Ethereum developer activity is seeing parabolic growth says analyst; will price follow? – CryptoSlate

According to data from Santiment, developer activity on the Ethereum blockchain network has seen parabolic growth as of late, rising to May 2019 levels.

In May, the Ethereum price was hovering at around $260, nearly 40 percent higher than its current price of $186.

Previously, Ivey Business School professor JP Vergne found in a study that the best predictor of the short term price trend of a cryptocurrency is developer activity. He said:

We found that the best predictor of a cryptocurrencys exchange rate is the amount of developer activity around it.

The developer activity on the Ethereum network is likely on the rise in anticipation of the launch of Ethereum 2.0, and reports indicate that major corporations are paying attention to the said launch, as it would allow the blockchain to process information more efficiently.

In an interview with Decrypt, EYs global blockchain head Paul Brody said that the firm is processing more than 10,000 transactions on Ethereum for Microsoft, and larger capacity would allow firms to better utilize Ethereum to settle data.

An analyst, who operates with the alias Cactus, said:

ETH development activity has been going parabolic the past three weeks, early 2020 we are going to be seeing some major announcements from the ethereum team It will take other blockchains years to catch up in terms of development.

State of the DApps, an analytics firm that evaluates the usage of decentralized applications, reported that the release of new DApps per month has increased to nearly 1,500.

As the scalability of the Ethereum network improves, DApps and other blockchain networks operating on top of Ethereum will benefit from expanded capacity, creating a more practical environment for decentralized platforms to operate in.

With technical analysts generally gearing towards a deeper pullback for the cryptocurrency market following the drop of the bitcoin price below $9,000 earlier this week, the Ethereum price is expected to stall, possibly to the years end.

As reported by CryptoSlate, November has historically been a strong month for both Bitcoin and other major alternative cryptocurrencies, but as seen in 2018, significant sell-pressure could prevent rapid recovery.

Prominent trader Josh Rager said:

Alts are directly correlated to Bitcoin. If price goes south, diversifying into alts will only make things worse If you want hedge, learn how to use futures or options to your advantage Diversification in crypto is not strategy majority of portfolio should be BTC.

In recent months, bitcoin has become more volatile than Ethereum and other alternative cryptocurrencies, which may indicate that a large price move could occur in the short term.

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Ethereum developer activity is seeing parabolic growth says analyst; will price follow? - CryptoSlate

Ethereum-Based Loans on the Rise in Preparation for Staking – BeInCrypto

According to recent metrics, loans issued on Ethereum have been on the rise all year. Many are speculating that this is in anticipation of Ethereums transition to proof-of-stake in 2020.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is the new buzzword in the cryptocurrency world, and Ethereum is leading the pack. Although the leading smart contract platform still has much work ahead of itself before ETH 2.0, we have already seen an uptick in demand on the network.

Recently shared statistics by DeFi Pulse (@defipulse) shows that outstanding debts on ETH have exploded this year. Whereas they were previously non-existent in 2017, they have since risen drasticallyalmost $3M in ETH-based loans are currently represented on Ethereum as debts.

Many are speculating that this is just the beginning and that the number will increase substantially as we get close to phase 0 of Ethereum 2.0. In short, we are currently amidst a rush to accumulate 32 ETHthe minimum amount needed to stake ETH on the network for returns.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has become one of the main discussion points in the industry this year, with many seeing it as a means of adoption.

As of now, Ethereum remains the leading smart contract platform for DeFi. However, other platforms have started to catch on with competitors like Harmony (ONE) including DeFi as a core business model. We will likely see more Ethereum competitors jump on the DeFi hype as the ecosystem further matures. Yet, for now, Ethereum remains king in the DeFi world.

DeFi, however, still has some regulatory hurdles to overcome before it is easily accessible to everyday investors. Although Ethereum has been cleared in the United States, its many tokens and dApps are still in legal limbo. For now, Ethereum is primarily focused on scaling itself in the hopes of providing the right structure for DeFihowever, the real uphill battle may be the regulatory concerns that will come after ETH 2.0 comes out.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter.

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Ethereum-Based Loans on the Rise in Preparation for Staking - BeInCrypto

Microsoft and Ethereum Join Forces: How to Profit From ETH Price Surge – Ethereum World News

Last week, Microsoft released more information about its secret platform that will create Ethereum based tokens. The report, released by Forbes, stated the software giant is currently undergoing preview and testing of the Azure Blockchain tokens, leaving many to wonder how this will affect ETH price. As of today, ETH jumped a little but how far will it go? YouHodler will take a deeper look behind the rumors and explain how to take full advantage of any possible price growth.

Microsoft and ETH onramps; Ethereum price could benefit greatly

Forbes states that the Azure Blockchain is aimed at enterprises and several have already started minting their own Ethereum based tokens. Currently, users will have access to a permissioned version of the Ethereum blockchain that will use Azures cloud computing to reach a consensus on transactions. That being said, in the future develops will use the Azure Blockchain on the public Ethereum blockchain. Hence, this will provide a massive onramp for ETH users. At least, thats the theory.

Ethereum price; ETH market results following Microsoft news

Looking at the chart above, Ethereum price reacted slightly to the Microsoft news yet, we have yet to see a significant surge above the $200 mark.

We can assume there is no real short term impact on ETH at this point. However, the long term forecast could prove to be positive for Ethereum if Microsofts project lives up to the hype. To take advantage of this future price growth, YouHodler designed a unique tool for ETH multiplication. Heres how it works.

Ethereum price growing soon? How to multiply ETH portfolio

YouHodlers Turbocharge Crypto feature was specially designed for HODLers and traders to multiply their crypto portfolio using borrowed funds with the intent of profting later when the price of their chosen crypto increases. In this case, we will use the future Ethereum price growth as an example.

To multiply ETH, simply log into YouHodler.com and click the Turbocharge Crypto button on the left hand side. Users are then brought to screen where they can choose how initial collateral they want to use and how many loans in the chain to pick (1-10). YouHodler then takes the initial funds from the first loan to buy more ETH and repeat the process as many times as the user chooses. Here is an example of what an ETH Turbocharged loan looks like with five loans:

At the end of the Turbocharge process, the user is left with ~ 40 ETH, four times the amount they started with. Then, when the price of ETH increases, the user keeps all the profits. To enhance this process, YouHodler also includes features like Set Close Price so the user has more control over when to close the loan.

With the potential Ethereum price increase coming, now is the good time to start increasing ones ETH portfolio. YouHodler has the right tools for this task so visit us today at YouHodler.com to get started.

MULTIPLY YOUR ETH PORTFOLIO HERE

Read also: YouHodler Launches New Campaign to Make ETH Strong Again

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Microsoft and Ethereum Join Forces: How to Profit From ETH Price Surge - Ethereum World News

Ethereum Uptrend May Begin In November, Analyst Reasons – BeInCrypto

Ethereums metrics have recently seen an interesting uptick since loans issued on Ethereum have been increasing throughout the year. Many people are suggesting that this is a result of the anticipation for Ethereum 2.0, which will mark the transition to proof-of-stake.

A recent statistic shown by @defipulseshows that almost $3 million ETH is currently represented as debt. This could be explained as a rush to accumulate at least 32 ETH before the launch of Ethereum 2.0.

Ethereum has been preparing for the Istanbul hard fork, which is scheduled for December of this year. Istanbul represents the latest fork before the transition to Ethereum 2.0 which will likely launch next year.

Cryptocurrency trader @RJ_Killmex stated that November has been the beginning of the upward/downward movement for the Ethereum price in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The current movement in November 2019 is outlined. Lets take a closer look at price movement and technical indicators to see if we can predict its future movement.

The Ethereum price began an upward move in December 2018. It reached a high of $363 before decreasing to around $157.

Currently, it has found support above the 0.618 Fib level. While it reached values below it several times, it only created long lower wicks before eventually moving upward.

However, every bullish candle has been contained within the body of the massive bearish candle near the end of September. A price close above $220 would be required for the uptrend to be validated.

Looking at the RSI, we can see a strong bullish divergence in the weekly RSI.

Additionally, the weekly MACD has made a bullish cross. The previous time this happened was in December 2018 being a catalyst for the current upward move.

The Ethereum price made a double bottom at $156 on September 21 and October 23, before breaking out above the long-term descending resistance line.

Afterward, it has made a likely bullish pennant and is struggling to break out above the 100-day moving average(MA). If it does, it is likely to confirm the existence of the uptrend and reach new highs.

In this scenario, we would have just finished the second wave and the third wave would likely take us to a high above $500.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images courtesy of Twitter, TradingView.

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Ethereum Uptrend May Begin In November, Analyst Reasons - BeInCrypto

Ethereum (ETH) Volatility Nears All-Time Low – Bitcoinist

Ethereum (ETH) is closing in on the smallest volatility of all times, show recent trading data. For the past few months, ETH has traded in a tight range, with a relatively predictable price.

Based on Skew analysis, the price of ETH has budged little, with the volatility index at 1.73%.

ETH moved between $180 and $190 in the past weeks. On Thursday, the asset traded at $186.69. The ETH price has barely moved in the past week, despite the relatively large sway in BTC prices. Ethereum is showing signs of decoupling from BTC, as the coin is no longer facing sell-offs, or the bet between BTC and ETH positions.

One of the reasons for ETH stability are the higher trading volumes, currently above $7.7 billion. The share of ETH in terms of overall crypto trading is also rather stable, close to 12% of all activity over the past few months. And while Ethereum is no longer looking ready to attack or flippen BTC, it has become an important fixture in the crypto market.

ETH receives more than $737 million inflows from Tether (USDT), up from around $500 million in the past days. The inflows from the BTC market line up with $462 million. One of the reasons for the stability of ETH is that the new form of ERC-20 USDT is using the Ethereum network, and is among the most active tokens. The share of USDT pairings in the ETH market has crept up to 60%, allowing a separate process of price discovery.

The value of ETH fluctuated wildly during the 2017 bull market, as well as during the ICO craze in 2018. At that time, the prediction for ETH was to remain a utility coin with a value around $400. But Ethereum settled a little under $200, boosted by its new use case in decentralized finance.

At the same time, the Bitcoin volatility index has settled just below 4%, and the leading coin is also stabilizing its price.

The Ethereum network is also running in its usual state, with mining set to continue for more than a year after developers are set to delay the mining ice age once again. The debate about ETH 2.0 for now has not hurt the assets market price.

What do you think about the price action of ETH? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @skewdotcom

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Ethereum (ETH) Volatility Nears All-Time Low - Bitcoinist

Ethereum 2.0s Phase Zero to rollout in Q1 of 2020 – AMBCrypto

With Ethereum 2.o expected to roll out by the beginning of 2020, a Simplified Sharding Proposal was recently revealed. The latest sharding proposal has reduced the number of shards from 1,024 to 64. Danny Ryan, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation recently appeared on a podcast elaborating on the new sharding proposal along with other developments pertaining to Ethereum 2.0.

Ryan pointed out that the reduction in the number of chains in parallel from 1,024 to 64 would cause a decrease in the amount of on-chain computation, however, massive gains could be acquired in terms of data availability. Additionally, he addressed the latest constructions of layer two including an optimistic virtual machine [OVM] and ZK rollup, which relies on data availability. Ryan went on to say,

So coupling the sharding proposal with some of these like very promising constructions that I actually expect to see out next year, we can still have like massive, massive gains and scalability.

While phase zero of Ethereum 2.0 has been scheduled to launch by the beginning of January, Ryan, however, asserted that he has zero expectation that it would roll out in January. But he is positive about phase zero launching in Q1 of 2020. Ryan clarified that a team member threw that date out as a suggestion on a public call, which was swooped up by the media as the launch date.

Ryan added,

It has never been our launch date. Thats what Ive been trying to communicate ever since, that date kind of has become pervasive. But were all targeting a Q1 launch.

Additionally, while talking about the value of the Ethereum, Ryan stated that the current Ethereum community and protocol are incredibly valuable and powerful and Ethereum 2.0 would enhance the growing community. He went on to suggest that Ethereum 2.0 would be the next phase of that evolution and he asserted that he was bullish about Ethereum but he refrained from commenting on the token.

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Ethereum 2.0s Phase Zero to rollout in Q1 of 2020 - AMBCrypto

Ethereums Hearthstone Rival Sets Volume Record After Blizzard Scandal – Cointelegraph

Ethereum (ETH) based trading card game Gods Unchained has far outstripped CryptoKitties by volume after a censorship scandal involving game-developer Blizzard.

As blockchain research platform Coin Metrics noted on Nov. 12, the past month has seen activity explode for the game, with interest dwarfing that of CryptoKitties at its 2017 peak.

In terms of daily transfers of its non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Gods Unchained was recording almost 500,000 such transfers per day at the end of last week.

By contrast, even at the height of the CryptoKitties craze in late 2017, transfers there totaled less than 100,000.

The data underscores the backlash against Blizzard, the developer behind titles such as World of Warcraft, which last month became embroiled in a PR disaster involving China.

As Cointelegraph reported, the company rescinded prize money from the top player of its Hearthstone game, Chung Ng Wai (aka Blitzchung), after the latter voiced support for the Hong Kong protest movement.

Gods Unchained capitalized on the event, offering replacement winnings and other perks to Chung in a tweet which has now received over 33,000 retweets.

As Coin Metrics notes, like Hearthstone, CryptoKitties players had considerably less control of their assets due to centralization.

...Unlike Hearthstone, Gods Unchained is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and each one of its cards is represented by an ERC-721 token. This means that users truly own their cards and can trade them freely on the open market, similar to any other cryptocurrency, it summarizes.

Somewhat ironically, Chinese authorities themselves subsequently went public with an endorsement of blockchain technology.

At the end of last month, a raft of headlines emerged, among which was advice not to speak badly of blockchain or mistake the support for a shift in policy regarding cryptocurrencies.

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Ethereums Hearthstone Rival Sets Volume Record After Blizzard Scandal - Cointelegraph

TRON Will Flip Ethereum Next Year, Udi Wertheimer Calls – Bitcoinist

Bitcoin developer, known as Udi Wertheimer, recently announced his predictions for the future of Ethereum and Tron, stating his opinion that TRON will overcome Ethereum in about a year or so.

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and has been one of the most important crypto projects to ever be invented. It brought about the era of second generation blockchains, created the first ecosystem of decentralized applications (DApp), and became the first functional smart contracts platform.

However, along the way, Ethereum saw a number of competitors emerge, and while most of them disappeared as years went by, some did stick around. TRON is today one of the projects main competitors, and according to Bitcoin developer, Udi Wertheimer, TRON might even flip Ethereum sometime in 2020.

Naturally, this seems like a rather bold claim at first. However, Wertheimer came up with this prediction after listening to TRON CEO and founder, Justin Sun, discuss the new partnership between TRON and Poloniex.

