Category Archives: New Utopia

Todd Rundgren(Photo: Provided by the artist)

Todd Rundgren may be on the phone to draw attention to an all-star tribute to the Beatles' "White Album" on which he'll share a stage withMicky Dolenz of the Monkees, Joey Molland of Badfinger, Christopher Cross,and Jason Scheff of Chicago.

But that doesn't mean he has to like it.

And by "it," I mean "The White Album."

"I make no bones about it," Rundgrensays.

"I think it's a contender for the Beatles' worst album. And it's not necessarily a judgment about the music on it. I'm talking about a Beatle album, not a bunch of half attempts at solo albums, which is what 'The White Album' is. So as a Beatle album, it's terrible. Very rarely do all four of them play at the same time on the record. Having said that,it was a great start for a George Harrison solo record."

Rundgren laughs, as he does often in the course of casuallydismissing one of rock's most celebrated albums with a disarmingly playful irreverence that couldn't be morecharming.

"It was the first time George had contributed so much material to a single record," he says. "But again, it was likeyou could tell that they weren't writing together anymorethat often, they weren't playing together ... The result was not necessarily the best material out of them, even as solo writers."

Todd Rundgren performs on March 14, 2015, in Pala, California.(Photo: Daniel Knighton/FilmMagic)

Then, he takes the gloves off.

"I mean, a lot of John's material is just dolorous," he says. "And much of Paul's materialis pointless. Like, why would he write a song like Honey Pie unless he found out that Winchester Cathedral had topped the charts and he said, Oh, I can do that?"

Rundgren laughs again, then wraps up his critique with "Having said that, that doesn't necessarily compromise the audience's enjoyment at hearing it reproduced."

So how did Rundgren find himself saluting an album he views as a contender for the Beatles' worst?

He's worked with the production company before on other Fab Fourtributes.

"I have been out with Christopher Cross before, doing some sort of Beatles tribute," he says, "and also with the producer of this particular show in other sort of lineups. So my name usually comes up when they're planning one of these things."

This tour was meant to happen in 2018. Hence the title It Was Fifty Years Ago Today A Tribute to the Beatles' White Album.

"They were trying to put it together for last year, which was actually the 50th anniversary of 'The White Album,'" he says.

"But when you're dealing with trying to line up a number of different musical personalities, getting everyone cleared from their other obligations so that they can go out at a particular time is difficult. That's why the tour has been broken up into two chunks. From a logistical standpoint, it's always a question of who's gonna be free to do something like this. And I just happened to be free."

The Beatles "Abbey Road."(Photo: Apple Corps LTD)

He's previously done a tour saluting "Abbey Road," an album often celebrated as the Beatles rallying for one last masterpiece.

And if you're wondering whether Rundgren falls in that camp?

"'Abbey Road' was a terrific comeback, yes, from that record," he says, "because it sounds like a Beatles record. Its still got a lot of that whimsy in there, but it isn't John moaning and weeping through the whole thing. And it isn't Paul going off on bizarre tangents. And George Harrison continues to contribute some really interesting stuff to the mix."

He was surprised, in fact, that they could still produce an "Abbey Road" at that point.

"Everybody was," he says. "I mean, whether or not you liked the material on 'The White Album,' anyone who was a hardcore Beatle fan recognized it as the breakup, as the beginning of the end of the Beatles. And for that reason alone, that album has just a weird vibe around it. I said, 'Wait a minute. Is this is this gonna be their last record?'"

Rundgren and his tourmateswon't be doing the entire album, only most of it.

"Obviously," he says, "there are some songs that were intended as vanity projects or throwaways just to fill up the record. We're not doing Revolution 9.'"

He laughs, then says, "I think we quote it somewhere in the show, but we're not actually attempting that. We're not doing Wild Honey Pie. Unfortunately, we are doing Honey Pie. There are things on the record that I don't think would even survive an attempt to translate into the live context."

Todd Rundgren performs with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz. November 15, 2016.(Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

Asked how they went about divvying up the tracks, he says, "Before we had rehearsals, it was kind of like whatever didn't seem obvious, we would either claim or allow to be assigned to us. I only had maybe one or two songs that I really wanted to do. I wanted to do While My Guitar Gently Weeps because I've done it before. On a George Harrison tribute album. And with the LA Symphony Orchestra. Ive just done it to death and so it seemed to be my thing. The rest of the songs I'm doing are sort of like attrition in a way. They were left over when everyone else grabbed what they wanted."

Nobody wanted to do "Helter Skelter," for instance, he says. "Because essentially it's just a screaming contest."

Rundgren laughs before concluding, "So I wound up doing 'Helter Skelter' just because it has to be done, but nobody else really wanted to do it."

The concert is divided into two parts, allowing Rundgren and his bandmates to perform a handful of their own songs in addition to the Beatles cover.

"We get that out of the way in the first set," Rundgren says. "So that the second set is pretty much all Beatles all the time."

In addition to having done a Beatles tour with Cross, he and Molland go way back. Rundgren produced the third Badfinger album, "Straight Up," after Harrison was forced to bail to focus on the Concert for Bangladesh.

But he'd never met Dolenz or Scheff.

"Fortunately, everyone is getting along well," he says. "These kind of odd combinations of players, especially ones who haven't worked together before, can sometimes be fraught with conflict. Having been in several versions of Ringos All Stars, I know how that can be when it doesn't work. But fortunately, everyone seems supportive of each other, which is a good thing because we're on a very crowded tour bus."

Micky Dolenz of The Monkees performs at Alice Cooper's Rock & Roll Fundraising Bash at the Las Sendas Golf Club in Mesa on April 27, 2019.(Photo: Nathan J. Fish/The Republic)

For those who may be wondering if Rundgren was a Monkees fan back in the day, he says, "I graduated from high school in 1966 when they were just, I think, about to hit the airwaves. I .. you know, I did not find it that amusing. I mean, they took all of the goofiness of A Hard Day's Night and just looped it over and over again you know, all the sped-up motion antics and stuff like that. So a lot of it was just imitative of the Beatles. And by that point, I was in a blues band."

Rundgren laughs, then says, "When I was 18, I left high school and joined a blues band. So even though I was still Beatle fan, I was moving on musically to other things."

It should be noted that despite the ease with which he's able to dismiss a "Honey Pie" or "Helter Skelter," Rundgren is a Beatles fan who got on board with the initial wave of Beatlemania in high school.

"I recall my first encounter with the Beatles," he says. "I was in the library in high school, just killing time, and I opened Time magazine and there was a little article on the 20th page or something about this new phenomenonin England. The only signature thing Igleaned from it was the fact that they grew their hair long. This immediately appealed to me because I hated having my hair cut."

Ringo Starr and Todd Rundgren celebrate Ringo's birthday at the Capitol Records Building on July 7, 2014 in Los Angeles.(Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images for John Varvatos)

Some weeks later, Rundgren says, he heard a new sound on the radio.

"And ironically enough,I knew it was that long-haired band from England. For some reason, I just knew it. It sounded like them. You know, American pop music up to then was based on the Elvis model, where you had some handsome front guy and a backup band and you never knew who the guys in the band were."

This was clearly something different.

"They all they sang together," Rundgren says. "They had what sounded like double-tracked voices on all the songs because Paul and John were singing the melodies together. That was an unusual sound. It was redolent of the Everly Brothers, but it was just way more rocking and amped up. So when I first heard it,I knew it was them. I said, 'This has to be them.' And sure enough, the DJ said, 'Thats this new band the Beatles, with "Please Please Me.""

