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Rez Abbasi: Thoroughly Modern Marvel
Rez Abbasi personifies several of the attributes on display in his music. He puts forth a quiet confidence, with a clear point of view on a variety of topics. He is capable of and open to ideas, surprises, and wonder. Though he has a singular vision for his various musical projects and approaches his art with a sense of purpose and seriousness, he is quick to laugh and clearly comfortable in his own skin. In the most striking parallel between the music and the man, conversation with him visits many themes while veering off for varied explorations.
Rez Abbasi is living, breathing proof that jazz music can be as vital and boundary-pushing as ever.
Chapter Index
All About Jazz: Suno Suno (Enja, 2011) is a very heavy record. While you do not rely on riffs, the songs have a very heavy feel. Your drummer, Dan Weiss, seems to be a key part of that. He is very powerful and very versatile.
Rez Abbasi: Dan is one of a kind. This is the fourth record he's on of mine, and I've only done eight [laughs]. So it's fifty percent, and I have some future plans with him in mind. This record is informed by Qawwali music, which is a Pakistani music that they use for praise, Sufi mystics used to use it. Now it is also used by non-mystics, if you will, but for the same cause. There is a groove element to that music that permeates it from start to finish. Because of that groove I felt the music lends itself to what we [Abbassi's ensemble Invocation] do.
AAJ: So one of the ways Qawwali is informing the record is those riff-like grooves.
RA: Yes, but the way Dan plays them is obviously very different than the way a Qawwali percussionist would because they use the music to feed or implement the idea of praise. So for them, the music continually moves and grooves. Whereas we break it up a lot. We might start with a particular groove, or theme, and from there it ends up moving through all kinds of realms, as jazz does, and maybe it will come back around later. Or not.
AAJ: Would you say Qawwali is now primarily a folk music?
RA: It could be termed a folk music.
AAJ: Is there an academic tradition or formality to it?
RA: No, I don't think so. It is more of a village kind of formality, if you will, because it's not a matter of going to school for it or theoretically looking into it. It's more of a soul music. It's akin to blues. You don't go to school to study blues. If you do you might lose the magic of it. There is a very fine line. As a jazz musician I interpret things and I need to study these things to facilitate my growth. But with this project I didn't want to cross that line. I wanted the music to be in a space of intuition.
AAJ: The line being to not over-intellectualize or over-formalize anything?
RA: Yes, exactly. With previous records, especially with Things To Come (Sunnyside, 2009), I did want to inform the music with Indian classical music. That's what I was going for on that record. With that in mind I did look into certain ragas or scales and particular rhythms and try to implement them as naturally as I could. But with Suno Suno I really wanted the focus to be on this intuition that has been garnered for me over the last 25 years or so through listening to Qawwali and being at many of the concerts, and seeing Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan several times live.
As you know, he is the main exponent of Qawwali, introduced to the West by Peter Gabriel's label. So what was really foremost for me was not to specifically imitate the melodies, or specifically take an exact groove, but to simply put this music in the forefront of my mind and see what will naturally come out. I'm from Pakistan, so the Qawwali influence has to be there somehow. Even before I discovered Qawwali, my parents and family would be playing music in the house or at the weddings I went to, and there were strands of this Qawwali-type music in what they were doing. It wasn't Qawwali but there were some similarities. So I think when I finally discovered Qawwali it was a natural movement to hear that music and feel it right away.
AAJ: Is Qawwali primarily a secular music for you?
RA: All music is secular to me. There's nothing that resonates with religious attitudes and all that. I am not Muslim and the traditional practitioners of this music were Sufis, which is more mystical than religious, like Kabbalah is in Judaism. But even with gospel, for instance, I find juxtaposition with gospel and Qawwali. There are some similarities. There's a feel in gospel that most people can hear right away and it doesn't matter if it's religious or not. For the person who's playing it or singing it maybe that does matter but somehow that is transcended. Music transcends all thought, really, and all belief. That's the quality of music in general but sometimes we tend to forget that.
Growing Up
AAJ: Before you discovered jazz, you were already into heavy music, Led Zeppelin, Rush...
RA: And King Crimson...
AAJ: The hard rock, prog rock kind of stuff?
RA: Absolutely. Up until I was 16 years old. Most people, up until the age that they discover what they really want to do for the rest of their lives, are influenced by whatever society puts in front of them. That's no different whether you're from Pakistan or China, you're surrounded by the zeitgeist of whatever's going on at that time. And Led Zeppelin was absolutely going on at that time, and Rush. I had a rock band, a garage band, and we played all that material. The hard Rush tunes, the Zeppelin. Others, too.
I have been a guitarist since I was 11. My initial draw to the guitar was through listening to and transcribing people like Carlos Santana, B.B. King, and these things. Then I went onto Larry Carlton and Robben Ford and these great maestros of the blues genre and beyond. That was very strong source material to grapple with and study. When I hit 16 I saw Joe Pass and that was a revelation. It was this huge slap in the face, like, "Wow! This guy's a little older, he's not standing up with long hair and all that but he's playing the heck out of the guitar!" So that was a big step for me.
Then, soon after, I saw Allan Holdsworth. He was standing up but he still had short hair [laughs]. And the strange coincidence of the whole thing was that Eddie Van Halen sat in with Allan Holdsworth that night. I was listening to Allan the whole time completely blown away and then Van Halen steps up on stage and he starts pointing to Allan to say, "This is the cat." That was a very real transition for me, seeing Eddie, who's sort of a guru for me until I am 16, pointing at someone that I was moving towards anyway.
AAJ: In music, we always want to know where our heroes came from.
RA: Yeah, yeah.
AAJ: It is amazing the kind of credibility that can bestow, not that Allan Holdsworth needs an endorsement. But what it does to a kid with a rock background is powerful.
RA: Absolutely. You're looking for that stuff. And so I sort of knew that my path was correct at that point, that I was making a great transition.
AAJ: Did you get Holdsworth? It resonated, it hit you?
RA: Yes. He used an overdriven guitar, he still does, it was an overdriven guitar sound which is basically connoting rock and roll.
AAJ: Makes it a little easier to understand.
RA: Yes. That was definitely the transition. But Joe Pass was really the one. When I stumbled onto him I thought. "Wow, this is a clean sound and it's just ripping!" I say "ripping" because technique, when you're young, it really means a lot. The facility of what people do is sometimes enough to just lure you into that world.
AAJ: Is it that the technique is really all you can grasp when you are younger, because you don't really understand emotion and feel yet?
RA: I don't know if it is not understanding the emotion but I don't think I understood the jazz vocabulary and the emotion that can come with that. Now I do obviously but back then it was like going from Rush to Joe Pass and Allan Holdsworth. It was sort of like, "What are these guys playing, I don't understand the notes and the meaning of that." So that was dumbfounding, you know?
AAJ: There was a language barrier.
RA: There you go, yeah, lost in translation, for sure. But again it came pretty quickly. That's the natural element I feel like I've had with jazz. It's like overnight, I got it. Not got the [ability to play the] music, but I understood it.
AAJ: In listening to and reading what other musicians have to say about music, when they talk about their influences and interests, there become are all of these warrens you can go down. Some of them open up into little rooms and some of them are whole other universes of music.
RA: Absolutely It's an amazing art form.
AAJ: A lot of artists try not to consume much music because they're worried about it maybe influencing them or that they might lift something inadvertently. So they tend to focus on their art. Does that resonate with you? Do you listen to music now?
RA: It does not resonate at all, actually. There is so much music out there other than jazz to be informed by. I feel like I'm a student until I die. I wouldn't tell my students not to listen to anything so why should I not listen to things? I'm not necessarily going to listen to other guitar players but in terms of all the music of the world, the folk music, the classical world, western classical, I mean, have I heard all the Shostakovich that could be heard? No. Could I get something out of that? Of course. As a composer? Heck, yes. So I don't relate to that notion at all.
Listening and Integration
AAJ:Being a listener is important to you.
RA: Being a listener at this stage of the game in fact is more important than it was even back when. Back I had to really practice my instrument all the time to get anywhere. Now, for me, I could do a little less practicing and more opening of the mind and let music penetrate subconsciously and hopefully it will come out without being imitative of anything. And that's back to the Qawwali idea, that's why I listened to but didn't study it because I think the studying part may ultimately ruin the magic of it. There's stuff that goes beyond theory and melody and notes. For me there's a whole other dimension that stimulates possibly other parts of the body and the brain. I know that sounds esoteric but I think we've all felt it. Everybody feels it but maybe everybody's not necessarily conscious of what they're going through.
AAJ: Science has probably measured and proven this.
RA: There are definitely people working with music and the brain and how it affects you. It's in its beginning stages for sure but as a scientist you have to continue studying these things.
AAJ: This is an interesting line of discussion because another theme in your music is that of integration. You have touched on it a few different ways in past pieces about you or interviews with you, where maybe the writer is emphasizing a "South Asian Movement" that you and others might be part of. You acknowledge it but don't emphasize it. In your music, specifically with Qawwali, it's there but it's not as overt as picking up the guitar and playing a traditional cultural or ethnic melody, for example, "Greensleeves"; the whole melody, the whole piece. With your music there is this notion of feel, of elements more subtly informing the music, and being pulled in without making statements about the elements.
