Category Archives: Trance

John Digweed celebrates the 200th digital release of Bedrock Records [Magazine Exclusive]Bedrock Records is an English record label founded in 1999 by John Digweed and Nick Muir. A staple of underground music, the now legendary imprint borrowed the name from some successful clubs of that period and ended up immortalizing the magic of genuine clubbing.

Trance, progressive house, techno, the genre and the quantity dont matter but collecting the cream that stands out. Recently Bedrock reached an important milestone in its brilliant existence and John Digweed told us everything in the first person. The labels 200th digital release is an occasion for celebration and also an interesting reflection on the past, present and future.

Congratulations are in order! Bedrock has just released Bedrock 200 in celebration of the labels 200th digital release. What are the immediate feelings you take away from this huge milestone?

Its just amazing really, we did our first digital-only release nearly 13 years ago to the day, so to have reached our 200th digital release milestone is something Im very proud and happy about, especially when you look at the wealth of talented artists and producers who have been involved over the years.

You created Bedrock Records in 1999, does each release still have the same flavour as the first?

Absolutely. The ethos behind the label is the same now as it was then. Its all about releasing good quality music and weve always been open-minded with our music policy, releasing everything from breaks to techno with a bit of ambient and downtempo music thrown in for good measure. This year alone weve released a banging Live in London album recorded at Fabric and a new album from Pig&Dan called Destination Unknown II which showcases their downtempo electronica side.

To materialize this special Bedrock 200 release you and Nick Muir have chosen the esteemed German DJ and producer Jonathan Kaspar. How did this invitation and decision come about?

Id been playing a lot of his music and featured two of his tracks on my Live in London CD release in February, so we reached out to him to get him involved with something on the label and he asked to remix the Live Off The Grid track taken from The Traveler album Nick Muir and I did with John Twelve Hawks back in 2014. He also mentioned remixing our most recent Stand Still release, so it made perfect sense to make this special remix EP our 200th digital release.

Image Credit: Dan Reid / Provided by The Echo Agency

Follow this link:

John Digweed celebrates the 200th digital release of Bedrock Records [Magazine Exclusive] - We Rave You

"Do you promise you won't make me cluck like a chicken?" I asked the onscreen hypnotherapist, who's clad in a jacket and tie and looks more like an accountant than I thought a hypnotist would look. "I can only make you cluck like a chicken if you want to cluck like a chicken," he says, a touch of weariness in his voice as if he has heard this question a million times before, which I'm sure he has.

Many confuse a stage hypnotist with a hypnotherapist, a licensed and certified practitioner with in-depth training in hypnosis. Most have degrees in social work, medicine, or psychology.

"I need to stop eating Nutella and peanut butter on crackers at two in the morning, okay?" I say, only half joking.

Further, hypnosis is sometimes utilized in conjunction with other therapies such aseye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy(EMDR), neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as well as more traditional "talk" psychotherapy.

"What brings you here, and how can I help?" the hypnotherapist asks me.

"I need to stop eating Nutella and peanut butter on crackers at two in the morning, okay?" I say, only half joking.

But, in my recurring journey of trying to lose weight, I've decided to try something new and am feeling cautiously optimistic. Hence, my story of hypnotherapy:

But First, What is Hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy is an evidence-based mind-body treatment, approved by theAmerican Psychological Association, with success in reducing pain, helping people break habits such as smoking and overeating, treating insomnia, anxiety or depression, and lessening the gastrointestinal symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), along with the often-associated mood changes.

People experience a sense of calm and physical relaxation when under hypnosis, and some changes enhance attention, focus and concentration.

It's been used before surgery, decreasing the patient's need for sedation and helping reduce nausea, pain, and fatigue post-operatively, leading to a speedier recovery. Hypnosis is also helpful in treating phobias such as fears of flying or public speaking.

Interestingly, it's also been used in forensics to help witnesses to a crime recover memories. When it comes to managing chronic pain, hypnotherapy often involves instructions for self-hypnosis that can be done at home to manage the distress. Some people tape their sessions so they can be replayed, too.

Research has shown that hypnosis directly affects cortical and subcortical activity in the brain (such as the anterior cingulate cortex) concerned with the perception and modulation of pain.

How Does Hypnosis Work?

Although the word hypnosis comes fromHypnos, the name of the Greek God of Sleep, a person in a state of hypnosis is somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. People experience a sense of calm and physical relaxation when under hypnosis, and some changes enhance attention, focus and concentration.

Alterations in perception are expected, with feelings of heaviness, numbness, and floating or sinking sensations often experienced. It is worth noting that little attention is paid to extraneous stimuli such as traffic noise from outside.

