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Tagged: Naming Rights
Starting and Expanding Advertising and Sponsorships as a Revenue Stream
Why Is this a Good Idea?
I have often been confused why more convention centers do not actively engage in an advertising and sponsorship program as a revenue stream. Perhaps it's viewed as a business more appropriate for others; sports and entertainment venues are the logical setting for advertising and sponsorships, not convention centers. Sports stadiums and arenas and their tenant teams – football, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc., all have a loyal fan base and fans are very emotionally connected. Television and radio coverage are integral parts of the sports experience. These things don't exist at convention centers and convention center management may not feel it's worth the effort. I also believe there's reluctance by some convention center management to use ad space and media that were once exclusive domain of event managers and then, charge fees and commissions for features that were once free.
My belief is that if convention centers who feel this way would conduct a thoughtful evaluation of the benefits and risks, they may change their minds.
Benefits – A well crafted ad and sponsorship program:
- Contributes a level of legitimacy with respect to the convention center being a place of business, where new products and services are rolled out and demonstrated in a setting where comparisons can be made, where deals are done, where technical and scientific information exchanged, and where like minded professionals can network and socialize.
- Strengthens the business relationships with others in the city hospitality sector. Restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, shopping districts, and other cultural and entertainment venues are likely advertising and sponsorship candidates. Having the relationship solidified by an advertising agreement helps achieve that. The character of the relationship would be different; it won't be casual or shallow anymore, it will now be business.
- Can become a reliable revenue source which may waver up and down with the vagaries of the economy but can grow in stable and growth years. There are a few convention centers where an advertising and sponsorship program has contributed between $1 – 2 million to the bottom line annually.
Risks –
- Know that many times brands are judged by the company they keep; remember this, it will come up again. Many times an advertiser or sponsor's business issues, such as product problems, legal issues, and financial problems become your problems. This is especially true if it's a naming rights sponsor. Choose potential advertisers and sponsors wisely. Understand that advertisers and especially sponsors may view the convention center similarly. Convention centers are accountable to them for bad publicity and for routine items such as signage and website maintenance, or for the overall condition of the facility. Sponsors too will always be interested in their return on investment and review the returns periodically.
- An overly aggressive ad and sponsorship program can pose some problems with your trade show and association meeting clients; too much signage by advertisers takes away from space available for an event's trade dress signage and decoration and their own sponsor advertising, inflexible terms regarding advertising and product exclusivity by sponsors may interfere with an events' exhibitors or their sponsorship sales. Also, critics may argue that over-commercialization with garish signage and endless brand messaging detracts from the convention center's mission. It's best to exercise good taste and a sense of propriety here.
- An advertising and sponsorship program is very visible to others and potential event clients. An ineffective and feeble program where advertisers and sponsors are few detracts from the center's reputation. If, after evaluation, you do not believe you can achieve revenue goals and visibility then perhaps you should forego the effort.
Taking Stock – What Is Your Inventory of Advertising Possibilities and Media?
Exterior –
- The Center's Location – Is it located by and in view of major traffic thoroughfares? If so, call the municipality and obtain a daily traffic count. Pedestrian counts may also be available.
- The Center's Architecture – Normally the entrance is a piece of landmark architecture. The curtain walls are high, there is usually an array of light or flag poles along the entrance drive, and the adjacent sidewalks are wide. All are possibilities for banners and signage.
- Fixed Static or LED Signage (usually located by the center's entrance) – These signs normally announce the event(s) in-house, but have fixed signage possibilities as part of the sign structure or in the case of an LED sign, use possibilities due to the technology.
Interior –
- Center entrance, atrium, lobbies and concourses – All have high curtain walls and space frame features for banner hanging
- Well trafficked corridors – Recommend a limited number of high quality back-lit signage
- Center video screens – Large video screens are best located in the expansive entranceways, atriums and lobbies where the scale fits the setting. Smaller video screens are more appropriately located along well trafficked corridors, retail areas, taxi/shuttle bus waiting areas and food courts. The screens are normally part of a network, complete with a control room, equipment room and the capability of running different messaging (pre-programmed) for each screen.
- Columns in atrium and lobbies
- Public stair risers – Normally temporary and done with 3M product with adhesive back
- Escalator side panels and railings
- Taut cables over escalator wells for banner hanging
- Displays adjacent to Information and Concierge Stations
- Ads and wraps at water coolers and phone/tablet charging stations
- Food Court table tops – Using the same adhesive backed 3M product
Digital/Print –
- The convention center's website – Banner ads, column and button ads on the most popular pages (event schedule, public transportation and driving directions and map). A restaurant directory as well as one for hotels, nightclubs and other attractions should be part of the website. Some convention center websites do an excellent job of posting these directories. View the San Diego Convention Center's restaurant directory:
- The center's mobile app
- The center's WiFi Portal (opening page)
- Blogs, newsletters, annual reports, direct mail pieces
- The center's social media (Facebook page, Twitter Feeds, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
- Exhibitor Manuals and Order Forms
Other –
- Opportunities to publicly display product – A luxury car in the center's atrium is a good example
- Collateral reading material and brochures at concierge/information desks
- Portable cups and napkins in the food courts
Reserving Inventory Exclusively for Events – How much inventory should be reserved for them? The short answer is – any place public that has height and visibility (exterior, curtain walls, light poles, etc.). A well organized center will publish a guide with diagrams showing locations and standards for sign and banner hanging.
Charging Event Management Fees for Advertising Outside of Their Licensed Space – This is an excellent revenue source, at times comprising half of the center's ad and sponsorship revenue. Most event managers already use most available locations. Besides their own trade dress and directional banners, in many instances they use these locations to sell advertising to their event sponsors, normally in the form of large fabric banners, stair risers, free standing displays, etc. Ten years ago most convention centers permitted events to sell ads to exhibitors using all the aforementioned media and signage without paying location fees to the convention center. I am pleased to see that many convention centers have ceased this practice and now charge fees and commissions. Convention centers which still offer this for free should be well advised to stop the practice. As controversial as it may seem, the architectural prominence and visibility that was created by public investment and the value it creates for such things as advertising banners gives convention centers clear entitlement to reasonable fees. Use of public areas for the sale of advertising to others is normally not part of the event manager's license agreement. Fees should be a percentage of fees collected by the event managers from their client (say 15%). In the case of public space banners, the percentage arrangement is sometimes not satisfactory. For convention centers, it's much easier to audit and collect based on size. Exterior banners should be charged a higher rate (say 20%). Ads for other media, such as the Center's Wifi hotspot "splash" page, use of the Center's monitors, food court table tops, etc. should be negotiated at market prices.
What's the Difference between Sponsorships and Advertising?
A corporate sponsorship is a form of marketing where companies connect their name, brand, and products and services to a venue for long term in order to enhance their brand, solidify and expand their markets, showcase their products and achieve future profits. It should not be confused with advertising which is direct and overt and contractually a shorter term. In sponsorships, advertising through signage is inclusive, just one element in a sponsorship plan. A well designed sponsorship generates a stronger and more subtle message. It tends to be more qualitative and has loftier goals than just customer exposure and sales. It is a marketing platform where a company can identify with the best aspects of its partner, where a company can build credibility, prestige and, create a more permanent, lasting bond with consumers.
Who Are the Potential Sponsors?
It's useful to first separate potential sponsors from ad hoc advertisers. Sponsors should be companies that have a tangible connection and can be easily integrated into a convention center's core business and culture. There are however more subjective considerations. There has to be the proper feel and fit. It's difficult to define but it comes down to whether the corporate image is one that complements the convention center, the city and vice versa. While the company should obviously be prosperous, they also need to have a certain brand reputation for reliability and quality, and a high corporate standard for civic responsibility.
Certain industries seem to fit as ideal sponsorship candidates. They are; an airline with a regional or national hub at the city's airport, a major credit card company, a regional bank which has a solid customer and investment base in and around the city, a utility, a major technology/telecommunications company (preferably one that designs and manufactures, and operates equipment), a media company (preferably local newspaper or TV station), a luxury car company and a long standing major employer for the region. If your convention center is large and busy, then a soft drink sponsor, with exclusivity for advertising and product sales (pouring rights), also makes sense.
Some sponsorship marketing consultants, such as Jim Andrews from ESP Properties in Chicago (www.sponsorship.com) favor technology companies above others. His view is that these companies are in a growth mode, spend heavily on marketing and are generally open to venue sponsorships often seeking these opportunities out, particularly sports and entertainment venues. Another consultant, Hugh Wakeham from WAM Associates in Toronto (www.wam.ca/) believes similarly but also sees regional banks and utilities as excellent candidates. He described an interesting case study of naming rights where a utility company Enercare has naming rights to the convention center at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Enercare uses this sponsorship to demonstrate and promote Green technologies. On site for instance, windmills generate electricity and electricity, hot water/steam and chilled water are generated by a gas fired Tri-Generation power plant.
Sponsors will of course require something more than company name and brand exposure through signage. It is useful to have a list of other things that a sponsor could benefit from such as; exposure on your digital media (website, newsletters, blogs, twitter feeds and WiFi portal, etc.), free passes and parking to popular events that they can distribute to employees and clients, free use of public space to show or demonstrate a product, credits for rent, parking and F&B for an event like a corporate sales or board meeting. You may have to be creative here. As mentioned earlier sponsors pay close attention to their return on investment. There are items the convention center can track on their own such as product sales on site if applicable and hyperlink openings and page views. It is very likely that a sponsor may ask and possibly tie the result to renewal and fee negotiations. In my time at the Javits Center, it was common for our soft drink sponsor, Coke, to conduct a business review and focus on cases sold per year. The Director of Marketing and Communications at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Sylvie Carbonneau, described how their luxury car sponsor, Porsche/Audi, tracked sales based on their car displays at the centre.
