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Lady Gaga as Role Model? Why She Deserves All the Applause
We all know how easy it is to dismiss or ridicule the music our kids listen to. One minute they're listening to an artist they love, and then we have to come in and mock it by singing along off-key and dancing around in a cape we've made out of a bath towel. Not that I know anyone who has ever done that. Ahem.
And while some "artists" probably deserve a little ridicule, there are others that we as parents might want to take a closer look at and commend for the positive influence they've had on our kids. My daughter has been a fan of Lady Gaga for years, and I've come to respect what she's done to reach out to her audience to help them through challenges they're facing, particularly in regards to body image and their emotional well-being.
I'm not saying you'll want to encourage your kid to show up at school in a meat dress, but here are a few reasons Gaga has earned this mom's respect.
Related: 6 Celebrity Apps Your Teen Is Obsessed With
She speaks honestly and frankly about her anxiety and depression, issues that many teens are dealing with.
"I've suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life, I still suffer with it every single day," Lady Gaga recently told Billboard. "I just want these kids to know that that depth that they feel as human beings is normal. We were born that way. This modern thing, where everyone is feeling shallow and less connected? That's not human."
She encourages young people to make the right decisions for their own emotional well-being.
Gaga recently spoke at the Emotion Revolution, a day-long summit that was hosted by the singer's Born This Way Foundation and the Yale Center For Emotional Intelligence. Speaking to a room full of teens, Gaga talked about the pressure to maintain her image—and revealed that it almost led to her quitting the music business two years ago.
I have a lot more to offer than my image. I don't like being used to make people money.
"I have had to make decisions like, why am I unhappy? … Why is it that you want to quit music?" she said. "I don't like wasting my time, spending days just shaking peoples' hands and smiling, and taking selfies.
"Feels shallow to my existence," she continued. "I have a lot more to offer than my image. I don't like being used to make people money. I feel sad when I'm overworked. And that I just become a money-making machine, and my passion and creativity take a backseat. That makes me unhappy."
She isn't afraid to take on the issue of campus rape.
Her recent video "Til It Happens To You" was a brutal depiction of campus rape and its casualties. It's an issue that until recently was barely spoken of, even though 16 to 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted while in college and 88 percent of women raped on campus do not report it. "The likelihood that college students are not getting the assistance and support they deserve is heartbreaking, and the knowledge that sexual predators are left free to attack again is criminal," she wrote—along with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo—in support of legislation that would give support to victims of campus assault.
Gaga's involvement in this project touched close to home; last year she revealed that she was raped when she was 19. "I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy and emotional therapy to heal over the years," she said in an interview with Howard Stern. "My music's been wonderful for me. But, you know, I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself."
"It didn't affect me as much right after as it did about four or five years later," Gaga recounts. "It hit me so hard. I was so traumatized by it that I was like, 'Just keep going.' Because I just had to get out of there."
Related: That Time My Teen Daughter Got a Tattoo
She inspires others not only to be creative, but to take their art seriously
"Live for what you create and die protecting it," is a quote by a Gaga, and happens to be what my daughter chose for her very first tattoo on her 19th birthday last year. She's a musician, and has always said how much Gaga has inspired her to pursue her passion for music and to believe in herself.
While accepting the Young Artist Award from the Americans for the Arts organization last month, Gaga expressed how much her music and other creative pursuits have shaped her life. "[Art] has totally cured me," she shared. " While art can make you foolish and wild, it has always been a warm blanket for me to rely on, something I always knew would be there for me, the byproduct or the unicorn, the fantasy that arose out of whatever struggle I was experiencing or whatever torment."
Photograph by: Instagram


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Mason Jars are the perfect holiday gift. Inside each jar, comes a brownie recipe ready to be mixed in a bowl. It makes baking so much easier for the person receiving the gift because you only need to add eggs, pop the mixture in the oven, and you get instant brownies.
To start off, you will need a mason jar. You can get these at any arts and crafts stores. I got mine at Michael's for $1.25.
Now, you need all the ingredients for the brownie mix. The whole point of this gift is to have all the ingredients already measured so you can dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Here are the measurements and ingredients:
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ¼ cups white sugar
- ½ cup pecans/chocolate chips/marshmallows/whatever topping you want
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Put it first inside the Mason Jar and pack it tightly. Then, layer the remaining ingredients on top of each other in the order listed above, making sure to pack it tightly in between each layer. When you're done, you should have something like this:
Now you can decorate it! You can paint the jar, ad stickers, flowers, bows, whatever you like!
With my Mason Jar, I simply hot-glued a pink ribbon around it, and at the center I also hot-glued on a decorative snowflake.
These Mason Jars are so cute and make the perfect gift for whatever occasion. Once the recipe is made, the brownies are absolutely delicious.
Related articles
- Another creative use of mason jars (navarrahong.com)
- HFH Series: Mason Jar Gifts (cheapbutchicblog.com)

subset: commoncrawl


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Nine Setanta slots on BSkyB up for grabs
Canis Media will handle sales of broadcast slotsSetanta to stop broadcasting
LONDON -- The administrator for failed pay TV operator Setanta has put nine slots on BSkyB's satellite service up for grabs, which could raise as much as £1 million ($1.6 million).
Deloitte, the firm handling the dismantling of Setanta's business, has hired TV management company Canis Media to handle the sale of the nine slots.
The nine were used to broadcast Setanta News, Setanta Golf, Racing UK, Racing World, and the Arsenal, Celtic and Rangers TV channels.
Canis Media said Wednesday that there were also an unspecified number of unallocated digital Electronic Program Guide channels slots available.
"Sports broadcasters should obviously be looking very closely at the EPG to see how a channel move could help them," Canis Media chief Ed Hall said.
The clock is ticking for any moves by other broadcasters as BSkyB rules insist a channel can only be off air for 30 days before it is deleted from the EPG.


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How do I become a member?
We offer membership classes here at the church on a regular basis. In our membership classes, led by Rev. Mark Wesler (Senior Pastor) you can learn about Methodism, how to get involved in the church, our church in particular, and meet new people. Call the church office at (317) 861-4390 to find out more information on class dates and times.
How do I get involved in the church?
At NPUMC, we offer many activities for the whole family. We have Sunday School classes, Bible Studies, Recreation/Fitness Classes, Open Gym Activities, Fellowship Dinners, Church Outings, Church Mission Trips, and so much more. Check out our website events, our Facebook page, the weekly bulletin, and the monthly newsletter, or call the church office at (317) 861-4390.
How do I get myself and/or my children baptized?
The process of baptism is very simple. You do not have to be a member to get baptized, but we would encourage you to consider becoming a member at some point. Contact the church office and let us know that you are interested. We will discuss possible date options for you. For children, we like to have some pictures emailed to the church office, so they can be displayed on the big screen during the baptism. You can choose to be baptized during any worship service. You will receive a certificate from the church office to recognize your commitment.
How do I submit a prayer request?
You can submit prayer requests in the Sunday offering plate. We will take your prayer request and pass it along to our mailing list of faithful folks that have volunteered to pray for these requests. You can get added to the volunteer prayer list by contacting the church office as well.
How do I get the monthly newsletter and other materials from the church emailed to me?
Just let us know and we would be happy to add you to our distribution list.
What if I don't email? How can I get the newsletter?
We print several newsletters and place them outside the Sanctuary for those who do not receive email.
If preferred, we can also mail a copy to your home.
My question was not answered.
Email or call us! We would be happy to assist you!


