In the most interesting interview OSV conducted with Catholic iconographer Marek Czarnecki, that I referred to yesterday, we gain a sense of how we can properly understand the real language of icons. Before I quote from the second part of that OSV interview let me answer a question or two about this subject.

Am I suggesting that you cannot worship fully without icons? Not in the least. Am I suggesting that icons must be used in public worship? No. But are icons a form of idolatry? Those who answer yes to this question are numerous in evangelical Protestant circles and can easily impress others to follow their simplistic and iconoclastic reasoning without the evangelical having a framework for considering this subject. I am attempting to give such a framework and at the same time telling you why I use icons in my own worship.

Here is the second part of the interview that I began sharing yesterday from the (February 7, 2010) OSV.

*************

OSV: It seems like there is a lot going on in icons that many of us are not aware of. Is that true?

Czarnecki: When you look at an icon, the meaning of it should be absolutely open. There shouldn’t be anything hidden in an icon. There shouldn’t be anything esoteric in an icon. There shouldn’t be anything so complicated in an icon that you can’t immediately start praying with it. It’s like the Gospels. You don’t need a degree in philosophy or theology to open up the Gospels and read them and understand them. The icon has to be exactly the same. . . . People think icons are some very complicated symbolic map, and they’re not. They express the reality of a person’s life. Iconographers only use signs and symbols when the language when the language of naturalism is inadequate to express a spiritual truth.

It’s forbidden to make an icon of God the Father because the First Person of the Trinity is inexpressible. Like when Jews write up the Torah, they leave an empty space, and that absolutely correct. We have no adequate expression of God the Father, even though our churches are filled with them. In order to express that Jesus is divine, we can only make an image of his physical presence. To show that he’s divine we have to use signs and symbols because there is no adequate way to express his divinity. So we start with a halo, we put a three-barred cross in his halo, and the Greek characters that in English look like WON, which is an abbreviation for “I am Who I am.” Y putting in those characters, we demonstrate what Christ himself said, which is, “I and the Father are One.” But there’s no way that I can figure out how to paint that so we have to lapse into the use of semantic symbols, but it should be minimal, and it should only be used when you can’t express something in a very straightforward way.

OSV: For Westerners, icons can sometimes seem foreign, even off-putting. What’s behind that and how can we get past it?

Czarnecki: When the schism [between the Eastern and Western Churches] happened, it was such a profound thing, like a divorce. The Western Church moved toward more incarnational theology. The Eastern Church developed into more mystical theology. And the art in both churches reflects that theology. Both are correct. . . . Western art was much more naturalistic because it talked about the immanence of God in the world. Orthodox iconography just kept developing internally to show the transcendence of God in the world.

There are a couple of things that make the artistic language of the icon a little bit different than Western art, and one is the idea of space. When we make a naturalistic painting of a landscape, for example, an artist uses what’s called one-point perspective. You have a horizon line and all space recedes as it gets to the horizon line and things become smaller. In the icon, the idea is that we are looking through a window into that space of eternity. Since we’re looking into an eternal space, there can’t be a horizon. There can’t be an end. We use what’s called inverse, or reverse, perspective so that all things continually open up in front of us. . . . The other thing that’s different is the way the iconographer uses light. In a naturalistic painting, you always have some definite light source. In the icon, the light has to look like it comes from inside the figure and from many different points outside it. In an icon, you’ll never have cast shadows because a shadow means that there’s some light source.

OSV: If icons are looking into eternity, where does Western religious art look?

Czzarnecki: If you think of St. Francis of Assisi and that traditional act of making the first Nativity scene, what he was doing was starting the process of the humanization of Catholic art. . . . . When he made that Nativity scene and people were able to walk into a setting where they felt themselves participating in that space and God was participating in their space by statues, it was an articulation of God coming out into our space, and that’s an articulation of immanence.

It’s also a reflection of the very strong social mission of the Catholic Church. We aren’t afraid to get our feet dirty. I think of Dorothy Day. We put ourselves out into the world, go out into the world and find God.

Orthodoxy is inverted. It’s not better or worse, it’s just a different vision. In Orthodoxy, the approach is usually to leave the world, go find some high mountain, some dense forest, some dry desert and go into God’s space. That’s also the vision of the icon—to go into God’s space—whereas statues articulate God coming out into our space. Both ways are correct, but that schism created what I call a psychosis, two halves of the same picture.

*************

Several years ago I was involved in a dialogue with a group of Anglican priests and lay folks in an annual meeting of the Anglican Mission in America in Dallas. I was in a room where Dr. James I. Packer and I were asked to discuss theology and ministry with mostly younger leaders. It was a memorable time for me. There was a moment when someone asked Dr. Packer if he still held to the view he held against religious art being used in worship as a clear violation of the second commandment. (He expresses such a view in his classic book, Knowing God.) I was not surprised to hear Dr. Packer say that he had changed his mind about his understanding and that he no longer held to a strict Puritan view about religious art. I came to the same view many years ago but did not know Jim had also changed his mind. I thought to myself, “This is another reason why I love this man so dearly. He is willing, in his eighties, to keep thinking and to even admit that he had changed his mind regarding a particular section of a best-selling classic book that he wrote decades ago.”

Whatever you think of art and icons I hope you will better understand the positive role that they have in the hearts and experience of Christ’s people now. The word iconoclast broadly refers to those who oppose widely accepted traditional views. The word actually originated in the church. An iconoclast was a person who made it their goal to write and speak against icons. Some even worked to destroy icons as their special ministry for Christ. The spirit of the iconoclast lives on in many forms, literally and spiritually. An understanding of the real purpose of icons just might change all of that. I expect that we will see a growing number of younger Christians return to the use of icons as they see them in the way that I have explained in this mini-series. I welcome this and hope that they will discover more of Christ’s power and love in the process.

The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It's becoming a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the experience surrounding it.

Today, we get to add Google's chapter to "Will One Company Dominate the Cloud" introspective series and take a glimpse of the silent revolution from "index" to "be" that is transforming the company and it's products to the default way to engage the Internet.

As fate has it, Google done us a big favor in preparing for this piece. The company has launched an assault on the enterprise with its movement in the Google App Engine, having a stand-off with China, and negotiating with the EU. And that was just a bit of Google news from this week.

Sponsor

Whereas it's a bit more clear where Amazon and Cisco win (our recent analysis) as they head towards the cloud, with Google it takes a bit more expansive view. We have to take the focus out a bit, to be able to dial in on the details.

Acknowledgment: Developers are the Products they Build

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Bray. He has been a key contributor and thought leader in key areas of interoperability and information design, including his leadership in bringing XML to the world. He recently announced that he's joining Google and focusing on Android in a transition from Sun.

Several things struck us about our dialog that we think are key for Google.

First, when Bray described his new job at Google, he talked about what he wanted to do and what he saw that needed to be done. Within three days of being there, he has a sense of ownership of the companies products and mission. In some organizations, you may never get such a luxury.

Second, Bray described his opportunity to "roll up his sleeves" and get back in the groove as a developer on a project he feels passion for. He mentioned his desire to take the open APIs of Android and expose some of the information in a more portable way, for example to transfer a call log from one phone to another. A very interesting project, with tangible results. This type of innovation lives on top of all the work the company has done to make the API exist, and to attract individuals who are willing to rethink how it should really work.

We think that this is the most interesting thing about where Google is right now. It's "open" mantra gives the company the ability to see a whole generation into the future of information channel disruption. And, by bringing in "no holds barred" developers like Bray and a legion of others, the company is patiently solving problems that many of us don't even know exist.

Lastly, Bray said something that caused us some deep thought.

His comment, "when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same."