For convention centers a successful sponsorship consists of cash and/or a capital contribution (which could be cash or in-kind – telecommunications/internet equipment for example), some accommodation for day to day operations (airline ticket credits for business travel or discounted utilities), cooperative marketing when these opportunities come up and a long contract term 3 to 5 years with renewal options.
Who Are the Potential Advertisers?
A quick list should show the categories below and be accompanied by a map denoting walking time from the convention center and headquarter hotel (normally 15-20 minutes):
- Restaurants – These can be categorized by type of restaurant, ratings of same, price point and distance from major hotels and the convention center
- Hotels
- Parking Lots and Garages
- Shopping
- Nightclubs
- Attractions
- Professional Sports Venues
- Concert Venues
- Theaters
- Cultural Attractions (art galleries, museums, historical sites)
- Beer
- Wine
Other advertisers could be car rental companies, an office and hardware retail outlet, exhibit service companies – general decorating companies, exhibit appointed contractors, A/V companies, computer/technical supply retail outlets. Advertisers, especially in categories where there are many like restaurants, are typically put in easy to read directories which accessible through the center's website, mobile app and WiFi portal. In my experience, advertisers normally didn't track ROI closely. As with sponsorships, the convention center should track hyperlink openings and page views because it is likely that an advertiser may ask and possibly tie the result to renewal and fee negotiations.
A Sample Pro Forma
For the example below:
- Sponsor revenue is based on the Javits Center experience and informal conversations with other convention centers in my consulting business.
- Advertising revenue is based on my time at the Javits Center and price schedules from convention centers published on the internet. The number of restaurants, parking lots, hotels and attractions is based on those published on the Davis L. Lawrence Convention Center (Pittsburgh) website.
- Revenue obtained from fees for commercial advertising sold by event managers in public areas and video/digital media is estimated based on the Javits Center experience. Assume that the center's occupancy in this example is high, say 60-65%. It was then estimated that 15 events would sell exhibitor advertising in public areas of the convention center;
10 events x $50,000 in sales = $500,000 5 events x $75,000 in sales = $375,000
$375,000 x 15% fee = $56,250 $375,000 x 15% fee = $56,250
$75,000 = $56,250 = $131,250 (estimated total)
*Venue obligation includes;
On-site signage, possibly on-site retail
On site video time – large and small screens
Product exclusivity, possibly advertising exclusivity (w/qualifications)
Website Ad
Social media exposure (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube)
Mobile APP Ad
Rent, F&B, Parking Credits
Free passes to public events
Cost of above –
– Sales Comm – 5%
– Credits (lost revenue) – $5,000
*Venue obligation includes;
Website Directory
Social media exposure (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
Advertising exclusivity for beer and wine
Mobile APP Directory
WiFi portal directory
Concierge/Information Booth Display and Menu Catalog
On site video time large and small screens – not included in 6 mo fee schedule above; pricing should be at premium levels
Cost of above –
– Sales Comm – 10%
How to Get Started – Logical Next Steps
Assuming you have already weighed the benefits and risks and reviewed the market size for sponsors and advertisers, these are logical next steps:
- Obtain price schedules from other convention centers that have an active advertising and sponsorship program in place.
- Build your own pricing model
- Build a pro forma statement
- Determine who will do all the administration and sales work. Understand that the sales work is hard work; developing marketing material, making cold calls, making site visits, and price negotiations. Add to that having patience; it will take more than a year to build revenue. Options are; outsourcing, Integrating the responsibility into existing sales force or add to staff with a new hire
- Obtain board approval in the form of a policy statement. This is important for two reasons; board members are a good resource for potential sponsors and advertisers and obtaining advertisers and sponsors may be regulated by government procurement procedures which really do not apply to this business function, board approval may help avoid this.
- From the city government, obtain traffic counts and pedestrian counts for adjacent streets and sidewalks. From your website administrator obtain internet traffic statistics. Invest in a survey to develop a demographic profile of attendees who normally come to events at the convention center. Typically they are business men and women between the age of 30 – 45 with a higher than average annual income.
- Develop marketing material. The link below from the Shaw Centre in Ottawa is a good example:
- Develop a face to face marketing message and a sales plan. The marketing message should be one of optimism, one that emphasizes positive changes such as an expansion or renovation, or an investment in video screens and digital technology, or the organizing of a staff to administer and look after the needs of sponsors. Persuade them of your resolve; show them that there is a parity of commitment, that the convention center has "skin in the game".
- Begin work and monitor progress
All About Convention Center Naming Rights
Establishing Naming Rights Value
It's easy to be lured into believing that naming rights as a financial bonus for convention centers. Decision makers may be influenced by media reporting and tend to overlook that only the global level deals are reported. They hear about deals like the Barclay Center ( Brooklyn Arena-Brooklyn Net home w/18,000 seats) valued at $200M over 20 years or the American Airlines Center (Home of NBA's Dallas Mavericks) for $195M for 30 years. In these instances they must realize that the team's market area is significant with a fan base which is loyal and reliable and stretches to anywhere television and radio can reach. Still, it's hard not to think about the possibilities and I believe, beyond the blockbuster deals, at some point linear thinking takes over. They see their hometown arena achieve a significant naming rights deal in a small market area and they start thinking and believing their convention center can do likewise. As an example, the Chesapeake Energy Center in Oklahoma City (home the NBA's Thunder w/18,000 seats) obtained a naming rights deal of $36M for 12 years. The Cox Convention Center across town has 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and a 15,000 seat arena (w/ minor league hockey and an arena football team) and obtained a naming rights deal valued at $1.7M for 7 years, nothing linear about that. Linear thinking doesn't work when comparing naming rights values to major league sports.
Linear thinking doesn't appear to work when comparing the values of existing naming rights deals for convention centers either. If you study the table below you will see that it is very difficult to see any sense using valuation methods (cost, income or market valuation) when it comes to establishing a convention center's naming rights value. The comparisons are too few, the market sizes and the venue sizes too diverse to see patterns. Additionally some relatively small markets have achieved surprising value; the HY-Vee Exhibition Hall in Des Moines is a good example ($8million with a term of 10 years).
From the current number of naming rights deals (14) the following characteristics are evident:
- Naming rights deals were closed during or after new, expanded or major renovations took place.
- The core market areas for most companies holding naming rights are regional. One reason to pursue naming rights is to maintain and solidify the markets they already have. For those who are not historically regional, their eye is on expansion to new regional markets. This was the case for naming rights deals in Niagara Falls, CA – Scotiabank Convention Centre and Ottawa CA – the Shaw Centre.
- Most are for 2nd tier markets in the US. I am convinced that convention centers in 2nd tier markets in the US are the best naming rights candidates.
- Proportionally Canadian convention centres are more likely to pursue and successfully close on naming rights in 1st and 2nd tier markets than the US
- The financial sector (banks, finance companies and insurance) have the highest percentage at 57%, technology companies next at 22%, then utility companies at 14%. At one point an airline held naming rights but that contract has lapsed.
- About 40% of the naming rights holders were acquired by other companies during the naming rights term. Expect name changes.
What's in a Name?
For a convention center, I think there's a whole lot in a name. It may sound trivial and shallow but the sound and the emotional response of a name can result in a name that can be so inappropriate, awkward and some say hideous that it is cause for public embarrassment and ridicule. There are many examples; The KFC YUM! Center in Louisville, Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Smoothie King Center in New Orleans and the Bargain Booze Stadium in the UK. Fortunately none of these venues is a convention center. One convention center in Des Moines had a naming rights deal with the final name being the Veteran's Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center. In my opinion the name is an awkward mouthful. Common sense prevailed in this instance and the exterior sign remained The Veterans Memorial with the longer version seen less prominently in the interior of the facility.
The Inherent Difficulties for 1st Tier US City Convention Centers Pursuing Naming Rights
The success rate shows and I am convinced that convention centers in 2nd and 3rd tier markets in the US are the best naming rights candidates. Not long after new management took over the operation of the Javits Center in 1996, a private conversation regarding Javits progress took place where I was present. .By chance the subject of naming rights came up. Business at the center was turning favorable rapidly and the idea of naming rights seemed a natural. The conversation ended but no subsequent actions were discussed or planned. Within days, a bill was introduced in the NY State legislature prohibiting any attempt for a name change to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. I am certain no one at the meeting talked about it and clearly the draft of that legislation was prepared long before our meeting took place. So I learned how these matters evolve. I believe wise and experienced convention center managers at 1st tier convention centers know in advance the likely outcome if naming rights are aggressively pursued. If the center bears the name of a beloved and respected political leader, alive or dead, the effort will be mired in controversy. Potential naming rights sponsors will steer clear of the controversy and convention center leadership will be happy to oblige. If the center only bears the city's name it is possible that the potential deal value will drive an action plan. Expect pride of place advocates to object to a name change. If that doesn't discourage the effort, government procurement procedures pose another impediment. Acquiring naming rights is not on any company's annual marketing budget. Candidates for naming rights have to be courted and persuaded; a process that does not fit into the typical RFP process. This process needs to be conducted quietly whereas the RFP process is blatantly public and gives cause for a company to decline to bid. Convention centers should also seek out the services of a marketing consultant, one who has closed naming rights deals before and understands the language and nuances of naming rights valuation. In my experience and in all the research I conducted, none of the naming rights deals closed by following a traditional RFP process and most sought the help of a marketing consultant.
Recommendation – An Alternate Idea to Full Facility Naming Rights
There are some excellent examples of convention centers where portions of the centers are offered for naming rights. The David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh sold rights to its 34,000 sq. ft. ballroom to Dollar Bank for $1M and a term of 5 years. The Dollar Bank graciously named the ballroom "The Spirit of Pittsburgh" and installed several displays depicting the history of Pittsburgh throughout the center. At the Colorado Convention Center in Denver naming rights to its 5,000 seat concert theater were sold to Bellco for $1.25M at a term of 5 years. There are discrete and iconic architectural spaces that have naming rights potential in many convention centers; an elegantly designed ballroom, an outside terrace or garden used for special events, an architecturally prominent lobby, a new meeting room suite or technologically advanced boardroom. Convention centers which are very large and subdivided into separate buildings offer unique opportunities for naming rights. Imagine the four principal buildings of McCormick Place (the North, South, West and Lakeside Center) bearing corporate names. The tradition and integrity of the McCormick Place name stays in place and an excellent revenue prospect is exploited. I see similar possibilities at the Orange County Convention Center, the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Moscone Center.


