�
While mainstream news insurance coverage is static a elemental source of information for the latest in insurance policy debates and the health care market, online blogs have become a pregnant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics. To put up complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a roundup of wellness policy-related web log posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.
The American Prospect's Ezra Klein responds to a post by The Atlantic's Megan McArdle in which she argues that Massachusetts health reform volition stifle medical innovation because it testament "force the price low-toned enough that middle-income families will be willing to pay it"; Klein counters with a discussion about the extent to which the Massachusetts plan is aiming to cut costs and whether "cutting expenditure inevitably cuts innovation."
Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room, Louise from Colorado Health Insurance Insider, The Health Care Blog's Brian Klepper and Don McCanne from the Physicians for a National Health Program Blog discuss a new multimillion-dollar national boob tube advertising safari that features "Harry and Louise" advocating for health reform.
Conn Caroll of the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry discusses presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) recent statements on a single-payer health charge system, locution, "Obama's design guarantees health care will eventually become a government-run industry."
The Health Affairs web log includes commentaries by Nancy Davenport-Enni, Esther Dyson and Mark Leavitt as part of a series of posts on health information technology.
Maggie Mahar from the Century Foundation's Health Beat Blog responds to a piece in the New Yorker that argues political sympathies is "nigh interest groups struggling against other groups and eventually making deals" and that "the public interest" is a "useless concept"; she examines the argument's failings when applied to health reform.
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of Health Populi discusses results from the a la mode Kaiser Family Foundation Election Tracking Poll, saying that "we should read the KFF trailing poll very clearly: it's costs, prices, affordability. Whatever synonym you choose, it is still the saving that colors the voters' moods."
Insure Blog's H G Stern notes an additional benefit to new infirmary quality information released by CMS: the data "[speck] problem areas, [so] hospitals can address problems that they crataegus laevigata not own been mindful of."
Jonathan Cohn in the New Republic's The Plank discusses attenuation attention to health fear as an election issue, writing that Obama's campaign "is suffering from a lack of imagination ... or a lack of nerve" but that there is still time for the campaign to "elevate" the issue.
Workers' Comp Insider's Julie Ferguson hosts the most recent edition of Health Wonk Review, a biweekly compendium of more than iI dozen health policy, base, insurance, engineering and managed care bloggers. A different participant's web log hosts each issue.
Reprinted with genial permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You stool view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for electronic mail delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.
Monday, 1 September 2008
Friday, 22 August 2008
Download Dangerous Summer mp3
 Artist: Dangerous Summer: mp3 download Genre(s): Rock Discography:  If You Could Only Keep Me Alive Year: 2007 Tracks: 7 Melodic and attention-getting emo rock dance band the Dangerous Summer formed in Ellicott City, Maryland in August 2006. Guitarist Cody Payne stirred back into township after a brief clock time in Florida, recruiting trey of his longtime high schooltime buddies to bring together up with him upon his return. Taking their name from the classic Ernest Hemingway novel and look to groups like the Starting Line, Third Eye Blind, U2, and Name Taken for influence, the group -- which further included AJ Perdomo (leash vocals, bass), Bryan Czap (guitar) and Tyler Minsberg (drums) -- reach the studio that December to lay down their first tracks together. The resulting EP There Is No Such Thing As Science was self-released in January 2007 (limited to 1,000 copies), and the Dangerous Summer supported it on the road whenever school would admit, hooking up on shows with like-minded bands the Ataris, Cartel and Hit the Lights. The EP finally made its way into the ears of California-based Hopeless Records courtesy of the band's hometown friends All Time Low. A cover with the label was subsequently inked that spring. High school graduation followed for three-fourths of the Dangerous Summer ahead their following EP (and Hopeless debut), If You Could Only Keep Me Alive, appeared in August, which contained quartet songs from the previous Science EP and troika new ones. Guitarist Etay Pisano replaced Czap before long afterwards. |
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Antibiotics During First Three Months Of Life Linked To Wheezing At 15 Months - Likely Due To Underlying Infection
�Children wHO are minded antibiotics in their first base three months often wheeze at 15 months of age. However, this wheezy is in all probability more due to the presence of chest infections than to the economic consumption of antibiotics.
These were the winder findings of research carried out by researchers in New Zealand, and published in this month's variant of Clinical and Experimental Allergy. This work reinforced on the fact that the prevalence both of asthma and the use of antibiotics have risen since the 1960s. Using antibiotics reduces a person's exposure to bacterial infections and disturbs healthy populations of bacteria in the body, and the question is whether this and so leaves a person more prone to develop asthma attack.
The researchers recruited a group of 1,000 babies at birth and contacted the parents at 3 months, 15 months and then yearly until they were four years old. Each time, they collected information about chest infections, asthma and their use of antibiotics. The data showed that by the clip the children had reached 15 months old, near three quarters (72.1%) had been given antibiotics. In addition 11.8% had asthma attack, 39.6% had eczema and 21.2% had a revenant itchy scabrous rash.
The researchers then looked at the information to see whether there was whatever indication that the antibiotics caused these effects and found that by adjusting for the effects of chest infections the association between antibiotics and wheezy was selfsame much reduced.
