text:
Rakuten To Put Its Bitnet Investment To Work And Accept Bitcoin Worldwide

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Sotheby’s Will Soon Let You Take Part In Its Auctions Right From eBay

Rakuten, Japan’s largest online retail firm, has announced that it will soon accept bitcoin across its global marketplaces.

The company is putting its investment in Bitnet — a startup that raised $14.5 million last October — to work with this development. Bitnet, which was founded by ex-Visa execs and is rivaled by Coinbase and Bitpay, will initially be integrated into Rakuten’s U.S. marketplace to allow customers to pay in BTC.

Next up, the new payment option will roll out in Germany and Austria, with other international markets to follow. Interestingly, there’s no specific mention of when Bitnet will be integrated into Rakuten Japan, which is the most prominent of its 12 country-specific services.

Last year was a breakthrough year for bitcoin as a sea of established retailers, including Dell, Overstock and even Microsoft, hopped onto the cryptocurrency to give customers an alternative avenue for payments.

“The integration with Bitnet’s platform will make Rakuten one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world to begin accepting bitcoin,” Rakuten said in a statement with no uncertain pride.

Nonetheless, this news is notable because it not only continues the momentum for bitcoin among retailers, but it could help position Bitnet as a credible alternative to the increasingly dominant duopoly that is Coinbase and Bitpay — both of which have raised significant venture funding, and own the most lucrative bitcoin retail partnerships.

Coinbase is particularly well-floated, having raised $75 million in January in a round that featured several Wall Street institutions, including The New York Stock Exchange. Bitpay raised $30 million last summer in what was at the time the largest round ever for bitcoin startup. Coinbase has since nabbed that accolade — the U.S. company has raised more than $100 million in investor money to date.

Featured Image: Bryce Durbin


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Box, Google, Facebook, Microsoft come out in support of Apple in amicus brief

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Watch Georgia Tech’s Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

In the latest sign of support for Apple’s ongoing security legal battle, Box, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other tech behemoths have filed an amicus brief, meaning that they have aligned interests and want their voice to be heard in the upcoming appeals.

This is a different amicus brief than the one filed by Square, Twitter, LinkedIn and others earlier today. The latest brief has more of an emphasis on pushing Congress to take action.

“The government is seeking to enlist the judiciary in re-writing laws without engaging in an essential public debate,” reads the statement.

“Amici often compete vigorously with Apple—and with each other. But amici here speak with one voice because of the singular importance of this case to them and their customers who trust amici to safeguard their data and most sensitive communications from attackers. Amici share the government’s and the public’s grief and outrage at the heinous act of terrorism that took place in San Bernardino,California, in December 2015, and they fully support the lawful investigation ofthat crime. But amici are also united in their view that the government’s order to Apple exceeds the bounds of existing law and, when applied more broadly, will harm Americans’ security in the long run.”

While the companies voice strong opposition to the horrific acts of terrorism, the concern is that an invasion of privacy will set a dangerous precedent going forward. If Apple were to build a “backdoor” that weakens security in its phones, then it’s possible that future phones could be accessed by other governments or for other more deleterious purposes.

Box CEO Aaron Levie spoke to TechCrunch about what all this means and why the tech companies are banding together. “Apple can’t build incredibly secure technology with zero weakness if the government is going to mandate they have access to that kind of data,” said Levie. “The challenge is they are using a law or statute that was created 230 years ago as a means of opening up the device” belonging to the San Bernardino hacker.

While most leaders in the tech industry are standing behind Apple, some government officials, and politicians including Donald Trump, have called upon Apple to comply with the FBI’s data requests.

The case has yet to be resolved in the courts — with potentially significant ramifications, weighing in on the Apple security debate will continue to be a priority for tech companies in the coming months.

Apple vs FBI

Featured Image: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

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The Techjoomla Blog

Stay updated with all the latest happenings at Techjoomla. From news about the developments in your favourite extensions to Tips & Tricks about the Joomla CMS, Framework & Development.

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We have some awesome News for all JWC 2013 Attendees!

Techjoomla & Aptitude have made an awesome IOS & Android event app available to help you navigate & get involved in the event.

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Download your's now!!

* Note that the IOS link is an Enterprise Profile direct install link.  Also this app is in Beta so do give us any feedback you might have !

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Gray ready to carry on UTs RB tradition

Johnathan Gray burst onto the Texas high school football scene as a freshman and has been a shining star ever since.

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How does a loss like this happen

