VampireS SUMO

There’s a board game that originated from the Philippines called Game of the Generals. Only two players can play the game and the winner is usually the one who has the better strategy when it comes to positioning key players of the game.

The flag is the most vulnerable and must therefore be protected at all costs. The spy is the highest ranking official in the game and can ironically be defeated by the lowest ranking officer, the private. It depends on where you position all your players in order for you to win the game.

It’s almost exactly the same process when it comes to winning a game of poker.

Positioning is a very important aspect of poker and unfortunately, it’s also an aspect that most new poker players tend to overlook. First time poker players tend to believe, you see, that everything depends on their cards alone. I assure you that it’s not. In poker, everything matters and expert poker players are aware of this. That’s why for them, positioning is quite an important factor because a good position in a game of poker, especially when it’s something like the Texas Hold’Em version, can give you an advantage over your fellow players.

The Starting Positions

It’s always difficult to be in one of the starting positions because you’re ultimately forced to reveal your hand in the first few rounds without having any idea on what types of hands your opponents are holding. The key to surviving the next few rounds is gauging what type of opponents you’re facing and see if it’s possible to bluff your way through. It’s also a good sign if you’re facing a few opponents and you’re holding large suited cards in your hands.

The Middle Position

This may not be the best position to have in poker but it’s certainly a shade better than having an early position in the game. With the middle position, you have better chances of calculating the odds of winning and being able to get the cards you need. If you’ve been given a slot in the middle position, simply try your best to hang on and do stick with small suited cards.

The Last or Late Position

Alas, this is the best position that you can have when playing poker, especially when there are around ten players or so which is often the case in Texas Hold’Em Poker. If you’re still not that good in playing poker, being in the last position will then give you the upper hand. As others before you will reveal their cards first, use this to your advantage and just calculate the odds as best as you can.

John Grant is a long time Poker Player that has now devoted his time to write and educate about poker on his

A new show will hit New York Metropolitan this October, entitled
‘Van Gogh draughtsman: The masterpiece’. The exhibition features over 100 drawings by the artist, some of which are series that have never been shown in their entirety before. Even though they are mostly pen and pencil drawings, viewing them you can sense they’ve been made by a painter bursting with color.

Among the highlights of the show are the drawings produced at Arles where Van Gogh lived in 1888. There’s a series of landscape drawings in reed pen, studies which culminated in the so-called second Montmajour series of six large views of the countryside in Provence. The drawings, made over three months, reveal a countryside that’s shimmering from the pages even though there’s no paint involved. Van Gogh drew these when he was staying in an asylum and it is the first time that the series is on show in its entirety.

Being an artist that strongly contributed to people’s idea of agony and passion that characterizes the modern art movement of which he was an early member, this show is a must for anyone wishing to take in the experience first hand. A total of 24 out of the just over 100 prints on show were made in April and early May 1888 when Van Gogh had decided to quit painting altogether. Some of the drawings turned out almost as paintings. The art world also goes berserk over Van Gogh’s drawings because they generally highlight such distinct phases in his work and life. Later that month, he drew a special series of seven views of the Abbey of Montmajour, also on show.

Van Gogh, who trained himself in the art of painting by starting out drawing landscapes, domestic scenes, people and portraits, tended to study objects intensely. He hardly ever commented on his drawings, and never gave value judgements, but it is said that he himself also agreed that although his later drawings substituted his paintings, he never blurred the line between painting and drawing. Critics say that even during his last days, the motifs of paintings and drawings were not mixed ever. Van Gogh experimented in his drawings with vantage points and the size of his paper. Each production is also said to have been made with sharply distinct ideas often illustrative of his innovative drive.

The just over 100 drawings exhibited are usually kept in safe vaults, away from daylight that would destroy them. Some of the works are on loan from the Paul Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest as well as from some private collections.

