Barter system part of appeal for Brussels art show (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? In the history of currency, earplugs have, unsurprisingly, never been widely used or accepted. So when a man offered Belgian artist Delphine Bo?l 10,000 earplugs for her print "The Source of Identity" at the Truc Troc contemporary art exhibit in 2006, her reaction was, "God, he's crazy."

Then she thought about it overnight - and became inspired.

"I phoned the guy the next day and I said, 'You've got the print, give me 10,000 earplugs and I'm going to make a work of art with it.'"

Unusual offers are the norm and part of the fun of Truc Troc, which is in its eighth year since restarting in 2004 after initial shows in 1975 and 1976.

The event's concept came from Belgian sculptor Mon de Rijck, who wanted to "democratize" art exhibitions through bartering.

Visitors to Truc Troc post an offer near a piece of art and the artist can choose which offer, if any, they want to accept.

Event organizers said on Sunday afternoon they were on pace for about 20,000 visitors, the same as last year, for the three-day event at Bozar, a Brussels fine arts centre.

The exhibition, which included a party with DJs on Friday night, was meant to attract young people and remove barriers to the traditionally expensive art world.

"Maybe some people come just to listen to the DJ or to drink some beer," said Mikhail Porollo, a photographer participating in the show. "But then at the end of the day, they walk through the exhibition, they know what's happening ... and then they interact with the art."

Most of the artists taking part are also young, just starting their careers and looking for exposure. The exhibition spanned a wide variety of media such as traditional acrylic paintings or photography to more avant-garde materials such as cardboard or metal street signs.

About 100 artists contributed 300 pieces for the exhibition.

PRIVATE THOUGHT

Before Christmas, Delphine Bo?l, 43, completed a couple of prints with the each letter in the word "hypocrite" in a variety of bright colors.

In her living room, there is one version with a white background, "Endless Hypocrites," that says there is not just one hypocrite, but many. Bo?l showed "Private Thought" at this year's Truc Troc, with a black background and a slight twist.

In the centre of "Private Thought," Bo?l put a crooked gold crown on one of the Os - a nod to King Albert II of Belgium.

Bo?l has said she is the illegitimate daughter of Albert and her claim has been widely reported in the media. The palace has declined to comment.

Many of Bo?l's pieces are layered over this background.

"From my experience, I am going to build, and from that I am going to exhibit it and from that I am going to sell it," she said of translating her feelings into art.

"Private Thought" received more than 100 offers at Truc Troc, putting it among the more popular pieces at the event.

Porollo, 33, chronicled multiculturalism in his photography project, "Goddesses," from May 2010 to May 2011. He took portraits of 12 women in Brussels, all of whom were from different countries. He chose four photos for his first appearance at Truc Troc.

Porollo covered each woman in traditional clothing associated with their homeland, so only their faces are visible. He said the choice had little to do with religion and is meant to create a blank background and highlight their faces.

He edited each picture, of women from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America to make their faces perfectly symmetrical - a scientific ideal of beauty.

The photographer and painter, who comes from the northern Caucasus in Russia came away from Truc Troc pleased: the 250 pamphlets he had printed were gone by Sunday afternoon.

Belgian artist Jerome Considerant deconstructed three famous paintings as metal street signs, with two of his inspirations coming from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels.

The "Tower of Babel" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is imagined as an orange and black construction sign with the partly finished tower rising above busy workers. Considerant also simplified Jacques-Louis David's "Death of Marat" down to a few basic shapes, yet both works remain recognizable.

He also re-examines Theodore Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa," which depicts the aftermath of a shipwreck whose survivors on a raft endured cannibalism and madness.

(Reporting By Eric Holmberg)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120131/stage_nm/us_art_belgium_tructroc

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Petty controversy: Obama refuses to make a Super Bowl pick! (The Week)

New York ? The president bums out sports fans by shirking his duties as prognosticator-in-chief for this year's Giants-Patriots showdown

The controversy: As millions of Americans place their bets on Sunday's Super Bowl, one high-profile sports fan is refusing to make a prediction. In an?interview with Diane Sawyer, President Barack Obama clammed up when asked whether he thought the New England Patriots or the New York Giants would win this year's big game: "I can't call it. I can't call it," the squirmy president said, even though it's something of a tradition for POTUSes to do just that. "When the [Chicago] Bears are not involved, I can't make predictions because I will get into trouble." (Watch the video below.) Of course, as pundits point out, Obama has made predictions in the past. In the 2010 Super Bowl he picked the New Orleans Saints; in 2009, he sided with the Pittsburgh Steelers; and in 2008, Obama backed the New England Patriots ? who went on to lose to the New York Giants.

?The reaction: How "exceedingly lame," says Chris Chase at Yahoo. The president doesn't shy away from calling a first-round NCAA basketball tournament game between Baylor and Sam Houston State, but he cops out on "making a pick for the biggest sporting event of the year?" Perhaps he really wants to go with the Giants, says Dan Amira at New York, but "doesn't want to alienate Patriots fans in New Hampshire, a tough swing state for him in 2012." Judge for yourself:

?

SEE MORE: Drew Brees' new NFL passing record: A 'classless' move?

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PFT: New Bears GM will have hands full

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Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork is not an easy man to move. That?s especially true this season because you can?t get him off the field.

Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com notes that Wilfork played 51.8% of the team?s defensive snaps in 2009. That?s fairly typical for any run-stuffing nose tackle, especially one comically listed at 325 pounds. (He?s probably closer to 400 than 300 pounds.)

In 2010, Wilfork?s snap total went up to 69.8%. By this season, Wilfork was up to 86%. In the AFC title game, Wilfork played 67 of 70 snaps. That?s 95.7%.

You can measure leadership in a lot of ways. Wilfork leads by making his presence known almost every snap. He leads by playing more than younger counterparts like Haloti Ngata.

?He leads the way for us on defense,?? coach Bill Belichick said after the win over Baltimore. ?Vince is obviously our most experienced player and he?s been a great leader, great captain all year. His leadership has been tremendous.?

Wilfork was a valuable rookie on the last Patriots title team in 2004. That was a veteran-laden defense on the tail end of a dynasty. This time is different. This is Wilfork?s defense, Wilfork?s time. Now in his eighth season, the 30-year-old is in that career sweet spot where experience and talent meet up perfectly.

Wilfork?s performance against the Ravens was one for the ages: Six tackles, four hurries, three tackles for loss, and a sack. Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe says Wilfork was double or tripled teamed ten times.

?To be honest with you, Vince was ready last week to play this game,?? linebacker Jerod Mayo said after defeating Baltimore. ?He has a ring and no one else on this defense has a ring. And he just expressed the joy that you would get from winning this game and he?s not a liar.?

We are struck by Wilfork?s versatility. He has played defensive end instead of nose tackle quite a bit in the playoffs. He is rushing the passer in addition to being the team?s best run stopper. He?s even picked off two passes this year. (And he knows what to do with the ball.)

New England?s defensive line has put together its two best performances of the season in successive weeks. In a game where the Patriots struggle to match up with the Giants in many areas, don?t be surprised if New England?s defensive line creates all sorts of problems against a shaky New York offensive line.