The idea of starting a band lit a fire in Rundgren.

"The whole idea that you could as a young teenager go out and find three friends and start a band and grow your hair, obviously, and have girls chase you, that was a brand new formula. And it changed everything. From then on, nobody cared about lead singers."

The Beatles.(Photo: Apple Corp.)

Even now, those early days of Beatlemania remain his favorite era of the Beatles.

"I am very partial to the early Beatles," Rundgren says. "But a lot of that is because of their rapid evolution until Sgt Pepper. In fact, probably my favorite Beatle album or the Beatle album that gave me the most pleasure right off the bat was 'Revolver.' I thought I was kind of following where they were going. And then everybody said, 'Well, you can't really listen to "Sgt. Pepper" unless you're on acid.' And I wasn't taking any drugs at all at the time. So I thought, 'Well, I guess I'm just not getting this record.'"

Rundgren laughs, then says, "No matter what I think of it, there's something in there I don't understand. Sgt. Pepper was harder for me to get into it even though it was like someone dropped an atom bomb in the middle of town, you know? It was all anybody was listening to at that point."

In later years, he says, "I found it easier to sort of imitate what they were doing. But I was not one of those people who was so in the thrall of the Beatles that it was to the exclusion of any other influences. I was equally influenced by the Beach Boys, especially when they started to get away from the pop ditties and into things like Good Vibrations. Andaround my graduation at 18, as the Beatles were evolving into 'The White Album,' I became more interested in things like jazz. So the demise of the Beatles kind of went along with me bidding my youthful response to music goodbye."

A former member of Nazz and Utopia, Rundgren's best-known songs include "Hello It's Me," "We Gotta Get You a Woman," "I Saw the Light," "Can We Still Be Friends," "Set Me Free" and "Bang the Drum All Day." He's also known for his production work, including classic albums by the likes of XTC, the New York Dolls and Badfinger.(Photo: Provided by the artist's Facebook page)

As his musicianship developed, Rundgren says, "Things were much more understandable to me when I would listen to them.They would not have that same sort of mystiquebecause now I was a musician and I was involved in the process.I was more aware of everything that went into it. So the Beatles just naturally became less mystical to me in a way."

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

Support local journalism.Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

When:8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $40-$299.

Details: 602-267-1600,celebritytheatre.com.

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Todd Rundgren says why he's doing a tribute to one of the Beatles' 'worst' albums - AZCentral

There's an influx of new cannabis-infused drinks, so here's everything you need to know about them all.

November29, 20198 min read

Why do consumers love drinkable cannabis? Let us count the ways. It's discreet, it requires no special equipment, it tastes good, and it's a familiar and safe delivery system.

Weed-infused drinksmake up one of the fastest-growing segments of the cannabis market. It's a sprawling category that includes tinctures to mix with cocktails; non-alcoholic alternatives to wine, beer, or champagne; wellness beverages that can lull you to sleep or take the place of aspirin or ibuprofen after a strenuous game of hoops or tennis; and sparkling sodas that are as appealing to millennials as they are to baby boomers who aren't comfortable lighting up.

Here are answers to some common questions about cannabis tonics.

RELATED:Hilary McCain Gives A 'Sweet Reason' To Try Her CBD-Infused, All-Natural Sparkling Waters

Bottoms up!Straddling the lines among intoxicating drinks, wellness shots, and liquid medicine, drinkable cannabis is taking off.According toBDS Analytics, which tracks cannabis trends, there were 88 beverage brands on the market in mid-2019; that's 19 more than during the same time period in 2018. In 2018, beverages made up 6 percentof thetotal edibles marketin the United States. That percentage is rising steadily and BDS predicts that by 2022canna-beverages, includingTHC and cannabidiol (CBD) productssold in dispensaries and non-THC drinks sold in supermarkets, drugstores, convenience stores, and the like could be a $1 billion market.

A lot of familiar names are behind this boom.Mike Tysonhas launchedDwiink, a line of CBD-enhanced water and fruit-flavored beverages whose name is a playful wink to his trademark lisp. Big booze distributors are investing heavily in weedy drinks: Heineken-ownedLagunitas offers Hi-Fi Hops, a pair ofnonalcoholic, zero-calorie beveragesthat come in two dosages, 10 milligrams THC, or 5 milligrams each of THC and CBD per bottle.

Constellation Brands, which owns Corona beer, Robert Mondavi wine, and Svedka vodka, is investing billions in Canopy Growth, a mega Canadian cannabis producer that's creating nonalcoholic cannabis-infused drinks.Molson Coorsis partnering with Canada's Hydropothecary Corp. on a similar venture.

Meanwhile, the maker ofArizona Iced Teahas signed a licensing agreement with Dixie Brands to manufacture and distribute canna-drinks under the Arizona label.

Other companies are expanding into the drinks space, such as Weller, a manufacturer of functional snacks. The Boulder, Colorado, company in 2019 launched a line of CBD-infused sparkling water flavors it calls W+ and a CBD drink mix.

W+ is a line of fruit-flavored, BD-enriched sparkling water from Colorado-based Weller, a maker of functional snacks.

Image credit: Courtesy of Weller

RELATED:3 Cheers For The Rising Stars Of Cannabis

Developing a beverageinfused with CBDorTHC is a lot more complicatedthan mixing gin with tonic. For one thing, cannabinoids are hydrophobic --meaning they repel water. Drop cannabinoids into water and they'll float to the surface rather than dispersing evenly.

It's taken cannabis chemists a lot of hit-or-miss experiments to overcome this hurdle.SRSE, a Seattle-based beverage-tech company, is one of the innovators in the field, developing a method to convert cannabis oils into a water-soluble emulsion that has no cannabis taste or smell and that disperses uniformly throughout liquid. The technology is proprietary and Michael Flemmens, SRSE's vice president of science, will say only that the company uses food-grade components that have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as GRAS, or generally recognized as safe.

The company uses the ingredients to produce THC and CBD-infused products that include Happy Apple, a sparkling, cannabis-infused apple beverage; Utopia, fruit-flavored sparkling water with 10 to 100 milligrams of THC per 12-ounce bottle; and Vertus, an alcohol-free sparkling bubbly that's meant to be an alternative to sparkling wine or Champagne, and which comes in dosages of 50 or 100 milligrams of THC.

Predictability is one of the advantages well-formulated THC-infused beverages have over edibles, said Niccolo Aieta, Ph.D., founder and Chief Technology Officer forSpherex, a Denver-based company that develops cannabis concentrates and whose products includePhyx, a sparkling water brand with microdoses of THC and CBD.

Cannabis drinks are fast-acting, taking effect within minutes as opposed to several hours with edibles," he said. "That allows users to better control their experience and gives them an overall better experience. The Phyx website advises users that, on average, they'll feel the drink's effects in 10 minutes, with the buzz hanging around for about an hour.

With 2.5 milligrams of CBD and 2.5 milligrams of THC, Phyx is the equivalent of a nice glass of white wine, Aieta said. It's a slight elevation of your daily mood, good for unwinding, relaxing and socializing with friends. For people who are canna-curious, it's a great way to explore and experiment.

Flemmens strikes a similar note. Our biggest seller is Happy Apple with 10 milligrams THC, he said. We suggest that inexperienced cannabis users try it on a Saturday night at home, not a Friday night at a party. Drink half the bottle, put it in the fridge and wait half an hour. If you like the experience, you have two choices. You can stay where you are or go for the rest of the bottle.

