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Beverly Glenn-Copeland Announces First Album in 19 Years, Shares New Single

Beverly Glenn-Copeland has announced The Ones Ahead, his first new album in almost 20 years. The follow-up to 2004’s Primal Prayer is set for release on July 28 via Transgressive. Along with the announcement, Glenn-Copeland has shared the lead single ‘Africa Calling’, which you can check out below.

“In the ‘80s I had the honour of performing with an incredible artist named Dido, a master of the drums indigenous to West Africa,” Glenn-Copeland said of the new track in a statement. “The beauty of this drumming tradition is explored in ‘Africa Calling’. Over the years, in many conversations, I have come to understand that I share an undefinable, unnamed feeling – a calling – with many other members of the African diaspora, a bone-deep need to explore and express our heritage. Alongside the grief, there is a longing to know our roots, hidden from us as family lines were torn apart in the terrible days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a world still caught in the ties of colonialism, I know I am not alone in needing to heed the call of this generations-old longing.”

Glenn-Copeland made The Ones Ahead with producer John Herbermann and Indigo Rising, the band who joined him on his inaugural European tour. It was recorded at a remote studio in Nova Scotia in late 2021 and completed in 2022.

In 2021, Glenn-Copeland released Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined, a remix album featuring reimagined versions of songs from his 1986 LP by artists such as Arca, Blood Orange, Julia Holter, and Kelsey Lu. More recently, the xx’s Romy sampled Glenn-Copeland on her new single ‘Enjoy Your Life’.

The Ones Ahead Cover Artwork:

The Ones Ahead Tracklist:

1. Africa Calling
2. Harbour (Song For Elizabeth)
3. Love Takes All
4. People Of The Loon
5. Stand Anthem
6. The Ones Ahead
7. Prince Caspian’s Dream
8. Lakeland Angel
9. No Other

bar italia Release New Song ‘changer’

London-based trio bar italia have unveiled ‘changer’, the final advance single ahead of the release of their debut LP, Tracey Denim, out this Friday via Matador. It follows previous cuts ‘Nurse!’ and ‘punkt’, the latter of which made our Best New Songs playlist. Take a listen below.

5 Best Lightroom Presets & Packs for Portraits

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Being a portrait photographer is no easy feat; it takes a lot of time, patience, and skill to create a style that fits your vision and the client’s needs. In this post, we’ll look at five presets for Adobe Lightroom and why you should get them for your portrait photography.

Cinematic Essentials

The golden egg of all preset packs is the Cinematic Essentials preset pack by Resource Moon. It contains 32 majestic presets that cover all the essential areas when it comes to taking portraits. From jungle-esque moody blue tone presets to the classic black and white, from wedding to family photography shoots. You can be confident that you will receive complete coverage.


Buy Cinematic Essentials Lightroom Preset Pack.


Landscape 500 Preset

While primarily focusing on landscape photography, the Landscape 500 preset is an iconic single preset that utilises vivid colours, bringing out a great look even in the dullest photos. From phone camera photos to professional photos, this preset will have you covered in portrait and landscape photography, giving you a top-notch range for your vision.


Buy Landscape 500 Preset


Wedding 500

If you’re branching into weddings, another splendid preset is the Wedding 500. This one is rich in warmth and colour, making the special day much brighter. It works brilliantly on various backgrounds and can be considered an all-rounder when it comes to presets. Also, like other presets on the list, it is available for mobile and desktop Adobe Lightroom applications.

 


Buy Wedding 500 Preset


Football 500

Photography is a marathon and certainly not a sprint. But when it comes to presets that make your work speedy and worthwhile, Football 500 by Resource Moon scores the goal. This filmic preset can be used for sporting events and those looking to bring a more pro to feel to their amateur photography. It certainly is a great starter preset.


Buy Football 500 Preset


Fashionista 300

From New York Fashion Week to your close friend’s clothing brand, Fashionista 300 tailors for the fashion lovers of this world. The preset contains a single powerful preset that will transform your work within seconds. Some great things you can use this preset for are lookbooks, Instagram photo shoots, baby photos, family photos, dog photos, product photos, and even scenic landscape pieces.