While this is a common fear, a hypnotist or hypnotherapist cannot make you do anything you would not normally do. Even if you are in a deep trance, it can be broken easily if there is an emergency or you are being asked to do something that does not align with your values.

"Hypnosis works by directing attention to a subset of perception within your peripheral awareness," saysWilliam Danton, a clinical psychologist in Reno, Nevada specializing in hypnotherapy. "The effectiveness of hypnosis appears to lie in the way in which it avoids the critical censor of the conscious mind, bypassing its critical observation and interference and allowing the client's intentions for change to take effect."

The hypnotherapist's skillful use of various techniques and interventions implicates engaging the subconscious or unconscious.

The Process of Hypnotherapy

At the beginning of each session, the therapist will take a brief history, including the client's main complaint or condition they would like help with, such as losing weight or becoming more comfortable with public speaking. This enables the therapist to craft statements and subtle suggestions tailored to the person's communication style and needs.

Here's what the path to hypnosis typically looks like:

Hypnotic induction used to induce a state of hypnosis. With the client's eyes usually closed, the hypnotherapist may count down, use imagery to focus the attention, or employ specific techniques such as controlled breathing or progressive muscle relaxation.

Deepening the trance takes relaxation and focus to a deeper level. For example, the therapist may use images such as "walking downstairs" or sinking more deeply into a comfortable bed. These first two stages are meant to help you relax enough that you will be open to hypnotic suggestions.

Deep trance this is the stage in which treatment occurs, leading to actual change in experience, behavior, emotion, memory or perception.

Emergence reverse deepeners (such as going up steps instead of down) are used to bring the client out of the hypnotic state. Once fully "back," there may or may not be a memory of what was said or experienced during the time in trance.

When the client is in a deep state of hypnosis, the hypnotherapist will make suggestions that are received on an unconscious level.

Being in a trance alone has no therapeutic effect but deepens receptivity for what happens next. When the client is in a deep state of hypnosis, the hypnotherapist will make suggestions that are received on an unconscious level.

Depending on the person's motivations for treatment, suggestions may entail ways to banish anxiety triggers or transform painful sensations into something less unpleasant.

The hypnotherapist may also use indirect or hypnotically informed language to bypass any conscious resistance. For instance, instead of saying to a person who struggles with insomnia, "you will fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night," the hypnotherapist might say, "think of all the extra energy you will have in the morning when you wake up."

In addition, based on the practitioner, sessions are usually 45 minutes to an hour long, with part of the time spent in discussion and the rest in the state of hypnosis. The number of sessions needed will vary depending on the issues.

"Hypnotherapy may also be used for unconscious exploration, to understand underlying motivations better, or to identify whether past events or experiences are associated with a current problem. This is useful in developing strategies to change thoughts and behaviors," Danton explains.

Along with being effective for behavioral change, exploration, when done as part of the hypnotic process, can be beneficial in relieving anxiety or depression and enhancing self-confidence.

Back to My Journey

I loved my experience of hypnotherapy. It was relaxing, kind of how you feel after a good massage or a meditation session.

Several times every week, I listen to the tape my hypnotherapist made, encouraging me to eat slowly, savor every bite, and cue my body's hunger and fullness signals. And though my cravings for late-night goodies have not entirely dissipated, I can better resist the temptation.

Hopefully, by the time my 50th high school reunion rolls around (it's been rescheduled twice due to COVID and will now be my 52nd reunion), I will be thinner, more relaxed, and ready to wow my high-school boyfriend and the rest of the people "who knew me when."

More:

Hypnotherapy for Health and Happiness - Next Avenue

On his most recent song, Hazy, a seductive house track that marks his seventh entry in the Insomniac Records library, Matroda returns to melancholy seas.

Despite continuously being on everyones release radar, fans will never be able to accurately forecast Matrodas next move. The L.A.-based producer, who is of Croatian descent, has earned a reputation for being a little bit of a wild card by adopting the hashtag #MatrodaSound to express himself sonically. Matroda gets into a ruckus for his upcoming gig with Insomniac like theres no tomorrow.

Hazy enters like a dense fog, justifying its moniker. A chunky hollow kick and hissing hat combo provide the backdrop for the tracks main motif: oscillating organ chords that flicker beneath an entrancing, raspy vocal fry. The protagonists perception is clouded by desperation, and she begins to lose her sense of reality as the ominous undertones intensify into a full-fledged cyclone. A percolating rhythm of tumbling percussion, muted strums, panning vocal chops, and pitch-shifting basslines now contains the juddering lead, which is back in action. Matroda creates the illusion that the trance will never end by taking into consideration all of these startling details.