Vince Wilfork will be leading the way. You can?t get him off the field, and you can?t block him either.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/29/phil-emery-will-have-his-hands-full-in-chicago/related/

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What If I Ate Only One Type of Food? (LiveScience.com)

A British teenager collapsed and was rushed to the hospital this week after eating primarily chicken nuggets for the past 15 years. Stacey Irvine, 17, has reportedly survived on her nugget-heavy diet, occasionally supplemented by a bag of chips or piece of toast, since she was a toddler. Doctors have urgerd her to change her ways, but Irvine's case got us wondering: what would actually happen if you ate only one type of food for your entire life?

Depends on the poison you pick, but poison it most likely would be. According to Jo Ann Hattner, a nutrition consultant at Stanford University School of Medicine and former national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, choosing to eat only one fruit, vegetable or grain would lead to organ failure. Consuming only meat would eventually force your body to start munching on?your own muscles. And if you stuck solely to almost any one food (besides fruit), you would develop a serious case of scurvy.

"I wouldn't recommend this experiment," said Hattner, who also wrote "Gut Insight" (Hattner Nutrition, 2009), a book about digestive health.

No single vegetable or legume has all nine essential amino acids humans need to build the proteins that make up our muscles, Hattner said. That's why most human cultures, without knowing anything about food chemistry, have developed diets centered on complementary veggies that, together, provide all nine. At first, without all the right amino acids, your hair starts to lighten in color and your fingernails get soft. Much worse, "your lean body mass suffers. That doesn't just mean your muscles, but also your heart and your organs." Eventually, your heart shrinks so much you die; this happens, on occasion, with extreme cases of?anorexia nervosa.

Eating only one type of carbohydrate ? just bread or pasta, for example ? also causes organ failure, due to amino acid deficiency. On top of that, you'd get scurvy, a horrific disease brought on by lack of vitamin C, an essential component of many of the body's chemical reactions. Thanks to?highly unethical experiments?carried out on prison inmates in Britain and the United States in the 1940s, we know that scurvy hits after one to eight months of vitamin C deprivation (depending on the quantity one's body has stored to begin with). At first, you feel lethargic and your bones ache. Later, strange spots pop up all over your body and develop into suppurating wounds. You get jaundice, fever, tooth loss and, eventually, you die. [Why Don't Fad Diets Work?]

Life as a "meat purist" would also be a dead-end.

In addition to lacking vitamin C, most meats contain very few carbs ? the easy-to-access packets of energy your body constantly requires to perform even the smallest tasks. "Without carbohydrates, you're going to start to break down some of your muscle mass to get the energy," Hattner said. Again, "muscle" doesn't just mean your biceps. You'll be eating your own heart, too.

However, there is one food that has it all: the one that keeps babies alive. "The only food that provides all the nutrients that humans need is human milk," Hattner said. "Mother's milk is a complete food. We may add some solid foods to an infant's diet in the first year of life to provide more iron and other nutrients, but there is a little bit of everything in human milk."

Technically, adults could survive on?human milk, too, she said; the sticking point would be finding a woman who is willing to provide it (and enough of it). Lacking that option, the second-best choice would be mammalian milk, especially if it is fermented. "Yogurt, which is fermented milk, has a lot of bacteria that is good for the digestive tract," Hattner said.

These hypothetical scenarios aren't just whimsical speculation. In many parts of the world, people have no choice but to eat mostly one food: often, rice. Scientists are developing genetically modified rice that contains more vitamins and nutrients, especially vitamin A, in order to fight malnutrition.

Figuring out how to pack everything we need into one food is also useful for space travel, Hattner said. "The impetus of a lot of nutritional science is, 'How do we feed?people in space?' Scientists are trying to increase the nutritional concentration of food so you don't have a lot of bulk."

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/parenting/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120128/sc_livescience/whatifiateonlyonetypeoffood

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FounderSoup: Stanford and Andreessen?s New Startup Generator

A single entrepreneur alone is vulnerable to shortsightedness, to fatigue. But with a team comes diverse perspective, encouragement, and the wherewithal to push through problems. That's why a group of Stanford computer science and business students started the Andreessen Horowitz-backed FounderSoup program. It's designed to give entrepreneurs with an idea or a fledgling company a chance to pitch -- not to raise funding, but to recruit co-founders. At its first full-scale event on Thursday night I saw an effective model for fostering startups, and several brilliant ideas in healthtech and energy (reviewed here) that could turn into successful companies.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eImjvmvIths/

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Carnival Corp's Arison at courtside for Heat game (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) ? Carnival Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Micky Arison on Friday made what was believed to be his first public appearance since an ocean liner belonging to one of his Miami-based company's subsidiaries ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy two weeks ago.

The 62-year-old billionaire sat courtside at the American Airlines Arena on Miami's waterfront to watch an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the star-studded Miami Heat team, which he owns along with roughly half of the global cruise line industry.

Arison has been heavily criticized in media reports for failing to put in an appearance at the site of the accident, as bodies were still being pulled from the wrecked ship operated by Carnival unit Costa Cruises.

But the "invisible" CEO, as he was dubbed in one report, looked cheerful at times and very calm, as he watched the Heat beat the Knicks from his courtside perch behind a broadcast table.

Clad in a sport coat and open-necked shirt, Arison appeared to exchange few words with anyone and left the arena immediately after the game ended.

At least 16 bodies have been recovered since the massive Costa Concordia cruise liner, with more than 4,200 passengers and crew aboard, capsized after a gaping hole was torn into its hull.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and has been widely blamed for the accident for steering too close to the Tuscan island's shore.

Arison has expressed his condolences in statements issued since the Costa Concordia wreck and given personal assurances that all victims of the tragedy would be taken care of.

(Reporting By Bob Sullivan; writing by Tom Brown; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/media_nm/us_ship_italy_arison

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Mourning Digitally

Sleepy Hollow Graveyard. Photo by KDCosta, December 2011.

Ed Note: Another flashback from the archives of AiP this Friday, though a sombre one at that. It?s rainy and dreary here in New York City, and my thoughts are a bit dark today.

How are social technologies changing the experience of death for those charged with remembering?

Death has been referred to as the great equalizer?it is the one fate we cannot escape. And cultures around the world have developed highly ritualized approaches to coping with death. For example, Alan Klima (2002) documents the funeral casino in Thailand where rites of exchange work to mediate the relationships between the living, and between the living and the deceased (7). In Thailand, Klima reports, wakes are transformed into impromptu casinos. He describes the wake scene of the death of a beloved father:

?Dealers came and set up roulette wheels. Or they came with a bowl of dice and a big betting rug, each one good for a crowd of ten or twenty gamblers to sit around and cast their lots. The house family let loose, on the crowds, quart-sized bottles of Mekong brand rice rum to navigate through the spaces between bodies, with mixer bottles of Coke, Pepsi, Singha soda, water, and tin buckets of ice in hot pursuit. Packs of slicing and dicing cousins and aunts were spinning out plates of fried meats, raw pork, and saucy vegetables from their encampment in the kitchen. Family members were send forth onto the casino floor, to extract from time to time a cut of the dealers? profits. And the dealers were raking it in all over the place, starting from gambling operations set up right next to and under the coffin of the dead father, fanning out over the whole living room floor space, out onto the porch, and beyond that, spilling into the open air of the yard in the front ? And they kept coming?mourners, gamblers, and dealers ? Of course, no one would sit down to play without first bowing to the corpse?could you imagine that, placing your precious money at risk with a big coffin standing over you, to which you haven?t paid respects? (2002: 248).?

