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|About this Recording
8.553423 - LUTOSLAWSKI, W.: Symphony No. 3 / Paganini Variations (Polish National Radio Symphony, Wit)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913 - 1994)
Orchestral Works Vol. 3
Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Paroles tissees
Les Espaces du sommeil
Symphony No.3
Witold Lutosfawski started regular study of the piano at the age of six and the violin when he was thirteen. He did not become a concert violinist, but he was a concert pianist. Witold Maliszewski, professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, who deeply influenced the young Lutostawski's musical thought, gave him lessons in composition, after his future pupil had presented him with the Poem for piano, written at the age of fifteen. When he was seventeen he wrote, under his teacher's supervision, his Dance of the Chimera for piano, the first work of his to receive public performance. As with a series of other pieces, written since
1922, when Lutostawski was only nine, the two compositions mentioned were destroyed in 1944 during the Warsaw rising. The flames spared, however, the
Piano Sonata of 1934 and the two-piano Wariacje na temat Paganiniego (Variations on a Theme of Paganini) of 1941. The post-war years brought other works for piano, Melodie ludowe (Folk Melodies) in 1946 and Bukoliki (Bucolics) in 1952 and some pedagogical pieces. The piano, the role of which in Lutostawski's chamber and orchestral works was often important, only appeared as a solo instrument in the Piano Concerto of 1988, except for the Variations on a Theme of Paganini, a composition for piano and orchestra, after the two-piano Variations, one of the most popular works in the piano duo repertoire and one of the most frequently performed of Lutostawski's compositions.
In Warsaw under Nazi occupation, Lutostawski earned his living by playing the piano in cafes, from 1940 to 1944 with Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991), one of the most famous Polish composers. The Lutostawski-Panufnik duo had a repertoire of nearly two hundred pieces, with arrangements of classical music from Bach to Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, as well as, among other works, an elaboration by the composer of Debussy's L'Apres-midi d'un faune and a transcription of Paganini's solo violin Caprice No.24 in A minor. It was only the score of the Variations, out of the whole Lutostawski-Panufnik collection, that was not destroyed during the uprising. Lutostawski returned to this work in 1978, slightly enlarging it in an arrangement for piano and orchestra. The new version was first performed on 18th November 1979 in Miami by Felicja Blumenthal and the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, under Brian Priestman.
The theme, marked Allegro capriccioso, and the twelve variations that constitute the work are written with exceptional bravura virtuosity. In a masterly way, one might say, he juggles with three elements, violin music, piano music and orchestral writing, allotting these in alternation or in counterpoint to the solo instrument and to particular sections of the orchestra. The principle of alternation of melodic and harmonic material in the score for two instruments is enriched, in the orchestral version, by instrumental colouring. The piano part has its origin in the best models of virtuosity stemming from Liszt and Rachmaninov, enriched, always, by the influence of Bartok and, to some extent, of Prokofiev. The orchestral part owes its brilliance to the fact that its neo-classical vitality is embellished by elements of colour and articulation that come not only from the orchestra of Ravel but also from twentieth century scores that draw on folk traditions and the sonorities of the modern orchestra. The harmonic system of the work rests naturally on the original A minor theme, in relationship with chords that have very little in common with major-minor tonality, becoming a sort of atonal variation purely in sound. The mood of Vigore in the Tempo allegro that dominates the score only changes in the sixth variation, marked poco lento, a lyrical cantilena, where one can observe a reference to the lyrical work of Karel Szymanowski, who wrote in 1918 variations on the same theme of Paganini. This contrasting variation at the centre of the work and a miniature cadenza for the piano at the end of the last, twelfth variation, give the impression, elsewhere hardly apparent, of a miniature piano concerto.
Apart from a setting of the Lacrimosa of the Requiem Mass, written as a student, there are only five works for voices and instruments among the compositions of Lutoslawski, four of which were based on texts by French surrealist poets of the twentieth century. Paroles tissees (Woven Words) for tenor and Les Espaces du sommeil (The Spaces of Sleep) for baritone are included in the present recording. The three others are Chantefleurs et Chantefables for soprano, Three Poems for chorus and orchestra and Five Songs for female voice, settings of poems by the Polish poet Kazimiera Illakowicz.
In his comments on the suggestion that his music goes far beyond the "texture of words" of Jean-Francois Chabrun, which served him as a basis, Lutoslawski referred to the famous remark of Debussy, that music begins where the words finish. He added that he did not believe in any way that music was able to transmit unequivocally any kind of extra-musical content. For Lutoslawski the text was a source of inspiration and in no way the subject of the musical work, which, paradoxically, is not inconsistent with another statement of the composer, that the text had never been for him purely an element of sound and that he had never reduced the content to a futile excuse for composing. It should be added that with Lutoslawski, at the start of the development of a vocal-instrumental work, it was not a question of a text that might stimulate him to set it to music but rather a general sketch of the composition, written without any relationship with any text. Lutoslawski sought for words for a musical idea already sketched, which was realised and shaped by contact with the words and the contents chosen. He was principally concerned with French poetry and had a particular feeling for this language: I like particularly French sung, above all because of its nasal sounds that give pleasure to my ear, a pleasure that is purely in sound. It is because of these that French songs sound different from poems sung in any other language, because of the large number of vowels, but above all nasal vowels. Similarly the tonic accent on the last syllable determines a certain way of rhythmic writing. It is not by chance nor through his preference for the surrealists who, on the one hand, often give importance to the richness of sonorities in the language and, on the other hand, avoid, as a matter of principle, any concrete and unequivocal meaning, but rather the poetic of the surrealists that corresponded best with Lutoslawski's ideas on composition and his artistic opinions.
Lutoslawski sought a poem for his idea of a work for tenor and orchestra. In the review Poesie 1947 he found the poem Quatre tapisseries pour la chatelaine de Vergy (Four Tapestries for the Lady of Vergy). I wanted a shorter title, Lutoslawski said, and... the writer suggested to me, answering my wishes, two other titles, of which I chose Paroles tissees ...The work is written for tenor and string chamber orchestra, with harp, piano and percussion. Completed in 1965, it was first performed on 20th June in the same year by Peter Pears, to whom it is dedicated, and the Philomusica of London under the direction of the composer at the Snape Maltings in the Aldeburgh Festival.
In the title of his poem the poet alludes to the medieval French roman that tells the beautiful and sad story of the guilty love of the Lady of Vergy and the Duke of Burgundy. It is there, however, that connection with the secular story ends. The title of Chabrun's poem could be considered a dedication to the
Lady of Vergy .The title of the composition chosen by Lutoslawski refers to the formal structure of the poem. In the four consecutive movements the same motifs are repeated, mingled, as it were, with other threads:
Une ombre I'ensorcelle celui de l'arbre mort celui des btes prises
(a shadow casts a spell on it of the dead tree of creatures caught).
The title of the composition, nevertheless, does not reveal another quality in this poem, of which Lutoslawski made masterly use, notably a narrative element, impalpable and unreal, suggested in allusions that follow a dream logic, which, with purely lyrical aspects, introduces into Lutostawski's work a dramatic character.
While it is clear that Chabrun's poem is one work in four parts and not a collection of four poems, it is clear too that Lutoslawski's composition is not a cycle of four songs but a poem in four movements which, by the aid of purely musical means, depicts an unreal story to which the poet alludes without showing it. Lutoslawski even openly admitted that his way of treating Chabrun's text was false, since I wrote music for a story that does not exist in Chabrun's text. Nevertheless, according to Lutostawski's confirmation of Debussy's remark, music begins where the words end. This story cannot be put into words.
Lutoslawski understood the first passage of Chabrun's poem as information, expressed without any feeling. The whole movement continuously respects the aleatoric technique of ad libitum.
The second section represented for him a lullaby hummed in mezza voce. The orchestra, using the collective ad libitum technique, accompanies the tenor and the harp, which share a common beat of semiquavers. The third part of the text represented for the composer a conflict and a catastrophe, a sensual and dramatic cry. The vocal line here is aleatoric in character and where it dies out the composer introduces conducted orchestral passages. A kind of dramatic climax to the whole work is the longer instrumental fragment and the tenor phrase mille coqs hurlent ma peine (a thousand cocks cry out my pain), with a long melisma on the word peine (pain). The fourth section brings peace to the conflict with an extended lyrical cantilena, the nocturnal climax of which punctuates the flow of the music, again ad libitum, using the aleatory contrapuntal technique so characteristic of Lutostawski. The whole work consists of four different passages, with the vocal scheme ranging from recitation on one note to a syllabic and even melismatic vocal line.
The subtle colouring of this impressionist lyrical world, the studied and carefully worked instrumentation, the accent put on the interval of a third in twelve-note harmony, a drama hidden by sound happenings that are played out essentially in the shadow, the euphoria in the sound itself that is dominant, these are the things that make Paroles tissees one of the finest, that is to say one of the most attractive of Lutoslawski's works, though not without strongly expressive and dramatic elements.
The way in which Lutoslawski reacted in his musical scheme to the poetic descriptions of the sounds is worthy of attention, and this as much in Chabrun's text in Paroles tissees as in the verses of Robert Desnos in Les Espaces du sommeil. In the first passage of Chabrun's poem there is
le cri du bateleur et celui de la caille celui de la perdrix celui du ramoneur celui de l'arbre mort celui des bi!tes prises.
(The cry of the clown and of the quail of the partridge of the sweep, of the dead tree of creatures caught).
The text is accompanied by chords of twelve notes, played very softly. In his analysis of the poem by Desnos, Lutoslawski raised the question in this little passage:
Un air de piano, un eclat de voix, une porte claque, une horloge (A piano tune, a voice's bright sound, / A door bangs. A clock.) What can be done with that? Clearly not imitative music... These words are sung or rather recited on one note, with short note values, and particular phrases are separated by pauses. A motionless chord accompanies the soloist, like a foundation over which nothing happens in the music. We hear, in turn, the recited text and silence. The interpretation is as follows: the artist recounts his dream to the audience. The text is, then, the relation of events in the inner life of the singer and the pedal-point, the silence, is for him the moment to capture sounds inaudible to the audience. Neither he, nor the hearer, hear anything real - it is only a dream - and the motionless chord here becomes the symbol of the inaudible.
Les Espaces du sommeil for baritone and symphony orchestra came ten years after Paroles tissees, in 1975, composed on a poem by Robert Desnos of the same title. It appeared for the first time in 1926 in a collection of work by surrealist poets, A la mysterieuse (To the mysterious), and later, in Paris in 1930, in the collection Corps et Biens (Bodies and Goods). The poem comes from the period when Desnos, associated among others with Andre Breton, Louis Aragon and Paul Eluard, took part in sessions of hypnosis, which were thought to reveal, through sleep, the state of the subconscious. Desnos, a member of the Resistance, was arrested by the Gestapo and died of typhoid in the Theresienstadt (Terezin) concentration camp in Bohemia, in the last moments of the Second World War. The work, dedicated to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, was first performed by him on 12th April 1978 in Berlin, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer.
Les Espaces du sommeil, unlike Paroles tissees, is in one movement, but its inner structure reveals a three-movement scheme, realised without visible breaks. Like the woven words of Chabrun, the pictures that arise from the dreams of Desnos repeat key motifs which give order in a refrain to the dream visions, the surreal images, the pictures from the subconscious, notably dans la nuit (in the night) and il ya Toi (there is you). The composer was attracted by the feelings expressed in the poem, the images and the impressions - as opposed to the poetry of ideas. He felt himself attracted by the rhythmic freedom of the verse that offered him a place for his music, rather than a rigid metrical scheme, which would have excluded it. Lutoslawski said that Les Espaces du sommeil was not a song or songs, but a symphonic poem with a baritone solo.