Matroda has already absorbed a large amount of house music influences just in one year. In his most recent release, he and Wax Motif collaborated on the tech house track La Candela Viva for Insomniacs sister label, HARD Recs. Prior to a brief series of exclusive back-to-back sets that premiered at EDC Las Vegas and will be returning for another go at Exchange LA in November, he teamed up with Indonesian sensation Bleu Clair on their shuffling tech thumper PWR.

He split into two ways at the beginning of 2022 with his piano-led groove Gotta Let You Go and the powerful club tool Touchin Me on the B-side. He is a dynamic artist with endless energy. The breakup anthem Forget It, which was published back in 2020, is closest to one of his most popular tunes to date with his most recent offering. The song marked a sharp contrast from everything else in his catalog at the time, which helped it amass nearly 17 million streams to date.

Hazy feels like an homage to one of his career-defining records thus far; and yet, it still manages to stand entirely on its own two legs. One advantage of being a wildcard like Matroda is being able to do this.

Through Insomniac Records, the new track Hazy by Matroda is accessible on all digital platforms.

Read more:

Matroda returns to Insomniac with house single 'Hazy' - The Groove Cartel

According to the Office for National Statistics, drug-related deaths across England and Wales have hit their highest levels since records began in 1993.

Last year, 4,859 people died from drug poisoning, with opiates remaining the biggest cause of deaths. Researchers have also seen a sharp rise in cocaine-related fatalities, a trend which began during the pandemic and has continued since.

In total, there were 840 deaths from cocaine use, and while that figure may seem relatively small in comparison to the overall number, its the sharp rise that is most concerning, increasing from 708 in 2019 to 770 in 2020.

Cocaine-related deaths are commonly linked to nightlife and partygoers, a part of our lives that was momentarily taken from us during the pandemic, which is why these numbers are somewhat of a surprise. However, according to Mike Trance, chief executive of the Forward Trust, an organisation that helps people break the cycles of addiction, being forced to stay in could be why usage was, and still is, on the rise.

I think the pandemic made things worse, says Trance. Most deaths are what we call deaths of despair people who are lonely, theyre using drugs in situations where they dont have support of other people to protect them. And that was definitely worse during the pandemic.

So, I think that does have an effect, and thats what we have to bear down on. We need to provide much better support and inclusion to people who are living very isolated, marginalised lives.

There are many reasons why people turn to drug use, but one things for certain, more support is needed and the rhetoric must change from drug addicts who have thrown their lives away to showing that there is hope out there and that society cares.

Dr David Bremner, group medical director at the Turning Point Charity, believes action must be taken now.

"If these were cancer deaths increasing at this rate, we would expect action at a certain pace that I believe we should expect the same for persons with addiction."

If you feel you need help, the NHS has a number of useful contacts as well as support groups local to you.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read more:

Cocaine-Related Deaths Reach Record High in the UK - Men's Health

Thousands of families will spiral into debt, once-affluent households will be forced to watch the pennies, savings will be devoured and spending will dry up. Recession is inevitable.

Could our country have done anything to prevent it? The wholesale cost of power will have risen five-fold by next year, driven up by supply issues exacerbated by Russias war on Ukraine. Yet we are not just paying for pricey power.

Our bills have been inflated by repeated regulatory failures and expensive government eco-vanity projects. The 13bn smart meter roll-out bumped up our bills over the years, while the collapse of tiny firms that were allowed to take on hundreds of thousands of customers has added 94.

The Government has put the cost firmly on our shoulders by triggering a countdown to net zero. We are told we should all be driving electric cars and warming our well insulated homes with farcical heat pumps, but we are expected to pay for it at a time when family finances face unprecedented strain.

The British people have been neglected while the Government dropped everything in its trance-like pursuit of net zero. As a result, our household wealth is being used to pay for our countrys unforgivable dependency on foreign energy, failure to invest in self-sufficiency and exploit our own natural resources.

And its too late for the Government to do anything meaningful about it. Households will get 400 off their bills, but the Treasury may well have to dig deeper. We will all end up paying the price for net zero folly, whether it is as energy bill payers or taxpayers.

