Latest news with #Jaffe
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
One of the best live bands in the world is finally back in Melbourne
In a long-running tradition, Almqvist splits the crowd in two for the final song of the night, Tick Tick Boom. He strides up the middle and implores everyone to get down low, then all jump up at once as he runs back to the stage. It's pure chaos, just like the band is. Their latest album title says it best: The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen JAZZ Pat Jaffe's LUNSEN ★★★★ The JazzLab, July 18 Pat Jaffe's new band is named after an enchanting forest that he discovered while on a student exchange in Uppsala, Sweden. Lunsen (the forest) captivated Jaffe with its combination of tranquil beauty and untamed wildness, and LUNSEN (the band) aims to capture and reflect that dichotomy. Friday's concert at JazzLab was only the quintet's second outing, and – while all the players were all reading charts and still getting to grips with the music – it was clear that Jaffe had picked the perfect colleagues to bring his vision to life. The Melbourne composer-pianist also introduced each tune with the story of its genesis, setting the scene for the musical tales that were about to unfold. Jaffe has a wonderfully effusive, enthusiastic presence, and his stories were often hilarious – but also touchingly honest and sincere. Likewise, the music contained both irrepressible energy and heart-melting beauty. Glass and Glue began as a delicate duet between Jaffe and bassist Claire Abougelis, before adding subtle horns and spacious cymbals as Jaffe's rippling piano built into a rousing cascade. Wide Pants moved seamlessly between flowing lyricism and majestic propulsion, Jaffe beaming with delight and bouncing on his piano stool as his emphatic chords urged the band forward. Grandma's Song was gorgeously tender and restrained, while Greg's Benedict – inspired by South African jazz and underpinned by Marissa Di Marzio's exuberant drumming – conjured an air of joyful celebration. Now Music featured expressive solos from Thien Pham (on trumpet) and Zac O'Connell (alto sax), and a recurring melodic motif that the audience was invited to hum as the musicians drifted into silence. The night's final number, Eldorado, was a soulful jazz waltz that swept the band and the audience along in an evocative stream of nostalgia, memory and sheer pleasure. With LUNSEN, Jaffe has turned one of his favourite places in nature into a musical space for discovery, trust, passion and vulnerability. It's a space I'd gladly revisit any time. Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas MUSIC Axis Mundi ★★★★ Elision Ensemble, Melbourne Recital Centre, July 18 Served by some extraordinarily skilled musicians, Elision Ensemble's contemporary music encounter offered some ear-opening experiences as emerging and established composers rubbed shoulders in thought-provoking juxtaposition. American bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward scaled the heights and depths of Liza Lim's Axis Mundi with breathtaking dexterity, while Richard Haynes revelled in the huge technical and expressive demands of John Rodgers' Ciacco for solo bass clarinet. Both scores embraced a kaleidoscopic spectrum of sounds, including guttural elements spiked with multiphonics and microtonal inflections of pitch. Mexican composer Julio Estrada's yuunohui'nahui'ehecatl featured a titanic trombone cadenza in which Benjamin Marks punctuated his playing with sounds of breathing and vocalisation. This writing, reminiscent of the performance art of 20th century Italian composer Luciano Berio, later included Marks and trumpeter Tristram Williams facing each other, so that the trumpet's bell could be placed into the trombone's in quasi-erotic fashion. By contrast, Charlie Sdraulig's Air began with barely audible susurrations, perhaps evoking the distant memory of a seaside scene. Yuin woman, Brenda Gifford from Wreck Bay in New South Wales, adopted jazz-like elements in Wanggadhi to recount the Dreamtime story of the seven sisters who eventually become the Pleiades constellation. Roidl-Ward's dazzling technique shone again in Victor Arul's Barrelled Space, a relatively lengthy and complex ensemble piece that began life as a solo bassoon work. Loading Bryn Harrison's Double Labyrinth after Richard Dunn, a tribute to the late Australian artist, was a masterclass in harnessing techniques and structure to satisfying musical purposes and a timely reminder that fascinating effects and academic constructs are not an end in themselves. Effectively using a gentle busyness to portray the navigation of labyrinthine pathways, the coalescing of quiet and cohesive textures signalled emergence from