Category Archives: Evolution

ArkDeshas mounted an exhibition celebrating the role of concrete panels in contemporary architecture, with an exhibition design by Note Design Studio that evokes the dynamism of a construction site.

The exhibition titled Flying Panels How Concrete Panels Changed the World, looks at the history of prefabricated concrete architecture and the impact it has had on modern urban environments.

The show is based on research conducted by Chilean curators Pedro Ignacio Alonso and Hugo Palmarola, who spent years examining the evolution of concrete panel systems and their varied uses around the world.

It is being presented at a time when some architects are calling for the industry to abandon concrete construction altogether, as the material is considered a major contributor to climate change.

According to ArkDes, "Flying Panels tells of the time when a concrete panel soaring across the sky symbolised the future and embodied dreams of a better world".

The organisers suggested that, although the concrete panel is now "a building component often derided as the ugly face of our cities", it was viewed positively in the post-war period as a potential solution to the existing housing shortage.

The show presents imagery and artefacts that give a sense of the optimism surrounding the early examples of prefabricated concrete construction, when developers and local municipalities presented visions for whole new neighbourhoods to be built using this emerging method.

Posters, films, toys and cartoons from the 1950s and 1960s demonstrate how the flying panels were depicted and perceived in popular culture at the time.

Since then, prefabricated panels have been central to the global trend for urbanisation, with concrete making it easier to quickly construct affordable housing that can adapt to local needs.

Sixty examples of modular building-systems from around the world feature in the exhibition, which is organised around a suspended 1:5-scale model of a typical concrete panel system.

Stockholm-based Note Design Studio was responsible for the exhibition design, which aims to encapsulate the familiar feel of a construction site and, therefore, appeal to both architects and a more general audience.

"We want to capture that utopian momentum where everything seems possible and the air is filled with excitement and anticipation for the future," said Daniel Heckscher, a partner and interior architect at the studio.

"For us, that moment in time is represented by the construction site," he continued. "It's a place where you look up, change your normal perspective, and let yourself dream for a while."

Alongside the scale models, the scenography includes plinths resembling building materials stacked on the ground, and wall panels that enclose the space like fencing surrounding a construction site.

Recent concrete innovations include a proposal for rapidly building refugee shelters using a concrete textile combined with water, and a robotic-fabrication system that could be used to erect more sustainable high-rise buildings.

Flying Panels How Concrete Panels Change the World is on show at ArkDes, Stockholm until 1 March 2020.

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Flying Panels exhibition charts the evolution of prefabricated concrete-panel construction - Dezeen

Written by Rob Picheta, CNN

Revealing letters sent from Ian Fleming to his socialite wife Ann (formerly Charteris) -- in which the author discusses his creation of James Bond, gossips about fellow members of high society and reflects on their intense and volatile love life -- have been unveiled ahead of an auction in London.

The letters chart two decades in the lives of the couple, encompassing their reactions to Fleming's celebrity status and highlighting the extent to which the legendary 007 spy character was inspired by the author's own life.

"Meanwhile the book is galloping along. I have written a third of it in one week -- a chapter a day," Fleming wrote while penning "From Russia With Love" from his GoldenEye home in Jamaica.

"I expect I shall get stuck soon but to date it does well and interests me. The first half is about Russia and that has always interested me. They have decided to murder Bond," he writes.

The letters will be auctioned next month. Credit: Sothebys

Fleming also details how a friend named Blanche Blackwood gave him a small boat, which "is very good for the reef and I have christened OCTOPUSSY" -- a moniker he eventually re-used as the name of one of his final Bond stories.

The series includes more than 160 letters over 500 pages, and is expected to sell for more than 200,000 ($260,000) when it is auctioned by Sotheby's in London next month.

Elsewhere in the letters, the author and former intelligence officer name checks some of the celebrity visitors he had at GoldenEye, where he would retreat annually to write a Bond novel.

"Truman Capote has come to stay. Can you imagine a more incongruous playmate for me. On the heels of a telegram he came hustling and twittering along with his tiny face crushed under a Russian Commissars uniform hat," he writes at one point, according to a press release from the auction house.

As interest in Fleming's books grew, the author dismissed a proposal for a TV adaptation as "interesting but no gold mine at this stage."

After a trip to Hollywood, however, he wrote: "People really seem to be after my books ... its as usual a question of crossing fingers and waiting for someone to pry them apart and force some dollars between them."

But the collection also reveals Fleming's isolation and jealousy over the life of his wife Ann, a member of high society after her previous marriages to Daily Mail newspaper owner Lord Rothermere and her affairs with politicians including Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell.

"There is no one else in my life. There is a whole cohort in yours," Fleming writes.

"I envy you your life of parties and 'the mind' and you envy I suppose my life of action and the fun I get from my books ... I am hopeless and like a caged beast in drawing and dining rooms and there is nothing I can do about it."

"In the present twilight, we are hurting each other to an extent that makes life hardly bearable," he adds as he reflects on the pair's marriage.

"James Bond was very much a product of Ian and Ann's relationship," said Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby's Specialist in Books and Manuscripts.