Read more here:

Britain will pay a heavy price for falling into a net zero trance - The Telegraph

WYSO Music On Demand provides your favorite locally-produced radio shows to stream for two weeks after they air! Listen to this episode of The Outside, hosted by Evan Miller:

Playlist for Ep. 121, 8/7/22:

Battle Trance - Green of Winter I(from Green of Winter) | New Amsterdam | Bandcamp

Andlace - Frabrik(from Fabrik) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

Andlace - How to Start a Fire With a Magnifying Glass(from Fabrik) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

Burning Plastic Blues Band - Splinter Cycle(from Peculiar Refractions in the Fullness of Time) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

Burning Plastic Blues Band - Blue Delusion(from Peculiar Refractions in the Fullness of Time) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

Burning Plastic Blues Band - Avenue of Peace(from Peculiar Refractions in the Fullness of Time) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

HelioGrave - HelioGrave(from HelioGrave) | Unifactor | Bandcamp

Iceberg - God Moves on the Water(from Final Thaw) | Astral Spirits | Bandcamp

Peter Rehberg - at GRM (2009)(from at GRM) | Portraits GRM | Bandcamp

Listen to Evan every Sunday night from 11 PM-1 AM on The Outside.

Read the original here:

The Outside - 8/7/22 - WYSO

If you were in Ibiza any time in the late 90s, the chances are that you would have spent part of your evening/morning dancing to music produced by Nick Bracegirdle aka Chicane.

Songs like Offshore, Sunstroke and Saltwater beamed out from every beach bar, sound system and hotel balcony, a blissed-out soundtrack of Balearic beats and addictive hooks.

These were high times for dance music. The superclubs were doing brisk business, music-making technology was becoming affordable and trance was about to conquer Europe. For the next five or six years, the charts were packed with quality tunes like Three Drives On A Vinyls Greece 2000, Energy 52s Caf del Mar and Binary Finarys 1998. And Offshore, of course!

Some people even began talking of a third summer of love. Hyperbole? Exaggeration? The drugs talking? Possibly. But few people would disagree that trance music left an indelible impression on dance music. As Ferry Corsten pointed out when we interviewed him in 2020, You pick any big festival from the last 20 years and youll find a trance stage.

No one wants to stick to the same script forever. Life is about change lets embrace it

The curse for any artist who has a modicum of success with a particular genre is that you are expected to stay within the confines of that genre for the rest of your life, says Bracegirdle with a wry smile. And I get that. I understand it. If I play a live show, people want to hear Offshore. But this is my 26th year as a working musician. Ive done rock, pop, ambient. My last album, Everything We Had To Leave Behind [released last year], was number one on the dance charts in 18 countries.

Surely, no one wants to stick to the same script forever. Life is about change lets embrace it.After a few years living in the French Alps hes a keen snowboarder Bracegirdle is back in the UK, overlooking the blue-ish water of theEnglish Channel from his house on the Isle of Wight.

Its ironic that Ive ended up back here, he explains, because this is where I first discovered electronic music, way back when I was 11 years old. It was a school camping trip to Appuldurcombe Park [near Wroxall on the Isle of Wight] and I remember running past my mates tent and hearing this strange sound. A sort of space music. It was Jean Michel Jarres Magnetic Fields and I was captivated. Axel F, all the New Romantic stuff in the charts. I was having music lessons and am sort of classically trained, but I knew there and then that this was the music I was going to make. It was my sound.

Its always interesting to talk to classically trained producers who are making dance music. Does all that compositional knowhow help or hinder when it comes to banging out club tunes?

NB: Well, it was a bit weird for me because Im also dyslexic. Ive got perfect pitch and I sat through all the lessons and learned about melody and chord progressions and what have you, but when it came to sight-reading, I was fucked! I remember sitting down for one exam and after about 20 seconds the tutor took the music away and said, Thank you very much.Next, please. Has it helped?

Yes, definitely. Its made me a better player and a better listener. But the whole dyslexia thing seems to have altered my technique somewhat. I was working in a studio some years ago and the producer said, You play very oddly. All of your chords are unusual shapes. Was it the dyslexia that did that? Who knows, but Ive ended up with a very specific way of playing and Im very thankful for that.

Has the entire studio moved from the Alps to the Isle of Wight?

NB: Not really. The current setup is pretty basic. Yes, Ive got the all-singing, all-dancing Mac running Logic and a few plugins, but the way Im working these days is quite ugly.

Ugly?

NB: The only thing I really care about is the song. Im not interested in searching for perfection in the final mix. I like to hear a bit of dirt and rubbish floating about. Theres one bass sound Ive got and its been used on God-knows how many different songs, pitched about and stretched all over the place. Same with pads and atmospheres. I might hear one chord that I like from a song Im working on, take that, stretch it out to half a minute, re-pitch it. It all adds to the feel of a song. My studio isnt a pristine environment creating highly polished products.

We need to step away from this idea of what is right and wrong in the studio. If youve come up with a good song, who cares how you put it together?

If I think back to how I made Offshore, it was mixed on a Technics hi-fi amp and a pair of regular hi-fi shop speakers. All the analogue gear used to float in and out of tune. It was noisy. Personally, I think we need to step away from this idea of what is right and wrong in the studio. If youve come up with a good song, who cares how you put it together?

