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alt-ska-blog · 8 years ago

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The King Blues + Louise Distras + Mad Apple Circus @ The Fleece & Firkin, 05/02/17

It’s a long awaited day for many. Marking their first Bristol date in over five years, legendary peace love and punk-rock stars The King Blues are hitting the stage at The Fleece tonight!

This will be the band’s thirteenth date on their current tour which has so far seen them all over the UK, from Glasgow to Plymouth, Birmingham to Norwich and more. Next week they’re heading off to Germany, but today they’re in my hometown of Bristol, at veteran gig venue The Fleece & Firkin.

The anticipation is palpable in the room even during soundcheck. Despite the tired eyes, sore throats and various other symptoms of tour-fatigue, there’s an enjoyable tension in the air that crackles as the clock counts down towards doors. The floor is extra sticky this evening. The consensus that tonight is going to be special doesn’t need to be voiced by anyone.

As the doors open and the excited crowd started to file in, the first support act of the night takes to the stage. Full disclosure: I’m a little too involved to be reviewing Mad Apple Circus really, as I am myself a long-time band member (5 years and counting). In the interest of avoiding nepotism and general douchebaggery, I’ll just describe how it feels from where I’m standing... which is great! We’ve not played a gig in a few weeks so this high energy blast of brasstastic ska/punk/hip hop fusion is just the thing to blow away the cobwebs, and get everyone in the mood for what’s to come. Although one or two of our tunes are potentially a little west of the genre that most are here to see, the crowd are sounding their appreciation, and are nicely warmed up by the time we bounced off stage.

Next up is shrieking violet Louise Distras, who has provided tour support to The King Blues throughout the last fortnight. Louise and her band rips through the next 45 minutes with face-melting intensity. Distras’ voice is a low-flying fighter jet, and she commands the stage with an ease that borders on contempt. Punk-rock gold; the crowd eats it up. Although I’m a shade too sober for the broiling epicentre of the crowd, I’m happily watching from the sidelines. Each member is as tight and as furious as the hundreds of fists that are punching the air before them. Obviously, musical ability comes irrespective of gender, but as a lady musician myself it’s fantastic to see such raw female talent on stage. Distras, who has been touted as “the most important protest singer we have” by Louder Than War’s John Robb, ends the set with a call-to-arms from atop the front monitor: ‘No hate! No fear! Refugees are welcome here!’ At this point the crowd are clamouring behind her rallying cry, and the 450 capacity venue is soon ringing with the sound of it. Go on girl.

The next 20 minutes or so sees a hoard of revellers trudging dutifully outside for a quick rollie before the main event. A whirlwind of activity takes place on stage as Distras and her band pack down, and The King Blues boys set the scene for their 90 minute set. A bumper edition. The crowd files back in. The lights dim. Sentences shorten. Yes.

And suddenly we’re off, starting with dystopian punk epic ‘What If Punk Never Happened?’ Frontman Itch’s mastery of the spoken word is notorious to fans and impressive to witness live. We stomp through insatiably catchy riffs; from the mutinous cheer of ‘Let’s Hang the Landlord’ to the simple joy of ‘I Want You’, the guys have the audience in the palm of their hands from minute one. Halfway through the set the horn section of Mad Apple Circus are called back to the stage to embellish crowd favourite ‘We Ain’t Never Done’ from 2008 album ‘Under The Fog’. It’s the first song of the set where Itch’s infamous ukulele has featured prominently, and combined with his heartfelt vocals and warm brass accompaniment, it gets me right there in the feels (I’m trying really hard not to be biased guys).

Shortly after this, the band rushes off stage to allow Itch and his ukulele to perform solo for a few songs. Standing alone and in stark contrast to the previous set, Itch’s vulnerable side is offered up and we hear him rasping songs from the heart. ‘Underneath This Lamp Post Light’ is a kitchen sink love song that’s all real talk - “kiss me underneath this lamp post light, I know it smells of piss but, you look beautiful tonight”. I’m not being facetious when I say I’ve never been so moved by a lyric about piss. ‘Poems and Songs’ was paused briefly to break up a scuffle that had broken out in the pit. “Excuse me, I’m trying to have a moment here… come on it’s all love here, no hate” he gently chastised them, before falling straight back into the lyric he’d paused moments before, just like a record. The audience are once again entranced, all ill will forgotten.

Soon enough it’s time for the rest of the band to reappear. Itch is back to stalking the stage like a punk rock viking; the charisma oozes off him. Members from the two support bands are gathered back on stage to sing ‘My Boulder’ together - fitting for this song of camaraderie and brotherly love. The next few songs really showcase how talented the rest of the band are - the power of the rhythm section is complemented by the savagery of the guitars, and all members add dimension to the music with their beautiful backing vocals. Working together they really are a joy to watch. I get treated to one more jaunt on stage to provide horns for ‘The Future’s Not What It Used To Be’ (featuring a disgusting - and I use that word in this most complimentary way possible - drum & bass breakdown) and the set draws to a close. After a three song encore crowned with the beautifully barbershop ‘If I Had A Coin’, it all comes to a sweaty, exhausted finish.

I probably wouldn’t have put myself down as a massive punk fan in the past - I’ve always appreciated the heart behind the movement but not so much the music itself. After tonight I feel differently. Each of tonight’s bands has a unique relationship with punk. In Mad Apple Circus we tango with it. Louise Distras and her band weaponize it. The King Blues remind us of its humanity and soul, epitomized by the massive food drive that they organised as part of the show. All in all it was a corker, and might I say what lovely guys they are to know as well.

Until next time!

Steph x

#altska #alternative music #the king blues #king blues #mad apple circus #louise distras #punk #ska #music #bristol music #fleece and firkin #gig #gig review #rock #bristol music scene #the fleece #bristol

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kristablogs · 4 years ago

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Five stories of sailors who weathered COVID-19 out at sea

Storm on the horizon: For the Kiwi crew of Telasker, the dark skies served as a COVID-19 metaphor for their strange South Pacific odyssey. (Courtesy Talasker/)

Two-time circumnavigator and prolific sailing writer Lin Pardey is a longtime, cherished and regular contributor to Cruising World. This story originally featured on Cruising World.

The novel coronavirus sent the entire planet, including the sailing world, into a complete tailspin, and at least temporarily altered or even erased the very freedom we enjoy while cruising under sail. The following five COVID-19 dispatches from both near and far-flung waters are a testimony to the resiliency and fortitude of sailors everywhere, serving as snapshots of our time.

This past spring, the global pandemic resulting from the novel coronavirus upended the world—including the cruising world—as sailors around the planet scrambled to seek safe harbors and dash together new plans even as borders and waterways slammed closed and the notion of “quarantine,” always a feature of the conclusion of a long passage, took on a whole new meaning.

There was nowhere, literally, that was not affected in some way, shape or form. Working from home here in Newport, Rhode Island, the stories began trickling in. Some of those filtering back were troubling; others were inspirational, bordering on outright heroic.

Take the case of Argentine sailor Juan Manuel Ballestero who, as reported in The New York Times, was stranded on a small island off the coast of Portugal in mid-March aboard his Ohlson 29, Skua, when the pandemic struck. Desperate to see his father, who was soon to turn 90, Ballestero decided to sail home. He was denied entry to Cape Verde to reprovision and pressed on anyway, ultimately spending 85 days at sea before reuniting with his dad in Mar del Plata, where he did receive a hero’s welcome.

Or what about the great yacht designer Rod Johnstone, one of the principals of the family-run J/Boat company. According to an account in The Royal Gazette, a Bermuda newspaper, Johnstone’s friend Jean de Fontenay was visiting the US, with his 67-foot boat, Baraka, docked on the island nation in St. George’s, when everything closed down, including all international flights. Hurricane season was approaching. What to do? Well, Johnstone, de Fontenay and two crew hopped aboard a new 33-foot J/99 and sailed from Connecticut to Bermuda. They were never allowed ashore, but a Bermudan friend left groceries in their dinghy, and the four sailors split up and doublehanded the two boats back to the States. They were not to be denied.

What follows are five more dispatches from around the globe, of sailors facing and reacting to unprecedented circumstances in this dreadful season of COVID-19. They speak for themselves. And they make us proud to be members of the community of cruising sailors.

Problems in the Pacific

By Alvah Simon

The Walker family from New Zealand had set out on a long voyage around the Pacific Rim aboard their 57-foot Talasker. (Courtesy Talasker/)

The best-laid plans of the cruising sailor oft times go astray. But no matter Mother Ocean’s wind or waves, tides or tantrums, bluewater sailors always knew that somewhere on that distant shore, a port of refuge awaited them. Then along came COVID-19.