Vincent van Gogh is not only hugely popular for the obvious reason that he wasn’t exactly colour blind, it is also as if you can read into them whatever you want to see without being punished for limiting the art or yourself. The complexity of the artist’s personality is communicating to spectators of all times through his art. He is positioned in the post-impressionism era, which represented the frontier between two huge cycles in the history of world art culture, i.e. modern and contemporary art. “Van Gogh was one of the last representatives of the previous art cycle, and the first among those who the future belonged to”, says art critic Alla Narovskaya from Belarus.

Perhaps Van Gogh is most famous for cutting off his left ear lobe however. The debate around this drama is testimony to just how divided everyone in the art world is about him. Entire bookshelves can be lined with works written about the incident. Every theory reads as if there’s too much material to choose from, in search of explainations.

One of the most attractive theories about the artist’s life ‘culminating’ (what else?) into the self inflicted wound is that was a result of his trying to please his mother’s insane ideas surrounding a baby that had died one year before the artist was born and who had also been named Vincent. One school of thought believes that the ear cutting was something Vincent did to mock his mother’s pervasive sentiment on this issue. Vincent’s characteristic curves and his overly rounded yet contrived handwriting is to some extent in stark contrast to the edginess of some drawings depicting early life scenes, especially of people’s hands and of domestic scenes. But then, this could be reading into a situation details that really are just coincidental. Vincent was quite a serious young man who would call everybody around him a genius but failed to feel much self worth. If mockery was part of his personality, it will not have been immediately obvious.

Similar sentiments do shine through in his art however. Aside from their value, the artist’s work is also highly prized in terms of kudos, must have, obscenity value. Perhaps quite indicative is both the stolen Geisha print and the attitude displayed by the previous owner of another work that’s mysteriously gone missing, the painting of his beloved doctor in Arles, dr Paul Ferdinand Gachet. The Japanese Ryoei Saito, an industrialist, boasted –shortly before his business went bust- that he was going to have the picture cremated with him when he died. The entire arts world was in shock and outrage, but Saito soon said he’d been joking. Let’s hope he has been, because there’s still no clue as to what happened to the painting after the man, who paid a total of USD82.5 million for it at Christies in New York in 1990, died.

The ‘cool’ value of Vincent’s works today is something that is beyond any doubt. Rather, the works themselves are a trustworthy indicator of the state of play in the art market. Saito’s way of dealing with the painting perhaps illustrates this best. Having safely stored the picture away from the public eye, the industrialist died, having first gone through financial ruin. No one really knows what happened to the work afterwards. The fact that it isn’t available to the public means pretty much that it has an empty status of being merely a luxury commodity. The painting is either in the hands of creditors, Saito’s children or has been sold to another private individual. Museum curators and auction houses that tried to make sure that it was in safe hands have said they were obstructed in their efforts to locate the piece. Experts say that it is most likey someone else has purchased it.

The missing painting is very much a disaster, all the more because it showed a new direction that van Gogh was heading for. Van Gogh’s portraits are said to be at once highly accessible and showing his depth of vision. Gaugain even confessed he would not be portrayed by the painter because he had made self portraits that he wanted to be associated with, rather than with a perhaps more insightful portrait made by Van Gogh. Van Gogh also undoubtedly did discuss his ear cutting incident with Dr Gachet at length. Van Gogh himself said he had successfully displayed the “the heartbroken expression of our time” in the painting. Critics say he tried to for the first time also instill a kind of immortality into his subject.

Incidentally, the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery reports that a print that Vincent once owned of Japanese Geishas and which he painted on the famous self portrait showing his bandaged ear has been stolen from its collection. The picture, which originally was printed by the printing house of Sato Torakiyo around 1870 and which portrays two women in the foreground of mount Fuji was one of many Japanese prints that covered his studio walls. Apart from featuring them in the background of his 1988 painted self portrait, Van Gogh also began to incorporate Japanese motifs in the structure of his paintings. The print is believed to have been very important to Van Gogh, but there is no real direct evidence as to the exact nature of his love for the Geishas. It adds to its mystery as well as to the controversy surrounding the artist’s ear cutting.