Theres a track on another new album Im working on thats got over 200 tracks. Almost 20 different bits of audio layered on top of each other for the intro. Massive reverbs all over the place. But my ears tell me it sounds OK and I trust them.

If that album does get released next year, itll be the seventh album, remix album or compilation in three years. I didnt enjoy the lockdown, but it did wonders for my work rate.

Ironically, given what we first started talking about, the current release is a reworking of arguably your most well-knownalbum, the 1997 debut, Far From The Maddening Crowds. Arent you in danger of ignoring your own advice embracing change, not sticking to the same script?

NB: I suppose it all started with lockdown. For many years now, Ive taken a backseat in the studio. I worked with an engineer and producer, and I took more of a writing role. But the pandemic meant that I lost my engineer. I was stuck in the studio on my own. Obviously, I had a fair idea of how everything worked, but if I was going to make any decent music, I had to get on board with all the software especially Logic, which is my main platform.

The first three months were awful. It was hell. I knew what I wanted to do but didnt know how to do it. There were times when I came very close to smashing the shit out of the studio in frustration. All I want to do is automate this thing here it shouldnt take two days!

There were times when I came very close to smashing the shit out of the studio in frustration

Eventually, of course, things started to fall into place. I was back at the desk, getting my hands dirty. And it seemed to completely change the way I worked, not to mention the speed at which I worked. I felt inspired. I felt that I was becoming a better producer and, subsequently, a better writer. Have you seen that documentary about Dre and Jimmy Iovine, The Defiant Ones? Life was like that. I had an absolute passion for being in the studio and making music, and for most of the two years of the pandemic, I worked like fuck!

As far as this current album goes and reworking all those early songs I think it was a question of confidence. I have revisited the past a couple of times over the years, but Ive never been completely happy with the results. If youre not careful, what you end up doing is taking the main hooks from the original song and surrounding them with a bunch of updated loops and synth sounds. Whats the word Im looking for, here? Contrived.

The other problem was that Far From The Maddening Crowds is one of those albums that people are passionate about. Its got a lot of loyal fans. You have to be very careful when you start messing around with something that people love. Even before I started, I was imagining all the groans. Oh no! Whats he done that for?

But that period of getting stuck in with Logic and just writing-writing-writing seemed to open the creative door. Part of it was me finding my way around all the new software thats out there blimey, I can do this and this and automate that! but there was something else that just clicked and made me think it was possible to find a sound that worked. Find a way forward Ha ha! The funny thing is that I found a way forward by going back listening to all the stuff that I was listening to back in 1997, when the album was first released. I produced and mixed this album as if I was mixing an album in that era.

You went back to analogue? Everything going through your old Spirit desk?

NB: No. How can I explain this? I sort of came up with the idea when I started work on Offshore. Thats the song everyone remembers and its the one I was most careful with. As soon as I started pulling out the hooks and looking for new breaks, it sounded like a pastiche. Heres the well-known hook; lets update it with all the latest software.

So, I tried to remember what was going through my head when I first wrote Offshore. What was I listening to? Imagine its 1996 whats actually happening in the clubs? Over the next couple of weeks, I started digging out everything I could think of from that era. Tin Tin Out, Way Out West, all the early trance stuff. And I tried to make an old sounding album. I dont mean the technology; I mean the inspiration and the atmosphere. How did those late-90s tunes work? How did they make you move? How big did everything feel? The groove, the bassline, the pads, the reverbs. Simple stuff, like what was going on with the hats.

One of the biggest problems these days is how easy it is to get caught up in the search for the perfect sound

One of the biggest problems these days is how easy it is to get caught up in the search forthe perfect sound. You can scroll through literally hundreds and hundreds of different presets and drum samples, looking for something that the song doesnt need. Youre looking out there in the big wide world or youre looking inside the computer, but you really should be looking inside yourself. In your own head. Does it sound good to you? Do yourears like it?

With that in mind, I tried to make this a simple album. I used current technology, but I didnt want to get lost in it. I wanted the new versions to preserve the integrity of the original songs, but also keep them up to speed with whats possible in a modern studio. Its a clich, but I was trying to keep one foot in the past and one in the future.

Theres definitely a certain feel to the album. The warm, soft, cinematic wash of sound that characterised the Balearic/trance heyday.

NB: Im happy to say that most people seem to agree with you. I hope Ive done justice to the album.

Is there any analogue on there?

NB: Obviously, lots of the original sounds were generated by analogue gear. My old, crappy Casio synth the S750 sampler, which is still plumbed into the studio! Not that it ever gets switched on. And I did end up pulling in a lot of analogue samples; chunks of audio and what have you. If you listen to the opening track, Early, theres a bit of a Vangelis theme going on there. All done before he sadly went upstairs.

