September's Coming Attractions!

by Anna Sugden


Phew! Now that we're beginning to recover from Jeanne's awesome launch party ... Zach and the hockey hunks are offering restoratifs and massages ... well, Zach is busy with me, but you can help yourself to one of the others ... it's time to celebrate a new month in the Lair.


A great way to kick off that celebration will be to rush out and buy Jeanne Adam's Deadly Little Secrets - available from September 7th - and Tawny Weber's Riding the Waves - available now!

Or you can click on the cover links here, which will take you straight to Amazon!


And, if that's not enough, here's a tempting taster of the fabulous guests who will be dropping by the Lair this month.


We kick off the month on September 2 with RITA winner Molly O'Keefe (www.molly-okeefe.com), who will be talking about her favorite musician and giving us the scoop on her Superromance trilogy, The Notorious O'Neills, starting with The Temptation of Savannah O'Neill!


On September 3rd, Aunty Cindy hosts paranormal romance author Kendra Leigh Castle,(www.kendraleighcastle.com) who will talk about her new release from Harlequin Nocturne, Renegade Angel. She'll also be happy to answer questions about her other shape-shifter books, and about the new furry beastie in her life.


A Lair favourite returns on the 6th when Jo Davis (www.jodavis.net)talks with Suz about her newest erotic spy romance, I Spy A Naughty Game, the second in Jo's seriously sexy SHADO Agency series. And the pair will have a hint or two about the next firefighter book and something new coming from our friend Jo.

On 7th September, Foanna hosts debut Australian author Christina Phillips (www.christinaphillips.com) who will talk about Forbidden, a smoking hot romance between a Roman aristocrat and a Druid priestess!


Another Lair favourite Nicola Cornick www.nicolacornick.co.uk) joins us on the 16th September, to talk about Whisper of Scandal, the first book in her new series.


MJ Fredrick, yet another Lair favourite, returns to the Lair on 19th September to celebrate the September 6 launch of her latest book, Sunrise Over Texas, from Carina Press, the story of a woman struggling to hold her family together, a man who lost everything and the struggles the two of them endure in the new land...and with a new love.


Addison Fox (www.addisonfox.com)is back to bring us another of her sexy Zodiac Warriors in Warrior Avenged. This exciting new series is only book two of her Warriors of the Zodiac series with plenty more paranormal Zodiac Warriors to come. Check out what has Suz so hot....really....about this new book.


Popular thriller writer Shane Gericke (www.shanegericke.com)joins us on September 24th. Keep an eye out for his new book, Torn Apart!


Rounding off the month on 27th September with another Lair favourite, Miranda Neville (www.mirandneville.com) who will pop by to tell us about the second book in her Burgundy Club series, The Dangerous Viscount.


And, don't forget Anna Campbell is running a fantabulous contest - she is giving away TWO Change of Season Reading Packs in her latest website contest. Each AWESOME pack will include signed copies of My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell, Sweetest Little Sin by Christine Wells, His Mistress for a Million by Trish Morey, The Greek's Convenient Mistress by Annie West, Dark Deceiver by Pamela Palmer, and either Does She Dare? or Risque Business by Tawny Weber. Just email Anna on anna@annacampbell.info and tell her one other book by each of these authors (the website links are on her contest page to make it easy) to go into the draw. For more information, please visit Anna's contest page. http://www.annacampbell.info/contest.html

So, with September starting, schools back in business and autumn just around the corner, tell me what are you most looking forward to this month? Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Upside of Humidity

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Working down a diamond mine

Robert Calvert with the Maximum Effect in 1986 (Maximum Effect were formerly members of Inner City Unit formed by Nik Turner a few years after his sacking from Hawkwind)Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

And the late, great Robert Newton Calvert is back

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Jazz Age Lawn Party

This weekend, Alex, Toby and I took the ferry over to the Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor's Island.
A jazz band played old-timey tunes, and there was a tug-of-war, pie contest and Charleston lessons.
People dressed up in fabulous 1920's ensembles--lots of pearls, suspenders and straw hats. (I, of course, wore a nursing shirt:)
Toby mingled with the dapper crowd.
And this girl wore the most fabulous swimsuit (which she had made herself). Yowza!

It was a wonderful day! See more photos here. xoxoSource URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Fall trend #1: Army jacket

This fall, the fashion trends are SO adorable (and accessible), so I figured I'd make a little list of them this week. First up, army jackets! Would you wear this tomboy look? Perfect for the flea market and cider mill.

