#intro ✧ the riviera pack

[hcllfxre]

𝔹𝕖𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕠𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕤

Group: The Riviera Pack Members: 10 (remaining. The rest, missing) Alpha: Leo “Hades” Ronan Beta: Milo “Felix” Davers

- They’ve always lived by the river. It is known. For centuries, the Riviera pack have not strayed far from the water, claiming their territory by the rapids of the powerful downstream, building their homes, their communities and their lives around their main life-source. 

- Leo had always known he’d be Alpha. His family bred a powerful line of wolves that, for generation after generation, served and protected their community against the threats of the outside world. This was the life he lived and would continue to live till his dying breath. 

- For a while, they lived a relatively peaceful life. His first few years as Alpha, things had gone smoothly. His wolves called him ‘Hades’ after witnessing how ruthless of a warrior he could be when hunters attempted to threaten their pack. Felix often joked that it was because he looked miserable 97% of the time. 

- The peace that they lived in soon fell apart one night when a large group of hunters ambushed their community. In the dark of the night, the wolves woke with a panic as flames licked at the walls of their homes. It almost seemed as if they were coming from every direction, from the treetops to the shadows of the forest, arrows and spears coming for them, like unforgiving needles of death that took down his brothers and sisters without warning. 

- Without another thought, him and his beta corralled a large chunk of their pack to the outskirts of their community as fifteen of their best warriors fought against their enemies. 

- “Take them and disappear.” Leo hissed as he tugged at the necklace around his neck, the leather chord breaking apart, before pressing the cool ivory pendant against his beta’s palm. “Lead them away from the river. I will... I will find all of you, I promise.” His beta looked up at him with wild eyes before glancing back down at the the Alpha pendant resting in her hand, glinting against the soft moonlight of what she would say would be the worst day of her life. 

- “Leo-” 

- She looked up, only to find the retreating figure of a large black wolf howling into the night. With a deep breath, she tied the necklace around her own neck, praying to the gods for safety before barking at the rest of her pack to run... and to not look back. 

- Leo and the rest of their warriors fought valiantly, finally taking down enough hunters for them to signal for retreat. Looking around, amidst the burning homes of what was once their whole life, he barked for all of the wolves that were left to run north with him, away from the pack to dissuade the hunters from following his beta. 

- They stumbled upon the safe house by accident, and have been graciously welcomed. Leo, however, knows it won’t be for long. He needs to find the rest of his pack, or die trying. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago Out on Blue Six: Ian McDonald's brilliant novel is back

For ten years, I've been singing the praises of Out on Blue Six, Ian McDonald's 1989 science fiction novel that defies description and beggars the imagination. It's been out of print for decades, but it's back in ebook form, and I was honored to be asked by McDonald to write the introduction for the new edition. Ian's given me permission to reproduce that intro in full -- as you'll read, this book is one of those once-in-a-generation, brain-melting flashes of brilliance that makes you fall in love with a writer's work forever.

Welcome, lucky reader, to a glad moment in literary history: the republication of Ian McDonald's magnificent 1989 novel "Out on Blue Six," a book I've read dozens of times, and by which I am still awed and delighted.

I won't try and summarize the plot. There's no point. Picture a 16-car pileup in Dr Seuss country, where the colliding zithermobiles are piloted by William Gibson's console cowboys and Mad Magazine caricatures, have P.K. Dick and Orwell do alternating rewrites on the text, and you'll be getting close to the kind of novel that this is.

Anyone can make soup. You just make some stock, bung in an ingredient or two, and simmer. Stew, on the other hand, is tricky. Combining a few ingredients is simple. Combining a hundred ingredients is hard. Most often, the soup ends up tasting of nothing, or of whatever the most overpowering flavour in the pot happens to be. But when you get an amazing stew, one of those traditional dishes from Louisiana or the French Riviera or certain parts of Mexico, the result is indescribably wonderful. Each of those flavours is somehow still perceptible in the mix, adding something to it, making an infinitely varied texture that is different every time you dip your spoon. Stews are things you remember for the rest of your life.

