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Fonte TDWP official webpage:
The Devil Wears Prada is the musical embodiment of a generational shift. Built on a diverse array of heavy, dark, melodic and genre-defying music; hardened and sharpened by putting in road work together since the days when they had to skip class to tour: The Devil Wears Prada is at the forefront of a movement that bridges the gap between Rockstar Mayhem and the Vans Warped Tour.
The passionately inspired band’s album for Roadrunner Records, cryptically titled 8:18, embodies an unflinching, uncompromising authenticity born from revelatory introspection and obsessive workmanship. The dichotomies are refreshing, invigorating and boundless. There’s an oppressive, suffocating darkness to their heavy music, counterbalanced by the hope within their collective faith. The most brutal of crowd-moving breakdowns ignite with friction, bristling against soaring melodies, progressive yet catchy riffing and keyboard soaked atmospheric esotericism. To put it simply: The Devil Wears Prada have developed the chops, the cred and the audience of a true-blue thinking person’s heavy metal band, while simultaneously welcoming fist-pumping hellraisers and youthful moshers alike. 8:18 continues the war against humanity’s dark urges, pointing the finger inward and outward through a medium that is itself both bleak and grand.
"Much of the heavy music around us suffers from a total lack of emotion. It's sort of losing an audible sense of sincerity," observes vocalist Mike Hranica. "The guitars, the drums, the songs themselves create that sorrow that I want the lyrics to tell on 8:18. And I made sure that my vocals created emotions that I have heard in post-hardcore, but that I rarely hear in breakdown-heavy metal bands like us."
The overriding theme on 8:18 is misery, exploring that mental and emotional state through its various guises, manifestations and interpretations. Tracks like Gloom, War, Black & Blue and Home for Grave spring forth from that foundation, exploiting concepts like mediocrity, existential angst and life's bigger questions under an atmosphere of musical dread, hostility and darkness.
Mike Hranica is blessed with a commanding roar, but infuses the proceedings with a literary sensibility, a commitment to self-evaluation and a painstaking modesty that levels the playing field between performer and listener beneath the surface.
Rhythm guitarist Jeremy DePoyster contributes the hook-laden underbelly to Prada’s brutal musical beast, handling the “clean” singing with a fine-tuned abandon to rival the pop stars dominating the charts. He grew up listening to Rob Zombie and Korn, but his iPod these days is packed with just about everything one can name. His singing vocals shine particularly on 'Care More,' a heavily electronics infused song with a dark mood. "There's so much of this crappy auto-tuned singing thing happening right now. It's disappointing to me because I've been singing since I was a kid," DePoyster says. "We all know what auto-tune is and we all use it to get things to work a little better, but when I hear things that are using it just as a crutch, that is extremely disappointing to me. Mike does a lot of passionate, raw, vibey screaming on this record, too. It's great."
Andy Trick has a Minor Threat-inspired tattoo that exhibits his early inclinations toward hardcore punk, an ethos and a mindset that still courses through the bass player’s veins even as he takes the stage playing guitar-driven metal music around the world. His bass playing anchors the theatrics and fluid, tasteful beats of Daniel Williams. Prada’s drummer carries the class and finesse of the indie crowd, while pummeling the drums with the power of metal's finest. "Since the beginning, we have liked breakdowns, we have liked heavy sounds, we have liked melodic singing, we have liked heavy metal in general," notes Hranica. "Those are the most basic fundamentals of what this band has been about."
The overseeing hand of executive producer and Killswitch Engage axeman Adam Dutkiewicz (August Burns Red, Shadows Fall, Parkway Drive) and producer Matt Goldman (Underoath, The Chariot, As Cities Burn) resulted in a sonic time capsule representing not only this present moment for TDWP, but a crossroads for heavy music itself. Progressive strains of experimental trailblazers Converge, Botch and Underoath seep beneath The Devil Wears Prada’s unique reverse-engineering of modern metal. 8:18 convincingly detours into Nine Inch Nails-isms, then comes full circle with some killer throwbacks to TDWP's earliest work.
"We love a lot of the records Matt has made and obviously we love Adam and he's a great friend," DePoyster points out. "Adam was very involved in doing the vocal stuff with Mike and I and had given us ideas when we were making demos. Both of those guys were great with us and were able to make contributions and make us think about things in different ways without making us uncomfortable.
With 8:18, The Devil Wears Prada cement their status as a band who have not only weathered the pressures of early, youthful popularity, but grown into masters of their craft. From album packaging to merchandising, from video production to stage lighting, The Devil Wears Prada are hands-on and pay excruciating attention to detail to ensure they always deliver their best, that their overwhelming passion will endure. They push themselves to create a lasting work that inspires, empowers and challenges, in equal measure.
"We're not kids who just want to hit the road and see where this goes," adds DePoyster. "We're making a conscious choice to do this because we love it."
