#mid-atlantic-maelstrom

[deepseasbkdk]

🦜ARTIST SPOTLIGHT🦜

novaneondream's art will blow you away more than a maelstrom in the mid-Atlantic!

[onestowatch]

The Top 21 Artists to Watch in 2021

In a world where the only universal certainty seems to be opening every email with “hope you’re doing well,” the only other surefire guarantee is that there will continue to be new music worth discovering. And, we figured with the start of a new year, what better way to say to spend the waking hours of 2021 than introduce you to a few of the artists we currently have a close eye on. Often genreless and belonging to Gen Z, these are the 21 artists we are watching in 2021. 

spill tab

Where to Start: “Calvaire” 

In her breakout single “Calvaire,” spill tab sings in French over an intoxicating backbeat. The effect is akin to a spell, ushering into existence something inherently danceable and transfixing, like an Angèle B-side finding new life as a Billie Eilish cut. It is a standout moment that would be followed by similar standout moments in the form of a series of varied singles, culminating in spill tab’s debut EP, Oatmilk. Short and sweet, the four-song collection holds all the promise of a 2021 artist to watch.

Joesef

Where to Start: “The Sun Is Up Forever”

Emerging from the fog of Glasgow, Scotland, Joesef’s marriage of heartbreak, desire, regret, hope, and sublime joy is nothing short of intoxicating. Immediately making an impression with his tender, heartfelt croon, the Glasgow artist’s songs soon give way to emotionally rife personal recollections–some beautiful in their understated minimalism, some breathtaking in their expansive scope. Whatever the setting, the result is always the same–a passionate, shared moment you will not be forgetting anytime soon.

brakence

Where to Start: “dropout”

Self-described as “self-care punk,” brakence effortlessly pairs the unmatched energy of punk with an impressive showing of vulnerability. While the past few years saw the Ohio native experiment over a range of singles and on his debut album, 2020 was without a doubt the year he found his sound in the noteworthy punk2. Blending Midwest emo, trap production, hip-hop, and alternative, brakence’s sophomore effort is a masterclass in infectious emotional catharsis.

Mustafa

Where to Start: “Stay Alive”

Few artists embody the sentiment of music as poetry as emphatically as Mustafa. First leaving a mark with 2020’s “Stay Alive,” Mustafa introduced himself to the world with a breathtaking, earth-shattering ballad rife with impassioned emotional imagery. Soft-spoken but never lacking for impact, the poet, activist, filmmaker, and songwriter brings to life the lived realities of Toronto’s Regent Park, a public housing project that shaped Mustafa into the once in a lifetime artist he is today.

Holly Humberstone

Where to Start: “Falling Asleep At The Wheel”

In her 2020 debut EP, Falling Asleep at the Wheel, Holly Humberstone proves herself a master at crafting a palpable atmosphere. Rife with emotional highs and cathartic lows, all backed by Humberstone’s magnetic and graceful songwriting, the British artist lays her heart on her sleeve and in turn lays the groundwork for a debut offering poised to stand the test of time. It is no mere hyperbole to say that Humberstone is an artist to watch out for not only in 2021 but in the years to come.

AG Club

Where to Start: “Memphis”

The initial comparison of AG Club to collectives like BROCKHAMPTON and A$AP may be an easy one to draw, but a single listen tells another story. While the genreless Bay Area collective may radiate the same rapturous energy of the aforementioned groups, AG Club is clearly riding high on their own wavelength. Aiming to make hip-hop but not as you know it, the idiosyncratic collective made their vision clear with the release of 2020’s Halfway Off the Porch, an electrifying amalgamation of disparate genres, sights, sounds, and moods.

347aidan

Where to Start: “Dancing in My Room”

Euphoric, difficult to perfectly define, and haphazardly brilliant, aidan347 embodies the adventurousness and inventiveness of Gen Z. The project of 17-year-old Aidan Fuller, the Cambridge, Ontario native has spent the past five years making music. Yet at the beginning of 2020, the Cambridge artist had less than three thousand monthly listeners; now, that number sits well above five million. A testament to 347aidan’s tenacity, his devoted fanbase, and the power of a TikTok-fueled viral hit–arriving in the form of “Dancing in My Room”–it really feels we are only witnessing the prologue of what’s to come.

Frances Forever

Where to Start: “Space Girl”

When thinking of music’s future stars, what better place to look than to the galactic, lovelorn musings of Frances Forever. Making less of a splash and more of a tidal wave with the release of “Space Girl” late last year, the Boston bedroom artist’s ode to intergalactic love has been rapidly climbing the TikTok and indie charts. Now signed to Mom+Pop records, Frances Forever is more than ready to shoot for the stars and beyond in 2021.

Hope Tala

Where to Start: “Lovestained”

Hope Tala is impossible to ignore. A West Londoner to her core, the UK singer-songwriter finds inspiration in everything from ‘90s movies, classic literature, to the constantly changing world around her. Transforming what feels like a lifetime, and some, of inspiration into an undeniably spellbinding fusion of R&B and bossa nova, Hope Tala’s musings of daydreams, heartache, and fear are the sort ready to define a generation’s ails, joys, and mundane triumphs and anxieties. Universal in scope yet deeply personal, Hope Tala is without doubt an artist to keep your eye on in 2021. 

Q

Where to Start: “Take Me Your Heart Is”

Q, much like his name, is an anomaly. Releasing one album a year since 2018, the ineffable soul and R&B artist has somehow coasted under the radar in spite of releasing some of the most breathtaking music out there. And with the release of 2020’s The Shave Experiment, Q feels like he’s finally stepping into the much-deserved limelight. Leading with the striking “Take Me Your Heart Is,” Q brought to life a nostalgic, hyper-emotive track sure to stop you in your tracks. Hopefully, it’s one of many to come. 

Claire Rosinkranz

Where to Start: “Backyard Boy”

16-year-old Claire Rosinkranz has been making music for the better part of her life, and 2020 was the year that scribbling down lyrics and helping her father compose music for TV shows and ad jingles paid off in a major way. The California native’s single, “Backyard Boy,” taken from her debut EP, BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd, soon became a TikTok hit, racking up over 80 million streams to date, on Spotify alone. If there are two things to look out for in 2021, make sure it’s your mental wellbeing and Claire’s euphoric self-dubbed “alternative-blues-pop.”

KennyHoopla

Where to Start: “how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//”

KennyHoopla is nothing if not electrifying. The alternative, punk, and ‘80s new wave-evoking artist moves through each track with a sense of world-ending hunger, jumping from one ensuing mosh pit to the next. It is a balancing act of new wave nostalgia and genuine inventive alternative that results in a maelstrom of palpable excitement. To best experience this cathartic form of self-expression firsthand, look no further than his debut EP, last year’s how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//. No one is quite making music like KennyHoopla, in 2021 or beyond.

MICHELLE

Where to Start: “THE BOTTOM”

New York collective MICHELLE deftly imbues the sincerity of soul and R&B into a uniquely tender pop outlook, and the result is nothing short of infectious. The project of six predominantly queer POC individuals, the group originally earned widespread critical acclaim for their 2018 album HEATWAVE, but it was arguably their subsequent signing with Atlantic Records last year that has them set to be one of 2021’s most promising acts. Quickly making the most of their newfound major label status, MICHELLE released “Sunrise,” the sonic equivalent of the first rays of light breaking through the clouds, signaling the end of a rainy day. It’s safe to say the future is looking bright for MICHELLE.

glaive

Where to Start: “eyesore”

Few artists define and defy the label of hyperpop as readily as glaive. Falling somewhere between 100 gecs and the second coming of mid-2000s pop punk, the newly-signed Interscope artist released his major debut label EP, cypress grove, earlier this year. Yet before finding a home at Interscope, glaive’s official discography only stretched back as far as 2020. Making the most of a year we all would rather soon forget, the 15-year-old wunderkind showcased to the world a continual musical evolution that is looking to only further pick up steam in the coming year.

Claud

Where to Start: “Wish You Were Gay”

From opening for Clairo to releasing a steady stream of resonant singles, Claud has spent the last couple of years making a name for themselves in the indie music world, but 2020 saw arguably their biggest breakthrough moment yet. With the release of “Gold,” Claud became the first artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Arriving as the first taste of their upcoming debut album, Super Monster, 2021 is looking absolutely golden for Claud. And not to mention the fact they recently started a band with Clairo and friends.

María Isabel

Where to Start: “The 1”

Where has María Isabel been all our lives? First making herself known with the release of “The 1,” an ode to long-distance relationships, which soon became more prophetic than we ever could have imagined, the debut single served as lovely an introduction as they come. Thankfully, we would not have to wait too long to hear more dreamlike R&B from María, who graced us with her debut EP, Stuck in the Sky shortly thereafter. Uniquely heartfelt and velvety smooth, María’s voice is just the thing to carry you through 2021.

Remi Wolf

Where to Start: “Photo ID”

The past couple of years have seen avant-garde pop wunderkind Remi Wolf test the waters with one out of this world single after another, and 2020 felt like the year everything finally fell into place. Arriving on the Bay Area native’s sophomore album, I’m Allergic To Dogs!, “Photo ID,” and its unafraid, in your face anti pop mentality cemented itself as a surefire hit, and TikTok soon took notice. Serving as a testament to Remi Wolf’s mainstream appeal in spite of her outsider approach, “Photo ID” merely set the stage for what is to come.  