RA: Yes, yes. And you touched upon something that people tend to expect from either South Asians or any people who try to do what you might call "hybrid music." I don't like that term but that's the closest I can get. They expect it to be obvious and overt and there's not a sitar player in there...I mean, if I'm going to do a project of South Asian music I've got to have a tabla player? No. It is great and it can work but you have to see that from the composer's mind or the composer needs to see it from his or her concept. Not from, "Okay, this instrument is from this part of the world so I need to bring it in here to implement it with my new project." So this whole South Asian music thing is not a fly by night trap or some kind of fashion statement. It's been there all this time for me but had apprehension about bringing it to the surface because from past experiments in the '60s and '70s there hasn't been such great examples of that. You either hear much more of the jazz or you hear much more of the South Asian stuff, element. Although I do like the band Shakti.
AAJ: I was going to ask you where John McLaughlin comes in for you.
RA: Shakti is brilliant, there's no doubt about that. The one thing I don't hear in that group is the jazz element. I do hear improvisation which is absolutely part of Indian music and absolutely part of jazz as well but they don't deal with the harmonic aspect of jazz, but they're brilliant nonetheless. Quite an amazing thing that they've come up with, this kind of music. In general, thought, there's not enough emphasis on the compositional element with these kind of hybrids. The composer really needs to step up to the plate and figure out how this is going to work without being overt.
AAJ: Not dissimilar from a really good lyricist saying something without coming right out and saying it, being more evocative.
RA: Yes. We've all heard the obvious lyrics: "My heart, this and that," "You left me and now I'm depressed." There's other ways of saying this stuff that's not so direct and that's where the magic is.
AAJ: More artful, maybe.
RA: Yes, and especially in 2011, 2012, there needs to be this sort of seeking of a different paradigm.
AAJ: One very clear positive about the trend of musicians from different cultural backgrounds getting into jazz is that it is expanding the form and bringing new interpretations, new elements to the music, whether it is a South Asian influence or a Japanese influence or what have you. Jazz is maybe one music that can handle that, or actually thrive.
RA Jazz demands it and welcomes it. It is an interesting thing that's going on because there's a fine line. I completely agree with what you said. On the other hand, to play devil's advocate, there are projects that call themselves jazz and really watered down, diluted the music so much. It didn't start from the right area. It sort of started from this bluesy effect or something and then they called it jazz. There's a whole school of jazz that needs to be dealt with before you can actually call yourself a jazz musician or say that your music's informed by jazz.
Is It Jazz?
AAJ: So then what are the objective measures that make something jazz?
RA: Wow, I don't know what the objective measures are, there are probably many of them. For one, I would think really studying the music from the ground up which means from the early 1900s and Louis Armstrong and the blues before that. The whole educational factor. There is a lot of education that needs to be dealt with in playing jazz, there's no way around that.
AAJ: Successful improvisers or people that thrive in an improvised music environment start with the theory and the history and the past and then almost set it aside or integrate it, absorb it and then you can improvise but you have to do the work.
RA: Foundation. You cannot build a house on a very poor foundation. The stronger the foundation is, when that earthquake comes to destroy, the house is going to stay up and be the way it was when you built it. So that's the objective answer about jazz: it's music to study and not take lightly. The listener can take it lightly but as the musician you have the responsibility to put in the hours.
AAJ: To that end, do you recall a time or an era in your own playing when you found your own voice as a player and composer? Where you said, "I'm onto something"?
RA: I don't really know any timeframe where I said that to myself. I think record after record it just gets there more and more, it cements itself more and more. One of the things that I feel that the media doesn't talk about that often is the growth of a jazz musician. By the time you hit 30, if you're not completely there, full formed, then, you've lost it. This is not boxing. There are correlations with boxing, but not in this regard. The fact that we're continually growing needs to be taken into consideration as well.
Growing Up, Part 2
AAJ: When did you know that a life in music was what you wanted and that it was possible?
RA: I think my last year in high school. I've always felt like it was something I wanted to pursue. But the last year in high school when I did discover jazz I realized that I can take this to the college level and start from there and figure out what I can do. After high school you have to make those big decisions. If I was still a rock player, the decision wouldn't have been so easy to make. It would have been more like, "Do I continue playing in bands and try to make original music and maybe that will last for a couple of years?" I'm sure that's the path of many. But with jazz came also classical music, because you go to college and they want you to study classical history and classical theory. So the first year I automatically knew, when I went to college, I can do this for a while and I can teach it, too, eventually. And I never really looked back from there. It's been up and down and it continues to be a little up and down, you know how that is. But if you look at most fields right now, there's struggle with every field so why not be in the field that makes you happy.
AAJ: Was your family supportive?
RA: Yes, yes, they were very supportive. Mostly psychologically, but sometimes financially as well. I couldn't go through college without their support. I'm not one of these guys who could do a day job and then also go to school and then practice. I was practicing eight to ten hours, or sometimes six hours, sometimes four but it was like a constant thing for years. There was no putting down the guitar or the theory books for a number of years. And then I moved to Manhattan to attend the Manhattan School of Music and it just continued. I kept on living the music. Without that, you really don't have what it takes. There's no one I know that's great that hasn't actually lived the music, literally given up other things for the music. Very, very few people tell me that they don't practice or they never really practiced that much. When they do, I wonder, "Well, what if they did practice?" I wonder how great they really would be.
AAJ: In terms of figures throughout your development, was Ustad Alla Rakha important to you?
RA: I don't know if he was an important figure in terms of my development but after graduation I went to India for the first time in my lifeI had been to Pakistan before but not India to partake in some of his classes. Now these are very different, the classes out there, there are ten or so tabla students in one room and they're all playing call and response with him. He'll play something on the tabla and they have to play it back. And I wasn't playing tabla at the time so it wasn't really like a hands-on thing with the maestro himself. It was more of seeing what I needed to deal with and take that home.
AAJ: So you were auditing the class [laughs]?
RA: Yeah, yeah, basically. And we hung out a little bit. I saw his son, [tablaist] Zakir Hussain, there. He came by very quickly, offered me a cup of tea and I denied it which I shouldn't have because you're supposed to always accept. I had five glasses of tea by then, I was like, "Oh, it's okay, no, thank you." He's "Oh, no?" I specifically remember that [laughs]. But anyways, so I studied with one of Alla Rakha's best disciples, Ray Speigal. So I studied for about a year, and then I realized if I'm going to get really good at these things I have to give up a lot more time. That's when I decided to go back to really focusing on composing and the guitar. But I got a lot out of that year and I can relate to the table on a higher level right now because I've actually dealt with it physically. So when I play with tabla players which I often do, there's something there.
AAJ: Were there guitar players or Western musicians that you had a mentor relationship with or was it more a series of teachers?
RA: I had a series of teachers. I was lucky because I got both the West Coast and East Coast set of teachers, which was great. On the West Coast I had the opportunity to study with Joe Diorio for a good year. That wasn't private but it's okay because it's great to be with other people there. I studied a little bit with Ted Greene, who's a maestro as well, he's no longer with us. Peter Sprague, who's still in the Bay Area or San Diego, I think, he's great. Also a gentleman named Paul LaRose, he's no longer with us. But when I moved to town here the best teacher I had guitar-wise was probably John Abercrombie, at least on the East Coast. I enjoyed his approach; it was more of what I was of going for at the time. I studied with people at Manhattan School of Music, Rodney Jones, he was great as well, Jack Wilkins; the list goes on. After that I really got into studying with Kenny Werner. That was really great because he plays piano and didn't approach it like a guitarist would and that's really essential.
There are limitations on the guitar, there's no doubt about that in terms of the whole jazz vernacular. The piano, you know, unless you play it yourself, which I don't, it's really good to have that mindset. It's almost like an orchestra in front of you. You have all of the possibilities right in front of you. On the guitar, your hand can only stretch a certain amount; try and play a minor second on the guitar, it's a wide stretch. It's not to make excuses, but that's just the truth of the nature of these instruments. That's why so many people compose on the piano.
AAJ: Are you primarily composing on the guitar?
RA: No longer.
Rez Abbasi's Invocation, from left: Vijay Iyer, Johannes Weidenmueller
Rez Abbasi, Dan Weiss, Rudresh Mahanthappa
AAJ: And that's true for Suno Suno?
RA: Yeah, that was all off the guitar. There might have been a couple melodies that I stumbled on with the guitar first and then I put them into the computer and I worked them from there. Actually, the last batch of tunes I did compose on the guitar was tunes that I composed for [drummer] Paul Motian. I was supposed to play with him October 22nd [2011]. He was going to play with my Trio, which would have been him and (bassist) John Hébert. I did compose those few numbers on the guitar because I wanted to keep it simple. Paul doesn't read music on the stage and it was more of a reactive thing. So I tend to compose more like that on the guitar which is more textural. He couldn't make the gig for obvious reasons [Motian died on November 22nd, 2011] and I got Satoshi Takeishi, a great drummer. He and John and I still did it. We recorded it and man, I'm really compelled to put this out. Musically it seems to be on fire, it's really wonderful. But also because Paul passed away, and that could have been one of his last gigs. I just feel I really need to dedicate this night and music to him, to a person I never got to play with. I approached him late in his life. So many other people were playing with him; I didn't feel like he needed anybody else [laughs].
AAJ: It's like Ron Carter. Who didn't play with Ron Carter?