The Devil Wears Prada are unwavering in their commitment to each other, their fans, their art, their higher calling toward truth and to their desire to engage. The emotion remains sincere, the musicianship supreme.
Up to earlier this year North Terrace in Adelaide had a cryptic bit of single track work under the Morphettstreet bridges often causing disturbances of scheduled services
© Henk Graalman
AKA Northern Boubou
Tropiese waterfiscaal
(Laniarius aethiopicus)
The tropical boubou or bell shrike (Laniarius major) is a medium-sized passerine bird of sub-Saharan Africa. This very diverse "species" with its numerous subspecies and morphs has since long posed a taxonomic problem, and recent research suggests it is a cryptic species complex that has now been split into several species.
The tropical boubou is fairly large for its family (bushshrikes), measuring 23–25 cm in length. Its weight can vary between about 38-70 g, but typically adults weigh between 50 and 60 g. Females are on average a bit smaller than males, but individual variation is so large that for most practical purposes the sexes seem to be of identical size. The wing measures about 98 mm on average (between 85 and 110), the tail is a mere two millimetres longer both on average and as regards variation. The tarsus is c.29–37 mm long, 33 mm on average, while the bill's exposed culmen measures a little over 20 mm in some populations and as much as 25 mm in others. Unlike the other measurements where there is mostly individual variation, the bill length might distinctly vary between subspecies.
Not only are males and females the same size, they have identical plumage too. The adults' upper parts and tail are glossy blue-black except for concealed white spots on the rump, visible only when the wings are spread and the rump feathers are erected. The underparts are white, in some populations with a buffy or pinkish tinge on the breast and flanks, which is not always noticeable except in good light. The wings of most subspecies have a white stripe on the wing coverts, in some extending onto the secondary remiges. The tips of the outer tail feathers can be white in some subspecies. The bill is black, the legs and feet bluish grey. The irides are dark reddish brown.
Nestlings have pinkish-brown skin and are nude after hatching, later growing sparse down; they apparently have spots inside their bills which they show their parents to get fed. Fledglings are similar to adults but duller, with the brownish head and the upper parts appearing mottled due to yellowish-ochre to tawny feather tips, forming a barring on the lower back and rump. The wing-stripe, if present, is dulled down. The undertail coverts are buff, and there is usually dusky barring on the dull white underside, especially on the flanks. The bill is greyish brown above, paler below. Immature birds independent from their parents have lost most of the mottling (except on the wing coverts) and barring, but their wing stripe and underside are still dull white, shading to brown on the flanks; any white tail feather tips appear at this stage.
The northwesternmost populations of major might be confused with Turati's boubou (L. turatii), which has no white wing-band and a buff chin and white belly, while major around the southern edge of the Congo Basin look almost identical to the swamp boubou (L. bicolor), but this is pure white below and its females give a characteristic "ratchet" call in duets. Southeastern birds (mossambicus and especially limpopoensis) resemble the southern boubou (L. ferrugineus) but are black above instead of dark brown and grey – though this may be hard to see at a distance and entirely indistinguishable in the occasionally seen hybrid. When the tropical boubou is sympatric with other Laniarius, they are rarely found in the same habitat.
The tropical boubou occurs from about 10° northern latitude south to the Limpopo River in South Africa. In the western part of its range, it is found as a regular breeder from Côte d'Ivoire eastwards to about 5° N; it is not found further south along the Atlantic coast and in the inner Congo Basin, but occurs on the Scarp of Angola. It also does not seem to occur in northern Somalia, eastern Ethiopia and Kenya, and central Tanzania as well as the lower Ruvuma River basin. It is not a migratory bird and only moves around locally. Seasonal movements are known from Kenya. Vagrants have been recorded from Senegal, and records from The Gambia and Liberia probably are also mostly or all stray birds; a supposed vagrant from Bioko is not anymore believed to have been of this species.
It is not found in decidedly arid regions and dense forests such as the equatorial rain forest, but occurs on mountains up to 3,000 m ASL. It requires dense ground cover, and is found in a variety of forest and forest-edge habitats, including savannah, Miombo woodland and village gardens. In the drier parts of its range, it is generally restricted to riparian forest, though the black boubou also utilizes semiarid shrubland. Typical vegetation in its habitat is characterized by such plants as African juniper (Juniperus procera), bracken (Pteridium), Rosoideae shrubs or Brachystegia.
