Dartz!
Dartz! (often stylized as DARTZ!) were a Math rock group from Middlesbrough in North East England (UK) who formed at the beginning of 2005. They are signed to Xtra Mile Recordings in the UK and Deep Elm in the US, and released one full-length album, one mini-album, three singles and a split 7" via Xtra Mile - as well as an EP on Sunderland based DIY micro-label Fakedream Records, and a split 10" with Scottish band Stapleton on Gravity DIP.
They recorded with the record producer Mark Williams (Biffy Clyro, Bloc Party, Fightstar, Nine Black Alps, Million Dead, Ghymp) at the Battery Studios in London and they toured with Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Hot Club De Paris and The Rumble Strips, as well as also playing with bands including The Futureheads, Melt Banana, The Young Knives, Make Believe and Foals. More recently Dartz added long-time collaborator Nico Taylor, once the logistics man for the band, to the line-up.
In September 2007, the band announced that they were going to take a break from touring to focus on their education, with Maughan studying English Literature at Oxford University and Anderson studying English and Film at Sheffield Hallam. The decision was explained in an article in The Times newspaper entitled "Bands Balancing Uni With Fame", although it was criticised by the NME in the magazine's review of "The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique" in September 2008. Dartz have had three videos featured on MTV2, all of which were directed by Teesside University lecturer Marcus T. Diamond. A fourth video, for the track "Cold Holidays", was recorded by Wife Swap cameraman Rob Taylor during the band's tour with I Was A Cub Scout.
Dartz
Dartz Motorz Company (Latvian: Dartz Motorz Uzņēmums; Russian: Dartz Моторз Kомпании) is a privately held Latvian-based company, subsidiary of Estonian corporation Dartz Grupa OÜ, that designs, manufactures, and sells high performance armored vehicles. Having constituted itself from a renovated former Russo-Balt factory in Riga, Latvia, the company recently attained notoriety with its current model, the Prombron, partly because it was originally available in upholstered leather made from the foreskins of whale penises. The Prombron came in nine distinct models: the Iron Diamond, Iron Xtal, Monaco Red Diamond Edition, Black Dragon, Black Russian, Gold Russian, Aladeen, White Horse, and the Monako. However, since September 2014 the product line consists of PrombronBlack Shark and Prombron Black Snake. The Prombron is then available in either the Saloon (sedan) or the Pullman (wagon), which can then be customized into a standard based, short based, or long based versions.Prombrons are also available in several armoring levels, from B2 to B7, with the B7 designed to withstand attacks from rocket propelled grenades, and land mines. In terms of performance the Prombron is equipped with an AMG V8 Engine, or an AMG V12 Engine, which provides the vehicle with a healthy top speed of 250 km/h (160 mph).
Embers
Embers is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957. First broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959, the play won the RAI prize at the Prix Italia awards later that year. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack MacGowran – for whom the play was specially written – as "Henry", Kathleen Michael as "Ada" and Patrick Magee as "Riding Master" and "Music Master". Robert Pinget translated the work as Cendres and "The first stage production was by the French Graduate Circle of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, 1977."
The most recent version of Embers was broadcast in 2006 on BBC Radio 3 and directed by Stephen Rea. The cast included Michael Gambon as Henry, Sinéad Cusack as Ada, Rupert Graves, Alvaro Lucchesi and Carly Baker. This production was rebroadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 16 May 2010 as part of a double bill with a 2006 production of Krapp's Last Tape.
Opinions vary as to whether the work succeeds. Hugh Kenner calls it "Beckett’s most difficult work" and yet maintains that the piece "coheres to perfection," John Pilling disagrees, remarking that Embers "is the first of Beckett’s dramatic works that seems to lack a real centre," whereas Richard N. Coe considers the play "not only minor, but one of [Beckett’s] very few failures."Anthony Cronin records in his biography of Beckett that "Embers met with a mixed reception [but tempers this comment by noting that] the general tone of English criticism was somewhat hostile to Beckett" at the time.
Embers (novel)
Embers is a 1942 novel by the Hungarian writer Sándor Márai. Its original Hungarian title is A gyertyák csonkig égnek, which means "Candles burn until the end". The narrative revolves around an elderly general who invites an old friend from military school for dinner; the friend had disappeared mysteriously for 41 years, and the dinner begins to resemble a trial where the friend is prosecuted for his character traits. The book was published in English in 2000.
Reception
Anna Shapiro reviewed the book for The Observer in 2002, and wrote: "Elegiac, sombre, musical, and gripping, Embers is a brilliant disquisition on friendship, one of the most ambitious in literature." Shapiro continued: "About a milieu and values that were already dying before the outbreak of World War II, it has the grandeur and sharpness of Jean Renoir's 1937 movie masterpiece La Grande Illusion, with which it shares, in both oblique and pronounced ways, some of its substance."
Stage Play
In 2006, Embers was adapted into a stage play by Christopher Hampton, starring Jeremy Irons and Patrick Malahide.
The Midsummer Station
The Midsummer Station is the fourth studio album by American electronica project Owl City, released on August 17, 2012.
Writing and development
After Owl City's previous album, All Things Bright and Beautiful (2011) sold only 143,000 copies in the United States, Adam Young began working on demo tracks for The Midsummer Station in January 2012. Unlike his previous albums, Young worked with different songwriters and producers for the first time, including Stargate and Emily Wright. However, Young again collaborated with Matthew Thiessen for his third album in a row along with Ocean Eyes and All Things Bright and Beautiful. Young was initially scared of the thought of collaborating with others, "I've never worked with anybody before. I've done everything myself except for mastering. It's a big job for one guy, especially a perfectionist, so I knew I wanted to try to experiment with other people." The song "Dementia", which features Blink-182 singer Mark Hoppus, was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge.
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