The weekend of Feb 16 and 17 may have been nothing more than a
recovery weekend from Valentines Day for most; but for those in the
Henderson, NV area, it marked the launch of the LVL UP Expo.
Self-proclaimed as being a “convention that covers the vast fields of
gaming”, the LVL UP Expo brought to Henderson an outlet for all types of
gamers, from table-top to arcade,We've had a lot of people asking where
we had our make your own bobblehead. and undoubtedly left its mark at the Henderson Convention Center on Water St.
Walking
in to the older-looking convention center for the first time, I felt
like I had walked into a broken-down hospital. Drab, brown walls led me
down a hallway of doors labeled with event names until I reached the
main reception area. It wasn’t until this open space did I feel like I
was about to attend an event made for nerds, gamers, and other walks of
geek-life. After a warm and enthusiastic greeting from a quartet of LVL
UP Expo volunteers and employees, who proceeded to tag me with a wrist
band, I walked through a set of double doors into a space that was quite
shockingly small.
Being the initial run of the LVL UP Expo, I expected a few hitches to throw things off balance,Can you spot the answer in the fridge magnet?
but I was unprepared for the cramped space that the Henderson
Convention Center really allowed. Oddly enough, the minimal amount of
room almost added to the ambience to the expo and forced guests to
mingle with the various booths. If not for the small quarters, I can
almost guarantee my enlightening chat with the Las Vegas branch of
N.E.R.O., a Live-Action Roleplaying community, never would have
occurred. After a quick rundown of what is commonly known as “LARPing”, I
found myself engaged in the troop’s charm, so much so that I still have
an inner monologue going as to if I should show up to their next meet.
My experience with N.E.There are generally three different configurations of industrial laser cutting machine.R.O.
was not a fluke, either. The rest of the booths, which included staff
from Cosmic Comics, the Elite Vegas Paranormal Society,Design and order
your own custom silicone bracelet
/ rubber bracelets with personalized message and artwork. and L33T
Ladies, were just as willing to converse with the masses. Product was
strewn near and far and came in the form of plastic creations known as
Perler Pixel Pals to somewhat pricey,Our precision manufactured lasers
and laser systems deliver the highest possible laser cutter
performance on a wide variety of materials. albeit unique, posters for
“The Walking Dead” and other nerd-related mediums. In a separate set up
for table and card games, guests could pick up any range of table-top
fare, including the “Resident Evil” Deck Building Game and an assortment
of individual cards for games like “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. On one table, a sextet
of young men were engaged in a rousing game of “Metal Gear Solid” Risk,
proving that any game can be played in any atmosphere.
Beyond
merchandise, guests had the opportunity to sign up for numerous
tournaments for games like “Halo 4”, “Super Smash Bros. Melee”, “Mortal
Kombat”, “Tekken Tag Tournament 2”, and such card games as “Dungeon
& Dragons: First Encounters” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!”. The atmosphere was
booming with life as gamers engaged one another in all out brawls to
emerge the victor in a setting more public than one’s own home. Whether
through partaking in the tournament or simply awaiting for a spot to
free up, guests also had the opportunity to jump onto the online
multiplayer shoot “Primal Carnage”. Though its current span of coverage
is relatively small in comparison to what it deserves, my time in
“Primal Carnage’s” arena of human vs. dinosaur battles left me craving
more, something most current multiplayer shooters just don’t do. A small
chat I had with founder of Lukewarm Media and “Primal Carnage”
producer, Aaron Pollack, confirmed that, while “Primal Carnage” will be
without a console release, the developer will support its title to the
fullest.
The cream of the crop of LVL UP Expo wasn’t the
tournaments or the available merchandise, though. It was the sheer level
of interactivity between local and out of town influences in the gaming
industry. Meet and Greets for the cast of the local production of “Evil
Dead The Musical 4D” and the internet radio comedy show “Jim and Them”
were good ways to pass the time and get to know the people behind the
personas. Indy game developer, Lukewarm Games, also held a panel
discussion regarding game development, ensuring that at least some
portion of this entertaining event was interestingly education.
What
there is to complain about is minimal. As mentioned previously, the
event space is somewhat cramped. It was difficult to move in-between
booths, and oftentimes I questioned whether or not I should be stepping
over the slew of wires on the floor. Booth variety would also be a
welcomed plus, as there seemed to be three or four booths selling the
Perler Pixel Palls. Other local talents brought to the table merchandise
such as white tile painted with gaming’s favorite characters, but
overall, there wasn’t a whole lot to browse through.
Ultimately,
the crew behind the LVL UP Expo did a fantastic job of bringing gaming
to downtown Henderson. The ambiance simply reeked of gaming expo,
especially with familiar faces, such as an impressively accurate
rendition of an Umbrella Special Forces Soldier (complete with an
astounding make-up of Albert Wesker’s signature pistol). From what was
experienced and what could be seen, there doesn’t seem to be a reason as
to why 2014 shouldn’t see a return of this fantastic set-up.
2013年2月18日星期一
2013年2月17日星期日
Preowned gift cards can be a good deal if used wisely
For years, some smaller retailers have set a minimum purchase amount
to use a credit card. I can understand why. Everyone has a bottom
line. I’d hate to cause someone to go out of business because I
continually charged a pack of gum.
The consumer has to be just as canny. Used responsibly, credit cards can do for your income what warm sugar does to yeast: make your dough rise. I stick to cards that offer incentives for spending. Depending on the structure of the program, points are earned that can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, products, travel and entertainment.
It pays to put just about any and everything on a credit card. Points add up quickly when credit is used to pay for household expenses such as groceries and insurance,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. gasoline, utility, cellphone and cable bills.
These are recurring expenses, so it shouldn’t be hard to pay the credit card balance in full each month. But if a merchant were to tack on the newly allowed credit card swipe fee, which can amount to up to 3 percent of your purchase, it won’t be worth it.
You also have to watch out for businesses whose swipe machines allegedly process only debit transactions as credit. From time to time, at retailers large and small, I’ve swiped my debit card and got ready to enter my PIN, and the store associate says, “Oh, our machine will only recognize it as credit.”
Online clearinghouses buy your unwanted gift cards and gift codes, offering up to 92 percent of the face value. In turn, those cards and codes are made available at up to 35 percent off the face value. Those sites include GiftCards.com, PlasticJungle.com, CardPool.com and GiftCardRescue.com. Standard shipping is free, and the cards are guaranteed.
It works best with planning. For example: You know you’ll soon have to replace your iron. If you’re like me, you consider an iron to be indispensable and will spend major loot on the best possible one. Before that iron totally conks out, scout for a discounted card to the retailer of your choice, then pounce on a sale.
Or perhaps you’re in the market for a really big purchase such as an Apple computer. Deals are few and far between, usually happening only around back-to-school time or Black Friday. If you can’t wait, create your own sale. You could save more than $80 if you scored a $900 gift card from GiftCards.com, which is offering 9 percent off Apple cards versus PlasticJungle.com’s 5 percent and CardPool.com’s 1.5 percent. That savings could be used toward software or accessories. Or on getting your hair done.
And then there are those chain establishments that you frequently run in and out of, such as the off-price retailers and discount box stores.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing.
GiftCards.com offers its Target cards at a 6 percent discount, which is better than the Target credit card’s 5 percent discount. It’s hard to beat a J.C. Penney gift card bought at 27 percent off, then used during a clearance sale and with coupons.
A Dover woman brightened Hot Line’s afternoon when she called to report her experience with a couple of crooks who couldn’t seem to decide which con game they would use to make her a victim. She enjoyed frustrating their attempts throughout the call, she said.
Her story, as she told Hot Line, was this: She answered the phone and a man with a heavy accent she could barely understand said he was calling to tell her that she would get a new Medicare card. This one would be plastic instead of paper, he said, but she must verify the number in order to get the new card.
With the creation of demand for such services a lot of people have entered the market with new technology-based products. Everyday new products and services are being launched. In this area of technology-based payment services Bangladesh is not far behind. The country has implemented a good number of key payment solutions. Thus the whole payment system has undergone a sea of change with the successful implementation of electronic cheque processing and electronic fund transfer. The central bank of Bangladesh has also adopted some very important projects like data centre, online Credit Information Bureau (CIB) etc. There might be a debate whether projects like the National Payment Switch and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) are premature or not. But there is no denying the fact that the two key projects are very much needed, if the future demand in the banking industry is taken into consideration. Now mobile banking is gaining popularity and the number of users is increasing everyday.