Perhaps most illustrative of these dystopian times is the saga of New Zealanders Daryll and Maree Walker and their two children on board their 57-foot yacht, Talasker. They had set off on the trip of a lifetime: a clockwise voyage around the Pacific Rim, up through the islands to Japan, over to Alaska, down the West Coast and back to New Zealand via the fabled South Pacific.

Things were rolling along splendidly but, while in Micronesia, rumors of a global pandemic began to filter in. They headed straight for Guam, arriving a mere three hours before the borders closed. They hoped to push on to Japan but began to suspect that the Japanese government was underreporting COVID-19 cases because of the effect on the coming Olympics. In any event, they could not be sure that the Japanese border would not close while en route.

They made the hard decision to turn around; as it turned out, it was much harder than they could have imagined.

For added safety, they chose to voluntarily isolate on board for two weeks before departing Guam, thus depleting their supplies. They sailed to Ponape, where they were flatly refused entry. Using dwindling fuel supplies, they soldiered on to the remote Kapingamarangi Atoll. The locals were friendly but firm: no entry. Understandable when put in historical context; the Marquesas Islands had a thriving population of over 100,000 when they first allowed foreign sailors to enter with inadvertent but devastating diseases. Their numbers bottomed out at 4,000 souls.

Talasker headed south to the Solomon Islands, emailing ahead for permission to rest, refuel and resupply. Not only was this denied, but they were even refused permission to transit Solomon Islands’ waters toward another port of refuge. Then they were commanded to stop and were visited over several days by police and immigration vessels who threatened fines, jail and impoundment for ill-defined violations. After several days of fear and confusion, they were told they could proceed through Bougainville Channel. But at nearly 100 miles out, they were ordered back to Honiara. They wisely ignored these orders and pushed on toward New Caledonia.

There they were told they would be granted only 24 hours in an isolated anchorage and then must depart. They were tired, low on everything, and dangerous weather was predicted near New Zealand. “Bureaucrat” is actually a French word that roughly translates into English as “cover your butt.” Those were the “official” restrictions, but they were granted two days of glorious rest before they were even approached by officials, then given access to fuel and limited supplies, and allowed to await a safer weather window. Viva le France! Ultimately, they stayed 10 whole days before a weeklong sail to New Zealand. There, after nearly two months at sea, they gratefully dropped their lines on the immigration dock.

When their journey was derailed by COVID-19. Their voyage home was difficult but successful. (Courtesy Talasker/)

But what of the future? While Daryll said that they are raring to head out again, many cruisers are nearly crippled with uncertainty. There are presently 40 foreign vessels “trapped” in Whangarei alone because all Pacific islands and Australia have closed their borders. Many sailors who landed in New Zealand flew home to the States or Europe and now cannot return to their vessels. The New Zealand government has extended all visas and customs exemptions for foreign sailors but, frankly, many skippers feel they are in the safest place in the world and are in no hurry to depart. In fact, normally each year the town of Whangarei hosts an appreciation party for the 100 visiting yachts that contribute an estimated $20 million to the local economy. This year, however, it is the cruisers hosting the party to express their appreciation for their treatment by the town and the Kiwi government.

For local sailors, such as myself, the lockdown was fast and furious. The restrictions were so strict as to prevent me from even rowing out to my yacht to check the mooring and bilges for an agonizing six weeks. Those who were genuine liveaboards—along with those who, against government directives, fled their land homes to self-isolate on board—were given an almost hostile reception by locals in more-remote anchorages such as Great Barrier Island. The locals felt that the yachties were depleting the island’s limited supplies and unnecessarily exposing them to possible infection, and perhaps resented the appearance that while people on land were being desperately inconvenienced, the sailors seemed to be enjoying a holiday of swimming, fishing and moving from anchorage to anchorage. Finally, the police were asked to intervene.

The New Zealand Marine Association last year sent out emissaries to Fiji and Tahiti, and as far afield as Mexico and Panama, to entice cruisers toward New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere cyclone season. Presently, 300 westbound yachts are waiting in Tahiti for the gates to open. The Whangarei Town Basin Marina receives daily inquiries from the Americas saying: “The Galapagos is closed. Can we come if it is nonstop?” Any response would be obsolete before the ink was dry because the situation is too fluid.

Soon, as a French Territory, Tahiti will open. But New Caledonia, while sharing the same status, will still require a 14-day isolation in a hotel at the owner’s expense and then a further seven days on board without credit for time at sea.

The point is, there can be no real clarity while nations differ in pandemic strategies, bend to political and economic pressures, brace for the dreaded second wave, and await results of vaccine research, production and, undoubtedly, uneven distribution.

But take heart: By nature we cruisers are an adaptable lot. This COVID-19 crisis will test our patience, but in time we will once again escape to the boundless blue.

Two-time circumnavigator and author Alvah Simon is a contributing editor to Cruising World.

Offshore in the Blue Atlantic

By Hank Schmitt

Hank Schmitt has spent the past 15 winters aboard his Swan 48, Avocation, in the Caribbean. He won’t soon forget his “COVID-cruise” home to New York this past spring. (David Lyman/)

I have been fortunate to spend the past 15 winter sailing seasons in the Caribbean. My regular port of refuge is St. Maarten, with numerous flights and a high level of quality marine services. Most fellow veteran sailors thought the challenges inflicted by the one-two punch of hurricanes Maria and Irma were insufferable enough. But it turns out nobody had a pandemic plan in place from the smallest Caribbean island to world leaders. The quick shutting down of borders caught many skippers by surprise, locking many in place. Those caught at sea, as islands closed entirely, were in double trouble.

Obligations to departing charter guests in Dominica, along with confusion over the ever-changing closing dates of borders, caught me solo-sailing 180 nautical miles in 24 hours from Dominica to St. Maarten…arriving 11 hours after the island had closed. A 48-hour reprieve under Q flag only deepened the resolve of customs and border patrol to enforce the closure, which led me to Plan B: a sail to the United States Virgin Islands. I could not get into St. Maarten, but with my Swan 48, Avocation, being an America-flagged vessel, and me being an American citizen, I would be guaranteed entry.

In my mind, onboard email capability is not a necessity. So, before leaving St. Maarten, I therefore had to relay by text to friends ashore my answers to the COVID-19-related questions that US Customs was posing that were required 24 hours before arrival. After another solo overnight sail from St. Maarten to Charlotte Amalie, I dropped anchor off the Customs office located at the Blyden Ferry Terminal to clear in. No one in the office had received my pre-arrival health declaration, but no matter. Ten minutes later, I was legally welcomed back to US territory with no quarantine, no restrictions, no fee—not even a temperature check.

This is not to say that everything was normal. At the airport, the National Guard was performing temperature checks for passengers arriving by plane. The cruise-ship terminals were empty, hotels closed, charters canceled and the nearby British Virgin Islands under a no-sail edict. Seeing zero sails traversing Sir Francis Drake Channel at the height of the Caribbean sailing season was somewhat apocalyptic.

Finally having an island to shelter in place allowed me to watch from afar via The New York Times app and WhatsApp video calls as the world changed under pandemic lockdown. As the days turned to weeks that were closing in on insurance-policy-imposed deadlines for moving to safe harbors ahead of the impending hurricane season, I was witness to the looming logistical nightmare of stranded boats within closed islands with no way for owners or crew to board. Some owners chartered planes—and in one case an entire cargo plane—to get to their boats via St. Thomas.

The group that runs the annual Salty Dawg Rally quickly pivoted to invite boats to join a loose federation of yachts departing weekly over several Sundays, helping roughly 185 boats get home. Almost all chose to listen to weather routers who decided the safest way to return to the States was through the Bahamas to Florida and up the coast. Since many were cruising couples sailing shorthanded, this seemed a safer choice. One big COVID-19 change: Sailors were setting sail shorthanded and not flying in additional crew to help.

Off the coast of St. Maarten, a patrol boat shadowed Avocation, making sure her skipper did not come ashore. (Hank Schmitt/)

I have made the passage from the Caribbean to New England every year since 1999. Normally I sail with a full crew of paying charter guests, but this year I decided to return doublehanded. Most years, I stay east and sail almost due north on a beam reach to Bermuda on the first stretch before making the second, more-challenging leg from Bermuda across the Gulf Stream to Newport.