This is a masterful stew of a novel. McDonald is one of those pop-culture mavens who manages to combine the banal and the familiar with the profound and solemn, without ever being merely ironic. So when he narrates a football match, or adapts the Rosary prayer, or plays around with Orwell and Terry Gilliam, he's doing more than simply juxtaposing. He's teasing out the wonder that lives beneath each of them. He gathers up all the emotions that we've poured into our symbols and rituals and uses them to power a story that is as moving as it is flashily clever.

This is an important book. Not "important" in the sense of being difficult and dry and esoteric. Out on Blue Six is none of those things. It is fun, it is fast, it is convulsively funny, and it is packed with enough action for six books.

But it is important nevertheless. It's important because it does to all the sf that came before it what a Coltrane solo did to the musical conversation that had taken place among all his peers before he picked up his horn. This is a book that shows the unexpected connections between the high and the low, the serious and the frivolous, the sacred and the profane. It's a novel that marks the end of the Cold War and the start of a too-short techno-optimistic period, and it is prescient in its shrewd guesses about where all that optimism is likely to end.

Vast hordes of schoolkids and university undergrads are required to read and contrast Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Brave New World, and that's good as far as it goes. But imagine what a weird and fabulous world it would be if they had to have their minds blown by Out on Blue Six before they were allowed to write their term-papers.

Out on Blue Six

https://boingboing.net/2014/01/20/out-on-blue-six-ian-mcdonald.html

[rockandblognet]

Crítica del nuevo álbum de Sons Of Apollo, “MMXX”

SONS OF APOLLO, la banda de Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Jeff Scott Soto, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal y Billy Sheehan publican en unos días su nuevo álbum “MMXX” y aquí os contamos lo que nos ha parecido

SONS OF APOLLO es la banda formada por los ex miembros de Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy y Derek Sherinian, Ron «Bumblefoot» Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) y Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force). Solo con estos nombres ya empezamos a salivar, pero lo cierto es que SOA no es solo una superbanda más. Tienen un sonido propio y en este álbum “MMXX” que estará disponible a partir del 17 de enero lo demuestran, dando además un salto adelante con respecto a su anterior trabajo.

SONS OF APOLLO se han hecho fuertes gracias a las giras anteriores que han compactado el sonido de la banda, y que unido a la libertad de creación y composición de los miembros da como resultado un proyecto más que interesante.

Analizamos “MMXX”

El disco arranca con “Goodbay Divinity”, primer single lanzado en formato vídeo y que deja claro lo que comentábamos al principio sobre el sonido de la banda. Con una intro que se pasea entre lo psicodélico y lo progresivo que abre con los sintetizadores de Derek, seguido de un potente riff de la mano de Bumblefoot y el inconfundible sonido del bajo de Sheehan abren paso a Soto que llega en modo “mala leche”.

“Wither To Black” es el segundo corte de los ocho que componen el álbum. Toma protagonismo Portnoy con un ritmo complejo sobre el que se apoyan el resto de elementos de la banda formando una base instrumental sencilla que cumple hasta que llegan los momentos virtuosos en guitarra y teclado. 

“Asphyxiation“ es el momento de liberar la tormenta que llega como un tornado de guitarras puramente progresivas y que dejan un sección final para que Portnoy demuestre todo lo que se puede hacer con una batería.

En el cuarto corte llega un breve respiro. «Desolate July»  arranca con campanas, una introducción de piano y el Soto más melódico del álbum. Es un tema puro de Hard Rock que nos permite ver esa otra cara de SOA.

En “King Of Delusion»  empezamos con ciertas reminiscencias a Genesis en los sonidos del piano pero al combinarlo con el riff de guitarra, el bajo brutal y batería nos deja claro que esto es mucho más heavy. A lo largo de todo este tema nos encontramos mil cambios entre potencia y tranquilidad que hacen  que el oyente no se acomode en ningún momento.

Llegamos a “Fall To Ascend» donde el protagonismo es para Bumblefoot, Sherinian y Portnoy que montan una base instrumental realmente impresionante y en la que se echa de menos una línea de voz más interesante por parte de Soto para redondear el tema.