PawPaw Rod

Where to Start: “HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS”

PawPaw Rod may be the only artist on this list with only one single to their name, but in no way does that disqualify him from being an artist to watch in 2021. Releasing his debut single, “HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS,” out into the ether, the Los Angeles artist immediately landed on something special. Blending elements of hip-hop, funk, and alternative under a mellow, syrupy flow, PawPaw Rod wasted no time in setting himself apart from the pack. And with godmode–the same development company that brought us Yaeji, Channel Tres, LoveLeo, and more–it is safe to say that this is only the beginning.

Evann Mcintosh

Where to Start: “WIYULD”

In her dreamlike take on alternative R&B, Evann Mcintosh attempts to capture the turbulent act of coming-of-age. At times delicate to the touch and at times emanating a self-assured confidence well beyond her 16 years of age, Evann Mcintosh’s 2019 debut album, MOJO, laid the groundwork for an act whose promise knows no bounds. It was a promise she made good on during the tail end of 2020, with the release of singles “WIYULD” and “BULL$HIT.” Showing off two different sides of her continued musical growth, 2021 has us all the more excited for what Evann has in store.

Serena Isioma

Where to Start: “Sensitive”

In her breakout single, “Sensitive,” Serena Isioma fuses modern-day R&B and woozy indie pop with reckless abandon. The outcome is a song that not only sounds quite unlike anything else out there, but one whose own vibe seems to shift and evolve from one moment to the next. It is an electrifying opening moment that begins to define the Isioma’s artistry and her debut EP, Sensitive. The first of two EPs the Chicago-based artist would release in 2020, it is hard not to feel like Isioma is already in the process of creating a one-of-a-kind discography.

Blu DeTiger

Where to Start: “Figure It Out”

Whether you know her as the touring bassist for acts like FLETCHER and Caroline Polachek or as the TikTok famous bassist, the fact of the matter is that Blu DeTiger is an artist you need to know. A bassist since age seven and crowned the “coolest DJ around” by Vogue, the New York native’s music skirts the realms of funk, indie, and dance. Unmistakable, nonchalantly cool, and unsurprisingly bass-heavy, you deserve doing yourself the favor of diving headfirst into Blu DeTiger’s music. Just be sure to come up for air, when you’re ready.

[wiranarendra]

Google Earth caught a $2 billion stealth bomber on candid camera

The 172-foot-wide B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which costs over $2 billion in today's currency, can slip past enemy air defenses with the radar signature of a small bird, but it can also be spotted on Google Earth if you have an internet connection.

Nothing is undetectable from google

“Lol ‘stealth,’” wrote one commenter.

"Can you tell me what you're trying to say?" Another joked, "I don't see anything."

"Looks like a weather balloon to me," a third wrote, referring to the 1947 Army announcement that it had discovered a "flying disc" near Roswell, New Mexico, only to subsequently rescind the statement and explain it was a weather balloon.

It's not unusual to see a B-2 bomber flying over Missouri, unlike a UFO. After all, Whiteman Air Force Outpost, the world's sole B-2 base, is approximately 20 miles south of the location where the plane was photographed flying over on Google Earth.

Nonetheless, the aircraft's flying-wing design, ninja-like ability to penetrate enemy air defenses, and reputation for flying around the world to kill ISIS fighters in the dead of night give it an aura that makes spotting it in daylight with a simple tool like Google Earth or Google Maps a real treat.

In a 2018 piece for The Atlantic regarding a B-2 mission to bomb ISIS terrorists in Libya, William Langewiesche stated, "The B-2 is intended to fly into the maelstrom when Los Angeles is burning and GPS signals have been jammed." "It's designed to take out the world's most sophisticated air defense systems." It has autonomous systems that function independently of any ground- or space-based transmitters, in addition to traditional navigational capabilities."

The Spirit has a bathroom, a microwave, a few coolers for snacks, just enough room for one of the Spirit's two pilots to lie down and take a sleep, and even "very comfy" cockpit chairs, according to Langewiesche.

Despite this, the Atlantic writer questioned the US government's decision to employ the B-2, which costs $44.27 million a year to maintain. It was employed to bomb no more than 100 personnel tented in the desert in a country with no air defenses, making it the most expensive aircraft in the Air Force inventory to maintain.

Langewiesche remarked, "Bombing uneducated gunmen camping up in a non-desert country's is a far cry from mounting an offensive against a modern military enemy." "However, the mission's high cost may have been a draw based on bureaucratic rather than military logic—you may lose money if you don't spend it—or the B-2s may just have needed some work to do."

Whatever the motivation for the B-2's deployment over Libya, concepts like stealth and strategic bombing are resurfacing as the Air Force prepares for a hypothetical conflict with China or Russia. In reality, the Air Force plans to spend an estimated $203 billion on the B-21 Raider, a new flying wing strategic stealth bomber that looks a lot like the B-2 and is intended to replace it.

The Air Force noted on its website about the Raider, "Designed to operate in tomorrow's high-end threat environment, the B-21 will play a crucial role in assuring America's enduring airpower capabilities."

The Air Force is investing so much money in the B-21 because it intends to buy at least 100 bombers. Only 21 B-2s were produced in comparison. One was wrecked in a non-fatal crash in 2008, while another was damaged after rolling off the Whiteman runway in September. Each B-21 is expected to cost around $639 million in 2019 dollars, according to the Air Force.

So perhaps we'll see photographs of B-21s in mid-flight on Google Earth eventually. The photograph of the B-2 may have a red-and-blue blur effect, which eagle-eyed readers may have seen. This is due to the fact that satellite images differ from ordinary photographs, according to NASA. A satellite image is created by combining measurements of the intensity of certain wavelengths of light, both visible and invisible to human eyes, NASA wrote online. While photographs are made "when light is focused and captured on a light-sensitive surface," NASA wrote online that a satellite image is "created by combining measurements of the intensity of certain wavelengths of light, both visible and invisible to human eyes."

Because the most apparent colors can be formed by combining red, green, and blue-scale photos, NASA revealed that satellites combine red, green, and blue-scale images to build a fill-color view of the planet. However, due to their speed, aircraft in flight may muddy the colors, according to Newsweek.

"You can actually view this in 3D if you put on the old 3D glasses with the red and blue lenses." "Try it," one witty poster on the Air Force subreddit suggested.

It simply goes to show that capturing a Spirit is difficult, but anything is possible with a sky full of satellites, an internet connection, and a little luck.

[woodbridgewrites]

Which would make for better reading?

I'm working on world building for a "lost continent" named Beinne, located in the Atlantic Ocean somewhat between the Azores and Bermuda. It is unique for being rooted in our real world, and its charm/uniqueness is centered moreso around cryptids rather than magic and fantasy races.

Which of these two concepts would make for better reading across the series I'm plotting?

Concept 1: Shipwreck continent - the roots of the various nations are rooted in shipwrecks from various ages of exploration. The continent "reconnects" to the rest of the world after satellite imagery and aircraft lead to its greater "rediscovery."

Concept 2: Portal / wormhole - same general origins as Concept 1, but it's not located in the Atlantic anymore - the maelstrom located at the Mid Atlantic Ridge sends the ships and their crew (if they live) into an "inner dimension" beneath the world above. They can go in, but as of yet- there is no way out to the world above.

Thank you for any suggestions and feedback. If this storyline sounds like something you'd like and you want to hear more, please let me know!

[incarnationsf]

Date & Time: Saturday June 22, 7:30  p.m. Venue: Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco Tickets: $20 General, $15 Seniors/Students

Eventbrite Ticketing:     Buy tickets online

Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio

Ben Rosenblum – piano/accordion Greg Feingold – bass Ben Zweig – drum

Award-winning jazz pianist, composer and accordionist Ben Rosenblum has been described as “mature beyond his years,” (Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility), and as an “impressive talent” (C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz), who “caresses [the music] with the reverence it merits” (Bob Doerschuk, Downbeat Magazine). Ben is based primarily in New York City, and is a graduate of the Columbia-Juilliard program (in 2016). His original music combines his extensive knowledge of the history of jazz with a free-wheeling, modern melodic sensibility and powerful narrative approach to the piano. His profound passion for jazz, swing and world music genres finds expression in his unique fusion of harmonic and rhythmic elements from a wide array of sources, and gives rise to a signature compositional sound and style at once iconoclastic and deeply rooted in such figures as Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly. Ben’s first priority in his composition and in his playing is always narrative – to tell a compelling story with his music, while reaching the hearts of his audience, connecting on an emotional, an intellectual and a spiritual level.

Reviewers of his debut album Instead – released in 2017 with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Billy Hart – have been impressed by his musicality and his tasteful playing in light of his immense technical skill. Bob Doerschuk of Downbeat Magazine gave the album four stars, and wrote, “He has the chops to shoot off a few fireworks, … but that doesn’t seem to be a priority when covering sacred material.” C. Michael Bailey notes approvingly: “there do emerge conservatoire aces with grit in their imagination and a facility to express such in their playing. Ben Rosenblum is one such performer/composer. The Julliard-Columbia trained pianist brings a freighter of technique to the keyboard, while still maintaining enough earthiness in his playing to satisfy even the fussiest listener.” Fred Stal of RG Magazine most recently described his experience of listening to Ben’s live CD release performance: “The music keeps you on your feet and not wanting to miss a single moment of magic. … Raindrops from heaven poured down with style and grace from Rosenblum’s piano.”