This year, with a departure from Red Hook—100 miles farther west from my usual departure point—we were lucky to not have to maintain easting to get to Bermuda (which was closed anyway) and were able to sail a relaxed broad reach. I seldom set a waypoint sailing offshore, but rather try to find a comfortable and quick sailing angle for the first half of a passage. If you are within 20 or even 30 degrees of your desired course, you are OK, as long as you have a good idea of the next wind shift. It gets even more important to follow a compass course to a waypoint the last couple of days.

By the time we hit the latitude of Bermuda, we were 160 nautical miles west of the island, and had shaved 100 miles off the traditional passage. After four days of trade-wind sailing, the breeze kicked up from the northeast above Bermuda, which allowed us to crack off and sail west on a broad reach to set up our Gulf Stream crossing. When the winds went southwest a day and a half later, we were able to tack over and sail north to cross the Gulf Stream with the winds and current running in roughly the same direction. Our course was north, but we were making northeast over the ground while in the Stream. We rounded Montauk, New York, some eight and a half days out and were docked before noon, just shy of a nine-day trip dock to dock.

Now that I am home, I look back on my shortened COVID-19 Caribbean season and am trying to predict what next season will look like. Will there be the same rallying cry to return next winter or will many cruisers feel required to stay close to home as a theoretical second wave reels up? Or will more sailors than ever choose to social distance by taking off on their boats looking for safer places to shelter until a vaccine signals the all-clear? At this moment, who knows?

Veteran voyager Hank Schmitt is the founder and proprietor of Offshore Sailing Opportunities, a networking service that links boat owners with prospective crews. For more, visit its website.

Marooned in the Maldives

by Judy Sundin

After six weeks on board, a walk on the beach was pure bliss. (Courtesy The Sundins /)

We are a couple, Sherman and Judy Sundin, sailing the world on our Bristol 41, Fairwinds 1. We arrived in Uligan in the northern Maldives on March 15, with plans to continue to transit the Indian Ocean and then sail back to the southern Caribbean, completing our circumnavigation. In the three days it took to sail from Sri Lanka, so much had changed. The check-in was unusual with our temperatures being taken, but the masked and gloved officials did not come aboard.

At midnight on March 20, the Maldives closed its borders. Several boats that arrived after the closure were provided with a brief time to rest and take on fuel, food and water, but were then asked to leave the Maldives. Borders were closing like falling dominoes, and we were grateful we could officially stay put. Access to shore was prohibited, but we could swim around our boats. SIM cards for cellphones and other supplies were provided. Then we waited. As the weeks passed, our small home became even smaller: 36 steps for a round-trip spin around the deck; seven and a half steps from bow to stern belowdecks; two paces across.

We looked at our options. Tanzania was the only country open, but with our own health care concerns, we couldn’t go to a country that had basically ignored the virus, other than suggesting that herbal tea and prayer were a cure. After 20 days, we were given permission to mingle with other cruisers in the anchorage but were not granted shore access. Just how serious was this situation? How long would it last? Had the world gone mad?

Lots of questions, no answers.

COVID-19 cases started to explode in the capital city of Malé. A city of approximately 220,000 people on an island measuring a little over 3 square miles, it is one of the most densely populated cities on Earth. In the meantime, behind the scenes, many of our fellow cruisers were toiling away tirelessly, organizing supply deliveries and searching for alternative anchorages that we might get permission to go to. With a strict no-movement order in place, the latter was not getting any traction.

We once again made contact with our respective embassies to see if they could seek permission for us to return to Malaysia. No luck. We had to stay put. Yet the southwest monsoon season was approaching. The weather was clearly turning and the wind shifting, so we moved across to the western side of the lagoon and found some protection behind the reef and the small island of Innafinolhu.

The COVID crisis put Judy and Sherman Sundin’s circumnavigation on hold in the Maldives. (Courtesy The Sundins/)

Several boats successfully sought and received permission to sail to Malé and prepared to continue on their journey. Some had permits to go to the British Indian Ocean Territory in the Chagos Archipelego, while other EU-registered vessels received permission to sail to Reunion Island. As US sailors, both of those places were still closed to us. The rumor was that the Seychelles would open up on June 1, but where to after that?

Our agent was able to secure us permission to go ashore on Innafinolhu. After six weeks of limited exercise, my first walk on the island was blissful. We had turned a corner somehow, and the fact that we could once again resume sundowners on a beach felt like life had taken a turn for the better. Our conversations could be about trivial things instead of our stagnant situation.

However, a cyclone was forming in the Bay of Bengal—not that far away, but heading north. Its tail was sucking all the energy out of this side of the Indian Ocean, and we were about to get hammered. Our agent, horrified at the videos sent to him showing our tenuous anchoring conditions, immediately called the embassies on our behalf to try to get them to put pressure on the government to give us permission to move to other anchorages for our safety. It wasn’t granted, turning it into a wild week of broken rode snubbers and open-sea-passage conditions in our anchorage.

With a combination of the restricted-movement order and bad weather, our supply boat had not made it up this far north. Our supplies were dwindling. We continued to wait for news of any path to open up. The confinement and constant weather worries had surely tested our patience and our mental health.

Finally, we were given permission to move south to Malé. This had become the epicenter of COVID-19 in the Maldives, so we sailed there with some trepidation. Still, it felt wonderful to be on the move and at sea. With the assistance of our agent, we were able to resupply, collect our parts and get our medications. There are four boats remaining here in Malé. After 90 days of being in lockdown, the restrictions were lifted. We will stay here for the time being while we seek permission to go to the Seychelles. From there, we will decide where to go next: South Africa if it opens, the Med via the Suez Canal, or back across the Indian Ocean to Asia. Our uncertain travels continue.

Judy and Sherman Sundin, an Aussie and American, respectively, met while working for American Express in Sydney. They purchased Fairwinds 1 in 2012, and set sail for the Caribbean. They’ve been living aboard and exploring the world ever since.

Isolated on the Intracoastal

By Tory Salvia

When Tory Salvia set off down the ICW last winter, he hoped to see countless fine sunsets like this one. (Tory Salvia/)

On December 6, 2019, I awoke aboard my Mariner 36 sloop, Sparkle Plenty, to sun streaming into the cabin, totally unaware of the crisis that would unfold in the months ahead. Outside, a chilly Chesapeake Bay wind blew out of the south. With two crew, we soon motored out the narrow creek on the West River, about 10 miles south of Annapolis, Maryland. I contemplated the voyage ahead to Georgetown, South Carolina. There I would spend the winter in relative warmth. My plan was to return in April and resume my life.

After a rough three-day trip to Hampton, Virginia, we carried on to the Elizabeth River and into “the Ditch.” On the FM radio I heard something about “China” and “virus” but paid no attention. My focus was on bridge openings and making our designated anchorages before the early winter sunset. Our trip south was relatively uneventful except for one grounding on a mud bank that required a tow, my first ever in nearly 45 years of sailing. Soon I would be aground again.

In Georgetown, South Carolina, on December 21, I docked at Harborwalk Marina, just 100 yards off Front Street, the town’s main drag. I flew home for Christmas and returned at the end of January. By then, Wuhan, China, was starting to appear in the news with reports of a new virus. “Just another flu,” I thought.

By the end of January, the Wuhan outbreak was starting to make international news. In the US, February was a lost month. Even though the number of countries reporting the virus had exploded, locally it was business as usual. Then in early March, the country seemed to wake up. Once the focus shifted to “community spread,” I suddenly realized the virus might be here. Perhaps aboard the next transient boat? My slip mate’s boat? My boat?

Until now, our small group of liveaboards had shared drinks and cooked dinners together. As COVID-19 became a local issue, we started looking at each other with apprehension. What effect would the virus have on our plans? What about Intracoastal Waterway bridges? Would the Corps of Engineers close the Ditch? What about the hundreds of boats about to head north? Should we sail or remain in port? As public health officials called for people to stay home, I decided to remain in Georgetown through April, for my own safety and the general good. Soon marinas started closing along the ICW, local businesses shut down, and social distancing became the new mantra. Few transients passed through. Cruisers went into hunker-down survival mode.

With cases spiking in Maryland, I extended my stay in South Carolina through May. Each morning, I awoke early with plans to accomplish several tasks, but my energy quickly dissipated. I experienced what many have described as “COVID-19 malaise.” In the evenings, I walked the historic district. The streets were deserted. I had a cab deliver provisions purchased online. I did laundry at midnight. I avoided my slip mates. I wore a mask and gloves whenever I left the boat.