RA: Yeah. There are a lot of people to choose from in this town, but someone asked me to do a gig at Cornelius Street Café and do something other than my regular bands. And I thought, "Oh, this'll be great, let me do a trio!" and that challenged me to write more music specifically for Paul in mind. I've never done that before, written music specifically for one person in mind, for not the band, for just one person. I think the tunes call out to Paul Motian in a way.
AAJ: So you're thinking of his style or you're thinking of his personality while you are writing?
RA: Well, I don't differentiate the two actually. I didn't know him personally very well. I had some conversations with him on the phone but it's more his personality on the drums. I've heard him in hundreds of, tons of, recordings and many, many times with different bands. Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, that's a big group I've heard several times for years over the last couple decades. And that band really struck me as one of the pinnacles of modern music, modern jazz. I mean, Ridiculous; all music.
AAJ: Are Invocation and the Acoustic Quartet your primary creative vehicles right now?
RA: Yeah, they are, but this trio that was supposed to be with Paul, like I said, the recording came out so well, the performance was so beautiful that this is going to be one of my next groups. That's also something on the burner. And then I've written another quartet record for a different band that I won't say who's in the band yet because we have to figure it out, I have to figure it out.
I've already talked to some but, you know, until it's cemented...but that's going to be a very different project for me. It's going to be very electric, electric bass I'm thinking, texturally. I have this acoustic group that I love and I play acoustic guitar with, steel-string acoustic guitar. And that's with vibraphone (Bill Ware), acoustic bass (Stephan Crump) and drums (Eric McPherson). And there's a texture there that is uncanny, you know, it really is, I see audience members stare at the musicians because it's so grounded in percussion yet the timbres are sort of flying off the walls. You can imagine vibraphone and steel-string guitar...
AAJ: That's the group that's on Natural Selection (Sunnyside, 2010). Now that seems to be more overtly spiritual music. It was emotional, reverb-drenched. Very atmospheric.
RA: Like ECM or something [laughs]? You know, when you have a steel-string acoustic guitar it calls out for reverb. But it depends on the tune. We reverbed out some of the tunes more than others. There's a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan tune on which I used a steel-string guitar, the guitar on that tune is called a resonator and it has this sarod kind of inflection. The Sarod is an Indian instrument and it really called out for some kind of manipulation. The guitar I used already has [its own] reverb because there's the metal plate in there, a metal spool or something and you play a note and you get reverb. So I think you're really actually hearing the guitar, that's on a couple cuts.
AAJ: And the vibes also have a lot of sustain and texture.
RA: Absolutely, with the vibes. That's another thing because they already have the pedal on the vibes that creates this reverb. So you're right, it's full of that kind of juice. So you know, I'm thinking texturally. I have that group, I have this one Invocation with piano and saxophone. So the electric quartet is a whole different orchestration that I can really work with compositionally. Then I have the trio like I mentioned, that's more of a guitar oriented band. A lot of chords and a lot of open improvisations, it's almost more standard than the other bands.
AAJ: How important is it to you to have a stable line up and a stable group?
RA: Well, it is important to some degree. It does help the music when everybody is sort of on board. But, you know, thinking about it, some of these guys who have subbed for some of my bands have really been great. They've really brought a lot to the music and they're respectful of this South Asian influence in my music. They can only do so much with that with their Western approach but it's not like a polarization or something, you know, this guy's South Asian, this guy's not. It is a close field anyway. There are only a few elements that are somewhat different like vibrato, scales, and certain rhythmical things that really lend themselves to that south Asian sound.
AAJ: Do you think the audience notices?
RA: It depends on who the audience is .If there are some people listening who know Indian music, if they listen to Indian music then they might say, "You know, with [saxophonist] Rudresh Mahanthappa and [pianist] Rudresh Mahanthappa in the band there is a little overtone of that sound," as opposed to whoever else is in the band.
AAJ: Is there a more interesting pianist around right now?
RA: Vijay? He's got some beautiful stuff. That's why he's in my band [laughs].
AAJ: So you compose for each project? You don't have a songbook where you take one for the quartet, one for Invocation. You start a project and compose for that?
RA: Yeah, generally because you're composing for the instruments and their range. If I'm composing for alto, that's going to be different than for the vibes. Sometimes I do compose just for composing's sake. When I do that I keep it to a couple voices and then I can explore which band I would like to use it for. So that happens as well.
AAJ: So you use a sample instrument on the computer?
RA: Yes or if I'm doing it on the guitar, like I said, sometimes I come up with melodies on the guitar then I'll put it into the computer and then the computer becomes my piano. Now, I'm limitless in a sense. I can play a bass note and try a different line. It takes hours and hours of manipulation. Sometimes I think I've spent 50 hours on one song. It's kind of ridiculous. But that's not always the case. So once I can get an idea of the statement that this music is making I bring it to particular band. And it's also a time thing. If I'm going to do a record with the Acoustic Quartet, then that's obviously in my mind somewhere that that's what I'm focusing on. Then I probably subconsciously write towards that.
AAJ: How many sessions does it take, typically, for you to get a record done? Would you do it in two or three dates?
RA: I used to only do one day in the studio. The last couple of records I've done two but, surprisingly enough, we've gotten everythingor almost everythingon the first day. For Suno Suno, on the first we'd just gotten everything and then the next day we basically overdubbed some melody parts that we messed up on cause some of the melodies are difficult.
AAJ: Given the amount of high energy improvisation or soloing on that record that must be exhausting. Or energizing...
RA: Well, yes, one of those things. You get the second wind absolutely. You see boxers in there for eight rounds and by the eighth round they're like dead tired and suddenly the 11th and 12 they're like juiced up. That's all second wind and that's all within our nature.
AAJ: It's in the horse seeing the finish line, too.
RA: Exactly. It's good to have that second day just in case because you never know if the magic is going to show up. Generally, I like to do two nights of concerts before the day we go in the studio. And that's what we did [for Suno Suno], we did Friday and Saturday at Cornelius Street Café and the Sunday and Monday we went into the studio. I think, with that flow, That everybody's very focused. It's like, "Okay, we've got four days to nail this." I've been doing that for a long time on my records.
So it's not like one month we're playing and next month we're playing and then let's just go in the studio this month after a gig. It's sort of like, "Okay, guys, this is the week we're doing it. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, let's rehearse on Thursday and one more time maybe before that." That way everybody's focused. You learn the music; you know what it's about.
AAJ: Do you ever have the interest in or a concept for playing with other guitars or another guitarist?
RA: I never really have done that in a serious way. I've done sessions with other guitar players just for fun, and it is pretty fun. But that's something that I've wanted to try actually, I've wanted to sort of put together a group of three or four guitar players and do something. It's just a matter of how many projects can you do at once? That's the thing. It would take me a long time to write and find the right guys and the timing is an issue.
AAJ: Are your song titles meaningful? Do they convey anything about the content or the intention of the song?
RA: Very good question. Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Sometimes they're just about either a political or philosophical idea and how they relate to the actual music, but does anything really relate to the music in terms of words? Unless I'm dedicating a tune to someone like on this last record where I dedicated one to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and I can feel that connection somewhat. But when I'm writing I generally don't think about any terminology or any title.
AAJ: Do the compositions have titles when you're recording them or do you go back after wards and name them?
RA: No, they have titles by the time they're being played. But the compositional process is all about the music. Although someone mentioned lately that I should try composing to a title, which might instigate some kind of ideas which is a great thing as well.
AAJ: Some improvisers do something similar where they just pick a theme and that theme could actually have no manifestation in the music or for an individual player it might. A tool...
RA: ...to point you in a direction. Yes. Sometimes I take a raga and I want to write a composition based on that because it's so moving, something my wife [singer Kiran Ahluwalia] might be singing or something. I'll ask, "Hey what are these notes?" I'll grapple with the notes and I'll start a composition with that. The issue I have is that then I start hearing other things. So do I now not go to that direction and stick to this raga or do I say, "Okay, now I'm veering off, even it's not catching that same essence that I thought it was catching initially?" Generally I go towards the latter, I generally move towards wherever my intuition takes me. It's the confining or defining that can be a good starting point, but for some reason I tend to not be able to stick with that all the time. I can, but it's rare.
AAJ: Not to belabor the point but there are a couple of points on the new record where the titles came across as meaningful.
RA: What do you mean, they correlated to the actual music you were hearing?
AAJ: Yes. "Thanks for Giving," the track that opens the record, for one. There is a profound nature to that track.
RA: That's interesting you say that [laughs], because that actually has some meaning. Before I was generalizing but, with "Thanks for Giving," strangely enoughand this has never happened to mebut I woke up from a dream and I heard that melody and usually I forget these melodies by the time I wake up. But I woke up and I was like, "Wait, I was hearing this melody in my dream!" It was somewhat of a lucid experience. So I heard it, and it was Rudresh and I playing this melody. Instantly I woke up and I ran to the computer and I put it in the computer and it's the beginning of that song [sings the melody]. That whole thing. And then I heard this sort of Qawwali- esque approach to it where after we state that melody then we go into the big groove which is very unique to Qawwali. Other music does that too but Qawwali definitely has that effect, the heightened kind of reality. That was the way the tune came about. But it happened to be on Thanksgiving morning, 2009. So I called it "Thanks for Giving" because it was sort of like, well, it was given to me.
AAJ: That was a quintessential Sufi experience. The communication of something important to you through a dream.
RA: Yeah, and it's never happened to me before. I mean, I've heard full blown compositions but when I wake up I have no idea and am usually like, "Oh, man I wish I could hear that now!" But this is the first time I've wakened up to the melody and there it was.
