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fakesam · 7 years

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Belated Black Panther Thoughts

Everything happening regarding Black Panther right now feels like a miracle. You can only congratulate a giant, increasingly powerful conglomerate so much for realizing black money runs the same as white money, but it is still a moment to be celebrated. Seeing a movie this proudly black in the limelight, with such a large budget and plenty of promotional backing, is delightfully paradoxical given the toxic whiteness infecting the national atmosphere from the top down. This movie dropped at the right time. The biggest individual piece of promo comes courtesy of Black Panther: The Album, curated by Kendrick Lamar and the rest of the Top Dawg Entertainment braintrust. Licensed movie soundtracks have experienced something like renaissance over the last couple years, a business maneuver congealing the interests of film studios looking for anything to boost social media traffic and musicians to get some extra exposure and a decent payday. The results of these partnerships has been mixed at best, even when the Best Rapper Alive is involved. Remember when Kendrick rapped over an overly macho remix of Tame Impala’s “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”? Most people don’t.

Even with this project, it was easy to develop some cynicism about the final results. Kendrick has become more and more intransigent about being the voice of the voiceless, but he’s hasn't been above easy mainstream pop dollars in the past. Man gave verses to Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, and performed with Imagine Dragons. “All The Stars”, the most successful single off The Album, is a pleasant enough pop-rap hit that struts perfectly over the end credits of a blockbuster, but it lacks the depth of feeling that has made Lamar the current Poet Laureate of Black America. There’s also “Pray For Me”, a Weeknd and Kendrick collab that sounds like it was salvaged off the Starboy cutting room floor. These songs are fine, but eminently forgettable. Thankfully, these tracks are clear outliers, the lone examples of mainstream genuflecting across the entire project. The uniqueness and specificity that makes Black Panther so appealing as a film is also apparent in the sprawling sonic odyssey of its soundtrack. It’s better than anyone could've hoped for.

The playlist era of album design, gives credence to the worst impulses of people just trying to get paid, narrative coherence be damned. Migos’ Culture II was ruined by an engorged tracklist that led to a runtime comparable to most of the nominees for Best Picture at the Oscars. Twenty-four songs was at least ten too many, but who needs an editor when the penalty for choosing quantity over quality is so minimal? But it’s the perfect format for a movie soundtrack.

Kendrick’s ability as a tastemaker has never really been a thing to consider until now. His albums are hermetically-sealed portraits of his psyche, exploring his personal tensions and how they’re informed by his personal history and the lineage of black strife in America. This intricate exploration of his inner self doesn’t leave much room for other voices - the featured artists welcomed into his world are brought in for a very specific purpose. Kendrick is also very selective about the songs of other artists he’s willing to jump on. Combine that with his social media reticence, and the lists of contemporaries that Kendrick listens to are tantalizingly vague. There’s an undeniable intrigue to learning who a near-consensus superstar genius deems worthy of the aux cord. Consciously leeching on to the burgeoning movements of younger rappers is a tactic that Drake has perfected over the years. The two current titans of hip-hop have been acting out a musical cold war for the last couple years, so it’s tempting in a sense to think of Black Panther: The Album as Kendrick running with Drake’s idea of a “playlist project” that he tried to make happen with the release of More Life.

But it’s much more tempting to talk about the sumptuous quality of this music on hand. The litany of artists brought together to assemble this album, a mix of established stars, burgeoning upstarts and total unknowns, bring disparate genres and musical approaches to the table, all cohesively strung together under the diasporic flag of black excellence.

It’s obvious in hindsight to see why Kendrick was so attracted to the project that he asked to oversee the entire soundtrack after watching snippets of the film during its production. The divide between T’Challa and Killmonger’s views on progress mirrors the internal strife that has Kendrick has been ruminating on his entire career. TDE took their role as gatekeepers seriously, drawing delineations between the conflicts of the movie and the endless struggle that is sadly inherent with the black experience. Black Panther could never have the intimate complexity of a solo Kendrick record, but it details the black experience with more nuance than many albums told from one perspective. The strokes are broad, but the completed painting is still worthy of admiration.

Most of TDE shows up in some form. SZA provides the hook on the aforementioned “All the Stars”, Schoolboy Q reminds us of his undeniable charisma on “X”. Ab-Soul puts together his first good verse since his 2012 album Control System on “Bloody Waters”. We even get a glimpse of the lesser seen, frivolous Kendrick on “Big Shot”, a bouncy, “New Freezer” interpolating Travis Scott collab that doubles as the latest entry in the “Dope Rap Songs built around a Flute Sample” pantheon. from rap to pop to heavily indebted house music from South Africa. But it’s the newer faces that making their formal introduction to larger audiences that makes this album genuinely exciting. SOB x RBE have received most of the acclaim for their scene-stealing performance on “Paramedic”, and that praise is warranted, but they’re not the only up and comers who killed it. Jorja Smith makes a war march sound like heaven on “I Am”, and South African artists Yugen Blakrok and Babes Wodumo make their case for international renown on “Opps” and the South African house jam “Redemption”. Kendrick is present on every song - his contributions ranging from being the best rapper alive to windy background vocalist - but he’s very much a secondary figure in the works of others.

It’s bears repeating how remarkable it is that this thing has been allowed to exist. That Future inhales a bunch of helium, interpolates Slick Rick, and asks for a blowjob with one absurdly entertaining turn of phrase. Someone at Marvel signed off on all of this. We should all be thankful for that man or woman or committee of persons. What could’ve been a simple cash grab for TDE becomes something much more stirring and exciting thanks to a commitment to take the source material seriously enough to use it as a launching point for work that is both evocative and entertaining. A perfect table setter for the main event.

As I sat in the chair of the theater waiting for the movie to start, I was slightly nervous about the quality of the movie. The hype cycle had spun into overdrive had built the movie to stratospheric heights. Black Panther stopped being a movie and became a religious communion. That’s a lot to live up to. Aside from the inescapable expectations created by fans, Marvel’s cinematic spell lost their power over me years ago, as the negative aspects of the “Movies as TV episodes” system became more glaring. Nothing of consequence ever happened and the action scenes were overwrought and anticlimactic, antiseptic, CGI-soaked action that put me to sleep. The last comic book movie I enjoyed without much reservation was the first Guardians of the Galaxy, way back in 2014, 87 years ago. Even Wonder Woman, one of the rare superhero films allowed to take some risks - as much as giving women the chance to be all-powerful warriors without the prompting of a man counts as a risk to some people - lost me during the third act when Gal Gadot fought a Bloodborne boss yelling corny “Give In To Evil and Join Me!!!!!!!” dialogue in the middle of a flaming airfield. When comic book movies go extremely comic book-y, I lose all interest. My expectations were middling despite the widespread adoration of the movie that compelled me to go see it in the first place. Not quite as cynical as I tend to be, but not wearing a T’Challa costume to the theater.

By the time the entire elite class of Wakanda was shimmying from on high while T’Challa fought for the throne of this Afro-futurist utopia (the first time this happens), I realized how wrong my assumptions were. I didn’t realize how much I needed this movie to exist. Just witnessing this much blackness - a proud, intelligent, secure version of blackness - actively enriched me while I was watching it. The power of representation isn’t lost on me, but I believed I was past the point where I would experience such gratification from a giant blockbuster. I underestimated how affirming it would be to see this much black prosperity on film. It’s amazing how impactful the casting of black actors in roles usually given to white people can be. I’m jealous of little kids who can look up to Shuri or T’Challa or Nakia and feel a little less ashamed of themselves at a young age. M’Baku’s capacity to be large and menacing and also capable of telling jokes about cannibalism is magical. I would watch all of these characters do anything for hours. Instant icons, all of them.

Black Panther also solves the eternal villain problem that’s been flummoxing superhero films since Heath Ledger died. Killmonger is incredible. He is still a villain, since his endgame of choice is to start a literal race war, but his motivations and reasoning up to that point are totally understandable. From an outsider’s perspective, Wakanda is this hovel of selfish conservatism that does nothing to stop systemic oppression and kills anyone who whispers about their existence too loudly. Sitting pretty in their Vibranium-powered towers above the struggle. It’d be easy to resent Wakanda if you’ve never seen Shuri pranking T’Challa in her lab. The most logical emotion for him is anger. He went out like a G, too. That last line was perfect. I would have liked to see more of a conversation between Killmonger and T’Challa before he took over, but you can only hope for so much civil rights philosophizing in a blockbuster. It was enough to feel like the obligatory third act battle was had actual stakes. Black Panther finally made the Game of Thrones fandom sensible to me. Political maneuvering can be way more engaging than I realized. Blame George Lucas for that train of thought.