The woman-owned and -operatedHumboldt Apothecarytakes an herbalist's approach to cannabis by formulating tinctures with medicinal herbs to work in concert with the full-spectrum cannabis. The blends of botanical ingredients with cannabinoids not only aid a more rapid onset, according to the company, but also help to achieve certain effects: a peppermint formula for relief of congestion, passionflower and lavender for sleeping, or gingko and rosemary for a brain boost. Humboldt Apothecary suggests using a couple of drops in amocktail, much the way you might add bitters to a traditional cocktail.

As for CBD drinks, Scott Van Rixel, CEO ofBhang, which makes a line that includesWellness Beet Shotswith 25 milligrams ofhemp-derived CBD, thinks of these as wellness, not recreational, products.

Humboldt Apothecary makes botanically infused tinctures using full-spectrum cannabis. Its Deep Sleep formula contains passionflower and lavender.

Image credit: Courtesy of Humboldt Apothecary

They're making accessible the benefits of a plant that used to be a part of people's lives on a daily basis, said Van Rixel, who noted those benefits include relaxation, better sleep, relief from irritability, or inflammation. Van Rixel suggested that consumers might want to think of CBD beverages the way they do energy drinks: Find the dose --a single shot in the morning or several throughout the day --that works best for them.

RELATED:What Millennials Want In Weed

That's complicated. Very complicated. Regulations are an ever-changing mess, with state and federal rules sometimes contradicting each other. TheFDApublished a statement that noted the agency is aware that products on the market are adding CBD to foods or labeling CBD as a dietary supplement. However, the agency advised that, Under federal law, it is currently illegal to market CBD this way.

Consumers can start with a product's website for where to buy info. Some drinks are being tested in one or two cannabis-friendly markets,such as Coloradoor Washington, or inCanada, where cannabis is legalnationwide. Dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal also are carrying an ever-expanding selection of beverages with THC and CBD.

Many CBD drinks can be shipped to all 50 states. Thanks to the passage of the2018 Farm Bill, some states allow beverages with hemp-derived CBD to be sold in groceries. For example,Queen City Hemp CBD Seltzer, which was launched in 2017 and was the first CBD seltzer in the U.S., is sold at retailers in 26 states, including several conservative states such asAlabama, Texas, and Georgia. However, the sparkling beverage cannot be sold incannabis-friendly Californiabecause of complex state regulations.

Queen City's founder, Nic Balzer, who's part of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, echoed the views of others in the canna-beverage biz when he said, There are a lot of regulatory challenges and we're hopeful that the FDA will make a ruling soon that will clarify these laws.

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana-related news make sure to like Weedmapson Facebook

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Drinkables Are The New Edibles. Where, When And How Can You Get Them? - Green Entrepreneur

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) International news reports about former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksas rise to power in Sri Lanka project him as a human rights violator who detests democracy. But, there is an untold story behind his path to the countrys presidency that would have lessons for Asian countries in particular, who are in the crossfire of the geo-political battle for supremacy between the worlds two super powers U.S. and China in what is now called the Indo-Pacific.

In September the Yale-NUS college in Singapore cancelled a week long course on training young people to express dissent and organize resistance after the Singapore government expressed concern about it encouraging insurgencies. However, in Sri Lanka such training has been done by western funded NGOs (non-governmental organizations) for some years.

In January 2015, Maitripala Sirisena won the presidency defeating Gotabayas elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa on the back of a classic velvet revolution. The campaign to oust the Rajapaksa regime, which was seen to be tilting too much towards China, was spearheaded by pro-democracy and human rights campaigners trained mainly by western NGOs. They were able to paint the Rajapaksa regime as corrupt and undemocratic who repress freedom of speech.

The campaign was able to sway the votes of many of the youth voting for the first time, and also the minority groups such as Tamils and Muslims, along with urban Buddhist liberals.

The civil society grouping played a significant role in the high profile 2014 project to defeat the Rajapaksas. It was an American funded operation, noted Island newspapers editor Shamindra Ferdinando in a commentary last week. The result (of November 16 election) clearly proved that the grouping was only some peoples civil society and its backing didnt make any difference or even worked to the disadvantage of (government candidate) Sajith Premadasa because of the general perceived feeling in the south that they were only motivated by outside interests and funding.

The NGO campaign of 2014 was based on heralding a new era called yahapalanaya (good governance) of democracy, freedom of speech and accountability. This all sounded good liberal principles coming from the West. But, today the word yahapalanaya has become a joke in Sri Lanka.

The yahapalanaya government came to power with the promise of creating such a liberal utopia within 100 days. When the new government took over, many of the western-funded NGO operatives were given positions in government agencies, some of which were established as part of the a UN campaign for the government to account for alleged war crimes.

Instead, during this time they breached their own principles by first, Sirisena appointing a Prime Minister the pro-Western Ranil Wickremasinghe who commanded the support of only 45 MPs in a 225 member parliament. Rajapaksas MPs shocked by the election verdict were intimidated into silence. Sirisena even appointed the head of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) -- a pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) political party -- as the leader of the opposition. He had only 14 MPs in parliament while the Rajapaksas party had over 100 MPs.

The biggest blow to the credibility of the yahapalana revolution came in February 2015, about 50 days into 100-day program when the newly appointed Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, a Sri Lankan born Singapore citizen and an old school friend of Wickremasinghe, was involved in a multi-million dollar bond scam that benefited his son-in-law. Rajapaksa allies were quick to pounce on this, and with Mahendran fleeing to Singapore months later and the governments unwillingness to bring him to book, has haunted the government ever since and was a major reason for the revival of the Rajapaksa fortunes.

However, a major issue that has riled the Sinhala Buddhist majority was the governments surrender to western human rights lobbies and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in particular.

In September 2015, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera even went to the extent of signing a co-sponsorship (with the U.S.) of a resolution at UNHRC calling for the Sri Lankan government to account for alleged war crimes, when one of the most feared terror groups, the LTTE was finally crushed in May 2009.

For most Sinhalese, this smacks of pure hypocrisy on the part of the UNHRC when the U.S. and NATO have been involved in far worse war crimes in their war against terrorism, and no such accountability is asked from them. There have been calls by Sinhala nationalists for Samaraweera to be charged for treason (Sirisena has said repeatedly that he was not aware of him signing the resolution) and these could intensify in coming months.

Under this resolution there have been charges laid against army personnel with some jailed. Most Sinhalese see them as war heroes (Ranaviru) and Gotabaya indicated during his election campaign that most of them will be released when he assumes the presidency. He also told a press conference during the campaign that his government would not recognize the UNHRC resolution.

With President Rajapaksa vising India this week, it will be crucial for him to get Prime Minister Narendra Modis support for India to withdraw its sponsorship of this resolution.

In the past 12 months there have been much debate and controversy in the country over two deals Wickremasinghe was suspected to be negotiating behind the back of Sirisena with the U.S.

On May 25 this year, opposition lawmaker Bimal Ratnayake reading from a leaked copy of a letter the U.S. embassy has sent to the government on a proposed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), stated that it has asked Sri Lanka to allow free access to American soldiers, military officers and their contractors to the country without even a passport and they be held responsible only to the U.S. laws.

The leaked letter further points out that while in Sri Lanka, U.S. warships and military aircrafts be allowed to enter and leave the country without any inspections, and also no American military personnel be subjected to customs checks while entering or leaving the country.

Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings shocked the nation this year, there has been heightened concern that terrorism is being used as a pretext for the U.S. to use Sri Lankan soil for them to fight a geo-political war with China, especially because of the islands strategic location in the Indian Ocean.