Angelique van Engelen is a freelance writer, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She runs contentclix.com contentclix.com, a copywriting agency focusing on article writing, news coverage, research and website content.

It’s Awards Season in Hollywood as the countdown continues to Oscar Night. I don’t know about you, but every year when I watch the Oscars, I love to imagine myself all tuxed out and mingling with Hollywood’s Elite at the Kodak Theatre. The million dollar question is, what’s the real difference between the tens of thousands of unproduced writers out there and the screenwriting members of the Academy sitting at the Kodak?

The obvious answer is, they have big agents who make sure they’re constantly working as writers. They’re the insiders. But even insiders like Paul Haggis, last year’s Oscar winner for both writing and directing CRASH started out as outsiders scrambling to break in.

It’s not about who has the most talent, though talent is important. Nor is about who has the most powerful agent, though again, having a strong agent can be a major asset. It’s about how you see and treat yourself as a professional. Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a young man who very much wanted to be in show business, or more specifically, making movies. He attended one of the best film schools in the world, while there discovered the joys of writing and producing and everyone around him had high expectations about his career. Yet for more years than he cares to admit, that career was stalled.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that young man was me. And this article is for everyone who, like me, has visions of having their name up on the big screen as a writer. It’s all about the importance of getting a balance of what I call “macro training.”

Over the years, I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars in classes, seminars, books and retreats all intended to teach me to be a better writer. Don’t get me wrong. Many of these classes were well worth the money when it came to teaching me about the CRAFT of screenwriting. I absolutely learned a lot. But talent and craft by themselves are not enough to make you a regularly working professional screenwriter.

I learned through painful experience that if you want to succeed as a professional artist in show business, whether it’s as a writer, actor, director or any other craft that’s employed by the networks and studios, you have to treat your career as a small business with yourself as the CEO. As countless people have said to me over the years, it’s called Show “Business” for a reason.

Eureka! This was the missing piece. When it finally registered with me the importance of treating my artistic endeavors like an entrepreneurial small business, I began to see things in an entirely different light. I call myself a writer and producer – and those are accurate titles – but the business I’m in is really manufacturing, sales and distribution. Huh?

Think about it. As a professional writer, you’re manufacturing a product – the things you write. In order to get paid for that product, you also have to have a sales, marketing and distribution mechanism in place so that the scripts you write can generate money for you.

Of course you have to have the talent and skills to consistently deliver quality scripts and do so on time. But talent and skill alone don’t hack it. If you want to be a successful, consistently and steadily working writer, you have to understand that you’re in the business of creating and selling products. Your products are your scripts.

Like any manufacturer, in addition to dedicating part of your business to developing and creating products, you also need to address the sales, marketing and distribution of those products (scripts) along with the business affairs aspect (contracts, accounting, etc.) of working with your customers (studios, production companies and/or networks). You don’t have to do it all by yourself, but you do need to make sure these aspects of your business as a professional writer are handled. Just by making that shift in the way you see yourself and your career, you’ll immediately transform from would-be writer to an entrepreneurial professional well on the road to success.

© Gordon Meyer, all rights reserved

About the Author: Gordon Meyer is an optioned screenwriter and the creator, producer and host of The StoryMakers Studio, an ongoing series at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatres Complex in Hollywood which tells the story about how particular films got made through the eyes of the people who made them. Hollywood’s biggest, brightest actors, directors, writers and producers appear at the popular series – LIVE AND UNSCRIPTED.

His book “The Screenwriter’s Manifesto” explores the concept of the writer as an entrepreneur in detail and is available at screenwritersmanifesto.com/ screenwritersmanifesto.com/

Opening up an online casino for the first time can be daunting. You are immediately bombarded by lists of games, special promotions and flashing jackpot lights. The temptation will be there to heads straight into playing a progressive slot, which is a good place to start. Let’s face it, the potential of winning a life changing jackpot is appealing to everyone.