Texas suffered yet another humiliating loss at the hands of Oklahoma, and it came in a game in which the two teams were thought to be evenly matched. How does this keep happening? That's one of the five questions we address following the 63-21 loss.
Five questions following the game
1. How does a game like this even happen?
Before we get into answering some questions, a warning ... don't read this report if you can't handle negativity. There's no silver lining to be found in Saturday's performance.
Now, to the question ... how in the hell can Texas be so outclassed by Oklahoma in a game that most thought would be close?
It really is unfathomable. Every team has days when things just don't go their way. We've all played in games or watched games when nothing seemed to go right. But I'm not sure I've ever seen a team get dominated as bad as Texas was in the first half. Ever.
To turn in that kind of performance against your arch rival, in a game that both teams desperately needed, is inexcusable. The fact that it happened against a team that, on paper, appeared to be evenly matched, makes it even harder to comprehend.
This one is on players and coaches alike, but it has to start at the top. In his 15 years at Texas, Mack Brown has now been the man in charge of some of the most one-sided losses in the history of the series. Mack owns a 6-9 record overall against OU - not horrible, but certainly not good - and he's been on the wrong end of the following scores: 63-14, 65-13, 12-0, 55-17 and 63-21.
Oklahoma was so much better than Texas in every single area on Saturday, and let's be honest - this is an OU team that hasn't exactly set the world on fire with its play in 2012. The Sooners dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, they forced turnovers, they were tougher, they were better prepared, they were ... everything.
We could go on and on with the ways Texas was terrible in this game, but it's about the bigger picture. This was yet another humiliating loss on the biggest stage on which the Texas program plays. Efforts like the one Texas turned in on Saturday should never happen at a program like UT, from scheme, to effort, to attitude, to execution. It's inexcusable and you have to wonder if Mack Brown will ever find the answer to the question of why these types of blowouts continue to pop up against Oklahoma.
2. How much does the apparent loss of David Ash hurt this team?
There's no official word just yet on the severity of David Ash's injury, but it certainly didn't look good to the naked eye.
Ash was taken to the locker room in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a severe left wrist injury. Based on the tennis ball-sized lump that immediately flared up, it doesn't look like Ash is coming back any time soon.
Assuming he's out, what does that mean for the Texas offense? Is all hope lost?
Maybe not. Case McCoy had very little pressure in stepping in for Ash in a game that was long gone at that point, but McCoy did play very well while he was in the game. McCoy completed 5-of-8 passes for 102 yards and 2 TDs, and he made a couple really nice throws in mop-up duty.
We'll see if McCoy can carry that over into games against starting defenses when there's actually something to play for, but the coaches have to like what he showed on Saturday.
If Ash is out for an extended period of time, this could be a situation where Texas really benefits from the pre-season quarterback competition. Ash obviously won the job for a reason and he's played well, but it should benefit McCoy that he got so many meaningful snaps in fall camp.
Some fans will argue that the ship is already sunk after Saturday's performance. I get that. But I wouldn't throw in the towel solely based on Ash's injury. We'll see how McCoy holds up in what will likely be extended action, but he played well enough in relief action that there might not be a huge drop-off.
3. Just how bad was it in the first half?
There wasn't a single area of the game where Texas graded out with a passing performance. It was a failure across the board.
The Oklahoma offensive line abused Texas up front, both against the run and the pass. David Ash was beaten and bruised just about every time he dropped back to pass. The Texas backs had nowhere to run, with the Longhorns managing -4 rushing yards in the first half.
The Sooners took a 36-2 lead into the break and outgained Texas 258-71 in the first two quarters. Texas gave up a 95-yard touchdown run. Texas gave up a 73-yard reception to OU fullback Trey Millard (how bad was it for UT? Millard outgained the entire Texas offense 164-150 through the three and a half quarters of the game ... yes folks, a fullback).
The Longhorn tight ends dropped passes that would have moved the chains. David Ash was off-target. When Texas needed 5 yards, it completed a pass behind the sticks and came up two yards short.
Texas went three-and-out on its first four possessions. By the time the Longhorns got a first down, they were already losing 27-2. After picking up their initial first down of the game midway through the second quarter, Ash threw an interception on the very next play. Texas wouldn't get another first down until the closing seconds of the half (coincidentally, the pass after that first down was also intercepted).
Texas gave up a safety when Joe Bergeron couldn't get out of the end zone. In fact, he couldn't even get close to getting out of the end zone due to OU's dominance up front.
The tackling on defense was atrocious yet again, including an open-field whiff my Mykkele Thompson on the 95-yard TD run that was so bad it took him and Carrington Byndom out of the play.
One of Texas' few productive plays was a first-down pass that covered 7 yards. Texas then proceeded to gain 2 yards on second down and no gain on 3rd-and-1, forcing the Longhorns to punt on fourth down.
It was a comedy of errors for Texas and even when the Longhorns weren't making mistakes and actually played OU straight up, they were completely outclassed. It was one of the worst halves of football these eyes have ever witnessed.
4. Why does Oklahoma seem to be better prepared in this match-up?
This is a question that we really can't clearly answer, but it has to be addressed.
For whatever reason, Oklahoma always seems to come out charged up for this game and in attack mode. Texas, on the other hand, seems like it's trying to absorb OU's initial surge and then hoping to respond. The problem is, by the time Texas has a chance to counterpunch, the game is all but over.
Oklahoma has scored first in the last six meeting and the Sooners have put the first points on the board in 10 of the last 13 meetings. It's not just a random coincidence that the Sooners start quicker and generally seem more prepared for this game, both mentally and physically.
There have been games in the past, when Oklahoma was clearly the better team coming into the game, that Mack Brown has admitted that Texas played it conservative with hopes of keeping the game close and giving Texas a chance to win it in the fourth quarter. That's not exactly a cut-throat mentality and it seems to trickle down to the players.
OU looks more motivated, more energized and more prepared when it first takes the field, and the Sooners have used that energy to race out to big leads from the opening gun.
I'm not sure how Texas changes that culture. I'm not sure it can be changed. But it's something Mack Brown has to look at, and he has to find a way to change the mental make-up of the team as it relates to this game. It needs to start at the top. The ultra-conservative game plans and the mindset of basically playing not to lose aren't getting it done and they're helping bring some embarrassing results.
5. where does the team go from here?
Mack's been able to get Texas out of these types of Red River ruts before, but this one feels different.  Texas came into this season, and this game, with high expectations. Mack Brown himself has said repeatedly that Texas is "close" to getting back to national prominence. Saturday's effort was a big step backward for the program and it's going to be tougher than ever to get the team back on track.
Baylor will head to Austin next week with its high-powered offense. After the way Texas played on Saturday, and with the way Baylor has played in its first four games (the Bears play TCU tonight, looking to improve to 5-1), it's entirely possible that Texas won't be able to keep up with the Bears. Texas will have to play very well to avoid a three-game losing streak.
Looking at the rest of the schedule, there's only one game that looks like a sure-fire win (at Kansas). The rest of them now look like they're toss-ups at best.
The Longhorns have to be able to put this game behind them and basically forget it ever happened. I'm just not sure how a team can do that after getting whipped in every phase of the game by its arch rival for the second year in a row.
This program is at a bit of a crossroads. If Texas bounces back and plays well over the second half of the season, Mack Brown can continue to sell that Texas is "close" to getting back to where it needs to be. If the Longhorns struggle down the stretch, which now seems possible, it raises serious questions about the overall direction of the program. Truth be told, those questions are already being asked by the Texas fan base after Saturday's humiliating performance. The pulse of Longhorn nation is much different after this game than its ever been before during Mack's tenure.
Bonus: Will this game impact recruiting?
This individual game has never really affected recruiting before on a large scale, and Texas has taken some pretty bad beatings from OU on Mack Brown's watch. The guess here is that we'll see similar results this year. Prospects aren't going to jump off the Texas ship based on the result of one game. Most of the players that Texas has committed grew up dreaming of playing at UT, and they'll want to step up to the challenge of getting things turned around.
But if you look at the big picture, and take the last two-and-a-half years in their entirety, it could start catching up with Texas. The Longhorns aren't the big boy on the block any more. Other schools are recruiting the state of Texas more aggressively than they ever have before and like it or not, a program like A&M is on the upswing while Texas took a big step back on Saturday and now looks like a team that will find itself in some tough games every single week for the remainder of the year (aside from Kansas).
Texas' recruiting momentum has stalled some this year, as evident with decommitments from guys like Ricky Seals-Jones and Daeshon Hall, plus at least one Longhorn commitment (A'Shawn Robinson) taking other visits. The Horns have lost one key head-to-head recruiting battle with Baylor and they're in a fight with the Bears for another top remaining target. That would have never happened three years ago.
This one game won't directly impact recruiting, but the overall body of work that Texas has put on the field the past couple years is allowing other programs to close the gap on the recruiting front.


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Top three for top wide receiver

Whitehouse (Tx.) wide receiver Trey Metoyer is one of the state's top pass-catchers in the class of 2011, and college coaches have been eyeballing his talents for some time.

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QA: Offensive Coordinator Dana Holgorsen

Q: Coach Holgorsen, first of all, tell me about what you saw from your offense last week.

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Make A Statement: Around Your Neck

Statement necklaces and collars have been a major trend for the past couple months and this trend isn’t dying down anytime soon.  These necklaces can be added to a basic look to add some interest and essentially make your outfit or they can be added as a finishing touch to a look.  Just remember to go simple and light with the other jewelry that you choose to wear.

A great way to wear a statement necklace is with a simple white tee and dark wash skinny jeans.  Adding a statement necklace can add color and interest to this look.  This is the way a statement necklace can really make your outfit.

I also like to add statement necklaces to dresses, button ups, and paired with striped tops.  Choosing a colorful necklace can add interest when paired with a contrasting colored outfit.

Statement collars can also add some appeal to a dull outfit.  They can be added in necklace form or now a trend is for button down and sheer tops to have studded or some kind of embellished collar on them.  Any way you choose to wear a statement necklace or collar it is sure to add interest and trend appeal!

Written By: Caitlin Bombaski

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Knox County Schools Get Boost in Security Funding Following School Shooting Death

A month and a day after a high school shooting left a student dead, county commissioners in Knox County, TN have approved $195,000 for additional security mechanisms at Knox County Schools, the district where the shooting took place.

According to coverage on, the money would include $75,000 for three additional security officers, one for Central High School, where the killing occurred, another for a middle school, and a third as needed in the district. It would provide $50,400 for additional video cameras at Central High and two other schools, $10,000 for two walk-through metal detectors that could be moved around the district, $4,375 for 35 hand-held detectors, and $25,000 to hire a consultant to review the district's security protocols.

Additional funds would be applied to professional development and cover overtime involved with expanding a home visit program for at-risk kids, reported, a site run by a news station in Knoxville.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at

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BORDER - A Delightful Photography WordPress Theme

BORDER - A Delightful Photography WordPress Theme

Border New Update

BORDER is a unique and easy-to-use Photography WordPress theme built with the professional photographer and their needs as the main ‘focal point’. It comes with an intuitive designed interface, carefully crafted to ease the way to showcase your unforgettable photos.

Whether you shoot landscapes, people, food, or weddings, want to keep a journal with your vision and thoughts, present your bio and servicesBORDER gets you covered!

In favor of a captivating visual experience, BORDER boasts lively and spirited page transitions in many unexpected yet perfectly natural ways, embodied in a minimal beautiful design language that allows the photos to take center stage.

This is what BORDER is all about: offering the right tool, in the right place, right when you need it!

Photo Galleries

Border is fully packed with slideshows and grid based galleries. Easily add bunch of images using the Media Manager.

Check out various gallery layouts: Slideshow Gallery, Masonry or Grid of thumbnails.

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Streamline your pages across more than 300 social networks thank to the premium support of AddThis.

Now you can easily spread the word around with powerful social media systems including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.

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We extensively tested on many devices both iOS and Android.

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Take control of your portfolio’s typography with custom fonts controlled through Theme Options. Access the massive Google Fonts library and create your unique style.

Translation Ready

Border is ready to be translated into whatever language you choose. We provide the .po file so you can get translating right away with PoEdit.

Also Border is fully compatible with the WPML plugin.

Powerful Options Panel

Customize the look and feel of your site with extensive theme options, custom website accent color, logo and many more.