The first section of the composition is the introduction and four episodes, a sort of gentle, calm Allegro, sung in a murmur: visions of a forest in which the silhouette of a woman appears, where the dream image notes the steps of a walker, of a murderer, of the constable, the light of the street-lamp - and She: where trains pass and boats and fantastic images of unknown countries – and She; where doors bang, the piano sounds, a voice bursts out, the clock ticks. The second section of the composition is an Adagio, the third again an Allegro, in which, after going through the characteristics of this silhouette of a woman, heroine of his dreams, comes the climax of the work with words that evoke les poumons de millions et millions d'etres (the lungs of millions and millions of beings) with the final Dans la nuit il y a Toi. Vans le jour aussi (In the night there is You. In the day too.) - as if in the last words and the last bars night, with sometimes its nightmares, opened on a day of hope.
The baritone part, in almost the whole work, does not often diverge from syllabic writing, a narration in recitative, corning from the speaking voice that more often expresses itself in hurried sections of recitative and sections of slower cantilena reflective in character. Another lyrical subject of this poem is the orchestral part, the colour of which delights with its sensual beauty coming from the union of the abstract twelve-note harmonic material with the sensual feeling of the instrumental material.
Andrzej Chlopecki
Symphony No.3
I had already written the first sketches for the Third Symphony in 1972; later I totally abandoned a part composed in the following years. The score was only definitively completed in January 1983; meanwhile I wrote a number of other pieces, such as Les Espaces du sommeil Mi-parti and Novelette. In composing the Third Symphony I always had in mind the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its exquisite sound. It was a powerful stimulus to my imagination. At the same time always, in writing for such an interpreter, I felt the weight of responsibility that had forced me to be more exacting with myself. This was perhaps the reason that work on the Third
Symphony went on so long.
The form of the Third Symphony is the result of my experiences over several years as a listener to music, in particular to larger forms. I was always fascinated by the extraordinary strategy of Beethoven in this field, and this was also for me the best lesson in musical architecture. My model for the large form, perfectly balanced, was, however, the pre-Beethoven symphony, above all the symphonies of Haydn. I have not ceased to be an admirer of the large-scale forms of Brahms in symphonies, concertos and chamber music, but I must admit that, after having listened to a symphony, a concerto or even a sonata by Brahms, I always feel exhausted, probably because with him there are always two large-scale movements, the first and the last. All these reasons have inclined me to research into other possibilities. I found in the end a solution in the large-scale form in two movements, where the first is only a preparation for the second. Its function is only to draw the attention of the listener, to awaken his interest, without giving him complete satisfaction. It is necessary for the listener, in following the performance of the first movement, to be waiting for something more important to come. He may even be impatient. And it is at this precise moment that the second movement appears, bringing the principal idea of the work. Such a way of arranging the musical substance of the work in time seems to me natural, in conformity with the psychology of listening. I have used a form of this kind in a number of compositions, the String Quartet and the Second Symphony are the most typical examples.
In the Third Symphony the first "preparatory" movement appears after a short introduction. For some time the music does not move forward from here, and its course is interrupted by pauses. This movement consists of three episodes, the first of which is quicker and the last slower. To be exact, the tempo remains the same to the end, the apparent difference only comes from the use of longer rhythmic values. A short slow passage leads to the second movement, the main part of the symphony.
The form of the second movement could be defined as "a reference to the "sonata-allegro" with its thematic contrast. The climax of the work comes towards the end of a series of tutti passages. There is still a distinct epilogue, an Adagio, where dramatic tring recitatives mingle with a broad cantilena. (Witold Lutoslawski. 1988.)
The four Es that open the symphony, like the four blows at the door of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, promise the dramatic development of the work.
In stating a motif so simple and, at the same time, so strong in expression, intense in its fortissimo, Lutosfawski seems to say "Stop your false dreams, an end to your illusions, something really important, vital, is beginning, equal in importance to the symphonies of Beethoven or Brahms, going right to the limits". The same four-note motif, always in unison, closes the symphony, providing a conclusion for the coda. It is from this that the second movement develops and it is this that gives form to the first. These movements are not so named in the score and are not separated. In performance they overlap, without any break, in conformity with the "chain" principle that marks his formal developments, a principal characteristic of Lutoslawski's work.
The Introduction starts with a short passage that last a little over a minute.
This develops over the note E, in the strings, divisi and then together in a blaring statement of the four-note main motif. The woodwind, the piano and the harp, free in their expressive contour, reveal the forms and processes that will give life to the sections of the first movement. Lutosfawski would not have been unhappy to learn that the introduction is considered a continuation of the sounds of the instruments tuning up, although, it is true, on motifs already indicated and composed, music that invites further attention.
Even if it always engages the attention of the hearer, the first movement continues to bear the character of an introductory prelude. It consists of a sequence of three episodes, longer sections of three to four minutes. These constitute procedural happenings which at first seem not in narrative order, a sequence of events that evolves. These are states of musical material rather than its development, states of material for strings, for woodwind, for brass and for the piano, harp and percussion. Each of the episodes is slower than the one that precedes it, the first in quavers, the most sparkling and busy, the second in crotchets, where the motifs appear in musical figures and begin to take on a certain consistency, solidifying into more concrete shapes, the third in minims, where the sound material takes on a continuous line, a cantilena. This development into a cantilena grows more intense in the ethereal Adagio that follows the third episode, distinct in form, which reveals the idea of the movement, the idea of music that becomes slower and finds its resolution in an Adagio.
The three episodes are divided by two refrains, a third of which closes the first movement, after which the Adagio dies out in a pianissimo. These are the slow exchanges of clarinets and bassoon, in short melodic figures, lyrical in character. The principal motif of the four Es in the trumpets and trombones tells us each time that an episode is beginning or, after the Adagio, that the second movement is starting. We are unaware that through the first movement, capricious and barely consistent, of less "importance" because of the melodic contours that appear and disappear again, with its patterns that sometimes seem to us anaemic, tame and unfinished, open and unfulfilled, Lutosfawski has prepared us for the second movement of his symphony. We do not know and there is no need for us to know that in the first movement the composer has suggested the principal idea of the whole symphony, its fundamental elements, had sketched them, suggested them, prepared them, and had directed the subconscious attention of the listener to them.
The second movement is the main part of the whole symphony. The idea of the sonata-allegro dominates, in the sense that the dualism of two fundamental thematic groups can be detected, with their abridged repetition, the stretto before the great climax that ends the movement, could be described as a repeat; the development as a principle and not as a separate section on the classical model is present in the whole movement, from beginning to end. The first thematic group, to continue with classical terminology, consists of the repetition of the main motif, the repeated Es that open the movement and of a broadly extended fugato episode in the strings, with the harps. The second subject begins polyphonically, with the strings mainly pizzicato. The second movement of the symphony, unlike the first, is a development, a dramatic narration in which there are varied forms and interruptions, details shaded as in chamber music and symphonic explosions of the whole orchestra which call for a deeper and more developed analysis. There is no need for that here: an attentive listener, in tune with the composer in the first movement, is seized in the second by the form of the symphony and no guidance is necessary in order to appreciate the work.
In his commentary Witold Lutosfawski wrote that the second movement ends with a developed Epilogue. This could, however, easily be regarded as a third movement, beginning after the end of the climax of the second. The third movement, therefore, would be a slow movement, treated by the composer on the formal and expressive scheme of a unison string recitative and a rhythmic cantilena. Some melodic patterns from the first movement appear and we find again the intensified expression of the Adagio with which it ends, the ethereal character of a vision here becomes one of ardour. After the climax that crowns the second movement, it might be supposed that there would be only a conclusion to the form, an acceptance of our lot. The third movement, Lutoslawski's Epilogue, reveals itself as something quite different, an alternative principal movement, a completion of the world of this work. A form analogous to the Introduction, but different in expression, pathetic in spite of its character, is the Coda, stemming from the second movement. The last bar of this is a tutti of four fortissimo quavers. All is completed.
After the first performance of the Third Symphony in Chicago on 29th September 1983 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti, to whom the work is dedicated, one of the critics wrote that this symphony was exactly what might be expected at that time from a Polish composer. It must be remembered that at the time the effects of the introduction of martial law in Poland on 13th December 1981 were always apparent. Witold Lutostawski, who, after December 1981, took no part in the official life of the country, in the course of a meeting of the inner committee of musicologists in Warsaw, expressed his view of the American criticism. In accordance with his artistic principles, he did not confirm the supposition that he could have intended to express in his music the lot of the Polish people, and yet, he went on, if we agree, all the same, that music can signify anything extra-musical, we should also recognise that we must consider music to be an art of many values. Man has, nevertheless, one single soul and events lived through must have some infiuence on him. If man has a psyche, then the world of sounds, while keeping its autonomy, is a function of this psyche. That is why I should like to associate myself here with a puzzling enough proposition, that if the last movement of this symphony produces an impression of this kind and if it keeps the audience in suspense, it is not the effect of chance. I must admit that I should feel myself honoured to have expressed something that could have relevance to the events lived through not only by me personally but also by other people. If that is true, I should regard it as a mark of the highest esteem. (Witold Lutosfawski. 1983).
Andrzej Chiopecki
(English version by Keith Anderson)
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More Twitter Skepticism
From techie and genuine Twitter-fan Tom Lee.
It's been horrifying to watch Twitter evolve into a medium used for important (if not serious) communication. First and foremost, I am appalled by our legislators' embrace of a time-suck communication medium that is necessarily superficial, and (more perniciously) one that is so convincingly fake-democratic while actually just facilitating communication with rich, Apple-computer-owning white people like myself.
Its adoption by the mainstream media has been similarly off-putting. As a cheap and fun SMS interface for media outlets I have no beef with it; as a means of personal marketing for journalists, the pretense and lack of honesty is dismaying (Ezra's [Klein's] diagnosis of their motivations as being grounded in a desire to avoid being left behind by the next blog-like internet trend is dead-on, I think — we should thank god we were spared from a hypothetical David Gregory Tumblr). I'd say the median journotweet is something like "getting ready to sit down for an i/v w
spalin. the lady is a tough cookie!" when in fact it should be closer to "complaining abt blogs in line to pick up kidssidwell frnds. no poor people around!"
I'm really baffled by the advent of Congress and mainstream news journo-Tweeting. What's the utility? As Tom points out, the posts are almost universally vapid and uninforming. They rarely even display much in the way of wit or humor. In theory, or in a Jay-Rosen-designed utopia, perhaps they serve as some sort of real-time feedback and communications system that encourages concise expression. But we exist neither in theory nor in a Jay-Rosen-design utopia, and I don't think we're likely to get there soon (thank goodness, really). So instead we get this. And this. And this. And this. And this. At least Jim DeMint is using his feed as a way to put out information relevant to his supporters. None of those feeds even rise to the level of mildly clever self-promotion, which can at least be entertaining. I'll reiterate: I think Twitter is pretty neat. I've got Tweetdeck open right now; when I'm not working, I almost always do. I get annotated, curated links from a few smart folks who cover issues I'm interested in and (mostly) lots of interesting and dry and funny insights and from friends. But I have no idea what anyone would actually get from any of the journo/Congress feeds I linked above.