a puzzling journey. While contemporary music may be a puzzling journey for some, Elision remains one of its most convincing advocates. THEATRE Rumbleskin ★★ Ames May Nunn, fortyfivedownstairs, until July 27 Three queer vignettes in Rumbleskin twist into some strange terrain. The show explores a collective imaginary that seems to have been colonised by the American Western, and the play vacillates between an action quest with cowboys and rodeos into body horror, psychological suspense, teen melodrama, and even earnest folk-style musical theatre, without much rhyme or reason to guide the way. Unfortunately, this dreamlike melange of disparate elements interferes with consistent world-building, leading to confusing and somewhat threadbare exposition – a problem when you've got multiple narrative strands on the go at the same time. A mysterious affliction known as Rumbleskin stalks the land. It's unclear whether this is a supernatural curse, an infectious disease, or perhaps an ancient reminder of the power to be found in the skins we wear. Whatever the case, it brings a smudge of gothic to tales of a trucker rescuing a teen runaway, a young rodeo champion meeting his match, and a god-fearing town whose way of life is upended by a stranger and a preacher's daughter. None of these stories is particularly compelling or complete, nor does the choice of the American Western feel entirely organic, especially when international publishing can't get enough of outback Oz Gothic right now. I wonder if the fact of our cultural familiarity with US film and television alone is enough to justify it, although it must be said that camp and exaggerated gender performance have always been part of the genre and the queering of the Western has a long tradition that stretches back to well before Ang Lee made Brokeback Mountain. It's just that Rumbleskin doesn't make the most of that cultural intersection, dramatically. All the panto-like caricature can sometimes be funny – cue ridiculous Southern drawls – but the performers lean too hard on low comedy to pave over a thin script, in a way that undercuts emotional investment in the characters and their fates. Loading That said, the comedy is more reliable the larger the lampoons get, and you're glad of the occasional laugh to alleviate the cringe of some downright embarrassing moments, including strained chorus numbers where the ensemble bursts unexpectedly into song. Ames May Nunn's central conceit of an affliction involving skins remains tantalisingly underdeveloped. It needs more elaboration and definition if it's to corral the onstage world into something more thematically cogent and turn this thigh-slapping vision of a queered Wild West into more than a fragmentary oddity. Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
The Age
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
One of the best live bands in the world is finally back in Melbourne
In a long-running tradition, Almqvist splits the crowd in two for the final song of the night, Tick Tick Boom. He strides up the middle and implores everyone to get down low, then all jump up at once as he runs back to the stage. It's pure chaos, just like the band is. Their latest album title says it best: The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen JAZZ Pat Jaffe's LUNSEN ★★★★ The JazzLab, July 18 Pat Jaffe's new band is named after an enchanting forest that he discovered while on a student exchange in Uppsala, Sweden. Lunsen (the forest) captivated Jaffe with its combination of tranquil beauty and untamed wildness, and LUNSEN (the band) aims to capture and reflect that dichotomy. Friday's concert at JazzLab was only the quintet's second outing, and – while all the players were all reading charts and still getting to grips with the music – it was clear that Jaffe had picked the perfect colleagues to bring his vision to life. The Melbourne composer-pianist also introduced each tune with the story of its genesis, setting the scene for the musical tales that were about to unfold. Jaffe has a wonderfully effusive, enthusiastic presence, and his stories were often hilarious – but also touchingly honest and sincere. Likewise, the music contained both irrepressible energy and heart-melting beauty. Glass and Glue began as a delicate duet between Jaffe and bassist Claire Abougelis, before adding subtle horns and spacious cymbals as Jaffe's rippling piano built into a rousing cascade. Wide Pants moved seamlessly between flowing lyricism and majestic propulsion, Jaffe beaming with delight and bouncing on his piano stool as his emphatic chords urged the band forward. Grandma's Song was gorgeously tender and restrained, while Greg's Benedict – inspired by South African jazz and underpinned by Marissa Di Marzio's exuberant drumming – conjured an air of joyful celebration. Now Music featured expressive solos from Thien Pham (on trumpet) and Zac O'Connell (alto sax), and a recurring melodic motif that the audience was invited to hum as the musicians drifted into silence. The night's final number, Eldorado, was a soulful jazz waltz that swept the band and the audience along in an evocative stream of nostalgia, memory and sheer pleasure. With LUNSEN, Jaffe has turned one of his favourite places in nature into a musical space for discovery, trust, passion and vulnerability. It's a space I'd gladly revisit any time. Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas MUSIC Axis Mundi ★★★★ Elision Ensemble, Melbourne Recital Centre, July 18 Served by some extraordinarily skilled musicians, Elision Ensemble's contemporary music encounter offered some ear-opening experiences as emerging and established composers rubbed shoulders in thought-provoking juxtaposition. American bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward scaled the heights and depths of Liza Lim's Axis Mundi with breathtaking dexterity, while Richard Haynes revelled in the huge technical and expressive demands of John Rodgers' Ciacco for solo bass clarinet. Both scores embraced a kaleidoscopic spectrum of sounds, including guttural elements spiked with multiphonics and microtonal inflections of pitch. Mexican composer Julio Estrada's yuunohui'nahui'ehecatl featured a titanic trombone cadenza in which Benjamin Marks punctuated his playing with sounds of breathing and vocalisation. This writing, reminiscent of the performance art of 20th century Italian composer Luciano Berio, later included Marks and trumpeter Tristram Williams facing each other, so that the trumpet's bell could be placed into the trombone's in quasi-erotic fashion. By contrast, Charlie Sdraulig's Air began with barely audible susurrations, perhaps evoking the distant memory of a seaside scene. Yuin woman, Brenda Gifford from Wreck Bay in New South Wales, adopted jazz-like elements in Wanggadhi to recount the Dreamtime story of the seven sisters who eventually become the Pleiades constellation. Roidl-Ward's dazzling technique shone again in Victor Arul's Barrelled Space, a relatively lengthy and complex ensemble piece that began life as a solo bassoon work. Loading Bryn Harrison's Double Labyrinth after Richard Dunn, a tribute to the late Australian artist, was a masterclass in harnessing techniques and structure to satisfying musical purposes and a timely reminder that fascinating effects and academic constructs are not an end in themselves. Effectively using a gentle busyness to portray the navigation of labyrinthine pathways, the coalescing of quiet and cohesive textures signalled emergence from a puzzling journey. While contemporary music may be a puzzling journey for some, Elision remains one of its most convincing advocates. THEATRE Rumbleskin ★★ Ames May Nunn, fortyfivedownstairs, until July 27 Three queer vignettes in Rumbleskin twist into some strange terrain. The show explores a collective imaginary that seems to have been colonised by the American Western, and the play vacillates between an action quest with cowboys and rodeos into body horror, psychological suspense, teen melodrama, and even earnest folk-style musical theatre, without much rhyme or reason to guide the way. Unfortunately, this dreamlike melange of disparate elements interferes with consistent world-building, leading to confusing and somewhat threadbare exposition – a problem when you've got multiple narrative strands on the go at the same time. A mysterious affliction known as Rumbleskin stalks the land. It's unclear whether this is a supernatural curse, an infectious disease, or perhaps an ancient reminder of the power to be found in the skins we wear. Whatever the case, it brings a smudge of gothic to tales of a trucker rescuing a teen runaway, a young rodeo champion meeting his match, and a god-fearing town whose way of life is upended by a stranger and a preacher's daughter. None of these stories is particularly compelling or complete, nor does the choice of the American Western feel entirely organic, especially when international publishing can't get enough of outback Oz Gothic right now. I wonder if the fact of our cultural familiarity with US film and television alone is enough to justify it, although it must be said that camp and exaggerated gender performance have always been part of the genre and the queering of the Western has a long tradition that stretches back to well before Ang Lee made Brokeback Mountain. It's just that Rumbleskin doesn't make the most of that cultural intersection, dramatically. All the panto-like caricature can sometimes be