I find it hard to think about this movie in any critical sense because I’m so happy that it was allowed to exist in this form. After sleeping on it, I will concede that the South Korea sequence didn’t need to be that long. The “Andy Serkis is a Soundcloud rapper” goof was an airball. But anyone who would rather complain about about the scene’s usefulness as a plot device more so than celebrate the badassery of Chadwick Boseman and Danai Gurira is not to be trusted. Same goes for the fact that this movie has a sense of humor that can’t be reduced to just Tony Stark saying something snarky or tryhard quirkiness, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 style. They really let Ryan Coogler do that shit. Black Panther is the first Marvel movie that was clearly in the hands of an auteur, with a vision uncompromised by studio notes or the compulsion to tie itself to the rest of Marvel Cinematic Universe. This movie never feigns interest in the machinations of the Avengers or whatever wold-destroying portal they need to destroy, and thank god for that. The narrowness of the story lends itself to much more in-depth character development and a sense of place. It rarely feels or looks like other Marvel movies. Wakanda is too good for reality, but the open designs of the shopping areas and the impeccable fashion of the citizens tied into the history of African culture in a way that's easy to intuit. Shoutout to the Codeine Crazy-esque skyline in T’Challa’s first herb-induced vision. Shoutout to the guy with the giant disc in his mouth. Man had fits for days.

Even my mom loved it. I saw the movie with her and Danai Gurira’s performance was so good that she thought about shaving her own head in her honor. She also said she wanted braids like Angela Bassett’s character, but quickly decided against it because of the time commitment to getting such a hairstyle. But getting that level of inspiration from a Marvel movie spells out how special Black Panther is. I rarely watch movies with her anymore. Our tastes have mostly split as I’ve grown up. I haven’t seen her that giddy walking out of the theater since… ever? Her love of the movie really made it clear how special this moment is for the culture. I kinda hate that I said for the culture, but I don’t know how to end this. Many thanks to Ryan Coogler and company for giving me that moment. Uhhhhhhhhhh bye.

#black panther #movies

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multiply-xxx · 7 years

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Eisenberg's blood, sweat and tears

The Social Network star has always suffered from anxiety but he has learnt to harness it creatively, finding solace both in his writing and acting, he tells our reporter.

I really shouldn't feel nervous interviewing Jesse Eisenberg. The worst that can happen in any interview is that the subject is boring, which with his talents and projects - a movie riding high in the cinema charts, a book still a bestseller and a play he's rehearsing in London - seems unlikely. But he has earned something of a reputation for giving journalists a hard time. An otherwise highly flattering portrait of him in Vice recently described him as "ducking broad queries, jabbing here and there with sarcasm" while his interview with Romina Puga for Univision will forever live in the annals of car crash celebrity interviews - at the end he asked her "are you still here?". Yahoo recently piled in, wondering if he is "awkward or just mean".

Based on my experience I'd say neither, particularly. It would be tremendous fun if Eisenberg threw strops but in fact he answers questions with a twinkle of irony in his voice and he's generally self-effacing and charming. He expresses bafflement when I mention his reputation.

Journalists and reviewers are not his enemy, he says, despite his piece in The New Yorker last winter in which he assumed the narrative role of a blogger going to review a movie. "These are the main problems with Paintings of Cole," his story concludes. "It was inconveniently shown on the Upper West Side, written by a guy I envy, screened by a cute intern whose name was too confusing to remember, based on an idea that I poorly executed in grad school, and praised by the Times, which rejected me."

"That was not a criticism of critics," he explains. "It was a satire on how some people use particular forums to express personal gripes. That was why it was satire and that's why it was in the 'Shouts and Murmurs' section of The New Yorker. I obviously don't have any ill will toward critics. They've been great for my career, especially since some of the work I've been in hasn't had huge budgets and all we have to depend upon are kind words from reviewers."

They have indeed been great for his career. The panning of his latest offering, Now You See Me 2, aside, Eisenberg's career has been shot through with memorable roles and standout performances, most notably in The Squid And The Whale - his first big role - and The Social Network, which won him an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He's also maintained a career as an incredible stage actor and in recent years has revealed himself as a writer of some talent, having contributed pieces to McSweeneys. His first book, Bream Gives Me Hiccups: and Other Stories, is a series of hilarious restaurant reviews, as written by a privileged nine-year-old boy who accompanies his recently divorced mother on spectacularly awkward dates. It seems to be influenced by David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, both of whom he says he admires. In his film career, he's carved out a niche playing neurotic Jewish nerds with razor sharp intelligence and those characteristics would not seem to be too far from his own personality.

He grew up between New York and New Jersey and his mother trained people in racial sensitivity in a hospital, while his father was a college professor. He was always an anxious child, he tells me.

"My childhood was not boredom and that was part of the problem. I was worried about everything, even things that could never possibly befall me. I carried two tissues every day, one for crying, one for bleeding. I longed for boredom.

"I knew when I grew up I'd have control of my life and surround myself with people I wanted to be around and ultimately reach the nirvana of boredom."

We're told that Americans medicate such traits out of their children but Eisenberg tells me he came along too early for that. "I came of age before medication became in vogue. I'm sure if I was a child now and if my family could afford it, I'd be on a cocktail of drugs. We just had to be naturally miserable. There were no therapists either. It was generational. Therapy was more stigmatised then, my parents probably saw it as something for the elite or the eccentric and possibly a waste of money."

The family had little interest in movies "either as an art form or as casual entertainment" but Eisenberg had a passion for musical theatre and he learned early on that acting was an effective form of self-medication. "I didn't have an appropriate coping mechanism. They become a part of the fabric of my personality, writing and acting were comfortable outlets. I could immerse myself in other people's psyches. I wanted to be in musical theatre but I don't think I had the stamina to succeed in that difficult arena. So I acted in dramatic plays."

While still in his early teens he transferred to a performing arts school in New York and before he graduated had already won his breakthrough role in the independent comedy-drama Roger Dodger. That role meant he had to decline a place at New York University, but he studied anthropology at The New School in Greenwich Village.

Before making a name for himself, he wrote a play about how Woody Allen came to change his name and managed to get the play to the representatives of the famous auteur, in the hope that he would grant his approval for the project.

Instead Eisenberg got a 'cease and desist' letter. Years later the Telegraph would describe Eisenberg as "a renaissance man in the Allen mould", and his play as a "compulsive slice of American neurotica".

If there was any bad blood, it was clearly long before Allen cast Eisenberg in his 2012 ensemble comedy, To Rome with Love. In Allen's new film, Café Society, Eisenberg was promoted to playing a younger stand-in for the director himself.

Like Allen, Eisenberg has made a virtue of his tics and, while he has tried therapy as an adult, it's still art that provides the greatest help.

"Being anxious is not fun but I've found things to channel it into which makes it less uncomfortable. My book was very much about that - taking awkward situations and characters who feel anxious in them - was very much fun for me to write. The book is a coping mechanism made manifest," he says.

Bream Gives Me Hiccups and Other Stories is published by Grove Press.

#article #Jesse Eisenberg

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analvelocity · 7 years

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ANSWER_THEM_ALL

Alllllll righty then.

