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Last year, Ford harnessed the New York Auto Show to debut its 50th anniversary Mustang and hosted media events with the car on the top of the Empire State Building. |
"New York is a fantastic consumer show and a ton of the media is already here," Scott Keogh, Audi's head of U.S. sales, told Bloomberg. "I see New York getting stronger and stronger and it seems to be taking on a new position in the luxury corner of the market." |
In recent years, both the New York and Los Angeles shows have begun to break out of their traditional niches to debut mainstream vehicles. |
"I think New York and L.A. are rising in significance for automakers for similar reasons," said Nicole Twork of AutoTrader.com. "They are both important lifestyle markets and are key targets for automakers to expand their reach beyond the auto industry." |
The Chicago auto show — sandwiched between the January show in Detroit and the late March show in New York — tends to attract brand chiefs and top marketing executives but not North American CEOs. |
I was asked in a recent interview what I thought the ‘secret’ to success was, and I replied that, in my case at least, I believed hard work was key. |
I had made certain sacrifices in the early part of my writing career that might seem unpalatable to others. But while I worked hard, I must also remind myself that I was extremely privileged. |
I had parents who not only encouraged me and believed that being an artist was a viable career, but who fed and housed me while I pursued that dream. |
If they had refused to do so, or if they had simply been unable to accommodate another mouth to feed, maybe I would have been forced to give up on my ambitions, dismissed them as foolhardy fantasies. |
It is easy to say that art is something that can be done before or after your ‘real’ work, that it is something that can be pushed into the margins of your life when in reality; it is something that demands space and time to breathe. |
I am in awe of people who hold down full-time jobs and produce extraordinary pieces of work (Donal Ryan, I’m looking at you), but for many frustrated artists, their careers are so demanding that they don’t have enough energy at the end of a long day to sit down at the desk or go into the studio and be creative on deman... |
But the bills must be paid, the mortgage must be paid, and children must be fed, and so dreams wither and die. Incredible voices are lost to us all. |
In order to combat financial barriers that preclude people from becoming practising artists, a grassroots, volunteer-led movement called The National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) is working with the arts community and politicians in order to ensure that the Arts are recognised as a vital part of contemporary Irish life... |
The Government has promised to increase expenditure on the Arts over seven years, starting from last year, so that we can bring funding back to the 2008 level of €82 million. |
Crucially, it is essential that the majority of this goes towards the Arts Council, where the lives of artists themselves can be directly impacted. |
Having been the beneficiary of an Arts Council grant myself, before Asking For It was released, I can personally vouch for how helpful such assistance can be, especially in an industry which is notoriously poorly paid and where you are often asked to volunteer your services for free — ‘for the love of it’ — of course. |
I think part of the reason why we can be reluctant to increase funding for artists is that there is a feeling that in Ireland, artists are born, not made. |
For a country of such a diminutive size, we punch far above our weight culturally and have produced some of the best playwrights and authors and musicians and actors and visual artists in the world. |
We seem to believe that these artists would have survived under any circumstances, that they didn’t require encouragement and support, not to mention expensive lessons and equipment. The Irish are story-tellers and folk-artists by blood and by birth, the myths go. |
There will be many people reading this who will feel uncomfortable with the idea of increasing spending on the Arts, arguing that money should be funnelled into social welfare or the health service or the charity sector. |
I agree that all of these areas need more money, and our state services should be run in a far more efficient and productive manner. |
It would be nice as we pay our tax bills to feel as if our taxes are being used appropriately. But this is not a zero-sum game, and we are capable of caring about mental health services in this country and hoping to ensure that artists will be given adequate assistance to continue with their work. Because of the Arts m... |
A perfect example of the impact they can have was demonstrated in a study conducted in an Italian University in 2014. |
This study found that children reading passages in the Harry Potter books dealing with prejudice showed greatly improved attitudes towards immigrants after only six weeks, while the test group given more neutral passages from the series reported no attitudinal change whatsoever. It makes sense. |
When we read a book or watch a movie, we are obliged to see the world through someone else’s eyes, which makes us more empathetic human beings. |