"Our results strongly intimate that the reason that some children who have got been given antibiotics appear to grow asthma is because they had a chest transmission and the symptoms of the dresser infection in young children can be confused with the start of asthma attack," says Julian Crane, a senior study investigator at the Wellington Asthma Research Group in Wellington, New Zealand. "Antibiotics are disposed to treat the respiratory condition and rather than being a cause of asthma, as has been previously suggested, they are used for chest infections which commode indicate an increased danger of bronchial asthma, or be mistaken for it."
One of the underlying issues is that it is often difficult to differentiate between bronchial asthma and breast infections at an other age. Consequently some infants who are given antibiotics to cure a chest infection may really have been suffering from the early symptoms of asthma attack.
"Our information still leaves open the possibility that antibiotics may affect the development of eczema and itchy skin by four-spot years and allergic hypersensitivity by 15 months," says Crane.
Wiley-Blackwell
More info
These were the winder findings of research carried out by researchers in New Zealand, and published in this month's variant of Clinical and Experimental Allergy. This work reinforced on the fact that the prevalence both of asthma and the use of antibiotics have risen since the 1960s. Using antibiotics reduces a person's exposure to bacterial infections and disturbs healthy populations of bacteria in the body, and the question is whether this and so leaves a person more prone to develop asthma attack.
The researchers recruited a group of 1,000 babies at birth and contacted the parents at 3 months, 15 months and then yearly until they were four years old. Each time, they collected information about chest infections, asthma and their use of antibiotics. The data showed that by the clip the children had reached 15 months old, near three quarters (72.1%) had been given antibiotics. In addition 11.8% had asthma attack, 39.6% had eczema and 21.2% had a revenant itchy scabrous rash.
The researchers then looked at the information to see whether there was whatever indication that the antibiotics caused these effects and found that by adjusting for the effects of chest infections the association between antibiotics and wheezy was selfsame much reduced.
"Our results strongly intimate that the reason that some children who have got been given antibiotics appear to grow asthma is because they had a chest transmission and the symptoms of the dresser infection in young children can be confused with the start of asthma attack," says Julian Crane, a senior study investigator at the Wellington Asthma Research Group in Wellington, New Zealand. "Antibiotics are disposed to treat the respiratory condition and rather than being a cause of asthma, as has been previously suggested, they are used for chest infections which commode indicate an increased danger of bronchial asthma, or be mistaken for it."
One of the underlying issues is that it is often difficult to differentiate between bronchial asthma and breast infections at an other age. Consequently some infants who are given antibiotics to cure a chest infection may really have been suffering from the early symptoms of asthma attack.
"Our information still leaves open the possibility that antibiotics may affect the development of eczema and itchy skin by four-spot years and allergic hypersensitivity by 15 months," says Crane.
Wiley-Blackwell
More info
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Integrated Care: Aiming High
�Integrated precaution pilots, announced as part of Health Minister Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review, may advantageously prove to save money for the NHS. But that is not their principal train, the NHS Alliance says.
Integrated care is around better, more effective services and improved patient feel.
That lav only occur, though, if there is clarity about the substantive requirements of integrated maintenance, its objectives and earmark performance measures.
But that clarity has to allow flexibility and local decisions about which of a number of possible models should be adopted in any particular locality.
Now the NHS Alliance has set extinct a proposed framework for the new ICO pilots. Along with goals such as clinical quality and financial answerableness, it recommends:
- Patient and public participation at individual and collective levels so as to insure patient satisfaction and to enhance patient engagement with health improvement measures
- Emphasis on prevention and reduction of ill health
- Collaboration across primary, community and secondary upkeep boundaries, and across health and social care boundaries too
- A requirement that proposals should hatch the whole disease spectrum, so as to avoid cherry pick
- Emphasis on clinical leadership so that clinician involvement from the start can secure successful effectuation.
NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said:
"This is what the NHS should be about. Providing seamless, affected role centred precaution within a defined budget, with measurable clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction."
Integrated care: aiming high follows the recent NHS Alliance publication: Integrated healthcare: from aspiration to implementation. It is uncommitted from the NHS Alliance: admin@nhsalliance.org.
Notes
1. The NHS Alliance is a collaboration of clinicians, managers and board members wHO put patients first. It is the independent body that represents NHS primary care. Values based, it is the only system that brings together PCTs with GP practices, clinicians with managers and Board members, and NHS primary care with its patients. The Alliance membership and its hard working national executive is fully multi-professional.
2. The Next Stage Review: our vision for primary and community concern was published by the Department of Health 3rd July 2008. Integrated health care: from aspiration to carrying out was published by the NHS Alliance 9th July 2008.
NHS Alliance
More information
Integrated care is around better, more effective services and improved patient feel.
That lav only occur, though, if there is clarity about the substantive requirements of integrated maintenance, its objectives and earmark performance measures.
But that clarity has to allow flexibility and local decisions about which of a number of possible models should be adopted in any particular locality.