funny – cue ridiculous Southern drawls – but the performers lean too hard on low comedy to pave over a thin script, in a way that undercuts emotional investment in the characters and their fates. Loading That said, the comedy is more reliable the larger the lampoons get, and you're glad of the occasional laugh to alleviate the cringe of some downright embarrassing moments, including strained chorus numbers where the ensemble bursts unexpectedly into song. Ames May Nunn's central conceit of an affliction involving skins remains tantalisingly underdeveloped. It needs more elaboration and definition if it's to corral the onstage world into something more thematically cogent and turn this thigh-slapping vision of a queered Wild West into more than a fragmentary oddity. Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BP's chief U.S. economist worries China is winning the global energy war. Here's why
The U.S. may produce triple the amount of crude oil, but China is leading the global energy race because of its dominance in building up supply chains for renewable energy and electric vehicles, the chief U.S. economist for BP said. Even as crude oil, natural gas, and coal still lead global energy, clean energy and EVs continue to rise—despite near-term economic headwinds—and that upward trajectory is unlikely to change regardless of politics and tax credits, said Michael Cohen, BP chief US economist and head of oil and refining, speaking May 13 as a keynote at the Enverus Evolve oil and gas conference in Houston. 'The winners over the short term are those that have built up clean technology supply chains. Front and center is China,' Cohen said, noting that China is selling half of the 'new energy' personal vehicles sold worldwide, led by BYD Auto and others. Cohen projects that renewable energy's share of the global energy marketplace will rise from about 15% now to 30% by 2050. Global oil demand likely will peak for good in about 10 years. And U.S. oil production may have plateaued for good near its current highs. The U.S. and others risk failing 'Econ 101' if they believe the renewable energy industry is dying just because of current supply chain and interest rate speed bumps, as well as political headwinds from the Trump administration for renewables, he said. That doesn't mean the U.S. is in a weak place, but it depends on China's supply chains for solar, wind, and, especially, for battery parts for energy storage and EVs. Despite ebbs and flows, the costs for renewables and batteries should continue to fall, Cohen said, along with U.S. decarbonization efforts. Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice, and Sustainability Lab at New York University, went a step further than Cohen. China is building EVs that can charge in five minutes, Jaffe said, and, pretty soon, self-driving cars will charge themselves while you run errands. The U.S. shouldn't be worried about China trying to funnel cars into the U.S. through Mexico. The U.S. should be worried about trying to sell a gasoline-fueled Chevrolet Suburban that cost 'six figures' (Chevy lists the 2025 Suburban price range from starting at $62,500 to fully loaded at well more than $100,000). 'The question is where will American car companies be able to sell a gasoline truck?' Jaffe asked. 'How is that going to compete in the international marketplace with a $20,000 EV that can charge in five minutes. You need to ask yourselves that question.' Climate change isn't slowing down and changing societal behaviors and purchasing patterns are hard to predict, they said. 'The question is when does that inflection point happen? No one really knows,' Cohen said. 'It doesn't matter,' Jaffe countered, citing the timing and Trump's political actions against renewables. 'The Chinese are coming out with vehicles that are less expensive that are going to eventually be able to charge in five minutes.' China also is winning in the seas, Jaffe said. 'China is now the largest shipbuilder in the world,' she said, and it's focused on utilizing low-carbon marine fuels, which other countries haven't prioritized. 'And they're updating their major ports, like in Shanghai and other ports, to include low-carbon alternatives.' While gas production is bullish in the U.S. amid construction booms for data centers and liquefied natural gas export plants, Jaffe also warned that data centers may not rely on natural gas power as much as anticipated. 'You can't really build a new, natural gas thermal plant in the United States in a year,' Jaffe said, citing concerns on the timing of building new power infrastructure. 'But you could throw some batteries on the grid.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Ever Worried About Being Laid Off? Read This.
