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The 27 best under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve, according to the world's leading travel experts

new year's eve nye singapore marina bay
New Year's celebrations in Singapore.
Unsplash/Shubhankar Sharma
New Year's Eve — the one night a year when the whole world comes alive to celebrate the year just gone, the year ahead, and the people they love most.

Some people spend months planning an action-packed New Year's Eve, while others prefer to retire to somewhere quiet and watch the festivities unfold with a blanket and a hot drink.

Business Insider asked 20 esteemed travel professionals — each of whom has travelled the globe and seen New Year's Eve celebrated in all manners of ways — for the most breathtaking and under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve.

The answers include everything from tried-and-tested retreats to dreamy tropical islands which have either been the setting for unforgettable festivities our experts have attended in the past or are lusted-after celebrations they dream of attending in the future. Regardless of their location, level of popularity, and score on the party scale, each entry on the list is distinctly one-of-a-kind.

Scroll on to discover 27 of the best under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve, according to the world's top travel experts.

Be one of the first people in the world to ring in the New Year in Tonga.

Flickr/Sarah Kelemen Garber

"If you're going all out for New Year's Eve, why not do it in one of the first places in the world to ring in the New Year?" said Alex Reynolds, co-founder and blogger at travel blog Lost With Purpose.

"The Polynesian island of Tonga is a place I've always dreamed of celebrating New Year's. White sand beaches, azure water, and toasty tropical temperatures in December — what more could you need?"

Wade into the water of Alter do Chao, Brazil.

"Alter do Chão, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, is regarded as one of the most beautiful freshwater beaches on the planet," said Katja Wilde, Head of Didactics for language learning platform Babbel.

"On New Year's Eve, it is traditional for those by the sea in Brazil to wade into the water when the clock strikes midnight. New Year's Eve purists will jump over seven waves, making a wish each time they clear a wave."

Ring in the New Year with a bunch of grapes at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain.

Flickr/Luis Eduardo P Tavares

According to Wilde, New Year's Eve celebrations in Spain are amongst the greatest in the world.

"There is an emblematic place in almost every Spanish city or town where people gather to welcome in the New Year, and eat their twelve grapes, one each second, in the twelve seconds leading up to the stroke of midnight," she said, adding thatif you are in Madrid on December 31, you might want to join the carnival celebration at Puerta del Sol.

"The eating of twelve grapes at the turn of the year is of Spain's most-established traditions — and superstitions. Successfully swallowing each grape is supposed to ensure luck for its corresponding month in the year ahead."

Watch the sunrise over centuries of history at Angkor Wat, Cambodia...

For travel bloggers, Instagrammers, and photographers Murad and Nataly Osmann, it has become a tradition to spend New Year's Eve away from home in exotic and mind-expanding locations.

"We spent the celebrations at Angkor Wat temple — the largest religious monument in the world. Crowds of people — locals and tourists alike — gathered around a lake and the sun rose over its waters. Watching the sunrise over the historic monument made us feel immortal, like we'd travelled back in time through centuries," said Murad.

...Or Shwegugyi Temple, Cambodia.

Flickr/Vic Vic

But Angkor Wat's towering temples aren't the only place that the couple have spent New Year's Eve in Cambodia.

"Cambodia and Myanmar are our favourite countries for New Year's celebrations," Murad said.

"The Shwegugi Pagoda temple in Bagan is one of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, in our opinion."

Cosy up with friends in a Swedish cabin in Haparanda.

Unsplash/Ryan Waring

"As I'm getting a bit older, I've moved more towards spending New Year's Eve with a smaller circle of friends," said Neil James Cartwright, Travel Expert for travel search engine KAYAK.

"Last New Year's, I was in Sweden in the middle of the countryside at a friend's summer house. There were about 15 of us and we all helped to cook a delicious dinner, and then spent the evening dancing, drinking, and letting off fireworks as we brought in the new year."

Be the first person to watch the sun rise in Kiribati.

Villagers watch the sunset over a small lagoon near the village of Tangintebu on South Tarawa, Kiribati.

If spending New Year's on a tropical island sounds appealing, James Asquith, founder of HolidaySwap— a Tinder-style social media platform that lets travellers swap accommodation around the world — recommends the island of Kiribati in the central Pacific.

"The eastern beach is the perfect place to watch the sunrise," said Asquith.

"There was quite a lot of tourism there during the year 2000 millennium as it's the first inhabited place that witnesses sunrise each day. It's a pretty special feeling welcoming in the New Year before anyone else."

Sample some fine wines as fireworks burst over the harbour in Auckland, New Zealand...

Unsplash/Dan Freeman

Chris Zeiher, Director of Sales and Marketing for Lonely Planet's Asia-Pacific countries, believes that Auckland is the best place to ring in 2018.

"This year, Silo Park in Wynyard Quarter hosts the Wondergarden festival, where bobbing yachts and the iconic SKY Tower will act as a backdrop for live music and DJs prior to a spectacular fireworks display at midnight," Zeiher said.

"And for those wanting to escape from crowded downtown, the pyrotechnics will be visible from Cable Bay Winery on Waiheke Island, where jazz and dancing complement fine wine."

...Where you can even celebrate New Year's Eve twice.

Flickr/Mike Seyfang

"If you head to Auckland in New Zealand for December 31, you can ring in the New Year, get a few hours' sleep, and then head to the airport for 9am — where you can hop on a four-hour flight to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands," said Niamh Walsh, Chief Editor at travel search engine HolidayPirates.

"Because these stunning Pacific islands are across the international date-line, you actually go back in time and land at lunchtime on December 31, giving you ample time to have a nap and get ready to ring in the new year a second time."

Ring in "Hogmanay" in your very own castle in Scotland.

Wikimedia Commons/Godot13

"You can now hire out your very own castle for the night, with many options available online in Scotland such as Borthwick Castle near Edinburgh, Craigston Castle in Aberdeenshire, Forter Castle in Perthshire, or Kincraig Castle near Inverness," said Walsh.

"These options don't come cheap, though, and can run into the thousands per night. However, the good news is that there are plenty of bedrooms — so grab 15 of your mates and you could be lord of the manor singing Auld Lang Syne before you know it."

Party Honolulu-style.

Flickr/Edmund Garman

"Every year, Honolulu unleashes a party," said Alex Howard, Managing Editor of Lonely Planet Magazine.

"The city's biggest celebration is the aptly named New Year's Eve Party of the Year. Held at the Aloha Tower Marketplace, it features multiple stages of live music and DJs, food trucks, and fireworks over Honolulu Harbour.

"A free alternative is the Waikiki New Year's Fireworks, which launch from a barge off Waikiki Beach; tune into Hawaiian 105 KINE FM for choreographed music," Howard said.

Scale an active volcano in Bali and watch the sun rise over the New Year.

Flickr/David Russo

"Mount Batur is an active volcano on the Indonesian island's northeast coast (don't worry - it hasn't erupted since 2000)," said Walsh.

"Every day, dozens of people rise at 3 a.m. to hike in the dark up to the volcano's crater, to sit and watch daylight creep in over the island. It's become an increasingly popular tourist activity for the more intrepid explorer.

"This is a particularly special experience on December 31, as you get to watch the first sun of a New Year wash across the island."

Feast on lentils in true Venetian tradition in Venice.

Unsplash/Federico Beccari

Jessica Cole, Features Editor at Lonely Planet Magazine, recommends Venice for a truly unforgettable New Year's experience.

"With its singing gondoliers, graceful bridges, and masked balls, Venice knows how to strut its stuff and pull the crowds," Cole said.

"December 31 is celebrated across Italy as St Sylvester's Feast Day - and feasting is the focus in homes across the country, where extravagant meals last for many hours; they always include lentils, to symbolise wealth and prosperity (since they look like little coins). Around Venice, meanwhile, restaurants and bistros serve up indulgent festive menus."

Gaze down upon one of the UK's most party-centric cities — Brighton.

Unsplash/Marcus Cramer

"Brighton is a party town par excellence at any time, but it scales new heights of decadence on December 31," said Lonely Planet's Editor, James Kay.

"And that's literally true for those ascending the city's latest landmark, the i360 Tower. The party starts at the base of this spindly structure, where guests will enjoy a slap-up meal followed by a spin on the dancefloor as live DJs pump up the volume. But the main event is a 'flight' in the tower's pod, which will rise to 450ft, affording revellers gobsmacking views of the city as they sing Auld Lang Syne at midnight."

Slurp noodles and sip sake in Hida-Takayama, Japan.

Flickr/Nisa Yeh

"Hida-Takayama is a beautiful small town full of picturesque 18th-century Japanese buildings, shrines, and temples," said Paul Hopkinson, Marketing Director at

"On New Year's Eve, locals visit the Buddhist temple to ring a bell that welcomes in the New Year, before tucking into 'toshikoshi' soba noodles, which translates to 'year-crossing' soba. The long buckwheat it is made from is symbolic of longevity into the New Year and not finishing the meal invites bad luck.