What caused us to pause was that open source development, whether Linux or XML, gives the developer, as a person, a way to contribute to the world. And it's documented. If the Internet was the Bible, leading a key open source initiative, is like getting your own chapter in the book, where time will be the judge of your actions. Much better than your manager alone.

To know that hard work, intellectual capital, libraries are available to the world after the contract is complete. This really speaks to the artist in us, in a way, the paid open source developer is using Google as a canvas.

If working at Google offers this emotional spark to employees, it will gain entirely new efficiencies in solving the big problems, in the context of individual efforts. Maybe this open source spirit is embedded into Twitter, and is why it works. We like to contribute to our version of the greater good...and want fans to cheer us on.

What we learned; acknowledgment matters, and connections to the whole population of people is an amazing vehicle. Google: become an indie rock star - with the strength of grep.

All of the Information on Earth

Google's destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with, not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we're noticing, stopping it is another matter.

We'd like to suggest that in 2010, the company is not shy about stepping towards its future and will use its power, technology, and cash to stir it up. Here is our list of organizations in the world that Google has, is, or will be, continually bumping into in its quest for cloud information dominance.

• China (counties own the filters for the people)
• ATT (service providers own consumer on the network)
• Penguin (book publishers own the words in the texts)
• Visa (financial institutions own the digits in the transactions)
• Facebook (social networks know the details)
• Amazon (commerce sites own the decision point)
• Twitter (owns "what's happening")
• Microsoft (owns the computer applications and files)

Open can be a Key to Unlock Doors

We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer, removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically, solutions can be built where information is free.

Reviewing a few examples, such as Google Earth, Android, and even GMail and we see that where there are open protocols and information disruptive products can be built. Once they are built, the Google wields a significant economic advantage in binding the worlds information assets and converting them to eyeballs.

Here, we take a quick look at the information assets that Google is investing the global cloud.

• Results: Google has moved away from Page Rank to "Closest Object" in it's default results. What this means is that many businesses today show up as widget in the results in google with embedded links, maps, and other efficiencies.
• Ads: This is perhaps the best known and most valuable insight and unique asset, who wants to pay for what customer
• Realtime index: Google has worked to keep up with Twitter's realtime firehose
• Semantic index: The company continues to add more and more microsyntax parsers into its index, giving more controlled tools for publishers
• GMail: It had to be done. And it is monetized.
• Documents and files: Google Docs and the Apps Marketplace create a whole new stream of information about an individual. Private, personal, and shared.
• Mobile transactions: This is an interesting sample of where Google's strategy to build the Android OS pays off in the cloud. Not only does Google get to connect mobile to the rest of the offerings, but also to be able to dial in on movements, calls, and other critical tasks in our real-time lives.
• Books: Indexing all of them, first is an interesting piece of the strategy to break apart historic containers of knowledge. Is the book copyrighted? How about the quote?
• Browsers: The browser knows a lot. Google's Chrome moves it from being default search, to being default experience. This was a great example of where access to information "Faster pages" is the simple value proposition for consumers to switch.
• Filters: Protecting companies, trademarks, and interpreting the legality of free speech. Someone has to do it, if we're all one people.
• Health transactions: Google has even taken on one of the most sensitive challenges, private health information. And, it's connections to legacy systems that prefer EDI to JSON.

It's clear that Google is making progress. What we've also learned in this review is that the companies biggest asset - people - may scale to solve problems in lightweight ways that entire teams and companies haven't been able to in the past. Perhaps being open, or transparent, gives the company a unique advantage in being prepared for a cloud future.

Is the cloud where the action is?

What verb would you be if you were hired at Google?

Discuss

During my recent trip to India, I flew down to Bangalore for one reason: To meet N.R. Narayana Murthy. Murthy is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO for 21 years of Infosys, the first Indian company to go public on Nasdaq and effectively the company that began the $30 billion Indian IT outsourcing market.

Murthy’s idea was so successful that it quickly became controversial—not only within the United States where some Americans feel Indians are “stealing jobs,” but also in India where many are concerned about a tech economy that doesn’t make anything. I wanted to meet with Murthy, because in many ways he’s the best person to address what Indians at home and abroad are facing and where Indian entrepreneurship goes from here.

Here are a few highlights from our meeting:

His Day Job. Murthy thought he was stepping down from Infosys back in 2002, but he couldn’t fully let go. As such, he still works pretty much full time for the company, traveling to meet with customers and running a lot of the company’s mentoring and training programs. The more surprising aspect of his job: He personally signs off on the architecture of every building on each one of Infosys’ campuses that employ some 17,000 people around the world. The one we were sitting in was spread of eight acres and had some remarkable buildings, including one that looked like the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.

I asked why this was a top priority—after all, many Valley campuses are plush but from an architecture standpoint look about the same. He said when GE and other American multinationals were starting to come into his business everyone thought Infosys would lose the local talent war. So Murthy studied why people want to work at a particular place. One of the results was the comfort and design of the facilities. That was in 1994 when Infosys was designing the very building we were sitting in as we had this conversation. “I’ve been in charge of every building since– all over the world,” he says.

Hurting or Helping Local Entrepreneurship? Given exactly how plush Murthy and his colleagues have worked to make Infosys, has he indirectly hurt Bangalore’s entrepreneurship scene by making the risk of leaving so daunting? He smiled when I asked this and said, “We may have unwittingly. But I do feel like the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and kicking in Bangalore.”

Further, I asked about Bangalore’s Zippo-flipping, free-spending generation of young techies who’ve graduated to a huge wave of multinational jobs that pay them far more than their parents ever made, in many cases more than the rest of their families combined. Murthy didn’t deny that that instant-gratification, “gimmie” contingent was strong in the city he helped build, economically speaking. But he blames the Internet and the mass-cross-pollination of Western pop culture, not the bigger paycheck from companies like his.

“We are moving towards a uniform, global culture with an intense competitive spirit and an intense desire for instant gratification,” he says. “But I have a firm belief that each generation is better than the previous one. The Indian entrepreneurs today are more daring than we were.” (This from a man who became a capitalist after after hitchhiking across communist Eastern Europe and getting thrown in jail for chatting up someone’s girlfriend on a train. “More daring” is a tall order, young Indian techies.)

Is India’s Tech Community Too Addicted to Services? Clearly, services has been a great business for Infosys and the hundreds of dollar-millionaires and even more rupee-millionaires that the company’s generous stock program has created. But a lot of Indian CEOs and investors complain that in most cases services-based tech businesses are a great way to get revenues quick, but not a way to build a huge, high-growth business. There’s a big question of whether India’s tech sector has a worrying lack of product-building know-how.

Murthy says it’s a progression. “India missed the industrial revolution, but Indians had intelligence,” he says. “We had to make do with pen and paper. We were always forced to look at the abstract. What is happening in India today is the creation of jobs. Let’s create jobs as long as they are legal and ethical, it doesn’t matter, as long as we make money. The time will come for creating products. I wouldn’t lose sleep over this. If we create enough jobs we’ll raise the confidence of the youngsters and they’ll create products.”

India’s Infrastructure. Here’s something it’s hard for even Murthy to be upbeat about: India’s shoddy physical infrastructure. Murthy has traveled the world and it’s frustrating that so much money has poured into the country he loves, and yet, the infrastructure is still so shockingly bad.

There is progress—Infosys for instance has benefited from a new overpass that cuts down on the drive to the campus by more than thirty minutes. (See!) But it’s not moving nearly fast enough, he says. “I don’t know if we will reach the level of the United States or China,” he adds.

Murthy gave a more nuanced explanation than the usual “it’s corruption” answer you get in India. He explained that 65% of India’s population lives in rural areas and 35% live in cities. And there’s such polarity between the quality of life that politicians have to appear to be doing more for the villages than the cities if they want to get re-elected. That leaves prosperous economic cities blighted by poor sewage systems, pollution spewing generators and beggars weaving through traffic tapping on car windows. “Different emerging nations take different paths,” he says. “In China, they chose to emphasize giving people economic freedom first and political freedom second. In India we chose the opposite path.”