“Resurrection Day” arranca con un aire algo oriental para desembocar en un tema con un corte muy similar al anterior, pero con un sonido más compacto, más de banda, y menos de virtuosos reunidos.

Última pista, «New World Today», en la que la banda se explaya con una duración de casi 16 minutos de nuevo con un Ron `Bumblefoot` Thal estratosférico. El tema arranca como si de Vangelis en Blade Runner se tratara, y poco a poco nos va aportando retazos guitarreros que van construyendo la introducción del tema más progresivo del disco. Ya os digo yo que se lo han pasado pipa grabando este tema. Que cambios, que sonido, que sincronismo, que maravilla!!! Para mi, lo mejor del disco sin ninguna duda.

Para concluir simplemente decir que Sons Of Apollo, “MMXX” es un discazo para los amantes del Rock Progresivo, y creo que puede ser perfectamente consumible para los demás. Tenemos un pack de músicos impresionantes, cada cual mejor, pero lo grande de este álbum es que suenan como una banda, al menos en la mayoría de las pistas.

Recordamos que SOA estará por España el próximo mes de Marzo.

Fechas y entradas de la gira de SONS OF APOLLO por España en 2020

Ver a Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Jeff Scott Soto, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal y Billy Sheehan juntos sobre el escenario es poco menos que espectacular y podremos hacerlo este próximo mes de Marzo en Bilbao, Barcelona y Madrid.

Sala Santana 27 (Bilbao) – Viernes 13 de marzo, 19:30 hrs. Entradas

Sala Razzmatazz 2 (Barcelona) – Sábado 14 de marzo, 19:30 hrs. Entradas

Sala La Riviera (Madrid) – Domingo 15 de marzo, 19:30 hrs. Entradas

Entradas en Ticketmaster al precio de Anticipada: 30€ / Taquilla: 35€

Crítica del nuevo álbum de Sons Of Apollo, “MMXX” en el artículo original de Rock and Blog

[junker-town]

Tiger, Rory, and going back to Cali: A guide to the PGA Tour’s West Coast swing

The West Coast swing will feature the return of Tiger Woods, the US debut of Rory McIlroy, and a month at some of the best venues on the PGA Tour’s interminable schedule. Here’s a preview of what’s to come.

The PGA Tour schedule is a never-ending, week-to-week march that covers 11 months of the year. There is certainly no real offseason and there are rarely any breaks. Sometimes there are even multiple events in the same week. It starts from the very top, the first weekend in January, and runs all the way up to Thanksgiving, and even after that, there’s set of “unofficial” events in December that many players patronize.

The PGA Tour does an admirable job of creating some consistency and predictability about what comes when and how it should all be ordered most efficiently. But it can become a dizzying mess with sponsors and a new era of big money cash grab events holding influence and continuing to shape the schedule.

There are a few stretches on the schedule that are distinct and can be clearly delineated from the rest based on more than just the time they’re held. Stretches that fit nicely into a theme or section and give you the throwback, intended sense of the word “tour.” One of those is the West Coast swing, the season-opening stretch that runs through California and Phoenix. The tournaments have some of the longest histories on the stateside Tour, are played at some of its best venues, and reliably slot in during the first two months of every year.

There may not be a major or WGC and it may not be the high point of the season, but combined, it’s the best stretch of the entire yearlong schedule (my colleague will take issue with that below!).

The 2018 West Coast swing begins this week. We’ll hit the usual fantastic venues. Tiger Woods will return. European stars, like Rory McIlroy, will make their 2018 U.S. debut. Jim Nantz will grace us with his presence, dropping Tony Romo for Nick Faldo (ok, that may be a step down). It’s all good and we can’t wait. Here’s a mini preview pack of some discussion points and topics to get you hyped for going back to Cali.

The 5 stops of the West Coast Swing

The West Coast swing covers five tournaments, beginning on Thursday January 18th in Palm Springs and finishing in Hollywood on February 18th. It ranges from the California desert to a rowdy Phoenix party to seaside venues in both SoCal and NorCal. The gallery above runs through all five stops in succession, but here are your nuts-and-bolts in list form.

