text:
We asked and you responded. On Tuesday, August 12th, WWE Network launched in Canada through Rogers. By any comparison, it's a significantly different deal than what the United States has for its $9.99 price (in case you hadn't heard). It's the early days, but here is what some of you are thinking, er, ranting.
Cameron Davidson: In all fairness to WWE Network, for the first month or so that America had theirs, they had similar issues and only a small fraction of content. One day, the whole catalog showed up, and voila. All was forgiven. Like everything else, the glitches have to be worked out. My only fear here is that in the constant attention to marketing the American version of the product, everyone else will take a back seat.
Martin Rioux: While I understand that this version of the WWE network is just a preview until Rogers find a way to get their licence for the network. I still think it suck that most of Canada are not even able to get access to the network until Rogers get their licence from the CRTC and are able to make deals with the other cable distributors. I was happy to learn that the WWE network was coming on cable which meant that I didn't have to buy another device to watch the network on my TV. So I hope, when the network finally makes it to Montreal, I hope you get a better version when they finally get their licence.
Rene Collette: I'm not ordering because i'm not a Rogers Customer and if I want to be it's over roughly $80 a month because you need to purchase the basic package plus you gotta rent your receiver goes from 7 to 15 $ per month then $11.99 for the network plus taxes. It's no longer the $9.99 they are promoting. I already pay $150 with Bell ... Our local radio station has a hour call in show to get the people opinions on what they have on their minds and once they had a show of callers full of complaints against Rogers and their bad customer service and their bad business practices hopefully the network will be available or Shaw direct or even better wwe.com
Paul Maes: I have been a reader of SLAM! Wrestling since 1998 & love the articles & PPV predictions/results that are posted on the website. Yesterday, I ordered WWE Net Pack from Rogers and I knew when it was listed on channel 512 that the network would not be like the US "Netflix" style WWE Network and I also knew, being on TV, that the On Demand selection would be minimal. I am not disappointed, how can anyone be disappointed paying $11.99 for a PPV and saving $40 - $50 a month.
As the WWE has been non-stop promoting the Network for the last couple months, I knew it was too good to be true. I was disappointed that when promoting the network, it was never mentioned that it's only available in the U.S..
I know there will be a lot of disappointed fans about the network, I am not one of them, as I expected that Canada was not going to receive the full content network. I can see if a fan was expecting a Netflix style WWE Network, that 1 channel with limited On Demand content is disappointing. Us Canadians should be happy that WWE expanded internationally only 6 months after the initial launch.
Keep up the good work & articles.
Glen G: I live in Canada and plan to order the WWE Network because for $12/month, I think that is an excellent deal if for nothing else but the PPVs. I do have a few issues with it though. The $12/month is a "preview" price, so what will the price be after the preview period? Also, I was scanning through the schedule on channel 512. I noticed there is no set time table for when most shows are on. It makes it hard to set up a PVR timer for a particular show you might like to record on a regular basis.
Blair Burch: Well, you asked for our thoughts, so here's mine. The second the WWE Network launched I stopped buying WWE PPVs (not that I buy many any more with the state of the current product). I simply refused to pay $50 bucks, while people I can see out my window (I live in a border town) pay $10 for the PPV plus the goodies I really want access to, the back catalog. The offering we get is a sad joke. It's charging more money still at 12 bucks a month then the full services 10 bucks a month while providing what a amounts to an insulting cop-out. Of course, the fact that I live in the town I do means that's not even an option because I couldn't switch to Rogers if I wanted to. They simply do not exist in our area.
The second I have access to the real WWE Network without having to do any quasi-legal finagling I will subscribe. I want that back catalog of old WCW and ECW shows. As long as they continue to insult us and treat us as second class citizens to the rest of the world though, I will not give another dime to the WWE for any product what so ever. This current roll-out is simply nothing more than an insult.
Chris Andrews: It's pretty bad that it took the WWE this long to finally bring the WWE Network to Canada considering we are their next door neighbours. Then to add insult to injury they give us some watered down version of it and still charging $11.99? How pathetic on their part. Pull up your socks WWE!! No wonder their network is failing.
Jeffrey Fleming: Very disappointed.. Rogers isn't available in my area, besides, I'm not going to abandon Shaw. They have been nothing but great. I guess WWE won't be getting my money.
Dave: I spoke with Rogers yesterday night about the 2 week free trial that SLAM! had on it's news article, and Rogers indicated to me they are not offering a 2 week free trial. In order to get the channel you have to buy it.
Jeremy Jagusch: I don't have the network but was waiting to see what the overall reaction was first. Thanks very much for posting that article. Unfortunately its clearly as bad as I feared. Thanks for the warning though!!
Ashley Tucker: I am a Roger's customer a previous editorial on your website stated that the WWE network on Rogers would be offered as a 2 week free preview to Canadians who have Rogers Cable. However that was a lie by them I returned home and turned on channel 512 and the other 3 channels had the same message but all I got was a screen with a phone # on it to call and subscribe to the WWE Network. I like most Canadians deserve a break and should be able to access the online format for the network like all the USA has and the rest of the world.
I am not thrilled that the WWE Network is lacking in content from what I am hearing and reading. On the WWE Network Facebook page it seems that the representatives at the WWE Network support are giving the same answers to everyone and no one is too happy with this -- I being one of them. I was looking forward to seeing the network as I have been waiting 6 months for this day to come here in Canada.
I hope Rogers realizes the error that they just made with this and corrects it for all of us Canadians and also does distribute the network to all Canadians who have other service providers.
Mathieu Lavigne: Couple of thoughts on the Network:
I have been using it since February, taking a fake U.S. address (a Walmart superstore in Florida) and my regular Canadian VISA credit card. With the exchange rate, it amounts to 10.19 CND$
I use Hola Unblocker (free) on Firefox and Google Chrome, connecting for free with a U.S. server and connecting a laptop on my HDTV. It works perfectly.
I have absolutely NO INTENTION of using the Canadian version. I think it is an absolute fraud that Rogers took it for 10 years. Canada is already 10 years late in most technologies and fees associated to technology usage. Think internet speed, cell phone services and cable technologies for instances and compare with Spain, U.S., UK or Japan.
Canada seems like the retarded little brother that you have to wheel everywhere compared to these 170 countries, including Communist China (!!!), Taiwan, India, Norway, France, Mexico, Belgium, Brazil and so many others who probably laugh at us for letting a company like Rogers forbidding us to touch an internet technology... in 2014.
I have been complaining to Videotron in Montreal who don't seem eager at all to offer the channel (I can't call it a Network, it's a channel!). At the very least, they will do it after they can generate the PPV revenues for SummerSlam. I'm expecting a callback from them.
I also created a fake Playstation ID to download the Network on PSN and using a manual DNS address (free and legal, see YouTube), but the Network doens't work at all since February, except, weirdly, for the Vault section.
The internet version is an absolute steal and SO easy to use (and free) with Hola Unblocker, I do not understand at all why people don't do it? At $10.19 for all PPVs, I already feel like a thief. Since I pay, I am a paying customer who "happens" to use the US version. Canada was ripped off by Rogers. On her Facebook, Trish Stratus said "Hey guys, are my Canada peeps watching WWE Network today? Here's a handy dandy guide to finding stratusfaction"... to which people were answering: none, don't have Rogers, no Trish match available, is your match 0025 or 0056, no Network, Rogers doesn't have a signal here, Canada is getting the shit end of the stick, with no archival footage to boot. Thanks Vince... etc etc.
Hope this helps. I really think we got it bad. I don't understand how companies then go out and say pirating is bad, when the biggest reason why people do it is because these same companies make unavailable the stuff we want to pay for. Idiots!
James Sherman: I called it right when they announced that they were bringing it to Canada, that it was going to be a scammed, cut back version. It's classic WWE and Rogers - ALL hype, very little substance, pure cash grab. Vince and Rogers Co are both stuck behind even the record companies with how archaic there thinking is. Vince seems to think that people will grovel for scraps of what Americans get plenty of. And Rogers is just in it as a cash grab, trying to lock everyone else out and force them to pay more for the service for far less content, because you can't get it anywhere else.
Doug Proctor: I have been waiting for WWEnetwork since launch day. Every other country of the 170 available can jave the full network. But us Canadians get shafted. I wonder if Bret Hart likes the 36 hours of on demand service. LOL what a joke. Also like 20 percent of Canadians can get Rogers Cable. So once again I wait to see if I can ever get the WWE network.
Signed, 30 year fan who might never watch again
Marcel Beaudoin: Hmmm, I can pay $12 a month for an anemic set of offerings from the WWE Network, or I can pay $12 a month to the WWE Network, plus an
additional $5 to UnblockUS and get complete access to the entire WWE Network catalogue. Not a hard choice to make. Picking what I want to watch, OTOH, is a bit harder.
Al Stronstad: I live in Winnipeg and there are only two providers here, neither of them has any intentions of carrying the WWE Network at this time or in the near future as Rogers has exclusive rights in Canada, they would have to negociate a price with Rogers. Also how can the network (WWE) still advertise the price at $9.99 everywhere?
Jamie MacKay: I've been accessing the WWE Network via a VPN service since launch day back in February. I love it. I was looking forward to the Canadian launch so I could go legit. When I heard the details on the deal with Rogers, I quite quickly decided to maintain the status quo and keep faking a residency in Massachusetts. I'm not sure how WWE managed to negotiate such a ludicrous deal with Rogers, but Rogers is only available to about 20% of the country. Rogers is not available where I live (rural PEI), and a quick call to my satellite provider (Shaw Direct) let me know that they have no immediate plans to air the network. Apparently Rogers now controls all PPV distribution as well, so they could theoretically pull all WWE PPVs from any service provider that won't play ball with them. They could leave 80% of the country with no (legit) way to watch WWE on PPV. So I guess it's a VPN or nothing for this wrestling fan.
Chris Coady: I can�t get Rogers in Arnprior, Ontario. I have only Bell or SHAW and would gladly pay double or triple for the WWE NETWORK like they have in the States. Terrible, WWE Dropped the Ball with Rogers. Just Awful
B. Metcalfe: My only interest now is in old WWWF material from the 60s and 70s. They don't have it, I won't buy it!
Matthew Zawada: I'm living in Truro,nova.scotia. and I have contacted both Eastlink and Bell Aliant and both told me they have no information about the WWE Network. This is unacceptable. I understand the deal Rogers has with the NHL because they will broadcast over their already existing Sportsnet channels that are available across Canada. But to monopolize the WWE Network to one service provider, especially one that has limited coverage (not even avalaible here in Nova Scotia) and then to offer a half-assed version with worthless content for $11.99 a month is the biggest fail the WWE could have made. They have managed in 24 hours to piss off not only the 80% of Canadians that don't have access to Rogers, but even the 20% who do by offering a watered down version of the Network. Whoever was responsible for this deal needs to be fired because clearly they have NO &$#@* IDEA what they are doing over there. Guess all the recent cutbacks the WWE has been making has been to all their competent staff. #wweepicfail #wwenetworkcanadafail #rogersfail #YOU'REFIRREEDDD (Vince McMahon)
Rusty Martel: The WWE "Network" launch in Canada is a dismal failure. It's a stripped down, bastardized version of the American network. I was looking forward to a Netflix style experience of WWE content along with live feeds of shows and PPVs, instead we get essentially a WWE TV channel, with a (very) limited backlog of content. If I wanted to watch WWE on TV, I'd still have my Bell satellite. I was looking forward to an on the go, internet driven, streaming product. I'm sure someone is happy about the arrangement (*cough* Rogers), but not Canadians, and I'm surprised that even WWE would be happy. Canada has always been a huge supporter of WWE content from large main events to local shows, to viewership. Yet when it comes to treatment, we're overlooked, scorned, and forgotten. I, for one, take this as a slap in the face, and have no problem stopping my PPV support. Not only does the WWE not deserve it, but I don't think I could stomach listening to Michael Cole spout out the virtues of the WWE Network for two hours.
adamlee007: As a kid I used to struggle to stay up late...We did not have Cablevision. I used to adjust my tube TV with rabbit ears so I could tune into WWF/WWE. There was Ricky the Dragon... Macho Man...The British Bulldogs... Jessie the Body... Over the years I faded away from Wrestling...then I came back to it...The VERY first thing I saw was D-Generation X in the ring with supersoakers spraying the crowd from their groins...It was the nineties, and the Rock, Stone Cold, Mankind, RVD, Shane and Vince has me in tears, funny and great matches. Now the WWE is terrible, for the last two years I have ordered Wrestlemania just for fun. No matches made me standup...except The Undertaker's streak coming to an end (which I think was a mistake). I was excited for the WWE Network... Now the day is here! I grabbed my credit card! Classic WWF...ECW...oh my! Now it seems I have to be a Rogers subscriber... but I live in BC... Rogers doesn't offer TV out here... For a company that just laid off employees and wrestlers...this seems a bad move... Now I also hear the content is terrible! I was going the setup my PS3 with an American account, but I have decided to NOT give the WWE my money. I will get my old school fix from other outlets. Suck It Vince... The Canadian Screw Job Part 2....Eh
Adam Lane: The release of the WWE Network has been anticipated by me and many of my friends for months. It was supposed to be such a great deal and we all agreed to support this awesome content. I've been a fan for 30 years. We all feel like the Rogers deal is horrible. It seems as we are the only country in the entire world that gets a slimmed down version that less than half of the country has the opportunity to purchase! Rogers is not offered in western Canada or even half of Ontario! This will give a false impression that Canada don't have many wrestling fans according to number of subscribers.
Rogers has always been a bully when it comes to things like this. Buying exclusive rights hoping to get more customers. They did the exact same thing with the iPhone in 2007! Yes I'm comparing the WWE Network to the first iPhone release! However this is a 10 year deal! Not a 2-3 year. I have to say what's "Best for Business" is to release the WWE Network like the rest of the world. Rogers isn't even advertising the channel on their website! A Frustrated Fan to the North.
Jason Norwood: I was tempted to use a workaround to check out the WWE Network, as I've been a longtime wrestling fan and would have loved to delve into the archives. I was patient to wait for it to go live in Canada. I have no doubt that Rogers is the reason it didn't go live from the beginning, and now they've screwed even their own customers by offering such a watered-down version of it. I see it this way: Rogers was offering WWE on-demand already. The WWE Network would have taken that revenue stream away, so Rogers did what they always do--throw their considerable weight around and demand that WWE go through them. I certainly don't blame the WWE for trying to make the best of the situation, but it is what it is. I'm not on Rogers, but even if I was I wouldn't pay them $12/month for it.
Chris Stewart: Just wanted to add my 2 cents to the story, as I'm sure many are. I find it hilarious that WWE are bombarding us with WWE network ads on their television shows, that air World Wide, yet has only be made available just now with a seemingly neutered version. As a resident of British Columbia, I can't get it on my Shaw TV, PS3/4, iPad or even my phone. I refuse to get the stream illegally and VPN seems like a hassle for something WWE is trying to force down everyone's throat anyhow. If you aren't happy about how few subscribers you have, why would you make it so difficult to get? I know it isn't intentional, but it sure is tough to not feel jaded when WWE continues to punish passionate wrestling fans. Why they wouldn't just release it online and instead stick it with a small percentage of the Canadian television market is a major head scratcher. I would have bought it day one if I could have when it originally launched, but with the low amount of footage and the fact I'm still expected to pay $59 to watch PPVs I'm almost ready to tell them where to go. Not that they'd care, since I'm a 32 year old wrestling fan that's supported them since I can remember. Which seems to not be who they're after anyhow.
T.J. Hughes: I have Bell TV service, I live in London but am not going to switch service providers so it looks like no WWE Network for me and I am not going to buy PPV�s anymore for $60. Once again WWE drops the ball and disappoints. Good way to lose loyal fans
Mark Perpelitz: I saw on your article that someone stated only 20% of Canadians use Rogers, one of those reasons is because Rogers TV is not even available in most of the provinces in Canada.


