speakers can be tricky to position to balance bass response with soundstaging, but in my room I’ve found the SR 6 AA to be very easygoing. Thanks to a combination of front-firing ports, bottom-firing compound woofer and careful bass alignment, they work remarkably well close to the wall. I currently have them with just 50cm (20”) of clearance behind them, and I have yet to pick up on any port noises. Yes, the soundstage would be even deeper if I pulled them out further, but it’s still quite satisfactory and the bass is nicely filled out without any boom whatsoever. As with the SR 1 Avantgarde Arretés, I find the sweet spot to be a bit narrow - sound is good off-axis, but you really need to be centered precisely for the image and soundstage to lock in. This is in contrast to traditional 2-way monitors from e.g. Silverline Audio or Role Audio that disappear in your room with little effort and are fairly forgiving of listening position.

Sensitivity is specified at 92.5dB/watt @ 8 ohms, quite good for a dynamic speaker. Sensitivity ratings can be deceiving (measurement methods are not rigorously standardized) but the SR 6 AA certainly puts out noticeably more sound per watt than the 90.5dB-rated Silverline SR17. I haven't seen an impedance plot or minimum impedance spec but it seems pretty easy to drive, with all of my amps sounding open and unstrained. With pop or orchestral material at moderately high volume levels I could get the bias meter on the Pass Labs XA30.5 to wiggle the tiniest bit, indicating the peaks were surpassing the 30-watt Class A bias range, but just barely. While the speakers can clearly take a lot more power (I would have loved to have the 300wpc Bryston 4B Cubed around), a quality amp of moderate power rating (e.g. 50 watts) but enough current to feed the 4 drivers should have no trouble. The Pass sounded great, I love the 55-watt Valvet A4 Mk.II monoblocks on them, and right now the 50-watt Gryphon Essence is singing away.

The Sound

Listening to the SR 6 AA strikes me as the audio equivalent of stepping into something like a big smooth Mercedes S-class, only to find it as lithe and responsive behind the wheel as a Lotus Elise. But step on the accelerator, and sure enough you will hear and feel the grunt of a big bi-turbo V-12. And most of all, it’s fun. Like a car that beckons you to drive it, there’s an aliveness and energy to the SR 6 that compels you to listen to as much music as possible. I could listen to record after record all day and night and never stop.

Coming back to less-fanciful analogies, I love how the SR 6 has all the coherence, focus and speed of the best 2-way monitors, then adds low-frequency power and dynamic ease without any sort of compromise that I can discern. At first I was a bit concerned with the 350Hz crossover point between midrange and woofer - right in the D to A string range of the violin - but I honestly can not hear it at all. The compound bass system also seamlessly integrates from 80Hz down, and all I hear is a very continuous presentation with consistent speed, articulation and tonality. This is extremely rare in my experience - many big, expensive and elaborate speakers have had some sort of discontinuity that bugged me. 

Coming back to the 2-way comparison, I am missing absolutely nothing about my previous monitor speakers. The SR 6 has even more midrange focus and resolving power than its excellent little sibling, the SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté, while sounding less dry and analytical. Much of this can be attributed to the fullness of the lower midrange which puts more meat on the bones of everything. It’s not overtly warm, but has just the slightest bit of extra juice to give pop tunes great bounce and string sections lovely lyricism. My wife noted that orchestral melodies sounded particularly mellifluous and alluring.

This brings me to another point: the SR 6 simultaneously strikes me as tremendously transparent, neutral and precise, but also possessing character. It's very hard for me to describe it any one way because the common sonic labels - warm, analytical, fast, full, forward, laid-back, smooth, sharp - just won't stick. Depending on the associated gear, setup and recording, any of those above descriptors could be applied to a very subtle degree, but switch up the source material and a different set of adjectives come to mind. Going to another abstract analogy, it reminds me of a delicious mineral water - so clean and crisp and pure, but not totally flavorless. The SR 6 is never bland to my ears; sure, a bad recording still won't sound great, but the presentation never falls flat. It has a fun and engaging take on music, perhaps due to just a hair of judicious boost somewhere in the midrange, that isn't dead-on neutral, but subtle and musically consonant. This is what I find most fascinating about Audiovector's tuning vs. other ultra high-end marques such as Magico or YG Acoustics, which can be breathtakingly transparent to the point of sounding flavorless, and incredibly demanding of source material. In those special moments with the right setup and recording they certainly could scale to greater heights of realism than the SR 6, but the Audiovector just sounds consistently natural and satisfying to me.

A few words on what this speaker is not. While it certainly qualifies as full-range, it does not have an overtly “big” sound. You won’t get the same sort of easy, larger-than-life presentation that a large-woofered speaker in a more classic mold (think a big old JBL with 15” woofers, or a top-end model from PBN or Legacy Audio) will give you. If you want Louis Armstrong to sound like he's sitting in your lap, or you’re trying to reproduce a club environment in your living room, there are better speakers for that. Bass extension is deep and powerful, but the quality of the bass that stands out is that it’s always focused - pitch, timing and weight are precise and balanced. It will convincingly represent a symphony orchestra, and the throbbing bass line of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy will have you bouncing in your seat, but it’s not shake-your-walls, send-you-into-intestinal-distress kind of bass. It is easily the most detailed and revealing speaker I have had in my room, but it is never hyped-up, instead laying the music out for you to inspect at your discretion. The superb Audiovector AMT tweeter has a lot to do with this - it is free of the typical resonant modes of most dome tweeters and has resolving power well above the audible range, with none of the peakiness of metal domes that can go from vivid to fatiguing over time. There are designs with more natural warmth, that can make a female vocal sound more magically in-the-room and human - Silverline and GamuT are two superb marques that come to mind - but they might not be as neutral and versatile across many genres of music.

The Audiovector is much more precise and adaptable than speakers which blow you away with a particular aspect of their performance. It is the sort of sound that may not stand out as much in 3 minute sound bites at an audio show or dealer, but is more accurate and satisfying in the long term. And I appreciate how it effortlessly fills my open space with sound, but never overpowers it. This is a remarkably lifestyle-friendly speaker by high-end standards and I could see it working very well in a more modestly-sized room, though if you have a small room you are probably better off saving some money on the R 3 Arreté and putting the funds towards upstream gear.

The Take

As you can probably guess, I'm liking the Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté a whole lot. A big speaker is always a risky proposition - you never know if it'll work in your room, reproducing a wider range of frequencies means more things to critique and potentially bug you, and of course there's the financial outlay. But so far, other than the need for extended break-in time, there have been zero frustrations and only delights in my experience.

As I write this, I'm listening to a lovely record of Bruckner 9 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Daniele Gatti (Qobuz 24/96, Tidal MQA) at moderate volume. And I honestly have nothing to observe or say about the speakers because it just sounds good and right and I'm enjoying the performance. It's a total system effort of course, with contributions from PS Audio, Furutech, Audience and the transcendental Gryphon Essence pre + power amp, but as a music lover first and foremost I can think of no higher compliment for the Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté.

[myexecutivesearch-blog]

The Challenges of Nonprofit Recruitment – and How to Make It Better

All recruiting is not equal. Corporate recruiting is different from the process of sourcing and hiring in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit recruitment is more challenging and differs from for-profit efforts to find talent in three key ways. Here’s why nonprofit recruiting can be so difficult, and how hiring teams can improve their chances of success.

Understanding the Challenges of non profit recruiters

A 2019 study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies reports that nonprofit organizations are a major economic force in the United States, accounting for up to 15% of all private jobs, with 12.3 million paid workers. Yet these organizations are facing significant economic and competitive challenges, as federal rules limit tax incentives for charitable giving by individuals, and vouchers and tax credits extend to for-profit firms that will “enter, and ultimately dominate, fields in which nonprofit providers formerly held sway.”

Against these economic challenges lies an unprecedented low unemployment market that makes recruiting talent difficult across the board. Nonprofit recruitment has always been more difficult over for-profit recruiting, but today the challenges are greater. They include:

Nonprofits work with a limited recruiting budget. This affects every part of the hiring process. Nonprofits could be limited to advertising only on free job boards; they may not be able to hire a third-party staffing agency to help them source candidates. This means that these jobs are more difficult to find to the time-pressed job candidate. Nonprofit organizations may not even have an internal team available to find candidates, instead tacking the job onto an existing role, such as a payroll or human resources manager. The problem, of course, is that today’s historic unemployment levels make hiring for most roles a full-time job. Finally, nonprofits struggle to attract many candidates with top credentials simply because their salary structures aren’t as lucrative as those of for-profit companies. When matched dollar for dollar against a for-profit competitor, nonprofit recruitment simply falls short.

