Dark Star Orchestra Announces 23-Date Summer Tour Schedule
Renowned Grateful Deadtributes Dark Star Orchestraalive in 2016, as the group just announced a major summer tour schedule spanning 23 dates and venues nationwide. The group is already in the middle of some winter and spring dates, and has their Dark Star Jubilee coming up in May, but that won’t stop them from bringing the Grateful jams! The new dates kick off on June 25th at Park West in Chicago, kicking off a five show run that includes stops in Peoria, Kansas City, Bellvue and Denver. After a three week break, the group is back at it, with a schedule mainly focusing on the East Coast. Knowing DSO, West Coast dates aren’t too far behind.Tickets and more information can be found via DSO’s website, and the full schedule is seen below:Dark Star Orchestra Summer Tour Dates6/25 – Park West – Chicago, IL6/26 – CEFCU Peoria Riverfront – Peoria, IL6/28 – Crossroads KC – Kansas City, MO6/30 – Mishawaka Amphitheatre – Bellvue, CO7/1 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO7/22 – Jay Peak Resort – Jay, VT7/23 – Jay Peak Resort – Jay, VT7/24 – Saranac Brewery – Utica, NY7/26 – Frontier Field – Rochester, NY7/28 – College Street Music Hall – New Haven, CT7/29 – Pier Six Pavilion – Baltimore, MD7/30 – Pat Garrett Amphitheatre – Strausstown, PA7/31 – Coney Island Amphitheater – Brooklyn, NY8/2 – BB and T Ballpark – Charlotte, NC8/4 – Heritage Amphitheater at Pocahontas State Park – Chesterfield, VA8/5 – Pisgah Brewing Co. – Black Mountain, NC8/6 – Pisgah Brewing Co. – Black Mountain, NC8/8 – Bottle & Cork – Dewey Beach, DE8/9 – Bottle & Cork – Dewey Beach, DE8/11 – Peach Music Festival – Scranton, PA8/12 – Mercer County Park – West Windsor, NJ8/13 – Indian Ranch – Webster, MA8/14 – Maine State Pier – Portland, ME
NHL team the Florida Panthers have announced they will honor jam forefathers the Grateful Dead with a tribute night on Saturday, October 22nd on their home ice at the BB&T Center. The team will play the Colorado Avalanche that night, but will have a special performance by Dead tribute act Unlimited Devotion prior to the game.The performance will take place on the New Times Bandstand in the Coors Light Cold Zone, beginning at 5:30pm. There are special Grateful Dead packages on sale via this website; just be sure to use the promo code GRATEFUL. Those packages include a commemorative t-shirt, tickets to the game, and a donation to the REX Foundation, the Dead’s official charity.A contest is also taking place on the team’s Facebook page for four tickets to the game, an autographed puck, and an exclusive Grateful Dead prize. We’ll get you in the mood with some fresh footage of Unlimited Devotion, streaming below.[via Jambands]
This past summer, fans at LOCKN’ were treated to a vast array of Dead-ly performances, from Keller Williams‘ Grateful Grass and Grateful Gospel, to two sets of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and two Phil & Friends sets featuring dream team lineups. For the first of the two Phil Lesh sets, the Grateful Dead bassist recruited Phish members Jon Fishman and Page McConnell, former Furthur bandmate and Almost Dead bandleader Joe Russo, Anders Osborne on guitar and vocals, and The Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Falco on guitar, Jeremy Garrett on fiddle, Andy Hall on dobro, Chris Pandolfi on banjo and Travis Book on guitar.LOCKN’ has released pro-shot video of Phil and this stacked lineup of Friends performing the Dead’s “Shakedown Street” for the world to enjoy. Check it out below!Enjoy audio from the entire set below, courtesy of WMWV Radio:
Outlaw country legend Willie Nelson has officially cancelled a number of his upcoming tour dates due to respiratory issues. The ailment forced the 84-year-old artist to cut his performance short after just one song this past Saturday night in San Diego. People in the crowd reported to the San Diego Union-Tribune that Nelson was visibly having trouble breathing during his lone song, “Whiskey River”, and appeared to be struggling to breath as he left the stage.Fans who bought their tickets through Ticketmaster for his Saturday concert at Harrah’s will receive automatic refunds, according to an email from the ticketing agency. It reads: “Unfortunately, due to illness, Willie Nelson’s performance concluded early. The good news is we already refunded your money including fees (except UPS if applicable). It should post to your account within 7-10 