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Date(s) - Jun 9
by Deb Voiles
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subset: commoncrawl


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Youth Work 4 Health
This week I went to the Youth Work 4 Health conference held by the National Youth Agency in Brighton. It was an interesting day with a lot of discussion about how you can use the Youth Work 4 Health (YW4H) good practice guidelines within different youth settings.
"Good youth work has always sought to improve the physical and emotional health of young people and many projects are working, directly or indirectly, on health issues. The aim of these Guidelines is to provide a tool to enable individual workers, youth service managers in the public and voluntary sectors, commissioning bodies and partners to assess the quality and effectiveness of this work."
Stemming from the Healthy Schools agenda there has been the realisation that it is hard to apply the Healthy Schools standards to the wide variety of settings found in youth work and that consequently a new set of guidelines are needed. The people attending were from a wide range of backgrounds (Yout Offending Services, Drug and Alcohol Reduction Teams, Voluntary Sector, Housing Associations etc. ) which led to some interesting discussions about how youth services in all their guises often reach young people who are seen as 'hard to reach' by other agencies and that because of this how we worked with young people around health was important.
I was particularly interested to see how (more…)


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Stephen Colbert returns to "The Colbert Report" Monday night straight from the newest ring in a traveling circus of his own making. While it's not the Greatest Show on Earth, Colbert's act may very well be the most death- (or depth-) defying spectacle in TV comedy.
Colbert – or rather his Super PAC – even invoked images from the big top in his latest mock campaign commercial, another serio-comic collision between pop culture and politics. "America is in crisis and Stephen Colbert is turning our election into a circus," declares Samuel L. Jackson, narrator of the spot, done in the style of an attack ad targeting Colbert himself.
The spot offers a rare instance of truth – and truthiness – in advertising. After campaigning in South Carolina for former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who notched one percent of Saturday's primary vote, Colbert resumes his show's "Indecision 2012" shtick having added to the confusion. The only thing clear is that "The Colbert Show" host has forever blurred the lines between TV satire and activism.
Colbert is playing a dangerous – yet fascinating and at times hilarious – game of PAC Man. He's employing his faux conservative commentator character to use the Super PAC system to both protest and lampoon it. We're at the strange point where public donations are subsidizing a comedy movement – one that might have directly influenced some voters Saturday.
U.S. & World
The Colbert effort perhaps reflects a changing, often vexing, meta media age in which information and entertainment fly at us faster than ever – and in forms that are sometimes indistinguishable. Some of the Republican presidential hopefuls have shown up on the late-night TV comedy circuit, and their debates have been likened to a reality show. Colbert's response represents a kind of "surreality" show that borders on performance art.
His Comedy Central colleague, Jon Stewart, is in on the very serious joke, signing on as the head of the Super PAC, first called Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, now also known as The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC. The new name is both a knock at the supposed distance candidates are supposed to keep from their Super PACs, and a nod to Stewart's legal obligation to avoid communicating directly with his buddy on campaign spending matters. (Stewart noted on "The Daily Show" last week that a violation could land him in prison – he and Colbert turned the discussion into an effective bit.)
Colbert, unlike Stewart, funnels his humor through a character – one that he used in September 2010 to testify before Congress about the plight of migrant farm workers. A month later, he and Stewart drew an estimated 215,000 to the Washington Mall for their "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" – reportedly more than twice the number that attended the event it lampooned, Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally.
Colbert attracted a far more modest crowd in his home state during Friday's rally with Cain, who was on the ballot – unlike the comedian, who was too late to get in the game, even if he professes he really only wants to be "President of the United States of South Carolina." The "Rock You Like a Herman Cain" event, complete with Colbert singing "This Little Light of Mine," proved a performance worthy of Groucho Marx and Paddy Chayefsky whose "mad-as-hell" Howard Beale newsman character in the classic film "Network" presaged the likes of Beck.
Colbert, who plays a conservative blowhard on TV, didn't sound mad-as-hell when he addressed whether his campaign is a joke, even if his point was dead serious.
"If they are calling being allowed to form a Super PAC, and collecting unlimited and untraceable amounts of money from individuals, unions, and corporations and spend that money on political ads and for personal enrichment, and then surrender that Super PAC to one of my closest friends while I explore a run for office, if that is a joke, then they are saying that our entire campaign finance system is a joke," he said. "And I don't know about you, but I have been paid to be offended by that."
Colbert is at once the clown, ringmaster and tightrope walker of his "circus." He hasn't fallen yet, but it's a long, perilous trip to Election Day. Perhaps the most compelling thing about Colbert's American's for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow movement is that we don't know what tomorrow will bring from the boundary-pushing comedian's high-wire act. In the meantime, check out Colbert's attack ad on himself and decide for yourself whether the truthiness lies:
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.


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That didn't take long. After mercifully getting booted off the show last week, Michael Bolton made his "triumphant" return to "Dancing With the Stars" Tuesday night.
We know it was triumphant, because host Tom Bergeron told us so afterwards.
"Wouldn't you say that was a triumphant return?" Bergeron egged on the studio audience after the song.
It was a success in that Bolton reminded us what he does best in true shouldn't-have-quit-the-day-job style. A last-minute replacement for Susan Boyle, who had another one of her singing ailments, Bolton sang a soulful version of "Hallelujah" and let professional dancers glide across the dance floor to the music. Little choir boys emerged from backstage to sing backup. It was all very nice.
It must be said that it was a little odd that the show's producers decided to use the always-cheesy fog machine in this number and the dance number before. It was like they rented the machine, so they decided to get the absolute most fog-bang for their buck.
Back to Bolton. He didn't do a few things -- including (thankfully) dance. The crooner moved his foot approximately one time during the song. Those dancing days are no doubt over after his two-week drubbing on the show which ended with Bolton crawling out of a doghouse.
But the real lacking part of the number was the apparent refusal by Bolton to bury the hatchet with Bruno Tonioli, the judge who was accused of being too harsh towards Bolton in his comments last week.
You were expecting some sort of comment about it all being over and forgiven -- a joke, a handshake, an ironic comment, a wink. But nothing. Bolton said that he was "surprised" and "very happy" to be back with his friends in the show.
He never addressed the elephant in the room, even though the ABC cameras constantly panned to Tonioli who was giving a standing ovation to the song.
Michael Bolton's "Triumphant" (Yet Lacking) Return To "Dancing"
That didn't take long. After mercifully getting booted off the show last week, Michael Bolton made his "triumphant" return to "Dancing With the Stars" Tuesday night.