PixCodes Plugin

BORDER comes with our powerful visual shortcodes plugin integrated right in your Wordpress editor. Quickly add columns, rows, icons, buttons, progress bars and much more.

Shortcodes made easy!

PixTypes Plugin

The content belong to you, it shouldn’t be lost once you change the theme. Using our PixTypes plugin you will never have to worry about losing content. PixTypes is used to create Galleries and Portfolio Projects.

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One Click Demo Install

REALLY!! Just one click and we set up everything: content pages, blog articles, menus, sidebar widgets.

Note: Images from the demo are replaced with placeholders.

Photoshop Files (PSD)

BORDER comes with all available PSD files. Simply open up Photoshop and work the design around to your heart’s content.

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BORDER cares deeply about photography and the creator behind it, this is why we have went that extra mile to make sure the the visual options provides cater both to the modern web and, most importantly, to the artist’s vision. We know that every photographer and photo series have a different story to tell.This is why each project can go on different visual path through different gallery and project templates.
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All images viewed in the live preview are for demo purposes only and are not included with your purchase. These images are courtesy of: Dario Sastre, Joel Santos, Ann Evreva, Mark Bridge, Laurent Nivalle, Ivan Tonov.

The current version is 1.7.5: Released on June 23rd, 2016.

Click here to view the changelog


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text:
Interview for Pure Metal Magazine

Published in the March 2014 issue of Pure Metal Magazine
Interview conducted by Kamil Trombik

Pure Metal: I warmly welcome musicians from Minsk. I
am very pleased that you found some time for a few questions
from my side. At first I would like to know how things are
in Minsk. I was really shocked when I found out that Minsk
had suspended. It was in 2011. But you have returned a few
moths ago. And it’s one of the best news in this year.
But now tell me what was the reason of suspension of the
band in 2011? And how are you feeling being able to play
together again?

Tim: Thanks for your interest, Kamil. Thanks for the
kind words. It’s really great to be able to answer
some questions about Minsk. It feels incredible to be
playing together again and moving things forward once again.
As far as the suspension, we had basically just
reached a creative and personal impasse as far as certain
individual members go. It was getting harder and
harder to make things happen, and when we finally parted
ways with Anthony, we needed some time to reflect and to
decide what was next and whether continuing was possible and
was the right thing to do. We all had things going on
in our lives that needed some attention, and we had some
soul searching to do. Once the decision to continue
was made, it reopened that space and that joy of playing
together again.

Pure Metal: I know that Minsk played several concerts in
recent months (in the USA). But there is no news about new
studio album. Do you compose new songs? Is there a chance
that you will recording new album?

Chris: Yes, we have been composing new material for quite awhile now. Even during our hiatus, we were actively writing and conceptualizing new ideas for future Minsk endeavors. We are more separated geographically now than we once were, so a large part of the writing process has been an exercise in navigating a way to function cohesively. We have had no obligations to rush into recording a new record, so we have made a concerted effort to take our time in writing and fine tuning these new songs.

Aaron: The short tour you mentioned was a big part of that process. Feeling out these new songs in a live setting and being able to see the energy and response was definitely inspiring. Since then, we have been concentrating on finishing the bulk of the writing and we are currently working towards finishing demos for all the new material. Right now our plan is to be in the studio in early/midsummer. We are all very excited about whats coming in the very near future.

Pure Metal: Could you tell us a few things about the concept
of the album (if you are going to release new album)? Both
musical and lyrical?

Tim: We are still in the process of actually writing the new
album. The writing is going great, and we’re all
very excited about the new songs and what the new album will
become. We’ve been demo-ing new songs for the
album. It is, I think, too soon to wrap my head around
what it actually is, conceptually. No doubt there will
be strong themes of overcoming, growth through suffering,
and rediscovery, simply because we have always wanted Minsk
material to be a genuine reflection of where we are as
individuals and as a collective. Musically, I think
the new songs are definitely a continuation of where Minsk
left off as well as something entirely fresh and new.
Hopefully we’ll be able to take listeners on a
journey that captures the full extent of the human
experience, from the very deepest depths to the most
triumphant high’s. That seems to have always been
our goal, and there’s certainly no change there.

Pure Metal: Minsk have returned with a new line. Could you
tell us something about new members: Aaron Austin, Zachary
Livingston and Ryan Thomas?

Chris: Aaron actually joined us in 2010 and played one show with us before we took a break. He has been a close friend of the band for many years. Before becoming a permanent member, he accompanied us on several tours, helping out with everything from merchandise sales to guitar repair. I was fortunate to contribute bass on an EP for Aaron’s previous band Cloud Burial, so we have worked together extensively and seem to have an uncanny ability to communicate non-verbally through sound. Zach and Ryan were the driving forces behind We The Prey, a brutal buzzsaw of a band which featured Tim on vocals. When We The Prey dissolved, it coincided perfectly with Minsk needing to extend our musical family, so it made perfect sense to have them join us. Ryan has been a musical peer for many years, and his focused approach to drumming was an immediate fit for Minsk. Zach is an accomplished guitar player, and to see how he has applied his
knowledge and expertise to the bass, has been enlightening and exciting.

Aaron: Peoria is a small city, and we have all been involved musically for quite some time in various projects, so we seem to have a built in sense of what it means to approach our songs collectively and intuitively. We all grew up listening to and being heavily influenced by our musical peers within this general area, so our musical worldview has followed a consistent plane. This probably manifests itself more philosophically than in any specific musical genre. It is proof that the population of a town does not always dictate the amount of creative output.

Pure Metal: What’s about past members? Do you keep in

Tim: Anthony is doing well, still making music on his own
and painting. I am still in touch with him on
occasion, though his journey and ours have parted ways
dramatically. We really do wish him all the best,
despite the split. We are definitely in touch with and
involved with Sanford still, even though he’s not as
involved as he once was. As we said several months ago
when we ended our hiatus, Sanford will always be a member of
the Minsk tribe from a distance. He is doing lots of
other things as a producer and as a musician that fill up
his life, most recently European and US tours with the
awesome Corrections House. He did perform with us in
Chicago back in July, and we will most certainly be working
together with him when it comes time to record this new
album. As we’ve extended the Minsk family, it has
opened up many possibilities for differing levels of
participation. As we move forward, Sanford will
definitely be involved, even if he’s not on stage with
us every time.

Pure Metal: From what I know, the name “Minsk”
suggested Chris. The word is meaning (to you) strength,
endurance, rebirth. After returning this word acquires
particular importance, don’t you?

Chris: The history of the city of Minsk, with it being rebuilt from the ashes many times, was an initial source of inspiration for the band. This thread has remained throughout the years of us being a band. Those concepts you mention, strength, endurance, rebirth, all hold specific importance to us not just from a musical perspective, but in the journey of living here on this planet. The WILL to persevere, to create, to transcend, to die and be reborn; these threads resonate with us each and every day. Our hope is that we can somehow translate these ideals into sound in a way that can illustrate the connection between the macro and the micro. And yes, to be able to continue making music as Minsk, we feel an intimate connection to the concepts of rebirth and renewal. One cannot truly “live” without the acceptance of death playing an integral part in that process.

Pure Metal: It seems to me that Minsk is very specific band.
I think that music is very important for you but equally
important is the atmosphere in the team. You respect each
other and you have your own way of life, something like
philosophy. And finally you don’t care what others
think about you. Am I right?

Tim: I’m not sure that I understand the question
completely, but if you are pointing to something deeper
within the relationships of the members and our outlooks on
life, then yes, I think that is correct. I’ve
always liked to say that Minsk happens in that creative
space that is opened up when we as a group get together.
We do, indeed, have our own ways of life and
philosophies, and we respect each other a great deal.
There are ways of thinking and being in the world that
the other members possess that I do not, and that sharpening
of one another through creative sharing and collaboration is
something unique that I would miss tremendously if Minsk
wasn’t a part of my life. I feel so fortunate that
5 or 6 completely different individuals can come together in
a way that creates something deeper than the sum of all of
our parts, individually. That thing, that in between,
is what makes Minsk really special as far as I’m

Pure Metal: Let’s get to the music. It’s amazing
that after several years of recording you have created your
own sound. Generally in most reviews falls words like
“hypnotic”, “ritual”,
“raw”, “organic”,
“trance”, “psychodelic”,
„primary” etc. Primarily with “The Ritual
Fires of Abandonment” you have brought to the metal
music breath of fresh air. So what distinguishes Minsk from
the other bands in your opinion?