Ravina Aggarwal (2001) writes of a funeral feast she attended in the village of Achinathang:

?They had come for this last farewell, bringing gifts in memory of this expert weaver who had woven so many robes to clothe their bodies. There was so much beer that the keg was filled. A neighbor collected the offerings on the family?s behalf, announcing the house names of the donors. The joking and laughter of the men (who had taken up positions on the right hand side of the threshing ground) merged with the elegy of the widow and her chil- dren (seated on the left) and the incantations recited by the astrologer (who sat at the center). More and more people came (554).?

These are both acts of remembering, which are echoed in the rites and rituals of cultures around the world. The purpose for the gathering for the deceased, in whatever form it may take, is both for the benefit of the corpse and that of the family. Many cultures believe the deceased may be confused and requires company until the body can be interred or otherwise disposed of (Klima 2002; Dernbach 2005). And it?s a time the network to which the deceased was a member to gather and comfort each other. But wakes and other funeral rites also mark the beginning of a process of distancing. The deceased was fully integrated into a network, the ?social and emotional lives of those left behind are intimately tied to the deceased person, and adjusting to this change and loss is a difficult and long- term process? (Dernbach 2005: 100). Conklin (2001) writes that through the grieving process, mourners are ?transforming their perceived relationship to the dead person by going through a process in which they gradually confront their memories of the deceased one by one, accept the reality that their relationship to the deceased has ended, and let go emotionally of their attachments to the object of their loss? (171).

The process of memorial is also a process of forgetting. There is a mourning period for the community. For example, in the Jewish religion, the deceased are meant to be buried within 24 hours of death foregoing any extenuating circumstances. The family then sits shiva, or mourns for a week, or less depending on how observant they are of the religious practices. While private grief may continue long after the ?prescribed? mourning period, there comes a point where the deceased?s public memory is reduced to a death anniversary. The deceased is removed from the network. But Web 2.0 is changing the experience of death?both for the deceased as well as the survivors. Web 2.0 is making death an interactive experience, providing mourners with an opportunity to access a community for support, while sharing their grief and preserving memories of the deceased.

The growing popularity of the memorial pages on Facebook suggests that grief and death have moved online. Of course, we had clear indications that this was the case as the Twitterverse responded to the deaths of celebrities like Michael Jackson in 2009. Memorial pages, however, allow mourners to collectively gather and share mementos with one another in a single place?sentiments, photos, videos, even music can all be stored in a single virtual location to be accessed whenever desired. It provides a digital address for the deceased where mourners can continually visit, whereas Twitter more provides an opportunity for an immediate response. And it?s not limited to those within the deceased?s network. Memorial pages prolong the process of distancing, but they also reinforce the connections that members of the network have with each other?even with the deceased gone. For example, a student who created a memorial page for a victim of the Virginia Tech tragedy felt that Facebook allowed the community to pull together: ?We were all scattered around the country, but this was a way we could be together.? In this way, the social network is not ruptured or forced into reshaping itself to account for the loss of a member, as may be the case in off-line mourning. The process process for distancing is gradual in this model. Furthermore, the digital management of death appears gives people more control over how the deceased will be remembered in terms of what they choose to share and post about the deceased.

This does potentially raise some issues, however. For example, what if the family is not comfortable with the content of the memorial? Or wants the memorial removed? Does the digital community that participated in the memorial have any say? And should they even be considered in this decision? As grief and mourning become more public, these may be issues that have to be contended with. Of course, some feel that Twitter has handicapped our ability to mourn. What are your thoughts?

?-
References:
Aggarwal, R. (2001). At the Margins of Death: Ritual Space and the Politics of Location in an Indo-Himalayan Border Village American Ethnologist, 28 (3), 549-573 DOI: 10.1525/ae.2001.28.3.549

Conklin, B. (2001). Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society. Austin.

Dernbach, Katherine Boris. (2005). Spirits of the Hereafter: Death, Funerary Possession, and the Afterlife in Chuuk, Micronesia. Ethnology, 44 (2), 99-123

Klima, Alan. (2002). The Funeral Casino: Meditation, Massacre, and Exchange with the Dead in Thailand. Princeton: University Press.

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How Will He Respond? (TIME)

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Newt Gingrich promises to build a moon colony by 2020; make it a U.S. state (Yahoo! News)

The plan is bold, but it could run afoul of international treaties

The?race for the Republican presidential nomination is about to blast off into outer space: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced that, if elected, he'd?establish a colony on the moon by 2020.

In a speech to supporters on the Florida space coast, Gingrich called for a "grandiose" effort to colonize?space. "It's the second great launch of the adventure John F. Kennedy started," said Gingrich.

Gingrich opened up the possibility of the moon becoming the 51st state, something he believes could happen once a permanent settlement reaches a population of 13,000 Americans.?While a 1967 United Nations document says that no one country can claim sovereignty over the moon, the U.S., Russia, and China failed to sign a more recent U.N. treaty to settle the question of?who owns the moon.

The bold move hopes to boost the former speaker's presidential campaign in the Sunshine State, where space exploration remains a big industry. Florida will hold its GOP presidential primary vote on Tuesday, January 31.?Polls show the race is close.

[Image credit:?Steve Jurvetson]

(Source)

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

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Gingrich donor is casino mogul, Israeli hardliner

FILE - This June 7, 2011, file photo shows Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson waving to reporters as he arrived for Sands China's annual meeting in Hong Kong. He?s an ardent supporter of Israel and a megabillionaire casino mogul whose empire is under federal investigation. And he?s the self-proclaimed ?richest Jew in the world.? Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich?s surging presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich. Campaign finance experts say the pair of $5 million contributions is among the largest known political donations in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

FILE - This June 7, 2011, file photo shows Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson waving to reporters as he arrived for Sands China's annual meeting in Hong Kong. He?s an ardent supporter of Israel and a megabillionaire casino mogul whose empire is under federal investigation. And he?s the self-proclaimed ?richest Jew in the world.? Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich?s surging presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich. Campaign finance experts say the pair of $5 million contributions is among the largest known political donations in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich accompanied by his wife Callista speaks during an event at a Holiday Inn, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Cocoa, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

ATLANTA (AP) ? He's an ardent supporter of Israel. A megabillionaire casino mogul whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is under federal investigation. And the self-proclaimed "richest Jew in the world."

Sheldon Adelson is also, far and away, the biggest patron of Newt Gingrich's surging Republican presidential bid. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have pumped $10 million into a political action committee backing Gingrich that is run by the former House speaker's onetime aides. Campaign finance experts say the two $5 million contributions are among the largest known political donations in U.S. history.

No other candidate in the race for president appears to be relying so heavily on the fortune of a single donor. It's been made possible by last year's Supreme Court rulings ? known as Citizens United ? that recast the political landscape by stripping away restrictions on contributions and how outside groups can spend their money.

Sheldon Adelson is Citizens United come to life.

"The bottom line is that it creates that potential for one person to have far more influence than any one person should have," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign finance watchdog group Democracy 21.

When any candidate is beholden to a single donor for so much money, Wertheimer said, "it opens the door to corruption and influence peddling." Wertheimer said the infusion of cash would raise questions about any decision Gingrich would make that touches on gambling, for example. And similar questions could be raised about Gingrich's Mideast policies.