"It is no coincidence that Ian wrote his first Bond novel in the same year they married, both as an outlet for his libido and imagination, and also in an attempt to make money for a woman who was used to being unthinkingly rich."

"These letters remain largely unpublished and, in their scope and scale, must surely be an unmatchable record of the life of the author as his fortunes changed," Heaton adds.

"As well as recording a relationship with an extraordinary erotic charge, this correspondence charts the meteoric rise of Bond and paints a vivid picture of high society living in the post-war world."

A volatile relationship

The couple first met in 1934 when Ann was married to Lord O'Neill. It would be almost 20 years until she and Fleming would marry, despite being lovers for much of this time.

Ann married Lord Rothermere -- real name Esmond Harmsworth -- in 1945.

Fleming also had a number of girlfriends during this time. He and Ann eventually married in 1952.

Fleming's own various affairs were well-known, and Ann picks up on a comment the author apparently made in one of her letters. "You mention 'bad old bachelor days' -- the only person you stopped sleeping with when they ceased was me!" she writes.

Ian and Ann Fleming together. Credit: Daily Mail/Shutterstock

That animosity was a far cry from the early letters between the pair, which referenced sadomasochism that remained a part of their intense relationship.

"I long for you even if you whip me because I love being hurt by you and kissed afterwards," Ann writes in one letter.

The correspondence also captures their reaction to the loss of their first child, a girl who was conceived during Ann's marriage to Lord Rothermere. The child was born prematurely and died after only eight hours in 1948.

"I have nothing to say to comfort you. After all this travail and pain it is bitter. I can only send you my arms and my love and all my prayers," Fleming wrote to his lover after the tragedy.

The letters also reveal intimate details about the couple and the longing they felt to be together.

Ann writes in one letter: "I wish a fairy would arrive with a wand and make everything alright, give Esmond a perfect wife and put me in your bed with a raw cowhide whip in my hand so as I can keep you well behaved for forty years."

But the difficulties of their affair, which appeared to exist as an open secret in London's high society, was clear when Ann added: "It is all over London that E is not going to tolerate us any longer."

During their marriage Fleming wrote 14 James Bond books, drawing plenty of inspiration from his own time in Britain's Naval Intelligence Division and his career as a journalist.

He died in 1964 following a heart attack. Ann died in 1981.

The letters will be auctioned as part of Sotheby's online English Literature, History, Rock and Pop, Children's Books and Illustrations sale, which will run from December 3 to 10.

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Evolution of James Bond charted in Ian Fleming's letters to wife Ann - CNN

No matter how powerful your personal computer is, its still a wimp when compared with todays supercomputers. Butin Associated Press style, at leastits probably also a WIMP.

That all-capital rendering is a clue that WIMP is an acronym, a word formed from the first letters of the words in its long form. An acronym is pronounced as a word; remember, its not the same as an initialism, where the initial letters are pronounced as letters, as in FBI.

ICYMI:The eminence of preeminent

WIMP is an interesting bit of computer terminology and lore. It stands for windows, icons, menus, pointers, and denotes that the interaction between computer and user is based not on text (e.g., entering commands such as c://run:d) but on graphics. This type of interaction is a graphical user interface, or GUI. Thats another acronym, pronounced GOO-ey.

In 1973 at its PARC campus (an acronym of Palo Alto Research Center), Xerox developed the Alto, the first computer to use this graphic-based interface. Documents from that era show that it had a pointing device attached to the main computer by wire. That pointing device had been named a mouse in a paper by NASA engineers in 1965. (NASA is another acronym, standing for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.) Yes, it was so named because it looked like a small rodent. As the engineers described it: Within comfortable reach of the users right hand is a device called the mouse, which we developed for evaluation as a means for selecting those displayed text entities upon which the commands are to operate.

As that mouse moved, the NASA engineers said, its position was monitored by the computer, which displays a special tracking cross, which we call the bug, on the screen in a position corresponding to that of the mouse on the table.That bug was an I-shaped symbol, a form retained across many generations of computers.

In later computers, the pointer, usually a small arrow, can be in one place, while a specific location on the screen is marked by something else: the cursor. To reach that specific place, one moves the mouse and its pointer and then clicks; the cursor jumps to that spot. You can think of the bug as the precursor to the cursor. As it happens, the word precursor was the, um, precursor to cursor. They are related, etymologically speaking.

Precursor dates to about 1500 in English, the Oxford English Dictionary says, coming from the Latin for forerunner, advanced guard. (It was used much earlier, in the Gospels, to describe John the Baptist as the precursor of Jesus, but not in English.) Weve often written that the pre- prefix means before; in this case, precursor appeared in English a few years before cursor, which indicated a runner or running messenger, the OED says. (Yes, thats an initialism.)

Different scientific instruments such as slide rules had movable parts, called the cursor, which was a runner or messenger of sorts that indicated a specific location, setting, or result.

The computer cursor first appeared in a 1967 memo from MIT (an initialism of Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the OED says, describing how The cursor on the screen follows the motion of the mouse. (A 1968 demonstration of an early cursor still called it a bug.)

