Angel (Season 1) DVD Review

Watch Movie Online - Nominated for 25 Saturn Awards and one Emmy for Outstanding Makeup for a Series, Angel has established a strong cult following during its five-year run on the WB network. A spin-off of the enormously popular series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel has followed in the footsteps of its predecessor and boasts many of the same heroes and villains. Created by Joss Whedon, the show is one of a number of successful original series aired by WB including Buffy, Smallville, Dawson's Creek, and Gilmore Girls among others…

Angel revolves around the life of Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire turned do-gooder following a long career of killing the innocent. After spending three years in the small California town of Sunnydale with his girlfriend Buffy, Angel moves to Los Angeles where he sets up Angel Investigations to help those people most in need of protection from the dark forces that lurk within the city. Aided by old friends and new, Angel seeks to redeem his soul while cleansing the streets of Los Angeles of demons, warlocks, and evil lawyers… Angel's supernatural fighting team includes Buffy crossover character Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), now an aspiring actress; erudite Englishman Wesley Wyndam-Price (Alexis Denisof), and street fighter Charles Gunn (J. August Richards). Together, they join forces in a series known for its well-written and suspense riddled plots…

The Angel DVD features a number of exciting episodes including the season premiere "City Of" in which Angel moves to L.A. unaware of his life purpose, at least until he meets up with his half-demon spiritual advisor Alan Doyle (Glenn Quinn) who reveals a more positive direction for Angel. When powerful vampire lawyer Russell Winters sets his sights on Cordelia, it's up to Angel to save her from his evil clutches… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include "Sense & Sensitivity" in which an evil sensitivity training instructor casts his spell over an entire police department including Angel himself, and "The Ring" in which Angel stumbles into a secret underground demon fight club…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Angel (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (City Of) Air Date: 10-05-1999
Episode 2 (Lonely Hearts) Air Date: 10-12-1999
Episode 3 (In the Dark) Air Date: 10-19-1999
Episode 4 (I Fall to Pieces) Air Date: 10-26-1999
Episode 5 (Rm w/a Vu) Air Date: 11-02-1999
Episode 6 (Sense & Sensitivity) Air Date: 11-09-1999
Episode 7 (Bachelor Party) Air Date: 11-16-1999
Episode 8 (I Will Remember You) Air Date: 11-23-1999
Episode 9 (Hero) Air Date: 11-30-1999
Episode 10 (Parting Gifts) Air Date: 12-14-1999
Episode 11 (Somnambulist) Air Date: 01-18-2000
Episode 12 (Expecting) Air Date: 01-25-2000
Episode 13 (She) Air Date: 02-08-2000
Episode 14 (I've Got You Under My Skin) Air Date: 02-15-2000
Episode 15 (The Prodigal) Air Date: 02-22-2000
Episode 16 (The Ring) Air Date: 02-29-2000
Episode 17 (Eternity) Air Date: 04-04-2000
Episode 18 (Five by Five) Air Date: 04-25-2000
Episode 19 (Sanctuary) Air Date: 05-02-2000
Episode 20 (War Zone) Air Date: 05-09-2000
Episode 21 (Blind Date) Air Date: 05-16-2000
Episode 22 (To Shanshu in L.A.) Air Date: 05-23-2000

Drummer Wannabees

Are you becoming tired and frustrated of just envisions the drums rather of rattling feeling and playing the thumping beats? If yes, then now is the right time to go to the succeeding level and sign up for drum lessons. Air drumming is nice, but in order to sincerely fulfill your aspirations of becoming a drummer, drum lessons is a must.

In reality, drumming is as easy as one, two three. Normally, many are restrained by the complex beats the drum and drummer create. But in reality, these beats are just variances of clean patterns. Right! Anyone can learn the drums. All it takes is successive studying and becoming expert on these casual beats and patterns. Soon you'll be professional drummer.

Take the initial step first, sheet reading. To create the exact sound, you must know how to read music sheets. There are different musical symbols which will be familiarized as time goes by, but sheet reading is the base which will make you to play the drums.

