I think I like the reworked version more than the original, which may speak for two minds being sometimes better than one when creating music. In case you wanted something more in-line with his original work, check out our bonus track, “Should Have Taken Acid With You” remixed by Breakfast of Champions.
MP3 : Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms (Anoraak Remix)
Source : http://www.indieshuffle.com/neon-indian-psychic-chasms-anoraak-remix/
]]>Ancient rites
In ancient times, this day was a special and honored day of the year.In the Celtic calendar, it was one of the most important days of the year, representing a mid point in the year, Samhain, or “summer’s end”.
Occuring opposite the great Spring Festival of May Day, or Beltain, this day represented the turning point of the year, the eve of the new year which begins with the onset of the dark phase of the year.
And while celebrated by the Celts, the origin of this day has connections to other cultures as well, such as Egypt, and in Mexico as Dia de la Muerta, or the day of the dead.
The Celts believed that the normal laws of space and time were held in abeyance during this time, allowing a special window where the spirit world could intermingle with the living. It was a night when the dead could cross the veils and return to the land of the living to celebrate with their family, or clan. As such, the great burial mounds of Ireland were lit up with torches lining the walls, so the spirits of the dead could find their way.
Jack-o-lanterns
Out of this ancient tradition comes one of our most famous icons of the holiday: the Jack-o-lantern. Originating from Irish folkfore, the Jack-o-lantern was used as a light for the lost soul of Jack, a notorious trickster, stuck between worlds. Jack is said to have tricked the devil into a trunk of a tree and by carving an image of a cross in the tree’s trunk, he trapped the devil there. His pranks denied him access to Heaven, and having angered the devil also to Hell, so Jack was a lost soul, trapped between worlds. As a consolation, the devil gave him a sole ember to light his way through the darkness between worlds.
Originally in Ireland turnips were carved out and candles placed inside as lanterns lit to help guide Jack’s lost spirit back home. Hence the term: Jack-o-lanterns. Later, when immigrants came to the new world, pumpkins were more readily available, and so the carved pumpkins carrying a lit candle served the same function.
Festival for the dead
As the Church began to take hold in Europe the ancient Pagan rituals were co-opted into festivals of the Church. While the Church could not support a general feast for all the dead, it created a festival for the blessed dead, all those hallowed so, All Hallow’s, was transformed into All Saints and All Souls day.
Today, we have lost the significance of this most significant time of year which in modern times has turned into a candy fest with kids dressing up as action hereos.
Many cultures have ceremonies to honor their dead. In so doing, they complete a cycle of birth and death, and keep in line with a harmony and order of the universe, at time when we enter into the cycle of darkness for the upcoming year.
As you light your candles this year, keep in mind the true potency of this time, one of magical connections to the other side of life, and a time to remember those who have passed before us. A time to send our love and gratitude to them to light their way back home.
Source : http://yourehistory.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/the-true-lost-meaning-of-halloween/
]]>It may look unconventional, but those two rings point to the hours and minutes just like a normal wrist watch making it easy to read at a glance.
The inner ring is the hour hand and the outer ring is the minute hand. There is a dark void section in each ring that literally points to the time. The lights trailing off around the wrist are not just for show either, they help you pin down the exact minute by lighting up in segments.
Two Rings of Bright LED light Showing Hours and Minutes
To demonstrate, check out the image below of the blue watch. You can clearly see the inner ring has a dark section pointing to 9 and the outer ring is pointing straight up, so the time is 9 o’clock.
The lights above & below the circles indicate 1-4 minutes. Here they are half way across so that’s 2 minutes. We already know it’s 9 o’clock, but to be exact, it’s 9:02. Like all watches from Tokyoflash, Kisai Seven easy to read once you know how.
A Fully Adjustable Strap with a Seamless Butterfly Clasp
The watch itself has a hard plastic case which is curved to fit over your wrist. The strap section is polyurethane with a seamless butterfly clasp at the back. Adjusting the strap is quite clever. You simply cut the polyurethane strap down to size to fit your wrist perfectly. You can do this at home if you have some simple tools handy, or of course you can ask your local jewellers or watch shop to help. This means it is suitable for both small and large wrists.
Available with blue or white LEDs, each part of Kisai Seven has been individually custom designed and manufactured including the case, strap and uniquely programmed LED display. Like all watches from Tokyoflash Japan, it is a limited edition design which means it is guaranteed to be an original watch that not many other people own.
]]>Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told reporters the paintings — Tte de Cheval (Horse’s Head) and Verre et Pichet (Glass and Pitcher) — were found in Belgrade.
“The paintings were found in close cooperation with police from Switzerland,” Serbian media quoted Dacic as saying.
The paintings, worth millions of dollars, were snatched from a gallery in the Swiss town of Pfaeffikon, near Zurich.
The Interior Ministry said no arrests were made and declined to specify where the paintings were found.
“We are now trying to ascertain who brought the paintings into Serbia, when and how, and where they were hidden,” Serbian police director Milorad Veljovic told Reuters.