Sun has mentioned many plans for the partnership between his project and the exchange, such as listings of additional assets, and more. However, he also stated that some additional partnerships which he is not able to discuss just yet would come in the near future, as well.

Wertheimer also states that TRON boasts faster development, better censorship resistance and greater transactions, than the largest altcoin.

Justin Sun is quite well-known for his major announcements and raising hype, which is why many have taken his statements and plans with a grain of salt. In addition, a lot of people do not think much of Poloniex anymore, after the incident from over half a year ago, when Poloniex supposedly took 1800 BTC from its customers and did not pay them back, as some were complaining.

Others also noted that the exchange is not addressing their issues and that it is not to be trusted, which also implies that its partnership with TRON is equally untrustworthy.

Meanwhile, Sun addressed his followers, encouraging them to use Poloniex and help the exchange expand its business. He praises it as the first exchange that allowed the crypto community to buy coins like ETH or TRX, which is partially a reason why it has his support.

As for the future, Sun has announced that Poloniex will start offering more TRC-10 and TRC-20 coins listed, announcing big things to come. Plans like these are what makes Wertheimer believe that TRON will overcome Ethereum in the next year.

What do you think about the predictions favoring TRON over Ethereum? Do you agree with Wertheimer? Let us know in the comments below.

Image via Shutterstock: Twitter @UDIWERTHEIMER @nejelnejel @spacecitychan

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TRON Will Flip Ethereum Next Year, Udi Wertheimer Calls - Bitcoinist

The Ethereum Token Ecosystem Is Thriving – Crypto Briefing

The so-called Ethereum killers never arrived. The network thrives as ERC-20 tokens approach Ethereums capitalization. Other smart contract platforms are not even close to Ethereum in terms of relative activity.

Coin Metrics employed an analysis developed by Chris Burniske of Placeholder, a New York-based venture capital partnership, to measure the health of the Ethereum network. The metric compares the market capitalization of Ether to that of all the tokens launched on the network. This network value to token value ratio evaluates the health of Ethereums token ecosystem.

A value of one indicates that Ethers market cap and the aggregated market capitalization of the tokens it hosts are equivalent. That implies a healthy, possibly undervalued smart contract platform. Coin Metrics found that the ratio has declined significantly since Q2 2017 from just under 35 to 1.9.

Courtesy Coin Metrics Network Data Pro, Ethereum Network Value to Token Value

ERC-20 tokens blossomed during the ICO frenzy of 2017. Most of those were utility tokens that enjoyed explosive initial price growth before rapidly descending though Ether followed a similar trajectory. ICOs generally accepted ETH or BTC in return for their tokens, placing demand pressure on the platforms native token.

Ether went through the same crypto winter endured by the whole market perhaps exacerbated by ICO projects selling out of Ether into fiat to fund their activities.

According to Coin Metrics, stablecoins were responsible for the majority of the growth in non-native token value since mid-2018. Their capitalization rose from $109 million to more than $2.8 billion in that year-and-a-half period going from one to 28 percent of the entire ERC-20 ecosystem.

In contrast, utility tokens fell by almost $2 billion, from 70 to less than 50 percent of the ERC-20 market capitalization. Exchange tokens remained fairly steady, representing about a quarter of the value of ERC-20 tokens.

Courtesy Coin Metrics Network Data Pro, Ethereum Network Value to Token Value

(The sudden plunge in exchange tokens in 2019 is explained by Binance switching BNB to its own mainnet.)

The growing health of Ethereum-hosted tokens only paints half the picture. Since mid-2018, stablecoin growth and a dwindling ETH price have combined to lower the relative value ratio to where it currently stands. On Jul. 1, 2018, Ethers capitalization was just under $50 billion. Now it is around $20 billion.

Courtesy CoinMarketCap, Ether capitalization July 1, 2018 to Nov. 13, 2019

The ERC-20 market essentially remained stable. Its makeup swayed with the growing relative importance of stablecoins, but its total value of approximately $10 billion increased only slightly over the period.

According to Coinmarketcap, Tether remains the dominant stablecoin at a market capitalization of over $4 billion. That is ten times the market cap of the second-largest ERC-20 stablecoin, USDC.

Tether could propel an even lower network value to token value ratio. Tether is built on a number of protocols. The most important are Omni and Ethereum. As Coin Metrics noted, Over the last several months, usage has been shifting from the Omni-based version to the Ethereum-based version of Tether. If that trend continues, Tether will play an increasingly significant role in the aggregate value of the tokens hosted by the Ethereum platform.

Burniske compared the network-to-token value ratios of ETH, EOS, XLM, WAVES, and NEO.

Courtesy Chris Burniske, Placeholder, Comparative Network Value to Token Value ratios

He found that activity on the Ethereum, WAVES, and NEO platforms was quite healthy with ratios under 10. On the other hand, EOS has a ratio of more than 200 far higher than Ethereum. Burniske suggested that at least one of the assets is priced inadequately compared to its token hosting utility:

The graph illustrates that despite its own ups and downs, the Ethereum network remains a healthy platform for token activity. Crypto investors would be wise to stay alert to this metric. At current prices, Ether could be significantly undervalued.

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The Ethereum Token Ecosystem Is Thriving - Crypto Briefing

The Morning Show Boss on How Real-Life Politics Will Influence Season 2 – Variety

Apple TV Plus just gave official renewals to four of the shows that launched with the new streaming service last week, but the second season of The Morning Show has already been well underway for quite some time: The Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-starrer was a two-season order right out of the gate. Now, it looks like Season 2 could premiere sometime around the 2020 election but does that mean real-life politics will impact the new season?

We have the shape of it. Weve broken the first three episodes, Ehrin told Variety about the second season on the red carpet at the New York City premiere, earlier this fall. Were writing the show now; well film it this summer; and well be on next November. (Sources close to the show, however, tell Variety that no premiere date for Season 2 has been set at this time.)

Since The Morning Show features a titular morning news show within-the-show, if the second season does in fact launch during the same month as the next presidential election, it would seem like a ripe time for political storylines. However, Ehrin noted that its actually impossible to bring current political events into the show, given the timeline of writing, shooting, editing the season before it gets to streaming.

You cant do current politics, she explained, so my idea is that if you deal with politics, you deal with political themes. I call it current adjacent, where youre not historically aging yourself by dealing with a specific thing, but you can take the zeitgeist of what is happening in the world and do something with those themes.

Dont count on any Trump-like character showing up on screen, though. Asked specifically if President Trump will have an tangential influence on the show, Ehrin responded, Only in the sense that the president has an influence on all of us. Writers are absorbers of reality and interpreters, so in that sense. But its not like hes a part of the storytelling at all.

The first season of The Morning Show is heavily influenced by the #MeToo movement that has swept the entertainment and news businesses over the past two years. In real life, powerhouse figures such as Charlie Rose and Les Moonves from CBS and Matt Lauer from NBC were ousted after allegations of sexual misconduct, but although Steve Carells character Mitch is a beloved morning news anchor fired amidst similar allegations who even has a privacy button under his desk in the show the team behind the show says its story is not directly ripped from the headlines.

I dont write to the news. Its not that kind of a show, Ehrin reiterated on the red carpet.

In fact, Ehrin said she never went back to tweak the scripts when new stories unfolded off-screen in the news in the first season. And she has no plans to do that in the second, as the writers are already hard at work on the second season and have their storylines intact.

When Ehrin was brought the premise of the show, all she knew was that Aniston and Witherspoon were attached, and that the series would be influenced by journalist Brian Stelters 2013 book Top Of The Morning, which explores the behind-the-scenes dynamics of morning news shows.

News is a little bit of a double edged sword right now, Ehrin said. I think that it can mean bad things to people and good things to people, and I hope that this will be a new vision of the real humanity of it, as opposed to the politics of it, so Im hoping it will educate, but also uplift a little bit.

Ehrin also hopes that through that education, shes showing multi-dimensional female characters to her female viewers. My feeling, which I tried to put into it, is that women, especially in business who are ambitious, are very complex. Its not like youre just this one thing, she said. I really want female viewers to be able to spend time with complicated, grounded people that they relate to and see themselves in.

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The Morning Show Boss on How Real-Life Politics Will Influence Season 2 - Variety

Northeastern University: Engineering for an autonomous and connected world – Study International News

Technological developmentsfrom smart devices to humanoid roboticsare driving a new era of autonomous and connected devices that have the potential to transform our personal and professional lives in unimaginable ways. Skilled engineers are needed to spur this movement in the age of disruption, and graduates and professionals must enhance their skillsets and knowledge in the field.

In capturing the 21st century zeitgeist, Northeastern Universitys College of Engineeringknown for multidisciplinary research and educationhas become recognized as a global leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as robotics research, and offers a host of academic programs in the field to prepare future generations of engineers for an ever-evolving world.

Northeastern has leading expertise in every single field related to the IoT, said the universitys Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Matteo Rinaldi. There are experts in micromechanical systems, wireless networks, Big Data, imaging, signal processing, and of course, security. This combination of expertise is quite unique, and that creates the critical mass needed to solve complex problems.

Student conducts wireless networking research at the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things lab at Northeastern University.

The Colleges Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering offer MS and PhD programs with flexible electives and several concentrations, as well as a wide range of research opportunities, working alongside accomplished faculty to allow students to focus in the area of most interest to them.

The college has carved itself a reputation in robotics, with a portfolio of high-profile research projects, cutting-edge laboratory facilities and new degree programs that address fast-changing industry and societal challenges.

The university is home to the Institute for Experiential Robotics, led by Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Taskin Padir, and focuses on creating artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from human experiences to build robots that operate seamlessly with people at work and at home. There are a wide range of potential applications for experiential robotics.

For example, Padir is leading a US$2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to develop robots that can transform the US seafood processing industry, while Professor Hanumant Singh, of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, develops autonomous car technology, drones and unmanned vehicles to explore the Arctic to collect and interpret data for a sustainable society.

Northeastern also has a new 12,000 square foot lab at the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, which is dedicated to robot fabrication, testing and prototyping. It has cutting-edge robot systems, including collaborative manipulator arms, drones, human support robots and field robots.

With its state-of-the-art facilities and research prowess, prospective students keen on pursuing their graduate studies in robotics will find Northeasterns MS in Robotics program ideal.

The MS in Robotics is interdisciplinaryit includes mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical engineering, explained Professor Singh. Our coursework is geared so that our students have the basic foundational knowledge in each of those three areas. The idea is to expose them to a broad, strong theoretical framework across multiple fields, and let them, if they choose, specialize in a particular area.

Northeastern offers programs in high-growth IoT fields, such as its MS in Cyber-Physical Systems with a concentration in the IoT. This multidisciplinary program is designed to meet the demand for a new kind of specialist, one who can engineer and develop new interactive services; acquire, fuse, and process the data collected from sensors, actuators, controllers, and other devices; and develop architecture to interconnect these elements as part of larger, more diverse systems.

Careers in this rapidly evolving area are expected to encompass various industry sectors ranging from energy to healthcare, transportation to infrastructure, and even manufacturing. Students can pursue the program in Boston as well as at Northeasterns Silicon Valley campus. Students applying for Spring 2020 admission at the Silicon Valley campus are eligible for a 25 percent tuition scholarship.

Meanwhile, the MS in Information Systems is a flexible program that puts software at the forefront of the engineering paradigm to address the socio-technical needs of contemporary society. Students will be prepared to go beyond simple programming to become a leader in information technology, delivering systems that are safe, secure and help solve the worlds grand challenges. There are also concentrations and electives relevant to smart contracts, intelligent systems, as well as a blockchain specialization. The program is available in Boston, Seattle and Silicon Valleythree of the most innovative hubs in the US.

Those interested in advancing their telecom and networking knowledge, or expanding to business or marketing, may consider the MS in Telecommunication Networks. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining engineering, computer science, and business.

Security in the age of the internet is of course important. Northeasterns PhD in Cybersecurity program combines a strong technical foundation with a security policy and social sciences perspective. It prepares graduates to advance the state-of-the-art security in systems networks and the internet in industry, academia and government.

Stellar programs aside, Northeastern also offers a stimulating learning environment to complement their academic experience. The Northeastern Robotics Club is award-winning and the college has a new NU IoT Connect student organization, a common platform for all things IoT. The organization regularly conducts workshops, works on real-world projects and organizes meet-ups with IoT-related companies.

Experiential learning is the heart of a Northeastern education. Unique to the university is the opportunity for graduate students to participate in its world-renowned cooperative education program to gain professional experience while employed in their field of interest as part of the academic program. MS in Telecommunications student Nishita Sikka did her co-op at Volvo Group North American headquarters, gaining invaluable experience in automation, web development, and network infrastructure.

If youre interest is piqued, reap the rewards that only Northeastern can offer by applying to the engineering graduate program today.

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Northeastern University: Engineering for an autonomous and connected world - Study International News

‘Badass’: The One Word Many Female Chefs Hate To Be Called : The Salt – NPR

Chef Angie Mar, who has received rave reviews for her New York chophouse Beatrice Inn, has been called a "badass" by the press. While some women have no problem with the word and use it in an entirely complimentary context, many others dislike its bro-culture connotation. Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images hide caption

Chef Angie Mar, who has received rave reviews for her New York chophouse Beatrice Inn, has been called a "badass" by the press. While some women have no problem with the word and use it in an entirely complimentary context, many others dislike its bro-culture connotation.

Are there any words or phrases you really wish people would stop using to describe women chefs (or really, women, period)?

Charlotte Druckman put this question to more than 100 female chefs and food writers for her book Women on Food, a compendium that corrals a range of voices from marquee names such as Nigella Lawson and Rachael Ray, to the pioneering 92-year-old writer Betty Fussell, who still gets into the van at her retirement home in Santa Barbara, Calif., to buy raw cream and nectarines at the farmers market.

A mix of essays, Q&As and short riffs, it is packed with writing that is combative, funny, skeptical, angry, occasionally sanctimonious and altogether riveting. Creditably, it spotlights undersung icons such as the Alabama midwife Georgia Gilmore, who cooked tirelessly for civil rights marchers, and the Upstate New Yorker Cheryl Rogowski, who in 2004 became the first farmer to be chosen for a MacArthur Genius Grant.

The essays exhibit a command of themes that runs the gamut from Osayi Endolyn's withering account of how dining out solo as a black woman comes with a free side of white savior complex, to Soleil Ho's deep dive into how Pac-Man pioneered the role of food in video games, to Sadie Stein's (far too) respectful critique of the lack of sensuousness in M.F.K. Fisher's writing. Of the Q&As, the sparkler is the one with Fussell, whose answers are as unpasteurized as the cream she buys at the farmers market. When Druckman asks, "How do you think food writing can be a feminist act?" Fussell shoots back, "I don't think it should be. That's easy. Food breaks through the stupid categories we put on things. I hate the word feminism."

