Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Concert: Blood Red Shoes at Lucerna

English alternative rock duo Blood Red Shoes are coming to Prague as part of their European Tour 2014. The Brighton-based band, composed of Laura-Mary Carter on guitar and Steven Ansell on drums, have been rocking since late 2004. They took their name from a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire musical, in which Ginger Rogers practiced so much for her role that she turned her white dancing shoes red with blood. Blood Red Shoes are now touring with 24 shows in 10 European countries to promote their new self-titled album that was released in March 2014.

Blood Red Shoes is the duo's fourth album and it features 12 tracks, including the last single "An Animal." The release of the album was preceded by the Online Deals single "A Perfect Mess." The song was made available on Dec. 1, 2013 on the band's website after 10 QR codes were found by fans in different cities across the world.

Blood Red Shoes was produced and recorded by the duo alone during six months in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, with no sound engineers, A&R people or producers. "It came out as our rawest, heaviest, sexiest and most confident sounding record so far," Steve Ansell told the media when the album was announced.

Barry Nicolson in music magazine NME said that the album is "probably the duo's most satisfying effort to date." He added that however the duo is best at playing live and the album doesn't quite capture the tooth-and-claw ferocity of that experience.

Jon Clark in the music webzine Drowned in Sound agreed about the album. "Blood Red Shoes is a confident, swaggering, riff-heavy barrage that is no longer the work of a band with something to prove: it's the work of a band who have proved it already."

According to published set lists, the concert will feature about 18 songs, mainly from the new album but also featuring prominent singles from the previous three works including, typically, "Say Something, Say Anything," "I Wish I Was Someone Better," "This Is Not For You" and "Light It Up."

The European dates of the tour will be supported by The Wytches, an English three-piece surf-psych band based in Brighton. After 11 concerts in the United Kingdom in May, Blood Red Shoes will move to North America for the second leg of their 2014 tour, featuring 20 shows in Canada and the States, before heading back to Europe to take part in two music festivals in Germany and Spain.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

CouponChic.org Updates List of Boost Mobile Promotional Codes

Coupon Chic, a website devoted to sharing coupon codes with its readers, recently updated its collection of Boost Mobile promotional codes. Although some of the codes are only valid in March, a majority of the coupons can be used all year round.

"We provide the latest coupon codes and promotional codes for wireless services like Boost Mobile and more," stated a representative of the website. "Our coupons are updated daily, so you are always sure to find a great deal."

Each coupon listed on Coupon Chic links directly to the offer on Boost Mobile. Some of the site's most popular Boost Mobile coupons include a $30 account credit with the purchase of select phones and a Boost Mobile Monthly Unlimited Plan; a $30 account credit wit h the purchase of the Apple iPhone 4S, 5S, or 5C; $45-dollar discounts on the Samsung Galaxy SIII; and unlimited talk, text, web, email, and 411.

Customers who do not favor phone contracts would benefit the most from Boost Mobile, especially because the service provider requires no contracts and offers key services such as texting and Internet access. According to an article available on Coupon Chic, Boost Mobile carries a wide variety of smartphones, even if they are not the most popular brands.

Coupon Chic considers Boost Mobile to be one of the most economical cellphone service providers on the market.

"When you use coupons and online codes that can help you save even more money on Boost Mobile phones then you are really being economical," noted an article on Coupon Chic. "You have no idea the power that having a phone like this for a great price can provide to you. Boost Mobile can help you to still have all of the benefits of a smartphone without necessarily having to pay the large monthly price tag just to get one."

Individuals interested in learning more Coupon Chic and its services can visit the website for additional information. Coupon Chic is updated regularly with special offers for its readers.

About Coupon Chic:

Coupon Chic was started to share a love of couponing with others. The owner of the site lists all type of coupons-such as online coupons, printable coupons, and mobile coupons- for visitors to enjoy. If a code can be clipped, snipped, copied, or pasted, Coupon Chic lists it on the site. Many people think that couponing is not cool or can be cheap, but the website is here to prove that couponing, saving money, and getting great deals is chic and economical. For more information, please visit Amazon Sales-codes">http://couponchic.org/boost-mobile-promo-codes.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/phone-coupons/Boost-Mobile-Promos/prweb11674719.htm

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Grading each team's offseason | The Outside Corner

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Posted by Joe Lucia on Feb 25, 2014 17:15

For all intents and purposes, the 2013 MLB offseason is over. Sure, there are still three marquee free agents on the market, but Stephen Drew, Kendrys Morales, or Ervin Santana probably won't change much in the way of grades. At the beginning of the month, I looked at the winners and losers of this winter, and there have actually been some changes since then - most notably, the Baltimore Orioles going from a loser to one of the teams that fared best this winter.