Isn’t that important? Don’t we want to live in a compassionate society? As the NCFA says, the Arts can bring essential qualities of awareness, emotion, truth, and creativity to everyday life. |
Art is powerful. It is not just a mirror, showing us our true selves, but it has the ability to shape the way in which we see ourselves. It has the power to transform the world that we live in. Culture can change culture. |
Syria on Thursday denied hiding nuclear activities from the world and said Israel was the source of suspicious uranium particles found at a Syrian desert complex bombed two years ago by the Jewish state. |
The Syrian comments to the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors were strongly backed by Iran and came in response to Western demands that Damascus stop stonewalling IAEA attempts to investigate suspicions that it ran covert nuclear programs - some with possible weapons applications. |
While Iran remains the main focus of the board, Syria's refusal to allow IAEA inspectors into the country for follow-up visit to sites possibly linked to secret nuclear work was the principal theme of Thursday's closed board meeting. |
A recent IAEA report prepared for the board said for the first time that uranium particles found at the desert facility destroyed by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 indicate possible covert nuclear activities at the site. The finding lent backing to Western allegations that the bombed target was a nearly completed ... |
Syria has put forward several explanations for the source of the uranium at the bomb site and of uranium traces found at its Damascus research reactor that IAEA inspectors say would not normally be found at such a facility. One Syrian suggestion - that Israeli munitions used to bomb the desert location contained deplet... |
Delegates inside the meeting told The Associated Press that Bassam Al-Sabbag, Syria's chief IAEA delegate offered a new theory Thursday, suggesting that Israel had dropped uranium particles from the air after the bombing to implicate his country. |
Separately, Iranian chief delegate Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Israel - not Syria - should be criticized at the meeting, describing the bombing of the Dair Alzour desert site as "an aggressive act, committed by the Zionist Regime." He accused the US and its allies of making an issue of "a few uranium particles." |
But the US and the European Union said the onus was on Syria to disprove suspicions by cooperating with the agency. |
IAEA experts inspected the Dair Alzour site in June 2008 but have been barred from revisiting since. Damascus also has turned down requests for visits to three linked sites which have undergone major landscaping work since those requests were made. |
The IAEA has also been attempting to probe possible connections between the uranium traces found at the desert site and those detected during a separate 2008 visit at a research reactor in Damascus. |
"Over the past two years, we have noticed a troubling pattern in Syria's behavior," Chief US delegate Glyn Davies told the meeting. "The more evidence the agency uncovers that Syria was engaged in serious safeguards violations, the more Syria has tried to actively hinder the agency's investigation." |
On behalf of the EU, Spanish chief delegate Jose Luis Rosello expressed deep regret that Syria "has not been cooperative and transparent with the agency." |
See all talkbacks "Syria suggests Israel planted nuclear traces by air " |
Extremely nice 3 BR/2 full BA, 1152 SqFt home in Overgaard. This doublewide home features a large family room, berber and laminate flooring, ceiling fans, laundry/mudroom, large bedrooms, split floor plan and lots of cabinetry and counter space in the kitchen. The exterior boasts a large covered deck with a ramp, a fen... |
The partial government shutdown is nearing 2019, when President Trump may have to adjust to a more openly defiant House of Representatives as Democrats take the majority. New York Times national political correspondent Michael Tackett joins Alison Stewart to discuss the roots of the shutdown stalemate, as well as Trump... |
Joining us now from Washington, D.C., is New York Times national political correspondent Michael Tackett. Michael, welcome. |
All right, so next week the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives after gaining 40 seats. Given President Trump's governing style, how is he going to have to adjust? |
Well, he's facing a dramatically different terrain as he goes into this week. He goes from having a House of Representatives that was acquiescent to one that's going to be openly defiant. So he's going to have to change his ways if he wants to get anything done. Whether or not he'll do that, of course, is always the op... |
This weekend, Vladimir Putin wrote a letter to Donald Trump — a New Year's letter — that said that Moscow is ready to engage in a dialogue on, quote, "wide ranging agendas." What does that mean? |
Well, I guess you have to be a Kremlinologist to know that for sure. I just don't think that's necessarily politically helpful for President Trump to have open communication with Vladimir Putin at a time that the Mueller investigation has yet to conclude. |
He also tweeted that, "Just had a very long and very good call with President Xi of China. Deal is moving along very well. If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made, exclamation point." What are the points of dispute President Trump is referring ... |