Despite this clarion contrapuntal note, Women and Food is a robustly feminist polemic. Druckman, a writer and sharp observer of the culinary landscape, compiled it in the wake of the #MeToo movement and parked it at the hustling turnstile where food smacks up against money, gender, race, sexuality, class and history. It asks the central question: Why, for all their unarguably brilliant achievements, are women chefs and food writers still well below the salt? Why, for instance, do we hear incessantly about the European culinary aristocracy of Ren Redzepi, Ferran Adri and Massimo Bottura but almost nothing about Carme Ruscalleda, the Catalan chef who has more Michelin stars than most other chefs in the world?

The answer returns us, somewhat elliptically, to the earlier question Druckman put to her contributors: "Are there any words or phrases you really wish people would stop using to describe women chefs (or really, women, period)?"

The list of words turned out to be quite long. Many rejected gender qualifiers like "women" or "female," preferring to be regarded as chefs or writers, tout court. Unsurprisingly, chick, bitchy and babe got the thumbs down. So did perky, boss, feisty, ballbuster, strong, tough and lion. Maternal markers nurturing, caring, matriarchal and the whole grandmother-pastel frosting-cupcake-nostalgia boilerplate made some gag.

Others flagged physical appraisers like tiny, trim, gorgeous, sexy, former model, attractive an objection pursued with prosecutorial vigor by Mari Uyehara in her essay on how fashion has hijacked the food world. Uyehara takes to task the food magazine Cherry Bombe, which touts itself as feminist to the bone, but which she admonishes for its narrow coverage of "young, hip, photogenic" chefs and putting "the serum-nourished Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson" on its cover at the cost of lesser-known and not as modelesque women.

But the word that emerged as a lightning rod of scorn is one that may surprise readers, given that it is so frequently and proudly slung around by one and all as the ne plus ultra of praise: badass.

Over the past decade or so, badass has become part of the glut of cliches that plagues the world of food, up there with the insufferable "awesome" and "amazing." It started out as proud black resistance slang, was enthusiastically annexed by everyone else, and now sits at the apex of a trend that inverts a negative word into a ravishingly positive one (wicked, mean, bad, sick, crazy, killa are its siblings).

President Barack Obama made headlines for saying with regard to the U.S. women's national soccer team that "playing like a girl means you're a badass." The Daily Kos exulted that badass Tubman would soon be on the $20 bill. Angie Mar is a badass, proclaimed both The New York Times and The New Yorker, of the chef and co-owner of Beatrice Inn in the West Village, while The Village Voice congratulated her for bringing "badass attitude" to the historic chophouse.

Overuse has leached badass of its badassery. "It's like interesting: so bland as to be almost meaningless," says Eater Features Editor Rebecca Flint Marx. "It's a token word that only conveys pandering."

But the deeper reason why so many women in the food world dislike it is the connotations it has acquired. Though its slangy, demotic roots give it a tang of modernism, to many women it embodies the stultifying conventions of maleness that dominate restaurant kitchens.

It's not as if every female chef and writer is hostile to badass. Several use it in the book (and the media as the Angie Mar example shows) in an entirely complimentary context. But for an overwhelmingly large number, it is befouled by the heavy, telltale, locker room odor of what is disparagingly known as "bro-culture."

Charlotte Druckman, author of Women on Food Melanie Dunea hide caption

"Badass is a detonated way to describe a kind of cultural male whiteness an aggressive, swaggering one," Druckman told NPR. "And then it gets put onto women, as what feels like a tarnished 'badge of honor,' or backhanded compliment. Calling a woman chef or otherwise 'badass' is a way to signify that she's cool or relevant because she's acting like a man (specifically, an aggressive, swaggering one); that she is only of interest or worth consideration because she's going against whatever 'type' it is she'd otherwise be categorized as because she's a woman. She can't possibly be taken seriously or even close to equal unless she's aping male behavior. It exalts that bullying, bullish culture at the same time as it puts down the culture of anyone who doesn't follow that model, female, white or otherwise."

New York restaurateur Ning Kang points out that the expectation woven into words like badass is that one needs to strut masculine personality traits to succeed. "Some women certainly are all of those things by nature, and that's a part of their personalities and it's great," she says. "But some women are soft and gentle and shy, and I don't think that should be a reflection of our work style. We are able to succeed with our intelligence, attention to details, sensitivity to people's feelings, and more."

This feeling about women not having to kowtow to a male ideal of strength is explored by author Tamar Adler, who experienced a workaday epiphany of sorts while working at Chez Panisse in Berkeley. When she arrived, she thought of the burns on her forearms from earlier kitchen stints as the stigmata of badassery. "After a couple of months, one of the chefs, a woman, told me she had taught herself simply never to get burned and never to get cut," she writes. "Like, the badges of hard work and hot ovens were a bit tawdry to her. The real class was in being so good that they didn't touch you. She never lifted a heavy compost bin or a whole lamb or half pig alone, but calmly asked for help. She was never exhausted, never burned, never depleted, angry, dirty. She took care of herself and took care of the kitchen. I liked that."

For many female chefs, the baleful comedy surrounding the extravagant use of badass is that while it is showered on "tough" female chefs and those who storm the supposedly male bastions of kitchen craft butchery, grilling, burgers, sushi, wood, fire, pizza the prejudices against allowing women into these very spaces are still almost intact. Many chefs complained about how they were gender-directed to pastry, dessert, grain bowls, gluten-free, vegan, salad, brownies, farmers market food, granola, and that old staple, comfort food.

On another note, Druckman points out that badass is also a classic example of "misappropriating" a word. "It came out of black culture, and in that context, I think it's a great word," she says. "Seeing that word adopted to apply to a large, generic population that I think of (I know, it's probably reductive), collectively, as representative of 'white hard-partying, blustering frat boy culture' is as far from resistance as you can get."

Her contributors evidently shared her view because to her surprise badass popped up in response to another question she asked: What about words or phrases used to describe male chefs (or men, at all) that you'd like to ban? A close second was the term "bad boy."

"I wish terms like tough, badass, hardcore were meant to describe strength," says Therese Nelson, who runs the Black Culinary History blog. "What they really do is assign a kind of toxic masculinity to men in ways that perpetuate it in insane ways. I think strength is a virtue that men and women need, but there is a way in which we talk about male strength that diminishes women while also marginalizing men, as though all they can be are these one-dimensional caricatures as opposed to fully formed people. The whole narrative is bad for everyone."

One of the most trenchant lines in the book comes from writer Jordana Rothman: "If you are granting wishes, mine is to never have to read another story about a bro discovering noodles." It's a brilliant aperu of the hugely popular exotic-travel-food-show trope long cornered by men. Indeed, the two male chefs who come in for a few swipes as the pin-ups du jour of bro culture contemptuously referred to as "the brotastic kitchen culture," "#brozone" and "all of that bro shit" are the late Anthony Bourdain and Momofuku grandee David Chang.

"I don't think it's personal or I hope it's not," says Druckman. I see them as bookends of a long-lasting movement, of bro culture as the zeitgeist in food. Bourdain started it, in terms of bringing it into mainstream culture and making it a point of pop-cultural fascination with Kitchen Confidential, and Chang represents its apotheosis I think Momofuku culture came to be synonymous with bro culture, and that permeated his magazine Lucky Peach, too. As soon as Bourdain and Chang became emblematic of that culture, they became ubiquitous; they permeated all media. That's why they get the bro-bashing. They became signifiers."

She adds, "Bourdain ended up apologizing for his role in perpetuating and celebrating bro culture. I think Chang has also been receptive to the criticism lobbed at him and continues to try to adjust his brand and choices accordingly. But those labels or ideas get attached to people, and become bigger than they are. I think we'll always associate them with bro-ness on some level."

While editing Women on Food, Druckman grew to detest badass so much that she even wrote its obituary but had to leave it out of the book for want of space. "Yes, I wrote an obituary for a word, the word 'badass,' " she says. "And I'd do it again. When I wrote that obit, my goal was to bury it, with a wink. And I had way too much fun doing it."

Nina Martyris is a journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn.

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'Badass': The One Word Many Female Chefs Hate To Be Called : The Salt - NPR

The Catalan crisis is key to the rise of the Spanish far right – The Guardian

It seemed like a very good idea at the time. A period of research leave in Barcelona would allow me to put everything I knew about nationalism to the test. I would see up close how competing nationalist visions corrode harmony and peaceful coexistence among culturally diverse groups. I would understand how the principle of national self-determination could inspire a people to seek their own independent state. But also grasp how the idea of national unity threatened diversity. More specifically, I could find out how the mood in Barcelona, once a bastion of multiculturalism and conviviality, had turned to such anger and how Spains exceptionalism in not having a far-right political party was coming to an end. So I accepted the offer of a visiting professorship in Barcelona without much hesitation.

Alas, the reality on the ground was more complex than I expected. True, the usual factors were all in place. The 2008 financial crash and the recession that followed had been more acutely felt in wealthier regions such as Catalonia, which became even more reluctant to share its tax revenues with the poorer parts of the country.

And heightened separatist sentiment had been used by politicians on both sides to further their own agendas. For Artur Mas, from 2010 to 2015 president of the government of Catalonia,it was an opportunity to prop up his declining electoral fortunes by breaking with the traditional, middle-of-the-road approach of his predecessor, Jordi Pujol, and to embrace separatism. For Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, and his centre-right Partido Popular (Peoples party), this in turn provided a means to clamp down on separatism (via an earlier supreme court decision in 2010), further crushing Catalonias hopes for more self-rule.

But, as I learned, neither events nor facile arguments about Spain being the latest victim of a global far-right populist zeitgeist are enough to explain the conundrums of current Catalan and Spanish politics. Or the results of this weeks general election, which saw the far-right Vox become the third largest party inparliament.

For one thing, Spain has not been that much of an exception when it comes to far-right ideas being represented in parliament. Few international pundits take note of the fact, but Vox, which rose to prominence in the 2018 Andalusian regional elections, was established by a splinter group of the centre-right Peoples party, hence was already very much part of mainstream politics in Spain. Similarly, Voxs latest gains cannot be explained as evidence of an unprecedented surge in xenophobic feeling. Spanish people remain much more tolerant towards immigrants than most of their European counterparts.

Key to Voxs increasing appeal is the Catalan crisis (if we leave aside one-off factors such as the governments exhumation of Francos body). During the election campaign Vox promised a crackdown on the Catalan secession movement, characterising the protests in Barcelona as evidence of a permanent coup. But here, too, the reality is much more nuanced than any morally charged black-and-white narrative of separatists versus unionists would have us believe.

What unites the demonstrators and strikers is anger at what they perceive to be a corrupt political elite

To begin with, the unrest triggered by the supreme courts sentencing last month of Catalonias separatist leaders can only be partially explained with reference to demands for national self-determination. Because independence means different things to different people. The latest barometer from the Catalan Centre for Opinion Studies shows that only 34.5% of the population believes that Catalonia should be an independent state while 24.5% believe it should be a state within a federal Spain, as opposed to 27% who prefer the continuation of the status quo a fact confirmed in the general elections with 43% of the voters rooting for independentist parties as opposed to 40% who opted for non-independentist parties.

Perhaps more importantly, for a significant number of Catalans, the demonstrations are not about Catalonias future status at all.

The protesters have little sympathy for secessionist leaders such as Quim Torra or Carles Puigdemont as the dismal performance of their Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) at the ballot box also revealed. What unites the participants of demonstrations and strikes is anger at, and a certain disdain for, what they perceive to be a corrupt political elite. In that respect, they are more a continuation of the anti-austerity indignados, who occupied the Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid back in 2011, than anything else.

This doesnt mean that the current crisis is artificial or indeed temporary. On the contrary, the latest wave of protests, mobilised by the Defence Committees of the Republic (CDR) and/or the Tsunami Democrtic, was much more organised and aggressive than before, sending shockwaves through the rest of Spain and around the world. What is more, the protesters werent only the left behind, the somewheres and the back rows the darlings of the dominant media narrative about such incidents but included the well-off, the anywheres and front rows. Many were white-collar workers or university students, part-time protesters dividing their time between work or university and the street demonstrations. This is corroborated by survey data that show that support for secession is highest among those who have a household net income of 2,000-3,000 per month, followed by those who make more than 3,000 (averages for Catalonia). In other words, Catalan separatism is a middle- or upper-middle class phenomenon, not a balloon of discontent that times pinprick will burst.

No one is more aware of this than Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, who insistently played the economy card in the run-up to the elections. The economic crisis will find us without national unity and without legal security, said Abascal in a televised debate on 4 November. He finished by quoting Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, one of the ideologues of the fascist Falangist movement: Only the rich can afford not to have a country.

Of course, Abascals ideal country, a muscular centralised Spain, is not the country most Catalans want, preferring an independent Catalonia or an autonomous region within Spain with more control of its fiscal powers. And neither seems willing to accept the others fantasy, as the election results, which divided evenly between left and right, showed.

The danger Spain faces in the aftermath of the general election is that the holders of one fantasy try to usurp the other. There were already signs of it before the elections when the Madrid branches of the Peoples party and Ciudadanos (Citizens) declared that they might support Voxs initiative to outlaw independentist parties. Whether they actually choose to follow this harsher path rather than engaging in a dialogue with the separatists the policy the newly forged left coalition between PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers party) and Podemos will follow remains to be seen.

The one certain thing is there will be much less room for manoeuvre in a country locked into a situation where Catalan and Spanish nationalisms feed off each other.

In the meantime, the academic who comes to Barcelona to see nationalism in action faces ever more ambiguity and complexity. Ive already learned the most important lesson though as I walk the tightrope between competing Catalan, Basque and Castilian nationalisms: simplistic solutions and conventional wisdom give you the wrong answers.

Umut zkrml is a visiting professor at IBEI (Institut Barcelona dEstudis Internacionals) and CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs)

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The Catalan crisis is key to the rise of the Spanish far right - The Guardian

Rage Against The Machine perform ‘Killing in the Name’ on Channel 4’s ‘The Word’, 1993 – Far Out Magazine

As the band announce a huge set of reunion shows in 2020, were taking a look back at the 1993 performance from Rage Against The Machine of their iconic song Killing In The Name on Channel 4s The Word. Its a cherishable moment where irreverent British TV meets the startling power of Americas Gen-X saviours.

Around the same time Rage Against The Machine were quickly becoming one of Americas hottest talents. Channeling their heavy rock style, mixed with the beginnings of nu-metal their self-titled debut album would reach triple platinum just a few short years after their first ever gig. We look back at this exciting time for the band when they performed on UK TV for the first time and blow away a generation. They were lucky to have landed on The Word.

The Word was a seminal moment in youth culture during the 90s. A Channel 4 exploit, designed to capture the rising viewership of Generation X, The Word acted as a conductor not only for bored teens desperate to have their brains filled with ultimately irreverent po-mo guff but also as the proving ground for the growing musical landscape that surrounded it. From Nirvana to Oasis, The Word hosted some of the musics zeitgeist moments.