Indeed, without recent disclosures by news organizations, voters would not have even known about the large contributions until campaign filings due Feb. 20. That would be long after a number of key primaries.

The outsized contributions are stirring some unease among the evangelical voters whom Gingrich is counting on to help him defeat Mitt Romney. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the gambling cash fueling Gingrich's bid "discomforting."

Land said Gingrich should make clear what his views are on legalized gambling.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the candidate believes it is a states' rights issue and does not gamble.

Friends say Adelson and Gingrich met when Gingrich was House speaker and Adelson was lobbying to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich backed the legislation and the two bonded over a shared hardline stance on Israel.

In Cocoa, Fla., Gingrich on Wednesday called Adelson "very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel" and the threat of a nuclear Iran. Asked if he had promised Adelson anything, Gingrich replied that he pledged "that I would seek to defend the United States and United States allies."

Those who have followed Gingrich's career say he has long staked out a tough stance on Israel that predated his friendship with Adelson.

Gingrich "has been one of the few politicians who has had the courage to tell the truth about Israel," said Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America. "I think that is why they became such good friends."

In December, Gingrich proclaimed the Palestinians "an invented people." Israel's Haaretz daily reported later that month that Adelson approved of the remarks. And Gingrich has said that one of the first executive orders he would sign if elected president would move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

Through a spokesman, Adelson declined an interview request from The Associated Press.

His rags-to-riches story as the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants in Dorchester, Mass., is well-known lore in the pro-Israeli circles he inhabits and where his philanthropy is legendary.

Adelson entered the business world as a 12-year-old selling newspapers. He began to make his fortune when he founded Comdex, a trade show that became a staple for the computer industry. He then moved into the casino industry. His gambling empire stretches from Las Vegas to Macau and Singapore and includes the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Las Vegas.

The FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Adelson for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a filing with the SEC. The company denies any wrongdoing and says the investigation stems from the allegation of a disgruntled employee.

The son of a cab driver, Adelson now ranks as the eighth wealthiest person in America, according to Forbes Magazine, which places his net worth at $21.5 billion.

Last year, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, said it received its largest private donation ever ? a $25 million gift ? from Adelson. Since 2007, he has donated more than $100 million to Birthright Israel, a group that sends young adult Jews from the United States and other countries on 10-day trips to Israel.

Adelson is an outspoken supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and owns a widely read, right-wing Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is distributed at no cost throughout Israel and is supportive of Netanyahu.

The hefty donations to Gingrich's presidential bid aren't the first checks he's written to help the former Georgia congressman. He ponied up more than $7 million to help get Gingrich's conservative political group American Solutions for Winning the Future off the ground.

The first $5 million donation from Adelson came at a critical juncture for Gingrich as he entered South Carolina, stung by a humbling fifth-place finish in New Hampshire's Republican primary. The Adelson money to Winning Our Future, a pro-Gingrich PAC led by former Gingrich aide Rick Tyler, helped finance a 28-minute movie bashing Mitt Romney's tenure at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Gingrich was able to leverage the support into a double-digit win in South Carolina over Romney.

Presumably pleased with his investment, Adelson doubled down in Florida, where the next Republican contest will take place Jan. 31. This week, Adelson's wife chipped in another $5 million. The money is quickly going right back out the door.

Tyler told the AP that Winning Our Future had made a $6 million ad buy in Florida. A spot is planned to take aim at Romney's health care plan as governor of Massachusetts and its connection to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Tyler said.

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Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Brian Bakst in Cocoa, Fla., and Jack Gillum in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Shannon McCaffrey: www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-26-Gingrich-Casino%20Mogul/id-e9bc0316e853481794c24a9742893469

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Spacetime Studios bringing Dark Legends to Android

Spacetime Studios, creators of Pocket Legends and Star Legends, are returning to Android with their latest creation; Dark Legends. Release for this taste of the undead is currently slated for Q1 2012. 

The gameplay of Dark Legends is said to draw the player deeper into the experience. Boasting a combat system that features new mechanics such as charge attacks and the ability to drain enemies.

The game will also be more focused on the narrative aspect, and will offer the ability to complete quick action missions with a single tap. Such missions feature cut-scenes that become linked together to create a storybook where the player experiences the life of a vampire up close and personal.

The game is said to open with your character recently 'raised' and being watched over by the vampire that created them. The existance of vampires has been exposed and the humans are uniting to exterminate them all. You must work with your clan to survive. 

The previous games from Spacetime have been downloaded over 7 million times and offer players such a high level of gaming quality. There's no reason to suspect Dark Legends will be any different. It is due to be shown off for the first time at GDC 2012. 

via Marketwatch; More: Spacetime Studios

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/XxhGfhVruwQ/story01.htm

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Lee Brenner: Adorable CSI: Miami Parody

Because everyone starts somewhere...

Before he was a pun-heavy, quick-triggered forensic analyst and homicide detective in the Miami-Dade Police Department, the sunglasses-clutching, one-liner-spewing Horatio Caine got his start solving whatever mysteries he could find in his own backyard. This is the story of "Horatio: The Early Years."

The latest two episodes of the series are now live -- check all four of them out here:

Episode I: Ring Around the Rosie

Episode II: The Cooties Shot

Episode III: Happy Meal

Episode IV: Stepping In It

If you like it, please share it with friends, family and online acquaintances on Facebook, Twitter and wherever you see fit!

Subscribe to HyperVocal's YouTube channel to be the first to know.

Follow @YoungHoratio and @hypervocal on Twitter for updates and more.

And if you need to see the real thing, here's a "Best of Horatio Caine":

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Written by: Slade Sohmer, Dan De Lorenzo & Ben Stumpf Directed by: Ben Stumpf Produced by: Dan De Lorenzo Exec. Producer: Slade Sohmer & HyperVocal

Starring: Blake Sohmer as Young Horatio and Hailey Shapiro as his partner.
Also starring: Spencer Penn, Lea Sorkin, Chloe Morris, and Olivia Ryan.

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Please don't forget to pass it around if you want more episodes of the series...

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Follow Lee Brenner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hypervocal

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-brenner/csi-miami-parody_b_1231615.html

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Video: Senate Preview of Obama's Speech

Sen. Chris Coons, (D-DE), and Sen Ron Johnson, (R-WI), discuss what they hope to hear from President Obama tonight, and how to tackle tax reform.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Top of page

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46123681/

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Gangaji: Going Inside: Direct Experience Is Like a True Kiss

To inquire into something is to open to it, to meet it, and to discover its meaning -- or lack of meaning -- from the inside of it.

Inquiry is generally recognized to mean investigating, and that definition serves the purpose well. However, in the sense in which I use Inquiry, it is not information that is provided by this investigation, but direct experience. To directly experience anything we first have to leave behind all preconceptions of that thing.

No matter how often we are told about a thing it is only when we experience that thing directly that we truly know it. We know the meaning of heat and pain and fire from the direct experience of coming into contact with fire. We can be taught that it is good to love and holy to show compassion, but those concepts will never have true meaning until they are real -- our direct experience. We know a true kiss or surrender to an embrace when we directly experience them. We may practice or imitate kissing and embracing for some time, just as we may practice or imitate love and compassion before we have the direct experience.