Nonprofits rarely have a standardized hiring calendar. This makes building a consistent funnel of qualified candidates much harder since each hiring process becomes a cold start. This means recruiting momentum simply cannot build in today’s challenging job market, which makes an already difficult task even harder. The only good news to report is that all nonprofits seem to be struggling in this way. The Philanthropy Journal News says 70% of upper to midrange nonprofits citing recruitment and retention as their top challenge this year.

Nonprofits often hire with a focus on inclusion and diversity. Since nonprofit organizations typically set hiring goals with an eye towards building diverse teams of professionals, this can result in a narrower hiring pool. This makes it even more important to build and nurture strong networks and connections.

Nonprofits often look internally for talent instead of scouting for new external candidates. It’s easier and financially less risky to look internally for talent or to source from a ready-made pool of workers already in the nonprofit community you serve. In these cases, the job ad may never go public. The problem is that the approach is incestuous in nature, relying on existing talent but failing to attract new workers into the field. If an effort is not made to build a pipeline of new workers, nonprofits could continue to struggle to replace employees lost through attrition due to retirement. Recruitment strategies for nonprofit organizations must continue to fill the candidate pipeline with fresh talent to keep their mission moving forward.

How should nonprofits continue to compete against for-profits for top talent, in the face of all of these challenges?

Recruitment Strategies for Nonprofits

The good news for nonprofit organizations is that millennials, who will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, are actively looking for socially responsible employers, according to Talent Economy. Baby boomers are retiring in droves, making the millennial population the strongest force in the candidate economy.

Nonprofits naturally give this younger population exactly what they crave: a mission. The article states, “For businesses that want to stay competitive in the hiring market, the first thing to know is that millennials are not looking for the same things from their employers that the boomers were.”

This is exactly why recruitment strategies for nonprofits should emphasize their overarching mission and the constituents they serve. Talent Economy says 75% of millennials would take a pay cut to work at an organization whose mission they can stand behind.

Nonprofit HR suggests that many organizations miss the boat in their efforts to attract candidates precisely because they fail to capitalize on a strong employee value proposition. Nonprofit recruitment strategies should emphasize the value, rewards, and benefits of working for your organization. They also suggest coupling this emphasis with a proactive and strategic sourcing effort that seeks external candidates for future hiring needs. It’s a rare sight to see a nonprofit organization at a job fair, but the article suggests successful recruitment strategies for nonprofits should include consistent efforts to build a future pool of applicants to call upon when a hiring need arises.

Nonprofit organizations should also take a page from the efforts of for-profit firms to recruit and hire talent. Recruiting Times suggests the following five methods for recruiting candidates, whether your organization is nonprofit or for-profit:

Increase your pool of candidates by proactively searching for talent.

Increase retention by matching the exact job to the exact candidate credentials.

Be known as a great employer. Nonprofits can build their brand by using social media to promote their organization not just to potential donors but also to potential job candidates.

Involve employees in your efforts to find the perfect candidate. Ask internal teams to share job ads with their social networks.

When possible, offer better pay and perks than the competition.

Nonprofit organizations must make hiring a part of the culture. Department heads should continually be on the lookout for external fresh talent to broaden the hiring pool or your organization long-term. These organizations can also benefit from technology to help streamline and systematize a disjointed hiring process.

Nonprofit organizations have access today to some of the same high-quality recruiting tools that for-profit organizations use. The Applicant Manager (TAM) offers nonprofits sophisticated tools to generate and manage the candidate hiring process. Our goal is to help your organization attract and retain top talent in order to fulfill your mission.

[thegeneralsnotebook]

Adventures in Deckbuilding #170: Fluttershy, Growing Confidence (Yellow/Blue/Orange Aggro) [Core]

Fluttershy, Growing Confidence

Playing It Cool

Sideboarding Strategy:

Against Yellow: out Yona, Mullet-Dash Against Purple Midrange: out Friends Are Always There, 1x Mullet-Dash, Formation Flying Against Control: out Treading Water, 2x Rainbow Generator

This new Fluttershy is a really interesting Mane to build for, while at the same time falling squarely into the category of Manes that I dread rolling every time that they come up in this series. As I’ve said every time that Vinyl showed up for a Harmony deck (thankfully now finished all three), popular Manes are hard because I like to try going off the beaten path and showcase something different. As I’ve said every time that Solar Sister showed up in the past (also thankfully now finished), Manes that are very good at one particular thing are hard because it’s difficult to look past their one thing and find a workable strategy outside of their normal wheelhouse.

For Fluttershy this is especially difficult. Not only has she seen significant experimentation from the wider community, and not only is she very good at this particular style of playing a lot of Dilemmas, but she also has two other very good Yellow Manes to be compared against. One cannot simply build a generic Yellow deck and throw her in at the helm. There has to be a good answer to the question of why we use this Mane over Nurturing Nature or Thorax.

The answer, as everyone else already knows, lies in Dilemmas. We can effectively view her text as reducing the cost of our Dilemmas by one, and giving them a card draw to go with it. This has been exploited previously in the form of quasi-combo lists that play lots of Dilemmas all at once and score a pile of points with them. So in building this deck, I had to put quite a few Dilemmas in, but I needed to do something different with them.

As held in the deck’s name, the solution was to play it cool. Rather than burning all of the Dilemmas at once in a big mega-turn, this deck wants to reach a mid-game where every turn we play a Dilemma, move Fluttershy to it, preferably via Day Shift, have a DFO, and reset. In theory, all of our other Friends are at our Problem, held in place by a Treading Water and protected by a Seedling Stakeout. In a way it’s similar to what I tried last week with Nova, only this time rather than playing it slower with Purple, I decided to play it faster with Blue, which also offered its own selection of fine Dilemmas to choose from.

Our utility is pretty good, par for the course in Yellow, with seven anti-Troublemaker cards, leaving off the Dilemmas, and six anti-Resource cards.  Indeed, one of the nice things about playing with Blue is that I think it lets us change up our playstyle a bit as needed. In most opposing matchups, I expect Blue’s contribution to be mainly backstops that help us regain momentum when we need it. So we have cards that hit hard for the crucial faceoffs and turns that will need extra efficiency.

Quite separately though, you’ll notice that versus control I intend to totally board out the Treading Waters, normally a key card that the deck is built around. The theory is that there probably won’t be a whole lot of Problem faceoffs in matches versus control anyway, and there’s a much greater chance of our setup getting disrupted. So instead in that case I intend to play the deck like a relatively standard Yellow-Blue aggro, only keeping a little Orange for the protection from Grogar. And in those circumstances these Blue cards should do well, for all of the same reasons that they would above.

I took a somewhat divergent step this week by building my Problem deck early on in the process. Not a very noteworthy point, I think, as this was mostly due to this being an easy Problem deck to build. Owing to the somewhat small card pool, Problem decks aren’t that hard to make in Core as it stands, and for these two colours it’s nothing different. What was most important was that Fluttershy with a Staff could confront all of the Dilemmas on her own, while most of our Friends are free to sit at our Problem. The two that can’t, Meadowbrook and Mullet-Dash, will only be played situationally anyway.

One of the reasons I often don’t get a whole lot of practice with my decks is that often enough I only need to wait a week before I’ve got something new to be excited to try. I wasn’t particularly enthused about trying a new direction with this Mane as I started, but this deck flew together quite quickly as I worked, and it feels solid. Ah, well. One more for the queue.

Happy to be off of Yellow for the next little while, I look around to find myself… with no colour at all. Or perhaps with all of them. Next week is Student Six, A Grade Above!