Buy Fashionista 300 Preset


Is Lightroom better than Photoshop for editing portraits?

Lightroom is a trusted piece of software specifically made for photography purposes. While Photoshop is technically more advanced, Lightroom is much more user friendly for larger collections of photos. As a result, if you are shooting portrait photos in large quantities, you should use Lightroom and Photoshop for additional touch-ups or object removals.

How do I edit raw portrait in Lightroom?

If you’re editing a raw photo in Lightroom then you’re in luck. With so much data, RAW images are superior to simple condensed photos from the internet or other sources. Lightroom allows you full control of colour, light, masking and other editing tools to make your portrait photos great.

How do I remove the background from a portrait in Lightroom?

Sadly, Lightroom by Adobe does not allow the removal of backgrounds as an overall treatment of a photo. However, this can be done in Photoshop with a magic eraser tool.

How not to lose at online casinos. Five golden rules for playing slots

Telling you what to start a user who has decided to try to play slots at online casinos. Slots online casino or, simply, “slots” call our usual slot machines. It is this type of gambling continues to be one of the main sources of casino profits.

What are slots

In order to play the slots game, one must understand its basic principle: as you spin the machine, random symbols appear on a screen that is divided into numerous columns and rows. Through this method, the symbols can align and create a winning pattern or simply fall into a straight line.

In general, slot machines have a payout rate of around 95%, implying that eventually, the players are given back, in the form of several small prizes and a handful of jackpots, roughly 95% of the bets they’ve placed. The other 5% is kept by the casino as profit.

Day after day, countless people participate in fulfilling the obligatory 5% earnings of betting conglomerates with the expectation of striking fortune’s favor. The pervasive appeal of this sort of amusement has given rise to a growing abundance of internet slot machines that offer boundless opportunities, courtesy of sophisticated programming and varied wagering scenarios.

Legal online casinos have capitalized on the opportunity to provide an extensive selection of slot game variations.

If you’re a newbie looking to try your hand at slot machines, it’s crucial to keep some important tips in mind.

Find a legal online casino

A vital element of a successful game is ensuring that the payout is guaranteed. Unfortunately, some illicit gambling establishments exploit slot machines that provide payouts under 95%. Consequently, most of the players’ wagers result in losses.

Legal online casinos feature a page dedicated to rules and legal particulars. This page must furnish data on the software providers, payment systems supported by the operator, and other relevant details.

Prior to engaging in gameplay, inquire about the rules governing the payout of winning sums. Typically, virtual gambling establishments require a substantial discrepancy between the aggregate values of wins and bets before authorizing withdrawals.

One can experiment with the features of a slot game without spending money by accessing the demo version on reliable platforms.

Choose a slot that suits you

Once you have sampled a variety of free online slot options, it’s important to take a moment to determine which one suits your preferences best.

There are various kinds of slots available nowadays, with differences in aspects like level of complexity, method of betting, payout proportion, and more, amounting to tens of thousands in total.

Games that offer intricate slot machines featuring numerous pay lines, the ability to bet on every column, and limitless symbol combinations can result in frequent wins. However, the highest possible payouts are not as substantial.

Players who intend to make only a limited number of bets should avoid slots that don’t yield winning combinations often because these games are more suitable for those who are, instead, seeking a larger payoff.

When it comes to choosing slots, starter bonuses play a crucial role. Online casinos frequently offer freespins for specific slot games or multiply your deposit to encourage you to play. Such bonuses enable you to place more bets than your bankroll permits.

Make sure to monitor the payout process when it comes to instances like these since the ability to withdraw bonus funds is only possible if your overall earnings exceed them by multiplication.

Experiment with tactics

The distribution of guaranteed winnings to all players is a fundamental aspect of the slot’s operation, and it relies on specific algorithms.

Players attempt to outsmart the algorithms by experimenting with various spinning strategies when using slot machines.