1. Would you have sex with the last person you text messaged? Yes.2. You talked to an ex today, correct? No.3. Have you taken someones virginity? Yes.4. Is trust a big issue for you? Probably the biggest.5. Did you hang out with the person you like recently? Yes!6. What are you excited for? Next Friday... hoo boy, next Friday.7. What happened tonight? Discovered some things about myself and what I like that I definitely hadn’t realized before... the night’s still young too.8. Do you think it’s disgusting when girls get really wasted? Depends on what they’re like when they’re drunk, honestly. But I’m happy to go into parent mode if necessary.9. Is confidence cute? Absolutely.10. What is the last beverage you had? Vanilla Coke.11. How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust? Maybe two or three.12. Do you own a pair of skinny jeans? It’s pretty much all I wear other than suit trousers or chinos.13. What are you gonna do Saturday night? Hang out, play Overwatch/Witcher 3 and talk about sex it seems.14. What are you going to spend money on next? Rent and bills, probably.15. Are you going out with the last person you kissed? No.16. Do you think you’ll change in the next 3 months? Definitely. Especially in my current emotional situation and the industry where I work, a single week is an eternity to play with.17. Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything? Probably Dany.18. The last time you felt broken? Earlier this week.19. Have you had sex today? No!20. Are you starting to realize anything? Yes!21. Are you in a good mood? It certainly isn’t bad!22. Would you ever want to swim with sharks? I feel like that’s just asking for trouble.23. Are your eyes the same color as your dad’s? No. I’m green, he’s more of a hazel/brown.24. What do you want right this second? She knows.25. What would you say if the person you love/like kissed another girl/boy? I’d live with it. She’s waaaay too cool for me anyway.26. Is your current hair color your natural hair color? Yes.27. Would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh? No.28. What was the last thing that made you laugh? A joke about a C-3PO buttplug on Tumblr dot com.29. Do you really, truly miss someone right now? ...kinda?30. Does everyone deserve a second chance? Depends. If they knew what they were doing and could have prevented it, I am less inclined to give it to them. But I’m not unforgiving.31. Honestly, do you hate the last boy you were talking to? He’s my bro 4 lyf dawg.32. Does the person you have feelings for right now, know you do? Probably, like I told her direct superior at a work party so y’know. Never said it to her directly, but I have asked her out before.33. Are you one of those people who never drinks soda? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha absolutely not.34. Listening to? A playlist of songs I’ve written scenes for in my various stories that I made in Spotify a few months ago. Current song - A Strangely Isolated Place by Ulrich Schnauss.35. Do you ever write in pencil anymore? Not really. I do draw in pencil though.36. Do you know where the last person you kissed is? Yes.37. Do you believe in love at first sight? No. The three people I’ve ever truly loved were not people I was even interested in when we first met.38. Who did you last call? My mum - mother’s day is tomorrow and I gotta be places.39. Who was the last person you danced with? My crush. That night is largely why she’s my crush.40. Why did you kiss the last person you kissed? Because it was fun and the mood was right.41. When was the last time you ate a cupcake? Honestly dunno.42. Did you hug/kiss one of your parents today? Nah, but i probs will tomorrow.43. Ever embarrass yourself in front of a crush? Of course, who hasn’t?44. Do you tan in the nude? Tanning is not something I really do - I am a white boi 4 life yo.45. If you could, would you take back your last kiss? No.46. Did you talk to someone until you fell asleep last night? Yes.47. Who was the last person to call you? Either my mum or my personal trainer.48. Do you sing in the shower? Sometimes! Not often.49. Do you dance in the car? Yes.50. Ever used a bow and arrow? Yes!51. Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? Two weeks ago for work... by my crush.52. Do you think musicals are cheesy? Yes, but that’s part of the appeal. The Producers (both versions) are pure kino though.53. Is Christmas stressful? I fucking love getting into the Christmas spirit, I am a fucking yuletide machine come late December.54. Ever eat a pierogi? What the fuck is a pierogi55. Favorite type of fruit pie? Apple and Cinnamon.56. Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid? An inventor, author or journalist. I still have the author dream, but I swapped out journalism with advertising after I started learning both at Uni.57. Do you believe in ghosts? Nah.58. Ever have a Deja-vu feeling? All the goddamn time. Sometimes I seriously think I have an oracle’s premonition.59. Take a vitamin daily? I take magnesium pills but otherwise the vitamins I get are from smoothies I blend at work.60. Wear slippers? Nah.61. Wear a bath robe? Nope.62. What do you wear to bed? An assortment of old high school sport/band gear, my Year 12 jersey or a heavy jumper I nicked from a landscape gardening tutor at CIT.63. First concert? Radiohead - The King of Limbs Live in Sydney in 2012. No other concert since has compared, it essentially ruined the live music experience for me.64. Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? Kmart and Target are different beasts in Australia but I’ve been into a Walmart once and I’m gonna have to go with that.65. Nike or Adidas? I guess Nike, not for the clothes but because the Knight family founding Laika has been the best thing to happen in animation since the Disney Renaissance.66. Cheetos Or Fritos? Miss me with both. Cheetos if I have to pick.67. Peanuts or Sunflower seeds? Peanuts.68. Favorite Taylor Swift song? I can’t stand her music but I’ll pick 22 because it’s catchy and she looks super hot in the music video.69. Ever take dance lessons? I actually want to, but no.70. Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing? For some reason I guess I’ve always pictured her as a musician or doctor.71. Can you curl your tongue? Yes.72. Ever won a spelling bee? I won enough as a kid that I got banned from them.73. Have you ever cried because you were so happy? Yes.74. What is your favorite book? 1984 changed my life. To Kill A Mockingbird and Mister Monday are runners-up because they had me reading the whole thing in a single sitting.75. Do you study better with or without music? With. 76. Regularly burn incense? Not regularly, but I do.77. Ever been in love? Yep.78. Who would you like to see in concert? Daft Punk.79. What was the last concert you saw? Some indie band I can’t remember the name of. Umm, Hey Geronimo or something? I saw it because I was doing promo stuff.80. Hot tea or cold tea? I do like a good iced tea.81. Tea or coffee? Tea.82. Favorite type of cookie? Can’t go wrong with chocolate chip.83. Can you swim well? I’m decent.84. Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? Yes.85. Are you patient? Being as patient as I am is a curse. My life is a quagmire of diminishing returns.86. DJ or band, at a wedding? Depends on who I’ve wed and the vibe. I think, generally, a band sounds nice.87. Ever won a contest? Yep!88. Ever have plastic surgery? Nope!89. Which are better black or green olives? I can’t really tell the difference.90. Opinions on sex before marriage? Never had a problem with it. In fact, I encourage the idea of sex before marriage because locking yourself in with someone who is sexually incompatible with you sounds like the worst.91. Best room for a fireplace? Bedroom, but the living room makes more sense.92. Do you want to get married? Someday. I won’t be thinking about it until at least my 30s though.

#Anonymous

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preciousmetals0 · 5 years

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Wall Street’s Italian Job; Gilead’s Gilded Lead

Wall Street’s Italian Job; Gilead’s Gilded Lead:

The Kings of Wishful Thinking

“I’ll get over you; I know I will. I’ll pretend my ship’s not sinking.” — Go West

Don’t look now, but we have our first major COVID-19 outbreak in a Western country.

Italy announced over the weekend that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections spiked to 230 patients. In response, the Italian government locked down an area of about 50,000 people near Milan.

And the market? The market responded exactly as I said it would once COVID-19 hit a Western country: It sold off hard.

The Dow plunged more than 900 points, attracting gawking financial writers across the board. All three of the major market indexes dropped an average of 3% today.

But Mr. Great Stuff, weren’t South Korea and Iran also in the news?

Yes, dear reader, this is true. South Korea is rapidly nearing 1,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and raised its virus-threat alert to its highest level. Additionally, Iran announced a surprise of 12 deaths from the virus and confirmed 61 cases.

I’d argue, however, that Italy was the bombshell that truly sank U.S. markets. COVID-19 has spread across several other countries since its outbreak, with little to no real reaction from Wall Street. The fact that the virus is now spreading in a European country makes the situation more real for U.S. investors.

Minus Italy, the markets would’ve dipped today … but not 3%.

This will only get worse from here.

The Takeaway:

I hope you’re all healthy and doing well today … as well as can be expected amid a fear-induced market sell-off.

In fact, you should all be faring much better than the overall market today.

Why?

Because you read Great Stuff!

We’ve warned you about a market sell-off for more than a month now. In fact, we:

Now that is some great stuff!

But I hear you, dear readers … I hear you.

You want more. You need more. And I have just the solution for your COVID-19 fears. His name is Ted Bauman.

Around here, Ted is the diversification duke … the well-balanced baron … the equal-opportunity emperor. What I’m trying to say is that Ted knows the market will stay irrational as long as it dang well pleases … and you should prepare for any scenario.

That’s why Ted’s model portfolio in The Bauman Letter is actually three diversified model portfolios in one:

The “Base Hits” portfolio for investing in long-term gain opportunities in solid, financially stable companies.

The “Home Runs” portfolio for impressive shorter-term opportunities — those quick stock rallies that most investors will miss in a blink in these volatile times.

The “Endless Income” portfolio for opportunities to generate income in the meantime.

How’s that for diversified?

Trust me when I tell you that Ted is the man to have in your corner when uncertainty pangs hit the market.

Click here now to learn how you can get Ted’s research in The Bauman Letter.

Good: The Golden Ticket

Did you add gold to your portfolio last month when Great Stuff touted its benefits? If you had, you might be up about 6% on that position right now. That’s how far gold prices have run in the past month.

Today, the April gold contract rose roughly 2% before retreating. COVID-19’s spread outside of China has many investors worried, and gold is the go-to safe-haven investment for just these situations.

Right now, gold hovers at its highest levels since January 2013, and it’s creeping up on the psychologically important $1,700 area.

Psychologically important? Yes, well … people like neat, round numbers, and $1,700 fits that bill nicely. Furthermore, gold hasn’t traded above $1,700 since 2012. That’s an eight-year hiatus from these heights, and a breakout here could be a sign that investors are finally pricing appropriate risk into the market.

Naturally, Wall Street isn’t quite ready to admit that it needs the kind of protection that a $1,700 gold price would indicate. So, the malleable metal pulled back just before hitting that high today. Gold will eclipse this level, however, regardless of Wall Street’s denial.

In other words, there’s still a little time left to profit from gold’s safe-haven rise.

Better: Distant Relations

Remember when Chinese social media and video streaming company Bilibili Inc. (Nasdaq: BILI) surged because it basically had a live, captive audience due to China’s quarantine?

Well, Zoom Video Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ZM) is experiencing a similar renaissance. The stock is among the few gaining ground amid today’s virus sell-off because it allows all those corporate meetings to still take place remotely — lucky you.

Back on February 4, Stephens analyst Ryan MacWilliams laid out the case for Zoom: “We believe investors are betting on paid user growth as a result of increased cloud video meeting usage, due to concerns around physically meeting due to the coronavirus.”

With COVID-19 cases on the rise outside of China, MacWilliams’ scenario for Zoom is driving the shares even higher today. More and more businesses are canceling events and meetings out of fear of contracting or spreading the virus. As such, video-teleconferencing companies like Zoom stand to benefit greatly due to increased subscriber numbers.

Zoom will report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, March 5. While last quarter’s numbers won’t show significant impact from COVID-19, analysts expect guidance to be stronger than many project due to increased usage amid the outbreak.

