#karen cargill

[elmartillosinmetre]

Mahler para tiempos de crisis

[La Camerata Gala]

La 2ª de Mahler interpretada por David Afkham al frente de los conjuntos de la OCNE en versión reducida por José Luis Turina, coincide con una 4ª en versión camerística de la Camerata Gala

Más allá de su vinculación oficial (tantos años al frente del proyecto artístico de la Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, JONDE) y aunque ya jubilado, la presencia de José Luis Turina (Madrid, 1952) en el acto de presentación de la ópera de Carnicer que se glosa en otro lugar de este diario (aquí) tiene que ver con la presentación simultánea de otro CD con la 2ª Sinfonía de Mahler, la Resurrección, una de las más populares de su autor. El compositor madrileño arregló la obra para una orquesta reducida, la que se empleó en una interpretación de octubre de 2021 (recuerden: las restricciones pandémicas mandaban) en concierto que servía de conmemoración del 50 aniversario de la fundación del Coro Nacional de España, ocasión aprovechada para el registro que aquí se publica.

Turina redujo los efectivos orquestales aproximadamente a la mitad (de unos 110 músicos que exige el original a 55), lo que lo obligó a introducir cambios importantes sobre todo en la sección de vientos (en la partitura de Mahler las maderas están a 3 o a 4, pero hay además 10 trompas y otras tantas trompetas, y dejó las maderas en 2, las trompas en 5 y las trompetas en 4). También añadió un piano (para contrarrestar en determinadas secciones la pérdida de instrumentos de registros graves y la ausencia del glockenspiel). Con dos solistas más que sobradas conocedoras del estilo y un coro de 80 voces convenientemente espaciadas entre sí gracias a las posibilidades que a este respecto permite el Auditorio Nacional, David Afkham defendió desde el podio la obra así arreglada con notable convicción.

EL DOBLE CD EN SPOTIFY

Casi a la par que el álbum de la Nacional, el sello granadino IBS Classical ha publicado otro Mahler reducido, este todavía más, pues Carlos Domínguez Nieto (Madrid, 1972), actual director titular de la Orquesta de Córdoba, arregló la 4ª Sinfonía para doce instrumentistas (solistas para cada una de las secciones de cuerda y madera de la orquesta, incluida la trompa, más arpa y percusión).

La versión, preparada para  la Camerata Gala que dirige el sevillano Alejandro Muñoz, es rematada por supuesto por el lied que ocupa el cuarto movimiento (Das himmlische Leben / La vida celestial) y que aquí (como otros tres lieder añadidos de la famosa colección Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Rheinlegendchen / Pequeña leyenda del Rin, Das iridische Leben / La vida terrenal y Wer hat dies Liedel erdacht? / ¿Quién ha escrito esta cancioncita?) interpreta la soprano Raquel Lojendio.

Bienvenidos sean estos dos nuevos Mahler para tiempos de crisis que no sólo amplían las posibilidades de los conjuntos para acercarse a una música que requiere en general efectivos muy nutridos, sino que ofrece perspectivas nuevas sobre la música de uno de los compositores más programados del repertorio clásico.

[Diario de Sevilla. 26-12-2022]

[dalekofchaos]

Mortal Kombat fancast(new)

Simu Liu as Liu Kang

Glenn Powell as Johnny Cage

Charlize Theron as Sonya Blade

Ken Watanabe as Raiden

Henry Golding as Sub-Zero/Noob Saibot/Bi-Han

Andrew Koji as Scorpion

Manu Benett as Kano

Rory McCann as Goro

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as SHang Tsung(Old, WHO ELSE???)

Tony Leung as Shang Tsung(Young)

Bill Skarsgard as Reptile

Iko Uwais as Kung Lao

Aldis Hodge as Jackson "Jax" Briggs

Elodie Yung as Kitana/Milenena

Zoe Saldana as Jade

Harry Shum Jr. as Sub-Zero/Kuai-Liang

Justin H. Min as Smoke

Brian Tee as Sektor

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Cyrax

Scott Adkins as Baraka

Conan Stevens as Kintaro

Dave Bautista as Shao Kahn

Eugene Brave Rock as Nightwolf

John Cena as Stryker

Jon Bernthal as Kabal

Michelle Yeoh as Sindel

Jade Cargill as Sheeva

Nathan Jones as Motaro

Doug Jones as Ermac

Because of Tumblr's stupid 30 picture limit, I cannot add more pictures, so here’s the rest.

Larry Lam as Rain

Jonathan Patrick Foo as Chameleon

Karen Fukuhara as Khameleon

Jet Li as Fujin

Sonoya Mizuno as Sareena

Brenda Song as Kia

Javicia Leslie as Jataaka

Anna Diop as Tanya

Jai Courtney as Jarek

Karl Urban as Reiko

Mads Mikkelsen as Shinnok

Hoon Lee as Quan Chi

Benedict Wong as Bo Rai Cho

Lewis Tan as Kenshi

Yvonne Chapman as Li Mei

Emma Myers as Frost

Peter Mensah as Drahmin

Derek Mears as Moloch

Charles Melton as Mavado

Ron Yuan as Hsu Hao

Alexandra Daddario as Nitara

Gordon Liu as Shujinko

Constance Wu as Ashrah

Donnie Yen as Hotaru

Daniel Wu as Dairou

Mahershala Ali as Darrius

Matt Smith as Havik

Dominic Sherwood as Kobra

Kristen Stewart as Kira

Tony Todd as Onaga

Ian McKellen as Argus

Eva Green as Delia

Tom Hardy as Taven

Mark Strong as Daegon

Ron Pearlman as Blaze

Jessica Henwick as Skarlet

Milly Alcock as Cassie Cage

Delainey Hayles as Jacqui Briggs

Mackenyu as Takeda Takahashi

Ludi Lin as Kung Jin

Winston Duke as Kotal Kahn

Tao Okamoto as D’Vorah

Jensen Ackles as Erron Black

Dafne Keen and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ferra/Torr

Tony Jaa as Tremor

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Geras

Emily Blunt as Cetrion

Tilda Swinton as Kronika

[melissahausen]

Aew double or nothing predictions

As always this is who I think will win not necessarily who I want to win.

1:Ethan Page and The Gunns Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn vs. The Hardys Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy and Hook

If the Hardys and Hook win, Matt Hardy will own Ethan Page's contract:

Hardys and hook

Cause Hook hasn't lost yet really is all I'm basing this on.

2:FTR Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler vs. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal with Karen Jarrett, Sonjay Dutt, and Satnam Singh

Mark Briscoe will serve as the special guest referee:

I'm so torn on this match (you'll hear that a lot in this lol) , I want FTR to win obvz but I've a feeling JJJ gonna do it cause its been going on so long if they don't win what's the point? , I also have this horrible feeling Mark gonna get involved in the worst way, but aye I think it's gonna be JJJ

3: Wardlow with Arn Anderson vs. Christian Cage with Luchasaurus, Ladder match for the AEW TNT Championship:

Once again I'm so torn Wardlow has just won the bloody thing back but its a ladder match its basically Christian's wheelhouse ahhh I dunno, I think it's gonna be an amazing match and I'm going wardlow but it could go either way.

4: Jamie Hayter vs. Toni Storm, Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship:

There's a rumour this match isn't happening as Jamie is injured so this is just a potential prediction lol but I think Jamie is on the best run so gotta be her.

5: Blackjack Battle Royal: 21-man Battle Royal for the AEW International Championship

I'm not writing down all the participants cause this post gonna be long enough lmfao but I think OC gonna retain , man's on his best run in his career.

6: Jade Cargill vs. Taya Valkyrie: Singles match for the AEW TBS Championship

Honestly I don't know and I don't think I care either , I love Jade but I'm so over this run, either elevate her to the woman's Championship division or make her lose , but I think she's gonna get to 100 before they do that so jade.

7: Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho Unsanctioned match

Sabu will serve as the special guest enforcer:

I think they're gonna put Cole in the main event picture eventually so this might be the match to start it off going against a legend like Christopher. So I'm going adam Cole.

8: The House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews) (c) (with Julia Hart) vs. TBA Open House six-man tag team match for the AEW World Trios Championship:

HOB obviously lmfao

9:MJF vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry Four-way match for the AEW World Championship:

We all know Max gonna retain but I see some shenanigans happening, we're all expecting Sammy to side with max right? But will Jack actually turn heel tonight? , will sting get involved? Will Phil come back 🤢? There's so much potential for shenanigans to happen. But ultimately I think max gonna win.

10: Blackpool Combat Club Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta vs. The Elite Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and "Hangman" Adam Page, Anarchy in the Arena match:

Okay so this match my god this match , last years was amazing and I think this year's gonna top it.

Who I think gonna win I'm not sure BCC can afford to lose a match and the elite are back whole for the first time in almost 3 years so do they need it? Yes , yes they do.

Another match that can lead to shenanigans, another one that might include Phil 🤢🤢

Also one that can lead to the wembley matches being planted

I'm so excited for this match incase that wasn't obvious 😂😂

Also the elite winning yep

[verdiprati]

Mostly Mezzo . . . wait, what day is this?: Cargill, Baráth (x2), and d’Oustrac

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

I’m off schedule, but here are some broadcasts I’ve spotted between now and Monday the 27th that might be of interest:

Karen Cargill sings lieder by Alma Mahler as part of a concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Live broadcast Friday, January 24 on BBC Radio 3.