"Visitors can then head to one of the many shrines where the miko (shrine maidens) offer the first sake of the year. As the Land of the Rising Sun, the first sunrise of the new year is of particular importance in Japan. Locals stay up to pray to the sun as it rises to ensure good luck for the year ahead."

Party the night away in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.

Unsplash/Andrew Wulf

"Hong Kong is known for its fireworks along Victoria Harbour," said Anton Diaz, the blogger and founder behind the Philippines' number one food and travel blog Our Awesome Planet.

"Watch the festivities explode over the skyline then party the night away at Lan Kwai Fong — the tiny district in the city's centre known for its bars, clubs, and restaurants."

Sit back and unwind in peaceful Boracay, Philippines.

Unsplash/Sam Shin

Diaz said: "Spend New Year's Eve in Boracay in the Philippines — the best island in the world — and party until sunrise.

"Known for its beaches and resorts, bars and restaurants scatter the beaches, open all night long."

Experience New Year's in every timezone from the comfort of Ko Olina, Hawaii.

"My wife and I usually go to Hawaii for New Year's Eve since it's so beautiful and warm," said travel blogger JohnnyJet.

"It's also one of the last time zones to ring in the new year. We love to sit on our hotel balcony and watch the final sunset of the year over the Pacific. At 7 p.m. (which is midnight ET) we watch the craziness of Times Square on TV. Then we call our friends and family (most of whom have already rung in the New Year on the east and west coasts) to wish them a Happy New Year, then head to dinner and watch the spectacular fireworks show over the Pacific."

Stay in an off-grid Scottish bothy.

Unsplash/Max Hermansson

India Dowley, Digital Editor at Suitcase Magazine, recommends staying in a traditional Scottish bothy — a small hut or cottage in a rural area, usually reserved for farm labourers — for a tranquil celebration away from the dazzling fireworks and hectic parties.

"There are more than 100 bothies scattered around some of the most remote parts of the country— deep inside leafy glens, hidden away in quiet bays, or at the foot of towering mountains."

Experience New Year's Eve twice without having to do more than walk across a border.

The Northern Lights over Kuopio, Finland.
Unsplash/Niilo Isotalo

"For the time travellers, head to Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden. You first get to celebrate the New Year in Finland, then you can walk the short distance over the border to do it all again in Haparanda," said Dowley.

Drink and sing with Spanish locals in Plaza Nueva, Seville.

Wikimedia Commons/Gzzz

"The bells ring out and locals eat a grape for each chime. The streets are full of parties, people, and lights," Dowley said.

Get romantic at Piazza San Marco in Venice.

"I've been wanting to spend New Year's Eve in Piazza di San Marco for the annual "Love" event for some time," said travel blogger and Instagram star Kiersten Rich.

"Watch the spectacular fireworks and light show as they fill the air. It's such a romantic setting, and the whole crowd welcomes the new year with a New Year's Kiss and a toast."

Ski into 2018 in Åre, Sweden.

Wikimedia Commons/MattiPaavola

"I would love to visit Åre in Sweden for New Year," revealed Srin Madipalli, Accessibility Product and Program Manager for Airbnb.

"In the mountainous far north of Sweden — a bit of a local secret — Åre is supposed to be very chilled out and atmospheric (it's close to the Arctic Circle, so the sun sets extremely early there!). A friend recommended it as a great place to try adaptive skiing, which is something that's been on my bucket list for years."

Watch the fireworks flicker over Torre de Belém in Lisbon, Portugal.

Unsplash/Vali Sachadonig

For Tricia Pimental, International Living's Portugal Correspondent, there's nowhere better to see in the new year than Lisbon.

"Musical performances and dancing take place at the Torre de Belém, the ornate stone tower built to commemorate Vasco da Gama's explorations, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean," Pimental said.

"You'll get a fine view of the midnight fireworks from there, reflecting on the Tejo River, but why not join the thousands who gather in Comercio Square, the largest square in the country?"

Take in the surf in Roatán, Honduras.

Flickr/Daniel N. Chinchilla

"New Year's Eve on the island of Roatán in Honduras is always exceptional," said Dan Prescher, Senior Editor of International Living, adding: "especially the resorts around West End and West Bay.

"I was there for the Millennium celebrations in West Bay on New Year's Eve 1999 which featured dancers painted gold doing dance routines in the surf with torches."

Join the fun and friendliness of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"As the sun goes down on the 31st of December, my plan is to be in same place that I was last year: sipping Champagne at the rooftop bar of one of Phnom Penh's tallest skyscrapers surrounded by friends as I watch fireworks light up the night skyline of the city," said Steven King, Cambodia Correspondent for International Living.

"This is a country where 'sabai' or 'fun' is part of the national character — right next to friendliness — so expats here are pretty much guaranteed a chance to join a 'Cambodian style' party thanks to invites from friends and neighbours."

Burn away 2017 in Cotacachi, Ecuador.

Flickr/Chris Feser

"One Ecuadorian ritual on New Year's Eve, called Año Viejo, involves burning effigies that represent all the rotten stuff that happened last year," explained International Living's Senior Editor, Suzan Haskin.

"The first place I experienced this was when living in Quito, but it happens everywhere in the country, including in our little village of Cotacachi."

SEE ALSO: The 20 most-visited cities in the world

FOLLOW US: INSIDER is on Facebook

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Cook Medical Center

Click here for information on the consolidation of emergency services with Tift Regional Medical Center's ER.

Cook Medical Center (CMC) is a 60 bed acute care hospital which includes the Sylvia Barr Center, a 12 bed geriatric - psychiatric unit, located in Adel, Georgia. Also operating under the auspices of CMC is Cook Senior Living Center, a 95 bed skilled nursing facility as well as The Sylvia Barr Center, a 12 bed geriatric psychiatric facility. CMC, Cook Senior Living Center, and The Sylvia Barr Center combined employ over 250 people, making CMC  the second largest employer in Cook County.

Cook Medical Center is dedicated to improving the quality of life in our community by providing the best healthcare services with confidence, dignity, and excellence. CMC holds an active role in the Adel-Cook County community. CMC is a corporate sponsor for The Boys and Girls Clubs of the Greater Cook County Area and Relay for Life, and CMC employees hold leadership roles in many local civic organizations. CMC is an active member of the Adel-Cook County Chamber of Commerce, and serves as a Partner in Excellence with the Cook County School System. CMC and the Auxiliary combined award a total of three scholarships to Cook High School graduating seniors every year.


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Chattanooga attorney John Wolfe garners 246 New Hampshire primary votes

Chattanooga attorney John Wolfe garners 246 New Hampshire primary votes

January 12th, 2012 by Chris Carroll in News

John Wolfe

John Wolfe

Photo by Jake Daniels /Times Free Press.

Nearly 60,000 people voted Tuesday in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, and 246 of them chose John Wolfe, a Chattanooga attorney and four-time congressional candidate.

Wolfe nabbed 0.4 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press.

President Barack Obama won, scoring 82 percent and 48,855 votes.

Wolfe branded himself as the more progressive alternative to the president. He finished ninth out of 14 candidates, all of whom were required to be registered Democrats and pay a $1,000 filing fee.

Wolfe, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1998, 2002, 2004 and 2010, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Along with Chattanooga, longshot Democratic candidates in New Hampshire came from California, West Virginia, Wisconsin and several other states.

A Massachusetts man named Vermin Supreme, who pushed for a teeth-brushing requirement, more than tripled Wolfe's total, getting 831 votes and capturing 1 percent. There were 5,879 write-in votes, adding up to 10 percent of the Democratic primary tally.

Wolfe was fined $10,000 in 2008 after he ran for a state Senate seat and never filed a fourth-quarter campaign finance disclosure report with the state as required by law.

The penalty remains unpaid. Until it is paid, Wolfe is barred from qualifying for election in any Tennessee state or local office.

"He's additionally subject to a civil suit by the state for collection of the civil penalty," said John Allyn, counsel for the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance.

Wolfe campaigned for several weeks in New Hampshire, booking hotel rooms and participating in a televised debate called "Lesser Known Candidates Forum." In a previous interview Wolfe said he had the resources to compete in Louisiana, Missouri and other states with presidential primaries.

He did not say when he would pay the $10,000 fine.


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Tim Ralphs http://www.timralphs.com STORYTELLER Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:45:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.23 Introduction to Storytelling Workshop – 14 April 2018 http://www.timralphs.com/introduction-to-storytelling-workshop-14-april-2018 http://www.timralphs.com/introduction-to-storytelling-workshop-14-april-2018#comments Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:58:26 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=644 Hello!