text:
Well, I'm going to go to Fashion Design School, anyway.
What? Since, when?
Since I decided.
What happened to wanting to be an animator?
Mom, I was 7.
You were pretty sure abou it.
I changed my mind.
Since when?
Since I started liking sewing. I decided to become a Fashion Designer.
So, I have to go to Fashion Design school…. instead of LMU
How does this happen?
You have a baby. You hold her in your arms. And you plan her life out for her in those first few moments.
And along the way, the baby grows into a child. And the child gets exposed to life. And learns what she likes. And what she wants.
And poof.
There goes your vision.
I looked at Marco and with one expression said, OH MY GOD! WHAT? HOW? NO! WHAT?
(not that there is anything wrong with being a fashion designer but it was not in my vision!)
And then he looked at me and laughed.
Babe, she's 11.
Oh, yeah.
Her troop made dresses for Little Dresses for Africa
ha! Yeah, going through that right now with our soon to be 18 year old- she keeps turning up her nose at anything remotely sensible we suggest, her dream is to get a degree in horse ranch management and my very linear civil engineer husband says "not on my dime"…so stalemate so far…! She's a very creative soul, it will be interesting to see where she ends up. Right now she is dabbling in being trained to teach violin, but her heart is not really into it. we shall see, I guess. The teen years sure a crazy making!
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
A young man was yesterday crushed to death by a trailer on the Ore-Benin road. The accident occurred at Kajola in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The victim, a footballer, is popularly known as "Mikel".
An eye witness said the accident occurred while the deceased was crossing the expressway.
The villagers set the trailer ablaze, causing a gridlock on the highway for several hours.
A source said the situation degenerated when some soldiers allegedly shot at the protesters.
Many people were reportedly injured and vehicles vandalised.
One of the villagers said: "The protest was hijacked by hoodlums, who extorted money from the stranded motorists. Some drivers and their passengers abandoned their vehicles and fled into the bush. It was an ugly incident."
Police spokesman Wole Ogodo confirmed the incident and said the command was on top of the situation.