Hurting or Helping US-based Indians? All you have to do is read the comments on one of Vivek Wadhwa’s posts to see the ugly, anti-immigrant, anti-Indian fervor that’s been whipped up in America, post-recession. A lot of it has to do with outsourcing. I asked Murthy if he felt his company and industry’s huge success has indirectly made life harder for Indian-Americans. He turned the blame on xenophobes like Lou Dobbs and grandstanding politicians who use the wedge issue to get viewers and votes.

But it’s an issue he has to address a lot. He answers it by saying every morning he gets up and gets a Pepsi out of his GE Fridge and drives his American car to work where he sits down at his Dell computer. India used to have companies that made soft drinks, refrigerators, cars and computers. But the American ones were better. Allowing them in hurt Indian workers in the short term, but provided a far better quality of life for a much bigger swath of Indians long term. He argues outsourcing has done the same thing for US companies. Greater efficiencies and cost-savings enables these companies to stay competitive and there’s no reason they can’t—in theory—plow those savings into better local jobs or job training.

This argument isn’t going to pacify hate-mongers, because nothing will. Murthy knows that too and while he regrets it, he seems to accept it as reality.

Advice for Entrepreneurs. Murthy has started a $170 million venture fund, so although he spends most of his time still at Infosys, he clearly cares about encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs. He had two big pieces of advice for them. One, be able to articulate what you do in one sentence. If you can’t, you don’t have a good idea. And two, make sure the market is ready. Businesses are killed, not congratulated, for being ahead of their time.

Musicians, DJs and authors to reveal their favourite hangouts

Have your say on the Travel blog

HiFi, New York

HiFi is the best rock'n'roll bar in NYC.The room is covered with empty album sleeves and the juke box is hands-down the best in the city – I believe there are about 3,000 albums on it, so you can't complain about them not having your song. There is a fantastically affordable happy hour and a great local crowd. Like the rest of the East Village, it can get a bit much on weekend nights, but most of the time it's my favourite bar in town.
· 169 Avenue A, +1 212 420 8392.
Craig Finn, lead singer of the Hold Steady

Pegu Club, New York

The entrance to the Pegu is an unassuming doorway on the south side of West Houston Street. It's only when you are up the stairs that the glory of this place hits you. It is like going back to the great clubs of the 20s, when the staff were pretty and jazz and cocktails ruled. On a recent visit, two amazing Django Reinhardt-style guitarists were swinging through 30s classics. Cocktails are taken seriously here – the art of proper, classy drinking is almost a motto. At the weekend it can get pretty busy as it is becoming the "in" place.
· 77 West Houston Street, +1 212 473 7348.
James Pearson, artistic director, Ronnie Scott's, London

Po' Monkey's, Mississippi

It was a balmy night in September when I visited Po' Monkey's juke joint. It's a ramshackle hut powered by a single cable in the tiny town of Merigold, deep in the Mississippi delta. A poster on the door warned: "Bring your liquor inside but not your beer." The walls were cluttered with posters and age-old postcards, while toy monkeys swung from the rafters. It was low lit – smoky but inviting, with beer and whiskey flowing freely. Terry "Harmonica" Bean took to the tiny stage, elbow to elbow with the crowd, and delivered a mind-blowing, foot-stamping performance that will stay with me forever. Delicately soulful cries came from his ageing gruff voice, while stupendous bluegrass melodies oozed effortlessly from his antique steel guitar. This was raw blues at its authentic and spine-shivering best.
· +1 662 514 7488, 15km from Cleveland.
Dan Hipgrave, co-founder of Original Music Company (originalmusictravel.com), which launched this month and specialises in music-themed holidays

The Spirit Store, Ireland

The Spirit Store in Dundalk, County Louth, is on the edge of town beside a small harbour. There's a small, friendly bar downstairs which opens around 4pm, but it is the live music upstairs that is the main draw. You would be hard-pressed to find anywhere as welcoming to an artist and more genuinely music-driven in its programming of events. That's why I keep going back there to play, and why many other artists who have outgrown the 120- or so capacity venue keep returning. So many venues and promoters are about the money but Derek Turner, who books the music, is driven by something much more.
· +353 42 9352697.
Duke Special, musician. His DVD box set, The Stage, A Book & the Silver Screen is out now

The Hideout, London

Not exactly a venue, not exactly a bar, entrance to Trishas/The Hideout/that door on Greek St (as it is variously known), is obtained by boldly knocking on what appears to be the entrance to a flat above a shop, striding through a starkly lit corridor and down a flight of stairs, before mumbling an explanation to the owner as to why you don't appear to be in possession of a membership card – having accidentally put it through the washing machine normally does the trick. Inside, you'll find a cupboard-sized, candle-lit cavern which can be hired out for private music showcases. But stumble in unannounced after hours on a weekend and you might also find a doo wop or jazz band sandwiched into the corner between the usual crowd of transvestites, metropolitan hipsters and veteran Italian locals.
57 Greek Street, Soho, London.
Krissi Murison, editor, NME

The Shed North Yorkshire

I first played at this blink-and-you'll-miss-it shed in the tiny village of Brawby back in 1998. It only held 64 people and we scraped our legs on the front row's knees. It has since moved to Hovingham village hall, though it retains its name. The man behind The Shed, Simon Thackray, has presented events from the Fish and Chip Van Tour with a trombonist, to mixed media knitting installations – saxophonist Lol Coxhill playing free jazz in a skip to coach trips for folks in knitted Elvis wigs touring sites of Elvisian interest in Ryedale. My own band, Hank Wangford and the Lost Cowboys, started a tradition of Christmas gigs at The Shed, where we play morose songs and have a riotously miserable time. The Shed was the inspiration for my village hall tour around Britain, which I am currently writing up as a book. And, after 235 villages, The Shed is still the loony best.
· 01653 668494.
Hank Wangford, writer and musician. His CD, Whistling in the Dark, is out now

A38, Budapest

For me, the greatest gig of 2009 was at A38, a huge old ship that used to lug coal up and down the Danube. The lower deck is now a state-of-the-art live music venue, but bits of engine room equipment are still there. Even though the boat is held down in dry dock by 100 tonnes of concrete, the bottles still jingle on the shelves of the bar when the parties get wild. The booking policy is great – they've had cutting-edge electronic artists such as Ikonika, Dorian Concept and Foreign Beggars play recently. And nothing compares with the signature dish of the restaurant on the upper deck: rooster stew, complete with the crest and testicles of the bird.
· +36 1 464 39 40.
Mary Anne Hobbs, Radio 1 DJ. Her show is broadcast on Thursdays 2-4am

Wild At Heart, Berlin

Wild At Heart is a whisky-soaked, no-nonsense rock'n'roll joint in Berlin's old anarchist district, Kreuzberg: a seven-nights-a-week venue painted blood red, crammed with Elvis memorabilia, Hawaiian gods and a lifetime's supply of hard liquor. For 15 years it has presented bands from all over the world – mostly punk, rockabilly, psychobilly, 60s garage and surf. I spent a memorable evening there talking to TV Smith from the Adverts and another with Wreckless Eric, both of whom started out with punk label Stiff Records in 1977, and I've played there with my band, the Flaming Stars. The music's loud, but the welcome is friendly, and the club also runs the Tiki Heart cafe and clothes shop next door, where you can eat, drink and kit yourself out in a spectacular variety of rock'n'roll clobber.
· Wienerstrasse 20, +49 30 610 747 01.
Max Décharné, singer in the Flaming Stars and author of A Rocket in My Pocket: The Hipster's Guide to Rockabilly, to be published by Serpent's Tail in June