As the drummer, your only one obligation is counting beat. The important focus of a beginner drum pupil is on how the beats should be counted and how the subdivisions connect to each other. For new students, they are commonly instructed how to count by beating on a single drum. Make certain to count loud while tapping as this is important in learning new beats and more complex subdivisions in the future. Use of metronome may to help while tapping.

Learning to play with a single beat may be tiresome and repetitive to some but mastery of these two skills is essential. As you progress, you can learn new beats, more compound hits and other drum techniques. Students see it dull and try to rush lessons. Hastening will only restrain your development and it would be better to master the fundamentals before venturing further. Of course, once you see that you are prepared for more, there are intermediate and advanced lessons for more expert drummers out there.

Wow! 250 MPH in a car

Is this crazy? Or does it make sense? Bugatti, a small car company bankrolled by Volkswagen (VW), has brought out the Veyron 16.4 with a top speed of 248 mph – and the car was tested at the speed on the fastest track Volkswagen could find in Europe!

Nowhere else would allow the car to get to that speed and be timed for long enough to say it actually could do this. The previous record for a production car was 242 mph round the Nardo track in Italy – and that required a great deal of skill by the driver to keep the car on the banked track!

This sort of speed – and the power to get there - are pretty much off the planet, but since then, other companies - with a fraction of the resources of Bugatti – have decided they should aim for 250 mph. ‘What for?’, you might ask. I guess it is a bit like saying the moon is there so let’s go there.

W-16, 1,001 bhp engine

The Bugatti Veyron is a very impressive car, powered by a W-16-cylinder 8.0 liter engine developing 1,001 bhp. The ‘4’ stands for the four turbochargers needed to boost the engine to that amount of power. The whole Bugatti project was the idea of Dr Ferdinand Piech, then chairman of the VW Group. He wanted VW to build a car to showcase technology and to move the goal posts so no one could get close. Evidently, during testing this engine was proved to be reliable when producing 1,200 bhp.

The car does showcase technology. The engine is similar to the W-12 installed in the Audi A8 and S8, and in turbocharged form in the Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur.

The gearbox is also based on VW Group technology. It is a seven-speed sequential box with automatic or manual shifting. It has a dual clutch arrangement so that when you change gear the power continues to be transmitted all the time, one clutch disengaging exactly at the moment the other engages. Stunning technology that really delivers benefits.

The same concept is available in six-speed form in the VW Golf, Audi A3 and S3. It is called DSG. Of course, the Bugatti has a special version of this concept, made by Ricardo, a powertrain specialist in the UK.

The Bugatti has a carbon fiber structure, suspension like a racing car, and two large air intakes in the roof to keep that huge engine cool. Of course, the engine is mounted behind the driver and passenger but forward of the rear wheels.

Most exotic cars have rear-wheel drive, but the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 has so much power that it has four-wheel drive. Actually, some Audis, including the 450 bhp RS4, and all Lamborghinis - also in the VW Group - now have four-wheel drive. Again, the Bugatti is showcasing group technology

If you are wondering why four-wheel drive is needed, just think about it. With two-wheel drive there would be 500 bhp going through each tire! Most makers of supercars and exotic cars think that 300 bhp per tire is plenty.

Ok, so the Bugatti was timed at 248 mph, and reaches 60 mph in less than 3 seconds. Did the other makers of exotic cars give up, and say: ‘Well, we can’t match that’?

No, Pagani, produced the 650 bhp Zonda F with an option of 700 bhp. Saleen upped the power output of its S7 to 750 bhp, while Ferrari produced a few FXXs with 850 bhp, and Maserati also has a version of the MC-12 developing 750 bhp or so.

On the other hand Koenigsegg decided not to pursue the power race for the time being at least. After all its CCR has a 806 bhp engine, and was timed at 242 mph. Instead, Koenigsegg has introduced the CCX which is designed to meet US regulations and is a more practical street machine.

Others have decided to go for maximum power including one of the tuners of Porsche 911s. Then, a small British company is introducing a car with a turbocharged 7.0 liter V-8 with a power output of 1,000 bhp. They say that the engine could be tuned to 1,200 bhp.