(Photo by A Continuous Lean)Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Back To School (Flashback To The 80's, Part 1)

Rodney Dangerfield was a little like Will Ferrell, wasn't he? You hired him and you knew pretty much straight away what you were getting. The aw-shucks delivery. The halting gait. The incessant one liners. Goodness, the incessant one liners. The story for "Back To School" is credited to three people (including Dangerfield) and the screenplay is credited to four writers but most every line spoken by anyone feels like a set-up for a Dangerfield one-liner. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Consider the initial scene with Dangerfield, playing Thornton Melon, a self-made millionaire of big and tall clothing, filming a commercial for his business, a commercial which consists entirely of one-liners. It establishes the character and lets him be who he is. Unfortunately, despite his success in business Thornton's second wife (80's vixen Adrienne Barbeau) is up to no good and, thus, in the face of divorce he takes his limousine and lights out for Grand Lakes College where his son Jason (Keith Gordon) is in a fraternity and on the diving team. Well....not quite. It seems Jason was lying about that. He is not in a frat and he is the towel boy for the diving team. He pines for lovely Valerie (Terry Farrell) but she is with his ne'er-do-well diving rival Chas (William Zabka, the go-to 80's movie bully). He only has one friend, Derek Lutz, a Billy Idol-channeling Robert Downey Jr.

Jason is thinking about dropping out but Thornton, despite not having received a university diploma himself, councils that if someone doesn't attend and finish college they're nothin'. (This nugget of wisdom apparently means people like, say, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, Lucinda Williams, Clint Eastwood, and Hollywood's current best screenwriter Tony Gilroy are nothin' but, you know, never mind.) Jason points out his dad never finished college at which point Thornton decides to enroll and bam! We've got our title!

Thornton will bribe Ned Beatty's Dean Martin (ha! ha!) to get in and butt heads with the smarmy professor Philip Barbay (Paxton Whithead, whose own name is better than his character's) who is "going with" English Professor Diane Turner (Sally Kellerman) who in no time will blossom into Thornton's love interest and in the penultimate scene he is called upon to perform an "impossible" dive called The Triple Lindy that all us pre-teens in the 80's acted out using couch cushions afterwards. He will teach his son to be a man and his son will teach him to grow up and take responsibility for himself. In fact, the relationship here between Thornton and Jason, amidst some suspect material, is actually quite graceful. The son is not trying to act out against his father and the father is not trying to browbeat his son. They clearly just want the best for one another.

Keith Gordon never did much acting after "Back To School", turning instead to directing which he has only done sporadically, though with honorable intentions - "A Midnight Clear" (1992), "The Singing Detective" (2003, re-teaming him years later with Downey Jr.) and "Waking The Dead" (2000), an underseen Billy Crudup/Jennifer Connelly ghost story that is flawed but genuine. I liked Gordon in this. He has a certain loopy charm and was not lifted from the same cookie cutter as so many other 80's actors. In fact, as the love interest Farrell is taller than Gordon but rather than resort to having Gordon stand on a box - a la Tom Cruise & Kelly McGillis in "Top Gun" - they just let the height discrepancy be. Refreshing.

The best moment in the film belongs to Sam Kinison as an unhinged history professor and the film's most curious moment is a "Twist and Shout" sing-along which I was ready to decry as a "Ferris Bueller" rip-off until I realized that, according to IMDB, "Back To School" was officially released a whole 2 days after "Ferris Bueller". Were "Twist and Shout" sing-alongs all the rage back in the 80's and I have forgotten?

Of course the critical question is what modern day viewers might glean from 1986's #6 film at the box office? Is there any unique insight into this long ago decade? Consider, perhaps, the sequence in which Thornton wants the colossal university hall hosting class sign-ups cleared so he can get the courses he wants when he wants and so his driver (Burt Young, not looking all that different from his recent "Rocky Balboa" appearance) retreats to the limo and holds aloft a sign with the name of the most famous celebrity possible to draw every student away from the sign-up and easily succeeds. The celebrity's name? Bruce Springsteen. That's right, kids, there once was a time when The Boss could send every 18-22 year old in a 50 mile radius into a frenzy. No, really, I'm not lying. He could. I said, he could, damn it! Why don't you believe me?! God, I'm old.Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

What makes the Internet worthwhile II

A little while ago the The Wellcome Library announced the launch of a digitisation project, to provide free, online access to its collections, including archives and papers from Nobel prize-winning scientists Francis Crick, Fred Sanger and Peter Medawar.

Content will include 1400 books on genetics and heredity published between 1850 and 1990, along with important archives including the papers of Francis Crick and his original drawings of the proposed structure of DNA.


Okay we will have to wait a while for this. Users will be able to access the repository in September 2012 but it is good to see that such work being made public. For me Sanger is possibly the greatest living Briton.Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

If only we had leaders like this...

It looks like KCNA runs an "On this day" item This is from 27 August 1975...

"President Kim Il Sung gave field guidance to a cooperative farm in Anju City, South Phyongan Province.