Back to WIMP. The Xerox Alto had the windows, icons, menus, and pointer, as this image (of a 1975 version) shows.

But the term WIMP did not appear until 1980, the same decade that both Macintosh and Microsoft introduced computers with all those features. (Steve Jobs visited Xerox in 1979 and saw the Alto and its GUI, which is said to have inspired the Macintosh.) Someone named MerzougaWilbertsis credited with the term in multiple references, but we have been unable to discover more about who this was.

Today, most wimps are lowercased and not about computers. That kind of wimp is a weak, cowardly, or ineffectual person, as Merriam-Webster says. While we know where WIMP came from, were not so sure about wimp. The OED says it might be from whimper, the whine of a dog. The OEDs first citation is from 1920, though a contemporary wimp referred to women or girls, the OED says, possibly a corruption of women.

The uppercase WIMP has all but disappeared: The most recent nontechnical reference we could find in Nexis was in 2009 articles celebrating 25 years of the Macintosh.

A 2003 PC Magazine article urged people to abandon WIMP in favor of a text-based interface that would allow a large computer monitor to be mounted across the room and be controlled from a keyboard to play media files. (Today, we would call that a smart TV.) The original article had several links to explanations and illustrations of this new interface. They lead elsewhere now. Apparently, the new interface wimped out.

ICYMI:Making suburban news more inclusive

Excerpt from:

'WIMP,' and its role in the evolution in technology - Columbia Journalism Review

The expansion will be set just after the original Jurassic Park movie and feature park designs, dinosaurs and characters from the original movie. These include the iconic entrance gates, track-restricted Jurassic Park Tour, and "legacy skin variants" for any Tyrannosaurus rex or Velociraptor you want to keep. Return to Jurassic Park will let you build on Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna, the island setting from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and complete seven story missions that include new voicework by Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm) and -- for the first time in Jurassic World Evolution -- Sam Neill (Dr. Alan Grant) and Laura Dern (Dr. Ellie Sattler).

As a bonus, the DLC pack will let you play existing Evolution challenge and sandbox levels with a 1993-inspired HUD and inventory. If you're up to the challenge of rebuilding Jurassic Park, the expansion will be available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for $19.99/19.99/19.99 on December 10th.

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Jurassic World Evolution DLC lets you rebuild the original park - Engadget

Milcery is just one of many new Pokmon introduced in Sword and Shield, but this creme-themed Fairy-type is a little tricky to use in the game.

As with most Pokmon, Milcery has an evolution that makes it a lot stronger. But unlike other species, it has eight different forms you can obtain through doing a sequence of events in a specific order to make it evolve into Alcremie.

First, you need to head over to one of the many Battle Cafes in the Galar Region and battle the man who runs the place. Once you beat him he will give you a sweet reward, which can be one of several items, but there are a few you are looking for specifically.

Milcery will only evolve into Alcremie when it is holding an item called a Sweet, which comes in seven different variations. Each of those variations turn Milcery into a different form of Alcremie, but there is also another set of mechanics involved.

Unlike an evolution stone or an item that needs to be held while a trade takes place, you actually have to spin your character around using the Switchs joystick to activate the evolution. You will know you did it right when you pull off Leons signature Champion Pose, which should trigger the evolution.

Furthermore, depending on which of the Sweet items the Milcery is holding, which direction you spin, how long you spin, and the time of day you spin, you could end up with a different Alcremie. The item only dictates which decoration will be on your Alcremies head, but the way you rotate the control stick changes the color

Here is a full break down of each type and the specific way to get it.

There is even a Rainbow Creme form out there too, but there is no way to ensure you receive it. Only by spinning and hoping to randomly get it can the Rainbow Creme version be unlocked. And none of this is even taking into account the Gigantimax Form, which is something you need to get through Max Raid Battles.

Just remember, the seven Sweet items only decide the accessory. The most important part is the color of creme, so you better learn how to pose.

The rest is here:

How to evolve Milcery into Alcremie in Pokmon Sword and Shield - Dot Esports

In a world of conscious uncoupling and trendy divorce rituals that border on bad satire, Noah Baumbachs Marriage Story is a lacerating exploration of a dying marital relationship.

The film opens with Charlie and Nicole (brilliantly played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson) listing each others virtues at the request of their mediator, hoping positive recollections will soften the blow of divorce (Nicole is a good listener, while Charlie is a terrific Dad, etc.). But thats no longer enough for the rising New York theater director and especially his creative partner/muse, a former Hollywood actress who briefly made a name for herself with a few TV appearances. Charlie is indifferent to Nicoles achievement (he never watches television anyway, he says matter-of-factly) and she, in turn, feels invisible. For years, Nicole has wanted to return to Los Angeles, her home base, a desire made all the more pressing when shes offered the chance to do a pilot. Charlie has never had any interest in moving to L.A.