More will follow down this route to madness. Me? I’d go for the 500 -600 bhp myself in a car that really handles and is very, very responsive. Like a Pagani Zonda or an Ascari KZ1.

Japanese Lacquer And Exquisite Sprinkled Pictures

Before I describe these unique and beautiful works of art, exclusively Japanese, I feel that you need to know more about Lacquer, the extraordinary medium that was used. Only then will you fully appreciate these brilliant creations.

For readers who are unfamiliar with old Japanese Lacquer, I suspect you will be thinking of the typical modern Lacquer trays and bowls that are mass-produced. These items are very decorative, but completely fail to compare with the magnificent earlier hand made works.

From China to Japan

Lacquer is really the sap from a tree known as `Rhus Vernicifera'. The Chinese were the first to discover and use it, at least a century before Christ, when it was used as a paint, and more often as a preservative. It was a very effective preservative, as many pieces still exist from as far back as the Han period 206BC, when Lacquer was very popular and in extensive use.

The earliest known Japanese Lacquer dates back to about the 7th Century, but it was not until the 14th and 15th century that the Japanese Lacquer works became so much more decorative. By then they had refined and created exceptional techniques, far finer and more beautiful than the Chinese lacquer that they had simply originally copied.

The Chinese had used shades of black, brown, yellow, green, and mostly red or cinnabar Lacquer. They mainly favoured deep carving of the Lacquer, to form the decoration, and produced some outstanding work.

They often applied the colours in layers, so that once carved, these colours would be revealed. One particular technique is known as `Guri' Lacquer: the colours mostly red and black were built up in layers, and then a geometric or symmetrical pattern would be carved with a deep `V' shaped cut, so that all these alternating layers would be revealed within the cuts. The Chinese also painted, incised and inlaid Lacquer with iridescent pieces of shell, but these works were treasured by the Japanese often more so, than by the Chinese.

To begin with all these methods were copied, but by about the 15th century the Japanese had become, justifiably, the unrivalled masters of the art!

Lacquer was, quite rightly, highly valued for its lasting qualities and strength. A very high gloss could be achieved, proving impervious to alcohol, acids and hot liquids. It would also have appealed to the Zen Buddhism ideals of `Yin and Yang’, as Lacquer appears to be so delicately beautiful and light in weight. Yet, it is hard, impermeable and enduring.

The preparation

It is a very difficult medium to work with, uncompromising, sticky, and time consuming. It had to be strained to remove any impurities, and gently heated to thicken, and evaporate any moisture content. All the time it had to be kept in a dust free environment, and added to these difficulties, in its liquid form it gives off a poisonous gas! Strangely, it requires a damp humid atmosphere for it to harden.

It had to be applied in very thin layers, otherwise it runs, and if too thick, will not harden at all but will just form a skin. After each layer had hardened, all the time in a dust free area, it was carefully rubbed down before another layer would be added.

An average piece consisted of a minimum of 30 layers, in order that there would not be a trace of the wood base, or on larger pieces the hemp cloth applied in the early layers, to help strengthen the wood. The Lacquer Artist would have taken over, only at this stage, to create the decoration by the addition of yet even more layers.

The number of colours possible, due to chemical reactions with pigments and the composition of Lacquer were limited. So Lacquer artists were still restricted and blue was a very rare colour.

It was the Japanese that developed the idea and the techniques of adding gold and silver to liven up the decoration. Real gold and silver metals were used in the form of foil, flakes, metal particles of various grades, as well as powders. All of these precious metals were brilliantly used to great advantage, particularly in the late 18th and early 19th century.

The sprinkling of gold or silver metal particles had been used before and over a very long period, to brighten up the interiors. Even very early Lacquer works have `Nashiji' inside. This is where fine particles of gold have simply been sprinkled in to the Lacquer. Some were scattered unevenly, producing cloud effects, whilst others varied in the density. However no pictures were formed.

Sprinkled, not painted!