Anyway, here are the grades for each team and a brief explanation of why they earned the grade they received.

Tampa Bay Rays: A-. As the old phrase goes, "that's so Rays". And sure enough, the Rays had a tremendous winter once again. First and foremost, they did *not* trade ace David Price, refusing to sell low on their best asset. The club revamped their bullpen by signing closer Grant Balfour, acquiring The Heath Bell Experience, picking up Brad Boxberger in a trade, and bringing back a hopefully healthy Juan Carlos Oviedo. The Rays also added some pitching depth in former Nationals prospect Nate Karns (in exchange for third catcher Jose Lobaton and a pair of other prospects), and solidified their catching depth by re-signing Jose Molina and acquiring Ryan Hanigan in the Bell trade. Tampa Bay also re-signed David DeJesus and James Loney, while bringing in Logan Forsythe as part of the return from San Diego along with Boxberger. It's amazing what Tampa Bay does year after year on such a shoestring budget.

Texas Rangers: A-. During a winter where the AL West went crazy, the Rangers had to follow suit. They let Nelson Cruz walk, and replaced him with Shin-Soo Choo. Texas dealt long-time second baseman Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for Prince Fielder, upgrading their offense and allowing stud prospect Jurickson Profar to move into the lineup as well. The Rangers also bought low on a few players, bringing in Tommy Hanson, J.P. Arencibia, and Michael Choice to fill lesser roles on the team. Out of all of the AL West squads, the Rangers may have improved the most out of all of them, and are once again in a great position to contend.

Toronto Blue Jays: F. After last winter's blockbuster trade that went poof, the Blue Jays pretty much stood pat this winter. Their only major acquisition was Dioner Navarro, who will be replacing J.P. Arencibia behind the dish. Aside from that...it's a lot of the same stuff in Toronto. The Blue Jays didn't bother replacing the injury-prone Josh Johnson in the rotation, instead opting to roll with an endless parade of injury-prone starters past R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle. The Blue Jays are counting on health to improve on their 74 wins from last year, but considering how much work the other AL East teams put into improving their teams this winter, Toronto might be left in the dust.

Washington Nationals: A. We close with the Nationals, who took a preseason favorite team from 2013 and turned it into...an even better preseason favorite team. They replaced Dan Haren in the rotation with Doug Fister, a superior, cheaper pitcher. They return their entire starting offense from a year ago, though Anthony Rendon will be up and starting at second base for the entire year. They added three complimentary pieces at reasonable prices as well - Jose Lobaton, Nate McLouth, and Jerry Blevins. All Washington has to do is stay healthy, and they should coast to the playoffs.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Barely Keeping Up in TV's New Golden Age

Not long ago, a friend at work told me I absolutely, positively must watch "Broad City" on Comedy Central, saying it was a slacker-infused hilarity.

My reaction? Oh no, not another one.

The vast wasteland of television has been replaced by an excess of excellence that is fundamentally altering my media diet and threatening to consume my waking life in the process. I am not alone. Even as alternatives proliferate and people cut the cord, they are continuing to spend ever more time in front of the TV without a trace of embarrassment.

I was never one of those snobby people who would claim to not own a television when the subject came up, but I was generally more a reader than a watcher. That was before the explosion in quality television tipped me over into a viewing frenzy.

Something tangible, and technical, is at work. The addition of ancillary devices onto what had been a dumb box has made us the programming masters of our own universes. Including the cable box - with its video on demand and digital video recorder - and Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Roku, Wii and Xbox, that universe is constantly expanding. Time-shifting allows not just greater flexibility, but increased consumption. According to Nielsen, Americans watched almost 15 hours of time-shifted television a month in 2013, two more hours a month than the year before.

And what a feast. Right now, I am on the second episode of Season 2 of "House of Cards" (Netflix), have caught up on "Girls" (HBO) and am reveling in every episode of "Justified" (FX). I may be a little behind on "The Walking Dead" (AMC) and "Nashville" (ABC) and have just started "The Americans" (FX), but I am pretty much in step with comedies like "Modern Family" (ABC) and "Archer" (FX) and like everyone one else I know, dying to see how "True Detective" (HBO) ends. Oh, and the fourth season of "Game of Thrones" (HBO) starts next month.

Whew. Never mind being able to hold all these serials simultaneously in my head, how can there possibly be room for anything else? So far, the biggest losers in this fight for mind share are not my employer or loved ones, but other forms of media.