On a snow-covered field he talked with a soldier-turned sub-workteam head about corn farming for a while. He asked the sub-workteam head about the way of transplanting the maximum number of humus-pot-grown corn seedlings per phyong (3.954 sq. yds).

With a poor knowledge of corn farming, he could not properly answer to the question.
Finding him at a loss for an answer, the President leveled snow piled up between furrows. He then taught the sub-workteam head a new method of planting the prescribed number of bunches of seedlings perphyong, drawing it on the snow.

Hmm I wonder if said sub-workteam head learned a lot more about agriculture at a gulag or the North Korean equivalent...Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Flashback To The 80's

"If you want the good old days just put on a jean jacket and crank Cyndi Lauper." - Author Unknown

That's right, loyal readers, for the next three days darrlin bands is steeping itself in nostalgia, time traveling to the era of my youth. We're going aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back to the decade when Tommy worked on the docks (before the union went on strike, of course), Will Smith was The Fresh Prince, Jerry Brown and George Deukmejian governed California because Schwarzenegger was too busy blowing things up, basketball players still wore shorts like this and we all thought "ALF" was hilarious (until we watched it 15 years later and said, "Oh, sweet Jesus, this is terrible").

(You're damn right, they are.)

Three days. Three stars. Three "cornerstone" films of 80's cinema. It'll be a little bit wistful, a little bit terrifying. So settle in and grab yourself a Capri Sun six pack. This trip down memory lane could get intense and so I'm warning you now. Okay? Are we cowabunga on this? And for anyone who might not grasp the critical differences between Whitesnake and White Lion and think these movies have no place in the modern world, well, you may be right. But know this....you weren't there.Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Carla Bruni "prostitute" slur by Iranian press

Carla Bruni, the wife of the French president, has been attacked by the Iranian press for was attacked after she signed a petition calling for the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

An Iranian newspaper, Kayhan, which unsurprisingly is under control of the government, called Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy and also the actres Isabelle Adjani who is campaigning for Ashtina’s release, “prostitutes” in an editorial, while Iranian state television accused the former supermodel of “immorality”.

Hmm and sentencing a person to death by stoning is moral? The Iranian regime certainly has its priorities screwed (statement of the blindingly obvious part 3,779)Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

A new source of antibiotics?

The Telegraph reports that frog skins are possibly an excellent source of new antibiotics. Apparently scientists have long known that the skin of frogs contains plenty of powerful antibiotic. They haven’t been exploited so far as the substances are also often poisonous to humans.

However, a team at the United Arab Emirates University have worked out a way of modifying the chemicals to remove their harmful side-effects.

The team has already identified 100 new antibiotics including one that could fight the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents," said Dr Michael Conlon, a biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi. "They've been around 300 million years, so they've had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.”

Dr Conlon and colleagues have discovered a way to tweak their molecular structure, making them less toxic to human cells but more powerful germ killers. Similarly, the scientists also discovered other tweaks that enabled the frog skin secretions to shrug off attack by destructive enzymes in the blood.

The result was antibiotics that last longer in the bloodstream and are more likely to be effective as infection fighters, Conlon noted.
The antibiotic substances work in an unusual way that makes it very difficult for disease-causing microbes to develop resistance,

The scientists are currently screening skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. So far, they have purified and determined the chemical structure of barely 200, One substance isolated from the skin secretions of the Foothill Yellow-legged Frog — a species once common in California and Oregon but now facing extinction — shows promise for killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. MRSA is a "superbug," infamous for causing deadly outbreaks of infection among hospitalised patients.

The skin of the mink frog, likewise, contains secretions that show promise for fighting "Iraqibacter," caused by multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumanni.

Well there you have it. Hopefully the secretions will give rise o powerful new drugs that will replace the antibiotics that have been rendered relatively useless because of bacterial resistance. The problem is that a lot of the frogs are either rare or facing extinction.

Here’s a good argument for conservation (How many potential drugs have we lost because of our destruction of the environment) Still I wonder how easy it will be to synthesise the chemicals rather than use the original sources…Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Curmudgeon Rant

by Jo Robertson




Normally, I’m a happy, cheerful person. I rarely wake up grumpy (unless I’m sick) and I’m generally given to optimistic greetings and lots of pleasant chatter.

Sadly, I live with two men who stumble from bed with a hangover kind of cloud hovering around their heads.


Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. And neither one drinks!


I’ve learned not to speak to them until it’s nearly noon. Neither drinks coffee so I don’t even have that luxury to magically transform them into something approaching normal.


Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a half-empty sort of gal. A realist, a skeptic, a cynic, a doubter of the highest order. But grumpy? No way, no how.











What about you? Cheery or grumpy in the mornings? Do you face each day with a little skip of joy or do such persons, quite frankly, make you sick to your stomach?



Do you need your pickmeup whatever before you're fit to talk to anyone? Or do you leap out of bed ready to meet the world?
Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

A year ago today.