Best: Gilead and the Odyssey

In the Bible, the name Gilead can mean “hill of testimony” or “heap of witness.” Not to be too crass, but a “hill of testimony” is exactly what Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) investors hope to gain from COVID-19.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Gilead’s experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, could be effective against the coronavirus. The claim was reported by CNBC in a press conference with WHO, which identified Gilead’s drug when asked about potential treatments for the virus.

Here’s the real kicker for Gilead, though: Remdesivir hasn’t been approved for use anywhere in the world. In other words, the ongoing clinical trial for remdesivir in the treatment of COVID-19 is a really big deal for Gilead. It could provide key information on the drug in human testing — i.e., providing a “hill of testimony” that could get the drug approved in multiple nations.

On a side note, there are currently only two WHO clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment: One is for Gilead’s remdesivir, and the other is for AbbVie Inc.’s (NYSE: ABBV) ritonavir. Just so you know, AbbVie is one of Great Stuff’s “no fear here” picks to beat the coronavirus.

All I have to say about this is that Alec Young needs a subscription to Great Stuff. He could’ve found out about this weeks ago.

Luckily for you, dear readers, you haven’t had to wait for more than a month to find out what Mr. Young is finally coming to realize.

Why not share some of this Great Stuff with your friends and investing colleagues?

Forward them this email and help them sign up today.

Click here to sign up for Great Stuff now!

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

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goldira01 · 5 years

Link

The Kings of Wishful Thinking

“I’ll get over you; I know I will. I’ll pretend my ship’s not sinking.” — Go West

Don’t look now, but we have our first major COVID-19 outbreak in a Western country.

Italy announced over the weekend that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections spiked to 230 patients. In response, the Italian government locked down an area of about 50,000 people near Milan.

And the market? The market responded exactly as I said it would once COVID-19 hit a Western country: It sold off hard.

The Dow plunged more than 900 points, attracting gawking financial writers across the board. All three of the major market indexes dropped an average of 3% today.

But Mr. Great Stuff, weren’t South Korea and Iran also in the news?

Minus Italy, the markets would’ve dipped today … but not 3%.

This will only get worse from here.

The Takeaway:

I hope you’re all healthy and doing well today … as well as can be expected amid a fear-induced market sell-off.

In fact, you should all be faring much better than the overall market today.

Why?

Because you read Great Stuff!

We’ve warned you about a market sell-off for more than a month now. In fact, we:

Now that is some great stuff!

But I hear you, dear readers … I hear you.

You want more. You need more. And I have just the solution for your COVID-19 fears. His name is Ted Bauman.

That’s why Ted’s model portfolio in The Bauman Letter is actually three diversified model portfolios in one:

The “Base Hits” portfolio for investing in long-term gain opportunities in solid, financially stable companies.

The “Home Runs” portfolio for impressive shorter-term opportunities — those quick stock rallies that most investors will miss in a blink in these volatile times.

The “Endless Income” portfolio for opportunities to generate income in the meantime.

How’s that for diversified?

Trust me when I tell you that Ted is the man to have in your corner when uncertainty pangs hit the market.

Click here now to learn how you can get Ted’s research in The Bauman Letter.

Good: The Golden Ticket

Right now, gold hovers at its highest levels since January 2013, and it’s creeping up on the psychologically important $1,700 area.

In other words, there’s still a little time left to profit from gold’s safe-haven rise.

Better: Distant Relations

Remember when Chinese social media and video streaming company Bilibili Inc. (Nasdaq: BILI) surged because it basically had a live, captive audience due to China’s quarantine?

Best: Gilead and the Odyssey

All I have to say about this is that Alec Young needs a subscription to Great Stuff. He could’ve found out about this weeks ago.

Luckily for you, dear readers, you haven’t had to wait for more than a month to find out what Mr. Young is finally coming to realize.

Why not share some of this Great Stuff with your friends and investing colleagues?

Forward them this email and help them sign up today.

Click here to sign up for Great Stuff now!

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

#Timor Invest

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waynekelton · 5 years

Text

Then & Now: BGG's All-time Top Ten Board Games on iOS & Android

A reader asked that we take a look at this article and give it a refresh, given how much has changed in digital board games over the past five years. PT regular Michael Coffer kindly went through Owen's original words and found out what became of the BGG's Top Ten list as of January 2014. We've also provided us with a new list based on the current top ten.

We've tried to leave Owen's words intact, but I've made edits where needed and posted updates to each entry to reflect the current situation.

Original Story (Jan 17th, 2014)

We're in the middle of a board game renaissance. Sales of board games are hot and getting hotter -- industry observers called the summer of 2013 "the best summer ever" for the market. Part of that success is wrapped up in the rise of iOS as a platform for digital board game conversions. I don't know which one is the chicken and which one is the egg here, but clearly there's some very influential people who think that digital board games have a very bright future, as evidenced by Silicon Valley-sized investments raised by digital board game purveyors like Playdek. Clearly, we're going to see a lot more board games on iOS in the next couple of years. It's easy to see the appeal for board game publishers. When you decide to port a board game to iOS, much of the hard work in designing the game itself is already done, and you benefit from an existing fanbase for your product who will help spread the word about it -- marketing is the toughest part of making a successful iOS game, as a lot of devs can tell you firsthand. Board Game Geek is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-meets-IMDb of the tabletop gaming world. BGG maintains a database of over 68,000 boardgames, all ranked by the site's half-million-strong membership. That's a pretty authoritative list right there. Which of the board games in BGG's top 10 can you already play on iOS? And which ones will you be able to play soon? I did a little asking around.

#10 - Le Havre

Status: Available on iOS, iOS again & Android

2008 board game Le Havre is a quintessential "Euro" board game: light on the theme, but deeply strategic. Players collect resources and compete to develop the titular French port city without overextending themselves.

Update: Le Havre is in the rather unique situation of not only sporting more than one version, but more than one version on the same App Store. Due to the recent expansion of Asmodee Digital's library of mobile board games, they've ended up either releasing or acquiring apps for games that have had version made in the past.

Codito's original 2012 game is available on iOS, titled Le Havre (The Harbor). Asmodee Digital have their own version available on iOS known as Le Havre: The Inland Port, which is also available on Android. We should really do a comparison at some point.

#9 - Mage Knight

Status: In Development

Mage Knight is a big huge genre-mashing game of significant complexity: it marries together lots of mechanics that usually carry whole games by themselves. The one time I tried to play Mage Knight at a board game night, we ran out of beer while we were still learning the game. In other words: an ideal game for a digital conversion, as the iPad can do a lot of the rules interpretation and computational heavy lifting for you.

WizKids, the publishing house who hold the rights to Mage Knight, just launched their very first iPad game: Quarriors, which Dave reviewed for us in December. I asked them about their plans for a digital Mage Knight, and they told me that they were planning on following up Quarriors with another iOS game, they just hadn't decided which one yet. Update: It seems nothing became of that plan, because nothing's turned up in the five years since. However, we did get news back in January that Dire Wolf Digital have recently acquired the rights a whole range of digital board game apps, which includes a partnership with WizKids that starts with Mage Knight.

#8 - Power Grid

Status: No Idea This network-building game (not hugely dissimilar from the popular and easy to learn Ticket to Ride) is a license that Le Havre makers Codito tried to acquire back in 2012 but were rebuffed when publisher 2-F Spiele told them that a digital version was already in the works. I wasn't able to dig up anything more recent. Maybe an iPad Power Grid's release is imminent. Maybe it's stuck in development hell. Update: Development hell is most likely - it hasn't appeared in the years since, and we can't find any recent information about it.

#7 - Eclipse

Status: No longer available

This science fiction empire-building game was released for iOS last spring to considerable acclaim -- here's Kelsey's review of it. Polish iOS board game specialists Big Daddy's Creations don't shy away from complex games (their previous release was intricate abstract wargame Neuroshima Hex), and they're still releasing updates for this one.

Update: Despite critical acclaim and a release on Steam and Google Play in 2016 (the Steam version doesn't have good user reviews), the developer seems to have gone bust and shut down. Due to the lack of post-release support, you can't currently buy this on any platform (although if you already own it, you can download and play still). The current rumour is that the license holders are looking to make a new app based on the 2nd Edition of the game with a new studio.

#6 - Terra Mystica

Status: Available on iOS & Android

Fantasy empire-builder Terra Mystica is much beloved for its dynamic play and asymmetrical sides, but it's another complex game that would be orders of magnitude easier to play on an iPad or PC.

Sadly, there doesn't appear to be a digital edition of Terra Mystica in the works, and some off-the-record conversations I had suggested that complex IP rights arrangements with Terra Mystica's publishers in different regions might make an iOS edition difficult to work out. Update: Oh ye of little faith. Terra Mystica would get a mobile release on iOS and Android three years later in 2018, developed by digital board game connoisseurs DIGIDICED. It's so good, it's on our list of the best mobile board games.