Once Maryland allowed recreational boating to resume in late May, it was time to return home. But my June voyage was not what I had envisioned. I had wanted a leisurely passage, visiting towns and isolated anchorages along the ICW, followed by a week or so of cruising the lower Chesapeake. But that was the pre-COVID-19 world. Now, a fast passage was in order, with limited to no external contacts. Then, suddenly, my local crewmember became unavailable. I immediately put out a crew call on my social media and crew finder sites.

It turned into a different trip for the filmmaker. (Tory Salvia/)

The first reply was from Bill Cullen, an extremely experienced sailor known for his gear talks at boat-show seminars. Our passage would be a delivery with as few outside interactions as possible; we would sail as many miles as possible during the long summer days before dropping the hook. During the entire passage, we stayed at only one marina, in Myrtle Beach. From our departure, we raised sail whenever possible. Contrary to some “experts,” you can sail or at least motorsail much of the ICW when the wind is off your stern quarter.

With two weeks of provisions stowed aboard plus extra diesel and water, we made 12-hour runs and 70-plus-mile days; consistent southerlies allowed us to keep sail up along much of the Ditch. We free-sailed the wider rivers, sounds and the Chesapeake. Sailing added 1 to 2 knots to our motoring speed and more to our morale.

It was a fast but eventful trip, so quick that my relief crew was unable to join me, but Bill carried on. Ten days out of Georgetown, we pulled into my slip in the small village of Galesville.

As I write this, I am nearing the end of my self-imposed 14-day quarantine aboard. I made this decision long ago to protect my family and friends once I returned. Outside the marina bubble in the village, most people are not wearing masks. What are they thinking? In rough weather, sailors wear PFDs to protect themselves and their crew mates. If you go overboard without a PFD, you make a rescue much more difficult, putting yourself and other crew at greater risk. Right now, because of COVID-19, we are all experiencing some very rough weather. Like PFDs, we need to wear masks to protect each other.

Once my quarantine ends, I am apprehensive about leaving the boat. I feel like a singlehander returning from a long voyage at sea, unsure of my land legs. I am already weary of constantly being on guard. I am unsure about my future. Will I remain here, or will I sail south again? The only certainty I have is that Sparkle Plenty still pulls at her dock lines.

Filmmaker Tory Salvia specializes in nautical productions and is the president of the Sailing Channel LLC.

Quiet and Connection Down Under

By Lin Pardey

Meanwhile, in Australia, Lin Pardey found the silence in Sydney Harbor spooky. (Lin Pardey /)

Cruising on,” I wrote to my family in the early days of the pandemic. “Not much has changed.” And in most ways, despite the COVID-19 restrictions here in Australia, that was true.

In mid-March, after a two-and-a-half-month layover near Melbourne to spend time with David’s first granddaughter and to welcome his first grandson, we set sail east and then north aboard his 40-foot cutter, Sahula, slowly meandering toward Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. “Slowly” is the operative word. We didn’t want to get into the tropics before the end of the cyclone season. We enjoyed beautiful, isolated anchorages near Wilsons Promontory National Park and the excitement of crossing the shallow river bar at the coastal village of Lakes Entrance. Because we had little internet access, we enjoyed days of solitude, reading, catching up with onboard projects, and walks on shore.

Only when we ran low on provisions and headed into the town of Eden two weeks later did we learn the government was clamping things down to contain the virus. Self-isolation was to start the very next day. The last nonessential shops were being closed indefinitely as we walked through this normally vibrant little town. The market shelves had dozens of bare spots as I topped up our supply of fresh food. I was thankful I had previously done a large reprovisioning, so didn’t need toilet paper or paper towels.

We carefully read the new regulations and found no direct reference to people living on yachts, other than to self-isolate and go out only to exercise or buy food. As we journeyed northward, we tried to avoid shopping for groceries more than necessary and took the recommended precautions when we did. The only other times we were within 100 meters of another person was when we topped up on water and fuel.

It was three weeks after the self-isolation orders had gone into effect that we reached Sydney Harbor. And there I had a small taste of how difficult the COVID-19 restrictions were for most other people. Since it was legal to take walks ashore together for exercise purposes, we called David’s daughter, who lives in an a very small terrace house only a few miles from where we anchored. “Come on down to the park here at Blackwattle Bay. Bring Peaches (the dog) for her walk. We can stroll and talk as long as we stay 2 meters apart.” My arms actually ached from wanting to give her kids, Emily and Lachlan, hugs when we met.

Fortunately for us, Sydney Sails was considered an essential business because the crew there makes safety gear bags for the ferry fleet. Thus we were able have the boat measured and a sail fitted, then test the new nylon drifter Sahula needed. Kale, a fine marine electrician, was another whose occupation was declared essential. He did yeoman duty when we accidentally roasted our house batteries. The comings and goings of these tradesmen helped us feel little had changed as we had contact with other people.

It did feel spookily quiet on Sydney Harbor: almost no city sounds, only the occasional rumble of a truck across the normally traffic-laden bridge only a few hundred meters away from our anchorage. And almost no wakes to rock the boat as local yachts stayed tied up, and only a fifth the usual number of ferries crisscrossed the harbor.

When we went ashore for a walk, we did chat casually to half a dozen local liveaboards we passed. “As long as we spend most of our time on board, the local authorities don’t care if we move from anchorage to anchorage,” one told us as we lingered alongside in our dinghy.

The marine police in some of the ports to the north of Sydney had different interpretations of the regulations. On April 28, six weeks after the self-isolation period began, we left Sydney to continue northward. At a small market in the Pittwater region on Broken Bay (about 20 miles north of Sydney Harbor), we chatted with an American sailor who had been told he must find a mooring and not move from there until the lockdown was over. But no one approached us during the two weeks we spent in the isolated-feeling rivers and creeks of Broken Bay.

Lin was heartened when she could spruce things up down below and entertain again. (Lin Pardey /)

The American sailor was the first of almost two dozen overseas cruisers we met who were questioning their next moves. They were all stuck meandering the coast of New South Wales as Queensland closed its border to everyone other than residents. Many of these cruisers are having to fight for visa extensions to keep their stays legal. Because I hold both an American and New Zealand passport, David is a returning Queenslander, and Sahula’s hailing port is Townsville, the two of us can sail on to the Barrier Reef, then back to New Zealand.

It was also in Broken Bay that we heard what to me felt like exciting news. As of the next day, anyone in New South Wales could safely and legally have two other adults over for a visit. I immediately invited two Sydney friends to join us on board. Suddenly I realized just how much I missed entertaining, having an excuse to dream up special treats, give the boat an extra bit of sprucing up. When Ben and Di climbed on board, and Di reached out with her elbow, I began to do the same.

“No, that doesn’t feel right tonight,” Di said. Then we both shook our heads and eagerly grabbed each other in a hug. Now I knew what I had craved most of all in these strange COVID-19 days: the warmth that comes from true human contact.

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scootoaster · 4 years ago

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Five stories of sailors who weathered COVID-19 out at sea

Storm on the horizon: For the Kiwi crew of Telasker, the dark skies served as a COVID-19 metaphor for their strange South Pacific odyssey. (Courtesy Talasker/)

Two-time circumnavigator and prolific sailing writer Lin Pardey is a longtime, cherished and regular contributor to Cruising World. This story originally featured on Cruising World.

Problems in the Pacific

By Alvah Simon

The Walker family from New Zealand had set out on a long voyage around the Pacific Rim aboard their 57-foot Talasker. (Courtesy Talasker/)

They made the hard decision to turn around; as it turned out, it was much harder than they could have imagined.

When their journey was derailed by COVID-19. Their voyage home was difficult but successful. (Courtesy Talasker/)

But take heart: By nature we cruisers are an adaptable lot. This COVID-19 crisis will test our patience, but in time we will once again escape to the boundless blue.

Two-time circumnavigator and author Alvah Simon is a contributing editor to Cruising World.

Offshore in the Blue Atlantic

By Hank Schmitt

Hank Schmitt has spent the past 15 winters aboard his Swan 48, Avocation, in the Caribbean. He won’t soon forget his “COVID-cruise” home to New York this past spring. (David Lyman/)

Off the coast of St. Maarten, a patrol boat shadowed Avocation, making sure her skipper did not come ashore. (Hank Schmitt/)

Veteran voyager Hank Schmitt is the founder and proprietor of Offshore Sailing Opportunities, a networking service that links boat owners with prospective crews. For more, visit its website.