In imitation or mimicry we remember what we should do or feel, and then we think ourselves through the act. "Now I press my lips, now I put my arms around..." In directly experiencing there is no thought. While thought processing is extremely important, in many acts of a day -- giving or following directions, remembering the time of a meeting, checking a grocery list, studying complicated issues as well as the thousands of other sophisticated ways we think -- consciously surrendering to any act or any moment requires the suspension of all thought.

We surrender thought spontaneously in moments of awe or shock. Usually our most prized memories are the moments where we are directly in an experience. Moments of extreme focus and moments of complete open-mindedness are both without thought. In truth, thoughts stop many times within a day, but since our conditioned reference points are located in our thoughts, we generally overlook these moments of pure spaciousness of mind. We "think" ourselves from thought to thought.

To consciously choose to be without thought is the gateway to direct experience. If we are bound to our thinking process for our reference points of reality, we will ask only those questions guaranteed to keep attention on analysis, cause and effect and conceptual evaluation. While recognizing the value and power of thinking we can also recognize the power of actually choosing thought-free, direct experience.

People often fear being without thought as if it were the corollary to ignorance. Understandably, ignorance is feared. There is never a need to deny the harm that ignorance can cause, and use of the term thoughtless usually refers to some action taken without thoughtful consideration. What is overlooked in this corollary is the harm caused by being bound to thoughts. When we are bound to thoughts, our minds are already possessed by what we have been taught, by our latest conclusions, by beliefs of all kinds and by our fear of having no thoughts.

The invitation to inquire into what is present requires that we have no preconception of what that is. Since we have spent most of our lives being taught to accumulate concepts categorizing what we perceive, this invitation is also a challenge. We are ready for this challenge when we recognize that conceptual thinking is limited. We are ready when we want more, and when we realize we aren't finding more in what we already know. This readiness, coupled with the willingness to explore, allows us to face the fear that naturally arises when we no longer rely on knowledge.

If we don't rely on the knowledge we have for our experience of the world and ourselves, what is left? When we don't rely on our naming and defining particular emotions or particular states of mind, what is here?

For more by Gangaji, click here.

For more on consciousness, click here.

This blog is adapted from Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story, which was published by Penguin Tarcher in 2011. In this life-changing book, Gangaji uses the telling of her own life story to help readers uncover the truth in their own. Publisher's Weekly said, "This gently flowing but often disarming volume invites readers to examine the narratives that shape them, and is a call to pass beyond personal stories to find a deeper, more universal self." In February and March Gangaji will be offereing Retreats in Maui, HI. Visit www.gangaji.org for more information about Gangaji and her upcoming events, including the monthly Webcast / Conference Series, With Gangaji, which is currently undergoing an in-depth study of Hidden Treasure.

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Follow Gangaji on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Gangaji

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gangaji/thinking_b_1223829.html

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Mike Ragogna: "Crazy Crazy": Introducing Guinevere, Plus Chatting With Four Year Strong's Alan Day and Gregory Rogove

A Conversation with Guinevere

Mike Ragogna: Guinevere, you're a native of Toronto, right?

Guinevere: That's right.

MR: But you've recently branched out and started releasing your music here in the US.

G: Yes, that's true, and in Djibouti. The horn of Africa is pretty big on pop music. I'm kind of a big deal over there. (laughs) No, but for real, I've released a single called "Crazy Crazy" in Canada and the US, and I'm opening for Nick Carter and doing some headlining shows starting at the end of this month. All the dates are up on my website: http://www.thisisguinevere.com/

MR: So, I hear you're kind of a gamer, ain't ya.

G: Well, I guess you could classify me as a tomboy. I love video games, specifically Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Any game involving guns and zombies, it's a sure way to my heart. Boys, you should be writing this down.

MR: Is it true that you go online anonymously and play with other people?

G: Oh yeah, all the time. I have a little headset so that I can talk smack to people while I kill them off. Sometimes, I'll stay silent until the end of the game after I've buried everyone, and I tell them that I'm a girl. (laughs)

MR: Nice. (laughs) Nuketown Records is the name of your record label, right?

G: That's right. The name comes from a map on the game Call Of Duty, so gamers will get the inside joke.

MR: You're also pretty big into sci-fi. I heard you met a certain Captain Jean-Luc Picard or something like that?

G: Yes, ever since I was a little kid, I watched Star Trek - specifically, Star Trek: The Next Generation. And, no, I didn't actually get to meet him, my manager and his family did. He even took a photo with him and his son, and sent it to me. I almost cried because I was with my manager in LA at the time and only missed Patrick Stewart by a few minutes. I also love Star Wars. I'm a huge fan of those movies.

MR: Okay, let's talk about your new song "Crazy, Crazy," which was produced by Cirkut, who is super hot right now, working with Ke$ha, Britney, Rihanna, Flo Rida, and Taio Cruz. How did you get hooked up with him?

G: He was in Toronto when we met - this was seconds before he really blew up as a producer. We went to his really small studio downtown and he played these crazy massive beats and we knew he was incredibly talented. "Crazy Crazy" was one of the first songs we wrote and we worked on that and it all clicked so well in the studio that we ended up doing a bunch more. By the time we finished all of the songs for the record, Cirkut had been discovered by Dr. Luke and now he's working side by side with him creating these massive records for the biggest superstars. I'm grateful we found him first.

MR: Can you tell us a little bit about where the song "Crazy Crazy" came from?

G: The song came to me in the form of seven separate fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant late one night. Nah, I'm kidding. We wrote a song about having fun with the person you're in a relationship with. It's kind of highlighting the "lady in the street, but a freak in the bed" mentality. (laughs) Being able to just have fun and being a total slut with your boyfriend or husband and freely expressing yourself, getting uncensored and crazy with the one you love.

MR: Your other single, "I Don't Believe In Love," is another collaboration with Ari Levine from The Smeezingtons who is nominated for the second year in a row for a Producer of The Year Grammy. Plus he produces and co-writes Bruno Mars songs.

G: Yeah, I am so fortunate to be able to work with him. He's so down to earth and cool. After the session, he took me to LA Gun Club and he taught me how to shoot a shotgun. I accidentally shot him in the liver. He's fine now. That was cool.
MR: (laughs) Wow. Can you ever go back to playing video games once you've had a real gun in your hands?

G: There are no zombies wandering the earth yet, so I guess the video games will have to suffice. (laughs) But the next time I'm in LA, I'm definitely going to The Gun Club to fire off a couple rounds.

MR: As I understand it, you started performing at a very young age. Is that right?

G: I think I was in grade one when I performed a Beach Boys song called, "Surfer Girl." That was kind of when I knew that this was something that I wanted to do.

MR: And legend has it some of your musical inspiration comes from your parent's classic rock tastes.

G: Yeah, actually. When I was about 13, I was listening to The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears when my dad put on "Stairway To Heaven," and by the end of the song, I was blown away. I was like, "What is this? This is amazing!" From then on, I started exploring music from '60 to '79. I sat there and listened to a million different records and fell in love with the music of that era.

MR: Who were some of your influences?

G: Well, I'm a big Black Sabbath fan. I love Fleetwood Mac, The Doors and Stevie Nicks. I love her vocals, her presence. She's incredible.

MR: Can you tell us a little bit about where your stage name "Guinevere" came from?

