Category Archives: Evolution

Fresh off hiatus to find themselves in a pandemic-enforced hiatus that has grounded their forthcoming tour with Primus, The Sword have arrived at a surreal point in their history.

But what better time to delve into that history than the present? The Sword have just spent over a year putting together Chronology 2006-2018 (CD) and Conquest of Kingdoms (Vinyl), deluxe boxsets collecting their biggest riffers and a cornucopia of unreleased material, and guitarists J.D. Cronise and Kyle Shutt join us on a socially distanced conference call to retrace their steps through riffs, guitars, and tones gone by.

The Sword were formed in Austin, Texas, back in 2006. Hopped-up on the heady riff-work of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Sleep et al they soon found an international audience on the back of the loose-leaf metal of their debut LP, Age of Winters. The anthemic Freya growing the buzz around the band after it was picked up for the videogame Guitar Hero.

In an increasingly digitized culture, The Sword reveled in anachronisms - large stacks, bigger riffs and epic arrangements that interpreted the heavy metal idiom at its most narratively-focused. There were concept records, such as Warp Riders, with album art and songwriting that suggested The Sword were holdovers from the 70s and just released from the amber.

We had a bunch of material, different songs, different riffs, and I had this story in my head, recalls Cronise. It was a matter of figuring out which music we had that would fit which parts of the story. It was like scoring a film that didnt exist. It was like, What would work for a chase scene?

The Sword found a lot of early success, and that divided people. But that didnt matter, so long as people were talking about them. There were high-profile tours, with Metallica, Guns N Roses, Kyuss.

When drummer Trivett Wingo was replaced by Santiago Vela III aka Jimmy, in 2010/11, their songwriting evolved again. I think with knowing what Trivett was capable of and switching to Jimmy, having a different style, it just kind of changed the approach that I took when writing riffs, says Cronise.

Especially with Used Future, adds Shutt. A lot of those songs came from beat patterns that Jimmy laid down and was just put into a Dropbox folder. So you were literally writing riffs to beats that already exist.

I didnt do any solos in the early days, and I think I did all my tracks in three-and-a-half hours or something like that

Over the course of seven studio albums, The Sword weaned themselves off the mega-watt approach to explore different styles of gain. Much of their musical evolution was seeded in the pursuit of new vintage tones. Theres a neat symmetry in that; the sense that no matter what stage they were in this evolution The Sword were always born too late somehow.

You have just put together an anthology, so lets start back at the beginning. What are your memories of recording Age of Winters?

J.D. Cronise: It was very D.I.Y. We recorded it at Brian Richies house, basically in his room, and various places around the house. We used the whole house as our recording studio and it was done piecemeal when we had time to do it.

What gear were you using back then?

Cronise: Thats a good question. I wish that I had documented that sort of thing better. I know for a lot of my tracks on that record I was using an SG Faded. I dont remember what year it was but it was one of those ones with the real thin finish.

It had the crescent moon inlays and that was one of the only SGs I ever owned, and I played that just cos it was really easy to play. I found that I could track really fast with it. I used that and a Les Paul Custom, but mostly the SG.

Kyle Shutt: I didnt have a whole lot of gear at the time. I was very young when the band first started. I had a Guild S-100. I think it was a 71. It was in a natural finish with the clear pickguard, and I used that for all my tracks. My amp, I think was Brians Laney AOR 100, and I used a [Maxon DS-830] Distortion Master, and that was on the whole time.

I didnt do any solos in the early days, and I think I did all my tracks in three-and-a-half hours or something like that In Brians kitchen! It was an absurdly short amount of time for the amount of copies that album sold. [Laughs]

Of course, Freya blew up and you were everywhere. Had things changed by the time you recorded Gods of the Earth?

The thing about The Sword was that it was divisive from day one. You either loved it you just totally hated it and wouldnt shut up about how much you hated it

Cronise: Well we did that in a little studio in Austin. That was the most challenging for me personally, because me and the engineer did a lot of the producing and the mixing of the record. I just remember a lot of long hours in the studio staring at the mixing board.

Shutt: We bit off a lot. Lets do it to tape! Lets do it ourselves to tape! It was a lot of learning technical things.

Cronise: I had the most to do with how that record sounds and it is the one that a lot of people think sounds the worst! [Laughs] The thing is, I listen to it and its like, Yep! But thats exactly what I wanted to sound like. I think the cymbals are too loud but I turned them up on purpose. Love it or hate it, thats how it was intended.

Shutt: Its a lot of peoples favorite. The thing about The Sword was that it was divisive from day one. You either loved it you just totally hated it and wouldnt shut up about how much you hated it. It worked to our advantage. It was great.

Dividing opinion is good though. At least people have an opinion.

Shutt: Totally!

Cronise: Way better than being ignored.

How do you look back at your playing and composition then?

Cronise: Well it is weird. Its not necessarily what I would do now but it is exactly what I wanted to do then. But yeah, listening to those old arrangements and riffs and stuff Wow! It was just so proggy, really extended arrangements with so many parts and so many little nuances and

There was no being five minutes late with Metallica. You know exactly what is expected of you and where you need to be every night

Shutt: so many notes! When we did Warp Riders we had just come off some crazy world tour with Metallica, when three years before we were working in a video store and a photocopy store. We dove head-first into the music and that was all we did. I hate to say it was overthought, but it was prog, it was thinking mans music.

Touring with Metallica must have made you such better players.

Cronise: I am sure it did. Yeah, the regimentation of it and having to be ready to go every night at an exact time. There was no being five minutes late. I definitely think it drilled us hard. It was very predictable. You know exactly what is expected of you and where you need to be every night, but at the same time it is also nice to play a show in a club where nobody is going to lose enough money to buy a Mercedes if youre not onstage at exactly 10 oclock!

Shutt: Thats a real quote! [laughs]

Tell us about how your relationship with gain changed over the years. Youve dialed it back a bit.

Cronise: I wanted to explore things that were a little more classic-sounding, vintage-sounding. We really did the super-high-gain thing on the first few records and I just got into playing more vintage-style guitars and playing vintage fuzz pedals.

We tracked Used Future with little tube combo amps. You cant make every record with Orange stacks and dimed Big Muffs. Youve got to try some different things.

Shutt: Like, J.D. said, you can only do so much diming your amp and going for it, making these crazy towering arrangements, super-metal stuff.

When a lot of people didnt like the fact that High Country or Used Future were toned down a little bit, theyd come see us live and it was just as heavy as the old stuff. When you compared our old material with the new it all made sense. I think that everyone who saw us realized that.

On the first few records, we went in with all of our gear, what we would take to a show, and that is how we recorded, probably, the first four records

Cronise: On the first few records, we went in with all of our gear, what we would take to a show, and that is how we recorded, probably, the first four records. But on the last couple of records, we have worked with producers who have had a little bit more input, different perspectives, and to us, like Kyle said, they are tools to take advantage of.

And that in and of itself is a process of discovery.

Cronise: Its a little bit more experimental. It was definitely a refreshing thing to record with these little manageable Princetons rather than a full half-stack in the studio.

Is that a sign of maturity, appreciating the power of diming a small amp

Cronise: Well! I dont wanna use the M word too much but [Laughs]

Yet the Princeton is a refined choice...

Cronise: Yeah, I used the Princeton and I have gotten really into a Vox Tone Bender. I used that for a lot of my stuff, to the point where I had to buy one after we were done with the record. They are not cheap but I loved it so much that I had to have one."

Well, this is a good time to ask about gear epiphanies. What have been the big ones for you?

Shutt: When I was younger I thought you had to have this specific amp, and that is what you need to rock, or this guitar or this pedal. I dont know when I realized this but it sort of became apparent that you need to be able to have a discernible style no matter what you are playing through.

Thats when I got more into pickups, swapping out things, and trying to get away from Orange and Marshall - no disrespect to them but everyone plays them. I needed an amp, so I got Brooks Harlan from the band War on Women to build me two versions of this 50-watt amp [Big Crunch One Knob] that I just love. It is louder than God.

It is not the 70s anymore. There are very few arena rock bands left with huge crews and semi-trucks to carry around their Marshall stacks. It is just not a thing anymore

And I partnered up with Reverend Guitars to make my own signature model. I really tried to focus on what my sound is and what I needed to have that. I wouldnt call it an epiphany but it was a gradual evolution from having played a lot of gear.