In the 18th century they invented and refined the idea of sprinkled pictures, and these were used to great effect in what are known as `Togadashi' pieces. They are easily identified, as the surface of the Lacquer is always perfectly smooth in Togadashi work.

These designs and amazing pictures were created purely, by very skilfully pouring various grades of fine metal and pigment powders on to the wet Lacquer, so that they would sink in. There was no way of correcting any errors! Extra layers of the background colour, normally black, would be added over the picture. Then by carefully polishing down until the picture reappears, the top edges of the metal particles would be made to glisten from the polish, providing brilliance impossible to achieve any other way. The last very thin coats would be of the purest clear Lacquer, providing the mirror like high gloss finish.

Various shades of black were created, by charcoal mixed with different quantities of silver powder, so that they could even simulate painted brush strokes. These powders were mainly used for black pictures on a gold background, that one would never imagine were created by sprinkling techniques. What is also quite remarkable, is the very fine degree of control in shading that they were able to achieve. This meant that far more sophisticated pictures could be created, than had ever been seen before.

There are three types of sprinkled picture techniques in all and Togadashi, already described, is my favourite! Another is `Hiramakie', which is where quite a thickly sprinkled gold powder is used, and the lacquer is raised just a little above the background. As usual the surface is polished and burnished, before the final clear layers, and has a very rich appearance. Lastly, there is `Takamakie', which is again similar to Hiramakie, only it is in much higher relief. This thickness was achieved by building up and modelling the areas required in relief, with a combination of Lacquer and charcoal, before applying the gold powder layers.

Highlights of pure gold

Many Lacquer artists made use of a combination of these techniques in a piece of work. Just to further enrich these pictures, finely shaped tiny pieces of pure gold, so small that it is hard to imagine how they were handled, are individually applied near the final surface to create highlights. Frequently these are exactly matched shapes, tiny squares or diamond pieces that are all so amazingly very accurately placed.

Togadashi Boxes

One of our favourite examples of this type of work in this collection is a fine Box that appears as two overlapping boxes. One shows the figure of the swordsmith forging the sword `Little Fox', assisted by the Fox Spirit in the guise of a woman; the other has an overall design of a mass of gold and coloured flowers.

Looking closely at the gold centres of the flowers one can see how these consist of a number of very tiny shaped flakes of gold; each flake has been carefully placed by hand.

It also has a marvellous fitted tray just in gold Togadashi of three foxes running in a landscape with a really dream like quality. The border of the tray is decorated in `Gyobu’, which is where each individual flake of gold has also been positioned by hand, rather than sprinkled.

Another wonderful Box that is purely, fine Togadashi, depicts a busy street market scene, and what more can I say, other than it is an outstanding piece of work!

Neither of these boxes is signed, but they are nevertheless, of the finest quality. To see the photographs please use the link at the end of this article. These wonderful lacquer works feature on Japanese inro too (the subject of another article).

Modern works

A word of warning when buying lacquer, it is important that the condition is both good and original. As there are now some cleverly repaired pieces on the market, expert advice should always be obtained.

Fine Lacquer is made even today, and there are certain living traditional Lacquer artists who are held in very high esteem in Japan. So much so, that some have been designated as `Living National Treasures', and their contemporary hand made Lacquer work is in high demand and extremely expensive.

I have seen an example, at a Lacquer study weekend held at the V & A museum. A remarkable modern box that combined thick clear Perspex with black Lacquer in a geometric design that really was very dramatic. Personally I still prefer the earlier works and for the cost of this modern box a very good collection could be formed!

The Great Unopposed

“My Beat” is Northwestern Wisconsin. I monitor the local government units in an eight county area. Mostly, I am concerned with the actions in the areas of land use, planning, zoning, building, economic development and private property rights.

It is a rural area. How rural is it, you ask? The eight Wisconsin counties of Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Burnett, Sawyer, Washburn, Barron and Rusk encompass 8493 square miles. The total population (2000 census) was 183,382. That works out to 21.60 people per square mile.

The total area of the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island is 5890 square miles. Their total population(2000 census) was 4,453,884. That is 756 people per square mile.