Marooned in the Maldives

by Judy Sundin

After six weeks on board, a walk on the beach was pure bliss. (Courtesy The Sundins /)

Lots of questions, no answers.

The COVID crisis put Judy and Sherman Sundin’s circumnavigation on hold in the Maldives. (Courtesy The Sundins/)

Isolated on the Intracoastal

By Tory Salvia

When Tory Salvia set off down the ICW last winter, he hoped to see countless fine sunsets like this one. (Tory Salvia/)

It turned into a different trip for the filmmaker. (Tory Salvia/)

It was a fast but eventful trip, so quick that my relief crew was unable to join me, but Bill carried on. Ten days out of Georgetown, we pulled into my slip in the small village of Galesville.

Filmmaker Tory Salvia specializes in nautical productions and is the president of the Sailing Channel LLC.

Quiet and Connection Down Under

By Lin Pardey

Meanwhile, in Australia, Lin Pardey found the silence in Sydney Harbor spooky. (Lin Pardey /)

Cruising on,” I wrote to my family in the early days of the pandemic. “Not much has changed.” And in most ways, despite the COVID-19 restrictions here in Australia, that was true.

Lin was heartened when she could spruce things up down below and entertain again. (Lin Pardey /)

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2019

Welcome to the second part of our annual “Staff Picks,” in which the Ani-Gamers team selects some of our favorite anime, manga, and video games of the past year. This time we’re talking video games!

As usual there are a lot of games to cover, and between our two contributors we weren’t able to play nearly as many of them as we’d like. This year saw two standout first-party Nintendo RPGs, including the first-ever original core-series Pokémon games on a home console, the long-awaited release of Hideo Kojima’s inscrutable Death Stranding, a new AAA Star Wars action game (Jedi: Fallen Order), and both Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds. Meanwhile, last year’s big story of game industry unionization has continued to make headlines, notably at the Game Developer’s Conference in the spring, where major industry figures publically expressed their support for unionization. And that’s not the only area where politics had a big impact on gaming in 2019 — Blizzard’s suspension of Blitzchung over his support for the Hong Kong protests highlighted the contradiction between the values held by game industry workers (including pro players) and their bosses. As uncomfortable as these conversations are, they’re vital for building a more ethical industry.

In terms of the games themselves, many of them didn’t make it out of our piles of shame in time for the Staff Picks, but the ones that made the cut cover a wide range of genres, including complex action games, extremely anime JRPGs, and obtuse puzzlers. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own 2019 picks in the comments.

David Estrella

#3: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

The hardest part about Sekiro was mending my relationship with my podcast co-host after debating the ethical conundrum of difficult video games and being made to look like a prick on tape. I’m completely making up what happened so don’t ban me from the site, Evan. Levity aside, the irony is that I never actually finished Sekiro and gave up at an endgame optional boss. A far departure from both Dark Souls and Bloodborne, From Software’s katana-focused revenge story did a Shinobi Execution to my hundreds of hours of experience and I was forced to learn everything over again. Some people really got on board with the action-focused gameplay whereas I flunked out of samurai school, so Sekiro is only the third-best pick from me on my list. If there had been more lore to pick up off the ground, I probably would have finished it, but I think everyone’s favorite fantasy author, George R.R. Martin, has me covered with Elden Ring, which will definitely be closer to what I expect from Hidetaka Miyazaki than what I got from Sekiro.

#2: Resident Evil 2

I originally wrote in Fire Emblem: Three Houses in here but I never finished that game in 2019. Resident Evil 2 (2019) on the other hand is a game I beat again and again throughout the year when I should have been focusing on other games (like Fire Emblem). First released on PlayStation over 20 years ago, the RE2 remake takes every great bit from that classic and reimagines it in the new engine used for Resident Evil 7. Fighting to survive Raccoon City’s zombie apocalypse again with Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in a game rebuilt for modern standards is not something I expected to see, but I suppose Capcom didn’t want to be shown up by Square Enix reviving the 32-bit era with the upcoming episodic Final Fantasy VII remakes. Conveniently enough, now that I’ve played RE2 inside out, we’re already getting the Resident Evil 3 remake in April, so now I’ve got one more good reason to put off finishing a single run of Fire Emblem in my lifetime.

#1: Pokémon Sword & Shield

No one should be surprised that I would call Pokémon Sword and Shield my top pick of the year. The only purpose for me doing this is to get it in writing but otherwise, yes, I really loved this iteration of the series. The reasons why I enjoyed it so much have practically nothing to do with the hyped-up gimmicks like Dynamax battles or the shift to console. On the one hand, things like story and environment design could have been much better, and on the other hand, I never want to go back to the old games after experiencing all of the quality-of-life changes made in Sword and Shield. Details that casual players won’t care about or ever become aware of like paying for max EVs with vitamins or using mints to change Natures have completely changed the game for anyone serious about raising Pokémon. If I were asked if these improvements were worth losing over 400 Pokémon from the roster, I would probably cry. Maybe. Maybe it was worth it.

Evan Minto

#3: Katana Zero

I played Superhot on a VR rig once, and it was the closest I ever felt to being a real-life action hero. In that game, “time moves when you do,” allowing you to plan out elaborate, perfectly executed lethal maneuvers in Matrix-esque bullet time. Katana Zero applies a similar concept to the 2-D action-platformer. You play as a samurai assassin in a dystopian cyberpunk future, equipped with a power that allows you to rewind time when you die and slow it down while in combat. The former is mostly experienced as a simple respawn mechanic, but the latter is what turns Katana Zero into a unique hybrid of a puzzle and action game. Each room is filled with bad guys who can one-hit kill you, sometimes so many that defeating them all would be impossible using standard action game timing. Slowing things down, however, turns the game into a sort of puzzle, and allows you to link up dashes, wall jumps, sword slashes, and projectile throws in the span of a second or two. When the game plays the room back in real time, you really do feel like some kind of superhero. It doesn’t hurt that the whole thing is wrapped up in an impeccable audiovisual package, featuring intricately animated pixel art, pulsing electronic music, and a clever dialogue display system that combines animated and colored text. The story is pretty standard stuff for the genre, but the surprisingly funny dialogue does a great job cutting the melodrama. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but Katana Zero is a clever, well-crafted little action game.

#2: Baba Is You

I tried Baba Is You for the first time at a friend’s place, and was instantly sold. After just a few levels, I told him, “this is a game for game designers.” The core mechanic is deceptively, deviously simple: the rules defining how the game world operates are blocks within the world, and you can rearrange them. The early levels are straightforward, if abstract, plays on this concept. Form the sentence “Flag is win” and you’ve got a win condition. Break up the sentence “Wall is stop” and voila: walls are no longer an obstacle. It’s when Baba Is You takes the core mechanic and folds it in on itself repeatedly, however, that this puzzler reaches the realm of obtuse, mind-bending complexity. You can change which sprite represents the player character, or even control multiple players at once. You can separate sprites into layers that prevent them from intersecting with each other. Even the words that form the sentences themselves can be modified! Baba Is You sometimes reaches nearly impossible levels of difficulty, but since you can choose the order in which to try the puzzles, the game will never stop you dead in your tracks. This kind of bizarre, postmodern weirdness is exactly what I come to indie games for.

#1: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I never even finished the easiest half of Fire Emblem: Fates (Birthright), but I was glued to Awakening on the DS, my introduction to the franchise. In Three Houses Nintendo and Intelligent Systems aren’t even pretending that Fire Emblem is anything but a dating sim; you play as a part-time professor, part-time general, and the tactical RPG battles are interlaced with segments where you have to run around your home base talking to all of your students/units (fully voiced this time). At first this cumbersome back-and-forth, combined with a bevy of new combat mechanics, can make Three Houses feel like a game trapped between two conflicting identities, but after a few hours it clicked for me. All of the game’s seemingly mismatched systems, from the battalions to the tea parties, talk to and reinforce each other. Building relationships between your units boosts their stats and opens up opportunities to train them in new skills, all of which make them more effective in battle. Then their battle experience alongside their comrades feeds right back into their relationships. These mechanics have been around in some form since at least Awakening, but here they meld together like never before. Three Houses is a bewildering and sometimes overcomplicated successor to the Fire Emblem legacy, but the whole mess somehow comes together into a spellbinding experience.

Check out our 2019 Manga Staff Picks as well!

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Video Games of 2019 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 8, 2020 at 4:58 PM.

By: David Estrella

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

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danithebookaholic-blog · 6 years ago

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NEW RELEASE!