Since the release of Ben’s debut album, Ben has been touring regularly – both nationally and internationally – celebrating the album and collaborating with artists around the world. Ben’s trio made debuts in Japan and in Canada in 2018. During his two-week tour of Japan, Ben performed in eight different cities, including in Tokyo at Akasaka B-flat, and in Yokohama at Himawari-no-sato Concert Hall with famed koto player Yuko Watanabe. Highlights of his Canada tour included appearances at Upstairs Jazz in Montreal, Maelstrom and Bar Ste-Angele in Quebec City and the Southminster “Doors Open For Music” Concert Series in Ottawa. In the United States, Ben has traveled extensively throughout the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast, with trips planned for the South and Southwest. These domestic tours have featured performances at some of the most well-respected venues in the country, including Kuumbwa Jazz Center (Santa Cruz), Ravinia (Chicago), Cliff Bells (Detroit), An Die Musik (Baltimore), The Bop Stop (Cleveland), Mezzrow (New York City) and many others. As a sideman, Ben has had further opportunities to tour the world. In 2018, he traveled for three weeks through Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Serbia with Astrid Kuljanic, during which the group performed at multiple festivals, including the Ljeto na Bundeka Festival in Zagreb and the Soboško Poletje Festival in Murska Sobota. He also performed for two nights at the Blue Note in Beijing alongside famed jazz singer Deborah Davis.

Born and raised in New York City, Ben had the opportunity to study with some of the most influential figures in jazz piano, including Frank Kimbrough, Bruce Barth, Ben Waltzer and Roy Assaf. At the early age of sixteen, the originality of his work was already being recognized with numerous awards, including the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award (2010), the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Original Song (2010) and the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Arrangement (2011). As a result, even before entering Columbia, Ben was commissioned by the XIBUS World Orchestra to write a piece for performance at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in 2012. Ben has continued to earn numerous distinctions and honors in recent years. In 2015, he was a finalist at the American Jazz Pianist Competition in Melbourne, Florida, and in 2016, at the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2018, he earned further recognition from the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award competition in the form of an honorable mention, and he was featured at the ASCAP Foundation’s 2018 “We Write The Songs” event at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

In addition to his own work, Ben often collaborates with other musicians. He has worked extensively with Grammy-nominated singer Ryland Angel on several compositional projects, including the project Unspoken, which premiered at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, in November of 2016. His debut album Instead has received very favorable reviews from a wide range of sources throughout the world, including Downbeat Magazine, All About Jazz, Drumset Magazine (Italy) and The Jazz Writer (Germany).

Ben performed with the Bachiana Brasileira Orchestra at Lincoln Center (conducted by Joao Carlos Martins and featuring Dave Brubeck), and he was a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with the New York Harmonic Band (conducted by Reona Ito). He traveled to New Delhi, India, to perform at a Max India Benefit, and was a participant at Il Grande Veggio, in Perugia, Italy. He has played at the Masten Jazz Festival (Buffalo), the Richmond Jazz Festival (Richmond), the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival (Maryland), Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (Manhattan), the DUMBO Arts Festival (Brooklyn), Musikfest (Bethlehem, PA) and the Music Mountain Festival (Connecticut). He has also appeared at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Appel Room at Lincoln Center, Ryles Jazz Club, Webster Hall, Symphony Space, The Blue Note, Smoke, Smalls and a host of other music venues throughout the northeast.

Ben has worked extensively with such jazz luminaries as Curtis Lundy, Neal Smith, Winard Harper, Wayne Escoffery and Deborah Davis, and he has performed in bands led by Bobby Watson, TS Monk, Chris Washburne and Warren Wolf. In addition, he has shared the stage with many other jazz legends, including Wycliffe Gordon, Brian Lynch, Phil Woods, Houston Person, Jerry Dodgion, Eliot Zigmund, Clarence Penn, Craig Handy, Dave Stryker, James Cammack, Ameen Saleem, Bob Nieske, Steve Nelson, Yasushi Nakamura, Essiet Essiet, Willie Williams, Patience Higgins, Josh Evans, Kenny Davis and Rogerio Boccato.?

While at Columbia University, Ben founded the Columbia Jazz House, a student-run jazz advocacy group that promotes jazz on campus through concerts, educational workshops and jam sessions. On December 28th, 2015, the Columbia Jazz House was featured in a New York Times article titled “Melodies Night and Day in this Columbia Dorm.”

Greg Feingold started playing bass at the age of 10. He quickly realized that bass was something he would pursue for the rest of his life and was accepted to the Chicago Academy for the Arts. After graduating from the Academy, Greg was given a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. Greg was very active both locally and nationally while at Berklee. He began playing with the International String Trio and performing regularly with Berklee faculty such as Bill Pierce, Neal Smith, Jon Hazilla, Doug Johnson, Rebecca Cline and many others. After graduating, Greg moved to New York and began playing in Winard Harper’s Jelli Posse. Throughout his stay in New York, he worked with legendary jazz performers such as Jimmy Cobb, Eric Reed, Eric Harland, Cyrus Chestnut, Steve Turre, Jim Rotondi, Jackie Ryan, Stephen Scott as well as continuing to tour with the International String Trio and the Valinor Quartet. Greg moved to Seattle in 2015 to change his surroundings and currently performs with a variety of groups around the west coast. He can be seen performing regularly with Thomas Marriott, Julian MacDonough, Miles Black and other great local Seattle musicians. He also co-leads the 200 Trio which performs around the country as one of the up and coming jazz guitar trios.

Jazz drummer and educator, Ben Zweig, “is able to combine history with the current musical environment, making it sound fresh” (Don Sickler). After moving to NYC in 2011, the 26 year old has accompanied an impressive array of jazz luminaries, including; Randy Weston, Johnny O’Neal, Larry Ridley, David Williams, Roy Hargrove, Deborah Davis, Joe Cohn, Champian Fulton, Jerry Dodgion, and Steve Nelson. Described by downbeat as “especially crisp and articulate,” Zweig has presented his personal sound performed with tours throughout the continental US, Asia and Canada. He currently tours regularly with Ben Rosenblum’s trio and leads a bi-weekly residency hosting the Sunday late night jam sessions at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC. Zweig is an avid educator. He has taught clinics across the country with the Champian Fulton quartet and has also directed the after-school percussion program at WHEELS middle and high school. Mentored by master drummers such as Joe Farnsworth, Billy Hart, Kenny Washington, Rodney Green, Justin DiCioccio, Christopher Brown, John Riley, and Rogerio Boccato, Ben is committed to passing down the information he has received from these legends. In his formative education, Ben was classically trained by Kenneth Piascik, culminating in performances with the NAfME All-Eastern Orchestra and as principal percussionist with the MENC All-National Concert Band. He currently maintains a private drum studio in Morningside-Heights with students of all ages. Ben received his B.M. and a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music.

[hellofastestnewsfan]

Nicholas Sandmann was an ordinary 16-year-old student at Covington Catholic High School, a school for boys in northern Kentucky, when he found himself standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial on January 18. He was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat that he’d purchased as a souvenir, and standing face to face with a Native American protester named Nathan Phillips. Sandmann smiled at Phillips, who was beating a drum.

Sandmann is now suing The Washington Post for $250 million in damages in the wake of a furious national debate over alleged anti–Donald Trump media bias that quickly became an object lesson in the perils of social media and the limits of objective truth without independent, on-the-ground reporting.

Sandmann’s suit claims that the Post’s linking to a viral video of him and Phillips, and its focus on his MaGA hat and a “relentless smirk,” were “negligent, reckless, and malicious attacks … which caused permanent damage to [Sandmann’s] life and reputation.”

To win his lawsuit, Sandmann must demonstrate that what was written about him was false. He will face what Kristine Coratti Kelly, a spokesperson for the Post, told me would be “a vigorous defense.” The newspaper has not yet filed a response to the suit, but it published an editor’s note on March 1 saying that its first story has been contradicted by subsequent reporting.

Sandmann’s case may turn on whether the “actual malice” standard established by the landmark 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan applies. The key question here for a judge to decide could be whether Sandmann is considered a public figure, with a much higher burden of proof, or a private one—just another high-school student who, through no fault of his own, found himself in a maelstrom. The experts are divided over how that’s likely to be decided.

After the Post and other major news organizations linked to the first video and began reporting on the episode, a narrative soon emerged in which Sandmann and his Covington Catholic classmates were depicted as menacing Phillips and making racist taunts.

The Post reported on its website and in the newspaper on a “tense scene” near the Lincoln Memorial, and noted that Phillips said in an interview that he had felt “threatened by the teens and that they suddenly swarmed around him.”

Surrounding Phillips, the Post reported, describing the video images, “are a throng of young, mostly white teenage boys, several wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ caps, with one who stood about a foot from the drummer’s face also wearing a relentless smirk.”

The Post did not identify Sandmann by name in its initial report. In its editor’s note last week, the Post said, “Subsequent reporting, a student’s statement and additional video allow for a more complete assessment of what occurred, either contradicting or failing to confirm accounts provided in that story—including that Native American activist Nathan Phillips was prevented by one student from moving on, that his group had been taunted by the students in the lead-up to the encounter, and that the students were trying to instigate a conflict.” The Post’s statement also linked to a third-party-investigation report commissioned by the Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School, which the diocese says “exonerate[s] our students.”