Antonio Cesti’s mid-17th-century opera La Dori was performed last fall by a cast including Emőke Baráth in Innsbruck, the city where it was premiered. It has a character named Artaserse, a character named Tolomeo, a female soprano singing a male character in disguise as a woman, and a female character in disguise as a boy, so you can mark off a lot of squares on your baroque opera bingo card. Deferred broadcast Saturday, January 25 on Ö1.

Thanks to the magic of audio recording technology, Baráth can also be heard in a Rameau concert recorded in Boston last year. Deferred broadcast Sunday, January 26 on WCRB. (Note that because World Concert Hall uses GMT for all times, it lists this concert in the early morning hours of January 27.)

Stéphanie d’Oustrac sings Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été in a concert with the Paris Chamber Orchestra. Deferred broadcast Monday, January 27 on France Musique.

[mostlymezzo]

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Prina, Coote, and Cargill

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

Sonia Prina and her student Shakèd Bar join the the Darmstädter Barocksolisten in a concert of baroque arias. Alessandro Quarta conducts. Deferred broadcast Wednesday, October 6 on Ö1.

Alice Coote and Brenden Gunnell sing Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon. Live broadcast Wednesday, October 6 on Yle Radio 1.

Karen Cargill and Julia Kleiter sing the alto and soprano parts, respectively, in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the Resurrection, in an arrangement by Luis Turiña for a reduced orchestra; the Spanish National Choir and Orchestra are the reducees. Live broadcast Sunday, October 10 on Radio Clásica.

[joaquimblog]

MIINA-LIISA VÄRELÄ CANTA ISOLDE

MIINA-LIISA VÄRELÄ CANTA ISOLDE

Que consti que després del gerro d’aigua gèlida en saber que Iréne Theorin cancel·lava la seva participació en la inauguració de la temporada del Gran Teatre del Liceu (Ariadne auf naxos), que per a mi era el principal reclam del cast que se’ns proposava, vaig comprar igualment la meva entrada per la primera funció pel públic no vip, la del diumenge 26 de setembre, sense saber res de la soprano…

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 12

The Flat Five

It’s November, and the culture is telling us to be thankful again, at least from a distance. We’re a prickly, argumentative bunch here at Dusted, but I think we can all agree on gratitude for our health, each other and the music, good and bad, that comes flooding in from all sides. So while we may not agree on whether the best genre is free jazz or acid folk or vintage punk or the most virulent form of death metal, we do concur that the world would be very dull without any of it. And thus, seasonably overstuffed, but with music, we opine on a number of the best of them once again. Contributors this time include Bill Meyer, Andrew Forell, Tim Clarke, Ray Garraty, Jennifer Kelly, Mason Jones, Patrick Masterson, Jonathan Shaw and Justin Cober-Lake. Happy thanksgiving. 

Cristián Alvear / Burkhard Stangl — Pequeños Fragmentos De Una Música Discreta (Insub)

Pequeños fragmentos de una música discreta by CRISTIÁN ALVEAR & BURKHARD STANGL

The acoustic guitar creates instant common ground. Put together two people with guitars in their hands together, and they can potentially communicate without knowing a word of each other’s language. They might trade blues licks, verses of “Redemption Song,” or differently dire remembrances of “Hotel California,” but they’re bound to find some sort of common language. This album documents another chapter in the eternal search. Cristián Alvear is a Chilean classical guitarist who has found a niche interpreting modern, and often experimental repertoire. Burkhard Stangl is an Austrian who has spent time playing jazz with Franz Koglmann, covering Prince with Christoph Kurzmann and realizing compositions that use the language of free improvisation with Polwechsel. This CD collects eight “Small Fragments Of Discreet Music” which they improvised in the course of figuring out what they could play together. Given their backgrounds, dissonance is part of the shared language, but thanks to the instrumentation, nothing gets too loud. Sometimes they explore shared material, such as the gentle drizzle of harmonics on “No5.” Other times, they find productive contrasts, such as the blurry slide vs. palindromic melody on “No6.” And just once, they flip on the radio and wax melancholic while the static sputters. Sometimes small, shared moments are all you need.

Bill Meyer

 Badge Époque Ensemble — Self Help (Telephone Explosion Records)

Self Help by Badge Époque Ensemble

 Toronto collective Badge Époque Ensemble display the tastefully virtuosic skill of a particular strain of soul-inflected jazz-fusion that politely nudged its way into the charts during the 1970s. Led by Max Turnbull (the erstwhile Slim Twig) on Fender Rhodes, clavinet and synthesizers with members of US Girls, Andy Shauf’s live band and a roster of guest vocalists, Badge Époque Ensemble faithfully resurrect the sophisticated sounds of Blue Nun fuelled fondue parties and stoned summer afternoons by the pool. Meg Remy and Dorothea Paas share vocals on “Sing A Silent Gospel” which is garlanded with Karen Ng’s alto saxophone and an airy solo from guitarist Chris Bezant; it’s a track that threatens to take off but never quite does. The strength of James Baley’s voice lifts the light as air psych-funk of “Unity (It’s Up To You)” and Jennifer Castle does the same for “Just Space For Light” during which Alia O’Brien makes the case for jazz flute — Mann rather than Dolphy — with an impressive solo. The most interesting track here is the 11 minute “Birds Fly Through Ancient Ruins” a broodingly introspective piece which allows Bezant, Ng and bassist Giosuè Rosati to shine. Self-Help is immaculately played and has some very good moments but can’t quite get loose enough to convince.

Andrew Forell  

 Better Person — Something to Lose (Arbutus)

Something to Lose by Better Person

Like any musical genre, synth-pop can go desperately awry in the wrong hands. The resurgence of all things 1980s has been such a prevalent musical trend in recent years that it takes a deft touch to create something that taps into the retro vibe without coming across as smug. Under his Better Person moniker, Berlin-based Polish artist Adam Byczyowski manages to summon the melancholy vibe of 1980s classics such as “Last Christmas” by Wham!, “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin, and “Drive” by The Cars, reimagined for the 21st century and set in a run-down karaoke bar. This succinct and elegant half-hour set pivots around atmospheric instrumental “Glendale Evening” and features three Polish-language tracks — “Na Zawsze” (“Forever”), “Dotknij Mnie” (“Touch Me”), and “Ostatni Raz” (“Last Time”) — that emphasize the feel of cruising solo through another country and tuning into a unfamiliar radio station. There’s roto-toms, glassy synth tones, suitably melodramatic song titles (including “Hearts on Fire,” “True Love,” and “Bring Me To Tears”), plus Byczyowski’s disaffected croon. It all creates something unexpectedly moving.

Tim Clarke

 Big Eyes Family — The Disappointed Chair (Sonido Polifonico)

The Disappointed Chair by Big Eyes Family

Sheffield’s Big Eyes Family (formerly The Big Eyes Family Players) released the rather fine Oh! on Home Assembly Music in 2016. Its eerie blend of folk and psych-pop brought to mind early Broadcast, circa Work and Non Work, before Trish Keenan and James Cargill started to explore more experimental timbres and themes of the occult. Bar perhaps the haunted music box instrumental “Witch Pricker’s Dream,” Oh!’s songs cleaved along a similar grain: minor keys, chiming arpeggiated guitar, spooky organ, in-the-pocket rhythm section, plus Heather Ditch’s vocal weaving around the music like smoke. The Disappointed Chair is much the same, enlivened with a touch more light and shade, from succinct waltz “(Sing Me Your) Saddest Song,” to the elegant Mellotron and tom-toms of “For Grace.” “From the Corner of My Eye” is stripped right back, with an especially affecting guitar line, plus Ditch’s vocals doubled, with the same words spoken and sung, like a voice of conscience nagging at the edge of the frame. It’s a strong set of songs, only let down by the boxy snare sound on “Blue Light,” and on “The Conjurer,” Ditch’s lower register isn’t nearly as strident as her upper range.

Tim Clarke

 Bounaly — Music For WhatsApp 10 (Sahel Sounds)

Music from Saharan WhatsApp 10 by Bounaly

The tenth installment in Sahel Sounds’ Music For WhatsApp series introduces another name worth remembering. In case your attention hasn’t been solely faced on the ephemeral charms of contemporary Northwest African music in 2020, here’s the scoop: Each month, Sahel sounds uploads a brief recording that a musician from that corner of the world recorded on their cell phone and delivered via the titular app, which is the current mode of music transmission in that neck of the woods. At the end of the month they take it down, and that’s that. This edition was posted on November 11, so set your watch accordingly. Bounaly is originally from Niafounké, which was the home of the late, great Ali Farka Touré. Since civil war and outside intervention have rendered the city unsafe for musicians of any speed, he now works in Mali’s capital city, Bamako, but his music is rooted in the bluesy guitar style that Touré championed. Accompanied solely by a calabash player and surrounded by street sounds, Bounaly’s singing closely shadows his picking, which is expressive without resorting to the amped-up shredding of contemporary guitarists like Mdou Moctar.