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Quentin Tarantino has still got it.
Not that there's ever been a question of the filmmaker losing his way or his nerve for that matter, but it really is something to see a director of his ilk churning out masterpiece after masterpiece, as if each new picture he makes seems to have him coming into his best form. Each new movie is immediately thrust into the conversation of being his best, and DJANGO UNCHAINED is no different. As he's done with various genres in the past, be it crime drama, exploitation, swordplay or historical fantasy, Tarantino bends and twists them to his liking, putting his own unique stamp on the conventions that have become synonymous with these type of pictures. This time, it's the Spaghetti Western that's got his eye, as DJANGO UNCHAINED tells the story of a hero's quest to rescue his wife and exact a bit of revenge from those who've done him wrong along the way set against the backdrop of the Deep South during the days of slavery.
That hero is the titular character Django, played brilliantly by Jamie Foxx, a freed slave who enters into a partnership with King Schultz – the always mesmorizing Christoph Waltz – a dentist-turned-bounty hunter, who agrees to help Django on his search to find his beloved Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) in exchange for some time and assistance tracking down and killing wanted white folks to make money. I haven't always been a big Foxx fan, but where I've found him most effective is in these roles that begin quite soft-spoken but allow plenty of room for his moxie to break through as his character is forced to rise to the occasion to accomplish something great. It was a similar arc for Foxx in COLLATERAL, which, to this point, I found to be his most even work. But Foxx absolutely shines here as the focal point of DJANGO, bringing both a quiet subtlety and a rough-edged force to the character when necessary. Even in his most understated moments, there's still this underlying fire present to his demeanor that Foxx naturally brings to the role, allowing for a smooth transition between this captive Negro who fears the repercussions of his slave traders and a free black man who exudes a certain confidence that comes with having to answer to no one but himself. Back when I read through an early draft of the script many months back, that was when Will Smith seemed to be Tarantino's top choice for the lead, and I was quite intrigued to see him do something so different from his usual material. After watching Foxx absolutely own the role, I can't imagine it played any better by anyone.
Let me not take anything away from Waltz though, who is equally as important as Django in making the film work, as without his half of the partnership, the film would lack elegance only he can offer through a delightfulness that permeates his words. Whether it's been as the charming yet ruthless Hans Landa in Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTARDS or the wasted villain in GREEN HORNET, Waltz commands your attention every moment he's on-screen, and that charisma changes not a bit in DJANGO, with Waltz providing some semblance of a moral compass during this dark mark in America's history, which is ironic in its own right since the one white man present who does not believe in slavery does believe in the killing of people for reward. This is a part Tarantino wrote specifically for Waltz, and, following his award-winning supporting performance in BASTARDS, it shows that this working relationship is capable of something special everything they choose to work together. The quick-witted dialogue that emerges from the end of Tarantino's pen just rolls off the tip of Waltz's tongue with ease, whether excitedly relaying a German folktale to unfamiliar ears, verbally jousting with Leonardo DiCaprio's despicable villain or bantering swiftly with Django in a conversation about the meaning of the word "positive." Waltz has been a tour de force in every film he's taken on thus far, but he seems to raise his game even further when it's one from the mind of QT.
Let's get to DiCaprio though, who seems to be having a blast playing the most vile and disgusting character he's ever inhabited in his career, Monsieur Calvin Candie, a Francophile incapable of speaking the simplest French who owns the large plantation known as Candyland. It's here that he's taken to occupying his time betting on Mandingo fighting, a bloodsport pitting male slaves against each other to the death while their owners cheer on the brutality, and renting out ponies – female slaves used for "comfort" – to those who come calling for such services. It's also where Django will find his wife, leading to a plan being devised by the bounty hunting duo to hustle Candie in a deal so sweet, it'd be ridiculous to refuse… a deal that would have them walking away with Broomhilda as merely an afterthought. That makes for plenty of gamesmanship between Schultz and Candie, two men who have a bit of disdain for the other right off the bat, as they try to negotiate a deal they can both live with. Watching DiCaprio's Candie operate as if he's getting the best of this pairing is an absolute joy, no matter how villainous the character is. We've never gotten to see this side of DiCaprio, and frankly I want to see more. I beg someone to please give this gifted actor more opportunities to play bad guys with this amount of meat. We've seen him play sweet and heroic with plenty of complexity on numerous occasions, but in this taste of DiCaprio embracing a bit of evil, I believe we've only really scratched the surface of what he's capable of on-screen… and that's saying a lot when you consider the career he's had to this point.
DiCaprio doesn't bring the bad all by himself though, as Candie is constantly accompanied by his house Negro Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), who is all too eager to turn against his fellow slaves for the benefits it affords him in being in such good standing with the master. There are moments when you can make the argument that Stephen is much more of an awful human being than Calvin Candie for doing everything in his power to maintain the status quo, to keep his fellow Negroes down, by eliminating any and every chance they may have for happiness, joining in on their degradation whenever he can. He's a cantankerous personality who puts all of his deviousness into foiling whatever Django may have going on behind the scenes at the plantation he calls home. No Negro is going to come riding in on a horse and get away with it. Samuel L. Jackson has turned out plenty of memorable performances over the years, and now he can add his turn as Stephen among his finest.
DJANGO UNCHAINED isn't without its share of Tarantino flair either, as one of the film's big gunfights definitely doesn't lack in squibs to splatter the scene with blood spray. On top of that, you've got that Tarantino-infused dialogue sure to make you laugh at all the right moments (as evidenced by a great group argument about whether an early version of a Ku Klux Klan should wear bags over the head, regardless of the problems they bring) while also adding a serious gravity to this rescue and revenge tale by painting an in-your-face portrayal of slavery right before the Civil War. Add in your traditionally great soundtrack for a Tarantino flick, and you've got one hell of a movie.
While the subject matter is hardly light at times, there is a great degree of fun to be had watching DJANGO UNCHAINED. You can see the passion Tarantino has for the project in every frame that comes across the screen, and that gets passed down to you as a member of the audience who is sure to be swept away by this simple story he's put together with strong characters you want to spend nearly three hours of your life with. Don't be surprised to find DJANGO UNCHAINED high up on my Top 10 list for the year, because this is a great piece of film and another instance where Tarantino takes his best shot at topping his previous works and comes pretty damn close to succeeding.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
Follow me on Twitter.


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This is a picture a friend of mine took for an art project. It ended up looking really good!
This is just a little drawing I did a couple of days ago. Its for a buddhist aunt of mine, who I love! I'm going to write this quote below:
"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."- Buddha


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MSP® Partners
MSP Technology offers exclusive and non-exclusive partner agreements to companies with established markets. Depending on the level of partner experience, MSP can furnish multiple small plate technology components or complete air handlers. Take advantage of all the engineering and economic benefits that MSP Technology offers while maintaining your trusted name in the industry. As for integrating our MSP components, they are easy to customize and install to your project's specifications. Our engineers will insure that your MSP-based air handling system operates reliably and efficiently. MSP Technology will work closely with your design engineers to integrate MSP into your products with minimal impact on time and cost. For more information on our licensing agreements, contact us, or call 631-424-7542.


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Orlando Pirates SuperSport United Absa Premiership Report
Posted: 21 May 2016 Time: 14:34
SuperSport United twice fought back to secure a 2-2 draw away to Orlando Pirates as well as a top eight place ahead of Golden Arrows.
Pirates opened the scoring in the 67th minute after Sifiso Myeni sent a well taken left-footed shot from outside the box, which finally got the beating of Ronwen Williams.
Eleven minutes later, substitute Bradley Grobler grabbed the euqaliser to give SuperSport's top eight hopes a much needed boost.
An 87th minute penalty for Pirates had Stuart Baxter at the edge of his seat as he watched Mpho Makola bury his effort into the top right corner.
However, young Denwin Farmer was in the right place at the right time as the ball fell fortoitously at the teenager's feet before he sent a low effort beyond Brighton Mhlongo in the final minute of regulation time to secure a valuable point.
The result means Pirates finish in seventh on 41 points while SuperSport sneak into eight place ahead of Golden Arrows on goal difference.
HOME: Orlando Pirates
Coach: Eric Tinkler
Formation: 3-4-3
- 1 Brighton Mhlongo
- 4 Happy Jele
- 8 Thabo Matlaba
- 25 Edwin Gyimah
- 34 Ntsikelelo Nyauza
- 44 Rooi Mahamutsa
- 5 Mpho Makola
- 18 Issa Sarr
- 23 Sifiso Myeni
- 25 Thabo Rakhale
- 7 Tendai Ndoro
79 mins - Lehlohonolo Majoro
AWAY: SuperSport United
Coach: Stuart Baxter
Formation: 4-5-1
- 30 Ronwen Williams
- 5 Mario Booysen
- 5 Michael Boxall
- 13 Sibusiso Khumalo
- 25 Denwin Farmer
- 4 Michael Morton
- 8 Dean Furman
- 9 Dove Wome
74 mins - Bradley Grobler
- 13 Thuso Phala
- 24 David Mathebula
46 mins - Jeremy Brockie
- 10 Kingston Nkhatha


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September 7th, 1999
To Ross
No sadness in this one, no wont, no confusion, no wierdness,
no sexual battery of the self,
no frustration to clog our sinks,
no anticlimactic fuzzthinkers......
I just wanted to know how your holiday was......
oh, and to say I am well and
in no way close to the place I was in the last few confusing middle of the night shots in the dark..
I fed myself up with that whole amberthing
and one of the shots hit a piñata that bled all over me
the rediculous rain that rains and rains all over us and we can't stop it,
it is there, for us or against us....
always for us and against us,
it hits and we can laugh, smile or get angry and upset...
let it rain...
let it rain out my cigarette..., thankfully so.
There is much much power in the littlest things...
like turning the ringer off on the phone.
I decided that no call could make me feel any better and
she wouldn't call anyway and
if she was to I wouldn't care or need that. No good could come of that anyway...
no call could give me what I was looking for so
There is power in that,
a great tantamount starshaking power that does wonders
that St. John's Wort and funny movies can only imagine reaching....
Maybe you remember it. It is a definate bachelor type of power,
maybe an illegal intoxicant..
It was and it worked. It made me free,
like throwing away a half smoked smoke,
like turning off a song that you love halfway through..
It was necessary and made a step,
a step out of the darkness......the night they drove old dixie down...
.na na na na nana na an na na ............... .Love James
To James
To reply...
No tears in the eye?
No Joe
we must flow with things not so salty and wet yet sweet sweat.
To reply with a gleam in the eyes
when Joe NOLA boy tells stories of morning glorious dreams come true
like that time he decided it was time to stop stewing in love-sick soup telephone ringer roues.
And bravo para mi hombre if only I could speak Spanish.
And yes.
I found a chord and accord a connection and reflection.
Some circumspection... manipulated...
and that blood stained rust caked word we worship or adore adulterate then abhore
when SHE forgets that mi penga AINT no sign of the times and a nursery rhyme spewing lemon flavored lyme.
An exclamation point
or an untouched joint
choking on token moments of affection mistaken for truth
and a blood stained rust caked gold plated peuter word at times used as a sword that some love-wishers hord.
No piñatas spitting upon my mind multicultural candy coins.
Just sweet sweat minus chocha amarga.
A vacation from spirit stimied by New New Yawkers and unhospitality hawkers.
From conformity sharks and matty matty matty materialist paddies clothed in the latest garments of ever so perpetuated styles and when that ever-so-rare a New York notion appears I mean ya see Wall Street to Mid-town even East to West Village silicon smiles.
I walk miles
to meet the real and true
HE and SHE
that understands
GOD is WE
as long as we are honest and considerate, compassionate, thoughtful and free to be as we are
when we are truly true.
Oh I REALLY DON'T KNOW
as the story goes about the tale of Joe or Jack with the weight of too many loves on his back.
She was gorgeous.
Gorgeous I tell ya.
Yet she melted in my mind the way cotton candy disolves on one's tongue.
True Freedom.
Like that time I walked out the door without taking my art supplies and six books three journals a walkman two weeks worth of discs and seventeen scratchy scratch pens in a satchel, duffel bag and backpack for an evening of coffee house haunting waiting just waiting pre-senile osteo perosis.
She was gone with the last change in barometric pressure or direction of wind.
Did I swim?
It could be that I was that sugar molecule melting in saliva on MY tongue.
Absorbed and reabsorbed into my very own stream of consciousness.
Gotta pretend earning a living for the sum sense of paying my rent is equivalent to worshiping the sun.
Style worn in place of soul is equivalent to the aftermath of sex being various forms of venereal disease, the clap.
Attitude worn like clothes as style is like the assumption that buildings made of thick cement walls along the San Andres Fault will not crack and crumble.