Mesa de Frades, Lisbon

Mesa de Frades in Alfama, the oldest district of Lisbon, is the sort of place you dream of hearing fado, the traditional soulful Portuguese music. A tiny converted chapel with tiled walls, it is full of locals and quality performers booked by owner Pedro Castro, a great guitar player. You can come for the music, which starts late – around 11pm – or book a table and come for an excellent dinner beforehand. A couple of years ago I sat here watching Carminho, the amazing young fado singer who is now the talk of Lisbon. When the music starts, the doors are shut to enclose the tiny performing space. It's what fado in Lisbon should be, but so rarely is.
· Rua dos Remedios 139A, +351 91 702 9436, mesadefrades.com. Booking is essential.
Simon Broughton, editor of Songlines magazine (songlines.co.uk/musictravel)

Il Folk Club, Turin

In the heart of Turin, off Piazza Statuto, you'll find the best of all worlds: from Wednesday to Saturday Il Folk Club plays host to Italian and international jazz, folk and world musicians. How this Italian institution – legendary in Turin for over 20 years – has remained generally unknown to travellers and music junkies outside Italy is a mystery. Alongside its regular programme, Il Folk Club is also the launching point for Radio Londra, a monthly mini-festival which fuses British musicians such as Jim Mullen, Kit Downes, Brandon Allen and Quentin Collins Quartet, with local stars such as Mario Pozza, Enzo Zirilli and Dado Moroni. The bar is simple – one central room with space for about 150 people, exposed brick walls, and a stage – so the focus is always on the incredible music.
Via Ettore Perrone 3, Turin.
Sam Sollai, buyer and events coordinator, Ray's Jazz at Foyles

Gerbard, Barcelona

This little neighbourhood bar used to have a green door with panes that rattled when you opened it, but it has now been replaced with something more solid, partly to keep the sound in. It's run by Mar and Nacho, both dyed-in-the-wool culés (Barcelona supporters), and nights there are long and loud. You can hear Sam Lardner, an American resident who plays his own fusion of flamenco and bossa nova, or wonderful classical and flamenco guitarists like Daniel Figueras and Pedro Javier Hermosilla, or the Covers Project, with frontman Philip Stanton. The eating and drinking are delicious too – Galician-style octopus, traditional meatballs, pimientos de padron (small green peppers), and wine for not much more than a euro a glass. A great night out in the Alta Zona.
· C/ Ivorra 24, Sarria, Barcelona, +93 203 4988.
Rupert Thomson, author living in Barcelona. His latest book, This Party's Got to Stop, will be published on 8 April

La Casona del Molino, Salta, Argentina

Salta, in north-west Argentina, is well-known for its folk music heritage. This has given rise to the creation of pena, which roughly translates as a place where musicians and music lovers come together. Seven nights a week you can experience this at La Casona. The venue's five colonial rooms are filled to the brim with musicians, professional and amateur, folk, jazz and others, locals who come down from the Andes bearing pan pipes and drums, and some foreign visitors, all coming together to jam the local tunes. As a musician, I found great comfort in the fact that this kind of place exists in the world. And of course, many people come simply for the music.
· La Casona del Molino, Caseros.
Lizzie Ball, violinist and singer. She will be performing – and launching her album – with Machaca at La Linea Festival in the Purcell Room on London's South Bank on 27 April

Salón Rosado de la Tropical, Havana

The first time I asked a taxi driver to take me to Havana's Salón Rosado de la Tropical back in 1989 he said it was a place for Cubans, not foreign tourists – and certainly not lone women – and I'd better watch out as it could be rough. He'd obviously never been inside this mecca of Cuban dance music, where all the top bands play regularly, testing their latest material in front of the sexiest dancers on the island. In Cuba, most music venues are geared to tourists and too expensive for ordinary Cubans, who are often not allowed in anyway. Not so the Salón Rosado. This is the closest you can get to hanging out with a Cuban clientele. Dedicated to the memory of Beny Moré, Cuba's touchstone band leader of the 1950s, it started out life a Spanish cultural centre at the beginning of the 20th century. These days there's a balcony reserved for tourists overlooking the dance floor where, if you're lucky, you may rub shoulders with the musicians as they gather for the gig. Although today reggaeton and hip-hop dominate street tastes, Salon Rosado continues to offer a window on to the latest music scene and is a dancer's dream.
· Avenida 41 esq. 46, Nicanor del Campo, Marianao, +53 7 203 5322.
Jan Fairley has been travelling to Cuba since 1978 and is writing a book on women and music in Cuba

Liquid Room, Tokyo

Leading Japanese venue Liquid Room has been going for about 15 years and hosts weekly bands and DJs from Japan and around the world. The website may say it closes at 12, but the last time I played there, as The Orb, they didn't let us out till 6am. There's a beautiful cafe upstairs and the friendly enthusiasm of Tokyo clubbers has to be experienced to be believed. The last time I played there I took a bag of Space Dust (the sweet!) which made me very popular.
· Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, +81 3 5464 0800, liquidroom.net.
Alex Paterson, co-founder of The Orb and HFB, his new project. HFB's first three EPs are available from 12 April on Malicious Damage Records

New Africa Shrine, Lagos, Nigeria

Lagos is not your classic tourist destination; it's a prohibitively expensive city of 14 million people and a crime record to frighten even the toughest traveller. But Nigeria's notorious capital does have one musical landmark worth going the extra mile for: the New Africa Shrine. It's named after the legendary club run by the late musical activist Fela Kuti, which was razed by soldiers. Fela's daughter Yeni and her musician brother Femi have built up a nightclub that can hold thousands and has live music throughout the week. It's not for the faint-hearted, but the Shrine is probably the safest place in Lagos: it has its own police force. You'll get a warm welcome, and hear some of the best live music in the region.
· Pepple Street, Ikeja.
Rose Skelton, music and travel journalist specialising in West Africa

• Bars and clubs
• United States
• New York
• Ireland
• World music
• Budapest
• Hungary
• Berlin
• Germany
• Lisbon
• Portugal
• Yorkshire
• Argentina
• Havana
• Cuba

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Oh Palm. Just a little over a year ago your future seemed so bright, so renewed. You walked away from CES 2009 reborn, held aloft by a completely innovative new mobile operating system, a striking piece of hardware, and a feeling amongst the press and investors that you were back in the game and playing to win. Now, less than a year and a half later, you've nearly returned to the dark and desperate place you'd found yourself in at the end of 2008; a rapidly declining mindshare, the bottom falling out of your stock, and bad dips in phone sales. All of it is leaving you backed into a corner where the common perception now is that you've got to sell to survive at all. So what went wrong? How did such a promising launch lead to such a disappointing reality? And how can you wrestle your way back from the brink yet again? Is that even an option?

In 2007 the editors of Engadget penned an impassioned open letter to the company, pleading for many of the changes we eventually saw at Palm. This isn't a follow-up, but it's very much in the spirit. We're going to take a look at the missteps that put the company in its current spot, and talk about what we think can pull it back out. Palm, it's time for a little tough love... again.

Continue reading Palm: this is your survival guide

Palm: this is your survival guide originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With so many female-driven films and strong roles at this year's fest, and in the spirit of the opening night film, we'll be profiling some of the most kick-ass females representing at SXSW this week. Next up: Skateland star Ashley Greene.

Like many of her cast mates, 23-year-old actress Ashley Greene has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity thanks to her involvement in the Twilight films, in which she plays the cheery, pixie-like vampire Alice Cullen. And, like many of her co-stars, Greene has taken advantage of her newfound celebrity to pursue non-Twilight projects between filming on New Moon, Eclipse, and the planned franchise finale, Breaking Dawn. One of those projects was Skateland, a Texas-set coming-of-age drama set at the beginning of the '80s, in which Greene plays the best friend to actor Shiloh Fernandez's lost protagonist, Ritchie Wheeler.