Now the NHS Alliance has set extinct a proposed framework for the new ICO pilots. Along with goals such as clinical quality and financial answerableness, it recommends:
- Patient and public participation at individual and collective levels so as to insure patient satisfaction and to enhance patient engagement with health improvement measures
- Emphasis on prevention and reduction of ill health
- Collaboration across primary, community and secondary upkeep boundaries, and across health and social care boundaries too
- A requirement that proposals should hatch the whole disease spectrum, so as to avoid cherry pick
- Emphasis on clinical leadership so that clinician involvement from the start can secure successful effectuation.
NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said:
"This is what the NHS should be about. Providing seamless, affected role centred precaution within a defined budget, with measurable clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction."
Integrated care: aiming high follows the recent NHS Alliance publication: Integrated healthcare: from aspiration to implementation. It is uncommitted from the NHS Alliance: admin@nhsalliance.org.
Notes
1. The NHS Alliance is a collaboration of clinicians, managers and board members wHO put patients first. It is the independent body that represents NHS primary care. Values based, it is the only system that brings together PCTs with GP practices, clinicians with managers and Board members, and NHS primary care with its patients. The Alliance membership and its hard working national executive is fully multi-professional.
2. The Next Stage Review: our vision for primary and community concern was published by the Department of Health 3rd July 2008. Integrated health care: from aspiration to carrying out was published by the NHS Alliance 9th July 2008.
NHS Alliance
More information
BLACK KIDS
�Partie Traumatic� (Almost Gold): A-
More info
Dance! Dance! Dance! You thought bands commanded you to get on the floor in front, but cipher, not even Black Kids-predecessors New Order, Scissor Sisters or the Go! Team is as bossy as this Florida quintet. If the songs didn�t distractingly demand that you didder your dirty money, the �80s redux schtik would suffer old and the lyrics would give away themselves as dirty and witty. But no time for that. Dance! Dance! Dance! Download: �I�m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You.�
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'Growing Belief' Among Men In Swaziland That Circumcision Provides Complete Protection Against HIV, IRIN News Reports
�
There is a "ontogenesis belief" among some men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV -- a perception that is concerning nongovernmental organizations working to combat the spread of the virus in the country -- IRIN News reports. According to IRIN News, some public health officials in Swaziland recently have "lauded" male circumcision as a process that john reduce a man's risk of infection of HIV.
Siphiwe Hlope -- founder of the Swazis for Positive Living, an HIV/AIDS support group -- said the "problem is not with the procedure, but the way it is mistreated by hands, so that men think they ar now immune from" HIV. She added that members of the support grouping are seemly more aware of an attitude that circumcision protects men from HIV piece also providing an excuse not to use condoms. Although Hlope does not dispute the advantages of male circumcision in reducing HIV transmittance, she said that sex dynamics in Swazi civilisation should be considered. "AIDS in Africa has a woman's case," Hlope said, adding, "People think the disease originates with women. Why? Because it is the women who ar tested low gear, when they are about to give birth."
An nameless Zambian doctor who treats people living with HIV/AIDS at administration hospitals aforesaid, "It's the law of unintended consequences," adding, "Introducing the process, there was insufficient attention given to cultural factors, attitudes and human psychology." The mD noted, "Many of the men I speak with think circumcision is like an AIDS vaccine. It's not. It's a useful tool to reduce chances of contagion at a time and place where few other tools are available, simply you potty still contract HIV and pass it on to a partner."
According to a recent study by the United Nations Development Program, 20% of men in Swaziland consistently use condoms, which Hlope said mightiness indicate that circumcised workforce did not stop victimization condoms later on the procedure but had never used them in the starting time place. She added that education about the procedure should accent a clear and consistent message that it should be part of a variety of HIV bar measures. "Until that happens, women testament be septic with HIV this direction, and ... male circumcision may do more harm than good if it is misused to deny women full protective covering," Hlope aforementioned (IRIN News, 7/31).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You potty view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.
There is a "ontogenesis belief" among some men in Swaziland that circumcision provides complete protection against HIV -- a perception that is concerning nongovernmental organizations working to combat the spread of the virus in the country -- IRIN News reports. According to IRIN News, some public health officials in Swaziland recently have "lauded" male circumcision as a process that john reduce a man's risk of infection of HIV.
Siphiwe Hlope -- founder of the Swazis for Positive Living, an HIV/AIDS support group -- said the "problem is not with the procedure, but the way it is mistreated by hands, so that men think they ar now immune from" HIV. She added that members of the support grouping are seemly more aware of an attitude that circumcision protects men from HIV piece also providing an excuse not to use condoms. Although Hlope does not dispute the advantages of male circumcision in reducing HIV transmittance, she said that sex dynamics in Swazi civilisation should be considered. "AIDS in Africa has a woman's case," Hlope said, adding, "People think the disease originates with women. Why? Because it is the women who ar tested low gear, when they are about to give birth."
An nameless Zambian doctor who treats people living with HIV/AIDS at administration hospitals aforesaid, "It's the law of unintended consequences," adding, "Introducing the process, there was insufficient attention given to cultural factors, attitudes and human psychology." The mD noted, "Many of the men I speak with think circumcision is like an AIDS vaccine. It's not. It's a useful tool to reduce chances of contagion at a time and place where few other tools are available, simply you potty still contract HIV and pass it on to a partner."