Back by popular demand, Beeston Tales will be offering an Introduction to Storytelling course on 14th April, at our usual home, The White Lion. It will run from 10.30 am to around 4pm, with a break for lunch.

Maybe you want to tell better stories to your children or grandchildren – or maybe you want to improve your confidence at public speaking in general. Perhaps you’d like, at some point, to tell a story to a group of friends, or even at a public storytelling night (don’t worry, we won’t force you to do this!)

On this course, we’ll look at a variety of techniques to help you get started. The course will be fun, interactive and challenging, and will cover:

what is storytelling?

how do I choose a tale?

how do I remember a story?

how do I start to bring a story to life?

We will be putting on a further training day – ‘Taking the next step’ later in the Spring, and we very much hope that many participants will feel inspired to attend that course as well.

The course will be run by Mike Payton and Tim Ralphs. Mike has been storytelling professionally for seven years. He is also a trained English teacher with 20 years experience, and has run many storytelling courses for teachers, parents and children of all ages. Tim is a storyteller of international renown, who has run storytelling courses for people of all degrees of experience. He is currently working with PHD students at Sheffield University to improve their presentational skills.

The course costs £35/£30 unwaged. This includes lunch (likely to be home made soup and bread, a hot drink and a cake) provided by Sergio at The White Lion. You can book onto the course by sending a cheque made out to Mike Payton at 45 Hope St, Beeston NG91DR. Or you can pay using the following paypal links:

For the £35 rate, (waged) click below:

For the £30 rate, (unwaged) click below:

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From White Lion to LeftLion http://www.timralphs.com/from-white-lion-to-leftlion http://www.timralphs.com/from-white-lion-to-leftlion#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2018 18:43:50 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=631 LeftLion ran a recent article on the top literary organisations in Nottingham and we were very excited to see Beeston Tales make the list. Here’s the relevant section in full:

“Think you can spin a yarn? Fancy yourself adept at keeping listeners gripped until the very end? Down at The White Lion in Beeston stands some of the finest storytelling you’ll find out there with Beeston Tales. Events are run regularly by Tim Ralphs and Mike Payton, but open to a plethora of guest speakers. On the ball for over three years, don’t head down expecting your average meandering ramble lined with plot holes and inconsistencies. Often drawing from audience participation and their overall gift of the gab, expect nothing of the usual from this craftspeople of the turning tale.”

- James Kramer, January 2018

You can read the full list here.

Tim and Mike didn't even injure themselves getting it up.

Tim and Mike didn’t even injure themselves getting it up.

Beeston Tales is the second Wednesday of every month. More details are here. We now have a banner adorning the side of the venue – how exciting is that?

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3Troubadours workshop on 13th April http://www.timralphs.com/3troubadours-workshop-on-13th-april http://www.timralphs.com/3troubadours-workshop-on-13th-april#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2017 14:13:54 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=601 Hello all,

In April, we have the amazing 3Troubadours visiting us at Beeston Tales. They’ll be performing on the Wednesday night at our regular club night, but we’re lucky enough that they are staying around on the Thursday to run a one day Performance Storytelling Laboratory for us.

Performance storytelling Labo with 3Troubadours

3Troubadours is a trio of performance storytellers consisting of Markus Luukkonen (Finland), Torgrim Mellum Stene (Norway) and Tom van Outryve (Belgium). Their collaboration and friendship started in 2013 when they all met as participants of LABO, a European laboratory for research and development in the art of performance storytelling, facilitated by French master Abbi Patrix.

On 13th April they’ll be running a workshop specifically geared to experienced storytellers, a one day adventure in which they will share their collective discoveries in the spirit of LABO.

We’ll be looking at elements like:
– intensity
– style
– using the stage/staging the story
– rhythmicality.

All this at The White Lion, Middle Street, Beeston. The workshop runs from 11:00 until 16:30, with lunch included. (Let us know any dietary requirements.) It comes at the bargainous price of £35 for the day.

Special offer! Buy a ticket in advance for the workshop, get free entry to “Mobile Dreams”, the 3Troubadours storytelling performance on 12th April.

Details of that here.

We expect this one to fill up fast so get booking!

Any queries, or if you don’t use paypal, email me about it at tim.ralphs@gmail.com

Book using the paypal link below:

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The Story Forge – passing the baton http://www.timralphs.com/the-story-forge-passing-the-baton http://www.timralphs.com/the-story-forge-passing-the-baton#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2017 11:43:43 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=586 Welcome to 2017. I am groggy with the jetlag of landing back in the UK. It was an interesting New Year’s Eve, midnight rushing West to meet us as we flew East towards the sunrise.

It’s a time of change and one of these changes is that I’m handing over the running and administration of Sheffield’s The Story Forge. I’ve been hosting the club since the middle of 2009 and the time has come for the torch to be passed on. Freshly molten words will still cool in the quiet waters of the Don. Stories will still get forged. I have great, great hope for 2017 and the future of the club. Not least because Hugh Lupton is bringing Beowulf in January.

Most of the details for the club will be the same. The email address. The location. And so on. I with the new team the best of luck!

The new flyer for The Story Forge carries the DNA of Christine Cooper’s flyer of old! Click to enlarge.

After seven and a half years, there’s a lot I’m proud of. One of those things has been bringing world class storytelling to the little upstairs room at The Fat Cat. So to sign off The Story Forge, here’s a list, as best as I can remember, of every show we’ve hosted. How many do you remember? What have I missed?

Simon Heywood – Tales of Darkest England
Tim Ralphs – The Kaleidoscope
Rachel Rose Reid – The Little Tailor
Sophie Snell – Seven Deadly Sins
Peter Findlay – A Silent World (How Anansi stole us stories)
David Hague’s – Old Jack
Kat Quatermass – Tales of Love and Loss
Dominic Kelly – The Gift
Christine Cooper – The Battle of The Trees
Ben Haggerty – The Blacksmith at The Bridge of Bones
Shonaleigh – The Tower of Bagel
Helen Stewart and Honor Giles – Love, Death and Divine Intervention
Tim Ralphs – On Our St George’s Day
Simon Heywood – Robin Hood
Nell Phoenix - Fairy Tales for Fearless Adults
Rachel Rose Reid - I’m Hans Christian Andersen
Ursula Holden Gills – There are fairies in the gutter
Richard Trouncer – Pub Gods
Raymond Greenoaken – The Music of What Happens
Jo Blake Cave – The Smiling Fox
Sarah Rundle – Gawain and the Green Knight
Clare Murphy – The King of Lies
Simon Heywood – Vortigern
Guto Dafis – Jackie Kent and The Devil’s Purse
Moni and Ivor – The Dragon Lover
Giles Abbott – Caught on the Horns
Ruthie Boycott Garnett – Here’s to the Hare
Emily Parrish-Hennessey – Loki
Cath Little – Castle Arrianhrod
Cat Gerrard - Body without Soul
Daniel Morden – Tales from the Mabinogien
Raymond Greenoaken - Alistair Begg
Nell Phoenix – The Kiss of Forgetfulness
Ana Lines – The Barbecued Husbands
Alys Torrance – Cracking the Tale Bones (Inuit stories)
Tim Ralphs – Can the Mountains Love the Sea?
Cath Edwards – Pirates!
Cath Little – The Apple Tree Woman
Amanda Smith – Choices and Regrets
Mike Payton - Bullfighting Widows and Haunted Cows
Sarah Lise Wilkinson – A Girl with No Hands
Red Phoenix - My Passport says Storyteller
Tim Ralphs – Bed of Arrows

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Remembrance of Lost Species http://www.timralphs.com/remembrance-of-lost-species http://www.timralphs.com/remembrance-of-lost-species#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2016 13:45:12 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=579 Last week, I was involved in a special night of remembrance for extinct species, along with the wonderful Nancy Kerr and Sarah Smout. It was a part (albeit slightly late) of the now international event, initiated by ONCA.

It is a gift in my work to occasionally get to do things that feel incredibly important – that step outside the normal remit of performance and become something timely and meaningful. Our night was full of song, story and ritual elements, all against the backdrops created by the event organiser and craft guru Abi Nielsen.

Sarah Smout on cello, Nancy Kerr on fiddle, Tim Ralphs reading a long list of extinct species.

Sarah Smout on cello, Nancy Kerr on fiddle, Tim Ralphs reading a long list of extinct species.

It was a powerful evening, and I thought I’d include here the text of the communion I wrote and read before we broke and shared bread.

Welcome back
Hello and welcome back. I hope you’re all feeling refreshed and settled and ready for more. We’re going to start with a short ritual, a breaking and sharing of bread, and I will say a few words to acknowledge why we are here tonight. I want to apologise in advance to the gluten intolerant here with us – and invite you to participate in whatever way feels appropriate.