The casino game you choose to play will depend largely on your personality, and ultimately, the type of game that you enjoy the most, given that gambling is something you′re doing for fun as well as money at the end of the day. First you′ll want to look at the options. If you prefer card games, then there’s blackjack and baccarat. If you tend towards machine-generated games of chance, you′ll obviously head for the slot machines, and those with a poker bent will choose the video poker machines. Dice players will head to the craps tables, and that leaves the roulette fans, arguably the most glamorous casino game.

Having decided which form of game you want to try first, you′ll now need to choose a table or machine. The way to decide on this is to look at the bet limits. In other words, be realistic about what you can afford to bet each time. Once again this is a trade-off. You may prefer to make small bets and play for a long time, without much short-term deviation in your bankroll, or you may be the type of person who wants more of a thrill from gambling, and will make bigger bets to make it more exciting, at the risk of losing more.

The same principle applies to slots. There are many multi line slots available at online casino that can be played for as little as a penny per line. these are a great way to stretch your bankroll to the limit, but you will have to accept that your potential wins are much smaller as a result. Nevertheless, you will pro9bably be able to spend a lot more time with a relatively small bank roll.

Another factor that you should keep in mind when choosing a casino game is what is know as the “hold”. This is the house edge, the percentage that you can expect to lose over the long run, assuming you don′t have a big win. Different games have different hold percentages, ranging from 94 to 98 percent, or thereabouts. This means that you have a 2 to six percent chance of beating the house, depending on the game you choose. The game with the most favourable hold for the player is blackjack, and games like Keno and Casino War have by far the worst hold for you. Slots fit in somewhere in the middle.

Whatever you decide to do, gamble within your limits and decide how much you are prepared to lose, and stick to it.

Ryan is the editor of Online Gambling Insider, and online-gambling-insider.com online gambling portal offering free tips, strategies and reviews of online-gambling-insider.com online casinos.

Arriving on the scene in 1978, Animal House is the blockbuster frat house comedy that rewrote all the rules and created a generation of filmmakers hoping to replicate its comic genius. Original Saturday Night Live cast member John Belushi turned in a breakout film performance that made him a comedy rock star, propelling him to further fame with the release of Blues Brothers (1980). Tim Matheson also has his breakout role in the cult classic which features appearances by actors Mark Metcalf (”the Maestro” from Seinfeld), Donald Sutherland, and Kevin Bacon.

The film is set at fictional Faber College in the 1960s. Two incoming freshmen roommates, Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst), visit the various fraternities on campus in an effort to find a good group with which to socialize. But the two get more than they bargain for when the meet the guys of Delta House - a ragtag bunch of beer-swilling, womanizing, party animals. The group is the complete opposite of another campus fraternity, Omega House, headed by the snide, condescending preppies Greg Marmalard (James Daughton), Doug Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), and Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon). Favorites of Dean Wormer, the Omega House continually taunts Delta House and conspires with Dean Wormer to have the members of Delta expelled and their fraternity banned.

Leading the charge for Delta House is John “Bluto” Blutarsky (John Belushi), ladies man Eric “Otter” Stratton (Tim Matheson), and Donald “Boon″ Schoenstein (Peter Riegert). Pledging Delta House, Larry and Kent are given the nicknames, Pinto and Flounder. Brought into the fold, they witness the true diversity of characters they are now brothers with. Otter seduces Dean Wormer’s wife, and Bluto spits egg on Greg Marmalard while Boon and his girlfriend work through their problems.

Things go well for the men of Delta House until Dean Wormer calls them into his office and places them on “Double Secret Probation”. With Omega and Wormer aligned against them, Delta House is kicked off campus and its members expelled. But the great men of Delta refuse to go down without a fight. With the Homecoming parade set to begin, they unleash a fury of revenge on Wormer and company…

At the conclusion of the film, we learn of the whereabouts of all the various characters. The timeless humor of this film makes it no wonder that it has ascended to cult classic status. An original and witty comedy wielding a trailblazing influence on teen/college comedies, Animal House has earned its place in the hallowed halls of American cinematic classics…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a thedvdreport.blogspot.com movie review site where you can find more articles like this one of the thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/national-lampoons-animal-house-dvd.html Animal House (DVD) Review.