My once beloved magazines sit in a forlorn pile, patiently waiting for their turn in front of my eyes. Television now meets many of the needs that pile previously satisfied. I have yet to read the big heave on Amazon Deal in The New Yorker, or the feature on the pathology of contemporary fraternities in the March issue of The Atlantic, and while I have an unhealthy love of street food, I haven't cracked the spine on Lucky Peach's survey of the same. Ditto for what looks like an amazing first-person account in Mother Jones from the young Americans who were kidnapped in Iran in 2009. I am a huge fan of the resurgent trade magazines like Adweek and The Hollywood Reporter, but watching the products they describe usually wins out over reading about them.

Magazines in general had a tough year, with newsstand sales down over 11 percent, John Harrington, an industry analyst who tracks circulation, said.

And then there are books. I have a hierarchy: books I'd like to read, books I should read, books I should read by friends of mine and books I should read by friends of mine whom I am likely to bump into. They all remain on standby. That tablets now contain all manner of brilliant stories that happen to be told in video, not print, may be partly why e-book sales leveled out last year. After a day of online reading that has me bathed in the information stream, when I have a little me-time, I mostly want to hit a few buttons on one of my three remotes - cable, Apple, Roku - and watch the splendors unfurl.

It used to be that I could at least use travel time to catch up on reading, but now airplanes have become mediated, wired spaces as well. And even when I get to a hotel or a vacation spot, my media library comes with me. This summer, I used a skinny little DSL connection at my cabin in the woods to watch "The Newsroom" on HBO Go.

In the past, great shows, entire seasons of them, used to go whooshing past me. Now they are always there, waiting for me to hit play. Like my dog, they are friendly and tend to follow me around seeking my attention.

It means people like me end up going to fewer movies. Sitting at home with a big, throbbing stack of quality entertainment and a big old screen on which to view it, am I really going to spend $12 to sit by a stranger, watch more commercials than I do at home - you cannot skip them in the movie theater - and hope that what I see on screen was worth getting in a cold car and competing for parking and seating?

All the new windows for content have created an in-migration of creative interest. David Fincher, one of Hollywood's most coveted directors, followed up producing " House of Cards" by signing on to make a series for HBO called "Utopia." Guillermo del Toro, a big-deal director, has created a series called "The Strain" for FX. Oliver Stone spent a great deal of time making a history program on Showtime and now word comes that Robert Redford is doing documentaries for CNN.

Even at the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night, TV seemed like the cool hipster at the party. Ellen DeGeneres's just-folks delivery treated incandescent celebrities as if they were regular people who like eating pizza and being on television. The winner of the award for best actor, Matthew McConaughey, has also been making a big splash on TV with "True Detective."

At a panel about television over the weekend at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Tex., that I moderated, Kathleen McCaffrey of HBO said that television entered people's lives by letting go of procedurals about doctors and lawyers and telling stories about authentic, frequently flawed people.

"So much of the conversation comes from strong serialized dramas about people's lives and how they live them," she said.

The growing intellectual currency of television has altered the cultural conversation in fundamental ways. Water cooler chatter is now a high-minded pursuit, not just a way to pass the time at work. The three-camera sitcom with a laugh track has been replaced by television shows that are much more like books - intricate narratives full of text, subtext and clues.

On the sidelines of the children's soccer game, or at dinner with friends, you can set your watch on how long it takes before everyone finds a show in common. In the short span of five years, table talk has shifted, at least among the people I socialize with, from books and movies to television. The idiot box gained heft and intellectual credibility to the point where you seem dumb if you are not watching it.

All these riches induce pleasure, but no small amount of guilt as well. Am I a bad person because I missed "Top of the Lake" on the Sundance channel?

Television's golden age is also a gilded cage, an always-on ecosystem of immense riches that leaves me feeling less like the master of my own universe, and more as if I am surrounded.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

BusinessWest

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Yasir Osman Has Taken a Long, Twisting Ride to Entrepreneurship When Yasir Osman arrived in New York from his homeland of Sudan in 1989, he had $100 in his pocket [...]

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Farms, Open Space Shape Belchertown's Outlook The sun shone brightly on almost a foot of snow as Steve Lanphear pruned apple trees in his Belchertown orchard. Although the temperature hovered [...]

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Difference Makers to Be Feted on March 20 at the Log Cabin You might call this the 'Home Depot class.' Indeed, there are some notable building, or home-restoration, stories involving [...]

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At Webber & Grinnell, the Devil Is in the Details The sales pitch at Webber & Grinnell Insurance often comes down to one simple question: what are you not covered [...]

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Partners at chikmedia Say Marketing Shouldn't Be Stressful Meghan Rothschild was taken aback by how Bob Lowry, owner of Bueno y Sano, described her new marketing firm's work: "zany things [...]

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New York Sound and Motion Invests in the Big Picture When Ed Brown interned for a neighbor's lighting and gaffing business during one of his college summers home on Long [...]