We choose this symbol of breaking bread and partaking in a communion together because of the ancient ritual associations that permeate it. Beyond the Jewish and Christian connotations, the idea of sharing bread runs through our culture and our language. In Aramaic, the word for “friend” is “balinjeera”, one with whom we share bread. In English, “companion”, from the latin words for togetherness and bread. But I want us to recognise that here today this act has its own meaning, it is a new and radical communion.

In the Ascent of Man, Bronowski argued that the history of human civilisation was the history of our relationship with wheat. For the hundreds of thousands of years that humanity has been in existence, we have been in a dance with this planet. Living on it and with it, guided and shaped by the land, the weather, the movements and lives of other species. But with the domestication of wheat there came a shift in the balance of that dance. Where once we had been followers, now we were the leader. Now we would shape the earth, toil and sweat in the dust to make the ground bring forth the crops we planted.

And I don’t condemn human beings in our desire to impose our own vision upon the land – this is, as I said, the basis of civilisation. But the time has come to recognise that in this dance, our steps have been clumsy, that we have twirled this planet wildly, cruelly. Dangerously.

There is nothing new in extinction.

Let me say that again – there is nothing new in extinction. The lifetime of all species on this planet is ultimately finite, a macrocosmic reflection of the mortality of each individual life. Species have risen and fallen before, sometimes in isolated incidents, sometimes in seemingly great, mass die-offs.

We are now in what archaeologists, palaeontologists recognise as the sixth period of mass extinction that this planet has faced. All this has happened before and will happen again. The only difference this time is that we, human beings, have lead and pushed and guided the course of our planet, our environment, into this time of death.
And there is a question, a burning question around what we should do next. Around how we should change. How we can fix this. I say, leave that until tomorrow. For now, let us join together as a human community. Let us recognise those species that have departed with a profound empathy, shared partners in the great dance of life. Let us acknowledge our animal bodies, still very much dependent on the bounty of the Earth to grow and thrive.

Breaking of bread
I invite you to take a few moments of silence. To reflect on whatever powers you hold to be important, whether that is the God of your understanding, the magnificence of the natural world, the glory of our shared humanity. I offer up this loaf of bread. It is the bounty of the Earth, our home. It is born from the light of the sun, watered by the gentle caress of rain. It is the labour of human hands.

As we eat it, may we be nourished. May we remember our place, our connectedness. May our hearts be open.

May it become, for us, the bread of life.

And so it is.

And we'll stand beside the shore.

And we’ll stand beside the shore.

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The right story for the right time – The Bed of Arrows http://www.timralphs.com/the-right-story-for-the-right-time-the-bed-of-arrows http://www.timralphs.com/the-right-story-for-the-right-time-the-bed-of-arrows#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2016 15:33:56 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=565 On 6th February this year, I was in India for the Kathakar International Storytelling Festival. I was standing underneath a Peepal tree, an audience of 400 people were buzzing in an open air amphitheatre that struggled to hold them all. I told the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

I hadn’t planned on telling it, but Giles Abbot had just told the story of The Loathly Lady and had thus done the hard work of introducing the Arthurian world and most of the characters. Looking back, I feel like Gawain was the perfect story to tell. For all sorts of reasons, but one seems most relevant right now.

There’s a moment in the story where two men kiss. It’s part of an elaborate, courtly game where they’re swapping prizes back and forth. I’ve told this story a lot in the UK and it’s always hard to get the right tone at that moment. But in Delhi that night there was palpable tension and joyous relief. Laughter, yes, but it didn’t feel homophobic. Instead, it felt like we had shared something, had stepped into a taboo place and found that it was not as dangerous as we’d thought.

I didn’t know at the time but while I was packing for the flight to Delhi the Indian Supreme Court had announced that it was going to investigate decriminalising the laws which make homosexuality illegal. The penal code, a product of the British Raj in India, has been the subject of much back and forth over recent years. That was the background against which Gawain and Bertilak pressed their lips together.

In a few weeks time, I’ll be telling The Bed of Arrows at The Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival. It’s a great story, one that I expect I’ll be writing about here a lot in the next few months. It’s a collection of stories from The Mahabharata, an imagined dialogue between Bhisma and Shikhandi after the war is over. At its core, it’s a story about gender identity and transition. About the way the world changes and old institutions – glorious, powerful, magnificent but brutal institutions – collapse and shift.

From wikimedia commons

Bhisma on the bed of arrows

It’s also an Indian story. Some might call it a sacred story.

I’m not Indian. I’m not a Hindu. I’m a white British man. I am a direct descendant of a culture that profited from colonial brutality across the world. At the same time, the message in The Bed of Arrows feels enormously relevant and resonant to the culture I’m living in today, to the times I’m facing. I hope that, just like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was exactly the right story to tell in Delhi, The Bed of Arrows will be exactly the right story to tell at Saint Donats. Right now, that means doing a lot of work in making sure I tell it as well as I can but also being open to the contentious issues that telling this story raises.

If you’re interested in queer Indian myth, I would heartily recommend Shikhandi and other tales they don’t tell you by Devdutt Patanaik. I was given two of his books as a gift by Nisha Tyagi of the British Council. I devoured them as I traveled around India – I can’t remember the last time I picked up a collection of stories, started at the beginning and read them all through in order. Devdutt gently explores the themes in each myth, reflects on what they mean and has inspired me enormously.

If you’re at Beyond the Border, do come and say “Hi.” It’s always good to meet a reader. See you there!

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Clowning for Storytellers – A Masterclass with Fred Versonnen http://www.timralphs.com/clowning-for-storytellers-a-masterclass-with-fred-versonnen http://www.timralphs.com/clowning-for-storytellers-a-masterclass-with-fred-versonnen#comments Tue, 14 Jun 2016 13:43:06 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=555 Coming up on the 14th July, Beeston Tales is bringing you the next in its program of masterclasses for storytellers. Internationally acclaimed performer Fred Versonnen is stopping off with us as he travels from Belgium to The Festival at the Edge.

Clowning is a beautiful way of making connections. Connections with your audience, connections with parts of yourself you don’t always talk to. Fred has a lively and colourful background as a street performer, jester, stilt walker, fire crasher, clown, juggler and storyteller. He currently teaches at Circus School and spent many years working in Children’s Hospitals. In this workshop he’ll introduce storytellers to some useful clowning techniques and games. Learn to be fully present. Learn to embrace judgement and vulnerability. And who knows, maybe you’ll learn how to make someone laugh!

This workshop is taking place upstairs at The White Lion Bar and Kitchen. Turn up at 10:30 for an 11.00 start. Wear loose clothing. Expected end time is 16:30. This workshop will cost £35 and includes lunch provided by The White Lion. Please let us know of any dietary requirements when you book. Book by sending a cheque to Mike, by emailing us to confirm details or via the paypal link below that says Book Now.

Perhaps you’re not convinced of the link between clowning and storytelling? Read this personal account by Simon Sylvester who attended one of Fred’s workshops several years ago in Brigsteer.

“Last month, at Dreamfired, I saw storyteller Fred Versonnen perform the amazing Elephant Story. The next morning, I attended his clowning workshop in Arnside. This had almost nothing to do with the stereotypical idea of clowning – no silly noses, no silly shoes – and was essentially a 101 on delivery, performance and body language.

Fred warned us at the start of the session that it might take us to some uncomfortable places. I didn’t believe him, but he was right. It’s taken me this entire month to process some of the things that happened in that class. I’m not sure I’ll ever totally get to grips with it, but at the same time, I no longer think I need to. I just wanted to record a few thoughts on what clowning means to me.

I’m not going to talk about the specific activities Fred led us through. They were plentiful, varied, invigorating, intense and brilliantly useful, but they will mean different things to each person who attended, and I don’t feel the need to dissect the actual workshop. I want to talk about what I learned.

I learned that I’m frightened of embarrassment. Most of us are, probably. During the workshop, we performed tasks specifically designed to undermine dignity and strip away the topmost layers of self-respect. I found myself trying to rationalise the embarrassment by imposing a narrative upon it, but every time, Fred forced me to confront it.

‘For a clown, embarrassment is a gift,’ he said.

In this way, I learned that clowns are truly fearless.

I also learned to wait.

In a world consumed with noise and signals, the clown is silent. She waits, absorbing everything, and then she waits some more, until the wait itself becomes excruciating – until the pause itself becomes the embarrassment – and then she responds. In that pause, the clown is naked. Every part of her is laid open for the world to see. The clown waits long enough for the audience to connect, to project their own feelings onto the situation, to drown in empathy, to cringe in anticipation. Every part of them is laid wide open. This is the tragedy of the clown, and the triumph. It has nothing to do with face paint or comedy trousers. Laurel and Hardy are clowns, and Pennywise is not.