Cronise: Yeah, Id say the same. Its my tastes changing and realizing that you dont need these certain things to play a certain type of music. I think that many of the gear companies use that to market the gear. In heavy music, bigger is better all that sort of thing, and I think people are learning nowadays that it is not.

It is not the 70s anymore. There are very few arena rock bands left with huge crews and semi-trucks to carry around their Marshall stacks. It is just not a thing anymore. I mean, it is for a very few bands but those bands wont be around forever and people are realizing you dont need that stuff to have a loud guitar sound or have a heavy guitar tone.

Well stage volume has changed for a start. You cant play so loud.

Cronise: I remember a couple of years ago seeing Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats here in Asheville and they sounded amazing! It was so heavy and loud, and you couldnt even see their amps they were so small. You had to get right to the front of the stage to see what they were playing.

They were playing little combos and it sounded great. It wasnt necessarily an epiphany but it was a demonstration. See? You dont need big stacks to be heavy. A lot of those European bands have a good appreciation of vintage gear and how to get good sounds.

With me, my personal gear philosophy is: I dont just use vintage gear, but if the vintage gear is better Id rather use that, and if there is a point in time when a certain thing was best, Im going to use that one. I use a mix of all kinds of stuff but there is a bit of me that thinks, Well they did a great one in the 70s so why am I going to buy a shitty one from the 90s?

I am a big fan of one-knob pedals but I can deal with three if necessary. One or two is ideal

I like things that are simple. If the new thing is new and shiny but has more buttons and more functions and a bunch of crap I dont need, I would rather have the MkI or MkII version with no extra knobs, no extra features.

Like if there are more than three knobs on a guitar pedal, you start to get a bit anxious

Cronise: Precisely. Any more than three... You are absolutely right. I am a big fan of one-knob pedals but I can deal with three if necessary. One or two is ideal.

Were there any pedalboard secret weapons?

Cronise: Yes, its called The Pedal, Hush Systems The Pedalnot to be confused with the Rocktron Hush pedal. It is the predecessor, the two-channel version. I always used it. It squashes noise; its like the best noise gate ever, and it adds a little compression and I have always had it on my board and I probably always will. I have two, three or four of them in a closet somewhere.

Shutt: And they are so cheap. Every time we would see one we would just buy one.

Cronise: They are discontinued. You used to be able to get them in discount pedal bins for 50 bucks or something. I have hoarded them. Thats my secret weapon. Everything else I have used has pretty much changed.

As far as fuzz or distortion, Ive gone through a ton of those. I have always used a [MXR] Phase 90. That has been my tried and trusted phaser forever, but thats not a main part of my sound. But Hush Systems The Pedal, thats the secret sauce.

These days it takes more for me to write a song than it did 10 or 15 years ago. I have to feel like that song needs to be written

Shutt: Especially back in the day when we were playing loud, with so much gain. We had to get rid of that gnarly feedback for clean stops and it was just the best. It wasnt really a gate; it was a hiss-reducer or something like that?

Okay, last one. We started at the beginning, but whats next for The Sword?

Cronise: Well, man, its kind of in limbo until things get moving again. Weve been on this hiatus for a couple of years and kinda laying low, and this anthology came together. It just so happened that when this came out we got this offer to do the Primus tour. It wasnt necessarily a premeditated return to action.

Will there be new material?

Cronise: Yeah, maybe. These days it takes more for me to write a song than it did 10 or 15 years ago. I have to feel like that song needs to be written. These days I am a little more thoughtful. Does this song need to exist? Am I saying something I havent said before? Am I expressing something that no one has expressed better before me? So I dont write as prolifically as I used to. If new Sword material materializes at some point then it will! [Laughs]

Shutt: Haha!

Cronise: But, that being said, I do miss playing live. Even though we might not have a record coming out in the foreseeable future, I still like playing shows. I am still proud of our work, which is why we are putting out this anthology to begin with. We still want to play live together because that is where all the fun is.

Shutt: Totally.

Chronology 2006 - 2018 and Conquest of Kingdoms are out on June 19 via Craft Recordings.

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The Sword on their musical evolution, gear epiphanies and secret pedalboard weapons - Guitar World

The cloud.

Its the buzzword that keeps on buzzing. Years after the concept became a hot topic in mainstream circles among all, it is still the subject of many debates within the financial services industry, and everyone, from the vendors hawking transformative solutions to the leeriest buy-side firms, seems to have an opinion.

Thats not to say that nothing has changed, however. A Refinitiv report last fall predicted that the financial services industry will spend 48% of its collective IT budget on cloud services in 2020, up from 41% in 2019. Around the same time, a survey by IHS Markit and WBR revealed that 80% of buy-side respondents will use the cloud for data management by the end of 2020. Those figures are a far cry from the early days of the cloud, in which tepid adoption rates and cautious technologists dominated the conversation.

Historically, one of the common misconceptions from the buy side with respect to technology strategy is that the perceived risks of the cloud can outweigh the benefits, said Hoony Youn, CTO at MackeyRMS, a provider of SaaS-delivered research management software for investment managers. I think that has changed dramatically over the past few years. As the buy side has embraced the cloud, many of the older perceptions, that the cloud is less reliable and less secure, have proven to be quite the opposite.

This greater understanding has led to a fruitful period for vendors of solutions that leverage the cloud, to the extent that the cloud is now a selling point it connotes sleekness, modernity and a rejection of legacy technology. But the industrys education is not complete, and many of the continued misconceptions boil down to a single point: not all cloud systems are created equal.

One of the key divides in how these providers use the cloud is single tenancy versus multitenancy. Conversations with several individuals in the space revealed that this is no minute detail in fact, it can have dramatic effects on efficiency, security and cost. In order to fully take advantage of rapid innovation, firms must dive deeper and learn what is really under the hood of their cloud solutions, and this is a natural place to start.

Another way to look at the single tenancy versus multitenancy question is: how many different active versions of the software exist? With a single tenant solution, every client has its own independent database and instance of the software; with a multitenant solution, a single instance of the software serves the entire client base.

While there are diverse offerings within these groups, proponents of single-tenant solutions typically tout their security, reliability and controllability, while those in favor of multitenancy point to its cost-effectiveness, efficiency and wider ecosystem.

Deployment models are becoming quite complex given the importance of the cloud in the capital markets, said Brad Bailey, Research Director at Celent. For those most concerned with control, means of access to the cloud and extension of their own infrastructure, single tenancy is often the choice. For those that are looking for maximum cost savings, ease of deploying changes across multiple instances and rapid cycles of updates, multitenancy would likely be the choice.

So, on one side there is a model that can better align with a firms existing technology strategy, while the other offers a number of key efficiencies at the cost of control. In many ways, it is a reincarnation of the old debates over the cloud itself.

And just like those old debates, the topic elicits strong feelings from those in the space. Sean Sullivan, CRO at LiquidityBook, a provider of SaaS-based, multitenant order management solutions, believes that due to their reliance on professional services, single-tenant solutions pose a business risk for vendor and client alike.

While they are wrapped in the cloud and all the rhetoric that comes with that, single-tenant solutions share a lot of similarities with legacy systems, said Sullivan. They ignore the fundamental benefits of the cloud. When every client requires bespoke upgrades, localized customizations and patch releases, processes can become backed up and the product inevitably suffers, and this is especially true during times of disruption. Multitenant systems are far nimbler. Every single new functionality we build is released to the same instance, so our clients dont have to worry about racking up professional services fees and our ability to service them is never compromised.

LiquidityBook has ridden its model to significant success in recent years in 2019, the firm posted a 33% year-over-year improvement in terms of revenues. 2020 is shaping up to be even more successful, says Sullivan, especially with many legacy and single-tenant providers facing hurdles related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our experience with multitenant trading technology has been very positive, said Ben Searle, CIO atLevinEasterly Partners, a private asset management firm specializing in value investing. Deploying LiquidityBooks LBX Buy Side required heavy collaboration and some extensive back-end work at the outset, but very little since then. We now have access to a high-performance product and benefit from regular updates while avoiding legacy processes and servicing fees.