One can improve their chances of winning in a slot game by adopting various strategies such as adjusting their bets at a specific point during the game, increasing their bets during bonus rounds, switching to different types of slots after a certain number of spins, and altering their bets after a win or loss.

It’s difficult to succeed with any strategy in slot machines since their software allocates winnings in a largely random manner. To secure the full 95% payout, the most straightforward approach is to place as many wagers as possible using the lowest denomination available.

A single player would need to invest an excessive amount of time to conduct such an experiment.

Allocate money to the game

To ensure the game of slots remains an enjoyable experience and does not escalate into frustration or addictive behavior, it is advisable to set a specific betting budget.

Indulging in some gambling, being pampered, and experiencing the thrill of even the slightest wins – these are the perfect ways to unwind temporarily with friends during the holidays following a long week of hard work.

The chances of a player meeting a disastrous end is high if they rely on gambling as their source of income.

Before indulging in slots, consider if you are willing to splurge a certain sum on it or if you prefer allocating the funds for other leisure activities like purchasing tokens for air hockey or hitting the shooting range.

Instead of just focusing on winning, take advantage of this particular form of entertainment to its fullest potential.

Choose the right time to play

Online casinos, like any other form of entertainment, have specific schedules and bonus days, which make it absolutely plausible that the supreme slots game may occur on weekends.

On weekends, when individuals tend to gamble the most during their free time, they frequently coincide with bonus days.

On bonus days, players have the chance to increase jackpots and win more symbol combinations. Casinos also provide additional opportunities for free gambling such as freespins.

The sole objective behind this is to offer the player an opportunity to win more and retain them on the website for as long as feasible.

Exploring various types of slot games can be a fun way to entertain yourself, providing that winning is not your sole focus.

How to Create a Luxurious Walk-In Wardrobe in Your Bedroom

There isn’t a single person on the globe who wouldn’t like to have all their clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories tucked away neatly in the most stylish and high-end wardrobe. A walk-in wardrobe is a best possible solution for any bedroom that has space for it for organizing your clothes with sleek wire hangers, drawers, and cupboards. Anybody who has the space and budget for it, ought to consider incorporating some of these luxurious walk-in wardrobe design ideas and see what a great investment and practicality they truly are.

Opt for plenty of stylish storage solutions

Walk-in wardrobes offer more than sleek simplicity, they maximally widen the bathroom area and enable you to meticulously store your clothes. By having a separate space for all your closed used for multiple occasions, you need to ideally organize them either by usage or occasion. The key is to use customized shelving design, and slanted shelves, with a plethora of drawers for watches, lingerie or ties, practical storage components, and cupboards as well as open areas with hanging rods for coats, jackets, and dresses. Add either a dark-tined slide door or a classical wooden one to separate the walk-in wardrobe.

Sleek functionality

To get the most out of this spare but utterly useful new room, you need t create it to be safe, stable, and long-lasting. Wardrobes do require some air flow to prevent the collection of mildew, mold, or mustiness and have it ruin your clothes or make them smell stale or musty. The first thing to do is to place insulation when building your walk-in closet. Get only the top quality materials such as those you can find here, and insulate the wardrobe to allow the moisture to flow through, not to mention that you would have a perfect soundproof space and an Eco-conscious area. If you were to insulate your walk-in wardrobe, you won’t need to have doors and the walls and cabinets would let air flow smoothly which would enable clothes to remain fresh and smelly nice.

Add eclectic lighting sources

One of the most important features is having exquisite but bright lighting in your walk-in wardrobe. The walk-in wardrobe should exude functionality, however, when it comes to lighting the atmosphere should be comfortable and timid. Walk-in wardrobes are usually small spaces, thus warm lighting would give out great elegance. Install warm built-in dimmers from the inside of the storage components and drawers, if possible make them light up upon opening. For an even sleeker effect, you can place a sophisticated chandelier.