I couldn’t live that way, but I’m trying to bring some of it into in my own readings. At the Flashtag story slam, I made myself pause, and wait, then wait some more. I took a stupid hat onstage for my final story, and I forced myself to wear it. I tried to share anticipation of what was coming next with the audience. It was, without a doubt, the happiest I’ve ever been with my performance – the best I’ve ever read my stories. For everything I learned, I’m not sure I’ll ever know how to apply it properly. But I think I understand, now, that not knowing is itself part of clowning. It is Zen – pure action, without thought. I think too much.

At the start of this post, I said that the workshop had nothing to do with silly noses. That isn’t entirely true. At the very start of the session, as people were still arriving, we gathered in the kitchen to wait. Fred began to ransack the drawers, looking for props to use in the workshop. He found an orange ping pong ball. In a single, fluid motion, he spun to face me, bringing the ball to his nose, and he grinned. Just as quickly, he replaced the ball and closed the drawer. But in that second, or half a second, he’d become a clown. His face changed, his body changed – with the sheer, magnificent, wondrous joy of finding a ping pong ball in a kitchen drawer.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to articulate what happened in that workshop. I don’t need to articulate it, of course, but I want to; and that is why I will never be a true clown. A clown wouldn’t need to analyse it, because they wouldn’t be scared of it. A clown would simply shrug, smile, and turn to embrace the vastness of this mad, sad, glorious thing that we call life.”

£35. The White Lion Bar, Beeston. 10:30 until 16:30. 14 July 2016. What more do you need to know? Confirm your place below:

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Bringing Myth to Life with The University of Nottingham Classics Department http://www.timralphs.com/bringing-myth-to-life-with-the-university-of-nottingham-classics-department http://www.timralphs.com/bringing-myth-to-life-with-the-university-of-nottingham-classics-department#comments Fri, 20 May 2016 08:00:18 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=544 Oh my goodness, 2016 has been incredibly busy. I’m just finishing my third project with University researchers. I gave gnomes the gift of speech at Hampton Court Palace. I toured India with the British Council. And I’m in the middle of developing a new show that will premier at the Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival.

And that’s just the big stuff.

One of my favourite recent projects has been working with The University of Nottingham’s Classics Department. They’ve run a series of screenings of Tragedies adapted for TV which were enormously popular. (Channel 4’s 1983 Orestia blew me away!) And for people who wanted to take this further, they ran workshops to explore different ways of working with myth.

Look at the concentration!

Look at the concentration!

That’s where I came in. I love working with myth and I think it presents some unique challenges to storytellers. Greek myths are such a complicated, interconnected web of stories and we can no longer presume that our listeners have the same degree of familiarity with the material that Homer relied on. So a few weeks ago, 16 eager storytellers and I spent a whole day delving deep into the magic of myth and working to bring some ancient stories to life once more.

We had some fun too.

We had some fun too.

It was a great day. I work people pretty hard in my workshops and the group really committed to getting the most out of the day. Well done everyone and a big thank you to Lynn Fotheringham for making it all happen.

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Reflections on Autumn, LeftLion reviews and Day of the Dead http://www.timralphs.com/reflections-on-autumn-leftlion-reviews-and-day-of-the-dead http://www.timralphs.com/reflections-on-autumn-leftlion-reviews-and-day-of-the-dead#comments Thu, 24 Dec 2015 13:42:44 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=517 Hi there! A quick update on some of the things that have been happening this past Autumn.

My new storytelling club, Beeston Tales, is thriving. Matt Turpin came along to check out a recent show and has written a wonderful review for LeftLion.

“simple tales… ..are told luxuriantly, the beat and cadence of the teller’s lines giving prose poetry. There is a hypnotic feel to the tales: you’re back round that prehistoric campfire again, rapt.”

Read the full review here.

Mike Payton and I were involved in the British Museum’s “Day of the Dead” exhibition. It was a fantastic day in a remarkable venue.

693A3635 (1)

Click in for a larger image. Big thanks to Benedict Johnson for the pictures.

Lastly, I realise how long it’s been since I’ve managed to get out my podcast. That’s a big shame, and I suspect that The Room Behind the Bookcase will feature in a New Year’s resolution for 2016!

Solstice Blessings and all the best as we close 2015 and start the new year.

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The Room Behind the Bookcase ~ Episode 6 ~ Out of the Silence http://www.timralphs.com/the-room-behind-the-bookcase-episode-6-out-of-the-silence http://www.timralphs.com/the-room-behind-the-bookcase-episode-6-out-of-the-silence#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2015 18:20:34 +0000 http://www.timralphs.com/?p=487 Click here to listen!

Or subscribe with Feedburner.

In this podcast I interview Simon Heywood about the stories of World War 1 conscientious objectors and his show Out of The Silence.

The intro music was from Hymir’s Maidens used you as a trough by Prometheus Project. Outro music was sung by Shonaleigh.

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 Tintinologist.org: The Tintin fan's resource

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About Stan17

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  1. Started An NFL/Titans Blog

    So you’re basically starting a website for your threads?
  2. If this kid made it to the 5th round I'd be intrigued. Saw him play once and he flat out dominated. Big and fast, cannot believe he hasn't been picked yet.
  3. Round 2 options

    I can't believe that Vaccaro and Reid are still available through FA. Makes the need to draft one much less dire; although, there's gotta be some reason so many S still haven't been signed in FA with a weak S draft overall.
  4. Couldn't find a time for him. Thought he was in play as OLB not DE. We don't need DE
  5. Dude. No shit. I'm just saying his form/start could've definitely made a difference in his time. He's clearly fast. Fast guys run slow at the combine all the time. There is a difference between game speed and timed speed. This is a pointless argument at this point. He's already on the team, doing a good job at that.
  6. So maybe this means they view Hubbard entirely different than we had thought leading up to the draft?
  7. With something that’s mostly about form and start, it can certainly happen.
  8. I would say pro day 40s are just as accurate. Especially at a program like UCLA. Not like they're hand timing this and its being reported as official.
  9. He ran a 4.53 at his pro day actually.
  10. This is wrong. Pretty sure he ran 4.4 or 4.51. Did everything last year you were saying Evans can do, which he can! But Brown was a great nickel LB last season and will only get better this year.
  11. Time for someone to work their magic and figure out what those boards in the background say!
  12. Thats purely based on what someone said in the chat. It was so quick I honestly didn't see them say anything about the pick because I was celebrating us getting Evans.
  13. Apparently he ragged the pick in the short short window that they gave the titans. If the pats or Steelers had gotten him they would’ve gone on forever.
  14. 2018 NFL Draft Thread

    Yes... he didn't start until this past year so he has less wear and tear than most players coming out... He has been unlucky with a couple injuries as well.


text:
ODOT fails to get salt for struggling areas

The Ohio Department of Transportation asked for up to 210,000 tons of rock salt to help struggling counties, townships, and municipalities with their snow and ice control needs. Its leaders hoped to get 150,000 tons.

What they actually got: zilch.

No bids were received for any of 21 contracts the state advertised last week to deliver 10,000-ton loads of salt to any of seven stockpiles statewide during the next 30 days or so, ODOT officials announced Friday.

ODOT “planned to charge nothing for the road salt and instead was asking communities to return the salt once their supplies were replenished,” according to a department statement.

So far this winter, ODOT has spread more than 880,000 tons on the roadways it maintains, the department said.

Although state officials expect their supplies to last the rest of the winter, some communities have nearly exhausted their supplies and many are rationing what they have left in hopes of having enough to melt ice and snow at least in the most dangerous areas, such as intersections.


text:
Tomer Gabel's annoying spot on the 'net RSS 2.0
# Sunday, 09 October 2005
A product I'm working on consists of a primary component and two sattelite components. The sattelite components are designed to run remotely and communicate with the primary component via .NET Remoting. The product is currently undergoing a QA cycle, and the QA team had a bizarre issue to report: when the system is configured to run on localhost and the network cable is disconnected while the system is up and running, remoting requests fail (they reported that the primary component fails to notify the satellite component instances to shut down, but it was actually the same with any remote call). My immediate response was "huh?" but subsequent local testing assured me that they weren't smoking anything illegal.

After quite a bit of research (this is a seemingly little-known issue with .NET Remoting) I managed to come some interesting insights into .NET, but only one relevant post I managed to find after playing with Google Groups a bit: apparently when Windows detects a network cable disconnect (via a feature called Media Sense) it "removes the bound protocols from that adapter until it is detected as "up" again". The only workaround I could find was to completely disable Media Sense, which needless to say is a very unwelcome solution.

I suppose the obvious question is "why the hell does Media Sense shut down localhost connections?" I'm often dumbfounded by bizarre design decisions in Microsoft products, but this one may just necessitate adding a really awful hack to our installation procedures on clients' sites, which just sucks.

Sunday, 09 October 2005 15:02:05 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
# Thursday, 06 October 2005
And now for the rest of it.