Designed to engage with a new and emerging youth movement who, though jaded by MTV, still refused to believe anything that didnt come through the small screen. The show was hosted by radio personality and all-round shit-smirker Terry Christian and only really got moving when it was moved from a 6 pm slot to a new late-night slot on Friday nights. It allowed the show to truly flourish and their guests to do pretty much whatever they wanted. They had big plans.

The magazine format of the show allowed for interviews, live music, features and even game shows. The new flexible late-night format meant that guests could do just about anything to be controversial. There was also an Ill do anything to be on television section called The Hopefuls in which people ate worms, bathed in maggots, licked the sweat off fat people, intimately kissed old people, and did generally repulsive things in order to get featured on the programme. It also allowed bands like Rage Against The Machine let loose and express themselves they best they could.

The footage of this 93 episode begins as Mark Lamaar, a much-beloved host of the show, introduces Rage with a warning to the audience at home. Well, sort of. What he actually does, with a glistening head of hair, is put his middle finger to the screen and tell the viewers to swivel if theyre easily offended. All the while sitting across from the eccentric championship winning boxer, Chris Eubank. You cant beat 90s television.

The 1993 performance is notable, not just for its hindsight hilarity, nor because it remains one of the few times that RATM were allowed to perform the song on TV. But because the crowd, a young and hopeful lot, were bouncing and moshing like youd expect to see at one of their actual gigs. They turn the studio into a sweating, heaving crucible of bubbling energy.

It builds the track to new heights, helped along by some awesome editing, until the crescendo moment of that now-iconic line, fuck you, I wont do what you tell me! with which Zach De La Roche disappears into the audience. The intensity of the performance is then heightened further as its delivered from the belly of the crowd with De La Rocha now sharing the mic with a multitude of empowered rockstars.

Its an incredible watch, not only to simply enjoy but to see a band at the beginning of their journey, a journey that continues today.

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Rage Against The Machine perform 'Killing in the Name' on Channel 4's 'The Word', 1993 - Far Out Magazine

The psychology behind the difficult second album – Skiddle.com

Your debut LP catapults you into the limelight, your shows are starting to bring in big crowds and youre gaining more and more column inches. The major label lay it on thick, heap you with praise and give you a massive advance to make your second record. On paper, everything is rosy, but then comes the calm, the expectation and almost too much time to think.

Here, we look at four difficult second albums that should have never seen the light of day and the psychology behind their creation.

In 2001, The Strokes released This Is It. Its fair to say it was a masterpiece featuring a number of garage rock barnburners including; 'New York City Cops', 'Last Nite' and 'Hard To Explain'. It was hailed a desert island indie disco classic the world over. The album spearheaded a musical movement, which originated in NYC and featured; Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol and LCD Soundsystem.

After global success and critical acclaim, the band went back into the studio to record their follow up. What they offered up,Room on Fire, should have been called Is This Really It? Some bands strive to deviate from the formula that brought them initial success, due to the fear of being typecast. The Strokes had different ideas.

Room on Fire, with the exception of 'Reptillia' (which is a beautifully crafted pop song which showcases some of the bands best musicianship) was a poor mans replica of their debut LP. A collection of B-sides, scooped up off the cutting room floor and bereft of any attempt to develop their sound or their songs. It was like they had given birth to an identical twin, two years apart. An underwhelming example of a band trying to milk the same formula but getting well and truly found out.

The debut album by MGMT (pictured above), Oracular Spectacular, was released in January 2008 and delivered an artillery of beautiful, groove-driven, indie bombs in the form of 'Electric Feel', 'Time To Pretend' and 'Kids'. It was pop music for people who like psychedelic rock and sound-tracked the summer alongside a number of standout festival slots, which saw the band receive universal adoration.

When it was time to go back to the drawing board, the band - unlike The Strokes - were not willing to play ball in terms of a variation on a theme. Instead, they created Congratulations, a nine track LP which saw them switch their Midas touch for creating infectious indie classics to their love of inaccessible psych rock.

Of the nine tracks there are no clear singles, and if ever a song summed up a record, its the 12-minute 'Siberian Breaks'. Its so far removed from the likes of 'Electric Feel', it leaves you pondering what its all about? Congratulations is a case study in trying to go too far the other way. Letting your heart rule your head and ultimately, hitting the self-destruct button.

Neither Fish Nor Flesh was the follow-up to the internationally successful debut, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby,released in 1987. As a record, it smacks of reckless abandon. From pretentious spoken word interludes via tales of Marvin Gaye teaching him to write the albums lead single in a lucid dream, to his anything-goes approach to instrumentation - from kazoos and cowbells to ukuleles and harps. The neo-soul hits from Terence Trent D'Arby'sdebut LP and solid song structures of 'Wishing Well' and 'Sign Your Name' were replaced by a bloated, ego-driven drivel which was well and truly panned by the press.

It took London rock-cum-rave three piece Klaxons just over three years to follow up their Mercury Award-winning debut LP, Myths Of The Near Future. By the time they had released Surfing The Void in 2010, everything and everyone had calmed down a bit. Sometimes a band produces an album which is a great collection of songs, but its very much the zeitgeist of the time. The bands debut LP falls very much into this bracket.

If you give it a listen back today, youll find hits such as 'Golden Skans' and a cover of Graces 'Its Not Over Yet' - which had dance tents at festivals across the country in raptures in 2008 have not aged well. As with MGMT, the nu-rave trio tried to reinvent the wheel with their follow-up, reaching into the darkest recesses of their psychedelic record collections. Unfortunately, Polydor pushed back and made the band re-record large chunks of the album, citing that it was too experimental. What the band were final left with was a mediocre middle of the road album full of fillers.

Words by Sam Kershaw

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The psychology behind the difficult second album - Skiddle.com

The 25 Best ’60s Songs to stick it to the man – Happy Mag

A monumental decade of social and political upheaval, the 1960s saw the Civil Rights Movement, The Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and President JFK. As a time of such intense unrest it also gave way to some of the best music ever written.

These are the 25 best 60s songs to stick it to the man.

Famously written during a 39.5 fever, Neil Young penned the lyrics for Down By The River, Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl In The Sand amidst hallucinations. However, nothing matches the grand heights of this 9 minute epic.

Crazy Horse are locked in, the guitars are howling, Young is yearning and the lead work is iconic.

Over the years, Joan Baez became known for her essential take on the folk classic We Shall Overcomeand it later became a key song of protest for the Civil Rights Movement.

Baez became renowned for her rendition of the tune after performing it at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and it still gives us chills to this day.

Fuzzed out riffs and a clinking piano set the tone for Iggy Stooges dark rupturing barks and sexual masochism. The classically trained John Cale handled production adding the single note piano and sleigh bells.

Always one for pushing boundaries, Iggy turned the pop trope of puppy love into an exposing reflection of animal instinct and sexual humiliation, eventuating in one of the best all time 60s songs.

When Woodstock inevitably descended into madness and disarray before the first act even hit the stage Richie Havens had a weight on his shoulders. The road was blocked for miles and no other artists were yet to arrive at the festival.

After three encores Havens started improvising and the first thing that came to his head wasFreedom, one of the most impassioned black rights songs of all time and the epitome of the counterculture movement.

Released in August 1968, a few months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King,Say It Loud: Im Black & Im Proudis the ultimate Civil Rights protest song.

A lot has changed in half a century, yet the need to defend ethnicity against derision continues, hence the challenging, exhilarating, and resonating opulence of James Browns finest work.

Janis Joplins raw emotion tearing itself her soul in Piece Of My Heartis one of the most honest expressions of humanity ever recorded.

With Big Brother and the Holding Company riding the crest of the fuzz revolution, their live album, Cheap Thrills, is Joplin at her passionate best.

The final track from The Doors 1967 debut was the psychedelic overhaul the decade was scrambling towards and inevitably opened the flood gates to a diluvian downpour of fractals and kaleidoscopic sound.

The poetic acuity of Jim Morrison and the breathing, heaving flow of the band elevated The Doors to music royalty and hinted at their sonic schizophrenia to come.

The melancholy extravagance of Nicos voice makesThese Daysmore than just one of your your casual coffeehouse 60s songs. The later addition of the strings from Tom Wilson elevate the emotional intensity of Nicos already serene voice to a potent token of 1960s remembrance.

Recorded a mere 6 weeks before his death and released posthumously, (Sittin On) The Dock Of The Bay reflects on Reddings life as a black man seeking opportunity and stardom in San Francisco then Georgia.

The solo was a lucky accident and Otis Redding had supposedly planned to finish the lyrics before his fateful plane crash in 67.

Written by Lee Hazelwood, These Boots Are Made For Walkintook pop to places it had only previously been fantasised about. Boots were hot in the 60s with DylansBoots Of Spanish Leatherbeing one of his most highly acclaimed works.

Nonetheless, Nancy Sinatras empowered sexuality and poised vocals made this one of the most undercover political 60s songs.

The eternal recurrence of Bob DylansThe Times They Are A Changinmakes it, thematically, one of the strongest songs ever written.

Change is inevitable and it seems Dylans voice will ring as clear and true in 2964 as it did a thousand years before.

Famed for its extended live forms, Dazed and Confusedis as experimental as Led Zeppelin gets. With Page bowing his guitar, Plant teeming with lust and Bonham being Bonham; its quintessential Zeppelin and a screaming, distorted classic in every sense.

Written to detest President Nixons elitist favouritism allowing certain demographics to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam War, John Fogerty created a masterpiece.

Its one of those rare songs that opposes war but empathises with troops and a hallmark of Fogertys lyrical acuity. This is CCR at their absolute finest.

Swiping inspiration from Baudelaire, Mick Jaggers lyricism in Sympathy For The Devilis daring to say the least. It not only sympathises with satan but presents him as as well spoken man of the world.

Perhaps even more daring is Keith Richards desire to put it all to samba but it all just works like butter on toast.

Another anti-Vietnam protest to make the cut,The Fiddle and the Drumis from Joni Mitchells sophomore 1969 albumClouds.

Written from an outsiders perspective it delicately tandems themes of USAs plentiful opportunity while demonising the countrys warmongering government.

Heroinwas a landmark in its lyrical honesty and avant absurdism. Lou Reed was at his cliff edged romantic best. Matching the manic all time high of heroin, this hauntingly beautiful piece owes its uniqueness to Moe Tuckers jiggling percussion and John Cales freakish viola.

Unlike its anti-Vietnam brethren of the decade, Everyday Peopleis a plea for equality and an everlasting example of Jake Slys genius.

The eternal statement is just as relevant today as it was 60 years ago and Sly & Family Stones performance at Woodstock was one of the defining moments of the decade, according to Carlos Santana.

The now iconic anti-war anthem is not the only song written in disgust of Americas involvement with Vietnam in the 60s.

Its not only a perfectly written and emotionally charged protest song but a testament to the power of musical objection. Sometimes all you need is a guitar and a voice.

Shied by the deification of his hero, Jimi Hendrix put everything into his iteration of Dylans All Along The Watchtower. As a result itbecame a favourite on pirate radio stations in Vietnam, receiving heavy airplay and becoming a symbol of hope for the troops.

You cant stick it to the man much more than that.

Covering the poignant Billie Holiday number, Nina Simone injected her own unique sadness and urgency into Strange Fruit.

Perhaps the most haunting song of all time, the poem was writing by Jewish writer Abel Meeropol and, upon its many iterations, became an urgent plea to stop the black lynchings in the South.

Another resplendent jewel in the crown of protest music, Buffalo SpringfieldsFor What Its Worthis up there with the most lyrically poignant songs ever penned.

A progenitor for Neil Youngs later success,Buffalo Springfield are just as iconic as this unquestionable masterpiece.

Somehow the people werent hearing the message so Aretha Franklin had to spell it out.

An epochal reflection of racial and gender discrimination, Aretha used her supernatural hit making abilities to turn Otis Reddings original into the undying feminist anthem that it is today.

Appearing like the Man In Back himself, Johnny Cash sounds powerful and larger than life at Folsom Prison. The crowd cheers replete with desperate honour.

As the song progresses Cashs breath deepens as he seems a man as afraid of confinement as any of the inmates, marking the birth of the most famous live album of all time.

The archetypal expression of Lennon-McCartney dualism, A Day In The Lifeis The Beatles most succinct and impactful mosaic.

With John as a morbid philosopher and Paul playing the acidhead business man, this song essentially bridged pop and avant garde and is a zeitgeist moments of the 60s.

Arguably the greatest protest song of all time, this is Bob Dylan at his most eloquent. With a knack for summarising hugely complex philosophical and political concepts into one succinct line, Bob Dylan hits the nail squarely on the head with Blowin In The Wind.

Dylans omnipotence and linguistic strength have loaded him with a barrage of 60s songs that proudly stand the test of time and have deified the artist in the eyes of the world.

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The 25 Best '60s Songs to stick it to the man - Happy Mag

Why Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman & Margot Robbie Fought For Bombshell As The Women Of Fox News Battle NDAs – Deadline

It took two and-a-half hours, every day of Bombshells shoot, for Charlize Theron to transform into Megyn Kelly; but deciding to take on the role in the first place took much longer. I loved this script so much, and I didnt want to fuck the movie up, she says. The project came to her Denver and Delilah company for her to produce, and she was concerned she might exert her influence unduly and claim the role over an actor that deserved it more. I was trying to talk myself out it. I tend to second-guess myself. I didnt want to stand in the way of this story.

There was an ideological distance, too, giving her pause. Kellys views are far removed from Therons own. Even after Kellys tenure at the conservative Fox News, during the period she was on NBC, she caused controversy by defending blackface, and succeeded in offending gay people, fat people and Jane Fondathe latter with questions about plastic surgery, sparking a running feud. She also committed a segment of her news magazine show Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly to Alex Jones, the supplement salesman and hawker of poisonous Sandy Hook conspiracy theories.

For Theron, though, the story Bombshell was telling ultimately won out. I had to realize that, even through all this stuff, this was a person that did something really incredible, and I couldnt throw the baby out with the bathwater. It took a while, and its a really scary thing as an actor, because I know that my capability lives and breathes in removing myself from these preconceived notions. She was part of a moment in history that will always be remembered. It doesnt negate other things for me, but I had to remove that from the conversation of what this was.

By comparison, her time spent in the makeup chair was a breeze, especially considering the uncannily accurate end result. It should have taken four hours plus to pull off, but the production couldnt spare that kind of time, especially since the makeup team was also engaged in transforming Nicole Kidman into Gretchen Carlson, John Lithgow into Roger Ailes, and a sweeping ensemble into frighteningly realistic versions of the Fox News players circa 2016.

Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly (left) and Kelly herself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson (left) and Carlson herself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Matt Baron/Shutterstock

John Lithgow as Roger Ailes (left) and Ailes himself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Mediapunch/Shutterstock

Malcolm McDowell as Rupert Murdoch (left) and Murdoch himself.