Mirror, mirror

A walk-in wardrobe won’t be completed with a luxurious top-to-bottom mirror. In order to make the space appear bigger, wider, and more luxurious, you can build a mirror barrier, install mirrored sliding doors, or simply place a large vintage and elegantly embellished mirror. It would be far simpler to have a large full-length mirror in situ, not to mention that it would give you extra room to roam around the wardrobe. When you at least have one large free-standing floor mirror or maybe a mirror shutter on the wardrobe, you would easily extend the room and see yourself from head to toe.

Upscale your artistic flair

Consider your new walk-in wardrobe as a special room, and besides filling it up with mere clothes and other apparel, why not decorate it according to your tastes? First, make sure you paint the walls with some vivacious wall hue, then hang some extravagant and top-class artwork, or place hand-made accents such as glorious bull-skull ornament. However you opt to decorate your wardrobe, just aim to create a place that you will love above all.

Creating a luxurious walk-in wardrobe in your bedroom signalizes creating a practical and clutter-free space that would help you stay organized, time-efficient, and stress-free. Create a customized walk-in wardrobe of your dreams by following this step-by-step guide.

6 Classic, Must-See, Blokes’ Movies

Going to the movies has been a pastime for over a hundred years, as heroes of the big screen become household names. Recent years have led to technology providing the same entertainment delivered to the home by video, superseded by the digital age, as downloading a film and watching it conveniently is the modern way.

All sorts of genres capture the attention of those wanting to be entertained whether it be action, romance, comedy, or thrillers among others. Here we concentrate on 6 classic blokes’ movies that are highly recommended that will capture the imagination.

  1. The Italian Job. Forget the 2003 remake, a poor imitation of an absolute classic. Michael Caine and the boys in an all-star cast plan a gold heist from in front of the noses of the mafia and authorities in Turin, as mayhem ensues including the best car chases ever filmed. Chuck in music from Quincy Jones and appearances from Noël Coward and Benny Hill plus plenty of added sex appeal and you’ve got the lot.
  2. The Shawshank Redemption. High up on the lists of all-time favourites of many shrewd observers, this drama set in prison sees Tim Robbins play the part of someone wrongly jailed for murder. He cleverly plans his escape while befriending a fellow felon played by Morgan Freeman and using his jail work before dropping the baddy governor right in it as justice is done.
  3. Slap Shot. An American backwater industrial city and its no-hope ice hockey team feature in this laugh-along movie as Paul Newman tries to stop the owners from selling the club to another franchise. It’s a story of human struggle and relationships, beefed up by the signing of three crazy violent brothers who prefer Scalextric to sex toys back in their room.
  4. Trainspotting. A movie directed by Danny Boyle, based on the book by Irvine Welsh, following a group of friends and heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh and the struggles that then ensue, with more than a little black comedy and a superb soundtrack. Clinically acclaimed as one of the best movies of the 90s.
  5. The Great Escape. Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough are among the stars in this tale of Allied prisoners in a German Prisoner of War Camp who wants to escape and draw the Nazi forces away from their battle as well to search for them. They force their escape by digging a tunnel before the story intensifies.
  6. Pulp Fiction.  The work of director Quentin Tarantino at his best as this movie charts the stories of a couple of mob hitmen, a gangster and wife, and a boxer as tales of violence and redemption take place. Featuring John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman.

Many more classics could have been included with Snatch, Escape to Victory, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, among them. In the meantime, catch up with these 6 classics and enjoy a nice night in.

This Week’s Best New Songs: Janelle Monáe, feeble little horse, Youth Lagoon, and More

Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.

This week’s list includes ‘Lipstick Lover’, the languid, sensual, and confident new single from Janelle Monáe; Christine and the Queens’ strikingly resonant new song ‘Tears can be so soft’; feeble little horse’s playfully endearing yet relatably unnerving ‘Pocket’, lifted from their new album Girl with Fish; Gouge Away’s intense, slow-burning new single ‘Idealized’; Decisive Pink’s ‘Dopamine’, a satirical take on consumerism that’s driven by an infectious beat; ’Sword’, the eerily intoxicating lead single from DJ Python and Ana Roxanne’s new project, Natural Wonder Beauty Concept; Youth Lagoon’s beautifully devastating ‘The Sling’, which gives his upcoming LP Heaven Is a Junkyard its name; and yeule’s ‘sulky baby’, which reflects on an old, all-consuming passion with tenderness and light.