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Crazy Harley-Davidson Biker in the Hall of Fame" on YouTube

Our son says it's way too much energy for me and it was very difficult those bikes were hard to handle the two heavy you have to do way too much work to go on a damn corner but this guy is a professional racer has to be and we know who he is. Serious is there any way you can make it work better and said it's called the vr1000 and it's not the street version and he said okay he's got something similar to know so you got one and said this thing handles like crazy and it's still heavy little cumbersome but boys and move and he found the guy again and beat him easily but they're different style bikes and different designs young surprise it was a Harley said where did you get the idea to ride that instead of the buel and said the guy said that this is the top of the line it's a superbike and he said that too it says how am I supposed to beat you with this since at h 4 it's a super bike too and he said oh. So the race again and they sure caught up to him a little and he was in a straightaway gunned it and he was gone the guy couldn't keep up it's got way more horsepower like 20 more horsepower which is as much as a regular street bike

This is leading into the light cycle movie and we sold some light cycles to Mac no he built a bunch and said the hours and they're not fly cycles but he wants to go after those facilities and he should and his people are buying them and it's the right thing for him to do

Thor Freya

We have our version and we sell it and we don't sell the titanium version and we don't sell the one that flies but we do sell regular light cycles that are very very fast and when's it enclosed too and they go faster than your cyclone version on the ground and you can't beat them and that's what Mac wants and he can buy them if he wants but the blockade is up again it's all a kid you sell a kid to the life cycle drive and he won't do that either he said you should have a few that can leave without everybody else so he goes that's the way to do it you know so he's going to try it out. It will raise a lot of curiosity you haven't sold a ton of those cuz people are afraid of the life cycle drive and it doesn't look like Max Mac still uses the axle and Brad was using the light cycle drive design but his would not go fast in 80 without falling apart that's why they don't like it but Mac is going to get it and really did not take off like I said but he'll get it at work and he'll be amazed he can be anybody with it and Tommy f has a bunch of them he bought the ones we were selling or took them. Mac actually getting those parts starts It off

Thor Freya

You don't have a kit for your bike bike to retrofit your bike but we do for the vr1000 and you'll see it online it's a real kick it'll be your bike easily cuz twice as fast 1800 miles per hour versus your 900 miles per hour, Tommy f has Mexico 1700 those are stocks in midrange not the big ones the big ones go faster

[oswednesday]

the first dream i remember like my grandparents on my dads side had a bigger house but it was still like that unfinished messy paint plaster crack all ovr the place and in the dream i wanted to to paint the upstairs so it looked nice and they wouldnt let me so i was like okay ill move then and they were all like gasp why and i was like cause i wanted to live in a cared for place so they let me paint it but the dream switched over to like a character i helped make had a long flat weapon that had been the back of a throne of the king of wands card it was like a knife or a sword i guess but it was long and flat like a spatrula with the symbols of the throne cut out instead of spatrula slots and the dream was brief the character just sorta toggled between those two things 

and then i dreamt about a huge park where my things had been all thrown about and left outside to get sunsoaked and weather damaged and i was like well im moving so i should gather all my things up but i saw a few broken crayons that lead up to someones house and i wasnt sure if they were mine or not but i gathered them up anyway and they were certaintly like the kids who lived in the house beyond the gate i went into the park more and the parent who looked like one of my dads ex came out with two kids and we talked while i was putting things from the park into a big tote bag i was explaining how the park belonged to my grandparents and they just threw stuff of mine about here and how i was leaving then the mom like shared some of the family dynamic in an overshare way and i was like ,okay, and then there was like a huge wall of art supplies that were fresh and new and some worn and old and i was like trying to find my stuff while being tempted to steal some of the new stuff and there were like a old proffessor looking guy and some Beefy jock type dudes talking to me while i was doing while i was trying to take stuff so i had to explain some of my art supplies were there and then the dream shifted to where i was a group of people who ran errans for like a king and got stuck in a life and death game and the part i rememember the most from this was that a false like person lead me out through the window to fall for like a fake ground and fall to my death but i jumped over it and to safety and the girl got made and lead a team mate to the fate she intended for me and as the remaining group progressed the point of view faded out to a television and i was a kid watching this then i dreamt i was animating a fan music video or a new one for the studio killers and jenny was there and i noticed she was upset but i didnt want to like push or couldnt? like i remember the feeling

then the dream switched quickly to me watching a woman in like 3d midrange poly like decent ps2 graphics look at a picture with another woman in it, a little scene played out and she opened it revealing a crawl space behind it, i could see from a low set of stairs and she put the picture back completely on the wall (they all were like on hinges) as a guy was yelled at her from and un see place that i later learned was the bathroom, and each thing worked out was like i had to watch her and try to talk to her the best i could before the man got out of the bath, then go back to the door at the end of the hall, then crawl through the vents on my side of the door and overhear the fight scene and watch the animation the picture had which was like? showing me what to do with the guy i think? it was black and white abstraction or like watching them might have gotten the woman to come out of the picture frame or enough energy to like get the other woman to come into the picture? the pictures were like highly stylized black and white (they looked kinda like one of my mom's own art) and each time it would get harder like the guy would come out sooner or the fighting would get more intense and come out into the living room and the very last round i had was instead of the woman going up to the painting in the hall it was the man who turned and saw me on the carpeted stairs of the living room going into their hall and i ran to the door and he like clip glided up the steps like his poly neck crained to the side so much it was clipping like it had broken and his mouth got all wide like an Intentionally Scary Creepypasta thing and as he got closer to the door like the skin texture got all poly vieny and red and his eyes got whited out and then he was naked, i managed to get on to the otherside of mine door which was like a Real door and i was a Real person and there was a thin blade coming through the space between where the door closes as he was trying to pry the door open from his end and i was pushing against it with all my Might and then after a while he gave up and then i went back through the vent to see if i could over hear the fight part and whole room was filled with polygon people while the guy was telling them about another world filled with people to eat and i saw the animation on the wall of the black and white woman serving a human head but it was all that weird animation and i knew she ate these people and i got noticed and was scrambling back as the woman in the pictures pulled themselves out so these black and white stylized animated woman reached out and stepd out and started to eat the polygon people while the woman in the first frame grabbed like wife and pulled her into the picture she was in and i got but up through the vent during the screaming chaos

and then the last dream i remember having before i woke up was i was at my grandparents on my dads side house and it was a time when all the family still got together on black friday for us to shop and i had gotten a bunch of red and plaid like stuff and was like at least w ith these terrible people i still got stuff unlike with my mom then i woke up

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Creature Types: Beast

Enormous Baloth by Mark Tedin

What is a Beast (flavorfully)?

There is no good, satisfying definition of beast. Traditionally, the term applies to all animals except humans. Most fantasy settings expand this to include all creatures that are not sapient. Here’s a list of some creatures that are Beasts: Antelope, Ape, Atog, Aurochs, Badger, Basilisk, Bat, Bear…

In Magic: the Gathering, a Beast is any non-sapient creature that’s big and scary, sometimes even if it clearly falls into another creature type.

What is a Beast (mechanically)?

Mechanically, a Beast is whatever it wants to be. The creature type tends toward green/red midrange, but they’re honestly all over the place. The creature type “Beast” tells you effectively nothing about the card it’s on except that it’s likely green and it’s probably at least a 2/2. Beasts have a higher than average amount of Trample, but not so much as to have it as a defining trait.

Can I make a Beast deck?

Quite easily. Onslaught Block included a decent amount of “Beast” tribal rewards in Red and Green, and the sheer volume of Beasts and Beast Tokens means it’s easy to find enough to make a decent deck. You’ll probably want both colors if you’re actually “Beast Tribal,” as they have the highest number of beasts and it opens up Contested Cliffs, Wirewood Savage, and Aether Charge, some of the best Beast rewards. Aether Charge works particularly well with any card that spits out Beast Tokens, like Rampaging Baloths or Pulse of the Tangle.

Of the three commanders who are beasts, Gahiji, Honored One is a far better choice for a Commander than the other two, but there’s a lot of non-Beast options to lead a Beast tribal deck as well. Animar, Kresh, Maelstrom Wanderer, Mayael, Samut, Stonebrow, Surrak Dragonclaw, and Xenagos are all solid choices to lead an army of Beasts. I might even consider Radha for ramp or Riku for more beasts. Either way, the deck wants both red and green in order to get the most out of the “Beast” typeline.

Is Beast a good creature type?

Beast may very well be the worst creature type in all of Magic: the Gathering. Admittedly, it’s far too early to call this one, but Beast is an awful creature type that belies a very lackadaisical method of assigning creature types throughout Magic’s history. Many beasts rightfully belong as part of another existent creature type, or at least could be slid into those types. In fact, many Beasts were erattad at some point to have the other type while still being Beasts.

Basically any creature that is not a humanoid could reasonably be printed with the “Beast” typeline. A dragon? That’s a beast. A chimera? That’s a beast. A tiger? Well, it’s big, clawed, and has sharp teeth, so that’s a beast. The term doesn’t even seem to apply to creatures that are inherently magical like it does in D&D. There’s nothing “magic” or “special” about the Darba. It’s just a big bird, and indeed it was later changed to “Bird Beast.”  “Gang of Elk” is a Beast. “Giant Warthog” is a Beast. “Gulf Squid” is a beast.

So why aren’t Bears “Beasts?”