Over the last one decade the rapid technological advances in most countries have made financial services available to consumers at cheaper and cheaper prices and also have ensured their access to greater functionality. Seldom do banks lead the way in using technology to deliver services to their consumers, rather they ride the wave of better, cheaper and more powerful technology-based tools being made available to consumers. So, in a very real sense, it is consumers who are driving the evolution of financial services by turning to technology very rapidly.
This certainly applies to Bangladesh where the rapid adoption of mobile phone technology offers a pathway for delivery of financial services to anyone having access to a mobile phone.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. The service providers here have very little to do with the access but a great deal to do with the security, prevention of fraud. Many countries have already demonstrated consumer willingness to accept financial services delivered on their mobile phones but there is the issue of security and accuracy of the delivery method.
There are, of course, basic fundamental requirements for delivery of any sort of payment service whether it is mobile-based or not. Thanks to the far-reaching vision of Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, and the generosity of the United Kingdom (UK), Bangladesh finds itself in an excellent position with the foundation of electronic payments already laid, including a fully functional electronic payments clearing house with secure connections to each of the country's commercial banks and a unique, uniform national account numbering system.
Additionally, the country boasts of a strong and growing network of mobile phone systems. The total number of mobile phone users has already crossed 900 million. Together they amount to a highway for delivery of both voice and digital information to consumers without accessing either a physical bank branch or a computer. In fact,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. most mobile phones today are really small computers. And the latest smart phones aren't so small in terms of their computing capabilities. So now it is up to the banks, the regulatory authorities and the telecommunications companies to develop secure methods for funds transfer and other financial services through mobile phones.
Mobile phone companies need to work out who owns what in delivery of these services and there is a natural turf battle that ensues as the services evolve.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action Regulators also must play a vitally important mediator role here. Banks have capital requirements and they must follow strictly regulations that help ensure the safety and soundness of deposits and financial transactions. Allowing mobile phone companies to become de facto banks without similar rules and regulations could lead to a catastrophe involving the loss of funds for hundreds or thousands or even millions of consumers. Beyond the immediate losses, such an event would shake the trust of consumers in any sort of mobile payment scheme. And so the financial and telecommunications regulators must work together as never before to delineate which regulatory authority has what responsibility in the world of mobile payments and to make sure there are no loopholes in the financial safety net between the regulators that would put consumer funds at risk.
The consumer has to be just as canny. Used responsibly, credit cards can do for your income what warm sugar does to yeast: make your dough rise. I stick to cards that offer incentives for spending. Depending on the structure of the program, points are earned that can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, products, travel and entertainment.
It pays to put just about any and everything on a credit card. Points add up quickly when credit is used to pay for household expenses such as groceries and insurance,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. gasoline, utility, cellphone and cable bills.
These are recurring expenses, so it shouldn’t be hard to pay the credit card balance in full each month. But if a merchant were to tack on the newly allowed credit card swipe fee, which can amount to up to 3 percent of your purchase, it won’t be worth it.
You also have to watch out for businesses whose swipe machines allegedly process only debit transactions as credit. From time to time, at retailers large and small, I’ve swiped my debit card and got ready to enter my PIN, and the store associate says, “Oh, our machine will only recognize it as credit.”
Online clearinghouses buy your unwanted gift cards and gift codes, offering up to 92 percent of the face value. In turn, those cards and codes are made available at up to 35 percent off the face value. Those sites include GiftCards.com, PlasticJungle.com, CardPool.com and GiftCardRescue.com. Standard shipping is free, and the cards are guaranteed.
It works best with planning. For example: You know you’ll soon have to replace your iron. If you’re like me, you consider an iron to be indispensable and will spend major loot on the best possible one. Before that iron totally conks out, scout for a discounted card to the retailer of your choice, then pounce on a sale.
Or perhaps you’re in the market for a really big purchase such as an Apple computer. Deals are few and far between, usually happening only around back-to-school time or Black Friday. If you can’t wait, create your own sale. You could save more than $80 if you scored a $900 gift card from GiftCards.com, which is offering 9 percent off Apple cards versus PlasticJungle.com’s 5 percent and CardPool.com’s 1.5 percent. That savings could be used toward software or accessories. Or on getting your hair done.
And then there are those chain establishments that you frequently run in and out of, such as the off-price retailers and discount box stores.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing.
GiftCards.com offers its Target cards at a 6 percent discount, which is better than the Target credit card’s 5 percent discount. It’s hard to beat a J.C. Penney gift card bought at 27 percent off, then used during a clearance sale and with coupons.
A Dover woman brightened Hot Line’s afternoon when she called to report her experience with a couple of crooks who couldn’t seem to decide which con game they would use to make her a victim. She enjoyed frustrating their attempts throughout the call, she said.
Her story, as she told Hot Line, was this: She answered the phone and a man with a heavy accent she could barely understand said he was calling to tell her that she would get a new Medicare card. This one would be plastic instead of paper, he said, but she must verify the number in order to get the new card.
With the creation of demand for such services a lot of people have entered the market with new technology-based products. Everyday new products and services are being launched. In this area of technology-based payment services Bangladesh is not far behind. The country has implemented a good number of key payment solutions. Thus the whole payment system has undergone a sea of change with the successful implementation of electronic cheque processing and electronic fund transfer. The central bank of Bangladesh has also adopted some very important projects like data centre, online Credit Information Bureau (CIB) etc. There might be a debate whether projects like the National Payment Switch and Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) are premature or not. But there is no denying the fact that the two key projects are very much needed, if the future demand in the banking industry is taken into consideration. Now mobile banking is gaining popularity and the number of users is increasing everyday.
Over the last one decade the rapid technological advances in most countries have made financial services available to consumers at cheaper and cheaper prices and also have ensured their access to greater functionality. Seldom do banks lead the way in using technology to deliver services to their consumers, rather they ride the wave of better, cheaper and more powerful technology-based tools being made available to consumers. So, in a very real sense, it is consumers who are driving the evolution of financial services by turning to technology very rapidly.
This certainly applies to Bangladesh where the rapid adoption of mobile phone technology offers a pathway for delivery of financial services to anyone having access to a mobile phone.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. The service providers here have very little to do with the access but a great deal to do with the security, prevention of fraud. Many countries have already demonstrated consumer willingness to accept financial services delivered on their mobile phones but there is the issue of security and accuracy of the delivery method.
There are, of course, basic fundamental requirements for delivery of any sort of payment service whether it is mobile-based or not. Thanks to the far-reaching vision of Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank, and the generosity of the United Kingdom (UK), Bangladesh finds itself in an excellent position with the foundation of electronic payments already laid, including a fully functional electronic payments clearing house with secure connections to each of the country's commercial banks and a unique, uniform national account numbering system.
Additionally, the country boasts of a strong and growing network of mobile phone systems. The total number of mobile phone users has already crossed 900 million. Together they amount to a highway for delivery of both voice and digital information to consumers without accessing either a physical bank branch or a computer. In fact,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. most mobile phones today are really small computers. And the latest smart phones aren't so small in terms of their computing capabilities. So now it is up to the banks, the regulatory authorities and the telecommunications companies to develop secure methods for funds transfer and other financial services through mobile phones.
Mobile phone companies need to work out who owns what in delivery of these services and there is a natural turf battle that ensues as the services evolve.Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action Regulators also must play a vitally important mediator role here. Banks have capital requirements and they must follow strictly regulations that help ensure the safety and soundness of deposits and financial transactions. Allowing mobile phone companies to become de facto banks without similar rules and regulations could lead to a catastrophe involving the loss of funds for hundreds or thousands or even millions of consumers. Beyond the immediate losses, such an event would shake the trust of consumers in any sort of mobile payment scheme. And so the financial and telecommunications regulators must work together as never before to delineate which regulatory authority has what responsibility in the world of mobile payments and to make sure there are no loopholes in the financial safety net between the regulators that would put consumer funds at risk.