One weak point about this part of the schedule is that three of the five events are held on multiple courses. The stop in Palm Springs uses three courses in the area. Torrey uses both its South and North course. And the Pebble Pro-Am uses three courses from the embarrassment of riches on the Monterey Peninsula. Multiple courses are a good (maybe necessary) thing to have this time of year with limited daylight and large, full fields. But it makes stats harder to gather, TV coverage less comprehensive, and fantasy picks tougher to make.

The Coverage

Get ready for angry tweets! Because while the West Coast swing yields maybe the season’s best venues, it also provides one of its more ... wanting? stretches of TV coverage. CBS does not have the Super Bowl this year, which means they’ll return to the game at Torrey Pines. The CareerBuilder Challenge will stay exclusively on Golf Channel, but after that, it’s the start of the usual Golf Channel and CBS split on the weekends.

For the last several years, the CBS production has taken a beating on Twitter. A handful of reasons, some justified and others baseless social media furor, have made CBS the whipping boy. It’s a tradition, especially on the West Coast at the start of their PGA Tour coverage year. Saturday at the Pebble Beach Pro Am has been dubbed the worst broadcast of the entire season, as we sit through analysis of the swings of Kenny G, Ray Romano, Gary Mule Deer et al.

With a little perspective and the right mindset, it’s actually entertaining to have Jim Nantz and the CBS crew back. I’ll be watching to see if he goes back to the same sweater at Pebble Beach (where he has a home ICYMI) for a third time.

Back to back years of the Nantz sweater. http://pic.twitter.com/CAktOqZTpB

— Adam Sarson (@Adam_Sarson) February 13, 2016

And CBS might be a welcome sight if Golf Channel cannot come to terms with their unionized employees that walked out on Sunday’s coverage in a strike. Here’s a quick TV guide for the next month on the West Coast:

Ok, we’re through clerical stuff on the schedule and coverage. Now on to the takes...

The best course/event for 2018

Kyle: No one’s ever gonna accuse me of being a golf purist. Any opportunity the sport has to be less stodgy, less buttoned-up, and more open and available to anyone that wants to partake is awesome. That’s why Scottsdale is the Tour’s best single normal event — maybe by a long shot. It’s dared to be different in how it attracts a crowd, bringing in younger audiences with things like concerts, superfluous amounts of booze, and, of course, the spectacle of the 16th.

It is the sport’s wildest stage, and it has provided some pretty legendary moments. Every golf hole should be played inside a 30,000-seat stadium. Pump it directly into my veins.

So, just saw a hole in one on 16 at the phoenix open. #wmopen #wastemanagmentopen #pga #golf #holeinone #party #bestholeingolf

A post shared by chrishisle (@chrishisle) on Jan 31, 2015 at 10:34am PST

Brendan: I’ve already stated my love for the West Coast swing in the intro, so I just want to say I think each and every event makes a solid contribution to the PGA Tour schedule. But Riviera is clearly the crown jewel in the group, and perhaps in the entire season.

The Phoenix Open is so special because there’s nothing else like it on the entire schedule. I’d argue there’s also nothing like Riviera on the schedule. You get a classic course, one of the best in the world and situated right in the heart of major American market, to open its gates annually to a field that’s become absolutely loaded in recent years. The new generation of stars have all added Riviera to their schedule.

The Tiger Woods foundation taking the reins of the Genesis Open has now thrown the Tiger circus into an already stacked field. We’ll get Tiger in his second start of the year, and likely Rory, Spieth, DJ, Phil, Sergio, JT, and Rickie, among others. For a non-WGC event, you just don’t get every single guy to show up like that.

Sure, Riviera could be even better and there’s some frustration with how current ownership has set up and maintained a golden age George Thomas design. But it’s still far more interesting than the monotonous TPC layout we get so much on Tour. It’s Los Angeles. It’s a classic layout with a bunch of interesting holes. It’s a loaded field. It’s Tiger. Annnnd it will also be NBA All Star weekend in LA too. The entire week is going to be a fantastic circus.