Bill Meyer  

 Cash Click Boog — Voice of the Struggle (CMC-CMC)

Last year, Cash Click Boog made a few very noticeable appearances on other people albums (especially on Lonnie Bands’ “Shred 1.5” and Rockin Rolla’s First Quarter) but his own Extras was a minor effort. This Californian rapper was always a dilettante at music, but that was his main appeal and ineradicable feature: you always knew that he’s always caught up in some very dark street business, and he appears in a booth once every blue moon, almost by accident. He is that sort of a player who always on the bleachers, yet when they let him on the field he always does a triple double or a hat trick (depending on a kind of sport).

Voice of the Struggle was supposed to be his big break, the album in which he would expend his gift for rapping while remaining in strictly amateurish frame. Sadly, Boog has chosen another route, namely going pop. He discards his amateur garbs almost completely and auto-tunes every track. If earlier he was too dark even by street standards, now almost all the tracks could be safely played on a radio. The first eight songs are more or less pop-ish ballads about homies in prison, tough life and the ghetto. By the time we reach the last three tracks where Boog recovers his old persona, it’s already too late. The struggle remains but the voice is gone.

Ray Garraty 

 The Flat Five — Another World (Pravda)

The Flat Five musters a great deal of Chicago musical fire power. Alt.country chanteuse Kelly Hogan, Andrew Bird collaborator Nora O’Connor and Casey McDonough sing in Andrews Sisters harmonies, while NRBQ mainstay Scott Ligon minds the store and Green Mill regular Alex Hall keeps the rhythm steady. The sound is retro —1930s radio retro — but the songs, written by Ligon’s older brother Chris, upend mid-century American pieties with sharp, insurgent wit. A variety of old-time-y styles are referenced — big band jazz, country, doo wop and pre-modern pop — in clean, winking style. Countrified, “The Great State of Texas” seems, at first, to be a fairly sentimental goodbye-to-all-that song, until it ends with the revelation that the narrator is on death row. “Girl of Virginia,” unspools a series of intricate, Cole Porter-ish rhymes, while waltzing carelessly across the floor. The writing is sharp, the playing uniformly excellent and the vocals extra special, layered in buzzing harmonies and counterpoints. No matter how complicated the vocal arrangements, no one is ever flat in Flat Five.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sam Gendel — DRM (Nonesuch)

Normally, Sam Gendel plays saxophone in a classic jazz style. You might have caught him blowing dreamy, airy accompaniments on Sam Amidon’s last record, for instance, or putting his own spin on jazz standards in the solo Satin Doll. But for this album, Gendel experimented with ancient high tech — an Electro Harmonix DRM32 drum machine, some synthesizers, a 60-year-old nylon-string guitar —t o create hallucinatory fragments of beat-box-y, jazz-y sound, pitched somewhere between arty hip hop and KOMPAKT-style experimental electronics. “Dollars,” for instance, laces melancholy, Latin-flavored guitar and crooning with vintage video-game blips and bleeps, like a bossa nova heard dimly in a gaming arcade. “SOTD” dances uneasily in a syncopated way, staccato guitar runs paced by hand-claps, stuttered a-verbal mouth sounds and bright melodic bursts of synthesizer. “Times Like This” poses the difficult question of exactly what time we’re in—it has the moody smoulder of old soul, the antic ping and pop of lush early 00s electronics, the disembodied alien suavity of pitch-shifted R&B right now. The ringer in the collection is a cover of L’il Nas’ “Old Town Road,” interpreted in soft Teutonic electro tones, like Cluster at the rodeo. It’s odd and lovely and hard to get a bead on, which is pretty much the verdict for DRM as a whole.

Jennifer Kelly

 Kraig Grady — Monument of Diamonds (Another Timbre)

MONUMENT OF DIAMONDS by Kraig Grady

The painting adorning the sleeve of Monument of Diamonds is entitled Doppler Effect in Blue, and rarely has the cover art’s name so accurately described the sound of the music paired with it. The album-length composition, which is scored for brass, saxophones and organs, consists almost entirely of long tones that Doppler in slow motion, with one starting up just before another peters out. The composer, Kraig Grady, is an Australian-based American who used to release albums that purported to be the folk music of a mythical land called Anaphoria. Nowadays he has no need for such subterfuge, since this lovely album holds up quite well on its own merits. Inspired by Harry Partch and non-Western classical music systems, Grady uses invented instruments and strategically selected pitch intervals to create microtonal music that sounds subtly alien, but never harsh on the ears. As the sounds glide by, they instigate a state of relaxed alertness that’ll do your blood pressure some good without exposing you to unnecessary sweetener.

Bill Meyer  

 MJ Guider — Sour Cherry Bell (Kranky)

Sour Cherry Bell by MJ Guider

MJ Guider’s second full length is diaphanous and monolithic, its monster beats sheathed in transparent washes of hiss and roar. “The Steelyard” shakes the floor with its pummelling industrial rhythms, yet shrouds Guider’s spoken word chants with surprising delicacy. “Body Optics” growls and simmers in woozy synth-driven discontent, while the singer lofts dreamy melodic phrases over the roar. There’s heft in the low-end of these roiling songs, in the churn of bass-like synthetics, the stomp of computer driven percussion, yet a disembodied lightness in the vocals, which float in pristine purity over the roar. Late in the disc, Guider ventures a surprisingly unconfrontational bit of dream pop in “Perfect Interference,” sounding poised and controlled and rather lovely at the center of chiming, enveloping synthetic riffs. Yet the murk and roar makes her work even more captivating, a glimpse of the spiritual in the midst of very physical wreck and tumult.

Jennifer Kelly

 Hisato Higuchi — キ、Que、消えん？ - Ki, Que, Kien? (Ghost Disc) 

キ、Que、消えん？ - Ki, Que, Kien? by Hisato Higuchi

Since 2003, Tokyo-based guitarist Hisato Higuchi has quietly released a series of equally-quiet albums, many on his own Ghost Disc label, which is appropriately named. Higuchi's work on this and the previous two albums of his "Disappearing Trilogy" is a sort of shimmering, melancholy guitar-and-vocal atmosphere — downer psych-folk in a drifting haze. His lyrics are more imagery than story, touching on overflowing light, winter cities, the quiet world, and the transience of memories. As the guitar floats slowly into the distance, Higuchi's voice, imbued with reverb, is calmly narcotic, like someone quietly sympathizing with a friend's troubles. These songs, while melancholy, convey a peacefulness that's a welcome counterbalance to the chaotic year in which we've been living. Like a cool wind on a warm summer evening, you can close your eyes and let Higuchi's music improve your mood.  

Mason Jones

 Internazionale — Wide Sea Prancer (At the Blue Parade) (Janushoved)

Wide Sea Prancer (At The Blue Parade) by Internazionale

It’s been nearly half a decade since Copenhagen’s Janushoved first appeared in these annals, and in that time, a little more information — and a lot more material — has cropped up to lend some context to the mystery. The focus, however, steadfastly remains with the music — perhaps my favorite of which among the regular projects featured is label head Mikkel Valentin’s own swirling solo synth vehicle Internazionale. In addition to a reissue of 2017’s The Pale and the Colourful (originally out on Posh Isolation), November saw the release of all-new songs with Wide Sea Prancer (At the Blue Parade), 14 tracks of gently abrasive headphone ambient that carry out this type of sound very well. Occasionally there is a piano (“Callista”) or what sounds like vocals (“El Topo”), but as it’s been from the start, this is primarily about tones and moods. Notes for the release say it’s a “continuation and completion of the narrative set by the release Sillage of the Blue Summer,” but it’s less the narrative you should be worried about missing out on than the warmth of your insides after an uninterrupted listen.

Patrick Masterson    

 Iress — Flaw (Iress)

Flaw by Iress

Sweeping, epic post-metal from this LA four piece makes a place for melodic beauty amid the heaviness. Like Pelican and Red Sparrows, Iress blares a wall of overwhelming guitar sound. Together Michelle Malley and Alex Moreno roust up waves and walls of pummeling tone as in opener “Shame.” But Iress is also pretty good at pulling back and revealing the acoustic basis for these songs. “Hand Tremor” is downright tranquil, with wreathes of languid guitar strumming and Malley’s strong, gutsy soprano navigating the full dynamic range from whisper to scream. “Wolves” lumbers like a violent beast, even in its muscular surge, there’s a slow, anthemic chorus. Likewise, “Underneath” pounds and hammers (that’s Glenn Chu on drums), but leaves space for introspection and doubt. It’s rare that the vocals on music this heavy are so good or so female, but if you’ve liked Chelsea Wolfe’s recent forays into ritual metal, you should check out Iress as well.