Memaksimalkan Produktivitas Saat Bekerja
Hitam polos merupakan tema warna yang diusung Lenovo Thinkpad T430u.
Mulai dari cover, keyboard, mousepad, hingga seluruh permukaan bodi,
semuanya berwarna hitam. Masuk ke dalam jajaran Ultrabook, Lenovo
Thinkpad T430u memiliki bobot yang ringan serta tipis sehingga
membuatnya mudah untuk dibawa saat bepergian.
Berbekal desain Island-style six-row pada keyboard yang digunakannya, Ultrabook ini mampu menghadirkan tuts keyboard yang nyaman saat Anda menekannya. Selain touchpad yang dapat digunakan untuk menggeser pointer, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u juga menyediakan pointer mouse di tengah-tengah keyboard. Meski kecil,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action namun pointer mouse tersebut cukup nyaman dan tidak licin saat digunakan.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business.
Hadir dengan empat buah varian prosesor Intel Core generasi ketiga, mulai dari Intel Core i3-3217U, Intel Core i5-3317U, Intel Core i5-3427U, hingga kelas high-end, Intel Core i7-3517U. Dengan empat buah varian tersebut, Anda dapat memilih performa prosesor sesuai kebutuhan. Untuk menyimpan hasil kerja Anda selama seharian, Ultrabook ini menyediakan hard disk berkapasitas 500 GB. Selain hard disk, SSD Sandisk sebesar 24 GB juga tersedia. Namun SSD ini tidak digunakan untuk menyimpan data, melainkan untuk caching yang terjadi pada sistem operasi.
Interface yang disediakan pun terbilang sangat lengkap. Mulai dari interface standar seperti dua buah USB 3.0, satu buah port RJ-45, satu buah jack combo Audio-out/in, HDMI, serta satu buah card reader. Tidak hanya HDMI, Mini DisplayPort yang lengkap dengan feature audio pun tersedia untuk menampilkan gambar sekaligus suara pada output display seperti projector, TV, maupun monitor.
Berbeda dengan Ultrabook lainnya yang bodi bagian bawahnya sulit atau bahkan tidak bisa dibuka, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u justru memudahkan Anda untuk mencopotnya. Selain meng-upgrade hardware, membersihkan kipas pun menjadi lebih mudah. Dengan menggunakan sistem Lockdown, Anda tidak lagi memerlukan obeng untuk membuka bodi bagian bawah tersebut. Untuk membukanya, cukup dengan menggeser tuas saja.
Emails were exchanged, though, and apologies were given by the company. Still, Kennedy said he couldn’t get a replacement until two months of email exchanges and finally a new model and replacement pedometer showed up at his Intracoastal West home in mid-January.
“There’s no replacement for human interaction in customer service,” Kennedy said.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. “You could resolve so many problems just by getting that reassurance with a human being. It shows 1) that you care and 2) that they’re going to address your problem. Emails are impersonal; you can’t detect tone in an email.”
Those kinds of stories are growing and the reliable telephone number is decreasing on the Internet.
“This is a new trend that has been slowly coming forward probably for the past five years,” said Angela Mattia, a Jacksonville University assistant professor of information management.
Local, national or international, businesses are starting to get rid of phone numbers on their websites, Mattia said. There have been no studies that she’s aware of that tracks the impact of reducing phone number access on websites because the trend is so new.
“I guess it’s a retraction in one sense because it’s a reduction in visibility in a phone number,” Mattia said. “In the other sense, it’s just a shift in how we’re communicating.”
Mattia said the trend is a reaction to more people getting accustomed to using computers and email.
Jennifer McCoy owns the Mobile Ad Group that specializes in web application development and advertising partnership consulting. Originally from Fernandina Beach, McCoy said she’s in the process of rebranding her company as she’s relocating to New York City and said she’s never provided phone numbers.
“As a small business, we’re working from multiple locations and we’re constantly moving so our main point of contact is either from email or cellphone,” McCoy said. “Most of our employees don’t feel comfortable putting their cellphones on the Internet.”
Strange acknowledged business from phone orders generate the most credit card fraud, so he’s expanded his options for dealing with customers who don’t come into the 5,500-square-foot shop on Anastasia Boulevard.
Strange has incorporated a pop-up chat window operated by a store representative who engages in real time. A Surf Station worker will ask Internet shoppers how they can be helped, detail specifics about a surfboard or offer suggestions on swimsuits among all the other beach gear sold at the store.
“The live chat is another way for our customers to connect with us,” Strange said. “A lot of times they’re in their cubicle at work and can’t call us.”
Mattia said the chat windows on business websites offer a good middle ground without phone contact because it still provides the customer interaction with a human being.
Strange said he’s been offering the chat window on Surf Station’s website for about three years. But there are risks in staffing the workers who chat with customers. The employees have to be near experts with the inventory offered at the store and they have to have a flair for courteous, possibly even entertaining, Internet chat.
“There’s been a learning curve and our staff has to be trained. We have to know our product real well because there are a lot of questions that come from left field. It can appear to be a big waste of time unless you really invested the time and effort to train your staff up front,” Strange said.
The value of Internet sales can’t be ignored, though, Strange said. Surf Station’s website sales soared in 2012, jumping by 32 percent over the $500,000 in Internet sales in 2011, he said.
Strange’s approach is a far cry from Leahy’s experience with the Irish clothing website that lists a physical address in State College,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. Pa.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. Leahy said she still hasn’t heard from the company after multiple emails and even posting requests for answers on the company’s Facebook site. She said those posts were removed by a site administrator.
Berbekal desain Island-style six-row pada keyboard yang digunakannya, Ultrabook ini mampu menghadirkan tuts keyboard yang nyaman saat Anda menekannya. Selain touchpad yang dapat digunakan untuk menggeser pointer, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u juga menyediakan pointer mouse di tengah-tengah keyboard. Meski kecil,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action namun pointer mouse tersebut cukup nyaman dan tidak licin saat digunakan.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business.
Hadir dengan empat buah varian prosesor Intel Core generasi ketiga, mulai dari Intel Core i3-3217U, Intel Core i5-3317U, Intel Core i5-3427U, hingga kelas high-end, Intel Core i7-3517U. Dengan empat buah varian tersebut, Anda dapat memilih performa prosesor sesuai kebutuhan. Untuk menyimpan hasil kerja Anda selama seharian, Ultrabook ini menyediakan hard disk berkapasitas 500 GB. Selain hard disk, SSD Sandisk sebesar 24 GB juga tersedia. Namun SSD ini tidak digunakan untuk menyimpan data, melainkan untuk caching yang terjadi pada sistem operasi.
Interface yang disediakan pun terbilang sangat lengkap. Mulai dari interface standar seperti dua buah USB 3.0, satu buah port RJ-45, satu buah jack combo Audio-out/in, HDMI, serta satu buah card reader. Tidak hanya HDMI, Mini DisplayPort yang lengkap dengan feature audio pun tersedia untuk menampilkan gambar sekaligus suara pada output display seperti projector, TV, maupun monitor.
Berbeda dengan Ultrabook lainnya yang bodi bagian bawahnya sulit atau bahkan tidak bisa dibuka, Lenovo Thinkpad T430u justru memudahkan Anda untuk mencopotnya. Selain meng-upgrade hardware, membersihkan kipas pun menjadi lebih mudah. Dengan menggunakan sistem Lockdown, Anda tidak lagi memerlukan obeng untuk membuka bodi bagian bawah tersebut. Untuk membukanya, cukup dengan menggeser tuas saja.
Emails were exchanged, though, and apologies were given by the company. Still, Kennedy said he couldn’t get a replacement until two months of email exchanges and finally a new model and replacement pedometer showed up at his Intracoastal West home in mid-January.
“There’s no replacement for human interaction in customer service,” Kennedy said.Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. “You could resolve so many problems just by getting that reassurance with a human being. It shows 1) that you care and 2) that they’re going to address your problem. Emails are impersonal; you can’t detect tone in an email.”
Those kinds of stories are growing and the reliable telephone number is decreasing on the Internet.
“This is a new trend that has been slowly coming forward probably for the past five years,” said Angela Mattia, a Jacksonville University assistant professor of information management.