The birds defend a breeding territory of 1–3 hectars; outside the breeding season they move about in a larger area (up to 8 hectars) and are more tolerant of conspecifics, sometimes assembling into loose noisy groups. They rarely fly long distances and tend to skulk in the shrubs and low in trees like a coucal (Centropus), or move on the ground interrupted by bouts of watching where they stand alert, with the tail slightly raised. When alarmed, they will make a slow descending flight, flashing their white rump patches and giving warning calls, before taking cover. As usual for passerine birds, they scratch indirectly (foot-over-wing). Allopreening has been recorded between mates. At least southern birds moult their whole plumage after the breeding season. This species is presumably preyed upon by the usual vertebrate predators of mid-sized birds. A ringed individual nine to ten years old was recorded.
The tropical boubou may be common locally, with 100 individuals per square kilometer; in other places only one-third this population density is recorded however. Still, it is not an uncommon bird across its breeding range and the IUCN treats it as a species of least concern. When the species is split up, the black boubou and dimorphic boubou, which are found only in a limited area, might warrant uplisting.
Wikipedia
I saw many of these disintegrating chairs within the crypts at Père Lachaise Cemetery. Not sure the significance but it made you wonder if the dead sit and pontificate the afterlife in the dark hours of the night. So many of the chairs seemed worn like this one.
This is Ireland's most recently-discovered butterfly. It was first thought to be the very similar Wood White, then found to be different and believed be Réal's Wood White. Further analysis resulted in the Réal's Wood White species being spilt, and our one is now called Cryptic Wood White. In the British Isles it is only found in Ireland and is quite widespread, when the weather allows.
I've always been intrigued by the "turn to clear vision" dial on the tourist binoculars. The message speaks to me cryptically, almost mystically. Instead of saying "turn to focus", it seems to promise more: as if all we have to do is turn a little red dial to clear our vision and unlock all of life's mysteries..
I have to look this one up but I am guessing a Spittlebug/Planthopper of some sort? I often find them hitchhiking on my clothes but they spring away before I can get a picture. This one sat for a minute...and then it sprang away :)
this was in an alley... and i have no idea where those lights were coming from/what they were reflecting off.
Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt
Subterranean Press, 2009
590 pages
Dust Jacket Illustration: Lee Moyer
Dust Jacket Design: Desert Isle Design, LLC
From the dust jacket:
Jack McDevitt loves a good mystery. And he enjoys baffling his readers with enigmas like why, after so many years of listening with no results, would a SETI director hear an artificial signal and keep it quiet? Why might and astronomer at a space station, facing imminent death from a solar radiation blast, send off a frantic message that he had discovered a Clyde Tombaugh Special? Tombaugh, of course, was the discoverer of Pluto.
What really happened to Christopher Sim, the George Washington of the war against the Ashiyyur? Why did a beloved artist at the top of his profession, with everything to live for, kill himself? Why did a brilliant young biologist who discovered how life got started on Earth, neglect to tell anyone?
And there are of course other anomolies to be encountered in McDevitt's work: A computer threatens the literary world, while a time traveler worries the churches. One artificial intelligence runs for president, and another claims to be a Catholic and demands access to the sacraments. Two friends discover that whenever they get together, shuttles crash, wars break out, or tidal waves hammer a coastline.
A researcher watches endless fighting on another world and finally rebels against the Acadamy's hands-off doctrine. Meantime, a crewman stranded light-years from Earth, entertains himself by intercepting radio broadcasts from home, originally transmitted during World War II.
Among other questions these tales will answer: What might happen when people in a research lab literally try to play God? Why don't you ever, ever, want to turn out the lights at Bolton's Tower in the Dakotas? Why someone might want to blow up a star? And why it would be a really good idea if Hatch kept his hands off the mallet? These and twenty-three other cosmic rides, await the reader.
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2015-04-23: 2000 views
2017-02-14: 3000 views
AJAC theme for July was "Patterns". Take a look at our shots : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac/pool/
a man was asking for change and eating these. he left the plate, and took the money, i dont know why.
Finally got out to find my Cryptics of 2019.
This is Ireland's most recently-discovered butterfly. It was first thought to be the very similar Wood White, then found to be different and believed be Réal's Wood White. Further analysis resulted in the Réal's Wood White species being split, and our one is now called Cryptic Wood White.
Sphindus sp., I believe. Found at Bastrop State Park in central Texas, ESE of Austin. Bastrop County, Texas, USA.
There are a lot of downed trees at this State Park and I saw a lot of slime molds on my recent visit. Many of the slime mold fruiting bodies were being grazed upon by these beetles.
Single exposure, uncropped, handheld, in situ. Canon MT-24EX flash unit, Ian McConnachie and plastic cup diffuser.
Dubai’s Anonymous SAMO-esque scrawls in Barsha
In the late 70s, downtown New York became the canvas for a young Jean-Michel Basquiat and his ‘SAMO’ tags. It’s hard to say if Dubai is harbouring a Basquiat in-the-making, but these cryptic, poignant and (in one case) prophetic messages have been popping up all over the Barsha and TECOM neighbourhoods. These have all been documented by Jalal Abuthina.