According to a recent study by the United Nations Development Program, 20% of men in Swaziland consistently use condoms, which Hlope said mightiness indicate that circumcised workforce did not stop victimization condoms later on the procedure but had never used them in the starting time place. She added that education about the procedure should accent a clear and consistent message that it should be part of a variety of HIV bar measures. "Until that happens, women testament be septic with HIV this direction, and ... male circumcision may do more harm than good if it is misused to deny women full protective covering," Hlope aforementioned (IRIN News, 7/31).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You potty view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.
Rita Marley
Artist: Rita Marley
Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Sings Bob Marley... and Friends
Year: 2003
Tracks: 12
Best known as Bob Marley's married woman, Rita Marley was too a solo artist in her possess correct both before and later on her marriage, and served as the caretaker of her husband's legacy undermentioned his premature last in 1981. Born Alpharita Anderson in Cuba, she grew up largely in the Trenchtown department of Kingston, and first base sang with a female ska iII called the Soulettes. The Soulettes began recording for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label in 1964, and Dodd asked his emergent young aCE Bob Marley to mentor them; Marley and Anderson hide in lovemaking and marital in 1966. Rita recorded with deuce unlike Soulettes lineups in the mid-'60s, edit a few hit solo singles of her possess (including "Pied Piper"), and backed the Wailers on some of their '60s recordings. When Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left field the Wailers in 1974, Rita helped organize the I-Threes, a female vocal triplet consisting of herself, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt. The I-Threes backed Bob Marley in the studio and on tariff tour for the remainder of his career, up until his death from melanoma in 1981. During that prison term, both Marleys narrowly loose an assassination attack in 1976, in which one smoke grazed Rita's head and some other hit Bob's subdivision.In 1981, as Bob succumbed to crab, Rita recorded the solo album WHO Feels It Knows It. A spiritual, life-affirming statement, the album featured a lightsome hit individual in "I Draw," a blatantly pro-marijuana lesson in right smoke technique. Banned by the BBC, "One Draw" became the 1st-class mail honours degree reggae single to spinning top Billboard's discotheque music singles chart, which was ill-used to course dance-club act at the time. Another single, "Fiddle Play," had a measure of success in the U.K. However, Marley launch it tough to follow up on a full-time recording life sentence history; she spent a great administer of the '80s handling the respective legal and business sector interests associated with her husband's name and land, and as well mentored her children's musical venture, Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers. She finally returned to solo recording with 1988's Harambe (Working Together for Freedom), and followed it in 1991 with We Must Carry On, which garnered a Grammy nomination. Both albums continued her hang for danceable, rootsy reggae with spiritual messages and a definite common sense of playfulness. Marley last returned with a unexampled album, Rita Marley Sings Bob Marley...and Friends, in 2003.
Friday, 11 July 2008
Emmerdale star tells of real-life abuse
'Emmerdale' actress Roxanne Pallett has spoken about how her current domestic abuse storyline has brought back memories of a real-life abusive relationship.
In 'Emmerdale' Pallett's character Jo Sugden is the victim of psychological and domestic violence at the hands of her husband Andy (Kelvin Fletcher), who has recently been released from jail.
The 25-year-old actress told 'This Morning' that the storyline was difficult to film because she once found herself in a similar situation in real-life.
Pallett said: "Kelvin and I have been living this storyline since Christmas and you're researching it and it brings it all back to you and it's devastating."
"I can't even watch these scenes back without it choking me up. I watched it with my mum and we just sat and she held my hand through it all because it's devastating."
The actress also said: "And what you're seeing is just a fraction of what people are still going through."
When asked if her mother knew that she was in an abusive relationship, Pallett said: "She got me out of it."
"A friend found out and she was my rock. And then my mum found out and it was only then that I thought, 'This is it now, I'm at a crossroads in my life where I can either continue in this spiral or I can get out'.
"It just takes one person and you have to just tell one person and confide in one person. People turn a blind eye, people don't want to know other people's problems."
Speaking about her storyline, she said: "We need to bring this subject to the forefront where women are watching it."
"Not just women, I'm sure there are plenty of men in that situation where women are controlling men... But there's people all over the country that I'm sure tonight will be sitting there and they'll see Andy and Jo at home and they'll be watching it. Behind closed doors they're suffering from that."
In 'Emmerdale' Pallett's character Jo Sugden is the victim of psychological and domestic violence at the hands of her husband Andy (Kelvin Fletcher), who has recently been released from jail.
The 25-year-old actress told 'This Morning' that the storyline was difficult to film because she once found herself in a similar situation in real-life.
Pallett said: "Kelvin and I have been living this storyline since Christmas and you're researching it and it brings it all back to you and it's devastating."
"I can't even watch these scenes back without it choking me up. I watched it with my mum and we just sat and she held my hand through it all because it's devastating."
The actress also said: "And what you're seeing is just a fraction of what people are still going through."
When asked if her mother knew that she was in an abusive relationship, Pallett said: "She got me out of it."