Local, national or international, businesses are starting to get rid of phone numbers on their websites, Mattia said. There have been no studies that she’s aware of that tracks the impact of reducing phone number access on websites because the trend is so new.
“I guess it’s a retraction in one sense because it’s a reduction in visibility in a phone number,” Mattia said. “In the other sense, it’s just a shift in how we’re communicating.”
Mattia said the trend is a reaction to more people getting accustomed to using computers and email.
Jennifer McCoy owns the Mobile Ad Group that specializes in web application development and advertising partnership consulting. Originally from Fernandina Beach, McCoy said she’s in the process of rebranding her company as she’s relocating to New York City and said she’s never provided phone numbers.
“As a small business, we’re working from multiple locations and we’re constantly moving so our main point of contact is either from email or cellphone,” McCoy said. “Most of our employees don’t feel comfortable putting their cellphones on the Internet.”
Strange acknowledged business from phone orders generate the most credit card fraud, so he’s expanded his options for dealing with customers who don’t come into the 5,500-square-foot shop on Anastasia Boulevard.
Strange has incorporated a pop-up chat window operated by a store representative who engages in real time. A Surf Station worker will ask Internet shoppers how they can be helped, detail specifics about a surfboard or offer suggestions on swimsuits among all the other beach gear sold at the store.
“The live chat is another way for our customers to connect with us,” Strange said. “A lot of times they’re in their cubicle at work and can’t call us.”
Mattia said the chat windows on business websites offer a good middle ground without phone contact because it still provides the customer interaction with a human being.
Strange said he’s been offering the chat window on Surf Station’s website for about three years. But there are risks in staffing the workers who chat with customers. The employees have to be near experts with the inventory offered at the store and they have to have a flair for courteous, possibly even entertaining, Internet chat.
“There’s been a learning curve and our staff has to be trained. We have to know our product real well because there are a lot of questions that come from left field. It can appear to be a big waste of time unless you really invested the time and effort to train your staff up front,” Strange said.
The value of Internet sales can’t be ignored, though, Strange said. Surf Station’s website sales soared in 2012, jumping by 32 percent over the $500,000 in Internet sales in 2011, he said.
Strange’s approach is a far cry from Leahy’s experience with the Irish clothing website that lists a physical address in State College,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials. Pa.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. Leahy said she still hasn’t heard from the company after multiple emails and even posting requests for answers on the company’s Facebook site. She said those posts were removed by a site administrator.
MENA regions calls for advances in mobile payment industry
Mobile commerce expert Sammy Tuffaha called for the
telecommunications companies in the MENA region to join efforts to
develop the mobile payment industry which would provide an integrated
commerce interface allowing mobile phone users to pay bills, make
purchases, and complete their financial transactions via their mobile
phones.
Tuffaha made such comments through his participation in the Electronic and Mobile Payment Conference held by the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (int@j) to highlight vital current and future issues related to electronic and mobile payment industry, challenges, and opportunities in Jordan.
"Mobile commerce is the future of personal financial transactions around the globe. However, as the electronic and web-payment services have not yet matured in the MENA region, the transition to mobile commerce entails rigorous consumer education. This obstacle, combined with the limited availability of service standardization, calls for higher collaboration among service providers in an industry that is known for fierce competition," Tuffaha said.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.
"Mobile-payment projects have become a priority for most telecommunications companies and financial institutions which often attempts to develop e-payment systems as a standalone service. What we need today is a comprehensive integration between mobile wallet systems, bill payments, merchant networks, loyalty programs, and value-added services that utilize similar technologies,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing." Tuffaha added.
Held under the patronage of Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Dr. Hatem Al-Halawani, and bringing together over 250 specialists in the industry of online and mobile payments, the event aimed at providing participants with a comprehensive overview of the services made available by the currently-used e-payment technologies.
It also opened the door for participants to discuss the successful attempts made in this field in other markets and the potential of setting up a unified, secure infrastructure capable of storing and manipulating data while performing accounting processes electronically.
In his speech at the conference, Tuffaha discussed the main types of electronic and mobile payments and the methods that can be applied in the MENA region, noting that the web-based technologies, especially the most seamless user-friendly mobile digital wallets which function much like physical wallets, are the most commonly used payment options.
"The growing increase in the use of the Internet and mobile phone services on one hand, and the increasingly penetration of near-field technology on the other hand are vital factors that push toward building a unified and integrated e-payment system that will contribute to reducing the time and effort needed to perform financial transactions, pay for products and services, settle civil liabilities owed to the government, or pay water, electricity, communications and other bills," Tuffaha said.
Tuffaha noted, "The e-wallet is like a smart card that allows users to store money and make electronic commerce transactions at sale points, online, or by using a mobile phone application and can be recharged through many deposit options,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action including the ATM and direct bank transfers. Tuffaha also shed light on experiences of other nations like the US and Kenya where e-payment technologies enjoy widespread acceptance among users and institutions concerned with e-operations."
Tuffaha called for promoting the e-payment culture, raising public awareness about electronic services, and engaging public and private sector institutions in setting up comprehensive strategies that aim at making payments by digital wallet both a habit and preference.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh.
There's a lot to love about being Asian. At least that's what my parents liked to say when my sister and I ever complained about doing anything culturally strenuous. We were lucky to be different, they'd remind us.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. Not everyone got to watch Chinese cable, enjoy exotic crisps or experience sarcasm in a different language.
See your ad here
But even as a child, I knew it was a bitter-sweet kind of luck -- like surviving a bad strain of typhoid or saying "at least we have our cousins" when we’re yet to befriend anyone. At school, our teachers did their best to be kind. They kept a straight face when I expressed my confusion over a TV show I thought was called "Married... to children" and simply nodded when I said my favourite hoppy was table tennis. Still, it was an awkward time. And I was both grateful and embarrassed by any special treatment.
Tuffaha made such comments through his participation in the Electronic and Mobile Payment Conference held by the Information and Communications Technology Association of Jordan (int@j) to highlight vital current and future issues related to electronic and mobile payment industry, challenges, and opportunities in Jordan.
"Mobile commerce is the future of personal financial transactions around the globe. However, as the electronic and web-payment services have not yet matured in the MENA region, the transition to mobile commerce entails rigorous consumer education. This obstacle, combined with the limited availability of service standardization, calls for higher collaboration among service providers in an industry that is known for fierce competition," Tuffaha said.Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.
"Mobile-payment projects have become a priority for most telecommunications companies and financial institutions which often attempts to develop e-payment systems as a standalone service. What we need today is a comprehensive integration between mobile wallet systems, bill payments, merchant networks, loyalty programs, and value-added services that utilize similar technologies,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing." Tuffaha added.
Held under the patronage of Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Dr. Hatem Al-Halawani, and bringing together over 250 specialists in the industry of online and mobile payments, the event aimed at providing participants with a comprehensive overview of the services made available by the currently-used e-payment technologies.
It also opened the door for participants to discuss the successful attempts made in this field in other markets and the potential of setting up a unified, secure infrastructure capable of storing and manipulating data while performing accounting processes electronically.
In his speech at the conference, Tuffaha discussed the main types of electronic and mobile payments and the methods that can be applied in the MENA region, noting that the web-based technologies, especially the most seamless user-friendly mobile digital wallets which function much like physical wallets, are the most commonly used payment options.
"The growing increase in the use of the Internet and mobile phone services on one hand, and the increasingly penetration of near-field technology on the other hand are vital factors that push toward building a unified and integrated e-payment system that will contribute to reducing the time and effort needed to perform financial transactions, pay for products and services, settle civil liabilities owed to the government, or pay water, electricity, communications and other bills," Tuffaha said.
Tuffaha noted, "The e-wallet is like a smart card that allows users to store money and make electronic commerce transactions at sale points, online, or by using a mobile phone application and can be recharged through many deposit options,Other companies want a piece of that iPhone headset action including the ATM and direct bank transfers. Tuffaha also shed light on experiences of other nations like the US and Kenya where e-payment technologies enjoy widespread acceptance among users and institutions concerned with e-operations."
Tuffaha called for promoting the e-payment culture, raising public awareness about electronic services, and engaging public and private sector institutions in setting up comprehensive strategies that aim at making payments by digital wallet both a habit and preference.Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh.