Hilary Bronwyn Gale SMPSP / Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock

Kellys eyes were the hardest part. They were also the key. As much as actors recoil at even the suggestion of concealing their eyes with contact lensesand there would be contact lensesthere was no way for Theron to become Kelly without adjusting the shape of her eyelids. Whenever we applied everything but the eyelids, says Theron, it never, ever felt right. I looked like a young Glenn Close. It was bizarre.

In the end, Kazu Hiro, the Oscar-winning makeup designer behind Gary Oldmans transformation into Winston Churchill, crafted eight facial prosthetics that would completely transform Therons appearance. There was very little left to do after the fact. Some color correction on skin tone. A touch of digital softening around the edges of the prosthetics. You cant do that if you need to do it a lot, Theron notes. Its impossible, because the face becomes so soft that you can tell immediately. The quality of Kazus work was just so phenomenal.

When Charlize Theron looked in the mirror after Hiro had done his job, the face she saw staring back at her was Megyn Kellys.

It is a choking evening in Los Angeles. As wildfires in the hills blanket the city in smoke, 400 people are gathered inside a vintage movie house on Wilshire Blvd. to screen Bombshell. Many more cant even make it through the door. While the movie tells its fast-paced, incendiary narrative about the sexual harassment allegations levelled against the former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, its principal cast, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, are collected backstage ahead of their Q&A. Theres a buzz of anticipation in the air. In a small, Lynchian holding room behind the screen, fitted with a red velvet curtain and checkerboard flooring, Kidman flinches at the harshness of the halogen strip light in the ceiling. She has Robbie switch it off as she locates a smaller, warmer, desktop lamp. Thats better, she says. Now were at home.

Its a take-charge moment that is appropriately reflective of her role in Bombshell. In the Jay Roach film, based on a script by Charles Randolph, Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson, the Fox News anchor who ignited the touch-paper on a litany of sexual harassment allegations that would lead to the explosive ousting of Ailes from the Fox newsroom.

Carlson was not the first to allege wrongdoing by Ailesearlier, isolated stories had been swept awaybut her profile helped ensure that her breaking of ranks became the catalyst for a movement that would, in less than a month, send two men marching from the building.

As more than a dozen women joined the public chorus against Ailes, star anchor Bill OReilly defended his boss for being a target as a famous, powerful or wealthy person. Still more women accused OReilly of a range of inappropriate behavior, including sexual harassment. OReilly denies the allegations against him, though investigations by The New York Times uncovered a total of six settlements with his accusers.

Kidmans turn as Carlson is only one part of an ensemble film that is led by Therons dramatic transformation into Kelly, whose career at Fox News was ascending when Carlsons allegations broke. Kelly made her own allegation against Ailes less than two weeks later; Ailes limped on for two more days before resigning.

When he finally did, 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch issued a statement that made no mention of the allegations against him, and instead praised Ailes for his remarkable contribution to our company and our country. Ailes went on to advise Donald Trumps presidential campaignas well as Murdoch and 21st Century Foxbefore his death in May 2017. According to end cards on Bombshell, the remuneration paid to the women at the center of these accusations against Ailes and OReilly stands at $50m. The mens own settlement packages with Fox totaled $65m.

Bombshell also follows Margot Robbie, who plays Kayla, a fictional new hire at Fox News that catches Ailes eye. Her story is based on countless hours of research by Randolph and reflects an amalgam of several Ailes accusers. The movie, Robbie says, is a political thriller, but its not so much about politics. Its ultimately about people, coming together to take down a very powerful person who is abusing that power. Thats a very satisfying thing to watch.

Lithgow delivers a terrifying turn as Ailes, and the films cast is rounded out by Jennifer Morrison, Alice Eve, Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Connie Britton and many more recognizable names. We didnt have to convince a lot of people, notes Theron. The material and the subject really spoke to them. It was really easy; people wanted to do it. Ive never had that kind of good will. You felt like, Shit, lets figure this out.

When Charlize says, Babe, youve got to be in this; show up or Ill kill you, you go, OK, Im there, Kidman laughs.

I have read a Charles Randolph script before, says Robbie, who had a scene-stealing cameo in Adam McKays The Big Short, which Randolph wrote. When I got this, I knew it would be good. He and Jay research every aspect of the subject, but at the same time, they are still purely focused on human interaction and behavior. I started reading the script as an actor, knowing I was probably going to do it because it would be a fantastic role. But I finished the script wanting to do it just as a person. As a human being living right now, I had to do this, because it was important.

So much of what were doing now is about joining forces and working together, Kidman says. If we do that as women, were so much stronger. Standing there, talking to all these crazy-talented actresses, it was like, Lets mark the moment in history, because thats what this is.

The downfall of Ailes occurred more than a year before the explosive allegations in The Times and The New Yorker against Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, which kickstarted the Times Up and #MeToo movements. And though Theron hadnt necessarily been looking to tell stories about sexual harassment, it was ground she had walked before. In 2005, she starred in Niki Caros North Country, which tracked a sexual harassment lawsuit in a mining community in 1988. These issues have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, she says. But I was nave in thinking that struggle wasnt there anymore. I figured, after those landmark cases, that people in power were taking more responsibility. That there was a law behind it. It was legislated. I think that is the thing we still all have to reconcile with, because its very much there, and if anything, you could argue its the same, or worse.

Randolphs untitled draft (he had toyed with the title The End of the Leg Man) came to Theron through Annapurna, who were initially onboard to finance and release Bombshell. For all of us at Denver and Delilah, it was a no-brainer that we wanted to make the film, she says. But even the act of bringing Theron aboard to produce felt like something impossible a decade earlier, the cast agrees. The streaming services voracious appetite for content has brought forth more stories about women, and their success, they say, on streaming and in cinema, is more undeniable than ever. People cant hide behind misinformation, Theron insists. The facts are out there. We know that 2017 was a way more lucrative year for female stories than it was for male stories. Being a part of that time right now in telling stories, its fucking great.

All three of Bombshells principal cast now produce as well as act, helping to deliver award-winning film and television, like I, Tonya (Robbie) and Big Little Lies (Kidman). When I started, those were called vanity deals, Theron notes. It was a crazy concept. I get my name on a movie, I get the check, and I dont do anything? Yes, because youre an actor and you have no other abilities. Thats definitely changed now. People like Margot Robbie can step in and start actually producing, because a lot of that groundwork has been laid. When I was starting out, that wasnt possible.

How great is that? Kidman smiles. When Margot produced I, Tonya, she didnt know anything other than, Oh, I can do that. It wasnt even a part of the conversation when I was starting out. There was no possibility of it. So, to have the strength to come out of the gate like that You just go, Yes! Take the baton and run! Its so exciting, because thats what youre passing it on for. You go, And pass it on to the next! Create your destinies, take some power back, have some control, and by God, lets see what you can do.

Therons name, as well as the subject matter, were the magnets that attracted the ensemble, but there were still roadblocks to come on Bombshells path to the screen. Though it had come to Denver and Delilah as a project ready to shoot at Annapurna, the ground shook two months out from production. We were asked to bring in a financial partner to alleviate some of the budget for them, Theron recalls. She went to Aaron Gilbert and BRON Studios, who she says told her, Well come in. We really like this. And then, with two weeks until cameras rolled, Annapurna fell out completely. Aaron was willing to pick everything up within 24 hours, adds Theron.

By that point, Theron had committed to playing Kelly. Roach was aboard, and it was her conversations with him that tipped her over the edge of playing the part. That was the first moment where, because of what he was saying about how he saw the project, it excited me as an actor. I knew, for Jay I would go there. They had begun talking while Theron was developing the project and bringing him on as Bombshells director was kismet, Theron says. I felt safe with him. I felt like I got excited about making this movie.

When she made Tully with Jason Reitman, she had heard the complaints of some critics about a male director helming a film about a mothers bond with her night nanny. Everybody was like, Its quintessentially a womans story, why would you make it with a guy? she recalls. Its hard to explain to people how Jason feels about that topic. To me, it proves something that I want the world not to forget: men are just as invested in wanting a safe world for us. We need to get rid of the few bad apples, but in general, I feel like men dont want this for their daughters, or for their wives. Theres an empathy there.

Shes committed, she says, to providing more opportunities to female directors. But as a producer, sometimes you have to trust that little voice inside, and something inside me said that Jay was the person to make this film with. I knew that we would, behind the camera, have more female producers, and our head of departments would be more female. The overall balance was definitely more female than it was male.

Randolphs script simply resonated when she read it. To me, as a woman, that is already really touching, because I want to believe men are interested in this stuff, just as much as we are. This concept that only women would want to tell these stories is really disproved by Charles taking this on, which wasnt an easy task. The amount of research that he had to put into this was phenomenal. I really believe that you cant isolate this in trying to find the answers; in trying to actually create the change that we all need and want. So, it started with Charles, which I had no power over, and Im just grateful that he had the balls to do it. No pun intended.

I think its an important film for men, notes Robbie. This is not a female movie; its for men and women. The most important thing, perhaps, is that men for a moment might be in that office with Kayla and might understand a slice of what it feels like to be sexually harassed at work, if they havent experienced it in their own lives.

That the first major motion picture dealing with the fallout from high-profile cases of sexual harassment in the media would come to tell the story of the women at Fox News is also significant. The cast is aware that people will bring to the theater their own baggagein many cases, those ideological disagreements with the stances Kelly, Carlson and others have taken in their careers in conservative media. And theyre aware of the journey the film has to travel for that baggage to be divorced from what the women say happened to them when they worked in the Fox newsroom. If it doesnt do that, then whats the point of the film? Kidman asks, rhetorically. Because this really is a bipartisan issue. It has to be. Hopefully the movie makes that clear.

This crime doesnt discriminate, insists Robbie. There are very powerful people abusing that power on every side.

Bombshells uncanny valley-skirting illusionthe actor playing Bill OReilly is so convincing it feels as though it might be OReilly himself (it isnt)is made ever more convincing when its cast is cut against real footage from the Fox News archive. This includes Megyn Kellys run-in with Donald Trump at a Republican primary debate, after which the future President told CNN, There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. Theres footage, too, of misogynist comments made by Gretchen Carlsons fellow Fox & Friends anchors, with Kidman spliced effortlessly onto the sofa. A supercut on YouTube of the original footage captures the regularity of such comments when Carlson served on the show.

Theron hasnt met Kellyout of choice, though I am assuming that she would even want to speak to me, Theron laughsand neither has Kidman met Carlson. In the latter case, thats because Carlson signed a $20m settlement agreement with Fox News, which came with a non-disclosure agreement barring her from speaking about her time at the channel. These agreements are common when accusations of workplace malfeasance are mediateda condition of many employment contractsand the financial payments that come with them are often the subject of disparaging comments against accusers. But they also serve to silence victims from sharing their experiences publicly. At the start of this month, Carlson told AP she wanted to be released from her gag order. It would be nice to be able to tell my full story, she said.

Research for the film involved speaking to people who were at Fox News as the allegations were breaking. I felt like I had access to a lot of sourcesthat we cant talk aboutwhich told me we were on the right path, Theron says. We realized we had a lot of stuff wrong initially, based on the editorial pieces that were written as more information was coming in. It was important because the narrative changed. Things became a lot clearer to us. There was a lot out there that, I think, people wanted the narrative to be. And you would believe it, until you heard women say, Thats not who did it; this is what happened

It did mean those conversations included Ailes victims. Roach mentioned the breaking of NDAs in an earlier Q&A, Theron says, and there was panic. Everybody got this email, like, Dont do that, its dangerous ground. Then, two weeks later, the NBC NDA story was breaking, and everybody, including Megyn Kelly, was saying, Were going to have to remove these gag orders on women if we want to get to the bottom of these stories. Gretchen, she keeps fighting. It is so in the zeitgeist right now, and its what people are talking about.

These things happen in waves in our culture, Kidman notes. The waves rise, and you start getting stories and films made on the subject. I worked for almost two decades for UN Women, which was all about eradicating violence against women. When we started, you would talk and youd only sort of be heard; not really. But suddenly, theres this tide and people are willing to listen and to change.

It was part of Roger Ailes toolkit to isolate women, says Robbie. To pit them against each other. I think that, ultimately, what took him down was the women unifying.

When Kelly finally came forward, the die was cast. Bombshell deals with the journey it took to get her there. She was in negotiation for a lot of money, and she was a superstar there, Theron reflects. On top of that, there was a moral dilemma she had, because she liked [Ailes]. There wasnt a part of her that felt like she could not be truthful about that. That makes for a very conflicting story, and one that people are not necessarily ready to hear. We want to believe that theyre villains, and the fact that she was de-villainizing him in the way she talked about him, I think, was so important to getting to the real crux of what this is all about. Because until we fully understand it, we wont be able to resolve it.

For Kidman, tapping into why Carlson took her first steps to right this wrong required understanding her life. She started with footage of her on-air appearances, and there was a lot of it. But equally, shes got to have had her shield up, Kidman says. And when you try to break it down behind that shield, what is this persona that says, Bring it on, Im going to fight them all?

Her answer was to find a common ground with Carlson through family. Carlson said, of watching her kids as their mother was being dragged in the press for the allegations she had made, They got it. Both my son and my daughter have become more courageous in their lives, and the impact that me coming forward has [had] on them has probably been the most important thing Ive done in my life so far.

You cant portray a woman who has done this as a mother if the children arent there, Kidman says. She would have been so frightened for their future, for how this would have affected them. You cant define this woman without that.

There was a bittersweet tinge to Carlsons story that Kidman also needed to show. As she stacks her dishwasher and checks her phone, the question for Carlson becomes, What now? Says Kidman, of how she imagined the immediate aftermath for Gretchen Carlson: Theres not really much going on, and the future isnt bright. Thats frightening, and its sad and real. But she survived. Indeed, Carlsons activism in support of victims of sexual harassment, regardless of any other views she may hold, has never ceased, and she has published books and documentaries in support of victims. She became the chairwoman of the Miss America pageantshe herself is a former winnerand spearheaded a contentious abolition of the pageants swimsuit competition.

Kidman thought of her own kids as she read the scene in which Robbies Kayla is called into Ailes office. Kayla is excited, with lofty ambitions toward becoming an on-screen anchor, only to have Ailes demand her loyalty through euphemistic, and increasingly more direct, sexual advances. You go, I dont ever want this to happen to my daughter, Kidman says. I dont want it to happen to my wife, to my sister, to me. I dont want this to happen. That response definitely comes through Kaylas character.

It is one of the movies most uncompromising, uncomfortable scenes, as the realization slowly dawns on Kayla that she is being asked to give something she should never have to sacrifice. As the rest of the film maintains a heady pace, and at times a surprisingly upbeat tone, this sequence descends like an icy silence, stopping the audience dead in its tracks.