Alex, I love you more than ever.

(Photo by Max Wanger)Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

What makes the internet utterly worthwhile I

Much as I love the Poor Mouth it does not add much to the world’s knowledge (one or two photos aside perhaps). What really makes it utterly worthwhile is the vast amount of information and art being made available online.

Today’s Independent carried an item about one such collection, the Prokudin-Gorskii Collection which has been made available by the Library of Congress. The above photo is from the collection is of the last Emir of Bukhara

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky, was one of the earliest pioneers of colour photography. His collection of stills from Russia – taken between 1909 and 1915 – provide us with an astonishingly saturated window into a past that is usually only ever seen through a black and white prism.

For decades, the photographs remained hidden after they were purchased from his grandchildren by the US in 1948 and then stored in the archives of Washington's Library of Congress. But now, a century after Prokudin-Gorsky toured the length and breadth of the Russian Empire, his 1,900 photographs have been brought back to life and digitised for all to see.

and the incredible amount of detail Prokudin-Gorsky was able to capture," said Helena Zinkham, the acting chief of prints and photographs at the Library of Congress. "He wasn't the only one using this technique at the time but he was one of the few that did it very well."

Prokudin-Gorsky, a Russian noble and chemist who trained in St Petersburg, captured colour by using a camera that recorded three different exposures in succession on the same glass-plate negative. Each exposure, which would usually take anything between three and six seconds, was made with a different coloured filter in front of the lens: red, green and blue.

The triple negatives would then be laid on top of one another and placed in a projector that created a single, full-colour composite.
It is thought that Russia's first published colour portrait, taken by Prokudin-Gorsky

The photos are truly amazing and giving us a window into a world that is gone. It’s not the race haters, the pornographers or the lunatic conspiracy theorists that make the internet worth the effort, it is availability of collections like this.Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

More end times protection

Terrified by tsunamis or terrorism? Petrified by pole shift, pestilence or Planet X? If Anarchy gives you angst then US company Vivos may have the answer!

With a helpful countdown to 21 December 2012 on the site it offers deliverance from disaster… but at a price (naturally!)

According to the Independent Vivos has allegedly built 300,000sq ft of bunker space in the US and claims to have 5,000 Americans on its books. Though Europeans have traditionally been more reluctant to buy into the impending apocalypse, he believes the explosion in London's population of high-net-worth individuals has left the British market ripe for exploitation.

Robert Vicino, the founder of Vivos, which is building a "survival network" of upscale underground bunkers across the United States, will travel to London this week to announce the opening of his firm's first nuclear-bomb-and-asteroid-proof property in Europe.

It is understood that the bumker will be in a former military facility, though its exact location, like all Vivos bunkers, is secret (after all you can’t let the oiks in, can you?)

All well and good but part ownership of one of the Vivos bunkers costs $50,000 (£32,000) per adult, and $25,000 for each child. Nonetheless, Vicino calims:

"People have life insurance. We are selling something better: life assurance," he said. "Our places can survive a 50 megatonne blast 10 miles away; they can be submerged to a depth of 500ft, they can survive shockwaves, and electromagnetic pulses. They have medical facilities, libraries, security offices, gymnasiums, even prisons."

Well it does sound rather better appointed than the former Government bunker at Kelvedon Hatch (now a tourist attraction) but to be honest I am not scared of nuclear war megatsunamis or big asteroids (as if a bunker would be safe from one of those!). If Vivos could vouchsafe against the great mutant star goat that is going to devour us like it devoured the planet Golgafrinchon then I would cheerfully part with my $50k!

In the meantime I will stick to my towel and a book that says “Don’t Panic” in large friendly lettering!Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Debt, Internal feuding and lawsuits? HAHAHAHAHA!

I must admit that news of the BNP in trouble is music to y ears. Yesterday’s Independent carried an article which indicated that the party faces a financial and political crisis with crippling debts and an internal rebellion which could spell the end of the far-right group.

The party has a deficit of at least £500,000 and could face up to 12 claims of unfair dismissal from workers who lost their jobs following the BNP's showing in the May elections.

Lee Barnes, the party's senior legal adviser until he resigned this month, yesterday described the BNP as a "dead brand" and claimed it was "technically insolvent". The Electoral Commission confirmed the BNP's latest annual accounts, due last month, have not been submitted and it is still investigating the previous year's records after auditors refused to sign them off.

Anti-extremist campaigners said the combination of financial difficulties and schism within the far right were proving a toxic combination for Mr Griffin, who earlier this month survived an attempt to force a leadership ballot. Sonia Gable, of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said: "The BNP is in deep financial trouble, with debts it can never pay, and in the throes of its most serious internal political crisis since Nick Griffin became leader.