What a talent! One of my great regrets is that I got the chance to work with him in the early days and it never happened. It was just after it all went mental with Offshore, and I was being whisked around the world. Every space in the diary bang-bang-bang. Anyway, word came over that he was interested in doing some sort of collaboration. Fantastic! At the time, his studio was on a boat, off the shore of some Greek island. It sounded fucking fantastic!

Of course, I was caught up in the euphoria of having a bit of success and I kept getting told that there was no way I could spend two weeks floating about on a boat with Vangelis. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isnt it.

Can you quickly talk us through the current setup?

NB: Its not what youd call extensive. Theres the Mac and Logic, the Valhalla reverbs, of course. The one thing you cant skimp on is reverbs. Cheap reverbs are fine if theyre just sitting in the background, but if you want to create that huge sense of space, you need something decent.

My God, that Arturia ARP is well, its damn close to the real thing

Ive also been sucked into the world of the Roland plugins. Unsurprising, really, because they sound amazing. And the Arturia synths. My God, that Arturia ARP is well, its damn close to the real thing. The modelling has got so good now that, unless youre one of those people whos got a real hard-on for things constantly going out of tune, I cant see any reason not to go digital.

I guess thats one of the quirks of the music business, these days. In the studio, were all enjoying ourselves. Lots of new producers coming along lots of music. But the business side of things is in a complete fucking mess. The bottom line is that I dont think streaming will last. Its not working. My last album had 250 million streams, but that aint much. There are too many musicians that cant make a living.

Weve already seen Snoop and Death Row take their music off of streaming. Theyre saying that if you want to listen to this, come to us. Will that be the future? Will people make the effort to visit every website of every artist they want to listen to? Or will it be something like NFTs?

We have seen a lot of change in how we consume music over the last 70-odd years. From vinyl to CD to download to streaming. Lets hope evolution does its job and finds something new or we could be in real trouble!

Chicane's Far From The Madding Crowd (Evolution Mixes) is out now.

Continue reading here:

Chicane: "There were times when I came very close to smashing the sh*t out of the studio in frustration" - MusicRadar

Lois Thielen| Times Writers Group

At Sunday Mass a few weeks ago, I was listening to the homily in my usual benign trance when I was jolted awake by hearing our priest urging our Catholic political leaders to vote according to Catholic teachings in their governmental roles.

But what about separation of church and state? But this merging of religion and government seems to be commonplace these last years. Never mind that our country was founded on strict separation of church by leaders weary of constant religious wars in Europe. Forget that citizens may belong to religions other than Christianity or not follow any religion at all. It almost seems some Christians want a theocracy, a form of government in which one's religion and one's government are one and the same.

Voting according to one's religious beliefs is a good thing for individuals expressing their views at the ballot box. A problem arises when an elected official votes according to his or her personal beliefs while in an official capacity, such as passing legislation without regard for what his or her constituents may want.

The other big issue here is that churches and religious organizations are tax-exempt with the provision they not use the pulpit or their organization to endorse political candidates or positions. Many feel being able to use the pulpit to endorse or oppose candidates and issues should only be allowed if those doing so give up their tax-exempt status.There's other problems with using the pulpit for political purposes and a story entitled "Should Priests Speak About Party Politics?" by John Clark in the Jan. 14, 2020, National Catholic Register lays them out.

Already in early 2020, Clark said Americans were not so much sick of politics as sick with politics. Every event from a family birthday party to a community celebration involved often vitriolic political discussions as families and friends discovered people they thought they knew had opposing political views, which in the new norm seems to not be tolerated. A priest pouring more salt on the wound of political differences is not helpful, Clark says. Instead, he recommends priests need to help people heal, which is why he advises priests to not use the pulpit or their social media page for politics.

He's concerned that discussing politics from the pulpit may confuse the congregation as to what is the speaker's personal views and what is official church teaching. Then there's the matter of about half of any group not agreeing with political views expressed and choosing to tune out the speaker. Clark is concerned that eventually these people may choose to tune out the cleric's religious teaching as well and perhaps to even leave the church. This is not something the church can afford to have happen as Clark says, "the body of Christ (the church) is hemorrhaging already at an alarming rate." Pastors should highlight human rights and duties without referencing personalities or positions to make their point.

As if pastors preaching politics from the pulpit isn't enough, some pastors go on social media to preach their version of the political gospel, where they urge supporting or opposing government officials and policies. Never mind that Jesus hardly mentioned the tyrannical Roman officials of his day; these political pastors speak of little else.

