Category Archives: Illuminati

The makers of Love Aaj Kal are back with romcom Cocktail, featuring Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty in lead roles.

Dinesh Vijan, producer of Illuminati Films, says, Cocktail is creating a buzz online, so we are getting Saif and Deepika to give tips to youngsters and enhance our connect with the audience. Though it seems targeted mainly towards youngsters, a source from the film adds, In their new avatar, the duo will offer advice to people across all ages. Both will provide their own perspective on issues.

While Saif will throw light on relationship dilemmas from a guys point of view, Deepika will try to solve the difficulties of women with commitment issues. The source adds, Their own characters in the film are sketched in such a way that personalities of any type can relate to them. They portray various shades they are carefree, audacious, loving, adventurous and sensitive, which are pretty much the attributes all people possess. To participate, log on to facebook. com/joinusforcocktail?ref=ts

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Delhi - [ Min 31.6 °C

Colchester Carnival parade...plus a whole day of fun

3:20pm Friday 29th June 2012 in News By Neil D'Arcy-Jones

FIVE festivals in one day. Thats what awaits Colchester Carnival-goers this weekend.

Run by Colchester Round Table and Colchester Ladies Circle, with help from Dorien Kelly of Colchester creative events company, Illuminati, tomorrows event looks set to be the biggest and best yet.

As well as the procession itself, which starts at 4pm from Boundary Road North and ends at 6pm at the entrance to Castle Park off the High Street, there will be a fun-packed family day in Castle Park from 11am to 8pm, which includes live music, workshops and dance troupes.

A special Olympic treat this year will be Essex County Council and Walk the Planks Sparks Will Fly Festival, which has already wowed audiences in Harwich, Braintree and Maldon, and will be doing likewise in Colchester tomorrow.

Our giant character is Marina Mightier and shell not only be picking up Colchesters glass bead, but also taking part in the procession itself.

If that wasnt enough, carnival organisers have also put together a Celebrate Diversity! event, which will celebrate the traditions, culture and talents of Colchesters ethnic community with music, dance, catering and crafts.

Theres even a world record attempt to beat the number of people playing hopscotch at any one time.

That is being organised by Live Art Collective East and takes place in Lower Castle Park from 2pm to 3pm.

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Colchester Carnival parade...plus a whole day of fun

My early gaming years consisted of a number of well-known titles from a wide variety of publishers, but a good majority of them came from one source Steve Jackson Games. I still have a large collection of those small black plastic boxes that were so inexpensive and easy to carry in a backpack Illuminati (and two expansions) was always fun to play, but I dont think I played any game more during my 9th and 10th grade years than Car Wars. I had a small group of friends who enjoyed it just as much as I did, and while I cant speak to their dedication I can say that I probably spent way too much time ignoring my teachers lectures as I tinkered with various weight and prices to find the right balance of firepower, armor, and speed. That first edition of Car Wars was so simple to play, too. At first, there were no expansions (no 18-wheelers or arena style scenarios) it was just strips of road with oil slicks and debris presenting hazards to your vehicle as you raced down the road, chasing and sometimes being chased, trying to keep your car and driver alive while trying to eliminate the other players.

Recently Steve Jackson Games had an amazing Kickstarter project that raised almost a million dollars to fund a special edition of one of their classic games, OGRE. It was during the fundraising for this game that SJG announced that if funding reached a certain level they would do a similar special edition release of Car Wars. This was a huge announcement that fans of Car Wars loved to hear, but there was only one problem the Car Wars Designer Edition wouldnt happen until 2013. Late 2013 if memory serves. Im a patient guy, but I want some vehicle combat now!