Yes, some beasts would actually be difficult to place, and we might even want to keep the creature type “Beast” for some that really aren’t anything like anything. We have a whopping fourteen Baloths (plus a card that makes a Baloth token), and if they’re to be ‘Beast,’ I’m really not going to argue. Arguing with a Baloth never ends well.

Mechanically, Beast is actually in a decent place. It has a bit of tribal rewards, a lot of token generation, and a solid number of cards. The problem is that so many of those cards are outright stealing from other creature types, or just have Beast in addition to another type for no properly flavorful reason.

Now, there’s a few problems standing in the way of ‘fixing’ Beast. First off, because its problem is being overly wide instead of overly narrow, I can’t just say “All Beasts are now ____” and it’d be far too inclusive for Beast to absorb everything that would fit under the game’s definition of a Beast. Each one needs its own identification. Second, there’s actual Beast tribal rewards already, and enough Beasts to use them. Changing around what all was Beasts would have major, confusing mechanical issues.

I don’t think there is a fix for Beast without a full-fledged Grand Creature Type Update again, and even then it’s going to be a rough one. Beast is an awful creature type because it’s been used to dump all sorts of unrelated creatures based on the premise of “I don’t know what this is” or “we don’t specifically have a creature type for this.”  I’m even willing to grant that you don’t know what Manglehorn actually is, but there is no excuse for “Wormfang Turtle” to have been printed as a Beast instead of a Turtle.

[writinanon]

Predator and Prey Details

Here’s the details from Hare and Wolves about everyone

When I say ‘native’ blood I mean the animals not native Americans because this is ostensible normal human history with animal traits splashed over it and normal human history is very depressing and unkind to indigenous peoples. As white people ‘settled’ the Americas their animalistic sides took on the traits of the animals that were better adapted to the New World. Some people didn’t like this and believed it to be a dilution of their heritage and so they only married people that had a traditional or married someone from Europe. As the land was taken over this stopped happening as much.

With the exception of Jerome and Burke everyone has either had their European blood diluted to the point that it only comes up in small traits or the ‘native’ blood around them has taken complete hold. Considering at best 6 and a half generations have passed since the end of slavery and only two have passed since the civil rights movement their animals would be more deeply connected to their African heritage than the others would be to their European heritage)

Rook – White-tailed Jackrabbit, Prey (She’s a Hare, which is a bit bigger and can run faster for longer than a rabbit.)

Jacob, Joseph, John – Red Wolf, Apex Predator (Native to the southeastern United States of America they’re going extinct do to practices however they are still the top of the food chain in their areas)

Faith – Grey Wolf, Apex Predator (Safely off the extreme end of the endangered zone they are the mental go to for the typical image of a wolf for people of the US and Canada)

Nick – Golden Eagle, Apex Predator (Of course he’s a fly boy. Coming from a long line of air force pilots the fact that he chose to not going into the military given his gift of flight was definitely against the grain for his family. Especially since his wife isn’t Bird Prey but Ground Prey.)

Kim – Yellow-bellied Mormont, Prey (These guys are awesome and I think Kim fits in with them perfectly well.)

Jerome – Side-striped Jackal, Predator (In the wild these Jackals are observed as being far less predatory as their relatives while not exactly gentle they aren’t likely attack for meat unless they actually want meat or it’s easy prey. Their territory range is in sub-Saharan Africa and while a bit more prairie like than Montana I felt the shift wouldn’t have been as dramatic and that his family would have moved to the plains as soon as they were able to. There are also no animals like the Jackal in the area, the closest would be a Coyote however they evolved separately enough that Jerome’s bloodline will remain Jackal unless he moves to a different location with a more similar animal or he mates into a different bloodline.)

Marshall Burke – Spotted-neck Otter, Predator (We know that the Marshall comes from Virginia as that is were the US Marshals are based primarily out of plus it gives credence to his total fish out of water knows absolutely nothing mindset. These guys are river otters from Africa and stick close to marshy areas and Virginia has a lot of wetland thanks to the Potomac River.)

Sheriff Whitehorse – White-tailed Deer, Combative Prey (Well he wasn’t going to be a horse. Though often skittish white-tailed deer are fairly territorial and will fight with other bucks for their desired does or grazing territory. They don’t like to come up against big predators, they’ll fight but are more likely to freeze or run, given the opening I felt this fit with the Sheriff’s attitude toward the Seeds.)

Deputy Hudson – Coyote, Apex Predator (Coyotes get a bad rap and I feel that seeing wolves as superior would carry over in this kind of world. What she lacks in size compared to a wolf she makes up for in cunning as well as speed.)

Deputy Pratt – Wire Fox Terrier, Predator (Bred to hunt foxes as well as other burrowing animals, these guys are quick and need a firm hand to guide them, they are however very loyal)

Mary-May – Golden Eagle, Apex Predator (I figured that Mary-May and Nick were cousins and that in this world the title of the bar would both be a sex joke and an animal joke so she gets to be a Golden Eagle too.)

Sharky – Long-tailed Weasel, Predator (Distantly related to the Mongoose Sharky is not one though. This brings him much sorrow after Rook tells him this.)

Hurk – Short-tailed Weasel, Predator (Cousin of the Long-tailed Weasel they are a little smaller and have a shorter tail however that’s about where the differences stop. Hurk gets a huge kick out of Sharky not knowing they weren’t Mongoose, he also finds it funny that Sharky doesn’t know the difference between a rabbit and a hare.)

Adelaide – Short-tailed Weasel, Predator (Small and vicious these guys can and will tear you a new one if they feel like it. They also enjoy heights as I learned when one decided to climb me like a tree and sit on my head for better vantage point.)

Grace – Red-tailed Hawk, Apex Predator (My personal favorite kind of hawk they’re quick and have excellent vision. Also, their screams are the ones that are usually subbed in for that of a Bald Eagle because Bald Eagles have very high-pitched shrieks not majestic wails like Red-tailed Hawks.)

Jess – Barn Owl, Apex Predator (They are the quietest of birds and shriek like banshees if they are displeased.)

Eli – Rocky Mountain Elk, Combative Prey (These guys are a little shaggy around the edges and are usually willing to fight a bear, cougar, or each other in defense of their children/herd)

Wheaty – American Crow, Predator (They will eat anything and are terribly smart)

All Alphas are Apex Predators (AP). Be it a raptor or a wolf or a big cat or a bear, if they’re a top of the food chain predator they are an Alpha.

Betas fall in the midrange Predator to the Combative Prey (CP), animals that can be both predator and prey like weasels or dogs or snakes as well as larger prey animals that can fight off attackers but don’t actively seek out other animals as prey, deer or moose or horses.

Omegas are purely Prey. Mice, rabbits, small birds, creatures that are usually the dinner of predators in the wild. However, being the most fertile and able to carry the largest groupings of children unlike their wild counterparts Omegas are treasured and beloved, sometimes hoarded by Alphas.

Rook is a white-tailed Jackrabbit, Prey.

The Seeds are what are known as Red Wolves, Apex Predators. With the exception of Faith being a Grey Wolf as she was born in Montana and not Georgia.

Prey tend to prefer to mate with Betas or other Omegas because AP’s are possessive, controlling, and often very aggressive. They prefer the milder nature of Betas, be they Predator or CP Betas seem more in touch with the human side of them all and that leads them to being the most level headed out of the separate groups. The Predators are usually the ones that go into things like law enforcement or dangerous jobs because they can keep their heads better than AP’s (not to say that AP’s don’t go into the military or police work Jacob was a military man; however, Predators tend to make the majority of people who pass the psych tests to become military or police).

AP’s tend to try and only mate with Prey because Prey are the most fertile, the most likely to bare larger groups of children, and there are only one of two ways it can go AP or Prey.

When they go to arrest Joseph, Rook has scent blockers on because she is Prey and while it’s not against the rules a lot of AP’s and even Predators would attempt to subdue her with pheromones and then claim she was unfit to arrest and get to escape scot-free. John’s baptism and then her subsequent swim in the lake washed them all off and she doesn’t have the chance to get more. Eden’s Gate is a big believer in living naturally, as ‘The Lord Intended’ and so birth control and scent blockers are contraband. This is one of the reasons that Kim is actually pregnant during what is tantamount to a war for the county (they wanted kids and are more than happy to have their little bundle of joy however having a kid with a crazy cult just down the way that is militant and trying to take your lively hood? Not exactly the best idea. But with birth control drying up they were left with almost no choice).  This is bad because she gets a shot for birth control and her shot is wearing off.