There's a lot to love about being Asian. At least that's what my parents liked to say when my sister and I ever complained about doing anything culturally strenuous. We were lucky to be different, they'd remind us.Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. Not everyone got to watch Chinese cable, enjoy exotic crisps or experience sarcasm in a different language.
See your ad here
But even as a child, I knew it was a bitter-sweet kind of luck -- like surviving a bad strain of typhoid or saying "at least we have our cousins" when we’re yet to befriend anyone. At school, our teachers did their best to be kind. They kept a straight face when I expressed my confusion over a TV show I thought was called "Married... to children" and simply nodded when I said my favourite hoppy was table tennis. Still, it was an awkward time. And I was both grateful and embarrassed by any special treatment.
Growing Up Emanuel
He looked harmless enough, bundled in a blanket and struggling to
focus his eyes. My cousin Gary and I were impressed with his grasp
refliex—all babies will grab on to a finger as it touches their palm.
But since this was his only real trick, he seemed pretty useless.Other
companies want a piece of that iPhone headset
action My mother, however, acted as if he were extremely precious and
treated him with so much care that it was clear that she loved him
every bit as much as she loved me. Part of me knew that here was a
competitor.
In December 1959, Gary was five years old and I was just two. On this particular morning, we were jumping up and down on our convertible sofa. It was a monstrous, ugly piece of furniture covered in indestructible black Naugahyde. When opened, it practically filled the living room in my family’s first Chicago apartment, and the metal that held the mattress was so thin and springy that when we used the sofa as a trampoline we could make the whole frame shake.
My mother had fixed breakfast, dispatched my father, a pediatrician, to care for patients at Michael Reese Hospital, and fed and diapered the baby. Dodging the toys on the flioor, she brought the baby into the living room and called to us to stop our gymnastics.
“I’m going to put Rahmy down here and you boys can watch him for a little while. Take care of him,” said my mother. Clearly, she hoped we might like being the big boys in charge for a few minutes. My guess is that she also needed a little break.
We seemed agreeable enough, so she laid Rahm down on the sofa bed’s mattress and surrounded him with pillows to make him secure before leaving the room. It took us only a few seconds before we decided to climb back up on the bed and invent a new game that might have been called “Bounce the Baby.”
We positioned ourselves on either side of the little bundle and timed our jumps so that we landed simultaneously. The mattress bowed and the metal bands that held it were loaded with enough energy to bounce Rahm on the surface of the bed.
Instantly, we grasped the situation’s potential. With enough effort, and perfect timing, we might bounce Rahm off the mattress and onto the flioor. The noise we made as we jumped like a couple of jackhammers brought my mother running into the room.
It’s not so easy to stop bouncing once you get going. As Gary and I crashed together, my mother scooped Rahm off the bed with a sweep of her arm.
Tall, with long brown hair and a beautiful warm and open face, my 26-year-old mother was young and strong,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. but the sight of her second-born son being launched into the air had sent her heart racing. As Gary and I tumbled to a stop, she took a moment to catch her breath and choose her next move. Though we had behaved like idiots, my mother knew we were too young to have formed any malice aforethought. As a devotee of the pediatrician and author Benjamin Spock, who appealed to her with his radically sympathetic approach to child rearing, she had vowed to control the impulse to scream, hit, or punish us.
“Boys,” she finally said, “babies aren’t grown-up enough to play that way. You could have hurt Rahmy if he fell off the bed, or you fell onto him.”
Few mothers would have exercised the restraint my mother showed that morning, and fewer still would have had such confidence in Spock’s advice that they would have followed it so closely, and with such conviction, in the heat of battle.
Later, she bundled us three boys up and bounced a stroller down the stairs so we could walk a few blocks in the stinging-cold December air to a local market. Along the way we passed some of our neighbors, older Jewish women who clucked in Yiddish, assuming my mother did not know that they were saying something disparaging about the “hillbillies” with all their kids.
Low rents and easy access to public transportation had made our neighborhood popular with poor whites from Appalachia who fliocked to Chicago seeking jobs. Distinctive in the way they talked and dressed, these newcomers had met with their share of bigotry,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. and the term “hillbilly” was a put-down. My mother, who refused to use the word, startled the women with a little Yiddish admonition—“Ich bin a yid,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.” which means “I am a Jew”—to remind them of the ugliness of prejudice and their own ignorance.
In this one morning, the very first memory of my life, Marsha Emanuel had confronted, as a matter of routine,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. most of the responsibilities and issues that would define her adult life. She had risen early to cook breakfast, care for three kids, and see her husband depart for a day’s work that might not end until late in the evening. Before noon she had saved Rahm’s life, taught Gary and me some life lessons, confronted bigotry on the sidewalk, and done a little shopping. All this would be repeated, in a rough way, for at least 4,000 more days, until the Emanuel boys—me, Rahm, and soon-to-come brother Ariel—started to be more self-sufficient.
In December 1959, Gary was five years old and I was just two. On this particular morning, we were jumping up and down on our convertible sofa. It was a monstrous, ugly piece of furniture covered in indestructible black Naugahyde. When opened, it practically filled the living room in my family’s first Chicago apartment, and the metal that held the mattress was so thin and springy that when we used the sofa as a trampoline we could make the whole frame shake.
My mother had fixed breakfast, dispatched my father, a pediatrician, to care for patients at Michael Reese Hospital, and fed and diapered the baby. Dodging the toys on the flioor, she brought the baby into the living room and called to us to stop our gymnastics.
“I’m going to put Rahmy down here and you boys can watch him for a little while. Take care of him,” said my mother. Clearly, she hoped we might like being the big boys in charge for a few minutes. My guess is that she also needed a little break.
We seemed agreeable enough, so she laid Rahm down on the sofa bed’s mattress and surrounded him with pillows to make him secure before leaving the room. It took us only a few seconds before we decided to climb back up on the bed and invent a new game that might have been called “Bounce the Baby.”
We positioned ourselves on either side of the little bundle and timed our jumps so that we landed simultaneously. The mattress bowed and the metal bands that held it were loaded with enough energy to bounce Rahm on the surface of the bed.
Instantly, we grasped the situation’s potential. With enough effort, and perfect timing, we might bounce Rahm off the mattress and onto the flioor. The noise we made as we jumped like a couple of jackhammers brought my mother running into the room.
It’s not so easy to stop bouncing once you get going. As Gary and I crashed together, my mother scooped Rahm off the bed with a sweep of her arm.
Tall, with long brown hair and a beautiful warm and open face, my 26-year-old mother was young and strong,Did you know that custom keychain chains can be used for more than just business. but the sight of her second-born son being launched into the air had sent her heart racing. As Gary and I tumbled to a stop, she took a moment to catch her breath and choose her next move. Though we had behaved like idiots, my mother knew we were too young to have formed any malice aforethought. As a devotee of the pediatrician and author Benjamin Spock, who appealed to her with his radically sympathetic approach to child rearing, she had vowed to control the impulse to scream, hit, or punish us.
“Boys,” she finally said, “babies aren’t grown-up enough to play that way. You could have hurt Rahmy if he fell off the bed, or you fell onto him.”
Few mothers would have exercised the restraint my mother showed that morning, and fewer still would have had such confidence in Spock’s advice that they would have followed it so closely, and with such conviction, in the heat of battle.
Later, she bundled us three boys up and bounced a stroller down the stairs so we could walk a few blocks in the stinging-cold December air to a local market. Along the way we passed some of our neighbors, older Jewish women who clucked in Yiddish, assuming my mother did not know that they were saying something disparaging about the “hillbillies” with all their kids.
Low rents and easy access to public transportation had made our neighborhood popular with poor whites from Appalachia who fliocked to Chicago seeking jobs. Distinctive in the way they talked and dressed, these newcomers had met with their share of bigotry,Online shopping for luggage tag from a great selection of Clothing. and the term “hillbilly” was a put-down. My mother, who refused to use the word, startled the women with a little Yiddish admonition—“Ich bin a yid,Where you can create a custom lanyard from our wide selection of styles and materials.” which means “I am a Jew”—to remind them of the ugliness of prejudice and their own ignorance.