Nicole relocates there with their 8-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), and the ugly tug-of-war between husband and wife over custody mushrooms, thanks in large part to the legal system and its practitioners (played to scene-stealing perfection by Laura Dern as Nicoles commanding attorney in stilettos, who earnestly espouses, What youre doing is an act of hope, and Ray Liotta as the $900-an-hour barracuda representing Charlie).

Charlie has the worst of it, attempting to keep his work in New York afloat while regularly flying across the country to see his son. Marriage Story provides a detailed look not simply at the dynamics of a couple spiraling downward, but also at the comic and horrible legal wrangling that takes place which, most tragically, distorts Nicole and Charlies relationship even in retrospect.

The granularity of the legal procedural elements alone makes Marriage Story a cutting-edge entry in the divorce movie subgenre. Add to the brew the complicated, contradictory emotions experienced by the warring parties vis a vis each other and, more important, within themselves. Each has valid points; neither is a villain. In true contemporary style, everyone is doing the right thing, and its almost impossible to cast blame, unlike in so many films that cover the same territory.

If Marriage Storyis an artistic leap for Baumbach, its seeds were evident in his 2005 The Squid and the Whale, a divorce narrative told from the perspective of a 16-year-old (Jesse Eisenberg) observing his artsy Park Slope family imploding. His mother, Joan (Laura Linney), is having an affair, but of greater relevance to their marital issues, she and husband Bernard (Jeff Daniels) are two writers whose fortunes are moving in opposite directions: Her career is soaring while his is dead in the water.

Like Marriage Storys Charlie, Bernard is intellectually pretentious, valuing creativity above all else and eschewing commercial success. Its a familiar Baumbach type, reaching full fruition in the filmmakers wonderful 2017 The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) with Dustin Hoffman as the aging patriarch, an artist grappling with mortality and legacy.

The anguish of divorce is natural film fodder, and its been amply covered over the decades in a variety of films, each informed by its genre and era. The slick sitcom Divorce American Style (1967) is galaxies away from Danny DeVitos dark (ultimately violent) 1989 farce The War of the Roses or Husbands and Wives, a 1992 Woody Allen flick that is at once a comic tribute to Ingmar Bergmans Scenes From a Marriage and a self-referential autobiographical pic detailing Allen and Mia Farrows disintegrating relationship. His is a rarefied New York City world where everyone lives in tastefully appointed and/or book-lined homes, makes good money and takes for granted satisfying careers in such settings as Columbia University and high-end editorial offices.

Indeed, all these films zero in on well-heeled, homogeneously white communities where men are usually the primary breadwinners while wives may or may not work. That said, womens employment or lack thereof was leading to donnybrooks in films about divorce way before Marriage Story or even The Squid and the Whale hit the screen. In Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and War of the Roses, the wives, Joanna and Barbara (Meryl Streep and Kathleen Turner, respectively), are unfulfilled precisely because they have no identity outside the home. Barbara launches a catering business, but her husband Oliver (Michael Douglas) looks down his nose at her. Hes Harvard Law, shes a State University gymnast; hes articulate, she gropes for the right word. Her career blossoms and she grows to detest him, literally wishing him dead.

In Kramer, Streeps Joanna and Hoffmans Ted hail from the same class, but her yearnings have been ignored so she jumps ship to find herself, abandoning her son to Ted, who must now juggle two jobs: high-powered advertising writer and Mr. Mom, a gig he is ill-prepared to tackle. Nonetheless, he grows increasingly attached to his young son. When Joanna returns (as meteorically as she disappeared) with her newly spawned career in tow, she demands custody of their child. Joanna is not a simpatico character, though many would still come to her defense and there was no shortage of ink shed on the topic at the time, the height of the womens movement.

Like Charlie in Marriage Story, the husbands in Kramer and War are baffled and enraged by their wives discontent. Each has worked hard to provide his family with a high standard of living. But unlike Charlie and, for that matter, Squids Bernard, the men in Kramerand War celebrate materialism, while their partners put a premium on communication. It was a long-standing trope that men dont listen on the one hand and refuse to confide their own feelings on the other. That truism persisted, perhaps, until Allen came along and created male figures who discussed their emotional experiences ad nauseam. Arguably, their relentless airing leads to the breakups in his films; openness has its consequences, too.

Extramarital affairs also have played a role in onscreen divorce whether as the cause or symptom of deeper issues.Squids Joan is a cheater and so is George (Albert Finney), Faiths (Diane Keaton) husband in Alan Parkers Shoot the Moon (1982). But nowhere is the extramarital affair a more defining event than in Paul Mazurskys An Unmarried Woman (1978), in which Erica (Jill Clayburgh) is unceremoniously dumped by her husband, Martin (Michael Murphy), for a younger woman. His infidelity leads to divorce and simultaneously becomes a vehicle for Ericas transformation from devastation to a freshly acquired sense of self-worth. Shes no longer interested in Martin and even refuses to tie the knot with her new boyfriend Saul (Alan Bates), an embodiment of sensitivity, warmth, charm and physical appeal. Her independence takes precedence over marriage or even committing herself to spending the summer with a lover whos beyond reproach.