"A friend found out and she was my rock. And then my mum found out and it was only then that I thought, 'This is it now, I'm at a crossroads in my life where I can either continue in this spiral or I can get out'.
"It just takes one person and you have to just tell one person and confide in one person. People turn a blind eye, people don't want to know other people's problems."
Speaking about her storyline, she said: "We need to bring this subject to the forefront where women are watching it."
"Not just women, I'm sure there are plenty of men in that situation where women are controlling men... But there's people all over the country that I'm sure tonight will be sitting there and they'll see Andy and Jo at home and they'll be watching it. Behind closed doors they're suffering from that."
The SoHo Dolls
Artist: The SoHo Dolls
Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
All music and videos
Year: 2004
Tracks: 12
Guy Ritchie is the Next Heather Mills
Agua Blanca
Artist: Agua Blanca
Genre(s):
House
Discography:
Boca Loca
Year: 2004
Tracks: 1
Kiss and Tell: Rock Legend Gene Simmons
New CDs: Beck, Kerli and Greg Laswell
Beck "Modern Guilt" (DGC Records)
* * *
There are many probable reasons Beck made "Modern Guilt," his concise yet deliberately cosmic collaboration with fellow shaggy pop auteur Danger Mouse. He's finishing up a long contract with his record label; he has two small kids and doesn't want to kill himself with a long, eclectic project; he's 38 and can't break dance anymore.
But let's consider an artistic one: He and the producer also known as Brian Burton share a predilection for a particular kind of sci-fi. This is their soundtrack to a film not yet made -- or maybe, accidentally to one that does exist and already has primed summer popcorn-munchers for Beck's latest explorations of modern consciousness.
"Modern Guilt" is “Wall-E” for anyone who prefers rock 'n' roll to kids' movies. That adorable dinged-up robot lives in the same eternal twilight that Beck and Danger Mouse evoke in their 30-minute drift through space.
"Wall-E" has its own excellent soundtrack by Thomas Newman, which uses the gently prophetic voice of Peter Gabriel and those uncanny snippets from "Hello, Dolly!" But someone (maybe Danger Mouse) should make a mash-up of the film's quiet opening scenes and this equally sad, equally mystical album.
Like "Wall-E," "Modern Guilt" embraces the gentle dystopianism of films like "Silent Running" and "Solaris" and of music like "Here Comes the Flood," Gabriel's 1977 love song to the apocalypse.
At its most upbeat, on the Kinks-esque title track and the twangy "Gamma Ray" -- a sexy little number about electromagnetic radiation -- Beck welcomes his own obsolescence backed by tarnished vintage beats.
More often, the mood is calm but chemically altered: psychedelia for a pharmaceutical age. "Orphans," the opening track, has a backing vocal from indie chanteuse Cat Power that drifts in and out like a buried personality state.
In "Chemtrails," the song I'd love to hear during Wall-E's anti-gravitational love scene with Plasticine cutie Eve, Beck's falsetto retreats deeply into the mix, merging with Danger Mouse's analog synths. (Joey Waronker's drumming plays evil robot, spazzing out at the end.)
Beck, Danger Mouse and Wall-E are all scavengers, crafting beautiful environments from the discards of modern life. The difference between the musicians and the Pixar creation is that Wall-E, inspired by love, pushes on toward a better future. "Modern Guilt" dwells in the darkness of lost hope. The world it portrays, whether it's meant to be a damaged psychic landscape or an Earth trashed by uncaring humans, has its beautiful side, but there's not a lot of positive energy there.
Given the current state of the economy, the weather and the world in general, there's a fair debate to be had over whether Beck's meandering anomie is more realistic than the happy ending of "Wall-E's" re-seeded Earth.
--Ann Powers
Debut is full of contradictions
Kerli "Love Is Dead" (Island Records)
* *
Although it's titled "Love Is Dead," Estonian vocalist Kerli's debut album is filled with songs that have a surprisingly positive outlook. But that's just one of the contradictions from a singer whose cover art makes her look like a Goth Bratz doll dropped into a Tim Burton animated feature.
She's been compared to Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and Björk, but Estonian vocalist Kerli is none of those chanteuses -- yet somehow all of them. Although her songs occasionally feature the alto piano of Apple or the otherworldly trilling of Morissette or Björk, her voice can sound thin and inconsistent, giving the whole thing a somewhat derivative feel.
But for a girl who says she "grew up without music" in a former Soviet state, "Love Is Dead" has a few standout tracks, such as "Butterfly Cry" and "Bulletproof," that speak to the consequences of a broken heart.
The first single, "Walking on Air," has an appealing tinkly melody, and it showcases Kerli's voice at its best. Yet it speaks again to her incongruity: "A little creepy girl, oh, she loves to sing. She has a little gift, an amazing thing." Frankly, a little more creepiness would give Kerli the edge that her appearance advertises.
--Christy Grosz
Heavy songs with power to uplift
Greg Laswell "Three Flights From Alto Nido" (Vanguard)
* * *
"I think I like how the day sounds through this new song," sings Greg Laswell on his third studio album. He should: This well-connected San Diego-based folk-pop guy, a beneficiary of Hollywood's current infatuation with earnest young singer-songwriters, has a knack for musical transformation. He feeds depression and dejection into his tune-making mill and out come melodic marvels that lift the spirit despite their heavy subject matter.