In this one morning, the very first memory of my life, Marsha Emanuel had confronted, as a matter of routine,Come January 9 and chip card driving licence would be available at the click of the mouse in Uttar Pradesh. most of the responsibilities and issues that would define her adult life. She had risen early to cook breakfast, care for three kids, and see her husband depart for a day’s work that might not end until late in the evening. Before noon she had saved Rahm’s life, taught Gary and me some life lessons, confronted bigotry on the sidewalk, and done a little shopping. All this would be repeated, in a rough way, for at least 4,000 more days, until the Emanuel boys—me, Rahm, and soon-to-come brother Ariel—started to be more self-sufficient.
2013年2月16日星期六
Just another quiet night out for Keith McNally
Keith McNally is anxious. He is fretting that Balthazar's ceiling is
the wrong shade of smoky yellow. He is worried the strip lights aren't
right and the hanging fans are definitely wrong. He is concerned about
his chips, his tea strainers, his salads. But now he is mostly anxious
about not being able to find his childhood home.
We start our search, appropriately it seems, in "barmy park" next to the tube, where the Bethnal Green Library was built on the site of a 200-year-old asylum. "I haven't been here for 50 years," he says. "I was terrified of this place. It was so austere. I was a local kid and they would make me wash my hands before letting me in. I was in terror of not bringing books back in time."
It is a decade since McNally was here, despite living in London for the last two years in an expensive, expansive Notting Hill house, light years and a lifetime away. "I haven't brought my wife or children here either,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces." he says. "I have reluctance … "
As we walk in the cold, winter rain he tells me about Joyce and Jack, his mum and dad. "They should never have married,Service Report a problem with a street light." he says. "My mother was neurotic, cautious. She always felt slighted. We were never allowed to bring anyone into the house or sit on the green sofa or go into a certain room. My father was a docker, more easygoing,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet. a keen amateur boxer and footballer."
His parents parted in the late 80s, he says, as we pass by Joyce's final home: "She was unsettled in every way, always moving, always thinking the next home would make her happy.Which Air purifier is right for you? She was a deeply unhappy woman." But it was her ambition – and his fear – that drove him. "My mother read a lot, did well at school but wasn't allowed to stay on. I only did slightly well out of fear of ending up at Fairfields School, over there. They used to put your head down the toilet on your first day at Fairfields so I worked just hard enough to get to the grammar school."
We walk past the site of the old ABC bakery in search of a pie and mash shop. Like many exiles, McNally has a romantic longing for scraps of his childhood culture and history: he talks knowledgeably and happily about Wat Tyler's death at nearby Mile End and of the old market gardeners and silk weavers of Stepney. We stop a pair of passers-by and ask directions to the pub near to long-gone Palm Street where the McNally family home once stood. "If I can see the Palm Tree I will know where we were," he says.
We are close now but times, the landscape – and McNally – have changed. We cross a park with a failing "ecology pavilion" while he reels off the routes and numbers of local buses like a reassuring mantra. We are lost and cold and wet. Then suddenly he sees it – an old-school East End boozer, standing alone, shorn of the streets that once surrounded it, and it all comes flooding back. "Look, there it is," he says with relief. "My prefab where I lived would have been … right here. God, I broke one of the pub windows with a cricket ball. Palm Street …" We stop, he exhales, then is quiet. "It is a terrible feeling when the place where you grew up has vanished," he says finally.
McNally's life could be a mini-series: poverty, exile, money, fame, bitter family rivalries. A younger sister, Josephine, was born eight years after Keith and there are two older brothers: the eldest,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. Peter, is now a taxi driver living in Wanstead, and Brian – the Kinks' Dave Davies to Keith's Ray, as Vanity Fair once put it – with whom McNally opened his smash-hit Odeon while still in his 20s, and who was for a time a rival to his restaurant crown.
Much of what we understand about the glamour of New York restaurants was created by McNally. In a 30-year career, he has opened a stream of successful businesses – Odeon in TriBeCa, the nightclub Nell's, Pastis in the Meatpacking District, Minetta Tavern, Balthazar – that defined their times and the downtown areas they dominated. It hasn't always been easy. He has walked away more than once, to make films, to farm. At the height of Odeon's success, the McNally brothers fell out; something about Keith and their mum, some say, and didn't speak for five years. Now, though, they talk or write every day, perhaps because Brian is running a restaurant in Saigon, on the other side of the world.
David Bailey, the Stones. McNally is working as a bell boy at the Hilton on Park Lane when he gets a break: "Some American producers were making a film about Dickens with Michael Redgrave, and they couldn't cast a part," he says. "I was 16 but looked 12 and I got it. A limousine would pick me up from home and take me to filming. Later, I played The Winslow Boy in York and had a lead on TV, though my parents wouldn't watch it."
McNally's lifelong love affair with theatre and film had begun. He appeared in Alan Bennett's 40 Years On at the Apollo theatre in the West End for a year, though when he told Joyce he'd be on stage with John Gielgud, she "burst into tears: 'You're going to be working with a homosexual!'" It was with Bennett he ate his first restaurant meal: steak at Bianchi's in Soho, and the playwright was later an investor in the Odeon.
By 1971, McNally had followed the hippie trail, hitchhiking through India and Afghanistan. On returning home, he worked the lighting board at The Rocky Horror Show and moonlighted at the Nell Gwynne strip club in Soho, where his current backer Richard Caring's Dean Street Townhouse now stands. "I was the stage manager," he says. "I checked the girls in, checked they were dressed, undressed, and stood at the side of the stage, taking their clothes. I had a terrible fear of seeing someone I knew, maybe my dad." He was sacked when one night the tape machine sped up, forcing the women to strip too fast: "Even when you are fired from a job you don't care about it is devastating."
While working at Rocky Horror, McNally had made a "couple of short films, some bits and pieces", and arrived in New York in 1975 intending to become a director, but restaurants got in his way. For a while he was working as the ma?tre'd at One Fifth in Greenwich Village, where the Saturday Night Live team – John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd et al – had their aftershow parties. When McNally teamed with brother Brian and Lynn Wagenknecht, later his wife, to turn a tired TriBeCa cafeteria, the Towers, into the Odeon, the showbiz scene followed and the rest is restaurant legend. Warhol, De Niro, Scorsese, Cher, Mick Jagger, Liz Taylor, Warren Beatty were all regulars. Belushi helped himself to food in the walk-in fridge ("Leave him," was McNally's smart response) and once saddled and rode supermodel Janice Dickinson around the restaurant. Excess was everywhere – fistfights with artist Richard Serra and with the aggrieved owner of One Fifth; Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat being kicked out. Cocaine was snorted from every rest-room surface, chronicled by another regular, writer Jay McInerney, in 1980s New York's definitive novel, Bright Lights, Big City. When Random House published the book their lawyers were worried McNally would sue over the talk of drugs – instead he approved the use of the Odeon's awning on the cover.
Next came Cafe Luxembourg, Nell's – New York's hippest nightclub – more restaurants, McNally's Midas touch turning everywhere into a goldmine. But, of course, he wasn't happy. "I got so depressed about being in New York not doing what I wanted," he sighs. "By the late 80s I had the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, Lucky Strike. I had Nell's where Rose Gray [later of London's River Café] cooked. But I didn't care.
We start our search, appropriately it seems, in "barmy park" next to the tube, where the Bethnal Green Library was built on the site of a 200-year-old asylum. "I haven't been here for 50 years," he says. "I was terrified of this place. It was so austere. I was a local kid and they would make me wash my hands before letting me in. I was in terror of not bringing books back in time."
It is a decade since McNally was here, despite living in London for the last two years in an expensive, expansive Notting Hill house, light years and a lifetime away. "I haven't brought my wife or children here either,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces." he says. "I have reluctance … "
As we walk in the cold, winter rain he tells me about Joyce and Jack, his mum and dad. "They should never have married,Service Report a problem with a street light." he says. "My mother was neurotic, cautious. She always felt slighted. We were never allowed to bring anyone into the house or sit on the green sofa or go into a certain room. My father was a docker, more easygoing,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet. a keen amateur boxer and footballer."
His parents parted in the late 80s, he says, as we pass by Joyce's final home: "She was unsettled in every way, always moving, always thinking the next home would make her happy.Which Air purifier is right for you? She was a deeply unhappy woman." But it was her ambition – and his fear – that drove him. "My mother read a lot, did well at school but wasn't allowed to stay on. I only did slightly well out of fear of ending up at Fairfields School, over there. They used to put your head down the toilet on your first day at Fairfields so I worked just hard enough to get to the grammar school."