This process is typical of multitenant solutions while they often require a lengthy bespoke integration up front, every subsequent upgrade occurs automatically, saving time and resources in the long run. Meanwhile, with every new client the multitenant provider signs, the product is built out and improved, and the existing client base reaps the rewards. Its all part of what Sullivan calls an ecosystem of good ideas.

With a multitenant solution, clients should expect better ROI via shared resources, databases and applications, said Tom Pfister, Vice President of Global Product Strategy at Confluence Technologies, which provides a suite of reporting solutions to large asset managers. Hard costs are shared more efficiently across many tenants. In the same way, clients are effectively sharing their brainpower, making their innovations available to other tenants and driving the entire industry forward.

Forging the Future

Looking ahead, one thing seems clear: the cloud is here to stay. As firms get smarter on the topic and refine their strategies, multitenant solutions appear likely to continue to gain market share on their single-tenant counterparts.

Our multitenant model provides a huge range of advantages for our business, said Pfister. It greatly simplifies upgrades and client onboarding and reduces the costs of hardware, IT and product delivery. These are passed on to our clients, so everyone involved benefits.

Youn echoed this sentiment, calling multitenancy a win-win situation which delivers a tremendous amount of operational and cost efficiency.

Of course, single-tenant solutions are not going anywhere, and many firms that emphasize autonomy or want to have their data completely isolated from other customers will continue to go that route. In some ways, these offerings bridge the gap between monolithic legacy platforms and dynamic multitenant systems, filling an important void in the market.

But no matter what route they choose to go, the bottom line is that firms must do their homework in order to fully realize the benefits of the cloud future. Simply being in the cloud is just the beginning, and exactly how each system leverages the cloud could have a major impact. Every firms needs are different, but by educating themselves and asking the right questions, the industry will be better equipped to continue the cloud conversation no matter how long it lasts.

The following article appeared on Traders Magazine in June 2019

The Cloud Services Providers Next Play?

The times they are a changin.

Though Bob Dylan originally sang those words in 1964, theyve probably never been truer than they are today, at least when it comes to technology.

Name the industry, and in almost all cases technology-led disruptors have entered and seriously shaken up the status quo. Amazons effect on retail is obviously the prime example, but Ubers impact on the livery industry, Netflixs impact on content distribution and even Caspers impact on the mattress industry are others. Perhaps the only major industry to have *not* seen a significant impact due to the entry of new, tech-savy disruptors is the capital markets.

But in the opinion of some, it is only a matter of time before the major global banks most of whom operate aging, overly-complex technology stacks will see the same type of competition that other industries have felt.

Complexity Without Cloud

Currently, trying to decipher a problem in a large banks capital markets infrastructure is like an archaeological dig, according to Tony Amicangioli, Founder and CEO of capital markets infrastructure technology provider HPR (formerly known as Hyannis Port Research).

As you cut through the crust of technological layers you might find that in the early 2000s whoever was head of IT thought C++ was the solution to everything. Then they were replaced by a Java devotee and the most recent layers were built by a true believer in Python and their team. Multiply this across different regions Europe, AsiaPac and the Americas and again by asset class, with some solutions developed in-house, others by vendors, and it becomes unmanageable. Fixing it seems impossible. How are you going to take all these mission-critical systems off-line and rebuild from scratch? said Amicangioli.

Firms like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft the cloud natives, if you will dont have this problem. Their foundational technology leverages the Cloud natively and is built to scale. At their essence, they are very simple. Take Google, which is fundamentally a distributed, de facto operating system. Ten Google apps may do ten very different things, but the underlying technology is highly unified. This efficiency and unification have enabled the rapid ascent of these companies.

Cloud technology is not just about moving applications to a central providers data center, says Amicangioli. In our view, effectively leveraging the Cloud is about unifying your systems and simplifying your development approaches within a singular and universal computing environment. We see all technology frameworks ultimately destined for this since it almost always represents the most cost-effective, responsive and performant environment.

Amicangioli knows. He was previously CTO of Tower Researchs Lime Brokerage subsidiary, one of the early winners in the race to sponsor HFT providers. Before that he founded one of the first Cloud startups, and early in his career served as an executive at hardware powerhouse Juniper Networks.

Ive been in business long enough to watch the likes of Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment, once giants in the technology industry, vanish, he said. At times I get the same uneasy feeling when looking at some of todays largest banks given where their technology is in comparison to the entrants we all know are coming. Without a doubt, there will be winners and losers.

Trend Toward Simplicity

Its no secret that the stacks run by virtually all of the tier 1 global banks are in need of a major overhaul, and that is not news to the executives at those firms, either, said a former bank technology executive who asked to remain nameless. I think the failure to act has been driven in part by a belief that the regulatory and capital moats that we have in the capital markets will be sufficient deterrents, but I cant see that being the case for too much longer.

To that point, being in a highly regulated industry is no protection. Consider Oscar, the health insurance startup that last year attracted a $375 million investment from Google parent company Alphabet. Oscars proven that its possible to enter a complex market and gain competitive advantages by building a cloud-native technology stack from the ground up, resulting in better efficiency, better margins and ultimately better service to customers.

Thats not to say that Wall Street has been oblivious to the threat from tech-led competitors, however. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned in a 2015 investor letter that Silicon Valley is coming, and two years ago noted that the bank is spending nearly $10B per year on remaining competitive. Other banks have similarly robust technology budgets, but far too much of that spending is to fund finger-in-the-dyke projects, and not nearly enough goes to the strategic ones, says the tech exec.

Some see the capital markets dividing into two camps when it comes to technology: the haves and the have-nots. With the stakes so high, CTOs fear of making mistakes can induce a form of paralysis, ushering their firms into the have-not category through inaction. As cloud adoption becomes the key driver of success, the industry will see these two camps transform into winners and losers, these people say.

Its tempting to see the devolution of large financial services firms as inevitable, but really, its not too late yet, said Amicangioli. The bank that locks on to this reality, finding efficiencies through technology, is going to do very well. The potential upside for being the first to truly get this right really cant be overstated.

CTO at MackeyRMS, a provider of SaaS-delivered research management software for investment managers. I think that has changed dramatically over the past few years. As the buy side has embraced the cloud, many of the older perceptions, that the cloud is less reliable and less secure, have proven to be quite the opposite.

This greater understanding has led to a fruitful period for vendors of solutions that leverage the cloud, to the extent that the cloud is now a selling point it connotes sleekness, modernity and a rejection of legacy technology. But the industrys education is not complete, and many of the continued misconceptions boil down to a single point: not all cloud systems are created equal.

One of the key divides in how these providers use the cloud is single tenancy versus multitenancy. Conversations with several individuals in the space revealed that this is no minute detail in fact, it can have dramatic effects on efficiency, security and cost. In order to fully take advantage of rapid innovation, firms must dive deeper and learn what is really under the hood of their cloud solutions, and this is a natural place to start.

E Pluribus Unum

Another way to look at the single tenancy versus multitenancy question is: how many different active versions of the software exist? With a single tenant solution, every client has its own independent database and instance of the software; with a multitenant solution, a single instance of the software serves the entire client base.

While there are diverse offerings within these groups, proponents of single-tenant solutions typically tout their security, reliability and controllability, while those in favor of multitenancy point to its cost-effectiveness, efficiency and wider ecosystem.

Deployment models are becoming quite complex given the importance of the cloud in the capital markets, said Brad Bailey, Research Director at Celent. For those most concerned with control, means of access to the cloud and extension of their own infrastructure, single tenancy is often the choice. For those that are looking for maximum cost savings, ease of deploying changes across multiple instances and rapid cycles of updates, multitenancy would likely be the choice.

So, on one side there is a model that can better align with a firms existing technology strategy, while the other offers a number of key efficiencies at the cost of control. In many ways, it is a reincarnation of the old debates over the cloud itself.

And just like those old debates, the topic elicits strong feelings from those in the space. Sean Sullivan, CRO at LiquidityBook, a provider of SaaS-based, multitenant order management solutions to the buy and sell sides, believes that due to their reliance on professional services, single-tenant solutions pose a business risk for vendor and client alike.