Wickremasinghe repeatedly told parliament and Sri Lankan media that with U.S. help they could fight Islamic terrorism. But, Rajapaksa supporters argues that the governments subservience to UNHRC resolution had weakened the armed forces and the intelligence apparatus that Gotabaya has built up as Defense Secretary, and made the attack possible. His election campaign was focused on strengthening these to give protection to the community.

However, during the yahapalanaya government democratic rights, media freedom and freedom of the judiciary have been strengthened with the 19th amendment to the constitution. Sirisena in his farewell address to the nation immediately after the polls closed on November 16 said: During my tenure, full democracy and freedom were restored in the country. I believe I could ensure full media freedom and democracy to an extent never enjoyed by the people before.

It is hoped that President Rajapaksa will not tamper with these freedoms, but ensure these freedoms will lead to economic empowerment. He has indicated repeatedly that his economic model would be similar to that Singapore took where individual human rights will take lower priority to economic development that would benefit the community as a whole. He will also follow a more Asia-focused foreign and economic policy.

Switching to English, President Rajapaksa said in his inauguration speech that his government will practice a neutral foreign policy and will try to steer away from geo-political power games. "We request all nations to respect the unitary nature and sovereignty of the country, when maintaining relations with us" he urged.

Rajapaksas are known to be close to China, but, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to congratulate Gotabaya. He tweeted a congratulation message even before the Election Commission officially announced the results on Saturday and was quick to extend an invitation for the newly elected President to visit Delhi. President Rajapaksa in a Tweet to Modi pointed out that our two nations are bound by history and common heritage.

There are two areas that the Rajapaksa regime could work closely with India. One is on confronting the Islamic terror threat and the other is on Modis IndicBuddhist civilizational movement to stamp the Asian identity of the 21st century. Rajapaksas Buddhist nationalism will fit very well into that. While at the same time, Sri Lanka would also have close economic relations with China especially in developing the belt and road initiative with Hambantota harbor as a lynchpin.

Chinese leader Xi Jingping in his congratulatory message said he looked forward to docking our development visions and deepen our practical cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, to start a new chapter of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership.

Such cooperation will offer exciting possibilities for closer cooperation between Asian nations in building the trade and economic relations across the region in the 21st century to ensure it is Asias century. But, dont expect the western media to cover these from such a positive perspective.

* Kalinga Seneviratne is the author of the just published book by SAGE titled Myth of Free Media and Fake News in the Post-Truth Era. [IDN-InDepthNews 28 November 2019]

Photo: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa being received by External Affairs Minister V.K. Singh in New Delhi on November 28, 2019. | Credit: V.V. Krishnan. Source: The Hindu

IDN is flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate.

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Rajapaksa's Election Win in Sri Lanka Exposes Bankruptcy of 'Velvet Revolutions' - IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

New information about Star Trek: Picard's late-24th-century era has been revealed thanks to IDW's tie-in prequel comic Star Trek: Picard Countdown. Featuring the return of Patrick Stewart to his iconic role as the Starfleet hero, Star Trek: Picard picks up after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and, at long last, it moves the franchise forward into the early 25th-century era. Naturally, fans are dying to know details of what became of Star Trek: The Next Generation's beloved characters.

Written by Kristen Beyer, who is Supervising Producer of Star Trek: Picard, and Mike Johnson, Star Trek: Picard Countdown's canonical prequel story is set in 2285 - two years before a supernova destroyed the planet Romulus, as seen in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek 2009 movie. The comic miniseries details Admiral Jean-Luc Picard's difficulties as he tries to help the Romulans evacuate their empire, which is faced with certain destruction. Since Star Trek: Picard Countdown takes place six years after Star Trek: Nemesis, which is referenced in the comic when the Romulans refer to Jean-Luc as the "vanquisher of the traitor Shinzon", a great deal has changed in Picard's life in the half-dozen years since the final TNG movie, which ended with the death of Commander Data (Brent Spiner).

Related: What Star Trek: Picard's Romulan Assistants Could Mean For The Series

Star Trek: Picard Countdown's events occur 15 years before Star Trek: Picard begins and at this time, Jean-Luc is still riding high as one of Starfleet's finest. Now an Admiral at last, Picard has given up the command seat of the U.S.S. Enterprise (it's unclear whether it's still the Enterprise-E or if the starship has been recommissioned yet again) but whoever her new Captain is, Jean-Luc is confident he left the Federation's flagship "in good hands". To oversee the 2385 Romulan rescue mission, Admiral Picard commands the Sovereign-class U.S.S. Verity (NCC-97000) and his First Officer is Lieutenant Commander Raffi Musiker (played by Michelle Hurd in Star Trek: Picard). Musiker is Starfleet's foremost analyst on Romulan affairs, which makes her invaluable, but it seems the yet-to-be-revealed perils of this critical Romulan evacuation will take their toll on Raffi just as they did on Jean-Luc when Star Trek: Picard kicks off.

The only other Star Trek: The Next Generation character seen in Star Trek: Picard Countdown's first issue is Commander Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton), who now oversees Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars. Utopia Planitia is one of Starfleet's prime starship production facilities (the Galaxy-class U.S.S. Enterprise-D was built there) and Geordi, the Enterprise's former Chief Engineer, is the ideal person to oversee the construction of a new relocation fleet to save the Romulans.

In their brief chat, Picard tells Geordi that he's glad Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and his wife, Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), are still aboard the U.S.S. Titan. In Star Trek: Nemesis, Riker and Troi finally tied the knot and they both left the Enterprise for the Titan, Riker's long-awaited command. Riker and Troi, along with Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Hugh Borg (Jonathan Del Arco), will appear in Star Trek: Picard, which leaves the whereabouts of Worf (Michael Dorn) and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) as the last TNG crewmembers unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, the secretive and duplicitous Romulans aren't making their own vital evacuation easy for the Federation. In Star Trek: Picard Countdown, the Admiral discovers that the Romulans only intended for Starfleet to evacuate Romulans from the supernova - they are content that the countless other species who live in Romulan space will die in the cataclysm. Picard's mandate is to save all life but he learns that because of the Romulans' deceit, Starfleet will still be woefully unequipped to save potentially billions of souls from the supernova. Perhapsthe fact that he simply won't be able to rescue everyone in need - and that Starfleet could allow the Romulans to get away with this callous genocide - is what has shattered Jean-Luc's faith by the start of Star Trek: Picard.

Next: What Star Trek: Picard's Logan Influence Could Mean For The Series

Star Trek: Picard premieres January 23, 2020 on CBS All-Access and internationally on Amazon Prime Video.

Arrowverse Characters Who Died In The Crisis On Infinite Earths Comics

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Star Trek: What The Next Generation Crew Are Doing When Picard Begins - Screen Rant

While we take a break from debates over fried chicken philanthropy and whether world leaders doing their thing over the phone constitutes impeachable offenses, we pause for a moment to be thankful.

As a nation were arguably more politically, culturally, and religiously divided than ever before. It is not easy to solve around the family dinner table how to be thankful. Or to Whom we are thankful.

This time of year, many articles address this existential Thanksgiving crisis by reminding us of the often-neglected story of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation who at first tried collectivism as a means of building a utopia in the New World only to realize that individual incentive is the best way forward. You know the story: the native Americans who lived closer to the natural elements than European civilization allowed (45 of the 102 Plymouth settlers died in the winter of 1620) traded benefits and survival skills with the settlers. Together, they better averted disastrous conditions and were thankful to God despite their many differences. That is what we consider to be the first Thanksgiving, though it was formally established through proclamations in the centuries to follow.