I dont have a reliable gaming group these days as I did in high school, and I certainly dont have anyone nearby who is familiar with the rules of Car Wars. After numerous expansions, a number of Uncle Albert weapons catalog resources, and a few revisions to the rules, Car Wars is most definitely in need of (and deserving) of a special edition. Theres already been some discussion about what the special edition might contain, and not everyone seems to agree. For me, Id like to see it re-released in a simpler format, without all the extra stuff such as boats and helicopters and gasoline-powered vehicles that made the game a bit bloated for my tastes. I just want a return to what made the original Car Wars so fun configure your vehicle, line up some road strips, sprinkle it with some hazards and burned-out vehicles, and let the combat begin. It remains to be seen how the Car Wars Designer Edition will develop, but in the meantime Ive found something thats got just the right amount of vehicle combat mixed with some simplified game mechanics. Its called Outrider, and its pretty darn cool.

Outrider is from Dice Fest Games, and its a digital game that you buy and print yourself. All the game components come in PDF files that can be printed out in black and white, but the components look best printed in full color. For my test of the games I printed them on standard printer paper, but after a few games I realized that card stock is definitely the way to go itll last longer and wont slide off the table so easily. I will probably have some of the components laminated soon, but I do expect to reprint some of the components on card stock just for durability purposes. That said, the game is for 2 to 6 players, but the more players you expect to play will increase the printing costs. Expect to drop between $20 and $30 on color printing for just 2 players. Each additional player (who will require a number of game components that arent shared) will probably add between $5 and $10 to the cost. Finally, the game comes with a number of large scenarios that will require a number of road and building board pieces, so expect to drop between $5 and $20 for a good variety of four-way, three-way, straight, and curved road board pieces. There are elements on many of the pieces that are color-coded, but a few components can be printed in black and white but not many. Still, for about $40 worth of card stock printing (this price includes the 20 page manual), youll end up with a nice little game that can give up to 4 players a good 45-60 minute game.

And speaking of the game the game does incorporate a mix of luck and skill. Each player will need four dice one 6d, one 8d, one 10d, and one 12d. The game has a very interesting way of providing balance to gameplay by having each player assign one of each type of die to four different Vehicle Cards. These four cards make up the Dashboard of your vehicle they track things like armor, skill points, and damage. But they also are used for customizing your vehicle. Want the fastest car on the table? Assign the 12d to the Engine category and get 600HP and the maximum number of Action Points for each turn. But youve still got to configure the Driver, Armor, and Weapons for your car. Put some major damage-dealing weapons on your vehicle by assigning Weapons the 10d. Now its a tough decision for the 6d and 8d allocation do you assign the 6d to the Driver slot and give your driver only 6 Skill Points that can be used to tweak the maneuvers you can perform or give it to the Armor and have the lowest amount of coverage in the game? Its a fast and fair way to provide variation in the game while not giving any one player the fastest, most dangerous, and best armored vehicle on the road.

Game turns are broken into three sequences Initiative, Action, and End. The Initiative and End phases are fast and easy to deal with, leaving the Action stage where the, uh action happens. This is where you, as the driver, make decisions about your cars maneuvers, where its firing, and what it might be ramming or impacting. Once again, the system of four dice is used to control various aspects of each players turn. Each player has a series of cards that have various types of maneuvers on them a Hard Right, an Easy Left, a Punch It!, and many more. Each maneuver has a certain level of risk, and your engine gives you a certain number of Action Points (AP) that you can use to select a number of maneuver cards to place in front of your vehicle to plan the cars movement. Your driver, with a die assigned for his skill level, must roll equal to or higher than the total of any maneuver cards (and added hazards) to successfully complete a movement. Fail the roll, and the rules easily tell you where along the planned path your car is in trouble and whether the outcome is a slight skid or a loss of control (and loss of your turn).

Included in the games PDF files are a number of vehicle cards with characteristics that affect various rolls. Each type of car has four characteristics that can affect the roll of the dice Acceleration, Handling, Defense, and Firepower. So its possible to select a car type (such as The Interceptor or The Linebacker) with bonuses for defense or firepower and either buff them up by adding the 10d or 12d to the appropriate Dashboard cards or balance out weaknesses in a vehicle by buffing those weaknesses with the higher powered dice.

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Fast and Furious Vehicle Combat With Outrider

Dangerous livesa lot of rappers like to brag about leading them. But Billy Bloodshot faces more danger than most.