Jennifer Kelly

Junta Cadre — Vietnam Forever (No Rent Records)

"Vietnam Forever" (NRR141) by Junta Cadre

Junta Cadre is one of several noise and power electronics projects created by Jackson Abdul-Salaam, musician and curator of the long-running Svn Okklt blog. As the project’s name implies, Junta Cadre has an agenda: the production of sound that seeks to thematize the ambiguities of 20th-century radical, revolutionary politics. The project’s initial releases investigated the Maoist revolution in China, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s. Vietnam Forever shifts topics, to the American War in Vietnam, and tactics, including contributions from other prominent harsh noise acts and artists: the Rita, Samuel Torres of Terror Cell Unit, Leo Brucho of Controlled Opposition and others. Given those names, Vietnam Forever is as challenging and rigorous as you might expect. Waves of dissonant, electronic hum and fuzz accumulate and oscillate, crunching and chopping into textured aural assaults; wince-inducing warbles and needling feedback occasionally assert themselves. Abdul-Salaam’s harsh shout cuts in and out of the mix. The tape (also available as a name-yo’-price DL on Bandcamp) presents as two side-long slabs of sound, both over seventeen minutes long, both completely exhausting. At one point, on Side A, Abdul-Salaam repeatedly shouts, “Beautiful Vietnam forever!” It’s hard to say what he means. An affirmation that Vietnam survived the war? That its people and culture endure? Or that the U.S. can’t seem to shake the war’s haunting presence? Or even a more worryingly nihilistic delight in the war’s carnage, so frequently aestheticized in films like Apocalypse Now (1979), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Da Five Bloods (2020)? The noise provides no closure. Maybe necessarily so.  

Jonathan Shaw  

 Bastien Keb — The Killing of Eugene Peeps (Gearbox)

The Killing of Eugene Peeps is a soundtrack to a movie that never was, a noir-ish flick which winds restlessly through urban landscapes and musical styles, from the orchestra tremors of its opening through the folky group-sing of “Lucky the Oldest Grave.” “Rabbit Hole” wafts by like an Elephant Six outtake, its woozy chorus lit by glockenspiel notes, while “God Bless Your Gutters” conjures jazzy desolation in piano and mordant spoken word. “All the Love in Your Heart” shimmers like a movie flashback, a mirage of blowsy back-up singing, guitar and muttered memories. “Street Clams” bristles with funk and swagger, an Ethio-jazz sortee through rain slicked streets. What’s it about? Musically or narratively? No idea. But it’s worth visiting these evocative soundscapes just for the atmosphere. It’s a film I’d like to see.

Jennifer Kelly

 Jesse Kivel — Infinite Jess (New Feelings)

Nostalgia haunts the new solo album from Kisses guitarist/singer Jesse Kivel. Infinite Jess is full of that knowing melancholy of The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout and The Pale Fountains that was so magnetic to a certain brand of sensitive young thing seeking to articulate their inchoate visions of a future steeped in romance and adventure. Think wistful mid-tempo songs wrapped in cocoons of strummed guitars, shuffling percussion and wurlitzer piano fashioned into a catalogue of adolescent radio memories. These tunes are topped by the understated sincerity of Kivel’s voice and lyrics which effectively evoke the place, time and emotion of his vignettes. The production suffers occasionally from a distracting reliance on too perfectly rendered tropes — overly polite drum programming, thumbed bass, blandly smooth electric piano — but the overall effect is oddly beguiling. Infinite Jess closes with a charmingly wobbly instrumental cover of Don McLean’s “Vincent” played on the wurlitzer that captures the poignancy of the melody and serves as a fitting epilog to the record.

Andrew Forell

 Kyrios — Saturnal Chambers (Caligari Records)

Saturnal Chambers by KYRIOS

The corpsepaint-and-spiked-codpiece crowd are still making tons of records, but fewer and fewer of them are interesting or compelling. The retrograde theatrics and cheap pessimism can be irritating enough (I’d rather be reading Schopenhauer, thanks); it’s even more problematic when the songs can muster only the vividness and savor of stiff leftovers from the deep-freezer’s darkest and dankest corners. Still, every now and then a kvlty band that follows the frigid dictates of black metal’s orthodoxy creates a set of songs worth listening to. This new EP from Kyrios is super short, comprising three tracks in just under 10 minutes that pull off that neat trick: when it’s over, you want to hear more. Sure, the dudes in the band call themselves silly things like Satan’s Sword and Vornag, but the tunes are really good. Check out the churning strangeness of “The Utterance of Foul Truths.” Kyrios claims Immortal, Enslaved and Dissection as primary influences, and the band recognizes the stylistic debt they owe to Deathspell Omega (let’s hope Kyrios digs the twisted guitars and weird-ass time signatures, but passes on the National Socialism declaimed by that French band’s vocalist). Stuff gets even more engaging when bleeping and blooping keyboards vibrate at the edges of the mix, giving the songs a spaced-out vibe. “Saturnal Chambers”? Maybe Kyrios has met the astral spirit of Sun Ra somewhere along their galactic journeys into the heavenly void. He liked bleeping, blooping noises and gaudy costumes, too.

Jonathan Shaw

 Matt Lajoie — Light Emerging (Trouble In Mind)

Light Emerging by Matt Lajoie

The second volume of Trouble In Mind Records’ Explorers series is, like its predecessor a cassette that comes concealed within a brown slipcase. Like many other discretely wrapped products, the fun is on the inside. This time, it’s a tape by guitarist who understands that toes aren’t just for tapping. At any rate, I think he’s managing his pedals with his feet. Most likely Lajoie has spent some quality time listening to mid-1990s Roy Montgomery. But since a quarter century has passed, he doesn’t just stack up the echoes. Sped-up tones streak across the surface of this music like swallows zooming close to that sheet you hung on the side of your barn the last time you had everyone over for a socially distanced gathering to watch Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Wait, did that really happen? Maybe not, but if someone were to make a fake documentary about the hanging of the projective surface, this music is suitably epic to provide the soundtrack.

Bill Meyer

 Lisa/Liza — Shelter of a Song (Orindal)

Shelter of a Song by Lisa/Liza

Lisa/Liza makes a quietly harrowing sort of guitar folk, singing in a high, ghostly clear soprano against delicate traceries of picking. The artist, real name Liza Victoria, inhabits songs that are unadorned but still chilling. She sings with childlike sincerity in an ominous landscape of dark alleys and chilly autumnal vistas. She wrote this album while chronically ill, according to the notes, and you can hear the struggle against the body in the way her voice sometimes wavers, her breath comes in sudden intakes. But, as sometimes happens after long sickness, she sometimes strikes clear of the physical, achieving an unearthly purity as in “From this Shelter.” A touch of plain spoken magic lurks in this one, in the whispery vocals, the translucent curtains of guitar notes, though not much warmth. “Red Leaves” is earthier and more fluid, guitar flickers striking out from a resonant center, and the artist murmuring dreamily about the beauty of the world and its transience.

Jennifer Kelly

Keith Morris & The Crooked Numbers — American Reckoning (Mista Boo)

It's easy to imagine Keith Morris as perpetually frustrated. His last album, after all, took on psychopaths and sycophants, and the title of his new release American Reckoning doesn't suggest happy thoughts. There's plenty of bile on these five tracks, of course, but Morris approaches the album like a scholar. The opening verse describes the US as “Machiavellian: the mean just never ends” before referencing Othello and Yo-Yo Ma (the latter for a “yo mama” joke). If Morris and the Crooked Numbers just raged, they might be justified, but they'd be less interesting. Instead, they use a wide swath of American musical styles to thoughtfully consider racial (and racist) issues in our contemporary society. “Half Crow Jim” turns a Southern piano tune into a surprising tale about the fallout from slavery. It's a sharp moment, and it highlights that the only disappointing part of this release lies in its brevity. Morris has said he has more music on the way, and if he continues to mix styles, wordplay, and cultural analysis, it'll be worth a study.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Tatsuya Nakatani and Rob McGill — Valley Movements (Weird Cry)

Valley Movements by Tatsuya Nakatani / Rob Magill

In most percussion ensembles, the gong-ist is a utility player, charged with banging out a note once or twice per composition for drama and ideally not screwing it up. Tatsuya Nakatani works on a wholly different level, transcending the possibilities of this ancient, archetypical instrument with vision and an unholy technique. More specifically, his set-up includes at least two standing gongs, each about as tall as he is himself. He plays them with mallets, standing between, in blur speed rolls that range all over the surface of the instrument. The sound he evokes is distinctly unpercussive, more resembling string instrument glissandos than any form of drums, a full-on high-register wail of sound that he sculpts and roils and coaxes into compositions of incredible force and complexity. He also plays a bunch of other percussion instruments, little drums and cymbals which he layers on top of each other so that when he strikes one, the others resonate. It is quite an experience to see him at it, and if you ever get a chance, you should go. Here, he works with the saxophonist Rob McGill unfurling a single 40-minute improvisation at a studio in the appealingly named Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. McGill is an agile player, laying alternately lyrical and agitated counterpoints onto Nakatani’s rhythms, carrying the tune and threading a logical through line through this extended set. He finds frequencies that complement Nakatani’s antic, nearly demonic drum sounds and knows when to let loose and when to let his partner through the mix. The result is a very high energy, engaging adventure in sound that evokes a rare response: you wish you could hear the drums better.