(Reporting By Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source : http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=51368
]]>Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds Samantha, and provokes intolerance among co-workers, friends and neighbors. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify.
Faced with the proposition that his disturbing visions signal disaster of one kind or another, Curtis confides in Samantha, testing the power of their bond against the highest possible stakes.
]]>Set in the near future, 2020, human boxing is now obsolete. Robot boxing is the reigning form of entertainment that gives audiences the brutal carnage without damage to human life. Jackman is Charlie Kenton, former boxer now manager of second rate robot boxers. As “Real Steel” opens we witness his robot Ambush being demolished at amusement event at a county rodeo. The promoter Ricky (arrogant and sleazy Kevin Durand) knows Charlie from his boxing days. It turns out that Charlie owes some bad people a lot of money. Charlie returns home to his love Bailey (beautiful and radiant Evangeline Lilly) with Ambush in tow. Bailey confirms that Ambush is a complete loss and reminds Charlie that he has no money. Bailey owns her father’s boxing gym in the city, and her father managed and trained Charlie when he was a contender. Bailey can’t support Charlie and keep the gym afloat.
Charlie gets word that his old girlfriend died, and he now has custody of their son Max (Goyo). Irresponsible Charlie pretty much abandoned Max and his Mom when he was born. Max is 11 years old. Max’s Aunt Debra (unforgiving and taut Hope Davis) wants full custody of Max. At a court hearing in Texas, loutish Charlie expresses no interest in being a father. Instead he brokers a deal with Debra’s wealthy husband Marvin (decent James Rebhorn) to sign custody away for $100,000. Charlie needs the money to buy state of the art champion robot, Noisy Boy. The catch: Debra and Marvin are vacationing in Italy for 2 months. So Charlie gets to forge a relationship with Max, or not. Really for Charlie this means having Bailey look after Max. Goyo is natural as the smart cool gamer kid, who is a fan of robot boxing and street dancing. Seems he also inherits his Dad’s stubbornness. He also insists on calling Jackman, “Charlie”. Max knows he is being played at least initially.
Evangeline Lilly is beautifully understated and generative as Bailey. Too bad she isn’t given more to do, as well. She immediately is drawn to care for Max, because he is like Charlie, but void of his painful disappointments. In a wonderful scene she tells Max about the man Charlie was as a boxer. Although, he was 25 and 19, unfortunately all by knockout, he battled toe-to-toe with the number 2 contender in the world. Her Bailey loves Charlie so much, and is waiting for him to step into the great man he can be. Jackman shades Charlie as a powerful man, who lives life fully, leaving nothing behind. Of course the glaring paradox is his relationship with Max. Screen and story writers John Gatins, Dan Gilroy, and Jeremy Leven strike the right tone with their “Real Steel”, they know it’s the people that inspire, not the stunning special effects. Director Levy touchingly focuses his narrative as well.
Charlie’s “Noisy Boy” is torn to shreds in an underground cage match. While searching for repair parts in the junkyard, Max uncovers another robot, Atom. Atom is a second generation sparring bot, as Charlie points out to Max. So Atom is built to take punishment, not inflict it. Unfazed Max is determined to fight Atom in matches. Using his hacker skills Max merges Noisy Boy’s voice command feature with Atom’s Shadow Function—Atom can flawlessly imitate every movement he sees. Charlie trains Atom giving the robot the punching combinations and instincts of a human boxer. Charlie and Max leverage this advantage over other fighting bots, and soon find themselves fighting in the WRB, World Robot Boxing. The reigning WRB Champion is Zeus, technological marvel designed by creator Tak Mashido (elegantly arrogant Karl Yune). Zeus is programmed with artificial intelligence that learns from his opponents and evolves. Zeus’s owner is the gorgeous and canny Farra Lemkova, well played by Olga Fonda. Human instinct and courage is matched against calculated advanced technology. This is Charlie’s last shot at greatness, and his chance to come to terms with his past.
In “Real Steel” Sugar Ray Leonard trained Hugh Jackman to box, and was the technical adviser for robot boxing in the ring. Jackman looks quick, strong, and lean. Too bad none of his boxer action sequences made it into the final cut. All this gives “Real Steel” a visceral authenticity. The real deal is Jackman and Goyo’s heartfelt chemistry. Yes, that they become father and son is predictable. It’s supposed to. Jackman is powerful and compassionate as he believably transforms into the hero. Goyo is wonderful as the innocent kid, who just wants to believe in something. In a poignant scene with both as Charlie fails to protect Max, he whispers, “I’m sorry…” “Real Steel” at times is shamelessly hokey, and I loved it. In the end it is about love, and all that you fight for. “Real Steel” gets it right.