AAJ: So it's a Sufi music tradition or a musical tradition associated with Sufism communicated to you in a dream [laughs]. That's not trivial.
RA: I know. I didn't make it into a big deal at the time but when you mention it and when I speak of it I, it's definitely beautiful and the fact that Rudresh and I were playing it, it wasn't just the melody it was like our song. Okay, let's play, ready (sings the melody). And then I just woke up and I was like, "Wow, I really like that melody man, I gotta write." And without even hugging my wife I jumped out of bed and hit the guitar.
I sometimes tend to just blow these things off but the way you're speaking of it now I'm realizing how profound it actually was. You get very close to your own music so you don't really see it from outside. But other people who listen to it do see it as the first time and hear it as the first time. That's a whole other level of perception.
AAJ: You produce your own projects.
RA: Yes. I think most jazz musicians do that now because given the state of the industry, how much money can you really afford? But even aside from that for me it's more about the fact that I know the music better than anybody and I know what I'm trying to convey. So essentially I don't know if I trust anybody enough to come and mess with the vision, especially if I'm going to pay them on top of that. I think I've got big ears and I'm happy with my own production skills.
AAJ: Sonny Sharrock always spoke about the guitar with something like disdain. He was asthmatic, couldn't play saxophone and said he was trying to achieve on the guitar what he heard John Coltrane doing, especially later period with over-blowing and things like that. Someplace else you made mention of the fact that you generally have two tones, one of them was kind of a cleaner jazz tone and one of them was more overdriven. You said that was your saxophone tone.
RA: Really? He said those things? That's interesting. My comments were from a blog I wrote recently for Guitar Player Magazine on the idea of shredding and how I have disdain for that word because of the correlation with rock and heavy metal. And not that that music's bad, I love some of that stuff as well. But we are talking about jazz and there are a lot of intricacies that go on with creating a vocabulary in jazz. I can only speak for myself but with thousands of hours working on that and when you have an overdriven sound suddenly people relate to this other kind of thing that has nothing to do with jazz. So for me that overdriven sound, yes, that's something that reminds me more of a saxophonist because it cuts through the band. You don't hear a saxophonist as being dull when you hear he or she in the context of a quartet or a quintet. It cuts through the band and yet it's within the realm of the band as well. So, a clean jazz guitar just does not do that. It's a different take on the guitar and it sounds equally as beautiful but when you want that kind of push of the band I think the overdriven sound really helps.
AAJ: Is the saxophone the preeminent post-war jazz instrument? Excepting maybe Miles Davis?
RA: Yeah, I think the saxophone can be seen as the number one or the preeminent jazz instrument. Well, people would argue that the trumpet, maybe because of Louis Armstrong, but I think the general public would probably say the saxophone.
AAJ: And do you think about where the guitar fits in the hierarchy or the history of jazz and lineage of jazz?
RA: I try not to because it depresses me. The guitar is making strides and there are some leader-type guitarists that really have helped. People like John McLaughlin and Wes Montgomery before that, obviously. But I'm saying post-'70s, McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Frisell, etc., etc. You know, these are leaders on the guitar, you can hear that in their music. But in history the guitar, it's sort of like the vibraphone, it's sort of an under the radar instrument, maybe even underrated.
AAJ: Underutilized?
RA: Underutilized, definitely. In some ways I can see why. The piano's so beautiful and striking, it sounds so good with like a ride cymbal, you know [laughs]? I don't blame anybody but this is just seems to be what the truth is of this particular situation. But I think there's an opening now that the guitar can be part of. It's continually opening up doors where with some other instruments, you know, you have Coltrane, you have certain people who've made the mark on those instruments and it's hard to imagine anybody going too much further than that.
Or the piano for that matter. Art Tatum to Keith Jarrett. I mean, wow! What are you going to do? With the guitar, it's still in the baby steps in some fashion because also with the guitar you have electronics, with the electric guitar. You can manipulate the sound, that's innate within the electric guitar to do that. I'm a big guitar fan, I love the guitar because I love the plucked instrument. The fact that you can use different tools as a plucking mechanism, like a plectrum, you can use all kinds of different ways of plucking these stringed instruments and that's in itself a really great thing to have.
Guitar Talk
AAJ: Do you ever use an Ebow or anything like that?
RA: I have used it; I used it on my wife's last record. She was doing a sort of a slow version of a Qawwali tune and I wanted to create that atmospheric vibe. I love it, it was fun.
AAJ: You touch on the notion of manipulating the strings or different things you can pluck with and that was another thing that Sharrock spoke of, which was the guitar was second only, for him, the saxophone which he said had the breath of life. But the guitar was the second most expressive because you could really work it physically. He played a Les Paul through a Marshall stack, but said his tone was in his fingers.
RA: It is definitely in your fingers but it's also in your musical sense. You can pluck harder than the next guy and that's going to make you sound a particular way. So it's also the actual muscle that goes into the playing. But there's no question about it, I think it's your overall self that is played, you know, to get to that music. To get to the music it's all areas of your body that are doing it. Your fingers because it's the one thing that directly connects to the instrument, sort of interfaced with the instrument. But it's your whole body that's interfaced with the music.
AAJ: McCoy Tyner said music shouldn't be the sole focus of an artist's life. It is interesting to roll that around in your head because, as you said earlier, at certain times in your life it's all you do because you have to build your technique and your study. But you've mentioned boxing a lot and, you've used it as a metaphor a couple of times. Are there other interests you that you have that come back into your music.
RA: Reading. I love reading philosophy and psychology, those two topics I've been back to several times. And sports, there's some great ideas floating around in the sports world. I just read this book called The Fighter's Mind (Grove Press, 2010) [by Sam Sheridan] which is unreal. It's about boxing but it's really about the mind. I'm very much into psychology. Other than that, I think the normal thing that everybody likes, food, film. It's nothing different; everybody has their few things that they love outside of music. But without music I would feel emptiness, I think. So, whether music is a hundred percent or not, it's up there. I haven't gotten to the point that I can move away from that.
AAJ: And married to a musician, you're surrounded by music. Literally, figuratively.
RA: Exactly. And she's kind of like me. She's really into doing it right and discipline and you gotta do your practicing, all these things. Composing, she's always writing new tunes. So, maybe we'll both decide one day that there's other stuff that's more important than music. But right now, why not stick with the music?
Selected Discography
Rez Abbasi's Invocation, Suno Suno (Enja, 2011)
Kiran Ahluwalia, Aam Zameen: Common Ground (Avakado Artists, 2011)
Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Natural Selection (Sunnyside, 2010)
Rez Abbasi, Things To Come (Sunnyside, 2009)
Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition, Apti (Innova, 2009)
Dave Pietro, The Chakra Suite (Challenge, 2008)
Kiran Ahluwalia, Wanderlust (Four Quarters Entertainment, 2007)
Rez Abbasi, Bazaar (Zoho, 2006)
Rez Abbasi, Snake Charmer (Earth Sounds, 2005)
Sunny Jain Collective, Mango Festival (Zoho Music, 2004)
Marc Mommaas, Global Motion (Sunnyside, 2003)
Photo Credits
All Photos: Courtesy of Rez Abbasi


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Montella eager to upset mentor
Vincenzo Montella is eager to get one over on his former manager, Luigi Del Neri, as Fiorentina look to claim a first away win of the Serie A season on Thursday night.
History may be against the Viola, who have taken just six points from their past nine outings as guests of the Grifone, but Genoa are currently languishing in the bottom half of the table while Fiorentina sit in fifth place.
Former Roma striker Montella knows Del Neri well from the latter's season in charge of the Giallorossi, with the 38-year-old also playing for Genoa's fierce rivals Sampdoria towards the end of his playing career.
Ahead of his return to the Marassi on Thursday night, Montella told Gazzetta.it: "When I was a child I dreamed of playing in that stadium.
"I'm happy to have played for one of the great teams of the city of Genoa.
"But this game will be very tough. It's true, they have lost two games on the spin, but those games were against Roma and Milan.
"I know Del Neri well, he is very enthusiastic and has a lot of knowledge to share.
"I hope we can play without feeling the pressure of not having won away from home yet."
In recent weeks Montella has expressed his frustration over a lack of consistency in front of goal, but clinical strikes from Adem Ljajic and veteran Luca Toni were enough to down Lazio 2-0 at the weekend.
Of his reinvigorated forward line, he added: "They scored against Lazio and I'm happy for them and for myself.
"I have a lot of options and I'm particularly happy that Ljajic is doing well.
"Toni and (Mounir) El Hamdaoui are also improving."
Toni, 35, has finally returned to Fiorentina after leaving Tuscany in a big-money move to Bayern Munich in 2007, spending a disappointing season with the Rossoblu on his way back home.
"I wasn't valued at Genoa," Toni told Gazzetta.it. "Then there were a few problems with the manager and the club forced me to leave.
"It will be a test of maturity for us."
La Viola are in good health, with only defender Michele Camporese missing, but Genoa are without Damiano Ferronetti, Marco Borriello and former Fiorentina winger Juan Manuel Vargas.

subset: commoncrawl


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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan announces release of best practice research highlighting solutions that drive value beyond compliance
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulatory deadlines loom for the massive U.S. food and beverage (F&B) industry, the entire value chain – from farm to fork – faces unprecedented challenges in achieving compliance. The good news: best in class solutions exist now to not only smooth the path to compliance, but to create value beyond compliance by enhancing manufacturing process performance.