One senior BNP figure claimed the scale of the deficit is closer to £600,000 and said the party cannot find a bank willing to re-finance its debt, which is also being increased by the cost of fighting legal actions against Unilever, after the BNP used an image of a Marmite jar in an election broadcast, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over the party's alleged failure to change its constitution to allow non-white members.

And so on and so forth… Any news of the Bastard Nazi Pondlife’s discomfiture is music to my ears. I wish the rabble a speedy journey to oblivion. That said it’s not the end of the story. The EDL seem to have chimed with the baser instincts of far too many and may rise further. In that case it’s interesting to see hw a few intelligent people can rouse the rabble. I wish the EDL a speedy journey to oblivion too,Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Angelina Jolie was with Robert Pattinson, Twihard to work next crisis?

Oh, it will be good. After Deadline Hollywood (via LaineyGossip history), a new film, Angelina Jolie is making a movie called Unforgiven. What ... I hope to change the name because there already a movie called that with (and director) Clint Eastwood Angelina mentor. However, the film "A woman tries to society after serving a stretch of 15 years imprisonment for the murder of two police officers to reintegrate. The tragedy happened after the police arrived at his family farm on his expulsion.


His desire is to to live in silence and his younger sister's problems, but the wife used the word a campaign of revenge for the son of one of his victims. "play Guess who runs one of the children, perhaps? Robert Pattinson. Oooooh yes. Deadline Hollywood yesterday came a report that GK Films to develop a project for Angelina Jolie, on a mini-series for the BBC entitled Unforgiven 2009th This is a woman who, after fifteen years imprisonment for the murder of two policemen and tried again with her sister, the objective of a conspiracy hatched by the vengeance of the son of one of the men killed.



GK Angelina is already connected to their love story to produce the war in Bosnia, and Unforgiven has been on the characteristics Christopher McQuarrie, a writers' side of Angelina adapted for tourism. These people really long time. As Time notes, Angelina is not bound to it a script in hand, but that is assumed to be fast, so it may be possible that all systems are go for spring. This is not the fast lane is not willing to invest money. And yes, Of course, I bought it. I love Angelina, I think it's a good actress, and the sounds of the changing boundaries. And there's a twist. There is speculation in the wind, that Robert Pattinson has been used for this project (as the son of the revenge) recognized. He had a meeting late last year with Angelina lawyer, Robert Offer, and a festive dinner, even if his recent trip to the sea salt with your agent suddenly full of new possibilities. You know I love it too. Pattinson did not have a romantic role. You need something that has nothing to do with it, is beautiful and would work actively against their appeal. Fight Club as Brad Pitt went from Pretty Boy to Man Man, could violate the explosive changes in the role of Robert Pattinson. The Twihards Brangelunatics and support the film. Can you imagine?




[Sarah @] LaineyGossip If Pattinson said one nice thing about Angelina Jolie in the press could be started a lynch Twihards hormone and finishing Aniston. And then the tabloids have a great day for the F-cking. Kristen Stewart cries Angelina have my man! "Or:" Brad will fly to Angie Pattinson Aniston hair! O "meets the individual flashes and gerbils, I'm serious!" They know that the Empress has no Zahara. He will look down and say Pattinson. There is another way. However, I also agree that Pattinson would, by being served a supportive role of sand - and I think it would be good if he and Angelina have worked together. It is not the way anyway, in my opinion ..
...................................................................................................
http://darrlinbands.blogspot.com/Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Double Dose of Booty

posted by Nancy
I have two prizes to award tonight!

The winner of Barbara Monajem's prize, a signed copy of Sunrise in a Garden of Love and Evil, is Daz!

The winner of three books I picked up at RWA (Annie Solomon's One Deadly Sin (signed), Jayne Anne Krentz's Running Hot, and Karin Harlow's Enemy Lover,) for commenting on my "The Year of Lasts" is Cories!

Winners, please email contact info to romancebandits AT gmail DOT com with "for Nancy" in the subject line. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Copperhead Road

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

X

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Highlands

Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Video Links to darrlin bands

Here are some links of various players using Aria basses. This will be updated periodically...If you have a video of yourself playing an Aria, send it and I'll put it here. As usual, thanks to Nuno for some of these links!