Like the numerous TV shows his songs have soundtracked, Laswell is a beautifier of the real -- not a bad job at a moment when reality shows no sign of prettying up itself.
You can hear Laswell's influences loud and clear throughout "Three Flights From Alto Nido." With its lopsided rhythmic shuffle and minor-key guitar strums, "Days Go On" could be an unplugged outtake from Radiohead's recent "In Rainbows," while Elliott Smith-style harmonies give "Comes and Goes (In Waves)" an ethereal wee-hours glow. (Other tracks recall -- and should appeal to fans of -- Coldplay, Nick Drake and Death Cab for Cutie.)
Yet Laswell, who plays a record-release show Friday at the Hotel Cafe, channels all those borrowed sounds into a satisfying whole. He leaves these 42 minutes more welcoming than he found them.
--Mikael Wood
* * *
There are many probable reasons Beck made "Modern Guilt," his concise yet deliberately cosmic collaboration with fellow shaggy pop auteur Danger Mouse. He's finishing up a long contract with his record label; he has two small kids and doesn't want to kill himself with a long, eclectic project; he's 38 and can't break dance anymore.
But let's consider an artistic one: He and the producer also known as Brian Burton share a predilection for a particular kind of sci-fi. This is their soundtrack to a film not yet made -- or maybe, accidentally to one that does exist and already has primed summer popcorn-munchers for Beck's latest explorations of modern consciousness.
"Modern Guilt" is “Wall-E” for anyone who prefers rock 'n' roll to kids' movies. That adorable dinged-up robot lives in the same eternal twilight that Beck and Danger Mouse evoke in their 30-minute drift through space.
"Wall-E" has its own excellent soundtrack by Thomas Newman, which uses the gently prophetic voice of Peter Gabriel and those uncanny snippets from "Hello, Dolly!" But someone (maybe Danger Mouse) should make a mash-up of the film's quiet opening scenes and this equally sad, equally mystical album.
Like "Wall-E," "Modern Guilt" embraces the gentle dystopianism of films like "Silent Running" and "Solaris" and of music like "Here Comes the Flood," Gabriel's 1977 love song to the apocalypse.
At its most upbeat, on the Kinks-esque title track and the twangy "Gamma Ray" -- a sexy little number about electromagnetic radiation -- Beck welcomes his own obsolescence backed by tarnished vintage beats.
More often, the mood is calm but chemically altered: psychedelia for a pharmaceutical age. "Orphans," the opening track, has a backing vocal from indie chanteuse Cat Power that drifts in and out like a buried personality state.
In "Chemtrails," the song I'd love to hear during Wall-E's anti-gravitational love scene with Plasticine cutie Eve, Beck's falsetto retreats deeply into the mix, merging with Danger Mouse's analog synths. (Joey Waronker's drumming plays evil robot, spazzing out at the end.)
Beck, Danger Mouse and Wall-E are all scavengers, crafting beautiful environments from the discards of modern life. The difference between the musicians and the Pixar creation is that Wall-E, inspired by love, pushes on toward a better future. "Modern Guilt" dwells in the darkness of lost hope. The world it portrays, whether it's meant to be a damaged psychic landscape or an Earth trashed by uncaring humans, has its beautiful side, but there's not a lot of positive energy there.
Given the current state of the economy, the weather and the world in general, there's a fair debate to be had over whether Beck's meandering anomie is more realistic than the happy ending of "Wall-E's" re-seeded Earth.
--Ann Powers
Debut is full of contradictions
Kerli "Love Is Dead" (Island Records)
* *
Although it's titled "Love Is Dead," Estonian vocalist Kerli's debut album is filled with songs that have a surprisingly positive outlook. But that's just one of the contradictions from a singer whose cover art makes her look like a Goth Bratz doll dropped into a Tim Burton animated feature.
She's been compared to Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and Björk, but Estonian vocalist Kerli is none of those chanteuses -- yet somehow all of them. Although her songs occasionally feature the alto piano of Apple or the otherworldly trilling of Morissette or Björk, her voice can sound thin and inconsistent, giving the whole thing a somewhat derivative feel.
But for a girl who says she "grew up without music" in a former Soviet state, "Love Is Dead" has a few standout tracks, such as "Butterfly Cry" and "Bulletproof," that speak to the consequences of a broken heart.
The first single, "Walking on Air," has an appealing tinkly melody, and it showcases Kerli's voice at its best. Yet it speaks again to her incongruity: "A little creepy girl, oh, she loves to sing. She has a little gift, an amazing thing." Frankly, a little more creepiness would give Kerli the edge that her appearance advertises.
--Christy Grosz
Heavy songs with power to uplift
Greg Laswell "Three Flights From Alto Nido" (Vanguard)
* * *
"I think I like how the day sounds through this new song," sings Greg Laswell on his third studio album. He should: This well-connected San Diego-based folk-pop guy, a beneficiary of Hollywood's current infatuation with earnest young singer-songwriters, has a knack for musical transformation. He feeds depression and dejection into his tune-making mill and out come melodic marvels that lift the spirit despite their heavy subject matter.