Whatever story line could be taken from the first viral video was blurred by many others that soon emerged, and by the time they had all been viewed and weighed and scrutinized, a different and more complex narrative existed. “As of this writing, it seems that smiling boy, Nick Sandmann, is the one person who tried to be respectful of Phillips and who encouraged the other boys to do the same,” Caitlin Flanagan wrote for The Atlantic five days after the encounter, having watched every video she could find of the moment. “And for this, he has been by far the most harshly treated of any of the people involved in the afternoon’s mess at the Lincoln Memorial.”

The scene at the Lincoln Memorial that Friday in mid-January was a complicated clash comprising various individuals and groups. In addition to the Native American activists and the Covington Catholic students, a third group was also present, the Black Hebrew Israelites, a sect that believes it is descended from the 12 tribes of Israel. The Israelites posted their own video from that afternoon that lasts an hour and 45 minutes. In this rendering, it is the Black Hebrew Israelites who hurl racial taunts at the Native Americans. The Covington students seemed to have been caught between the two, having gathered to see what was going on as they waited for their bus.

As Ian Bogost, another Atlantic writer, concluded in a deft analysis of the limitations of online videos: “It’s tempting to think that the short video at the Lincoln Memorial shows the truth, and then that the longer video revises or corrects that truth. But the truth on film is more complicated: Video can capture narratives that people take as truths, offering evidence that feels incontrovertible.”

New York Times v. Sullivan resulted from an advertisement published in the Times aimed at defending the actions of Martin Luther King Jr. The advertisement levied claims—some inaccurate—against the police force in Montgomery, Alabama, and in response, Montgomery Public Safety Commissioner L. B. Sullivan sued the Times for defamation. The Supreme Court unanimously found in favor of the Times, establishing that defamation against public officials (such as Sullivan) must meet the actual-malice standard: publication of information with “knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”

Sandmann is not a public figure like a politician or a traditional celebrity, but he could be deemed a limited-purpose public figure, a legal distinction for people who have “thrust themselves to the forefront of particular controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved.” Or Sandmann could be considered an involuntary public figure who has been thrust into the public spotlight against his will. This can apply to anyone at the center of a public controversy despite whether or not that person willed it.

If Sandmann is determined to be a public figure of any classification, he will need to demonstrate not only that the Post published false statements with negligence, but that it acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth as outlined in New York Times v. Sullivan. “He’s a private figure, not a public one,” says Lata Nott, the executive director of the Freedom Forum Institute’s First Amendment Center, “so he only needs to prove that The Washington Post published the story negligently, meaning that it didn’t do everything reasonably necessary to determine whether the story was true or false.”

Sandmann’s lawyer agrees. “Prior to the incident in question and before the publication of the false accusations against him, Nicholas had zero notoriety within society generally and had not purposely thrust himself into the forefront of a pre-existing public controversy in an effort to influence the outcome of the controversy,” L. Lin Wood told me in an email. “Therefore, Nicholas is neither a general purpose public figure nor a limited purpose public figure.”

But on this point, there is no unanimity. “Sandmann was a private individual before the recording,” conceded William Youmans, a media-law professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. “What the Post will argue is that once the video got out and went viral, he became an involuntary public figure at the center of a news story. The Post only picked up on the story because it was getting wide social-media attention. In other cases, unknown individuals became involuntary public figures just for being at the center of viral social-media content. The children of celebrities can also be public figures. If he is deemed an involuntary public figure because of what he did in front of the camera, his case will be harder to win.”

Frank LoMonte, the director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University Florida, agrees that the case hinges on this determination. “It’s always a perilous gamble to predict whether someone will or will not be deemed a public figure when they had no prior public profile, but if I had to bet, I would say that once your behavior at a public event like a protest becomes a matter of intense national public attention and scrutiny, you probably are a limited-purpose public figure for the purposes of covering that behavior,” LoMonte told me.

“If the court rules that Sandmann is a public or limited-purpose public figure, do you think the Post’s actions still meet the legal burden for defamation: reckless disregard?” I asked Wood, Sandmann’s lawyer.

He responded with a simple “Yes.” It’s an important answer, because if Sandmann’s team wants to win any of the $200 million requested in punitive damages (beyond the $50 million in compensatory damages), they will actually have to meet this higher standard—actual malice—regardless of the public-private–figure determination.

Wood, an Atlanta-based lawyer once dubbed the “attorney for the damned” by the former CBS anchor Dan Rather, rose to national prominence by representing Richard Jewell, the security guard falsely accused of bombing the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. He has also represented the former presidential candidate Herman Cain, the family of JonBenét Ramsey, and, recently, a British cave diver whom Tesla CEO Elon Musk called a pedophile on Twitter.

I asked Wood why this case is different. “Nicholas is a private figure plaintiff,” he responded. “Thus, Nicholas can prevail in his lawsuit by proof that the Post negligently published defamatory accusations which caused injury to his reputation and caused him to suffer emotional distress. Furthermore, and importantly, Nicholas is minor child. We also contend that journalistic standards required that the media exercise a heightened duty of care to investigate before publishing damning accusations against a child.”

Sandmann’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, alleges that The Washington Post is at fault for publishing false and defamatory statements about Sandmann and his interaction with Phillips, the Native American protester.

Beyond reporting, the complaint also says that the Post is responsible for “making the 2020fight Video go viral,” a bold claim that might be difficult to prove in court. Nott, from the Freedom Forum, doubts whether the Post would be found liable for linking to the viral video. “It’s my understanding that you can’t be liable for retweeting something if you’re not the original publisher and you didn’t add anything defamatory,” she told me.

Sandmann’s lawyers assert that “the Post did not conduct a proper investigation before publishing its false and defamatory statements of and concerning Nicholas … its unreasonable investigation did not take long, and contrary information did not stop it from publishing its first story in its Sunday newspaper the next day.”

The complaint says that the Post’s motives were “political.” “The Post ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump … by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President,” it says.

Wood thinks that anti-Trump bias plays a pertinent role in the case he’s making. “Here, I believe the evidence will support a finding that the Post and many other members of the mainstream and social media mob rushed to attack, vilify and threaten Nicholas because they harbor an anti-Trump agenda and Nicholas was wearing a Make America Great Again cap which he had purchased that day as a souvenir,” Wood said in an email.

A few other legal matters might complicate Sandmann’s case against the Post.

Sandmann’s lawyers are claiming defamation per se, a legal determination in which a defamatory charge is “so inherently defamatory that you don’t even need to prove that it damaged your reputation,” Nott explained to me. “But I’m not sure if The Washington Post stories really qualify, since defamation per se usually applies to statements that someone has committed a crime, or incest, or has a ‘loathsome disease’ like leprosy. But I’d need to dive deeper into Kentucky law to be sure of that.”

Wood thinks it’s obvious that Sandmann’s situation clears this bar. “Kentucky law defines libel per se as defamatory statements that tend to expose the plaintiff to public hatred, ridicule, contempt or disgrace, or to induce an evil opinion of him in the minds of right thinking people,” he told me. “I think that description says it all.”

Nott also pointed out that “in order for Sandmann to prevail in his libel suit against The Washington Post, he has to establish that The Washington Post published false statements of fact, not opinion, that damaged his reputation … The Washington Post could potentially argue that the statements the complaint refers to are matters of opinion, not fact—like whether or not Sandmann was smirking, whether the situation was getting ugly, etc. It could also argue that it did take reasonable care to verify the story before publishing it, and outline whatever steps it took to do so.”

Wood parried at this assertion. “Contrary to public perception, the United States Supreme Court has clearly recognized that there is no wholesale First Amendment protection for opinion,” he said. “The Post will not find shelter under the controlling Supreme Court standards on opinion enunciated in Milkovich v. Lorrain Journal Co. [sic] wherein … if the ‘opinion’ is based on undisclosed facts or is based on false facts, the statement is actionable. The Post’s damning accusations against Nicholas were based upon false facts which would have been known to be false by the Post prior to publication if it had conducted even a cursory review of readily available information. Under the law, the talebearer is as liable as the talemaker.”

He has also made it clear that he plans to sue multiple news organizations, saying last month that he had sent letters to more than 50 publishers and individuals (including The Atlantic) demanding that they preserve all documents relating to their statements and reporting regarding Sandmann and his classmates.

When asked which other news outlets he planned to sue, Wood said, “We are still formulating our [precise] plans regarding complaints against other media entities so I cannot state with certainty the order of the filings. I can tell you that at the present time, our team is carefully analyzing the coverage of CNN, Associated Press and NBC/MSNBC.”

In a recent interview on Fox News, Sean Hannity asked Wood if there were “hundreds, thousands of potential lawsuits here?”

“Certainly hundreds,” Wood said. “The good news is that we have two and a half years to identify and file lawsuits against the wrongdoers because he is a minor. Nick will turn 18 in July of 2020. We’ve got two and a half years. We’ve got a lot of work to do, because the social-media and mainstream mob of bullies was extremely large in number. And they were very vocal.”

What impact the Post’s editor’s note might have on the litigation was also a matter of debate. Wood said it was simply “too little, too late” in a statement to Fox News this weekend.

Kelly, the Post spokesperson, made it clear to me in an email on Sunday that the newspaper does not consider its editor’s note a correction. “While we do not accept the characterizations and contentions regarding our reporting of the incident at the Lincoln Memorial, we have taken steps to address the concerns expressed to us,” Kelly said. “The full story did not emerge all at once and throughout our coverage, we sought to produce accurate reports. Even the comments of the school and church officials changed, and the Post provided ongoing coverage of the conflicting versions of this event and its aftermath, giving prominent attention to the student’s account and the investigative findings supporting it. We thus have provided a fair and accurate historical record of how this incident unfolded.”