#5 - Android: Netrunner

Status: Yes & No This William Gibson-inflected cyberpunk card game designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield has been hugely popular since its release in 2012 and publishers Fantasy Flight Games have fed thirst for the game with a steady drip of expansions. Fantasy Flight are famously quiet on the PR front and wouldn't comment, but an industry source told me that Android is in the works. Fantasy Flight have been hiring digital artists lately, and since they're not producing the recently-announced Witcher digital board game in-house, those new bodies have to be working on something. My bet is this.

Update: Except it wasn't. An official mobile app of the game never materialised, although you can play it via a web browser thanks to jinteki.net. The physical game was also retired last year after a six-year run, meaning that no new card sets or official tournaments will be happening. So far, FFG seems to have turned a blind-eye towards the browser game so that's your only means of getting that digital fix.

#4 - Puerto Rico

Status: Available for iOS

The oldest iPad app on this list, Puerto Rico HD has been up on the App Store since 2011 and German board game publisher Ravensburger (who had Codito build the app on their behalf) have updated the game every year to keep it current with new versions of iOS. Like Codito's Le Havre above, this game is none-too-friendly UI-wise.

Update: Nothing much more to add here - there was never an Android version, although the successor game San Juan also got a mobile release on both iOS & Android.

#3 - Agricola

Status: Available for iOS (& Android, sort of)

The second appearance on Board Game Geek's top 10 for German game designer Uwe Rosenberg (who also designed Le Havre), Agricola is one of the most remarkable digital board games we've ever seen. Players run a medieval European farmstead and attempt to increase the size of their farms while managing to keep their growing families fed.

While it's true to the rules that made the tabletop game such a huge hit, Playdek's realisation of the game for iOS brings it to life in a way that only video games can, transforming the game board into a living, breathing farm village. We liked this one so much that we named it the Board Game of the Year and our Runner-up Game of the Year for 2013. Update: Playdek's version of the game never made it to Android, and the developer later sold the rights to the game to Asmodee Digital. DIGIDICED created a separate game in 2016 that is the digital adaptation of the two-player variant, Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small. They also sold the rights to Asmodee, and that game is available on iOS & Android. I know.

#2 -Through the Ages

Status: Available on iOS & Android

This Civilization-style empire builder is one of our most anticipated games of 2014, though it's far from a sure thing that the game will come out this year. The iOS conversion was originally in the hands of Le Havre makers Codito, though the board game's publisher Czech Games Edition parted ways with them in 2012.

Czech Games Edition head (and TtA designer) Vlaada Chvatil told me this week that work is progressing on Through the Ages for iOS, but that his company's current focus was the digital edition of Galaxy Trucker. Chvatil said that they were re-doing much of the art that had been made for Through the Ages, suggesting that maybe this one's going to be on our 2015 most anticipated list, too. Update: Vlaada Chvatil got in touch to say that he wouldn't rule out TtA for a 2014 release.

Actual Update: Through the Ages wouldn't actually turn up until September 2017, although it was well worth the wait. Available on both platforms, it's also on our list of the best mobile board games. In a rare turn of events, Michael actually enjoys playing the digital game more than the table-top version.

#1 - Twilight Struggle

Status: Available in all its glory for iOS & Android

Twilight Struggle is a game that I've been getting into myself over the past year. It's an extraordinarily cerebral head-to-head contest between players taking the roles of the US and the USSR during the Cold War, waging an indirect campaign against one another as you vie for influence with client states and spread your ideology.

First released in 2005 (and designed by XCOM: Enemy Within designer Ananda Gupta), Twilight Struggle has been in the works for PC for years now and release is perennially six months away. Publisher GMT told me that there's "no concrete plans" for an iPad edition, as all of their efforts are currently focused on the PC version.

Update: The PC & iOS versions of Twilight Struggle would eventually be released by Playdek in 2016, and it was glorious. An Android release followed shortly afterwards, and there was much rejoicing.

Board Game Geek's Top Ten Board Games March 2019

Now that we've resolved 2014'a list, let's have a quick peak at the list as it stands today, and see where we're at in terms of digital adaptations for mobile.

10. Twilight Imperium (Fourth Edition)

No, and not in the pipeline, as far as we know. Stretching back aeons (okay, 1997,) this scifi game featuring seventeen playable races in its present incarnation (4th ed.) is epic in duration and execution. Its ambitious design has stood the test of time, offering a related tabletop version of the intricacies of 4X genre, what with the conflict of warfare being counterbalanced by technology, economy and general politicking and ‘diplomacy,’ which is as genteel a front for betrayal and vendetta as any.

9. Great Western Trail

Pfister’s proven himself a designers-to-watch since Mombasa, and his Great Western Trail does not disappoint. Long past are the days when victory point games were inevitably about homeland and empire, now it’s more en vogue to have peripatetic ‘journey’ themed games (Voyages of Marco Polo, the Century series of games). The Great Western Trail tasks players with a herd and a dream and sees them wrassle with dust and disaster. It’s fresh but already feels like a staple of many a game night.

The thirst for an app is ‘being shared with the team’ but no concrete plans have been announced or rumoured so far. 2016 is relatively young in board-game years, and unless you happened to be an Asmodee property, the turnaround for digital editions is years, not months, so don’t hold your breath, this one is likely but only in the far-flung future.

8. Scythe

In Scythe, mechs of fearsome size harvest and gather or wage war across Europe. This Eurogame strikes a tight balance between territorial conflict and engine-building and is well-beloved for its starting factions and their distinct identities and powers.

Asmodee Digital are publishing the Digital Edition, and it's being developed by newcomers Knights of Unity. The game has been in beta Early Access on Steam for some time now but has yet to make the leap to iOS or a full PC release, though both are planned and likely to hit sometime this year. There have stretches of silence and delays up to this point, though, so until a hard date is available odds are 50-50 it’ll be delayed again.

7. Gaia Project

Definitely maybe, especially since its spiritual precursor, Terra Mystica, already has one. If Terra Mystica were reimagined from the ground up and shot into space, it would look something like the Gaia Project, which is a little more sandbox-y and a little less blueprint-y. Still every bit as cutthroat but, going with that space theme, a more capacious and innovative design.

6. Star Wars: Rebellion

No and probably not happening, for a few reasons. Like Twilight Struggle, this game simulates a struggle between two factions for ultimate control and is heavy on bluffing and deception. No reason an AI couldn’t reasonably emulate these qualities, however FFG, generally speaking, doesn’t make digital versions of games to play solo. They haven’t digitised games featuring duels between two players and have given no indications to start. Oh, and Rebellion is a premium product of a premium I.P. so it’s exclusivity on that front means a digital version might cheapen the game’s status, from a business standpoint.

(While not on iOS, you should all check out the late-90's grand strategy game of the same name, which is available on Steam. The board game is pretty much a replica in physical form-ED)

5. Twilight Struggle

Present and accounted for, see above.

4. Terraforming Mars

Coming soon™ since 2018. We’re closer to the finish now that the PC version is out, but this is one of those recent hits which rapidly had its app ambitions announced too long ago, and now everyone is collectively stuck tapping their watch, waiting.

3. Through the Ages

Present and accounted for, see above.

2. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

Unlikely, given that Legacy games stake their niche on physical alterations and a permanent end-state, concepts which don't exactly translate well to a digital app. The original game, Pandemic, already has a digital version that's quite good, so we imagine that'll be enough for most people.

1. Gloomhaven

If any game needed a digital conversion, it'd be this behemoth of an Adventure/RPG. It'd certainly be a load off everyone’s minds (and backs, for the game weighs 10 kg). Last we heard, Asmodee Digital were making a digital version but they've only said it's coming to Steam so far, so its unknown if it'll ever come to mobile.

We hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane - let us know if there are any other older articles you want us to take another look at and update!

Then & Now: BGG's All-time Top Ten Board Games on iOS & Android published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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churningman · 8 years

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Vanilla Ice Cream’s Infinite Possibilities

If you are reading this ice cream blog, odds are that Chef Michael Laiskonis has the dream job you never knew existed. Chef Laiskonis divides his time between running the Chocolate Lab and experimenting with ice cream formulation at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), where he has been the Creative Director since 2012. He occasionally teaches courses there, which is how we met last June. Chef Laiskonis was kind enough to agree to the following interview, which took place in the Chocolate Lab this past September.

A self-described “pastry-chef-by-accident”, Chef Laiskonis is originally from Detroit, where during a break from pursuing a fine arts degree he took a job at his roommate’s brother’s bakery in the suburbs and “what started as something I could do quickly became something I was compelled to do”.

He ascended the culinary ladder quickly. Newfound passion and a baseline culinary skillset got him hired at a small fine dining restaurant in Detroit where he built the pastry program from scratch, then several years later he was hired as Pastry Chef at Detroit’s Tribute, where he earned repeated national recognition. Chef Laiskonis then “somehow found himself” as the Executive Pastry Chef at New York’s Le Bernardin, where he stayed for eight years, during which time he was awarded the James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2007.

Chef Laiskonis’ humility belies the methodical approach he applies in his work, and the curiosity and passion that drive it. Yet to hear Laiskonis tell it, he’s continued to stumble into amazing new projects and roles, including being offered the opportunity to run the Chocolate Lab at ICE, where he now works 40 hours a week (“technically part time”) in addition to all the other things he does.