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The Rule of Many (The Rule of One #2)

By Ashley Saunders

Published by: Skyscape Publication Date: May 7th 2019 Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Born to a death sentence in a near-future America, rebellious sisters herald a revolution—if they can survive.

Twins Ava and Mira Goodwin defy the Rule of One simply by existing. The single-child law, ruthlessly enforced by Texas’s Governor Roth, has made the sisters famous fugitives and inspirations for the resurgent rebellion known as the Common.

But the relentless governor and his implacable Texas State Guard threaten that fragile hope, as Roth consolidates his power in a bid for ultimate authority.

As Ava and Mira relinquish the relative safety of their Canadian haven to stand against Roth, new allies arise: Owen, a gifted young programmer, impulsively abandons his comfortable life in a moment of compassion, while Zee, an abused labor camp escapee, finds new purpose in resistance.

The four will converge on Dallas for a reckoning with Roth, with nothing less than their destinies—and the promise of a future free from oppression—on the line.

Disobedience means death. But a life worth living demands rebellion.

Goodreads

Excerpt:

MIRA

Limos and luxury cars line the extensive circular driveway, stuffed with partygoers ready for the welcoming bash. Mrs. and Mr. Cross have already arrived with much fanfare from their son and his doting employees. I wonder if Ciro’s sisters are here.

I hear him get on the microphone, introducing his unwitting parents onto the stage of the overflowing banquet hall, the governor of Alberta and the mayor of Calgary looking on from the front row.

Everything’s falling nicely into place. If only the man of the hour would show.

I look at my watch: 7:30 p.m. He’s late. Ava’s knee bounces furiously, as if she can shake out her anxiety.

“He’ll come,” I say.

From our hideout in the corner of the foyer, shadowed and easily overlooked, we have the best seats in the house. A perfect vantage point to see and be unseen. Ava scans the budding festivities through the glass walls on our left. I keep my eyes on the glass windows straight ahead, seeing past the dazzling flares from the cars’ headlights, holding out for the first glimpse of the president.

A string quartet begins to play, and an electric energy pulsates through the hotel, enlivening the crowd around us with a giddy exhilaration, and I can’t help but feel it too. Eager, I spring to my feet. I pace up and down our tucked-away corner, checking the time, watching Emery from across the room, waiting on her signal.

“Do you hear that?” Ava asks. She stares up at the ceiling. I move beside her as we listen to the muffled roar of whirling blades slicing the air somewhere above the building.

“A helicopter,” Ava says.

“He’s here.”

We look to Emery, who stands near the entrance, her gaze locked skyward. Guests file past as she removes a headscarf from her pocket, drapes the silk over her distinctive curls, and pulls it into a tight knot at the back of her neck. She folds her right arm over her chest, our cue to move.

I feel, rather than see, Barend steal into place behind us, our long shadow, as we push to the end of the foyer. Pawel detaches himself from the crowd and crosses our path as he follows Emery out the front door. “Lots of luck,” he whispers earnestly. Like luck has anything to do with it. It’s all up to us.

Our target is the oversized clock that consumes the entire wall alongside the vacant concierge desk. Ava stops before the number six, and we slip behind a false door and stride side by side down an empty staff hallway. Three right turns, two left, a final door, and we’re outside.

There are no lights behind the hotel and no people. The night is chilly and moonless, but we find the footpath we were directed to take and make our silent way to the small grove of trees just twenty yards out.

Ten paces in, Ava and I turn from the path and weave through the evergreens until we spot the narrow clearing that is to be our stage. We position ourselves in its center, shoulder to shoulder, and wait. Somewhere to our right, concealed within the trees and darkness, Barend stands guard.

When told of the plan, Emery immediately authorized the private rendezvous. She knows pleading our case face-to-face with the president is the only way. Cameras and screens provide a barrier, Emery said. The media paints you solely as American rebels. Let him see how human you are. With Pawel at her side, Emery is to meet and escort the president here, while Ciro entertains his parents and guests, keeping them safely ignorant inside the banquet hall.

The minutes tick off, and Ava starts to shiver from either the cold or nerves. Or is that me shivering? Ava and I brought no weapons with us, to show good faith. No guns, no knives. Just us, with our naked conviction and hope.

This could be our last stop, a final end to the endless chase. A place to plan and plot and devise our crucial counterattack.

Ava nudges me with a sharp elbow. She points to the trees in front of us. Two distinct shapes emerge, a faint silhouette floating behind.

“Ready?” I whisper needlessly. Ava tightens her jaw, and I ball my hands into white-knuckled fists. I take a big gulp of air and exhale slowly. My breath comes out in swirling smoke, reminding me of a dragon. There’s a fire inside me, and suddenly I feel warm and calm. One look from Ava and I know she feels it too.

We’re ready.

The outlines become faces and bodies. Emery appears first, then President Moore, with Pawel a few steps behind. I stare at Moore, transfixed, my eyes glued to the man who can grant us refuge.

He stumbles forward, as if his own eyes have not yet adjusted to the dark. I search his every feature, looking for any hint of surprise, or shock, or understanding. But his face, though startlingly attractive in the starlight, is blank. Indifferent.

“President Moore,” Emery says, “this is Ava and Mira Goodwin.” He looks at us cross-eyed, his round eyes squinting as he takes us in. We all stand motionless, awaiting his response.

“You don’t look identical to me,” the president finally states, his thin voice magnified in the still night air. “One of you’s slightly taller, the other rounder.”

The leader of the free world opens with an insult. My first reaction is to defend my identicalness. Surprising, when all I’ve ever wanted is to be seen as different from Ava.

“Sir—” Ava and I speak at the same time.

The president laughs. “Ah, there it is.” The ground spins as he turns to leave. “This conversation will be moved to a different setting. Just the twins and me.”

Barend detaches from the shadows. Pawel and Emery enclose my sister and me. Ava grabs my arm, her grip tight enough to bruise.

“We do not agree to any change—” Emery starts, but Moore shouts over her.

“Security!”

Everything shatters, all plans and expectations smashed to pieces.

A gunshot rings out, then two more.

“Run!” Emery yells.

The last thing I see is Ava’s face, twisted in fear and fury.

Then something covers my eyes. My mouth.

I’m thrown over a bulky shoulder, the deafening sounds of a helicopter growing louder with every footfall. With every one of my muffled screams.

I’m shoved against something solid. I reach out, arms flailing, but there’s no one beside me. Ava.

I feel the chopper lift into the sky. Two spinning blades taking me higher and higher away from Common ground.

Purchase:

Amazon

Author Bio:

Hailing from the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, Ashley Saunders and Leslie Saunders are award-winning filmmakers and twin sisters who honed their love of storytelling at The University of Texas at Austin. While researching The Rule of One, they fell in love with America’s national parks, traveling the path of Ava and Mira. The sisters can currently be found with their Boston terriers in sunny Los Angeles, exploring hiking trails and drinking entirely too much yerba mate.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

From one bookaholic to another, I hope I’ve helped you find your next fix. —Dani

Have a book you’d like to suggest or one you’d like me to review? Please feel free to leave your comments down below.

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jamesgeiiger · 6 years ago

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Did 2018 usher in a creeping tech dystopia?

We may remember 2018 as the year when technology’s dystopian potential became clear, from Facebook’s role enabling the harvesting of our personal data for election interference to a seemingly unending series of revelations about the dark side of Silicon Valley’s connect-everything ethos.

The list is long: High-tech tools for immigration crackdowns. Fears of smartphone addiction . YouTube algorithms that steer youths into extremism. An experiment in gene-edited babies .

Doorbells and concert venues that can pinpoint individual faces and alert police. Repurposing genealogy websites to hunt for crime suspects based on a relative’s DNA. Automated systems that keep tabs of workers’ movements and habits. Electric cars in Shanghai transmitting their every movement to the government.

It’s been enough to exhaust even the most imaginative sci-fi visionaries.

“It doesn’t so much feel like we’re living in the future now, as that we’re living in a retro-future,” novelist William Gibson wrote this month on Twitter. “A dark, goofy ’90s retro-future.”

More awaits us in 2019, as surveillance and data-collection efforts ramp up and artificial intelligence systems start sounding more human , reading facial expressions and generating fake video images so realistic that it will be harder to detect malicious distortions of the truth.

But there are also countermeasures afoot in Congress and state government — and even among tech-firm employees who are more active about ensuring their work is put to positive ends.

“Something that was heartening this year was that accompanying this parade of scandals was a growing public awareness that there’s an accountability crisis in tech,” said Meredith Whittaker, a co-founder of New York University’s AI Now Institute for studying the social implications of artificial intelligence.