text:
I almost forgot about Ada! I photographed this sweater a while back on Chloe before she left town. It was a chilly 15º that November morning, but it is certainly hard to tell...the sun looks so warm on Chloe's face.
But, actually, I haven't forgotten about Ada because I wear her almost daily. Ada was inspired by Andrea Zittel's panel project Formerly known as Smockshop, which is a line of products by various artists that have a common principle—the rectangle. Though Ada is not a true rectangle since it is worked in the round to the underarm, it does embody a boxy, relaxed style that is simple to knit (double seed stitch) and easy to wear.
I'd like to give my studio mate, Karen Gelardi, credit for introducing me to Andrea Zittel's projects. She is one of the artists to contribute to both Smockshop and Formerly known as Smockshop.
Ravelry link here.
11 comments:
- Corinne said...
- February 15, 2012 at 8:07 AM
- Lady Lavender of the Kitchen said...
Beautiful! Love the simplicity. I'm tempted to knit one longer.
- February 15, 2012 at 10:39 AM
- madder said...
thanks! it would be really easy extend to body length on this pattern since there is no side shaping.
- February 15, 2012 at 11:04 AM
- Evelyn said...
This is one of those sweaters that I would put on everyday if I could. I love Zittel's work ... always have.
- February 15, 2012 at 4:16 PM
- ECarey said...
Do you ever do photo shoots on Peaks Island?
- February 15, 2012 at 6:05 PM
- madder said...
I definitely had the "uniform" in mind when I designed Ada. :)
I have photographed out on Peaks before. And, I lived out there, too! It's really a fun, beautiful place.
- February 16, 2012 at 3:48 AM
- knitlit kate said...
lovely stitch on that design. what is it?
- February 20, 2012 at 6:13 AM
- madder said...
It's double seed stitch--so much fun to knit. I was really obsessed with it last Fall.
- February 20, 2012 at 6:30 AM
- ECarey said...
OMG you lived on Peaks?! My family has a house on Pleasant. I just submitted an article to the Spinning Wheel Sleuth about the wheel at the Fifth Maine!
- February 20, 2012 at 7:39 AM
- madder said...
Cool! I lived on Torrington next to the cemetery. It was a fantastic, cold, and spooky winter.
- February 20, 2012 at 7:43 AM
- ECarey said...
Wow, I would love to hear about Peaks over the Winter! I'm going to email you on Ravelry...I love that Portland is so filled with fiber artists!
- February 20, 2012 at 7:55 AM


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As part of our commitment to raising achievement through science at Pevensey and Westham, we are organising the first Eastbourne STEM Leaders Conference to be held on Thursday 20 April 2017. The event is aimed at Years 5, 6 and 7 across all schools in the Eastbourne area, including Hailsham and Seaford, encouraging those pupils with a real interest in science, technology, engineering and maths to participate. Schools will be entering teams of five pupils to present projects on sustainable STEM solutions to global issues such as clean water, air pollution and renewable energy sources.
We are grateful to TEVA Pharmaceuticals for their support and to STEM Sussex and the Association for Science Education for their involvement. We would also like to thank Eastbourne College for providing the Birley Centre as a state-of-the-art venue. Lead teachers in science are also invited to take part in a training session on Thursday 19 January to provide some project ideas.
We are also keen to hear from local companies that would be willing to provide prizes for our draw during the event. If you would like to find out more then please contact the school or add a comment below. We will tell you more about the Conference in the New Year.


text:
Gloom and doom...The End is Near...and on and on. But could a natural disaster occur in Central Oregon? What about the potential for forest fires, snow disasters or earthquakes? Who would you believe? The Red Cross? The Deschutes County Sheriff's Department? The Oregon Department of Transportation? All these agencies agree that it isn't a matter of "if" a natural disaster will occur in south Deschutes County, but "when!" Here is information to help you get prepared for whatever might happen!
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
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text:
Bob haircuts are a very trendy and modern hairstyles and with some cool adds like curs and bangs these hairstyles are very trendy!
A bob haircut can make a contour to your face or a concave fringe, longer on sides and shorter at the back you have so many option for this bob to work great for you. Here are some photos with curly wavy short bob modern hairstyles and more:


text:
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text:
I am officially obsessed with cake stands, not one in particular, but cake stands all together. 🙂 It feels as though a cake is naked without one. Here are some ways you can jazz up your wedding cake with a spectacular cake stand.
Place your cake on top of an acrylic stand
Bling it out!
On top of a silver or gold cake stand
On top of vases filled with flowers or candy
My favorite, on top of a box adorned with fabric
Surrounded by greenery and wheatgrass
On top of birch or other types of wood
On top of an adorable pedastal
What type of cake stand will you be using?