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Wide Moat ETF Hits $100M in AUM
The Market Vectors Morningstar Wide Moat Research ETF (NYSE: MOAT), which debuted in late April 2012, has crossed the much ballyhooed $100 million in assets under management mark the fund's sponsor announced today. MOAT had $114 million in AUM as of January 4, according to Market Vectors data.
MOAT was introduced an avenue for investors to tap into so called wide moat businesses, or those companies with deep competitive advantages, an investing virtue extolled by legendary value investor Warren Buffett. The fund tracks the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index.
Morningstar's wide-moat analysis seeks to identify companies that possess one or more sustainable competitive advantages and are expected to have high returns on invested capital relative to their cost of capital, according to a statement issued by Market Vectors. That means the Morningstar research team hunts for sustainable competitive advantages or factors such as intangible assets, cost advantages, switching costs network effects and efficient scale.
MOAT, which has an annual expense ratio of 0.49 percent, is home to 21 stocks with none receiving an allocation of more than 5.34 percent. Top-10 holdings include Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW), Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV). Nearly 75 percent of MOAT's holdings have market values of $5 billion or more.
As measured by AUM, MOAT was the fifth-most successful equity-based ETF launched last year, according to the statement. From MOAT's inception through the end of last year, the ETF outperformed the S&P 500 by 5.13 percent.
For more on new ETFs, click here.
Posted-In: market vectorsNews Broad U.S. Equity ETFs Specialty ETFs New ETFs Intraday Update Markets ETFs Best of Benzinga
© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


text:
Pieter van ScherpenzeelAssociate
Pieter has been with Gilde since 2015. He has a Masters in Econometrics & Operational Research from the University of Amsterdam, specializing in Financial Econometrics. Before graduating in 2014, he worked at Gilde as an intern.
Pieter can be reached on +31 30 760 5911 or via firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
August 18, 2012, Colorado Public Television
In [the] new film ["9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out"], over 40 experts in the fields of structural engineering, high-rise architecture, controlled demolition, physics, chemistry and metallurgy lay out the case for a controlled demolition of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The experts cite evidence showing that high-temperature incendiaries and explosives were planted throughout the twin towers and the lesser-known Building 7 which collapsed later the same day. Eight experts in psychology … discuss the difficulties many people have in confronting this possible reality and how necessary the truth is for healing – both at the individual and collective levels. Two years in the making, "9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out" is the latest film from Architects & Engineers for 911 Truth, represented by founder Richard Gage, AIA. "The official story about the attacks of September 11 falls apart when you look squarely at the facts and apply basic scientific principles to interpret them," says Gage. "After more than ten years, a high-level investigation of the evidence is long overdue. Too much is at stake here to sweep the concerns under the rug. Family members of 9/11 victims speak to the viewers of this film. They explain why they are still not happy with the answers they've been given by our government. And they are asking you to join them in looking at what our experts have to say."
Note: To watch a beautifully-made 15-minute documentary put together by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, click here.
Courtesy of www.WantToKnow.info


text:
I wanted to reach out to Barkus Doolan because we have strong lead generation experience in the Legal space. I want to help build upon the work you are already doing in the digital space and help make improvements. Let's have a coffee and sit down to discuss leads?
Stephen Mumford


text:
A study has finally explained the long-known ability of black pepper, and the component known as piperine that gives it its characteristic taste, to block the formation of new fat cells, and help promote healthy weight.
I love it when they say long-known … long known by whom? And if it's so long known why did they just do a study? But that's just me … on with the article.
Previous studies had shown that piperine reduces fat levels in the bloodstream and has other beneficial health effects. Black pepper and the black pepper plant have been used for centuries in traditional Eastern medicine to treat gastrointestinal distress, pain, inflammation and other disorders. However, scientists have known little about how piperine works at the molecular level. Oh - that's why they just did the study! Ooops.
The scientists used lab studies and computer models to learn that piperine interferes with the activity of genes that control the formation of new fat cells. In this was, piperine may also set off a metabolic chain reaction that helps keep fat in check in other ways. This finding may lead to wider use of piperine or black-pepper extracts in fighting obesity and related diseases.
Kind of makes me wonder if black-pepper extract is going to be the next "wonder cure" for weight-loss, as was Hoodia years ago and the current craze of Green Coffee Extract. Still think it's a matter of calories in vs. calories out. Even so, I thought the study was interesting enough to pass along. When looking for a picture to post with this ad I found many, many recipes suggesting an "olive oil, black pepper, parmesan" topping for popcorn. Could be a yummy 100-cal snack, but watch those portions.
Above from the June 2012 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
as published in Vitality Magazine – July/August 2012
(with my thoughts in blue)


text:
Saturday, October 27, 2012
my fav porsche
1 comment:
- AnonymousNovember 30, 2012 at 11:03 PM
All four of the new Carrera models utilize a new version of Porsche's all-wheel drive system with a rear-wheel bias to emphasize the sporty character of the high-performance cars. All four of the Porsche wheels are driven by the all-wheel drive system and connected to a standard seven-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed, fast-shifting dual-clutch PDK transmission. Click here to get further details about Porsche airboxReplyDelete
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text:
Brighton Fuse isn't just concerned with mapping the size, shape and flavour of the Creative, Digital and IT sector. It's also looking to the future. The Brighton/Cherokee Nation Digital Cultural Exchange is part of an experimental strand of the research that investigates the development of communication, collaboration and co-creation skills driven by digital technologies.
The Brighton/Cherokee Nation Digital Cultural Exchange project is an ambitious experiment in using digital media to drive a cultural exchange project. Two secondary schools in Brighton and Hove and three schools in the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma, are getting to know each other through the use of digital technologies to communicate, collaborate and co-create. This video shows the Brighton launch event where 40+ year 8 children mashed up their interpretations of their cultures with help from artists SDNA.


text:
In the style of Candy Spelling, whose Los Angeles $150 million mega-mansion is the most expensive home on the MLS in the United States, another billionaire lines up to hawk unneeded square footage to some other billionaire who wants it. This time it's "timeshare tycoon" David Siegel.
For $75 million you can have Siegel's custom Florida mansion of 90,000 square feet. If you're having trouble picturing such proportions, know that's roughly two football fields, twice the size of the White House. Antonio Gonzales of the Associated Press reports that this mansion is thus "36 times the size of the average American family home. The master bedroom alone…is twice the size of a standard house."
What fills up the space? Here's a list:
Twenty-three bathrooms
Thirteen bedrooms
Ten kitchens
A 20+ car garage
Three pools
A bowling alley
An indoor skating rink
A two-story movie theater
A video arcade
A fitness center
A baseball field
Two tennis courts
Ah, but wait for what doesn't fill up the space! When the economy took a dive, Siegel had to halt construction on his dream home, and put it up for sale well before it was actually finished.
Instead of stonewalled gates, a chain link fence…keeps onlookers out of the 10 acre property. The driveway is overrun with dirt and rocks. Weeds fill the planned baseball field…The rest of the mansion is more an outline: only steel beams, insulation and most of the electrical wiring are in place. The two elevator shafts are empty.
Stone for the exterior is waiting in boxes that fill the cavernous garage. The Olympic-length pool…is a carved-out shell.
Yes, like so many a distressed American property today, this home is being sold "as is." But to get it to actually function, the buyer should look forward to another $25 million in expenses, at least. In fact, you can buy it "finished" for $100 million.
Other fun facts for the future owner of this mansion:
Property taxes on $100 million would run between $1.45 million and $1.74 million a year in Florida's Orange County. Meanwhile, maintaining the property and its utilities would be at least that much– again, every year.
So who is the buyer for such a home? The seller's agent, an optimistic Carol Ann Hewitt of Windemere has an answer: "It's going to take a very unique kind of buyer to purchase the property."
Indeed? If "unique" here is being used the way family members diplomatically describe a disheveled cousin who talks in cat language and only eats foods starting with the letter "G," then we agree.


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Leyland Kirby - We drink to forget the coming storm (Free DL)
'We drink to forget the coming storm'' is collection of forty tracks released on my fortieth birthday. For just forty days and forty nights it is available for free (and for a donation) as a thank-you for your support and interest in my works. Like life itself wrong notes may be hit, there maybe the odd distortion, melodies drift and we hope to gain strength from the introspective nature of the work. We cover no new ground. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. Wishing you all the best from Krakow where I raise the glass of good spirit. Recorded by Leyland Kirby at Bochenska, Krakow in 2014. Digital cover art painted by the meister Ivan Seal.
Created from an original photograph taken by Jorge Ballarin in Room 808 at NH Sur, Atocha, Madrid. Download Here


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We celebrated Alex's 4th birthday yesterday with our extended family. Alex was SO excited for this party. Everything had to be decorated according to his specifications, everything had to be "just so", and could hardly wait for his special day to arrive!
Everyone was asked to wear a party hat. With over 20 guests, he ran out before all the guests arrived, but we still had lots of party hat fun…
Alex wanted a Car 1 birthday party theme, and he was in luck…Bailey's had all the Cars 1 party supplies on clearance for 50 cents per package! Convenient, huh? :)
CVS still had the Cars 1 helium balloons available, so we were able to pick up on of those for our excited little boy. (Poor Max didn't understand why he wasn't getting a birthday balloon.)
We also printed, laminated, and hung several two-sided cars ~ Lightning, Mater, Sally, and Finn McMissile. (There was no convincing the boy that Finn McMissile was from the second movie, ha!)
Grandma S & my siblings helped by bringing side dishes, and I made pulled pork using the EASIEST recipe ever…cook a pork roast with root beer in the crock pot, drain, shred, add a bottle of barbecue sauce. A few bites tasted a bit root-beer-y, but overall, I thought it was a good, quick recipe to feed a crowd.
Grandma P & Jessica made a Lightning McQueen cake. They are so creative!
This is the first year Alex has blown out his candles all by himself.
Max barely ate any lunch except for fruit, but he sure gobbled up the frosting and ice cream! I'm not sure he ever took a bite of his cake, but he ate a LOAD of black fondant! Then, when he thought no one was looking, Max helped himself to some extra ice cream straight from the scoop!
Jensyn slept through lunchtime, but she enjoyed a whole bunch of food from Aunt Deb and Grandpa S. It's unbelievable to me how much this little 16 lb pipsqueak can pack away!
She got passed around a lot, which was fine as long as Mommy was out of sight. Josh definitely enjoyed her today! The rest of the pictures with Jensyn are on somebody else's camera, as I wasn't allowed in whatever room the baby was in…;)
Alex got spoiled with a Chuggington roundhouse and ChugWash. He also receive a LeapPad case and three new games, a ride-on bouncy ball, a Chuggington DVD, a puppy game, Lightning McQueen underwear, and two new pairs of pants.
The underwear makes me laugh. When Keith's cousin Danny e-mailed me to ask for gift suggestions for Alex, I asked Alex what he wanted from Danny & Ali for his birthday. Alex said, "Lightning McQueen underwear!" He was insistent, so that's what they got him…and then Alex seemed like he didn't care at all upon opening it. As soon as his guests left, though, guess what Alex was wearing? His new underwear! (I know, buddy, you're going to be really ticked at me for writing this when you're 14 years old and reading through this blog. Sorry!)
The new Chuggington sets saw a lot of playtime from the little kids and some of the uncles. When Alex woke up this morning, that's the first thing he did…run to the living room to see his new Chuggington sets. This is definitely a big hit! (As soon as he finished breakfast, though, he grabbed the Leap Pad to try out each of his new games!)
So, that's it…the 4th birthday is finally complete! Happy 4, Alexander. We are so blessed to have you in our family!
Oh, and just for the record, Alex says (quite insistently) that he'd like a SEVEN cake for his 5th birthday. We love you, buddy, but sometimes you have some strange ideas! I'm curious to see what theme you'll REALLY choose! ;)