Saturday session. #ICEChocolateLab pic.twitter.com/8rUoosYa2v

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) January 28, 2017

As for all those other things? Laiskonis came to ICE to test ideas he had been stockpiling in notebooks for years. In his words, “I wanted to create a situation where I could slow down, think one thought to its complete end.” He also guest lectures, studies chocolate history, helps with pastry curriculum development, works on marketing projects for ICE, occasionally shares his thoughts at Lucky Peach, and oh by the way he is also an ice cream wizard. Maybe thinking ‘just a few’ thoughts to their complete ends would be more accurate. But two stand out above the others:

“Ice cream and chocolate compete for my nerd sensibilities… and who knows how many iterations of chocolate ice cream I’ve done even within the last year or two to find just the right balance of flavor and texture”

The following interview is heavily edited from its original form. Many thanks to Chef Laiskonis for his generous time and commitment to sharing the knowledge he continues to create.

CM: Where did your relationship with ice cream start, and how has it changed over time?

ML: If we go back to when I was about 15 years old, my very first job was actually scooping ice cream. I never would have believed I would have gotten into the science of what I was working with at the time.

Ice cream graffiti - Clawson, Michigan. pic.twitter.com/4DT2Npy22X

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) October 25, 2016

As a pastry chef coming up in the mid-to-late 90s, there were a lot of very interesting things happening in pastry, both aesthetically and technologically. Already by that time desserts started to become complex, multi-component plates with lots of contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures—more than just a slice of cake and some berries on a plate. Over the course of my career it’s almost become taken for granted that desserts will have some sort of frozen element.

Back at the first restaurant job I had I basically created a pastry chef position out of thin air. We were buying a lot of our dessert components from other places and if we had ice cream on a dish it came from the grocery store next door—Häagen Dazs, only the best—so when we started making ice cream, all I had at my disposal was one and later two of those canisters that you put in the freezer for 12 hours and it does a quart at a time. In hindsight they probably were all pretty icy given the technology we were using—but we also had no idea about formulation.

It wasn’t until maybe five years later, well into my first full-time pastry chef position at Tribute, when I started to pay a little more attention to formulation. Certainly balancing fat, balancing sugars—not only for sweetness but slowly beginning to wrap my head around the functionality of sugars and how they affect texture.

As a young cook, at least at that time, you hear people say ice cream is just frozen crème anglaise. And when you’re incorporating other flavors you just add other flavors on top of that.

I was stuck in that rut of equating an ice cream base with crème anglaise, still using a lot of egg yolks, until even five years ago, about the time I was leaving Le Bernardin. I was teaching one of my first ‘ice cream technology’ classes, and one of the exercises I did was making 5 or 6 ice creams of varying fat content, some with egg yolks, some without. I tasted those side by side and realized, wow, my go-to formula (which included egg yolks) tastes like an omelet. So I very quickly shed that notion that egg yolks necessarily equate with quality. Custard ice cream can be wonderful and perfect, but other flavors come out so much brighter and cleaner when they’re not hiding under all that egg yolk.

CM: What ice cream are you eating right now, besides your own?

ML: I have to say, I don’t get out a lot—but one of my weekly guilty pleasures was Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches. They nail the textures of both the ice cream and the sandwich, which is basically under-baked chocolate chip cookies. I also got obsessed with mochi ice cream , and that’s still something that I can’t have enough of around.

CM: Why is it important to understand ice cream formulation? I usually start by explaining how sorbet works, because it’s basically sugar and water. Then in your class, you mentioned that you like to add things like non-fat milk powder to sorbets sometimes, so you can sort of build up to ice cream’s complexity.

ML: Once you have a deeper understanding of how ice cream works it does three things. It helps you create better product, it helps you fix mistakes, and then finally—the very elusive benefit to all this—it the potential to create something new. I am constantly telling people they have to know the composition of their ingredients, how they function, and then how to make adjustments.

The way you expressed it is perfect, that’s how I love to get people started thinking about it—start with sorbet, which is basically water and sugar. Then when you get up to ice cream you have other things, fats and proteins, and you need to understand how those function. I always point people towards the material that fruit puree companies put out, because they’ve figured this out. I remember one of the first times I saw the parametric recipe chart from a company like Boiron, it was amazing—and they come out with new ones every couple of years, readily accessible on their websites.

I have experience in larger operations where people want a silver bullet—one base syrup that will work across the board. It’s difficult, but possible. I’ve always preferred the bespoke syrup for each individual flavor, because it’s going to give you the best results. Another area that virtually everyone has a problem with until they understand how it works is alcohol— ‘can I put vodka in that? What about bourbon?’. Once you understand freeze point depression and molecular weight you can quantify all these things.

CM: It feels like we’re in something of an ice cream renaissance right now—why is this happening today?

ML: You know, I have several years’ worth of confectionary and ice cream industry trade magazines from about the turn of the century to the 1920s. The ice cream technology is the same—it’s a scrape-surface heat exchanger. This stuff has existed for decades, if not a century at this point. Ice cream formulation hasn’t really changed either, but pastry chefs working in fine dining restaurants were never exposed to that information. Within the last ten years it’s become something that people are much more aware of. In other words, fewer people are saying ‘ice cream is just frozen crème anglaise’.

There were two big watershed resources for me. The first was a specific book from Spanish pastry chef Oriol Balaguer, where he laid information out about ingredients and their uses, composition, and function in recipes. That book was one of the first places—we’re talking maybe 2002—I saw this information translated into language pastry chefs could understand.

The second was, a few years after moving to New York I was exposed to some material from a class given by Olivier Bajard. Olivier was one of the first pastry chefs to be part of this circuit of chefs who do classes around the world, a few days at a time, and this has been going on for maybe 15-20 years. That was always a great way to get into a lot of material.

I had written a little bit about ice cream on my own blog circa 2008-2009, and as a result I ended up connecting with Cesar Vega, a food scientist at Mars who essentially got his PhD in ice cream. He’s a great resource, and passionate about gastronomy. When you create that initial relationship, the chef—the practitioner—and the scientist, who has a lot of theoretical knowledge—you don’t always speak the same language. It took us a while to create a dialog where he wasn’t frustrated by my questions, and where I could understand his answers. He still doesn’t make it easy for me—I’ll come to him with a question or a problem and he’ll basically say ‘here’s the experiment I would do, you figure it out’.

The pursuit of knowledge for both chocolate and ice cream is a situation where the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. I realized that it’s really easy to make chocolate. And it’s really easy to make ice cream. It’s really difficult to make good chocolate and really difficult to make good ice cream.

The goal of small batch anything is to make the product better than the big commercial guys. That’s also difficult. Now, sure, industrial ice cream, industrial chocolate—they have to be dumbed down to a certain extent, to achieve consistency in the product and dial in very specific attributes. On a small scale, how do I achieve consistency, control for specific attributes, and not have to dumb it down? That’s where the creation of spreadsheets to look at recipes comes into play—we can fine tune recipe components to give us predictability and find the best possible formulation within whatever the constraints may be.

CM: What do you bring to ice cream that’s different because of your background in pastry more generally?

ML: There’s a series collaborations between Morgenstern’s and various chefs and right now it’s with Paul Liebrandt, who’s probably one of the most creative chefs in New York—I think this week it’s sunchoke ice cream with strawberry hibiscus sorbet. Some of those things are only going to come from someone who’s been thinking about how flavors interact for a long time.

Menu development: 'Peas and Carrots' - pea crumble, carrot sorbet, citrus cream.

A post shared by Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) on May 21, 2015 at 4:15am PDT

But you can be the most creative person in the world and just throw some things into an ice cream machine and it’s just not going to work. There’s a cliché that pastry chefs are the scientists of the kitchen, but really it’s all about predicting the future. If you’re making a soup you can tweak it, adjust it, change it from start to finish. But for a cake, I can’t take it out half way through and then decide ‘Oh! It needs more baking powder’. I have to put it in the oven and know exactly what’s going to happen 30 minutes later when I take it out. And the same thing applies to ice cream. To a certain degree we’re already hard-wired to look at these things from a mathematical point of view.

The whole last 10-15 years of cooking was about adapting things that industrial food scientists already knew but weren’t creative enough to do anything with. When you give tools like hydrocolloids to a chef who’s creative, you have a new library of textures and ways to deliver flavor.

CM: People play around with savory ice creams—have you ever made an ice cream that you felt like crossed a line or went too far into that territory?

ML: Maybe I’ve never been the person to push those boundaries. I almost hate saying the word but sometimes I find myself being fairly conservative. The older I get, when it comes to chocolate, I’m less prone to throw just anything in there, for example. I want to taste the flavors of the cacao beans.