Steve Jaffe was laid off for the first time in 2001. But that wasn't the last time for Mr. Jaffe, now 52 and a self-employed marketing strategist in Altadena, Calif. He was laid off three more times over the course of his career, he said, and wrote a book about his experiences that he self-published in February. In addition to writing about jobs he has lost, Mr. Jaffe has been reading the layoff stories of others in Laid Off, a new Substack newsletter. 'A support group like this for laid-off people has always been needed,' he said. Melanie Ehrenkranz, 35, started Laid Off last August, about a year after she lost her job at a financial technology company that has since closed. After being laid off, she said, 'I didn't really feel like I had access to a community or to stories of layoffs outside of a group chat with two of my former colleagues.' By the time she introduced the newsletter, Ms. Ehrenkranz, who lives in Los Angeles, had started working for Business Class, an online entrepreneurship course created by the '#Girlboss' author Sophia Amoruso, where Ms. Ehrenkranz is still employed. Within two months of debuting, Laid Off had about 5,000 subscribers. It now has about 9,000, with more than 150 paying $5 a month or $50 a year for full subscriptions that include additional resources like access to private group chats. Many subscribers work in layoff-prone industries like media, marketing and advertising, Ms. Ehrenkranz said, adding that she had recently noticed an uptick in subscribers with careers in government and technology. Laid Off's audience is a fraction of the size of more established Substack business publications like Feed Me. Its growth in readership comes at a time when posting about work online has become commonplace, whether it be 'LinkedIn-fluencers' sharing hot takes on corporate trends or people making TikTok videos about office outfits. And at a time when there have been growing concerns about a recession and a rise in unemployment. Some of those featured in the newsletter reached out to Ms. Ehrenkranz after losing jobs; others were chosen after completing a survey that she had posted on LinkedIn, which 'received hundreds of responses right away,' she said. More women have been featured than men, Ms. Ehrenkranz added, because more women have approached her about participating. Among the layoff stories the newsletter has told are those of a former Wall Street Journal editor, a former recruiter for Meta, a former content manager at Tesla and a former financial analyst at Disney who was with the company for nearly a decade. Laid Off's Q&A interviews touch on topics people sometimes avoid when talking about unemployment. Ms. Ehrenkranz's go-to questions for subjects include 'What were the reasons given for your layoff?' and 'What was the first thing you did after getting laid off?' She said the newsletter's tone was meant to be edgy and fun; a tagline on its website reads: 'The coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off.' 'It's definitely that vibe,' Ms. Ehrenkranz said. 'The whole point of Laid Off is to show that it's not a personal failure.' Anu Lingala, 33, spoke to Ms. Ehrenkranz about losing her job at Nordstrom in a feature published in March. 'Her interviews are so humanizing,' said Ms. Lingala, who lives in Brooklyn and now works in marketing at a jewelry company. 'They unpack the shame around being laid off.' The newsletter has a confessional-like quality that Lindsey Stanberry, a former editor of the Money Diaries column on the website Refinery29, appreciates. 'There's a voyeuristic element to it,' said Ms. Stanberry, 44, who now writes The Purse, a Substack newsletter about women and money. 'It's like, it could happen to me, or it has happened to me, and, like, I want to feel this camaraderie.' Maya Joseph-Goteiner, 41, was among Laid Off's first subjects: Her interview about losing her user-experience job at Google ran in the newsletter last August. In it, Ms. Joseph-Goteiner recalled going bowling with her family the day she was laid off and how the experience pushed her in new professional directions. Participating was an opportunity to offer a 'counter narrative' to the desperation and shame that can bubble up when talking about losing a job, she said. 'My story felt like one of resilience, and I want there to be more stories like that,' said Ms. Joseph-Goteiner, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., and now runs her own research and design agency called Velocity Ave. Ochuko Akpovbovbo, the writer of As Seen On, a Substack newsletter about business trends that is geared toward her fellow Gen Z-ers, said some in that cohort had shown less interest in careers in media and technology than members of older generations. Laid Off's interviews with people who have lost jobs in those industries have helped contribute to 'the end of Big Tech and journalism worship,' added Ms. Akpovbovbo, 26, whose newsletter was introduced last May and has about 22,000 subscribers. For Joya Patel, Laid Off is a platform to remind people of the importance of certain careers. She pitched herself to Ms. Ehrenkranz after losing her job as the director of communications and external affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services in February. Ms. Patel, 34, who also subscribed to the newsletter around that time, said she had been motivated to share her story after reading another Laid Off interview with a former communications specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development. 'I really wanted people to understand, OK, what does working at H.H.S. mean?' said Ms. Patel, referring to the federal health agency. 'The American people don't know what each agency does for them and what we sit in there to do.' Ms. Patel, who is now consulting and whose Laid Off feature was published in April, likes how the newsletter lets readers 'hear from the people,' she added. 'I'm tired of companies being able to direct us and lead stories. As humans, we have that power, and I like to hear from people like, 'Hey, I walked in, it was awkward. Things were awkward that day. This is why they told me they're doing it.' Because no company is ever going to say that.'