Of course, all of the resistance members know what she is, Sharky likes to tease her and call her Lucky. (She argues that she’s a Hare not a rabbit and there is a distinction stop laughing you stupid weasel! To which he replies he’s a mongoose and Rook has to explain that mongoose are much larger stoats. They blow up a Peggie outpost to make him feel better after finding out his ‘Whole life is a lie’ while Hurk laughs in the background.)

The visions of Jackalopes in Faith’s region frighten her, it’s not right for them to have horns and she always runs back to Jerome or the Sheriff after encountering them. She doesn’t want to become a mindless follower, the shell of what she was once.

Shockingly, the Judges are more afraid of her than she is of them when she’s in her much more diminutive form. Jacob has seen her literally riding them in her smaller form. Before he knows it’s the Deputy he is confused as fuck.

As autumn closes in on them she moults her soft brown/grey fur into her snow-white fur, the only color being on the tips of her ears which are tipped in black year-round.

Everyone in the Wolf’s Den coo over her change, she has to stay as a Hare and can’t shift back into her human form until she fully moults, instead of taking weeks it takes roughly three days.

Boomer, Peaches, and Cheeseburger follow her because she has a sweet gently scent and offers nothing but love. They recognize her no matter what form she is in and, before they know it is the Deputy, Peggies and towns folk alike are baffled by the sight of a bear and a cougar protectively guarding a rabbit (I’m a fucking Hare you morons!).

[s0wingsalt]

Standard and Banning

Two posts in two days? Who is this guy?

Sup nerds I’ve got thoughts on bannings and I feel like typing them out, because that’s what people do when they’ve got strong feelings now: they rant about them on the internet.

Now, as a disclaimer I don’t play standard and I’m far from an authority on what’s actually good in the format. Luckily, I’m not actually talking about whether those cards in particular should or shouldn’t have been banned, but rather about the idea of banning cards in standard at all. There’s been a lot of debate about whether that’s a good thing considering how many cards have been banned recently after a long period of no bannings whatsoever.

To start with, I’m going to voice what I think might be a somewhat unpopular opinion: I think bans in standard are a good thing, or at least a good tool to have available in the format. Wizards has been taking a more aggressive design standpoint lately, printing cards that are interesting, unique, and above all, powerful. Part of this has to do with promoting standard, while another part is expanding design space and a growing comfort with what is and isn’t okay to print. Wizards has by and large been pushing the envelope of power ever so slightly without falling into power creep or ludicrously busted designs. But as long as they’re pushing the envelope, they need to be prepared to deal with the cards they print and their impact on the format rather than abiding by an arbitrary rule of “can’t ban cards in standard.” Leaving the format as hallowed ground would mean they wouldn’t be able to be as creative and aggressive with the cards they print, so I think being comfortable with bannings is a good thing (and also with errata-ing cards when necessary. Lookin at you, Hostage Taker).

That being said, there have been a lot of bannings compared to other formats and even historical standard formats in the past year or two. Most of the cards banned haven’t been super egregious either, just cards that were maybe a bit too powerful, too ubiquitous, or too annoying to play against. That’s probably because we’re in the calibration period for that aggressive design philosophy I mentioned - they’re just now starting to print more uniquely powerful cards because they’re just now becoming really well aware of what is okay and what isn’t when it comes to certain aspects of card design. As such, most of the new banned cards actually won’t be things like Jace the Mind-Sculptor or Stoneforge Mystic, cards that are clearly broken that slipped through the cracks. Rather they’re going to continue to be things like Smuggler’s Copter and Rogue Refiner, cards that were maybe just a little bit too powerful in the creature based game Wizards has been developing. With this in mind, I don’t think it’s ridiculous for Lay of the Land + 2 energy to be banned, because it shows that Wizards is aware of what kind of format they’re trying to create, and what cards they should remove from it in order to prevent certain strategies from becoming too dominant. I also think they do a decent job of avoiding banning expensive cards - banning Felidar Guardian and Ramunap Ruins instead of Saheeli Rai and Hazoret the Fervent meant that peoples’ cards by and large retained their value, which is another big problem with bans in general.

That’s about all the cushioning I can provide for this rather large BUT I’ve got coming though. While I’m a big supporter of bans in standard, they’ve made something very apparent - standard is in what appears to be a pretty rough spot right now. While the format is still developing around RIX and the bannings are still shaking themselves out, Temur Energy was replaced by Grixis Energy almost immediately. Many of the decks in standard have been the same or similar since Kaladesh or Amonkhet, merely picking up new cards with every new release (the return of Mardu Vehicles to the top of the metagame is indicative of this). To me as an outside observer, this is indicative of a few things: first, standard decks are currently in a state where, no matter what you’re trying to do, there’s a definitive “best deck” for it. Temur Energy was the best midrange deck, Ramunap Red was the best aggro deck, and so on, and after the bannings we’re in a position where it seems like those slots will be easily filled by only slight variations to what was just replaced. This brings us to the next point, which is that standard has a series of decks which are potentially bannable based on the current metrics which are waiting behind worse offenders. Since Aether Revolt, people have been discussing some of the cards in Mardu Vehicles such as Heart of Kiran and whether they should be banned.

How do these things relate to bannings? The main point is that the bans we’ve had so far have revealed one thing: standard as a format is becoming more powerful than Wizards wants it to be, and it would take a whole lot of bannings to bring it back down to where they want it. That puts them in a rough spot where they can either ban a boatload of cards, which would obviously anger players, or they can deal with having them in the format. I think they’ve found a decent middle ground since there’s no good solution, but it’s hard to say.

To close, remember these are my thoughts as an inexperienced observer. By all means disagree with what I’ve said here. But as someone who hasn’t played standard in years, never have I felt less inclined to start than in recent years, and it’s not because of the bannings but rather what the bannings mean about the format. If anything I’m of the opinion that Wizards needs to change a bit of its design philosophy when it comes to standard cards, because you can only print so many creatures with super powerful effects on them before things get wonky. That being said, I’m glad they’re willing to admit when they’ve made mistakes, and when they need to take direct action to fix those mistakes, even so far as to print sets that feel distinctly less powerful (in my opinion, certain individual cards nonwithstanding) than their predecessors to act as palette cleansers of sorts. Maybe we should just stop visiting artifact-based planes...

[truemedian]

Samsung Galaxy A51 review: Wait for a price drop

Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget It's not a bad phone, just a bad deal. (In the US, anyway.)

Sponsored Links

Samsung got me. On paper, the company's Galaxy A51 appears to have everything you could want out of a $400 smartphone. A big, pretty screen. A multitude of cameras. A 4,000mAh battery. A flagship-inspired design, and a headphone jack. As an avid -- some might say rabid -- fan of ambitious midrange smartphones, I was ready for the A51 to take its place alongside other modestly priced standouts like the Pixel 3a XL and the iPhone SE. It never did.That’s not to say the Galaxy A51 is a bad phone. Samsung got a lot right here, and over a week of testing, I found it perfectly pleasant at times. Sadly, all the things the company handled well couldn't fully offset some janky, inconsistent performance: This is a $400 device that sometimes runs like a $250 one. I don’t think that's enough to make the A51 a bad smartphone, but it does make it a bad deal. Excellent design Big and beautiful AMOLED screen Flexible multi-camera system Laggy performance Camera quality is largely unremarkable Mediocre battery life Samsung’s Galaxy A51 packs a great screen, a handful of cameras, and a big battery -- what more could you ask from a mid-range smartphone? Well, more consistent performance, for one. Despite using a reasonably powerful chipset, the A51 is often plagued by slow app launches and laggy animations, to the point when it sometimes feels like a device that costs much less. Battery life wasn’t as good as we had hoped for, either. While Samsung got a lot right with the Galaxy A51, it never feels as consistently nice to use as some of truly great devices available in its price range.