We walk past the site of the old ABC bakery in search of a pie and mash shop. Like many exiles, McNally has a romantic longing for scraps of his childhood culture and history: he talks knowledgeably and happily about Wat Tyler's death at nearby Mile End and of the old market gardeners and silk weavers of Stepney. We stop a pair of passers-by and ask directions to the pub near to long-gone Palm Street where the McNally family home once stood. "If I can see the Palm Tree I will know where we were," he says.
We are close now but times, the landscape – and McNally – have changed. We cross a park with a failing "ecology pavilion" while he reels off the routes and numbers of local buses like a reassuring mantra. We are lost and cold and wet. Then suddenly he sees it – an old-school East End boozer, standing alone, shorn of the streets that once surrounded it, and it all comes flooding back. "Look, there it is," he says with relief. "My prefab where I lived would have been … right here. God, I broke one of the pub windows with a cricket ball. Palm Street …" We stop, he exhales, then is quiet. "It is a terrible feeling when the place where you grew up has vanished," he says finally.
McNally's life could be a mini-series: poverty, exile, money, fame, bitter family rivalries. A younger sister, Josephine, was born eight years after Keith and there are two older brothers: the eldest,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. Peter, is now a taxi driver living in Wanstead, and Brian – the Kinks' Dave Davies to Keith's Ray, as Vanity Fair once put it – with whom McNally opened his smash-hit Odeon while still in his 20s, and who was for a time a rival to his restaurant crown.
Much of what we understand about the glamour of New York restaurants was created by McNally. In a 30-year career, he has opened a stream of successful businesses – Odeon in TriBeCa, the nightclub Nell's, Pastis in the Meatpacking District, Minetta Tavern, Balthazar – that defined their times and the downtown areas they dominated. It hasn't always been easy. He has walked away more than once, to make films, to farm. At the height of Odeon's success, the McNally brothers fell out; something about Keith and their mum, some say, and didn't speak for five years. Now, though, they talk or write every day, perhaps because Brian is running a restaurant in Saigon, on the other side of the world.
David Bailey, the Stones. McNally is working as a bell boy at the Hilton on Park Lane when he gets a break: "Some American producers were making a film about Dickens with Michael Redgrave, and they couldn't cast a part," he says. "I was 16 but looked 12 and I got it. A limousine would pick me up from home and take me to filming. Later, I played The Winslow Boy in York and had a lead on TV, though my parents wouldn't watch it."
McNally's lifelong love affair with theatre and film had begun. He appeared in Alan Bennett's 40 Years On at the Apollo theatre in the West End for a year, though when he told Joyce he'd be on stage with John Gielgud, she "burst into tears: 'You're going to be working with a homosexual!'" It was with Bennett he ate his first restaurant meal: steak at Bianchi's in Soho, and the playwright was later an investor in the Odeon.
By 1971, McNally had followed the hippie trail, hitchhiking through India and Afghanistan. On returning home, he worked the lighting board at The Rocky Horror Show and moonlighted at the Nell Gwynne strip club in Soho, where his current backer Richard Caring's Dean Street Townhouse now stands. "I was the stage manager," he says. "I checked the girls in, checked they were dressed, undressed, and stood at the side of the stage, taking their clothes. I had a terrible fear of seeing someone I knew, maybe my dad." He was sacked when one night the tape machine sped up, forcing the women to strip too fast: "Even when you are fired from a job you don't care about it is devastating."
While working at Rocky Horror, McNally had made a "couple of short films, some bits and pieces", and arrived in New York in 1975 intending to become a director, but restaurants got in his way. For a while he was working as the ma?tre'd at One Fifth in Greenwich Village, where the Saturday Night Live team – John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd et al – had their aftershow parties. When McNally teamed with brother Brian and Lynn Wagenknecht, later his wife, to turn a tired TriBeCa cafeteria, the Towers, into the Odeon, the showbiz scene followed and the rest is restaurant legend. Warhol, De Niro, Scorsese, Cher, Mick Jagger, Liz Taylor, Warren Beatty were all regulars. Belushi helped himself to food in the walk-in fridge ("Leave him," was McNally's smart response) and once saddled and rode supermodel Janice Dickinson around the restaurant. Excess was everywhere – fistfights with artist Richard Serra and with the aggrieved owner of One Fifth; Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat being kicked out. Cocaine was snorted from every rest-room surface, chronicled by another regular, writer Jay McInerney, in 1980s New York's definitive novel, Bright Lights, Big City. When Random House published the book their lawyers were worried McNally would sue over the talk of drugs – instead he approved the use of the Odeon's awning on the cover.
Next came Cafe Luxembourg, Nell's – New York's hippest nightclub – more restaurants, McNally's Midas touch turning everywhere into a goldmine. But, of course, he wasn't happy. "I got so depressed about being in New York not doing what I wanted," he sighs. "By the late 80s I had the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, Lucky Strike. I had Nell's where Rose Gray [later of London's River Café] cooked. But I didn't care.
Fire at Pratt Institute Destroys Studios and Artwork of Students
Maria De Los Angeles, a 24-year-old student at the Pratt Institute,
has an admissions interview at Yale University’s graduate art school
next month and was planning to show the officers there some of her 100
paintings and 300 prints.
But in Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained.
“My studio’s gone, everything I’ve made at Pratt is gone,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet.” Ms. De Los Angeles said, sobbing as she stood outside the student union near the site of the fire. “I don’t even think I have a pencil.”
The aggressive fire and the water needed to extinguish it caused significant damage to the landmark six-story building, a sturdy Romanesque Revival brick fortress that opened in 1887. Known as Main Building, it houses administrative offices as well as studios and classrooms and has been a keystone of the district of 36 Pratt buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cause of the fire, which resulted in minor injuries to three firefighters and one other unidentified person, is under investigation.
Firefighters battled the flames for two hours after the fire was reported at 2:13 a.m., propelling ladders up to the fifth and sixth floors so they could shoot water through the windows, even as parts of the roof caved in. The blaze grew to four alarms, and eventually 39 fire trucks and 168 firefighters were summoned to the scene, on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill.
“It’s a very old building with very high ceilings on the top floor,” said James Esposito, chief of fire operations. “So the fire had a large amount of area to consume and it was a very difficult fire to extinguish.”
“Inside there’s quite a bit of destruction,” he told reporters. “It’s all wood inside and the roof did collapse on the left side of the building on the top floor. There’s a lot of damage up there, and we have a lot of water damage.”
Some students at the school, founded by Charles Pratt, a pioneer of the American oil industry, were awakened by the commotion and gathered on the street to watch. By 6:30 a.m., Madeline Mikolon, a 22-year-old senior studying painting, rushed to the building, where the paintings for her thesis show — scheduled for next month — were stored and saw firefighters still dousing the blaze. She realized it had destroyed her works, and the works of dozens of her peers.
“Now we’ve got no work, no supplies, nowhere to meet, nothing,” said Ms. Mikolon, staring blankly at her studio’s charred interior.
Another tearful student soon learned that she had caught a lucky break. From a building across the street,Which Air purifier is right for you? Rebecca Warwick, 21, saw some of her paintings through a smashed window at Main Building. They had been twisted and bent by the heat but they had not been destroyed. She let out a cry of relief.
“I feel bad even being happy because all my friends lost their work,” she said.
The school canceled classes through Saturday at the building and at nearby South Hall, Amy Aronoff, a spokeswoman, said. She said the sixth floor, which contained 42 senior painting studios, was completely gutted by the fire; the fifth floor, containing two large classrooms for painting majors and one painting seminar room, was badly scorched; and there was water damage to all the lower floors.
Designed by Lamb & Rich Architects, Main Building is part of a complex that has been designated a New York City landmark as well as a national treasure. In 2011, the school was chosen by Architectural Digest as one of the 10 most architecturally significant campuses in the country.