Jennifer Kelly

 Overmono — The Cover Mix (Mixmag)

Mixmag · The Cover Mix: Overmono

It’s a really weird time to be advocating for club music of any kind, but Overmono’s Everything U Need EP out recently on XL again showcases what the fraternal duo known better as Tessela and Truss do best: melding thoughtful percussion patterns with these airy, gliding synth melodies that work at home just as well as in the club (theoretically, anyway). It’s not just original material they do well, though; whether it was the Dekmantel podcast a few years back or their live cassette from Japan or this mix for Mixmag, Ed and Tom Russell also have a knack for pacing in their sets. This one features stuff from the new EP as well as three unreleased tracks (not counting the Rosalía remix, which remains one of the year’s most addicting) and names both old and new — listen for DJ Crystl’s 1993 jungle jam “Deep Space” sidled up next to Smerz’s new skyscraper “I Don’t Talk About That Much.” If that sounds like everything you need, lock in and let Overmono do the hard work. Truly, they do not miss.

Patrick Masterson

 Pole — Fading (Mute)

As Pole, Stefan Betke’s work has always been both comforting and disconcerting. The amiotic swells and heartbeat bass frequencies generate a warm human feel in his music despite their origins in serendipitously damaged equipment. Fading, his first album in five years explores Betke’s reactions to his mother’s dementia and reflects on the nature of personality, memory and soul. Building on his trademark glitchy beats and oceanic bass tones, the eight tracks echo a consciousness unmoored by the fog of unfamiliarity that smothers and distorts but never completely submerges awareness. “Tölpel” (slang for klutz) evokes impatient fingers tapping out the guilty resentment of the forgotten and the frustration of the forgetful. The title track closes with a woozy waltz punctuated by recurrent sparks. Fading is a deeply felt work; somber, reflective, stumbling towards understanding and acceptance, alive to the nuances and petty nettles of grief and above all beautiful in its ambivalence.

Andrew Forell

Quakers — II: The Next Wave (Stones Throw)

II - The Next Wave by Quakers

After eight years of silence following 2012’s self-titled debut, Stones Throw production trio Quakers (Portishead’s Geoff Barrow as Fuzzface, 7-Stu-7 and Katalyst) dropped the 50-track beat tape Supa K: Heavy Tremors out of nowhere in September and now, just two months later, are back with another 33-track behemoth that allows a litany of emcees to shine. Calling this The Next Wave is a bit of a stretch when you consider many of the voices on here are from guys who’ve been in the game for years or even decades (Jeru the Damaja, Detroit’s Phat Kat and Guilty Simpson, Chicagoan Jeremiah Jae, etc.), but even so, the dusty grooves and Dilla loops prove perfect foils for many of those who hit the mic. My favorite might be Sageinfinite slotting in with the organ grinder “A Myth,” but even if you don’t like it, everyone’s in and out quick. If you’re burned out on Griselda, give this a go for 1990s vibes of a different kind.

Patrick Masterson   

 Rival Consoles — Articulation (Erased Tapes)

There are deep pockets of silence in “Articulation,” ink black stops between the thump and clack of dance beat, sudden intervals of nothingness amidst limber synthetic melodies. London-based producer Ryan West, who records as Rival Consoles, layers sound on sound in some tracks, letting the foundations slip like tectonic plates on top of one another, but he is also very much aware of the power of quiet, whether dark or luminously light. Consider, for instance, his closer, “Sudden Awareness of Now,” whose buoyant melody skitters across factory-sized fan blasts of whooshing sound. The rhythm is light footed and agile, pieced together from staccato elements that hold the air and light. Like Jon Hopkins, West uses the glitch and twitch to insinuate the infinite, chiming overtones and hovering backdrops to represent a gnostic, communal state of existence. “Vibrations on a String” may jump to the steady thump, thump, thump of dance, but as its gleaming plasticine tones blow out into horn blast dissonance, the cut is more about becoming than being.

Jennifer Kelly

  Sweeping Promises — Hunger for a Way Out (Feel It)

Hunger for a Way Out by Sweeping Promises

The title track bounds headlong on a rubbery bassline, picking up a Messthetick-y blare of junk shop keyboards. All the sudden, there’s Lira Mondal unleashing a giddy screed of angular pop punk tunefulness, her partner in Sweeping Promises, Caulfield, stabbing and stuttering on guitar. In some ways, this band is straight out of late 1980s London, jitter-flirting with offkilter hooks a la Delta Five or Girls at Our Best. In others, they are utterly modern, lacing austere pogo beats with lush, elaborate vocal counterpoints. “Falling Forward” is a continuous rush of clamped in guitar scramble and agile, bouncing bass, anthemic trills breaking for robotic chants; it’s a mesh of sounds that always seems ready to collapse in a heap, but instead finds its antic balance just in time.

Jennifer Kelly

Martin Taxt — First Room (SOFA)

First Room by Martin Taxt

Sometimes a room is more than a room. In the matter at hand, it is a space that proposes a state of mind and a consequent set of experiences. It is also the score for a piece of music that extrapolate that state into the realm of sound. The cover of First Room depicts a pattern of tatami mats that you might find in a Japanese tea room. Martin Taxt is a microtonal tubaist and also the holder of an advanced degree in music and architecture (next time someone tells you that some good thing can’t happen, remember that in Norway you can not only get such a degree; you can then go ahead and present a CD that shows your work. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in our society.). This music takes inspiration from the integrated aesthetic of the tea ceremony, using carefully placed and deliberately sustained sounds to create an environment in which subtle changes count for a lot. The album’s contents were created by mixing together two performances, one with and another without an audience. Taxt and accompanist Vilde Marghrete Aas layer long tones from a tuba, double bass, viola da gamba and sine waves. Their precise juxtapositions create a sense of focus, somewhat like a concentrated version of Ellen Fullman’s long string music, and if that statement means something to you, so will this music.

Bill Meyer

 Ulaan Janthina — Ulaan Janthina II (Worstward)

Ulaan Janthina (Part II) by Ulaan Janthina

Part two of Steven R. Smith’s latest recording project echoes the first volume in several key aspects. It is a tape made in small numbers and packaged like a present from your favorite cottage industry; in this case, the custom-printed box comes with an old playing card, a hand-printed image of jellyfish, an old skeleton key and a nut. And Smith, who most often plays guitars and home-made stringed instruments, once more plays keyboards, which enable him to etch finer lines of melody. The chief difference between this tape and its predecessor is the melodies themselves, which have begun to attain the evocative simplicity of mid-1970s Cluster.

Bill Meyer

 Various Artists — Joyous Sounds! (Chicago Research)

Joyous Sounds! by Various Artists

It’s been less than two years, but Blake Karlson’s Chicago Research imprint has already made its presence known both in the Windy City and beyond as fine purveyors of all things industrial, EBM, post-punk and experimental electronics. There were two compilations released within days of one another toward the beginning of October, and while Preliminaries of Silence veers more toward soothing ambient textures, Joyous Sounds! is more upbeat and rhythmic (Bravias Lattice’s “Liquid Vistas” is a beautiful exception). My favorite track is Club Music’s “Musclebound” (not a Spandau Ballet cover, as it turns out), but the underlying menace of Civic Center’s “Filigree” and Rottweiler’s pummeling “Ancient Baths” sit alongside merely unsettling fare like Lily the Fields’ “Porcelain” well. If you’re not already aboard or just have a Wax Trax-sized hole in your heart, you have a lot of work ahead of you with this label’s consistently superlative output.

Patrick Masterson

  Kurt Vile — Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (Matador)

Given John Prine's passing from COVID-19 this year, the new Kurt Vile EP might be received as a tribute to the late artist, with extra significance coming from Prine's appearance here. Four years in the works, Speed, Sound, Lonely KV offers more than just tribute, though. Prine's guest spot (if you could call it that) on his own “How Lucky” certainly makes for a moving highlight, the two singers fitting together nicely as Prine's gruff tone balance's his partner's smoother voice. Vile also covers Prine on “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness,” and he adds “Gone Girl” by Cowboy Jack Clement as he takes further cosmic steps.  

His two originals here complete the record, and, mixed in with the covers, draw out the lesson. Vile's entire EP blends the country influences with his more typical dreamy sound, the guitar work bridging the gap between a songwriter's backing and something more ethereal. Nashville, it seems, has always suited Vile just fine, and hearing him embrace that tradition more immediately adds an extra layer to his work. Putting a cowboy hat on his previous aesthetic puts him opens up new but related paths for him, and the five tracks here could play on either a Kris Kristofferson mix or a laid-back indie-rocker playlist. Either way, they'd be highlights on an endless loop.

Justin Cober-Lake

 WhoMadeWho — Synchronicity (Kompakt)

Danish trio WhoMadeWho — drummer Tomas Barfod, guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg and bassist/singer Tomas Høffding — make enjoyable indie dance music that suffers somewhat from lack of personality and a tendency toward a middle ground. That may be due to an effort to accommodate a roster of Kompakt-related collaborators including Michael Mayer, Echonomist and Robag Wruhme. While there’s nothing bad and some pretty good here, the individual songs flit by, pausing briefly to set one’s head nodding and feet tapping, before evaporating from the mind. “Shadow of Doubt” featuring Hamburg’s Adana Twins has the kind of driving bass that anchored New Order hits but also, unfortunately, the unconvincing vocals only Bernard Sumner could get away with. More successful moments like the eerie piano riff and jazz inflections of “Dream Hoarding” with Frank Wiedemann, the arpeggiated house of “Der Abend birgt keine Ruh” featuring Perel and miserablist Pet Shop Boys inflected closer “If You Leave” do stick. Synchronicity might work well on the dance floor, but it doesn’t quite sustain at home.