text: Just as I have a clear protector on my smart phone, I would like to have a screen protector for the Tesla's giant screen. Has anyone found a high quality screen protector? I also find the screen just out of finger reach, has anyone used a touch screen stylus? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, RNG


text:
MacBook Pro, Tracktor Kontrol S4, manual Strand LX desk – tools of the trade for last week's performance run of Devious Theatre's Some Flood at Cleere's, Kilkenny. Hilarity ensued.
Technology, Video, Gaming, Culture, Digital Media
My other passion…
MacBook Pro, Tracktor Kontrol S4, manual Strand LX desk – tools of the trade for last week's performance run of Devious Theatre's Some Flood at Cleere's, Kilkenny. Hilarity ensued.
Some Flood, live at Cleere's Theatre, Kilkenny, now and right into the weekend. Tickets are available here and from the bar at Cleere's.
The 50mm lense is the accompaniment, for now, for gigs locally. Here's two shots from JP Ryan's launch night for Take a Walk With Me at Set Theatre last night, joined later in the show by Clive Barnes.
Time to get shopping for a new gig lense. Find more over at KilkennyMusic.com.
KRB at Billy Byrne's earlier tonight. Get more over here.
Back from a pre-stag stag, if you can call it that, exploring some of the local breweries in Dusseldorf and Cologne including Uerige, Zum Schlussel and what was one of the favourites of the weekend, Schumacher's, all in Dusseldorf's old town area.
The keepsakes, and thus allowing you to keep count of the beers consumed, are the beermats themselves, the process being that your beer server will place a tick on your beermat with every beer dropped to your table. I'll have more of a recap on Any Given Food during the week.
Let's just say it's pretty cheap to get a train ticket from Dusseldorf to Koln (just over an hour, depending on what train you take). The morning run was about half the length but Irish Rail prices were anything like German prices for rail travel, I'd be on the train every day of the week.
Trying a couple of things here including a test with the Canon Powershot G15, a review of which is going online in the next fortnight over on Any Given Food (tool of the trade, don't you know).
I've also rediscovered a set of Photoshop filter actions that I picked up in the last year via MightyDeals.com, so expect to see some heavily filtered shots in the pipeline.
It's not all about the looks, you know.
Pictured outside one of my favourite Galway eateries, Ard Bia. Do yourself a favour the next time you're in Galway and make your way there for a lunch, you won't be disappointed.
Still the bargain of the summer. Picked up at a fair day at Duckett's Grove, Carlow, earlier this summer. 50c, can't go wrong.
RSAG (Rarely Seen Above Ground) played an absolute stormer on the final night of this year's Kilkenny Arts Festival. He performed at the festival back in 2009 as the first live act in the venue but the performance last Sunday night was the best I've seen him in a few years.
Before the video comes out, here's some select snaps…
Check rarelyseenaboveground.com for more on Jeremy Hickey (RSAG). Take a listen below for a sample.


text:
Three or four times a year, members of the press get together with the County Commissioners to discuss issues of mutual concern.
Thursday's gathering, the first with the new board, was a jovial one.
In that holiday spirit, I hope the board won't mind my sharing one jocular tidbit from Commissioner Elmer Lippy during a discussion about cost-cutting efforts to make up for the county's projected $3 million budget shortfall.
Lippy waved his hand, saying all of those in the room were witnessing one cost-cutting effort: lowering the thermostat.
"Feel my hand," Lippy said, offering it to Commissioner Julia Gouge.
"Feel my feet," Gouge responded, with a laugh.
"And what part of the body do you want to feel?" I asked Commissioner President Donald Dell with a laugh, not wanting him to feel left out.
Dell smiled . . . and said he'd settle "for a hug."
"Well, I have a headline for my column," I replied, as we all laughed.
Happy holidays!


text:
I just had a great experience with shopping cart software company Interspire. I'm not a customer, but I'm looking for shopping cart solutions. Within 30 seconds of hearing about them, I was using their live demo to experience the product. I get it, I like it, and I've already sent the demo link to my […]
Tag Archives: product trials
Let me try a demo — instantly
December 17, 2010
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Let them try it. They'll like it. Then they'll pay.
October 30, 2010
It's easier to show than to sell. Let your prospects really use your product — it's faster, cheaper, and more effective than trying to talk them into buying it. I'm trying out new online task managers. Read a ton, tried some features. But you have to pay to use most of the good ones. But […]
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Soon. So close to taking photos and wearing everyday forever.
2. Needle Cases
I bought a new roll for my crochet hooks. I have a lot of crochet hooks and they didn't all fit into the chili pepper roll that The Gabbers bought me for Christmas.
The thing about crocheting is that it is the one craft that's multi-generational in my family. My tiny tiny steel hooks and one or two of my plastic hooks belonged to my grandmother, who died when I was eight. She lived in New Jersey and I've lived my whole life in Connecticut. While that's not on the other side of the world, it's a difficult trip to make with a growing family. I didn't see her much and I remember very little about her, but I remember the afghan she kept folded over the back of the couch. It was the kind of horrid that comes naturally associated with the 1970s and it was terrible old-school acrylic and my grandmother smoked so it reeked too strongly of cigarettes.
(Which is impressive, to be honest. My dad smoked when I was a kid and 90% of my relatives are life-time smokers, so the smell of cigarettes will always evoke childhood memories of visiting family. So to say that a thing reeked too strongly of cigarettes means it was pretty damn strong. I mean, I also had a couple of plastic knitting needles from her that still smelled like cigarettes almost twenty years later. Yeah.)
And I know those memories of that afghan sound terrible, but it was as much a part of my grandparents warm, dark living room as the television with the knobs and bunny ears that never picked up any channels, but was always turned on after dinner to the evening Attempt To Watch Television. I remember it scratching my arms up in the summer when I would lean up against the back of the couch to peer achingly out of the window at the full blackberry bushes and I remember tucking it around the easily startled giant Great Dane named Duchess and I remember tucking my arms into my sleeves and leaning against it to watch raindrops roll down the window with the lights off after sunset before it's completely dark.
And my grandmother taught my mother to crochet when she was a kid. My mother loves DIY stuff and crafts, but she's really not very good at trying new things. She doesn't like how much she second guesses herself and she really doesn't like trying new things without someone else to ask questions from or commiserate with. She's always liked crocheting, though. It's comfortable. All four of us kids had a crochet baby blanket and she continues to crochet baby blankets and afghans for folks she knows. When my grandmother died, my mother kept all her crochet hooks and knitting needles, even though she always used her own.
When my mother taught me how to crochet and I took off running with it, grabbing knitting and dragging that with me, she brought me up to her room and pulled a box out of her closet. "These were your grandmother's," she said, handing me a cracked fake-leather hook roll and few sets of knitting needles wrapped up in a rubber band. "She used these little ones to make doilies and stuff. I don't know if you're interested in that at all, but you can have them if you want."
And so I inherited a fistful of crochet hooks that I will probably never use. I didn't want them because I wanted more hooks (which I always will) and I didn't want them just because they were being passed down. Look at that closer up photo. Those hooks are not crooked because of how they're stuck into the roll or because the roll is somehow crooked; those hooks are crooked in the pattern of fingers where yarn was manipulated. These hooks are well fucking used. Seriously. I used one of these to test some very fine yarn and one side was so worn down that the edge cut the skin of my fingers.
These were the tools of someone who loved their craft. How could I not love that?
And I definitely didn't mean to tell that story, but now this post seems weird without it. This really was supposed to be just me showing off all my lovely needle/hook cases.
3. Current WIPs
White double seed stitch blanket for product photos and a new Amy Pond scarf for the store.
Close up on the double seed stitch:
Aww, yeah.