The group has compiled a long list of what made 2018 so ominous, though many are examples of the public simply becoming newly aware of problems that have built up for years. Among the most troubling cases was the revelation in March that political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica swept up personal information of millions of Facebook users for the purpose of manipulating national elections.

“It really helped wake up people to the fact that these systems are actually touching the core of our lives and shaping our social institutions,” Whittaker said.

That was on top of other Facebook disasters, including its role in fomenting violence in Myanmar , major data breaches and ongoing concerns about its hosting of fake accounts for Russian propaganda .

It wasn’t just Facebook. Google attracted concern about its continuous surveillance of users after The Associated Press reported that it was tracking people’s movements whether they like it or not.

It also faced internal dissent over its collaboration with the U.S. military to create drones with “computer vision” to help find battlefield targets and a secret proposal to launch a censored search engine in China. And it unveiled a remarkably human-like voice assistant that sounds so real that people on the other end of the phone didn’t know they were talking to a computer.

Those and other concerns bubbled up in December as lawmakers grilled Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a congressional hearing — a sequel to similar public reckonings this year with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives.

“It was necessary to convene this hearing because of the widening gap of distrust between technology companies and the American people,” Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.

Internet pioneer Vint Cerf said he and other engineers never imagined their vision of a worldwide network of connected computers would morph 45 years later into a surveillance system that collects personal information or a propaganda machine that could sway elections.

“We were just trying to get it to work,” recalled Cerf, who is now Google’s chief internet evangelist. “But now that it’s in the hands of the general public, there are people who … want it to work in a way that obviously does harm, or benefits themselves, or disrupts the political system. So we are going to have to deal with that.”

Contrary to futuristic fears of “super-intelligent” robots taking control, the real dangers of our tech era have crept in more prosaically — often in the form of tech innovations we welcomed for making life more convenient .

Part of experts’ concern about the leap into connecting every home device to the internet and letting computers do our work is that the technology is still buggy and influenced by human errors and prejudices. Uber and Tesla were investigated for fatal self-driving car crashes in March, IBM came under scrutiny for working with New York City police to build a facial recognition system that can detect ethnicity, and Amazon took heat for supplying its own flawed facial recognition service to law enforcement agencies.

In some cases, opposition to the tech industry’s rush to apply its newest innovations to questionable commercial uses has come from its own employees. Google workers helped scuttle the company’s Pentagon drone contract, and workers at Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce sought to cancel their companies’ contracts to supply tech services to immigration authorities.

“It became obvious to a lot of people that the rhetoric of doing good and benefiting society and ‘Don’t be evil’ was not what these companies were actually living up to,” said Whittaker, who is also a research scientist at Google who founded its Open Research group.

At the same time, even some titans of technology have been sounding alarms. Prominent engineers and designers have increasingly spoken out about shielding children from the habit-forming tech products they helped create.

And then there’s Microsoft President Brad Smith, who in December called for regulating facial recognition technology so that the “year 2024 doesn’t look like a page” from George Orwell’s “1984.”

In a blog post and a Washington speech, Smith painted a bleak vision of all-seeing government surveillance systems forcing dissidents to hide in darkened rooms “to tap in code with hand signals on each other’s arms.”

To avoid such an Orwellian scenario, Smith advocates regulating technology so that anyone about to subject themselves to surveillance is properly notified. But privacy advocates argue that’s not enough.

Such debates are already happening in states like Illinois, where a strict facial recognition law has faced tech industry challenges, and California, which in 2018 passed the nation’s most far-reaching law to give consumers more control over their personal data. It takes effect in 2020.

The issue could find new attention in Congress next year as more Republicans warm up to the idea of basic online privacy regulations and the incoming Democratic House majority takes a more skeptical approach to tech firms that many liberal politicians once viewed as allies — and prolific campaign donors.

The “leave them alone” approach of the early internet era won’t work anymore, said Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat poised to take the helm of the House’s antitrust subcommittee.

“We’re seeing now some of the consequences of the abuses that can occur in these platforms if they remain unregulated without meaningful oversight or enforcement,” Cicilline said.

Too much regulation may bring its own undesirable side effects, Cerf warned.

“It’s funny in a way because this online environment was supposed to remove friction from our ability to transact,” he said. “If in our desire, if not zeal, to protect people’s privacy we throw sand in the gears of everything, we may end up with a very secure system that doesn’t work very well.”

——

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Jose, California, contributed to this report.

Did 2018 usher in a creeping tech dystopia? published first on https://worldwideinvestforum.tumblr.com/

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yawednesdays-blog · 7 years ago

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The long hot summer has officially begun and our summer TBR list is on FIRE! By the beach, by the pool, by the air conditioner…we’ve good ALL the summer books.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

June 1st

Truth or Dare by Non Pratt, June 1, 2017, Walker Books, 304 pages

Love is a game with the highest risks. What are you willing to sacrifice in the name of love?

Add to your Goodreads

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle, RHCP Digital

This follow-up to her 2015 debut The Accident Season promises to be just as dark and atmospheric.

Add to your Goodreads

June 6th

The Sandcastle Empire by Kayla Olson, June 6, 2017, HarperTeen, 464 pages

We’ve been excited about this environmentally themed dystopian since we reported on its auspicious beginnings February 2016. A must read for 2017!

Add to your Goodreads

Here Lies Daniel Tate by Cristin Terrill, Simon & Schuster, 400 pages

Daniel Tate went missing at age 10. Daniel Tate returned at age 10. But this isn’t Daniel Tate. This is a con artist. And whoever has returned to take Daniel’s place may have just walked into a bigger scam than he bargained for.

Add to your Goodreads

Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee, June 6, 2017, Simon & Schuster, 367 pages

Natasha aka Tash is dealing with lots of exciting new changes. He web series has gone viral and she’s becoming internet famous. But with fame comes more exposure than she planned for. Can she handle the pressure? Can she handle her crush on fellow vlogger Thom? And more importantly, can he handle her asexuality? Fame, love and Russian literature collide in Tash Hearts Tolstoy.

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The Hundredth Queen (Book 1) by Emily R. King, June 1, 2017, Skyscape, 300 pages

Kalinda has long since resigned herself to a fate of living her life in solitude among the sisterhood. Kalinda is sickly and unfit to fight for a coveted spot as a royal wife. But unexpectedly that is precisely what happens. Kalinda is now fighting against 99 other wives and courtesans for the King’s attention, a spot Kalinda does not want. Can she survive and escape to the quiet life she was resigned to live? And is that still the life she wants?

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Everything All At Once by Katrina Leno, June 6, 2017, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 360 pages

Anxiety plagued Lottie finds herself doing the impossible after the death of her favorite aunt. Dares, challenges and facing your fears- Everything All At Once is a story about taking all life has to offer.

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Once and For All by Sarah Dessen, June 6, 2017, Viking Books for Young Reader, 400 pages

With a mother who’s famous wedding planner whose job it is to make The Big Day picture perfect, no matter what’s happening behind the scenes, it’s no wonder Louna is cynical about love. But when she meets handsome overly optimistic Ambrose, his perptual good mood just wan win her over.

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Perfect Ten by L. Philips, June 6, 2017, Viking Books for Young Readers, 352 pages

Sam has been trapped in a dating wasteland. But when he performs a Wiccan love spell with his bestie, he suddenly has not one, not two but THREE guys vying for his attention. But which of these magical suitors will be Sam’s Prefect Ten? Or is he setting the bar too high?

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Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser, June 6, 2017, Bloomsbury Childrens Books, 373 pages

“From debut author Sarah Tolcser comes an immersive and romantic fantasy set along the waterways of a magical world with a headstrong heroine determined to make her mark.”- Goodreads

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The Impossible by Tara Altebrando, June 6, 2017, Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 304 pages

“Unusual and gripping, The Possible will twist the reader round and round as it hurtles towards a sensational climax. For lovers of We Were Liars, Patrick Ness and Derren Brown.”- Goodreads

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The Impossible Light by Lily Meyers, June 6, 2017, Philomel Books

This novel-in-verse tackles body images, eating disorders and relationship with poetic rhythm.

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Wildman by J.C. Geiger, June 6, 2017, Disney-Hyperion, 336 pages

Lance Hendrick knows where’s going. He’s heading to his graduation party 400 miles away, where this valedictorian will accept the well deserved praise of his peers and affection from his girlfriend, respectively. But when his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Lance has experiences that his “normal” self would never dream of. Now reaching his destination seems less important than it did just a few days ago.