As for the Pilgrims, they paved the road for our constitutional republic by learning the hard way

In the diary of the colonys first governor, William Bradford, we can read about the settlers initial arrangement: Land was held in common. Crops were brought to a common storehouse and distributed equally. For two years, every person had to work for everybody else (the community), not for themselves as individuals or families. Did they live happily ever after in this socialist utopia?

Hardly. The common property approach killed off about half the settlers. Governor Bradford recorded in his diary that everybody was happy to claim their equal share of production, but production only shrank. Slackers showed up late for work in the fields, and the hard workers resented it. Its called human nature.

The disincentives of the socialist scheme bred impoverishment and conflict until, facing starvation and extinction, Bradford altered the system. He divided common property into private plots, and the new owners could produce what they wanted and then keep or trade it freely.

Communal socialist failure was transformed into private property/capitalist success, something thats happened so often historically its almost monotonous. The people over profits mentality produced fewer people until profitearned as a result of ones care for his own property and his desire for improvementsaved the people.

[] When God instilled a measure of peaceful, productive self-interest into the human mind, he knew what he was doing.

Read the rest of Foundation for Economic Educations President Emeritus Lawrence W. Reeds analysis here. Its quite good.

Reeds final thought brings up the spiritual dimension of Thanksgiving: that its not man-made schemes of equity or social justice that were grateful toward, but God himself as the source of all blessings. Meagan Hill writes for The Gospel Coalition:

Gratitude isnt just contented mindfulness. True gratitude is directed at our God, the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). In expressions of thankfulness, we exalt him, proclaim his faithfulness, and confess we have nothing apart from him. Its especially fitting, then, that we should do this together.

For those on the secular left, gratitude can often be a mental exercise of taking inventory of the positive things in ones life and wishing that some system of social activism or government would make sure everyone else gets to have those nice things, as well. As we progress, a certain sense of guilt can nag us into throwing away individual incentive for something akin to Socialism.

For those closer to the right side of the spectrum, Thanksgiving takes on something closer to its original meaning: a realization that this world is a fallen place and yet God still loves us enough to allow us to work to improve our conditions. We also find that as we work to improve our lot we become, as a result, more grateful (read: less entitled).

Thanksgiving is a community celebration, in that as individuals who have an incentive (and a God-given order to work and be fruitful and multiply) we can come together and see how God has worked in each one of us, to restore us to what he originally had in mind. If Thanksgiving is viewed through a collectivist lens, the holiday loses so much of of its meaning.

Hill continues

Public thanksgiving allows others to hear and be glad and encourages them to corporate praise. As we sit around the Thanksgiving table with family and hear their words of thanks to God, it reminds us that we, too, ought to be thankful for the same mercies.

On our own, we are often slow to gratitude, but public thanksgiving keeps us from drifting into the ways of the godless who do not honor him as God or give thanks to him (Romans 1:21). The company of others helps us recall just how much weve received.

Before we return to beating back creeping socialism on Black Friday (whether by political action or our own consumer activity), lets take a moment today and re-orient our own thinking so we do not end up missing the whole point of this business of giving-thanks. We might even be able to reverse our long march toward socialism.

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Thanksgiving: The Antidote To Godless Communism - The Hayride

By Laura Paskus/High Country News

The following book review first appeared in the High County News on November 11, 2019

The Lightest Object in the UniverseKimi Eisele321 pages, hardcover: Algonquin Books, 2019.

Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado RiverEric Kuhn and John Fleck264 pages, hardcover: The University of Arizona Press, 2019.

For someone like me who reports on the politics of water and the challenges of climate change in the arid Southwest, pilgrimages to places like Abiquiu Lake, with its reflection of Cerro Pedernal and backdrop of the Jemez Mountains, are a necessary rite of summer. If I want to keep ahead of despair, stave off cynicism and remain present with the issues I write about I need to submerge myself, often and diligently, in water that is cool and transformative.

This summer, I lugged two new books to my secret swimming spot and found that immersing myself in both fiction and nonfiction helped me make sense of the world were facing today, as climate change demands that humans make better decisions and as its become entirely too easy to indulge fears of a dystopian future. Kimi Eiseles novel, The Lightest Object in the Universe, and Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River, by Eric Kuhn and John Fleck, are both powerful books. Kuhn and Fleck examine how politics exacerbated todays problems with the over-allocated Colorado River, which supplies more than 40 million people. And Eisele carries us into a future in which we see what happens when we refuse to heed the warning signs and commit to a more resilient path.

Together, these writers show what happens when we give urgent problems the side-eye and slink off down the road, hoping someone else will devise a solution. They also urge us to reconsider what we think we know about the past, what we want to believe about the future, and what we need to decide and accomplish right now.

In The Lightest Object in the Universe, her first novel, Eisele envisions a post-collapse United States. The economy has tanked, the electrical grid has failed, and people are left without governments and global food systems. The illusion that people can thrive independently of their neighbors holed up and binging on Netflix and GrubHub is gone.

She shows us how people survive this new world through her main characters, Beatrix and Carson, who long for one another from opposite sides of the country after everything falls apart. An organizer, Beatrix throws in with her neighbors, people she knew only casually before the collapse. They work together, try to protect and teach one another. And they arent looking back; theres no reason to try to figure out what went wrong or how things might have gone differently. Surviving today and figuring out ways to thrive tomorrow are all that matter. Carson, meanwhile, embarks on a trip across the landscape, hoping to reach Beatrix. His journey enables Eisele to show the reader a smattering of whats going on in the region the coastal media once dismissed as flyover country. He encounters bands of hungry kids, towns decimated by flu, and people willing to share what little food they have with a stranger, frightened by rumors and at the same time fueled by hope.

Whether in the city where Eisele doesnt spend much time in small communities or in rural places, people need one another, intimately. Only together can they eat, trade information, fix problems and start telling new stories. Not everyones intentions are good, of course. There are crooks, creeps and charlatans in Eiseles world. And two characters leave the makeshift community Beatrix and her neighbors have cultivated to embark on a journey toward The Center, the promised land hocked by a charismatic radio personality who regales his listeners with tales of ice cream, utopia and redemption.

Eiseles writing shines most when shes exploring landscapes no surprise, since shes a geographer as well as an artist and the emotional pull between Beatrix and Carson.

Through Carson in particular, Eisele considers the natural world. The morning brought dampness and more aches, Eisele writes. Carson didnt want to move. He opened his eyes as a large crow flew overhead. The birds were so fortunate. They could see the sprawl and order of cities. They could take in a long strand of coastline, the blur of white waves crashing. They could drift over the green-gold quilt of farmland. If only he could have that view of the landscape, a more coherent geography, to see clearly where he was going, where he had been.

But even when that is the case when we have at our fingertips everything from paleoclimatic reconstructions to snapshots of the planet from the International Space Station we human beings still ignore the facts.

In Science Be Dammed, Kuhn and Fleck remind us of that, taking us back to the early 20th century, when seven Western states and the federal government divided the waters of the Colorado River between farmers and cities from Wyoming to California, in the grand bargain known as the Colorado River Compact of 1922. (It took two decades more to negotiate with Mexico over the rivers waters.) The common narrative has been that the compacts signatories over-allocated the rivers waters because theyd tracked its flows during an unusually wet period almost a century ago. The poor schmucks, the story goes, just didnt know better.

Thats the tale weve told ourselves, over and over again. Its not an accurate one.