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I've caved and finally joined Vine. I've been wanting to join for a while but my ancient Android can't upgrade to a version of it that supports Vine, which was finally released for Android recently.
So my workaround for now will be to just use my iPod Touch with WiFi.
In response to my post on making voice impressions, I've had a few Facebook comments asking me to actually demonstrate what I preach in making a (somewhat) good impersonation, so here you have it.
For this very first Vine, I "interview" Metallica frontman James Hetfield about things he'll say in the band's upcoming 3D concert movie.
In this Vine, I also realize that I need a haircut.


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What is Faithwalking 101?
- Faithwalking is a spiritual formation process with the end goal joining God on mission in the world, and fully becoming the person who God created you to be (John 10:10).
- The Faithwalking 101 journey begins with a 1.5 day retreat (Friday February 10th 4-9pm, Saturday February 11th 8am-7pm at First Reformed Church in Oostburg)
- During the retreat participants will; hear several presentations, spend time in solitude following each presentation, and share experiences in a small group setting


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If those shoes don't fit, send them back. Returns are on us.


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The Chinese New Year has just passed and we are now in the Year of the Water Snake, according to my Chinese friends who take the zodiac with varying degrees of seriousness, this means we face a year characterized by "toil and transformation".
"Your pope offered his resignation, almost as the year began," one friend said to me. "It's going to be a busy year of changes for all of us."
I don't subscribe to zodiacs, myself, but one can't help noticing that one Cardinal never included in the lists of papabile we have seen over the years is Boston's Sean O'Malley — whose name is suddenly arising. It seems that as America is no longer perceived to be quite the super-power she has been in the past, the idea of a pope from the U.S. is actually being discussed. In this Boston Herald piece, Deacon Greg and I and Patrick Madrid are quoted off of our twitter feeds (journalistic "transformation", indeed) where Madrid wrote:
"If @CardinalSean is elected our next #pope (something I'm sure he'd never want!) I'd like to suggest he choose to be called Pope Patrick I"
For those of us who claim a connection to the auld sod, that would be a pondering just too Irish-delightful for words: In the Year of the Snake, the rise of a Pope Patrick I. Would he drive the snakes of toil and turmoil from the church, from society, from the curia?
I'm just having fun here, but the O'Malley uptick is real. John L. Allen, collecting some of the new, international O'Malley buzz writes:
I can confirm the O'Malley buzz from personal experience. Right now, it's tough for an American journalist to walk into the Vatican Press Office without fielding questions from colleagues about him.
On the plus side, many cardinals have said they'd like a pope with a global vision, sensitive to the church outside the West where two-thirds of Catholics today live. O'Malley has a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese literature, and has long experience of ministering to both Hispanics and Haitians. He worked in Chile as a priest, and served as the Bishop of St. Thomas in the Caribbean. He's deeply attached to many of the devotions popular at the Catholic grassroots across the developing world.
O'Malley's simplicity isn't just a matter of wearing his brown habit, or insisting on being called "Cardinal Sean." By reputation he's not given to building empires or playing political games, and on the back of the Vatileaks mess, ongoing questions about the Vatican Bank, and other perceived Vatican imbroglios, that profile could strike some cardinals as just what the doctor ordered.
Despite his overall image as a moderate, O'Malley is by-the-book when it comes to matters of Catholic orthodoxy and is especially committed to the pro-life cause, making him attractive to cardinals concerned that the church hold the line on its positions in the culture wars.
O'Malley is also passionate about the "New Evangelization," expressed not only in his use of Twitter and blogs, but in his general approach to the role of a bishop.
Certainly O'Malley's image as a house-cleaner on the sex abuse crisis doesn't hurt.
Few know of Cardinal O'Malley's work throughout Latin American and the Caribbean. He's highly regarded in those regions and thus would actually come with ties to the whole hemisphere. Interesting man, and fascinating background.
Well, I still say predicting the pope is a sucker's bet, but it is very interesting to consider: an American-born pontiff may come our way thanks to our diminished standing in the world. Our president's instincts toward isolationism, his disinterest in diplomacy, economics and manufacturing and his stated ambivalence towards "superpower" status might be the butterfly wings of the secular world, to cause a hurricane amid the sacred one. More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies, and so forth…
Even so, an American Pontiff is of course still the longest of long shots, for many reasons, most especially the heating up of the Cardinal Mahony story — but never forget that the last dramatically unexpected conclave, in 1978, brought forward precisely the longest of long shots in Karol Józef Wojtyła, our Blessed John Paul II.
If you want to keep up with the key players in the upcoming drama of March, John Allen's daily look at the presumed papabile are absolute must-reads. Today he profiles Canada's Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who bears an odd physical resemblance to the Wojtyła.
Yesterday, Allen looked at Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, and got a bit of a reprimand from another writer at the Reporter, for not making more of Turkson's views on homosexuality.
The day before that, Allen brought us Milan's Cardinal Angelo Scola.
In Rumer Godden's exquisite novel, In this House of Brede — my all-time favorite tale, which I have not recommended to you in a long time — the nuns of her Benedictine Abbey ponder the election of a new abbess after the passing of one who has held the office for three decades. In many ways, this experience is very much like the conclave we are about to watch:
Dame Agnes, Dame Maura, Dames Ursula, Beatrice, Colette, Catherine: each in turn seemed focussed in a strong light that, while it showed their virtues, showed each blemish, too, "as if none of them will do"…
"One must," said Philippa. "It will resolve itself."
With prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit, of course. As to O'Malley, well, we have no idea what will be. But perhaps we need a Capuchin son of Saint Francis, one with parish and pastoral experience, and no aspirations for himself, to help us with some restoration.
A Novena for Benedict on the last 9 days of his Papacy
We take our thrills where we can get them!.
Ed Morrissey on new conclave rules that we may see


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The Price of Generosity
The Great Gold Wyrm
The Great Gold Wyrm
Race: Dragon
Gender: Male
The Great Gold Wyrm is the world's protector and the inspiration for holy orders of paladins and independent heroes. Although the Gold Wyrm's physical form seals the gap that prevents the Abyss from erupting into the world, his dreams and agents still move through the world, helping those who will fight and even die for what's right.
Centuries ago, the Great Gold Wyrm threw itself into the Abyss to prevent the demons of Hell from pouring out into the world. The Wyrm's physical presence and his magical wards are still all that prevents the Abyss from ripping the world wide open.