While they are wrapped in the cloud and all the rhetoric that comes with that, single-tenant solutions share a lot of similarities with legacy systems, said Sullivan. They ignore the fundamental benefits of the cloud. When every client requires bespoke upgrades, localized customizations and patch releases, processes can become backed up and the product inevitably suffers, and this is especially true during times of disruption. Multitenant systems are far nimbler. Every single new functionality we build is released to the same instance, so our clients dont have to worry about racking up professional services fees and our ability to service them is never compromised.

LiquidityBook has ridden its model to significant success in recent years in 2019, the firm posted a 33% year-over-year improvement in terms of revenues. 2020 is shaping up to be even more successful, says Sullivan, especially with many legacy and single-tenant providers facing hurdles related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our experience with multitenant trading technology has been very positive, said Ben Searle, CIO atLevinEasterly Partners, a private asset management firm specializing in value investing. Deploying LiquidityBooks LBX Buy Side required heavy collaboration and some extensive back-end work at the outset, but very little since then. We now have access to a high-performance product and benefit from regular updates while avoiding legacy processes and servicing fees.

This process is typical of multitenant solutions while they often require a lengthy bespoke integration up front, every subsequent upgrade occurs automatically, saving time and resources in the long run. Meanwhile, with every new client the multitenant provider signs, the product is built out and improved, and the existing client base reaps the rewards. Its all part of what Sullivan calls an ecosystem of good ideas.

With a multitenant solution, clients should expect better ROI via shared resources, databases and applications, said Tom Pfister, Vice President of Global Product Strategy at Confluence Technologies, which provides a suite of reporting solutions to large asset managers. Hard costs are shared more efficiently across many tenants. In the same way, clients are effectively sharing their brainpower, making their innovations available to other tenants and driving the entire industry forward.

Forging the Future

Looking ahead, one thing seems clear: the cloud is here to stay. As firms get smarter on the topic and refine their strategies, multitenant solutions appear likely to continue to gain market share on their single-tenant counterparts.

Our multitenant model provides a huge range of advantages for our business, said Pfister. It greatly simplifies upgrades and client onboarding and reduces the costs of hardware, IT and product delivery. These are passed on to our clients, so everyone involved benefits.

Youn echoed this sentiment, calling multitenancy a win-win situation which delivers a tremendous amount of operational and cost efficiency.

Of course, single-tenant solutions are not going anywhere, and many firms that emphasize autonomy or want to have their data completely isolated from other customers will continue to go that route. In some ways, these offerings bridge the gap between monolithic legacy platforms and dynamic multitenant systems, filling an important void in the market.

But no matter what route they choose to go, the bottom line is that firms must do their homework in order to fully realize the benefits of the cloud future. Simply being in the cloud is just the beginning, and exactly how each system leverages the cloud could have a major impact. Every firms needs are different, but by educating themselves and asking the right questions, the industry will be better equipped to continue the cloud conversation no matter how long it lasts.

The following article appeared on Traders Magazine in June 2019

The Cloud Services Providers Next Play?

The times they are a changin.

Though Bob Dylan originally sang those words in 1964, theyve probably never been truer than they are today, at least when it comes to technology.

Name the industry, and in almost all cases technology-led disruptors have entered and seriously shaken up the status quo. Amazons effect on retail is obviously the prime example, but Ubers impact on the livery industry, Netflixs impact on content distribution and even Caspers impact on the mattress industry are others. Perhaps the only major industry to have *not* seen a significant impact due to the entry of new, tech-savy disruptors is the capital markets.

But in the opinion of some, it is only a matter of time before the major global banks most of whom operate aging, overly-complex technology stacks will see the same type of competition that other industries have felt.

Complexity Without Cloud

Currently, trying to decipher a problem in a large banks capital markets infrastructure is like an archaeological dig, according to Tony Amicangioli, Founder and CEO of capital markets infrastructure technology provider HPR (formerly known as Hyannis Port Research).

As you cut through the crust of technological layers you might find that in the early 2000s whoever was head of IT thought C++ was the solution to everything. Then they were replaced by a Java devotee and the most recent layers were built by a true believer in Python and their team. Multiply this across different regions Europe, AsiaPac and the Americas and again by asset class, with some solutions developed in-house, others by vendors, and it becomes unmanageable. Fixing it seems impossible. How are you going to take all these mission-critical systems off-line and rebuild from scratch? said Amicangioli.

Firms like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft the cloud natives, if you will dont have this problem. Their foundational technology leverages the Cloud natively and is built to scale. At their essence, they are very simple. Take Google, which is fundamentally a distributed, de facto operating system. Ten Google apps may do ten very different things, but the underlying technology is highly unified. This efficiency and unification have enabled the rapid ascent of these companies.

Cloud technology is not just about moving applications to a central providers data center, says Amicangioli. In our view, effectively leveraging the Cloud is about unifying your systems and simplifying your development approaches within a singular and universal computing environment. We see all technology frameworks ultimately destined for this since it almost always represents the most cost-effective, responsive and performant environment.

Amicangioli knows. He was previously CTO of Tower Researchs Lime Brokerage subsidiary, one of the early winners in the race to sponsor HFT providers. Before that he founded one of the first Cloud startups, and early in his career served as an executive at hardware powerhouse Juniper Networks.

Ive been in business long enough to watch the likes of Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment, once giants in the technology industry, vanish, he said. At times I get the same uneasy feeling when looking at some of todays largest banks given where their technology is in comparison to the entrants we all know are coming. Without a doubt, there will be winners and losers.

Trend Toward Simplicity

Its no secret that the stacks run by virtually all of the tier 1 global banks are in need of a major overhaul, and that is not news to the executives at those firms, either, said a former bank technology executive who asked to remain nameless. I think the failure to act has been driven in part by a belief that the regulatory and capital moats that we have in the capital markets will be sufficient deterrents, but I cant see that being the case for too much longer.

To that point, being in a highly regulated industry is no protection. Consider Oscar, the health insurance startup that last year attracted a $375 million investment from Google parent company Alphabet. Oscars proven that its possible to enter a complex market and gain competitive advantages by building a cloud-native technology stack from the ground up, resulting in better efficiency, better margins and ultimately better service to customers.

Thats not to say that Wall Street has been oblivious to the threat from tech-led competitors, however. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned in a 2015 investor letter that Silicon Valley is coming, and two years ago noted that the bank is spending nearly $10B per year on remaining competitive. Other banks have similarly robust technology budgets, but far too much of that spending is to fund finger-in-the-dyke projects, and not nearly enough goes to the strategic ones, says the tech exec.

Some see the capital markets dividing into two camps when it comes to technology: the haves and the have-nots. With the stakes so high, CTOs fear of making mistakes can induce a form of paralysis, ushering their firms into the have-not category through inaction. As cloud adoption becomes the key driver of success, the industry will see these two camps transform into winners and losers, these people say.

Its tempting to see the devolution of large financial services firms as inevitable, but really, its not too late yet, said Amicangioli. The bank that locks on to this reality, finding efficiencies through technology, is going to do very well. The potential upside for being the first to truly get this right really cant be overstated.

See the article here:

The Next Evolution and Debate in the Cloud - Traders Magazine

Guards Stephen Curry and Steve Nash both helped revolutionise the point guard position in the NBA. With this they brought a new aspect of basketball into play.

Nash was drafted in the first round with the 15th pick back in 1996 by the Phoenix Suns, Curry was also drafted in the 1st round in 2009 but seventh overall by the Golden State Warriors.

Steve Nash would go on to play 18 seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and the Los Angeles Lakers. During his career he would win two MVP awards, make the All-Star team eight times, make the All-NBA team seven times alongside being the assist champion five times.

Despite Nash never winning an NBA Championship he was inducted into the 2018 Basketball Hall of Fame alongside such greats as Jason Kidd and Ray Allen

Curry has currently played 11 seasons in the NBA. All of these have been played as a Golden State Warrior. In this time Curry has won three NBA Championships, been a six time All Star and six-time All-NBA player, won two MVPs, been a scoring and steal champion, both in the 2015-2016 season.

Both Steve Nash and Stephen Curry won their two MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards back to back.

Nash won his during the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons while Curry won his during the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons.

During their back to back MVP seasons both Curry and Nash shot over 50% from two-point range and over 40% from three-point range.