LoMonte, from the University of Florida, said that Kentucky is one of the states that allows publishers to mitigate damages through corrections, but that “what the Post has published is not a complete retraction, and I’m not sure whether it rises to the level of a correction. It doesn’t explicitly say, ‘We were wrong about certain facts.’ It just says that those facts have been contradicted or can’t be confirmed.”

Nott said the editor’s note “doesn’t seem like an attempt by The Washington Post to mitigate defamation damages. It seems like a statement that they didn’t engage in defamation at all.”

Youmans, from George Washington, said the statement was “carefully crafted to avoid surrendering ground to Sandmann’s lawyers.”

“It makes the case that inaccuracies in initial reporting were worked out over a series of articles,” he said, “hinting at possible defenses and demonstrating the absence of actual malice.”

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2tQQ1Ct

[dorcasrempel]

Oceanographers produce first-ever images of entire cod shoals

For the most part, the mature Atlantic cod is a solitary creature that spends most of its time far below the ocean’s surface, grazing on bony fish, squid, crab, shrimp, and lobster — unless it’s spawning season, when the fish flock to each other by the millions, forming enormous shoals that resemble frenzied, teeming islands in the sea.

These massive spawning shoals may give clues to the health of the entire cod population — an essential indicator for tracking the species’ recovery, particularly in regions such as New England and Canada, where cod has been severely depleted by decades of overfishing.

But the ocean is a murky place, and fish are highly mobile by nature, making them difficult to map and count. Now a team of oceanographers at MIT has journeyed to Norway — one of the last remaining regions of the world where cod still thrive — and used a synoptic acoustic system to, for the first time, illuminate entire shoals of cod almost instantaneously, during the height of the spawning season.

The team, led by Nicholas Makris, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Ocean Engineering, and Olav Rune Godø of the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, was able to image multiple cod shoals, the largest spanning 50 kilometers, or about 30 miles. From the images they produced, the researchers estimate that the average cod shoal consists of about 10 million individual fish.

They also found that when the total population of cod dropped below the average shoal size, the species remained in decline for decades.

“This average shoal size is almost like a lower bound,” Makris says. “And the sad thing is, it seems to have been crossed almost everywhere for cod.”

Makris and his colleagues have published their results today in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

Echoes in the deep

For years, researchers have attempted to image cod and herring shoals using high-frequency, hull-mounted sonar instruments, which direct narrow beams below moving research vessels. These ships traverse a patch of the sea in a lawnmower-like pattern, imaging slices of a shoal by emitting high-frequency sound waves, and measuring the time it takes for the signals to bounce off a fish and back to the ship. But this method requires a vessel to move slowly through the waters to get counts; one survey can take many weeks to complete and typically samples only a small portion of any particular expansive shoal, often completely missing shoals between survey tracks and never capturing shoal dynamics

The team made use of the Ocean Acoutic Waveguide Remote Sensing, or OAWRS system, an imaging technique developed at MIT by Makris and co-author Purnima Ratilal, which emits low-frequency sound waves that can travel over a much wider range than high-frequency sonar. The sound waves are essentially tuned to bounce off fish, in particular, off their swim bladder — a gas-filled organ that reflects sound waves — like echoes off a tiny drum. As these echoes return to the ship, researchers can aggregate them to produce an instant picture of millions of fish over vast areas.

Making passage

In February and March of 2014, Makris and a team of students and researchers headed to Norway to count cod, herring, and capelin during the height of their spawning seasons. They towed OAWRS aboard the Knorr, a U.S. Navy research vessel that is operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is best known as the ship aboard which researchers discovered the remnants of the Titanic.

The ship left Woods Hole and crossed the Atlantic over two weeks, during which time the crew continuously battled storms and choppy winter seas. When they finally arrived at the southern coast of Norway, they spent the next three weeks imaging herring, cod, and capelin along the entire Norwegian coast, from the town of Alesund, north to the Russian border.

“The underwater terrain was as treacherous as the land, with submerged seamounts, ridges, and fjord channels,” Makris recalls. “Billions of herring actually would hide in one of these submerged fjords near Alesund during the daytime, about 300 meters down, and come up at night to shelves about 100 meters deep. Our mission there was to instantaneously image entire shoals of them, stretching for kilometers, and sort out their behavior.”

A window through a hurricane

As they moved up the Norwegian coast, the researchers towed a 0.5-kilometer-long array of passive underwater microphones and a device that emitted low-frequency sound waves. After imaging herring shoals in southern Norway, the team moved north to Lofoten, a dramatic archipelago of sheer cliffs and mountains, depicted most famously in Edgar Allen Poe’s “Descent into the Maelstrom,” in which the poet made note of the region’s abundance of cod.

To this day, Lofoten remains a primary spawning ground for cod, and there, Makris’ team was able to produce the first-ever images of an entire cod shoal, spanning 50 kilometers.

Toward the end of their journey, the researchers planned to image one last cod region, just as a hurricane was projected to hit. The team realized there would be only two windows of relatively calm winds in which to operate their imaging equipment.

“So we went, got good data, and fled to a nearby fjord as the eye wall struck,” Makris recalls. “We ended with 30-foot seas at dawn and the Norwegian coast guard, in a strangely soothing young voice, urging us to evacuate the area.” The team was able to image a slightly smaller shoal there, spanning about 10 kilometers, before completing the expedition.

On the brink

Back on dry land, the researchers analyzed their images and estimated that an average shoal size consists of about 10 million fish. They also looked at historical tallies of cod, in Norway, New England, the North Sea and Canada, and discovered an interesting trend: Those regions — like New England  — that experienced long-lasting declines in cod stocks did so when the total cod population dropped below roughly 10 million — the same number as an average shoal. When cod dropped below this threshold, the population took decades to recover, if it did at all.

In Norway, the cod population always stayed above 10 million and was able to recover, climbing back to preindustrial levels over the years, even after significant declines in the mid-20th century. The team also imaged shoals of herring  and found a similar trend through history: When the total population dropped below the level of an average herring spawning shoal, it took decades for the fish to recover.

Makris and Godø hope that the team’s results will serve as a measuring stick of sorts, to help researchers keep track of fish stocks and recognize when a species is on the brink.

“The ocean is a dark place, you look out there and can’t see what’s going on,” Makris says. “It’s a free-for-all out there, until you start shining a light on it and seeing what’s happening. Then you can properly appreciate and understand and manage.” He adds “Even if field work is difficult, time consuming, and expensive, it is essential to confirm and inspire theories, models, and simulations.”

This research was supported, in part, by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Science Foundation.

Oceanographers produce first-ever images of entire cod shoals syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

[femmesfollesnebraska]

#whyilovewomenartists: Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018

National Museum of Women in the arts Presents  Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 on view June 28–September 16, 2018, YAY! Here’s 5 works from the show to celebrate.

Carolina Sardi, Grandfather, Cricket and I, 2016; Plated steel over painted wall, 91 x 156 x 2 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Panamerican Art Projects Miami; © Carolina Sardi; Photo by Mariano Costa Peuser

Rana Begum, No. 161, 2008; Paint on powder-coated aluminum, 98 1/2 in. high, 16 sections; Photo by Philip White; © Rana Begum

From the NMWA website:

Heavy Metal, the fifth installment in NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, showcases contemporary artists working in metal. The exhibition series is presented every two to three years and is a dynamic collaboration between the museum and participating outreach committees. The 20 committees participating in Women to Watch 2018 worked with curators in their respective regions to create shortlists of artists working with metal. From this list, NMWA curators selected the artists whose work is on view in Heavy Metal.

Featured artists in Heavy Metal investigate the physical properties and expressive possibilities of metalwork through a wide variety of objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and conceptual forms. Works in the exhibition range from large-scale installations to small objects intended for personal adornment; these disparate works are fashioned out of iron, steel, bronze, silver, gold, brass, tin, aluminum, copper, and pewter. This exhibition seeks to disrupt the predominantly masculine narrative that surrounds metalworking and demonstrate that contemporary women artists carry on a vibrant legacy in the field.

The exhibition features works by Cheryl Eve Acosta (Greater Kansas City Area), Rana Begum (United Kingdom), Carolina Rieckhof Brommer (Peru), Lola Brooks (Georgia), Paula Castillo (New Mexico), Charlotte Charbonnel (France), Venetia Dale (Massachusetts), Petronella Eriksson (Sweden), Susie Ganch (Mid-Atlantic Region), Alice Hope (Greater New York Region), Leila Khoury (Ohio), Holly Laws (Arkansas), Blanca Muñoz (Spain), Beverly Penn (Texas), Serena Porrati (Italy), Alejandra Prieto (Chile), Kerianne Quick (Southern California), Carolina Sardi (Florida), Katherine Vetne (Northern California), and Kelsey Wishik (Mississippi).