Andrew Forell

[bluebeards-wife]

The 8th Door/Bluebeard’s Castle at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow with Robert Hayward as Bluebeard and Karen Cargill as Judith. Photography by Mihaela Bodlovic.

[prideguy]

Conquerors and Dreamers | Gay City News

Conquerors and Dreamers | Gay City News

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“Siegfried” is a triumph; ASO scores with Martinů’s “Julietta”

KEN HOWARD/ METROPOLITAN OPERA

Stefan Vinke in the title role of Wagner’s “Siegfried” at the Metropolitan Opera.

BY ELI JACOBSON

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The Metropolitan Opera’s 2019 “Ring Cycle” seems to improve with each installment. The “Siegfried” matinee on April 13…

[superdorkcat]

MCU Movies in Development: A Master Post

Last Edited: May 01, 2019

Since Endgame is coming out this month, I thought that I should make a master post of all of the MCU movies in development, as a sort of companion piece to my DCEU one. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

Confirmed Release Dates:

Spider-Man: Far From Home - July 5, 2019

The Story: After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker goes on a school trip to Europe with his friends. While abroad, he is recruited by Nick Fury to team up with Mysterio to battle the Elementals.

The Crew: Jon Watts (director), Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal (producers), Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers (writers), Michael Giacchino (composer), Matthew J. Lloyd (cinematographer)

The Cast: Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Zendaya (MJ Jones), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), J.B. Smoove (TBA), Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds), Martin Starr (Mr. Harrington), Marisa Tomei (May Parker), Jake Gyllenhaal (Mysterio)

Unknown Release Dates:

Black Widow

In February 2014, Kevin Feige stated that after exploring Black Widow's past in Age of Ultron, he would like to see it explored further in a solo film. Marvel has done some development work for the potential film, including a "pretty in depth" treatment by Nicole Perlman, and by May 2016, Feige stated that Marvel was "creatively and emotionally" committed to creating the solo film. By January 2018, Jac Schaeffer was hired to write the script. That July, Cate Shortland was hired to direct, with Johansson reprising her role as Black Widow. By February 2019, Ned Benson was hired to rewrite the script. Filming is expected to begin in June 2019 in the United Kingdom and last until that September. Florence Pugh and David Harbour have been cast, and Rachel Weiszis in talks to star.

The Eternals

By April 2018, Marvel had met with multiple screenwriters to craft a film based on the Eternals, with a focus on the characters Sersi and Ikaris. Kevin Feige stated that a film based on the group was "one of many many many things that we are actively beginning to have creative discussions about to see if we believe in them enough to put them on a slate." A month later, Matthew and Ryan Firpo were hired to write the script for the project. By late-September, Marvel hired Chloé Zhao to direct the film. Angelina Jolie is in talks to star. Filming was originally set to begin in August 2019 in Atlanta, but was later pushed to September 16, 2019 and will last until January 2020, the movie will have a new shooting location in London.

Doctor Strange sequel

In April 2016, co-writer C. Robert Cargill stated that Marvel felt some initial ideas for the film from him and Scott Derrickson highlighted too much of the "weird stuff" associated with the character to feature in an origin story, but told the duo to hold onto them for potential future films. In October 2016, Derrickson confirmed he had plans for a sequel, saying, "I love the character, I love the visual possibilities, and I know the comics so well—[the first movie is] the tip of an iceberg. There's so much progress that can be made." He would like to follow the example of The Dark Knight and "bring in a villain where you really got to go deep [and have] a more visceral experience". Benedict Cumberbatch added that he had signed on for at least one more Doctor Strange solo film. Derrickson hoped to feature Nightmare in a potential sequel, and expressed interest in further exploring the characters Jonathan Pangborn and Hamir in a sequel, after their smaller roles in the first film. He also explained that he is "kept in the loop" on how the Avengers films will use Strange, because of his close relationships with Kevin Feige and Joe Russo. Jon Spaihts has also expressed interest in seeing Clea appear in a potential sequel. By April 2017, it was reported that Derrickson would return for a potential sequel, beginning work on it after fulfilling his commitments to the television series, Locke & Key. Despite no official announcements, Benedict Wong said in October 2018 that he expected filming on a sequel to begin by the end of that year. By December 2018, Derrickson had "quietly" finalized a deal to return to direct the sequel, with Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, and Wong confirmed to reprise their roles from the first film. Marvel is beginning to search for a writer, with a plan to begin filming in early 2020.

Black Panther sequel

With the release of Black Panther, Kevin Feige said "there are many, many stories to tell" about the character, and that he wanted Ryan Coogler to return for any potential sequel. Coogler added that he wanted to see how T'Challa would grow as a king in future films, since his reign only began recently in the MCU, while in the comics, he has been king since childhood. In March 2018, Feige added there was "nothing specific to reveal" in terms of a sequel, but that there "absolutely" were "ideas and a pretty solid direction on where we want to head with the second one". By October 2018, Coogler had completed a deal to write and direct a sequel to Black Panther. Letita Wright will reprise her role as Shuri in the film.

Shang-Chi

By December 2018, Marvel was "fast-tracking" development on a Shang-Chi film, which would be their first Asian-led film. Chinese-American writer David Callaham was hired to work on the screenplay, with Marvel Studios looking to hire an Asian or Asian-American filmmaker to direct. By March 2019, Marvel hired Destin Daniel Cretton to direct the film.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

In November 2014, when James Gunn said he had the "basic story" for Vol. 2 while working on the first film, he also said he had ideas for a potential third film. Despite this, Gunn was unsure in June 2015 if he would be involved with a third Guardians film, saying it would depend on his feelings after making Vol. 2. In April 2016, Kevin Feige said the future MCU films are "still a big chess board for 2020 and beyond, but certainly I would say Guardians 3 is [one film that's] up there. I don't know what exactly the order will be." In March 2017, Gunn stated there would be a third film "for sure. We're trying to figure it out," also adding, "There are no specific plans for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But we know unless something goes horribly—which is always possible, you never know—I think that Marvel would want to make another movie." He also reiterated he was still unsure if he would be involved with the film, and that he would figure out his involvement and his next project "over the next couple of weeks." The following month, Gunn announced he would return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

However, in July 2018, Disney cut ties with Gunn following the resurfacing of old, controversial tweets from Gunn. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff, Michael Rooker, and Karen Gillan issued a statement in support of Gunn. Pratt, Klementieff, and Bautista are expected to reprise their roles, though Bautista threatened to leave his role if Gunn's script would not be used. Filming had been expected to begin in 2019, for an expected release in 2020. In early August, Variety reported that Disney was in no hurry to find a replacement director for Gunn, and is waiting for an A-list filmmaker to become available, even if it means pushing the film's original February 2019 production date. Later that month, production was put on hold, and delayed to February 2021. In March 2019, Disney and Marvel Studios reversed course and reinstated Gunn as director. Filming of Vol. 3 will commence once Gunn has completed his work for the DCEU film The Suicide Squad.

Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel

Ahead of the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Peyton Reed noted that he and Marvel were "hopeful" about a third film, having discussed potential story points. Michael Douglas also expressed interest in playing a younger version of his character Hank Pym in a prequel, something which Reed already teased back in 2015. In February 2019, Douglas said of a possible sequel, "There's been talk [about another Ant-Man]... [but] there's been nothing formal right now that I know of."

Captain Marvel sequel

In February 2019, Brie Larson expressed interest for including the character Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel in a sequel to Captain Marvel; Feige previously said he had plans to introduce Khan to the MCU following the release of Captain Marvel. The following month, Feige said he had "pretty amazing" ideas for a Captain Marvel sequel. Feige added that a possible sequel could explore the time gap between the end of the first film and Danvers' next appearance in Avengers: Endgame. Lashana Lynch expressed interest in reprising her role as Maria Rambeau in such a sequel.

Thor: Ragnarok sequel

In January 2018, Chris Hemsworth indicated his interest in continuing to play Thor, despite his contract with Marvel Studios scheduled to end after Avengers: Endgame, saying the next month "if there's another great script that comes along" he would consider playing the character again, and later added, "I’d play this character for as long as anyone would let me," crediting Taika Waititi for revitalizing his interest in Thor. He and Waititi had discussed what they would want in a potential fourth Thor film by then. By April 2019, Tessa Thompson believed that a pitch had been made for a sequel to Ragnarok that involved Waititi returning.

[sweeeetrabbit]

MCU IN NUMBERS (PHASE 3)

For each MCU movie, I put the director(s), writers and actors, as well as box office totals (domestic & worldwide) and ratings from three separate sites (RT, Meta & IMDB). I also included any Academy Award wins/nominations.