Be the first to review the Galaxy A51 LTE? Your ratings help us make the buyer’s guide better for everyone. Write a review Key specs ConfigurationsThe Galaxy A51 I've been testing is a Verizon Wireless model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. (Disclaimer: Verizon is Engadget's parent company, but it has no influence over what we say.) Sprint and AT&T also offer this version of the A51, and no matter which carrier you choose, they'll all sell you the phone outright for $399. That doesn't sound too steep, but it's worth noting that the phone can be had for less when purchased unlocked, especially if you live outside the United States. If you're serious about owning an A51, scouting out a good deal is a must: This isn't worth $400.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget Flagship styleIf there's one thing Samsung deserves credit for, it's that the A51 in no way looks like a $400 phone. With a surprisingly trim frame; an eye-catching, light-refracting finish; and some incredibly small bezels, this midrange model could easily pass for a phone that costs twice as much. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best-looking midrange smartphone out there. Just keep in mind that thanks to its display, the A51 might be a nonstarter for people with smaller hands -- it's thin but still plenty large.Of course, since this phone costs a fraction of what a flagship does, Samsung had to be judicious about balancing style and substance. Consider Samsung's choice of materials: Wrapping a phone in glass quickly makes its price tag jump, so the company used what it calls "Glasstic" for the A51's body. As the name suggests, that just means this phone has a plastic frame that sort of feels like glass if you don't scrutinize it too much. The Galaxy A51 also lacks an IP-rating for water and dust resistance, which is very common for phones in this price range. (Note: If you Google "A51 water resistance," you might see a search result from Verizon claiming the A51 is rated IP68 -- it absolutely is not.) 

Chris Velazco/Engadget The rest of the phone's design is fairly standard. There's a USB-C port that supports 15W fast charging and a combination nanoSIM/microSD card tray on the phone's right side that you can use to augment the standard 128GB of storage. If you're a music fan, you'll also appreciate the proper headphone jack Samsung squeezed into the A51, since its single speaker is pretty awful. What helps elevate the A51's design is its spacious, 6.5-inch, Full HD+ Super AMOLED screen. It's one of Samsung's Infinity-O displays which, if you're allergic to marketing BS, means there's a tiny hole cut out of the panel to accommodate a 32-megapixel front camera. It’s remarkably small and would be easy enough to overlook were it not for the shiny metallic ring surrounding it -- it's almost like Samsung wants you to keep looking at it. Thankfully, the rest of the screen is typical Samsung: Deep blacks, punchy colors, and great viewing angles considering the price. Its max brightness feels a little anemic so outdoor use can be a little tricky at times, but the display is very well-suited to binging on YouTube videos while you're sheltering at home.The screen is very often the most expensive component in a smartphone, and I'm glad that Samsung went with the display it did here. It's not just easy on the eyes; it’s a great rebuttal to devices like the iPhone SE that rely on dated designs to keep costs down. Visually, the A51 is a stunner, but as my parents always used to tell me, looks aren't everything.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget In use The frustration here begins when you go to unlock the phone. There's an optical fingerprint sensor under the display, and it's... not great. When it does work, it usually takes a while to actually recognize my thumb. Too often, though, the sensor just didn't work. Normally, you'd see a bit of green whooshing around your finger to let you know the sensor was analyzing your print, but that didn't always appear. Repeated screen cleanings didn't fix the issue, and neither did re-enrolling my fingers. For your sanity, maybe just set up a PIN or an unlock pattern instead.Once I made it in, a bigger issue became obvious pretty quickly -- the A51 is noticeably laggy at times. Switching between apps frequently felt choppy, as did thumbing through pages of apps, and even just popping back out to the home screen. You know, the stuff you do every day.To be clear, this doesn’t happen constantly, and I didn’t have much to complain about when the phone was firing on all cylinders. If you're the kind of person who just wants to watch videos and maybe send a few emails to the family, you might not even notice this momentary lag. But if you're a fan of smooth, consistent performance, be prepared for some disappointment -- stuttering animations and delayed app launches are never too far away, and it gets old pretty quickly. Gallery: Samsung Galaxy A51 review photos | 13 Photos

Exactly why the A51 runs the way it does isn't wholly clear, but part of the issue probably lies with Samsung's choice of chipset. Rather than use a Qualcomm Snapdragon like most US-bound Android phones, the company ran with its in-house Exynos 9611. From what I can tell, there's not much difference between this sliver of silicon and the Exynos 9610 Samsung started using in late 2018 -- some of the CPU cores are marginally faster and it supports a wider variety of rear cameras, but that's really it. That Samsung would splurge on a great screen and use a minor refresh of a chip that was announced a little over two years ago tells you a lot about its priorities. The funny thing is, this chipset is no slouch. It falls somewhere between the $250 Moto G Power (with a Snapdragon 665 chipset) and the $470 Pixel 3 XL (with a Snapdragon 670), which is exactly what you'd expect considering how much these phones cost. The A51 benchmarks pretty well, too -- it’s nowhere near flagship level, but well in line with other US-bound devices we’ve seen in this price range. That being the case, it seems more likely that this inconsistent performance is due to a lack of software optimization that could theoretically be fixed in a future update. (For what it’s worth, Samsung wouldn’t confirm that any such updates were in the works.)In fairness to Samsung, people contemplating a $400 smartphone probably know not to expect best-in-class performance. The bigger issue here is that it’s still a considerable sum to drop on a smartphone, and the A51's balance of performance and price just doesn’t feel right. 

Chris Velazco/Engadget The Moto G Power -- a phone that costs $150 less with an older chipset -- manages to run a little more consistently. And the Pixel 3a XL? Forget about it. The difference in smoothness and the overall quality of experience between these devices skews heavily in the Pixel's favor. It’s also worth noting that all three of these phones have 4GB of RAM, so it’s not like Motorola or Google had more resources to work with here. And if you’re not married to Android, there's always the iPhone SE. It's a $400 arrow aimed at Samsung's heart and runs just as well as Apple’s most expensive smartphones. Whether it's because of a heavy touch with software, poor memory management, or something else entirely, this questionable performance makes the A51 hard to recommend for the price. I had hoped that epic battery life would've sweetened the deal here, but it doesn’t. Despite packing a pretty sizable 4,000mAh (along with a mid-range chipset and a screen that only runs at 1080p), the Galaxy A51 is only good for about one full day of use. That's not awful by any stretch, but when other mid-range phones -- like the Moto G Power -- have battery lives measured in days instead of hours, the A51 can't help but feel a little disappointing.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Image credit: Chris Velazco/Engadget Plenty of camerasAt this point, the one thing that could redeem the A51 is truly excellent camera performance. Calling the phone's trio of rear cameras "excellent" would be a stretch, but in most cases, they're good enough.And that's right, I said "trio" although there are four lenses on the A51's rear. Most of the time you'll wind up using the 48-megapixel standard wide camera which, like most other phones with pixel-rich sensors, produces smaller 12-megapixel stills by default. As usual for a Samsung phone, the results feature lots of vivid colors, though pixel-peepers will notice a surprising lack of fine details upon zooming in. That’s despite Samsung’s typical -- and almost stylized -- image processing, too. Big surprise, right? Like nearly every Samsung camera before it, this one seems tuned to deliver images that look slightly nicer than reality. These are great photos to post on Instagram, but maybe not for printing and mounting on your wall. Unfortunately, even the decently wide f/2.0 aperture doesn't help the A51's main camera much in low light -- colors tend to look a little washed out, and details get smeared into oblivion. Gallery: Samsung Galaxy A51 camera samples | 24 Photos

Meanwhile, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It captures a 123-degree field of view with minimal barrel distortion around the edges, and its colors are even poppier and more saturated than what you'd get out of the main camera. If you're walking around and shooting photos on a clear day, those pale blue skies will turn out a little more neon than you'd expect. Since this camera is mainly meant to capture lots of attractive, well-lit space, it's no surprise that it struggles more than the main camera does in low light.Rather than a telephoto camera (which was almost certainly too expensive for a phone like this), the A51's third sensor is a 5-megapixel affair for macro photos. I've wondered in the past who spends their time bopping around and looking for very small things to take photos of, but ever since testing the OnePlus 8 Pro, I've become one of those people. It's too bad, then, that this never produced the sort of crisp, super-tight images I was hoping for. That's partially because the camera's image processing seems to iron out some of those minute details, but also because the narrow depth of field means getting everything framed up just right can take some work.And that last lens? It's for a 5-megapixel depth sensor that Samsung uses to capture data for more bokeh-filled portraits. It does its job well. I've seen more than a few phones struggle with accurately separating the subject from its background, but the A51 handles the task without much fuss. Ultimately, no matter which camera you spend the most time with, be prepared for good -- not great -- results. If getting the best overall photo is your biggest concern, you'd still be much better off with one of Google's Pixel 3As or the iPhone SE. Samsung's real edge here doesn't lay in the quality of its images so much as the flexibility that multiple cameras provide.