Author: jon.h.ochiai (jochiai@socal.rr.com) from Los Angeles, CA
]]>Was there ever really a golden age? And if so, did people know it at the time? Are people even capable of recognizing a golden age when they’re in the midst of one? For Woody Allen, whose musical and cultural tastes run to the 1920s and ’30s, these questions have probably fueled countless daydreams. And now out of all that rumination comes “Midnight in Paris,” a movie that’s loving and wistful and often hysterically funny.
Romance is built into the design. A screenwriter, who has always been nostalgic, visits modern-day Paris and falls through a ripple in time: On a Paris street, a clock strikes midnight, and a 1920s taxicab drives up. F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald are inside, and they take him to a party. Though at first the writer thinks these are faux Fitzgeralds and that he’s at a costume party, he soon realizes that this is the real deal. He is surrounded by the music and styles he loves and is mingling with his idols and artistic heroes.
Our hero’s dislocation keeps the movie as light as it needs to be. Meeting celebrities can be awkward enough, but meeting legends of the past – the eagerness to please would be overwhelming. Yet always there is an edge of poignancy, too, because you are looking at the ’20s through the eyes of a modern person, as a world that is, by definition, past. The past is always romantic because it’s gone, just as the future is always frightening because you’re gone.
There’s an idea about Paris at work here, as well. Allen takes the notion of streets alive with the past and makes it literal in “Midnight in Paris,” so that everything that has ever happened in this city never goes away. It’s alive with parallel worlds – which is sometimes how we feel when we visit great cities like Paris, Rome or New York.
Gil (Wilson) finds himself able to go back and forth between his own time and the ’20s, and so we keep feeling the contrast. In the 21st century, he is engaged to an awful spoiled brat played without compromise by Rachel Mc-Adams. Meanwhile, in his nightly ’20s rambles, he is falling in love with Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who is having an affair with Picasso. As was the case with Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” Woody Allen brings out, for the first time in an American film, the fire and allure Cotillard has shown in her European work.
In the meantime, in between all the longing and wistfulness, this movie is sidesplitting because Allen gets to tap into an inexhaustible source of comedy: Whenever he wants a laugh, or 10 laughs, he just introduces another writer or painter and plays to our expectations. Every scene, for example, involving Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) is a scream, because Allen has him talk the way Hemingway wrote. There is even a Man Ray joke here. And if you know Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel,” you’ll fall out of your chair when Gil starts feeding him movie ideas.
Adrien Brody shows up as the young Salvador Dalí – good casting. Alison Pill looks very much like Zelda, though Tom Hiddleston is too tall for Scott Fitzgerald, who was just a little bigger than Woody Allen. But Kathy Bates is just right as Gertrude Stein, as businesslike and motherly as you’d want her to be.
– Advisory: Lots of smoking – they didn’t know better in those days.
]]>Download : Radiohead – Nude (City Rain remix)
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Mancunian producer Star Slinger has given “New Beat”, a standout from Toro y Moi‘s BNM’d full-length, Underneath the Pine, an especially playful dancehall treatment. Check it out.
MP3: Toro Y Moi: New Beat (Star Slinger Dancehall Mix)
Source : http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/16249-new-beat-star-slinger-dancehall-mix/
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Survivor Ed Wolf, later an AIDS worker, remembers going with a friend to a double bill on Castro Street – Now, Voyager and Casablanca. He had pot and raced to a drug store to find papers. In the window were Polaroid pictures of a man with ghastly sores.
“Watch out guys, there’s something out there,” was scrawled underneath.
Returning to the theatre, he remembered his friend’s eye sore. Wolf breathed in with a start. He wouldn’t breathe out, not fully, for another decade.
Early in David Weissman’s eloquent, overpowering documentary, we’re shown a street-party photo. AIDS activist Paul Boneberg comments:
“HIV arrives in San Francisco in 1976 and by 1979 probably 10 per cent of gay men in that crowd were infected. By the time we discover something is happening in June, ’81, 20 per cent are infected. By the time we get the test so people can find out if they’re infected, close to 50 per cent of gay men in San Francisco are infected.”
Survivors interviewed include an artist, Daniel Goldstein, a nurse, Eileen Glutzer, and a street florist, Guy Clark, who did too much pro-bono work in the eighties. Goldstein lost two partners and every close friend. Collectively, they sketch a heroic chronology of life during wartime, providing more drama than the fictional characters in Contagion.
And as in every war, there were reluctant heroes in San Francisco. A Los Angeles Times poll in the early 1980s suggested that 50 per cent of Americans favoured enforced quarantine for people with AIDS. Some hospitals didn’t want AIDS patients. President Ronald Reagan refused to address the issue until 1987, after 21,000 Americans had died.
We Were Here tells the story of how gay San Francisco fought back, protecting its own. The gay community united. Lesbian health centres printed flyers proclaiming: “Our boys need blood.”
Goldstein suspended a lucrative art career and devoted himself to dying friends.
“Why?” his father asked. “They’re not your family.”
“But you’re wrong, Dad,” the painter responded, his eyes red with tears. “They are my family.”
Special to The Globe and Mail
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