PHASE 1 - PHASE 2 - PHASE 3 - LET’S COMPARE

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) - 147 mins

Directed by Joe Russo, Anthony Russo; Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely; Score by Henry Jackman; Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Scarlet Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Bruhl, Tom Holland, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp

Domestic Total: $408,084,349

Worldwide Total: $1,153,304,495

RT Tomatometer: 91%

RT Audience Score: 89%

Metascore: 75

IMDB Rating: 7.8

DOCTOR STRANGE (2016) - 115 mins

Directed by Scott Derrickson; Written by Scott Derrickson, Jon Spaihts, C. Robert Cargill; Score by Michael Giacchino; Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen

Domestic Total: $232,641,920

Worldwide Total: $677,718,395

RT Tomatometer: 89%

RT Audience Score: 86%

Metascore: 72

IMDB Rating: 7.5

Academy Awards: Best Achievement in Visual Effects (NOMINATED)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 (2017) - 136 mins

Directed by James Gunn; Written by James Gunn; Score by Tyler Bates;Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Kurt Russell

Domestic Total: $389,813,101

Worldwide Total: $863,562,289

RT Tomatometer: 84%

RT Audience Score: 87%

Metascore: 67

IMDB Rating: 7.7

Academy Awards: Best Achievement in Visual Effects (NOMINATED)

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017) - 133 mins

Directed by Jon Watts; Written by Jon Watts, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers; Score by Michael Giacchino; Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier

Domestic Total: $334,201,140

Worldwide Total: $880,166,924

RT Tomatometer: 92%

RT Audience Score: 88%

Metascore: 73

IMDB Rating: 7.5

THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) - 130 mins

Directed by Taika Waititi; Written by Christopher L. Yost, Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle; Score by Mark Mothersbaugh; Starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba, Tessa Thompson

Domestic Total: $315,085,289

Worldwide Total: $853,977,126

RT Tomatometer: 92%

RT Audience Score: 87%

Metascore: 74

IMDB Rating: 7.9

BLACK PANTHER (2018) - 134 mins

Directed by Ryan Coogler; Written by Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole; Score by Ludwig Goransson; Starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis

Domestic Total: $700,059,566

Worldwide Total: $1,346,913,161

RT Tomatometer: 97%

RT Audience Score: 79%

Metascore: 88

IMDB Rating: 7.3

Academy Awards: Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) (WINNER), Best Achievement in Costume Design (WINNER), Best Achievement in Production Design (WINNER), Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) (NOMINATED), Best Motion Picture of the Year (NOMINATED), Best Achievement in Sound Editing (NOMINATED), Best Achievement in Sound Mixing (NOMINATED)

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018) - 149 mins

Directed by Joe Russo, Anthony Russo; Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely; Score by Alan Silvestri; Starring Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Tom Holland, Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Chris Evans, Scarlet Johansson

Domestic Total: $678,815,482

Worldwide Total: $2,048,359,754

RT Tomatometer: 85%

RT Audience Score: 91%

Metascore: 68

IMDB Rating: 8.5

Academy Awards: Best Achievement in Visual Effects (NOMINATED)

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018) - 118 mins

Directed by Peyton Reed; Written by Chris McKenna, Eric Sommers, Gabriel Ferrari, Andrew Barrer, Paul Rudd; Score by Christopher Beck; Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Hannah John-Kamen, Michael Pena

Domestic Total: $216,648,740

Worldwide Total: $622,674,139

RT Tomatometer: 88%

RT Audience Score: 76%

Metascore: 70

IMDB Rating: 7.1

CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) - 123 mins

Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet; Score by Pinar Toprak; Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch, Clark Gregg

Domestic Total: TBD

Worldwide Total: TBD

RT Tomatometer: 78%

RT Audience Score: 56%

Metascore: 64

IMDB Rating: 7.1

Academy Awards: TBD

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) - 181 mins

Directed by Joe Russo, Anthony Russo; Written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely; Score by Alan Silvestri; Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlet Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Josh Brolin

Domestic Total: TBD

Worldwide Total: TBD

RT Tomatometer: 95%

RT Audience Score: 90%

Metascore: 78

IMDB Rating: 8.9

Academy Awards: TBD

[introvertdear]

We 💕 our patrons! Their monthly donation helps cover some of our operating expenses, so we can continue our mission: to let introverts everywhere know it’s okay to be who they are.

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A big thank you to this month's introvert heroes:

Tracy Spencer | Christie Freyre | Connie Turingan| Lynne R Hall | Anuradha Rai Chowdhury | Gloria Andersen | Dead Ideas podcast | Sarah P Corbett | Eleanor Peters | Erin Commander | Kateřina Šimková | Richard Glinski | Doreen Carlson | Andrew Crow | Catherine Garcia | Greg Clement | Günther Beerten | Kenneth David Vincent Lane | Vanessa Campbell | Meike Scholz | Melissa Renzi | Elizabeth Lemont | Gabriele Temin | Edgar Zeballos Jr. | Wendy Sandweiss | NeoTeNu | Val Woodhouse | Andre Sólo | Alex M104 | Thomas Stubbs | Karen Cook | Sean McPherson | Steve Ascencio | Ruth Ann Valles | Paul Bergener | Tana | Jerry Mckee | Katie Tuma | Megan Malone | Angelica Winton | Heesung Yang | Noel Young | Heidi | Amber Lewis | Scott Karstetter | Annika Nilsson | Michelle Harvath | Kari Cargill | Sheree Thompson | Kira Wagner | Amy Sakurai | Rowan Rook | Jonathan Frieman | Kerry V | Trisha Miller | Rodney Severin

[reveal-the-news]

Bunge to sell oilseed processing business in Russia

Bunge to sell oilseed processing business in Russia

Register now for free unlimited access to Reuters.com registration Sept 19 (Reuters) – Agricultural commodities trader Bunge Ltd (BGN) said on Monday it had agreed to sell its oilseed processing business in Russia to Exwell Group’s controlling shareholder Karen Vansen. The sale includes the sunflower processing plant in Voronezh. Bunge and rivals Archer-Daniels-Midland Co ( ADM.N ) and Cargill…

[verdiprati]

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Connolly, DiDonato (x2), Invernizzi, Antonacci, Cargill (x2), Leonard, Bartoli (vintage), Barton, and Röschmann

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

Mostly Mezzo Mondays has been mostly on hiatus in recent weeks, but it is back today with an absolute MEZZ-o-RAMA of upcoming broadcasts, plus a few of my favorite sopranos thrown into the mix, covering a huge range of repertoire. There should be something for everyone in this week’s MMM.

First and foremost in my heart, we have Dame Sarah Connolly among the soloists for a Beethoven Missa Solemnis recorded at a concert in Berlin in 2018. Malin Hartelius, Steve Davislim, and Hanno Müller-Brachmann fill out the rest of the vocal soloists’ roster; they sing with Le Concert Olympique and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor conducted by Jan Caeyers. Unlike many of the other performances in this week’s MMM list, this one has not (to my knowledge) been broadcast previously. Tuesday, April 28 on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Joyce DiDonato sings the title role in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s series of free video streams; Elza van den Heever plays her rival Elisabetta in this production from 2013. Tuesday, April 28 on the Met website.

I admire Roberta Invernizzi’s work in Italian baroque repertoire; I look forward to hearing what she can do with Elizabethan and early English baroque music in the first half of a recital recorded in early 2018. The second half of the program, which she shares with lutenists Franco Pavan and Ugo Di Giovanni, turns to Italian works. Wednesday, April 29 on Rai Radio 3. 

The Wiener Staatsoper’s free video stream offerings this week include a production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens from 2018 with Anna Caterina Antonacci in the role of Cassandre and Joyce DiDonato as Didon. Thursday, April 30 via the Staatsoper’s streaming platform.

Fans of Karen Cargill may want to catch the re-broadcast of her performance in Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, and the Boy and Girl Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral, recorded in 2017. Thursday, April 13 on BBC Radio 3.

A mezzo gets the title role in a second Met video stream this week: Isabel Leonard sings the lead in Nico Muhly’s Marnie. Iestyn Davies and Christopher Maltman also star in the production, which was filmed in 2018. Thursday, April 30 on the Met website.

Karen Cargill sings the role of Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust; Bryan Hymel and Gerald Finley sing Faust and Mephistopheles, respectively, in a rebroadcast of a 2017 performance with the London Symphony Orchestra. Friday, May 1 on BBC Radio 3.

I promised there would be something for everyone in this week’s MMM, and that includes some vintage Cecilia Bartoli in a concert of Italian baroque arias that she performed along with Le Musiche Nove in 2002. Friday, May 1 on SWR 2.

Jamie Barton sings the role of Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold; Iain Paterson is her Wotan in a 2014 production from the Houston Grand Opera. Saturday, May 2 on the radio station HPM Classical.

And finally, Dorothea Röschmann sings three fragments from Berg’s Wozzeck as part of a concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker recorded in 2018. Saturday, May 2 on RBB Kultur.

[joaquimblog]

Bryan Hymel

Karen Cargill

Sir Simon Rattle

Christopher Purves

Simon Rattle i Gábor Bretz

Com en el cas de Khovànxtxina, en menys d’un mes ens torna a visitar a IFL la bellíssima i poderosa La Damnation de Faust del grandiós Hector Berlioz, en una imponent interpretació que poc té a veure amb la meravellosa dels Proms 2017 dirigida per Gardiner i els seus musics lluminosos i revolucionaris, ja que ara és Simon Rattle el nou director de la London Symphony Orchestra qui erigeix aquesta monumental obra amb un vigor i una empenta romàntica abassegadora, dins la temporada de concerts de la LSO.