Will Tiger’s glutes activate?

Brendan: The glutes will be firing. As Kyle notes below, I’m not crazy about him starting with the Farmers Insurance Open, despite his legendary success at Torrey. The recent memories — deactivated glutes, chip yips, missed cuts, last year’s driving debacle — are not kind. It can be a rough setup and the weather can actually be a problem for someone trying to stay loose and “activated.” That said, I think he stays healthy, looks fine, rips a few bombs off the tee, and misses the cut by a shot or two.

We don’t really know what to expect in his second start at Riviera. It’s technically his home event but he’s not historically done well there — a primary reason why it was cut from his schedule the past decade until his foundation partnered with the event last year. I think another missed cut is more likely than not, which is fine. We just want to see him healthy, getting reps, and looking moderately competitive. I think we’ll get that and it will be the start of an actual comeback season, unlike that depressing slog last year.

Kyle: I’m gonna admit some mild concern about Tiger making his real return at Torrey, even though it’s a place where he’s played so well over the years. The North Course is a tougher test than it once was after modifications, and the South is as brutal as ever with the Tour content to let the roughs grow. If he’s going to play the weekend in San Diego, he’ll need to be keeping the ball in front of him off the tee. This early in the season, that’s a ton to ask for a guy that hasn’t played competitively in a year. If you’re optimistic, wait for Riviera. Put me down for MC, and then maybe a top-25 finish in LA.

Player we’re most excited to see (non Tiger division)

Kyle: There’s a few obvious ones here, but let’s go a bit deeper down the roster. I’m all in on #CantlaySZN for this spring. After everything the guy has gone through in the past few years between injury & tragedy, it feels like we’re finally here. The win in Las Vegas felt like we finally broke down the wall. He’s from Long Beach, he went to UCLA, and Pebble Beach is where he made his comeback debut last season. Give me Cantlay to win at Riv, which would be one hell of a story.

Brendan: That’s a great one. I’m going with a much more obvious and mainstream choice: Rory McIlroy. I’m sorry, I can’t quit the man. It seems like every year now we start with a “This is gonna be the Year of Rory” hype train. Last year it fizzled rapidly and we’re now three-plus years since his last major. That’s not a long time for most humans and I still think the expectations are a little off and unrealistic, but maybe that’s due to all the hype he gets (I am a part of that!).

So here we go again: I am excited to see Rory back, healthy, playing again and taking violent cuts with his driver. I think he’s going to have a big year. No one in the game is more exhilarating to watch than Rory when he’s cooking. It starts in the Middle East, where he may bag a win before he transitions to the stateside tour to make a rare start at Pebble and then at Riv.

Photo by Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Rory at Riviera will be must-see.

Some quick (maybe crazy) predictions

Kyle: Brian Harman, Rickie Fowler, and Hideki Matsuyama all take home wins over the next five weeks. Yes, all of them. Go take that parlay and thank me later.

Brendan: Easier prediction: Tiger Woods will be courtside for the NBA All Star game in some questionable jeans. Bolder prediction: DJ will win at both Pebble and Riviera, making him a vintage Tiger-esque 3-for-3 to start his PGA Tour season.

Miscellaneous takes

Kyle: Brendan loves the West Coast Swing, which is fine. It’s golf, and it’s on my TV while I’m sitting in my freezing Midwestern apartment. There are worse things. I’m also here to tell you that Brendan is wrong, and the West Coast Swing is, in fact, not good!

I’m being mildly hyperbolic, but this set of five events doesn’t do much for me. Palm Springs is the John Deere Classic, But Near Coachella [Editor’s note: sounds amazing!]. Torrey’s length and penal rough creates for boring golf. The Pebble TV broadcast is a five-hour long ASMR video where Jim Nantz whispers the names of celebrities you forgot about in 2006 over gentle ocean waves. Riv and Scottsdale are both great events, but they don’t do enough to compensate for three others that are decidedly meh for me. The West Coast Swing is bad.

Brendan: Kyle thinks blade collars are good.