Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet (also known as SST7) is a jazz ensemble formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2002.

Music

Although uniquely merging jazz and funk, the music of Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet can also include "New Orleans flavors", solid grooves, swing and hip hop, combined into something both appealing and undefinable. Their music has been self-described by Skerik as "...punk-jazz. Maybe a punk-jazz version of the Thelonious Monk Octet."

A theme in the music is a recognition that traditional jazz having reached a zenith in the early 1960s cannot be contained in reverence. The Syncopated Taint Septet is a synthesis of traditional music with current and experimental music forms. The project displays a band member equality with "leads being shared by everyone."

History

Their first album, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, was recorded live at the Owl and Thistle in Seattle and was released in 2003. It was reviewed as occasionally loud, yet also having a "spirited [and] immediate musicianship." Although popularly associated with jam band music, an improvisational distinction can be made regarding the large musical vocabulary displayed by the band in the recording.

USS Mackerel (SST-1)

USS Mackerel (SST-1), originally known as USS T-1 (SST-1), was the lead ship of the T-1-class of training submarines. She was the second submarine of the United States Navy named for the mackerel, a common food and sport fish, and was in service from 1953 to 1973. She was one of the smallest operational submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy.

Construction and commissioning

T-1 was originally planned as an experimental auxiliary submarine with hull number AGSS-570, but she was redesignated as a training submarine (SST-1) and her hull number was changed to SST-1. She was laid down on 1 April 1952, at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 17 July 1953, sponsored by Mrs. Charles R. Muir, and placed in non-commissioned service as USS T-1 on 9 October 1953, with Lieutenant J. M. Snyder, Jr., in command.

Service history

Training, target, and equipment testing services, 1954–1966

After completing sea trials in the New London, and Massachusetts Bay areas, T-1 departed in February 1954 for Key West, Florida. Arriving at Key West, she commenced operations with submarine and antisubmarine forces in the areas of southern Florida and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, providing services to the Fleet Training Group working up recently constructed and recently overhauled antisubmarine warships.

SST-1 (tokamak)

SST-1 (steady state superconducting tokamak) is a plasma confinement experimental device in the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), an autonomous research institute under Department of Atomic Energy, India. It belongs to a new generation of tokamaks with the major objective being steady state operation of an advanced configuration ('D' Shaped) plasma. It has been designed as a medium-sized tokamak with superconducting magnets.

The SST-1 project will increase India's stronghold in a selected group of countries who are capable of conceptualizing and making a fully functional fusion based reactor device. The SST-1 System is housed in Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar. The SST-1 mission has been chaired by eminent Indian plasma physicists like Prof. Y.C. Saxena, Dr. Chenna Reddy, and is headed by Dr. Subrata Pradhan.

Next stage of the SST-1 mission, the SST-2, dubbed as 'DEMO', has already been initiated.

History

Homework (Atomic Rooster album)

Homework is an album of previously unreleased demos by John Du Cann, with drum programming by Paul Hammond.

In 1981, the recently reformed Atomic Rooster signed to Polydor Records to release two singles, with the option of an album to follow, should the singles prove successful. Although the singles, "Play It Again" (1981) and "End Of The Day" (1982), performed well in rock clubs and on specialist rock charts, they failed to make an impression on the national charts. Consequently, Polydor dropped the band. Shortly afterwards, owing to resurfacing internal tensions, Du Cann left Atomic Rooster for the second and final time.

Du Cann's demos, recorded between 1979 and 1981 for the projected album, were never completed and remained unreleased for several decades. In 2008, Du Cann licensed them for release by Angel Air Records, under the Atomic Rooster moniker. The album was rounded out by the inclusion of the six A and B-sides of the two Polydor singles.

All songs written by Du Cann except where noted.

Homework (1989 film)

Homework (Persian: مشق شب, Mašq-e šab‎‎) is a 1989 Iranian narrative documentary film written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami.

The film was shot on 16mm in late January and/or early February 1988 at Tehran's Shahid Masumi primary school.

Plot

The films consists almost exclusively of interviews with a number of pupils and two fathers of pupils at Shahid Masumi school who are asked to give their opinion on the traditional teaching practice of assigning homework. Issues such as some parents' illiteracy and their inability to help their children with the homework are raised. The children don't always succeed in hiding the more embarrassing aspects of their family life (corporal punishment, poverty, etc.).

References

Bibliography

The Art of Getting By

The Art of Getting By is a 2011 romantic comedy-drama film starring Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Elizabeth Reaser, Sam Robards, Rita Wilson and Blair Underwood. It is the first feature by writer-director Gavin Wiesen. The film premiered under the title Homework at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Plot

George (Freddie Highmore) is a loner high school student with a penchant for drawing and skipping class. He has a nihilistic view of the world which is why he never does homework and skips school frequently. His academic delinquency puts him on academic probation. One day while on the school roof he encounters another classmate, Sally (Emma Roberts), smoking. When a teacher appears, George pulls out a cigarette and takes the fall for Sally. The two become friends. On career day, George meets a young artist, Dustin, and finds him inspiring. He brings Sally with him to visit Dustin at his studio in Brooklyn and it becomes apparent that Dustin finds Sally attractive. Sally invites George to a New Year's Eve party. At the party, she dances with an ex-boyfriend and George gets drunk, goes outside, throws up, and falls asleep in an alley. Sally finds him there and takes him to her place, putting him to bed on a pull-out next to her bed. They grow close and George gets more involved in school.