One who pops up frequently is Father Edward Meeks of Baltimore, Maryland. Meeks, raised Catholic, converted to Anglicism, then reclaiming his Catholic roots by becoming a Catholic priest in 1996, has become known for his extreme views on everything from COVID-19 to the moral character of the current president and shares his views from his pulpit and through YouTube online videos. Last November he preached from his church pulpit, "our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. No earthly king or president or public health official gets to dictate what we put in our bodies that's between us and God," in reference to COVID-19 vaccinations.

He shared more of these views in a 26-minute YouTube video that, among other things, proclaims President Joe Biden is "unabashedly pro-abortion" and that the Biden administration is a danger to this country's religious liberty. This, by the way, is in direct opposition to a 1994 Vatican directive saying that a priest "ought to refrain from actively engaging himself in politics."

Beyond that, the religious liberty such demagogues tout extends only to those holding the same beliefs. Let someone claim the religious liberty to hold different beliefs and the response would be similar to that of the early American Puritans who silenced or drove out anyone disagreeing with their own brand of far-right intolerance.

This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Lois Thielen, a dairy farmer who lives near Grey Eagle. Her column is published monthly.

Link:

Priests and politics: The separation of church and state - SC Times

Elsie is a young actress who played the lead role in the Doll & Em television series from 2013 to 2015 and also made an appearance in the television short Di Bibl. She is the child of the actors Mischa Richter and Dolly Wells.

When the Stranger Things star posted a fuzzy close-up shot of himself smiling with Elsie Richter on his Instagram in June 2021, it garnered attention.

Despite the photo being removed, the couple has since seemed to keep their relationship a secret. When the two were seen sitting courtside together at an NBA game in April 2021 at the State Farm Arena, dating suspicions about them started to circulate.

Finn said that he was coerced into admitting his relationship with his girlfriend in a November 2021 interview with The Washington Post. If he didnt publicly announce that they were dating, his obsessive admirers threatened to reveal the address of his purported girlfriend. So he gave in.

They express their regret and say, Oh, OK. He said, We love her. Once you say, Hey, calm down, it all literally fades away. I like it. I truly am a human. It resembles something like a trance. It can be a power issue.

Read More: Who Is Megan Thee Stallion Dating: Are Pardison And Megan Still In Relationship?

Since Elsie and Finn havent been talking about each other on social media or been seen together in public for a while, many fans have hypothesized that they split up.

She also didnt appear for the season 4 premiere of Stranger Things, which many of the cast members significant others did.

Nevertheless, Finn is quite private and has been candid about his issues with social media. He said that hes terrified of it to Interview throughout their talk.

Instagram, according to him, is distracting and anxiety-inducing. The performer clarified that he just makes use of the platforms to advertise his work. He might not want to post his girlfriend because of this.

We can now respond to the question that has been asked about Finn Wolfhard and Elsie Richter the most. Since there are rumors to the effect that they may no longer be in a relationship, this is relevant to their relationship.

Elsie and Finns romance gains widespread attention. There is a tonne of questions about what happened between them on their social media profile. The existing relationship between them?

Read More: Who is Chloe Bennets Boyfriend 2022? Is She Dating anyone?

Elsie Richter and Finn Wolfhard are no longer together, the documents state. They are no longer an item. Others believe that Elsie cheated on him as well, which is how Finn decided to call it quits on their relationship.

Because they were so madly in love with each other, everyone thought that their romance would last a lifetime. Some pairings, though, are simply unsuitable. They also dont need to find their forever homes yet because they are both still quite young.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the actor admitted that while most of his fans are wonderful, some complete strangers are a little bit intrusive in their desire to learn about his personal life.

When he didnt publicly acknowledge their relationship, one of these people allegedly threatened to divulge Elsies address online, which prompted him to share a social media photo of the two of them. He claimed that these strangers regularly threaten to reveal his personal information.

They express their regret and say, Oh, okay. We love her, he said, according to the outlet. Once you say, Hey, calm down, it all literally fades away. I like it. I truly am a human. It resembles something like to a trance. It can be a power issue.

Read More: Are Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski Dating?John Krasinski Clarifies that He Was Not Really in Love with Jenna Fischer

Despite not being verified, she has an impressive 162,000 followers on Instagram under the handle @elsiepearls and frequently shares pictures of herself and other things/moments in her life.

She does not, however, appear to upload pictures of Finn. She appeared to be posing in front of a pool table in one of her most recent photos, which you can see above. She captioned the image with an emoji for a slot machine.

The young artist frequently publishes pictures of her friends, both male, and female, and occasionally tags them in posts. Since shes quite discreet about her life, its unknown if some of the individuals are actually family members, but she always seems to be having a great time with them wherever they go.