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Phillips Insurance Agency Specializes in Surety Bonds Joseph Phillips is drawing a triangle to illustrate how a surety bond works. One leg is upheld by a contractor, and the other [...]

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If the Answer Is 'No,' the Consequences Could Be Costly By MICHAEL LEVIN When it comes to cyber security and data breaches, no system is infallible. Some of the largest [...]

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A chart of insurance agencies in the region Click here to download the PDF

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Springfield-based TSM Design Opens Second Office in Hartford Nancy Urbschat recalls the moment she and her team at TSM Design saw the small yet attractive office space in the historic [...]

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As Speech-recognition Technology Improves, More Applications Emerge Speech-recognition technology, which instantly translates human speech into a digital document or command, has been around in some form for about two decades. [...]

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A chart of area web development companies Click here to download the PDF

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A listing of available commercial sites Click here to download the PDF

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Clerk of Courts Laura Gentile Has a Lot on Her Docket For almost two decades, Laura Gentile has been exposed to plenty of things she'd rather not think about - [...]

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Auto Dealers Expect Sales to Accelerate in 2014 By MICHAEL REARDON With the recession in the rear-view mirror, the automobile industry is poised for another successful year fueled by a [...]

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Cloud of Uncertainty Hangs Over Casinos This should be a time of great anticipation and, yes, celebration for some players in the casino industry - and, likewise, in communities like [...]

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Cost Report Creates False Impressions By LYNN NICHOLAS The state's Health Policy Commission (HPC) just released its latest Cost Trends Report, in which it claims Massachusetts healthcare providers - primarily [...]

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Shopping Deals Online: 3 Tips For Finding Them

Everyone loves a deal and part of the appeal of shopping Coupon Code is finding deals and offers that aren't available in stores. While many stores promise great prices and deals, there are many things you can do to help you save even more money. Getting the best shopping deals online requires a little bit of work, but if you are lucky enough to save some money, you will find that the work is well worth it.

Online Coupons
It's no secret that coupons are a great way to save money, but if you think you don't have the time to scour through newspaper inserts to get them, don't worry there are other ways. Online coupons are easier to find and use and can save you a lot of money on your favorite items. Use websites like Retail Me Not or SlickDeals to find out which items are on sale and what coupons can be used to make them even more affordable.

Price Comparison Sites
Most people compare prices on a regular basis in order to get the best deal. If you are shopping at two or three local stores this might not be a problem. Shopping online is different and there can be thousands of different stores that carry the products you want. Instead of spending hours comparing the prices yourself, try using a price comparison site such as PriceGrabber. Just choose the product you want to buy and let the website find the best price for it.

Online Sales
Of course it's easy to find deals when you shop in the clearance section or luck into finding what you want on sale, but knowing when to shop the sales will help you get the best deals. Most online stores start their after holiday sales sooner than brick and mortar stores so you may be able to find holiday and seasonal items on sale online before the holiday is even over. The same thing goes for clothing and accessories. Don't wait until winter to shop for summer clearance items, start checking the online stores towards the end of summer instead.

There are so many ways to save money online that it's easy to see why many people prefer online shopping to traditional shopping. Learn how to find the best deals online and your online shopping experiences will become better than ever.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Friday, March 7, 2014

HTC One Deals: Available for Free on Amazon

If you were looking to buy a new smartphone, then the timing is great Promotional Code has a couple of HTC One deals for you. The HTC One, which is undoubtedly the best-looking smartphone released on the market in 2013, is now available for only a penny on contract with two of the biggest US carriers.

Amazon is offering the Sprint HTC One with 32 GB of storage for only $0.01 after you sign a two-year contract with the retailer. Given that Sprint is offering the HTC One at $99.99, you will save almost $100 if you take advantage of Amazon's deal. If you prefer to buy the Sprint HTC One off-contract, you should know that the price is $699.99. Besides the Silver Sprint HTC One, you will also be able to choose from the Red or Black models.

If you prefer Verizon, then Amazon has a deal for you as well. The 32 GB Verizon HTC One is available for $0.01, of course with a two-year contract. Unfortunately, Amazon is only selling the Black Verizon HTC One model, but you will be able to save almost $50, as Big Red is selling it on its website at $49.99. The contract-free price of the Verizon HTC One is $699.99.

Amazon also has a HTC One deal for the AT&T variant. While AT&T is selling the 32 GB HTC One on their website at $199.99, you will be able to order it from Amazon at $49.99, therefore you'll save about $150. The AT&T HTC One is available with a Silver body or a Black body. In case you don't want to sign a two-year contract with the carrier, you will be able to grab the AT&T One at $699.99.

Furthermore, if you order any of the three aforementioned HTC One variants in the next 51 hours (at the time the article was written) you will have it shipped to you on Monday, March 10.