FORWARD

The 188 stage Hero’s Journey (Monomyth) is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.

[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].

THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY

THE 188 STAGE HERO’S JOURNEY:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).

…..further details at www.clickok.co.uk

ABRIDGED TIPS AND EXAMPLES:

*****No Mans Land and New Self*****

It is in No Mans Land that the Hero’s New Self becomes apparent. In Brokeback Mountain (2005), Jack tells Pop, the ignorant son of a bitch, to sit down. Ennis finds out that Alma knows he is gay.

*****Call to Adventure*****

A staple of the Hero’s Journey and Transformation. Separate and distinct from the Inciting Incident. A Call for the Hero to set out on a Journey; an implicit Call to face Challenges. It is the undergoing of the Journey that will Transform the Hero and provide him (or her) with the capacity to conquer challenges that were previously unconquerable. In Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Clyde invites Bonnie for a drink.

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at clickok.co.uk/ clickok.co.uk/

The Managing Creativity and Innovation MBA dissertation, DIY creativity Audit, Powerpoint presentation and Good Idea generator software can be found at managing-creativity.com/ managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made, the author’s name is retained and the link to our site URL remains active.

I always know when April makes its yearly debut without consulting the calendar because my wife usually says, “Let’s clean out the garage today.” Trust me on this one, it is no April fool’s joke, but someone gets fooled. And believe me, I’m just not anybody’s fool. I’m my wife’s fool.

Somehow, her “let’s” has a funny singular ring to it and we had, if I remember correctly, a double ring wedding ceremony. Hers is on her left ring finger while mine somehow ended up in my nose.

For some reason spring brings to women, wives in particular, an uncontrollable urge to clean something. It doesn’t matter what that something is, it has to be cleaned. Moreover, it does not matter how clean or dirty that something is or when it was last cleaned, it must be cleaned again.

This represents a basic philosophical difference between men and women. In the beginning, man was perfectly at home with dirt, then along came Eve and introduced spring-cleaning.

We have no idea how long it was between Adam and the time Eve came onto the scene, but it was long enough to get the entire Garden of Eden dirty, necessitating a thorough cleaning.

Thus began the yearly ritual known as spring-cleaning. This tradition has been handed down from mother to daughter since the beginning of time. As far as I can ascertain, no father on record has handed down to his son any way of putting a stop to this nonsense. And don’t think I’m not just a little upset about that.

I think our forefathers could have found a fifth father to help come up with a workable plan to get rid of this yearly onus.

But, it is spring and the time-honored ritual has come to our domestic den. Spring is in the air and spring-cleaning is on the agenda. I, on the other hand, had other plans, which did not include soap and water. So much for my plans. A husband’s plan is always subject to his wife’s rescheduling.

Every year I asked the same question. How in the world does spring get so dirty? And, more important, why do I have to clean it? I didn’t mess it up.

I believe Mother Nature ought to clean her own spring and not push this responsibility onto husbands like me who have better things to do with their time.

One year I got confused and cleaned my spring in the fall, which screwed up my whole winter wondering what I would do when spring actually arrived and it was already cleaned.

Spring-cleaning would not be so bad if I could use my definition of clean rather than my wife’s. One man’s clean is his wife’s “when are you going to clean that?”

At the least, it would be helpful if spring-cleaning only came on leap year, which would give me an opportunity to hop out of the way before my good wife could spring into action.

In our house, the annual spring cleaning focuses on the garage. When my wife gets it into her head to clean the garage, I get it into my head to get clean out of her way. In the scheme of things, how important is a clean garage anyway? It’s not as if Martha Stewart is going to make a surprise visit.

As a veteran husband (with the scars to prove it), I have discovered one thing in my house. Behold, a greater than Martha Stewart lives at my lodgings.