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Tower of London
Posted 04 October 2004 - 01:36 PM
Here's a view of the fortress after we just crossed the famous Tower Bridge:
Here's another view of the Tower of London from on the Thames river. The White Tower is the one most prominently featured in this picture:
In my book, I interviewed Yeoman Serjeant Phil Wilson, one of the Yeoman Warders (also known as Beefeaters) who live and work at the tower. This is not an easy position to acquire. You had to have served in the armed forces for at least 22 years, reached the rank of staff sergeant or higher, be a recipient of the Long Service and Good Conduct medal, and have a character reference of "exemplary" when you leave the service. And all of that only allows you to apply for the interview process. Phil invited Megan and I to visit the Tower of London after hours to explore some of the more haunted rooms and passages and to watch the changing of the keys -- a ceremony that has taken place every single night for the last 700 years!
Here is a picture of me with Serjeant Phil Wilson in the Yeoman Warder's club in the Tower:
If you read the chapter on the Tower of London, Serjeant Wilson talks about the time a young visitor to the tower senses a ghostly presence in one of the back rooms not open to the public and places her fingers blindly onto an engraving that she couldn't have possibly known about identifying a man named "Thomas Talbot" as the entity. Here is the actual engraving mentioned in the book:
The engraving says, "Thomas Talbot 1496." Please note in my book I made a mistake and spelled his name "Talbert."
Here is a picture from within St. Thomas More's Cell in the Bloody Tower:
The Tower of London is a fantastic stop if you're ever in London. Everyone there has ghostly experiences to talk about -- and most of them are first-hand experiences. There is so much history there and so much lore surrounding (and sometimes even within) those walls that it's a must-see for any fame of history and/or the supernatural!
Posted 04 October 2004 - 01:40 PM
Take my hand and we'll go riding through the sunshine from above
Posted 04 October 2004 - 01:42 PM
Did it feel spooky being there at night?
Posted 04 October 2004 - 01:52 PM
Standing in the small area where the block was used for beheadings was a bit eerie. The area is about 25 feet by 25 feet and a few notable people lost their heads there including one woman who refused to put her head on the block and was chased around the square by the executioner who ended up hacking her to death. Very eerie to stand in the exact spot where things like that took place.
Posted 04 October 2004 - 01:59 PM
Take my hand and we'll go riding through the sunshine from above
Posted 04 October 2004 - 02:57 PM
and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Art-of-Jim-Demick/261669903877527
"There are some things money can't buy...A good imagination is one of them
Posted 04 October 2004 - 03:59 PM
What do you reckon, mist??
Or is my imagination playing around with the limestone??
Posted 04 October 2004 - 09:12 PM
Glad the trip turned out so well for you
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." Albert Einstein
I've been hit by mrsspookypants
Posted 05 October 2004 - 10:00 AM
Posted 05 October 2004 - 12:32 PM
Ok at first i was just messing around with something that just looked like mist, but the more i look at it the more i think it could be, possibly?? :huh:
great pics jeff, looks like an amazing place. Just wondering though..........
What do you reckon, mist??
Or is my imagination playing around with the limestone??
Give credit for enthusiasm
Posted 05 October 2004 - 12:36 PM
Take my hand and we'll go riding through the sunshine from above
Posted 05 October 2004 - 06:58 PM
I hope to one day visit the UK and spend a couple of nights in several of the haunted Castles doing investigations.That would be awesome.
Posted 05 October 2004 - 08:04 PM
Posted 06 October 2004 - 12:12 PM
I see what you are pointing out in the pic. I believe it to be the stone itself and what makes me believe this is the actual corner of the wall. The color is bending with a sharp corner around. Good eyes but I think it is just the stone.
Posted 08 October 2004 - 06:03 AM
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Alicia Goranson
Boys Don't CryHD
IMDb: 7.6
1h 58min
Based on actual events. Brandon Teena is the popular new guy in a tiny Nebraska town. He hangs out with the guys, drinking, cussing, and ...
Actors: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Alison Folland, Jeannetta Arnette, Rob Campbell, Matt McGrath, Cheyenne Rushing, Robert Prentiss, Josh Ridgway, Craig Erickson, Stephanie Sechrist, Jerry Haynes
The Extra ManHD
IMDb: 5.9
108 min
Louis, a young teacher enamored of the age of F. Scott Fitzgerald, loses his job when he's caught trying on a bra he finds in ...
Actors: Paul Dano, Marian Seldes, Celia Weston, Patti D'Arbanville, John C. Reilly, Dan Hedaya, Kevin Kline, Jason Butler Harner, Alex Burns, Katie Holmes, Alicia Goranson, Lynn Cohen, John Pankow, Lewis Payton Jr., Marisa Ryan
Roseanne - S10Eps9
IMDb: 7.5
21 min
A revival of the popular 1990s sitcom 'Roseanne,' which centered on the everyday life of an American working-class family.
Actors: Roseanne Barr, Macaulay Callard, Sarah Chalke, Michael Fishman, Sara Gilbert, John Goodman, Alicia Goranson, Emma Kenney, Krystian Alexander Lyttle, Ames McNamara, Laurie Metcalf, Jayden Rey, Izzie Coffey, Callan Farris, Jake Regal, Alain Washnevsky
The Conners - S01Eps11
IMDb: 3.7
30 min
The Conners is a TV series starring Michael Fishman, Sara Gilbert, and John Goodman. Follow-up to the comedy series Roseanne (1988), centering on the family ...
Actors: Michael Fishman, Sara Gilbert, John Goodman, Alicia Goranson
The Conners - S02Eps20
IMDb: 5.1
30 min
The Conners is a TV series starring John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Sara Gilbert. Follow-up to the comedy series Roseanne (1988), centering on the family ...
Actors: John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Alicia Goranson


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Levi Johnston is not heading to Wisteria Lane.
On Wednesday, a report surfaced in the Chicago Sun-Times that the Alaskan-bred teen father and current Playgirl cover star was set to join "Desperate Housewives" for a three-episode arc.
A rep for ABC, however, told Access Hollywood that the gossip is false and Levi will not be joining the series.
In related Levi news, on Tuesday, his Playgirl cover, which hits newsstands on Feb. 22, was revealed. The print pictorial is expected to feature different photos from a shoot he did late last year for Playgirl's Web site.
Playgirl director of marketing Daniel Nardicio told the Associated Press the feature included the photos as well as an interview with Levi, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Sarah Palin
PLAY IT NOW: Sarah Palin Blasts New Government Mammogram Guildelines: 'That's A Dangerous Recommendation'
PLAY IT NOW: Teen Choice Awards 2009: Is That Kathy Griffin With Levi Johnston?
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Levi Johnston - Desperate Housewives - TV - ABC - Sarah Palin


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The Last Day's Weather Forecast
Listen to Audio (right click to save)
I usually wake up in the morning to a local news station, which is a real encouraging way to wake up. You know, you can get your day off to a really cheerful start. You can hear about a war or two, a little terrorism, some of last night's fatalities. Oh yeah, that will get you started! Actually it's not the news I'm actually so interested in, it's the weather I want to hear. And when you hear the weather, then you can plan your day's wardrobe and your activities, you know, a little better.
In fact, if I'm in charge of an important meeting or an event that's coming up in a few days, I want the five-day weather forecast. Now, okay, it's always right, but it does help me anticipate some of the problems and some of my responses and how we ought to plan. Recently I read a long, long, long-range forecast; one that should help you and help me as we make our plans.
© (c) Ronald P. Hutchcraft
Distributed by Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
Learn how to begin a personal, love-relationship with the God who made you.


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Welcome to the 'Castle Customs' forum. This forum is devoted to all things involving paint, decals, sculpy, plastic molding, X-acto knives, Dremels, or any other modification of a fig, accessories, or other parts that doesn't use the elements as they come in a box from LEGO.* This forum includes such things as discussion of customization techniques, display of customs, discussion of products from customs dealers, etc.
We have allowed people to advertise their customs for sale in this forum (or you could always post in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum). We do have one request - please create one thread for your wares. When you come out with a new round of products, simply add them to the already existing thread - you can edit the first post in the thread to change the subject, alerting people to the new products. Thank you for complying with this rule.
-Quick clarification. If you are someone other than the custom dealer, and you make a new fig, for instance, with their product, you are free to start your own thread. This rule applies to those customs dealers that come up with new custom offerings from time to time.
Finally, a few important links for you:
List of custom LEGO shops
List of custom stickers
Minifig Customization Network and a thread discussing that site
*Please note - assembling official minifig parts in a new configuration is not a 'custom', but is rather a 'MOC', and therefore belongs in the 'Castle MOCs' forum.


text: Wow, a class average of 83-85...holy smokes. That would have been an Low A Average for the class here, not very likely. If it were on a curve, they'd pick what the average mark they'd assign was, and then bell curve the marks on to it and re-assign final marks based on the curve.Your 93 certainly doesn't look as good as it should against that average.In my case, the class average would have to have been somewhere in the low 60s, the 85-90 was waaaay ahead of the average. Fortunately Ido have letters from profs saying so, but that doesn't help with the pure numbers game that goes on down south for the early cuts.