Alice Hope, Untitled, 2016; Used Budweiser tabs, 6 ft. diameter; Private collection; Photo by Jenny Gorman

Cheryl Eve Acosta, Ericius, 2012; Cuff with copper, enamel, and glass, 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.; Courtesy of the artist; © Cheryl Eve Acosta; Photo by Gene Starr

  Beverly Penn, Maelstrom, 2011; Bronze, 108 x 108 x 6 in.; Courtesy of the artist, Lisa Sette Gallery, and William Campbell Contemporary Art; Photo by Christopher Zaleski

More on the exhibit: 

https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/heavy-metal

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

[ntrending]

This weather pattern could complicate your Thanksgiving travel

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/this-weather-pattern-could-complicate-your-thanksgiving-travel/

This weather pattern could complicate your Thanksgiving travel

Last weekend, a big chunk of the United States got slammed with frigid weather. And there won’t be much of a reprieve. Unseasonably cold temperatures and possible storms will return to the Midwest and eastern states ahead of Thanksgiving.

The weather pattern responsible for this mischief is called a Greenland block. It happens when atmospheric pressure builds over Greenland and forces the jet stream to dip into eastern North America. Greenland blocking conditions will form this weekend and likely stick around into Thanksgiving week, the Weather Channel reports.

A Greenland block can lead to some wonky weather. In 2012, this weather pattern punted Hurricane Sandy into the coastal Northeast. It’s also contributed to polar vortex intrusions, and record-breaking melting on the Greenland ice sheet.

The good news is we aren’t going to see anything quite that extreme this time. However, it will be bitingly cold—and conditions will be more favorable for storms. Here’s what you need to know about this chill-inducing weather pattern.

Why is this happening?

A block is an area of unusual pressure that forms in the atmosphere and deflects storms and winds. “It’s kind of like if you were to stick a rock in the middle of a river,” says Kyle Mattingly, a graduate student in geography at the University of Georgia in Athens.

Greenland blocks develop in the far Northern Atlantic, in the vicinity of Greenland or Iceland. This can happen when storms pump warm air northward, Mattingly says. As it reaches the jet stream, that warm air circulates in such a way that it piles up above Greenland, increasing air pressure.

This typically pushes the jet stream south, and warps it so it becomes wavier, sending a blast of chilly air to parts of the eastern United States and Western Europe. Meanwhile, the polar lands under the block become warmer. Prevailing winds that flow from west to east across the Atlantic can also slow or change direction. “That typical pattern, where you have cold to the north and warm to the south and strong westerly winds between, reverses,” says Stephen Baxter, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.

Will it ruin my Thanksgiving travel plans?

That depends on where you are.

Greenland blocks bring a greater chance of storms and often lay the groundwork for nor’easters, which blow in from the Atlantic Ocean. When a Greenland block is in place, airflow is slow enough that little disturbances in the atmosphere can stick around, link up, and become large storms. A Greenland block also pushes the tracks that storms follow farther south over the Eastern seaboard. Blocking patterns can give a storm time to develop and strengthen off the East Coast instead of moving quickly out to sea.

It’s not very likely that a major snowstorm will take advantage of these conditions in the days leading up to Thanksgiving along the East Coast. “Right now the pattern is not such that we would favor a big storm off the Eastern seaboard, but there is more uncertainty over the East Coast,” Baxter says.

“If we were in January or February, meteorologists would be very excited about the potential for some kind of nor’easter type storm,” he says. But it’s still a little early in the season to expect that kind of storm.

However, the impending cold front could bring snow to the Great Lakes region, Adirondacks, and Northern New England early next week.

What else can we expect?

Much of the mid-Atlantic, New England and southeast Canada will be unseasonably cold as we head into Thanksgiving. On average, temperatures will probably be 5 to 10 degrees chillier than normal, but the coldest days are likely to be 8 to 16 degrees below average, Baxter says. Wet, windy weather is also possible. On the other side of the block in central Europe, temperatures will also take a dip.

The Greenland block will probably stick around for at least a week, with lingering impacts possible through the end of the month, Baxter says. “You have colder conditions kind of locked in place from southeast Canada to the eastern U.S.”

It’s common for a Greenland block to persist for one to two weeks, but meteorologists have a hard time predicting how long each one will last. “That can vary pretty dramatically. Sometimes you’ll get blocking conditions that will stay in place for up to a month,” Mattingly says.

Meanwhile, there is a chance that small pieces of the polar vortex will break free and graze the Great Lakes and Northeast with quick blasts of arctic air, AccuWeather forecasts.

The polar vortex is a low-pressure area around the North Pole with high swirling winds. When this maelstrom gets disrupted in winter, a piece of the polar vortex can escape. As it swings southward, temperatures can plunge 20 to 30 degrees below normal.

It’s very common for a Greenland block to occur at the same time as a polar vortex disruption. A Greenland block does not cause a polar vortex intrusion per se, Baxter says. But a Greenland block can slow the pattern down so the cold air stays in place longer.

Is a Greenland block why last weekend was super cold?

The East Coast and Midwest did experience record-low temperatures this past weekend, but that blast of bitter cold was not caused by a Greenland block. Instead, it was fueled by blocking over the North Pacific that allowed a mass of intensely cold air to spill down into the northeastern United States and southeast Canada, Baxter says.

However, a Greenland block sometimes will form repeatedly throughout the winter. “These patterns will pulse in and out,” Baxter says. This makes for a cold, snowy season, as happened during the infamous winters of 1995 to 1996 and 2009 to 2010. For now, it doesn’t look like we’re in for that this year.

This weather pattern can occur in summer, too. Mattingly and his team are investigating a Greenland block that formed in July 2012. It brought such toasty temperatures to its immediate vicinity that it caused the most extensive melting of the Greenland ice sheet in recorded history. It appears that summer Greenland block patterns are becoming more extreme.

What about Hurricane Sandy?

Hurricane Sandy’s westward turn in 2012 was a pretty unusual track for a storm to follow. These storms tend to move poleward during October and are pushed east by the prevailing westerlies. “As Sandy moved north from the Caribbean into the Western Atlantic it was following a pretty typical October tropical cyclone path at that point,” Mattingly says.

But an intense Greenland block forced it to change direction. “They can’t go through it so they have to go around it, and in this case Sandy ended up being steered due west into New Jersey,” Mattingly says.

That Greenland block was particularly extreme. Mattingly and his colleagues discovered that it was one of the strongest on record for that time of year. “The fact that this anomalous westward turn of Sandy happened during such an intense, almost unprecedented Greenland blocking episode was definitely something of note,” he says.

The team also examined whether other North Atlantic hurricanes were similarly affected by Greenland blocking conditions. It turns out that when a hurricane did diverge from the normal northeasterly track, there was a better than normal chance that a Greenland block was in place.

Are we going to see more of that in future?

Maybe. It’s not clear how Greenland blocking patterns will evolve in coming years. Climate models have a hard time portraying the North Atlantic jet stream, so they struggle to predict Greenland blocks in the present day, much less the future, Mattingly says.

Some researchers believe that Greenland blocks will happen more frequently because the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world. The amplified warming could lead to a more disruptive “wavy” jet stream and feed these high-pressure areas. This, in turn, would thaw ever-greater patches of the Greenland ice sheet.

But others argue that Greenland blocking will decrease in future. If climate change pushes the jet stream further north, there would be less opportunity for Greenland blocks to develop, Mattingly says.

“If there is more blocking in the future, we expect there to be more unusual hurricane tracks,” he says. “But the million dollar question is whether blocking is actually going to increase or decrease with climate change.”

Written By Kate Baggaley

[cleverish]