Any day, you could find me dead on the side of the road, says the 29-year-old aspiring MC, who, by day, drives a truck hauling petroleum, which he describes as riding around with an 80,000-pound bomb on my back.

Any situation where you know life could be over changes things, but I face it every day, he says. When youre going down a mountain at 90 mph with that 80,000 pounds behind you, it changes your perspective. I been in some street situations, but this is a whole different level.

Bloodshot spent a number of years on the street. I aint gonna lie and say I was some kind of kingpin. I was doing what everybody else in the white Ts is doing, he says of his past. The money was pretty good, and I was good. Then I had a son. I know people with five kids and theyre still jumping fences to hide from the police. I didnt want my son to come up like that. When I first got this job and got insurance and went to the doctor and it was coveredI liked that.

With this job and his family, Bloodshot says that he is in the best place Ive ever been in my life. Thats why he wants to give up the rap gamesort of.

Bloodshot is hanging out, as he often does on his days off, drinking Boh with his sister Akaia Gamble in the house she shares with her longtime boyfriend Will B. Smilardo. The house smells invitingly of Old Bay from the crab house next-door and is decorated with eclectic and antique furniture. Portraits of MLK and JFK hang side by side on the wall. A rabbit hops around, chewing up whatever it can get its teeth on.

Bloodshot and his sister are black, and Smilardo, also a truck driver, is white, and hes Bloodshots biggest supporter. He is a talker, and he wont shut up when it comes to Billy Bloodshots music.

Theres nobody out there doing anything as good as Billy, Smilardo says to anyone who will listen. He contacted City Paper about Bloodshot and maintains the SoundCloud account called da CRABCAKE . . . (BMores Best Jumbo THUMP, NO FILLERS!).

Hes obsessed with Billys music, Akaia says of her boyfriend with a good-natured eye-roll.

Bloodshot himself is a different storyhaunted by rap, he says, he can neither quit it nor entirely embrace it. He was reluctant to talk to CP, and he doesnt do live shows. He is interested in the art, but he sees little need for the business and promotional ends of the game and seems happy to take a trip to the studio every couple months.

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Rihanna and Azealia Banks wear the Egyptian trend at the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend 2012 in London, England. Photo: Getty Images

This weekend, the London borough of Hackney played host to a major two-day music extravaganza put on by BBC Radio 1. The festival, cleverly titled Hackney Weekend *WINK*, attracted music heavy-weights (like Rihanna) and rookies alike (enter Miss Azealia Banks), not to mention a sea of well-clad concert-goers which obviously included the two aforementioned fashionistas. Serendipitously, both Ri and Banks opted for the growing Egyptian trend this weekend, but we want to know who you think wore this look best.

Illuminati rumors be damned, Rihanna and Azealia took Hackney Weekend on wielding evil eyes and pyramids but each with their own personal spin. Rihanna paired black denim cut-offs (ever the festival staple) layered over sheer bike shorts with an oversized symmetrical leopard print tee, but it's her leather motorcycle jacket that is the real focal point here. For her performance, she stepped out from a golden triangle in this jacket emblazoned with gold mirrored ankh crosses along the placket and two giant Eye of Horus symbols on the shoulders. She finished off her outfit with a pair of brand new Air Yeezy 2 sneakers which ALSO have hieroglyphics along the cross-strap and on the tongue. #attentiontodetail

Meanwhile, Azealia wore a long-sleeved maxi dress from the Spring/Summer 2012 Topshop Unique collection. The dress features a Keith Haring-esque Eye of Providence/all-seeing eye graphic across the chest and gradually thickening stripes along the sleeves and skirt. Banks accessorized with some heavy metal studded chokers and what look like purple plastic rainboots. This is a totally different take than Rihanna's, for sure, but you tell us: who wore it best?