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Adapted from Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future – and Locked Us In, © Brian X. Chen, to be published by Da Capo Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, on June 7.
For more discussion of the book, visit the Always On* book page on Facebook*.
One Saturday afternoon in January 2009, Rose Maltais picked up her granddaughter Natalie in Athol, Massachusetts for a short weekend visit. Just before she drove off, Maltais reportedly told Natalie's adoptive parents that they would never see the nine-year-old again. But just one night later, police officers found Maltais at a Budget Inn in Virginia and arrested her. They didn't use the traditional process of tracking down a suspect — interviewing witnesses and following clues — to find Maltais and her grandchild. Instead, they tracked Natalie's smartphone and used a bit of clever technological sleuthing to follow their trail.
Unbeknownst to Maltais, the Federal Communications Commission has required cellphone carriers since 2005 to provide a way for police to track most phones within a few hundred meters, and the GPS technology embedded in all smartphones has been a crucial tracking tool. To narrow down Maltais's location, officer Todd Neale of the Athol police department called the child's cell phone provider, AT&T, which provided approximate GPS coordinates every time Natalie's smartphone connected with a celltower to get a signal. Then Neale contacted Athol deputy fire chief Thomas Lozier, who had experience using GPS for guiding firefighters through forest fires and finding lost hikers. Lozier plugged the coordinates into Google Maps and used satellite imagery to home in on where Maltais might be hiding. Jiggering around in Google Street View, Lozier saw a road sign for the Budget Inn in Natural Bridge, Virginia. Neale contacted Virginia state police, who arrived at the motel and found Natalie and her grandmother.
This GPS-assisted arrest offers a peek into the future of policing in an "always-on" society, where we are all constantly connected to the internet via incredibly-capable handheld gadgets with access to data everywhere. Smartphones already include a stunning amount of computing power, and an array of advanced sensors, such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, not to mention GPS, cellular, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios. The constant connection these devices offer, and the amount of information they are constantly collecting and transmitting is set to change much of our lives. In law enforcement, that data-driven revolution is already underway.
The information collected and stored on an iPhone can be more revealing than a fingerprint and a face scan, and police officers are already taking advantage of this. Security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski regularly teaches forensics courses focused on the iPhone. Police officers learn how to recover sensitive data from the device to help them build cases against suspects. That includes information that a suspect has attempted to destroy — deleted text messages, voicemails, contacts can be recovered with some clever hacks; officers can also learn how to crack pass codes of an iPhone and bypass encryption. Zdziarski admits that from a user's perspective, it's unsettling how insecure the iPhone is, but says he's somewhat "divided on it," because "at the same time, it's been useful for investigating criminals." iPhone forensics techniques have helped officers successfully gather evidence against criminals later convicted of rape, murder, or drug deals, according to Zdziarski.
Of course, it's possible that some day, someone might clear themselves of a crime using their phone (See, I posted to Twitter from miles away when the crime was committed!). For now, however, these devices are more of a help to cops than suspects.
'I think there's an extreme lack of knowledge about the tracking on your iPhone or your iPad.'But what's good for law enforcement might not be good for our privacy. Just how much information are our smartphones broadcasting about us? To find out, German politician and privacy advocate Malte Spitz sued his phone company, Deutsche Telekom, to get information that the company had about Spitz's movements. It turns out that between August 2009 and February 2010, the carrier tracked and stored his location 35,000 times. That was enough data for German newspaper Die Zeit to compile a detailed interactive map that showed Spitz's every move over six months.
Never before had a mobile phone company been shown to have such a detailed log on a single customer. Already, Spitz's story has created ripples reaching the United States, where congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Bartain have sent letters to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile demanding disclosure on their data collection and storage practices. "Location, location, location may be the favored currency of the real estate industry but it is sensitive information for mobile phone users that must be safeguarded," said Rep. Markey. "Collecting, storing and disclosing a consumer's exact whereabouts for commercial purposes without their express permission is unacceptable and violates current law."
Incidentally, federal prosecutors in New Jersey in April 2011 issued subpoenas to makers of multiple iPhone and Android apps, accusing them of transmitting personal customer data such as location, age and other identifiable information to third-party advertisers. The federal investigation stems from an ongoing study by The Wall Street Journal, which tested 101 iPhone apps and found that 56 of them transmitted unique device identifiers (UDID) — a 40-character string of letters and numbers tagged to each iPhone — to third-parties, including advertisers, without the user's awareness or consent. While an iPhone does not transmit a user's real name, a company could combine a UDID with other personal information collected from the device, such as location, age and gender data to determine a customer's real identity.
One target of the subpoena is popular music-streaming service Pandora, which the WSJ found to be sharing UDID, age and gender without user permission. Also, independent programmer Anthony Campiti received a subpoena regarding his app Pumpkin Maker, a kiddy app for carving virtual Jack-O-Lanterns, which the Wall Street Journal found was sharing UDID and location data with advertisers. Notably, neither of these apps ask customers for permission to share this data, and neither of them provides services related to location. "These unique identifiers are permanent social security numbers in your phone in that they're freely submitted and they can't change," says Justin Brookman, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Project on Consumer Privacy. "You can't go in there and change your UDID like you could go out and change a cookie [on a PC web browser]. It presents a lot more of a problem."
"I'm glad this is coming to light, because we've seen for a while that with smartphone apps there's a significant lack of transparency," says Sharon Nissim, consumer privacy counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "I think consumers are waking up to the tracking that's going on with a computer, but I think there's an extreme lack of knowledge about the tracking on your iPhone or your iPad."
In the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election, Preston Fosback and his mother posted a sign supporting Barack Obama in front of their house in Portland, Oregon. One night in April, the sign vanished. Then in September, the Fosbacks put up another sign — gone within hours. Determined to keep their pride alive, they made their own sign out of cardboard and marker. 16-year-old Preston had an idea: He hooked up a video camera to a laptop inside the house and aimed it at the sign from behind a window. The notebook was running a piece of software called Ustream, which broadcasted the camera's video feed live on the internet.
Oddly, the sign remained untouched, but the Fosbacks' live Ustream feed attracted dozens of viewers anyway, who could communicate with each other in a chat room. Finally, at 11:13 p.m. on Sept. 23, the camera spotted two girls approaching the Fosback's signs. Rather than steal the sign, they grabbed a gnome planted next to it. Ustream viewers erupted in excitement, urging each other to call 9-1-1. But because nobody knew the identities of the girls, they couldn't reprimand the thieves.
'This comes down to a fully transparent society. Nothing is faster than live video.'Though Ustream viewers failed to perform a virtual "citizen's arrest," the Fosbacks' experiment demonstrates the potential for live-streaming video to create a more transparent society, said John Ham, CEO of Ustream. If live-streaming, publicly viewable camera feeds sprout up all over the world, there's a higher chance that people can hold each other more accountable.
The invasion of the personal information on our mobile devices is potentially disturbing, but the power of these devices can also lead to huge benefits when people can share information in real time. It used to be that only TV reporters with access to satellite trucks could send video around the world instantly. Now, with a smartphone, anyone can broadcast from wherever they are. And even beyond citizen reporting, this network of broadcasters can become a ubiquitous social presence, perhaps cutting down on crime.
To be clear, having cameras everywhere isn't a new concept, and in the past it's had negative effects. In the 1990s, the United Kingdom deployed a controversial closed-circuit television system—roughly 1.5 million surveillance cameras installed in city centers, stations, airports, and major retail areas—in an effort to deter crime. But critics have provided considerable evidence that the CCTV system has been largely ineffective in preventing crime because of the camera's poor quality; instead, the UK's program is often criticized as a massive invasion of privacy. Millions of Ustream users, the argument goes, would be no more effective.
But this misses a key difference between CCTV and the Internet. CCTV is a closed system, so only a limited number of people at a limited set of monitors can watch. With live streaming video on smartphones, people broadcast to an open channel that anyone can view on the web. Anyone can engage in the moment and try to influence the outcome, like when they saw someone stealing a lawn gnome. "This comes down to a fully transparent society," Ham says. "Nothing is faster than live video in terms of delivering the most information in the quickest amount of time."
For regular people, the cell phone can replace a satellite truck; for police, it can replace an entire station. Developed in 2010, the Mobile Offender Recognition and Identification System (MORIS) is an iPhone app combining facial-recognition, iris biometrics and fingerprint-scanning technologies for officers to perform ID checks anywhere, anytime.
MORIS scans a high-resolution image of the iris and uses infrared illumination to reduce reflection, looking for the iris's unique patterns. For the face, the app analyzes the unique distances and dimensions between a person's facial features (for example, the distance between your chin and your nose in relation to the distance between the outside edges of both your eyes). Finally, MORIS can use an attachable iPhone accessory to scan a suspect's fingerprints. After combining all this data, MORIS cross-references the results with an online database of previously booked suspects. If there's a match, an officer can haul the suspect to the station.
Nobody said fighting crime is cheap. Developed by biometric technology firm BI2 Technologies, the MORIS app costs $3,000 with a customized version of the iPhone, which requires super-sized batteries and extra hardware. But to say MORIS makes suspect identification more convenient would be an understatement: Normally this process can take weeks, and now it can be done instantly using an iPhone app.
To the Brockton, Massachusetts police department, a constant cellular connection paired with sophisticated app technology mobilizes the ID process, whereas previously it was tethered to resources at a police station. "This is something the officers can access when they're out on the road, so that they don't have to rely on bringing somebody back here to figure out who they are," said police chief William Conlan. Just another way that the device in your pocket is much, much more than a phone.
See Also:
- Find Stored iPhone Location Data on your Computer
- Why You Should Care About the iPhone Location-Tracking Issue
- iPhone Tracks Your Every Move, and There's a Map for That
- iPhone or iSpy? Feds, Lawyers Tackle Mobile Privacy
- Book Excerpt: Three Inventors Who Tried to Bottle the Ocean's Power
- Book Excerpt: Kingpin — How One Hacker Took Over the Billion Dollar Cyber Crime Underground


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Mike D'Antoni resigns as Los Angeles Lakers coach
Mike D'Antoni has resigned as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, the team announced Wednesday night.
D'Antoni had one year left on his contract and had wanted to get some assurance on the future, as USA TODAY Sports first reported, asking the team to exercise its option for the 2015-16 season on his contract. He went 67-87 in two seasons with the Lakers after taking over for fired Mike Brown early last season.
"We've hit an insurmountable impasse, and Mike will no longer be the Laker coach," D'Antoni's agent, Warren LeGarie, told USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt.
D'Antoni's time in Los Angeles will be remembered largely for the injuries to superstar shooting guard Kobe Bryant and struggles with team chemistry that defined the past two seasons. He took the Lakers to the 2013 playoffs, where they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round without Bryant.
Center Dwight Howard, once viewed as the heir to Bryant's throne as the Lakers' premier player, left in free agency last offseason to the Houston Rockets. This season, the team with three future Hall of Famers (Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash) on its roster stumbled to the worst record (27-55) for the franchise since moving to Los Angeles. Bryant replacement Jodie Meeks, on a $1.55 million salary, was the team's leading scorer with 1,209 points.
"Given the circumstances, I don't know that anybody could have done a better job than Mike did the past two seasons," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said in a news release. "On behalf of the Lakers, we thank Mike for the work ethic, professionalism and positive attitude that he brought to the team every day. We wish him the best of luck."
Because of the struggles, D'Antoni was subject to much criticism from Lakers fans, particularly after it became clear the Lakers would miss the playoffs this season for the third time in 38 years. Leading the charge was Magic Johnson, the Lakers legend and former owner who now is an analyst for ESPN.
"Happy days are here again!" Johnson tweeted after the news. "Mike D'Antoni resigns as the Lakers coach. I couldn't be happier!"
D'Antoni has a 455-426 record in 12 seasons as a head coach with the Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks and Lakers. But he has only won five playoff series, all with the Suns in a three-year stretch from 2005 to 2007.
The Lakers said a search for a replacement will begin immediately, though no timetable has been set.