I'm not really sure there. I mean. I think if you go back into his Twitter feed and you'll see something similar said several different times about China. So what I'll be looking for, what I think is the purest measure of whether or not there's real progress, will be what the financial markets say. If the financial mar... |
These talks are supposed to conclude on March 1, these talks with China. What happens if no deal is reached? |
Well, if no deal is reached, then the president has said that he will impose, or at least reserve the right to impose, massive new sanctions on China. So that's the big incentive, I guess, for both sides to end this kind of trade war because nobody's winning. |
You mentioned the president's staff, about the turnover, there's been quite a bit, obviously, of very big positions — A.G., secretary of defense, chief of staff. In 2019, who are we likely to see in permanent positions? |
Boy, that's a tough one. I don't think 'permanent' is a word I would use for some of these top posts. Part of that's a natural transition. Now, these are really grinding jobs, no matter who the president is. People often only stay for a year, two years, and then they go back to their lives. So, here, though we have a l... |
And then of course, the next thing we will look for is will Mick Mulvaney take over as a permanent chief of staff, and we'll be looking for who's going to replace the defense secretary Jim Mattis. |
Mentioning chiefs of staff, John Kelly gave a pretty wide-ranging interview to The Los Angeles Times, and there's one piece of this interview that keeps coming up in all the headlines. It's about the president's wall, the wall he has promised his base and his supporters. And John Kelly said of the wall, "to be honest, ... |
That was really sort of remarkable. You know, it's sort of like the old joke about Washington: a gaffe is when somebody tells the truth. |
And we're sort of in that position right now. I mean, I think what he's saying is, the president has said over and over again. At first it was a concrete wall, then it was a different kind of barrier. Now maybe it's some sort of steel slats, and really you can't call it a physical wall because most people who've looked... |
Well, of course, the wall is at the beginning of this government shutdown we're going through right now. You've covered many presidents. And you've covered many shutdowns. What's different about this one? |
I guess what's different about this is there seems to be sort of a singular point of contention, and the wall is clearly becoming a very expensive symbol of dysfunction. Nobody actually wins a shutdown, although someone will be assigned blame for the shutdown. The president himself has said he would be, quote-unquote, ... |
Michael Tackett from the New York Times, thanks so much for being with us. |
Wall Street analyst Rich Greenfield put together a short YouTube video that explains how you can steal just about any movie you would ever want using a handful of sites and cloud-based storage lockers on the Internet. Greenfield, who has been described as "always outspoken," is trying to make a point: It's time for big... |
Greenfield's larger point is that the rise of Internet-connected TVs -- look around this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and you'll realize that the next set you buy will almost certainly have a Web connection, whether you want it or not -- and cheap bandwidth is going to create a giant headache for big media. |
Big media and technology companies can try to fight it with legal and mechanical tactics, or half-steps like UltraViolet, the "everybody but Apple" coalition. But the best long-term answer is to make media consumption incredibly cheap, and incredibly easy, so that it's more convenient for mainstream users to get it leg... |
That's an incredibly hard thing to do, because it involves trading big, existing revenue streams for smaller ones down the line. But not doing it can be even more costly: Ask the music labels. |
IBM is preparing to enter a supercomputer into the popular US TV game show Jeopardy! The company is entering it's Watson unit into the show, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the much hyped machine. |
Amazon has launched the UK version of its Windowshop app for Apple's iPad, set to make users' shopping experience more convenient. The app, which has launched in the US in October, comes with an improved user interface and multi-touch capabilities designed specifically for Apple's iPad. It allows users to access Amazon... |
Owners of the Dell Streak smartphone will get an update to Froyo (Android OS 2.2) courtesy of O2, the mobile phone operator that still has the exclusivity for the handset. O2 said on its official Twitter feed that “Great news for our Dell Streak owners – the 2.2 Froyo update is coming this week!”. |
The number of crimes committed on Facebook has soared past 100,000 over the last five years, a Freedom of Information request filed by The Daily Mail has revealed. According to The Daily Mail report, high ranking officials in 16 police forces have revealed that a whopping 7,545 emergency calls made to the police since ... |
Vodafone has released a rather unexpected update for the HTC Magic in the form of Android OS 2.2. Froyo is already available for the platform via OTA although because of the size of the upgrade, we’d recommend sticking to Wi-Fi upgrades. |