Her life seems to be filled with helpful people and wonderful, unforgettable experiences, whether theyre hanging out and reading in an apartment or going to a truck show.

View original post here:

Elsie Richter Dating Finn Wolfhard: Heres Everything You Need To Know About Their Relationship! - Landscape Insight

By Nathan Kamal| Published 14 hours ago

The 1980s were an enormously transformative time for comedy in film. The wild, anarchic comedy mavericks of Saturday Night Live like Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd were settling into increasingly nostalgic projects like Spies Like Us and Scrooged. In their place, a new group of stars that straddled the line between goofy comedy and drama was taking hold of Hollywood. They would retroactively be called the Brat Pack (a name many of them despised) and more than a few of them owed their early success to the films of John Hughes. The joke writer turned ad man turned screenwriter turned filmmaker ushered in a whole new kind of teen-oriented comedy in the 1980s, and eventually peaked with the single best comedic film of the entire decade. That movie is the 1986 classic Ferris Buellers Day Off and it is now streaming on Netflix.

Ferris Buellers Day Off stars Matthew Broderick as the title character, a high school senior a month from graduation who fakes being ill in order to take a day off and hang out with his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck, who was 29 at the time of filming) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara). Over the course of the day, he is pursued by both his overzealous high school dean of students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) and his suspicious, resentful sister Jeannie (Jennifer Grey). Hijinks ensue.

However, summing up Ferris Buellers Day Off by its plot is like describing Star Wars as a story about a father and son without issues. The movie was a star-making turn for Matthew Broderick, who had previously starred in WarGames and Ladyhawke but had not yet truly broken out. The role was apparently first offered to Anthony Michael Hall, who had previously worked with John Hughes in 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. After Hall had scheduling conflicts, Tom Cruise, Michael J. Fox, and most intriguingly, Jim Carrey were all up for the role. Ultimately, John Hughes revealed he had written Ferris Buellers Day Off with Matthew Broderick in mind. It became not just his signature role, but a character that he would actively work against in future films by increasingly choosing roles as a frazzled nebbish like Election, The Cable Guy, and The Producers.

Ferris Buellers Day Off is not so much a high school comedy as a weird, almost magic-realism journey through an idealized Chicago. Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane all go to Shermer High School, the same as the characters from The Breakfast Club and 16 Candles, though there does not seem to be any other overlap. Ferris himself is a near-mythical figure in his own time, but also does not conform to any particular high school stereotype. He is not a jock. He is not a nerd. He is popular and beloved not only by other students but apparently by the world at large (a running joke in the film is the various campaigns in the background to Save Ferris and even a 911 operator takes a moment to ask about his health). In the world of Ferris Buellers Day Off, Matthew Broderick is an eternally blessed and successful teen, but he also is not a jerk or in need of a comeuppance in order to bring him back down to earth. There truly may not be another character exactly like him in film. Hes a holy fool without being foolish, a con man without an ounce of malice in him, and even at the end of the day, a good friend.

Of course, it helps that Ferris Buellers Day Off breaks out an astonishing series of techniques to keep the movie constantly moving. Most famously, Matthew Broderick consistently breaks the fourth wall throughout the film to talk directly to the audience. While there is a lot of precedent for this in comedy films (the Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis both frequently deployed the technique), Ferris Buellers Day Off does not use it for simple punchlines or eye-rolls. Instead, it becomes a source of deep emotion and empathy for the characters, revealing the fears and doubts of even the most confident character in film history.

Similarly, John Hughes zeitgeist-changing mastery over music curation helps turn a simple comedic story about teens into something greater. The famous use of the Dream Academys cover of the Smiths Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want to underscore the deep melancholy of Alan Rucks Cameron is as effective as Yellos goofy Oh Yeah to introduce the pivotal 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder they borrow from his father for the day. It is one of the stranger things of film history that a politically conservative, fame-averse middle-aged man from Illinois would be so in touch with the alternative music scene of the 1980s that he could make songs instantly iconic for generations.

Reportedly, John Hughes wrote Ferris Buellers Day Off in a single week, typing it out in a trance-like state to beat a deadline before a Writers Guild of America strike. He packed the movie with beloved Chicago landmarks like Wrigley Field, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Sears Tower, yet the movie feels universal. It also helps that it is stuffed with jokes, goofy voices, rapid-fire sight gags, and a plot that owes as much to Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner as it does The Breakfast Club. Against all odds, all of this came together to form the apex of 1980s comedy, and it is available for you to watch on Netflix right now.

Visit link:

The Greatest Comedy Of The 1980s Is Now On Netflix - Giant Freakin Robot