Kuhn is the now-retired general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, while co-author Fleck directs the Water Resources Program at the University of New Mexico. Both are keen and active observers of whats happening today, as the seven states that rely upon the Colorado work to provide all the rivers users with water even as they grapple with a drought contingency plan meant to address its declining flows.

In their book, they point out that multiple studies in the 1920s showed flows that were significantly lower than the 17.5 million acre-feet parceled out at the time.

This means that the rivers deficit isnt a baffling, unforeseen problem: The natural flows of the Colorado were even in the early 20th century less than the amount of water promised to users. And men consciously decided to use up more water than the river actually carried, rather than heed studies based on U.S. Geological Survey stream gauges, drought data, and some limited paleohydrologic studies. One hydraulic engineer in particular, Eugene Clyde LaRue, repeatedly warned commissioners and politicians about over-allocation.

That commissioners chose to ignore the facts isnt necessarily surprising, given the pressure they felt from powerful interests, both agricultural and political. In the introduction, Kuhn cites Rolly Fischer, his predecessor and mentor at the Colorado River Water Conservation District: One of Fischers favorite sayings about the river was that the tried-and-true method to solve disputes on the Colorado River Basin was to promise the combatants more water than was available in the river, then hope a future generation would fix the mess.

We dont even have to look to Eiseles imagined future to know that doesnt work.

Before the Compact Commission even began its meetings, the path had been chosen, write Kuhn and Fleck. And LaRue wasnt the only one who put commissioners in a tight spot by pointing out the facts.

Kuhn and Fleck note that three different estimates prior to the compacts signing pegged the river at somewhere between 14.3 million acre-feet and 16.1 million acre-feet annually. (Annual flows have dropped even further, thanks to warming, and a 2017 study showed that between 2000 and 2014, they averaged 19 percent below the 1906-1999 average.)

But commissioners preferred to listen to those who told them what they wanted to hear, and, the two authors write, they saw no advantage in asking too many questions about whether the numbers were right.

Kuhn and Fleck write:

There was now credible science that the rivers long-term flows might be much lower than they assumed. Yet in the short term, conditions on the Colorado River remained wet. Pushed by U.S. commerce secretary Herbert Hoover and Colorado lawyer Delph Carpenter, the commissioners chose to either ignore this information or challenge the credibility of the messenger. Ultimately, a review board of distinguished engineers and geologists would endorse LaRues view that the water supply was insufficient, but by that time there simply was too much momentum for ratification of the 1922 compact and the authorization of the Boulder Canyon Project.

The decisions men like Hoover made in the 1920s killed off native species of fish; inundated canyons, sovereign lands and archaeological sites; favored the powerful over the vulnerable; and sucked the Colorado River dry. They also set the stage for how future water resources would be managed.

This isnt just another tale of the Wests unenlightened past: Were still dealing with its fallout, and that shortsightedness threatens to repeat itself today. In New Mexico, for example, the future of an important tributary of the Colorado River, the Gila, is uncertain. The states plans to build a diversion on the river, just downstream of where it flows out of the nations first wilderness area, are outside the scope of Science Be Dammed. But its hard not to connect the willful ignorance of science with whats happening in the Colorado River Basin today.

Yet there are always ways to pry ourselves loose from the narratives that bind us to our past mistakes. Kuhn and Fleck remind us we can excavate the past and hold decision-makers accountable, in part by making sure that science isnt ignored, diminished or squelched altogether. And Eisele shows us why its worth deciding now to create a future that doesnt damn future generations with the consequences of our mistakes.

Laura Paskus is a reporter in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her book At the Precipice: New Mexicos Changing Climate is forthcoming from UNM Press in 2020.

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BOOK REVIEW: Two Titles That Address the West's Water Woes - Pagosa Daily Post

Saturday, Nov. 30

Gentle Yoga:9 a.m. Olive Free Library, 4033 Route 28A, West Shokan. (845) 657-2482. Fee $6 drop-in or $48 for a 12-week session.

Holy Cross Thrift Shop:9 a.m. Holy Cross Church, 30 Pine Grove Ave., Kingston. To 12 p.m. (845) 331-6796.

Fairly New Thrift Shop:10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 58 Pearl St., Kingston. (845) 481-4171.

Craft Fair:10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 28th Annual Christmas Craft Fair. Food and baked goods. Something for everyone. Greenville Fire House, 11184 Route 2, Greenville.

Craft Fair:10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Holiday craft fair. Visit with Santa, Frosty and Sparky the Fire Dog after 1 p.m. Mail a letter in the letters to Santa mailbox. Village Hall, Main Street, Tannersville. (5128) 858-9094.

Teen Geek Squad:10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Available to answer tech questions at the Red Hook Public Library, 7444 South Broadway, Red Hook. (845) 758-3241, redhooklibrary.org.

Hudson Valley Farmers Market:10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Fresh and local. Every Saturday year-round. Creig Farm, Pitcher Lane, Red Hook.

Community Qigong:10 a.m., Starr Library, 68 W. Market St., Rhinebeck, (845) 876-4030, starrlibrary.org.

Super Saturday Story Adventures:11 a.m. Woodstock Library District, 5 Library Lane, Woodstock. Reading fun for the whole family with special guest storytellers. Check the website for weekly story events. http://www.woodstock.org.

Yoga:11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. MaMA, Marbletown Multi-Arts, 3588 Main St., Stone Ridge.

Happy Paws Thrift Store:11 a.m. 282 Main St., Saugerties. To 5 p.m. Proceeds benefit the Ulster County SPCA.

Event:11 a.m. The annual Holiday on Main Festivities in Margaretville. The theme for this years parade is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas; Santa and Mrs. Claus will be guests of honor at the American Legion Hall until 2 p.m. Shopping specials offered by local merchants and may free events all day.A Live Nativity scene will be enacted, there will be caroling and a tree lighting.(845) 586-4177.

Holiday Pop-Up Art Exhibition:11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 30, and Sunday, Dec. 1. Free admission. High Falls Emporium, 10 Old Route 213, High Falls.

Train Show:12 to 5 p.m. Kingston Model Railroad Club train show. Hudson Valley Lines. A complete "O" scale railroad system in action Behind the YMCA, Susan Street (GPS Address: 99 Susan St.), Kingston. Admission: $6 for adults, $2 for children. Also, Sunday, Dec. 1.

Thrift Store:Noon to 4 p.m. Margaretville Hospital Auxilary Thrift Shop, 850 Main St., Margaretville.

Stories and crafts:12:30 p.m. Ages 4-7. Saugerties Public Library, 91 Washington Ave., Saugerties. (845) 246-4317.

Holiday Craft Fair:1 to 5 p.m. Buy local this Small Business Saturday at the third annual Holiday Craft Fair. Pine Plains Free Library, 7775 S. Main St., Pine Plains. (518) 398-1927.

Event:2 to 4 p.m. Kate McGloughlin will moderate a panel called, Vanishing Olive." The panel will discuss, among other things, the land acquisition program and its effect on the historical/ecological culture of the town of Olive, and the need to protect both the watershed and certain historical sites in Olive. All events are free and open to the public. Olive Free Librarys Community Room, 4033 Route 28A, West Shokan.

Spaghetti Supper:4 to 8 p.m. All you can eat. Claryville Fire Department, 1500 Denning Road, Claryville. Adults, $10; children ages 5-11, $6; under 5 years old, free.

Art Exhibit:5 to 7 p.m. Opening reception. "The Shape of Light." Seven artists from the Hudson Valley bring their unique interpretations of how light affects their work. Exhibition runs through April 26. Wired Gallery, 11 Mohonk Road, High Falls. (682) 564-5613, thewiredgallery.com.