Maple creek

I had planned to leave Seattle sooner. But plans change.  When the clutch burns out on the worse-than-expected car you were planning to drive across the country before you could have known that it was 105° in Montana near the Canadian border,  and that the car doesn't have A/C... it's only wise to change plans. So this trip became more like my other trip to the west coast.  Prowling seattle,  Portland, and vancouver Craigslist for a ride to the bay area.  I already told Tyler I won't be making it out to arryo hondo.  Of course,  Craigslist is Craigslist, so my July 11th ride flaked out. But before I could find a new SF ride, I found an ad for someone going to mount ranier. The chief problem with lacking a car on what's fundamentally a road trip is the number of destinations that aren't reached by other means.  Given that I'll miss mono lake, lake tahoe, arches national park, mount zion, and probably also yosemite  (though that remains to be seen), getting to go and camp in at least one national park is a chance I couldn't pass up. The fact that it turned out to be a free ride, from a fellow who loaned me camping gear,  and free backcountry camping, that all just sweetened the deal.  The driver,  Patrick Gillette, turns out, like every other Craigslist rideshare I've had, to be a fascinating individual.  A 15-year seattle transit bus driver,  a former moped messenger (in the days before bike messengers on seattle streets), and having visited Saint Petersburg (leningrad, not tampa) in 1996. He also is the only person I've ever met who had spent time traveling Mongolia.  He gives me a useful tip: "Go to Ulaanbaatar, to the big market.  Not only is it something to see, but everyone who has taken their goods to sell,barter,  or buy,   has a sign in the window of their caravan,  the village or town they're returning to.  You can travel to any part of the country,  for gas money,  maybe $30. Just don't expect that you can keep going in the ame direction.  The caravans are full leaving the market.  I waited the whole day trying to go somewhere after my first ride out.  I finally crossed the road,  got a ride in 5 minutes to Ulaanbaatar, right to the market.  I found my ride there. That's how you get around Mongolian style." I told him about the festival of San Antonio in Lisbon and crossing the Atlantic via repositioning cruise. "Repositioning crews? Like on an oil rig?" I also told him about my plan to circumnavigate the world without using an aeroplane. "So that'll definitely involve the trans-siberian [railway]. You might be tempted to get a first class cabin,  but that door is actually a liability.  Third - class is fine. There aren't seats on there, all berths. No short trips on the trans-siberian." Patrick's coming down to paradise inn, the national park's soon-to-be remodeled hotel, to spend a weekend with his 96 year old mother "could very well be her last chance." He's got a room type which soon won't exist,  "the old kind,  with the bathroom down the hall". It's a major cultural shift that's occurred in his generation, the rise of the master bathroom,  the ensuite guest room,  where "the bathroom" somehow became "my bathroom". I live in a three bedroom house with one bathroom.  There's a parallel shift in my own generation's time, I remember when it was "the phone", not "my phone". When "work" and "home" were expressed in 7 digits and could be reliably used to contact anyone there,  and no one in between. Reflecting the relative wealth and consumption of each generation,  a bathroom is a five-figure capital expense, a personal and private luxury.   A cell phone is a convenience to the broader world and a liability to its owner, an electronic leash. Along the way we talk a decent amount about generational differences. But it's not an adversarial conversation,  as these so often are.  It's a discussion of the fact that it used to be a perfectly middle class thing to own a lake house out in the county.  The kind of thing a single earner with a high school diploma could not only aspire, but expect to have.   I joke that a one-year lease is a status symbol for my generation.  He correctly points out that the most recent iPhone is a more comparable touchstone.  Of course,  a lake house rents for more in a week than an iPhone costs.  But I am not my generation. I do own a home.  I have a reasonable expectation of a comfortable life ahead of me.  And I don't have an iPhone. Patrick and I check in at the ranger station and I get setup for the camp that's available, maple creek.  He drives me a good half-hour beyond his destination,  stops a few times for pictures of the awe-inspiring glacier - capped volcano that poses a greater threat to seattle than any kim. Box canyon is the closest parking area to my campsite  (a 3 mile walk from there), he gives me his gear, and we agree to meet back there at mid-morning Saturday.  The hike over is radically pleasant.  The shade of old-growth forest is simply unmistakable.  The only place where sun reaches soil is where one of these ancient conifers has fallen- or been felled. The trail, a lone human trace, sticks out here like the an oil platform in open seas. I reach the campsite and it is simple. A patch of bare soil perhaps 4 meters long by two wide.  The only maker is a metal number on a wooden pole "2", and the bear pole a few meters from the campsite.  The rush of the nearby stream conspires with songbirds for an easy melody. Before I've even pitched a tent,  it feels like home. -Day 2- Awakening,  not to alarm or any human sound,  but due to light,  songbirds and the babble of the nearby stream is  truly priceless.  My body is, either despite or perhaps because of, sleeping in a sleeping bag over a simple mat, free of the aches or pains that regularly accompany my mornings.   I half-expected the fetching blue-eyed ranger to be the first sight I'd see toady.  But no,  I am wonderfully alone. Foregoing my coffee for now,  as well as kratom, I instead boil my water, pouring it over a pouch each of banana bread and cinnamon roll flavored quaker oats. The rest I plop a teabag into. I take time to breathe,  and think of one of my favorite quotes from Thoreau's Walden. "We make ourselves rich by making our wants few". This morning I am a millionaire.  The ranger does eventually show up,  we exchange a few lines of pleasant conversation.  Recommendations in hand I go for a stroll (hike seems to active of a verb). The stream, barely a trickle earlier,  grows louder and fuller by the minute.  Later, feeling delightfully alive, I eschew my clothes for a swim.  The glacial water is glacially cold. I continue my stroll until I reach a fairly uninspiring trailhead parking lot, and so turn back.  On my way back I see small examples of fauna, a frog,  black squirrels,  and a cute little snake.  I return,  grab my pack from the bearpole, and stick my Vinho Espumante  (Portuguese champagne) a maelstrom of the creek to chill.  I put a pouch of curry (Indian food in little foil patches beats soup for weight, noodles for convenience, and both for taste) to heat up, and steam a tortilla to dip into and eat with it.  After the other components of my supper are ready,  I go down to the water and grab my perfectly cooled beverage. The cork pops with celebratory ease.  It is good. 

[tulipi]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

[hy-ddy]

mid-atlantic-maelstrom answered: 500€ of manga?

Sadly I don't think we have that money :/ ... But money is a good idea uvu.

[woodbridgewrites]

**Non-Patron Sneak Peek**

**Worldbuilding AMA**

Within this post are brief summaries of my fantasy/alt-history world and a few of the stories that will be taking place within. These are some of the choices my Patrons will vote on for my weekly serial.

Please feel free to ask questions about Geilladh and I'll give you a window into a fantastic setting I've been worldbuilding for years.

The Chronicles of Geilladh:

A few hundred miles southwest of the Azores, born from the subduction of the Atlantic Ridge and kept isolated by a churning maelstrom the size of ten hurricanes, lays the Lost Continent of Geilladh.

Geilladh was originally “settled” by Scandinavian seafarers and eventually “discovered” by Scottish pilgrims. Over the centuries, occasional ships from Morocco, olden Spanish kingdoms, and Portugal would also wash ashore, providing the small population of this microcontinent with a blend of cultures both old and new. As the people of Geilladh build their civilizations further inland, they discover they are not alone, as peoples of mysterious ancestry and unusual form have long-held societies just out of view.

To make matters more fascinating, Geilladh’s position on the globe have allowed it to have a variety of biomes within such a relatively small area. The dense laurelsilva forests of the Topaz Mountains are perpetually cloaked in mist and beasts only heard about in legend and prehistory. The Fjords of Lunde jut from the western capes, wizened by violent waves blasted against the shore by the maelstrom. Giant lizards, frightening birds, and the voracious Snoothund roam the salt flats and steppes of the southlands, keeping soldier and citizen alike wary of their treacherous hunt.

Whether it be the pastoral feudalism of Beinne, the fanatical religious tension among Peuria and Svara, or the devotion to neutrality and order of the Kelnavish, the people of Geilladh have both fallen into their natural dispositions of society and explored new ways to live and love. True to human history, it’s not long before conflcit blooms and threatens to destroy the small populations of Geilladh. An Ultimate Reckoning eventually shakes the core of the microcontinent and forces the blossoming countries to face the evil of one another, but more importantly, their evils within.

And seemingly as an Age of Peace holds together for a century, the lands on distant shores undergo industrial and political revolutions. Great ships and flying machines are spotted from afar and the wise begin to speak of a coming reunion with the rest of the world. This eventually happens in the early-mid 20th Century, but the first visitors are the ones that history and humankind would least desire…

The Chronicles of Geilladh cover the stories of folk whose adventures lead to change in the fabric of their society as well as slices of the lifestyles of those in the shadow of revolution. From plucky mercenaries and swashbuckling privateers to pioneer alderwomen and strong beast-tamers, these tales are simultaneously set in our world yet one that we have never known.

The First Five Chronicles...

The Halberdier:

You can’t keep a man cooped up forever. Thaddeus Welbin, a farmhand raised by a domineering mother and her anti-intellectual brother, has never left their fiefdom in the foothills of the Topaz Mountains. A fateful encounter with a neighbor leads Thaddeus to act on his dreams of escape, and he rides alone into the perilous world around him. Follow Thaddeus and the friends he makes along the way as they seek glory and adventure in the Highlands of Beinne, and eventually become key cogs in an early conflict of The Ultimate Reckoning.

The Rifleman:

Pirates! Only those with nothing else to lose brave the currents of the Maelstrom to evade the navies of the southlands. The 1st Riflemen of Lunde are called upon to maintain peace in the coastal communities as illicit activities ratchet up in a time of blossoming economic opportunity. Join an intrepid sharpshooter, his friend of landed stature, and the first woman Rifleman in Lundican history as they are led to the mysterious isle of Adweamos to end the threat of piracy once and for all.

The Bard:

Bards in Geilladhan society take on varied roles. They tell stories, sing songs of legend, and educate young and old alike with their intelligent whimsy. Bards are also in the know, with politicians and dark influences whispering in their ears to get their propaganda into the streets. Harald Schiller, the Bard of Lark Hall, doesn’t know how much more dark knowledge he can take without taking charge. When a bartender and a flautist tip him off on the most despicable rumor possible, he realizes that the self-proclaimed King guards profound mysteries that the people of Lark Hall must know at all costs.

The Alderwoman:

In the world at-large, women have had to fight throughout history to be seen, respected, and heard. Geilladh is no different. As the border town of Welke undergoes a series of attacks by mountain vagrants and the leaders of the fiefdom refuse to take action, the people realize they must take action of their own accord. A council of citizenry forms, and one of the few that disavow physical conflict with the mountainfolk is Anneliese deKlerck, a young woman who refuses to let her gender nor her station in life keep her from bringing peace among the hills.

The Mountaineer:

The nothern reaches of Fulchadia are untamed and barely civilized. The craggy peaks of the Topaz Mountains guard wildlife and even wilder riches for those intrepid enough to brave the elements and take what could be all theirs. Albert Knudsen is one of the few survivors of a tragic encounter with an ancient beast, but even the threat of this megafauna is not enough to keep him from a future return. He knows of a new element within the deep reaches of the mountains, and will stop at nothing to discover and harness its potential power.