General Stuff

  • The Deer Park (Firefox 1.5) beta has been out for a couple of weeks now and is very stable and fast; beta 2 is due to come out any minute now. Despite the lack of a compatible Noia 2.0 eXtreme (my favourite Firefox theme) I highly recommend the upgrade.
  • Fasterfox is a major performance tweak for Firefox. We don't have the fastest internet connection here so it's difficult to tell how effective it is, but I'll try and gauge it over the next few days anyway.
  • Metal Gear Solid fans owe it to themselves to hear virt's remix titled My Frequency Is 140.85.
  • Martin of Tipmonkies (heh. Tipmonkies. Heh.) published a list of free disposable e-mail address services. My personal favourite is DodgeIt.
  • Finally, Serenity seems to be doing rather badly financially. I haven't seen the movie yet (and I doubt I'll get to see it in the Israeli theaters, with all the crap movies taking valuable theater space) but I have a very good feeling about it, and I hate to see anything original, interesting or (in Firefly's case) underdog do badly.
  • Mystified by Virgill is awesome. For that matter, so is elements. The guy knows his shit.

  • It bothers me a great deal when American agencies (or goverment agencies in general) presume to tell me what I'm entitled, or not entitled, to. As far as I'm concerned the default should be "I can do whatever the hell I want as long as it's not declared illegal", not "I can do whatever is declared legal". Very important distinction. So it's no surprise I was really pissed off to read an FCC document in which a statement began with "consumers are entitled to run applications and use servics of their choice". Thanks! I always wanted a government to officially allow me the liberties I've always taken for granted. But that's nothing compared to the rest of the statement: "... subject to the needs of law enforcement." You know what? To hell with the needs of law enforcement. I won't have police/FBI/shabak/whatever goons telling me what programs I can or can't use. I realize that it's like that in practice (the old issue of >128-bit RSA encryption not allowed outside the US, for one), but it's no excuse to make it official policy. I'll run whatever the hell I want on my machine. If it's illegal, have the police come up with sufficient justification for a search warrant, signed by an independant judge.
  • The US Patent Office upholds a patent owned by Eolas, which has bearing on their case against Microsoft. I don't know the details of the patent and don't care. Ideas and thoughts should not be patentable, as simple as that. As Florian Mueller puts it (direct quote from the linked article):
    Pro-patent politicians told us that broad and trivial patents can be invalidated. If even Microsoft with all of its resources doesn't always succeed in that, what can smaller companies do?
  • Apparently a single, disabled mom has found the strength to sue the RIAA back for wrongful legal practices. Any dent in the RIAA litigation behemoth is a good thing in my book.
  • An ISP owner from Oklahoma wins a $10M lawsuit against a known spammer. It's doubtful he'll be getting any of his money, but the precedent-setting case is good in the long run anyway.
Thursday, 06 October 2005 15:55:14 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
Seeing that I don't have anything of value to write per se (with the exception of experiences from the LAN party, and Turkey, and a bunch of reviews, and some development-related rants, and some other stuff) I figure I might as well just toss everything I have here. There's quite a bit of development-related stuff so I've split this into two seperate posts:
  • Ilya linked me to this newsgroup discussion which is something of a revelation.
  • During the QA cycle for a product I'm working on I got a request to limit the logs for just the last 10 days. I use log4net 1.2.9 incubation release, which is an absolute pleasure to use (even the documentation is up to snuff these days); however I've found that there is simply no way to do that using the stock RollingFileAppender when you roll by date (as opposed to by size). Since I didn't have time to research creating scheduled tasks using the godawful Visual Studio 2003 Setup and Deployment Project I just hacked a RollingFileAppender-derivative, only to find that most of its protected methods are not declared virtual - meaning I had to copy the code for the class in its entirety and hack away instead of just inheriting and overriding behavior. If anyone's interested in the hack let me know, but be advised that it's probably not very stable nor particularly elegant.
  • I was looking for a way to execute an interactive process remotely (which can't be done easily, certainly not with my original research subject, WMI). Apparently the only practical way to do this under Win32 is to use a remote service with administrative privileges; security was a workable issue in this case, so I was left with having to research and write the service and deal with all the bugs, which given the project schedule was not an option. The first obvious option was to use SysInternals' PsExec tool; this would've been perfect except that PsExec's license forbids redistributing it without a license, which we were very inclined to purchase had there not been easier (and cheaper) options. BeyondExec is an equally solid solution that's distributed as freeware and is therefore useful for commercial purposes. Lastly, Jim Wiese has an interesting article up at The Code Project which might've saved us a great deal of time had BeyondExec proved irrelevant.
  • John Wood's SafeInvoke is a very elegant solution to the classic GUI thread invocation issue when programming for Windows Forms. He's not the first to utilize .NET Reflection for that purpose, but his solution is extremely elegant as well as performant (since his helper class caches the generated code, a performance hit is incurred only when a delgate is first used, and System.Reflection is supposed to be dramatically faster in the upcoming CLR 2.0). Two thumbs up.
  • One of my favourite writers, Reymond Chen over at The Old New Thing, wrote an insightful little tip on why you should never use sleep(0). The comments are equally informative. On a side note, I've recently become a very big fan of java and C#'s Monitor synchronization primitive along with its signalling capacity (in java it's part of the java.lang.Object API
  • , which is much more elegant than C#'s Monitor class and its static members).
Thursday, 06 October 2005 15:04:30 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
# Sunday, 02 October 2005
Damned if I know why, but the Call of Duty 2 demo sucks. Oh, I can describe the symptoms alright, but there's a fundamental problem there that eludes me. Why would a sequel that's seemingly based off of the same (extremely good) codebase as its predecessor not be able to compete in visuals and performance with two year-old games?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm as big a sucker for visuals as the next guy (if not more so), but although the CoD2 screenshots look pretty sweet there's nothing there to take the visual acuity crown from either of the games I mentioned above. There's certainly nothing to justify a former hi-end machine - AthlonXP 2800+, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9800XT - grinding to unplayable framerates at low resolutions (about 20 frame per second at 640x480 with most everything turned either off or low) or having decimal-point framerates at high resolutions (0.2-0.5 frames per second at 1024x768 with medium-high details and no antialiasing). The same machine plays Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 at 1024x768 with x4 AA and crunches frames like there's no tomorrow. To reiterate, both games look considerably better than CoD2.

On a radically different note, I managed to miss the fact that the Serious Sam II demo is out. I'm downloading it and will report when I get the chance to play it. Indigo Prophecy is out too, so I guess my current playlist reads something like:

Guess I gotta get some spare time on my hands...

Sunday, 02 October 2005 13:23:04 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
# Thursday, 29 September 2005
There is one particularly nasty blogspammer which every few days posts a spam comment to this post. MT blacklist doesn't seem to cut it in stopping the bastard.

Has anyone had success fighting off blogspammers? Do you have any advice?

Thursday, 29 September 2005 09:15:55 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
Software | Personal
# Tuesday, 27 September 2005
What the hell were the guys at Microsoft on when they build the Setup and Deployment Project code for VS2003? To say that is sucks would be some of the biggest understatement ever. All I wanted was for my application to delete some intermediate files when it uninstalls. You'd expect to be able to do that from the File System settings of the install project, but you'd be dead wrong; of course, the next logical step is to interject a script of some sort into the uninstall chain. Simple enough.

I wrote a 7-line batch script to do the work for me (batch files are crappy scripting tools, but you'd be surprised what you can do with them with enough patience) only to find out that, well, you can't add bloody batch files as custom actions; you can only add DLLs, EXEs and VBScript/JScript files. So I spent an hour teaching myself the basics of VBScript (I already have a solid handle of VB6, just needed a look at the WSH reference and some turorials about FileSystemObject) and moved on.

Only to find out that the script doesn't work; it's run from a god-knows-which working directory, meaning you have to do some extra fussing around to get to the right directory. After a little reading I found the Session.TargetPath property, which apparently doesn't do the trick. To make a long story short, I found a tutorial on The Code Project which showed me how to do it:

  • Add [TARGETDIR] to the CustomActionData property of your custom action
  • The property is accessible with Session.Property( "CustomActionData" )

Why the hell is the simplest thing with MSI so goddamn convoluted?

Tuesday, 27 September 2005 11:54:27 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
Just realized it's been quite a while since I posted anything demoscene-related. Well here goes: you positively, absolutely must watch Iconoclast. It is the single most important demo since, well, I have no idea. It's broad, it's beautifully executed, it's glriously original and it's insanely well-programmed (running smooth as silk on my Radeon 9700-equipped laptop) and it has some of the best music ever written by a scener. I've been following aMUSiC and Leviathan since the 2002 demo Edge of Forever and they never cease to astound me. Actually, now that I've mentioned ASD, you should definitely watch Edge of Forever, Dreamchild, Eon and Planet Risk.