Chris Velazco/Engadget Wrap-upWith the Galaxy A51, Samsung tried to bring some flagship style and features to an affordable smartphone. It wasn't completely successful, but the effort is appreciated. More than anything, what Samsung really got wrong here (in the US, at least) is the phone's price. If the Galaxy A51 cost closer to $300, as it does in certain overseas markets, Samsung's strange blend of style and stymied performance would be a lot easier to swallow. As it stands, though, the A51 never feels as consistently smooth as some of the truly great devices you can get for around $400 now. Sure, the Pixel 3a XL and the iPhone SE lack the A51’s panache, but they’re just nicer to use. And hey -- if you’re really itching for a Samsung phone and have some latitude in your budget, the slightly more powerful Galaxy A71 might be a better choice. If you can find a sweet deal -- or don't mind trading an older phone in -- the Galaxy A51 isn't a bad option. Anyone who doesn't need a phone now though should wait until Google releases its new mid-range Pixel and decide.  All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Comments

42 Shares Read More Read the full article

[thegeneralsnotebook]

Adventures in Deckbuilding #156: Twilight Sparkle, Paradox Pony (Purple + all but Blue Midrange) [Harmony]

Twilight Sparkle, Paradox Pony

Coming And Going

So here we are then, finally taking the first stab at a Mane that I’ve been hinting at and apologizing to for several months now. In the meantime, in the moments since she finally emerged from the shadows and became a proper Harmony-legal card, Twilight has seen a meteoric rise and fall. At once, Paradox Pony seemed dominant. As a deck that played in a fundamentally idiosyncratic way, once it got rolling, there seemed to be very few that could stand in its way. Yet just as quickly did Twilight fall from grace, her impressive anecdotal results not translating into any true dominance of the metagame. Even now, it’s rare to see anyone bringing her to tournaments anymore.

Regrettably, for someone like me, the original deck that implemented Paradox Pony was a highly-tuned one, and one that seemingly made excellent use of her abilities. Though she was originally designed in a very different world, the strength of this Mane was always going to be about abusing effects that trigger when a Friend enters the board, as the Friend leaves play shortly after anyway so establishing consistent req and playing to a normal strategy gets a bit difficult. Twilight’s core use in that deck resolved down to three main strengths. First, Twilight’s ability allows us to ignore the colour requirements of the Friends that we’re putting into play, meaning that so long as our Mane is flipped, we can have a proper toolbox of effects ready to go in our hand, and there isn’t much our opponent can do to prevent us from using them. Second, in today’s game there exist very powerful triggers like Captain Jack and Old Money that are absolutely worth recycling, especially as 3 AT is a discount compared to what they usually cost. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Tri-Luna and Tri-Twi create ways to ‘latch’ Friends onto the board without having to return them to our hand, allowing the deck to play a more consistent midrange rather than recycling control abilities all day. All of that combined to make a fearsome mixture.

So given all of that, I wasn’t looking forward to having this Mane come up because I was at something of a loss as to how to showcase it properly without making what would honestly just be bad versions of the established deck. Well, I had to do something, so I looked for a moment at everything Twilight did. Her ability creates a nice revolving door of Friends coming onto the field and then leaving at the end of the turn. We already have a deck to abuse the effect of those cards entering play, why not try to build something to take advantage of triggers when the Friends leave play instead?

The end result is a deck that will undoubtedly be more control-oriented than the original build was. The plan is to cycle Party Favor to create tokens that we use to play Party Hard on the opponent. In theory, this can be continued indefinitely, since Party Favor is a Unicorn so if we have a Trenderhoof out we can cycle the same copy of Party Hard too. The rest of the deck really just helps: if we have a Twilight fixed on the board, we get two extra tokens for each Party Favor; once their hand is empty we can handle the board either with Old Money or Applejack if we’re stuck; and a good old Bodyguard makes sense in a deck with Trenderhoof, especially one that going to drawing (and thus discarding) a ton of cards with Party Hard.

Unavoidably, this deck took the original build as a template to work from. Most of the tools in use there are simply indispensable for getting the most out of this Mane. Note that Infilitrating is the best Starting Problem to work with for the simple reason that this deck has no problem pitching things into the discard pile. Indeed, that usually makes most of our cards easier to play. Backup Vocals has long been established as the ideal way to flip Twilight, and if she’s proving elusive, we have options to search for her, though establishing the necessary req with an un-flipped Mane isn’t easy.

Sure, I’ll readily admit that the chances of this build being better than the original are next to nil. Still, it feels fresh and worth trying, which is all that I shoot for. Hopefully the wait was worth it.

Well, with that done, I’m finally back to having built at least one deck for every Mane in the game. I’m also pretty close to having two for every one, but we won’t be hurrying onto that, not least because that would mean returning to Twilight very quickly. Instead, we’re simply pulling the next one off of the shuffle order. And that Mane is Bubbly Mare, Helping Hoof.

[vapormaison]

Best of 2019 Vaporwave Release 1/4: Constant by Hotel Pools

There’s an argument present in more ideologically-possessed, Boston-Brahmin administered art history circles that goes something a little like this: for a work of art to be truly great, it must innovate. All other attempts ultimately function at best as imitation, objects d’art meant to be consumed, then disposed, forgotten. “Good art” must always be in a savage competition to experiment and challenge for these galaxy-brained individuals. I won’t expound on this theory too much as it could land me in some hot water with these very university art departments my day-job is occupied with consulting. I merely mention this to preface the review by stating that I’m fundamentally opposed to any totalizing view of art and it’s worth.

In short, looking at creativity in this way takes an axe to aesthetics in lieu of novelty. And while I I can find novelty intriguing, I cannot enjoy it without an accompanying aesthetic appeal. On the contrary, I can enjoy pure aesthetics without novelty. I can enjoy them a lot, in fact. And what we have in Hotel Pools is pure, unadulterated sonic aesthetic. 

Constant stays consistent — it doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel, and I say this as complimentary as one can — as it does what knows with aplomb. What it does, which surprisingly few vaporwave LP releases do nowadays, is provide a sonically sound and unapologetically focused LP that slaps from start to finish. From track one to track ten, we get strong, full, repayable compositions that string together a solid sonic narrative from beginning to end.

I’m never left questioning arrangement, as a quick test in tractor studio 3 confirms my suspicion that one could play each track in a live set and mix them seamlessly in sequence with minimum effort. We’re not just looking at a set of singles. What we have is a real LP crafted with a classic artisan’s eye. Again, it’s that attention to detail that makes this album so remarkable in its polished-ness. Each of these tracks is — to use a culinary analogy — a plate of magnificently cooked tapas plates that combine to create a sequentially perfect Manhattan brunch in a pricey, Hell’s Kitchen restaurant like Sevilla. They exist as great individual dishes and in a carefully curated sequence. And that must be enjoyed — and moreover, appreciated for what it is: great.  

PART 1: THE MUSIC

Accelerate gets the show on the road with a synth-heavy, late 80s analog sort of sonic space. Perhaps it even ventures into lo-fi. A timely drum loop does the work of progressing the track to more complex layers of added synths, which, coming over the really full midrange of my KEFs, did a lot to create a feeling of acceleration that’s only enhanced when you hear a purring engine and the sound of tires burning out on asphalt. It wouldn’t feel out of place somewhere in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, or a new-wave remake of Two Lane Blacktop.

Stardust transitions seamlessly from the closing snares of Accelerate and brings the album into a very well-trodden synthwave/futurewave arena. The layering of light percussions on each hook is done expertly, and Hotel Pools doesn’t let them sit for too long, allowing the synths to bear the weight of progression.

s o l o brings the energy of Stardust down a notch and opens by veering more onto the lo-fi end of the scale by presenting us with a sonic array that wouldn’t be out of place in an old IBM or AOL infomercial for the first half of the track — and then seems to pick up with the space, grace and pace of an Jaguar XJR of mid-90s vintage once we pass the minute mark. This peppy sonic landscape seems to exit as abruptly as it enters, however.

Flare does exactly what you’d expect it do sonically with its array of distortion-driven percussions and synths that seem to fade in and out in a procession that seems almost elegiac. This is probably the track that sounded the plainest in my digital listen. Luckily, vinyl adds just enough warmth into Flare to make it really sizzle. You get richer, fuller vibes from the low-end of the spectrum, and each percussion hit seems fuller and more robust — complimenting the synth array instead of seeming in opposition to it, bringing analog harmony where there is compression-fueled digital dissonance.

Vega is the most vibe-worthy of all the tracks. By building a very ambient soundspace and then developing it with a playful chord progression, we get something really unique. I’m tempted to use that phrase from the state of Rhode Island’s disastrous marketing campaign that made its appearance on the New York City metro in 2016: “cooler but warmer”. That phrase manages to capture the energy of Vega. It does very little to represent the moribund, decline-managed, means-tested myopic dystopia that calls itself Rhode Island.