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There are reality shows set in foreign deserts and on the decks of Alaskan frigates and amid the industrial mixers of gourmet cupcakeries, but over time, the series have taken on a predominant backdrop. You can probably picture it: The identikit mini-manses and the vast living rooms and gleaming kitchens within. The multiple garages housing SUVs that carry our heroes on their strip-mall errands. The empty strip-mall restaurants that become extravagantly air-conditioned OK Corrals when producer-mandated clear-the-air lunches degenerate into Chardonnay-powered tirade-exchanges.
Though this shrieking sprawlscape is not his preferred haunt, the celebrity urbanist Richard Florida will admit to occasionally cruising reality TV's endless subdevelopments. Also, the author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The Great Reset watches the Today show while he's working out, and when it changes over to Hoda and Kathie Lee, it's suddenly all about these people on reality shows, so I hear about it there. What he's seen has led him to develop a working theory about the genre. It's not just that a lot of the shows are set in suburbiasuburban life actually creates the appetite for them. Reality TV (from the Kardashians to the Jersey Shore) is the product of isolation & sprawl is how he put it when floating the notion via Twitter (tweets being the new white paper).
It was a jarring encounter with Kim and Khloe Inc. that first gave him this idea. I was sitting in a hotel room in New York City; my wife was out. And here comes, I don't know, The Kardashians Invade New York, or whatever it's called, he says. And they made New York look like a mall! Seeing New York flattened into Orange County by the Kardashians' SUV-chauffeured, credit-card-powered sack of Gotham led Florida to expand his signature critique of atomizing sprawl to include JWoww, NeNe, and the other denizens of reality television's Monster Island.
But Florida says he's not trying to stuff burb-based reality TV into a cities=good, suburbs=bad rubric. Instead, he's tracing a continuum that looks something like: sprawl+isolation=the substitution of televised, crazy-eyed pods of frenemies for actual human communities. The knee-jerk reaction to reality TV is that it's dumbification, Florida says. But it's not, and the people watching aren't dumb. They're just looking for connection. Florida uses Cambridge University psychologist Peter J. Rentfrow's concept of communal consumers to describe reality junkies. These are people who want stories about people and who used to rely on gossip, or on the little mini-dramas in their community, he says. And when you're isolated in the suburbs, you don't have that.
The prospect of having to settle for the sniping of a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills (which has taken on darker overtones following the suicide of a cast member's estranged husband) in place of a real drama-dishing housewife from down the block is pretty bleak. But such, Florida argues, are the results of picket-fence-bounded displacement. Think of it this way, says the New Jerseybred Florida, setting up a comparison from his own upbringing. My parents, growing up in Newark, had no need for these types of stories. They could get all the interaction and the drama they needed right there in the neighborhood.


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Between 1991 and 2001 Joe fronted a band called Lithium Joe. Based in Hull, they gigged and gigged and recorded seven demo cassettes, four EPs, an album and a mini-album but caught absolutely no breaks whatsoever.
It was fun while it lasted though, and they gave it a better shot than most.
Much of their recorded material has been uploaded to Bandcamp, so anyone who remembers them, or wishes to catch up, can get their hands on the lot.
The album 'Upstairs at Park Street' is on this link:
but you can follow the tabs to dozens more tracks should you enjoy yourself.


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Krebs on Security - Adobe to patch zero-day flaw used by governments to spy on people. They're only patching it because it's been posted about. And the point is, they knew the flaws were there, and probably put it there at the request of a government, probably the US:
Adobe Systems Inc. says its plans to issue a patch on Wednesday to fix a zero-day vulnerability in its Flash Player software that is reportedly being exploited in active attacks. The flaw was disclosed publicly over the weekend after hackers broke into and posted online hundreds of gigabytes of data from Hacking Team, a controversial Italian company that's long been accused of helping repressive regimes spy on dissident groups.
In an advisory published today, Adobe said "a critical vulnerability (CVE-2015-5119) has been identified in Adobe Flash Player 22.214.171.124 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system."
Wow, eh? How useful! The vulnerability works against Windows, Mac, and Linux! So no matter what OS you run, you're vulnerable. That's either an amazing coincidence, or it's a great feat in software engineering.
Get this: the problem's not flash. The problem is that every operating system was vulnerable to this flash exploit.
Several reports on Twitter suggested the exploit could be used to bypass Google Chrome's protective "sandbox" technology, a security feature that forces the program to run in a heightened security mode designed to block attacks that target vulnerabilities in Flash. A spokesperson for Google confirmed that attackers could evade the Chrome sandbox by using the Flash exploit in tandem with another Windows vulnerability that appears to be unpatched at the moment. Google also says its already in the process of pushing the Flash fix out to Chrome users.
AND Google! They can sploit Chrome by using yet another Windows vulnerability. Wow, those completely honest mistakes and heretofore unknown "vulnerabilities" are just multiplying and multiplying, eh? And they all fit together so perfectly, as if there was some sort of perfect Creator God who willed them all into being.
The Flash flaw was uncovered after Hacking Team's proprietary information was posted online by hacktivists seeking to disprove the company's claims that it does not work with repressive regimes (the leaked data suggests that Hacking Team has contracted to develop exploits for a variety of countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Sudan and Thailand). Included in the cache are several exploits for unpatched flaws, including apparently a Windows vulnerability.
According to new research from security firm Trend Micro, there is evidence that the Flash bug is being exploited in active attacks.
The hackers didn't develop an exploit that manages to exploit unknown vulnerabilities in 3 separate operating systems. That's silly. The Sudanese government didn't tell them "hey, we need a hack to break into people's systems to monitor their comms, and it needs to work against everything including Linux in case we come across a target running Xubuntu on a rooted Android phone."
The hackers just found something that was already put there.
They probably got the code from some Russian, whose dad works at the FSB, who got the code from Germany, who got the code from Israel, who got the code from some programmer at Apple or Google or Microsoft or Adobe who was part of a team that wrote their company's small portion of the exploit under the co-ordination of the NSA.
You won't think I'm paranoid when they come to get you!
Wake up sheeple!


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Well, a girl can dream right?
The Full Hunger Moon is when game is scarce and predators are particularly hungry. AKA - Little Famine Moon and Bony Moon and Full Snow Moon.
So speaking of moons, do you think the moon is ever full at Half Moon Bay?
Okay, many of you may wonder where is Half Moon Bay?