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2018 U20's Victoria Thunderbolts Hastings Deering Colts Preview
A new era will be launched on Saturday with the Victoria Thunderbolts playing their first game in the newly formed U20's Hastings Deering Colts competition.
This competition, along with the Jersey Flegg Cup in NSW, have replaced the NRL's NYC competition.
The U20's Thunderbolts will play 19 games in 2018, with 9 home games and 10 away games. The Thunderbolts will begin their season at home against the Western Mustangs in Round 1 this Saturday 10th March at Casey Fields, Cranbourne.
Home games will be played across 4 venues with NRL Victoria club venues - Casey Fields (Casey Warriors) and Haines Drive Reserve (Werribee Bears) being used as well as Gosch's Paddock (Melbourne Storm Training ground).
The team is also scheduled to play 2 Curtain Raisers on AAMI Park prior to Melbourne Storm home games.
The Thunderbolts will also do some travelling with 6 games in Brisbane including 2 against the 2017 Premiers Redcliffe Dolphins at Dolphin Stadium, 2 games on the Gold Coast, 1 trip to Toowoomba as well as an overnight visit to Carins to take on the Northern Pride in July.
The Victoria Thunderbolts will be coached by Ben Jack who is very excited to see his team hit the field for Round 1 this weekend;
"It's been a long pre-season with three very physical trial games, our camp in Blackwood was very productive and beneficial, the players are now ready and raring to go, we just can't wait to get into it."
The Thunderbolts will see the benefit of some Melbourne Storm players dropping back for games throughout the season but Jack highlights a local Victorian junior as a player to watch in 2018;
"We've had a few players standout in Pre-Season but Trent Toelau's trial matches playing across Hooker and Half have been outstanding, His ability to read the situation and understand the trends in the game is going to be very valuable to us as a playing group."
The team will be captained by Matt Stimson, brother of current Melbourne Storm player Joe Stimson.
To see the 2018 Victoria Thunderbolts Hastings Deering Colts Squad, click the link below:
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City considering possibility of permitting alcohol sales at Currie clubhouse
Thats what some visitors to Currie Municipal Golf Courses are saying, and the availability of alcoholic beverages might be just what the Currie clubhouse needs to be profitable or even self-sustaining.
Daily News photos/CHANNING JOHNSON
Jeff McKay checks on wood-smoked meat at the Currie Municipal Golf Course clubhouse on Saturday afternoon. McKay has brought his outdoor-cooking skills to the clubhouse in an effort by the city to make the clubhouse more lucrative.
After a day of golf in the hot summer sun, players sometimes want a cold beer.
Thats what some visitors to Currie Municipal Golf Courses are saying, and the availability of alcoholic beverages might be just what the Currie clubhouse needs to be profitable or even self-sustaining.
While the city parks and recreation commission and management consider the idea a report on the possibility of a city-owned liquor license is in the works the convenience of food offerings at the clubhouse will be subsidized.
"We knew this was going to be a cost item for this year," public services director Marty McGuire said.
The clubhouse already lost one caterer because the service wasnt making any money and her successor also operated at a loss last year.
Carol A. Schaefer has agreed to return for a second try, but only if the city is willing to offer some financial protection as she tries to grow the business.
A new contract with Schaefer calls for the city to pay $21,000 over the course of the season. The city will receive 5 percent of gross sales over $50,000.
Last year, she was paid $2,500 for the first three months of service and the city was to collect 5 percent of gross revenue for the final four months of the season. The city received about $1,500 for the season, but Schaefer lost money.
The previous caterer, Jackie Jacobs Catering, was paid no money by the city and left after the first year of a three-year contract.
In this third year of concession service, the city will be looking at where the operation fits into the overall goals of the golf course, McGuire said.
Its financial struggles may subside as people get used to the idea that they can socialize at the clubhouse after a round of golf. Before the facility was built, the course offered no opportunity for after-game meals.
|Grant Schaefer gives the tables at the clubhouse a full cleaning. His mother, Carol Schaefer, is in charge of the catering, which is now subsidized by the city. She said she wants the clubhouse "to be a social opportunity for the whole community."
"What were trying to find out is if it can sustain itself as it is, or if it needs a liquor license to sustain itself," McGuire said.
Area golf course clubhouses serve a variety of purposes some dont make money, but are a convenience for visitors, some operate for revenue purposes and some are loss-leaders, with more activity at the clubhouse than the supporting course.
"We need to figure out what works best for us," McGuire said.
There are a lot of factors to consider before opting to add alcoholic beverages, he added.
First: Does the city want to be in the business of selling alcohol? Also, there would be a number of changes in operations. Right now golfers can carry their own cocktails onto the course. If the city had a liquor license, alcohol could not be brought in from outside it would have to be purchased on site and would likely be more expensive to golfers than the store-bought beverages packed into their coolers.
But for outings that include alcohol, the opportunity to purchase on site could alleviate some costs. Currently, hosts must purchase liability insurance to cover their events. If the city had a license, it would also have the insurance and that cost would be eliminated for outings.
"But do we want to encourage outings?" McGuire said.
A report on the possibility of obtaining a resort license is expected to be complete this summer.
The license would be issued by the state and does not count against the number of licenses a municipality can have based on population.