Often the new love interest in divorce films stands in stark contrast to the spouse, thus functioning as further provocation. In Squid, Joans new beau (played by William Baldwin) is a youthful, intellectually limited tennis pro whom Bernard views as the consummate philistine. Similarly, in Shoot the Moon, Faiths post-breakup lover (Peter Weller) is a young construction worker shes hired to build a tennis court in her backyard, which George will have to bankroll. Squids Bernard and Husbands and Wives Gabe (Allen), both creative writing teachers, court their nubile, much younger students (played by Anna Paquin and Juliette Lewis, respectively).

At the same time, in these films, it often seems to be the husbands who suffer most intensely through the divorce, usually because theyre clueless. They also shoulder the exorbitant cost of child support and alimony, causing their own lifestyles to plummet. In Squid, Bernards new abode is in serious disrepair and sparsely furnished a far distance, literally and metaphorically, from his previous (and now his wifes) comfy Park Slope brownstone. In Divorce American Style, the lowered economic status of the hubby played by Dick Van Dyke is played for laughs. The films comic heavy, a sleazy ex-husband (delightfully brought to life by Jason Robards), spends his time concocting ways, one scheme more Machiavellian than the next, to get his ex-wife wealthily remarried so that he can regain his economic equilibrium.

Even in The War of the Roses, in which Oliver is staggeringly rich and doesnt need the family home, he feels entitled to it because he paid for it and moves back in to establish ownership resulting in a mounting melee of blood-curdling assaults. Hes also acting on the advice of counsel (a hilarious Danny DeVito), a figure of unabashed corruption as seen through a Borscht Belt lens who is the predecessor of the more finely realized legal avatars of divorce in Marriage Story.

The potential loss of ones child (or children) is the crucible for the divorced dad, as first (and most poignantly) dramatized in the groundbreakingKramer vs. Kramer, a film that depicts a father who, since his wife walks out on the family, is forced to become the superior parent and deserves custody. Who can forget its three-hanky ending, when Joanna relinquishes her court-awarded rights in favor of a higher moral ground? That was, of course, a feel-good Hollywood denouement, with its obligatory nod to feminism and its credibility up for debate.

More realistic was Shoot the Moon, which memorably illustrates the impact a breakup has on the whole family (including four daughters), as well as on new partners who are not bad people but, like everyone else involved, are trapped in a no-exit morass. Finneys George, a successful writer (again), is having an affair and the tensions between him and Keatons homemaker Faith are mounting, finally erupting in an overplayed dish-breaking scene. Moving in with his mistress (Karen Allen) and her son, George is suddenly part of a new family and losing contact with his own children especially his eldest, Sherry (Dana Hill), who, identifying with her mother, rejects him. In a drunken rampage, George spanks her mercilessly.

But the films final moments say it all. After George crashes through Faiths newly built tennis court, destroying it with his car, he is beaten to a pulp by Faiths construction worker lover (Weller). He lies battered on the ground, his children clustered around him, perhaps with forgiveness. He imploringly extends his hand to Faith, who, peering down at him, remains silent, immobile, refusing to take it. The love is gone, at least from her end.

The feelings are more oblique and messier in Marriage Story, something else that makes the film feel different from the similarly themed works that preceded it. Even as Charlie and Nicole hopelessly watch the demise of their relationship, theyre still connected, however tenuously. At the divorce arbitration, an unpleasant and contentious encounter, Nicole orders Charlies lunch, knowing what he wants when he cant make up his own mind. Its a telling and touching detail.

A year later, after the divorce proceedings have come and gone, a residual love remains between them, coupled with a renewed appreciation and even a redefined affection that in no way negates the inevitability or finality of the breakup. Its both unremittingly sad and also, in its exceptional nuance, unprecedented in films about divorce.

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'Marriage Story' and the Evolution of the Divorce Film - Hollywood Reporter

Mind your business and understand the big opportunity in front of you.

Small and medium-sized business are looking for partners to help solve their business problems and theyre ready to spend resources on the right partner. But how do they know if thats your firm? How do you know if youre the right firm? Do you understand the efficiency and effectiveness of your engagements at every touch point?

If you dont, your business could suffer. Customers are in the drivers seat, they have access to more information than ever before, and in a SaaS world, swapping partners isnt that tough a proposition.

In his presentation, Mind Your Business: Heres What You Need to Know to Evolve from MSP to vCIO at the upcoming Chanel Evolution Europe, Gregg Lalle, senior vice president, International sales and strategy at ConnectWise, will discuss how partners can crystalize their value proposition to make sure theyre managing and measuring the outcomes of their strategy.

ConnectWises Greg Lalle

Lalle shares more about his upcoming presentation with Channel Futures.

Channel Futures: In the title of your presentation, it mentions vCIO, or virtual CIO, tell us more about the vCIO and what partners need to know.

Gregg Lalle: Becoming a vCIO means you become embedded in the customers boardroom and you understand what the [customers] business goals are and youre not selling technology, or some new shiny widget. Being a vCIO is insinuated in my presentation; its not like a partner has to do something to become a VCIO. Its about benchmarking and getting an understanding of the metrics that matter.