Live Music:7 to 10 p.m. Neil Alexander and Nail. Lydias Caf, 7 Old Route 209, Stone Ridge. (845) 687-6373, http://www.lydias-cafe.com.

Concert:7 p.m. doors open, music at 7:30 p.m. Flying Cat Music presents singer-songwriter Tracy Grammer. United Methodist Church, 29 Church St., Phoenicia. Admission is $20 cash only at the door.

Concert:7:30 p.m. Robin Lacy, master saxophonist, in concert. Tickets $15, $10 for students. Bridge Street Theatre, 44 W. Bridge St., Catskill. (518) 943-3818, bridgest.org.

Live Music:8 p.m. Caribbean Music Factor. Tickets $35 and $45, available at radiowoodstock.com. Utopia Soundstage, 293 Tinker St., Woodstock. (845) 679-7600, ext. 18, utopiasoundstage.com.

Concert:8 p.m. The Knights Chamber Orchestra performs homage to Bach at the Doctorow Center for the Arts, 7071 state Route 23A, Hunter. Tickets at the door are $30, $25 seniors and $7 children/students. (518) 263-2063, catskillmtn.org.

Live Music:8 p.m. Marc Black Band. The Woodstock Thanksgiving Dance. Mountainview Studio, 20 Mountainview Ave., Woodstock. $15 or best offer. http://www.mtn.viewstudio.com or http://www.marcblack.com.

Event:8 p.m. Intermission: A Night of Improv. Join us for popular games from the hit show Whose Line is It Anyway? as well as some of our own! Tickets $23. Also Sunday, Dec. 1, at 3 p.m. The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, 661 Route 308, Rhinebeck. (845) 876-3080, http://www.centerforperformingarts.org.

Pickleball:9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Kingston YMCA. For experienced players. Free to Y members. $10 non-member day pass. Starting at 16 years old for all play. Call (845) 338-3810 or pballkingson@gmail.com for more information.

Holiday Open House & Museum Shop Sale:11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hurley Heritage Society Museum, 52 Main St., Hurley. Special demonstrations, merchandise and discounts. (845) 331-7228, http://www.hurleyheritagesociety.org.

Event:12 to 5 p.m. Commitment to Kids 2019. 25th Year Toy Drive and Holiday Festival. Bloomington Volunteer Fire Co. and Ladies Auxiliary as well as Ulster County Vietnam Veterans Toy Drive and Holiday Festival at the Bloomington Firehouse, Route 32, Bloomington. Parade: Line up at 12 p.m. with the festival from 12 to 5 p.m. There will be food, games, music and much more.

Penny Social:1 to 3 p.m. White Eagle Hall, 487 Delaware Ave., Kingston.

Event:1 to 3 p.m. A Holiday History Mystery for children at Staatsburgh State Historic, 9 Old Post Road, Staatsburgh. (845) 889-4100. The Holiday Whodunit will take place on Dec. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29. Site admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors; children 12 and younger are free. (518) 474-0456.

Silent Film Shorts:2 p.m. Laurel and Hardy at the Rosendale Theatre Collective, 408 Main St., Rosendale. $6 general admission. (845) 658-8989, rosendaletheatre.org.

SongClub:3 to 5 p.m. Learn a song, harmonize, make a video. The audience is the choir. Marbletown Multi Arts (MaMa), 3588 Main St., Stone Ridge. There is a $10 fee at the door, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Drum Circle:4 to 6 p.m. Birds of a Feather and Timekeeper Drums invite all to drum and dance in the rear room of the Woodstock Community Center, 56 Rock City Road, Woodstock. Free event, but donations appreciated to help pay rent.

Jazz:8 p.m. Dayna Stephens Trio. Jazz at the Falcon, 1348 Route 9W, Marlboro. (845) 236-7970, http://www.liveatthefalcon.com,

Concert:8 p.m. Bard College Conservatory Orchestra. Sosnoff Theatre, Bard College, 60 Manor Road, Annandale-on-Hudson. Tickets $15-20 suggested donation to the Conservatory Scholarship Fund.

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Mid-Hudson Calendar of Events: Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2019 - The Daily Freeman

EUGENE, Ore., Nov. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Accidents happen: liquids plus mattresses equal disaster. Owning a waterproof mattress protector will extend the life of your mattress. You'll find the best of the best in RAVE Reviews' ranking of the best waterproof mattress protectors.

"Spilling liquid on your mattress can cause unsightly stains," said William Kennedy, Marketing and Creative Manager for RAVE Reviews, which can contribute to the growth of mold and bacteria, worsening allergies, skin conditions, and overall hygiene.

"Waterproof mattress protectors have improved a lot in recent years," he continued, no longer making that plasticky, crinkling sound they used to make. "The best products are now vinyl-free and made with materials that are waterproof, breathable, hypoallergenic, and natural," he said.

A total of 10 waterproof mattress protectors are featured in the ranking, emphasising products at a variety of price points.

Waterproof mattress protectors were reviewed on the following factors: waterproofing, value, what is it made of, does it sleep cool or hot, is it noisy, is it breathable, machine-washability, and is it a trusted brand.

Brands making the ranking are as follows:

1) Adoric Mattress Protector Brand: Adoric City: n/a

2) SafeRest Premium Hypoallergenic Waterproof Mattress Protector Brand: SafeRest City: Coral Springs, Florida

3) UltraPlush Premium Full Size Waterproof Mattress Protector Brand: UltraBlock City: Scotts Valley, California

4) Brooklyn Bedding Luxury Cooling Mattress Protector Brand: Brooklyn Bedding City: Phoenix, Arizona

5) One's Own Renewable Organic Mattress Protector with Tencel and Eucalyptus Brand: One's One City: Las Vegas, Nevada

6) Adaptive Shield Premium Performance Mattress Protector Brand: Adaptive Shield City: n/a

7) Utopia Bedding Waterproof Bamboo Mattress Protector Brand: Utopia Bedding City: Plainview, New York

8) LINENSPA Premium Smooth Fabric Mattress Protector Brand: LINENSPA City: Logan, Utah

9) Coop Home Goods Lulltra Waterproof Mattress Pad Protector Brand: Coop Home Goods City: Bell, California

10) MALOUF Sleep TITE PR1ME Smooth Waterproof Mattress Protector Brand: MALOUF City: Logan, Utah

Read the complete ranking here:

https://www.ravereviews.org/sleep/best-waterproof-mattress-protectors/

RAVE Reviews is like a product review site and a lifestyle magazine hooked up a fun and authoritative guide for consumer goods, entertainment, and travel.

Questions? Contact:William Kennedy, Marketing and Creative Manager, RAVE ReviewsWeb: http://www.ravereviews.orgEmail: 230010@email4pr.comPhone: 541-225-4959

SOURCE RAVE Reviews

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Extend the Life of Your Mattress with a New Waterproof Mattress Topper - PRNewswire

"It's happening now."

The Feed starNina Toussaint-White's warning about the core message of the Amazon series shouldn't be taken too literally, of course. The world is not yet hooked up to a single network via neural implants (emphasis on "yet"), though the interplay between modern society and smartphone technology certainly emulates the high-stakes fears at play in Channing Powell's adaptation of Nick Clark Windo's novel of the same name.