Disconnect definitely feels the most “synthesized” in a synth heavy album, giving us a vintage array that would be very much at home in a sci-fi flick like THX 1138 or Videodrome. The song’s title is intriguing, because I didn’t detect much in the way in discordance or manipulation — this is more reminiscent of vapor-synth in its younger form — before the great proliferation of the genre that took place around 2014/5 or so. If anything, it’s more aptly titled re-connect, considering that it brings us back to a simpler era of the genre — and, at the risk of becoming political — our lives.

Melt exists in a formless state somewhere between mall-wave, synth-wave, and that traditional vapor sound. It is also another track I was initially rather cool on during my initial digital listen. But this is where I have to give a firm, firm, recommendation for the physical. Melt’s simultaneously playful but methodical sound sounds compressed to hell on Spotify, Youtube, etc. You get the full-breadth and depth of the piece with the vinyl in a way that goes beyond my capacity for expression. If you want to confirm for yourself, buy the album and enjoy the lossless. That’s near-on what you’re getting with the press.

Hover is a damn good composition — but in album with great pieces throughout, you have to like one the least. Hover is that for me. I think this may be because Hotel Pools gives us a really polished, layered composition from beginning to end — and while progression is not a necessity, for me, at this stage in the album — it is welcome. But as a penultimate piece, it still performs well.

Return closes on a strong note. With a smattering of blaring synths, lo-fi loops and light drum hit, we’re gently faded out of this record as the track glides along a well-planned denouement. The soft note it ends on actually gave me a sort-of ASMR experience — which while not my intent when going into a dedicated listen, is appreciated nonetheless!

PART 2: VINYL LISTENING EXPERIENCE

My previous experiences with Stratford Ct. built in a bit of bias going in. While their Cassette releases have always kept me satisfied and been kind to both my eyes and my aging deck, I had almost resolved to stop buying vinyls from them altogether. My “Strawberry Banana” edition of Fall ’18 was received brutally by my system. Tinny highs, unimpressive muddy lows. My first assumption is to never blame the release. I make every effort to readjust my equalization, switch speakers (to SX-50s, which reproduced even more of that sound profile, albeit with the bass even more diluted). I even brought the LP with me to flex on a friend and coerced him to run it on his Technics system — a SL-1200 (a DJ, obviously) run through a mid-fi rack of Black-Box gear from the early 90s accompanied by a pair of JBL studios (230s I believe) for what could approximate a real reference listen. They sounded marginally better there — but I still can’t say I was impressed enough for it to regularly feature in my regular listening lineup.

This difference can probably be chalked up to a difference in analog amp technology at the time: because the Japanese systems are brighter — where my amps designed by Dr. Matti Otala from the early 80s carry on that tradition of funky, 70s warmth in a lower TIM package. This naturally means that the 90s Japanese systems are going to clean up more imperfections on a press but provide a slightly less warm and comfy listening experience.

All that said, I’m perfectly willing to accept that I might own a dud, or an mis-press, who knows. This happens with vinyl — as contrary to hipster opinion, it’s not actually a precision medium. At a certain stage of audiophilia, you learn to accept it. I took that one on the chin. You have to with this hobby — given the low production runs.

This release, however, is solid. It comes through with energy and vigor in my system, with tracks like the heavily layered Vega, mid-melodic Melt, and the synths of Return gently guiding your exit from the sonic space built so masterfully by Hotel Pools. There is also a certain crispness to the vinyl which is reminiscent of some of the newer digital manufacture of coming out of china recently. The technological sounds of this profile actually gets just enough warmth from my system to make the whole project a joy to consume on vinyl hi-fi.

Whatever pressing or manufacture issues happened with my copy of Fall ’18 were not present here, and redeemed Stratford Ct. enough where I’ll definitely be picking up their vinyl releases in the future without hesitation. All in all, an impressive release from both artist and label.

[wsmnet]

Best phones under $1000 in 2019

The Galaxy S10e Mack Hogan | CNBC You don't need to spend $1,000 or more for a new phone. You can, if you just have to own the latest and greatest, but there are a lot of good phones that cost far less. Phone makers know this. Google recently began selling its Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL, Apple sells the iPhone XR and older iPhones, and Samsung has a family of A-Series phones that are more affordable than some of its flagships. I tested a bunch of them and here are some of my favorite phones that cost under $1,000.

OnePlus 7 Pro ($669): Flagship features, without the crazy price

The OnePlus 7 Pro Todd Haselton | CNBC The OnePlus 7 Pro offers the same Snapdragon 855 processor you'll find in top-tier Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, lots of high-speed memory and a gorgeous (and fast!) display. This hardware makes the OnePlus 7 Pro one of the smoothest smartphones out there. Plus, you get a true edge-to-edge display. To unlock it, you use a fingerprint sensor hidden under the touch screen. There's no notch or hole punch for the front-facing camera. Instead, a little electric motor pops the camera up when it's needed and hides it inside when not in use. You give up a few things, though. Despite OnePlus demonstrating that the 7 Pro can take a few dunks, there's no independently verified water resistance rating. Wireless charging is also not available, though the 7 Pro supports super quick fast charging.

Samsung Galaxy S10e ($499-$749): Great bang-for-your buck from Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S10e Todd Haselton | CNBC If you want a name-brand flagship for a discount price, the Samsung Galaxy S10e is your best bet. Now that it's been out for a few months, it's frequently discounted from its $749.99 suggested retail price. Unlike a lot of iPhone deals, though, you don't need to add a new line or buy multiple phones to get a good price. Walmart, for instance, is currently selling the S10e for $499 if you get the pink or white one or $599 if you want blue or black. For that price, you get the latest processor, 128GB of storage, a beautiful top-notch screen and great cameras. Plus, you get full IP68 water resistance and wireless charging. Sure, you may not get an in-display fingerprint reader, it's on the side of the phone instead, but the S10e is otherwise packed with every feature you'd expect of a flagship phone in 2019. 

iPhone 8 ($599): If you need an iPhone

The iPhone 8 Nina Raja | CNBC For some people, having an iPhone isn't negotiable. Whether your friends demand blue bubble allegiance or you're tied to an Apple Watch, sometimes iPhones are the only option. In that case, I recommend the iPhone 8. It still has water resistance, wireless charging, a seriously quick processor and a good camera. The biggest letdown is the display, which looks dated with its large bezels and smaller size. Apple has a good history of supporting older phones with software updates, too. Just know that new iPhones are launching in the coming weeks. When that happens, prices for the old models are bound to fall. So maybe wait for a price drop.

Google Pixel 3a/3a XL ($399/$479): For Camera buffs on a budget

Google Pixel 3a XL Todd Haselton | CNBC The Google Pixel 3a XL consistently takes better photos than the iPhone XS but costs under $500. Even the triple-camera OnePlus 7 Pro can't best the Pixel in tricky lighting. With a great portrait mode and an unbeatable "Night Sight" feature for dark scenes, the Pixel 3a is just as capable as its more expensive brother, the Pixel 3. The downside is that, to get to its $399 price point, Google had to trim costs elsewhere. The Pixel 3a ships with a significantly slower midrange processor than the normal Pixel. Apps are noticeably slower to open, photos take a while to process and graphics-intensive games feel choppier. And while it still has good colors and brightness, the screen has big bezels that make the phone look noticeably cheaper. Finally, as with the OnePlus 7 Pro, there's no official water resistance and the Pixel 3a isn't able to charge wirelessly. If you prioritize the clean software and amazing camera of the normal Pixel, the Pixel 3a's the cheapest way to get it.

Samsung Galaxy A50 ($350): Features over speed

The Samsung Galaxy A50 offers a ton of high-end features for its $350 price point. It has a big, vibrant edge-to-edge display just like you'd expect from a Samsung phone. It offers an in-display fingerprint reader for unlocking and two cameras plus a depth sensor for portrait shots. You also get a microSD card slot to add more storage and a headphone jack, something that a lot of flagship phones no longer offer, including Samsung's new Galaxy Note 10. Finally, a huge battery provides enough juice to go all day. Unsurprisingly, the A50 lacks wireless charging or water resistance. Like the Pixel, it also has a lower-tier processor that doesn't breeze through day-to-day usage like a flagship phone would. It feels a tick slower than the Pixel 3a and noticeably slower than top-tier phones, but that's to be expected. Follow @CNBCtech on Twitter for the latest tech product news. Read the full article