subset: commoncrawl


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1 January 2020
Mary Holy Mother of God
Homily from Father James Gilhooley
Mary Holy Mother of God
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God - Cycle C
Luke 2:16-21
Do you recall the story? Jesus was taking His morning walk through heaven. He met there nasty people who should be in the other place. Angrily He went to the front gates to bawl Peter out. In his defense, the apostle said, "Lord, when the unworthy come here, I chase them away and tell them to go to hell. But then they go to the back door, knock softly, and your mother sneaks them in." The Christ smiled and apologized to Peter. He promised to go fishing with him soon. Then He whistled softly as He went off to have lunch with Mozart and Bach.
Fulton Sheen gave a talk to priests in 1974. He began by quoting a professor from the University of California. The professor claimed that whenever one hears a good word about the Blessed Virgin Mary, one can be sure the author is a Protestant. Also he said if one reads a bad word about the Mother of God, one may suspect the author is a Catholic.
The memorable archbishop conceded that this was an exaggeration. But in the next breath he mentioned that "it must be said that two of the best books on the Blessed Virgin were written by Protestants." The first was called a Treatise on Mary by the monks of Taize. The second was Meditations on the Rosary by Methodist minister Neville Ward.
I leave you to your own judgment on the university professor's point and Sheen's reaction.
But what is certain is that our American bishops said that a recent August 15 Feast of the Assumption was not a Holy Day of obligation. It fell on a Monday. Accordingly, very few Catholics took themselves to Mass to honor this extraordinary woman. The parishes about me had but one Liturgy and that sparsely attended. Somehow I felt the only mother God ever had, in the words of Vincent McCorry, deserved much better.
Ironically, though, in that same month and year an edition of that most secular of magazines, The New Yorker, did not ignore the Virgin. The weekly in a full page piece alluded to a book The Jewish 100: a Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of All Time. The author is a Jewish gentleman, Michael Shapiro. Predictably he placed Moses as number one. And Jesus was second. But what was surprising to The New Yorker editor was that Mr Shapiro listed Mary in his top 100.
The New Yorker speaks. "We put the question to Mr Shapiro: Why the Virgin Mary? 'She made the church user- friendly,' Mr Shapiro explained. 'She made it into a softer place.'"
Ironically enough, as Fulton Sheen might tell us, once again a non-Catholic was kind to our remarkable Mary. On the other hand, many of her own kinsfolk are very shabby to her.
Very few of us I wager would quibble with the on-target insights of Mary's fellow Jew, Michael Shapiro. She surely has made the Church user-friendly and a softer place. As Elizabeth Johnson has put it, "Mary embodies the female face of God. She does this as a merciful mother who will not let one of her children be lost." We are all in her debt for that dimension of her character in the now and here. Many of us may even be more in her debt at the time of our death.
But in fact Mr Shapiro is simply reminding us of an old concept. Artists of the medieval period often painted the Virgin with a voluminous cloak. Their inference was that all of us could get under it. There, if necessary, we could hide and seek sanctuary and support from her. She would be our own back door into Heaven.
I heard a preacher speak of a mother who goes each visiting day to spend time with her daughter in a psychiatric hospital. The daughter has been estranged from her for years. She refuses in the rudest way possible to meet with her mother. Still the next visiting day finds the mother back again hoping to speak with her child. The preacher wisely compared this mother to Mary who never gives up on anyone of us no matter how wretched we are.
Sheen said whenever there is a decline in purity or the sanctity of marriage, there is a decline in devotion to Mary. He says it falls on us to revive that devotion by reviving it in our lives. Would anyone quarrel with his conclusion?
Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
Mary Holy Mother of God
There are three aspects to this feast that I wish to focus on, which, I hope, you'll find intertwined. Briefly the feast celebrates the Jewish origins of the Lord, secondly, it celebrates Mary, a Jewish girl whose faith resulted in the world having a special presence of God, and thirdly, the feast calls us to be firm in our resolution to make this child present in our worlds.
First of all, the gospel reading speaks about the circumcision of the Lord. In fact, years back this feast used to be called the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. The medical, physical aspects of the procedure aside, circumcision was a statement that a person was in a covenant relationship with the God of Israel. The covenant, the strongest promise known to the ancient people, was simply that God would be present for the circumcised person as a caring and loving Father. The circumcised person, in turn, would live as a member of God's people. How about women? Women through marriage became one flesh with their husbands. They participated in the covenant without having to have the sign of the covenant.
Back to the guys. The gospel notes that Jesus was circumcised to point out that the Lord was in the heart of the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. He was not some sort of fringe outsider. Jesus was thoroughly a Jew, and, thoroughly the Jewish Messiah. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Epiphany emphasizing the invitation to the world to come and share in the presence of the Savior. Today, though, we celebrate the particular Jewish ancestry of the Lord. The meaning this has for us is that Jesus is the Promised One of Hebrew Scriptures. He is the very Word of God who gives meaning to Hebrew scriptures.
This leads to the second point, this is the feast of Mary, Mother of God. Mary was a Jewish girl, in the heart of the Jewish tradition that the will of God must be the driving force of her life. Her reaction to the angel, "Let it be done unto me according to God's will," demonstrates this. She was the perfect person to be the mother of God. She continually turned to the Lord, making God present not only physically, at Bethlehem, but spiritually wherever she was. To meet her would be to understand the quality of love the Lord was bringing to the world.
The paintings and statues of Mary that I like best are those that depict her as a young mother, holding up her baby for him to bless the world. As a man, I can never fathom what it must be like to hold in your arms the child that lived inside you for nine months. Does a mother see her husband, the baby's father, in the infant? Does she see herself? I'm sure she see a unique individual that came from her yet is not her. A mother must experience love of a different type than she ever has experienced before. She also must experience love to a greater degree than she ever fathomed she could have.
What must have it been like for Mary to hold Jesus? Did she see herself? Did she see her family traits, her father's eyes, her Uncle Solomon's cleft chin? Did she see the baby's Eternal Father, the First Person of the Trinity? Did Mary see in Jesus the Mercy of God, the Peace of God, the Compassion of God for his people, a people that struggled to get by in the darkness of a world that had rejected its Creator? How much did Mary love this child? Certainly, she loved him as much as every mother loves her child. But she must have loved him even more than this. She must have loved this child with, as the second preface for Advent says, a love beyond all telling. She loved the child created within her, and she loved the Creator whom the child perfectly reflected.
It is reasonable to depict Mary holding the child up for him to bless the world, to bless us. Her resolve to fulfill God's plan for her and for all people resulted in our Savior becoming one of us. Mary is the only person in scripture to be present in every aspect of Jesus' life--from his birth to his death. She is always there, saying to us: Look here is your Savior, my son.
Just as Mary was resolved to make God present in the world through her faith and obedience, we are called to make God present to the world. Even though the beginning of the Church year is the first Sunday of Advent, and even though we concentrate during Lent on those areas of our lives that need spiritual refining, it is still proper for us to consider New Year's resolutions regarding our faith. It is proper for each of us to consider, "What do I need to do to manifest a clearer presence of the Lord in the world." How can I utilize my own unique reflection of God, my own personality, in such a way that I, like Mary, can bring God to others? This is a good time of year to consider methods of fulfilling our obligations as Christians, the responsibility we took on when we were baptized, to make Jesus present to the world.
Joseph and Mary pondered in the hearts the mysteries of the presence of the Lord. You and I need to begin this year considering the mystery of Jesus's presence in our lives. We need to search for ways to bring this presence to others. Like Mary, we have to hold Jesus up to a world that seeks His blessing, that yearns for His salvation.
Homily from Father Phil Bloom
Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
Mary Holy Mother of God
Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa
Saint Vincent Archabbey
Mary Holy Mother of God
Homily from Father Alex McAllister SDS
Mary Holy Mother of God
These homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use; however, they may not be commercially published without permission of the author.
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With the wave of tiny but powerful bass amps continuing to swell, bassists face a sea of opportunity amidst a plethora of features. This roundup is meant to serve as an intro to the possibilities out there and looks at a sampling of micro bass amps with varying sizes, weights, power ratings, and prices. The goal here is not to declare a winner or winners—at this level of amp, all are quality pieces of gear that differ mainly by their feature sets.
All of these amps accomplish their magic by using a class D amp design and a switching power supply. This approach eliminates bulky transformers that alone outweigh most of these amps. We've reviewed some micro bass amps in the past, including models from Carvin, SWR, TC Electronic, Ampeg, and Kustom, but this roundup brings you a new bumper crop of mighty midgets.
We used two basic parameters to guide our choices of amps to review. First, an amp had to weigh 5 pounds or less. And second, no single dimension of an amp could exceed 12 inches. We asked manufacturers to provide their smallest model that met these criteria, but allowed them to submit a higher-powered version if it met the required specs.
On the smallest end was the Gallien-Krueger MB200, weighing in at just 2 pounds, putting out 200 watts, and selling for $249. On the other end was the Genz-Benz Shuttle 9.0, coming in at 4 pounds, 900 watts, and at a cost of $829. Sitting in the middle were two micro bass amps in the 500-watt range, weights from 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 pounds, and selling between $500 and $700.
You'll also find a chart that lets you compare the amps, ordered from lowest price to highest. Regardless of price, micro bass amps tend to have a more basic feature set with a 3-band or 4-band EQ and a direct out for plugging into a PA—there's simply no place for a space-hogging, graphic EQ on the tiny front panel of these puppies.
Regardless of how little a micro bass amp weighs or how much power it puts out, your total rig weight will be dictated by your choice of speaker cabs. Although there are some lightweight cabs out there, none weigh as little as the amps. So if you're looking for a rig that keeps the weight down, you should think modularly. For example, consider picking up a pair of cabs with neodymium speakers that weigh below 40 pounds, such as 1x12 or 2x10. Use one cab for rehearsals or small gigs, and add a second cab for louder settings. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from pairing a 2 pound amp with a 150 pound, 8x10 cab, but once you've committed to that much cab weight, the size/weight savings of a micro bass amp probably doesn't matter.
Micro bass amps are also useful when you have a rehearsal room or gig that provides speaker cabs, but you want to work with a familiar amp. Some of these amps can actually fit into a pocket of your gigbag for simple travel and hauling. However, most of these little guys have somewhat more delicate parts that will be better preserved with a separate case, either from the manufacturer or an off-the-rack bag designed for a computer or other portable electronics.
For testing the amps, I used a P bass with fresh roundwound strings and a lightweight Euphonic Audio Wizzy cab with a 12" speaker. Because some of the amps had speakON connections and some had 1/4" jacks, I used a speaker cable with each type of connection on each end. To get familiar with the character of each unit, I first set all the EQ controls flat and played for awhile, then tweaked the features to check out the range of tones. While reading the specs in the manuals, just to be sure I understood how to use each amp and its features correctly, I revisited each amp several times.
OK then, time to take a look at the amps from smallest to largest.
The first four can be described as our micro-est of the micros, each in the 200-watt power range and most selling for roughly $300 or less. At this power range, you should be able to comfortably cover rehearsals and smaller gigs, depending on the size, efficiency, and impedance of your speaker cabs.
at the end of this article. Without further ado, here's the roundup...
- Rig Rundowns
- Reviews
- Gear
- Artists
- How-to
- Lessons
- Pro Advice
- Win