Featuring Toussaint-White and Guy Burnet as married couple Kate and Tom Hatfield, The Feed takes place in a near future where humanity becomes inextricably linked with a technological advancement called the Feed. "Think Twitter, but in your brain" doesn't quite do the trick, but it gets you close to the idea. Spanning 10 episodes, the first season (currently streaming in its entirety on Amazon Prime Video) chronicles only a small portion of Windo's novel just 14 pages of it, according to what Toussaint-White tells The Hollywood Reporter. Without spoiling the outcome, the first series sets the stage for a much more primal and visceral second season, one that depicts a bleak world after a hard break from technological dependency.

Ahead, Toussaint-White opens up more on the premise of The Feed, the conversations it drove for her and her castmates, and what to expect should a second season come to pass.

From the perspective of someone who is about to dive into The Feed for the first timewhat are they about to get into?

It's a psychological thriller, set in the not-too-distant future, and it's based on a novel by Nick Clark Windo. The idea is that society as we know it has people connected to "The Feed." They have tiny chips installed in the backs of their brains. It allows them to store and share information. It allows them to share every emotion and memory within an instant. You can look around and make your surroundings more elaborate, more tasteful. It's like having a smartphone inside your brain. The series takes a dark turn very, very quickly. You witness the horrifying consequences our reliance on technology has on humankind, if things go wrong. The great thing about it is series one only takes us through the first 14 pages of the book. There's the potential to go much deeper into the world Nick created.

Did you spend a lot of time with the novel to prepare for the show?

I didn't. I know a lot of people who have read the book, and I have it on my shelf, but for methis was a very collaborative start. Myself, Guy Burnet and Carl Tibbetts, who directed episodes one and two, wanted to work together to create what it would look like to be inside The Feed. Nobody knew what that would look like, and we wanted to create it ourselves. For me personally, I felt that diving into the book would paint too much of a picture for me. I wanted creative hold over what my character was going to be like. Apparently, in the book, it's completely different.

Can you walk us through those conversations with Guy and Carl, designing what The Feed would look and, more important, feel like as you convey this world to the audience?

It's completely new to all of us on day one. The idea is let's say we're on the Feed, me and you. I can be in a coffee shop with you, having a cup of tea, while Skyping my mom at the same time through my brain. The viewer sees what's going on inside my character's brain. What we struggled with is this: I'm talking to you at the coffee shop, my mom calls me. How do we stay in the world we're in while also going into the Skype call? What we did a lot of times is my character is changing her baby, she's putting her to bed, but she's also talking to Guy's character Tom via the Feed. It's the same thing as being able to walk down the street with a phone in your hand. Looking at the screen, you can check your emails and do so much on your phone, while getting from A to B. It was a hard world to create at first. What we realized is I could be walking and talking to the people around me while still connecting to the Feed, and the viewers can see that through me.

What were some of your first thoughts as you started digging into the themes of the series, and your thoughts about the Feed as a technological premise?

As my career has evolved, I've hoped I would be in shows that I'd want to watch myself. When I first auditioned for this, I was completely drawn to the project. I was only given the first episode, but I read through it and fell in love with it. The script had a lot of similarities to Black Mirror, which is a series I absolutely love. This idea of a dystopian world, one that highlights people's dependency on and their addiction to technology, which I think we all need to open our eyes to a bit. Straight away, I fell in love with the project.

This kind of technology is billed as unifying us as a species, but there are arguments that it's dividing us, and that argument is certainly present within a faction of the characters in The Feed.

Working on this show has brought up a lot of these really interesting, eye-opening conversations about how much we really are so dependent on technology. It's become more integral to how we operate in our daily lives. The Feed is looking into the not-too-distant future, but what happens in the series is technically happening now. We've heard Elon Musk is creating neural implants to put into our brains so we can overcome technology, because at the moment, technology is surpassing the human brain. It's been created to connect. But then I'm watching programs like The Great Hack. Data has been weaponized, it's been used to steer votes. I'm sitting next to my phone now, and who knows what it's picking up? Next time I pick it up, it's going to mention something that I mentioned to you. So much of your privacy is taken away. Of course it does wonderful things. My character in this show is American, living in London, and she's able to connect to her family in America. She's even able to connect with her unborn child. It's not all bad. If I was told that by having an implant, I could cure myself if I had cancer, that might be a route I would want to take. But there are also so many consequences in relying too much on technology. We're losing connection. We're losing physical contact. Mental health [struggles] have risen so much, because we're so tapped into the net. We like to call it "science fact," rather than science fiction. It's happening now.

While making the series, how often did you and your co-stars dive into existential conversations about the way technology impacts our world?

I'm always one for having fun on set and not taking things too seriously. (Laughs.) Of course, I take the work seriously! But I also want to relax and have a good time with my colleagues. I don't know about everyone else, but for me, the process is you get episodes one and two, then you wait for episodes three and four, and then you wait for five and six, and so on. We didn't get all the scripts early on, so we didn't know how the story was going to evolve. I will be absolutely, brutally honest: I had so much to think with developing my character's American accent and developing my connection and chemistry with Tom that I just wanted to settle into the world, rather than try to unpack it. But what's happened is since putting the filming to bed, and now that I'm talking about it more, my eyes have been opened. I've had a rebirth as far as how damaging technology can be, social media and stuff like that. I've lessened my screen time by 50 percent. I'm just a bit more wary. That's through conversations with people like you, rather than on set, where we were creating the world.

What are your aspirations for beyond the first season?

Well, I haven't read the book, but what I know is the first 14 pages cover the first 10 episodes of series one. Well, by the end of episode 10, the shit hits the fan, excuse my French. We go from utopia to dystopia.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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'The Feed,' Explained: Nina Toussaint-White on Amazon Prime Thriller - Hollywood Reporter

To kick off the month of December, the city of Gastonia plans to pull out all the stops in transforming Main Avenue into a Christmastime utopia.

The annual event that has come to be known as Christmas in the City will take place over three hours downtown on Sunday, Dec. 1. It will aim to draw hundreds of festive residents to the historic business district, while helping them become immersed in the holiday spirit.

The celebration will kick off as usual with the popular Christmas parade that is being organized once again by the Gaston Jaycees. It will follow its established path heading east down Main Avenue, starting near Chester Street and proceeding roughly half a mile to Broad Street.

Christine Carlson, the citys event planner, said there will be a total of 80 entries in the parade this year, with traditional floats, marching bands, unique vehicles and everything in between. The featured finale, as always, will be Santa Claus on a fire engine.

At the same time that the parade gets underway, the Christmas marketplace will open around the Rotary Centennial Pavilion. It will feature about three dozen craft and business vendors, along with several food trucks selling meals and other seasonal treats. Free activities in the area will include face-painting, Sno-Globe photos and balloon twisting, as well as booths where children can make their own Christmas ornaments, color, and write letters to Santa.

Elevation Church Gaston will be giving out hot chocolate at no charge, and complimentary goody bags will be handed out at the event.

As the parade wraps up around 4:45 p.m., Keep Gastonia Beautiful will host the start of a holiday concert around the Rotary Pavilion. That will lead into Santa Claus himself flipping the switch to light the Christmas tree under the pavilion at 5:30 p.m. After that, children will be able to visit with Santa, telling him what presents theyd like to wake up to on Christmas morning.

Musical performances during the concert and tree lighting ceremony will be provided by the Gaston Symphonic Band, the W.A. Bess fifth-grade chorus, the York Chester Middle School Jazz Band, and the Roaring Panther Band of Pleasant Ridge Elementary School.

The event will conclude around 7 p.m. with a raffle drawing for three gift baskets.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.

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Christmas in the City returning to downtown Gastonia - New Bern Sun Journal