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Artist List
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Sopranos: Gillian Keith - Reviews
Love Me To Death' Tete a Tete Festival
Planet Hugill (August 2018)
'Gillian Keith (looking almost unrecognisable in a blonde wig) moved easily from sexy night-club to battered wife to tragic heroine. In fact' some of the best moments in the opera were the solos that Randle had written for Keith' a poignant one after a battering from Blakeley which helped you understand why she did not leave him' and her final moving monologue from the scaffold.'
Coraline' Royal Opera House
The Independent (April 2018)
'But they've hit on a tone which clearly works for a teenage audience' and their cast do them proud. Kitty Whately and Alexander Robin Baker are entirely believable as the parents' while Harry Nicoll makes a suitably dotty mouse-fancier; Gillian Keith and Frances McCafferty incarnate the Thesps as to the manner born.'
Coraline' Royal Opera House
The Observer (April 2018)
'Gillian Keith and Frances McCafferty added humour as unretirable actresses.'
Coraline' Royal Opera House
BachTrack.com (March 2018)
'…the most fun is had by the trio of batty neighbours' Gillian Keith' Frances McAfferty and Harry Nicoll. '
Coraline' Royal Opera House
Classical Source (March 2018)
…the 'resting' actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible' who have more than a hint of pantomime ugly sisters. Their ravishing duets create some of the funniest moments.
Coraline' Royal Opera House
The Guardian (March 2018)
'...while Gillian Keith and Frances McCafferty camp it up something rotten as misses Spink and Forcible.'
Coraline' Royal Opera House
The Telegraph (March 2018)
'Gillian Keith and Frances McCafferty do an over-the-top double act as two camp old actresses...'
Coraline' Royal Opera House
What's on Stage (March 2018)
'...while Gillian Keith and Frances McCafferty were great fun as the faded actresses.'
CD: J.S Bach The Complete Solo Soprano Cantatas Vol 1' Signum Classics
Planet Hugill (July 2017)
'Throughout' her diction is admirable and clear' you hardly need the printed text. Keith keeps a light interpretative hand on the music; she conveys meaning with poise' but does not present these pieces as intense devotional music' instead taking the music on its own terms...But in many ways' Gillian Keith's recordings is a daring move against modern orthodoxies. There is no doubt that she has the technical ability to sing these piece' Richard Strauss's Zerbinetta is in her operatic repertoire. But here is nothing boyish or white about her voice. She is a lyric soprano' but sings with a vibrant' vibrato-let tone.'
60th Birthday Celebration for George Vass' St John's Smith Sqaure
Classical Source (May 2017)
'The diaphanous accompaniment in 'Loveliest of Trees' caught the ear amidst the melancholy' occasionally reminding of Britten's Phaedra; 'Far in a Western Brookland' is a dark lullaby; and 'In valleys green and still' is bittersweet and heavy-hearted. All sentiments were intensely conveyed by Gillian Keith' but what a shame someone clapped far too soon at the end (silence continuing) of the final song; mood-breaking vandalism. I hope to hear this superb cycle again' and soon.
Keith was also vibrant' and exact' in Les illuminations (1939)' Britten's settings of Rimbaud' perhaps more today associated with tenors (not least because of Peter Pears) but originally composed for Sophie Wyss. Here singer' conductor and players caught the moods vividly and sensitively' the music more expressionist than can be the case' and there were numerous magical and evocative moments.'
The Telephone Call' Tête à Tête
Opera Now (October 2015)
'Gillian Keith sang the monologue at poignant levels of desperation'
Symphony No 3 (Nielsen) BBC Philharmonic Orchestra' Bridgewater Hall Manchester
Manchester Evening News (June 2015)
'That was the peak of the cycle for me. The third symphony – subtitled 'Sinfonia espansiva' – made a good finale to the final night' but despite surging seas of sound and an open-air evocation of nature (with the human voice' in this case Hanno Müller-Brachmann and Gillian Keith' contributing beautifully)' its pre-First-World-War optimism seems shallow now'
'Debussy and his Muse' Wilton's Music Hall' London
Planet Hugill.com (April 2015)
'Gillian Keith created a dramatic context by performing the whole evening as Marie-Blanche Vasnier's daughter reminiscing to us. This could have been a rather arch concept' but Gillian Keith's performance was so beautifully direct and full of charm that instead she drew you into the story… Gillian Keith and Simon Lepper took a thematic journey through the Vasnier Songbook and other songs dedicated to Marie-Blanche Vasnier. All were linked via narrative and quotations from letters' providing just enough context… Gillian Keith allowed the songs to speak for themselves as she combined performances of the songs with reading out Debussy's effusive dedications… In a 75 minute programme' Gillian Keith performed 18 songs' all but four written for Marie-Blanche Vasnier' and her distinctive high' silvery coloratura voice… These are not easy songs' and even the simpler ones stick to a high tessitura. But Gillian Keith' a noted Zerbinetta' sang them all with apparent ease and moved well beyond simple technical skill to creating a real sense of character. And throughout she presented the songs with seductive charm. It helped that Wilton's Music Hall has its own delightful feel of faded grandeur which combined with the performances to create a very special mood'
Debussy: Songs for His Muse - Gillian Keith & Simon Lepper CD review
Planet Hugill.com (April 2015)
'...overall she sings with great poise and brings a lovely sense of colour and sensitivity to them' going well beyond simple technical expertise and combining with Lepper to make something really expressive'
Songbook' Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at CBSO Centre
polaroidsandpolarbears.co.uk (March 2015)
'...the excellent Gillian Keith got her teeth' and vocal cords' into a small set of songs by Harrison Birtwistle'
Songbook' Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Wigmore Hall
BachTrack.com (February 2015)
'Performing this miscellany of songs required remarkable flexibility and technical brilliance...Gillian Keith managed her often relentlessly high parts well'
Songbook' Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Wigmore Hall
Guardian (February 2015)
'These contemporary works varied in style and quality but BCMG and sopranos Gillian Keith and Rebecca von Lipinski tackled them in style...the songs varied in quality' but the best were memorable' while the standard of performance – with sopranos Gillian Keith and Rebecca von Lipinski sharing the vocal honours was high...Keith charted the stark solemnity of three of Birtwistle's Paul Celan settings' and floated her way through Donatoni's diaphanous An Angel Within My Heart'
Gloria - A Pigtale' Mahogany Opera Group at Buxton Festival
BachTrack.com (July 2014)
'The performance itself was good' with excellent singing from Gillian Keith'
Gloria - A Pigtale' Mahogany Opera Group at Buxton Festival
Gloucestershire Echo (July 2014)
'Gillian Keith sings Gloria "the sexiest sow in Soho" with as much elegance as her porcine circumstances allow'
Death Actually' GOTcompany at Spitalfields Music Festival
The Arts Desk.com (June 2014)
'The eight-part antiphonies of Komm' Jesu' komm pinged off the Toynbee wood and plaster in the hands of the best singers in the business. On the top lines were contrasting sopranos Gillian Keith and Elin Manahan Thomas...'
Death Actually' GOTcompany at Spitalfields Music Festival
The Times (June 2014)
'That was followed by three Bach motets' sung brilliantly from memory and with expressive dance-like movements by eight distinguished soloists' including Murray again. Quite apart from the dramatic impact' which was by turns fervent and touching' the level of expertise required to memorise' choreograph and co-ordinate such complex polyphonic music was jaw-droppingly virtuosic. I had quibbles over the interpolation of folk ballads into Bach' but could only applaud the boldness of the concept'
Gloria - A Pigtale' Mahogany Opera Group
The Times (May 2014)
'The heroine is a pig with curly golden locks — here' the fine soprano Gillian Keith' sporting a Dolly Parton wig and a Julie Walters grin — and the short drama is a sort of porcine Lulu' beginning with a similar framing device to Alban Berg's opera and also boasting a leading lady both aware of her magnetism but doomed to suffer for it. While Lulu is murdered by Jack the Ripper' Gloria' however' is expelled from her sty' narrowly avoids being turned into sausages and finds the hairy boar of her dreams...Keith tirelessly vaults into the vocal stratosphere again and again with impressive ease'
Albert Herring' Barbican London
Planet Hugill.com (November 2013)
'Gillian Keith was a fluttery' nervous and very stylishly dressed Miss Wordsworth and a complete delight in the role's rhapsodic' coloratura passages'
Albert Herring' Barbican London
The Spectator (November 2013)
'Gillian Keith as Miss Wordsworth' the teacher of' among others' the three children' marvellously acted and sung'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
Opera (September 2013)
'Countess Sylvia (the charming' bright-voiced Gillian Keith)'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
BachTrack.com (July 2013)
'Sylvia' sung by Gillian Keith' displayed the best singing of the evening – coupled with an assured characterisation of the scheming aristocrat' her light voice was perfectly suited to the whimsical style of the music'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
Guardian (July 2013)
'The cast nevertheless give it their all...Gillian Keith sparkles as Sylvia'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
Observer on Sunday (July 2013)
'...the tinselly coloratura of the Countess' brilliantly dispatched by Gillian Keith' is a reminiscence of Marguerite's bedazzlement when she opens the jewel casket deposited in her garden by the devil'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
Telegraph (July 2013)
'Gillian Keith sang with glassy charm'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
The Arts Desk.com (July 2013)
'The whole production is splendidly played. Gillian Keith makes an affecting Countess and her coloratura singing is outstanding'
La Colombe' Buxton Festival
The Times (July 2013)
'Countess Sylvie - Gillian Keith dispatched that part with vigorous silver tones'
Exsultate' jubilate & Regina coeli' Columbus Symphony
The Columbus Dispatch (February 2013)
'Last night's "Mozart & Haydn" concert at the Ohio Theatre featured the Columbus Symphony in what might be its most joyful performance of sacred music and symphony in recent memory... Soprano Gillian Keith joined the orchestra and chorus for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Exsultate' jubilate and Regina coeli. Keith has the type of light lyric voice that handles Mozart's ornate phrases with ease yet still conveys warmth and grace... Regina coeli' a hymn to the queen of heaven' is at times jubilant and at times contemplative. Throughout the piece' the instrumentalists and singers focused tightly on timbre and dynamics to convey the underlying emotion. Keith's solo in the "Ora pro nobis" section was especially reverent and elegant'
Antique Lands' Distant Shores' Presteigne Festival
Tempo (January 2013)
'Gillian Keith's vocal artistry graced all
three of these very different scores: the flinty menace of the first song and the flamboyance of the second both
suited her innate sense of drama' while in the last song she was able to draw the audience in with her most
enthrallingly intimate and confidential manner'
The Fairy Queen' Brilliant Classics CD
Opera (October 2012)
'Sharing the soprano honours Gillian Keith' whose light-hearted 'Sing while we trip it' is sheer delight...'
Jephtha' Buxton Festival
Opera (September 2012)
'...Gillian Keith's Iphis had real style'
Garland of Sing' Presteigne Festival
Birmingham Post (August 2012)
'Although contemporary music lies at the core of the Presteigne Festival it's often mainstream works that provide the framework to individual concerts. In Gillian Keith's recital on Monday afternoon' for example' Richard Strauss' Debussy and Walton separated two groups of songs' including one premiere' by six very much alive composers. Of these the new work' 'I Travelled among Unknown Men' by Peter Fribbins' offered a refreshingly unpretentious setting of Wordsworth's poem' slight in emotional range' but beautifully delivered by Keith.