Best New Songs: May 15, 2023

Janelle Monáe, ‘Lipstick Lover’

Christine and the Queens, ‘Tear can be so soft’

Song of the Week: feeble little horse, ‘Pocket’

Gouge Away, ‘Idealized’

Decisive Pink, ‘Dopamine’

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, ‘Sword’

Youth Lagoon, ‘The Sling’

yeule, ‘sulky baby’

Review: The Munekata Sisters (1950)

Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) was one of those rare directors who seemed incapable of making a truly awful film. Granted, a sizable portion of his early career in the 1920s and ‘30s has been lost—swept away by the cataclysms that wiped out an estimated 96% of Japanese silent cinema1—so we have no access to Wife Lost (1928) and Beauty’s Sorrows (1931), critically maligned films that even their creator deemed substandard. But of Ozu’s many extant works, the majority range between fair and excellent, with masterpieces (1949’s Late Spring, 1953’s Tokyo Story, 1958’s Equinox Flower, etc.) that rank with cinema’s most profound achievements. Even lesser efforts (1934’s A Mother Should Be Loved, 1948’s A Hen in the Wind) feature enough good moments and solid craftsmanship to warrant occasional viewings. Such is also the case of the lesser-known The Munekata Sisters.2

Based on the novel by Jiro Osaragi and released in August 1950, The Munekata Sisters marked the first of three instances where Ozu directed for a studio other than Shochiku.3 In spring three years earlier, employees at rival company Toho became frustrated with their labor union’s rules and creative interferences, and thus formed an alternate union to represent themselves. Called the Society of the Flag of Ten, they were allowed to work in a previously vacant set of soundstages and were christened Toho Second Production Branch. Alas, tensions between the Society and the previous union continued, the former eventually breaking off to form a subsidiary called Shin Toho (“New Toho”).4 Shin Toho initially received distribution and financial backing from its parent company—in exchange for twenty-five percent of all profits—but in March 1950 defected to operate on its own. Their output included debut films by up-and-comers like Kon Ichikawa as well as freelance jobs from established moviemakers. Akira Kurosawa’s Stray Dog (1949) was one such film, the Ozu picture under discussion being another.

Making The Munekata Sisters proved somewhat frustrating for Ozu, as the front office not only dictated casting but picked the source material.5 “To be frank, I find it difficult to make a film out of a novel,” he recalled in a 1958 interview with Kinema Junpo magazine. “You’re forced into reworking the imagination of the author, and then have to select someone to play a role already created. When I write, I always write with an actor in mind from the beginning, and this helps create the role in the film.”6 Working from what he described as a “very heavy” script,7 he also found himself quarreling with star Kinuyo Tanaka, with whom he’d worked numerous times before but who’d recently returned from three months in Hollywood and consequently had new ideas regarding film acting. Ozu, accustomed to dictating performances down to the tiniest movement (“You are not supposed to feel, you are supposed to do,” he once told an actress), was even overheard grumbling about his leading lady.8 Nonetheless, he remembered the shoot being an easy one and addressed the story predicament by directing the “heavy” script “very lightly.”9

The Munekata Sisters begins with one of the titular siblings, Setsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka), visiting the former capital of Kyoto, where she learns her father (Chishu Ryu) is terminally ill with stomach cancer. A very “traditional” Japanese woman, she spends much of her time touring the city’s famous temples—much to the boredom of her younger, “modern” sister Mariko (Hideko Takamine). Infused with contemporary ways of thinking, Mariko’s likewise frustrated with the path her sibling’s chosen: Setsuko tolerates an unemployed husband, Mimura (So Yamamura), despite lasting love for Hiroshi (Ken Uehara), a man she knew before the war. Mimura learns of his wife’s feelings, turns against both siblings, opposes Setsuko seeking financial assistance from Hiroshi to save her bar, and physically strikes her after suggesting they divorce.