In some cases, sexual harassment happens in a gray area, notes Robbie. Indeed, the movie details Carlsons struggle, with her legal team, to class much of the inappropriate behavior she had witnessed as evidence of legally challengeable sexual harassment. Someone may not immediately feel like Kayla in that situation. He didnt touch me. What do I call this thing that just happened to me? Someone as smart as Roger Ailes could manipulate the position of power to force a victim to start rationalizing, to start explaining, to start excusing. Thats, I think, the reason it goes on as long as it does in some cases.

Robbie says that the character, a conservative Christian who believes deeply in the values espoused by the network, comes from Randolphs own upbringing. His family watched Fox News religiously, and the lines about them having the logo burned into their TV screens come from that, she says. He very much understood Kayla, and I could talk to him about her a lot. I also had to wrap my head around this young, millennial, but extremely conservative point of view. Twitter was a great source for that, because there are a number of young, Christian conservative women who are very vocal on social media. It was fascinating, and it was frightening.

As with Theron, the issue of sexual harassment has never been far away for Robbie, she says. This story takes place at Fox News, but its a backdrop for something that happens in so many places, in so many industries, all over the world. Ive had these conversations all my life, about things like this happening to women, and I know Ive had those conversations even more in the past two years since the #MeToo movement started. So, theres a lot of research that has gone into the film, but also, I guess, interactions in my life, where I can absolutely understand.

She hopes the movie will continue a conversation that gets louder by the day. That conversation, she says, has helped us start defining, and pointing to situations and saying, That was not OK. Something like this is a powerful thing.

And just being believed, adds Kidman. Not being made to question, Was this my fault? No, theres protocol, and the protocol is, dont abuse your position of power, youre not allowed to touch someone physically, or sabotage them because they wouldnt do something that you wanted sexually or emotionally. Those things are not OK.

Everybody has a different impression of the world Bombshell leaves to pick up the pieces at the end of its story. Carlsons settlement agreement impelled 21st Century Fox to issue a statement of apology, expressing regret for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve. Yet, as Ailes and OReillys settlements outpaced that of their accusers by $15m, Fox News itself continues make profits in the billions annually. How impactful can any of these settlement figures have been on making real, systemic change when they would barely dent a balance sheet?

The question mark was important for Theron, who says they were many arguments about how to wrap up the movies narrative. People are brave enough to tell these stories if they feel, at the end, victorious; that there has been a moment of victory, she says. But its not that easy with this story. I really fought very hardalong with Jay and Charlesto have an ending that felt authentic to how things are today. Yes, what these women did was heroic. But at the same time, they didnt change everything overnight. That systemic problem is there and its going to take years for us to undo that power struggle. But that doesnt mean its impossible.

Another end card on the movie notes that the women that accused Ailes were among the first to bring down a such a powerful public figure, but they have not been the lasta statement that seems especially self-reflective for a movie industry that has dealt with its own rotting bushel of bad apples. Kidman sees the optimism of that card, just as she sees the optimism of Carlsons response to her legal team when they tell her, You will be muzzled, Gretchen. She replies: Maybe.

Maybe shell be muzzled, repeats Kidman. Nothings changed, but at the same time things are changing. Women arent as muzzled as they once were.

A responsible company, says Theron, would want to be transparent. Any therapist will tell you silence is the most dangerous thing. Here we are, legally implementing it on women. Im so impressed by women coming forward who are openly breaking their NDAs and saying, Come after me, I have nothing. One woman was literally like, I dont even have a TV. This is how much Ive lost. Its heartbreaking to even fathom that women have to get pushed that far.

But, adds Robbie, Women always find a way. It may take a while, but we find a way.

Theres hope in that, Kidman says. The fires are still being fought.

Continued here:

Why Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman & Margot Robbie Fought For Bombshell As The Women Of Fox News Battle NDAs - Deadline

The Morning Show boss on how real-life politics will influence Season 2 – The News International

Apple TV Plus just gave official renewals to four of the shows that launched with the new streaming service last week, but the second season of The Morning Show has already been well underway for quite some time: The Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-starrer was a two-season order right out of the gate. Now, it looks like Season 2 could premiere sometime around the 2020 election but does that mean real-life politics will impact the new season?

We have the shape of it. Weve broken the first three episodes, showrunner Kerry Ehrin told Variety about the second season on the red carpet at the New York City premiere, earlier this fall. Were writing the show now; well film it this summer; and well be on next November. (Sources close to the show, however, tell Variety that no premiere date for Season 2 has been set at this time.)

Since The Morning Show features a titular morning news show within-the-show, if the second season does in fact launch during the same month as the next presidential election, it would seem like a ripe time for political storylines. However, Ehrin noted that its actually impossible to bring current political events into the show, given the timeline of writing, shooting, editing the season before it gets to streaming.

You cant do current politics, she explained, so my idea is that if you deal with politics, you deal with political themes. I call it current adjacent, where youre not historically aging yourself by dealing with a specific thing, but you can take the zeitgeist of what is happening in the world and do something with those themes.

Dont count on any Trump-like character showing up on screen, though. Asked specifically if President Trump will have a tangential influence on the show, Ehrin responded, Only in the sense that the president has an influence on all of us. Writers are absorbers of reality and interpreters, so in that sense. But its not like hes a part of the storytelling at all.

The first season of The Morning Show is heavily influenced by the #MeToo movement that has swept the entertainment and news businesses over the past two years. In real life, powerhouse figures such as Charlie Rose and Les Moonves from CBS and Matt Lauer from NBC were ousted after allegations of sexual misconduct, but although Steve Carells character Mitch is a beloved morning news anchor fired amidst similar allegations who even has a privacy button under his desk in the show the team behind the show says its story is not directly ripped from the headlines.

I dont write to the news. Its not that kind of a show, Ehrin reiterated.

In fact, Ehrin said she never went back to tweak the scripts when new stories unfolded off-screen in the news in the first season. And she has no plans to do that in the second, as the writers are already hard at work on the second season and have their storylines intact.

When Ehrin was brought the premise of the show, all she knew was that Aniston and Witherspoon were attached, and that the series would be influenced by journalist Brian Stelters 2013 book Top Of The Morning, which explores the behind-the-scenes dynamics of morning news shows.

News is a little bit of a double edged sword right now, Ehrin said. I think that it can mean bad things to people and good things to people, and I hope that this will be a new vision of the real humanity of it, as opposed to the politics of it, so Im hoping it will educate, but also uplift a little bit.

Ehrin also hopes that through that education, shes showing multi-dimensional female characters to her female viewers. My feeling, which I tried to put into it, is that women, especially in business who are ambitious, are very complex. Its not like youre just this one thing, she said. I really want female viewers to be able to spend time with complicated, grounded people that they relate to and see themselves in. Courtesy Variety

Originally posted here:

The Morning Show boss on how real-life politics will influence Season 2 - The News International

The 50 Best American Breweries of the 2010s – Paste Magazine

What does it mean, in the beer world, to be called one of the best breweries of the decade? The 2010s have been a period of such rapid change; of such tumultuous growth and then turmoil, that the beginning of the decade hardly seems connected at all in some respects to where we are today. When the 2010s began, craft gose in the U.S. wasnt a thing. Sour styles in general were still on the niche side of the equation. IPA implied a bone dry, massively bitter style, a far cry from todays saccharine juice bombs. And your average brewery was still aspiring, more or less, to grow as fast as possible into a regional powerhouse.

Suffice to say, things have changed, and changed quite a bit. So how, then, can we choose the breweries that best represented the spirit of the decade? How can we suss out those ones that made major contributions to the field, rolled with the punches, innovated and improved the scene around them? Because its those breweries who truly deserve the title most.

To this end, Paste writers and editors sat down to discuss various nominees for inclusion, and settled on the basic criteria below as the driving force behind our selections:

How strong is the brewerys beer game today, and how strong has it been throughout the decade? To truly be an assessment of the best breweries of the entire decade, we have to attempt to weight contribution made at the beginning of the 2010s the same as we would contributions made toward the end of the decade.

How consistent was the brewery during the decade?

In what areas did the brewery innovate during the decade? What kind of role did they place in the emergence of new styles, or the evolution of old ones?

How important was the brewery to its local beer community, or to the larger craft beer sphere? What X factors might come into play with this particular brewery that increases or decreases our esteem for them?

Ultimately, we decided that in order to qualify for this list, a brewery had to (in almost every case) have been around for at least half the decade, in order to truly make its impact. And if a brewery was founded in 2015, it had to make that much more impact in a shorter period, in order to truly distinguish itself.

And so, with that in mind, allow us to present Pastes 50 best breweries of the 2010s, a direct follow-up to a piece we first published 10 years ago, which ranked the best breweries of 2000-2009. But first: a whole bunch of honorable mentions. Obviously, there are even more breweries we wish we could include, and Im certain there are likely some we forgot, but a tip of the cap to all of the breweries below.

Honorable mentions: American Solera, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co., Avery Brewing Co., Bale Breaker Brewing Co., Bissell Brothers Brewing Co., Boneyard Beer Co., Boulevard Brewing Co., Brew Gentlemen, Brooklyn Brewery, Casey Brewing and Blending, Epic Brewing Co., Fieldwork Brewing Co., Hi-Wire Brewing, Jackie Os Pub & Brewery, Lawsons Finest Liquids, The Lost Abbey, Metropolitan Brewing, Monkish Brewing Co., New Belgium Brewing Co., New Glarus Brewing Co., Night Shift Brewing, Odell Brewing Co., Parish Brewing Co., Prison City Pub & Brewrey, Proof Brewing Co., Sixpoint Brewery, Stone Brewing Co., Surly Brewing Co., Threes Brewing, Upslope Brewing Co., The Veil Brewing Co., Victory Brewing Co.

50. Ballast Point Brewing Co. (Constellation Brands) Original location: San Diego, CA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Sculpin IPA, Grunion Pale Ale, Victory at Sea

Did any American craft brewery have more of a violently up-and-down decade than Ballast Point? They entered the decade as one of San Diegos most beloved IPA producers, with a flagship in the form of Sculpin IPA that was one of the industrys most purely sought-after examples of the style, and an array of other well-regarded beers such as the Victory at Sea imperial porter. The brewerys fame then exponentially increased after the first release of Grapefruit Sculpin in 2014, kicking off the industrys brief obsession with fruited IPAs, some of the characteristics of which eventually merged into the profiles of modern hazy/juicy IPAs. Its easy to look back right now and scoff at this particular moment in craft beer industry history, but Grapefruit Sculpin was ultimately a very important, catalyzing event that occurred at the same time as earlier examples of NE-IPA were beginning to emerge. The beer might not have ultimately retained its staying power in many craft circles, but the thought process that produced it was arguably ahead of its time, presaging many aspects of current IPA, for better or worse. We will freely admit it: When we tried Grapefruit Sculpin for the first time in 2014, we were in love as much as anyone.

Of course, it wasnt all sunshine. The companys 2015 sale to Constellation Brands, for the gaudy total of $1 billion, seems all but assured to go down in history as the single most overvalued acquisition of the craft beer boom erathe ultimate example of investment into the field by a company that seemed certain that growth wasnt about to stall anytime soon. Only four years later, it seems impossible to think that signs of the segments slowdown wouldnt have been more apparent at the time, but you know what they say about the clarity of hindsight. In the years that have followed, multiple Ballast Point taproom locations have closed and the company has contracted, even as it introduced a ceaseless wave of new Sculpin variants, to less and less effect. These are no doubt hard times for Ballast Point, but at the same time, it would be wrong to not recognize the company as among the best breweries of the decade, considering the way its influence is still being felt.

49. Rhinegeist Brewery Original location: Cincinnati, OH On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Cheetah Lager, Dad Holiday Ale, Calf

It has become very difficultalmost impossible, reallyto turn breweries founded in the 2010s into the sort of regional/national powerhouses that were built much more easily in the generations that came before. The crowded marketplace, slowing growth rate and successful push to instill preference for small and local in many consumers has limited the possibilities for breweries to expand past a certain size, which made the seemingly unstoppable trajectory of Cincinnatis Rhinegeist that much more impressive. Here is a brewery that really captured the attention of average Midwestern craft beer drinkers in the 2010s, and they rode that wave all the way from a 2013 opening, well past the 100,000 barrel mark.

At its core, Rhinegeist has a lot of things going for it. They have a fabulous brewery in a gorgeous, expansive setting in one of Cincys most popular neighborhoods, complete with a lovely roof deck. They have a solid stable of core beers (their lager Cheetah was just outside the top 10 of our last blind tasting), less on the flashy side and more of the dependable, people-pleasing variety. And they have an almost unprecedented level of local support, which only the likes of Wisconsins New Glarus Brewing Co. can really match. By the time we do this post again in another 10 years, they could well be one of the biggest craft breweries in the country.

48. Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project Original location: Denver, CO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Von Pilsner, Vielle, Nightmare on Brett

Crooked Stave is one of those breweries that might not get a lot of play in the modern hype cycle, when wild ales of all description can be found on seemingly every street corner, but considering these guys first started selling beer in 2010, they really were quite far ahead of most of their competitionfounded the same year as contemporaries Jester King, in fact. The complications of contract brewing arguably slowed down the brewery from reaching the size that it might have, but it would be a mistake to overlook the lasting effect their saisons and sours had on Colorados Front Range beer scene, a decade later.

If anything, the Crooked Stave lineup might be better balanced today than ever, with a solid array of IPAs, an underrated pilsner (top 10, the last time we blind tasted pilsners ), and dependable workhorses like the Surette saison, fruited petite sours or the decadently barrel-aged Nightmare on Brett, which has come in a few delicious variations over the years. Its a brewery whose best beerslike the wonderfully balanced Vielle saisonsometimes escape conversation, but we havent forgotten them.

47. Deschutes Brewery Original location: Bend, OR On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Obsidian Stout, The Dissident

Hanging onto a top 10 spot within the Brewers Association production rankings for craft breweries is Deschutes, another major regional player whose 2010s experience mirrors what was experienced by so many of their peersseemingly boundless growth, followed by a pullback and subsequent struggles. For Deschutes, that resulted in job cuts and the postponement of construction of an East Coast brewing facility in 2019, but the brewery seems confident that theres light at the end of this particular tunnel.

In terms of a portfolio, there are certainly few national breweries who have had such a well-rounded slate of beers for such a long time as Deschutes. Several are among the consistent answers youd receive when looking for stylistic benchmarks, whether its Black Butte as an archetypal robust porter, or Mirror Ponda beer we wrote an essay of admiration about last year, in factas a classic American pale ale. Their IPA game has gone through more evolution during this period, understandably, with a varying degree of success, but who doesnt appreciate a pint of Fresh Squeezed IPA? So too are many of the brewerys yearly releases still beloved, whether its Jubelale (one of the only essential American Christmas ales) or The Abyss, one of the earliest buzz-worthy imperial stouts. In fact, the company even released a particularly eye-catching whiskey version of Black Butte in 2019, opening up an exciting new avenue of exploration.