My philosophy is simply, a dirty garage is a happy garage. It just doesn’t make my wife happy and when she’s not happy neither am I — so I am willing to live with an unhappy garage. These are the compromises enabling husbands to survive generation after generation. At least, enabling this husband to survive spring-cleaning one more year.

I have no idea what my garage does during the winter to get so dirty, but I wish it would stop it, or at least clean up after itself and not cause me so much grief.

When the idea of spring-cleaning comes up, I take one gander at the object of the endeavor and try to duck out as quickly as possible. I usually run into my wife standing at the door and realize my goose is cooked, usually to a nice golden burnt.

My idea of cleaning the garage is opening the garage door and the back door and let nature take its course. However, when I suggest this, an ill wind blows my way, if you know what I mean.

Garage cleaning invariably leads to garage sales. Garage sales are amazing.

Instead of donating my worthless junk to the neighborhood dump, I sell it to my neighbors, who will put it in their garage sale next year. This keeps neighborhood junk in circulation for years, and then some antique dealer buys it and starts the whole cycle again in New York City.

One man’s junk is another man’s antique.

My wife insists cleanliness is next to godliness. If that is so, why did God create so much dirt?

God is also in the cleaning business and you can be sure His is the ultimate leaving nothing unclean.

The Apostle Paul explains, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5 KJV.)

When God says, “Let’s clean out your life today,” trust Him to do a thorough job.

James L. Snyder is an award winning author and popular columnist living with his wife, Martha, in Ocala, Florida and can be contacted at mailto:jamessnyder2@att.net jamessnyder2@att.net

Game selection is very important when deciding how to increase your poker profits. If you are playing a tight-aggressive strategy, you want to play opponents who will give you the most money. Loose-passive players or calling stations typically call with any two cards pre-flop. Calling stations typically overplay their hands and will get their money all-in with very marginal hands. If you have read the basic poker books, you will probably want to play against much weaker opponents. Your tight-aggressive strategy will serve you well in a game full of weak calling stations. As you progress up through the limits, you will find other tight-aggressive opponents like yourself. It is very difficult for a tight player to beat another tight player. Most times, tight players are simply passing chips back and forth. In the long run, tight players are not winning money from other tight players. You have two choices when you encounter an extremely tight table. You can either change tables or improve your game.

When you change tables, look for opponents who will call down with weak hands. If you decide to improve you game, you will have to start playing your opponent more than your cards. Adjusting your tight style to a more aggressive strategy is very effective against other tight players. Tight players are playing their cards and don’t know how to make moves. By playing aggressive against tight players, you will frustrate and befuddle them. When your tight opponents start to play back, it is time to change gears and play tight. If you happen to pick up a big hand in the next few hands, your opponent stands to lose a huge pot. Playing a loose-aggressive strategy is great for a table full of tight opponents. Understand your poker abilities and find a table that suits your playing style. Poker is a lot more than simply playing cards.

Napoleon Will is a self-published author and semi-professional poker player. He updates the poker review and strategy site
mypokerstart.com mypokerstart.com

In 1994 Daniel Johns and his group Silverchair were catapulted into the mainstream by winning a demo competition in Australia. Their single ‘Tomorrow’ is still widely regarded as one of the defining songs of the early 90s. Now, before you rush out to buy The Dissociatives you’re going to want to sit down before I break this next part to you This cd is not silverchair, it sounds nothing like silverchair, and you are only seeing comparisons because Daniel Johns is in both of these bands. It is best to keep these 2 entities separate, or you will probably end up enjoying them both a lot less.

This album is a collaboration with Australian techno king Paul Mac, the eclectic mix of poppy songwriting, eerie soundscapes, 3/4 timing and multi-layered vocals brings out the best of both members of the band. The music and songwriting is filled nearly to a breaking point with more little noises and beeps than you’d think you could digest, but somehow everything falls into its right place.