[incarnationsf]

Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio

Date & Time: Saturday June 22, 7:30  p.m. Venue: Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco Tickets: $20 General, $15 Seniors/Students

Brown Paper Ticketing: Buy tickets online Eventbrite Ticketing:     Buy tickets online

Ben Rosenblum Jazz Trio

Ben Rosenblum – piano/accordion Greg Feingold – bass Ben Zweig – drum

Award-winning jazz pianist, composer and accordionist Ben Rosenblum has been described as “mature beyond his years,” (Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility), and as an “impressive talent” (C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz), who “caresses [the music] with the reverence it merits” (Bob Doerschuk, Downbeat Magazine). Ben is based primarily in New York City, and is a graduate of the Columbia-Juilliard program (in 2016). His original music combines his extensive knowledge of the history of jazz with a free-wheeling, modern melodic sensibility and powerful narrative approach to the piano. His profound passion for jazz, swing and world music genres finds expression in his unique fusion of harmonic and rhythmic elements from a wide array of sources, and gives rise to a signature compositional sound and style at once iconoclastic and deeply rooted in such figures as Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly. Ben’s first priority in his composition and in his playing is always narrative – to tell a compelling story with his music, while reaching the hearts of his audience, connecting on an emotional, an intellectual and a spiritual level.

Reviewers of his debut album Instead – released in 2017 with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Billy Hart – have been impressed by his musicality and his tasteful playing in light of his immense technical skill. Bob Doerschuk of Downbeat Magazine gave the album four stars, and wrote, “He has the chops to shoot off a few fireworks, … but that doesn’t seem to be a priority when covering sacred material.” C. Michael Bailey notes approvingly: “there do emerge conservatoire aces with grit in their imagination and a facility to express such in their playing. Ben Rosenblum is one such performer/composer. The Julliard-Columbia trained pianist brings a freighter of technique to the keyboard, while still maintaining enough earthiness in his playing to satisfy even the fussiest listener.” Fred Stal of RG Magazine most recently described his experience of listening to Ben’s live CD release performance: “The music keeps you on your feet and not wanting to miss a single moment of magic. … Raindrops from heaven poured down with style and grace from Rosenblum’s piano.”

Since the release of Ben’s debut album, Ben has been touring regularly – both nationally and internationally – celebrating the album and collaborating with artists around the world. Ben’s trio made debuts in Japan and in Canada in 2018. During his two-week tour of Japan, Ben performed in eight different cities, including in Tokyo at Akasaka B-flat, and in Yokohama at Himawari-no-sato Concert Hall with famed koto player Yuko Watanabe. Highlights of his Canada tour included appearances at Upstairs Jazz in Montreal, Maelstrom and Bar Ste-Angele in Quebec City and the Southminster “Doors Open For Music” Concert Series in Ottawa. In the United States, Ben has traveled extensively throughout the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast, with trips planned for the South and Southwest. These domestic tours have featured performances at some of the most well-respected venues in the country, including Kuumbwa Jazz Center (Santa Cruz), Ravinia (Chicago), Cliff Bells (Detroit), An Die Musik (Baltimore), The Bop Stop (Cleveland), Mezzrow (New York City) and many others. As a sideman, Ben has had further opportunities to tour the world. In 2018, he traveled for three weeks through Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Serbia with Astrid Kuljanic, during which the group performed at multiple festivals, including the Ljeto na Bundeka Festival in Zagreb and the Soboško Poletje Festival in Murska Sobota. He also performed for two nights at the Blue Note in Beijing alongside famed jazz singer Deborah Davis.

Born and raised in New York City, Ben had the opportunity to study with some of the most influential figures in jazz piano, including Frank Kimbrough, Bruce Barth, Ben Waltzer and Roy Assaf. At the early age of sixteen, the originality of his work was already being recognized with numerous awards, including the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award (2010), the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Original Song (2010) and the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Arrangement (2011). As a result, even before entering Columbia, Ben was commissioned by the XIBUS World Orchestra to write a piece for performance at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in 2012. Ben has continued to earn numerous distinctions and honors in recent years. In 2015, he was a finalist at the American Jazz Pianist Competition in Melbourne, Florida, and in 2016, at the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2018, he earned further recognition from the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award competition in the form of an honorable mention, and he was featured at the ASCAP Foundation’s 2018 “We Write The Songs” event at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

In addition to his own work, Ben often collaborates with other musicians. He has worked extensively with Grammy-nominated singer Ryland Angel on several compositional projects, including the project Unspoken, which premiered at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, in November of 2016. His debut album Instead has received very favorable reviews from a wide range of sources throughout the world, including Downbeat Magazine, All About Jazz, Drumset Magazine (Italy) and The Jazz Writer (Germany).

Ben performed with the Bachiana Brasileira Orchestra at Lincoln Center (conducted by Joao Carlos Martins and featuring Dave Brubeck), and he was a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with the New York Harmonic Band (conducted by Reona Ito). He traveled to New Delhi, India, to perform at a Max India Benefit, and was a participant at Il Grande Veggio, in Perugia, Italy. He has played at the Masten Jazz Festival (Buffalo), the Richmond Jazz Festival (Richmond), the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival (Maryland), Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (Manhattan), the DUMBO Arts Festival (Brooklyn), Musikfest (Bethlehem, PA) and the Music Mountain Festival (Connecticut). He has also appeared at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Appel Room at Lincoln Center, Ryles Jazz Club, Webster Hall, Symphony Space, The Blue Note, Smoke, Smalls and a host of other music venues throughout the northeast.

Ben has worked extensively with such jazz luminaries as Curtis Lundy, Neal Smith, Winard Harper, Wayne Escoffery and Deborah Davis, and he has performed in bands led by Bobby Watson, TS Monk, Chris Washburne and Warren Wolf. In addition, he has shared the stage with many other jazz legends, including Wycliffe Gordon, Brian Lynch, Phil Woods, Houston Person, Jerry Dodgion, Eliot Zigmund, Clarence Penn, Craig Handy, Dave Stryker, James Cammack, Ameen Saleem, Bob Nieske, Steve Nelson, Yasushi Nakamura, Essiet Essiet, Willie Williams, Patience Higgins, Josh Evans, Kenny Davis and Rogerio Boccato.?

While at Columbia University, Ben founded the Columbia Jazz House, a student-run jazz advocacy group that promotes jazz on campus through concerts, educational workshops and jam sessions. On December 28th, 2015, the Columbia Jazz House was featured in a New York Times article titled “Melodies Night and Day in this Columbia Dorm.”

Greg Feingold started playing bass at the age of 10. He quickly realized that bass was something he would pursue for the rest of his life and was accepted to the Chicago Academy for the Arts. After graduating from the Academy, Greg was given a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. Greg was very active both locally and nationally while at Berklee. He began playing with the International String Trio and performing regularly with Berklee faculty such as Bill Pierce, Neal Smith, Jon Hazilla, Doug Johnson, Rebecca Cline and many others. After graduating, Greg moved to New York and began playing in Winard Harper’s Jelli Posse. Throughout his stay in New York, he worked with legendary jazz performers such as Jimmy Cobb, Eric Reed, Eric Harland, Cyrus Chestnut, Steve Turre, Jim Rotondi, Jackie Ryan, Stephen Scott as well as continuing to tour with the International String Trio and the Valinor Quartet. Greg moved to Seattle in 2015 to change his surroundings and currently performs with a variety of groups around the west coast. He can be seen performing regularly with Thomas Marriott, Julian MacDonough, Miles Black and other great local Seattle musicians. He also co-leads the 200 Trio which performs around the country as one of the up and coming jazz guitar trios.

Jazz drummer and educator, Ben Zweig, “is able to combine history with the current musical environment, making it sound fresh” (Don Sickler). After moving to NYC in 2011, the 26 year old has accompanied an impressive array of jazz luminaries, including; Randy Weston, Johnny O’Neal, Larry Ridley, David Williams, Roy Hargrove, Deborah Davis, Joe Cohn, Champian Fulton, Jerry Dodgion, and Steve Nelson. Described by downbeat as “especially crisp and articulate,” Zweig has presented his personal sound performed with tours throughout the continental US, Asia and Canada. He currently tours regularly with Ben Rosenblum’s trio and leads a bi-weekly residency hosting the Sunday late night jam sessions at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC. Zweig is an avid educator. He has taught clinics across the country with the Champian Fulton quartet and has also directed the after-school percussion program at WHEELS middle and high school. Mentored by master drummers such as Joe Farnsworth, Billy Hart, Kenny Washington, Rodney Green, Justin DiCioccio, Christopher Brown, John Riley, and Rogerio Boccato, Ben is committed to passing down the information he has received from these legends. In his formative education, Ben was classically trained by Kenneth Piascik, culminating in performances with the NAfME All-Eastern Orchestra and as principal percussionist with the MENC All-National Concert Band. He currently maintains a private drum studio in Morningside-Heights with students of all ages. Ben received his B.M. and a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music.

[hobblts]

why must you all do this to me

[beardysteve]

I would draw things for you but im bad at draw umu

omfg reALLY??????? 

I DONT BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE BAD AT DRAW AND I WOULDNT CARE BECAUSE PEOPLE WHO DRAW ME THINGS ARE AMAZING PEOPLE SO YOU SHOULD JUST PROVE ME WRONG AND DRAW ME A THING AND I WILL DRAW YOU A THING AS WELL HOW DOES THAT SOUND PYRO PAL

ALSO I APOLOGIZE FOR CAPSLOCK RAGE BUT I FEEL IT NECESSARY TO CONVEY JUST HOW EMOTIONAL I AM ABOUT DRAW