Chris: The words you used are words that we hope to try to invoke as we write and perform our songs. The element of trance is something that we desire when we listen to music for pleasure, but also connects music to something deeper within the human psyche. These are motifs which seem to evoke emotions not easily explained, but which are essential to those wanting to dig deeper. At least that is how we are able to translate such concepts. I have no clue what distinguishes Minsk from any band or anything else, other than the fact that we are individuals trying to translate the human condition into some sort of effective sound. We want to try to form some representation of the intangible and to remind ourselves and anyone who might listen that we are all beings full of curiosity and wonder.

Aaron: Throughout musical history, and possibly now more than ever, so many bands seem to exist simply to make songs and perform them. I think what distinguishes Minsk is a desire for something more, something deeper, and above all a willingness to seek illumination in the act of creation. I think it’s also important to recognize that there are many kindred spirits who similarly desire a deeper understanding of the self, of truth, and empowerment.

Pure Metal: In the past you had recorded cover-songs. You
had made “Stand For The Fire Demon” (from the
great album “Evil One”), then you covered
Eyehategods (“Ruptured Heart Theory”) and the
last you made over three songs of old Hawkwind’s
collection (“Seven by Seven”, “Assault And
Battery”, „Children of The Sun”) which
have been issued on “Hawkwind Triad”. Are you
going to record some covers in the future? And why did you
change the title of “Assault And Battery”?

Tim: We don’t have any current plans for any more
covers, but it’s certainly a possibility that we’d
do more if the right situation presented itself. We
always have fun joking around about what songs we’d
eventually love to cover. Doing the covers has always
been enjoyable because we get to work together on something
that is altogether different from our normal process.
I think that I learned something every time we did a
cover, whether it was learning about how other bands write
songs through reverse engineering them so we could actually
play them, or having to think “how in the world did he
sing like that?” As for the Hawkwind song, we
didn’t actually change the title of “Assault and
Battery.” Our recording on The Triad is actually
two of their songs, that one and “The Golden
Void” run together, hence the title.

Pure Metal: I admit that I love songs like “Wisp of
Tow” or “The Orphans of Piety”. Are you
going to resume cooperation with Bruce Lamont? And what are
you thinking about his new project Bloodiest? Have you ever
listened to “Descent”?

Chris: Bruce has always been considered a part of the Minsk family, and I don’t see that changing. We will always welcome his contribution if it fits, and he/we are happy with the results. He understands what we do, and what we want to convey through our music. I think Bloodiest are a great band and seeing them in a live setting is quite an impressive spectacle of sound. “Descent” is a great record for sure. The record really made a bigger impact on me personally when I was able to see them perform it live for the first time.

Pure Metal: You’ve played in Poland in 2009 at the
Asymmetry Festival. Do you remember that concert? Do you
have any memories of that performance?

Tim: Yes, we definitely remember that performance. The
Asymmetry Festival was awesome. I remember a very
enthusiastic crowd, very supportive of us. I remember
feeling pretty overwhelmed that we were the farthest from
home we’d ever been at that time and yet being able to
connect with so many like-minded people and so many fans of
the band. I remember that Wroclaw was an incredibly
intriguing city, and seeing a huge banner promoting the
festival in the main city square was surreal.
Something like that would never happen for an event of
that nature in the US. We’d love to play Asymmetry
again in the future.

Pure Metal: Any chance of coming to Poland?

Chris: Absolutely. Minsk has only played one show in Poland so far, but the friendships we made from that one show are astounding. The way that we were able to connect with people really made an impression on us. Next time we are in that section of the world we will undoubtedly spend much more time. I have met and now correspond with some brilliant and inspiring people from Poland, and I feel a kinship which defies my ability to explain it properly. So yes, we are very much looking forward to being there again.

Pure Metal: Which bands or albums made the biggest
impression on you last months? Did you listen to new
materials of Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Swans, Nick Cave? Or
maybe Wolvserpent? This band messed up in my head

Tim: You mentioned many of the great ones already in the
question. I’ve also been listening to great albums
from Grails, Kowloon Walled City, Wizard Rifle, Goat, Yob,
The Body, and Men of Fortune.

Aaron: I’ve been pretty blown away by the recent albums from Junius, Constants, Jakob, Longwave, the Black Angels, and Alcest. The stuff you mentioned is fantastic too. The new Mark Kozelek/Jimmy Lavalle album and the new Appleseed Cast has also been on heavy rotation. Hammock and Stars of the Lid have been somewhat of a daily meditation for me as well.

Chris: Anytitme a new Neurosis or Swans record is released then I am personally full on into it. And really that goes for Nick Cave as well. I was very impressed with the Wolvserpent-“Perigea Antahkarana” record. There are so many textures within that album. I think The Ruins Of Beverast-Blood Vaults album is incredible. Probably at the top of my list. Carcass releasing a new album was a highlight for 2013 as well. Also, I can’t get enough of the new Indian album, “From All Purity”. It is such an oppressively beautiful record. We live in a time when there are so many mind-blowing bands that it makes my head spin.

Pure Metal: I am a big fan o books. Maybe is there a book or
author whom you particularly recommended reading?

Tim: Read the classics. Read the obscure, the
occulted. Read the books that “they”
don’t want you to read. Free your mind and free
yourself. Books are freedom.

Chris: I think Tim summed up this question perfectly. We could base a whole conversation solely on inspiring pieces of literature. Henry David Thoreau, Henry Miller, Lysander Spooner, and Robert Green Ingersoll are some writers from this part of the world who have been inspirational to me. I would also re-iterate Tim’s point; books are the necessary tool on the path of the great work.

Pure Metal: Hmm, that’s all. I thank you for your
time! Minsk has many fans in Poland. Any last words for

Tim: I’d just like to say thank you to all of our Polish
fans that have been so supportive of us over the years, and
who have been so patiently waiting for us to get another
album completed and get back over there. We read your
e-mails and comments online, and they always inspire us to
keep moving forward. Hopefully we’ll get to see
you all in person again soon!

Chris: Thank you for the interview. We really appreciate all of the support and encouraging words. We will see you soon.

~ by Minsk on April 25, 2014.

One Response to “Interview for Pure Metal Magazine”

  1. Come to Minsk, Minsk! That would be fitting, eh? Good interview, btw.

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Warp Burger

Said to have been born on July 4 th, 1891 in Tulsa, OK the hamburger its one of most popular dishes in America and ranks right up with the hotdog as a July 4th must. In fact did you know that Hamburgers and Cheeseburgers comprise 71% of the beef servings in commercial restaurants in the United States and that the average American consumes about 30 pounds of hamburgers a year? In Azeroth we have a few burgers that our characters can devour, like the Warp Burger, though I doubt they ever eat 30 pounds worth a year of it. When I went to think of a nice juicy burgers that was unique and could live up to a name like the Warp Burger I immediately thought of one of my favorite three burger recipes; The Stuffed Burger.

Stuffed Burger

  • 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Frank’s Red Hot) Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 strips bacon, diced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
  • 4 burger buns
  • Lettuce, tomato, pickles for garnish

  1. Preheat grill to medium.
  2. In a bowl combine beef, garlic, hot sauce, salt and pepper, to taste, being careful not to over mix.
  3. Warm a skillet over medium heat and fry bacon until crispy. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
  4. Keep heat on skillet and fry a pinch of the beef in the bacon fat to test seasoning.
  5. Adjust seasoning, if needed, then form 8 even thin patties, about 1/2-inch thick and set aside. Saute onions in bacon fat in skillet until tender, 5 minutes.
  6. Place onions and bacon in a bowl with cheese.
  7. Form a spoonful of bacon-cheese mixture into a ball, then place in the center of 4 patties. Top each with another patty and seal the edges.
  8. Grill burgers over medium-high heat, flipping once until desired doneness is reached, approximately 4 minutes each side for medium.
  9. Serve in buns with garnishes.

Elderberry Pie

Elderberry Pie at first glance sounds like something we should be feeding to Malfurion Stormrage or even better the Titans. This is the fourth and final food related item that players can get from a vendor and eat during Midsummer Festival and will wrap up my themed recipes of the event. To be honest it took me some time to come up with this one as I debated whether to use an actual Elderberry Pie recipe or a different pie recipe. The reason for this is that the real world Elderberry is a small berry and traditionally is used to make syrups for pancakes or for alcoholic drinks. Plus it would be hard for a majority of people to find Elderberries in their local grocery store and they would need to live in one of their native regions and pick it up from a farmers market. Thus I decided to present what I felt would be a popular dish and one of the best tasting pies I know, a Blueberry pie. Hope you enjoy!