At this point, the film goes comically off the rails. The husband’s subsequent death of a heart attack leads to a nauseating denouement wherein his widow refuses to marry Hiroshi for fear of being haunted by the past. (The subdued writing and acting in the resultant breakup scene feels out of place amid overheated melodrama.) But the problems begin even before that, with contrivances and the tired cliché of interrupted intimacy. On the verge of divorcing her husband, Setsuko rendezvouses with Hiroshi at an inn to discuss the future. The two are slowly leaning in for a kiss when they hear someone stepping into the room; as they step apart, Ichiro Saito’s music comes to a halt, accentuating what is already an awkwardly staged scene. Ozu professed throughout his life to have been uninterested in romance,10 and nowhere is this more evident than here. Additional problems stem from the father and his inconsequential illness subplot: as written, his only narrative function is to proffer advice to his daughters.

Before Act Three, however, The Munekata Sisters fares as a modest entry in Ozu’s oeuvre, thanks in great part to Hideko Takamine. A major star since age five, Takamine appeared in over a hundred pictures as a child—including one directed by Ozu, 1933’s Tokyo Chorus—before transferring to Toho in her adolescent years. Clinging to popularity after the war, she’d been one of the founders of the Society of the Flag of Ten and thus accompanied them to Shin Toho. In The Munekata Sisters, Takamine plays a tomboy (“She looks like a lady but acts like a child,” says her father) prone to humorous tics (sticking out her tongue, scrunching her face, describing others’ lives with a theatrical tone of faux-profundity). Most interestingly, though, her character Mariko is a byproduct of occupation-era (read: westernized) Japan, frequently at odds with her sister, whom she deems “old-fashioned.”

At its core, The Munekata Sisters is about the clash of lifestyles between its two protagonists. Whereas Setsuko dons kimonos, Mariko struts about in Occidental dresses; while the former’s content roaming the temple of Kyoto, the latter’s happier in cosmopolitan cities such as Kobe and Tokyo; Mariko enjoys being spoken to in English and, at one point, kicks her slippers at a displayed set of samurai armor, something her sister would never do. In the movie’s best scene, the siblings square off against each other and their respective ways of life. (“Things that are really new never get old. What does ‘new’ mean to you? Short skirts? Stylish nail polish color?” “You and I are totally different. We were raised in different times.”) The film never chooses a side, though the siblings’ father, while assuring Mariko to find her way, cautions her that “being fashion-conscious is boring.” By drama’s end, the sisters stroll together through Kyoto, clinging to their world views—Setsuko still in kimono, Mariko still in western clothing.

Continuing on the topic of modernization: The Munekata Sisters is retroactively fun as a glimpse into the later years of Japan’s postwar occupation. While no foreigners appear, their influence is plainly visible: an office building rife with English signs for Time, Life, and Bible House; a café with a Coca Cola sign prominently hung from the ceiling. Meantime, the characters reminisce about the war and prewar years: a bartender character is a former pilot, and Mariko attended junior high in Manchuria, the Chinese demographic infamously annexed by Japan in 1931.

And there’s a pleasure consistent across all surviving Ozu works: the exquisite sense of design, the natural flow of images. Together with cinematographer Joji Ohara, the director gets creative with weather, at one point staging an interior scene during a thunderstorm, achieving light effects through the shadow of raindrops streaming down windows. Images that no doubt look spectacular in the film’s new restoration. I haven’t seen the print in question (it’s to make its debut at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival) but hope it eventually makes its way to home media markets there and elsewhere. For even minor Ozu films such as this are worth the attention of serious film lovers around the world.