Iconoclast by Andromeda Software Development
(All images shamelessly stolen from

Also noteworthy is the Assembly'05 demo from Synesthetics called sts-04: instant zen which, while not altogether very different from their debut demo at Breakpoint 2005 sts-03: aeon flux is very well made and has great music.

The 200mb or so video download for TBL's 2005 comeback Ocean Machine is very well worth it; aside from being an Amiga demo (an achievment in itself over 11 years after the last machine was launched) it has some really stunning effects, such as the dancing ninja (?) in the screenshot below, and a brilliant soundtrack by Crankshaft.

Ocean Machine by The Black Lotus

Portal Process have been prolyfic lately. After winning The Gathering 2005 with the singularly cool meet the biots they got 3rd place at Assembly 2005 with don't stop. Now don't get me wrong, "don't stop" is a great demo - but it's just more of the same. Stick with "meet the biots", it was great.

meet the biots by Portal Process

64k intro in javascript? Very much so - redbug is wicked!

Finally, plastic's astounding 195/95 and Final Audition are an absolute must-see, particularly the final version of 195/95.

195/95 by Plastic

Tuesday, 27 September 2005 11:39:52 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
# Monday, 26 September 2005
After having seeing most high-profile or otherwise interesting movies that came out this year I was under the impression that, with some notable exceptions, there wasn't much to look forward for. A quick look at IMDB's very useful "Now Playing" feature proved me very much wrong:
  • Serenity (a.k.a Firefly: The Movie) is out. I've never seen the show (although I intend to) but the trailer looks promising in the extreme (particularly since it's downloadable in HD WMV9).
  • MirrorMask looks like an interesting piece. Dave McKean's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's is stunningly beautiful; I've never read the book, but the trailer looks promising indeed.
  • Apparently they actually made Transporter 2. The first movie was a lot of fun (a hong-kongesque action flic with European actors? You bet), I hope the second lives up to it.
  • Lord of War might be a pretty fun way to spend a couple of hours. Mild comedy and action with Nicholas Cage? I see that.
  • Corpse Bride - a Tim Burton movie with Johnny Depp. 'nuff said.
  • I'm highly looking forward to the latest movie from Tony Scott (directory of Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Spy Game and Top Gun) called Domino. Seems interesting.
  • In the recent trend of epic, grandiose book adaptations started by Lord of the Ring, C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe just might be "the next big thing". Trailer certainly looks awesome.
  • I can't believe they actually went through with it.
  • Yes, like it or not, I am very much into Harry Potter. Goblet of Fire's trailer looks like they blew the lid off the budget and I hope the movie is as visually artistic as the third (having already read the book I know what to expect plot-wise).
  • Stay is a controversial (at least according to the comments) movie from director Marc Foster; regardless of the early criticism, after Finding Neverland I'm willing to give Foster every ounce of credit I can muster. Add Ewan McGreggor into the mix and I'm sold.
  • I was utterly surprised to find that I actually enjoyed the 1998 movie The Mask of Zorro. I was equally surprised to find that they're acutally making a trailer. I wonder if it'll be any good...
  • The Matador has potential. We'll see.
  • The Libertine looks promising as well. Johnny Depp always excels at playing out-of-this-world characters (Edward Scissorhands, Ichabod Crane, Jack Sparrow and lately Willy Wonka, just to name a few), which could only mean well for this movie.
  • I will watch Memoirs of a Geisha. Looks for too interesting not to, and the talent list is nothing short of astonishing.
  • Not sure what to make of Aeon Flux; the plot seems kind of ridiculous, and so does the trailer. Another comic-license wannabe?
  • If the Lethal Weapon movies are anything to judge by, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang should be da b0mb!
  • I'll have to give Paradise Now proper viewing time before I decide if it's a horribly political movie or the gripping tale of humanity it purports to be.
  • George Clooney plays Robert Baer in the "based on arguably real events" movie Syriana. There's some potential there.

I've also watched King Arthur while on vacation. I don't have a single word quite powerful enough to describe how utterly bad this movie is, so I'll settle with "horrific"; I mean, seriously, it was shit. Moreover, I'm not sure if Guinevere was a terrible character because of poor casting (Keira Knightley, who's also starring in the aforementioned Domino) or, more likely, due to a crappy screenplay. The camerawork was awful (most battle scenes were completely incomprehensible) and music uninspired. Bottom line: stay the hell away.

On the contrary, I also had the chance to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, to me an obscure movie I haven't even heard of until a couple of weeks ago. How can a movie of this caliber remain so unknown? I believe it wasn't even shown in Israeli theaters. Anyway it was an interesting movie, very funny at times and certainly very beautiful and imaginitive, but I can't shake the feeling that we have here a Tim Burton wannabe... I still haven't decided about it properly, I intend to watch it again and then I'll have a final opinion on it.

Monday, 26 September 2005 09:10:42 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
# Thursday, 15 September 2005
I've been doing some reading on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The reading turned out to be a genuinely frightening experience. A series of small but unfortunate errors resulted in hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from their homes and irradiated large sections of the world...

I got a similar sensation of dread by reading the Fallout manual, which starts with a perfectly dry and scientific description of the effects of a particular type of nuclear bombing. The game comes highly recommended, by the way.

Something a friend of mine said when we were discussing it over lunch yesterday triggered a memory from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, to quote (this was more difficult to find than you might think):

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. It all seemed so safe and tranquil.

Thursday, 15 September 2005 13:29:35 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
I haven't had that much time on my hands lately to do any proper writing (what with a full-time job, four martial arts classes a week, making arrangements for a trip abroad and a LAN party, looking for an apartment and car and being to several family occassions), which is why content has been a little drab lately. So I'll start today's tidbits with a request: if you have an interesting programming dilemma, issue, question etc. don't hesitate to contact me - I'm most prolific when challenged with an uncommon problem.

That said, lets get to the goods:

  • I was researching an issue we had in the current project (specifically, finding out which physical monitor was connected to which video controller), and at first turned to WMI which is usually good enough to give you such answers. Although I have some WMI experience under my belt I was looking for a tool to aid me in developing WMI applications - a WMI "explorer" if you will - and after a little Googling about stumbled onto a very useful tool written by French programmer Coq. The tool, aptly named "WMI explorer", is an open source Windows Forms application which allows you to query the WMI schema as well as object instances, and also generate C# classes for WMI classes. I've found it immensely valuable; go ahead and download it, just be warned - it's currently in French. I'm contacting the author to ask his permission to translate and distribute this thing (I'm not sure under which license it is distributed because, well, I can't read French!)
  • I'm really very excited about HDR (High Dynamic Range rendering/imaging), and my excitement only grew after seeing the screenshots from Half Life 2: Lost Coast. Check out the screenshots in the article - they're simply staggering! The overexposed building on the third page is precisely the kind of thing you simply cannot do faithfully with bloom and which changes the entire gameplay; this means that when attempting to attack the castle from below you are partially blinded and at a massive disadvantage. And it looks absolutely stunning to boot - check out the curch on the fourth page!
  • Amiga demo afictionados should check out the video for Control by Oxygene - extremely impressive visuals on a (in my understanding) vanilla A4000, along with a superb soundtrack by Clawz.
  • Microsoft's specs for C# 3.0 are out, and it looks like the C# guys went haywire. I'll be digging more into that for comments. In the meantime you can check out this discussion (via Aynde Rahein)
  • Go check out Indigo Prophecy. I'm very, very, very much looking forward to it (and Tycho at Penny Arcade seems to concur).
I'm hosting a LAN party this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some interesting experiences and/or pictures to share by Sunday. On Sunday itself I'm going for my first trip out of Israel in 8 years (the last, and technically first, one was to London for a week when I was 14). I'm going to Turkey for a week of treks, jeeps, rafting and of course some classic R&R (the trip's programme for Hebrew speakers can be found here). Hopefully it'll be a great trip - pictures and experiences when I get back.
Thursday, 15 September 2005 12:13:47 (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
Send mail to the author(s) Be afraid.
<2005 October>
All Content © 2018, Tomer Gabel
Based on the Business theme for dasBlog created by Christoph De Baene (delarou)


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Korrupt Flo

Born beween a computer and thousand vinyls, the life of KORRUPT FLO was always surrounded by ARTS and TECHNOLOGY. In constant research of fusion, his work is influenced by the textures and landscapes of the IDM music, mixed with elements of JAZZ and FUNK and the agressivity of the BASS MUSIC. The Result is an organic sound, focused on the melodies, atmospheres, and grooves, a constant exploration to the infinite .
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Ummm.. Yeah... I'm going to have to ask you to turn Javascript back on... Yeah... Thanks.

Is This Bear Market Rally Over? at Trader’s Narrative

Well, is it?