For partners, becoming a vCIO means getting a seat at the table [at the customers business]. Its about being that person that plugs into not only the customers operational goals but also helps set the strategy and delivers outcomes, so the customer reaches their goals. Its also about helping to provide data-driven decisions, which is the ultimate goal. So its not just about mapping to the current goals but with your insight help to steer, guide and influence the vision of those organizations.

CF: The vCIO concept has been around for quite some time, but it sounds like youre talking about it in another way.

GL: People use the term vCIO but no one defined it they talk about it being outcome-based, but what does that mean? To me, it means selling the alignment to the customers business goals, to the boardroom.

CF: In your session youre also going to talk about another trend M&A and the abrupt rise of operational maturity. And that private equity is changing the channel landscape. Elaborate on that for us.

GL: Many partners are getting squeezed because private equity is buying up MSPs and theyre forcing their operational maturing downstream. So partners are getting caught in the middle like a sandwich. Theyre also buying MSPs and making larger MSPs. Theyre looking for [MSP firms] to buy and operationalize on their model.

CF: Is that a good thing or a bad thing for MSPs?

GL: I think its a trend. What Im trying to say is that sometimes MSPs sit on their hands and say, My lifestyle business is going to be fine and theres no sense in me trying to act or think differently. I think its time for [MSPs] to wake up and understand that they better run their business like a business and concentrate on that 24/7 because its never been more critical than it is today.

CF: What will attendees get from your session?

GL: Were going to focus on two trends that theres tremendous opportunity in the market today and MSPs are seeing major influences from customers and PE (price to earnings ratio) alike. Were going to talk about why its important for partners to know their numbers and deliver value through selling outcome.

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What You Need to Know to Evolve Your Business - Channel Futures

November 17, 2019 - For James Whitner, thecommon directive found on luxury clothing labels, Hand Wash Cold, is more than just an instruction for care. Whitners A Ma Manireboutiques,in Atlanta, Houston and Washington, D.C.,channeltheir namesake whichtranslates from French to "my way" as ethos, a reminder to treat the things you care about with an unwavering respect. This materializes in the stores and the related community work and experience at each location,and also in the new Nike Air Force 1 A Ma Manire Hand Wash Cold.

The shoe tells a story of giving and giving back," says Whitner. Everything luxury should be taken care of, and lives in communities are delicate.

At A Ma Manire there is emphasis on creating change in each location's adjacent community. For example, in D.C., where the boutique also houses a boutique hotel, support is granted to child homelessness causes. A restaurant highlights the Houston store, and the local beneficiary is a food bank. In each, Whitner wants to balance aspiration with action.

What we do is all about youth culture and experiences," he says. "You always have to connect with the kids. If you aren't, you are not rooted in the culture."

The Nike Air Force 1 has been a constant in Whitners rotation, understood for its duality as both an aspirational product and streetwear staple.

The AF1 was our choice of shoe before we found luxury. We have to put a luxury expression on it, but do it in a way that feels uniquely ours. I wanted the shoe to look like it fits next to the brands in A Ma Manire, but still feels natural and true to Air Force 1, says Whitner.

A suede wrap to the midsole, along with other high-touch accents, makes the AF1 A Man Manire, the experiences Whitner promotes balanced in the silhouette's democratic base and its symbolic veneering.

TheAF1 A Man Manirereleases in both high and low versions. Each respective pair is individually numbered (out of 5914 for the High and 5269 for the low), for, asWhitner notes, "transparency and collectablilty."Bothhigh and low release December 7 at all A Ma Manire locations and on SNKRSin North America.

The low will also be available at select stores in U.S. and Canada:Social Status, APB, Concepts, Bodega, Creme, Shoe Gallery, UNKNWN, Trophy Room, Politics, Xhibition, Corporate, Oneness, Rooted, Sole Classics, Undefeated, Bait, Darkside Initiative, Feature, Likelihood, Livestock, Xclucity and Haven.

Originally posted here:

Nike and Foot Locker Inc. Evolution of Swoosh Chapter 2 Flight 89 Air Max 1 Air Max Plus Air Max 200 Air Force 1 React 270 - Nike News

Popular music still fills a similar social function as it did in 1894 when Billboard--then a publication covering the outdoor advertising industry --launched its first issue: It's both entertainment and a communion, a conduit for both relaxation and revelation. Still, it doesn't sound much like it did back at the dawn of the 20th Century, or even at the start of the 21st Century. As artists and businessmen alike embraced new technology, they shaped the sound and form of popular music in ways that were simply inconceivable 125 years ago. The path that connects sheet music and SoundCloud is, of course, long and twisted, but it's marked by dozens of monumental innovations and breakthroughs that shifted the direction of how music was made --and heard.

1925: Thomas Edison patented the phonograph in 1877, but the Victor Orthophonic Victrola offers high-quality audio at an affordable price, allowing music --then usually a public or communal affair --to more easily become an in-home experience.