For Greene, the role of Michelle was a chance to stretch as an actor, to exercise muscles she hadn't been given the chance to explore in her pre-Twilight days. Fans who have only seen Greene as Bella Swan's perky BFF should enjoy watching her take the lead in Skateland, in which she's asked to riff with her male co-stars, express subtle emotional beats, and play out a tender love scene with Fernandez.

Cinematical spoke with Greene in Austin, where she was attending the SXSW premiere of Skateland.

Filed under: New Releases, Festival Reports, Fandom, Interviews, Cinematical Indie

Continue reading The Kick-Ass Ladies of SXSW: Ashley Greene

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(Version Française ici).

About five years ago, I wrote a detailed report on how one could have the choice between GNU / Linux and other operating systems in Argentina. that was most surprising for French people, that have always had the greatest difficulties in getting such a choice, despite the remarkable efforts made by the Working Group Detaxe and Racketiciels. It was even possible at that time in Argentina to compare on the website of major retail chains (Fravega, Garbarino, the equivalent of Darty or Boulanger in France) the price for the same machine with another operating system or with a Debian-based, customised Argentinian GNU / Linux, developed by an SME named Pixart (not to be confused with the studio Pixar!).

But starting from 2 years ago, I have seen that it has become impossible to find any longer a single machine with GNU / Linux in retail: worse, we saw some very dubious agreements negotiated under the high patronage of the founder of the multinational software company that monopolises the operating systems market.

One may well ask why: this is not without reminding us of the situation here in France, where after SFR placed on the market more thatn 250000 Netbooks all equipped with GNU / Linux about two years ago, we can not find now a single netbook without Windows (yes, I write the name in full letters now, because I am particularly upset: I wanted to buy one for personal use this Christmas, but despite my efforts, I have not found a single model with a GNU / Linux preinstalled in France).

The few remaining fans of software monopolies like to say that this sudden vanishement proves that the other operating system is superior to GNU / Linux.

Well, I happen to have in my hands right now a copy of the appeal filed against Microsoft by the little Argentine SMEs Pixart, and it is very helpful in understanding what really happened there ... and very likely what is happening here too.

The Windows For The Poor

Microsoft does not usually sit back when it loses market share, and I already noticed back then that Redmond had put in place a strategy to counter the spread of GNU / Linux in emerging markets. In Argentina, already in 2005 they had managed to convince the government to spend taxpayer money on an operation codenamed 'Mi PC', which through a microcredit whose interests were paid by the state, encouraged the public to buy machines that are sold with Windows SE (Starter Edition, they say), better known today as Windows FTP (For The Poor). This edition sports ludicrous limitations like the following: only recognises 256 Mb of RAM (with XP, It's a little short), 80 GB hard disk (ditto), screen resolution was limited to 800x600, no local network, and you cannot open windows for more than 3 applications at once (oh well, if there is something that poor people have in abundance is time, therefore they will only run 3 tasks in parallel, and no more).

This version was sold cheaper than the standard Windows editions , with the aim to compete with GNU / Linux machines, but at that time this move made me laugh quite a bit because the early machines with Windows FTP still costed at least 500 pesos more than the equivalent GNU / Linux systems, which had no such ridiculous limitations: one really had to be poor in spirit to purchase them!

The rear margins (or Market Development Agreements)

What I did not know in 2006 is that the Windows For The Poor was just a first step in the strategy: The second step was to artificially lower the final price of computers running Windows, and financially strangling Pixart, which could not charge anymore its service for pre-installation of custom GNU / Linux on machines manufactured in Argentina.

In reading the appeal filed by Pixart, we learn that Microsoft would have started in 2008 to give back large amounts of money to the whole distribution chain to convince them to buy exclusively Windows, and these sums have been disguised in various forms.

For example, I heard that Microsoft would have payed hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to some distributors, officially for the Microsoft logo to appear on the leaflet advertising the chain. Well, this kind of operation is called 'rear margin' here, and generally corresponds to an abuse of dominant position from retailers who charge abusive fees to small suppliers for purported advertising campaigns that hide forced rebates. But in our case, I have a hard time thinking that a small retail chain in Latin America has a dominant position when facing a multinational that generates profits of billions of dollars a year.

But why, you will say , is Microsoft complicatin its life like this? Was'nt it easier to simply lower the cost of licensing Windows to, say, $ 5, rather than continue to charge $ 100 initially, to repay $ 95 to distributors right after?

Well, no! Because, if we lower the cost of the officially licensed Windows FTP to $ 5, then it must be sold $ 5 everywhere, and we can no longer pretend to charge $ 200 to large customers (such as ministries in Argentina) for the full version .

It is much more interesting to pretend that the cost is 50 or 100 dollars, and find a way to give back 45 or 95 dollars under the table: on one side the illusion is maintained that the price is high and constant, on the other, one can happily strangle competition, by lowering prices only on the competitive segment (the rebate is conditioned, of course, to stopping any sale of the rival product).

The competition law

This wonderful monopolistic invention has one flaw, though: it brutally violates the rules of competition, which are codified, for better or worse, in almost all countries, including Argentina. To function properly, it must be carried out in the greatest secrecy, and stay safe from prying eyes.

But it may well be that this discretion is not going to las much longer: using the laws on competition in Argentina, Pixart filed appeal, describing what it thinks is the strategy followed by Microsoft, and asking the judge to compel Microsoft, and distributors to provide all evidence of purchases, grants, rebates, in short, an account of all financial transaction, even by means of intermediaries, between Microsoft and distributors.

Pixart also suggests that the judge checks whether Microsoft properly pays tariffs for imports of these licenses: it is well known that Microsoft

Here's one more point concerning the motions filed in the YouTube case by Google and Viacom. We had mentioned in our analysis that Google highlights the details of Viacom's rather large "stealth marketing" campaign to upload videos to YouTube, but Eric Goldman points out that the practices Google uncovered certainly sound like they cross the line of what the FTC says is legitimate: YouTube also scored points for its descriptions of Viacom's stealth marketing practices. Although these facts only help YouTube's legal posture a little, the lawsuit's discovery process has unveiled some non-public information about Viacom’s practices that should be interesting to the FTC and state attorney generals. Viacom's alleged stealth marketing practices are aggressive--close to the permissible line, if not over it. As a result, they might be exactly the kind of consumer misdirection and inauthentic online content that the FTC has been railing against, and we know the FTC is looking for test cases in this area. So, a lawsuit that began as Viacom v. YouTube might morph into FTC v. Viacom. This is one of the known risks of picking a fight--once started, you can't control where it goes. Indeed, Google presents rather detailed evidence of the lengths Viacom went through to fool users into thinking that clips were uploaded by people other than Viacom. Among Viacom's actions:

• Hiring "an army of third-party marketing agents to upload clips on its behalf"
• Having the uploads come from names that are made to look like random users
• Using non-Viacom email addresses to sign up for accounts -- with the company admitting that it wanted to use email addresses that "can't be traced" back to the company.
• Leaving Viacom offices to go elsewhere to do the uploads (such as Kinkos) to avoid connecting the uploads to Viacom.
• Altering the footage of videos to make them appear unauthorized: "so users feel they have found something unique."

While certainly helping Google make the point that it's ridiculous to expect it to know which videos were legit and which were infringing, these also seem to certainly violate the spirit of the FTC's recent guidelines on questionable "stealth" marketing practices. As Goldman notes, if the FTC is looking for a high profile test case, they may have just been handed a ton of useful evidence.