Like the numerous TV shows his songs have soundtracked, Laswell is a beautifier of the real -- not a bad job at a moment when reality shows no sign of prettying up itself.
You can hear Laswell's influences loud and clear throughout "Three Flights From Alto Nido." With its lopsided rhythmic shuffle and minor-key guitar strums, "Days Go On" could be an unplugged outtake from Radiohead's recent "In Rainbows," while Elliott Smith-style harmonies give "Comes and Goes (In Waves)" an ethereal wee-hours glow. (Other tracks recall -- and should appeal to fans of -- Coldplay, Nick Drake and Death Cab for Cutie.)
Yet Laswell, who plays a record-release show Friday at the Hotel Cafe, channels all those borrowed sounds into a satisfying whole. He leaves these 42 minutes more welcoming than he found them.
--Mikael Wood
Discovery Flees Dallas Jail
The Discovery Channel on Thursday canceled plans to film a documentary inside the Dallas County Jail after a judge had granted county commissioners a temporary restraining order to halt the filming. Earlier in the week the commissioners had complained that Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez had not consulted them about her agreement to allow a film crew access to the jail and raised concerns about inmate privacy and the possibility of security breaches. In an editorial on Thursday the Dallas Morning News commented, "Perhaps the sheriff naively believed that her final-cut authority would ensure the positive publicity she craves, but she must have known it was no coincidence her jail was chosen. No matter what was filmed, this documentary would have mentioned that Dallas County jails have failed five consecutive state inspections - including all four on her watch - and remain under federal court order for neglect and indifference." Columnist James Ragland added, ""Sheriff, seriously, here's what most folks are saying: How about passing at least one state inspection before you start rolling out the red carpet for a film crew?"
04/07/2008
See Also
Andromeda
Artist: Andromeda
Genre(s):
Metal: Progressive
Trance: Psychedelic
Rock
Discography:
Chimera
Year: 2006
Tracks: 10
Temptations
Year: 2004
Tracks: 9
II=I
Year: 2003
Tracks: 9
Extension Of The Wish - Definitive Extension - Disc 2
Year: 2001
Tracks: 7
Extension Of The Wish - Definitive Extension - Disc 1
Year: 2001
Tracks: 9
Extension of the Wish
Year: 2001
Tracks: 7
Andromeda
Year: 1969
Tracks: 16
Andromeda was a psychedelic-progressive rock triplet formed by singer-guitarist John Cann (also known as John Du Cann), at one time of the psychedelic garage band the Attack, Mick Hawksworth (bass, vocals) and Ian McClane (drums, vocals). The group performed in several London venues including Middle Earth and the Marquee Club. Cann's guitar was the prevailing instrument, leading listeners through classically based psychedelic and progressive directions and creative dissonances, conducive to the trio's impressive live sets. Andromeda combined their have original writing with elements appropriated out of familiar classical material. They were signed to RCA in 1969 just in front that they'd appeared alive on the BBC's Round top Gear programme in 1968, and recently former live recordings from their performances at Middle Earth have surfaced as well. The group's first undivided, "Go Your Way" was released in 1969 and a self-titled album (which featured some impressive vocals) followed chop-chop. The group broke up late in the year, and Cann joined Vincent Crane in Atomic Rooster, and revived the group with him at the last of the 1970's, while Hawksworth played with Alvin Lee and became a member of Ten Years After (and Ten Years Later), as well as playacting with Matthew Fisher. Compact record reissues of Andromeda's work began appearing in the 1990's on the Kissing Spell label.
Fairfax to launch weekly magazine
Fairfax Media is to launch a new weekly magazine in September. It will be distributed on Saturdays through the group's three largest daily newspapers.
The yet-to-be-named magazine will be produced by Fairfax, which estimates it will have guaranteed readership of more than 350,000 people.
The magazine will be distributed through The Dominion Post, The Press and The Waikato Times, or about 240,000 newspapers in total.
Fairfax group head of publishing, Rodger Shepherd, said the success of the Sunday Star-Times' Sunday magazine and growing demand from readers and advertisers for high quality newspaper inserted magazines was behind the launch.
Shepherd said he expected the new magazine to become New Zealand's largest circulating weekly magazine. It would supplement Fairfax's existing magazine stable which includes TV Guide, Cuisine and NZ House & Garden.
Paul Thompson, Fairfax's group executive editor, said the new publication would be a flagship for Fairfax's best journalists and their work.
He said weekend newspaper readers wanted to be challenged and stimulated.
"The new weekend magazine will give readers compelling feature stories on a variety of topical subjects tapping into the feature writing talent throughout the Fairfax network," Thompson said.
"It will also offer a well-balanced mix of the ‘chill out' aspects of a weekend read."
These included articles on such topics as food, wine, fashion, beauty, home design and gardening.