That’s what a lot of people are wondering (which has the built in assumption that this is a bear market rally and not the real thing). To get some perspective on this, I decided to look at a long term view of the Nasdaq Composite Bullish Percent Index.

If you’re unfamiliar with this type of index, it is created by looking at what percentage of the components of an index (in this case the Nasdaq Composite) are exhibiting a certain bullish pattern according to point and figure charting. To see how I use this as an indicator, check out: How to Time the Market with Bullish Percent Charts.

Here’s the long term chart of the Nasdaq Composite compared to its Bullish Percent Index:

nasdaq bullish percent index long term chart

Nasdaq composite long term chart - BP index tops

By the way, I used the Nasdaq Composite because it is very broad with about 3000 components and it excludes a lot of the junk found in the NYSE (CEFs, convertible debentures, ETFs, preferred stocks, rights, warrants, etc.) which can skew the index, especially because of their sensitivity to interest rates.

The chart shows the tech bear market and the latest one which started in late 2007. Almost every single bear market rally top was flagged by the Bullish Percent Index (BPI) - indicated by the red down arrows. It also did a good job of finding exhaustion points during the good times - with one important exception.

The red box shows the span of time that the BPI went above 60% and stayed there. During this time, the normal relationship we otherwise see between the two charts broke down. The only argument I could think of to explain this, is that this time period was the start of a new (albeit short lived) bull market. All kinds of indicators, breadth readings and overbought metrics went into the red zone and stayed there as the stock market powered ahead - seemingly oblivious to them.

The other difference between this most recent bear market and the last is that the counter rallies we’ve seen this time around have been much less powerful than before. As you can see marked by the orange down arrows, they don’t even reach 50% BPI.

The latest BPI reached slightly higher than 62% - that the highest since early 2007 and before than, early 2004. Obviously, this latest run up is different from the previous ones. Going back to 1996 (not shown on the chart) it was rare for the Nasdaq Composite Bullish Percent Index to reach or exceed 50%. So this level is clearly significant.

So what we have to consider is, if this is just a run of the mill bear market rally, then it is over. But if it the real thing, similar to what we saw in 2003 (the red box) then the market will confound everyone and keep going higher.

According to the long term market direction guide known as the Coppock Curve, the Nasdaq is already on a buy signal (from last month). But since it tends to whipsaw much more than the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX), I’m waiting until it gives a signal. There are only 8 more trading days left in the month and if the S&P 500 can stay above 874 (3.74% lower from Tuesday’s close) then the Coppock Curve curls up.

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4 Responses to “Is This Bear Market Rally Over?”

  1. 1 Douglas

    Volume on the S&P 500 is not co-operating with the idea of a new bull market. What about on the Nasdaq? What story is volume telling there?

  2. 2 Jim

    March 2003 was not the start of a new bull market, October 2002 was. Shorting the BPCOMPQ spike in December 2002 was still plenty profitable for traders, even though it was the start of a long-lasting bull.

    I’m just not seeing that many parallels between March 2003 and March 2009, other than the wedge price pattern, so my current bet is that the pattern ends differently. I can stop out without too much damage if my roadmap is wrong and the market keeps following the 2003 pattern.

  3. 3 Russ Abbott

    I’m always suspicious of graphs with up and down arrows that are drawn after the fact. What is the signal that tells you to draw the arrow other than the fact that the graph changed direction? But by the time you know the graph changed direction it is often too late.

    One standard way of creating signals is to look at crossovers of the graph with its N-bar moving average. Is there an N-bar moving average of the BPI that gives reasonably reliable signals?

  4. 4 Babak

    Douglas, I mentioned Hussman’s studies re the pattern of volume in bear market rallies. Take a look. But also, there’s a cyclical nature to volume - we’re are now entering the slow summer months.

    Jim, you say tomato, I say tomAto :-)

    Russ, valid point. I’m showing a back of the envelop sketch to convey the idea not to demonstrate a quantified edge. Having said that, I’m sure you can massage an N to give you the right signal. I prefer to eyeball it. Fallond uses a moving average cross-over (see his stockcharts public charts).

Leave a Reply


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Scottish Music - Mrs Rachel Gibson

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Scottish Music - Scotch Cap

Traditional Scottish Tunes for Musicians & bands at Weddings, Ceilidhs, dances, gatherings etc. With Downloadable Sheetmusic Scores, Chords, Tabs for Mandolin, mp3 audio, midi and PDF.

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E-Book - An Annotated Compendium of Old Time American Songs by James Alverson III


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 Visitors - Translink

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Welcome to the Visitors section of the website. Here, you will find useful information to make your journey easier. Whether you are a visitor or live locally, you are sure to find helpful information and advice.
The culture, heritage and attractions of Belfast draw over 7.5m visitors each year. With plenty to see and do in the City and its surrounding areas, we recommend that you go to Visit Belfast to plan your trip, discover what's on and find out the best ways to travel..
Summer in the City
Northern Ireland is renowned for its outstanding natural beauty and rich history, all of which you can be explored using public transport.
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We provide integrated public transport services in Northern Ireland by bus, coach and rail.

Bus services within the Belfast area. More on Metro

Local bus services, serving all main towns and villages in Northern Ireland. More on Ulsterbus

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Rail Services across Northern Ireland. More on NI Railways

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Bus services to airports in Belfast, Dublin and Derry~Londonderry. More on Airport Services

To find out which service you need, use our Translink Journey Planner on the left, which also provides a next departure list, timetables, and now with live bus information for Metro. Whats even better is you can take our Journey Planner with you. Just download our App from Google Play or the App Store and start planning!

Visit Belfast Welcome Centre
At Visit Belfast, visit the Translink information desk and speak to one of our advisors. They will help you get the best value ticket or travel card and guide you to suitable services and timetables that meet your travel needs.
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We offer rail breaks with NIR Travel and day trips with Ulsterbus Tours. Or, why not see Belfast by using our Metro service for a self guided tour.
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A guide to many of the attractions that Belfast has to offer, all of which are accessible by Metro services
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2018 Paris in a Day (Versailles)

...of course it is indeed impossible to do Paris in a day. This great city deserves and rewards repeated visits to take in all it's history, splendor and charm.

On this particular trip we decided to tour the palace of Versailles and were rewarded with a beautiful sunny spring day which blossomed Paris to life after the recent rainy weather.

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Magnificent Morocco

Experience the splendor of ancient North African civilizations dating back to the Roman Empire. Sumptuous cuisine and expert artisan craftsmanship in pottery, leather, jewelry in the old city market places. Varied scenery from the long coastline bordering the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to the high Atlas Mountains and the serenely mystical Sahara desert.

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5 Best Chiang Mai Hotels

Chiang Mai HotelsChiang Mai hotels are some of the most elegant and luxurious in all of Southeast Asia. Many compare this part of the world to paradise, because of the spectacular views, wildlife and waterfalls. The people are warm and inviting and very eager to share their culture with tourists.

Thailand is filled with elegance, charm and romance and when combined with Chiang Mai tours, your vacation package is complete.

The 5 Best Chiang Mai Hotels are accommodating, convenient and located in the center of all of the most heart-stopping attractions available:

1. Tamarind Village – Located in the heart of the city, this hotel is part of many Thailand travel packages. It is only 15 minutes away from the airport, bus terminal and train station and close enough to the night bazaar that most find walking easy enough.

2. Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai – Chiang Mai resorts are infamous for exceptional service and provide a world-class experience for all visitors. Most resorts, like the Four Seasons, are all inclusive, so your meals, beverages and even attractions are included in one price.

3. Shangi-La Hotel Chiang Mai – Of all of the Chiang Mai hotels, this one is rated five-stars for the ultimate in luxury. They have over 281 rooms and the suites are extraordinary and spacious.

4. Siripanna Villa Resort – One of Thialand deals includes a stay at this resort, complete with a golf course and over 74 villa-style rooms. Almost every amenity imaginable is available.

5. Puripunn Baby Grand Boutique Hotel – This small and intimate luxury hotel has 30 rooms and is architecturally designed in a traditional colonial period.

Visiting Thailand must include booking one of the best Chiang Mai hotels available, not just for the luxury, but for the beauty and culture each represent. Speak with your travel agent and make plans to visit this country that will enchant and astound you.

Information on Chiang Mai will provide you with more information regarding Thailand’s wonderful people and culture. Be sure to read on.


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Jackson M. Murphy

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Jackson was born on September 17, 1998 and passed away on Monday, March 23, 2015.

Jackson was a resident of Kearney, Nebraska at the time of passing.

Mass of Christian burial will be 10:30 AM Friday, March 27, 2015 at St. James Catholic Church in Kearney. The Rev. Joseph Hannappel will officiate. Interment will be in the Kearney Cemetery. Visitation will be 5-7PM, Thursday at the church with a vigil to follow at 7pm.

Memorials are suggested to family for future designation.