Associated Press
15-04-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Team USA Athlete Noah Jaffe Appointed to Board of Directors of Nonprofit WAWOS
San Francisco, CA April 14, 2025 --( )-- Team USA Paralympian Noah Jaffe, has been appointed an Honorary Board Member of WAWOS (We're All Working On Something), a national nonprofit dedicated to shifting the perception of physical disability in children and teens. Jaffe's appointment comes in the wake of his incredible performance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, where he shattered expectations and demonstrated the immense strength and resilience of athletes with disabilities. Noah Jaffe, celebrated for his incredible tenacity at the Paralympic Games, is setting a new standard for how physical disabilities are perceived in the world of sports and beyond. He made his major international debut at the World Championships in the summer of 2023 and came home with four medals, including a world title in the 100-meter freestyle S8. Jaffe chose to take the 2023-24 year off from pursuing his biochemistry major at the University of California, Berkeley to dedicate himself full-time to training. His performance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics validated that move, as he earned Silver and Bronze medals. 'I am deeply honored to join the WAWOS board,' said Jaffe. 'This organization has been instrumental in fostering an environment where kids and teens of all abilities can thrive and pursue their passions. Having grown up with cerebral palsy, I've always believed that true inclusion goes beyond physical spaces – it's about changing the mindset and breaking down barriers. I'm excited to bring my experiences and advocacy to WAWOS, and I'm eager to work with a team that's committed to making the world a more accessible and welcoming place for everyone.' WAWOS has been dedicated to promoting the inclusion of individuals with disabilities for the past eight years through a series of initiatives from coast to coast. Across its programs, WAWOS emphasizes the importance of access to activities that challenge physical and mental limits, championing that no one is excluded from opportunities with their peers, engage with nature and activities, and discover their potential. Founded on the principle that we're all connected, WAWOS has been a beacon for change, advocating for greater access to outdoor adventures, sports, and personal development activities for kids and teens with disabilities. Their initiatives have provided countless opportunities for young people to engage in experiences that are often unavailable to them due to societal and physical barriers. 'Adding Noah to our board is a powerful moment for WAWOS,' said Jacquie Robison, Founder and Executive Director of WAWOS. 'His passion for sports, commitment to challenging norms, and dedication to creating a world where people of all abilities are recognized for their strengths will have a profound impact on our organization and the communities we serve. We are excited to have his leadership inspire a new generation of kids and teens to believe in themselves and their abilities.' Jaffe will join a team of leaders at WAWOS that include SF Giants Pitcher Tristan Beck, Tina White, Chief Commercial Officer at Ingenuity Brands, Dr. Stacy Menz, Founder at Starfish Therapies, and Jeremiah Robison, Founder of bionics company, Cionic. For more information about WAWOS and to support their mission, visit About WAWOS (We're All Working On Something): WAWOS is a registered 501(c)(3) WAWOS is a multinational non-profit organization committed to shifting perception of physical disability, advocating access to adventure for all, and promoting inclusion. With headquarters in San Francisco, their sister organization, WAWOS Canada, is based in Toronto. Media Contact: Jacquie Robison / Executive Director, WAWOS Phone: (510)610-6267 Email: [email protected] Contact Information: WAWOS Jacquie Robison 510-610-6267 Contact via Email Read the full story here: Team USA Athlete Noah Jaffe Appointed to Board of Directors of Nonprofit WAWOS Press Release Distributed by