• Michael Anthony of Van Halen with his SB-Integra. As a bonus you can hear one of his trademark screams! He can also spin around while playing bass with the best of 'em (see Rudy Sarzo). 'Mad Anthony' can also spin with the heavier SB-1000!
• Steve Bailey duets with Victor Wooten and shows his amazing skills on his AP Custom Shop 6 string fretless. Steve plays a different AP Custom bass here, this time with Carl Verheyen. Steve was a big Aria guy, with his own AVB-SB series. Also, no video, but legendary session player Carol Kaye also played the AVB series for quite some time. In this instructional video intro, Steve has an acoustic 6 string Aria bass. Steve also plays a blue, fretless 6 string (watch what Steve does with a slice of pizza!) and a red, fretless 4 string.
• Charlie Barrett of The Fixx plays an older model SB-1000 in the video for "Red Skies". I really liked The Fixx when I was a kid watching MTV so long ago. Thanks to Richard for finding this video!
• Bob Bogle (update) of The Ventures plays his signature Aria VMB-2001 bass at The Ventures 45th Anniversary show in Japan. The Ventures have used many different Aria signature instruments throughout the years and have a close relationship with Aria and Japan.
• The Boys Their bassist (name?) plays what looks like an SB-700 on the Fats Domino song "Hello Josephine". (HT to Pete from Talkbass!)
• Jack Bruce playing an older model SB-1000 with fellow legend Cozy Powell. Here is another TV appearance of Jack & Friends. As Jack said, "It's a bloody good axe!"
• Cliff Burton with his SB-1000 in the legendary performance of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in 1985. Here he is with his SB-Black 'n' Gold in a 1985 bass solo from the Metal Hammer Festival in Germany. Cliff appears with his B 'n' G I in another rare video of Metallica being interviewed in Texas in 1986, along with clips of "Battery" and "Master of Puppets". I wish the whole show was taped!
• Tony Butler of Big Country played several Arias in the '80s. In this clip, he plays an SB-1000 and again on their huge hit. He plays what I believe to be a TSB-650 here. Here is a much better clip of the TSB-650 on "Fields of Fire".
• Joe Byrd (update) plays an older model SB-1000 in 1980 with some jazz guitar legends including his brother Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, and fellow Aria Pro II player, Herb Ellis! Here is another clip, this time playing the "Flintstones Theme". Great stuff. (HT to JTE on Talkbass for the ID on Joe).
• Cronos of Venom with his unusual SB-1000. It looks like the upper frets have been pulled out!
• John Dalton of The Kinks plays an older, walnut finished SB-1000 on "Destroyer". Some great shots of the bass there! (HT to Winston on Talkbass.) Dalton again uses the bass on TotPs for "Come Dancing". The SB-1000 looks really big on him! Finally, I found a real live performance at Rockpalast 1982 (look for the bass at 1:20 and 1:40 respectively). Check out that Rockpalast show for more classic Kinks songs!
• Jay Davis of the Rod Stewart Band plays what appears to be an SB-1000. The Rod Stewart Band was basically an Aria Pro band for a while, as were featured in an Aria Pro advertisement - even the drummer, Carmine Appice, endorsed Aria! In the ad, Jay is playing a TSB-650 model. In this video, you can get a few more looks at Jay's bass as well as an Aria PE guitar. Finally, Rod and the gang play an old tune he used to play with the Jeff Beck Group. Jay also used the SB-1000 in the video for "How Long".
• Kim and Kelley Deal. Like all good siblings should do, Kim and Kelley Deal share. The two alt rockers shared an Aria Pro II Cardinal Series bass. According to Bass Player it was Kelley's bass first but Kim used it for the first couple Pixies albums, until some producer type decided it wasn't good enough! It sounds good enough to me! To the clips: Kim plays the Cardinal with her legendary alt rock band The Pixies in 1986 and in 1988 where she also adds some haunting backing vocals on their well known tune "Where is My Mind". Here are two more very good quality clips of Kim and the CSB: "Gigantic" and "I Bleed" from the BBC's Snub TV. Later, in 1996, the bass turns up again in Kelley's band, The Kelley Deal 6000. I don't know who the bass player is, but it may be Marty Nedich.
• Jürgen Dehmel of Nena and "99 Luftballoons" fame plays a ZZB here in a mime performance of their hit song. Here Dehmel appears to be playing a custom finished SB, I think it's silver! Here, it appears he's playing a double pickup SB, possibly an SB-R150.
• Doe Maar features a very unusual, all black SB-1000, with the older headstock design. You can see it again in this promo clip. Also, in this compilation clip, you can see a blue Cardinal Series bass for a brief time (1:30 and 1:50), along with his black SB-1000 several times.
• Tony "The Demolition Man" Dolan (update) of Atomkraft plays an SB-1000 in this video for the song "Foliage". He is also said to have played a Cardinal Series bass, but I haven't found a video for it yet. Dolan would later replace Venom frontman and fellow Aria SB-1000 player Cronos in 1989.