business days.”In response to a Monday inquiry from the Union-Tribune, Nelson’s longtime publicist said the iconic singer-songwriter had either “a bad cold or the flu”, and was planning to recuperate at his home in Texas. Nelson’s three scheduled tour stops for this week—including last night at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, CA, Wednesday night at Grahton Resory & Casino in Rohnert Park, CA, Friday and Saturday at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, and Sunday at the Edgewater Hotel Casino in Laughlin, NV—have been canceled. Willie’s next scheduled dates are set for the second weekend in February in the South. For a full list of upcoming dates, and to stay on top of any further updates, head to Willie’s website.Nelson’s breathing issues have sidelined him on various occasions in the past. He was forced to cancel a number of tour dates early last year due to an undisclosed illness. His respiratory issues have been well-documented, and many are quick to draw a connection between these health hangups and his even more well-documented affinity for marijuana. Surely, nothing is going to stop Willie Nelson from getting high, but here’s hoping he gives his lungs a break for a couple days (Edibles can always do the trick in a pinch).Get well soon, Willie![h/t – San Diego Union-Tribune][Cover photo: Billboard]
When the “next big thing” is invented in a dorm room, ruminated over in a late-night café, or discovered in a laboratory, it will now find more support in the Cambridge area, giving its inventors a better reason to stay connected.Today, the Experiment Fund, a new seed-stage investment fund, opens its doors with backing from storied venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Designed specifically to support student start-ups and nurture novel technologies and platforms created in Cambridge (or by innovators educated in Cambridge), the Experiment Fund will eventually include additional strategic angel investors and advisers.“We are very excited about the Experiment Fund; we believe it will provide a much-needed set of people, skills, and financial resources to spur the innovation and idea creation of our students,” says Cherry A. Murray, dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).Murray, who helped to realize the fund, will designate SEAS faculty members to advise student entrepreneurs about the Experiment Fund and other available opportunities and resources, such as the new Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab).The idea to provide an intensely local company-building resource to young innovators originally grew out of close collaboration between venture capitalist Patrick Chung, academic and entrepreneur David Edwards, and scholar-turned-entrepreneur Hugo Van Vuuren.“Cambridge has always seeded and cultivated brilliant minds and entrepreneurs, and now they’ll have another reason to stay rooted in and draw strength from these fertile soils,” says Chung, who is co-head of NEA’s consumer and seed-stage investing practices.Chung received his A.B. degree in environmental science from Harvard College and a joint J.D.-M.B.A. degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.“Students will have an obvious place to go once they breach the boundary of the classroom,” adds Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at SEAS and founder of Le Laboratoire in Paris.“We are very excited to work with everyone on campus to infuse the fund with our global platform and entrepreneur-first tradition,” says Harry Weller, general partner at NEA and graduate of Harvard Business School.Van Vuuren, a 2007 graduate of Harvard College, student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, adds, “The fund is looking for smart and resourceful people, zealous full-time teams, and experiments in need of seed funding and hands-on help to get off the ground.”Designed to attract engineers, entrepreneurs, and designers and to empower them to test and build bold ideas, the Experiment Fund will explore three core areas: Information, health care, and energy technologies.Chung, who serves as an expert-in-residence at SEAS, expects the fund to support several promising companies in the coming two years. Each new venture will receive up to $250,000 over that same period.While the fund expects to cultivate student innovation initially at Harvard, it will function completely independently of the University and will invest broadly on the East Coast.