Perfect Blueberry Pie

The Perfect Pie

Pie Filling

Prep Time: 20 mins Total Time: 1 1/4 hr
  1. Crust:.
  2. Into a 9-inch pie plate, sift together the flour, sugar, and the salt.
  3. In a glass measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup salad oil and 3 tablespoons milk with a fork. Pour that over the flour mixture in pie plate and mix with a fork until all flour is evenly dampened. If it is still too dry to work with your hands, mix a little more oil with a little milk and add to flour mixture.
  4. With your hands press the dough evenly against the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan, allowing the excess to fall on the counter. (This will be the top crumble crust and is about 1/3 of the total crust mixture.) Sweep it into your hand and reserve in a small bowl.
  5. Crimp the edges of the bottom crust or use a fork dipped in milk to flatten the crust along the rim.
  6. Berry pie filling:.
  7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  8. To the washed berries add cornstarch, sugar, cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg. Stir gently.
  9. Place the berry mixture in the bottom crust and sprinkle lemon juice over it. Then with an ordinary teaspoon, place little 1/2 teaspoons soft butter evenly over the top of the berry filling.
  10. Crumble the reserved crust on top of the pie.
  11. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Check it after 30 minutes. If crust is getting golden but pie filling is not quite congealed, tent the pie with aluminum foil to keep crust from getting too brown.
  12.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Midsummer Sausage

Mmm nothing says Summer like a nice delicious piece of sausage off the grill. There’s so many ways it can be done and in World of Warcraft they give us Midsummer Sausage as one delicious option for our toons. Since I don’t need to eat a hot dog that gives me a speed boost for real life instead I’m going to give us a nice summertime sausage dog that adds a little sweet heat to your day. It’s a great twist on such an iconic summertime dish and will give your mouth a kick of amazing flavors too.

Sweet Heat Dog

Sweet Dog

  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
  • 1 green onion, minced
  • 2 tablespoons Asian sriracha hot chili sauce
  • 8 hot dogs
  • 8 hot dog buns, toasted
  • 1 cup chopped sweet-hot pickles
  • 2 cups shredded red cabbage

  • 1. Preheat grill to 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat.
  • 2. Combine first 3 ingredients and 1 Tbsp. chili sauce in a small bowl. Brush hot dogs with remaining 1 Tbsp. chili sauce.
  • 3. Grill hot dogs, covered with grill lid, 4 to 6 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Place hot dogs in buns, and top with mayonnaise mixture. Sprinkle with chopped pickles and shredded cabbage. Enjoy!

Fiery Festival Brew

Keeping up with the theme of Midsummers Festival right now I want to touch base on a drink you can end the week with. In game we have the Fiery Festival Brew though in the real world I won’t be making you breath fire after drinking. So I imagine a fiery drink getting its name for having a little slice to it, and that’s what I’ve got for you.

Drink responsibly and enjoy this great drink to kick start your weekend.

Captains Silver Sunrise

1 shot Captain Morgan® Silver spiced rum
1 1/2 shot Captain Morgan® Parrot Bay coconut rum
1 splash orange juice
1 splash cranberry juice

Pour ingredients over ice: Capt. Morgan Silver -Parrot Bay -orange juice -cranberry juice. Enjoy!

With the  Midsummer Fire Festival  kicking into full swing throughout Azeroth I though it was only fitting to start off my first recipe with one of the items found from the festival itself. Smorcs happen to be a great treat that friends gather around bon fires in game for and traditionally we like to eat them around a campfire ourselves in real life.  Just in case your a little stuck on the game and can’t make it camping or just don’t want to realize all those childhood summer camp memories check out my recipe for some awesome smores you can make straight from the oven!

  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 3 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3 cups miniature marshmallows

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine butter, sugar and graham cracker crumbs until well coated. Press half of crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with the chocolate chips, then the marshmallows. Sprinkle the remaining graham cracker mixture over the marshmallows and press down with a spatula.
  3. Bake in preheated oven 10 minutes, until marshmallows are melted. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

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Common English Bible blog tour

After I posted and tweeted about the new Common English Bible, I was invited to participate in a “blog-tour” for the new translation. I don’t think this makes me particularly special; it seems anyone who wants to can participate. In any event, what participating bloggers are asked to do is to post entries during the next few months that make use of the CEB in some way or another–such as commenting on Bible verses or discussing the translation. While the guidelines are quite flexible and there’s no minimum number of posts required, I should note that the publisher provided me with a complimentary thinline copy of the CEB.

What I thought I’d do to participate is adapt a practice from a small group I was in a few years ago. We would meet on Wednesday evenings to read, reflect on, and discuss the gospel lesson for the upcoming Sunday. So my plan, during Advent, is to post on the appointed gospel lesson for the upcoming week (as determined by the Revised Common Lectionary). These will be loosely structured meditations based on my response to the text. It should be a nice way to “test drive” the CEB and a good spiritual discipline for me in its own right. My plan is to post these on Wednesdays during Advent (I realize I’ve already missed a week).

The publisher also says that I can give away one free softcover copy of the CEB every week that I write a post participating in the blog tour. I figure that it would be fairest for it to go to the first person to comment on that week’s post. So, the first person to comment who wants one will need to provide their mailing address to me in an e-mail, which I’ll forward to the publisher.

Don’t blog angry

I’m sorry to see that Marvin is apparently hanging up his blogging spurs, although I understand and respect his reasons for doing so. Still, it’s a loss for those of us who’ve been edified by his writing but aren’t part of the academic or religious milieus where he plans to re-focus his energy. I have some hope though. Blogging is a bit like the mafia–no matter how hard you try to get out, it finds a way of dragging you back in.

One reason Marvin offers for quitting is that his blog had become a place for venting anger rather than for constructive writing. Although personally I rarely found his posts to have an angry tone, I agree that there’s a danger of blogging being nothing more than a forum for angry rants. Over time, I’ve become less interested in the “someone is wrong on the Internet” model of blogging and drawn toward an a more exploratory approach focused on working through texts or ideas and hopefully coming to some clearer understanding of things. In other words, less polemic and more inquiry. Which is not to say that I always succeed, but it’s definitely the direction I’ve found my energies going in.

Anyway, best of luck on the dissertation, Marvin!

State of the blog address

I just realized that July 1st marked the 7th anniversary of my blogging efforts. I started out on a Blogspot site (“Verbum Ipsum”) and migrated over to WordPress and A Thinking Reed a few years later. (All the archives have been imported to this site.) I’ve been at it more or less continuously ever since 2004, with only one or two breaks of any significant length.

Sometimes I ask myself why I continue to blog, particularly as the blogosphere has become so diversified and specialized. For instance, there are lots of theology blogs by clergy, academic theologians, and others with much more impressive credentials than me. What can I possibly add to their conversation? The only persuasive rationale I can come up with is that (a) every Christian is called to think about and reflect on their faith; (b) I like having an outlet for stuff I’m thinking about, particularly what I’m reading; and (c) blogging has enabled me to connect with a handful of like-minded folks with whom to compare notes–something that’s not always easy to find in “real” life.

I’m less persuaded that blogging about other things, like politics, is worth the effort. Partly that’s because politics just isn’t as close to my heart as other things I like to write about. To the extent that I am still interested in thinking and writing about politics, it’s the higher-level questions about what makes for a just and sustainable society–not the day-to-day Democrat vs. Republican stuff–that interest me. (I follow day-to-day politics, but I don’t feel like I usually have anything particularly interesting to say about it.)

There’s also the development of social media–sites like Facebook and Twitter now absorb a lot of the energy that people might once have put into blogging. While I use both those services, I don’t think either one can really replace blogging. Facebook I see as a more informal setting for interacting with friends or family, particularly those I don’t see often. Twitter is useful as a “micro”-blogging platform and has made the link-plus-sentence-of-commentary blog post more or less obsolete. It also can generate some interesting online conversations. But neither one allows for the development of a more formal and extended argument or line of thought, something blogs are much better suited for. In fact, one of the most frustrating things about Twitter, in my view, is how it virtually forces people to resort to unsupported assertion much of the time. There are real limits to the value of that kind of conversation.