That is how rural we are. Forty percent larger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. With four percent of the population of that area. That's rural.

Would you like some more statistics from “My Beat?”

Nomination Papers were due a couple of weeks ago. Local elections. A couple hundred or so. All County Board of Supervisors, in all eight counties. Numerous Mayors and City Council Seats. There are 218 seats up in all, in this area. (Not counting School Board and Town races. I have no idea how many more hundred of those there are.)

How many of them do you suppose are unopposed? Of the 218 seats, there are 159 of those seats where there is no opposition. The candidate is running unopposed. That is 73% of the seats up for election. Unopposed!

Only 59 seats have competition, for a measly 27%.

Why? Why, so many unopposed races?

* It's not the citizens think their local officials are doing a good job. That's for sure. There is enough complaining going on. On a variety of issues. At Coffee Clubs, neighbors talking, whatever. Complaints can always be heard. So, it's not citizen contentment that drives this problem.

* We have too many races and positions to fill. We don't have enough people per square mile who are really interested in serving on these boards. Let's have larger governmental units and smaller governing boards. Thus, fewer candidates to elect. Let's start some serious consolidation out there!

However, talking with my counterparts across the country, I learn this is not a “rural” problem. High density areas have just as much a problem getting opposition as rural areas do. The number of people in a district is irrelevant. So, that's not the problem.

* Our part time elected officials work for peanuts. They are grossly underpaid for their time and responsibility. But, the same problem of unopposed local officials is also rampant in large population centers, with full time positions. So, it's not money either?

We have a national problem, but without being able to identify just exactly why, it is very difficult to come up with solutions.

But, we do have a problem. Who can defend a system that produces 73% of races being decided, because the name listed on the ballot was better than “nobody.”

How do we start solve a problem, when we can't even get to the root cause of it?

Latest Mobile Phones To Take Mobile Experience To New Heights

Mobile phones are for exchanging information. It empowers one to communicate without any barrier of where he or she is. One can talk to someone at the other end anytime from anywhere. Earlier only chat and SMS (Short Messaging Service) were possible with mobile phones but at present one is able to do a multifarious works with it. The recent introduction of 3G (Third Generation) technology in mobile phones along with the technological advancement in the sphere of network providing has enabled this.

Though mobile phone handsets have become more advanced it is the technology of service networks which is lagging behind. It is time to make mobile service networks technology move along the same league as that of handsets. In that direction BT, Three, Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 have been adopting latest technologies.

Combination of the latest technology from the network service providers and latest technology in the sphere of Mobile Phone handsets has given a new mobile experience to customers. In addition to, talking and sending SMS one has been able to make video calls, connect to internet, carry around office documents, video conferencing, shooting photos and videos, downloading and listening music with the new technology.

Every Mobile phone model has low lifecycle. It is not because these models are inferior ones. It is because of the constant changes that go in mobile technology. As with anything else in life, evolution of a process is needed to keep it in tune with the rest of the world. Mobile phone technology is no different thing either. This approach of research and development from the various individuals connected with mobile technology has led us to reach new frontiers in mobile phone usage experience.

Today it is becoming difficult to define which mobile handset is different than the other and in which way. It is becoming more or less similar. Whether it is the capability of these mobile phones to play music, shoot videos or photos, MMS or video calls or internet browsing capability every model has only a thin line of separation.

Mobile phones have enabled us to talk freely without any boundary or bondage. It has enabled us to see who is talking at the other side. We can send new ideas or information through MMS. Mobile phone is becoming more or less of a computer bundled with other accessories such as camera, FM and music player. At present the things that one can do with a mobile phone is on the rise and it certainly would not stop here. The future for mobile phone technology is brighter than ever.

You can order and buy next generation mobile phones easily from online shops like Mobile Phone Shop UK. The online shops give heavy discounts not available elsewhere and you do not need to go physically to buy it. Along with it, you are able to compare different mobile phone models from the comfort of your home.

Buy and order latest mobile phones now and reach out for a new mobile phone experience.