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- Home
- What is Business Agility?
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|What is Agile? | Agile Business Consortium
What is Agile?
Agile is a mindset and it is used to describe an alternative way of working
What is Agile?
Agile is a mindset, that is defined by four core values.
It is used to describe an alternative way of working. By adopting an agile process, teams can stay productive and focused on customer needs, being able to adapt to increasingly complex and uncertain environments. Agile has a specific focus on people and providing useful outputs as you go rather than waiting right until the end to deliver something of value to the client.
Agile businesses work faster, better and deliver greater value for money – delighting customers, motivating staff and so driving profit.
The definition of agile is to be "able to move quickly and easily" or to be "able to think and understand quickly".
Agile Projects
The term 'agile' is often misunderstood and consequently there are many interpretations of what it is. Although agile has its roots in software delivery, it has now grown well beyond this to be much more. It is more than a set of methods, practices and behaviours. Agile is about delivering value for an organisation, however that value might be defined.
An agile business can respond quickly and effectively to opportunities and threats found in its internal and external environments (be they commercial, legal, technological, social, moral or political).
Become a Member
Membership is a way of connecting with the agile community, helping one another with ideas, techniques and spreading the word of agile among businesses and individuals.Find out more about our Membership
The Framework for Business Agility
The Framework for Business Agility is designed to help organisations become more adaptive, creative and resilient. It has been developed in consultation with Consortium members and other agility practitioners who have contributed their real-world experience to its creation.
The framework illustrates the elements required to make any organisation truly agile. Running projects and business operations in an agile way is a key part of business agility, but they won't make an organisation agile on their own. Agile businesses also need an agile strategy including an agile approach to their market.
Stay up to date with our work and the evolving framework.
08/07/2021 » 09/07/2021
Agile on the Beach


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Northwestern's very own WNUR, 89.3 FM, continues to enjoy its status as the nation's largest student-run radio station, under the administrative auspices of the School of Communication. And just recently, it was voted "Best College Radio Station" by both the editorial staff and the readership of Newcity, as part of the magazine's "Best of Chicago 2008" edition.
Newcity calls WNUR "the city's most respected, not only for its continual rock-solid programming but also its star-studded alumni, which includes members of Arcade Fire, Steve Albini, Derrick Carter, and Ira Glass."
In the "Audience Choice" category, one reader commented that "89.3 is one of the only stations on the dial that plays a healthy amount of electronic music, much needed in this indie-rock-centric town."
These recent honors add to the station's past accolades, such as Spin magazine naming WNUR the "top college station in the U.S." in 2003, and Details magazine naming it the "No. 1 radio station in Chicago" in 1991.
A non-commercial radio station, WNUR first hit the airwaves in 1950, when it was broadcast out of the basement of Annie May Swift Hall. In March of 2007, WNUR moved into brand-new studio facilities in John J. Louis Hall.
WNUR participation is open to all Northwestern students, and all programming decisions are made by students. Additionally, WNUR features the only student-staffed radio sports department to call Big Ten games.
For more information, check out the station's official web site.


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Dutch insurance company Aegon, international provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management, intensifies relationship with leading German p2p lending marketplace Auxmoney. Aegon plans to invest 1.5 bilion (!) Euro into p2p consumer loans issued by Auxmoney within the next 3 years. This is a stunning amount for institutional investments in the European p2p lending sector.
Aegon also leads the new 15 million Euro Series E funding round for Auxmoney. This financing round is being topped up by existing shareholders of Auxmoney.
Aegon the Netherlands, Eric Rutten, who will join the board of auxmoney, comments: "With innovations along the entire value chain of credit and its highly sophisticated and techdriven
methods of risk assessments and scoring, auxmoney is another strong case for Aegon to drive innovations in the financial industry for the benefit of society."
Raffael Johnen, CEO and co-founder of auxmoney, says: "This investment is a strong signal for the entire FinTech industry in Europe and beyond. Through our efforts to provide capital to millions more people, we have emphatically made the case for a more inclusive financial system. Auxmoney is an impactful and sustainable FinTech leader in Europe, and we will continue to make a difference in the banking and finance landscape."
Johnen continues: "Aegon's funding commitment will enable auxmoney to onboard banks that are looking to expand and improve their loan offerings to clients through auxmoney's
marketplace. We are looking forward to supporting more bank partners in serving their clients even better."
Johnen adds: "When we first launched auxmoney, our vision was to empower customers who had no access to credit products. Today's funding commitment from Aegon will enable
us to expand our offerings of highly competitive all-digital loans at all levels of the credit spectrum."
The partnership between Aegon and Auxmoney started in 2015.
Auxmoney management