Frost & Sullivan's ongoing research on FSMA's expected impacts in the F&B industry uncovers best-in-class products and solutions that will drive compliance and improve operational excellence in key manufacturing applications. The white paper will be published Feb. 20, 2014.
"We are very excited to recognize top solutions providers in the F&B space," said Frost & Sullivan Vice President for the Industrial Automation and Process Control Group, Sath Rao. "Compliance with requirement provides an unprecedented opportunity for the industry to strive for the next level in manufacturing excellence. Manufacturers need visibility into innovative products and services that drive food safety, security, and process sustainability, in their plants."
The Top 25 white paper entitled Achieving Value Beyond Compliance: How the Food and Beverage Industry Extracts Value by Working with the Top 25 Best-in-Class Companies, leverages end-user interviews and solution provider ecosystem discussions, as well as objective input from a decision-support matrix focused on various factors, including:
"This Act promises changes to the industry that will affect demand for critical equipment, including pumps, automation and motors," said Frost & Sullivan Global Research Leader, Laurel Donoho. "This research alerts the food and beverage industry to best-in-class solution providers, which supports manufacturers in finding effective partners to solve pain points, and suppliers to drive industry innovation."
The F&B industry faces multiple challenges as compliance deadlines approach, including:
Significant opportunity for suppliers exists based on helping the industry overcome these challenges. In efforts to spark adoption of these best practices, the Top 25 white paper will be presented at the 2014 Excellence in Best Practices gala in Coronado, Calif., and will include evaluation of suppliers in the following categories:
"We look forward to recognizing the top firms' contributions to a more effective, efficient and compliant industry," said Mr. Rao.
If you are interested in more information on this research, please email Liz Clark, Corporate Communications, at email@example.com with your full contact details, company name and website, city, and country.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.
Our "Growth Partnership" supports clients by addressing these opportunities and incorporating two key elements driving visionary innovation: The Integrated Value Proposition and The Partnership Infrastructure.
For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?
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To access your family account balance - please click on the picture above. If you have problems logging in or your forget your family ID number - please contact the food service department at 308-254-2508
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM Sidney Public Schools participates in the National School Lunch Program. Meals are required to meet specific nutritional guidelines established by the Federal Government. Your child's school day just got healthier! School breakfasts and lunches now include more fruits, vegetables, and whole grain-rich foods: only fat-free or low-fat milk; "right size" meals with portions designed for a child's age; less saturated fat, trans fat and sodium. The changes in school meals, the first in 15 years, are based on the latest nutritional guidelines.
Elementary Breakfast $1.50Elementary Lunch $2.05MS|HS Breakfast $1.70MS |HS Lunch $2.25Adult Breakfast $1.95Adult Lunch $3.25Reduced Breakfast $.30Reduced Lunch $.40Ala Carte items are available at additional charges beyond the price of a meal. Extra entree $1.35Extra dessert, Fruit juice, or bread item $.50Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich $.75Extra milk $.50Although we recommend students use a debit account, all schools can use cash to purchase meals and Ala Carte items. Ala Carte items available and prices
LUNCH ACCOUNTS The district uses a Family Lunch Accounting System where each family has their own account. Lunch accounts are debit accounts; therefore there must be money in the account in order for the student to use it. The district allows the balance to go no lower than a minus ten dollars (-$10.00). The cushion balance between zero and minus ten dollars in intended to allow the students to continue to use the account while money is being deposited into the account. The food service recommends keeping a positive account balance that accommodates your children's particular spending habits. The amount you choose to maintain in your account is a personal choice based on how much monitoring of the account you chose to do, how often you want to write a check, and your child's spending habits. Your student will need permission to charge Ala Carte items - download permission slip here
WEB EMAIL You need to set up an account with us, as simple as calling or filling out a web Email form attachment available HERE If your account is a positive five dollars ($5.00) or less you will receive an update daily, until a balance of $5.00 or more appears in your account. On Fridays, all web Email accounts will get an update to let the families know where they stand for the week. Feel free to call if any changes occure with your Email address after you fill out the form. DEPOSITS Low Balance - If an account is below the debit floor (-$10.00) students are offered a bag lunch in place of purchasing a lunch on the account, or they are welcome to use cash. No breakfasts will be allowed. Once the balance is corrected, the child will be able to resume purchasing items on the account. Low Balance Notification - Low balance reminders for elementary students are printed on yellow sheets of paper and handed out or brought home in the student's Friday folder, when balances are at $10.00 or below. For secondary schools, a yellow sheet of paper is handed out but we feel it should be the student's responsibility to check their account balance and communicate the balance information to their parents or guardian. * Parents are welcome to call our office at any time if you have questions about your account balance or activity. FREE AND REDUCED MEAL PROGRAM Only a regular meal qualifies as a Free & Reduced purchase under the Federal guidelines. You may contact the District Food Service Office at any time during the school year for an application. A NEW application must be completed each school year. You may also download an application HERE . CONFIDENTIALITY: The computer terminals on the serving lines are connected to the computer that knows which students receive free or reduced meals, and this charges the student the appropriate amount. This provides the best confidentiality. WELLNESS AND NUTRITION The board shall promote and monitor a local wellness program. The program shall: 1. Include goals for nutrition education, physical activity, and other school based activities designed to promote student wellness in a manner that the board determines is appropriate; 2. Include nutrition guidelines for all foods available in each school during the school day; the objectives of the guidelines shall be to promote student health and to reduce childhood obesity; 3. Assure that guidelines for the reimbursable school meals shall not be less restrictive than regulations and guidance issued by the Secretary of Agriculture, as those regulations and guidance apply to schools; 4. Establish a plan for measuring implementation of the local wellness policy, including designation of one or more district employees who shall be charged with operational responsibility for ensuring the wellness policy is effectively enforced; and 5. Involve parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, the school board, administrators and the public in the development of the wellness policy. Approved May 8, 2006 File: 508.50CONTACTSFeel free to call with any questions308-254-2508Email Lynn Borwege FSD, via Email Make all checks payable to Sidney Public Schools attn: Food Service 1101 21st AvenueSidney, NE 69162Thank you for your interest in Sidney Public SchoolsSincerely, Lynn BorwegeFood Service DirectorSidney Public Schools


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Seniors Are Saying No to High Tech
Digital communications devices are expensive and not intuitive or welcoming to older users
The digital revolution may be changing the way we live and work. But large numbers of older Americans are not going online, using smartphones, or even participating in the benefits of electronic healthcare tools specifically designed to help them.
The costs of not participating in electronic communications are growing. Government and the private sector are shifting to online tools as their dominant form of public communication. It saves time and money, and provides more responsive public services. But surveys of Internet and technology use show that many, if not most, older consumers are bypassed with online communication.
[See 10 Great Tech Products for Seniors.]
Earlier this year, for example, the U.S. Social Security Administration said it would stop sending paper statements to Americans explaining their Social Security benefits. Instead, such statements would be available online. As part of a broader government policy, Social Security will also be ending paper-based benefit checks by May 2013.
The Social Security Administration says growing use of the Internet will allow it to save money on paper-based statements and still meet public needs. However, while the agency has stopped mailing out its annual statement of benefits, it has yet to begin offering this information online. And an agency spokesman says privacy rules prevent the agency from even measuring how many people visit its website. The agency knows that total page views on the site are rising, the spokesman said, but it is not allowed to collect specifics on how many beneficiaries are actually using the site.
The most probable answer, however, is "not many." According to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, only 42 percent of Americans age 65 and older go online at all. Of these, even smaller percentages use the Internet to research information on specific topics. These numbers are rising, but still are roughly half the level of younger Americans. The Social Security Administration does say it plans to provide paper-based statements to older people, but has not yet spelled out the timing of this effort.
Laurie Orlov is a former Forrester Research analyst who started her own company, Aging in Place Technology Watch, to research and provide consulting advice about seniors and technology. While there have been some gains in technology use by older consumers, price and complexity are barriers to larger gains, as is seniors' comfort with familiar ways of doing things.
[See 5 Ways to Join the Personal Technology Party.]
"People are pretty inflexible" about technology use, she says, "so there's a chance those numbers won't improve much." Is it fair to describe seniors as the lost generation in terms of technology? "I think they are," she says.
Orlov can rattle off an impressive list of the costs to seniors of not being online, from paying extra for airline tickets by using a reservations agent, to missing out on online coupons and other digital bargains, to becoming isolated from grandchildren and other family members who increasingly rely on digital devices to communicate.
Baby boomers, by contrast, are using new technology at rates nearly equal to younger consumers. They are likely to continue such habits as they join the ranks of senior citizens, and it will be this trend that will firmly establish electronic communication and commerce as a senior activity.
For now, Orlov says, she's extremely optimistic that computers and hand-held tablets and other devices will become easier to use and more friendly to inexperienced and older consumers alike.
[See 10 Ways to Get Americans Spending Again.]
Ingenious "apps" and uses for smartphones and other mobile communications devices are driving broad gains in consumer adoption. Orlov thinks the improvements in user interfaces and ease-of-use gains in these mass markets will help all consumers, including seniors. "I think technology is becoming multi-age friendly," she says.
"We're at the beginning of a remarkable time," she says. "It's going to get better because it can. That's the nature of technology."