46. SweetWater Brewing Co. Original location: Atlanta, GA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: SweetWater IPA, 420 Pale Ale, The Pit and the Pendulum

The Southeasts largest craft brewery seems to have weathered the industrys slowdown better than most, rolling with the punches even as it has continuously modernized in the face of changing consumer tastes. Although there have been some sad losses along the way (we still miss Exodus Porter as a year-rounder), SweetWaters growth into a regional powerhouse never undermined the quality of core offerings like SweetWater IPA and 420. And with their placement into all Delta flights nationwide, the brewery was exposed to a bigger audience than ever.

On the innovation side, SweetWater constructed its sour and wood-focused Woodlands facility this decade, transforming a brewery primarily known for pale ale and IPA into one equally well-liked for brettanomyces beers and a variety of increasingly ambitious wild ales. It was an evolution of the brands most basic ethos that seemed to happen in an organic, unforced way, and has produced some excellent beers, such as the peachy Pit and the Pendulum. So too has SweetWater more recently managed to tap into the growing national fervor for cannabis with its very successful series of 420 Strain beers, led by G13 IPA, which have explored the conjunction between dank flavors and IPA in a way much more literal than what can be done with hops alone. All of these factors have helped keep SweetWater more relevant in national beer geek conversations than many of their similarly sized competitors.

45. Great Notion Brewing Co. Original location: Portland, OR On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Ripe, Space Invader, Double Stack

In order to truly be one of the best and most relevant breweries of the decade, you really need to have existed for at least the majority of the decade but of course, theres always an exception to the rule. In creating this list, we originally planned to require that the breweries on it exist by at least 2015, but upon realizing that would exclude Great Notion (they opened in 2016) we reconsidered. After all, when you win the largest blind tasting weve ever conducted, as Great Notion did when Ripe reigned #1 out of 324 IPAs, youve earned some of the most elite esteem were able to convey. After all, is there any plaudit more genuinely impressive than finishing #1 when you completely remove preconceptions and hype from the equation?

All the more important, because Great Notion most certainly possesses a lot of hype status within its Portland, OR beer community, which has been rocked by a turbulent wave of closures of older breweries in 2019just look at this piece from Jeff Alworth, which makes the devastation clear. Its not hard to see some of the similaritiesthe breweries to close have been of the older variety, making safer beer styles than the likes of Great Notion, which focuses with particular intensity on hazy IPA, fruited and big stouts, with the occasional lager for balance. This makes them a very modern brewery indeed, which begs the obvious question of whether changing tastes could one day lead to a reversal of fortunes. At the end of the day, though, even though they havent been around long, Great Notion is executing several of these modern stylesand especially hazy IPAas well as any other brewery in the world today. We would like to assume that quality will be applicable toward whatever style happens to be hot by the time 2030 rolls around.

44. Funky Buddha Brewery (Constellation Brands) Original location: Oakland Park, FL On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Maple Bacon Coffee Porter, Last Snow, Floridian Hefeweizen

When we call 2010 a decade in which beer gimmicks tended to run amok, we usually dont mean it as a compliment. Funky Buddha, however, is one of the few breweries that has ever managed to take a gimmick-heavy portfolio and make something transcendent from it. For years, weve been referring to these guys as the masters of flavored beer, and its honestly been the brewerys biggest contribution over the last decade to the overall scene. Theyre not without the inevitable misfires, but no brewery does kooky flavor concepts more deftly than these guys.

Take, for instance, the now classic Maple Bacon Coffee Porter (or the barrel-aged version, Morning Wood), a concept that could go so wrong in the hands of so many other breweries, but which Funky Buddha handles with immaculate balance. Is it smoky? A touch. Roasty? Just enough. Rich? Certainly, without being cloying. Its the best case example for what maple bacon coffee porter could reasonably be expected to be, and the fact that they regularly pull off these kinds of combinations is remarkable. Not to be lost, of course, is a solid complement of core beers, especially the year-round hefeweizen Floridian, which finished at #5 in one of our wheat beer blind tastings. But when we think of Funky Buddha, we think of fearless experimentation and improbable successes, as with this years cocktail-inspired Manhattan Double Rye Ale. You can always count on them to push the envelope.

43. Tired Hands Brewing Co. Original location: Ardmore, PA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: HopHands, SaisonHands, Various milkshakes

Milkshake IPA is a beer style were unlikely to ever list among our favorites, but if the entire beer industry handled the style with the skill and creativity of the progenitors at Tired Hands, thats a sentiment wed probably reconsider. Although the Pennsylvania stalwarts have brewed a wide variety of styles (including some lovely saisons) right from the start, its difficult to separate them from their most famous creation, and if theres a beer style that sums up the zeitgeist of the 2010s more than milkshake IPA, we havent seen it. The thought to use lactose in a style where it was practically a foreign substance was a clever one, allowing the Tired Hands brewers to boost the creamy texture and subtle sweetness of their IPAs in a way that worked beautifully with an array of fresh fruit purees. In comparison with the imitation that followed from so many other breweries, Tired Hands milkshake IPAs always seem to strike the ideal balance between fruity vivaciousness and at least a modicum of balance, avoiding the tooth-stripping sweetness that bogged down so many others in our increasingly saccharine beer world. It will never be a style for everyone, but Tired Hands has always illustrated what something like milkshake IPA looks like at its best. Sadly, theyre a brewery weve had a chance to sample at Paste far less than some of the others on this list, but hopefully that will one day change.

42. Wicked Weed (AB-InBev) Original location: Asheville, NC On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Golden Angel, Pernicious IPA, Milk & Cookies

We have never been shy at Paste about expressing our disdain for Anheuser-Busch InBev, or trying to codify why formerly craft breweries selling out to the worlds biggest beer conglomerate is a bad thing for the rest of the industry. At the same time, we also believe in recognizing beer quality in as objective a way as possibleits why we conduct blind tastings, where brands owned by AB-InBev have routinely placed near the very top in certain styles. In short, we believe in giving credit where credit it due, and it would be a lie to argue that Wicked Weed belongs outside of the best breweries of the 2010s. Their contributions to American wild ales alone put them in some pretty exclusive company, regardless of current ownership.

Since its genesis in 2012, Wicked Weed has done a remarkable job of evangelizing the novel flavor avenues that the average consumer can explore via wild and sour ales. They may be the brewery that had the single highest degree of influence in converting wide swaths of non-sour drinkers into people with a passion for wild ales in the last 8 years or so, whether it was done via more approachable fruited sours like Medora or the over-the-top decadence of the entire Angel series. At the same time, they also took a novel approach to more desserty sours in the form of beers like Silencio, and crafted one of the better flagship IPAs in the game with Pernicious. Suffice to say, it wasnt a GABF medal winner for nothing. Although Wicked Weeds esteem in its native Asheville is understandably lower these days than it once was, when viewing the decade as a whole, they loom large as one of the most important players. Certainly, of all the AB-InBev acquisitions, this was the one that stung the most.

41. Founders Brewing Co. (Mahou San Miguel) Original location: Grand Rapids, MI On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Founders Breakfast Stout, Porter, Mosaic Promise

The relationship between beer geeks and Founders has become more complicated in the last few years, especially in the light of the (now settled) racial discrimination lawsuit brought against the company by a former employee. That unpleasant ordeal arguably knocks them down a little bit on this sort of list, but we also dont want to overlook the contributions made by Founders to the industry in terms of their beer. Few breweries had such a hand in shaping multiple styles, as they exist today.

Not to gloss over the brewerys all-time classics (Founders Porter, Breakfast Stout), but barrel-aged beers were one of the arenas in which Founders helped change the game. Kentucky Breakfast Stout is, along with Goose Islands Bourbon County Brand Stout, one of the two most important barrel-aged beers of all time, and was instrumental in starting the American barrel-aging renaissance. In the last few years, KBS production has ramped up, ending the artificial scarcity once created by its limited release. Predictably, beer geeks have responded by claiming that the product is now lesser than it was, but in our eyes its the rest of the industry that has continued to evolve, rather than KBS itself being somehow diminished.

Also not to be overlooked: All Day IPA, a beer that both presaged the bloom of session IPA and low-calorie IPA all at once, as well as providing a template for how craft breweries could use economies of scale to sell in larger packaging, such as 15-packs of cans.

40. Jacks Abby Original location: Framingham, MA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: House Lager, Post Shift Pilsner, Copper Legend

Sure, in our current craft beer scene, the lager is life and crispy boi crowds have steadily pushed for the establishment of a thriving undercurrent of lager, helles and pilsner in the majority of brewery lineups, but this was by no means the truth at the beginning of the decade, when breweries like Jacks Abby (and Chicagos Metropolitan) were just getting started. These guys faced a completely different beer market, so often hungry for bitter-as-hell IPA and bruising imperial stouts, and the thought of trying to market any style of lager frightened away the vast majority of craft brewers at the time. Many were the instances when I begged for pilsner from _____ brewery, only to be told that craft breweries cant make lager profitable, thanks to the longer turnaround on tank time. The likes of Jacks Abby? They showed exactly what was possible within the humble world of lager.

And truly, Jacks Abby did it with a passion and verve that was infectious. They never allowed the traditional concepts of lager styles to hold them back from making whatever kind of beers they wanted to make. You still want American hops? Theyve got an IPL to suit that desire. Prefer imperial stout? Theyll come up with a big, black, bruising lager that will make you question what you thought you knew about yeast. Whether creating perfect versions of classic styles like rauchbier or maibock within their ongoing kellerbier series, or venturing off the beaten path with cranberry Berliner lager or the like, Jacks Abby has never been short of fearless. Their tireless larger advocacy has helped increase the diversity of the average brewery lineup, and theres few accomplishments better than that.

39. Westbrook Brewing Co. Original location: Mt. Pleasant, SC On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Westbrook Gose, One Claw, Mexican Cake

Truly, in the craft beer world, it can pay to get in on a trend early and become one of the most visible progenitors for an emerging style. Its always a gamble, of coursean investment of time and resources into an emerging style that just as likely as not will end up going nowhere. But in certain instances, it turns out like it did for Westbrook and gose.

Gose, of course, had been around in Germany for centuries before a South Carolinabrewery helped popularize it in the U.S., but combined with the influx of kettle sours that arrived in the middle of this decade, gose perfectly matched the climate of the moment. And indeed, Westbrooks gose ultimately went a long way in setting the mold as to what made American goses different from their Continental forebearsthey were more pronouncedly tart, with a burst of lemon juice-like acidity, a whiff of coriander and a healthy degree of salinity. As in so many other American styles that came before, we took a European beer style and upped its intensity and assertiveness. Truly, when it comes to craft beer, this is the American way. But to circle back: Westbrook Gose was a smash, and for many it was the first beer labeled gose they ever sampled; impressive for a style that is now completely ubiquitous only a handful of years later.

There is more to Westbrook as well, of course. Theyre a well-balanced brewery, trading in hops (all of the excellent Claw variants), lagers (try the schwarzbier, if you can) and sought-after stouts (Mexican Cake, another major trendsetter) in equal measure. Certainly, theyve done their part in promoting South Carolina/Charlestons brewery community.

38. Bells Brewery Original location: Kalamazoo, MI On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: Two Hearted Ale, Black Note, Arabicadabra

Bells feels like the sort of brewery where sheer consistency is both an asset and a criticism lobbed against them by a certain segment of the beer geek blogosphere. To be certain: Bells has been a little bit less adventurous and out there over the years compared to local Michigan competitors such as Founders, but they also had the benefit of lots of great recipes that quite frankly needed little tweaking to begin with. Is there a more generally beloved IPA in the U.S. than Two Hearted, even in 2019? Even in an era when drinkers are constantly chasing sweet, juicy, hazy sugar bombs, the dry, floral and lightly citrusy Two Hearted retains an absolutely rabid fanbase, and deservedly so. Cracking open a Two Hearted after not having one for a long time is one of the Midwests great beer pleasures.

At the same time, its not as if Bells didnt find time to innovate this decade. They did well when it came to themed releases, such as their much-loved series of planet beers themed after the composed works of Gustav Holst, or their more recent series inspired by the poems of Walt Whitman. And they even managed to keep growing, despite the slowdown of the market and the difficulties inherent in selling older beer styles such as amber ale, once the brewerys flagship. All in all, Bells just feels like one of those breweries that is built to last forever.

37. Dogfish Head (Boston Beer Co.) Original location: Milton, DE On 2009 list?: Yes Our favorite beers: 90 Minute IPA, World Wide Stout, Raison DExtra

Dogfish Head might very well be the opposite of how we described Bells above. Where a brewery like Bells could be said to have stayed the course and maintained its excellence in this decade, Dogfish Headwas constantly evolving and changing. They proved particularly adept in the 2010s in identifying emerging trends and pouncing on them, while exploring new avenues for the company at the same time. As ever, they know their way around an ingredient gimmick or a marketing gimmick, doing it better than almost anyone else in the business.

As the decade began, Dogfish Headwas still the company built around 60 Minute IPA and venerable brands like Indian Brown Ale. As time went on, though, Dogfish Head ran up against many of the same challenges as other major, regional breweries, but consistently displayed more ingenuity than most in evolving with the times. In particular, the 2016 development of session sour SeaQuench Ale put a shot of vitality into the companys lineup and quickly became its de facto secondary flagship. It also clearly put thoughts of health and wellness into the brewerys braintrust, and has powered its reinvention into what Sam Calagione now refers to as the number-one active, lifestyle-oriented craft beer brand, on the back of low-calories IPAs like Slightly Mighty and SuperEIGHT, a beer based around the concept of superfoods. And if those beers arent your cup of tea? We can happily report that the likes of 90 Minute IPA are as good as ever, and arguably even more relevant in an IPA market that has swung so far in the direction of hazy.

36. Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Original location: Capitola, CA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Family Whistle, Bright Sea Blonde, Loves Armor

Some breweries focus on making approachable beer. Others focus on challenging or intense beer. Sante Adairius, on the other hand, seems to focus on beautiful beer. As they put it in their own words, we focus our attention on producing well-constructed beers with an eye toward simplicity and character. Theres an earnestness in that phrasing that really sums up Sante Adairius as a brewerythey are absolutely world class in their Belgian beers and farmhouse ales, but theyre not the kind of brewery that would ever revel in the praise directed their way. Their beers are like immaculate, but non-flashy, works of art, as exemplified by the clarity and precision in something like Sante Adairius Bright Sea Blonde. When I first tasted it in 2017, I was immediately taken aback by how perfectly balanced it was, for something so seemingly simple as Belgian-style blonde ale. When talking about this brewery, one quickly comes to realize that youre almost always being under-sold.