Kelvin Abrams isn't afraid to take a risk. In 2008, the then federal investigator dusted off an old, college business plan and opened Tiki's Playhouse, a cage-less doggy daycare and boarding facility located off of Route 32 in Glenelg. |
Last month, after a few nudges from his daycare customers, Abrams opened another novel business called K-9 & Coffee. |
"My business is dogs, but I wanted to do something different and I thought about a coffee shop," he said. "I pitched the idea to a couple clients and everybody was like: 'That would be awesome; that would be great.' So I started looking into it." |
Located adjacent to his boarding facility, the canine-themed coffee shop operates like any other coffee shop during the week, serving organic coffee from Columbia-based Orinoco Coffee & Tea to all two-legged patrons craving coffee. |
But on weekends it becomes something more as Abrams opens up his boarding facility's half-acre doggy playground, usually reserved for daycare and boarding patrons, to the public. Local dog owners are invited to drop off their pup and grab a cup while they watch their four-legged friends socialize with other canines. |
Abrams said the business, which opened Oct. 20, is a community-oriented operation filling a pair of needs. |
The first, he says, is to give local residents access to a dog park-like area. The county's two other dog parks are in Columbia and Ellicott City, a 15-minute drive for nearby residents. |
"In this area of Howard County, there are no dog parks," Abrams said. "The two dog parks don't suit the needs of the people here. So we figured we'd do a playground – don't call it a dog park – and let the dogs come out in the weekends and play in the yard." |
The second, he says, is to give local residents a real coffee shop and cafe. |
Kelvin Abrams poses for a photo with his dogs behind Tiki's Playhouse in Glenelg. |
"The only coffee here is Subway and the two gas stations," Abrams said. "I think once people really start to realize we are here, it's going to get busy." |
As a nod to his customers, Abrams named menu items after dogs housed in his daycare facility. He also gave the cup sizes canine-themed monikers: 12 ounces is a bulldog, 16 ounces is a Weimaraner and 20 ounces is a Mastiff. If you want a large latte, you'll be ordering a "Mastiff Chester." |
So far most of the coffee shop's patronage comes from Abrams regular customers, who grab a cup-to-go after dropping their dog off at the daycare facility. |
Glenelg resident John Brandenburg, a dog owner and former client of Abrams, stopped by the cafe on Saturday. He said he was pleasantly surprised by the shop and decided to stop after seeing the sign out front. |
"I've been waiting for a coffee shop to come to Glenelg for some time," Brandenburg said. "A lot of people have said that because there's nothing." |
Ellicott City resident David Stratmann, who uses Tiki's daycare services for his two dogs, agrees. |
"There's no real coffee shop," Stratmann said. "I think it's a good concept. ... I think it will get people together in the neighborhood and community." |
Abrams said he might explore adding some food options – it offers only beverages and some packaged snacks – but that his goals for the shop are schnauzer-sized. |
"We are really looking to try and service this community here," he said. "We really want this to be a community-based environment, a community coffee shop and a community playground area." |
The venture hasn't come without challenges. Because of county health codes, dogs can't accompany their owners in the coffee shop, Abrams said. He has worked out a solution, though: patrons can drop of their dogs at the daycare center first and then make their way to the coffee shop next door -- the two are connected by... |
Kelvin Abrams poses for a photo with his dogs behind Tiki's Playhouse. |
Barista Elizabeth Clay, left, of Frederick talks to customer John Brandonburg, center, of Glenelg and shop owner Kelvin Abrams at K-9 & Coffee in Glenelg. |
The 1066 Jazz Club hosted a special 1940s night, at the Azur, attended by 169 people enjoying the end of WW2 style celebrations. |
They danced all evening to the sounds of Graeme Hewitt’s High Society Jazz Band, who played a variety of vintage tunes including “Roses of Picardy” and “Opus One” to an appreciative audience, mostly dressed in forties-style costumes and military uniforms. |
Also during the evening the talented Cinque Ports Lindy Hoppers performed three vintage dances featuring tap, jazz steps and classic Lindy Hop. |
The evening ended on an optimistic note, as the band played out with What a Wonderful World. |
The 1066 Jazz Club is managed by volunteers and every effort is made to make everyone welcome. The venue has a large dance floor, which is surrounded by cabaret style seating from which you can take in the panoramic sea views. |
Themed evenings are planned periodically during the year, the next being a “Roaring 20s” Night on October 15. Go to www.1066jazzclub.co.uk Facebook or phone 01424-465267). |
"Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" |
The Buzz: This musical captures the nostalgic days of adolescence and growing up in the Catholic school system. |
When: 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
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