Sometimes it’s the detours in life that set us on the right path.

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The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber, June 6th, Thomas Nelson, 352 pages

In a future where Earth is run by corporations, online games for real consequences, have blackmail is just part of the job, Sofi will stop at nothing to find the brother the world believes is dead.

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Dramatically Ever After (Ever After Book 2) by Isabel Bandeira, June 6, 2017, Spencer Hill Contemporary, 378 pages

The high drama continues for Em in Ever After Book 2.

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Internet Famous by Danika Stone, June 6, 2017, Swoon Reads, 320 pages

This online fairy tale romance is threatened by a real life troll in Danika Stone’s latest novel.

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The Unliklies by Carrie Firestone, June 6, 2017, Little Brown and Company, 336 pages

“Five teens embark on a summer of vigilante good samaritanism in a novel that’s part The Breakfast Club, part The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and utterly captivating.”- Goodreads

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What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard, June 6, 2017, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 400 pages

Elizabeth as lost a lot. And physical weight is just a part of it. Now she’s trying to get through the program to gain some of what she lost back.

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Romeo, Juliet & Jim by Larry Schwart & Iva-Marie Palmer, June 6, 2017, Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt

“Shakespeare meets Gossip Girl in this modern-day tale of two star-crossed lovers that soon becomes a love triangle in the first book of a trilogy.”- Goodreads

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Dividing Eden (Book 1) by Joelle Charbonneau, June 6, 2017, HarperTeen, 336 pages

Carys and Andreus are brother and sister who shared the bond of twins and of second siblings. They never thought they’d know the stress of ruling Eden. But when the king and their older brother are killed, these siblings will be divided by the most important competition in the land, the Trial of Succession.

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Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley, June 6, 2017, Knopf Books for Young Readers, 288 pages

Imagine professing your love to a boy and never receiving a response. Now imagine it’s a year later and your working in that boy’s family book shop, surrounded by words and romance and the constant reminder of unrequited love. Welcome to Rachel’s world.

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June 13th, 2017

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali, June 13th, Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Janna is an Arab-Indian American girl, a book lover, a photographer, a graphic novelist…She’s all of these things and working out how they fit together. But when she meets Jeremy starts to care about what people think of her in a way she never used to. Janna finds herself questioning not only herself, but what it means for others to be saints, misfits and monsters.

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Want by Cindy Pon, June 13, 2017, Simon Pulse, 336 pages

“From critically acclaimed author Cindy Pon comes an edge-of-your-seat sci-fi thriller, set in a near-future Taipei plagued by pollution, about a group of teens who risk everything to save their city.” -Goodreads

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Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab, June 13, 2017, Greenwillow Books, 528 pages

Last year’s This Savage Song still plays in our hearts. We can’t wait for what Victoria has in store for Our Dark Duet!

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Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios, June 13, 2017, Henry Holt and Co., 368 pages

The title of this book says it all. There are bad boys, but worse is a Bad Romance.

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The Fallen Kingdom (The Falconer Trilogy Book 3) by Elizabeth May, June 13, 2017, Chronicle Books, 336 pages

“The long-awaited final book in the Falconer trilogy is an imaginative tour-de-force that will thrill fans of the series.” -Goodreads

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Thief’s Cunning by Sarah Ahiers, June 13, 2017, HarperTeen, 416 pages

“The companion novel to Assassin’s Heart—an action-packed fantasy that Printz Award winner Laura Ruby said “will keep you turning the pages all night long”—Thief’s Cunning picks up eighteen years later and follows Allegra Saldana as she uncovers the secrets about the line of killers she descends from.”- Goodreads

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Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children #2) by Seanan McGuire, June 13, 2017, Tor.com, 176 pages

“Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…”- Goodreads

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Obsidian And Stars by Julie Eshbaugh, June 13, 2017, Harper Teen, 368 pages

In the sequel to Ivory and Bone—the prehistoric fantasy novel that New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman described as a “richly crafted world of life-and-death stakes”—the story shifts to Mya’s viewpoint as vengeful adversaries force her to flee the life she once knew.

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Roar (Stormheart #1) by Cora Carmack, June 13, 2017, Tor Teen, 384 pages

“In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.” -Goodreads

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Be True To Me by Adele Griffin, June 13, 2017, Algonquin Young Readers, 352 pages

It’s summer 1976, Fire Island. Jean is falling for Gil, the new boy with a secret past. But she’ll have to challenge her tennis rival Fritz for the top spot and Gil’s affection.

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The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano, June 13, 2017, Disney-Hyperion, 368 pages

An inherited mansion, a new town, a boy clawing himself out of the grave….moving to a new town is never easy.

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Solider Boy by Keely Hutton, June 13, 2017, Farra, Straus & Giroux, 336 pages

“Soldier Boy begins with the story of Ricky Richard Anywar, abducted at age fourteen in 1989 to fight with Joseph Kony’s rebel army in Uganda’s decades-long civil war. Ricky is trained, armed, and forced to fight government soldiers alongside his brutal kidnappers, but never stops dreaming of escape.” -Goodreads

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Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson, June 13, 2017, HarperTeen, 272 pages

Kansas, 2065. Oklahoma 1934. London 1919. Midnight at the Electric weave three stories together for miles and generations.

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June 20th, 2017

Maybe in Paris by Rebecca Christiansen, June 20, 2017, Sky Pony Press

Keira wants to show her brother Levi the time of his life in Paris. But Levi is autistic and has just spent months in psych ward after a suicide attempt. Keira wants to believe Levi’s problems are behind him, but the deeper they get into their adventure, the more apparent Levi’s problems are. When Levi disappears from their hotel while Keira is out with a cute Scottish bassist, it might be too late for her to admit Levi needs more help than she can provide.

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Two Roads From Here by Teddy Steinkellner, June 20, 2017, Simon and Schuster, 448 pages

“Five high school seniors. Two different roads. One life-changing decision. For fans of Tommy Wallach and Patrick Ness comes a thoughtful, funny novel that explores what happens to five teens when they choose the road…and the road not taken.”- Goodreads

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June 27th, 2017

Now I Rise (The Conqueror’s Saga #2) by Kiersten White, June 27th, Delacorte Press, 496 pages

The highly anticipated sequel to As I Darken (The Conqueror’s Sage #1), a story of Vlad the Impaler as a woman.

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Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #3) by Richelle Mead, June 27, 2017, Razorbill

We’re back at the Glittering Court, but this time we see things through the prism of Mirabel’s eyes.

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Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, June 27, 2017, Katherine Tegen Books, 528 pages

“An unforgettable tale of two friends on their Grand Tour of 18th-century Europe who stumble upon a magical artifact that leads them from Paris to Venice in a dangerous manhunt, fighting pirates, highwaymen, and their feelings for each other along the way.”- Goodreads

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Girl on the Verge by Pintip Dunn, June 27, 2017, Kensington, 256 pages

“From the author of The Darkest Lie comes a compelling, provocative story for fans of I Was Here and Vanishing Girls, about a high school senior straddling two worlds, unsure how she fits in either—and the journey of self-discovery that leads her to surprising truths.”- Goodreads

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If Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak, June 27, 2017, HarperTeen, 448 pages

“With humor and heart, debut author Carlie Sorosiak weaves a story of finding people who leave and loving those who stay, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Emery Lord.”- Goodreads

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Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin, June 27, 2017, Flatiron Books, 265 pages

“In the tradition of Jandy Nelson and Rainbow Rowell, a big-hearted journey of furious friendship, crazy love, and unexpected hope after a teen’s decision to end an unwanted pregnancy.”- Goodreads

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The Impossible Vastness of US by Samantha Young, June 27, 2017, Harlequin Teen, 384 pages

India is in a new town, with a new step-sister and a new social status- or lack thereof to be exact. As India spends more time with her new sister Eloise and her boyfriend Finn in their rich new community, she learns that things are not always as they appear.

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You could read a book a day and still not get through all the June releases. Hopefully these this will be enough to keep you out of trouble this summer. If not, stay cool, we’ll be back next month with more One To Watch Books!

Ann-Eliza

Have you added our May One To Watch Books to your TBR?

One To Watch Books: Your Guide to June YA Releases The long hot summer has officially begun and our summer TBR list is on FIRE! By the beach, by the pool, by the air conditioner...we've good ALL the summer books.

#summerreads #beach reads #One To Watch Books #One To Watch Books June 2017 #Reading list

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