Opening with a constant 4/4 bass drum beat, the opening track ‘We’re much preferred customers’ quickly builds constantly with multi-layered vocals, sparse piano, eventually turning into a veritable electronic orchestra. From this moment on, you can tell that this is a very experimental album, created by 2 very creative musicians. While the songwriting and melodies would fit perfectly on every pop radio station, avid listeners will notice much more subtle details and nuances than the average electronic pop album.

The standout track on the album in my mind is ‘Horror with eyeballs’ a bizarre tune based around a 3/4 verse of carnival music, mixed with a poppy chorus featuring many layers of Daniel Johns singing ‘all of this time on my hands/so far has gone/ to feeding my animals’. Nonsense? I think so, but you’ll be singing it for days.While the rest of the album is very hard to categorize, each song features the same elements; Multi-layered vocals and instruments, noises, a full helping of ‘na-na-na-na’ and everything you’d expect from a pop album. I find myself rarely listening to single songs, as the album seems to flow much better as a whole.

Nearing the end of the album, the band pulls out ‘Young man, Old man’, another interesting track. Based around a guitar part, only instead of playing it only on guitar, Johns elects to sing the part as well. This is the type of abstract thinking that makes this album stand out so much in my eyes. You will have a very tough time guessing what is going to come next, and I think everyone loves music that suprises them.

The band managed to find a fantastic artist by the name of James Hackett to produce 3 videos from this album; Horror with eyeballs, Somewhere down the barrel and Young man, Old man (You ain’t better than the rest) all 3 are available for your viewing pleasure from the bands website.

It seems that most of the mainstream press is tearing this album apart, but from where I stand (about 2 feet infront of my computer monitor) this is one of the best albums released thus-far this year. If you’re looking for a solid, happy album featuring one of the best voices in rock, check this out, you won’t be disappointed.

Overall: 8.2

Chris Elkjar is the founder of ‘trust.me’ an online music magazine for the enthusiast. He spends all of his spare time immersed in music, be it writing reviews, interviews with leading bands or writing his own music.

For more of his writing, check out trust-me.ca Trust-Me.ca - Music for robots

When a talented artists sits beside a beautiful lake and paints a picture of the scenery, no matter how beautiful the painting is, it is still a representation of the real thing. But great art allows the viewer to recall the beauty they remember from past experiences when gazing at their painting and even imagine how the water smells, through memory. But no matter how talented the artist, a painting is not the same as the real thing. It is like any analogy, at some point it breaks down. Similarly piano students who love classical piano and long to bring their music to life may have only a picture to go on. A picture of ink blots on paper that tell the student what notes to play. Similar to a painting, printed music can only go so far in representing the original music created from the composer’s heart, mind, body, and soul through a living experience.

This is where the secrets of an experienced piano teacher come to bear on the student’s ability to interpret the notes in so many different ways. When I am teaching an intermediate to advanced, or even a young student, who can read music fairly well, my goal is to show rather than tell. For example, students know that Ritardando in the music indicates a gradual slowing down of the pace, usually found at the end of a piece. But their may actually be many, many of these throughout a piece of music. A favorite of students, Sonatina in C by Mozart, has many ritardandos throughout which are not written in the music. Without these, however, the piece lacks a quality of suspense and anticipation that brings a great deal of excitement and beauty to this Sonatina. If there were a rule, which there is not, it would be to very subtly slow down for the last few sixteenth notes at the end of a run just before the notes change direction, while keeping the general pace of the music very fast. This usually occurs at the end of a measure. This is also important in Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca from Sonata No. 11 in A Major, and indeed most music. Without this added element students will have difficulty playing the piece, stumbling over notes that long to slow down just a little to give them time to sing more clearly.

The words I’ve written here are only an analogy, which may not adequately explain this to students without the playing experience in their memory banks to see it in their mind, hear it in their heart, and play it on the piano. But during lessons I can share years of experience with students by showing and telling at the piano so they can see and hear the music as it is brought to life. In this way the very intimate art and “wizardry” of piano is passed down from teacher to teacher, student to student, wizard to wizard. So read all you can about piano, but don’t overlook the value of an experienced piano teacher with a heart for students and music.

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