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Related Content Let's Talk About Rihanna's Baroque Accessory Game, Azealia Banks Gets Silly In Summery Separates For 'Paper' Magazine, Rihanna Loves Wearing Skirts With Converse Sneakers

Tags Azealia Banks, Egyptian, Hackney Weekend, Rihanna, Topshop Unique, Trend, Who Wore It Better

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Rihanna Or Azealia Banks: Who Wore The Egyptian Trend Best?

June 25, 2012 12:57 am

Saif Ali Khan is back to doing romantic comedy with `Cocktail` and the film`s producer says the genre belongs to the actor as he has had the most success doing such films.

After hit films in genre like `Hum Tum`, `Salaam Namaste`, `Kal Ho Na Ho` and `Love Aaj Kal`, Saif is playing a happy-go-lucky Delhi guy who loves women in `Cocktail`. He won a national award for best actor for his role in `Hum Tum`. The romantic comedy genre belongs to Saif, he can do such films with ease as his comic timing is phenomenal. Saif and I both love this genre and we have worked together in `Love Aaj Kal` and now in `Cocktail`, producer Dinesh Vijan said.

The Homi Adajania-directed romantic comedy stars Saif, Deepika Padukone and debutante Diana Penty, besides Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani. Releasing on July 13, `Cocktail` is made under Saif`s banner Illuminati Films.

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Meet the king of romantic comedy genre – Saif Ali

Clothes? How can clothes be clever? They arent sentient, they do little but unfurl messily over your floor and(lamentably) they dont write your essays for you. Cynicism may make you wonder: wheres the connection between buying material objects and flexing brain matter?

Somewhere in Australia a cult fashion label called Black Milk creatively labour to make the traditionally lofty realms of art, astronomy, history, geography and culture accessible through their combination of maverick, breathtaking design and cutting edge use of social media.

My favourite example is their recent addition of the art of Vincent Van Gogh to their leggings collection. Arguably, the only thing more fulfilling than gazing upon Starry night is having the work on your body. Imagination cant do them justice, so Ive served up a picture from their Facebook fanbase:

Black Milks Starry Night leggings: $75.00 AUD (Approximately 50 GBP.)

Crafting fashion from one of the most evocative impressionist paintings isnt enough for this missionary label, who have pressed ardently on with their mission to make masterpieces of ladies legs, with twists on Le Cafe, The Great Wave, Der Kuss and the art of Mucha.

Black Milk have also taken inspiration from the Hubble project. I took the bold decision to bravely go where no financially sensible person has ever gone and invest in a pair of galaxy leggings. Still, 50 is a worthwhile price to have the satisfaction of the universe on your legs although it leaves you vulnerable to the inventively lecherous creep who tells you that your ass is out of this world.

Black Milks Galaxy leggings, $75.00 AUD (Approximately 50 GBP)

Securing proud ownership of a pair takes effort and expense. At approximately 50 each theyre extravagant, particularly when the more easily copied designs can be found in The Marlands for a tenth of the original cost. So why on earth would anybody, let alone students, want to invest in these items?

One reason is the sheer quality. Theyre thick enough to stop my legs from getting cold and the designs are so detailed and precise that I stare in to my thighs a little too often (is there ever a good time?) But much of Black Milks success owes to the way they integrate social media into their business. Facebook fans face a daily barrage of girls wearing their clothes in a variety of quirky ways (free advertising in other words.) A combination of high demand and the length of time it takes to craft them means that many items sell out quickly, leading to a frenzy, a frenzy that you increasingly want to be a part of. Its all rather like a cult. Fittingly theyve even made leggings that tap in to the theme of conspiracy, with Illuminati symbols.

Girl in Skeleton Swimsuit, $99 AUD (Approximately 65 GBP) and Suspender Black Leggings, $125 AUD (Approximately 80 GBP)

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The Cult of Clever Clothes

Every year it is part of the narrative of the NBA finals fans the team coming out on the bottom are convinced that their heroes would win if it were not for the referees clearly having it in for their team and David Stern trying to determine the outcome. You can count on it like rain showers on a humid day on Maui, like you can count on coming across an interesting smell walking the streets of New York.