When it’s all said and done, I guess I continue to blog because I like to read and I like to write about the things I’m reading and thinking about. If I wasn’t doing it here, I’d be doing it in a notebook or journal. But the blog, because it’s public, forces me to be a bit more polished and to clarify my thought more than I would in those other mediums. And it facilitates interaction with interesting people, some of whom I would now consider friends. Not a terrible way to spend one’s free time.

Sad news

Philosophy professor Todd Bates, who blogged under the name Anglican Scotist, died suddenly this week from a brain aneurysm. R.I.P.

Friday Links

–A challenge to libertarians on the coecivene power of private entities.

–A.O. Scott on superhero movies as a Ponzi scheme.

–Richard Beck of Experimental Theology on why he blogs.

–A political typology quiz from the Pew Research Center. (I scored as a “solid libera.l” Although I’d take issue with the way some of the choices were presented.)

–An end to “bad guys.”

–Def Leppard’s Hysteria and the changing meaning of having a “number 1” album.

–The folks at the Moral Mindfield have been blogging on the ethical implications of killing bin Laden, from a variety of perspectives.

–Ta-Nehisi Coates on Abraham Lincoln and slavery.

–Marvin had a good post earlier this week on the death of bin Laden and Christian pacifism.

–Christopher has a post on problems with the language of “inclusion” and “exclusion” in the church.

–I don’t always agree with Glenn Greenwald, but I’m glad he’s out there asking the questions he asks. He’s been blogging up a storm this week on the circumstances surrounding bin Laden’s death.

–Brandon has a concise summary of the history behind Cinco de Mayo.

ADDED LATER: How do you feed 10 billion people? By eating less meat for starters.

Note on the blogroll

I’ve updated the blogroll, mostly pruning some sites that’ve become dormant. (My rule of thumb is that a site is dormant if nothing new has been posted in 6 months or more.) As always, I’m happy to re-link if a site becomes active again.

Added later: I’ve also removed the Twitter widget from the sidebar, which seemed to me to be unnecessary clutter. I’m assuming that anyone who’s interested in my Twitter feed probably follows it elsewhere. But if anyone finds the Twitter display on the blog particularly valuable, let me know.

Where’s the Left? (continued)

Here’s a much better-informed and thorough take on the “Where’s the left?” question I posted about here from a labor lawyer and blogger for the site Cogitamus.

Where’s the Left?

Apparently there’s been a dust-up recently about the supposed lack of genuinely left-wing bloggers in the professional blogosphere. (See here for the run-down.) The charge, in a nutshell, is that many of the most prominent bloggers are so-called neoliberals: people with liberal policy goals but who embrace the deregulation/free-trade/globalization model that has been in vogue since the 1970s or so. A genuinely radical Left is virtually nonexistent among the upper echelons of the liberal blogosphere.

If true (and it depends on how you measure importance in the blogosphere), this isn’t terribly surprising. To the extent that bloggers have been absorbed into more traditional media outlets, they are likely to reflect the traditional media ecosystem. It’s not really unexpected, for example, that the range of views you find among bloggers at the Atlantic is about the same as what you’d find on the op-ed pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post. If blogging was once considered an insurgent alternative to the mainstream media, the process of absorption and co-opting is, if not complete, well on its way. This state of affairs reflects American political discourse across pretty much all media. Not only are genuinely far-left views excluded from virtually all mainstream discourse, even old-fashioned liberals (paleoliberals?) are rare birds. Many people consider Paul Krugman to be an ultra-liberal, but he’s basically a mainstream Clinton-era Democrat (possibly he’s moved a bit further left since then). In Europe he’d probably be a conservative social democrat, maybe even a conservative.

What might be cause for surprise, though, is how little impetus the events of the last ten years (and especially the last three) have given to the revival of a genuine American Left. Speaking personally: I have no left-wing credibility or bona fides (I used to consider myself a libertarian), but the Bush era and its aftermath have pushed me steadily to the left. This was partly because of the war in Iraq and the gross abuse of civil liberties and the rule of law–which convinced me that organized conservatism was deeply corrupt and not to be trusted with governance. But I’ve also moved to the left economically. For instance, I used to be of the view that inequality per se didn’t matter so long as everyone, particularly the poor, was getting richer. But the disparities of the Bush era and the abuse of political power they enabled, among other things, have convinced me that a society with such gross levels of inequality could be neither just nor healthy. The fact that in addition to growing inequality, real wages have been stagnating or possibly even declining for working Americans obviously adds to the problem.

In addition to this widening chasm between the ultra-rich and the rest of us, the global economic collapse we’ve come to call the Great Recession (but which has also been called the “new normal”: an ongoing period of high unemployment and generally poor economic conditions for wide swaths of the working and middle classes) further undermined any remaining confidence I may have had in the ability of free markets to be self-regulating or self-sustaining. I recognize that the causes of the meltdown were complex, but it seems impossible to deny that one major cause was the lack of adequate regulation and oversight, which sprang from a faith in the virtual omnicompetence of markets. (Even former Ayn Rand acolyte Alan Greenspan has admitted as much.)

So, after all this, the fact that so many liberal bloggers are still singing from the neoliberal hymnal does come as something of a shock. It’s almost as if the last three years (or ten years) never happened. This phenomenon is only more pronounced on the actual political stage where, for example, a president routinely criticized by the Right for being a socialist (because, e.g., he supported the passage of a moderate, market-oriented, technocratic reform of the health care system) is in reality pursuing a program of tax cuts and deregulation. And the burning question among many politicos and talking heads is how to dismantle the already fragile social safety net so we don’t have to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for all our wars. In other words, the greatest crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression hasn’t provoked any fundamental rethinking by our political and economic elites about the balance we’ve struck between the needs of capital and the needs of society. (The ecological crisis adds a whole other dimension to this problem.) As for the grassroots Left–the activists, labor unions, civil rights groups, women’s groups, LGBT groups, immigrant-rights groups, liberal churches, etc.–it may either be too busy fending off the Right (with good reason) or too disjointed to actually push for such fundamental changes. In that sense at least, the bloggers seem to be in good company.

New social ethics blog

Readers may be interested in this new(ish) blog: The Moral Mindfield. The about page says that it is “intended as an open forum for the discussion of the ethical dimensions of society and culture. …informed by philosophy, theology, and social theory, as well as other academic disciplines.” If I’ve got this right, the contributers are students at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and include Marilyn of Left at the Altar. Worth checking out.

Friday links

– The new(ish) blog Women in Theology has been quite active lately, with recent posts on John Milbank and Stanley Hauerwas garnering a lot of discussion.

– Scu at Critical Animal writes on books that have changed the way he thinks. And here’s the post that inspired his post.

– Jeremy recently had a good post on what it means when you pray for healing that doesn’t happen. And here’s the post that inspired his post.

Russell points to this interesting post from Peter Levine, offering a “civic republican” quasi-defense of President Obama’s approach to politics. Russell follows up with some thoughts of his own on localism and communitarianism.

– A post on Lutherans and the “new perspective” on Paul.

Nick Kristof: in comparing the U.S. to banana republics, I may have been unfair…to banana republics.

Post-marriage America?

– Gateways to Geekery: The DC animated universe (I loved the ’90s Batman cartoons).


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Almost Wordless Wednesday

…Because let’s be honest, ‘wordless’ isn’t really my thing.

Flock of  birds at Talampaya National Park La Rioja Cuyo

Photo credit: HarvestHeart

I live on a street that seems to me a southern version of San Franscisco, with its tight row houses and steep, sloping sidewalks. Addison loves to sit on her scooter and fly down the hill in front of our house because it feels dangerous and because I have repeatedly told her not to.

Once my sister asked her, “Addison, how many times do you think you’ve ridden that scooter down this big hill?”

Thinking, she looked up to the sky, where a flock of birds blazed a path almost as rapid as hers. “As many times as there are birds in the sky,” she said.

We should all do the things we love as often.

2 Responses

  1. The day I knew Addison would be an artist. No other little kid thinks to shape words in such a way. So amazed by her sometimes.

    • She does have her amazing moments. I’d written that down in a random document the day you told me about it and just came back across it this week. Blew me away.

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Fillmore’s bathtub — metaphor?

One of my searches turned up what appears to be a well-informed essay from 1999 by Wendy McLemore, “The Bathtub, Mencken, and War.” According to her curriculum vitae, the article originally appeared in a publication called Ideas on Liberty, “The Bathtub, Mencken, and War,” Vol. 49, No. 9 (September 1999).