See Also
Jerry Saltz Goes Chasing 'Waterfalls'
Photo: Vincent Laforet / Polaris
The facts and figures behind Olafur Eliasson’s The New York City Waterfalls are impressive. Located at four points along the East River in lower Manhattan, the falls cost $15.5 million to build and involved an American-based crew of almost 200 engineers, designers, consultants, permitting specialists, and electricians. There were also scores of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and assistants employed by Eliasson’s own Berlin-based “laboratory for spatial research,” not to mention the gargantuan effort of the Public Art Fund. Things were so specialized that on a boat ride the night of the opening a man told me his job was to coordinate the little red lights atop each fall to protect low-flying aircraft. The fact sheet on the falls says the tallest one is higher than the Statue of Liberty, the other three are as tall as nine to 12 story buildings. That’s big.
Yet the waterfalls seem dinkier than you’d think. And they’re not spectacular. From the South Street Seaport, where you can supposedly see all four, the one near the Manhattan Bridge is almost hidden. Some viewers may have trouble finding the one by Governor’s Island. You can’t hear any of them so you’re never really overwhelmed by the sound of pouring water. In addition, it’s obvious that these aren’t waterfalls at all; they’re just plumbing, tall metal scaffoldings with pipes pumping cascades of water off the top. So don’t go to The New York City Waterfalls wanting to be wowed.
But you may be wooed. I was. For all the effort that went into making them, Eliasson’s falls aren’t about spectacle. They’re like still centers that put you in touch with the physical world around you. They magically stretch the space of lower Manhattan, making the city seem as grand and amazing as it really is. Concentrating on the falls, you begin to glean the different geographic, economic, and industrial environments along the riverfront, how light plays between buildings and water, the way this setting is in constant motion but also oddly still. The waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge is especially captivating and seems to appear out of nowhere like a portal from another dimension. The Governor’s Island cascade almost rises up from the surface of water. The one near the Brooklyn Navy Yards is like a primordial water spout. Lit at night, the falls turn ghostly. Coming upon each in a boat is like visiting an alien life form.
Unlike Christo's gates, which came on in a whoosh, then faded fast, Eliasson’s works dawn on you slowly, then produce a stirring calm. I’d take them any day over a glitzy Murakami Buddha or a huge Damien Hirst pregnant woman. By zeroing in on something as temporal as running water – the falls flow at 35,000 gallons per minute – Eliasson lifts you out of the moment and places you in a continuum. Whether you like the falls or not, you can't help but smile at the clever twist Eliasson's put on Beatrice Wood's 1917 defense of another piece of abstract plumbing, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a found sculpture of a urinal. "The only works of art America has given," wrote Wood, "are her plumbing and her bridges." -Jerry Saltz
Related: The Falls Guy
The facts and figures behind Olafur Eliasson’s The New York City Waterfalls are impressive. Located at four points along the East River in lower Manhattan, the falls cost $15.5 million to build and involved an American-based crew of almost 200 engineers, designers, consultants, permitting specialists, and electricians. There were also scores of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and assistants employed by Eliasson’s own Berlin-based “laboratory for spatial research,” not to mention the gargantuan effort of the Public Art Fund. Things were so specialized that on a boat ride the night of the opening a man told me his job was to coordinate the little red lights atop each fall to protect low-flying aircraft. The fact sheet on the falls says the tallest one is higher than the Statue of Liberty, the other three are as tall as nine to 12 story buildings. That’s big.
Yet the waterfalls seem dinkier than you’d think. And they’re not spectacular. From the South Street Seaport, where you can supposedly see all four, the one near the Manhattan Bridge is almost hidden. Some viewers may have trouble finding the one by Governor’s Island. You can’t hear any of them so you’re never really overwhelmed by the sound of pouring water. In addition, it’s obvious that these aren’t waterfalls at all; they’re just plumbing, tall metal scaffoldings with pipes pumping cascades of water off the top. So don’t go to The New York City Waterfalls wanting to be wowed.
But you may be wooed. I was. For all the effort that went into making them, Eliasson’s falls aren’t about spectacle. They’re like still centers that put you in touch with the physical world around you. They magically stretch the space of lower Manhattan, making the city seem as grand and amazing as it really is. Concentrating on the falls, you begin to glean the different geographic, economic, and industrial environments along the riverfront, how light plays between buildings and water, the way this setting is in constant motion but also oddly still. The waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge is especially captivating and seems to appear out of nowhere like a portal from another dimension. The Governor’s Island cascade almost rises up from the surface of water. The one near the Brooklyn Navy Yards is like a primordial water spout. Lit at night, the falls turn ghostly. Coming upon each in a boat is like visiting an alien life form.
Unlike Christo's gates, which came on in a whoosh, then faded fast, Eliasson’s works dawn on you slowly, then produce a stirring calm. I’d take them any day over a glitzy Murakami Buddha or a huge Damien Hirst pregnant woman. By zeroing in on something as temporal as running water – the falls flow at 35,000 gallons per minute – Eliasson lifts you out of the moment and places you in a continuum. Whether you like the falls or not, you can't help but smile at the clever twist Eliasson's put on Beatrice Wood's 1917 defense of another piece of abstract plumbing, Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, a found sculpture of a urinal. "The only works of art America has given," wrote Wood, "are her plumbing and her bridges." -Jerry Saltz
Related: The Falls Guy
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