• Derek Forbes of Simple Minds plays a Cardinal Series bass in the video for "Up on the Catwalk". (HT to Rob!)
• Bruce Foxton with his SB-R60 playing a classic tune by The Jam. Apparently that show was The Jam's last. Here are a few more tracks from that show: "Ghosts", "Modern World" (listen for the fast run at 1:12), and "The Beat Surrender". You can really hear Bruce's SB tone on these tracks!
• Tim Gaines of Stryper spreads the gospel with SB-Integra basses back in 1985-86. Some of them of were painted in the Stryper color scheme. In this promo video, Gaines plays what looks to be an SB-Black 'n' Gold II, or a Black 'n' Yellow if you will.
• Billy Gould of Faith No More with his SB-Integra in London '90. It sounds massive! Here is also a rare clip of him using a white Integra-DLX. Note the "I" on the headstock, I think this is the same bass from the "Epic" video. Also, here is his IGB-600 and another black IGB-DLX, with gold hardware. The bass is loud on the last clip! More clips of the IGB-600 - this time at Rock 'n Rio II and on MTV. Just in is some footage of Bill playing an SB-700 with Faith. No Man! Several clips are available from this 1983 show.
• Greg Hanna of The Dickies plays a DMB-380. Looks like an interesting show!
• Trevor Horn of The Buggles mimes with his SB-1000 on Top of the Pops. Remember, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video aired on MTV, making the SB-1000 the first bass guitar to ever appear on MTV!
• Inugami Circus Dan is a Japanese rock band whose bassist uses an SB-LTD in see through red with W4C Bartolini pickups and a Badass II bridge. It looks like they put on quite a show!
• Darek Jackson brings the funk for Al Jarreau with an SB-1000! Lots of good looks of the bass in this clip, not to mention hearing the tone! Later, it looks like Darek has an RSB series bass in this video with a Japanese singer Eikichi Yazawa. Here is the video for Jarreau's hit "We're In This Love Together" with Darek and his SB-1000!
• This unknown bassist  (update) (anybody know his name?) rips it up on an SB-1000 with Ronald Shannon Jackson at the Montreux Jazz Festival of 1983. An interesting note: there are two bassists in this performance. The other bassist is playing a fretless, maybe Ibanez. Check out the bass solo from the Aria player starting around 2 minutes in. 
• Alan Jones of The Shadows plays an SB-900 in a 1981 appearance with Cliff Richard (who also played Aria guitars!) performing "Willie & The Hand Jive" and again on "We Don't Talk Anymore". Alan really knows his way around that fretboard! Alan was featured in the 1980 Aria catalog, available for viewing over at the Guitar Gallery.
• Kai of Japanese band Earthshaker plays a ZZB bass for what looks like "Aria Pro II" TV! The guitarist appears to be playing an Aria Pro II PE model. In a different TV appearance Kai plays another ZZB, this time black and white. And finally, in another show he is playing his Integra custom, pictured in the 1986 Aria catalog. If you really need more Earthshaker just search for them on Youtube, for example their Budohkan '86 show.
• Kool & The Gang play a Cardinal Series bass here in their video for "Cherish". The bass makes another appearance in the video for "Joanna". (HT to Rob!)
• Michael Lachowski plays an all black SB-1000 (or SB-600/700?) with Pylon live in Athens, GA and again in Winston-Salem. Here's an audio only track where you can really hear the cutting tone of Michael's Aria! Michael has been playing the Aria SB since the early '80s as seen in these older videos. (HT to BassBrass of Talkbass!)
• John Leven plays an SB-Black 'n' Gold I (I think) with Europe in 1984.
• Neil Murray (update) looks to be playing a custom SB Integra in this clip with Japanese rockers Vow Wow. Hard to tell with all of those quick cuts! Here are a couple more videos, this time with Black Sabbath, where you can get a better look at the Integra. I think it's a neck-thru with Alembic or Bartolini pickups, which you can see in the beginning of the "When Death Calls". Neil also played with Gary Moore in 1982, and this time he uses what I guess to be a red modified SB-900 but with Alembic or Bartolini guts, similar to his modified Integra used with Black Sabbath. Here he slows it down a bit on "Parisienne Walkways". Next, Neil plays a beautiful ARB-CST bass again with Sabbath. The bass had Bartolini pickups installed and was custom made for Neil.
• Les Nemes of Haircut 100 mimes with his SB-900 on Top of the Pops.
• Tony Newton plays an Avante 6 string bass with Bartolini pickups on some bass solos and with the Funk Brothers on some Motown hits. Tony has played with quite a few legends over the years!
• Charles Ottavio of Animotion plays a red SB-R60 in their quintessential '80s hit "Obsession". I've been trying to keep most of these links to live (or at least lip-syncing!) performances, but I've made a few exceptions and this is one of them. You can see the bass clearly at the 1:20 mark. Unfortunately Charles lost the knobs on his bass. I hate when that happens, SB knob replacements are tough to come by!