While the article is available on the author’s website, I have not found a link from her blog to the article. So let me urge that you make a second foray, and check out her blog, too. A word of warning — while I haven’t found anything at the blog that is not suitable for viewing at work (NSVW), this is the subtitle the blog: “A site for individualist feminism and individualist anarchism.”

McLemore argues that Mencken was not merely fighting deadline, but was writing a close satire of the difficulties he had getting stories published during World War I that did not condemn Germans willy-nilly. She writes that Mencken was a great appreciator of German culture, and did not go along with propaganda that merely demonized Germany and Germans.

She also wrote that it was Andrew Jackson who introduced the bathtub to the White House, in 1834. This contrasts with the White House story I noted earlier, attributing the introduction of the tub to Fillmore’s wife in 1853. (Before my hard-drive crash, I wrote to the White House historian asking for a check of the veracity of that story. I’ve got nothing in response.) What is McLemore’s source for the Andrew Jackson tub?

We continue the search for the Truth about White House bathtubs. Go read McLemore’s essay.

Post script: Go see what Cecil says about Millard Fillmore, at the column archives for Straight Dope.

One Response to Fillmore’s bathtub — metaphor?

  1. DavidD says:

    So how much was Mencken being satirical, even if only he could appreciate the full degree of satire, and how much was existential – writing this because he could? Maybe even Mencken would have been hard pressed to explain with perfect accuracy why he invented this.

    I was taken in just now by the supposed Boston law against bathing. How they must have smelled, I thought. I remembered in Shogun how the main character feared bathing. The couple of centuries difference in time didn’t keep that from being a precedent for me in accepting the Boston story. Of course I’m gullible enough to have believed that with no previous exposure to the concept. “Trusting” is the better way of seeing that. It’s not so bad being fooled on occasion.

    I don’t suppose anyone would get away with that degree of inventiveness today, but there are so many “facts” in our culture that exist so someone could write a good story. Quantum physics is very distorted by those who want the power of science to support New Age mysticism. Amnesia is distorted by scriptwriters who want to write about loss of personal identity instead of what amnesia really is. Many think that Dan White’s defense for shooting the mayor and fellow councilman in San Francisco was that Twinkies made him do, when that was not the meaning of how that snack came up at his trial. That the first two are bogus I know from my professional education. The last one I read in the LA Times within months of the trial. No debunking of any of these has eradicated them from the culture. The best history possibly can do is correctly label these myths of our time. It’s not hard to see obstacles to getting that right, how easily one might think that people behind these myths must have had some legitimate basis for them. No, it was just a good story. That’s it.

    That’s not even getting to so much political proganda that exists because they are useful stories, such as the myth that homelessness is all about mentally ill who don’t take their medicines, something I last heard from Tucker Carlson on MSNBC.

    People do what Mencken did all the time, maybe not as intentionally or inventively, but they write to suit their purpose. Maybe it’s not all bad. One story I know about propaganda backfiring was when Fred Hoyle, a believer in the steady-state universe, decided to ridicule the idea that the universe had a beginning by calling that beginning the Big Bang. Then his opponents said, “Big Bang, hey we like that.” It must have irritated Hoyle to the day he died that this was his greatest contribution to the culture.

    Unfotunately most propaganda has yet to be turned around so.

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2/5/13 – Lock Out

Posted by TracFIT on February 6, 2013

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1) We’re seeing a lot of progression with the toes to bar skills.  If you think about toes to bar as only a “core” movement, you’ll be stuck.  Think about using your entire body, from your hands, shoulders, midline, hips, knees, and ankles as all working together to coordinate the movement.

Beyond the technical aspects of our training, the environment and the culture in which we train can make a huge difference on quality of the experience and the effectiveness of the workouts.  What we saw today was nothing short of excellent hard work, plain and simple.  Keep it up 101ers, we like what we’re seeing.

2) Tips:
Back Squat – Pull bar into your traps to keep the upper back tight.  Keep torso vertical by pushing the knees out.

Hand release burpees – “Go into the pain cave.”  Give yourself a realistic and challenging goal for reps.

Shoulder to overhead – Push press it and make the lock out clear by fully extending the elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles.

Box Jumps – Rest on top, rebound on the bottom.  Stay close.  Clear the box each rep.  Step down as needed.

Main Group Workout
Hi Bar Back Squat 3×5 @ 70%, 3×3 % 80%

2:00min max hand release burpees

Then, 3 rounds of:
1:00min Shoulder to Overhead, 115/75lbs
30sec rest
1:00min Box Jumps, 24/20″
30sec rest

2:00min max hand release burpees

Record: Back Squat, 1st round burpees, Total Reps, 2nd round burpees

020513 Lock Out

Posted in WORKOUTS | Leave a Comment »

2/4/13 – Open Your Options

Posted by TracFIT on February 5, 2013

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1) So the 49ers didn’t win tonight. That holding call didn’t happen for them on the last play. And ultimately, they didn’t achieve their goal for the season. Is that the end of the organization? I think not. At this point, they have no control over the score, the non-call, nor the fact that they didn’t win the big game, but they do have control over how they let this experience affect them.

I’m confident the 49ers’ organization will reevaluate their performance today, reflect back upon a solid season, and move forward with the necessary adjustments and strategies to give themselves the best opportunity to succeed next year.

We may not be playing in the NFL, but we’re in a similar game of life. Will you let your failures define you? There are plenty of challenges in our lives that we should legitimately be concerned about, but how many of these challenges do we have direct influence over? Why focus our limited energy on what we can’t control, when there are opportunities within our control that we can have influence over?

Goal setting is important. Goal achievement is more important. But I believe the process on how we evaluate and re-assess our goals is the most important.

Next season Niners!

2) Tips:
3 position snatch: Build position, then speed. Watch this. Tell me what’s wrong with the technique here.

Power clean = Jump bar up with legs and hips. Let the shoulders lead the way in catching the bar.

Toes to bar = Push your body back and away from the bar.

Wall ball shots = Drive through the heels using hip opening. Elbows down and in.

Main Group Workout
7×1 3 position snatch (floor, hang, hi hang)

5 rounds:
2:00min AMRAP
5 power cleans, 165/110lbs
10 toes to bar
15 wall ball shots

(2:00min rest between rounds. Restart next round where you left off.)

020413 Open Your Options

Posted in LEADERSHIP & MOTIVATION, WORKOUTS | Leave a Comment »

2/2/13 – SEALFIT

Posted by TracFIT on February 5, 2013

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We had scheduled this workout in advance, but after hearing about Navy SEAL CPO Chris Kyle’s death on Saturday, it was fitting that we had it done.

You’ve seen me write about mastery, practice, building habits that promote success, and being a part of a community that is driven by the pursuit of excellence and quality.

Now, I want you to read an excerpt from, Michael Ostrolenk, an “Unbeatable Mind” Coach from SEALFIT, a Navy SEAL catered CrossFit program.   I’ve never met Michael or have had any interaction with him, but I came across an article he wrote for the SEALFIT community yesterday.

I just want you to see that our ideas, although formed independently, converge and share many similarities because they are universal principles that can be applied to earn success in your fitness, your career, and most importantly your life.

When The First Seed is Planted

Most of us have been there. We attend a great weekend workshop, read a “transformational” book or have an enlightening session with our therapist or coach.

Things seems different; perhaps we have a new perspective, new set of behaviors to try out or more capacity in a particular line of development (such as increased emotional intelligence).

The world has seemingly changed for us – that is until Monday morning.The “reality” of our lives smacks us right into the changed state of consciousness and unfortunately “reality” wins.

By Monday afternoon, we revert back to our old habits and ways of being and thinking. The new state moves into the recesses of our memories. We had grasped it, but now for the most part it’s slipped away.

But it’s not really gone. It’s just moved from a particular state of consciousness to a particular stage or trait. While we would prefer to make these states and experiences flow permanently, they often seem fleeting and ungrounded in our day to day lives. It’s easy to fall back into our old habits and get lost in older, more established ways of being and thinking.

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way: Self-Mastery and Service

We can take flow states and turn them into more permanent traits and stages. In SEALFIT’s Unbeatable Mind Academy, we have two primary disciplines: self-mastery and service. It’s through these two disciplines that more permanent change is possible.

Self-Mastery has a variety of components, but a key unifying element is practice. Whatever led you to that particular flow state is reproducible with continual practice.