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Bob Odenkirk examines the smörgåsbord of desserts that line a long wooden dining room table—espresso cupcakes, chocolate peanut-butter balls, pumpkin bread, triple chocolate caramel cookies and doughnuts among them. Like everyone else around him, he ignores the chocolate chunk cookies with a white card in front of them that reads GLUTEN-FREE. "You know what really sucks?" he asks. "Eating desserts that aren't good. It's only worth it when it's really good."
The 51-year-old actor/comedian is better looking in person than he was as Saul Goodman, sleazy lawyer par excellence, on Breaking Bad. It helps that Goodman's signature garish combover—as well as his unchecked amorality and polyester attire—remains in Albuquerque, the setting for both Breaking Bad and its upcoming spin-off, the Goodman-centric Better Call Saul. He is also more serious than his flamboyant on-screen personas (e.g., Goodman, super-agent Stevie Grant on The Larry Sanders Show, a suspiciously Robert Evans-esque version of God on Mr. Show).
Odenkirk glances my way, nodding, slightly confused by my notebook, recorder and camera. He grabs a chocolate peanut-butter ball and introduces himself. "Hi, I'm Bob Odenkirk. Do you work here?"
"No," I respond. "But don't you?"
After all, we're at the Odenkirk-Provissiero Entertainment holiday party in the management company's office, a converted home in the Franklin Village section of Los Angeles. In the backyard, TV royalty like Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and big-shot agents mingle under large heat lamps. Other guests sip the evening's signature gin cocktail, appropriately named "1936" after the number of the address of Odenkirk-Provissiero HQ.
Across the room stands Bob's wife, 47-year-old talent manager Naomi Odenkirk, the Odenkirk in Odenkirk-Provissiero and the impresario behind the evening's festivities and the careers of many in attendance (her husband's included). She clutches a drink and strolls over to Bob, who is leaning against the kitchen sink with desserts in hand. Naomi whispers something into his ear and then turns toward me. "I'll tell you something," she says. "I don't know how you feel about love, but I feel totally satisfied."
Naomi Susan Yomtov first laid eyes on Robert John Odenkirk in 1994. Robert John Odenkirk, however, didn't first lay eyes on Naomi Susan Yomtov—in a romantic sense at least—for another 18 months (give or take a few weeks), making theirs a romance borne out of sluggish fate (or unwavering persistence, depending on your point-of-view—more on that below). Back then Naomi worked as an assistant at William Morris, where she scouted new talent at comedy clubs across Los Angeles.
Among her favorite stops was the UnCabaret in West Hollywood. Every Sunday night, the small room hosted an alternative comedy show during which performers would do 20-minute sets, often without any rehearsed material, usually riffing on personal experiences. One Sunday while Naomi was in attendance, Bob took the stage and sardonically recounted what it was like to grow up in the Midwest with six siblings and an absentee, alcoholic father.
"A week later I was driving around doing errands, and I thought, That's the man I'm going to marry," Naomi says now. "It popped into my head just like that. I was disturbed at first. I wasn't marriage-minded. In fact, I was very career-minded. But I couldn't ignore this thought. I went home that night and told my roommates, 'I know which man I'm going to marry. But I'm embarrassed because I don't actually know him yet.'"
For the next year and a half, she talked about Odenkirk incessantly—to her mom, to her friends, to anyone else who would listen—even though she still hadn't met him yet. "People would offer to introduce me to him, but I didn't want to force it. I would say, 'No, no, no!"'
All the while, she continued to be a regular, if unnoticed, presence in his life. For instance, one evening at UnCabaret, she was on her way to the bathroom when she bumped into Odenkirk and a mutual friend, comedian/director Bobcat Goldthwait. But while she talked to Goldthwait, Odenkirk stared at the floor, waiting for her to pass. "That's how disinterested he was in me," she says.
Finally, a year and a half after first watching Odenkirk perform, Naomi managed to strike up a conversation with him outside a comedy night in Santa Monica. Eventually, he asked for her number, and six weeks later, he called her. "He had no idea who I was, or that I had been to all his shows and that I knew all these other people around him. I don't know why he finally noticed me," she explains. "It's not like I suddenly became his type. I still don't think I'm his type, but we got along great."
Two months later, when they were dating exclusively, she felt comfortable enough telling him that she always knew they would be together (her unwavering persistence revealed). "I told her, 'Stop! Stop! Shut up!'" Bob says. "'I don't want to hear this magic thinking. It has nothing to do with reality, and I don't want it to pressure me.'"
Says Naomi, "He said, 'First, thank you for telling me, and second, thank you for waiting to tell me.'"
Naomi sits in her office looking at the script for a TV pilot called Duty. It's about an ex-jock/bully who ends up joining his hometown's police force, where he is forced to work side-by-side with the man he bullied for years. Naomi is diligently pitching some of her clients for the project. She sucks on a jalapeñolollipop and repeatedly takes her headset on and off to talk to clients and managers who keep calling to discuss The Skeleton Twins, an indie film starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, both of whom she represents. It centers on estranged twin siblings (Wiig and Hader, naturally) coping with depression and the death of their father. Naomi found the script with the help of the United Talent Agency and brought it to Hader.
The phone rings again. She picks it up. "Hello, it's Naomi. How are you? Have you heard about Bill and Kristen's Skeleton Twins? I'll send you some reviews. It's been well-received across the board."
She's right. After the movie premiered at Sundance, the Hollywood Reporter called it "a bittersweet but refreshing tonic that will leave audiences with a big, dopey smile on their faces." Rolling Stone gushed similarly. "We knew Wiig had range, but Hader, too?" the music magazine praised. "Nothing's gonna stop them now."
Naomi's office is partly decorated with headshots of her clients—Wiig, Hader, Jenna Fischer from The Office, Casey Wilson from Saturday Night Live and Derek Waters from Comedy Central's Drunk History, chief among them. Analog is her preferred means of organization. As such, little orange sticky notes filled with messages and doodles are scattered around the room. Many of them are in a shorthand discernible only to her. "Mexico," reads one. "Lawyer role," reads another. "Vernon God Little," reads a third.
Naomi first started her career in the music business as a teenager—working, in the following order, at a radio station, an independent record label, Arista Records (as a marketing assistant) and the Shoreline Amphitheater, the purview of legendary concert promoter Bill Graham. At age 20, she belatedly entered college at San Jose State University, where she orchestrated her first comedy show. Upon moving to L.A., she landed her gig at William Morris in 1992, where she spent two years before going to work for husband-and-wife producing team Conan Berkeley and Zane Buzby. Neither stop, however, jived with her sensibilities, so she decided to strike out on her own. "I thought, I'm just going to do what I know I can do. I don't need permission. And I don't need anyone to validate what I know is good."
The first client she signed to her new management company was Stephanie Courtney, best known as Flo from the ubiquitous Progressive insurance commercials. Naomi found her doing standup in New York City on a tip from a friend. She told Courtney that if she came to Los Angeles, she would rep her. Courtney heeded the advice and moved westward, joining the Groundlings in the process.
Courtney and her fellow Groundling Wiig eventually started babysitting the Odenkirks' two children—Nate (now 15) and Erin (now 13). Naomi liked Wiig's work enough that she started booking gigs for her other than babysitting. "Kristen was so talented," Naomi says. "And she felt like family after my kids and I got to know her. I just realized how upset I would be if she was with another manager."
She discovered Hader when he was working as a production assistant on The Frank International Film Festival, an original comedy short that was shot as an extra for the DVD of Melvin Goes to Dinner, Bob Odenkirk's feature directorial debut and the Odenkirks' first major production together. After Hader started a L.A.-based sketch comedy troupe Animals from the Future, Lorne Michaels auditioned him for Saturday Night Live. "It was so great," Hader remembers. "Naomi was jumping up and down, saying, 'I think you're going to get the show!' That's the thing I love about her. There's no bullshit. You can also tell that she has a genuine curiosity and appreciation for comedic actors and good material."
Another call comes in. Someone wants footage of The Skeleton Twins. A few minutes later, Hader checks in by phone. Naomi reads him a poem one of her daughter's classmates wrote called "Disillusionment of the New Saturday Night Live Cast." It's about how boring SNL has become, partly because Hader and Wiig aren't on the show anymore. Hader and Naomi both laugh.
"At the premiere [of The Skeleton Twins], Bob and Naomi were so happy," says Hader. "It's almost like their kids doing well. Bob even asked me to take a photo together!"
For most of his career, Bob was managed not by his wife, but by Bernie Brillstein, a legendary Hollywood figure who repped comedy giants such as John Belushi and Lorne Michaels. Bob, like Hader, got his big break under Michaels, writing off and on for Saturday Night Live from 1987 to 1995, picking up his first Emmy in 1989. He did similar writing stints on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Ben Stiller Show. Yet it was the wildly influential HBO sketch series, Mr. Show, he created with David Cross that established him as a pioneer in the alt-comedy scene that emerged after traditional standup, like that practiced by Jay Leno, waned in popularity in the 1990s.
"I'd never worked with someone so focused and driven [as Bob], almost to a fault," Cross told Marc Maron in 2012. Bob was so uptight, he only allowed himself small windows of relaxation, Cross added. "There was very little room for pleasure in Bob's life. That changed 180 degrees when he met Naomi. He mellowed."
Brillstein's death in April 2008 necessitated further change. Odenkirk turned over his career—as he had done with the rest of his life—to Naomi, whom he made his manager. It had been a decade since Mr. Show ended, and while he found success in acting parts on TV shows and working with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of the alt-comedy hit Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, he didn't have a breakout performance like Cross's role as Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development. All the while, he was slow to enlist Naomi to help him uncover such a role.
"I was hesitant to work with her," he says from his office at Odenkirk-Provissiero HQ. (On this day, he's the only Odenkirk on the premises, with Naomi away in Chicago.) "Like I told her years ago, sometimes I want to hear her criticism of my work, and sometimes I just want her to support the energy I have about my work."
"We figured out how to work together," Naomi explained to me a couple of days earlier. "There were a few years where we hadn't figured it out yet, and feelings would get hurt."
"I can be pretty blunt, so I think I've hurt her feelings a few times, especially when I don't like something she likes," Bob admits. "But Naomi has gotten better at her critiques, and I've gotten better at hearing them. That's true with anyone, if you're married to them or not."
Not long after they learned how to handle professional business at home, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan called. He wanted Bob, who had never seen the AMC series before, to play Saul for the show's second season. It was Naomi who pushed him to say yes. "He had to see himself through different eyes," Naomi says. "On Breaking Bad, he just showed up as an actor. He didn't write it; he didn't create it. He had to come to terms with a paradigm shift of his career from a director and creator of comedy. It was interesting to see him embrace an opportunity like that and go with it."
His Breaking Bad character became so beloved that he's heading back to Albuquerque to film a spinoff series, Better Call Saul, which is slated to premiere in November. (It also begat other opportunities, like his role as Will Forte's brother, Ross, in the Oscar-nominated film Nebraska.) The project, however, will take him away for five months from his wife and kids.
And this, of course, is where home and work blur together once again—his manager left alone with his children. "I told him, 'No pressure,'" Naomi says. "'You don't have to do the show if you don't want to, but if you decide to do it, don't worry about me and the kids. I'll make sure we're okay.' That doesn't mean there won't be challenges. I will barely see him the next few months. But we'll figure it out."
Danielle Bacher is a columnist at Playboy and LA Weekly as well as a contributing writer for Rolling Stone, Village Voice, Interview Mag, Esquire, Vice and The Los Angeles Times. Follow her on Twitter @DBacherwrites
This article was originally published on Playboy for iPhone. For more exclusive content and the best articles from the latest issue of Playboy, download the app in the iTunes Store.
Photos by Dan Monick