It was good' too' to revisit three songs from the collaborative 'A Garland for Presteigne' of 2003' notably Adrian Williams' vividly programmatic 'Red Kite Flying'' with its wheeling and plunging piano part so brilliantly executed by Simon Lepper. Lepper was equally responsive in Strauss's 'Mädchenblumen' and Debussy's 'Poèmes de Paul Verlaine'' alert to every nuance of both singer (Keith's vibrant tone' elegant phrasing and facial expressions knowingly communicated the romantic essence of each song) and the music itself; and in James Francis Brown's 'Ozymandias' she demonstrated her versatility by adopting a completely different demeanour – steely' dark and moodily brooding'
Presteigne Festival
Birmingham Post (August 2012)
'Although contemporary music lies at the core of the Presteigne Festival it's often mainstream works that provide the framework to individual concerts. In Gillian Keith's recital on Monday afternoon' for example' Richard Strauss' Debussy and Walton separated two groups of songs' including one premiere' by six very much alive composers. Of these the new work' 'I Travelled among Unknown Men' by Peter Fribbins' offered a refreshingly unpretentious setting of Wordsworth's poem' slight in emotional range' but beautifully delivered by Keith. It was good' too' to revisit three songs from the collaborative 'A Garland for Presteigne' of 2003' notably Adrian Williams' vividly programmatic 'Red Kite Flying'' with its wheeling and plunging piano part so brilliantly executed by Simon Lepper. Lepper was equally responsive in Strauss's 'Mädchenblumen' and Debussy's 'Poèmes de Paul Verlaine'' alert to every nuance of both singer (Keith's vibrant tone' elegant phrasing and facial expressions knowingly communicated the romantic essence of each song)'
BBC Philharmonic' Prom 22' Royal Albert Hall
Bachtrack.com (July 2012)
'Soprano Gillian Keith sang with great tone' and sparkle to match her bright pink dress...'
BBC Philharmonic' Prom 22' Royal Albert Hall
Classical Source.com (July 2012)
'Gillian Keith effortlessly floated her eerily disembodied high soprano' a detached 'white' sound that suited the dispassionate bleakness of the poems perfectly'
BBC Philharmonic' Prom 22' Royal Albert Hall
Guardian (July 2012)
'The vocal lines are often stratospherically high (Gillian Keith was the effortless soloist here) floating above orchestral textures that are by turns intricately hyperactive and beguilingly becalmed'
BBC Philharmonic' Prom 22' Royal Albert Hall
MusicOMH.com (July 2012)
'Utilising Japanese musical forms with their combination of repetition and development' and various blends of orchestral instruments to create a myriad of textures' it proved the perfect vehicle for demonstrating the talents of Gillian Keith. The soprano is required to cover over two octaves' and Keith's mature and beautifully clean sound captured a perfect sense of otherworldliness as befits this meditation on sleeping and dreaming. When her voice hit the highest notes' it possessed a direct and yet pleasing metallic quality'
BBC Philharmonic' Prom 22' Royal Albert Hall
Times (July 2012)
'...she nimbly bobbed and weaved among Knussen's telling evocations of birds' rats' the woman's corpse from Plath's poem Edge' and the first slivers of a new day'
Jephtha' Buxton Festival
Arts Desk.com (July 2012)
'All the principals sing well. Gillian Keith makes a pert and touching Iphis' symbolically appearing in a red coat in this black world and singing of light as she unknowingly faces death'
Jephtha' Buxton Festival
Times (July 2012)
'Iphis' his daughter' ever more Pollyanna-esque in the chirruping soprano of Gillian Keith — until' that is' she appears in scarlet coat as sacrificial victim'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
Musicweb International (April 2012)
'From the beginning the quality of her clear' light' lyrical voice is apparent' and she controls it marvellously' literally breathing life into phrases with thoughtful air control...she is thoroughly convincing and communicates the emotional content of the poet's text and Strauss's ravishing music to great effect...she brings plenty of apt emotion to Strauss's settings' tastefully understated and always resolutely supported by Simon Lepper's near-immaculate piano...she has exactly what it takes' with Lepper's help' to make her interpretation much as good as it gets'
Mozart & Bach' Northern Sinfonia' Sage Gateshead
Bachtrack.com (April 2012)
'Gillian Keith set the scene with an exuberant performance of Mozart's Exsultate' Jubilate' which she sang with a decidedly cheeky twinkle. Originally written for the Italian castrato Venanziano Rauzzini when Mozart was still only seventeen' it's a piece that has to be sung with an immense sense of fun' and soloist and orchestra under the direction of Simon Halsey delivered plenty of that. The quieter inner movements provided a nice few moments of calm before bursting into the famous Alleluja: Gillian Keith sang the recitative-like Fulget amica dies with firm conviction' and the Tu' virginum corona was simple and lyrical...the unaccompanied passages were delightful and her top C at the end was delivered with panache...The five solo singers were all excellent'
La Resurrezione' Ars Lyrica Houston
Arts and Culture Magazine Houston (March 2012)
'...a quintet of magnificent guest vocalists' Ars Lyrica created a sonic experience that was truly memorable. Canadian soprano Gillian Keith stole the show from the first scene...she captured the full attention of the audience from her first strut onto the stage. I' for one' was so mesmerized by her performance that it did not even occur to me to read the supertitles. Nor did I even have to in order to gather the meaning of the words' for Keith has that rare ability to communicate the emotion of the text through her extraordinary vocal expressivity and lyricism'
Silete Venti' The Sixteen' New Zealand Arts Festival
Capital Times.nz (March 2012)
'In the first half Canadian soprano Gillian Keith joined the orchestra for the early motet Silenti venti. She is an assured artist who sang with great communication and sense of style'
Silete Venti' The Sixteen' New Zealand Arts Festival
Stuff.co.nz (March 2012)
'The motet Silete Venti' however' was a different type of work; a work for soloist and orchestra' and here the Canadian soprano Gillian Keith revealed herself to be a singer of rare distinction' with a wonderfully secure technique and a pure quality of voice' ideal for Handel'
Messiah' Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Calgary Herald (December 2011)
'Gillian Keith brought a coloratura soprano's personality to the soprano solos' the voice light and highly flexible' with tasteful ornaments and a "speaking" way of singing consistent with Taurins' conception of the work as whole. As might be expected she sang the socks off the runs in Rejoice Greatly and was also expressive in I Know that my Redeemer Liveth.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/adds+appeal+Messiah+Handel+evergreen+masterpiece/5841264/story.html#ixzz1gLIeUtN6'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
American Record Guide (October 2011)
'Soprano Gillian Keith' who took a degree in
piano performance from McGill University'
here proves herself to be a superb interpreter
of Richard Strauss's lieder. This is one of the
best Strauss recital albums since Soile
Isokoski's memorable traversal of the orchestral
songs for Ondine (Sept/Oct 2002). She has
power a-plenty' but even more impressive are
her perfectly gossamer pianissimos
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
Opera Canada (October 2011)
'PART I: Toronto-born lyric soprano Gillian Keith comes across as one of the most versatile artists on the current classical circuit. Her crystal-clear' transparent tones grace several discs in John Eliot Gardiner's "Bach Pilgrimage" series of cantatas' and she has appeared frequently in performances under other original-instrument maestros. But Keith is equally at home in Classical' Romantic and modern music' and has won praise for her Zerbinetta' having made her Covent Garden debut as that stratospheric "Ariadne auf Naxos" character. She turns again to Strauss for this recital' which takes its cheeky title from Gershwin's song "By Strauss" (it referred to the "other" Strauss' of course). Included are four complete groups "Mädchenblumen' op. 22' Fünf Lieder' op. 48' Drei Lieder' op. 69" and "Drei Lieder der Ophelia' Op.67") plus a number of miscellaneous songs' including the popular "Ständchen" and "Muttertänderlei." Keith's high' bright voice and perfect enunciation are ideal for Strauss. Although small in size' her instrument recalls that of Elisabeth Schumann' whom Strauss often referred to as ideal for his music'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
Opera Canada (October 2011)
'PART II: The highlights for me are the "Ophelia Lieder"' to texts from "Hamlet". These are unique in Strauss's canon' with oddly captivating accompaniment that borders on atonality' and they are not often performed (Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Glenn Gould recorded them in a luscious rendition' although she was not pleased with her partner's eccentricities). The first song' "Wie erkenn' ich mein Treulieb'" is eerie in its depiction of the deranged Ophelia; the second' "Guten Morgen' 's ist Sankt Valentins Tag'" frantically shows the manic' chattering Ophelia' singing a mile a minute about absolutely nothing; and the third' "Sie trugen ihm auf der Bahre' bloss'" is marked by dreamlike' long lines. Keith turns in some beautiful singing here. "Malven'" one of Strauss's late songs' was discovered only in the 1980s and first recorded by Eva Marton and the Toronto Symphony under Andrew Davis. Keith navigates perfectly its wide range' perilous leaps and jagged contours. The "Mädchenblumen" set (in spite of silly texts by Felix Dahn) and the op. 48 set are equally delectable. In the latter' "Freundliches Vision" is blessed with a hushed stillness' and Keith's performances of that group's final two' winter-themed songs are especially moving. Accompanist Simon Lepper offers sensitive support throughout'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
Gramophone (August 2011)
'...impressive...Gillian Keith reveals their melodic memorability. She is at her finest in 'Freundliches Vision' (Op 48) and is quite charming in 'Schlagende Herzen'...Keith is best suited to the three 'Ophelia' songs'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Financial Times (July 2011)
'...while Gillian Keith profiled the man-eating Philine as Zerbinetta's alter ego'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Guardian (July 2011)
'Gillian Keith's Philine gets a big production number for her giddy coloratura Polonaise'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Opera Today (July 2011)
'the star of the show was undoubtedly' and fittingly' Gillian Keith as the dazzling diva' Philine. Keith relished the giddy theatricality of her show-stopping Polonaise and despatched the coloratura of 'Je suis Tytania' with aplomb. Her dressing-room door appropriately sported a glittering star; and it was no surprise that her excessive luggage required the heft of several strapping chaps to hoist it onto the departing train'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Oxford Times (July 2011)
'It is set amid a theatrical background not dissimilar to that presented in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos' with a prima donna of a leading actress dazzlingly depicted by coloratura soprano Gillian Keith'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Seen & Heard International (July 2011)
'Gillian Keith's floozy Philine was outstanding in all respects' her silvery coloratura soprano complementing her acting'
Mignon' Buxton Festival
Stage (July 2011)
'Gillian Keith sparkles as the coloratura-flaunting actress Philine'
Florilegium' The Israel Festival
Jerusalem (June 2011)
'This is also the work which brought to the stage the wonderful Canadian soprano' Gillian Keith. Keith has a clean and uniquely personal soprano. She was born to sing Baroque. Unlike some opera singers who stand firm on the ground and burst forth in full throat' Keith does not "open" her voice. She lets it "cook" in between her smile and her chest' and produces it with measured restraint' fully in control' and with much beauty. Her voice is magical and pure' it combines wonderfully with the measured and clean sound of Florilegium...the audience gave ourselves up willingly to the delights of Gillian Keith's captivating voice' and the captivating sound of Florilegium. And for that' our heart gladdens'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