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Inspired by the raucous dressing room parties he hosted while starring in Cabaret on Broadway, Alan Cumming developed a live show of favourite songs and stories. Now it's a hot ticket at the Edinburgh International Festival. It's going to be a blast the actor, author and activist tells Janet Christie.
Alan Cumming strides through The Bowery district in New York on the way to meet his dresser for his Edinburgh International Festival show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. Late night cabaret, it's billed as an evening of seductive songs and salacious celebrity stories at the Festival HQ in the heart of the capital. As he walks and talks to me on his mobile, I hear him being greeted by people who recognise him as he passes.
"Oh, someone's waving," he says, cheerily. The conversation pauses while he waves back, then continues chatting, taking the recognition in his stride. "People saying hello is ingrained in my daily life so I'm used to it, even though I am massively self-conscious. I've been an actor for 30 years and had various experiences of fame, so I don't mind it."
Famous for his numerous roles in film, on TV and on stage, the 51-year-old actor, writer and activist, is a Tony and Olivier Award-winner, multiple Golden Globe and Emmy nominee, and is known for TV roles like CBS's hugely popular The Good Wife, films such as Eyes Wide Shut and theatre including Macbeth, Cabaret and the National Theatre of Scotland's spectacular The Bacchae in 2007, in which he owned the stage as Dionysus in a gold kilt. He's also written three books: Tommy's Tale: A Novel of Sex, Confusion and Happy Endings, a bestselling memoir, the hard-hitting Not My Father's Son, and now the forthcoming You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams. Subtitled My Life in Stories and Pictures, it's a cabaret of photographs and anecdotes in which he takes us on a whirlwind tour of his adventures and misadventures. Cumming has also been on a postage stamp, hung out on Sesame Street and has an OBE. So which of these many successes is he most recognised for?
"I don't know," he says. "Although sometimes you can guess from the people. In the US it's Spy Kids, X Men, The Good Wife, Cabaret, and in the UK... it's The High Life."
For those too young to remember the glory days before reality TV made shows about the eccentricities of real life passengers and airline crew, Cumming and his comedy partner Forbes Masson captured it in all its budget glory in this Scottish sitcom about an airline operating out of Prestwick Airport.
"And just last week, in the US, there was a woman who knew me from the Victor and Barry shows in the 1980s. It's surprising. You leave a trail behind you and it's nice to see what people remember," he says. "With Cabaret, there's an image of me with my arms over my head and people often do that when I go past."
I picture him topless, arms draped over his head, grinning his famous Emcee leer as he pads the New York pavements. You wouldn't be surprised if he did. Cumming has chutzpah and the cheek to carry it off. But this time he's stepping out from behind his characters, singing as himself and laying himself bare (probably not literally, although you never know) and giving a personal take on songs that he loves, joined by Emmy-winning musical director Lance Horne and Eleanor Norton on cello. The genesis of the show was his raucous dressing room parties when he was starring in his Tony-award winning role in Cabaret on Broadway, and the playlist includes everything from songs from showbiz and the charts to torch and pop, with reinterpretations of works by Kurt Weill, Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, Rufus Wainwright, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus.
"These are songs I always wanted to sing. A lot I discovered when I was doing Cabaret and would DJ at my post-show parties. I used to play these songs and when people asked who it was, I wouldn't tell them because I wanted them not to judge or be cynical, but just to let go and enjoy. A lot were songs I thought I would hate, but I listened to them over and over again, grew to love them and wanted to sing them in my own way.
"The show doesn't try to be fashionable, but authentic... and fabulous. Though there's humour and irony in the title, Sappy Songs, I'm not being completely ironic. I think they're beautiful, and am completely connected to them. I sing them completely faithfully," he says.
Debuting at the Carlyle Cafe in New York last year, Cumming has been touring Sappy Songs across the US, Canada and Australia, selling out Carnegie Hall en route, and releasing the songs in a live album, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. It comes with a stonking cover in which he poses naked, his modesty covered by a bottle of champagne, flanked by two naked dancers with gravity-defying buttocks.
The show and album also demonstrate Cumming's mercurial ability to be raucous and ribald, yet touching and intimate at the same time, with stories and songs that are personal as well as public. There's Goodnight Saigon, sung in tribute to the veteran grandfather he never knew yet writes so movingly about in his memoir, Broadway tunes and baby boomer anthems. He wears his patriot heart on his sleeve with a tender rendition of Mother Glasgow and then brings it up to date with a mash-up of Adele's Someone Like You and Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory, a knickerbocker glory of sound topped off with the sparkler of Katy Perry's Firework.
Dividing most of his time between homes in New York and Edinburgh, Cumming lives an international lifestyle that he shares with his husband, illustrator Grant Shaffer and their dogs, Jerry and Lala. It's a life of TV and film sets, A-lister parties and glamour, yet Cumming also has a place in the Catskills, upstate New York, where the hills and woods are a reminder of his childhood growing up near Carnoustie. You can take the boy out of Angus but you can't take the Monikie church jamboree tombola out of the boy, for it was there aged around ten that he bought the ticket that won him a Kodak camera and sparked a lifelong interest in photography that has led to his latest book, and his appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival at the end of the month.
You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams serves up just what you'd expect from Cumming: generous lashings of celeb gossip, glamour, humour and charm, with dollops of cheek and sass, as well as the championing of causes, from a brilliant story teller. It's a completely different dish from his last book, the more emotionally raw and hard-hitting, Not My Father's Son, which details family secrets and the fallout from his father's erroneous belief for many years that Cumming was not his son. It's as if this book couldn't be written until the previous one was out of the way.
"This is almost the book I meant to write last time, and then circumstances prevailed and I wrote the book I did. I made that experience into a book and embraced it and let it flow through me. When you do something like that, and tell people, that processes it," he says.
"This book is more what people were expecting, although both are about my life. It's fun and not nearly as intense and probing. It's a book of stories inspired by photos I have taken and things that have happened to me over the years."
The pictures come first for Cumming, who has loved photography ever since he won that camera. However, there was something of a hiatus in his development after his early pictures enraged his bullying father with their off-centred framing and expense of processing that meant his camera was put away in the attic until the adult Alan was able to escape and take up photography again. He starts the book with his early efforts.
"I remember winning the camera and taking those pictures of my granny, my mum and dad and some sheep. I thought I was centring them, but it was all to the left of the frame. The one of my mum and dad, I cut him half out. Yes, that was telling. When we got the photos back from the chemist they were all like that. The photo of some sheep, with a huge expanse of dry stane dyke, that was the final straw and he wouldn't let me take any more."
But now he's back, with You Gotta Get Bigger Dreams.
"I like the fact that a lot of the things we do as adults are the things we weren't allowed to do as children," he says. "I was always taking pictures and they came first, but I like writing about my life too, because I think it's fascinating. Weird things keep happening to me, like in my last book. Also, I didn't want to do it like 'I was born here and did this, then that', because I try to do things in a way that's different and not so predictable, and I thought photos were a good way to do that.
"So I started with three of the photos I took with the camera I won, then it's more about my life as it is now, and there's a whole section that's just photos where I'm out having fun. And there's a big chapter with Gore Vidal that includes a really intense chat about love and sex. I was finishing my novel at the time and he said to me, 'you're not a novelist, you should write about what you know'. I was going to call it 'I'm Writing This Because Gore Vidal Told Me To' then I wrote the story about Oprah who said 'you gotta get bigger dreams', and I grew to love that and it became the title.
"It came from the time I went to an event where the Elie Wiesel Foundation was honouring Oprah and I took my friend Eddie with me because he's her biggest fan. He really wanted a photo with her even though I didn't want to take one. So there was a moment when she was coming towards us, going to the loo, and he was saying 'may I have a picture with you? It would be my dream' and she said, 'you gotta get bigger dreams' but paused, and I took the picture. It's terrible – Oprah is beautifully in focus and Eddie is a happy blur – but I like that. And I really like Oprah's quote, self-deprecating but sharp."
The book is a generous slice of Cumming's life in words and pictures and presents the multiple facets of the man. There's the celebrity beaming out from pages studded with the likenesses of Sylvester Stallone, Kylie, Joan Collins, Liza Minnelli, Paul McCartney, Diddy, Iman, Oprah, Liz Taylor and Carrie Fisher, to name a few. There's the party animal out on the tiles having fun, then there's the political activist, taking a selfie with Alex Salmond after making a speech at the launch of the Yes campaign in 2012 and beaming with Nicola Sturgeon among Glasgow crowds on the eve of the 2014 independence referendum. The family man is there too, with pictures of his mother smiling fondly at her son, possibly checking out the back of his latest hairstyle in a black and white picture in New York in 1999. His husband Grant of the "rocking bod" is there and the various dogs that have filled his life, from Honey who goes from pound to pampered posing pooch to gleeful feral prairie dog when she discovers the Badlands on their 2004 road trip from New York to Vancouver, Leon the chihuahua in a mini sombrero, and latest canine companions, Jerry another chihuahua and Lala, also a rescue dog currently awaiting the results of her DNA test (readers of Cumming's memoir will get the irony) though he reckons there's collie in the mix. Lala was about to holiday with her owners in the Outer Hebrides prior to the Edinburgh shows, and no doubt this homecoming to the land of sheep for the Puerto Rican/Manhattan rescue dog will be recorded for posterity.
Cumming spoils us with his celebrity tales, there's Diana Ross shoving him out of the way to get to the dance floor at an Oscars party (to dance to her own song), Gore Vidal unbuttoning his flies, Helen Mirren being turned on to Crocs and a Bob Hoskins tapeworm story that despite (mercifully) lacking an accompanying photo, still manages to leave an image in your mind as impossible to shake as the worm.
After the show and book tour, Cumming is looking forward to starring in the upcoming feature-length narrative film, After Louie, being made by activist and artist Vincent Gagliostro. Being crowdfunded through Kickstarter, it takes a look at gay life and history through the eyes of Sam, played by Cumming and is the kind of opportunity that his other more commercial ventures like The Good Wife allow him to be able to afford to explore.
"After Louie wouldn't be getting made if I wasn't doing it. Because I'm a bit famous, doing other things means you can get things made that would never have been made," he says.
Not that Cumming hasn't enjoyed playing hard-bitten politico Eli Gold in The Good Wife.
"He's a laugh and good to play, but I was ready to leave at the end of the season before last. I felt it was getting a bit repetitive. I said to my agent, what I do is just walk into rooms and say 'what the hell is going on?' and the next season's script was the same, so they said they would do something. They gave me more to do and I'm really glad I stayed to be at the end of a cycle. It was a great experience and allowed me to be in New York and have structure and stability and turn into a grown-up. I played a man in a grey suit. Not the weirdo. Although Eli has weird bits in there too," he says.
After Edinburgh, it's back on the road with Sappy Songs and Cumming is keen to progress with another book, another memoir, when he gets a break in his schedule.
"It's about coming to America. It uses the device of a pair of specs I have had for 20 years, and keep breaking and fixing and losing and finding. Mostly it's about coming to America and being an outsider here," he says.
"I'm always going to write books, I've always written. I like the structure of the book. I like firing off the ideas, and the solitude. And I like the fact that it's not going to be performed publicly."
Something to be savoured in private, an intimate exchange for an audience of one, without the razzamatazz of a public performance. And there we have the paradox that is Alan Cumming. Public, private, intimate, exhibitionist, party animal, animal whisperer, husband, son, writer, photographer, actor, singer, he is all of those things. And more. And right now he's heading our way, with a sappy song in his heart.