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Last Minute NFL Conference Championship Tickets Cheaper Than At Other Resale Sites For All Games This Weekend And Through The Superbowl. Track The Superbowl Ticket Market For The Cheapest Prices With The New Report At TicketsCheapest.com Online.
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) January 16, 2015
NFL Conference Championship games play out this weekend in Seattle and New England with the winner facing each other in the Superbowl. Luckily, TicketsCheapest.com offers last minute playoff tickets for both games including the relatively cheap sections to premium seats. While these tickets may not seem cheap on an absolute basis, prices offer a lower total for ticket costs and fees compared to 25 competitive sites in an exact seat showdown. This includes providing tickets cheaper than Stubhub.
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Seattle Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers
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With Superbowl tickets expected to experience a big push, as more people look to buy Superbowl tickets starting Sunday, TicketsCheapest.com began its Superbowl Ticket Report this week. People may not realize that tickets for the Superbowl move up and down similar to the stock market. The cheapest Superbowl tickets are likely found at TicketsCheapest.com. But even finding cheap Superbowl tickets fails to give prospective on the overall market. Imagine that TicketsCheapest.com offers a lower commission than anyone else on a stock, and tomorrow it will still be comparatively cheapest, but tomorrow the stock might be up or down by 15% or more which may be more important in cases of larger moves. The Superbowl Tickets report updates several time per day, to give people a feel for the momentum of the Superbowl ticket price market. Find it at the bottom of the TicketsCheapest.com main page.
While this weekend's games quickly approach, fans still have time to buy tickets. Many of these Playoff tickets may be purchased with an instant E-Ticket option, meaning a paper ticket for the football game may be printed right from the computer of the purchaser immediately after the easy online sales transaction. The printed tickets and computer systems at the stadiums, like Gillette Stadium or CenturyLink Field, make using the tickets printed at home as easy as standard tickets from the box office. With the 125% ticket guarantee of authenticity and guaranteed admission to the game fans need not be concerned with nervousness about validity of an E-ticket if they may never have used one. Buying tickets on the street before a show has become a gamble, inviting fraud resulting in both losing money and not seeing the game. Play it safe and buy last minute tickets from a trusted source owned by company with a long standing excellent history with the BBB.
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The site to buy Cheap Tickets online and its sister sites, including the site to purchase Broadway tickets or tickets for Broadway tours, all geared for the consumers looking for low prices, are affiliated with the Financial Firebird Corporation Travel Group. Financial Firebird Corporation, established in 2000 and a proud BBB member. These sites for consumers to buy tickets online operate in the resale market and maintain no relationship with the venues or performers. The resale ticket market allows consumers access to popular events once the box office has sold out or to buy premium seats when the venue no longer offers any inventory. Within the group of these secondary market ticket services the Financial Firebird owned ticket sites offer lower prices than competitors. Find the site at TicketsCheapest.com.


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The state of North Carolina's litigation against former Peak Fitness owner Jeff Stec is still ongoing.
That information came in a press release from the office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who recently announced that his state has stepped up its efforts to ensure that health clubs are prepared to refund members whose clubs have closed.
Cooper's office stated that multiple locations of ZX Fitness, which took the place of the former Peak Fitness clubs after Peak Fitness went into bankruptcy, are still under investigation, along with two Curves for Women clubs in North Carolina. Two other Curves for Women clubs have entered into settlements with the Attorney General's office requiring their compliance with the law. Three more Curves for Women clubs have complied with the law after receiving a warning letter from the office's consumer protection division.
In all, the division has recently contacted 28 North Carolina clubs and related businesses, such as dance and martial arts studios, about their compliance with state law. Over the past few years, the division has recovered more than $500,000 for members whose clubs have closed.
"My office hears every week from people whose gym shut down, leaving them in the lurch," Cooper said in a statement. "Fortunately, North Carolina law requires health clubs to set aside money for refunds, and we want to make sure that businesses are following the law so consumers are protected."
Under North Carolina law, health clubs, dance studios, martial arts studios and dating services are required to have a bond or letter of credit to cover certain prepaid contracts in case they go out of business and need money to repay consumers. Businesses are required to file sworn statements with the Attorney General's office about their bonds twice a year.


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A love for cities around the world is what sparks Eric Dowdle's jigsaw puzzle artwork. He creates the buildings and architecture from real cities in a whimsical and fun folk artsy puzzle design.
Use the filters to the left or simply scroll down to begin viewing all pages.
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Highly Prized in Turkey, Ignored in Germany
On the pinboard in an open-plan office of an Istanbul housing and cultural agency hangs a green flyer displaying the image of a grilled chicken. "Wienerwald is like a piece of home for me," laughs Serpil Duygulu from Frankfurt. "I stand out here because of my honesty," says Sibel Sürücü from Heidelberg. She's not quite mastered the art of diplomatic criticism, as it is practised here.
Duygulu and Sürücü moved from Germany to Istanbul three years ago. Seeking out the most attractive market in today's globalized world is nothing unusual. But both women, born and educated in Germany, are not isolated cases.
For years now, more people have been relocating to Turkey from Germany than vice versa. According to the Federal Office for Statistics, last year 8,159 more Turkish nationals left Germany than moved there. The German-Turkish Foundation for Education and Scientific Research in Istanbul estimates that in the meantime some 50,000 well-educated German-Turks aged between 20-40 have settled in Turkey.
Rejecting ghettoisation
In Serpil Duygulu's case, it was her family that wanted to go back to Istanbul. The bi-lingual secretary had always wanted to live in Istanbul for a while. "Here everyone is governed by their instincts – so a year ago, I got rid of my watch. But I've been integrated here from the first moment."
Sibel Sürücü, who had worked for years in Cologne as a manager at various media companies, wanted to "feel at home" at last. "I wanted to get away from the ghettoisation you always experience in Germany. I was always just 'the Turk!' Here I'm known as 'the German', but somehow I feel complete," she says.
The permanent sense of not belonging, although one could not be more German – through birth, schooling and education – also had a serious impact on Özel Aydin. When he experienced not only xenophobia but also institutional discrimination, the successful retail salesman from Hamburg looked to the homeland of his parents as a possible place to emigrate.
"When I realised that all my requirements would be met here, I said to myself: why should I continue living in Germany, where I'm only perceived as a foreigner? I've made the right decision. I feel very much at home here, there's nothing I miss and I'm acknowledged and recognised in every respect." Here, says the Sales Manager of an Oetker Group in Istanbul, "I'm just Özel Aydin, who speaks Turkish with a slight accent."
Self-fulfilling prophecy of exclusion
The trend exposes Germany's huge integration deficits. Instead of accepting cultural differences and perceiving them as potentially enriching, as in Spain, England or France, German-Turks are often assigned a problematic general identity, since 11th September also even an "ominous Muslim" identity. The fact that this kind of treatment actually fosters a Turkish or Muslim self-perception is often overlooked.
Hardly surprising then that it is often the top-end professionals who are turning their backs on Germany. Cigdem Akkaya, for example, who was quite simply tired of always having to battle for acceptance. And this although as deputy director of the Centre for Studies on Turkey, she played a decisive role in shaping a variety of debates for no less than 15 years.
"For a long time I organised the dialogue between the cultures, and chaperoned the discussions on dominant culture, headscarves and the question of whether Turkey belongs to Europe. But no matter what we did, in the end I always had a sense that we Turks were the problem. I was left hoping for some kind of assurance that I would one day really be welcome."
These days, Cigdem Akkaya manages a PR and event agency in Istanbul. In her free time, she organises a monthly get-together of "Deutschländer", as they call themselves – a group with more than 1,000 adherents. And by the way, describing them as "returnees" is misleading: few of the "Deutschländer" in Istanbul lived in Turkey before. They are better described as transmigrants in a globalised world.
Germany realises its loss – but too late
The increasing emigration of such members of the workforce is by no means a "luxury problem", as the Interior Minister at the time Thomas de Maizière described it so tersely during his trip to Turkey last October. While Turkey is happy about the new influx of highly-qualified potential, Germany is also beginning to wake up to the reality. Federal President Christian Wulff acknowledged the loss during his trip to Turkey in November 2010.
"I've met a number of great young people here, who spent several years or more in Germany, and who are very familiar with German culture, but see their future in Turkey. I'll only be able to get over that if these young people at least feel loyal to the German nation too," he said.
Many definitely feel a kinship with Germany. Sports medic Ertugrul Karanlik, for example. But he'd also had enough of continually having to battle against the same grievances: "As a graduate I'd never experienced as much rejection as in Germany. A certain degree of recognition came with the doctor's profession. But hearing people say things like 'I'm not going to be treated by a Turkish doctor', or having to put up with a judge who wouldn't pay his bill as a private patient telling me how I should behave as a foreigner – experiences like that made it easier for me to leave."
Today, Karanlik works as team medic for the super-league soccer club Fenerbahce in Istanbul.
Munich architect Erdogan Altintas on the other hand juggles and lives between both cultures. He's been restoring old apartments in Istanbul's Galata district for 14 years now, and finds it easier to assert himself professionally here than in Germany.
"I'm always thinking of my colleagues in Munich. And that reminds me of how fortunate I am here in Istanbul, and how wonderful it is to have grown up in both cultures. I can still remember the questions: 'How do you feel, are you German or Turkish, where do you belong?' Sometimes I could even sense the pity – as though I was a poor soul who didn't have a home. All I can do is smile about it now."
Semiran Kaya
© Qantara.de 2011
Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de