That practice – including meditation, yoga, dance, martial arts, mental mapping, prayer, somatic movement practices, inter-personal engagement, journaling and more – needs to be mastered.

In order to “master” a practice as a trait or stage of development, it’s extremely helpful to join a community of practitioners in some form. As a part of a community (i.e. a team, family, etc.) you’re serving a greater good, and have the opportunity to ingrain your new “habit” of body/mind into your particular community. That way there is an expectation within that community that you will have particular ways of being, thinking and behaving.

The more ingrained in the culture, the more opportunity you will have in grounding it into your own body/mind. Likewise, the more ingrained into your own system, the more it can become ingrained in your culture. It’s a nice and useful feedback loop.

So, find a community to help you move from a “cool,” flow state to creating a new way of being, thinking and doing. Hold them accountable and be held accountable.

Michael ‘Sting Ray’ Ostrolenk

SEALFIT Unbeatable Mind Coach

Main Group Workout
50 Back Squats, 135/95lbs

SEALFIT Conditioning
For time:
Zanker Rd. Run

3 rounds of:
50 mountain climbers, 4 count
25 burpees
15 strict pull ups

Zanker Rd. Run

Posted in LEADERSHIP & MOTIVATION, WORKOUTS | Leave a Comment »

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Thanks for the show and keep in mind:
„Well now everything dies baby that’s a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.“

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Final Show – 17.10.2015 – AZ Aachen

“Old departures, new beginnings” – the title of our last record and many of the topics in the lyrics were very programmatic: it wasn´t just general themes of change running through the songs, but a lot of the songs were written specifically dealing with changes concerning Trainwreck.
Nothing in life is constant, except for change – this holds as much truth for our little band as it does for everything else. Since we started Trainwreck in 2005 a lot of things have changed, some for better, some for worse. During the last years all these things in their entirety made keeping Trainwreck going incredibly hard for us and now we´ve reached a point where we simply can´t continue the band the way we´d like to.
So now, 10 years after its inception in some stuffy rehearsal room in Aachen, we´ve decided to put Trainwreck to rest.
However we don´t want to leave quietly, but finish with a bang: Closing
the circle we´ll play a final show on October 17th at our homebase the
AZ Aachen.
We´re also extremely fortunate and happy to have some of our friends´ bands sharing the stage with us for one last time, as we´ll have our homies Sleep Kit and road dawgs Svffer and Jungbluth throwing the party together with us. Needless to say we´d love to see as many of you as possible joining in the festivities! ♥!

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This weekend: Darmstadt and Esslingen

gonna play a few jams this weekend: we´ll be at good old oettinger villa in darmstadt on friday and at the this charming man-festival in esslingen on saturday. come around and say hello, those are probably the last shows for this year if no crazy opportunities arise. also, we´ll play early on saturday, so make sure to be on time, if you wanna catch us.

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Heaven In Her Arms on tour right now

Our friends from Japan, Heaven In Her Arms, are on tour throughout Europe right now. We had the pleasure to share the stage with them at New Noise Festival last weekend and will join up with them in Chemnitz later this week as well as travelling to Fluff Fest with them! They are great guys and passionate about their music, basically spending their whole annual vacation for their tour – dedication! Go and see them live, if you have the chance to catch them on tour!

Here are their tour dates:

21.7. Hamburg – Headcrash

22.7. Berlin – Cassiopeia

23.7. Leipzig – Institut für Zukunft

24.7. Chemnitz – AC17

25.7. Rokycany – Fluff Fest

26.7. Linz – Kapu

27.7. Stuttgart – Club Zwölfzehn

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Lyrics section updated

you can find all of our lyrics in the lyrics section now! enjoy and sing along🙂

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Fluff Fest!

Great news friends!

We´ll play this year´s Fluff Fest! Psyched, it´s gonna be fun! The Fest is going to be from 25th till 27th of july.Check it out, they´re announcing a heap of great bands on their fb:

We´re also currently looking for a show before Kiel Explodes (21st of june).

So expect some more Tw shows to be confirmed soon (well at least one before Kiel).

Alright stay tuned for more news!

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Freitag: AZ Aachen // Samstag: AJZ Bielefeld

Nächstes Wochenende…

09.05.14 – Aachen, AZ [w/ Sleep Kit, Blue Screen of Death, Wolves Reign]

10.05.14 – Bielefeld, AJZ [w/ Blue Screen of Death, Masada, I Refuse]

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NEIGHBORS, ROBERT SIMPSON (1815–1859). Robert Simpson Neighbors, Indian agent and legislator, was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, on November 3, 1815, the son of William and Elizabeth (Elam) Neighbours. He later dropped the u from his last name. He was left an orphan at four months of age and was educated by private tutors hired by his guardian, Samuel Hamner, a planter. He left Virginia at the age of nineteen, sojourned for a time in Louisiana, and arrived in Texas in the spring of 1836. From 1839 to 1841, with the rank of lieutenant and later of captain, he was assistant quartermaster and acting quartermaster of the Texas army. On September 11, 1842, as a member of John C. Hays's company of volunteers, Neighbors was in San Antonio attending court. With about forty other persons, including the officers of the court, he was made prisoner by Gen. Adrián Woll and taken to Mexico. Neighbors was released on March 24, 1844, and returned to Texas. Early the next year he began his service as Indian agent of Texas. As agent for the Lipan Apaches and Tonkawas, he instituted the field system of Indian control; instead of remaining at the agency headquarters and waiting for the Indians to pay him a visit, as was the common practice, Neighbors dealt with them directly in their home territory. Later, when he was overseeing Comanches, he continued this practice, with the result that he spent much time far beyond the frontier and exercised greater influence over the Indians in Texas than any other white man of his generation. After annexation he received a federal appointment as special Indian agent, on March 20, 1847. He took part in several councils, including one between commissioners of the United States and the Texas Comanches near the site of Waco in 1846 and one between the Comanches and the German colonists on the San Saba River in March 1847 (see MEUSEBACH-COMANCHE TREATY).

Since Neighbors was a Democrat, his services as Indian agent were terminated by the national Whig administration in September 1849, but he remained in public life. As Texas commissioner, sent by Governor Peter Hansborough Bell, he organized El Paso County in February and March 1850 and tried, without success, to organize counties in New Mexico. As a member of the Fourth Texas Legislature from 1851 to 1853, he successfully sponsored a law that opened the way for establishing Indian reservations. He was a presidential elector in 1852, and shortly after the election of Franklin Pierce he was again appointed Indian agent. In 1853 he was made supervising agent for the Texas Indians. In 1854 he joined Capt. Randolph B. Marcy of the United States Army to make extensive explorations in Northwest Texas in search of sites for Indian reservations. The Penateka Comanches were located on a reservation in what is now Throckmorton County, and the lesser Texas tribes at another site now in Young County (see BRAZOS INDIAN RESERVATION, COMANCHE INDIAN RESERVATION).

Neighbors alleged that the United States Army officers located at the neighboring posts of Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper failed to give adequate support to him and his resident agents. The unsympathetic attitude of the military aroused the hostility of many frontier civilians, who charged that the Indians of the reservations were committing depredations on the white settlements. In spite of threats of lawless characters to take his life, Neighbors never faltered in his determination to protect the Indians. With the aid of federal troops he managed to hold back the white people from the reservations, and in August 1859 he eventually succeeded in moving the Indians without loss of life to a new reservation in Indian Territory. On his return he stopped at the village of Fort Belknap. There on September 14, 1859, while he was engaged in conversation with another man, one Edward Cornett shot and killed him. Neighbors probably was not even acquainted with his assassin. He was buried in the civilian cemetery at Fort Belknap. He was a Methodist, a Mason, and a temperance leader. He married Elizabeth Ann Mays in Seguin on July 15, 1851, and their home was in San Antonio. Two sons survived childhood.

Alice Atkinson Neighbors, Life and Public Work of Robert S. Neighbors (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1936). Robert Simpson Neighbors Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Kenneth F. Neighbours, Robert Simpson Neighbors and the Texas Frontier, 1836–1859 (Waco: Texian Press, 1975). Rupert N. Richardson, The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement (Glendale, California: Clark, 1933; rpt., Millwood, New York: Kraus, 1973).

Rupert N. Richardson

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Handbook of Texas Online, Rupert N. Richardson, "Neighbors, Robert Simpson," accessed August 28, 2016,

Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Modified on November 26, 2014. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.