Big data analytics enable the most important business asset: information. Every business regardless of industry must plan to create a big data analytics function. It takes data-based decision making to a whole new level, helping drive efficiency, quality, and growth. Technology, platforms, and tools are evolving very rapidly, revealing a bigger issue: finding expertise and talent.The roles of Data Scientist and Big Data Analyst only came into being a few years back. This means that it is unrealistic for organizations to expect that they will find a lot of experienced people to jumpstart their data analytics group immediately. According to the EMC Data Science Study (December 2011), 65% of data science professionals believe demand for data science talent will outpace the supply by 2016. And in Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity (May 2011), McKinsey Global Institute concluded that “By 2018…the United States alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with analytical expertise and 1.5 million managers and analysts with the skills to understand and make decisions based on the analysis of big data.” Over time, this situation will change.Starting around 2009, executives at EMC recognized that big data analytics would be the next major frontier our customers would face. Several initiatives were launched throughout the company. At EMC Education, we brought together a small, highly curious team of experts to start learning and designing programs that would help develop skills and expertise in big data. We introduced comprehensive ‘open’ curriculum-based training, introduced a formal certification program, developed leadership training and started discussions with major schools across the world in our Academic Alliance program. Many businesses as well as technical schools have since introduced new programs based on these courses.The next big challenge was to write and create a textbook to make our knowledge available to a larger number of professionals and students globally. The experience of bringing together our last book, Information Storage and Management, helped in creating our newest one: Data Science and Big Data Analytics. Published by Wiley, this book is now available in bookstores and online.We have also developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on ‘Data Lakes for Big Data’ that will be starting in May 2015. This four week MOOC will teach the concepts, skills, and solutions needed to use data science to advance plans and execution.Transformation led by cloud, social, mobile, and big data is challenging and exciting. These trends are encouraging rapid innovation and skills development. Big Data in particular is bringing new ways to look at your business and differentiate from others in the market.
Meet the rides sure to bring you glory on the the cyclocross course.The Belt1. Spot Mod SSSomehow the purity (and, um, insanity) of a belt-drive single speed ride seems a perfect fit for cyclocross, and this bike is, excuse the pun, spot on. Plus, the Mod’s dropout actually allows for the addition of a derailleur. But as a single-speed machine, the bike is surprisingly smooth and responsive. The belt means no mud in your chain (though we have had problems with dry grass) and it provides powerful strokes without all the drama of mid-race derailleur failure.$3,299; spotbrand.comThe Deal2. Focus Mares AX 2.0 DiscYou won’t find a better ‘cross bike for your money than the reliable Mares. And unlike many cyclocross rides that don’t respond all that differently than a road bike, the Mares was built for the punishment of the sport. The alloy frame employs a carbon fork and tapered head tube to suck up some of the pounding. Shimano 105 componentry provides reliable shifting on the fly.$1,740; focus-bikes.comThe Fetish3. Fondriest RC6 Cross CarbonCyclcross riders, in general, tend to favor aluminum bikes that run on the cheap side since they take so much damn abuse. But the light, smooth class of this machine is sure to make some carbon converts. The brand is the namesaker of racer Maurizio Fondriest and the ride is made to race, with the frame weighing in at just under three pounds. The price is also quite reasonable for a carbon bike, ringing up at under 4K fully built with Shimano Ultegra componentry.$3,800; fondriestbici.comThe Lady4. Giant TCX WChamp racer Kelli Emmett helped Team EO kick butt at the Teva Mountain Games over the summer. And guess what? The hammering Ms. Emmett gave Giant input in designing this women-specifc cyclocross ride, which is built with a shorter top tube for better handling on the dicey sections of a ‘cross course. It also features bars and a saddle built for the female form.$1,650; giant-bicyles.comCrosscomponentryYou know cyclocross is evolving when Shimano starts amping up its componenty for the sport. This fall the brand is debuting a high-performance line of cranks, derailleurs and cantilever brakes made to endure the mud and pounding of ‘cross. The FC-CX50 and CX70 cranks (shimano.com) will feature powerful 46-36T gearing and provide the type of quick power transfer that’s necessary on an erratic course. And the new FD-CX70 front derailleur is designed to integrate with those new crank gear ratios. Shimano beefed up the derailleur, too, since it’s one of the parts most vulnerable to failure in all the slop of cyclocross competion. And since mud is always on the menu, the new BR-CX50 and CX70 cantilever brakes offer higher clearance and feature easy-to-replace cartridge pads. As far as tires go, Michelin is back in the bike game and its new line of ‘cross tires allows you switch out for different conditions with dry or mud treads ($57; michelinbike.com).