Michael Madison, a Fire Department spokesman, said he knew of no immediate reason to consider the fire’s cause suspicious and Chief Esposito told reporters that he doubted there were large amounts of “combustibles stored up there.” Nevertheless, some students speculated that the fire might have started among the chemical-soaked rags,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces. paper, canvas and oil paint kept in the studios.
“It’s a tinderbox,” said Brad Isnard, 22, an architecture student who said he visited the studios often.
“It all goes up in flames; it’s completely numbing,” he said,Service Report a problem with a street light. as he and Ms. Mikolon gazed up at the blue sky visible through the windows of the art studios.
“I’m here to tell my students that even though all the work no longer exists, all the time, and the effort, and what they learned making the works still exists, and nothing, not even a fire, can take that away.”
Docent Rosalyn Voget remains calm. In this situation, being interrupted is hardly a bad thing. These kids are engaged and enthusiastic. There are also a lot of them.
The new Family Sunday programs at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center are only in their second weekend, and already the groups of attendees are so large that some of them need to be split in two. Family tours have been filling the main lobby, and young artists have been packing the drop-in art activities down in the Moorman Studio. Upstairs in the galleries, kids are drawing away with the colored pencils they've been given to sketch the art around them.
On the first Family Sunday, which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, 80-some people showed up for the tours,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. and more than 100 lined up at the art studio. Museum director Connie Wolf, who is spearheading the new initiative, was "overwhelmed" and pleased.
"It indicates that there is a huge hunger for (families) to find meaningful things to do together that provide new ways of thinking and educational, but are not classroom-based," Wolf said. "There's a time to put all that technology aside and just be in the moment."
Last Sunday, Feb. 10, more than 35 people were on hand for the 12:30 tour, with more showing up for later tours. Voget chose two display cases and a painting -- Astley David Middleton Cooper's circa-1898 oil "Mrs. Stanford's Jewel Collection" -- to show her young charges. The first case was filled with ornate Venetian glass vessels; the second, with colorful Chinese snuff bottles of glass, porcelain, crystal, silver. The common theme? Beautiful objects that you give people you love, often on Valentine's Day.
The kids seemed fascinated. With wide eyes, they peered at the bottles, chose their favorites and speculated what might have been kept in them. Mint. Lavender. "Spells," one suggested.
Family Sunday tours tie into the drop-in art activities held in the studio from 1 to 3 p.m. On this day artist Stephanie Crowell also centered the project on glass bottles. Small bottles had been glued to heavy paper, with children encouraged to be creative about what their bottles could hold -- or what could be spilling out onto the paper. A crowd of kids and parents filled the room, the young artists descending on the crayons, construction paper, glue, red lacy hearts and "glitter station."
But in Friday’s early hours, a fast-moving fire ravaged the top two floors of the historic main building at the private art, design and architecture college in Brooklyn, destroying dozens of art studios and the precious student works they contained.
“My studio’s gone, everything I’ve made at Pratt is gone,The cost of cleaning just 2 infected lenses is already higher than the cost of a dry cabinet.” Ms. De Los Angeles said, sobbing as she stood outside the student union near the site of the fire. “I don’t even think I have a pencil.”
The aggressive fire and the water needed to extinguish it caused significant damage to the landmark six-story building, a sturdy Romanesque Revival brick fortress that opened in 1887. Known as Main Building, it houses administrative offices as well as studios and classrooms and has been a keystone of the district of 36 Pratt buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cause of the fire, which resulted in minor injuries to three firefighters and one other unidentified person, is under investigation.
Firefighters battled the flames for two hours after the fire was reported at 2:13 a.m., propelling ladders up to the fifth and sixth floors so they could shoot water through the windows, even as parts of the roof caved in. The blaze grew to four alarms, and eventually 39 fire trucks and 168 firefighters were summoned to the scene, on Willoughby Avenue in Clinton Hill.
“It’s a very old building with very high ceilings on the top floor,” said James Esposito, chief of fire operations. “So the fire had a large amount of area to consume and it was a very difficult fire to extinguish.”
“Inside there’s quite a bit of destruction,” he told reporters. “It’s all wood inside and the roof did collapse on the left side of the building on the top floor. There’s a lot of damage up there, and we have a lot of water damage.”
Some students at the school, founded by Charles Pratt, a pioneer of the American oil industry, were awakened by the commotion and gathered on the street to watch. By 6:30 a.m., Madeline Mikolon, a 22-year-old senior studying painting, rushed to the building, where the paintings for her thesis show — scheduled for next month — were stored and saw firefighters still dousing the blaze. She realized it had destroyed her works, and the works of dozens of her peers.
“Now we’ve got no work, no supplies, nowhere to meet, nothing,” said Ms. Mikolon, staring blankly at her studio’s charred interior.
Another tearful student soon learned that she had caught a lucky break. From a building across the street,Which Air purifier is right for you? Rebecca Warwick, 21, saw some of her paintings through a smashed window at Main Building. They had been twisted and bent by the heat but they had not been destroyed. She let out a cry of relief.
“I feel bad even being happy because all my friends lost their work,” she said.
The school canceled classes through Saturday at the building and at nearby South Hall, Amy Aronoff, a spokeswoman, said. She said the sixth floor, which contained 42 senior painting studios, was completely gutted by the fire; the fifth floor, containing two large classrooms for painting majors and one painting seminar room, was badly scorched; and there was water damage to all the lower floors.
Designed by Lamb & Rich Architects, Main Building is part of a complex that has been designated a New York City landmark as well as a national treasure. In 2011, the school was chosen by Architectural Digest as one of the 10 most architecturally significant campuses in the country.
Michael Madison, a Fire Department spokesman, said he knew of no immediate reason to consider the fire’s cause suspicious and Chief Esposito told reporters that he doubted there were large amounts of “combustibles stored up there.” Nevertheless, some students speculated that the fire might have started among the chemical-soaked rags,Like most of you, I'd seen the broken buy mosaic decorated pieces. paper, canvas and oil paint kept in the studios.
“It’s a tinderbox,” said Brad Isnard, 22, an architecture student who said he visited the studios often.
“It all goes up in flames; it’s completely numbing,” he said,Service Report a problem with a street light. as he and Ms. Mikolon gazed up at the blue sky visible through the windows of the art studios.
“I’m here to tell my students that even though all the work no longer exists, all the time, and the effort, and what they learned making the works still exists, and nothing, not even a fire, can take that away.”
Docent Rosalyn Voget remains calm. In this situation, being interrupted is hardly a bad thing. These kids are engaged and enthusiastic. There are also a lot of them.
The new Family Sunday programs at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center are only in their second weekend, and already the groups of attendees are so large that some of them need to be split in two. Family tours have been filling the main lobby, and young artists have been packing the drop-in art activities down in the Moorman Studio. Upstairs in the galleries, kids are drawing away with the colored pencils they've been given to sketch the art around them.
On the first Family Sunday, which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, 80-some people showed up for the tours,Site describes services including Plastic Mould. and more than 100 lined up at the art studio. Museum director Connie Wolf, who is spearheading the new initiative, was "overwhelmed" and pleased.
"It indicates that there is a huge hunger for (families) to find meaningful things to do together that provide new ways of thinking and educational, but are not classroom-based," Wolf said. "There's a time to put all that technology aside and just be in the moment."
Last Sunday, Feb. 10, more than 35 people were on hand for the 12:30 tour, with more showing up for later tours. Voget chose two display cases and a painting -- Astley David Middleton Cooper's circa-1898 oil "Mrs. Stanford's Jewel Collection" -- to show her young charges. The first case was filled with ornate Venetian glass vessels; the second, with colorful Chinese snuff bottles of glass, porcelain, crystal, silver. The common theme? Beautiful objects that you give people you love, often on Valentine's Day.
The kids seemed fascinated. With wide eyes, they peered at the bottles, chose their favorites and speculated what might have been kept in them. Mint. Lavender. "Spells," one suggested.
Family Sunday tours tie into the drop-in art activities held in the studio from 1 to 3 p.m. On this day artist Stephanie Crowell also centered the project on glass bottles. Small bottles had been glued to heavy paper, with children encouraged to be creative about what their bottles could hold -- or what could be spilling out onto the paper. A crowd of kids and parents filled the room, the young artists descending on the crayons, construction paper, glue, red lacy hearts and "glitter station."
订阅：
博文 (Atom)