1931:Electric microphones became common in the mid-1920s, but in the 30s artists like Bing Crosby grasp their full potential, capturing a whispered intimacy on songs like 1931s Out of Nowhere that change the relationship between artist and listener.

1940:After experimenting with stereophonic sound in the 30s, Walt Disney brings Fantasound to the masses with Fantasia.

1948: Columbia debuts long-playing 331/3rpm records, and in the following decades acts like Frank Sinatra (on 1955s In the Wee Small Hours) and TheBeatles (on 1967s Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band) would help establish the LP as a canvas for longform artistic statements.

1949:Seeking an alternative to the 78rpm record --a format prone to breakage --RCA Victor introduces 45rpm singles, which sounded better and lasted longer, lending themselves to repeated spins on jukeboxes and at home.

1951: In his Memphis Recording Service studio (later called Sun Studio), producer Sam Phillips recorded icons like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. He also pioneered many studio techniques, capturing the first fuzz guitar on Jackie Brenstons Rocket 88 in 1951 and experimenting with echo and reverb.

1952: Leo Fender unveils the Fender Esquire --the first modern, mass-produced solid-body electric guitar --ushering in a wave of musical innovation.

1955: Ampex develops Sel-Sync, a tape recorder that allows musicians to overdub an existing recording; guitarist Les Paul, at the time developing his own methods of multitrack recording, becomes an early adopter.

1962:Trailblazing producer/sound engineer Joe Meek introduces pop to an early synthesizer on The Tornados futuristic hit Telstar.

1963:The first superstar producer, Phil Spector, showcases the lush Wall of Sound production style on The Crystals Da Doo Ron Ron and The Ronettes Be My Baby.

1968: Treated as a novelty at the time, Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach introduces electronic music to the public with synthesizers developed by engineer Robert Moog and producer Rachel Elkind.

1970:Carlos had to record Switched On Bach one note at a time, a tedious process that could not be replicated live. Moog addresses this problem by unveiling the Minimoog, a small and flexible instrument designed to play live.

1974:Kraftwerk scores its first hit with Autobahn, which features a groundbreaking use of vocoder, Moog synths and other electronic instruments that laid the foundation for dance and disco music.

1978:Roland launches the first major drum machine, the CR-78, allowing users to program their own beats --and kicking off a revolution that changed the face of pop, dance and hip-hop the following decade.

1979:Tascams Portastudio brings the capabilities of multitrack recording into the bedroom, allowing musicians to create ambitious projects with unprecedented ease. Bruce Springsteens 1982 LP, Nebraska, later becomes the first major album recorded on a Portastudio.

1979:Though headphones had existed for years prior, the arrival of the Walkman cassette player turns music listening into a more personal --and portable --experience.

1979:Hip-hop DJs scratched records throughout the 70s, but Technics SL-1200MK2 turntable makes mixing beats easier than ever.

1983:The CD becomes widely available, allowing listeners to easily skip from track to track and search within a song, breaking an album into pieces in a way that would soon define the digital era.

1986:Akai releases the MPC-60, a tabletop sampler that makes sampling --the basis of hip-hop --swifter, sleeker and more democratic.

1991:Digidesign releases the first version of Pro Tools, which brings the power of multitrack recording to a computer and infinitely expands the possibilities of what musicians can create on their own.

1998:Chers Believe puts the creative possibilities of Auto-Tune and pitch correction on the map; in the next decade, hip-hop artists like T-Pain and Kanye West embrace it.

2001:Though the MP3 was born in the 90s, the arrival of the iPod and iTunes makes listening to the format easier than ever --and introduces many music fans to playlists.

2004:Apple introduces GarageBand, an entry-level alternative to Pro Tools that would democratize digital recording technology and even empower established hitmakers: Rihannas Umbrella is built around one of the softwares free drum loops.

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 16issue of Billboard.

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Mapping Music's Evolution: 23 Breakthroughs That Changed How We Listen - Billboard

Invisible Hits is a column in which Tyler Wilcox scours the internet for the best (and strangest) bootlegs, rarities, outtakes, and live clips.

Wilco rose from the ashes of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo 25 years ago this week, playing live for the first time on November 17, 1994. Theyve been a reliably great touring act ever since. Of course, if you ask three Wilco diehards which live iteration of the band is preferred, youre liable to get three different answers. Over the past quarter-century, band leader Jeff Tweedy has demonstrated his preference for change above all else, whether its shuffling the lineup or dramatically shifting the musical direction. Its a strategy thats worked out well: 11 studio albums in, Wilcos fanbase remains fiercely devoted.

A dig into the bands deep live archive is a rewarding and often surprising experience. Watch and listen as Wilco reinvents itself over and over again.