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· Kauto Star falls four out after a ragged ride
· Denman battles on to take second place

The miracle of this Gold Cup was that two great champions were dethroned and yet it still felt like a day of wonder for National Hunt racing. Ruby Walsh rode the fallen odds-on favourite, Kauto Star, back to the unsaddling enclosure from the scene of their tumble upright in the saddle, like a defiant cavalry officer, and Denman reached into his deepest store of energy to finish runner-up to Imperial Commander, who was cheered by an exultant crowd despite spoiling the romantic two‑horse script.

The Festival rose a level with Imperial Commander's seven-length victory at 7-1. So relentlessly dramatic was this 3¼-mile trial of the spirit that tens of thousands of spectators became part of the contest out on the track. Cheltenham crowds are often giddy and always appreciative but nobody could remember them being so consumed by the action with every jump. They gasped as Denman soared over fences and howled when Kauto Star crashed through the eighth and knocked the light out of himself before coming down four fences out.

In other sports Imperial Commander would have been greeted as an impostor who had ruined the decider between the winners of the last three Gold Cups. Instead there was a realisation that jump racing had erred by turning this occasion into a private duel between the two Paul Nicholls-trained big shots.

In the build-up the rest of the field had assumed the role of bit-part players. Imperial Commander was not the only contender to interject. Third home was last year's Grand National winner, Mon Mome, who rated barely a mention in the preamble. Plenty of shrewd punters were immune to this ballyhoo. As Imperial Commander passed the line under Paddy Brennan, damp copies of the Racing Post were tossed and hats flew like Frisbees. Some had noticed that the winner had been beaten by only a nose by Kauto Star in the Betfair Chase in November and was decent value at 7-1.

There is the theatre out on the track and then there is the betting, in which most punters were wiped out over the four days. If hope could take human form, it would have been driven away from the Cotswolds in an ambulance. The defeats of Master Minded in Wednesday's Queen Mother Champion Chase and Kauto Star and Denman were the biggest triumphs for bookmakers in a week when gamblers squealed for mercy.

So this was not a two-creature pageant but a test for the best of the National Hunt breed. For seven fences it was a masterclass of steeplechasing. But then Kauto Star exhibited the first signs of mental frailty since the bad old days when he would try to walk straight through fences late in races. Just as Walsh was doubtless starting to sniff his third Gold Cup win on Desert Orchid's successor as the nation's official horse, Kauto Star turned him into a rodeo rider, belting the top of the fence and almost jolting Ireland's champion out of the plate.

L'Extraterrestrial, as he was known in France, ploughed on but his confidence had evaporated. Denman, the darling of traditionalists, took up the stable's cause, jumping audaciously and barrelling into open country. The audience was entranced. Four fences out Kauto Star self-detonated, stepping in to the foot of the obstacle and sending himself over the birch in a somersaulting heap. As Walsh landed like a fly-half diving in for a try, he turned straightaway to check his partner was unharmed. Later, as Imperial Commander took the ovation, Walsh could be seen standing up in the saddle as Kauto Star's white noseband approached through the gloom.

This was how to come home vanquished: upright, proud. Kauto Star cantered back to the exit chute "as fresh as a daisy" in Walsh's plucky phrase. He was hardly that. But National Hunt racing folk do not make a tragedy out of a setback. Kauto Star had passed from invincibility to fallibility inside 10 minutes. His romping wins in last year's Gold Cup and December's King George VI Chase seemed an age ago. Like boxers steeplechasers never warn you the end is nigh. It was not the mistake at the eighth fence that pointed to his mortality so much as his inability to recover from it.

Denman, who could be trained for next year's Grand National, was transcending doubt and showing himself to be a great equine warrior from the old school. To achieve immortality here a horse needs more than one Gold Cup victory (he crushed Kauto Star to win two years ago) yet Denman has twice distinguished himself in defeat. This course jolts him back to life. His acolytes would say it is because he was bred for days like these. The heavy, saturnine mood that seems to afflict him at the Nicholls yard lifts and he attacks the Prestbury fences with joie de vivre. "That Denman, he never goes away, does he?" Brennan said.

Under Tony McCoy he was asked to make the final assault swinging for home but the sprightly, super-fit Imperial Commander was skipping along with him and accelerated up the hill to register a distinctly local triumph. Motor to a Cotswolds village called Guiting Power 12 miles away and you will find a pub called the Hollow Bottom, which feels like an extension of Cheltenham racecourse. It is also a shrine to Nigel Twiston-Davies, Imperial Commander's trainer, who has a share in the business and who said as he approached the winner's enclosure here: "This was a home win. We are where we belong."

Half an hour later Twiston-Davies's 18-year-old son Sam won the Foxhunter Chase on the stable's Baby Run, then their Pigeon Island took the last under Brennan. All leave would have been cancelled at the Hollow Bottom. "Paul Nicholls has done a wonderful job with his two horses but we need new ones coming through and ours is the best now," Twiston-Davies senior said of his champion. "I loved all the Kauto Star-Denman thing but I always thought we could beat them."

From a theoretically anticlimactic day the Racing For Change initiative had the perfect promotional DVD. This beat media training, decimal odds, simpler racecourse announcements and all the other ploys to get people to the track. It was the action speaking for itself. It was the purest sport.

• Cheltenham Gold Cup
• Kauto Star
• Denman
• Cheltenham festival
• Horse racing

Paul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

We saw a cartoon recently that shows the attendees of a "Climate Summit", with a single naysayer yelling out from the back of the crowd "What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?"

Well, in the spirit of creating a better world for nothing, we bring to you three iPhone apps that we hope can help do just that.

Sponsor

In her panel on "Handheld Awesome Detectors: World Changing Mobile Apps" last week at the South By South West festival in Austin, Rachel Weidinger got to talking about a number of iPhone apps that could help us all do just that - change the world. While some, like Ushahidi are certainly world changing, they're not much use for day to day life, so we decided to let you know about three apps she clued us in on that can help you make world-changing decisions in your simple, everyday life.

Seafood Watch Seafood Watch, the free iPhone app put out by the Monterey Bay Aquarium helps you make sustainable choices when buying fish. But how does it do this?

The app offers a seafood guide, which customizes content according to geographical region, lets you search according to what type of fish you're considering buying or eating at a restaurant. The guide rates your choices according to a number of criteria, from whether or not it is overfished to how much the methods employed are affecting the environment. The ratings also take your health into account, warning you to avoid certain types of fish because they may contain chemicals.

So, while everyone always says to eat fish because it's good for you, download this app and it could be good for the environment too.

Locavore Another bandwagon you have may have seen careening past in recent times, and may have even hopped on yourself (good for you!) is sustainability through eating locally grown and harvested foods. This can be a difficult endeavor at times, though, and Locavore is here to help you. The app sells for $2.99, which is chump change in comparison to those organic, locally-grown, vine-ripe tomatoes, but it's all for a good cause, right?

Locavore shows where and when certain types of foods are in season, nearby farmers' markets and links to Wikipedia and Epicurious to help with context on 234 different fruits and vegetables.

GoodGuide

GoodGuide is the more all-encompassing package, looking at more than 60,000 products and rating them according to "health, environmental and social performance". The guide gives you information about the product your buying, from whether or not it contains carcinogens to how the company handles water management. Here's a quick explanation from the website on how GoodGuide arrives at its ratings:

GoodGuide aggregates and analyzes data on both product and company performance. The team employs a range of scientific methods--health hazard assessment, environmental impact assessment, and social impact assessment--to identify major impacts to human health, the environment, and society. Each of these categories is then further analyzed within specific issue areas, such as climate change policies, labor concerns, and product toxicity. Currently, GoodGuide's database includes over 1,100 base criteria through which we evaluate products and companies.

The guide is still in the beta stages - and this is quite an ambitious project - but if you can have and pay attention to this sort of information, then you can get past flashy advertising and get to the bottom of where you're spending your hard earned money.

Discuss

Réunion à la rédaction de Paquet Fedora du Jour: "- L'autre jour, ton article sur Frozen Bubble - Oui et alors? - Ben un lecteur nous a dit d'essayer MonkeyBubble, parce que c'était plus fun? J'ai testé et il a raison - M*****, on passe pour des !#§*ù$ là, qu'est ce qu'on fait? - On publie un article discrètement sur ce jeu, l'air de rien, et tête basse - Ok, ok... - Au fait, ça va avec ta femme? -..."
La suite de la conversation n'a que peu d'importance pour le sujet qui nous concerne.

Dans la famille des clones de Puzzle Bobble, je demande le petit frère, Monkey Bubble! Le principe reste identique: Tirer des bulles de couleur sur les amas situés en haut de l'écran. Si au moins trois bulles de la même couleur se touchent, elles tombent en entrainant toutes les bulles retenues seulement par elles. Si les bulles atteignent le bas de l'écran, vous perdez. Si au contraire vous arrivez à vider l'écran, vous gagnez.
Monkey Bubble présente de simples graphismes cartoon en 2D, mais très bien finis. La petite bande son roots est des plus agréables et vous donnera envie de vous jeter furieusement vers votre bar pour vous préparer un mojito.
Monkey Bubble prévoit également le multijoueur avec un mode deux joueurs sur le même écran ou le jeu en réseau.

Ne vous trompez pas, Monkey Bubble est bien le jeu de Puzzle qu'il vous faut, si vous n'avez rien à faire pendant les deux heures suivantes bien entendu, car vous allez forcément y rester accroché.

Installation en ligne de commande : yum install monkey-bubble

Installation avec l'interface graphique : Jeux > Game in the spirit of Frozen Bubble

Localisation dans le menu : Applications > Jeux > Monkey Bubble

Lancement en ligne de commande : /usr/bin/monkey-bubble

Site web : http://home.gna.org/monkeybubble/

Billet original de Paquet Fedora du Jour.Votez pour cet article sur le Planet Libre.

New fantasy hack and slasher looks promising

Dungeon crawler games have fallen way out of fashion in the last 10-15 years, so the genuine excitement shown by the developers of new title Hunted: The Demon's Forge at the recent press launch was understandable. Clearly the standard marketing and focus group considerations would have been taking into consideration when green lighting the game but you definitely got the feeling that Hunted is a labour of love for the team. Not surprising, perhaps, when you consider that the project lead is Bard's Tale veteran Brian Fargo.

Hunted is a third-person, co-op based, action RPG with a standard fantasy setting that felt very familiar. The decent enough visuals won't win any awards either but this doesn't look like a game where you'll be gawping at the scenery. The demo showed a lot of hack and slash action and even more of the female protagonist – yes, this isn't a good example to use in any "games have grown up, honest!" style argument - but it does look like it could be fun to play, especially in co-op. The dynamic between the male melee character and the female archer was an obvious co-op design decision and the demo showed what could be a common sight – the archer picking off enemies from range while the melee character hacks away up close. This all sounds very MMO-like but while customisation is available you will not be able to create your own character from scratch. I spoke to game director Maxx Kaufman about design, influences and how co-op will work.

What is the background to the game?

Being huge fans of fantasy and Dungeon & Dragons, we were inspired to create a game that would allow us to get lost in a dungeon, fight AND explore a really cool fantasy world. As a kid I always dreamed of fighting monsters with a sword and a bow as well as exploring for magic and treasure. Now in Hunted I can do that. It is an exhilarating experience to see this world come to life.

Why is now the time to relaunch the dungeon crawler genre?

In the past these games have always been very successful but I think that they've gotten lost with the MMO craze. We really felt that it was time to bring the dungeon crawl back – but in a way that made sense to today's gamer.

Hunted is a cover action game at its core but it also allows the player the opportunity to explore the game's vast environments. At certain times in the game the player will be fighting waves of enemies while at other times they'll be searching through dark, eerie dungeons.

Do you think the linear dungeon crawl experience will appeal to gamers used to the wide open worlds of Fallout and World of Warcraft?

The world in which Hunted takes place is really rich and exciting. We like to think of it as getting on a roller coaster whether you are alone or with a friend – it's just a really engaging experience either way. Players will be on an adventure that takes them through numerous locales – they'll go deep into underground dungeons, make their way through really awe-inspiring outdoor environments and wind their way through these old towns. Our goal is to create a compelling experience that gives players the sensation of being in a Lord of the Rings-esque movie.

How important is the co-op to the game?

Co-op is vital to our game. It was planned from the very beginning that this would be a co-op game and our design and story is based around that. In the past co-op games have had a tendency to tether players together. We have implemented the opposite philosophy that we call co-op at a distance. We encourage the players to separate and support one another from a distance.

All of our spells and skills are based around the idea of players being apart but able to help each other. For example you can heal a downed player by throwing a re-gen vial at a distance. This avoids the tedious task of running to your partner and slapping them back to life. Ice arrows will allow Elara, our ranged character, to shoot and freeze enemies from a distance. Caddoc will then simply smash them into pieces. Caddoc has a levitation skill that will allow him to create a radius of levitation around his sword that will cause enemies in the area to float harmlessly around him. Elara is then able to shoot them from a distance.

Co-op at a distance is threaded through every aspect of Hunted's design, from enemies to spells, and in the level design. It even carries over to the single-player mode. A player can play the game with an AI partner and still get a similar experience.

How important is the story to the game?

For us, the story sets the mood and it gives us an important frame work from which to create the game.

For players, as with most games, the story unfolds as they make their way through the game. Those who want to delve deeper in the story can find clues and information to the game's 500 year plus lore. Alternatively, if you are the type of player who is only interested in action, you can play through the game and still have a rich experience.

How does online play work - do you get XP etc in someone else's game?

Players that play online will gain crystals, which are the currency used to gain spells and skills. For example, if you play online and you are further ahead in the game than I am, I can play with you, and the crystals I gain can be transferred back to my single player campaign.

What customization options are available?

There are various weapons and items the player can pick up that will boost certain abilities, but the real customization comes in with our skills and spells system. The players trade in crystals they find throughout the world for various skills. Because the characters have unique abilities there is a lot of variation in the types of customization that can be achieved.

E'lara will gain spells and skills that are related to her bow while Caddoc's skills are based around his melee combat. Some of these skills are common to both characters, but there are many skills that are unique to each character based on their strengths, such as Levitation for Caddoc and Ice Arrow for E'lara. Ultimately playing Hunted will be a very different experience based on the customizations you choose.

Do you think co-op is more important than competitive play in online gaming generally?

It's not a case of one being more important than the other. In the case of Hunted, it was about what made the most sense and what people would want, and that's to experience this alongside a friend or someone else, not fighting head-to-head.

Can you explain how the levelling up and RPG elements work?

The leveling occurs when you meet up with an ethereal spirit named Seraphine. She tasks the player with collecting crystals and in return she will grant you spells and skills. By finding better weapons that are throughout the world, players can also upgrade their weapons. If you are the type of player that enjoys exploration we have tons of secrets. The more challenging secrets will yield better items and loot.

What sort of audience do you think Hunted will attract?

Because fantasy games have such a large fan base I think Hunted has broad appeal. We are melding two popular game genres – fantasy and action - into one game which makes its appeal even wider.

While the MMO fans will enjoy the ability to just pick up and play, they will also be taken on a cinematic adventure in the genre they love.

The metal soundtrack and scantily clad ladies suggest a traditional gamer but do you think a wider audience may be interested?

We're going for a soundtrack similar to the movie "300". And who doesn't like scantily clad ladies? Both of these elements will appeal to a large audience and fit within the context on the game.

Is Hunted a reaction to more complex RPGs that have sprung up over the last 10 years?

Hunted is a reimagining of the forgotten dungeon crawl category using today's technology and gameplay styles, for today's gamer.

Hunted: Demon's Forge is released on PC, 360 and PS3 later this year

• Games

Greg Howsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Newly released for Apple Iphone

Deena Jonez - Official M.O.A. App 2.5


Category: Music
Price: $0.99 (iTunes)

Description:

This is the official Deena Jonez app for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

This app is a must-have for Deena Jonez fans. It helps you keep up with Deena Jonez while you're on the go.

The rich features and unique content in this app include:
- watch the latest videos
- browse photos
- sample their latest music
- read blog posts and the latest news

About Deena Jonez:
In the spirit of keeping the legacy of true female emcees alive, Brooklyn born rapper Deena Jonez has emerged in the hip hop scene. With influences such as Mc Lyte, Queen Latifah, Roxanne Shante, and Salt-n-Pepper Deena continues to make big strides for female artists all over the world. Frustrated with the current state of hip hop and the male dominated arena, Deena looks to stand out. ”It’s difficult being a female rapper. In the 90’s you had all these greats who were committed to the art. Now it’s like we are an endangered species; almost like we don’t exist anymore in hip hop,”

Popular Songs by Deena Jonez:
Mama Told Me
Flud watch
Collections Skit
Electronics
Deena Dont Do It



Deena Jonez - Official M.O.A. App



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Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is the first United States museum exhibition of the late works of American artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) and the first major Warhol survey in New York since the 1989 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Created amid the frenetic activity of Warhol’s celebrity, the nearly fifty paintings on view reveal the artist’s vitality, energy, and spirit of experimentation. (PRWeb Mar 19, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3744744.htm

Yesterday I received an email from a reader of this site and today I'd like to answer it (with the permission of the person who sent it). Here is what he wrote:

Thank you so much for your booklet, "Sexual Detox." I have read it over and over, and am still very much challenged by it. I was recently married and was under the illusion that marriage would solve all of my lust problems... Even though I had been told numerous times that it would not. Now I feel that everything has come to head, I know what I must do, and I want so very badly to do it, but I feel that the devil knows this is THE deciding point in my life on this issue, and he is working hard against me. I feel more captivated and strangled by my sin than ever before, and I need you to pray for me. If you have any advice or encouragement to offer, please tell me.

Thanks for sending this note. It sounds to me like you are absolutely right when say that this is a deciding point in your life on the issue of lust and the acting out of that lust. Satan will be working hard against you and, in many ways, you will be working hard against yourself. You gave yourself over to your sin and no doubt you've become captivated by it. As sin always seeks to do, it has ensnared you. But take heart. There is hope.

To reiterate what I wrote in Sexual Detox, the fact that you feel sexual desire is a good and noble thing. God has given you that desire so you will pursue your bride. But, like all good gifts, the gift of sex is one that we are prone to pervert, turning it into a means of selfish self-fulfillment. God wants you to pursue your wife, to win her heart not just once but day-by-day; and he wants you to enjoy sex with her. But, of course, you have grown used to indulging the flesh, to giving it its desires, those desires that are perversions of the true gift. And sin rarely just goes away; it is usually a long and difficult process to put it to death.

A few days ago someone asked me, "What difference does it make that Christ is on his throne?" I had to think about that one, but when I did, the answer became clear. It makes all the difference in the world. Just this morning I read from Hebrews 1 where the author says, "After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." There is such glorious truth there.

Purification

First, Christ made purification for sins. This is the very heart of the Christian faith. Finally, after those long millenia of human history, the thousands of Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Christ. The seed promised all the way back in Genesis 3 had come and had crushed the head of the serpent. What this means is that if you have trusted in Christ, if you have put your faith in him, you have been purified from your sin. God no longer regards you as defiled by sin, but looks at you and sees the sinless perfection of Christ. Your sin has been given to him, his righteousness has been transferred to you.

Purification is an especially important word when we discuss sexual sin, for no sin makes us feel as dirty, as defiled, as impure as sexual sin. Because sex is so deep, so intimate, it touches the body, the soul, the emotions. And so, when we sin sexually, we tend to feel a deep sense of defilement, and particularly so when we sin in spite of a convicted conscience.

And yet Christ died to purify you from even this sin. You have sinned against God and need to seek his forgiveness. I am sure you've already done this, but do go to God, even now, and confess your sin. Be reconciled to God and receive his forgiveness, his purification from sin. Christ is far more willing to forgive you than you are even to pursue your sin.

The Majesty on High

That Christ has made purification for sin is an amazing truth. But it is only half the truth of this verse. Christ has not just died, but he is risen and now reigns at the right hand of the Father. And what does it mean that Christ is on his throne? It means that Christ is ruling and reigning. It means that Christ is sovereign, that he is King, that he has power. He gives power to his people through the Spirit, his Spirit, that he has sent to be our helper. Christ has given you the power to overcome sin. What a glorious truth this is! He has given you all you need, absolutely everything you need, to overcome sin. The Spirit works with us, in us, through us, to destroy indwelling sin and to make us in practice what we are in position--pure and holy.

So there is no excuse. Christ is reigning over the entire universe; he is reigning over sin. If you are to overcome the sin of lust, if you are to turn from your lust and find sexual desire and fulfillment only in your wife, you will need to fight with his power.

Hold tightly to these two truths and never separate them. Christ has died to destroy sin; Christ has risen to reign.

What To Do

I have already encouraged you to confess your sin to God and to ask his forgiveness. And as you do that, confess your own inability to overcome this sin and ask God for his strength, his power. Be utterly dependent upon him.

Be a godly man. Immerse yourself in the Word; be faithful in prayer; be committed to your church. Live a life of godliness. Do not approach the sin of lust as an isolated sin, but approach it as one more sin that needs to be overcome as you seek to be conformed to the image of the Savior.

In committing sexual sin, you have sinned against your wife. You need to confess this sin to her, painful thought it may be, and seek her forgiveness. You will also need to seek reconciliation with her. You are much more likely to overcome this sin with her help than without it. Be very careful not to blame her in any way for your sin; do not implicate her in any way. Confess your sin and ask her to fight with you in putting it to death. As a husband you need to lead your wife. And, as you've been sinning against her, you've been leading her poorly. Part of shepherding your wife, and often the most difficult part of all, is leading in the sexual relationship. This is especially difficult when you have committed sexual sin. But lead her nonetheless, gently and kindly. And lead her by being above reproach in every way.

Understand the triggers and the warning signs that tell you that you are particularly prone to sin. And react by fleeing from those rather than waiting for the lustful act itself. Speaking personally, I look for tiny things that may be entirely amoral and seemingly insignificant, but I know that they point to a general relaxing of standards and discipline. When I eat too much junk food or drink too much Coke, I know that I'm relaxing my personal discipline and that I'm only a few steps away from committing a sin I'll regret. So I look for these innocuous things and fight against them. It sounds silly, I know, but I've studied my propensity to sin enough to know where it begins. So find those triggers in your own life, even those amoral things, and react against them. Look for situations that lead you to sin, whether that involves browsing certain web sites or being in certain places or staying up past certain hours.

And finally, seek out an older man who can mentor you. Find a man in your church whom you respect and ask if he will help you fight lust and become a better husband to your wife. Ask him to be not an accountability partner, but a mentor.

Take Heart

And take heart. Many men can testify to God's grace in overcoming sin. Scripture itself testifies that God is eager and willing to put your sin to death. Christ has died to forgive your sin and he has risen and sent his Spirit to give you mastery over it. He reigns and he is on your side. What greater hope could there be?