G: My real name is Gwen, but I decided to go with Guinevere because I am into Arthurian legend, and in the King Arthur stories, she's so badass. She's strong, she followed her heart. She was the rock star of the castle. I like what the name represents.

MR: Nice. Has it ever been determined whether or not those stories have any basis in truth?

G: I would like to think that there's some truth to it.

MR: Can you discuss what went into creating your new album?

G: Most of the songs were written by myself and my manager, Amir Epstein. A lot of the work was done in the car. Driving to the studio on the highway, we'd go over the melodies over and over again and write the lyrics while sitting in Toronto traffic.

MR: Your style of music spans pop, dance and rock. So, how would you define it?

G: I like to call it "dark pop." It has pop sensibility, but the lyrics are very sarcastic and dark. Every single one of my songs conveys a truth - saying things that most people would be afraid to say in most situations. My goal was to send that message out there with aggressive lyrics.

MR: From your new album, let's talk about the song, "Beautiful."

G: (laughs) Ya, that's a good one. It's kind of payback for misogynists. Guys can be pretty cruel to girls in clubs. I have a lot of guy friends who will hook up with a girl in a club and they'll dance all night, and at the end of the night, all the lights turn on and they are like, "DAMN, you UGLY." I decided to write about that same idea, but in reverse. The song is about finding a guy at the bar and as soon as the lights hit his face, you realize that he is fugly!! (laughs) The chorus goes, "Oh my God, just go, now that I can see you, don't follow me home, really nice to meet you!" It's fun, silly and sarcastic.

MR: (laughs) It seems to be the same theme for the song "Liar."

G: Oh, yeah. It kind of pays homage to Alanis Morissette (a fellow Canadian). She's very aggressive with her lyrics. The song's attitude is a lot like "You Oughta Know." It's actually inspired by a situation one of my friends had with her boyfriend. I watched her go through being cheated on and lied to and how pissed I'd be if I were in her shoes. The lyrics are a raw, honest reaction to finding out you were cheated on.

MR: And there's your song "Go."

G: Yeah, a lot of people seem to connect to that song. It's bittersweet because it's talking about a better time. It's saying, "I thought it was love at first, but now that I realize it isn't, we need to move on, and although we will both hurt, we will both be ok. You need to enjoy your life." It's hard breaking up with somebody, especially somebody you love, but sometimes, love isn't enough. It's a dark kind of beautiful.

MR: Absolutely. You also bravely covered Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer."

G: Yes. That was so much fun. The verses and pre-choruses of the song were rewritten to make it my own. What I wanted to do was change the perspective and speak from the girl's point of view - what it must be like to be with someone who is away from home or on the road following their dream. Still, with the killer chorus, but now it's from the perspective of Bon Jovi's wife. It's her struggle in supporting her man and how strong their relationship must be to get through such a difficult lifestyle. Besides, it's fun to role-play being Bon Jovi's hot New Jersey wife in the '80s. I should have been born earlier!

MR: (laughs) Do you have any advice that you'd like to share with new artists?

G: Learn to knit and how to speak Nadsat. Seriously, I would advise to write from the heart. I know that sounds really cheesy, but that's how fans connect. If there's truth behind the songs you record, fans connect to that. Also, it's very important to surround yourself with people you can trust.

MR: And that is exactly what you've done, right? You take a DIY approach to your own promotion, don't you?

G: Yes, I do. I don't mind asking my amazing fans to help where they can. For example, I always ask my fans if they like my single, PLEASE request it repeatedly on every pop station in their town or city. How else will those stations know if their listeners like my single? It really means a lot to me.

MR: What do you feel are the best benefits using a DIY approach?

G: Complete creative control, for one. We get to release any single that we want, we get complete control over the videos we shoot, the producers we work with, the photographers we use etc. I think it's a risky thing to do, but at the same time having the power and freedom to express yourself is the best part of this. I really enjoy that.

MR: How do artists these days fund themselves without a record label?

G: It's different for everyone and it is tricky getting quality work for little money. But Canada has certain grants that the artists and bands can apply for to help fund a record, touring, websites, publicity etc. That's a leg up that Canadians have over people from the US. Also, sometimes, you can get people to do good work for less. Don't be afraid to ask. Try not to screw the starving musicians in your band, but if you can get a deal on unused studio space or a producer to work on spec, do it. A pleading look and a "pretty please?" helps. "Eyelash batting" is good to get musical funding or to simply get someone to buy you a beer. (laughs)

MR: So, how can your fans connect with you? Are you on all of the social networking sites?

G: Yes, for sure. I'm on Twitter and Facebook all the time. (laughs) Whenever someone tweets me, I will most definitely tweet them back. My Twitter account name is @thisisguinevere, and my facebook is www.facebook.com/thisisguinevere. I post things on a regular basis and respond to fans all the time. Check out my video on YouTube. Just search "Guinevere crazy crazy." I enjoy social networking because it's great to receive immediate feedback from fans.

MR: Do you have any more "singles" coming out soon that we should be looking out for?

G: Yeah. We just finished another song called, "Liberated." It's definitely a possible new single. It's a feel good song and I'm hoping to go nuts with the next video. Maybe more PVC and some light sabers or a gorilla in a gorilla suit. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) If there was one thing you would want from your fans, what would it be?

G: I would ask everyone to PLEASE request my song "Crazy Crazy" on their local radio station. Bombard them with requests. It's the #1 support a fan can give me.

MR: (laughs) One more question. As a gamer, have you come up with any video game ideas that you think people need to start working on?

G: How about "Maria Sisters"? Two Italian girls that have to search castles for their kidnapped prince. They can look the same, except one sister will be dressed in red, and the other in green. And one will have a fuller mustache. Feels familiar, doesn't it? How about an interactive reality gun game, where the player can turn on any reality show they hate and kill off any "real" characters they really dislike.

MR: Oh my. (laughs) Guinevere, thanks so much for spending some time with us, and all the best in the future and with your upcoming album.

G: Thanks so much, Mike. It was a lot of fun.

Transcribed by Evan Martin

Guinevere - "Crazy Crazy" Remix by FTR3

A Conversation with Four Year Strong's Alan Day

Mike Ragogna: Alan, I would describe Four Year Strong's sound as power-punk-pop...what do you think?

Alan Day: Yeah, that's pretty accurate.

MR: And maybe a little bit indie?

AD: Yeah, there may be a little bit of that mixed in there.

MR: Four Year Strong's In Some Way Shape Or Form is the band's fourth album. How did this one come together?

AD: We came out with the first record in 2007 and then we waited so long - almost three years - to put our next record out. So, we knew from that experience that we didn't want to wait that long. We were just dying to get this record out. We knew we wanted to do something a little bit different from stuff we've done in the past. We took a new approach to writing songs and that went better than ever. This record was a product of that.

MR: How did you guys write the music for this one?

AD: Well, in the past, we would concentrate mostly on the music - the chord progression, what the drums were doing, what the bass was doing - then write vocals on top of that. This time around, we realized that that approach really didn't make much sense. (laughs) We thought we should start to write the songs as songs - with vocals, melody and lyrics hand-in-hand, so that they actually work together instead of just feeling thrown together. That's what we did this time around and we loved it.

MR: So over the course of four albums - your first album counts as your first album, right?

AD: It's Our Time is actually just a really old recording we did when I was about sixteen or seventeen. (laughs)

MR: Okay, from then until now, besides the songwriting, how have things changed for you guys over the span of these projects?