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Wilco made their onstage debut in St. Louis a week before this Chicago gig, and while there is a recording of that show, its rough and with a severely unbalanced mix. This tape is a much more enjoyable listen and features virtually the same setlist, giving us a glimpse of the early lineup that included guitarist Jay Bennett. Wilcos newly-added ringer already sounds right at home as the band rolls amiably through most of A.M., their then-unreleased debut, plus a few previews of 1996s Being There and some Tweedy-penned Uncle Tupelo chestnuts. The set is filled out with a few covers, most notably a revved-up rendition of Tom Pettys Listen to Her Heart. One can imagine Wilcos major-label A&R reps seeing the band as a potential 90s version of Petty and the Heartbreakers, just one left-field, roots-rock-flavored hit away from selling out arenas. But Tweedy had other things in mind.

The waves of billowing feedback that open this Chicago gig two years later situate Wilco firmly outside of the mainstream, even as the bands audience was growing. Being There featured plenty of classic rock thrills, but Tweedy and co. contrasted them with a healthy dose of self-awareness and occasionally dissonant sonics. Onstage, Wilco could shift gears expertly, whether blasting through the ramshackle power-pop of Outtasite (Outta Mind) or exploring the dark corners of Sunken Treasure. With Bennett increasingly utilizing an arsenal of vintage keyboards, the sonic textures available to the band expanded considerably, often moving songs into spacier realms. Wilco was still one helluva rock band, thoughcheck out the unhinged remake of the solo acoustic tune Someone Elses Song, where Tweedy howls over Crazy Horse-esque cacophony.

By 1999, the Jay Bennett era of Wilco was reaching its onstage peak, bursting with ideas that went in several directions at once but came together thrillingly. Just five years into their career, Wilco had a dizzying array of material to choose from: the adventurous avant-pop of Summerteeth, the visionary folk-rock of the Mermaid Avenue sessions, the crowd-pleasing jams of Being There and A.M. This punishingly sunny festival gig in the summer of 99 is heavy on just-released Summerteeth songs, with Bennetts increasingly upfront contributions adding color and vibes aplenty. His gorgeous mellotron-like keyboards and sweet harmony vocals on Shes a Jar perfectly contrast the fragmented poetry of Tweedys lyrics. Their close partnership in the late 1990s was a fruitful one, but it wouldnt last.

Three years later, Wilco was back on the European festival circuit, only with a radically different lineup. Bennett and drummer Ken Coomer didnt make it past the contentious, protracted Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions, leaving bassist John Stirratt as the last man standing from the early days. Even with the addition of ace drummer Glenn Kotche, it would take a minute for Wilco to adjust, especially considering the tricky twists and turns of YHF. But thats one of the odd pleasures of listening to live recordings from this era: You get to hear a band stripped of the previous years swagger and emerging in a new form. The highlight of this show arguably comes during Laminated Cat, a song that originated with Loose Fur, Tweedy and Kotches side project with Jim ORourke. Tweedy steps out a bit on lead guitar, playing elemental lines as the band whips up a storm of hypnotic rhythm. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot almost finished Wilco, but there was plenty of life left in this band.

Following the release of 2004s A Ghost Is Born, Tweedy put together the powerhouse lineup that has survived to this day. Stirratt remained in place, along with Kotche and YHF-era multi-instrumentalist Mikael Jorgenson. The new additions were guitarist/keyboardist Pat Sansone and guitarist Nels Cline, who lent his experimental chops to the mix. From almost the very beginning, this was an astoundingly versatile ensemble, capable of definitive readings of virtually every song in the Wilco songbook.

At Lollapalooza 2008, clad in Nudie suits, the band cruised through the dazzling interplay of Sky Blue Sky centerpiece Impossible Germany, locked in on the krautrock-inspired Spiders (Kidsmoke), and blasted out a celebratory and soulful Monday. Tweedy, not usually very demonstrative onstage, looks positively ecstatic. One thing I think all of us have in common in our band is gratitude, he wrote in his 2018 memoir, Lets Go (So We Can Get Back). We all know how hard making a band work really is. When things are going well and I dont mean just commerciallywhen youre enjoying it and you can feel everyone is working toward and excited about a common causeit should never be taken for granted.

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Wilcos lineup has remained stable for the last 15 years, but the band is still trying new things live. The members launched a festival, Solid Sound, at the MASS MoCA museum in 2010, and its been held most summers since then. The self-curated lineups tend to reflect Wilcos omnivorous tastes; this years included Jean Grae, Jonathan Richman, Mdou Moctar, and Cate Le Bon, not to mention a healthy dose of comedy and visual art.

Solid Sound also serves as a chance for Wilco to dig into the back catalogue, rewarding fans with deep cuts, full-album performances, and off-beat covers. You can get a taste of these often never-repeated performances either via the bands own Roadcase series of digital releases or NYC Tapers sanctioned audience tapes. Check out a remarkable all-covers set from 2013, highlighted by Wilco-ized renditions of Televisions Marquee Moon, Daft Punks Get Lucky, and Pavements Cut Your Hair. Or listen to a sprawling 2017 show when the band played both Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot front to back. Or enjoy this years career-spanning retrospective, an absorbing set that looked back while also previewing their new album, Ode to Joy. A quarter-century into their run, Wilcos sound remains as solid as ever.

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Tracing Wilcos Live Evolution Through Their Best Bootlegs - Pitchfork