• Vernon Porter slaps 'n pops a modified SB-900 (looks like a double 'P' configuration) on the Kenny Loggins hit "Heart to Heart". Nowadays, Porter plays a Sadowsky and is a minister/bass instructor!
• Rudy Sarzo plays his red SB-Elite at the MTV Music Awards with Whitesnake. Yes, he licks the bass, too (check around 2:47)! The bass most likely had Alembic pickups. Also, Rudy played what looks to be a black SB-1000 in his short lived 1986 project NRG and again for the "Still of the Night" Whitesnake video. Here Rudy shows off his movies on his SB-Black 'n' Gold II with Alembic pickups! The song is "Here I Go Again" performed on New Year's Eve '87.
• Gary Shea plays a white SB-Elite II with Yngwie Malmsteen and Alcatrazz. Bonus Aria action: check out Yngwie wielding an Aria Pro II XX Deluxe Flying V! Here is another video of Gary with his white SB-Elite II, it looks slightly modified to me. There are more chances to see (and hear) Gary in this video. You can see he has another white SB waiting in the wings as well.
• Lesley Shone of The Belle Stars plays a walnut finished SB-900 (I think I see two pickups on it!) on a 1983 appearance on Top of the Pops for their hit "Sign of the Times". She appears with the bass again on "The Clapping Song", once again from TotP. TotPs was a great showcase for Arias back in the day! (HT to Rob!)
• Mike Starr(?) of Alice in Chains is seen with a white Aria SB-Elite II at a very informal jam with the band. The bass is only visible for a few seconds starting around 8:40 into the clip. I'm not sure if that is Mike Starr or not. If you know, let me know. I haven't seen any other footage of AiC with an Aria.
• Alec John Such of Bon Jovi plays a Wedge WL custom series bass in this clip from 1984. The Wedge was a medium scale bass, similar to the Steinberger design, but it wasn't quite headless. Bon Jovi was also part of the "Aria Alliance" for a while, as Sambora, Such and Bon Jovi were all pictured in the 1985 catalog.
• Switchblade Kittens rock not one, not two, but three Aria IGB basses in this video! No need for a guitar! In the live version, there's also a 5 string IGB. They use various models of Integra and AVB basses. In this public service announcement there is a pink, left-handed IGB bass.
• Takuma (update) of Japanese band Wyse plays a custom Aria bass in this 2005 live performance. You can clearly see the AP custom shop logo at about 1:01 of the video.
• John Taylor (update) of Duran Duran plays an older model SB-700 (starting around 1:20 you can get a good look at the bass, HT Trevor for a better video) on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Also in 1981 here is John miming with an SB-900 on Girls on Film! Here is his iconic black SB-1000 here in 1984, and his SB-1000JT Re-Issue about 20 years later! In 1985 at the Montreux Pop Festival, John appears to use a Black 'n' Gold I. John nearly pokes the camera with the headstock in the beginning! In this rare video, John uses his iconic SB-1000 while recording Power Station's version of "Bang a Gong" with his bass idol, Bernard Edwards! Bernard kind of steals the show there! And one more of John, this time on Rock School. (HT to Trevor!) Finally, in 1987 I think this may be the last year John was playing Aria until the SB-1000JT in the mid 2000's, it looks like he has the Black n Gold again on "Skin Trade".
• Pete Trewavas of Marillion plays what looks like an SB-1000.
• Wallenstein - Terry Park (update) (HT to Mozart for bassist name!) plays an SB-1000 on their song "Charline". You can see the bass at about the 1:00 mark. As one viewer asks "Why is the bass plugged into the guitar?" I have no idea. The bass makes another appearance in a live version of the same song.
• Jürgen Werle-Mock of Hob Goblin appears with an RSB-Deluxe 5 stringer with a P/J pickup configuration while miming on German television! You can also see Jürgen playing what looks like an SB-Elite II (or Black 'n' Gold II?) on another video compilation (32 seconds into the video), along with a few more clips of the RSB 5. Jürgen was featured in the 1989 Aria catalog.
• Chuck Wright of Giuffria plays a Black 'n' Gold I in the video for "Call to the Heart". (HT to Trevor!)
• Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks plays a ZZB in a show from 1983. Here, they play a cover of an Alice Cooper tune.
• Zuma gives a bass lesson on Duran Duran's "Save A Prayer" using a beautiful red SB-1000. Here he is again on "Girls on Film"! Great playing! Zuma also gives a demonstration and review of a beautiful vintage red SB-1000.
• Random Youtube Links There are far too many vids to track down and put on the list individually, so here is a link for you to explore on your own. There are dozens and dozens of Aria basses being played on Youtube!
• Aria USA posted a nice video demonstration of the SB-CB.
More to come...Check back often! Also, I'm putting out an "APB" on any footage of Marcus Miller or Jonas Hellborg using their Aria basses! So far just catalog pics of Marcus and Jonas was just listed in one of the catalogs, but no photo.
Source URL: http://extravagancedeplumes.blogspot.com/2010/08/
Visit extra vagance de plumes for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection