The Devastations

Devastations are an indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia. The band was founded in 2002 by the three friends Tom Carlyon, Hugo Cran and Conrad Standish after the end of their former band Luxedo.

The band was signed to Beggars Banquet Records, has released three albums and has toured extensively in Europe, where two of the band members live. Their debut album was named by Rolling Stone Germany as the best debut of 2004.

The band was nominated for an Australian Music Prize for Coal in 2005 and again in 2007 for Yes, U. The album, Yes, U, was also nominated for an Age Newspaper EG Award for Best Album of 2007.

Confirmed to be making an appearance on the upcoming tribute to The Cure on Manimal Vinyl in the Fall 2008. In 2009, the Devastations contributed to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Personnel

Discography

Coal (Kathy Mattea album)

Coal is an album by American country music singer Kathy Mattea, released on April 1, 2008 in the United States on her own label, Captain Potato Records. The album consists of 11 covers of classic coal mining songs by artists such as Merle Travis and Hazel Dickens.

Background

Mattea's decision to make an album about this topic was influenced by the fact that both of her grandfathers were miners, as well as by the Sago Mine disaster in 2006, which, when it occurred, reminded Mattea of the Farmington Mine disaster that had occurred when she was nine years old. She has said that she was expecting a set of stories in the songs she covered on this album, but instead found a connection to her miner ancestors. Her deep interest in this topic was also noted by the album's producer, Marty Stuart, as when they were recording the a cappella song "Black Lung". Stuart said it would be like "trying to repaint the 'Mona Lisa'", in that it requires authentic commitment to the task. Mattea also stated that it was so difficult for her to learn the song that it took her six months to do so. Nevertheless, the first recording of Mattea's version of the song ended up being kept after it made the recording engineer, whose father had died of black lung disease, cry. Stuart reacted by telling Mattea that this was a sign she was performing the song right.

Coal (book)

Coal is a collection of poetry by Audre Lorde, published in 1976. It was the first of Lorde's work to be released by a major publisher. Lorde's poetry in Coal explored themes related to the several layers of her identity as a "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet."

Summary

Coal consists of five sections. While Audre Lorde presents poems that express each part of her identity, race undoubtedly plays a significant role in Coal. A major theme within the volume is Lorde's angry reaction towards racism. For Lorde, expressing anger was not destructive. Instead, Lorde transforms "rage at racism into triumphant self-assertion." She specifically dedicates the book "To the People of Sun, That We May All Better Understand." In addition, another significant part of the volume explores her existence as a lesbian, friend, and a former lover, specifically in the fourth section that consists of one long poem titled "Martha" that outlines the recovery of Lorde's former lover after a car accident.

Tarì

A tarì (طري lit. "fresh" or "newly minted money" in Arabic) was the Christian designation of a type of gold coin of Islamic origin minted in Sicily, Malta and Southern Italy from about 913 to 1859.

History

In the Islamic world, this type of coin was designated under the name ruba'i, or quarter-dinar, as it weighed 1.05g of gold. The ruba'i had been minted by the Muslims in Sicily, unlike the Muslim rulers of North Africa, who preferred the larger dinar. It became highly popular as it was smaller and therefore more convenient than the large-sized 4.25g dinar.

The tarì were so widespread that imitations were made in southern Italy (Amalfi and Salerno) from the mid-tenth century, which only used illegible "pseudo-Kufic" imitations of Arabic. When the Normans invaded Sicily in the 12th century, they issued tarì coins bearing legends in Arabic and Latin.Roger II of Sicily issued such coins, becoming the only Western ruler at that time to mint gold coins. Their title was 16¹⁄₃ carat, with some adjunction of silver and copper. The tarì were also produced by the Hohenstaufens and the early Angevins.

The Color of Time

The Color of Time (aka Tar) is a 2012 drama film written and directed by twelve New York University film students: Edna Luise Biesold, Sarah-Violet Bliss, Gabrielle Demeestere, Alexis Gambis, Shruti Ganguly, Brooke Goldfinch, Shripriya Mahesh, Pamela Romanowsky, Bruce Thierry Cheung, Tine Thomasen, Virginia Urreiztieta and Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo. It stars James Franco, Henry Hopper, Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain and Zach Braff. It premiered on November 16, 2012 at the Rome Film Festival. It was released in the United Kingdom in 2014 under the new title Forever Love. The film was released in the United States in theaters and on demand beginning on December 12, 2014.

Plot

The different parts of Pulitzer Prize winner C.K. Williams' life told through his poems. Flashbacks of his childhood, his teens, college years, to when he meets and marries his wife, Catherine (Kunis) and the birth of his children and parenthood. The film is narrated by different versions of Williams (Franco, Hopper, March, Unger), depicting the different aspects of Williams through the years.

Tar (Azerbaijani instrument)

Craftsmanship and performance of the tar and the skills related to this tradition play a significant role in shaping the cultural identity of Azerbaijanis. The Tar (Persian: تار‎‎) is a long-necked plucked lute, traditionally crafted and performed in communities throughout Azerbaijan and Iran. Tar features alone or with other instruments in numerous traditional musical styles. It also considered by many to be the country’s leading musical instrument.

In 2012 art of Azerbaijani craftsmanship and performance art of the tar was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Craftsmanship

Tar makers transmit their skills to apprentices, often within the family. Craftsmanship begins with careful selection of materials for the instrument: mulberry wood for the body, nut wood for the neck, and pear wood for the tuning pegs. Using various tools, crafters create a hollow body in the form of a figure eight, which is then covered with the thin pericardium of an ox. The fretted neck is affixed, metal strings are added and the body is inlaid with mother-of-pearl.