AD: We've changed just as much as anyone else would as long as we've been together. We've been a band for about ten years and I think people have gotten to see a lot of different sides of the band. So many things can change us, whether we're listening to pop music a lot at the time or the experiences we've gone through as a band from touring to being in the studio. That just shows in our music. We weren't trying to be a different band when we were making this record, we are just starting to evolve into newer people and a newer band.

MR: By the way, the last album has one of my favorite song titles, "It Must Suck To Be Four Years Strong Right Now."

AD: (laughs) That was just a joke, really.

MR: And your fans are an integral part of the way you guys function as a band, isn't that right?

AD: Absolutely.

MR: For instance, you guys offered the free download of the song "Fair Weather Fan," which, I thought, was a great thing to do.

AD: Yeah. I mean, we've always thought that the fans were the most important thing about the band because if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be here. We're not in an age now where we could just sit back and have a record label sell millions of copies of records and make money for us. We do this for the fans first. We tour all over the country and world all year so that we can give people our music. That's what this is all about.

MR: You guys had a sort of mini-tour recently to back up the release of your single.

AD: We just finished up on the AP Tour around the States about a month ago. Our new record came out about halfway through the tour, so of course the tour was definitely in support of that new release, and we started playing, "Just Drive" and a few other new songs. It was going really well.

MR: You guys even had a few pre-album releases of songs such as "Stuck In The Middle" and "Falling For You," though they weren't released as singles, right?

AD: That's right.

MR: Can you discuss the general theme behind this batch of songs?

AD: Sure. One of the things that we did on this record that we haven't really done on previous records is that we touch on darker subjects. We always like to keep our songs pretty open to interpretation because what people latch onto in songs and lyrics is the fact that that they can relate them to their own lives and experiences, not just learning about a story that Dan O'Connor or I wrote, but being able to really latch onto it.

MR: Dan being the other vocalist and guitarist, and you also have Joe Weiss and Jake Massucco in the band. How do all of you interact with each other as a band?

AD: Oh, it's a blast. We're just a bunch of kids on the road having fun and playing music. It doesn't get much better than that, right? (laughs)

MR: Right. (laughs) You mentioned before that some of these songs are a little darker, proof of that being "Security Of The Familiar, The Tranquility Of Repetition," which is a quote from V For Vendetta. Was it someone's favorite movie?

AD: I don't know that it's any of our favorite movies, we just sometimes name songs from movie quotes. It's a thing we do.

MR: So was the song title, "Unbreakable" inspired by the movie?

AD: (laughs) No, that one was more lyrically inspired. That's actually one of my favorites on the album.

MR: Did you guys intend for that to be a sort of sporting event anthem? It does kind of come off like that.

AD: Not really. I'm not even really that much of a sports fan. Joe is crazy about the Bruins, and Dan loves the Red Sox and the Patriots, Jake loves the Celtics, and I'm the odd man out. And I do like sports, I just grew up in a house that listened to music and didn't watch sports. I kind of feel left out all the time.

MR: Are you just saying you're not into sports because you're secretly a Yankees fan?

AD: No. (laughs) I wish that I could be that ironic, but I'm not.

MR: You guys all grew up together in Worcester, Massachusetts. How did you first get together as a band?

AD: Well, the drummer Jake and I grew up together. We went to elementary school together and played in bands every year since the third grade or something. Then, when I was a freshman in High School, we started this band with Dan. We went through a couple of lineup changes at the beginning, but here we are.

MR: A small portion of the proceeds from your "It's A Wonderful Gig Life Tour" are going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, right? How did that come about?

AD: That's right. We've always wanted to do something with a charity organization and Dan's brother passed away of Leukemia in 2004, I believe. He's always wanted to do something for that charity specifically, so we figured this would be a great opportunity to do that.

MR: There was the photo contest that you guys put together with the "Just Drive" video. Can you tell us about that?

AD: We had this thing on Instagram, which is an iPhone app and another form of social networking. It's kind of like Twitter, only Twitter gives you 140 characters to say what you want to say and Instagram lets you post a picture instead, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so they say. We thought it was a cool way to get this cool, new social networking site and the band to work together in a new cool way. People like taking pictures and sharing them with the world and we figured that this was a cool way to do it.

MR: You guys also have a limited edition t-shirt designed in conjunction with Johnny Cupcakes Clothing.

AD: Yes, we do. We've known people that work there for quite a while now because they're from Boston and we're from Worcester. SJC Drums is from Massachusetts as well, so we all just kind of got together recently where we got an event together and all of Johnny Cupcakes, and SJC Drums people were there. So, we did a shirt with Johnny Cupcakes and SJC Drums did a kickdrum head with all of the logos on it. We just thought it was a cool way for these small town kids who actually had ideas and made them realities through time celebrate that.

MR: Where did the name "Four Years Strong" come from?

AD: Well, the actual story is not cool at all. I wish I could make something up to make it sound really interesting, but there isn't. (laughs) There was a band called the Get Up Kids that we all really liked when we were freshman in High School, and one of their lyrics was "five years strong." So, we thought we would be cool and just change it to Four Years Strong and make that the band's name. That's it. (laughs) Not an exciting story.

MR: What's with those beards with you guys. Some kind of statement?

AD: No, we all just really like beards and we've had them a long time. We also all hate razors. I haven't used a razor and shaving cream and shaved my face clean in maybe seven years?

MR: Do you have any advice that you would give to newer artists?

AD: My advice has always been to just get out there and show the world what you've got, you know? It's so easy these days to create a website and record a record in Garage Band and just do it all from home. You can go on the Internet and get so many hits online and people will actually see you and hear your music. The best way, though, is to physically get out there and loose some money. Take money out of your pocket, invest in a tank of gas and go play a gig a couple of States away, even if it's to nobody. Everyone I know that is huge and successful kind of started like that. That's the nature of this business at the start. Eventually, once you've established yourself as an artist, you appreciate all of that so much more.

Tracks:
1. The Infected
2. The Security Of The Familiar, The Tranquility Of Repetition
3. Stuck In The Middle
4. Just Drive
5. Fairweather Fan
6. Sweet Kerosene
7. Falling On You
8. Heaven Wasn't Built To Hold Me
9. Unbreakable
10. Bring On The World
11. Fight The Future
12. Only The Meek Get Pinched. The Bold Survive

Transcribed By Evan Martin

A Conversation with Gregory Rogove

Mike Ragogna: Gregory, let's start with a little background for everyone. You grew up in Pennsylvanian Amish Country, born to Jewish parents, right?

Gregory Rogove: Yes. Well, my father is of Ukrainian-Jewish origins and my mother's side is a mix of English and French. But my mom converted to Judaism when I was born.

MR: And you also spent a year in India on a year-long scholarship?

GR: Right. When I was 18, I went there to study the North Indian classical drum, or the tabla.

MR: And from there, you also went to Singapore, Mali, Mexico and China where you visited the Peking Opera, right?

GR: Yeah. I was mesmerized by those gongs that can be simultaneously beautiful and nauseating when they're repetitively banged in your brain. (laughs)

MR: Later, you graduated from Wesleyan University in 2002 and was a recipient of the Pecora Award, correct?