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You are here
Katoob, the baby has a new father.
This post has a bit of my history and emotions. It can be skipped!
The summary is: Katoob has a new maintainer.
Yes, a long time.
Back in 2002, Gtk 2.x was just released. Efforts were spent porting, rewriting and redesigning parts of GNOME. The aim was GNOME 2.0 and later on 2.x
Previously, we had Gtk which did not support Arabic at all.
At that time, the only usable Arabic capable GUI editor was a closed source one, Axmedit. I was also trying to learn programming and write something useful. Katoob was born at that time. The aim ? provide the Arabic user with something usable and the secret agenda was me learning Gtk and get my hands dirty with C. Not having enough skills to contribute to something as large as GNOME.
It wasn't called Katoob (Which means something like an exaggerated writer in arabic). Me and Alaa wanted to call it gDhad (G is for GNU, Gtk, GPL, ... and Dhad is the letter. Arabic is known as the language of "dhad") but a miscommunication lead to that name.
Arabeyes hosted the project in the beginning. The problem was it was released after the first version of GNOME2. I missed a contest.
The problem is that it was already used by a few of my friends. A lot of testing has been done in the beginning. I still remember feeding it various media files as well as random garbage to see what will happen.
Years later, the whole thing grew into a pile of spaghetti code. It was the time for me to start learning C++. What else can I use to learn it ?
Then 0.5 was born. A bit cleaner, C++, Gtkmm and moving it to my own place. It even survived my migration from CVS to SVN last year.
It also started to be used by more people.
As I become busier with work and as my interests have started to change, I found myself incapable of maintaining it. It's actually a motivation problem more than anything else. I'm not involved into Arabization issues (I was never involved but people claimed I was ;-)) and I wasn't getting enough testing.
I don't use it a lot anymore. Everything supports Arabic now. I don't think we need that project anymore.
I can also use Emacs to read and write Arabic
Now, Fred Morcos decided to step up and maintain it. Good luck to him. At least I found someone to take care of the baby.
Katoob 0.5.9.1 is out
This is a recommended update.
tarball, md5sum and gpg signed md5sum file
A problem that caused katoob to ignore key presses was fixed.
Katoob 0.5.9 is out
This is a recommended update.
tarball, md5sum and gpg signed md5sum file
* Enchant is now used for spell checking instead of aspell
* The iso-codes package can be used to display friendly names for the spell checker dictionaries.
* The recent menu is displays the name of the file not the full path.
* Opening a non-existing recent file triggers an error.
* Better quality Arabic translation (Thanks Khaled Hosny).
* Maemo support.
* libcurl is now used for the network.
* Cairo is not used anymore to draw the extended toolbar extra icons.
* Make the buttons in the dialogs HIG compliant
* Pressing Escape will close the spell checking dialog
* We now use the gtk printing capabilities for printing.
* Syntax highlighting now depends on gtksourceview2 and it's been rewritten.
* We now save the documents every minute and recover any files when we start.
* We also autosave if we crash.
katoob 0.5.8
* Implemented a multipress input method.
* Reorganized the input menu.
* A couple of bug fixes.
* Added a window to show the multipress and emulator mappings.
Available from the usual location!
katoob 0.5.7 is out...
ChangeLog: A bug that could crash the application when OK or Apply is clicked in the preferences dialog under UTF-8 locales was fixed. A lot of small features and enhancements were made as well as some code cleanups. GtkSourceView is now used instead of gtksourceviewmm.
katoob 0.5.6 is out...
* Don't try to convert the encoding if the requested one is utf8. return false if the text is not valid utf8 after we convert it.
* Reset the gui when we close the document from the document label close button.
Katoob 0.5.4
* Importing or exporting text with bidi and shaping applied won't reverse it.
* Updated Japanese translation.
* The preferences dialog sections are now translated.
Tarball, md5sum and GPG signed md5sum
Katoob 0.5.3 is out.
Only 2 new changed:
* Can now import and export text that has bidi and shaping applied to.
* The plain text exporting now depends on fribidi.
from the usual location!
katoob 0.5.0 is out.
katoob for windows 0.3.8+cvs20051212-win32-alpha
This should be able to open and save files with Arabic filenames.


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Your Body, Sleep, and Happiness, Part II
Sleep and happiness are closely related. It's not exactly that sleep makes you happy (any college kid on a Saturday morning might disagree with this assumption), but that getting enough of it equips your body and your brain to do what needs to be done. The trick is how. Some of us are wound too tight to let go into the easeful peace of sleep.
What can you do about it? How can you get more sleep? We took a survey of some of our favorite sources* and came up with a list of our favorite sleep tips. Across the board, doctors, nurses, health advocates, chiropractors, massage therapists, and maybe even your mom recommend sticking to a sleep schedule – even on the weekend! Here are some other great tips to add to your drowsy mix:
- Get regular exercise. The more vigorously you exercise, the better your sleep can be. Develop an exercise routine you enjoy and can stick with for the long term.
- During the day: spend time outdoors in the sunlight. Let as much natural light into your home and work space as possible.
- Create a bedtime ritual. Do the same thing each night, it will let your body know it's time for some shut eye.
- Watch what you eat. Limit how much you drink before bed, this may prevent trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Nicotine, caffeine and alcohol can all disrupt sleep.
- Breathe. Sit for a moment before bed and take notice of your breath, let go of other thoughts of the day. In other words, meditate. Prayer is also a great form of meditation for some people.
- Think. An hour or so before you get into bed, take some time to process your day. You might even jot some things down to get them 'out of your head.'
- Check the environment of your bed room. Make sure it is dark and cool. Decorate it in soothing colors.
- Take a hot bath. "A cozy soak raises your body temperature slightly. Then, when you hop out, you'll cool down quickly, which mimics the natural drop in body temperature caused by the brain as it readies the body for sleep." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/better-sleep-tips-best_n_4958036.html)
- Keep your room quiet, but not too quiet. A ticking clock near your head can keep you awake (this always makes me think of E.A. Poe's Telltale Heart), but if the room is too silent, the slightest break in that silence can be jarring. Some people use a white noise generator.
- Make sure your bed fits. Is the mattress firm enough? How about your pillow? Find one that supports your head without torquing your neck.
- Use the bed only for sleep and sex. Some places should be sacred – your bed is one of them. Don't bring any electronics with you to bed. And don't watch TV in bed!
- Don't stress about it. Before closing your eyes tonight visualize yourself in a clam, relaxing place. If you do not get the sleep you dream of tonight, you'll get another chance.


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One of the heck of an accomplishment is to design and implement an employee engagement survey. Perhaps you have worked hard to ensure everything in your workplace run seamlessly, and you are about to lean back and relax. However, you have to look for ways to increase customer engagement in your worksite. You could achieve this through the implementation of employee survey results. However, there are a lot more ways to improve customer engagement.
Conducting employee engagement survey is a great way to improve workplace engagement, but it doesn't take commitment to the next level. You might be losing out on a lot of opportunities if you only rely on surveys to measure customer engagement. You could be taking note of where your workplace engagement currently stands, but you are doing nothing to drive it forward. Employee engagement is an ongoing activity that requires commitment throughout the year. As such, you can keep implementing any proven idea that can increase employee engagement in your organization. Here are some of the strategies an organization needs to increase employee engagement.
Build a Strong Culture
It is critical to dictate your company's culture and let it develop organically. Failing to define the culture of the company can present a huge challenge in the future. Research has shown that employees in firms with a strong culture are more engaged and productive. Productivity often increases when employees are excited to fulfill their responsibilities. One of the ways to improve employee engagement is to build a positive culture based on the values that promote a rewarding work experience.
Bring Everyone On-Board
You can empower everyone to be proactive in increasing employee engagement. You can achieve this by sharing data with all your employees and encouraging them to take the lead on increasing workplace engagement. Moreover, you should ensure administrators can compile actionable insights from all customer engagement metrics to keep track of cultural changes.
Meet Employees One-on-One
Direct meetings create an opportunity for managers and employees to discuss issues that are not on the weekly to-do-list. It could be time to share about job satisfaction, career development, and demonstrate care and value for employees. You can use a software to handle all your administrative tasks. That way, it's easier to document next actions, connect performance, and facilitate discussions.
Peer Recognition
One of the ways to break down departmental silos and motivate employees is to recognize them for their efforts towards the company's success. However, many organizations often face a challenge of finding a system with a user-friendly interface. You can leverage mobile-friendly tools that allow personalities to shine to increase employee engagement.
Ideas and Alerts
No one was born with the knowledge to lead others. However, employees can still help their manager to find ways to boost workplace engagement. There are many tools that managers can use to promote best practice ideas. Moreover, the HR department can commit to educating managers in real-time. However, ensure all your alerts and ideas fit into your existing workflow seamlessly. That gives managers access to all critical data they need at any time.
Feedback is critical to improving the performance and engagement of employees. For example, using 360 feedback workers can learn where they can improve and how to better consult and collaborate with peers and managers. That way, it becomes easier to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of your team member. You can use a feedback software to take the pain out of your feedback review program. It allows you store feedback indefinitely, connect reviews to other engagement metrics, and consolidate employee concerns.
Focus on the Corporate Goal
The best way to increase employee engagement is to stay pointed in the same direction. However, you can only achieve this if employees are aware of their role in the success of the company. However, you can use goals software to keep employees pointed in the same direction. Today's employees rely on workplace engagement and commitment to thrive in the ever-changing environment. Employee engagement is one of the things that can help a company to dominate its battlefield and stand out from the rest.