Orlov has tabulated senior use of new technologies by culling Pew's Internet use surveys. Here are the current use levels, by age, for 11 digital devices and related activities:
|Percentages of Americans Using Digital Technologies
|All Consumers
|Boomers 50-64
|Seniors 65+
|Go online
|Use search engine daily
|Use video sharing site
|Look online for health information
|Use social networking site
|Have a cellphone
|Have a smartphone
|Make Internet calls
|Have an E-reader
|Have a tablet
|Have a mobile health "app"
|Source: Laurie Orlov, Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project
Twitter: @PhilMoeller


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Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Rods
Ask your parents for help making this tasty treat.
- One bag of pretzel rods
- 12-ounce (340-gram) bag semisweet or white chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) butter
- Microwave-safe bowl
- Cookie sheet lined with waxed paper
- Spoon, flat spatula, and table knife
1. Put chocolate chips and butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high for 1 minute, 30 seconds. Stir with spoon. If the chips are not melted, heat for 30 more seconds and stir again.
2. Dip the spatula into the melted chocolate. Roll the pretzel rod in the chocolate on the spatula so it is half-covered. (Melted white chocolate can be a little lumpy, so you may need to smooth it over the pretzel with the knife.)
3. Lay each chocolate-dipped pretzel on the cookie sheet. Let the dipped pretzels sit for 30 minutes before serving. Do not refrigerate.
Text by National Geographic Kids staff
Photograph by Rebecca Hale


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The Dean of Students oversees the Office of Residence Life, Student Activities Office, Office of Multicultural and International Student Services and manages the student conduct process.
The office is located in The Student Life and Technology Center 209. Please contact us at (501) 450-1222 for information, questions, or concerns. Our office hours during the academic year are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Summer hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 pm for the Vice President for Student Affairs / Dean of Students Office.
Jim WiltgenVice-President for Student Affairs / Dean of StudentsSTLC 211(501) 450-1222
De Ann HuettAdministrative AssistantSTLC 209(501) 450-1222


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Fleet Farm not following the pack, sticking with Thanksgiving traditionFargo, ND (WDAY TV) - One big retailer is catching the eyes of consumers this shopping season.
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - One big retailer is catching the eyes of consumers this shopping season.
Mills Fleet Farm says it won't be open on Thursday so can families can enjoy the holiday.
Fleet Farm says it's sticking with tradition, while other big-box stores follow national trends, opening earlier than ever.
This holiday season, Fleet Farm's bringing in a little extra love. Not just for its Black Friday bargains but because of this commercial.
"Mills Fleet Farm is closed Thanksgiving, so our employees and customers can spend the entire day celebrating with family and friends."
Marketing experts say this hard-hitting approach tugs on consumer's heartstrings by showing it's not profit-driven.
Brian Meckler, Absolute Marketing Group: "It's creating more of an emotional connection with consumers versus who has the cheapest this or that."
This marketing ploy comes as big-box stores face protests, pledges against them, and petitions. One Target employee got nearly 500,000 signatures -- asking the retailer to push back early Black Friday hours.
Tim Curoe, Target VP of Human Resources: "Our team members are supportive of our plans. They appreciate and understand they can pick up additional hours."
Marketing Experts say Fleet Farm's timely, attention-grabbing ad is a good strategy.
Meckler: "Maybe they don't get much Black Friday business in the first place."
Experts say this ad has potential to bring in big bucks from the sales on these stocked shelves, the day after Thanksgiving that is.
Fleet Farm opens on Friday morning at 6. While Walmart opens at 8 and Target opens at 9 on Thanksgiving night.
Tags: news, money, business, fargo, updates


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The teacher resources in this collection raise student awareness of the problems facing children with inadequate access to clean water. The PK-2 Water and Sanitation unit has been featured in an article in Social Studies and the Young Learner, published by the National Council for the Social Studies.
Water and Environment
Download PDF of Unit & Lesson Plans:
No units available for this topic.
This youth generated video highlights the issue of water conservation.
- 9-12
- 6-8
- 3-5
Alizeta Ouedraogo is a 16-year-old girl from Burkina Faso. This first-hand...
- 9-12
- 6-8
Community leaders in Mozambique educating their peers about the importance...
- 9-12
Every child deserves the right to clean water and sanitation. In the occupi...
- 9-12
Learn about Doly, a teenager from Bangladesh who teaches her community abou...
- 9-12
- 6-8
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I'm working on a movie clip, I'm following lesson 13-4 from the PPro classroom in a book, and I want to use the chroma key to key out the sky in the sequence and superimpose an alien sky onto this clip. I've got a still image of an alien sky.
Here's what I did so far: I moved the video clip from Video 1 up to video 3 and the still image to video 1. Currently I'm trying the drag the Chroma Key from the Effects panel onto one of the video tracks as indicated in the lesson, but I keep getting a symbol that is a circle with a slash through it as I try to drag the chroma key onto one of the video tracks.
I'm a bit confused as to where exactly do I place this chroma key in order to key out the sky at this point - in the video 1, video 2 or video 3 tracks and do I place it before the clip starts or after the clip ends?
How can I drag the chroma key onto the appropriate track without getting this "no" symbol?
Also, I'm a bit confused by the instructions from this lesson - first it says to drag the the photos onto the video 1 and the video 2 tracks (but currently I'm working with only 1 photo at this point) and then it says to place the photos after the clip you worked on earlier - what exactly does this mean?
Thanks in advance.
I only use cs3 and dont have that lesson you are following. but typically you drag the effects on top of the video you want that effect to work on. So you dont drop it before or after the clip but right on top of the clip... the no symbol should disappear when over the clip.
good luck !
Dont drag the effect onto the track, but drag it onto the clip you want to key.
Track one is for your alien sky
Track two is for the video that has been keyed.
Actually what I'm trying to do in this project is, I have a motion clip of a road scene of a bus carrying people, as the bus moves from the R-side of the view monitor to the L-side, it gradually grows larger during its motion across the scene, and what I want to do is cut this moving bus out of the original scene and add it as an overlay to the alien sky photo so that when I play the clip, it looks like the bus is traveling thru outer space near an alien planet. For the past several hrs I tried in vain to use the chroma keys (although I did locate the Effects Controls Menu and has successfully added a Chroma Key to the original scene), then a Green Key to the scene, but this did not isolate only the bus, so I exited PPro without saving, reopened PPro, and this time (sort of discovered this by accident in my PPro v2 Classroom in a Book) I used a 16-pt Garbage Matte Key to isolate the bus, but when I play the sequence, the bus grows underneath the hole that I cut (or under the hole in the black mask) out as it moves from the R-side of the view monitor to the L of the view monitor, this hole in the black matte remains stationary, stays the same size, not changing/adjusting according to the movement of the bus.
How do cut out the bus (which I thought I did when isolating it with the garbage matte) and overlay (composition) it on top of the photo of the alien sky so that the bus looks like its traveling across this alien sky?
Did you animate the Garbage Matte over time?
what youre trying to do is why people shoot stuff with green screen and blue screen etc ( chroma key ) ...where the background becomes transparent and you can drop in whatever you want in its place. Since you didnt do that with the bus, and have a 'sky' the chroma key filter is not seeing one "field " of color to make it transparent...like basically eliminate it.
sooo, if you try to use the chroma key to block out that background you'll also get other tonal ranges and colors elminated in your image you want un-affected ( the bus moving etc and not just the " sky " ).
Sooo, unfortunately thats your first problem and is hard if not impossible to do.
secondly, using a matte ( as ann pointed out ) you would need to animate it frame by frame to keep up with the bus you want to preserve. In other words, you'd need to draw a section of the image you want to eliminate ( or save ...is same thing but just opposite ) ..and animate it to follow the "action".
It's really tedious and hard to do cause you have to deal with so many frames of " change " if you matte it out...and animate the matte.
The program will do a lot of tricky stuff to tween the frames as best it can, but in the long run you really should shoot stuff without having to spend all that time ( frame by frame ) rotoscoping the thing....blocking out what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.
However, people do tend to give you a lot of leeway in their minds about what is " believable " when it comes to a bus going to another planet... so if you animate the matte like Ann suggested, it might work out OK ! How cool it THAT ? !
Thanks. These dsys, I'm involved in learning modeling (scene/character modeling) in 3DS max (got the 2011 version), it runs on my Dell M1530 laptop that has XP (32-bit) as its only OS), got the first of 2 3DS max modeling boks that I've ordered online that pertain to movie prodeuction, the first book is 3DS max 6 animation and visual effects techniques, (this came in the mail the other day) and the other 3DS max 6 book is "3DS max 6 animation: CG Filmmaking from Concept to (Consumer)" (am still waiting for the arrival of this 2nd book in the mail) and someone on another form told me that these books will still work for me even though they're both old and outdated.
So what I'm asking basically is, once I have all of my scenes and characters modeled using 3DS max, will I be able to put the film (movie) together and burn it to DVD (along with scene/chapter menus like the way the DVD movies that you buy in stores such as Barnes & Noble or Fye has 'em) using my copy PPro v2 and Encore v2/CS2?