When it comes to shooting Curry and Nash are similar. When it comes to their free throw shooting, they are both reliable with Nash shooting 90.4% from the free throw line and Curry sitting at 90.6%.

Even though Curry has taken nearly three times as many three pointers as Nash did, they are still close in this area as well. While Curry can shoot contested threes, Nash was not so good, so he had to use his playmaking ability to get more open shots.

With Curry sitting on a 43.5% shooting percentage from three-point range Nash only just below him on 42.8% in an era where not many threes were shot and 35% was considered a top shooting percentage.

Unsurprisingly they are also similar from two-point range as well. Curry also takes more two-point shots per game with 8.9 to Nashs 7.4. However, Nash has the slightly higher percentage shooting 51.8% while Curry is on 51.5%.

Depending on how you see this, it could be seen as a passing of the torch. Considering that Nash was more of a 2000s player and Curry is a 2010s player, Currys era succeeds Nashs dominant spell.

Nash shot the three-point shot very well at a high percentage, but he did not shoot many per game having a career average of 3.2 per game and a career high of 4.7.

Then when Curry came into the NBA, he built on the foundations of Nashs game. Curry took what Nash did with three-point shooting and took it to the next level by taking 8.2 three-point attempts per game. Curry has also had three seasons when he has shot on average over 10 three pointers per game.

Their playmaking may differ in the eyes of some fans, due to the era that Nash and Curry have played in Nash will have had more chance to show his playmaking ability.

Through the time that Steve Nash played in the NBA the three-point shot was not seen as important as it is now. This would lead to Nash having to be more of a playmaker than a scorer like Curry is now, even though he was a top scorer.

With Curry it is the other way around. In todays era the three-point shot is used more than ever. This gives Curry less of a chance to show his playmaking ability because he has been taking 10.7 threes per game since the 2015/16 season (this is when the three pointers were starting to be shot a lot more.)

Due to this, Currys playmaking does go more under the radar even though he averages 6.6 assists for his career which shows he can move the ball around.

Originally posted here:

Steph Curry vs Steve Nash comparison: Evolution of the NBA - Franchise Sports

Before the BMW X6 came into existence, there were the coupes and there were SUVs. Some mad lads at the Bavarian carmakers R&D decided to merge these two unlikely body styles into one. And the top bosses at BMW gave it a green flag and thus was born the X6. The carmaker coined the term SAC for it meaning sports activity coupe, but what the X6 did was pioneer an all-new body style Coupe-SUV or SUV-Coupe. Let us have a detailed look at the evolution of the BMW X6

The X6 Concept

At the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, BMW introduced a hunky chunk of metal which had a top half of a sports coupe and bottom half of an SUV. This satyr-type concept received a mixed bag of reaction, but since the concept was almost production-ready, BMW went ahead and did what they intended to.

First Generation E71 (2008-2014)

Work on the E71-gen X6 began shortly after the E70-gen X5 in the early 2000s. It was based on the previous-gen 5 Series and 6 Series platform under the head of Peter Tuennermann. The lead design of Pierre Leclercq was passed in 2006 and the first-gen X6 broke cover at the 2008 Detroit Motor Show. The first-gen model was sold globally until 2014.

BMW also introduced a high-performance X6 M guise with a 550bhp 4.4-litre V8. The xDrive was standard and the other powertrain included 3.0-litre straight-six petrol and diesel engine options. There was also an X6 ActiveHybrid on sale for a short while.

Second Generation F16 (2015-2019)

The second-generation X6 debuted at the 2014 Paris Motor Show.By the time the E71 had already found 2.5 lakh takers globally. It was based on the F15-gen X5, from which the styling was borrowed too. But BMW maintained the sloping roofline even while offering a slightly larger and practical boot space. It also got more engine options and was sold in more markets across the globe than before.

The impractical and mental X6 M (F86) was one of the quickest vehicles in its class. By this time, many other manufacturers had started to duplicate the X6s formula. Mercedes-Benz did it with the GLC/GLE Coupe. The Toyota C-HR is another example. Even the Audi Q8/Lamborghini Urus carry a similar coupe-SUV styling.

Third Generation G06 (2019-present)

Last year, BMW debuted the third-generation X6. It is now based on the same CLAR platform as the 7 Series and the X7 and not only is it bigger on the inside, its more spacious and more powerful under the skin. And for the first time, it gets an illuminated kidney grille function which is fancy, to say the least. Itwas launched in India earlier this week in the xDrive40i guise (you can read all about it over here), but we expect more powerful derivatives like the M50i and the full-blown X6 M to be introduced later.

Originally posted here:

Evolution of the BMW X6 - CarWale

The Pittsburgh Steelers entered the 2019 bye week with a 2-4 record, and were a very different team than the one that started the season. Ben Roethlisberger was on Injured Reserve, their big free agent WR, Donte Moncrief, had played his way off the field, JuJu Smith-Schuster was playing hurt, Ryan Switzer was relegated to returns only. Down their QB and all three of their top WRs from the start of the season, and the run game trying to run against stacked boxes with no FB, the Steelers were in trouble.

The Steelers would come out of the bye week against the Miami Dolphins and give up a turnover and two TDs in the first quarter. After that quarter, though, the Steelers defense took over. The rest of that game and the next two games would see 8 turnovers forced on 23 drives (34.7%). The defense would score two TDs, while giving up 3 TDs and 2 FGs for a 14-25 score just from the defense.

The Steelers would go 3-0 in those games, improving to a 5-4 record, putting them in position for a playoff run.

This film room is going to look more in depth at three of the Steelers defensive backs, and the traits they brought that allowed them to lead the team back into playoff contention.

Before we get to Minkah Fitzpatrick we need to talk about his sidekick in the secondary, the Ryan Clark to Fitzpatricks Troy Polamalu Terrell Edmunds.

Terrell Edmunds is a jack of all trades, master of none type of player, hes not an elite defender in any specific area, but hes good at a whole lot of things, with very few weaknesses, and his elite athleticism (97th percentile for safeties) allows him to move around a lot, even after the snap.

Week 8, 3rd quarter, 2:27 Terrell Edmunds is up by the line, dropping as the play starts.

This is something the Steelers did a good bit, starting Edmunds up near the line, and then dropping him right before the snap into deep zone.

I picked this one because it also shows how well Fitzpatrick and Edmunds were playing off each other at this point, with Edmunds dropping smoothly behind Minkah Fitzpatrick as Fitzpatrick crashes to make the tackle. That kind of movement, playing off each other starts showing up more after the bye week.

Week 8, 1st quarter, 7:44 Terrell Edmunds is the deep safety to the top of the screen.

The Steelers run a cover-6 here, with man to the wide side of the field and zone to the boundary. But this time Edmunds steps up to cover the inside while Haden defends the deep zone. As the play breaks down and Jacoby Brissett runs, Edmunds is there to meet him and limit the yards gained.

Being able to play like a LB while also being a solid deep safety, and having the athleticism to transition in play, is a huge benefit to a defense that wants to disguise what it is doing.

Terrell Edmunds was the player the Steelers moved the most at the snap, and it was a big part of how they disguised plays.

Some of you are going to disagree with me calling Edmunds a solid deep safety. Edmunds has a reputation for being terrible at deep zone, and while I will state it is not his best usage, hes not necessarily bad at it.

Week 10, 4th quarter, 1:30. Terrell Edmunds is the deep safety to the bottom of the screen.

Josh Reynolds beats Joe Haden deep, but Edmunds breaks up the pass to prevent a TD.

Heres a better angle of the breakup.

Terrell Edmunds has the athleticism to play trail like this, and he does a solid job reading the receiver and getting his hands in the way of the catch.

Edmunds is not good at reading the ball in the air, not prohibitively bad, but it is a weakness. You see it when he mistimes contact with a receiver, and when he goes for interceptions. Hes much better covering the WR and playing their hands/eyes.

His strong man-cover skills are a big asset when you pair it with his size and strength.

Week 9, 4th quarter, 8:43. Terrell Edmunds is the slot DB to the bottom of the screen.

After scoring the go ahead touchdown, the Colts go for two, hoping to extend their lead to three points. Jack Doyle gets a good push on Edmunds and you can see Edmunds stumble, but he recovers and is able to knock the pass away to preserve the one-point game. The Steelers would win the game 26-24, so keeping those two points off the board was incredibly important in the Steelers win.

Terrell Edmunds isnt a star, and may never be one, but his value to the Steelers as a guy who can play anywhere on the field and take on any responsibility you can give him makes him a perfect piece for a defense that wants to disguise what they are doing, and the perfect compliment for a play maker like Minkah Fitzpatrick.

In the second part of this film series I showed how Minkah Fitzpatrick was less of a play maker when he was the deepest defender in coverage. Thats because teams would throw underneath him, teams didnt throw near him when he was the deep safety very often.

Week 8, 3rd quarter, 11:14. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety.

Ryan Fitzpatrick is one of those quarterbacks who is going to chuck an ill-advised deep ball a couple times a game. This time he throws at Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Minkah plays center field beautifully for the interception.

Note Terrell Edmunds closing speed to the ball. If Minkah isnt there, Edmunds would have been there to break up the pass, but the odds of an interception would be a lot lower.

Week 9, 2nd quarter, 2:36. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety.

This is Fitzpatricks pick-6 against the Colts. Minkah Fitzpatrick makes it look easy, but this is an incredible play.

Heres a look right before the QB starts to throw the ball.

The yellow arrow is pointing to where the pass will go. Jack Doyle is passing Mike Hilton, the WR outside will keep Haden occupied, and Minkah Fitzpatrick is 9-10 yards away from the spot he needs to be to make a play on the ball.

Joe Haden stated he thought he had given up a TD because he didnt get the ball when he lunged at Doyle in the end zone. Minkah Fitzpatrick shouldnt have been able to get there.

Watch Minkah Fitzpatrick at the top of the screen, look at his feet and the moment he breaks on the ball.

He reads the pass incredibly fast, moving before the throw, and bursts toward the ball. Fitzpatrick has elite read and react speed, his footwork is efficient and he explodes to the play.

He would show off his play reading the next week in an even better, but nowhere near as impactful play.

Week 10, 3rd quarter, 0:19. Minkah Fitzpatrick is the deep safety to the top of the screen.

This whole play is designed to get Cooper Kupp open underneath for some easy yards. But Minkah Fitzpatrick comes from the other side of the field, navigating traffic to break up the catch.

This play is Troy-esque. He sees the play almost instantly and flies to where the ball will end up.

The bye week gave the Steelers time to get Minkah Fitzpatrick better integrated into the defense, and the result was 4 interceptions, 5 passes defended and a fumble recovery in the next three games, with 2 touchdowns.

Starting in Cleveland in Week 11, opponents would avoid Minkah Fitzpatrick. His stats disappeared, but for those three weeks Minkah Fitzpatrick dominated the stat sheets.

Through 8 games and 28 minutes of the 2019 season, Joe Haden had four passes defended and 0 interceptions. The Steelers opponents had been targeting Steven Nelson a lot, attacking him with a lot of underneath and in-cutting routes. Minkah Fitzpatrick jumping those in-cutting routes led teams to target Joe Haden more, averaging three more targets per game in weeks 8-13 than in weeks 3-6.

In Week 10 Joe Haden would start making them pay for it.

Week 10, 2nd quarter, 1:44. Joe Haden is the CB to the bottom of the screen.

This is Hadens 5th pass defended of the season. He would get 4 more in this game, including 2 turnover plays.

Week 10, 3rd quarter, 13:34. Joe Haden is the CB to the top of the screen.

When Minkah Fitzpatrick steps up to cover the in-route, Devin Bush has to to defend a deep route with no safety help. But Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick have switched here, and Haden is there to make the interception.

Week 10, 4th quarter, 0:30. Joe Haden is the CB to the bottom of the screen.

Here Haden tips the pass and Minkah Fitzpatrick comes away with the football.

If you watch Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick on this play, you can see Edmunds playing forward with Fitzpatrick deep to start before they switch. The quarterback is looking to Edmunds side, and when he turns to target Fitzpatricks side, Edmunds steps back to cover deep as Minkah steps forward, ready to attack the play. Also notice Minkah Fitzpatricks positioning as he comes forward. Fitzpatrick is a fluid mover who reads the flow of the offense at an incredibly high level. It pays off with an interception off the tipped ball on this play.

This was Minkah Fitzpatricks last interception of the 2019 season. Minkah came into the game with 4 interceptions and picked up his 5th. Joe Haden came into the game with 0 interceptions and picked up his first, as he would end the season with 5.

The communication between the safeties behind Haden allowed him to be far more aggressive than he has at any time with the Steelers, and Haden would record 5 interceptions and 13 passes defended in the second half of the season.

The Steelers recorded 20 interceptions in 2019. The last two seasons with 20+ interceptions were 2010 and 2008.

The Steelers got 10 of those interceptions from Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick, while Steven Nelson and Terrell Edmunds combined for 1. But while Haden and Fitzpatrick collected the stats, Nelson and Edmunds played important roles in setting the stage for those interceptions. Nelsons deep coverage and ability to lock down deep routes 1v1 and Edmunds versatility allowed the Steelers to do a lot of different things on defense while putting Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick in position to play to their strengths and make the splash plays.

Next up in this film room series well look at both Cleveland games as well as the second Cincinnati game, in the penultimate article on the evolution of the Steelers secondary in 2019.

See more here:

Film Room: Evolution of the Steelers secondary, Part 3: stars emerge - Behind the Steel Curtain

In 2007, two years after the Kitzmiller v. Dover ruling that effectively put an end to the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools, a survey found that teaching evolutionwasnt faring so well.

Only 28% of high school biology teachers taught that humans had evolved over millions of years without pretending God played a role in the process. 16% of high school biology teachers flat-out said they taught Creationism that humans were created by God sometime within the past 10,000 years.

It was truly disturbing. And, again, that was well after the Kitzmiller ruling.

Thats why the National Center for Science Education, along with a researcher from Penn State University, ran that survey again last year to see if the teaching of evolution has gotten better in our schools. What would it say following the adoption, by many states, of Next Generation Science Standards and the lack of any serious legal threat by Creationists to inject their mythology in public schools? And even if evolution is being taught, is it being taught accurately and completely?

Ann Reid of the NCSE says theres good news in the results, just released in the peer-reviewed journal Evolution: Education and Outreach:

Much credit is due to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a set of benchmarks released in 2011 that emphasizes evolution as a core concept. The 44 US states that have adopted these, or standards based on the same framework, have seen the greatest improvements.

Look at that. When scientists emphasize the importance of evolution education, it gets taught more often and more accurately. No Ken Ham money-pit is going to take away from that. To be sure, evolution is still not taught as comprehensively as it ought to be. More than half the respondents (65%) said they spent no more than five hours on the subject in class. And yet thats still an improvement from the 77% who said the same thing in the 2007 survey.

Now, says Reid, the same focus must also be placed on issues like climate change, which are also under attack by anti-science ideologues.

Theres hope for the future in this regard. But itll require science teachers not to be distracted from outside noise designed to discredit evidence and reason. They need to continue reminding students that the broad strokes of evolution are settled science, which is why its vital for students to understand it.

(via NCSE. Image via Shutterstock)

Link:

Survey Finds That Evolution Education is Improving in Public Schools - Friendly Atheist - Patheos

Jurassic World and Rocketman starBryce Dallas Howard, 39, goes behind the camera to direct the documentary Dads (June 19 on Apple TV+) about modern fatherhood around the world. She taps her own filmmaking father, Ron Howard, as well as other famous funny dads, including Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Ken Jeong, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan OBrien.

Related:Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard Have the Sweetest Father-Daughter Pics

Is the theme of Dads that there isnt one definition of what a father is today?

Absolutely. Fatherhood has gone through a huge evolution just in the last generation.

What advice did your father give you on making Dads?

He was very nervous about me putting him on a pedestal. Hes like, Everyones going to be annoyed by a movie thats just a daughter celebrating her father. I kept assuring him, Trust me, theres much more exciting stories in there. Ultimately when he watched it, he was like, Oh, OK, but he still felt it was too much of him.

What was your inspiration for Dads?