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Powerful Sampler and Sequencer
The Roland SP-404A Linear Wave Sampler is compact but jam packed with powerful pro features that can make not just simple beats but entire music tracks all by itself. The sampler sequencing based tracks provide you with the tools you can use to make complex beats or minimal simple tracks. Quantization modes on this sampler can get the groove you're looking for with shuffle and swing that create that drum machine sampler feel that you hear on so many of your favorite electronic music or hip hop tracks. Nine banks of samples are pre filled with professional sounds from loopmasters but with this kind of sampler it is designed to give you every advantage for getting your own sounds loaded onto it via several different ways like a mic, line in, or loaded from your computer. The creative potential can be vastly expanded when you have so many ways to get unique sounds on to the sampler and integrate them into your live set or studio creations.
Battery Powered
As with many of the new entry to mid level drum machines the Roland wave sampler can be powered with six AA batteries and give you 5 hours of music creation time on that set of batteries. This of course means you can take this little beast of a drum machine just about anywhere and make beats and tracks any time the inspiration strikes you. Sometimes there may be a jam session going on and there is no power adapter or setup that allows you to sample but you'd really like to get a sample from what you hear, when you have a battery powered drum machine like the 404 you can not just capture the sound but get going with your samples right away creating something from literal scratch, or starting with nothing but what you just sampled.
Onboard Mic
Another powerful creative feature that most drum machines do not have is an on board microphone for sampling on the fly on the go, in the moment. Located on the lower right corner of the 404 is an on board microphone that you can either sing, talk into, or capture what you are hearing and get it into the mix of sounds without needing an external microphone. Of course if you want to sample with a higher quality microphone the SP 404 also includes a 1/4 inch mic jack to plug in a more professional mic and get that sound into the sample banks.
The effects on the SP 404A are beyond what you're used to for most sample based drum machines, with the 404 you get 29 Digital Signal Processed effects (DSP).
- Filter – Drive (low pass filter with overdrive, distortion effect)
- VOICE TRANS ( transforms voice sounds into different characteristics)
- Delay (digital delay or "echo" effect)
- Isolator (isolation of sound to remove low, mid or high frequencies, especially useful for remixing, grabbing vocals etc…)
- DJFX LOOPER – (grab a short portion of the live inpout sound and loop it, very powerful for live performance)
- Reverb (spacey room sound)
- Tape Echo (dub like effect)
- Chorus
- Flanger
- Phaser
- Tremolo Pan (wobbles and pans the sound)
- Distortion (powerful overdrive)
- Overdrive (more subtle overdrive)
- Fuzz (guitar like fuzz pedal sound)
- WAH (guitar, Jimi Hendricks style wah wah sound)
- OCTAVE (shift sound up or down octaves)
- COMP (compressor)
- Equalizer (eq sound shaping effect)
- Bit Crash (crunchy 8 bit or even 4 bit style sound.)
- Noise Gen (inserts white noise into sound)
- Vinyl Simulator (make it sound like sampled off of a record)_
- Radio Tuning (make it sound like it was sampled from a radio)
- Slicer Flanger (applies slicing and flanger together)
- Ring Modulator (classic ring modulation sound)
- Chromatic Pitch Shift (shift sound up and down chromatic notes)
- Pitch (shift sound up or down)
- Canceler (blocks mid portion of sound)
- Subsonic (deep low frequency sine wave that matches your sound)
- BPM Looper (loops input sound in short bpm based intervals)
SD Card Storage
SD cards are the standard in file storage and transfers between computers and other devices, with the SP404A you can transfer WAV and AIFF files to and from your computer with ease and make as many backups as you need to, this is virtually unlimited once you understand how much HD storage you need for backups. With a 32 Gigabyte SD card you could store/sample up to 180 minutes of samples, far more than anyone could need on one sample set.
Control Knobs
At the top of the Roland SP 404A are three assignable control knobs that give you easy access to your effect parameters for live performance capability to control effects, sample parameters, and BPM of playback.
- Control Knob 1 (Controls starting location of a sample and/or
playback time of a sample)
- Control knob 2 (Controls the BPM (tempo) of the pattern
The ending location of a sample)
- Control Knob 3 (Controls the type of MFX or the sampling level or
the volume of the sample)
With ease of access to the SP 404A's functions via the shift knob you can control the following functions.
- TAP TEMPO PAD – PAUSE Stops all sound
- PAD 1 – COPY Copies a sample or pattern
- PAD 2 – EXCHANGE Exchanges the patterns or samples of pads
- PAD 3 – IMPORT Imports WAV/AIFF files from the SD card
- PAD 4 – AUTO TRIG LEVEL Adjusts the trigger level for auto sampling
- PAD 5 – BACKUP LOAD Loads backup data
- PAD 6 – BACKUP SAVE Saves backup data
- PAD 7 – ILLUMINATION Display illumination and sleep settings
- PAD 8 – EFFECT LIMIT Used to make settings for Effect Limit mode
- PAD 9 – MIDI CH Changes the MIDI channel
- PAD 10 – MIDI SYNC Synchronization with an external MIDI device
- PAD 11 – INPUT GAIN Adjusts the input gain
- PAD 12 – OUTPUT GAIN Adjusts the output gain
Is the 404A for me?
The SP 404A is an entry/mid level drum machine at a somewhat reasonable price of about $500. It is best suited for someone who is looking for a sample based drum machine and values portability and improvisation, live performance capabilities. It can be a stand alone device if it is all you can afford, it does have some integration capabilities via the midi-in jack and audio in and out with RCA jacks. Other drum machines near the same price have better integration with your studio computer DAW (digital audio workstation) but few match the capabilities of the 404 regarding raw sampling and fewer still have the ability to be on the go with battery operation and on board microphone to sample on the go. There are included stock samples that can get you started, but the device is more geared to the sampling artist. So if you really like sampling and taking samples to make up a track rather than using sound libraries, the Roland SP 404A is worth checking out.


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11:00 Uhr
Cultivated breakfast with kainkollektivGespräch
FFT Juta Eintritt frei! Anmeldung unter: 0211-8767870 oder email@example.com
Every third Friday in the month, FFT Düsseldorf serves up an "early slice of culture". As a production house for professional independent performing arts, the FFT has been tracking down contemporary tendencies in the arts since 1999. The artists working here transcend boundaries, combine genres and experiment with new ideas and formats. During the Cultivated Breakfast, we wish to introduce these people and their work to our audiences. To every event, we invite artists whose productions are shown on one of our stages shortly afterwards. The breakfast provides space for questions, criticism, suggestions and requests. And of course, also coffee and cookies.
To attend, please contact: email@example.com


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- Analysis reveals huge boost to UK economy if all sectors match level of apprenticeships in industry with highest representation of apprenticeships.
- Admin and support services have three times as many apprentices as manufacturing, twice national average.
New research from Barclays highlights the huge potential gain to the UK economy if industries were to raise the proportion of apprentices in their workforce to 2.2%, the same proportion as currently within admin and support services.
Mapped against productivity estimates from The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), which found every apprentice completing their workplace learning course adds £214 a week to the economy, it would deliver a £4.4bn productivity boost to the UK economy.
Combining data from The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the ONS reveals that administration and support services have the highest representation of apprentices in its workforce at 2.2%. This is followed by water and waste management at 1.6%, energy supply at 1.2%, and comes well above health and social work at 0.9% and manufacturing and IT, both at 0.8%.
For all industries to reach a 2.2% representation of apprentices in the workforce, a total of 437,787 apprenticeships would need to be created. Health and social work would need to take on 38,000 more apprentices, education 13,500, and 20,000 positions would need to be made available in the professional, scientific and technical activities sectors including legal practices and business consultancy.
Even industries known for offering apprenticeships such as engineering and manufacturing, which have well established pathways for developing talent, would need to add 20,000 to reach this 2.2% figure. However, if achieved this industry alone achieved this, the economy could see a £377m benefit each year.
Mike Thompson, Head of Employability Programmes at Barclays Retail and Business Banking, said: "Apprenticeships are growing in profile, but we know there is potential for some industries to take on more and deliver dramatic benefit to both our economy and young people. We can see the results in countries such as Germany where skills deficits have been addressed and productivity boosted. It's time we do more to help businesses overcome the barriers they face to offering apprenticeships, while at the same time encouraging more to offer opportunities for young people to learn about work, and the skills they need, at a younger age.
"It's why we're committed to offering apprenticeships and encouraging work experience through the LifeSkills programme. We recently welcomed our 1,000th apprentice, and are now calling on business leaders across industries to look at how we pave the way for a new wave of apprenticeships."
Skills and Enterprise Minister, Matthew Hancock said: "I want going to university or choosing an Apprenticeship to become the new norm for young people. To make this a reality Apprenticeship reforms, such as the Trailblazers project, will make the system work better for businesses and learners. Businesses will work together to design apprenticeship programmes that meet their needs, meaning young people will be given the skills and experience required for them to succeed."
Previous research from Barclays has found that there is business appetite to create more apprenticeships. Over three quarters (76%) of SMEs say they would want to be part of a scheme that helped set up apprenticeships for young people. The same study found demand for apprentices is rising, up 5% over the last year to 27%. Young people are similarly keen to fill new positions with just under half (44.6%) considering it as an option.
The Barclays Apprenticeship programme has been highly successful in providing opportunities for young people who would otherwise struggle to find work. 86 per cent of apprentices were not in employment, education or training (NEET) before joining. Half (51%) had been unemployed for more than six months and over a quarter (27%) for more than a year. Over a third (38%) had fewer than four GCSEs at grades A-C.
Also supporting this transition from school to the workplace, The LifeSkills programme is connecting young people to work experience opportunities at Barclays and beyond, and aiming to reach one million young people by providing curriculum linked work based education resources.