An improvised .38-caliber revolver withsix live bullets was confiscated from Conrado Suarez, a resident of thevillage, police said. Suarez’s apprehension came after villagewatchmen Daniel Siena chanced upon the former carrying his firearm. Suarezfailed to show pertinent papers showing his legal ownership of the weapon, apolice report showed. The suspect was brought to the SanJoaquin municipal police station, where he was detained. Charges for violation of Republic Act10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act will befiled against him./PN ILOILO City – For illegalpossession of firearm, a 65-year-old man was nabbed in Barangay Bucaya, SanJoaquin, Iloilo. 
Franklin County took on Connersville on Monday, April 30, to conclude the conference regular season schedule. Franklin County came into the match with a perfect 6-0 conference record and looked to finish out with a perfect conference season. After coming out strong, the team never looked back and got the 5-0 win to secure the conference title. Franklin County will travel to Northeastern on Tuesday, May 1, before coming back home on Wednesday, May 2, to compete against Oldenburg Academy.Scores#1 Singles Lilli Stewart (FC) beat Shaina Laughlin (C) 6-1, 6-0#2 Singles Megan Routh (FC) beat Juliette Collins (C) 6-0, 6-4#3 Singles Lauren Klei (FC) beat Grace Silcott (C) 6-0, 6-0#1 Doubles Grace Moster and Katarina Sacksteder (FC) beat Cheyenne Harmeyer and Courtney James (C) 6-1, 6-1#2 Doubles Maggie Brack and Taylor McCreary (FC) beat Kelsey Smith and Hanelle Burch (C) 6-0, 6-2Lilli Stewart (#1 Singles) and Lauren Klei (#3 Singles) remain undefeated on the season.Courtesy of Wildcats Coach Braydon Ertel.
Chase Allen was the opening night Red River IMCA Modified Tour winner at Kennedale Speedway Park. (Photo by Stacy Kolar, Southern Sass Photography)By Spieker PromotionsKENNEDALE, Texas (May 26) – Chase Allen scored the opening night win of the inaugural Red River IMCA Modified Tour at Kennedale Speedway Park Saturday night. Allen claimed the lead on lap 11 of the 25-lap event before having to hold off Jeffrey Abbey in the closing stages.Eric Tomlinson started on the outside of the front row and led the field of 24 on the opening lap. Tomlinson pulled away in the early laps, building a six-car length lead as several cars raced for second. Abbey won the battle for second and set his sights on Tomlinson for the lead.Abbey closed the gap on lap eight and put heavy pressure on Tomlinson as the lead duo fought for position on the low side of the speedway. As the race for the lead was heating up, the caution was displayed for debris in turn four.On the ensuing restart, third place runner Allen drove around the outside of Abbey to take second. Allen stayed in the outside groove and pulled even with Tomlinson for the lead. Allen patiently rolled around the outside of Tomlinson on the smooth and slick racing surface to take the lead.“I knew if Abbey chose the bottom on the restart, I would have the line to drive around him,” said Allen after the race. “It was a fun race out there. I’m happy we could pick up the win.”Allen ran the remainder of the race with little challenge. Abbey, gave it everything he had in the final circuits, pulling to within one car length of Allen on the white flag lap, but ran out of time.Already on the Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot, Allen scored the $1,000 win as Abbey and Tomlinson rounded out the podium.