The last few days its the Thunder fans Kevin Durant keeps getting in foul trouble, LeBron James isnt getting in trouble, the Heat took 11 more free throws in Game 3 and clearly this is all being controlled by Stern and the Illuminati. And Jay-Z.

Stop it. Just stop it. The referees are not deciding the finals.

Their calls are not perfect, and we can all agree that some of the calls in the last game on Kevin Durant were borderline.

But the refs had been calling it tight on the perimeter all game and Durant didnt adjust. Plus, Brooks has him often guarding one of the strongest and most aggressive players the league has ever seen, and LeBron James happens to be on a hot streak, too. Thats your problem.

Let me break it down.

The Thunder didnt lose Game 2 because of a no call on Durants last shot, they lost because they were down 18-2 to start the game. The Heat only won one quarter of that game, the first quarter, but it turns out that counts as much as the other three. Who knew?

The free throw disparity in Game 3 is because the Heat were aggressive and getting into the paint. Plus you stupidly fouled three point shooters twice. In Game 3 the Heat had 35 shots right at the rim and took 35 free throws, the Thunder took 27 shots at the rim and had 24 free throws. Thats called correlation folks.

LeBron isnt getting in foul trouble because hes a good defender that really never gets in foul trouble. He fouled out in the playoffs last round and it was the first time ever he fouled out in the post season. For a guy drawing tough defensive assignments every night its a testament to the fact hes good. Thats not a conspiracy.

You lost Game 3 because Scott Brooks kept Durant on LeBron then when Durant was in foul trouble sat Russell Westbrook at the same time, so Miami went on a 15-3 run. But it was still close late and you lost because James Harden was a hot mess. Plus you missed nine free throws.

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Our annual reminder to fans: The referees are not deciding the finals

Parents blogging about parenting isn't new.

It became an official "thing" the usual way: when the New York Times ran a trend piece.

That was in 2005, when, according to Catherine Connors of parenting site Babble, Technorati estimated that 8,500 moms and dads were blogging about parenting. By 2010 there were 4.2 million, Connors said. (Babble and ABC News are owned by Disney.)

Most of them are women, who, as we know, have healthier faculties of self-expression. "Mommy bloggers" have recently exploded in number, becoming a new "thing." But we Dads have gotten into the game.

According to a survey released Wednesday by Euro RSCG, 52 percent of "Digital Dads" "those leading-edge influencers who are shaping trends and markets" (EURO RSCG is a marketing/PR firm) and 20 percent of "Average Joes" have written about parenting online via a blog, Facebook or another site.

Dad blogs vary widely, from intimate, when-I-can-squeeze-it-into-my-schedule journals aimed at friends and family to slick, ad-filled sites that keep the family in juice and diapers.

Some increasingly engage in social activism.

In February, Doug French, blogger of Laid-Off Dad , helped spark a "shop-in" at JCPenney to support its partnering with Ellen DeGeneres after a conservative advocacy group slammed the retailer for having a gay spokesperson.

Here is a sampling of clickworthy Dad blogs.

Message With A Bottle is tersely funny in a lad-mag way. In 2010 Chris Illuminati quit his job and became a stay-at-home dad and freelance writer. His posts revolve around photographs of Post-It notes, which he used for work and began incorporating into taking care of his son.

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7 Dad Blogs Worth Reading

By its very nature, it's hard to know exactly what's going on in a conspiracy. However, Electronic Arts and developer Funcom are trying to rectify that with the third beta weekend for The Secret World.

The game is based around our modern-day world where secret societies vie for control, and this latest beta weekend lets player get a taste of the beginnings of the Dragon and Illuminati factions. The beta, starting on June 15 at 9 a.m. pacific and ending on June 17 at 11:59 p.m., also features the Polaris and Hell Rising dungeons.

EA says the best way to gain access to the beta is by pre-ordering the game (which grants you some other goodies as well), and the game's official site will also list places where you can possibly get a free key.

The Secret World comes out for PC on July 3rd.

For a look at a dev. diary on the game, check it out here.

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The Secret World Starting Third Beta