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Our stream of visitors has come to an end. Frank's parents left yesterday. It's been a whirlwind since May, but we should now fall back to familiar routines, bring on nakedness, peace and quiet. House guests and visitors are fun, but it's exhausting and expensive running about and we really miss our privacy when we open our home. Don't get me wrong, I love to see everyone visit, I'm really glad we live in a city where people like to vacation. Otherwise, years would go by without seeing loved ones. It's just nice to get back to day-to-day life after months of non-stop action.
Hard to believe summer is nearly over. I'm going to miss it. At least, I have the perfect weather months of September and October to look forward to.
Fall also means football and good tv. I'm excited for both. I enjoy the games, but especially the competition among friends in fantasy football and pick 'em contests. Also, this year, I think I'll be seeing my first NFL game live. Frank and I plan to see the Bears vs. 49ers when we visit San Francisco in November. That ought to be fun.
As far as tv goes, we're not in a drought now; we have Rescue Me and Entourage, plus a few more weeks of Penn & Teller's Bullshit. Also, there's Nurse Jackie and Weeds for filler, however, Weeds has certainly jumped the shark this season. Soon, though, we'll have more quality television to add to the rotation:
Mad Men 8/16
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 9/17
Curb Your Enthusiasm 9/20
Californication 9/27
Dexter 9/27
Nip/Tuck 10/14
I only wish I could have Breaking Bad and United States of Tara back, too. I'm really missing those two shows.
The only bummer about fall is less time with Frank. It sucks when we don't have a common day off. I love our Sunday's together. I will miss them over football season. Not only do we see each other less, but it's harder to getaway and seek adventures. Still, we'll make the most of the time we do have. We intend to take two trips before the year's end, San Francisco as mentioned before and we want to head back to Xpu-ha, Mexico in December. Hopefully, both trips will pan out.
This weekend we hoped to go camping in Utah, but the Suburban needs the exhaust redone before we can take any road trips. The funds aren't there for it to be done before the weekend. Instead, we have a nice quiet weekend home alone planned. That also sounds nice.


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Use Format Paper (formerly called RTF Document Scan) to cite references and create bibliographies for documents that can be saved as RTF, including documents created with:Microsoft® WordWordPerfect® OpenOfficeAdobe® FrameMaker®StarOffice™ Microsoft® WorksWordPadAlmost any application that can save as RTF (Rich Text Format)To format references and create a bibliography (Cite While You Write) with Microsoft Word 2000, XP, or 2003, see How to Cite While You Write. While you can use the Format Paper feature to format Word files, it is much easier and more efficient to use Cite While You Write.
# endnote.txt - This is a really helpful file for people who write documents in plain ASCII (like Emacs or vim users!), and who want to insert footnotes or endnotes in their documents, but who want to be able to move their footnotes all around without renumbering everything. Basically, you use references like this[##] in your text, putting the actual citation (Dante, Book 3, sect. 2) directly below the paragraph. Rearrange the document to your heart's delight. When you're all finished, use this script to sequentially number all your references, gather your notes together, and print them at the end of the file with numbers corresponding to the in-text references. Totally cool. Eric Meyer thought of it, and I wrote it for both awk and perl.The same script is also available in perl if you'd rather.
Zotero does now have word integration. We are calling it an "alpha," but it works fine in my experience; read more here: http://www.zotero.or...d-integration-alpha/-rrosenzw (February 14, 2007, 11:38 AM)
This is one of my pet peeves because its something that academia should fund.. It's too big a job for me to work on without pay unfortunately.-mouser (February 12, 2007, 06:19 PM)
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Banner Saga 1 is being updated to the latest version of the engine. Quite a bit of cleanup happened under the hood, but also this adds in some improvements that exist in TBS2. We need your help to make sure everything is working properly. Please report bugs and discuss the beta in this thread, or join us on our Steam Forums!
How do I access Beta?
- Right click Banner Saga in your Steam Library
- Click on Properties
- Navigate to the "BETAS" tab
- Use the dropdown menu to select "beta" branch
- Download the Update
- Launch Banner Saga
Changes in this build:
- Final Bellower battle tuned to be less difficult (see below)
- Chapter 6 supply opportunities increased (see below)
- Upgrade '+' sign shows up on hero icons in heroes tent when appropriate
- Extended tooltips in battle
- on stat banner, buffs, and items.
- on hazards such as slag-and-burn, coals, etc...
- Match Resolution:
- Consequences tab shows injured units
- Achievements tab shows new achievements
- Items tab shows newly acquired items
- Idling close caravan now uses idle anims for heroes (e.g. at godstones)
- Fix missing normal ships after Vognir arrives in Strand
- News Ticker on Start Screen (see TBS2 notes)
- Injured units to not heal during travel, only when Resting in camp/village
- Injured units' str penalty now equals the number of days of injury remaining
1. Bellower Final Battle
...has been tuned down for normal and easy difficulty.
Bellower's ARM/STR regen during the first battles was +6/+6 per turn
It is now:
Easy: +0/+1 ARM/STR
Normal: +1/+3 ARM/STR
Hard: +6/+6 ARM/STR (same as before)
Bellower's ARM/STR regen during the second battle is still +1/+1 for all difficulties.
2. Chapter 6 Supplies
...towns in the final world travel have more supplies and items for sale:
1. Haukstorp, the first village after Einartoft which was ransacked by dredge (now 50 supplies at 10/renown, and 3 items)
2. The first village past Sigrholm (now has 145 supplies, up from 98), and between 3-5 items.
General Notes
The game needs a full pass, including multiple difficulty settings, with particular attention payed to the complex situations in Frostvellr, Einartoft, and Boersgard. If possible, please compare this beta against the live build on Steam to make sure everything is still working as before.
Based on the upgrades, here are some potential breakages to take special care in watching out for:
- Variable Prereqs: things appearing or occurring in the wrong order or not at all. When the player makes a choice, the side effects should correctly affect events in the future just as before.
- Variable scene anims: things not animating when they should, or incompletely
- Save import. We run a risk of issues importing saves into TBS2. Issues could arise in BOTH SITUATIONS: from older versions of Tbs1 and new version of tbs1... into tbs2.
- Units may take on the wrong appearance: look like their TBS2 version instead of TBS1 version
- Bellower fight needs extra attention, in all 3 difficulty modes
- Talents should be entirely disabled and invisible to the player in every way
Developer Superpowers
You can run the game in developer mode to gain access to a variety of cheats, fast-forwards, bookmark teleports, diagnostics, and other fun stuff. For more information, please see this Banner Saga Developer Cheatsheet.
Patch Changes (2.35.09):
- When returning to Frostvellr at the beginning of Chapter 4, supplies are now as they were at the end of chapter 2 (even though time has passed -- let's assume the party has been foraging)
- Fix missing Alette description in Heroes tent after final Bellower battle
- Fix issue where Rook walks ahead of Juno on the way to Godstone Strahvs
- Nid now starts at rank 2 when she joins
- Fix issue preventing snow from falling in snowy scenes -- please compare to live game for any discrepancies
Patch Changes (2.35.40):
- Console Error can flash on screen when changing game language
- [Suggestion] Increase loot drop chance for winning the second wave of a battles.
- Change default INT variable range from 1-20 to 0-100
- [ES][PT][RU] Insufficient Willpower messaging under the Special Ability button does not appear localized.
- [ES][PT][RU] Multiple fly text messages appears as placeholder.
- [ES][PT][RU] Consequences display does not appear to be localized.
- [ES][PT][RU] Small Party warning dialogue does not appear to be localized. Don't show dialog if translations don't exist
- [Suggestion] Varl that join the caravan after the Godstone in chapter 3 should have supplies.
Thank you!