Fresh cacao pod, after a long voyage from its home in the Davao region of the Philippines. #ICEChocolateLab pic.twitter.com/s8YhEdIlt0

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) March 10, 2017

Having said that, there’s always more that I can do to experiment, using things like maltodextrins, or—to show you what a geek I am—I got an invitation to some webinars on glucose production and the functionality of glucose. I use glucose every day, so I had a free opportunity to learn. I’ve been aware of maltose for years but never really used it as an ingredient in something, and just this morning I was learning more about maltose. It’s already got me thinking, because it has half the sweetness but the same freeze point depression as sucrose—that could be interesting.

One thing I also never really explored, and it’s just always been one of those weird concepts to wrap your head around, is ‘hot ice cream’ using methyl cellulose, which make things firmer as they get warmer, and then melt when they cool off. Really bizarre. I haven’t really seen anyone playing with that in several years, but it was a thing for a while.

CM: What comes next for you? Do you have any idea where all this work is headed?

ML: I don’t know. First and foremost, if I’m not learning something myself every day then that’s a waste. I realize I could open an ice cream or gelato shop tomorrow and probably do okay. I’m getting there with chocolate, but I still don’t know where that’s going.

Everything that I do is about sharing, whether it’s one-on-one with a cook in a consulting capacity, or for a client helping them perfect what they’re working on, or in a classroom, or on social media, wherever it is—I’m not keeping this for myself. Half the fun is sharing it with other people.

I’ve had many different book ideas and the longer I procrastinate, people keep coming out with the idea I would’ve done. It happened this week. Ali Bouzari handed me a copy of his book that dropped yesterday, and it’s brilliant—there are no recipes in it. It’s called Ingredient. A food book without recipes is very difficult to sell to a publisher. It basically looks at the building blocks of all food—water, sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, lipids, etc—and attributes personalities to them. He writes in plain language how they function, how different processes work. I didn’t have the exact idea, but that’s the spirit of something I’ve wanted to do. Now I can cross that one off—he did a better job than I would’ve done, great—onto the next idea.

In general, I like the approach of taking something very simple that we can all relate to and breaking it down, whether it’s ice cream, gelatin, pectin, things like that. These are things that, in a pastry kitchen, we work with every day, but to some extent we just follow a rote recipe to make it work rather than understanding how it works. I can sit down and create an ice cream recipe from scratch without ever tasting it and know I’m going to get close to a good result. I’d like to adapt that to other preparations. Bread is something that works easily with that, because we already think about bread as percentage-based. But working with chocolate, and post-manufacturing applications, it’s hard to look at a ganache recipe and really get a sense of the ingredient proportions. This is something again where, just like ice cream, the fat, the water, your nonfat solids, it all has to be in a fairly narrow balance to get it to do what you want it to do.

Knowledge is the power to be able to make things better and to improvise and adapt to situations. To me that’s as exciting and fulfilling as creating something that’s never been created before. My to-do list now is probably infinitely long, longer than I’ll be able to ever accomplish. My perspective now is okay, whether it’s chocolate or ice cream or gummy bears, whatever it is—how do I take advantage of people who have done this for decades, where this is their expertise? We could do a lot to innovate gummy bears, but I want to nail the original first. Once you do that, then playing with flavors is easy. I’m not really interested in creating anything ‘Avant Garde’, I just want to make it the best it can possibly be.

For me—it sounds really boring—but there are infinite possibilities even just with vanilla ice cream. And that could keep me interested for quite a long time.

Chef Laiskonis was generous enough to share not one but *five* ice cream recipes with Churning Man readers, linked here for now. They are not for the faint of heart—they yield larger quantities home machines can likely handle (so you might need to scale them down), and some call for specialized ingredients. Email me if you want to try them but don’t know where to start.

#icecream #sorbet #pastry #interview #chef

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madpicks · 8 years

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New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/mlb/nationals-baseballs-sneakiest-superteam/

The Nationals are baseball’s sneakiest superteam again

Matt Wieters will help the Nationals a tiny bit, but this was one of baseball’s best rosters all along.

Two years ago, the Nationals had just signed Max Scherzer, and they were going to win 105 games. They were so loaded with pitching, they took Tanner Roark and his 2.85 ERA out of the rotation. If I had known about the season that Bryce Harper was going to have, I would have guessed the Nationals were going to win 110 games.

They finished 83-79, seven games behind the Mets.

This, then, is the opposite of that offseason. The Nationals were noisy in spurts this winter, melting down the farm and trading the ingots for Adam Eaton, but they didn’t have an “Uh, oh. The Nationals are loaded now” offseason. They didn’t pick up a stray Scherzer on the way home, just because they could. They paid market price for a premium, young center fielder, and they nabbed a couple of catchers. They’re the 2016 Nationals, Now With Adam Eaton (And Maybe Better Health).

And they’re gonna chase that 105-win season this time.

That is a stupid, overly confident prediction, and there is at least a slight dusting of hyperbole dust on it. It’s not like the Matt Wieters deal pushed the team over the tipping point. It turned a team with two solid catchers into a team with three solid catchers.

But I have arguments that support my super-team theory. And they go like this:

The Nationals will have four of the 20 best players in the National League this year, according to WAR

It’s an absurd notion, until you tick off the names. Consider that over the last two seasons, Max Scherzer has been the third-most valuable player in the NL (just behind Kris Bryant and Paul Goldschmidt), Harper was the eighth-most valuable, and Eaton would have been the 14th-most if he were in the league. Turner probably isn’t going to hit .342 all season, but he had one of the most impressive debuts from any midseason call-up in baseball history, and now he’s moving back to his natural position.

That’s before getting to the enigmas like Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross, Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon, any of whom could get award votes at the end of the year without anything seeming out of place.

Basically, Trea Turner is like the Kevin Durant of the baseball world, except he didn’t get to choose his super team. The Padres were the Durant’s ego and superego of the baseball world, then? This metaphor is off the rails, but the important part is to remember that the Padres traded Turner on purpose, and the Rays needed a third team involved because just wasn’t going to do it for them.

The Nationals can remove their weak links just a little easier this year

Ryan Zimmerman hasn’t been good for three years, according to Baseball-Reference’s WAR, but the Nationals gave him more than 400 at-bats last season because, well, they’re paying him, and the abject misery of his 2016 season crept up on them.

Jayson Werth hasn’t been good for two years, according to Baseball-Reference’s WAR, but the Nationals gave him more than 600 at-bats last season because, well, they’re paying him, and it’s not like they were overflowing with better options.

This is the year where it will be much, much easier for the Nationals to make an upgrade. Zimmerman’s contract isn’t up for three more seasons, but there isn’t a team in baseball that would put up with another season like his 2016. Werth’s contract is up this year, and the light at the end of the financial tunnel will make it easier mentally to transition to a new solution.

If one or both of them enjoy a renaissance, that’s great! Found money. That’s a common expression, but in this case, it would really be like the Nationals finding sacks of cartoonish cash that they had previously thrown down a well. But if either of them repeats their 2016 seasons, the Nationals will feel a little more comfortable phasing them out.

In Zimmerman’s case, that means Adam Lind could get the bulk of the at-bats. In Werth’s case, it could be that someone like Brian Goodwin or Rafael Bautista breaks out, or it could be a July trade that’s suddenly obvious. Victor Robles arriving one or two years ahead of schedule would be 35-grade weird on the 20-to-80 baseball-weird scale, if not lower.

They’ll figure it out, and the 2016 season being entered into evidence will make it a lot easier for the Nationals to make whatever decision they need to.

No, seriously, this is the year that Stephen Strasburg puts it all together

Does that header need an “again” at the end? I’ll leave that up for you. But for five seasons, Strasburg has been baseball’s greatest latent ace, the top-o’-the-rotation tease of a generation. His strikeout rate has been improving every season, and he’s further removed from Tommy John surgery than he’s ever been, but the overall value keeps steady, somehow.

WAR, by season 2012 – 3.0 2013 – 3.1 2014 – 3.5 2015 – 2.1 2016 – 3.3

Those are good, valuable seasons! Yet they’re so, so underwhelming compared to the Stephen Strasburg Spectacle that’s usually on every fifth day, where a mythological pitching beast shows us all the wonders of physical form and the upper limits of athletic ability. Max Scherzer has been roughly as valuable for the Nationals over the last two years as Strasburg has been over the last four.

This is the season, then. My evidence is this: dunno, seems right.

I’m not selling you on this, am I? OK, fine, then all of the above optimism, but shoveled in the direction of Joe Ross, if you prefer. But after a couple seasons of Max Scherzer being lonely at the top, this is finally the year that Scherzer/Roark/Strasburg/Gonzalez/Ross is as ridiculously productive as it feels like it should be.

Reminder that the Nationals got Ross in that same Trea Turner deal, just because.

Bryce Harper is still just 24, and he’ll win the MVP again

Oh, maybe not the 2017 MVP. But he’s good for another one at some point, so it’s not like we should be shocked if it happens this year. He’s still a generational talent.

I’m not sure who’s going to give Harper that $400 million contract that Scott Boras will stuff and hang above his fireplace, but he’s still a top-10 pick for any team in a hypothetical draft

You know the Nationals won 95 games last year, right?

Just checking.