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Welcome to our free Adobe Flash CS6/CC tutorial. This tutorial is based on Webucator's Introduction to Flash CS5 Training course.
Adobe Flash is an extremely powerful and flexible work environment. Over the years, it has improved tremendously and Flash CS5 is no exception. The current version builds upon Flash's strengths and adds some interesting new features, including:
Lesson Goals
When you first open Flash, you will likely see the welcome screen with the red bar at the top (shown below). This screen shows many common tasks including creating a new document, opening recently used files and using pre-built templates. It even includes links to training videos and documentation for some common items under the heading Learn.
Before creating a new Flash file, you will need to know a few things about your audience:
In most cases, you will click on ActionScript 3.0 to create a new document using the default size and settings. We will examine publish settings and options in later sections.
Some of the most important elements in the Flash work area are labeled on the graphic below:
Unless you expect to publish for an older version of Flash, you will likely select ActionScript 3.0 in order to create a new document.
Once you have a document open, several items on the screen will change. First, the Stage is visible. It is the white box in the middle of the screen. Anything that is placed in the stage area will be visible in the final output. Animations might start off stage and fly in before leaving off the other side of the Stage. To see the content on the Stage better, you might want to zoom in or out.
Note: Even objects off stage can sometimes become visible to users.
The Timeline is the area to organize the layers of items, and when they happen during the animation. The Timeline will be covered in detail later in the lessons.
Flash now comes with preset Workspaces that organize the screen automatically. Individual designers and developers like to customize the Flash screen by moving the panels and other screen elements to different positions. All of these Workspaces are customizable. If you would ever like to go back to the default layout for a Workspace, select Reset.
You may even save your own favorite layouts by selecting New Workspace.
Below are screen shots of some common Workspace layouts (Essentials, Designer, and Classic). Notice the Properties, Tools, Stage, and the Timeline are located in various places in each one.
All panels may be docked in several places on the screen or they may float. Floating panels may be dragged anywhere on the screen and will appear on top of other items. To move a panel, left-click and drag it by its Title Tab (the name of the panel). As you drag it around the screen, watch for a blue line which indicates where it will be docked if dropped (release left-click to drop). When panels are docked to the screen, they may stay open at all times. The graphic below shows the Color panel when open at all times. Also, notice that the Swatches panel hidden. The name is just to the right of the Color panel. It may be opened by clicking on the name of the panel, "Swatches."
When collapsed, the panels become small icons (See below). The icon for the Color panel is the first icon on these screen shots.
Single-click on the small icon to temporarily open a panel;it will stay open as long as you are using it. It will automatically close when you click away.
The graphic below shows the Color panel expanded.
Now, it is time for you to adjust your workspace. Open Flash and create a new ActionScript 3.0 document.
You may open a Flash file by clicking File > Open. A dialog box will allow you to select a file. The following demo is saved as GettingStarted/demos/FirstAnimation.fla.
This demo has a simple animation in it so that we may examine a somewhat complicated timeline. You will find that some of the layers have sections in blue. These are animations called "Tweens" which will be covered in a later lesson.
Keyframes are represented by either hollow or solid circles. The solid circle means that frame has visible content. The hollow circle indicates a blank keyframe.
The red playhead shows one moment in time. By dragging the playhead, you will see what the animation will look like when it plays. Press the Enter key (on a PC) or Return (on a Mac) to play the timeline in place. This is called scrubbing the timeline.
The Properties panel (aka Properties Inspector) shows the properties of any selected object. This includes frames on the timeline or objects on the stage.
Identify the Properties Inspector and then single-click on different objects to explore properties of that object. The Properties Inspector is one of the most utilized and most important pieces in the Flash interface.
Flash allows you to undo even the smallest of steps. Therefore, some new Flash users think that undo is not working properly. You might have to undo several steps to go back far enough.
You also might want to increase the number of steps that can be undone. It is set to 100 by default, but it may be increased to 300. To increase the number of steps, Select Edit > Preferences > General Category and change the number of Document-level undo levels.
Sometimes looking at the Flash screen does not properly show you the real-life view of your animation, because some animations will not play unless you are looking at a published version.
You may preview the published version by selecting Control > Test Movie > Test (Command-Return on a Mac or Ctrl-Enter on a PC).
When you preview your movie, a SWF file is generated in the same folder as the .fla document. There are also additional publishing options that will be covered in a later lesson.
Select File > Publish Settings to change options like the version of the Flash player to be used as well as many other options that will affect the final SWF animation.
Many Flash developers use keyboard shortcuts to optimize workflow. Keyboard shortcuts can save you a great deal of time. More shortcuts will be introduced in later sections.
You may even create your own keyboard shortcuts by choosing Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.
Note: When using TLF Text: Flash CS5 has a new text engine called Text Layout Framework or TLF. Because it is new, TLF text may only be used in the Flash Player 10.
Furthermore, when you preview or publish any file, you might receive the following warning about streaming. The file will have to wait to begin playing until the whole movie is downloaded. For now, this is no problem. However, if you do not want to see this warning each time you preview you have two options. First option, click Don't show again in the warning box.
Second option, you may change the ActionScript Settings by choosing File > ActionScript Settings and change the default linkage to Merge into code as shown below.
In this exercise, you will learn to preview a completed Flash project. In fact, this is the project that you will build in following exercises.
In the upcoming sections of this course, you will work on many different files that relate to a Park web site you have fictitiously been assigned. The decision to use Flash for the site has been made to allow you to be very creative. Also, a very interactive site for park-goers of all ages was the desire of the client you are working for.


text:
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Our last check showed
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text:
– Gale's Restaurant –
[ Italy meets California ]
For more than a decade, Gale's Restaurant has been the home for those in-the-know locals who crave fresh, family-style Northern Italian cuisine, done with California style. Beyond traditional Italian dishes, you'll find "healthyish" menu items, whole wheat or gluten-free options, a farm-to-table approach, featured artwork from local artists and a deep commitment to local philanthropy; once you try Gale's food, you'll understand why Gale's Restaurant was Featured in the New York Times "36 Hours in Pasadena" series.
Where Locals Love to Eat