And will I be able to use my copy of Audition v2/CS2 to manipulate the speech files that I'm planning to create using my copy of Text-To-Wav software (its where you can manually type in what you want a movie character to say on sort of a wordpad-like interface) and you can save this as a *.wav (sound) file that will play back the audible speech exactly the way it was typed into the interface when you open it in say a video/audio player such as VLC media player so that I can make the *.wav file play back as a woman's or man's voice, or a child's voice, or whater/who-ever's voice I want this particular *.wav file to sound like when played back as an audio file?
sounds like fun, doing the 3d stuff etc..lots to learn.
I only have cs3 so dont know about version 2 and what you can or can't do. A lot of people here will probably remember that version though, and help you more.
Also, I have maya and only use that ( and don't use it that much at all because like you I am learning how to use it and it is complicated for my snail - like brain ).
However, in terms of general work flows maybe I can mention a few things that will help.. and just remember I'm talking about maya and cs3.
I also have windows xp and mousey computer, so I can really only work with SD movies. HD makes my computer gasp for breath.
So I set up my projects in maya with the idea that in the end I will export it for SD to go into cs3 with that...
Consequently I have several options on the exports from maya...
a) numbered still images
b) avi movie
I have found that the numbered still images are nice to work with in cs3.
So I set up the project in cs3 for export to SD, which means even though I'm using numbered stills from maya ( with alpha channel ) I set up my project as SD NTSC 720x480 and choose par to suit my 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio ( usually I use 16:9 with par of 1.2 ).
Then I also choose a video renderer in new project that matches what I'm going to export more or less ( usually lagarith avi ).
In CS3 the alpha channel comes in with the numbered stills and that is where I drop in whatever background images or stuff I want to add ( like what you were saying about using chroma key to make a new sky ... the alpha channel is transparent, so you just add that sky without chroma key necessary ).
wav files are nice to work with in CS3 and I've never had any problems with them.
hope some of this helps and good luck and have fun !
able123 wrote:
I also have windows xp and mousey computer, so I can really only work with SD movies. HD makes my computer gasp for breath.
So I set up my projects in maya with the idea that in the end I will export it for SD to go into cs3 with that...
Consequently I have several options on the exports from maya...
a) numbered still images
b) avi movie
I'm not planning on working on HD movies, either, Able, I'm thinking that after all my scenery/characters are made in 3DS max I'll probably want to export it as avi movie, since my copy of PPro is definately able to import avi movies (I've even tried this using Streamclip on these *.vob files I mentioned a while back, and I was successful in bringing the movie into PPro in this way). Anyway, so far, I've got a copy of this book, "3DS max 6 animation and visual effects techniques" (with accompanying CD), and am waiting for the arrival of a second 3DS max 6 book in the field of filmmaking, this is "3DS max 6 animation: CG filmmaking from concept to completion (consumer)" and as far as I know (saw the table of contents of both books from the previews on the seller's websites) both of these books (although old and outdated) take you by the hand and show you how to do things when it comes to making movies.
Regarding your mention of CS3, which Adobe product are you talking about - I'm a bit confused?
premiere pro cs3 editing program
I dont have your version


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April 29th, 2013
Editor's note: Victor Basta is the MD of Magister Advisors, an M&A advisory firm to the technology industry. The firm has worked on 16 transactions since it was founded three years ago, including the sale of C3 to Apple for $250 million and LoveFILM's $320m exit to Amazon. Below is his view on Apple's future.
After last week's earnings, it is even clearer that Apple is not the company you think it is. Its future value will not be as a hardware designer and innovator. It will more likely be as a great software and services business, underpinned by the everyday actions of the hundreds of millions of credit card-enabled users subscribed to the iTunes store.
The iTunes store is now ten. But read the newspapers and you'll find nearly zero references to iTunes, despite it being core to Apple's future.
All the talk last week was about hardware and the battle with Samsung. This is the "last war." Even if Apple steps forward with its "best ever" device in the autumn, how many days before Samsung responds with a better product? Apple can no longer become the first $1 trillion company by simply making better mousetraps.
Apple executives are clearly frustrated by this constant device focus. Tim Cook, on the earnings call, audibly emphasized "SERVICES" as much as he felt he could. Apple's next products only need to be "very good"' to keep consumers loyal and spending money on software and content. Keep it that way and the Apple profit machine will march on, though not without strategic threat.
Amazon, rapidly building its capabilities as a device-assisted ecosystem of credit card-enabled users, is Apple's new major competitor. A string of acquisitions leaves little question that Amazon will offer new digital devices and services. In recent years Amazon has quietly acquired SnapTell, an image matching startup; IVONA Software, a text to speech service; Yap, a voice to text startup; Touchco, a specialist in touch screen technology; and Evi, a Siri-style mobile app that turns phones into mobile assistants.
Amazon clearly has broad aspirations to be a key mobile player, which puts it on a collision course with Apple. Amazon has a huge ecosystem of credit-card-enabled users, great devices to download content, a huge trove of valuable content behind the devices, and a world-class buying experience that other retailers try to copy. Apple will face bigger challenges from Amazon than anything it is seeing from Samsung.
This is a two horse race. Neither Google, Facebook, Samsung, Nokia nor Microsoft have this combination of great consumer service and software nor a huge credit-card payment base. Amazon though, importantly, is not hamstrung by legacy or expectation.
Amazon has another emergent advantage. The Kindle, which Amazon astutely sells at a loss, is now owned by tens of millions of customers. They use their Kindles to buy from the Amazon store. This is exactly the same as Apple's model, yet arguably the model is better.
Amazon currently gets a fraction of the attention that Apple gets. Yet there is a no doubt that it is fiercely competitive. Many great retailers have already been "Amazoned" by the online book-seller from Seattle. It leaves us wondering, if Apple and Amazon's strategies are heading in the same direction, albeit from different starting points, is even the mighty Apple at risk from this relatively quiet achiever?
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I would like to have one HUGE poster with Aloha pic on it....aaaaahhhhhhh....
-'Santa, Santa'.....I'll be a good girl
What kind of elvis stuff do you want for christmas??
I want to get some ablums and more movies. I would also like to get a t-shirt or something with elvis on it.
I would like to have one HUGE poster with Aloha pic on it....aaaaahhhhhhh....
-'Santa, Santa'.....I'll be a good girl
Only cd's and a few dvd's. Absolutely nothing else
There's a couple of CDs I have my eye on.
I'd like some Elvis books this Xmas..Elvis sessions III and the concert years book
"How do I get placed in situations like this? Ah hell, I guess it's all part of showbusiness "~ Elvis in his limo on his way to perform in Omaha, NE on June 19th 1977
I have been awfuly good this year.a trip to Graceland would be nice...(I wish).lol
My daughter only said today..Dad you are so hard to buy for.i said "why" she said cos you have already got everything that we can find on ELVIS...lol
more ELVIS shirts would be nice...you can never have too many of those..pleaseeee santa !!!
Great post Jen....nice and Christmassy
Rosanne 4/27/59-7/22/09 Rest in Peace
My Radio shows every Thursday and Sunday at 7pm UK time
Yeah I need a new t-shirt, that would be nice. My 'ol Sun Records shirt's about worn out..I use to have an awesome blue shirt that had a photo from somtime mid '75 with Elvis wearing the Black Phoenix suite..but after years of wearing it, I had to do away with it..
"How do I get placed in situations like this? Ah hell, I guess it's all part of showbusiness "~ Elvis in his limo on his way to perform in Omaha, NE on June 19th 1977
In all honesty, i want Elvis But that aint gona happen anytime soon.
So...I want some new CD's to update my collection.
I wouldn't mind Memories of the 68 comeback :
Elvis Presley, Live in Las Vegas :
Elvis Close up :
But what i really want and need, is money for driving lessons as i start next month
Ladies, He's mine
a few more cd's from concerts would be good....
could always use a few more tshirts - I've only got 4 so far....
I have my eye on a poster that I had as a child - it's from 1976 and I found it on ebay...hoping to buy that.....
Anything Elvis!!!!
wow some great stuff here.
I want an Ipod Classic..
I have Itunes but no Ipod.. I just keep burning a new CD everytime I want to hear different Elvis songs in the car. Once I have the Ipod I can have EVERYTHING from my Itunes on hand all the time.
I also want an Elvis cover for my Ipod of course.
"before you abuse, criticise and accuse... walk a mile in my shoes"
i want a that's the way it is 2 disc this xmas co'z its not available here in the philippines. i wish santa granted my wishes.
The LSP-1254 disc. I want that 56 record...
Let the stars fade and fall, and I won't care at all, as long as I have you.
"You've got it all together like a lovin' machine
You're lookin' like glory and walkin' like a dream...
Mother nature's sure been good to Y-O-U"
I want to make my collection completer,so albums are welcome
I'd like to go to Graceland
I never know what my kids might have in their minds.
They seem to keep me supplied with all Elvis things.
I'll leave it up to them. All gifts much appreciated.
"I have learned never to ridicule any man's opinion, however strange it may seem."
Hehe, I'll be the happiest girl in the village if I just get anything with ELVIS on it, in it, under it,....
Can be a CD, DVD, Poster or anything else....hope santa is reading this lol


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District Judge Michael Gibbons ruled Monday that disbarred attorney and convicted stalker Michael Meisler is competent to stand trial and defend himself on similar charges in Douglas County.
Gibbons issued the ruling after he received an evaluation of the 61-year-old suspect from two psychologists at the Lakes Crossing Center for the Mentally Disordered Offender where Meisler spent 38 days undergoing testing.