GR: Yeah. That was more of a surprise than anything. That award wasn't something I was thinking about or planning for, it was something I got in the mail. I didn't think anything of it, really. I thought it had something to do with Indian food. (laughs) I thought maybe it was some kind of joke until I did a little research on the award. I was so pleased and my friends who identified themselves as actual composers were a little upset at that. I'm not sure how it happened, but I was very happy to get it.

MR: From there, you immediately formed the band Tarantula A.D, which later became Priestbird, right?

GR: That's right.

MR: Plus you've even had the opportunity to play with Beck and tons of other hugely talented musicians, and you even bonded with Paul McCartney, right?

GR: Well, to be honest, that's a bit of a stretch. I met Paul McCartney for a second, which was a lifelong dream for me. my mom was a huge Beatlemaniac. When she found out I met him, she cried tears of joy. (laughs) But that was only a brief, really embarrassing meeting. That's another story entirely, though. As for Beck, I played a show with Devendra Banhart in Reno in a God-awful casino. We did one Devendra song together and the Beck's drummer said that he thought I should do the song, so I played the drums with Beck's band as he sang with Devnndra.

MR: And let's not forget Megapuss.

GR: Good ol' Megapuss. (laughs) Before we even made any music, Megapuss was a band that Devendra and I put together while on tour. The name came from a bunch of confusing texts that I got from a very sweet Swedish girl. She was very innocent, but she ended all of her texts with phrases like, "...puss, puss, puss." Well, one of them was, "Megapuss," and I had no idea what she was talking about. I told Devendra and he thought it was awesome, so we had a band name. Turns out that the word means "kiss," so she was just sending me a mega-kiss via text. (laughs) We started writing titles of songs before we even had music, and we had a rule that we quickly write a song before a show so that by the end of the tour we had about 20 song sketches. When we got home I crashed at his place for about two months and we finished and recorded a record. We invited Fab Moretti from The Strokes to come in and sing a song. He's a great friend and a beautiful artist.

MR: Your new album Piana album focuses on John Medeski as the featured musician. Can you tell us about how that came together?

GR: Well, I spent a little time in Mexico writing these pieces. I wrote and recorded a version of all of the songs myself. When I got home I was working on some of the mixes and thought that I was extremely happy with the songs, but I'm not a trained pianist. I feel comfortable writing for the instrument, but I don't have the touch of someone who has an intimate relationship with the instrument. At that point, I had known John Medeski for a few years, though not very well. The drummer in his band was a very close friend of mine and my teacher's for a while. So, I reached out to John and asked him if he'd be interested in playing all of the pieces and he said, "Sure." I was so excited because he's such a master. I also thought it would be very interesting to have him do it because he's a virtuosic improviser and these are short, simple composed pieces. I thought it would be very interesting to have the tension of someone who wants to just paint with notes ad hoc and have that be restrained. He did an amazing job, but you could tell that the whole time, he just wanted to burst out of the strict composition structure, though we had one semi-improvised piece where you can really hear him shine. It's called, "Young Mountain."

MR: It's a beautiful song. So, you're on the Knitting Factory label.

GR: Yes, that's right. The label started in New York and they have a history of putting out a lot of the downtown, avant-garde musicians. Then the label changed hands, I believe. I don't know the whole history behind it. Anyway, they're back on the scene and putting out a really fantastic array of music. They have the entire catalog of Fela Kuti, who is a huge hero of mine. That was actually one of the selling points to me for the label. (laughs)

MR: Right. They also allowed you to do a companion DVD with distinct images that go along with this album. What's behind the concept?

GR: After I had all of the pieces in the can from Medeski's performance, I thought it would be really interesting to pass each one of the pieces on to artists that don't usually work with this material and try to rearrange it. The piano music stands alone, but it's so often a springboard for other music. So, I thought it would be interesting to send something with more of a classical lean to a folk artist or whatever. I started passing it out to musicians, but I also have a lot of friends who are visual artists who thought it would be interesting to do a multimedia project along with it. What if I gave it to painters or visual artists or sculptors to link sounds to these compositions? So, that's what I did. Everything kept rolling and rolling and eventually, I had each piece remixed and rearranged musically and reinterpreted visually. So, the DVD comes with a visual and musical reinterpretation of each song.

MR: And personally, I think the presentation was very unique.

GR: Thank you. The whole concept seemed so simple at first. Of course, it's always more complicated than you may think. But in the end, I'm very happy with the way that it turned out.

MR: Now, you drew inspiration for these pieces from French impressionists?

GR: Yeah. I've been playing the drums since I was 10 years old. It's kind of where I feel most natural. But I always loved writing songs and all kinds of music, so when I was 17 or 18, I came across Erik Satie's music and was completely taken with it. Of course, that led to Ravel and Debussy. But Erik's pieces in particular are so simple. I thought to myself that I could probably play those pieces if I just sat down at a piano long enough. I started teaching myself the pieces and just kind of kept hanging around the piano with those pieces and writing my own. All of that left an indelible mark on my perspective of music and writing. Over the years, I had a bunch of sketches like the ones on this album, but it didn't make sense for Megapuss or Priestbird or any of those bands. I really wanted to have a solo piano record because that's some of my favorite music to listen to as you're going about your day. It enlivens the world and I wanted to make an album like that.

MR: Right. Where was this album recorded?

GR: I wrote the songs in Mexico, but when the stars kind of aligned for us to record it with John Medeski, the plans changed. I had a kind of busy Fall when I needed to record, as did John, and we both happened to have the same two days off when we were both in New York. So, I shot up to Woodstock where John was incidentally starting to make sketches for his own solo piano record. We recorded in one day in this little wooden shack where John used to live in Woodstock, NY.

MR: Who's idea was it to put the apes in tighty-whities?

GR: That was a stop motion animation experiment that my girlfriend, Diana Garcia, and I did. We came across a studio that was allowing people to rent a bunch of studio equipment for free. It was sponsored by Levi's and when we saw all of the equipment, we knew we had to write something to produce. So, I wrote a little something and when I showed her she was a little crestfallen. She thought it would take our entire lives to film. She wanted to take an afternoon to film it and it ended up being about three weeks straight of animating. The story, I think, came from an idea I had while reading Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. It's an image of our ancestors walking arm-in-arm through the savanah. It's kind of romantic - these Australopithecus creatures enjoying love the same way we know it now, back then. Then the sun burns out and there's a bit of chaos and they lose their clothes and are forced to leave the city and enter back into the wild. They no longer had the tools to live in that environment.

MR: Gregory, what advice do you have for new artists?

GR: I hear this from my heroes all the time, and I think it's so true: Do something original. Do something that stretches your boundaries and makes you uncomfortable, but that excites you.

Tracks:

CD:
1. Khadi
2. Carolyn
3. Jackyl
4. Castle Garden
5. Vines
6. Love Cherries
7. Casa Azul
8. Sunken Ships
9. White Room
10. Young Mountain

DVD:
1. Carolyn - The Bees
2. Jackyl - Violens
3. Sunken Sh-illy (Sunken Ships) - Billy Martin
4. Vines - Natalia Lafourcade
5. Young Mountain - Devendra Banhart
6. White Room - The Storms
7. Khadi - Hecuba
8. Castle Garden - Carly Margolis
9. Love Cherries - Adam Green
10. Casa Azul - Lucky Dragons

Transcribed by Evan Martin

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Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/crazy-crazy-introducing-g_b_1222692.html

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