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Data acquisition is the method in which signals are sampled. These signals result from the measurement of physical conditions in the real world. The acquired samples are then converted to form digital numeric values. These values are then used by computers for manipulation as required.
The acronyms DAQ along with DAS are used as the abbreviation for data acquisition systems. These systems are usually used for the conversion of waveforms that are of an analog nature into digital values which are then fed to computers for processing.
The main elements a data acquisition system are as follows.
The first one is the sensors. These sensors receive physical parameters as input which they convert into electrical signals.
The second element is the Signal conditioning circuitry. This circuitry receives the aforementioned sensor signals as input which they convert into an intermediate form which can later be converted into digital values.
The third element is the analog-to-digital converters. These converters receive the conditioned signals as input and convert them into digital values.
The applications of data acquisition are typically handled by various software programs. These programs are developed with the help of numerous programming languages categorized as general purpose which include Assembly, BASIC, C family, FORTRAN, Java, Lisp and Pascal. The data acquisition systems which are of a stand-alone nature are usually referred to as data loggers.
The following methodology is followed by the data acquisition systems.
No matter what the type of the physical property is, that particular state needs to be converted into a standardized form which can then be sampled. Sensors are the devices that are used to carry out these conversions. These are the devices which convert the desired physical property into electrical signals.
The interface that works between the generated electrical signals and a computer is called DAQ hardware. It can be of either a modular form which are connected with ports of the computer or of a card form which are connected to slots situated in the motherboard.
Without DAQ drivers, the hardware cannot work with the computer. It provides an API for the development of applications for users while itself performing low-level reading and writing operations on the registers.
The input devices include a 3D scanner and converters (analog to digital and time to digital).
The hardware may come with a specialized DAQ software. Large scale data acquisition systems are developed by the use of various software tools including EPICS. Numerous other programming environments are also made use of. These include ladder logic, Visual C++, Visual Basic, LabVIEW, and MATLAB.


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Free gift giveaway
Giveaways are limited to the time limits set per promotional activity. If you purchase before or after this dedicated time then we cannot apply a free gift to your order. Our giveaways will not include any Best Friends Club products (membership, badges or bears) due to these already being available to members at discounted rates. The free gifts are limited to one per order but you are able to place as many orders as you would like separately. The total amount spent does not include the cost of postage and packaging. If a promotional code is not applied at the time of placing your original order, this cannot be applied once the order has been confirmed.
We aim to dispatch all orders that are in stock within 24 working hours via a courier service. Please allow up to 5 working days for delivery. If any item cannot be delivered within this time we will inform you of the reason for delay, along with a proposed delivery date. Please let us know if you would like your order to be sent to an alternative delivery address.
Returns Policy
You are entitled to cancel your order and return the goods within 7 working days for a full refund, including the cost of delivery. Do this by contacting us by email or telephone (see contact us page). Your refund will be paid within 30 days. You are responsible for the cost and risk of loss or damage when returning the goods, so you should take out enough postal insurance to cover their value. This cancellation policy does not affect your rights when we are at fault - for example, if goods are faulty or mis-described. Any goods returned should be in saleable condition, with any seals and wrappers unbroken. These terms apply to your order. We may change our terms and conditions at any time. None of these terms affect your legal rights and these are not diminished in any way. If any term is held to be invalid under any applicable statute or rule of law, that term is automatically omitted from the terms to minimum extent necessary to comply with the law and without affecting the validity or enforceability of the remainder.
Customs and import duties - Customers outside of the USA
If you live outside the USA, please be aware that local customs or import duties may be charged when your parcel reaches your country. We have no control over these charges, so unfortunately cannot predict what they will be. Any orders placed could be subject to cross border or exchange fees by your card issuer, and Charlie Bears cannot reimburse for any fees assessed by your card-issuing bank.
Product Descriptions
Every effort is made to ensure that the products we supply correspond as closely as possible to those displayed in our store or online, but due to the handmade nature of our products there might be slight variations. No responsibility can be accepted for these variations. These could include, but are not limited to, slight differences in shades of fabric or dimensions of products. Please bear in mind that computer browsers may present colors slightly differently. If an item is not eligible for return, this will be stated on the product description page.


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Below are some quick and useful guides to using both the Receipt Manager and Mileage Tracker
To manage your receipts you can add your details to the Receipt Manager icon.
Here is the main menu where you can select an option.
Once you have selected the Photograph Receipt icon and photographed the receipt, you are presented with populating the details of your receipt with the amount, date and payment method. Once selected you can save the receipt and move on.
To manage/export receipts you can do so under the manager receipts section and export the receipts to your accountants.
To start recording a trip, simply click the green 'Start Trip' icon on the page. The App will began to track your mileage in the background. The trip will turn red.
Tap the icon again to end trip, and automatically store it. You can also manually log a trip by entering the start and end locations of the trip as well as the date(s) and duration.
Now you can click the 'Export all Trips' icon and then select a range of dates you would like to see the trip data for.