BBC Radio 3 CD Review (June 2011)
'Glistening' ethereal soprano...Keith has the light as a feather delicacy needed for 'Ständchen'...'
Gillian Keith: bei Strauss CD
My Classical Notes.com (June 2011)
'Strauss displayed a consistent ability to bring out the best in a singer' and soprano Gillian Keith – accompanied here by pianist Simon Lepper – beautifully present Strauss' unique reverence for the female voice'
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir' Koerner Hall
Globe & Mail (May 2011)
'A vocal quartet drawn from the choir served adequately as soloists. However' in Psalm 117' Laudate Dominum' another singer suddenly appeared on stage' and things started to get interesting. She was Gillian Keith' whose lyric soprano voice wafted prettily over the choir and orchestra. Her appearance was an enticing foretaste of things to come...the following Gloria brought Keith back to the stage for a more extended appearance. Her performance became ever more remarkable as the work progressed. Her lengthy coloratura solo in the Credo was both delightful and astounding as she leapt with agility through every vocal hoop in her path. (It's likely that Mozart wrote the part for his wife' Constanze' to sing – and evidently she was no slouch.) Keith's voice is perfectly suited to this repertoire' and to this hall'
Punch and Judy' Grand Théâtre de Genève
Anaclase.com (April 2011)
'...à l'habile Gillian Keith en Pretty Polly fabuleusement hystérique'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Opera (December 2010)
'They were clearly enthralled by their Zerbinetta' the gracefully poised Gillian Keith' making her company debut. She was in sparkling voice' but also communicated the instinctive feminine wisdom that' for all the surface good-time-girl frivolity' is Zerbinetta's saving'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Guardian (October 2010)
'Gillian Keith's lithe' pert Zerbinetta is key to their chemistry' as well as to the little frisson with the Composer'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Observer on Sunday (October 2010)
'Gillian Keith fizzed skittishly and effortlessly as Zerbinetta'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Opera Britannia (October 2010)
'Zerbinetta is a total joy in this production. Gillian Keith is perfectly at home in this flighty characterisation' but she also adds weight to the role in her middle range' before soaring through her coloratura hurdles which she races through with ease' right up to the very high F'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Opera-Britannia.com (October 2010)
'...her portrayal is superbly crafted with daintiness' tenderness .....she is a class act in this genre'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Seen & Heard International (October 2010)
'...a fine cast of comedians led by Gillian Keith's perky Zerbinetta and with truly excellent acting from all of the principals...Gillian Keith's Zerbinetta was pretty' engaging and remarkably flexible physically - how many other sopranos can get their toes over their heads while standing on one foot? Her singing was all that could be hoped for in this role...she is a hugely competent singer and actor'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Telegraph (October 2010)
'WNO's staging is given vivacity and energy by an exceptionally strong' well-integrated cast of considerable vocal distinction...Gillian Keith tossed off Zerbinetta's stratospheric coloratura antics without turning a hair'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
The Arts Desk.com (October 2010)
'...Gillian Keith as Zerbinetta subtly colours her flirtatiousness with the sort of profundity that lurks in the eyes and voices of pretty girls but vanishes in an "Augenblick"' as she admits – the flash of a spider's eye...Keith dispatches the whole thing with coquettish brilliance'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Theatre-Wales.co.uk (October 2010)
'Gillian Keith has made Zerbinetta into a role of her own' including a much-praised Chandos recording released last month. Her first act Zerbinetta' in silk print kimono' is seductive' coquettish but confides to the Composer' in a wonderful two-part soprano' that beneath her carapace of gaeity she too knows sadness.'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Welsh National Opera
Wales Online (October 2010)
'The cast is excellent with gorgeous singing and accomplished acting including the slapstick comedy that brought the show to life without descending into farce...There are thrilling duets: Canadian soprano Gillian Keith sprightly and endearing as Zerbinetta and Sarah Connolly in the trouser role of the Composer...Each reminds us just how wonderful the dynamic excesses of Strauss can be'
The Indian Queen' The Sixteen at Edinburgh International Festival
Opera Critic.com (August 2010)
'...the god of dreams conjured from underground is none other than soprano Gillian Keith. Her advice to the Queen' who has sought out the conjurer- 'Seek not to know what must not be reveal'd' - was delivered with excellent diction...Then' the two sopranos had their turn as Aerial Spirits with the chorus' followed by the well-known soprano air ' I attempt from love's sickness to fly in vain'' sung beautifully by Gillian Keith'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Opera di Oviedo
La Nueva Espana (September 2009)
'Katharine Goeldner' Gillian Keith y Emily Magee' o lo que es lo mismo' el compositor' Zerbinetta y Ariadne' conquistaron anoche al público del Campoamor en el estreno ovetense de "Ariadne auf Naxos" ...Sobre ella recayó todo el peso dramático de la función' en contraste con la vis cómica y la exhibición vocal de Gillian Keith' que dio vida a Zerbinetta. Con una caracterización griega la primera' y de payaso la segunda' las dos ofrecieron en la segunda parte y a jucio del público los mejores momentos de una velada calurosa' en la que los programas de mano sirvieron de improvisados abanicos.
Ariadne auf Naxos' Opera di Oviedo
La Nueva Espana (September 2009)
'Triunfó Gillian Keith como Zerbinetta. En la escena la aportación a ese personaje tan arquetípico de estrella segundona siempre a la caza de su gran oportunidad fue impecable. Vocalmente funcionó en la zona aguda -aunque algo justa en algún sobreagudo- enfrentándose con autoridad a la endiablada aria «Grossmächtige Prinzessin!»' uno de los pasajes de coloratura de mayor dificultad de todo el repertorio operístico.'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Opera di Oviedo
La Voz de Asturias (September 2009)
'Fue la más aplaudida por el público junto a Gillian Keith' en una velada acogida con bastante frialdad' en parte por el estilo de Strauss' pero también porque el nivel no consiguió levantar a la gente de sus butacas. Keith fue una gran Zerbinetta en un papel dificilísimo. En escena estuvo perfecta' por su jovialidad' acusada comicidad y dotes interpretativas. Incluso ayudó su muy apropiado físico. En lo lírico logró colmar las expectativas del personaje' llegó al difícil RE sobreagudo y a su MI floreado desenvuelta y con holgura' y aún así' todavía el personaje dio la sensación de necesitar algo más de exquisitez expresiva.'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Opera di Oviedo
La Voz de Asturias (September 2009)
'El reconocimiento del público en este primer título de la temporada lírica ovetense tuvo que esperar al segundo acto' siendo las más aplaudidas Gillian Keith' en su papel de Zerbinetta' y Katharine Goeldner' en su interpretación del compositor. '
The Fairy Queen' Edinburgh International Festival
Opera Critic.com (September 2009)
'Gillian Keith's singing was apparently effortless' top notes rippling out and maintaining crisp diction. In The Plaint' her Act V duet with leader Walter Reiter' accompanied by Frances Kelly on harp and David Miller on baroque guitar' she was distraught and' at the end' singing through tears'
The Fairy Queen' Edinburgh International Festival
The Telegraph (September 2009)
'...with a fine chorus and soloists of the calibre of James Gilchrist' Iestyn Davies and Gillian Keith (who sang "O let me weep" to perfection)' this adorable score was as well – if not better – served than it had been at Glyndebourne this summer. '
L'incoronazione di Poppea' Boston Early Music Festival
Boston Globe (June 2009)
'an appealing Poppea' kittenish and conniving as needed' singing with a pure tone and an agile technique. '
L'incoronazione di Poppea' Boston Early Music Festival
Boston Phoenix (June 2009)
'Canadian soprano Gillian Keith is an ideal Poppea — she has the sexy moves of a dancer' and a silkily pretty voice' and every stylized gesture seems to come from some inner impulse. '
L'incoronazione di Poppea' Boston Early Music Festival
Examiner (June 2009)
'(Gillian) Keith filled the role of the lubricious Poppea very nicely with an angelic lyricism that belied the character's true nature'
L'incoronazione di Poppea' Boston Early Music Festival
New York Times (June 2009)
'The charm of Gillian Keith's Poppea was that she phrased thoughtfully and used her soprano with such warmth that you were nearly as seduced by her character as Nerone was. She was more than a match for Nerone'
L'incoronazione di Poppea' Boston Early Music Festival
Times Union (June 2009)
'As Poppea' the petite soprano Gillian Keith had gossamer upper notes...her entire range took on a increasing glow as her character succeeded in getting her way'
Toronto Symphony
Toronto Star (December 2008)
'but only Keith emerged a paragon of carefully crafted expression…..
As was the case with Keith's singing' the visual effects never drew attention to themselves. Instead' they worked to enhance a tried-and-tested Christmastime treat.
Irish Chamber Orchestra
Irish Examiner (September 2008)
'Canadian soprano Gillian Keith gave a most arresting' totally committed' utterly convincing' almost operatic performance of Bach's Cantata BWV 199' Mein Herze schwimmt in Blut.'
Presteigne Festival
The Birmingham Post (August 2008)
'Gillian Keith brought gentle charisma to her creamy' articulate delivery of the soprano solos in Finzi's Dies Natalis' Vass drawing from his strings all the piercing wonderment of this visionary score.'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
Seen & Heard International (July 2008)
'The July 1st closing performance of the Royal Opera House's Ariadne auf Naxos' by Richard Strauss' was completely full. Word must have spread. The singing was uniformly fine – no' better than fine' in fact' superb – as was most of the acting. The second part' the actual Ariadne opera' was a triumph for Gillian Keith as Zerbinetta' whose foxy acting was every bit as good as her spectacular coloratura singing. She was humorous and fun to hear and watch.'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Financial Times (June 2008)
'Gillian Keith's fetching Zerbinetta dances over her fiendish coloratura like a pixie'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Independent (June 2008)
'And Keith's Zerbinetta really gives dramatic purpose to her high-popping coloratura tirade against faithless men. The pathos of her final line' "When a new god arrives we surrender"' really rings true for once'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The New York Times (June 2008)
'Gillian Keith illuminated Zerbinetta's coquettishness with perky flair...She nimbly scaled the coloratura heights of her showpiece aria'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Sunday Observer (June 2008)
'But the eye cannot help wandering throughout to Gillian Keith' in her main house debut as the most beguiling Zerbinetta' a frisky little punk temptress more than equal to the composer's fiendish coloratura demands'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Sunday Times (June 2008)
'Earlier in the opera' Gillian Keith' got up to look like Twiggy as if dressed by Mary Quant' negotiated the coloratura terrors of Zerbinetta's grand scena nimbly and coquettishly'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Telegraph (June 2008)
'More consistently impressive was Gillian Keith's gamine Zerbinetta' swinging insouciantly but accurately through some dazzling vocal acrobatics'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
The Times (June 2008)