Ive got great, strong, essential relationships with the men in my life: my grandfather, my brother, my husband and my husbands best friend, whos the godfather of my children. All of them are astonishing fathers. I felt its impossible to not notice how in the past men have been left out of the conversation of parenting. Its been a very diminished role.

What topics did the comedian dads address?

A lot of the questions that I had for our comedian dads were about themselves as fathers, but also what their experience was like being fathered, what theyve consciously changed, and what they have unconsciously not been able to change. Its very apparent that generationally, for many, theres been a huge transformation as to what the role of a father is.

Your film is a positive look at fatherhood.

I just saw again and again, men who went above and beyond for their families, and were all in. I wanted to celebrate that. I wanted to celebrate the men who are fathers who are all in, because there are so many more of them than there are deadbeat dads, truly. What weve seen in the movies and on TV, and all of that, is a lot of depictions of fathers who are incompetent, and thats just not what I have experienced, and thats not what I have witnessed and observed.

You have quite a Rolodex of comedian dads. Were they eager to volunteer or did you have to coax some of them into doing it?

Honestly, everyone was really enthusiastic. I think in part its because these are all very devoted, wonderful, present fathers. And at the end of each of the conversations, what I heard more than any other statement was, Oh, my gosh, I have never been asked that much about what it takes, what it feels like to be a parent, to be a father. And for women, before you even think about becoming a mother people ask you, What do you think youre going to be like as a mother?

Ive seen people talk to my 3-year-old daughter about being a mother one day, saying, Oh, shell be such a great mother. And so, it was really interesting for me as a woman and as a mother to feel the difference of what I had come to expect and assume was normal. And then to learn, Oh, wow, an hour or two-hour conversation about fathering is something that isnt necessarily happening. Why? Its not out of lack of interest.

This was definitely a family affair. Your dad, your brother and your grandfather were all in it. Whats it like working with family?

Its wonderful. My brother, Reed, is so sweet and he keeps talking about it. He keeps being like, I just loved getting to do the interview with you. It was so nice. We just got to talk without being interrupted. Im the oldest and hes the youngest, and theres a set of twins between us, so, it was just great to get to be one-on-one.

My grandfather, actually, when I started the movie he had passed away. The interview with him was done in 2013. So that was something when I was first thinking about it, I was like, Oh, weve got our birth videos and maybe, Dad, you could talk about granddad. And he was like, No, no, no, no.

And then as we started filming, I kept wanting to ask an expecting father to be one of our hero dads. Someone who wasnt a father yet and becomes a father through the course of filming. Then my brother and his wife got pregnant, and so, it was this totally serendipitous thing. They actually werent even trying.

I was like, Oh, my gosh, will you be my expecting dad? My brother said yes, and then it made sense to include my grandfathers story, so I went and looked at that old interview. And then it made sense for me to interview my own dad. So it was something that happened very organically in regard to my grandfather and my brother. And with my dad, it was a little bit of arm-twisting.

Does directing come naturally to you? And if so, what do you enjoy about it?

Directing has always been something that I aspired to do as a part of my career. Absolutely. In terms of whether or not it comes naturally, what I would say is that its a little bit like asking someone who grew up in a household where Spanish was the first language, did Spanish come more naturally to you? Yes, its easier to learn Spanish because its being spoken around them. And for me, I was raised on movie sets and within that environment, and so Im relatively fluent in movie, movie speak, and what that experience is like.

In fact, I teach a class now at NYU. Its a filmmaking class, and its a class where students are creating their own work. But a big aspect of the class, other than generating ones own work, is understanding the film environment, how films are made and what its like on a set. When I left school and I started working, it didnt throw me at all to be on a movie set. I really understood the dynamics, the rules, the lingo, the cameras and the workflow. A lot of my peers, because they didnt grow up in that way, that was a new experience. And I was like, Oh, wow, that was a real privilege. Ive always known it. It was just getting exposed.

Its the same thing, again, with language. If you want to learn a language, the younger you are when youre exposed to it, its going to come more naturally to you. So thats something that was really, really, really lucky. But I was also always interested, so I was always paying attention. And then when I was in high school, I started directing plays, and I did that all through college.

I directed my first short film [Orchids] when I was pregnant with my oldest [Theo], whos now 13. That was a short film that I co-wrote with the gentleman who became my brother-in-law later. It starred Katherine Waterston, who I went to NYU with, and Alfred Molina, who did me a great favor in saying yes to it.

And then my second film [When You Find Me] was when I was pregnant with my second kid [daughter Beatrice, 8]. Certainly, when the acting career kicked off, directing slowed down for a while for sure. And then after the second kid, its been pretty consistent.

How did you pick the noncelebritydads? Did you actually go to Brazil and Japan and film those segments?

Great question. The way we picked the dads was so fun and intentional, but then also there were little random surprises as well. Basically, early on, I was really fascinated with the daddy blogger community, because that was something thats very new. It couldnt have existed before social media and all of that. And so, our first stop was in the daddy blogger community, and it took all of two seconds to find Glen Beleaf Henry, who is just so charismatic and such an incredible inspiration, witty, dynamic and just your dream come true as a documentary filmmaker.

And so, continuing to explore within that community, that led us to Rob and Reece Scheer. Rob had just written a book that had been published. Shuichi was discovered quite coincidentally by one of our producers, who saw a comic book that had been written about him, with him on his bicycle, biking with his son through Tokyo, Japan. And so, thats how he was discovered.

So it was a one-at-a-time thing. I did a lot of work with the Promundo Institute in Brazil. Brazil is where Thiagos from, and hes done work with the institute as well on nonviolent communication and active present fathering and whatnot. So it was something where once we went into the daddy blogger community, it felt like there were so many amazing folks. It wasnt like, Where are we possibly going to find these dads? It was like they were everywhere.

We also really wanted footage, because scheduling-wise we had a pretty small window in order to do everything. And so, I was hoping that we could piggyback on footage that had already been captured by the fathers themselves, because with a documentary, typically it takes forever because youre just sitting down and youre like, OK, eventually the lion will move. Something will happen eventually, just park here.

Whereas with this, in terms of actually going and shooting the hero dads, it was a very small crew, it was a handful of days in and out, especially to not disrupt the family lifestyle because there were kids involved. And so, having characters who had a lot of their own footage that we could use was really, really helpful.

In terms of going to Japan, very sadly but very intentionally, I did not go to Japan to shoot, and I didnt shoot in the homes of the families, because Jurassic World 2 had just come out, and those kids are literally my demographic and I was nervous. This is such a weird thing to say, but I was really nervous that if the kids recognized me, or if it made the parents nervous to be like, Oh, I recognize her, it can ruin the vibe.

It was a targeted thing. The stuff with my brother, and, of course, all the comedian stuff, I shot myself. But the traveling to some of those places, its so sad that I didnt get to go, but it had to be that way.

Because your film is about dads, how is the parenting in your family? Your husband [Seth Gabel, 38] is an actor, so do you have a rule that you have to juggle work so that one of you is always with the kids?

No. That happens on its own. Whatever it might seem on the outside, neither my husband nor I have ever felt like weve been in the position to make those choices. When were not working, its not because were choosing to not work, its because were literally unemployed.

That being said, with the choosing not to work, there are certain things. You dont just sign up for everything because, Oh, theres a local position at the community theater down the road. Im available, Im going to go do it. There is still discernment, but were always auditioning, were always interviewing for jobs. Unless Im on maternity leave or something, Im saying, Im available. Or, Im doing another job.

So its worked out that way. I can only think of two instances for a day or two where it was like, Oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? But its definitely worked out. Early on there was a period of time where my husband was on a few TV shows that were shot out of the country, and my daughter ended up being born in Canada as a result. I was mostly just with the kids, but I was also very pregnant, so it wasnt like I was going to be working during that time anyways.

Jurassic World: Dominion is coming up next year. Are you surprised that there are still Jurassic stories to tell?

Im not, because Im a sci-fi nerd who cant get enough sci-fi. Its just an endless curiosity. What author Michael Crichton created with Jurassic Park is this alternate reality: What would happen if we were able to reanimate dinosaurs? Its a really fun, delicious, wild thought experiment.