The Nationals are imperfect, of course, just like most teams. Their bullpen, which has helped with their demise in previous postseasons, is weaker. Werth and Zimmerman are in the lineup to start the year, and it’s not like Derek Norris or Wieters are coming off excellent offensive seasons. There could be a soft spot at the bottom of the order.

The Nationals are replacing Danny Espinosa and Ben Revere with a full season of Trea Turner and Adam Eaton. They’re replacing 2016 Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg with the upgraded 2017 versions. They’ll have the flexibility to make tough decisions that flummoxed them last year. And, sure, they’ll have depth behind the plate, which is the almost-exciting news that got me thinking about their roster in the first place.

Expectations were high for the Nationals before the 2015 season, and everything fell apart. Expectations are modest this year, perhaps as modest as I’ve ever seen for a team coming off 95 wins, but they shouldn’t be. It’s not the Cubs alone on an island. It’s not the Cubs and Dodgers wrestling and knocking down skyscrapers while tanks fire at them futilely. The Nationals are right there at the top with any team, and they have been since the World Series ended.

All they’ve done is get better.

#Nationals

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junker-town · 8 years

Text

The Nationals are baseball’s sneakiest super-team again

Matt Wieters will help the Nationals a tiny bit, but this was one of baseball’s best rosters all along.

They finished 83-79, seven games behind the Mets.

And they’re gonna chase that 105-win season this time.

But I have arguments that support my super-team theory. And they go like this:

The Nationals will have four of the 20 best players in the National League this year, according to WAR

It’s an absurd notion, until you tick off the names. Consider that over the last two seasons, Max Scherzer has been the third-most valuable player in the NL (just behind Kris Bryant and Paul Goldschmidt), Harper was the eighth-most valuable, and Eaton would have been the 14th-most if he were in the league. Turner probably isn’t going to hit .342 all season, but he had one of the most impressive debuts from any midseason callup in baseball history, and now he’s moving back to his natural position.

The Nationals can remove their weak links just a little easier this year

If one or both of them enjoy a renaissance, that’s great! Found money. That’s a common expression, but in this case, it would really be like the Nationals finding sacks of cartoonish cash that they had previously thrown down a well. But if either of them repeat their 2016 seasons, the Nationals will feel a little more comfortable phasing them out.

They’ll figure it out, and the 2016 season being entered into evidence will make it a lot easier for the Nationals to make whatever decision they need to.

No, seriously, this is the year that Stephen Strasburg puts it all together

WAR, by season 2012 - 3.0 2013 - 3.1 2014 - 3.5 2015 - 2.1 2016 - 3.3

This is the season, then. My evidence is this: dunno, seems right.

I’m not selling you on this, am I? Okay, fine, then all of the above optimism, but shoveled in the direction of Joe Ross, if you prefer. But after a couple seasons of Max Scherzer being lonely at the top, this is finally the year that Scherzer/Roark/Strasburg/Gonzalez/Ross is as ridiculously productive as it feels like it should be.

Reminder that the Nationals got Ross in that same Trea Turner deal, just because.

Bryce Harper is still just 24, and he’ll win the MVP again

Oh, maybe not the 2017 MVP. But he’s good for another one at some point, so it’s not like we should be shocked if it happens this year. He’s still a generational talent.

I’m not sure who’s going to give Harper that $400 million contract that Scott Boras will stuff and hang above his fireplace, but he’s still a top-10 pick for any team in a hypothetical draft

You know the Nationals won 95 games last year, right?

Just checking.

All they’ve done is get better.

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movietvtechgeeks · 8 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/nfl-final-4-qbs-health-final-road-super-bowl-51/

NFL Final 4 QBs health is final road to Super Bowl 51

It’s easy to forget that the final four quarterbacks in the NFL Playoffs have one thing in common. Everyone is hoping that they stay healthy and free from injury to get them to Super Bowl LI.

Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan may seem superhuman at times, but they are just one injury away from their team missing out on that Super Bowl win.

The numbers are staggering. Over 182,000 yards passing (more than 103 miles worth), nearly 1,300 touchdowns and seven championships, with an eighth guaranteed for whoever parties in the confetti in Houston next month.

Yet the numbers that might define Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan as much as any other on their eye-popping, fantasy football league-winning stat lines might 39, 34, 33 and 31 – the ages of the quarterbacks in the NFL’s version of the Final Four.

Sunday marks just the third time in the Super Bowl era that all four players taking the snap will be closer to their 40s than their teens. In a sport where the concept of longevity in its marquee position is fickle at best (see Cleveland Browns), the durability of the men that serve as the centerpieces for their team’s title hopes is remarkable.

The 31-year-old Ryan has missed just two starts in his nine seasons, the 33-year-old Rodgers nine since taking over for Brett Favre in 2008. The 34-year-old Roethlisberger is throwing more – and getting hit less – than he did a decade ago. The 39-year-old Brady hasn’t sat because of injury since Barack Obama was president-elect, not a former president, and has shown no sign of slowing down even as the start of his fifth decade approaches.

Trying to find a common thread for their longevity is difficult, though being supremely talented while playing on good teams behind offensive lines that range from improving (Green Bay) to perhaps the best in the league (Pittsburgh) certainly helps. Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan – who counts Robert Griffin III among his former pupils – points out something else at play. All four are throwbacks in a way compared with their younger and more mobile contemporaries. In a way, being “slow” compared with the Griffins and Cam Newtons of the world may actually be a good thing.

“None of them were running the zone read or winning any Heisman (trophies) based off their legs and stuff,” Shanahan said. “Pretty much since Pop Warner, they’ve been learning how to stay in that pocket and how to play the position.”

For proof look no further than Rodgers dancing in a sea of New York Giants before throwing a touchdown pass in Green Bay’s wild-card victory two weeks ago.

“His feel for the rush is second to none,” Green Bay offensive lineman T.J. Lang said. “He feels it coming. Even when he doesn’t see it, he knows he’s got a guy coming free off the left, he’s going to make a move to miss and get outside and make a big play.”

There’s something to be said for learning how to take a hit, too. While Rodgers’ ridiculous pass to Jared Cook that set up the game-winning field goal against the Cowboys last Sunday will live on in playoff lore, it obscures what happened two snaps prior, when Rodgers somehow held onto the ball despite taking a massive blindside hit from Dallas safety Jeff Heath. Add it to the ever-growing stable of signature plays by Rodgers.

Ryan’s ability has largely flown under the radar as the Falcons morphed from contenders to rebuilding and back again. While many of the faces in the huddle have changed, his has not. Ryan was an apprentice of sorts to Tony Gonzalez, the most productive tight end in league history, who took a near fanatical approach to his diet and training regimen.

“He was really over the top about it, too,” said Ryan, whose 117.1 rating this season led the league. “He really stuck to it and was kind of insane about his preparation, how he got ready and what he did. I always feel like that struck me as, ‘Man, I’ve got to find that right mix for me.'”

Roethlisberger joked this week that the media’s focus on the showdown between himself and Brady when the Steelers visit the Patriots can largely be attributed the future Hall of Famers being “two old guys.”

There’s some truth in that but something deeper, too. Brady is playing as well as he ever has – his 112.2 quarterback rating is second only to the 117.2 he posted during New England’s unbeaten regular season in 2007. Compare that with Peyton Manning, who was more caretaker than difference-maker last winter as Denver sent the 39-year-old into retirement with Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand. Save for a late mini-renaissance in 2009 in Minnesota, Favre’s nomadic final seasons were more “meh” than marvelous as he bounced from job to job.

Not Brady, who hasn’t ruled out playing until he’s closing in on AARP membership. Hard to blame him after he threw just two interceptions and was sacked just 15 times in 12 games, avoiding the “kill shots” that can end even the careers of the greats (google “Steve Young,” ”concussion” and “Cardinals” if you need a refresher).

“I think his mind prepares him more than anything,” Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward said. “He knows where he wants to go with the ball. He doesn’t miss a detail.”

Yet taking an almost monastic approach to the job has always been The Brady Way.

Not so much Roethlisberger, who may be the one in the group who has undergone the biggest transformation. As Heyward put it, “he used to play a lot more backyard football.” Not anymore.

The “Ben being Ben” days when he would keep his eyes downfield even as he fended off two or three tacklers are largely gone. Offensive coordinator, Todd Haley’s system requires Roethlisberger to make a read at the line of scrimmage and get rid of it. Roethlisberger is throwing the ball more – and getting hit less – as a result. He’s taken a sack once every 19.4 attempts since Haley came on in 2012, compared with once every 11.6 attempts from 2007-11. Oh, and he dropped 15-20 pounds in the offseason to help him keep up with his three kids and stay ahead of defenses designed to stop him.

It’s an evolution that likely has extended Roethlisberger’s prime. He’s signed through 2020, when he’ll be 38. There is no talk of his window closing or that of any of the three other guys who will be under center on Sunday. The way they’re playing and the way the league is trying to protect quarterbacks (albeit with mixed results), why retire?

“They just find ways to stay on the field,” Pittsburgh offensive guard Foster said. “Franchises rely on that.”

Super Bowl winners, too.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Aaron Rodgers #Ben Roethlisberger #Matt Ryan #NFL #Super Bowl #Tom Brady

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