Meravellós plantejament dramàtic d’una òpera a la que no li fa falta escena, fascinant tractament tímbric, espectacular control de dinàmiques i intensitats, amb una resposta de l’orquestra, sumptuosa i una rotunditat i expressivitat dels cors sota la direcció del  ara nostrat Simon Halsey, absolutament impactants i que em provoquen l’eterna pregunta sense resposta possible de perquè no tenim un cor professional per l’OBC.

El quartet solista és notable. Inicialment estava previst que Mephistopheles fos Gerald Finley, que de ben segur hagués donat més notorietat vocal al rol, però Purves fa una creació dramàtica important amb mitjans menys notoris i el gegantí Gábor Bretz va substituir, de manera molt notable en la poca estona que Berlioz li permet a Brander, a Florian Boesch.

Faust va a càrrec de Bryan Hymel, cantant molt expressiu i sensible que passa per alguna que altre tibantor que sobrepassa els límits del vocalment correcte. La veu és bonica i seductora, l’emissió a vegades no tant, però la visió romàntica i l’estil m’han agradat molt en aquesta concepció tan romàntica i voluptuosa de Rattle.

Vocalment sumptuosa la Marguerite de la mezzosoprano anglesa Karen Cargill que si tingués més cura en el francès inintel·ligible que practica, arrodoniria una interpretació sensible, intensa i evocadora en la seva gran ària acompanyada de manera primorosa per la clarinetista de LSO. Màgia i sensibilitat

No me’n puc estar una vegada més de demanar-vos que us deixeu seduir per aquest gran mag de l’orquestra, per aquesta manera encara avui original de desenvolupar els temes melòdics i d’orquestrar amb un enginy i originalitat originals.

La interpretació en el seu conjunt m’agrada més que la dels PROMS, potser perquè s’apropa més a Colin Davis de qui em sento fervorosament proper, fidel i agraït. Curiosament Davis amb la LSO va deixar un llegat absolutament imprescindible per estimar a Berlioz, i que sigui precisament ara Rattle a l’inici del seu nou regnat, qui hagi triat aquesta obra és sota el meu entendre un homenatge grandiós a tot aquest llegat, a l’orquestra i al director que tant va fer pèr situar al músic francès en el lloc estel·lar que li correspon..

Hector Berlioz LA DAMNATION DE FAUST Llegenda dramàticaen 4 parts, Op. 24

Karen Cargill (Marguerite) Bryan Hymel (Faust) Christopher Purves (Méphistophélès) Gábor Bretz (Brander)

London Symphony Chorus Director del cor: Simon Halsey Tiffin Children’s Chorus Tiffin Girls’ Choir Tiffin Boys’ Choir Director del cors infantils: James Day

London Symphony Orchestra Director: Sir Simon Rattle

Barbican Hall, 17 de setembre de 2017

Tenim la sort que la LSO ha deixat a Youtube el concert en obert. Comença en el minut 19

I és clar, tantes vegades tingui a disposició un Berlioz i una Damnation, sempre el trobareu aquí.

  SIMON RATTLE DIRIGEIX LA DAMNATION DE FAUST (Hymel-Purves-Cargill-LSO) Com en el cas de Khovànxtxina, en menys d'un mes ens torna a visitar a IFL la bellíssima i poderosa…

[phgq]

Gov’t, private sector formally launch Pilipinas Kontra Gutom

#PHnews: Gov’t, private sector formally launch Pilipinas Kontra Gutom

MANILA – Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles has underscored the strong collaboration between the government and the private sector to accomplish the “daunting task” to end hunger in the country.

This as the government and private sector partners formally launched on Monday the Pilipinas Kontra Gutom (PKG), a national and multi-sectoral anti-hunger movement, to work together on various programs with a common goal: 1 million fewer hunger Filipinos by 2022.

“With the strong synergy and collaboration between government and the private sector, this daunting task will be much more bearable. With the support of the PKG, we will be able to augment our resources and craft better plans and strategies so we can reach more and do more,” Nograles said during the PKG virtual launch program.

With the support of the private sector, non-government organizations, and civil society groups, and spearheaded by the government’s Task Force Zero Hunger (TFZH) chaired by Nograles, PKG is adopting a whole-of-nation approach to achieve its immediate and long-term goals of addressing involuntary hunger and malnutrition in the Philippines -- an urgent concern given the millions of families that grapple with hunger in the country.

“Through this whole-of-nation approach, we are optimistic that we can end hunger by 2030,” Nograles said.

Nograles thanked all the groups and organizations “that recognize the importance of battling hunger and have committed to work for a hunger-free Philippines."

"Hunger is a silent enemy that can no longer be ignored; maraming apektado, at maraming kailangan tulungan (Many are affected and in need of assistance). In our campaign against hunger, we should be all in, all out -- anyone who can pitch in should help, and those who can help should go all out,” he said.

Government partners present during the event include Mr. Mat Maderazo representing the Agriculture Secretary, Assistant Secretary Rodolfo Encabo of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Director Lope Santos of the Department of Education, Undersecretary Jim Sampulna of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, National Nutrition Council Executive Director Azucena Dayanghirang, Undersecretary Marlo Iringan of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Undersecretary Ruth Castelo of the Department of Trade and Industry, Dr. Milflor Gonzales of the Department of Science and Technology Food and Nutrition Research Institute(DOST-FNRI) Assistant Secretary Florentino Loyola of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, Assistant Director Cynthia Villena of the National Economic and Development Authority, Director Mary Anne Dela Vega of the Department of Budget and Management, Director Karen Trayvilla of the Department of Labor and Employment, Assistant Secretary Nestor Santiago of the Department of Health, PCOO Bureau of Communication Services Dir. Ma. Florinda Princess E. Duque and Undersecretary Emily Padilla of the Department of Agrarian Reform.

Since being organized in November last year, PKG has grown into a movement that involves around 70 partners from private companies, non-profit groups, and various organizations.

The private companies include Aboitiz, AXA, Bayer, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Cargill, Century Pacific Food, Inc., Coca-Cola, East West Seed, Dole Philippines, Harbest, JG Summit Holdings Inc., Johnson & Johnson Philippines, Jollibee Foods Corporation, Kraft Heinz, McDonald’s Philippines, Mega Global Corp. Metrobank, Mondelez, Nestlé Philippines, NutriAsia, Pilmico Foods Corporation, RFM Corporation, San Miguel Corporation, SM Supermalls, Unilever Philippines, Universal Robina Corporation (URC), Unilab, and Vitarich. Organizations and industry associations include AGREA, Go Negosyo, League of Corporation Foundations, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF), Philippine Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture (PPSA), Scaling Up Nutrition, Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP), and UN Global Compact.

Non-government organizations and foundations that have also joined are ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, Aboitiz Foundation, Ayala Foundation, Caritas, Gawad Kalinga, GMA Kapuso Foundation, Jollibee Group Foundation, Kabisig ng Kalahi, Manila Water Foundation, Metrobank Foundation, Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Project PEARLS, Rise Against Hunger Philippines, and Ronald McDonald House Charities.

PKG's digital and media partners, on the other hand, include Cobena Business Analytics and Strategy, Inc. Grab Philippines, GCash, PayMaya, Lazada, Shopee, Facebook, Google, TikTok, ABS-CBN, GMA Network, Business World, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Star, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) and IKOT.PH.

“I ask for your continued support to our cause. Let us continue to work together to end hunger in the country. Yes, it is an extremely daunting task but it can be accomplished if we work together, hand in hand,” Nograles said. 

Battling hunger, one project at a time

With a rallying slogan “lahat kasali, lahat kasalo” (everyone is involved), PKG plans to focus on key result areas of concern to organize sustainable initiatives for targeted beneficiaries that will address challenges concerning food availability and accessibility, adequate nutrition, and crises assistance.

These are consistent with the Zero Hunger roadmap outlined in the National Food Policy unveiled by TFZH last month.

PKG's initial projects include the following:

-- Farmer assistance: With the end in view of elevating farming as a dignified and sustainable profession, these projects aim to increase farmer income by as much as 20 percent within the year, and to double farmer productivity by 2025 via the expansion of value chain projects and logistics improvements.

-- Sustainable nutrition programs: Projects that will collectively work to achieve zero undernourished Filipino children across all households by 2030 via a strategy that involves campaigns to promote proper breastfeeding, address malnutrition, and roll out nutritious meals for Filipino households.

-- Disaster response: Private sector companies will work to revolutionize their disaster response in close partnership and coordination with the attached national agencies and local government units to streamline the private sector’s efforts to facilitate a prepared, synchronized, and targeted action flow for food security when crises strike.

-- Food banking: This effort involves the initiation of food surplus assessments among food manufacturers, restaurants, supermarkets, and public markets in Metro Manila, with the food surplus from donors eventually allocated for distribution to those in need.

To promote these projects, to raise awareness regarding hunger, and to invite companies and organizations to join PKG programs, PKG is set to launch a public information campaign, the details of which will be accessible at pilipinaskontragutom.com. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Gov’t, private sector formally launch Pilipinas Kontra Gutom." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1131490 (accessed February 23, 2021 at 12:23AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Gov’t, private sector formally launch Pilipinas Kontra Gutom." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1131490 (archived).