Related:Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard Talk Dinosaurs, Parenting and Friendship

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Bryce Dallas Howard Dissects the Power and Evolution of Fatherhood Apple TV+ Documentary - Parade

Four menswear designers on their aesthetic evolution during the pandemic

Today sees the launch of London Fashion Weeks first digital only platform, a gender neutral online space, merging mens and womenswear, held over the dates that London Fashion Week Mens was originally scheduled to take place. In celebration of the launch an innovative response to todays social distancing measures we caught up with four flourishing brands from fashion cities around the world, to see how their approach to design has developed during an unparalleled global crisis

In the days that have passed since the world went into lockdown, 80 per cent of the clothes we own havent touched our skin. The A/W 2020 menswear collections presented in January hang in limbo too as production has been halted and buyers reconsider orders due to be delivered in July. Divorced from their studios, designers have been working alone from home, conducting fittings over FaceTime and Zoom; scrutinising fabrics through well-thumbed screens.

If it is true that you can see the approaching of a revolution in clothes, then a new, altruistic attitude is on the way, one that champions the digital realm, and opens up designers to an even wider and plugged in global audience.

Nicholas Daley A/W 2020

The throb of a guitar, a poem narrated to a room, the smell of incense and sweat; birthday cakes and cocktails. Weve become used to experiencing life framed by computer screen. This months London Fashion Week has replaced physical shows with a stream of digital content, yet for a designer like Nicholas Daley who has used his moment as a chance to share the spotlight with a host of black talents from poet James Massiah to South London musical duo Kwake Bass and Wu-Lu this pivot throws up some challenges.

Community, culture and craft is what I always want to push. A/W 2020 was my last season with New Gen and my first full runway with collaborations. The venue was the biggest Ive worked in! It felt like a really positive show, very complete. I want to keep that momentum rolling, he says from his studio. Daley is more curatorial in his approach the music, the set, the crowd he calls upon carry the same importance as one of his check Irish linen cardigans. The backdrop of this pandemic is re-evaluating. Everyone is just trying to adapt and get hold of the situation. Thats why I always align with musicians because music is a very unifying force. The times feel right for that.

Phipps A/W 2020

Can everybody calm down. Make less, make it better. Focus on what you do well, the American designer Spencer Phipps says from his home in Paris. Mercifully this period of confinement has forced the industry to align to his eco ethos. A/W 2020 was about the conservation and protection of forests and included a curated line of customised vintage and deadstock garments that will go on sale under the name PHIPPS GOLD LABEL via his re-designed website. Great t-shirts, one-off pieces, cool collectible stuff. I think those are the kind of things people want special things with character and things that dont feel like youre adding to the problem, Phipps says. I feel weirdly fortunate because our whole thing has been useful, purposeful luxury items theres a reason for them.

Phipps has installed a make-shift climbing wall in his spare room and has spent most of his time wearing sweatpants, fitting print trials and prototypes onto himself, sending selfies to his assistant. Offices are opening again but Im planning on maintaining this kind of rhythm now Ive seen how I can move around, do stuff on my phone, come back and do other things. I feel much more disciplined I can work out whilst doing emails simultaneously. Thats a new skill for me!

Kenneth Nicholson A/W 2020

L.A-based Kenneth Nicholsons A/W 2020 collection started with the idea of hybrids: Everything is referential. Like, if you see something online, it is a joke but it references another meme from a month ago and takes on a new life. I was really trying to tap into this collage, this layering of what I felt was happening. In lockdown he has been characteristically brooding: I think for the longest time fashion felt very impenetrable you either had access or were perpetually longing to have access to it. And so, for me, seeing all of the initiatives like the CFDAs A Common Thread and major luxury houses stepping in, thats phenomenal. I dont think things like that will go away easily.

Even before COVID-19 fashion had begun to acknowledge inclusivity, diversity and the importance of opening up. Nicholson riffs his collections off of the misconception that gender fluidity is a new-fangled theory. Part of the conversation has to be about that empirical evidence that in the 17th and 18th century men did wear lace, men did embrace a lot of silhouettes. I still want to have this notion of respecting fashion history and gently leading people to embrace something that feels new. With everything the way it is right now, I want to turn it up a little, to really go for it.

Sunnei A/W 2020

Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina have always approached SUNNEI as a multidisciplinary project that is part wardrobe and part youth club. What we do is far from seasonal trends and other dynamics of the fashion system, however during this period we had the chance to slow down and understand what really matters, they say. So much of what makes something SUNNEI is defined by the community of people wearing it, loving it.

During lockdown the pair decided to host forty days of live performances, generating what they call shared one-of-a-kind moments. We basically took this as an opportunity to dig into art and its innumerable branches, from illustration to music, drawing, sculpture, cooking, floristry and more. We didnt stop interacting with the people around us we just looked for alternative ways to reach them.

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Four menswear designers on their aesthetic evolution during the pandemic - Wallpaper*

So, in celebration of Hits Live Fest we thought we'd take a look at how festivals have changed over the years. With 2020 being the year that pretty much every festival was cancelled or postponed, the only 'festivals' happening are virtual, or in your garden with a limited number of people.

We've pretty much come full circle, with many virtual festivals now taking place, almost reminiscent of the early days of festivals when a few friends gathered around a fire in a field.

Starting way back in 1970, Glastonbury is one of the best-known festivals around, attracting people from around the world. Its iconic Pyramid Stage has looked very different throughout the years, but this is how it looked in 1971.The first festival had an attendance of 1,500 and an entry fee of just 1 which included free milk from the farm!

If you've been to a festival that lasts more than a day you've probably ended up camping, and experienced the typical British weather.For those who have been ill-equipped, with a leaking tent and wellies that look better than they feel, camping is definitely not the best part of the festival.

In the mid-noughties festivals used to feature a stage, they were pretty impressive for the time, but fast-forward a few years and they're now quite different.

Along with stages, with the typical British weather in the summer being wet, many festivals also put up huge tents to house smaller stages.

Throughout the years ponchos have become a popular festival accessory, with our rather predictably wet weather. Festivals even sell their own branded ponchos now.

Festivals can be great fun, but so are a few home comforts, so for those lucky ones who can afford the glamping options, there's running water, proper loos, electricity and even a proper bed sometimes!

Glastonbury's infamous Pyramid Stage is still reminiscent of the early days, but it has now been kitted out with state-of-the art lights and a huge sound system.

Last year saw some amazing festival stages, ranging from Creamfields in the UK to Tomorrowland in Belgium, a festival which is known for its extravagant stages and performances.It's not just the size of the stage, but the amount of fireworks and pyro they also have, the experience is more than just the act on stage these days.

That's right, you might not be able to go to a real festival this year, but if you've got the space, why not put up a tent and switch on Hits Radio?On Saturday 20th June from 1pm Hits Live Fest is coming to Hits Radio, Greatest Hits Radio and Country Hits Radio where we'll have the best live performances from your favourite acts.We can't wait for you to hear them.

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The evolution of festivals through the years - Glastonbury to Tomorrowland - Key 103

Kenneth Branagh Talks Thors Evolution in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Kenneth Branaghs time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was short, but it was meaningful. The British director had the delicate job of introducing Thor in the MCU back in 2011. Talking with ComicBook, Branagh explained his vision for the firstlive-action theatrical adaptation of Marvels Norse demigod.

For me, I thought it was really important that everything we set up there to do with his being banished, his rough diamond beginning, his difficult relationship with his father and his brother, he said. All of those things always were going to have tremendous potential if we could just make people connect with it upfront with the authenticity of the characters feelings. I think they committed completely to it and so did the audience. Then, the world was their oyster in terms of where they might go to.

Branagh definitely left his mark on the MCU, even though the Thorcharacter underwent some huge changes over the years. Especially after Taika Waititi took over direction withThor: Ragnarok.

The director went on to add that the Thorcharacter in the comic books has a long story of development. And its quite reasonable, given the comics long history of publication. Per Branagh, the movies are now trying to do the same.

Im so happy that we had that dynastic saga at the beginning of the first one where it was a lot of innate personal family drama, he said. Ive got a lot of favorite moments in that movie that have headed into other kinds of directions, often very funny ones. I think we were right to do what now seems like a very different world.

The next movie set in theThorfranchise isThor: Love and Thunder. It will strike theaters on February 11, 2022.

Do you agree with Branaghs take onThor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Recommended Reading:Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

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