'That's one major feature of this revival. The other is Gillian Keith's dazzling debut on the Covent Garden stage as Zerbinetta' the good-time showgirl who is as easy-virtued as Ariadne is staunchly monogamist. No need for any nip-and-tuck surgery on Ms Keith. She must have the trimmest figure and best legs in opera' and she flashes plenty of both as her troupe of dissolute lowlifes crashes into the highbrow opera...Keith rises with terrific verve to the challenge of Zerbinetta's fiendish coloratura aria' gradually turning the trills and cascades from expressions of self-mockery into self-loathing'
Ariadne auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
This is London (June 2008)
'Keith' making her mainstage début' is in vocal terms' too' an impressively agile coloratura soprano' secure in the stratosphere'
Ariande auf Naxos' Royal Opera House
MusicalCriticism.com (June 2008)
'As Zerbinetta' Canadian soprano Gillian Keith' recently seen in Birtwistle's Punch and Judy at the Young Vic' put in a clean and secure vocal performance' and acted excellently throughout'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
Opera (June 2008)
'Lyricism arrived at last in the final scene' when Gillian Keith sang Pretty Polly's lines with sweet purity of tone'
Bach Cantatas CD
Opera Today (April 2008)
'Gillian Keith is one of the high points of the recording. The opening aria of "Süsser Trost'" BWV 151' is an aria rich in peaceful affection and intricate decoration. Keith brings to her rendition an exquisite control' especially noticeable in her long notes of unusual purity. And with the counterpoint of Rachel Beckett's sensitive flute playing' the aria is simply stunning'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
Stage (April 2008)
'Gillian Keiths mesmerisingly ditzy Pretty Polly.'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
Sunday Times (April 2008)
'Keith not only looked the part - young' sweet' yet capable of the most sexually provocative behavior – but displayed astonishing vocal virtuosity. In June of this year Keith will take the part of Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera. On the present evidence' Strauss' part could have been written for her. The final pages of Punch and Judy' a love duet for Polly and Punch' were extraordinarily powerful.'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
Telegraph (April 2008)
'Gillian Keith (Polly) … steer along Birtwistles angular vocal lines with absolute assurance.'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
TheOperaCritic.com (April 2008)
'The cast as whole is a marvel of teamwork and dedication …and one recalls…Gillian Keiths stratospheric reach.'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
ThisIsLondon.co.uk (April 2008)
'The six-strong cast was impeccable… Gillian Keiths goldilocks-vamp Pretty Polly.'
Punch & Judy' English National Opera
Times (April 2008)
'A fired-up cast helped. Gillian Keith turned Pretty Polly' the Lolita-like object of Punchs desire' into a kind of hyperactive go-go dancing doll' full of lascivious wriggles and demented coloratura swoops.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Early Music Today (January 2008)
'The two most sensational performances came from Gillian Keiths heart-tugging Median princess.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Opera (December 2007)
'The star turn was unquestionably Gillian Keiths crystalline Elmira' engagingly distressed and completely in control of her coloratura' notably in one aria that foreshadows Rossini.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
The Tablet (November 2007)
'Elmira is sung by Gillian Keith' a soprano unbeatable for purity of tone' control and a kind of soaring serenity.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Guardian (October 2007)
'Gillian Keith shines as his lover Elmira.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Independent (October 2007)
'It is Gillian Keith' as the heroine Elmira' in love with Atis' who – with her luminous sound' exquisite ornamentation and attractive stage presence – captures her character to perfection.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Sunday Express (October 2007)
'Gillian Keith as Elmira' in love with Atis' has an exquisite bell-like tone.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
The Stage (October 2007)
'Providing the romantic interest for Atis is the sweetly toned Gillian Keith.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Times (October 2007)
'A convincingly fraught Gillian Keith' clear as a bell in her passagework.'
The Fortunes of King Croesus' Opera North
Yorkshire Post (October 2007)
'…an evening of unqualified triumph. Silvery of texture' technically immaculate' she is a singer of enormous potential.'
Paul Bunyan' Bregenz Festival
Financial Times (August 2007)
Ariodante' Halle
Opernglas (June 2007)
'The Canadian Gillian Keiths youthful movement and sensuality more than amply qualifies her for the role of Ginevra. Her bell-like tone projected with apparent ease shows her complete mastery of the Baroque style.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH2
Opera (October 2006)
'I liked Gillian Keiths pristine' sensuous Diana.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
Independent (September 2006)
'Gillian Keith makes a girlish Diana' her ruthlessness (All my husbands are murdered; all my lovers have killed) tempered by a creamy lyric voice' her movement partly Isadora Duncan' partly torch-song. '
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
Sunday Times (September 2006)
'...the excellent cast — led by Gillian Keith as a merciless' high Diana.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH2
Musical Pointers (September 2006)
'Gillian Keith sang very beautifully.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH2
MusicOMH.com (September 2006)
'Gillian Keith as Diana looked every bit as seductive as the character demands...her steely soprano penetrated through the Linbury Theatre.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
Financial Times (August 2006)
'I liked Gillian Keiths pristine' sensuous Diana.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
Guardian (August 2006)
'Gillian Keith is a vocally and physically powerful Diana.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
The Opera Critic (August 2006)
'Diana' sung beautifully by Gillian Keith.'
The Assassin Tree' ROH/Scottish Opera
The Scotsman (August 2006)
'Gillian Keith soars beautifully as Diana.'
JS Bach's Wedding Cantata' Tafelmusik
Toronto Star (April 2006)
'Keith is an ideal Bach soprano. She has a clear' light and agile voice as well as a keen sense for shaping a phrase…her musicality came to life. Her performance of the short and sweet Cantata No. 51 could not have been more sensitive.'
A Midsummer Night's Dream' ROH
Financial Times (December 2005)
'Among the best singers were Gillian Keiths Tytania' spinning a web of delicate vocal lines'
A Midsummer Night's Dream' ROH
The Times (December 2005)
'Just as riveting is Oberons fraught yet besotted relationship with Gillian Keiths golden curled' feline Tytania. Vovally they are thrilling together.....She is a revelation: her customary coloratura precision complemented by a volptuous bloom. The stately final chorus in which they lead the excellent Tiffin Boys Choir through one of Brittens most hypnotic tunes is mesmerising'
A Midsummer Night's Dream' ROH
The Guardian (November 2005)
'Towers and Keith' rarely bettered' both sounded genuinely supernatural'
Ascanio in Alba' Buxton Festival
Opera (October 2005)
'Gillian Keith sang most beautifully as Sylvia.'
Ascanio in Alba' Buxton Festival
Guardian (July 2005)
'...the excellent Gillian Keith. '
Ascanio in Alba' Buxton Festival
Stage (July 2005)
'Gillian Keith delivers it with an easeful grace' indeed sings throughout with a peerless musicality' spinning a limpid legato which ravishes the senses. '
Ascanio in Alba' Buxton Festival
Sunday Times (July 2005)
'...the impressive Gillian Keith. '
Ascanio in Alba' Buxton Festival
Times (July 2005)
'Gillian Keith made absolutely the most of the role of Sylvia' singing with a kind of angelic accuracy of note and sentiment. '
Hercules' The Sixteen
Oxford (June 2005)
'I also admired Gillian Keiths lively delivery of Ioles arias. with their fearsome semiquaver runs. The Canadian soprano has always had an agile technique; now there is much more colour in the voice and character in the interpretation. '
Hercules' Buxton
Financial Times (July 2004)
'Gillian Keith was fresh' musical and appealing. '
Hercules' Buxton
Guardian (July 2004)
'The cast is distinguished by two brilliantly matched sopranos in Yvonne Howard and Gillian Keith....Keith and Howard provide the voices of innocence and experience; Keiths tone as pure and fresh as the water that bubbles up so plentifully around these parts...This is baroque singing and playing of the highest order.'
Hercules' Buxton
Times (July 2004)
'Gillian Keith as Iole' her bright-voiced foil' sang with gentleness and pathios. '
Mozart Mass in C Minor - The Sixteen' Barbican
Camden New Journal (July 2004)
'Of all the soloists it was soprano Gillian Keith who really came alive in the mass with simply sublime singing. Her voice was pure' clear and sensitive and she had the audience transfixed in the Et Incarnates Est. '
Alexander's Feast' Mostly Mozart Festival' Barbican
Guardian (July 2003)
'Gillian Keiths sparkling soprano solos were a highlight from the start. '
Alexander's Feast' Mostly Mozart Festival' Barbican
Independent (July 2003)
'Each time the young Canadian singer Gillian Keith opened her mouth' the music seemed to soar to another plane. What a lovely voice: fresh' so well focused and awesomely tuned. '
Haydn concert' Wigmore Hall
Times (May 2003)
'Her secure' open tone provided many pleasures. '
Orfeo Ed Euridice' Scottish Opera
Independent (December 2002)
'Gillian Keith' with her sweet little pipe' as Amor' was excellent. '
Handel' Almeida
Opera Now (November 2002)
'The conductor... knew his business' as did all the solo voices and especially the soprano Gillian Keith: a singer of distinction' charm and clarity. '
Triumph of Time and Truth / Aldeburgh Festival
Opera (August 2002)
'Gillian Keiths light yet luscious coloratura was a highlight. '
St John Passion' English National Opera
Opera (May 2002)
'The soprano Gillian Keith...singing out with beautifully clear' bell-like tone. '
Handel Gloria / Vivaldi Gloria' Philips recording
BBC Music (January 2002)
'Gillian Keith turns in a lightly articulated and agile performance and possesses an alluring vocal timbre.'
Handel Gloria / Vivaldi Gloria' Philips recording
Daily Mail (January 2002)
'Gillian Keith matches the great Emma Kirkby. '
Handel Gloria / Vivaldi Gloria' Philips recording
International Record Review (January 2002)
'Keiths assured and sensitive handling of the vocal line throughout enhances that sense of grand design...at the heart of of Handels best works. Keith is as finely attuned as Gardiner to the interplay of exuberance and pensiveness. '
Wigmore Hall concert' Classical Opera Company
This is London (January 2002)
'A concert of music from the time of the Mozart familys visit here in 1764-5 with Canadian soprano Gillian Keith singing arias by Arne' JC Bach and the lad himself... she sang with easy brilliance' thrilling in Mozarts Per pieta with the silky tone of her top notes. '


text:
Frank Zappa has long been known as a rock 'n' roll iconoclast, an outspoken, unconventional musician who earned the devotion of a moderate-sized following with records such as "Freak Out," "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" and "Sheik Yerbouti." But the former leader of the Mothers of Invention is also a shrewd businessman. "I don't have anything against making a profit," he said.
Zappa, who turns 49 on Thursday, always did part his hair differently than his more commercially successful contemporaries. But this year, while middle-aged rockers such as the Who, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones were reaffirming their popularity on high-profile concert tours, Zappa was smart enough to stay home. He hung up his road gear after he lost $400,000 on his self-financed 1988 tour.
"Everybody got paid but me," he said. Even though the four-month tour of the United States and Europe was 90% sold out, Zappa said the losses piled up because of high travel costs and salaries for the 12-piece band. There were 43 people in all, three buses and five trucks. "I had to pay the cost of all the airplane tickets, all the buses, all the food, all the per diems and salaries," Zappa said.


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