Works cited and further reading:

  1. Russell, Catherine. The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008, p. 52
  2. A disclaimer on the film’s title. Per a Japanese correspondent of mine, the proper pronunciation of the sisters’ surname is “Munakata.” However, I recently attended an Ozu exhibit at the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature in Yokohama, Japan; and the plaque related to materials for the film under discussion spelled the English title as “The Munekata Sisters.” This appears to be the official English spelling per the film’s copyright holders; and so, for the sake of representation, this is the spelling I’ve used in this article.
  3. The other two instances are 1959’s Floating Weeds, shot for Daiei, and 1961’s The End of Summer, shot for the Toho subsidiary Takarazuka Eiga.
  4. Anderson, Joseph L. and Donald Richie. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry (Expanded Edition). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982, pp. 167-8
  5. Bordwell, David. Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988, pp. 311-2
  6. Richie, Donald. Ozu: His Life and Films. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977, p. 236
  7. Bordwell, p. 313
  8. Richie, pp. 144; 236
  9. Bordwell, p. 313
  10. Richie, Donald. “The Later Films of Yasujiro Ozu.” Film Quarterly 13, no. 1. Autumn 1959, p. 21

Margo Cilker Announces New Album ‘Valley of Heart’s Delight’, Shares New Song

Washington singer-songwriter Margo Cilker has announced her sophomore album, Valley of Heart’s Delight. The follow-up to 2021’s Pohorylle is set to arrive on September 15 via Fluff & Gravy Records. Check out its lead single and opening track, ‘Lowland Trail’, below.

Speaking about the new album, Cilker said in a press release:

I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

I wrote about family — about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it.

Valley of Heart’s Delight Cover Artwork:

Valley of Heart’s Delight Tracklist:

1. Lowland Trail
2. Keep It On A Burner
3. I Remember Carolina
4. Beggar For Your Love
5. Mother Told Her Mother Told Me
6. With The Middle
7. Santa Rosa
8. Crazy Or Died
9. Steelhead Trout
10. Sound & Fury
11. All Tied Together

Juilliard Extension’s Introductory Ballroom Dance Workshop: Sparking Joy and New Friendships

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Juilliard Extension is pleased to celebrate the success of the Introductory Ballroom Dance Workshop that took place on Sunday, April 23. Participants had the opportunity to learn ballroom dancing from the world-renowned dance duo, Denys Drozdyuk and Antonina Skobina. The workshop was designed to help students learn and improve the basic ballroom dance techniques and embraced dancers of all skill levels.

The two Ukrainian instructors are both world-class ballroom dancers who hold multiple World Championships as well as USA National Championships. Denys and Antonina co-founded the ballroom dance duet “DNA” with the aim of developing ballroom dance as a performing art.

“We were so excited to have Denys and Antonina here,” said Isabella Sun, the Operations Lead of the event. “My team and I had to make sure everything could go smoothly because we valued their presence more than anyone else.”

In addition to the countless communication and the setup of the recording team, Sun wanted to ensure the needs of each participant in the workshop was taken care of because that was the original purpose of the event. As an experienced Operations Lead, Sun knew it would have been frustrating if a beginner-level student got overlooked and did not enjoy the dance as much as everyone else.

 (From left to right, Antonina Skobina, Isabella Sun, Denys Drozdyuk)
(From left to right, Antonina Skobina, Isabella Sun, Denys Drozdyuk)

Among the 60 people that signed up for the workshop, Yuchen Liu was the most grateful participant towards Sun. As a legally blind student, Liu always finds ballroom dancing as a great way to connect with others. But to help her learn the steps well, a patient and experienced guide had to be found.

“I got informed that I would be Liu’s guide 48 hours before the workshop,” Sun added. “We speak the same language, and I’m also an experienced dancer. I’d be more than happy to help her. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like an outcast at a workshop.”

Sun was surprised when she found out that Liu is a pianist and how quickly she could memorize those steps, which might be a result of having such a high sensitivity of the beat. She taught Liu every move by hand and explained the key points of each move in detail till the last minute of the workshop.

Liu expressed appreciation to Sun by referring to her as an angel when being interviewed by PIX11 after the workshop was over. Despite Liu not being the main character in the workshop, she might just have received as much attention as the instructors did.

“People who came for different reasons ended up making new friendships and it was beautiful to achieve that through performing art like Ballroom dancing,” according to Sun. Starting this fall, the Ballroom Dancing Workshops will be offered once a semester to those who are looking forward to trying it out.