"The court finds he understands the charges," Gibbons said. "With his background as a lawyer, he has the knowledge to be able to represent himself."
Gibbons set a date of Jan. 15 for a four-day trial.
Meisler continued to …


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Please enter your travel dates.
Standard Room
- 2 double
Deluxe Room, 2 Double Beds
- Two Double Beds
Deluxe Room, 1 King Bed
The Woodlands, TX resort with water park and golf
Located in The Woodlands, The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center is on a lake, minutes from The Woodlands Golf Resort, and close to Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
This family-friendly resort is within close proximity of Market Street and Woodlands Mall.
Make yourself at home in one of the 440 air-conditioned rooms featuring flat-screen televisions. Digital programming provides entertainment, and wired and wireless Internet access is available for a surcharge. Private bathrooms have designer toiletries and complimentary toiletries. Conveniences include phones, as well as desks and coffee/tea makers.
Pamper yourself with a visit to the spa, which offers massages, body treatments, and facials. After practicing your swing on the golf course, you can dip into one of the 5 outdoor swimming pools. Additional features include wireless Internet access (surcharge), babysitting/childcare (surcharge), and an arcade/game room. Getting to nearby attractions is a breeze with the complimentary area shuttle that operates within 5 mi.
Grab a bite at one of the resort's 3 restaurants, or stay in and take advantage of room service (during limited hours). Relax with your favorite drink at a bar/lounge or a poolside bar. Breakfast is available for a fee.
Featured amenities include high-speed (wired) Internet access (surcharge), a business center, and audiovisual equipment. Event facilities at this resort consist of a conference center, conference/meeting rooms, and small meeting rooms. A roundtrip airport shuttle is provided for a surcharge (available on request), and free self parking is available onsite.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
- General
The Woodlands Resort is embarking on an exciting 60-million-dollar expansion and renovation of the property, a project that will add a new guest room wing, a 1,000-foot lazy river, and a new restaurant while updating the resort's 60,000-square-foot conference center.
The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center has a water park, 5 outdoor pools with sun loungers, and 2 championship golf courses. The 21 on-site tennis courts offer indoor and outdoor play. This resort has a full-service spa offering steam rooms, saunas, and a range of treatments. Fitness equipment is available on site and a range of water sports are available nearby including fishing, kayaking, rowing, canoeing, and water skiing.
This resort in The Woodlands offers 33 meeting rooms, for a total of 60,000 square feet of meeting space. ATM/banking, luggage storage, a business center and services are on site, and wireless Internet access is available (surcharge applies). The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center features a restaurant, a poolside café, and a lobby bar; room service is available during limited hours. In addition to free parking, a complimentary area shuttle (advanced notice required) can take guests to attractions like the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Market Street, or any other area within 5 miles. Childcare for a surcharge, tour assistance, and a concierge desk are also available.
- Sauna
- Massage - spa treatment room(s)
- Health club
- Wireless Internet access - surcharge
- Wired (high-speed) Internet access - surcharge
- Dial-up Internet access - surcharge
- Outdoor parking (surcharge)
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Swimming pool - children's
- Full-service health spa
- Steam room
- Bar/lounge
- Room service (limited hours)
- Multiple large conference rooms
- Event catering
- Multiple small meeting rooms
- Exhibit space
- Banquet facilities
- Ballroom(s)
- Audiovisual equipment
- Total number of rooms - 440
- 24-hour front desk
- Porter/bellhop
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Number of floors -
- ATM/banking
- Tour assistance
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Patio
- Pool table
- Arcade/game room
- Air-conditioned public areas
- Meeting facilities size (feet) - 60000
- Valet parking (surcharge)
- Golf course on site
- Tennis on site
- Business center
- Business services
- Wedding services
- Free self parking
- Luggage storage
- Pool sun loungers
- Free outdoor parking
- Area shuttle (complimentary)
- Airport transportation (surcharge)
- Beauty services
- Billiards
- Breakfast available (surcharge) full
- Clubhouse
- Complimentary newspapers in lobby
- Concierge desk
- Doorman/doorwoman
- Elevator/lift
- Technology support staff
- Designated smoking areas
- Beach/pool umbrellas
- Billiards or pool table
- Waterslide
- Water park
- Number of outdoor pools - 5
- Multilingual staff
- Poolside bar
- Number of meeting/conference rooms - 33
- Number of restaurants - 3
- Conference center
- Indoor tennis courts - 4
- Outdoor tennis courts 10
- Year Built 1974
- Security guard
- Spa services on site
- Spa tub
- Swimming pool - outdoor seasonal
- Television in lobby
- Internet
Available in all rooms: Wireless Internet access (surcharge), Wired high-speed Internet access (surcharge)
Available in some public areas: Wireless Internet access - surcharge, Wired (high-speed) Internet access - surcharge
- Parking
Free outdoor parking, Outdoor parking (surcharge), Free self parking, Valet parking (surcharge)
- Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Climate control
- Premium TV channels
- Coffee/tea maker
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Cribs/infant beds available
- Premium bedding
- Phone
- Microwave (on request)
- Refrigerator (on request)
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- Designer toiletries
- Bathrobes
- Complimentary toiletries
- Desk
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Digital TV service
- Flat-panel TV
- Wireless Internet access (surcharge)
- Wired high-speed Internet access (surcharge)
- Dial-up Internet access (surcharge)
- Dining
The Woodlands Dining Room - Offering buffet dining and show kitchen preparation. Serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch.
Cool Water Cafe - Serving burgers, sandwiches, salads, and smoothies. Located next to the Forest Oasis Waterscape. Open seasonally for lunch and dinner.
Lobby Bar - Open evenings. Includes an outdoor deck, a big-screen TV, and a game room with pool tables and shuffleboard.
Room Service - Available during limited hours.
- Recreation
The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center has two championship golf courses, Panther Trail and The Oaks Course. Golf instruction and classes are available on site. The property includes 21 tennis courses, with 10 clay courts, four indoor courts, and seven outdoor hard courts. The tennis pro shop offers equipment, and tennis professionals are available for instruction. The fitness center offers cardio and strength-training equipment; personal training is available upon request.
The Forest Oasis Waterscape features a children's area with a zero grade-entry pool, a relaxing lagoon pool with a ten-foot water wall, intertwined twin racing slides, water volleyball and basketball, and a 30-foot forest tower with an underwater marine mural.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or nearby; fees may apply.
- Dock nearby
- Rowing or canoeing nearby
- Kayaking nearby
- Sailing nearby
- Water skiing nearby
- Fishing nearby
- Boat launch nearby
- Motor boating nearby
- Personal motorized watercraft nearby
- Boat tours nearby
- Tennis on site
- Pilates classes/instruction nearby
- Yoga classes/instruction nearby
- Aerobics nearby
- Volleyball nearby
- Racquetball/squash nearby
- Basketball nearby
- Horse riding/rental nearby
- Tennis lessons on site
- Bicycle rentals on site
- Golf - driving range on site
- Golf lessons on site
- Golfing on site
- Hiking/biking trails on site
- Running track/path on site
- Shuffleboard on site
- Swimming on site
- Bird watching nearby
- Playground nearby
- Bowling alley nearby
- Spa
The Spa at The Woodlands Resort features separate men's and women's areas with spa tubs, saunas, and eucalyptus steam rooms, as well as offering couples treatment rooms. The menu of services includes massage, wraps and scrubs, facials, beauty services, aromatherapy, manicures, and pedicures. Guests under 16 are not permitted.
- Number of treatment rooms 6
- Couples treatment rooms
- Minimum age to access spa is 16
- Manicures and pedicures
- Body wraps
- Body scrubs
- Aromatherapy treatments
- Hydrotherapy treatments
- Sauna in spa
- Spa tub in spa
- Massages
- Body treatments
- Facial treatments
- Accessibility
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the "Special or Accessibility Requests" section of "Trip Preferences" when you book your hotel.
- Accessible path of travel
- Accessible bathroom
- Roll-in shower
- Accessible parking
- In-room accessibility
- Accessibility equipment for the deaf
- Braille or raised signage
Policies & Fees
- Check-in
Check-in time starts at 4 PM
Minimum check-in age is 21
- Check-out
Check-out time is noon
- Payment types
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
- General
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Fees
- Unless otherwise indicated, the charges below are not included in the overall room price. If not included in the overall room price, they will be charged by the property at check-in or check-out. Charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book. This property told us they will charge you for the following:
Hotel resort fee inclusions (may be listed elsewhere in this description as complimentary or available for a surcharge):
- Resort fee (May - August): USD 20.00 per accommodation, per night in summer
We have included all charges provided to us by the property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
- Spa access (may be limited)
- Spa tub access
- Fitness center access
- Sporting facilities or equipment
- Internet access (may be limited)
- Self parking
- Additional inclusions
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: USD 14.95 (for 24 hours, rates may vary)
- Fee for wireless Internet in public areas: USD 14.95 (for 24 hours, rates may vary)
- Airport shuttle fee: USD 49 per person (one way)
- Valet parking fee: USD 10.00 per stay
- Late check-out fee: USD 50.00
- Rollaway bed fee: USD 25.00 per night
- Additional Details
Reservations are required for golf tee times, massage services, and spa treatments. Reservations can be made by contacting the resort prior to arrival, using the contact information on the booking confirmation. Some facilities may have restricted access. Guests can contact the property for details using the contact information on the booking confirmation.


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