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Author Archive
Gnats Transactions, Thursday, May 5
May 5, 2011
*Rafael Fernandez was transferred from the Savannah roster to the St, Lucie roster
*Darrell Ceciliani was reinstated from the Savannah DL
*Guillaume Leduc was transferred from the Savannah roster to the Brooklyn roster
*Hamilton Bennett was transferred to the Savannah roster from Extended Spring Training
Game Notes: May 2 @ Lakewood
Savannah Sand Gnats (9-14, 5th, Southern) vs. Lakewood BlueClaws (10-13, 6th, Northern)
Game #24 – Road Game #15 – Monday – 6:35
RHP Erik Goeddel (0-1, 5.00) vs. LHP Jesse Biddle (0-3, 7.16)
FirstEnergy Park, Lakewood, NJ
Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com
Tonight: The Gnats, SAL affiliate of the New York Mets, play game three of a four-game series in Lakewood against the BlueClaws, SAL affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Tonight will be the eighth game of a nine-game road trip to Delmarva and Lakewood on which the Gnats are 2-5. Savannah returns home for Thirsty Thursday, on Thursday, May 5th.
Sunday: The Gnats beat the Lakewood BlueClaws 3-2 thanks to seven strong innings from the bullpen, which held the BlueClaws to one run following two innings from starter Yohan Almonte. The Gnats scored twice in the seventh inning to take a 3-1 lead. Cory Vaughn's RBI single broke a 1-1 tie. Luis Rojas earned his first win for four scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Now Pitching: RHP Erik Goeddel is scheduled to make his fifth start of the year for Savannah tonight. Last Wednesday, Goeddel held Delmarva to two runs on six hits in six innings, walking one and striking out four. He left in a game tied at 2-2 that the Gnats eventually lost 5-2. The six-inning start was the longest of Goeddel's season and professional career. The Mets drafted Goeddel in the 24th round of the 2010 draft out of UCLA. Goeddel made one appearance for the GCL Mets on August 14, 2010 throwing one inning with one hit and one strikeout. Goeddel underwent Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school at San Jose's Bellarmine Prep in 2007 and missed most of the next two years at UCLA. In 2010 he was excellent for the Bruins out of the bullpen, striking out 59 and walking 23 while giving up 44 hits in 50 innings. In ratio form, he had a 10.6 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and 7.9 H/9. Coming into the 2011 season, Goeddel was ranked as the Mets' 17th best prospect by Baseball America, and the team's 16th best by Baseball Prospectus. The Gnats are 2-2 when Goeddel starts and have supported him with 3.75 runs per game.
Rodriguez on a Roll: By going 1-3 with a double Sunday, Aderlin Rodriguez extended his hitting streak to eight straight games, tying Wilfredo Tovar and Sam Honeck for the longest by a Gnat this year. He's hitting .294 (10-for-34) with two doubles and five home runs in his last eight contests with an .818 slugging percentage. Rodriguez is part of a four-way tie for tenth in the SAL with his five homeruns.
Cory's Cuts: With his 2-4 evening last night, Cory Vaughn collected his team-leading ninth multi-hit game for the year and fourth in the last seven games on the road trip. He leads the Gnats in average (.313) and on-base percentage (.417). Vaughn is 14th in the SAL in on-base percentage. He is hitting .346 (9 H/26 AB) with two doubles and two RBI on the team's current road trip. Baseball Prospectusranked Vaughn as the Mets' #9 prospect entering the season, while Baseball America ranked him #15.
Pitch to Win: Last night, for the eighth time this season, Gnats pitching held their opponents to three runs or fewer. Savannah is 6-2 in such contests and 9-4 when holding the opposition to five runs or fewer. The Gnats are 0-10 when their opponent scores six runs or more. Gnats pitching gave up six runs or more in six of the seven games on Savannah's seven-game losing streak which the team snapped Saturday.
About Sunday: Sunday's 3-2 win was the Gnats' first one-run win on the road…It was the first time the Gnats have won a game while scoring three runs or less…Sunday was the second game this year when Savannah pitching did not walk a batter.
Vs. Lakewood: The Gnats are 2-0 against the BlueClaws this year. The two teams split the four-game series 2-2 in 2010.
Game Notes: May 1 @ Lakewood – 1:05 pm
Savannah Sand Gnats (8-14, 5th, Southern) vs. Lakewood BlueClaws (10-12, 6th, Northern)
Game #23 – Road Game #14 – Sunday – 1:05
RHP Yohan Almonte (2-1, 4.30) vs. RHP David Buchanan (3-0, 1.82)
FirstEnergy Park, Lakewood, NJ
Radio: News/Talk 630 and sandgnats.com
Today: The Gnats, SAL affiliate of the New York Mets, play game two of a four-game series in Lakewood against the BlueClaws, SAL affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Today will be the seventh game of a nine-game road trip to Delmarva and Lakewood on which the Gnats are 1-5. Savannah's next home game is Thursday, May 5th.
Last Night: The Gnats used three home runs and strong pitching to snap a seven-game losing streak with a 5-1 win. Robbie Shields' solo home run in the fifth inning evened the game at 1-1. Aderlin Rodriguez's two-shot in the sixth put Savannah ahead 3-1 and Javier Rodriguez added a two-run blast in the eighth. Ryan Fraser held the BlueClaws to one run in six innings for the win and Taylor Whitenton struck out seven in three innings for his first save of 2011.
Now Pitching: Yohan Almonte will make his fifth start tonight for the Gnats. He's coming off back-to-back outings in which he gave up four runs and two home runs in each. Almonte is fourth in the SAL in WHIP (0.96). In 2010, Almonte led the New York-Penn League in ERA (1.91), IP (89.2) and WHIP (0.93), averaging nearly six innings per start. He had the second-lowest batting average against among starters at .207 and the third-fewest unintentional walk/9 IP (1.41) with a K/BB ratio of 4 (60 K/15 BB). The 21-year old Almonte has moved steadily through the Mets system advancing from the Dominican Summer League in 2008 to the Gulf Coast League and then the Appalachian League in 2009, to the New York Penn League in 2010 before joining the Gnats, his first full-season team, in 2011. He was signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2007. The Gnats are 2-2 when Almonte starts and have supported him with 4.00 runs per game.
Rodriguez on a Roll: By going 2-4 last night, Aderlin Rodriguez extended his hitting streak to seven straight games. He's hitting .300 (9-for-30) with one double and five home runs in his last seven contests with an .833 slugging percentage. Rodriguez is part of a four-way tie for ninth in the SAL with his five homeruns. Since April 23, when his hit streak began, Rodriguez leads the South Atlantic League with five long balls.
Homer Happenings: Last night was the first time the Gnats have hit three home runs in a game in 2011… Robbie Shields became the third Gnat, joining Aderlin Rodriguez and Blake Forsythe to homer in back-to-back games…The Gnats have homered in 69% of their road games (9 of 13) and 33% of their home games (3 of 9)… Savannah is 2-1 at home when homering and 2-7 on the road.
Pitch to Win: Last night, for the seventh time this season, Gnats pitching held their opponents to three runs or fewer. Savannah is 5-2 in such contests and 8-4 when holding the opposition to five runs or fewer. The Gnats are 0-10 when their opponent scores six runs or more. Gnats pitching gave up six runs or more in six of the seven games on Savannah's seven-game losing streak which the team snapped Saturday.
Road Data: The Gnats are 3-10 on the road in 2011, all against Northern Division teams. At home, Gnats pitching has a 3.56 ERA and has allowed 4.19 runs per game. On the road, Gnats pitching has a 5.52 ERA and has allowed 5.94 runs per game. The Gnats have hit .241/.318/.371 (AVG/OBP/SLG) at home and scored 4.2 runs per game. On the road, the team has hit .234/.297/.392 and scored 3.6 runs per game.
Vs. Lakewood: The Gnats are 1-0 against the BlueClaws this year. The two teams split the four-game series 2-2 in 2010.
… And We're Back
By my count, it's been two years and 84 days since we updated this blog. Yeesh, thats…. not good.
So, we'll be making a point to update this thing daily to get you some notes and insight on the Gnats and life at Historic Grayson Stadium. We welcome comments and feedback!
Another Week Gone By
Well, we're another week closer to Opening Day, which is a scary thought but also exciting. The Mets announced our coaching staff this week so that was exciting and really makes you aware that the season is just around the corner.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Edgar briefly on Tuesday and he seems like a nice guy and is pretty stoked to come here and manage. There is only one returning coach from last year's team (George Greer) while Nick Wright will be back for his second tour as Savannah's Strength Coach. We wish Donovan Mitchell all the best in Double-A Binghamton this season.
Did anyone watch LOST on Wednesday? That was a good ending, I knew that Jin couldn't be dead but now he is stuck in past with crazy young Russo..OH NO! Another show that I started watching with some interest is "Trust Me" on TNT. It's about two guys working at the top of a Chicago-based Ad Agency and it's interesting. I also watched Eagle Eye last night, with Shia LeBouf and that was impressively entertaining as well.
On to college basketball. ESPN has my San Diego State Aztecs as a bubble team with some work to do. They've beaten Utah and UNLV (in Vegas) and were up by four with like 5 minutes left against No. 15 Ariz. State and only lost to Arizona by three I believe. We are tied atop the Mountain West standings. LET US IN! The last time we played in the tourney, I couldn't watch beacuse we were hosting the first and second rounds so I had to work…
Things around the office are the same. It's been real cold here in Savannah (like in the low 20s and high teens at night) and sometimes people forget to leave the HEAT on in the office.
Time for work
Who's excited to hear my voice for 140 games next season?
So if you haven't heard yet, the Sand Gnats have partnered with STAR 1400 AM to broadcast all 140 games in 2009 locally in Savannah!!! I'm super pumped and excited because it means it makes it that much easier for you the fans to follow your Sand Gnats while they are on the road or if you're late to the ballgame! Big thanks to STAR 1400 AM. It's going to be a fun season and I'll do my best to blog from the road as much as I can with tips on places to eat, visit and the like.
Other than that, its same-old, same-old here in the trailer. I've been putting a lot of time in designing themed templates and such for people around the office lately. Nothing too exciting. SCAD baseball has their first game Friday and it will be nice to have baseball back in Historic Grayson Stadium. I've also been working with new headshot designs for the SCAD team so that hopefully some of them will translate to Gnats stuff when the season starts. I like to test my stuff out before to see if everything looks cool and readable.
That's it for now. Lost is on tonight so I'm always excited about that!
It's really cold here this morning in Savannah. I check my iPhone before I left the house and it said it was 23…that's ridiculous. A very cold, frozen Mike Passanisi blogging from the Sand Gnats headquarters at Historic Grayson Stadium.
I watched American Idol for the first time in a while last night because A. they were in the Yay Area (San Francisco) and B. all of my roommates watch the horrible television program. The show didn't disappoint, it was dreadful. Did you see the girl who brought all the diagrams and stuff to the show? She couldn't even pronounce half the body parts she was talking about correctly, let alone sing.
Other programming that was much better was the Obama Inauguration. Obama is an excellent public speaker. He sells whatever he is saying very well and I'm not one to dive into politics but I'm kind of excited to see what happens.
On the Sand Gnats front, things are starting to pick up quite rapidly as we approach February. Before we know it, Opening Day 2k9 will be here and that's crazy. Right now, I'm working on the design of our 2009 Pocket Schedule and still trying to finalize our group brochure (we're waiting on a couple of loose ends) but those should hopefully be done shortly.
I'm excited to see who the Mets invite to big league camp in a month or so. I really think that Tobi Stoner, Josh Thole and Mike Antonini have a shot to be invited. I would say one of those three could very well be a late season callup come September when rosters expand. As for the '09 Gnats, we still have no word on our coaching staff but it was around the beginning of February last year that we heard Donovan Mitchell was our manager, so that announcement might be coming up soon.
Now how many of you are excited for LOST tonight?! Probably one of the best shows on television in my professional opinion. It's crazy and confusing but it's just so addicting. For those of you that haven't watched, I'd say rent the first season and you'll be so hooked you'll watch all of it in probably three days time.
Well, I've got to go put out a press release. Check back later today to find out what it's about.
Over and Out
Hello Sand Gnats Fans, Community Relations director Tara Vaglica here. There has been a lot going on over here at Historic Grayson Stadium in the last few days. If you missed it, yesterday we hosted a press conference�announcing the re-signing of our lease with the city of Savannah and Grayson stadium, keeping the Sand Gnats playing in Daffin Park for another 2 seasons. We are also very excited to�announce�a new member to our staff, President R.C Reuteman. He comes to us with a wealth of experience, including working with 2 of the Sand Gnats sister teams, the Brooklyn Cyclones and Binghamton Mets. We are lucky to have someone with such a wealth of knowledge down here in Savannah. Our staff is looking forward to learning from R.C and�enhancing�the experience for our fans.�
Happy Holidays!
Mike here wishing all those out there a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Christmakkuh, and anything else I forgot. The Sand Gnats staff hopes that everyone has a safe and pleasant holiday season.
We will be taking some time off for the holidays as our office spreads back across the country to be with friends and family. The office will be closed from Dec. 24 to January 4 and will reopen at 9 a.m. on Monday, January 5, 2009. It's crazy to think that a new year is upon us and that opening day is almost four months away!
I will be hoping on a jet plane heading back to the west coast (best coast) for the holidays. Unfortunately there will be no snow, but it will be nice to have Cheesecake Factory and Jamba Juice close once again.
We've been going green here at the stadium lately, and by that I mean the new turf is coming in real nice! The entire field is almost done and once groundskeeper Andy Rock gets back from California he'll cut it and get it into game shape for the Savannah College of Art & Design games that start in late January.
That's really all I've got right now…see ya next year.
Congratulations Axyl Rose!
First off, in this edition of The Buzz I would like to personally congratulate Axyl Rose of the band Guns n' Roses for finally releasing Chinese Democracy. Axyl is a true testament to following your dreams….
We here at the Sand Gnats hope all of you out there in cyberspace had a safe and fun Thanksgiving holiday as well as a productive and beneficial Black Friday! We are back to work here for the next three weeks until the Christmas holiday trying to wrap up things before the year ends because once January 1, 2009 comes around, the season will be here before we know it.
Our Inaugural Holiday Bazaar is coming up and will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on December 13 at Historic Grayson Stadium. Admission is free so come on down and check out some crafts, get your gifts wrapped or hang out and watch a holiday film!
Now I'll take a little time to talk about my Black Friday….
Usually I'm one of those 4 a.m. shoppers along with my aunt and grandma but this year I decided to stay in Savannah for the holiday and neglected my usual routine. I did venture to Target at 10 a.m. to find a vast selection of digital video discs (DVDs) for under $4, which was nice. After that, I proceeded to head up to the Tanger Outlets near Hilton Head to see what sales they were having. I went with the intention of buying presents for others but instead bought myself a new coat and some cheap shorts. Oh well….
Are you on the social phenomenon known as Facebook? Well if you are, become a fan of the Sand Gnats! There is a link on the homepage of sandgnats.com that will take you directly to our page.
Groundskeeper Andy has finished overseeding the field and we are in the transitionary process with the old turf dying off and the new turf coming in. Other than that, it's business as usual at the ol' ballyard.
Time for me to sign off and get to work.
P.S. That's me helping cut down our Xmas Tree
P.P.S. Roll Tide…