A yearly staple of the Firestone WalkerInvitational, a love for Sante Adairius almost feels like something of a beer geek secret handshake among those who are passionate about saisons and wild ales. Many are the conversations Ive had with other beer writers about Sante Adairius, particularly at that California festival, and never are they held in anything but the highest esteem.

35. WeldWerks Brewing Co. Original location: Greeley, CO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Hefeweizen, Juicy Bits, Medianoche

WeldWerks is the rare occasion when I have actually felt like Ive followed the rise of a hyped brewery from almost the very beginningnot because Ive ever physically set foot in the Greeley, CO taproom (I havent), but because I first sampled their beer at GABF less than a year after the brewerys opening, and lets just say the lines were a lot shorter back then. But from the very beginning, I walked away from the WeldWerks booth feeling like this was an uncommonly delicious brewery, whether they were dealing with humble styles (a killer, medal-winning hefeweizen) or completely over-the-top stouts.

The rest is essentially historyas the hazy IPA revolution arrived in the back half of the decade, WeldWerks was one of the first major players in Colorado to attract critical acclaim for their hop-forward lineup, especially the flagship Juicy Bits, which is every bit as juicy as the name would suggest. That attention likewise led to even more hype for the brewerys barrel-aged stout releases, especially those in the Medianoche line, which we appreciate for their focus on barrel-derived flavors over more ostentatious pastry stout elements. Today, one might criticize the brewery for prioritizing hazy IPA and imperial stouts a bit too strongly, but when theyre taking home the #1 spot in Pastes milkshake IPA blind tasting, you can hardly blame them too much. When youre really, really good at something, you earn a certain degree of leeway. WeldWerks is still one of the younger breweries on this list, but theyve absolutely earned their acclaim as one of Colorados top brewers.

34. Revolution Brewing Co. Original location: Chicago, IL On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Straight Jacket Barleywine, Rev Pils, Eugene

If I was present for almost all of the ascendency of WeldWerks in the entry previous, I was here for every bit of the rise of Revolution over the course of the last decade, as they became the largest brewery in Illinois not named Goose Island. Living in Illinois, I visited the original Revolution brewpub as often as possible, watching as a handful of late 2000s upstarts (especially the compatriots at Half Acre) built the modern Chicago craft beer scene around them. Its now easy to forget that compared with early adopters such as San Diego or Portland, the craft beer movement was a little slow in arriving in Chicago. But when it came, it came in force.

From the beginning, Revolution excelled in classic styles. Their Eugene porter became the citys most dependable, session-strength dark beer. From day one, Anti-Hero IPA was one of the citys best overall (and now most balanced) hoppy beers. But Revolution also grew and morphed, albeit subtly, to fit the mold of changing tastes. They never abandoned the mold of Anti-Hero, now retro in its own way, but instead continuously expanded the Hero lineup until it had something for almost any taste. At the same time, they launched an expansive barrel-aging program that went on to challenge and eventually dethrone Goose Island for the title of the citys barrel-aged beer kingpin. The results were confirmed by Pastes own blind tastings, where Revolutions Straight Jacket barleywine crushed the competition en route to a #1 showing. They may have started as a brewpub getting press for bacon fat popcorn, but Revolution used its running start to become one of the most dependably great breweries in the midwest.

33. Other Half Brewing Co. Original location: Brooklyn, NY On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: All Green Everything, Broccoli Special Reserve, Double Mosaic Dream

This is another case where ranking is a little bit more difficult on account of the fact that weve sampled comparatively fewer of Other Halfs beers than most of the other breweries on this list. In putting them here, were taking into consideration both the beers weve had a chance to sample, and the effect theyve had in generating enthusiasm for the New York City beer scene.

Because make no mistake, the craft beer scene of NYC was considered oddly underwhelming, not all that long ago. Both New York and L.A. resisted the 2000s boom on some level, establishing far fewer breweries than much smaller cities that embraced the ethos of craft beer in a more enthusiastic way. The New York scene was anchored by a handful of stalwarts such as Brooklyn Brewery and Sixpoint, but it wasnt until the early 2010s that a younger generation began to emerge who would shape the future. And among those breweries, none were capable of generating excitement quite like Other Half.

Today, they are rightly considered one of the East Coasts finest producers of hazy IPA, with a singular focus on the style that is perhaps slightly limiting, but common in this day and age. Theres no denying that they make immaculate hazies, if thats what youre in the market for, but the brewerys greatest accomplishment is likely the way it pushed so many of the other NYC brewers to up their games in the process.

32. pFriem Family Brewers Original location: Hood River, OR On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Pilsner, Helles Lager, Oud Bruin

pFriem, like a few of the other breweries on this list who consistently performed far above average in Paste blind tastings, feels like the kind of brewery that is maybe a bit too easy to take for granted. Since establishing themselves in 2012, their beer has spread far throughout the Pacific Northwest, with entries like IPA and Pilsner becoming staples throughout the region. This of course leads on some level to beer geeks lowering their esteem for the average pFriem year-rounder: The old maxim of anything widely available must be inferior to something limited. But put pFriems beer into a blind tasting setting, and thats where it truly shines. Divorced from hype, its easy to see that this was one of the best and most consistent breweries of the decade.

Their dominance is especially impressive within lager beer styles, where they regularly cleaned up in our blind tastings. You dont finish at #2 in a blind tasting of 102 non-pilsner lagers, and then #6 in a blind tasting of 134 pilsners by accident. The only way you repeat those kinds of numbers is with technical mastery, and pFriem has it in spades. We also appreciate their interest in brewing classy versions of classic Belgian styles that have fallen out of vogue in the modern hype cycle, such as oud bruin, kriek or Belgian Christmas ales, giving the brewery a versatility that many of their peers now tend to lack. In general, there are few breweries where were more confident that every release will be well above average for the style.

31. Live Oak Brewing Co. Original location: De Valle, TX On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Hefeweizen, Pilz, Oaktoberfest

Theres not a lot of call for simplicity or subtlety in the craft beer world these days. Nor has Texas always been a market where traditional craft beer styles have received quite as much admiration as they perhaps deserved. In short, Live Oak Brewing Co. was pretty much always fighting an uphill battle since they slapped caps on their first bottles more than 20 years ago. They sought to bring truly balanced, authentic German beer styles into a scene that was mostly filled with cheap, mass-produced imitation, and along the way they played a major part in educating southwestern craft beer drinkers on what theyd been missing out on for decades. You want influential beers? Look no further than Live Oak Hefe, or Pilz. God only knows how many others in their own mold theyve inspired over the years.

Live Oak is, more than anything, an uncompromising brewery. They dont tweak their releases to suit changing styles and preferencesthey do what theyre good at, what they have a passion for, and they rarely deviate from the classics. German lagers, German ales, executed with a deference to history and technical acumen that rivals anyone else in the gamethats the Live Oak way. Although finding an outstanding, authentic pilsner isnt such a difficult task in the craft beer world these days, it might very well be without the guiding light of breweries like Live Oak. The last decade has shown the fruits of their labor in how eagerly their passions have been adopted by so many other breweries and drinkers, and in the end, thats the greatest victory Live Oak could ask for. That, and a #1 finish in Pastes blind hefeweizen tasting.

30. Perennial Artisan Ales Original location: St. Louis, MO On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Abraxas, Vermillion, Maman

Without a doubt, this was a great decade for the St. Louis beer scene. The 2010s began with only a handful of reliable, workhorse breweries (Schlafly, etc.) calling the city home, and quickly grew to encompass a wide array out outstanding brewers, from Perennial and Side Project to Urban Chestnut, Civil Life, 4 Hands, Narrow Gauge and 2nd Shift. They quickly turned the city from a beer scene associated with foreign-owned Anheuser-Busch and the legacy of the Busch family into one teeming with promising young breweries making beers in a bevy of different styles.

Of that class of this decade, Perennial just might be the most balanced and consistent of the bunch. Theres almost no style that Perennial isnt willing to tackle, even if our favorite selections from these guys over the years have often fallen into the realms of imperial stout, Belgian ales and barrel-aged saisons. That isnt to say they dont know their way around IPA, or even lager styles as wellPerennial is one of those breweries you can expect to do most everything well. With that said, they rightfully are well respected in the beer community for now-classic beers like the Abraxas imperial stout, which made a heavy impression in the wave of Mexican hot chocolate stouts that followed throughout the 2010s, along with barrel-aged bruisers like Maman, which are among the most purely flavorful in their class. Perennial is just one of those breweries were always happy to see submit something for a blind tasting, as the result invariably elevates the field.

29. Creature Comforts Brewing Co. Original location: Athens, GA On 2009 list?: No Our favorite beers: Tropicalia, Tritonia /w Cucumber & Lime, Duende

Another influencer, this time on the Georgia beer scene (which Paste knows pretty well, being based in Atlanta), Creature Comforts attained it brewery status very quickly after opening and has pretty much never let up, always finding new ways to put themselves into the national conversation despite limited distribution. The Athens location ultimately served the brewery very well, making sought-after beers like the flagship Tropicalia IPA that much more difficult for Atlanta residents to attain, and driving visitors to make the trip to bring some home with them, much as a Chicagoan might drive across the Wisconsin border to score some culty brews from New Glarus. And that is ultimately how a rabid fandom is built.

Hoppy styles were Creature Comforts earliest strength, with the mildly juicy and super approachable Tropicalia leading the way, and ultimately leading to the development of killer DIPAs like Duende and Cosmik Debris. Over time, though, the brewery ventured out in new directions to supplement their IPA game, beginning a series of dynamite wild ale releases and eventually finding a great appreciation for lager as well. Visiting Creature Comforts today, a drinker is likely to find a bevy of great IPAs, along with a few intriguing mixed fermentation beers, some way above average kettle sours, a few cool, pils-adjacent beers, and (if youre lucky) a grandiose imperial stout. As I so often observed while living in Athens, GA in 2018/2019, if they just added an outstanding, standard-strength, year-round dark beer to the portfolio, it would essentially be the perfect lineup. Not that were complaining, mind you.

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The 50 Best American Breweries of the 2010s - Paste Magazine

Appear.in Vs. Jitsi: Subscription WebRTC Faces Off Against Open-Source VC – VC – VC Daily

Open-source video conferencing is one of the few remaining glimpses of the utopian potential of the internet. If youre willing to get a little sentimental about what the internet is or was supposed to deliver, you can see it within the chat windows of apps such as Jitsiemerging technologies developed and given away for free so that anyone and everyone can participate in the digital communications revolution.

Thats the idealized version of Jitsis existence, anyway. The reality is that while the highly adaptable, open-source app is still free to use and deploy within personalized platforms, it has become something of a research and development unit for subscription content providers. So, Jitsi stands as a kind of glorified public Beta test of the latest video conferencing technology.

Its logical counterpoint in many ways is Appear.in (recently rechristened Whereby). This WebRTC-powered video platform has taken the same open-access ideals of Jitsi and turned them into a commercial subscription service.

The Appear.in vs. Jitsi clash is a living demonstration of how the internets free-to-all ideals have evolved into commercial reality.

Jitsi operates on two levels. If youre an end-user in need of a free video conferencing service, it has the flexibility and features to provide just about everything youll need to conduct a social or professional group meeting. If your ambitions extend to creating your own video calling portal, it can be deployed within a website or an Android or iOS mobile app to give you control over how people interact with your domain.

The platform operated as an independent, open-source meeting point until it was bought by Atlassian in 2015. That company had plans to use Jitsis tech to power native video in its HipChat and Stride services, but when those were bought and scuttled by Slack, the service became unnecessary. So, in 2018 Jitsi was sold to video vendor 88. This new owner has promised to continue acting as a benefactor for the free service and its creators while using the Jitsi tech to boost its own paid WebRTC, video calling, and video bridging services.

Why would 88 give away the same Jitsi technology it is trying to sell in its own product? Because theres a downside to the open-source ideal. Open-source means going it alone, as theres no reliable revenue stream to fund dedicated infrastructure. Jitsi doesnt offer any commercial support for its products, and many of its features exist in a state of developmental flux. The app has free background blur and live streaming features, for example, but theyre firmly in the Beta mode, while it offers only clever workarounds to deliver video conferencing standards such as meeting recording (it recommends you stream your meeting to YouTube and use that sites recording function).

Such drawbacks make Jitsi a potentially unreliable and cumbersome option for business clients and restrict the service to developers with superior IT skills and casual users with limited ambitionswhich is why the creative teams behind digital communication services need to find a revenue source for their endeavors.

Just like Appear.in (Whereby) has done.

Appear.in (Whereby) is like Jitsis mature older sibling that took the shared passion for WebRTC communication and turned it into a commercial business.

The platform, which changed its name to Whereby after a legal battle over the Appear.in moniker, uses the same browser-based WebRTC technology that allows users to stage instant video meetings online without accounts or downloads. As we discussed in our previous reviews of Wherebyhere as a standalone service, and here in comparison with Googles Hangouts platformthe result is a lightning-quick service that removes the barriers of subscription services and lets anyone with a common browser speak face-to-face across a reliable video connection.

Whereby (that name is going to take some getting used to) has since evolved into a subscription business that offers the support professional customers require. Just like Jitsi, it offers chat, screen sharing, group video calls (although capped at four in the limited free version and 12 in the Pro Plan), customizable meeting URLs, and encrypted connections. Unlike Jitsi, theres someone available online 24/7 should you run into technical difficulties.

Such a backstop should make Whereby a clear winner over Jitsis community of developers, but the execution just isnt there. Theres no noticeable difference between the presentation of either product, and Jitsi actually offers a more comprehensive list of features, including emerging must-have video features like live streaming. Both services can be integrated with leading workflow platforms including Slack, but in Wherebys case, youre doubling your subscription fee just to add a video calling alternative to the baked-in native options of a collaboration platform.

Truthfully, if youre choosing between these platforms, you face an underwhelming decision between an earnest amateur and a clumsy professional.

On a sheer product-to-product comparison, wed have to give the open-source platform the edge in any Appear.in vs. Jitsi digital bout. However, there are clear differences between the target audiences for each that may make such comparisons moot.

Jitsi is for developers and casual users. If you want to build your own video-enabled website or you just want a free, universally accessible way to video chat, then Jitsi is for you. If you are looking for a commercial tool, youd have to go with Appear.in/Whereby. Unless your IT team is prepared to shoulder the entire tech support burden, it is irresponsible to deploy an open-source platform.

In the end, both services are probably more flash than substance for a small-to-medium businesss liking. Wed suggest you take a look at Zoom, BlueJeans, or the workflow integration of Microsoft Teams before making your final decision.

Still, its nice to know that a little of the internets free-to-all ideals live on in the open-source and WebRTC roots of both Jitsi and Whereby.

Note that while this site is sponsored by Logitech, reviews contain the writers own opinions and are not influenced by the views of our sponsor.

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Appear.in Vs. Jitsi: Subscription WebRTC Faces Off Against Open-Source VC - VC - VC Daily